Nostalgia that is… Chrono Trigger DS!
March 3, 2009
Good day to everyone out there,
just to introduce myself, i’m Baron Von Banjo and I work alongside The Cusack as one of the new reviewers for The Zombie Apocalypse. I am looking forward to coming up with many, hopefully constructive, reviews on games i’ve been playing and my thoughts, feelings surrounding them.
Today’s review is going to be about Bratz the movie on the nintendo DS.
Actually….no it’s not…please don’t hurt me ><. Chrono Trigger DS is the gem I am going o be writing about as it has been in my life for a very long time and for it to be reborn again, was fantastic. Now for people who do not enjoy spoilers, please don’t read any more than you already have.
Chrono Trigger, a wonderful game, created by Squaresoft back in 1995 has now been remastered for the Nintendo DS by Square-Enix. It has all the original charm, the wonderful use of sprites and colours, and the soundtrack has been remastered also. Plus they threw in those cool little anime scenes that will happen during certain events in the game that were featured in the PSONE version of the game. The story itself is very creative and different. Pretty much You are playing the game as Crono, a kid who bumps into a girl a festival that happens in their village called the Millenial Faire. The story then Evolves into an epic tale of 7 Adventurers, Robo, Crono, Magus, Lucca, Marle, Frog and Ayla who embark on a journey not only to different locales but to different eras in time to save the world from the ultimate evil parasite known as Lavos.
The gameplay is fantastic, like most turn-based RPGs out there, it does have the battle system as such, but no random encounters, most of the time you will see what you’re fighting before it happens, if you don’t it is always scripted to happen. One cool thing is that they put in Dual and Triple techs. Techs are your “Magic” or “Special” techniques that use mana. And if you have certain people in your party you can learn techniques that use 2 or 3 people to create an ultimate attack or a special healing / restorative technique.
I can go on and on about this game, but I won’t. There is one criticism I have about this game, and is that it does tend to get too easy too quickly. In the Ds version they actually added in Two new dungeons, one called the Dimensional Vortex with higher level enemies who were still no match for me by the time I got there, and the Lost Sanctum which was the same kind of story but required alot of time travelling. New content was fun and took a while to work out by myself, so I did enjoy it.
If you have not played Chrono trigger before and don’t have a DS. Buy both, you won’t regret it as it’s one of the best gaming exerperiences you’ll have hands down 
I give it 9.5 Crazy Polaks out of 10.
That’s right, 9.5. I hope that gives you some gross visual.
Catchya around people, I hope you enjoy my first review!
Baron Von Banjo signing off!
first ever… Zombie Awards
February 13, 2009
Yes, yes I know I have been absent for a long time but let us gloss over that and get to why we are really here…
2008 came and went and although I did not get to comment on as many games as I had planned to it does not mean that I did not play them (or have an opinion on them.) So I give to you the first ever annual zombie apocalypse game awards. Let’s start at the bottom shall we.
And yes I know it’s pretty late for this type of thing.
The Milhouse Award - for eternal disappointment.
Fable 2. Fable 2 is easily my favourite expansion pack for the sims I have ever played, but I have to be honest, I hate the sims. It would seem that all of the extra stuff would have been great if it was extra stuff rather than the game itself. Getting married and getting a job is not an escapist video game, it’s life. I was really looking forward to this one too, beware the hype machine kiddies.
runners up – gta 4 (yeah i said it!), the force unleashed.
The Justin Timberlake Award – just because you sell a lot of copies does not mean you’re good.
Call Of Duty 5. Easy one this, it’s crap, end of fucking story.
runner up – every game on the wii other than de blob.
The Tom Cruise Award – for best/worst cash in.
Quantum Of Solace. Used the cod 4 engine and we are all supposed to wet our self with excitement? Did they think we would just forget that it was a movie license trying to make a quick buck? Please.
runner up – Lost.
The Milla Jovovich Award – for eye candy.
Prince Of Persia. Although there were many games coming to grips with the new tech available and starting to push things like never before there was no other game that was carried by it’s art more than this one. I was captivated by the style before I had even seen the game, but seeing it in motion was something else.
runners up – the world ends with you, mgs 4, valkaryia chronicles.
The Bruce Springsteen Award – for sound.
Dead Space. I tried to close my eyes and play this game but it was just no good, the sound was even scarier without the visuals. Yes I’m a pansy I know.
runner up – madden nfl 09.
The Charles Dickens Award – for story.
