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https://store.steampowered.com/app/1810220/Gears_of_Phantasm_Destiny_TailoredAct_I/ A classic styled JRPG offering a somewhat different approach on how RPGs can be designed. Uses a customized battle system, (while a prototype & not without its quirks)still evolves basic front facing battlers to the next Lvl exploiting the build-in engine combat & evented animations. The Real Time Combat is quite the change of pace from turn based RPG MAKER based games. However combat has always played second fiddle to exploration & characters with deep story. Now go fetch these orbs & track down that evil doer before the world comes to a sudden end! (WARNING READ ONLY) IF INTO DEPRESSING REALITY & WHAT GOES THROUGH MY MIND! But how much depth does collecting 4 orbs to "save the world & defeat the bad evil doer" have? What approach could even be possibly taken to try & refresh a formula older than even myself. Well, building the ground work was the easy part, & completing it is another hurdle all together. With half finished questlines, dev rooms sitting there unfinished, & dungeons that require work. I'm left pondering, was this really a game I created for the sole purpose of being sold on steam, or was it some kind of way of getting a little control back into life from reality of being a shut-in. Creativity only goes so far, exploration & average NPCs that simply serve their simple function, doesn't seem to get you quite there to the nostalgic levels of being thrusted in a Fantasy World as you once had way back as a kid playing all those 2D RPGs for the very first time, what is left. Two & half years with a good bit of content to offer yet feel it lacking as a void to be completed. The drive of wanting to make money undermines the whole passion of wanting to game dev... Just trying to market has torn me away from wanting to make all the additional content I want. I don't know just ramblings of a dev who feels overly attached with 1st game world to move on. Asset-Terms From Creators.txt

(Dredges up old review blog to prevent people spending money on junk) Good. An unbiased intro. So, I just want to preface this by saying this is a review of the re-release and not the original game. So the review is going to be pretty short and, hey, I do actually love the original release; To me, FFIX is pretty much the peak of the JRPG genre; it handled equipment/skills with more thought than its predecessors, had excellent side-content, and an iconic villain that, amazingly, is barely cringeworthy considering his near two decades old flamboyance. And since its just a re-release all that great stuff is still there. Its just everything else that's bad. So, to address the elephant in the room, how does the game look? Actually, pretty darn good. Or, the bits they touched at least. Which is just character models, and most of the cutscenes and most of the battlebacks I've encountered have been worked on too. Now, that sentence already provide two issues: Firstly, yes, I omitted the maps from that. Square would have you believe that Zidane and co. have selective cataracts where all sprites and objects of note (ie. chests) are in startling clarity against some blurry wasteland. I considered providing examples of the most offending maps but as this has been a subject of much controversy I'd imagine finding screenies of this shouldn't be too taxing. And secondly. not even the entirety of the cutscenes and battlebacks have been upgraded (a vast majority, but definitely not all) which at first notice provides shock and outrage followed by bitterness as not only did Square only do half a job of updating the graphics but they didn't even fully complete that half. Heck, the game still runs in 4:3 so I'm not sure if it even can be classified truly as 'HD' although in fairness it does not officially market itself as such (just in spirit ) Now, credit where its due, the character animations, in battles specifically, are wonderful. And a lot of on-map animation and design is much easier to notice, although part of that is no doubt in virtue of playing on a screen approximately three times larger than my eleven year old self was privy to. Oh and the Tetra Master cards have been touched up too which is nice. As far as the UI design. Well, they changed the menus. Can't say they're functionally, or even asthetically any better. Square clearly felt obligated to act but I just don't see why, particularly since they don't seem to have been too interested in it themselves. The cynic in me thinks the devs just wanted something you're constantly confronted with, and in confrontation with, to say 'hey, look we did do stuff so that's why you paid money'. There are a few much bigger afronts that overwhelm that inner voice with, err, another louder inner voice. And they're all to do with the on-map exclamation mark alerts. Firstly they are everywhere. Like, for reals. For some reason Square thought it would be a good idea to provide an alert to let you know you can talk to NPCs. It actually provides you with two so that you also know which ones are available to play Tetra Master with. Both are obviously something that sounded good in principle to somebody but should have immediately been noticed in testing as a terrible idea as you wander around Treno in a swarm of irritating bubbles. Oh, and interacting with one of these bubbles now leaves a negative of it for a few frames. Sexy ¬.¬ . The gameplay additions were actually pretty interesting, I thought; The ability to move faster, remove random encounters, and all of that. Square showed an excellent awareness of the fanbase even if they failed to understand them. See, all these features are geared towards the players who go for different kinds of perfect saves and, often, need to reach Memoria within twelve hours for Excalibur II or remain at level1 for the majority of the game. A considerable amount of the appeal of these playthroughs, ofc, being the challenge. Which these features strip away from an otherwise very easy game. In fact, Square seem to have done this compulsively, making the theatre swordfight easier to max for the first Moonstone and...a couple of other things I've forgotten in this thirtyish hour blur. You're not obligated to engage these features so there's no real harm in their addition (except that if you were to accidentally activate one you're unable to turn it back off) but its just disappointing that what is arguably the best addition with excellent intentions is inherently flawed. I'm going to end by disregarding a rule of reviewing for me. Or adding a clause to it perhaps. I hate when people bring the price into a review of a game; its an aspect that is entirely external to the piece. However, since what I've been writing about here is the disparity between two packages of the same game and not really about the game itself I'll come out and say that this is not worth the money. It just isn't. If you don't own an existing copy of FFIX then I'd say its an incredible game and you'll enjoy the heck out of it; if the re-release is the best way of accessing the game for you then so be it. But if you do own an original copy this version brings so little to the table for the price that Square is asking for (it is also rarely on sale and, so far, never generously so) that you might as well continue enjoying Kuja Trance and Steiner x Beatrix, the Lifa Tree and Chocobo's Lagoon, on your original disks because that's what the game is about, not a couple of redone character models.

