Crisis Core - Final Fantasy VII - Review

Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII achieves a striking balance of old and new, and juggles fan service with pure role-playing satisfaction. It's striking how these elements have been shaped into such an appealing and emotionally affecting prequel. There are some new characters and plenty of fan favorites too, such as Cloud, Tifa, and Aerith. However, the characters you're most likely to empathize with are unlikely ones, including protagonist Zack, and Sephiroth, who is complex, troubled, and even sometimes likable. The way their personal stories weave in and out of each other--and set the stage for the events in Final Fantasy VII--makes Crisis Core not just the finest role-playing experience available on the PSP, but also one of the best Japanese RPGs in years.

Zack isn't new to the franchise, but he was a mere flashback in Final Fantasy VII, which may not make him seem like the best choice of leading man for a prequel to one of the best RPGs ever created. Yet he's as interesting as any Square Enix star, and transcends the usual spiky-haired heroism and teenage angst with an uncommon maturity that develops as the game continues.Revealing almost any plot point could be a spoiler; the Gaia world is rich with mythology and complex character motivation. What's important is how the characters interact, change, and grow. Scenes between Zack and Cloud are both effortless and poignant, and stem directly out of Zack's most impressive character traits: trust and loyalty.

If you are Final Fantasy VII fans, this kind of attention to detail won't come as a surprise. However, you may be startled at how the combat works. Crisis Core is an action RPG. Granted, it does have many of the same elements as FFVII: materia, limit breaks, and so on. However, it plays nothing like its inspiration, which may irritate some fans. This doesn't make it better or worse, but it does make it different, and once you get used to it, it's a lot of fun. Battles are almost exclusively random, with the exception of those that end your side missions (more on those later). When combat begins, you are limited to a contained area, but you can move freely within it. To target an enemy, you simply face in its direction, and to attack, you hit X. It's not quite real-time, but rather a series of quick turns that give you a smidgen of time in-between to select a different spell or attack. You can switch among different options and spells on the fly using the shoulder buttons

The combat is fun, and it will get Final Fantasy fans talking. But no mechanical element is bound to get more attention than the Digital Mind Wave, or DMW. The DMW is a slot reel that holds the key to two important facets of Crisis Core's gameplay: leveling up, and powerful attacks called limit breaks. The reel contains six slots: three that contain character portraits, and three that contain numerical digits. As you fight foes, you earn soldier points, which in turn function as currency that keeps the DMW in the top left corner spinning. When the left and right character portraits match, you enter a separate limit-verge screen where you wait for the digit slots and the center character slot to stop spinning. If you match all three portrait slots, you unleash a limit break, which is accompanied by a dramatic cinematic. If you match numerals, you may level up an equipped materia or Zack himself. The DMW also controls some status changes, such as temporary invincibility, though they aren't signaled by a change to the limit-verge screen

Is it sound like very confusing?. Nevermind, it will take you some time to figure out how exactly what's going on. Essentially, leveling and limit breaks are left to the roll of the dice (or in this case, the spinning of the reel). The idea of random leveling and special attacks may make you squirm, and on paper, it sounds like a bad idea. In practice, it works out far better than you'd think. Just like when you pull the lever of a real slot machine, it's exciting and intriguing to see if you make a match. You can't skip past the limit verge screen, but if you could, you'd be missing the point.Your results are not completely random because your character's heightened emotions make it likelier that the DMW will spin up a positive result, such as after a phone call with Aerith. However, you may go a while without leveling up, only to level up multiple times in a short period of time. Sure, it's a strange system, and it will make your head spin at first. But it will become second nature, and in the end, it works. The downside is that it takes control of the game's most impressive attacks out of the hands of the player. Not everyone enjoys having the game do the grunt work for them, but the system is original and streamlined, and likely to grow on you.

Besides the main story, there are plenty of sub missions to keep up occupied. Most of them boil down to entering an area, killing a bunch of creatures, and earning your reward. It's simple, sure, but incredibly addicting, perfect for players on the go, and you may find yourself losing hour after hour to mission after mission. Some of missions can help you to get rare material or even though the DMW.Crisis Core is on the short side, clocking in at around 20 hours if you do a reasonable number of side missions, though you could add another 10 if you want to see every secret the game is hiding--and there are some good ones that will get fans talking. That may make the game feel less grand than previous entries, but in actuality, the length feels just right and keeps the action from wearing out its welcome.

