Exams are over! Woo, life is great, the summer is long, and I'm all out of cash ;_; A job right now is pretty much a priority, not just for the summer but for the rest of who knows when. Yet while studies are over, I'm not through with them yet, I'm possibly planning to take CSC (Canadian Securities Course), which will give me a CSC certification, useful when I'm applying for jobs in the business field. Also plan to take ICDN1 and ICDN2 which make up the CCNA ceritification, Certified Cisco Networking...something? Anyways the CCNA certificate is even MORE uesful than a CSC since IT happens to be my major and getting into a field of networking will be useful.

But enough about certificates.

Unfortunately, while I do want to talk about 7th Dragon some more, my save file has corrupt. Leaving me sad with the fact that this is the 2nd time this has happened to be on a DS game. I won't be restarting it...not for awhile anyways. So now that I finally reorganized myself after the hectic period known as exams, I can finally get down to beating some games!

Dragon Quest V: Hand of the Heavenly Bride (DS)

Just getting prepared for Dragon Quest VI and IX which will come out...sometime this year probably. I've only finished Dragon Quest IV (Read previous blogs to find out more!) and I really enjoyed it. Some say V is better, but I can only wait and see.

I'm only at the beginning but so far it's very enjoyable. It's not that much different from previous Dragon Quest games, other than the fact that you get to capture monsters and make them a part of your team which is pretty neat though I personally like the idea of getting real party members. Getting monsters is neat and all...but I feel at times it just seems lazy. I like real characters, they add to the story a lot more.

Dungeon Fighter Online (PC)

I don't usually play MMOs because of my addiction to MapleStory years ago which 1) Injured my right wrist, 2) It was a waste of time. But Dungeon Fighter is different, it's like an arcade beat em up sty|e game. I like the art sty|e and the combat. It's a lot of fun to play through various dungeons with your friends online and it's really just a nice throwback to the old days of arcade games.

There are five c|asses, Slayer (The normal warrior type), Priest (The support type), Mage (The...well spellcaster), Gunner (The archer type) and Fighter (Close combat type). Each c|ass specializes in something pretty major to game so it's good to party up with a good variety. Each basic c|ass can advance to the next subc|ass once they hit lvl 18, and "Awaken" to the third subc|ass at lvl 48.

I currently have a lvl 20 Striker (The next job advancement of the Fighter), if you want to add me my user is zerobirth and do tell me your user, I still don't get the weird friend roster system they have, it never notifies me about requests >_>

Monster Hunter Tri (Wii)

Good ol Monster Hunter is now on the Wii. Not exactly my favorite series due to the fact that I'm lazy most of the time and give up after awhile. The third in the series has made it's way overseas with FREE ONLINE. That alone has me sold. The thing with Monster Hunter is that it's really fun with friends to co op with and tackle some big monsters.

It's not that much different from the handheld games. You make your character, pick a weapon, and hunt. The story is hardly involved if any, and it's unimportant for the most part. The key thing Monster Hunter needs though, is patience. The patience to grind, the patience to keep at it after failing to capture a particular monster. Patience, patience, patience!

However some things I missed about Monster Hunter 3 was the huge diversity of weapons and whatnot, I miss using dual weapons...but I'll have to make do since graphically...this game looks really good! Especially being on the Wii. Monster Hunter was never a graphics intensive game but it looks very pleasing to the eye.

It doesn't look fantastic in any real way, but it's still good.

It's probably a game many Wii owners need to play. With the whole "Wii has no hardcore games" argument, well here it is, Monster Hunter 3 ready to be played. You won't be disappointed.

Well that was quite short no? I aimed to try to keep it simple this time around, I know some people don't like reading long blogs and mine can get quite hefty

So let's look at some completed games shall we?

Dragon Age: Origins (PC)

Well I'm sure Ron will be pleased that I'm talking about Dragon Age. Anyways, I finally completed Dragon Age, the single player campaign took me around 40+ hours to finish and I have to say. It was amazing, Bioware really know what they're doing with their games so far. Though I prefer Mass Effect over this game, Dragon Age was still fantastic, extremely lengthy single player and a neat story.

The characters, I loved em. Your party will soon grow to be quite numerous but that doesn't degrade their quality in any way. I enjoyed talking to characters such as Morrigan who's always cold but humorous, Alistair who's wittiness makes me laugh always and Leliana with her strange alluring accent and slight naivevity.

The story slightly differs at the start depending on which race you chose. Though I haven't played em all so I can't say what the real differences are but other than the beginning I don't believe it's any different (aside from the background story of your main character of course). The aim of the story is to defeat the darkspawn, strange (Locust reminding) creatures that well, are evil. To defeat them once and for all you destroy the Archdemon.

The game's combat isn't exactly thrilling, it's your simple point and click with a pause feature to allow you to perform more complex strategies with your party. I'm not sure how it worked on the PS3 or 360 but on the PC it was basically like an offline MMO, point and click (with a pause) and skills assigned to hot keys. Very simple.

The game's difficulty is...strange. It seems to go up and down at moments with very easy battles then hard ones then strangely easy. It doesn't seem consistent and it's frustrating to keep attempting the same mission or going back to a previous checkpoint when you didn't save often.

However there were some interesting parts to the game I really enjoyed such as the Mage tower. Though frustrating at first, it's very neat to earn various powers and using them to escape the Fade. Other parts such as the final battle were very well done in an epic manner.

Overall Dragon Age: Origins is a well done WRPG by Bioware, one of the few which have kept my interest long enough (unlike you Bethesda, you and your Fallout 3 and silly Oblivion nonsense). I don't plan on playing Awakenings though, so don't expect to hear my impressions on that any time soon. My friend played through it and it was pretty interesting, new characters and different kind of campaign? Not too long or not too short.

Anyways I look forward to the sequel of Dragon Age would there ever be one.

God of War 3 (PS3)

Ah, the other major March release. God of War has always been a favorite of many, not me though. While I enjoy a good hack and slash now and then, God of War's combat doesn't feel as deep as say Bayonetta. But this isn't what this is about.

God of War follows the story of Kratos and his vengeance agaisnt the gods, for what they did to him. GOW3 opens up with you riding Gaia to the top of Mount Olympus, being pitted against your first God already, Poseidon. God of War 3 does a much better job in my opinion in terms of combat. At first, the combat felt dull, but when things opened up and more skills were unlocked I was really enjoying myself. It doesn't have the same depth or complexity as say Devil May Cry or Bayonetta but it still offers a fun and enjoyable combat.

I blame it mostly on the brutality it shows. They're very satisfying and it's overall a lot of fun to kill the gods. There are a lot of boss fights in this game that'll make you go WOW! The final boss fight though didn't feel as epic as God of War 2's, in my opinion anyways. I liked God of War 2's final boss fight, it was long, hard (strictly in a God of War context) and just satisfying, it left an opening for God of War 3, which I liked.

Overall God of War 3 is fun, satisfying and truly a great game that I underestimated simply because of it's combat. A worthy game for PS3 owners to pick up and try.

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Other games I completed were Disgaea: Afternoon of Darkness and Pokemon SoulSilver, but I'll save those for another day. As well I'm almost done Final Fantasy XIII, final chapter, killed my first set of bosses in there will see if I can finish it before the next blog...

Anyways, that was short enough right? No complaints this time around?