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The release date for Sonic Unleashed, the latest adventure of video game's only blue, spiny, hyper-kinetic mammal is but a few days away, and Sonic fans have their hopes high that this could be the return-to-form that Sega had been hyping over and over. Let me address those Sonic fans directly for one moment:


Speaking as someone who hasn't enjoyed a Sonic game since he left the 2nd dimension, let me say that while I'm intrigued by the return to 2D gameplay, mark my words, this ISN'T the return to form that you've been waiting for. There's a very good chance that this game will be just as bad as Sonic 2006.

Okay, maybe not THAT bad, but still...There's not much cause to get your hopes up as high as you're getting them.



I can't begin to fathom why there'd be humans in a Sonic the Hedgehog game. Sure Dr. Robotnik sort of resembles a human, (And it IS Dr. Robotnik if you're American. If you call him Dr. Eggman you are a whipped, Japanophile pansy, and I invite you to go stick some pocky up your ass.) but I thought that it ended there.

Surely I wasn't the only one getting a "Nature vs Humanity" vibe from the first few games, as though the anthromorphic creatures were defending the habitat of their slightly less evolved bretheren. If they had any sort of sense, shouldn't the rest of humanity be seen as some sort of antagonist?

But no, instead we've got humans associating with giant bi-pedal animals as if there's nothing wrong. Ridiculousness aside, the inclusion of humans and human cities has added NOTHING to the gameplay. (It's taken plenty away however, in the form of moronic side-quests in Sonic The Hedgehog 2006.)


This is more a personal hatred than anything else, but I can't stand how just about every level in the 3D Sonic games are filled with chunky guitars and shrill-voiced pop-punk vocalists. I think it takes away from the game when the background music barely fits the stage scenario, and sounds extremely annoying.

While not a lot of info has been leaked in regards to the music, after hearing what HAS been available on YouTube, and the godawful theme music, which features of all people, the guy from Bowling For Soup. (Never a good sign.) I can honestly say they're doing it all over again.

I've never liked the soundtracks of any of the 3D Sonic games. They're just completely unpleasant to me. The last Sonic-related song I genuinely liked was when Green Hill Zone was remade for Super Smash Brothers Brawl. That was pretty cool, because anyone who's a Sonic fan pretty much considers Green Hill Zone to be THE signature Sonic song. (Okay, there's the intro to the original, but that's barely more than 7 seconds long.) Lately though it seems as though Sega's been trying to distance itself from its old and BETTER soundtracks from it's Genesis/CD heydays. And that's a really bad idea.


I'm sure much of the video game community, Sonic fan or not, all raised a collective eyebrow of confusion upon the discovery that Sonic Unleashed would include a strange new feature in which Sonic can transform into a were....thing...that was stronger, slower, and had impossibly elasticine arms.

I watched many videos of gameplay footage of that, never sure what to think until Yahtzee Croshaw summed it up best during an episode of the Australian Gamers Podcast, when he compared the new gameplay style to God of War. (Prior to that, I thought it looked more like Wario World.)

Whatever the case, it's not a good omen. Everytime Sega has had to introduce new elements of gameplay to Sonic games as means of "mixing things up", it generally means one thing: You don't get to play a genuine Sonic game.

What is a genuine Sonic game? Really really inhumanly fast platforming. It's not a God of War-style brawler. When you drive a wedge in the game to block off what people EXPECT from the game, I have found that the hypothetical player enjoying the game now hates you for it.


Think back long and hard. When was the last time that you truly embraced the introduction of a new character in the Sonic franchise? Sonic 3, right? When Knuckles was introduced. After that it was just one long trip towards expanded universe Hades.

If there's one thing that Sega likes to do more than shoot its own hardware in the foot, and release its entire Genesis library on Greatest Hits packs, it's add more completely superficial characters to the Sonic franchise, and Unleashed at least holds back a little bit, with only two new characters; an extremely annoying sidekick thing, (Because Tails apparently wasn't enough.) and a new villain, which is unacceptable considering how long it's been since Dr. Robotnik hasn't been a complete joke.

I wouldn't mind the introduction of all these new faces so much, (Heck, the Super Mario RPGs do it all the time.) but Sega is always carrying these characters over into the main canon, and it gets to the point where they have as many characters as The Simpsons. WHO THE FUCK IS G.U.N., and more importantly WHY SHOULD WE CARE?!