Welcome to my inaugral post in a blog that exists for some feeble attempt at validating all this time I've been spending on my Steam backlog recently. My backlog is mostly comprised of indie games that were a part of humblebundles or some such and I'll attempt to review these games from both a consumer's and developer's perspective. I wont be using any sort of universal metric to 'judge' these games but will consider them on their own merit; what they attempt to achieve and how well they do so. If you guys like what you see then I'll try to keep these up once a week (if you're possibly thinking of purchasing a title then let me know in the comments and I'll prioritise it if its in my library). Obligatory intro's aside, lets get on with today's game: (Image taken from unepicgame.com) Ever had one of those day where you're just chilling with your bro's? You get up, you bro to the broilet and suddenly everything goes dark? Then you wake up and "Broah!" in awe as all these brorcs and necbromancers are all up in you're space trying to bro-fist you to death? That's pretty much the gist of this accurately titled game. I don't really have a lot of praise for UnEpic; as a game its pretty solid but the aspect that will always stick in my mind is 'the jump was a little off' and that's a pretty big deal; horizontal movement is very broken and even vertical traversal can be quite bothersome as every platform is at the absolute apex of the jump. I feel the devs became aware of this issue at some point as they did add an extended jump accessory... but they threw it in 95% of the way through the game. This ring also becomes necessary during the final platforming sequence, utterly defeating its presumed purpose of making traversal less frustrating. This is actually a pretty good example of some of the questionable design choices plaguing this game (I think it would have been more interesting if it had been introduced early on, allowing the player the choice between mobility or statistical advantage). The majority of the game is combat-orientated which is largely pretty dull but thats not uncharacteristic for the genre. The beginning implies the player will be using a variety of weapons to deal with different situations but this is dropped quicksmart. There is room for dedicated builds in UnEpic, absolutely, but they are of little benefit. People who dig mages will probably enjoy this game a fair bit; there's a lot more content for these than other 'classes' but I can't comment as I didn't use much other than some healing. Essence management was a nice break from traditional mp systems I suppose but did kind of just advocate grinding (although mayhaps an NPC I didn't see sold it). The same can be said of the skill bar which filled up from enemy deaths; but, hey, you can do a lot with a coat of paint, right? The pets were kind of novel but so so broken. Returning and resummoning a pet took a matter of frames and restored them to full health (and even if they were to die the revive scroll cost tuppence). The pets weren't statistically OP but most I encountered had some pretty debilitating enemy debuff and all had a mana regen that was greater than could be spent. In short, pets are crowd-control and, like so many things in UnEpic, these felt like a band-aid added post-testing to avoid reworking the core. The whole lighting lark is okay but gets tiresome fast since there isn't much benefit to it for many of the maps, not least of all because you carry a light source around with you. The number of achievements dedicated to this mechanic makes it seem like its supposed to be a real big deal... but I don't see why? At least some narrative purpose would have been something. I also have a bit of a quibble with the additional challenges in the game. You see, optional challenges are cool. Hidden content is cool. But hidden challenges are bizarre. After completing the game I looked over the extra challenges online and to my chagrin I realised I had probably performed a small number of them during the course of the game and was to go unrewarded as I, essentially, had not flipped a switch at the right time. Kind of a weird decision, no? Surely a better way to implement this content and still have it be 'hidden' would be to have the activation glyphs just act as hints to alert and encourage the player toward the challenges but reward the player for meeting x criteria regardless. Whatever, mayhaps I'm being nitpicky. Addressing the elephant in the room; the writing is utterly atrocious. What plot is present is nonsensical, contradictory even, and the dialogue? Now, I'm not against cursing for characterisation or to display extremity but its use is excessive and often needless in this game, especially since most of the dialogue is just forced stock banter. Fortunately, you can skip most of the texts and not miss anything important (that this is a positive says everything) but this misguided attempt at maturity sometimes slips into the gameplay as well, with the occassional orc orgy. I feel like the devs recognised this mistake when they implemented age settings but it also just feels like a refusal to accept that it was bad content and/or a failure to recognise that cursing is not a shortcut to maturity (if anything, I imagine most older people would play the censored 'younger' version and kids would be attracted to the gratuitous swearing of the 'adult' version). To conclude, the game is fine but nothing special. A lot of the reviews I saw for this game really raved about it and that just baffles me. If you're starved for content and this is on sale or in a humblebundle or something then, yeah, its adequate. Huzzah! The music's fine, the graphics are fine, the animations are fine and the voiceacting is actually pretty good in spite of the content. The game took me around twenty hours to do everything and there is room for multiple playthroughs (different difficulties/builds/speedruns?/whatever) but, honestly, I was thoroughly disengaged after only a few hours and mostly kept playing to look for any redeeming value from this, mostly tedious, experience. My bad. Well, that's that. Usual disclaimer of 'my opinion' and all that other stuff that should just be taken for granted. If you liked the post then let me know. If you didn't like the post then let me know why. If you are apathetic then you will, ofc, keep schtum =p

I'm hoping this is in the right place. Basically, I'm trying to get into mapping design, right now being interior, I don't think it looks bad, but I'd like from second opinions, mostly the walls and door. And of course, any tips are good, since I'm a bloody newbie at this. Edit: Oh I took this photo before I remembered to remove that random part in the middle.

[This review was originally sent to the creator of Ixias, Sinathor on Febuary the 20th. Parts of it have been minorly edited, for proper readability. It has not been posted to the reviews section of this web site due to the rule regarding a required download link for the game. The release is currently private, and the game can only be obtained via Sinathor himself.] -------------------- IXIAS - STELLAR COMPLEX Alpha Private Release, Full Analysis -------------------- The following is my sum total views of the incomplete Alpha release for Ixias - Stellar Complex, by Sinathor, Sinathor Productions, following 4 playtest reports over the course of approximately 1 month and 3 days. During this time, I casually played through the game as for mock Q/A and was also asked to give my impressions as a player. As part of this, I have intended to create a final summary of my thoughts, here. At least, final, for the time being. With your (Sinathor) permission I'd also like to post this. If not, by the rules, to the Topic, then via a blog, on the rpgmakervxace.net forums. I'll be basing this analysis off several key areas including firstly some noteworthy Impressions, Gameplay and Design, Story, Art Design, Sound Design, and then some Conclusions. Ixias - Stellar Complex Credits IMPRESSIONS -------------------- I'm a little hesitant to say for certain - but I feel confident enough to say that Ixias: Stellar Complex even in it's current form is both the best game I have played in 2015, and the best RPG Maker Game I have ever played. Perhaps you could say that it is the best I have ever played, because I very rarely play RPG Maker games at all, and that's quite true. However, I rarely ever play RPG Maker games because I am extremely discerning of the games I play. If I am not certain I will not rate it 75% or higher, I will not play it. Simple as that. Ixias was certainly one of those 75%+ games, if not an 80%, or a 90% - it's just that good. And to think, it's not even done yet. In giving a general impression, it's hard to decide where to begin. I suppose it'd be best to start off what particularly sticks out about the game. If I were to pick one thing I think it would be something like theme. RPGs are a pretty stagnant genre, fantasy, like all RTP has been, in particular has been quite dead for a long time. Ixias is such an incredible revitalization for the software. Dystopian cyberpunk? Does that genre still exist? Hell yeah! Even though many parts of it are very standard (a majority of the art assets are Steam-bought, the combat is vanilla for the engine), there's an overriding atmosphere that comes from the combination of story, gameplay, art, and sound that makes the standard parts of the game contribute to a far greater whole. It's truly an astounding job, stellar, you could say, the kinds of which would be way too easy to get obsessive over. GAMEPLAY AND DESIGN -------------------- Stellar Complex is something of a strange hybrid of a JRPG and a WRPG - something I think that could be attributed to the combination of it's inspirations. The player takes control of an initally small, but eventually middling party of 4, with a central protagonist. Outside of a few choices with questionable impact on the game as a whole, there is very little input the player has on the proceedings of the game, and its