June 4, 2010

3D Dot Game Heroes

Filed under: Gamer — Tags: , , , , — Yukino @ 12:13 AM

Purchase 3D Dot Game Heroes now from Amazon

(Playing a trade copy of the game which does not have trophies enabled.)

There is a saying that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. That is definitely the case with 3D Dot Game Heroes as it pays its respects to the classic 2D role playing masterpieces that shaped so many gamers of my generation.

3D Dot Game Heroes is a brilliant adventure game styled after the most famous 2D adventure RPG of all time: Legend of Zelda. A tale of a reluctant hero summoned by the King to retrieve six magical orbs and defeat an evil sorcerer, the only thing missing from this story is a princess in distress. Throw in a few dashes of humour, and a 3-D environment, and you have yourself an entertaining jaunt through the vast land of Dotnia.

After a brief cinematic where the King of Dotnia pleads with you to save the kingdom, you collect the Ancient Sword and begin your journey across the vast plains, forests and deserts of Dotnia. You’ll want to start out wandering the fields close to Dotnia and its neighbouring village in search of some coin to purchase a nifty shield and some other supplies, not to mention start a couple of side quests moving along. Now you are on your way to becoming a grade A hero.

Your destiny includes listening to smart-ass comments from old men in temples

I believe I wasted a good three or four hours traveling the countryside and talking with villagers, slashing up enemies and tufts of grass for coins in order to enhance my sword. While the basic sword is fine and you don’t have to upgrade or use any other sword, I felt that beefing up my sword was best for getting through the later temples. The extra length and width allowed me to move more quickly through rooms that I had been struggling in and dying too soon for my liking. Exploring the countryside early on proved a bit of a mistake as I soon found myself far off on pathways that I was not prepared for with no means to defend myself. Nothing like getting hit with projectiles and not having a shield to defend with.

Along the way you will acquire the rest of the weapons for your arsenal. It wouldn’t be right if this game didn’t include a boomerang, trusty bombs, and special foot gear. The boomerang is perfect for hitting those just out of reach red buttons. Hidden passages and caves can be discovered with a well-placed bomb in front of cracked walls or stones. Yes, there are even fairy caverns where you can replenish your health at no cost. My favourite cave is From Cave, where there are plenty of in-jokes regarding From Software’s games, including Demon’s Souls.

Now, I was never a big fan of Zelda games. Link never seemed to question why Princess Zelda was always getting herself in trouble. The top-down view of the original games just didn’t appeal to me. I even attempted to play one of the Nintendo 64 versions hoping that I would enjoy it, but it only took a few hours to remind me that I just cannot get into the Zelda groove. This may be due to the lack of proper direction that seems to plague me. 3D Dot Heroes suffers from the same lack of direction, or extremely vague directions, at various points throughout the game. Armed with nothing more than “head west” and a flashing marker on your world map, there are times when you just have to wander around and pray you are going in the right direction.

Once I got past that minor hurdle, the game progressed much more smoothly. Within a few short hours I had made my way through three caves, solved a couple puzzles, delivered mail (a fun little side quest that netted me another Life Shard) and even located a bow for long range attacks. All I needed was to get into a rhythm and I was flying through the main storyline. All told, the main quest doesn’t take too long to complete; a little over a dozen or so hours if you run through the basics. Dungeons can be revisited and new rooms discovered with coloured keys for added bonuses. You can also replay any of the bosses if you wish.

Dotnia's #1 Mini-Game: Block Defense

In between temple and cave spelunking, there are oodles of side quests and some very addicting mini-games your hero can enjoy. Everyone needs to take a break once in a while, so why not do it playing a fun game and maybe pocket some free money or prizes in the process? My personal favourite is Blockout, a brick breaking game which you can find in Ortego Village on your way to the third temple. You can also put your fancy Dash Boots to use by running laps in Dash Circuit, where the goal is to complete three laps without bumping into obstacles which will slow you down. The third mini-game, very popular with Dotnians of all ages, is Block Defense and it plays exactly like you think it would. Like any tower defense game, you must build defenses along a path to stop oncoming waves of enemies from reaching and destroying your castle.

By far the best selling point of 3D Dot Game Heroes is the character creation tool. Hours can be lovingly wasted on building all sorts of people, animals, mecha and just plain random objects to become your avatar as you slay the beasts of Dotnia. Using the in-game tool or the online version, you can save your heroes to a USB stick and upload them to the Hall of Heroes. At the Hall, you can also browse through other submitted Heroes and download them to use in your own game. 3D Dot Game Heroes has a great community of creators Atlus is committed to nurturing and assisting it in any way that it can. Atlus has always been great to its fans, and this is just one more notch on their belt of awesome.

Bringing back the Pompadour

Overall Opinion

If you are looking to relive your gamer roots, give 3D Dot Game Heroes a spin in your PS3. Not only will you remember everything you loved and hated way back when, you’ll also get a good kick out of the several load screen images featuring all kinds of RPG game covers remade in 3D Dot style. Since the text is pretty limited in most cases and fairly easy to understand, you can introduce your kids to the sometimes frustratingly good, clean fun that was our childhood. And at $40 for a brand new copy, including all the things that were once DLC in Japan, 3D Dot Game Heroes won’t hurt your wallet too much.

Review product was provided by Atlus, and does not affect the outcome of this review.

Original First Look from GamingAngels (March 2010)

Once upon a time, in an 8-bit land not so very far away, the 8-bit people and their 8-bit pets, 8-bit grannies and 8-bit monsters came to the realization that 8-bit worlds didn’t have the market value they once did. The money stopped pouring in and life became pretty stagnant. It was around this time they sold their story to the fine creative minds at Atlus, at a reduced rate of course, and proclaimed that they would try this “3-D” craze all the kids have been talking about. (Plus, the King had seen James Cameron’s Avatar, and he knew that 3-D meant billion dollar sales, so he figured it couldn’t hurt.)

Coming May 2010 – 3D Dot Game Heroes: The Game

Dotnia is a land of many classic dungeons and colour coded keys. And swords. Like the giant one the greatest Hero of them all used to wield, until he stuck it into the ground. His sword was so great that it was nearly three times his size and could go through trees. No other sword can do that, just his uber special “yeah that’s not really a glitch” sword. And there are orbs. Because the people of Dotnia have seen countless fantasy movies at the 8-bit drive in and they know that magical orbs don’t get enough love these days.

Oh the humority!

So the King gets up from his throne and declares they are going to upgrade from a 3D 8-bit existence to a 3D one. Now everyone is excited. There is purpose again to their mundane lives. Something is going to happen! And you are chosen to be the new Hero. Aren’t you just happy?

Here we are in 2010 and we are talking about an 8-bit game that isn’t pre-1990s. Why? Because 8-bit games have universal appeal, they are fun and charming, and 3D Dot Heroes is probably the best flattery for the classic 2D action adventure genre that ever will be.

Everybody wants to play a game that is fun. 3D Dot Heroes has all the in-humour and basic yet not-so-basic familiarity of games such as Legend of Zelda or Castlevania way back in the day. From what I have seen via the live web demo I attended last week and through various clips online, I have determined that this game is going to have copious amounts of fun wrapped inside a candy coating of awesome. It’s up to you just how much fun you want to have. Journeying in seven expansive dungeons and exploring the vast lands of Dotnia will probably take about 15 hours for a basic start to finish with a bit of dabbling adventure. Increased difficulties can be unlocked for those who want more of a hardcore “I grew up in the 80s!” experience. (And for those of you out there, just because we grew up with these games in the 80s doesn’t mean they didn’t kick our bumbs back then.)

