Well, given that I've been a bit abscent from blogging on Gamespot lately I decided to make a quick post (not that my posts account for anything more than logging my videogame deeds for myself). About a week ago, I played most of BioShock and now that I'm away from the game for a while I can not only say that it is on my "top 5" (the other 4 being DMC3, MGS3, RE4 and FFVII, not in that order, with Ninja Gaiden (Xbox) falling out of the list) but it obtained the top spot. I haven't had the chance to finish it but I already can ask development studios: would you KINDLY make more games like this?

In different news, I finished Sonic 2 (yeah, Genesis Sonic 2) with my girlfriend and a friend last night and although it isn't an accomplishment at all, it was fun as hell. Tomorrow night, we're going on a Snes marathon (which always can end up on a Mario Kart Double Dash!! Bob-omb Blast battle marathon, but that's fun as well).

Nothing else to add, college exams period start soon so I might have to stay away from gaming for a couple of weeks.

PS: Of course, this top 5 is valid for last and this gen, it's unfair when you throw games like Super Mario World, Megaman 2 or Gunstar Heroes to the mix. That said, consider FFVII a wild card.

Ok, I kinda pushed this time on the title. It doesn't matter. I wasn't THAT excited about BioShock after playing the demo, but I read some reviews today and went over the demo again. And you know what? Ken Levine is a genious. I really played in a whole different way and had a pretty different experience as he's been saying all along! I complained about how weapons sound last time and how enemies reacted to taking shots. You know what? Screw that! The few times I needed to rely on weapons was on the very beginning and once near the end when I was getting swarmed by enemies and ran out of eve. Hacking rocks! So does electrocuting your foes! Next playthrough the demo, I'll go with the fire plasmid and see what I can pull off. I also say a very explosive-like tank, but didn't have time to shoot it before it rolled out of my sight since I was attacked from behind.

Anyway, I'm really psyched with BioShock now, can't wait to play the full version! I didn't really mind the weapons this time although there's still something a little weird about the enemies, code-wise (so to speak), but I care about it less and less by the minute!

On a side note, I downloaded Pac Man C.E. Trial and I need it full! There's something very Lumines about it, not to mention that the way Namco tweaked gameplay this time makes up for an unbelievably enjoyable experience. I gotta admit today was a great day in my gaming life!

Yes! Finally!

Ever since I first saw the "old-school" emblem, it became an obsession to me. I'm a gamer since 1992 (I was 8 ) but I play videogames since I was 4. I've owned many games but considering that I hadn't became a collector before 2002, I've sold many games as well. Nevertheless, no one can say I'm not old-school. Hell, I'm even the most acknowleged gamer I know!

Anyway, last night, I included in "my collection" here in GS three Genesis games I hadn't remembered before that I have: Vectorman, Out of this World and Altered Beast. And today, for my surprise, BAM! I have the old-school emblem. I hope it's not a damn bug like when everyone got the "Hella old-school" emblem. That one I know I don't deserve, but this one I sure have the right to have.

Yeah, well. We all know that BioShock demo is out and this is the game that most X360 owners have been highly hyped about. Ok, maybe people have been even more hyped about Halo 3, but I ushave yet to understand why on Earth you guys like this series so much.

Different from most of my posts, I won't beat around the bush and go straight to the point: hype sucks. Not that the demo wasn't good. It was. God, awesome looking game! Right in the begining, when you're adrift, I watched the BEST water effects I've ever seen. I didn't even feel that I should have an HDTV (something that some X360 games made me feel) because it looks so good in SD I don't even care. The environment and the feeling of immersion are also... can't think of another word other than superb. There's nothing generic about it, not only every room is different from one another (think the exactly how Halo is NOT), Rapture must have been planned by an actual architect, not a game designer. It just makes sense. The 1950's feel is everything it was supposed to be. Interaction is also outstanding, it makes up for the bad feeling Gears gave me (my only complaint about Gears and the only game on the 360 I've played enough to have a good opinion, by the way).

