Borderlands 2

Buckle up, because there’s a lot to talk about….

Mighty Switch Force 1 & 2

Mighty Switch Force is a series that managed to keep my brain entertained for quite some time, and after buying both games on the 3DS e-shop, the puzzle speedrunning-mania started.

Trine & Trine 2

    Three ordinary adventurers. One legendary team.

Borderlands

When I picked up borderlands, I was expecting an FPS with RPG elements that would be relatively short. Boy was I wrong about that last part.

Beat Hazard Ultra

What is Beat Hazard Ultra? Well, the best way to describe it would be a mix of Asteroids and Audiosurf. Beat Hazard is a simple yet effective and addicting concept that provides endless hours of gameplay, arcade style: you control a ship and the objective, obviously, is to survive. For that you will have to keep cleaning entire armadas of enemy ships off of your screen. Nothing new here, except this time, everything depends on the soundtrack: your soundtrack.

To the Moon (PC)

In the last few years, pixelated games seem to have made a pretty strong comeback, much to the delight of older gamers, who fondly remember the 8/16-bit gems of ages past. And yet, even in the middle of this pixel revolution, the name RPG Maker still seems to carry a negative connotation strong enough to keep many potential players at bay.  This is where To the Moon comes in.

Made by Freebird Games, To the Moon is pretty much a story-driven game. Truth be told, the gameplay is very simple, and it consists of walking around in a 2D world looking for objects and talking to characters, which…sounds like every RPG ever. However, save for a humorous moment near the start of the game, there is no battling in here.

Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed

Genre: Racing, Sports

Developer: Sumo Digital

Publisher: SEGA              

Release Date: 31 Jan 2013
Platform: PC (Steam)
Other Platforms: PS3, Xbox360, Wii U, Vita, 3DS, Android

Kart racers have always been regarded as some of the most fun multiplayer games involving vehicles, but with several mediocre releases over the past couple of years, the genre hasn’t really been on the top of its game. That being said, a game with a long and familiar name such as Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed is sure to raise some eyebrows, whether due to the weird concept of transforming vehicles or due to people thinking it may somewhat be a Mario Kart ripoff. While I've played pretty much every Mario Kart in existence (except double dash), I must say this game felt pretty refreshing and did a good job of pumping adrenaline into my veins. Let’s take a look:

Lots of stuff to do, and 232 stars to collect.

So, here we are presented with characters from many of SEGA’s beloved franchises, each one with their unique vehicle and seven different Mods (basically configurations that change things like the speed, boost and acceleration of the vehicle) which are unlocked as you level up the characters and progress in the World Tour in Career mode. This works as the ultimate fan service, since it lets you control good old characters like Vyse and B. D. Joe (this last one in his faithful, and now, transforming yellow taxi) and many others, while still having characters from recent franchises, and of course, Sonic and friends. The rooster consists of over thirty characters (if you include the DLCs), and in addition to SEGA characters, there are some special appearances, like the Team Fortress character and more recently Yoggscast (most of the characters added are exclusive to the PC version).

One of my favourite transformations, complete with sound effects and all.

There’s a lot of variety in terms of game modes, more so than in your average cart racer. All of the basics are here, Career mode, Matchmaking, custom event, etc, and inside each mode, there is yet more variety. Inside the World Tour in Career mode, you get to collect stars by completing events, and the higher the difficulty you play in, the more stars you unlock (initially there are three difficulty levels with a fourth one unlocked later). There are several types of events, like regular races, one-lap sprints against ghosts, Bosses who throw obstacles at you and must be defeated before you vehicle falls apart, boost races, traffic attacks and the list goes on.

The tracks themselves are also from SEGA franchises of course, and in none of them will you be driving on solid ground all of the time. Most, if not all of the tracks change on their final lap and even before then there might be water/lava or air sections. Here your vehicle will transform to suit the environment, and by doing this, changing the way the controls feel (driving a wheeled vehicle in the road isn't anything like driving a hovercraft on water). In addition to these three different forms your vehicle can take, one of the game’s power-ups (All-Star) changes you into a fourth appearance, granting you invincibility and a speed boost for a limited amount of time. The other power-ups are within what you might expect for this sort of game. Rockets and snowballs to throw at your opponents, boosts, homing missiles that look like a miniature version of you and the Blowfish, which works as a bomb, which you can leave in the road or launch forward. There are also baseball gloves which grab whatever others might throw at you and lets you keep it so you can then throw it back.

Enough with just describing the game, here are my thoughts:

Traffic Attacks are one of many challenges present and can be pretty insane.

•         Having your vehicle transform into four different shapes gives the game a great deal of variety. That, combined with the fact that most of the tracks change every other lap, makes it so that you don’t feel like you’re always doing the same thing.
•          Having seven different mods for every character makes it so you can use whatever character you like, even if you can’t deal with the way it initially plays (lack of handling / acceleration / speed / etc).
•          Has a decent amount of tracks (and of course, mirror versions) but could use some more. One of the DLCs added an extra track, but since not everyone has it, it never gets selected in online matchmaking. In addition, the new track feels pretty bland, there aren’t many obstacles or variety at all.
•          S class is pretty damn hard, mainly due to abusive amounts of rubberbanding. But once you master those tracks, it’s an awesome challenge and feels pretty rewarding to win. However, even S class isn’t much compared to online matchmaking, especially if you put yourself in a lobby full with players with their ranks in the 1500’s or above. S class challenges are also pretty difficult and require practice most of the time.

Seven mods p/character guarantee a good amount of customisation.

