KILLZONE 2 REVIEW

Before I go on to the real review here, I want to explain the history behind this extraordinary purchase of mine...

Long ago there was a thing called "E3 2005", where few and far between any of the tech demos shown during Sony's rendition of the conference ever made it into real time in-game form. One of those games that ended up actually happening both in game and graphics form was KILLZONE 2. Known to some as the most infamous trailer of the 2005 show, about 4 years later the game came out and somehow matched or surpassed the quality of the prerendered trailer.

While this was all happening I was still under the guise of my family's taste of not touching M-rated games, and after two years and quite enjoying the KILLZONE 3 beta...I decided to take the plunge and buy KILLZONE 2 after realizing how good this series really is. Now let's start this review...

FIRST: This game is by no means a run-and-gun game, and to which you constantly have to be in cover. This game in this sense of progressing slowly through an area hails back to the fact that this game is pretty much "World War II in space" given the fact that Helghan looks like a degenerated Germany and the Helghast are just "Nazis and Darth Vader-esque suits". The game is pretty much a sci-fi medal of honor, so expect plenty of armored enemies, cover-filled areas, and weapons that are nothing but WWII weapons given a sci-fi facelift.

SECOND: This game is by no means easy due to this, and while the game is pretty fun..expect some of the "boss battles" to moderately irritating, especially the final boss. Besides that the game feels and looks like something out of an insane military simulation, as if Guerrilla's intention was to make a Medal of Honor game that's on overdosed steroids.

THIRD: The story while not amazing isn't trash either, as the characters while somewhat tactful are still believable in the setting they are in. Characters die, live, and have revenge just like any other similar war game on the market, and that's not neccessarily a bad thing in my book.

GRAPHICS: This game pretty much is the pinnacle of FPS graphics, while people might disagree and start screaming Crysis at this point...This game is oozing with detail, visual effects, and animations that pretty much comes to life, as far as how gritty looks go. You won't be disappointed definitely when you set the game to 1080(i/p).

MUSIC: Joris De Man pretty much makes this game the game equivalent of "prequel Star Wars", and sometimes he does a better job of booming themes and creepy sub-tunes than John Williams himself. You almost can feel what's going on in the cut-scenes thanks to this pretty much perfect score for such an underrated FPS franchise, and I don't say that lightly.

CLOSING: I highly recommend this game for someone looking for a "out-of-the-ordinary" military shooter, is good at cover systems, and willing to admit that some of the boss battles might want you to pull your hair out. The graphics are probably superior than anything else on the market, besides maybe games that are native DX11, which don't count really since this is a console-only game. That and while the multiplayer is mostly dead thanks to the third iteration, is quite fun in and of itself even if you're just sparring with a few enemies.

IN MY OPINION?

GRAPHICS: 10/10
STORY: 8.5/10
GAMEPLAY: 8.0/10
MUSIC: 9.5/10

OVERALL: 9/10

"Epic when Fun"

SPLINTER CELL: CONVICTION REVIEW

Well, there's only a few games recently that catch my whole-minded attention in terms of pure awesomeness and kicking butt gameplay...such in a way that after finishing the game I am left mind-blown and asking for more even after a moderately lengthy campaign. One of those games happen to be the latest iteration of the Splinter Cell series, perfectly named CONVICTION.

Though I have played only demos of the previous games, I knew why some people enjoyed the originals even though they were slow paced and jarringly difficult. Conviction is no major departure besides the fact that being detected doesn't mean instant game over. Personally this is currently the best Splinter Cell yet, with an amazing story and presentation like something straight from a blockbuster movie. Even though the game stresses patience and perfectly lined shots known in stealth games, the amount of enemies and action-packed cut-scenes never makes the game for a second feel dull. Sam Fisher is the ultimate agent, and the game shows you why.

Probably one of the coolest features of the game is the use of keeping you in the shadows and using silenced weapons to avoid detection, that and using CQC to acquire "Mark and Execute" points to be used to instantly kill multiple targets without much hassle. While the game isn't perfect in this regard, it still feels ALMOST perfect.

Nonetheless, due to the extreme espionage take, even Rookie mode is quite challenging if you don't know the right tactics or strategies of clearing an area.

Aiming, shooting, and movement have almost no issues in this game, to the point where if you know how to play a shooter you'll be dropping enemies with ease and be able to hide or get to cover with minimal frustration. Due to this I didn't find the game all that frustrating since dying was few and far between with the checkpoint system barely making you restart much of the level.

DENIABLE OPS: Deniable Ops is pretty much the co-op modes played with a single player save the Story mode, you can either play as the Third Echelon agent "ARCHER" or the Voron agent "KESTREL". Your job depends on the modes "HUNTER", "LAST STAND", or "INFILTRATION". Hunter is go through a whole map while taking out baddies, being spotted isn't game over but you do have to fight more people per zone. Last Stand is your typical "Horde" mode of keeping the supposed EMP generator safe while trying to fight waves of enemies. Infiltration seems to be the same as hunter but you can't be detected at all or game over.

This game mode is quite fun but you do not have the option of a partner, thus in my opinion making these modes only half as interesting as they are meant to be. It's still fun to take-down targets while trying to remain stealthy though.

CO-OP: While packing the same modes as Deniable Ops, there is one thing that really shines, the "Co-op Story". This is not your ordinary tacked-on mode with a few cut-scenes slapped on; the story present in this kicking-butt with a partner-fest actually sets as a prequel to the scenes geared in the Single Player/Story Mode. As mentioned before you AND a teammate are put into the boots of both Archer and Kestrel, given the job of taking out baddies stealthily with both scenes where you can or cannot be detected.

I found this mode in some ways more enjoyable than the story due to having pretty much "twice the fun" doing spy work. The only issue, while not a major flaw in the game is connectivity issues was present during my playthrough, though they are said to not be persistent and maybe just bad timing of when me and my partner bought the game.

That said I quite highly recommend at least trying the Co-op Story mode if you and your friend are capable of remaining stealthy in required areas.

GRAPHICS: Even though this game is "supposedly" running on UE3, obviously Ubisoft has had a field-day with re-engineering the game with almost perfectly moody visuals as well as mostly decent animations. While this is no "Blood Stone", it's not too far behind based on pretty much nailing the art direction they needed for Conviction.

MUSIC: Personally I cannot think of a Soundtrack more fitting for this game, but maybe that's just me. The tunes, themes, and such set the mood pretty much perfectly when and while they play during the game.

CLOSING: I highly recommend this game to anyone who savvies themselves a "spy/stealth gamer" willing to try a game that's not only out-of-the-ordinary, but just plain goodness-to-heck FUN. Death is minute and almost no where as frustrating as other games, and that's always a plus in my book. Just make sure you have a capable rig and recommended to have a fellow friend or steam-mate to help you Nash into some Co-op. I doubt you will be disappointed.

IN MY OPINION?

GRAPHICS:9.2/10
STORY: 9.0/10
GAMEPLAY:9.5/10
MUSIC: 10/10

OVERALL: 9.4/10

"Just plain Epic"

"The World's Future According to the TPS Genre"

Call me sadistic, but if the world was really like timeline seen in video game genres like Third Person Shooters, we would be totally screwed based on some of these horrifying plot-lines seen in this frenetic genre.

2011-2020:

First option: Mexican rebels try to nuke America because of government agreement, high tech special forces neutralize threat.

Second option: Russia blows up San Francisco with a large weapon, special forces take out the Russians (?).

2020-?: America sends special forces with cloaking and high-tech weaponry to settle overseas situations to maintain peace.

2000-2020:

First Option: A few cities are infected with a zombie virus, STARS and BSAA troops take out the infestations.

Second Option: PMCs take over the world, a single dude takes them all out.

Third Option: The american government goes sour and starts trying to kill former spies that used to work for it, single dude takes them all out.

2080: Androids with human-like souls attack a western company, special forces sent into Tokyo to stop their production, attacked by an Army of robots, the force isn't too high-tech.

2080-?: Giant mechs or mecha produced for war, single person or group of people takes out the bad guys.

?-A.T. 12: Colonization of planets like E.D.N. 3, Native aliens are new source of energy, Akrid retaliate and the force of NEVEC tries to steal all the energy and leave with the planet frozen solid. Single person or group of people take them all out.

2183-?: Humans find an advanced technology on Mars as uses it to travel the galaxy, only to find out that a dude awakens an old robot race called The Reapers who want to wipe out the universe.

Fourteen years after Emergence Day: We awake some bug/alien like monsters from the core of a planet called Sera...yay for waking up some deadly things!

LOST PLANET 2 SOUNDTRACK REVIEW

After having played both Lost Planet games as well as listening to the original game's soundtrack, I knew the music was going to be good but my expectations were also beaten by how every track is a masterpiece in its own right. Not many games tend to care to make ALL the music epic, but when Capcom hired Jamie back onto the series as well as some music-flexing in-house composers it wasn't hard that everyone wanted what could be one of the best TPS OSTs around.

Going down the line, from the Title Screen, Menus, and all the boss and stage music are well-orchestrated, beautifully-done, and just makes you want to go out and kill some Akrid and NEVEC. The WHOLE soundtrack is epic, and not one of them seems overly-generic and "meh" at the slightest. The only way to get tired of this OST....is you can't.

Probably my personal favorites of the OST is:
Title Screen
Main Menu
Welcome to the Jungle Boys!
Gordiant
Central City 1
Red Eye 1
Team Battle
The Polar Sea 1
Vagabundo
The Overland Battleship
Sub Theme
Over G Akrid 2
Main Theme

And that's about half the OST I just mentioned, and the others are still REALLY GOOD.

With this kind of OST, I am not sure how the game itself can ever get boring when you got booming brass, bashing drums, emotion-ripping strings, and the like.

IN MY OPINION?

