Diablo 3 nonsense...or is it? :O

Was searching if there was a definitive release date set yet and came across this.

I dont know how the person that found this out did...but its quite amazing.

Link

Here's a link to the Blizzard/Diablo 3 page...it looks awesome! Link

Games...I hate em sometimes

Games are goddamn annoying when you play for hours to try and get a certain thing, only to realise hours later you dont have the prerequisites for whatever it is you are trying to get.

That kinda thing makes me want to smash the console....

My video games collection

My games and the games I am currently playing. Decided to write this down so I have some idea of what games I do actually have and what ones I am looking to get or waiting on the release of. I started out playing games way back in the day of the Master System and the Mega Drive. I think those were our first consoles. Games seemed to be so much harder in those days... We still have those consoles and the games we had somewhere stored away...I should dig them out sometime to have a look. I dont trade in games any more, even if they turn out to be bad, or even if I complete them. I see it as a bit of a waste of money, as I quite like to go back to games I havent completed or havent got everything and play more of them. I said "any more" as I did trade in a whole bunch of unboxed GB and GBC games when I was buying my Game Boy Advance to get some money of it. I kinda regret that now as I traded in such awesome games as Pokemon Red...

Anyway, after a few years of student life and not trading games in, heres what I have now.

Game Boy/ Game Boy Colour/ Game Boy Advance

Breath of Fire

Breath of Fire II

Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow

Castlevania: Circle of the Moon

Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance

Dragon Warrior Monsters

Dragon Warrior Monsters 2: Tara's Adventure

Final Fantasy I & II: Dawn of Souls

Final Fantasy Tactics Advance

Final Fantasy V Advance

Final Fantasy VI Advance

Golden Sun

Kurukuru Kururin

Pokemon Blue

Pokemon Emerald

Pokemon Fire Red

Pokemon Leaf Green

Pokemon Sapphire

Pokemon Silver

Nintendo DS

Animal Crossing: Wild World

Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow

Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin

Children of Mana

Chrono Trigger

Final Fantasy III

Final Fantasy IV

Guilty Gear: Dust Strikers

The Legend of Zelda: The Phantom Hourglass

Luminous Arc

Magical Starsign

Mario Kart DS

New Super Mario Bros

Pokemon Diamond

Spore Creatures

Yu-Gi-Oh Nightmare Troubadour

Sony PSP

Breath of Fire III

Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII

Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions

Disgaea: Afternoon of Darkness

Fifa 09

Gurumin

Star Ocean: First Departure

Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth

Xbox

Area 51

Halo 2

Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic: The Sith Lords

Xbox 360

Armored Core 3

Assassin's Creed

Dynasty Warriors Gundam

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion

Eternal Sonata

Gears of War 

Gears of War 2

Halo 3

Lost Odyssey

Lost Planet

Mass Effect

N3 Ninety Nine Nights

The Orange Box

Soul Calibur IV

PC

Baldurs Gate & Expansion

Baldurs Gate 2: Shadows of Amn & Throne of Bhaal

Diablo

Diablo 2 & Diablo 2 Lord of Destruction

Icewind Dale & Expansion

Icewind Dale 2 & Expansion

Wii

Metal Slug Anthology

Resident Evil 4

The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess

Wii Sports

Playstation

Breath of Fire IV

Final Fantasy VII

Final Fantasy VIII

Resident Evil

Silent Hill

Playstation 2

Atelier Iris 3: Grand Phantasm

Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII

Dragon Quest VIII:  The Journey of the Cursed King

Final Fantasy X

Final Fantasy X-2

Final Fantasy XII

Jade Cocoon 2

Kingdom Hearts

Kingdom Hearts II

Persona 3 FES

Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga 

Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga 2

Star Ocean: Till the End of Time

Valkyrie Profile 2: Silmeria

Xenosaga Episode II

Gamecube

Metroid Prime

Metroid Prime 2: Echoes

Need for Speed Underground 2

Pokemon Colosseum

There are more..but its too late at night... *sleeps*

Tales of Symphonia Openings

The japanese got quite a cool song, but its not as epic as the American/everyone else's one

Japanese Tales of Symphonia opening (gamecube)

American Tales of Symphonia opening (gamecube)

And I wanna play this now..ToS2...looks awesome!

And then theres Tales of Vesperia...cant wait for it to come out here! ><

Games and my inner musings...

I completed Luminous Arc (DS) last night, it was pretty good. I like the character designs and overall the game was fun, but had a few wee flaws. Still, worth the 3 quid or whatever I got the game for :P

Anyways, I started Tales of Symphonia (GC) this morning. About 3 and half hours into it now, and it looks really cool so far. 

