TV Choice.

Another new series of posts I thought I'd bring to the blog, this one will be something a bit different. Each week (or so) I'll talk about some various TV shows, movies and anime I like.

There will no doubt be some you might have seen and some you haven't and if I can get you interested enough to watch/enjoy any of them, that'll be reward enough for me.

I'll talk briefly about 3 shows, anime or movies every week, so I'll get to the point and get this over with. >_- [I say that because its been sitting in my drafts for a while now..]

Born Survivor: Bear Grylls aka Man vs Wild
(Discovery, Channel 4)

The premise behind this one is that former SAS Bear Grylls is basically dropped off in remote and inhospitable places in the wild and tries to get back to civilisation and how to survive in such places. Kind of similar to some of Ray Mear's programs, but more interesting in my opinion. Some of the stuff he does is ridiculuously stupid, for example when he jumps into quicksand or frozen lakes just to show how to get out, although when I do get stranded in some wilderness I'll know how to get out of these situations...allegedly. lol.. -_-
I am really interested in nature and the ways it works, so this program is really down my street. Its not gonna be for everyone, I'm guessing if you are squeamish or anything it might not be your cuppa tea because he does have to kill some animals and eats some pretty nasty things.

Here's some video.



http://www.beargrylls.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man_vs._Wild

The new series starts tomorrow on Discovery Channel in the UK. I'd recommend the series.

Supernatural
(Living 2 in the UK, others in the US)

For me, I only just got into this, but its been around for a while now. I'd always thought I'd like the series and been told I'd like it and when I watched a couple episodes recently, I was really impressed. Imagine some kind of cross between The X-Files, CSI, Medium, maybe even Charmed and thats more or less what you have here. In fact, its one of those shows where I saw an episode for the first time and immediately went to see how much the DVD boxsets were. So far I've not given in yet, but I'm very nearly sold on the first season. (Its cheap on Amazon.co.uk at the moment)

Its got a really good mix of funny moments, horror(ish) moments and dramatic scenes. I like the style at times as well, the characters listen to a bunch of decent old classic rock and heavy metal. Always good =D

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supernatural_(TV_series)

Eleventh Hour
(CBS, Living TV)

I'm not too sure if this is still on TV on any networks or channels, but it should be available on dvd (I'm not too sure on that one.) Or somewhere on the interwebs from less legitimate sources *cough* Its kind of like CSI/X-Files style drama with 2 members of the FBI investigating unusual paranormal cases. Its a really cool show and I wish there was more of it than just the one series. At the moment there are no plans for any further series. Even so, check this one out!



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eleventh_Hour_(U.S._TV_series)

Anyway, that'll do for now as I've run out of ideas of any more stuff to say -_-

Check those shows out if you get the chance, and I'll bring 3 more some time next week.

Now Playing - "when angels deserve to die."

Today felt like it went on for ever. Not because I was bored per se, just that I got to sleep quite late and then got woke up by noises around the house at half 8 in the morning, or something close. All I know is that it was some ungodly hour, I'm way out of the routine of getting up that early. Not a good sign for uni starting up soon, that will be a painful adjustment hehe.... -_-

So I couldnt get back to sleep with all the slamming of doors and shouting going on, only had a few hours sleep (4 or so) then got up, got a cup of tea and some breakfast and went back upstairs. Think I might have played some games and then fallen asleep again (only for an hour or so, until I was woken up again...wow *facepalm) Think at that point I was feeling terrible and just decided to screw the idea of sleeping any more. So I had pretty much the whole day to occupy myself (a lot more of the daylight hours than I would normally get in a day =p)

So I basically watched some tv for a bit and played Chrono Trigger and waited for the Europa League group stage draw to be made, had a look on Sky Sports and was quite pleased overall.

Celtic              

Rapid Vienna

Hamburg

Hapoel Tel-Aviv

Anyway I am rambling so let me get to the point of the post. I thought that it was time for another Now Playing post, seeing as how I've beaten 2 games today and I'll talk about them a bit here.

