Thursday 30 September 2010

The etrian odyssey 3 guild log-1

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Log poster:Wil

Been awhile since I have done this.......well today deems the day of the establishment of ultimaGX's 3rd guild branch, in the city of armoroad. Through our successes in the past cities of lagaard and etria, our popularity has brought us here again..through the exploration of the yggdrasil labrinth. This is the guild's 3rd generation..its been alive for quite awhile.

Anyway armoroad is a nice seaside city, but of course, we are not here to relax, it is our sworn duty as explorers to search the labrinth. The motto of ultimaGX goes like this" To find the truth". As the current generation's guild leader I mus uphold the previous leaders and to find out the truth behind the labrinth.

This log is to uphold and update everyday encounters and problems of the labrinth.... since at any time, we can die in battle. As with all our previous generations we were marked with maping the 1st floor of the dungeon. Other than myself, there were 4 others who went in, Athena, Marie, Iris and Hillo. Mapping out the floor was not an easy task, with monsters lurking in every corner we were on guard at all times. However, it was to our dismay when we ran into an enemy known as the great lynx. We were ambushed, and in fell swoop, its 1st attack knocked out marie.

Knowing that we could not have defeated the creature, we attempted to escape. Though we were successful in doing so, Athena and Iris were wiped out as well. With only Hillo and I remaining, the obvious decision was to go back to town and recuperate. Carrying Athena and Iris on my back while Hillo carried Marie, we struggled back to town, luckily there were no monster encounters....

Anyway the wounded were treated, and we decided to call it a day. Will post again soon.


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Log poster:Wil

Today we continued our mapping of the 1st floor, luckily there were no serious problems this time. We did not run into the great lynx, which was quite a relief. Mapping the remainder of the was easier, since there were not much ground left to be covered.

After reporting our success to the sentus the party decided to call it a day...after visiting the new facilities available to us, we crashed the inn.

Pretty short day, I'll take this time to introduce more of myself. Im a ninja, and Im the elder brother of Iris in our guild, who is a monk. So...Im not one to give out too much info about myself, so I will stop here. Lets be hoping our adventures into the labrinth will continue to be smooth.

Wednesday 29 September 2010

Demons's souls boss profile: leechmonger



Boss health

Leechmonger
HP:2047
Skills: Swing, rampage*, straight fist, leech bomb, regeneration*

Difficulty:2.5/5
Times died on 1st playthrough: 1


Following up today's post will be another boss profile. After my attempt at fool's idol the only 1st world boss left to killed was the one in world 5...and thus the filthy leechmonger. I swear this guy has one of the blandest and lamest boss designs in all of video game history! Its a good thing though, at least this guy isnt too weak and puts up a decent fight. Leechmonger is the boss of 5-1, valley of defilement archstone.





Even for a huge accumulated mass of swarming leeches, the leechmonger, suprisingly, has quite a vareity of attacks. Even if he is nothing but leeches it would be wise to take heed when figthing him.


Swing- Leechmonger swings his arms in a rotatable direction. Does moderate damage but since it has 2 arms it will connect twice. Unblockable.

Rampage*- The leechmonger gets really mad and starts pounding around the field like a child throwing a tantrum. This attack is unblockable which makes it a pretty deadly one. Does moderate- heavy damage.

Straight fist- The boss does this rarely, he straight pounds his fist into the player, knocking them down and doing some damage. He does this more oftenly when you are running down the platforms and are near his melee range, he also does this rarely when meleeing him straight up. Does moderate-heavy damage.

Leech bomb- The leechmonger will launch several leech bombs that explode and do moderate damage. Though this is blockable after the bomb connects, the player will still be clung unto with leeches. While still being affected by the leeches the players will have reduced speed and will take minor damage over time.

Regeneration*- This attack makes the boss one annoying hell of an asshole. The boss will form a ball of leeches around him and gradually restore HP. The HP restored can go up to about 25% of his total amount. Though you can stop the healing by hitting the the ball when he heals, its very hard and by the time you destroy it he will already have regened a decent amount of health.

The leechmonger puts up quite a fight if you are expecting him to be some sort of wuss like the adjudicator then you will be killed mercilessly. I thought him to be a simple dick and died once in the process. Only during my 2nd fight I did it seriously.

1st off if you want to be super cheap, just walk in the fight with a bow, stand at the ledge, and shoot that pile of leeches. He cant touch you this way, and the fight will be a breeze. For those of you who want to do this the manly and honourable way, walk your way down and take the beast head on. You also might want to bring some turnipines to speed up the process, since the boss heals himself from time to time, the battle can get VERY VERY long and annoying.

