Thursday, 29 September 2011

Killing floor

Gamespot score:7.5(good)

my score:7.2

(+)Pros:-Great cooperative gameplay that is tons of fun,-tons of zombie variety and an insane boss,- variety of classes mixes things up,-lots of mutators to fool around with.

(-)Cons:-Team mates have lousy AI and refuse to buy weapons,-lackluster visuals,-glitchy.

Gameplay time:-


Zombies zombies zombies. Everyone loves zombies. Look at the amount of zombie games in the market, resident evil, dead rising and left 4 deads galore. Whatever the reason, zombies have become all the rage, and game developers are impletmenting that even until today. Look at call of duty, they added a zombie mode, look at the recent zombie games, dead island, dead nation, zombie apocalypse etc. Killing floor is just one of the many zombie games out there, and like most of them, its a game that focuses strongly on its multiplayer. Basically, thats what killing floor is, one huge multiplayer package, you find yourself a few pals, dive into the game and start picking on zombies. If you want a story driven game like dead rising or RE, look elsewhere, this is where the multiplayer is at.




Killing floor has no story......totally no story at all. All we get is a bunch of text in the description box when choosing a map. Each map has its own background story, but it never gets explained on at all so its practically useless. Like I said, if you want something story driven, stay away, killing floor has no story at all. The multiplayer experience however, is down right solid.



Zombies at aperature science!

Killing floor is a pretty straightfoward game. All you do is just shoot zombies till they drop dead. Luckily, the game flow, weapons, maps and zombie variety are all awesome in thier own right. You can form a team of 6 during each and every game, and your goals are just to survive 10 waves of zombies and 1 boss wave. Each increasing wave will have more zombies and stronger types of zombies, meaning that the further you make it to, the harder it gets. Of course the game is fair towards you, the lesser players you have, the lesser zombies will spawn and the opposite happens if you have more players, so each player actually has to do thier part. There are quite a few maps available right off the bat, but there are some that you can download and add to your collection.

Some maps are really well made, and fighting zombies at all these different locations give different feels, so the gameplay always feels fresh whenever you play a new map. You have to find new camping spots and such, or you're gonna die. During every game, you pick a class, start off with a pistol, knife and a bunch of nades, fend off the 1st wave and you get to a trader, where you can purchase weapons and armor. The weapons are all individually awesome, you get your standard shotgun, machine guns, explosive and melee weapons, but depending on your class, these have boosts. Say, a medic can purchase medic related items at a lower price, and can use them more effectively based on your perks. Each class has thier own specific weapons and perks, so its good to have  a mix of different class users on your team.



So many zombies, so little time.

The zombie variety in killing floor is pretty awesome. You will see each and every zombie the game has to offer during every match you play. Certain zombies appear right off the bat, like the clot, gorefast and bloat. The rest will come as the waves go up, the siren, scrake, flesh pound and so on. Each zombie has thier own special ability, making each and every one of them a force to be reckoned with.

 The clots come in masses, and while they are weak, they can hold you in place as they munch on you. Gorefasts just dish out massive hurt, bloats are like boomers from L4D and spit damaging acid at you. Sirens wail like bitches and do damage that bypass your armor, crawlers are just tiny little buggers that hit you from all directions. Stalkers are invisible bitches that ambush you. Scrakes and flesh pounds are total beasts and slaugther you like nothing. The partiach is the boss mob that appears after you clear 10 mobs and as a boss, he is quite a bitch.

Beating out all of these different buggers is quite a task, but if you cant handle it, mutators are always there to help you. I love the mutators in this game, and its bloody fun to just tweak and fool around with them. Mutators can make the game easier or harder, they can improve the survivors abilities or deprove them. You can also do all kinds of perks that make the game more quirky.


They will be walking even without heads, and they will suddenly disappear.

Killing floor has...quite some flaws. For one the graphics are rather lackluster for something released  in 2009. It doesnt compare to stuff like left 4 dead (2008) or lets say.......modern warfare 2 (2009). The game is also glitchy, mostly with the zombies. Many a time zombies will suddenly just disappear when killed. You shoot off thier head, they keep on walking, suddenly they just disappear completely. There are also times where you kill every zombie on the map, and there will be 1 or 2 left. You walk around the map trying to find them, then you suddenly see a clot walking somewhere in circles, a stalker staring at a wall, or a crawler stuck in one small hole, unable to get out. Also, almost as if discouraging you to touch single player, the ally AI is ridiculously stupid and just uses the pistol throughout the entire game.

