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Valkyria Chronicles 2
Written By Masterpiece Tips Blogger on Senin, 16 April 2012 | 09.11
Valkyria Chronicles 2 - To this day, Valkyria Chronicles remains one of the most under-appreciated PlayStation 3 exclusives out there, regardless of how often the avid fans sing its praises. Some of those same fans were a little disappointed when the sequel came exclusively to the PSP, and it doesn’t help that the third installment also seems to be leaving PS3 owners out in the cold. That being said, strategy/RPG aficionados will most certainly want to dive into this sequel; it’s very much like the original, and although I’m not the biggest fan of the new school sim feature, Valkyria Chronicles 2 manages to retain much of its charm and intricate appeal. The depth is here, the storyline suffers only a bit due to extra emphasis on the aforementioned school feature, and above all else, that unique and oddly addicting gameplay is as good as ever. Honestly, if you were a super huge fan of the first title and you don’t yet own a PSP, VC2 might be enough of a reason to snag Sony’s portable.
As you might expect, we have to make allowances for the graphics, which obviously can’t be as accomplished or polished on the PSP. Even so, the cut-scenes are still super pretty and the in-game visuals are more than competent. I was actually surprised at how well detailed many of the characters were, the effects enhance the experience as always, and there’s only the anticipated lack of clarity and sharpness. If you can handle the latter and accept you’re playing this sequel on a lesser machine, you’ll be good to go. I do think there could’ve been more diversity in the environments, though, as there were three or four battles in a row where I began to get a little tired of my surroundings. I don’t remember this drawback being evident in the original on the PS3, which is why I mention it here. That aside, VC2 looks just fine and really, the story-driven scenes are pretty darn impressive for a handheld.
Concerning the sound, both the voice acting and soundtrack are definite highlights, although I might call the effects into question (due to an occasional lack of balance and intensity). Some of you probably know my favorite game of all time is Final Fantasy Tactics, so maybe I’m unfairly biased towards the musical talents of Hitoshi Sakimoto, but the quality and emotion of the tracks in VC2 is undeniable. I’m most thankful this one particular element of the first PS3 presentation carried over; it really gives the game that extra “oomph.” To me, the voiceovers in this sequel are solid, but a bit more hit-or-miss in comparison to the original. There are also less voices overall – again, to be expected – and like I just said, the effects don’t always do it for me. But man, the music is just so perfect and the complete sound package fits the style, theme, and structure of the game. So we definitely shouldn’t nitpick.
First and foremost, I want to make one thing very clear: if you liked Valkyria Chronicles, there’s little chance you won’t enjoy the sequel. The gameplay is almost exactly the same in terms of basic control and strategy; you still consume CP to move single or multiple units, you learn a large variety of new abilities and fresh tactics, and there’s that pseudo-third-person shooter view. It’s all here. Sega didn’t gimp VC2 just because they put it on the PSP, so don’t think for a second that we’ve received a watered-down, dissatisfying adventure. Personally, I’ve always loved the turn-based aspect of the game, which allows you to take as much time as you need to plan your strategy. The controls are straightforward and accessible, and the longer you play, the more depth you uncover. It’s actually quite mind-boggling, especially if you’re expecting some sort of strategy wannabe in a third-person shooter’s clothing.
Some of the uninitiated may get that impression from some of the screenshots and media. But the familiar know better. This being established, I should mention that Sega did make one significant concession to the PSP’s limited hardware: the battle sizes are smaller. There aren’t as many units involved in even the large-scale battles, and the battlegrounds are separated into different sections. You can also only deploy 6 units at a time this time around. Besides that, though, this is clearly Chronicles at its core. Everything works just about as well as it did before, and we even get a few new classes with which to experiment. The combination of massive amounts of micromanagement and the new school sim makes the game quite dynamic, even if I’ve long since grown tired of that distinctly Japanese schoolroom element. It was still cool to be able to control some of the school events by utilizing certain characters in battle; the two gameplay facets are tied together.
When VC2 was first announced, we found out the developers wanted to address the balancing issues some attentive fans spotted in the original. I’m not entirely sure Sega did everything they could do to fix the issue, though, because while there seems to be better balance on your side, the AI isn’t very bright. In fact, it can be downright stupid. Early on in the game, it might be understandable for the sake of difficulty purposes, but your foes never seem to get smarter. This drags the whole production down but thankfully, it can’t possibly destroy the inherent entertainment. Offering 35 unique classes and increasingly deeper upgrade systems for your weapons, there’s actually more to think about. If you’re a big fan of customization and micromanagement, you’ll probably lose hours to VC2; tweaking your characters and preparing for battle has never been so engrossing.
