From the creators of Newgrounds comes another classic game. In this game you play a knight who seems to be retrieving some sort of crystal that was stolen from your king. This game plays like old time classics like Guantlet Legends, Golden Axe, Final Fight, etc with very cartoony and crude looking graphics.
The graphics comment is not meant to be a slight against the game. I actually love the graphics. I'll be one of the first people to say that good graphics don't make a good game (i.e. Final Fantasy VIII or X). What does make a good game is great game play, and this game has it.
The only thing I don't like about this game is the hit detection. While this is a 3-D game, the hit detection is very 2-D. If you're not aligned perfectly with the enemy, you won't hit them, even though you're swinging a weapon the size of yourself. This is especially evident on the first boss that I came across. He takes up half the screen, but unless I was lined up properly, I couldn't touch him.
Even with the poor hit detection, it doesn't take away from the game. It's a quirk that you learn early and adapt to. It reminds me a lot of Alien Hominid (mainly because it's made by the same guys) and I absolutly loved that game. If you have Xbox Live, download this game, you won't be sorry. As soon as I get the money in my budget, I'm getting the full game.
Monday, November 17, 2008
Monday, November 10, 2008
Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles My Life as a King
I've decided that I have way too many Xbox 360 demos in here, so I decided to add something from the Wii. FFCC:MLaaK is a game by Square Enix released in WiiWare on the Nintendo Wii. In this game, you play a young king trying to rebuild your homeland. You are accompanied by your loyal servants Hugh Yurg and Chime.
You are travelling, looking for a new place to start your kingdom when you come across a blank slate with a gianormous crystal in the middle of it. The crystal bestows upon you the magic of Architek, which allows you to create buildings from your memories of the old kingdom. When you build houses, it automagically adds people into them.
To build these buildings, you need something called Elementite. To gather it, you must commission the adventurers that live in these buildings. To commision adventurers, you need to pay them. To pay them, you need to collect taxes from your citizens. It's a vicious cycle. You start off with three houses, which is more than enough to pay three adventurers and start off your kingdom.
As you progress, you're able to build more buildings and hire more adventurers. You're also able to upgrade your kingdom through morale spheres. You gain these by talking to your subjects and raising their morale. With each one, you gain more stuffs.
This game plays one part Final Fantasy, two parts Sim City, five parts fun. It's a great game that's bound to keep you entertained for hours. I think it's well worth the 1000 Wii points it costs to download.
You are travelling, looking for a new place to start your kingdom when you come across a blank slate with a gianormous crystal in the middle of it. The crystal bestows upon you the magic of Architek, which allows you to create buildings from your memories of the old kingdom. When you build houses, it automagically adds people into them.
To build these buildings, you need something called Elementite. To gather it, you must commission the adventurers that live in these buildings. To commision adventurers, you need to pay them. To pay them, you need to collect taxes from your citizens. It's a vicious cycle. You start off with three houses, which is more than enough to pay three adventurers and start off your kingdom.
As you progress, you're able to build more buildings and hire more adventurers. You're also able to upgrade your kingdom through morale spheres. You gain these by talking to your subjects and raising their morale. With each one, you gain more stuffs.
This game plays one part Final Fantasy, two parts Sim City, five parts fun. It's a great game that's bound to keep you entertained for hours. I think it's well worth the 1000 Wii points it costs to download.
Monday, November 03, 2008
Final Fantasy Update
I think it's about time that I update my status. Yep, that makes job number 8 at 75, number 7 for a Maat's cap. Now to buffer Warrior to 10k, take the remaining jobs to 37, and fully merit what I do have and I think I can take Smn to 75 next!
Monday, October 27, 2008
Fracture Demo
Finally, a shooter demo on the Xbox that isn't first person. Fracture seems to take place sometime in the future. You're some sort of super soldier sent into Alcatraz to make some sort of pickup. While you're there, you get to play with some nifty weapons and gadgets that just seem to be lying around. After you're done playing, you're told to apprehend some guy. This is where the fun(?) begins.
Remember those nifty weapons and gadgets I previously mentioned? Yea, you put those to the test. Now you get to see if you actually paid any attention to the tutorial. You run through some ruined buildings with a bunch of people shooting at you, trying to stop the bad guy.
In the end, the bad guy seems to get away, and the demo ends. This is more of a teaser than a demo. Like Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, it is just there to fill a five minute void in your life. It was kind of hard to get a feel for the game with this demo. With Star Wars, I thought I had a pretty good feel of the game. This just felt clunky. I don't know if it's because I've been playing Final Fantasy XI all day, but it just didn't feel right.
I may check this out again in the future, but I don't know. It didn't really get my interest. At least with the Star Wars and Battlefield Bad Company, you got an idea for the story. With this, it's like, whoopidy doo! Between your small tutorial, and the actual fighting, you don't really get an idea of why you're there in the first place. If the story of the game is actually this flakey, I can't recommend it.
Remember those nifty weapons and gadgets I previously mentioned? Yea, you put those to the test. Now you get to see if you actually paid any attention to the tutorial. You run through some ruined buildings with a bunch of people shooting at you, trying to stop the bad guy.
In the end, the bad guy seems to get away, and the demo ends. This is more of a teaser than a demo. Like Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, it is just there to fill a five minute void in your life. It was kind of hard to get a feel for the game with this demo. With Star Wars, I thought I had a pretty good feel of the game. This just felt clunky. I don't know if it's because I've been playing Final Fantasy XI all day, but it just didn't feel right.
I may check this out again in the future, but I don't know. It didn't really get my interest. At least with the Star Wars and Battlefield Bad Company, you got an idea for the story. With this, it's like, whoopidy doo! Between your small tutorial, and the actual fighting, you don't really get an idea of why you're there in the first place. If the story of the game is actually this flakey, I can't recommend it.
Monday, October 20, 2008
Final Fantasy Tactics Advance
This game shares a lot with the original Final Fantasy Tactics on Playstation. It is a turn based tactics style game on a map grid. It features several jobs, each with their own abilities. You can mix and match abilities (to an extent). Both games take place in the land of Ivalice. That's where the similarities start to fade.
Tactics had ninteen different jobs to choose from for your characters, but only one race to choose from. Tactics Advance has added four new races to choose from. Each of the five races has a limited amount of jobs they can choose. There is a total of 42 race/job combinations in the game. I liked how they added a lot more jobs, but I didn't like how they made the jobs race specific. I think if you're going to add more races and jobs, you should allow all races to learn all jobs. I can see why they made them race specific (balancing reasons), but I'd like the added challenge of turning a magic using race into a melee character. Not really a strike against the game, but more of me being a little anal and liking a lot of choice when I'm given it.
Another difference from the original is that the tone is much different. The original Tactics was about betrayal, corruption of the nobles, corruption of the church, fighting for what's right. It was very serious, and the decisions you made helped shape the history of Ivalice. In TA, it has become more childish (which is apparently from the T rating on FFT, and the E rating on FFTA).
In Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, you start off as the new kid in St. Ivalice. To get aquainted with the battle system, the first thing you do is have a snowball fight with other kids in your class. During the course of the fight, you're introduced to two other main (unplayable) characters, Mewt and Ritz.
Things turn out bad, people make fun of you, people make fun of Mewt, people make fun of Ritz. You're a real popular bunch. The three of you decide to hang out at your house with your sick brother. Mewt brings over some magical book that he bought on the way over. Little did the four amigos know, but things were about to change.
You find yourself in some weird place. You have lizard men, huffalump men, cat girls, and cute little bear looking things with a pom pom on their head running around. You find out you're in some place called Ivalice. You hook up with a nice moogle who helps you start a clan and he shows you the ways of the land. You've already gotten your nice little tutorial from the snowball fight, now you get to play for real.
The game play is exactly the same as it was in the original Tactics. Turn based movement upon a grid. There's a few tweaks done to the turns (such as you can actually take back moves if you find out you're too far away to land a spell or ability), but the game remains basically the same. The one huge difference is that of the laws.
Judges can either be your friend, or your enemy. Every battle (except in the lawless areas called Jagds) has a Judge. These guys enforce the law. I don't have the instruction booklet, and I"ll be honest, I didn't pay much attention when the explained the Judge thing, but I think this is how they work. If break a law, you get a yellow card. A yellow card is basically a warning, and you're fined when the battle is over. If you kill someone with that ability, you're given a red card, which instantly sends you to jail. I'm not entirely sure if that's how it worked, but I liked to keep my parties a little varied to make sure I didn't break any laws.
You might be thinking, these laws are a bunch of crap! I want the lawlessness that was present in Tactics! At first, I thought the same thing. When I realized that any character that had died in the battle is automagically raised at the end of the battle as long as you're not in a Jagd, I changed my mind. I don't have to worry about wasting Phoenix downs on dead characters. I don't have to worry about having a White Mage (or someone with Whm abilities) in the party at all times with Raise. I just leave them dead. Where do I sign up!
