Tales of Graces f

No posts since May? In my defense I havent been playing many games, 360 hasnt been on in months. Fenix needs ot get off his ass and post ;) Any who, finally made some time to finish the standard story in Tales of Graces f, I have yet to complete the legacy and lineage portion, but it seems very interesting.

First and foremost I'd like to talk about the story. It does a great job of bringing heroes together (and apart) for a good reason. Its part cliche and part brilliant and is much less confusing than Abyss' sound based story. This stories theme has a lot in common with Vesperia, and thats a good thing since Vesperia is still my favorite Tales game and Repede is still my favorite character with Raven a close second. My only beef is you have a boss fight multiple times against the same guy, but when you win the fight, the story continues and after the fight the boss guy one hits some one, does the evil thing, then gets away...... same outcome as if you lost the fight. Would irritate me far less if it didnt happen multiple times. Ending is a little obvious and weak, doesnt conclude everything youre involved with very well, but that may change after I finish the lineage portion.

Gameplay is tried and true Tales real time combat. The combo system has been expanded on and is very fluid. They could easily make a open world 3d beat em up using the battle engine and it'd be a fantastic game. They have mixed up the combo system a lot, with the right gear and perks, you can rattle off a nice 20+ hit combo without any help. The title system has also been redone, you can earn and find titles, equipping the title and earning SP from battle will unlock 5 bonus attributes. For example wear a freeze charm so you can't be frozen in battle, wear it enough and evade freezing enough and you unlock the "freezeproof". You can then equip the title and earn perks like 5% less time frozen, that persist even after you change titles. All titles have a 6th perk, that only works when you both "Master" the title, and have it equipped. Its a pretty ingenious RPG element, and one I hope they use again in Xillia.

I took my time and did my best to complete everything first go round, so it took about 65 hours, a good portion of that was grinding (mostly for titles) and I didnt get sick of it, so that really says something right there. My only real gripe about the game was they harped on Asbel and Cheria's relationship a bit too much and the previously mentioned boss fight thing, but overall this one amazing title.

I give it a 9.5 out of 10
~Malenko

Tales of Abyss (PS2)

So for some reason I found myself in Gamestop a while ago and noticed Tales of Abyss for 3DS. Now not having a 3DS at the time (I bought a pink one for my fiancee but lacked one of my own), I wanted to play it and thought to myself that I knew this game came out for another platform before. A quick Google search on my phone and I found it was a PS2 game. Now of course Gamestop didn't have it in stock , wasn't sure they could order it, and it was $25 used for an 7 year old game. Keep in mind the 3DS version was on sale new for $20 at the time.

So obviously I didn't pick it up, mostly due to the fact I don't think I could log 50+ hours playing a JRPG on a 3" screen but I did start a quest (PUN!) to get the PS2 game. I stumbled across http://pcsx2.net/ which is a down right AMAZING Playstation 2 emulator which allowed me to play the game at a higher resolution that the original PS2's output, which is good because I didnt want to have to go dig my PS2 out of storage. So I snagged the game from Amazon for about $20 + shipping and got to work. I copied the disc to my computer HD, to improve load time, reduce wear on the disc and reduce the noise of the DVD spinning. If only I got the actual PS2 cover and instruction book instead of a blank CD case, oh wells.

Everything ran fine without a hitch, I dropped well over 50 hours in front of my computer doing everything I could in my first play through that was available all in glorious HD. Being a Tales game it always locks things away to keep the 2nd time through fresh, but while I appreciate them trying to keep a second play through exciting I just dont have the time or desire to replay a 50 hour game anymore. I would LOVE to try my hand at the replica dungeon as it sounds pretty awesome but I skirted my way through the Coliseum way too under-leveled (I did it in my 40s, all the guides suggest doing it in the 60s) so I would hate to dump another 30 or 40 hours of my life to not be challenged or even worse get there and be completely frustrated.

I love this game anyway, I looked up old reviews and most of them put this game in the 92/100 mark which I believe is dead on balls accurate. The active battle system (you actually run around the battle field and attack, or hang back and keep enemies from breaking your AI partner's casting) is amazing and significantly more fun that picking "attack" from a turn based menu. I actually played Tales of Vesperia before this on 360 and despite Abyss being a little older and running on an older platform the games are right on par with one another. I started the Tales games with Tales of Destiny, back when I was a reviewer for SegaSages (which eventually turned into gamefaqs.com ) I've already gotten "Tales of Graces f" for PS3 ready to go and I look forward to Tales of Xillia this fall and I hope Namco translates its sequel next year. This is a fantastic series with not a single bad game in the series, something Final Fantasy cant say , I'm looking at you Final Fantasy 8.

