Escapes from Reality

Announcement - Escapes From Reality has moved!

2010-05-24T04:57:00.000-07:00

This is the last blog post I'm going to write here on BlogSpot. Escapes From Reality has moved to its new digs over at Wordpress!

This site makes everything ugly as hell - the new place is easier to edit (making for faster posting) and better looking to boot. Come check it out at...

http://escapesfromreality.wordpress.com/ (link)

- John out

The President of Portables

2010-03-09T01:34:00.000-08:00

I hope you've got a little time, as this post is extremely, extremely long. :-)

Back in the day, I really, really, really LOVED my PS2. Compared to Xbox and (especially) Gamecube, there was just so much more to play over on Sony's sinister-looking but still lovable black box. When I say this, I'm not just talking about big ticket blockbusters like Final Fantasy X, but quirky, "lower budget" but still totally awesome games like Steambot Chronicles, Harvest Moon: Save The Homeland, Shadow Hearts: Covenant and Atelier Iris. The PS2's huge install base allowed it to get away with releasing games targeted to very specific niches of gamers - no matter how hardcore, weird or out there your game's concept was, you'd still have a good chance of finding an audience because the user base was so enormous.

Logically, it follows that this is the reason why I love my DS so much -- because of it's similarly gigantic install base, it's pretty much become the inheritor of the PS2's depth of game genres, and has mutated from its ultra-casual beginnings (with gimmicky touch games like Feel The Magic and Warioware Touched! highlighted at launch) to its significantly more hardcore present. While I love the PSP as well - I'm not a hater, I also own one, after all - a lot of the big releases seem to be scaled-down versions of existing console titles, with avantgarde stuff like School of Heroes, Holy Invasion of Privacy, Badman!, and Half-Minute Hero few and far between. I usually break the PSP out occasionally when big titles I've been looking forward to come out (Final Fantasy Dissidia, etc.) but mostly the DS wins out when it comes to my portable gaming needs.

Baguio City! Full of beautiful trees, fresh air, and PEOPLE WHO STEAL MOTHERFUCKING NINTENDO DS's FROM OTHER PEOPLE. No, I'm not bitter anymore.

In fact, I love my DS so much that when some sorry asshole stole my first DS Lite (glossy black) on a trip to Baguio, I immediately bought another DS (two-tone blue/black) without thinking. I haven't regretted it since. :-D And when you think about it, why wouldn't I? I mean, just look at that library! Yeah, I realize that there's a lot of shovelware out there (Dora the Explorer! WTF) but as I mentioned, the user base of the system is big enough to accomodate users of all stripes, which means a wide variety of games for everybody.

To prove my assertion that, contrary to popular belief, the DS is a hardcore gaming wonderland, I've written a breakdown of what the little console that could has got to show per genre. (Part of me is writing this feature to build on IGN's execrable 25 best DS games of all time list, which is just full of poor choices and exclusions.) Please note however that I only included my personal favorites on this list, excluding games that I don't like very much even though they may be popular (ahem *Final Fantasy Tactics A2* ahem *Blue Dragon*). And sometimes I just forget, so sue me! Don't take this as a comprehensive listing by any means.

So, without further ado...

TAKE THIS!

JRPG

Atelier Annie: Alchemists of Sera Island
Final Fantasy III
Final Fantasy IV
Dragon Quest V: Hand of the Heavenly Bride
Rune Factory 1 & 2
Nostalgia
Etrian Odyssey 1 & 2 (part 1 pictured)
Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles 1 & 2

Do you like experience points and leveling up? Do you like grinding away in the name of self-improvement, interspersed with chunks of story exposition?

Then welcome to portable nirvana, as it seems that all the PS2 developers left out in the cold after PS3/360 development became too expensive decided to start DS projects of their own. Squeenix in particular is very active on DS - it's crazy how many games they've released on this thing, and how surprisingly good a lot of the games are. This is the main reason why I'm not as angry at Squeenix as a lot of core Sony gamers -- they haven't stopped producing good shit, they're just not producing it for the PS3 (yet), focusing more on DS and PSP development.

Jesus, just look at that lineup - that's a truly sterling collection of titles, a veritable murderer's row of quality RPG gaming. I don't have the patience to go over all of them, but I'll do my best to provide highlights. Atelier Annie is weird but supremely enjoyable (part management sim, part RPG). FFIV is an incredible remake of one of my favorite series entries (both graphically and script-wise), while FFIII, despite being a rather odd entry in the FF canon (a job system, while in place, is extremely simplified, and the difficulty spikes can be very arbitrary) is still worth your time. Being a big Harvest Moon fan, I got hopelessly addicted to the Rune Factory games (offering a strange but totally awesome mix of dungeon crawling and... farming), playing them for days on end. The Etrian Odyssey series is a welcome throwback to the Wizardry-like style of hardcore dungeon crawling, and includes one of my favorite job system implementations in any RPG ever - EO is, simply put, hardcore as hell, and the first game is in my personal top ten games on any console (handheld or otherwise). Jesus, this section is getting way too long. Next!

Adventure

Take this, MOTHERFUCKERS! *points finger accusingly*

Hotel Dusk: Room 103
Broken Sword: Shadow of the Templars
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney (three game series) - pictured: Ace Attorney 1
Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney
Professor Layton (two game series, at least in English)

Adventure gaming (in the old-school PC gamer sense, meaning text adventures or point-and-click King's Quest style games) has always been one of my favorite genres. I'm not a PC gamer anymore, but that shit is part of my childhood, and I'll always love that stuff. Which is why I'm ecstatic about the genre's renaissance on the DS - the point and click gameplay is a perfect fit for the touchscreen, and the slow paced, thoughtful gameplay is the perfect way to wind down after a long day at work. Professor Layton in particular is a revelation - the puzzles in the game were simply fantastic, and it's quickly become one of my favorite series developed by my beloved Level-5.

Plus, I'll always love the DS for giving us Phoenix Wright, one of the greatest inventions of the 20th century.

Strategy or SRPG

Advance Wars: Dual Strike
Advance Wars: Days of Ruin
Might and Magic: Clash of Heroes
Disgaea
Luminous Arc 1 & 2
Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor (pictured) Age of Empires (This version is a turn-based game, not an RTS)
Fire Emblem

There's almost too much of this genre on the DS - apart from the sterling titles listed above, there's a huge amount of other titles available which may or not be to your taste: Knights in the Nightmare (a little too complicated for my liking), Rondo of Swords (the battle system isn't my type), Prince of Persia (I can't wrap my head around the idea of mixing card game concepts in a turn based strategy game), FFXII: Revenant Wings (I dislike real-time strategy) the list goes on and on. Without any hyperbole whatsoever, if you played through every Strategy/SRPG available on the DS (assuming, of course, that you have a job or that you attend school, and that you played these games exclusively) it'd probably take you considerably more than a year to finish everything.

Fighting

Bleach (series, pictured)

OK, there's really not much to see here. Considering the system's hardware limitations, it's not really the ideal platform for fighting games in general. The Bleach series (developed by Treasure) however, is an excellent representative. To any of you who played Yu Yu Hakusho on the Mega Drive, this is the spiritual successor to that game - filled with 2D fighting craziness up the wazoo, with graphics superior to Guardian Heroes on the Saturn, Bleach is the best portable fighting series I've ever played.

Puzzle/Casual

Planet Puzzle League! Picture is of the DS held in book mode.

Peggle DS
Bookworm
Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords
CrossworDS
Picross DS
Planet Puzzle League (pictured)

The NDS (together with PSN and the venerable Yahoo! Games) was truly instrumental in opening my eyes to casual gaming's possibilities. Although I remain hardcore, I'm no longer against games for a more mainstream audience like I used to be - I accepted the fact that for our industry to grow, we have to convert as many people as possible into gamers, even if that gamer is actually just your mom playing Text Twist again. Anyway, on to the games: CrossworDS and Picross DS are priceless when you just want to kill a few quick minutes (say, at the doctor's office or while on the way home). Puzzle Quest is another personal favorite of mine, and so is Planet Puzzle League, being the most complete (feature-wise) and easiest-to-control version of Tetris Attack in existence (my ex once borrowed my DS for damn near a month because she couldn't stop playing it. Tellingly, she eventually bought a DS of her own.).

Rhythm/Music

Elite Beat Agents (pictured)
Rhythm Heaven
Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan! 1 & 2 (the japanese versions of EBA, which are totally different games with different music/stages)

I'm sure there's some stuff I'm forgetting here, but fuck it, I wanna publish this post now.

And personally, even if Elite Beat Agents was the only rhythm game out on the NDS, it would still be one of the best portable music games ever.

Platformer

New Super Mario Bros. DS
Super Mario 64 DS
The Legend of Starfy
Super Princess Peach
CastleVania (the three part MetroidVania series - Dawn of Sorrow, Portrait of Ruin and Order of Ecclesia - Ecclesia pictured)
Rockman ZX
Kirby: Canvas Curse

It's a Nintendo system. Para namang magpapatalo yung mga yun pag dating sa platformer.
Yes, they delivered in spades, with scads of 2D run-and-jump action presented for our old-school enjoyment. Best in class here would have to be the CastleVania trilogy (the finest example of which was Order of Ecclesia, which combined MetroidVania exploration with a delightfully high level of difficulty) and the Mega Man ZX series (which successfully combined RPG elements with the classic Mega Man X hardcore gameplay). New Super Mario Bros. DS, despite being a bit overrated, is still a quality example of 2.5D gaming done right.

Sports

What sports games?

If this is what you're looking for, PSP is definitely the way to go.

Action/Adventure

Metroid Prime: Hunters (pictured)
Moon
Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars

This is the second of two areas in which I feel the DS lags behind the PSP. Action games on the DS are plentiful, but very few of them are actually any good. Notable exceptions Metroid Prime Hunters and Moon are both very thoughtful, slower-paced adventures that require a bit more time to play than your usual actioner. GTA: Chinatown Wars is also simple, lightweight fun, and the drug-dealing minigame can be seriously addictive.

Anlupeeeet!

As Phoenix would say, the evidence speaks for itself. The future outlook is pretty good, with Okamiden (w00000t!), Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey, Pokemon SoulSilver/HeartGold and Dragon Quest IX: Defenders of the Starry Sky all on the horizon. For once, that mighty mass of muscle, Nintendo boss Reggie Fils-Aime, wasn't lying - on at least one of Nintendo's consoles. support for the hardcore gamer is still alive and well. I love that dinky little piece of plastic!

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go play Clash of Heroes again.

Impressions: Star Ocean: The Last Hope International

2010-03-07T05:26:00.000-08:00

As happens quite often with my game purchases, SO4 was a last minute thing. I didn't even plan on buying this game at all. Star Ocean 4 joined my collection as the last minute RPG substitution for White Knight Chronicles, which I decided to just borrow after the swath of middling reviews. (PinoyPS peeps seem to like WKC quite a bit though, and if I end up liking the game I'll purchase my own copy.) You might imagine my concern then, as when I began playing through SO4 my opinion of the game rollercoastered wildly, both for the better and for the worse. (To make things even more panicky for me, I bought the game at launch, for a launch price. *nervous*)

Here's a quick summary of how my first few hours went:

00 hrs, 15 mins

Boot the game up. I patiently wait through the long install, and watch the simultaneously intriguing and boring CG intro. Game starts, non-CG talking scene begins. Script looks pedestrian, and English voice acting is abysmal.

John is sad.

00 hrs, 25 mins

Note: Obviously not an image from the tutorial. Mahirap maghanap ng litrato!

I then get shooped directly into the combat tutorial. I play it, and many happy/nostalgic memories of playing through Star Ocean: Till The End of Time return (Fayt LINEGOD - manliest name EVAR!!1!!!). This combat system fucking kicks ass!

John is happy!

00 hrs, 40 mins

Not the best camera ever.