narrative. Despite this however, the player has the ability to travel between several large hubs, and explore numerous interiors in a very alive, if destitute semi-open world. Outside of the proceedings for the main quest, there are numerous side quests the player can perform for loot, experience for leveling up, and world-building story. Despite the largeness of the hubs, frequency of NPCs, and shops, the overworlds feel fairly standard for the game it portrays. Other than searching for quests, and a few collectables, there isn't all too much to do while walking around. For the game as a whole, this doesn't present a problem, and in fact, works well for pacing, but a large amount of time is still spent wandering around. This occurs especially a lot when exploring all the hubs for the first time. Of interesting note, is also the complete lack of a world map. For some, this might cause some difficulty in navigation, but for me personally, added to the sense of exploration. While at the beginning of the game I found myself staring at the maps on the walls endlessly, by the time I finished the 12 hours of gameplay, I knew I could navigate from one point of a hub to another without stopping once. It is a rewarding feeling to become familiar with the world, and to find all the fastest little route between the numerous point A's and B's. Puzzles are few and far in-between, but of additional gameplay note is the hacking minigame. While a bit of a non-sequitur at times, it also helps diversify the gameplay. I know at least a few hacks that will have some people pulling their hair out. As for combat... Ixias has a fairly vanilla combat system for RPG Maker. Front view, turn based combat, often with RTP battlers. This could be a colossal blow to the game if it wasn't handled so well. While Ixias might not flaunt all too much in the way of originality, there's a few extremely interesting things that the game does to make something you would consider stale. Every boss is an absolute adventure, and some kind of (what I would consider) innovative exploration of the default RTP mechanics. The constant balance of HP / MP / and TP gets extremely intense, surprisingly quickly. Having to buy a majority of the skills in the game also creates a bit of a WRPG character customization feeling to it, that I haven't really seen in other games. I'm somebody who enjoys challenge. I have beaten the first Dark Souls, five times. I have beaten Metro 2033 on the hardest difficult, nine times. I have played through a majority of Left 4 Dead 1 on Expert with only bots. I found parts of Ixias to be a challenge, just the perfect difficulty. There was no challenge that I was expected to face that was too hard, but no part in which I was fully confident of my ability. Balanced to perfection, sans a few possible exploits! STORY -------------------- Oh Christ man... if you want a story... If you want something that'll give the first Deus Ex a run for it's money, then check this game out. An engaging and even cerebral plot that goes the extra mile to a deliver the most complex and snaking plots I've ever played, let alone heard of for RPG Maker. For some, it might be a bit too much, but for those that can take a minute to follow along, it's a truly an enriching experience. Ixias suffers from a story that is simultaneously its best part, but also its toughest to praise, in it's current state. As an alpha, the demo ends far before any loose ends are tied up, in fact, it ends just as we get into the main plot. As such the game gave me such an incredible kick in the balls to see the dev message at the end, I'm still kinda reeling from it. There are problems though. The main cast is all made up of 3 dimensional, and real feeling people, that might be equivalent to a small time Tales Of game - but at the moment, there simply isn't enough screen time devoted to the people, and not the plot, to build much an emotional connection with them. If there was, then I don't know, I might be a wreck right now. While the antagonists of the plot are all hidden nebulously in mystery, and cannot be spoken of at this time, the thugs and villains that do get screen time are all quite flat. Ixias is pretty quick and eager to get into some pretty dark themes of crime, murder, rape, prostitution, cannibalism, drug use, and manslaughter, and holds no punches. Some moments are really, incredibly, well executed and hit you where it hurts; other feel like stories out of a 90s comic book that are a bit '2edgy4u'. Sinathor has stated to me before, that he really didn't want to hold anything back for Ixias. It definitely shows, and I'd believe it if he told me this was a game he was cooking up for years, and poured his heart and soul into. ART DESIGN -------------------- If there is a crutch that Ixias has, its the art. RTP and vanilla looking assets seem pretty abound, and Ixias doesn't make many excuses for it. It is what it is: serviceable. While none of it really detracts from the overall experience, the game benefits little from it, enough to convey ideas and give impressions. Perhaps the extremely notable exception to this is the mapping. Some areas, are simply fricken' astounding. Every single area has a totally complete vibe, and it all works together to create a very consistent atmosphere. The game is without a doubt, what it was set out to be. Ixias does feature what I can decipher as being custom assets and graphics, notably facegraphics and its promotional poster however, and does benefit from these considerably at times, but, I wish they were more the rule than the exception. Any more can't really be expect of though. That all said, it makes me wonder what this game would be like if it had a small team of even 1 or 2 dedicated artists. SOUND DESIGN -------------------- Pfft-, no " " or " "? 0/10. In all serious, Ixias would be great, but not AMAZING if it weren't for, what I take to be its 100% custom music by Sinathor himself. Holy Christ this soundtrack is great, in a lot of ways as good as, if not better than the original Deus Ex's. If not, then it's at the least, very comparable to it. Its good, its really, really, good. It always perfectly sets up the atmosphere and tone, and has a good diversity to it that helps the game even further stand out from the crowd. The only problems with the music is that there simply isn't enough. Several areas, dungeons in particular, all share the same music. Does any of that matter though when you're listening to "Floating", "Longing for Something You've Never Had", or "Let the City Burn"? No. No it doesn't. My brother's life is music, so growing up, I heard enough of it. Now, I don't really listen to music, and I infrequently seek out the OST for a game to put on my computer. For Ixias though I HAD TO. Other than the music, the audio is a little hit and miss. Other than some rain, I don't recall any ME's, and the sound effects were all like the art. Pretty much just RTP. As JC would say, " ". With a week's attention to sound in this game, it'd really help elevate it even more. CONCLUSION -------------------- Scores are for fcking casuls, but this game isn't! I don't know how I can recommend this game more, I honestly don't. The art may have been pretty middle of the road, but the music, story, and gameplay more than make up for it. It is the best RPG Maker game I have ever played. Period. It was an privileged to Q/A test and an absolute blast to play, I don't regret a second of it. Here's hoping for the full release, and the sequel. On a personal note to Sinathor, it is been an absolute honor to work with you and I sincerely wish to continue working with you. Even though it's only been a month, I am proud to call you a friend, and even mentor. Do not hesitate in the slightest to come to me with future builds for Q/A, art, concerns, or anything! You have the utmost upper echelon of my respect, and I would be ecstatic to continue working with you. Best of luck, Chaosian

Hey, So I made a bunch of battlers using public domain/free to redistribute pictures - I wanted to know what you guys think. Also, if you happen to know anyone who does similar work to this, I would love to get in contact with them to trade resources and stuff. Animals Bosozoku RMoney Ladybug Boss Series

Warning: You might want to at least play Persona 3 or 4 to fully understand some terms that I will be telling in my little review xD STORY: Persona Q Shadow of Labyrinth has one of the best stories I have ever encountered in my long running JRPG encounters (As expected from a Persona Game). Persona Q is about a girl named Rei and his "friend" Zen as they wander throughout the alternate version of Yasogami High in an attempt to discover it`s secrets and to find their lost memories. But wait, where did the cast of Persona 3 and Persona 4 comes in? Well they are included in the game (And they will help Rei and Zen) but the story isn`t really focused on them, it is centered throughout the amnesia duo (Rei and Zen, yes they have amnesia...) but do not fret, the interactions between Persona 3 and 4 characters are really hilarious and memorable(Sadly you need to play Persona 3 and 4 to get the gist of their conversations since they will most likely use each game`s terms and some bit of story). The game is relatively long and the story gets bumpier and bumpier until you reach the final parts of the game where a lot of shocking revelations will happen~ GAMEPLAY: Ever played Etrian Odyssey before? How about the previous Persona 3 and 4 games? (Persona 1 and 2 isn`t really strongly mentioned in this game xD) Well if you didn`t played any of them that is okay but it will surely give the exciting feeling for those who played those games. Persona Q is a 1st person dungeon crawler game which is heavily inspired by the Etrian Odyssey series with a touch of Persona. The player is tasked to complete labyrinths in order to proceed through the story and each labyrinth has a theme which is clearly shown with wonderful 3d graphics and shadows. The battle system is turn based, you can choose 5 active party members and 1 