On to gameplay. The Plasmids have been extensively promoted and it's for a good reason: your weapons alone can't make the cut. Nor the Plasmid alone. You must strongly rely on the weapon+plasmid+environment combo in order to survive. Not that the game is THAT HARD, but from what I've seen in that short demo, I suppose that further in the game, a player won't make it too far without thinking outside the box.

Ok, I began saying "hype sucks" but only praised the game so far. Let's talk about that. I expected this to be the best game ever. Well, it isn't that much. First off, the most disappoint thing is how weapons sound. When I picked my first pistol (a magnum of sorts), I kept holding my finger just to unload it only when some unfortunate soul crossed my path, hoping to hear the most realistic (or, at least, loud) sound ever from a fireweapon. And it was completely disappointing. Soon after I picked a submachine gun and it was equally sad. Not only that, the way the enemies take the shots are kind of unrealistic (I had already realised that from the trailers, but when you're playing it, it is very dull).

Bottom line is: the game seems to be good. VERY good. But it isn't perfect and THAT is what I expected. Damn, I didn't even feel the URGE to play the complete version as I felt when I played F.E.A.R. demo. But then again, it is probably because of when in the game the demo is placed and not the game itself.

First off, I decided to go with no puns for the name 360 in this post title because it is getting sooooooo old that makes me wanna cry. Ok, not so much. What actually made me wanna cry last Friday (the day my 360 got here) was the first time I chainsawed a Locust... And then I also wanted to cry on Saturday (damn, I'm starting to sound like an emo kid with all these crying...) was when I kicked General Raam's ass. Those who haven't played Gears of War aren't understanding **** but those who have sure know what I'm talking about. Great game. Awesome game. Simply put, probably the best action game I've ever played. Different from other games on my "best action games ever" list, such as MGS3, RE4 and DMC3, this one is only about action. But equaly different from those games, this one single player campain is too damn short for its own good. Ok, whatever, this is not a GoW review. But rest assured that it will come, once I finish it in all difficult modes and have a deeper online experience.

Speaking of online, I signed up with Live yesterday (1 month of free gold membership baby!). Downloaded a few trials on Arcade (Lumines definitely lives up to the hype) and Blue Dragon and F.E.A.R. demos. So far only got to play Blue Dragon for around 20 minutes the least I can say is: Best Boss Battle Theme EVER. And I've played a lot more than a handful of JRPG's before saying that. This is just the beginning.

Before wraping this post up, I'm not that happy to say that Final Fantasy III has been sitting aside in the last few days (which was completely foreseen) but I was smart enough to keep a detailed journal on the game while I was playing, so I can easily go back to it any time. And I still hope this time to come soon.

Well well, finally a break! Have a two week break from college, now I can go back to gaming. Well, just today I started playing Final Fantasy III on the DS (AGAIN), but this time, I suppose I'll go through the whole game. That is, if I don't get too distracted with Gears of War... you know, it's been a while that I've been saying that I'm saving up for a 360 and stuff and well... I BOUGHT ONE XD
I mean, I just ordered online, it will arrive within this week. Along with GoW and Perfect Dark Zero (I've been dying for a good offline FPS multiplayer since the first one... Those PD and 007 on the N64 were so, so sweet... ^^), and I'm also planning on buying Enchanted Arm and Dead Rising within the next two weeks.

On a different platform, my PS2 is dead again. And this time is for good. In fact, I decided to buy the 360 right away or I'd end up spending part of what I saved on a new PS2 (damn, that is one good system), I started craving to play FFXII again (I played only the first 30 hours and then the system died last year...). Regardless of that, I bought Dirge of Cerberus and the FFXII Collector's Edition. Yeah, I'm pretty hooked up on FF again for I started reading the Reunion Files and some Ultimanias translations.