The majestic beaches of Dotnia

You can choose from one of three various alignments for your Hero – Royal Heir (balanced), Scholar (one of those nerdy book loving… I mean more magically inclined) or Hero (the slightly more I’m going to bash you with this club type). Instead of leveling up your character, all health and magic points are attached to your sword. So make sure you keep an eye out for red (healing) and green (magic) apples if you see you are about to die. And play smart! If you see a monster with a golden crown symbol over his head, that means he’s going to be a bit tougher than an ordinary one of his kind. Don’t think you can take him on? There is no shame in running from a battle if it means you will live to see another dungeon.

And how about mini-games? During the demo I was able to check out two of the three mini-games that are included at NO EXTRA CHARGE! Block Defense is a tower defense mini game in which you will try to stop the bad guys from getting to Point B from Point A, setting up towers (Ha!) along the way in hopes to kill them D-E-D dead. You can also use your custom made character to help if you want, or you can make your towers do all the work (boy, you really are a lazy Hero!). The second game Blockout challenges you to clear out all of the offending blocks in your way with just a few balls at your disposal.

Sword make blocks go SMASH!

Now, the Japanese were able to get an awesome version of 3D Dot Heroes a few months ago, which is cool and all, but they had to wait for some things to be released as download content and we North Americans don’t. Neener neener neener! There are bonus Block Defense levels that we get on the disc, as well as some added pre-made characters to choose from, the option to install the game to the PS3 hard drive (yes, I said “option”-you don’t have to, but the game will load faster if you do) and the best part of it all – the Loading Screen Gallery.

I could spend hours just watching the Loading Screen Gallery. Our 8-bit inhabitants spent hours posing themselves against white backdrops to look like our favourite game box art just to get our attention. Part of the fun is trying to guess them all.

So what do the people of Dotnia ask in return for all the awesome fun they are bundling up for us?

$39.99 US

Yup, for all that stuff I talked about and the epic in-game soundtrack that I am mentioning now, $39.99 will buy you a ginormous good time. There will be several hours of creating amazing characters that you can save to USB and share online with friends and strangers, all of which will be supported by Atlus. Can’t forget about all those cool trophies you’ll want to collect, which will mean more than one play through, not like you won’t play it over and over again to see if you can find all the swords and easter eggs without cheating. You also get a handy camera option, so you can take snapshots of your character taking down hordes of beasts and then use that as a desktop or PS3 background and brag to your friends or impress that boy/girl in your life with your “skillz”.

If you start saving 20 cents a day right now, you will be able to buy 3D Dot Game Heroes on May 11th and bring some financial stability back to Dotnia. What are you waiting for? Check your couches, your car and your linty pockets and pre-order it now!

(No editors were harmed during the writing of this article, however you are urged have a tall latte instead of a grande one and use that 20 cents you save everyday to help the Dotnians clothe and feed their pet dragons. And if you do that, they just might let Yukino out of the Flame Temple. It’s pretty hot in here. There’s fire in the Flame Temple, you know.)

May 5, 2010

Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure

Filed under: Gamer — Tags: , , — Yukino @ 9:29 PM

Status: 1 playthrough complete

Purchase Rhapsody, A Musical Adventure from Amazon

Reviewed for GamingAngels – June 23, 2009

Excerpt from review:

The Story:

Our heroine, young Cornet of the village of Orange, is quite the shy girl. Her mother passed away when she was young, she lives with her grandfather, and has the ability to interact with Puppets. She loves playing on the horn that her mother taught her to play, and has a best “nemesis” in her childhood friend, Etoile.

Cornet has never met Prince Ferdinand, but every night she dreams about him rescuing her, being the love of her life. While enjoying her daily excursion into the woods with her magical puppet Kururu, the two of them are attacked but Prince Ferdinand is there and saves her. So when the prince is kidnapped by a witch named Marjoly, and accidentally turned to stone when the witch’s spell takes a bad turn, Cornet (armed with her magical wish-granting horn) and Kururu set off to save the prince and return him to normal.

Gameplay:

The DS version of Rhapsody features a 2-D turn based battle style, and plays just like any other dungeon-crawler JRPG. You are free to wander into all the buildings in each of the towns, interact with the NPCs and search for hidden items and money in your neighbours’ trash cans. Once you enter one of the dungeons, you can explore for hidden treasures and even stumble upon new Puppets for Cornet to add to the party. Some of these puppets will require your party to be at a certain level in order to join; others you will need to defeat in battle. But no matter how you find them, you must play your horn in order to fulfill the recruitment.

Like most RPGs, battles have three basic options: Attack, Magic/Special Abilities/Items. Each round of battle begins with you selecting each party member’s move, with no knowledge as to when the enemy will make their move. Puppets have elemental alignments which give them various related magic spells, some of which will only damage one enemy and others which will attack the enemy party as a whole.

The special music note bar at the top of the battle screen is the Kansha Gauge. When Cornet plays her horn in support of her party, each active puppet in the battle will give her a support note. As Cornet keeps supporting and gaining these notes, she gets to pull off some very special attack moves: Sugar Candy, Flan, Cake and Pancake attacks. When the bar is maxed out at 5, she can use Heart, which will fully heal and restore all ability points to the team.

Graphics/Sound:

2-D dungeon crawlers usually look pretty decent on the DS. Rhapsody is no exception. The sprites have limited animation, and there really aren’t any CGI scenes to speak of. The few cut-scenes that exist consist mostly of singing, which was kept in Japanese but subtitled for the US release. There is one melody that runs through what Cornet plays on her horn and what the characters use for their singing highlights. I am glad that when dialogue comes up, the characters close-ups don’t look like the “chibi” form you actually control on the screen.

Fun Factor/Replay Value:

I don’t know how much replay value I will get out of the game. I managed to collect most of the puppets on this playthrough, and there wasn’t much that I could find in the way of sidequests. My playthrough was just around the 20 hour mark, and I think the only other thing I could have done to extend the gameplay was to keep levelling up in the various dungeons. It was a pretty enjoyable one time game, however.

Female Aspect:

Rhapsody features a lot of strong female characters; Cornet, Kururu, Etoile. These women embody different aspects of female nature: insecurity and discovery, nurturing and encouragement. But where the game fails is in how they approach certain issues females (especially young females) face. I did not play the original PSOne version, nor the Japanese releases, but some of the things said in the game simply do not lend themselves to a game that is E rated. They make poor references to weight (calling Cornet “chubby” at a mere 100 pounds), comments about showing leg to the prince (would you tell your 8 year old playing this game that this is acceptable behaviour), and even comments about the witch, Marjoly, not wearing underwear. Now, as an adult I can see some humour in some of the text, but if this game is rated as E for Everyone, then I wonder how the ESRB let dialogue like that go lower than a Teen rating. If these were actual dialogue translations from the Japanese release, then the localization team should have changed them. And if not, and this was the work of the localization team, then they should have been told to change the text or accept a higher ESRB rating.

Yukino’s Comments:

Other than my disappointment that this game somehow passed with an E rating, I would definitely say if you are looking for a fun, quick JRPG that you should give this a try. It really doesn’t use the stylus, so don’t worry if you’ve lost yours. I was able to find it for $15 new/$10 used, which I think is a good deal for a game that can be finished in under 20 hours. A nice, cheap but fun addition to the fan of the genre.

Persona

Filed under: Gamer — Tags: , , — Yukino @ 8:45 PM

Status: Still playing & making new Persona in the Velvet Room

Purchase Shin Megami Tensei: Persona from Amazon

Reviewed for GamingAngels – Nov 16, 2009

Repost of review:

I fondly remember (vaguely) when I first played Persona on the PS1. Ever since, I have enjoyed delving into the twisted franchise. The wonderful people at Atlus have done me (and the entire gaming world) a huge favour by updating and re-releasing the original title on the PSP.

