Wednesday, 22 December 2010

Soul calibur:Broken destiny

gamespot score:7.5(good)

my score:7.9


(+)Pros:-Roster size is quite big,- great control shceme despite being on the PSP,- visuals aren't half bad,- character customization is a ton of fun,- roster is very well balanced with the exepction of one character.

(-)Cons:-Gaunlet mode is absolutely retarded,-lack of single player content,-Kratos is stupidly overpowered


gameplay time:10-20 hours(Below average)






Played soul calibur? You should have, soul calibur has always been one of namco's most successful titles. The soul calibur franchise has seen no shortage of titles in its series, broken destiny is indeed the 5th soul calibur game, though its just a remake of 4 for the PSP. And like most soul caliburs which included guest characters, broken destiny also introduces Kratos, the infamous god of war, as a playable character. This is enough to draw crowds to play this great game, but as many would have guessed, broken destiny on the PSP is a mite lower in terms of standard compared to all the previous soul caliburs to date.




Broken destiny's story is the same as soul calibur 4, or in fact, same as almost every other soul calibur. It features the battle over the soul edge, and the eternal conflict between the wielder of the soul calibur siegfried, and the wieler of the soul edge, nightmare. Except that this time there is a third party wielding both soul edge and the soul calibur, going by the name of algol. Its incredibly unfortunate that the game doesn't really focus on its epic story background, thanks to the ridiculous gaunlet mode, which does incredibly poor story telling, and rather focuses on other cmedic and stupid stuff. More on that later.




Namco is amazing in roster size when it comes to thier fighters. Tekken 6 had an amazing 40 character roster size. Soul calibur isn't too far behind, with a headcount of 28 characters plus 16 of your own self created characters, the roster can go to as large as 44 characters. Not too shabby indeed. Plus with the insane character creation options, you can go nuts and have a ton of fun when creating your characters. Your female character can dress as sexy as you wish for her to be, and your male character can be made as cool or as knightly as you make him to be. Even better, you can select thier fight styles from the initial available 26 (minus kratos and algol), and choose thier, voice, speech, hair and many more. Its really impressive to see female zassamalel,siegfried,mitsurugi and many more. Though its kinda funny to see a male using a female character's fighting style, since it absolutely doesn't fit. Still, as you unlock better looking armor and equipment as you fight more, your options keep increasing, the character customization just keeps giving. Though as for the initial characters, it wouldnt hurt to save some characters as unlockables, as a self opinion I don't like to have every character in the game unlocked from the get go.



The battle system in broken destiny works as with every other soul calibur game, applying its effective yet enjoyable control scheme to the PSP. Like with all of its previous games, holding back doens really let you block, you have to press X or your specifically set block button to do so. This may prove to be rather uncomfortable at the beginning, but as you play you get used to it and will see that soul calibur is not your average fighting game. Unlike games like street fighter, each of the 28 characters each have distinctly different fight styles and varrying command lists, so playing and experimenting with each and every character is still fun since they are all different. Nightmare and siegfried hit hard and have long range, rapheal and amy do quick but weak strikes, ivy has long range but weak damage, playing with different characters and mastering them will provide you with satisfaction as you finally fight through god knows how many levels in the endless trial.

Now soul calibur looks like it has many things going on in its story, but broken destiny does a bad bad way telling the story. Gaunlet mode is just ridiculous, it spends stupidly long paragraphs of text telling the ridiculous tale of random characters without focusing on any point. Plus its such a pain to actually move on in the gaunlet mode anyway, since the proceeding fights and tasks are such a bore and pain. Not counting gaunlet mode, theres actually not much to do in broken destiny. Sure the trials are good fun, especially endless trial, but quick battle doesnt really satisfy, and training should always be in a fighting game. Other than that theres no proper arcade mode, or perhaps a proper story mode as well (gaunlet mode is.....wtf). Lastly, I know kratos is a guest character and all, but did they have to make him so godamn overpowered? I mean, range,power,mobility,attack variety....he has it all. Everyone using him can pawn the crap out of the AI, its not really fun, and when the AI uses him, he will most likley murder you.
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For a first on the PSP, soul calibur is looking good, with combat being as slick as ever and having solid character customization, its a good attempt toward the PSP. Now if only they were to make a soul calibur 5......





Happy gaming.