At first there's one law in place. You cause some trouble, get the judges on your back, they add another law, cause more trouble, get another law. If you balance out your party, this will never become a problem. I recommend at least one of every race, and levelling at least two of each race. Maybe alternate them between battles. I levelled basically the same party, and had troubles completing some missions because I need ot use certain races and I'd be shorthanded because they only people I had levelled were off fighting some solo battles.
There's one huge thing that bothered me about this game. It's a huge step down in the maturity level of the game. In the first one, you're a warrior trying to fight for your family's honor, then your honor. In this, you're just a kid trying to find his way home. I'm not saying that I didn't like this game, I enjoyed it very much. It's just that the story is, well, for a lack of a better word, lame. It was a lame story.
The first one had this wonderful story that kept you captivated. It was a blockbuster of a story, which a lot of FF games seem to lack nowadays. You wanted to know what was going to happen next. You felt sorry for Ramza, and everything he's been through. This, I just couldn't help think that Marche was just a whiney little brat. It was his way, or not at all. The story was good, just not Tactics good. It kept you going, but it was mainly to see if it got better. It wasn't so bad that I couldn't keep playing, but it wasn't that great where I couldn't put the game down.
Overall, I liked the game. If you've played the original Tactics, this is a decent buy. You're not getting the great game that was before it, but it's still a good game. It starts off a little slow, but once you get into it, you'll keep playing it. Like I said, it's not good enough to keep playing till you fall asleep of exhaustion, but it's good enough to fill in spots in a boring day. If you like turn based strategy, this is a good buy.
Tactics had ninteen different jobs to choose from for your characters, but only one race to choose from. Tactics Advance has added four new races to choose from. Each of the five races has a limited amount of jobs they can choose. There is a total of 42 race/job combinations in the game. I liked how they added a lot more jobs, but I didn't like how they made the jobs race specific. I think if you're going to add more races and jobs, you should allow all races to learn all jobs. I can see why they made them race specific (balancing reasons), but I'd like the added challenge of turning a magic using race into a melee character. Not really a strike against the game, but more of me being a little anal and liking a lot of choice when I'm given it.
Another difference from the original is that the tone is much different. The original Tactics was about betrayal, corruption of the nobles, corruption of the church, fighting for what's right. It was very serious, and the decisions you made helped shape the history of Ivalice. In TA, it has become more childish (which is apparently from the T rating on FFT, and the E rating on FFTA).
In Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, you start off as the new kid in St. Ivalice. To get aquainted with the battle system, the first thing you do is have a snowball fight with other kids in your class. During the course of the fight, you're introduced to two other main (unplayable) characters, Mewt and Ritz.
Things turn out bad, people make fun of you, people make fun of Mewt, people make fun of Ritz. You're a real popular bunch. The three of you decide to hang out at your house with your sick brother. Mewt brings over some magical book that he bought on the way over. Little did the four amigos know, but things were about to change.
You find yourself in some weird place. You have lizard men, huffalump men, cat girls, and cute little bear looking things with a pom pom on their head running around. You find out you're in some place called Ivalice. You hook up with a nice moogle who helps you start a clan and he shows you the ways of the land. You've already gotten your nice little tutorial from the snowball fight, now you get to play for real.
The game play is exactly the same as it was in the original Tactics. Turn based movement upon a grid. There's a few tweaks done to the turns (such as you can actually take back moves if you find out you're too far away to land a spell or ability), but the game remains basically the same. The one huge difference is that of the laws.
Judges can either be your friend, or your enemy. Every battle (except in the lawless areas called Jagds) has a Judge. These guys enforce the law. I don't have the instruction booklet, and I"ll be honest, I didn't pay much attention when the explained the Judge thing, but I think this is how they work. If break a law, you get a yellow card. A yellow card is basically a warning, and you're fined when the battle is over. If you kill someone with that ability, you're given a red card, which instantly sends you to jail. I'm not entirely sure if that's how it worked, but I liked to keep my parties a little varied to make sure I didn't break any laws.
You might be thinking, these laws are a bunch of crap! I want the lawlessness that was present in Tactics! At first, I thought the same thing. When I realized that any character that had died in the battle is automagically raised at the end of the battle as long as you're not in a Jagd, I changed my mind. I don't have to worry about wasting Phoenix downs on dead characters. I don't have to worry about having a White Mage (or someone with Whm abilities) in the party at all times with Raise. I just leave them dead. Where do I sign up!
At first there's one law in place. You cause some trouble, get the judges on your back, they add another law, cause more trouble, get another law. If you balance out your party, this will never become a problem. I recommend at least one of every race, and levelling at least two of each race. Maybe alternate them between battles. I levelled basically the same party, and had troubles completing some missions because I need ot use certain races and I'd be shorthanded because they only people I had levelled were off fighting some solo battles.
There's one huge thing that bothered me about this game. It's a huge step down in the maturity level of the game. In the first one, you're a warrior trying to fight for your family's honor, then your honor. In this, you're just a kid trying to find his way home. I'm not saying that I didn't like this game, I enjoyed it very much. It's just that the story is, well, for a lack of a better word, lame. It was a lame story.
The first one had this wonderful story that kept you captivated. It was a blockbuster of a story, which a lot of FF games seem to lack nowadays. You wanted to know what was going to happen next. You felt sorry for Ramza, and everything he's been through. This, I just couldn't help think that Marche was just a whiney little brat. It was his way, or not at all. The story was good, just not Tactics good. It kept you going, but it was mainly to see if it got better. It wasn't so bad that I couldn't keep playing, but it wasn't that great where I couldn't put the game down.
Overall, I liked the game. If you've played the original Tactics, this is a decent buy. You're not getting the great game that was before it, but it's still a good game. It starts off a little slow, but once you get into it, you'll keep playing it. Like I said, it's not good enough to keep playing till you fall asleep of exhaustion, but it's good enough to fill in spots in a boring day. If you like turn based strategy, this is a good buy.
Monday, October 13, 2008
Battlefield Bad Company Demo
For some reason, I thought that this was going to be a third person shooter. I was wrong, it's another dreaded FPS on a console. I'm starting to get the hang of the controls, but I just can't do it. It just doesn't feel natural.
From the little of what I played, I like it. I'd be very happy with this game if it had a PC port. It has the Battlefield gamplay that I love, and a story to go with it. I'm more than likely to play some more of this, to get used to FPS controls on a console, but they're just so fucking awkward.
I can't give a definitive recommendation now. Maybe as I play it more I can do that.
From the little of what I played, I like it. I'd be very happy with this game if it had a PC port. It has the Battlefield gamplay that I love, and a story to go with it. I'm more than likely to play some more of this, to get used to FPS controls on a console, but they're just so fucking awkward.
I can't give a definitive recommendation now. Maybe as I play it more I can do that.
Thursday, October 09, 2008
Monday, October 06, 2008
Hour of Victory Demo
I probably should have thought more about the description of the download. A highly anticipated WWII Action shooter. For some reason, it didn't occur to me that it meant First Person Shooter. I was suddenly reminded of why I don't play them without my trusty keyboard or mouse. Analog sticks are just retarded to play FPS on. I'd rather use trackballs.
The game looks nice. That's about all I can say about it. If you like FPS on consoles, and like WWII, this would probably be a nice game to grab. Personally, I think you're better off with Call of Duty 4 (which I haven't played, and have no real intentions to do so on Xbox) or Battlefield 2 (which I own on PC). CoD4, from what I've heard, is one of the best FPS games on the Xbox, and I just love BF2 on the PC. You don't get better than either of those for modern combat.
I can't recommend this because of my bias towards FPS on consoles. I'm sure if you like that sort of thing, this might be worth picking up. I'd say it's worth at least a rental, even though I couldn't play it for more than five minutes.
The game looks nice. That's about all I can say about it. If you like FPS on consoles, and like WWII, this would probably be a nice game to grab. Personally, I think you're better off with Call of Duty 4 (which I haven't played, and have no real intentions to do so on Xbox) or Battlefield 2 (which I own on PC). CoD4, from what I've heard, is one of the best FPS games on the Xbox, and I just love BF2 on the PC. You don't get better than either of those for modern combat.
I can't recommend this because of my bias towards FPS on consoles. I'm sure if you like that sort of thing, this might be worth picking up. I'd say it's worth at least a rental, even though I couldn't play it for more than five minutes.
Friday, September 26, 2008
Game over man!
Sorry about no update this week, life's sucked for me all month. At least there's a glimmer of hope.
Monday, September 15, 2008
Dead Rising
Who doesn't love killing zombies? If you raised your hand, chances are, you're a zombie and you're being killed next.
You are Frank West, photo journalist. You're trying to get the scoop of the decade and you hear something funny is happening in the small community of Willamette, CO. On your way in by helicopter, you've noticed that all roads leading into town have been blocked by the National Guard (or some other military entity). While you fly over town, you notice strange things going on. Strange things are definitely afoot at the Circle K, so you decide to touch down at the local mall.
You give your ride 72 hours to come back so that you may investigate what's going on. Once inside, you find out what's going on: the town is overrun by zombies! At first, the mall is safe, then someone decides to let them in, and that's when the fun begins. You now have to survive for three days while you wait for your ride to get back.
