The gameplay is very simple, match four or more butterflies in either a horizontal or vertical line to free them. Creating a match of seven or more butterflies gains you a ladybug. Matching ladybugs gives you bonus points. Creating a match of eleven or more butterflies gains you a rainbow butterfly, which can be used to free all of one colour butterfly from the grid or on a ladybug to receive a bonus. On the bottom right of the screen you are shown four butterflies, these are the butterflies you use for your next four turns. Each butterfly you place on the grid takes the place of whichever butterfly you place it on.

There are two game modes to choose between, Survival and Endless. In Survival mode, you must free as many butterflies as possible before the time runs out. The timer is represented on screen as a dandelion. You may add more time to the timer by matching butterflies and creating combos. Endless mode is exactly as the name suggests, endless. You simply play until you’ve had enough and don’t wish to continue any further.

The audio is without a doubt the worst part of the game. There is only one short two minute long track in this game. It is played on a constant loop on all menus and ingame. The song was irritating the first time I heard it and only got worse as time went by. Thankfully you can mute the music. This allows you to hear chirping birds in the backround while you play instead of the music, a much more relaxing feel that is ruined by something else. With no awful music playing, my attention quickly shifted to the womans voice calling out the same three words every second (Match, Multi Match, Combo). This caused me to mute the entire game only minutes later.

The game has very annoying music and sound effects along with very simple and unchallenging gameplay. I can’t imagine even the most casual of players enjoying a game that requires no effort or attempt to succeed. I don’t recommend this game to anyone, especially when there are better alternatives out there for free. You can experience just about everything this game has to offer by playing the demo.

Available for purchase through GameStreamer, GamersGate, Steam, Impulse and Boonty.

There are four classes in Lead and Gold, Gunslinger, Trapper, Deputy and Blaster. The Gunslinger possess only one weapon, a revolver. He is most effective at close range using his fanning ability. A technique which increases his rate of fire but reduces his accuracy. The Trapper is a sniper, armed with a Buffalo rifle which requires a reload after every shot. The Deupty carries a rifle and is most effective at medium to long range. He possess the ability to tag enemies, which marks their location. He may also remove tags from allied players. The Blaster is equipped with a double-barrelled shotgun that is lethal at close range. He also carries dynamite which can be used much like a grenade. The Trapper, Deputy and Blaster each carry a secondary weapon, a slow firing and inaccurate revolver that’s only useful when you are knocked down. Each character also has their own unique abilities called Synergy Effects.

Synergy Effects are a nice addition to the game. A Synergy Effect is a buff that is granted to you and all teammates nearby. It’s a system which encourages players to stick together and use team work. The Gunslinger increases accuracy, the Trapper increases critical hits, the Deputy increases damage and the Blaster increases defense. The Synergies do not stack so it is recommended to use different classes. Along with all of these, each class has a Healing Synergy, which automatically restores some of your own HP and that of any teammate you pass by. The strength of your Synergy Effects can be increased by leveling up. By increasing your rank, your Synergy Effect ability increases. However, all ranks you gain in a game are reset back to one once the game ends.

There are seven games modes and seven maps. Although one game mode and map are restricted to each other(the online tutorial), there is still plenty of variety in the game modes. There’s the usual deathmatch and capture the flag type game modes, along with different variations of Team A attacking certain points and objectives with Team B defending. With the games being only 5v5, the maps are adequately sized. This keeps the game flowing with lots of fighting. Depending on the damage you receive, you can either be killed or simply knocked down. You can be very easily killed while knocked down and you may still shoot using your revolver while in this state. Teammates can revive you if you get knocked down. A player from each team may carry a respawn flag which allows you to respawn on that players, this will keep you in the middle of the fighting at all times. All of this ofcourse, is if you can actually join a server.

Server browsing is a painful experience at the best of times and just down right horrific at the worst of times. You are unable to sort the servers by ping, players, game mode or map. They are simply thrown at you in a random order and in random quantities. Sometimes you get thirty servers listed, sometimes only five. You are required to continuously refresh the page for servers. This isn’t the only problem, not by a long shot. Servers are very slow to update, so expect to see misleading numbers of players per server, often I’ve joined servers listed as near full, only to have the game load and realise there’s no more than two or three people, or worse, I’m the only person in the server. The problems don’t end there, while the game does have dedicated server support, it’s a very rare occurrence that you find a dedicated server actually in use. The full servers? Player hosted servers with atrocious pings. The host simply breezes around with his ping of five, while you struggle to make it five steps with your ping above four hundred. I simply can’t understand why people choose to play on these player hosted servers instead of the low ping dedicated servers. All of this isn’t helped by the size of the player base, on average there are 50 players online at all times and at peak times, roughly 100.

I really struggled with scoring this game, I’m torn and in two minds over it. On one side, it’s a very fun game with plenty of content and some very nice features. On the other side, it’s got a torturous server browser, nonexistent developer support, tiny player base and quite frankly, a rather unintelligent player base. It appears that the game was simply thrown out the door and left to rot once complete. I really want to recommend this game but there’s a dwindling player base and a lack of support. Priced at €15, the content is certainly more than worth it, but with the tiny player base and how often you’ll struggle to join a server with a playable ping, it’s highly unlikely that you will get value for your money.

Available for purchase through Steam.

