Get the latest reviews and rants from the 1Emulation message board! http://www.1emulation.com/forums/index.php Thu, 09 Sep 2010 02:25:45 -0500 5 http://www.1emulation.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=32398 System: PSP



Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker (MGS PW) is the latest MGS game by Kojima
Productions. The main protagonist is Big Boss and it tells the story and
events that lead to the founding of Outer Heaven. The game is set in 1974,
ten years after the events of Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, four years
after Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops, and just two years after the
Les Enfants Terribles project and the location is set at Costa Rica.

Graphics:

This will be how the cutscene look like most of the time

Graphically, this game is pushing the PSP capabilities to the limit. Not
many games on PSP can match the level of details shown on the map or the
characters itself. The jungle environment are lushfully done, the
details on guns, equipments and vehicles are very detailed and the day/night
settings are done so well in the same map. Best graphics by Kojima and his
team (well, until Ready at Dawns released Ghost of Sparta anyway )

Graphics: 9.5/10



Sound:


MGS PW has one of the best sound offering on a PSP game so far. The voice
acting is superb with David Hayter reprising his role for Big Boss, the
main theme "Heaven's Divide" is a great song, and the MGS Main Theme music
in this version is even better. All the codecs are fully voiced now if the
game is installed to memory stick, unlike MGS Portable Ops which give us
texted codecs only. And the sound effects are all nicely done with bgm
that really suit the situation you find yourself in.

Sound: 10/10



Controls:

Some contention on the controls. the previous MGS on PSP, Portable Ops
have controls that are modified to fit the PSP. It is not so well-received
by some gamers so in this game, MGS PW offers 3 types of control scheme.
1st is the shooter type, where the camera are mapped to the face buttons,
which most fps/action shooter games on PSP choose to use. 2nd is the action
type where the action buttons like using equipments, changing weapons are
mapped to the face buttons instead, the old MGS Portable Ops control style.
And finally, the Monster Hunter control type, where weapon-changing and
equipment usage are mapped to the trigger buttons instead. So, basically
there is a control scheme for everyone's tastes and preference but being
on PSP, the controls are still lacking especially on camera controls.
This is hampering the gameplay a little (not by much) and make some
noticable changes to the gameplay (which will be explained further later).

Overall, i think the controls are adequate and not really game-breaking
but it can be daunting to those new to PSP.

Controls: 7.5/10


Gameplay:

the mission preparation screen

in MGS PW, Kojima Productions have retained most of the Portable Ops core
gameplay, which is soldier gathering. Big Boss can recruit soldiers and
prisoners of war during the course of the missions, and these soldiers
can be used to help build up his team, the Militaires Sans Frontieres
(Soldiers Without Borders). These soldiers have skills that can helped
in researching new weapons or equipments, providing food to the team,
healing wounded soldiers or getting intel on the mission areas. With more
soldiers recruited, your base will grow and become more efficient.


Gotta catch 'em all!

Soldiers are recruited in missions using the new Fulton system, where you
airlifted captured soldiers instead of the tedious system in Portable Ops
where you need to drag the soldiers to nearby truck/teammates to capture
them. Soldiers will also automatically join you if you have enough Hero
points and can also recruit via WIFI points. Recruiting soldiers are
really an important aspect as you will really need to level up your base
especially on the R&D section. R&D will develop better weapons and equipment
which you will use in missions, especially boss battles. Without these,
you will find that it is very hard to win in boss battles.

*if this game is called MGS Pokemon, i will not be surprised *



Other than this, most of the aspect that makes MGS famous has been keep
intact. We still have stealth missions, over-the-top boss battles, compelling
storyline (IMO even better and more revelant to MGS series than Portable Ops)
and side information that tied characters to the backbone story of MGS.
In fact, this game is so chokeful of features and gameplay that you would
have think this game is not on a handheld console. Other than the main storyline
missions, you will have extra operations, where you are given missions to
hone skills, gather more soldiers, finding documents to develop new weapons
and equipments and to gather vehicles. Soldiers and vehicles can also be
send to hotspots around the world to help waging wars, mercenary style.
These missions named Outer Ops are basically mini game where you plan the
soldiers and vehicles to send to battles and you get to review the outcome
in a turn based style with no controls on the battles. The mini game is
not really fleshed out but then, its sole purpose is to give you more
soldiers, items and documents for research purpose. For what its worth, it
done its job fairly well. There are also lots of informations that you can
listen to via recorded tapes to help you immerse in MGS universe further
and unlock more missions. Also, you get to review character models and
weapon/equipment models in details with brief description on it. Very
thoughtful of Kojima and his team to include this as bonus. You can also
build your own Metal Gear as the game progressed.


your own Metal Gear

Now the downside.
Due to the limit of PSP controls, the gameplay has been tweaked significantly.
The AI of the enemies are downgraded severely and they seems to have a very
bad eyesights. The gameplay has been slowed down a bit in order to compensate
for the camera controls that you are battling with. This is not very
noticable but veteran MGS players will surely notice this. However, enemies
still have acute sense especially in hearing, so the stealth missions does
not suffer that much. Also, you will have to suspend your logic sense when
playing this game in term of storyline (as usual) and gameplay. One fine
example is when you are collecting soldiers. Using the new Fulton system,
captured soldiers will be airlifted to be carried to the base. However,
enemies seems not be able to notice the airlifted soldiers no matter how near
they are Not game breaking, just a minor irritation to me.

Main irritations however are the boss battles. *Major spoiler ahead*
The boss battles in this game are simply vehicles (helicopter, APV, tanks)
and the AI sentries on prowl. Meaning, you will not find memorable
personalities like Psycho Mantis, Sniper Wolf or Laughing Octopus in this
game. but the AI sentries are still great with eerie background music
playing in some of the battles, and the battle against Metal Gear is one
of the best in the series IMO. Still, I do miss battling against human
bosses.