Then the walking around part begins. Why is this camera stuck behind my guy? What the hell happened to the old overhead view? This is where I begin to get worried again. I walk out of the ship and things get even worse - the blast doors open into a huge MMO style map that wasn't really my cup of tea.

Jesus Christ! What the fuck did I just buy? Did I just make a huuuuge mistake by giving up the game I wanted all along (WKC) to get THIS in return?

John is extremely worried...

02 hrs, 30 mins

Lymle lights up another poor fucker with an earth-shattering kabloom. Again, obviously a shot from much later in the game.

Thankfully, the Php 2,700.00 sized hole in my wallet encouraged me to soldier on. After a couple of hours, I fully understood the intricacies of the combat system (including the skills required to build the Bonus Board), and I've gotten used to the distinctly un-RPG-like camera positioning. Combat is fun, if a little simplistic so far. Battle Trophy system works the same as in Star Ocean 3, except now every character has a unique set. Speaking of Trophies, WTF is up with that Trophy list? Looks extremely hard to Platinum. I do some internet research on this topic and it seems that getting 100% Achievements/Trophies takes literally hundreds of hours. Fuck that, looks like I'm not getting the plat for this one eh?

John is hopeful.

14 hrs, 24 mins

Addiction has set in. The Skill Point and Invention systems opened up, bringing back yet ANOTHER flood of Star Ocean 3 memories. The Private Actions are also back, and are as interesting as ever - this has the unfortunate effect of turning SO4 into a FAQ game (i.e. a game in which you have to keep a FAQ up on a laptop or equivalent device while playing so you don't miss anything important) but I don't really mind. Yeah, the camera is still pretty crap, and the story has been pretty predictable so far, but then Star Ocean's never been about story. Like most Tri-Ace RPG's it's all about the gameplay with this one - I'm not ready to give any ratings or reviews for this as it's far too early, but I can definitely say that Star Ocean 4 is doing a very good job of scratching that niggling JRPG itch that I've had for months now.

And there's something oddly comforting about seeing the Square Enix logo again on a PlayStation console. Feels good.

John is contented.

22 hours 32 minutes

Shi jian bu zao le, wo gai gao ci le.
But I'll see you again.

John has no time to play Star Ocean thanks to his goddamn STRAMA paper. Any remaining free time for gaming is eaten whole by games which require less time investment. (Heavy Rain! Darksiders! Dante's Inferno! Bayonetta! Ratchet and Clank Future 2! Yes, I have the gaming equivalent of ADHD.) Meanwhile, Final Fantasy XIII lurks inside the neighborhood Datablitz, with Yakuza 3 coming over on the next plane from Europe. Their evil plan, of course, is to ensure that it's quite some time before I dig Star Ocean out of the game closet for another go-round. Natabunan na si loko.

But that time will come again, The Last Hope, mark my words.

One day, when these new-fangled hot releases get old, I'll dig out the keys to the rusty old starship, ask Reimi if she wants to roll out, and sail through these star oceans again. JRPG love!

Breaking Benjamins

2010-02-14T01:10:00.001-08:00

Sorry for being so late with the new posts, people. I've been seriously seriously busy dealing with work, school and life in general, as well as a lack of material to write about due to the lack of new releases. Happily, the gaming industry is just now revving up for the Q1 blitz, so at least now I've got a whole crapload of material to write about. :-) Eight new posts today, I've been saving 'em up!

Moving on, I've built up a much more stable PS3 financial plan for this Q1 2010 to prevent the horredous financial ruin Q4 2009 brought on me. This is what wanting too many games and having too little money to buy them all has driven me to do.

Now observe my masterful cash-saving skillz!

Bayonetta is absolutely delicious!
And her game's great, too!

* I'm just borrowing Bayonetta and White Knight Chronicles from friends (rox_ira and eiziah, respectively) in order to cut down on my cash outlay. (I got gun-shy from actually BUYING WKC when the metric ton of mediocre-to-bad reviews rolled in, but I still want to play it pretty badly.)

OK, so graphically, it looks like ass.
I still want to play it.
Play it for FREE, that is.

Cost: Zero.

He's not a God of War.
HE IS WAR!

* I got Darksiders for free in a trade with another pal (it arrived this week). DARKSIDAHS, at last! (Impressions to follow, I'm in like the first non-tutorial area and it's been very solid so far.)

Cost: Zero. Woohoo!

That demo was absolutely fantastic!
I'm on the hype train for this one, fortunately I can just BORROW it.
Money saved!

* I'm also working out a "hiraman" arrangement with another friend for Heavy Rain (that demo was SO KILLER) in which I buy Star Ocean TLH International and lend it to him, and he lends me HR after the fact. It doesn't really matter to me if I don't get to play SO4 immediately, as Platinuming that game takes longer than reading The Bible and War and Peace combined, so I don't mind lending it out for the meantime.

"I'ma hit this guy with a huge nova, 'kay?"

Update: I'm also playing through Star Ocean concurrently along with Darksiders. Impressions to follow as well, game started off a little iffy but quickly grew on me. Adik! Consider though: I have played that game for 12 hours and I have two trophies.

TWO. FREAKING. TROPHIES. What the FUUUUUUCK, ang haba.

Cost: I paid 2,700.00 for a copy of Star Ocean: The Last Hope International (R1).

* Yet another friend is getting Bioshock 2 as a Valentine's Day gift (HI, RAFFY!) so that's another game crossed off the list. Back to Rapture, baby!

It's been way too long.

Cost: Zero.

* Lastly, I have no choice but to spend on brand new copies of Yakuza 3 and Final Fantasy XIII in March (especially Yakuza 3, as supplies of that game will likely be very limited) but I also have a side deal in place to lend out Yakuza 3 for God of War III when I'm done with it.

Damn, ang lapit na! Check out this video right here (link) if you need some help getting hyped.

Cost: Approximately 5.5K for copies of FFXIII and Yakuza 3. Huhuhuhu. :-(

So all in all, for a total of Php 8,000.00 I get to Trophy my way through Star Ocean 4 plus all but two of the games on my DO WANT list (link) , with the notable exceptions being Gran Turismo 5 (which got delayed to Q2) and Dante's Inferno. Hmmm, anyone want to make a hiraman arrangement for Dante's Inferno: Dead Edition?

Isaac Clarke returns!

I want me some Dead Edition!

CMON! Help a (semi)broke brotha out! :-D

Retrospective: Assassin's Creed 2

2010-02-14T00:40:00.000-08:00

It's no secret around these parts that I loved Assassin's Creed 2 (I even included it on my personal best games of 2009 list). Although I first played through it dali-dali style on the Xbox 360 (budgetary constraints prevented me from buying the PS3 version back in November) I followed through on my promise to play through it at a leisurely pace on my PS3 (for the Trophies and to get the "full experience"). And my opinion remains unchanged - AC2 is an absolutely fantastic game, well worth the second-hand price you'd likely pay for it today.

But how did this occur? How did a game that is so similar in spirit to it's predecessor (which was a TERRIBLE game, and one I consider to be the 2nd crappiest title in my entire library, just behind Viking: Battle for Asgard) become so beloved in my eyes? I'll try to explain.

1. Infinitely better level design, and a much more interesting environment to play around in.

Assassin's Creed 1 was handicapped by its stringent focus on recreating the architecture of ancient Jerusalem - the buildings felt very astringent and the design left little room for you to play around in. The "mood" of the city was also very somber, and the monochrome colors chosen for the world in general made it feel very dead. AC2's version of Italy is full of color and life - the beautiful water in Venice that makes you want to take a dip yourself, the variety of people just walking around on the street, the expansive outdoor environments that impress without the horrible frame rate drops. Italy's architecture also lends itself to better platforming: the little chimneys, ropes and steel trellisses dotting the rooftops allow for a much better flow to Ezio's movements as he's running around the city killing fools.

2. AC2 has a far superior storyline.

AC1 had an interesting concept, but that's all it was -- A CONCEPT. Yes, there were two worlds in which you "existed" as a player, but Desmond's real world adventures were so devoid of gameplay or even interesting dialogue that you just sort of forced yourself to slog through it. In Acre, meanwhile, Altair just crossed these randomly assigned guys off his "People to Kill" checklist without it really meaning anything -- you don't know these people, and you have no other motivation to see them go, so in the end you didn't care.

In AC2, the people Ezio knocks off are part of an overarching storyline in which you are emotionally invested - this makes it feel a lot less robotic and forced than the first game. The adventures in the real world were also a lot more interestingly written, with much more complex characterization than the first game. I found myself wanting to find out what happened in both worlds, which is a substantial achievement seeing as I've played so many action-adventure games that I can smell a hack plot from a mile away.

Lastly, another facet of AC2 that I think greatly improves the experience is the far superior lightness of tone. AC1 was overly serious and one-note, and the crappiness of the writing only reinforced this. AC2 strikes a much better balance between suspense/intrigue (Abstergo conflict in the real world, political maneuverings in the Italian, Animus world) and comedy (Ezio is a much more lighthearted and likeable character than Altair, and the way he plays off everybody else puts the occasional grin on your face).

And... hey, it's-a me, Mario! :-)

3. Much greater variety of things to do.

Assassin's Creed 2 is an obsessive-compulsive gamer's dream. There's simply so much more stuff to find and accomplish - feathers to grab, Subject 16 puzzles/videos to watch/solve, Monteriggioni buildings to upgrade, weapon and armor sets to collect, tombs to explore, treasure chests to find -- the list goes on and on. It also cannot be understated how much the simple addition of currency added to the game - not only did it allow you to pay for other methods to achieve your goals (walking through town using courtesans for cover/protection, or paying a group of bandits to cause a perfectly-timed distraction) it also gave you a reward for everything you do: accomplishing sidequests no longer felt arbitrary because you were always rewarded for your efforts with a little spending money to waste on whatever you wanted.

In addition, quests of the same type now felt much more unique and less repetitive - Assassination and Delivery missions in particular gave you a very wide swath of objectives and methods in which to accomplish them. Story missions also offered plenty of variety - instead of always sneaking around looking for your shot at the glowing yellow target, Ubisoft gives you frontal assaults, carriage-driving missions, city raids, the whole nine yards. When you DO get down to actually killing people, AC2 continues to pile on the improvements - there are a million ways to off a guy in this game.

Guns hidden in your sleeve?
Aerial stabs in the face?
Throwing knives?
Pushing the poor sap off a roof?
Hired mercenaries?
Frontal assaults?
Poison?
Dragging dudes into a stack of hay then ventilating 'em?
Using the good old Nathan Drake "There's a guy above you!" method?

"THERE'S A GUY ABOVE YOU, THERE'S A GUY ABOVE YOU!"

Sorry, I couldn't resist.

The list goes on.

It also helped a lot that the sidequests were now completely optional. The first game handled sidequests in a very ham-handed manner: not only were they boring, offering little difference from instance to instance, the game forced you to play them in order to advance the story missions. AC2 shares no such conceit - you could totally ignore the side missions if you chose, at the expense of having a lot less money to work with.

While Assassin's Creed 2 didn't fix ALL of the first game's problems (the control is still a little finicky at times, and minor FPS problems continue to rear their ugly head) it's still absolutely remarkable how Ubisoft Montreal managed to fix so many of the original game's issues in so short a time. Absolutely outstanding work!

I never thought I'd ever say this about an Assassin's Creed game, but... sequel please!

Desmond taking on Japan would have been a much better idea for AC3.
Don't you think?

(Update: It turns out AC3 is already in development. Unfortunately it seems that they decided to continue Ezio's adventure for some strange reason - it makes sense from a story perspective, but not from a gameplay one (Italy was getting a bit long in the tooth by the end of the game)... ah, well, in Ubisoft we trust.