While walking down the leechmonger will either land you a striaght fist, or launch some leech bombs, both of which are deadly skills. You will want to drop your way down after you are close enough to avoid those. But note that those 2 skills will still be used if you are striahgt up meleeing him. His swings are the commonly used attacks. Depending on the direction he swings, just follow the arms and roll accordingly, its not that hard. Note that all of the boss's melee attacks are unblockable, so dont bother blocking, just dodge. The boss will also use rampage from time to time, in between his swings. Rampage is just him randomly pounding around the field, so theres no way to tell you how to dodge this...I guess the trick is just to stay away from him.

Striaght fist will still be used on the ground, so be wary. At any time of the match he will just throw his fist at you, and you might be too startled to dodge. Also, after a rampage attack be sure to move back into leechmonger's melee range, if you are too far away, he will use launch leech bombs, and you dont want to get hit by those since you will be slowed and will recieve bit by bit damage.

All I have to say is that the boss aint so hard...if not for his regenaration. When you see the boss healing, POUND HIM, dont let him heal, its straight annoying. Now you know how a boss feels when you heal yourself. If you can figure out his attacks( which in my opinion, arent too deadly), you can down this big bucket of leeches, since he has not potential 1 hit KO moves, this fight is already in your favour!

Peace!


Boss health

Fool's idol
HP:1863
Skills: Stun trap*, soul light, clone, revive*, soul arrow(clone)

Difficulty:3/5
Times died on 1st playthrough: 2

Been quite awhile since a boss profile, so im doing 2 today. Anyway my next boss after adjudicator was the fool's idol. Fool's idol isnt too intimidating for a boss, unlike the previous few fellows, shes just a normal human sized lady with a few extra arms. Dont be fooled though, come in unprepared and she will roast you faster than you think. Fool's idol is the boss of 3-1, tower of latria archstone.




Heres the laydown of the good lady's moves.


Stun trap*- The one and only reason why players will die at this fight. At the start of the fight and after every time she reappears, the fool's idol will lay tons of stun traps around the field, which can be seen, but will disappear after awhile. This does puny damage, but stuns for a reasonable amount of time, enough for fool's idol and all her clones to kill you.

Soul light- The fool's idol fires a soul light at you, nothing you havent seen. Easily dodged by rolling to the sides, does light-moderate damage.

Clone- After every reappearance, the fool's idol will have a few extra clones appearance at different locations of the church area. They disappear after a few hits and fire soul arrows, which are different from the fool's idol's soul light.

Revive*- Well simple as it sounds the fool's idol will revive herself after being killed. To prevent this just kill that ass on the top of the church before fighting the boss herself.

Soul arrow(clone)- The clones each fire a soul arrow of thier own. Each soul arrow does light damage but if all of them shoot at once it could be fatal.


Fool's idol's pattern of attacks is fairly simple to predict, but still can prove to be fatal due to the random placements of stun traps. Its more recommended to take this fight the melee way, since its harder to pelt fool's idol with her random disappearing and clones.

Heres the deal, when the match starts, kill all those moaning prisoners, they will get in your way.
As you get close to the fool's idol, she will lay her traps right off the bat, REMEMBER WHERE THEY ARE, then proceed to attack her while dodging her soul lights, which shouldnt be too hard if you remember where those pesky traps are.

After every few hits on the fool's idol herself, she will disappear and reappear somehwere else, spawning clones in the process. After the reappearance she will lay traps again and then attack after that, along with the clones. To distinguish the real fool's idol, just watch out for the soul light, which is bigger and brighter than all the clone's soul arrows, and jus attack the source. After a few hits she will disappear and reppear again and the process repeats, just keep at it and she will fall.

The only problem here is that the closer she gets to death, she will summon more and more clones, I have seen up to 7 clones summoned. And when there are so many clones, it gets harder to dodge all of thier attacks, and if you get hit by a stun trap, you are most likely fcked. Its all about how careful and cautious you are, just keep at it and she will fall sooner or later,

All in game boss HP amounts have been taken from demons' souls wiki.

Peace, more coming.

Sunday 26 September 2010

Bioshock 2

gamespot score:8.5( great)

my score:8.6

(+)pros:- great story, - its fun to play as a big daddy,- environments are great and well-made to suit rapture's atmosphere,- more enemy varieties add more fun to the mix, -combat is easier and more fluid this time round, - more interesting weapons,- multiple endings which are affected by the choices you make.

(-)cons:- game is shorter than the first, -no "real" last boss

gameplay time:10-20 hours( below average)



Bioshock 2, the 2nd installment to the bioshock series. The 1st bioshock was awesome, earning game of the year awards around the year it was released, it was quite the bomb. Does its sequel deserve the very praise it did? To answer the question indirectly, this game is amazing, and falls no short from the 1st, thus it shoudlnt be counted out from the fight just yet. Returning to rapture has never been better, bioshock 2 is the best way to experience it.