To aid in your survival, anything you can pick up in the mall, you use as a weapon. Yes, ANYTHING. Mall bench, trash can, CDs, guitars, katanas, knives, night sticks, 2x4s, lead pipes, ANYTHING. Those are just a few things you can pick up. The only downfall is that each weapon can break, so you can only injure so many zombies with each weapon till you have to find a new one.
One of the other great things about this game is that it's completely open ended. You don't have to follow the story line if you don't want to. You only have to do it if you want to know why this happened. I plan on going back through to find out, but first, I want to kill as many zombies as I can, because like I asked earlier, who doesn't love killing zombies?
This game is easily one of my favorite games. I highly recommend it, especially if running around killing things in some of the most unbelievable ways interests you. It's a greatest hit, so it's cheap and not very hard to find, so yes, pick this game up!
You are Frank West, photo journalist. You're trying to get the scoop of the decade and you hear something funny is happening in the small community of Willamette, CO. On your way in by helicopter, you've noticed that all roads leading into town have been blocked by the National Guard (or some other military entity). While you fly over town, you notice strange things going on. Strange things are definitely afoot at the Circle K, so you decide to touch down at the local mall.
You give your ride 72 hours to come back so that you may investigate what's going on. Once inside, you find out what's going on: the town is overrun by zombies! At first, the mall is safe, then someone decides to let them in, and that's when the fun begins. You now have to survive for three days while you wait for your ride to get back.
To aid in your survival, anything you can pick up in the mall, you use as a weapon. Yes, ANYTHING. Mall bench, trash can, CDs, guitars, katanas, knives, night sticks, 2x4s, lead pipes, ANYTHING. Those are just a few things you can pick up. The only downfall is that each weapon can break, so you can only injure so many zombies with each weapon till you have to find a new one.
One of the other great things about this game is that it's completely open ended. You don't have to follow the story line if you don't want to. You only have to do it if you want to know why this happened. I plan on going back through to find out, but first, I want to kill as many zombies as I can, because like I asked earlier, who doesn't love killing zombies?
This game is easily one of my favorite games. I highly recommend it, especially if running around killing things in some of the most unbelievable ways interests you. It's a greatest hit, so it's cheap and not very hard to find, so yes, pick this game up!
Friday, September 12, 2008
Too Human Demo
What do you get when you cross Vikings with Legacy of Kain? If you said it doesn't matter, it has Vikings, you're pretty freaking cool. But if you said Too Human, you're probably right too.
If you're a fan of Stargate SG-1, this game seems to be the past of the Asgard. You're Balder, some super soldier type guy fighting these weird mechanical monster things. Apparently, you're some god. This is kind of evident when you die. A Valkyrie stops by, molests you a bit, then sends you off on your killing spree.
From what little I've played of the game, that about sums up the game. Run around, kill things. Rinse, repeat. There are some RPG elements, but I didn't let those get in the way of me killing things.
I was kind of liking the game, so I might actually have to get a hold of a copy of this and give it a try.
If you're a fan of Stargate SG-1, this game seems to be the past of the Asgard. You're Balder, some super soldier type guy fighting these weird mechanical monster things. Apparently, you're some god. This is kind of evident when you die. A Valkyrie stops by, molests you a bit, then sends you off on your killing spree.
From what little I've played of the game, that about sums up the game. Run around, kill things. Rinse, repeat. There are some RPG elements, but I didn't let those get in the way of me killing things.
I was kind of liking the game, so I might actually have to get a hold of a copy of this and give it a try.
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Braid Demo
This game is Prince of Persia if it went back to it's roots of 2D side scroller with pits to try and jump across. Oh yea, keep the kick ass time reversal stuffs. I enjoyed what little I played of the game. I might buy the full version just to give this review space some justice on this game.
I also got a kick out of the Dinosaur (that looks strangly like the one from Toy Story) told me that the Princess is in another castle. I would have lost it, but my brother is trying to sleep in the other room.
I also got a kick out of the Dinosaur (that looks strangly like the one from Toy Story) told me that the Princess is in another castle. I would have lost it, but my brother is trying to sleep in the other room.
Monday, September 08, 2008
The Force Unleashed Demo
Wow. This is a demo that I can just keep playing over and over again. It's only a small board, can be beat in about five minutes, but throwing storm troopers NEVER gets old. Sept 16th, I will be getting this game. I have a feeling I might get it for both for 360 and Wii. The 360 game is too good to not get. The demo was just freaking Amazing.
Sunday, September 07, 2008
Demos Galore
Recently, I downloaded some demos on XBox Live. This was evident with Civ Rev, Facebreaker, and the horrible Thrillville. I have some more lined up for your enjoyment, and it was totally for my enjoyment. I just hope I never get crap like Thrillville again.
Monday, September 01, 2008
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Thrilleville: Off the Rails
Yet another demo from XBox Live. I'm going to say this right now, I didn't even give this game a chance. The only good thing I liked about it was the Stunt bike mini game, and it was too short. This game seems like it's trying to be a graphically superior version of Roller Coaster Tycoon. I cannot recommend this, as I don't think this game will be better than the demo.
Monday, August 25, 2008
Facebreaker
I decided to pick up a few demos off of XBox Live. The first I picked up was Civilization Revolution.
The next gave I've grabbed was Facebreakers. It's a cartoonish boxing game that reminds me a lot of Ready 2 Rumble Boxing. The Demo doesn't offer much to do other than practice or one round of boxing. Either way, it is kind of fun. I say kind of because you can't really get much of a feel for the game with just one round.
To fight that single round of boxing, you have your choice of five different characters (two of which are default 'Create a Characters') and two locations to fight. I still haven't actually gotten three knockdowns in one round, but I wasn't really trying. But the boxing is fairly simple, and easy to do. From this demo, it seems that every match will be won by whomever is the best button masher. There isn't much strategy to it.
I'm nto sure if I can recommend this game or not. The demo doesn't offer much, and it just seems like it would have very repetitive. Unless this game has an amazing story, or at least a funny one, I can't see this game as being very good. This might be something that I have to rent and revist.
The next gave I've grabbed was Facebreakers. It's a cartoonish boxing game that reminds me a lot of Ready 2 Rumble Boxing. The Demo doesn't offer much to do other than practice or one round of boxing. Either way, it is kind of fun. I say kind of because you can't really get much of a feel for the game with just one round.
To fight that single round of boxing, you have your choice of five different characters (two of which are default 'Create a Characters') and two locations to fight. I still haven't actually gotten three knockdowns in one round, but I wasn't really trying. But the boxing is fairly simple, and easy to do. From this demo, it seems that every match will be won by whomever is the best button masher. There isn't much strategy to it.
I'm nto sure if I can recommend this game or not. The demo doesn't offer much, and it just seems like it would have very repetitive. Unless this game has an amazing story, or at least a funny one, I can't see this game as being very good. This might be something that I have to rent and revist.
Monday, August 18, 2008
Final Fantasy Tactics
The game starts off with you running guard duty for a princess. Apparently, you suck ass at this kind of thing and she gets kidnapped by someone you think you know. This causes you to have a flashback, and that's basically what the entire first chapter (of four) is all about. After your little flashback, you resume the game at the start of Chapter two.
It's kind of hard to tell what this game is more about, religion or politics, or both. I'm kind of leaning towards both, since they really kind of go hand in hand. I really don't want to reveal more of the plot, because that could possibly lead to spoilers, and I just can't do that. About all I can say is that you lead epic battles, and that there is a lot of betrayal and dark dealings afoot. Complete paraphrasing of the back of the CD case.
There are 19 different jobs to choose from, each having their own abilities. Depending on which job you choose, dictates what abilities you have. There are several slots where you can choose which abilities that you've learned to have equipped. For example, you could have the Job Black Mage, which would give you access to all spells you've learned as a Black Mage, and you could set Time Mage abilities, so you'd also have all spells you've learned as a Time Mage. The combinations are endless.
The battles are pretty straight forward. You're given an objective (defeat all enemies, protect so and so, don't die, find the needle in the hay stack, etc) and you must complete it. When you defeat an enemy, either a crystal or a treasure chest will spawn. If the enemy was a monster, the crystal will replenish your HP and MP. If the enemy was a human, you have a chance to learn a skill that they had if you didn't already have it. The treasure chest is self explainatory.
With each action in battle, you gain experience points and job points. Experience points go towards raising your level. Every 100 and you get a level up. Depending on your level versus your enemy's level, your experience will vary.
You use job points to purchase abilities for that specific job. Depending on your job level (1-8), is how many job points you will get per action. While XP is only earned on the character that performed the action, JP from an action is gained by every character you have deployed. Every other character recieves a fraction of the job points for the job of the character who used an action.
For example. You have an Archer and a Squire deployed. The Squire uses the ability Yell. Both the Archer and the Squire recieve job points for the Squire job. The Squire would recieve more, since he used the ability. My hint for this is to have multiple characters with the same job deployed at once to maximize abilities learned across the jobs.