Case File: The Mystique of the PS3 Exclusive

2010-02-14T00:14:00.000-08:00

I find that I read the following dialogue (or a paraphrasing of the same) way too often on the PinoyPS boards:

Noob: Hi, you l33t haxxor motherfuckers! I'm new to this PS3 thing, what games should I get?

Lovable PPS member: Oh, that's easy, pal. Just get all the PS3 exclusives, except for (insert exceptionally bad title here, usually Lair/Haze or something else to that effect)

HAZE! Being used to scare small children into behaving since 2008.
"Sige ka, kung ayaw mong tumahimik... ibibili kita ng HAZE!!!!"
"Wag po, wag po!"

I have nothing against this view - some of the people who dispense this advice are my friends/trading partners, after all, and are people whose opinions I highly respect - but is this really a 100% solid buying recommendation to make? Simply snap up the PS3 exclusives (EXCEPT LAIR AND HAZE!) and you're good to go?

Let's take a look at six of the usual suspects (taking into consideration how much you can get them for nowadays), and some non-exclusive alternatives you can get for the same price or less.

(Please note that a lot of these games are actually quite GOOD -- some of them I even included in my 2009 top ten. What I'm trying to show here is that there may be superior alternatives for the same amount of money.)

Killzone 2

At what price, graphics? Killzone 2 is an absolute visual monster, eating most PS3 games alive (with a few notable exceptions, like the pushing-dangerously-close-to-photographic Uncharted 2: Among Thieves), but gameplay-wise I can't honestly say that this is better that either of the Infinity Ward-developed Call of Duty games. True, it's still a GREAT game, and this might be a good choice for a new PS3 owner who wants to show off some current-gen power (especially if they have an HDTV) but in terms of how it plays it's no contest - the aiming mechanic is less user-friendly and the multiplayer isn't anywhere near as good. It doesn't help that the best part of Modern Warfare is easily the multiplayer component (which is something you can't get on a modded Xbox 360 due to the XBL permabans for modding) - if you haven't played either, you have to keep things like these in mind when making a decision.

Heavenly Sword

This hasn't aged well, at all.

Ninja Theory's somewhat controversial exclusive PS3 actioner has long had the PS3 audience pretty much divided. Some people love it because of its delightful art direction and intense, Lord of the Rings-level epicness. Some people hate it because of its incredibly brief length and God of War-cloned hack-and-slash gameplay. I'm personally on the side of the people who hate it, but I can understand where the people who love it are coming from. Here's the beef, though: mostly due to the fact that not too many people actually BOUGHT it (partly because of its notorious shortness, and partly because the PS3 install base was so small back then) there arent too many copies in circulation... which of course means that HS' resale value has held up remarkably well over time. The question is, are you buying the game for collection purposes or for pure enjoyment? If you fall into the latter category, you could arguably just add a couple hundred bucks and get a brand new copy of Dante's Inferno.

InFamous

I wish this was as exciting as it looks.

HEY! Don't give me that raised eyebrow!

Yeah, I know that I've been hard on inFamous in the past. I still have a great deal of respect for Sucker Punch, and I'm (pretty) confident that they'll fix things up in inFamous 2 (which has reportedly been in development for quite some time). Going back to the first game, though, I know I wasn't alone in my indictment of the title - while the story was pretty entertaining and the wide-open, no-loading city remains a remarkable technical achievement, more than a few people took issue with the constant repetition of the side missions you had to do in between major jobs. For a "new" PS3 gamer who's just beginning to build their library, it could be argued that fellow open-world genre titles Red Faction: Guerilla or Saints Row 2 probably give more variety and gameplay bang for the buck, with the added benefit of costing even less than a 2H copy of inFamous.

Motorstorm: Pacific Rift

There's no question that Pacific Rift is a great, great game - fun in multiplayer AND single player, with more replay value than you can shake a stick at. However, it's misleading to say that this is a game you can recommend to just anybody, as the title by its very nature is a niche product - the overwhelming majority of people who play racing games prefer track/road racers like Forza and Need For Speed, and the market for "extreme" racing, with the high jumps and environmental hazards is comparatively small. Unless you're already a fan of said subgenre, a much better "general" recommendation for a first time PS3 user is EA's exemplary Burnout Paradise: Ultimate Box. A ridiculous amount of stuff to do, plenty of variety, and the best sense of speed ever demonstrated in a racing game, all at a bargain price (you can get a non-Ultimate Box version of Burnout Paradise for almost nothing, as it's positively ancient).

Folklore

Looks trippy? It is, and pleasingly so.
It's also a terrible, terrible game.

I don't think I've ever seen a game go from "eagerly anticipated" to "get out of my sight" so fast in my life. As some of you may know, I traded away my first copy of Ratchet and Clank: Tools of Destruction for a copy of this game (I was new to the PPSX trading scene at the time), and the tears of blood I cried after the fact will remain in my memory forever. While there are definitely positive aspects to Folklore (the concept is solid, collecting monsters can be somewhat fun, and the graphic style is nice in a trippy, I'm-so-high-right-now kind of way), the laundry list of negatives is overwhelming: the story is all over the map and very difficult to understand, the translation was obviously rushed, the camera AND the control are clunky, and the role-playing elements are so light/non-existent that it's embarassing to even call it an RPG (despite the classification on the back of the box clearly saying "RPG"). To a new guy looking for some level-up action, I would honestly recommend any other PS3 RPG over this (even the bad/mediocre ones, like Cross Edge and Eternal Sonata) because all of them have substantially greater RPG elements than this substantially flawed PS3 exclusive.

Now THAT'S a PS3 exclusive.

All that said, it IS true that a pretty good amount of PS3 exclusives are truly worth giving unqualified recommendations (Metal Gear Solid 4, both Uncharted games, LittleBigPlanet, and to people who can understand SRPG's, Valkyria Chronicles) so there's still a fair amount of merit to picking up exclusives. I'm just saying that new members of our current-gen Sony community shouldn't just blindly whip out their wallets when the term comes around...

Unless of course, you have a jacked, non-RROD 360 that you can use to play said non-Sony locked titles for cheap. (ahem)

If so, go right ahead and snap up those exclusives! Only on PlayStation, indeed!

Game Archaeologist: Bioware Edition

2010-02-14T00:06:00.000-08:00

I've been on a heavy PC kick lately for some inexplicable reason, and after the gaming wonders of this past holiday season there's a Bioware-shaped hole in my heart where Dragon Age Origins used to be. I've therefore decided to go on an expedition into the dark, mysterious caverns of Shoppesville Plus this weekend to try and find copies of the last two Bioware games that for one reason or another, I never got the chance to play - Neverwinter Nights 2 and Jade Empire: Special Edition.

I actually had a copy of NWN2 back in the day, being a huge, HUGE fan of the first game, however my video card at the time wasn't quite up to snuff (I had an inno3D GeForce 6 series, and was getting a slideshow-level framerate of 6) and, defeated, I eventually gave it away to somebody who could make better use of it. When my PC finally got upgraded to something a little more decent, I had moved on to better things (like my at-the-time shiny new PS3!) and poor NWN2 was left to rot in the sad pit of obscurity. In fact, you could say that my frustration at not being able to play NWN2 despite having it in my hands contributed greatly to my stepping away from PC gaming - I was THAT pissed off.

Jade Empire on the other hand I was all set to play on my friend's modded Xbox back in the day. How could I resist? The game's basically a combination of two things I love dearly - Bioware RPG's and motherfucking Kung Fu! Sadly, said friend had to move out into the far-flung reaches of the South (far flung = bandang Batangas na) so I lost my access to his Jade Empire Playing Machi-- er, I mean, his Xbox 1. So once again, I was SOL.

Still though, I wonder where this strange need to play PC games again is coming from? Hindi naman ako nagretoke ng PC recently.

Is my gut telling me that it's time to upgrade my PC again in preparation for Diablo III? *dun dun dunnnn*

Holy shit! Looks like it's time to donate part of my salary to Papa Nvidia. My mouse finger is getting twitchy.

The PS3, hacked at last!

2010-02-14T00:03:00.000-08:00

I'd like to shake that man's hand. That couldn't have been easy, at ALL.

Nerding it up for a bit, getting read/write access to the PS3's memory is a huge deal. That's still a pretty long way from actually playing haxxored games on the console, but this paves the way for lots of cool emulation and other fancy crap that can be done on the beloved black monolith, much like the wealth of options the PSP has.

And besides, when you think about it, what would the point of hacking a PS3 for playing pirated games be? It apparently takes a "hardware"solution to implement the crack, so you need to open it up to get it to work (see pic above) instead of just installing sliced firmware ala PSP. In addition you'd likely have to run games off a terabyte-class external hard drive because the file sizes are so fucking big (BD storage space), and the chance of getting permabanned from PSN is most likely going to be 100%.

Sound like too much of a hassle to you, too? If you want to play pirated games so badly, it makes far more sense to just get a fucking modded X360 and be done with it. Yeah, it may implode within a year, but hopefully you'll have gotten your money's worth in hooky games by then.

Happy Chinese New Year!

2010-02-14T00:00:00.001-08:00

Or Valentine's day, or both.

I hope all of you have a good one, whatever holiday you're celebrating today.

I'll have the new posts up in an hour or so. Escapes From Reality is back, y'all! :-D

Temporary Hiatus: EFR returns on 02-15-2010

2010-01-22T04:55:00.000-08:00

Hi everybody!

To the regular readers of this little blog (5 thousand unique hits and counting! Thank you all very much, BTW) I haven't closed shop yet, but I'm busy completing my grad school thesis and I can't really devote as much time as I'd like to updating EFR. I'm therefore putting it on hiatus for a bit so I can focus on getting this goddarn final paper done (and play some games of course!).

I'll have a whole bunch of new stuff to read by mid-February 2010 (maybe a review of Darksiders and Dante's Inferno, if I have it by then), but for now chillax muna ko dito.

John out! :-)

Ten for 2010: First Quarter Storm

2010-01-07T07:23:00.000-08:00

Yayaman na naman tong mga to sakin. Bwiset.

The first quarter of 2010 keeps looking worse and worse for my wallet. :-( Putang ina talaga, daming gastos, buti nalang quarterly bonus na sa March. I mean, just look at that forecast, man. Just think, when I walk into Datablitz at various points during the first quarter, these (presumably) fantastic titles will be right there on the shelf, staring me in the face, just begging me to buy them. How the heck am I going to resist? Instead of being broke for just one quarter a year, it looks like we're all going to be broke for two this time around.

Who decided to move all this shit into Q1, anyway? Fucking publishers, y'all pussies! Cowering in fear of Modern Warfare 2, this is all your fault.

Here's what I've got lined up. It's not pretty, people. Witness the instruments of my impending financial ruin!

SCALDING HOT!
Will buy the very moment they become available.
No, seriously, I'll be camped outside the fucking door.

Yakuza 3

Pictured: Si Brando Braganza, hari ng romansa.

In English? FOR REAL?!?! Two words buddy, FUCK YEAH!

After a sustained (and quite painful) absence, everybody's favorite gold-hearted gangster Kazuma Kiryu has come back to us - gulpihan na! This is easily my most anticipated PS3 exclusive of Q1, and one of my favorite Sega series of all time. For those of you who havent played a Yakuza series game yet, feel free to get an education by playing either of the two PS2 installments - it's basically the evolution of Yu Suzuki's Shenmue series, but with 200% more brutality and criminal cool. What other game series allows you do to quirky stuff like participate in home run derbies and mack on GRO's, while still allowing you to cave some poor thug's face in with a bicycle? Simply priceless.

Dante's Inferno

In Visceral Games we trust.

That incredible demo a couple of weeks back sold me on this. The fact that the PS3 version has a lot of extra freebies packed in on the disc is just added incentive - Blu-Ray FTW! It's amazing how they managed to find a control scheme that allows you to smoothly combine a lot of abilities into a single string (I find that the L1 toggle for special moves is a lot more natural-feeling than the GoW digital pad switch). I trust Visceral Games will come up with a title that meets our lofty expectations.

