xsonicchaos' GameSpot Friend's Reviews xsonicchaos' GameSpot Friend's Reviews xsonicchaos' GameSpot Friend's Reviews en-us Copyright (c)1995-2013 CBS Interactive. All rights reserved. http://www.gamespot.com 20 Mon, 20 May 2013 14:53:05 -0700 GameSpot xsonicchaos' GameSpot Friend's Reviews http://img.gamespot.com/gamespot/shared/promos/misc/gs_logo.gif http://www.gamespot.com 135 40 Mon, 20 May 2013 14:17:32 -0700 rigbybot127 reviewed Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories for the PSP... http://www.gamespot.com/grand-theft-auto-liberty-city-stories/user-reviews/811533/platform/psp/ ...and gave it a 8.0.

Rockstar had a pretty stellar idea: Grand Theft Auto on the go! Liberty City Stories was their first portable (good) Grand Theft Auto, and this is GTA on the go. No compromises were made….. to the GTA III game mechanics. This entry, unfortunately, leaves out some of the new features introduced in the previous title, San Andreas, such as the ability to customize your car and free-aim while moving; though most of us used the auto-aim more often than not; it's still unfortunate that they had to compromise a bit due to the PSP's being less powerful technically than the PS2. Still, this is like GTA III on the go; in fact it's a prequel to GTA III, with some added features, such as the ability to pick between a couple of already-owned outfits (though you can't buy, and fully customize like in SA), as well as unlocking some; and a brand-new, hefty campaign, with a good story, that sets up one of GTA III's main mission-givers, Toni Cipriani, the main protagonist of this story; and a decent, fun local multiplayer.

Like I mentioned before, you will be playing as Toni Cipriani, an NPC from GTA III, and a made man in the Leone crime family. Toni Cipriani leaves Liberty City after killing a made man for Salvatore Leone, and lays his head low for a good while. In 1998 (3 years before III), he returns to resume business as usual, only to realize that in the time he had been gone, he had his rank stripped from him, and gave it to Vincenzo Cilli. He now just a goon, and has to work his way back up the ladder. To do this, he must take out two other rival families; the Sindaccos and the Forellis; and help a couple of familiar GTA III faces…..

If you've played GTA III (since it's been 12 years, you should have), you will be instantly familiar with the map, since it's almost exactly the same as III's, but with minor cosmetic changes (such as store signs and the such) ; as well as a Little Italy section that isn't in GTA III (for good reason….).

Perhaps the biggest improvement compared to III is the inclusion of motor bikes, marking the first time a player has ever driven a motorcycle in Liberty City, since they were outlawed prior to III, by a public ordinence supported by the Maibatsu Corporation, to make room for cars (including their Maibatsu Monstrosity). A great improvement over San Andreas is the removal of having to exercise and eat, though that means that you now have one less way to heal yourself.

Unfortunately, there were some pretty great features introduced in San Andreas that have been removed, the most jarring removal being the ability to swim, which means that water is once again an instant death trap (the in-game explanation for this is that the water in LC is very toxic, and will kill you in a matter of seconds). You also can no longer climb, making reaching certain hidden packages difficult; and the ability to fly aircraft is removed entirely (unless you use cheats). Also, due to the nature of the PSP, you can no longer manually control the camera, since there is only one stick, though this isn't really a problem; this feature is included in the PS2 port, which features controls identical to III and Vice City.

Another staple brought over from it's console brethren is the car radio, which features music and talk radio. Unfortunately, the music isn't all that great, and even Lazlow can't save this mess of a radio. It's not just a mess in programming, as it's also pretty glitchy, and inconsistent. Whenever you leave a vehicle, the programming will often change to something else, or the audio track will start over. Still, Lazlow is pretty funny; and Liberty City's FCC seems to be more lax when it comes to censoring profanities on the air than in III.

Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories is another solid entry for the series, and is deserving of a playthrough. It may not be the best Grand Theft Auto, but it's still pretty fun, with a hefty playtime (for the PSP). One thing I have to say is that it has a rather easy ending, which is off-putting, considering how the rest of the game isn't all too easy. Still, if you're a fan, or are just looking for a solid open-world game for your PSP, give this one a try.

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]]> http://www.gamespot.com/grand-theft-auto-liberty-city-stories/user-reviews/811533/platform/psp/ Fri, 17 May 2013 11:55:19 -0700 darthcobain17 reviewed Transformers Animated: The Game for the DS... http://www.gamespot.com/transformers-animated-the-game/user-reviews/811416/platform/ds/ ...and gave it a 7.5.

Transformers Animated is a game for the Nintendo DS that takes place in the world of the short lived cartoon with the same name. Taking control of a few select Autobots you must engage Megatron and his forces, for they plan to open up Space Bridges all over the galaxy and warp their forces through to Cybertron, where they are set to embark upon an epic war and take the planet over once and for all. It's up to you to stop them . . .

From the main menu of Transformers Animated you have four choices, the first of which is called "New Game". When you select it there are three save slots you can choose from to save your new game to, once that is decided upon you are taken to the first level. There are 25 levels in total, and they cover four different areas. The game begins with some simple training levels in the Autobots' headquarters, before moving along to the Sumdac robotics facility and then the Sumdac mines, before ending on Cybertron. Most levels are platform levels, where you must use a team of three main Autobots (Optimus Prime, Bulkhead, and Bumblebee) to navigate your way through each level. There are some enemies to fight along the way, such as Decepticon drones, various rogue Sumdac machinations, and even the odd Decepticon boss, such as Lockdown and Megatron. But mostly the challenge to this game is finding the correct path through each level, using a series of pressure plates, various switches, electric generators, elevators, wind tunnels, magnet cranes, etc. Some of these devices can only be utilized by certain Autobots, making the challenge even harder. There are also a few vehicle levels scattered throughout the game, where you race down the highway in pursuit of some objective. In these levels you mostly use Bumblebee but you also see Optimus Prime, as well as a fourth Autobot, Prowl. Complete all 25 levels and you have beaten this game!

The second option from the main menu is "Load Game". If you have already begun play on Transformers Animated and have a game saved, you choose this option. Upon doing so you will be asked which game you want to load, from any of the three available save slots, when you do you will be taken to the next uncompleted level of that game save file.

Third we come to the "Options" option. Here you can fiddle with some of the game's settings, including Language (toggle between English, French, Italian or Spanish), Controls (toggle to configure to either a right-handed or left-handed scheme), and Credits (view the game credits).

Finally we have the "Unlockables" option. When you choose this option you are able to view three pages of game videos (14 videos in total), which are unlocked as you progress through the game. These videos focus mostly around the various characters' transformation sequences.

Once out in the game there is virtually nothing to look for, at least in terms of items or pickups. The only thing to be on the hunt for are Energon cubes. The small pink ones restore a small portion of your health, while the large blue ones fully restore your health. Other than that your focus should be on finding all of the various switches, pressure plates, etc. and how they work, so that you can escape each level.

The game screens for Transformers Animated are very spartan, not much going on there at all, which is nice. The bottom screen is where all the action unfolds, and this screen is not obstructed at all by any icons, gauges or other such things. During cutscenes this screen will display the action that is unfolding. As for the top screen, as you make your way through the game this screen defaults to your status display. Icons representing each of the three main Autobots are displayed, along with the current state of their health gauge. Also displayed here are how many lives you have left (you get 3 in total). During vehicle levels it changes slightly, showing a gauge for your turbo, and a small map representing how far you've made it in terms of your objective. During cutscenes or other breaks in the action this screen will show images of the characters who are talking, along with a printed on screen edition of the conversation. You can also be given instructions from Ratchet, which will be displayed here as well. As for the pause menu screen, when you pull it up you are faced with four choices, which include Resume, Restart, Options (including just the Language and Controls options), and Quit.

