1Emulation.com Reviews [/reviews] Latest Topics

[4/1/2014] Diablo 3: Reaper of Souls

Wed, 02 Apr 2014 00:13:22 +0000

Game: Diablo 3: Reaper of Souls

System: PC

Emulators: N/A

Summary:

Well I pre-purchased the Digital Deluxe Edition for this expansion and have since completed Act V and killed Malthael with my Monk (check out my battle.net profile).

I do like the changes they made to Patch 2.0.x. They changed or removed a lot of the affixes champs and elites come with to make them more approachable but not necessarily easier. I mean, who really likes puddles of poison that lasts minutes at a time literally covering every inch of the entire room you're in, while trying to fight a mob on the highest difficulty? They got smarter about it. Also, loot 2.0 is better with useful drops now and then, and with the addition of the Mystic enchants, you can potentially turn any item into a great one if you're lucky.

Adventure mode seems to be where its at, however, and since they removed the Real-Money and Gold auction houses, a source of income isn't simply from countless mind-numbing farm runs anymore but the game is actually tailored toward achieving rewards for "farm-like" runs involving simple quests where you can earn a decent amount of gold and loot. When you complete these "Bounties" in each act, and obtain enough "Rift Keystones," you can open a portal to the "Nephalim Rift" which are randomized leveled dungeons with each level a different location that can run up to ten levels deep. After killing a certain percentage of monsters, a boss appears who will drop loot once killed.

The problem I and many people had with Diablo 2 and early versions of Diablo 3 was that if you didn't have friends who were already geared to the teeth, or endless free time to farm for 18 hours straight in the hopes of getting a good drop, then you were stuck at the bottom of the barrel trying to survive the higher difficulties, which sucked.

Adventure Mode really tries to address the hack-n-slash robotic gameplay that D2 was and D3 was turning out to be. Instead of constantly remaking games in certain acts and running around waypoints to find certain dungeons to farm, beat enough champions and elites to earn five stacks of Nephalim Valor, then try and kill a Boss over and over, Blizzard have given us game-oriented content including NPC's and quest lines with actual in-game rewards covering all five acts. This is the best decision they made so far, aside from removing the auction houses, IMHO. Also, you can travel between different acts like using waypoints in a single act during Adventure Mode instead of having to exit the game and remake the settings, which makes Diablo 3 feel like more of an open world environment.

I think Blizzard has gotten smart about making changes to the interactive gameplay coupled with the reward system through Adventure Mode for contemporary gamers that don't want to play like zombies, grinding day in and out just for the possibility of some imaginary reward ... or hoping to achieve a level of "faceroll" to do Infernal Machine runs on Inferno 10 (difficulty level has changed also) through gear that costs billions, literally, billions of gold to obtain.

I am also glad we don't have to play through the Campaign four times just to meet "end-game" content (thank god for that).

Crusader class is by far the most rewarding part about the expansion. I'm almost level 40 with mine right now but so far it has been a fun experience. Though I don't understand why they chose not to just keep it a "Paladin" when they are essentially the same class ... albeit the lore is different. I mean, the Barbarian of D3 is nothing like the Barbarian of D2, and they kept him a "Barbarian."

If anybody plays, let me know. Add me as a friend on battle.net, my tag is: veristic#1399. We can make a clan! Anybody interested???

Oh and a heads up; DO NOT kill Malthael until you're 70. First time he is defeated you are gauranteed one or two legendaries (I beat him at 69 :/).

Controls: 9

Gameplay: 9

Graphics: 10

Sound: 8

Overall Score: 9

Grade: A

Overall, I give this game a thumbs up!

[12/14/2011] Deus Ex Human Revolution - Technical Review

Thu, 15 Dec 2011 03:23:08 +0000

First of all, this is not a gameplay review, or one that says "The bosses suck"
This is just a review and a study of the mechanics implemented in the game, what possibly was done to make the mechanic happen, and what was done to be optimized or efficient for lower hardware.
It is practically a console port, but it isn't a bad one.
I used my knowledge as a developer to break things down from what I observed, and compared to other examples for a few things.

I thought I might post something here since we're about to hit 2012, and nothing has been posted since 2010.
GAME: Deus Ex Human Revolution
Systems: PC, PS3, Xbox360
Emulatiors: None that I know of.

Deus Ex Human Revolution Analysis:

After playing the game in full after 50 hours, here’s what I have to conclude…

Physics:
The game has simplistic box and cylinder physics. There’s also rag doll physics.
The player seems to be a basic collision ghost object in the shape of a sphere. This shape is further used for AI visual detection.
When it comes to the player standing on objects, the following can be observed:
The player seems to exert no forces on objects that are being stood on.
I noticed this when I set two boxes roughly centered on a rail against a wall as a frictional surface, which I then proceeded to jump on top of to jump over a high wall. I was on the edge of the boxes in such a fashion that the boxes should have been knocked over by my weight forcing more torque than the wall friction could negate.
Now that I think about it, there were almost no cases where torque in general could be observed.

I tested for this in the Source Engine as used in Portal 1. The objects do fall over with my weight on an unbalanced setup. The source engine has more realistic physics in the case of standing on things.
When it comes to the player bumping into objects, the following can be observed.
There seems to be a 100-200 ms, possibly purposeful, lag before the object will move when the user collides with said object. It could be the result of ground friction, though it could just be a simulated lag to give the user a notice that they are indeed colliding with another mass-filled space.
Most of the layout in Deus Ex is a static physics tree, so there aren’t many objects to manipulate the environment with, except for moving around boxes, crates, fire extinguishers and breaking glass with a gun.
However, the user can only bump into large specific objects, such as boxes, large crates and vending machines. All other items are not considered when collision occurs. Such is the case with rag doll bodies, guns, ammo, and other various small things, like fire extinguishers.

Rag dolls however do collide with the smaller objects, such as guns.
When it comes to ground detection, this is what I hypothesize is happening.
There are two cylinders, one that has the width of slightly less than the diameter of the sphere I hypothesize represents the player, another that is slightly larger than the diameter.
The two cylinders create a list per frame of what they are colliding with, excluding the other and the sphere. When the two cylinders do not have lists of equal length, the smaller cylinder is used. This way, we aren’t counting a wall as something that we are standing on. However, when there is no wall around, and the larger is used, this gives the player a bit more tolerance in foot room.
When the inner cylinder has no contact, the player is considered free-falling.
To clarify on the specifications of the cylinders, I believe that they are the height of the player’s shape, plus a little and then shifted down a constant. I have yet to figure out what the constant is, or a margin of what it should be. The idea is though, that it is long enough, that if the platform beneath were going towards gravity but not at the acceleration of gravity, then we should still be able to walk on such a platform.
Continuing floor detection:
In Deus Ex HR, elevators and other moving platforms still allowed for movement, but declined to allow jumping. This may be so that players didn’t kill themselves from fall damage while in elevators(now that would just be silly) because the engine was not taking into account the relative velocity of what was underneath.
Next is crouching and potential space the player could move in.
As previously mentioned, I hypothesize that the player is represented as a sphere. While the player is in a normal posture, such as standing, walking or running, the sphere is the height/width of the max of the base of the head to the belt-line and the width of the shoulders. Its most likely the shoulders.
When the player crouches, the sphere is simply brought to the ground.
There is an interesting case when the player is brought to the following situation
The player is presented with a wall that they are facing. There is a vent at upper-chest level. In DEHR, the player will automatically go into the vent and be in crouch mode. Depending on the player’s settings/preferences, the crouch is toggled when they enter this mode.
Here’s my hypothesis on what’s going on to allow this. It may be something entirely contextual, or a simulation test. If a simulation test, the engine is simulating dual cylinders again, but they are only as long as the sphere is deep(or its diameter). The cylinders are facing so that the round side is facing the ground, and the flat sides are facing the user’s chest/face and directly in front. Both cylinders are placed in front of the user, the center of the circle face is between the chest and head. The second cylinder is slightly smaller for tolerance reasons. Now if the smaller cylinder can fit in the space without any static physical objects in the way, then a second test is ran. This is where the larger cylinder is used. There would likely be 2 tests which are simply to find the center of the vent hole. Since we know the points of contact already, we now shift away from those points of contact. Now, we detect if the cylinder is still contacting something. If not: we can proceed and enter. If we are contacting something, then we calculate relative to the first set of points where the center would be and move there. This is the second test. If there are no contacts, then we are free to enter.

Normal crouching, like any other movement test will be a “Can my sphere go here without any contacts?” if so, then allow the movement to occur. Otherwise, calculate if the contact is at a non tangent angle. If so, then calculate with cosine where the object can go with a decreased force/velocity.
The same happens with walking. If you walk at a tangent angle directly to a wall, then you might as well be testing the cosine of 90 deg which is 0. Now in the case of walking towards a corner where the sphere is in contact with two walls, depending on the yaw of the view, then the forces will be negated. Either way, until the user changes their plan of walking into a wall, it will become a harmonic motion of moving where the forces go between walls to find equilibrium.
Ground friction with the player and objects
It can be observed with a box on a sloped road that it will slide down. However it will slide down at a slow rate and stop after a foot or so, depending on the incline. There does seem to be a simulation of ground friction for small objects.
With the player, there are no areas/levels where the surface is slippery. I’m betting that it is a situation where the character’s velocity is averaged and reduced to 0 after 35-100ms
There are no cases of vertical velocity averaging as all cases of moving platforms are locked in terms of jumping(it can’t be done)
Graphics:
There are numerous tricks employed to have low geometry but high visuals. Most of it has to do with bump, parallax and normal mapping. Examples include the vent lines and indention of where they would, if real life, connect; brick walls, asphalt on roads, et al.

There are also many shaders that seem to be in effect. I noticed that the rails were square in form, but looked cylindrical by how the lighting shown on them. It is likely that they are in fact square extrusions which have a shader applied where it seems like the light looks reflective as if cylindrical.

