XIII for $2.00–yes or no?

So, while browsing the bargain bin of PS2 games yesterday at my local GameStop, I found a copy of XIII…for $2.00. Yet I did not buy it. Instead, I came home and searched for some reviews. Talk about being scared of the Recession, eh?

Anyways, what do you think? Is XIII worth the $2.00 (plus tax)? Seems like a stylish FPS with a somewhat stereotypical plot.

Watch the first 10 minutes of Batman: Arkham Asylum

Well, not here. But you can view the first ten minutes of Batman: Arkham Asylum over at the MTV Multiplayer blog. It’s definitely worth a watch even if little actual gameplay is shown. I checked it out during my lunch break and it was just like watching the old animated series. Well, not entirely. This one was a bit more demented. Anyways, you do get to see Batman casually walking around while listening to side characters (and the Joker!) give off heaps of exposition. Doesn’t take long for it all to fall apart, and then we’re into a punch-and-kick brawler. Hopefully there’s more to the game than that, but the cutscenes, dialogue, and voice acting is more than enough to keep me interested.

Update to Xbox LIVE arriving on August 11, 2009

The update will be ushering in a wave of new features, such as Games on Demand, the Avatar marketplace, user ratings, and other stuff. Read up about here.

Alas, this will not be the update that includes integrating Facebook and Twitter into the main dashboard, which is a shame as I was looking forward to that feature the most. I’m nonplussed about the notion of spending real money/Microsoft bucks for digital clothing and toys for the videogame representation of us gamers. Seems kinda moot, really.

But…but. The Avatar marketplace could really do wonders if it allows some games to unlock a few free tee-shirts or magical swords (I’m looking at you, Fable II) either as some part of an achievement or whatever. That’d be nice and possibly some incentive to even glance purchasable pixels.

As per the Games on Demand, it’s not for me. I like browsing a shop and bringing something home, whether it is a new game or a used one with the manual missing.I also suspect that they will be priced a bit unfairly, but I’ll only speculate for now and hope that they don’t go nuts. I got my copy of Mass Effect for $15 human dollars so hopefully it is somewhere around there as well.

So yeah, I’m just kind of waiting on the update bringing in Twitter and the Book of Faces. Some time this fall, eh? Okay…

Being a hero, always

Well, I’m one step closer to getting my second full 1,000 gamerscore, which is most definitely going to be from LEGO Batman. Last night, I punched and kicked my way through three more levels to find the remaining helpless idiots and save them from…well, save them from being eternally held by goons and clown-faced mercenaries. Upon sending a flaming batarang up one of said goon’s butts, I unlocked this:

Vigilante (25G): Rescue 25 civilians.

Which has me currently sitting at 37/46 achievements. Now, let’s just be clear…the LEGO games are by and far not terribly challenging or hard. Glitchy, sure. Badly designed at times, you got it. In fact, the achievements they offer up are anything but challenging–what they are, however, is time-consuming. Most of the ones I have remaining involve achieving 4,000,000,000 in studs (yes, that’s the correct number of zeros), buying everything in the game, finding all the mini-kits, and generally completing LEGO Batman to 100%. I’ll get there, block by block (LEGO, that is), but man will it take me some time…

Forgetting where I’ve stopped

The worst part about jumping back and forth between different videogames is that some get forgotten much more quickly than others. And then they sit, bereft of friendship, collecting dust. Every now and then they get picked up again, but once past the start screen it is evident that I no longer know what is going on and what I should be doing. Some good examples of this are Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King and Xenosaga.

Concerning the former, I’m pretty far along. I’ve fought the main bad dude (some jester villain with an evil…cane?) a few times and was, for a certain period of time, collecting monsters to fight in the battle arena mini-game. But that’s it. Where I’m supposed to go next is anyone’s guess. Sure, I could look it up in an FAQ guide or whatever, but that would involve some heavy reading to first determine what I’ve done and what I haven’t done yet. So I shut the game off and go back to familiar grounds.