Then those hard working bastards can get around to finishing Dead Space 2! :-D

Right?

Oh please please please finish that within 2010.

Final Fantasy XIII

Jesus, who cares if the gameplay isn't all that special? I dare you to tell me that this image isn't 100% made of awesome.

Yes, I know, FFXIII has been savaged by the Japanese fans who bought it (as opposed to the Japanese press, which apparently loved it - malaki ata budget ng Square Enix sa usapang bayaran), and most tellingly, the game's sales have dropped like a rock after a stellar first week. Not good signs at all. It's possible however that the reason that so many fans gave negative feedback is the very distinct possibility that they bought a PS3 just to play this game - when it didn't live up to their lofty expectations, they found that they just burned $360 (instead of just $60) just to play what turned out to be a merely mediocre/decent game. Thus, the explicable fanboy rage.

But hey, like I give a fuck, right? Even if it ends up sucking, so what? Bahala na, when you've been waiting for something this long, quality concerns give way to morbid curiosity, and the Squeenix sheep like myself will pick it up regardless. Besides, I absolutely can't resist writing a review of a game this controversial, and I don't want to be the only one among my gaming friends who doesn't know how the story turned out. And then we'll all have the authority to complain in unison - nagbayad tayo eh. ;-)

Bioshock 2

Ah, back in Rapture at last. Love is always sweeter the second time around.

I was late in coming to Ken Levine's monster's ball the first time around - I ignored Bioshock when it first came out on X360, because at the time I was totally OD'd on FPS games. I eventually played it when it came out on PS3, and nagsisi ako - few games did a better job of creating atmosphere and immersing you in its world, and if not for the game forcing you to play through twice or more to get the Platinum, I would have gladly done so. I know that the first game's story was perfectly self contained, and that creating a sequel that unneccesarily extends the fiction sounds to some people like a Very Bad Idea(tm). I don't really mind, though, I'm sure they'll come up with something that's at least decent to good, plot holes be damned. Plus, in an ingenious twist, the multiplayer seems to be based on the the civil war that took place before the events of the first game (during the collapse of Andrew Ryan's Rapture).

A multiplayer suite that expands on the story of the single player game? Fuckin' A, this is going to kick so much ass!

Just Plain Ol' Hot
Will buy as soon as I can, when I come into some extra cash.

God of War III

Even when you only show his eyes, that wacky Kratos guy always looks way too uptight. Valiums, buddy, Valiums.

This would normally be on the first list, and I absolutely loved the demo, but after ODing on the Kratos-filled-violence-fest that was God of War Collection (God of War II FTW!) I'm all God-Of-Warred out for the time being. Don't get me wrong, I'm definitely still buying this, no questions asked. Just not on launch day.

Well, that was a short writeup, wasn't it? Perhaps that's the way the Ghost of Sparta would have wanted it - direct and to the point.

White Knight Chronicles: International Edition

Yes, I realize that this game's graphics look like shit. I don't care, it's by Level 5, baby!

Another game that would normally be on the top list, I want to see how White Knight Chronicles does critically before I make the purchase (although kung tinopak ako I may still just buy it outright). The graphics look pretty crap, yes, but that's mostly because this game is actually really old (it took its sweet time coming over from Japan). What I'm worried about is actually the gameplay - Level-5 almost always makes fantastic games (Dark Cloud, Professor Layton, Rogue Galaxy, Dragon Quest VIII, nuff said) but I've never been a big fan of games like Monster Hunter or Phantasy Star Online... I love collecting loot as much as the next nerd but something about their online implementation just turns me off.

Ah well, I have faith that they'll come through. They're Level-5, buddy - I hear Jesus works there. :-)

Bayonetta

Will an abysmal port ruin this sexytary's chance at success?

Loading issues (if they're not fixed in time) push this firmly into the second tier, despite the rock solid gameplay. Plus I've finished like a quarter of it on Xbox, so I have validation that the game itself is really great, but if the Sony technical team assigned to iron out the various issues fails, this has to be assigned a lower buying priority. Especially the framerate issues! Dammit, if there's one technical issue I really detest, it's a bad fps count, dahil nakakahilo laruin ng matagal yung mga larong ganyan. Now, this wouldn't be so bad if this was a consistent issue across all versions of the game, but the 360 version really is far superior, at least from my experience playing the import versions.

It says a lot about Bayonetta's overall quality, though, that I'm still willing to buy this despite the possibility that Sony fails to fix the port.

Comfortably Warm
Might buy, depending on reviews and user feedback.

Gran Turismo 5

You know your graphics are amazing when even a boring picture of sand looks this good.

There should be an asterisk next to this selection - we're of course assuming that GT5 actually comes out in English within Q1 2010. If it does though, you may be asking: Why the hell did I put it in the third list? I mean, it's only GRAN TURISMO MOTHERFUCKING 5!

I don't know if it's just me, but I've enjoyed GT less and less with each successive installment. I almost broke up with my then-girlfriend way back in high school because I played Gran Turismo 2 so much. Gran Turismo 3 A-Spec I also played the crap out of, but the limited car selection hurt it a bit in terms of play length. Gran Turismo 4 I didn't enjoy very much - yes, the car selection was outstanding , but it was a wee bit too unforgiving for me - I'm not a hardcore driving game fan (aside from this, I basically just play arcadey stuff like Ridge Racer, Midnight Club and Burnout) and sometimes it felt more like work than play.

Gran Turismo 5 Prologue was fun, yes, but the recent demo (the time trial with the Nissan test car) gave me pause. The loading was absolutely terrible (especially considering all of the game data was already on my hard drive), and the handling was as unforgivingly realistic as I remember. To Kaz Yamauchi - please make sure this kicks ass... bring me back to the GT fold!

Heavy Rain

Yeah, the story looks really interesting, and this is still on the do want list, but I can also get a good story by buying a book. And that doesn't cost motherfucking 2 1/2 kyaw.

I liked Indigo Prophecy, yes, but if this turns out to be too short I'll probably pass on buying and just borrow. I'm beginning to get pissed off at this game's producer - David Cage seems to be of the idea that his game has transcended being just that - a game - and is supposed to be a artsy-fartsy "cinematic experience". This is all well and good when it comes to Metal Gear (and *ahem* FFXIII, I guess) because there's still some gameplay left under the hood. If Cage errs too far on the side of cinematic and makes like a five hour game full of quick time events, I have a feeling that most people will choose to loan a copy from richer pals.

Darksiders

Damn, that's a really big fucking sword!
Take that, you evil door lock!

Preview feedback on this has been quite positive from a lot of sources - it still hasn't gotten a full review from a trustworthy source yet though, so dropping money on this sight unseen isn't a sure thing yet by any means. The only existing purely positive review is from Play Magazine's Dave Halverson - although I love Play as a gaming publication, and I respect Halverson as being an authentic hardcore gamer, I often find that you have to take Dave's reviews with a grain of salt. After all, this is the guy who absolutely loved Golden Axe: Beast Rider, RTX Red Rock, Tomb Raider: Angel of Darkness & Devil May Cry 2 (and came out with early reviews of all four). I'm not sure if he's on the take from the publishers or just has incredibly weird taste in games, but I'll need a positive review from a more stable source like GameSpot or 1UP to convince me to pick this up brand new.

Edit: Gamespot said it was great! I'm picking this up. :-D Cha-ching!

Deep Misgivings

2009-12-28T05:31:00.000-08:00

While Lightning stares into the distance, being super emo and pondering the fate of her besieged game, Sazh stares at her chest.

You can't help but feel some deep seated doubt in your mind when you see headlines like these (click through to follow the links):

"Fans Disgusted with Final Fantasy XIII"
"FFXIII as linear as a piece of string"
"Why Final Fantasy XIII is a bad game"

Yeah, I'm still buying the English version, but Jesus Christ, am I glad I decided to hold off on buying the import. After the article I wrote (link) about Final Fantasy XIII being the last great hope of the JRPG genre, this dire news of its apparent mediocrity is disturbing. Still, all the user complaints give us, the gaming community, a lot of stuff to talk about - not a bad way to kill time before release, eh? I haven't played it, most of you haven't either, so obviously we're not qualified to pass actual judgement, but a lot of the issues cropping up are interesting talking points. Let's discuss!

From what I understand, the complaints about FFXIII seem to center on certain pet peeves, namely:

Behold! The first 6 hours of FFXIII, also known as walking forward.
(Sorry for the low quality picture, the full size Sankaku link
keeps getting kicked by SC, and this is Blogspot's largest picture size. Eugh!
Anyway, I think you can still see the point.)

1. It's linear. Too linear.

Although the maps posted of the first six hours of the game showed a disturbingly ridiculous straight line path (what is this supposed to be? a game about pressing Up?), this really isn't a big issue for me. Final Fantasy X was also very linear (although apparently not to this extent), and only really opened up when you got to the endgame. I'm not sure I like the lack of an overworld, but I guess I'll live. How coincidental is it though that every so often random crap falls from the sky in just the right place, preventing you from returning the way you came? Talk about deus ex machina.

Snow, shaking his fist at the lack of goddamn towns.

2. No TOWNS?!?!?! WTF motherfuckers?

I repeat: No towns, and since that also means no shopkeepers, buying items can only be done through save points. Now THIS is a fairly big concern in my book. Part of the sacred, unspoken, and supposedly unbreakable pattern of JRPG's (or RPG's in general, come to think of it) is the explore-town-dungeon-explore-town-dungeon rhythm that we're all very used to seeing. You know the drill: you go into town, talk to people, buy/find items, maybe see a key plot point by way of a cinematic, then troop off to the dungeon to kick some ass and build your stats. When you've killed the dungeon's Big Foozle, you explore until you find the next town. Rinse, repeat until the game ends. Without towns to break up the action, it stops being an RPG in my eyes, and starts becoming Metal Gear Solid: Turn-Based Edition.

Since I couldn't find a JPEG of the FFXIII status screen, I decided to just post a picture of the proposed X360 version of the game. That's always funny, right?

3. Two stats on the status screen. TWO fucking stats.

Overly simplified stat management is an EVEN bigger deal. You've already taken away the exploration, Squeenix, but how on earth could you take away the STATS? The precious numbers we hold so dear? Don't you know RPG nerds like us get off on micromanaging/min-maxing stuff like like this?

I need a rum coke.

We can't understand the words, but he's probably saying something gay.

4. Characters are Hanoi-ying.

A lot of the bile in the previews and comments I've read seem to be centered on Snow and Hope. Too emo, too enthusiastic, too incredibly, amazingly John-Lloyd-Cruz-level cheesy. Thankfully I have a very high tolerance level for cheesiness and characters full of witless optimism (just remember, I loved Valkyria Chronicles) so I should be just fine in this respect, I think.

Overall, what all these factors seem to indicate is that Square has taken JRPG's to their most cinematic extreme - after FFXII's heavily loot-hunting-oriented focus (at the expense of telling a story I couldn't give a shit about - fuck man, I can't even remember what happened in that game), they decided to smash us in the face with the cinematography and highly accelerated pacing.

But at what cost? Like most PPSXers, I'm a hardcore gamer, and when I pay upwards of 2 kyaw para sa bala ng PS3, I expect good gameplay. Despite all the negative press, I'm willing to give Squeenix the benefit of the doubt and still buy their game sight unseen (heck, I've been waiting this long to play FFXIII, I'm going to buy it whatever happens if only to satisfy my emotional investment in it), but if this turns out to have all the gameplay depth of a rain puddle I'm going to be quite angry.

