I promised it, so here it is, a 'moderately' in depth review of Condemned 2 (yes, I shelled out the big bucks for you, populace! Be grateful!) I actually haven't played this game on the PS3 as the cover art may imply, but from reliable sources (IGN, Gamespot) they are both supposed to be equal is game. Besides, most reviews I've made have 360 cover art, even though they have PS3 counterparts.

Saying fps horror has a new face would be inaccurate-- how about no face at all?

Comdemned 2: Bloodshot
Publisher: SEGA
Developer: Monolith Productions
Players: 1-8
Genre: Survival horror FPS

You are Ethan Thomas, once an SCU(special something something forces) investigator. Now, your an alcoholic, and with a real pissy attitude. Your called back to action when your former partner has gone missing. Not only must you find your partner and solve many more murders, but you must battle your own inner demons as well and discover a truth so demented and sick that you will never see it coming...

The truth is both disturbing and awesome...
For my part I haven't really seen many a horror game that has an interesting story. Or many a horror game in general to be honest (Jericho and Doom 3 aside). So I was reluctant to try out Condemned 2, but the demo won me over. Aaaaannyway, Bloodshot's storyline is probably the most compelling reason to keep coming back to this game 'til the very end. Without revealing too much, the storyline actually seems less of a horror storyline and more of a mystery movie. Don't worry, its plenty scary for more reasons, but I'll get to that. The story is told in a way that makes the player consciously or unconsciously (thats right, it ****s up your mind, fool!) try and guess what happens next in the story. The best part is that your more then likely gonna be wrong, which serves to make the storyline much more compelling as you try to figure stuff out ahead of time (only to be wrong). The storyline itself is wacky, but takes itself so seriously it becomes like Ninja Gaiden-- crazy, but serious enough that it makes the player serious. For instance, in the first game (which I haven't actually played) you track down a serial killer nicknamed SKX. In Bloodshot, you go from solving a crime and trying to figure out whats happening to you and the city to, well....lets just say it goes from 1980's time periods to that of a sci-fi movie. None of this takes away too badly from the story, but it does make it a bit harder to truly get into. Still, it all is great and leaves a great amount of room for the third game. Oh, and did I mention, your steadily going insane in Bloodshot? Must have missed that... Now the atmosphere of Bloodshot is near flawless. it knows the perfect times throw psycho bandits at you and the perfect time to build crazy levels of suspense. Like when you explore the SCU building, and lights flicker while you simply see inhuman shadows for instance. Even the house levels will make you turn every single corner twice before you enter a room. The atmosphere in Bloodshot is a marvel of the horror genre, and a much needed improvement over those lame horror games where they rely on surprise as the sole factor in making a game scary. As far as menus go, your character sees the menus on his pocket computer, a bit of a nice change from the standard 'press start to see the bland, sideways menu' of most games. They are easy to read and navigate as well. I've had connection issues in multiplayer, but its more because hardly anyone playing it then anything else.


Ethan Thomas is no longer the shining beacon of joy he was in Condemned 1

Tar, tar, everywhere...
Condemned sure looks great sometimes. The splattered walls, the psychotic villains and especially the tar monsters (see? Sega made a tribute to Scooby-Doo-- that means some people DO still like that show!) who tear themselves out of the tar covered walls. The lighting effects are great at most times, and the flashlight is much needed. However, there are a few rooms and hallways, specifically in the beginning and end which are stupidly dark. These rooms are very rare, but getting attacked by 3 creatures in the dark sure can be annoying(very). The bloody and torn textures of flesh and blood in the game is sickeningly spot-on. The weapons and textures are great, and the splatting of enemies heads against your feet (or bludgeon) splat gloriously bloody. The enemies differ from one another, and few enemies look alike. The faceless Oros are great looking enemies, although getting close enough to study one without being beat up may be a challenge. However, a lot of times they just look kind of messy, but for the most part they look just like psychotics would-- scars and blood stains included. Environments are very well done, most noticeably being the run down state of the city. You truly get the feeling that the city is being turned onto ...

Bored. Review.