Then you’ve got the multiplayer, which lets you pick a leader and attack missions with up to four friends at your side. That’s a lot of fun – if you can find multiple people to team up with you – and Versus should be a big draw…although I still believe strategy/RPG is best played alone, I freely admit to wishing for a Versus mode in FFT, just to see how my team stacked up against human competitors. And it’s especially great for VC2 because, as I just mentioned, the AI isn’t exactly top-notch and it won’t be overly difficult to get the upper hand. Against a human opponent, however, all that changes. And even if multiplayer isn’t your bag, there’s no doubt that the single-player campaign will deliver the goods. How long might it take to complete over 100 different missions…? I have no idea, but I’m pretty damn certain you’ll get your money’s worth, and it’s nice to have the new multiplayer to add another dimension to the experience.
I’m still not sure about the whole school feature, the smaller battles may chafe, and I wasn’t as big a fan of the storyline. But even so, Valkyria Chronicles 2 is a more than worthy sequel: extra depth, more classes, more missions, more customization, the same gameplay the fans fell in love with back in 2008, and attractive multiplayer options make it a must for those who…well, you know who you are. If you never played the first game but own a PSP and consider yourself a strat/RPG follower, you’ll love it. I would dissuade those who have never sampled any sort of strategy game, but even if you’re just looking for something fresh and wildly in-depth, it’s right here. Just in a slightly smaller and more condensed package.
Gran Turismo
Gran Turismo - A collective holy sh*t has probably dropped from every last one of you guys reading this. Or maybe not. Yes, you're looking at a Gran Turismo review that has scored, for the first time ever, nowhere near the practically perfect grades we've graced this franchise with since day one. Okay, maybe some of you have read some of the other reviews out there and are aware that something has gone really wrong. Well, first off, allow me to preface the remainder of this review by stating that Gran Turismo for the PSP has, allegedly, been in development for five years. I say allegedly, because I'm certain that the development cycle for the game had been temporarily sidelined numerous times in between all of the work Polyphony had to do for the PlayStation 2 and PlayStation 3. Gran Turismo's development was most certainly not a continuous effort of five years...and unfortunately, it shows.
Now, after re-reading this review, it definitely comes off harsh, but with good reason. Gran Turismo PSP is a flawed game. But, on the other hand, I still had a lot of fun with it, as at its core, GT PSP is still very enjoyable, accessible, and fun game. I put in tons and tons of hours into the game just making money and collecting cars, which is one of the purposes of GT PSP. Many of these cars are transferable, allowing you to sync GT PSP to GT5 and transfer cars you've bought or won into your PS3 game. Again, GT PSP is a very fun game. But a "fully specced Gran Turismo", Kazunori Yamauchi said, this is not.
The first major disappointment came when I realized the tiny little size of the game file Sony had forwarded me. 937MB? Gran Turismo 2 was a PlayStation 1 game and it boasted two separate discs, essentially making it a game worth 1.2GB. Okay, so I held out hope. So the game boots up, and immediately I run to the dealership to look through the list of amazing cars, only to realize I can only choose between Bugatti, Bentley, Chevy, and Polyphony. "Oh," I said, "Sony must've sent me a demo file accidentally. Oh, those crazy guys, I'll just contact them agai...what? This is normal?" You see, as the days cycle in-game, the dealerships you can browse through change, as do the cars you can buy.
Allow me to explain in a bit more detail. When you boot up the game, you'll have four dealers to access and 100,000 credits to spend on a car, which is a gracious sum. Once you buy a car, you can participate in a few events. As the days roll on in the game, a new set of four dealerships will be made available to you. But, just because you can access a Nissan dealer, doesn't mean you can have the ability to buy any of their cars. No, no. If you don't see a GT-R or a 300ZX TT, you have to wait until the next time Nissan becomes one of the four dealers you can shop at and see if the assortment of cars features the ones you want. Yes, it's that complicated, confusing, and stupid.
Some of you may say, "but Arnold, why didn't you mention this in your GT PSP hands-on preview? Why is this such a shock to you?" Because when I played Gran Turismo PSP a few months ago at a New York City event, I recall being able to sort through a complete listing of every car in the game, through every single make; none of this four dealers only bullcrap. So to see this absolute lunacy on my PSP, in a game I had so long waited for made me livid, quite frankly, as I'm sure you can tell by the tone of this diatribe.
But things get worse, as GT PSP commits the ultimate sin, in my eyes. No customization. Sure, you can enter the game's Quick Tune menu and adjust suspension components such as camber, toe, ride-height, spring rate, and damper, but that leaves the other half of the gearhead spectrum (the straight line guys) alone in the dark. Yes, you can add some horsepower to your car, but you can only do it for drift trial mode. And you're not actually adding any components, you're just increasing a little slider that adds up to 20% more power to the car you're in.