Which is another point I ought to bring up: Sega just keeps adding and adding and adding to their already expansive castlist inconsequential character after another. I defy you to name one person who is a fan of "Marine The Raccoon." You can't name any, can you? Am I right? I'm right, aren't I. 9_9


While I'm ever so slightly optimistic about the "seamless 3D-to-2D" system of camera switching that Sega has been hyping so much, and I'm genuinely pleased that they're making something of  return to Sonic's 2-D roots, I shudder thinking about the 3-D portions.

Why? A while ago I played Sonic Adventure 2 which I had lying around, just because I hadn't played it in a long time, and as I played it the game was made far harder than it should have been because their camera system is one of the WORST ONES I'VE EVER SEEN IN A VIDEO GAME.

Regularly I found the camera getting stuck behind walls, (Leaving my character completely obscured from view.) switching to dramatic angles at the least opportune moment, (Which is another thing I dislike. the pretention that the game was some sort of dramatic epic.) and the sudden perspective switch, where I suddenly find my character turning around in the opposite direction, into the oncoming truck I was supposed to run away from.

This god-awful camera system carried into Sonic 2006, which was one of the worse games of the year, and if Sonic Team didn't learn from their blithering mistake then I shudder to think.

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These are just MY perceptions of what I've seen so far. Who knows? Once Unleashed DOES come out, the game might be a glimmering gem of good game design, they might have fixed up the camera angles, and they might have gotten a better writing staff and voice actors that don't always sound like they're reading their lines out of context. It could be good, but heed my words, and take caution.

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A special double-shot of the Shoot. I know, it's been awhile. And clearly the fans have been waiting for new blogs, given the comments I've been getting.

If you haven't relized that I'm being sarcastic, then i guess YOU'VE actually been waiting on new blogs. Either way...

 

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Wow! It's been awhile since I've had time to post something. A combination of school, work, and having nothing to talk about! (Can't play games if I'm busy with school or work) But One thing I always have time for is Rock Band, my absolute favorite game of recent. How does Rock Band 2 match up?

More than likely, you already have a preconception of whether or not you are going to get this game, so most of what I say will make no difference. But I will go ahead and write. What to start with? Unlike everyone else, I'll start with the game, I've been able to play it with both the old hardware and the new hardware so I will get to that part later. And unlike my previous reviews, this will be split into ratings for each item, then a final rating for the overall set. So lets go!

The Game: Rock Band 2, whats different? Not much. You could think of this game as more of an expansion pack to Rock Band 1, but I would think of RB1 as an expansion of RB2. Why? Because if you have RB1 (or can borrow it from a friend) you can transfer most of the songs to the harddrive so you can play in RB2 (provided that you have the internet connection so you can pay the $5 fee.) But what is really different? With gameplay, absolutely nothing. If you played before, you know how to play now. There are tweaks here and there, the biggest difference is how you unlock songs. Since there is no longer a solo career mode, the best way to unlock songs is to create a band and do the Marathon setlists in the Challenges mode. These are 6 songs each but you can stop and save after a song if you can't finish all six songs at once. World Tour mode is back, and you can do it by yourself or with friends, even if they live across the country as you can play online in World Tour now.

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  Horror and Videogames may have a healthy relationship nowadays, but in the first 20 years, attempts to make scary video games were...shaky at best. Attempts to bring horror classics  like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre to the Atari 2600 and Friday the 13th to the NES received largely negative receptions.  And while games like Castlevania and Splatterhouse would borrow thematic elements from horror movies and novels, the games themselves were pretty standard affairs, lacking any real frights. 

The first game that could legitimately claim to be frightening was Infogrames Alone in the Dark, released for PC in 1992. Its use of movie style camera angles, oppressive atmosphere, and surprise attacks made it a critical and commercial success, and it would birth a new genre: survival horror. Unfortunately, the two lackluster sequels that followed meant that this new genre would have to wait a few years to really shine.  In 1996, that time would finally come.

Uhhh...Chris? Buddy? I think you need to lay off the 'roids for a while...

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Greetings everyone and welcome to Japan Now! Your unofficial source of gaming in the "Far East" as well as insight into Japan's lifestyle and culture. If the Nostalgic Critic is interested, I am considering to make a pilot Japan Then! episode to cover some of the crazy things Japan has had in the past.