Next up are the newspapers that will sometimes, as an environmental decal, fly up from random winds and disappear in the sky. The newspapers looked like it was at most 3 polygons which would be randomly twisted(pre-animated) which would have interpolated keyframes of rotation and position as they fly up, and then fade.

They also used lower-resolution geometry as a form of art, as seen in the Biotech labs tower, where the furniture had solid-sculpted-white-granite sides which had large triangle sides.

They used many portals. Not in the sense of Portal the game, but in an older designing sense. When presented with a large scene outside, there were not many features which were geometrically complicated. When you went through a doorway, you usually enter a small room, or a corridor. When you pass through the other side of said area, then you enter another area which is rendered separately from the rest of the world. Such world partitioning is a speed increase when it comes to pre-enumerated objects which are in the area to be considered to render, as opposed to generating this list in runtime periodically or even each frame.
In older game engines, if you didn’t specify portal sections when level designing, then it would render the whole world and become very slow.
Though not necessary for many computers of today, it was likely implemented to assist consoles with limited memory or resources such as the Xbox360 or PS3(it has 256MB of RAM and 256MB of VRAM)

They had a very decent Level Of Detail(LOD) system. They switched textures on separate intervals than they did with models. They seemed to have more levels in textures than with models. I think they had 4 texture levels and 3 model levels.

Regarding human conversation and movement, They seemed to have too much weight on random bumpiness with the human muscles. Try holding your hand in front of you about a foot away and try to hold it still. You may notice small twitches and shaking. Most places that implement this do not provide it at a realistic level. The face seemed to be a completely different animation system than the rest of the body. While in conversation they usually had the neck move around, as well as gestures with the arms that were generic.

As most games do, they did not include any working mirrors, which may show how weird the player’s character may be holding things in order to get it to look right for the first person camera view. When changing to a third person perspective, the animation is likely to be averaged/morphed to the third person animations while the camera swings slightly away from the player and to where the target is when doing stealthy moves.

This is essentially a copy and paste from my blog that I sometimes post to.
http://blog.kloplop3...man-revolution/

I'm not the best writer. Did I make sense?

[11/29/2010] (1EMULATION) Video Game Review [Master List]

Fri, 11 Jul 2008 19:48:27 +0000

Hello, this thread here is a Master List of all the Reviews in this forum.

Total Reviews: 204

This list was created by: Devia Eleven

And is maintained by: Devia Eleven and Agozer

Video Game Reviews

A Few Adventure Games

Age of Mythology+

Alien Vs. Predator

Alien Vs. Predator 2

Assassin's Creed

Batman: Arkham Asylum

Battle Engine Aquila+

Bayonetta

Bleach 3: Heat the Soul

Bully: Scholarship Edition

Capcom Fighting Evolution

Capcom Vs SNK 2+

Castlevania Symphony Of The Night

Castlenavia: Dracula Chronicles X

Clock Tower

Clock Tower 3

Command & conquer 3: Tiberium Wars

Cool Spot

Counter Strike: Condition Zero

Devil May Cry 3: Dante's Awakening+

Devil May Cry 4

Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII

DJ Max Portable

DJ Max Portable 2 Metallic Silver Limited Edition

Doom III+

Dragon Ball Z: Budokai 3

Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 2

Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 3

Dragon Ball Z: Supersonic Warriros

Dragon Ball Z: Sagas

Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly+

Fatal Frame III: The Tormented

Final Fantasy VII

Final Fantasy VII*

Final Fantasy III

Final Fantasy: Anniversary Edition

Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo's Dungeon

Final Fight: Streetwise

Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones

Forbidden Siren 2

F-Zero GP Legend+

Gears of War

Ghouls 'n Ghosts

God of War II

God of War: Chains of Olympus

GrimGrimoire

GTA (Grand Theft Auto) San Andreas

Guilty Gear X2: The Midnight Carnival+

Guilty Gear XX #Reload

Guilty Gear XX Core

Gunstar Heroes+

Half-Life 2+

Halo 2+

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life

King of Fighters: 2002 & 2003

King of Fighters: Maximum Impact Regulation 'A'

King of Fighters XII

Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days

Kingdom Hearts: Chain Of Memories

Kirby Dream Land 2

Kirby Superstar+

Kirby's Adventure+

Kizuna Encounter - Super Tag Battle

Knights of the Old Republic

LOTR: Battle of Middle Earth

Mario Strikers Charged

Marvel Vs. Capcom

Marvel Vs. Capcom 2

MDK

Me And My Katamari

Megaman Powered Up

Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction

Metal Gear Solid 2/\

Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker

Metal Gear Solid Portable Ops

Metal Slug Anthology

Metal Slug X

Metal Wolf Chaos

Metro 2033

Metroid Prime: Hunters

Monster World: Complete Collection

Mortal Kombat II & III

Mortal Kombat IV

Naruto: The Broken Bond

Need For Speed Carbon: Own The City

Neverwinter Nights+

Nightshade / Kunoichi

Ninja Gaiden Black

Ninja Gaiden II

Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2

Phantasy Star Online

Prince of Persia: Sands of Time+

Pulstar

Puyo Puyo: 15th Anniversary

Quackshot+

Quake 4

Quantum of Solace

Re: Chain of Memories

Resident Evil 4 [Wii]

Resident Evil: Dead Aim

River City Ransom

R-Type Final+

S.O.S.+

Saga Frontier

Samurai Warriors: State of War

Savage Reign

Secret of Mana

Shadow of the Colossus

Shadowrun [GEN]

Shadowrun [sNES]

Shaman King: Master of Spirits+

Shin Megami Tensei: Lucifer's Call+

Shin Sangoku Musou Advance+

Shutokou Battle: Zone of Control

Silent Hill 2

Snake

Sonic Advance 3

Sonic Adventure 2

Sonic Adventure 2 - Battle

Sonic Jam 6

Sonic The Hedgehog 2

Sonic Unleashed

Soul Calibur 3

Star Wars: Battlefront

Street Fighter Alpha 3 Max

Street Fighter Anniversary Collection+

Street Fighter EX2 Plus

Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike

Summon Night Swordscraft Story

Super Mario Galaxy

Tekken: Tag Tournament+

Tekken: Tag Tournament*+

Tekken: Dark Resurrection

Terranigma

Tetris

The Godfather: Blackhand Edition

The King of Fighters: NESTS Saga

The Last Blade+

TIE Fighter

Time Crisis 3+

Time Crisis Series/\

Tokyo Extreme Racer 2 / Shutokou Highway Battle 2

Turok

Ultimate Mortal Kombat Trilogy

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

Urban Reign

Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth

Virtua Fighter 32X+

Virtua Fighter 5: Online

Virtua Fighter Remix PC+

Warhammer 40k: Dark Crusade+

We Love Katamari

WWE Raw

WWE Smackdown Vs Raw 2006

WWE Smackdown Vs Raw 2007

Yakuza

Yu-Gi-Oh! GX: Tag Force

Zack & Wiki: Quest for Barbaros' Treasure

Zombie Hunters 2 / Oneechanpon

Zombies Ate My Neighbors

Equipment & Misc Reviews

A4Tech X-750F Gaming Mouse

GameTap

JOYTON XConverter 360

Hori Real Arcade Pro 2: SA

Madcatz SFIV Fightstick - Tournament Edition

Nintendo DS Lite USB Battery Charger Dock

PS2 DVD Remote

QuasiCON 2 Player Arcade Stick

Movie Reviews

*, Means that there is more than one review for a certain game.

+, Means that the review has 1 or more broken screenshots.

/\, Means that the review was removed by the author, but the comments remain.

Note: If you want to contribute, suggest, or correct anything with the list, please post here or PM me.

Civilisation 5 - addictive.

Thu, 21 Feb 2013 16:21:24 +0000

I got this a while back but didn't bother with it too much.

Well I fired it up a few days ago and jumped straight in and I have to say its quite an enjoyable game.

I had like 3 settlements built and this douche bag sends in his army and takes it over while im still shifting troops over to back it up.

Anyway after a while I built up enough stuff to have a go and getting my settlement back, then the guy was all like "when will this war end? lets us have peace" WTF!

I then made a vast army and ruined his shit.

Sounds boring but i dont know why it keeps me playing, anyone else play this.

Spec ops: The line review (PC)

Sun, 01 Jul 2012 13:20:09 +0000

You can buy this game for £24.99p and I can safely say without a hint of shame I'm glad I got an index finger discount. The game starts up looking fairly pretty, as it places you in a chopper as you roll in to Dubai as the gunner. Then a bunch of enemy helicopters fly out of no place and start gunning for you, so you unload a barrage of shit on to them only for them to soak up damage and wait to dramatically crash into something.

Each chunk of the first intro mission stutters in to play and you can sense the hard drive coughing its guts up, as far as game intro's go. It's a shoddy effort all round and nothing we haven't seen before.

Your first encounter with an enemy allows you to shoot out some windows above their head and unload sand on to them.

There is a lot of sand in this game as Dubai has been swamped with a huge desert storm thus leaving you with the setting for the entire game. Which is an ok premise on paper. But not when the gameplay starts to be tested. It becomes predictable.

A cover based shooter to work has to have in my opinion a few things in place before it can even begin to keep my attention.

1. Solid in and out of cover commands.

2. Intense shooting that never feels cheap.

3. Excellent shooting mechanics.

4. I win a battle because Im a bad ass.

This game has none of them.

It has the absolute bare minimum requirements to be considered a decent shooter.

Cut scenes grate and are boring, and intense fights are poor.

I'm in some grand lobby when a load of shit kicks off, I have to watch a cut scene, cant skip it.

Run down some stairs and kill a few soldiers, then this rocket launcher twat is firing rocket after rocket at me.

