So I know Demon's Souls has been out for months in the US and much longer over seas. Now if you have heard anything about this game it has been how amazingly difficult it is. In a way that is true, and in a way it is not. I just beat my first play through last night at about 50 hours of playtime.

The story is mostly forgettable, there are some characters and ideas that are good but the game doesn't do very much to power the story. This game is all about gameplay.

The audio is good over all the sounds and ambiance work well and most of the voice work is solid though some of it feels very forced at times.

The graphics are neither good or bad, but I was impressed with the animation of the main character, dealing with all the weapon types you have available.

Now on to the point of this game, the gameplay is not exactly difficult it is.....old school. Remember when you were playing old school NES games like Ninja Gaiden and you would always die on the level 3 boss and have to start at the beginning every single time. It was an era before checkpoints or re spawn. You made a mistake and you paid for it. Demon's souls works like that. You can get to the end of the section you are playing and then get torn apart by the boss only to be put back at the start of the section with all the enemies back. And to top it off you lose all the experience (aka souls) that you had, not just the ones you gained in that section but all that you had when you came in too. Now you have the chance to work you way back to where you died and reclaim all those souls but if you die in the process then they are gone forever. Not to mention when you die you come back in soul form which means you are weaker and have 50% of your HP. To top everything off, the more you die the harder the game becomes making enemies more resistant to your attacks and able to penetrate your defenses easier as well. This game is not forgiving and punishes freely, but that makes every victory that much sweeter.

As for the online component, other games can be invited into your game at anytime to help you, and on the flip side they can invade your game at anytime to kill you, and it happens.....a lot.

In closing I have to say this game is one of the best I played in a long time, and the reason people are having difficulty is because many of today's gamers were not raised on the pain of the NES generation, either because they are too young or didn't get into gaming until later in their life so they are not used to using patience and having such high stakes for failure.

2009-11-15T18:07:00.000-08:00

Yeah again late....more so. I blame Dragon Age Origins, which I beat yesterday and will be posting a review of later this week.

So as for the FTW here we go.

I said it involved two brothers, now anyone who played the console games knows these two as Billy and Jimmy Lee. But if you played the original arcade you know them as hammer and spike.

Double Dragon has had many versions and even an okay cartoon and incredibly horrible movie. However the best versions were Double Dragon two and Super Double Dragon.

The game play was a side-scrolling beat 'em up, of course, but it was the one game that perfected the model. The reason Double Dragon 2 was so great was because of it's advanced fight system that had combos, double button attacks, throws, etc...

Super Double Dragon improved on all these things and the game was amazingly fun. To close this game series is amazing, I wish I had a copy of any of them to play right now. Man I love Double Dragon.

FTW

2009-11-07T18:12:00.001-08:00

Yeah late again I know, but with getting Dragon Age this week it's pure luck that I am even posting this.

I decided this post should be about the game that I consider my introduction to real gaming. The Legend of Zelda is what made me a gamer.

It had all the things I love in games to this day; an epic story, great game play, and a theme song that is burned into my soul.

If you have never played The Legend of Zelda that I think it is impossible to call yourself a real gamer.

Next week I will post a longer FTW and two brothers will be involved.

Dragon Age Origins

So this is my first review. Seeing as how my next game doesn't come out until October 13th I will review the last game I finished playing. I will try to post reviews in a timely manner but since I am not getting games early I won't be able to post them until after the game is released and if I want it and am able to afford it. Now lets get started.

Batman Arkham Asylum from Rock Steady studios has finally delivered on the promise of every single comic game ever made: YOU will feel like the hero. Despite the plethora of Batman games in the past none of them have ever fully delivered because Batman is a multi-layered character. He is a master of hand-to-hand combat, better at stealth than any ninja, and holds a genius intellect.

The impossible was accomplished in this game when every facet of Batman's character was balanced to perfection and yes I said perfection. Now don't get me wrong every game has it's flaws but very few hold the honor that Batman Arkham Asylum shares with few of having it's only flaw being that it ends too quickly.

Graphically it is one of the best looking games on the market right now, the characters move realistically the environment is captivating and Batman even shows damage to his suit as the game progresses.