Time to go back to FFIII... so simple yet so sweet... that's what old school is all about! XD
(I might end up checking the NES version and see how huge is the gap between them)

With 46h+, I believe I'm close to the end of my journey. And it's been quite a ride. Although Tales of Symphonia overall plot isn't that big deal, it served its purposes and even if it is a tad on the childish side, its quite fun. There's even a poorly explained "Ancient War" that starts to become clearer towards the end and it reminded me of Xenogears, not in content, but in "spirit". Nevertheless, the real thing here is the cast. It's been a looong time since I came across such a likable cast like this. Not that they're perfect, I mean, even though they all have strong, distinct personalities, these personalities didn't evolve much during the game. But that doesn't matter, Symphonia is the kind of game that you come to like and care about the characters, and that's a lot more than most RPG's do these days.

Plot aside, the feeling that I was playing an RPG from the PSOne "golden era" never abandoned me and the whole experience felt pretty nostalgic. It was like playing a cross between Grandia (basically plot-wise) and Star Ocean 2 (game progression and soundtrack - before my review, I wanna check if both scores aren't by the same composer). In other words, it felt great. Battling never gets tiresome and dungeon design is pretty outstanding, almost every dungeon has a different kind of puzzle to solve which turns out to be the dungeon itself, all ranging in the "traditional area", from pushing blocks, to riddles, to those goddamn teleporters; this helps to avoid that feeling of "oh man, another dungeon? Not again!". You actually have fun during the dungeons, which, again, is a lot more than most RPG's do.

Obviously I still have some unfinished business with cool characters who can't decide which side they are, but I have enough ground to say that my opinion about Symphonia is strong and most definitely final. In a couple of days, at most, I'll have the game finished and the review should follow shortly after. And the good news is, despite its shortcomings (which obviously will be taken into consideration), I mostly have good things to say about this game. A lot of good things. VERY good things ^^

Started playing Tales of Symphonia two days ago and I'm quite pleased with it. Clocked at 14h+, the game seems to blend several aspects of the "RPG Golden Era" on the PSOne. The world reminds me of Expel, from Star Ocean 2, the plot setting has Grandia written all over it and game progression, so far, is somewhat similar to FFVII. Not to mention that the game is somewhat slow so far but you just feel that something very meaniful is about to happen, furthermore it keeps hinting that there is a lot more to its plot than it meets the eye. Just like, again, Grandia, FFVII and Star Ocean 2. I didn't wanna say that I'm loving the game, for it has its shortcomings (sometimes the dialog is a bit silly and most characters are much too cheerful for their own good), but considering that I spent over 10h straight playing it today, well... I'm loving it! I had never played a Tales game before, but if the others are as good as this, I have found a very good "light" alternative to the darker-toned RPG's I'm used to.

I suppose I'm gonna get some rest and head back into the game. I'll keep posting my impressions here 'till I beat it and have the review done. 'Till next time! ^^

Third and probably last post on DMC3. I finished it today, after a week absent from playing and... well, it wraps up just the way you'd expect: awesome. The last two missions, although not the best gameplay-wise (that crown still belongs to Mission 7), have the coolest plot events in the whole game. The ending, although short, is great and the credits roll... Well, the best ever (Yeah, the credits roll). Unfortunatelly I'll be a while away from the game since my brother took the PS2 back to my parents' today (we have a sort of deal where one keeps the cube and one keeps the PS2 alternatively, and since I had the PS2 for the past four months, he was getting uneasy... stupid younger brothers...).

I'm pretty sure I'll keep coming back to the game over and over again, I still have orbs to collect, secret missions to find and difficulty levels to conquer. Normal wasn't that hard after all. Oh yeah, my review for the game is already up.

I remember saying that after DMC3 I knew I'd like to play another game like that, such as God of War. Honestly, I was wrong, I can't stop thinking about playing it. And since my brother took the PS2 and left me with the GC, I suppose I'm off to Killer7, although it has nothing to do with it, I've played the first "stage" when I bought it and it was fantastic. Let's see what comes out of all that "bizarreness" ^^

Two blog entries for a single game? That must mean something. Hell yeah! Although I'm not as excited about DMC3 as I was in the beginning, it is only for the "first impact" vanished. Nevertheless, it is still a hell of a game, in MGS3 and RE4 league. Meaning, 1st league. Man, it's been a hell of a while that I haven't played this kind of game, the kind of game that made me wanna PLAY again and not only read about gaming. Right now I'm quite tired of a 2-hour session of kicking demons' asses and getting mine kicked, I just won't take a 20-minute break and go back into the game because it's time to hit bed, have a Database exam tomorrow.

