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I was going to wait til Friday (day off) to get a copy of Disgaea 3: Absence of Justice from EB Games, I couldn’t wait and got it yesterday I have been waiting for an RPG game for my PlayStation 3 since I got it last November. Until Final Fantasy 13 comes out, which is hopefully end of this year, I would need some RPG to satisfy my RPG hunger til then. And what can suit me better than a Japanese anime style, level grinding RPG game? None except this game. Obviously I have not finished the game, and most likely I won’t in the foreseeable future. Here are my thoughts so far.

As mentioned, this is a RPG game and turn-based with 2D sprites with 3 camera modes (bird’s-eye view, zoomed in view and really zoomed in view). First thing I noticed about this game is the graphics, which is pretty outdated in my opinion. They remind me of an online RPG gamed called Ragnarok Online, which has been out since 2001 and still remains popular even after it started charging monthly fees instead of being free like in the beta period. This shows that a game can still be a considered a good game even without fancy graphics, a game with fancy graphics but with no game play value is still a bad game, well most of the time. Disgaea 3 is exactly the case, even though its graphics are outdated. Its game play more than made up for the short coming.

The game starts you off with your main character, a netherworld student from Maritsu Evil Academy called Mao, a son of the overlord in the Netherworld. You actually play on the evil side for once as oppose to other games where most of the time you are on the “good” side fighting off evil. Here’s the fun part, in the netherworld school, an honor student is a person who skips class and not doing homework as much as possible, whereas a delinquent is a person who acts the exact opposite. And as you can guess, Mao is an honor student. The story is ok, its more suited for teens since most of the conversations are pretty childish, which is ok because the characters are after all, kids. There are also humor here and there as well and some are pretty funny. There is also an option to skip any story telling and conversation between characters by pressing triangle button which is a huge plus since I don’t find the majority of the story interesting, at least not yet. You can also change the voice over from English back to Japanese, which is yet another big plus since it just feels different having English voice over.

  

Game play of this game is what made me want to buy this game right away as oppose to wait for a couple of months and let the price drop. The play value as well as replay value is amazing. For those of you that are into leveling up your characters, you can level them to level 1000 and each stage can be played repeatedly or you can just play through the game by clearing each level once. Since it is a turn-based game, you get to move and attack/use item and end the turn, then your enemies will do the same. A very noticable difference, or I should say improvement over any other turn-based games is that the enemies move all at once as oppose to one at a time which can be annoying. The game pace is fast even under normal speed setting. Your characters can counter attacks and enemies can do the same randomly, so you can see counter-counter-counter attacks for example. Characters, again enemies as well, can combine attacks and form combos and which also happen randomly. There are also monsters in the game and they can “magichange” which pretty much means morph into weapons and allow human/demon characters to wield them, another fun feature. I’m pretty sure there are other fun features as I play more, but as you can see, this game is packed with so many features. Oh and by the way, I look forward to my first million point damage!

Control is pretty standard and straight forward like any other similar games. You can rotate the map 360 degrees so you don’t miss anything and 3 different views mentioned above.

While I like this game a lot, there is one thing that really bothers me, the music. While the music is very upbeat, it gets boring and down to annoying if you remain in the same area or in the same battle for too long.

That’s all I got to tell you guys for now, I’m sure I have missed something but there are just too much to talk about and I need more time to digest. So if you are an anime fan and are into level grinding, you should really check this game out.

You might save some money by buying on ebay link. I saw some good deals there, even the limited addition version. I would buy games off ebay if there were more Canadian sellers, sending from the US is not worth it and is often more expensive than buying in local stores.

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Sony and Spanish based WiFi provider FON have joined forces to provide free WiFi access for PSP owners in Japan. Imagine surfing the net, watching streaming music and movies on the go! But in Japan only, which is somewhat expected since Japan has a history of keeping the goodies to themselves. For those lucky enough to be in Japan and own a PSP, they will also be able to download custom Dissidia: Final Fantasy themes which the game itself will be released in December. I wouldn’t have heard of a new Final Fantasy release if it wasn’t for this WiFi deal.

It would be great if this offer became available to us in North America, but chances are pretty slim in my opinion, at least it won’t be free. One reason is that Japan is much smaller than say, Canada, so setting up those hot spots is much easier and less costly. They are already setup in Japan which made the setup even easier. Its just a matter of integrating with each other’s system.

Although we will most likely not get this free WiFi access anytime soon. It is still good news to those living in Japan, again the Japanese always gets the goodies. Think I have one more reason to go to Japan since I have a Japanese version PSP.

