The big talk about Dante's Inferno right now isn't about it's gameplay or it's features, no. It's about how it ripped-off another game. One party will bash on how copy-cat it is while the other party will defend it.

It also floods the forum. So let's see!

Dante's Inferno is based on the poem written by the dude whom I just named who was in fact ; a poet.

Not a Templar. Not a dude who'se wife was killed. No, just a simple poet.

Visceral decided to take the poem, and adapt it into a vengeance/redemption story about a guy who ( don't tell me you haven't guessed ) commited all 9 capital sins and must redeem each and every one of them to finally get to his love. And let's all guess that it won't be a happy ending.

Reminds you of someone? A guy named Kratos? No? Okay. Let's keep on.

To fuel the informative background of the main character, they decided to add some '' cartoon cutscenes '' at key moments to unveil Dante's oh-so horrible past. Like Santa Monica's way of unveiling what Kratos did in05'.

I remember seing an interview where one of the producer of Dante's Inferno said that, while creating the game, they didn't take blueprint from any game, and that comparing it to, for instance, God of War, was a pure honor and coincidence.

We all laughed. Real hard.

Now to the gameplay. Something wich, in truth, we haven't seen until this summer. Because if you remember, Dante's Inferno was only screenshots for a good while. At first glance, we saw how the finishers presented in the trailers were made in god of war's fahion.

A couple of months later, we saw that everything about this game is a complete replica of God of War, but set in The Divine Comedy's book.

The controls are exactly like God of War, minus the grab and magic, and the character behave exactly like Kratos. Double jumps, mixed ( and somewhat open ended ) light and heavy attacks combos.

Whenever you finish an enemy, you have the same slow-mo whenever you have to press a button, wich, till now, was God of War's trademark over QTE's. The aerial juggles are identical to GoW and even the block/counter system.

Is Dante's Inferno a rip-off? It's a perfect replica of God of War set in a different scenery. From the ground up, everything has been built upon Santa Monica's design.

Now, is it a bad thing? Hell no.

It's actually the point of my post. Dante's Inferno will be fun. Because it mimics God of War to perfection ( whitout the pretty graphics ) and that is something no other game achieved. And currently, God of War is one of the best series of the decade, so it's about time someone tried to do something very alike.

Sure, Visceral could have tried and experiment with their own ideas a bit more, but that could have strayed them off the path to glory beaten by God of War.

Will it be better than God of War3? Of course not. Nothing can ever touch the original foundations of a groundbreaking genre, and in this case, established by God of War's new era of beat em ups.

It's the same thing with Mario 64 and Goldeneye. Superb titles that people still play to this date. They were pioneers of the modern platformers and shooters respectively. And how many times did developers took these formulas to try and make something better? Countless.

The way I see it ; Dante's Inferno is probably going to bea very nice game ( from the demo's experience )that'll just elevate God of War to even higher grounds.

My first book will officially launch in april 2010. My second book, wich i've completed back in september, has been sent to my editing house ( AdA inc. ) two weeks ago. As of my third book, i'm currently on my 81th page, wich is still the very begining.

That said, Dragon Age launches tomorow, I hope it'll carry the heavy weight of Baldur's Gate 2. Personnaly, I wouldn't have made that assumption, but BioWare did, so hey. Expectations got up to the roof. In a week, it'll be Modern Warfare 2 and one week later, my most anticipated '' holiday-time '' game, AC2.

Oddly enough, even with the new releases like Borderlands,Brutal Legend, Uncharted 2, Ratchet and Clank, i'm STILL playing another playthrough of Arkham Asylum. I really can't shake off that game, it's just that good.

I got to know this game simply because I loved Dead Space and was interested in the dev's new IP. At the begining, I thought it was cool, but now, i'm not so sure. Here's why :

The recent Greed video shows some God of War 1 / tapistry scenes where they portray the main hero as cruel soldier - exactly like Kratos. He's sent through hell to find redemption, while Kratos wanted to find forgiveness ( and vengeance ). They even went to say that the hero SEW a red cross onto his chest to remind himself of his sins ; just like Kratos' white ashed skin ; ashes from his familly.

Also, this looks like a carbon copy of God of War, but the very, very first game who copies god of war to 90% of its ideas. Camera work, the fighting, even the jumping animations are identical. Boss finishers also have the same slo-mo's during weapon hit.

Rip offs arent bad, but with Dante's Inferno, it's way too obvious that they literally copied god of war - wich is normal, its the greatest action adventure ever.

The other thing that bothers me is the grotesque side of the game. Usualy, violence and gore always have a nice fit when there's a nice '' artstyle '' behind it. Madworld's cartoon style is amazing, God of War's beautiful vistas and fearsome beasts are a delight.

Problem with Dante's Inferno is that there's no style, its just diving straight ahead into 100% grotesquerie. It's gross, it's sexual, it's covered in blood, vomit ( instestine monsters ) and some other fluids that are better left unnamed. The background of the levels arent great looking ; they're dark, gross and twisted ; but not in an artistic way.

I just find it difficult to find it appealing. God of War 1 and 2 are my favorite game series ever, and seriously, i'd take any games that looks like it, but Dante's Inferno kinda brings me into some mixed reaction ; the gameplay looks 100% identical, yet it's very unpleasing to look at.

Gross stuff are cool when to a certain extent ; when you're adding walking intestines, charred corpse trying to have sex and a main hero sewing cloth onto is bare skin, I find it hardto believe thatthe cute Jade Raymond-ish Visceral Gamesgirl seen in the videosto giggle in fanboyism in front of this.

