Game Review: Red Faction Guerilla (360)

Posted By: Bratman Du

Developer: Volition
Publisher: THQ
Release Date: UK Jun 5th 2009
Genre: 3rd Person Shooter
Age: 16+


I really do wonder, why in this day and age, so much of the attention of game makers, goes into the graphics and level design, camera angles, etc. when still, be it Gears of War, Call of Duty or Halo - rockets and explosions do minimal or more often absolutely no damage whatsoever to the scenery, save a scorched decal applied to the wall. Battlefield: Bad Company made a good effort to incorporate a level of destruction, and for the most part this was decent, with dents in the ground, and buildings able to be skeletonized (although a frame always remained in tact).

Previous red faction games had limited destruction (which even years ago were state of the art), but now they are in the current generation and Voltion need to pull something amazing out. Surprising then, that the first noticable difference (apart from being 3rd person now) between RFG and it's predecessors, is the lack of destructible terrain. You can fill rocky cliffs and precipices with rockets but not do a button of damage.

The thing is, I didn't notice this fact until after many hours of play. Reason being is because of the incredibly detailed and lengthy depths to which you can take down everything else in the world. Everything.

Yes, everything man made in this game is fully and completely breakable. 2, 3 or 4 storie buildings can be reduced to rubble with a vast array of weaponry. Not just rubble, but pieces of the building - this isn't just removing a wall and spawning some bits of rock in it's place - the wall has struts, supports, bricks, and some walls are even load bearing and will cause other bits to collapse after a few seconds. You really feel, whether you are using a hammer, rockets or mines, that you are taking apart a building - the splintering bits of metal and brick, the pipes, the objects in the building, and any neibouring buildings that your demolished structure happens to land on.

It's a beauty to behold everytime you get a giant smoke stack to collapse, shattering into a garage and breaking through three floors - all in realtime, no scripting - I really haven't seen anything like it before. What's more, a small section of wall I destroyed at the start of the game remains broken throughout my game - so it would seem that any changes made to the game world stick. Nice.


When you get down to it, that's really most of what this game is. The AI - seems smart enough, stealth isn't out the equation completely - I have sneaked past a few guards to covertly bomb a target, but things frequently get very messy, very quickly and any hostile action against the guards will soon result in your being swarmed by suicidal armoured cars and wave after wave of relentless troops. But they flank, take cover, close up distance and lob grenades, so I wouldn't say the AI is by any means poor.

It just often feels like whatever tactical plan you come up with to try and bomb and enemy supply depot, is going to turn to shit in no time at all. I typically get spotted and end up jumping out a window, whilst detonating the mines behind me - and getting out by theiving a car or just hammering through a wall and making a break for it. Fortunately, you can aquire an upgrade that shows guard locations on your mini map, which makes excursions like these slightly more tactical.


Aiming is a little bit ropey sometimes, although generally I can deal with it - and a lot of the weapons have either large splash damage, or enough fully automatic fire to take out who you need to, and I have the sensitivity low. Later on in the game, you gain access to Aliens style mechs, of which there are three types, and they are a hell of a lot of fun to use, as you mash up troops, cars and buildings like hot butter. Even the regular hand held weapons rock bells, the nano rifle for example, which disintegrates structures and enemies alike, or the rail driver, an old favourite from previous games, with the ability to scan and shoot people through walls - a bitch in multiplayer!


So the game is open world, and you are initially confinded to one area of the planet, with others parts opening up later on. There are various side missions, hostage rescues, bombing runs, escorts, sieges, etc. which are all a lot of fun, save maybe the vehicle recovery one. These side missions will help you get more morale and support in the local area - so inhabitants will occasionally help you fight off the EDF troops (although the companion AI can be less than helpful sometimes). Eventually, completing the main missions will vanquish the EDF from that area, and you access further areas of the world, and reducing the amount of enemy troops in the completed area - making side missions slightly easier.


It's all nicely presented, with the people going about there business, getting pissed off when you 'liberate' their vehicles from them, nice red dust textures over everything - it's a pretty good representation of what Mars could be like someday, but really, nice graphics should be a given these days, and I feel I'm wasting more page space mentioning that 'it has good graphics'. The vehicles look nice and sci-fi-ey too, especially later on in the different areas.


The story is incorporated into the game fairly well, you go to Mars for mining work (explaining your competence with explosives and destruction), to find that the once liberators the EDF, have gone a bit facist and so after they kill your brother you join up with Red Faction, and begin a campaign of demolishing, well, pretty much everything. It's a fairly entertaining romp, but nothing ground breaking in the story department. You'll hear radio stations report the recent news - which includes propoganda laden statements about the local area. In fact, any missions or side missions you do, will soon after be reported on by the news, albeit distorted to make your Red Faction look like the bad guys. It's a nice touch.


Onto multiplayer, where you have a variety of modes and customisation options. The 'backpacks' are mostly absent from single player until late in the game, but are a key aspect of multiplayer. There are about 10 different types and they litter each level for anyone to pick up and use. The backpacks give your player special powers - such as the jetpack, invisibility pack, or the Rhino pack, which lets you charge through walls.

A number of game modes keep things fresh. Wrecking Crew mode is a pass-the controller affair, for those without online play. Simply pick your weapon, backpack, and round limit - and see who can do the most damage in a minute. Sounds simple, but you can really start racking up points by tactically destroying one side of a tower so it falls on another - multiplying the score.


Standard online games are here too, with team anarchy (slayer), free for all, capture the flag, and a variation of territories, where you capture points by using the handy reconstructor gun, which rebuilds broken things - handy for restoring the walls that were protecting your base!

Siege mode, sees your team attacking and trying to destroy key buildings of the enemy, whilst they can repair any buildings that have not been levelled. Then you switch to defence. It's pretty good, and probably the most rounded of the multiplayer modes - the kind of thing the game engine was made for.


I enjoyed RF:G a lot, and although most of this is simply the stunning quality of the Geomod 2.0 engine, and blowing stuff up, it really doesn't get old. The multiplayer gives this game a lot of extra life, but if you're after the kind of story and atmosphere of Gears of War or GTA then the fun of destruction alone may not be enough to satisfy you (I don't see how you couldn't like this though!). The fun of both in single and multi player, outweighs any minor flaws with the game, it's simply stunning to play, stunning to watch, and you won't see anything like this for years to come. It feels ahead of it's time, and I hope other developers take note at what Volition are doing.