•  The online matchmaking itself works pretty well and it’s fun, but there’s (arguably) too much time between races. Ten seconds to vote for one out of three tracks, and then forty-five seconds just to choose a character is too much. Also, don’t make me choose my character after every race. Just give me the same one I used in the previous one by default. If I want to change into another one, I can…after all, I have forty-five seconds to do it….
•          Speaking of characters, the AGES character comes as a pleasant surprise, with its unique sounds and transformations which you’ll no doubt recognize. On the other hand, having NiGHTS and Reala in the game AS THE vehicle feels like a bad joke. At least their All-Star transformations look good.
•          There’s a healthy amount of achievements, even though it would have been cool to see every in-game sticker have its own. Some achievements involve playing with four local players, which is not a good idea. Not many people have that amount of controllers, not to mention the fact that split-screen multiplayer is becoming a thing of the past. It would have been more sensible to make these achievements doable with Steam/PSN friends.
•          The game runs great and looks amazing and crisp on PC, but as usual with sonic PC ports, there’s a specific zone (in this case the Samba Studios track) that tends to drop the framerate. That being said it’s still a pretty good port, but still suffers from the same problem as all the other sonic PC ports that came before it: the graphical options menu is in a separate executable and must be run before the game. Also it forces you to skip through a bunch of stuff before you get to the main menu every time you launch the game but at least on the PC, there’s a fix for that.

"NiGHTS has gone All-Star!"

As a conclusion, this is definitely an extremely satisfying and challenging game, especially if you have a couple of friends to play online with. SEGA will certainly milk this game some more by slowly adding more characters as they’ve been doing in the past. This is reinforced by the fact that the game is still selling and the online community is still pretty active.
The game isn’t expensive and has been on sale again and again, with prices reaching under 7€ at times. Definitely a good buy for any fan of SEGA and/or kart racers.
And since I don't like to read reviews by people who barely play the games either, here's some of my Personal Stats:

• 55 hours played so far (still play occasionally)

• 50/50 Achievements Unlocked

• Game completion: 102%

Fairy Bloom Freesia

Developer: Edelweiss
Platform(s): PC (Windows) - 7.99€
Genre: Action

Made by Doujin developer Edelweiss, Fairy Bloom Freesia is a game reminiscent of old-school action sidescrollers. The base idea here is that you control a fairy (Freesia) and fight off incoming waves (or in this case, a rain) of enemies in forest-themed environments in an attempt to protect said forest.

Fairies don't get cold.

Once upon a time….

So it’s a simple game with a simple story: Freesia lives in the Lita Forest and does her best to protect it from both creatures and humans, who both threaten it. Freesia “has a very strong fairy-fu” and is friends with the ancient Jomon Tree, which holds a great power and keeps the forest alive. Starting here, the story revolves around how freesia defends the forest and the challenges and enemies she will have to overcome when the humans come and attempt to take the power possessed by the Jomon Tree to themselves.

Ore ni makasete!

The story mode is comprised of a series of levels (“Days”) and in each one freesia must defeat all the onscreen enemies to be able to progress. Each enemy gives freesia experience, mana and some others drop health restoring baubles. Every 3 levels there is an intermission which acts as a checkpoint, since you can only save your progress during these, and at the same time, it gives you a chance to spend your hard earned mana in new skills or special moves. All of these are pretty easy to use and the control system is pretty simple. More skills will unlock as Freesia levels up (by gaining experience) and there are several types of skill you can buy. Let me exemplify:

If used correctly, certain enemies may be used to help you get rid of other enemies.

I played using an Xbox360 Controller, so my special skill button was Y. From here I have four slots for four special skills which are used by tapping one of the cardinal directions on the analog stick (or d-pad) together with the Y key. The other buttons are for simple attacks, guarding and jumping. Guarding at first is simple at first, but as you face stronger enemies you will have to learn how to use it more efficiently since you can only guard against a certain amount of damage at a time.

In addition, you have 2 bonus slots which you use to equip enhancement skills. Like for example a simple boost to Freesia’s maximum health, or a regeneration ability, which continuously and slowly regenerates your health (good for longer levels for example) or others like, for example, an ability that increases Freesia’s damage output the lower her health is or one that instantly fills your health up when it reaches zero just once, giving you a second “life”. There are many to choose from but only 2 slots, so you might want to change those depending on what kind of level you are trying to clear. Some of these abilities are one-time buys (you buy it and that’s it), but most have several ranks and require you to spend more mana on them so they reach their full potential.

Thoughts

Time to check our progress.

The first thing that comes to mind is that character names are awful. Freesia is acceptable, but Shinye sounds weird and Listine sounds like mouthwash. The design isn’t bad though, and the characters are likeable enough. The scenarios are decent but not great in number so they eventually become repetitive as you go through level after level after level without anything changing around you. The enemies have the same problem, there’s only a handful of different ones, which you will be facing ad nauseam in waves.
The difficulty is pretty solid, especially if you play on Cruel mode and the extra modes are challenging as well and require some practice, especially the levels where you have to defend the rifts. It took me quite a while to get past some of them in Hard difficulty, but after that when I went into Cruel I already had the tactics down so it was easier. The bosses are challenging as well, at least until you learn their attack patterns. From there on you can avoid damage completely as long as you are careful.
That being said, I liked the game, it was all about frenetic fun and slashing through endless hordes of enemies, levelling up, gaining new skills and going through the story. If you want a decent and challenging button masher (heh), you might want to get this one.

Doctor Who: The Eternity Clock

Platform: PC (Steam – 6.99€)
Other Platforms: PS3, Vita

DooWeeDoooooo

Daleks are definitely the most aggressive and difficult enemy in the game.

Doctor Who….. A franchise that spans 50 years, with over 750 episodes, tons of books, a massive fanbase which, as of the last few years has grown ridiculously and an array of famous actors and writers. Making a videogame out of it sounds like a good idea. A bunch of cash is generated from sales and some new fans are brought aboard as well.
However, if there’s one thing the videogame industry has never exceled at, is making videogames based on movies and TV series. And I don’t know which is worse: if the fact that a big Hollywood movie nowadays implies a videogame counterpart, or the fact that those counterparts always feel like they were made using the last remnants of the movie budget, and on a Sunday afternoon.
DW:TEC, of course, is crippled by this cash-grabbing  mind-set and thus suffers considerably in most regards. But it does manage to get some things right. Let’s take a look.

