(Sorry for the pun ^^" )
 
I've played the game a fair bit, and getting at mid point, so i have a clearer view about the game. I'll probably end it up at 40 hour+ since, i'm doing a lot of exploring and side-questing, and a bit of grinding. 
 
There was a bit of discussion about what the best main character - Gestalt (older and scruffier) or Replicant (younger more stylized) - and coming from the experience of playing the game, the game justifies very well the motivation of a desperate parent, more so than it could based on a sibling relationship.   

Now the game itself...  
 
Booting up the game presents you with a introduction to the fighting mechanics with a tender story, that is a good taste of what is to come: a sad story with a lot of over the top fighting.  
 
The game after the brief 10 minutes insanity slows down a lot and introduces you to your surroundings, with some fetch quests, and accelerates with your first story quest, which plays with your emotions too, especially as a parent.  This kind of mixed rhythm (main and side questing) continues till half of the game, with the game giving you the decision of what to do and when, although in one or another spot after some main event you are obliged to reach the end of the given task. 
 
This kind of pacing can get a bit tedious, and the comparisons with the mmorpgs are not overboard, though unlike mmos, the gains in delving in the side-quests are in the majority of them just monetary, that you can spend to perk up your main character, but often the actual perking will depend on a quest item, so it's more of a option than a necessity. You can only gain XP by fighting.
 
 There are also no armours or clothes except for the main attire of the main character (overlooking the DLC that brings new skins), and you can only change the weapon he uses, with a variety of swords (light and heavy) and lances. There is also a crafting system for the weapons, where with some materials you can make it more effective, and enchantment system to give the weapon additional bonuses. Also it is in place a simple magic system, where you can have two magic spells in place when engaging in a fight, but you can change them pausing it, and navigating the menus.   
 
The game has a very intuitive menu transversing and general gameplay, that can be considered a bit generic, but it works perfectly fine. One thing of notice is that you have an defence stance as also a dodge move.  The style of gameplay also changes quite often, ranging from hack and slash, shmup, plataformer, top down fighter, while in a brusk way, with ease on the players skills, and without frustration. Sometimes it can be surprising, but it never takes much to adapt to it.  It's experimental.
  
The story is has some common places, like an apocalyptical tale and the eternal fight of good against evil, but it has enough fresh and insane elements, to make it even the most absurd thing natural. An example of this is a disease that consists of tatoos progressively covering up the body of a person, which is insane! 
     
In Final Fantasy you have Chocobos, here you ride a wild hog. It's a nice and quirky addition. 
 
The main characters are well developed and interesting, although some interactions between them can seem a little strange, like the fact that they generally walk slower than you, and when they are too far behind they teleport to a near position, and they can't ride the wild pig with you. Probably rough edges from a small budget, still it doesn't break the magic, as the world you are immersed is so strange that, if you saw flying sheep you would probably not going to find all that strange.  
 
The fishing mini-game, while it doesn't shine as wondrous, it isn't bad, it's actually better than the Lost Odyssey's music box game. The initial instructions to fishing are a bit sketchy, and will make any who try scratch your head, just as with any other in-game tutorial system, but in a few minutes it becomes clear how it works. One thing that the game doesn't explain is that the difficulty in fishing varies from spot to spot, and can lead people to insanity, as it happened to a infamous game reviewer. 
  
The graphics aren't at the level of FFXIII or Resonance of Fate, still they do their job well and are encompassed with some awesome moments and effects. Things like the brighter than normal light of the day as you arise from a cave, or the bobble ammo from the bosses that resembles the ones from shmups.  Worth noticing also is the fact that there are no frame rate drops or screen tearing.  

The music department is awesome and memorable, with awesome voice works, simply brilliant at spots. The performances given by each voice actor is also very good, in contrast to most roleplaying games from Japan. 
  
Now is it worth 60-70$?  
 
Personally i bought it because i was in a rut moment, needed something to unwind, and had the cash, but it can be considering the type of player you are. The game is very interesting and moving, in the same style as Lost Odyssey (without as much text and tears), and it plays well, as long as you don't plan on playing it on one sitting, which would be extremely monotonous. Fetch quests are optional - most people i've seen that finished it only did about 44% of them - and mixed with the story can be a welcome change of pace.

In conclusion it's a great game, not perfect as i've described it, but a memorable experience. Personally i can't wait to play more... 
    
