ZimpanX

The good: Smooth and greatly designed gameplay, the best technical graphics ever seen in a video game, great atmosphere much thanks to the tone setting music and sound-effects, great online, co-op is a blast, the chainsaw bayonet alone makes the game

The Bad: The campaign bit on the short side and the online multiplayer could have had some more modes, the story could have been more fleshed out,

In Gears of War you play as this bigass and pissed dude called Marcus Fenix who has been put in prison for not obeying orders from leading command but as soon as the game begins you get released by your also very big companion and his name is Dominic Santiago or Dom. Why is because mankind need all the help they can get against this alien race called the Locust Horde that have been invading the planet Sera from underground for 14 years now and humans are now a race that's close to extinction. So you put on your gear and fight your way trough the prison facility the get to the chopper to join up with Delta-Squad and there you get your precious 'Lancer' in your hands, an assaultrifle with a chainsaw bayonet that will be your best friend the entire hame trough, and now the goal for your group is to find and join up with Alpha-Squad and strike back at the Locust by sawing them all into bits or shoot tons of sharp-loaded ammo into their skulls depending on what you prefer.
That's pretty much the story of the game, sure it's a shooter so it's not that big of a surprise but it could have been more...let's say fleshed out with more background story and getting to know the characters better for instance. So storywise Gears of War does disappoint a bit but thankfully the action itself is near flawless as well as the overall tone an atmosphere from start to finish.

The gameplay of this game is extremely well done you will be flanking, taking cover, use turrets, chainsawing and so on, and the enemy you're facing will constantly try to do the same. Taking cover in Gears of War is the key to success on the battlefield and it's also fairly simple since all your cover and running maeuvers are made by hitting the A button, it may seem a bit awkward using so many actions with one button but it actually works surprisingly well here and you won't need to think of what button to press in tense situations.Though if you for some whatever reason avoid taking cover in this game you will be dead within seconds I can guarantee you that.

The visuals, well what can I say you need to experience them yourself but I can tell you that games are not supposed to look this good I mean it's just insane, no other game game before has not technically even come close to this, so Gears is defiantly a milestone in that regard as everything nomatter what you look at looks incredible including the environments, the character models, the weapons, the special effects like explosions and so on and so forth.

The audio is impressive aswell, as the weapons sounds just as powerful as they should and the game features a really actionmovie-like soundtrack that goes with the tone of the game very nicely, if you're picky you can might throw some bad words about the games voiceacting, sure it's not really the best I've heard in videgame way but it fits the action and the type of characters as they actually are, really big and pissed off dudes that's like shoot and kill stuff. Simply put to be able to appreciate this game to it's fullest you'll need to play this game on a HD screen with a surround sound system set up, sure the game is enjoyable on your average TV set and basic stereo set up but alot of the game's presentation will unfortunally go by missed.

Thee game also features a co-op mode so that you and your friend can experience the whole singleplayer campaign together, and this is the best way the experience Gears of War, and you can play it either locally or even online. The game aslo features a VS mode where up to 4 players on each team battle it out in various types of deathmatches and is highly addciting and enjoyable. Unfortunally the singleplayer could have been abit longer and the versus mode could have featured some more modes than just varoius types of deathmatch also there is also some minor bugs online that's need to be sorted out so the value of the game while still awesome could have been even better than it actually is.

So in the end this is all I have to say, if you enjoy shooters or action games in general in any kind of way or is just curious about them you simply cannot go wrong with Gears and it will hoepfully enjoy you and your friends as much as it has enjoyed me. So if you happen to own a Xbox 360 you owe it to yourself to try out this game.
//ZimpanX

The Good: Interesting set of characters, superbly composed music, great voice acting, basic yet very deep battle and character customization system, beautiful graphics, a massive and immersive world to explore, the experience spands over 3 discs

The Bad: Lacks in challenge, unstable framerate hurts an otherwise gorgeus looking game

Young lad Shu is having a good time relaxing and wathing over his peaceful little village of his when suddenly a dark purple mist fills the area, everyone runs to shelter but not Shu as he conftronts the threat and quickly gets joined my his best friend Jiro and their female friend Kluke. The threat they are facing is some sort of land shark that once every year has striked the village and everytime almost destroying but Shu and his friends have decided that this has to come to a stop, especially since both of Kluke's parents have been lost to the land shark. So the tree of them confronts it in battle and and manage to capture it, at least so they think when it suddenly breaks loose and takes Shu and his friends with it eventually up towards the skies.
That is just the start of an around 50 hour long adventure.