Also available on Playstation Network and Xbox Live Arcade.

There are two factions and six classes. Both factions have three different classes to choose from, with each class having their own unique weapons and style of play. The SGC’s three classes are Soldier, Commando and Scientist. The Soldier acts as the main combat class, armed with a P90, Grenade Launcher and Smoke Grenades. The P90 is very accurate at close range and has a 50-round magazine and a high rate of fire but runs out very fast. The Grenade Launcher is powerful but requires a reload after every shot. Smoke Grenades are used to uncover cloaked Ashraks. The Commando acts as the sniper. Equipped with a a Sniper Rifle, .50 Handgun and claymores. He can detect cloaked Ashraks and is very effective at long range kills, however he is very ineffective at close range due to the handguns limited ammo and poor accuracy. The Scientist acts as the support class, armed with a 9mm pistol. Her secondary weapon can be used to heal teammates or poison opposing players, a very good weapon for decloaking Ashraks. She also has a deployable turret and healing dispenser which heals all nearby teammates.

The System Lords three classes are Jaffa, Ashrak and Goa’uld. Jaffa are the System Lords counter to the soldier. Armed with a Staff and Shock Grenades. The Staff is an effective but slow firing weapon that’s good at range and does not require reloading. The Staff can also be used as a melee weapon in close combat where it’s slow rate of fire is ineffective. The Shock Grenades can be used to blind your opponents before attacking. Ashraks are assassins, equipped with an A’tar Blade and Hara’Kesh. The A’tar Blade is the Ashraks main weapon and can instantly kill an opponent when hit in the back. The Hara’Kesh can be used to drain your opponents stamina to stop them from running away from you. Ashraks also posess a device called Reetou Karesh, a cloaking device that grants her the ability to become invisible. The Goa’uld are equipped with the Go’Wye Ribbon Device, which fries his opponents brain and distorts their vision, it can also be used to push back your opponents. Goa’uld are also equipped with a healing device known as a Maaynd Gem. It can be used to heal allies and yourself. Goa’ulds also possess a personal shield, while the shield is activated, only poison and exploses may hurt the Goa’uld.

Developed using the Unreal engine, the game looks visually impressive as you would expect. Particularly impressive is the effect of stepping through the gate, no matter how many times I’ve done it, I’ve yet to tire of seeing it. The lighting and textures look great. The artwork and enviroments look good. Character models are the only let down here, while they do look good, they are not nearly as impressive as the rest of the game.

The sound effects in the game are really good. From the Stargate dialing, to the Jaffa Staff blasts, tt feels as if many of the sound effects have been taken directly from the show itself. The Stargate theme music at the login screen is also a nice touch. The voice acting is minimal at best and what little of it there is, was done poorly.

There is no single player or tutorial of any kind in this game. This is strictly an online only game. However, thanks to the simplistic controls and limited class choices, the game has a very easy learning curve.

The gameplay is the strongest feature of the game. You’ll always be in the thick of the action due to the objectives drawing players from both sides to certain points of the map. The game however quickly becomes repetitive due to the lack of maps and game modes. There are only four maps, Stargate Command, an ice planet called Piramess, an Egyptian temple called Armana and an arena on the planet Leonops. There are also only 5 different game modes to play, Team Death Match(TDM), Capture the Tech(CtT), King of the Hill(KotH), Conquest and Arena. With only two different game modes available on three of the maps, while one map contains only one game mode. Stargate Command has Conquest and TDM, Armana Temple has TDM and KotH, Leonops has TDM and Arena, while Piramess has only CtT. It simply baffles me as to why all game modes are not available on all maps, especially when there are so little maps and game modes to begin with.

Lack of both game modes and maps isn’t my only issue with the game. There is no dedicated server support. In a fast paced shooter, the lack of in-game voice chat made communicating with teammates troublesome, having to constantly stop and type messages leaving yourself vulnerable to attack. Extremely limited character customization I also found to be a problem. Jaffa and Soldier can both unlock an extra outfit, however there is nothing for the remaining four classes. Although an extra outfit for all of the six classes can be purchased. Galactic Domination, which grants buffs to the faction dominating the planets, while it’s a nice feature, I can’t help but feel that the last thing the dominating faction needs is a buff which makes them stronger.

For €15 you could do much worse with your money. The game is fun and addictive, but it just feels incomplete. It feels like you are only getting half a game, with only four maps, restricted game modes and customization options. That being said however, I find myself constantly drawn back for more. The developers are frequently patching the game and with much more content promised, along with a growing player base, I highly recommend this game to Stargate fans. As for those of you that are not Stargate fans, I find it hard to recommend the game to you with the current level of content. I suggest you either hold out for a sale or wait until all the promised content is added.

Stargate Resistance is a PC exclusive, and is available from Steam, Direct2Drive and Firesky.

Advanced Combat Packs are available at Firesky and Direct2Drive.

The news story was the opinion of the people behind God of War III, a game which I am currently enjoying so you can enjoy my words later in the week and decide whether or not to put down €50 on the game. That opinion was rather negative of games journalists and sites that publish their reviews. Why? Well, the GoW developers reckon they have an epic title on their hands, one that couldn’t possibly be finished in 8 hours, as the reviews claim. I’ve not yet gotten into 8 hours of gameplay, but I’d be willing to hedge my bets that this is the average time for gaming these days. At least in story-modes.