Take care guys  

Instead of doing things just because of meaningless rewards - points, achievements, trophees, quests - that in the end of the day amount to nothing, and just waste your life on the process, try doing things because they make you happy, and give you a more hopeful outlook on your real life. 
 
When you tuck in your bed, your statistics can give you comfort, but you're still empty. 
 
Just a thought.  

Silent Hill Shattered Memories is a bold attempt through and through, ditching combat and implementing escape sequences, turning away from cult dealings and focusing on a psychological voyage, letting go of the fog and bringing the ice into town. In that it is a success! A reinvention of the Silent Hill formula and franchise, but is it as good as the best of the series? 
 
Graphical wise Silent Hill isn't very different from its previous games, except the fog was substituted by snow and ice. You'll come to visit some of the spots of the first game and meet new and old faces, see familiar places and names from other games... it's still the same town. Although during your walk through, the city will come to resemble a bit of your inner conscience.
  
The gameplay on the other hand is good, arguably the best of the series, but still a bit clunky. The exploration sequences are very well designed and provide a solitary experience, both creepy and interesting into the lives and soul of Silent Hill. But suddenly everything turns icy, and the then the escape starts. This segments are well designed, and fear inducing, but ultimately flawed, as you can't dodge or have any defensive posture towards your pursuers, having inevitably to deal with them hopping into you.  Completely apart from your incursion into town, and the rest of the gameplay, you get to attend a psychiatrist consult, performing tests and getting advice. A bit creepy the latter part, but it's both an interesting and fun addition.  
 
Story that's the key point to make a good Silent Hill game, or horror game for that matter, and it's great. With a good pacing - what doesn't mean that doesn't get a bit boring towards the middle -, and appropriate length (though could be a little longer that it wouldn't hurt), it unveils both a drama and a horror experience, to a surprising end. The plot is predictable at times, due to the numerous set pieces that lead to the conclusion, but it still gets to be unexpected.  
 
In the end the game is great, a worthy entry into the franchise and a better game than Origins ever got to be (being developed by the same company).  
 
But one question still lingers... Is it at the the level of the best in series? Does it surpass it? 
 

I've finished Mass Effect 2, and have to admit i was and still am surprised by how much it surpassed my expectations, and felt better than the first one.  It's an awesome game, and probably one of the early 2010 GOTY contenders. 
 
The story while not mind-blowing, it is incredibly functional and cohesive, with great moments, lots of atmosphere and predicaments of its own. It's a ride on a well conceived galaxy, seeing the best and the worse, of both the player and the mirror galaxy presented. Many subjects are touched, and problems of both the present reality and of an imaginative future are focused, giving the player, as the character, development. It's impressive, to the point of masterpiece.  
 
The gameplay, mixing together roleplaying and third person shooter mechanics is frantic. It works perfectly, embodying the well conceived story, and making it shine. The cover system is perhaps too powerful though, as when you're hidden, even if a rocket lands near you, it won't make you flinch most of the times. But all and all it works like a charm.  
 
The music and voice departments are very well integrated and of high quality. There are no annoying voices, or characters. Everything plays it's part and nothing disappoints.  If you want an in-depth opinion of this, better read a review. 
 
Now that I talked about all the major aspects of the game, there are some issues that i feel i need to address.  
  
The game is very polished in all aspects, but there are still some small annoyances in the way the environment interacts with the player. Things like npcs recognizing you instantaneously when you're all covered, as it happens in the first contact with Tali (even after two years missing and presumably dead). Events like these brake down the immersion, and damage the experience. 
 
Also i think that the Paragon and Renegade meters should stay out, for most part, of deciding what branching choices you can give to each situation. This system as it is in effect is very easily manipulated and jades the player's experience, since you have to give, along the duration the game, a full set of good or bad answers as to access the one you want to give when it matters most, and they are totally unrelated. The introduction of a rpg parameter to represent speech argumentation would be a good idea, and maybe the fusion of the Paragon and Renegade bars in a Karma bar, wouldn't be bad also, making the decisions you make a direct consequence of that parameter and affect your alignment. Because otherwise it doesn't work as it should. 
 
Also the relationship model the game uses, in effect since at least Knights of the Old Republic, is getting old fast. Instead of determining that each different conversation is available with your team after each planet/station visit, it would probably make more sense if it was time based. It would probably feel more natural, if you gave each character rest for, say, half hour, instead of exiting and entering the ship again for more dialogue. After the last meaningful talk, it would also make sense to advise blatantly of it, and/or have five of four different piss off answers, instead of the same annoying one - that reason made hate Garrus in the first and the second chapters of Mass Effect. 
 