First was Chrono Trigger (DS). I was working on the sidequests just before the end boss stages on this for a while and got most of them done (I left out what I think were large dungeons) before I had a couple tries at the end game. The quests I left out I think I'll leave for a New Game+ which will have to be tackled at some point. There is an impressive amount of endings in this SNES rpg, 13! So thats 1/13 down =p Lots of replayability then, and I think in future New Game+'s I'll try 100% the Techniques, Items and Bestiary. Its an awesome game, definitely check the DS version out if you haven't already.

I played a couple more hours of Fable 2 (360), did a couple sidequests for some gold and reknown and then went to get the last hero you have to meet up with. Turns out that was a lot closer to the end than I thought, and I ended up beating the game not too long after that. I was quite dissapointed with the game towards the end. A LOT of the things in it seem rushed, there are tonnes of glitches and bugs from the look of it. NPCs go transparent and dissapear at times, the camera seems to periodically shake in the Wraithmarsh area. Did they playtest the game at all? Seems slack. The ending as well, I mean overall the story is cliched but alright. The ending could have been better, I was expecting a big expansive dungeon on the way to the endboss that is pretty staple in rpgs. Nope, no dungeon, hell, not even a real end boss one might argue. I ended up enjoying parts of Fable 2, it can be addictive and light hearted fun at times, but there isn't much substance and its definitely not realistic. Also there is character and atmosphere in the game, but other areas let it down. The NPCs feel like they have no personality, they are all so similar and interacting with them is clunky, you cant speak-you can only interact with "expressions" such as dance. Hmm, try communicating with a bunch of english people by dancing and you could easily end up stabbed in certain parts of England...lol... So realistic its not really, but the game is gorgeous at times, like the sunsets, sunrises, some of the locations you go to, even if the camera does shake and the textures pop all over the place. Awful loading times (I didn't install it to HDD) and a fair bit of slowdown and lag when there are lots of enemies on screen.  Anyway, despite its flaws, this rpg has a fair bit to do to keep you occupied. The main game is short, but if you are an achievement junkie/whore there are a few which should give you a bit of a challenge. Quite a lot of sidequests and stuff to do otherwise. Its probably worth a shot the game, it should be cheap now. Plus there will be a 3rd eventually. Here's the debut trailer for Fable 3, from Gamescom earlier this month.

So with the other games out the way, I had just started up a save on Riviera: The Promised Land (PSP), so I put a couple more hours into it now. Its a bit early to give a lot of criticism or opinion on it, but I quite like the way the item system works (even if the items do wear out and break, think durability and it kinda makes sense.)

 You basically bring a couple items into each turn based battle and select your characters to use them as their turns come around. By using certain items a couple times, the character might learn EX Skills, which essentially give you a decent special move with that item and stat ups (from what I can tell, the equivalent stat growth you would get with a level up in rpgs)

These are key to getting your characters stronger and there is a lot of tactical stuff in there to keep you on your toes, you need to manage your formation, healing in battle, mastery of weapons (some chars are better with certain types of weapon ie. sword)

And there looks to be a lot of inventory management. I counted it to be something very low like 16 items max at any time. Hopefully I get an upgrade on that or something soon, because I hate having to make choices on what to chuck away, especially when I can learn skills from a lot of the weapons.

Here's a japanese trailer so you can see a bit more about it. It has really nice vibrant coloured graphics and pretty cool character designs. I'm looking forward to putting more time into this one. I think I'm only around 3 hrs in, on the 2nd chapter.

Sony and their decisions.

I thought I'd briefly talk about Sony and a bit about their consoles, games and just the way they do business. Dunno why, just I feel the need to get some stuff off my chest.

Ok, so you've probably heard of Sony at some point, maybe you've also heard that they will shortly be releasing a PS3 slim, one of the worst kept secrets/most leaked stories they've had recently. The release date for the PS3 slim is in a few days in the UK, and shares the same date as the States. Surprisingly enough, we are getting it 2 days before Japan, where PS3s have been selling by the boat-load for ages now.

Europe and USA: 01.09.09
Japan: 03.09.09

Here's some more info:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ps3
http://uk.playstation.com/

{I'm just posting this last one because its the official site, I don't particularly like the site-its hard to navigate and find useful info or even what you are looking for.}

So, what makes the PS3 slim a better buy than the original model? Not a lot of groundbreaking changes, but some welcome ones.

