This Blog is Old

Everything you see on this blog is old. And bad.

I just read through a few of my old posts and the first thing I notice are my grammar fails. Pretty embarrassing. I want to keep this open for some reason (I don't see any point in deleting it, really) but wanted to say what you read here no longer represents me.

Thanks!

Wet DEMO review

Okay, Heres my review of the Demo.

I repeat DEMO. I know you cant judge the entire game on a taster, but the views presented here are those of a pessimistic, devoted action/adventure gamer who ought to be able to tell the difference between a good one, and a bad one.

Disclaimer: I know im not funny, or clever. But Humour me?
____________________________

WET Demo Review

2009 is definitely the year of the Action Adventure. Uncharted 2, Assassins Creed 2, Batman Arkham Asylum are all set for release in the coming months, and joining this array of acclaimed adrenaline rushes, the fresh faced identity of WET raises it's head. Dual pistols, Uzi's and samurai swords are all good on paper, and now the public has finally had its chance to get in on the action to see once and for all if “Artificial Mind's” over the top killing spree lives up to the hype.

The Demo only allows for a short romp through the story mode, but successfully shows off a lot of what the game has to offer by being split into three sections. The core gameplay is really all standard fare. Revolving around a chunky third person aiming system, the player is given free reign over Rubi's acrobatic movements from the start (or so we can assume). She can Jump, Slide across the ground and wall run, all laced with automatic slow motion. The slow-mo works well, and is fairly intuitive, blending with the fast paced action smoothly. It only starts when you begin firing at the enemies, allowing you to concentrate on aiming rather than character navigation. The only problem is, it makes the game far too easy. While in slow motion, you are all but invulnerable, meaning that it is easy to wipe an entire area clean with the use of two buttons. It is entirely possible to make your way through the entire demo with the basic jump and shoot formula, which isn't fun. Think Devil May Cry without the challenge or variety, and you're not far off.

When it boils down to it, that's WET's biggest problem. There is no variety. The entire game (not withstanding the, surprisingly good QTE's) revolves around killing the enemies that are thrown at you, and you can count the ways to do it on one hand. Its fun for a short time, the demo lasts long enough to impress with the “cool factor” but closes early enough to placate its audience with the vision that the entire game will be able to retain that first impression.

If there's one thing that WET has on its side, it's that it does look cool if you try to vary your Jump & shoot's with Slide & shoots every once in a while. However, hopefully Rubi has some more tricks up her sleeve for the full release to spice up the action a little, otherwise it runs the risk of getting old. Fast. Whether the rinse and repeat formula threatened by this short section will have any lasting appeal, is still anyone's guess, but right now:

It's not looking good.

WET. Hitting Bargain Bins everywhere this Fall.

Dynasty Warriors 6: Empires

So its been like a year since I last posted, but nobody cares about that. Lets just get on with it =]

Heres my review for Dynasty Warriors 6: Empires:

__________________



How many times have you pressed the square button in your entire gaming career? Have a rough estimate? Well, get ready to double that number during your first two hours playing Dynasty Warriors 6: Empires.

Okay, so this is the 12th Dynasty Warriors game so far. And if I'm going to pack the gist of this review in one sentence, if you've played any of those games, you'll know what to expect with this one. Koei's battlefield beat 'em up series is back again, just as you predicted.

First things first. If you're familiar with the franchise you'll know that this particular instalment is intended to be more of an expansion than a brand new title. And if you weren't, you could probably guess from the first few minutes after popping the game in the disc drive. There is only one way to play, and that's through the eponymous Empire mode. The basic aim of the game is to take over China, one territory at a time, either as a ruler, or an officer. Both choices offer a similar experience, but are different enough to warrant an explanation each. As a Ruler (arguably the “default” mode) you are tasked with selecting a starting roster of officers for your employ, and your first territory. From here the game is split into turns (each one lasting a month of in game time) at the start of which you can choose your policies through a card system. Each card has various effects, such as replenishing all troops to your officers, or preventing enemies from invading your land for a certain amount of turns, and is tied to a certain officer. Either way, it doesn't mater what you pick, because you're going to be doing all the work yourself anyway. After choosing your policies you're free to decide which of your neighbouring territories you're going to invade next.