This is the very first game I've ever played for any sort of Nintendo DS system, so I was quite intrigued by the multiple screens and the control scheme. The controls are pretty confusing at first (probably just for me though, due to my learning curve) but after a while they become second nature. First of all, you can use both the control pad and the analog button to move the Autobots around their environment, both during platform levels and vehicle levels. These buttons also control your movements of elevators, magnet cranes, etc. For Optimus Prime you can press up to make him use his grappling hook and climb up a ledge (only under certain types of ledges though). The R and L buttons are used to cycle control through any available Autobots during a given mission, in reverse orders from each other. The rest of the buttons differ, depending on which Autobot you are controlling. The Y button is used to initiate an axe swing (Optimus Prime), fire stingers (Bumblebee), or punch (Bulkhead). As for the B button, it is used to block (both Optimus Prime and Bulkhead) or jump (Bumblebee, who can also jump off walls by pressing B again when against the surface of a wall). The A button is only used by Bulkhead, making him grab on to large objects so that he can pull or push them. The last bit of controls I need to mention is using the stylus to interact with the bottom touch screen. By tapping on enemies you can have the Autobots attack them, and you can even perform trickier moves, like making Optimus Prime throw his axe, or having Bulkhead fire his battering ram/ball thing. You can do so by tapping on the Autobot in question and then drawing a path away from them in the direction you want them to perform the action. Also in vehicle mode you use it to fire your weapons, by tapping on the invading enemies, which makes Prowl throw his shurikens at them, for example.

The presentation behind this game is very nice, nothing ground-breaking or anything, but very solid. It's definitely a very colourful game, with the locations all fitting right in with the Transformers Animated universe. The characters too were very well animated, they move great. The sound was well done, with realistic sound effects and what seemed like the original voice actors from the show reprising their roles. The controls were also very well done, they responded quite well.

As for pros and cons, there are some of each present in this game. First of all, on the good side my favourite part of the game was just how well executed it was. The whole package, look, sound, controls, fun factor, it's just a very solid game all around, in every facet. I also really enjoyed how it fit right in to the Transformers Animated universe, as I really like that show. On the down side, this game is pretty devoid of any extra bells and whistles. There isn't much unlockable content, and absolutely no other types of game modes, which don't help it's replayability factor any. The biggest con though, is the feeling of repetition you get while playing it at times. Because there aren't that many enemies in the game overall, you find yourself simply trying to solve the same types of puzzles over and over again. Although the puzzles do vary in terms of their size and complexity, they are the same obstacles in essence and can get pretty tiresome. Despite the game's excellent execution this fact really helps to diminish it's overall impact.

There aren't any real tips and tricks I can offer for this title, it's a pretty straightforward game. All I can say is remember at all times what each Autobot's capabilities are, and think hard if you get stuck. There is always a way out of each puzzle, you just need to uncover it.

Overall this is a very solid game. The mechanics behind it are just perfect, but it is also one of those games that will forever be labelled as didn't live up to it's potential. More enemies and a little less puzzle solving may have brought more balance to the game and made it more interesting, and an alternate game mode definitely would have helped. But like I said, the execution behind it is very good, so although it's not a must play, it's definitely worth a play.

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"darthcobain17 reviewed Transformers Animated: The Game for the DS..." was posted by darthcobain17 on Fri, 17 May 2013 11:55:19 -0700
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/transformers-animated-the-game/user-reviews/811416/platform/ds/ Fri, 17 May 2013 08:27:42 -0700 pigfish2 reviewed Tomb Raider for the PlayStation 3... http://www.gamespot.com/tomb-raider/user-reviews/811411/platform/ps3/ ...and gave it a 9.0!

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

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

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

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

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

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"pigfish2 reviewed Tomb Raider for the PlayStation 3..." was posted by pigfish2 on Fri, 17 May 2013 08:27:42 -0700
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/tomb-raider/user-reviews/811411/platform/ps3/ Thu, 16 May 2013 22:38:12 -0700 SoNin360 reviewed LittleBigPlanet Karting for the PlayStation 3... http://www.gamespot.com/littlebigplanet-karting/user-reviews/811404/platform/ps3/ ...and gave it a 7.5.

Play, create, share, and karting. This would sound like something unique if it hasn't been attempted before. Yet, it has, thanks to United Front Games and their creation, ModNation Racers. United Front Games was at it again, and, this time, mustered up LittleBigPlanet Karting. Despite some uncanny resemblances between the two games, this is, in fact a genuine LittleBigPlanet game. However, that doesn't quite mean it lives up to the same brilliance as the rest of the franchise.

From the opening cut-scene, LittleBigPlanet Karting appears to be like any other LittleBigPlanet game. A familiar, charismatic voice babbles on while leading you to a quick tutorial to ascertain the basics of the game. Smooth kart handling is one relieving discovery made almost instantly upon being set loose in said tutorial. As well, the drifting is seamless, largely due to the ease of controlling the kart whilst in mid-drift. Being a kart racer, it's no surprise to see various items implemented in the game. These aforementioned items range from guided rockets to swift zaps of electricity, all of which can potentially annihilate opponents or prevent yourself from becoming a pile of debris on the racing course. In all, the gameplay is simple enough to mostly be explained in the tutorial. As such, accessibility isn't at all an issue; moreover, an Easy Mode allows for even more unexperienced players to jump into the action.

The three basic modes past LittleBigPlanet games have provided (Story, Create, and Online) make a full return in LittleBigPlanet Karting. Logically, a great place to begin is the Story Mode. Standard races against AI opponents aren't the only events to partake in within the Story Mode, fortunately. Some story levels act as time trials, others implement intriguing boss battles, and others are simple, though usually amusing, mini-games. Interestingly enough, prize bubbles remain a part of the game, at least in most levels; furthermore, scores are recorded for accumulating these familiar bubbles, in addition to finishing closer to the top position. That same undeniable LittleBigPlanet charm is found within each and every level, yet the actual storyline fails to be all-that captivating. Nonetheless, the humorous dialogue, jaunty tunes, and overall splendid presentation positively contribute to making the experience of this game feel close to what has remained lovable about franchise.

Racing and conquering your way through all of the levels is, at times, a bittersweet experience. Periodically, power-ups and AI opponents feel overly cheap. However, that's oftentimes the nature of the game. To elaborate, a capable driver may lead for a majority of the race, deflecting items and running quick lap times with skill, only to be caught defenseless, consequently ending up pulverized with multiple items in a brief lapse of time. On the flip side, the chaotic nature of some races may also work out in your favor, though that's not to say the balancing aspect is quite perfected. Adding to the frenzy of vehicular combat, the tracks themselves pose copious perils such as lava pits and moving objects. Impressively, jump pads and Grabinators are thrown into the mix. Unfortunately, some track layouts prove to be a tad confusing or inconsistent. Timing Grabinator swings just right is one such example that sometimes leads to unneeded frustration. Respawning is another inconsistency, taking much too long to place you back on the track at some moments, or fairly placing you at a fixed location ahead of the crash in a timely manner at others.

Overall, in terms of the gameplay, there aren't too many negative aspects that stick out. Visually, LittleBigPlanet Karting looks great, despite the fact that not much has changed since the first LittleBigPlanet game. Once again, the audio is a wonderful element that, in terms of hippy lingo, brings the game a positive vibe. The story mode in and of itself is solid, even with some minor to moderate frustrations here and there that may lead to temporary switches to Easy Mode. Although t the final boss fight is a bit lackluster side, the variety of levels prior to that offer a fair amount of quality gameplay. However, knowing how past LittleBigPlanet games are, it's an inevitable realization that the Story Mode won't hold you over for that long. Of course, that's why the creating and sharing aspects of LittleBigPlanet games are so fundamental.