Lastly it is sad that some areas are only available after you receive a quest and before you conclude it, as many times you probably won't explore it as much as you would like to.  
 
But not one of these faults take the brilliance that this game has. It is a must play for every sci-fi and action fan. And as this post seems more of a review in most parts, i'd give the game a solid 9.6. Best game i played this year so far.  
 
Any thoughts about my views? 
 
Cheers

I bought Mass Effect 2 today. Installed, downloaded the dlcs, and launched into space. The game seems much improved from Mass Effect 1, with better gameplay, awesome graphics and brand new enemies, though they seem all be sentry bots. :p 
 
It looks like a masterpiece, intense, suspenseful and cohesive, but it's short from perfect, as it fails at minor details.  I find it annoying when I'm wearing a new armour with head gear, completely covered, and Tali knows on the moment that sees me that I'm Sheppard, spaced for two years. Was it that obvious?!  Also the fact that the first time I get on the Normandy, the whole crew knows about the Collectors. Was there a memo somewhere? I just knew about them! Dammit!! >< 
 
The rpg elements seem streamlined, what isn't necessarily bad, as it makes the game much more casual-friendly and blend very well with the action.   
 
Though it might not seem, i love the game, and it seems quite addictive. I was just nit peaking...  
 
Now next step: get Mordin Solus! 

    

On a sleepless night looking at the white celling over me, something occured to me...
 
"I've played countless games, not as many as some, but still countless versions of the same idea."
 
In twenty years in gaming i've played a lot of games, from most of the consoles that flown to the market, and my mindset has wandered from novelty and enthusiasm into repetition, constant and mindless repetition. From playing one game of the series to the next, with little change, from seeing the same story used time and again, using similar yet more powerful tools to flesh it out, instead of experiencing new realities and evolving, i'm being bogged down by repetition.
 
Most games that are released every year, with all respect to the developers that put their sweat and hopes in them, are very similar to what was released before, with minor to none improvements. And stories, being told since the 8-bit era, are getting really old and unimaginative. Games are made to please the consumers that made some other one really popular, and by copying the same effect, to a certain variable degree, the developers hopes to achieve a similar success.
 
Inovation is really hard to find, and though it isn't essential to the enjoyment of videogames, it is though a breeze of fresh air. It's what diferenciates the true enthusiasm with a game, from a warm greeting. It's really subjective i know, as new players, or ones that haven't experienced a type of game,  when they discover it and have fun with them, it feels has they have reached a new world. Still after a while there is hardly any sense of heart felt evolution. 
 
Like an immortal, maybe i've experienced too much, and become a bit apathic, having played and seen countless games, and lived a thousand lives. Poetic and a reminiscence of the Lost Odyssey, but still i feel that little changes most of the times from one game to another, and soon we start to stereotype each and every game we play. The good guy, his romantic interest (because there is almost no game without it), his sidekicks, the antagonist and his minions - all too familiar, all telling of the same mold from which most stories are born.
 
With this i came to my (late) new year resolution: I will play less, but better. Less games, but different and differentiated games. Games with different worlds and emotions, to live a thousand more lives... but diferent ones.

It seems now to view youtube videos you have to signup for a google account. No more freebies for anyone.  A good measure to make a lot of people to stop going into the website.
 
Also it seems that a great deal of videos hit the recycle bin, and are nowhere to be found on Youtube and the internet. It's so stupid... For trying to protect obsessively their own copy rights, costumers are no longer listening to the songs they want. Maybe someday they'll regret it, as music lovers will grow to love something else, and those "treasures" become meaningless junk.
 
Whaddya think?

2009 was a awesome gaming year for me, with my recently bought xbox 360 (in April), my ancient ps2, my ds and my pc. I played a great number of games, not as much as some, especially some friends of mine from college, tucked away in their own little room playing endlessly. 
 
Generally people when creating a yearly top tend to include only the games they launched an played within the year. Well not always, as sometimes they include something they are hyped and haven't really played. In this one though, i'll add every game that surprised and impressed me. This is a top having my best gaming experiences in 2009, and some comments about them...
 
Hope you like it!
 
