Its already been busted, games as Motorstorm, Virtua Fighter and early titles have also been cracked, but due to the lack of interest in the console during its early day, the modding community droped the project, and never debuged the custom FW that they were making. Rumors are that they are making a new FW for next year.
It was never a feature I care about, after all, its just that, a feature. The mini games are cool, having an Arkanoid with a twist is funny imo, and the mini version of Echo Chrome is also good. But the idea that we have to wait for the others to finish playing it to be able to use them is not bad, its awful. The guy/guys who did that should get fire immediately. The rest is cool, I guess some will use it when bored, or not in the mood to play.
BoG said: "Alright! This has been the year of disappointment for me, and I'm glad to hear PoP is good. Sounds right up my alley, I'm glad I reserved it. I can't wait.From the video review: " The Prince you control in the beginning is the same Prince you control in the end." He compared it to SotC in the text, as well. I'm more excited now, I love it when games don't rely on new ideas from the player, not new tools in the game, for the player." Have you been with your head under the ground this whole ...
I have it on the PC, its an average shooter, not too bad, not too good either. I guess that if during this time, you have nothing else to play, its a good choice to at least kill the time, if you can look past the bad graphics though. I have it on the PC, got it extremely cheap from a local store (15$) so I bought it, as I liked the "feeling" of having to kill mythical beast, and its not that bad, at least up to where I am, its playable, and enjoyable, its like Turok, so I ...
Demilich said: "The Co-op is pretty sweet, though I really need a headset. It sucks not being able to communicate in a cooperative game." Yeah, whenever mine runs out of battery it feels so weird, they should have included some simple commands like: I need backup Give me ammo MEDIC Revive me Those would really help.
Im glad you are enjoying it. Also, if you want more background in the story, you will need to get all the story mission intels and all the cooperative mode intels. Yes, bad move on the side of Insomniac. Actually, weird move.
People should stop thinking of this things as insults, once everyone does, there will be no more racism. Why is Niger a bad word? Or Black? Yellow? etc? They are just words, and we give them meaning.
Yep, Im trying to finish a couple of reviews and then post them here. Im re-doing my old Gears of War review that I had in GS, it was kind of bad the last time I wrote it because it was more personalized, and I missed a couple of things. The reviews that are coming are: RESISTANCE 2 -- score: 9/10 GEARS OF WAR 2 -- score: 9/10 GEARS OF WAR b -- score: 9/10 FALLOUT 3 (PC) -- score: 8.5/10 METAL GEAR SOLID 4: GUNS OF THE PATRIOTS -- score: 10/10 ARMORED CORE FOR 4NSWER (PS3) -- score: 8/10 DEAD SPACE (PS3) -- score: 9/10
I will try to release one per week or as soon as I have them ready to go. Each one will have also a blog post with pictures to go with.
Killzone is by far one of the most looked forward games in the PS3 by both the media, and us fans. The reason? A promise of one of the best FPS in a long time. Not so long ago, Guerrilla Games (GG) opened their servers for the public, to try the Multiplayer Beta. Though its not as "Public" as one would think, as their are quite a few pre-requisites to be invited. So, the ways to get invited are to be either a member of G.A.P and be over 18 (the game is rated M for Mature) or you could have enroled through the european PSN store via downloading the Killzone 2 Multiplayer Beta Theme. But that is not important here, I guess everyone is wanting to know if the game "delivers" or falls short on promises as the first one did. In a few words, the game delivers absolutely. Now, is it going to be a massively popular game? That is yet to be seen. On to the Beta then.
