Damn, never think I’d be playing a Final Fantasy game all the way through. I’m currently about 20 hours in, and I’m quite enjoying the game, despite the complaints a lot of fans have been making since release. I can personally deal with the linearity of the game, the only thing that gets on my nerves is the extremely annoying character of Vanille.
Whilst she is my premier Medic, I cannot stand her voice actress, or personality. I wish she was more like her older sister, Fang, who is pretty damn cool for a Pulse chick.
So I pre-ordered this game via YesAsia about a week ago, as I heard the Asian version was also in English, until low and behold, I hear that only the instruction manual is in English, so I cancelled my order.
As soon as I cancelled, I began hearing rumours that there is an English voice track in the game, making me immediately regret my decision. I’ve decided to hold off from ordering again, until I found out for definite what’s English, and what’s not.
So I’ve finished Heavy Rain twice now, and I have to say that I love it. It’s probably one of the first games I’ve played that I’ve immediately restarted after I finished it. The story, the characters and the decisions are wound together well, resulting in quite tense scenes and a climactic ending.
The only problems I had with the game was the camera in some scenes, which often shielded your view from something important, or somewhere you wanted to go, so your practically walking blind. Also, at certain angles, my camera would not allow me to see the prompts on screen. While this didn’t happen often, it was quite annoying when it did. The only other problem I had was the stories disregard for plot points, that it never cleared up at the end, such as Ethan’s blackouts and his mysterious awakening on Carnaby Corner each time.
Regardless of these minor problems, I loved the game from start to finish and I’m already planning my third playthrough as soon as I get done with Battlefield: Bad Company 2 (Which I’m getting Friday).
I’ve been getting so many projects to do in school lately, frankly I’m getting sick of it. What about all the time I should be spending playing games, not throwing my life away on stupid schoolwork. I just finished THE FIRST PHASE of a stupid database project. Have to design a database for a Vets Clinic. A VETS CLINIC? FUCK OFF.
I’ve never been to a vets clinic in my life. How am I supposed to know what happens behind the furry doors of a FUCKING VETS CLINIC. Anyway, I made up a load of shit for it, and apparently the vets in my clinic are SHIT. They give the same medication for every problem: Blindness, Abdominal Cyst, Sterilisation, you name it, they can fix it, all with the single medicine.
Anyway, rant over. GOODBYE
I’ve been hearing alot about this game, Deadly Premonition lately, especially from the mouth of Jim Sterling, who has said it trounces Heavy Rain in every way, so as a fan of Heavy Rain, I’ve been wanting to try it.
In the US, it has only seen a $19.99 360 release, which of course, 360 games aren’t region free. But Alas, the PS3 Japanese version is Bilingual, the only issue, is that it costs an arm and a leg to import. See here.
€64 to import a game that may be good? No thanks. I really hope Rising Star/Marvellous bring this game to Europe on PS3.
As a fan of the Call Of Duty series, from the days of United Offensive as far as Modern Warfare 2, even including Treyarch’s much despised entry, Call Of Duty 3, I am saddened by the loss of Vince Zampella and Jason West as the heads of one of my favourite game studios, and as creative heads of one of my favourite game series.
The fact that Activision, who just made in excess of $1 Billion on 2009’s, if not the decade’s, biggest selling game, could fire the people responsible for alleged “Insubordination” sickens me, and forces me to worry about the future of the Call Of Duty franchise and Infinity Ward itself. During this whole debacle, Activision also announced a third studio will be working on the series, Sledgehammer Games, headed by Ex-EA Redwood Shores alum Glen Schofield.
What does this mean for the franchise? Well essentially, Activision wants to annualise the series, by having 3 companies, each releasing a title in turn. This has me worried that future games will lack the consistency and quality that its predecessors were acclaimed for. I surely hope this is the end for Bobby Kotick, he ran Guitar Hero into the ground, and he’s now looking to do the same with Call Of Duty.
I’ve decided I’m definitely going to buy Darksiders once it gets down to around €20. I absolutely loved the demo, reminds me of the way games used to be, no clear path.
Hopefully I’ll be able to get it at that price within the next couple of weeks, until then, here’s a video:
So I’ve been playing Bioshock 2 for over a week now, and as a massive fan of the original, I have to say, I am impressed with the game so far. All the little problems I had with the first game have been fixed, such as the hacking mini-game, which is a simple reflex puzzle now, as opposed to the pipemania style hacking that was present in Bioshock. I was a bit reluctant to purchase the game at full retail, especially as it was developed by a different team, but I realised that more of anything Bioshock can’t be a bad thing.
The game starts off with a bang, literally, and your thrown into the dark, corrupt, seedy world that is Rapture. This time round your a Big Daddy, who has lost his little sister, and your a quest to get her back. On your travels you encounter a woman named Sophia Lamb, who is the sequels answer to Andrew Ryan, the antagonist from the previous game. She has pretty much the opposite ideals of Ryan, where the power of Rapture is in the collective, as opposed to Ryan’s theory that the power is within the individual.
Fans of Bioshock will immediately feel at home, with everything having that coat of familiarity one would expect, but less expectantly, there is also a coat of polish that didn’t exist previously. The First Person shooting mechanics are tight, especially that you can now dual wield a plasmid and weapon, resulting in some devestating combos. Seeing as your a Big Daddy, you can now utilise the staple drill that struck fear into our hearts back in 2007. The drill is more satisfying to use than the Wrench in the first game, resulting in you sending splicers flying, or charging at them from across the room, leaving even the strongest of foes in a bloody mess.
While I fear I may have already gone into too much detail, I will update the blog with more impressions once I actually finish the game, which should be after another 2 hours or so of trudging around the underwater city.
Best Wishes, from Rapture,
Chris