Honestly, I could sit here and ramble about how utterly stupid this is. GT has always been about taking a car and making it faster, in some cases, absurdly fast. I've spent dozens and dozens of hours in GT4 just taking random cars that I like in real life, buy every little component for them to see just how much of a difference it makes around a specific track and in the 1/4 mile. GT PSP has taken all of that away from me, and has left me with an open-ended single-player mode that allows me to choose a car, track, set the number of laps (1-120) and race on it against three others. Yes, the total number of cars per track is not eight or even six, it's four, including you. And once you win a race, you earn prize money, and then you have the ability of racing that same track three more times. You see, the first time you race, you race it on an easy difficulty rank called D. Once you win, you can race against C-rank racers, then B, and then A.
The game boasts a total of 800 cars, but only 200-250 of those are actually unique models. And there are 35 tracks, with a total of 70 different layouts and variations. Unfortunately, there are some key tracks missing, most importantly, both Special Stage Route 5 and 11, series staples. I've also noticed that no aesthetic changes have been made to real life tracks such as New York City, to reflect their modern day changes. For example, the New York City track in GT4 depicted an area of Manhattan known as Columbus Circle (the roundabout portion), back when GT4 was developed and released, the area was under a lot of construction, so understandably the in-game track reflects that with cranes and such all around the area. But, five years later, Columbus Circle is brimming with beauty as the Time Warner building has been long finished...but unfortunately, the in-game track shows none of that detail, and instead looks precisely as it did in GT4. This tells me someone was forced to take away Polyphony's attention to detail and, in turn, forced to maybe...rush the game in time for the PSP Go launch?
I'm not quite done, yet, though. You see, beyond the standard races are also the Driving Challenges, which are nothing more than License Tests in disguise, and are not a requisite here. Although, taking 15 minutes and completing a few set of challenges will unlock the custom soundtrack feature, and they are strangely addictive, as well. Moreover, they're good for accumulating a ton of money in a relatively short time-span. And if you really dig the challenges, upon completing them, the game will reward you with a whole new bonus set.
Lastly, the multiplayer here is...well, disappointing. There is no online to speak of. None. Not even a meager two player battle. You're limited to four-player Ad-hoc, which is great and all, but finding someone, let alone three others, with a PSP and a copy of the game directly next to you is very unlikely. And I highly doubt you'll be making an event on Facebook inviting any would-be competitors to a multiplayer session at your house. Beyond a few new tracks and Professional physics loosely based on GT5's, Polyphony added little-to-nothing to make this GT feel fresher and revised.
Visually, the game looks really great. It's running at 60 frames per second and boasts some really nice car models for a handheld title. It's not quite Gran Turismo 4 caliber stuff, but if the framerate was brought down to 30, it probably could've been. Regardless, beyond the slick car models and super framerate, do lie some visual issues. Seams break up and textures and polygons all over the screen frequently, and it's more noticeable in some stages than others. These seams are white lines that run across various parts of the stages, flickering about. Also, there is no light emitting from the brake-lights of cars, as it's just a red and flat texture that gets drawn on when you hit the brakes...cheap. Moreover, the rims are two-dimensional and paper-flat when in a race, which I thought ended with GT4, but I guess PD couldn't get even that going on the PSP. Again, all in all, this is a very good looking game, but it does fall short in a lot of places I didn't expect it to, and it kind of takes a lot away from the overall look and feel. Shame.
The audio is acceptable, and you can hear that Polyphony put in a decent amount of work into the sound, especially when the PSP is running through an external speaker of some sort. The standard soundtrack is pretty good stuff, but the ability of a custom soundtrack is what I love most. Sound effects such as tires screeching and crashes are pulled right out of GT4, which is good and bad. It's good since they weren't that bad sounding to begin with. But it's bad because, well, not being bad doesn't mean they couldn't be improved on or made to sound a bit newer or fresher. Also, I noticed that a lot of the cars don't quite sound like their actual counterparts, as their engine and exhaust notes don't roar like they should - I mean honestly, a Ferrari Enzo sounds like a wind-up car in the game. The American V8s sound burbly and nice, but a lot of cars with defining characteristics in their engine/exhaust notes are missing said characteristics.
As you can see, I'm one of the few critics who isn't annoyed with this game for its lack of an expansive Career mode. Quite frankly, to me, the career is there with the open-ended single-player races. What bothers me is the lack of the fundamentals, the very basic and general things that have made Gran Turismo such a superb game. Yes, the physics are great, yes there's a ton of cars and tracks, and yes, despite all of these drawbacks the game is still quite a bit of fun. But this is a game that could've been perfect, it could've been the epitome of handheld to console ports, but instead it continues the age-old pessimism of handheld iterations of console blockbusters being nothing more than stripped down quick-flings. If there was one brand, one developer, one game franchise to end that stereotype, it should've been PlayStation, it should've been Polyphony, and it should've been Gran Turismo.
