Current Gaming

It's been a while since I last posted up something so I'll just give some impressions of some of my current games. :)

Turok (X360)

Oh, now this game is great. I have heard a bunch of mixed reviews about Turok but I think it's fantastic. Sure the aiming can be a bit hectic with some weapons but I eventually got used to it. Just started up a guide a few days ago for this - I plan to cover the main game, multiplayer matches and Co-Op maps.

In all honesty, I really wanted to write for Turok in the first place, but DMC4 was released on the near exact same date, so I chose DMC4 at that time. Well, now I'm going back for Turok.

Obscure: The Aftermath (PS2)

Certainly not the best survival horror I have played but it does have its moments. The combat is pretty awful, but I still like the game better than the first one mainly because of the better environments and scarier atmosphere.

My full review of Obscure: The Aftermath can be found here.

Streets of Rage 2 (X360)

It is amazing how well this game holds up even now. The gameplay still remains just as fun as it was all those years ago when I first rented this game. Still haven't tried Xbox LIVE Co-Op yet, but I have managed to beat a few people on the Versus mode.

Current Gaming

Red Steel

I actually had a lot of fun with Far Cry Vengeance despite the gameplay and controls being the only saving factors of the game. I was expecting this game to be much better in comparison, but it's not. The controls in the game just don't feel right to me. Even though I use the Wii-mote to aim, I stll have problems hitting enemies. The swordplay is pretty clunky too.

It is kind of cool how you can turn the Wii-mote to turn the on-screen hand but overall this game just doesn't amuse me and has caused me to go back to...

Resident Evil 4: Wii Edition

Did I shock you there? I am finally starting to see that I have completely overplayed this game. I have overplayed RE2 in the past to the point where it's just not really as much fun anymore and I think I am starting to the do the same with this one. I'm actually relying on the Hand Cannon now to get me through boss fights quicker - completely taking the fun out of the game.

Besides getting bored with Red Steel, the other reason why I returned to this was to confirm some extra info that readers have emailed me with for my RE4: Wii Edition guide. I confirmed everything that I set out to, so at least I got that taken care of. The updated version went up today and you can view it right here.

Crackdown

I haven't really played this game enough to judge it, but from I have played so far it is very enjoyable from a gameplay perspective. The story seems rather shallow to the point of almost being nonexistent, but the overall sandbox gameplay is great. One really nice thing about this game is that the collectibles don't blend into the environment like they do in other games (Assassins' Creed), so it might actually be enjoyable to try to find them all.

In a way though, I kind of want to move on to Condemned. I have heard a lot of good things about it and really want to play it - it's sitting right next to me still factory sealed.

Current Gaming - Assassin's Creed, Logan's Shadow, Silent Hill Origins

Assassin's Creed

I said that I wasn't going to pick up Assassin's Creed this year, but seeing the game on the store shelves got the best of me. Dear god, I picked up the Limited Edition! :D

It was kind of funny how I wound up with the Limited Edition since I was looking for the normal version at Best Buy. They were out of the normal version on the shelves and I asked a BB employee about the game. He went to search for it then I spotted the Limited Edition to the side while he searched on for the normal version. At that point, I basically fanned him away and said, "This will do."

Anyway, yeah, the game has some fantastic gameplay so far. I love how quickly Altair can move throughout the city - it makes chases really fun! The story isn't exactly what I expected, mainly the setup of the story. I won't spoil anything, so I won't mention anything about it. The setup does work well for the overall game however.

Syphon Filter: Logan's Shadow

I'm quite surprised at the controls for this more than anything else. There is no auto-aim this time. It has been replaced by an over-the-shoulder aiming that was presented in the PS2 version of Dark Mirror. It helps out quite a bit for aiming since it causes the screen to zoom in a bit when the camera switches to the over-the-shoulder view.

Gabe can actually regain health in this one by hiding himself for a while. For those of you that know how intense Syphon Filter shootouts can be, this is a most welcome feature.

I really haven't gotten far enough to judge the story yet, but so far it is about as interesting as Dark Mirror was. The sound for this one is much more lively than previous games. Dark Mirror's sound was very epic but so far this one's soundtrack sounds even better. When I turned off the PSP for the first time since playing it, I was actually humming the tune from the first few levels still. There is even a vocal song at one point.