9.5/10

TOM CLANCY'S: GHOST RECON ADVANCED WARFIGHTER 2 REVIEW

Expectations: After having played the first GRAW and enjoying it's sense of realism while maintaining the "futuristic flexing muscle" of Tom Clancy...I had kept my expectations to at least the level of the original GRAW. That said I was expecting to get killed plenty of times since you're not a bullet-sponge, but like other Tom Clancy games it's either kick butt or get butt kicked.

Initial Impressions: First things first, GRAW 1 was technically an Xbox 360 game (though there was a PC and PS2 version, they were not the "real" GRAW 1), and so the difference in controlling made a difference, even though you could use the Sixaxis to slide, barrel roll, or jump into cover...this seemed more of a gimmick since you could do the same by just pressing the right button combination.

GRAW 1 on Xbox 360 had more vibrant colors, allies had brownish uniforms, the cross-com system seemed like a light blue, environments were mostly clearly lit and stunningly detailed, and enemies were easier to make out with their red and green get-ups. GRAW 2 has changed this whole entire matter into making almost the entire environment shades of brown and gray, and you're clothing pretty much "blends into the bland" reverse-detailing. If you were to compare both games to Future Soldier (the next major title in the series), GRAW 1's coloring were closer to Nigeria where GRAW 2 is as dis-colored as the Soviet map. With all this said, the underlying resolution detail of GRAW 2 is improved (though having only about two different colors...doesn't do you much good).

The Game: With all this said, the game starts off with a bang and starts off where GRAW 1 ends. The point is simple in both games; try to take out the mexican rebels and neutralize their nuke arsenal before they can launch them into the US, and at this point it IS as hard as it sounds. The game has more solo missions than the first game, but also more "support" missions than the first also, which means pretty much in the same amount of time to finish the campaign the game seems multiplied on all fronts mission-wise. Solo missions are of course some of the more frustrating missions, but after awhile (with the right equipment) seem easier if you keep yourself out of enemy fire's way. "Suppport" Missions, as in having not only a squad, but also Strykers, Tanks, and even Choppers at your disposal to kick major butt...You can't help but say "HECK YEAH, THIS ROCKS" when you're little "army" is killing thugs and blowing up almost everything. Probably as previously in the first GRAW, the "Chopper Gunner" parts seem cool at first, but they get boring after awhile. Shooting people with a poorly accurate Fixed Gun on a Black Hawk just seems more like "lets get your blood going" than actual fun, and these tend to be shallow of checkpoints almost intentionally, since if you forget to take out a few tanks, whatever your protecting is doomed and Mission Failed.

Story: The story is nothing special, but how it's coordinated and presented keeps you motivated on your "Call of Duty". Dialog is engaging, you feel connected to the characters, and the relationships built by the previous GRAW into this one gives you a sense of loyalty and immersion within the confines on how epic (and dangerous) the plot is. That and you can't turn down a lead soldier with a whispering, somewhat gravely voice in these kind of games.

Music: Tom Clancy games have some of the best shooter music this side of the pond, and Tom Salta at the front makes this definitely so. From epic orchestrated booming themes, to even other epic "danger" pieces, you won't be disappointed with the music as it helps pushing you on mentally and emotionally. Anyone who has a good taste in music should search up the GRAW(1 and 2) OST.

Graphics: As I said before, the game is a bit of a back and forward step in the right direction from what was previously done in GRAW 1. Lack of vibrant or decent assortment of colors kind of takes away any sense of coloring detail, but the fact that the textures are more detailed with what they got keep the game in a more darker state, which probably plot-wise what Ubisoft was going for.

Fun-Factor: The game is fun if you don't get in a situation where you're undermanned and outgunned (some of this is due to long "hold your position missions" or the fact you let most of your squad get killed, and it's a pain to fight solo in a mission where you're meant to have back-up), but besides that the game is pretty awesome, and the controls feel tight and "right" most of the time...as long as you can shoot the enemies most of the time, you'll progress at a decent rate.

What could have been better: Less "On Chopper Rails Gunner" sessions and the somewhat too-prolonged ending for the story, and in some ways the story doesn't end on the most positive note.

IN MY OPINION?

Graphics: 8.8/10
Gameplay: 8.5/10
Music: 9.5/10
Story: 8.7/10

Overall: 9.2/10

"Epic When Fun"

Binaries and Controversies: Why are Japanese Shooters discriminated?

I have some beef against the western society who tend to call themselves "shooter gamers" as they seem a bit prideful and ignorant about how the gaming industry works. I find it kind of misplaced and crude that while western rpgs are allowed to flourish in our industry, J-Shooters are seen with a discriminate eye.

It first started with games like Lost Planet where they brought Triple-A quality japanese storytelling to the shooter market, but then for some excuse or another our western culture had to find some way of belittling the recent slew of eastern takes on the genre. Even people like IGN criticize this new space as "it's not COD, so it's not a real shooter" or "it's too japanese-ified to be taken seriously", yet on our end we allow awkward games like Skyrim to open arms.

It's just funny that people who call them Pro-J or Pro-East gamers somehow condone the use of "japanese-ness" in RPGs such as final fantasy and such, were such of the anime influence can be downright mind-jarring, but when they find their shooting stuff instead of smacking it with a sword...it is scene as an abomination.

THE LITTLE THINGS:

Due to the fact that one I don't really get, is the fact that some people won't play some non-US shooters just because the fact that they are THIRD-PERSON. What is wrong with being able to see the character for once? You admit that "OH NO, THEY DESTROYED ANY SENSE OF REALISM!", but the fact that the game isn't real in the first place...give me a break people. I don't see what's more attractive to just staring at the "butt" of a rifle or other gun than it is seeing a fully-detailed character AND a gun.

Also the fact that one of the best and maybe only successful TPS to come out of Japan is Metal Gear, and nobody seems to be complaining about staring and Snake's body for forever.

That and the fact that people sometimes play shooters because they DON'T WANT a good story, just seems they just play games just to shoot people....yay shooting?

THE BARRIER:

Seeing how the Japanese are experts in telling stories (albeit convoluted and half-baked at times), at least their characters are developed enough to make dialogue, cinematics, and some of the dramatization seem engaging and interesting. Sure, games like MW2 have "holywood" quality storylines, but by the end of the game you're like..."Who were those people again?". You never become attached to the characters, and in some ways western titles do that intentionally since they want to kill off as many non-mains as possible for the next release.

Sure, people die in J-games, but they also let you get attached to them and you feel more motivated and confident than the characters are actually "real" to you. Games like Metal Gear, Ace Combat, and others are usually good at making you WANT to keep on going.

GRAPHICS and GARBAGE:

Due to the fact that one of the biggest selling points for shooters is quality and immersive graphics...sometimes some of the biggest franchises like COD are behind the times. I just find it strange that some people like IGN show magnificent screens for J-Shooters that are oozing with detail, with PC versions compliant to DX10 and DX11, but after they show the screens their like.."Meh, they could be better". It's one of those times that either think these people are blind, or they are self-rejecting the fact that J-shooters generally look better than normal shooters...Binary, Lost Planet, and the like are almost ahead of their time and it seems these people are just finding some self-justification to shoot down the rivals on the other side of the pond.

I know for a fact that people who are playing shooters for graphics, aren't gonna find it in games like COD, but if they want graphics they're better off with games like Binary, Lost Planet, and of course MGS.

PIECE OF THE PIE/GIVE UP JAPAN:

I'm going a bit back and forth with this one, and this is why some people are J-lovers hate J-shooters. They think the only reason why Japanese are making shooters is they want a piece of the COD-pie, and that's a pie they will never have. They think japan is in over their heads, even though its quite clear on how generic COD is...they already took the pie, just nobody realizes it. People are brainwashed into thinking games like COD are the only shooters, while games like Binary, Lost Planet, and others are clearly higher values in story and immersion. COD is just like "Shoot shoot..do this..shoot shoot do this", technically that's a shooter, but do you really think that's what they only have to offer?

Going along with this...are the people who are like "Give up japan, every time you release a J-shooter, you're just making something that could have been a good RPG...and if it was an RPG...since I like J-RPGS...I would have bought it BECAUSE I only want Japan to make RPGS and Anime". Yeah, you love your sister country so much, but when it comes to the gritty you won't buy a japanese game since its NOT an RPG, good job idiot.

PROMISES and UNDER-MARKETING:

With all this said and done, the people like IGN and gamers are not the only ones to blame. Yes, even the companies making the games are sometimes at fault.

Lost Planet, Binary Domain, and MGS have recently been having good videos and impressive articles......every other century or two. That's it though isn't it? Seeing how okay games like COD get a commercial almost every week to hype or grab people into the franchise...while it's like..."Hey..this lost planet game...its...COMING OUT....SOMETIME"...yeah...

While marketing cost money, nobody is gonna even know the game EXISTS if you don't push it. I know that PC players for LP2 were almost non-existent seeing how the PC version just disappeared for almost a year and about 2 months before release they re-announced it...but it was too late because of that.

Binary Domain suffers some problems of only being shown at conventions, at SEGA has only been sending info "after" people want it...their Multiplayer looks awesome, but the fact people wanted to know that info ahead of time...people might not be searching for that info anymore....boom...failure.

GENERIC INNOVATION:

You heard me, a lot of people hate J-shooters because while the games are awesome...people look at them through a "W-shooter" eye. They think "the japanese are making me shoot bad guys, lame" and kind of not even look at the fact that "This game has an awesome new AI system, and the characters have a consequence system"..."This game is awesomely innovative"......"Oh, I didn't notice that...its J-Mass Effect"....

Yeah, it's always the rippings and generic things to look at a game, its not like games are NEVER generic in some capacity..I might as well start throwing away the games in my apartment now...idiots.

If I had a dime for every game I played that was generic, I wouldn't need to use my parent's allowance to be buying them.

