On the Cheap:Midnight Club LA (Xbox 360 PAL & NTSC-J)

Rockstar's excellent tuner racer is on sale until next tuesday for $18.90 at Play-Asia.

Note: this is the NTSC-J version that only works on NTSC-J and PAL, *not* with NTSC-U/C 360s.

I <3 Apple?

My boss just gave me a green light to buy a iPhone 3G S as a work phone - I guess I'll be doing some iPeni... iPhone game / app reviews in the future.

$0,99 games here I come! :P

First impressions: Disgaea 3: Absence of Justice

Honest first impression: "WTF!?!?"

The game looks like it could've been a PS2 title; low res, zoomed in sprite graphics and low frame animations.

Well, at least the isometric graphics can be "freely" turned around, in 90 degree increments.

And the music, it's a whole subject in itself. Cheery J-pop blares from your speakers (or headphones, in my case, as the kids are asleep) making you wonder at the Japanese mindset while melting your brain.

The gameplay delivers what it promises, though - of that there can be no question. It's an isometric, turn-based strategy game. True to the JRPG tradition there are a million variations of different weapons and armor that vary from each other by a small (random) fraction and price.

More later, if I don't trade or sell it off first (still tons of prettier "eye-candy" games to finish off).

Where from: Zavvi.co.uk, ~£18.

Review: Batman: Arkham Asylum

I'm not a fan of the man in the cape. Sure, I've seen (all) the movies and even watched the 60's series (go Burt Ward! Funniest wall climbing ever ;) ) - I've even read a few comic books. But I'm not a Batman fan.

That might change, though - just because of this game.

The basic plot is, thankfully, simple: Joker takes control of Arkham Asylum after letting Batman take himself in. All the prisoners, big and small, easy and tough, poisonous and crazy, are let loose in the progress.

Batman is brutal in his takedowns of the criminals - but as a dark *knight*, nobody is ever killed (well, at least intentionally and directly).

Joker is another matter altogether - insane and with no regard to human life (more than a few that our friend the Batman could've saved if he'd had the guts to kill the clown).

Fights are satisfyingly full of heavy thumps and smashes, as the suitably heavy feeling criminals fly every which way. The basic idea behind the combat is simple; you have one button to hit, one button to counter-attack and one to "blind" the harder, knife wielding enemies.

Sure, you get a few combos like the throw and instant take-down along the way, but they are easy to use and a visual cue comes up when they are ready (to get them ready you need to chain your attacks and gather either 8x or 5x combos).

Graphics and sound effects range between "good" and "awesome!", while music is just "OK".

Voice acting is another thing altogether, though; it's insanely good, with Mark "Luke Skywalker" Hammil doing an incredible job as the Joker.

The game is short-ish at around 8-10 hours of main plot, but the different challenge modes ("beat down waves of thugs" or "silent takedowns") keep the playtime above "too short".

Best third person adventure / fighting game of this year thus far. Maybe contending for the best game of the year - at least in the "production values" -category.



Score: 9/10

Buy the region free versions from P-A:

• Xbox 360
• Playstation 3
  
• PC DVD

DLC review: Prince of Persia - Epilogue

So I finally got down to playing the Epilogue I bought on release day, ages ago.

First things first; I liked Prince of Persia - a lot.
Even though the prince himself got a little tiresome at points, the game was mostly light, fun exploration with a few easy to hard-ish fights dropped here and there.

When I bought the epilogue I thought "if it's more of the same, why not".


Boy, was I wrong...

What they actually did, was to take all the UN-fun parts from the original game and put them into two-three hours of painful experience that threatens to ruin my memory of the fun original game.

Instead of fun jumping and wall climbing, you're left with runs that...

• Have too long between checkpoints
  
  
• Are 99% of the time timed because of the wall-clinging black ooze or general all around coffuption
  
  
• Can't sometimes be solved before dropping to your death and trying again, because there are either blind spots or "surprise" move like Elika dropping you in mid-flight without any warning
  
  
• You'll have to fight long, BORING, IDENTICAL fights against the warrior/hunter no less than three times!

So lets add up what we got: a DLC that ruins your memory of the original game and that you'd rather have a root canal than play.


Score: 4/10.

A threesome

Technically, not in the bargain bins - I got Killzone 2, inFAMOUS and Valkyria Chronicles on a loan from my friend and after a quick couple of nights I can say Valkyria Chronicles has had the most playtime.

Killzone, while technically superior, loses in the "cute" and "story" department.

As for inFAMOUS, it's essentially identical to Prototype - which I hated with passion. OK, maybe it's a fraction of an inch better than Prototype, but still most definitely a "Blah!".

Review: Red Faction - Guerilla

I'll make this fast so I can get back to playing:

Open world, check.

Destructible enviroments (structures), check.

Lots of nifty weapons, check.

Lots of main and side missions, check.

All this shit in multiplayer too, check.


Go get this, it's fun.


9/10


Where:
Xbox 360:
Play-Asia $49,90


PS3:
Play-Asia $49,90

On the Cheap: Race Pro

NTSC US version of Race Pro on sale at P-A for $19.90.

Cheap Gaming: Chronicles of Riddick - Assault on Dark Athena (PS3)

First impressions:

Since it hit the bargain bins (under 25 euros at Play.com) I decided to get this since I missed the first Riddick game, Escape from Butcher Bay, on the Xbox.

The most delightful thing is the fact that the first game is included in the Dark Athena game as a remake.

The game looks OK on the PS3, aside from the horrible dithering you can clearly see in the beginning of Escape - the dust clouds surrounding the prison look like something from a Voodoo Graphics era PC gaming. I still can't understand how so many developers can plain screw up the PS3 versions of current gen console games (just look at Ghost Busters for example).

But what matters in *any* Riddick game (or movie for that matter) is the lighting - and that works. The world is shadowy and hiding places are aplenty.

So are the options for killing your foes; aside from the standard weaponry, you can sneak from behind and snap their necks, drop from above, etc. All very "Riddicky".


I'll update later, when I have the chance to check out the actual Dark Athena game.
(Whenever that is, since it's summer and playtime is scarce for this family man... ;) )

First impressions: Call of Juarez - Bound in Blood

The PC version is beautiful, plays well, runs well (on a 8800GTS/X2 4400+) and has great voice acting.

The plot is akin to the first one, which wasn't anything super-hyper-special, but it's like playing a Eastwood western - all down to the north vs south riverbank battle with trenches, cannons and a bridge to blow up. ;)

One new addition are the secondary missions you can do between the main missions (three so far).

Seems to be a great game.