Wibbly-Wobbly, Timey-Wimey

Get a tight suit, add some silicone and voilá! Lame fanservice.

The plot here is simple at first. Something or someone is causing a temporal maelstrom, and it’s up to the Doctor to stop it from tearing up time and space. Well, in a way, it’s mostly up to the TARDIS, since the poor girl acts as a plug, keeping the many holes in the fabric of time closed. Consequently, the TARDIS becomes slightly omnipresent. “Slightly omnipresent?” Well, yeah, since there are several time rifts and she’s keeping them closed, she is wherever there are any of those, which is….in several places simultaneously. Needless to say, moving her isn’t such a good idea in these conditions, so the Doctor is forced to use several time corridors that seem to pop out of nowhere with an unsettling accuracy, both time and space-wise.

Just as expected of a mess of this nature, along the way, the Doctor will face all of the major enemies of the most recent seasons, Cybermen, Daleks, the Silence and so on, each chapter being dedicated to outsmarting and defeating each one of these. All of this of course, while you go on with your quest of saving the universe once again and still be home in time for dinner.

BUGS! TOO MANY BUGS! EXTERMINATE!

Waiting for the AI to do its job.

Soon enough, you will most likely run into problems. Due to the 2-player nature of the game, and due to the fact that when you’re playing single your companion is as AI, several puzzles involving both players quickly become frustrating. Sometimes the AI will take too long to do what it’s supposed to do, or sometimes it might get stuck, meaning it won’t do anything at all, forcing you to restart from the last checkpoint. There’s also the fact that the enemy AI seems weird, being completely unable to notice you as long as they don’t face you, but if they do they will detect you even if there’s a thick wall between you and them. Some controls aren’t intuitive at all, especially elevator controls: some require you to use the sonic screwdriver, some others require you to just push up or down and others require you to press the action button. This might seem minor, but an inconsistency of this kind becomes a major annoyance, since you will be riding a lot of elevators and platforms.
On the other side of things, we have the configurations. The video options menu won’t save your chose settings, so you are forced to use the default graphic profiles (Low, Medium or High), which is also annoying (changing the config file directly had no effect whatsoever), and frequently, you will notice popping textures.

(Relatively) High IQ 

The only thing to do inside the TARDIS....is to exit the TARDIS.

The puzzles are all pretty mediocre and easy even on the highest difficulty. The mind map puzzles were the most interesting idea out of all the challenges present here, but even those are easy to figure out. In here you have to correctly align an image in a circle by rotating its sections. In easy mode that’s literally all you need to do but in higher difficulties each section you rotate will simultaneously rotate other sections, each in a different manner, thus increasing the challenge. The platforming element is decent and for any Doctor Who fan, using the screwdriver to unlock doors and other shenanigans feels delicious. Too bad that is everything you will use in this game (besides River’s gun).

Still I can’t help but feel that this is quite a cheap cash-in. There was so much that could be done, and yet, we are left with a hollow game that consists in jumping across platforms, sneaking past enemies, and solving a few easy puzzles across the way. The collectibles don’t really add much to it, but at least there are several achievements for timed runs which will most likely make you do certain sections more than once. Good thing all sections are pretty small and can usually be done in under 10-12 mins each.

Another very disappointing point in this game is the TARDIS herself. How could such an important element of the whole DW universe be shoved aside and just used as a cheap way to have a simplified plot? Fiddling with the inside of the TARDIS would have been a dream for any DW fan, since there are endless possibilities as to what can be found inside (as seen in Season 7’s “Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS”). The control room is so pretty and detailed, and yet it’s used for nothing. The ONLY thing you do inside the TARDIS in this game is…….walk out of it.

Geronimoooooooo

Despite all its flaws, the game manages to get some stuff right. The ability to point your sonic screwdriver and use it to mess up with stuff is pretty damn funny, and it's pretty cool to personally evade and defeat the Daleks in a post-apocalyptic London, while listening to Matt Smith's occasional witty one-liners. That being said, some stuff, like the overall looks of Dr. River Song were totally uncalled for and are just a petty fan-service attempt.

So, in conclusion, if you’re not a DW fan and you’re just looking for a platforming game…….don’t bother. There are so many better alternatives out there for you, and this one doesn't really stand out. If you’re a big DW fan like me, go ahead and give it a try, you might like it.

Final Fantasy XIII

Details

Developer: Square Enix
Publisher: Square Enix
Reviewed Platform: PS3
Game Modes: Single Player
RPVP: $19.99*
Release Date: March 9, 2010

Overview

Lightning on Gran Pulse, Cocoon is seen floating in the sky.

Final Fantasy XIII takes us to a universe where humans live in an artificial sphere called Cocoon that floats around a planet called Gran Pulse. Cocoon is ruled by the Sanctum, a theocratic government, and both Cocoon and Gran Pulse are controlled by the fal'Cie, entities of godlike power. These entities are able to mark humans as their servants, who become l'Cie, and give them a task that they must complete known as the Focus. If the l'Cie completes their Focus they turn to crystal, but if they are unable to do it in a certain amount of time then they become monsters called Cie'th. The problem is that they receive their Focus in the form of visions that must be interpreted.

One hundred years before the events of the game, a war called War of Transgression took place between both worlds where l'Cie from Gran Pulse attacked Cocoon and destroyed part of it, which had to be patched with materials lifted from Pulse. The citizens of Cocoon have since lived in fear of another invasion, fear that is used by the Sanctum to remain in power.