Its now that the game falls right into the same old routine its held for years. The battles are your standard Dynasty Warriors fare. You get a little more control over your officers this time , with a system that lets you give orders to each unit in your army, but the allied A.I is so mind bendingly idiotic, that you might as well not bother. Telling Officer X to capture Base Y is often as pointless as it is unnecessary, because the aforementioned officer will often decide to ignore your commands completely. Opting instead to rush into the enemy front lines and get themselves repeatedly killed. On the rare occasion that your orders are successful, and the officer actually starts to make their way to the chosen target, you are reminded of their stupidity, as its seemingly impossible for the AI to navigate anywhere successfully without being attracted to every group of enemies on the way, like a kitten to a delightfully fluffy ball of thread.

All of that is irrelevant however, because the fun to be had in the battle sections of the game is not found in the strategic elements, rather in the, “killing 200 enemies with one button press” part. The game redeems itself with the addition of even more enemies on screen at once than ever before. Expect to find yourself surrounded by several hundred peons at once on a regular basis. Slashing your way through the hordes of enemies is still fun, and the fact that you can now do more of it can only be good. For extra fulfilment, wander into an enemy base, far ahead of your moronic allies, and just marauder every runt that comes waving his sword at you, (you know what I mean). Otherwise, there are very few changes to the core battle system since Dynasty Warriors 6 worth mentioning.

The officer mode retains some of the aforementioned features, only you are not given any say in your armies strategy until you reach a certain rank, attained by completing targets in battle etc. Instead you are offered to partake in various events such as befriending other officers and even marrying them, overthrowing your leader and effectively switching the game to ruler mode, initiating sneak/fire attacks which give you bonuses for the next battle, and more. Even though it appears the developers added it as a sort of “b-side”, the Officer mode is much more fun. It strips away the unnecessary and, if I'm honest, rather pathetic “strategic” parts of the game, and instead focuses on the character development side of things, which is far more rewarding. Seeing your character grow is a significantly more satisfying venture than it has been ever before.

Both modes of the game are bolstered by a system that allows you to upgrade your weapon however you like, with attributes and elements of your choice (An interesting addition that makes for some fun combinations), purchasable upgrades that modify the length of your life and Musou (special attack) Gauges, and your running/swimming speed among others. It doesn't take long to collect all of these upgrades though, and some of the weapon upgrades are easily abusable, such as “steal”, which makes it far too easy to collect huge amounts of money during battles. There are, however, loads of weapon effects that you can choose from, which allows for good customisation opportunities.

Speaking of customisation, the new Create an Officer mode springs to mind. The Edit mode offers an opportunity to create your own character, although there are no new move sets available to choose from. Your creation can only be an existing character, with a different outfit. Its nothing to get excited about. As games like Soul Calibur and WWE have proved, character creation modes can make a good game great. In Dynasty Warriors: Empires though, it only adds a small amount of fun, and is definitely not enough to factor into the decision of whether to buy the game or not.

Overall the game truly shines during the Officer campaign. Even though the Ruler mode was a nice try to bring more thought into the series, it pales in comparison to even the previous Empires titles.

Other things of note include the graphics, which haven't changed at all since Dynasty Warriors 6, which means they are still inexcusably bland and ugly. The environments are mostly boring in presentation, but feature some interesting terrain layouts. The character models use the same low-res flat looking textures as before, which is disappointing in this generation of hardware. Some of the graphical shortcomings can be understood due to the large amount of models on screen at any one time, though the game could still, realistically, look a lot better. The same problems with slow-down crop up here, although very sparingly. It only happened two or three times in my entire time playing the game. Which isn't bad. Character animations are good. Most of them run smoothly, and some move sets are very cool looking indeed.