The following are my first 4 episodes of my weekly series that comes out every Sunday. I hope everyone can enjoy them. Just be prepared for nonsense.

Episode 1: Pilot - Super Robot Wars Z, Vending Machines and more!

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Hello! Thought I'd pop in for a moment with a brief newsbit and a sign of things to come with the Hall of Fame.

First off, thanks to all of you who voted for the Halloween Horrorfest we're in the middle of right now. I figured it was about time to reveal the winning games, one of which has already had its review published, and the other is coming this weekend. They are, in no particular order, Eternal Darkness, Resident Evil, and Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly. Why FFII:CB won out over its predecessor is unknown to me, but I guess that's something I'll learn when I actually PLAY the game. :P I was surprised that none of the Silent Hill games made the top 3, but hey, there's always next year! I was also surprised to see System Shock 2 get a dozen or so votes, but SHODAN already got her time in the sun, so SS2 was disqualified.

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In the late 90's, horror gaming was ruled by two franchises, Capcom's Resident Evil, and Konami's Silent Hill, both of which were exclusives for the Sony Playstation, although the N64 would receive a port of Resident Evil 2 in the last legs of its life. Eager to try and capitalize and expand on this genre, Nintendo partnered with Silicon Knights to create their own survival horror game. Though it was originally planned for the Nintendo 64, the project was eventually pushed back to appear on the Gamecube.

Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem was released early in the Gamecube's life on June 24, 2002. The main plot concerned Alexandria Roivas, an art student who is called to the mansion of her grandfather Edward, a clinical psychologist, to look into the cause of his mysterious and violent death. Frustrated by the incompetence of the Rhode Island police force (no offense meant to actual Rhode Islanders), Alex begins to investigate for herself, and eventually discovers her grandfather's secret study, and the Tome of Eternal Darkness. Reading the Tome placed players into the sandals of Pious Augustus, a Roman centurion in 26 bc. While leading his troops in battle, Pious is summoned to an ancient Persian temple, where he is forced to battle the undead monsters within. This served as the games tutorial level, as well as the prologue for the greater story. In the last room of the temple, Pious came across the three Essences of the Ancients, Chattur'gha, Ulyaoth, and Xel'lotath. Choosing one of these essences transformed Pious into an undead mage, who was bound to service of the chosen god. It was this choice that would determine which Ancient the player would ultimately face.

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Clive Barker is often called one of the modern masters of Horror. With novels like The Books of Blood, and the Hellraiser series of films on his list of accomplishments, its hard to dispute that claim. It seemed only natural then, that with Horror gaming becoming a larger and larger part of the video game market, that Clive Barker would join with DreamWorks Interactive in 2001 to create his first entry into video gaming.

Clive Barker's Undying told the story of Patrick Galloway, an Irishman who, after serving in the First World War, left his native land to wander the world as a paranormal investigator. But a letter from his former CO, the wealthy Jeremiah Covenant, brought Galloway back to Ireland, to investigate strange goings on in the Convenant estate. Upon his arrival, Jeremiah told Patrick of a curse upon the Covenant family, which had claimed Jeremiah's parents as well as all four of his siblings, and with Jeremiah dying of an unknown illness, it seemed he was next. The curse was linked to an occult book and a series of standing stones on the covenant estate. As children, Jeremiah and his siblings had taken one of their father's books, and had unwittingly unleashed a dark evil from the stones known as the Undying King. This evil had come to claim Jeremiah, and it was up to Patrick to put an end to the curse before the Undying King was set loose upon the world. Along the way, Patrick would have to face off against a slew of monstrous undead creatures, as well as the demonic spirits of Jeremiah's four siblings.

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All right! This the first part of my Legacy of Kain short reviews. Of course I could say A LOT more about these games since I'm a diehard fan of the series, but I think a man must have principles and style so I'm gonna keep on walking the road I've have chosen.

Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain is a top-down (kinda like Zelda but better) action adventure game created by Silicon Knights and the first game of the series. It was first released November 15, 1996 on Playstation and later on PC. A Saturn version was also announced but it never saw the light of day.