Verdict:

4 comments - Last Comment By Bratman Du

Game Preview: Dragonica (PC)

Posted By: skynes

Dragonica is a side-scrolling action MMO, similar in gameplay to Golden Axe or Streets of Rage. Unlike many MMO's it is free to play, unlike many free MMO's it isn't terrible. There is a general consensus that free MMO means terrible game riddled with bugs and bad graphics. In many cases this is true however it couldn't be further from the truth with Dragonica, where even the preview version is highly polished with beautiful colourful, vibrant graphics and excellent game play.

You start off by creating your character, this can be of one of four classes: Thief, Fighter, Magician or Archer. Each one will have their own style of combat and can only wear the gear of their class. The game plays very similar to the side scrolling beat em ups of the 80s and 90s. You walk forward, you find enemies, you slash them up and move on. This simple style of play makes the game very accessible. The control scheme is also very simple, relying on the cursor keys and Z, X, C and Space bar. The game's reliance on such a few keys and the future addition of controller support makes it ideal for playing on a controller. Any controller. It is possible to play this game using a SNES pad with a USB connector. It's also compatible with Xbox 360and Sega Saturn controllers, with work being done at the moment to make it playable using an Atari Jaguar pad amongst others.


The graphics are a form of chibi anime, everything is cute and brightly coloured even the enemies. The lack of blood and cartoon violence makes it perfect for parents who want their children to play a game but don't want them exposed to the violence and gore that other games can contain. The game itself requires very low specs to play, allowing older laptops and PC's to enjoy the game on high graphics, however should you select the low graphics option the game will remove the background. The purpose of this is so that everyone can enjoy the game as it is meant to be played even on low settings.

As is common with both MMO's and RPG's, Dragonica includes a skill tree for each class. These trees aren't complicated, no more than 4 tiers deep with 2 or 3 skills per tier. Normally this would conflict with the simplistic style of play, but most of these abilities take the form of passive effects or combo abilities that can be executed using a direction and attack. For example one warrior skill is to jump in the air and slam down to the ground, you can use a keybind for it, alternatively you can jump in the air and attack whilst holding down to do the same thing. This is what allows the game to work so well using a controller.

The interface of many areas of the game is reminiscent of other mainstream MMO's, this was done with the intention of players being able to get into the game quickly without having to relearn how everything works. Some examples of this include Mailboxes, Auction Houses and gold exclamation marks over the heads of quest givers.

The business plan of the game is Free to play with micro transactions. These MT's take the form of non-gameplay items, such as player housing furniture and silly suits such as an astronaut or a skeleton.

Future features of the game include:

Guild PVP
40 Man PVP fights
Pet training and mounts


Dragonica's cute graphics and low specs create an MMO that is accessible to almost everyone with a PC or Laptop. As it is free to play there is no commitment to playing for long periods of time. Adding in the controller support and control style enables anyone to play the game whatever way they want, it's ideal for busting out an old controller from your favourite console and playing with it. This all makes Dragonica a definite game to keep an eye on.

This is a preview of Dragonica, it is a sample and therefore cannot be taken as the final word of the full version scheduled for released in June.

3 comments - Last Comment By fryking

Preview: Red Faction: Guerilla (360)

Posted By: Bratman Du

Published by: THQ
Developed by: Volition
Genre: Third Person Shooter / Open World
RRP: £44.99
ESRB: TBC

Release: Jun 2009

I was lucky enough to be able to grab a keycode for the new Red Faction Guerilla demo.

*edit - the demo is now up for download by the general public - go try it!*



I haven't played much of the first few games - I think I rented red faction 1 ages ago. I was impressed enough by it's Geomod(1.0) technology which allowed you to burrow holes in levels with rockets, create trenches, etc. However, it was limited back in the day and only so much damage could be done to a level before everything became un-destroyable.

Now we have a handful of games which expand on how destructible scenery comes into play, such as Battlefield: Bad Company, and Mercenaries 2.

Mercenaries 2 I felt was particularly underwhelming in this respect, it's graphics lacked polish (terrible water effects) and, whilst you could indeed destroy every building and structure in the game, there was again a lack of polish, and the feeling that quantity was prioritized over quality. For example, a building took a set amount of damage before it began to crumble and raise dust, and shortly after a standard pile of rubble was left. Of course, within minutes these buildings were magically reconstructed so as not to break gameplay.

Battlefield Bad Company tried a more subtle approach, with a lot of fully destructible scenery, and buildings, which could be skeletonized, rather than completely demolished. It worked fairly well, though it could get annoying that you could destroy some things and not others.

So, given that destructible scenery is one of Red Faction: Guerilla's major selling points, this is the first aspect I wished to investigate.



What I can say for certain is that if you like breaking stuff, and seeing things destroyed in an overly gratuitous fashion, then you will not be disappointed. The buildings on Mars, from military installations to flimsy shacks, will shatter, splinter, explode, collapse, break, twist and fall. Pipes, bricks, bits of metal and concrete all break apart as you'd expect and secondary explosions caused by good old fashioned exploding barrels can really rack up the carnage.



The smashing-up-of-things is the star of the show, no doubt, but a concern I had is one exemplefied by Battlefield: Bad Company's single player. This is the fact that in BF:BC, the enemy AI had trouble distinguishing between broken scenery, and untouched, solid walls. Red Faction: Guerilla's AI seems to handle it well enough, and at no point in the demo (although short) did I feel like the AI was being especially stupid.

In fact, the AI worked better than I thought. In the open world of RF:G, there are friendly miners going about their business, not bothering anyone, and driving random cars and trucks about (which you can 'borrow').

Then there are restricted areas, which, if you enter, the local guards will pop a cap in your ass, provided they see you. You can back up against walls, and crouch walk to avoid detection, and there's also a handy minimap to show nearby guard positions.



Of course, being fairly open world means that you'll probably get spotted sooner or later and then the guards come - with re-enforcements depending on how much shit you are fecking up - cause too much mayhem and truckload after truckload of enemies will bail in, overwhelming you.

Dealing with the enemies is fair enough too, there's usually accuracy issues in 3rd person shooters but enough has been done to eliminate frustration. For example, 3rd person melee attacking can tend to be a bit fiddly in most 3rd person games, but an auto lock on/lunge makes this a bit more satisfying. Though it could be cheap in multiplayer if the lunge distance is as it is in single player, I'd be annoyed if I got whacked by someone ten feet away, because the lunge auto-targets the nearest person. Still, works well in single player.