Firstly and most importantly for me and many other gamers with an eye on the bank balance, the price will be reduced to £250 in the UK.

The slim is going to feature a 120Gb HDD which can be upgraded and is 33% smaller, 36% lighter, and consumes 34% less power than previous models. Pretty cool I guess, but when I am buying a console, the weight isn't one of the prime selling points for me, I mean...I don't carry my home consoles around with me much.
There is also a new matt black finish incase your original model was too shiny for you. Also a new logo for this new model. Wow, Sony are spending their money on all the right things it seems. -_-

Back-compatibility with Playstation and PS2 games? Kind of, but not 100% reliable, some games might work and others might not. I've also heard games crash and get errors as well. I don't think they've made improvements to the PS3 slim for this, I heard that Sony representatives said it "wasn't a selling point." They might even have taken it out, I'm finding it hard to get a straight answer on this one. Ok, I did some more reading and it seems there won't be PS2 back-compatibility.

What the hell is with that? Why not include back-compatibility? With the amount of money and time they must have wasted making the thing look different and more aesthetically pleasing they could have easily made some progress on getting it to play old PS1 and PS2 games. Why not give your customers something some of them desire from a console? Its almost like they are trying to ignore customers and make stupid decisions. Maybe they just like pissing money up the wall. I mean, when the PS2 has outsold the PS3 month to month on occasion doesn't that tell you that maybe they dropped the ball on this one?

Articles on some of our back-compatibility hopes crushed, trampled and thrown into a volcano for good measure:

Gossipgamers

Eurogamer

Kotaku

Wired

ALBOTAS

Anyway, I guess its not all bad, the lower power consumption might mean it wont sound as loud as an aircraft taking off.
Despite the shafting that Sony is determined to give to the loyal customers paying £250 for each of these expensive bookends, it might surprise you to hear that I am actually interested in getting a PS3 at some point. Sony says that there are lots of games making the PS3 a good choice. I would have to disagree. No, its not that I didn't buy a PS3 up till now because it had a bad logo, was too shiny or too heavy, its because it was and I'm inclined to say still is an expensive piece of junk with few good games. Very few system sellers jumped out at me. Now I kind of want to catch up with some of the gems that are only on the PS3 ie. Valkyria Chronicles.
Also, I would be able to watch Blu-Rays, something I haven't been able to do yet.

Maybe the PS3 slim might tempt me one of these days.

I'm just so much more happy with my Limited Edition Halo 360, I haven't regretted getting it once I don't think. From what I've heard, the PS3 has many things wrong with it. The game library on the Xbox is just so much better here than the PS3 selection which they have for some bewildering reason decided to limit with the lack of PS2 compatibilty. The Japanese get a lot of good PS3 titles however, and that is one reason it sells so well over there. Actually, that just reminded me of something, the region free aspect of it. I could technically import games and play them on my PAL console as long as they dont decide to axe that with the slim as well.

http://kotaku.com/5346777/ps3-slim-vs-xbox-360-elite-tale-of-the-tape?skyline=true&s=i

Sigh...Sony really know how to treat their customers and fans eh? Don't even get me started on the PSP Go. Some malicious part of me wants the hackers to f**k some shit up for the PS3 and the PSP Go just so Sony lose a bit of money and maybe learn from some of their mistakes. That is asking a bit too much I am guessing though.

Champions League: The Aftermath..