Silent Hill: Origins

I'm almost done with my guide for this game. I'm about halfway through the Riverside Motel, so I'm coming along very well! I was hoping to post this up by Friday, but I doubt I'll have it completely finished by then. It should be released for sure by next week though. Still haven't really decided if I'm going to move on to a guide for Umbrella Chronicles after this or not. UC didn't really amaze me as much as I thought it would so I'm not really sure if I could stay focused on a guide for it and also there is still something else I would like to add to this Silent Hill: Origins guide before I move on - I was thinking about a Story Synopsis.

11/29 UPDATE for Silent Hill: Origins FAQ

Nah, this guide won't be up tomorrow but it will be up next week for sure. I spent a good chunk of the day on just the ASCII art for this guide and it is looking quite good at the moment. The walkthrough is completely finished, though lacking proofreading in some parts which I will get to tomorrow and this weekend.

Current Gaming - Silent Hill Origins

I picked up Silent Hill Origins on Wednesday and managed to beat it today (Friday). It's a fantastic survival horror experience for a portable and one that demands headphones. If you play this game without them then you're NOT getting the full experience. Survival horrors usually use sound to help draw a player in and this one definitely doesn't dissappoint in that area. Origins reminds me a bunch of the first Silent Hill. Groups of enemies are usually very annoying and cause you to run more than fight, just like the first Silent Hill. Also, like the first, the game is hard and you'll be using health items quite a bit!

I'll have a review up for this one in a few days and I might even do a FAQ for this one - I think I could get through one rather quickly. I really need to finish Metroid Prime 3 first though - eh, I might put MP3 on halt or work on them both at the same time. ;p

Current Gaming - Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles, Virtua Fighter 5: Online

Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles (PSP)

For years I have waited for a port of Rondo of Blood and it is finally here! I must say that the remake does play a lot better than the original Rondo of Blood but both of them are excellent to me. The remake has a bunch of hidden items that can found during a playthrough and it also has a few more hidden areas that can be found that weren't in the original Rondo of Blood.

Syphony of the Night now has a whole new voice track - for better or for worse, depending on how you look at it. Every character's voice sounds fine except for Alucard. His voice isn't as deep and overall the old voice put more meaning into the character. The dialogue has been rewritten. No more "What is a man?" - it's now "Mankind...ha!" or something like that. ;p

Virtua Fighter 5: Online (X360)

If I would have had the extra cash back when this was first released for the PS3 then I would have gladly payed $660 for my own copy of Virtua Fighter 5, but I didn't and still don't.

Anyway, the X360 version is exactly what I expected it to be. This fighter is so deep and has one of my favorite fighting characters of all time in it - Akira. He is so hard to master - that is why I like him so. I have been playing with him ever since Virtua Fighter 2 and still continue to pick him


Ever since I have seen the CPU completely own players in Virtua Fighter 2 with Akira, he has been my player of choice. The CPU was outright scary with Akira in VF2 since he was the last character before Dural and the difficulty was so ramped up by then. His quick hits and agressiveness (if played in the right hands) is what inspired me to use him.

Anyway, I can't report on the online portion of the game due to not having Xbox LIVE, but I hear that it plays well judging from the posts on the GameFAQs boards.

The 360 controller actually isn't as bad as I thought it would be while playing VF5. I can pull off most character moves about 80% of the time. Still, I'm thinking about finding a better pad for this game. I don't really care for the joystick that is currently available - control pads are my main choice for fighting games. It's all about that D-pad for me.

I'm planning on having a full review for both of these in a few days - maybe next week.

Current Gaming - Syphon Filter 1 & 2, Chaos Legion

Syphon Filter

Just finished this up a few days ago. It has some frustrating levels at times and I was about ready to stop playing and move onto the second game in the series but I'm VERY glad that I didn't - read Syphon Filter 2 description to understand why.

The story was interesting, but the gameplay took some getting used to, especially when enemies wore flak jackets. Good lord, I can't even count how many times that I died in the earlier levels because an enemy would dart out from a corner with a flak jacket on and run toward me guns a'blazin! Needless to say, headshots are a must in this game as you progress.

