Gamesugar

January 20, 2010

Catching Up With Phantasy Star Zero

Filed under: Editorial Rants — Tags: DS, Phantasy Star, Phantasy Star Zero, Sega — Christina Wilson @ 1:58 pm

My first exposure to Phantasy Star came during University when I stumbled out of my room from an essay filled stupor, only to be pulled in by roommates who were huddled around a GameCube. Even though we were playing after the online access had been discontinued, the game still offered a memorable co-op experience that quickly became a ritual.

The single player campaign left more to be desired, and it feels like the challenge for Phantasy Star is finding a balance between a fleshed out single-player game that also offers the co-op experience I found so addicting.

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January 19, 2010

Review – Dark Void

Filed under: Reviews — Tags: 360, Capcom, Dark Void, PlayStation3 — Jamie Love @ 7:54 pm

My enthusiasm for Dark Void during the long march toward a retail release owes entirely to a conceptual proposition that represents everything I wanted from a game when I was ten. Admittedly I had no idea at that time that trying to merge two distinctly different styles of play inherently invites disaster – or at least it seems that way given how much trouble many designers have delivering on a single style successfully.

My thought at the time would have been that flying and shooting robots is cool, and running and shooting robots is cool, so that merging the two into a single title should reasonably create the greatest game of all time.

Maybe I wasn’t the brightest kid on the block, but let’s move on.

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January 17, 2010

Beautifying Your Copy of The Sky Crawlers

Filed under: News Feed — Tags: Anime, Flight, Innocent Aces, Namco, Project Aces, The Sky Crawlers, Wii, XSEED — Jamie Love @ 2:08 pm

While it’s unfortunate that studios have to replace covers for Japanese games with severely bland and more descriptive imagery to suit the market here, I do understand the motivation. The Sky Crawlers‘ North American box art conveys the idea of “Hi, I’m a game about planes on the Wii” immediately enough.

The bright side about XSEED is that they anticipated what a snob I am about such details and did something other publishers have occasionally done, but many more could stand to do more often.

Having traveled to the center of hell and battled fiendish register monkeys, I will now demonstrate first hand how easy it is to beautify a copy of The Sky Crawlers in two quick and easy steps, after the break.

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January 15, 2010

Catching Up With Disgaea 2: Dark Hero Days

Filed under: Editorial Rants — Tags: Disgaea, Disgaea 2: Dark Hero Days, NIS, Prinny, PSP, SRPG, Strategy — Jamie Love @ 7:13 pm

Disgaea 2 - Dark Hero Days
Many moons ago, or last September, Disgaea 2 made the move over to the PSP, at which time I had every intention of reviewing the game. I remember being in a state I’ll call endless rush review mode, which I wouldn’t recommend not only because it stretches the limits of one’s sanity, but also because it opens a dark dimension where every game can be condensed into a few paragraphs of cohesion and then be done with – not a fun place to be for the writer, the reader, and more importantly for the gamer.

As it turns out that review never came together anyway, mostly because trying to take it all in and sum the experience up with some clever lines made me cry. And though that sounds like a bad thing, it really has been good for me and my relationship with the game.

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January 14, 2010

Bayonetta – Taking My Sweet Time

Filed under: Editorial Rants — Tags: 360, Bayonetta, Platinum Games, PlayStation3, Sega, XBOX — Jamie Love @ 5:02 pm

Given the number of times I’ve thrown words to Bayonetta during the game’s development, I fully expected to have joined the conversation she’s stirred about sex, audience reactions, sex, female identity, and more sex by now. The reason I haven’t is straightforward enough, and provides a chance for you to say I’m biased.

If I am indeed biased, it’s because I love videogames, and Bayonetta loves being a videogame – enough that we’re a good match and someone should go book the chapel by the time I write a proper review.

As for avoiding the extensive conversations going around the net, my problem is simple – talking extensively about any of those aspects would mean that I’d have to stop playing the game long enough to do so.

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January 11, 2010

Review – Silent Hill: Shattered Memories

Filed under: Reviews — Tags: Horror, Konami, Shattered Memories, Silent Hill, Wii — Jamie Love @ 8:56 pm

Silent Hill: Shattered Memories
It’s been nearly ten years since Silent Hill 2 set the bar for the series, largely owing to the work of Takayoshi Sato, who soon after vanished over the Western horizon leaving a faint scent of J.D. Salinger on the air. The game’s presentation and treatment of a psychologically driven narrative has cast a shadow of expectation over every subsequent release, causing a fair amount of confusion concerning the best direction the series might take.

While there has been some experimentation and deviations from the formula, recent entries in the series have suffered trying to meet those expectations, as much a victim of the legacy as any game that becomes a prisoner of previous accomplishments.

So I very nearly let Shattered Memories pass me by, assuming there was nothing a re-imagining of the original Silent Hill could offer, particularly on the Wii.

But since I’ve been forced to reconsider my stance and find myself suggesting the game is one of the most important releases of 2009, we should probably have a chat about it.

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Refresh Rate – Kartia: The Word of Fate

Filed under: Archives — Tags: Atlus, Kartia, PlayStation, PS1, The Word of Fate, Yoshitaka Amano — Jamie Love @ 4:14 pm

Kartia The Word of Fate
Reviewing and playing a year’s worth of RPG releases in various styles from numerous companies has left me feeling that the genre is a tired dog looking for a place to die – or at least I wish this was the case. Aside from a few titles that sought deviations in control and narrative development, there were and continue to be plenty that cram “me too” titles onto consoles, believing that narrative aspirations and a few modest features can sell to a sedated audience.

At best we get something immediately rooting into safer choices to furnish a series, and even if this provides a few pleasures to be found along the way, we’re living on the long end of a beast’s tail that took the fullest shape on the original PlayStation.

This might begin sounding like the typical “they don’t make them like they used to” ploy. I assure you that can’t be the case, because the problem is that they do make them like they used to quite a bit, with far less success for the trouble.

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