Creating content works in LittleBigPlanet Karting similarly to how it functioned in ModNation Racers. Sadly, there's no focus on kart creation as there was in ModNation Racers, arguably one of the more interesting creation components in that game. Conversely, there's much more variation in the level creation component in LittleBigPlanet Karting. For newcomers and casual creators, constructing levels remains a nightmare. Unnecessarily lengthy tutorials aren't of much help either. Laying out a track or arena is simple enough, yet placing items precisely on the track, or anywhere else for that matter, is an infuriating ordeal. Those lucky, talented few who know what they're doing will have plenty of goodies to work with, but it still remains disappointing that the creation aspect of this game isn't any more user-friendly than it was in the first LittleBigPlanet game.

Finally, the primary attraction of LittleBigPlanet Karting exists within the Online Mode, where there's an almost limitless amount of variety in the brilliant levels users have created. It's regrettable to note that the online component of this game is much less functional than past LittleBigPlanet games. For starters, it's virtually impossible to return to the list of levels you were just viewing upon completion of a level in said list. Every single time, the game will return you to the pod, that is, unless you're online, in which case you are provided a few measly choices as to where to go next, none of which involve returning to the list of levels you were previously viewing. It's a consistent annoyance that is detrimental to the enjoyment of the Online portion of the game. To make matters worse, the dive-in feature is screwy, as it wants to put you in the same level you just played about two races ago nearly every time. Joining other players has its fair share of issues also, some of which may or may not be experienced; in my case, notably, I was forced to re-join my friend after completing a level online in almost every single instance. Nonetheless, in the middle of all of these glaring issues are an incredible amount of wonderfully fabricated user levels that are most definitely worth playing through. Long term community dedicated doesn't appear too promising; fortunately, there's already plenty of superb content to sift through.

Altogether, LittleBigPlanet Karting is another solid stab at the whole "create and share karting" mumbo jumbo. The idea still seemed decent, even the second time around. In spite of its riddled imperfections, LittleBigPlanet Karting remains a respectable attempt at merging a highly beloved platformer, LittleBigPlanet, with the key elements of a kart racers. On the bright side, most fans of both of these two things should find something to relish in LittleBigPlanet Karting. There's no doubt it's a genuine LittleBigPlanet game; the same rings true for it being a kart racer as well. That said, this game is definitely a viable option to wide array of players.

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"SoNin360 reviewed LittleBigPlanet Karting for the PlayStation 3..." was posted by SoNin360 on Thu, 16 May 2013 22:38:12 -0700
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/littlebigplanet-karting/user-reviews/811404/platform/ps3/ 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.

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]]> 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.

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"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 16:21:14 -0700 Azghouls reviewed Assassin's Creed: Bloodlines for the PSP... http://www.gamespot.com/assassins-creed-ii/user-reviews/811392/platform/psp/ ...and gave it a 7.0.

Altair / Assassin's Creed … two synonymous names for the Assassin's Creed saga back in 2008. The PC / consoles got it, the DS got their version (Altair Chronicles in case you didn't know it) and now it's the PSP turn to get his adventure. How does this fare comparing to its console's counterpart, it's a decent addition considering some alterations are needed to suit the PSP's limited capabilities.

The events took place pretty much after Assassin's Creed as Altair discovered that the remaining templars are leaving for Cyprus. So he decides to attack their stronghold in Acre only to realise he's a bit too late for the party. Yet he did manage to capture Maria Thorpe … the only female templar for Assassin's Creed. And if that doesn't ring any bells, it's the one where Altair was flabbergasted stating 'what is this sorcery?!' when he discovers that he is a she.

The gameplay is essentially the same as its counterparts … that is, it's a free roaming action adventure where you need to climb specially marked viewpoints, scan the area for hotspots, and then follow your nose to your destination. However being a PSP, there's only one viewpoint per area as the memory capacity is not as large as its cousins. Also some features were taken away to suit the controls like 'eagle eye'.

Whilst your main goal is to assassinate high ranking templars, the overall combat still feels great as nothing's better than slamming your dagger into a victim's head. Yeah it probably sounds like I'm a sadist however it's very satisfying and the controls are extremely fluent. It also helps to have a decent tutorial and this game is no exception as it forms part of the adventure. Then again, all assassins' creed games are like that so it's good to carry on that tradition.

However the AIs are not the brightest bunch in the pack. Actually it's a lot easier than Assassin's Creed as combat near a body of water / on top of a building can never be simpler. All you need to do is push them to their death (yes no one can swim at all and obviously falling from a height can cause death...unless there's a bale of hay that only assassins can land on). So the point is there are other combat options than just swinging a sword.

There are also a garden variety of side missions for that little bit of rest and relaxation. To be exact, there are seven types being theft, interception (I hate those as the controls are quite difficult to perform the chase), assassination, delivery (time limit applies), interrogation (just hulk smash them silly), trailing and combat (basically three thugs ganging up on a civilian …kill all three to win). So there's a decent amount of side missions to break the ice.

And if you are in the mood for some exploration, you can collect Templar coins that dotted throughout the game as each sector has five silver coins and one gold coin to collect. Obviously the gold coin supposedly is harder to locate / obtain however all in all, they are not too difficult to find as the maps are quite small considering. And if you complete the side missions / kill soldiers in a variety of ways will earn you bronze coins. You can use these coins to unlock more features for Altair and you don't have to locate / complete all the side missions / combos to max out.

Whilst being a canon for the Assassin's Creed storyline, there is some slight confusion that doesn't seem to fit. The animus is displayed throughout the game … that is it forms part of your upgrades and synchronisation. Strangely though, Desmond is nowhere to be found and if you played Assassin Creed 2, Desmond has no idea about the relationship between Altair and Maria. And this forms the second confusion: Altair for some odd reason saves Maria on countless occasions even though Maria kicks him in the face a couple of times. Maybe Altair has a soft spot for her however what's done is done.

If there's a strong point to this game, it's the visuals. It's actually quite detailed for a PSP game as Altair moves fluently and the landscapes are quite detailed. Frame rates rarely stutter however there's a lot less civilians about. Thankfully though, they all do react however they spend most of their time just running away. And what almost made me fell of my chair is there's voice acting … not brilliant however decent enough as I was expecting a wall of text. Of course there's nothing wrong with that however it just threw me off guard. Also every important character is voice acted yet Altair does sound different; more Middle Eastern (which suits him better).

Considering Bloodlines forms part of the Assassin's Creed saga, this one ends Altair's trilogy. One of the highlights for Bloodlines was that Altair's personality changed as he's a lot wiser. Also after every memory sequence, you get to see Altair drafting his codex and thinking aloud about his thoughts on the Apple of Eden, humanity in general and others. And if you played Assassin's Creed 2, it's the very same codex that Ezio was searching for. However as mentioned before, Desmond, the key link of it all, was missing so it does feel a little out of place. Play it if you want to see the connection between Assassin's Creed one and two.

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"Azghouls reviewed Assassin's Creed: Bloodlines for the PSP..." was posted by Azghouls on Thu, 16 May 2013 16:21:14 -0700
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/assassins-creed-ii/user-reviews/811392/platform/psp/ Tue, 14 May 2013 16:20:52 -0700 AQWBlaZer91 reviewed Tales of Phantasia for the PlayStation... http://www.gamespot.com/tales-of-phantasia-1998/user-reviews/811304/platform/ps/ ...and gave it a 8.5.

