Review of RESIDENT EVIL 2

This one is a little bit of a cheat because I played Resident Evil 2 before I played Resident Evil and that was before the Resident Evil remake on the GameCube.  I had borrowed it from one of my classmates (and by borrow I mean take it for a day and copy it) and played the game, not knowing what to expect, let alone having this game being the first survival horror game I’ve ever played.

I’ve played Resident Evil 2 on both PSOne (I so wanted to use the PSX abbreviation as that was used to describe the PlayStation back in the day) and PC and it was better on PC despite using the keyboard 100% of the time.  But this will only cover the PSOne version as I feel like using the PC version would be totally unfair, especially since I’ve only played the original Resident Evil on PSOne.  Now let’s talk about Resident Evil!

I don’t remember the first time I had played Resident Evil, but I do remember the last time I had played Resident Evil.  It was the Director’s Cut version which had vibration support and I couldn’t even finish 5% of the game.  It wasn’t because the game was so damn difficult as it wasn’t that difficult at all.  Then again, it was difficult in a different way: it was difficult to take the game seriously.  The acting from the live action cutscenes and the voiceover work were laughably bad; so bad that I was cracking up to the point where my stomach was hurting.  Thankfully the remake isn’t laughably bad in terms of voice acting, so that was the only way for me to handle that game.

Playing Resident Evil 2, it was pretty intense.  Of course, being a male, I started the game as Leon first.  Somehow, I didn’t die at the very beginning as I did waste some bullets on the zombies.  Going through the game for the first time as both Leon and Claire was intense, but at the same time, so exciting.  The voiceover work was well done, the story caught my attention and thankfully, they did away with live action cutscenes; they saved that for the movies starring Milla Jovovich.

I had replayed that game over and over again, but I never did the B-side stories until I had gotten the PC version and that was because the PC version had an unlimited ammo code that made going against Tyrant easy.  Even though I don’t play any horror games anymore (thank developers and publishers for that), Resident Evil 2 was THE game that got me into the survival horror genre and it was the game that got me to be a Resident Evil fan.

For the next game, let’s move on to the next generation and go to a game that celebrated the 10 year anniversary of this franchise while at the same time come out on the final year of the Dreamcast here in America…

A pretty game : Parking Warrior

Some time ago I came across the television show Parking Wars. I came upon the show while flipping channels and looking for a way to procrastinate. I’ve been hooked ever since. I would have to say that my favorite “character” is Tiffany.

Tiffany, whose nickname is Swoop, is a ticket agent. She was born in New York and has only been living in PA for the last ten years. I don’t know why but I find myself laughing out loud whenever she is in a episode of the show. I think it’s that sassy New York attitude.

Watching the show is definitely a lesson in human nature. People don’t like to be wrong. Most especially when they know they are wrong and they get called out on their bullshit. They bitch and complain about getting tickets and having their cars booted and towed but at the same time, if they would take personal responsibility for themselves, they wouldn’t be running into problems. But that’s a post for another day.

On the site, they have a cute fun game called Parking Warrior.

The object of the game is to get the cars into the parking spots without crashing into other cars, getting a ticket or getting towed. I did pretty good on my first try. I made it to level 3 before I got towed. I ended up with the second highest score of the day.

This is a nice easy fun online game that you can play when you want to while away a few minutes.

The Grow Game

The Grow Game was recommended to me by an acquaintance. After hearing about how much I love puzzle adventure games and how it was so hard to find any online, I was summarily directed to search for the The Grow Game online. I did and I have to say, thanks…thanks a lot. I am now addicted.

The Grow Game was created by ON of Eyemaze. The game involves placing items onto the playing field in a specific order. The thing is that the items “grow” as “time” passes and they interact with the other items you place on the field. The goal of The Grow Game is to place the items on the playing field in the correct order.

Currently there are 5 incarnations of The Grow Game. I played three of them this morning and plan on playing the other two when I get home from work tonight. Unlike my acquaintance, I will do you the honor of forewarning you that this game is addicting.

The Elder Scrolls V : Skyrim PS3 Review

The Elder Scrolls V, this is one of the most beautifully crafted role playing games that I have ever played. I am not a fan of the role playing genre so when I reviewed this game I was completely surprised. There is an amazing open world that you can explore the province of Skyrim. You get the main plot which you can follow and also lots of sub plots which can even be more interesting than the main story. I found this game incredibly addictive and could play for hours getting lost in time.