Yup you read it correctly, 50 hours maybe more depending how you play. The game even spands over 3 DVDs, mostly because the game is packed with beautiful CG cutscenes, so I think you'll defiantly get your moneys worth if you're a fan of the genre and looking for a lenghty and storydriven experience.

The game's story while it doesn't take many chances it's lifted by the well written dialog along with perhaps not the most original but really cool and interesting set of characters. To get straight to the point the story stays intersting enough trough the entire experience you can't help yourself to sit back and wondering what's gonna happen next. An interesting thing about the cutscenes that carries most of the story forward except that they all look gorgeus is that many of them are also rendered in realtime and they switch back and forth with the GC ones real nicely and sometimes you don't instantly notice that some of them are prerendered as the characther and environments almost carries the same amount of detail in realtime, wich is honeslty quite impressive as it's someting not often seen in games. That prerendered cutscenes are even included in game have become more and more rare these days.

Another thing that suprised me was when I visited the Goro village, a village I could have completely ignored if I wanted to had this side quest that also featured these beatiful cutscenes just like in the main story quest. Defiantly something I wanna see in more games from now on.

The gameplay pretty much follows the basic eastern rpg structure though with a few twists. For one thing there are no random encounters in Blue Dragon as each group of enemies can be seen on the field and therefor be avoided most of the time if you don't feel like battleing them, there are also some field skills that you later get that you can use to stun your enemies before the fight, taking them by suprise by attacking frim behind, and battle many groups of enemies at once some that will even fight eachoter as they might not get along all too well.

Once in a battle you will attack by turns as most people playing these types of games should be familiar with, thankfully the battlesystem has a few key features wich feels it from being dated. One thing is that some attacks can be charged for greater damage but the more you charge the more turns it will take for the attack to actually strike, wich will make you think several turns ahead each battle wich makes things a bit more interesting. What kind of formation you have will also matter as it decides how much damage each of your character will take and duel out, someting that also a bit of extra bit of strategy to it all. I personally keep my strong physical combatants in the front and the magicians in the back, along with a few other strategies I have thought out, but explaining each and every aspect of the battlesystem would take forever so I'll leave some things for you to find out yourselfs.
The battlesystem may not be as innovative as the one found in the quite recently released Final Fantasy XII for instanse but it ads a whole new layer to the old and classic turn based battlesystem. The game starts of fairly easy though so that will have the time you need to master the system and build up your own strategies, problem is once the game steps it up you will become so good at it that almost nothing will be able to stand in your way, that's why some might find Blue Dragon is a bit easier than one would have liked and therfor lacks any real challenge, though I've heard there will be a hard mode up later for download at some point.

The customization of your character is also basic but very deep aswell, as you rank up you will eventually unlock new classes for your shadows that you use in battle and depending wich class you choose you will have a different set of skills at your disposal, switch classes often and you get a balanced characther but do not gain to most powerful of skills, and if you only focus on maxing out one skill you will be become more powerful but not very balanced. Simple yet deep.
You can also enhance your characters abilites by equiping them with earings, necklaces etc. wich will have their own unique effects in battle.

The graphics in the game are most of the time gorgeus, things like the sky, lakes and some caverns may be breathtaking to look at and all the cutscenes in the game looks great. Most of the time the game runs smooth at around 30 fps with perhaps a screen tear here and there. The are sometimes though but not too often the framerate might drop to as much as half the speed wich isn't all that great, but the game can actually also speed up to like 60 fps, perhaps more. So the game could defiantly have used some optimizing locking the framerate. But it's the only thing that huts this otherwise really beautiful game and stands as once of the most impressive looking japanese developed games for the system, even with it's unfortunate issues.

The music composed by the legendary Nobuo Uematsu, wich most Final Fantasy should know about. And I can gladly tell you that the music in this game is absolutely superb, so beautiful, full and emtion and atmosphere. It might not reach up to the godlike soundtrack found in Final Fantasy VII, but Nobuo certainly haven't lost his touch.
The only thing there is to complain about really about the music is that rock/metallish boss theme that actually pretty decent until the former Deep Purple singer opens is mouth of his. I usually like metal quite alot and Dee Purple are pretty decent but this song just feels cheesy and a also bit annoying. Thankfully it does not play every bossfight.