The debate in our comments section focused on a review by our own radio celebrity, Terra Corrupt, who posted his own review of Final Fantasy XIII, which is a rather long game. At the start of his review he mentions the review is not based on the entire plot, as he has “only” reached hour 15 of the campaign but wanted to jot down what he thought thus far. Later in the review he said he would revisit this as he progresses. Awesome, I thought.

Instead, a huge debate spawned based on the fact that he had given a mark, and opinion on a title he had not completed. Something that really got up peoples’ goat. Why? Well, the potential is that people feel cheated out of a review (despite not paying for access to the site… though thanks if you do click ads!) and feel our opinion is worthy enough to decide whether or not they want to spend money. Of course, this is a rather hefty thing to carry on the backs of games journalists. It essentially means the entire industry rises or falls based on our opinions of titles. Sure, review scores have long dictated consumer spending, not just in games. It’s still a lofty responsibility. Controlling other peoples’ money.

Here we adopt a 5-star rating. It’s easier that way. Simpler to read into, understand and explain. 2 stars is a potentially decent title if it’s cheap, 3 is a rental, 4 is a good game worth buying and 5 is a prized possession. The lowly 1 star is held in reserve for the lowest of the low.

Some people will only purchase games based on whether or not they get that 4 star rating. Interesting, as often this site runs late with reviews, as we are volunteer-based and most of us have real jobs to do during the day. Which means people are willing to wait, to see what a reviewer thinks before spending their cash. Sure, huge titles like Final Fantasy, Battlefield and their ilk are likely to not sway anyone’s opinion – I would imagine most people already know if they’re buying those games long before they’re released. Most people just want to get a feel for what the game is like from a review, written by someone who has played through the game ad-nauseum to deliver content to web readers.

However, what if my review of Battlefield was only based on 1 hour of single player game? It wasn’t, of course, and I had reached level 4 or so online before writing my review. But what if it was? If I just wrote that review would people make any comments or gripes? I doubt it. The experience is explained in as vague detail as possible so as to not spoil the title, but to give a nice overview of my experiences. What if I explicitly said I had only played a short bit of the game and came to conclusions based on what could only be described as a demo experience? Would the opinion of the reader change then? Of course.

Reading the review of FF13 in question, no way would you think that review was half-baked, lazy or written from the perspective of someone who hammily scrambled some words together to form a vague opinion of something they hated. Some commented the review was “all over the place”. I disagree. It was written with a real sense of affection for the game. A real feeling that the guy who played this wanted to play it, and couldn’t wait to share his 15 hour experience with the public. Even if 15 hours was only one third of the experience, if a man decides that’s worthy of telling the internet that this game is absolutely worth the price of admission at that point, to put his reputation on the line at that stage to call it right there, then jesus christ, that’s a game worth buying. And no, I’m not directly referencing the FF13 review. I mean any review. If I ever play a game and don’t complete it, but review it anyway and state “at half way through the campaign, I’m in love…”, believe me that I want people to know how good my experience is.

Reviewers on “big” sites do this all the time. Do you really think every game on IGN, Gamespot or 1up is played start to finish, all the time? Not a chance. I’ve seen reviews on huge sites use god mode to go through a game. That’s not the same experience as the user. On top of that, a few years ago a Gamespot reviewer was sacked for giving a bad review to a sponsors’ title. How could anyone lay their trust in huge organisations like that? Why let them direct your cash to the tills of an organisation that would call for the head of a reviewer who didn’t enjoy his/her experience?

Ultimately, shoryuken.ie plays host to a number of people who review titles. Nearly every one are completed before being put to the public. In fact, it’s a rare occasion when a title is reviewed after a partial play… I would probably bet FF13 is the first such occasion, too. But FF13 is a mammoth game. No one expects a review of an WoW exclusively when the player has reached the top-tier levels. It’s unrealistic. Why expect it when the game is literally days long in total game time?

The irony is that the debate that sparked over such a review that was, as stated, completed after “only” 15 hours of game time gave the reviewer the opportunity to appears on The Last Word with Matt Cooper on TodayFM. Listen out tonight (16/03/10) after 6PM.

So, when faced with the prospect of churning 60 laborious hours into White Knight Chronicles came about I did what any man who runs a game site would do – try to give it to someone else. Alas, no one could take. Nor did they want to. Perhaps because they played Level 5′s previous titles, namely Professor Layton; a cool looking game, but ultimately not my kind of thing.

Texture warp heaven

Now I must jump into this game, a game with possibly the worst timing of any release of its kind ever. Not only does it arrive just after Final Fantasy hits shelves, it also must compete with God of War III in the near future. So, I played this so you don’t have to.

So your introduction to this title couldn’t be worse. Amidst a flurry of people bemoaning the game it intro’s with a dreaded installation screen. And once you play the title you question why. The graphics are sub-par. A title with a huge world like this can be forgiven for shoddy graphics, but how does it manage to be beaten by something like Oblivion? If you leave the game sitting there for a moment a rather homosexual intro sequence will begin. It’s as if it was catered for Japanese e-paedophiles rather then a Western audience. They didn’t even try to make this look cool.

