Dec82008
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Even more Persona 4 reviews
Given the number of people visiting the site looking for information, it’s clear that quite a few of you will soon be neck deep in a murder mystery and busy molesting TV sets in a picturesque Japanese countryside. While you’re enjoying yourself, please spare a thought for us unlucky European bastards who have anything up to half a year to wait. Hey! Stop laughing! Since the reviews are all picking up on the same points and have a general theme of appreciation, rather than comment on them individually, here is a list of the new reviews and their scores…
As you can see, this new series of review scores closely match the ones posted last time. Certainly encouraging for anyone with the game on pre-order or considering popping into their local ‘house of games’ to purchase Persona 4. If you were previously on the fence, get the hell off and get the game bought. Tsch! Another related tidbit is this article from Siliconera, expanding their series of previews of the game with a look at the dungeoneering aspects. As with other previews, if you want to experience the tweaks to the game fresh, avoid but if you’re nosey like me (and you’re looking forwards to months of waiting for a European release), have at it. Speaking of which, Square Enix have confirmed that they’ll be releasing Persona 4 in Europe next year with a slightly firmer ‘Spring 2009′ (so any time between late March and late June) in their December newsletter. I think this will be the last Persona 4 review update. They all seem to be of a single mind (the game is great!) and there should be enough nuance in the eight to ten reviews I’ve linked over the last few weeks to help you decide if the game is for you. Simply put, it is. Tags / atlus / consoles / digital chumps / game vortex / gamecritics / Gaming / honestgamers / persona / ps2 / review / rpg / square enix / thunderbolt games / |
Along with the reviews mentioned in my
Dec42008
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Step away from the Mechanostrider, lady!Like a drunken adult trying to ride a child’s playground ’springy’, I bring you this screenshot of my World of Warcraft character in full Frost Vrykul disguise sat on his (yes, the disguise changes your sex if you’re a fella) swift, green mechanostrider. Riding on mounts that are clearly waaaaay too small for you is one of the delights that await you in the new expansion, Wrath of the Lich King. The mount considered too tiny for anything but a Gnome or a Dwarf to ride is apparently strong enough to support the weight of a hulking, frozen warrior in full battle armour. It’s Gnome technology at it’s finest! You might be wondering, since WotLK came out almost a month ago, why beyond showing you this hilarious scene (seriously, my eyes were watering after seeing this giant zipping around on a tiny mechanostrider… but, hey, that’s just me) I’ve been strangely quiet on the expansion-related article front. The fact is, I’ve been playing WotLK during pretty much any free time I can muster. Work has been torture. Not the regular torture that it usually is but a special kind of torture you’d only wish upon your most successful friends. Wrath of the Lich King is great fun. I’ve really been enjoying it. Of course, people are devouring the new content at a lightning speed and if that’s your thing, go at it. For everyone else, I’d recommend taking things at your own pace. Enjoy the sights, take in the lore and for God’s sake, read the damn quest instructions, you morons! Sorry… sorry. One of the returning plagues from the launch of The Burning Crusade (heck, even the start of World of Warcraft itself) is the dumbasses who think yelling out to everyone else in the area to give them a point-by-point breakdown of every step a quest entails is somehow quicker than simply reading four or so lines of text. Still, before long you find yourself in the next area and well away from those knuckle-dragging bozos. People seem to be handling the change of scenery in WotLK a lot better than TBC and feel quite at home in the Dun Morogh-esque snowy landscapes it provides. The gap between end-game TBC player items and WotLK new greens seems to be less drastic than the first expansion, quietening some of the masses this time round though there are murmurs that Blizzard might have gone too far in the opposite direction - that people rarely find the quest rewards a worthwhile upgrade to anything they already had. What can I say - you can’t please everyone. New game mechanics in the form of vehicles have been the occasional questing highlight while playing through the expansion and a new slew of recipes are sure to keep me and my alts busy (and financially secure) for a long time to come. I can’t say I’m too enthralled with the new Death Knight class. Some people are having a whale of a time, to be sure (and others are crying that they’re too over-powered), but for me the late 50s and very early 60s are a real drag for my alts so having a class dropped right at the foot of that particular mountain just doesn’t inspire. Maybe a month or two down the road I’ll have an itch for something different but in what roughly amounts to three levels of DK starter quests, I can’t muster the energy to put aside my main and embrace the traitorous DK lifestyle. So WotLK is lovely and I’m looking forward to getting as much blood from this particular stone as I can, as is MMORPG tradition but looking ahead, I really think Blizzard have to step up their game and try to adhere to their statement of providing something close to one expansion a year. Two years is too long to wait, if you ask me. I have to wonder if the majority of WoW’s playerbase would wait another two years for the next one. And of course, I can’t end an article mentioning drunken adults on a playground springy without linking to this webcomic from Cascade Failure. Tags / blizzard / expansion / Gaming / pc / the burning crusade / world of warcraft / wrath of the lich king / |
Dec32008
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Persona 4 reviews-a-go-go!