High schoolers will do as every other student has done before them, and St. Hermelin High students are no exception. There is a rumor going around that by performing a special chant you can summon otherworldly creatures known as Personas. The game begins with a group of students, including the main lead who you will name, playing this game at school and passing out when they witness a crying girl in the middle of the room. They wake up and are sent by the school nurse to go to the local hospital for a check up, and encouraged to visit a girl from their school (Maki) who has been in hospitalized for over a year.

Shortly after arriving at the hospital and a brief visit with Maki, a lunar haze covers the town. Demons and evil creatures appear everywhere, with the exception being the high school. Upon first facing a group of demons, our group of students discover they all had the same “dream” when they passed out, and now have the ability to call upon Personae to assist them in battle. And in a miraculous turn of events, Maki seems to be completely fine. Oddly enough, she has no recollection of even being hospitalized. There is definitely more to Maki than the students realize, and soon they discover secrets that SEBEC, a local and very sinister corporation, has created a machine that allows people to travel into an alternate dimension. (I want to add here that the Snow Queen side story which never made it to North America in the PS1 version of Persona is available to play in this version, which is another big plus.)

Always controlling your main character (who I named Tsuki Yuki, since there is already a character named Yukino), you become the party leader. Other characters will join him or split off when you reach certain points in the story, but for the most part there are almost always others in your group.

When you encounter demons in random battle, you are first given your main battle commands: Fight, Contact, Analyze, Form, Auto, and Escape. Some of these are self explanatory – Analyze lets you see the HP/SP and other important information available on the enemy you scan, Form lets you choose the formation your characters take in battle (moving stronger players to the front, weaker in back, etc), and Escape gives you the option to attempt escape from battle, which is not always guaranteed.

Fighting is pretty simple and follows the basic guidelines of any RPG: Attack, Shoot (option to use firearm once you acquire them), Skill (call on your Persona to perform magical moves, such as elemental attacks or healing spells), Persona (assume a different Persona to battle with), Item (use an item to assist in battle) and Guard (defensive position to lessen damage from attacks, does not attack).

The most useful thing you can do is choose to Contact demons at the beginning of each encounter. If you negotiate with them properly you can get items, money and most importantly Spell Cards, if they are eager enough. Spell Cards are necessary for forming new Personae to equip your cast with. Happy and Eager demons will give you items, Scared ones will run away, and Angry ones will just get more peeved with you and send you straight into battle. When Contacting a demon whose Spell Card you still have in your possession, they will remind you that you have their card and leave the battle. You can always get a card from them again, but not until you have fused their card with another in the Velvet Room.

Ah, the Velvet Room. A staple in every Persona game, it is here where you visit Igor and combine Spell Cards to create new Persona. Igor will assist you in matching up the right cards to fuse or you have the option to do it yourself. You may also add items into the mix, selecting from any items that you currently have available. Keep in mind that as you unlock stronger Persona, your characters must be leveled enough to support them. While its great to create a level 20+ Persona within your first 20 hours of play, you might not be able to use them for a while. Also, make sure to assign Persona evenly amongst the team. You don’t want to have three strong players down and depend on a weaker character that you have neglected before you can save and heal!

While the characters and cut-scenes have been updated, the game play remains the same. Some people will not be overly fond of the first person view as you wind through the dungeon maps, however, the nostalgia factor outweighs redoing the dungeons, in my humble opinion. The maps are easy enough to follow, as they highlight yellow with little footprints as you walk on sections of the floor. You can expand the map by pushing the Square button to see the floor of the area you are on. I also recommend using the directional keys instead of the nub for moving your character. There were too many instances of walking the wrong way or getting turned around because the nub registered where I wanted to move incorrectly.

Because Atlus loves their fans, they’ve thrown in the 2 disc soundtrack for you to listen to in your car or as you are cleaning your room. I will admit that the soundtrack is catchy and one of the best out there. I also have to say that while you are playing the game, you may come to dislike the music and turn your volume down. As much as I love Persona titles, they all have the same problem of overplaying the songs. There is one song in the background when you are traveling on the map, another song for battles, etc. Having to listen to the same song on loop over and over while you are searching through a five story building can and will definitely get on your nerves. I have had many nights of waking up with a song looping in my head.

Overall Opinion:

Buy. This. Game.

There are not many PSP games that make me run out to buy them, but this was one of them. If you want something with substance, humor, and an intriguing story, then Persona is right up your alley. That said, if you can’t stand random encounters in maze dungeons, maybe this isn’t for you. But if you are a fan of Persona 3, FES or P4, then you definitely should pick up and play the title that started it all.

My favourite part of Persona hands down is messing around with fusion in the Velvet Room. There are so many combinations of cards with or without additional items for you to discover, and creating ones that work well with your team is not only important but a lot of fun to mess about with. My second favourite part is Contacting the demons. I love seeing the various reactions they respond with and trying to figure out who the best person to negotiate with each type is. So glad I picked this one up. Now if Atlus would re-release Persona 2…. *hint hint*

May 3, 2010

Final Fantasy 13

Filed under: Gamer — Tags: , , , , — Yukino @ 6:35 PM

Status: Doing all the post-story stuff
Achievements: 27 of 35
Gamerscore: 625/1000
DLC Purchased: None

Purchase Final Fantasy XIII from Amazon

Definitely not as good as Final Fantasy 9 or 8 (my personal opinion), but it is still a decent game. I rather like the changes to the battle system, but I found the story lacked its usual FF franchise charm.

Tales of Vesperia

Filed under: Gamer — Tags: , , , — Yukino @ 4:48 AM

Status: 1 playthrough nearly complete
Achievements: 13 of 50
Gamerscore: 205/1000
DLC Purchased: None

Purchase Tales of Vesperia from Amazon

Reviewed for GamingAngels – Sept 2008

Repost of review:

One of my favourite games on the Game Cube was Tales of Symphonia. I never played Tales of the Abyss or Legendia on the PS2. But when I found out that Namco Bandai was releasing a new title, Tales of Vesperia on the Xbox 360, I was excited and preordered it as soon as I could.

In the latest installment, we join Yuri, a former knight of the empire recently escaped from the castle jail, Lady Estellise (or Estelle) who has taken it upon herself to “run away” from the castle with Yuri, as they search for a thief who has made off with the Blastia core that was stolen from the poor people of the lower quarter of the capital of the empire.

The people of Terca Lumireis are dependent on the ancient technology of the blastia. These blastia protect their cities, provide them with sustenance, and ensure their well-being. Now someone is stealing and manipulating the blastia for their own evil purposes. Determined to help the people of Terca Lumiries, Yuri and his wolf-dog Repede, joined by Estelle, a young Hunter named Karol, and a mage from the blastia research centre in Aspio, Rita, battle their way across the land, searching for this thief called “Mordio” and the reason he is upsetting the balance of the land by stealing and modifying the blastia cores.

Graphics:
Anyone familiar with the Tales series knows of the cel shaded character designs that Namco is fond of. Vesperia does not disappoint. The costumes are vibrant and a lovely contrast to the pre-rendered backgrounds. As with most all Japanese RPGs, the anime style characters and monsters are beautiful and the animation flows smoothly during battles and while exploring the dungeons.

Control:
The battle system in Vesperia is a blend of 2-D and 3-D fighting. On the field and in dungeons, you can see the enemies on your screen and either attempt to confront them or avoid them. You can also engage more than one enemy at once when you can lure more than one to spot you at the same time. Within the battle screen, fights are on a 2-D plane. However, holding down the left trigger allows you to move freely within the battle sphere if you need to move away from the action in order to use items. If you are choosing to be the only person controlling a character during the battles, then you have a very intuitive strategy system you can use to set actions during battle of your teammates.