The game is a story about a nobleman named Kain who gets brutally murdered by assassins. Later he is resurrected as a vampire by The Necromacer Mortanius who offered him a chanse for revenge. Soon after Kain finds his murderers and brings them death only to find out that his guest is far from over: hoping to find a cure for his vampiric curse, Kain is sent out to kill 9 corrupted Guardians of The Pillars of Nosgoth in order to prevent the world from destruction. During the game Kain (and the player) learns about Nosgoth's history which, for example, includes a war against the vampire race, that once ruled the land, and the corruption of The Circle of Nine. A lot more could be said about the plot but that would take A LOT more words, but overall, it's a very well written, epic story which is the heart of the whole series. The only games that could match the storyline of Legacy of Kain would be Metal Gears and some of Final Fantasies. A great story, mixed with good balance of action and adventure, makes Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain a game that is commonly considered to be the best of the series among the fans.

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Is this list self-indulgent? Probably, but try not to think about it THAT way. Instead think of it as my take on the heroes of video game lore...or rather, my attempt to bring them down several pegs.

I'm going to try to ignore the games of their origin, and instead judge them on their depth of character, and just how likeable a protagonist they actually are. Why? Because I'm a hyper-literate smug bastard, that's why!

And of course, how can one truly enjoy a video game, how can one truly be sucked into the gameplay, when deep down you know that you're furthering the goals of a complete peckerhead?

So now, enjoy this list of:



I can pinpoint the exact moment the Megaman franchise started to go downhill. It was when they at Capcom forgot who made the series great.

IE: MEGAMAN.

Sure there were others with the iconic name slapped across their grill, but most gamers have seen them for what they are...mere shadows of the blue bomber's former greatness. (With the possible exception of X...Until the 5th game, that is.)

Sometimes he's in a computer program, sometimes he's working alongside some forgettable humans to fight some other humans, sometimes he's red and not even NAMED Megaman!? (Screw Zero. Really. He sucks.) But your not playing a Megaman game if you're not the blue bomber we all know and love, and some whining emo swordsman with long blonde hair. (The character yaoi fans WANT him to be.)

Thank goodness for Megaman 9. If the future of the series had to be that Star Force bullshit I would have sworn the series off forever.


Wow. What happened to you, Sonic? Back when you were a 2d platformer you were classic. The jump to the 3rd dimension clearly was unkind to you.

You had a voice now, so we could hear you spout annoying catchphrase after annoying catchphrase after annoying catchphrase (I know they did it on the old Sonic cartoons, but that had a deliberately cartoony feel to it, so it was at least good to laugh at, unlike the ridiculous forced realism of the current games.) with some of the worst voice acting this side of Deus Ex... (Jason Griffith, Ryan Drummond. It doesn't matter who you like, I think they're BOTH awful.)

You forgot that you weren't living in the 1990’s now, and thus didn't realize that doing "Extreme" stuff like grinding on rails without a skateboard and going hoverboard racing didn't make you look cool, it made you look like an extremely low-rent Marty McFly...

But most of all, it's the fact that you've somehow managed to reach your head over and shove your own head up your ass, (Which I imagine is quite painful for a hedgehog.) and reach the conclusion that the thing your series needs most is DRAMA. That's right...drama. Brooding, ennui, and agonizingly maudlin drama.

In a game about anthropomorphic animals fighting robots?? I think NOT.

And y'know what? Y'might as well throw Shadow The Hedgehog in too, because they're for all intents and purposes the EXACT SAME BEING.


The Grand Theft Auto series is by no means a series full of likeable characters. Pretty much all it's good for is the blowing off of steam in ways you'd probably be shot at for trying to do in real life, I'll give you that, but let me elaborate. I was a huge fan of the series for the first two games, when it was 2.5D, top-down view, and there wasn't any semblance of a storyline in sight.

Then next-gen graphics came along and had to screw it all up for me. I am in no way saying that Grand Theft Auto 3 and its’ followers are bad games, I just don't like them. Part of why I don't like them any more is the way that many of the characters have been humanized as a result of the focus on realism.

The first two GTAs were about the petty indulgence of grand-scale destruction, but since the sudden focus on characters and realism that came with the latest few GTAs, a lot of people still have yet to realize that all the protagonists of GTA3 forward are complete assholes. That kinda makes it all the more hard (For me at least.) to go around killing people for no reason.