Kingdoms of Amalur
Kingdoms of Amalur - Electronic Arts and 38 Studios are giving gamers an incentive to pick up a first-run copy of the fantasy role-playing game Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning. An online pass included with new copies of the game unlocks seven House of Valor faction quests inside the gameworld.
A new copy of the game for the Xbox 360 provided to GameSpot includes the online pass, and a statement to Joystiq confirms that first-run PlayStation 3 copies will also sport the pass. Downloaded versions of the game for the PC will include the content by default.
It was not made clear if the House of Valor questline will become available as downloadable content for those with a secondhand copy of the game. As of press time, EA had not responded to GameSpot's request for comment.
Writing on the game's official forums, 38 Studios community manager "Muse" noted that the House of Valor quests were not included on disc and then taken out.
"The House of Valor content was not in the finished game/disc at one point, then removed. It isn't there and we're locking you out of it. The House of Valor was created as stand-alone content, and was always intended to be the first DLC. Instead of holding onto it and charging for it later, we opted to give it to everyone who purchases the game new, for free, on launch day."
Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning is not the first EA-published title to sport an online pass. New copies of Battlefield 3, Dead Space 2, Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit, and several EA Sports titles all included onetime-use codes to download additional content.
Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning is due out for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC on February 7. For more on the title, check out GameSpot's latest preview.
Start the Party : Save the World
Start the Party : Save the World - Adding the word “party” into the title of a game is generally not a good omen. Trying to aim a game at the whole family is a harder task than opening a walnut with nothing but your forehead, so when Supermassive Games came up with Start the Party: Save the World they had a sizable task in making sure it didn’t fall into the oh-so-regular family trap of turning into something totally pointless. Did they manage it? Well… no. Not really.
When the Move was announced, a lot of people were concerned that the market would be flooded with shallow games, mimicking the Wii’s huge library of titles with no objective other than to flap your hands about the place for a few minutes at a time. Save the World takes a few steps to make its mini games a little more skillful, but there’s still nowhere near enough here to warrant rushing out and handing over your hard earned cash. It doesn’t really fare too well from the start, where you’re greeted with a main menu that gives you the choice of Options, and Solo or Group Play. There’s no difficulty settings or extra bonus items to aim for, but if the games are great fun then we could look over that happily enough.
But jumping into the games doesn’t really help much due to just how mixed the results are. With the general theme of Dr Terrible (steady with the imagination…) and his cronies doing everything to get in the way of the World and its day to day running, the mini games generally follow the theme of saving people from nasty situations. There’s no specific order to play them in, and each game is given a voiceover by a cheesy American guy to explain what’s going on and how you can help, so you don’t need to memorise how each game works. From here you’ll be drawing clouds, controlling a helicopter, repairing robots and several other tasks using your trusty Move controller. And while some of the mini-games are really well made, others are just a bit random and frustrating.
A couple of games have you using the Move as a drawing tool, by doing such things as drawing clouds to bounce falling cavemen into caves, or drawing huge laser circles around aliens to blow them up. These games work very well indeed, with the accuracy of the Move helping to make it a quite skillful set of games. Another favourite of mine was the ambulance game, whereby you balance an injured person on a big hand sticking out of an ambulance as it goes up and down hills and over speed bumps. You’ll need to collect first aid kits as you go, and doing so means you sometimes need to throw your casualty around and catch it carefully. It’s good fun at first, but it’s not hard to get the hang of it and once the challenge is gone, it loses its appeal.
This is a problem with many of the games. A few are fun for a while, but the challenge just doesn’t last. Others are just plain repetitive – having to clean, repair and extinguish robots on a production line is interesting until you’ve played it a couple of times, then you won’t go back to it. A second player can make things a bit more enjoyable; using the Sixaxis controller you can generally control something else within the game to make life trickier for the main player, which makes flicking fish into a boat slightly harder when player 2 is moving the boat around the place. But this isn’t all of the multiplayer action you can expect.
So, it’s a party game. Many of the games aren’t great on your own, but surely with a few friends it all picks up? Sadly that’s not really the case. There are a couple of game modes to play with your fellow gamers – Group Play and Quick Fire. They’re both pretty similar; Group Play just lets you play a few games, hand the Move over to someone else and see who gets the highest score. Quick Fire is basically the same, but you only get a short time on each game before it quickly moves on to the next which, for parties, is probably the best bet to stop your viewers waiting for too long. It’s the same set of 20 games you’ve got available in single player, and there isn’t really much of a party element other than taking it in turns.