Once you create your awfully similar-to-everyone-else character (mine was a young blonde boy with a womans voice called Raiden… but then thought that was cliche so called him Helghasm instead). Then the game begins in Balandor with Disney style font, music and world. And this is where things take a turn for the worse… kind of. The dialog, acting and graphics are awful. This is game development from 1993 dumped into a blu-ray disk and installed on my hard drive. For no reason.

Having said that, I did begin to get twangs of joy. Thinking of this of an RPG to challenge Final Fantasy is absurd. It can’t. Production values aside, FF is a huge series with huge budgets and an actually entertaining story. This? No way. Instead this is a Disney tale, and play it like you’re 12. The awful dialog is forgiving then. And you’ll enter a realm more akin to childrens’ “save the princess” stories rather then the usual RPG fare. It’s not as gritty as Oblivion, or as interesting as Final Fantasy, but it is still doable.

Let's get this party STARTED!

While the story is fairly basic (it literally is Mario-style saving the princess stuff), it does throw in a bit of fore-shadowing and intrigue to bring about plot twists later on. No, it’s not enthralling. No, it’s not Metal Gear Solid, but it will hold your attention. Even if it doesn’t, the awful lip syncing provides a fun game in itself: “Create your own dialog based on their lips!”. Add alcohol and you’re onto a winner.

The story follows a young boy named Link Leonard who is a zero-come-hero who saves, you guessed it, the princess. Or at least tries. He’s the main protagonist because he manages to control a mystical weapon called the “White Knight” (get it?).

Fighting is a bit awful, really. Even as someone who doesn’t enjoy these games I can see the combat system is tediously slow and awkward. It is an open-ended world where you encounter enemies at random (MMO style). It would benefit with a keyboard & mouse, as your combos and moves are placed at the bottom of the screen to scroll through and select. Not exactly a warm welcome to FPS fans.

Chronicling the White Knight, one swoosh at a time

The games world is split into zones which act as your different levels. The first being the immediate town you live in to explore, and then it spreads out into the open world. All of it set up much like an MMO, with people chatting and dialog set aside for you to join in, too. Nothing as complex as Fallout 3 or Oblivion… but it still harks back to MMO’s.

Overall this is a game that takes itself very seriously, or at least wants to. Rather, the developers should have focused a bit more on the fact that they had a nice Disney-esque story on their hands with some interesting plot points and a boy-becomes-hero adventure. Instead, slapping a knight on the cover and releasing at the same time as Final Fantasy seals the unfortunate fate for this title. Oh, I also mentioned a 60 hour game time at the start. Yeah, turns out that was rubbish too. I always thought RPG’s were long. This isn’t anywhere near that long. There are extra quests to go online via the GeoNet, but it’s still not a sprawling title.

RPG fans will probably still enjoy this. This won’t win over any new RPG fans, though. It also won’t win over people who are stuck into Final Fantasy at the minute. It’s marketed at the wrong audience, at the wrong time sadly. It’s not a good game. Nor is it a bit game. The best I can say is that it’s pretty inoffensive. Worth a shot if you think you’d like it. Otherwise, Final Fantasy will do a better job of keeping you happy.

“That boy has had some memories full of glee.

That boy’s childhood was filled with Adventure.

That boy was worried that the Adventures would end.”

Tifa’s Theme – Final Fantasy VII

In 1999, I was brought to my Cousin Roy’s house. He was around 15 at the time, while I was a mere 7. It was at this time, that he was kind of enough to give me Final Fantasy VII to play on my newly bought Playstation (Well, given might be a stretch, he was frustrated and didn’t want it anymore. Over the next 3 years, I was, for lack of a better word, obsessed. Never before in my life had I had such an Experience. It was amazing, I played that game like it was the last game on earth. Needless to say, I became a Final Fantasy fan.

From then on, I decided to play the series. Since X had just been released, I picked that up in 2002. I loved the story, and especially the music. I began to notice ‘Nobuo Uematsu’ and credited him as my favourite Music maker. That same year I picked up Final Fantasy VIII and IX. All were wonderful experiences in their own way.

I began my Web surfing days in 2005, and noticed the anticipation of Final Fantasy XII. I was definitely one of them, and decided to explore the mindset of the gaming world on the series. Some were welcoming the change in style, hoping that the series would return to the Non-Futuristic era of I-VI. Some however were complaining the loss, saying that the magic would be lost. On neither side, I picked up Final Fantasy XII in 2007. For the firs t time, I was disappointed. I now understand that it is not a bad game, it’s just not the game for me. No one else will convince me otherwise, Final Fantasy XII = Vagrant Story 2.

Knowing that XIII would be a long wait, I decided to go back in time, and Play VI.

It was good…… Very Good.

It became my favourite game.

I picked up III and IV for the DS, and played V via Emulator.

And then, 2 days ago, Final Fantasy XIII arrived.

I was worried about this game, to be frank. I was disappointed in the over-analysis that most reviewers took on board when playing it, rather than actually trying to enjoy the game. I tried to enjoy the game. I tried to return to the mindset that I had been in 11 years ago. Disregarding the Internet community’s opinions, I decided to actually play the fucking game, unbiased, unknowing and very afraid.

NOTE: As you may gather from the preface, I am a HUGE Final Fantasy fan. It is my favourite series of games and as such, you wouldn’t be wrong for thinking that I might be biased. Rest assured, I am looking at this game cleanly. For the next hour in writing this, I’m not a Final Fantasy Fan. I’m just a Gamer.