New skills are learned during the battle process by purchasing weapons with skills attached to them. After you have finished learning them, you can going into your skills screen and set the skills you would like to use until you have allocated all the SP (Skill Points) your character has available. Make sure you learn all the skills attached to the weapons before you upgrade to something a little more powerful, as there are certain skills which cannot be learned until previous ones have been.

Make sure that you are actively battling monsters. Power leveling is not necessary, but you do need to maintain a fairly high level in order to proceed. Not only that, you will notice that Gald (gold) is just as important as the materials you recover from battles. Just keep this in mind.

Sound:
Tales has a wonderfully delightful soundtrack behind it. Most of the tracks are very upbeat, and more subdued songs are used correctly in cut scenes and battles that require them. Voice acting, however, a different story. For the most part, the main characters in your group sound just fine. Some of the bosses and side characters’ voices tend to get on my nerves. Zagi, the very first boss you fight, has the worst voice acting of them all. I was very disappointed that Japanese voiceovers were not optional in this game, as they have been in for both Blue Dragon and Lost Odyssey.

Tales of Vesperia has been released during the tenth anniversary of the Tales series. To celebrate, Namco Bandai released a Collector’s Edition of the game which has been packaged in a shiny Steelbook case along with a 10th Anniversary soundtrack. The soundtrack contains some of the most well-known audio tracks from each of the games. There is also a special code inside which grants the owner something a little extra from Namco Bandai.

Flow:
Story progression is very fluid in Vesperia. I haven’t come across any huge jumps in the story arc making me scratch my head in wonder. Instead, everything follows a logical, yet almost stereotypical fantasy/JRPG story. Some things are quite obvious to the player, while others come as a bit of a shock, but are not far-fetched.

Fun Factor:
Another important aspect of the game is Synthesizing. Bosses and monsters drop materials which are used to make upgrades to your weapons and armour, create special items, and even standard gels and potions that you will use regularly in battle. Keeping weapons once you are done learning the skills attached is beneficial, since you can turn those into raw materials and create new or +1 versions of them.

Returning once again to the Tales series is the Wonder Chef! Disguising himself as a turnip, rubber duck, giant fish, etc, the Wonder Chef is hiding in various locations all over the world, just waiting to teach you new recipes that will increase battle attacks, your HP and TP. As in the previous games, certain characters are better at cooking than others, and sometimes better at certain individual recipes than others. Play around, try getting the various party members to make each recipe until you find the ones who won’t kill you with their food!

Female Aspect:
Tales has 3 major female characters: Estellise (Estelle), Rita Mordio, and Judith. Each one has their own battle strength. Estelle fills the Healer role, Rita has power magic attacks, and Judith is deadly with her speer. All three females’ roles are important to the story line, as all the characters evolve from their interactions with each other.

Replay Value:
RPGs tend to be a one-time through style of game, unless you are a fan of the series you are playing, or if you love completing every side quest. Another deciding factor is the achievements. So far, I know there are quite a few I missed in earlier boss battles, and I really want all 1000 Gamerscore points from the game.

Anyone who is a fan of the Japanese RPG genre who enjoyed Lost Odyssey or Blue Dragon will fall in love with the gorgeous art and graphics of this game. I strongly recommend this title for anyone else who has felt the lack of JRPGs on the 360.

Fable 2

Filed under: Gamer — Tags: , , , , , , — Yukino @ 4:44 AM

Status: 1 playthrough complete
Achievements: 55 of 66
Gamerscore: 1190/1350
DLC Purchased: Knothole Island, See The Future

Purchase Fable 2 Platinum Hits from Amazon

Reviewed the game for GamingAngels – April 12, 2009

Repost of review: (Note – This was the old format for reviews which changed in Summer 2009)

Graphics:
Lionhead Studios did an amazing job with the detail in Fable 2. We are treated to lush scenery and an expansive world which is almost completely interactive. Bowerstone is the main city in Albion, and it is here where we first see the various houses, shops, vendor stalls and all the NPCs. Most of the NPCs wear similar clothing depending on the areas of Albion in which they are from, and the class they were raised in. As time passes in the game, you will see how your decisions have helped shape Albion. You will also see how certain areas expand and prosper over the course of time.

Controls:
The overall control scheme for Fable 2 is fairly simple to learn. You have control over the camera by using the right analog stick, while moving your character with the left. The digital pad allows for access to certain expressions or quick access to potions/food items if your health is low. X is your Melee Attack, Y is for your Ranged Weapon, and B for your Magic Skills. Holding the A button while moving will speed you up from walking to running. By holding the Right Trigger, you can select your Magic Skills, which you will want to combine when battling large groups of enemies. The Right Bumper allows for access to your full Expression Wheel and the Left Bumper will reset your camera angle. Left Trigger is for locking onto NPCs or your Friend Orbs and interacting with them.

Flow:
As with its predecessor, Fable 2 is a very expansive game, and everyone’s experience in Albion will be somewhat unique. In the main story, you are one of four unique people who have inherited Hero abilities. As a child, Lucien killed your sister Rose in order to get to you, as the Heroes are the only people with the power to stop him from his evil plans. Supplementing the main quest is a veritable bounty of amazing side quests, which will bring you unique items, Renown, and gold rewards. Of course, you can chose to blast through the main story, but by completing even a few additional side quests, you will gain more Experience Points which are needed to upgrade your abilities of Strength, Skill, and Will. Fable 2 also offers Jobs in Blacksmithing, Woodcutting and Bartending when you are running low on gold and want to earn more so that you can purchase items or homes and businesses.

Sound:
I absolutely love the soundtrack to Fable 2. Each score fits its location or quest perfectly. The creepy, eery noises in the Wraithmarsh, the vibrant up-beat sounds in Bowerstone Market, all unique to the area/situation you are in. Each of the villagers, young and old, will say something as you pass by, or as they follow you adoringly into your house. And the Town Criers! Oh, some of the things they say. “The time is…….. very late.”

Fun Factor:
Character development is a little limited. While I can do nothing more than add or remove make up from my characters face, I am able to purchase a wide variety of clothing, and change those colours by finding or purchasing dyes to customize my attire. (There is an achievement for dying your outfit and hair black – The Goth – worth 5 Gamerscore points.) Learning new expressions for yourself and your loyal dog will benefit you greatly when interacting with the people of Albion. These range from fun and social expressions to flirting and rude expressions. Choose your expressions carefully, as not all of the villagers will react to them the same way. By highlighting NPCs (click the LT to focus on one), you can then select Y and find out their likes and dislikes. Some NPCs have gifts they will give you depending on how much they like/dislike or fear/honor you. If you raise Like high enough, you can purchase a ring and propose to the NPC. Fable 2 allows for multiple marriages, however, try to keep these families away from each other as there can be consequences.

Co-op Play:
Because co-op play is available in the game, I thought I would talk about it a bit on its own. Playing co-op will allow you to gain two unique achievements, plus you have the ability to learn expressions from one another. The Host player will invite you to join them into their game, where you can join them in any of the joinable quests. As the Host, you control how much or how little XP and Gold are shared between the two players. As the guest, you choose the save file you want any shared XP/Gold to go towards, however your actual character is not displayed on the screen. Instead you select the type of character (Good/Evil Male or Female), and your melee and ranged weapons, and that’s about it. The camera angles in Co-op play are fixed, so you can’t run ahead of your partner on the screen. I also noticed that the usual holding down of A while moving doesn’t increase your speed like it does in single player. You may also notice some slow down if there are several enemies on the screen at once, but this will usually only happen if you have a bad connection between the two games.

Female Aspect:
Since Fable 2 allows for character creation of either a male or female character, you are free to choose how you create your own character. There are other main female characters as well. Theresa, the Gypsy who guides you along the way, and Sister Hannah (aka-Hammer), one of the Heroes you will find during your journey.

