Closing Comments
Were Beats a full-priced game, we probably would have been a little more upset, but what's here is the perfect definition of what a $5 download can offer. No, it's not nearly as perfect as it could have been, but oh well.

Other parts of Beats come off as a little ham-fisted -- or at the very least like Studio London didn't quite give the game enough time to bake out some of the issues. Little things like not being able to restart a song after you get to the results screen, or just the loading times in general for something that's entirely Memory Stick-based, make it all feel a little less polished than it could have been.

Even still, for just a mere Abe Lincoln, a mostly solid MP3 analysis and rhythm action game is a pretty decent deal, and I know the music geek in me will be playing around with different genres just to see what kind of patterns turn up. Vib Ribbon it ain't, but it isn't half bad either.

Labels: Game Reviews

Pinball has returned with brand new boards.

Now Shooting Bricks isn't a bad thing!

Another thing that will keep you busy is Conquest mode, which has been significantly expanded from last year's version. As a quick reminder, Conquest is a mix of basketball and strategy where you take you favorite team and attempt to invade and take over every other NBA city with your skill on the courts. There are a number of new features that have been added to make the strategy more complex as well as increase the challenge for skilled conquest players. The first is the ability to strengthen your teams with the addition of training programs. In last year's game, you could only improve a squad under your control by beating another team, trading their stars for yours in the process. While that's still a key point of the game, you're now able to supplement these teams with additional training, bolstering a player's individual stats with extra medals and stars. What's more, you can now redeem any of these stars for upgradeable powerups, such as shooting, running and power boosts to make those athletes more of a force on the court. Stars can also be used to upgrade a city, making it harder for an invading squad to defeat another team by taking the court off the streets and into practice facilities and eventually the home arena itself. Once again, Conquest mode comes off as an incredibly deep feature that could stand alone as a title, and hopefully it will be exported to all of the future versions of Sony's NBA franchise.

So with all of these mini-games, how does the actual basketball gameplay fare? Well, in some ways, this year's game feels like a time warp to last year, as it has most of the same flaws that plagued NBA 07. The shot halo still winds up being inaccurate at times, making some clearly well timed shots miss while horribly off shots will drop in. This has been somewhat addressed so it's not as atrocious as it was last year, but it can still frustrate you. For instance, it was particularly infuriating when you try to go for a slam or a layup and you notice that the momentum for your player carries them past the basket, leaving a well timed, green haloed shot to ricochet off the rim. The same thing can be said of the gaps within the defense, which will allow players to slash their way towards the basket way too often with little interference on your defender's part.

The gameplay hasn't really been tweaked...

... so if you can get around some of the old issues, you'll be fine with NBA 08.

Closing Comments
Sony has managed to get the balance between mini-games and basketball right for a second year in a row, which is truly incredible. The addition of four new and amusing mini-games are a lot of fun, and the additional depth that was added to Conquest mode makes the feature more engaging than ever before. The new focus on downloadable content, particularly with additional pinball boards is pretty cool as well. While there haven't been a lot of fixes to the gameplay, the added player chemistry does strengthen the traditionally weaker court action. Overall, NBA 08 is a nice follow up to last year's impressive title.

Labels: Game Reviews

Symphony of the Night represents a rather unique snapshot in the history of games; it's the swan song of 2D as it went the way of the dodo (or at least the California Condor) and 3D gaming rose as the de facto standard. More recent games like Odin Sphere and GrimGrimoire are at least keeping the genre alive, but SotN was the pinnacle of 2D at the time -- even more surprising given that the PS one wasn't really supposed to be a 2D powerhouse.

Runnin'.

Symphony also kicked off the birth of the so-called Metroidvania style that would eventually see plenty of GBA and DS sequels down the road. The layout of Dracula's castle, though, is arguably better than any of the others. It offers a constant string of impediments that are slowly unlocked as you search the castle for your lost powers. Yes, it's an unapologetic homage to the Metroid style of gameplay, but wrapped in a proper action-RPG setting where main man Alucard actually deals points of damage with every strike and slowly gains more hit points and hearts to use special items, it all feels fresh even today.

