» ps3

LMAO, this is one funny glitch from Just Cause 2. Just like one of the commentors said, this also reminds me of 2008’s The Happening where people mysteriously fall from the sky. This is one glitch that I won’t get tired of experiencing!

I haven’t been updating my blog for a while, nothing game related at least. That’s because I have been spending most of my play time on Final Fantasy 13. One of the most anticipated games of 2010 and for many years. So far I have invested more than 50 hours of my life to this game. Then after reading comments from other gamers about how Square Enix got rid of towns and no more experience points to gain screwed the whole series up. Are the changes really that bad?

To be honest, it took some time to get used to, specially the new battle system. Though its still time-based, you can only control one character now and if that character dies its game over. What’s new is something called Paradigm Shift which allows you to setup the role for each of the 3 team members. Some gamers mentioned this system introduced a lot more button mashing than before. I actually disagree, I think its actually less button mashing since you can’t even control the other two characters.

I thought getting rid of the towns was a bad idea too, you don’t have a spot to purchase your equipments and items anymore. In FF13 you will be doing your shopping through the save point as well as upgrading/dismantling your weapons. I found this new feature works quite well and I don’t really miss the fact that towns are gone, well mostly. What you call towns are now nothing but part of the linear path you have to go through. Dialogue pops up when you walk near NPCs, be it in text and just audio without popup subtitles.

I also disagree with the fact that the abscence of experience points eliminated level grinding. We have the CP points, similar to those from Final Fantasy 12. You can still grind or harvest more CP points and max out all your characters roles. Just a different name but the grinding is definitely still there. Though what I don’t like about Final Fantasy 13 is the fact that you really can’t grind much until late in the game, I’ve started my real griding in the second last chapters. There was no point getting your characters to the top because the first half of the game was relatively easy.

Another thing I missed is traveling by air, there are so many airships shown during the cut scenes and full CG scenes but we never get to fly one like we used to.

Anyway, overall I think this game is still well worth the full price. Just because a few of the classic features are gone doesn’t mean it will be a bad game. Though its not perfect, Final Fantasy 13 is still an AAA game in my book.

ps I love Fang. Not only is she the strongest of all, physically, she also looks good. She’s like a combination of Asian, European and American. Yea basically all races combined. Yes, she is hot. There I said it!

I guess my previous whining didn’t help much, I am more annoyed than ever. I now always end up on the losing team, always stuck with a bunch of noobs that do not seem to have an idea of how to play this game properly. All they do is rush out and get shot from all directions. Why do I deserve this? My winning ration was 1.35 yesterday and now I am struggling with a 1.31 because I have lost basically every game today, be it a real lost with noobs on my team or one of those annoying disconnects.

But what annoys me the most is the fact that I am always the only one with a decent score, well most of the time. The rest of my team would just contribute points to the other team by dying. It really felt like its me against the other 13 players instead of 6 on 6. If my team was able to contribute a bit more towards winning I would have no problem losing, at least we tried and the game was fair. In my case it was just pure slaughter by the opposing team.

Maybe I should just take a break and stop playing Modern Warfare 2 for a while. Let myself cool down a bit. Then again, what difference does that make? I will still be the only one, most of the time, with a positive kill / death ratio. What’s the point?

I have never been so upset in my life over a game, never happened with the original Modern Warfare.

This is getting ridiculous and I’m getting fed up with this whole scoring system. I’m not sure if its just me or this happens to basically everyone that plays on PSN. The connection is pretty bad half the time, I constantly get disconnected from games and games that always need to find new hosts. All that I can ignore but I don’t like the fact that it counts as a lost.

I can understand if the player leaves the game by actually selecting the option in the menu, that is considered a lost. But why on earth would you treat that the same when the game ends prematurely? I’m sure the developers should be able to code the game in such a way that it can differentiate between a user leaving the game by choosing the option and a game that just died due to bad connections.

I don’t want to sound like a stats whore but I find it uber unfair that my score is messed up because of this stupid system. And also the fact that I seem to attract noobs to fight along side with me makes the situation (my score) even worse.

Ok I’m done venting….