Story-wise, bioshock 2 provides a story thats better than the 1st, in my opinion. The game's plot takes place 10 years after the 1st, a rather long time indeed, its too bad the protoganist from the 1st game never appeared and was never even mentioned in this game. Kinda sad, after what he did in the events of bioshock 1, I thought he at least deserved to be mentioned. Anyway, you take control of a big daddy (awesome), who awakes suddenly in a dark place, remembering what happened 10 years ago. As a big daddy, you realize immediately that your little sister is missing. Its too bad though, your little sister, eleanor, is the daughter of the current warlord who watches over rapture, the dreaded sophia lamb. The game, will mostly take place withyou travelling accross the whole of rapture, to locate eleanor, as you face "the family" which sophia build up after the deaths of both andrew ryan and fontaine.





Bioshock 2 puts you in the shoes of a big daddy, which is cool. Those great armored dudes in bioshock 1.....you finally get to play as one. How cool is that? You get the ground shaking when you jump, you get to see your badass helm and armor when you look at your reflection in the puddle...heck, you even have a drill! Still, even as a big daddy you still have to face the troubles of raptures...splicers. Now as a big daddy, you are pretty strong, you can kill enemies by jus the shoving of your drill...or any other weapon in that fact. Just plain shoving will put them splicers in thier place.



In bioshock 2, the battle system is improved to be more fluid and flexible. No longer will you have to keep your weapon and bring out your left arm to electrocute someone, because now, both your weapon arm, and your plasmid arm are on screen. This makes things much easier, you can now shoot your weapon and plasmids together in rapid succession. Sweet. Plasmid and weapon wise you get a wide selection, though the plasmids in the game are mostly carried over from the previous game, the game makes it up with some new weapons. Though some of your weapons carry a relationship with their corresponding counterparts from the 1st game, there are still great to use. Your new speargun acts alot like the corssbow, where you fire spears that one hit kill most splicers, with the spear you shot stucking them towards the wall. The double barrel shotgun is like the old shotgun, expect that it burns ammo twice as fast but does double damage. The rivet gun, my favourite weapon in game, bears resemblence to the pistol. There are many more to list but all of them are fun to use. There are also more enemy types now! You still get your big daddies, but they added a new type called rumbler which specialises in shooting turrets. You also get the new brute splicer, which is a big ass splicer that has muscle to rival a big daddy such as youself. You also get the dreaded big sister, probably the strongest enemy in the game, since you are a big daddy this time round, 2K decided to put something that can stomp on the big daddy, and thats your big sister over there.



One of the things that plagued the old bioshock was game lenght. On the 1st play it didnt last more than 10 hours, this time, its even shorter, providing somewhat of only 6 hours of gameplay. Altough bioshock 2 is a game that can be replayed multiple times like its preduseccor, its too short. Another depressing problem is the game's conclusion. Unlike the 1st game where got to battle fontaine in an epic face off, there is sadly, no "last boss" in the game. Now thats kinda sad, seeing as how great the ending was.
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Closing up this review, I have to say bioshock 2 is a great game, with improved gameplay mechanics from the 1st game, but having a shorter story. There is online play, but it wasnt anything special, but still worth exploring if you're practically done with story mode. I would say if you played the 1st bioshock, bioshock 2 is definetely an experience worth your time.





Happy gaming!




Wednesday 22 September 2010

Marvel vs capcom 3 updated (TGS 2010)

TGS 10 has blown over....hope many of you gamers out there have kept track of it, its been awesome show.

Anyway, for today, more MVC3 hype, they announced 4 characters during TGS, 2 were so-so, while 2 were awesome. Let me kick start this with the episode 2 trailer, shown at TGS. Well, it was a good teaser overall, but compared to episode 1, it was kinda weak, episode 1 was more exciting with rivals fighting each other and stuff, episode 2 is just basic good vs evil. And no matter how much I hate capt america, I must admit the part where he parried the helicopter was epic. Also, trish was pretty cool, with the way she zoomed in with that bike, still she couldnt do squat to doctor doom.

Next up was the "first appearances" trailer which turned out be pretty damn epic, it showed all the characters in thier episodic appearances (with expection of felicia and thor) and where they originated from. Then following it were some awesome mild gameplay vids, showing supers, hypers and combos. Gotta say dante's level 3 is pretty cool. Finally.....take you for a ride better not be the character select song again.

Http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7WZdQD2kEk4 (Episode 1 trailer)

Http://www.youtube.com/watch#!v=7GAI6cuzcxk&feature=channel (Episode 2 trailer)

Http://www.youtube.com/watch#!v=_HFLoRn4c3o&feature=channel (1st appearance trailer)





To start the party there were a couple of reveals, 2 I woudlnt usually care much about, tron bonne and X-23. For one, tron looks like she plays the same as in MVC 2...Im not too angered about her being in the game, no complaints here. X-23 is a wolverine clone story-wise in the marvel universe, in the game she looks like a wolverine clone but plays slighty differently...Im not too happy with her being in the game but well, Im not angered either.