Closing Comments:

Call me opinionated, but it's comments like the ones above that make people seem ignorant and stuck-up about not giving hugely potential titles a chance, and it disgusts me. It's becoming to where people are more "haters" than "gamers", and just the simplest details make a J-shooter "lame". These misplaced assumptions and remarks are why we ourselves are the cause, and it's not because what seems to be the brightest and most creative country in world is wanting their grubby hands on our already half-baked industry.

Thanks for reading, stay tuned for more articles.

My idea for a Batman video game collaboration between Team Ninja and Rocksteady/WB.

First off, I think this game would pretty much rock as it would explore more of Bruce Wayne's past as he fights to become Batman. As I have decided based on recent animated movies of Batman...he's not looking for closure or healing from his parents' death, he's looking for revenge and ways to take out thugs whose mission is to terrorize Gotham.

I think Team Ninja could do this quite well since they did a pretty good job about making Samus look vulnerable in Other M, sure she was still the cold-hunter shell gameplay-wise and still taking out the enemies, but maybe some players want to see not only what batman is saying, but what he is thinking. Batman's a genius and I think team ninja and WB could collaborate into showing players why batman is so smart, maybe even through mental/physical puzzle elements into the game just to showcase how batman thinks.

Also this game should show in a Ninja Gaiden-esque way that Batman is a trained-killer, not actually killing people but show that he has more to him than just beating up people randomly.

That and I think unlike the somewhat mundane and ugly bink cinematics that kind of plagued Arkham Asylum, have the CG branch of Team Ninja due their thing and make movie quality cinematics and cutscenes like they did for Other M. Batman should have entertainment goodness, and low resolution bink crud doesn't cut it.

That and I think with this entertainment value in mind, this batman game should have enough east/west elements that it is still entertaining for not only people playing it, but for people watching it also.

Like I said in the last post, Batman's origin is not that he is healing through taking out criminals...the pain in his parent's death is still fresh and he is just as angry as ever...and while he doesn't really show it, the use of showing batman's thoughts maybe should show that he is less or more angry than he appears. Also through this campaign maybe the developers should showcase where batman gets his day to day motivations, and in these motivations show that he is restless and eager to kick butt.

Also, knowing the highly detailed perks of the Ninja Gaiden III engine, I think it's safe to say that Team Ninja's engine should be used to showcase the more gritty look this Batman game should use. It's not meant to be like the Arkham games, so why does it have to look it? That and maybe the NG3 nature of having thug regulars one away from batman after getting their butt kicked would be a nice effect.

With that said, it would be nice if the music was more akin to modern/electo-orchestra similar that of The Animated Series, which pretty much had the best music of pre-Warner Premiere titles. That and Batman's art style should showcase his pain and freshness.

I think this is it for now, thanks for reading.

Frowned Upon or Who-dun it?: Why don't game developers collaborate more (with each other)?

With a wealth of old and new ideas in the gaming industry, one of the most rare occasions is for studios to actually STOP competing for a sec and actually shake hands on a project and collaborate to bring a new or old franchise more originality.

From bringing Link into SCII, to Team Ninja redefining the classic style of Metroid games pre-Prime, these games while being large departures at least keep franchises new and fresh even if the departures are almost alienating to fans of the previous vision.

Metroid: Other M is not exactly a "bad game", but its hard to re-adapt to TN's arcade like controls where the FPS mechanic is few and far between, that and actually giving Samus a more vulnerable personality gave some fans like me the impression that the game tried to make Samus too human from her almost cold-hunter shell in Prime.

That said, without Collaboration in a broader sense we wouldn't have some of the most blockbusting titles that are pretty much better than companies native titles, such as Marvel VS Capcom being easily a better franchise than the notoriously famous yet bland Street Fighter Series due to almost an additional plethora of characters, features, and the like.

Due to this, there are some collaborations just begging to happen, such as one I thought of earlier today, that WB/Rocksteady (Batman Arkham) should at some point collaborate with Team Ninja to make a Japanese-style Batman game (maybe explore Batman's ninja/samurai training background). Also it would be interesting to see Batman partake in a more Ninja Gaiden atmosphere that helms to more of the recent anime/premiere adaptions of Batman.

But my issue with this is, why don't people do it more often. Yes competition is the most known way of stimulating new and fresh ideas, but recently that hasn't been the case. Series like Battlefield and Call of Duty don't win in competition for new ideas, they win competitions by sticking to OLD ideas and keeping people in their markets by just having them play pretty much the same gameplay through each new title.

As if though it is almost frowned upon or blame-stricken for studios to collaborate since new ideas are almost hypocrisy and blasphemous. Kind of like how Other M was almost completely destroyed by critics because of giving Samus Aran a real personality, even IGN's article title being over-the-top with "Killing Samus".

I might not have liked the new Samus, but I don't think they actually BUTCHERED the character as IGN's persecution specifies. The only reason she DIDN'T have a personality in Prime is it was a bare-bones FPS made by an american branch of Nintendo, and usually the usual blunt perspective of FPS games is that the character has no real personality. Japan loves and is famous for creating exasperating character backgrounds and personalities, and while we don't openly admit it, they are pretty much the kings of taking a bland franchise and giving it life with an amazing story. You go from Prime where everyone's two-dimensional from Other M where everyone seems like an actual person.

I'm pretty sure Team Ninja could do the same with Batman. While he is a mean bad-butt take-all-names beat-em-up, the only reason he became batman is to take out his anger and parents' death on criminals. Maybe Team Ninja can explore his inner pain while he is actually doing his vigilante work. Batman's a jerk to his enemies, and maybe some people want to know why in game-play form.


This pretty much ends my rant for now, hope you enjoyed this thought-provoking post.

Thanks for reading,

Cyrain.

Spilling the beans: How do you REALLY tell the difference between pure story info and spoilers?

It has come to my abundant recent knowledge that due to the more increasing nature of sites like IGN, Gametrailers, and Gamespot...that some of the info they give out about entertainment seems to lie in a vast gray area of story or plot details. Though we think that while a mere synopsis or detailed report of details seems unharmful, how do we objectively decipher that someone may or may not wanted to know that bit of info, and in their opinion it was really a spoiler in disguise?

This also transcends specific genres as there is a divide in the fanbase. A lot more RPG enthusiasts find story details to be more spoiler-written than say an FPS game. Take for instance a wiki article on games like Final Fantasy, compared to the almost total plot-telling of RAGE that id gave out. Then again, how these games are presented, the biggest part of an RPG is figuring out the story yourself, while with an FPS knowing more of the story ahead could change if you're motivated to buy or complete game.

Going along, there are some games that show spoilers but you don't know they are 'til you play the game, one of the biggest examples of this is Ace Combat where some of the more definitive scenes are shown in big-budget trailers to grab your interest, later to find out that some of those sequences aren't til the final missions or cutscenes.

There are also issues about some RPGs and Adventure games that show "a little too much", not in the sense of spoiling major parts of the game, but showing scenes out of context in the accidental nature of confusing more of the audience than they may have intended. This is also of course another form of marketing, as to trying to say to their market "buy it to figure out the scene and not be confused anymore". Of course the consequences are much higher about this form of details since people like me don't want to be confused about details if they want to make a solid purchase, if not that a later trailer dissolves some of the confusion from the earlier footage.

With all this said, this all entails to the final notion that most marketers or info sites overlook, just how smart some of their audiences are. People like me who have played certain genres for almost decades aren't that hard to be fooled into thinking how more or less of the game they have actually showed. I could say for a fact that while some of the FF-XIII-2 footage has left me confused, that I also know that there is plenty of room in the game to those scenes to become completely understandable(as far as FF plot-telling is able to achieve). Thus why do FPS games seem to give out more info than RPGs because after id told most of the story of RAGE, I know that they have pretty much told me the whole basic plot of the full game.

Subplots aside, I think while these kind of motives have more good than bad intentions...Companies should re-evaluate their nature of what they deem story info and all-out spoilers.

M rated games: What defines a TRUE Mature game?

I've been getting a bit pounded on by people close to me that I've gone to the "Dark Side" and that many people of my faith think of M rated games as "stupid".

While this is the case for most of them IMO, my personal collection don't really into the word "stupid", they are in fact in reality "Mature" in my opinion.

Bad Company 2 with the Vietnam extension might be the most genious game, it makes some good points and is quite entertaining.

Deus Ex is by no in the far reaches of the galaxy stupid, as the game takes brains as well as guts to complete quests and tasks.

Rage, it might not be the most unique game in it's genre, holds some novel ideas on how the weapons, characters, and mechanics function to bring a rarely-seen fluid combat game, it's pure 60 FPS beauty.

Battlefield 3...need I say more? The game is pretty much the pinnacle of war shooters and brings a sense of realism and immersion that would be hard to do in a game lower than M...it's M for a reason.

Binary Domain...again, need I say more? The game while hinges on generic media plots brings an update to what squad shooters have been known for inconsistent graphics and group dynamics. This game brings voice commands, CG-style visuals, and a creepiness to the robots that is almost impossible to pass up.

Resident Evil: Racoon City...This game is not trying to break the mold of co-op shooter games, but rather refine it. Ghost Recon/SOCOM style squad-play with an assortment of zombie-slaying classes and interesting visual and CG dynamics that while still clunky, brings a sense of uniqueness and fun-looking gameplay that games like L4D scratched on the surface.

Killzone 3: Dear goodness...the Darth Nazis are plenty explaining...that and the visuals and gameplay just rocks on what might be the most epic PS3 FPS to date!

Ninja Gaiden III: Love the new realistic take the series has embedded, not as "cartoony" as the last two, the graphics are more vibrant and the replacement of gore from just enemies crying/bleeding to death makes it sound more horrific for me. That and the first-person-like combat of actually feeling like your a ninja cutting people down. That and the assassin's creed looking villain just takes the cake.