But the main character, Lloyd Irving seems really familiar to me...I think he reminds me of Vash the Stampede from Trigun (awesome anime! n_n)

Games, Anime Conventions and Music

At the moment I am playing two games(the others are kinda partially on hold)

The main two games I'm talking about are Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII(PSP) and Luminous Arc(DS)

Crisis Core is really impressive, its so well presented, voice acted, scripted(for the most part) and the graphics look really nice. They've also put a lot of thought into the main story, with minigames and different mission styles keeping it nice and fresh throughout. Its taking me a long time to complete the game however, as I am trying to complete all of the subquests or missions as they are referred to in the game. Apparantely there is a good reward for doing so but...they are very monotonous, as they are all basically the same A-B layout-kill the miniboss(es) to complete them. I am currently on a play time of 30:10:20, sitting on Lv44 at the start of Chapter 7 and 39% through the Missions. I am guessing I will 100% the missions around the 60 hr mark, but thats just an early estimate, I might get bored of them and not bother.

Luminous Arc is quite cool, I really like the character design and character building. Each of the characters actually have quite well developed personalities and you get to know each during the intermission bits between missions. The game is a tactical RPG a la Final Fantasy Tactics(I'm only comparing it to that because that was the first Tactical RPG I played. The battles arent exactly revolutionary, but they arent too bad either. One thing I noticed that I dont really like about the gameplay are the amount of near enough useless skills the characters will learn. I guess that happens in most RPGs, but it kinda annoys me sometimes. Its also quite easy to grind the challenge out of the game, especially with support or healing characters. Every time they use a skill or spell that aids another friendly character they get 30 XP, and in this game, similar to many other Tactical RPGs, the characters always require 100 Experience Points to level up, regardless of level. So currently, my healing characters and support characters are about 9 or 10 levels higher than my combat characters. Theres quite a lot to do in this game, but I'm still pretty sure its not a very long game(excluding the sidequests, of which I've only found 1 so far.)

I was at Auchinawa 08 the other weekend, an anime convention in Glasgow, running for the 2nd year now. I was at the first, which I think although it was in a better location(Central Station in Glasgow City Centre) this year it was better. This year it was at the Holiday Inn at Glasgow Airport, slightly harder to get to for us lot, but still pretty good. Me and some others from GUMAF-the Anime & Manga Society at Glasgow Uni stayed at the hotel for 2 nights. The Con ran Friday, Saturday and Sunday and was really fun but exhausting. I did my first cosplay for the event as well, I was L from Death Note. Kinda known as the lazy man's cosplay, but one of my favourite anime characters, so I dont care lol. There were at least 2 other Ls at Auchinawa, one of which had socks! L doesnt wear socks or shoes, so he automatically failed lol. Anyway...I am getting sidetracked...

Other awesome things that happened at Auchi 08 were some karaoke to anime openings, endings and other stuff. Pokemon opening=AMAZING! Disco, Yugioh tournament (which I won!) Cosplay Masquerade, Games Room and the dealers room(which had awesome stuff, but I had to resist the temptation to buy stuff due to my lack of income...

GUMAF - Pokemon! 

Some stuff I've been listening to recently; Killswitch Engage, The Black Mages, Disharmonia Mundi, Castlevania soundtracks

Killswitch Engage - The Arms of Sorrow

And finally, one of the most amazing cutscenes I've ever seen in a video game.

Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core cutscene

Games on the Horizon...

Some games I am interested in and release dates. I forget these things.

Eurogamer-a good site for release dates and lots of other stuff about games.

http://www.eurogamer.net/releases.php?platform=

Dunno what I'm most interested in...quite a few titles coming soon

Games & other goings on...

I finished Children of Mana the other day, which is a relief...because it was getting very boring and repetitive. I might put up a review of it if I can be bothered.

I'm also getting really close to finishing Spore Creatures (DS) which seems really short, but I guess there are lots of optional things to do, which might convince me to play through on the replay mode(I know theres one already because my girlfriend completed it already lol) I'll see what I think when I complete the game.

Started Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core which is really good so far, I'm on chapter 5 I think...about 14 hrs and 54 mins into it. I'm really impressed with the graphics and sound as well as other aspects of the game so far. I've been told to complete all the missions, so I'm trying to do that, and I'm Lv 30 and 19 % through them so far.