If, during the course of battle, one of your characters dies, you have three turns to raise him/her form the dead. As I stated before, if you do not, they will turn into either a crystal or a treasure chest. You would do this by either casting Raise or using a Phoenix Down.
Not every character you have has to be a human. In fact, you can recruit animals. The easiest one to get is a chocobo (giant chicken like bird). During one battle, you have the choice to save one. If you do, he joins you. If you have a Mediator, you can use them to convince animals to join you. When you have an animal as part of your group, they will occasionally lay an egg and multiply, causing you to have multiple animals. I, personally, do not like animals since they're pretty limited with what they can do. I normally keep the chocobo around (he's just so damn cute!) and dismiss any eggs he creates.
One thing about the game that I didn't realize my first time around is that all enemies level with you. That's right, there's no reason at all to level your characters any. When you enter a battle (with the exception of forced battles) every enemy is the same level as your highest levelled character. Meaning if you have one character who's level 50, and every other character is level 30, your enemies will be level 50. While this can be nice to catch those other characters up, I find it more of an annoyance.
On one board (I forget which one off hand, I know it when I see it) I have found a trap that delevels you. This trap will be there no matter what (as all squares with special attributes assigned to them are). Whenever I feel that mobs are getting a little out of hand, I'll head to this board, kill off all but one enemy, weaken that enemy, and just start delevelling my party to a managable level. I won't delevel them too far, I still want to be able to kill the last guy. This strategy works out great for me, and has allowed me to start mastering all jobs on Ramza easily and efficiently.
This is quite possibly my favorite Final Fantasy game out of the Playstation series (VII - XII). Even though I've been playing Final Fantasy XI for five years, I still love Tactics more. The story is great, the game play is great, the replay value is very high. The only thing that I disliked about the game was the ending. With that aside, I highly recommend this game to anyone who has not played it yet. If you haven't played this game, WHY THE HELL NOT!
It's kind of hard to tell what this game is more about, religion or politics, or both. I'm kind of leaning towards both, since they really kind of go hand in hand. I really don't want to reveal more of the plot, because that could possibly lead to spoilers, and I just can't do that. About all I can say is that you lead epic battles, and that there is a lot of betrayal and dark dealings afoot. Complete paraphrasing of the back of the CD case.
There are 19 different jobs to choose from, each having their own abilities. Depending on which job you choose, dictates what abilities you have. There are several slots where you can choose which abilities that you've learned to have equipped. For example, you could have the Job Black Mage, which would give you access to all spells you've learned as a Black Mage, and you could set Time Mage abilities, so you'd also have all spells you've learned as a Time Mage. The combinations are endless.
The battles are pretty straight forward. You're given an objective (defeat all enemies, protect so and so, don't die, find the needle in the hay stack, etc) and you must complete it. When you defeat an enemy, either a crystal or a treasure chest will spawn. If the enemy was a monster, the crystal will replenish your HP and MP. If the enemy was a human, you have a chance to learn a skill that they had if you didn't already have it. The treasure chest is self explainatory.
With each action in battle, you gain experience points and job points. Experience points go towards raising your level. Every 100 and you get a level up. Depending on your level versus your enemy's level, your experience will vary.
You use job points to purchase abilities for that specific job. Depending on your job level (1-8), is how many job points you will get per action. While XP is only earned on the character that performed the action, JP from an action is gained by every character you have deployed. Every other character recieves a fraction of the job points for the job of the character who used an action.
For example. You have an Archer and a Squire deployed. The Squire uses the ability Yell. Both the Archer and the Squire recieve job points for the Squire job. The Squire would recieve more, since he used the ability. My hint for this is to have multiple characters with the same job deployed at once to maximize abilities learned across the jobs.
If, during the course of battle, one of your characters dies, you have three turns to raise him/her form the dead. As I stated before, if you do not, they will turn into either a crystal or a treasure chest. You would do this by either casting Raise or using a Phoenix Down.
Not every character you have has to be a human. In fact, you can recruit animals. The easiest one to get is a chocobo (giant chicken like bird). During one battle, you have the choice to save one. If you do, he joins you. If you have a Mediator, you can use them to convince animals to join you. When you have an animal as part of your group, they will occasionally lay an egg and multiply, causing you to have multiple animals. I, personally, do not like animals since they're pretty limited with what they can do. I normally keep the chocobo around (he's just so damn cute!) and dismiss any eggs he creates.
One thing about the game that I didn't realize my first time around is that all enemies level with you. That's right, there's no reason at all to level your characters any. When you enter a battle (with the exception of forced battles) every enemy is the same level as your highest levelled character. Meaning if you have one character who's level 50, and every other character is level 30, your enemies will be level 50. While this can be nice to catch those other characters up, I find it more of an annoyance.
On one board (I forget which one off hand, I know it when I see it) I have found a trap that delevels you. This trap will be there no matter what (as all squares with special attributes assigned to them are). Whenever I feel that mobs are getting a little out of hand, I'll head to this board, kill off all but one enemy, weaken that enemy, and just start delevelling my party to a managable level. I won't delevel them too far, I still want to be able to kill the last guy. This strategy works out great for me, and has allowed me to start mastering all jobs on Ramza easily and efficiently.
This is quite possibly my favorite Final Fantasy game out of the Playstation series (VII - XII). Even though I've been playing Final Fantasy XI for five years, I still love Tactics more. The story is great, the game play is great, the replay value is very high. The only thing that I disliked about the game was the ending. With that aside, I highly recommend this game to anyone who has not played it yet. If you haven't played this game, WHY THE HELL NOT!
Thursday, August 14, 2008
Update
Oh, how my dreams and aspirations are killed by my own reluctancy to break away from Final Fantasy XI. Right now I'd like to update the games that I'm currently playing. On the DS, I have Final Fantasy IV. I have a feeling I'm going to burn straight through this. On the XBox 360, I have Blue Dragon. I'll be switching back to this when I'm done with FF4. Since I can't pull myself away from FFXI, I've decided that I'm going to bounce back and forth between meritting and levelling a new job to 75, rather than my busy work of just chatting with people and doing Campaign.
Why is this a good thing? For those of you who have never played FFXI, you can't do a whole lot by yourself in the game. If you've played any other FF game, you'd come to expect this. How people are surprised by this when they first pick up the game, is beyond me. Since I'm lazy and don't build my own parties of six people, I throw up my party flag and wait for someone to send me an invite. Depending on time of day, number of people on, and how many other people are out XPing, you can wait from five minutes to five hours waiting for a party.
Since my Warrior is only 56 now (I'll probably have an update for FF this week) and I don't like meritting on my party magnet (Bard) I've decided that in my down time, I'm going to pick off the list of games in my backlog. As I mentioned previously, FFIV and Blue Dragon are the first two on that list. After those, I'm probably going to move back to Professor Layton and Tactics A2 (like I mentioned in my opening post).
If I wait too long, I'll be redoing Chrono Trigger for the DS, since Squenix has stated they have added new content. I'd also like to finish up Final Fantasy 3 some day. Lunar DS is another one that's high on my list. But before I touch Lunar, I'd really like to beat Vay, which I probably haven't played in two years. So hopefully I either kick my FFXI habit, or I get long days without parties.
Oh, before posting this, I did a quickie of Civ Revolution. So you'll see that after this. :)
Why is this a good thing? For those of you who have never played FFXI, you can't do a whole lot by yourself in the game. If you've played any other FF game, you'd come to expect this. How people are surprised by this when they first pick up the game, is beyond me. Since I'm lazy and don't build my own parties of six people, I throw up my party flag and wait for someone to send me an invite. Depending on time of day, number of people on, and how many other people are out XPing, you can wait from five minutes to five hours waiting for a party.
Since my Warrior is only 56 now (I'll probably have an update for FF this week) and I don't like meritting on my party magnet (Bard) I've decided that in my down time, I'm going to pick off the list of games in my backlog. As I mentioned previously, FFIV and Blue Dragon are the first two on that list. After those, I'm probably going to move back to Professor Layton and Tactics A2 (like I mentioned in my opening post).
If I wait too long, I'll be redoing Chrono Trigger for the DS, since Squenix has stated they have added new content. I'd also like to finish up Final Fantasy 3 some day. Lunar DS is another one that's high on my list. But before I touch Lunar, I'd really like to beat Vay, which I probably haven't played in two years. So hopefully I either kick my FFXI habit, or I get long days without parties.
Oh, before posting this, I did a quickie of Civ Revolution. So you'll see that after this. :)
Civilization Revolution
It's the middle of the week, I was bored, and decided to pick up a demo on Xbox live. I've decided since I don't have much content, I'm going to add a quickie. Civilization Revolution plays exactly like all of the previous ones I've played (Civ 2, Civ 2 Test of Time, and Civ 3), but it looks soo much prettier. The demo was rather small. it seemed that it was limited to about 20 or so turns (I didn't count). You can only choose from two races to start off with (The Romans or the Egyptians), and your tech tree is severly limited. It's a Demo, so I'm not going to be picky about all of that.