There's also the matter of the game's translation. No, the story isn't terribly amazing (Alucard, Dracula's son born to a human mother and his infamous father, rejects his vampric nature to side with the humans in destroying his father's castle before Daddy Drac can be reborn yet again), but hearing hilariously delivered lines like "Mankind can ill afford a savoir such as you" and "What is a man? A miserable little pile of secrets!" is almost reason enough to go for this version rather than the updated, retranslated version available in the Dracula X Chronicles.

The glory of combat.

In fact, one of the biggest reasons why I have such an affinity for Symphony of the Night is because of the way the castle was designed. It's challenging in normal form, but Konami's brilliance in building it to be played upside down as well speaks volumes about the skill of the design team. Throw in much tougher enemies and parts that can only be explored once you've mastered all of Alucard's skills and you have a game that keeps giving long after it would normally be over (literally, you can push your completion percentage to 200+ if you seek out all the hidden passageways in both versions of the castle).

Closing Comments
Nostalgia can be a powerful thing. I've gone back to games from the 8- and 16-bit era that I thought were absolutely brilliant then only to find them quaint by today's standards. It's an issue that's exacerbated all the more by the PS one's almost painful handling of most 3D graphics and gameplay that -- in a very real sense -- was struggling to properly move into three dimensions. Symphony of the Night has none of those problems; it takes everything that was good about 2D gaming and adds a fantastic amount of depth, tight controls and rock-solid gameplay, making it easily the best game you can get on the PlayStation Store right now -- and it'll probably stay that way until Konami decides to release MGS.

If you don't own Symphony of the Night in some form, slap yourself for being so careless and get your butt over to the PS Store to grab you some Castlevania love. Now.

Labels: Game Reviews

By now, gamers have become well aware that if any character mentions Silent Hill, they're in for a world of pain. Full of insanity, skinned monstrosities, alternate dimensions and a freakish cult hellbent on destroying the world, this supposedly sleepy town has ensnared its visitors with a unique brand of survival horror. Over the course of four console games and a feature length movie, fans have descended its depths and explored its buildings, looking to escape from its fog-enshrouded streets. The evil has crossed from consoles to the PSP with the latest title, Silent Hill 0rigins, which attempts to explain what made the town so twisted to begin with.

Players are introduced to Travis Grady, a truck driver with insomnia and other issues. With a past that he doesn't like to talk about and even has trouble remembering, Travis is alone in the world, and likes things that way. Unfortunately for him, he finds himself driving his freight towards the town of Brahms on a stormy night, and decides to take a shortcut past Silent Hill to save himself some time. What unfolds, however, is much more than a simple detour, as Travis slams on the brakes when he sees a small child in the road. The trucker finds himself dragged into Silent Hill, where, unbeknownst to him, his fate is intertwined with that of Alessa, Dahlia and the Order.

Expect to see a lot of familiar faces.

Get off me!

Of course, combat isn't the only thing within 0rigins - Players will find themselves exploring the town, collecting objects and using them in to gain access to new areas. Frequently, this will take you across both the foggy "normal world" and the industrialized "other world" that has become synonymous with Silent Hill. However, 0rigins has a rather unique twist that makes exploration a bit more flexible, but is possibly controversial as far as the series is concerned. Instead of being dragged into the other world kicking and screaming, feeling as if your grip on reality is being stripped away from you, you pick and choose when you're going to travel between both worlds with the use of mirrors that have been scattered across the town. Since you can control these at will, the sense of dread or foreboding is sometimes stripped out of venturing into the other dimensions in favor of searching for a door to unlock or a new item to collect. The mental institution, in particular, is guilty of this, because the section drags on for way too long.

You'll never look at a mirror the same way again.

Die, odd jelly skinned dog thing!

Closing Comments
Telling the origin story of a well established franchise can be an extremely hazardous thing to do, but Silent Hill: 0rigins manages to wrap both the mythology of the movie and games together in an impressive package on the PSP. With a good storyline, intriguing gameplay elements and excellent production and replay value, 0rigins is definitely worthy of a Silent Hill fan's attention. While the combat and camera system is pretty weak, and the manual control over shifting between dimensions removes the feeling of dread, 0rigins does justice to the series as a whole.