Gameplay: 9/10 (would have been higher if not for the minor irritation)

Overall:9.5/10
Sound : 10/10
Controls: 7.5/10
Gameplay: 9/10

Overall : 9/10

MGS PW is a nice addition to the growing MGS series. The story is just appropriate
and the gameplay did not suffer much despite the game is on handhelds.
One of the "killer apps" for PSP.]]> Tue, 03 Aug 2010 04:10:13 -0500 http://www.1emulation.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=32398 http://www.1emulation.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=32344

* Electronic Arts
* Visceral Games
* Beat-'Em-Up
* Release: Feb 9, 2010 »
* ESRB: Mature


Dante’s Inferno is a down-right in your face hack and slasher for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PSP. Developed by Visceral Games, the story is labeled from Inferno, the first canticle of Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy, involving the adventures of a Templar, scythe wielding knight, Dante, as you travel through Hell to obtain the tortured soul of his lover Beatrice from Lucifer.

The game tells a story in a matter of in-game cutscenes, along with simple cartoons in-between major events, told from within the sown cross on Dante’s chest. Dante’s Inferno’s lineage is instantly encountered upon the first hour of gameplay. Many reviewers have inevitability compared this game to the God of War series. Bound with a Death Sythe, a Holy Cross, and about four main magic attacks, Dante does not contain much versatility in weapon choice. However, like most hack and slashers, the player has the ability to upgrade his weapon to obtain new combos, health, mana upgrades, and attacks. Revolving around the devil, religion, and repentance, depending on whether or not you decide to either, absolve a withered soul, or punish it, brings your powers into consideration.



For instance; you have two vines beside your health bar, one blue, one red. The red vine has around five different thorns, which signifies different unlockable levels of attacks that can be upgraded, and will otherwise show up as faded unobtainable ones. The blue vine does exactly the same. Absolving a soul accrues “holy” (blue), points, which fills your blue vine. The opposite vine, simply the opposite. Most powerups in the Holy category deal with powers that have to do with your Holy Cross, and the red powerups deal with just about everything else. However, absolving or punishing a character more than the other doesn’t necessarily make you evil or good in particular, so there’s absolutely no reason to stay exclusive to any side, since you need both Holy and Undead powers to get the job done at hand. There is no justice system, it is purely experience based.



Once an enemy has suffered enough damage, you can press the trigger button to initiate a finisher, similar to just about every other hack and slasher within the last decade. Once this finisher is activated you will have the choice whether to punish or absolve a monster. Absolving involves sending them to Heaven, before this can be achieved, (and everytime you decide to do so), you will have to play a mini-game, where you collect their sins. The more sins you collect, the more soul points you accumulate for your “holy” vine. The mini-game works on a cross which is represented by the four face buttons, once a sin flows over your button, you’ll have to press the button in time to collect that soul, much like the, “Guitar Hero”, system, and once more sins are collected, the faster the sins will move, at the end of sending them to Heaven, the experience points you receive is based on how many sins you collect.



Punishing a character just gives you all of the experience points after a gruesome insta-kill. Working more towards describing the gameplay in general, this game borrows just about everything from God of War, whether unintentionally, coincidentally, or intentionally. There is a hit meter that counts the amount of hits you can land without getting hit, or not hitting something for too long before the meter resets. The more combos you can pull off in a chain of dance steps, the more experience points you can gather. The enemies themselves are irritating, seldom challenging, unfair, overpowering, monsters that get in the way most times than not. Much like God of War, some rooms require you to rotate a lever to raise a platform or whatever the case, but you can’t do this while demonic bats, zombie gypsies, and axe wielding minotaurs are trying to attack you. So instead of killing all of the enemies, and then pulling the lever uninterrupted, the game forces you to balance, killing off enemies, and pulling the lever, (in the time that the enemies are re-spawning), which gives you about three seconds of lever pulling. Once the lever is let go, the platform goes back down slowly, so if you try to pull the lever and kill monsters you’ll end up right back to where you were before.



It also doesn’t help that the game allows the player to fall in pits of lava that just happen to be around the little land of mud and dirt that combat is taking place on. You can push enemies into the lava to save all of the boundless combat, but sometimes you’ll end up falling in there with them. For some odd reason, while participating in airbone battles, an enemy can barely hit you while in mid-air, you’ll automatically fall in the lava. You don’t even have to be remotely close to it, as the game gravites you towards death.

The game strictly operates on cryptic, uninteresting puzzles, at just about every single moment after defeating a mob of enemies. It also incorporates random death traps, and bottomless pits, (this game loves bottomless pits), that you would not otherwise carefully notice without dying in a place more than once. The wall climbing from ropes contains some death traps, like trying to swing a rope to get from point A to point B, while there are fire trappers, blowing fire at you, trying to kill you whilst it happening. Not to mention the random things that happen, the game says, (this platform is going to lower at a fast rate, and without warning you’re going to die). The player will often question, how was I supposed to know this was going to happen? The platforming is abysmal, with Dante’s heavily uncontrollable sporadic jumping animations. In combat the hit detection is slurred, and there’s no camera control at all, (unless I overlooked the options menu).

The boss fights have really grotesque character designs, and interesting voice acting, that are all faltered by obscenely repetitive boss battling structures, with unfair instances of, (there’s no way that hit me), because visually it didn’t, the game just said it hit you. Dante is a sentimental warrior who is cascading through undead monsters, and even his relatives, just to get to Beatrice, for of what that seems completely futile. Some parts of the game force you to take control of a gigantic monster, (by impaling it's forehead, another God of War trademark), which is also broken, you have to climb walls and navigate numerous stages with these large incompetent beasts that provide nothing intriguing.



The quick time events are the major downfall of this game, they are completely terrible, only considering boss fights. The game requires you to be able to consistently predict when these button prompts are going to appear. Quick time events were never appealing to me, not in Resident Evil 4, not in God of War, not in Uncharted, they do nothing for me except aggravate the suck out of me. This game gives you two seconds to press the right button, or, the right thumbstick direction for this matter, and if you don’t, you’ll die, and instead of coming back to where you were, you go back to the beginning of the boss fights. Some of these boss fights have parts in-between you kicking the actual bosses’ butt, where you fight his or her little minions and these guys have the potential to tear you apart. Blocking and invading are in synchronization, but there’s a delay between evading and blocking, a one second vulnerability that most enemies exploit. Considering most of them have long range attacks, shields, and fast paced dodging the Dante wasn’t built to endure.