A very nice addition is the games soundtrack. Koei thoughtfully included music from all previous DW games, and you can choose the song you want playing in the background throughout the fight during the loading times, a feature that adds a pinch of nostalgia to the usual affairs. Voice acting and scripting, however, is as terrible as ever. Luckily though most of it is drowned out by wailing guitars, fireballs and hundreds of death cries.

If you're new to the Dynasty Warriors series, then this isn't the place to start. Instead, go out and buy Dynasty Warriors 6, the preceding title to this, and make your judgement based on that. Similarly, anyone who has enjoyed previous DW games, will probably find something to enjoy here too.

With all that said, Dynasty Warriors: Empires is a game that, while being very frustrating at times and including relatively little content, still retains that special something that makes killing thousands of enemies single handedly feel very rewarding. A feeling that is only heightened by the new customisation options and slight strategic flair introduced by the events system.

Graphics – 5/10
Game play – 7/10
Sound – 6/10
Content – 6/10

Overall 7/10

The iPod nano 4th Generation, and an eBay Risk Pays off

Yup, after my post long ago about the new iPods, I actually bought one of the blighters! After searching for weeks on the Internet on sites like Amazon and the official Apple store, there were no 16GB's to be found, and me being so desperate to get one, I took the risk of ordering from eBay, and luckily, It payed off! So I now have a shiny new iPod nano! Im thinking about writing a full length review, probably very soon, but for now im just going to go over some of my first thoughts!

Well, where to start! I think the hardest decision for me was which colour to go for! It was a close call between Yellow, and Green, and possibly even black...but after observing that the Green was selling out in most places, I decided that that one was too popular, and i didnt want to get the one everyone else was going for, so It was Yellow or Black. Considering they went to the trouble of making 7 different colours, I thought it would be a waste to get the boring black one, and I ended up deciding on Yellow, and Im glad i did :)

After ordering it from a fairly respectable seller, it was just a matter of waiting, and I only had to wait just over two days, and it arrived this Wednesday, so ive had a full weekend and longer to get to know it, Im happy to say it doesnt disappoint. The colour realy is beautiful! and its made out of that shiny Aluminium stuff, that really feels great in your hand! it looks especially great when the light hits it just right, and the yellow really comes through! My only disappointment with the colour is that sometimes, when it is quite dim, it can look gold and gold look a little uglier than yellow in my opinion.

Away from the colour the actual body of the iPod is really nicely shaped. Its extremely thin, even thinner than you would think...As a matter of fact, you cant even fathom how thin this is until youve held one...and thats the truth! I didnt have the privilege of seeing one in person before buying one, so I actually had no idea what it was going to feel like, and i was pleasantly surprised. It just feels so right in your hand. My only complaint about the body, is that when mine came it had a very small, but very noticeable dent in the bottom of the aluminium casing, that really shows up when the light hits it. That really upset me when i first saw it, but now i think of it more as like...My iPod is different to everyone elses! Totally unique :p

If you care about this you probably already know what its main features are, but the lowdown it, its got an accelerometer in it, which means it can tell which way it is being held, so you can turn it on its side to go to cover flow, or shake it to go to shuffle mode etc. That is the only real addition to the new model, aside from the Genius feature, which you need an iTunes account to use, so I havent tried it out yet. But the accelerometer is very good. Its fast, responsive, and useful, not to mention quite cool! I find that it can be a bit slow to transfer to cover flow, but thats probably because its got to load all the album art onto the screen, not a problem with the accelerometer.

Speaking of loading, the iPod is very fast! browsing through the menus is really smooth, and if it loads at all, its un noticeable. Which is quite positive as far as im concerned. Even transitions between screens is pretty, with delicate transition effects like album art flipping around to reveal track listings and menus sliding in from the side, which is a nice addition, and just adds to the sleek-ness.