There are two main military forces in Cocoon overseen by the Sanctum, the Guardian Corps, responsible for keeping order in Cocoon, and PSICOM, responsible for dealing with any Pulse related threat. The fal'Cie have also given the humans advanced technology. There is also a form of magic which normally is only accessible to l'Cie, fal'Cie and various monsters but humans can also use a distilled chemical form of it. 

Plot

The purge exiles, being protected by NORA.

The game begins two of the main characters, Lightning and Sazh, being Purged (being sent to Gran Pulse) because they had been in contact with something from there. Lightning derails the train to arrive in the zone where a Pulse fal'Cie had been discovered around 13 days earlier, in an attempt to rescue her sister, Serah, that was turned into a l'Cie during that event.

Snow and his resistance group, NORA, try to rescue the Purge exiles but during that process several people are killed, including Hope's mother, which he witnesses, powerless, together with Vanille who was also to be purged. Meanwhile, Snow is trying to rescue Serah, his bride-to-be, from the fal'Cie.

Vanille encourages Hope to follow Snow to confront him about his mother's death and because of that they also end up inside the fal'Cie. They all meet up with Serah, who asks them to save Cocoon and then she turns into crystal, an indication that she completed her Focus.

In an attempt to save Serah from her current state Snow and Lightning go to the fal'Cie, followed by Sazh, Vanille and Hope. After a quick battle with them, they all turn into l'Cie, giving them the same Focus, and visions showing the monster called Ragnarok.

The game then continues with the characters trying to understand their Focus in an attempt to save themselves from their fate.

Gameplay and Difficulty

Ingame battle system.

The player is able to control any character(s) he wants (in some sections of the game that's not possible but in the majority it is). The controls feel fluid and easy to use but the camera can be annoying in closed spaces (almost the entire game is played in closed spaces) but it can be controlled easily with the right analog stick (there is the option to invert the camera control if desired). It isn't possible to jump which can be frustrating sometimes because the player has to find a marked position to be able to perform a sort of scripted jump, in order to navigate through certain areas (to jump over a bunch of boxes for example).

The maps are very linear and there isn't much to explore, at least not until the player reaches Gran Pulse, which can be explored freely. But most of the time the map is just a corridor or something similar. In Gran Pulse there are 64 side quests to do which involve killing a specific target. In Gran Pulse its also possible to ride Chocobos.

The player is able to level up a character in different roles, and in the end all roles become available to every character. The roles are: Sentinel (aka tank), Commando (melee fighter), Ravager (magic fighter), Medic (healing role), Synergist (a support role to enhance party status) and the Saboteur (this one specializes in inflicting negative status effects to enemies).

Paradigm shift.

The battle system is similar to the ATB system used in other entries like FFIX, but the player only controls one character and there is a feature called 'Paradigm Shift', where the player can quickly change the role of each party member. The party is composed of a maximum of three characters and there is a limit of six different paradigms that the player can set up to use in battle. The paradigms are a set of roles for each party member and activating that particular paradigm in battle will change each character's active role accordingly.

The game itself isn't very difficult if the player uses the Paradigm Shift feature well. The system is very easy to learn and it doesn't take long to get used to it. Each character is able to unlock an Eidolon and use it in battle by summoning it.

It is quite hard to earn in-game currency because the battles do not give any. It can only be obtained from chests or by selling items. All the equipment in the game is upgradable and every character's ultimate weapon is obtainable by upgrading any weapon that they can use. Depending on the weapon upgraded the ultimate version may have different stats.

Opinion

Chocobo riding in the open plains of Gran Pulse.

Well, in my opinion this is a good game, true its linear but that doesn't have to be something bad. Personally it isn't something that bothers me much. Although I do think that having "virtual" stores to buy/sell items in save points, practically no cities and almost nonexistent interactable NPCs is a shame, thankfully Square Enix addressed this in the sequel, FFXIII-2.

Other than that, the story can be a bit confusing if the player does not pay enough attention but its interesting and the ending is satisfactory (yeah I like endings where everything ends well, you can see my face when I finished FFXIII-2, but that's another review).

Some side quests where challenging (like the trials and the last one) which kept me from leaving the game after finishing it, so that's a plus, but the replay value is very low, mainly because the game's linearity and only one possible ending.

The Breakdown

Positive Aspects	Negative Aspects	Needs Improvement
Story and overall world. Battle system and Paradigm Shift. Side quests.	Lack of interactable NPC, including the virtual stores. No actual cities.	It might be too linear. A jumping skill would be great. The replay value.

My Playing Statistics

Time Played: 121,5 hours

Trophies Unlocked: All

Difficulty played the most: Default

*RPVP based on GameStop retail price for PS3 (New)

Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch

So I just finished this game called Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch and what a journey!

To start this review I have to start to talk about the soundtrack. It is beautiful, the whole soundtrack is based on a few basic melodies, which could make the soundtrack sound repetitive, but that's the thing, it doesn't. The melodies fit so well with the feel of the game that it never gets old. I'd recommend the reader to go hear some tracks.

Oliver casting "Gateway", to go to the Other World.

Next, I will talk about the characters and the voice acting. A good thing about the game is that you can choose to keep the voice acting in Japanese or change it to English. The main character (Oliver) has a child has a child voice (well duh) but the studio managed to not make it too sweet. The sidekick (Drippy, Lord High Lord of the Fairies) is a character that doesn't worry about almost anything and speaks with a Welsh accent which I think is unusual and the expressions he uses just make him even more funny. The writing is excellent as well, Drippy is dropping puns all the time and it doesn't make the game too melodramatic (Square-Enix could learn a thing or two with this game). The rest of the characters have voice acting just as good as well.

One thing that annoys me a lot is the excessive amount of dialogues you have to go through to get pieces of heart (I'll talk about them later on) and to do side-quests. I mean, it's nice to have context for everything that happens but you get a little annoyed after a while and start pressing the skip button all the way through.