Labels: Game Reviews

You probably already know whether you're going to buy Football Manager Handheld 2008. That's because the Football Manager series, more than any other football game, captures all of the blind devotion, all of the irrational animosity, all of the emotional extremity of the beautiful game. So you've probably already decided whether you're going to like it or not. And that question ultimately boils down to whether you're going to like what basically amounts to the same game as the last one, updated with all the correct players and statistics for the current season. And the chances are that if you've found yourself ensnared by the labyrinthine depths of the last game, you probably already know you're going to buy this one too.

FMH 2008 doesn’t offer quite as many leagues or competitions as the PC version.

FMH 2008 adds the ability to customise your tactics, and share them with friends.

It's the sort of change that maintains the simplicity of the handheld game, while gently opening up the range of strategic options. Another such change is the new ability to customise your team's tactics. These are the sorts of changes that many players won't ever need to explore to shore up a moderate degree of mid-table success, but budding Mourinhos and Wengers will seize these new opportunities with both hands.

Ah, the local derby. What football’s all about.

At the start of the game you can pick a team, or have one randomly assigned to you.

Closing Comments
But then, you probably already knew that. If you spent the summer honing your technique on FMH 2007, well… well you already know if you’re going to buy this. And if you didn’t, then you’ll need to sign up now if you’re going to spend next summer honing your managerial skills on FMH 2008. In any case, now that England/Scotland/Wales/Ireland/Northern Ireland have been knocked out of Euro 2008, you’ll need some sort of footballing solace to see you through the winter months and beyond. It might as well be the best portable football management game in existence.

Labels: Game Reviews

If there's one thing you can say about Pursuit Force: Extreme Justice it's that its title is right on the money. As a member of Capital City's elite police unit, the Pursuit Force, you've got the green light to do whatever you like, dishing out the death sentence without so much as a verbal warning, let alone a trial. Spot a guy who has a red circle around them? Shoot them. And if you pass a car with a big arrow above it, blow it up. Yep, in this futuristic alternate reality, zero tolerance means just that, and that can only make for a riotous action game, right?

Well, as with Sony's previous Pursuit Force title, Extreme Justice's core crazy stunt driving is where the game excels. Throughout its numerous missions, you're given free rein to speed and weave down freeways like you're auditioning for Police! Camera! Action! Plus, you can pull up alongside other moving cars and hurl yourself on top. Then, why not plug the driver with a couple of well-aimed slugs and climb behind the wheel yourself? The fun doesn't end there either - if you've accumulated enough juice in your Justice meter (filled by polishing off bad guys), it's possible to execute a bullet-time leap and pick off a few more enemies, all while you're zipping along the tarmac. It's a lot of fun and you won't easily tire of such extravagant stunts, especially with so many new ideas and objectives constantly thrown in your path. Over the game's 50-plus missions, you're tasked with everything from chucking opponents off the roof of your truck by swaying from side to side, to gunning down an overhead helicopter while weaving through oncoming traffic.

Enemies are auto-targeted for you. Just pick your biggest gun and shoot.

You'll find yourself chased down on bikes, fire engines and helicopters.

Closing Comments
Extreme Justice is a game that often delivers and sometimes doesn't. It's been improved no end since the first instalment but, just as you're enjoying the pure arcade outrageousness and speed of a chase mission, you're brought down to earth by a subsequent trial-and-error shoot-out. It's very nearly a great game and its on-the-rails arcade driving and shooting is hard to dislike. But there are still things that need fixing and improving if BigBig's wannabe blockbuster plans to be a true Force to be reckoned with.