Now the land of Skyrim is vast and is presented with very beautiful graphics. The voice acting is superb. It also has a very impressive soundtrack. The gameplay has a wide variety. You can be completing a quest, explore the vast open world or slay a dragon to name a few. What is really significant about the game is how the content is wide and varied so that you never get bored. There must be over 100 hours of game playing time. The game will last a very long time.

Now the bad about this RPG is that the PS3 has some major bugs. The frame rate is sometimes sluggish as there is lag. The menus also take a long time to load. Also when you enter a door it takes a long time for the next scene to load. The shadows also sometimes flicker a lot and look unnatural. Sometimes enemies or friendly counterparts will block your path. This can be an irritation. When there is a lot of action on the screen the frame rate also drops. One of the few things that you can do to relieve the performance issues on the PS3 is clear your hardrive as Skyrim use the hard drive intensively.

Now even with the technical glitches the game is still amazing. Bethesda have promised a patch to fix all the bugs. You get a wide variety of weapons that you can use. Different types of shileds and swords. Lots of potions to heal your health and magic that you can collect to conjure up the most amazing spells. You also get to steal different items like food.

It is very difficult to describe the experience of Skyrim. You always feel unsatisfied after playing a few hours as the game is incredibly addictive and you wish that you have completed more quests or caught another butterfly. Simply put it is the best role playing game that I have played on the PS3.

 

 

FIFA Street PS3 Review

FIFA Street is a welcome addition to this popular footballing franchise. EA Sports has the habit of releasing multiple football games in a short space of time. With the Euro competion and another instalment of FIFA this seems very likely. Now FIFA street takes the game to the streets with a significant resemblance to the FIFA Ultimate Team franchise (source https://www.ejuegosdefutbol.com) . However, I have to admit that the game is a lot of fun but in a very arcade fashion.

Now the presentatipn is a let down compared to FIFA games. You get a wide variety of places that you can play in parks, gyms and car parks etc… The environments are polished, but not on the same level as the football games. The smaller environments allow less passing. You get to play with fewer players eg. 5 a side or 2 a side etc… So the game has much more of an arcade feel to it and based a lot less on strategy. Much of the same FIFA technology is used and in many respects it plays very similar to the franchise.

Most of the traditional modes are there like world tour or you can play a quick match or tournament. In world tour you need to first win a few tournaments before you can play in the more advanced competitions. There is also the familiar online play where you can find suitanle opponents to play online using your skill level. The skill that was involved in the tradional game for passing, lobs and shooting is no longer there. It is much more about short range efforts dribbling and shooting.

Some really interesting modes the following. Futsal is the tradional street football that is recognized. It includes fouls. Panna is the mode that bbasically recognizes the flair of an individual. You earn extra points for doing tricks and scoring before your opponent. Last Man standing is a really interesting mode. You lose a play every time you score a goal. It becomes real fun once both teams have been significantly reduced.

FIFA street is not about strategy like in the traditional football games. It is about playing a rewarding arcade style of football that will satisfy you.

 

Revival : FIFA World Cup Review

Revival : for the third time in a year, Electronic Arts has released a soccer title for Nintendo 64. Unlike American football, baseball, and basketball, soccer is a sport that enjoys rabid worldwide popularity.

EA knows that it is crucial for international sales that it deliver a killer N64 simulation of the world’s most popular sport. And with World Cup 98, it has finally succeeded.

Note : for fifa 20 chronicles follow sites like futboltecnic

World Cup 98 is essentially an improved version of FIFA

Road to World Cup (not to be confused with the grossly disappointing FIFA 64).

With the real- life World Cup competition in full swing, EA has wisely chosen to refine and re-publish the already excellent Road to World Cup.

World Cup 98 takes the same essential elements of its predecessor and modifies them to reflect the specifics of the competition in France. The game thus contains the official World Cup license, the necessary team licenses, and authentic French stadiums.

In an unfortunate oversight, there is no opportunity to riot. Perhaps EA will include English hooligans in the sequel.