The voice acting in this game is also top notch especially the original japanese speach, something I'm really glad that you can choose since us from the west most of the time have to settle with english voice over. The english voices work too, but if you have no trouble reading subttles defiantly go with the Japanese voice track.

Overall Blue Dragon stands as a great roleplaying game, it may not reach up to the team's former creation Chrono Trigger nor the best Final Fantasy games and does really do anything to reinvent the genre, but it has the whole package with great gameplay, graphics and sound and a very lengthly and intersting story to boot and it takes the old eastern rpg concept and makes it all feel fun and fresh again. Blue Dragon quite simply feels like a breeze of fresh air, something the genre hasn't had for quite sometime and defiantly one of the very best roleplaying experiences you will have this year if you go out and pick this gem up at you local gamestore.
//ZimpanX

The Good: Improved graphics over the original, some added music, challenging, slick animations, amazing bossfights, added tweaks that removes some frustration, deep and rewarding combat system, female character Rachel is now playable.

The Bad: Rachel's missions could have been lengthier and more robust, not all changes are necessarily for the better, some signs of age, missing unlockables, bad and unnecessary use of the Sixasis motion controls, doesn't come at a reduced price.

To quickly sum up the story of this game you play as master ninja Ryu Hayabusa on a quest for revenge after an evil blade has been stolen from your precious home village along with witnessing some of your fellow clan members being slain or burned alive. During your quest you will not only face ninjas, but also military soldiers and even things not so human such as demons and dragons.
That's pretty much all you need to know and the story is both told using CGI and cutscenes using the in-game engine. Before the CGI helped to present the story rather well and they still do. The problem is that they have not have not been remastered to fit with the higher resolution this game is rendered at, so there are times when the in-game stuff actually looks better than the CGI and in the original it was the complete opposite.

The gameplay remains pretty much the same which certainly isn't a bad thing as there wasn't much room for improvement to begin with. There is one unnecessary addition though where you have to shake the sixasis controller to increase the power of your ninja magic attack, it feels bizarre and rarely works.
The combat in this game requires split-second timing and button mashing won't get you very far. Yes if you haven't heard this is a challenging game that requires a lot of investment and skill to succeed even though it's very easy to learn the basics.
The original was almost too hard for some, the very first level for example was actually on the hardest levels in the game and the same holds true here unfortunately but there have been some minor tweaks made to make things a little easier. For example the save points are now a bit more evenly spread out. The bow which you will get to wield later on can now be fired in mid-air which will prove very useful in some of the later chapters. Some frustrating puzzles have been remade or completely removed. A few of the puzzles I really liked though as they provided a nice change of pace and are now in this game often replaced by another combat section or maybe even a new bossfight. While the combat and the bossfights are some of the major highlights of Ninja Gaiden you need a brake from that too once in a while.
Too take the focus back on the difficulty again the easier mode called Ninja Dog which was added in Ninja Gaiden Black for the Xbox is here as well but you need to die multiple times early on to unlock it and if you choose to play on the easy mode you will be forced to wear a feminine pink ribbon accessory through the rest of the game.
The added weapon called Dragon's Claw & Tiger's Fang which are dual katanas also removes some difficulty because that weapon encourages you too stay on the offensive more even though that weapon doesn't have all too many moves for you to experiment with. You can also now run on water much more easily by simply walking out on the surface and keep moving, many who played the original didn't even know you could run on water.

The original game for the Xbox was one of the very best looking games of it's generation and this version looks even better. Especially the lightning which makes everything look a bit more dynamic and realistic but there also tends to be some overuse of bloom effects once in a while. Most of the textures have been improved aswell, the animations are slicker than ever and blood that has been spilt will now stay on the ground and walls.
The graphics tend to be uneven though and you can tell that this game wasn't built for the Playstation 3 from the ground up as you will run into some very blury textures once in a while and some edges tends to look very jagged.
There are even cases where the game can actually look worse as there are some effects missing such as reflections, god rays from the sun and after-images from Ryu after very fast movement and the water surfaces can even look downright horrible.
There are also some performance issues where the game might load when you open an items chest or even during in the middle of a fight which didn't happen in the original but at least the levels themselves loads faster, and yes these issues are still there after the optional installation you can do but thankfully this is something that happens very rarely.
Don't get me wrong though the game looks great but considering how much powerful the Playstation 3 is compared the Xbox I expected a little bit more from Team Ninja.