And so will quite a few of the American fans, I'd wager. Squeenix has to realize that it's not the Japanese fans they needed to win over - those dependable Japs are still drinking that JRPG kool-aid, considering how much they still support paint-by-numbers, overly moe nonsense like Tales of Vesperia. After a console generation that has seen U.S. RPG tastes gravitate very heavily towards Bethesda's (Fallout 3, Oblivion) and Bioware's (Dragon Age, Mass Effect) more complex brand of Western RPG, they needed to convince the AMERICANS, most of all, that JRPG's were still a viable genre. Oh, I'm sure that initial U.S. sales will be fantastic due to all the pent-up excitement among the fanbase, but if the word-of-mouth isn't good, I'm kind of worried that FFXIII will convince a whole new generation of gamers that this JRPG shit isn't their type of game, and that would be a decidedly bitter legacy for Lightning and co. to leave us with.

So, um.... Final Fantasy Versus XIII, anyone?

Play this demo (on your PC!): Miles Edgeworth, Ace Attorney

2009-12-28T05:27:00.000-08:00

I don't know how I managed to overlook this, but the demo for the first chapter of the upcoming Miles Edgeworth NDS game is up in Flash form (and has been up for quite some time now, apparently) so I'll put the link up here for your enjoyment. You don't even need a DS, just click through and play. Granted, it's a little hard to work through the demo with a mouse (as opposed to the touchscreen/stylus combo) but it's still damn enjoyable. (After all these years, Detective Gumshoe's still getting his pay docked! Poor sap.)

The new "Logic" system takes a little getting used to - it's a little different that what we're used to from the Phoenix Wright series, but okay din naman pala siya. Give it a shot doodz, it's fun and free.

(deep breath) OBJECTION! Fuck yeah, it feels good to be back in the courtroom once again!

Sleeper Hit Alert: Might & Magic - Clash of Heroes

2009-12-28T04:55:00.000-08:00

EFR LIVES!

Sorry for not being able to update the blog as much as I'd like - the Christmas season has been pretty hectic and with all the parties and obligations EFR has gone sadly neglected. I'll try to post more often in the next couple of weeks.

Back to the subject of this post - I'd like to call your attention to what was, by far, the sleeper hit of the year for me. No, it's not a PS3 game, although there have been plenty of unheralded classics there as well...

I'm here to tell you about Might & Magic: Clash of Heroes (NDS).

I first heard about this game from Tycho's blog over at Penny Arcade. I often agree with their opinions regarding incoming titles, but at the time I really wasn't in the mood for a strategy game so I glossed over it and gave my PS3 some much needed attention. However, a couple of weeks later, when I was looking for something casual to play I decided to give it a
shot, and...

I CAN'T STOP PLAYING this motherfucking game!

Developed by Capybara (the guys behind Critter Crunch on PSN), CoH can best be described as a puzzle/strategy game with light RPG elements, an unholy combination of Puzzle Quest and Magic: The Gathering. For those of you who understand what either/both of those games are about, that's a dangerously addictive tag team. The art style they chose was unfortunately "American-drawn anime", which usually doesn't lend itself to pleasant visuals, but in this case they did a bang-up job - think "Teen Titans" and you'll have a good idea of what the game looks like.

The game is very inventive with the different mission objectives they give you to do to mix things up, and there are plenty of side quests and the like to keep the obsessive-compulsive SRPG gamer playing for a long time. And when I say a long time, I MEAN a long time, as the average clear time for the campaign mode rests at around 40 hours with all the side quests
completed. All things considered, if you have a DS, giving CoH a shot is almost a goddamn requirement.

(Fair warning: if you're yo-ho-hoing this game [or even if you just want to try it out, to find out if the boxed copy is really worth the cash] know that you'll have to search certain message board forums for the fixed rom, as the standard release has a metric fuckton of AP checks. It's totally worth the effort though.)

Musings: Tekken 6

2009-12-28T04:45:00.000-08:00

Kazama style kung fu works best in leather pumps, apparently.

The sixth iteration of Tekken has been crucified across all corners of the internet. You know the laundry list of complaints by heart - The graphics are crappy. The scenario mode is sloppy and difficult to control. The loading is absolutely terrible, despite having an install size of over 4 gigs; it also stops to load for FUCKING EVERYTHING, with an almost Bayonetta-like dedication to waiting around. The online mode is slow as shit. Hearing all these complaints, this was definitely pretty high on my list of "hot games to skip" this holiday, and that's exactly what I did. However, when the opportunity to just borrow a copy presented itself, I decided na papatusin ko na - after all, even if the game stank, I'd probably at least get a couple cheap trophies for my trouble.

Hey, at least there's a lot of characters, right? Right?

A couple of weeks later, at 70 plus percent trophy completion, I'm still pretty happy with my decision not to buy Tekken 6. As it turns out, all of the complaints raised on message boards and gaming blogs were pretty much right on the money - the loading really does suck monkey balls (Seriously, man. Worst loading in a PS3 game everrrrr), and the graphics aren't that good - the shadowing/lighting effects are pretty awesome, but the character models are kind of simplistic. They're actually slightly inferior to Soul Calibur IV's (the models only, mind you), which is really fucking old. And yes, I actually booted up SC4 to make sure. Check the character select screen if you don't believe me, and watch the closeups.

Alisa Bosconovitch kicks ass, man!

However, what I didn't expect is that I would have quite a bit of fun with T6, despite its numerous flaws - farming for items is still pretty fun, in a dumb, simple minded way, and playing through Arena mode to watch each character's prologue and ending was very entertaining, bringing back memories of myself doing the same back on the PS1. And of course, the fighting offline is still as enjoyable as ever - it won't blow your mind, but for better or for worse, it's still the same ol' Tekken everybody knows and loves. Tekken is the videogame equivalent of comfort food - like ham sandwiches and bibingka during Christmas, it tastes like the same old shit every time, but sometimes the said "same old shit" still hits the spot.

Yay for the same old shit! TAKE THAT YOU BASTARD!

If that's all you wanted though, you may as well just pick up T5DR for much less - the animation might be crappier, but there's no loading, no disc to mess around with, no wear and tear on your PS3's Blu-Ray lens, and markedly better (but still quite poor) online. Not bad for a couple of Sony space bucks.

Musings: Band Hero

2009-12-28T04:43:00.000-08:00

/So watch me strike a match on all my wasted time/
/as far as I'm concerned, you're just another picture to burn/

I'm not going to do a full review of Band Hero as I'm sure most everybody's already formed an opinion about it by now. I will post a few thoughts on the game though, as how I felt about the game basically rollercoastered up and down over the 2 weeks I've owned it.

I got my PS3 copy of BH as a Christmas gift, and I was excited to finally play the songs I enjoyed on my friend's 360 in the comfort of my own home. Some of my favorite pop songs were on there - "Picture to Burn" by Taylor Swift, "Just A Girl" by No Doubt, "Black Cat" by Janet Jackson, the list goes on. After the initial rush of jamming my way through these sugar-coated tracks however, I rolled through the rest of the track list and was a bit let down by the other songs on the disc. Apparently Activision was a bit short on licensing cash (or, more likely, simply didn't want to spend that much), so after the big names (current artists) there's a huge dropoff in terms of music age... from the mid 00's, the setlist jumps through a whole lot of songs from the 80's, with the 1990's being sorely underrepresented. Where's the Alanis? Top 40-era Smashing Pumpkins, Oasis, etc? In addition, a lot of the older songs seemed to be the ancient recycled chestnuts that seem to pop up in every other DDR game - YMCA, Kung Fu Fighting? Huh?

However, after I played through the career mode, I found that I had gained a better appreciation for the cheesy stuff - the versions of said oldies they included are pretty well performed (esp. the long playing version of American Pie by Don McLean - that's fire right there!), and the choreography of YMCA is so INCREDIBLY, ULTRA GAY it's worth watching just for laughs. All in all, Band Hero is still pretty decent value for the money.

Midori got a fucking terrible redneck makeover.

And if I ever get sick of the rest of the tunes, I figure I can always just loop "Picture to Burn" until I puke. It's the most upbeat song about bitterness ever, and one of the only country songs I appreciate.

Must Play: Plants VS Zombies!

2009-12-28T04:34:00.000-08:00

I've been so focused lately on the big-name titles coming out this Christmas that I managed to overlook a title that a lot of people have been raving about -- PLANTS VS ZOMBIES! (I know, I'm way late to the party on this one.)

Although I'm a hardcore gamer through and through, I've developed a growing appreciation for casual titles over the years (thanks mostly to the influence of my Nintendo DS and Facebook applets) and I've always been a HUGE fan of PopCap Games; their titles are always slickly produced and fun, and I'm telling you, this might be the best game they ever did. I confess to being quite sick of tower defense as a genre, but this is so well executed that it doesn't feel like the same old crap at all. I've become so addicted to PvZ that I play it every chance I get - yesterday, our division head actually caught me sneaking in a couple of rounds because my accursedly slow hands weren't fast enough on the Alt+Tab.

D'ohhhh! :-(

(In fact, although I'm going to post this in the evening, I'm typing this post at work - writing about PvZ is much less conspicuous than playing it.) :-)

I strongly encourage all of you to give it a try! It runs perfectly even on my (decidedly non-gaming oriented) office PC, so the barriers to entry are really quite low. I'm currently playing the... um, yo-ho-ho version of this game (my non-gamer officemate passed it to me from his USB) but I'm going to check PSN when I get home to see if there's a version I can buy (so I can play it on my TV.)

Yes, this game is so good that I'm willing to pay for something that I got for FREE. It's that addictive. Obviously, if you don't WANT to pay for it, I'm not going to stop you... but since it doesn't cost you anything to play the full version on PC I'm begging you to at least give this a try.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to play a couple rounds of PvZ. Adik! :-D

The EFR Top Ten: Best PS3 Games of 2009

2009-12-15T08:10:00.000-08:00

It's taken some time, but I finally got around to finalizing this list. There were some painful cuts, but hey, that's why they call it a Top TEN.

From worst to first, here's what I thought were the best PS3 games of 2009.

PS: Do not stone me for leading off this article with a picture of ugly-ass MFer Forest Griffin.

10. UFC 2009: Undisputed

An absolute beast of a game, UFC 2009 Undisputed was the most unexpected surprise I had this year. I downloaded the demo, played it, smiled like a fucking idiot, and immediately set my sights on picking this up. I wasn't disappointed, and neither was publisher THQ - this was the surprise smash of the summer in terms of sales, and I'm telling you right now it wasn't (just) because the UFC fanbase is 50% composed of crazy wildin'-out type drunkies who will buy anything - this is a HIGH QUALITY game here folks. Why buy Fight Night when you can have this? We want Undisputed 2010, NOW!

9. Killzone 2

Just a funny thing I noticed when doing this writeup - you know how people (myself included) always bag on Killzone 2 for being colorless and relentlessly grey? Well, its true! Just type "Killzone 2" into Google image search and the images you get will be pretty much monochrome. :-) Despite the bleak tone of the game's visuals (and the game in general) however, KZ2 still offered up a highly entertaining single-player experience, with visuals good enough to make me do double takes every so often, and a killer, killer sound effects suite. The multiplayer, on the other hand... um, wasn't exactly on Modern Warfare's level, but then, what is?

8. Assassin's Creed II

I'm a bit surprised at myself for including AC2 on this list, considering the deep-seated hatred I have for the first game. Hey, you have to admit, the first AC was a pretty love it or hate it type of game. And you can't say that I didn't give it a fair shot - I bought AC1 at launch (fueled by some Jade Raymond hype), played through the first few towns, absolutely hated it, traded it away, got it back in a "filler" trade, ignored it for the better part of a year, tried it again to maybe get hyped for AC2, hated it even more, and chucked it in disgust to the very bottom of my sizable box of PS3 crap. But Assassin's Creed 2 really is a marked improvement over the first game - the world is livelier, there's a much larger amount of stuff to do, and they came up with a great reward system that makes you want to push forward. It really shows that Patrice Desilets and his team really took the sometimes savage criticism of the first game, sucked it up, and proceeded to work on making this Creed sequel the best damn game they could possibly make. Sure, it wasn't enough to overcome the awesome shit that the other developers came up with, but that French bastard has at least regained my respect. (Disclaimer: As I have yet to get my hands on the PS3 version - I ran out of money - this opinion is based on the Xbox 360 version, which I played all the way through. I still plan to get the PS3 version eventually, though... for cheap.)