Well, I think that's about it for me...don't be a hater.

Thanks for reading!

Defining a medium: J FPS/RPG?

Now recently I have been contemplating the most cliche-d and abundant FPS/RPG genre...post-apocolyptic settings that are based on player choices, heavy-duty enemies, and a bombardment of what is said to be 100s of hours of main and side quests.

Now, many of my friends who are JRPG-ethic gamers find these games quite "meh" as the Japanese and American terminology and usage of the term RPG has blurred into an even deeper divide. That is why I have come to somewhat of a challenge....

How do you make a JRPG/FPS, or what would be defined as a "Final Fantasy Fallout?"

I have had some ideas, which might work to narrow the gap...having japanese style designs to everything instead of stereotypically-bland designs, which some people wouldn't find mutually exclusive. A world more resembling a japanese-style "post-something" world, instead of the "this nuke..bla bla bla" kind of mentallity. That and weapons could be more robustally or creatively defined unlike the "BFG #51" you picked up today.

Of course, the main and side quests would be more definitive as in being more than just "A to B to C to Endgame" and that the character development be more akin to actual tangible characters than some of the characters you find in western ones that are as flat as the side of your wall.

Of course transportation would have to be a prominent factor, but why stick with your "waste-buggy" when you could have a "waste-air-ship"? That and some more prominent options and more robust leveling system than just "BFG #51 has now reached level #51". Not to say you shouldn't be able to level up specific weapons, but the system should be more streamlined at less gun-stressed into thinking you'll have to be with BFG #51 at Level #51 for the next few hours.

Now, I have written stories before, but I find why games like Fallout or others are so hit and miss because of how the stories conflict with the design. The most recent example is that New Vegas had a more potential story but the overall design was boring as all get out compared to the more polished Fallout 3....with RAGE being a more typical game that just focuses totally on design and gun-ethic.

That said, I think the best way to go about it is design the first batch of designs as...I don't know..."Steampunk Valkyria Chronicles" and go on from there, I don't know why...but that's how I picture a basic J-Fallout.

To add onto that, in this economy we could use more defining and engaging games that are meant to both mindblow and simplify the gaming-needs of players who are looking to get a good deal on both story and design.

Also, I feel like the music of such a game should not only be epic, but be a "steady-epic" that defines the lows and highs of the game, not quality-wise...mood-wise lol.

Of course, the "boss battles" most be quite articulate and well-defined in the sense that I don't want to see that wannabe R2-D2 thing having some wierd cutscene just to explode cheesily in a wannabe camera-shot. That should be only for boss fights, and still specific to how you take-down stuff.

The game must still feel like you're using both sides of your brain, unlike some games that only include the technical or creative side of the brain.

bla bla bla....I think I've said everything that makes sense to people at this point, hope to make more posts soon.

That's it for now...thanks for reading!

Apollo: Dead Space + Apollo 13 + Aliens + Metro + Moon

Apollo (hopefully not the real name of the game) is a few concepts I was brainstorming about kind of meshed together into one engaging game.

Apollo starts off when small chunks of the moon break off and end up crashing with Earth, causing havoc in several large cities. Even though the space program was formally post-poned, an "Apollo" spacecraft with numerous new technologies and equipment is sent to the moon to investigate the mystery behind these moon particles. The spacecraft successfully makes it near enough to the Moon before being bombarding by more total-damaging bits that cause the spacecraft to fail and crash on the moon. Your character is the only survivor.

Little does your character know that gargoyle like aliens have been causing the havoc by making nests of their young. The gargoyle aren't too happy when you stumble upon one of their breeding pits and wish to kill you onsight. With only a zappper rifle and a day's full of oxygen in your high-tech new spacesuit, your character is pretty much determined to rid the moon of this infestation before midnight.

Luckily your spacecraft had stored a space-assault-buggy to hose down some of the aliens, that and a motion tracker for when you have to go deeper into the moon to fight some pesky digger-pits.

The game ends with you taking care of the alien infestation, and another spacecraft comes to rescue you, little did you know that the moon particles that hit earth were "portable breeding pits" in disguise. Earth is gonna have a fun time...

Shooters and Cliches: Are Mech(a) Games Shooters?

After watching the trailer for the new Steel Battalion, I couldn't help but notice the strange use of pseudo-WWII clothing for the tankers in control of the mechs. This strange mix prompted me to write this article that people have already predetermined their opinion on, are Mech games shooters?

Or come to think of it, are Mech games even considered real games to most sites? It's people like Gametrailers and IGN that almost every single japanese or western made mech game, that in their reviews are tossed aside as either trashy or just not fun. Me and some of my friends beg to differ that mech games (even the cheesy generic gundam ones) can be plenty fun if you like blowing stuff up with cool-looking vehicles. Is it just me or do people at IGN and Gametrailers just don't understand the general authestic that mech games bring?

How does making mech games cool any different from people wanting to play Darth Vader in a Star Wars game? I also think I went on a side-rant here....

Getting back to the topic at hand, I can see why people don't tend to call mech games straight out shooters, even though most of the games are about shooting and blowing up enemies. I know that you could kind of call Mech games a "popular niche" due to their widespread yet generic treatment. Gundam, Macross, Evangelion, and other Japanese titles show that people love a good mech story, and while most of these plots are psycho-pilot driven with horrendously driven counter-and-co cliches, getting into a mech and feeling like God is nowhere close to being overrated to the people who enjoy a good nuke-down.

And that's probably why determining the real genre for Mech games, besides just calling them mech games is somewhat of a draw. Mech games are technically a type of shooter called shoot-em-ups, due to the fact that unlike shooters that you only kill dozens of people, Mech games are all-out slay-fests that by the end of the game...you've probably depopulated a good chunk of the world (lol). That's the thing though, even though you're "the good guy", you're pretty much have created all-out and gun-ho genocide against the waves of almost endless enemies. That and while the stories set you up as being "a tactical asset", there's nothing really tactical of desolating a whole vicinity of cities or otherwise.

Probably the only real difference between mech games is how fast your mechs go, and how god-like your weapons are. Take it from me that games that feature Wing Zero from Gundam Wing, that using a special weapon from that thing could end a good string of bad guys (or in the show a whole freaking space colony). While the games talk about morals, there's nothing really moral about using a super-vehicle to blow up entire regions of the world. You can't really feel sorry for the good guys or bad guys if the only thing you both do is kill everything and anything you see lol. That and mostly all the characters are crazy or psychopathic. If the term for it is PTSD, then these guys have it "over 9000"!

I mean, the only real games known to be "typical shooters" and a bit over-the-top are Call of Duty, Id games, and Bioshock...but are they really comparable to the insanity and downright surreality of Mech games....No. And that's probably another reason why people might find appealing, is the insanity of the characters, dialogue, and situations that are a type of cheese you can't get anywhere else. Probably why IGN and GT hate the games, it's not their favorite kind of cheese.

Well, I think that's about it to be done, unless you want endless drivel.

Thanks for reading, stay tuned!

Shooters and Cliches: An Update

Now, It's been awhile since I've done a passionate post on my favorite gaming genre (or has it?), and I think it's time for a good update since quite a bit has changed in the realm of the shooter.

Now, I have played two of the Halo games, but I find it just kind of jarring that after Bungie left Microsoft to make something that isn't Halo...That the supposedly only planned "trilogy" has somehow warranted 3 more games, and a lame remake of the original.

Is Microsoft so bored and so greedy that they have to milk their own best-selling franchise? I hope these two reboots sell horribly.

Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3...even my clanmates who loved the original MW aren't planning on getting this since the last 3 games were nowhere close to being fun as MW1. That and with stuff like Battlefield 3, why would you want this piece of milking?

Activision in my eyes has shown me that they're more greedy than Microsoft, and from what I played of any of the the Call of Duty games...I'm amazed that even one copy was sold.

Gears of War 3; why did it take this long for Epic Games to make the game actually look good? The other two games looked like a garbage can, and had the textures overall of a garbage can...It shouldn't take the third and maybe FINAL game to actually stop being lazy with the modeling and textures!

That, and we need more anime shooters! I love realistic graphics but, After seeing gameplay of the PS2/PSP versions of Ghost in the Shell...A cel-shaded, vibrant-oozing, third or first person shooter would rock! This and while Valkyria isn't a straight-TPS, it shows that there is a market for more colorful and interesting characters in the shooter-space.

It's time we evolved and expanded the shooter genre...not going back to old trends and make my most favorite genre go sour.

That's about it for me, thanks for reading.

Theatres at War: Asian Conflicts

I was brainstorming last night about World War 3 and Vietnam/1943 Battlefields, and came to the conclusion this afternoon that these three entities could mesh well given proper development. World War 3 has always been the idea behind my flagship series if or when I become the head of my own game studio. World War 3's scale and prowless would be best defined on my "Real-G" engine ideals of promoting realistic graphics that key-movie-like.

Given this thought, most of the best gaming engines have always been pre-development using prototypes, or best yet...Premiere Titles. The frostbite engine used in Battlefield is a beast, but the "shock and awe" known as BC2 and BF3 weren't awesome looking 'til EA-DICE churned out the bugs and optimizations in the previous titles of BC1 and 1943.

This, and knowing full well that with MW3 and BF3, that the pre-modern warfare ideologies have resurfaced, now would be a good time to re-open a can of worms on building the "alpha test" of Real-G on a premire title that spans all the Asian Theatres of War; properly titled after WW3:MC-Theatres at War: Asian Conflicts.

This game is not to be as "big" as WW3, but have enough content based on the historics that the game would feel like "a real game". Numerous maps based on Japan, Korea, and Vietnam...with the idea to make the game play and look realistic enough to be a successful step in Real-G technology.