So Start the Party: Save the World falls into that trap that so many have fallen into before. It’s not really a party game, although it is a game that kids might find entertaining for a couple of weekends. Considering you can pick it up for a touch over £10 it might not be a terrible bet for the kids, but it’s disappointing that Supermassive didn’t do more here, especially considering it’s the second game in the series. Yes a handful of mini-games are entertaining, but it’s not enough to recommend.
Soul Calibur Broken Destiny
Soul Calibur Broken Destiny - Up until now, Tekken has been the only massive 3D fighter to arrive on the PSP. Years ago when Tekken: Dark Resurrection arrived on the PSP, I praised it for being a superb game that brought the very same console experience into the portable world, complete with a story mode, endings, and all. So with SoulCalibur: Broken Destiny on the way, I expected to see that same kind of treatment. And while Broken Destiny delivers in many areas, it fails in one critical aspect...
...That aspect is a proper story mode that comes complete with individual endings. A mission-based mode called The Gauntlet serves as this game's core experience and quite frankly it's pretty terrible. Essentially the game pits you against numerous rivals, but instead of full fledged fights, you have to carry out specific tasks/requirements that are displayed on the screen in order to progress. Now, each one of these "missions" lasts, on average, about five seconds, with a select few going as much as 20. These "missions" will often require you to dodge an attack, block an attack, block then counter an attack, or dodge then counter an attack. Needless to say, these mission requirements are pretty repetitive and tire quick. Sure there's a mildly amusing story behind The Gauntlet, but it's not nearly amusing enough to play the mode for.
Now, as far the gameplay transition from console to handheld goes, SoulCalibur: Broken Destiny does everything just right. Just like how Tekken: Dark Resurrection found its way flawlessly onto the PSP, you can expect that same level of quality from Broken Destiny's battles, complete with its superb fluidity. In total, over 30 fighters are found in the game, one of which is Kratos, in addition to an all new fighter Dampierre. Kratos is one of the heavier pushes for Broken Destiny, as he is actually the most prominent figure on the game's box art.
Of course, naturally, Kratos was my first pick to fight with, and it felt absolutely fantastic to kick some ass with him. He retains all of his signature attacks from the game, and they're particularly awesome to pull-off, too. Also, thanks to Sony, Namco-Bandai had the proper help when integrating Kratos into the SC universe. In fact, from what I was told by a Namco rep, the Kratos model in the game is actually the same one found in God of War: Chains of Olympus, which is very cool.
Character customization has been largely carried over from SoulCalibur IV, which means you'll be able to put your creativity to good use in the game, so feel free to create an all new fighter, or edit an existing one to your liking. But another complaint to address here is that Broken Destiny doesn't offer nearly as many unlockables as SCIV did, beyond extra items for the character customization. And while I understand this is a UMD game, it's not like Broken Destiny comes loaded with CG endings and cut-scenes for every character. And it's not like unlockables take up that much space anyways.
I will say this much, for the general Quickplay matches, SoulCalibur: Broken Destiny is fantastic. The fighting mechanics are still some of the most polished out there, and it really does make for a terrific fighter. But if you're looking for rich gameplay modes that you can play over and over to unlock cinematics and such, this isn't your game. Modes include Quickplay, Trials, The Gauntlet and Multiplayer, which is limited to two-player Ad-hoc, so no online gameplay here like you'd get with the console games.
Now, in my hands-on preview of the game last month, I had to rant about a certain aesthetic choice that Namco has veered towards, and I will regurgitate what it was I said...You see, it seems like ever since the apparent demise of the Dead or Alive franchise, Namco-Bandai have felt the need to fill in an overly-exaggerated-bouncing-breasts void that this industry most certainly did not need in the first place. I'm no morale God. Hell, I love me a curvy woman...I just prefer that woman to be real. I just feel extremely embarrassed to be playing a videogame where nearly half of the polygonal count on nearly half of the characters is in their chests. It continues to perpetuate a stereotype that this industry needs to get rid of; a stereotype that calls gamers lonely, geeky, virgin losers. Forgive my bluntness, but that's just simply the perception a majority of people still have of us.
With that rant out of the way, at least when you're playing on the PSP, you don't have to feel so embarrassed, because chances are nobody's going to notice the ridiculous details put into the female fighters, thanks to the screen size, unless they're standing and watching right over your shoulders. So you can enjoy the game for what it is, a great fighter. Yes, even though I just went on a quasi-diatribe, there's still no denying that SoulCalibur games are terrific playing fighters that have kept many coming back for years. And beyond the questionable aesthetic choices, Broken Destiny is actually a damn fine looking PSP game, boasting great character detail, beautiful backgrounds, fluid animations, a great framerate and other sharp visual touches.