Public Beta
The First thing that you will notice, is that you may want to check the controllers first, specially if you are coming from extensive months of Call of Duty 4 (CoD 4) as the initial set up for it is more of the traditional kind. Now, after that, you will have to configure a couple of things, for starters, Sony asks you to use an Internet connection setting not entered manually, that means that you will have to go to your connection option in the PS3 XMB, and set everything to Automatic. After that, you will have to choose your UNIVERSE, or in other words, your gaming region (Europe, US, etc). Then you have to set your time, or time zone. After that you can start the game. The game Lobby is similar to, lets say, 99% of the other FPS out there. You have the GAME option, you have the PROFILE option CLAN, and OPTIONS. Inside of each, you have their different sub menues, to check Leaderboards, Create or search for Clans, check your friends progress, check your personal Progress, change some game options, or the usual, Create-Find Game. Now, before going to the game per se, lets talk a little about the other options, more precisely, about the Personal options. Here, you will be able to check your basic stats as Weapon aim, shots fired, Kill/death ratio, etc. You will also be able to check your position in the leaderboards, but most importantly, you will be able to check your Ribbons, Badges and Medals. As you progress through the game, your actions will be rewarded, getting lots of headshots will earn you the Headshot ribbon, getting that ribbon 8 times will give you the badge, other awards can be for having more than 10% of the total team kills, earning over 20 points in a round with 0 negative points and so on. This badges will later give you access to new guns, skills and side things, as bigger initial payloads, more grenades, etc. This sytem is similar to that found in Call of Duty 4, only that this time, we can add the Class System, which adds a lot to the game, specially once you unlock one. Members of the team with an unlocked class are your most valuable assets. As you may have noticed, I mentioned that you win Points after the rounds, those points are called XP (or in other words, Experience). The more you have, the higher your Rank is (which instead of numbers, has the usual military terminology). A level 2 player can create Squads, and a level 3 player can create a Clan. Now that the whole stats thing is covered, lets move on to the Clan tab, this should be short as its still no implemented, but this is how it will work. You form a clan, nothing new here, after that, you can do some of the following things, participate in tournaments (cool!), participate in clan battles or event create clan events that will be exclusive matches for clan members. Its pretty much what we have known as traditional stuff for this.
Ok, enough of the options mumbo jumbo, lets go to the juicy part, the GAMEPLAY! First things first though, so we have to cover the game type options and game modes. I will make it quick so not to bore anyone. When you create a game, you can manage the usual stuff, spawn times, round time, number of players (Up to 32 players can participate, thats 16vs16!!), etc. This time around, matches are handled with an extra something. This time its not just traditional TDM, DM, TM. This time we have something that makes the gameplay more captivating, and entertaining. What we have now is Missions. The rounds can be made to have several missions during the match, and the winner will be the one with most wins. This is something that keeps a round always fresh, and keeps the players more focused on achieving such things, as it means that their team will win. Now, the game has several types of Matches which are:
Body Count: the team with most kills wins)
Search and Retrieve: an Object has been placed in the map, the teams will have to find it, and deliver it to a certain spot. This is similar to CTF
Search and Detroy/ Protect: One team has to reach a location and place explosives, while the other team has to defuse the explosives
Search and Hold: This one is really good, its kind of like the old King of the Hill. One team has to find a location and hold their position, while the other has to siege them, and take the position.
Assassination/Protection: Each team is given a target player (one of the players becomes the target) and the each team has to kill it. Sometimes only 1 team is given a target, and the opposing team has to protect it, and vice-versa.
As you can see, the modes are varied, and having the possibility to have the Round change of style every given time makes the matches amazing to play, as it is constantly changing. The team who fulfills the objective is given a point, the team with most points by the end of the round is the winner. This also means that there can be draws, but only when the total number of missions is set to pair and not to an odd number. The team that wins the round, is given an extra 1.5 XP multiplier, which is a really good bonus, and should keep teams more focused on accomplishing objectives than going solo to kill the most enemies.
There are 3 maps to try, there is one thats really big, and is set in a dark Market area, this one is a really good map, and it favours all kinds of gameplay methods, be it camping, soloing, etc. The map has several levels also, which makes it the more fun. The second map is in a Building or Archives place (I think it was an University or Library). The place has some theatres, a plaza in the middle, and 2 levels, the upper one with a balcony to the plaza. Its simple yet complex, as if you dont know the basic layout of the map, you will be receiving fire from all the sides. The last stage is a street, the one seen in the last MP videos. There are several levels, and the side buildings can be entered for alternate routes. Its a narrower stage, yet its long, and it forces both team to meet in groups at determined places, which means, crazy combat give-away!!
Now, lets go back to the cherry of the cake, Gameplay.