Syphon Filter 2

As I said with Syphon Filter 1, I am so glad that I finished that one before playing this game. It starts out directly after the first game and tosses around the names of the characters from the first game back and forth just like you came right out from playing the first game when starting this one up. There are no flashbacks to help out.

The gameplay has much more variety on the whole. You have shooter missions and sneaking missions placed throughout the game that help to keep it from the feeling repetitive. There are many more cutscenes this time - at least one before each mission.

In terms of story, the sequel makes the first game seem like a mere stepping stone to the events that happen in this one. The plot involves both Lian and Gabe this time equally instead of everything centering around Gabe's progress. Lian is also played quite a bit in this one - much more than she was used in Dark Mirror.

The first stage for this game was a major turnoff though. It takes place on a snowy mountain and the stage can get a bit confusing at times. Also, why in the world do they throw in so many enemies with flak jackets on the first stage? Come on, this is the very beginning of the game!

Overall, I'm really happy with this one and can't wait to beat it in a few hours most likely. I'm at one of the final stages right now.

UPDATE: Just finished Syphon Filter 2. What a wonderful game! I think I will not proclaim it as my favorite storyline in the series - even over Dark Mirror. Even with the downgraded graphics, if you can learn the controls then the game is really a blast. Now on to Syphon Filter 3!

Chaos Legion

I decided to return to this game after nearly a three year break from it. I've already beaten it before but I decided to return to it since I wanted a difficult action game to play. I started a new game - for better or for worse. The reason I say this is because this game is so incredibly unforgiving on your first time through while playing on normal mode. If I was to sum up the difficulty of this game in five words or less then it would be as follows: This game fucking hates you!

I've played Ninja Gaiden and Devil May Cry on the hardest modes and those are pretty much equal to the difficulty that is faced on normal mode in Chaos Legion. Normal enemies in normal mode sometimes have an incredible amount of life that will force me to wail on them to no end. It's like some enemies are devil triggered. And to think that Chaos Legion has a hard mode... That's one of the main aspects that I enjoy about this game though. It's hard as hell. Well, that and the legions, because the legions are fun to use and really help out for some of these harder enemies.

I was thinking about trying to get all the Thanatos chips this time on my way through. Maybe that would help out for the final areas just a bit.

Shadow of the Colossus - Current Gaming

Every now and then, a game is released that I will ignore because of the constant hype and praise that the game receives. I don't know, it seems to lower my interest at times when some games receive too much praise and they don't fall under the categories that I generally rush out and buy.

Anyway, after about 2 years of putting it off, I finally played a copy of Shadow of the Colossus that I picked up about a month ago. The introduction was ok and fairly normal, but then I moved the camera around for the first time. Good lord, the level of detail in the backgrounds and environments for this game is fantastic! I'm quite amazed at the sense of scale while fighting the colossi also - it definitely helps to make them feel more epic.

The only problem that I have had is some minor problems with finding the next colossus at times, but this is only minimal. So far, I haven't had to resort to a walkthrough. There are a few colossi that I was totally puzzled with until the colossus made a certain move then everything clicked on the method of beating him. I think the third colossus was the one that had me quite puzzled until I found out how to weaken him.

So far, I'm up to the 15th Colossus. Very good game so far. Glad that I finally decided to play it!

Now I need to go and grab Okami and Katamari Damacy since I've been putting them off for the same reason.

Evil is fading, now its time to get corrupted!

I would be lying if I said that I picked up a Nintendo Wii just for the Resident Evil games. I had strong faith that Metroid Prime 3: Corruption would be one of the first games to fully utilize the Wii controller based on the information that I had read about it around when the Wii was announced. Well, I just picked up Metroid Prime 3 yesterday and it is fantastic so far! My right wrist is actually sore at the moment from a boss fight so I decided to take a break for a while and type out a blog entry.

I'll have a full review up in a few days once I get finished - and I have plenty to say so far. :)

"You toxic creature - did you imagine I'd simply allow you to run loose, corrupting everything you encounter?"