I can't see him, and I can't get a clear shot without exposing my self to a blast radius. When I managed to get this asshole out of the way and I'm reloading my gun when three soldiers come running out of no place I shoot the first two but then the ammo runs out so I change weapon only to be hosed by the last one. Ok we will try again.

After watching the cut scene for the second time I again run down the steps to the lobby but this time the rocket fag nails me and I still dont see where he is.

After watching the cut scene for a third time I somehow manage to get rid of the rocket fag and nail a bunch of guys and my team cant hit shit. I saw a guy run for cover and my team mate rattled a machine gun off at him and every bullet just trailed behind him its was funny but not in a "I just spent 25 quid on this" way. Moment's later this guy stick his head up and kills me dead.

After watching the cut scene for the fourth time I somehow manage to get through this section.

There isnt enough ammo during fights you are looking for dropped weapons and you have to HOLD R to pick them up. Then get back in to cover. If you are lucky enough to pick up a weapon and not get nailed you might be able to progress. Annoying at times which is why this game keeps getting put down by me.

Running into cover is poor and it does not always stick to the cover you are trying to attach to so you just kind stand there getting shot for a few moments demanding your dick of a guy get his head down.

If you manage to pull off a head shot with the questionable aim system you get a slow mo moment to add to your tally, not a bad little gimmick but i didn't find any use for it or feel like I was neo from the matrix.

I actually got to this part of the game and trust me, it's not exciting. In fact my character used his GLOVED HANDS to zip over 50 meter's down a rope line. What the fuck you lazy cunts!

The last straw for me was just after this zip slide scene, I ran down the stairs and nailed two guys having a chat, then It just ignites and its another room like the aforementioned lobby level, and I can't even get in to a good position. In fact at this point after being cheaply killed for the second time I all but gave up on this game. I didn't get far enough to see if there were any hidden rocket fags lurking around the corner.

Movement is all round clunky and you follow a set path with bland uninteresting scenery.

You get the odd nice looking part and the story does have nice little moments such as the intel you find scattered around the game world. But other than that the game really is a totally average bare minimum cover based shooter. Which is total shite considering gears of war still kicks the most ass. I would prefer a direct rip off of gears of war than some of the crap we are having to endure as gamers.

And lets not forget the compulsery "DLC" Or "Deceiving lying cunts" every game trys to strap on some useless bullshit now and people are getting tired of it. £25 for this game alone is an insult, but putting forth DLC is just another bullshit add on to a game that they knew would sell to a certain point. It just reeks of money raking.

If this is the standard of gaming and the DLC I can only say one thing.

Pirate more games until they fuck off with DLC and shitty DRM.

Pros:

Nice title screen for the game with an upside down american flag and the national anthem played out on slow treacle electric guitar.

Nice intelligence finds that get you thinking about the game world.

Midly interesting story if you can put up with it.

Cons:

Crappy gameplay.

Clunky mechanics.

Cheap AI.

Stupid ammo limit and screwing around to change weapons or diving in to an ammo box while under fire.

Boring environments.

Aiming is poor.

No feel to the weapons.

Grenades thrown at you light up "red" that means you die if it blows up near you, move away from the grenade even though you are bottlenecked and hope the other's don't pick you off.

Throwing your own grenades is like pulling teeth.

Summery:

Average third person shooter that does nothing new or even gets on par with games 5 years older than it.

Clever marketing deceives what you are actually getting from the game, all in all don't waste your money, it's a shit burger.

Emsley.

[1/29/08] Nintendo DS Lite USB Battery Charger Dock (Hardware)

Tue, 29 Jan 2008 23:59:58 +0000

Hardware: Battery Charger

Platform: Nintendo DS Lite

Manufacturer: Shenzhen YuYuan Electronics Factory (This took some research of sku/PN to discern, package doesn't state)

What's included: Charging station, USB cable and screwdriver (Screwdriver BONUS, not mentioned)

Only picture of both I could find. Unit comes in 1 of 2 colors.

Here I find myself needing another battery for my DS Lite, as my wife and I tend to play often enough, that the 3-4 hour wait on charging is annoying and so is sitting near a wall outlet with the charge cable plugged in.

I decided to pick another one up, a 3rd party one, as Nintendo brand batteries aren't cheap (They aren't expensive either however) and I wasn't too pleased to see Nintendo charging $15 USD for a battery and $18.75 CAD for the exact same item.

Shove it Nintendo, the dollar is pretty much par and at the time of me looking, CAD was worth MORE.

Anyway, I came to the conclusion that it would be rather useless to have a second battery, with no way to charge it short of swapping and charging. Which kind of defeats the point of having this second battery in the first place don't you think? I searched and searched until I came across something I knew would do the job. A USB Dock charging station. Excellent! Just what I had in mind, I'll buy one!

If finally arrives, and I open the package. Wow, it's TINY! I mean I knew how small DS batteries are, and I even saw the pic of the dock.......but I never pictured it THAT small. It fits in the palm of my hand, and it's roughly 1/3 the size of my DS Lite. Cool!

Now lets pop my battery in and see how it works, cause I've got a battery in need of charging. So I pop it in.........nothing. Oh great, Made in China bites me in the ass again.

I decide it may be the design of this 3rd party battery, so I put my official one in, and the light flickers for a second, and no it's not charging either.

Must be something keeping it from making contact, and being me I decide I should open it up, afterall I only paid like $6 or $7 for it. So I pull it apart, taking the mere 7 screws out (4 in case, 3 in PCB) and I have a look at the contacts.

Nothing odd, cheaply constructed but I see nothing wrong. So I pop a battery in, and I see that the contacts, which are actually a long thin strip of metal, are moving AWAY from the casing causing them to lose contact with the battery. I can fix this!

I pull out my soldering iron, and proceed to push this metal strips down with it while heating them. I melt the plastic enough to recess them and I melt more plastic over them to keep them in place.

Put everything back together, pop a battery in and it works PERFECT!

Charge time is roughly the same time over USB as it is with the AC adapter, but may be slightly longer with a slight voltage difference between the 5.2 over AC and straight up 5v over USB, but I can't say I sat there and watched it charge.

The unit has a nice dual mode LED that glows orange while charging, and turns green when done.

It also comes with a little screwdriver for the battery compartment tucked neatly into the side of the charger. BONUS, as this isn't mentioned on the packaging or anywhere the item is sold from what I could see.

Overall I would have to recommend this unit if you need an external charger. Beyond the minor design flaw, which COULD be something uncommon but is easily fixed if you have a soldering iron, this is a great little unit for very little money.

Pros

Inexpensive

Small footprint (Fits in your palm)

Comes with screwdriver to remove battery

Can use AC adapter to charge or USB

Looks fairly professionally made

Cons

Cheaply constructed. Although it looks good, it is cheap and may break easy if dropped.

Design flaw in metal contacts. Easily fixed, but you simply shouldn't have to.

[02/14/12] Mass Effect 3 - DEMO Review

Wed, 15 Feb 2012 03:15:08 +0000

GAME: Mass Effect 3 (DEMO)

Systems: PC, PS3, Xbox360

Soooooo yeeeeah.... The demo came out today and if you didn't know please get up from the rock you've been under and smell the sweet smell of ME3... However... I expected a fresher smell. Btw I'm reviewing based on the Xbox360 version.

Single Player:

I played the single player session and found that part to be underwhelming.

First off the game is set into 3 different types, Action, RolePlay, and Story.

The first being COD style, an what do i mean by that? Well all the cut-scenes and conversations can be skipped and - I love this- you don't make any dialog choices because the game will do all that for you! Gotta love the new-age RIG theses days. The second being "standard" ME experience which seems fairly true. AS for story... it's just roleplay but a lot easier(??).

You'll also notice quite a few set pieces in the first map but i guess that's fine. Now MIND YOU, all of these different styles are changeable in the settings menu so I'm sure they wont ask us what style we wish to play in the real deal. hopefully.

Half the demo you are on Earth with a pistol and an assault rifle and fighting off new fat Geth who pretty much just walk to you while shooting,

The second part, you're dealing with human armored dudes and they perform the usual shoot and cover stuff. I was hoping some aliens to mix it up but i chalk that up to bad decision making on the demo.

THe action is there! The intensity, the way the guns feels when shot. It all feels awesome! The graphics are beautiful and there are some slight audio sync issues i ran it during the talks but these were glitches. Everything is smooth for the most part and did i mentions how nice it feels to get a head shot in this game. ANd don't get me started on the BIonic Charge

MultiPlayer:

The multi-player is basically horde mode for M.E. You fight wave, after wave, and if you lose your health(incapacitated) a friend can heal you. But if you dot get revived up in time you die. Also the enemy can curb stomp which kills instantly(GOW type thing). The slight difference is you will occasionally have to hack a few terminals during a wave or kill a certain group of enemies in a time-frame but the latter makes the horde mode seem sillier to me.You can level up just like in single player although from what i saw, they gyve you five or six powers(four are usally used for the ammo change, grenade power and the passive things like "Fitness" and "training" powers and you just keep upgrading those powers. This caused me to raise an eyebrow, especially on the campaign( which does provide slightly more to work with, by giving you about seven or eight powers to upgrade) since they stated they were gonna address the concern for the game being more shooter than rpg--- I didn't see that addressed at all.

Bottom line is it fun?... Well yea..kinda. The single player was dull because everyone did the same, duck, cover, and shoot. It would have been better to demo Shepard fighting some Krogan or Asarians who usually posses powers and specific attack patterns. Other than that, it was standard cover action.

The coop/horde was really fun with friends who know what they're doing. It becomes thrilling but i guess i feel a little empty due to my expectation of thinking the coop would be Single-player-like missions but with friends. Instead we're on this one map that doesn't expand and we fight until we die..... Doesn't fit right at all for a ME game. But i will keep playing it and I'll see if my seemingly negative opinion changes, but there isn't much left to do but level up on coop now.