First, let me say that the gameplay is more than solid, the controls have evolved and are no longer weird as in the first. Aiming is no longer a hoax and its on par with more recent games as Resistance 2 and Call of Duty 4 and 5. Yes, as some assumed, its like a half clone of Call of Duty 4. But that is not a bad thing, the game is great in this department, it has old stuff from CoD 4 and new stuff. Firing is not simple the first time you pick up your rifle, but as you advance, you start getting the hang of it, and it turns into something really good. Matches normally take around 20 minutes to finish, sometimes even less, depending on how each team works, and how fast the objectives are accomplished. The traditional commands are also in the game, you can jump, duck, use physical hits, grenades, and more stuff. The reaction of the weapons make them feel more than real, and they have a really nice reach. They do make a lot of recoil when firing, which forces you to do as in CoD 4 and just fire in burst. Grenades are great also, they can clear closed areas really fast, and you can "cook" them before throwing them to the enemies to give them shorter response time. They dont have much range which is not really good, but from what Ive seen, a longer range would make them really cheap. Grenades have an yellowish-orange trace behind them, so its easy to notice when a grenade was used. Bullets also have tracer rounds, and they look really good, specially in dark areas. When a player dies, he has 10 seconds to be revived by an ally Medic, unless he is finished during that time by fire, explosions etc, which means he will have to re-spawn on the command point.
There are some other things to this game, lets go to the Squad function of the game. Each team can form several squads or group of people. This squads have a leader, and the main purpose of this is to allow members of the squad to re-spawn where the leader is, istead of re-spawning in the base as you normally do. But this is not the only extra of the game, there is also the skills badges. This are the special something, that set Killzone 2 apart from the rest. This "perks" will grant us a wide variety of tricks to use in battle. For example, the Medic can revive ally players who are near death, other classes will be able to deploy Bot Turrets, become Invisible, create Spawn points, and after using such skills, you can access more advanced skills, as being able to create Med-Paks, call down sentry bots, and more. Yes, the Badges system gives the game that extra something that makes it unique.
Sentry Bot
All in all, the gameplay aspect of the game is above average, so if you were looking for a futuristic sci fi fast shooter, might as well check this game, as its not something to be looked over. It covers from the most basic needs to the most competitives. The Badge system should keep gamers hooked to the online mode for a long time, as it is ever growing on what you do, and considering that you can mix skills to create new kinds of character, you could be about to find several different kinds of gameplay, that could fit you.
But people, this is not the end, what would be a review if I would not speak of what moves most gamers recently?! Yes, Graphics. I know most of you want to know how this baby performs rather than if it is good.
So, are they any good? Has GG lied to us? May I say it? NO.
Killzone 2 looks amazing from 90% of the sides that you look at it, and its even more amazing when you take into consideration the next 2 things:
Its a Beta
Its the Multiplayer Mode.
Yes, even for a multiplayer mode, the game looks amazing, and gorgeous. Some textures though are not that great, but when you take into consideration the size of the stages, and that most areas can be destroyed (yes, you can destroy many places of the map, which means, not everything provides great cover) then you realise that you cannot push it further, unless you want to reduce the number of online players or request for higher bandwidths. But textures is not the only thing that is measured in the graphics area, lets go to character models. They are great, but not only in detail and textures, also in animation. The animations of the characters. The animations are just great, the way they react to bullets and how they "die" is just amazing, and gives it an extra something that cant be explained, it just feels right, and less frigid as in the past. The other aspet that I want to mention, is the one that amazed me the most, no, its not the characters nor guns models, its the Lightning. This element is just plain amazing, the way it reflects when you look to a light source, the shadows, the light generated when you fire, everything looks great and shows a lot of polish and work to achieve them. Its amazing watching at the stages, for example the market, where not only you will see the player generated effects, but also the enviromental ones, that stage is in the middle of a warzone, and you will listen to explosions, see blasts, clouds of dirt, and more. The attention to some details in the animations is also good, the HUD contains all the information one would expect, and the added effect of the blood stains when you are hit, or you hit someone close to you, feels really, good. Other details that are worthy to be mentioned are the fact that bullets pierce the body, so using a pal as a shield is not always the best option as we used to believe. But this also has its share bit of problem, mostly with your friends that go in your line of fire, just to get the kill. Some other smaller details that can be mentioned to are the flags in the corridor level, the dirt caused by an explosion, and never to be forgotten, the sound effects. The sound effects nail the feeling and have that noise that you say: Thats how I wanted it to sound thing. You wont feel that you are firing something else, and they will feel like real weapons, despite being futuristic arsenal.