First up is Gamepro, who in this review, give Persona 4 a 5 out of 5. The reviewer is an old hand when it comes to the series and brings up (and lays to rest) the worry that P4 is merely P3 but with a minor dust and polish. While he acknowledges that the gameplay will feel familiar to fans of the series, it appears that everything Persona 3 already did well has been tweaked and fine tuned to perfection in the new game. The game scores a lower, but still commendable, 8.7 out of 10 in this review from GameZone. Despite some odd reaching to link the game’s inspirations to other sources (wait, pyramidhead from Silent Hill?), the reviewer still admits the game is one of the best RPGs on the PS2 in recent history. A fair review, if not a little focussed on that fact the game is ‘old gen’ rather than a PS3 or Xbox360 title. Next comes another top mark with 10 out of 10 in this review from Gamervision. Another review from a devoted fan who wasn’t expecting Persona 3 to be improved on. Like the Gamepro article, this gamer appears to have come away very pleased with the results. This review from Hardcore Gamer Magazine gives Persona 4 a healthy 4.75 out of 5 (an average taken from the 5 out 5 of the reviewer and a 4.5 out of 5 from another writer). This time the reviewer enjoys the new storyline from the series as well as all the improvements made to the game mechanics. They also note the increase in activities to fill the protagonist’s days leading to fewer ‘what now?’ moments and the improved social link development. Finally, 1UP gives Persona 4 a shining A+ mark in their review. This reviewer appreciates the bite-sized chunks of dungeon Persona 4 serves up in comparison to the sometimes daunting colossal tower of Tartarus. They also feel that the characters are better placed in this title than the previous one. Overall, the theme that runs through all these reviews is that everything we love from the Persona series makes a happy return with a new lick of paint and some minor niggles (such a lacking team control or no fast travel) have been exorcised. It all adds up to a game I’m really looking forward to having eat up a considerable amount of my free time. …when it finally hits Europe, of course. Bah, I’d almost convinced myself I was a US citizen and Persona 4 was only a week away. No such luck! Tags / 1up / atlus / consoles / gamepro / gamervision / gamezone / Gaming / hardcore gamer magazine / persona / ps2 / review / rpg / |
Seems like I should have held off posting my previous
Nov302008
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More Persona 4 previews and info
The first item and probably the most important, personally, is a hint… rumour… vague indication that Persona 4 will be hitting European shores before too long. According to French gaming website ‘Jeuxpo.com‘, the German classification organisation, USK (*deep breath* the Unterhaltungssoftware Selbstkontrolle) have rated Persona 4 (for ages 12 and over). It also mentions that it’ll be released in Europe by SquareEnix and that it should be expected early next year - though from the translated text of the article (original here), I’m not sure the entry actually says that. Oh well, fingers crossed whatever. As, previously mentioned, the US gets Persona 4 in just over a week on the 9th of December and Japan is already enjoying the game. At least it’s nice to know that we haven’t been forgotten and plans are afoot to get the title in our grubby European mitts. If you’re still jonesing for whatever Persona 4 information you can get, you might want to pop over to this Persona 4 Hands-On article from Gamespot posted earlier in the month. Obviously, avoid like the plague if you want to go into the game fresh and without having any of the gameplay elements spoiled for you but if you’re fine with a little preview (and let’s face it - we all know the gameplay isn’t going to be a million miles from Persona 3, anyway), then have at it. The same can be said for this article from the Siliconera website covering the part that the protagonist’s home plays in the development of your social links and stats. It’s a bit more in-depth than the previously mentioned preview, focussing as it does on one specific area of the game so if you prefer to uncover details like that for yourself, you probably should stay away. All in all, ‘early next year’ just can’t come quickly enough.
Tags / atlus / consoles / gamespot / Gaming / persona / preview / ps2 / rpg / siliconera / |
Since a lot of people visiting the site seem to have just as much a desire for Persona 4 information as I have, I thought I’d post a quick round-up of a few things I’d spotted while wandering the intertubes wasteland.