Red Alert 3. For pure entertainment value you can’t go past the stupid and frankly retarded tongue in cheek brash of Red Alert. Add in some truly terrible acting and accents and you have an absolute winner.
runners up – fallout 3, beautiful katamari.
The Hunter Award – for character.
Sweetwater – Bad Company. Yeah you may hate him, and sure you wish he would shut the fuck up, but man is he entertaining.
runners up – ackerman – red alert 3, dukov – fallout 3, king of cosmos – beautiful katamari.
The Torrent Award – for dlc.
Rock Band. There has never been a game that has been supported after sale like this. No question.
runner up – little big planet
The Jerry Rice Award – for sports.
MLB The Show 08. Much like Rock Band for music you can just tell that this game was made by a group of people who know, understand and love the subject matter. It is very hard to pick major faults that could ruin your experience if you were a baseball fan.
runner up – nhl 09.
The John McClane Award – for action/adventure.
Metal Gear Solid 4. Yes it is supposed to be a stealth game but that has no category and yes it is mostly cut scene but if I’m honest I loved every retarded second of them, and they were retarded. It was soooo good though, the leap and polish that it was able to produce from the new hardware was beautiful, tear.
runners up – saints row 2, god of war – chains of olympus
The Hannibal Lecter Award – for suspense/horror.
Dead Space. Scared. The. Poop. Out. Of. Me. As a general rule I don’t play much from this genre but this game is very entertaining and you could do a lot worse if a shooter is what you are looking for regardless of genre.
runner up – alone in the dark, just kidding.
The Chow Yun Fat Award – for shooting shit.
Far Cry 2. There is a large amount of time where you will be walking or driving around and not shooting anything but those bits are super fun as well. Setting stuff on fire is rad, but only in video games kids.
runners up – bad company, dead space.
The Peter Brock Award – for go real fast.
Racedriver Grid. Nowhere near as popular on the shelves as it should have been, this game is pure adrenalin with polish and fun thrown in for as close to perfect results as i have seen from a team that consistently does great work in this genre. Cant wait for Dirt 2.
runner up – burnout paradise.
The Sephiroth Award – for rpg.
Fallout 3. Most rpg games this year fell into the underachiever or underwhelming basket with this game standing on a hill of rubble that probably used to be your house waving it’s flag saying hey look at me we don’t all suck. It made it a fairly easy choice with only one other contender.
runner up – the world ends with you.
The Little Brother Award – for ‘can I play too?’
Instead of a winner and a runner up in this category there will be 2 winners on for online multiplayer and one for in the flesh. Both are awesome and both are absolutely worth purchasing. Multiplayer rules.
Online – Left 4 Dead. Zombies, very fitting no?
Flesh – Rock Band/Rock Band 2.
The Apocalyptic Zombie Award – for game of the year.
Fallout 3. This was probably the easiest category to figure, despite the fact that it should have been the hardest. Simply put I can not remember ever having as much fun with a video game as I do with this one. It has it’s issues sure but with all of the awesome that surrounds them it is easy to look beyond.
runners up – little big planet, left 4 dead.
Think I got it wrong, let me know.
while i was gone…
October 22, 2008
So yes I have absent for the site for a while, if any one actually cares that there has been nothing to read here then I am sorry for my lackof posts but you’ll just have to suck it up and act like a man. To make a boring story short I have been working hard and have been suffering from tired and whiney. With christmas on the way it will probably only get worse but hopefully I can put in a better effort and get things happening on a regular basis again.
Just some news for those who don’t already know the Fable 2 street date was broken, but the game did not ship fully capable with multiplayer, this did however come in an update late last night. There will be a full review soon.
Little Big Planet has been recalled by Sony and will not be on sale on Thursday the 23rd of October. There was apparently some background music that featured passages from the Islamic holy book, fearing offense Sony have pulled it and it will be remastered. The game will hopefully be out on November 7.
And now new games in brief
Mercenaries 2
Super fun… for about 10 minutes. Good mutiplayer but lacking variety and something else, oh yeah, variety. Your characters four sayings will definitely start to piss you off somewhere around the first mission, Great fun if all you really want to do is to run around, steal some tanks and blown some shit up! Explosions are fun though so it’s hard to fault the designers logic.
Ster Wars: The Force Unleashed
This could possibly be the game that I am the most dissappointed in for a while. It’s my own fault really, I got caught up in the hype machine and started believing. The story is pretty good to be fair but the game as a whole is just not as good or fulfilling as we were led to believe. There will be downloadable content that adds extra missions though so maybe that will add enough to make it worth it in the end.
