The other game I've been playing recently is Blue Dragon. Blue Dragon is a JRPG and in some ways, it is very similar to Final Fantasy (For example, the main character is another spikey haired teenager who has more guts than sense :p ). I guess this shouldn't be surprising as the creator was the guy who also originally created FF.
The art style is also very good. The game uses lots of bright colors and almost looks like an animated feature. In fact, its almost like watching a cartoon at times especially when you watch a cutscene. Again, this isn't be too surprising when you consider that the lead artist was Toriyama (the guy who did the Dragonball series).
The gameplay is, for lack of a better description, almost copied from FF. Your characters have jobs (Black magic, white magic etc) and skills and you can level them up however you like. However, one area that Blue Dragon is very good at (and bear in mind that the last FF game I played was FFX) is that there are no random battles.
One of the most annoying features of FF is the random battles. Sometimes, you just wanna get somewhere quickly (for example to progress the story or to save the game) and you keep getting interrupted by random battles. Fricking annoying and one of the main reasons why I don't whole heartedly endorse the FF games. However, in Blue Dragon, you get random monsters - but they show up on the map and if you don't want to, you can just run past them without engaging them.
Anyway, I've only played around 15 hours so far (which isn't much considering the game comes on 3 DVDs!) so I can't give a definitive impression yet. For example, my party isn't even complete yet (I know there is another girl still to join the party). Having said that, my initial impressions are very positive.
The game looks good. The story seems quite interesting so far (I'll elaborate more on this in a later post) and the gameplay is quite fun. So far - thumbs up!
Monday, June 25, 2007
Sunday, June 17, 2007
Dead or Alive 4
I've always had a soft spot for beat-em-ups ever since my introduction to Street Fighter II. I also played, and enjoyed, Dead or Alive 3 for the original xbox. So it was with a certain level of excitement that I put the Dead or Alive 4 disc into my xbox 360 (you may recall, this was borrowed from my sister in law).
Graphics wise, the game is excellent. Admittedly, at first glance, it doesn't look significantly better than DoA3 (which is an indication of how good the graphics on the original DoA3 are). The fighters are instantly recognisable and in fact seem to look the same. However, after playing for a bit longer, you start to realise where the developers put the extra muscle of the xbox 360 to good use.
The main difference in the graphics is that the clothes and backgrounds are more detailed now. There just seems to be more stuff swaying, bobbing etc on the clothes. The backgrounds also have more stuff happening - with cars and dinosaurs wandering around in different stages.
However, graphics do not a good game make. And in particular, for a fighter, the gameplay is crucial. Unfortunately, this is also where DoA4 falls short imo.
DoA3 was already quite a fast paced game. However, for DoA4, the developers seem to have speeded up the game even more. So much so that the game feels like one huge button mash - which seriously detracts from the fun. Basically, when I fight in DoA4, I just don't feel like I'm having any fun as all I do is button mash on different combinations. I tried slowing things down and playing more tactically, but this just resulted in me getting whipped (admittedly, this could just be cos I suck).
And then there is Alpha 152 - the final boss fight in the game. I have been gaming for decades - and I have to say that Alpha 152 is easily one of the cheapest boss fights I have come across. She is super fast, teleports around the place and can hit you for a third of your total health bar in one go (her attacks result in loooong combos). Although I have been able to beat her - I just didn't have any fun in the process (which then begs the question - why am I playing this in the first place?).
I enjoyed DoA3 and I really wanted to enjoy DoA4. Although the graphics are great (and you get a great first impression of the game), the seemingly button mash nature of the gameplay coupled with the cheap final boss is highly frustrating. Granted, the strength of any fighter will be in its player vs player component. However, after having played the single player for a bit, the frustration was enough for me to lose interest. Right now, I just can't be bothered taking this game online.
I hate to do this - but I have no choice. DoA4 gets the singular distinction of being the first game on my blog to get a thumbs down.