To conclude, Killzone 2 is on the road to more than fulfill its promises, we have yet to experience the whole deal of this game, as its still some months away, but if GG and Sony manage to maintain the quality level of their last games and Killzone 2, offers more of this experience, then we could be about to find our next big thing in FPS games.
Well, sadly, Gamespot has permanently banned me from entering their forums, which is kind of a bitchy attitude considering that the reason why I got banned was pretty stupid, but lately, Gamespot mods have been extremely bitchy about being self owned or owned by other users (I hate actually using those terms) so when I "owned" one of them with my latest account, he first suspended me for starting a "flamewar". Yeah right, as if giving false information is not asking for that? And then, he somehow must have felt so angry that he entered my blog, found out that this was a second account to a previously banned one, and banned my IP from the site. Sadly, I must say that I lost some good men down there, I guess that will end our relationships but, whatever, time for a fresh start as my granny used to say.
So Here I am, back for more action, or so I hope for.
Its not something new to gamers, especially us hardcore gamers that PC gaming is on decline. Though Hermits (the internet slang for PC fans) may deny such decline thanks to some powerful pieces of software as Crysis, the actual PC world is dying, and rapidly. Previously PC exclusive franchises have now made their way into home consoles, with some strong examples as Half Life, Team Fortress and Battlefield. But what is actually going on with the PC? The first thing that comes to mind, of anyone who knows the "streets" is that piracy is the main reason of this decline. Companies including Capcom (Devil May Cry 4), Crytek (Crysis) and Ubisoft (Assassins Creed) have all reported that their stellar games have suffered a lot of "torrent" downloads, making sales number decrease from their consoles counter parts in some occassions. Recently, Capcom announced a huge number for DMC 4 in terms of illegal downloads. Crysis, the so called best game on the PC only managed to get to 1 million units sold, and Crysis is not one of those niche games. This numbers are hurted even more when you see the same game on a console getting as much as double their PC sales, in 2 weeks. After all, even gaming is business, and just like many companies are abandoning exclusive deals, many companies are just jumping ship from a sinking PC. Now the question is, will PC be the next Titanic, or will it be the next hildenburg?
John Carmack may have a little more of insight on this matter. If you call yourself a gamer, you know who this guy is. Carmack is a legendary developer, a Red Bull for the industry. He is the one that pushes hardware to its limits, he made FPS and online gaming popular back in the day with Doom and Ultimate Doom (the online addition). He then pushed the limits with Doom 3 back in 2004. Doom 3 Ultra setting required at least a video card not available at the moment. Doom 3 was 2004s Crysis. In a recent interview, carmack announced that recent sales of games in PC are not what they used to be, and that on the other hand, home console sales have increased exponentially. He mentiones that PCs are still exploitable, but that they are not going to focus on them anymore. They will still construct the games based on them, but PC are not their target anymore. PC gamers though should rest at easy since Rage and Doom 4 are still coming to PC. In Carmacks words, "We have an obligation to bring Rage to PCs and I cant imagine a Doom thats not on a PC".
So, Carmacks words could be the final nails on the PC (Actually I hope not cause I used a lot of papers to buy my new rig) if the situation is not changed. Even with EAs supposedly "fail-proof" security system, nothing was attained. Its in my belief that moves as the one of EA will only hurt the industry in the future.
Well, as some of you may have heard, a kid killed a cab driver in Thailand and when questioned by police he said: "I just wanted to see if it was as easy as in GTA". Which later the police said that he presented no signs of Mental problems. Man, policemen are plain idiots lately. Anyway, that was not funny, but what the guys at CAD did is:
Is it that easy?
Apparently, if you do something like this in Thailand, and then say "Wanted to see if it was as easy as in XX game" you dont have any sort of mental problems..... AT ALL. Which is what I say: BULLSHIT!! (From Penn and Teller show of the same name)
Politics, wars, orphans. Is this game as light as the older ones?