Lego Batman
Batman is rad. Lego is rad. I’m not really sure if I need to put anything else in there but I guess I should. The story is ot as fun as the previous outings because instead of using something we have some nostalgia for they went on thier own in order to avoid complaints about which version the chose I guess. So the cut scenes are not as fun as the nostalgia fuelled Indy or original trilogy. The combat is much better and more fun than that of the indy iteration though so that makes Lego Batman a clear win in my books.
Brothers In Arms: Hells Highway
I’m a big fan of tactical, in any form but especially when it comes to shooters. While not being perfect I really liked BIA, it’s not perfect by any means and it’s not the best shooter out there but it is fun and it will make you think.
NHL 09
NHL 09 is great, my plan was to wait until we saw a copy of 2k9 and then I was going to do a comparison but so far I have not seen one so… The big addition this year is online, basically it’s a hockey mmo. Other than that it’s filled with typical EA Sports polish and shine. The option to take a photo in replay mode and then turn that into a trading card of yourself is something I just love to death.
Pure
Very pretty with a lot of style, if you liked mx vs atv ( especially the atv part ) then you will like this a lot. The controls and difficulty are both good and the tracks are fun so if you like racing and you want off road then you should probably give it a go.
casual gamer? part 2
September 26, 2008
Yes, this is indeed a cop out, I am fully aware of it, but given the amount of time i left myself ( I guess I would rather be lame than post on a saturday thus ruining my pledge to post every friday ) and the comment left on my last top 5 list i have decided to post the set list for Rock Band 2. Also i just put down an order for one for the ps3 so that provides a little excitement for me.
1. AC/DC – “Let There Be Rock” – 1970s
2. AFI – “Girl’s Gone Grey” – 2000’s
3. Alanis Morissette – “You Oughta Know” – 1990’s
4. Alice in Chains – “Man in the Box” – 1990’s
5. Allman Brothers – “Ramblin’ Man” – 1970’s
6. Avenged Sevenfold – “Almost Easy” – 2000’s
7. Bad Company – “Shooting Star” – 1970’s
8. Beastie Boys – “So Whatcha Want” – 1990’s
9. Beck – “E-Pro” – 2000’s
10. Bikini Kill – “Rebel Girl” – 1990’s
11. Billy Idol – “White Wedding Pt. I” – 1980’s
12. Blondie – “One Way or Another” – 1970’s
13. Bob Dylan – “Tangled Up in Blue” – 1970’s
14. Bon Jovi – “Livin’ on a Prayer” – 1980’s
15. Cheap Trick – “Hello There” – 1970’s
16. Devo – “Uncontrollable Urge” – 1980’s
17. Dinosaur Jr. – “Feel the Pain” – 1990’s
18. Disturbed – “Down with the Sickness” – 2000’s
19. Dream Theater – “Panic Attack” – 2000’s
20. Duran Duran – “Hungry Like the Wolf” – 1980’s
21. Elvis Costello – “Pump It Up” – 1970’s
22. Fleetwood Mac – “Go Your Own Way” – 1970’s
23. Foo Fighters – “Everlong” – 1990’s
24. Guns N’ Roses – “Shackler’s Revenge” – 2000’s
25. Interpol – “PDA” – 2000’s
26. Jane’s Addiction – “Mountain Song” – 1980’s
27. Jethro Tull – “Aqualung” – 1970’s
28. Jimmy Eat World – “The Middle” – 2000’s
29. Joan Jett – “Bad Reputation” – 1980’s
30. Journey – “Anyway You Want It” – 1970’s
31. Judas Priest – “Painkiller” – 1990’s
32. Kansas – “Carry On Wayward Son” – 1970’s
33. L7 – “Pretend We’re Dead” – 1990’s
34. Lacuna Coil – “Our Truth” – 2000’s
35. Linkin Park – “One Step Closer” – 2000’s
36. Lit – “My Own Worst Enemy” – 1990’s
37. Lush – “De-Luxe” – 1990’s
38. Mastodon – “Colony of Birchmen” – 2000’s
39. Megadeth – “Peace Sells” – 1980’s
40. Metallica – “Battery” – 1980’s
41. Mighty Mighty Bosstones – “Where’d You Go” – 1990’s
42. Modest Mouse- “Float On” – 2000’s
43. Motorhead – “Ace of Spades” – 1980’s
44. Nirvana – “Drain You” – 1990’s
45. Norman Greenbaum – “Spirit in the Sky” – 1960’s
46. Panic at the Disco – “Nine in the Afternoon” – 2000’s
47. Paramore – “That’s What You Get” – 2000’s
48. Pearl Jam – “Alive” – 1990’s
49. Presidents of the USA – “Lump” – 1990’s