The latter, Xenosaga, is first and foremost a disappointing game. Yet I’m sick in the head and can’t stay away from JRPGs. Every time I load it up, I’m in some stupid, maze-like alien ship. Wander this way, wander that way. Avoid fighting flying mutant bats and giant golem creatures. It’s pretty annoying. I gave up on it mostly due to the lengthy cutscenes, but at this point I’d kill for one to give me some understanding of plot happenings and all that jazz.

It’s a shame because I know that eventually I want to finish these games and to do so I’m going to have to start all over. Boo to that.

“Mothership Zeta” trailer is live and has creepy music

The final piece of downloadable content for Bethesda’s Fallout 3 is almost here. Comes out on August 3. Until then, check out the trailer for “Mothership Zeta” in all its alien-blasting glory:

I’m pretty excited over this, and I don’t even own Fallout 3. Or have ever played the RPG/shooter mashup. But this just basically means we’re a little bit closer to the Game of the Year edition that’s coming out in the fall, which I will be all over like ranch dressing on pasta. Can’t wait!

Giving Mass Effect a second chance

My first playthrough of Mass Effect was a bit…disappointing. Not in terms of gameplay or story, but rather in that it was clear from my list of gained achievements, I had not played enough of Mass Effect. For one thing, here’s four that I did not get by the time credits were rolling:

Scholar (25G): Find all primary Alien: Council Races, Extinct Races and Non-Council Races codex entries

Completionist (25G): Complete the majority of the game

Soldier Ally (20G): Complete the majority of the game with the Alliance soldier squad member

Krogan Ally (20G): Complete the majority of the game with the krogan squad member

Upon initially meeting my multicultural cast of playable characters, I picked Ashley Williams and Urdnot Wrex as my partners in crime saving the world. They stuck out to me as interesting people/dinosaurs, and I faithfully used them in every mission possible. Granted, I really only followed the main storyline. Did some hopping and skipping around the galaxy, but the amount of planets was overwhelming, and the select few I picked to visit seemed to be nothing but barren wastelands. So yeah, I guess I missed a ton of sidequests.

So last night I loaded up my previous save and started a second campaign with my existing Paul Shepard. He’s already at LV 40 so we’ll see how it goes. I’m, however, for the sake of things, contemplating using alternate characters just to experience the story differently (I’m also being a total renegade/poophead to people). I know, I’d like the above achievements, but really, any two ally achievements will be good enough for me because it’ll at least show that I’ve played a “majority of the game,” whatever that turns out to be in Mass Effect.

So, any suggestions on who to go with for the second playthrough? I just arrived at the Citadel, and I dig the Throw and Lift abilities, mostly because my Shepard is an engineer and lacks the Jedi oomph.

Once more, this time with feeling

Wow, my last post here was in the middle of March 2009. Yeah, let’s get down to the meat and potatoes: I suck.

But we’ll try again, as I do love thinking about videogames and such, especially since I’m now the fancy owner of one of these things:

Only took me a billion years to get it, too.

Games I’ll Be Missing Out On

So, for awhile now, I’ve known what next-gen game system I want to own. It is an Xbox 360, and I have my reasons for it (SIDENOTE: the fund is going strong, almost there). But let’s talk about something else that shuffles around in my mind a lot lately, and that is…

…the games I’ll be missing out on. Y’ know, console exclusives. And some of these really pull at my heartstrings as they belong to series that I’m a diehard fan of. Okay, enough of this. Let the tears flow.

• Sly Cooper 4 (rumored for just the PS3, with another Sly Cooper game coming out simultaneously for the PSP)
• Ratchet and Clank Future: Tools of Destruction
• Uncharted (by those good ol’ Jak and Daxter developers)
• Animal Crossing: City Folk (maybe it’s a good thing I’m going to miss out on this one considering the hours I’ve already logged on the DS version)
• Super Mario Galaxy
• And tons more!