The story in the beginning starts off with a tragedy which ultimately leads Oliver to the "Other World" to try to fix what happened. There he learns that an evil wizard is stealing pieces of people's hearts, like a person's enthusiasm, which leaves them brokenhearted. Oliver's goal is to stop the evil wizard and try to fix the tragedy that happened in the beginning. The story seems simple but closer to the end there are some twists that really makes it unique.

Oliver and Drippy in Ding Dong Dell

In terms of gameplay there is a lot to talk about, and I mean A LOT. The amount of content this game has is just amazing. There is an open world you can explore, first by foot, then by boat and later on by flying. The battle system allows you to select any character in your party and then fight with the character itself or with one of the familiars available to them. You can give some equipment to the characters and familiars, or give treats to the familiars to optimize the stats. The familiars can learn tricks, they can evolve (Methamorphize) and you can actually "catch" wild enemies to have them as familiars.

Oliver can use spells outside of battle, like "Chart Chests" and "Veil", to show chests that are close to him and to hide himself from enemies. There is alchemy, with which you can produce armor, weapons and consumables. There are rewards for doing side-quests too, you get stamps on cards for completing quests, and when you have a certain number of fully stamped cards you can trade them for perks, like increased battle experience and more rare drops, or increased speed while walking.

This huge amount of content can be a down side because it can be overwhelming for some people.

The battle system can be annoying and the game itself is not easy at some points. You have to be fast to block attacks, so you're able to survive through boss battles, and mana is something you will want to hold back, because you don't have much of it. There are "orbs" that drop from enemies (Drippy provides them as well) that restore a bit of health or mana, but its not much, and because only some familiars can learn a trick to resurrect you will want to keep all the consumables that can do that. Also, since you don't recover HP or MP after a battle, while on dungeons you will want to have consumables or it will be very difficult to survive.

Oliver fighting with a familiar.

The graphics are stunning, the cel-shading art style that is used in the game just fits so well with this type of

game that I couldn't think of any other way that should have been done. All in all the world looks amazing and the quality of the animation is excellent. I have just one small complaint about the cutscenes. They used still image animation and while it does look amazing the "non-fluidity" of the animation wasn't a plus to me.

This game also has end-game content, mainly a bunch of side-quests where you can side upgraded versions of bosses and such. You can also fight the last boss again if you'd like to. There is also the trophy collection for the PS3 which I might try to complete one day and it adds to the replay value.

In short, this game is a must buy for any fans of a good JRPG. The beautiful world, amazing soundtrack, clever writing and huge content will have you glued to the screen and you will want to just keep playing. 

A Virus Named TOM

By: Misfits Attic

Where: PC (Steam), Playstation Vita
Category: Action/Puzzle

“Destroying Tomorrow, Today!”

So, it’s a game about a virus, one named TOM apparently. Background check? Sure.
So, Mr. Eccentric Scientist here goes about creating a city of the future for this company called Mega-Tech. Robot dogs, sidewalks that take you wherever you want, special tech suits that change your appearance….that kind of thing. Eventually, his eccentric side gets the best of him, and he ends up creating Globotron, a massive robot that “terminates” anyone who doesn’t use his inventions. Needless to say, he gets fired. “‘How is that even profitable’ they said”.

So, as any “normal” Eccentric Scientist, he decides to take revenge on Mega-Tech. This is where you come in. You are TOM, a green funny looking virus created for the sole purpose of giving those idiots at Mega-Tech a lesson.

Contagious Fun

So, how do we go about ruining everything? Easy. Get TOM inside those gadgets and have him turn those circuits into a mess. All you need to do is to spread the infection (green) to the whole circuit and you’re done! That easy? No.

Ok, so the primary objective is to spread the infection to the entire circuit. To do this you have to rotate each piece in a way so that the infection reaches everywhere. The initial circuits are simple, but as you progress, things get difficult. Circuits keep getting bigger and more complex, enemies are added, your time limit (aka Energy) gets lower….in short, a whole bunch of stuff to make your life harder. Still, all these game mechanics are introduced in intervals over the campaign, giving you time to get used to each one of them.

Each gadget is composed of various levels, and from some point up you will start getting Skips, which you can use to (obviously) skip levels. The level will be considered solved, and once you really DO solve it, you’ll get your skip back!

Endless TOMfoolery

There is also a multiplayer campaign with even more complicated puzzles and an additional game element, this time a barrier, preventing players to cross over to the other player’s half of the puzzle. Some of these require two pieces to be rotated at the same time to succeed, so it takes a bit of practice. Additionally, there is a versus mode where you compete with up to 3 friends (the multiplayer campaign also supports up to 4 players) in a custom sized circuit where each player attempts to capture more squares than anyone else. Of course, you can kill other players and get their squares, turning it into a random pool of death and robotic laughs. There’s also a tons of achievements, some of which pretty hard and global score leaderboards (via Steam). It’s such a shame that there’s no online multiplayer (yes, it’s local, so either you have a couple controllers or I surely hope your keyboard can have 10 keys pressed at the same time).

So, in conclusion, if you like a good interactive kind of puzzle and want a good brain teaser, this might just be what you’re looking for. Difficulty gets pretty crazy further down the road. Even more so if you grab a couple of friends.