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Game Title: Tales of Phantasia
Platform: PSOne
Developer: Wolfteam
Publisher: Namco
Genre: Action Role Playing Game
Age Rating: Cero: A, ESRB: T for Teen (Rated by Fans)
Original Release Date: December 23rd 1998
Translation Team: Absolute Zero/Phantasian Productions
Fan-Translation Patch Release Date: Absolute Zero: 25th December 2007 Phantasian Productions: 31st December 2012
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Game Score: 8.8/10
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Summery:
If you're still into old school style RPG's then Tales of Phantasia for the PlayStation is one RPG that is both impressively remastered and still enjoyable after a long while.
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Looking at your old dusty Gray PlayStation game console, you only played it every now and then today cause you only missed playing all our favourite games such as Resident Evil. Gran Turismo, Sypro, Crash,, Final Fantasy and the legendary Metal Gear Solid. Nearly towards the consoles timeline had been ended mostly RPG's helped keep it going for a short extra while. How about this, a fan translation group called Phantasian Productions independently worked on a English translation patch for the 1998 PlayStation enhanced remake of the original Tales Of title that started it all as well as it's counterpart Absolute Zero who released their English Patch of the game in 2007. It did took Phantasian Productions 12 long years for their project to start in it's beta stages, getting the right men and time to get to work on translating and adding some new features to make it feel as if Namco would have localised this game instead of the inferior GBA version.

For those who have not seen the original version nor played the GBA version, Tales Of Phantasia was originally released on the Super Nintendo in Japan of 1995, it was Namco's first entry into the popular running RPG series and it showcased 48 bit capabilities for it's impressive graphics and a powerful soundchip which allowed voice samples and tje opening song being played in the intro. Three years later it got remastered for the PlayStation and thanks to the translation efforts, it's one of, if not the best version of the game we can get our hands on.

Tales Of Phantasia follows teenage swordsmen Cress Albane (whose known as Cless Alvein in this version) who sees a mysterious spirit who lives inside of a withered tree. Cress returns to witness the destruction of his village and the death of his parents. Cress embarks on a journey which transcends him from space and time to stop an evil lord known as Dhaos who's intends on eliminating anyone related to the power of magic. Tales Of Phantasia's story wasn't anything as gripping as Square's Chrono Trigger but however the game has solid writing for both fan-translation patches and enjoyable characters that still make them as engaging as they were back then. Characters such as Chester Burklight who is Cress' bast friend and archer, Mint Adenade a Cleric, Claus F Lester a summoner and Arche Klaine a magic user. The English fan-translation patches does an excellent job of translating the dialogue even if Phantasian's is sometimes complex to read and Absolute Zero having only a few translation liberties. Dispute this it's still excellent writing and on top of that there are also some new cutscenes as well as some anime sequences that add more tension to the story.

Tales Of Phantasia started of the Tales formula so you'll feel right at home if you've played future titles in the series. However in the PlayStation version the game includes brand new features on top of the games original content. The game goes by the series pacing, if you haven't played any game in the series then simply it's an Action RPG where you wonder through the world map where you can go into dungeons, move on from one town to the next for the next part in the story while having to fight off against a group of monsters along the way. Towns serve as your resting points and you can interact with NPC's and you can visit shops to purchase items and better gear. In Dungeons there are some puzzles that require you to press switches, pull statues or rocks out of your way or to other spots on the map which are needed to open doors to the next area. Later on you'll acquire an accessory called a Successor's Ring which can shoot fireballs at switches from afar. At the end of each dungeon there will be a challenging boss battle to fight off against and then it's back to town to rest up and move on to the next portion of the game. Tales Of Phantasia keeps it's pacing balanced in between cutscenes and gameplay so that you never waste to much time doing one thing at once. Tales Of Phantasia also has a few minigames that you'll find in between and of course the game has it's original side quests on top of the brand new content.

Most notably is the redesigned graphics and improved soundtrack unlike Square's PS1 versions of the old Final Fantasy and Chorno Trigger games. The characters as well as the locations have been redesigned with new signs and different colour palette which look more impressive then did look back then. Characters are still pint sized but however do they have additional and smoother animations that make them more cleaner. The World Map has also changed into 3D and it's castles, mountains and towns have all received a bump up in detail and they look way more shaper then the original and later GBA releases. The Soundtrack itself has remixed tunes as well the opening music track that plays in the opening intro which are great with one exception. The track that plays when you fight against a summon spirit called Fighting of the Spirit has perhaps one of (if not) the best remix version that is ever heard in games in the series ever, it was so fantastic that when I took on my first summon spirit I actually paused the game for a few minutes just to listen to it. To fans including myself this track is simply that powerful.

Tales Of Phantasia on the Super Nintendo was the first game in the series to introduce the Linear Motion Battle System, however this version of the game uses an updated system that was used in it's 1997 instalment Tales Of Destiny. For those who never heard of the system, simply battles take place inside a small side scrolling battle arena where characters and monsters engage each other in real time combat. You control Cress in battle while your allies are controlled by the AI, you can have up to 4 members of your party to fight together but however you can switch Cress out and play as other characters if you want. The controls for battle are Circle or regular attacks, Cross for your abilities known as Artes, Square makes your character black incoming enemy attacks and Triangle brings up the battle menu where you can change party members behaviour in battle, use items, change formation and set your abilities whilst you can also do these outside of battle. You can use the D-pad and Circle to do different main attacks such as Down+Circle for a Thrust attack or Up+Circle for an upward slash. L1 reverses your party formation if incase the enemies surround you and you can switch between different different targets on the screen with the R1 button. There are 3 different battle controls that you can use. Auto allows the AI to take control of your party members, Semi Auto allows you to control your character but not fully while Manuel mode allows you to fully control your character. Phantasian Productions has given Cress an accessory called the Technical Ring when you start the game, this will give you the Manuel Control option. When equipped which allows you to freely move around the Battlefield without constantly returning to your standard position.

Regardless of what the game says on the back of the box, you can actually get a second player to control another character by plugging in a controller and equipping a second character with a Channelling accessory. You can also plug in a PlayStation Multitap to allow up to 4 players each equipped with Channelling accessories to be able to play together locally.

Characters have their own abilities that are called Artes which are basically skills of strike and magical attacks which are used to take down powerful enemies in the game. It's easier to combine Strike Artes with Magic Artes as they do more damage then standard attacks. Artes can be learned by levelling up while some others such as Magic Artes and also Arcane Artes can be purchased b NPC's while summon spirits are earned through battles with them. They can be turned off in the Artes menu or can just assign your teammates to use them Manually or shortcut buttons.

For characters styles of fighting, Cress relays on his weapons such as Swords, Axes and Spears. Cress' attack has two different attack stats that represent one for Slash and one for Thrust. Swords doing all round damage, Axes are better for Slash while Spears are better for Thrusting. Chester Burklight is an Archer who shoots arrows at enemies and in this version Chester can now have his own Artes which makes a useful Long Range character in battle unlike in the SNES version. Mint Adenade is the party's healer and can use a variety of healing and support spells to keep your members alive when injured or inflicted with status aliments. Claus F Lester is a summoner and can summon beasts that you've earned from beating them in battle while Arche Klein is a magic user who can conjure up deadly spells like Ice Tornado, Eruption, Thunder Blade and advanced spells like God's Breath, Fire Storm and Indignation. The updated battle system offers plenty of depth and rebalance as well as tweaks such as removing Mints Valkyrie spell and Arche's Extinction. Boss battles are cool and challenging and also Phantasian Productions has also added additional difficulties which can make the game almost impossible and must only be attempted by masters of the game due to the aggressive AI and uneven stats each monster has. Ether way it's an amazingly addictive combat system but it's understandable that it isn't as advanced as future titles.

For the most part the battle mechanics have improved quite a lot from it's SNES counterpart but however there is one issue, the random encounter frequency. Random battles are triggered every few steps on the world map and in dungeons, the problem with that is that it tends to bother you when you're solving a puzzle which becomes aggravating. However it is important to grind because bosses do tend to put up a reasonable challenge and later enemies can really mess you up and put you in a disadvantage.