Sunday, 19 December 2010

Rf online

gamespot score:n/a

my score:7.7

(+)Pros:-Incredible visuals,- quest system is suprisingly convinient,- huge variety of playstyles due to different races and classes,- race wars are a cool idea to promote gameplay even after maxing out the level cap

(-)cons-Leveling after 35 is a humongous pain,- skill system is extremely tedious,- difficult for noobs to enter FFA zones since PKers are everywhere





Behold the epitome of MMOs that is Rf online. Rf is one of the many MMOs out there, and are one of the few which actually does well. Compared to other MMO blockbusters like dekaron and Cabal, Rf is a little inferior, but definetely LOOKS to be around those two's tier. Though among free MMORPGs Rf is definetely one of the key games out there, and still remains one of the most populated ones.


The story of Rf online talks about a war, a war between 3 nations. Im actually interested in its story, like with cabal and dekaron. In the current episode 3 I played, the opening cinematics show the bellato union fighting against the accreatian machines. After a few kills the bellato boy in the robot in knocked out and about to be killed. Before the final hit is landed he is saved by the coral nation. This could actually make another awesome RPG with an amazing story to kick some ass, but meh.


Rf has some impressive visuals, one of the best out there in fact. When I played cabal I thought it had the best online game visuals ever, guess I was stumped when I ran into Rf online. The graphics easily top or rival that cabal. Lighting, texture and many other graphical aspects make this game really excel. Visually, its just that amazing, no matter which of the 3 races you play as, the charater models look great too. The bellato and the coral look quite similar, they all have the "cute" look. The accreata however, look the best, with robotic frames that really make them look as good or better than those gundam models you have at home. The later level frames are badass, I have to say, being an ex-accreata player myself.



As mentioned before RF features 3 races, each with thier very own classes, skills and job promotions. Each race has thier own promotions that obviously determine how they fight later on, all of which classes play an important part during race wars, such as tank in the frontline, attack from behind, or even more obscure jobs such as planting turrets, repairing stuff and planting mines. Its really crazy, and this is what makes race wars worth anticipating. For other in-game features, Rf also excels in some ways. For one, the quest system is really convinient. Unlike most MMOs where if you take and complete a quest, you have to report back to the quest giver. In Rf, when you complete the quest you can report it on the spot through a PDA or something, this saves alot of time, especially since Rf's maps and areas are particularly quite huge. But other than that, battling is a pretty simple chore of just double clicking an enemy and following up with the number button for skills.



While Rf is amazing in many ways its still like many MMORPGs out there. Grinding was never an issue in this game, until you hit level 35 and have to leave for another continent.....thats where shit gets real. The monsters there are tough as nails, and even if you tackle the weakest monsters there, it takes a looong time to kill, and thus exp raking is really slow. Whats more, that continent, like many other places in the game, is open to player PKs, which are really common. Out of nowhere some level 50 character will just pop out of nowhere and just one shot you, its really really annoying. This happens really commonly, so it gets old real quick. The skill system also takes a dip towards the annoying here. To level up your skill, you have to speciifically use that skill over and over to increase it. Say bye to all your precious MP potions.
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As an MMORPG, Rf online is a good one, since nowadays there are so many pathetic MMORPG that give the genre itself a bad name. Rf elevates itself over the majority by placing itself with awesome visuals, variety and a very addictive race war feature.MMORPG fans, Rf online will not disappoint.




Happy gaming.



Alright! Lets continue with the STGCC. Basically, the summary of the event itself has already been wrapped up. Today's post is bascially about what I bought there, so if you can't be bothered with what I bought, just skip to the final paragraph.

Anyway, money spent=$65, for me anyway. Thats quite alot concerning my pathtic budget. My bro spent some money, around $50-ish. Still, the goods that we got were pretty damn worth it, so most of these were kinda good purchases.






1st up, my miku phone strap. Well since it was already hooked onto my handphone, there was no way for me to take the picture well, so it turned out really big since I kinda fixated it in front of my phone camera. Miku is so damn cute, couldnt resist this, and it was only $3, so I just bouhgt it.



Next up are my posters. This here is my 250 gsm black rock sooter wallpepaper. Gotta say, loving this one, probably my favourite poster among the 3. The artwork for this is just fantastic, but kinda pricey IMO. This was $10.




My 2nd poster. This one came along with a clannad poster that I gave to my bro, both cost $10 altogether, it was quite a bargain. Plus, I really love vocaloid, so theres really nothing much for me to say here.


This here are my 3 posters lined up altogether, the black rock shooter and vocaloid ones were the ones that were bought from the STGCC, the leftmost one was my only souvenier from AFA. I must say, I wonder how my wall will look like next year when I line more posters up.



And next my most expensive item, the black rock shooter herself. Oh my bloody god this figurine cost me a whopping $45. Well I couldnt help it I was eyeing her since the AFA, good thing the figurine was still being sold here at the STGCC. Nothing much really, just a japan made figurine that had changable hair, faces, weapons, hands and whatnot, not really for playing, just for display purposes.