I'm also kinda looking for jobs at the moment...which is quite hard... >_<

Gears of War 2 is coming out tomorrow actually...theres a midnight launch at Gamestation on the 6th. One of the staff called me asking if I would be going to the midnight launch but I wont be going to that. I'll pick it up on the Friday. Should be a good game! :D

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=n7AuPcYA2PU&feature=related

I get to see my girlfriend tomorrow! yay! :P

So many games...

I've got so many games piling up that I need to complete or even start...

Currently, I'm playing these, with my progress so far in each. I'll probably write reviews of them once I finish them if I have time, or ever finish them. I'm closest to finishing Eternal Sonata or Children of Mana.

Eternal Sonata ~ Chapter 7 ~ Game Time: 35:41

Lost Odyssey ~ Disc 3 ~ Game Time: 45:10

Children of Mana ~ Chapter 6 ~ Game Time: 26:13

New Super Mario Bros ~ World 5

Spore Creatures ~ Planet 2

Then after I complete some of those, I will try finish off The Legend of Zelda: The Phantom Hourglass. An awesome game, but I find it very frustrating at times, and need to concentrate on it. I'm quite near the end of that. Think I'm looking for the last Pure Metal in it.

Then theres the list of games I havent started yet...hehe.

Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance ~ Game Boy Advance

Final Fantasy IV ~ Nintendo DS

Final Fantasy V Advance ~ Game Boy Advance

Final Fantasy VI Advance ~ Game Boy Advance

Final Fantasy VII Crisis Core ~ Sony PSP

Gears of War 2 ~ Xbox 360 [Preordered it :D]

Luminous Arc ~ Nintendo DS

And looking forward to playing and obtaining these; 

Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia ~ Nintendo DS

Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin ~ Nintendo DS [Still havent played this, need to get it played before OoE]

Fable 2 ~ Xbox 360

Infinite Undiscovery ~ Xbox 360

The Last Remnant ~ Xbox 360

Riviera: The Promised Land ~ Game Boy Advance/PSP [I'll probably go for the GBA version, see what I think of it first. I've heard good things though]

Tales of Vesperia ~ Xbox 360

And all those titles I mentioned for the PSP, plus a few more I think I've forgotten. Too many games, not enough time. Same with anime...too much of that...

Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia

The rather awesome cover art for Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia

As a huge fan of Castlevania games, I cant wait to play this game. Its out in Japan and USA now, so I'm not sure when I'm gonna get it. They've changed the style a bit, going from the anime inspired style (a little bit badly designed in terms of characters and style) of Dawn of Sorrow and Portrait of Ruin which I liked to a more traditional gothic style. I really liked the GBA titles and hope to see more of the amazingly designed backgrounds, enemies, attacks and characters that were in the previous titles. I just love the style of Castlevania games, hopefully this has lots of what I like about them.

Release Dates:

Japan: 23/10/08 [out now]

USA: 21/10/08 [out now] Actually, I dont know how the US managed to get this before Japan, but its a trend I've noticed for a few game releases now...

UK & EU: ??/01/09 

Trailer..fanmade I think, but it shows lots of the game, and the opening, which I really like! Cant wait to play this ^_^

PSP-Awesome!

Got a PSP the other day. Its quite an awesome console from what I've seen so far. I need to get more games and downgrade the firmware for homebrew. So far, I'm wanting to try these; 

Breath of Fire III

Disgaea: Afternoon of Darkness

Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions

Final Fantasy Anniversary Edition

Final Fantasy II Anniversary Edition

Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core(got this, not started it yet ><)

Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth

PSP 3000

The new model(3000 series) comes with a brighter screen than previous models and a built in microphone(which has limited uses so far~Skype and maybe some multiplayer games I think)

It also has newer security measures built in and a different motherboard from older models which have so far been hacked to allow downgrading of firmware, adding of custom firmware and homebrew to the PSP 3000 series. 3000s are unable to be booted from a pandora battery. I dont know much about hacking PSPs, but thats bad for hackers. For Sony its good though.

Actually, its kinda bad so far because there have been lots of complaints of the screen display not being up to scratch. Lots of errors have been reported from what I've heard. No solution from Sony for this, however. 

On the plus side, Playstation Network is compatible with PSPs with the latest firmware now. I'm new to Sony products, but thats more or less the equivalent of xbox live downloads from what I can tell. Hopefully they'll make lots of games available for download quickly.

Need to get me some more games for the PSP...

Magical Starsign Review

Magical Starsign

Platform: Nintendo DS

Publisher: Nintendo

Developer: Brownie Brown 

Genre: Role-playing game

Released last year on the DS, this rpg follows on from Brownie Brown's Magical Vacation, which was only released in Japan, I believe.