7. Dragon Age: Origins

Although I got suckered into buying what has to be one of the worst special editions ever made for a game, I'm not bitter - Dragon Age: Origins is still, gameplay-wise, one of the best titles Bioware ever made. The characters are interesting, the plot is filled with some wonderfully epic stuff, and the combat is a simplified version of the Neverwinter Nights engine, adapted for consoles but still retaining the strategic depth. Well, it did have an Achilles heel -- it, errr, looked like crap. But most RPG nerds I've talked to think it's an equitable tradeoff.

6. Street Fighter IV

It speaks volumes of the overall quality of this year's crop of games that the best (IMHO) 2009 entry in one of my all-time favorite genres could only manage overall 6th place. Although it came out much earlier in the year, there is no reason to deny Street Fighter IV its place in the sun. Yes, like the majority of fighting games, it's a rehash, but it's an expertly crafted, gorgeous, and very, very, VERY fun rehash that I'm willing to pay for again next year in the form of Super Street Fighter IV.

5. Batman: Arkham Asylum

Length. That's all this game had going against it in terms of Game of the Year contention. Unfortunately, Arkham really was short - maikli masyado for most people. The game was over too quickly for many people to consider more than a rent or a short-term buy (bili, tapos pasa kaagad). You couldn't fault the game based on quality though: It had MetroidVania-style exploration, loads of secrets to find, a great script (and fantastic voice acting), and the most unique combat system I saw all year.

4. Borderlands

I was one of Borderlands' chief boosters before the game saw release (promoting the game every chance I got), and Gearbox Software didn't let me down - Borderlands effectively was, as Gears of War designer Cliff Blesinzki said, "Diablo for the FPS generation". Sure, it had its flaws here and there (such as being buggier than a jar full of cockroaches) but the game was just so fun and well-put-together that it deserved to succeed... and succeed it did, becoming the sleeper hit of the year by a mile. We can only hope that Gearbox's recent trademarking of the name "Borderworlds" means we get a sequel in 2010 (although I doubt it, seeing as they're also developing Aliens: Colonial Marines for Sega. Anyway, a man can dream.

3. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2

Two years after the untouchable Modern Warfare 1 dropped we got this shiny, mega-hyped sequel.

So what changed from COD4?

Well, not the story, definitely. The plot STILL doesn't make sense, it's more a series of extremely well put together action sequences that don't really gel.

And while the graphics have improved in spots, it's still running on the same old-ass engine, so it can look a little messy at times.

The multiplayer has a load of cool stuff to unlock, and is as fun as ever, but the structure remains largely the same.

So in a nutshell, the only "new" feature they added was the very entertaining Spec Ops co-op mode, and a whole truckload of minor refinements.

And you know what? The end result was still so motherfucking FUN I had to make it number 3. Thank you, Infinity Ward. Thank you.

2. Demon's Souls

The first few hours I spent with Demon's Souls weren't what I would call enjoyable. Me and Death? We became best pals. Inadvertently walking off incredibly high spiral staircases, getting burned to death by dragons I had no idea were coming, eaten alive by wolves, getting caught in an unfortunate yet still somewhat hilarious accident involving exploding barrels -- it felt like it was always SOMETHING, goddamnit, and I was beginning to wonder if I was losing my hardcore gamer "edge". I even considered trading Demon's Souls away for something else. Well, I'm glad I reconsidered, because when I started playing again, something just clicked, and I suddenly "got it". At first I cursed at Demon's Souls for killing me so indiscriminately -- then I realized that it was simply trying to teach me the correct way to play. This is some truly masterful work by From Software, and the best game they ever made (seriously, I didn't think they would ever top Otogi 2 for the original Xbox). Sequel please!

1. Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

Considering that Naughty Dog is one of my favorite developers of all time (I'm still waiting on that REAL Jak and Daxter sequel, guys), and that Uncharted: Drake's Fortune still has a very special place in my heart, it's no surprise that I really, REALLY wanted to play this. Unsurprisingly, ND came through. But what I didn't expect was just how great U2AT would turn out - I've been burned by excessive hype before, but U2AT deserved every bit of praise that came its way. Amazingly cinematic, with the same disarming panache and light-hearted wit that made the first game so great, Uncharted 2 was a shining reminder of exactly why, despite being twenty-fucking-six years old, I still love gaming so much.

That's pretty much a wrap, folks, unless you count...

EFR's Honorable Mentions

a.k.a.

The Best of the Losers

Ratchet And Clank Future: A Crack In Time - A pretty good game, but didn't wow me enough to make me pick it up. I played through it at a friend's house and don't plan to pick it up again until it becomes really, really dirt cheap (for collection/Trophy purposes).

God of War Collection - Disqualified because neither GoW game really came out in 2009. Would have made it in if that wasn't the case.

Fallout 3: Game of the Year Edition - See God of War Collection.

Band Hero - I love this game but I can't in good conscience put a glorified track pack/Guitar Hero reskin on my 2009 best-of list. It feels... dirty, somehow.

inFamous - Because some fucker will send me another angry email if I dont include this on here. Seriously dude, it wasn't the BEST GAME EVER, so get over it.

so... Fuck inFamous! Muhahahaha! X-D

-fin-

PS2HDL: In Loving Memory

2009-12-15T07:35:00.000-08:00

The definition. Like, the once-Mecca of Philippine videogames.

I can still clearly remember the day when the path of my life first crossed with PS2HDL. It was a dreary Saturday morning, and my PS2 fat was on the fritz again (the lens needed a little cleaning). Resignedly, I lugged the old girl over to the pre-fire Virra Mall to get it fixed. Not trusting the nasty fellows over at WenGem (at that time, they had already become pretty notorious for swapping out old parts into units sent in for repair) and not wanting to pay the huge prices Tonton charged over at GameStuff, I happened upon a small, innocuous store on the second floor called EYO Sales. I decided to give it a shot, and while the shop staff went through the process of checking out the defective unit (in plain view pa, para walang duda) the friendly, smiling Chinese man behind the counter struck up a conversation with me. Turns out he was the proprietor of the store, and he wanted to know: was I interested in having a PS2 that ran games exclusively from the hard drive? Thankfully, I said yes, and I walked out of the store with my wallet Php 5,500.00 lighter and my PS2 loaded for bear. Yeah, Eric really did a number on my wallet that day (especially considering I was still a student then) but what I got in return was totally worth the cash I gave him, and to this day, when any of my gaming equipment breaks down, I leave my beloved, overpriced pieces of technology in the care of good old Eric Ong.

Anyway, before I discuss further, I'd like to give a short primer on PS2HDL for those who may not know what it is. HDLoader is the name of a program that plays on a PS2 that basically allows you to run games off the system's hard drive. (The PS2 Slim has no hard drive port, which makes it incompatible with HDLoader; this is why PS2 fat models have higher resale value than slims.) This is usually the recommended option for gamers whose PS2 lenses have stopped reading DVD's but can still read CD's - you burn the program to a regular compact disc. (For the less fortunate souls whose PS2 lens has totally broken, it is also possible to launch HD Loader from a memory card, although this is considerably more difficult to do, and requires that your nerd skillz be Better Than The Average Bear.)

The program requires that you have access to a PS2 compatible hard drive, like a Maxtor (I'm not sure what the upper limit was - 300GB? I'm not sure) and obviously an original Sony Network Adaptor, which is what you use to connect the PS2 fat to the hard disk. You can't play online or anything (games like SOCOM will crash), as the NA merely serves as a very expensive "cable" that allows the program to work. Basically, it's the bulky predecessor to the PSP's firmware hack - the one that allows you to play games off the memory stick. Also, note that HDLoader doesn't necessarily have to be used for piracy (although that's what a whole lot of people use it for) - you can install your legitimate games to the hard disk with no issues or glitches propping up.

I hope that clears things up. :-) Moving on, why did I love this mod so much?

Even Borat approves of PS2HDL. You can trust Borat!

Firstly, as any reader of EFR knows, I'm a pretty big gamer, and my brother plays a lot as well. This puts undue stress on the consoles and handhelds we have in the house, and I'm very paranoid with regards to wear and tear on our systems, especially disc-based ones like PlayStations. With PS2HDL, we could now leave the lovable black box on for days on end without worrying about the useless thing conking out. (Up until this day, I still consider PS3 games that install large amounts of game data or the whole game to the hard drive - like Unreal Tournament 3, Arkham Asylum and Oblivion - to be easier to play for long amounts of time because of the reduced wear on the disc drive lens.)

Countless NBA 2K5 grudges were settled using PS2HD.

Playing a heated game of NBA 2K but the parental units forcing you to break for lunch? Playing through an engrossing RPG, with a save point nowhere within the next country mile? No problem, just leave the damn thing on! PS2HDL allowed me to engage in epic gaming marathons without the nagging feeling that I was wrecking my console - I clearly remember doing a start-to-finish Resident Evil 4 run on that thing. It was glorious! Just think - using PS2HDL resulted in a console that is, for all intents and purposes, immortal. There are no moving parts to break, and when the hard drive eventually fails due to overuse (which will take quite some time) you can just chuck it and slide in a new one.

PS2HD somehow made damn-near-perfect games even better!

Another huge benefit of PS2HDL was how it greatly reduced load time. I'm a huge RPG fan, and one thing I really can't stand is incessant disc reading times because they make random (or semi-random) battles that much more annoying. (Even great games, like Persona 3, suffered from this glaring flaw. And I tested it on a brand new PS2 Slim, so don't tell me it was because I was testing it on an old lens.) Yes, PS2HDL cut into loading time by a significant amount, and it made for less waiting around and more gaming, which is inarguably a good thing.

Lastly, PS2HDL offered convenience. All the games currently on my playlist, accessible at the touch of a button! The huge hard drive sizes also left me plenty of space left over to hoard multiplayer games (you know, the ones you tend to break out only when friends come over, like Street Fighter and TimeSplitters) and timeless classics that I want to try and revisit. It also greatly improved the console's portability - if I was going on an extended road trip, or visiting a friend's house, all I would have to lug along was the PS2 itself, no disc games required.

This game had to be forced to cooperate. Thank God for patches!

Sure, PS2HDL had its own share of inconveniences - when Sony and the rest of the big shots like Square Enix caught on to the concept of PS2HD (which could allow Americans to rent games legitimately then burn the ISO for to use for an unlimited amount of time using WinHIIP) newer big games began having "mysterious conflicts" with the software, requiring patches or a total OS update in order to play off the hard drive. But it was always worth the effort in the end... I have fond memories of playing FFXII until I puked Gambits.

So where IS my PS2HDL unit? Having given Persona 4 the business, I have no use for it at the moment, so I lent it to my little cousin so he could experience the joy of having a veritable gaming buffet at his fingertips. The younger generation deserves to play those games, and enjoy them as we once did.

But someday, I'll dig up the old component cable, pick the scratched, dusty old warrior back up, and relive the joys of a generation where HD didn't mean high definition...

... it meant hard disk.

Impressions: God of War Collection (R3)

2009-12-15T07:18:00.000-08:00

I've been wanting to pick this up for some time now but the horrible traffic and parking situation in the Greenhills area scared me off. After facing my fears and braving the horrors of GSC in mid-December, I came home with my copy of GoW Collection, with my car drained of a quarter tank of gas, and my mind bearing horrible, traumatic scars that will take some time to heal.