If AMD is correct that the Xbox 720 will support "Avatar-like graphics", there's nothing more useful than using such tech to bring the wonders of Asia and its environment to life. It's clear that with games like 1943 and BC2 Vietnam, that Asia is a visually-stunning place.

Now, given that this game would try to avoid stiff competition seeing how it's meant to "beta the technology", that I would prefer this premiere title not be on systems/consoles that have already been given the courtesy of having both 1943 and BC2 Vietnam.

This would include Vita, 3DS, Wii U, PC(if 1943 never comes to PC), and the successor to the PS3.

Real-G would "build" all the versions on a single scaler, but after the basic development is done each system will be optimized to use Real-G Alpha to its current potential individually.

If anything, when it comes time to develop WW3:MC, that at least TaW:AC should be a successful title technology-wise.

Thanks for reading, and stay tuned for more ideas/articles!

Why Gameplay Matters (In Video Games Part 2)

Now, after making a post about why graphics matter, it would be foolery not to make a "part 2" post about why gameplay matters. Now, as I said before in the last rendition, I don't tend to see myself as a graphics whore, but I do love a game with awesome, fluid, and downright addicting gameplay.

Now, the only issue with having good gameplay, is that it's an opinionated term. While most people can agree more commonly what makes a game have beautiful and/or realistic graphics...Gameplay is a much more thorny area.

That is why we have an almost inexhaustable amount of "genres", similar to books, movies, and other forms of entertainment. Some people love RPGs, some people love FPSs, some people like Action/Adventure, but some people don't like all three, if not liking only one of these examples.

My brother and one of my best friends understand why I like shooters and why I find enjoyment in them, but they're not really "big" into them. Kind of like why I understand why they look RPGs, even though I don't play them much since I stink at them.

Also the fact we kind all agree on one thing, RTS games can be kind of boring since one "match" can take several hours, if not days even (it's happened to me I assure you). That and these battles of "brain and chilvary" can exhaust your mind, to the point that those countless moments can end in a very gruesome and aggravating defeat.

Now, while RTS games are the "Niche of the Niche" when it comes to video games, Fighting games are usually seen as "The popular of the popular". It's almost an elementary knowledge that most gamers (if not all) have played and/or enjoyed a good slug-fest on the countless franchises of Fighting games.

Somehow, unlike shooters and RPGs...and especially RTS games that can exhaust you after numerous battles and/or matches, somehow getting "K'Oed" just makes you more motivated to where you have to either win once, or even the amount of winnings so you still feel satisfied.

Well, that's about it for this topic. Thanks for reading.

Why Graphics Matter (In Video Games)

Now, some people might take me as to being a graphics whore, but I don't really see it that way. Usually I never try to "promote awesome graphics" in bad taste, and I usually know that some games try to rely too much on graphics and have poor gameplay.

That said, this editorial(rant) is gonna be using examples of why I think graphics do matter in a more general sense, and why sometimes when people focus too much on graphics...I rather just have good gameplay.

So why do graphics matter? Well, why not? Since the dawn of video games, some of the best video games had both good gameplay AND graphics. It's hard not to feel addicted,immersed, and downright wired to something that has the best of both worlds.

Some of these franchises include Final Fantasy, Deus Ex, Battlefield, Star Wars, Uncharted, Killzone, and other titles that have a good mesh of both important gaming aspects. That said, there are some games that look pretty, but don't play pretty. I must admit that Call of Duty, The medal of honors pre-airborne, and titles like Halo just rub me the wrong way. Even though people find delight in them (somehow), their sporatic and downright clunky moments kill most of the fun in their respective moments.

That, and even if Final Fantasy XIII is a good game all around, I can't help but feel that the battle system was one of the last things added to the overall design.

There's also the matter that having more graphics support and graphics options can lengthen the replayability of a game (at least PC-side). It's hard to really go back to an old PC game that doesn't support widescreen or any resolution that is 720p or above. Not that the gameplay stinks after a few years, but a game that can't take advantage of post-launch hardware is hard to play if it doesn't look fresh anymore (or able to take up your monitor fully).

Also, it seems technology is behind the actual resolution of video games. If anyone knows of my recent rediscovery, is that while consumer TVs have yet to hit the 4k or super-hi vision mark. That it's almost common knowledge that a single character itself in a game has a 4k texture, and here we are stuck at 1080p (while still amazing), and sadly in some areas just 720p.

720p and 1080p are still awesome to look at, but for all you know by the time we reach 4k products, that games will have been using 8k textures per model.

Now there's not really a problem with this if you think backwards, as it's always better in my opinion for games to be downscaled by tvs instead of upscaled by them. It seems a common demographic that unless your tv has a good scaler of recent (2010+) tv model, that 720p games on a 1080p model look pixelated and just...not smooth. It was not only 'til recently that my family bought a newer plasma 1080p that had a scaler that made 720p (and even 480p) look pretty awesome, and that well...made the 1080p content look realistic.

If you have seen my Deus Ex and Vietnam 1080p footage and looked at what I posted before then, there's a considerable difference, definitely when I upscaled both games to 4k (aka Original-Original in good taste).

Now, at the start of this gaming generation, people overused and abused the term "uncanny valley". A term that basically means; the closer we get to more realistic graphics, the uglier they will seem before we "get there".

Now, even my non-graphics whores will agree that, given the right techniques (like actually making better graphics), that in some ways game nowadays almost look better than reality itself. Games oozing with texture-detail and polygon counts that given at TV 720p or above...reality just looks dull.

Sure, there are games this generation that look downright ugly, but that's usually because while the graphics processing has so much potential, that the shortcuts the developers use look like everyone's face is a mugshot.

One example I would use is GTA series, while the cars and buildings are pretty nice, everyone looks like they got their face rear-ended one time or another.

Now, with all this said and done. Graphics are not the end all and be all of games, which people use this phrase to hound me about. Which I actually agree with most people. That said, graphics do help (a lot) and helps with keeping you immersed. Gameplay is more important that is true, but I'd rather play a game that has good gameplay and the people look real, than a game that has good gameplay but characters that look under-modeled.

That's it for me for now, hope you enjoyed this little rant/editorial of mine.

Deus Ex: Human Revolution (Preview Build) Review

So as stated before, I decided to go on a limb here and download/play the Deus Ex Preview Build. If you looked at my previous article you could get some info on a little bit of what I thought of it. Now after beating the Preview Build I would feel ultimately guilty not to review the preview build.

First off, this game is purely awesome, and it has every right to be so. The storytelling is pretty much perfect with subtle similarities to other RPGs. Pretty much this section is gonna be me comparing it to other RPGs, so don't say I didn't warned you if this part might sound like I am bashing other RPGs.

This game is almost the nemesis to it's Squenix counterpart Final Fantasy XIII. Both have amazing graphics, and awesomely rendered cutscenes, but in my opinion Deus Ex is more of a real RPG than FFXIII. Deus Ex has a better storytelling set-up, where most of the meaningful storytelling is done in-game and not in cutscenes. While this is typical for a normal RPG, I felt that Squenix for XIII packed most of the "cool scenes" of that game into cutscenes, so that you were pretty much motivated to get to the next one. In this sense Deus Ex is more comparable to all the Final Fantasies pre-XII, giving it in my opinion the justified use of Action/RPG. Kingdom Hearts didn't use turn-based, and neither did XIII, and I think it's fair that while Deus Ex uses a shooter system for combat, that the rest of the game is what you would find in other typical RPGs.

Deus Ex runs on a "moral/player" based system similar to KOTOR/Mass Effect, but is much more robust and fleshed out that you have to talk you way out of situations instead of just have the "good/bad choice" going on. I was impressed that my social skills were immensely effective, to where I was able to resolve situations without going to more illegal means.

People who fancies themselves of stealth games will find some enjoyment (albeit stressful) gameplay in Deus Ex. Like MGS, the game uses an "alarm rate" system to where there's a timer for when the baddies aren't looking for you anymore. That and the enemies have quirky was of figuring out or not figuring out if you're in the vicinity. That and you get more points for using non-lethal means such as just using CQC to takedown enemies.

That and people who finds themselves nerdy enough to consider themselves cyberpunk fans, will find similarities to the likes of Ghost in the Shell, Appleseed, and maybe even the Matrix. Who honestly as a geek wouldn't be attracted to a savvy-hacking, robo-augmented, sunglasses-toting protagonist? This game while in the bowels of a niche, has plenty of appeal to people who might fancies themselves of franchises like Tron. That and the music is quite appealing for those who love "techno-orchestra" in a sense.

That and, there are always ways to complete your objectives, and in a sense this game is almost a "Stealth game on wheels". Sure, encountering the enemy might still be almost-instant death, but at least unlike MGS and some areas of Splinter Cell...you have plenty of room to work with usually to find a safe haven from enemies that have spotted you.

I have to say, the voice acting is excellent for the most part, unlike what people said about the previous two games. Adam Jensen's VA fits perfectly with the character in my opinion and brings the character almost perfectly to life.

Now, this game is completely about plot-twists, shady-characters, and conspiracy theories that are only rivaled by other cyberpunk or stealth-based games. This game takes itself pretty seriously, and unlike the more anime-renditions that get pretty cheesy, this game is able to set itself up with a pretty "Mature" tone. None of the characters really over-emphasis themselves, and you most of the time feel like you're talking to real people. This game has pretty much perfected the immersion factor in my opinion.

Also, not sure if this was doing of either Squenix or Eidos, but I find it a bit funny that the black ops character that has a "machine gun arm" is named Barrett, similar to that of Barret in FF7.

That being said, you don't really get the sense that any of the characters are "dumb". In one way or another, all the characters have some sort of intellect, which in some cases make the game just that much more interesting. Everyone is involved with something, which makes even your closest friends feel like suspects. It's hard not to feel that even your boss might be the "final bad guy", in which way the conspiracy set up of this game is pretty much successful in that respect.

