[  Mood: Very Happy ]

So, eager to find something new and exciting to do in my life, I picked up Dissidia: Final Fantasy on the eve of it's release, and from the start, I readied myself for a failure.

you see, if was my expectation that the game would go down the previous path of Crisis Core, and just kick the series in the balls with it's cruel way of trying to appease fans while forgoing what keeps the series thriving with new players as well. But boy was I wrong.

As with Crisis Core, when I started my level I was met with a glorious Advent-Children style intro clip that had my jaw on the floor simply with awesome, made all the greater by seeing classic characters like Terra and Garland duking it out with others like Cloud and Kuja, not even mentioning how excited I was to see Kefka Palazzo get some deserved spotlight for once (since mama's-boy Sephiroth has had the whole FF fanbase at his feet since FFVII).

The gameplay? fantastic! I wouldn't have personally jumped at the thought of a Final Fantasy fighting game, but Dissidia was very well excecuted with easy to manage and customize controls, a well designed menu system, well ballanced characters, and a cast of 22 characters (1 hero and 1 villian from the first 10 games with 2 secret characters) that was to die for, it was any fanboys dream, not to mention the soundtrack, which had wonderfully remixed songs from many of the games, with classics such as "Decisive Battle" and "One Winged Angel" making their returns once again.

The fights played out like those of Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 3, with a free roaming environment that really made you get a feel for how the battles truely played out, and with interesting moves and interaction mid-fight that would allow you to make battles similar to those in Advent-Children or a pumped-up action movie. I personally found this to be a nice refresher for the fighting genre as a whole, and perfectly suited for Final Fantasy, which I don't think would've worked well in a standard fighting style.

Now, my complaints, which can really be narrowed down to like, 2 things:

1) there are times when the computers drastically overmatch the player during the storymode, going so far as to have 1 hit kills, thankfully these are few and far between, serving as only a minor chink in the armor of a great fighting game.

2) as with Crisis Core, they once again seemed to neglect to anti-alias, so it still looks like Terra could slice Garland's armor with her skin. but this time, they've added a new little graphical tool to abuse

Bloom

The characters all friggin' glow in the dark D: that's not natural, and it really takes away from the cutscene when it's nightime and you have Jecht glowing like he's the moon himself. it's just not right, c'mon squenix, c'mon.

Other than that, Dissidia is a great game, a solid fighter with a great plot and excellent dialogue, a memorable cast of old favorites, all with needed revamps on their old selves, and is a must-have for any PSP owner, and any Final Fantasy fan

I give it a 9/10 for sure

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By: Achturn | On: Sun Dec 21, 08 12:35 PM

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[  Mood: Sad ]

So last weekend I was feeling like total crap, allergies where consuming my life, and I was saddened and disheartened by my lack of being able to finish RE4 (stupid second disc being corrupted D:<), when a shining silver chariot descended from the heavens in the form of Kyle alerting me to there being free games on Gametap.

now I had heard of gametap before, but I had dismissed it as some crappy monthly fee thingamadoodle that I'd rather not have to pay for, but when I heard "free games" I HAD to check it out.

after making my account and downloading the junk and blah blah blah, I was quite pleased with the selection of games I could aquire for free (many I was planning on paying full price for anyway) but what really got me, was the selection of old arcade games, pretty much unaltered from their original format.

I immediately downloaded pretty much every free game on the list, and jumped straight into them, and it was like I was playing back at the local arcade again, old memories like Metal Slug and King of the Monsters 2, back in their full glory, it realy brought a tear to my eye...

that is, until I remembered how FRIGGIN HARD ARCADE GAMES WERE!

take, for example, King of the Monsters 2:

I own the SNES version of the game, and I remember it being a fun, entertaining experience, with nostalgic memories of playing it with my father as a wee lad, THIS on the other hand, kind of beat me to the ground and made me cry. the first enemy you encounter: Huge Frogger, whom your not even supposed to beat at this point, took 3 lives away from me! 3 LIVES! ON THE FIRST ENCOUNTER!

This really aggrivated me, until I remembered why the difference was there, arcade cabinets were made to drain money, so they made them harder so people had to spend more, and lo and behold, this rang true for many other games:

Bubble Bobble: the enemies were sped up
Metal Slug: don't even get me started on how quickly you lose lives XD
etc. etc. etc.

Ahhh the memories, the quarters flying away like the economy could afford it, a part of me is glad that those days are over, and I won't be spending 100 dollars in quarters yearly on the same game, but then there's another half of me that wishes that games could at least come back to half the difficulty that the arcades of old would produce, so I won't be sitting here mopping through an entire game in one sitting.

oh well, maybe one day more challenging games will return if the demand is high enough...

right now I just want my RE4 disc 2 to work. 15 hours on the first disc only to be denied an ending, really sucks man ;_;

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By: Achturn | On: Sat Dec 13, 08 6:56 PM

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[  Mood: Very Happy ]

So Saturday, my girlfriend and I went to the VGXPO in Philly, and I must say, I had a blast despite the sheer number of closed exhibits. The whole Expo in itself can be divided into a few different sectors:

RetroCon: Where the youngest game console was the PSX!

The Exhibition Hall: Home of the tourneys, Demos, test stuff, and more!

The Anime Store: Swarmed with Narutards!

and last but not least:

The Cosplay Competition: I don't know how I got dragged into this!