NOTE 2: I have NOT completed the full game yet, and as such, do not know the ending. I am about 15 hours into the game.

FIRST IMPRESSIONS: At first glance, it seems that the series has returned to the futuristic setting so commonly associated with Final Fantasy VII and VIII. It looks like it has gone back to characters that look more Anime based than anything else. The combat system looks Interesting, and a bit confusing. The music sounds different, but has potential.

GAMEPLAY  

 
“I think we’re gonna need a bigger Ultima Weapon”

Boss theme – Final Fantasy IX

Combat:

The Final Fantasy series’ vast array of combat systems, be it Job’s in III, ATB in IV or Junctioning in VIII, all owe themselves to one Man. Hiroyuki Ito.

He did not design the combat system in this game.

This seemed to discourage many, but after seeing the E3 trailer so long ago, the battle system looked to Intriguing to ignore.

Instead of controlling 3 characters, you may have full control over only 1, only being able to shift the other characters Paradigm’s (see below).

The battle system is based on Ito’s ATB gauge used in Final Fantasy’s IV-IX, but altered. Throughout the battle, a bar fills up (like in the old games) only this time, you can link together various attacks depending on how much of the bar is filled.

Say that the bar is only half filled. Then you many only be able to execute 2 “Attack” commands, whereas if the Bar is filled to the end, you will be able to execute 3. There are potentially hundreds of combinations for battle with this system. Along with this comes the “Stagger” feature, an essential part of XIII’s battle scheme. When landing a number of attacks on a certain individual enemy. They will become “Staggered” and the amount of damage dealt to the monster will go up considerably. This becomes the only way to fight in some battles. Along with this comes the “Paradigm Shift” function. Paradigm’s are, basically, Jobs. There are 6 to choose from. Commando, Ravager, Medic, Sentinel, Synergist and Saboteur. Each Paradigm has its own battle scheme, be it physical attack’s, magic attack’s or healing magic. Each of the 6 playable characters may shift between Paradigms during battle with the L1 button, allowing for a lot of variety when battling.

Then of course, there’s the Summoning. Eidolon’s return from VI and IX to help out. Upon capturing an Eidolon, you may bring it to battle to help, or initiate “Gestalt Mode” (Gestalt being one of the many series tributes). In this mode you bond with the Eidolon in question to initiate a variety of attack’s based on, yet another bar.

If you have No idea what I have just described in the preceding paragraphs, don’t be alarmed. The game has well placed tutorial’s at various sections of the game explaining the system.

The battle system can get a bit confusing at times, sometimes you may have accidentally shifted Paradigm’s when you meant to use an Ability, but the potential that the battle system has is without Limit. So far I have found the battle’s engrossing and, above all, challenging. The battle’s last much longer than in previous Final Fantasy’s. The only negative I have encountered (so far) is that the familiar “Fanfare” music is absent from the game. Also, while it’s not a complaint more than a note, you are healed after every battle, entering a new one with full health every time. The Rating system is strange and unnecessary and the Boss battle’s are slightly easier than regular monsters.

Rating: 9/10

Field:

Final Fantasy’s I-VI were 2D. Final Fantasy’s VII-IX were 3D with pre-rendered backgrounds. Final Fantasy X got rid of the fixed camera as the camera moved with you. XII allowed full control of the camera. In XIII the camera is, once again fully controllable, but to a lesser extent that XII. You run through sections like so many other Final Fantasy’s and encounter Enemies and Intractable Items along the way. Upon meeting an enemy, you are transported to the Battle screen, so there is no fighting on the field like in XII.

Jumping returns from Final Fantasy X-2 in an effort to “recreate the feel of Advent Children” as Tetsuya Nomura put it. The jumps this time around are much more fantastic and unreal. On the field there is much happening, be it ships crashing, NPC’s running or Environments crumbling at your feet. Save points are very regular this time around as well. The characters you travel with walk, and most times run at your side, ahead or behind you. They also utter lines of dialogue in the process, creating a very nice and un-empty atmosphere.

One thing to note is the Linearity of the field and most importantly, the lack of towns or settlements in the game. The path in the field does diverge off into sections, but area’s such as the Calm Lands in Final Fantasy X are nowhere to be found in this game (yet). Also, from what I have heard, there is not as many sidequests as most other entries in the series.

Rating: 8/10

Everything else:

The Character progression system is known as ‘’The Crystalarium”. Much like the sphere grid in Final Fantasy X, after each battle you obtain CP or Crystal points. These points can be spent on the Crystalarium. After choosing which Paradigm of the Crystalarium you want to develop, you are taken to a grid in which you can learn new abilities and gain new stats at the cost of CP. Each character’s Crystalarium is different, and so the Customizing gets pretty interesting.

You can also upgrade your weapons and Accessories at save points by converting items that you find on your trip into EXP for the Weapon. Once a certain EXP in a weapon has been reached, the weapon will gain a level, featuring new stats and sometime abilities.

The Crystalarium is a very User-friendly and colourful system, and the Weapon Upgrade system is cool, if a bit underwhelming.