If it does i will love to come back on and retract my statements. Keep in mind, so far the game does not seem bad, and i'm still gonna get it, its just a franchise like ME- if you're gonna go with a demo, then go hard.

Plz comment an lemme know what ya think.

[11/29/2010] Demon's Souls

Mon, 29 Nov 2010 12:21:07 +0000

Demon's Souls

Publisher -- * Atlus Co.

Developer -- * From Software

Genre -- * Action Role-Playing

Release Date -- Oct 6, 2009

Rating -- Mature

Demon's Souls is a non-linear, dungeon crawling, RPG game released exclusively for the PlayStation 3, developed by From Software, the creators of the King's Field series, making this game a spiritual successor to this title. The game is set in an Americanized Dungeons and Dragons esc fantasy world, where users can create their own hero, male or female. The Kingdom of Boletaria has been shrouded in an accursed fog that attracts demons who feed on the souls of humans. Many heroes have gone into the fog, but have never come out alive, but you in particular, have been chosen to rid the area of Demons through slaying monsters and collecting sacred souls. There are ten different classes of heroes to choose from, who all start off with different stats, weapons, equipment, magic, and miracles, so it's wise to spend your souls accordingly.

The first dungeon archstone in the Nexus.

Magic is usually classified by augmentation of weapons, a defensive shield, or an attack / projectile, while miracles are in the realm of healing yourself and other priest like spells and enhancements. From the beginning of this game you'll be taken through a tutorial mode where the game explains how the game will and should be played, given that you basically have no choice but to follow its advice down to the last letter. What makes the game hard right off of the bat is that you cannot haphazardly slash your way through hordes enemies, because you have a stamina bar that monitors your action, from sprinting, doge rolling, back stepping, blocking, attacking, and parrying. The game demands that you find a way to balance all of these abilities to conserve your stamina. You're able to increase your stamina bit by bit, but you also have to consider that the farther you get in the game, the more you will be using these abilities anyway, so if you don't want your stamina bar virtually gone after one block, you're going to need to increase it, along with everything else. It increases almost instantly but that’s only if you’re standing still, and standing still near an enemy equates to death.

Killing a NPC.

Here's the main thing, you can't buy weapons or armor at one particular shop, you'll either have to accidentally come across it by killing something, or by finding it somewhere. All items dropped appear as yellow glowing objects so it makes it easier to spot. If you have too many items on hand, you’ll have to sacrifice space, (drop some items), in order to grab it, and you can’t warp back to the Nexus, and return because the drop will disappear, however, no matter how long you wait in a certain dungeon, a drop will never disappear, adding to the extreme realism the game devises. Some merchants sell armor that you might desire, but the merchants are located in later dungeons, even though there's no particular order as to what dungeon you complete, it's a bad choice to waltz into a later dungeon thinking that you won't get killed, so it's best to be prepared. The game's realism limits your freedom and equipment choice. Your character will have an Item burden and an Equip burden, your Item burden is how many items you can have on hand without getting your body overweight, the same goes with Equip burden and you can equip only two accessories at once, some arrows, some bolts for Crossbows. You also have 4 slots, 2 slots for each hand, where you can carry both a Shield and a casting catalyst on one hand, and a Sword and a Bow on another.

The equipment screen.

Your armor comes down to your head, torso, legs, and hands, along with 5 slots for items. So with every single slot on your body filled, you have to make sure that your Equip Burden isn't over 50%, as a result, your body will be more sluggish than normal, meaning that dodge rolling can either become impossible or slightly impaired, and you'll be able to run slower, and your stamina bar will also take more juice to use as your already carrying enough weight. If you’re miraculously overweight your character will lack the ability to run, which makes the game unplayable. You can basically run through dungeons naked, your defense will be poor, but your speed will increase dramatically. There’s no getting accustomed to heavy armor over time, either you equip light armor or you increase your Equip burden by leveling.

You would think that the pause button would pause the game but it doesn’t, so if you’re in a boss fight, you will have to retreat far away, and know menus well, so you can quickly choose an item, you only have 5 item slots, which can be assigned to the Square button as a shortcut, but there can only be so many items mapped to that button. No matter what happens in the game, the game will autosave, if you kill a boss, collect an item, kill a monster, or die, the game autosaves instantly, once again adding to the realism.

Online play with a Blue Phantom.

The game is quite stingy on all accounts. There are items that can increase your Equip burden by a certain percentage, but by that point you've already used one accessory slot, and if you think your Equip Burden can be increased, while your body can be more resistant to fire attacks, and magic attacks, you would be mistaken. The slot management system takes time to develop. When entering a boss fight, you will have to temporarily equip accordingly. Upon the start of the first dungeon, you're basically a weak prick who can only get stronger by studying the enemies’ attacks. It's a better choice to never attack first, the enemy's attack patterns are otherwise unpredictable, and they also will wait for you to attack first, once you attack you're left completely vulnerable. Parrying only works when timed right, and if you time it incorrectly, you'll be left completely open, if you try to block while your stamina bar is low, your character will also be weakened by the recoil of the failed block, which makes your defense temporarily staggered, to a point where you can’t move for 2 seconds, and the enemy can one hit you at this point, which makes the ability very risky.

Example of Sasquatch bosses.

Once you defeat a boss, a new checkpoint will appear, now you can summon yourself into a dungeon without having to be spawned all the way at the beginning of it, each dungeon has 3-5 different checkpoints, all of the dungeons are massive, and luckily the game requires no loading after a certain amount of progression through a certain dungeon. Once a boss is killed, it will never return unless you aid someone in their game or start a new game.

The first, unbeatable boss in the tutorial.

Of course, not all shields can parry, some of them can be small or extremely large. Another factor to take into account is the durability system, all equipment has certain durability, after while your armor or weapons will break due to overuse, blocking very large attacks can decrease your durability beyond natural circumstances. There are so many things to worry about aside from the grueling difficulty itself. After a while the enemies can be read to the point where they are no longer a threat, which takes time and patience, lacking these two virtues will get you killed in a heartbeat. When you first start the game, you're only a soul, where your health is decreased by half, in order to regain your original body, you have to, use a Blue Eye Stone, which enables you to put down your soul and offer help during boss rights online, use a Black Stone, where you can evade another person's game online as a Black Phantom. If you successfully kill the user of the world you evade, you get your body back, as well as their souls.

But if you lose, you lose one soul level, and you gain nothing. This is where the jeopardy comes in, so it's a better choice to aid someone in combat during a boss fight. You can only do this if the boss you're helping to defeat is a boss you've already killed in your down adventure. Once you help slay a boss, the user who you helped can rate your performance, so if you slacked off and let him or her do all of the work you’ll get a D rating, but if you went in and got the job done you would get an S rating, this is only considering that the player you’re aiding isn’t a fart pirate, who’s going to screw you over. As a host, you have to be alive, and you can summon up to three different souls. You can also use an item called, Stone of Ephemeral Eyes, these items are rare, and cannot be purchased anywhere, you can either trade them with another player, or find them in the game, where there's only a limited number of them in existence. Upon being killed all of your experience points, (Souls), are lost, so no matter how many souls you had before you're death, they will all be gone, only able to be retrieved from touching your bloodspot. It'll be located in the exact spot where you died, or if you died from a large fall, it'll be located somewhere near the cliff of the exact fall.

Dungeon 4

If you die again in your quest to retrieve your souls, all of them will vanish. Being online while playing can be a good thing or a bad thing. Black Phantoms can evade your privacy, from whatever you're doing, and can kill you, take your souls and time put in away, in this case you could disconnect from the internet if you don’t want to fight them. It can also be beneficial to where other players can leave messages on the ground, giving you warnings that you can utilize to make the game slightly less difficult. You can't type whatever you want, however you can make a statement from a database of preset statements and words. For example, I could post a message saying, "Use spears on the enemy ahead", or, "Beware of the trap ahead", and if your message is useful, other players can recommend it. The more recommendation points your message has, the more chance it has towards not vanishing, if your message is useless it will vanish over a long period of time due to ineptness.

An example of you and a soul of another player playing together Online.

If you die while logged into the server, the game will keep record of the most recent death. At the spot of the death, your bloodspot will be permanently marked on the ground, where another player can press the X button, to see a hologram of your player dying, in the same exact spot of your death, so a player can use your mistakes to his or her advantage. The creators stop at nothing to make the game unbearable. Some weapons require a certain amount of speed, attack power, dexterity, etc., in order to use that weapon. If you try to wield it without the requirements, the attack power and attack speed while using the weapon will be impaired and faulty. You'll find yourself grinding levels to increase a certain skill in order to use a particular bow or weapon. You can't even use magic or miracle spells until you have a certain amount of the a certain characteristic, and even at that point you can only start out with one magic or miracle spell slot, meaning you can only hold and use one spell, and it takes 4-5 skill levels to increase a slot by one, you could have a lot of Intelligence but only have room for three spells. It's all strictly about balancing your options. This is what takes so much patience. It is not a surprise to finish this game at 100 hours, there are so many items to collect, bosses to kill, level to grind, weapons to upgrade, before completing the game. Once you complete the game for the first time, there is a New Game + option available, but not without a risk involved of course.

Yes, two dragons, and they can both be killed through time.

The first New Game +, all monsters’ stats are increased by 40%, so if you're going into a New Game at level 90, the first dungeon which should be a realm of weaklings, will now be the same it was when you were at level one on the first playthrough, and the experience they give remains the same. The stronger you are, the more souls you need to get past a certain level. At level 10, 100,000 souls might seem like plenty, but at level 120, you might only be able to level up once using 100,000 souls, so if the difficulty is increased by 40% while the experience is left untouched, a New Game + is a very perilous choice to make. Every New Game after a New Game +, which would make it New Game ++, etc., the difficulty increases by 8%, so after the first hump the hassle is lifted slightly.