You'll marvel at Crisis Core's visual and sonic beauty. Environments were designed with painstaking detail, from the slums of Midgar to the crystalline vistas of an underground lake. Character design is equally terrific, from Genesis' solemn sneer to Zack's gleaming blue eyes. Monsters look great too, and the imposing and astonishing bosses are particularly awesome to behold. The game sounds as good as it looks, starting with the terrific musical score, which includes both grinding rock tracks and haunting orchestral interludes. There are moments in which the action is undercut not with the same heart-pumping guitars we've heard before, but with softer tunes. These battles feel even more important because the music connects them so well with the emotional scenes that came before. Additionally, familiar sound effects have been updated and new ones added to make for combat that sounds as tremendous as it looks

Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII is a game you must play if you own a PSP, if you like RPGs, or if you want to get lost in a gripping story. Like most Final Fantasy games that came before it, it has its quirks.However, this is one of those cases where you should embrace them for their originality and charm because they add something uniquely compelling to the game.

Final Fantasy Yeah!!! Square Enix Yeah!!!

Warriors Orochi - Review

Warriors Orochi revolves around the idea that Orochi, the Serpent King, has used his vast powers to merge the Three Kingdoms era of China together with the Warring States period of Japan. These two historical times are, conveniently, the homes of Koei's well-known Dynasty Warriors and Samurai Warriors franchises. So in the grand scheme of things, Warriors Orochi collects a huge number of characters from both series together in a big fight against Orochi and his demonic legions.

Thus begins the biggest, most unapologetic fan service crossover since Kingdom Hearts. There are four story campaigns to play through, each of which starts you off with a different group of characters that have a different ultimate goal, but unless you're well versed in the interpersonal relationships between the various characters as previously established (or to a much lesser extent, the actual history behind them), these stories will likely be incomprehensible to you. But that's OK, because they're all simply excuses to justify sending you wading hip-deep through hundreds upon hundreds of useless, nameless goons anyway.

The special addition to Warriors Orochi is the tag-team system, which lets you cycle between three different warriors at any time and create diversified teams to suit your tastes. Although there are no tag-team attacks (which I found extremely disappointing), you can chain together each character's Musou attack for added damage, which is a nice touch.

Ultimately though, this is a game you've played before. If you've spent even five minutes with a previous Warriors game, you'll be relatively familiar with the happenings in Warriors Orochi. This might not be a bad thing for some because a lot of gamers really love their hacking and slashing, but I would have preferred a more robust combat system.

But the PSP version does a number of things that I find quite commendable, including the fact that it's taking the entire console experience and putting it into portable form, with only a few minor sacrifices (the graphics have been toned down and cutscenes have been removed in favor of comic book style segments). While previous portable Warriors games segmented the battle environments to lessen the demands on the hardware, Warriors Orochi offers the full maps without any real alteration, which fans will certainly appreciate.

And if Warriors Orochi has just one thing going for it, it's the massive cast of characters -- a cast that can be leveled up and customized to ridiculous proportions. The PSP version also runs fairly well, though pop-in and jerky animations are still commonplace. Ad hoc multiplayer is a welcome feature, though you'll definitely encounter more slowdown there than in the single-player experience.

In a way, I feel as though Warriors Orochi is more at home on the PSP. A portable environment seems infinitely more conducive to a button-mashing experience than a home console setup, if only for the fact that portable games shouldn't require as much focus and can pass the time with quick bursts of play. Obviously some gamers on the go prefer a immersive experience, but there will always be gamers that want to power up, kill a few hundred soldiers and then power off without thinking too hard.

Warriors Orochi's graphics are uneven. The main characters are reasonably well detailed and animated, especially in their overly dramatic attacks, but the peons that make up the overwhelming majority of your enemies are not--the fact that there are only about five different types of enemies throughout the game is also a bit disconcerting. The environments are similarly drab and overused, and every swamp, grassland, and building looks nearly identical to every other swamp, grassland, and building. The few cutscenes that do appear are nicely animated, but the comic-book-style scenes peppered throughout are hilariously awful and goofy. Voice acting is as terrible as you might expect, and the game is accompanied by a ridiculous techno soundtrack.

When it's all said and done, if the thought of battling both Lu Bu and Keiji Maeda in the same game makes you squeal with delight, Warriors Orochi was definitely made for you. But everyone else is well advised to keep their distance from this pointless and frequently unfun button masher.