~Malenko

Welcome back Agent 47

The cold calculating killing machine returns for the first time in 6 years, and the developers did a great job of keeping the Hitman feel but improving the game and mechanics so that it didn't feel like rehash. I of course bought the collectors edition and it was not worth the extra scratch. This is the last "special edition" I'll ever buy, no fault of the core game, just fault of the "extras" which was just a gunpack you can unlock by playing the game anyway, and a behind the scenes DVD. The case was pretty baller though.

The "story" goes that your handler , Diana Burnwood went rogue for no apparent reason so the agency hires you to do the deed. When you pop her, she tells you to save a little girl named Victoria. Any more that than and it's spoiler central. Now while the story isn't Pulitzer prize winning it's enough to keep you going. I havent gotten to the end yet but I do kinda want to see how it all turns out.

Challenges are really the bright spot of this game. It sort of artificially extends the game by getting you to replay the same missions in different ways. In example, in the first real mission you can poison your target's cocaine and kill him, or you can poison his coffee to kill him, or you can poison his food to kill him. All 3 of those ways are a challenge and doing all 3 is in itself is a 4th challenge. Completing challenges increases your score multiplier and getting a high enough score unlocks new abilities for Mr.47 like decreasing damage taken or reducing recoil and reload times. So you'll run each mission a few times in an effort to make your abilities better to make the latter levels just a little easier.

Another innovative feature is the "Contracts" mode. This is where you can pick any completed mission and pick out your own targets and kill them in your own way. Once you complete the mission, and you have to escape the level for it to count, you can save it and upload the mission. The method of killing (weapon), outfit worn, hiding bodies, not getting caught are all factors it tracks. In china town you can kill cooks, cops, or vendors and not bother dealing with the kingpin or the drug dealer; so its very refreshing to play the same levels in new ways. You can also save the challenges you make and have a competition with your friends, unfortunately Im the only guy I know who has the game.  Best part? NO ONLINE PASS

I'm still working my way through the campaign mode, the learning curve is pretty steep, even on normal difficulty. If you get caught there is a very small window of opportunity to get away without having to pull your guns and clean house. The way disguises work is a little suspect. If you take a cops outfit other cops can tell you arent a cop, and that totally makes sense to me, I guess there are no rookies on the force in Chicago, heh. I just dont see how if you wear a street vendor's clothes all the other , but I digress. Once you understand how the game works, you can deal with it. SOme of the missions have a suit only challenge and for some I just dont see how its possible, but I suppose when Im going for all the other challenges I'll find a way (or I'll google it). I can tell Im getting near the end because not only are the levels getting redonk but both sides of the story are coming together.

Up over 93,500 gamercore, hopefully I can finish up this game so I can go back and finish AC3, but Connor is a dooshbag :(

till next time
~Malenko

The harder you push it on me, the more I'm going to resist.

Halo is a lot like anal sex, if you're forced to do it as a kid, you wont really enjoy it much as an adult. Ok that's a re-purposed  lima bean joke, but you get my point.

Last time I played Halo, it was the first one, on the first XBOX. I thought it was neat but I had better games to play and didn't think much of it. Halo 2 came out, and I don't think I ever tried it. I heard good things and the game looked really neat, but for some reason I never picked it up. Just not my cup of tea I guess.

Halo 3 came out, again heard good things, even bought a used copy but never actually put it in and played it. I almost went and got another used copy, but then it hit me. I don't think I really want to play the game. Fanboi elitism is probably the worst on that game, so I cant blame microsoft entirely for that.  It feels like every time I go into gamestop/ebgames whatever you want to call them, they try to sell me a Halo game. I mean I went in there to pick up need for speed and its like "oh you like racing games? try Halo for a change of pace", I go in to get Saints Row 3 and I hear "Well if you like shooting stuff, try Halo", I even picked up a 3DS for Bonnie and I got "Im guessing this pink 3DS is for your girl, why don't you pick up Halo so you have something to play while she's on her 3DS?" Maybe I like pink, homophobe. Sides, everyone knows handhelds are just replacements for newspapers and magazines in the bathroom. EVERYBODY POOPS!

So now, I go into the gamestop in the mall and I pick up AC3 and they pitch me Halo 4, I just can't get away from them trying to sell it to me. I went back and picked up my Hitman Absolution but I beat them to the punch this time. I walk up and say "Man can you believe people buy that shitty Halo game? All I got was confused stares and my fucking game. So yeah I don't hate Halo, but I don't like or care about it either. You have your Master Chief and Cortana I have Agent 47 and Diana Burnwood.

Time to go kill shit and not have a neon orange glowing sniper rifle to do it either.

~Malenko

You shouldnt always let they lie

Sleeping Dogs that is. This title was originally True Crime : Hong Kong and I'm really glad Activition dropped it, so that some other more talented developer/publish combo could do something with it.

First and foremost I have to stress this is not a Grand Theft Auto clone at all, it honestly doesn't even feel that sand boxy either. While GTA focuses more on the weapons SD focuses more on hand to hand combat, yeah theres tire irons and guns, but its more batman arkham then Nico liberty city.