50. Rage Against the Machine – “Testify” – 1990’s
51. Ratt – “Round & Round” – 1980’s
52. Red Hot Chili Peppers – “Give it Away” – 1990’s
53. Rise Against – “Give it All” – 2000’s
54. Rush – “The Trees” – 1970’s
55. Silversun Pickups – “Lazy Eye” – 2000’s
56. Smashing Pumpkins – “Today” – 1990’s
57. Social Distortion – “I Was Wrong” – 1990’s
58. Sonic Youth – “Teenage Riot” – 1980’s
59. Soundgarden – “Spoonman” – 1990’s
60. Squeeze – “Cool for Cats” – 1970’s
61. Steely Dan – “Bodhitsattva” – 1970’s
62. Steve Miller Band – “Rock’n Me” – 1970’s
63. Survivor – “Eye of the Tiger” – 1980’s
64. System of a Down – “Chop Suey” – 2000’s
65. Talking Heads – “Psycho Killer” – 1970’s
66. Tenacious D – “Master Exploder” – 2000’s
67. Testament – “Souls of Black” – 1990’s
68. The Donnas – “New Kid in School” – 2000’s
69. The Go-Go’s – “We Got the Beat” – 1980’s
70. The Grateful Dead – “Alabama Getaway” – 1980’s
71. The Guess Who – “American Woman” – 1970’s
72. The Muffs – “Kids in America” – 1990’s
73. The Offspring – “Come Out & Play (Keep ‘em Separated)” – 1990’s
74. The Replacements – “Alex Chilton” – 1980’s
75. The Who – “Pinball Wizard” – 1960’s
Bonus Tracks
76. Abnormality – “Visions” – 2000’s
77. Anarchy Club – “Get Clean” – 2000’s
78. Bang Camaro – “Night Lies” – 2000’s
79. Breaking Wheel – “Shoulder to the Plow” – 2000’s
80. The Libyans – “Neighborhood” – 2000’s
81. The Main Drag – “A Jagged Gorgeous Winter” – 2000’s
82. Speck – “Conventional Lover” – 2000’s
83. The Sterns – “Supreme Girl” – 2000’s
84. That Handsome Devil – “Rob the Prez-O-Dent” – 2000’s
As you can see The Middle by Jimmy Eat World is on there making the last comment completely pointless and hypocritical, p-sha! Really tough I quite like Jimmy Eat World and that is one of the songs I am looking forward to playing on either game.
Anyway my top 5 songs to be excited about for Rock Band 2 are…
5. Pump It Up – Elvis Costello
Elvis Costello is one of those great musicians who is ignored or forgotten by most of the mainstream and I’m really glad that the team at Harmonix are showing him some much deserved love. He has so many great songs that they could have gone for but this one really does involve the whole band so it’s a great choice.
4. Pinball Wizard – The Who
I fucking love The Who and to be honest even I think this is a stupid and silly song but man, it’s just so damn fun. ‘Cos that deaf, dumb and blind kid sure plays a mean pinball…
3. Psycho Killer – Talking Heads
My dad got me into Talking Heads when I was real young, too young to really know what the hell was going on but this song is one of the earliest memories I have of this band. Super psyched to see it there because in case you are not already aware this band is brilliant with a capital ILL!
2. PDA – Interpol
If you read the last top 5 list then you should already be well aware of how excited I was at the prospect of playing Interpol, so it’s no surprise that they feature high again here. No more explanation required… no really it’s ok move on to the next one…
1. So What’cha Want – Beastie Boys
This is my favourite song, on my favourite album, by my favourite band of all time. It simply has to be number one, no question.
Just quickly though there are 2 major additions that I did not include in my top 5 ( and believe me it was hard to keep them out ) that are going to make a huge difference to real music fans beyond the casual gamer audience and that is Bob Dylan and AC/DC. The contribution of these 2 in the music world has been massive and there inclusion here is like some crazy stupid acknowledgement like a hall of fame or some such and they both really deserve it, now it’s up to you to not fuck their songs up, good luck.
a deep longing – Castle Crashers
September 25, 2008
Do you long for the good old days? Side scrolling 2 dimensional beat’em ups? If your answer was yes then you are one of millions who just can’t move on from 1986 and frankly if every one of them was as fun and as stylish as Castle Crashers then I’d be right there with you.