So Celtic lost their Champions League qualifier against Arsenal last night after 2 frustrating legs of the tie. The first one more or less won it at Celtic Park, with 2 Arsenal away goals which were quite lucky. One late first half free kick, heavily deflected, wrong footed Boruc and one Caldwell own goal later in the game.. =(
I say they were lucky, but Arsenal did have a lot of chances to score at other times, so I guess the constant flowing game and pressure they put on the Celtic defense paid off. Still, it was a hard result to accept for me. If those goals hadn't gone in the 2nd leg would have been there to win. Still, shit happens. Here's a video with some highlights: [Link]

Arsenal 2 - 0 Celtic (Agg 2 - 0) 1st Leg, Final Round Champions League Qualifier, 18.08.09

So that was the first leg, a week ago. The 2nd leg in London proved just as excruciating if not moreso than the first. Early on, a controversial penalty was given to Arsenal. Here's a highlights video: [Link] This to me, and a whole load of other people looked like a complete dive. No contact was really made with Eduardo by Boruc it seemed, yet a pen was given and Eduardo put it away to make it 1-0 on the night and 3-0 on aggregate... It only got worse as the night went on. McDonald scored not long after, but it was ruled offside (which it was. >.<) Arsenal had many more chances throughout the night and it ended up 3-1, Celtic scoring a concelation (sp?) goal with the last kick of the match. Arsenal 3 - 1 Celtic (Agg 5 - 1) 2nd Leg, Final Round Champions League Qualifier, 26.08.09 So there are a few things I thought I'd talk/rant about. (I'll try keep it brief so you don't lose interest) First, the amount of money Arsenal have available for transfers, wages, training etc. Scottish clubs have a lot less money compared to big sides like Arsenal, Man Utd, Barcelona, Real Madrid, AC Milan etc. and this really impacts on the players they can bring to the sides and the progress they can make in the European competitions (Champions League and the now Europa League.) I guess that gulf in spending power and skill really showed over the 2 legs of this Champions League Qualifier, depressing... They had Gordon Strachan in the studio for the first leg analysis during half time and after the game and he talked about this issue as well. It does seem that there really isn't much that can be done about it apart from giving Scottish clubs and other smaller European teams more money. There must be some ways they can even out the playing field a bit, because there is a huge divide it seems. This may seem like me moaning and trying to make excuses but its not, I can accept the defeat and move on, I just wanted to post some football related stuff as I don't do it often. Anyway, now for the core of the rant. You could probably guess it was going to be about the Eduardo penalty. Well yeah, how could I not be pissed off it at? I almost broke a chair when I saw the ref had given it. Watch some highlights or news if you haven't seen it already (I linked earlier on) and you'll see that there wasn't really a lot of contact and Eduardo seemed to go down pretty easy. I really hate that diving or "simulation" as various football commentators have called it is part of the game still so much a part of the game...it doesn't really go in the spirit of the game and I think referees and officials should hand out more punishment for when they don't get tricked by stupid theatrics, yellow cards, red cards-whatever might stop it happening. However, I don't think it should stop there. Nope, thats not enough in some cases. Fair enough in the Celtic Arsenal game last night, it was already 2-0 on aggregate beforehand and this wasn't a tie-breaking decision by any means. In some games though, big decisions by officials really have cost teams badly and I think that should really stop. I said last night, I would accept the result and forget about it as long as Eduardo got punished for his "acting" skills in some way. I wanted a fine or a ban and it seems I'm not the only one who desires this. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/europe/8223917.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/europe/8208690.stm

SFA chief is calling for UEFA to ban Eduardo for this dive, the articles also talk about video evidence and other stuff.

Anyway, I am running out of time (I need to get to the post office to pick something up.) Now that Champions League football is off the cards for Celtic, the Europa League final qualifying round is the next european fixture, drawn on Friday I think, but I'm not 100% sure on that. Is that a good thing or a bad thing? I'm not sure, on one hand it will mean a lot more fixtures this year if Celtic are to make good progress through the new format for the Uefa Cup (now known as the Europa League) and this could end up tiring the squad out towards the end of the season. On the other hand, we will get a lot more chances to see Celtic playing other European sides, and I love watching European midweek games.

Edit: I just found out here that I was wrong and that Celtic will be going into the Europa League group stages, and not the final qualifier round. The draw is tomorrow, lets hope its a good one! =p

Technology-fail...

I haven't been posting as much recently because my laptop refuses to pick up my wireless internet for some unknown reason. So I can only really get on the internet occasionally now...

T_T

So, I'll keep playing some more Chrono Trigger and Fable 2 and hope it fixes itself soon. Which it has done before, go figure...