Replay Value:
Ultimately, there are so many different ways you can play Fable, which is perfect for anyone who is looking for a game with a long shelf life. Not only do you choose between Evil and Good, but between Male and Female, which also seems to alter some of the options available to you depending on how you decide to play the game. That’s at least four different play through options right away, and there are 3 different endings available, thus upping that to twelve.

Yukino’s Comments:
Fable 2 is definitely one of the Must-Have titles this holiday season. Fans of the original have been waiting what seems like forever to get their teeth into this game, and other than a few glitches that are happening to a few players, and some small but patchable hiccups, it really does not disappoint. Well, other than the fact that I just can’t seem to get pregnant while playing as a female Hero, but that’s what another game as a male Hero is for. Some of the achievements are very simple to unlock, some are related to certain parts of the main story, and others are just for fun or completionist ones. Interacting with your friends over Live is also great, as you can give them gifts or even just talk to each other while you are in the same area. Just an amazing game all around.

Reviewed Knothole Island for GamingAngels – Jan 21, 2009

Repost of  review:

Last week I returned to traveling through Albion when Lionhead Studios released the Knothole Island download content for Fable 2. Ever since it had been announced I was looking forward to the new area and quest. There would be new items, weapons, augments, and trophies to be collected. As well, three more achievements for another 100 Gamerscore points.

Your quest on Knothole Island is to bring order back to the weather system of the island. Upon arriving the island is covered in snow and ice, and your dog enjoys rolling around in it! The village chieftain asks you to find the temple keys and one by one recover the tokens which guide the weather patterns of the island. In helping restore order to the island, you will open up access to some great stores: the Box of Secrets and Muriel’s House of Magical Stones. The Box of Secrets allows you to trade certain items towards new and rare island items. The items you need for trade must be brought from outside of the island. One of the hardest items to find is the Regal Purple Dye. (Hint: Clothing Traders in Fairfax Gardens sell this dye. They only show up at night & rarely have this dye. Purchase all dyes, sleep, and return until you acquire some.) One of the best items for purchase on this island is the Augment Remover Tool. Purchase this item from the stone-cutter and upgrade your best weapons with new augment stones.

As much as I had an enjoyable time on Knothole Island, I was a bit sad that it was only the one three-part quest. It took me less than a day to acquire all of the new books, treasures and complete the actual quest. Collecting items in order to finish trading for the Box of Secret items took the longest, and even then it was only a day or so later. Just make sure that you have very good speed and accuracy as you will come across several flit switches in each of the temples. Also, making sure your dog is fully trained in treasure hunting will be of great use to you. There are several dig spots available with each temple being completed; just make sure you explore the island well after each weather change. And if you have forgotten, once you collect all the tokens, you will be able to alter the weather as you need to look for the remaining dig spots, chests and collectible Knothole Island books.

I personally feel that 800 MS points may have been a bit on the high side, especially since acquiring new weapons and armour once I had finished the game really doesn’t have much of an impact on my game. Plus, the length of the new quest was definitely too short for me. It does mean that I can assist others in co-op play who are still playing through the story and allow them the chance to obtain more experience points. However, for people who are still enjoying earlier aspects of Fable, the 800 points will be well spent. I’m hoping that more DLC will follow which will allow me the opportunity to try out these new items in a new arena.

Reviewed See The Future for GamingAngels – May 17, 2009

Repost of review:

This week Lionhead Studios released new content for Fable 2. I honestly have to say using the DLC in this manner to pretty much announce Fable 3 was very unique and I was glad to be able to experience it in such a way.

Without giving away too much, the infamous Murgo, trader extraordinaire, has acquired three different items for you to travel to: a cursed snowglobe, a cursed skull, and last but not least, a model of the Spire. The enchanted items contain new quests and have several new items for you to discover. Murgo has hidden his golden statues and special dyes amongst them, and collecting all of them will unlock two more achievements for you. There are also some fun costumes to collect; a Balverine, a Hobbe and a Hollow Man suit.  And once you have played through the three items from Murgo, a fourth is given to you. It is a model Colosseum, in which you battle waves of various enemies and win great rare prizes, such as new augments for your weapons, and can collect some rather cute Teddy Bears.

See The Future’s main story line does not take very long to complete. It took me less than two hours to run through the quests, collect the majority of the special items, and even make a visit to Bowerstone Market to show off my new outfits to my fans. That is allowing for the very slow saving/load time I have noticed, and also includes the couple times my system froze. I recommend saving often so as not to lose progress due to freezing.

All in all, See The Future is a nice little add on to Fable 2. I still think the 560 points is a funny price point, and maybe just a bit too much for what it is. However, disguising the “announcement” as they did is reason enough to purchase the new content. Well, and to dress up as a Balverine and scare everyone who sees you.

Fallout 3

Filed under: Gamer — Tags: , , , , — Yukino @ 4:39 AM

Status: 1 playthrough complete
Achievements: 59 of 72
Gamerscore: 1280/1550
DLC Purchased: Broken Steel, Mothership Zeta, Operation Anchorage, Point Lookout, The Pitt

Purchase Fallout 3: Game of The Year Edition from Amazon

Reviewed game for GamingAngels – April 13, 2009

Repost of review:

Fallout 3 is built on the same open world concept as Oblivion, also developed by Bethesda. You begin your life in Vault 101 with your father (voiced by Liam Neeson), where it is boring, yet safe. It jumps forward in time from when you were born, your first steps, the birthday when you get your Pip-Boy, the day of the GOAT exam. And then your father decides it is time for him to leave the Vault, much to the chagrin of the Overseerer. With your father gone, there isn’t much of a reason for you to remain in Vault 101, so you venture out as well, tracking down your dad and meeting all sorts of interesting people out in the Wastelands of DC. As you search for your father you discover that he did not always live in Vault 101. There is more to your parents’ life than what you were ever told as a child. Little by little you will uncover the secret your father and his comrades have been trying to keep from those who would steal it for their own means and not the good of the people.

While traipsing all over the map, you’ll discover the curious little town of Andale, a girl with a fascination for all things Nuka-Cola, and some people who like to wear twigs. You can work for Moira by performing all kinds of crazy tasks for her to help her write a guide about surviving in the Wasteland. There are several areas of the map for you to discover & loot for better weapons and armor, and traders in the major hubs and wandering the wastes for you to swap with.

Another aspect I loved about Fallout 3 was that we can choose the kind of path your hero walks. Karma can be gained and lost depending on how you interact with other people. If you decide to kill some bad guys to save innocents your Karma level will go up. But steal from those same innocents and it will drop. You can maintain a neutral balance or lean either towards good or evil. The way you decide to play the game will impact which side quests are available to you.

The main storyline of Fallout 3 does follow a fairly decent progression. However, sticking straight to the storyline will mean a short gaming time and you will miss out on an abundance of opportunities. Jumping in and out of the main story is fairly simple. Play through one chapter of the quest, go off to kill fire ants and some other exploring, then move onto the next chapter of the story. You can do this as much as you would like, and it is highly recommended for leveling your character. The more you follow your father’s footsteps the higher the difficulty becomes and weapons become more powerful.

Make sure you take time out of chasing after your father to pursue the side-quests. Meeting the Tree-People who live in Oasis, an orchard hidden away inside some northern mountains was a great one. Heading to the Arlington Library was fun too. Even dealing with the superheroes of Canterbury Commons has it’s bonuses, allowing you to become a superhero if you play your cards right. And with one hundred locations to find and explore you can meet some interesting people, hunt for collectible bobbleheads, and find all sorts of personal diaries from doctors to normal people living in the Wastes that are very informative or can lead to new locations.