Frontlines: Fuel of War
Publisher: THQ
Developer: Kaos Studios
Players: 1-50 (good lord)
Genre: Tactical FPS

Frontlines: Fuel of War bases around the idea of a third World War that is caused by a lack of oil and gasoline around the world. (sound familiar?) 2 major factions and four countries are included in this war: U.S. and Britain vs. China and Russia, the Western Coalition and the Red Star Alliance respectively. You are in the shoes of a soldier who, like many others, is caught in this war and speculates on all areas of the war, including the idea that the entire war is based on a conspiracy theory. Who knows...

Oil the Glorious
The entire story for this game is base on the idea that soon (in 2008) the world will erupt into a full scale war over the few remaining deposits of oil left on earth. The best part about this story is the possibility that this could happen. The idea of (in todays world) people fighting over oil in a global war isn't totally unforeseeable. Anyway, the story centers on oil, and the two factions (the RSA and WC) are warring over this. Overall, the story is basically another war story, except slightly futuristic and with a small amount of character development. (most of your teamates die fairly quickly) Honestly, there isn't that much to story. Menus work fine, but loading times are sometimes a little long. Multiplayer is glorious. 50 player online matches in massive arena based warfare. The connections for online? So far so good, I haven't ever noticed any connection errors, even in massive battles. A little bit of lag though when the going gets insanely large. Respawning is a pain in the a**.....



All of them soldiers, all of them lifeless


War doesn't look all too bad...
Frontlines certainly does look good sometimes. Explosions are gloriously, well, explosive, and they work nice. The main problem with this game graphically is that in the massive outside arenas seem to actually have no textures on them until you get very close up. In other words, the textures pop up AFTER you get close, which diminishes the spectacular view of massive war greatly. Pop in for buildings and models happen, but the game cleverly disguises this as saying the its due to the fog and the players (apparent) bad eyesight. Character models, while not exactly Call of Duty 4, work fine, but look very bland close up. Rainbow Six vegas this ain't. Bullet effects and fire seem both primitive and well done at the same time. (don't ask how, just watch it.)



Frontlines does have its moments, but for the most part it falls flat


Sorry sir, lip sync is not a-go.
Sound. Dialog among the characters is well done, if a bit choppy in campaign mode. A good bit of the dialog focuses on the characters thoughts about the war and the missions they are doing. but to be honest, none of it is memorable, and lip sync could have been much better. Sound effects are well presented, from bullet firing to explosions. The whir of a sentry coming in for a kill is sometimes a bit annoying, as you hear them as being a good for meters away, then boom. Your suddenly dead. You can't so much trust you ears when it comes to remote controlled vehicles in the game. I don't even remember whether or not there was music in the game (which should tell you something about the soundtrack.)


50 player online battles? GOOD ****!
While story mode is rather unimpressive, multiplayer makes up for it rather well. First off the bat you'll notice the MASSIVE battles of 50 players in equally massive battlefields. Theres so much strategy behind team work in this game that people don't even see. For instance, a Special Ops guy could load your vehicle up with C4 to have you bail out of the vehicle right as it collides into another tank and tell the guy to detonate his C4. Or for a less strategic note, get two of your friends into a well-known hiding spot as close combatants, and basically herd your enemies into the area where your friends do the rest. Now speaking of vehicles. The controls for the vehicles are bad, even worse then GTA IV. other then that, vehicles are also insanely overpowered. If your enemy is in a tank, it doesn't matter if you can get a rocket off on his tank. At best it'll only take a third of his health down and by that time you'll be blown to Jupiter. Same goes for all vehicles. The class system works. The only thing is that you'll almost never see ANYONE playing as close combat, i.e. the shotgun class. People who play as the sniper class are doomed too. The Sniper takes at least 2 HEADSHOTS to kill someone, where as the assault rifle (the machine gun class) has the same accuracy as the sniper rifle with the same damage. Still, all these work in the hands of decent players. Multiplayer is the best part of the game, easily. ...

I haven't been reviewing lately, but you can thank exams for that. Afterward, look forward to a review for Condemned 2: Bloodshot, Ninja Gaiden II, DBZ: Burst Limit and The Bourne Conspiracy.

Samurai Warriors 2
Publisher: KOEI
Developer: Omega Force
Players: 1-2
Genre: Action Adventure

I really hope feudal Japan wasn't this boring. Onimusha would have a fit.