Oct282008
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The Albino Drake is mine!Following on from last week’s ‘Achievapalooza 2008!‘ post, where I basically admitted defeat and realised that Blizzard had added yet another hook in my gullet with their Achievements system (not that they really needed more hooks in there - I’m considering starting my own tackle shop with the collection they’ve bestowed on me already), I thought it was worth rah-rah’ing about a recent and more ‘tangible’ reward I’ve collected. Since the patch went live, I’ve quickly racked up the achievements related to various daily quests, a bunch of the event themed achievements (this last week or so being ‘Hallow’s End‘, WoW’s Halloween-esque celebration of the Forsaken breaking free of the Lich King) and the rather easy fishing and cooking achievements. Being an all-rounder pays off as one of the cooking profession quests (’The Cake Is Not A Lie‘ - a cute reference to Valve’s excellent game, Portal) requires you to prepare a Delicious Chocolate Cake, the recipe for which is a random drop reward from a Fishing daily quest in Outland. The new ability to track low-level quests on the mini-map means that my pre-TBC character now has ‘exalted’ reputation with all the old Azerothian home factions and sports the impressive sounding Ambassador title displayed in front of his name. Post-TBC chars pretty much get free rep for sneezing so it was a little more work than new characters would be expected to do but I wanted the title and sailing through level 10-20 quests while you’re a level 70 character isn’t exactly what you’d call brain surgery. The achievement I’m happiest with is the one called ‘Leading the Cavalry‘ and requires the player to obtain 50 unique mounts (ground based or flying). It really should be called ‘How much gold can you spare?’ as it’s basically an exercise in purchasing power, visiting various vendors and snapping up their entire range of mounts. Of course, one of the first things you need to do is make sure you can purchase other race’s mounts - which is where being exalted with their faction pays off. Long story short, I’m now riding about on a huge albino drake… behold!
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To fill out the impressive effect, my character is also sporting the latest in Hallow’s End couture… the ninja costume courtesy of trick of treating an inn keeper.
Oct212008
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Achievapalooza 2008!
One of the things that I was rather looking forward to and something I’d talked about in the past, was the achievements. Well, a few weeks (months?) ago they announced that they were rolling some things previously assumed to be part of WotLK forward (such as pet revamps/class revamps, vanity pet/mount interface shuffle and the incription profession). Well, in the Tue/Wed 3.0.2 patch last week, they all arrived along with the new achievements feature. Achievements boil the game down to it’s most basic of tick-box orientated gameplay. Visited all the areas in Durotar? Well done, you earn some points. Beaten seven shades of shinola out of Edwin VanCleef? More points for you! These are just some of the easy-peasy achievements. They also combine into sets so your Durotar wanderings add to your overall Explorer achievement for East Kingdoms, Kalimdor, Outland and Northrend. Your dungeon boss killing spree counts towards your various ‘Dungeonmaster‘ achievements. Some of these achievements will even earn you some lightweight rewards like titles, tabards and vanity pets. There’s tougher achievements in the mix, some that require long-term commitments and some that acknowledge bouts of luck such as rare kills/drops. All in all, that’s one helluva list (750 achievements… currently) of boxes to tick. Me, I’m going all OCD on the easy ones. I’ve decided that the rest are going to have to be happy accidents if I get them or I’ll end up driving myself batty like the dopes on the forums. I have to admit, it’s kinda nice going about your business, playing the game as usual then seeing the whoosh of an achievement occur. Even reviewing your ‘progress’ on some of the others tempts you into focusing your gameplay a little more. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got to infiltrate an enemy faction city and spend countless hours trying to catch a rare fish, all the while getting my ass handed to me by players trying to earn that bizarre “kill-then-/hug-emote-the-corpse” achievement… Tags / achievements / blizzard / expansion / Gaming / patch / pc / the burning crusade / world of warcraft / wrath of the lich king / |
According to the rather disturbing countdown clock on
Sep192008
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Persona 4 review
The point of this post isn’t to rah-rah the fact it got a good score (though I’m more than happy to see it) but to mention the review does contain a fair bit of information about the storyline and gameplay of the title. Since a lot of the hits I get are Persona 4 flavoured, I thought I’d point interested parties in the direction of the review (and at the same time apologise for the lack of Persona 4 ‘meat’ on the bones of my own particular pages - sorry if you wasted a ‘trip’). It makes for an interesting read and certainly gets me thinking about that yet unannounced European release. Come on, when are we getting it, guys? Anyway, have a look if you’re a bit of a fanboy and tend to eat up anything Persona 4 related. UPDATE : As some people are hitting my site through this article, apparently looking for Persona 4 reviews, I just wanted to point you towards two newer posts I’ve made that link to a series of reviews. They are… Tags / atlus / consoles / Gaming / persona / ps2 / rpg / |
Aug202008
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‘The Sims 3′ dated
