I actually haven't finished any of them yet, but I've gotten done with most of it and with the racer I've played enough to get it.  Yea, that means I'm playing 5 games at a time right now.

Anyway, this is just a rundown.  Keep in mind, I bought these all for $10 each, so a 8 hour game is pretty dang worth it.  These games would be killed  $60 with the exception of PGR4 as they're all basically short (silent hill is about 12 hours i think?).  Not to say that I'm giving them slack, but I'm coping for a more movie like price.

anyway, I'll start with the two newegg ones:
PGR4 (racer)- I don't like racing games, I like this game.  Awesome graphics, tons of modes.  Not much to say about this except for the fact that it's a damn good sequel to PGR4, reminding me of PGR2.  The weather effects are great visually and as well as how they affect gameplay.
Dark Sector (shooter)-- solid shooter.  again, not too much too say.  There's a slight story, but it's more of an excuse for the gameplay.  Controlling the glaive is damn fun, especially the decapitation.  It's good, slightly different but still generic, but more or less just a solid shooter.

And my best buy ones:
Alone in the Dark (action-adventure)--- wow, did not expect this.  I thought the demo was garbage but I bought it because, well, it was only $10 and I thought some of the concepts in the demo were neat.  Little did I know that this demo was horrible in comparison to the game.  And yes, this part in the game is horrible as well.  However, once you escape that building, which is more or less completely a not very straightforward tutorial, the game becomes great.   This game has a great level of detail and there's so many unique things to do.  You can also combine things to make various stuff and you can also lay oil paths to set on fire, which you can always get more of from filling any container (can empty one by distributing the juices around) and then busting it from the cars.  The story is pretty damn interesting as well and it's set up like a tv series.  Seems like it was originally meant to be DD in seperate episodes (they have these seperated with credits at the end of each one in the game).   The controls aren't bad either, they work fine.  I dunno, but it plays so differently once you get to the park.  There is something  worth mentioning about the game--- it's buggy as hell at times.  I'ts not something that gets in the way, but when your driving especially you'll see this.  I was dirving a golf cart type vehicle and I randomly lauched very high into the air. 
--- Something you should understand, this is not a horror game.  It's more like a, well, tv series.  I want tos say something like Buffy, but not exactly.  Those type of late 90s action series though.

Bourne Conspiracy (action shooter)--- it's not a movie game but rather a game based on the book series.  That being said, I haven' exactly got much story, but on the other hand, if the books are like the movies, it's about the same on that.  It's a decent game, but not great.  I'm not saying it's bad, it's just not going to wow you.   This is the game I'm least far into, but while I have every intention of playing through it, I'm not crazy about it. It's fun, but it's, well, nothing special.

Silent Hill (adventure horror)--- I have not played a silent hill game before and to be honest, I didn't know what to expect.  I heard good things of the series and I always wanted to try it, but just never got to it.  Anyway, this game is different from most I have played.  It's more like an adventure game with the get red key to open red door (although it's more natural and more like canister to get oil) style of play.  To  be honest, this game really isn't scary.  There's some moments, but the truth is, the game is freaking disturbing.  I don't know how else to say it, it's freaking disturbing.  Such a well defined atmosphere.  Gosh, damn, it's creepy.  Again, I haven't finished it, but the story is damn interesting.


* I also have the following from the $10 deal days and will write impressions of each once I play enough: Pure, Soldier of Fortune: Payback, Turok, Turning Point: Fall of Liberty
With the exception of Pure, I have never touched these games, mainly talking about their demos.  For Pure, it's another racing game, and I actually liked the demo.  Impressions for those in 1-2 weeks

You know, although I liked many rpg stories this generation, it's truly more rare for a jrpg to have a story I dislike (although Last Remant met that), there really has only been one real mature story.  I'm not saying that the others are goofy or whatever, but no other truly gives off this arty expression.  They're pretty much more along the lines of "here's our universe, isn't it cool?"  It's rather rare for any game to achieve this type of story, but we're focusing on JRPGs here.

Anyway, here are the games I wanted to talk about.  Yes, I know, we truly don't have so many details to these games to say surely how good the stories will be, but if you just give it some thought, you'll probably recognize them.  

- End of Eternity
Yes, I know.  I'm writing about this game a lot despite only one gameplay video and a fair amount of screens.  But honestly, it is more than what we have on FFV13 and it has more on it than many other talked about games.   Anyway, it's pretty easy to tell about it without more.

It's partially because they're multiplatform, and partially just because they're flying under the radar.  However, these games are all going to be worth checking out.   How do I know?  Well umm.... look at the devs or prequels.  Hell, just look at the game itself, it looks good me say.

Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2: Civil War (all platforms)

Admittedly, I like Marvel quite a bit (nothing wrong with that).  Anyway, the first Ultimate Alliance was extremely fun.  In reality, it was just a beat em up, but it was well executed and really played nice.  This time they're throwing in a supposely great story from the civil war comics (never read them, I really only know marvel from the 90s cartoons).  Anyway, this should be good.  Jees, wrote quite a bit for this guy.