The sound is great the voice actors from Batman the animated series reprise their roles perfectly pulling you into the story with true to form dialog. The music is well placed and the ambient noise work to support the islands feel.

The story is on par with the best Batman has to offer, having been written for the game by Paul Dini veteran of Batman the animated series. The story is delivered perfectly by using the setting and various characters to make you feel immersed in the Batman universe with everything riding on Batman and in this case you.

The game play is where this show really shines, every real gamer out there has always wanted to be Batman and that wish is fulfilled in this game. From following clues and solving the various challenges around the island placed by the Riddler, to beating henchmen into submission, and of course Batman's bread and butter using misdirection and stealth to take out a room full of armed thugs Batman Arkham Asylum is the first (and hopefully Rock Steady will make sure not the last) time that gamers have ever been able to actually feel like Batman.

In closing I full recommend Batman Arkham Asylum to anyone who is looking for a great action adventure game, it will keep you hooked through the whole game and when you finish it the only let down you will feel is that it is over.

I plan on using the next couple of weeks to do reviews of great games I have played in the last six months, so if you have some requests for recently released games let me know and I will see what I can do.

FTW

2009-10-02T15:07:00.001-07:00

Okay so it's time for our first weekly (hopefully) edition of FTW or Friday Time Warp, I will try every Friday to talk about great games from years past. Everything from the NES to now so it could be a really long time ago or just last year, so here we go

Oh Chrono Trigger, by far the best SNES game made by SquareSoft (now Square Enix), so what was so great about it. The game so perfectly blended story gameplay and replay value that it became a quick favorite.

Let's start with the story it covered everything from worldwide destruction, time travel, betrayal and hope that a small force could undo inconceivable wrongs. Not to mention the multiple endings from great and wonderful to.....well at least we didn't all die endings.

The gameplay let you avoid an RPG headache of random encounter battles by being able to see most of the enemies and actually having to approach them in order to enter a turn based battle right on the same screen, successfully keeping the action and the adventure from splitting into two different games (something that ruins far too many RPGs). Not to mention the function to link characters abilities to pull off some incredible co-op moves.

But just about the best thing about Chrono Trigger was the New Game + option. To be able to start the game over after beating it with all the levels, abilities, and gear you had collected on the last play through and go tackle the whole game again from the beginning was a marvel at the time. Which brings up the question of why this is not an option in every single game that has been made since. Developers need to get on the ball and realize sometimes people want to play back through a game not as the struggling hero, but as an ultimate destruction machine, because come on didn't all our hard work the first time mean we earned it?

So now that our time warp is done for this week let me know what you think or if you even ever played this game on any of it's versions, SNES, Playstation or the Nintendo DS. If you have any time warp requests let me know and I will see what I can do.

It Begins

2009-10-01T17:29:00.001-07:00

Well after some thought and a little bit of convincing, I have decided to start a gaming blog. I plan on covering games I am looking forward too, games I recommend...or don't (including reviews) and flash backs to great games from my past. If you have requests of games for me to review I will provide one if I have played the game.

No worries about accessibility I have all three current gen systems (PS3, XBOX 360, and Nintendo Wii). The only problem is that I do not have a good PC rig so I can't PC game until I get out of debt and then get enough money to build a new rig. Don't expect me to go out and buy every new game that comes out since I am poor and have a wife and a son (and a baby girl on the way) but I do get games as often as I can afford them. So with out anymore useless babbling let's get started with the next game on my horizon.

"Uncharted 2 Among Thieves" by Naughty Dog studios is the sequel to the previous hit "Uncharted Drakes Fortune"- both PS3 exclusives.

Uncharted was amazing, the game was gorgeous, and graphics don't really matter to me, (they are just about the last thing to make me buy or love a game) but that game looked real in so many ways. The best part of the game was that it felt like playing a summer blockbuster movie; everything from the characters to the story made the whole thing come alive.

So if it isn't apparent by now I am looking forward to Uncharted 2, because well, I loved the first game so much! So if you are without a game system and are looking for a reason to choose between the "big three", trust me, this game is reason enough to pick up a PS3.