The guns, in the demo at least, are intuitive to use and feel meaty in sound and effect, and the remote detonation mines - whilst a little inaccurate when thrown, are a hell of a lot of fun, and creative use of them can result in some crazy situations.



So the actual mission in the demo is to first 'liberate' an Aliens-style mech loader from a garage which is in a restricted area. I had a few attempts at this. First, running in with guns and bombs was fairly effective, but as you raise more attention, you need to be on the ball or else you'll get swarmed by guards.



The second attempt I used was stealth - carefully avoiding enemies where I could, and taking the less travelled path, this too proved to be a valid - if slightly more boring option.



The third attempt I enjoyed the most. Hijacking a random truck which looked like a martian bin lorry, I proceeded to stick 4 remote mines all over the truck, after driving it to a secluded location. Once I had the explosives stuck to it, I began driving it straight at the enemy compound, jumped out whilst at full speed, and watched as it bore a truck-shaped hole through a major building, with girders and pipes crashing down in it's wake, and the enemies who were all about the building, naturally came to assess the damage and shoot at me through the gaping truck-shaped hole.

Detonating the mines on the truck soon stopped their shenannigans and pretty much levelled half of the building, with the other half collapsing shortly after, due to a lack of wall support.



So it's good to see different directions and tactics that you can use for the missions, it does scream replayability if you are free to approach all missions in the game like this.



So we get to the garage containing the hulking power loader mech thing, and jump in. At this point, stealth and subtlety are smashed into a crumpled heap, along with anything or anyone else who has the misfortune to get in your path.

The mech is a lot of fun to play with; the triggers on your controller swing the arms like windmills, mashing up guards, vehicles, and anything else. The bumper buttons do a left or right arm sweep, useful for smacking pesky trucks away.

With the mech you gain a good bit of damage resistance, although turrets and guards in great number can wear you down eventually.

You have to take your mech to a waiting truck, which parks outside the compound. I found the best way to get to it was to ignore any other enemies behind you, and walk in a straight line towards it - cutting through any buildings or vehicles like a hot knife through butter, destroying anything in your path - it's a lot of fun.

Of course, it's not that easy, you have to stay clear of explosive things when ploughing through scenery, and if any turrets or heavy weapons are hassling you - you need to back track a bit to smack them about.



Once at the waiting truck, your mech gets loaded on, and you hop out to man the vehicle's turret for some on rails shooter action. A brief chase ensues, with you pummelling any attacker who dares get too close to your cargo. This bit was perhaps the least fun part of the demo, but it was relieved by the crazy carnage that you could bring down on anything behind you.



All in all, I'm cautiously optimistic about this game. It is definitely fun and the physics and Geomod2.0 powered destruction are very well realised and work with the gameplay wonderfully.

A multiplayer demo would have been interesting, to see how they balance the powerful weapons to prevent one jerk flattening anything and everything on the map. It will be interesting to see if this is possible in the final build.



Let's keep an eye on this one.

- Bratman Du.

2 comments - Last Comment By rbervoets

Preview: UFC 2009: Undisputed (PS3 & 360)

Posted By: ICE

MMA is said to be the fastest growing sport in the world and we're just under a month from the first next gen MMA game, UFC 2009. The game will try to mix the stunning graphics of a next gen console with the gritty and brutal action of cage fighting. Sound good to you? Me too. Does a month sound like too long? The demo is out today!



If you're familiar with the sport of MMA you'll know that there is literally an infinite number of strikes, counters, grapples, takedowns, transitions, submissions and whatever else I missed. This sport is anything but simple and there are only so many buttons on a controller so the real question is how will it work? In short: it works pretty well. Basically you're cross and circle buttons control your fighter's left and right legs while the triangle and square buttons control the left and right arms. While stationary pressing any of those buttons results in quick snapping strikes. Push them while moving towards, away from or parallel to you're opponent and you get things like over-hand right's, uppercuts and hooks. Finally add in the L1 and L2 buttons which direct strikes at the head and body respectively and the R1 and R2 which block high and low throughout the game and you have a pretty deep striking system.



True cage fighting aficionados will know that the standing aspect is only half of the action. There's still the clinch and the ground game and UFC 2009 handles them both admirably. The clinch is accessed with the right analog stick. You can either hit it right to clinch when they're open or wait for them to strike and counter it with a well timed right analog stick movement up or down depending on the strike in question. A striking clinch like the Muay Tai clinch is accessed by pressing L1 while using the right stick as before. You can then toss your opponent around with the right stick while firing off devastating knees with the face buttons and the L buttons to aim them high of low.



Takedowns are preformed by holding the L2 button with the right stick towards your opponent. Once on the ground you can transition to different positions like side control, half guard or full mount by moving the right analog in one direction and then around in a half circle. Different directions control if its a minor or major transition. Both of these have their advantages and risks. When you have them where you want you can either beat them into a bloody pulp with the face buttons or hit L3 to do a submission as long as its properly timed. That will cause both players to begin frantically moving their right analog stick in circles to escape/make them tap or hitting the face buttons to pummel their way out. While the submissions work, they are easily the weakest link in a game with otherwise very solid gameplay.



As you can see in the screenshots above the game is very pretty. You can see realistic damage accumulate through the course of a fight and blood begin to trickle down after a vicious elbow. The crowd looks a bit bland but everything else from Joe Rogan's commentary to the stylish menu system is top notch. It looks like we might have a new sports series that will be around for a while. Release date is May 19th.

This preview was based on the PS3 demo.

http://www.codemayhem.net/ufc-2009-u...87.html#p31019

1 comments - Last Comment By bradleyt

Game Review: Aquatopia (PSN)

Posted By: fg-54

_____________________________________
Published by: Sony Computer Entertainment
Developed by: SCE Studios London
Genre: Virtual Pet
MSRP: $1.99
ESRB:



Overview: When I first got my PLayStation Eye, I was eager to try out some games for it, after looking around I realized that unfortunately there weren't many at all, and even less of them were good if any. Being a fan of nature I decided to try out what many call a "Fish Wallpaper"

Gameplay: There really is no gameplay here, you see fish and you can wave your arms around to attract or scare away the fish........that is about it, you can't feed them or anything. When you pres the "Start" button, a menu will pop up which will allow you to choose what fish you want to see and what fish you want gone, there are seven types of fish total. Having fish follow you around can be entertaining for a few seconds, in fact, as I am writing this review, I realize that this game CAN be a nice addition to your collection if you are found having to constantly wait for something for just a few minutes, this will keep you occupied for a very small period of time until your eyes start drifting away into more interesting things such as your walls or perhaps the floor beneath you.