If you've been playing SoulCalibur games for a while, you know precisely what to expect from the sound. The audio consists of the following SC franchise necessities: the battle announcer, fighters with voice actors who boast quickly before the fight, and a soundtrack that closely resembles the tunes of past SC games. Broken Destiny does all of this with ease, as you'd expect, and also gives you the ability to use Japanese voices. There's nothing really monumental to the sound of the game, as I've pretty much covered all there is to it.
In all honesty, if you're looking for a fighter and don't have a copy of Tekken: Dark Resurrection for PSP, I'd just go and buy that instead of Broken Destiny, especially since Tekken can be had for cheap. SoulCalibur: Broken Destiny isn't a bad game, it just feels extremely barebones in many areas, despite boasting one of the all time best mechanics for a 3D fighter. Once this hits the $20 mark, I'd spring for it - otherwise, leave this one alone for now, there are other fighters out there for the PSP.
Ninja Gaiden 3
Ninja Gaiden 3 - Not everyone is going to be accepting of the fact that Ninja Gaiden 3 exists without the assistance of former Team Ninja leader Tomonobu Itagaki. For the longest time, this producer defined what the hardcore ninja experience is supposed to be, and since his hasty departure from Tecmo Koei’s camp, many were wondering how the legendary Ryu Hayabusa would fare without him. Well, now that the game’s here, we can honestly say that, yes, it is a different venture for him, but that doesn’t mean it sucks. In fact, this ninja is still as sharp as ever, mind a slight misstep or two.
The third chapter follows Ryu as he carves his way through an enemy army, before coming face-to-mask with an evil alchemist who has a trick up his sleeve in the way of sorcery. Following a fierce battle, Ryu finds his arm infected with a strange demonic force. Desperate to get back to his normal self – and save the world in the process – Ryu sets out on his most difficult task yet, stopping this madman and his mutant army.
Yeah, the story goes off the rails at times, but that’s just part of the fun. One minute, Ryu finds himself in a test facility, facing off against mutating creatures and narrowly escaping death by jumping across chasms; the next, he comes face to face with a robotically enhanced T-Rex, charging at him from all directions and then, just when you think he’s disposed off, popping up again. This is probably the most lively we’ve seen the Ninja Gaiden series be, even if it’s slightly unbelievable.
To make the gameplay feel a little more fleshed out, Tecmo added a few things to the sequel. For instance, you can now climb up walls using your daggers, and while it takes a bit of practice (one hand needs to be firmly planted or you’ll lose grip), it’s an interesting new technique. You can also call upon occasional dragon ninpo to clear the screen in an explosion of brightly lit fire, or use your demon arm to cut some enemies to shreds in a hurry. There are quick-time events too, though they aren’t nearly as annoying as we’ve seen in previous games. In fact, some are pretty damn slick, particularly when you’re getting the jump on a surprising enemy, stabbing him without looking.
The controls retain the same hack and slash action we’ve gotten used to. While we’re a bit sad that you can’t chop off limbs like you could in Ninja Gaiden II, there’s still plenty of blood to spill, which is a good thing. And while things do get slightly repetitive (you’re stuck with the main sword at first, though more weapons are coming via DLC), it’s still quick, ninja-enabled fun, so if you’re a fan of that, it’s still intact.
Graphically, Ninja Gaiden 3 may not have evolved much from the previous game, but parts of it still look quite fantastic. Both the indoor and outdoor environments look great (particularly the dusty deserts of Saudi Arabia), and the animation is razor sharp, right down to Ryu’s cool little “ghosting” ability with some attacks. There are times the frame rate drops a bit when the combat gets somewhat heavy, but never to the point that it becomes lackluster. And the camera manages okay, though there are slight occasions it gets stuck behind a wall. No biggie.
As for the dialogue, it’s acceptable. Not to say it’s not cheesy at times, as enemies repeat the same thing over and over (“Damn ninja!”) and the alchemist is a little too show-offish for his own good, but we’ve heard worse.
Along with a main story mode, which will take you a few hours (maybe longer on Hardcore difficulty), you also get some pretty good online content. A co-op mode has you team up with a fellow ninja for various Spec Ops-style missions, relying heavily on teamwork. There’s also a cool little four-on-four team deathmatch kind of mode, which may not be heavy on strategy, but still packs plenty of bloodshed. Nothing wrong with that.