The graphics themselves are filled with dark brown, fiery red and orange scenery, with extremely disgusting, but also brilliantly created character designs. The structure of this game would stupendous if the God of War series just didn’t exist, but ironically without God of War existing, this wouldn’t either. Dante’s Inferno is God of War’s less attractive, less keen, and less socially engaging brother that not many people tend to prefer.

* Story: 7
* Gameplay: 6
* Graphics: 7
* Controls: 7
* Sound: 8


7.23

]]> Sun, 18 Jul 2010 16:05:06 -0500 http://www.1emulation.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=32344 http://www.1emulation.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=31920

This sucker caught my eye late last year and I have been eagerly awaiting this arrival.

First things first the basics the storey and the type of game we are playing:

I'm sure by now you know that metro 2033 is a FPS set in post apocalyptic Russia in the surprising year of 2033.
the game roots its ideas from Dmitry Glukhovsky, a writer who wrote metro 2033 (and with the looks of it other books set in the metro theme) and as far as I can tell the Russian people love it so THQ signed him up and laid down the groundwork for a great game.



Now you may or may not be surprised to know that the team behind Metro 2033 worked on the original S.T.A.L.K.E.R shadow of Chernobyl - S.T.A.L.K.E.R endured many set backs and many pitfalls on it's way to becoming a real on the shelf game, and when it did finally get here it was as politely as can be possibly said 'rough.' But never the less S.T.A.L.K.E.R was an original and enjoyable game.

Could some of the origanal S.T.A.L.K.E.R team pull off another game with high expectations?
Mostly yes, and with a small, and by small i mean very tiny hints of no.

You are a guy by the name of Artyom - born and raised in the subway systems of Metro, he has never seen the sky or been outside he only knows about topside life through pictures and storeys from his fellow subway buddy's.
To cut this short Artyom decides to go and kick some ass and heads out into the world of Metro 2033 and this is where you take over.


It's time to kick ass.

The game immerses you from the start, as you move from point A to point B the game world starts to come alive, there is no money in Metro 2033 there are only "military grade ammunition" that counts as currency, and this is where things get a little more interesting you can get dirty bullets so called because they take one military grade round and take out the gunpowder and mix it with "filler" to make more bullets - these "dirty rounds" are no where near as powerful as clean rounds but are a lot easier to come by than the elusive clean rounds.


I'm all out of clean rounds but I got plenty of dirty rounds so get pulling and pushing I wanna go faster!

You spend most of your time underground moving from station to station they act as mini rest areas and interaction spots for your character these are also a place to exchange ammo types and buy new weapons but early on Dont worry too much about scoring high grade ammunition or bigger better guns most of the game I used dirty ammo constantly throughout the game and had no real need to use the clean ammo, so it makes you wonder a little about the point of all this.

Metro 2033 is set like a movie and an FPS there are many enjoyable moments in the game that put this FPS above a lot of its competition, the game does a great job of building a claustrophobic atmosphere, especially when you have to put your gas mask on, you can hear the character breathing sucking in air as your visor mists up and distorts your vision giving you that feeling that shit is right on top of you and you better keep on your toes.

Combat has good and bad point's firstly The AI of the human opponents is pretty good, they take cover, spot you , blow your face off all the usual stuff, but on the other hand you have the mutants AI which i have to say is actually quite ropey, for example I was just getting hidden in this alcove to reload all my weapons and charge my light source up again (you get a dynamo that you have to manually charge to keep your light working) when all of a sudden about 6 mutants just all ran at me into this small gap... The mutant AI is basic, it attacks you, thats it.

Another mention has to go to the flying dragon things, these fuckers are a pain in the ass but are really predictable in how they attack you - you Dont spend much time fighting these guys but when you do it's not too enjoyable.
It's much more fun and engaging to take on human AI its not stupid and does an impressive job of behaving in a way you would expect it to, for instance these idiots are peddling their cart up and down the track so I toss a pipe bomb right under their carriage and it blows them to shit, the carriage keeps rolling and comes to a stop and two of the enemies react to it and come looking for me.


Some sections are dark enough that you can sneak about, and if you have bought or scavenged a silenced weapon you can use it to good effect,also there is the addition of throwing knifes but my experience with these varied sometimes i would hit the guy and it would just piss him off and all his buddies come and kicked the crap out of me, while other times it was a one hit kill ninja style.

The graphics in my opinion are tip top, and there is a LOT of use of lighting effects in this game and sadly this can put quite a bit of strain on any ageing graphics card out there, my 8800GS started off on "high" settings with a high resolution, but in the end I had to turn the settings to normal and bring my resolution down a good few steps just to keep the game from lagging during combat.

The game is a darkly lit affair and at first I thought "if its too dark it will just burn my head out" but in the end it keeps a great balance of lighting and dark and gets it spot on to create a dark oppressive mood.

Sound effects are second to none, voice acting to a good standard, and that gasp as you suck on your mask for more air will have you feeling like your close to choking.

Metro 2033 is a great game and it is one I will play again, if you're sat on the bench about this sucker and you cant make your mind up just do your self a favour and go bag your self some Russian gaming goodness.


Pros:
Great storey, good amount of unique memorabilia weapons such as "the bastard" gun for its overheating problem and shit accuracy, storey sucks you in, gritty set pieces and PLENTY of surprises on the way. Good scavenging, reasonably long single player campaign, and i love the feeling that every bullet you find is priceless.

Cons; Mutant AI is piss poor and stupid and predictable, some set pieces or areas will see you die quite a few times before you figure it out or "get lucky."

Overall Metro 2033 has done a great job of doing something a little different and focusing on single player only, a dying art of the FPS with recent games, it's russian roots are there for all to see hopefully another metro game is just around the corner and hopefully we wont have to wait too long. Hopefully next time round it will work on the mutants AI and rid the game of some repetitive sections that just kinda get in the way of the flow of the game.
Bag it - play it - enjoy it.

8.5/10
]]> Sun, 21 Mar 2010 18:27:14 -0500 http://www.1emulation.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=31920 http://www.1emulation.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=31746

It's shit.
Outdated graphics - outdated - period.
Boring.

My next review: Resistance 2



It's shit.
I managed to play to level 2 - those alien guys come at you, you shoot them - some big indestructible fish swim round in the water at a bit you need to get across - they eat you - you can't kill them even though their body's are exposed.
It felt like frogger.