Another aspect of the game that I both love and loathe at the same time involves currency and ammunition. You need to scavenge all dead bodies, crates, ammo boxes and any place you can to find some as it is sparse. There is also the option to purchase from various Wasteland vendors, however, what they have is also very limited, so make sure not to squander any. Your currency is in the form of bottle caps, because somehow Nuka-Cola made it through the bombs. Bottle caps can be made from selling unneeded items to vendors, drinking refreshing Nuka-Cola, and raiding lockers, other survivors or just finding them in houses. Make sure you think everything through before you spend them as they are just as hard to come across as ammo and vendors have very limited amounts of caps to give you if you are selling them items.

Fallout’s control scheme is incredibly familiar for anyone who played Oblivion. However, the addition of the VATS system is new, and do I ever love it! The Vault-Tec Assisted Targeting System slows down the real time combat system and used action points for more precise targeting on certain parts of the enemy’s body. I love using VATS when I have the AP to do so. Watching limbs fall off your attackers or witnessing them turn into a puddle of green goo is very satisfying sometimes. The most important thing I have to keep in mind when I am playing Fallout 3 is that pressing the jump button is all well and good, but it won’t increase my athletics skills.

Fallout 3 allows you to create your own character from pre-rendered faces, skin tones, hair and other features. You can earn experience points in the game from picking locks, hacking computer terminals, killing enemies and completing quests. As you level up, you acquire skill points which you can award to different areas like big or small guns, science and repair, medicine and lock-picking. Also with each level, you can chose a “perk”, a title that comes with additional advantages for your character. Some of the perks are related towards speech or will add more skill points to certain areas of your development. Currently there is a level 20 cap on character development but that will be changing in 2009 as DLC becomes available.

With voice work by Liam Neeson and Malcolm McDowell front-lining the game, the ambient sounds and overall soundtrack of the game had to make sure it was all of the same caliber, which it most certainly was. The soundtrack to the game fits in so seamlessly. You can tune into GMR radio and listen to Three Dog and some tunes while you travel, or listen to Mother Nature. When in range or wandering Raiders and Super Mutants, you can hear them talking amongst themselves before they detect you.

I have to say that Fallout 3 is one of the best games I have seen this year. The design team at Bethesda deserves an award for creating the Wasteland they way they did. The browns and greys of destruction are just how I would imagine them to be if I was crawling out of a shelter years after bombs had fallen. I was very impressed with the texturing of the buildings, those which were crumbling apart and the make-shift ones of the survivors. Standing on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial and wandering around the Museum of History were just amazing for me. The odds of me actually visiting those places are very slim, but from seeing them on TV and in pictures I could tell that they did a wonderful job recreating them.

For those people enjoying the game for achievements or just wanting the entire experience, you will definitely want to give the game more than one play-through. Karma can affect which quests are open for you to play which leads to three different play-throughs at least. And Bethesda has announced download content for console versions starting in January 09. They released some great (and one not-so-great) expansions for Oblivion, so I am excited to get my hands on the new content and explore other wasteland areas. Anchorage and Pittsburgh are new locations which will be coming, and there will be more Brotherhood of Steel quests which will also come with a new level cap for those who have maxed out their characters to level 20.

Fallout 3 is a must-have for any RPG gamer who is looking for a long term gaming investment, but is also great for people who want a game that lets them explore at their own pace. Whether you stick to the main story and breeze through it quickly or take your time scouring for bottle caps and ammo, be prepared to find yourself immersed in the post-apocalyptic wonders of Fallout.

Reviewed Operation Anchorage for GamingAngels – Jan 29, 2009

Repost of review:

Because I just can’t seem to get enough of minus 30 degree Celsius weather and piles of snow…..

The much-anticipated first bundle of Fallout 3 DLC, Operation Anchorage, arrived about an hour before midnight MST on January 26th. I had been watching the online Xbox LIVE Marketplace since 10pm, refreshing often, anxious to get my hands dirty once more. It had been almost a month since I had visited the expansive wastelands of D.C. There were mutants to be hunted down, new weapons to experiment with, and people to save.

After making sure I wasn’t paying for French content (Canadian, therefore 2 versions of the DLC), it was back to my house in Megaton to lighten my load. I didn’t want to walk into the new quests only to find that I couldn’t carry all the new items that were to be had. From there I began my journey towards the Brotherhood Outcast outpost. As I got closer to the new area, I was able to tune into the distress signal via my Pip-Boy. Turns out that the Pip-Boy is a piece of technology the Brotherhood Outcasts require in order to access a weapons and technology cache. You see, there is a computer simulation program that one needs to clear in order to gain the password to the weapons room.

Donning your simulation suit and climbing into another pod (this time not being manipulated by a crazy man pretending to be a little girl), you find yourself on Alaskan cliffs, making your way to the US camp, awaiting your assignments in Operation: Anchorage. You have three tasks; first, to take out the giant cannons the Communists are using to blast your friends, second to blow up some refueling tanks, and finally to make your way through the pulse field and secure the liberation of Alaska from Communist China.

Your time in the simulation is one shrouded in bluish lighting effects, high intensity winds that just sound bone-chilling, enemies who vanish in a puff of greenish-blue code, and health and ammunition refueling areas. Not only are there normal Chinese soldiers patrolling the areas you must infiltrate, but you also need to deal with Chinese Dragoons, soldiers hiding in the open under the veil of stealth camouflage. There isn’t too much more than sneaking up on your enemies and blowing them to bits. However, you can also search out the 10 pieces of Intel that are scattered throughout the missions. Acquiring all 10 will give you a new Perk that will boost science, lockpicking, and small arms.

Operation: Anchorage was a fun 4 hour run through for me. Yes, I said four hours. It probably would have been shorter if I didn’t have to restart a couple times due to a nasty bug which caused my screen to become a mass of giant pixels whenever I looked to my left. That aside, completing these quests let me pick up some really great weapons and armor which will come in handy for the remaining quests I have. I absolutely love the Gauss rifle; it is so powerful and I love the zoom feature. Jingwei’s sword is also available for you to pick up, as well as a mini-nuke, some plasma grenades and mines. For armor, you must take the T-51b equipment. I have now retired my Enclave armour to my weapons locker in favour of it. You can also pick up the Chinese stealth suit which is handy if you want to covertly attack raiders or sneak past pesky Deathclaws, as it allows you to be in stealth mode whenever you are “sneaking”. This is great when you have used up all your Stealth Boys and are trying to explore downtown D.C.

Here’s hoping that the next DLC coming in February and more in March are a little less buggy and take a little big longer to play through. All in all, Operation: Anchorage was a great experience and is money well spent.

Reviewed The Pitt for GamingAngels – Apr 25, 2009

Repost of review:

Third download was (sorta) the charm, as I was finally able to explore all the Pitt had to offer.

On the very north and almost completely west end of the Wastelands map on your Pipboy, an escapee from the another desolate part of the US is sending out a distress signal. He is searching for someone who can help him free all the people captured and brought to work in the steel mills of an area known as The Pitt. These people are being forced to do incredibly hard labor, and because of the air conditions, some of them are turning into rabid beasts. The slavers apparently have a cure for this, and in addition to saving the enslaved from their captors, they would also like you to help them acquire the antidote for themselves.

This new area offers some great weapons and armor, so make sure you are minimally armed before heading up this way. Granted, early on you will lose whatever you bring with you (don’t worry, you’ll get it back!) and in the beginning not much will be there for weapons. The best way for you to gain more powerful items is to search for ingots in the Steel Yard. You only need to collect 10 to continue along the story, but if you can find all hundred, you will get more powerful weapons and protective gear. Finding all 100 steel ingots also nets you an achievement.