It doesnt just seems like, super nerdish, its name sound stupid and they revealed about nothing on video games. Heck, it's a comic-related convention and it's plastered all over the web as something cool for games.

Anyways, just my two cents.

on my 352th page. epic.

with 279 pages. Up with the next chapter, wich happens in Belize, Central America.

Done with 221 pages. Nearly halfway through.

I've got so many ideas for the next book that buzz around my head, yet i'm not done with thisbook!Argh. I hate it when it does this.

How many times did you facepalmed yourself, staring at people bashing websites like IGN, gamespot, giantbomb and such because they gave an unfit score to the game they praise and love?

How many times did you actually read a post starting with '' insert_website is a joke, they gave insert_game only 7.0!!! ''

Here here, people, i'll show you how to read a critic.

Do not stop yourself at the score, use your brain and read the whole critic.

1 ) Take some time to read the review and assimilate the good and bad points shown by the reviewer.

2 ) Ask yourself if these problems bothers you.

3 ) Compare the bad and good points with other reviews and build your very own insight with these.

If you do this, you'll never come to negate other people ( or reviewer ) 's opinion, instead, you will use their experience to carve an answer about if the product will be fit for you, or not. Also, if you're concerned with the score, use metacritics or gamerankings. Never stop yourself at one 8.5 or anything.

Of course, some reviewers are harsher than others, but it doesnt change anything, and on the good side they'll point most of the bad things directly, making it easier for you to judge weither or not the said problems bother you.

If people did this, the whole planet would be happy, wars would stop and it would only rain one day per week, only late at night.

up to 148 pages now. lets keep going. i aim for about 25-30ish chapters if everything goes according to plan.

In between my writing for my second book, I have some time to kill with video games and I will write reviews for every single one of them that I try. Dont be afraid to post feedback!

I'm currently working on my 123th page of my second book. Started in march. By the end of 09, I should be done ( or nearly done at least ).

We'll see in some months.

Nominees include Braid, NHL 09 and Burnout Paradise ? No Dead Space ? Little Big Planet ? Gears of f*** War 2 ?

This website is obviously being paid by companies, no sentient human beings would have done this.

I'm not going to say what I think about this, but it's pretty offensive and filled with blasphemies toward a certain nation. Here ? I've said nothing wrong, so you can only assume, wich is perfectly right.

Goodbye.

So far the site is quite cool, yet i'm not very used to it, I find myself lost half of the time ahah.

And yeah, my dad just gave me his ''old'' ( yeah, my ass ) 44 inch HD TV, wich is now right in my bedroom. This is just glorious.

Yeah so I beat Jericho. The ending was mediocre at best, and it's whole experience seemed flawed with some serious issue. Corridor-shooting with little to no gameplay features ( swapping members is just a mere excuse to actual weapon switching..) , some members and skills are downright useless and the monster variety is so low you can count it on your fingers. I also did a review for it, and still, I find myself generous giving it a 7.5.

That said, I also beat Conan two times in a row, and almost a third time on the last unlocked difficulty, but then boredom came to me. I might sell it to a friend for 40bucks. It's a good game, easily recommendable to those who like big muscled heroes, extreme gore and god of war-ish context sensitive actions.

As I mentionned in my previous post, I bought 4 games on october 31rst. Hellgate London, The Witcher, Manhunt2 and Timeshift. As far as I can say, The Witcher grabbed my attention like a parasyte needing to feed on its host. This game is awesome and I never , I repeat, never got sticked to my computer screen like this in any open ended games even Oblivion ( wich I love, but not to the point of playing 4-5 hours in a row ). My first impression on Manhunt 2 is rather poor, it may change when I give it another shot, but as for now, Ialmost regret my purchaseeven ifit cost 30 bucks brand new. Hellgate London is cool, but I haven't played it. I tried the demo, and loved it. And finally, TimeShift. I may actually get refunded for it since it's not unwrapped and the reviews seem rather poor towards it, but heck, I don't know.

Anyways, TWO WEEKS until Assassin's Creed. It's my most anticipated game since God of War 2 and God of War before that. And yes, I know, COD4 will be out in few days but oddly...i just don't seem to care. The SP demo didn't really impress me, but don't get me wrong, it seems really good, but not awesome.

Cheers.

Yeah so it's been almost a year since I wrote something on here. Been quite busy I must say, but enough of that.

I just got Clive Barker's Jericho and Conan. I got Jericho from direct2drive since it's not out in my area due to some shipping problems..anyways. Jericho's pretty neat, but as you may noticed, it's a console game ported to PC. Sure, it's ''well'' ported, but there's still some apparant sign of port, like menus and such. It doesn't really bother me that much, but it's not a plus. Also, the game seems to frequently load areas to areas while the graphics are great, they're not outstanding so it's kind of weird why it always has to load.

As for Conan, I haven't tried it yet, but i'll do that a little bit later today.

Cheers.

You know what man? fu-- console wars. Possess every one of them. Or maybe you can't , but I can. Since i'm rich and flamboyant.

I hate you. Oh I really do hate you. Not because I am a 360 fanboy, but simply because I was completely not going to shell a single dollar on that console since no games seemed interesting.....yet.

But noooo. You had to bring to life MGS4 ( wich I was slowly forgetting, now has completely came back ) , DMC4 and Ninja Gaiden Sigma.

I really do hate the fact I'll have to buy it.

Pity me, fools.