And really what is an MP3 player without music? the sound quality here is standard, the same as all other iPod models, but its headphones that really make the difference in quality and its the this that really lets the nano down, i recommend you get yourself some better earphones if you buy any apple MP3 player, as the apple standard ones are really pathetic. While were talking about quality, the screen really is great! absolutely flawless. Album art looks fantastic (when in cover flow mode the cover art does look slightly blurry, but thats because its been resized to fit, and as soon as the now playing screen appears, it looks great) and thats all there really is to say, Just great!

Well thats all I can think to say for now, thanks for reading! And be sure to come back regularly!

Soulcalibur IV... Anyone Itching for a Fight?

Not a major post, but im having alot of fun with SC IV still! And I want some fresh meat to practice with! If anyone wants to add me on PSN my ID is Jakeusi

Another thing to mention is the new iPod Nano 4th Generation. Im really excited about it, but ive only had the 3rd gen since Christmas, and I dont know if its worth the Money! The extra 8GB of space will definately be helpful, but for £140, its a steep price to pay...

If you weren't aware of the news, check out this page to read more. Though they added some nice new gimmicks, aparrently, the sound quality is still the same, and the screen is no bigger for videos. For now vote in the new Poll and decide which colour you would buy...

The Soul Still Burns

Yep, thats right, the reason for the makeover was in anticipation for my SoulCalibur IV Mega Review! My first Game review that i have ever put into writing is now finished, and ready to post :)

Soul Calibur IV

When first introduced to Star Wars, as a young child, I don't remember being all too impressed. However it was inevitable, and Star Wars picked up popularity at a staggering rate. Soon everyone knew about it. Pop culture was flooded with reerences, cereal boxes were hijacked and soon enough, Darth Vader's masked mugshot was even plastered over Pepsi cans. I guess I can understand that, everything gets licensed eventually....but what is he doing in my copy of SoulCalibur IV?

It doesn't take a genius to realise that the two worlds couldn't be further apart. Sci-fi, as a general rule, doesn't mix with medieval history, but did that stop Namco Bandai? (from here on in to be referred to as “Bamco”) No. It didn't. Andsure enough, Darth Vader, along with his secret apprentice, graces the world's TV's again, this time to partake in the search for the cursed sword, Soul Edge.

Aside from being a rather shameful attempt to advertise thenew, upcoming Star Wars Release, “The Force Unleashed”, the inclusion or Starkiller, Vader (and Yoda if you're playing on the 360) only fuels the fire, as thousands of fans of the Soul series experiment with the latest addition to the series. Spending yet more hours perfecting their characters repertoire, to compete with the best, (or as I like to call it, the Artificial Intelligence.) Yes, that's right, SoulCalibur is back. The fighting game community rejoices, and the computer A.I is just as cheap as ever.

If you'renot familiar with it, (where have you been?)The Soul series is one of the most popular fighting games, and one of the only to use a weapons based fighting system consisting of Vertical attacks, Horizontal attacks, kicks, and guarding. Stemming from its humble beginnings under the guise “Soul Blade” (or Soul Edgein the arcades) it was the first of its genre to include the revolutionary, and slightly controversial, “8-way-run” system, allowing fighters to move about a complete axis. It was new to the world, and thus, Soul Blade thrust the series into glory. From then on is has been through three more incarnations, (being Soul Calibur,Soul Calibur II and SoulCalibur III). Each time the critics and gamers alike praised it for its tight gameplay, and multitude of single player modes. Every year the game improving, but the mechanics becoming slightly more tired and stale, Its competition from the fighting behemoths, Tekken, Street Fighter, Virtua Fighter and others, still going strong, but unfortunately, not much has changed for SoulCalibur IV.

The next gen iteration of SoulCalibur sports amazing graphics, but that's about all that is new here. While the meat of the game remains strong and fun, everything else falters. The game has taken a real battering when it comes to game modes. Only offering a measly selection on generic ways to play, including arcade, versus, and a weak story mode, bolstered by the inclusion of the Tower of lost souls (a spin off of the popular survival mode, which is absent from this edition) in which the player ascends the tower facing a string of opponents with only one life bar, accompanied by a partner, creating a tag-team situation, or descends in a similar fashion, but with no breaks in between. Tower of Lost Souls is noting to fuss over though, proving to be a fun challenge at times, but at others, a playground rich with painfully cheap A.I that can really wipe the floor with an inexperienced player, making it too much of a chore to progress at times, which isn't fun.