So maybe Ninja Gaiden 3 doesn’t raise the bar like some fans may be expecting it to be, but overall, it’s still a worthwhile sequel, especially when it comes to its crazy boss battles (I'm telling you, that T-Rex is NUTS), great online compatibility and an above-average presentation. What it lacks in the “Itagaki touch”, it more than makes up for with some impressive “slice-and-dice”.
God of War : Ghost of Sparta
God of War : Ghost of Sparta - How does Sony manage to do it all the time? No, allow me to rephrase that. How does this franchise always manage to do it? How does it manage to not change its formula, but always win us over? God of War: Ghost of Sparta plays not much differently than the GOW games before it, and yet, we don't care. Has this franchise stumbled upon something that defies age? I'm not sure just yet, but what I do know is that I wholly enjoy this game. Much like every other God of War title, you're thrown into the eye of the storm immediately, so the game wastes no time in delivering the goods - and that's par for course. Traditionally, GOW games were never about long and tiresome training intros, and that's because the game is so accessible, there was never a need for them. Yes, occasionally you'll get gameplay hints towards the beginning, but they aren't very intrusive and allow the gamer to focus on the action.
And that's what makes God of War so great. Not just this game, but the franchise as a whole. It has never strayed from what's made it a superb series in the first place; it never lost its focus. God of War never tried to be something more than a balls-to-the-wall, super fast, super violent action game, and I respect that. It never decided that it had to become an RPG midway through, or that it needed strategy elements. No. God of War's focus has always been: 'pressing a series of buttons makes the character furiously whip around and spill lots of blood'. Perfect. And those boss battles? Let's face it, the reason we love them so much isn't because of how epic they can be, but it's because of how gruesome the boss' death ends up being. Those are just some of the reasons why we love God of War, and all of the reasons continue to exist with Ghost of Sparta.
The upgrades, the mayhem, the weapons, the boss battles, and even the always engrossing storyline - Ghost of Sparta continues the faithful God of War tradition of being the total package, despite coming in a package that only fits inside the UMD slot of your PSP. Perhaps the only drawback to all of this, and this may be considered a technical limitation, is that Ghost of Sparta is nowhere near as lengthy as other games in the series. The UMD can only store so much, and that impacts the length of the game to about eight hours. Though are a variety of challenge modes for you to partake in once you finish the game, which increase the amount of time you can spend with it considerably.
Bar none, Ghost of Sparta is the best looking PSP game available today. The same way that the franchise has set a bar on the PlayStation 2 and PlayStation 3, it has done the same on the PSP. Chances are, considering the age of the PSP, it's unlikely a better looking game will come along and unseat Ghost of Sparta - I simply don't see it happening. So not only is Ghost of Sparta one of the best playing games for Sony's handheld, but it's the best looking one. Ready At Dawn has pushed this little unit to its limits by increasing the texture clarity, smoothing out the edges around game characters, allowing the framerate to run silky smooth, and employing some really spectacular effects. Chains of Olympus already looked great, but Ghost of Sparta simply looks better.
If you're a God of War fan, you know what to expect from the audio. Voice acting courtesy of TC Carson, who continues to deliver some of the best voice acting this industry sees on the regular, in addition to a soundtrack that's made to raise your tension, thanks to its fully orchestrated arrangements. Ghost of Sparta's brilliance knows no bounds, as the audio will leave you in a more than satisfied state. I also found it best to have a pair of nice headphones plugged in while playing, because the audio simply sounds that much more rich when it's streaming directly into your ears, as opposed to the PSP's speakers.
All in all, God of War: Ghost of Sparta is the PSP game you should have no reservations about. It's a well deserved $40 purchase that'll stay in your collection of portable titles for a long time. It's the ultimate example of the full console experience in the palm of your hands. God of War: Ghost of Sparta boasts everything you'd expect out of the franchise: superb visuals, great audio, massive gameplay, epic story, and great controls, all in a package that fits in the palm of your hand.
Premier Manager 2012
Premier Manager 2012 - Football loving PC gamers don’t realise how lucky they are. For the past 20 years they’ve had access to a series of consistently brilliant management games, allowing them to experience the challenges, joys and frustrations of managing a top-level football club. But what about console gamers? Sure there have been attempts in the past, and pretty good ones, but there’s also been a lot of yawnsome toss. So up steps Premier Manager 2012, aiming for the top corner.
But early reviews were fairly negative, pointing out that the time each game took ruined the flow of the game. Well, we held fire on our review, gave it some extras hours and waited for the inevitable update. And sure enough, version 1.01 has arrived with a key change that might just rescue Premier Manager from an embarrassing early cup exit at the hands of Burton Albion.