If you're one with tons of gaming buddies, this game is definetely for you. If you're lonely or don't like social gaming, this probably isn't for you. The ally AI is retarded, and theres almost no reason for you to play this alone (no story). When played with others however, I assure you, killing floor is an absolute blast that I would recommend to any zombie killing addict.



Happy gaming.


Opening songs
OP 1-Seishoujo ryoujiki (Ali project)

Ending songs
ED 1-Hikari no Rasenritsu (Kukui)

Genre:Adventure, comedy, drama, supernatural



Episodes:12

Heres another anime review to speed things up. This time, we conclude the rozen maiden saga, with the review of rozen maiden traumend. Traumend was released before overture, but the events of traumend take place after it, so naturally I watched this last. Concluding the rozen maiden series made me one sad puppy, it was a truly unique series that managed to keep me entertained and remained emotional at times. You can easily see where this is going, traumend is ever bit as good, of maybe even better than the original, and definetely beats out overture.

Song time! The opening song is seishoujo ryoujiki by ali project (I guess they are already staples for the series), and up to date, it is one of my favourite ali project songs. It kicks ass on so many levels, I definetely recommend giving this song a listen. The ending hikari no rasenritsu by kukui, and I'll be honest, I never really listened to the full thing once. The 1st 30 seconds just bore me out and I couldnt give a damn. The openign animations for seishouko ryoujiki were pretty damn amazing, by the way.

Rating:8.0/10

Traumend is a great anime that viewers of the original will enjoy alot. It has a slight change in the way the episodes play out, but more or less, its the same good shit from before, with even more characters. Also, this time round, its much more emotional, and I had to hold back tears during one scene (I wont spoil, but I'll leave you all to guess). Theres also much more serious stuff going on this time round, and the concluding episodes sure put the action scale on a whole new level. All in all, its just the first show all over again, trading in some of the comedy parts for more serious parts. For a final product that the original has been building up, traumend is something seriously great to watch as it unfolds.


Meet barasuishou, the scary 7th doll.
 Well for the plot...its just a continuation of the original. It still features jun as our lead, but he has definetely changed during the events of the original, and he is a completely different person now. He's trying to catch up with life again, instead of being a loser that refuses to leave the house and is afraid to go to school. Of course, he still spends time with his dolls, all of which are still living in his house like free loaders. Shinku however, is feeling down after she defeated suigintou, and has been having weird dreams. On the other hand, 2 new dolls make thier appearance, the all-so-carefree kanaria, who is much of an airhead like hina ichigo, and the scary as hell barasuishou. Kanaria is a complete airhead and soon befriends shinku and co, barasuishou however...is just a mindless killing machine. As the 7 dolls awaken and the rabbit laplace makes his appearance, the fight to become the chosen doll soon ensues and things soon become bad.

Theres nothing much to say if you did watch the original, just expect things to be more serious. Otherwise, traumend is great, and if you watched the original, theres no reason to miss this one. Im still kind of puzzled and confused about the half assed ending, however.

Peace.

Today's post will probaby not affect quite a few of you viewers, since jubeat is asia only (those who want to play this but cannot....you have my sympathy). Japan has gotten copious, and over here in singapore, its beem a good ten days since copious made its debut in japan. While its safe to say we jubeat knit players will keep our score records and carry them over to copious, I'm going to post my scores here just in case they get erased.

And well....mostly this post is for bragging rights XD. I'm not that amazing of a player, but well, here are my good scores.

FYI my achievement points is about 420k. Yeah, not really impressive at all. Anyway, here we go.



Infinity
981708 (SSS)

One of my only 2 SSS songs. Infinity is probably my most played song = =. I have practically been playing this since I started, if I didnt at least get an SSS for this I would feel pretty damn pathetic.



Sigsig
951723 (SS)

One of my achivements I'm more proud about. Sigsig is quite difficult, and I spent a good amount of time trying to SS it. I think I did well for this one :).



Soratobu Hikari

981073 (SSS)

My other SSS. Nothing special about this, many people have been going around trying to EXC this shit and have succeeded.