I remember the glorious days of Dynasty Warriors 4 and 5, their best years ever. Back then they had new ideas, but old executions, which were fine for that time (they weren't overused....yet.) Even the Original Samurai Warriors was half bad. And then KOEI went and vomited out Dynasty Warriors 5: Extreme Legends. Then they excreted DW5: Empires. But they weren't even close to satisfied with rubbing their game's name in mud. They then threw out SW2:E.

These Samurai should commit an "honorable" suicide.
Lets face it: Whenever a game relies on a single gimmick (not console, I said when a GAME does this) it 90% of the time falls straight on its face. Samurai Warriors 2: Empires is no different. However, unlike DW, this SW game doesn't even do that gimmick right; that is, throwing hordes of mindless soldiers that all seem to look like Mexican Matt Damons at you. While its fun for the first 10 minutes, those Mr. Damongonzales's start to get very annoying. Very, Very annoying. Combos hardly even start until late in the "game". And even when they do, all you do is press the X button about 5 times, do it again, do it again...Oh! Musou attack. Ok now then. X5...X5....O....X5... which gets beyond tedious, and extremely unfulfilling. Another part of the game that DW did that SW's crashes (and burns) on is officer fights. While DW manages to make these even slightly challenging (possibly even...fun....) the officers (aka mini bosses) are just as mindless as the pissants you run through the whole game. They simply have more health, and don't look like Senior Damon. Absolutely all parts of the "strategy that the game is thinly based on a complete rubbish. When you issue an order, you comrades follow it, but do about nothing else afterwards. You tell them to guard a base, so they go to the base, but don't defend it. Just kinda stand around looking all Japanese-like. Finally, the idea of governing your territories is boring and unnecessary. And with only 26 characters, all who are absolutely boring to play as (with the exception to Nene and Hanzo), you will most likely lock this game in a crate and throw it to the bottom of a river. To which i say: Please don't. Should in the future some alien race finds this game in that crate and plays it, it will almost surely make them attack and destroy the earth for creating such awful "games".

Hello Mr. Samurai, nice pop-in we're having today!
Onto graphics. The only semi-decent graphical thing in this game is the character models (Excluding Mr.Damon-Gonzales.) While they do their thing (with glitchy animations) on screen, it becomes increasingly obvious that the devs for this game just don't want you looking at backgrounds, and for good reason. This game has less stairs and level elevation changes then Wolfenstein 3D (for those of you who don't know, it didn't HAVE level changes.), so you'll be spending some to all of your time on a level surface. Occasionally there will be some pots of boxes which you can break with an attack, usually resulting in nothing whatsoever. Even when you do, the boxes just kinda fade away and don't even break. Almost every type of 3D building or whatever in the game is simply a texture slapped on the side of a box. Really, theres not even that much to even CRITICIZE in this game. Graphics are below poor.

Japanese style-soundtrack? Honestly, I hope not, for Japan's sake.
SW2: E sports a self-proclaimed Japanese style soundtrack to pummel countless Mexican warriors to. While its not really so bad, its easily forgettable and doesn't really fit the mood at all. That, combines with the ridiculously incoherent dialogue issuing from the NPC's mouths all game long really makes you want to mute the TV. Terrible sound effects. However, once in a blue moon a character or two will have a good voice over for crappy dialogue. Does that compensate? Heres another one: Does ice cream make aliens come to earth and dance the disco every Thursday night at every burger king across the US? If so, then yes, it does compensate.

Even samurai won't play this through again.
If you like this fecies, then you have the ride of your life; tons of story modes that all have the same characters doing the EXACT same thing over and over. If you don't, this game has no replay value.


Lets get to it then! (Thanks for standing still!)

Presentation: 1/5
You wonder why theres no paragraph on this? Because there is no ...

Bioshock
Publisher: 2K Games
Developer: Irrational games (2K Boston)
genre: First-Person Shooter
Players: 1

I've been wanting to do this review for a while, but its a little outdated. Still, I have alot of friends out there who really aren't sure about the title, so here goes to clear some things up.


The first person shooter genre has just been made.

Where to begin...wow. Eh-herm, Bioshock is a FPS that takes place in an underwater Utopia named Rapture. Built in the late 1940's to escape the threat of another world war and possibly nuclear war, Rapture was once a thriving utopia of brilliant scientist, athletes, artists, and the best mankind had to offer. However, all good things must come to an end, and Rapture proves that statement to be more then simply a saying. With the invention of Adam and plasmids, the world of Rapture grew greedy and lustful, ultimately bringing itself down to the depths it was created in.