This survivor mode is going to keep me going and heart pumping for months to come once i get my sweaty hands on it. I wonder if you can only play this mode as humans only as you fight Alien swamps. It sounds weird to fight off a swamp of Predators. Fighting unlimited swamps of humans makes sense though and sounds fun!

Ahh the way the Aliens scream just makes this game 100 times scarier. I’m sold! First day buy!

So I’ve been playing Bayonetta for a few days now, as I mentioned in my review the game isn’t as easy as I thought it would be. One of the main reason why it is giving me such a hard time is how much damage the enemies can inflict apon you if you miss calculated a dodge. I had, in a few occasions, half my life taken from an enemy’s combo attacks. That is why healing is such an important factor, at least to me, in this game. But you either have to purchase them from Rodin in Gates of Hell or you have to concoct your own using green compounds. The problem with purchasing them from Rodin is you can only have 3 green lollipop and 1 mega green lollipop. If you have already reached the limit, you won’t be able to buy anymore but to concoct your own. Normally they won’t come as often as I wish but I have found a way to get Halos (money), Butterflies (that will replenish your magic) and the three compounds. I am not too concerned about the Halos and Butterflies since they come in quite often. This “exploit”, “cheat” or “hack” does not really help gain a lot of Halos anyway.

So what is it? Its probably been mentioned already somewhere but I thought I would mention it again. Basically the benches, flower pots or any breakable objects respawn everytime you go from one place and back. For example, going in and out of Gates of Hell will cause a respawn of all the breakable objects when you re-enter the area. If you keep going in and out, you will be able to collect TONS of compounds. I have tested this in and out for at least 5 times and the objects still respawn WITH Halos, Butterflies and the compounds randomly.

I’m sorry to say I do need this to stock up my healing, attack / defense increasing lollipops.

Bayonetta, a pretty hyped up Devil May Cry style action game was released on Jan 5th. Unfortunately I didn’t get a chance to buy it on that day because I went to watch Avatar with my girlfriend, boy was that one of the best movies of 2009.

Anyway, I went to EB Games the next day but they were sold out, that was a bit surprising because I didn’t expect Bayonetta to be THAT demanding. I went to Best Buy and the PS3 version was sold out and no luck at EB Games again. I finally did get my copy at Futureshop the next day though, phew!

The game hasn’t let me down so far, I still haven’t got bored of the the ultra fast paced battles plus button mashing. I guess that was kind of expected from the beginning (button mashing). I’m not sure if its my lack of skills and patience or is the game hard at some of the sections. I am still having trouble with some of the quicktime events where you have to click the button at that particular moment, not earlier, not later, it has to be exact. I died a couple of times as a result. Some of the battles are pretty hard as well, maybe I need to get better with the dodge.

Boss battles are pretty epic, one of the reasons why I bought this game. I just love looking at oversized monsters that take up more than half the TV screen. I find them easier to deal with then those in Devil May Cry. Another reason, the Torture Attacks, never cease to entertain me with different violent and bloody damaging moves.

The graphics are very impressive though I have noticed a few areas with frame rate issues but they are not enough to put me off this game. Buildings give you the impression of their massiveness. The music is pretty good as well, instead of using rock and heavy metal from Devil May Cry, Bayonetta uses Jazz + piano which give this game a feeling of elegance and style.

Aside from the frame rate issue, one major problem with Bayonetta is the amount of loading and the length of each load. I think the developers could have done a better job at the loading aspect. Other than that, there is nothing really to pick on about this game.

For Devil May Cry fans, this should be a must buy. If you are into ultra fast paced action games, you should give this a try, at least rent it. This game isn’t for those who doesn’t enjoy some button mashing and/or controlling a stylish character. To me, Bayonetta was definitely a worthy game to buy.

Uh oh, looks like I might have to fork out some extra pennies for the multi-cd Final Fantasy XIII Original Sound Track. As usual, the ones who got their hands on some copies have jacked up the price for the Limited edition on ebay for USD $100ish PLUS shipping.

I searched a bit and found Amazon Japan has it for pre-order for roughly USD $50ish + shipping or the regular version for roughly USD $40ish. If it’s only 10 dollars difference, I would certainly get the Limited Edition for sure. Provided I could get my hands on a copy.