Rating: 9/10

TOTAL GAMEPLAY SCORE:  9/10

CHARACHTERS /STORY /ATMOSPHERES

“Lightling comes off as a female version of Cloud Strife”

Terra’s theme – Final Fantasy VI

Characters (Brief):

Lightning – A young woman of about 20 who works for the Guardian Corps of Coccoon. When she learns that her Sister, Serah,  is an l’Cie, she sets to save her from the Purge. She boards an l’Cie train in order to sabotage the Purge.

Snow – Serah’s Fiancée and leader or resistance group NORA. He fight’s the Sanctum’s troops in a bid to save the l’Cie during the Purge.

Vanille – A Happy, Bright girl who is very mysterious. Her reasons for being in the Purge are not explained.

Sazh – A Cheerful man with a Chocobo living in his head. He seems to know much about the fal’Cie. His reasons for being at the Purge are Unknown.

Hope – A Young boy who was mistaken for an l’Cie along with his mother and brought to the Purge. After witnessing the Death of his mother, he is looking to wrack up enough courage to confront Snow about his true feelings.

Yun Fang – A Mysterious woman working for The Sanctum, despite bearing a hidden l’Cie mark.

Story (Brief):

The story of Final Fantasy XIII revolves around the fal’Cie, god-like deities that posses mighty abilities. The game is set on Coccoon, a “Paradise” above the “Hell” that is Gran Pulse below. The fal’Cie choose people to carry out a task known as a “Focus”.  These chosen few are known as “l’Cie”. If an l’Cie fail’s to carry out said Focus, they get turned into a “Cie’eth”, a fate worse than death. The game begins in the middle of “The Purge” in which the Government of Coccoon “The Sanctum” take all l’Cie and execute them under the guise of exile. Lightning and Snow both try to save Serah, and Sazh, Hope and Vanille seemed to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. The 5 were chosen to be l’Cie and must now live with the knowledge that they must complete a Focus, or be turned into a Cie’eth.

Atmosphere:  

The game’s presentation is one of great Magnitude. Besides the massive Mythology behind the story and Mystery behind the Characters, the whole World is magnificent to experience. The well detailed cutscenes and colossal Environments lend a sense of beauty only found in games like The Wind Waker and Okami. Much of the game is comprised of Cutscenes which may put some Gamers off, but this inevitably lends itself to an overall Cinematic feel. This kind of Atmosphere is also seen in Metal Gear Solid 4.

While much of the game is devoted to Storytelling and Cutscenes, they are always interesting and compelling to watch, unlike in previous Fantasies such as X and XII. The Story is Grand, but can seem a bit too overwhelming, and hard to memorize. The characters can sometimes be annoying, but ones like Vanille are just so cheerful and Exuberant that you have to love them.

This is by no means up to par with the storylines found in previous fantasies, but if you can keep yourself from comparing the games while playing you’ll find the experience enriching and exhilarating.

Overall: 7/10

GRAPHICS

“The environments are amazing”

I can say, without a doubt in my mind, that this is the greatest looking game graphically I have ever seen. The HD Graphics seen in this game can have you staring at the screen for hours. The keen attention to detail on the field map, to the fantastic effects used in the battle screen all lend itself wonderfully to the overall experience. The inclusion of a moveable camera was an essential move, as it helps you observe every single nook and cranny of the world. The character designs were well thought out and executed, as Noumra’s familiar character design returns. It might have been interesting to see Yoshitaka Amano’s take on Character design, especially with such Graphical power at his disposal, but it’s nice to see some familiarity in the series.

Rating: 10/10

MUSIC

“Wait, what?”

One of the most important things to pay attention to when making a Final Fantasy game is the Music. Anyone who denies Uematsu’ influence on the series would need some great arguments. Sadly, Uematsu hasn’t composed a Final Fantasy soundtrack since X. Instead we have Masashi Hamauzu who you may remember composed the Music of Final Fantasy VII: Dirge of Cerberus. It’s a pity to say that while his music does lend itself to the atmosphere in its own way, it lacks the familiarity and emotion that Uematsu’s music so beautifully contained. While to some people the Music will not be that big a deal, other’s may distance themselves from the game for this reason. X-Factor (KILL, KILL, KILL) winner Leona Lewis sings the main theme, “My Hands”. While I feel compelled to rip the track to pieces, it seems the only memorable piece in the game besides the battle theme. And in fairness to Leona Lewis, she can actually sing (Not like most Popular Singers today)

 
Main theme

My hands – Leona Lewis

Rating: 6/10

OVERALL:

 
“I iz in ur Afro, cuter than evar”

So far, I am enjoying the game very much. Playing it as I played Final Fantasy VII all those years ago really pays off and lends itself to the overall experience. I reckon I will be at this game for a good while. The bitter feeling that was left in my mouth as a result of XII is finally gone with this entry of the series. It’s well deserving of the title “Final Fantasy” and I hope it will be well received by gamers everywhere. Its a pity that Critics are overanalyzing the game so much, Game’s are not made to analyzed, they’re meant to be played!!

Overall Game Result: 8/10 (As of review conducted 12 March 2010)

Until next time folks, happy trails and happy gaming

Terra away!!!!!

The Eye of Judgement Legends is, at its roots, a turn bases collectors card game.  And a very deep and immersive one at that.  Not many of them around excluding Magic: The Gathering on XBLA.  But it, surprisingly to me, relys heavily on a strong story system that drives the player onwards using his divine powers to overcome forces of evil.