Welcome to Rapture
The story behind the game (without revealing spoilers) is that your plane crashes in the mid-atlantic ocean. Upon crashing, you find a building which transports you to the devastated and war-torn land of Rapture. There you embark on a journey of discovery, betrayal, revenge, and get caught in the middle of a feud between two of the most influential powers in Rapture.
The storyline in Bioshock is simply one of the greatest ever achieved in a video game. This epic tale of a once-utopia underwater city is original in itself. However, the true brilliance of the plot comes into focus by the way its told. Its subtle yet obvious mode of story telling creeps to the player through every subliminal way you can imagine-- posters, audio tapes, statues, even the water on the ground to the psychotic quotes from the splicers. Everything about the atmosphere is perfect. The slow leaking of the ocean water into Rapture makes you almost feel as though the city could be under taken any minute. The blood on the wall and corpses propped in horrid positions show that the inhabitants aren't only vicious, but utterly insane-- a side effect due to the bio-engineering that is plasmids and splicing. The entire world of Rapture springs to life in a way of dead silent corners and gives you the feeling that this must have been a truly great place before its fall. The subtitles, on the other hand, are a total mess. They work fine, but appear either too late or too early. Despite this, the world of Rapture is one, if not the, most stunning world ever created in a video game.

Bioshock, the Beautiful
When it comes to visuals, Bioshock is still one of the best out there, bar none. Still lagging behind Gears of War, the visuals for Bioshock are great; everything from the amazing flame effects to the epic water effects. textures are perfectly presented, however, some textures seem to repeat more then others, but only in the most minute of ways. Character models truly show the player just what happened to the citizens of Rapture (heck, if I looked like them I'd be crazy too) It shows the splicing effects it has on regular human beings, and gives you even more clues to Raptures past and present. Character animations are near perfect, no need harping on that. Big Daddies are some of the greatest looking characters in any video game, anywhere. Still, some of the splicers look maybe a bit stranger then they should, and you can find the same splicer on more then one occasion. All gun effects, including plasmids are as best as they could be. The best the FPS genre has ever seen.



The lighting here is simply amazing


Symphony in the Water
The ambiance is Raptures single greatest feature. The drops of water, the psychotic rantings of splicers, or the busted whirring of the sentry bots add perfectly to the tense yet wondrous mood of the game. The sound of pistols firing, tommy guns blazing and rockets exploding into Big Daddie's helmets are spot on. Voice acting for everyone is only second to Mass Effect and GTA IV.(Well, maybe not GTA IV.) The 1940's style music is quite possibly the greatest part of the ambiance of Rapture. While not so subtle, it delivers the message constantly to the gamer that this is based in the early '60s, and that Rapture isn't your space-age utopia, like so many games before it. Even the Little Sisters and Big Daddies talk (and groan) in such ways that you might mistake those jumble of words for an actual conversation between the two. The symphony of Rapture plays without a single instrument (I'm gonna patent that quote)

Expanding the genre
The FPS genre has had a lot of AAA titles before it: Halo, Doom 3, System Shock 2 to name a few. But very few of those titles actually both perfected AND expanded on the genre the way Bioshock has. Bioshock fine tunes perfect gunplay with the strategic elements of ...

Well it looks like miniviews had a great run. They're just...game reviews now. Sigh. (You know they're still miniviews in heart though)

Two heads are better then one they say. How about two bona fide badasses? Yes I did just take this idea from ninja. its a good one.

Ahem....

Army of Two 360
Publisher: EA Games
Developer: EA Montreal
Genre: TPS
Players: 1-2

Army of Two promised something very few game had been able to do up to the time, and that was to bring out a game that centered almost wholly around co-op gameplay between two people. (gears was the closest thing to the point, but not quite. Get it?...nevermind...)Most everything about the game centers around your ability to work together in the game. Drop whatever you thought you knew from reviews, and listen up.