Cheers
 

My Best Gaming Experiences in 2009

• Play it alone or with your girlfriend, as you may start crying like a baby, and your male friends might feel awkward embracing you in their arms.
• The game has about 60 hours of gameplay placed in 4 dvds, and the last one is unfairly hard.

• The developer - Mistwalker - is made mostly from Square's former employees, founded by Hironobu Sakaguchi (the father of the Final Fantasy series).
• The writer of A Thousand Years of Dreams,  Kiyoshi Shigematsu, penned down the said texts in a book called  "He Who Journeys Eternity: Lost Odyssey: A Thousand Years of Dreams".
  

• The main characters Batman, Joker and Harley Quinn where interpreted by Kenvin Conroy, Mark Hamill and Arleen Sorkin from Batman: The Animated Series.
• In 2009, it won the Guiness record for the "Most Critically Acclaimed Superhero Game Ever".
  

• No darkness armour, in case you were wondering.
  

•  Gallons of blood and gore.
• Strange and disturbing cut-scenes.
• A main character with some heavy issues.
  
• Strong emotional moments.
  

• Not recommended for sane players, as they may start to have psychopathic urges.
  

• The game follows loosely the first volume of the comic of the same name, making some changes.
• Mike Patton gives a great performance as Jackie Estacado.
• The game features a collectible five-issue launched to promote the video game, with each one chronicling a chapter of the story.
• It includes also some awesome artwork, from the comics, featuring even characters not in the game, like the Angelus. 

•  You can land on the Moon, but not on Earth unfortunately.
• The polemic lesbian encounter with an alien, that gave rise to the Xbox being called wrongfully the "Sex Box".

•  It has a gameplay quirk called "bullet time" (making time run slower) that might be a put-off for some and a blessing for others, due to it's gory and unrealistic nature.
• This game's franchise, though recent, has a convoluted story, as the main game (this one) was developed by Monolith, but the expansions were created by Vivendi (the owner of the franchise's license), returning the brand to Monolith for the design of the second full fledge game - F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin. 
  

11. Parasite Eve

12. Left 4 Dead 

  

  

    

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
The ultimate co-op experience.

Today was a pretty fucked up day, and i want to rant a little. 
 
If your motivation is before reading anything to criticize, don't bother, as i won't answer back.  
 
If you think it's a joke topic, go ahead and laugh out hard alone in your cubicle, or go play something, and let that little sadness intrinse around your soul.
 
Why in the world do we get shaddy business strategies, rich business men smilling while they milk each drop they can of the consumer's and fan's money, while looking as they are completly fulfilled? 
 
People that when seeing something, for example a topic, they start swearing against what they don't agree on? 
 
Or simply send someone to worse place they think of without even having any sense of knowledge of the person they are saying it to? 
 
In society, lets bring life out of the picture, because we live according to the western capitalist society, except for some small exceptions, we're bound by fear and hate. 
 
Fear of what might happen to us if we don't fulfill with even a little success the task that society has given us before we were stillborn. Fear of lack of money, of disgrace, solitude, desease, death... A bit of everything, with spice on top.  
 
Fear of each other, that brings by itself, distrust. Many times it comences even inside the family circle, where selfishness takes the place of common good.
  
And hate for what we don't know and don't have time, will or capacity to understand.  
 
These two causes are teached throughout life, like courses in school, disguised as rules, discipline, evaluation and all kinds of rights explicit and implicit, injustice and justice, among many other concepts.
 
After learning, many of us say - "That is something that i'll never do... I will be better than that!" - but how many forget those words when practicing what we've learnt? 
 
Society doesn't make good persons. It's goal is to make money sucking leeches. 
 
And dispose of them when they are too old to be of any use. 
 
Greed is perhaps the effect of the fear of being dependent of some other people. I know someone that says "I have money, fuck the rules.", that's perhaps the mentality of many of the wealthiest men. 
 
But money in the end it won't save you from your own end. 
 
Society rules what nature lets.  
 
In the end we are all humans,  and if we betray, backstab and crawl our way into the top of the society, in the end we will face our own doings- the demons that we created, directly and indirectly. And we will die same as a poor one without any medical attention.
 
What's the point of acting like this? 
 
Are we so hopeless that we can't change into something more fulfilling? 
 
Perhaps this is nature's self destruction mechanism on man.  
 
Our hate and fear fueling our own self-destruction. 
 
Who knows? 
 
Cheers