Get Killzone 2 Instead - Avoid these two games altogether - The gaming mechanics are SO OLD AND CLUNKY.
Gamespot can go to hell for telling em to get this game.

Overall: If you like generic shooting and embarrassingly bad "move from point A to point B" and shoot some stuff in between, then get this game.
This is the pinnacle of what an FPS looks like tarted up only Killzone 2 is genuinely hot and these two are the uglier sisters.
I don't need to take a poo right now but when I do I will poop on these games and use the manuals as toilet paper.
Im glad the developers can feed their familys after me buying these games - that is the only positive I can take from these two piles of luxury toilet paper.

The AI is god awful and predictable - just clunky - square like combat - I don't care that the Bosses are huge because I'm a spoiled FPS player, so if you're gonna mix it with the big boys at least do it right.


]]> Thu, 11 Feb 2010 11:49:11 -0600 http://www.1emulation.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=31746 http://www.1emulation.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=31697

First of all I want you to know, in no uncertain terms that this game is one of my favourite games of all time BUT Uncharted 2 does not claw its way into my current top 10 of best games ever. Now you may be thinking "Emsely that's insane I hate you." "How can it be one of your favourite games of all time but not get in to your own personal chart?

Good question fuck nuts - To explain this I will now review Uncharted 2 among thieves.



First of all I want you to walk to the nearest window in your house - stand in front of it - and head-butt it through. If you successfully shattered the glass even if it was double glazing that was pretty neat - if you did not shatter the glass open the window and leap out of it head first on to the floor.
Because one way or another this game is gonna bust your head or knock you the fuck out - Period.
And I needed you to feel what it was like.

When I was a kid me and my buddy's always found a way to turn every day things into something life threatening, we used to make rope swings over gulleys of death and dare each other further till one of us would chicken out. Leaping from high places, dodging trains on the train tracks, sneaking in places we were not supposed to go only to be chased by caretakers with dogs or angry guys (who sometimes caught us) strangling us till we agreed never to go back.

Basically Uncharted 2 is the fantasy world you lived in when you were a kid and everything was possible with just a smidgen of imagination coupled with a stomach full of guts and an adventurous attitude. (Or mere stupidity) Only without the risk of pain and death!



I lost count of how many times my jaw dropped playing Uncharted 2 - this game is of epic abilities from start to finish it is the finest of roller-coaster rides, in fact its like been on a roller-coaster which never seems to go down hill but just one steeper and steeper drop like you started off at the top of the sky and dropped to earth but when you go to earth there was a hole to the core of the planet and when you got to the core you are thrown on to a F16 which flys you all the way back up again while the G-force yanks your face all the way back to the start of the ride.

Pure delightful fun is to be had, wherever that's leaping like a fearless psychopath over gaps which really do seem bottomless to finding little dints in the wall to shimmy across, all the climbing and leaping is flawless one button "X" is all that is required along with some nifty finger control if you fuck up and die it is normally your fault for not been careful enough or planning slightly ahead.

You're stood at the door of the plane and you pussy out ready to parachute - to late someone kicked you in the back and you're out also the mean bastards threw you out without a chute and you see it in the air above you, better get to it you only have a mile to drop - a constant feeling through out Uncharted 2.

Combat is improved from the last uncharted, although early on you still feel like they might have "got it wrong" but these early annoyances clear up as the game progresses - combat becomes fun, changing weapons and planning ahead, you get that good at dodging grenades that when one is thrown at you in tight cover you roll away then watch as the nade burns your eyebrows then emphatically re root to your cover position unfazed, as you play more, when the bad guys do show up instead of going "FFS!" You say "DIE!" And you do enjoy kicking the crap out of everyone and eventually every thing.

A special mention has to go to the graphics - I was that impressed with the visual whirlwind that I saw on screen I started asking "Is it even possible for human beings to make stuff like this?" What kind of creative skilled artist naughty dog has they can count me in there group of guys that worship them - in fact from now on if a games company even tried to impress me with jaw dropping visuals its got a very steep hill ahead of it to impress me.

Quotes from my mother

"Ohhh he nearly did not make that!"

"Ohhhh look how far he fell how awful!"

"He is like a monkey!"

"How does he hold on in the snow he would slip!"

My mother does not give a shit about video games but she actually sat and watched me play this. (To my annoyance)

Uncharted two is a delightful epic game that thrills and pleases from start to finish it assaults the senses at every turn wherever that maybe leaping around, the amazing gorgeous visuals (which will make you question how is it possible) to the semi old school but solid shooting mechanics to the old fashioned and cheesy storey.

Buy it - put it in - (it has to update your PS3 from the disk) - and enjoy what has to be the pinnacle of action adventure games in the history of man kind.

You are Indiana Jones, Jackie chan, and Clint Eastwood rolled into one.

Get ready for the best video game ride of your life!!!

Roll on uncharted 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 and so on, Naughty dog really do need praising for their work on this mere human beings make games, Naughty dog are currently one of the best developers on the planet they actually make modern day bibles - but back to the question "why does uncharted 2 not feature in your top ten games list of all time?"

Simples: Its not a game but a ride the only part that is a game is the shooting sections and these shooting styles have been bettered many times in many other games.

I baptise a new category of media: Interactive Roller-coaster ride of kick ass.

Emsley.]]> Fri, 29 Jan 2010 19:52:37 -0600 http://www.1emulation.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=31697 http://www.1emulation.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=31644

* Square Enix
* h.a.n.d. Inc.
* Action Role-Playing
* Release: Sep 29, 2009 »
* ESRB: Everyone 10+


Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days is a side-story iteration of the Kingdom Hearts series. Released for the Nintendo DS portable console, it's a decent adventure for a transportable gaming system. The game itself takes place after Chain of Memories, and before Kingdom Hearts II, while Sora is asleep is his hibernation chamber. The Kingdom Hearts story presents itself to be complex while it is ultimately flawed instead. This game can clear up certain mysteries, such as Xion's true identity, Riku's actions, Namine's decisions, and so on. A player who is unfamiliar with the Kingdom Hearts storyline will be lost, because the game fails at fully explaining anything, using cutscenes with ambiguous messages to create a facade that Xion's past and ambitions are significant in every way. They are made especially for the die hard Kingdom Hearts fans who are aware of the characters.