So which protagonist makes the list? Initially it was a toss-up between the eternally mute Claude of GTA3, or Tommy Vercetti, the smug looking mafia dickhead of Vice City. In the end I went with Claude, who apart from never talking, also has no past apart from committing terrible acts upon innocent people.

So he's an incomplete asshole of a character? That's the impression I'M getting.


So let me see if I understand this completely...

Zero-to-no backstory, loved and admired by all of his allies, feared and detested by all of his enemies, has never lost a battle, shows no fear, and a complete lack of real character.

Sounds less like a video game protagonist to me, and more like a really bad Mary Sue fan-character.

Bungie has claimed that his lack-of-attributes-in-general are for the purpose of making it so the player can really feel like they're Master Chief.

Call it what you want. Personally, I call it a shoddy excuse to release a character they weren't done developing.


What a sorry excuse for comic relief, he was.

Everything about Johnny Cage just keeps adding up to an extremely unlikable character. He’s a smug and vain movie star, he has pretty much no character history, he is supposed to be a comedic character when he does nothing funny, he’s based off Jean Claude Van Damme, but most of all, he is easily one of the more ineffectively useless character in the games.

I suppose somehow he COULD have been an interesting character, but as it is Midway pretty much just made him a vapid pretty-boy celebrity who just HAPPENED to have martial arts, making him the only primary main character to have absolutely no interesting traits to his name.

And don’t try to tell me about that nut-crack attack of his. He still sucks.


Noone can contest that his motives are pure. He's a hero in every sense of the term, but generally people dislike Cyclops in video games for the same reason they dislike him in the X-Men comic book series, the cartoons, the movies, the novels, and pretty much every facet of X-Men lore; because he's a stone cold douche.

Whenever there's a plan, he's always the one enforcing it, whenever someone strays from the plan to do some good, he scolds them for not sticking to HIS awesome plan, and he pretty much just reminds everyone of that jocular dick you knew in high school, who had the perfect frame, lantern-like jaw, hot redhead at his side, and absolutely no personality to his name.

As if that wasn't enough, he has some really dicky moves in the fighting games too. Capcom's X-Men fighting games were excruciatingly fun, I think everyone can agree, but holy guacamole is Cyclops ever a cheap character in the game. His optic blast will damn near ALWAYS stop an opponent in mid-air, and I swear the super-art version of it takes up the whole freaking screen.

He may have been slightly less cheap than Cable in terms of moves, but at least Cable was kinda cool. Cyclops? Not a chance.


Okay. Let's just go through the different elements that make up this character...

Is our protagonist in question...

- Battle-hardened?
- Have a shady past?
- Having been betrayed by some bloke?
- Impossibly muscly?
- Having a voice that sounds like his lungs were shredded with sandpaper?
- Grizzled?
- Lacking a personality?
- Wearing a suit of armor big enough to colonize the inside of?

Answer? An emphatic YES!

Congratulations! You just created a faceless, interchangeable archetype that can be applied to ANY goddamn FPS EVER!

And as long as were at it...Do you think that MAYBE, just MAYBE we have enough games starring freaking grizzled space soldiers?!


Everytime I mention that I don't like Katamari Damacy, people's heads turn in my direction for some reason. (Is that really so hard to believe?) Argue with me if you want about the revolutionariness (I hope that's a word) of it, and how it's like no other game, but I just don't like it any way I look at it.

Part of the reason for it is the protagonist is an enormous jerk and noone seems to realize it but me. Consider that the primary objective of this game is to roll everything up into an enormous lump - causing massive property damage and wrecking the lives of anyone around you - and turn it into a star.

I'll repeat that.

You're supposed to take everything around you can find, clutter it up into an enormous junkball, and turn it into a star. You're supposed to take all that stuff, including LIVING PEOPLE AND ANIMALS WHO DIDN'T DO NOTHIN' TO NOONE and turn it into a BURNING MASS OF ARGON, HYDROGEN, AND OTHER DEADLY GASES.

And I'll tell you right now, I don't CARE if the sky needs stars and stuff to please the King of the Universe, (Who is a complete FREAK, let me tell you.) he broke the damn sky in the first place. Let HIM fix it. Leave Earth out of it.


From a literary standpoint, in order for a protagonist to work, the reader needs to sympathize with them. They need to LIKE them. While the Final Fantasy series has been known for its assortment of characters with backstories out the wazoo, I gotta wonder just what mindset Squaresoft was in when they developed the main characters for Final Fantasies 7 and 8.

