It begins...

I've started Pokemon Soul Silver which just got released in Japan last week. It's a drastic overhaul compared to the original release. There's a lot of aesthetic choices they used to make it feel and look like the best hand held Pokemon game to date. The animations are fluid and they put the amount of care and effort into it that you would expect from Nintendo for remaking their best selling Pokemon title ever.

I will write up a full review later, until then enjoy this preview video I made:


Edit: Yes I realize Razor Leaf isn't effective versus a Hoothoot, but I'm just showing off the new animations.



(1:56:34 AM) MechanicalHybrid: "MCFLY YOU BOJO! FIRE POKEMON DON'T WORK ON WATER POKEMON!"
(1:56:40 AM) CyborgGrandpa: Rofl
(1:56:48 AM) MechanicalHybrid: "UNLESS YOU GOT POWAH!"

This video is a reminder of why I play FFXI, amazing story, great community and overall amazing MMO experience that is unrivaled. It's going to be sad knowing that someday it will come to an end, especially with FFXIV right around the corner. I'll always remember why I love this game and why it's special to me, and hopefully feel the same way about FFXIV.

Time to enjoy some Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 tonight! Can't wait :D Le and I are both hoping to unlock some alternate costumes for certain people >_> Penance... we don't want that emo pussy in our group, we want Speedball!

Just got the new Batman game, playing it through and really enjoying it! I love the fact they have almost the entire cast of voice actors from Batman the animated series. It's honestly a shame it took this long for a good Batman game. I will talk about it once I've played enough of it to form a real opinion of it, between Shadow Complex and this, it's a good week for gaming, but Shadow Complex (Metroidvania) is another post all together :P

I think I like this version much better...



Cannot stop laughing!

Just finished the new FFXI mini expansion, got a new hat, beat up some moogles and had fun!

Rest in peace Billy... goodnight sweet prince ; ;

"Seems like a bad idea for a game..." One of the best Lonely Island sketches in a while.

I picked up both inFAMOUS and Cross Edge this week for the PS3... Cross Edge had a non color manual. This is starting to really piss me off. More than half of my PS3 game manuals/booklets have no color or are in black and white! This is really not acceptable. If you can make video game instruction manuals in color in 1985 and keep the costs of the finish product below $50 what the fuck is so hard about doing it now? We're living in the year 2009 and this simple basic concept of printing something in color eludes these lazy ass publishers. I know it's a small thing to bitch about, but when I'm paying $50+ for a god damn game it had very well have a color manual.

/end rant.

Been a while since I've posted, but I bring you this video, it's a trailer for a fan made game that made me hard >_> I WANT THIS RIGHT NOW!

Oh man there's too much good stuff coming out this week, I have no idea where to begin >< This weeks Blu-Ray releases that interest me are:

Hellraiser
Sin City
X-Men
X-Men 2

And also Freakazoid Volume 2 on standard def.

But the thing that really made me feel all giddy was the Limited Edition Hellraiser set, my jaw dropped, I think it's like the coolest packaging ever:



Tell me what you guys think, which ones should I get ; ; ?

Tonight I accomplished one of the things I've been wanting to do in FFXI forever. I beat Chains of Promathia tonight! It's a shame that I have to wait until 10AM EST tomorrow to get my reward for it. Those of you who have attempted any of the later missions in CoP knows how much of an achievement this is :P I'm so relieved and exhausted.