I picked up the R3 version because it came with a voucher for the GoW 3 demo, which sad to say I hadn't played yet before now. After queueing the DL for that up (at an expectedly monstrous 2.6 gigs), I got started on God of War 1, which, as I previously stated, I never finished all the way through on the PS2 due to my buying a dud copy. Amazingly, the graphics still hold up pretty well even after all these years, primarily because of the HD facelift (and the consistent framerate of 60fps). Things get a bit hairy when you do an extreme closeup (as the character models, which were left unchanged, are pretty blocky) but when I was actually playing the game it didn't really bother me that much. The only beef I have with the presentation is the video - as many reviews have stated, it's jarringly poor-quality, and when you're playing on an HDTV (which, really, is the only reason anybody would have to pick this game up) the shift to low-res video then back to the high-res game engine really takes you out of the experience.

Still, the fantastic direction, great gameplay and pinpoint perfect control are all present and accounted for, and in the end that's what counts. Having never played God of War II in my life (and hearing such universally glowing praise - by most accounts, the sequel was a far superior game to the first, which is rare), I'm really excited about polishing off the first game and getting started on GoW2. I just hope all this relentless God-of-War-ing I'm doing doesn't burn me out for the third game. March na lalabas yun!.... kasabay ng Yakuza 3 and Final Fantasy XIII. Ouch, tatlo. Yari na naman wallet ko. :-(

Oh, and speaking of GoW3, I know I'm way late to the party on this but that demo kicked major, major ass. That was fucking incredible! :-)

Dante's Inferno kicks ass!

2009-12-12T20:34:00.000-08:00

Have you downloaded the demo for this yet? If you haven't, WTF are you waiting for? GO!!!

Seriously, this is SO worth the time it takes you to download. It started off pretty crap, with the hacking and slashing looking like a more monotonous version of Devil May Cry. But stick with it (it starts picking up after the boss fight with Death) and you'll find that you'll be having a whole lot of fun - the FPS is really smooth, and the combo system feels utterly fantastic!

On a side note: I don't know how Bayonetta is supposed to stand up to this, given that they're releasing within the same January window - I mean, Bayonetta is fantastic gameplay-wise, but the PS3 version just looks so crap visually: bad textures and an incredibly poor framerate, especially in comparison to the 360 version. Dante's Inferno makes it look terrible, hopefully Sega fixes it up.

And just in case you didn't know, Dante's was developed by the same guys who made Dead Space.

NEVER DOUBT THEM AGAIN!

This just rocketed WAAAAAY up the wish list. Damn!

Discuss! Top 50 games of the past decade (Destructoid article)

2009-12-11T03:11:00.000-08:00

First off, if you haven't already, I'd like you to read the Destructoid feature I've linked below. (Start from part one, etc.)

Part One: #50 - #41
Part Two: #40 - #31
Part Three: #30 - #21
Part Four: # 20 - #11
Part Five: # 10 - #1

I hope you agree that this article (see the links above, spread out over 5 posts) was a very
interesting read. Normally these "top" lists are either "best games of the year" rankings (which we're very used to seeing, and usually feature games we're all sick of hearing aboutdue to overexposure) or a "best games of all time" list (which usually see the same old chestnuts like Super Metroid, Symphony of the Night and the original Super Mario Bros. crowding the upper echelons of the rankings).

Sorry, Alucard.
Yeah, your game was fuckin' awesome, but it's time to give others a shot.

Limiting the coverage to just this past decade (meaning 2000 - 2009) keeps the games relatively fresh (excluding the sacred cows of the 8-bit, 16-bit and most of the 32-bit era) while still leaving room for games from multiple generations to represent (the list even includes late-era PS1 games, and has a pretty good sample of Dreamcast classics as well). It also allows cult classics like Katamari Damacy (which would otherwise have little to no chance of sneaking in) to claim prominent positions on the list.

Sing it with me, now: "Naaaaaaaaaa... nanana nana na na, Katamari Damacy...."

Now, Destructoid just loves being controversial (any website that gainfully employs a crazy yet lovable nut like Jim Sterling clearly isn't the conservative type) and there's going to be a lot of arguments about games being excluded from the list, or where they were ranked in relation to
other games. What did you guys like or dislike about the rankings? In any case, reading through that list brought back a whole lot of memories, and as always, I had a lot of things on my mind. I'd like to share my opinions here with you, and hopefully it'll help you reflect on what your own
personal favorites were.

Here goes nothing!

Pictured: The world's finest black guy simulator. (I kid, I kid.)

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas! Oh yeah! I've always thought that GTA:SA was the finest installment in the entire series, and it's great to see that many other people feel the same way. The customizability, the sheer size of its open world, the extremely varied gameplay, and the perfect balance of humor (it's Loc, baby!) and balls-out action, San Andreas set the bar so high that even its next generation successor GTAIV was hard-pressed to match it. GTA4 isn't a 10, IGN. But San Andreas? Now THAT'S a 10. It's Grove Street, bitches!

Although there was enough sailing in the game to make you seasick in real life, Wind Waker's best moments will stick with me for a long time.

Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker was also an excellent pick - this is especially relevant here in the Philippines, where most gamers didn't have access to the hardware that plays it (the admittedly crap GameCube). Admittedly, it wasn't up against much competition - Phantom Hourglass was an OK game. but the one-large-dungeon conceit just wasn't my thing; while Twilight Princess on the other hand was just an overrated piece of shit. Still, that shouldn't dull the shine on this superlative game, which is a close third on my list of Best Zelda Games Ever (behind A Link To The Past and Link's Awakening).

Seriously, if Capcom pushed through with their plan to put Phoenix Wright in Tatsunoko VS. Capcom, I totally would've bought a Wii. TAKE THAT!

Was a big fan of Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney (the first game) squeaking in at number 48. Being a DS near-launch title, my favorite attorney's first adventure proved it still has the Wright stuff -- it remains an enduring classic, and deserves every bit of pub it gets. It's not complicated enough a game to get ranked much higher than this, but I'm pretty happy about good
old Feenie getting a spot.

One of the most criminally underappreciated games of all time. Plus, main character Jade looks like Alyx Vance from Half-Life 2! That's always a plus.

Beyond Good and Evil is a game that every PS2 owner must play. Nobody bought it (or at least bought ORIGINAL copies. Ahem.), but Rayman creator Michel Ancel really brought his A game with this one. The story is really interesting, the stealth segments are very well done (a rarity in the action adventure genre), the photography meta-game is addictive... I could go on and on about this superlative title, but if you haven't played it yet, I'd prefer that you stop reading, open a new tab on your browser, and download this shit from the usual suspects right now. I'd usually do the responsible thing here and endorse buying an original copy, but the chances of you actually landing one today are pretty low at best. So just play it, enjoy it, then join me in bugging UbiSoft to finally release the sequel.

(At least I can buy an original copy of THAT! Bawi ako.)

(In Samuel L. Jackson voice): "I'm a stone cold zombie KILLAH, muthafucka!"

Resident Evil 4 is another great pick - I mean, it's only the undisputed best Resident Evil game ever made! Yes, it's a divisive game among Resident Evil diehards, as it was the installment that officially cemented the RE series' transition from "survival horror" to its current "action horror" status. And to those people I say...

ARE YOU ON CRACK?!?!?!

After Resident Evil: Code Veronica (Dreamcast), I was beginning to feel that they'd done all they could with the existing formula, as Code Veronica felt overly long, and was a bit dragging at points. Instead of another cookie-cutter installment in the series, Capcom decided to bless us with the most incredible fucking franchise reboot I'd ever seen in my life. Filled with some of the most entertaining action sequences in any game EVER, RE4 basically replaced the "oppressive fear" from the first four installments with a feeling of suspense. It was also a considerably better
game than RE5 - it was devoid of that game's supremely annoying co-op gameplay elements, and was considerably longer.

"You're WRONG!
I know now,
without a doubt,
Kingdom Hearts...

IS LIGHT!"

The first Kingdom Hearts is a game that's very dear to me; the strange combination of Disney and Square turned out to be two great tastes that taste great together. Remembering that cheesy fucktard Sephiroth still makes my hand ball up into a fist! KH is also memorable in my view for being the first (and only) videogame that ever made me shed a couple of tears - the ending (and the ending song, which was the orchestral, no-lyrics mix of Utada Hikaru's "Simple and Clean") hit me with massive waves of nostalgia, and I just couldn't help it.

A big part of the fun of modern-day Persona is pretend-macking on all the chicks. The main dude is always getting a lot of action, despite dressing like Big Gay Al half the time :-)

Persona 4 is my favorite RPG of all time. In fact, if Atlus R&D1 ever got off their asses and made a Persona 5 for the PS3, I'd happily ignore Final Fantasy XIII just to play it. Hell, if they just remade Persona 4 (or Persona 3: FES for that matter) for the PS3 with HD graphics I'd still buy it in a heartbeat, no matter how much they asked for it. Needless to sayI'm quite happy with the fact it's way up there on the list in terms of ranking. Great dialogue/localization, fantastic soundtrack, swabe din ang graphics, and the usual great gameplay.

It may not look all that special, but Lost Odyssey was (and is) one of the finest RPG's I've played in this current generation. See? Not everything Sakaguchi did post-Final Fantasy sucked balls after all!

Lost Odyssey was another excellent choice; in many ways, seeing as LO was a Final Fantasy game in all but name, I consider it as a much-beloved "lost chapter" in the series. Great story, characters, and gameplay, plus it was long as hell - my kind of RPG. And hey, while it took Square until the end of 2009 to (finally) translate FF into HD, Lost Odyssey has been out for TWO FUCKING YEARS. Sakaguchi had you bastards beat by a mile, you moogle-hugging fools!

Recognize!

Riskbreakers, motherfuckers!

Vagrant Story (which recently saw a PSN release) is one of the most unique games on the whole list; it came, it kicked ass, and summarily disappeared. A sequel was never announced, and the game's dungeon-crawler-mixed-with-Parasite-Eve structure was so strange that Square's other RPG-developer contemporaries at the time didn't even attempt to copy it, so the idea remains fresh. Sounds about time for a remake, or even... a clone?

Paging From Software, paging From Software...

I hope that between this article and the DToid list I've managed to jog some of your treasured gaming memories. It's fun to reminisce, huh? :-)

Retro Love: Final Fantasy Tactics - War of the Lions

2009-12-11T03:09:00.002-08:00

For the Beoulves!

As you may have noticed, I've been on a bit of a retro kick lately. There's just so much awesome stuff to talk about from the past generations - an excellent example of said "awesome stuff" is the legendary Final Fantasy Tactics. Nearing its 15th year of kicking ass and taking names, the original FFT still stands, in my opinion, as the greatest example of the console turn-based strategy game ever developed.

As I no longer have access to the original PS1 version (my PS1's been broken for well over 5 years already, and FFT has some serious emulation issues when played over ePSXe) I'm going to be using the excellent PSP remake, War of the Lions, to refresh my memory for this installment of Retro Love.

Moving on, I decided to write this article because I've gotten back into playing Tactics again after a long hiatus - this is my fifth (!) time playing through the game, making it second only to Diablo II: Lord of Destruction (PC) as the game I've replayed the most. What is it about this game that inspires such devotion and love?

The graphics of the game have aged surprisingly well - especially when compared to other games released in the same time frame. The 2D sprites for the characters are very expressive and convey a lot of emotion, while the battlefields are simple in terms of polygonal architecture but are textured very nicely - they feel very "natural". Compare the same to more recent SRPG releases like Vandal Hearts II (PS1) or even the first Disgaea (PS2) and you'll better appreciate the effort present in every frame. (Note: The PSP remake looks considerably better than the PSOne version available online due to the smaller screen size and what seems to be a subtle smoothing effect, which cuts down on jaggies.)

A truly masterful OST.