The sound and sound effects are pretty much the same and that isn't a bad thing as the sound was very good to begin with. There has been some additional musical scores added though which is much appreciated.

As far as value goes the game is highly replayable, especially if you bump up the difficulty as that will change many of your encounters during the story mode. There is also a Mission Mode unlocked after you beat the game but be warned though, these missions can be pretty tough. There are also some new bossfights here not found in the original and Rachel has some missions in Mission Mode too.
For fans that have already played trough the original the most interesting addition is probably that you can now play as female character Rachel aside from the few new boss encounters and missions. She plays great but also a lot different from Ryu as she is a bit slower but often deals out more damage.
The problem is here though is that her missions tends to be very short and not really too well structured.
And while her campaign adds a different perspective of the story that is appreciated some other parts of the story has gone missing as for example the introduction sequence telling the story about the Dragon Sword and the Dark Dragon Blade. There is a sequence that is still there but can be totally missed as that level has been restructured so that you might progress a bit to fast which leads to that a certain upgrade that Ryu gets towards the end of the game might just seem totally random.
There are also some unlockables missing such as some costumes and the classic Ninja Gaiden NES titles or the Arcade game are nowhere to be found. The Theatre mode is missing aswell.
What hurts the value the most is that they expect you to pay full price for this game which would have been ok if the game would have been more different and packed in some more features but then again Ninja Gaiden Black that contained a fair amount of new content was sold for just 30 dollars when it was released back in 2005.

To sum it all up, even though this is originally a game from 2004 and not all changes are for the better this game holds up surprisingly well and is a must buy for anyone that has yet to experience this adventure or are just looking for a challenging action game in general. Old fans should give this a look too as there is some nice extra additions the be found here, but I would advice you if you're one of those to wait for the price to drop a little first.

//ZimpanX

The Good: If the core combat wasn't perfected before it certainly has been now, some of the best animations in the business, finally features real successive play , longer than the first game, improved interface, great boss fights, great new weapon additions, amazing cutscenes, incredibly brutal.

The Bad: Water combat is more frustrating than fun, suffers from some performance issues, no stand alone challenge mode, some boring levels, the Ninja Cinema feature doesn't work very well.

Since I had beaten Ninja Gaiden for the original Xbox 4 years ago a game that I hold as one of my absolute favorites ever I've been highly anticipating the sequel, I've even played trough the remakes Black and Sigma and even Dragon Sword for the Nintendo DS to try to make the wait a little bit easier.
Now that sequel is finally here but when I saw the review scores coming in I thought I was gonna be disappointed, and I was...but only very slightly.
Ninja Gaiden II is an amazing action/adventure title and definitely a worthy sequel to the original.