The basic premise of Castle Crashers is very simple and very stereotypical, you walk from left to right beating up anyone who gets in your way in order to save the princesses. It’s not really a big diversion from anything that comes before it as far as game innovations go but that’s not what it’s about anyway. Castle Crashers has style up the wazoo and a decent amount of wit to go with it, just as long as you like your humor dark and silly. The music is good but it is the art style that is the real winner here, with a set of simple yet beautifully stylised characters and bosses that win from a design point of view in much the same way it did for Professor Layton. The levels are again simple but varied enough to be more different from one another than Too Human managed.
There is a point where it does differ from the conventional 2d beater and that is in it’s rpg lite level up/character customisation and the ability to unlock characters. It’s not epic but it’s a nice, welcome touch that allows for some variation in style and special attacks. There is no option to customise the physical representation of your character beyond choosing a weapon but with the great character design you don’t really need to anyway.
If there is anything negative to say about the game it is that with the 2.5d playing field it can get a little frustrating when you think you are lined up with an enemy but you’re really not. You can mash your buttons and swing your sword/fish like hell but if you are out by a pixel you won’t hit shit. Also some of the bosses are so big that they obscure the screen causing you to lose track of your guy and that can be a serious pain in the ass, especially in critical health situations.
All in all though it is a seriously well designed and pretty game that has awesome levels of fun. The multiplayer is even better and offers itself local and over xbox live which not everyone remembers to do so that’s rad too. Umm you should totally buy it.
I give it 1200 microsoft points out of a 1500 microsoft points card.
Seriously though, I know there are some great games available in stores right now but some of the content on the xbox live arcade and playstation network are awesome and just as deserving of your hard earned.
casual gamer?
September 19, 2008
So Friday is here again and that means it’s top 5 time again, so I decided that I would make it coincide with a little bit of news. The Guitar Hero World Tour song list has been announced, shazam!
* 311 – “Beautiful Disaster”
* 30 Seconds To Mars – “The Kill”
* Airbourne – “Too Much Too Young”
* The Allman Brothers Band – “Ramblin’ Man”
* Anouk – “Good God”
* The Answer – “Never Too Late”
* At The Drive-In – “One Armed Scissor”
* Beastie Boys – “No Sleep Till Brooklyn”
* Beatsteaks – “Hail to the Freaks”
* Billy Idol – “Rebel Yell”
* Black Label Society – “Stillborn”
* Black Rebel Motorcycle Club – “Weapon of Choice”
* blink-182 – “Dammit”
* Blondie – “One Way or Another”
* Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band – “Hollywood Nights”
* Bon Jovi – “Livin’ On A Prayer”
* Bullet For My Valentine – “Scream Aim Fire”
* Coldplay – “Shiver”
* Creedence Clearwater Revival – “Up Around The Bend”
* The Cult – “Love Removal Machine”
* Dinosaur Jr. – “Feel The Pain”
* The Doors – “Love Me Two Times”
* Dream Theatre – “Pull Me Under”
* The Eagles – “Hotel California”
* The Enemy – “Aggro”
* Filter – “Hey Man, Nice Shot”
* Fleetwood Mac – “Go Your Own Way”
* Foo Fighters – “Everlong”
* The Guess Who – “American Woman”
* Hush Puppies – “You’re Gonna Say Yeah!”