On an unrelated note, here's a trailer for James Cameron's upcoming movie Avatar, which has got me intrigued with all the hype its been generating.

I cant seem to embed it on Internet Explorer, so here is the link.. (damn computers.. ¬_¬)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXF2nH4Z9sc

Now Playing - Come with me now on a journey through time and space

I kinda like the idea of putting up some weekly/monthly posts to give my blog a bit of structure and the games I've been playing recently have been both annoying me and interesting me. So I thought I'd try out this idea - a series of posts that I'll call "Now Playing" (a backloggery homage =p) and in which I'll discuss the video games I've been playing around the time.

 So I recently finished Infinite Undiscovery on the 360. For the most part, the flaws in the game really annoyed me at times, but towards the end the story started to pick up and you get to visit one of the most amazing areas I've ever seen in an rpg for the final stages of the game. I wont spoil it though, try it and see for yourselves.

The game does have a lot wrong with it in my opinion, in some places it is very hard to figure out what to do or where to go, as the game gives hardly any helpful stuff like directions. They might say, lets go to such and such a location but neglect to tell you where that may be...It also has a wierd kind of awkward connect system, which you can use to interact with the other playable characters on your team. With it you can basically take control of them and use the abilities they have equipped. Its a nice idea, but when you want to use a certain character's ability in the field, you cant use it if they aren't in your party and guess what, you cant change your party unless you are in a town or similar safe area. Similarly, you can only save at save points, which are few and far between. I found myself dying and losing lots of play time due to the lack of save points. Not necessarily because I had lost a lot of actual gameplay, but because there are lots of long cutscenes. That brings me to the next point...some of the cutscenes seem really poorly done in places, with bad voice acting and kind of poor graphics, especially the lip-synching.

Anyway, I went on for much longer than I wanted to on this seeing as how I already beat it. Despite its flaws and lack of polish in places, it does pick up towards the end and I ended up liking it somewhat. I'd try pick it up cheaply or second if you are into hack and slash or action rpgs such as Star Ocean (Its by tri-Ace as well and even shares the currency used in those games.)

I was looking for a portable rpg as at the time I wasnt playing any on my DS or PSP, so picked up Disgaea: Afternoon of Darkness (PSP) when I was heading out on the bus to meet a friend. I've beaten it before but hadn't really done much on the extra "Etna Mode" where you get to play as a different protagonist-Etna. So I played a couple of hours more on this, doing a lot of grinding (the game is really fun but is very grindy too) Its one of those games that is really packed full of charm and is really well localised and translated. Its also one of the few games that I found really funny. I'd really recommend this one if you have a psp and like strategy RPGs or just want a really quirky, funny game.

I had already beaten the main game and I'm gonna leave the rest of Etna mode for another time because I know its gonna be very time consuming. There's so much to do in Disgaea games, definitely get value for your money with 'em. =D

I've also had the urge to go back and play another game I beat but really enjoyed back in the day. Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn (PC).  This is an amazing western rpg and I'd still say its my favourite game, or one of them. There are a few bugs and glitches in the game but I knew there were solutions to any gamebreaking ones, so I installed it, patched it and whatnot and continued with the new game I'd created recently on my laptop. Its really hard to find any actual flaws in the game in my opinion, its so well written and detailed and there is a heck of a lot to do-sidequests, back stories to your team members, the expansion pack and many 3rd party mods (which I've never tried actually)

So far I'm yet to be completely addicted and drawn back in but I'm fairly sure thats because I've done the prologue bit and the early stages so many times I know them like the back of my hand. I'll probably get addicted when I get into the next few chapters and start hunting for sidequests and stuff to do. If you've never played this one, I'd really recommend it. Its one of the series Bioware started out with, this series. Without it, I don't think the games like SW: Knights of the Old Republic, Mass Effect etc would be the same. The future release Dragon Age: Origins has been referred to as a spiritual sequel to the Baldur's Gate games, so if you like your western rpgs, or rpgs in general, or haven't played this, give it a shot. For me, its hard to say a bad word about this game.