At last, after such a long wait, I finally got my hands on Star Wars: The Force Unleashed demo. The demo starts you off with the young apprentice having a conversation with Darth Vader (I spelled it Dark Vader before, oops) and facial expression is top notch. Then you start the level inside a ship, no surprise there. You are presented with a bunch of containers right in front of you in which the auto aim will target one of them for you, you can also lock-on to a target. You get to dash, defend, the saber attack, jump and 3 forces – Force Lightning, Force Grip and Force Push. Force Grip is extremely fun. I spent the first 20 minutes just to play around with Force Grip, grabbing every object I could and just toss them around, it was that fun! The environment is very destructible, you can literally break the windows and shutters will be down to stop air from escaping or you can hit the wall and parts of it will break apart. Force Push is another fun force to play with, you will be using it to “open” large doors which I’m sure will take you awhile to get bored of. I have not used Force Ligtning in any special occasion except shocking and frying storm troopers. Almost forgot, you can also chain and discover new combo attacks as you progress.

  

Near the end of the demo, you get to go head to head with an AT-ST, it wil not be an easy task though! I almost died fighting it lol. You get to finish it by following a set of button clicks similar to Heavenly Sword. If you get it wrong you have to start over again, but its not a show stopper.

  

Graphics-wise, its just amazing, I have nothing negative to say, facial expression like the way the young apprentice talks is very realistic as well as special effects like explosions and things getting sucked out of a broken window. The character movement is also silky smooth and fluid! Control-wise and game play, being able to chain and discover new attack combo isn’t new. But given the 3 forces, you will have hours of fun chaining different combos, shocking enemies and opening doors by “force”.

  

So if you have not had a chance to get the demo or you are hesitating, which you shouldn’t be, you should get the demo now and feel the FORCE.

 

As I am eagerly waiti for Star Wars: The Force Unleashed demo to finish downloading, I’ve downloaded The Last Guy demo. I knew it is going to be a fun game because I’ve seen trailer for this game before.

The goal of this game is simple, rescue at least the amount of people based on the mission within a given time. That’s it! You will be navigating through a detailed Google-Earth-like map from a top down view. There will be monsters and zombies roaming around waiting for you to get close. Its a one hit kill so don’t go too close to them. With a press of a button you can use the thermal imaging and check shortcuts that are otherwise too hard to see under the normal view and to find where people are hiding. The trade off is you won’t see the monsters using this view. You can also dash to make yourself and the people following you move faster, but the stamina get drained pretty fast. Luckily there are recovery, time stop and invisible items scattered all around the map, there’s only one stamina recharge item in the demo though but its not really needed.

 
 

Overall the demo is fun and I will probably play it again. The game really makes you think a bit before trying to rescue the people inside. You to (patiently) wait until the area is clear, otherwise you draw out the people and if a monster is near, it will kill them and that’s not good!

The demo takes place in Japan, the full version will let you rescue people from different cities around the world. What are you waiting for? Give it a try!

 
 

August didn’t have alot of games that interest me, except Siren: Blood Curse. But end of this month, we can expect two good games being released and at least three more next month (based on my preference of course, you might find these games boring). With all these great games coming out, for sure I will be broke in the next few months.

I will now briefly write about each one.

 

 

 

 

Disgaea 3: Absence of Justice
I have never heard of the Disgaea series before, apparently its a Japanese anime style with 2d sprite characters turn base SRPG game. I’m a big fan of this type of RPG, aside from the sprites, the environments are in 3D, the special effects are amazing as well. And I’m always attracted to number games and this game definitely caught my attention with its million point damage! From the trailers, it has many different combo attacks, 100+ hours of play time (not sure if that is actually a good thing though, unless it is really that fun) and over 270 customizable characters!
Expect a review once I get my hands on this.

 

Mercenaries 2: World in Flames
Ever since Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, I haven’t really paid attention to other first person/third person shooter game, well of course except Metal Gear Solid 4. Mercenaries 2 lets you play the main campaign with your friends. It offers a wide range of vehicles to take control and you can earn money to purchase gears as well. I’ve also checked out some trailers but I found the computer constantly calling for backup and saying the same thing over and over again which was annoying. But overall this game should be fun for those that enjoy blowing up stuff!

 

And coming in September:

 

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed
One of most anticipated games this year is finally here in September. A lot of trailers have shown what the impressive Havok Physics™ system can do when Darth Vader’s Secret Apprentice, your character, uses the “force” on enemies or on non-living objects like boxes or even a large ship. Graphics are impressive as well and makes the gameplay even more enjoyable in combination with the physics engine and other new technologies that are introduced for the first time. Demo will be available on August 21st. I can’t wait til get my hands on this one.

 

LEGO Batman
Ahh need I say more? LEGO Batman. You can never get enough of LEGO, anything with LEGO is almost a instant win. LEGO Star Wars and LEGO Indiana Jones were/are pretty popular. There is a lot of replay value in all the LEGO games because you can unlock characters each with his/her own unique ability which will allow you to go to places you previously couldn’t. And don’t ever think the audio and graphics are childish either, they are amazing as I’ve seen from the LEGO Indiana Jones demo. I’m actually curious why the demo was released after the full version.