Throughout the entire game, you will play as Roxas, Sora's nobody. All missions are proposed and taken in the main hub, The World That Never Was, the castle owned by Organization XIII, and also, the ending world in Kingdom Hearts II. The game starts off rather rocky, as you will be participating in many simple tutorial missions with surprisingly good writing. Voice overs are only present in certain cutscenes, in real-time scenes, text boxes appear, but the writing style that wonderfully depicts the different characteristics of each Organization member compensates for the lack of actual speech.

The story begins from Roxas's birth, and as you progress through the game Roxas becomes more socially experienced and emotionally attached to certain members. The combat system involves the occasional button mash wail around your keyblade malarkey. In this iteration, there aren't certain keyblades to equip, etc. Instead, the game implements the simple "panel" system. As a new mission is a completed, a new box will appear in the grid of the panel system. Certain objects, (Hi-Potion, Blizzara, High Jump, Lvl Up), will take a certain amount of boxes to use. Similar to Tetris, you can customize your panel so that all desired items will be equipped in an orderly fashion. Instead of certain keyblades, there are "Gears", fully customizable groups of boxes that can be filled with, Power, Ability, Guard, or Magic, more than one can be equipped in one Gear, or vice versa. Other groups include Double Cast, or Level Up Doubler, which are used to be filled with their specific counter-parts. The Level Up Doubler, doubles one Level Up box, if it has four open slots, four Level Up boxes can be inserted, making you level 8 instead of four, multiple Level Up Doublers and Triplers do stack up. The same applies to magic, and the system is better understood while in-game.



Momentarily after certain missions are completed, a special cut-scene will trigger, 90% of the time, having to do with the Clock Tower of Twilight Town, whilst Roxas, Axel, and sometimes Xion will sit with each other, discuss wonders and feelings, and consume sea-salt ice-cream. The worlds are taken directly from Kingdom Hearts 1, and instead of having Donald and Goofy accompany you throughout missions, you will be assigned certain Organization members to fight along side you instead. This is where Roxas will engage in conversation with said members, and trigger some rather interesting dialouge, mostly involving an Organization member insulting Roxas upon his feeble skills, or his stupidity. The missions are unsurprisingly repetitive, on seldom times, you will fight alongside two other Organization members simultaneously instead of one, but more frequently one is tagging along.



All worlds are empty of Sora, Donald, and Goofy, considering the time-line. The Disney characters are indirectly and directly involved with Roxas's main objective. Nine times out of ten, you'll be completing objectives entailing, "Seek and destroy the Giant Heartless", or, "Kill all Heartless, Collect Hearts", and so on. After each mission is completed, depending on how many Heartless you've killed, and how many points you've gained, you will receive a Level Up block instead of physically leveling up, where the Level Up block can be equipped or un-equipped at will.



The Moogle has made a return, coming back with the Synthesizing system, Level Up blocks can be bought or synthesized, every item mentioned above and even more can be created through the synthesizing process, including more. Items can be bought with money gathered, and ranking up will allow you to synthesize more powerful or complex items. Different keyblade gears comprise of distinctive combos and abilities, provide a somewhat fresh vibe to the standard one-two-three flip in mid air combos. A new limit ability has been implemented. On a certain section of your health bar, an orange overlay of color indicates that your Limit can be activated. After a certain amount of damage is taken, holding the attack button repetitively will unleashed a many rapid blows with the Keyblade, and only lasts for around seven seconds, Organization members also have this ability.



As you engage in memorable Disney worlds, on the bottom screen of the DS, will be Sora also doing the same action as Roxas on the above screen, in a faded Television screen filter, of one needing better reception. Characters such as DiZ, Namine, Riku, make countless appearances, virtually no one is excluded from the story. Ties between Roxas, Xion, and Axel keeps the player considerably interested in progressing through the game. The gameplay is conspicuously repetitive, but to any Kingdom Hearts fan, this is of minor concern. The cut scenes are compressed videos using the PlayStation 2 graphics engine, and the graphics themselves are reasonably decent. Considering the cartridge size, the music is also slightly above mediocre, only because they are dumbed down versions of Yoko Shimomura's original compositions for Kingdom Hearts II. The game's multiplayer involves a Mission Mode where characters who aren't playable in the main game can be controlled.
They are direct imitations, with exception of the music for Castle Oblivion and other dungeons not seen in any other installations.



With no surprise, the time is constructed in days, obviously leading up to the 358th work day of Roxas. Roxas's boss Saix refers to your missions as work, and not 358 days are actually witnessed, sometimes the game skips 20 or 30 days, indicating that those days were insignificant and best omitted or skipped. Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days isn't right for a person who loves games with good stories, especially when the story can only be understood by playing the other main titles first. It can be picked up and played by any Action-RPG enthusiast, and is a game barely woth indulging in for the Nintendo DS, clocking in around 20-30 hours of gameplay.

Overall: 7.7]]> Sat, 16 Jan 2010 20:15:08 -0600 http://www.1emulation.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=31644 http://www.1emulation.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=31608 Platform: PlayStation 3 (PAL)
Developer: PlatinumGames
Publisher: SEGA
Release Date: January 8, 2010
Misc: Online Leaderboards, Trophies, No HDD install option, Video: 720p/1080i/1080p (uses highest available)



Originally released for the X360, the PlayStation 3 port of Bayonetta was handled by SEGA. There has been a lot of talk about problems with the port, mainly framerate issues and very long loading times, as well as the texture work not being as sharp as in the original X360 version. So let's see how this EU PS3 version stacks up against expectations.

"500 Years In a Box Does Nothing to My Complexion" aka The Story
Being part of an ancient sect called the Umbran Witches must be cool: Call upon the powers of the moon and the dark, as well as demons from the depths of Hell to do your bidding. Adding to the allure is the fact that these powers manifest through the witch's hair, to the point where even her clothes are made of hair. However, things are not going too well with our Umbran Witch heroine Bayonetta, who was sealed in a coffin and dumped at the bottom of a lake, after being treated as an outcast and then apparently falling prey to the witch hunts that ravaged across Europe. Fast-forward 500 years and Bayonetta was freed, having no memory whatsoever of her past.