In addition to the updated battle system, there are numerous new features to the game that are added in this version while others not seen in the later GBA version. First up is cooking, it allows you to cook recipes for your party members to recover HP, TP and other status elements. You've seen this idea in perhaps later Tales Of games like Eternia, Symphonia, Abyss and so on as this proved useful in keeping your party members healthy even if the ingredients became expensive.

There are around 25 recipes in the game to find in towns as they each have what's called a Wonder Chef. Another new feature is titles which some can think as achievements but however it's for characters for completing certain actions in the game, some of these are acquired through levelling and story while you can get others through sidequests.

Speaking of which are also some new sidequests in this version as well as brand new areas and dungeons. New areas involve the updated shadow dungeon and the extended Treant Forest which can be difficult to go through. There is a brand new minigame where you play as Arche in a Horizontal 2D shooter as you use both front and backward attacks to take down everything on the screen, there is also one sidequest following a young ninja girl named Suzu Fujibayashi where you need to help her find her parents and doing so will allow her to join you in battle. She uses her Ninjitsu to rapidly cut down enemies, throw fiery shurikens and summon a mighty giant frog that can breathe fire, yes it can breathe fire...just don't ask how.

If you're still into old school style RPG's then Tales of Phantasia for the PlayStation is one RPG that is both impressively remastered and still enjoyable after a long while. With improved mechanics, brand new extra content as well as great storyline and characters make it the best version of Tales Of Phantasia available to English speaking gamers. You will be held back by the Phantasian Productions patch's issues with the collector's book and looking at one location on the map, it also has a major issue if ran on the PS2 where you get up to the final boss and then crashes. It's more playable on PS1 Emulators and modded PS1 Consoles but at least you can use Absolute Zero's patch which at least has no issues. If you can ignore those issues and want the additional difficulties then go with Phantasian Productions but otherwise stick to the Absoulte Zero English Patch which came before it. Tales Of Phantasia is now 18 years old and thankfully for the title in the series, it's tale has aged wonderfully.
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The Good Points:
1. Improved Battle Mechanics and also has 4 Player support
2. Several new additions such as side quests, replacements and improvements in-which some of them where not seen in the later GBA version
3. Phantasian Productions Patch provides new difficulty settings (when unlocked) and also has the options to have Artes named differently
4. The best version of Fighting of the Spirit heard in any version, Ever
5. Characters still engaging and enjoyable and also the added cutscenes and some Anim… sequences add more to the story

The Bad Points:
1. Awkward random encounter frequency
2. Phantasian Productions English Patch has a few minor bugs
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Reviewed by: Anthony Hayball (AQWBlaZer91)
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Get the full article at GameSpot

"AQWBlaZer91 reviewed Tales of Phantasia for the PlayStation..." was posted by AQWBlaZer91 on Tue, 14 May 2013 16:20:52 -0700
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/tales-of-phantasia-1998/user-reviews/811304/platform/ps/ Tue, 14 May 2013 03:20:10 -0700 PeterDuck reviewed Metro: Last Light for the PC... http://www.gamespot.com/metro-last-light/user-reviews/811289/platform/pc/ ...and gave it a 9.5!

Don't you love that feeling - waiting for years for the game to be released and then finally playing it. Too bad it only happens so rarely but these moments are ever so precious. Anyways.

The story takes place a year after the events of the first game. The Metro factions are mobilizing to fight and take over the D-6 bunker with all its military goodies. You are sent to kill the last remaining Dark One....

The narrative is still here except it's more defined and refined. The story is mostly presented the same way as in the first game except with some added flashbacks and twists. The airplane sequence for instance, gave me goosebumps and almost brought a tear to the eye. I didn't expect that.

The Dev. Team once again did an outstanding job with the atmosphere. The details to the machinery, the tools, the make-shift equipment, it's all there. The graphics are pretty much the same as in the first game with minor improvements. One thing I can say for certain is that this game features the best fire and water effects than in any other game. The dialogue between NPCs is sometimes pretty long and is always interesting to listen to. You get to meet new characters and cross paths with the old ones. They also added a substantial amount of various NPC models and only after looking real hard did I manage to find twins. The game retains its dystopian feel that's interwoven with some black humor jokes, cultural references (largely unchanged Nazi and Communist ideologies) as well as signs of the new emergent civilization - the theater sequence was particularly appealing. The game is also noticeably longer than the first one so you are getting your money's worth.

The negatives include but are not limited to: Not being able to see your legs, not being able to see your reflection in the mirror and not being able to speak a single word (even though this is Artyom's story too). The instant someone is killed their head flight dies with them for some unknown reason. But at least this time around we can actually cast a shadow AND the bodies of the slain enemies no longer disappear, for the most part.

The game has some gritty and genuinely creepy WTF moments. The old monsters are more vicious and the new monsters are quite disgusting, truly. I could do without those evil vine monsters, they just don't sit right with me. In addition, the human enemies die from one or two bullets which is more than I could say for most shooters. The human enemies take cover, roll over, throw grenades, call in back up, retreat and advance. They tease you and they lure you out.

For the most part, the game is as linear as the first one. There is also more exploration to do in some chapters than others. The game mechanics remain unchanged. The stealth system still works pretty well and there are a few close-kill animations added. Not only that, you now have the option of knocking people out instead of slicing their throat.

There are a few new weapons. You can still do some minor customizations to almost each one of them which is certainly welcome, only if, you hadn't spent the first quarter of the game without your primary starting weapon since you keep getting captured over and over again...."sigh"

The engine has been optimized pretty well. I was able to get 60 FPS on my GTX 680 while recording with Fraps and while playing in 3D. (I get half that running same hardware on the first game). On the other hand, I am somewhat suspicious that some textures have been scaled down so that the consoles could run this game properly.

I've been playing on the Hardcore Ranger Mode and so far it's paying off. You can't just run around and slice monsters with your knife when you run out of bullets, two hits and you are dead, you can't see your bullet count and you can barely even discern whether you are using make-shift or the military-grade type of ammo. I do find it disturbing that they are charging $ 5 for the difficulty setting. Although, that point has nothing to do with the quality of the game. Make sure to add the line "r_base_fov 80" here %LOCALAPPDATA%4A GamesMetro LL to increase your field of view. It doesn't break the visual depiction of Artyom's arms too much. Make the cfg file read-only as well after you make the changes.

Overall, this a unique experience that was very much worth waiting for. The dread, the shudder, the melancholy, the distant clanking noises and the sound of Steven King's: "The MIST arachnids" will often send chills down your spine. The sheer feeling of sadness that this game radiates cannot be understated. What these Metro games do is allow you to experience a possible future (minus the mutants perhaps), so please support this developer. Make sure to listen to every dialogue and visit every last corner of this engineering marvel that stands as a potential savior of humanity, or in the least, as the protractor of its existence...

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"PeterDuck reviewed Metro: Last Light for the PC..." was posted by PeterDuck on Tue, 14 May 2013 03:20:10 -0700
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/metro-last-light/user-reviews/811289/platform/pc/ Tue, 14 May 2013 01:03:35 -0700 ShaineTheNerd reviewed Arcadecraft for the Xbox 360... http://www.gamespot.com/arcadecraft/user-reviews/811284/platform/xbox360/ ...and gave it a 6.0.

Having missed that era of arcade goodness, I have always wanted to experience the joy of walking into an arcade room, watching as fellow nerds talk, brag and argue about their hi-scores on their favorite video game cabinet, and just relaxing to the sound of video games. An even greater dream of mine is to actually own an arcade room, so as you could imagine, I was pretty excited to try this game out.

At first, it was fun. You start out with only a little bit of cash, a couple of cabinets unlocked that are ready for purchase, some decor that you can buy to jazz up your establishment, and that's about it. As you play and your business gets more popular around the neighborhood, more and more kids come in to play, thus giving you money, which lets you buy more games and decorations.
You can change the amount of money each game costs to play, as well as set the difficulty on your game. Charge more, you supposedly get more money, but the game will be less popular. Altering difficulty is the same way -- make it harder for more money, but you get less customers on that game.