After a tutorial and a couple of battles the menu screen will display – Story, Battle Arena, Card Shop, Deck Manager, Library and Network so it goes deeper than just the battles allowing you to custimise your deck with cards bought from the card shop or from trading with other PSP owners.

The player will try to monopolise a nine squared playing board with summons using Mana (the curreny of magic).  If all squares are occupied by a single player they win.  Another key way to victory is to put the game in a state of check, similar to chess, and subsequently kill an opposing summon on your next turn.  There are also spell cards which will alter play e.g. turn a summon around or remove opposing summons.  All this combined with the fact that the squares are all divided up into elements, as are your cards, results in a very deep and engaging battle system with endless possibilities and outcomes.

The game ensures you attempt to use skill and intellegence to overcome the enemy and from time to time a character pop-up with speech text will keep the story rolling and deliberately sustain your interest.  Graphically the game is gorgeous and rules of engagement are clear after a few attempts, although you will continue to learn and grow in capability through the entire game.

There is also a single battle option whereby you can earn money to buy cards or win them.  If you have played Magic on or off a console you may be surprised to know it has a worthy contender in the form of Sony’ Eye of Judgement.  Such a polished game and no need to bother holding a card under a camera folly as in its PS3s counterpart.  Captivating dark immersive story backed up with a well structured and deep battle system with lots of customisation and progression elements.  Its almost a must but I’d buy it anyway.  One of the best.

The Valor Massive, init

Before I get into the nitty-gritty of the review, let me say why I waited until a week or two after release to post my thoughts. The main one is the structure of the game. At first, you begin your game with default kits and what-not, and go into a still-rather-epic 64 man series of matches. This gives you the chance to learn the often awkward layout of controls – even for hardened FPS veterans on the console. Once you rank up a bit (ranking is handled much in the same way it is in most online shooters, giving you XP points with which to grade your character and level up to unlock new weapon upgrades etc.) the game will open up to the Acquisition mode, giving you a chance to play with 128 players. Then finally, at level 8, you reach the plateau of 256 man online warfare. With this leveling system in mind, I decided it was worth playing through the title with the community before reviewing it. 256 people is the key sales pitch, and there’s no point in me dissecting a title where I cannot experience this first hand.

The game is set in the year 2025, a world where full-scale armed forces have been scaled back to provide national security alone, rather then going to war. To protect the world and give it peace, no army is allowed to leave its own borders. World peace ensues, but if Hideo Kojima has taught us anything, it’s that PMC’s (Private Military Corporations) will rise from the ashes of peace. The PMCs compete for contracts, always trying to undercut each other, thus leading to a global war. This began the “Shadow War” as they tried to run each other out of business by straining supplies and raising budgets. MAG revolves around three powerful PMC factions – Raven, SVER and Valor which all fight for supremecy of the war economy.

Your first move as a new recruit into MAG is to join a side. Much like an MMO like Eve or WoW, this faction will be yours for the remainder of your gametime. This gives you an affinity with the team and ideally helps you gain lifelong comrades with which to fight alongside. The three factions are evenly split, with cosmetics being the only real difference. Raven is a high-tech European based PMC, while SVER is the obligatory (for this type of game) Russian-type faction and Valor is the Americanised band of ex-mercenary types.

Most people have been joining the factions their friends are in, but the lack of ability to run two or more accounts in the game means you never really get to experience “the other side”. This means there’s a potential that you could join a faction and then find your friends are in another one, and as such can never join together in a party to play on the same team. On top of this, Zipper Interactive have said countless times over that each faction would be fairly balanced. Thanks to our American cousins getting Gamestop pre-order goodies at launch, a vicious spiral of dominance has come from SVER as most of the players who had pre-ordered for free SVER unlocks were far better then anyone else at the start of the game. Then their quick progression through the ranking system meant they have consistently kept the game out of balance. Two weeks on, this issue has not been addressed. It’s hard to see Zipper being able to fix this without over-balancing the other factions, or under-balancing SVER to counter-act their dominance. One can only assume they’re hoping time will iron this out.

Seeing this in motion is something to behold in a game

Kills, assists, healing and repairing in a match all gain you XP. With XP comes skill points, which can be “spent” in the game to improve your skills and equipment. For example, I have bought such items as a red-dot scope on my machine gun and the ability to run for longer periods of time. Unlocks come in “tiers” which are only available when you spend a certain amount of skill points in the previous tier. Thus ensuring no one player is far out-skilled compared to his team or enemies. Which is exactly what happened with the Gamestop unlocks for SVER.

The game is split into a few game types. Suppression is introductory deathmatch-style game type. Here, PMCs fight amongst themselves instead of each other to challenge new players. After some ranking up, you can play in Sabotage, which asks factions to capture or defend two control points. When the attackers control two points, a third objective opens up, which the attackers must destroy. Acquisition seems to be the fan favourite, however. Here the attacking faction must capture enemy prototype vehicles and take them to transport choppers. Each of these modes are simple tit-for-tat modes with a defending and attacking team. Most of which helps gamers learn what to do with MAG in the ever-increasing player count maps.

The main mode, however, is Domination. These matches are crucial to the game’s “Shadow War,” and each match will contribute to the success of each PMC on a persistant world map. 256 players are split into various platoons and squads, and each one will have its own attack or defense objective. Victory is obtained as determined by the amount of damage given/sustained, depending on the map. With so many players in the game at any given time, it seems to break down into individual battles as squads and platoons battle each other in pockets of the map.