Another disappointment is the Character Creation mode. While not being a total let down, it hasn't evolved enough since SoulCalibur III, and seems to have been downgraded! Though it is still possible to create your signature character, you wont feel as unique as before, due to the reduced amount of clothing available, and the fact that you can only choose from the existing characters move sets, doesn't help set you apart. You can, however, also customise the existing characters if you so desire, this time offering more than just palette swaps, but the creation of entirely new costumes for them. Unfortunately, you can only use the same equipment as the normal character creator, so your modified Sigfried could end up looking exactly like your custom characters., which is disappointing considering the sheer multitude of options that were available in SoulCalibur III

One redeeming factor of this edition is the inclusion of a selection of new characters to choose from. The only Original characters to be added to the main line up, are Algol, the new boss character you will fight after every successful run of the arcade or story modes, and Hilde, a sexy and suave female knight. Hilde, wielding both a short sword and a spear, is certainly a very original character and a breath of fresh air, providing relief from all the scantily clad females of the cast, and a more classy girl. Among the rest of the motley bunch are bonus characters from previous instalments, now beefed up to fully fledged members of the cast, Amy (Raphael's Adopted daughter) and Rock (a character from the original that has been removed from the main cast since then) being the most notable. A new collection of bonus characters have also been added, (nice to look at, but just clones of existing characters move setswhich is a shame). Darth Vader/Yoda and the Secret Apprentice round off the list, being surprisingly well balanced compared to the SoulCalibur original characters. To stop the Star Wars trio from being ridiculously overpowered a force meter has been imposed upon them that recharges over time, stopping them from abusing their force powers. Use too much force and you'll be stunned for a second or two leaving you open to attack, so be careful! All in all the decision to add Star Wars characters to the game worked well, providing good entertainment value, and interesting story modes.

All that being said, the saving grace of this game will never fail to swoop down in your time of need, and provide you with some fun, which is most definitely the on-line mode. Whether you are playing on PSN or X-Box live, the experience is similar. Some lag issues are experienced, but the game dodges this issue by providing you with connection information about everyone you fight, so you can tell on a scale of one to five how good the opponents connection is. Your next foe only has a 2 bar connection? No problems, find someone else to play. But as always, I am ever cynical, and cant help but realise that there will always be people in the mix that ruin it for everyone else.

If you are familiar with the term “spamming”, you have undoubtedly worked up an intense rage towards it! If you haven't, a spammer is someone who plays the game in the cheapest way possible, abusing attacks that leave them safe, and you at a disadvantage. It is these Spammers that ruin the community. When it comes to it, there are a couple of characters in the game that are particularly notorious for being easily controlled in effective ways, that attract more “spammers” than any others. During my time on-line with this game, I have observed that it is impossible to play a ranked match (where the records are kept to your name permanently) without playing a flood of Kilik's or Mitsurugi's. Its not difficult to outsmart your average “Spammer”, but it is quite disheartening to see that there are so many people in the SoulCalibur community that are so desperate to keep their records up. But this is a minor niggle. The on-line players are, for themost part, a lovely bunch, and its great fun and practice to play against your PSN/XBL friends.

So, the final judgement has come. SoulCalibur IV is an extremely fun fighting game. The battles work well, the characters are well balanced, (apart from a couple) and with a massive roster of 34 characters to choose from, all unique, you just never get tired of experimenting with them. However, the lack of fun game modes, unlockables, the crippling of the character creation system, lack of much replay value besides the on-line and versus modes, and the games momentum slowly subsiding, the formula is getting tired, and something drastic will need to be done to push it ahead of its competitors in the future.

71%

Anticipation

You may have noticed a change in the blogs look...

I have themed the blog to SoulCalibur IV...Can you guess why?

More news tomorrow :)