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I thought the intro was ok, I mean the graphics are certainly amazing but I was expecting something similiar to the previously shown trailers. Its missing the drama from the rest (its too calm and quiet for my taste, for an intro that is).

Anyway, March 9th 2010 people. Less than 3 months and counting! Or figure out a way to get the Japanese version, but then you won’t know what’s going on with the story.

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I was really impressed, again, by yet another game – Dragon Age: Origins. I thought this might be the game for me while I eagerly wait for Final Fantasy 13′s release. But sadly after watching this trailer, which I’m guessing its played on a console, lead me down.

Its not because its got bad graphics or anything. Its the way you fight your battles, which leads to how enjoyable the game play is. I was really, I mean really, annoyed by the fact that you have to pause the game, we are talking about in the middle of battles, in order to assign orders to your party members without getting hit, unless you can micro-manage in real time then that’s a no issue for you. I don’t see how I can enjoy this game when I have to pause every few seconds. I am only speaking for myself because obviously based on some of the comments, some people do not seem to be bothered by this pause-effect. This might not be exactly the same but think of it this way, do you like to watch a movie that pauses every 10 seconds? All of a sudden in the middle of a great battle, the movie pauses, no music, animation just freezes. Will you enjoy that?

So to me this game is really meant to be played on a PC, then again my PC isn’t probably powerful enough to handle this so that means a no-go for me unfortunately. Guess I have to get Modern Warfare 2, which is a completely different game genre while I wait for Final Fantasy 13 to come out.

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Just got news from Wired that the Blu-ray version of Final Fantasy VII Advent Children Complete will be released in Japan on April 16th. There will be two versions, the regular edition will come with the movie only and one that will be bundled with the long awaited Final Fantasy 13 demo. The regular version is approximately $54 where as the bundle will be an $11 extra ($65).

Here’s the problem, I don’t really care if people in Japan are paying much higher than us for DVDs and Blu-rays. Not that I can do anything about that anyway. But at the $54 price point I can get 2 Blu-ray movies. Square Enix might as well release only the version with the demo bundled with the movie because for a mere $11 extra, we get a first taste of FF13, which by the way is delayed until 2010. Hopefully the prices will be adjusted when they hit American.

If I do decide to, which I probably will for the sake of the demo (assuming there are no price adjustments), pay so much for the decent-but-not-great movie, I might as well fork an extra 20% to get the demo. For your information, the Blu-ray version of Resident Evil: Degeneration which I recommend checking it out, is only 32.99 +tax on Futureshop and 34.99 +tax on BestBuy.ca, which is still expensive but acceptable.

Sigh, looks like I need to start saving up.

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Its almost holiday season and I’m sure everyone’s looking for great games to play during that time. I have composed a list of top 10 games that I think its worth buying. Hope you guys will find the list helpful. They are not in any particular order.

Dead Space – This has to be one of the best single player horror X sci-fi game I’ve ever played in years if not in my life. With innovative holographic menu system that is “real time” which means enemies can still attack you because the game is not paused, you don’t see any HP or ammo being displayed on the screen, instead you will see them on your character’s armor and the weapons. With this menu system, you can basically This makes the game more enjoyable because there is now nothing distracting you from the monster limb chopping you will surely enjoy. Audio is also nicely composed which really further makes the atmosphere even scarier.

Buy Dead Space on ebay

Fallout 3 – Similar to Oblivion released years back, this time taking place in post-apolcalyptic Washington D.C. in the year 2277. You will fight your way through raiders, mutants and ghouls. Killing anyone on your path including innocent people and become an evil or gain as much positive karma as you can to become a saviour or in between good and evil. Your karma will have direct affect between you and anyone you interact with. Aside from being able to switch between first and third person, Fallout 3 also introduces Vault-Tec Assisted Targeting System or VATS which helps you “auto aim” at certain body parts or the same part (with the chance of hitting displayed) in bullet time style. Using VATS will drain your AP or Action Points which can be regained in time or by using items.

Finally, the world you are in is huge, and provide you many areas both up on the hills all the way to the underground into abandoned subway stations and caves to explore .

Buy Fallout 3

Rock Band 2 / Guitar Hero World Tour – Two of the best musical / party / rock band game, play with up to three of your friends with mic, guitar and/or the drum. Some people prefer Rock Band while others say Guitar Hero World Tour is better. Well….guess it all depends on the person. I only have Guitar Hero and I’ve played Rock Band before at my friend’s house. I prefer the songs from Guitar Hero to be honest.

Buy Rock Band 2 on ebay
Buy Guitar Hero World Tour on ebay

 

Left 4 Dead – I would say this is yet one of the best games of this year. You can play with up to 3 other players, bots or human and fight your way through zombie infested maps. The best feature of this game is that zombies can randomly pop out at you when you are least expected and the level of difficult is auto adjusted based on your performance. You can also have the option to play on the “dead” side as well. This game is very fast paced and really gives you the “rush/desperate” feel. Unfortunately this game is only for XBox 360 and PC owners.

Buy Left 4 Dead on ebay

 

 

Call of Duty: World at War – If you are into first person shooter, you should have played Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare by now. If not then something is obviously wrong with you in my opinion. COD: WAW takes place back in World War 2, I personally prefer modern time so I didn’t get this game. But COD: WAW offers 4 player co-op game play, a deadly flame thrower and you can unlock an extremely fun and increasingly difficult zombie stage after beating the game. This is a must for first person and/or World War fans, getting COD 4 is another safe buy as well. I’ve been playing COD 4 for over a year and I’m still not bored of it, this should tell you how good the COD series really is.