My first stop was RetroCon, where I was pleasantly greeted by the sight of hundreds of NES and SNES games :D. As far as my little brain would allow me to comprehend it was a glorious display of fandom for the '80s and '90s! It was like a dream come true! I ended up leaving with my bag stuffed with MOTHER books, Bionic Commando for the NES, Metal Gear (NES), and Archon (Thanks Steve for getting me hooked on it D:<), and a bunch of other little trinkets of win and amazing :D. Coupled with constant missions given to me by the guy behind the one booth to go and get him sodas in exchange for cash, this area was by far my favorite at the expo.

Next stop: The Exhibition Hall!
Ok, the hall had me awestruck the second I walked in, it was HUGE! and filled to the brim with Gamers from all over! It was like some sick contorted image of heaven only with sweaty nerds! Here, I experienced a vest that would hit recoil shots into you when you got shot in an FPS, a lazer-operated gaming system, a robot playing basketball, AND (my personal favorite) THE BIONIC COMMANDO DEMO! WOO! I must say, after having experienced the game hands-on, I was greatly pleased, I'm even more pumped for it than before! :D

The anime store was just a hangout for japanophiles, where I was fought over by my girlfriend and some guy dressed as "L" from DeathNote XD I didn't spend much time here though because I was being dragged to:

The Cosplay Contest...ok, I don't know how I got involved in this, I'm camera shy and have a severe case of stage fright, but I somehow got dragged onto the stage and into the contest...I didn't win (to be expected) but what can I say? it was interesting to say the least (I'll never do it again)

So in the end, it was an enjoyable experience despite what was missing (I still want to know what the "8-Bit Lounge" was) but in the end I wouldn't redo it except for remembering my actual camera and taking more pictures.

Speaking of pictures! the gallery of my photos can be seen here!

I'll be updating the gallery with every new pic I aquire from Katie and my friend Chris who was also there, so be sure to check back every so often to see if I've found any more!

-Achturn Out

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By: Achturn | On: Mon Nov 24, 08 6:26 PM

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[  Mood: Playful ]

ok, so for those of you that haven't seen yet, Audiosurf is on sale on Steam this week for $2.49 this week $2.49!! now I don't know about you, but when I see a deal like that heading my way, I rush out and take it! I mean c'mon, there've been very good things said about this game for some time, and now I have the option of buying it with the change I found under my sofa? sign me up!

So I bought it, and I must say, I found it pretty entertaining, the gameplay is simple, yet the option of using different ships makes things variated enough that I can play for a while with different ships on the same track and still feel like it's new.

Though I must say, I can easily see how this game can get boring fast if you don't have alot of songs in your library, but if you're a music buff, go out and buy this, I mean, I don't think anybody's enough of a cheapass that they won't buy a game for less than 3 bucks...seriously now

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By: Achturn | On: Fri Nov 07, 08 12:54 PM

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[  Mood: Evil ]

Ah the PSP, some proclaim it to be the greatest handheld console ever, better than the DS, better than the Game Gear or Neo Geo Pocket *snickers*, and superior to the Gameboys of old.

Well, it's a good gaming console for sure, but only if hacked, which I'm sure a bunch of people know and appreciate.

So I have one, and I love it, and yes, it's hacked. And in my growing effort to find new and exciting games to play, I've downloaded a bunch of PSP games to play in hopes of finding a few that I would enjoy enough to actually run out and buy like I've done in the past for other games I've downloaded. And unfortunately, those games were few and far between...

BUT!

The games I DID like, were mind-blowing, and I'd recommend them to any PSP owner out there. But to put it in perspective, I present a list of some of the games I've downloaded, complete with one-line reviews with some exceptions where required:

Beowulf - 3/10
Loved the book, liked the movie, the game didn't live up to either of them...

Bubble Bobble Evolution - 6/10
The graphics were pretty, the gameplay was familiar, but the soundtrack was meh and the switching between two towers was annoying.

Rengoku: Tower of Purgatory - 9/10
With easy to pick-up gameplay, amazing graphics, and a story that drove me to the end if only to have my questions answered, the only thing I can really think of to improve this game would be to allow me to keep my weapons after death, I liked my heat blade...

Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops - 10/10
A great inclusion in the Metal Gear storyline, with an interesting twist on the familiar by adding the recruitment element, it had enough new mixed in with the familiar to keep me interested while reminding me why I went for it in the first place. (MGS:PO+ only gets a 6/10 by me, it should've just been an expansion pack, not it's own game)

Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII - 7/10
Fanboy smackdown

and many more that I don't feel like listing, but needless to say, most others didn't get very high, I was being forgiving in my Crisis Core review. So personally, if I had to pick a portable console for the games it had out on it legally the PSP sure as hell ain't it, that's where the DS is my god. But for hacking, I'd rather use the PSP than an R4 to be honest, though DS Roms would be pretty sweet... oh well.

So all you Sony fanboys who go around saying the PSP is better 'cause it can play music, yeah, I have an MP3 player for that, and for those who want to store pictures and movies, just fork out for an Ipod, 'cause I sure as hell know none of you bought it for it's game library (excluding homebrew), and if you did...I pray for you...

maybe someday I'll actually go through and make a list of games that are worth buying for the PSP, or full reviews for those that aren't...or not, I'm kinda lazy

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By: Achturn | On: Thu Oct 23, 08 11:54 AM

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