God of War - Cheat

Treasure Unlockable
Unlockable : How to Unlock
Challenge of Hades : Beat the game on any difficulty.
God Mode : Beat the game on any difficulty.
In-Game Movies : Beat the game on any difficulty.
The Lost Levels : Beat the Challenge of Hades.
Making of Attica : Beat the game in God mode.
Inside Ready at Dawn Studios : Beat the game on any difficulty.
Character Concept Art : Beat the game on any difficulty.
Environments Concept Art : Beat the Challenge of Hades.
Outtakes Concept Art : Beat the game in God mode.

Costumes Unlockable
Costumes can selected only when selecting a new game, (must beat God mode to use costumes in God mode)
Unlockable : How to Unlock
Spud of War (skill: Magic) : Beat the game on any difficulty
McKratos (skill:Attack) : Finish all 5 missions of the Challenge of Hades
Mime of War (skill:Red orbs) : Beat the game on God mode

Pro Evolution Soccer 2008

Pro Evolution Soccer makes its third annual appearance on the PlayStation Portable with PES 2008. Konami's football game has long been a favourite with fans of the sport, combining deep and rewarding gameplay with the addictive Master League and wireless multiplayer modes. Although this is all present and correct in this updated version, the game also suffers from issues that have long plagued the series, and it ultimately does little to warrant the upgrade.

PES 2008 may be realistic, but crucially it's also fun to play. If you've played this year's PlayStation 2 version, then you'll find that the two games are very similar, although the lack of four shoulder buttons on the PSP does make some difference to the controls. Supposedly, the big improvement over last year's game is the new teamvision system, which learns to react to repetitive techniques to make sure you're rewarded for mixing things up and trying out different forms of attack. In practice, the system does little to truly revolutionise the game.

Perhaps even more disappointing is the fact that the numerous weaknesses in the game continue to go uncorrected. The biggest problem is the lack of officially licensed clubs. In addition to the lack of major club teams, the choice of teams that have made it in is strange. Newcastle and Tottenham now replace Arsenal and Manchester United, which have reverted back to "North London" and "Man Red," respectively. Things are better in the French, Italian, and Dutch leagues, all of which boast a full contingent of clubs, but Spain and Germany, like England, fare less well. Once again, PES lets you create your own team, and you also have the option to edit player names and import/export them to and from the PS2 game. Unfortunately, no similar functionality is supported if you own the PS3 version.

Also unimproved from previous years is an atrocious soundtrack that is a far cry from the standard set by FIFA, and it's serviced almost entirely by Japanese pop numbers and bland electronic ditties besides the Kaiser Chiefs in the intro. Commentary is minimal, with phrases offered up only when a goal is scored. At least the crowd noises sound authentic thanks to the cheers, whistles, and horns blowing.

The graphics in PES 2008 look crisp and quite good overall, with realistic character movements and mannerisms, recognisable real-life players, and goals that look even better when you control the replays. However, we did experience the occasional slowdown when there was a lot of onscreen action, and load times are a tad on the long side. The menus look reasonably nice but they're confusing to navigate if you want to get into the nitty-gritty of injury and suspension.

The game has plenty to offer in terms of game modes, with single matches, World Tour, leagues, regional tournaments, training, ad-hoc multiplayer, and the Konami Cup. Master League makes a comeback after its PSP debut last year, allowing you to play a full season and control the management of your team along the way. It's not a full-blown football-management program, but it breathes new life into regular league competitions, given that you'll need to juggle salaries and player transfers as well as keep track of your club's finances. It's not realistic, especially because of the in-game currency "P points," but it definitely brings a greater feeling of attachment to your team while offering a decent long-term challenge. If you'd rather not focus on the business side of the sport, you can always choose a standard league competition, or the World Tour mode, in which you perform a number of tasks around the world. These include winning a comfortable victory of two goals or higher than your opposition, getting a few last-minute goals in to cinch a win, or perform a hat trick of goals. Nevertheless, it's a shame to see that online play still hasn't been incorporated, especially considering that this is offered in the Nintendo DS version.

Pro Evolution 2008 is a decent football experience and offers a wide variety of game types, a heap of customization, and a solid game of football. On the downside, it hasn't evolved at all since the last outing and has failed to improve on past weaknesses, including the lack of both licensed teams and online play. If you're willing to overlook these omissions or want updated rosters from last year's, then PES 2008 could be worth the investment, but otherwise there's little reason to upgrade.