Labels: Game Reviews

A lot has been made about Manhunt 2's supposedly ultraviolent content. It depicts a lot of grisly murders, gruesome decapitations, and a few swift kicks to the genitals for good measure. It's not as bloody as you'd expect, though: The much-ballyhooed blurring added to the most extreme acts makes it occasionally difficult to see exactly what bloodthirsty rages you're subjecting your victims to. However, don't take this to mean that Manhunt 2 doesn't deserve its M rating. After all, there's still plenty of gore, sex, and adult language to go around. There's also some solid, stealthy gameplay to back up all the eviscerations. It's got some problems, but there's a lot here for patient gamers to sink their teeth into. This isn't a series of random, bloody tantrums--it's a calculated study in what drives a man to madness, and to what extremes he will go to discover the truth.

A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down.

That man is Dr. Danny Lamb (not a randomly chosen name, certainly), an asylum inmate who manages to escape thanks to a freak electrical malfunction. He doesn't remember much, but he's able to fill in bits and pieces through flashbacks, and with the help of fellow inmate and constant companion Leo. As Danny begins to remember more and more, he finds himself getting to the bottom of a medical experiment called "The Project," and discovers just how involved he was in its development. The plot is missing the degenerate thrills of the first Manhunt, but it still has a script only Rockstar could pen. The raunchy quips you'll overhear from the game's self-described "hunters" are sometimes creepy, often hysterical, and always worth a listen.

Just don't expect anything as memorable as the encounter with Piggsy in the original Manhunt. Aside from the very nature of stealth gameplay (you always fear getting caught), there's nothing scary here. You're still fighting for your life, but unlike the original game's protagonist, Danny could simply disappear if he wanted to. The danger is secondary--a result of his need to find out exactly who he is and how he ended up this way. Uncovering the truth and revealing the past makes for an interesting tale, but it's not as engaging as the snuff-film premise of the first, and it doesn't really ever take off, remaining content to mostly smolder until it pops its highly foreshadowed surprises. At least as far as the Manhunt games are concerned, fighting to stay alive is more compelling than fighting for your sanity.

It's still an interesting story that is accentuated by an appropriately dirty and dank visual design. You'll explore a raunchy, sticky sex club; gritty gas stations; and slummy warehouses; all places that seem as if you could catch some nasty disease just by looking at them. A scratchy, slightly blurry filter gives everything the faint haze of scan lines, as if you're watching an old VHS tape. The PSP version is a direct port of the PS2 release, and though Manhunt 2 looks nice on its console brethren (if not exactly impressive), it looks superb on a handheld where the occasionally stilted animation is less noticeable. You will need to deal with the occasional split-second pause while the game loads data from the disc, but these moments don't interfere with the adventure.

The doomed ambience is further accentuated by a minimalist sound design that features an eerie soundtrack and limited environmental noise. Silence is put to good use here to create moments of tension when you must remain perfectly still, which makes the occasional eruption in the soundtrack even more effective. The voice-overs are good too, and not just from the leading men, but also from the random hunters you overhear. You'll hear guards in the sex dungeon whine about their sexual frustration and masked patrolmen taunt you to come out of the shadows, and most of it's acted with just the right amount of coarse charm.

There are lots of shadows in Manhunt 2, and you'll be hiding and waiting in them for a good portion of the game. You control Danny from a third-person view as you avoid the watchful eyes of enemies and attempt to pick them off one by one. The easiest way to do this is to hide in a dark corner and lure a foe over by throwing a brick or punching the wall. The noise will attract nearby hunters, who have a tendency to walk over and stare straight at you for a moment before shrugging their shoulders and then walking away. This is your chance to perform one of the infamous execution moves, which are the violent showcase of Manhunt 2's visceral action.

I never should have told him those scrubs made him look fat.

There are three levels of executions that depend on how long you hold the execution button. Functionally, all three levels result in your adversary's untimely demise. But in this game, you want to kill with style, and a level-three execution is literally a bloody mess. The execution you perform depends on the weapon you have equipped, and whether there are any interesting environmental features nearby. You might stab the hunter in the back, kick him in the crotch, then slam a manhole cover on his head. Or perhaps evisceration with a crowbar is more your thing. Pyromaniacs may prefer to douse him in gasoline and set him on fire. Part of the execution is depicted through blurry red filters and grainy black-and-white effects, but you can still clearly see portions of the grisly kill. It's an interesting, artsy effect that gives the impression of Danny's lingering insanity while slightly softening the bloody nature of the act. It's not quite as shocking as you may have heard, but pulling off execution moves can be rewarding, given that they often cap several minutes of patient sneaking and nail-biting stillness.