The game looked, and played great. I was a little iffy about playing with the controller after using a keyboard to play the game for so long, but it worked great. The interface wasn't what I was used to, but it felt right. The units were much larger on screen then they had been in previous versions, either that, or they just look bigger on a 37" TV rather than a 19" monitor. Either way, they were large and easy to distiguish what they were.
I didn't get to play it long enough to see if my gripes about Civ 3 were fixed. I'm a purist when it comes to Civilization. I reguard Civ 2 as the best one. I didn't like how they messed with the Wonders with 3. I'm not sure if they were changed for 4 or Civ Rev, but I imagine they hold the same powers as 3.
While that's more of an annoyance for me, others might see it as game balancing. I mean, building the Great Wall in Civ 2 meant that every city had a town wall, and no one could declare war on you. The United Nations did the same thing. Some may see that as over powered, since it was possible to build the United Nations before the Great Wall went out of effect (by anyone researching electricity), but I see it as historically correct. China built the Great Wall to keep Mongolia out. For the most part, it worked. Why shouldn't it work in 3? I remember other wonders losing some of their powers, but that was the one that annoyed me the most.
Even with that, I still highly recommend the game. It looks great, it plays great, and can keep you entertained for hours. And the best part of the game, it never plays the same way twice. If you're into turn based strategy that will keep you entertained for hours, play this game. I would get it, if I didn't already have a large backlog of games.
The game looked, and played great. I was a little iffy about playing with the controller after using a keyboard to play the game for so long, but it worked great. The interface wasn't what I was used to, but it felt right. The units were much larger on screen then they had been in previous versions, either that, or they just look bigger on a 37" TV rather than a 19" monitor. Either way, they were large and easy to distiguish what they were.
I didn't get to play it long enough to see if my gripes about Civ 3 were fixed. I'm a purist when it comes to Civilization. I reguard Civ 2 as the best one. I didn't like how they messed with the Wonders with 3. I'm not sure if they were changed for 4 or Civ Rev, but I imagine they hold the same powers as 3.
While that's more of an annoyance for me, others might see it as game balancing. I mean, building the Great Wall in Civ 2 meant that every city had a town wall, and no one could declare war on you. The United Nations did the same thing. Some may see that as over powered, since it was possible to build the United Nations before the Great Wall went out of effect (by anyone researching electricity), but I see it as historically correct. China built the Great Wall to keep Mongolia out. For the most part, it worked. Why shouldn't it work in 3? I remember other wonders losing some of their powers, but that was the one that annoyed me the most.
Even with that, I still highly recommend the game. It looks great, it plays great, and can keep you entertained for hours. And the best part of the game, it never plays the same way twice. If you're into turn based strategy that will keep you entertained for hours, play this game. I would get it, if I didn't already have a large backlog of games.
Sunday, August 10, 2008
Chrono Trigger
BEST GAME EVER MADE
Yes, it's a bold statement. This is the game that I compare all other games to. Sure, the graphics are outdated, but who cares! A game doesn't need lifelike graphics to be good. It needs a story and great gameplay, and this game achieves both with flying colors. It also has very high replay value. Something you don't really see in new games these days.
This game is about Chrono and his friend Lucca who end up travelling through time with a girl Marle whom they meet at the Millennium Fair, a fair celebrating the new millennium (the year is 1000 AD). During their travels through time, they meet several new friends and try to stop evil from taking over at several points in time.
With each friend you pick up, you can adjust your party of three to different configurations depending on what's required for your current objective. Each character has their own strengths and weaknesses, and when combined with certain characters, they can combine attacks for more powerful attacks. For instance, if you combine Marle and Lucca, you have several magic attacks. Marle and Chrono have attacks where she will imbue his sword with magical power, same with Lucca and Chrono.
There are a few times where your actions in the past influence actions in the future. Each time you get something new for doing these, and they help the story along nicely. For example, one quest requires an item to be in direct sunlight for many years. To achieve this, you would drop this item in the past, then pick it up in the future.
Another nice feature of the game is that you get a different ending depending on when you beat the game. Even losing to the last boss gives you a different ending! I believe there are a total of 13 different endings, although I'm sure I've counted more. Either way, I've gotten every one of them.
To achieve these multiple endings, the game has a feature called New Game+. What it does is starts out a new game, with your levels, stats, and items from a previous save game. this feature is opened up the first time you beat the game. From here, you can start over and begin beating the game during different time periods.
This game does everything right, and nothing wrong. I mean, the only bad thing anyone can say about it is that you play as a silent protagonist. Anyone who looks at that as a bad thing, is an idiot. The game is more about the actions of everyone, how they interact with each other, not about the dialogue of the main character.
There is nothing bad I can say about this game. Like I've said previously, this is the game I base my opinion of other games on. If I had to use an arbitrary 1-10 rating for this game, I would take a hint from Spinal Tap, and this is an 11. Nintendo Power is full of shit to rate this as #5 in a top 20 list of SNES games. This is far ahead of Zelda.
If you can find a copy of this, PLAY IT. Whether it be the original SNES, the PSX version, or even the new DS version, play it. You will not regret it.
Tuesday, August 05, 2008
Whoops
I just found out something not so fun. Apparently, when I save something as a Draft it saves the date oh when I started writing it. When I post that draft, it uses that date as the post date. So when I published my latest review, Secret of Mana, it used the date I wrote it on as the posting date, not the date I actually posted it. I have a feeling this will become very annoying, very fast.
Secret of Mana
Ahh yes. A timeless classic by Squaresoft. This is a game about a boy who pulls the Mystical sword out of the clumpy stone. Now that I think about it, everytime I've played this game, I should have named the main character Arthur. I mean, pull a sword out of the stone, become the king of England, smite evil isn't a very far stretch from pull the sword out of the stone, become the hero of Mana, smite evil.
Any hero worth his while doesn't travel alone. In Secret of Mana, you're joined by a fiesty girl and a mischievous sprite, both of which you name. This is one of the rare times you will find an RPG that is multiplayer. With the multi-tap (which is packaged with Super Bomberman) you can play with up to two friends (assuming you have any!).
Each character has their own strengths. The boy is the strongest weapon user. The girl uses healing magic. The sprite uses damaging magic. You find the weapons from defeating bosses or finding them, you get your magic by rescuing spirits.
Game play for this game is your typical Zelda like overhead hack and slash with RPG elements (skill up weapons/magic, level up characters). The higher your weapon's level, the higher you can charge it. Charged attacks look fancy and do more damage. Same thing goes with magic. The higher your skill is in that particular magic, the more damage it will do.
For all of the things this game does well, great game play, great story, great music, it does have a few faults. For one, there's no real reason to level any more than one weapon per character. Sure, you sometimes have to break out the whip to travel across gaps, or break out the sword or axe to cut down some poles or something, but you can just equip them on the sprite and girl and switch to them when needed. Because if you're using anything other than the spear on the boy, you're an idiot. Personally, I used the spear on the boy, whip on the girl, and the javelin on the sprite. Switched to the axe or sword as needed.
Another thing while nice and convenient was very annoying is that you can kill most bosses before they can get one attack in. Once the sprite has his first spell, you can pretty much spell lock anything. If you're playing three player at a boss fight, whoever is the sprite should log out. The another person take control via the X menu. Cast your spell. As soon as the elemental disappears, hit X again. If you did it right, the sprite menu should come up in color. If it's greyed out, you didn't hit it fast enough. Select your next spell, and repeat. Pretty much, each spell will hit in succession and the damage will add up. Stop when you think you've killed it. If you haven't, repeat.
With this previous fault in mind, it leads the last one. If you can kill bosses in one hit, there's no real reason to level the girl's magic aside from the one that has the spells that heal you. There's no reason to level up her other magic, because quite frankly, you really only need to use it on bosses, and they're dead with one hit. On the same note, there's no real reason to charge up your weapons to anything past 100%. It takes time to do it, and you walk slow while you're charging and when it's charged. You'd pretty much also use this on boss fights. I do admit, there's a few times I would use it in the last area, but after I levelled up a bit, there was no reason to do so.
Do these faults break the game? Hell no! This is easily one of my five favorite games on the SNES, and top 10 overall. If you really think about it, the flaws really aren't flaws at all. You can actually play around them. My last play through, I worked around them with the exception of the one hit kills. I didn't feel like subjecting myself to long battles that can be easily finished in under a minute. Overall, get this game if you can. Highly recommended.
Any hero worth his while doesn't travel alone. In Secret of Mana, you're joined by a fiesty girl and a mischievous sprite, both of which you name. This is one of the rare times you will find an RPG that is multiplayer. With the multi-tap (which is packaged with Super Bomberman) you can play with up to two friends (assuming you have any!).
Each character has their own strengths. The boy is the strongest weapon user. The girl uses healing magic. The sprite uses damaging magic. You find the weapons from defeating bosses or finding them, you get your magic by rescuing spirits.
Game play for this game is your typical Zelda like overhead hack and slash with RPG elements (skill up weapons/magic, level up characters). The higher your weapon's level, the higher you can charge it. Charged attacks look fancy and do more damage. Same thing goes with magic. The higher your skill is in that particular magic, the more damage it will do.