Although, a New Game + can be convenient. Upon killing each boss, you will obtain their Soul, which can be consumed for experience points, or can be used for certain unobtainable weapons. If you contain a soul from a certain boss and a certain weapon, you can forge a special weapon exclusive from the boss itself. Or you can use it to create a skill useful for Pvp purposes. This means that missing them upon the first playthrough means that you can obtain them again.

An example of a player who has progressed considerably far.

As much as the equipment burdens you, your skills tie into the everything, how much Dexterity you have will be the deciding factor on whether or not this certain jump will kill you or only damage you. Every ounce of realism in this game works against you. You can even attack NPCs, and if you do you'll change the World Tendency of each dungeon, if you kill many of the enemies in a certain dungeon, and help people only as a Blue Phantom, your World Tendency will be white, where the enemies are weaker. But if you kill NPCs, and kill players in other worlds, your World Tendency will be Black, where the enemies are much stronger, but the experience points they give increases. There's no way to sell anything, selling is non-existent, because your experience points, also work as money, so not only do you have to worry about leveling, but you also have to worry about buying items, and strengthening, repairing weapons and learning spells. In the main hub, the "Nexus", there is an NPC called Stockpile Tom, who can hold unlimited amounts of items you don't care to hold on to.

The World Tendency Map

Collecting many different ores and stones for upgrading weapons can easily over take your Item Burden. You can kill this man to get an item, but if you do this he will be gone forever along with all of your deposited items until you start a new game. Certain NPC warriors can be found in certain dungeons, and if you rescue them, they will return to the Nexus and become an NPC, if you kill them all of their benefits will be lost, but you can take their armor. You can kill anyone in the game no matter their status, but doing so is not always the best choice.

Another intimidating, optional boss at the start of the game.

Frankly, Demon's Souls doesn't care about your inability to play efficiently as it will boggle you down if you aren't patient. Many critics have praised this feature; it gives you a sense of accomplishment once you master the system. Music is absent unless you're fighting a boss which makes the game more realistic, hopeless, and cold. The graphics are stellar but the character creation system is quite limited and the faces could use some work. The environment and art design is based upon emulating the American style dungeon crawlers, everything looks quite generic but suitable. The sound effects are quite realistic, for a dungeon crawler, they would have to be. The difficulty alone can be a big turn off to the casual gamer, it isn't for pansies to say the least, but if you're looking for a demented but also satisfying RPG experience, I recommend this title.

Everything taken into account -- 8.7

[2010/08/03] Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker

Tue, 03 Aug 2010 09:10:13 +0000

Review: Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker

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.

[7/18/2010] Dante's Inferno

Sun, 18 Jul 2010 21:05:06 +0000

* 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

Metro 2033 [21/03/10]

Sun, 21 Mar 2010 23:27:13 +0000

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

[30/1/2010] Uncharted 2

Sat, 30 Jan 2010 01:52:37 +0000

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.

[11/02/10] Resistance fall of man 1 and 2

Thu, 11 Feb 2010 17:49:11 +0000

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.

[01/11/2010] Bayonetta

Mon, 11 Jan 2010 20:25:06 +0000

Title: Bayonetta

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

[1/16/2010] Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days

Sun, 17 Jan 2010 02:15:07 +0000

* 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

Pro evoloution soccer 2010 - PS3

Mon, 04 Jan 2010 13:41:07 +0000

I have followed PES Since the first title on PS-one so I pretty much know what Im talking about her regarding this game.

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.

[12/27/2009] inFAMOUS

Sun, 27 Dec 2009 08:49:41 +0000

* 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

I hate vampires.

Fri, 04 Dec 2009 00:13:08 +0000

I fucking hate vampires.

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.

[09/11/09] Borderlands - PC -

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 17:25:52 +0000

Borderlands review. (Single player only)

Let’s get the basic crap out of the way first – It’s a first person shooter but I don’t think I need to tell you that considering we are a gaming forum, the game starts up quite impressively even though the splash screens for the PC are quite long paced – we have a great introduction and it sets the tone for the game from then on in – you get to choose between 4 characters and because this is my review I will name them thusly: A ninja – A woman – A medium sized looking guy – and a brick. All with individual skills – I picked the big guy known as brick and his special skill is smashing stuff up with his fists. I’ve not played around with any of the other characters yet.

Once you have done that your greeted by a claptrap a tiny robot that scoots around on one wheel and has (at first) quite a lot of charm – this little douche bag introduces you to the game world and the basics of controls so for a FPS that will involve crouching, shooting, and jumping over a log and running. I’m always happy to get an immediate refresher on the basics of an FPS just in case I forget or panic when I’m greeted by an area where I have to jump to get to the next bit.

The added element to this FPS is that it is a slight RPG hybrid with a good amount of stats on the weapons. If you love numbers and adding up all the pros and cons of a weapon then this should slap your ass and tickle your tits in that department. There are a few weapon classes (and hundreds of guns) such as sniper, smg, shotgun, rifle, and handgun. No surprises there then.

The guns come thick and fast – you will be constantly weighing up your options with the weapons you find, does it do more damage? Is the rate of fire to slow? But this shotgun holds 12 rounds and that one only hols 6 but is three points power fuller? Is this scoped or not? Its good fun and I can tell now if I should pick up a gun or leave it on the floor for the skags to chew on. I rarely pick something up keeping it in mind to sell as the shops don’t really sell anything that out performs what you find in the general game world, the shops don’t really do much for you other than to get a few upgrades early on and health packs which are never quite enough to full up your characters health, you have to fiddle around with health one set does it quick the other does it slow. And you do have a limited amount of slots for equipment and your backpack but eventually you do get upgrades to help you out in this department.

The action has a great a pace and balance to it, You will love getting into fights with the various enemies in the game and they do sometimes die in funny ways – I shot a midget with an smg the midget burned and caught on fire leaving some of his head and POP off it went – oh I’m setting him on fire with an element weapon some guns have electric/fire/acid add on but no big deal, but worth mentioning.

Combat is fun – and it’s what gives the game its presence especially as the levels go up, you get to level out your character as you go adding new skills or faster reload damages or crazy shit like “When you kill an enemy you will have 10% damage increase for ten seconds” I normally find myself rattling enemies of with a shotgun to the face – it seems to down them the best.

There is a good variation of enemies human and bugs alike. Some are just tougher variations such as – Bandit – will become Badass bandit! – Same with the bugs and the skags, the skags of which you will fight a lot of early on.

And I have to say that you will fight bosses in this game which makes for a refreshing change as most FPS shooters can’t pull this off they are varied and can be tough to kill – and every time you fight a boss you get a lovely splash screen of the guy in mention its little touches like that that can make a big difference to a game.

Overall combat is solid but occasionally (And only mildly) irritating as you yell “WTF HOW DID I DIE? I HAD FULL SHIELD BITCH!” (Oh yeah better mention you buy and upgrade your shields as you go) mostly you will enjoy getting into fights or dealing with pesky bird things that try and swoop on your face out of no place. Fighting the bugs makes for linier gaming but fighting the bandits more than makes up for it.

There are plenty of missions and graphical difference as you go – I love how the game is cell shaded and it gives it that look – everything is solid in the graphic department (although I did experience tearing and strange twitching of my screen position) it’s a sandy affair with chunks of colour thrown in and certain points. I like the graphical style. It pleases me like a professional blowjob.

Around the game world you will loot boxes, toilets, washing machines, mailboxes and a whole host of other shit I cant be bothered to write about here – in them you will find Money, ammo, weapons and nades. Looting is part of the fun but when you see another bunch of lockers lined up for you kind of start to go “Hmmm poopy!”

Overall this game is a HIGH quality title I only wish there were more cut scenes like the brilliant start up intro to help immerse me even more, the only downsides really are the lack of character interaction, occasional irritating fights with bugs (there shit they just flop at you there could be 30 at a time and they would still not chin you) and an odd feeling of staleness in the game.

Any true core gamer will have this sucker on his or her shelf.

This game gets a big thumbs up from me.

Oh and you can drive cars that fire rockets and they also do turbo.

Emsley.

[11/10/2009] Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 06:09:21 +0000

Publisher: Tecmo

Developer: Team Ninja

Rating: M

System: Sony PlayStation 3

Players: 1-2 (Online)

Release Date: September 29, 2009

After the release of Ninja Gaiden Black, and Ninja Gaiden Sigma, Team Ninja once again decides to create yet another expansion pack of a game, Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2. It's been released exclusively for the PS3, just like Ninja Gaiden Sigma was, for whatever reason. The same story applies here, about how the Archfiends were sealed away by the Dragons, and now that the Archfiends are after an ancient statue, the Dragon Ninja returns to bestow violence amongst them, nothing too complex. It's a seemingly refined iteration of the original. With the absence of Tomonobu Itagaki, Yosuke Hayashi produced and changed small things in the original as a sign of betrayal. The use of the SIXAXIS controller, is to wiggle the women's over sized breasts from side to side, or any which way.

The story has changed slightly, and three new characters have been included in the story mode, each with a sparse one time mission that only lasts for under 20 minutes. Ayane, is a character taken from the Dead or Alive, and is a Kunoichi, an affiliate of Ryu Hyabusa. Momiji is a female Hayabusa clan member taken from Ninja Gaiden Dragon Sword, originally on the Nintendo DS. Lastly, Rachel, a returning character from the previous installment, a Demon Hunter who is also affiliated with Ryu Hayabusa. The players can be fought with, but their role in the story remains a mystery, even after reading the instruction booklet, or watching the cutscenes, no clear explanation warrants the meaning of the three character's presence, but they do change the pace of the game. Each character has their ups and downs ultimately, for example, one having a heavy weapon but being too slow, or one being very fast but weak, Ryu seems to balance out the two, but experiencing other fighting styles within the Ninja Gaiden universe can be interesting at first participation.