 So after I put Disgaea's Etna mode on hold, I was again left with no portable titles on the go. I had a look through my games and this one jumped out over all the others. Chrono Trigger. (DS) I hadn't played it at all since I got it a few months ago and seeing as how I never played it back in the days of the SNES or the Playstation and call myself an rpg fan, I wanted to play it as it is toted as one of the best rpgs or even games of all time! (it says on the box lol) So I couldn't let my heinous crimes against the rpg genre continue and started playing this immediately =). At first it seemed like a dated rpg visually but I got more and more used to it and the music and graphics started to really grow on me. Now I am around 6 hours in and I'm really enjoying it. To think that it is a 14 year old game is really amazing as it is really well scripted and the story is really impressing me. The game feels leaps and bounds ahead of some of the other games I've played of that age. And I can tell that it's had a lot of influences on the rpg genre. I'm really liking this game and gonna play some more before I can talk about it much.

Hopefully I'll bring more of these Now Playing posts, approximately weekly or monthly dependant on how many games I play really. Till next time ;D

Nostalgia (DS)

From FF Gaiden, which wont reach us for a while to Nostalgia, the upcoming RPG from Ignition Entertainment. This one looks very old school and traditional, with turn based battles, dungeons, puzzles, skill customisation, airships (where have I seen those before?) etc. There will be airship battles from what I can tell =D

Official Site

Here is the trailer.

The player will travel to many of the cities of the world ie. London, New York, Tokyo. I don't particularly like that it is set on Earth but even so, the game looks good I must say.

This should be out stateside in Autumn this year. Not a long wait!

Final Fantasy Gaiden: The Four Warriors of Light (DS)

I've known about this DS title for a few weeks now, but don't think I mentioned it at all on here. Its supposed to be a new Square Enix rpg with roots and influences in the original Final Fantasy games featuring the Warriors of Light. 

Some people have said the art style and graphics are kind of ugly, but for a DS title I think it looks quite nice. Sure the characters look strange, but I'm not too bothered about that. I've got high hopes for this DS game, hopefully it turns out well. If it had a good job system or skill system, in fact any of the game play features of FFI - IV would be good.

Here is the official site (Japanese) which is worth a quick look.

There doesn't seem to be much info up about this yet even though it is set to be released in Japan this year at some point.

Game of the Month. (08/09)

Something I've been wanting to try out for a while now is a series of posts where I'll try recommending a game each month. I'm going to try focussing on games I've really enjoyed for being different, unique, unknown or just really damn enjoyable for whatever reasons.

So first up for the month of August 09' is American McGee's Alice (PC.) Published in 2000 by EA and designed by American McGee and Rogue Entertainment, this is a dark, macabre retelling of the Alice in Wonderland tales by Charles Lutwidge Dodgson or more commonly known by the pseudonym Lewis Carroll in which the world has been corrupted by her mind and insanity. The game plays with many aspects of the first and third person shooter, action/adventure, platformer and survival horror genres.

I think you'd like this game if you are at all interested in the Alice in Wonderland theme or the dark style of some of Tim Burton or Guillermo Del Toro films. On a slight tangent, look out for Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland movie coming in 2010. I'm looking forward to that for sure! =p

As for similar games, I really can't think of many. Its one of those really unique games that we are seeing less of nowadays unfortunately. Perhaps the Legacy of Kain/Soul Reaver games, they were platformer/action games with really interesting settings behind them. I don't know much about platformers, but I like the depth and story behind those games. 

The game has been released in the original packaging and also reprinted a few times by various budget lines ie. Sold Out Software in EU regions. The original is a bit harder to track down-expect to pay at least £20 for that. 

Some links, the first of which is an announcement from earlier this year about a sequel to American McGee's Alice on PC, Xbox 360 and PS3. Woot!

American McGee's Blog announcement

Wikipedia

Gamerankings

Gamespot

I loved the original American McGee's Alice despite not finishing it. It has such an awesome dark, twisted style to it. I'd definitely recommend the original game and apparantely it works on both Windows XP and Vista as well as older OS's. There is also a seperate Mac version out there. 

Anyway, I've run out of things to say as my brain has turned to mush. Its getting late now...