The sound, on the other hand is absolutely AMAZING. This is one of my favorite game OST's of all time (second only to Square's own Chrono Trigger) - the stirring music really captures the mood of each moment, from stirring war beats, to gentler symphonies that convey a sense of wonder and adventure, and even melancholic, darker compositions that accompany key
moments in the game's twisted, circuitous plot.

Speaking of the original plot, that might be the game's only true weakness. It's well written and interesting, but the translation of the script for the original PS1 version was beyond abysmal. In fact, it gets progressively worse throughout the game, to the point where exactly what happened in the ending was pretty unclear to me. Happily, this glaring chink in FFT's armor was fixed on the PSP version, which has one of the finest Square scripts ever written.)

Ahhhh. Job System goodness.
(Note: Some classes in this screenshot limited to the PSP version.)

But all of those positive attributes don't hold a candle to the game's absolutely immaculate gameplay. I can think of few examples, in any game genre, where I feel that a game that was released more than a decade ago can be demonstrably better than a game released today. Yes, Disgaea and its Nippon Ichi Software brethren (Makai Kingdom, La Pucelle, Phantom Brave etc.) may have their complicated gameplay systems and damage counts in the bazillions, but the simple elegance of Final Fantasy Tactics' amazing Job System (still better than FFV's) provides a compelling reason to keep playing. The abilities you can learn are varied and have many different tactical applications, and provide an addictive carrot/incentive to fight "just one more battle". I also like that the game puts up a good fight - I'm a FFT veteran, as I previously mentioned, and I've seen everything the game has to offer, but the random enemy/party positioning and enemy levels that scale to your party's level help to keep you on your toes. (Just the other day, I got wiped out on Lenalia Plateau! Grrrr.)

In closing, if you've somehow never played FFT before, and have an passing interest in (or an open mind about) playing turn-based strategy RPG's in the Vandal Hearts vein, you owe it to yourself to play this immediately. Hey, if you have a PSP, the file's pretty small - less than half a gig if I remember right - so you've got no excuses. PS: Do not play this game, pictured below, as it's a much, much crappier title.

I give you... the most disappointing game ever.

Sigh. It's never a good sign when the sequel you've waited for for so long puts you to sleep in 25 minutes. Never a good sign, I'm telling you.

"I got a good feeling!"

B-Grade Bonanza: Mediocre/Crap PS3 Games That For Some Reason I Really Want To Play, Installment No. 1

2009-12-11T03:09:00.001-08:00

One of the things I miss the most about the PS1 and PS2 generations (aside from the scads of adventure and RPG games that seem to be in short supply these days) is the fact that I could purchase B and C grade games on a whim,because they were so cheap. You know the ones I'm talking about - broken, simplistic fighting games like Evil Zone, horrifying FMV titles like Combat Queen, bad anime adaptations like School Rumble, Osama bin Laden-hunting games like... uh, Fugitive Hunter... the list goes on and on. Now, obviously, I can't go doing the same thing nowadays, as most crap games are
still going to run me over 2 kyaw (I was laughing my ass off at Datablitz the other day - they were selling Rogue Warrior for Php 2,950.00!!! WTF, good luck with that, pals.) So my only choice is to track down the games that I'm morbidly curious about second hand, so I can have the pleasure (?) of playing them all.

Or borrowing them from beloved friends. Where art thou, my wealthy, like-minded, generous benefactors?

One game I really wish those benefactors would lend me is 50 Cent: Blood On The Sand.

"You filthy gentleman of Arab descent! Wheh Mah Skull????"

Now, I'm well aware that this isn't a "bad" game by any means - simplistic, arcadey and low-IQ, yes, but not bad. But I really want to play Blood On The Sand for the "story". Ever since the "Wheh Mah Skull?" meme made the rounds of gaming blogs and message boards everywhere, my secret, forbidden desire to play this game has grown ever larger.

Just think about it, people - this is the plot, in a nutshell:

1) Mr. Cent, for some inexplicable reason, decides to do a show in the Middle East.

2) The concert promoters pay him in kind, in the form of a crystal skull.

3) Dirty terroristic middle-eastern types steal his skull.

4) Mr. Cent says "Wheh Mah Skull?!?!", gets royally pissed off, and kills a whole bunch of unfortunate Arab dudes with his, um, G-Unit.

THAT'S THE BEST FUCKING STORY I'VE EVER HEARD! I need this.

System Retrospective: The PSone era

2009-11-27T09:10:00.000-08:00

Console Name: Sony PlayStation, later rebranded as the PSOne in its final years
Original SRP: USD 299.99
Original Philippine SRP: Php 15,000.00 (modified)

Notable Titles / Cult Classics: Gran Turismo 1 & 2, Parasite Eve, Vagrant Story, Final Fantasy Tactics, Suikoden II, Metal Gear Solid, Syphon Filter, Vandal Hearts I & II, Tomba!, Parappa the Rapper, UmJammer Lammy, Final Fantasies VII through IX, Ridge Racer Type 4, WWF Warzone, Tomb Raider 1 & 2, Poy Poy, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 & 2, Ace Combat 2, Tekken 1, 2 and 3, CastleVania: Symphony of the Night, Brave Fencer Musashi, Other Life Azure Dreams, Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete, Xenogears, Ape Escape, Bust-A-Groove, Valkyrie Profile, Legend of Dragoon, my hands are getting tired

With all the (admittedly well-deserved) praise the PS2 gets for having the best and most comprehensive console game library in the modern era, I thought it would be a good idea to shine some light on Sony's maiden voyage into the world of console gaming, its rich and interesting history, and reminisce about the many great titles we played on it.

First, as always, some history: as you may or may not recall, Sony's system wasn't even supposed to be a "Sony" system at all. The PlayStation was originally created as a special project for Nintendo; it was intended to be a CD-ROM based add-on for the SNES, which Sony would then manufacture. After Nintendo pulled the plug on the project, a vengeful Sony decided to strike out on its own and sell the hardware they had developed as a stand-alone product.

Thus, the Sony PlayStation (lovingly yet inexplicably dubbed the PSX by industry types) was born, and the era of PlayStation begun.

The PS1's immediate competition, the Sega Saturn, launched earlier than Sony in an effort to build up a larger install base ahead of their incoming competitor. However, this was a bad move tactically on Sega's part for the following reasons: A) They had no games to support this advance launch, and the Saturn launched in the States with an absolutely abysmal selection of titles. B) Just a few months prior, Sega had duped their loyalists into purchasing a 32X, which supposedly gave Mega Drive owners 32bits of game-processing goodness but in reality was a very expensive paperweight. Launching a "true 32-bit" console in the form of the Sega Saturn so soon after these empty promises left many Sega fans feeling betrayed, and these deserters jumped ship to the good ship Sony.

And what a good ship it was indeed! I remember that crazy piece of shit launching for 15 large at Game Stuff in Virra Mall (the pre-fire version), the unit amazingly enough coming pre-modified despite being scorchingly new hardware. Fake copies of Battle Arena Toh Shin Den sold alongside it for the princely sum of Php 300, and to those of us who first saw them, it was like the future had finally come.

Toh Shin Den in particular looked amazing; after seeing the blocky visuals of Virtua Fighter, we were all disappointed, thinking that if that was as good the visuals of these new fangled 3D fighters got, we'd stick with Street Fighter, thanks. BAT looked fantastic, was much more fast paced than Virtua Fighter, and was much easier to learn. Unlike Sega's disgusting abortion of a launch, Sony followed up BAT's impact really quick: Tekken 1! Ridge Racer! Wild Arms! Crash Bandicoot! The hits kept coming in waves, and Sega couldn't keep up. It didn't help much that the Sega Saturn's multiprocessor architecture was hard to program for in comparison to the comparatively simple PSX. (Oh, the irony. Little did Sony know that 2 generations later, they would follow Sega's ill-conceived architectural mistake, which surely cost them some market share to the Xbox 360.)

Moving forward, as the PSOne got older and the years wore on, Sony pioneered a lot of things that we take for granted nowadays:

First off, they began the emancipation of gaming as a medium in the public eye; by that I mean they elevated playing videogames as something that was percieved to be the territory of little kids and obssessive computer geeks to something that was viewed as socially acceptable.

Secondly, Sony became the only company to win a console war (in terms of unit sales) on its maiden voyage: the PlayStation handily outclassed both the N64 and the Saturn by huge margins, which had never been done before and hasn't been repeated since. (They would achieve another milestone in the 128-bit era by becoming the first console manufacturer to win the console war in two consecutive generations, but that is a story for another time.)

Lastly, they held their own and established the disc-based medium as the new standard that had to be followed. Discs were cheaper to make than cartridges and held more data, thus games could be mass produced for a fraction of the cost it would take to publish a cartridge game, and still retain higher profit margins. They were also able to hold much more space in terms of game data, allowing for uncompressed textures and sound, which in turn made for better looking, better sounding, and lengthier adventures. Nintendo counted on their brand recognition to carry them through, and failed miserably - their decision to use the cartridge based format (which meant more money for them, and a greater amount of control over game reproduction) cost them market share and the support of key allies. It is common knowledge that the reason long time Nintendo ally SquareSoft decided to jump ship was because of their belief that the RPG genre could no longer be advanced on the limited space a cartridge format provided. As a result, Sony got Final Fantasy VII exclusively, and the rest was history.

Anyway, while we're talking about games, have you ever stopped to think about just how MUCH gaming evolved as a medium during the PSOne era? It's not even close to resembling any other period in gaming history, as the level of evolution console gaming experienced in this span is simply unbelievable. When the system launched, we were mostly subjected to better-looking versions of the same stuff we were playing in previous generations, as Sony was basically trying to work from Nintendo's pre-existing template for success. But at the time of the system's death many years later, many genres had undergone a complete and total transformation. I'm going to put on my Ace Attorney hat now and present some conclusive evidence for your approval:

Remember when having an "arcade-perfect" conversion of a racing game was a crucial selling point for a console? That's how PSOne began, with Namco plugging Ridge Racer and its "futuristic" 3D graphics.

By the time the console neared its end, Gran Turismo 2 had clearly established that arcade ports were a relic of the past, and that increased depth of gameplay was demanded of console racing software.

At launch, RPG's hadn't evolved much from the 16-bit generation, as simplistic old school RPG's like Wild Arms 1 and Beyond the Beyond were the norm.

At the time of the PSOne's demise, Squaresoft had had successfully expanded on the much more cinematic formula that FFVII had previously established, heralding the advent of the CG-heavy, multi-CD epic.

The Street Fighter series and its countless spinoffs were absolutely dominant at the beginning of the 32-bit console cycle. Most fighting fans, after seeing the slow-paced, plodding gameplay that Sega's Virtua Fighter 1 provided, elected to stick with the old and familiar.

Six years later, Namco had pretty much established dominance in this sector, growing the fighting market by leaps and bounds with each successive installment of the new-fangled, gloriously 3D Tekken, and reducing the Street Fighter diehards to an insular cult (a cult to which I still belong, by the way, so no hate mail please.)

At launch, platforming was still pretty much mired in its 2D and 2.5D past - simplistic (if still satisfying) titles like the first installments of Rayman and Crash Bandicoot.

By the end of the era, it had evolved into the 3D collect-a-thon, represented best, I think, by the marvelous Ape Escape.

At launch, console first person shooting was still attached to last generation, flat-plane PC titles like Final Doom. (DOOM!?! WTF?)

In the twilight years, we had Quake II, which while still being port of a last generation PC title represented a considerable evolution from the pap us console guys were forced to live with. It was also one of the best multitap games on the PS1.

One last point to ponder: at the PSOne's advent, action adventure as a genre meant mindless shooting and simplistic, linear gameplay with a modicum of plot or character development, like Contra: Legacy of War.

While at the PSOne's deathbed...

action adventure meant Metal Gear motherfucking Solid. Nuff said.