The execution effects are cool from the story perspective, but they linger for a few seconds after the execution is over and you are deposited back into the level proper, which is a big frustration in a stealth game where you need to stick to the shadows. That moment can mean the difference between life and death. Manhunt 2 is often very unforgiving of your mistakes, and a couple of hunters with nightsticks are tough to handle. Forcing you to wait for the filter to clear so that you can see where you're going is an unnecessary annoyance in a game that requires so much precision of movement.

No wonder the kids don't like visiting grandma at the home.

As you would expect from a stealth action game, you can hug walls and peek around corners. There are some other mechanics at play as well, such as your need to be perfectly still should a hunter get too close while you're lurking in the shadows. At these times, he might be inches from your face, and you need to ensure you stay completely hidden by pressing the button that flashes on the screen. However, there are some nagging problems with the stealth gameplay, and enemy artificial intelligence sits high on the list. Enemies get stuck jittering between objects, which forces you to unstick them by grabbing their attention. They'll occasionally run past without noticing you, or patrol a three-foot-square area over and over again for no apparent reason.

Danny can hold his own somewhat in standard melee combat, as long as he is armed with the right weapon. You'll use clubs, knives, shards of glass, and plenty of other instruments. Melee fisticuffs are deliberate affairs, and you should expect to handle only one enemy at a time with ease--if that. If you attract the attention of more than one, it's better to run back into the shadows. Mistakes will cost you: Some weapons will knock you down, and it takes forever to get back up, which almost always spells certain death.

There's also a small assortment of firearms in Manhunt 2. Shooting enemies isn't as gratifying as beating them to a pulp with a table saw, but headshots still produce a smattering of blood. In most of these circumstances, you'll be hugging a wall or crouched behind an object, popping out to take potshots. Danny is not a weapons expert, so perhaps accordingly, the controls handle loosely. Nevertheless, shooting doesn't feel as precise as you would like. It's also not as challenging as the proper stealth elements mostly because your foes have the aiming skills of a third grader with a water pistol, and may even unload clip after clip into nearby walls.

Yet there's no doubt that fans of sneaking will get a lot out of Manhunt 2. Aside from the occasionally flaccid gunplay, the game is highly challenging, especially so on the appropriately titled insane difficulty level. Some of the level designs are tricky, such as one in which a helicopter's spotlight keeps you constantly on the move. This isn't for everyone; if you're prone to fits of frustration or expect to be able to easily recover from mistakes, Manhunt 2 won't do you any favors. But if you're into that sort of thing, you'll enjoy the 15 hours or so of gameplay it provides, and may even want to try unlocking the alternate ending.

Manhunt 2 is a good fit on the PSP. Part of this has to do with the clarity of the screen, which makes execution moves look crisper than they do on consoles. Even more importantly, it doesn't feel as if anything was compromised for the less-powerful platform. Few games look this good on a handheld, and even fewer combine such technical prowess with enjoyable mechanics. If you like a good, sneaky adventure, you'll find a lot to chew on here.

Labels: Game Reviews

A portable journey of darkness. If you've recently found yourself stalking through the night, shrouded in the darkest of cloaks, and lusting for the intoxicating taste of blood, you're probably a vampire. Fortunately for you, vampires can still play Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles, if you don't mind slaying your own kind in digital form. Does this have anything to do with the game? No, but we thought it would make for an amusing introduction. Let's move on.

Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles is a compilation of sorts, featuring a
completely remastered version of a previously unreleased Castlevania game:
Rondo of Blood. It also includes the original Rondo of Blood, as well as (here
it comes) the original Symphony of the Night, an incredible fan-favorite. For
those of you who are unfamiliar with the Castlevania series, you're dealing
with a side-scrolling action platformer that pits you against a host of
demons, ghouls and vampires in an attempt to slay Dracula and his dark
minions. Anyone uncomfortable with extremely intense, old-school platforming
may want to look elsewhere for their gothic fix - the remastered Rondo of
Blood is really hard, and often times it's just downright frustrating.
Casual gamers beware: it'll suck your blood.