FF XII is a much more mature game than the previous FF games. FFs from
X-2 below, all centered in simple plot lines, with a few plot changes,
or the common "Hidden Evil" that has been the center of 90% of FFs. FF
XII takes the thing to another level, it has a story that its more like
a critic to human beings, those who did the Fafnir Hunt may have
realized this. I understood this from the beginning of the game. I
realized that there was not going to be much character development,
since here, the final fight is not going to be a "giant boss", but
their hearts. They have their ideas setted from the beginning: Revenge,
Honor, Lust for power. But as the game goes on, you will see them
changing, entering in conflict, "evolving" in a certain way of
speaking. The story is not easy to follow, you have long dungeons, that
can be tiresome unless you use the map. The side quest like hunts that
are given all the time are also tiresome to some, even to the point of
boredom. (To me the whole game is great but thats my opinion, and has
nothing to do with what I was saying). Most of the complaints about the
game itself are the previous ones: no character development (that
actually is there); poor story (which most people dont understand due
to most likely age issues); boring battle system (I recommend using it
one or 2 spheres faster, besides, except for the fact that you dont hit
"Attack" anymore, the gameplay is turn-based; besides that, there is
the spell qeue later in the game).
The game has exellent graphics, though other games like The Legend of
Zelda: Twilight Princess has better graphics, but this issue is because
of it being on a less powerfull system. The music is right there.
Nothing catchy as in the old days, but the soundtracks have been fading
since VII and VIII. I still think that X and X-2 had the worst
soundtrack possible but that again, is my opinion. Along with it, one
has the option of turning 16:9 resolution on, allowing for nicer
graphics.
Effects, here we have lightning effects, dust, fire, water etc. Most of
them are awesome, especially when doing level 3 Quickenings, or using
the Espers specials. Magics also are good to look, mostly as usual, the
high level spells, such as scathe and holy. The weakest effect in the
whole game has to be water, and closely to it footsteps. Most likely
because having them in big areas such as the Nebra river area would
have slowed the game if a fight were to happen. Characters, this game
has the standard 6 character limit. But as in previous FF games, you
will have the company of thirds during certain moments of the story.
You can fully customize a character using "Gambits". Gambits are an
innovative system that basically is a programmable A.I. This is most
likely a tool used in previous FF for the enemies that controls their
behaviour in a fight. You start with the basic gambits. A gambit is
basically composed of 2 things: a situation and an action. The
situation varies, from "same target as leader" to "Self=Haste" or
"Foe=Reflect" and the actions are chosen from your available command.
Take it as a cause an effect.
Why did I said "available"? Easy, because you have to "unlock
everything for your character”. From skills and stats; to weapons and
armours. This system is called the "license" system. By defeating
enemies you gain AP (ability points). With this AP, each character can
learn whatever you choose, and by whatever, I mean anything. From
magics (magicks in the game) to quickenings (limit breaks), lances to
guns, etc. This means, that the more AP you gain, the stronger your
character can be. For a character to be strong, you need to level him
up as usual. But this alone wont help, leveling gives you a boost in
your stats, but its not that big of a boost. The biggest boost comes
from learning feats as "HP+100" or learning to equip new stuff. The
game stats, are mostly based on equipment, so the better your equipment
is the stronger the character can be. You will still need to level up
to gain more MP and HP though.
Espers, or commonly known summons. You can check early in the game how
many of them are in total (13). You will fight some during the main
story, but some others are secret, and are hidden in places that unless
you have a faq in hand, you will have to draw a map (damn you Ultima).
The bad thing about Espers, is that or you get them later in the game,
meaning your party is really powerfull, or you get them early. If you
get them early, and example would be Zeromus, that you can get after
Mt. Bur-Omisace, you will love him. He is a really strong Esper, and I
still use him even though I´m really high in level. Other Espers like
Belias or Mateus will be used momentarily, and left behind since they
will grow weak easily as you grow strong fast. The best idea for the
Espers comes from the strategic side. Decoy on them when in a tight
spot, keep healing them and Syphon them. That´s the smart way to use
them, since they have MP but dont use it. Another thing you can do is
use them as starters in a boss battle. You summon them, wait for the
time to go until they are almost gone, and enter, so as he enters, he
casts his especial. This is really a good thing when you have Zeromus
or Exodus.