So the day it came out, I downloaded it right away, only to later discover that the DLC was corrupt. I’d already been waiting an extra month for this new quest as it was. So I deleted the download and waited for it to be released again. Booted it up after the second download, only to find horrible glitchiness like I had first experienced with Operation Anchorage again. Waited again and downloaded it a third time, and this time it ran much smoother. The only issue I had with this download was that one of the steel ingots just did not exist during my playthrough with my first character. (As of this writing I have not gone back in with a new character to see if I can find the 100th ingot.)

Download issues aside, I did enjoy the 8-10 hours I spent in the Pitt. I did get lost a few times, which is probably why it took me as long as it did to complete, and throw in the fact that I was scouring the Steel Mill for that last ingot for a while. I did manage to pick up a lot of Jet to sell when I got back to Megaton, and when I assaulted the slaver stronghold I was able to get some good items, too. I did have to make a return trip to the Pitt after I left so that I could collect a few items I couldn’t carry out, but it was pretty easy to just blast my way through it by then.

Was it worth the 800 MS points and all the download hassle? Yes, because I did enjoy playing in the new area. However, I am really disappointed that I have had major glitch issues with both DLC packs so far. When half of your vision is completely blurred as you are trying to run & gun your way through an onslaught of enemies, I think you have every right to be upset that what you paid for isn’t running at 100%. And as much as I want my DLC on time, I would much rather the content was uploaded and tested before publicly released on the Marketplace before I was able to purchase. It might mean an extra week’s delay before I can buy it, but it also means I won’t be disappointed or potentially have my game saves corrupted.

Broken Steel is set to release in May, and I’m really hoping Bethesda has all the kinks worked out this time.

Reviewed Broken Steel for GamingAngels – May 12, 2009

Repost of review:

Continuing past the dramatic events that ended the release version of Fallout 3, you can pick up with your character almost just as you had finished off. Awaking from a two week coma under the care of the Brotherhood of Steel, you discover that pure water is being processed and distributed across the Wasteland. However, there are remnants of the Enclave still out there, hindering progress as much as they can, and still at war with the Brotherhood.

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to assist the Brotherhood in taking out the last of the Enclave fighters. More often than not, it seems like you are the only person fighting on behalf of the Brotherhood, as you are given orders, but not a lot of help. Make sure to bring your best weapons and armor as you battle against Deathclaws, hordes of Enclave soldiers, and oodles of other dangerous enemies.

This new content for this Game of the Year allows you to increase the level of your character from 20 to 30, and includes numerous new Perks, some great new weapons and armor, and some new skill books. There are three new main story quests, and an additional three side quests that can be unlocked.

Unfortunately, Broken Steel has been somewhat “Broken” for me. I downloaded the first release of the content and played up through the end of the first quest. Achievement Unlocked popped up for me, however the achievement never registered. The next day I discovered that the content had been temporarily removed and re-uploaded to the Marketplace. Hoping it would fix my missing achievement issue, I removed the first download from my hard drive, cleared my 360’s memory cache, and redownloaded the content. Achievement never did properly register for me. Another DLC with another glitched achievement.

My second issue was with the first quest of the DLC. At a very climactic scene in this quest (lips sealed so as not to ruin it for anyone), there was an awful lot of action happening on the screen, which did cause a freeze. Not a huge deal, just more of an annoyance.

The worst of all annoyances/glitches/hair pulling moments came when I was traveling through the Presidential Metro tunnels and ran into some Feral Ghouls. The standard ghouls and the Glowing Ones were easily handled, but the Feral Ghoul Reavers were somehow near impossible to kill. Even while using V.A.T.S giving me a 95% hit ratio and using my Gauss Rifle which does about 70 plus damage, I could not seem to do any damage to them. It was a 20 minute battle with me facing three or four of these Reavers, and I depleted my 120 stimpack supply to less than 20 by the time I finally defeated them. Now this could have either been a major glitch or it could have had to do with adding stronger enemies to counter the increase in the level cap. Adding stronger enemies is understandable, but not when it leads to the experience that I had.

For me, the highlight of the new content was acquiring the Tesla Cannon, a gorgeous and extremely powerful weapon that continues to damage the target with electricity for a bit after the initial hit. I also picked up some Enclave Hellfire Armor and a Gatling Laser which would come in handy if I still had Super Mutant Behemoths to take down.

I managed to complete the DLC and the new sidequests at level 25, and now all there is for me is to wander the Wastelands looking for things to kill which will allow me to make my way up to level 30. I still believe this DLC should have been released before Operation: Anchorage and The Pitt so that we could have used all three new areas to reach level 30, and not become bored once we had completed everything else (like I am now). I definitely recommend that if you have not yet played the previous two DLC releases that you start with Broken Steel so you have the opportunity to benefit from the XP that they have to offer.

As a fan of the game, I have dealt with the previous download content containing some minor glitches, release delays, and content being pulled for days to be “fixed.” In my mind, pushing back content to say to you are working to make it as bug free as possible is a good thing. But I question just how much testing was done on non-360 development kits and how many people (and the quality of these testers) worked on making sure that I enjoyed my experience with this content.

I am not particularly happy that I spent the approximate $12 CDN (800MS Points) on content that clearly was not ready (once again) for the public. As much as I love Fallout 3, with all the issues I have had to deal with, I must say that I am finding that I am not enjoying my gaming experience as much as I should be. I really hope that Bethesda works on these issues and makes better attempts to correct them as soon as possible so that others do not run into the same issues as I have. I’ve now spent approximately $36 on additional gameplay that has become less enjoyable with each release.

Reviewed Point Lookout for GamingAngels – Aug 3, 2009

Repost of review:

Yes, I know the last time I wrote about my life in Fallout 3 I said I would no longer be purchasing anymore of the download content for the game. After all the issues with glitches and freezing, I was resolute in not going back. But one of my friends assured me this content wasn’t nearly as bad with problems as the others, so I bought another MS points card and took the plunge.

I took Tobar’s ferry from the Capital Wasteland to the once bustling scenic Point Lookout. The boardwalk and shops long abandoned, I did locate some people still making it in the backwater town. Marguerite is looking for your help gathering the items she needs to make another batch of her moonshine. Haley and Panada have two separate shops full of ammo and other goodies to help you stand your ground against the Swamp People, Tribals, Feral Reavers and Mirelurk mutations that live in the swampy areas near the town.

The main story in Point Lookout begins with a trip to the Calvert Mansion, where a Ghoul called Desmond enlists your help in making a stand against the Tribals who are coming to kill him. Desmond doesn’t know (or so he claims) why they are coming after him, but he would like you to find out. Further exploration of the swamplands and following the punga fruit trail will reveal other truths and help you unlock new Perks.

In addition to the main story, there are four side quests for you to enjoy as well. I started out with multitasking between helping Marguerite collect the items and discovering what happened to a Chinese National who pretended to defect to the US. You can also do some treasure hunting and battle against ferals in Pilk’s Safari. Exploring Point Lookout’s far corners will also get you some unique weaponry and copious amounts of wild punga fruit. There are some lovely ammunition stockpiles to be found as well.

I have to say I am very impressed with this DLC package. I only had one issue with freezing, which I am chalking up to the fact that I did not end up getting the content the very day it came out. However, Point Lookout brought me back to the game, working on the last bit of leveling that I need to do in order to reach the level 30 cap. Just as in Broken Steel, the Reavers will make you eat through some of your more powerful ammo and Stimpaks like mad. Make sure you stock up on them with Haley, Tobar and Panada, as well as raid all the First Aid Kits you will come across. The Swamplurks, mutated Mirelurks that look like they cross-bred with ferals, took me 6 missiles to destroy. Bring the heavy hitters with you whenever you take the ferry over.

Reviewed Mothership Zeta for GamingAngels – Aug 10, 2009

Repost of review:

So, I had just gotten back from Point Lookout to do some trading in Megaton and put away some of my new goodies when I heard a signal coming from my Pipboy. I finished up at the house, leaving Wadsworth is charge of cleaning up the water notices that keep appearing on my door, and wandered out into the Wasteland to discover the location of the signal.