The game can be found here:

http://store.steampowered.com/app/207650/

A Walk in the Dark

Worth the weight….of 200 MB 

Whereas some titles are better the more developed they are, that doesn’t automatically mean simple games aren’t good. And just like I came to realize after playing a game with one of the most simple setting I have ever seen, just because a game doesn’t have a storyline worthy of a light novel adaptation, doesn’t mean it won’t be an extremely pleasant experience. A Walk in the Dark is an Indie game by Flying Turtle Software that has been present for a while in steam’s Greenlight page. However, at least until it gets enough votes to reach the store, you can get it from its official site for 5€. The soundtrack is also available.

http://a-walk-in-the-dark.com

Not your everyday walk

The (short) story begins with little Arielle and her cat Bast happily together in the forest when BAM, an evil looking wizardry creature just flies by and kidnaps Arielle, enveloping the forest with a dark aura. Suddenly, the green forest is turned into a never-ending corridor of obstacles that Bast must overcome in order to save his owner. Simple, no?

Don’t go towards the light…oh wait

So, after the short animation sequence depicting the events described above, we begin the first stage. Needless to say, we control a slender black cat (pretty much everything in this game is black except for the backgrounds) and our objective is to take him to a pillar of light representing the end of the stage, without allowing him to be hurt (no life bar here, if something bad touches you OR if you touch IT, you instantly dissolve into a smoke cloud and are put back at the beginning of the stage). At first there aren’t really any threats to the cat’s integrity except for some spikes here and there, but as you progress through the one hundred stages, things get tricky. Levels get longer and/or more confusing with gravity -changing devices, rotating blades, less safe ground and an increasingly smaller margin for jumping errors.

Gotta go fast

Make it into the light and you get a super simple “stage clear” screen, with your time, your best time and the PAR time. The PAR time is predetermined for all levels, and if you manage to beat it you are awarded with a Speedy badge. This proves to be a simple but extremely effective way to make you want to perfect each level, extending the game’s length. There is also an additional Shiny Badge, awarded if you manage to collect a shiny bauble found in every level, most of them in very tricky spots (just floating above some spikes or similar, making a perfectly executed jump mandatory). Of course you don’t need to get both badges on the same run, in fact you don’t need to get them at all, they’re just “Achievements” of sorts.

Not all levels are the same, some levels title “The Cave” have the cat run forward automatically, leaving you the challenge of jumping or ducking at the right time to avoid death. In my opinion these are the hardest stages.
Since here the cat runs by itself, instead of par time you get a “First Run” should you successfully complete the stage on your first try. Seems a bit buggy though, if you fail your first try, you have to quit the level, load another one and then re-enter the original level in an attempt to do it “on the first try”. And it still doesn’t unlock sometimes.
There are also Arielle’s stages, which follow the same mechanics as Bast’s, except here you move around and press the jump button to invert your gravity as you go over/under obstacles towards the end of each stage. This mechanic is also present in the cat’s stages but it’s only activated by stepping on certain light panels.

100 stages of challenge

All in all, a pretty challenging experience with a decent length (took me 6 hours to finish it with all the badges) and with a well-balanced difficulty increase over the stages. Control-wise it doesn’t get easier than this: analog stick to move, a button to jump and one to duck (as Bast). Arielle doesn’t even have the ducking button so you just move and press the jump button to change gravity, pretty much like in VVVVVV.  Some stages might look near-impossible at first but as you repeat each section again and again you will start to mechanize your button presses, eventually perfecting every jump and timing. The last level especially, takes a while to master.

Shortest credit roll ever

As I see it, A Walk in the Dark is a pleasant and challenging experience that all platforming lovers will enjoy, and the short but brilliant soundtrack fits in perfectly with the game’s setting. Also, did I mention it’s only 5€?

Darksiders (PC)

Developer: Vigil Games
Publisher: THQ
Release Date: September 22, 2010 (PC) Platform: PC, Xbox 360, PS3
RPVP: 19.99€
Size: ~9972 MB (PC)

Overview / Plot

In Darksiders, a relatively simple hack-n'-slash game, you take the role of the Horseman War, falsely accused of triggering the apocalypse. The premise is simple: to cut through hordes of demons and angels alike, solve puzzles, and while you're at it, get some cool power-ups. Darksiders has been heavily criticized over the years as a God of War / Zelda ripoff, and I'm willing to agree on some points there. But, then again, even if I do agree that the game took most of its elements from those two other merchandises, it's also true that the resultant mix can be looked at as something unique. And in a time where originality seems to be dying, it's good to see that some studios are willing to try new combinations with ingredients that we're already used to. If it works for food, it might work for videogames. After all, videogames are "brain food" (some more than others, of course). After being presented with a short cinematic explaining the plot behind the happenings in Darksiders in one minute or so, you can begin your button mashing. In the early phases of the game you are presented with some hints, telling you how to do stuff. Still, there's really nothing complicated here, so you'll soon feel at home. In fact, after playing through the game twice (in different difficulties) the aspect I find most difficult to understand about this game is still the plot itself. If you get distracted for 2 seconds on the opening cinematic or in any of the first parts of the game you will be left behind and in complete confusion of what is happening and why is it happening. The opening cinematic just compresses a lot of information, and it takes concentration to understand everything that's being told to you. This of course, if you don't just skip the whole thing just so you can start slashing away sooner.  The comic book included might help a bit, giving some background info on certain characters and explaining the reasons behind some of the game's events. In a somewhat generic way, it all comes down to a war between Heaven and Hell that has been dragging on for an eternity, without any victory for either side. Then arrives The Charred Council, whose purpose is to maintain balance between both sides. For this they use the Four Horsemen (War, Death, Strife and Fury) to enforce peace and kick either side's butt when necessary.

