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.
I didn’t have time to check what was new on PSN on the usual Thursday. But when I logged in on Saturday I found two demo games that brought tears to my eyes. One was the violent, funny and bloody as hell Fairytale Fights and the other was another one of the most hyped up action game Bayonetta. The second demo really surprised me as I didn’t expect one in the first place (it is coming out in early January of 2010).
If you have not heard of Bayonetta, something is wrong with you or you are not into games in the action genre. First thing you will notice is the similarity of Bayonetta and the Devil May Cry series since they are both directed by Hideki Kamiya, who also directed Viewtiful Joe, another action game. After playing the demo I personally think Bayonetta beats Devil May Cry in every way.
First of all, you are not only wielding one gun, you are wielding 2 in both hands and 2 more as part of Bayonetta’s sexy heels (though you can customize your weapons to your liking). The 4 enchanted guns are called Scarborough Fair, . How cool is having guns as part of the heels? Each weapon has its own attacks and because there are so many different weapons to choose from, you won’t be seeing the same moves over and over again as often as in Devil May Cry or any other button mashing action games, Heavenly Sword is one.
Big Bosses! I’m a sucker for big and epic looking bosses. There were two of such bosses in the demo, they were relatively easy to handle. You get to finish them off by summoning “Beasts from Hell”, from her hair and skin-tight suit (where the Partial Nudity in the rating comes from), in bloody ways. Speaking of finishing moves, you can also activate “Torture Attacks” if you have collected enough magic orbs (forgot the proper term). Getting hit will erase some of the magic orbs though so you have to be careful not to get hit.
Overall the game is VERY fast paced, the demo lasted roughly 15 minutes. I actually played again after finishing it the first time. It was that good!
Graphics are gorgeous, specially the environment. I occasionally paused, used the right analog stick to just look around and appreciate the sceneries. With such a fast paced game, I did not notice any framerate issue at all.
Music (produced by piano) is also another strong asset for Bayonetta, simply elegant.
I could go on and on with this game but I will leave the rest for you guys to discover. If my girlfriend, who isn’t that into games, actually likes the game as much as I do. Then it is safe to say we have a winner here. Bayonetta isn’t just a looker, but a real deal. With stylish game play, beautiful graphics and backed by elegant music in the background. Bayonetta is a first day must buy, at least for me. If you haven’t played the demo, please do so, chances are you won’t be disappointed!
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, one of the most anticipated game this year has been out for more than a week. If I was to summarize the game in two words, I would say its “almost perfect”. Definitely a game worth the full $64.99CAD (+tax) first day purchase with absolutely zero regret.
The first one, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare has a pretty sweet single player story line with a lot of drama. The sequel’s story line is even more, how should I put it, “messed up” and packed with even more drama. Words cannot possibly describe how good I think it is, you have to buy it and see it for yourself. Its not just the story that got “super-sized” but the characters are also noticably more detailed, at least to me, while the environments look relatively similar to Call of Duty 4.
This time around, you won’t be blowing up your enemies from above using the AC-130 Gunship but you get to be the gunner of an armored humvee, life boat as well as snowmobile chases.
You can expect to finish the single player story in about 7 hours, but that is ok since this game is made for multiplayer.
There are also new and more weapons to choose from (same ones sound different now as well! M4A1 for example). This time even the rocket launcher and stinger missle launcher are available in multiplayer which were only available in the first game’s single player missions. I also love the fact that you have 3 times more ammo (correction: the reason why I got full ammo was due to the Scavenger perk) for your guns and you can carry a secondary, but not necessary limited to just a hand gun, such as shotguns, grenade launcher or even a rocket launcher. Though you only get to carry one or two shots from the launchers and no way to reload unless you get the Resupply crate from kill streak perk or the Scavenger perk, which in my opinion, very useful in staying fully equipped all the time.
Another great addition to Modern Warfare 2 is the game allows you to customize your own kill streak bonuses, from 3 kill streak UAV all the way to a whooping 25 kill streak for the almighty tactical nuke (sorry I’m not THAT good). I would search youtube if you want to see what it looks like, I’ve done the search for you.
I really like the random care package by getting a mere 4 kill streak, you can pretty much get anything from this, not sure if you can get the tactical nuke from it though! (Funny incident: I killed myself by accident from the crate by crouching right on top of the drop point)
In one of the kill streak bonuses, you get to be the actual gunner of the attack helicopter. While its fun raining bullets down on your enemies from the sky, I think this one, which you can get from an 11 kill streak, a bit over powered. If you get that and the other team is too dumb to shoot it down then you basically are garanteed 10 to 15+ kills just from this.
So here’s my quick summary of this fantasy game, if you liked Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, you will certainly like this one, well, most likely. I mean I’m sure you want to know the rest of the story too, and the ending leaves room for Modern Warfare 3, which I cannot wait.