Commanders control various options in the game which help the troops on the ground. Spawn locations can be mobile, with players capable of spawning within moving APCs, strategically placed helicopters and most impressively, you can spawn in an AC-130 and parachute into the map. Seeing a platoon jump out of a plane and land on the map is amazing. And when defending against them, shooting wildly into the air you really have to catch a breath and realise just how massive the scale of this game is.

As epic and wild as this game is, it is certainly not the prettiest example of a shooter. A lot of migrating fans frustrated by Modern Warfare 2′s online modes or Killzone 2 fans looking for something new and dependable will feel at home with the controls, but perhaps may feel a little cheated by the lack of graphical flare. It’s doable, but by no means pretty.

The maps are biblically huge in scale

Success and failure often hinges on how well a team is communicating. A chain of command allows a clear communication path all the way from the top down to the grunts on the ground, allowing a strategic plan to unfold. Often this doesn’t work out when players ignore commands and run off to do their own thing. At the same time, without listening and paying acute attention to what’s going on, it’s incredibly easy to get confused. Not least because the HUD (heads up display) is utterly confusing and unhelpful at the best of times. For example, nearby action is shown on the HUD with a white flash hinting at the direction of the firefight. Often your screen gets filled with these white flashes as the action is consistent and almost everywhere around you. A yellow flash indicates someone is shooting directly at you, with red letting you know that indeed, you’ve been shot. The HUD-map itself is useful for spotting enemy clusters and figuring out where your squad is, but can be useless when dictating what objectives are required. Often it seems too much is required of you, and thus the squad system falls apart as squads are not focusing on simple, localised tasks in the game. Having said that, when communication does flow and a team works together well, this game is fantastic.

One of the biggest shames, however, is that you cannot opt to stay in a game party with people once a round has ended. This is unless they are your friends on PSN and you’ve buddied up in a party system, with one player becoming the leader and loading everyone into a game mode and server. This works well, but it would still be nice for servers to go into a map rotation with the same player list, thus avoiding dumping every player out into their own menu systems only to re-join a randomly selected player list on a random map. This becomes tedious and annoying, not least because you often find yourself playing on the same map over and over again with no option to choose a different map, or even veto the one the server has selected.

Glitches exist in the game, too. This is to be expected but can be rather annoying after the lengthy BETA period this game had. One such glitch is occasionally falling out of a plane without a parachute. You then get a suicide point deduction which is pointless and if you’re having a bad game could disparage you from continuing to play, or just send you back to MW2 or Killzone. Sometimes, too, you can end up waiting a while for a list of players to populate the three faction required to make up the 256 man game. This can be frustrating, and if the game is taking time to populate lists now, I can only wonder what it’ll be like in a few months after the dust has settled on the marketing and rival games like Battlefield have hit the retail shelves.

Overall this is a good game, and the Shadow War aspect could lead to an interesting future for this title. It’s absolutely worth having a look at, even if it’s just for the sheer spectacle of having 256 people run around without having a big performance hit on the system. I’ve had a lot of fun playing through this game and unlocking new items and ranking up has given me even more incentive to continue playing. Thus making it, essentially, Playstation’s first proper foray into the murky world of MMO game types. Whether the community stays is really a question of how much upkeep this title will get. No doubt further DLC is due, but with that they cannot alienate the gamers who do not choose to purchase it. Some tweaking to the community and party system is needed to make this a real rival to Killzone, Battlefield or MW2 online, but this is certainly a good start for the Shadow Wars.

Upon booting the game you will be thrown into a tutorial level where you will learn the basics of the game – movement, customisation and how to apply stickers.  As with the PS3 version Stephen Fry will guide you through the level with a slightly patronizing tone – if you’re over the age of ten.  When completed you will be directed to the beginning of the story mode which starts down under in The Land of Oz (lots of kangaroo and koala mechanics set in a kind of scorched landscape).

Essentially Little Big Planet is a puzzle platformer, at least as far as the story goes, so you will continue to be thaught how to deal with its many mind benders - push this, pull that, swing from this and bounce over that.  At the end of each level you will receive your score consisting of how many bubbles you have collected and specific criteria you have met.  You will also be shown a level percentage complete and heres where the replay value really comes in.

On the surface LBP comes across as a title for the younger generation, and it is, but it also contains a deeper and more challenging aspect that will satisfy the older gamer if he/she takes the time to delve into the trickier part of the levels.  The main menu consists of four areas being the story or campaign, then theres a section which will allow you to browse and explore other peoples created levels and download them if you wish.  Theres also a section whereby you can customise sackboy and catch up on all the latest news about the game.

The third section is the level creation section which really makes Little Big Planet what it is and unique.  Here you can spend hours designing your own puzzles for other people to play or just design a level you like.  This is a game that you’re gonna either love or hate.  Initially it might seem pointless but on closer inspection you can really appreciate that SCE have tried to create a different gaming experience than anything else out there.

The worst thing you could do is immediately disregard Little Big Planet as it contains a unique, deep and immersive type of gameplay if you just take the time to unravell the many perplexing features it has to offer.  You will need to spend a lot of time to find your way around it but it will reward you and give a sense of accomplishment like any good game should.  3.5/5