Lets talk about X-23 1st. She looks pretty fast, and she hits fast, her supers are somwhat.... similar to wolverine and felicia, shes like them 2 added together. Design wise yes she doesnt look half bad but in my opinion her slot could go to someone else better ( there are a few X-men that I actually want in this game).


Next up is tron. Nothing to say here, she looks and plays exactly like she did in MVC 2, which is good. She was interesting back then, I hope she stays interesting. I never expected her to be in this, but overall I say she somewhat deserves the spot. Though.... I would prefer roll casket as a megaman legends rep.



Next up we have another 2 reveals. These 2 are awesome, and deserve to be in the game nonetheless. They are none other than your friendly neighbourhood spiderman and the all so awesome albert wesker. Spidey is a staple, and he is looking goooooooood, kinda happy that he is in. Wesker is a fcking badass......I am super hyped with him being in here, he is definetely in my team.



Now lets talk about spidey, intially I thought he was a plain and normal character like hes was in MVC 2, but when I saw his gameplay video, wooowweeee. His specials look sick, and though he plays almost the same as before, theres this new feel to him. Maximum spider looks revamped and is now awesome. But really, what sealed the deal for me about spider-man, was his new voice, he sounds great.




Finally, the final reveal for TGS 10, albert wesker. He is THE RE VILLIAN, and is a super speed/ matrix demon. He moves so damn fast, even in his gameplay vid, he is zooming around the field like some shinigami from bleach using shunpo. His attacks are pretty normal, but combined with that semi-teleportation speed, hes sick. His specials are pretty cool especially his level 3, where he pulls that missle out of nowhere.
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Marvel vs capcom 3 is looking amazing so far, and TGS was a good event where they did alot of stuff. Day 1 purchase for me. Currently hyped to see some new reveals at NYCC.
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Peace.





Tuesday 21 September 2010

Top 5 badass villians(gaming) 21/09/10

Here we are again, here the villians from games for today, 21/09. There are spoilers so be warned.





5. Rex goodwin
From: Yugioh 5Ds games

1st up number 5 on the 1st today is rex goodwin. Well goodwin is originally from the anime yugioh 5ds itself, but well he has made appearances in games so I guess he sort of counts.

Rex goodwin is the "watcher" of new domino city and the leader of the entire security division, that means he has many underlings and can easily makes things go his way, his true purpose is to ressurect the crimson dragon and make the battle of the signers go in favour of the dark signers.

In the games goodwin isnt as evil and bad as he is shown in the anime( dont get me started, he was a beast in the anime), but he still qualifies for reasons. In world championship 2009, you were nothing but a clone made by goodwin himself, used in an experiment to ressurect the crimson dragon. In 2010, he aided the dark signers and you had to win him in a 3 duel streak to finally beat him as the last boss. He will simply do many things to get his way, such as manipulating yusei and co, and even his brother and fellow dark signers.




4. Chaos
From: Dissidia:final fantasy
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Next up is the lord of discord, chaos, striaght up from the hit game dissidia: final fantasy.
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Chaos is straight badass, just look at his design. A side note,chaos was the last boss of final fantasy 1 too, such nostalgia for older players! In final fantasy 1 however garland IS chaos, so its actually kind of weird here in this game.
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Chaos didnt do anything bad, all he did was repeat the cycle of battle hes has been doing with cosmos for thousands of years, expect of course he is playing for the side of discord, which is bad. But well, what makes him especially badass is that even after all the events during the shadow impulse chapters where he sent all his minions to battle, he still willingly stands up to challenge the entire team, with his final goal to burn and send everything into nothingness, thats a pretty damn bold ambition, after killing cosmos herself, he has nothing else to play for. Still he was pretty damn brutal for a last boss so yeah he kind of makes the cut.
3. Von bolt
From: Advance wars: Dual strike


Up for 3rd place today is ol' von bolt, from the debut NDS advance wars game, advance wars: Dual strike.

Who is von bolt? Well of course he is nothing more than a very old man who depends on his helmet to live....oh and he sits on a evil looking throne and has a saucer above his head which is stuck to his throne. He doesnt sound bad, but he is actually the succecor to the black hole army after the defeat of the almighty sturm.

Von bolt is an evil old man, reigning control of the black hole army, he intends to take over omega land. He has a few loyal underlings which keep losing to the good guys at 1st, then he grows tired and starts using clones to fight, which sucks since clones are lives too. Then when faced at the final battle he even makes a huge ass slime monster as the last boss. Oh yeah, he has an extremely gay super CO power.






2. Albel nox
From: Star ocean 3


Up for 2nd place is albel nox, bad boy of star ocean 3. This guys has a load of fangirls, dammit I envy this sucker of a game character.

Albel nox is head of the black brigade, and one very very, evil bad boy. Well he does turn good eventually later on but when hes still bad, whoo, he is feared everywhere. During albel's 1st encounter with the party he taunts cliff and made him so angry he wanted to pummel albel, but nel stopped him telling him that they wud have no chance even if they ganged him.