Seriously, altough it looked really simple it was hard as hell to get her pose right, and those hands are so damn hard to fit in -.-. She had a huge cannon too but I had too much problem fitting it in so I went with the sword after much deliberation. Also, the figurine itself included a DVD disc with 7 language subtitles of the black rock shooter original animation. Tough I watched it before I just put the disc in and watched again. The quality really deserved a 2 thumbs up, good thing it came with subtitles though.



Next up is my brother's chibi white glint. It was a pain in the ass to fix, but I must say it turned out pretty good. Though it was mostly my brother's work, I did help out....in a few way. There were wings to it and I told my brother to put it on, but he said it was too much of a pain in the ass to, so meh, it turned out like this. Still pretty good I must say.



The 2 figurines in my room. Pretty awesome I must say, this section will probably expand next year as well, so yeah.




Mio-chan!!!! This here is a K-on button I bought for a measly $4. I wanted ritsu originally, but since my bro's fren got it, I didnt want to copy him. And this was the last mio.....so I just basically wanted to troll the next guy who wanted a Mio button. Troll face!!


Next up is a key... Well, its just the oathkeeper keyblade in a minature form, its attached to my ring of keys now. This cost $3 too.....but there was a bigger one featuring cloud's sword, that was pure badass, but it was $15, so....meh....


Finally, the most troll item of them all, a pandora hearts exclusive pocket watch. Altough I never did watch the show, this pocket watch was super badass. I mean like whoever wields this will be fuck yeah-ing all the time when they check the time! This solid watch of gold cost $20, but its pretty farking worth it.
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Whelp that about wraps up STGCC 2010. I must say that the event itself is a tad bit lousier than the AFA, it was less crowded too. Still I cant mark this as a lousy event, it was good merchandise wise, but as an overall AFA was just better. Still, I may be back for this next year, its still an event more than worth to attend.
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Kudos to STGCC, see you again next year.



Yawnn.....Well that was great. Just yesterday I went on another trip to a convention, the Singapore toy games and comic convention. I must say, I very much prefered the anime festival asia, but this was a blast too. Thing is, I actually spend a good amount of cash in this one, both me and my brother, that is. One note, though its called the Singapore toy, games and Comic convention, I spent 90% of my time oggling at the toys ( figurines would be a better word). The games and comics sections were.........meh, not really eye catching, but well they are worth a mention. And once again, stupid me forgot to bring a proper camera.....so these picture qualities won't be that good. STILL, yeah got quite a few good shots ( mostly of figurines), so yeah, enjoy.
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Unlike the AFA, I wasn't really prepared for this. Seriously, I didnt even think I was gonna go for this, since I had a pile of work to do, especially since the next week is my final week of school before a 2 weeks holiday. Still, there I was, enjoying my time. Anyway, unlike the AFA I didnt go for this like 8am or something, I actually took my time, since I wasnt really anticipating this a whole lot.

So I went there with my brother, and my brother's friend, since my previous AFA mates were having some stupid public speaking module. Arrived there around 2-ish pm, bought a ticket which cost like $13? After that we cut to the chase and just went to the convention.

On the way, there were a ton of cosplayers. Seriously, this isnt even much about anime! Still, there were a ton of then, so I was thinking to come back later to take pictures, for now, we just went for the convention.

The place was big, but wasnt particularly eye catching, there wasnt much that caught my eye besides a big ass stage with some maid cosplayers singing some jap song. The crowds here were huge, but lesser than the AFA. Still, there were notable marvel booths and some other goods booths, none of which caught my interest. The games section was a total letdown, there was nothing there besides old games with discounts. There were free game demos with micheal jackson-the experience using the kinect, time crisis 4, and some wii shooter. Micheal jackson was a disaster, having seen so many crazy and....obseen people dance is....really scary. I mean, the kinect dancing is really really scary and stupid, no wonder the game got stupid reviews. Time crisis 4 was okay, but it was much more fun to play at the arcade. The wii shooter was sad, there werent much players, and the game looked pretty suckish.





Now for the main attraction(For me anyways), the figurine displays. There were loads of them, and seriously most of them are sick. Here we have a set of gurren lugann goodies. Though I didnt watch them its easy to tell how awesome these are.







Here are even more goodies, though these I don't know what game or show are they from. Lovin that teddie bear.


Fk yeah sngoku basara! Date masamune and sanada yukimura are awesome, and these figurines more than enough prove it. Image was quite blurry cause there were a lot of people taking photos, and probably I couldnt stay here for too long.



Zzzzz.....Blurry once again. Anyway this shot was dedicated more towards professor layton, whose games are gonna be played by me soon. The guys beside him were pretty cool too, too bad I dont even know who they are.