The core gameplay structure of Ninja Gaiden for the original Xbox remains the same but for most the time everything ramped up to eleven.
The combat which is the major strongpoint of this series is where most of the improvements lies which is impressive since I thought the combat in the previous game was as perfect it ever could be, well I was wrong.
The combat in Ninja Gaiden II is way more brutal and faster then ever and it sticks more closely of the ninja way of being able to take your foe out with very few attacking moves.
Most of this is thanks to the new so called Obliberation Techniques, almost every attack you'll make will result in the enemy loosing a limb and after that you can take them out right away with an incredibly stylish finishing move. Be warned though, enemies will become more aggressive and suicidal after they have lost a limb knowing they cannot return home, and all they can do is to simply take you out with them. So I would advice you to always try to pay attention to your enemies as in the last game actually all of them oppose a real threat.
There has been a few new weapons added in this game and they all are very fun to use and feel very well balanced too. And all the older weapons that make their return now much more fun to use aswell as they now have more combos and some have been reworked. There is only really only one weapon that I miss from the last game and that is the sword called Keitsu, it would have been very nice to see it here but I can live without it.
The use of Ninpo aka ninja magic has been greatly improved as well. Not only does it look way more impressive when you use them but you can now aim your attack a bit more precisely to deal most of the damage out on a more powerful foe rather to the one that is standing closest to you. They also work better now to make you get trough some really though and intense situations than before and it's definitely worth it to upgrade your magic aswell for even greater effect.
You can also now change your equipment on the fly thanks to the improved interface. By simply using the d-pad you can directly take a potion or change your weapon or ninpo without taking you out of the experience and having to remember where all the enemies are positioned.
There was a similar system in Sigma though but you could only pretty much use potions and since the game did not stop you would much rather use the Start Button Menu as you simply don't often have the time to look trough and use your what you have with the d-pad while in the middle of a fight.
The previous game also had some frustrating sections when platforming as you often had to line up your jumps with the camera. The platforming is still here but it's lighter and most of it is optional to find hidden items within the environment compared to the first game where you had to pass some of these frustrating sections to be able to progress.
The puzzles are lighter aswell but sometimes a bit too light. For example you find a look door only to find out the key is in the next room meaning it will sometimes only take you less than a minute to unlock that door sure, but it's an unnecessary way to break off the pace.
Before you also ran into these so called Fiend Challenges without really knowing it and you ended up fighting enemies in a room for a time that would seem like forever. These have been made optional aswell by finding portals that will take you to an arena like environment.
The last game had some free-roaming elements but this game is more straighforward with branching paths mostly leading the hidden items.
This isn't too bad though as it feels a bit more like the old-school Ninja Gaiden games and you'll travel to many different places around the world too.
Besides the free-roaming aspects was pretty much fake as you always had to go to a certain place to progress, while it was cool to see how some environments changed over time there was sometimes confusion on where you had to go next and this game has less of that. Sure it would have been cool if this game had featured some real free-roaming but I personally don't mind this design.
The Ninja Gaiden games has always had very responsive controls and they even feel even a bit more responsive here, at least the movements with the analog sticks making some special moves easier to nail.
There was only one thing about the controls that took a while getting used to for me personally. And that is that the first person camera view is now entered by holding the left bumper instead of clicking the right analog stick and to be honest I prefer the old way and having the Karma score mapped on the left bumper which in this game has to be enabled in the options menu by hitting the back button.

The camera of this series is something that is often brought up for discussion, some hate it and some don't.
The camera in this game mostly remains the same with some improvements here and there but there are also things about it that aren't as good as before.
For example you can tweak it some in the option menu, in bossfights you can change to camera to not be locked on the boss which it always was in previous games, the camera view when using your bow is way better and you can now a lot easier aim your ninpo as mentioned before, you also now control the camera when charging up an ultimate attack with the left analog stick as your right hand is busy but for some reason you can't change the vertical angle.
Also when you try to change vertical angle otherwise the camera now autocenters when you let go of the analog stick but it does not do it for some reason when the game it self gives you a bit odd vertical angle.
Ryu and his enemies also now moves faster than before so you will have to recenter it a bit more now with the right trigger on your controller.
So it's pretty much the same thing as before meaning the camera certainly isn't great but not horrible either, it simply takes a while getting used to.

The difficulty is something that is often discussed as well.
The level of difficulty of this game is for the most of the time improved. The easier difficulty setting is easier than before and the harder ones are harder to both please newcomers and hardcore players.
Ultimate techniques won't be interrupted by weaker enemy attacks, you now always get back a bit of your health back after each fight reducing the use of potions that brakes of the pace a bit and the save points are more frequent than ever before and they will also fully restore your health. The game also often auto saves before a major boss fight to ease of some even more frustration.
You also start off a lot more powerful which is a big improvement over the previous game and health upgrades can strategically be used as health potions as your health bar will not only get longer now but fully restored.
Don't get me wrong though this game is as challenging as ever so you will have to try to pay attention as much as possible to the enemy movements and attacks. There are very many bossfights in this game and most of them are really great but the trade-off for them being so many is that they can vary in difficulty. Some of them along with some enemies can even be a bit cheap.
For example there are enemies that will constantly spam you with rockets meaning you have to constantly evade and all the explosions make it a bit harder to see what is going on and there is even a boss at the end of chapter 7 that will explode upon death taking you down with it. As enemies has been exploding trough out that chapter already( an amazing chapter by the way ) you can pretty much see it happening. What is annoying though is to figure out on how to avoid it and I will tell you this know to save some frustration, you simply stand still and hold down the block button.
The combat on water can be pretty frustrating as well as you have to tap the A button all the time to keep moving and in Sigma you only had to move the analog stick to accomplish the same thing.
But for the most part this game provides the right amount of challenge.