 

Silent Hill Homecoming
I’m a big fan of survival horror games like Resident Evil, Fatal Frame and Siren. I feel that every new series gets nastier and each with a more twisted storyline. If you are a fan of past Silent Hill, you should not miss this one. And this game isn’t for everyone, if you can’t handle the “sickness” and the “twistedness” from the movie, (I think I just introduced a new word there) then this game isn’t suitable for you. For those that are a fan of the deadly but sexy nurses, they are back!

I would like to hear your must-buy list!

The first Tomb Raider was released in 1996 and it was a big hit for the PC. Another chapter of Lara Croft is coming in a few months, November based on Gametrailers.com. This is one of those must get games. So far with two trailers, I can see the new game offers, as you can imagine, much better graphics, somewhat Uncharted-ish since both are rather similar type of game where you explore different places, but of course Tomb Raider being the more original. But I cannot comment anymore without seeing more actual game plays.

For now please drool over a more recent trailer or check out the HD version at Gametrailers.com.

As soon as I saw 1942: Joint Strike demo on PSN, I downloaded it immediately. 1942 was and still is one of the most addicting war plane shooter games of all time. Its simply classic. The remake is in 3D and the graphics are just so crisp and sharp. Back then when the plans blow up, it was just a simple blow up image, now the planes actually break into pieces and disappear.

In terms of game play, like I said, its just as addictive as the classic version, it also has stunning graphics. You have more ways of blowing up your enemies now. You have this new shooting mode where you hold the shoot button, it will fire a stronger shot like from the yet another classic plane shooter called R-Type in addition to the classic shooting mode but I didn’t find that new mode effective. Aside from normal shooting, you will have the bombs that will basically wipe out anything on the screen. Missiles is also another new weapon where, if I remember correctly, you get to use them by shooting down enemies. And finally, instead of getting killed in one shot, this version of 1942 features a life bar instead, life bars are nothing new to plane shooters but its a nice addition.

The demo features one quick level, as you can guess, there will be a boss at the end of the level. The memories of playing the classic version just came back to me when I had to dodge all over the place just to not get hit by the many bullets just fly towards you. It was amazingly fun!

I highly recommend this game for those that find plane shooters addictive. With better graphics and game play, 1942: Joint Strike is worth every $9.99USD/CAD that you are going to pay for! I might even get the full version later.

  
 

If you want to look for a copy of the original 1942 on NES, I’ve found some on eBay.

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At last I have finished the game, what an experience! I’ve pretty much mentioned the likes and dislikes of this game. But I really have to stress that the sight jacking ability can sometimes be very….annoying. Particularly in chapter 11 where you play Sam Monroe and have to protect his daughter Bella, when a shibito sees you, or targeted you, your screen will be separated into the normal view and your sight jacking view. This can be very frustrating because as you know, this game takes place in the dark more than 50% of the time and when you are in the middle of a battle with multiple enemies, its hard to navigate around the area with half the screen. That killed me a few times before I could complete the mission. That’s my biggest complain of the game and of chapter 11.

And by the way, you get to kill one of those baby crying shibitos, they are actually called the maggot shibitos. You can’t kill them with normal weapons though, but through particular ways depending on the missions.

After finishing chapter 11, it makes sense to finish the last chapter

You are in control of Howard for the entire chapter. As you can imagine, you will get to fight the final boss that created all this hellish mess. It is actually an easy fight since all it does is teleporting around, as long as you don’t stand close to it, it won’t attack you. The background is too “colorful” though and its very distracting. Finally, I am somewhat disappointed because the other bosses have given me a much tougher time than this final boss have.

The ending shows Howard cleaning up the mess like a “hero”. Maybe its because I haven’t played the previous games of the series, I honestly have no idea what was going when I watched it.

Anyway, I think this game is still worth the money and again, buy the complete pack because there’s really no point to buy only a 4 chapter pack since all chapters are linked together. If you liked the demo you will like the entire game. I mean I don’t think you will like the first 4 chapters and then all of a sudden you lose interest, the chance of that is pretty low in my opinion.

The story is confusing, at least for me. I am still not sure how everyone has ended up in that village in the first place. Graphics wise, as mentioned before, the environment including weather, buildings as well as all playable characters, NPC and enemies are all highly detailed (well except for the posters on the walls). In terms of controls, its easy to pick up, you will get used to the control pretty soon as the first 2 chapters are pretty much tutorials and teach you the basics. Game play is also pretty good, except for the occasional sight jacking annoyance. Sometimes the game forces you to go in pure stealth mode and sometimes you can just kill your way through, provided you have a weapon, not just your fists though! I believe you can even complete the game in pure stealth as well.

If you like Silent Hill type of game, there is a pretty high chance you will like Siren as well. Its pretty much as creepy and messed up as Silent Hill!

I hope you all enjoyed reading my reviews on Siren: Blood Curse for the PlayStation 3. And oh yes, the last picture shows you how “good” I played.

You can get other series of Siren on eBay for a fraction of the original price now

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