Now on to some recommendations while playing this game:

SAVE OFTEN, while the autosave is pretty good...I suggest saving if you feel like the next area will be your death. SAVE DURING BATTLES AND BOSS FIGHTS...just so you don't have to repeat if you feel like you're inching closer to winning. FOCUS YOU'RE LEVELING ON HACKING, ENERGY BARS, AND STRENGTH AUGMENTATIONS...as these will affect how far you can get in the basic gameplay. DO ALL THE SIDEQUESTS...as these will give you tremendous XP which will always come in handy when getting your "augment points". If there are better ways to use you're leveling, take these recommendatoins as a grain of salt then.

Content:

This game is pretty much the essence of a purely fun game, that has plenty of motivations to keep going. It's epic-storytelling and movie-quality production values give the feeling that you're "a movie character". The Preview Build had about 6-9 hours of gameplay, and that was only the first area of the game. This game has open areas for which you can move around in, but the whole world isn't available, thus I would probably use the term "open-map" and not open world. That and the game supports DX11 on the PC-side of things, and the graphics never grow dull...in fact I think the graphics get better as the game progresses. That and I can't help but feel that Jensen's "augmented look" is what you would get if you crossed Snake with a Metal Gear.

Closing comments: This game is pretty much video game perfection, and I can see why people loved the original two games. Video Games of this austhetic don't get much better than this, if at all. It's pretty relieving that even Preview Builds of games can be uber-awesome, showcasing that developers are getting closer to making the perfect games.

In my Opinion?

Perfect 10 out of 10.

Deus Ex: Human Revolution First Impressions

I have been following this game almost since it was announced last year, and now the release month is finally upon us, I wanted to know if there was ever going to be a demo. After learning that somebody had leaked the preview build used at conventions such as E3, I decided to take on the task of the painful process of downloading about 9 parts and figuring out how to use "the crack".

I've never done something like this before, but it was one exciting ride to get my hands on the game. Now to get to the actual game...

First off, this game is definitely gruesome when Adam Jensen is forced to be augmented, as the robo-mercs who storm into Sarif HQ leave his body mutilated, even though there's no Gore...there's definitely a big hefty deposit of blood where he laid.

The game then does an also somewhat gruesome movie-quality cinematic of him being rebuilt. Even though his body was mostly intact after the lethal beating, the cinematic pretty much stated that his body was useless unless they replace his limbs with cybernetic parts.

After the cinematic, you're given your first chances at the branching dialogs. I pretty much kept my conversations to the point without trying to tick off anyone, and after a few minutes I was sent to one of Sarif's plants to attempt to save hostages from purists.

I decided to go in non-lethal, but by the end of the level I had ran out of tranquilizers, and ended up having to use lethal means besides using K.O.s.

I was able to talk the leader of the terrorists out of killing the main hostage, pretty much stating that he been duped and he should rather relocate his anger to the man who set up him up. This came after one of his "anti-cyber" members was actually very cybernetic, trying to steal info on an augmentation known as "Typhoon".

I came back with the CEO of Sarif being pretty grumpy about letting the guy go, but my branch was pretty much "The guy is no threat and probably will pay off later". Before I was sent to study the corpse of the "not so purist" hacker, I found out that one of my "doctor buddies" had been smuggling some sort of chemical out of Sarif's Labs, and thus I took it upon myself to find security tapes that could help him be "relieved" of having to stay a part of the smuggling, and so I opened up my first side quest.

I didn't get much farther than that, but the story was very intriguing and definitely makes me want to play more of the leaked build.

Now onto combat:

If anyone fancies themselves of Splinter Cell or Metal Gear, the stealth mechanics are pretty much the same. Taking down targets without being noticed is the best way to go, and enemies will alert surrounding squads if you are noticed. Also like those games, if you've been spotted it's not endorsed but it's best just to get rid of the enemies ASAP, non-lethal means first then lethal afterwards.

Also, augmentation points don't come easily, as I am still trying to figure out what kind of system the Augmentation levels use. I just know that with the preview build augmentation leveling is very spaced out and it seems trying to "max out" your character will take several hours, maybe.

That is of course expected in an RPG-style game, but I am still trying to figure it out so I can get a better idea what I'm supposed to be doing.

The graphics:

The graphics are just as good, if not better than what the trailers show, probably the funniest thing I find is some of the cutscenes are better quality than the in-game graphics, and some of them are worse than the in-game graphics due to the low-quality of some of them, but that's expected with software like Bink.

Feeling:

The game is quite immersive and quite intuitive for what it is presenting, you almost feel like you're in a movie and the overall feel of the graphics and gameplay make the experience quite addicting. That and I can't but feel a bit of fun when each takedown is shown in a "mini-cutscene".

Closing: I can definitely see why this game might be a 10/10 for some sites, as there is just not really many games like it. Unless you've come from the projects of KOTOR, Mass Effect, or some other player-based RPG, this game will seem like a needle in a haystack when it comes to finding originality among other titles.

(YAKUZA) Ryu ga Gotoku The Best Original Sound Track

After scowering the Sonixgvn site and looking through potential good OSTs, I decided to to try this one seeing how the cover and amount of composers interested me. I knew the franchise must be big if it had around 10+ composers, but I didn't know HOW big.

Let's just say my mind was already blown on the first three tracks, and continued to be blown when a composer I wasn't familiar with called Hidenori Shoji took center stage on the OST. This man's composing and multi-genre prowless could rival that of the great Keiki. I say this because he uses little to none of the "Keiki effect", he uses his own effects with masterful power.

Though some of the songs are weaker yet still good, his tracks gave me the impression that even SEGA knows how to pick some really magnificent composers and keep them "internal".

I have to say beyond those names of Nobuo, Joris, Junichi, Hitoshi, and Masashi...Shoji definitely has the skill and genius to become another instant "God of Gaming".

His tracks are powerful, easy to listen to, and just awesome stuff to rock out to. Also, seeing how the rest of the songs are usually almost as good if not still pretty good, I recommend this soundtrack to anyone who consider themselves a "rocker".

In my opinion?

9.5 out of 10.

Resistance 3 Beta: Impressions

Now I've been pretty harsh on the Resistance franchise, but I've been given ample kindness to be allowed in the Resistance 3 beta. Since I haven't turned down a beta yet, I decided to download and install said beta.

At first glance, the graphics have been vastly improved over the original demo I've played. The pallete is more vibrant (unlike IGN's statements), and the modeling is more robust and the pixelation is almost a thing of the past. If it weren't for the chimera, you wouldn't even think it was the same franchise.

That said, some of the issues still remain, and someways worse and someways better.

First off, the Half-life oozing is still there, and even more so in the beta map. If I were to be harsh on this series again, the whole beta map is filled with rocky textures, lush plants, and a whole setting that just speaks of Half-life 2 scenery. It was just as if the devs just copy and pasted and added some nice rendering effects.

On the note of rendering effects, it's hard NOT to notice the motion-blur, as running and shooting is almost nauseating if you're not too careful, I know Capcom is a fan of motion blur, but these devs take it to more extremes.

Also, just like Killzone, these devs like to toy with the players minds of being able to make heads or tails of WHO you are ACTUALLY shooting. I could have sworn that some of my deaths were teamkills, until the killcam stated otherwise. The chimera are almost purposely human-colored, with brown torsos, gloves, and a "blue jeans" that make me rage a bit. This doesnt help when you play as Chimera, since having the humans shoot at you feel very wrong since at your first person angle your model doesn't even give any indication that your the aliens.

That said, Killzone was also quite notorious with making the Helghast somewhat Identical to the ISA, to where in that beta I felt like everybody was shooting me.

It's almost as if With Sony shooters, including Uncharted 3, that the devs want to make the enemies not too similar, but similar enough to play head games with your eyes to where you throw a fit in rage.

Going on with the impressions, I have to say the weapons and controls feel much more enjoyable and too clunky. I have to actually say I actually felt like I was using a gun instead of the original Resistance where the guns felt like pop-cap replicas when it came to actually killing bad guys.

That and the graphics look pretty good, without  really noticing any aliasing at 720p.

That's about if for me, stay tuned for more impressions.

BrioCyrain's DOUBLE TIME REVIEWS: From Dust (Demo) and Warhammer 40k: Kill Team (Demo)

After playing two demos off the Xbox 360's Marketplace since both games will be available also either PSN or PC. I would feel guilty after enjoying both demos and finding them both somewhat addicting, not to post reviews of both trials/demos.

Warhammer 40k: Kill Team:
After seeing a trailer for this on the playstation blog, the game kind of exceeded my expectations of what I usually found in Warhammer games. The game not being an RTS this time around and instead a straight up top-down shoot-em-up, the game seemed quite tempting. After hearing that the game would come out August and curious to see if I would want to buy it down the road, I decided to hook up my Xbox 360 and download the trial.

Frankly enough, while the graphics style is reminiscent of both warhammer and warcraft(seeing how warcraft is pretty much a direct rip/competitor of warhammer), the modeling and graphics are very good in my opinion and definitely sets a good tone for the game. The control system is extremely intuitive and it didn't take me long to start mowing down orcs and bashing them with my melee gun. Not only that but each soldier class has a special move/weapon, which mine was just kicking the gun into hyper mode. This hyper mode pretty much turned my gun into the ultimate weapon where waves of Orcs only took like miliseconds to get wasted.

Pretty much as long as you were able to dodge bullets, melee the orcs when they got too close, and used the weapon with prowless and prejudice, with picking up any boosters and healing items, the game was pretty much pure orc carnage. The demo ended with "the unlock" trailer, and I have to say (pun intended) that I was more blown away than the orcs who felt my wrath.

In my opinion?


8+ out of 10.