Give 'em the axe.

The majority of this game is all about the remastered Rondo of Blood. The
other two games are treated more as extras, even though Symphony of the Night
is an entire package in itself (we'll get back to this later). So for now,
let's focus on the new item in this package, and what it brings to the table.
Rondo of Blood follows Richter Belmont, direct descendent of Simon Belmont, as
he charges bravely into the thick of night to kill the legendary Dracula and
save his beloved Annette, who has been abducted by sinister forces.

To start, the game looks pretty good. Although the entire title revolves
around 2D side-scrolling, the backgrounds and character models are actually in
3D, which gives Rondo of Blood an interesting aesthetic appeal. Just think of
a much darker New Super Mario Bros., and you'll have a good idea as to how
this game is presented. And while there are very few cutscenes to speak of, we
were pleased with what was there, as simple as it was. Most of the dialogue is
fully voiced (some of the talent is questionable though), and the musical
score is fantastic. At a glance, Rondo of Blood is a well-done remake.

The game itself takes place over nine stages, though one of them is a
thirty-second prologue, so that doesn't really count. You make your way
through each stage and usually face a boss at the end, but you only have a set
number of lives for each stage attempt, and if you lose them all, you have to
start all the way at the beginning (as opposed to starting at a checkpoint
mid-stage). This system is one of our biggest complaints about the game, but
we'll address that soon.

Something evil is afoot.

One of the cool things about Rondo of Blood is the branching level design.
Stages two through five have varying paths through each stage, which can lead
you to different boss fights and, actually, different stages entirely. There
are alternate versions of each of these stages that you can find, if you look
hard enough. Although you end up in the same place regardless of which route
you take, it's nice to have virtually four extra stages to explore and fight
through.

Fighting can be done in one of two ways: you can use your whip or you can use
a side-weapon. That's all. Although you have six of those side-weapons to
choose from, including throwing knives, axes, crosses and holy water, this is
a very straight-forward, old-school game. This factor will definitely turn off
a lot of people, because they may be accustomed to more refined and complex
gameplay mechanics, like those that Symphony of the Night possesses. But Rondo
of Blood is all about trucking through the stages and using your very few
weapons as effectively as possible. Players who want more than that may be
disappointed.

You can also tackle the game with another character, Maria Renard. Maria is a
young girl that Richter frees towards the beginning of the game (she's very
well hidden), but after you meet her you can select her at any time from the
stage select menu. Maria uses, surprisingly, a bunch of animals as weapons,
including her main attack which is releasing small doves at the enemy
(wicked!). It may sound a little odd, and while she's certainly a vivid
contrast to the game's otherwise dark elements, she's a great deal of fun to
use and helps mix things up a bit.

Rondo of Blood is a lot of fun, it's challenging, and it harkens back to
the mentality that drove games many years ago. Unfortunately, this PSP
collection has some issues that we should address. Although the remastered
title offers a Japanese language track, not all of the scenes are subtitled,
which means you're out of luck if you don't know Japanese. This was a real
disappointment for us; even though most of the scenes without subtitles are
brief and inconsequential to the story, it still felt like we were missing
out.

The biggest problem with this Castlevania title is its difficulty. Challenge
is, as we have stated many times before, not a bad thing. But when Rondo of
Blood preserved its fundamental, old-school mechanics, it also preserved the
problems that were present in many older platformers. For one thing, jumping
can be a huge problem. Some of the jumps, even when timed precisely, can still
plunge you to your death and force you to start over, washing away the
previous fifteen minutes of gameplay. It may not seem too frustrating right
now, but we can assure you that it feels intensely unforgiving during play.
Furthermore, stair control can be a serious issue as well. If you jump when on
a stairwell, you have to continue to hold up on the directional pad when you
land, or else you'll fall through the stairs, which often results (once again)
in death. Oh dear.