I hope to bring you more Game of the Month posts in the future. They won't necessarily be on new games, they will be based on the strengths and merits of the games and how much I like them. A true gaming gem in my opinion never ages to the point that it is unplayable. Hopefully you guys can pick up some of the games I'm going to talk about and experience games you might not have tried before. Enjoy!

Some impressions on one of the wierdest named games I've ever played.

Yup, I picked Infinite Undiscovery up again the other night. I was in the mood for something 3D and action rpg-ish so I decided to put a bit more time into my game on this. I played for a couple hours the other night before getting a game over screen and losing a LOT of progress. This game seems to like doing that occasionaly...it takes away save points, puts them in places you might not go to on the way to your next destination and other similarly frustrating things. Its not a hard game, but when you can't save in the field and go through an entire mission only to die on the boss and have to redo the last few hours, it really pisses me off.

Anyway, flaws aside (the game has a lot of minor flaws) I have been kind of hooked and drawn in. Something must be good about it if I played for a good 5 or 6 hours today. For the most part, I've really liked the music in the game. There are only a few instances when it doesn't seem to fit to well-it's either out of place or slightly overdramatic, but apart from those early blips, the music is nicely done.

The other side of the audio, the voice acting, is pretty weak for the majority of the characters. Its been so bad at times I've laughed out loud. Laughably bad isn't a particularly good thing. Its like some of the actors didn't know what they were doing or the context was for the lines.

Graphically, the game is average, with some pretty good aspects. Its got a good art style behind it, just some of the character models look a bit...lifeless. A lot of bland, uninteresting areas in the game as well, which feel like they've been made bigger than is necessary, maybe to make the game larger. The cutscene graphics are alright, but sometimes could be better for sure. It does have some graphically really nice moments, the game though.

Like I said before, some of the areas you visit, especially the towns, really seem like they could be more detailed and interesting. There are whole houses with barely anything in them in places. I actually kinda felt sorry for this one NPC who said for some reason he wanted to hang around this warehouse and protect the goods from the incoming Tsunami (wtf?!) All he had in there was like 1 rat, a bunch of chests I raided a few seconds earlier and a couple crates and barrels...

 Storywise, a lot of stuff is yet unexplained, or perhaps it will stay that way, I'll have to play more to see. I like some of the ideas and settings (the idea of this Order of Chains chaining up the moon which is very important to the people of this world) and I hope the story picks up and gets more interesting the way the other tri-Ace game I'm playing (SO2) does. I know I'm being harsh on the game but there are things I like about it and don't. I'll see if my opinion sways either way as I progress.

Dissidia: Final Fantasy (PSP)

The long wait is almost over for this one! We now have an estimated August 25th release stateside and September 4th for the UK and probably EU areas too. I've already got my special edition box preordered =D

I've tried the game briefly in Japanese and I can definitely say the action is awesome. Its graphically really good too.

Some videos of Dissidia: Final Fantasy

Muramasa: The Demon Blade (Wii)

I've had my eye on this Wii game for a while and every time I see more video or screens of it, it never fails to impress me. I can't wait for this one, right now its one of the few things that might make me plug in my Wii. I need to get some more games for it...

Anyway, heres some videos. Enjoy! =3

Yays! Golden Sun!

Ah tink ah smells me a...Golden Sun?

I've been really wanting to start Golden Sun and Golden Sun: The Lost Age recently, probably brought on by the mention of the DS title on the way but I'm sure I had the urge to play it even before I heard about it. I have awesome memories of playing the games back when I was younger, I really enjoyed them!

I was holding off starting the first until I got another copy of the 2nd game however. I had both back in the day but they kind of got lost somewhere down the line and finally won the 2nd in an ebay auction today. I only put in the minimum bid as well, so picked it up for less than a tenner. £5 plus about 2 for shipping or something, within the UK. That is for a boxed copy, with instructions, pretty good, especially if it comes with the trinkets like the map, I'm not sure if it will come with them.

So I think I'll be playing Golden Sun 1 & 2 soon, possibly after I beat Star Ocean 2 PSP. Good times! =)

Also, houmous is awesome hehe, I love that stuff! *Omnom nom* n_n