Cloud Strife may be a favorite among video game fans, and I by no means hate FF7, (The first FF I ever played…though personally FF6 reigns supreme in my mind.) but looking back I realize the main character was really REALLY annoying. He’s supposed to be the hero, but he experiences depression with every breath of air, manages to help the main villain THREE TIMES because he’s “being influenced by him” or something…all in all there really isn’t a moment where he’s just staring at the camera and screaming “PITY ME!!!”

But apparently he was just emo and thus popular enough to spawn a sequel, in the form of Squall Leonhart, (The last FF I ever played…which was the one where I finally caught on that they all share the same story.) who was even more depressive, more emotionally empty, and even more annoying.

Hell, their sad nature is even hinted at in their names. (Strife, and Squall)

That really shoulda been a give-away, I think.


Do I NEED to elaborate?

The man may be an icon of American culture, and a comic book legend, but in the world of video games he’s public enemy #1. Can any other conclusion really be reached, when his track record includes “games(?)” like Superman on the NES, Superman on the Sega Genesis, Superman 64…hell, pick any system. Chances are good that Superman has a crappy game on it.

But I’m not here to talk about the games, necessarily. I’m here to talk about the CHARACTER.

That is to say the LACK of character. Superman may have been history’s first superhero, and he may be an American icon, but if you take all that away what do you have left? Not much, especially if you look at some of the Superman comics from the 50s or the 60s, where pretty much everything about them was either stupid or stupider. (There’s an issue where Superman walks upside down and noone else does, but Jimmy Olsen’s the only one that notices. What the hell?)

The point I’m trying to stress here is that Superman’s comic book self often is translated over to video games PERFECTLY…for the worse.

Oh, yeah. And he’s a colossal dick. (http://superdickery.com)

Sorry, Superman, but your time’s pretty much up. Come back when we need a personification of America to go kick some country’s ass in a war like during the 40s. Until then, stay the crap out of our video games.

Batman’s more awesome anyhow.

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As I say with all the lists I make, whether you agree with me or not: It's best not to take this too seriously.

I'm only keedeeng, after all. :D

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Welcome back to the Gaming Hall of Fame! For the entire month of October, we will celebrate Horror gaming, from pioneering classics to modern masterpieces, along with three titles as chosen by YOU, the readers, later this month! Our first entry is a game that not only was one of the first 3D games ever made, but also was the first game in the genre of Survival Horror, a full four years before Resident Evil was even a thought in Capcom's mind: Alone in the Dark.

Author's Note: Due to the age of this game and compatibility issues, I was unable to take many screenshots or compose any appreciable video. I have sought out a video, made by the much more technically skilled David Sukljan. All credit goes to him for the video, which does an excellent job of showcasing the gameplay elements of Alone in the Dark. What screenshots I DO have, are my own.)

In the early 90's, gaming was ruled by three major genres: the side scrolling platformer, the point and click adventure, and the arcade shooter. They were all formulas that worked, but despite the winning storytelling of games like Monkey Island, and Sam and Max, games were largely simple affairs, with no real immersion or atmosphere. In 1992, a company called Infogrames would seek the fill this unseen niche, and in doing so, would create an entirely new genre, a genre that would eventually be called Survival Horror.

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Sure.

There will always be a place in the cold dark recesses of my caffeine-addled heart for the classic video game systems of the late 80s to mid-90s. Nintendo, Super Nintendo, Genesis, Neo Geo, even Turbo Grafx. But for what my money’s worth, much of my childhood nostalgia can be found no farther than the very computer I’m typing on.

My parents had a rather unfortunate policy of not allowing my brother or I to own any video game systems in our youth. The first thing resembling a game console I ever got was a Gameboy Pocket, and I was only allowed to have it because I actually went to the trouble of saving my 5-dollar allowance for 10 weeks to get one, and later a copy of Pokemon Red. (Don’t you judge me.)

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In the mid to late 1990's, video games were in the middle of a transitional period. With the popularity of the Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis (Megadrive if you lived outside of the US) waning, the Nintendo 64 just around the corner, and the Playstation having been on shelves since 1994, it was clear that the 32 and 64 bit age was about to take off. While the 64 bit N64 would be the most powerful console on the market until the release of Sega's Dreamcast, it would be Sony's Playstation that would rule the throne of the fifth console generation.