More goodies. There no one in this shot that I really know. I guess I took it for the lolz. Moving on.




Ahh, Halo and armored core. Amazing firugines for amazing franchises. The armored core is a little small but its cool. The halo guys look pretty good themselves, really diggin the details they put on the models.



Dante and nero bitches. Too bad they arent as cool as firugines as they are as characters. Still worth a mention though.


The final fantasy 13 team. Pretty awesome job here, but no lightning strikes me pretty confused, why did they leave out the hottest HD character ever made? Hmm, go figure. Snow and odin were in the case, but my phone cam was too suckish to include them in it.



Assasin's creed! ASSASINO!!!!! Anyway, Im not a creed player, so I dont know much, have no idea if this is brother enzio or altair, though Im really thinking this is enzio. Sad, no love for Altair.


Heres some awesomeness. Final fantasy fans will love this case, with Cloud in it with his all so awesome pose. Theres sephiroth in it too, but couldnt catch him in this shot. Along with the 2 popular final fantasy 7 boys, theres also some love for dissidia via figurines. Also in the case are cloud, tidus, squall and zidane in thier figruines with thier dissidia poses. Pretty awesome alright, its too bad I couldnt find these for sale.




Fullmetal alchemist is quite the thing in the convention. Cosplayers and figurines alike, there were plenty to behold. These here figurines were pretty damn amazing, really diggin the poses and design for alphonse and roy mustang.



Erm.....once again nothing much I know in here, so I'll jus skim through real quick. Well theres only the dude from gintama, and kakashi, nothing really special here.



Rage guy. These were the very figures I wanted from the AFA!! They were here too! I raged when I saw this, then I trolled. I brought money this time, so I didnt have to wait for next year to buy this. BUAHAHAHA. Anyway, black rock shooter was still quite the in thing around here, glad that these figurines are still around.



The vocaloids chibi team! This were pretty cute, but had no idea where to find them -.-. Well not that I wanted these since now I got myself a nice miku hand phone strap......still, these were pretty good.



Blah blah blah, more failed attempts to make me jealous. More black rock shooter stuff, its just too bad for them this time I had the money to buy these.



These were enough to troll most of the crowd. Lucky star, its glad to see that this was still so popular, so many dudes were taking photos of this. Good thing I sneaked in just in time to take 1 solid shot.

Some love for one piece. Its too bad Im not even a fan of the show. Still, nico robin looks really hot, and thats about all I like for this case I guess, since I dont know most of these guys.


Ahh hell naw, now Im really raging. K-on was pretty solid, having 2 solid cases just for themselves. The figurines themselves were really good, but the lack of ritsu love really disappoints me.


The 2nd half of the K-on case. I love mio and azusa, so this made me rage. Goddammit I hate those guys. And, same as the usual, the lack of ristu love disappoints me, she is by far my favourite girl.



Is that flonne I see? Anyway, the main focus for this is that lady from valkyria chronicles, loving that sword.
Of course, we cannot underestimate the otakuness of singapore, cosplaying is quite the thing in STGCC, and sniping them pictures of them is obviously a must. After roaming around the cosplay floor and the convention itself, I got me some pretty good pics, though I didnt get as many as during AFA......Here they are.


There was a fancy cosplay booth in the convention itself, where any cute girl was supposed to go in and hug a bear and write something. .......What was that about? Anyway, this received a load of attention when a girl went in, so yeah, I was joining the group of mad photographers in taking shot....the only problem is that I only took 1.


Pata-pata-pata pon. If only I had a PSP to start trolling with the patapon game.....Well, nothing much to say here, these people did an awesome job with coming up with the patapon costumes, really wasnt expecting this.


The winners today go to these people. Though Im not a huge fan of the halo series these people had kick-ass costumes and they posed well to boot. Im glad I took a picture, and a clear one at that.




Had no idea who these were, probably just a crossover of a group of guys holding different weapons posing together. Not too bad if I do say so myself.


Runner-ups of the cosplay awards go to........this guy. Monster hunter was rare and I probably didnt expect that there would even be a monster hunter cosplayer. This guy suprised me, nice costume and sword, it was really awesome.
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Well thats all for part 1 of SGTCC, the next part will just be about me talking about the goods I got, which are mostly awesome. Peace for now, look foward to part 2!

Saturday, 11 December 2010

The fool's adventures at STGCC

Title says it all, I have been to AFA about a month ago, but today I just went to STGCC (Singapore toy,game,comic convention), and unlike before, I came prepared, with cash, so I bought a bunch of stuff!

Anyway stay tuned as I update about my STGCC experience tommorow.