Many things in Ninja Gaiden 2 have been altered for better or for worse. New bosses have been added the majority of them provide hardly any distinction, and do not hold up the usual ferocity of the original bosses. Bosses have been replaced with easy ones, vice versa. For a person who's already completed Ninja Gaiden 2, the new bosses and enemies, should be discovered for nostalgic purposes or for a hunger for something different. A few areas are also skipped, etcetera, no major changes in this case, the alterations will only seem major to a person who's beaten Ninja Gaiden 2 more than once. This game in particular adds two new modes, Chapter Challenge, and Team Mission Mode. Chapter Challenge allows a player to replay an individual chapter, on any difficulty they choose, to set record, and Team Mission Mode provides a new Co-op capability that allows two players online to play along side each other within a plethora of different objectives.

There are so many different missions under one difficulty setting, all four characters can be chosen from, as well as the weapon desired, Ninpo desired, and costume desired. In the mode itself, if one player dies, the other player can revive the knockouted player infinite amount of times until their health gives in. If a player is unconscious for too long, or is hit while on the ground, he or she will die permanently and the mission will be failed. Local two player being exempt from the game is a disappointment. Other than the two modes mentioned there isn't much to do, unless the new difficultly settings provide further amusement. The game's overall difficultly has been toned down by around 20%, meaning that the game is on a lower level of arduousness, or "Master Ninja". For any person who's aware, Ninja Gaiden's difficulty has never been a push over, and in this game not much has changed. Any difficultly level over Warrior, can easily frustrate a player, or any mission beyond the difficultly of Warrior can do the same. The level of gore has been toned down slightly, which seems pointless because the rating is still mature.

No longer will limbs been seen scattered across the ground, the enemy's limbs shatter into purple soul mist, and evaporates. The question is why the game couldn't have just been a patch or DLC, or if it was just an attempt to get Ninja Gaiden on the PS3 once again. The combat requires precision and patience. You no longer are required to pay to upgrade weapons, it's free, but one weapon can be upgraded one shop at a time to provide balance, and certain weapons can't be leveled past a certain level until you accel further throughout the game. The combat in Ninja Gaiden still hasn't gotten old, but what has gotten old are the remakes of the games, I would go in depth about the combat itself but there's not much to say since it's exactly the same, matching Ninja Gaiden 2 in every way. The graphics look no better, or worse, no matter what major gaming site says, there's hardly any difference, not that it even mattered from the start. There has been little nick knacks tacked on to Ninja Gaiden 2 to make Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2.

It's the equivalent to giving a beautiful women makeup that wouldn't either hurt or enhance her appearance or make her look better. Unless a Ninja Gaiden 3 is released soon, there's no real reason to purchase such a game, you'll be better off renting. Not much replayability is present, once all of the missions are completed, then what, the same applies to the main storyline, once all of the difficulty settings have been proceeded, nothing lies except the pressing of the power button on the PlayStation 3 game system. Ninja Gaiden 2 itself is a good game, but the Sigma version, with a price tag of a full game while only adding in a morsel of difference is a bit absurd. Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 itself isn't horrendous, but it's only asinine that more wasn't added if the game was being sold at full price.

Verdict: 7.5

[10/2/2009] Batman Arkham Asylum – PC –

Fri, 02 Oct 2009 08:24:56 +0000

Batman Arkham Asylum – PC –

The first time this game caught my eye was some place on gamespot looking back I did not even click it up or give it much thought to be honest it probably went down in my brain as “lol a batman game, gay!” I don’t think there has every really been what you would call a killer super hero game in all the time I have been into video games – Until now.

Game premise: You’re Batdude – that’s right you have the belt, the batarangs, the cape, and the kick ass moves, but I could not find the “shark repellent” any place I looked.

By now I’m pretty sure you know the storey to the game – Bats captures joker – Bats takes Joker to the Arkham Asylum in other words Gotham city’s Looney bin for the criminally insane, which just happens to house nearly all the douche bags batman has beat up over the years – cue the jokers surprise, he brakes free and locks down the asylum and you are the guest of honour! Put on your cape – dim the lights – and get ready for an immersive gaming experience – right from the word go you know this is going to be something different.

I love creative games – and this sucker is packed to the rafters with the stuff! It integrates a LOT of characters into teh game seamlessly , namely from the DC-batman comic universe How naive did I feel to know that I have missed out on such a lush fully created world? Well not anymore! You may remember in one of the major films roles a character called the riddler played by Jim carrey? No well fuck you. Anyway the riddler has been up to his old tricks again and scattered around the Arkhum asylum are riddles these can be broken down thusly:

Basic riddler trophies: These are scattered throughout the environment in air vents – hidden behind destructive walls,( You use detective mode I’ll get on to this a bit later) and say maybe like Metroid you need some equipment to reach one of the trophies – but you will have to wait until you get the gear to be able to reach it.

Riddles: You walk in a room and a riddle will spring up at the top of the screen such as “Sometimes I go poopy! What am I?” This will require you to find a unique item in this made up instance I will use detective mode to scan a toilet and the riddle in that room will be solved. This is a lot of fun – the objects are always a nice little Easter eggs that can be found with enough will power - all in all this adds to the games charm and it’s a lot of fun finding them – its nice to see such effort put into a game.

Aligning a question mark: While in detective mode you will sometimes see the curly bit of a question mark without the dot underneath it, it is then up to you to get a better vantage point then align the curl and the dot up so you can scan it and complete the riddle.

Shitty Arkham asylum history slabs: It’s a spider on a bit of concrete, after scanning a voice (which always starts of like he’s got chronic asthma or something) tells you the history of the Asylum and why it was built. This is good stuff if you’re really into the batman universe.

Other: You find patient interview tapes scattered around – they are interesting to listen to - and give you a deeper insight to the characters and to why they are like they are. Great stuff.

The riddlers stuff basically boils down to a lot of fun, making the game environment completely immersive, if you knew nothing about batman and its world after playing this game you will, the riddler taunts you for solving “easy” riddles and when you complete a tough one he gets pissed off, a nice little touch to really get you “solving.”

Combat: This is really done well you really feel like one mean bastard when fighting enemies in the game – you can have anything between one to 15 guys trying to kick the crap out of you in one room, no problem for the batman – before the enemies is about to crack you with a pipe he just ripped off the wall (they pick shit up and rag stuff of walls to smack you up side of the head) you get a blue light above the guys head – this is your cue the press right click and “counter” the attack – ninja batman blocks – rips the pipe from his hand and slams him in to the ground – then he just switches to another enemie and kicks the shit out of him too. This is all done with a few mouse clicks – sure there are other moves like take downs ( they end up on the floor and you smash their skull into the floor or just ground and pound them) it’s very satisfying to fight a room full of assholes and totally pawn them up. It’s cinematic and fun, I’m halfway through the game but still catch myself shouting “BOOM MOTHERFUCKER!” On a finishing move.

Stealth: Why run in fists flying a batarangs swooping guys in the nuts? In some cases the bad dudes have machine guns, rifles, sniper rifles etc – and batman does not like bullets – he is kinda bullet proof but like me and you getting pummelled with a full clip from an AK47 can really put a crimp on your day – so this is where you become ninja batman. In detective mode you can see enemies through walls – which ones have guns and which ones don’t – You can swoop out of a dark corner of a room and ram your boot in to their head – you can hang from gargoyles and swoop down and tie an enemy up and hang him buy his feet (this will get all the other guys attention so be sure to swoop off to another spot) wherever your stealthing , or just brawling – combat is brilliantly done, it’s a lot of fun, and you do feel good when you clear a room full of guys with machine guns and not get spotted once. As the game progresses it naturally becomes more difficult – rooms become tighter – and brawling becomes more intense with guys upgrading with knifes and stun rods... It has an excellent learning curve.

Boss fights: I won’t give anything away – but will say it feels old school when you do fight a boss. I’m only 60% complete and can only remember a handful of fights with boss characters. I have read that you can miss fights with bosses and they can feel like missed opportunities – not too sure haven’t really had many “big” fights yet. Although the ones I have been involved in do appear inventive and would expect the same from later bosses.

Getting around the game world: As easy as cherry pie – grapple hooks – ripping of ventilation covers, navigating a tricky section – just good all round solid stuff.

Ok I’m going to rap this up now, Batman Arkham asylum is a fantastic game – it keeps surprising you every step of the way – all I have wrote above is just scratching the surface of the game – there is enough here for the hardcore and new comer a like – buy and play this game like your life depends on it – its lovingly crafted and JAM packed with ideas – I could describe how great this game is for at least another hour but won’t. If you don’t get this game I think you are gay.

Emsley.

What game would like us to review?

Fri, 01 Aug 2003 11:05:31 +0000

So far were kinda clueless in what game to review. If anyone wants a specific game review, go ahead and post it here.

Understand

Sun, 04 Oct 2009 23:26:00 +0000

I'm getting access to the internet every once in a blue moon. Therefore, I'm going to need someone to take over the Review thread because evidently I won't be able to upgrade it anymore, clearly, it's outdated.

[09/22/2009] Forbidden Siren 2

Tue, 22 Sep 2009 20:10:51 +0000

Title: Forbidden Siren 2 / Siren 2

Platform: PlayStation 2 (PAL)

Developer: Sony computer Entertainment

Publisher Sony Computer Entertainment

60Hz Option: No

Release Date: August 4, 2006

Forbidden Siren (simply Siren in Japan) is a surprisingly little-known survival horror series that was released for the PS2 around 2003. The first game's story is told though number of playable characters, and at the center of it all is a rural town of Hanuda. hanuda has a darker side, which basically amount to carrying out some ancient ceremony. The ceremony turned the rivers blood-red and many villagers undead, called Shibito. The Shibito aren't your garden variety zombies either; they can be quite cunning and intelligent, relentless, and above all else, they can't be killed; they go down - and re-animate sometime later.