Though albel didnt get much time in the game as a baddie, this short time has been rather memoriable. For one, he went and beat up to girls, to lure fayt's party so that he can kill them. He also spitted on shelby when he died, though he was lieutanit to his brigade, he called him a maggot, and that he was eaten by his own food. Albel was quite tough too, as a boss fight he was agile, and had a ton of HP to boot.




1. Old king allant
From: Demons' souls

Finally, in 1st place we have old king allant, the deprived false king that lead his kingdom and empire into demise as the fog enveloped all of boletaria.

Allant here was the king of boletaria, but he disappeared one day, into the fog. Many of his knights went to find him, most of which did not return, those who remained were lost, caught by the souls who wandered boletaria.

King allant pretty damned pyschotic, he volunteerly becomes a demon who resides in the old one and lets his entire kingdom die out. In many games you play as the character who is supposed to save the kingdom from its crazy king, but in this game theres no kingdom to save, boletaria has already been wiped out by allant's deeds. On the current throne which stands above the dead kingdom, allants places a false king, his demon, to watch over the already wiped out empire. And when his demon is defeated, he even continues to support the old one, meaning he really wants the world to be enveloped by the fog.

Peace for now.

Monday 20 September 2010

Hatsune miku: Project diva

gamespot score:n/a
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my score:8.0
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(+)pros:- innovative gameplay mechanics,- great song selection for those who love vocaloid music, - chance time is a good feature for racking up points,- loads of unlockable content like clothes and other characters,- the room is a good place to customize and just chill out to listen to music.
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(-)cons:- can get boring to keep listening to hatsune miku's voice,- song selection is quite limited
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gameplay time: 30-40 hours( above average)
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Finally a review after a week or so! Time to get back in business. Today's game will be hatsune miku: project diva. It was released last year and is fairly old now....with the 2nd installment out and all. Still, I started this pretty late, so here I am, havent even started playing the 2nd one. Most people will know hatsune miku, shes like an idol, appearing in web ads everywhere and shit, and she is a pretty common face in the anime community. So yeah, this game features hatsune miku, so if you like her, this is probably the game for you.

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Project diva is a beat/ rhytm game, and thus, there is no freaking story, just like most music games out there. Dont be fooled by the opening where she gets enrolled into a school and stuff, its just an opening MV and has no connection to the game at all, it has no story, so stop whining. But well, it doesnt really need 1 anyway.
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Being a music game, its concept is pretty much a damn simple one. You follow beats or rhytm of a song, and hit incoming notes, then get points. Keep doing this until the song is over to see your overall score, which you will try to beat over and over. Oh and of course, if you miss too many notes you die, simple as that. Also, in this game if you didnt do too well in a song, you will "fail" it at the score calculation screen and you wont unlock its harder version, if you successfully cleared it you will unlock a harder version of the song..
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Now hatsune miku has a good selection of songs for you vocaloid fans, world is mine...melt...moon and disappearances are only some of the available pieces. If you havent heard any vocaloid music before this game can bring out that love, since they are pretty good. The gameplay in this game is pure love, and is obviously where it shines. For one, there isnt a "gear" or "pad" where notes will constantly land on ( rock band, djmax, guitar hero, pump it up etc.). In projecct diva, black and empty shapes will appear througout the screen, when the MV is playing. Shapes are of course from our classic PSP buttons, then, following the appearances of these shapes, thier coloured counter parts will appear, from random sides of the screen, and they will fly to the black parts in confusing patterns, your job is of course to hit the respective note when the notes correspond. This is confusing and will be hard for 1st timers, but you will get used to it. The randomness of these notes will cause some headaches, but their rhytm when hit matches to that of the song, so it isnt just for fun. Also, theres a chance time, which appears near the end of the song, its a short mode that lets you hit notes in rapid progression and for each successful hit you get more points, it great for racking up some points.
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The songs in project diva are great pieces, but they are all sung by hatsune mikum which can get boring since you will be hearing her voice for EVERY SONG. And while there are unlockable clothes that make miku stand out even more its still the same. Even if you use other charaacters, guys/girls alike, its all miku's voice, so its all pretty damn weird. Plus, there song selection is quite limited. There are like 30 tracks, but there are some repeats, its just the same song, with a different character in the MV, wtf? These obviously are wastes and thier song slots can be given to other songs.
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If you dig japanese songs or vocaloid songs in general, there is a lot of love to be felt in hatsune miku: project diva, and you can cook up at least 30 hours in terms of gameplay time. If you jus dig the beat/ rhytm genre in particular, its still good to give this game a try for its innovative system, this is one game where you can really milk time into.
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Happy gaming.

Sunday 19 September 2010

Project over

Dark times are over, happy times have come again.

My project is done, and who knows what grade I will get. All I give a damn about right now, is that I can enjoy life again, and bloggin will return to normal. The last week was horrible, but I somehow made it through.