No Christmas cash-in on the cards, it seems, as the (global, no less) release date stands at the 20th Feb 2009. As well as hitting the real-world shelves, it’ll also be arriving at online outlets in the shape of a digital download - although I can’t imagine it being a petite chunk of bandwidth you’d need to expend for a title like this. I guess those with internet connections from the stoneage should stick to their local highstreet if they want a Sims fix. Along with the regular, run-of-the-mill version being sold that day, those of you with money to burn will be able to get your mitts on a Collector’s Edition release. What does the extra moolah buy you? A Plumbob USB Drive with matching Green Carabiner, in-game Italian-style sports car, a tips and hints guide (which I assume will be page after page of hot tips on what to do if your Sims have a tendency to urinate in every room of the house except the bathroom) and Plumbob stickers. Hmm, no artbook or soundtracks? Meh. In case you’re wondering what the hell a Plumbob is, it’s the little green diamond thing you’ll have stared at for hours on end if you even dare call yourself a The Sims fan. Anyway, all the facts and a healthy dose of ’sales pitch’ can be found in this press release. Tags / ea / Gaming / pc / the sims / |
Another show (this time the 2008 Games Convention in Leipzig, Germany), another ‘
Aug172008
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Team Fortress 2 - The Mumbling
The reason for today’s diatribe-lite is the comms chat on Team Fortress 2. I’ve been playing the game a fair bit recently. I’m still shockingly bad and I seem to have the ‘Wanted‘ effect on sniper bullets - as in they will bend around walls, rock formations and even other team-mates to find their way to my skull. To say I’m a bullet magnet would be unfair to the shot, flame, grenades, bombs, bats and axeheads I also manage to attract with alarming regularity. If I’m anywhere higher than mid-table on the team leaderboard, you know I’m stuck with a bunch of hopeless players sailing on the good ship Sure Loss. But it’s the people who use the voice comms system to chat to team-mates that I want to talk about. Basically, I’ve boiled it down to a simple rule of thumb for spotting people really who shouldn’t use voice comms. It’s ‘Do you have voice comms?‘. If you answered ‘Yes!‘ (or most probably ‘Why, yes I do, I’m often regaling my team-mates with a highly amusing running commentary!”), then it’s fairly certain that you damn well shouldn’t be using voice comms because it’d be a miracle if you’re actually one of those one-in-a-million players who makes good use of it in-game. There’s a pretty limited number of phrases you’ll hear over voice comms, it seems…
And this is before you’ve even got on to the morons who think they’re at an open-mic night at the comedy club and are providing lacklustre improv entertainment to their team-mates. No, you’re not funny. You never were. Go back to applying homophobic spray images to the base walls. Sometimes, you come across a real gem of a player. They provide useful information on opposition movements with reference to actual locations in the map. They offer up strategy and advice (not in that “Do this… NOW!” way that makes you just want to do the opposite right off the bat, either). And mostly, they’re speaking clearly while they do it. But these people are soooo few and far between. So if you’re one of the clueless listed above, stand. Stand up from your computer desk and slowly turn in a circle. Keep turning. Hopefully you’ll not notice the cable of your voice comms headset tightening around your neck as you turn and with any luck, we’ll be short one moron with a mic before too long. Tags / Gaming / team fortress 2 / |
Pretty sure this is my first ‘
Jul232008
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Gotta catch ‘em. All of ‘em
I thought the hook was already buried deep within my cheek in regards to announced features for the expansion. Extensive new content? Yay! I want me some of that. Raise the level cap? Mmm-mmm! Loving that progression. Then they did it… They appealed to the brainless grinder in me. They announced their Achievements system. Basically they’re borrowing the system Microsoft have made popular with their XBox Live ‘experience’, and bolting it into the perfect casing for such a devious set of enticements - a Massively Multiplayer Online game. With it they’ll be awarding points for completing various chores and attaining specific conditions (from the bizarre; getting your hair cut in a new WotLK barbershop… to the obsessive; raising your reputation with 40 factions to ‘Exalted’). And what do points make? Prizes! (sorry, Brucie). And by prizes, I mean some fairly innocuous little rewards in the shape of titles, vanity pets and tabards. “More pets?” I hear you scream, “But I’ve got pets coming out of my ears! I can’t possibly devote yet more bank space to all these cute little critters!”. Worry not, that’s where Blizzard’s announcement comes in (you did click the link before, right?). Blizzard CM, Wryxian, revealed that in WotLK, players won’t need to forever juggle bag & bank space due to their insane need to collect each and every mount and vanity pet in the game. You’ll simply ‘learn’ the pet/mount as you would a spell and it’ll appear in a new tab in your character info window to be called up whenever desired. Cool huh? Yeah. That’s me tied up until the expansion after WotLK comes out desperately trying to catch ‘em all, too. Oh, crapcakes! ps. Almost forgot to mention - if you are planning on expanding your critter collection to near-legendary status, the website with all the information you could ever want is ‘WarcraftPets.com’. Consider it a to-do list as well as a how-to guide. Tags / achievements / blizzard / consoles / expansion / Gaming / microsoft / nintendo / pc / pokémon / world of warcraft / wrath of the lich king / xbox / |
Apologies for butchering the