Hmmm maybe it will be released some time 2011 November?
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.
I was so so so close to getting Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising. Mainly because I wanted something other than Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare for a change. Also, the trailers so far were quite promising as well and it did look realistic, compare to the COD series.
I’m glad I always troll around Gametrailers.com and read their take on this game before I slap myself for wasting $70 bucks on this disappointing game. You can see the negative points of this game clearly outweights the goods. For one, why does the console multiplayer only support 4 on 4? What were the developers thinking?
If you are looking for a shoot them up, this isn’t for you. Do give it a shot (I’m sure you can refund it) if and only if you are into realistic war-simulator. Sadly I guess the sequel did not live up to the original Operation Flashpoint and it just won’t even stand close to the soon-to-be-released Modern Warfare 2.
So I found this baby submitted by one of the users on GameTrailers.com. Although its rather short, less than two minutes, and the quality is obviously “cam-quality”. It looks like a chase scene at the beginning and then turns into a fierce gun fight. It does look like watching a movie! Man I cannot wait for this game, about two more months people! TWO more months! Let’s cross our fingers that it won’t get delayed!
[update]For some reason the embedded code doesn’t work, here is the direct link.
So I had a chance to play the demo for Mini Ninjas tonight for the PlayStation 3. My first impression of this game was “wow, this game is colorful!”, not to the point where its photo realistic but high definition cartoon art style. Not only that, the music and the environment combine really give that “zen” and oriental feel.
Personally I don’t think this game is for me, I feel that this game is aimed towards the younger crowd. Mini Ninjas puts you in a team of ninjas, you will be able to switch among 3 initially. And as you progress through the game, you will unlock (rescue?) the others with each ninja has his/her advantages.
Although I mostly won’t buy this game, Mini Ninjas certain has a lot of interesting features like having you to hold down “X” and shake your controller to collect fruits and honey from trees and bushes. You will also be opening doors with this action which makes the game more engaging because you are not just mashing buttons. You will have a few scrolls at your disposal as well, one of them being the Spirit Form where you can take on the form of an animal. You can attack your enemies if you take on the boar or a bear by running into them.
You can also fish in the ever virbrant river for sushi, which obviously is for bring your health back up. You have the option to swim (very slow) through your way or you can sit in your huge round hat and paddle across. Both have a timer so you can only be swimming for a limited time, although most likely you won’t run out of time, at least based on the demo. Too bad you can’t experience what I call it snow-hatting, where you will be sliding snowy slopes in your hat which I saw at the end of the demo.
If you are looking for some “zen” and/or casual third person action game with mini (chibi) characters. Mini Ninjas should not disappoint you. Although this game isn’t really for me, I highly recommend this for the younger crowd, as in younger than 20 (yes I’m old!).
Mini Ninjas will be released on September 8th 2009.
Took me a while to get my hands on the demo for Batman: Arkham Asylum on PSN as I kept on getting error when trying to download it. So I finally managed to get it and I was excited, because this game might actually be a comic-movie-cartoon video game that will not disappoint, unlike the rest of the movie games (ahem….G.I. Joe anyone?). So is Batman: Arkham Asylum worth buying?
I have mix reactions actually because the demo is rather short, you can easily finish it within 15-20 minutes, if not shorter. Then again it is not a race and you are suppose to appreciate the game by walking around, flying around with your trusty grapple hook. And due to the length of the demo, I’m not sure if I will get bored of some of the features of this game or not. For one the combat system is….ok, animations are smooth but nothing amazing, in my opinion. You basically throw punches, counter your enemies and try to knock them down for good. While hanging upside down or using the glide kick to take out your enemies is fun, I have a feeling its just one of those “its fun while it lasts” kind of thing. On the rather positive side, I do like the fact that you have different choices to choose from for taking out your enemies.
The detective mode looks interesting as well, you get to check what weapon each person (friends and enemies) is carrying, their status, be it calm or nervous, check where you can fly up using the grapple hook or weak walls where you can blow it up using explosives. Again the demo is rather short so that’s all I got to see and experiment.
The graphics look amazingly detailed, from the textures of the asylum to the characters that you play and/or interact with, specially the main characters like Batman, Joker and Harley Quinn (her outfit is pretty detailed!) for example.
Honestly after playing the demo, although I’ve always been a Batman fan, I am really not sure if I should get this right at the release date. And there isn’t a multiplayer mode, which is understandable, this game is at best, a rental for me. Unless you are a fanatic and/or you absolutely loved the demo, I don’t think you should buy it right away, wait for a price drop in about 6 months time or look for a second hand on ebay. I wish the demo was longer, then I would have a better idea. Right now it feels like I’m one of those crooks and left hanging upside down by Batman.