Graphics: Its hard to say whether this game has good or bad graphics, the fish look pretty realistic but honestly, the PS3 can easily do much better, then we hit the fact that this game only costs $1.99 and we start to see that for a $1.99 game, the graphics are pretty good, but for a PS3 game, the graphics could use some extra work, it all comes down to the way you see things. Now ignoring the price and the console this game is on, the graphics could honestly be better, when fish get up close too the camera you can easily see they are fake, not to mention often times they carry blocky animations with them, and they have no self awareness of other fish around them, it seems as if they were given a path to follow and any other fish around them don't matter, so every now and then they will swim towards each other to the point of collision and just keep swimming towards each other until one of them takes another direction.

Sound: To be honest the only sound I ever hear is the sound of bubbles and the occasional "woosh" coming from the fish when they swim away quickly, a nice relaxing optional background song would have been nice. Even as you are scrolling through the menu you hear a bubble burst whenever you highlight a new option.

Replay Value: Once you have seen the first few seconds of this game you have pretty much seen it all already, the fish swim around but they never really do anything interesting, like I said before, the most fun you will have with this is having the fish follow your hand around, then again I don't think this game was made to be fun, but relaxing, in which case it fails to be so as well.

Conclusion: I honestly can not say that I am disappointed with my purchase, but only because I can see myself playing with this as I wait for a download to finish on my computer, or if I am playing "TF2" or "Gary's mod" and the new map download is taking a while, this would be the perfect thing to play. If you are lucky enough to not often have to wait a few minutes, I STRONGLY advice you look the other way because this game will serve no purpose to you. If you often find yourself with spare time and nothing to do, I can easily recommend this game to you.

Final Score:

0 comments - Last Comment By fg-54

ChaseTheChuckWagon - eBay alternative for video games

Posted By: bandit

We all know eBay has been jacking up prices of fees whether it be listing or final value fees. You can sell a videogame item for $80 and be charged a final value fee of $9! How is a person suppose to make a profit or recoup their costs?

Well a fairly new site known as ChaseTheChuckWagon is helping gamers out. There is no listing fee but there is a ending fee and its a whole lot cheaper than eBay's. Here is a list of their fees from their Sellers Guide:

Listing Fees

• There is no Insertion Fee to List an Item.

Commissions

• A commission of 3% is charged on the first $100.00 of the Purchase Price,
• a commission of 2% is charged on the amount of the Purchase Price between $100.00 and $1000.00,
• and a commission of 1% is charged on the amount of the Purchase Price over $1000.00,

Enhancement Fees

• The fee to use a Reserve Bid for an auction is $0.50.
• The fee to feature the auction on the Main Page is $2.00
• The fee to feature the auction in the Listing Category is $1.00
• The fee to display the listing in BOLD text is $0.30
• The fee to display the listing with an Arrow is $0.30
• The fee for a private auction is $0.15
• There is no fee to uploaded images for a listing

ChaseTheChuckWagon has everything from accessories, consoles, magazines to memorabilia, computer gaming, anime and music. They also have listings for current consoles and even classics. It all depends on what sellers list and have available.

So if you're thinking of selling videogame items or even plan on buying, be sure to check out ChaseTheChuckWagon. Since the site is still fairly new, you might be able to snag some great deals!

0 comments - Last Comment By bandit

Game Review: Fl0wer (PSN)

Posted By: fg-54

Published by: Sony Computer Entertainment
Developed by: Thatgamecompany (TGC)
Genre: Miscellaneous
Players: 1
Price: $10
ESRB:

_______________________________________

Overview: I can personally say that the first time I saw a picture of this game I was stunned, this game in fact, was one of the reasons I bought my ps3. Even tho I didn't really know how it was played, I just knew I had to play it because it looked amazing and fresh, this "game" is another one of those games that are mostly pure art, you can have just as much fun watching someone play this amazing experience as you would actually playing it, that's right, I am going as far as saying this is an experience more then a game, and a great one at that.

Gameplay: In fl0wer, you get to play as the wind who carries petals from flower to flower, the more petals you get the longer your stream of petals becomes, in the end it doesn't really matter how long you are but its nice to be able to do a few flips and see yourself moving like a colorful snake in the air. For the most part, all you will be doing here is touching a flower and then moving on to the next, its simple but somehow very entertaining in an odd way. Some flowers such as the blue ones DO trigger special events that will lead you to the end of the level, but you don't need to get all the flowers in order to finish the level, only the ones that trigger events which by the way, will leave your eyes wide open as most of the times it only spreads beauty around the field of grass by seemingly turning the grass greener and making flowers grow out of nowhere. This is something that will not get old quickly and a force that will pull you back to play the same level over and over again.

Graphics: I don't think i need to explain myself when i say that this is one of the best looking games out there period, pictures can't really show how beautiful this game looks in motion on an HDTV, and even if you have a regular tv, you will still be able to enjoy this game's beauty. The way the grass looks and reacts to you is simply amazing and it is something that should be looked at closely in order to further appreciate it.

Sound: There really isn't much sound to this game, you have a back ground song and a sound effect for whenever you pick certain flowers, aside from that you also of course, hear the sound of wind. This is not a bad thing at all since it only makes the game sound as pretty as it looks, it pulls you in deeper into the experience.

Replay Value: Replay value in this game is very high which is a specially essential thing in this game since it only has six levels, that's right, only six levels and they aren't exactly twenty minutes long ether. You can play each level multiple times and not get bored of it due to the freedom you are given from the start, if you don't want to collect flowers then you are free to roam around wherever you please. There ARE invisible walls, but you really would not want to go beyond them most of the times, its just more of the same grass that you have INSIDE the walls but without the flowers.

Conclusion: I am personally getting tired of developers making such great games so freaking short, "Portal" and "Weapon Of Choice" are two more examples of this. This one takes the stage by being only about an hour long plus the credits level which you could almost consider to be an extra level in itself. For $10 i can't really say i am disappointed, but i would feel more satisfied with my purchase if there was at least bonus levels available for download for a small extra charge. This game DOES have trophies, so those of you out there who enjoy spending your time trying to unlock them will appreciate their existence and will certainly be a little more satisfied with their purchase.

Final Score:

0 comments - Last Comment By fg-54

Game Preview: Grand Ages: Rome (PC)

Posted By: quzar

Platform: Windows (XP or Vista) PC
Developer: Haemimont Games (official US game page)
Publisher: Kalypso Media
MSRP: £29.99
PEGI: 7+ (Based on box art, PEGI site has no info)
ESRB: Rating Pending

Scheduled for release on 09 March 09

What they had to say about it:

GRAND AGES ROME is the long awaited sequel to the best-selling strategy game "Imperium Romanum".