Red Faction: Guerilla (Ps3, X360, PC)

Watch the trailers.  Do I need to explain? Honestly? Boom!

Bionic Commando (PS3, X360, PC)

Damn, Capcom is on a streak.  Anyway, they constantly pump out good games, what's there to say?  I do feel like rating wise this will be a "flop".  It'll have a fanbase though.

Dark Void (Ps3, X360, PC)

Capcom.  Seriously.  With past sucess, can't we just assume the next capcom game is going to be good? 

Brutal Legend  (Ps3, X360)

Okay, I know you guys will say that this is hyped and whatnot, but it really isn't.  Individually sure, but those "hyped games of 2009" lists never have this game
Maybe it's just because I really enjoyed Psychonauts and it's rubbing onto this game, but this will be a good game.  I'm really feeling like it'll copy Psychonauts "im basically a cgi movie but an awesome game too!" scheme

I said that I wouldn't be on the boards until June, but alas, only the weekend after I have already broken this promise.  I've let you guys down, but you guys know you love me either way, so it's all good.  I won't be on too much though, might not respond too much to the comments here.


Anyway, this is what I'm going to write about: The Last Remnant's reevaluation at gamespot.  Maybe it's not best to say the reevalutation but more so me evaluating the original with the pc review.
Let me start off by saying, no, the story of the Last Remnant is meh.  It's not good.  The battle system eventually turns into a movie and it's just not that interesting of a game.  Still, I did play it and it's somewhat decent.
Anyway, over at gamespot, they basically made it sound like the Last Remnant is actually a great game but is just technically flawed. 


Guys, the Last Remnant's technical faults don't hurt it in any  way.  Sure, when you load up a new area, the texture pops up, but it's not a big deal, it's still present in the pc version as well as almost every UE3 game.  What people say is the real pain is the slowdown during battles once you get all your troops running.  (what was fixed in the pc version).  Is there slowdown? Yea, there is, and there's pop in during battles as well.  But may I ask, yea, so what?  This doesn't exactly affect the game.  It only occurs when all the commands are selected and the 5 minute long attack sequence is playing out.  
Essentially, and suddenly it changes anything?  Ahh... it doesn't really matter, but my god, when other games don't get punished for pop in on loading  and what not (gears 2) and essentially it's just one thing that most people don't give a crap about changing and then suddenly it's a good game, I'm astonished. 


In summary:  The technical flaws in the Last Remnant aren't game affecting at all.
I dunno, I just don't get it.  The only thing changed was the fact that the attack sequences run smoothly now,
It's not a big deal in all reality, it's just the same reviewer is saying that this game is better than Blue Dragon, Lost Odyssey, and Star Ocean 4.  That's just not true.  At all. 

So I won't be on the boards until probably June.  I know all of you will miss me
(insert joke here)

With all the crappy run of the mill shooters that come out, some of the pretty good (not necessarily awesome) shooters with typically more generic environments get lost in the mix.   Here's to remind you that these games actually do exist and they're actually pretty good.
This means both underrated and forgotten.  UT3 might have been on the list, but no one has forgotten about that, in reality. 1=/= better game than 5, but just the idea of the list applies more so.




5.


Now I'm not claiming that Shadowrun is the best shooter ever made, but it really is quite fun. The main turn off I had from the game was the value.  $60 for a online only game with 1 game mode and 7 maps. Hell no.  However, at about $10-$15, it's something you might be interested in checking out. 

4.

This game is made awfully.  The graphics suck, the animation sucks, it has many things, lesser in some regards, you'd expect from from an early gen Ps2 shooter. Furthermore, this is slowdown, no story, and no online of any kind.  That being said, it's just fun based on the pure principles of early top down shooters.  Lots of enemies and it's just fun.  If you can play it co-op, you might want to try it out.

3.

This is one of the best shooters this gen.  To put it simply, it's just straight up fun. 
If you have someone you can play with, get the game.  If you don't, forget about it. Not worth playing in that case.

2.
. 
This is yet again another shooter that you really should play in co-op in order to appreciate it.  It's really the definition of a solid shooter.  It does nothing special, it just plays pretty nicely.  It use to (and still does) remind me of Army of Two, dunno why though, they're quite different.  Amy of Two is really designed around co-op, this is simply enhanced much by it.  Not much to say really.

1.

This game is pretty damn good.  The single player is pretty enjoyable but the core of the experience comes from the online.  It's essentially something like Battlefield, but the individual mechanics feel much better, it supports 32 players, and it's just executed much better.  Quite good.  Really.
It really, in both single player and mp, captures the intensity of war.  Not as much as Killzone 2 necessarily, but at the same time, the single player does that without heavily scripting and the mp captures it as well.

So today, I finally reciveved my copy of Star Ocean: The Last Hope in the mail.