Side quests are plentyfull. They consume some time too. The most easy
to find are the Hunts or Marks. This basically consist of reading a
bounty (as in the "old west"), be it on boards, or Montblanc; then
going to the requester and doing it. To complete them, you will have to
find and kill the monster. Sometimes, you will have to talk to some
other guys beside the requester to know how to find the mark, sometimes
you will have to wait for the weather to change, or find certain
person. The good thing about hunts is that they reward you with
equipment, sometimes its great equipment like for example the Masamune,
and with hard to get loot and lots of Gil. There are other kinds of
quest, like the Rare game quest and some other small side quest that
are not as important and could be considered mini games.
The combat system resembles that found in the old Final Fantasies turn
based system. You will have you ATB bar that will charge and once it
does an action will be executed. You can modify actions from your
gambits too, making the handling of you other members less trouble
some. The action that will be automatically executed is attack, so you
better watch out, since later on the game enemies will have different
stats and you will want to see who it is before attacking heads on. To
attack you will have the classic arsenal of spells from previous games,
though they will be divided in a sort of Final Fantansy V style. There
will be Black, White, Green, Arcana, etc Magicks that will have
corresponding spells. A big bummer though is the lack of some famous
spells like Ultima and Meteor, which are now the special attacks of 2
Espers. To be combined with that, you have Espers that were previously
described. Espers carry a Gambit of their own, so you should check that
out too, and as an extra point, not all Espers cast their specials by
time depletion, so you better experiment with them. Finally, your
arsenal is completed by your weapons. You will be able to equip swords,
shields, staffs, bows, guns, axes, lances, and some other stuff that
will help you progress through the game.
All in all, Final Fantasy XII is a game that changed the face of Final
Fantasy. Including a plot derived from Shakespeare works, a graphical
art as no other, a gorgeous setoff characters, suiting music for each
area and situation and a long main quest that will keep players
involved for hours to come. Final Fantasy XII carries the legacy of
Square Enix and gives a refreshing new face to a franchise that’s the
pillar of RPGs around the globe.
Resistance is a game made by Insomniac, a developer best knowned for
its high rating series Ratchet and Clank. The game started with a
simple idea, make a WWII game but change the story a bit. This derived
in a new game, situated in the 50s in a world that instead of having
Hittler as the main enemy, has a monster like race, called Chimeras.
At first, Chimeras appeared in Russia, then, they expanded, they
conquered Europe in a matter of months and were starting to invade
Britain when the US goverment decided to send help. You, the player,
will control the US sergeant Nathan Hale, a baldy guy whose team is
wiped in the first mission of the game.
Your first encounter with the Chimeras is not a happy one, and you will
notice that this game doesnt go for the easy kills. In fact, most
Chimeras take more shots than you would imagine to kill, making the
game more strategic in some sections.
Resistance also mixes features from previous FPS games and some new
ones. You will see the power of the PS3 with this game, not from the
hand of graphics, which for a launch game are more than fabulous, but
from the hand of events. You will see lots of stuff going on, and lots
of details too. If this is your first Next-Gen game, you will be amazed
by most of the stuff, especially the glass effect of the windows, the
way they break mostly.
The weapons in Resistance at first seem generic, you have the usual
rifle, the shotgun, the sniper and the rocket launcher, but the
innovation, and in what I would say a very good idea, comes from the
Chimeras weapons. Humans use the weapons we all know, but the Chimeras
have all the candy. From the basic Bullseye to the complex Auger.
Resistance campaign will take you more or less 12-15 hours to complete,
more if you take into consideration that in some of the last levels you
will be dying more often too. But, Insomniac added some extra stuff. As
you progress through the game you will be able to unlock skill points,
this skill points could be related to Microsofts Achievements too. The
Skill points will unlock extra stuff, as skins for the online mode,
artworks, movies and more. But skills is not the only thing you can
unlock, once that you finish the campaign, either in Solo or Co-op, you
will unlock even more weapons, some of them involve new gameplay
techniques as the Divider. Also, another bonus when finishing the game
is the option to play the game on harder difficulties, beign the
hardest Superhuman, which is a real challenge.