You are a Governor of a Roman Province in the time-honoured Roman Empire, its fortune very much lies in your hands. Choose one of five Roman noble families such as Caesar's Julii with different abilities to accomplish the comprehensive missions.

Defend yourself against barbarian tribes, trade with other cultures, build a wealthy economic environment and fullfil the needs of your people in a huge single player campaign or with up to 3 human players in the multiplayer mode!

And remember - even Rome was not build in a day!

What I have to say about it: click here

1 comments - Last Comment By quzar

Game Review: Puzzle Arcade (XBLA)

Posted By: Bratman Du

Puzzle Arcade
Publisher: Eidos Interactive Limited
Developer: Ctxm/Say Design
Genre: Puzzle
System: XBLA
Price:800 MS Points


Let's get right into it, this is a jig-saw game. Everything you do in this game is a type of jig-saw, either in the traditional sense, or with constraints placed on you in certain challenges, such as, having a minute to complete a jig-saw, a distorted image which becomes clearer the more pieces you get, and so on.

There are varying degrees of difficulty, which affect things like, amount of pieces, whether or not the pieces are laid out in a mess, with some bits facing the wrong way, or you can have all the pieces facing the right way and even pre-rotated to the correct orientation.


You can have the pieces separated into a menu of edges and colour groupings, allowing you to quickly find and select certain pieces.

To start with, I did a few of the challenges. Picking a few at random, I found different twists on the 'put the pieces in the right place' type fun that this game promises.

Twists such as bots who make frustrating attemps to complete the puzzle ahead of you. This is the equivalent of having 3 people over your shoulder, grabbing bits of your puzzle and moving them around, shouting - 'that bit goes there!'. Now, if I was actually doing a jig-saw puzzle, first of all, I'd have to be 80 and an old woman, and second; I'd be doing it to relax and have a bit of peace!

So this being the case, the last thing I'd want when doing a jig-saw is other people annoying me, or even time constraints, or missing pieces, or any thing in fact.


So after these challenges, I took to the main, 'just do a friggin regular jig-saw puzzle' mode. So here i thought I'd set up a puzzle, with the pieces not sorted - scattered about, upside down and six-ways from-Sunday, with the maximum amount of pieces (somewhere in the region of 1300).

So I spent about two hours, slowly grabbing pieces, flipping them if needed, sorting the edges and corners to one side, and getting ready to tackle a large puzzle.

Do you know what? It was actually quite relaxing, theraputic even! But after a couple of hours (at which point I hadn't even put two pieces together - I was still sorting edges!), I decided to take a break, and finish my monster puzzle later. It didn't allow me to save my progress. Gutted.

After sorting that mess for two hours, I wasn't able to save my progress and resume later. How in the name of shitting-crikey are you supposed to finish a 1300+ piece puzzle in one sitting?

I've given more than enough words out for this game so I'm going to get to the point - which is this - what's the point?

Why? Why would you play this game, who would play it? How long would they play it for?

Why would you play this game? I guess if you really like jig-saws, and think it's be cool taking pictures with the XBox Vision Camera and turning them into said puzzles, then yes, go for it. But who is going to want to do jig-saws on an XBox 360?

The lack of a save function for some puzzles means that there really is no point starting a huge one, as you'd have to do it in one sitting. Although some do allow saving.


The multiplayer aspect is a strange addition, and I guess it would work like the mode with the bots who keep grabbing bits of your jigsaw and moving them around (i.e. annoying). But I can't say for sure because I couldn't get an online match, ranked or otherwise, as presumably only someone with a very sad life would play online jigsaw puzzles at half ten on Saturday night. And as sad as my life is, I was reviewing it so I had an excuse and if I had found anyone playing this online I would have been interested to talk to them and possibly find out who they are and alert the authorities about a potential suicide risk.

So I'd struggle to justify buying or even playing this game. If you really want a taste of last century (or the one before that even) then go for this, if you think jig-saws belong in the past along with ball-in-a-cup, ludo and slap-the-stepchild, then avoid.

If you're that into jig-saws, then you probably aren't going to appreciate the extra factors and difficulties put into place by this game. You're better off with the real thing.

1 comments - Last Comment By fg-54

Game Review: The Maw (XBLA)

Posted By: fg-54

______________________________
Published by: Twisted Pixel
Developed by: Twisted Pixel
Players: 1
Price: 800
ESRB:

___________________________

Overview: A great looking game that came out of nowhere to amaze us all with its dazzling graphics and fluent animations, will this be the game to raise the bar for all XBLA games to come? or is this just a pretty picture, keep reading to find out!


Gameplay: In The Maw you get to play as an alien who partners up with "The Maw" which would be like Kirby 2.0 since he not only gets the powers of the aliens he eats, but he also gets bigger as he eats more aliens. The goal of the game is to eat a certain amount of aliens so you can proceed to the next level; Sometimes you may have to puzzle solve, jump platforms, or attack both biotic and a biotic objects to get to the aliens that so willingly await their death.
It is clear that the game was built for kids, aside from its visual style there also seems to be no way to die, in a certain level, your character doesn't even react to bluets at all. Something that doesn't make seance is that in some puzzles, the game literally gives you the answer, but in others it will leave you to think for a good while with no clues on what you are suppose to do next, this could frustrate younger gamers who are not well experienced with puzzle solving and leave them to stop playing. One thing I have to point out is that this game is a glitch waiting to happen, you can't jump as you slide down so i got stuck between a hill and some trees once, the clipping is horrible and there are plenty of invisible walls, objects rarely fall on top of each other but when they do its not a pretty sight. Another issue that should be pointed out is that sometimes the maw will be programed to do something as soon as its close enough to its target, lets say for example that the maw now has the ability to breathe fire and he can burn trees and bushes, trying to get him from one place to another could take more then it should, as your beloved maw stops at every bush to scorch it, this takes away time and replaces it with frustration.
Overall aside from the second to last level the game keeps you doing different things at good enough paces to where you never really get too bored doing one specific action over and over again.
Another thing I have to complain about is that towards the last levels, the maw get so big it takes up way too much space on your screen, it seriously gets ridiculous and zooming out only makes things worse.