* Interpol – “Obstacle 1″
* Jane’s Addiction – “Mountain Song”
* Jimi Hendrix – “Purple Haze (Live)”
* Jimi Hendrix – “The Wind Cries Mary”
* Jimmy Eat World – “The Middle”
* Joe Satriani – “Satch Boogie”
* Kent – “Vinternoll2″
* Korn – “Freak On A Leash”
* Lacuna Coil – “Our Truth”
* Lenny Kravitz – “Are You Gonna Go My Way”
* Linkin Park – “What I’ve Done”
* The Living End – “Prisoner of Society”
* Los Lobos – “La Bamba”
* Lost Prophets – “Rooftops (A Liberation Broadcast)”
* Lynyrd Skynyrd – “Sweet Home Alabama (Live)”
* Mars Volta – “L’Via L’Viaquez”
* MC5’s Wayne Kramer – “Kick Out The Jams”
* Metallica – “Trapped Under Ice”
* Michael Jackson – “Beat It”
* Modest Mouse – “Float On”
* Motörhead – “Overkill”
* Muse – “Assassin”
* Negramaro – “Nuvole e Lenzuola”
* Nirvana – “About a Girl (Unplugged)”
* No Doubt – “Spiderwebs”
* NOFX – “Soul Doubt”
* Oasis – “Some Might Say”
* Ozzy Osbourne – “Crazy Train”
* Ozzy Osbourne – “Mr. Crowley”
* Paramore – “Misery Business”
* Pat Benatar – “Heartbreaker”
* R.E.M. – “The One I Love”
* Radio Futura – “Escuela De Calor”
* Rise Against – “Re-Education Through Labor”
* Sex Pistols – “Pretty Vacant”
* Silversun Pickups – “Lazy Eye”
* Smashing Pumpkins – “Today”
* Steely Dan – “Do It Again”
* Steve Miller Band – “The Joker”
* Sting – “Demolition Man (Live)”
* The Stone Roses – “Love Spreads”
* Stuck In The Sound – “Toy Boy”
* Sublime – “Santeria”
* Survivor – “Eye of the Tiger”
* System of a Down – “B.Y.O.B.”
* Ted Nugent – “Stranglehold”
* Ted Nugent’s Original Guitar Duel Recording
* Tokio Hotel – “Monsoon”
* Tool – “Parabola”
* Tool – “Schism”
* Tool – “Vicarious”
* Trust – “Antisocial”
* Van Halen – “Hot For Teacher”
* Willie Nelson – “On The Road Again”
* Wings – “Band on the Run”
* Zakk Wylde’s Original Guitar Duel Recording
As we already have Rock Band ( woo import ) the idea of playing as a band is not new to either of us but new songs are super exciting! So with out wasting any more time and space my top 5 reasons to be excited about a new Guitar hero.
5. The wind cries mary – Jimi Hendrix
I realise it is a money issue but let’s face it the absence of Jimi from Guitar hero until this point is just bat shit fucking crazy and this song is just an absolute work of art. Everyone else will be excited about Purple haze but for me it’s all about Mary.
4. One way or another – Blondie
Super fun song which is really more of a karaoke jam than a whole band track but as someone who loves a bit of mic action it’s right up my alley.
3. No sleep till brooklyn – Beastie boys
The Beastie boys are my favourite band of all time ever and the idea of getting my mits on some old school beasties action is about as good as it can get… now if they can only get some Bruce Springsteen in there then I may just wet my pants.
2. Float on – Modest mouse
This song rocks! For reals! There are certain songs that just make you happy and this is a powerful one that should be fun for all four members of “the band” and if you have not played Rock Band let me just say that when you all fire at the same time it is electric.
1. Obstacle 1 – Interpol
This just in, Interpol are awesome. If they decide to release Interpol as DLC I will buy every single song at any price that is asked of me. It is the single most exciting thing about Guitar hero world tour as far as I am concerned, ’nuff said.
What’s your top 5?
peace out.
infini undisc – Infinite Undiscovery
September 18, 2008
Considering the lack of interest the Japanese have in the 360 it seems odd that most of the jrpg content available for the next gen is all on the 360. Some of it, Infinite Undiscovery included, is exclusive. Perhaps it is due to the ease of programming for the box or perhaps it is because they are trying to expose the jrpg to the western audience or maybe, just maybe someone at microsoft is throwing a fuckton of money at them… i don’t know.
What I do know is that if you happen to be a fan of the jrpg and Square Enix ( or more acurately Tri-ace ) in particular then this game probably already has your interest and if you are not then I’m afraid there is not going to be much that will convince you that this is your genre, beyond real time combat.
First impressions of Infinite Undiscovery are impressive, very impressive. Make sure that you watch the opening cinema instead of skipping, it won’t really give you much insight into the characters or the story but DAMN is it pretty to look at. Character design is also something I was very impressed with, with character art style being somewhere between Kingdom Hearts and Final Fantasy VIII which is pretty cool as far as I’m concerned anyways. The environments are good but not great with lots of colour but lacking a bit in detail and polish outdoors. The only other real problem I have is with the sound, music is great as you would expect from these guys but the voice acting is uneven and a bit unnerving. Some characters are portrayed with a subtle beauty which is really quite special while others are given to a ridiculous amount of over acting and absurd dialogue. At other times during smaller cut scenes there will be no voice at all with dialogue boxes doing all the work. It’s not a deal breaker but it is unbalanced, and combined with the characters penchant for shouting out the name of the special move they are doing it’s a little annoying.