You learn this all in the beginning, but you're told you'll get more money, but it becomes less popular. What they should have told you is, "Charge more/make it harder and no one will play, and the low amount that do play will complain and cuss at your game, which lowers your whole room's rating and you get, altogether, less customers." I had to pretty much lower all my cabinets to a quarter, and it had to be on "Easy" difficulty to be played even remotely. "Medium" difficulty can be used on a few games, but you better leave it at 25 cents, or else you just won't make money.

The more games you buy, the stronger of an electric-generator box you will need to buy. One lets you have 10 games, another 20, and the last grants 30. 30 game cabinets seems like a good amount, but that quickly adds up by year 3. You will have to eventually sell games. Since owning a cabinet for so long turns it into a "Classic" cabinet -- which grants more popularity to your arcade room for each one in possession -- this can be an annoying and dreadful task. Deciding which cabinet to get rid of can be very frustrating, and there is no way around it if you want to stay in business.

The way you organize and decorate your arcade room affects your overall popularity. Putting cabinets to a wall and beside one another helps, while scattering them around just wherever decreases your popularity. If you put a sequel besides it's predecessor, that causes both games to see a good popularity increase. As stated before, owning a console for so long gives it the title of "Classic". For every classic cabinet you own, you will see a bonus to you popularity. Changing your wallpaper and color scheme every now-and-again will net you a popularity increase, as well as stocking up on your seasonal decorations -- a jack-o-lantern and a Christmas tree.

The task of cleaning coins out of your machines, especially if you have 30 machines out, can be very tedious. You have to go to each one and hold in "Y" until you empty out all the coins. If you have 300-plus coins in the reserves, you will be sitting for about five seconds... per cabinet. You can hire an employee to do this task for you, but he is very sluggish, resulting in cabinets becoming full and rendered useless until emptied.

Little things here and there do require your attention, like say a customer gets rowdy with one of your machines; you have to quickly throw them out lest you have a broken machine. Maybe your vending machine ran out of pop; you'll have to refill that sucker so you don't lose precious seconds of money-accumulation. Sometimes an older cabinet will get jammed, sometimes chips burnout. It does add some variety to sitting around waiting for machines to be full.

The game features your avatar as the store manager, and even has your friends' avatars join in on some retro-fun -- and throwing them out is always entertaining. Though there are fun spots in the game, as mentioned before, it essentially becomes a giant snooze-fest while you wait for your machines to become full later in your career. Nothing new or fresh happens besides a FEW random events, and even they get dull after a while. It's a shame such a fun idea couldn't have been more... fun.

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"ShaineTheNerd reviewed Arcadecraft for the Xbox 360..." was posted by ShaineTheNerd on Tue, 14 May 2013 01:03:35 -0700
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/arcadecraft/user-reviews/811284/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/ Sun, 12 May 2013 01:53:05 -0700 Gamer_4_Fun reviewed Castlevania: Lords of Shadow for the PlayStation 3... http://www.gamespot.com/castlevania-lords-of-shadow/user-reviews/811223/platform/ps3/ ...and gave it a 9.0!

I wanted to get the game when it launched, unfortunately I got distracted and went off the radar until I got it for cheap recently. I must say, wow, why didn't we hear a lot about this game? From the reviews it made it sound like an average game, but is much better than the recognition it got. This game is a wet dream for someone who is a huge fan of Dark Gothic architecture flanked by sweeping vistas stretching all the way into heaven; haunting soundtrack along with everything else which resonates with Dark Fantasy.

Lord of Shadow is a reboot of the Castlevania franchise according to I never played previous Castlevania games, I know shame on me, so going into the game I had no idea what Castlevania is all about other than a gothic dark fantasy game. I heard many complain that Lords of Shadow is more like God of War than Castlevania, which might be true but then again I never played the classic games so I cannot draw comparison, nor does it matter as long as it is a good game. So, is it a good game? Lets find out.

You play as Gabriel Belmont, one of the young knights of the Brotherhood of Light. A group of knights sworn to protect the world from any supernatural threat that casts darkness to the land. Something strange happened, the darkness tipped over the scale of balance and opened the floodgates to abundance of creatures from the knightmares to enter the world and cause massacre everywhere. Among them, Gabriel's wife was a victim. Fueled by rage, righteousness and sorrow; Gabriel sets out on an impossible quest to bring back order to this world.

The game is developed by a Spanish studio called Mercury Games, leading the development was Dave Cox and the mastermind behind the Metal Gear Solid series, Hideo Kojima.

Before we dive into the review, let us talk about understand the differences between fantasy games. There are mainly of two types and are vastly different from each other.

There is high fantasy and then there is dark fantasy. The key to dark fantasy is all about subtle nudges towards beauty as well as something that is mysterious. The whole portrait comes out as something which is .... very unsettling. Your mind can't decide whether the thing you're looking at is beautiful or something you should be afraid of. The form of communication is also another pillar of dark fantasy. The dialogue between characters tend to be less, however the dialog between the player and the environment take the center stage. It is through the environment the players can deduce the story behind the place and the world around it. So it is very tricky to pull off dark fantasy. If you end up throwing in a lot of magic, myth, creatures and craft a world with the most epic architectures imaginable...even though those are some of the staples of dark fantasy, it looses all the subtle things I mentioned and comes comes out flat. What happens is it tries to say too many things at the same time, and not the right things at the right time, so in the process the whole narration suffers greatly and becomes a mess. The team at Mercury Studios under the guidance of Kojima, aced the feel and look of their dark fantasy world, 2nd only to From Software's Dark Souls, which I think is Castlevania: Lords of Shadow's greatest accomplishment.

Lords of Shadow plays to the ambience most of the time, like the screeching of batmans in a cave or being greeted to shivering howl of werewolves as you enter a dark forest. During these moments the music is nowhere to be found as the environmental sound takes front row and center and creates the mood and sort of warning for the dangers lurking ahead.Then suddenly, the music swirls in and sends shockwaves down the spine...Lords of Shadow sits at the very top among among all the video games and movies with incredible music that feeds into the very fabric of the atmosphere like a vampire.

At first glance the combat may appear a straight up hack and slash, like the one in God of War series, but...like the very nature of the game itself; first glances can be deceiving. As you will very soon realize that playing like God of War will drastically cut your adventure time and drag you under the dirt. God of war series values attack and urges players to overpower their opponents to victory. However, Gabriel is not a fallen god like Kratos, he has his limitations. That is why LOS believes a strong defence is the key to surviving an encounter and hence eventually, come out as the victor. With that notion, combat is tend to be more slower paced, lengthier and tactical affair where patience see you to the end instead of heroism. The game even has a focus system that encourages defence. Basically the less hits you take which means when you dodge, block or counter more, the meter fills up and can be used to absorb orbs from the enemies which you can spend on either healing yourself or making your attacks more devastating.

Lord of Shadow would have been much better experience if it had a good camera. The static camera sometimes swings wildly, or getting distracted to something else over our hero. I died a few times because I felt I got betrayed by the camera. There are some platforming sections in the game, and some require a degree of precision which is beyond the tuning of the controls in the game, and makes platforming unnecessarily frustrating. I also felt the game

Overall, it is a stunning experience for me playing the game. I honestly enjoyed playing the game more than any of the God of War games to date, that includes Ascension. Do yourself a favor, forget the reviews for a second and get this game.

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]]> http://www.gamespot.com/castlevania-lords-of-shadow/user-reviews/811223/platform/ps3/ 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 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/ Sat, 11 May 2013 04:28:33 -0700 Spinnerweb reviewed Angry Birds for the iPhone/iPod... http://www.gamespot.com/angry-birds/user-reviews/811201/platform/iphone/ ...and gave it a 2.0.