Listen to the stereo!!
953237 (SS/Full combo)

Another one of my more proud achievments XD. This is, a matter of fact, quite a difficulty song in my opinion. There was always one part that always netted me a few blues. The full combo is just for show, I kinda got it by luck.



Sayonara trip
955687 (SS)

Up till now that part with the cross notes still give me alot of trouble = =. Once again this isnt anything special as many are already trying to EXC this



Koi no Merry-go-round
958008 (SS)

Didnt intend to get SS for this, just naturally got it during a regular play.



Chakra
950458 (SS/Full combo)

Oh this bloody piece of shit , fking pissed me off so badly. I played COUNTLESS times to SS this. I know its not that difficult of a song but I played SO MANY times to get my SS...and the full combo.



Garden of love
950517 (SS)

Another song that I didnt intend to get SS. I already got it during the 2nd time I played it.



Sunshine girl
950869 (SS)

One of my very 1st SS achivements. Its not a hard song, but it has lots of patterns and quite a bit of memorizing is required.



Smile Ichiban ii Onna
953774 (SS)

Something that I kind of just decided to get. I played it randomly once and got 942k, so I just played it again and got this score.






Chance and dice
959773 (SS/Full combo)

Honestly, I really tried for this. It may be an easy song with only so little notes...but thats the problem. Because there are so little notes, you really cannot afford to screw up. Took me quite abit to get my SS and full combo.



Are you ready?
969331 (SS)

I got my SS on my first play, but I decided to strive for a SSS. Sadly, as you can see, I didnt quite make it yet, but rest assured, it will come soon. A 969k is satisfactory for now.



Shine on me
972574 (SS)

Quite possibly one of the easiest songs in the game with so many notes. I went for a SSS, but didnt quite make it yet. It will come soon, rest assured.



Haru haru
959059 (SS)

Another song that I just got out of pure coincidence. Played it once, got 947k, played it again and got this.



Street dancer
956682 (SS)

Got this out of pure coincidence. During a local play with my brother we picked this song and I got a SS out of that.



Bass 2 bass
954136 (SS)

Screw this lousy ass fcking meathead that fked me up more than 2 months. I took a long ass time to SS this and I had to stay away from it a good 2 months to erase all my memory on the patterns and then relearn it again. Not worth the effort.



More more more
953134 (SS)

Something that I had to work for. The song itself isn't hard, but I took quite awhile to finally SS it.



Only my railgun
953064 (SS)

When I got this, I declared myself "complete" for jubeat knit. I played this since I started jubeating and to finally SS it is like receiving a trophy that says "you win!". Its a pretty difficult level 8 song and though I played it since I started jubeating I only got the SS recently.

Thats kind of it for now. Im sure I still have some other good SS songs, but I didnt really take pics of all of them. This may look like a post for me to brag about my scores...if it does look like it and you dont like it, just ignore this post XP. There wont be many posts like this, but by the end of copious, if Im still blogging ( I most probably will still be), I will do something like this again...I think.

Peace.

Thursday, 22 September 2011

Infinite space

Gamespot score:6.5(fair)

my score:7.0

(+)Pros:- Cool concept,- likable characters,- ship customization is incredibly addictive and overall very in-depth.

(-)Cons:- Combat is very luck dependant,- punishing difficulty,- repititive game flow.

Gameplay time:20-30 hours


The DS is no stranger to oddball games. It has seen games such as phoenix wright, trauma center, picross 3D and many others come and go. Infinite space is one of those oddball titles, theres almost no way for me to fully confirm it as a solo genre type. It mixes RPG, stragetic and many other genres to create something that is fresh and new towards its players. Fortunately, the game is relatively cool in terms of its concept, and that alone can suck players in. On the bad side however, is that the game is punishingly hard, and can definetely turn many players off. So, whats to expect in a game like this?




First off, the story is pretty one of a kind. You will either love or hate it. You star as yuri (who looks like some sort of homosexual dude to me. Yes, hes a guy), a young boy who always wanted to leave his planet to see and explore the outer space. He hires a transporter to take him out to space, but doing so, he broke his planet's law of forbidden space travel. The planet governer takes yuri's sister hostage, and he soon finds himself fighting the government itself to rescue his sister. After the rescue, it became obvious to yuri that he has been exiled from his home planet, and he goes to travel the universe to find out more about epitahs, something that was left for him. The plot soon becomes an epic battle between planets and organizations, and heats up to become something decently tense and exciting.