In game you play Capell a simple, but not dumb, travelling musician who has all of the androgeny of any great Square Enix main man ( altough his hair is strangely realistic and his sword is well within the realm of scale to a human ) who is mistaken for a rebel leader and thrown in jail. He is then rescued by Aya, a rebel ( yell ) girl, and fairly obvious love intrest, who also mistakes him for her leader Sigmund. After much whining he/you are persuaded to join up with the rebels and fight the good fight, many people continue to confuse you with Sigmund and it is clear that this is going to play a part for a while. As for the rest of the story it’s all very familiar territory, major evil trying to control the planet, rebel uprising, blah blah blah. There is some variety in the side mission stories but they don’t impact the greater story line enough to make a difference to the familiar. It’s either a case of lack of originality or a company who is afraid of losing it’s core audience by changing too much, similar to a tv soap maybe?
As for gameplay there are two major areas as far as jrpg fans are concerned so I will mention them now combat is as I said it is real time which many fans will cheer and it provides a hack and slash element which will allow for some crossover. I personally am a fan of turn based combat when it comes to party management because even though the other party members do a good job of looking after themselves in combat when you need to use the connect function to access one of your teams special powers it can get a bit frustrating. The other aspect is the world map battles, there are no random battles, all battles are represented by people or animals on the map and will regenerate after exploration out view so it will not effect your grinding if that is what you are after. The missions are often not explained and almost all of your movement is on foot so be prepared for exploration and some times where you just don’t really know what you are supposed to do despite a very linear feel. The menu is capable of being very deep with different party combinations and abilities in abundance but where the combat is going to allow access for new kids the menu will not with constant fiddling required for your upgrading and equipping needs.
As a general rule though I like it a lot and if you are the type to dabble in the jrpg it is absolutely worth your time and money, if not you may want to try something a little bit more western to get your feet wet first.
I give it 7 androgenous leading men out of stereotype.
the first of many?
September 12, 2008
I have decided that I want to feature a weekly top five list in a manner not unlike Paul Flemming/Rob Gordon if you will. And as I have failed to update in the last week I feel it is up to me to lie/excuse myself in order to explain the absence and also just to get something up there for people to read in case they accidentally stumble onto the site. so here is the first top 5.
TOP 5 THINGS FILLING MY TIME AND HEAD, THUS STOPPING ME FROM POSTING
5. The New York Mets
I know it’s going to look a little out of place here but the truth is I am a huge sports nerd, like massive. I am a geek in general and almost everything I do is done in a geek manner including sports. Baseball is not big here in Australia but if you build it he will come. There are only 13 games left in the regular season and my beloved Mets have a 3 1/2 game lead over the Phillies and i spend most days hoping they don’t fuck it all up and throw it away like they did last season.
4. Veronica Mars
Season 2 was just released here on dvd so we have been watching it all the way from beginning to end and I love every single second of it That it was taken off of tv is an absolute travisty, for reals.
3. Fable 2 – Pub Games
Fable was one of the great games of the last console generation, perhaps even in the running for one of my favourites of all time ever. It is with little surprise then that I inform you that I am struggling to contain my excitement as to the impending release of Fable 2 – Super Extra Fable. The small concession we have been given thus far is Pub Games, a Fable 2 casino of sorts that allows you to earn or owe money for the upcoming. It is very addictive and I am starting to see how people develop gambling problems… so far I’m up but only by a little bit.
2. Infinite Undiscovery
I have spent a bit of my free time giving the latest from Square Enix a bash. I won’t bother to tell you any of the details now but you can expect a full review in the next couple of days.
1. Work
I know it sounds lame but work has been kicking our asses a little bit of late, not to the point of us having any problems or anything but the load has been great and we are both very tired from carrying it.
Hopefully if I can keep up I will deliver a new top 5 every Friday, (with better subjects than this one) if you have any topic you would like covered just let me know.
Peace out bitches.
i hope you like gray – Too Human
September 3, 2008
Have you ever played a game where all you can think of are the things that make it shit, but you continue to play it anyway? You see my problem is I’m not sure if the game is bad or if I have just fallen victim to the rest of the hype machine’s musings on the topic. The strange fact of the matter is Too Human is filled with short commings and failures, but somehow I’m still having fun. It’s almost as if they failed at failing.