Anyways, I just reached mission 13 on normal mode (first play) and the way I'm playing it is very interesting: two to four hours a day, broken into two or three sittings. I guess I could play games like this for the rest of my life because this way I can find time to do everything I need to do and still play on a daily basis. I just had to sacrifice much of my TV time, but the hell with that, I just kept watching the same reruns of the same sitcoms over and over again.

Botton line is I love DMC3... I'm just a little tired of it right now because, well, I as said in the previous entry, it's physically tiresome.

I finally started to play Devil May Cry 3 for real. And... how GOOD is that game?!?! My brother was right all along, he absolutely loves it and I finally understand. I don't feel this way about a game since Metal Gear Solid 3 and that was 2005! Everything in DMC3 is so, over-the-top, gameplay, style, difficulty... Man, I got to take a 15-minute break for each hour, it is physically tiresome and highly addictive. I loved that you really need technique, you gotta pay close attention to the demons' movements and buttom mashing simply doesn't work! I know I'll be playing it for a long, loooong time, I just wanna see everything the game has to offer! And after that, I probably will switch to the Special Edition. Man, break is over, gotta bludgeon some demons like an iron hammer again!

After a long absence from my humble blog, I'm glad to tell to whoever has time to waste reading these rantings that my PS2 is back from the dead! I picked it from maintenance last week, but only decided to give it a shot last Sunday and, well, let's just say that it runs Yakuza smoothly now ^^

Currently playing Urban Reign, gotta say reviwers were partly right on this one. I only tried the Mission Mode so far, I'm on Mission 38/100 and although the game doesn't get much different from mission to mission (I suppose it was one of Gamespot's or IGN's complaints, can't remember which one), I just could go over 500 missions smacking those gangsta-brudda-whatever-they-like to-call-themselves on the head over and over again.

Gotta go, don't know when I'll be back, so don't wait up honey ^^

I finally put my hands on Twilight Princess (for the Cube) yesterday and I'm pretty excited about it. I hardly remember my dying PS2, except when my brother bugs me too much to play his goddamn Skies of Arcadia Legends and I let him, that's when it hits me that I can't go and play FFXII.

Anyway, Twilight Princess is awesome, it's shaping up to be a better game than Ocarina of Time was, although I know it won't make me feel like Ocarina did in its days. I'm just a little bummed with the game because I've cleared the first two dungeons and still there isn't minigames and sidequests to do so far, which is pretty weird for a Zelda game. Actually, I've just opened up full access to Lake Hylia and Castle Town (or something like that) in the light world and it seems to be quite a good amount of side stuff to do there, but I haven't got a chance to try yet (guess why? Because of a certain Dreamcast port that someone is playing on the Cube...).

Well, whatever, gonna have dinner now, I'm out.

As if it wasn't enough that my old N64 stopped working at all the other day, now my PS2 is betraying me. I don't know what the hell is going on, there are games that run fine and there are games that won't run at all. I know that its insides are dirty (REALLY dirty) and before trying anything, I'll try cleaning it, but I'm still looking for the best way to do it without having to crack it open.

Yup. I'm pissed.

It's been quite a while since my last post, but I completely forgot to keep posting my gaming updates here. Well, I gave up on Star Fox for a while (though I still plan to play it), since I came to my parents' and my PS2 with FFXII was here with my brother. So I've been playing FFXII for about two weeks, I'm taking it very slow, but I'm enjoying a lot. I'm not thinking about scores or reviews, I'm just sinking into the game, it's been a while that I haven't felt this way.

On a separate note, instead of buying a next-gen console this Xmas (which would be the Wii), my brother and I decided to spend all our money with a last batch of current-gen games. Of course, with all this money I could have bought my long-yearned PSP, but I'll leave that to some other time (again)...