In 1993, a year before the release of the Playstation, a six man development team from Core Design of Europe, led by Toby Gard, partnered with Eidos Intereactive, and began work on a three dimensional action platforming game that was designed to take full advantage of the hardware available at the time. Their intent was to create a game based on exploration, puzzle solving and platforming in a fully immersive 3d environment. The initial protagonist was essentially a male Indiana Jones clone. When this wasn't accepted by the Core higher ups, Gard created the initial design for a hardened English woman named Lara Croft. Though the initial design work was done on Sega Saturn development kits, Tomb Raider was released in 1996 for the Saturn, Playstation and PC.

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Wow, one hell of a week.

 First off, today, Sept. 30, is my birthday. I am now 22 years old, and where once a birthday would have left me filled with merriment, I am now consumed with thoughts of "Great, I'm one step closer to middle age." Oh, well, such is life.

 Second, and I know I'm a few days late to the party, but it seems my Final Fantasy column was featured in the Awesome Blog of the week. Seeing that just drove home even further what a kickass community this place has, and I just want to again extend my thanks for your readership, your comments, and your support. This really has been the best and most responsive community I've ever had the privilige, nay, the honor, of being a part of.

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(BE WARNED STRONG BAD REFRENCE)

 

Checking my pms once checking my pms twice

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SaGa Frontier 2 on ps1 is a turn based rpg game from Squares less known SaGa game series. If you're not familiar with SaGa Frontier 2, I can think only two reasons why:

1. Final Fantasy stole all your attention.                                                                              2. This one is for gamers ONLY and it's NOT beginner-friendly.

The game features multiple storyline system, placing you into the world of magic and discovery. The story is centered around two main character and their relatives: Gustave (the Steel) XIII and Will (a treasure hunter). Instead of linear storyline the player greates a unique flow of history by selecting one of many story events that lead to new events untill you reach the final event and final "boss". Thus the game doesn't have a plot that could be writen in short review fashion.

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Video games and movies have had a rather sordid history together. On the one hand there's movies that are adapted from video games, which have a consistent track record of being completely terrible, and bearing precious little resemblance to the game they're based upon. (Although personally I thought that casting Psychobilly musician Mojo Nixon as Toad in the Super Mario Brothers movie was pretty neat.)

Then there's video games adapted from movies. Everyone knows them best as quick cash-ins on a franchise, and generally dismiss them as being low-quality without even playing them. And y'know what? They're usually right. Every console has had it's share of absolutely god-awful movie-licensed video games. From Jurassic Park on the Super Nintendo, to Indiana Jones & The Last Crusade on the Sega Genesis, to Fight Club on the PS2, to the most notorious of the lot, E.T. on the Atari 2600.

While it's often the case that Movie-based video games suck wind, it's not ALWAYS the case. Every so often, and often unnoticed, a game will come along that is a beautiful shiny pearl, dredged from the murky backwash of movie licensedom.

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What is it worth? - Rez

It seems that my tiny space of the internets has been seeing a lot more traffic than I predicted, each of my previous blogs have been hit over 100 times! (Hopefully it isn't my mom clicking it 100 times).

This time I bring out Rez. Either you've heard of it or you haven't. So for those of you that haven't, I'll try to explain.

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 A common trait among boxing is to strategize on where the punches of your opponent will try to land on you, block, and punch on the place your opponent might not expect. It will lead you to your victory and you will be one of the greats in boxing... That is unless the gameplay is f**kin awkward, it feels more like a fighting game, and even easy "Fierce" mode will still give you a headache. But in all honesty, Facebreakers seems to be a promising game, after all it was heavy publicized on GameTrailers I believe and it is devoloped by EA Canada, the same people who brought you the Fight Night series, Need For speed, Skate, and lots more. Unfortunately, this game is likely to be a bad mark term for EA Canada's almost spotless record of making good games.