Where to start.  Well I guess I'll just describe what I played.  I pretty much played from 4 until 11 straight.  Yea, I know, that's a damn long time for a single session, but I've done more. 

Anyway, so let me start out on the technical side to get stuff out of the way.  The graphics are some of the best.  That's truly all that needs to be said, because what more is there to say?  I guess I could say there's an anime style to things, but you already know that.  I guess I did. 

And the gameplay as in the combat.  This is some of the funnest jrpg combat out there.  In fact, it's a fun combat system regardless of genre.  It's fairly fast paced and deep. Outside of the series I'd have to probably compare it to an action game, but I can't specify which and tha'ts especially because each character plays differently (accessed by simply hitting RB/LB).

So onto the big part--- the universe.  The story is essentially hardcore sci-fi and hardcore anime mixed together.  This means you're either going to find much of this to be either corny or pretty much a dream team deal.  There's strong influences from Star Trek on the sci-fi side (more so than Star Wars) and anime actually draws from Lucky Star High (okay, I kid, it's not that bad, but it definately draws from that side at times).  I really haven't got far enough into the story to judge, but it seems like it'll have a pretty nice story going on here. 

So yea, not a huge amount to say here, but just some quick impressions.   I have officially ended my Infinite Undiscovery blog, didn't post much towards the end of that.  Basically, it stayed the same strength towards the end of the game and then the ending sequence (meaning going towards the final battle + areas) was very, well, unexpected.   It made sense with the flow of the game, but you just wouldn't have expected it near the beggining of the game.

Lost Odyssey.  What is there to say about this game?  Well, simply put, this game's combat sucks. 
Now with that out of the way, why is it that I like the game so much?   It certainly isn't flashy like Final Fantasy 13 will be.  Lost Odyssey is not
and adrenaline filled rush.  No, that's Final Fantasy.  Awesome series, Lost Odyssey is different. 

It's really the story and mood.

What's so special about the story?  It's just a bad guy wants to take over, right?  Actually, that's just completely wrong.  The main force that the character faces is largely prevalent to be the fact that he's living.  Gongora really is just a tool in the story.

It's just the characters, they're so freaking well developed.  I've experienced quite a few good stories so far this generation.  I see topics posting MGS4, Bioshock, etc..  I sort of laugh, what strikes me immediately is Lost Odyssey.  Don't get me wrong, those games had good stories, but they're not nearly as meaningful as Lost Odyssey.  Some of them are stories by details with loss of thought.  Others just simply aren't strong enough. The fact that Lost Odyssey doesn't get a mention shocks me.

Lost Odyssey is just a different game.
It is essentially comparable to what people wrongly make Braid out to be

Lost Odyssey develops itself so nicely by the end.  If you watch all the cutscenes, experience the world (taking notice), and then read the stories, they all come together in such an awesome way.

To put it simply, just listen to the main theme of the game (yes guys, this is it believe it or not, not the opera singing lady with organs)

Now, since that has been all said, I guess an obvious question to answer is whether or not I want a sequel.
        No. What's the point?  How about something new?   Because there's really no point to turn this into a series.  It really shouldn't be continued/prequeled and there's absolutely no reason to carry it like FF (especially because you'd really want to have the same theme and mood, which really can't be repeated easily)

So Mistwalker, bring out your next title for the X360.  I want to see what else you can do. 
Let's all hope that the Cry On cancellation thing is really a dropping of AQ.  Nothing has actually been confirmed on Mistwalker's part and AQ's announcement was that they were dropping Cry On, which isn't exactly something they can drop.  Keep it alive!

Ever notice how at the beggining of each year the game lineups that are presented to us are a rather large misrepresentation of what's going to come out?

Here's a new idea: Why not just judge it based upon games that are releasing rather soon?  Sure, those games far off like FF13, etc. can give you an idea, but in reality, things can always be delayed and pushed back or they might not be coming out this year at all.
Instead, this is the way to look at the consoles, in spurts of months.  Here's what we should be looking at:

Ps3- Killzone 2, White Knight, Street Fighter 4, Resident Evil 5
360- Halo Wars, Star Ocean 4, Street Fighter 4, Resident Evil 5
Wii- lol, as if there's an actual game lineup for the wii.  good one there.

Get it?

WAIT A SEC!!! Are you saying we should just dismiss all those upcoming games for the future?  Did you completely forget about that game called Final Fantasy!  Or Dead Rising 2, that's confirmed for 09!
Yea, true.  But it's better for a general idea.  There's always, again, delayals or we might just be assuming to much (tell you right now-GOW3 is '10).  And when it comes to direct comparisons, why would we leave out Conker 2!?  Whachya talking about, that hasn't been confirmed!  Yes, but still, how do we know that it won't come out in the fall alongside all those other games?  The fact alone that there's undoubtly going to be an unannounced game that's going to be released before one we know about should void this arguement.