Either yuri is gay, or he's actually a girl.

Infinite space is somewhat of an RPG while you're not in combat. You navigate solar systems and go from planet to planet, stopping by on some to gather clues on where to go next, upgrade your ships, get new blueprints or just to fool around. Gradually exploring and clearing most of a system's planets will soon open you to a new system, with a gradually bigger community and more planets for you to stop by.

You repeat this process trough the whole game, as you jump from planet to planet, collecting and obtaining goodies as you go. When you stop by one of these planets, you can rest up your crew and heal up your ships, kind of like an inn feature. And of course, you can save your game. This makes planets like towns, sort of...towns that you will dreadfully need. You see, jumping from planet to planet sounds cool and all, but more than often you will get jumped by enemy encounters, most of which can wipe out your entire crew like its no big deal. After mauling through one or two random encounters....finally reaching a planet is like finding an oasis in a desert.


Things look pretty complicated on screen, but its actually not.
 Now then, the combat in infinite space is something that can take some getting used to. Its not like a usual RPG where if you over-grind you can take on 20 or 30 under leveled dudes and come out unscratched. In infinite space, taking out 2-3 enemy fleets can already bring your crew down to critical levels. Its hard to explain the main core of battle, since most of the time, you have to act quick, and tap those commands you see at your bottom touch screen as you see fit. You can move your ship back when you think the next enemy attack is going to completey blast you and you need some breathing space, you can move front when you think your enemy is losing badly and you want to end them quickly. You can select attack, dodge, barrage and many other options as you observe the battle flow and that gauge.

The battle gauge is key, and as it fills, you can issue your different commands. Some commands require alot of the battle gauge, while others require less. Its all about self observation and how you want the battle to turn out. However, a wrong move will easily lead you into defeat, seeing as how enemies come in overwhelming numbers or superior equipment 75% of the time, especially during story scenarios. Still, if you defeat your enemies, you are rewarded with good deal of experience, money and loot. These are more than enough to suffice the difficulty you faced when you do battle with them, and it feels very satisfying to finally beat an enemy crew or fleet. Pimping up your ships into total badasses are also a good past time. There are TONS of customizable parts and you can pimp your ship up to whatever way you want to.

As you can tell, the game is overwhemly punshing, and it seriously turns players off. You have no idea how many times I switched the game off in pure frustration of losing to a story driven fight about 5-6 times. Many a time the battles you face are nearly impossible, forcing you into battle after battle with a half destroyed fleet and tired out crew is just retarded. Even if you go out and start grinding like a pig to get top grade equipments, you will STILL get your ass whooped unless you play VERY well or have a tremendous amount of luck. Speaking of luck, thats what most of the battles require. If you have been doing well throughout an entire boss fight and suddenly the boss decides to fking DODGE YOUR BARRAGE, you know you are already screwed. And the melee fights, they are so luck based that you either curbstomp the enemies, or they curbstomp you. Its uncool, thats what it is. Also, the game brings you from planet to planet on story quests that make you run back and forth so many times between old locations, and they always ask you to blow something up. It gets predictable later on, and its repititive.

Infinite space is a punishing journey through the many different galaxies and planets. Its very satisfying at times and when you are customizing your fleet you will definetely have tons of fun, but prepare to get your ass kicked several times over. If you have a TON of patience and love to get whooped around like space junk, your time harvested into this will suit you well. If you get pissed off easily stay far far far away from this, its very hard and you will be flinging your DS all over your room.



Happy gaming.

Tuesday, 20 September 2011

Hatsune miku:Project diva 2

Gamespot score:n/a

My score:8.8

(+)Pros:-Improved from the original in almost every way,-many playable characters,-huge song selection,- costumes and other unlockables enhance replay value,-duet songs are a welcome addition,-improved gameplay mechanics.

(-)Cons:-Not enough variety in terms of other vocaloid songs (other than miku),-some of the playable characters do not have songs in the game.

Gameplay time:50 hours+


Exactly one year ago (pure coincidence), I reviewed hatsune miku:Project diva. Back then I was barely even introduced to the world of vocaloids. Now, exactly one year later (again, pure coincidence), I have grown more attached to these vocaloids and know alot more about them, mostly thanks to this game. Project diva 2 once again throws miku into the fray, making her entertain those who play, fortunately, this time she is joined by many others! This should be renamed to "vocaloids:project diva" now, since in the previous game, it was all miku, now we have at least 5 other characters joining in! Sweetness. Those who enjoyed the 1st project diva will without a doubt, have a blast playing this. Get ready to dive in there and see for yourself what the vocaloids have to offer!