First things first, I have only played the first four hours of the game so perhaps I have not yet gotten to the point where everything starts to feel the same as many have reported. I will however say that so far there seems to be very little in the way of story and the bits that they do have are far from each other perhaps out of fear that they will not play well together. The parents having sent them to seperate corners of the room where they will be unable to fight with each other. By the time you unlock the next part of the story the last part was so short and so long ago that you don’t really remember it and it causes it to feel more tacked on than it was probably supposed to. You play as Baldur a god or soon to be god (note lower case g, no need to upset anyone here it’s just a video game) who you can dress up in many different combinations of armour to suit your protection needs. Don’t worry about trying to suit your fashion needs as everything you put on him will look stupid anyway, plus you will need to be ready to replace it with something newer and shinier soon.
The story or at least it’s themes start off relatively strong, the fusion of the Norse mythology and the steam punk vibe go together surprisingly well and they have tried hard to make sure it works on both levels. Unfortunately this only lasts a short while and it soon descends into it’s own sense of lazy and unimaginative bleak gray mess.
*cough* Much like the environments *cough* excuse me.
It was definetly one of the elements which dissapointed me, not because i picked this title up for it but because of the promising start and the potential for cool shit in general.
Gameplay largely consists of making your Baldur run around like a moron. You smash the right stick around in circles trying to hit someone and hoping that the frankly asscock camera will accidentally focus on the enemy that causes you the biggest threat. It never does of course it just faces one of the many gray walls and points at you laughing as you die. Again!
While we are at the dying, I’m not sure if you are aware of it but when you die, and you will, there is a cut scene where a valkyrie descends from the cieling bathed in a yellow (not gray) glow, scoops you up in to her arms and then takes you to Valhalla. Yes i know it is a very long sentence but it was the best way for me to illustrate to you how long this takes, oh and it’s not skippable, so suck it up!
There are also ‘puzzles’ or at least what they imagine puzzles to be. The problem here is that they guide you down the path to the ‘puzzle’ without giving you any chance for exploration and the give you a ‘puzzle’ where you have the amazing ability to solve it by using the one button that actually does anything. The puzzle also glows so you don’t get too confused. The puzzles are in there for one good reason they thought they needed to break up the battles for fear that they would become monotonous and it might have worked if someone had bothered to work out any actual puzzles, the way they are is just a stupid and pointless waste of the players time.
I suppose I should talk at some point about the production values of the piece. The good news is the sound is pretty good with a suitable score that does not try to over power the rest of the presentation and solid voice acting that could have been great if the script wasn’t so silly. The menu system is not so good though which is not a usually a big problem but you do spend quite a chunk of time in the menu playing with your character and they feel a bit like they were made by the same person in charge of the camera. Nice work again Mr Asscock.
The characters look good but not great which is as nice as i could be when you consider some of the other pretty characters you could be looking at in other games, even older ones. The real problem with the presentation though is the environments, they all look the same each painted in a different, ( but only slightly,) shade of gray and i think a lot of the criticism pointed at this game has to come down to one simple thought; despite this game being in development for a very long time it appears that there were not enough people involved who had imagination.
I will leave you with this… despite all of the things that i have mentioned here I still had fun while I was playing it and I will probably play it some more. I have not tried the multi-player aspect and it is my understanding that it makes it even more fun, but still just as gray.
I give it 439 shades of gray out of black.
A Love Letter – Prince Of Persia Trilogy
September 1, 2008
Prince of Persia Trilogy is a re-imagining of the classic pc game Prince of Persia oddly enough. Its a bit old in the tooth now days but its awesomeness lives on, contained in the erection I have for it. It is a fantastic game that blends gaming genres. Part 3d plat-former part puzzle game part button masher with a heavy dose of bullet time. The big deal about POP was the ability to control time. You can pause time rewind it slow it down and you have to use your time powers to solve the movement puzzles. It comes in super handy when you fuck up jump and fall to your death simply rewind time and your good as gold.
The game play is not the only star in this explosion of greatness. The story and voice acting are top notch and had me sucked in from the get go. The biggest weakness is the game has to be the combat its all a bit to mashy and random to be really fulfilling. The old annoying trick of getting knocked over by an enemy you cant even see gets old real fast. They tried to fix the combat in the subsequent games it does get better but its still not great.
Pop is one of those games where is is more than just entertainment its an experience. I played all of them with great enthusiasm and loved every minute of it…well not every minute there were a few frustrated moment due to the combat but you get my drift.
I give it 29 kilos of Camembert out of Brie.
Now if I could only get The Cusack to play it.