Uh oh.

Another concern is the spacing of the checkpoints, which feels very uneven.
You could clear massive amounts of space and even pass into different sections
of the stage, but sometimes death will set you back all the way to the
beginning, even though it may seem like a later checkpoint would have been
more natural. Again, this frustration was significant, but didn't ruin our
experience. For hardcore fans of older titles, it'll be less of an
issue, but appreciation for classic games doesn't necessarily negate
mechanical hitches.

Our final complaint is that the remade Rondo of Blood is the only available
game when you start; Symphony of the Night must be unlocked, and unlocking it
is a very strange ordeal. As opposed to being a reward for beating the game,
you actually need to find a very obscure item in one particular stage to play
Alucard's adventure. While this isn't that much of a concern, it just
seems strange that a major (it not incredible) part of this collection isn't
available from the start. But once you do have it, the game runs beautifully
and is mostly free of technical issues or glitches. Keep in mind though that
the screen will be cropped, but that's to be expected.

That's one big eye.

Closing Comments

If you're a Castlevania fan and you think that the somewhat short Rondo of
Blood is enough to satisfy you (assuming you've already played Symphony of the
Night), you may as well pick this one up. Besides the difficulty and somewhat
finicky jumping mechanics, it’s an impressive game with a lot going for it.
And if you're new to the series, this compilation may be even more worth your
attention because of its strong components. Just remember the nature of the
challenge, because things can get real tricky, real fast.

We were pleased with Dracula X Chronicles and it'll make a solid addition
to a hardcore gamer's library. If you have two copies of the game, you can
even face Rondo of Blood's boss fights cooperatively with a friend over ad
hoc, which definitely adds some spice to this deal (don't worry, it runs
smoothly). If this sounds like your cup of blood, head on over to a vampiric
retailer and pick up a copy. Actually, any retailer will do.

Labels: Game Reviews

The real story of Joan of Arc is as dramatic as any ancient myth or
legend. Driven by religious visions, Joan led French troops to nigh
impossible victories, but eventually fell victim to political hypocrisy. A
sham trial resulted in her execution in 1431. The story's been told and
retold for centuries in theater, film, and song. But games seem like an
awkward host for Joan's spiritual journey, a fact made clear by previous
attempts to do so. By the same token, it really doesn't sound like a great
idea to throw in fantasy creatures, magic bracelets, and demon possessions.
But Jeanne D'Arc defies expectations in a number of ways because it manages
to twist the story into something legitimately exciting. In fact, it is a
fun and user-friendly strategy role-playing game. It doesn't break new
ground, but it twinkles with cleverness, as well as slick design, and is one
of the best RPGs on the PSP so far this year.

Jeanne is a likeable and stubborn heroine.

What of all this religious business anyway? Jeanne D'Arc doesn't gloss
over the spiritual aspects of the story, though Jeanne's heavenly visions
aren't a simple matter of divine intervention in this retelling. This is a
fantasy version of events, where dogmen and demons clash, while the English
child-king looks ready to spew pea soup at any minute. It could have been
tacky and disrespectful to the legend, but instead it's a surprising,
personal journey of discovery populated with clearly drawn, likeable
characters. Jeanne herself is a conflicted, complex heroine making sense out
of newfound supernatural skills and England's insidious invasion of France.
As the game's intensity ramps up, the 30-hour story hurtles toward an
explosive conclusion.

Just as the story revamps a classic, the gameplay also infuses the
traditionally dense and slow-paced strategy of the genre with urgency. As in
most SRPGs, you place members of your party onto the game grid then take
turns moving them, attacking enemies, and using items or spells. And just as
you'd expect, such factors as the way a character faces or terrain height
determine where you move your party members and how you attack the enemy.
But if those things are what make Jeanne D'Arc traditional, it's how
developer Level 5 layers in just the right amount of complexity and
accessibility with features that make battles fluid, as well as truly
dynamic.