For all of the things this game does well, great game play, great story, great music, it does have a few faults. For one, there's no real reason to level any more than one weapon per character. Sure, you sometimes have to break out the whip to travel across gaps, or break out the sword or axe to cut down some poles or something, but you can just equip them on the sprite and girl and switch to them when needed. Because if you're using anything other than the spear on the boy, you're an idiot. Personally, I used the spear on the boy, whip on the girl, and the javelin on the sprite. Switched to the axe or sword as needed.
Another thing while nice and convenient was very annoying is that you can kill most bosses before they can get one attack in. Once the sprite has his first spell, you can pretty much spell lock anything. If you're playing three player at a boss fight, whoever is the sprite should log out. The another person take control via the X menu. Cast your spell. As soon as the elemental disappears, hit X again. If you did it right, the sprite menu should come up in color. If it's greyed out, you didn't hit it fast enough. Select your next spell, and repeat. Pretty much, each spell will hit in succession and the damage will add up. Stop when you think you've killed it. If you haven't, repeat.
With this previous fault in mind, it leads the last one. If you can kill bosses in one hit, there's no real reason to level the girl's magic aside from the one that has the spells that heal you. There's no reason to level up her other magic, because quite frankly, you really only need to use it on bosses, and they're dead with one hit. On the same note, there's no real reason to charge up your weapons to anything past 100%. It takes time to do it, and you walk slow while you're charging and when it's charged. You'd pretty much also use this on boss fights. I do admit, there's a few times I would use it in the last area, but after I levelled up a bit, there was no reason to do so.
Do these faults break the game? Hell no! This is easily one of my five favorite games on the SNES, and top 10 overall. If you really think about it, the flaws really aren't flaws at all. You can actually play around them. My last play through, I worked around them with the exception of the one hit kills. I didn't feel like subjecting myself to long battles that can be easily finished in under a minute. Overall, get this game if you can. Highly recommended.
Saturday, July 26, 2008
What's the Problem?
While trying to get tired enough to goto bed, I came across this news story.
From what I've gathered, the state of New York wants all video game consoles to have a lockout feature to make sure kids aren't playing games they shouldn't be, all games to have a rating on them to tell who is mature enough to play the game, and they want an advisory panel to study the non-existant corelation between video games and violence.
I have one question, why is this a problem? All three current generation systems have a lockout feature. PCs have a lockout feature if people are smart enough to actually restrict stuff using user accounts. This is a non-issue since the framework is already in place.
If I remember correctly, there's been a rating system for video games for at over ten years. I just checked Game FAQs and it looked like there was a rating block on the cover of Mortal Kombat II from 1994. So this really isn't an issue.
The one thing I can see people having a problem with are the studies to prove that video games do not cause violence. The only reason I can see for people not wanting this to pass is that they will lose their scapegoat. Can't blame video games if bad parenting is the problem.
Speaking of parenting, it is a problem. You'll have people claim that video games are too violent, and that violent video games are ruining today's youth, I'm looking at you Jack Thompson. No, they're not. Bad parenting is doing that. Last I checked, video games don't fly at kids and say, 'PLAY ME OR I'LL SHOOT THIS DOG! DO YOU WANT THIS DOG!" I'm not going to aruge that games like the Grand Theft Autos and the Mortal Kombats aren't marketted towards children. That would be a silly argument, because of course they are. Maybe not directly, but putting an M rating on a game is going to be more enticing to a child to play than something with an E rating. What does this have to do with parenting?
Kids cannot buy games. Well, they could if they had mommy and daddy's credit card or some cold hard cash, but that doesn't mean a retail place will sell them the game. Well, they shouldn't sell them because I would think that's a law suit waiting to happen if a parent doesn't approve. Besides, it's not up to the retailer to decide what children should be playing, it's up to the parents.
Parents need to make informed decisions. If your child is asking for a game, find out about it. If you're reading this and are a parent who is thinking about purchasing a game for your child, YOU HAVE THE INTERNET, READ UP ON IT! Make an informed decision. The rating system isn't there as the end all judgement as to whom can play a game. It is there as a guide. There are some eleven year olds that I don't think would have a problem playing Grand Theft Auto IV. There are some adults that I don't think can handle the game. Am I saying that no one should play it? Of course not. Am I saying children should play the game? Of course not. I'm saying that it's up to the parent to decide. I mean, you should know your child. You know what they're capable of, you know how mature they are. If you're not sure if they should play it, read up on the subject matter, most reviewers will tell you that.
Parents, sit down with your kids. Get to know them. Make an informed decision on your child's activities. If you think that killing nazis is completely healthy for your child, pick up that copy of Battlefield 1942. If you think your child can handle car jackings and mob crime, pick up any of the Grand Theft Auto games. If your think your child is a complete loser who can't handle anything? Well, you're probably a complete loser who can't handle anything, and you just brought up your kid to be exactly like you and you're just looking for something to blame your faults on.
I've also found this story.
The State of New York isn't the only one who think there's a problem with video games, apparently this is a job of the US Government! It's not like they have anything better to do that tell parents how to raise their children. All this big important people are afraid that other people's kids are going to grow up to be serial killers and kill their family (because as we all know, rich white kids don't commit crimes), so they HAVE TO DO SOMETHING! I know what you can do. TELL PARENTS TO STOP LETTING TV RAISE YOUR CHILDREN. I think I should run for congress, show them that an avid gamer can engage in civil conversation and not want to kill everyone in sight and rape and pillage.
Then I'll get up, call them all poopey heads and run away.
From what I've gathered, the state of New York wants all video game consoles to have a lockout feature to make sure kids aren't playing games they shouldn't be, all games to have a rating on them to tell who is mature enough to play the game, and they want an advisory panel to study the non-existant corelation between video games and violence.
I have one question, why is this a problem? All three current generation systems have a lockout feature. PCs have a lockout feature if people are smart enough to actually restrict stuff using user accounts. This is a non-issue since the framework is already in place.
If I remember correctly, there's been a rating system for video games for at over ten years. I just checked Game FAQs and it looked like there was a rating block on the cover of Mortal Kombat II from 1994. So this really isn't an issue.
The one thing I can see people having a problem with are the studies to prove that video games do not cause violence. The only reason I can see for people not wanting this to pass is that they will lose their scapegoat. Can't blame video games if bad parenting is the problem.
Speaking of parenting, it is a problem. You'll have people claim that video games are too violent, and that violent video games are ruining today's youth, I'm looking at you Jack Thompson. No, they're not. Bad parenting is doing that. Last I checked, video games don't fly at kids and say, 'PLAY ME OR I'LL SHOOT THIS DOG! DO YOU WANT THIS DOG!" I'm not going to aruge that games like the Grand Theft Autos and the Mortal Kombats aren't marketted towards children. That would be a silly argument, because of course they are. Maybe not directly, but putting an M rating on a game is going to be more enticing to a child to play than something with an E rating. What does this have to do with parenting?
Kids cannot buy games. Well, they could if they had mommy and daddy's credit card or some cold hard cash, but that doesn't mean a retail place will sell them the game. Well, they shouldn't sell them because I would think that's a law suit waiting to happen if a parent doesn't approve. Besides, it's not up to the retailer to decide what children should be playing, it's up to the parents.
Parents need to make informed decisions. If your child is asking for a game, find out about it. If you're reading this and are a parent who is thinking about purchasing a game for your child, YOU HAVE THE INTERNET, READ UP ON IT! Make an informed decision. The rating system isn't there as the end all judgement as to whom can play a game. It is there as a guide. There are some eleven year olds that I don't think would have a problem playing Grand Theft Auto IV. There are some adults that I don't think can handle the game. Am I saying that no one should play it? Of course not. Am I saying children should play the game? Of course not. I'm saying that it's up to the parent to decide. I mean, you should know your child. You know what they're capable of, you know how mature they are. If you're not sure if they should play it, read up on the subject matter, most reviewers will tell you that.
Parents, sit down with your kids. Get to know them. Make an informed decision on your child's activities. If you think that killing nazis is completely healthy for your child, pick up that copy of Battlefield 1942. If you think your child can handle car jackings and mob crime, pick up any of the Grand Theft Auto games. If your think your child is a complete loser who can't handle anything? Well, you're probably a complete loser who can't handle anything, and you just brought up your kid to be exactly like you and you're just looking for something to blame your faults on.
I've also found this story.
The State of New York isn't the only one who think there's a problem with video games, apparently this is a job of the US Government! It's not like they have anything better to do that tell parents how to raise their children. All this big important people are afraid that other people's kids are going to grow up to be serial killers and kill their family (because as we all know, rich white kids don't commit crimes), so they HAVE TO DO SOMETHING! I know what you can do. TELL PARENTS TO STOP LETTING TV RAISE YOUR CHILDREN. I think I should run for congress, show them that an avid gamer can engage in civil conversation and not want to kill everyone in sight and rape and pillage.
Then I'll get up, call them all poopey heads and run away.