The story in this game isn't really all that interesting and it never has been for the most part when it comes to this series. However the cutscenes using the in-game engine can be pretty amazing so you can actually end up paying attention to what's going on anyways even though the plot isn't very deep and fairly predictable. The voice work isn't too bad either, I especially like the voice of the Greater Fiend under the name of Volf.

The graphics in this game are great especially the effects with blood going everywhere and using Ultimate Techniques can be very cool to watch not to mention the animations ranks upon with the best I've seen in all of gaming.
The graphics unfortunately tend to be pretty uneven though.
Sometimes the lighting can look really flat and basic, some environments look completely bland and lifeless, the art direction is sometimes off with things looking completely bizarre or even silly and blood can end up floating in the air stuck on nothing.
There are also some performance issues, in chapter 2 for example the game sometimes started to load or freeze in the middle of a fight even give me a completely white screen for a couple of seconds or started to go in to slowmotion.
This almost wanted be to stop playing the game as it felt so unfinished but after that I did not experience anymore problems except for maybe a screen tear here and there until the later chapters where there would be some some short slowdown again but then there was also a ton lot more going on screen so that was more acceptable but still an annoyance.
This surprised me as games from Team Ninja always bring you game that are very well polished, and I did fear this a little bit as they did not delay it as they often do with their games.
If this had to do with the games' producer Itagaki leaving the company or pressure from Microsoft I do not know but hopefully this will be fixed later with a patch or something.
There are times though when everything completely works though including the art, great looking environments, textures and lightning with a rock solid framerate and some bodies will stay on the ground even after you have left there area which is very impressive ( try backtracking sometime to see it yourself ). When this occurs it can be a completely mindblowing game to look at.
Because of these issues though the game barely looks any better than Ninja Gaiden Sigma for the Playstation 3. Meaning it still looks great but I did except it to look a bit better.

The sound is very good, I really like the sound effects of the weapons and when they connect to the enemies hearing skulls crack and such and also the music is well composed fits really well with the action on screen.

As far as value goes this game is actually longer than the original and longer games are always welcome. The trade-off here is that there are some levels that are a bit boring for example there is a part in chapter 9 where you run around in a tight cave that looks bad, is not very fun to be in, the camera is annoying, it's hard to tell which direction is the right one and there is also a glitchy worm boss. Thankfully the majority of the chapters are really amazing.
After you have beaten the game you unlock two more difficulty settings and these games are always fun to play again on a harder difficulty settings if you can handle the challenge as things will change as you go trough it.
You can also play trough the game again on the setting you have beaten it on keeping all your upgraded equipment. This is a great addition to the game that I always felt was missing from previous games, there are even achievements for playing trough the while game with a certain weapon. The only thing I could complain about this feature is that you can not choose the chapter you want to play right away.
There is also a new feature called Ninja Cinema which will let you record your progress and upload it to share with others. This sounds better in theory though than it is in practice as compared to the replay system in Halo 3 for example you can not pause, rewind, fast forward, change the camera angle or even remove the bloody heads up display. The only thing you can do basically is to add a black/white filter that will make it look a bit like and old Japanese ninja splatter movie.
The framerate will also take a noticeably hit while you record. In the end this features only really serves the purpose of showing others how to get trough a certain chapter or beat a certain boss.
The game also lacks a stand alone challenge mode. Ninja Gaiden Black has a mode called Mission Mode where you right away could jump into a fight or challenge a boss. It was great as it was something you could just play for a couple of minutes before leaving for work for example and improving your highscore was pretty addicting aswell. Sigma also had this mode and some other modes available as downloadable content.
I'm sure this game will get modes like this downloadable aswell later on but it would have been nice to have had something like this on the disc.

In the end Ninja Gaiden II is a truly amazing game only lacking the same level of polish as the original along with a few extra modes for added value.
Despite these drawbacks the game still manages to be barely superb and it delivers some of the very best action found on the system and is a must have for fans and others should try/rent or download the demo found on the Xbox Marketplace to see if they're up for the challenge that awaits.

//ZimpanX