Wasting no time in trying to unlock the mysteries surrounding her past her past, she teams up with a demonic arms dealer Rodin and a sleazy, cowardly, trash-talking informant named Enzo. One day, Enzo found info about something called "The Eyes of the World" which the angels apparently want very much, and are willing to go to war in order to get it.

"Demons Have Some Serious Attitude" aka The Characters
Bayonetta: The titular heroine, with a huge bag of tricks at her disposal. Her penchance for lollipops is weirdly endearing.
Rodin: A demon who took a human form. Works as an amsdearler/bartender/record collector in his bar at The Gates of Hell. Has a way with vocabulary and mannerisms that perfectly match Bayonetta's.
Enzo: a Human working for Bayonetta as an informant and researcher of sorts. A fat, sleazy and cowardly man.
Jeanne: Another Umbran Witch that Bayonetta meets early in the game. Her skills are easily on par with Bayonetta's and two seem to have a long, sordid history together.
Luka: A womanizer and a journalist who witnessed Bayonetta's awakening all those years ago. Due to the trauma of the event, he's become obsessed with Bayonetta and tries to track her down, despite witches and humans living in different planes of existence.

"TNA + Funky Hair = Did I Just Witness Something Great?" aka The Graphics
From a comparison standpoint between the screenshots from the X360 and the real-time graphics on the PS3, the PS3 has less detailed textures. However, the graphics are still superb nonetheless. Whatever loss in quality the PS3 graphics have suffered, the game moves in such a fast pace that you often don't have the time to start gawking at the finer details. When you do stop to look at your surroundings, it's great a great view for sure. Chapels, gardens, cities and other locations feel and look the part, complemented by some nifty lighting and particle effects, not to mention gore - and lots of it. Character models are wonderfully crafted, from the humanoids to the often grotesque and downright bizarre angelic creatures.

Also, whatever screen-tearing/framerate issues the original japanese release had, they seem to be mostly gone now, although there are a few places where I thought I spotted some tearing or a dip in the framerate.



"Umbran Witch's Breakdance of Bullets" aka The Gameplay
Where to even begin? The Devil May Cry series is know to have a fluid, highly customizable and fast paced combat system with swordplay and gunplay integrated nearly seamlessly together with lots of different ways to experiment way to lay down the punishment. Bayonetta runs with all of this, and kicks it up to 200.

Bayonetta's main selling point have been the quadruple-weilded pistols, two for each heel, two for each hand, and the use of Witch Time, Bayonetta's answer to Bullet Time. The basic fighting repertoire consists of punches and kicks (or whatever additional weapons you might have) that can be combined in a mindboggling number of ways. Each combo can be "extended" to include gunplay in the end. Then there's the "Wicked Weave" in Which bayonetta's hair forms a giant fist or a foot bursting out of a portal, and they act as combo finishers. However, because of the way the combat system is designed, Wicked Weaves are more like powerful combo linkers. The combat system in general is so flexible that it allows very long combo strings, provided that the player is fast enough. Any weapons you get can be assigned as either 'Set A' or 'Set B' and you can freely switch between the two at any time, similar to the system found in DMC3.

Witch Time is activated when you dodge an enemy's attack at the last possible moment. The world slows down for roughly five seconds, making Bayonetta faster and leaving enemies completely defenseless. Witch Time is an integral part of the game as it makes Bayonetta invulnerable during her dodge, and certain enemies can only be defeated during Witch Time. Then there are the much-hyped Torture Moves that can be pulled off when Bayonetta has enough Witch Magic in store. These moves are basically instant kills where Bayonetta summons various torture devices from the Underworld, such as an iron maiden and a guillotine, and let's a poor angel receive punishment unlike nothing else. Highly entertaining to watch (require some button mashing to reap additional benefits) and required to finish off certain enemies.



"Gravity? What Gravity? - And More Lollipops Please" aka The Gameplay Part 2
Bayonetta's sense of style is completely off the wall, and the game loves to showcase improbably physics, spectacular action and Bayonetta's "assets" every chance it gets. The game's fully aware of its naughty antics and often plays around with the design concept, so the game's 18 / M rating is deserved. Quick Time Events are also prominent in the game, and they are very well integrated, be it during battle or during cutscenes. Chapters are broken into Verses or fights, which are graded after completion. At the end of a chapter, each Verse is tallied and final ranking revealed. Many stages contain several verses, many which are sometimes well hidden. Some of these hidden Verses are portals leading to special, often very difficult fights, with very stringent rules.

Outside of combat, you need to get more weapons and items. As an arms dealer and a record collector, Rodin is more than happy to take the Angelic LP's you find in exchange for new weapons at his shop. Aside from weapons, Rodin also sells items, techniques, accessories and a number of other things - for a certain number of Angel Halos of course. Rodin isn't cheap either, you'll find that many weapons and techniques are can be very expensive, ranging from 15,000 to 100,000 easily to start. The developers also give the player a choice to compound items using materials found in pots, vases and the like. A great option so that you don't have to worry about whether you have enough Halos to buy more lollipops to suck on.

"Stuck In Your Head" aka The Sound effects, Music, and Voice Acting
The soundtrack is fantastic, featuring many upbeat battle tunes, be it akin to J-Pop or not. Bayonetta's own theme is ridiculously catchy and plays during regular battles. Sound effects are also on par with the rest of the presentation, with a special mention going to the bone-crunching effects of the various torture devices. Voice acting is also great. How did they manage to find a voice actress for Bayonetta that fits the character so well? It's wonderful to hear Bayonetta talk, and all the other characters certainly don't get overshadowed - voice acting in the game is really that good.

Another aspect that surely plays into the Mature rating is the raunchiness of the dialogue. Strong language such as motherfuckers, fucks and shits can be heard during cutscenes, but in some weird twist these profanities fit well into the game's dialogue and they aren't overused. Well, it's not like the game would be worse without them and Bayonetta doesn't seem use them at all.