Blah blah, same crap, different day. Music games need no story and this game doesnt have one. Don't be suprised, is this your first day gaming? Go on, move along, nothing to see here, whats important in music games is gameplay.




For the first time on the PSP, the famous magnet has arrived!
 The core gameplay of project diva 2 remains mostly the same as the original. Of course, being the kickass sequel that it is, this has been improved on. First of all, other than the standard square, X, circle and triangle buttons, there are times where you have to press pairs along with the directional buttons based on the new arrow icons that appear on screen. A left pointing arrow means you have to press square and left, an up pointing arrow means you have to press up and triangle, so on and so forth. It may not be very difficulty to grasp, but it quickly becomes part of the core gameplay, as you see these arrows popping out more than just occasionally, this can destroy beginners. Other than that, the chance time system has been tweaked.

 Now, the total bonus score you recieve no longer based on how accurate you hit the buttons. The current chance time system makes it so the max score you can get is 50000, and it matters if you hit all notes during chance time as "cool". The lesser you hit means the lesser you get during chance time. This means you may not be able rake in as much than before, but it makes for some fairly balanced scoring. Other than that a good thing to note is that during all songs, there are fully 3D animated MVs, unlike in the original, where there were a handful of songs with only slideshows of 2D art. Whats also new is the addition of extreme difficulty songs. The orignal only feautred hard mode, but in this game, theres even extreme after hard...Needless to say, these songs slaughter noobs, proceed with caution.



Play as rin and  many other vocaloids.
 And of course, the main best thing that sega could have done to project diva 2....the inclusion of other vocaloids. Unlike in the 1st game, where only miku's voice is featured (and a TINNNY bit of rin and len), project diva 2 features the full voices of rin, len, luka, kaito and meiko, other than miku, and each and every one of them have their own songs, featuring them as the lead singer. This is beyond sweet. One of my old complains was that there was only miku and that could get boring. Now with these 5 other awesome vocaloids, theres more than enough variety to keep going! The song list has expanded, and new songs for the other vocaloids have been added as well, what else can we ask for??!? Songs like meltdown for rin, just be friends for luka, migata no chou for len and change me for meiko are just awesome.

 Also, another new addition to the game that will please the fans is the addition of duet songs. Miku will be pairing up with another vocaloid to perform a duet songs, and most of these are pretty popular. The amazingly popular cantarella (kaito and miku), magnet (miku and luka) and promise (Rin and miku). There is even a rin and len duet! Fans will definetely be happy. Miku also has her own share of good music, but playing the songs by other vocaloids is true awesomeness. Whats EVEN better, is that there are a TON of unlockables like costumes and room items that will keep players motivated. Costumes for EACH AND EVERY character are aplenty, and items to get for miku's room also come in masses. You purchase them using VP and unlock them by playing songs and clearing them with special conditions.  The content in this....is just too much.



The all-so-awesome romeo X cinderella.
Now then witht the sequel's so awesome additions, they kind of left me wanting for more. With the additions for the new vocaloids, thier songs were so amazing and it really pains me that there were so little songs for them. I understand its "hatsune miku":project diva, but you know, more songs from the other vocaloids would be so damn awesome....Also, they added neru, sakine meiko and YOWANE FKING HAKU!!!! They added HAKU, DAMN!!!! But they made 1 mistake, these three have no songs!!!! NOOOOO, why did you put them in when you made no songs for them! Sega, why?!?!? Me wants haku!! Putting these 3 in and then putting no songs for them is pure trolling! They should at least give them a song each to make thier inclusion worthwhile, but alas, they didnt. I has a sad :(.

Project diva 2 is a huge plus for the franchise. I seriously could not think of any other way to improve it other than the way sega did. I expected maybe only more rin and len songs, but they went to add luka, kaito and meiko as well! This game opened me up to the vocaloid family, and now they have just added 1 more to thier fan base XD. With so many new additions and improvements, project diva 2 is a must buy for fans of vocaloids. And if you never played the original and want to get this, go right ahead, this is so much better. 





Happy gaming!