Graphics: What can I say other then great? there are minor shadowing issues here and there but they can easily be ignored, animations are as fluent and expressive as they come and there is something about the whole look and feel of it that reminds me of the good ole N64 days. This game is defiantly one of those games that people won't mind to watch as much; Environments are often entertaining enough to catch you eyes and every now and then there will be an alien so well built that you might even find yourself starring at it.

Sound: As friendly and goofy as the game looks, sound effects are easy on the ears and will match up well with any a kid's show, but don't expect nothing too good, background songs are made of constant and repetitive loops that you won't even notice unless you listen for it.

Replay Value: Its a 2 hour game at its best and with no extra features or bonus content aside from the achievements which you can easily.......achieve if you just take some extra time to burn or break useless things so u can get that extra gamer score boost you are pretty much looking at a one time play through type of game.

Conclusion: Games this short normally have something great to it that makes it worth your cash like "Portal" but this game is nothing more then average with a price too high in my opinion, if you have money to freely spend then i say this could be a fun 2 hours for you, but if you are looking for a better value, then you might wanna look somewhere else.

Final Score:

2 comments - Last Comment By fg-54

GOOZEX Launches North American Best Online Video Game Trading Service in Europe

Posted By: bandit

Rome, Italy. – Goozex, Inc., the leading online video game trading community in North America, announced today the company’s launch of its service for 28 European nations. Goozex is an online market place that matches members to trade games for Goozex Points, a virtual currency, which they can use to get other games for only €1. Video game players across Europe can now enjoy the benefits of saving money, accessing a large library of game titles, and joining for free a vibrant online community of gamers. Goozex.eu service will begin immediately on February 2, 2009.

Goozex EU
Goozex EU will launch the game trading service in 28 European countries: all EU‐27 countries and Switzerland. Please refer to www.goozex.eu for a complete list of countries.

The online service was started in 2006 in the United States with a mission to let gamers get the best trade values for their used video games and save money to get other games they want to play. Goozex has revolutionized the way games are exchanged online with an automatic trading system. Members list the games they have available to send and those they wish to receive, and Goozex finds the best match for their offers and requests. Each game is pre‐assigned a value in Goozex Points, to make trading games easy and effortless on Goozex.

Games are assigned a point value based on several factors including supply and demand, and users earn points when trading their games with other users. Points can then be redeemed for other video games. The system offers its users a fair market value for their games and guarantees all trades. In the US, Goozex calculates that on average, members can save $16.50 (€12.52) per game trade as compared to traditional used game retail stores. Joining Goozex is free and each transaction is only €1. Games for thirteen major platforms are available for trading including the Microsoft Xbox 360, Sony PlayStation 3, Sony PlayStation Portable, Nintendo Wii, Nintendo DS, and Windows PC.

All services found on Goozex.com (North America) will be available for Goozex EU including the following:

• Video game trading
• 100% guarantee on all trades
• Forum community
• Connect to Play feature for all games
• Gamer Profile Flash Application (use on MySpace, Facebook, iGoogle and other social media networks)
• Goozex Gamer Signature
• Open API (for independent developers)
• Gift Cards
• eCards

"Since Goozex started in the US, gamers from throughout Europe have been demanding we bring the best‐in‐class video game trading service here to Europe," said Daniele Bottiglieri, Goozex Europe CEO. Daniele continued, "We are very excited about launching the site in 28 countries and our promise to European members is that you will find the best value for your video games, save money, and have a great online experience on Goozex.eu."

The European website www.goozex.eu will be open to the public on February 2, 2009.

About Goozex, Inc.
Goozex, Inc. is an award winning and best in class rated peer‐to‐multi‐peer trading company headquartered in College Park, Maryland. Launched in July 2006, Goozex.com has been rated best in class by Forbes (Jan. 6, 2009), Electronic Gaming Monthly (EGM #223) and GamesRadar (Dec. 25, 2007). Goozex is the leading video game trading service based on an automated point system.

About Goozex Europe, S.r.l.
Goozex Europe is a Goozex, Inc. partner company located in Rome, Italy. It manages the innovative Goozex services in the European market, and makes it available to gamers in 28 European countries.

Goozex, your game trading community TM. Please visit our website at www.goozex.eu

SIGN UP today and enter code DCEmu-UK to receive 1 TRADE immediately and additional 100 points upon completing first trade.

0 comments - Last Comment By bandit

Game Review: MegaMan Starforce Leo (DS)

Posted By: skynes

Platform: Nintendo DS
Developer: Capcom
Publisher: Capcom

Ratings:

PEGI:











ESRB:


Megaman Star Force is the spiritual successor to the Megaman: Battle Network series. There are three versions of the game: Leo, Pegasus and Dragon. Each version is almost identical except for a few changes in dialogue and what elemental form Megaman can take later in the game.


Star Force follows the Battle Network formula of gameplay. There is a real world and a digital world which you can explore relatively freely. Combat is real time in a grid and you use cards to fight your foes. One of the immediately noticeable differences is that unlike Battle Networks side camera view of combat, Star Force uses a third person view instead.

The main character of Star Force is a boy named Geo Stelar, the son of an astronaut. The story takes place three years after Geo lost his father to an accident on his space station. Since then he has retreated from any and all relationships so to avoid the pain of losing people. He later meets a digital alien entity named Omega-Xis and they team up to save the world from alien invaders by merging into a single entity known as Megaman. The story and game progress is linear and uses the terms days and weeks instead of chapters. Each chapter of the story generally begins with Geo getting out of bed, some trouble happens, an alien claims responsibility, Megaman beats the alien, goes to bed and the world is safe until the next digital disaster occurs.



One note which separates Star Force from the Battle Network series is the lack of the goody two shoes heroes. All the main characters have their own pains, loneliness and troubled pasts. This is used heavily to enforce the story's theme of friendship and relying upon others for help. Despite being a cheesy plot point you can't help but empathise with some of the characters and the situations they are in. This is a welcome change from the normal fresh faced sword wielding farm boy willing to give his life to rescue a girl he only met five minutes ago.



The Battle system has undergone a simplification from the Battle Network series. Megaman has three tiles to move in and dodge attacks, he is also given an energy shield to block attacks which cover all three tiles. The card system is also much simpler, with the Program Advance, a mechanic whereby you fuse three cards into a single more powerful card, being absent from the game, replaced with the difficult to activate and mostly unnecessary Card-Combo. This leads the combat to being very cut and dry, with most fights ending in less than 10 seconds, combat becomes a repetitive mild annoyance. Even the boss fights tend to last less than a minute and are much easier compared to Battle Network's bosses.