Monday, July 21, 2008
Cedar Point
I meant to get this up this morning before I went to bed, but I completely forgot to. I didn't get much game time in this weekend, as I was busy doing all sorts of other awesome things. I'd like to point out that Cedar Point is a bunch of asses when it comes to packing crane machines. On top of that, most of their crane machines suck balls. But hey, they have a few good ones, or I wouldn't have this guy:
Just cost me $1.50 to win him (three tries). I swear, I'm a master of crane machines. The Donkey Kong you can kind of see above him was won in two tries at Gameworks after I was told that crane machines are rigged. Mario isn't the only thing I walked away with at Cedar Point.
Have you ever wanted to club a baby seal, or at least club someone with a baby seal? Well, now I can, and I also have a really cool Pirate Turtle Bobble head. Yes, I know, you're jealous. I'm not sure which part you're jealous about, but I know you're jealous.
But hey, this blog is about reviews, right? Why don't I review something, other than how awesome my weekend is. Why don't I review Cedar Point?!
Cedar Point, the world's greatest amusement park located in nearby Sandusky, OH. This park has 17 roller coasters. That is not a typo. Many rides have held world records, fastest coaster (Magnum XL, Millenium Force, Top Thrill Dragster), tallest coaster (Magnum XL, Top Thrill Dragster), longest drop (Magnum XL, Top Thrill Dragster), longest drop on a wooden coaster (Mean Streak), and tallest wooden coaster (Mean Streak). I'm sure there are more records, but those are the only ones I can get from the rcdb.
Along with all 17 of those coasters, there are many other rides to ride, shows to watch, food to eat. There are many games to play, prizes to win. Cedar Point also has a water park attached to it called Soak City, if you're into that kind of thing. I've never been there, so I can't vouch for how awesome or shitty it is.
Overall, I highly recommend going to this park. I normally try to go at least once a year, and I plan on going again later this year. If you're a huge fan of rollercoasters (I know I am) you won't regret making the trip out here. Very fun, very awesome.
Just cost me $1.50 to win him (three tries). I swear, I'm a master of crane machines. The Donkey Kong you can kind of see above him was won in two tries at Gameworks after I was told that crane machines are rigged. Mario isn't the only thing I walked away with at Cedar Point.
Have you ever wanted to club a baby seal, or at least club someone with a baby seal? Well, now I can, and I also have a really cool Pirate Turtle Bobble head. Yes, I know, you're jealous. I'm not sure which part you're jealous about, but I know you're jealous.But hey, this blog is about reviews, right? Why don't I review something, other than how awesome my weekend is. Why don't I review Cedar Point?!
Cedar Point, the world's greatest amusement park located in nearby Sandusky, OH. This park has 17 roller coasters. That is not a typo. Many rides have held world records, fastest coaster (Magnum XL, Millenium Force, Top Thrill Dragster), tallest coaster (Magnum XL, Top Thrill Dragster), longest drop (Magnum XL, Top Thrill Dragster), longest drop on a wooden coaster (Mean Streak), and tallest wooden coaster (Mean Streak). I'm sure there are more records, but those are the only ones I can get from the rcdb.
Along with all 17 of those coasters, there are many other rides to ride, shows to watch, food to eat. There are many games to play, prizes to win. Cedar Point also has a water park attached to it called Soak City, if you're into that kind of thing. I've never been there, so I can't vouch for how awesome or shitty it is.
Overall, I highly recommend going to this park. I normally try to go at least once a year, and I plan on going again later this year. If you're a huge fan of rollercoasters (I know I am) you won't regret making the trip out here. Very fun, very awesome.
Monday, July 14, 2008
New Super Mario Bros
There really isn't much to this game. Do you like the original Super Mario Bros? How about 2? 3? World? Well, you'll love this one. You don't get any cool items like the cape or the racoon tail, but you do get the giant mushroom that turns you into Ginormous Mario and allows you to just lay down a path of destruction that hasn't been seen since Gozer unleashed the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man.
Really, there isn't that much to review for this game. It's pretty straight forward. You run, you jump, you get bigger, sometimes you shoot fireballs. The one great addition to this game are the minigames. I've probably played them for about the same amount of time as I have the actual game itself.
Yes, I know this is a short review. Sue me. I wanted to get a quick one in because I really didn't want to post two FFXI updates in a row, especially since I haven't done much since Saturday. It's a great game, and you should get it. Especially if you liked Super Mario World.
Really, there isn't that much to review for this game. It's pretty straight forward. You run, you jump, you get bigger, sometimes you shoot fireballs. The one great addition to this game are the minigames. I've probably played them for about the same amount of time as I have the actual game itself.
Yes, I know this is a short review. Sue me. I wanted to get a quick one in because I really didn't want to post two FFXI updates in a row, especially since I haven't done much since Saturday. It's a great game, and you should get it. Especially if you liked Super Mario World.
Saturday, July 12, 2008
FFXI Update
I figured if one of my options for posting will be an update of my progress in FFXI, I should establish where I'm currently at in FFXI.
For those of you who don't know, Final Fantasy XI is an MMORPG by Square-Enix. I've been playing since the North American release in October of 2003. About two years ago, I've decided that I want to get a piece of gear that isn't all that great, but pretty much shows a lot of commitment and a lack of a life. On top of all of that, it looks pretty cool. :) That item is the Maat's Cap. If you look at the link, it shows that you have to beat Maat on the original fifteen jobs.
As you can see, I have seven jobs at 75. Six of those being Maat Jobs (Blue Mage, Corsair, Puppetmaster, Dancer, and Scholar do not count). I've gotten the itch to level another job, so as you can see, I've started up on Warrior.
Right now, out of the six jobs I have at 75 towards a Maat's cap, I've only beaten Maat with four of them. I still need to beat him with Monk and Bard. I have the item to do it, I just haven't gotten around to doing so. My current record against him is 4/9. I'm 1/4 on White Mage, 1/1 on Dragoon, 1/1 on Samurai, 1/1 on Black Mage, 0/1 on Monk, 0/1 on Bard.
I have a few other Goals for FFXI, but I'll list them later.
For those of you who don't know, Final Fantasy XI is an MMORPG by Square-Enix. I've been playing since the North American release in October of 2003. About two years ago, I've decided that I want to get a piece of gear that isn't all that great, but pretty much shows a lot of commitment and a lack of a life. On top of all of that, it looks pretty cool. :) That item is the Maat's Cap. If you look at the link, it shows that you have to beat Maat on the original fifteen jobs.
As you can see, I have seven jobs at 75. Six of those being Maat Jobs (Blue Mage, Corsair, Puppetmaster, Dancer, and Scholar do not count). I've gotten the itch to level another job, so as you can see, I've started up on Warrior.
Right now, out of the six jobs I have at 75 towards a Maat's cap, I've only beaten Maat with four of them. I still need to beat him with Monk and Bard. I have the item to do it, I just haven't gotten around to doing so. My current record against him is 4/9. I'm 1/4 on White Mage, 1/1 on Dragoon, 1/1 on Samurai, 1/1 on Black Mage, 0/1 on Monk, 0/1 on Bard.
I have a few other Goals for FFXI, but I'll list them later.
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Introduction
Hello there. I'm Kenny, and I'm addicted to video games. Well, not really addicted, because addicts goto meetings. I'm not that far yet. On top of that, it would require admitting I have a problem, and so far I haven't killed anyone to play a video game, so I don't think I have a problem yet. I'd also like to point out that I can quit any time I want. Quit I tell you!
If you're here and I didn't tell you about this, you're probably wondering what is here. Well, I'll tell you what content you may find. I've been playing video games for 20+ years. I live video games. I breathe video games. Sometimes I sleep them (DAMN PRINCESS, GET IN THIS CASTLE!). I own several video game systems. I own a Nintendo, Super Nintendo, Game Boy Pocket, Nintendo DS, Wii, Sega Genesis, SegaCD, Sega Dreamcast, Playstation, Playstation 2, XBox 360, Commodore 64, and a PC. I know, that's not 15, like I said in my profile. I have Gameboy Advance games and Gamecube games.
When my friend Matt started up his own blog about System Administration, I got the idea to do something I knew a lot about. Considering I think FedEx might not like it if I start a blog about their internal workings, I figured I'd use video games as a subject. I mean, 20 years is a long time to become intimate with games. I also have a vast collection of games. I call it a collection because I probably haven't played half of them. With a quick glance, I can see that I haven't even opened two of them (.hack//quarantine and Final Fantasy X-2, Final Fantasy Tactics Advance 2 doesn't count since it seems that new games are opened by Gamestop, but that's for a completely different post).
When I told Matt that I should do this, he was completely supportive. I mean, I know games about as well as he knows networks. I've been wanting to get a plan together, and get a place to put it up. Blogger seemed to be working for him, so I dusted off my account that I forgot I had and here we are.
I was kind of hoping to play a few newer games and write up some reviews, but alas, I really only have one newer game. I'm playing through a newish game right now, and I should have a review up in a week or so. But I digress.
I would like to lay out a few ground rules for myself right now.