"Twitching Fingers" aka Difficulty, Controls, Camera
At first Bayonetta gives you two cohices for difficulty: Easy, which automates many battle-specific aspects, and Normal. The game starts easy enough and boasts a very comprehensive tutorial for every imaginable technique. After the first chapter, the game does get noticeably harder, though. each new encounter is harder than the next, and mastering Witch Time and dodging becomes essential - stages are surprisingly long, and you'll face lots of enemies simultaneously with unexpected boss/mid-boss fights. With penalties for damage, items used and continues it can be quite an effort in perfection if you want the best rankings. The game's first "true" boss fight in Chapter IV drives the point home that bosses require some really twitchy fingers and even better understanding of their attacks. Multiple health bars certainly don't do any favors in lessening the beatdown.

In the controls side of things, they are as tight as they can be in a game like this. Each button is in use with multiple uses for each button depending on the situation. Of course, the Taunt button is also there, which can be used to pose, taunt and thus enrage enemies for a bit of gained magic power.

The camera is once again somewhat problematic in a game of this genre. You won't have time to adjust the camera in the heat of battle, so it's inevitable that some enemies will attack you from off-screen, making any audible cues crucial. The Lock-on feature helps in some situations, but it's not an all-purpose remedy.



"Game of the Last Year?" aka The Conclusion
The PS3 Bayonetta has nothing to be ashamed of. Period. The game is so well designed all around, that whatever gripes anyone might have had based on prior info will be playing second fiddle to the sensory overload and gaming joy that Bayonetta offers. The game's funny, downright naughty, technically competent despite some hitches in the port, and completely off the wall with it's presentation. The music is great, the action and art direction is something you have to see for your own eyes. Having its roots in the same pit as DMC, Bayonetta borrows a number of features from DMC while polishing them to a whole new shine. Bayonetta has an incredibly deep battle system with countless way to string up moves, and after a while you'll become fixed at getting the best rankings, grinding chapters just because the game is so much fun. Even if the difficulty eventually shows it's darker side to the player, you'll blame yourself and not the game.

For the final touches, a few words about the loading times in the game. I can't really compare with anything since I've never seen the japanese release in action, but the loading times can be fairly long. It's not really a problem for me personally, as there is a practice mode you can occupy yourself with and try out different moves while data loads. PlatinumGames' (or SEGA's) decision to completely omit an option for HDD installation strikes me as a bit strange though, as such an option would undoubtedly help with the loading times. Make your own call on this one.

For whatever graphics or other technical problems remain in the game I'm that future patches alleviate them. Had Bayonetta come out in the West in 2009, it would have been the best game of the year. No such luck now, but man what a way to start 2010.

Pros:
+Great audiovisual presentation
+Story is surprisingly good and makes Bayonetta a very likable protagonist.
+Action is over the top and non-stop
+Gameplay is deep, involving and very satisfying
+Angelic enemies are a sight to behold, bosses especially
+Dialogue is often funny, even in the more darker parts
+Soundtrack is catchy
+Excellent characters and voice acting

Cons:
-Loading times are still pretty long
-Some slowdown and tearing issues still remain.
-No HDD installation option
-Hard to put down when you get into it
-Soundtrack is maybe too catchy at times
-Can get difficult fast if you're not paying attention
-Camera isn't the best possible. Again.

Story (so far): 9
Graphics: 9.5
Sound/Music: 10
Controls: 10
Difficulty: 9
Feel: 10

Total 9.6]]> Mon, 11 Jan 2010 14:25:06 -0600 http://www.1emulation.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=31608 http://www.1emulation.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=31569
First of all let me get the most obvious point out of the way - The japs dont seem to give a shit about proper shirts, team nanes, stadiums etc which is fine by me because half the charm with PES is that its supposed to have creamy gameplay.


I have now played around 50 matches in master leuage mode (any pes player goes straight for master leauge)
I have the dificulty set to "professional."

Im gonna tell you right now this game is a mixed bag of beans on one hand its awesome to play on the other hand the AI is an absolute disgrace.
It cheats - like super obviously cheats like it does not give a shit examples of cheating:

1. Balls do not magiclly float threw parts of your body such as legs/ankles/arms/torsos.
You think your winning the ball and then it just ghosts through you then the AI just fucking steam rollers over you.

2. The ball can go out of play and the AI carry's on as if nothing happened the ball goes over the touch line only just but the game is oblivious to this, no such troubles with your own though.

3. You get fouled a LOT.
When you do manage to get a decent player in to a threatening position kiss your ass good bye you will be hacked down hard - from behind, from the side, if the scripters could get away with it they would have baseball bats on the pitch to finish you off with. Its laughable watching one of your good players gain a yard and then POW MOTHERFUCKER!
Guess what? 9/10 the AI does not get booked, and very rarely gives you a free kick.
Someone is insulting my intelligence with this game and Id sure as hell like to meet him to get some answers. Its hard enough to create a chance enver mind when the AI initiates "RAPE MODE."

4. You never get a penalty. Ever.
I have been hacked down in the box about ten times and from behind - a lot of people have noticed that you dont get penalties. Me been one of them - how STUPID is that? Teams average penalties so how about you put them in eh konami.

5. The AI is capable of amazing tackles!!!
Constantly hitting brick walls is no fun - I could put the game to an easier mode but winning every game 5 - 0 is boring.
i cant describe to you how it does this but you feel like your side of the pitch is on a 45 degree angle and every pass and every run and every turn has to be spot on or your just instantly tackled and the AI just WONT give you the ball back. (it will pass it in its own half for fucking ages boring you to death but no use in trying to tackle them they will do it even more!! not that you can tackle the AI and sometimes fouling them is also amazingly not an option even though the guy is just in front of you)

It then runs off up the pitch making around 700 passes a second, dribbles, runs, flips, punches you in the face, tackles your players, tackles them again to make sure then scores., then runs to your house and sets it on fire.

You are completely at the mercy of an unrelenting AI that takes no prisoners - making the game Annoying, frustrating and leaving you doubting it. A good game does not "trick" you.
I've always been aware that the AI requires "a little extra" but this time it has gone WAY TO FAR.
You hardly get to shoot, and I cant remember any one-on-ones with the keepers.
through balls don't work - you spot an excellent runner and then your guy will decide to through ball it to someone in a completely useless position. IM SORRY BUT PROFESSIONAL PLAYERS DON'T DO STUFF LIKE THAT!