Anyway, blogging resumes tommorow, expect hatsune miku up by then.

Peace.



Opening songs-OP 1: Karma
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genres: adventure, drama, fantasy
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episodes: 26
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Ahh good old tales. The tales series are one of namco's best selling game franchises, some of them so good that they even made it into the anime industry. And thus heres one of them, tales of the abyss. Its a good show, though to get the full experience its more advisable that one plays the game. Still, good show.
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Karma is a great song, bump of chicken is awesome. The opening is sweet, it lasts longer than normal, which I suppose is okay, but I found it abit long during my 1st few hears. Grew used to it and enjoyed it alot after like episode 10 or so.
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Rating: 7.5/10
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Being an adventure show, its quite easy to predict this show's plot after watching tears to tiara not too long ago, still it pleased me pretty well, with all the drama going on.
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Tales of the abyss is a game adaptation, so players of the game would know the story, if you want to watch this its better if you havent played the game. The show gets boring at 1st but gets interesting after episode 7 or so, then gets boring after abit, then gets interesting again at episode 18 all the way to the end. The show focuses on the main character luke, who is the son of an important council member of his town. He is a spoilt brat who never gets to leave the house, and always sneaks out here and then to admire the wildnerness and escape boredom. But he hasnt seen the outside world, when tear, an oracle preistess named tear atttacks luke's mansion while he is training with his teacher van, he is transported to the wilderness, where he leanrs of a tragic fate that is about to befall the world.
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Show is good, a good balance on almost everything. I could have gave it an 8.0, but the action isnt tense enough, all fights dont last more than 1 episode :x/ Still, if you havent play the original tales of the abyss game, this is considered to be quite a good find.
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Peace.

Sunday 12 September 2010

Left 4 dead 2

gamespot score: 9.0( editor's choice)

my score: 8.9

(+)pros:- intense zombie killing action, - melee weapons add loads of fun and satisfaction in zombie killing,- new speical infectants and weapons add more variety into the fray,- multiplayer is awesome, - survival ,realism and scavenge are good additions to multiplayer, - maps are now connected and now feature a story.

(-)cons:- gameplay remains largely intact with no major changes,- AI partners are still useless as shit.

gameplay time: 100 hours+ ( veyr long lasting)





Its been awhile since its release, but its still pretty damn popular. Its not dota, its left 4 dead 2. Around the 1st game's release, this game got quite the attention, it was in cyber cafes EVRYWHERE and EVERYONE was playing it. When the 2nd game came out, can you imagine the reaction from the crowds? Left 4 dead 2 got almost twice more attention thatn its predeseccor, and its still being played like hell right now, almost a year after release. This game isnt just amazing, its phenominally huge, and its arugubally one of the best zombie shooters out there.



Left 4 dead 2 actually has a story, which is one of good things here. In left 4 dead 1, you jus play the survivors through 5 levels, and they successfully escape no matter what if you manage to survive. Now, all the maps are connected, example if you finish dead center, you will proceed on to dark carnival, then to swamp fever and so on. The survivors only truely escape at the final level when they take the chopper. Its much better this way as it actually builds a "story" and shows how the characters grow more used to each other.




In left 4 dead you kill zombies until you ultimately reach your goal. In left 4 dead 2 its exaclty the same. You move from safe house to safe house, in between kill zombies and any special infectants that get in your way. Of course to kill the simplicity of that the game adds points where you need to activate something, wait for it to come, and kill zombies that get attracted and come at you with masses. You get more vareity of these situations in left 4 dead 2, you get to turn off an alarm that attracts zombies by running real fast to the off switch and kill hordes along the way, or you get to follow a roller coster track! Instead of just standing and defending these are much more fun, and not to mention hectic.




Left 4 dead 2 has some pleasant changes too. Though gameplay remains the same, they added a lot of shit to please us gamers. Melee weapons are one, they are fun fun weapons that can replace your pistols. What you do with them is simple, you just swing them. Now that the right click shove is being limited, melee weapons help give a little help by letting you one shot kill all those pesky zombies in front of your face. There are also other new weapons, like the desert eagle, grenade launcher...and other kinds of rifles and shotguns and a new sniper. These arent terrifically huge, but they do add variety, just like the new special infectants. Jockeys cling unto you and divert you away from the group, spitters spit and cause damage with thier toxic puddles, and charges will charge at you and then pound you into submission. With these new guys it helps even more than ever to stick together. Multiplayer is still great, and new modes like scavenge ( makes survivors run around in search of gas cans), survival( makes survivors team up and just survive against huge enemy hordes) and realism ( just like campaign with a few drastic changes), things get more tense than ever.