Buy Call of Duty World at War on ebay

World of Warcraft: Lich King – One of the best MMORPG to date. I haven’t played WOW before and not planning to because I worry that I will get too addicted to it. I used to play and was hooked on Final Fantasy 11 for slightly less than 2 years in which it used up a lot of my time and so I had to call it a quit and said goodbye to my level 65 TaruTaru Dark knight…sigh. If you are a Warcraft fan, existing WOW player AND you have the time, I don’t see any reason why you should skip this expansion.

Buy World of Warcraft: Lich King on ebay

 

 

 

Gears of War 2 – One of the best sci-fi third person shooter, unfortunately only available for the Xbox 360. Wish it would be ported over to the PlayStation 3 but I highly doubt it. I think this game is just as good as Call of Duty.

Buy Gears of War 2 on ebay

 

 

 

 

 

Chrono Trigger – One of the best RPG classic orginally released for the Super Nintendo. This turn based RPG created by SquareEnix has a rich story plot as well as amazing graphics (at the time of original release) and audio. RPG fans cannot miss this one!

Buy Chrono Trigger on ebay

 

 

 

The Last Remnant – Many people will probably disagree on this one. Even after seeing the all the graphical issues like texture popping and laggy frame rate during battles. I still think this is a great game, again by Square Enix, and its a perfect Japanese RPG game to play until Final Fantasy 13 comes out. I particularly like the new battle system where you are not just fighting with your group but also have the ablity to give simple commands to your ally groups. As a result battles are much bigger and longer. Too bad its only for XBox 360, PlayStation 3 owners will have to wait and hopefully those graphical issues will be resolved by then.

Buy The Last Remnant on ebay

 

I’m sure there are many other games that you think are worth buying, feel free to add to my list in the comments.

 

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Today I had a chance to spend some time on Garnet Chronicle, an anime style RPG game but unfortunately its the Japanese version and as far as I know there is no release date for the English version.

Story and controls

  

Since its in Japanese, I vaguely know what is going on, so far! Your hero character is a knight student from a Knight academy. Your first quest is to bring a recommendation letter from the principle of the academy to the commander somewhere near the village. All of a sudden the entire battalion is being attacked by an evil looking character and his werewolf like companion, to no surprise, the entire battalion is wiped out and of course our main hero survives but barely and saves by a sexy female elf thief/treasure hunter. From then on, she joins you in the quest for the “Stone of the Evil Mind” (sorry that’s a direct translation from Japanese to English). Then once inside the “Tower of Lost” you meet up with another character, this time he’s a wizard class and he joins you afterwords. That’s how far I am in the game.

  

The controls are typical walk with your analog stick, R will bring up the map but so far there is no map when venturing inside dungeons, circle is confirm while cross is cancel, typical Japanese style, the American version might have these two buttons reversed. Unfortunately there’s no run button so walking around might feel slow at times. You can also save the game anytime and thankfully the menus are in English as well as the Japanese explanation, only the menus though.

Game play and graphics
Game play is pretty much the same old turn based RPG similar to Final Fantasy (up to Final Fantasy X-2 since the battle system has changed starting FF11). You and your enemies will take turns to attack/defend/cast magic on each other. Which is fine except it feels really slow and rather boring, it would make a huge difference if the attack was smoother and faster such that attacks are executed as soon as the one before finished its move. But as you gather more people on your team, the fight gets more interesting and faster so its not too bad after all. Level grinding is also part of the game but not necessary. It is surprisingly fast to level up though, at least for the first 20 or so levels which can really speed up the grinding. As you finish each battle you are rewarded with money, experience, random items and skill points. Skill points can be spent on each character’s skill tree to unlock more powerful attack and support skills. Skill points are shared among all your characters unfortunately! And last but not least money you earned from each battle obviously will be for buying weapons, armors and support items. There are also cards and stones that can enhance your weapons such as turning your sword to have ice element and upgrade your special abilities. Treasure chests are scattered all over the map, inside buildings, out in the woods or anywhere in the villages. Some are less obvious as I have found one hidden one so far.

  

One interesting feature that I have never seen before, at least in an RPG, is the “sneak” feature. When you approach your enemies from behind without being spotted, you can deal damage to them before the battle starts. Same applies to the enemies, if they spotted you, they would run to you and if your back is facing them then you will get attacked first. You will know when your enemies have spotted you when an exclamation mark appears on top of their heads. This feature is independent of who attacks first when the battle begins, so that means there’s a chance you can attack twice before an enemies can attack you, same applies to the enemies. If you can utilize this feature you can really gain an upper hand when fighting and makes battles a lot easier.

Graphics are nothing fancy but well drawn anime style. Everything is 2D based but don’t let that get you because even though the characters are simple 2D sprites, their expressions and body gestures can be seen clearly depend on the situations. There are also nice flashy special effects when your characters use their speical abilities.
One thing I don’t like is the fact that, all enemies look the same on the map, so you don’t know what kind of enemies you will face until the battle screen comes up. I don’t see why the developers cannot make the enemies show up on the map as well. But then again, what if there are more than one type of enemies, which one would they show? Maybe that’s the reason why.

  

Sound

Your typical anime music, your characters and enemies will say something before they attack which makes battle less dull. Sometimes your characters will even voice over during conversations. I can imagine the English translation will be bad and takes away the Japanese “atmosphere” just like any other games that went through the Jap to English translation. In general the music is great most of the time, but sometimes they can get a bit too repetitive and get annoying afterwords.

Final Verdict
Overall I think this game is worth a try, this type of game is nothing new but the game is still enjoyable. I had problems turning off my PSP until it went out of batteries while playing it. That should give you an idea of how addictive and enjoyable this game is, specially for level grinders like myself. Hopefully the American version will be released soon so you English speaking people can enjoy this game as much as I am now. And for those that can read Chinese, Japanese or don’t care about the story, you should be able to get a copy from ebay or YESASIA.

8/10

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