This game follows two characters, Salem and Rios, two mercenaries from a privatized military service. They will be forced to work together to overcome a massive conspiracy that very well could change the fate of entire nations.
And thats about all there is to a storyline. Not much (obviously) but this game tends to center more around character development then the center plot. the two main characters in particular have their own traits and qualities, however, they both sure do love to curse and beat down on each other. This isn't bad at all, as it shows them to have more then just a friendship but a brotherhood kinda deal. I don't care what the other reviews said, the characters acted perfectly fine and didn't seem too stereotypical at all, at least, without one of the characters pointing it out to the other. The characters, though, never really get built upon. They stay static and aren't so dynamic (as in, going from silent to emo in half a second. Cough *Cloud* cough.) Other then that, story doesn't exist too much. A big conspiracy threat, but its fine for this kind of game. Connection issues are almost non-existent, and co-op is great and balanced.

The graphics for this game aren't good, but they aren't at all bad. The game has decent lighting effects and gunshot reflections, and the textures are hit-and-miss. I did notice framerate issues, but it may have been due to internet connection errors from me or my friends connection(damn you DSL). Animation is good. its not great though, but for co-op parts the characters sometimes look crunched up with they're animations(such as step jumping and the guys foot goes through my hand.) Character models themselves look great. The faces down to their feet look great quality. No Gears, but still great.

The sound effects are rather on the meh side. Gunshots, rockets, explosions, they all work fine but nothing is memorable. Music works. Adrenaline pumping parts could have benefited from more fitting music, though. There really isn't much to say here, except that voice-overs were exceptionally well done. The dialogue, maybe, maybe not. but the voices were hit.(Who doesn't love Clyde's classic "****-o!"?)

Gameplay. The gunplay works great, thanks in large to a Rainbow 6 Vegas quality cover system. With regenerating health, your gonna need to take cover rather often, and if the cover system were less then good, hard mode would be near impossible. Co-op parts are implemented with great skill and care. maybe not with total innovation in mine, but still well done. Back-to-back gun battles are thrilling and tense, as your teamate has to work with you to make sure you don't die(I'll get to aggro in a sec.) For some of the lesser items, shielding and gunswap works great too. (Don't forget to press A near your teamate to do a praise movement, and the Trigger to smack him upside the head!) Theres one thing that you know was just put in there because they were running out of ideas: Co-op snipe. Total waste. they knew it too because they never make you use it! Also, taking after gears of war, if your partner runs out of life, they go down. You have to make your way over to them before they die. However, once your down, your not totally defenseless. You can shoot to take out close enemies while your teamate heals you.
Onto aggro, one of the biggest things in the game.(Not to mention one of the most successful.) You and your teamate have an aggro meter.(Short for aggresive meter) If you shoot them, you gain aggro and the enemies tend to focus on you, giving you buddy the ability to sneak behind them. Bigger guns means more aggro, so choose carefully. Likewise, if your friend has all the aggro your basically invisible to the enemy. If you or your friend get enough aggro, you can trigger an "Overkill" which temporarily puts things in slow motion for you, but you do 2X damage. Also, your buddy runs at normal speeds against the slow enemies who won't even attack him because they're focusing on you. All in all, co-op is this game great specialty. They scored on ...

This stuff:
Publisher: Rockstar
Developer: Rockstar
genre: Action Adventure
Players: 1
Online: 1-16
System: Xbox 360, also on PS3

Who knew crime could pay so well?

Yes...so it has arrived. GTA, possibly the single most controversial (no way! Really?) game series to ever exist adds its fourth entry to its amazingly long list of GTA titles. 4 years in development, it has suffered delays, bans, controversy, and annoying 40 year old who can't get a girlfriend so they have to bash videogames (Jackie T.) Enjoy.

Ahem....

GTA IV has you follow the anti-hero Niko after being called to America by your cousin Roman. Fresh off the boat, Niko soon learns that his cousin's claims to a life of leisure are all but lies. What does the American dream mean to newcomers now days? For this Russian its a life of crime, deception and drugs. Lots of drugs(warehouses full). Niko's dream of getting a fresh turns sour as he learns that you can't escape your past so easily....