Left 4 dead 2 is amazing and is packed with loads of good content, but it falls short with the fact that there a no major leaps in gameplay, just like gamespot said. The game is still overly simple and can get boring at times. Also, when you play single player, the AI is horrible, its worse than left 4 dead 1! When you get smokered, they slowly take thier time to walk to you....and then shove you, the smoker goes free and then smokes some1 else. This happens to every special infecttant! And they take at least 3 seconds to walk out of spitter goo -.-. The AI is horrendous and is worse than b4, its highly recommended to play with human friends.
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Left 4 dead 2 is an awesome game that has loads of extra content, though it doenst have any major gameplay improvements, its still fun as heck. Multiplayer alone can last you for god knows how many hours, its addicting as hell. Left 4 dead 2 is win, dont look down on it.




Happy gaming.



Thursday 9 September 2010

Phantasy star zero

gamespot score:6.5( fair)

my score: 7.0

(+)Pros:- nice visuals for a DS game, - fun with some real human help, - many variety of enemies to battle,- boss fights are fun

(-)cons:- repititive quests and dungeon crawling, - story mode party AI is horrendous,- gameplay is slow

gameplay time: 30-40 hours( above average)






Heres another DS game for the peeps. Phantasy star 0 is the 1st phantasy star game for DS, and well, it does impress. Striking visuals and good multiplayer co-op make for a good experience that will satisfy players of the game. Still even if you dont have anyone to play this with, dont be disheartened, it will still fare as a good experience since the main story isnt all that bad.



The story of phantasy star 0 is quite typically JRPG style. Anyway, the game satrts differently depending on whatever race you use, the 3 races being humans, cast, and newmans. A few examples are follows, when you start as a human it shows you walking into a city and then being greeted by kai, who then proceeds unto bestowing you into doing a quest, if you start as a cast you crash into a forest and is found by sarisa, then start finding a way out. But even if the start is different and the storyline will somehow stream differently for each of the races, the main story will still end up saving the world from an inevitable crisis.



Im not a huge fan of the phantasy star series and havent played any of thier games other than this and phantasy star portable for PSP, so I wont compare alot of gameplay. All I will say is that the gameplay is almost the same as phantasy star portable for PSP, you pick ur party, pick a quest, go to the field, kill some shit and advance from area to area, until you reach the boss, then you kill it, and the quest is done. Its like this ALL the time, and it gets repititive.


On the field this is where gameplay shines, during your explorations of the fields, you run into a variety of monsters, ranging from yetis to land fish and many more. These enemies come in different kinds, and add variety to the total monster type count. Also, they arent bad, in some cases, they look great, for a DS games, the graphics aint bad, the gameplay is pretty smooth too, no lags here and there. And if you've got some friends here, killing enemies is much more fun. At the end of every quest, theres also a boss. Bosses in this game are fun, much better than phantasy star portable, you have to scan and analyze thier attacks, then strike as you see fit. In phantasy star portable, all you do is hit,heal,hit,heal,hit,heal ....it gets lame.

As I said earlier the quests and dungeons of phantasy star zero get repititive as hell, you just keep doing the same thing over and over you will eventually lose momentum. Combat also feels slow, where attacks and strikes come out slowly, though they are supposed to be comboed into a chain, the pace in battle is so slow that it makes the player feel monotony.Whats more, in story mode, your part members' AI are useless as hell, only attacking or csasting skills as slow as snails, monsters are usually killed by you before they even get a chance to strike.
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Nothing else much to say here, phantasy star zero isnt a bad game, its around the same standard as phantasy star portable for the PSP, if enjoyed that, you will enjoy this, nuff said. Oh yes, and a little friends wont hurt.


Happy gaming.

Tuesday 7 September 2010

Army of two: the 40th day

gamespot score:n/a

my score: 7.0

(+)pros:- extremely fun and funny with friends to play with,- multiplayer co-op works well, - choice making during certain parts of the game give different results,- allows play as dante and issac.

(-)cons:- gameplay is quirky and repititive, - boring as hell to play alone, -little replay value.

gameplay time: below 10 hours ( short)






Army of two......didnt think this would be released on the PSP. Anyway, the 40th day is actually a sequel to the original army of 2 game for the PS3, wonder why they didnt create it for the PSP back then. Still, kinda weird to review this game, cause I tot it would majorly suck, well, it was actually a good game, I mean it, that is if you have someone to play it with. If you wanna get this game, make sure someone you know is getting it too, cause if you get it alone..... it would pretty much mean bad news. Ah well, lets get it on man, you wif me bro?





Salem and rios are brothers in arms, they are counted as an army of 2, well because...they are only 2 people....but well I guess they can take on an army. Anyway, the 40th day takes salem and rios into shanghai, where they begin thier next job/ operation. The game starts with them taking orders from their .... reception person, murray, telling them to do a few couple of jobs which leads them event after event for a survival fight in shanghai itself, where they face tons and tons of soldiers which want to kill them.





The PSP's army of 2 is a simply easy game to play. The game itself works alot like killzone, you get a top view of the characters on screen, then enemies spawn left and right, then you shoot them all up until they all die, then move to the next screen, rinse and repeat. It kinda gets old, but in every screen theres probably different stuff and types of enemies coming your way, you know, to add a little variety, since the game would be hell as ass boring if everything was the exact same thing.