navigator (each character has it`s own set of unique characteristics, skills and weaknesses) and place them either in the front or back row (front row receives full damage and is most likely to be targeted by enemies). In each battle, you can use "Leader Skills" (As long as you have the needed cost) which can do various effects depending on your navigator and her persona. Unlike the Persona games (3 and 4), everyone is a "wildcard" which enables them to equip a sub-persona to increase the selection of skills they can use (which your main persona can only wield a few skills on it`s list) and also forms a temporary barrier (HP and SP) that will be depleted first before your real HP and SP. These temporary HP and SP is restored after every battle which makes them very helpful to conserve your precious HP and SP. There are also various facilities that can be used: An equipment shop, the velvet room (where you can fuse, summon and do various stuff concerning personas), the nurse`s office (where you heal your wounded characters) and some various school locations that can be accessed via "Stroll". The "Stroll" option (once it is available) enables you to see various events that ties all the characters together and do either a serious or a hilarious scenario (which most of the time, it is hilarious xD). Navigating through the labyrinths is first person and you must rely on your logic, puzzle solving brains to past most of the dungeons. Your navigator can also provide helpful info about your current location and situation from time to time. Defeating the labyrinth`s boss will either unlock the next labyrinth or if you are already at the last labyrinth, it will clear the game~ MUSIC: No doubt, the Persona series (yes, even Persona 1 and 2) has some very rad tunes that most people will enjoy and Persona Q isn`t an exemption. The soundtrack of Persona Q really lives up from it`s origin with the tracks "Maze of Life" (The opening of the game) and "Light the Fire Up in the Night: (The battle theme which has 2 versions, P3 and P4 versions) that will surely make you want to play those tracks again and again~ FUN FACTOR: The fun factor of this game lies upon the battle system and the character interactions. Exploring the labyrinths is also fun as long as you don`t get carried away and challenge an F.O.E. (Similar to Etrian Odyssey in which this particular enemy that you can see in the maze is not your regular customer. They are much stronger than the regular dungeon monsters and they also serve as puzzle elements in which you must avoid them if you are not strong enough to beat them) to a duel and you realized that all of your characters are dead. Challenge is fun but don`t overdo it~ REPLAYABILITY: Yes, this game has a new game plus which carries all your personas, money, level and items. But the game has two sides, the Persona 3 and Persona 4. The difference between the two are: Some character interactions, some side quests, 1st dungeon/ labyrinth and of course perspective. Picking either side in your first playthrough relies on who`s your favorite side or who`s side you are much more interested with. However, some unlockables can only be accessed if you played both sides which requires you playing at least twice~ ^~^ The secret boss (which is harder than the final boss as some people said) is one example that you can unlock after clearing both sides (P3 and P4 side)\ which adds a few hours in your adventure ^~^ SCORE: 9 cats out of 10 Pros: -Very good battle system -Vast amount of Sub Personas to use -Customize character`s skills with skill cards -Unexpected course of events in the story~ -Detailed and well themed labyrinths (Love the 3rd labyrinth~) -P3 and P4 interactions are really funny and memorable -Auto-mapping feature for the lazy or not so good map drawers Cons: -Kinda grindy -You must trust your map drawing capability to survive -Extremely difficult in higher difficulty settings -Only 5 dungeons to explore -Need to play P3 and p4 to understand some character interactions (Like why does Teddie like to score with the girls? xD) -There is one little combo that makes the game extremely easy, it can kill most of the bosses on one swoop if it is done correctly~ *cough Shura Tensei*

STORY: Hyperdimension Neptunia Rebirth 2 offers another story that involves our all time favorite gaming consoles. But you don`t have to play the first Hyperdimension Neptunia Rebirth on vita to play this one since both games offer a different story or should I say a different dimension of Gamindustri. The story is quite straightforward, you play as Nepgear (Neptunes younger sister as well as a CPU Candidate) and your goal is to save Gamindustri from destruction by freeing the four captive CPUs (Goddesses which maintains the balance of Shares in the game world) from their binds. But even the story is quite linear, the character interactions what makes this game quite enjoyable since they do throw in some humor and a little bit of anime-like situations. The characters also have some unique characteristics especially the four main CPUs and their CPU Candidates (Little sisters) which adds flavor to the wall of texts you will be encountering. (Visual Novel Style) GAMEPLAY: Hyperdimension Neptunia Rebirth 2 shares the exact same elements from it`s first game but of course with a few added content. The game uses a turn based battle system which utilizes different combos (Rush, Power and Break Combos). These combos can be freely customized by the player as long as they have enough points to spare before the cost exceeds it`s limit. Each type of combo commands do different effects like Rush commands focus on high hit counts, Power commands focus on bringing down the pain (low hit count) and Break commands which focuses on destroying the enemy`s guard points (if the guard points reaches 0, a "guard break" will occur greatly reducing that particular enemy`s defense). The "remake system" also comes back from the first game in which you can manipulate in game elements like changing what type of enemies appear in a certain dungeon, what types of items you get on dungeons, expanding the shop`s selection and unlocking various stuff as long as you have the necessary "plan" (An item which you can find throughout the game world) and "memory" (another item you can get on the game) to spare. The new feature added in this game are: Stella`s Dungeon (which serves as a mini game where in you send Stella on dungeons to gather items and defeat monsters. Sending Stella to a dungeon and waiting for her to come back uses actual minutes in real life) and the maximum number of active battle participants are 4 instead of 3 from rebirth 1. The game also features an EXE gauge where in you can add another additional combo to your existing combo commands when the bar fills to a certain point. The EXE gauge can be filled via dealing damage to enemies and you can also unleash EXE Attacks (that consumes a certain amount of EXE Gauge) which is extremely powerful than your typical skills. It also features transformation for CPUs and CPU Candidates which boosts their combat capability by a certain amount as well as their cool factor~ MUSIC: The music fits the theme since the game is about cutesy anime like scenario and characters. Expect to have a lot of cute sound effects and music. The game also features dual audio where in you can select Japanese or English for the voices. I highly recommend you to pick what suits you (I personally prefer Japanese) since both voice actings are good. FUN FACTOR: The fun part in this game lies within two parts: the humor in the story and the battle system. The quirky characters along with their humorous conversations will surely make your adventure worth while. The battle system is also enjoyable and the awesome skill and attack animations serves as eye candy for the rpg enthusiasts. The game also has a disc development feature where in you burn discs that has various effects when equipped (You get to choose what perks you want to add) and some discs can be so godly (in terms of effects) that it is named by various popular games. (The Hyperdimesion Neptunia series is a parody of various gaming merchandises, items, and devices. REPLAYABILITY: The game features a New Game+ and multiple endings which will need multiple playthroughs or save files to unlock everything. There is also a colosseum for hardcore battles and DLCs which can will extend your time with Hyperdimension Neptunia Rebirth 2. SCORE: 7 cats out of 10 Pros: -Very good battle system -Customizable combos -Remake System -Disc Dev let`s you add your own customizable effects to your characters. -Cute Anime graphics Cons: -Linear story -If you're not a fan of anime cutesy, this isn`t a game for you -Enemies feels like a reskin of each other (No big difference in them except for their appearance) -Some battles are quite easy (Enemy AI is kinda dumb) but tedious because of their insane amounts of HP and GP (Guard Points) -Not for hardcore RPG lovers