I totally get the point of console exclusives. Really, I do. Otherwise, what’s the purpose in creating unique systems, but I do wish some licenses were more broadly shared than others. Thankfully, just knowing that Final Fantasy XIII will be on both systems, whenever it does come out is enough to sate my bruised heart.

JUST BEAT: Musashi: Samurai Legend

Developer/Publisher: Square Enix
Platform: PS2
Genre(s): Action Adventure/RPG
Mode(s): Singe player
Rating: Teen
Time clocked: About 22 hours

The Basics
Though claiming to be a sequel to the charming and fun action RPG Brave Fencer Musashi that was released for Sony’s PlayStation in 1998, Musashi: Samurai Legend is anything but a trite re-imagining of what was once charming and fun. The story starts off with Princess Mycella summoning a hero from another world in order to help save hers. That hero—hapless and helpless as he is—turns out to be Musashi, who takes on the training of Yoda Master Mew in order to rescue the princess back from the evil hands of President Gandrake. Also, he needs to collect the legendary five swords along the way.

The Good
If anything, as an action RPG, Musashi: Samurai Legend does offer a solid amount of action. Each spot on the world map offers tons of enemies to slice apart or learn techniques from, with also a splash of platforming and puzzle-solving thrown in for good measure. Musashi himself can learn a number of special attacks, but it’s mostly hacking and slashing and occasionally blocking for him as he pushes forward. Some sections really offer a lot of action with never-ending spawn points for enemies.

The Bad
As I recall, Brave Fencer Musashi was somewhat linear…but never to this extreme. You can’t get lost in this game, and there’s only a pinch of retreading familiar grounds (which are handed to the gamer so stupidly that there’s no point in even feeling proud when you remember you can now access a certain area thanks to your new “walk-on-water boots”). One task dropped upon Musashi’s feminine shoulders is that of rescuing 28 lost villagers…don’t worry, you’ll get them all as just about every single floating blue orb hosting a stolen soul is right along the main path. Way to make it challenging, Square Enix.

Also, every time you rescue one of the Mystics, you must carry her from the end of the level back to the beginning. While fighting off hordes of enemies. This, my readers, is complete bullshit and will most certainly have you grinding your teeth at the screen. The game is very repetitive in that sense, and even the boss battles become nothing more than “learn the pattern, attack here”. A little more variety and branching would’ve been appreciated, as would’ve the day/night cycle from the previous entry.

The Fugly
Where to start?

First, Musashi from Brave Fencer Musashi dressed the part of a traditional samurai, which made sense given that that’s what he was. Here, Musashi has changed up his style to be some sort of California surfer/drug addict supermodel with no money for a haircut. Is there a reason gamers need to see his midriff?

Second, the writing. It was either the writing or the voice acting, but since the voice actors are only reading what is written in their script, I went with the former. It’s bad, people. Overtly bad, especially when it tries to lighten the mood. Musashi attempts to sound tough, comes off cheesy. The Mystic of the Void tries to sound seductive, comes off cheap and whorish. Master Mew dramatically attempts wisdom and being wizened, sounds like a dying cat.

Third, the graphics. They’re not terrible, really. Not by PS2 standards at least. They’re just…so odd. Soft lighting, with thick brown outlines for everything, and no one seems to have noses. Think Dark Cloud 2 and every Impressionistic painting created. It’s like a re-imagined cel shading technique that, while colorful, really could’ve been a lot more. It seems most of the money was spent on the fully animated intro, which is ham-fisted and replete with words like legendary and power and fate.

The Overall Vibe
I will not lie. I got this game for $4.99, and when you pay that price expectations cannot be too high. Still, I was looking for something a little deeper, a little more fun and punny like Brave Fencer Musashi. The game’s not terribly tough or deep, and beating it allows one to start a new campaign+, which means nothing to me. I have no idea why someone would need to go through this more than once unless they really missed collecting digital playing cards of enemies and such. I won’t be going back.

4 out 10