Only later do the humans come into the picture, and since these are "still weak, but cunning" according to the Council, a truce is formed between the kingdoms od Heaven and Hell. The plan is to have the decisive war (the Endwar) when all three kingdoms are ready (the new kingdom being called the Kingdom of Men). The go-sign for the war being the breaking of all of the Seven Seals. All remains peaceful, until demons start raining from the sky. The war rages and War, the Horseman is summoned, but of course, he soon realizes that something isn't right. His brothers are nowhere to be found and Abaddon, general of the Heaven's forces insists that War shouldn't be there, since the seven seals were never broken. Eventually, War gets to face Stragga, a powerful demon, and it would have been a pretty easy fight for the Horseman, were it not for the fact that he had broken the law, by waging war with the seals intact. For this reason, his powers are taken and he is defeated. Saved from death by the charred council, War is accused of causing the apocalypse and of siding with Hell's forces (kinda stupid since all you do up until this moment is kill demons). War defends himself, and asks to be taken back to earth so he can find whoever is responsible for this and punish him, thus clearing his own name. The council agrees, but not without linking War to The Watcher, an agent of the council that is to keep an eye on war and kill him should he stray from his path. This is where the game truly begins.

Opinion

Lets begin with gameplay. Combat mechanics are easy to get around, and this might be the reason many critics said the game is an excessive "press X to win" experience. While correct up to a point, I wont agree on it being boring or too easy. After playing other games of the same kind that contain an abusive amount of skills and button combinations you need to memorize to play decently, I felt Darksiders was more "light"in terms of what you need to learn and use. There's not that much variety in what it comes to tactics, certain enemies require you to hit and run to be able to defeat them and leave with your health intact (at least if you're playing in a higher difficulty) and bosses aren't too difficult. Additionally, if you don't rush headlong into them you can defeat them in your first try with little trial and error. This helps keeping the game's difficulty balanced. The Amount of weapons feels insufficient, even though with the experience needed to level up each one, it's unlikely you'll reach the end of the game with more than one maxed out. Weapon enhancements are very well hidden, and some require backtracking to find, once you obtain certain abilities. Thus, 100% completion is very hard without a guide. Graphical options, once again, are the ones we're used to in console ports: resolution and a v-sync switch. The graphics however, are pretty polished and the game runs smoothly on any decent computer. As for bugs, nothing to point out.

Cut-scenes though, are pre-rendered at a lower resolution and quality, so if you are playing in 1080p, you'll definitely notice that. It's quite annoying, since they could have just used the game engine to do that in real-time at whatever resolution the game was running at. Having cut-scenes with less quality than the game itself is annoying. As for longevity, the game is considerably long, and the dungeon maps can prove to be really confusing, should you need to backtrack in order to get hidden power-ups or valuables. Some achievements require an awful lot of grinding as well and the Dark Rider achievement is just ridiculous. I had to put some rubber bands on the controller's analog sticks and let the character go around in circles for several hours to get it. Some abilities, such as Stoneskin have an abusive cost, there's no way you're gonna rank up even one of them to its highest state if you don't grind souls for hours. Even after getting every single chest in the game and grinding for some achievements, I didn't manage to get any ability to maximum rank. Good thing there isn't an achievement for that.

Some Aspects

• Cinematics rendered in low quality;
• Difficulty is well balanced;
• Plot is confusing at first;
• No side-quests / Too Linear;
• Voice acting is good in general, but War's voice sounds forced;
• Interesting puzzles and good gameplay in general;
• Fair amount of weapons and skills.

With Darksiders II out now, I'm expected to see the first game getting some more sales within the next weeks.I haven't played the second one yet, but I can only hope that there is more to do than the main storyline. Because Darksiders tends to turn into a boring desert after you finish it and there simply is no reason to keep playing it. Nonetheless, it's a good and solid game, and a starting point for what could become a big franchise. Hopefully, we will see it getting out from underneath the skirt of its older brothers and developing into something unique, shutting up the naysayers.

Final Gameplay Stats:

Time Played:	55 Hours
Achievements Unlocked:	43 / 43 (100%)
Difficulty played the most:	Apocalyptic

ICO (HD)

Details

Developer: Team ICO

Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment

Reviewed Platform: PS3

Game Modes: Single Player

RPVP: $19.99* (Includes Shadow of the Colossus) Release Date (PS2): September 24, 2001 (North America)

Release Date (PS3): September 30, 2011 (Europe)

Overview

ICO starts with a horned young boy being imprisoned inside a castle.

The game itself is basically his attempt at escaping from the castle, where the player has to solve puzzles and fight mysterious beings to protect a young lady that is also imprisoned in the castle. She ,in turn, has the power to open special doors.

Plot

The Queen

There's not much to say here, the boy finds the girl at the beginning of the game and finds out that she can open special doors. So then, they try to escape the castle. Since she can't jump, climb, and fall as well as the boy, the player will have to change the environment so that she can progress as well.

She will be constantly under attack by "shadow creatures", so you have to stay on your toes.

Halfway through the game the "queen" appears, and she looks like a combination of the girl with the shadow creatures. Obviously she doesn't want the girl to escape, but you won't know why until you reach the end of the game.

Gameplay and Difficulty

Boy and girl on a saving bench

In the game you can jump, grab things such as wood sticks, swords, bombs, etc, pull and push boxes, activate switches, grab the girl to take her with you and also call her to go near you.

You will have to use this to create paths for the girl to progress across sections of the game, and  you might need to help her jump across gaps by grabbing her or push her from a higher spot.

The game isn't very difficult or very long and there's even a trophy to complete the game in less than 2 hours (even though it took me almost 7 hours to complete it on my first playthrough). The save system is also interesting because you can only save while sitting on special stone benches and you need to sit down with the girl to be able to do it.

The attacks on the girls normally happen when they arrive at a new zone or when a puzzle is completed. Also, if the girl is left alone in a room for a long time or the boy gets too far away a spontaneous attack will occur.

There are different types of shadow creatures, some climb walls and become "shadows" for a time, becoming immune to attacks, others are human shaped and some even fly.

They will try to take the girl to their spawning points and start to dragging her inside. The boy will have to fight the creatures with his horns if he is unarmed, or with a stick/sword. If the creatures manage to take the girl to their spawning points the boy will have to push her out before she disappears and you lose.