In army of two, the game focuses heavily on co-op. Since it IS army of two, supposed to be played by 2 fellows. The game is great when you have a friend to play it with, it has some pretty solid co-op features. For one, in battle, one character can take point while the other watches the back, or both go for the rush. Plus, each character can take specific weapons to make battle more stragetic, also, having one person sneak through the vent to backstab some assholes while having the other once take the damage as decoy is pretty cool. Also, you can have one person kill enemies while the other save hostages or take cash. If 1 person dies, the other can go get help him up and revive him....so unless both characters are down you cant lose the game, which makes it rather hard to lose the game.



Now on the PSP this game gets a lot of hate, I kinda understand why but it doesnt deserve THAT much hate, its flaws aint that bad and can still be overlooked. For one, gameplay is super repititive, though you get to rescue people, earn money and shit, killing enemies over and over gets reallllyyyy boring, though the game spices things up by letting the players make moral options that affect storyline abit, the main gameplay remains quite repititive. Whats more, if you play this game alone....oh my, imagine the repititiveness...alone. *shudder*. And lastly, it has little replay value, once you clear it, you probably wont touch it again, unless you want to diehard play as issac or dante (which is awesome).

This game isnt bad, its just heavily underated, I believe if people actually give this a chance( and play it with friend), it will give you some enjoyments and laughs. Though I give this game credit, remember it must be played with a friend.




Happy gaming.


gamespot score:7.5(good)

my score: 8.8


(+)Pros:- the ace attorney game with the best end game case so far,- explains a lot of the past by letting players play as mia,- music is once again mind blowing,- cameo appearances add more suprises for vetarans to the series, - each and every case is long and satisfying, - story and plot for this game is more intense and packed as ever.

(-)cons:- returning characters now make the creators look lazy, - pretty much nothing new from the previous game


gameplay time:30-40 hours( above average)






My apologies once agaiin, since blogger has become fked up again, I wasnt able to even post images into my post, what the fark. Anyway, here we are, the 3rd and final game in the phoenix wright trilogy. Trials and tribulations is right up the sequel to justice for all and is, by far, possibly the most satisfying phoenix wright game ever, with the most entertaining and story-packed last case that connects everything that happens in phoenix's life into 1 strange and twisted bead of events.



In trials and tribulations, the story once again revolves its individual cases, BUT, this time, the 1st, 4th and final case are strongly related and make up almost the whole series's story and create the strong and powerful conclusion to the entire phoenix trilogy. In this game, players not only play as wright, you play as mia fey too, who is at this part of the game, supposed to be deceased after the events of AA 1. To me, mia fey, beside phoenix, is the 2nd most important character in the game, since she portrays as the main character as the 1st and 4th case, where phoenix only plays hero at the final case, wherein he even shares the spotlight with miles edgeworth.




I have to say core gameplay remains the same, its a pity they still never brought back those sciency stuff from the 1st game, the luminol and stuff. But still yes, all you do is go around crime scenes where people die, gather evidence, squeeze info out of witnesses, and grab items that never seem to have anything to do with the case at all. Also, after the events of justice for all, phoenix now has his magmata, and he gets to pull the truth out of some of the people he questions. those who love to hide secrets. These may all seem quite tedious, but they are needed as without evidence, phoenix is dead shit in the courtroom.


Now in the courtroom, things heat up. In the course of the game you get to play as phoenix and mia, but in the final case you get to play as miles for abit too. Sweet. Anyway, like in all of the previous AA games, courtroom battles are a blast, and are the main focus in the game. In court, all the evidence you gathered in the field come into play and help you out. During the battles, prosecutors call out thier witnesses and you have to press on thier testimonies and pull out contradictions by presenting valid eveidence. And I have to say when you manage to find a contradictiing statement the music changes into something more dramatic and you get that satisfying feeling welling up inside you. Prosecutor wise you face off against payne, a young edgeworth, and the game's new prosecutor, godot. Godot is a mystery and at many times you might feel that he is a dick, but at the end you will realise his true intentions and personality.




Flaw wise..... well trials and tribulations has some pretty daunting flaws. For one, there are many returning characters, not that its bad, but there are so little new characters, that it sure makes the creators from capcom look lazy. Plus, being the sequel to justice for all, there are almost no new features, it seems like they just copied and pasted the game's features and just gave it a new story. A new feature here and there would have helped hm?
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Trials and tribultations is an awesome game, I have no idea how it got a pathetic 7.5 in gamespot, this game is the bomb, a fitting end to phoenix's journey. Those who got the 1st and 2nd game will thoroughly enjoy this game, newcomers though, shoudlnt start here, since the story is already pretty picked up. One hell of a game overall, and once again, this is a great way to end such a amazing trilogy.







Happy gaming!