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From Dust:
After hearing that this was not your normal Ubisoft game, and that IGN gave the game a clear 8+ out of 10. I decided to download this demo along side War 40k. Now this game was pretty much competiting with the likes of Spore, a mixture of Strategy and God Simulation that only certain "god game" people would find intrigueing.

The graphics are quite impressive for only being a downloadable, as the detail in even the "mortals" is quite good. The objective of the game was to help the mortals "populate and replenish the earth" while you helped them form land-masses, villages, and even help them fight back tsunamis with god-like powers.

The game unlike other RTS games where you're stuck to one map or village, allows you to either stay at one point and finish challenges, or if you're done populating a map continue to the next one. I found myself going through about 3 maps with the last one being the one with tsunamis, which the pacing never really made the game feel "slow".

The demo ended with another "unlock trailer" and left me with a good impression why IGN found this game fun.

In my Opinion?


8+ out of 10.

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Thanks for reading this double-review and I hope it helps my readers make better buying choices seeing how I enjoyed both demos.

Shooters and cliches: Why PC is the best market for Shooters

While people on consoles have construed a big divide between FPS and TPS markets, it's because the aiming, graphics techinques, and storylines are quite different between these two genres on consoles.

Now you're probably thinking "PC ELITISTSZZZ!", but there are sometimes reasons why PC gamers think they are elitists. Because unlike FPS or TPS games on consoles having to be mapped or programmed quite different, PC versions of both genres are usually only different by the camera system, aka the only difference is the camera between FP and TP.

All the pc shooters I own, whether they be FPS and TPS, pretty much function exactly the same. WASD to move your character, and using the mouse to aim with extreme-precision not usually found on consoles.

My friend was watching one of my Lost Planet 2 videos, which the PC version was highly underrated due to severe programming or coding problems on the console-side. He pretty much realized with a PC, no matter if I was playing FPS or TPS, that I was able to "snipe" with a rocket launcher and hit targets on the other side of an area, and usually that's just not possible or as easy to do using a controller with that type of camera system.

Pretty much what I am trying to get to, is that usually the gaming PCs of our era can pretty much reduce any "clunkyness" and severe graphics ugliness because of added accuracy and scalable graphics options. Lost Planet 2 on PC was a masterpiece but on console it was rushed and barely tolerable for many gamers.

Usually the only shooters that make it out alive on console are big budget ones like Battlefield and COD, or hyper-exclusive titles like Halo, Uncharted, and Killzone that are optimized to no bounds (well, maybe not exactly Halo).

That's pretty much it for now, keep up with my blog for more editorials and posts.

Shooters and cliches: Tactical Horror

Now, I enjoy me-self some Fatal Frame and Ghost Recon, but I never thought of the two concepts of merging into one bloody and almost glorified hilarious venture. When I first heard that Capcom was going to be one of the "firsts" to delve into such wizardry with co-development made by former SOCOM devs Slant Six, I was skeptical that these two overrated genres could provide a big huge mess gameplay-wise.

That's the thing though, this new title dubbed Operation Raccoon City IS a big huge mess, but seems to be a masterful mess at that. Third person squad-based combat mixed with reveling zombie bloodshed creates a niche that people like me would love to bathe in. That and the "knife" usage is out of this world, being able to fling and slash zombies and stab them through like vegetables.

With that and the Future Soldier style camouflage and Tactical style cover system, this game could be one of the greatest spin-offs seen in a wavering franchise, and bring in new fans including myself to help boost morale needed to fund a RE-6.

That and this being a true co-op and multiplayer shooter with roots in Lost Planet 2, it's been said you can bring 3 of your buddies along to help thwart the raccoon city situation and also delve in USS VS Spec Ops action online, hopefully with zombies still mixing up the servers.

Capcom is taking a big risk with fusing both genres into a niche you could call "Tactical Horror", but maybe it's a risk that might help save Capcom from their previous bad decisions.

That's about it for now, stay tuned for more S & C editorials.

Animation purity: 2D VERSUS 3D, and how do you define 2.5D?

Now, I know this has been a thorny subject for many animation fans for years, but having research it myself I would like to point some facts, even though they could be opinionated facts.

Animation at it's core is pretty much defined as any form of entertainment that has little to no live action bits. Though you could say there's plenty of live action that uses Animation(but preferably/professionally known as CG/CGI), but let's not focus on that really.

2D has always been my prefered style of animation, simply because due to various technologies and the art of anime, this about 100-year phenominon has grown into a overly-massed market that the whole world has enjoyed without much criticism.

That said, 2D has taken a harsh trail for many people when the dawn of FLASH arrived, which made it almost entirely possible for "non-true animators" to slap something together and call it animation. While there are about of handful of decent flash productions done nowadays, some of the stuff on a site known as newgrounds could almost be considered blasphemy when it comes to the form of art.

Flash wouldn't be so popular if it wasn't for the almost anti-beginner status of 3D Animation.

3D Animation didn't get it's real start until the projects known as "Reboot" and "Toy Story", two of the first fully 3D productions that started a new dawn of computer generated animation. While these shows had very few flaws, the trend they started has created some of  the most notorious "shovelfilms" that give almost any decent 3D movie a bad name.

Thus, this is why 3D has given many an animation buff the likeness of being overrated, not because the technology is bad, but some of the movies that use it are just  plain horrible, and it weren't for the flash industry, 2D would have almost cleared it's name of aweful usage

That said, the japanese have been known to almost excel at both these arts. With the form of both 2D and 3D "Anime", the japanese industry has been almost a godsend to people who have lost faith and/or interest in western interpretations. Movies like the new "Tekken: Blood Vengeance 3D" and productions such as "Ghost in the Shell" showcase that the japanese take their productions far more seriously, and who can forget the almost perfect line of Studio Ghibli titles?

Also since the early 2000s, companies like Disney have incorporated both forms into a single production, which people have debated to use the term "2.5D". Now people have debated what exactly defines 2.5D, but it's obvious that many titles since then to possibly cut down work and time have implemented either 3D backgrounds or 3D models that would be more painstaking to do hand-drawn.

One example would be Robotech, where the original seasons' fighter-scenes probably required hundreds if not thousands of frames to depict the different angles and attack patterns of several attack-craft. While the latest movie version opt-in to just create the ships and fighters as 3D models so they need to only use a computer replica.

The only usual downfall of this method is that the 3D and 2D almost never blend well and the two styles almost give the movie a wierd "ugly" look due to the simplicity of the 3D models. Even Macross Frontier used this method and tried to counteract this effect by using forms of cel-shading to give the 3D models a "2D look", which made the models only slightly more tolerable.

As you can see, the Animation industry has become nothing more than a big huge mess of different styles, and the demand for greater techniques has grown, but the production of said large demand has thinned greatly. It is if almost technology or the people who use it have gone backwards to what people in the mainstream demand.

I'm just glad there is still at least a handful of animation experts who got their heads on correctly.
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RETRO=Modern Relevance?

Okay, so this is my third blog post today, but that's because I am on a utter role this time around. This topic here is about, Retro gaming!

After learned about the Aliens DS port from WayForward, and having played the Scott Pilgrim PSN game, that even today's 3D titles just can't beat most of the well-placed nostalgia of a good side-scroller.

Touche? Some of these more modern takes on side-scrollers who try to combine 3D and 2D on the same plane sometimes end up in utter failures, unless you're talking about masters of both dimensions like Metroid.

There are still many platforms that have, do, and SHOULD support retro-gaming and revel in it. Seeing how there are platforms that while have 3D support are more destined to be ultra-2D (Cough NDS COUGH), and the fact that many titles now have the capability of supporting hand-drawn images, 2D has never shined better until this modern age where there will always be a demand, contrary to the 3D-purists who negate our industry.

Touche? That and some of the best 3D games out there are merely transitions of what made their 2D counterparts great. Games like Mario, Metroid, Zelda, Castlevania, Metal Gear, and the like are almost just three-dimensional copies of their retro counterparts, and the 3D has only made them stronger in appeal and content.

I would almost be disappointed if the industry STARTED OUT in 3D, as to say the N64 and PS1 3D capabilities were almost untolerable, which is why the systems were heavily used as ultra 2D machines, using the 3D-based hardware to make high-resolution 2D assets.

That and with the age of the PS3 and Xbox 360 where you can have a clean 1080p 2D game that is oozing with phenominal detail, as is as clear as a windexed window, 2D will always have advantages over the 3D-styled titles that have to push real hard to get a decent amount of detail and still look "nice".

That's pretty much it for now, stay tuned for new posts.

Horror=Giggles?

After making a previous thought-provoking post about entertainment or specifically gaming. What actually makes Horror movies and games...Fun?

I have ponders this for many days, and why do many of us humans insist otherwise that unlike other beings who would rue the day if they got even the tiniest-bit scared, that we rivel in freaking ourselves out and make it almost a social-entity of having to get scared to "death"?

Having experienced it in such games a Fatal Frame, it's almost a double-edged sword when it comes to horror-media, one edge being that you're totally or slightly freaked out, but your body and emotions also entail a sense of humor and almost laughing inside when you're panicked.

This double-set of emotions is probably why people support this medium, since the reactions can be quite hysterical to the fearful and outright humored consumers.

Having watched videos of people spectating players of such games, while the player is totally fearing for his gaming life, the people who look on are either scared, or bathing in utter humorous abundance.

This is also one of the genres where people like to use terms that inflict the thought of depositing bodily waste into one's lower garments, to which kind of happens during moments of fear and laughter to someone with no physical self-control.

Also, is it to pursue outside emotions that would relevantly never happen in the time-span of their real life, where they enduce themselves with awkward emotional bathing to ensure that they can consider themselves true humans?

Something to think about I think.

What is Gaming?

After spending the better part of my life playing video games constantly, if not addictively since my childhood, I have comes to grips with something that sometimes is my darkest fear....what is gaming?