1. I'd like to have at least one post a week. I read some webcomics that claim they update so many times a week, and it annoys me that they don't. Like Daniel Craig said in Layer Cake, "Make a plan, and stick to it." Even if it's not a review, I'd at least like to put up an update or a preview of my next game or two that I have lined up. Just something to let people know what's going on.
2. Try to stick to current games. While I don't always have the money to go out and get every game made, I still want to restrict myself to current games. I've been wanting to get a Gamefly account or at least a Blockbuster account for a while, this gives me a reason to do so.
3. Two words, retro week. Yes, I know this goes against rule two, but its' too much fun to not do. Remember that collection I mentioned previously? Well, that's what Retro week is for. I can bust out one of my older games (C64 FTW!) and review it. Sure, it probably has already had 20 reviews from well respected gaming outlets (I'm not looking at you, IGN), but I really don't care. It hasn't gotten my personal touch!
4. Put at least 20 hours into the game. You can't really say much about a game if you don't know much about it. In my personal opinion, if a game isn't at least 20 hours long, it's not worth playing. I mean, I put at least 80 hours into my first play through on Final Fantasy Tactics. My first time through (and currently only time) .hack//infection was only 10 hours. I can't tell you how disappointed I was with that. If I have less than 10 hours in the game, you'll get a preview. 20 hours, you'll get a review. The only way I'll give a review for less than 20 hours into the game is if I beat it in less. I most likely won't be scoring highly.
5. There will be no system of numbers. I hate number systems for ratings. I mean, ratings are subjective in the first place, but what's the difference between a 5 and a 7? What's the difference between a 9.5 and a 10? There's just too much wiggle room between the numbers.
For example, Nintendo Power just released a top 20 list for all Nintendo systems for their 20th anniversary. If there was a difference between a 9 and a 10, then Metroid Prime 3 and Smash Bros Brawl would have been fighting for 1 and 2 on the top 20 list, instead of fighting for 3 and 4. Both games recieved 10s, while Mario Galaxy and Twilight Princess recieved 9.5s. I'm not trying to say anything bad about Galaxy (I haven't played it) or Zelda (I loved it), but you'd think 10s would trump their 9s.
Another reason why I hate point systems, there's no such thing as a 1 (if that's your lowest, 0 if that's your lowest) or a 10. There is no such thing as perfect. A rating of 10 signifies perfection. Everything else must compare to that. If something becomes greater than that 10, it becomes 10, and the previous 10 must step down. You have something new to compare to.
You might argue that a 10 means it's a must have game! I've played some 8s that were damn fine games, might even be a must have. Arbitrary numbers, that are completely subjective to the person reviewing, are not a valid basis for a means of rating. I mean, sure, a review behind the number helps a lot, but I know people who only rely on that number to buy games, and I think they're idiots. Words speak more than numbers, so all of my ratings will be words.
6. Above all, have fun. That's my main goal in life, to have fun. Nothing is worth doing unless you can get some enjoyment out of it. It's my motto for life. I'm the type of person who never says goodbye, because I hate seeing people leave. So I always tell them have fun, because if it is the last time I see them, I'd like to give them some worldly advice before leaving.
Overall, I think this will be a fun endeavor. I think I currently have enough source material to get a few weeks in, and I'm looking forward to playing plenty of games. I just hope I can tear myself away from Final Fantasy XI enough to do so. Right now, my current queue of games is Blue Dragon, an RPG from Mistwalker; Professor Layton and the Curious Village, a puzzle game from Level-5; and Final Fantasy Tactics A2: Grimoire of the Rift, a tactical RPG from Square Enix. I'll also have a retro game lined up, but those are going to be secrets.
I'm hoping to have my first review up by Aug 4th (Monday seems like a great day to post reviews). If I can have it up sooner, then so be it. Until then, I'll be releasing FFXI updates. Until Monday, have fun!
If you're here and I didn't tell you about this, you're probably wondering what is here. Well, I'll tell you what content you may find. I've been playing video games for 20+ years. I live video games. I breathe video games. Sometimes I sleep them (DAMN PRINCESS, GET IN THIS CASTLE!). I own several video game systems. I own a Nintendo, Super Nintendo, Game Boy Pocket, Nintendo DS, Wii, Sega Genesis, SegaCD, Sega Dreamcast, Playstation, Playstation 2, XBox 360, Commodore 64, and a PC. I know, that's not 15, like I said in my profile. I have Gameboy Advance games and Gamecube games.
When my friend Matt started up his own blog about System Administration, I got the idea to do something I knew a lot about. Considering I think FedEx might not like it if I start a blog about their internal workings, I figured I'd use video games as a subject. I mean, 20 years is a long time to become intimate with games. I also have a vast collection of games. I call it a collection because I probably haven't played half of them. With a quick glance, I can see that I haven't even opened two of them (.hack//quarantine and Final Fantasy X-2, Final Fantasy Tactics Advance 2 doesn't count since it seems that new games are opened by Gamestop, but that's for a completely different post).
When I told Matt that I should do this, he was completely supportive. I mean, I know games about as well as he knows networks. I've been wanting to get a plan together, and get a place to put it up. Blogger seemed to be working for him, so I dusted off my account that I forgot I had and here we are.
I was kind of hoping to play a few newer games and write up some reviews, but alas, I really only have one newer game. I'm playing through a newish game right now, and I should have a review up in a week or so. But I digress.
I would like to lay out a few ground rules for myself right now.
1. I'd like to have at least one post a week. I read some webcomics that claim they update so many times a week, and it annoys me that they don't. Like Daniel Craig said in Layer Cake, "Make a plan, and stick to it." Even if it's not a review, I'd at least like to put up an update or a preview of my next game or two that I have lined up. Just something to let people know what's going on.
2. Try to stick to current games. While I don't always have the money to go out and get every game made, I still want to restrict myself to current games. I've been wanting to get a Gamefly account or at least a Blockbuster account for a while, this gives me a reason to do so.
3. Two words, retro week. Yes, I know this goes against rule two, but its' too much fun to not do. Remember that collection I mentioned previously? Well, that's what Retro week is for. I can bust out one of my older games (C64 FTW!) and review it. Sure, it probably has already had 20 reviews from well respected gaming outlets (I'm not looking at you, IGN), but I really don't care. It hasn't gotten my personal touch!
4. Put at least 20 hours into the game. You can't really say much about a game if you don't know much about it. In my personal opinion, if a game isn't at least 20 hours long, it's not worth playing. I mean, I put at least 80 hours into my first play through on Final Fantasy Tactics. My first time through (and currently only time) .hack//infection was only 10 hours. I can't tell you how disappointed I was with that. If I have less than 10 hours in the game, you'll get a preview. 20 hours, you'll get a review. The only way I'll give a review for less than 20 hours into the game is if I beat it in less. I most likely won't be scoring highly.
5. There will be no system of numbers. I hate number systems for ratings. I mean, ratings are subjective in the first place, but what's the difference between a 5 and a 7? What's the difference between a 9.5 and a 10? There's just too much wiggle room between the numbers.
For example, Nintendo Power just released a top 20 list for all Nintendo systems for their 20th anniversary. If there was a difference between a 9 and a 10, then Metroid Prime 3 and Smash Bros Brawl would have been fighting for 1 and 2 on the top 20 list, instead of fighting for 3 and 4. Both games recieved 10s, while Mario Galaxy and Twilight Princess recieved 9.5s. I'm not trying to say anything bad about Galaxy (I haven't played it) or Zelda (I loved it), but you'd think 10s would trump their 9s.
Another reason why I hate point systems, there's no such thing as a 1 (if that's your lowest, 0 if that's your lowest) or a 10. There is no such thing as perfect. A rating of 10 signifies perfection. Everything else must compare to that. If something becomes greater than that 10, it becomes 10, and the previous 10 must step down. You have something new to compare to.
You might argue that a 10 means it's a must have game! I've played some 8s that were damn fine games, might even be a must have. Arbitrary numbers, that are completely subjective to the person reviewing, are not a valid basis for a means of rating. I mean, sure, a review behind the number helps a lot, but I know people who only rely on that number to buy games, and I think they're idiots. Words speak more than numbers, so all of my ratings will be words.
6. Above all, have fun. That's my main goal in life, to have fun. Nothing is worth doing unless you can get some enjoyment out of it. It's my motto for life. I'm the type of person who never says goodbye, because I hate seeing people leave. So I always tell them have fun, because if it is the last time I see them, I'd like to give them some worldly advice before leaving.
Overall, I think this will be a fun endeavor. I think I currently have enough source material to get a few weeks in, and I'm looking forward to playing plenty of games. I just hope I can tear myself away from Final Fantasy XI enough to do so. Right now, my current queue of games is Blue Dragon, an RPG from Mistwalker; Professor Layton and the Curious Village, a puzzle game from Level-5; and Final Fantasy Tactics A2: Grimoire of the Rift, a tactical RPG from Square Enix. I'll also have a retro game lined up, but those are going to be secrets.
I'm hoping to have my first review up by Aug 4th (Monday seems like a great day to post reviews). If I can have it up sooner, then so be it. Until then, I'll be releasing FFXI updates. Until Monday, have fun!
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