Opinion

I think that the best word to describe this game is the word 'different'. The music is very calm and fits into the desolate castle perfectly. The puzzles are good and the whole boy/girl interaction is interesting.

The controls aren't bad, with R1 you grab or call the girl, pretty much like in Shadow of the Colossus, where you use R1 to grab on to your enemies. The graphics aren't bad for a 2001 game and the overall ambience is pretty good.

The end is amazing considering the type of game: the normal turn of events near the end, the well though last boss mechanics and the satisfactory ending make this game something that you should not miss if you're into a different type of game.

Verdict: Recommended!

The Breakdown

Positive Aspects	Negative Aspects	Needs Improvement
Good gameplay. Has a good level interaction with the environment. Seamless transition between rooms. Good puzzles. Nice soundtrack. Amazing and beautiful castle design.	Occasional pathfinding issues on the girl's AI. The speed at which she climbs ladders...	The back story could have been better explored, although it gives the whole game a nice, mysterious aura.

My Playing Statistics

Time Played: 7 Hours

Trophies Unlocked: 9/16 (43%)

Number of Times Played: 1

*RPVP based on GameStop retail price for PS3

by Regateiro (Sabexbem)

Anomaly: Warzone Earth

Developer: 11 Bit Studios

Platform: Windows, Mac, Android, iOS, Xbox360

Release Date: April 2011

RPVP: 9.99€ (Steam)

Size: ~ 430MB (PC)

Genre: RTS, Reverse-Tower Defense

Overview and Plot

The story starts in the near future when parts of an alien spaceship fall on earth (more specifically in Baghdad and Tokyo) and the so-called “Anomalies” appear around them. Your first mission as the 14th Squad is to investigate the first anomaly in Baghdad, see what’s causing interference with the communication systems and find gather information about why and what is happening inside the anomaly (which is where the first mission ends).

Gameplay

The gameplay is simple: you control a given set of units that must complete objectives, such as destroying target buildings or simply reaching a specific point in the map. Obviously your enemy will do everything to stop you from doing just that. You path will be riddled with various forms of enemy machinery, from small laser towers, energy charged towers, giant cannons and so on. During the first couple of missions you can’t buy any units, but as you progress (the first 2 or 3 missions are like a tutorial where game elements are gradually introduced and explained) you will be able to buy or sell units. Also, along the way, new units will become available for purchase, each one with a set value of armor and power, which dictates how much damage they can do or take. Each unit has its own strengths and weaknesses and to be able to progress in more difficult missions or higher difficulty modes you will have to do some micromanagement, since each unit is better suited to deal with a specific kind of enemy. There is also a shield unit that doesn’t do any damage but instead, protects the 2 units around it, one in front of it and the one in its back. This protection comes in the form of a second health bar that regenerates with time should your units stop taking damage for a while. Each unit can be upgraded three times, each upgrade increasing its armor and damage values by a set amount. Each upgrade costs more than the previous one and to get money you need to gather rare minerals found through the missions. You also get some money just for killing enemies. Upgrades need to be well managed, since you need to decide which unit should be upgraded for each situation, since the money is scarce, at least on Story Mode.
You can modify the path your units take based on available roads in the map, and in most situations you must choose wisely, whether it is to take less time to get to your objective or to minimize the amount of enemies you will have to face. Your character (the captain of the 14th Squad) is the character you control directly, moving him to any spot by clicking on the map. With his combat suit, he needs to be constantly used to help your units in their mission. The combat su8it has several abilities that are introduced one at a time over the first couple of missions, except the first one with is the Repair ability, which you already begin the game with. Each ability can only be used a very limited number of times and recharges aren’t abundant so you have to manage them well.

At the end of each mission you may be awarded medals for your performance. The three medals are for Directionability (usually attained by going through the fastest path), Ruthlessness (killing lots of enemies) and Efficiency (usually ending a mission with a certain number of ability charges left). Moreover, each medal has 3 different ranks (bronze, silver and gold obviously). There are a couple of different game modes besides the story mode like the Baghdad Mayhem or Tokyo Raid where you have to go through a large level without your captain (meaning you can’t use any abilities) or beating a set number of enemy waves in a regular map (each wave spawns after you kill the previous one and its harder to beat). These modes have some extra cash for you to be able to further upgrade your units.

Opinion

First off I’ll say that the way game mechanics are introduced is pretty good, not too fast, not to slow. Everything is pretty intuitive except certain effects that specific weapons have on your machines, for example, when energy-charged machined fire at your tanks, the shoot twice as fast, and how this must be used in  order to take advantage of certain situations. Casual difficulty is pretty balanced but Harcore revealed itself completely impossible for me from mission 11 onwards. The plot is very very simplistic, wich is good on one hand, theres not much information for players to absorb on that side. The extra modes are fun to play but pretty difficult and the Story mode could be longer. Just like almost every game in my account, I picked this one up on a sale and I liked it. If you don’t like strategy or tower defense games you probably should star away from it though, because if you don’t like the style of gameplay itself, other game elements like the story wont help much either. if you like this kind of game, go ahead. There’s achievements of course and a Leaderboard which tracks your total game score.

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

The Good	The Bad
Simple, not too much information to absorb; Variety of vehicles and enemies; Interesting extra game modes.	Difficulty ramps up too quickly in story mode;  There’s not much story to it, but then again I didn’t really expect it to.

Conclusion

If you’re not a fan of this genre, I suggest you stay away. Otherwise, well, it’s a simple game that’s pretty fun, at least for a while. I recommend getting it while it’s on sale.

My Final Gameplay Stats

Time Played:	21 Hours
Achievements Unlocked:	20 / 43 (47%)
Difficulty played the most:	Casual / Hardcore

Screenshots taken at 1920x1080. Title image taken from Steam Grid view. I do not own it.