"Angry Birds is so cute!" "Angry Birds is so awesome!" "Little birdies, take wing..." How many times have you heard sentences like these in the past half-decade? I would guess around 950, 000 times.

But Angry Birds is the Justin Bieber of video games. It's undeservingly popular and is potentially dangerous. Some of the birds are cute, and that's about it. It's a game where skill is thrown into a lake of carnivorous piranhas and all you do is pull the birds back on the slingshot and kill annoying green pigs.

There's only one tune in the whole game (not counting the tune that plays when you beat a level, which is almost the same and lasts, oh, half a second), and it's very annoying. The birds make noises when they launch and when you tap the screen to use their special ability, like the yellow bird can speed up, but that's all there is to it.

The visuals are decent - compared to most iPhone games anyway - but the game isn't enjoyable. It's nothing but pure frustration. You pull the birds and launch them repeatedly just for the heck of it. You become the Rambo of video games. You don't even look if you're hitting the pigs, all you want is to beat the level just so that you can get the hell out of here.

I don't know why this game is so popular - yes, the birds are cute, but then babies are cute and yet except for Charlie in the 'Charlie Bit My Finger' video none of them became exactly famous. Maybe it's because some people don't know what games are. They think they're just crap like this where you just exercise your index finger and leave smudges across your iPhone screen.

One of the worst, no, THE worst because of its undeserved popularity, casual games of all time.

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"Spinnerweb reviewed Angry Birds for the iPhone/iPod..." was posted by Spinnerweb on Sat, 11 May 2013 04:28:33 -0700
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/angry-birds/user-reviews/811201/platform/iphone/ Sat, 11 May 2013 04:12:07 -0700 Spinnerweb reviewed Resident Evil: Deadly Silence for the DS... http://www.gamespot.com/resident-evil-deadly-silence/user-reviews/811200/platform/ds/ ...and gave it a 8.0.

Resident Evil: Deadly Silence is a port of the original Resident Evil on the PS1. What's truly impressive is that everything - the FMV cutscenes, the gameplay and the sound - all of it from the PS1 is intact. This is an amazing achievement for a DS game.

It's the same story, which means it's very good. The graphics are almost identical to the PS1 version except for some effects, and there isn't any slowdown which is a problem in quite a number of 3D games for the DS.

There's more - a new Rebirth mode, which can be called something like, 'Resident Evil Remixed.' Enemies are at different locations from the original version, and it's slightly harder. There are new puzzles, and it makes use of the DS's touchscreen and microphone.

The cutscenes are fully voiced, and the FMV cutscenes are all there and haven't been dumbed down. The game plays quite well with the DS's controls, and best of all, Resident Evil is finally portable.

Any horror game fan with a Nintendo DS would do well to play this.

Get the full article at GameSpot

"Spinnerweb reviewed Resident Evil: Deadly Silence for the DS..." was posted by Spinnerweb on Sat, 11 May 2013 04:12:07 -0700
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/resident-evil-deadly-silence/user-reviews/811200/platform/ds/ Sat, 11 May 2013 03:07:00 -0700 Spinnerweb reviewed Facebook for the BlackBerry... http://www.gamespot.com/facebook/user-reviews/811198/platform/blackberry/ ...and gave it a 1.0.

Facebook... Why is it so successful? Because it encourages people to waste time. It is a menace to society. People visit it, everyday, posting things like, 'Brushing my teeth', 'having my breakfast' ... I mean, who cares?

The only beings it makes sense for is the older generation. Like, can't-get-out-of-my-wheelchair old. They can talk to their friends and it'll be like old times again.

But oddly, young 'uns use Facebook the most.

And it's glitchy. Every page you go to, it says, "Oops, ironing out a few kinks." There are awful waste-your-time online games like YoVille, FarmVille, ZooVille, CityVille and a possible AssVille.

I urge everyone to stay away from this.

It does nothing but create a bunch of narcissistic self-obsessed attention seekers, and I wish for a crushingly violent punishment for the assclown who came up with the idea of Facebook.

Get the full article at GameSpot

"Spinnerweb reviewed Facebook for the BlackBerry..." was posted by Spinnerweb on Sat, 11 May 2013 03:07:00 -0700
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/facebook/user-reviews/811198/platform/blackberry/ Fri, 10 May 2013 22:42:33 -0700 Spinnerweb reviewed Tomb Raider: Underworld for the DS... http://www.gamespot.com/tomb-raider-underworld/user-reviews/811192/platform/ds/ ...and gave it a 6.0.

It's easy to see that unlike other developers, Santa Cruz really did try (a little) to make this a good handheld version of a console game. But for whatever reason, whether out of laziness or because it was rushed to meet the release date, they didn't succeed. The end result is a game that is impressive in terms of visuals, but a mixture of too-easy gameplay and choppy sound results in a game that is disappointing and doesn't last very long.

One feat that I would commend the developers for is that the FMV cutscenes are all here, and all are intact, without any loss in quality. That is something that induces a 'wow', but let's get onto the actual game. The story is the same as the console version - in other words, it's very good, but after that it's downhill.

The graphics, like I said before, are amazing for a DS game. There is no slowdown like in other 3D games on the Nintendo DS, and the lighting is great. The character models aren't HD, of course, but they look very good on the DS.

The gameplay is on the easy side. Like, disappointingly easy. Sometimes you die because you don't expect it to be so easy and overshoot. Unbelievable. And there is no increase in difficulty as the game goes along.

The game plays like a 2D side scrolling platformer, but with 3D character models and environments. You use the touchscreen for the inventory. And man, the screen is dark! You'll only be able to see everything if you play on a DS Lite on the highest brightness setting. It's easy, even though Lara has all her moves from the console games like hanging from ledges, swinging around poles and using her grapple, because it's side scrolling. You can't fall off because you jumped a little too much to one side.

It should take an average of less than six hours to beat this game. So what good you can take from this game, can be taken from its screenshots - the graphics. Aside from that, unless it's your life's goal to collect every Tomb Raider game on every platform, or you don't have any other console to play this on except the DS, I would dissuade you from playing it.

Get the full article at GameSpot

"Spinnerweb reviewed Tomb Raider: Underworld for the DS..." was posted by Spinnerweb on Fri, 10 May 2013 22:42:33 -0700
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/tomb-raider-underworld/user-reviews/811192/platform/ds/ Fri, 10 May 2013 21:12:33 -0700 Spinnerweb reviewed Tomb Raider: Underworld for the PlayStation 2... http://www.gamespot.com/tomb-raider-underworld/user-reviews/811190/platform/ps2/ ...and gave it a 9.0!

Poor Lara. While I enjoyed every single Tomb Raider game in the original series, her popularity has been plummeting for a while now. People just can't be satisfied that easily. So what do the developers do? Do they just put in revealing costumes and a cover starring her midriff and hope it'll sell? Of course not. They do that, but they make a great game as well.

Underworld continues the story where Legend left off, and the story is very good. If this had to be the end of the series it's very satisfyingly so. My greatest fear, however, was that the game would be half-assed on the PS2 and the developers would give all the attention to the seventh generation version. But right from the start, Underworld restored my faith in developers. The FMV cutscenes are excellent, and amazingly the in-game graphics are comparable to the PS3 version - this isn't a joke. Whether it's because the PS3's version's graphics are bad or the PS2 one's are very good, depends on whether you see the glass as half empty or half full.

The gameplay is very similar to Legend, but it's more non-linear. You can do more stuff now - shift along small ledges just by moving the analog stick rather than taking a risky jump, and there's an obligatory bike in one level. There's also a 'realistic' factor that makes it more believable through animations and excellent graphics - when standing near a fire in the first level, Lara will raise her arms in that direction to protect herself from the heat. After climbing out of water, Lara's clothes will be drenched. Yes, the latter also happened in Legend and Anniversary, but I never stopped being amazed at how much the developers did on the PS2 in the matter of visuals. The music is good, and the voice acting is well done. There is some minor slowdown in the gameplay of the second level (the one with the giant squid in it) but it never amounted to excessive frustration.