Now before you start badgering about your definitions, its not really to figure out the pure identity of gaming, but why are we so infatuated with things that aren't real that are hooked up to a controller?

Why do we suggest or praise a form of entertainment that is merely a mix of pixels, computer generated images, and quite clearly, is so interesting to stare at a 2D-screen for hours on end?

It's the same way with computers, while we can be out walking, working, doing charity work, signing papers for a higher cause...we just sit on our butts and stare at a screen with stuff moving around it?

Is it true that most of us don't see it that way and our brains suggest that we are watching or playing is actually a form of an internal two-dimensional psuedo-reality, similar to that of the film industry where our eyes and ears are suspended in disbelief even though logically there's nothing really there?

The people who binge-online games like Call of Duty, Battlefield, and Uncharted seek excitement and reward in a world that has no ties to reality, but somehow our brains process these set of images, movements, dialog, and such as a theoritical "hobby"?

Why is it so easy to become enthralled in a game like Pokemon when it's just a bunch of pixel characters or backgrounds moving from one side to the other, colliding with each other, doing battle movements on a flat screen that somehow tricks our mind into thinking something's actually there?

You can say something similar about books, how does several lines of text somhow switch on a button in your brain to where the story becomes alive through your supposed imagination?

Logically it's almost unexplainable but somehow our brains are almost toys, puppets to whatever visual concosion man has devised to sell or market as something sensual as "entertainment".

What do you think is the reason our bodies can find "reality" in a "world" for of "fakeness"?

REAL-G: Real-Time Graphics of the Future

REAL-G:

Real-Time Graphics of the Future

The Real-G pipeline is a future initiative to bring unparalleled real-time or gaming graphics to the quality of movies like Avatar. After AMD spoke out about the next Xbox having Avatar-quality graphics, people couldn’t help but laugh at the claim.

Even though it sounds like a funny bold statement, I was thinking…Such a future could be achievable with the current goals, and Real-G is based on those goals.

First, we need to stop treating consoles as gaming machines, and instead of just up-scaling graphics as our main priority, we need to think parallel on the CGI front. That is, come to a median where we should also take on experts of movie-geared CGI so we are also taking into account “down-scaling” on the other front. We need to think of graphics on a double plane. Real-G would take into account people like Digital Frontier who are experts in CGI, but also take in people like Nvidia and AMD/ATI so that we reach a double plane that can push real-time or gaming graphics further. Add graphics features applicable on both fronts, and created the most advanced graphics engine/pipeline known to the industry.

Second, since this is a joint venture between both fronts, Real-G must have technologies that negate the need for upgrades. One of these technologies would be Infi-Res, similar to the tech used in Gearbox games where the Resolution of the graphics/game will up-scale and update itself to all demands. Another technology would be a more standard function of scaling the quality of the models/textures themselves, to where based on the task at hand you can either up-scale or down-scale particular assets.

The engine would support Stereo-3D, seeing how this is meant as a double front graphics engine that would use CGI-quality features.

Real-G would be an on-going project, to where each “tech demo” would be treated as a mini-movie, each one maxing out a certain goal to the best of the consoles/PCs capabilities, the engine would have to be extremely optimized, but not to the point of sacrificing key CGI-based features. If the console can’t run the rudimentary features, the console/PC would be disqualified.

Real-G’s features as a graphics-pipeline would not take into account game-play, this is to make sure the graphics engine is running primarily on the GPU where it belongs, and being as CPU-less as possible so the CPU can focus more on game-play.

Real-G’s meaning is pretty self-explanatory, a double meaning of “Real-time” and “Real-Graphics”

I think any company or graphics technician who is serious about advancing Real-time graphics on a double front should consider proposals like Real-G.

BrioCyrain and the Musical Buff that is.

For all those who know me, if I ever mentioned Ace Combat to you...there was probably 99.9% chance that I would comment on it's epic music. And why not? I consider myself a huge musical buff when it comes to music, even though there are some record labels that I wouldn't listen to if you paid me.

Pre-2000s Disney, Hans Zimmer, Koji Kondo, Keiki Kobayashi, Junichi (Keiki's friend), Masashi, Yoko, Utada, Hitoshi, John Williams, Joris De Man, etc land a mark on how you properly do "epic emotional music". Now you might be wondering if I ever tried composing for myself? Numerous, and more numerous times! I might not be an expert composer but every now and then I pull up the good ol' FL Studio and do some tune-bashing if my ears are right and hitting what I think are the right notes.

Well some of you are thinking, "FL Studio", but I have actually taken music courses, albeit I never finished them due to important reasons. I remember actually taking a singing lesson in kindergarten, which I never quite remember what was the result. I also took band in 4th/5th grade doing the trombone, before having to quit the class after having problems with hyperventilation. I also had a recorder that I would play Epona's song on, and sometimes goof around on my brother's keyboard where every now and then I would hit some nice notes.

Now I'm not saying I qualify as self-taught, but every time I listen to a song I try to figure out the motive and signature usage into my songs...and using these kind of inspirations I can actually get something decent going.

I know I will never be a Keiki or  Hitoshi, but I won't find myself giving up and never try to make a good piece that will satisfy my current inspirations. That's why I find myself wanting to talk to composers more than other kinds of people, because they should have the consideration to know that their music is special and nobody should deprive them of that.

Good day to you.

ACE COMBAT X: SKIES OF DECEPTION OST REVIEW

After having listened to the "supposed" sequel to this soundtrack, it's obvious Namco knew better what it was doing with Skies of Deception compared to Joint Assault.

Tetsukazu Nakanishi was the supervisor of the OST, and his techno synths give the soundtrack a pretty good old-school arcade feel. It might not be the techno/orchestra you're familiar with in AC4 and parts of AC5, but it's good flight music nonetheless.

Unlike Joint Assault that I think the music team had a feeling the game would fail, Tetsu-san had hope in this game that scored higher on gaming sites and I'm glad at least one of the AC gods was a part of it and not just "pasted" into it.

If you want techno flight sim goodness with not much of an orchestra, don't look further than Skies of Deception.

In my Opinion?

8.6 out of 10

ACE COMBAT X2: JOINT ASSAULT OST REVIEW

Joint Assault was probably one of the weakest, if not the weakest Ace Combat port to hit any platform. Scoring only a 6.5 on IGN, this game had no hope of making it off the runway, and it seemed like most of the compositions in this OST reflect that.

Now Joint Assault his some good music, keyword some, but they seem mostly out of place for what Ace Combat is meant to be composed for. Most of the good pieces are ground centric, ranging from RPG to Racing music. None of the songs really fit a flight arcade/sim setting, and that's what I'm puzzled about, 'til I saw the credits list for the composers.

The composers are comprised of Persian, Racing, RPG, and an AC oldie who clearly weren't supervised what makes the newer AC games so special in the music department. As if the "good team" was either on a hiatus or busy revving up for Assault Horizon.

That said there are some exceptional tracks, but it seems these ones were just "copy and pasted" over from the more epic OSTs, to which they shouldn't really count as newly original tracks.

I mostly put blame on the Namco management team, for hiring composers from other teams (and Inon Zur) who have no real consistency when it comes to making Flight sim music. That said some of the tracks are pretty decent.

In my Opinion?

7.8 out of 10

ACE COMBAT ZERO: THE BELKAN WAR OST REVIEW

I pride myself as a "War Song" buff, especially the kind of war music that gives epicness to games like Ace Combat. Ace Combat Zero is no exception, but it is at the same time...in a good way.

Ace Combat Zero is not practically the perfect mix of previous ace combat games, IT IS the perfect mix. Ranging from Techno, Industrial, Orchestra, Synth, Latin Choirs, Hispanic Guitars...this entire soundtrack creates a long mix and is mixed perfectly. Keiki Kobayashi with his company of rag-tag epic game composer gods has given his Project Aces and players something to play with, play for, and this soundtrack never gets old. The compositions could rival with the best of movie soundtracks, and in a fair fight, beat them to a pulp.

If you can't picture yourself in the skies as a master ace pilot to this music, there's nothing wrong with music, there's something wrong with YOU.

In my Opinion?

Perfect 10 out of 10.

Shooters and cliches: Repeatance-Fall of Gaming

It's been awhile since I did another rant on my favorite genre, but it's hard to not indulge myself in such chilvary after playing the Resistance: Fall of Man demo.

For those who have read my Fallout, Battle LA, and other anti-FPS rants and know my current opinions on gaming, Resistance is another hole in the gutter that while loved by a certain niche, it poses one of the problems in the de-evolution of the shooter genre.

For those who read my demo review, I have a bit of angst that this series is nothing more than outside ideas meshed into one franchise. While some of my friends know that the shooter genre is rather generic with it's premises and settings, Resistance is one of those franchises that takes the cake and doesnt seem to admit that it is more of a step backwards than a step forwards.

Insomniac has proven they are able to bring quality gameplay and settings such as their shoot-em-up platformer Rachet and Clank, but seeing how Resistance is their first real FPS franchise, I hope it is their last seeing how all three titles have little in common with each other since they have no clue how to perfect their setting or gameplay with Resistance.

That and the alien invasion and terraforming premise reminds me of Robotech Invasion, a great game that was underrated by many and was based on the related 80s anime that had a compelling story for it's time, though there was some Halo cloning to be had. I just want to know why a company is big as Sony delve into copying a third-party PS2/Xbox title that had little to no marketing, and risk tainting their name with the likes of a under-sold game title?

Resistance poses a problem for shooters that while I don't really listen to people that believe shooters are destroying gaming, that Resistance is one of those franchises that developers are willing to sacrifice originality and smooth gameplay just to make cash on the genre, and in this sense it's almost as guilty as Fallout when it comes to rather sticking to de-evolution tactics rather than evolve the genre ala Valve or Battlefield.

I hate to say it but, I am more looking forward to RAGE than Resistance 3.

Meh...