The game makes use of the stylus and touch screen to play little mini-games, such as shooting snakes which attack from four directions, controlling an RC Copter or tapping buttons to stay grappled to a mad digital bull. It adds a bit of variety to each boss zone which breaks out from the tedium of the random encounters.

The games biggest mechanic is the Brotherband. This is where you and another person register each other as brothers and confer on one another abilities and your favourite cards. You can only register a few story characters as brothers, the rest are intended to be real friends using the Wi-fi. It is possible to use the Wi-fi to trade, establish brothers, send emails and dual your friends. However this is all useless if you don't know anyone with this game.

Sounds: More like GBA music and effects than DS. After playing the game you'll put your DS down and forget what the music sounded like.

Graphics: Little improvement over the GBA's Battle Network series. Good use of the dual screen however.

Gameplay: Endless running around with repetitive so-so combat every few seconds.

Concluson: Very similar to the Battle Network games despite being a different franchise. Repetitive game play but a much better story than its predecessors. Much easier than previous games also. Too much emphasis and options for multiplay, rendering the card directory impossible to complete without buying all three games. Get this if you loved the Battle Networked games.

2 comments - Last Comment By skynes

Game Review: Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Cross Generation of Heroes (Wii)

Posted By: bandit

Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Cross Generation of Heroes
Official Homepage
Release Date: 12/11/2008
Platform: Wii, Arcade (in Japan)
Number of Players: 1-4
Controllers: Wiimote + Nunchuk/Classic Controller, GameCube Controller
Genre: Fighting
Publisher: Capcom
Developer: Capcom
Region: Japan (NTSC-J)
Site: Buy from Play-Asia (Game - $69.90) / Buy from Play-Asia (Stick - $79.90)

Overview: A tag battle opens up a sea of opportunity for gamers. The Cross Generation of Heroes is one massive crossover of a fighting game. More than 16 heroes from Tatsunoko and Capcom fighters make their way into the roster in this Wii installment. The classic hero Ryu, the vampire Morigan, Casshern, and the genie Hakushon are just a few characters who have signed up.

Choose two characters from the roster and form a tag team, switch them over to replenish their health when their HP runs low, have them assist each other in the battle and do counter attacks. Get to know the strengths and weaknesses of the characters and form a dream team.

Gameplay: Before I go any further with the review, in order to play this game, you'll either need to have a Japanese Wii or a way to play import games whether it be a method of using Freeloader, Gecko OS, Homebrew Channel or other sources. This was reviewed on a US Wii (NTSC-U) with 3.2 firmware. Now on to the review.

I have never been a person who got into fighting games. I was never into Tekken, King of Fighters, World Heroes, Soul Calibur or Dead or Alive. If I was, I would only play for a couple minutes or an hour and get tired. So it would take a GREAT game to keep me coming back to play it. Even with Street Fighter, I played often but never into it. The only fighting game I ever got into was SNK vs. Capcom: Match of the Millennium for the Neo Geo Pocket Color, Marvel vs. Capcom 1 and 2 for the original PlayStation, PlayStation 2 and Xbox. Now that I type this, it seems to be I am more interested in Versus Capcom games..with the exception of Rival Schools for the original PlayStation. Coincidence? If so, Capcom must be doing something right!

Capcom has released their newest Versus Capcom game and is known as Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Cross Generations of Heroes. The game consists of Tatsunoko characters pitted against Capcom characters such as from Street Fighter and even Mega Man.

If you have played any of the Vs. Capcom games I have mentioned above, TvsC pretty much as the same concept and feel to it. You select two characters from the list. During the fight, you control one character while the second character is hidden and waiting. You can use the second character to assist you, help you team up for a few seconds (known as Tag Team) or tag out if your main character is about to die or is seriously injured. If you swapped characters, you now have a fresh and healthy new character to fight while the hidden character is healing. While its healing, it can help you team up.

I know majority wont know how to read the menu since it is in Japanese so here is what the menu means and are pretty much self-explanatory:

アーケード　＝　Arcade Mode
バーサス　＝　Vs. Mode
サバイバル　=　Survival
タイムアタック　=　Time Attack
トレーニング　＝　Training
プレイデータ　＝　Play Data
オプション　=　Option
ショップ　=　Shop
ギャラリー　＝　Gallery
オリジナルゲーム　＝　Original (Mini) Games

Controls: You can play TvsC with different controllers. You can use the Wiimote and Nunchuk, Wiimote and Classic Controller, Wiimote and Fighting Stick or GameCube controller. I've wondered how TvsC would work out with the Wiimote and Nunchuk combination and I must say, I am very impressed. Usually you have 6 buttons for Light/Medium/High attacks. Instead, you have 4 buttons that control your Light/Medium/High attacks. You use the Nunchuk Joystick to move around while using the A, B, C and Z buttons to throw punches, kicks and specials. 1 and 2 are taunts.

The button layout is very simple. You can throw a fireball, upper cut and other moves on the first try. Although its simple, a button masher can easily end up with 15+ combo.

Graphics: Like any Wii game, you wont find any realistic or high poly count type graphics. TvsC consists of 3D graphics and 2D mechanics with a hint of cell-shading. Nothing flashy but looks very very nice. Pulling off a special shows a 3D animation of your character about to wreak havoc on your opponent. If you're not familiar with Tatsunoko, you wont know who half the characters are. But each character are well detailed and vibrant in color.

Sound: Each character has their own theme song, stage and theme. Songs are beautifully remixed, upbeat and fast-paced. However, I noticed that every a character is switched, the background music switches.

Replay Value: Me personally, I can play this for months. Mind you, I'm the type that will play the same for 1-2 hours, put it down and never touch it again. There are only a certain few that I would play for hours and months. Its hard to keep me attached to the game. But with TvsC, I play this game everyday and have no intentions of putting this game down. You always want to know which characters work well with another character and what combos they have.

Conclusion: Overall, if you're a fan of Vs. Capcom games, Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Cross Generations of Heroes is a must! You wont be disappointed with this game. The price of the import is a bit pricey but you wont regret it. However, since this has Tatsunoko characters, you probably wont see this released outside of Japan due to licensing agreement with Tatsunoko characters. Hopefully, we'll see a new Marvel vs. Capcom, SNK vs. Capcom or a totally new collaboration. This would definitely be a big seller.


I would love to give this a perfect 5 but I wish there were more characters to choose from and the pace to be faster. It feels a little slow and not the same as Marvel vs. Capcom. I hope Capcom releases a game for the US.