One of the most amazing stuff in the game, is the feeling you get of
being overpowered by the Chimeras all the time. You kill wave after
wave after wave of Chimeras, yet they still come. Insomniac managed to
create a great war atmosphere in Resistance. You will feel fear of
advancing, you will feel that sometimes there is no way to continue,
that you´ve reached your limit, specially when you get to the later
parts of the game, and you are counting every shot making sure that
whatever comes next wont kill you.
An important thing to take notice of, is that if you are going to be
playing the game in cooperative, make sure that you will be able to
work as a team. The cooperative is offline only, I will later talk
about the online features. Now, when playing in cooperative, you will
notice that everything in the enemies is different, the enemies are
stronger and the ammo is running out fast. This is due to the fact that
Insomniac decided to increase the level of difficulty here, meaning
that if you played this in Normal on cooperative, it will equal Hard on
Solo.
The effects of the game are amazing, from a great soundtrack that
increases the atmosphere at certain moments to a great use of sound
effects. Now, the game is more like Resident Evil 4 here, and most of
the time you will miss the soundtrack due to the heavy SE sounds going
on. But it all builds and its amazing. Also, you will notice some
things too, one of the features touted by Sony PR all the time about
Cell will be noticed here. Hedgehog grenades, which are some of the
best weapon in gaming hystory. If you fire one, you will see how each
of the spikes detach from it as a nail grenade. And you can use it even
when you see more than 10 enemies on the screen, with clouds of dust
flying, firing all over the place and allied soldier fighting back with
no slow down at all. In fact, you will never notice slow downs in the
game which is a real nice improvement over past gens.
Now, as for the online portion of the game, you will see that you have many
modes, from classics as Capture the Flag, Team Deathmatch and
Deathmatch to new ones, as Conversion and Meltdown. The online is
really well done, though its missing elements from services as XBL,
though they can be solved by a future patch, right now there is a new
map pack, and the second one is coming soon.
The most important feature of online comes from the lack of lag. Even
if you have a slow internet connection, I mean something greater than
256 kb.
Now, whats the most interesting feature while playing online is the
feature to level up. Yes, as if you were playing an RPG. You will win
points from every time you kill someone, and with them you will level
up, you will also be able to see your development over the time, though
if you are a first comer, and you are not interested in creating a fake
account to practice, then you will have some really bad stats to begin
with.
The last feature that we could remark about online, is the fact that
you can customize your avatar. An avatar is the character that other
sees. You can unlock extra stuff by finishing the main campaign, by
obtaining a certain amount of skill points, by completing different
difficulties.
But online wouldnt be complete without some other stuff. You will be
able to use a headset, you will have a system to find a ranked match
for yourself, you only have to specify if you want a deathmatch, team
deathmatch of an objective based game. You will also have a list of
unranked games, which unlicke ranked games that are hosted by Sony/
Insomniac, the unranked games are hosted by normal people.
There is an option to play the online mode offline, for up to 4
players, but the lack of bots and the size of the maps dont help it
much, unless you have 4 controllers.
All in all, Resistance is a great title, with lots of content to keep
anyone happy for a long time. The game also sports great gameplay, that
will make you come back time after time. Though the story could have
been developed a little bit better, and given more information about
some elements about the back story, it was a great experience,
specially if you are going to play it in cooperative.
God of War 2 is the sequel to 2005 PS2 excelent adventure title God of
War. Set a couple of years after the end of the original game, God of
War 2 starts during the siege of the city of Rhodes, home of the
wonder, the Colossus of Rhodes. Kratos sent his Spartan warriors to
destroy this city, but after a while, he decided to lend them a hand.
So Kratos, descended from his throne in Olympus and started destroying
what was left of Rhodes.
But Zeus and Athena, afraid of his ambition, tried to stopped him. They
removed him of his godly powers, and later, of his previous powers.
Kratos is left for dead, in the gates of Hell. But, as a good Spartan
warrior, he is not about to give up, and so, he escapes hell and his
quest begins again. A quest to kill Zeus himself. Will he make it? Its
up to you to know the story.