World Cup 98 maintains the striking medium-resolutiongraphics of its predecessor. In terms of clarity, the game falls short of high-res games like All-Star Baseball ’99, but is far superior to low-resolution blurball titles like FIFA 64 and In The Zone 98.

While the medium-resolution visuals are crisp, they come at some gameplay cost. While World Cup 98 plays smoother and faster than earlier EA soccer entries, the game nevertheless displays a sometimes choppy frame rate. It never seriously affects gameplay, but it does hinder the visual flow of the action.

EA has added a number of excellent player animations in World Cup 98.

As with all EA Sports titles, the emphasis in here is upon realism. These players jog, run, jump, and fall with outstanding motion-captured movement. There are some great cinematic scenes that punctuate the ongoing action. EA is arguably the best in the business at motion captured animation, and World Cup 98 does not disappoint.

The default camera angle is functional, though somewhat removed from the action. Simulations of large-field sports like soccer face an unavoidable challenge: although gamers need to see enough of the field for broad strategic decisions, we also want to feel close to the action. Konami accomplished this feat in International Superstar Soccer; I’m not sure EA is as effective in World Cup 98. Some of the wonderful medium-resolution

player detail is simply lost if it seems like I’m watching the action from the Goodyear Blimp. But the camera problem in World Cup 98 is not severe; it is possible to adjust the camera angles to suit one’s tastes.

 

 

Lost Odyssey : end of chronicle

The difficulty follows suit, zigzagging from trivial to near-impossible with little warning. Don’t fight the occasional urge to stroll about randomly fighting baddies in order to boost your levels; you’ll need to in order to pass some of the game’s tougher fights. Other times you’ll cruise from scrap to scrap just by mashing the “A” button.

Uneven, too, is a good way to describe the game’s writing. The dialogue is generally clumsy, rife with the awkward phrases that are so often present in hastily translated games. But Kaim’s dream sequences are superbly penned, demonstrating a real flair for their sentimental, almost proverbial style — they’ll actually make you think, and their sparse presentation is perfect. If only the whole game was so inspiring.

At least the character design is consistently good. You’ll face off against hulking golems, cute and blobby soldiers, and hopping, fiery bombs, each one full of life and originality. Kaim and his chums don’t have much personality, but nevertheless they’re packed with detail — so much, actually, that the graphics engine bogs down on occasion, and while this isn’t the deal-breaker it would be in an action game, it still interferes.

Kudos, too, goes to the soundtrack. Famed Final Fantasy composer Nobuo Uematsu has produced yet another stunning collection of music. If you’re a fan of his work, you’ll smile knowingly as pick up plenty of nods, conscious or not, to older Japanese RPGs. Much like the rest of the game, in fact.

But will you like Lost Odyssey ? At times, it’s a stunner, one of the best console RPGs to have crossed our path in years. But it’s a schizophrenic game, veering unpredictably from brilliant to disastrous and spending far too much time in troubled territory to be an unqualified recommendation. If you have the patience — and a nostalgic passion for this neglected genre — you’ll look beyond its shortcomings and enjoy Lost Odyssey for its strengths. If not, you’ll wonder what all the fuss is about

review of Odin Sphere – end

The combat initially feels ripped straight from 16-bit games of the mid-1990s. After all, you can only move left or right, and there’s technically only one attack button. However, Odin Sphere hurls several curveballs to keep you on your toes. The first is a literal ball: Each stage is circular, so you can actually run right and end up left of where you started. Why we haven’t seen this more often is a mystery, but it works really well – it’s a way to get behind massive bosses, or beat a tactical retreat against a horde of enemies.

Each character is a little different, but you’ll be executing plenty of button-mashing combos no matter which you’re controlling. Direction plans an important part in things, and you often have the odds against you. It’s not overly complex, but it’s incredibly fun. Odin Sphere is designed to keep you strategizing despite its simple combat. Besides, a pretty game with boring gameplay wouldn’t do anyone much good.

Unlike most RPGs, buying equipment and amassing a large inventory aren’t priorities. You’ll often find yourself full up on items, and can only have one thing equipped at a time. This may annoy some diehard role-players. Also unlike most RPGs, Odin Sphere is very forgiving if you happen to die: You’ll start back at the section you were on. You also have a choice of three difficulty levels, and may restart a level with all the items and experience you’ve amassed intact.