Of course, it's still a PS2 game, so the developers had to make some sacrifices - namely, the double auto target mode from the PS3 version isn't here. Ah well. Who wants that, anyway?

Overall, the now-bankrupt developers did a really good job with it and it's a shame the series was rebooted, though it couldn't have gone on forever obviously and over a decade is a nice long run for a series... but Underworld is a very satisfying end to the original series whichever platform you play it on.

... Except the Nintendo DS, of course.



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"Spinnerweb reviewed Tomb Raider: Underworld for the PlayStation 2..." was posted by Spinnerweb on Fri, 10 May 2013 21:12:33 -0700
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/tomb-raider-underworld/user-reviews/811190/platform/ps2/ Fri, 10 May 2013 18:51:40 -0700 Pierst179 reviewed Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed for the Wii U... http://www.gamespot.com/sonic-and-all-stars-racing-transformed/user-reviews/811188/platform/wii-u/ ...and gave it a 8.5.

In all of the gaming industry, there is no niche where there is a domination as huge as the one that exists on the kart racing one. All games and teams that venture into the realm know exactly what needs to be done, which is to produce a game that draws positive comparisons to Mario Kart. After all, not only was it Nintendo that created the often-copied formula, but Mario and his crew have been executing it masterfully for over two decades. During that period of time, only a very restricted number of titles … out of which Diddy Kong Racing and Crash Team Racing stand out - were able to break the monopoly, each for their own reasons and pronenesses. Sonic Racing Transformed manages to enter that select group, and it does so by fixing the flaws of its predecessor, and offering a fantastic mix of challenge, content and outstanding track design.

The first noticeable feature that makes Sonic Racing Transformed stay away from being just another kart game is exposed right on its title. The game does not focus solely on wacky automobile competitions. Instead, the races take place on the water, in the sky and on the land. It would not have been such a refreshing concept but for one detail: tracks are not based on a single vehicle; each one of them presents segments that demand different racing approaches, forcing characters to magically go from one vehicle to the other on the fly. With the exception of a few rare instances when the vehicles behave oddly in the milliseconds following a transformation, the transitions are mostly smoothly done and add a lot of excitement to the race. Aside from the fantastic visual value of, for instance, going up a ramp with a boat and watching as it turns into an airplane in the midst of a battle for a position, the transformations also have strategic value, because as flying is considerably faster than the other two options of movement, the racing tracks will offer opportunities to transform into a plane earlier, rewarding those who find ramps and taking off spots.

Speaking of the tracks, they are yet another point that heavily benefits from the blending of vehicles, and are the clear highlights of the game. Courses take advantage of that opportunity in two distinct ways: they are either built so that three vehicles are used during the same lap, or they present environmental elements that alter the path in between laps. Therefore, even though the game contains sixteen original tracks, plus four extracted for its predecessor - all of which are kart-only … it feels like much more, because as they mutate, tracks often become different to the point of not being recognizable. As if all that work was not enough, the game's tracks are also packed with alternative paths and shortcuts, which add a lot to both their already high replayability and to the element of surprise waiting within each race.

In a genre usually dominated by multiplayer-focused games, Sonic Racing Transformed brings forth a whole lot of single-player value. There are two main modes where the solo fun resides: Grand Prix and Career. The first one is nearly self-explanatory, players compete against nine other characters in four-race cups to see who ends up with the biggest amount of points. In total, there are ten cups, equally divided between regular and mirrored ones, and the difficulty of each can be chosen among four distinct options. Meanwhile, in the Career mode, through which most of the characters are unlocked, presents individual challenges that include regular races where players must finish in a certain position, time trials, boost challenges and racing duels against a series of characters. According to the difficulty chosen for each challenge, players will earn stars, which can then be used to unlock gates that are either protecting new characters or more challenges.

For a game as colorful and seemingly kid-friendly as this one, it packs an immensely surprising amount of challenge. While the high level of difficulty is extremely welcome, for it considerably boosts the time that can be spent playing solo, some of its implementation is questionable. Facing at least a portion of the game in the hard difficulty is key if players want to unlock certain characters, and open a few gates hiding some of the more advanced challenges. It is all fine and good if the player in question is experienced; youngsters, however, will most likely be overwhelmed by the many hours of practice one must go through if he wants to clear a good part of the game.

The core problem here is that practice is not the only thing required to go through the entirety of the game; patience is also extremely important. Like all games of its kind, Sonic Transformed presents an assortment of items that can be used during the race. Unlike Mario Kart, however, the items you get are not heavily dependent on the position you find yourself in. Meaning that while leaders are boosting their way through the tracks with powerful items, people in the middle of the pack might be struggling with simple powers. As a consequence, a big part of the game's result, especially on the hardest levels, relies on luck. Though those occurrences are annoying on Career mode, they can be even more frustrating during a Grand Prix, where three straight good races can be destroyed by a bad race where players - which always start at the back of the grid - are unable to reach the leaders because they are too busy being hit by an army of items. Regardless of how good a player is at speeding through the tracks, finishing 1st will usually demand many tries, and an eventual victory is most likely to come due to sheer luck of getting the right item at the right time.

In general, though, Sonic Racing Transformed is a very pleasant game to play. Not only is the game bursting with the personality extracted directly from fantastic Sega properties - including a vast selection of characters, each with very a very unique trio of vehicles - it is also a software that can be enjoyed with friends. The multiplayer gameplay is not restricted to especially designed modes. It is, instead, available in any mode of choice - with the exception of Time Trials - and, by taking advantage of the Wii U gamepad, the game allows for up to five players to battle each other on any of game's many Grand Prix tournaments, Career Mode challenges, or online matches. Whoever holds the Wii U gamepad - which on single-player works as a map display and a rear view mirror - will play on the controller's screen, which despite its average size produces very nice visuals, while those who hold the Wiimotes will share the TV. Though it is not used in any asymmetric and creative way, which is totally understandable given the nature of a racing title, it is nice to be able to avoid split-screen when playing in pairs.

While its predecessor suffered from constant frame rate problems, this is a game mostly free from that issue, and that is no small feat. The tracks are full of activity. Aside from ten racers throwing items and shoving each other, there are plenty of traps going around, scenario details to be processed at the game's relatively fast speed, and that all goes without mentioning how some of the courses suffer mutations in-between laps as a result of explosions, and other kinds of physical destruction. Throw into the bag the fact that the game looks really great, and holding it all together through the entirety of the race becomes quite a technical achievement. Besides being exciting by their fast and frantic nature, races are boosted by a nice soundtrack which is highlighted by some tunes that have been selected from games that present a very powerful soundtrack.

Often, when a good game of the kart racing genre hits a Nintendo platform early on, it tends to be labeled as a title that exists for the purpose of temporarily satisfying any racing needs that players might have until Mario Kart comes around. This time, though, the Nintendo Wii U has received a game that will not simply be thrown away once Nintendo unleashes a new installment on its longstanding racing series, but one that will be able to compete side-by-side with it regardless of how great the next Mario Kart will be. Sonic and All-Stars Racing Transformed has tons of content, which aside from simply racing include over 100 collectible stickers that serve as awards for the completion of achievements, a nice degree of vehicle customization, and a huge load of the undeniable charm of the Sega franchises. Put some good level of challenge in there, which is sometimes unfortunately done cheaply, and you have a lasting, fun and rewarding title.

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"Pierst179 reviewed Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed for the Wii U..." was posted by Pierst179 on Fri, 10 May 2013 18:51:40 -0700
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