The game starts with some tutorials, given the fact that we have godly
powers, its almost as if we were inmortals, which makes it easier to
practice some of the new techniques, and enjoy the endless slaughter at
times. Gameplay wise, God of War 2 is not that different from God of
War. You can expect to find some old tricks, from the sequence games
made popular by the first one to the usual puzzles scenes. The game
mixes a good amount of puzzle with fighting, which will keep it fresh
and avoid it getting repetitive.
The strongest point in the game comes from the amazing graphics. Though
it had to made sacrifices to achieve them meaning we will see screen
tearing many times, the overall value of it graphically speaking
compensates for such small hindrances. God of War 2 graphics are among
the best we have seen in the PS2 along such games as Final Fantasy XII
and Shadow of the Colossus. The fixed camera, a trait from the past is
the main problem with the title. Though its placed most of the time
were you can see every enemy on the map, there are moments where the
enemies will be outside, and when playing in harder difficulties, it
can become a problem.
The newest inclusion, and a very welcome one is the Bow. Though its
pretty much the same as Zeus Lightning in the previous one, the bow has
some sweet tricks that will give enemies a run for their money.
Alongside the bow, you will find 3 more spells, and 2 more weapons,
which of course I wont be describing to avoid spoiling the game.
The story this time is more focused on Kratos revenge against the
Olympians. He will traverse many mythical places with the main
objective of striking Zeus, king of Gods down. To accomplish this,
Kratos will receive the aid of the Titan Gaia, who will give him a
flaming Pegasus. With the Pegasus, we will do some mini games that
consist of flying sequences were we are going to be taking down
enemies. Its a good inclusion that will add variety to the gameplay.
But places is not the only thing we will meet from our beloved myths.
Characters from them will also appear, and a shadow from the past will
be waiting for our antihero later on in the game.
There is one thing that could make God of War 2 a masterpiece to many,
if not all, and that is its soundtrack. God of War 2 has one of the
most impressive and amazing music in gaming. The main theme will get
our blood pumping, and will set the mood for the kill.
Talking about killing, God of War 2 brings back enemies from the first
one, but includes new ones to; and as expected, the finishing moves are
as brutal as ever. For those new to the series, let me tell you that
after you beat the crap out of your foe, you can perform a finishing
move by pressing circle. This will in some cases will introduce a mini
game, that will let us either remove the eye of a cyclop with out
hands, cut enemies in half or torn their arms and hit them with them.
Gow of War 2 is as brutal, if not more than the first one, and the boss
battles will show you so.
The combat system per se hasnt changed much. This time you will use the
Athena´s Blades which were a gift from Athena to Kratos at the end of
the first title. The Athena´s Blades are basically your old Chaos
Blades. They will have basically the same momements, so veterans should
feel right at home here. New comers will have a hard time to adapt most
likely since the game requires a good amount of defense and dodge.
Defense is carried in the same fashion as in the past, later on in the
game you will be given the chance to counter the attacks with a
precisely timed defense. Dodging is given again to the second analog
stick, aka R3. You can dodge in any way, and it will be your saviour in
many fights, so learn to dodge early on in the game.
Once you finish the game, you wont be left with just a game. God of War
2 comes with a good amount of extras. You will unlock an arena, that
will give you different trials for you to test your skills. After each
trial you will be scored. But thats no all, you will also unlock
different costumes for Kratos, some of them completely hilarious. Among
this extras, you will have the scenes viewer, one for the CG movies,
and another for all the cutscenes in the game. But thats not all. God
of War 2 is a 2 disc set game, the second disc has almost 2 hours worth
of extra content that further explains the process of the creation of
this amazing title, and will also show you character designs, and
levels that were given the axe.
All in all, God of War 2 is one of the best Action Adventure titles to
ever hit a console, with an M rating, not everyone will be able to get
it but those who can, will be received with the same kinky games making
a come back, more brutal and bloody combat, a far more epic adventure
and a wonderful orchestra that will keep ringing it you for years to
come.
Si lo se, igual el manga tambien paso por lo mismo, pero mas marcado en la parte final de los campos Eliseos. Igual mi fanatismo me hace verlos de todas formas. Ojala algun dia Kurumada decida terminar el Tenkai, quiero ver a Zeus !!!
Guides
on Nov. 8, 2008
on Aug. 4, 2008
on Aug. 4, 2008