Basically it's a fighting game where the goal is to beat your opponent, just like any other game that involves boxing, but it does have unique aspects. It's got a cartoony aspect that kind of reminds of you... Wait a minute, is it me, or does the character Molotov looks like he's from Team Fortress 2? o_o;; I must be seeing things, anyways. Another interesting fact bout the game is that facial features are detailed in a way that when you land a massive beatdown on your opponent, they're face gets very disfigured and will look like they went through an entire.. Well you get the idea. Gameplay is like regular boxing, you do high and low punches , can parry and block, and all that jazz. But what's interesting is that whenever you land consecutive hits, the bar gets filled up, that bar is for your special attacks, like one bar let's you do a more powerful attack, two bars will give you strength to do the groundbreaker, and three bars will make you do a sky breaker. But it's best to make your bar get full, that way you'll be able to do the facebreaker move, basically what happens is that... Well, yeah, you'll break your opponents face and your the instant winner.

You get a wide range of characters that are bout as unique as paper. Ice the slick cool (and I mean litterally cool) african american from the U.S.. Molotov the explosive loving russian, Kiriko the japanese gothic loiletta lover, Romeo the spanish ladies man who makes love.. With his fists!! *buuuuurned*, Steve the nerd who thinks he's the master ninja but isn't aware that his gut is bulging out of his shirt, Brick the stereotypical brute who can't count past 10, and lots more. Another cool thing about this game is that you can use your own face to see yourself get beaten up, or create your own characters in any way you like.

Now if you think that this is all of the recipies for a classic, you have no idea how frustrating this game really is, let's first talk about the biggest problem with this game. The AI, usually suppose to be like real people is just simply too damn smart, it's like the opponents are on frickin kryptonite steroids, even on easy "Fierce Mode" is like extremely difficult to beat due to the fact that the opponents seem to know all of your moves and can lay a serious blow on you. What's even more annoying is the final battle where you battle a nerd who is controlling a robot, each knockout you do (like 3 in total to win) will make destroy more of the robot, but instead of it being easier, it's like the nerd went in super desperation mode and unleashed the big guns on you.

Another problem with the game is the awkward controls, to do a parry all you have to do is hold down the R1 button so that you can do the counter attack whenever your opponent tries to make an attack. That's great and all, but the main problem with this is that since the game is very difficult to beat, most people would just hold down the R1 button throughout the entire fight, and doing that would really make your finger sore.

The sound is at least decent, but again there are some problems with it, the soundtrack is not really as memorable as you hope for so it may be of an ear sore from time to time. The voice acting (well, barely any voice acting anyway) is also a bit on the negative side, since it portrays all of the characters as stereotypicals, so in way it's a bit of a good thing that you don't hear it much.

The graphics are probably the best thing bout the game, while gives the characters a cartoonish portrayl, but at the same time makes the face mauling look so detailed. And there framerate issues isn't that noticeable so it probably won't bother you.

Bottom line is that while FaceBreaker is a fun game in terms of face breaking, the AI difficulty and awkward controlling makes this games so much of a difficult thing that you probably would have been better off playing Mike Tyson's Punch Out on the VC then getting this difficult game. But if your the kind of person who loves to be tested to the limits and thirsts for something that's extremly difficult, then this is the right game for you.

 Final Verdict!

 5.6

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In 1979, videogames were in their infancy. Though the Atari 2600 had launced in 1977, game designers weren't really sure what to do with the new technology, so most of the effort went into Arcade titles like Pong, Blockade (which later became Snake), and Midway's Space Invaders. It was this last title that ruled the arcades in 1979, with its addictive gameplay. Atari knew that if they were to wrest the arcade throne from Midway, they would need their own twitch space shooter.

Asteroids was released to arcades in 1979. It was designed by Lyle Rains, and was programmed by Ed Logg, who would later go on to program Centipede, Gauntlet, and San Francisco Rush. Unlike other games of the day, which used pixellated sprites, Asteroids used vector graphics, which meant that all graphics were made by a beam drawing a series of lines over and over again on the screen, like a laser light show. The technology had previously been used in Atari's Lunar Lander. The original Asteroids botherboard was actually a modified Lunar Lander board, and it still exists today in the personal collection of Lander engineer Howard Delman.

The player controlled a triangular spacecraft. You could rotate the ship on its axis, and fly it straight forward, all while blasting a series of asteroids that would break into smaller chunks when struck. If the player came in contact with an asteroid, their ship would be destroyed. The player could also activate a warp ability that would teleport the ship to a random point on the screen. Occasional UFO's also appeared, and gave a points bonus if the player shot it down.

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