STORY: The story of Dying Light is kinda like your typical zombie stories where it begins with an infection of a unknown virus or pathogen but Dying Light made a good version of their own with their story presentation. You start as a man named Kyle Crane who`s mission is to retrieve a stolen file inside a zombie or should I say "Infected" filled city called Harran where in a mysterious pathogen infected most of the population. Sounds boring on paper but the real fun starts when you get to meet the cast of Dying Light and as well as the part where you do the parkour stuff which is really fun. Believe me, the story is really good and interesting but somewhat predictable for some people who plays zombie games or watch zombie related movies and stuff. GAMEPLAY: The gameplay of dying light is rather similar to Dead Island but with alot more tweaks and new stuff like the game`s famous feature: parkour. As Kyle Crane, you travel throughout the city of Harran with your awesome stunts, slides, jumps, rolls and climbs but that`s not where the exciting stuff happens. The game has a system (Not completely new to the gamers eyes but... ) called Day/ Night System where in at day, you are the hunter. The zombies walk slow and they seem to be quite inactive most of the times (unless you made a sound which attracts them) but when night falls, that`s where those crazy things happen. At night, the zombies become much more formidable, the are faster, they can climb, they can run, they can call the others to help them eat you. Not only the regular biters become stronger, certain zombies also appear at night and one perfect example is the "Volatile" or Nightmares which the locals call them. These "Volatiles" are much more stronger than your regular ones and once they spot you at night, prepare for a run for your lives. Dying Light also implements an RPG styled mechanics such as the Skill Tree System where in you can invest points earned through three categories (Survivor, Agility and Power) to enhance Kyle`s abilities. The game also features a crafting (weapons have durability...) and weapon ranking system where in you can craft your own items and equipment as long as you have the materials to spare. The controls are tight and it might take a while before you get used to it but it`s worth every second since you`ll be enjoying your time in Harran with all the things you can do such as Side Quests, Challenges and Co-op. MUSIC: Dying Light`s music is one of the best in my opinion. It really fits the theme and it gives you that atmosphere you need to feel in certain events and locations. FUN FACTOR: Running, jumping and climbing for your lives solo or with a friend is truly an enjoyable experience especially if you attracted those "Volatiles" at night just to have some fun. Dying Light is a really fun experienece whether you`re playing solo or with a friend (Which doubles or triples the fun) with all those zombie bashing, hacking, kicking and punching. The Open world city of Harran is also fun to explore and there are alot of easter eggs to discover. The "Be The Zombie" mode (thank God they added it to all the game copies) is another fun experience but also frustrating at some points since it is competitive and challenging. In "Be The Zombie" mode, you play as a super powered spider man like zombie and you invade other people`s games (when their game is at night time) and try to kill them (10 times, doesn`t matter who) before they destroy 5 of your hives. And if you`re playing as the humans and someone invaded your game, you need to destroy the hives and prevent the "Night Hunter: (The super powered spider man like zombie) from killing you or your co-op buddies to win. So far, Dying Light is FUN in some ways and also frustrating at times but so far a very good game especially with friends~ REPLAYABILITY: Dying Light offers 50+ hours of gameplay (If you did all the challenges, side quests, collectibles and exploration) but the fun does not stop when you cleared everything. You can either do the "New Game+" mode where in you start over with all your items and skills intact but the zombies are now much uhhh.. healthier... (more HP) to challenge yourself or do some co-op modes such as the "Be The Zombie" mode or those random co-op objectives that pops out if you`re playing with your co-op buddies in Harran. DLC`s can also extend the experience (which I hate because some important things on the DLC should be included in the game in the first place...) like the upcoming 3 DLCs which is bundled into one Season Pass. SCORE: 8 Cats out of 10 Pros -Parkour~ -Zombie bashing is fun -Smooth gamplay and tight controls -Decent Open World Size (Harran is quite big) -Day and Night changes the game`s atmosphere effectively -Cool weapon upgrades and crafts Cons -Predictable outcomes -Some missions are frustratingly hard -The Zombies/ Infected seem to act quite weird on some points -Weapon Durability, once your fully upgraded uber powered weapon breaks. It`s goodbye weapon...

So, I've been playing the third entry in the Dragon Age series; Dragon Age: Inquisition. And as my second playthrough begins to draw to a close, I feel like this would be a good way to start a little series that I'll be calling, Yay, or Nay? What is this? Basically it's a reviewing series, but where i just kind of spew out random thoughts on the game until I reach my conclusion on the game. If it's a Yay, then I recommend you play it. If it's a Nay, then I recommend that you don't play it, and possibly go throw it in your fire pit depending on how I'm feeling that day. I'll be writing these as i go, so don't be surprised if I jump from subject to subject with no clear connection. Also expect spelling and grammatical errors, because it's almost 11 P.M here. Anyway. Let's get on with it. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dragon Age: Inquisition is a game developed by Bioware, powered by the Frostbite3 game engine and published by EA (Or Electronic Arts if you prefer, though I personally don't ever since the Sims City debacle last year.). It has been released on the Xbox360, Playstation 3, XboxOne, Playstation 4, and of course the PC. Right. Now that I have that out of the way. I would like to draw your attention to the fact that the game has been developed on the Frostbite3 engine, which I believe was made by DICE, but I could be wrong, and I can't be bothered to check and make sure. Anyway. The reason why I draw attention to the engine upon which this game was made with is because (on the Xbox360 version at least) the game looks worse than Dragon Age: Origins, or DA2 most of the time. Most of the time hair shines as if it's covered in grease, or made out of plastic, faces barely emote and have murky, or blurred textures, eyelashes go through eyelids when characters blink, and there is more pop-in in both environments and character details then a freaking soda shop. (One especially recurring example it when I would go to see talk with my good buddy Dorian, and find myself horrified to see his face blocky, blurred and his facial hair melding into his face along with parts of his eyes for three second before filling in properly.) Although I did manage to take some time and look at footage on the PC, XboxOne and PS4, and I suddenly found myself looking at a fantastic looking game with, beautiful environments, hair that wasn't made out of lego, clear and realistic character faces and very little pop-in. So I guess if you're a graphics hound, then this game is already a Nay on the last-gen consoles. Although to be fair, I did eventually get past the graphical problems. It's just kind of disheartening for me that a game that looks absolutely brilliant on another platform, but looks terrible when ported over to the one I play on the most. Now that we have gotten done with what we see with our eyes, let us continue to we hear with our ears, or antennae if you're some kind of mutant insectoid man reading this in an apocalyptic future where a new brand of bug killing spray has somehow gone horrifically wrong and if you happen to be the later, then I want it to be known that I totally called it. But, anyway. Voice acting. It's rather nice... What? It's just really good voice acting. I guess the default voices for Dwarf and Qunari player characters is somewhat lacking in emotion, but I get the feeling that they are meant to be more stoic and unflinching hero, so it didn't really bother me and I just decided to use it on my more macho, or confident characters. Other then that the voice acting is just good. I found very few voices that I didn't like and that's mostly because the voice actors were playing characters with a French accent, which instantly land a voice in my torture rack due to a terrible accident I once had that involved a poorly made french toast, which I choose not to go into here. And since I mentioned Dwarves and Qunari in the previous paragraph I find myself now moving towards the character creation suite. This is a bioware game afterall, so when you start a new game you are transported to a strange green mist filled area with wonky lighting. (That again looked five times better on PC.) Here you can get to choose from four races, Humans, who are what humans always are in fantasy settings, that being the most widespread, and snobbish of the races, Elves, who are elves. I really don't have to say much more then that other then the fact that they are the only race that requires that your character has a tattoo. Then there are Dwarves, as short and beard-y as you like, and finally we have the Qunari, a race of horned giants that is best known for the radical and oppressive religion that the race is named after which dictates every point of their lives and "fixes" them is they try to stray from whatever path has been set for them, or if they question or criticize the leadership. But you play as one who has never lived under the Qun, making you a Tal-Vashoth, and it is possible to be born without horns, so feel free to be a sarcastic, authority questioning, non-committal, non-horn headed dweeb as you wave goodbye to whatever interesting character development you might have thought would have gone pretty well with the race. After you choose your stuck up Human, elfy Elf, beard-y Dwarf, or non-horny Qunari you get to choose your class for your character. There are three specialization with two weapon gameplay styles for each with the exception of the last. There are warriors, basically the lumbering tough guys/gals of the group who have a sword and shield style that focuses on staying out in-front of everyone and tanking damage while occasionally taking a second to scream at an enemy that his mother was half nug, and then they have a a two handed style for using great swords and mauls and the like, so that they can charge straight into the enemy lines and instantly getting ground into mulch. After that we have rogues, who are the typical thief class who are usually flanking in battle, or picking battle outside of it, they can either use dual daggers for poking you in the back, or bows to hang back and snipe in the brief moment before they get double stabbed in