What made Siren stand out from the rest of the survival horror genre was any given player character's ability to "Sightjack" other people, including the malevolent Shibito. This gave the game its strategic aspect as you needed to rely on the Sightjacking ability to know where each Shibito would patrol and make your way through whatever mission was at hand.

The Sightjacking ability made Forbidden Siren akin to Metal Gear Solid; the game promoted avoiding confrontation instad of fighting the enemies head on. The people in the Siren world are regular people with limited offensive options. This constant relying on stealth also made the game very difficult. It didn't take too long for the game to throw you a mission where you needed to make it to the other side of town, while several Shibitos patrol the streets as well as on rooftops armed with hunting rifles. To add insult to injury, the player would often be accompanied by someone else - getting that someone killed meant a Game Over. Clearing levels was often a trial and erro deal, and the game made sure clearing a mission felt like winning the lottery. This difficulty curve was noted by most reviewers at the time, and many gamers (myself included) found the game to be frustratingly difficult.

In the year 2006 Sony released a proper sequel, Forbidden Siren 2. Perhaps partly because of the backlash that the first game received, the sequel never saw a US release, just native Japanese and PAL one. It kind sucks for Americans becsause Forbidden Siren 2 addresses a number issues that plagued the first game, and while the gameplay hasn't changed much, there are still a lot of tweaks and improvements.

Story

Forbidden Siren 2 takes a similar approach to its predecessor and pits a group of survivors on Yajima Island during a blood-red tsunami and a similarly crimson tidal wave that sweeps over the island shortly after. As you might expect from the small summary from the first game, this even once again turn the islanders into the Shibito, with the signature bleeding from they eyes, ears and mouth. Likewise, in true japanese horror tale fashion, ancient rituals, deities and some concept of Hell play a key role in the storyline.

Graphics

Forbidden Siren 2 uses a rather novel concept of creating player model textures from photographs that have been taken from 8 different angles. This creates very life-life characters. The overall presentation has also been kicked up a notch with cleaner and more detailed textures and animation. Forbidden Siren certainly isn't an ugly duckling by any means. The lonely flashlight pierces darkness and fog quite nicely, although you won't see many dynamic shadows ala Silent Hill or Fatal Frame.

Gameplay

Like in the previous game, the basic gist of things is the ability to Sightjack the enemy. The vision has to be tuned similar to an analog TV and then you can bind that view to one of the face buttons. Sightjacking is used to see through the eyes of Shibito in the area, whether that be for just studying its patrol route, see the weapon it carries or find out some code or clue based on what the Shibito is currently looking at. While sightjacking, you can also hear the Shibito muttering to themselves, which is eerie as hell, and you can also hear their thoughts, or critical clues (rather disjointed and creepy as they are).

The Sightjacking has also been beefed up a little by introducing spexcial abilities for certain player characters. A woman named Ikuko can control the Shibito she sightjacks, and Akiko can reveal psychic impressions in certain areas, just to name a few. Combat was also made a little less cumbersome with you getting to choose whether you want to stay hidden or get up close and personal. There are also more weapons to choose from and melee attack options have been expanded somewhat. There are still time when you have to excort someone, but in Siren 2, the commands you can issue to the other person have been streamlined a bit, and work better (be it for better AI or something else, I'm not sure). The Shibito have been diversified to serve the story better and now there are the Yamibito and the Yamirei, new enemies that make the Shibito pale in coparison. The Yamirei especially, are more or less like sentient darkness, that disperses and stops attacking when light hits them.

The game still revolves around missions and a timetable of sorts that spans across a few days. After clearing a mission with one characer the next mission will very likely be in a completely different timeslot with a completely different character. After a while, you might stumble on a mission that takes place immediately after some other mission you completed a while a go. Many missions are very straightforward (Reach a certain spot) while giving you an option to sidetrack a bit looking for certain items that both unravel the story in their own way and maybe open an alternate path with a different objective in that mission. The characters you have to use during the missions is also something to look out for, since their abilities differ quite a bit from each other, i.e soldiers can easily gun down a mob of Shibitos while a small child have very little choice but to run and hide. In a one particularly atmospheric mission early in the game, you control a young man that is almost completely blind, and having to rely on Sightjacking his own dog. Now, sightjacking an animal introduces new hurdles since you are still controlling a blind person, yet you see through the eyes of his dog - effectively screwing up your sense of direction.

Sure, Shibitos are patrolling the streets, but a blind man and his dog must make it out of the house they're in to an exit leding away from the town.

Controls, AI, and Difficulty

The controls have been improved a lot since the first game. You can finally run while crouching and you do longer need to bring up the action menu to do the most basic actions, like opening a door. The action menu is still used to instruct any other people you might have with you during the mission. The AI is also improved, with the Shibito being faster and more aggressive.Then the difficulty... I've read that some people urge one to forget that the first game ever existed and enjoy the second one. I can understand where they are coming from, since the difficulty curve has been dropped considerably in Forbidden Siren 2. It's not that Siren 2 would be a walk in the park, no, but the difficulty eases itself int to the game in a much more tolerable manner.

Sound, music and voice acting

Forbidden Siren 2 wouldn't be nearly as good of a survival horror game if it weren't for its soundtrack to create the mood. The music in the game is extremely effective and creepy, like it should be. The titular Siren plays a role in the game by alerting the player to a Shibito that is already too close for comfort, although being a Shibito that has yet to locate the player.I can't say the same about the voice acting, which is yet again (same thing happened with the original game), the worst aspect of the entire game. Let me rephrase that: the The English voice acting is the worst aspect of Forbidden Siren 2. The voices seem unnatural coming from the mouths of clearly japanese people. To add insult to injury, most of the English voice actors are strikingly British. Strike three: It's just plain horrible.

Cringeworthy. Bleeding-from-the-ears cringeworthy.

Someone over at Sony's European publishing arm seems to have had a half a brain and listened to the complaints generated by the first game, so Sony opted to give us a choice between the original Japanese and Bleeding-From-the-Ears Cringeworthy British. Let's just say that the difference is like night and day.

Summary

Forbidden Siren 2 is an excellent sequel to a game that was marred by plodding pacing thanks to almost complete reliance on stealth and grueling difficulty. Forbidden Siren 2 fixes a lot of things and and above all, is more easily approachable and playable. The atmosphere works very well, and Sightjacking that was an innovative concept in the first game has been improved and expanded in this sequel. The game's definitely for people who like to experiece surivival horror from a new angle and have don't hate spending some time in levels just to plot their next move. I would recommend this game to those who hated the first with a passion, though it's worth noting that this type of gameplay doesn't suit everyone - especially those who can't stand stealth and/or seemingly unsurmountable odds stacked against them.

Note to self: Erase all memories of the English voice acting.

A retelling of the first game, SIREN: Blood Curse is also available as a PlayStation 3 exclusive. Hardcore Gaming 101 also has a comprehensive review of the series, though a warning is in order: The articles over at HCG101 contain some pretty heavy spoilers.

Pros:

+Sightjacking

+The graphics are really something to see

+Scary and unsettling, not to mention gory

+The timetable is rather unique way drive the game forward

+Many playable characters that truly different from one another

+Convincing atmosphere

+An option to switch to a japanese voice track

+A cast made of seemingly ordinary and dull japanese people. Surprisingly fresh.

Cons:

-It might take a good deal of time just to clear a "simple" mission

-The infamous difficulty raises its ugly head sometimes, so trial and error gameplay is still an issue somewhat

-Escort missions, although this can be a double-edged sword, so to speak

-Bleeding-From-the-Ears Cringeworthy British dubbing.

-Will not ease the hate generated by the first game for some people.

Story: 9

Graphics: 9

Gameplay: 8

Sound/Music: 10

Controls: 9

Difficulty: 7 (this number represents how tolerable the difficulty of the game is, regardless of how easy or hard the game is)

Feel: 10

Total: 8.8

[8/26/2009] JOYTRON XConverter360 (PS2->XBOX 360 Controller Converter) Review

Wed, 26 Aug 2009 10:28:12 +0000

Product: JOYTRON XConverter 360 (PS2->XB360 Controller Converter)

Review Author: GameCop

Product Website: http://www.joytron.co.kr/goods/view.asp?g_code=CD007-00377

Price: $23 USD

[ To purchase the XConverter360, private message "laugh" at Shoryuken.com Forums ]

Product Supplier: Laugh

--> View other products he sells!

- Introduction -

The XConverter360 is an innovative and new converter sold in Korea for fans of Playstation 2 controllers and arcade sticks that would like to see them playable on the XBOX 360. Made possible by the user "laugh" at the popular fighting game fan website, Shoryuken, he sells them each for $23 USD. When I saw his original post in their popular Converter Compatibility Thread, I immediately contacted him to be one of the first to review the converter.

First off, many fighting game fans like myself have been looking for a way to use our dusty PS2 (Hori anyone?) arcade sticks on the 360. The XConverter360 also allows you to hook up your PS2 controllers to the PC, while being recognized as a wired XBOX 360 Gamepad, which is great for emulators and whatnot. Now, with the release of Marvel Vs. Capcom 2 and King of Fighters XII this summer, the XBOX 360 gamepad will no longer suffice for professional gamers. The popular Mad Catz Street Fighter IV Tournament Edition arcade stick may be a great solution, but is very expensive for gamers who have already paid over a $100 for an arcade stick made for another gaming console. This is when the JOYTRON XConverter360 for $23 USD becomes an affordable and cheap solution if you previously purchased a Playstation 2 arcade stick.