Stop cheating me Konami this game used to be cool now all it is - is a cheat feast for your unskilled AI programmers.
And sometimes you press the button and it just doesent respond to your command...

Imagine it liek this:

Your playing an FPS shooter and there is a guy in front of you going for his gun you click the mouse and nothing happens - he kills you - reload try again - this time you shot but for some reason it hit the floor and not his face - reload try again - It did it!!! you killed the guy hes dead.
Oh no there is another 30 of these guys to go and I dont know if my commands will work!!! Oh noes! Oh noes!!!

On the other hand:

When it works and you score and you actually have good players its a very enjoyable game - some place along the line konami have decided to take the fun out of this game and made it almost impossibile not to mention the glaring anoyances that are "craftly" hidden.

So if you want a football game that makes you earn every god damned ounce of your goals then this is for you -
Honestly I dont think I would have bought it if i knew it was going to be so "Fuck you i cheat" with me.

the difficulty settings should read like this:

You will score.
You wont score as many and the AI will make an effor on goal now and then.
The AI will constantly cheat.
And lastly.
LOL!!!

The only hope i have for this game is to now get some good players and see if it helps but im not holding out for anything special.

Avoid.

]]> Mon, 04 Jan 2010 07:41:07 -0600 http://www.1emulation.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=31569 http://www.1emulation.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=31538

* SCEA
* Sucker Punch
* Modern Action Adventure
* Release: May 26, 2009
* ESRB: Teen

inFAMOUS is a Sand-Box Action Adventure game exclusive to the PlayStation 3 video game console. Released in 2009 a month before it's primary competitor, Prototype. Many hardcore gamers and gamers in general have debated upon which game is better. inFAMOUS starts the player off with a bald, uninspired looking man named Cole McGrath. Cole is ordered by an anonymous customer to deliver a package, although Cole is unaware that within the package relies the Ray Sphere, an orb of ultimate destruction of some sort, that can easily destroy earthy life. As he opens the package it explodes, causing a devastating explosion that wipes out the residents of the Historic District. Cole survives this blast, and in the process, also, absorbs energy from the Ray Sphere's fantastic aura, granting him powers to discharge and store electricity.



The game itself acts on a generic morality system, Cole has the choice to be either a Hero, completely infamous, or somewhere in between. Throughout the game you will be faced with various Karma choices, for example, Would you leave this male to die, or will you save him?, type scenarios. Much like Fable being Evil or Good changes the main protagonist's clothing, body, and electricity color. Both Evil and Good have slight alterations to Cole's powers, for instance, Cole as a Hero contains sticky electricity grenades that increase in explosion radius, Cole as a Villain, contains sticky electricity grenades that splatter into clusters to expand explosion radius. The question is to whether or not something similar to this would entice a player to replay the game for a second time to try out a different Karmic side. The cutscenes consist of comic book like pictures with a grungy art-style, with Cole's dry Dark Knight narration.



The game's ending and storyline changes little even with two choices provided every major event. People around the city react to your wickedness or bravery, by trying to fight you, or praising you and taking pictures. inFAMOUS has a very small RPG-like leveling system, instead of acting on numeric leveling, it involves upgrading of certain attacks, with experience points gained by healing, devouring people, or by killing enemies. Certain stages of an attack can only be unlocked by completing Evil or Good missions. Once a Good mission is completed, an Evil mission is locked and deleted, or vice versa, allowing you to clean up the city. Each optional mission that is completed clears up parts of the city, which decides whether enemies will keep appearing, and will open up medical housing to treat you when you die as a wake-up point. There is a variety of optional missions, this fact is clear, but being able to enjoy doing the missions themselves is non-existent.



The game's navigation is fairly sparse and unexciting. You're able to grind power lines, and use static electricity to glide certain distances, there's no way to fly, or run extremely fast, fully utilizing your electricity. The powers themselves are also unimaginative, except for a few. You have the sticky grenade, the electrici missile, the electric sniper ability, basic electrocution, a few others to spare a full spoil. The game's combat also includes melee without any depth whatsoever. Overall the combat makes the character feel underdeveloped and less spectacular and flashy as the game presents him to be. The entire Sand-Box genre has been dieing for quite sometime, roaming around New York city and making things go boom has been overdone to a tee, and inFAMOUS keeps up the annoying streak, of generic buildings, cars, people, and missions.



The enemies are buggy and overly aggressive, unrelentingly savage. It makes the game extremely frustrating, more than any other game I've played in years. Imaging trying to do a mission of any fashion, while enemies are shooting at you from every other angle possible, Cole's defense can only be upgraded three times, and the health bar remains small and unreliable. As your health decreases you can stop by nearby light posts, generators, cars, or any other object that contains electricity, to recharge your batteries. It heals you, and also restores your electricity. Once again, the enemies makes the game overall a more irritating experience than an enjoyable one. The graphics show nothing impressive, the environments spouts out nothing audible, as it has modeled itself after countless Sand-Box titles before it, games like Spiderman, the Hulk, the millions of Grand Theft Auto games, True Crime, and the list goes on. I am baffled that gamers or even developers today still think that New York City or a city modeled after such is an astronomical selection for a map for integrated interaction.



If you were to take out Spiderman out of the Spiderman games, and throw in the most generic Electric super-hero, you would have inFAMOUS, a fairly decent or even mediocre game, where it's mediocrity is maltreated by the games repetitiveness, cheap difficulty, and unoriginality. This game along with Prototype is overhyped, dubiously average titles that look great from the outside but play not so well. The major verdict of this title suggests that the game does not deserve a rent, it's an 8-hour dose of average agitation. It is a mystery as to why these games get such high reviews, because personally, I felt this game was a waste of money, and all jokes aside, I was one time almost near breaking the game itself out of sheer anger.

Overall: 7]]> Sun, 27 Dec 2009 02:49:42 -0600 http://www.1emulation.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=31538 http://www.1emulation.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=31452
And anything to do with them inclusing shitty shows that "suck" you in.
I fucking hate vampires.
Twat tosser fucks.

Tell vampires to go away - they are gay and jewish!!!!

yes!!

Porabably not jewish but fuck man vampires - fucking shits.]]> Thu, 03 Dec 2009 18:13:08 -0600 http://www.1emulation.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=31452