Graphics wise, the game is excellent. Admittedly, at first glance, it doesn't look significantly better than DoA3 (which is an indication of how good the graphics on the original DoA3 are). The fighters are instantly recognisable and in fact seem to look the same. However, after playing for a bit longer, you start to realise where the developers put the extra muscle of the xbox 360 to good use.
The main difference in the graphics is that the clothes and backgrounds are more detailed now. There just seems to be more stuff swaying, bobbing etc on the clothes. The backgrounds also have more stuff happening - with cars and dinosaurs wandering around in different stages.
However, graphics do not a good game make. And in particular, for a fighter, the gameplay is crucial. Unfortunately, this is also where DoA4 falls short imo.
DoA3 was already quite a fast paced game. However, for DoA4, the developers seem to have speeded up the game even more. So much so that the game feels like one huge button mash - which seriously detracts from the fun. Basically, when I fight in DoA4, I just don't feel like I'm having any fun as all I do is button mash on different combinations. I tried slowing things down and playing more tactically, but this just resulted in me getting whipped (admittedly, this could just be cos I suck).
And then there is Alpha 152 - the final boss fight in the game. I have been gaming for decades - and I have to say that Alpha 152 is easily one of the cheapest boss fights I have come across. She is super fast, teleports around the place and can hit you for a third of your total health bar in one go (her attacks result in loooong combos). Although I have been able to beat her - I just didn't have any fun in the process (which then begs the question - why am I playing this in the first place?).
I enjoyed DoA3 and I really wanted to enjoy DoA4. Although the graphics are great (and you get a great first impression of the game), the seemingly button mash nature of the gameplay coupled with the cheap final boss is highly frustrating. Granted, the strength of any fighter will be in its player vs player component. However, after having played the single player for a bit, the frustration was enough for me to lose interest. Right now, I just can't be bothered taking this game online.
I hate to do this - but I have no choice. DoA4 gets the singular distinction of being the first game on my blog to get a thumbs down.
Sunday, June 10, 2007
Abundance of games
Gaming-wise, I find myself in an odd situation. You see, although I spend a lot of time reading about games, I don't actually spend that much money buying games. The reason is that I tend to only buy a new game after I start to get bored of my existing games. At any one time, you can expect that I will have 2-3 active games. Once I start getting bored of one, I will then go out and buy another.
Which means its very rare for me to have an abundance of games. But that is exactly the situation I find myself in now. How?
My wifes sister has a kid - just a couple of years old. She recently decided to buy him an Xbox 360 (I'm guessing because I had one - if she had asked my opinion, I would have told her to get the Wii - more suitable for a kid in my opinion due to the control scheme). Anyway, she recently passed me 2 games that he had stopped playing. One of these was Crackdown; the other was Dead or Alive 4.
In itself, this wouldn't have given me the abundance of games. However, the problem is that I had just bought Blue Dragon - 3 games over the space of 1 weekend. Wow.
Anyway, I haven't tried Crackdown yet. I did pop DOA4 in for a quick spin though. Naturally, I have also been playing Blue Dragon. Anyway, over the next couple of weeks, I'll post my impressions of these games.
Which means its very rare for me to have an abundance of games. But that is exactly the situation I find myself in now. How?
My wifes sister has a kid - just a couple of years old. She recently decided to buy him an Xbox 360 (I'm guessing because I had one - if she had asked my opinion, I would have told her to get the Wii - more suitable for a kid in my opinion due to the control scheme). Anyway, she recently passed me 2 games that he had stopped playing. One of these was Crackdown; the other was Dead or Alive 4.
In itself, this wouldn't have given me the abundance of games. However, the problem is that I had just bought Blue Dragon - 3 games over the space of 1 weekend. Wow.
Anyway, I haven't tried Crackdown yet. I did pop DOA4 in for a quick spin though. Naturally, I have also been playing Blue Dragon. Anyway, over the next couple of weeks, I'll post my impressions of these games.
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