Lets get to it then. The story is absolutely awesome. As you play it, the story gets deeper and deeper and ends up being almost movie quality. the story is rich, and each character has so much life and story to them that its truly some the greatest character development I've seen since TF2(lol.) The realism is astounding, which is actually my biggest problem with the game. Rest assures, I won't lower the score because of this, I just despise the uber-realistic gameplay issues. Driving a car is harder then in real life, so I really wouldn't call that realistic, so much as simply annoying. Other then that, characters almost never say the same line twice, and never look the same. Animations are spot on realistic (Thanks Euphoria) and the atmosphere feels just like a big city world.
As for online connections and menus, I have had a bit of trouble joining ranked matches(go figure) and our game rooms are constantly united with other rooms at random points while playing. Frustrating, yes, but just wait till I get to multiplayer...ahem. The cell phone is basically the only menu you use. While innovative, its not exactly cool or fascinating.(Its more boring then Wolfenstein 3Ds menus.) but it works perfectly fine. Which is good....ish.

Now for the graphics portion of the review. Cough....ahem. GTA IV may not sport some of the best graphics around (a la Gears of War) but it certainly sports some of the most spectacular. Explosions from cars and RPGs are simply stunning to watch, as well and the flame effects from the molotovs. The lighting is brilliant; reflections are perfect and the whole engine runs perfectly smooth with practically no framerate issues whatsoever. Well, almost none. Euphoria seems a little less then expected to my end(my friend told me it was so much more realistic then it is), but its still amazing. When you shoot somebody in whatever body part, they react to it perfectly. The problems I found with it are that animations for getting hit by a car are simply terrible. I did a cartwhell through the air and somehow [gracefully] fell with my neck somewhere by my foot with my arm twisted over my back Peter Griffin style. Then my foot was suddenly where it was supposed to be while getting up. beyond Euphoria glitches, animation is spectacular.

The sound is...I'll spare you small talk. it works, great. 200 songs on the radio(even if they all suck, come on? Its 200 REAL songs!) talk shows, comedy clubs, and the voice acting is the best I've heard since Mass Effect. Lip syncing isn't perfect, but with this much dialogue, it would be close to impossible. The crunches of cars, the booms of RPGs, the police sirens(annoying as hell--realistic, no?) all sound effects are great. The little quotes your person can say in multiplayer may fall flat (haha, didn't know you could do that eh? You can. Left Bumper.) but thats about all that does. Little Jacob is so perfectly undiscernable that even the characters in the game can't understand him.

Gameplay. Meh.(kidding, kidding,don't stone me...) Gameplay works very close to how other GTA games before it works. They have autoaim that simply locks on to targets, or a new free look aiming system. (Guess which one sucks?) Glitches are obviously present with the Autoaim, such as it targeting dead enemies instead of living or people 50 yards away rather then 5 feet away. Gunplay itself is great. the western style duels between Niko and thugs or what may come are some of the best moments in the game. Melee combat....hah. Kill me for this, but its extremely unresponsive. (Ok, block when he attacks to dodge...block--WTF?) Maybe thats why Rockstar basically threw that out the window when it comes to multiplayer. For good reason. The environment plays a huge part in most combat, greatly too. In car battles, the cars around you and everything else is absolutely important.
other ...

April 16, 2008 - In the brief history of the Xbox brand, the Microsoft manufactured consoles have not exactly been the place for Japanese RPGs. That has begun to change, but the introduction of a long running and adored franchise to the audience is still not a thing to be done without care. This is a whole new audience, but Namco Bandai feels confident that this entrant into the Tales series offers something to make new players take a look and packs more content than ever before to entice the old fans into the ride.

Tales of Vesperia takes place in a world controlled by a single empire. This is usually not a good thing and such is the case here. The main character, Yuri, comes from a poor district and is fighting to make changes and protect his brethren. He first tried becoming an imperial knight to work from within the system but now believes that doing what is best matters most, even if it brings you outside of the law. His childhood friend, Flynn, has a different sense of justice and is continuing to work with the imperial knights. From there, the adventure begins.



The demo we played took place roughly three or four hours into the game and, like many brief sessions with RPGs, raised more questions than it answered and offered little context. For instance, what is the deal with the pipe-smoking dog? Don't worry, we asked and found out. He's Yuri's companion and pretty darn good in a fight. The pipe is a memento from his old master. Now that we've got that out of the way, we can continue.

The 10-15 minute session was fairly standard in design. It began with a brief story sequence before moving off into the woods for some exploration and combat. There isn't much room to maneuver down the thin forest trails, though there were several side paths to poke around in and chests to find. It culminated in a boss battle that beat us into submission. It may look like a friendly game for children, but don't let that lower your guard.