Your first sessions with the game don’t give you much hope. The menus themselves are similar in design to the PS3′s XMB and finding the options you need can be tricky while you learn your way around. It’s also sometimes difficult to work out how to do various things; even advancing to the next day took 5 minutes to figure out after the first time I ventured away from the home screen. The controls are oddly mapped as well, with the circle button advancing the game and R1 bringing up the main menu – when we’re used to circle taking you back, it’s weird having to use it to advance the game.
But once you’ve taken the time to work out how everything works, it’s easy enough to zip through the menus, setting your team up and hunting for players to improve your squad. The transfers themselves are easy enough to carry out, although the searching options and transfer process is extremely streamlined, giving you only the basic options. Match tactics are a similar story, with a few options easy to change (formations, attacking bias, passing style) but impossible to fine tune, but this in itself isn’t a huge issue. Console gamers generally aren’t after the same experience as PC fans, and if you’re used to playing games in bursts of an hour or so then this slimmer structure will suit you perfectly.
Something that makes life harder is the background music. It’s bad. Really bad. Not in the same way as being forced into a 24 hour Robbie Williams-athon, just in a very repetitive, boring “please stop” way (actually that is the same thing…). If the option was there to listen to your own background music from the XMB then it would make Premier Manager a very relaxing experience, combining laid back and casual management with some music time, but there isn’t. You can turn the music off totally (phew) but it’s not the ideal solution, especially considering there must be plenty of system resources available while the game is running. The rest of the game’s sounds are functional bongs, swooshes and more bongs that do a job but will hardly pick up awards, so it’s probably worth just turning the sound off completely and putting the radio on.
But what of the matches themselves? Well, they’re slow. Even with the match speed set to “Fast” you’ll be watching each one for good couple of minutes, and the engine used to watch each game isn’t exactly flushed with detail. The pitch view is too small to be helpful, and the commentary is just a list of shots, bookings and goals. Hardly enough to judge how the match is going. They’re a bit of a waste of time really, and apart from making the odd substitution you might as well use the saving grace that 1.01 offers: the “Result Only” option.
After updating, you can now head into the menu and turn on an option that allows you to skip the match completely and just see the result. You still get to see stats of the game and player ratings, so you can see if your new signing is performing or if the new formation worked out well. You just don’t need to sit and watch a game play out that you can’t, in any way, speed up sufficiently or have much control over.
It’s a game changer. Instead of sitting down and playing a few matches you can now rattle through half a season easily in one sitting. The limitation of the game are still there; they haven’t changed the music, added more depth or found any official licenses hiding down the back of the sofa, but the flow of the game has increased considerably, even if it detaches you a little from the action.
But then there’s the issue of the price. If Premier Manager 2012 had a bargain price tag it would be easy to recommend to people after a bit of light-hearted, accessible managing, but it’s £13.99 which, by PSN standards, is a chunky request. And is there really enough here to spend that much money on? I’m not sure. It’s not a bad game by any means, but if you’ve got access to a reasonable PC then there shouldn’t be any competition on which way to look. It’s one of those games where someone asks you if it’s any good, and you just shrug and say “yeah it’s alright, not bad, not great…”. Worth looking into if you really fancy some management on your PS3 (especially with the new update) but it’s a lot of cash if you’re just a bit intrigued.
So Premier Manager 2012 got past the tricky 1st round tie, but ended up losing on penalties to Walsall. Maybe next year, eh?
Download Free HDD LED 0.4c Menampilkan Aktivitas HDD System Tray
Written By Masterpiece Tips Blogger on Minggu, 15 April 2012 | 13.23
Download Free HDD LED 0.4c Menampilkan Aktivitas HDD System Tray - Free HDD LED 4.0c adalah software yang menampilkan aktivitas LED pada setiap hard drive Anda. LED sendiri sebenarnya adalah singkatan dari Light Emitting Diode, yakni teknologi yang dibuat seefisien mungkin untuk mengeluarkan cahaya. LED inilah yang akan menunjukkan aktivitas setiap drive harddisk anda. Dengan Software ini, visualisasi LED ditampilkan pada jendela kecil yang dapat anda posisikan di mana pun pada desktop anda. jika merasa kurang nyaman, anda dapat me-minimizenya pada system tray.
Free HDD LED memberikan fitur pengubahan jendelanya menjadi transparan. selain itu, melalui menu klik kanan, anda dapat mengatur waktu refresh LED, menghilangkan icon di system tray, dan berbagai pengaturan yang bisa anda peroleh dengan mudah. Software ini mudah digunakan, tetapi penggunaan resourcenya sedikit lebih tinggi daripada yang diperkirakan, yaitu 16 MB pada RAM-nya.
Ukuran File : 24 KB
Nama File : free_hdd_led.zip