The quick pace of battles is Jeanne D'Arc's best attribute, and a number
of mechanics work in tandem to move things along. The armlets that Jeanne
and a few of her cohorts brandish are amongst them. Equipping jewels in the
armlets allows these characters to transform into pillars of righteousness,
granting them additional attacks power, spells, and more. Killing an enemy
grants the transformed character an extra turn, which means a well-timed
transformation will have Jean trouncing around the map and killing a bunch
of enemies before your turn is over. It's definitely powerful but also
necessary on the difficult maps, and you will feel Jeanne's triumph as she
overcomes seemingly insurmountable odds by felling four or five enemies in a
single turn. It all makes for a superb level of challenge that is never a
cakewalk or a frustrating cycle of death and reloading.

Burning auras are another feature that not only keeps the pace moving,
but also ramps up the tactical aspect of battle. Attacking a foe sets the
square behind him or her aflame, and a character occupying that square gets
additional attack damage during his or her turn. If you align everything
right, you can string together a chain of auras, especially if a transformed
character has left a bunch of auras behind. There's also a higher chance of
counterattacks than you're used to seeing in SRPGs, which keeps the action
moving. But it also presents the downside of burning auras: A counterattack
will also leave an aura behind, giving the enemy the chance to take
advantage of it.

Although battles keep you pressing forward, you shouldn't take that to
mean Jeanne D'Arc doesn't offer its own brand of complexity and flexibility.
Most of the customization is found in the system of skill stones, which
function like spells and upgrades that characters equip to their limited
number of slots. There are restrictions to what stones certain characters
can equip; in the same way that characters are limited to a certain weapon
type, they are also limited to certain types of skills. Stones are found as
loot and in shops, at least in the beginning. However, about a quarter of
the way through the game, you will earn the ability to combine stones into
new, more powerful ones. This is underwhelming if the resulting stone is one
available as standard battle loot, but it's genuinely exciting when you
receive a brand new, formidable stone that far exceeds what you already
possess.

When you throw in a rock-paper-scissors system of elemental affiliation,
you have plenty of ways of customizing characters. For example, a
jack-of-all-trades route--a strategy that often falls flat in other
games--can be surprisingly effectively in Jeanne D'Arc, particularly with
the right combination of skill stones. It all makes for a tight, focused
experience that hits all the right notes without ever getting too dense or
too simple. Yet nothing is breaking new ground here, so as appealing as the
gameplay and story are, you're never quite blown away. Everything falls
safely into the SRPG formula. That's not to say it feels formulaic, but
Level 5 didn't take any huge chances either.

Divine intervention takes on a new twist by the story's end.

Jeanne D'Arc is an attractive and vibrant game. It isn't stunning, but
it's got a keen sense of style and crystal clear visuals that make it easy
to identify characters during battle. However, the character design may not
be everyone's cup of tea: The characters looks like bobbleheads, which is an
interesting design choice but doesn't always fit with the serious theme. In
part, this is because the static 2D character drawings and awesome cinematic
cutscenes are realistically proportioned; thus, while they are interesting
to look at, there's some inconsistency in the art direction. Recent PSP RPGs,
such as Riviera: The Promised Land and Tales of the World, have featured a
ton of voice acting, so it's a little disappointing that there isn't as much
in Jeanne D'Arc, but what is there is quite good. The soundtrack is
appropriately French, but it's repetitive and occasionally grating

If reliving 15-century French history sounds as appealing to you as being
burned at the stake, rest assured you will find a lot to love about Jeanne
D'Arc. This is revisionist history at its finest, which sounds like a
dubious honor but in fact is high praise for one of the year's most
compelling and fascinating stories. The gameplay is equally gripping, thanks
to the pounding pace of battle. Finally, 2007 brings us a PSP RPG well worth
its price tag.

Labels: Game Reviews

The War of the Lions now features new cel-shaded cutscenes.

It also features two new job classes.

Multiplayer has been added and can benefit both player's parties.

It still has some old issues, but it's still a classic strategy RPG.

Labels: Game Reviews

Hit the lights

The track design isn't very inspired.

Unfortunately, the drift controls feel way different than driving.

Labels: Game Reviews