Tsutomu Gouda, producer for the Tales series, consoled us after our defeat. "Thinking about the user base for the 360…we're thinking that a little bit harder challenge would be best for this game; harder than anything in the past in the series." He went on to explain that the difficulty should be just right for people who are familiar with the Tales battle mechanics and strategy, but will offer a good challenge for those who are new to the series. The goal is to create a sense of danger around boss battles that will force players to plan ahead and think things through.



Combat is all real-time in Tales of Vesperia and takes place in a battle arena separate from the overworld (the load time is near instantaneous between the two). You can pause the game to assign new Artes (special moves and spells) or use items, but the bulk of the action will go fast quite fast. When playing alone, the other members of your party act independently but can be assigned to ask permission before using items of worth. The game is more fun, though, when up to three others hop in at any time to take control of the other party members. The first player still controls the party outside of battle, but once the fight begins each team member calls their own shots. Due to this limited co-op structure, the team felt online co-op wouldn't be all that fun and decided to leave it out.

The Tales of Vesperia team is looking to make the visual style set itself apart from the majority of games that strive for a photorealistic look. "We think we've got really good in-game graphics that are nearly indistinguishable from the anime that Production I.G. is making for the game," said Gouda. And it does look quite good. Xbox 360 owners will notice that the art style is similar to Eternal Sonata, but purposefully leans towards a more hand-drawn look. The portions of the game that are anime shouldn't disappoint either. It's all being captured in HD for the best possible presentation.

All of the major story sections have voicework to go along with the text, but not every situation will have spoken word. It's also all in English for the US release with no option for Japanese dialogue. In terms of the soundtrack, Namco Bandai revealed that Bonnie Pink, a Japanese singer/songwriter, has composed and performed the theme song in both Japanese and English. The tune is called "Ring a Bell" and it was inspired by the characters and story from the game. The background music in the game is once again being done by Motoi Sakuraba, the composer for Symphonia and Abyss.

Namco Bandai plans to have Tales of Vesperia release as close to simultaneous as possible in Japan and the US in 2008. That's quite a big goal considering Tales of Vesperia is reportedly a bit longer than Tales of the Abyss, the previous biggest game in the series.

This is bittersweet. I'm happy that its coming ...

By that single small statement of Xulap's I reinstate thy miniviews in HH as well! Honestly, I didn't think anyone cared for them. Too bad on DCEmu they don't. Guess thats why the mods stopped bitching for a reviewer.

Aaaaannnnyway, an anticipated title thats been in production since the PS2, Dark Sector is the story of CIA operative Hayden Tenno who has been sent on an assassination mission in Lesria, Russia. A lunatic has been reportedly trying to smuggle a deadly virus into other nations. This is no normal virus, however. It not only rusts peoples skin to steel, but turns them into an undead, or worse. Hayden caught the virus on the mission, and somehow utilizes its power in the form of a glaive.

Graphics are disheartening for a title thats been in development for so long. The characters, specifically the main one, look great. Everything else, does not. Textures are on the bland side, and clipping issues weigh it down even more. Very little slowdown. But the reflections from gunshot and fire look great on Hayden. Animations are hit and miss. Some look great while others look...um...something.

The story itself is bland. It begins great, just got infected, don't know whats going to happen, don't know why your doing what you are...then gets generic. Your chasing down a baddie whose trying to spread a virus. Sound like a bad episode of Justice League? It should, its practically the exact episode. Still, the interests that surround this odd virus are rather compelling. But it gets far too repetitive half way through to really matter. The crypt levels are great, though. The ambiance and the fog, the moonlight and the tombs, they all make that level truly survival horror.

Sound is sound. The gunshots work, the screams are bloody, and the metal clanks. The cemetery levels really shine though. They're perfectly creepy. the zombies howl, the wind whistles, and you slice through demon dogs piercing snarls.

Gameplay is good. The glaive is really one of the only interesting parts of it, but gunfights work well, if not a little odd. (Aiming seems to work sometimes and other times fail.) Still, the half-assed finisher moves I could've lived without. They rely too heavily on your sense and desire for brutal deaths then interesting cutscenes. Honestly, they went a little too far on how much the enemies scream in pain. The puzzle elements are really just Zelda junior. In fact, if gears of War and Zelda had a really lazy kid, this would be it. The cover system works, but around the corner gunfights just aren't very good. And the fact that you can't pick up weapons because your "infected" is beyond annoying. Still your powers and your elemental-glaive really make it interesting. Zombies are fun.