1 comments - Last Comment By hottiegamer

Game Preview: Big Bang Mini (DS)

Posted By: souLLy

So, quirky-fireworks-based-touch-screen-puzzle-shoot-em-ups then, not a genre that has overpopulated the DS to date, but Southpeak Games is set to change all that with their latest release; Big Bang Mini.

The aim of the game is, unsurprisingly, to do your best not to get blown into thousands of little pieces. Using your touch-screen you direct your ship around; a seemingly simple task, but there's a twist, you must also use the stylus to shoot fireworks up to the top screen to dispatch the enemies. The trick then, is finding a good balance between attack and defence, under a flurry of bullets it can be hard enough just avoiding being blown up.

What really makes Big Bang Mini stand out are the fantastic graphics and sense of humour; for those who've grown jaded from years of shooters with generic spaceships it's a real breath of fresh air. It's not unusual to defeat a crowd of floating clowns only to come up against a giant floating lizard (think the Pop and Twinbee series and you're somewhere on the way to knowing what to expect).

Big Bang Mini boasts over 90 levels, a high-score challenge mode with online leaderboards, multiplay with a single cartridge and a raft of other unlockables- so there's plenty to keep even the most hardcore shooter fans busy.



Stay tuned to DCEmu Games Reviews for a full review
Big Bang Mini will be released exclusively on the Nintendo DS in Spring 2008

1 comments - Last Comment By hottiegamer

Game Review: Disgaea DS (DS)

Posted By: skynes

Platform: Nintendo DS
Developer: Nippon Ichi Software
Publisher: Square Enix
Ratings: Not yet rated by PEGI

ESRB:


Disgaea DS is not a new game. The original Disgaea was released on the PS2 in 2004. Disgaea DS is a port of the PS2 version, albeit with some changes suitable to the DS such as stylus support and less shiny graphics.

The main character is Laharl, a demon prince of the Netherworld. He has slept for the past 2 years, during which his father, the king, has died and his throne is under contest. Laharl naturally believes that the throne is his inheritance, so he sets off to become King of the Netherworld. He is joined by a variety of different characters, including an angel and a team of earth defenders, to assist him with his goal. Main story events are recounted with voice-acting for the main characters, and it's very good voice acting too.

The game takes a very light hearted approach to the story, many character are amusing, even Laharl's servants such as dragons and chimeras come off as comical and lazy. This is a diversion from most RPG's which take a very serious story, but it's a welcome change. What it doesn't change however, is the genre's other notable aspect: deep mechanics.

The battle system is an isometric, turn-based strategy system. Your team will spawn, one at a time in the order you choose, from a starting tile. You may then move them and attack with them as you see fit. A couple of twists to this grant the player more control and strategy. One of these is the team attack system. By placing characters next to each other and having one attack, there is a chance that those in base contact with gang up on the enemy, with each of them letting off an attack. While each attack is slightly less powerful than a normal blow, the total damage is greater than any individual attack. The other change is that movement can be canceled unless an action is taken. This allows a smart player to move his units to a team attack formation, let off one attack, then cancel the movements of the team to allow those who didn't attack a chance to move elsewhere, and possible take part in another team attack!



Each level may also contain pyramids known as geo-effects. These geo-effects grant a bonus or penalty onto any colour of tile which they sit on. For example if a geo-effect with the bonus of “+50 defense” is placed on a red tile anyone, friend or foe, who stands on a red tile will gain that bonus. Furthermore destroying a geo-effect will cause all tiles of the colour its on to change to the colour of the geo-effect damaging anyone who stands on those tiles, should a different coloured geo-effect be destroyed in the process all of the new tiles will change colour also. This gives the potential for huge damage combos and is possible to wipe out an entire map of enemies in a single turn by smart positioning and destruction of geo-effects.

Regarding the skill system of the game, Disgaea takes a very in-depth approach. Everything in the game can be leveled up. Items, spells, skills and characters. Characters are leveled up by defeating enemies. Skills and spells are leveled up by using them. Items however require a different approach.

Each item in the game has its own world with 'inhabitants'. There inhabitants provide bonuses to stats when that item is equipped. It is possible through the use of an NPC to enter the item's dimension known as an Item World. If you do this you fight through randomly generated levels back to back filled with enemies, defeating the inhabitants subdues them and allows you to move them to other items. Also each level you defeat increases the natural bonuses of the item. This item world allows you to take even the starter weapons of the game and turn them into very powerful items.

Whilst there are story characters which join you, these don't comprise your entire team. There exists a Senate, through which any of your characters can make propositions, these can include more expensive items in the store, unlocking a secret world, but the main use is to create characters.
Now every time a character defeats an enemy, they gain mana equal to the level of that enemy. The higher the mana, the more powerful a new character they can create. What kind of character can you make? Any monster you have defeated, yes including dragons, or any humanoid with classes such as cleric, mage, warrior, ninja etc. More classes get unlocked as you progress in the game. In addition to this the new character will be the pupil of the one who created him. When a master and pupil are in base contact, the master can cast any spells the pupil can. If the master levels up that spell, he learns it permanently. This grants huge control over the skills and spells of your characters, allowing even your cleric to cast very high level fire and ice spells.

Now all this sounds very complicated, and it is. However the main story of the game is well balanced and even if you only create characters with no care for master/pupil or learning spells, you can still complete the game with the bare bone basics.

My only problem with the game is that it gives you too many options too quickly. From your first chapter of the story you are able to enter the item world, approach the senate, create new characters and learn all manner of skills. Whilst more hardcore RPG players or Disgaea veterans won't be bothered by this, it could be off-putting to a new player.

Sounds: Very good voice acting, though the battle cries in combat become annoyingly repetitive. Music is varied and fits the scenes well. Also includes the option to buy tracks to have as the music for the Item World

Graphics: Anime style characters allow for easy showing of emotion. Animations of combat and special abilities are all very good. However the graphics are a downgrade from the PS2 version.

Gameplay: Fantastic in-depth RPG. Many many options and near infinite team combinations available. Weapon and Armour use isn't restricted by class allowing a wide variation of equipment. Inclusion of top screen mini-map and camera rotation allows easy location of hard to see enemies and tiles.

Overall: Great game. It can be overwhelming in the beginning, but none of the advanced functions are necessary to beat the game, allowing for as casual or hardcore a game as you choose to make it. If you enjoy RPGs and never had the chance to play Disgaea before, pick this up and you won't be disappointed.

0 comments - Last Comment By skynes