the back by the enemy dual dagger rogue. And finally we have the mages, who kind of work as an all around class, but mostly excel at support. They only get one weapon style, which is the staff. But they make up for this by having staves be the coolest looking weapons in the game with the largest customization option. Now that you have chosen the class that fits you the best, you are taken to the actual character appearance editor where you can change pretty much anything about the look of your character's face, but not their body, because of reasons. I really don't have a problem with the editor itself (Other then the fact that on last-gen console you can't have scar for your characters. Again, because of reasons.), but I do have one big one. And it is that the lighting isn't exactly the best, of the five characters that I have made to test out different play styles, three of them I had to go back and recreate within an hour of play because they ended up looking considerably more freakish then they did in the editor. My prime example of this is my Qunari character, who looked perfectly fine in the editor, but the second he got into an area with normal lighting he looked like a terrible black face character and i found myself spending the next thirty minutes laboriously correcting it. I also originally had a problem with there being no longer hair styles for female characters, but then i thought about it and found myself visualizing an unstoppable two handed style warrior carving through the enemy lines, her hair blowing victoriously in the wind in the brief second before a hurlock alpha easily grabbed her by her long flowing hair and yanking her head back it could easily lob her head of at the neck. After removing the terrifying image from my mind I finally found a reason to not be bothered with it. Oh. you can also choose between two voices for each gender here, although as far as I can tell there is no dialogue changes for either, so they are pretty much up to your preference. Now, as for gameplay there isn't really much I can say. It plays like most bioware games; you switch between talking with npcs and making dialogue decisions using a dialogue wheel, and then walking around areas fighting enemies, leveling up, and getting new skills. There really isn't much to say about it other then the fact that the combat is just well balanced and fun at times, even the new tactical camera that i feared was just going to be boring to use, but was actually pretty easy to use, and order your people around with, while the two most notable things on the dialogue fronts is that there is no longer a morality system for your character, which I like, and there is now several times where a dialogue option has a little picture to display what emotion your character will relate during that section of the conversation, which helps to cut down on the old mass effect problem of Shepard acting like a jerk when you wanted to act like cherub. The system from DA2 where you're party members had their own armor that they wore throughout the whole game that you could be upgraded by the player by buying the upgrades while solving problems around the city has now been torn out and replaced with the same system that was in DA:O where you have to micromanage everyone's equipment, and check them against every piece of armor you find in the game, which I personally dislike. I like it when character have an iconic look, not one that i can change at any moment and most likely look worse then the default. My dislike for the system is slightly diminished by the inclusion of a new crafting system that allows you to craft dozens of custom armors and weapons right done to what metal you want to use for the blade, what leather you want for the grip, and what rune you bolt unto it, all of which physically alter the look of the weapon, or armor (Actually you can't put runes on armor anymore. Another thing taken from DA2.) from the color of the breastplate to the scarf that every rogue armor seems to have. You can also make upgrade parts for most of the armors and all of the weapons that can give them some extra effects like more healing for the character that it is equipped to, or higher chance to inflict bleed on a target. You also can name every single piece of equipment that you craft, which I loved. There is also two other new gameplay additions, one is the war table, which consists of a map of two nations that you can complete non-playable operations to help grow your faction's influence and unlock new areas to explore. The other gameplay inclusion comes in the form of being able to judge character from different quests throughout the game and not just the main story. It is basically just another dialogue conversation, but with several options with what to do with the people, which is perfect for exacting petty revenge against a minor antagonist who's voice dripped with smug. Over all the game has enough to keep you entertained and engaged for pretty much the entirety of the game, although it may begin grating on you near the end of the game depending on your tolerance levels. Wow. So much for not having much to say about the gameplay. Now the only things left to talk about are characters and story, the two things that are the hardest to talk about without spoiling massive parts. Let me just say this about the story: If you enjoyed the world and story of the previous games I think you will enjoy the story here. It has a few good twists and surprises, and really cool moments along with an villain and ending that I personally felt fit in well with the rest of the series. And as for the characters, I found myself liking every single one of them, even if some of them made me want to hit them with an iron bat until they stop being so snobbish. Most of them have nice character archs and most have decisions in their personal quests that can change something major for the character. The romances also seem really well done if the two that I have done are any indication. Anymore then this I dare not say about the characters, or story, so i guess it's time to wrap up. So does Dragon Age Inquisition get Yay, or a Nay? I would say it gets a Yay. I personally have been having a barrel of fun playing this game and getting to now the characters. I guess that's all there is to say, so... that's the first installment of "Yay, or Nay?" Have a good day everyone. -LS

Game Title: Shadow Author: Zeone013 Topic Link Gameplay Shadow is a game with horror as its genre. Most people wont even try to play such games but once discovered to be enjoyable, a possible door to play such games might open. I myself, disliked this type of games at first, why? I was avoiding being scared, being shocked or anything which might draw fear, but I started to enjoy such jumpscares since it only indicates that the game has potential. I had a few jumpscares with the game, my only problem is, it lacks flavor. The game does not have any other way to scare the players but simply by playing sound effects which has its volume on high. A lot of sentences were structured poorly and might cause for the player to lose his focus on the game. for example, "I'm a Shadow" and "I'm just want to go back". So it is a "Shadow" and it is also a "just want to go back"? such things matter so I suggest you fix most of the grammatical errors. I also had no idea where I was going, I had to go through every part of the house, wandering aimlessly. You had some messages wherein we would have to go to a certain place, for example, the bathroom. Well, we do not know where that is so such message would be pointless, together with having such small vision on the place where everything appears black unless near the candle which we are holding. I suggest before telling the story, have a scene wherein the protagonist would be wandering around the house first, showing every room so that the players would then have the idea to where he/she may search. The environment was dull, I had nothing to interact with except with the notes which we are supposed to find. No bgm/bgs was playing while the game was progressing, bgs would only play when a certain event would be executed, bgm would be played only at the climax of the game. I suggest you add in bgs like dripping of water from the faucet, random whispering sounds while walking, footsteps, creaking sound and such and if it would be accompanied with a fitting background music, I assure you it would have a big impact on the gameplay. SPOILER ALERT Story The story was a bit interesting. I like how you have foretold the story at the Introduction. A few grammatical errors were my problem and sentences wherein it would not fit such situations. example, when the protagonist is speaking with the so called shadow, as if they were only friends. Protagonist:"Who are you", Shadow:"I am your shadow",Protagonist:"You wrote the notes?",Shadow:"Yeah". It made me sort of lose my focus on the game and I started laughing. So appropriate dialogues on the certain situations must be used to be able to tell the story the best way you can. Resources Used There were no additional resources which was used, I suggest the use of flashing pictures or additional sound effects which are not in the RTP. These would surely contribute to the feel of the game, trust me. The more unexpected things are, the more the mind would think, and the more chances to be surprised. Overall Overall, if the games ending was to be how it ended in the game. I guess I would give it a 6/10 since it has not been fully polished and many improvements may still be made. I played the game a lot of times just to get to the right ending, and for me, the ending was not satisfying and it seemed like the story was not complete. So I must be searching for more since the game has its potential and the story could be interesting if it is going to be progressing on the right way. Anyway, good job, and happy game developing