God of War - Review

God of War: Chains of Olympus' story takes place before the first God of War game on the PlayStation 2, which is a little confusing because you find yourself trying to remember just what had and hadn't happened in Kratos' twisted life at the time of the first game. At this particular point in the God of War timeline, Kratos is a general whose sole purpose is to serve the gods of Olympus. During the course of Chains of Olympus, the gods' orders create a certain moral dilemma for Kratos, and he finds himself faced with the decision of whether or not to do the bidding of his gods or do what is best for him. The story doesn't play a prominent role here, but this is God of War, so all you really need to know is why Kratos is pissed off so you can go off and slaughter mythical creatures with reckless abandon.

The effortless feeling of control and combat has carried over extremely well; practically perfect, in fact. The combat is extremely responsive, and remains the one trait that assures a very satisfying and addictive experience. The mini-game boss kills are back in full swing, as are a number of other features. You can employ powers of various bosses that you defeat, simply by holding down the R shoulder and pressing Triangle.

You'll be able to upgrade your weapons by using all of the orbs you pick up throughout the game. With each upgrade comes added weapon strength, as well as new moves gained. In addition to upgrading your Blades of Chaos, you'll also be able to enhance various other things, such as your specific magic powers - again, which are acquired when defeating various bosses. On top of that, scattered around the game will be status enhancing items. There are a number of different items, all with their own unique enhancement - collect five of each and you'll be rewarded with increased health, magic, among other abilities.

Furthermore, most of the moves you're used to pulling off have made the transition into Chains of Olympus, but in addition to that, Ready at Dawn also took a creative initiative by adding a number of new moves for Kratos - and they are pretty awesome. In addition to that, as you play the game, you'll notice that the A.I. will fight between each other - so, in the beginning of the game, you'll actually see your fellow Spartans fighting against the enemy Persian army.

Of course, there are several extras available once you finish the game. You'll unlock concept art along with one bonus costume and video by finishing the game on the default difficulty. You can also go back and play through on the ultrahard god mode or try to complete the five tasks in the challenge of Hades, each of which quickly reveals the reason behind its name.

Chains of Olympus delivers almost everything you'd want from a God of War game on the PSP. It's reasonable to expect a few concessions when a series transitions from a console to a handheld, Chains of Olympus does make a few that are worth noting. The biggest issue the game has is that it does almost nothing new. Even the played-out sex minigame is back for another tryst. Granted, it's the same formula fans of the series have come to know and love, but it would have been nice for at least a few new gameplay ideas to be introduced. Instead, the game goes the other way and actually feels a little stripped-down in parts; there are fewer weapons, levels, and boss fights, though there are still plenty of quick button-pressing minigames--perhaps a few too many.

It's also rather short. As far as we can tell, we collected all but one of the hidden chests and still saw the ending credits in less than seven hours. You're left wanting more because the game is a blast, but it's still over far too quickly. One thing the developer didn't compromise is load times. Most areas stream instantaneously, and there are probably less than 60 seconds out of the entire game in which you're waiting for the next area to load.

Even though it's on the PSP, Chains of Olympus still features no shortage of absurdly gigantic monsters, which you'll each pulverize to their respective bloody deaths. Best of all, the framerate doesn't even seem to take the slightest hit. Plus, if you happen to own a PSP Slim, you can play this on your HDTV, and you'll still find yourself impressed by its visuals. Sony has found a developer that is truly harnessing the power of the PlayStation Portable.

The audio is executed every bit as well on the PSP as it was on the PS2. The voice actors behind the past two games, including Kratos, continue to shine in Chains of Olympus, and the delivery of each line is superbly done. Chains of Olympus still features the signature God of War orchestrated soundtrack, complete with war drums in the background that do a great job of keeping tensions high. The audio is fantastic stuff here, but did you expect anything less?

With Patapon and God of War: Chains of Olympus, the PSP is looking extremely nice this early on into 2008. And with Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII still on the way, things are going to get better. That said, there's no denying that God of War: Chains of Olympus is arguably the best PlayStation Portable game to date. There is simply nothing on the console that comes close to its polish, gameplay, and production values. To have a game as epic as God of War in the palm of your hands is absolute bliss. This game alone makes purchasing a PSP worthy - no fan of the series, or the action genre, should be without it.