All I did was walk up to the wreckage and the next thing I know I am drifting in and out of consciousness. I briefly noticed little gray figures over me, passed out again, and full awoke in a cell with another woman. Somah had been up here on the ship for a while, and now that I was her roommate, she had a plan for breaking us out of the room. We staged a fight and the aliens let down the force field to come in and stop us. We bonked them over the heads and stole their Shock Batons, then took off looking for a way off the ship.

As we ran through the halls, we came across a young girl who seemed to be pretty familiar with the ship. She helped us get through locked doors by crawling through the ventilation system and fiddling with wires. Sally wanted to get off the ship as much as we did. She knew all about the transporters that allowed you to travel to various sections of the ship, but the aliens had turned a lot of them off, so it was up to me to locate the power cores and destroy them so the aliens couldn’t turn them off again.

I have to admit, the aliens are pretty tenacious little fellows. They have some very powerful technology at their disposal, like the Epoxy which allowed me to fix up my weapons and armour to maximum health, and their guns! The Atomizer is not nearly as powerful as the Disintegrator, but the Drone Cannon is by far the most powerful of them all. The Guardian Drones are all equipped with them, so I tried to take them out before they saw me.

Eventually we discovered that I was going to have to go outside if we were to get to the Bridge of the ship. So Sally led us to the CryoLab where we found four people in stasis units. One of them, the astronaut, unfortunately died in there, but I needed his spacesuit. We also found a Samurai, a cowboy, and a soldier who was wearing an outfit similar to the guys I dealt with in the Anchorage simulation. As I made my way through other sections of the ship, I found more people in stasis, some were Wastelanders, some criminals. The aliens had also captured Reavers and Glowing Ones. You could also see they were trying to breed some alien test subjects (or perhaps just splicing DNA) with the glowing ghouls when I started seeing Abominations the closer I got to the Bridge.

I guess all my messing about on the ship really ticked them off, because at one point a Giant Talking Head was screaming some alien gibberish at us. That’s when we noticed they had a giant Death Ray, and we just assumed they were saying they were going to blow up our home planet. I don’t take too kindly to people threatening to blow up my home, so I fought my way to the Bridge so we could stop them.

The captain of the ship was none too happy to see me there,  that’s for sure. As we were trying to blow up the Giant Talking Head’s ship with the Death Ray, more and more aliens started to enter the Bridge. I had back up with Somah and the stasis people we freed. Even the Samurai came to our aid. Alien technology is a bit tough to understand, so I ran around pushing buttons for a bit. They really didn’t like the fact that we had hijacked their ship at this point.

However, we prevailed and now I have a ship to re-explore whenever I so chose. Sally, Somah and the gang are living it up on the ship now, exploring the Galaxy. They left a beacon for me, so I can hail them whenever I choose.

All in all, I must admit Mothership Zeta was the first glitch-free experience I have had with all the Fallout 3 DLC. I was able to play without freezing or giant pixels, and that really made it enjoyable. And while it might be a bit “out there” in terms of the Fallout story, Zeta does tie in a bit with the journey we’ve had.

Mothership Zeta is the final (announced, at least) DLC tale for Fallout 3.

Last Remnant

Filed under: Gamer — Tags: , , , , — Yukino @ 4:28 AM

Status: First Playthrough In Progress
Achievements: 7 of 22
Gamerscore: 130/1000
DLC Purchased: None

Purchase The Last Remnant from Amazon

Reviewed for GamingAngels – Oct 13, 2009

Repost of review:

In my quest to play through games sitting on my shelves, I dug out Last Remnant, a title picked up during the last holiday season. Drawn to it mostly due to the fact that it was a Square Enix made Japanese RPG for the 360, a genre which I adore, I am glad to say I was not disappointed.

The story begins when our hero Rush Sykes watches as his sister Irina is abducted right before his very eyes. Their parents are the top researchers on Remnants and their powers, which leads one quickly to the conclusion that Irina must have some special ability to bond with Remnants, powerful objects that can be bound to a user until it has consumed his or her last breath.

Rush is determined to get his sister back, and finds himself assisting the young Lord David of Athlum in exchange for information and help in retrieving Irina. The plot thickens as the two young men discover that there is corruption in the Academy and the government, keeping their actions as low key as possible, so as not to arouse suspicions. With the aid of David’s generals, Rush starts to learn more about himself and the unique abilities of his family, and the true reason as to why it was Irina taken and not him.

Last Remnant’s story does drive the game, however side quests are extremely important. Not only do they provide you with great opportunity for finding items and upgrading your characters, but they make up over 50 percent of the gameplay. While it is not necessary to complete all side quests, doing so unlocks achievements and special events towards the end of the adventure. Side quests can mostly be found in the local pubs, but some are scattered throughout the streets and castles you will journey to.

There are tonnes of dungeons for you to fight your way through, either while completing quests or just so that you can collect items and level up your characters. Searching these areas will provide you with access to new cities, rare items and the chance to see how high you can string together a battle chain. (Making it past the 200 chain mark provides you with an achievement!)

Last Remnant’s battle unions are unique and might take you some time to get used to. Depending on your place in the game, you will be able to create a certain amount of battle unions. Each union requires at least one Leader and can have up to four other characters as a part of the formation. HP and AP are shared throughout battle, meaning when the group’s HP is down, that union is out of the engagement, unless otherwise revived by another union. AP is used to perform Combat or Mystic Arts maneuvers. At the beginning of each round, you will select one of the available moves for the union to make. While the union engages the enemy in battle, you may see a Trigger Chance pop up on the screen. Trigger Chance gives you a short period of time in which to push the correct button (A,B,X,Y or RT). If you hit the button on time, it will increase the chance of hitting and giving heavier damage. Stringing these together by continuous perfect hits will keep increasing the damage counter.

As your Battle Rank increases and you use your Combat and Mystic Arts, you will unlock new or stronger versions of them. I am very combat heavy with Rush, so my Combat skills and some restoration skills increased faster than my Mystic abilities. I suggest trying to keep Rush well rounded and allowing David and his generals to focus on their main abilities, but encouraging some other skill development as well.

Recruiting leaders from the local guild halls and soldiers from Athlum allows you to create more battle unions. Guild leaders will cost you some money, but soldiers will not, as they are offered by Lord David. Some leaders have special weapons and abilities that will be of great assistance in battle, and are also good to have on hand at times when David’s party is not accessible.

Also at the guild halls you can check on your Guild Quest status and claim any rewards for completed quests. There are no particular things you have to do to activate these quests. Playing through the game, defeating enemies and locating items is mostly what you need to accomplish. For instance, one quest requires that you defeat a certain amount of spiders in Blackdale. Another says you need to find a certain amount of steel ore. As soon as the requirements are filled, you may visit the guild hall and claim your prize.

Weapons can be upgraded with a combination of items found in dungeons and money when you visit cities. You can also purchase new accessories and herbs for Rush to carry. You really only focus on Rush’s needs as David, his generals, and any guild leaders and soldiers you recruit will request items at the end of battle that they are looking for to upgrade their own items.

Aside from the amazing CG graphics and the very vibrant character designs, my favourite feature of the game is that I can play it in either English or Japanese with subtitles. The English voice over is one of the better ones I have heard in recent times, but I keep switching between the two languages.

Overall Opinion:

If you are looking for a game to pick up easy achievements for gamerscore, this is not the game for you. Two of the largest achievements, worth 200GS a piece, can only be achieved by completing certain requirements. Hardcore RPG fans will enjoy the game and completionists even more so. Achievements are not easily come by as it is, and will require several hours of gameplay to unlock even some of the more basic ones.

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