So heres the verdict:

Presentation: 3.5/5
Boring storyline but decent menus and ambiance for some levels make it a mixed feeling. Not usually a good thing.

Sound: 4/5
Everything sounds like...well what it should. Nothing too interesting though, and music is there...I think.

Graphics: 3.5/5
Bad backgrounds meet good foreground. Let the battle of the century begin!

Gameplay: 4/5
Its alright, if not overused. The puzzle elements fall flat, though the cover system is alright. the glaive is quite fun.

Replay Value: 3.5/5
If you could bear the single player, try out multiplayer. I haven't really played it much, but I know you'll want to play it on hard mode again for the Achievements.

OVERALL:

Its not an 4 and not a 3.5. So I compromised. Really, we've seen it before and again and again. its just another shooter, but with a fun little melee weapon. It all works, though. ...

March 14, 2008 - Bandai Namco caused somewhat of an uproar with the announcement that its next major RPG would be coming to the Xbox 360 rather than more Japan-friendly systems like the PS3 or Wii. We're referring to, of course, Tales of Vesperia, which was first unveiled in a system TBA state at the Jump Festa event late last year and was only recently confirmed as a 360 game. The latest Famitsu offered a few new details through an interview with the game's key staff members, Yoshito Higuchi and Tsutomu Gouda.

You'll recognize these two as well as other members of the Vesperia staff from past Tales games. Gouda is the game's producer, having recently worked on starting up the Tales of Mobile series. Higuchi, former planner on Soul Calibur, director on Tales of Symphonia, and chief director on Tales of the Abyss, is serving as director of the game. The rest of the staff is comprised of people who worked on Symphonia and Abyss.

With the move to Xbox 360, were you hoping for an Online Tales game? Higuchi disclosed that the team gave up on the idea of having online players control various members of the battle party, thinking that because this would be their first Xbox 360 title, they shouldn't try to do too many new things. The game will have some online support, though, including online rankings for battle hit counts and mini games.

Those who do like playing multiplayer can rest assured that Vesperia will, like past entries in the series, allow multiple local players to take control of your battle party members.

Another area of online compatibility under consideration are Marketplace item downloads. Both Higuchi and Gouda stressed, however, that they wouldn't do something dirty like messing with the game's balance to make it so that players will have to purchase an item in order to clear the game.

Moving on to the battle system, Higuchi said to expect an extension of the system from Tales of the Abyss, without any dramatic changes. The name of the new battle system is "EFR-LMBS," which stands for (deep breath) "Evolved Flex Range Linear Motion Battle System." This is differs from the FR-LMBS system of Abyss with revisions to some areas and the addition of a few new elements.

On top of the new battle system elements, battles will see somewhat of a boost thanks to the use of the more advanced hardware offered by the 360. Past titles in the Tales series have allowed four up to four enemies to appear on the battle field at a time. In Vesperia, you'll see smaller enemies appearing in groups of seven or eight. The game will also include some huge beasts.

Outside of the battle system, the development staff is placing effort into pre-battle preparations. The game will have a weapon synthesis system that Higuchi describes as extremely robust. You'll be able to create weapons by collecting materials on your quest. Collecting new weapons is tied into the game's skill system as well.

Famitsu asked the two about the game's vocal introduction, as this is usually one of the major areas of interest with a Tales game. Strangely, the two weren't willing to announce the performer of the game's theme song, which will accompany a new animated intro being created by animation house Production I.G. The artist has been finalized, Gouda confirmed, adding that if they announced the name, people would be surprised. While the artist is Japanese, he or she (presumably she, given the series' history) will also perform the song for the overseas version of the game.

Higuchi closed off the interview by suggesting that 360 owners who own a PS2 try out Abyss first. He feels this is "one point of arrival" for the Tales series, and it's also the basis for Vesperia's structure.

With a Japanese release for Vesperia planned for later this year, your time is running out, so we'd suggesting following Higuchi's advice as soon as possible.

via IGN

Loving the constant news about this game, keep it up namco Tales! ...