I know, it is a surprise that I write reviews, isn't it? Well, I've decided to help out a bit in this area, and the first game that caught my attention was Craft Master, a project with a lot of potential. What did I find out about this game? Did it live up to its potential? Did it flop like a fish? You'll have to read below to find out. Author: Braxillian Release: Beta Demo V1.1 Graphics I have to be honest, this was a nice use of the RTP, with the occasional custom sprite or graphic, not much stood out, but it was pleasant to look at when used well. I think the creator knew what tiles and graphics to use in what location to give a good effect, but unfortunately not all the maps were as pretty as this, and the nicely used graphics did not come across as well. The world does seem to come to life with the well placed graphics, but as they are just standard RTP for the most part, not a lot of it stood out. I wish I could say more, but overall, it is pretty generic, though the use of some custom icons really did help improve this. Score: 7/10 Writing The story and writing of this game kind of made me wonder if the author had ADHD. Some parts seemed almost professional and fresh, as there were little grammatical errors and mostly good spelling. The author even threw in the use of colors to mark out things you should really take note of, which was a nice touch. I wish that was all I had to say about this, that I could just leave it there and give it a good score, but no, there is a darker side to the writing. There are parts where the author uses swearing and unneeded insults for no seeming reason. The Inn is a prime example, and I truly hope it was only a joke that will be taken out after the demo. Another appalling aspect was whenever the main characters father talked, you would never know if he would give sage like advice or insult you and swear for no reason, personally, I hated the character. Back on the flip side, the NPCs tend to give out useful information for the most part, though they tend to be a bit wordy. Yet on the dark side, you can find random porno mags stashed next to a book describing what the electrician does. ADHD. Score: 4/10 Mapping The Mapping is another area that I feel like the creator could not decide what they were doing. The outside of the village is beautiful and everything is well placed, but the interior of any of the houses, or shops is a jumbled mess that seems to be filled just for the sake of no empty spaces. The interior of the mine is even worse, with strange corners and tight corridors that make no sense. They do not seem to be man made, nor natural, and are annoying to navigate. I truly wish I could understand what was going on there, with the enemy detection system, this kind of mapping is even more flawed. I think this is probably the spot where the author could improve most, maybe even more than the writing. Score 3/10 Audio I wish I had much to say about the audio, but honestly, it fit well but was rather lackluster. I really can't even remember what much sounded like, with the exception of the end of battle. For some reason everything got a lot louder during the victory, from the annoying grating sound of your experience increasing, to the badly used 'world map' audio for the victory theme. This part could be improved, everything else worked fine, but was mediocre at best. Score: 5/10 Gameplay This is the spot where Craft Master shines, and rightly so. The crafting system is incredible and a lot of fun. Not only do you gather your own materials, but you can customize your weapons with the use of gems, giving you multiple options depending on the quality. It is reminiscent of world of warcraft combined with Summon Night, both of which have good systems to use. I wish I could have gotten a chance to play some of the puzzles and explored the game a bit more, but lag really killed that off, I will talk about that more later. Truly gameplay is the biggest and best aspect of Craft Master. Score: 9/10 Battles The second best aspect of Craft Master, in a way. The interesting concept behind the combos for a Swordmaster was a lot of fun, and made Brax an interesting character. Sadly the same could not be said for Allexa. She is a Cleric, supposedly, but has no useful skills starting out and hits for about 2 damage, while Brax hits for somewhere around 200 with the right combos. I see a lot of balance issues. Allexa needs steroids, stat, as well as something that actually makes her a 'cleric'. Now, the concepts behind the other three classes, and the ability to increase your class seemed very interesting, sadly they are not available during the demo. The concept behind preemptive strikes was very interesting and added a nice touch to both the gameplay and the battles, but sadly a strong bout of lag really ruined the chance to try it out. Score: 7/10 Polish The game suffers from some pretty horrible lag at many points, night time in the village, while pretty, lagged so bad that I did not even notice when my character moved, and had to push where I thought he would go until I managed to get back inside. The mines are nearly as bad, with so many light events and spiders crawling around, the mines lagged to the point that I actually stopped playing. I wish the game worked better, as it has many interesting ideas, and they seem to be executed rather well, but the lag issue really needs to be addressed before this game could hope to be called playable. The crafting system and combat skills, for Brax, work well though, giving this game some redeeming features. Score: 5/10 Final Word I would have to say the same thing I said at the beginning, this game is full of potential, and many parts of it see that potential, but there is a lot wrong with the game, the biggest flaw being inconsistency. I really wish that I wasn't pulled out of the game every time I see horrible and pointless dialogue and swearing, or that I would stop enjoying the maps because they suddenly became bad. I really enjoyed a lot of the game, and I hope these things will be addressed by the time the final product has come out, or this game may have a hard time finding its audience. Final Score: 6.5/10

Minecraft is a sandbox game with lots of things to do. I was going to say unlimited but that isn't the fact as that is truly not possible. And don't say no because I have a list ready to prove you wrong. In the beginning, I never knew what this Minecraft was. In fact, I disliked all the videos popping up and my friend contently talking about it. One day, I made a decision to take a try at it... So I bought it. I know, what a weak soul I have... Or do I? Really, what you see in the game is what you get. You, well I, start off in a newly generated world and there you go. No goals, no story, just your imagination. Unfortunately my imagination was much at that time since I had no idea how to build a crafting table at that time. But I'm guessing that's what most/some people had trouble with is: where to start. Me, I died a couple of times and finally watched a video tutorial. After which I learned recipes from my friends and later leading to the wiki itself (minecraft.wikia.com). The design is not the greatest. I guess when you move far away it doesn't look half bad. But some do prefer the low detail work (not to mention the fact it has to generate every block out there... So I guess you win that round). I haven't played for years and years, the only pinpoint I can remember is the texture of the gravel being changed. So around there is where I started my experiences. Is it fun? Is drawing on paper fun? The answer to both is yes. Of course a game where you can let your imagination go free is fun. Building anything you can with the resources is suppose to be. Does it stay fun? But of course! When you get into the survival aspect, you need to dig underground to obtain material that is need. After that I guess you could try out some servers that offer different gamemodes built by mods. Once you're done that, I think you'll head on the path of trying out the mods you find on the Internet. After that.... Well, TNT everything and try to make yourself crash. That's always fun. But seriously, there are limitation which I disliked. Even though it was necessary, I for one, think it's stupid. The big one I'm talking about is Bedrock. A block that cannot be destroyed in survival and limits you from going further down. Basically the game tells you that you are going to far and nothing else is down there. What I would of wanted was a way to get to the nether. That would of been cool. And once you tried the mods, there really isn't much to do anymore. Unless you're with friends, all you can do is know how to get wood, know how to get resources fast, and know where to mine diamonds (a big part of the game... Not really). Afterwards you enchant with the levels you gained and.... That's about it. Though maybe I'm expecting much since technology cannot go as far as the imagination can. High expectation for a java based game? I think so. But this is on the lines of addiction really. I mean, there are so many people out there that play Minecraft for fun... AFTER MANY HOURS!? It's fun in the short run, but after you've tried everything... What else is there to try? I actually found this game boring in less then a year. I'll play it maybe when some friends are on, but I won't be able to capture that "first time" experience again. In the end, I think the company did well for developing a game I see on the front pages of youtube. How far can it go from there? I'm going to say far but it's going to take a long time since the current users only pay one-time and depends on how many people they'll gain from here on. Unless they add their own mods at a price. Quote me on that! 6/10