One little hidden extra AWESOME bonus? If you have a Just Cause 2 savegame on your hard drive, you get to wear Rico's outfit, which lets you stunt hijack from further away and looks baller as fuck.

The game is not much of a challenge, you'll die more from getting stuck or your car losing control far more often then from enemies. Out side of the main story its still a grind fest and an item hunt. One thing this game does right for the item hunt is give you ways to unlock all the locations on your map. The only bad part about that is the found (light grey) and not found (dark white) icons look almost exactly the same. Even after beating the game I still lacked the money to buy all the cars and clothes and enough "triad" experience to get that achievement, which is why Im prety much going to be locked at 770 cheevie points instead of 1000.

Theres also "real world" events that you just happen to come across, unfortunately I didnt find them all and I cant really be bothered to walk around an entire city and hope I meet the unknown magical conditions for triggering them. A neat idea but the execution is just a bit off.

All in all its still a good game, was worth the $40 I spent on it, its like a GTA with less guns, less walking, less humor, but more quick time button mashing.

~Malenko

Done-ablo

I know , I'm SERIOUSLY behind the times on game releases. I got Diablo 3 on launch Day, and much like the rest of the world I started playing it a few days later, lol.

I finally beat Diablo 3 on inferno, it was after they nerfed inferno so I dont get much nerd cred from the picture below:

And right after that I had Bonnie hop on her Demon Hunter and I pretty much solo'ed Diablo again to get the co-op achievement and to get her the achievements and banner sigil unlocks.

I'm not going to have a long drawn out post about the game just a quick summary. Diablo 3 doesn't feel like Diablo. I played the ever loving crap out of D1, D2, and D2 Hellfire just fun games. A vast array of builds, self stat assignment , skill trees and creepy awesome levels and just generally a lot to do. Now not to take anything away from Diablo 3 it was quite a fun game, the first three times you run through it (this was pre-inferno nerf) but some of the mixes of elite mobs we just a gear check had nothing to do with skills or player ability. Now that they eased the gear check people are complaining the games too easy, when in fact the game isnt too easy unless you have the exact build for your class the developers wanted you to have.

Even moderately geared you can take down every story boss super easily (and almost all the elite mixes without too much difficulty) using this build:

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/Malenko-1139/hero/3404414

Now that Ive beaten D3 on inferno with my barb I really dont see myself getting the other classes through inferno, and that's just a testament to how repetitive this game is. Each act can be beaten in under an hour, but I'll never get that achievement or the hardcore ones.

~Malenko

Rubberband AI at it's best!

Anytime you hear the term "rubber band AI" you should immediately think of Electronic Arts. Their AI has been doing that forever, and by "forever" I'm talkin back to the days of Road Rash on the Sega Genesis.

That being said I cant help but still enjoy "Need For Speed: The Run". Its a racing game with no circuits, it's all variations of point to point racing. Certain stages require you to pass X number of cars before the finish, in others you need to beat a certain rival or two (or three!), and yet in other stages you just have to hit all the checkpoints before time expires. I'm not super far in but there is plenty of variety and I cant say that I haven't had a blast playing. But to reference the rubber band AI above its really frustrating when you pull an EPIC dick move and wreck the #2 car into an 18 wheeler, get an 22 second lead then see that same car pass you right at the finish line.

One of the things that really seems to be missing is an upgrade system. It'd be nice to earn points/money/whatever to change out transmissions (or at least gear ratios), motors, turbos, nos, tyres,etc. Its feels very incomplete that car you get is the car youre stuck with until you hit a gas station or story marker and the game makes you swap out cars instead.

Speaking of swapping out cars, I cant imagine how much money Shell paid EA to make every gas station in the game a Shell Station , like with V power logos and all. I mean I guess its ok since gas stations on a road trip make sense, even if your car never runs out of gas. You'll just be racing along then you can pull into a gas station and change cars.  My only gripe with this is, THAT'S THE ONLY TIME YOU CAN SWITCH CARS. You have to start a race, then go into a shell station and change cars. There's no pre-race menu and thats just dumb.

Speaking of dumb, the story is pretty terrible. Now dont get it twisted I wasnt expecting a heart wrenching tale of love and and overcoming obsticles, but this story is cheese to the extreme. You play a racer who got into debt with the mob and they tried to kill you..... by duct taping your hands to the steering wheel of your Porsche.  Why not club you in the noggin and dump your body in a station wagon, then sell the Porsche? Guess that's why mobsters get caught doing crime (and they leave their keys in the car and dont shoot their guns at you till you get in the car and drive away)

Im not racing through the game for the story, even though some cut scenes aren't skip-able and for some reason EA thought it'd be a swell idea to put quick time events in the cut scenes. Overall I cant say this game wasnt worth the 25 I spent on it in hell, I mean EBGames. And I lucked out, the online pass in the game was still valid, which unlocked some cars I cant use, but was still neat.