Odin Sphere takes video games to a place they rarely tread: a place where true art meets real entertainment. It’s recommended for anyone with a PlayStation 2. Yes, the graphics are the main draw — and rightly so — but you’ll be captivated by the story and enthralled by the 2D gameplay at the same time. With games like Odin Sphere, we’re hoping this “last-gen” hardware sticks around for a few more years.

review of Odin Sphere [PS2]

This two-dimensional game for PS2 shows the naysayers that video games should, in fact, be considered art.

Don’t call it a comeback! With one fell swoop, Odin Sphere proves that the PlayStation 2 and 2D gaming are still very much alive. In fact, this is a top-tier game for what is arguably the most successful video game console of all time.

The quick description is that Odin Sphere is a 2D action/role-playing game. In and of itself, that would spark some curiosity from the gaming masses. After all, since day one on the platform Sony has preached 3D gameplay with an iron fist. On a deeper level, Odin Sphere deals with how video games are an art form, and shows us that masterpieces do exist in our entertainment medium of choice.

Allow us to gush about the graphics for a bit. This is one of the prettiest games that has ever existed. Every sprite is hand-drawn, large, colorful and well animated. Characters are fighting-game size at smallest, and often approach end-game boss proportions. Yet they always move fluidly and feature higher resolution than any arcade game you can think of. The backgrounds themselves are a sight to behold, and the word-bubble speech comes off as clever. It’s the 2D equivalent of Okami, for example, and crushes anything done by Square-Enix or similar big-name developers. Amazing, then, that it comes from Vanillaware, a company only the most hardcore of gamers have even heard of.

The audio is expertly done, too, though it doesn’t shine quite as brilliantly as the graphics. It’s great that Atlus recorded voiceovers for every bit of dialogue, even if the actors sometimes sound a little bush-league. The music is orchestrated nicely to boot.

Odin Sphere tells the tale of a world in ruin. Each group of citizens suffers their own plight, and you’ll eventually see things through the eyes of five playable characters. These include a love-starved Valkyrie, a nomadic witch, and a demonically intense warrior. The script has its share of cheesy melodrama, but compensates with plenty of surprising twists. You get plenty of touching and intimate moments with the characters, and by sharing their vulnerability, you built up a connection with them.

 

 

Lost Odyssey -Xbox 360

Odyssey is the perfect way to describe this personality-packed epic.

Ever wondered why the Final Fantasy games changed direction so radically around 2001 ? Hironobu Sakaguchi – or rather, the lack of Hironobu Sakaguchi – is the answer. This near-legendary designer stepped away from Final Fantasy creator Square after the completion of Final Fantasy X, forming his own studio with the backing of Microsoft.

Why should you care ? Because if you understand where Sakaguchi comes from, you’ll understand Lost Odyssey, too. It’s the spiritual successor to the classic Final Fantasy games, with all the pros and cons that come with the genre, and thus in order to enjoy it you’ll need to be in a forgiving mood.

Lost Odyssey kicks off with what’s surely the biggest cliches in RPG history : protagonist Kaim has lost his memory. Groan. Cliches aren’t in short supply in Lost Odyssey, but thankfully, there’s a twist to this one. Kaim’s an immortal, and his missing memories add up to about a thousand years of life. As you plod through Lost Odyssey’s story, he’ll gradually recapture them through a series of enchanting dream sequences.

Turn-based combat is the norm in Japanese role-playing games and Lost Odyssey is no exception, but it leans too far towards the conventional. If you’ve played any of the classic Final Fantasy games, you’ll already know almost all there is to know about it. You stack up attack and heal orders for your team, your enemy does the same, and the two sides slug it out while you watch. Not the most exciting of systems, but there’s a decent amount of tactical depth to the combat thanks in part to the unique method it uses to depict the shielding of back-row characters.

Once you start to rack up some hours with the game, you’ll discover our major complaint with it: the pacing is wildly uneven. Lost Odyssey blazes through crucial plot points at breakneck speed, and then takes an hour to trudge through the most inconsequential of irrelevancies. You’ll probably rack up ten hours of play time before you hit the party max of five characters and the combat starts getting interesting.