Killzone 2 –

It was inevitable that Sony would finally release their new golden child unto the masses who have been following its development since E3 2005.  The first game in the series was met with mediocre success and nobody really paid that much attention to it (except in the UK where the first game met with a far more warm reception than in the US)  So why the hype over Killzone 2?  Well it was announced at E3 2005 and the demo they showed appeared to most people as an opening cinematic or pre rendered CGI cutscene.   The real shocker was when Sony said that it was in game footage.  The gaming public was very skeptical and a lot of sites and message board goers said that there’s no way they could achieve in game graphics the likes of which they were showing.  Killzone 2 was our first glimpse of what the PS3 could really do and is what we were promised from the get go.  Unfortunately Killzone 2 didn’t make it as a launch title and that was a huge let down for a lot of the first generation adopters of Sony’s expensive piano looking console.  It wasn’t a deal breaker for most but it was definitely a letdown.  Time passed and people eagerly waited to see if Sony could pull it off.  Well fast forward 4 years since its initial inception and was it really worth the wait?  Did it really live up to what Sony had promised?  Find out in my full in depth review and analysis below:

Graphics

To say that Killzone 2 is gorgeous is an understatement.  It’s a true graphical testament to what the PS3 is capable of.  Developer Guerrilla Games has finally taken advantage of the PS3’s hardware and set a new standard of what we expect and want out of current gen hardware.  It finally feels like a true HD, current gen FPS.  That’s not to say other games this generation are lacking in this department, it’s honestly Guerrilla Games attention to detail that make Killzone 2 shine more than a lot of its competition.  The textures are large and show large amounts of detail while retaining a natural look to them.  One of my biggest complaints, as well as countless others, is that this current generations over used technical feature has been the over and misuse of bloom (you know that really soft lighting that makes everything look like some sort of cloudy dream sequence?) Killzone 2 uses it sparingly and does so when needed.  The thing I cannot get over is the environments in the game, having violent storms raging while taking a city by force really sets the mood.  Even the blood is done very well, it’s not over the top red or glossy, it’s very dark and natural looking.  Everything from the ground you’re walking on to the character models look amazing with no awkward HUD or overlay to get in the way of the visuals, I above all else appreciate this the most.  Killzone 2 sports some of the best visuals to date in console gaming, if not some of the best, especially in the shooter genre.

Story

The story to Killzone 2 is in my opinion the only one of two downsides to the game I could find.  You needn’t had to have played the previous game to know what’s going on.  It will have been a treat for those of you who did and give you a little more insight and let you connect with the characters a little bit more.  The game starts off with a really good voice acted cinematic where it sets the tone of what you’re up against.  The game places you as a member of the ISA (Interplanetary Strategic Alliance) and takes place on the planet Helghan, the home world of the Helghast who in the previous games invaded the ISA colony.  Two years after that the ISA decide to storm the Helghast home world.  Sounds like something you’ve already heard or just don’t really care about, which honestly is how I felt.  I don’t really get drawn into war stories too often so luckily I didn’t feel like I was missing out on a whole lot.  Near the beginning I couldn’t care less about who I was controlling or what I was doing, as long as I got to have fun.  Somewhere near the middle of the game however is where I started to get into the story and really begin to enjoy it.  I won’t give away anything but it involves learning more about the enemies technology and how they use it.  For the most part there’s no real character depth, just a bunch of extremely manly grunts screaming orders at each other and making some really bad jokes.  There are a few parts in the game where the scripted lines from my fellow team mates became so annoying that I had to mute the TV since I kept dying and having to restart.  All in all you won’t be necessarily let down by Killzone 2’s story, and you won’t be amazed by it, it’s no epic like Bioshock, but hey it’s not a huge fault, we usually don’t pay FPS games for story anyways.