To start off, I want to mention that my first ever RPG was in fact Paper Mario for the Nintendo 64. So some opinions stated may be because I compare the old to new, so I'm sorry for that. The story sets off a few years after Paper Mario left off at. Peach finds a treasure map that leads her to Rogueport. She then sends Mario the map she has found and ends up kidnapped... I seriously forgot what happened in the beginning. Anyways, Mario heads over to try to save her. With the help of Professor Frankly, you traverse to many locations to retrieve the Crystal Stars which help lead you to the next. Once all seven are found, the Thousand Year Door will open... Because the Professor says it can only happen every ten years. Lucky me. Many antagonists are met along the way. The most notable one are X-Nauts, Lord Crump who be the general, and Sir Grodus that wishes to use the power held behind the Thousand Year Door to destroy the world. The base line follows the same as the first Paper Mario but with minor tweaks. One notable one how combat is dealt with. Like before, you have your badges and two types of attacks (jump and hammer). The additions to this is the audience that you'll see every battle and your party member actually having health to fight. So what do I think on this? Well... The audience... Sure there are positives but overall I hate it. Sure it's good for quickly filling up your star meter (gonna call it that), but it ruins the atmosphere. Like seriously, I don't want some punk cheering me on when I'm doing a puzzle and I get attacked by a common foe. The only time it works out is mainly in the boss battles and that arena area. Other then that, I feel like I'm taken away from the level and placed instead in this stage for people... How used can you be, Mario. A good think I can note is the changes made to the puzzles and anywhere not-in-battle. Basically you gain these curses which revolve you being paper and using it to interact with the environment. An example of this is going through a barred gate simply by turning Mario the other way (impossible, I know). With this added, it helps the game become not just a typical move, fight, proceed game. Now, the outside elements can be added to make not-being-in-battle more enjoyable for the player. The characters in the game are simply awesome. It's a big improvement, especially the background stories with the party members you meet. Although, some characters I do dislike because they're not as useful as I would want them to, but it's a plus from useless characters like Sushi... Well for me at least. Since the characters are more thought out for battle situation, I did found myself using a wide variety of characters during boss battles... Except Goombella. As for level design, most of it was unmemorable. Although they did a good job with the area designs, I had no real intention to go back. Not to mention there was no point to go back while the first Paper Mario had a letter delivery service (which was fun). Not saying that it was pointless to go back because if do want to get the star pieces, then by all means. But I found that most star pieces were more in the open in this one... Or easy to obtain. Was it harder in the first one? I guess so since the major required super jump or ultra hammer to obtain them from under the floor. Fine, you win. But that's not pointing out the fact that star pieces weren't as useful as it was back then, I mean, most of the badges you could buy were pointless and not appealing. I bought maybe a happy heart and the peekaboo but never used them. I didn't have enough badge points due to the fact I went all glass cannon. As for the ending... Well I'll just say it wasn't anything good, surprising, or interesting. But they did put you back at Rougeport for you to finish anything you missed... But that means you cannot have your save at the last battle... Then again, the last battle wasn't anything good either. Just a bunch of bull you had to somehow guess when to defend. Sigh, oh well... I finished it because I had to get more heart in order to endure the pain. Alright, so I know I've said a lot of bad things on every point here, but the good points surpassed them by a lot. The game is fun and is worth a playthrough. If you haven't played the first one... Well your opinion will differ greatly (not knowing how it began) but I guess that's life. 8.5/10

Ahhh, what to say about it. Well for starters, I did not like Farcry 2's single-player. The large area with nothing to do but drive, drive, drive. Or if I'm unlucky, walk a long way. The difference between the two is huge. For starters, in Farcry 2, you had the option to pick I think 4 character... Maybe 5. In the 3rd one, you only follow one, Jason (Bourne). Why is it such a problem, well all you can go about for the 4 characters is their background story. Once you read that, none of it comes into play in the main story. So it's utterly pointless to think of them as characters and more as skins (not much voice either). Farcry 3 took a good step by removing this option because it left them with actual story, which is what Farcry 3 is all about. Jason's character is good to an extent. For one, I do not understand how someone can go from afraid to "a true warrior" in just seven hours (that's how long it took my to finish this game). After looking back, I'd be pretty piss if some jungle psycho killed my brother and my friends are captured. As for the friends and Jason's girlfriend, they're meh to me. More like cannon fodder to continue the story; mission is to act as they would and continue the story. But if we compare Farcry 2's friends (which are the character you did not pick), I guess number three did it right. Almost forgot one character whom made most of this game great, Vaas. Yeah, he was the psycho I was talking about.... No wait, maybe it was Hoyt... Arg, either way Vaas was a bad-ass villain. I actually wanted him to win at one point because his character is just so complex. Oh, there was this one part in the trailer I watch where he said "I am you" or something. I look down at the comments to see someone stating that Vaas is Jason's split personality. Oh, did I ever laugh at that remark. Only time I saw that happen was the movie Fight Club. Great movie... Still, I was sad when Vaas died. That meant I had to deal with Hoyt who was apparently more "psychotic" then Vaas......... *Shakes head* As for gameplay, Farcry 3 offers a wide variety of gun to try, challenge to tackle, and vehicles to take a shot at... Well maybe not the vehicle part. What made this game stand out for me was the hunting part. That's right, hunting wild life is a necessity to store more items, have for coin, and ammo at your disposal. And no, just because you shoot a tiger in the head with a gun doesn't mean he'll die in one shot.... Because that's what really happens. One thing I found out is that it's best just to spend an hour just gathering the best material for ammo belts. Once that's out of the way, the story will become a heck of a lot faster. I'm not even going to talk about the herbs because, truthfully, I only used the one to find animals from a distance. The rest was just too much effort for little outcome. But someone can prove me wrong on that. Back on the subject of guns, sure there's a selection of gun to choose from; all of them firing bullets at a different strength (no surprise there). One problem I found was I didn't really use much of the guns they offered. My main weapons was usually the one that enemies always carried (for easy ammo). There was a few time I did pull out my bow or sniper to one-shot a heavy armored enemy, but scarce bullets turned me off using it often. Although, this is coming from a normal difficulty. I could be completely wrong if I played on the hardest; needing those special guns more so. Oh, I forgot the mention that you buy extras for the guns (sights and what not) and camouflage as well. Continuing on gameplay, because there's a lot to talk about, there is somewhat of a stealth system in Farcry. And no I'm not talking about Hunted: Deamon's forge where you choose the top area to snipe, but once you get there the enemies see you and... There goes your "stealth". And no it's not perfect stealth like Metal Gear Solid.... A bit below that... Actually a lot below. When it comes to scouting, you can use you binoculars to pin point enemies and see them through the wall. Neat. There is a vision metre where it tells you if they see you; at that moment, you have a grace period to fine cover. But note, once they slightly see you, they'll start walking towards you. How do you make them move away? Well, interestingly enough, you can actually throw a rock to make them check the area the rock lands at. Now this is where the stealth has it's... Realism push down a notch. As long at you are sneaking and they cannot see you, you are inviable. Right, so that means you can sneak behind them or sneak right beside them? Well, I could. I don't know if this was an overlooked bug for me, but it was pretty awesome following this once guy for a minute... Okay, I killed him before that. Speaking of killing, when you level up, you gain a point of which you can use to learn a new ability. There's even an ability for extra health. Well, not ability... But I don't know what to call them. I guess I'll just end that there. Graphically, well games now are obvious in their graphics. But the graphics were stunning. Not the best, but effort was definitely made. Although, there were points where they used some poor excuse for graphics that just made me shake my head in shame. Here's the scenario: You are buried under a pile of dead bodies. You climb out safely. You look back to where you climbed out from and you see a dirt ground with read stains and 3 or 4 dead NPC bodies... No hole... Just tinted red ground... It's like they feel people don't have the processing power to generate eleven NPCs and render them. Anyways, I'm practically running out of thought on this game. So I'll just conclude with a wrap up of some sort. The game is definitely a big improvement from Farcry 2. It includes an actually story instead of running around shooting people. You meet with a lot of characters in the game, but only few are note worthy. The amount of things to do in the game is overwhelming at first, but becomes a great experience in the end. Some parts of the game are actually difficult in normal difficult. Which is actually for the normal player... But I do wonder about the hardcore players. 8/10