I picked the game up a few months ago, in summer when I saw it on sale. I had read about the game ages ago in a magazine, and the visuals, coupled with the turn based combat and the fact that it was an rpg were enough for me to buy it. 

The gameplay in this game is fairly easy overall, with only a few battles in the game that gave me problems. Also, only minimal grinding is required to make the game very easy. I kinda would have preferred a bit more of a challenge from the game. Even the end bosses aren't that hard, with easy to exploit weaknesses and strategies.

What I didn't really like about this game(even though I would say this makes the game quite unique) is the magic system. When I first started the game, I was really looking forward to mastering a lot of spells as I levelled up and played through the game with the 6 playable characters. Unfortunately, each character only gets 5 spells, some of which are near enough useless, so essentially 3 or 4 offensive spells each. This leads to insanely repetitive battles, with the player having to watch the sometimes quite long spell animations. The graphical animations, while nice at first, become boring and annoying by the end of the game. Also, since the spells do between 2 and 5(and more) times the amount of damage melee attacks do, there is essentially no need for melee attacks(apart from against a few enemies who are resistant to magic or enemies which starsign means they take less damage from certain elements.)

This leads me on to one aspect of the gameplay I quite liked, as it was quite original. There are different elemental powers, one of which is associated with each character and enemy in the game. These are Wind, Fire, Water, Wood, Earth, and Light/Dark. At the beginning of the game, you choose between male and female, and light and dark. This doesnt change much in the game, apart from you will be stronger against certain bosses and enemies and weaker against others. Each of these elements are linked to a planet which, when it comes into alignment, will strengthen the character in battle, allowing them to do more damage and receive other benefits. For the light and dark characters, they receive these bonuses when it is daytime, or night time, respectively. Also, these planets are the world that becomes explored throughout the game. One thing I thought was quite annoying was the fact that the majority of the planets are visited twice in the game, even though new areas of the planet are unlocked, it still feels a bit boring. I would have liked it if there was a greater degree of free roaming, or more planets to visit. Side quests wouldnt have gone amiss either...

Puffoon-one of the planets you go to throughout the course of the game.

One thing I didnt like about the game was that it never seemed serious enough. In the later part of the game you are searching for Millennium "gummies" of each element. This pretty much sums up the style of the game. It has a kind of unique 'charm or wit', thats how I would describe it. It is different from most other rpgs I've played, and at times I liked it, but I definitely feel that it detracted from the potentially dramatic and serious parts of the story.

Gameplay: 6/10

The graphics in this game are very good-they are vibrant and make the game visually fun to play. They help bring the unusual and interesting game world to life. The battles look very good, with the many different environments and enemies animated very nicely.

Graphics: 7/10

The story and characters are two of the weaker areas of the game. The characters dont really have much in the way of personality and are quite annoying at times. I think the choice to include 6 playable characters all of which can be in the party at one time might have been a bit of a mistake. More characters means less development for each. The game world has many interesting and amusing creatures and characters, many of which have quite...wierd names. Makes for quite an interesting play through the game, but unfortunately, the most important aspect is severely lacking. The story hardly makes any sense, and is hardly serious enough, even at the end of the game. The story basically entails the teacher of this class in this magical academy thing(Harry Potter *cough*) going missing and then the students go hunting the galaxy for her...what kind of students would do that? -_- Anyway, it then branches into other parts of the story but it still isnt going to win any awards, for sure.

Story and Characters: 4/10

The game has a few features which would lead to extra gameplay and replay options. Trying to get 100% of the bestiary could be one area, as well as a hidden dungeon and multiplayer. Apart from those, there are not many other extras or sidequests that contribute to a decent amount of replayability. After I completed the game, I had very little desire to play the game again...

Replayability and Extras: 2/10

The game has another aspect that I didnt like particularly, although some people actually do quite like this. The controls are almost all driven by the touch screen, including spell strikes to power up spells, reflex type dodging or blocking and basically everything else, including the control in the field. One of the reasons I didnt like this was running around is a bit awkward considering its hard to stop. When you touch the screen in one direction, the team then runs in that direction until you change or run into a wall or something. It takes a bit of getting used to, but I think dual controls(touch screen and D-pad) could have made vast improvements to this game. Menus and some interfaces are sometimes quite frustrating, but at times they are quite well designed-for example the battle menu which I thought was quite well designed.

Controls and Innovation: 5/10

Some things I liked about this game when I started, but by the end of it, I was relieved to be finished it because it just got repetitive, boring and felt like a chore. Worth a look for its interesting world and some of its characters, but in my opinion, it has its fair share of flaws.

Overall: 6/10