- Opening the Box -

"Laugh" sent me the converter via EMS shipping, which, surprisingly, I recieved in only 3 days. He offers both EMS and Air Mail shipping, depending on your preference. The converter was packaged very securely with plenty of plastic bubble wrap encapsulating the converter box. The retail box itself has the hole puncture at the top to be hanged at Korean gaming shops for purchase. "Laugh" is one of the first to market the popular PS2->PS3 inPin converter internationally. The PS2->PS3 inPin has been a godsend for fighting game fans, as it has no input lag. You can purchase the inPin converter from him as well by the aforementioned method. I would also like to bring to attention that there may be other PS2->XBOX 360 controller converters on the market, but they may have input lag. Therefore, I also will be focusing on lag testing the XConverter360 in this review.

I found the box of the converter itself quite interesting as it has a picture of an arcade stick on the side, which tells the buyer that it was advertised to work with arcade sticks as well. I found that as something crucial to notice (also found in the instruction manual), as no one goes to a Burrito Restaurant for hamburgers. You go there for the Burritos because that's what they advertise and you know that is what they're good at making. Maybe it's a lame analogy, but the point is that it definitely gave me strong expectations that it would work well with my PS2 arcade stick. In the instruction manual, it also shows pictures of it working with the PS2 gamepad (of course) as well as the PS2 racing wheel. The PS2 racing wheel was a surprise, since you can probably find them on sale for a much cheaper price than an XBOX 360 racing wheel. Unfortunately, this review does not cover testing for the PS2 racing wheel, as I simply do not own one, and that most buyers are purchasing this product for fighting games. Overall, if the XConverter 360 meets our expectations in this review, then it could certainly save us a lot of money.

In the retail box, you will find the converter wrapped in plastic bubble wrap with a handy instruction manual. The instruction manual is truly unreadable if you can't read Korean, but it is good for seeing the button mapping tables to discover what buttons on the PS2 controller will act as on a XBOX 360 controller. You can find the tables on the back of the retail box as well.

- Product Specifications -

[ Features ]
- Compatible with PS2 joypad and joystick (switch 1)
- Compatible with PS2 racing wheel (switch 2)
- Switch to use joypad or racing wheel
- Perfect button layout for stick and wheel
- Vibration support
- Channel Display 4 LED
- Equipped with Guide button
- Compatible with PC (needed MS PC driver), vibration support

[ Notice ]
- For use this product at Xbox360 console, you need original Xbox360 usb wired pad
- You can download MS PC driver at MS homepage

- Product Build -

I was quite satisfied with the product build of the XConverter 360. It feels very high quality and almost as if it was made by Microsoft. JOYTRON did a great job in designing the product so it would blend well with the motif of the XBOX 360 (white). My only complaint has been the short USB cable on the XConverter360, which made it difficult for me to hook it up to my XBOX 360 in my elevated entertainment stand.

You can't really set the converter on top of the 360 since the converter is very light weight. The only good place is on the floor, which may be difficult depending on your home set up. Perhaps a good solution would be to use sticky velcro to keep it stuck on top of the 360. In the picture above, I sat the converter and Madcatz XBOX 360 Wired Gamepad on a chair, so I could hook it up.

One thing I haven't mentioned is that the XConverter360 needs a wired XBOX 360 gamepad in order to work. For our tests, we purchased a cheap Madcatz XBOX 360 Wired Controller to successfully do the job. I've heard you can also use a Guitar Hero XBOX 360 Wired Guitar as well. You can also find the official XBOX 360 wired controllers sold for cheap on eBay. The XConverter360 has 4 red LED's to indicate which player it is set to (player 1, 2, 3, 4). It's more of an aesthetic feature, as the connected XBOX 360 Wired Controller indicates also what player it is set to when hooked up to the XConverter360.

Disappointingly, we noticed that the XConverter360 has no slot for an XBOX 360 headset. We tried hooking up the headset to the connected Wired XBOX 360 headset, but as expected, it did not work, and the XBOX 360 acted as if no headset was plugged in. The reason why we expected it is that the connected wired XBOX 360 controller (used as a bypass for the PS2 controller to work) is not functional when hooked up to the XConverter360. Only the connected PS2 controller is!

- GamePlay -

A little simple math equation ...

( OR )

+ =

So finally, we are at the gameplay section of this review. I'm guessing the people at Shoryuken forums reading this review immediately scrolled down to this section because this is what matters the most, right?

The way it works is you plug in your PS2 gamepad, arcade stick, or racing wheel and also an XBOX 360 Wired Gamepad (official or unofficial) into the XConverter 360. You then plug in the USB cable connected to the XConverter360 into one of the USB slots on your XBOX 360. Unfortunately, you can't use an XBOX 360 Play & Charge Kit to plug in your wireless controller into the converter, as it will not work. Again, the XBOX 360 Wired Gamepad is no longer functional once plugged into the XConverter360. The only sign that the controller is connected are the lit up green indicator lights around the XBOX 360 logo button.

The XConverter360 has a guide button and a 1-2 switch on the unit itself. The guide button functions as the XBOX 360 logo button on your XBOX 360 gamepad. The 1-2 switch is to set the converter to work on either the PS2 gamepad or arcade stick (switch 1) or the PS2 racing wheel (switch 2).

When we first hooked up our official PS2 gamepad, we were pleased to find that the analog button acts as the guide button after you press it once. We tested the PS2 gamepad with Marvel Vs. Capcom 2, Street Fighter 4, and the Batman Arkham Asylum Demo. We experienced absolutely no lag, much to our delight, and both the left and right analog sticks worked perfectly.

When setting the controls for the game you want to play, it's imperative you look at the button mapping table on either the retail box or in the instruction manual. This tells you what XBOX 360 buttons the PS2 buttons are assigned to. The top table show on the box and instruction manual is for switch 1 (PS2 gamepad or arcade stick) and the bottom table is for switch 2 (PS2 racing wheel). We have a picture of the table shown above in case you threw away both.

Now, for the moment you've all been waiting for... testing the XConverter360 with a PS2 arcade stick! In our tests, we used the Hori Real Arcade Pro 2: SA, which we fully reviewed last year. The PS2 arcade stick worked perfectly without lag while playing and executing various combo's and maneuvers in Street Fighter 4, Marvel vs. Capcom 2, and Super Street Fighter II: HD Remix. The turbo switches on our arcade stick functioned well enough. We were asked during the review process if pressing Start+Select at the same time acts as the guide button. Unfortunately, there are no button presses you can use on the arcade stick so it acts as the guide button. The only way is to simply press the guide button on the converter.

I tried a few games, such as Street Fighter Alpha 2 (pictured above), and again, it worked perfectly without any lag. It's amazing how well the XConverter360 works and it's a pleasure to know you're getting a product with such great compatibility. You can see how the buttons were recognized on "Map Game Inputs" box in the Final Burn Alpha emulator. There are so many converters out on the market that can only get half the job done or have a lot of compatibility, but a ton of lag. It's very apparent that JOYTRON tested their product extensively. Now you can use your PS2 arcade stick with apps such as GGPO, which allow you to play emulated games online with people around the world via the PC. The possibilities are endless.

- Notes / Suggestions -

The are only two issues we have had with the XConverter360. First is that sometimes it doesn't boot properly when you turn on the XBOX 360. Occasionaly when we turned on the XBOX 360, the XConverter360 would not turn at all (red LED lights off), or it would turn on with the glowing lights, but neither the connected PS2 or wired XBOX 360 controller would function. The only solution we found for the problem is to turn off the XBOX 360 and pull out USB cable for the XConverter360 from the 360 and then put it back in.

The second is that we were unable to get vibration feedback working on the PS2 gamepad when hooked up to the XBOX 360 with the XConverter360. We are currently in contact with "laugh" to figure out the reason. Once we do, we will immediately update the review. For most though, this is not a real issue, as most people are purchasing the XConverter360 to use arcade sticks, for which vibration feedback is not applicable.

UPDATE: I spoke to "laugh" and this seems to be an isolated issue with my converter. The vibration feedback appears to work for everyone else. I'm going to try testing it again with an official XBOX 360 wired controller, instead of the Madcatz controller, and see if it fixes the issue.

NOTE: We did have the instruction manual partially translated and that you should always first plug in the XBOX 360 wired gamepad and PS2 controller, then connect the converter to the console, and lastly turn on the console. The last part is something most controller converter manufacturers frequently warn about!

Finally, we wish the product had XBOX 360 headset support. Perhaps in the future?

- Conclusion -

Price: 10.0

The price of this product is phenomenally inexpensive. It will save you time and money than buying a full fledged wireless XBOX 360 Arcade Stick when you already have one for the PS2.

Quality: 8.5

The product feels of utmost high quality. It feels sturdy and certainly doesn't feel cheap for the price. It's a little bothersome why it sometimes doesn't boot properly when connected to the XBOX 360. We didn't experience the issue when the XConverter360 was hooked up to the PC. It really is just random. Sometimes it'll work 10 times in a row and then fickle during boot the 11th time. But hey, when it works, it works excellently! You can't find anything better on the market today.

Compatibility: 10

It's compatible with the XBOX 360 and PC. You can also hook up the converter with a PS2 gamepad, arcade stick, and racing wheel. This is exceptional! Not to mention, we were unable to detect any input lag.

Design: 9.0

The design is great as it blends perfectly with the original XBOX 360 design, but probably not with the XBOX 360 elite.

Features: 8.0

Besides being just a controller converter, we hoped it had XBOX 360 headset support. A lot of games like Street Fighter 4, MvC2, which are booming with foul mouth talkers who can't back it up with a good match need a good vocal retort. Also, we're a little worried as to why we couldn't get vibration feedback working. We may increase this score once we find out how to get it properly responding on our PS2 gamepad. UPDATE (again): It appears that this is an isolated issue for us only and vibration feedback works for everyone else. We're still testing our Xconverter360 to figure out why it doesn't work for us. We shall update this review again when we have an answer!

# Final Rating (rounded) #

Thanks to megaman_zer0, iq_132, and Lord_Snow for proofreading the review!