Gameplay

At it’s core is a very satisfying gameplay structure that is very rewarding in itself.  The controls are a little tight but are easily adjusted to your liking.  I got used to them pretty quickly and started to have fun.  You are usually never alone in the game, you always have a squad with you and or partner to help you along to taking down the Helghast.  The weaponry is your average run of the mill FPS weapons with a few minor differences.  It’s very reminiscent of Call of Duty 4.  The guns fire and have a considerable amount of kick back depending on what you’re using.  They feel and act like you would imagine their real world counter parts would.  They do have some creative new weapons and to be honest Killzone 2 has introduced one of my favorite guns in gaming!  It’s a bolt gun that nails people to walls then explodes after having pinned them for a few seconds (brilliant) You have a duck and cover system that you are expected to use in order to progress throughout the game with little difficulty.  For me this was hard to get used to, I’m used to using duck and cover in games like Gears of War or Uncharted, not having it as a mandatory staple of an FPS.  But it works well once you get it down and at some points you’ll be begging to have anything to hide behind because of all the waves of enemies being tossed at you.  The game keeps switching things up on you to make it feel like you’ve done a lot.  You get to mount Anti-Aircraft guns, drive tanks, man gun turrets on a war ship, and even pilot a mech (which was my absolute favorite part of the game!)  The only real complaint I have with the game play is the AI.  For the most part it’s very intelligent and your squad mates are self sufficient, except for when they don’t follow you and run out into wild gunfire and you have to revive them.  I would have liked to have seen a command system where you could give actual orders and they would follow, such is not the case in Killzone 2.  The AI at times does whatever it wants, resulting in some awkward interaction, like having a team member blocking a door or hallway and not moving when you need to get through.  The multiplayer is rewarding and deep.  I have yet to scratch the surface of it since I was too busy playing it through for the main solo campaign.  There are a lot of different options and unique leveling systems where you can learn different skills and rewards.  I unfortunately cannot go into deep review of the online aspect of the game, that in itself would have to be another review all together.

Conclusion

Killzone 2 is an amazingly deep and fulfilling game.  There is a lot to do, and a lot to accomplish.  If you’re looking to complete everything and get 100% you’ll get way more than your money’s worth from this.  I could go on and on about how great of a game it is and probably never get tired of raving about it.  Very few games have made me feel this way, especially first person shooters.  The last few games that gave me this feeling were Bioshock and Call of Duty 4.  If you like either of those games and have been waiting for some sort of justification for buying your PS3, get this game and I promise you will not be disappointed.  It’s a true contender in the world of well established series and rivals Halo, Call of Duty and Gears of War.  I personally would recommend this to anyone, even non FPS fans.  It’s a great way to showcase the PS3 and what it’s capable of.  The attention to details are what made this game feel above what we’re used to and what we expect out of shooters.  Four years worth of development paid off and let’s hope that other games that have been given this much time will shine just as well (FFXIII I’m talking to you!)  If you have any doubts about Killzone at least give the demo a try, it’s available on the PSN and it starts off on the first level, it’s a little short but it will give you a feel of what the game is like.  Please do yourself a favor and pick this title up, you won’t regret it!

I love how a game that has been out for less than 4 days like Star Ocean: The Last Hope has only 7 reviews so a lower score will overall hurt it's Metascore more so than a game that has 68 reviews like Killzone 2.... the funny part is that Killzone 2 comes out today.  I know it's all about who has the money to push for reviews before a games release but I can't help but feel like this is an insanely unfair advantage =\  Either way I'm still buying Killzone 2 today but I just wish Star Ocean got better hype, it's honestly a fun game, despite what people are saying about it's voice acting and cut scenes.  Oh well, it's nice to be able to afford almost every game that comes out lol.

Just got Akira on Blu Ray... I've been waiting for a good Anime to get the HD transfer and what better movie to do it than this :D

FFXI related, but to those of you who know what this is you'll understand how big of a pain in the ass it is to get:



To those of you who don't know, this is a Askar Korazin. You get it from a tower that has 100 Floors, each floor is randomly generated with different objectives. You have to climb the tower from floor 1-100, getting check points every 5 floors that are recorded onto a disc. You get points once you clear a floor that you can use to continue your progress at a later time. Every 20 floors there is a boss fight. I got this from floor 80 where we fought Cerberus. With less than 1 minute left we got the drop and I was needless to say a very happy dragoon! I'm now 1/14 on this. Now to do floor 100 to get my head piece ; ;

; ; my hard drive is dying on my desktop. I don't feel well. I just want to go home and sleep.

Made drunken spaghetti for dinrar tonight. Haven't heard a single bad thing about it yet :D Pictures below: