“We are remaking an old game, but this is quite a challenge. Old fans would not want us to mess with their good memories, but there is no point in just redoing the same thing, right? We are working toward something that brings back memories, yet is also completely new!”

- The President

No, not that President. I’m talking about the President taking up residence in the Game Freak room on the third floor of the Spell Tag building in Celadon City.*

To the seven or eight of you worrying whether Pokemon HG/SS does the original game justice, rest assured. Pokemon HG/SS does more than succeed as a remake—it excels. Both games take the best of the old, the best of the new, and meld them together gloriously in what is easily one of the best remakes of all time.

For those of you not in the know, the original Pokemon Gold and Silver versions came out roughly ten years ago. One of the best games in the series (RANDOM FACT: to this day, Pokemon Silver stands as my favorite Game Boy title EVAR!), both games took the addictive formula of the first generation Pokemon games and perfected it, reshaping something great into something legendary.

Of course, perfecting perfection isn’t easy. Heck, it barely makes sense. But few games come closer than Pokemon HG/SS.

Brace yourself, children—I’m about to rave like a drooling fanboy.

As far as gameplay goes, the basic formula’s—er—identical to every other game in the series:

You’re [INSERT NAME HERE], a young [LAD/LASS] from a small town in [JAPAN-INFLUENCED LOCALE]. You grew up surrounded by Pokemon, living right next door to Professor [NAME OF TREE], a bona fide Pokemon expert. One day, [INSERT RANDOM EVENT] happens, inspiring the kind Professor to finally give you a Pokemon of your own. You pick one and raise it to fight your battles for you, winning cash and making a name for you as a hardened Pokemon trainer. While you do this, your rival, [INSERT ANY NAME HERE], gets another Pokemon and harasses you whenever it’s most inconvenient. Meanwhile, you’re building a Pokemon collection—as per the professor’s request—catching them all and storing data about each of them in a nifty little PDA-looking thing called a Pokedex.

Pokemon HG/SS runs on the same engine as Pokemon Platinum, so the core play mechanics are pretty much the same. The main difference has to do with the lack of a Poketch (I still can’t say that). Instead, Pokemon HG/SS reverts you back to good old fashioned Pokegear, the Pokequivalent of an iPhone.

While the lack of the Poketch is somewhat disappointing, you won’t miss it much. Many of the applications used on the Poketch are now key items that can be set to your touch screen or the Y button for quick and easy access. Players can register up to two key items at a time, an essential, long overdue change to the series (anyone who’s played Pokemon knows the hassle of switching between key items).

The Dowsing Machine (item finder) now works while you move as opposed to only working while stationary, and it’s actually pretty fun to use—especially considering how cumbersome the thing was in D/P. Berries are now managed using portable pots, meaning you no longer need to mark your map and fly halfway across the globe to water a couple of plants. A few other changes have been made, many of them subtle, but definitely for the better.

One of the most noteworthy changes to the game is the revamped Pokedex. Working via the touch screen, you first slide the stylus to open it like a book. Inside is a list of all the Pokemon you’ve caught and encountered, lined up like days on a calendar. I can’t say whether the new Pokedex is preferable to the old one, but it’s definitely interesting and incredibly easy to navigate.

Unlike the other Pokemon DS titles, Pokemon HG/SS makes frequent use of the touch screen. Thus, all of your menu functions are managed through—you guessed it—touch. Moving Pokemon between boxes, using items, trading, battles, and just about anything else you can think of makes good use of the DS’s touch screen, though it does take some getting used to at first.

In an unfortunate recession, Pokemon HG/SS isn’t nearly as rough and tough as its counterparts. I personally plowed through the game using only two Pokemon (Typhlosion and Ampharos), with a handful of filler Pokemon to use HM techniques so I could explore caves and sail the high seas. But Pokemon HG/SS isn’t really about challenge as much as it’s about adventure, exploration, and—most importantly—catching them all. And, when it comes down to it, Pokemon HG/SS triumphs at all three.

The soundtrack itself is absolutely fantastic, orchestrating magnificent and bouncy remixes of the tracks from the original game. Of course, Game Freak went one step beyond, adding a GB Sounds key item that reverts most of the game’s music to its 8-bit glory. Nostalgia junkies rejoice.

Other perks? I think a list is in order:

• The first Pokemon in your party almost always follows behind you as you walk. This is awesome beyond all belief.
• You can still trade with Pokemon Diamond, Pearl, and Platinum. Win!
• A Team Rocket skin for your Pokegear is available as soon as you boot up the game. Epic!
• The slot machine game is replaced with Sudoku/Minesweeper-inspired a card flip game. Winning is based more on luck than skill. It’s—eh, okay.
• There’s a Pokeathelon where you can play some pretty sweet mini-games for some pretty sweet prizes.
• While there’s no secret base, custom room, or underground, you do get your own Safari Zone.

Which I guess is kind of a big deal, so I better talk about it.

The Safari Zone is completely different this time around. It still depends on you rushing through a plethora of environments, bagging as many Pokemon as you can all by your lonesome. But the time limit is completely gone, and the game only ends when you quit or run out of Safari Balls.

The Safari Zone is also completely customizable, and catching certain Pokemon depends on how you set up your Safari Zone. This process is ridiculously complicated, yet incredibly simple. Read up on it, and you’ll see what I mean. One-hundred and ten days until I can catch a Bagon? You can’t be serious.

Of course, my main problem is one that only the heartiest of Pokefans will understand—there’s no Pokeradar. This means you can’t chain Pokemon for EV training, and you can’t chain to increase your odds of finding a shiny Pokemon. It’s a shame, but Pokemon HG/SS tries to make up for it with the Pokewalker.

The Pokewalker is the glorified child of a pedometer and a virtual pet. The device, included with the game, links up to the cartridge itself using a built-in IR port. You get to transfer one Pokemon into the Pokewalker, walk with it, and it finds stuff for you. It’s basically Pokemon in its simplest form, and it’s actually pretty delightful.

Again, read up on it and see what I mean.

Final Thoughts

Pokemon HG/SS is easily the best game in the franchise. Granted, the game’s lacking some components that I miss dearly (*sob* Pokeradar *sad face*), but the game more than makes up for it.

If you’re concerned about dropping $40 bones apiece for a pair of DS games, don’t be. Pokemon HG/SS more than delivers, offering at least fifty hours of gameplay. Then again, there’s no reason for anyone to go out and buy both Heart Gold and Soul Silver (aside from the most dedicated of Pokefanatics), as they’re essentially the same game. Instead, save yourself the extra coin and convince your friends and family to pick up the version of the game you lack. Pokemon’s more fun with a friend anyway.

Oh, and expect the traditional issues as far as a player’s guide goes. You’ll likely need one at some point. You can either be a cheap-o like me and skip it in lieu of a quick Google search, or buy one for $15 to $20 and admire it’s glossy cover. Mmmm…

Here’s the long and the short of it:

If you’ve played Pokemon Gold and Silver before, spoil your inner child and give Pokemon HG/SS a play. He or she will thank you for it.

Those who missed the games the first time around—well, better late than never.

Of course, if you’ve never played a Pokemon game, please click the link you’re reading as you read this.

You have a week to catch up with the rest of us.

*How do I know that?

I’m sure most of us have had visions of the perfect way to dispatch enemies in video games. “If I only I had a chainsaw that shoots flesh-eating monkeys…” or some such nonsense. I don’t know. I’m not good at that kind of stuff, but maybe you are.

If so, Visceral Games has announced a contest to design your own kill for their upcoming sequel to Dead Space. The contest is open right now on Visceral’s facebook page. Submissions may be in the form of a written exlanation, illustrations, or video.

According to the press release, there have already been about 1,000 entries, so if you want your kill included in the game make it as brutal and stylish as possible. Winners will not only have their own kill included in the game, but their likeness will also be included as a non-playable character. Hopefully one that gets killed very quickly during one of the games story sequences, because that would be awesome.

So break out your typewriters, crayons, daguerreotypes, whatever you’re going to use to create your submission, and get to it.

It feels like just three months ago I was getting my ass handed to me in Cave’s last arcade-to-console port, Mushihimesama Futari Ver. 1.5. Maybe it’s because it was just three months ago. The game has been in my 360 regularly over that span of time. Even as new games have come out and other matters have needed my attention, I would always find time for a few play-throughs of Cave’s little shmup that could. So when Esgaluda 2 Black Label (originally released in Japanese arcades in 2005 as just Espgaluda 2) was finally announced as a region-free release, I immediately dropped 75 bones on the game without a second thought.

If you know anything about Japanese developer Cave, then you already know that Esgaluda 2 Black Label (from here on just referred to as Espgaluda 2) is a vertical shoot ‘em up game in the manic style, commonly labeled as bullet hell. However, dismissing this game as just a set of mind-numbing bullet patterns that only the most devoted player could ever bother to memorize and try to survive would be doing Espgaluda 2 an injustice.

Sure, there are wave after wave of Cave’s typically dense and fast brightly-colored death clouds, but dodging the bullets is only half of the battle. Any true shmup fan who has spent some time with these games will tell you what makes them so deep and engaging is the scoring system. These systems are really what define the gameplay, and Esgaluda 2’s console port comes packed with 4 different scoring systems.

And just for fun, this is what it would be like if stuff in bullet hell games existed in real life:

Sorry, I had to fit that into this review somehow.

Starting out, you choose one of three different, winged-fighters to fly around and destroy stuff with. They are Ageha, Asagi, and Tateha in Arcade/360, Arrange, and Omake modes with Asagi being replaced by one of the stage bosses, Seseri, in Black Label. All of these characters change gender when you switch to Kakusei or Zesshikai modes (more on those later). I don’t know why they do that. It has something to do with the bizarre and incomprehensible backstory, but whatever. That doesn’t really matter.

Once you’ve selected your gender-bending character, it’s up to you to figure out the scoring system and different features of the game. If you are able to read Japanese, you might be benefited from the “How to Play” screen or the tutorial mode. Everyone else is screwed.

Thanks to some forum crawling and experimentation, I’ve managed to figure out this vague and complex beast of gameplay design. First, the simple stuff:

Standard to many vertically-scrolling shooters, you have two shot types. The regular spread shot, which is performed by tapping “A,” and a laser shot, called “Rapier,” is executed by holding down “A.” Instead of bombs, you have a barrier, which is activated by pressing the right trigger. There is a gauge in the bottom corner of you screen that depletes as you use your barrier. You can either remain in barrier to stay invincible for as long as your gauge holds out, or you can do a quick tap, which eats up about a quarter of the gauge.

Now, the hard stuff:

The core of the system revolves around the “B” button, which activates the Kakusei and Zesshikai modes. By tapping “B” you enter Kakusei mode; bullets change from blue to purple and slow down, allowing you to weave through the patterns easier. This isn’t the only perk though. If you destroy an enemy in Kakusei, all of their bullets change to gold pieces and increase a multiplier which adds up to x100. Canceling huge bullet patterns is the key to surviving and driving up your score.

This mode is only useful once you’ve destroyed enough regular enemies in your standard state. Enemies drop green gems, which vary in size and add to a counter that maxes out at 500. When you enter Kakusei mode, your gems deplete. If you stay in Kakusei after all your gems are gone, you go into Kakusei-Over, which turns the bullets red and actually makes them faster.

Then, there’s Zesshikai mode. This is activated by holding “B” down just a second longer. In this mode, bullets are still slowed and cancelled, but they spawn more bullets that will target your character. These newly spawned bullets are cancelled by killing other enemies, who then spawn more bullets, and so on. Zesshikai also eats up not only the green gems, but the gold you’ve collected, which maxes out at 1000 pieces and affects your max multiplier. The only plus side of this mode is that the multiplier is increased from x100 to x500. If you’re going for high score, you are going to have to learn how to master these systems to achieve greatness.

At first I felt that Zesshikai was unnecessary. And in all honesty, it is. There’s really no incentive to using it for survival, since you already have Kakusei for that and Zesshikai actually spawns more bullets, so the only reason to use it is to increase your score. However, it is satisfying once you start figuring out the best places to use this mode and see all those flashing x500s fill up the screen as bullets cancel (Hint: use it on the smaller enemies that can be killed easily and come in barrages).

The other modes of play feature drastically different systems when it comes to bullet cancelling and scoring. Black Label relies on a multiplier bar that must be maintained to earn big points (among other features, such as bullets being stopped in front of you as long as a second charge bar is full). Arrange has you switching between regular shot and laser to cancel out opposite colored bullets. Omake is a strange little distraction that turns the bullets red when they get close to you, allowing you to shoot them to cancel out. There’s also Novice modes for both Arcade/360 and Black Label for those who need to work their way up to the main game.

The bullet patterns are very well-designed. After some practice, it’s easy to see where you need to be to survive. Actually pulling that off is another matter entirely. You will benefit from having an arcade stick. The 360 joystick is okay, but there are some spots that require precise movement that the controller just can’t afford.

Now that you’ve practiced a bit and have gotten the hang of the complex scoring system, it’s time to take your skills to Score Attack and carve a spot in the leaderboards. There’s just one problem: credit feeding.

Unlike Futari, where you were given unlimited credits in Normal Play, but just one in Score Attack to hone your skills and work your way up the ranks, in Espgaluda 2 you can credit feed in Score Attack, too. Sure, the key to reaching the higher echelons of the leaderboads relies on you beating the game using only one credit to retain your score, but it also means that it’s up to you to quit the game after you’ve lost your score, and try again. It really takes some of the excitement out of making it just a bit further and increasing your score just a bit more. If you aren’t a total noob (God, I can’t believe I just used the term “noob”) and don’t just hit continue every time you die, then credit feeding won’t be too much of a problem. It’s still kind of disappointing to see it in Score Attack, though.

The game looks great with the updated visuals. The background art draws you into the fantasy setting the game boasts. Animations are smooth, and the game’s mid-boss and boss designs are surprisingly complex and multi-faceted. One boss in particular starts off as just a little tank, but as the battle continues, he eventually turns into a huge, mobile death fortress.

The music is typical of this type of anime-inspired shoot ‘em up game. Tracks are lighthearted and techno-beat heavy. First press releases of the game come with a soundtrack. Although, I gotta say, some of the tracks can be grating to listen to on their own. They fit in with the hectic nature of the game, but that’s where some of them should stay.

Esgaluda 2 Black Label is a great game at it’s core, but it is held back by some of the choices made during it’s trip from arcade to console. Unlimited credits are great for practice and being able to experiment with what the game has to offer, but they really should have been left out of Score Attack mode. Also-as is the case with most Cave games, but especially this one-the complex scoring system could have some players scratching their heads and wondering what the point of it all is. It took me a while to really get into it, and at first I thought I didn’t like it too much. Give it some time, though, and all of the elements will sink in.

Now, who’s ready for the localized version of Deathsmiles?

Anyone who’s read my previous article about this game knows I wasn’t exactly looking forward to Final Fantasy XIII. A borderline obsessed fan of FFs VI through X, I’ve been disappointed by most of Square’s recent efforts regarding the series, including VII spinoff Crisis Core and Final Fantasy XII. While I stand by my bashing of character design and storyline in Final Fantasy XIII Will Probably Suck, I’m not ready to write the game off as a total failure.

Final Fantasy XIII both reinforced and smashed my initial low expectations. It’s a mixed bag of good and bad surprises that left me simultaneously clutching a Cactaur plushie to my chest in full-out fandom appreciation, and throwing that same plushie violently down the stairs in fits of bitter, bitter frustration.

Vital to the genre, storyline is an undeniably important part of any JRPG. Unfortunately, for me XIII’s plot just doesn’t stack up to others in terms of interest or complexity. Maybe it’s because the main events of the game take place over just a few short days—much of the background story is told through lengthy flashback sequences—or maybe the constant jumping between characters is just too disruptive, but no matter how hard XIII tries, it doesn’t reach the epic scale that previous Final Fantasies strove for. It’s far too vague, continuously rehashes the same plot points, and lacks a true villain, instead substituting several forgettable characters that enter and leave the storyline before establishing themselves as real threats or memorable adversaries. The focus the game places on the development of the main party backfires, as all personality growth we see seems forced and hackneyed.

And seriously, holy freaking cutscenes. I typically love in-game videos, but XIII is unparalleled in cutscene overkill. The constant, and I mean constant, interruption from gameplay is distracting and really contributes to the fact that the greater part of FFXIII plays like an introduction. Why give me a cutscene, let me control my character for the express purpose of walking past a tree or across a bridge, then give me another 3-5 minute cutscene immediately after? Many of these videos are completely unnecessary and do nothing for the player except reinforce the fact that yeah, XIII’s real pretty. Yeah, the graphics are good.

If the dialogue was high caliber, the excess amount of watching you do might not be a problem, but XIII’s unconvincing melodrama and weak character development cannot carry the game. The characters, especially Lightning, start off somewhat strong with their own goals and agenda, but as Chapter Five draws to a close, everyone breaks, and Final Fantasy XIII turns into a raging hugfest. My dad came into the room when I was playing, sat down, watched a few minutes of the feel-good friendship powwow and asked, “You paid sixty dollars for this?” And while above passable for video games—which as a rule have pretty terrible voice acting—the cast, with a few exceptions, turns already poorly scripted characters into caricatures. The affectations they adapt are quick to annoy even those ears primed for bad voice overs by years of dubbed anime. I will say this though, the English synching is excellent, and had it been combined with better acting, would have done wonders to immerse players in the game’s environment.

The diverse world of XIII does offer a glimpse at what could have been if Square showed some restraint with the characters. Without the forced camaraderie the story is salvageable, even good. The tale of the fal’Cie, celestial beings that allow all functions large and small to take place in the floating sanctuary of Cocoon, the separation of this sanctuary from the larger world outside of it, are fairly standard Final Fantasy themes that aren’t inherently bad in their own right. And the fact that our heroes are outcasts of society, hunted by the government—while again not unique to this Final Fantasy—is interesting enough and could have been so much more had the focus been on their physical survival rather than their extreme emotions.

The battle system is XIII’s saving grace. Although in the game’s opening chapters level caps and limited abilities kick things off to a slow start, once you finally start unlocking techniques and abilities the quick paced Auto-Battle system demonstrates its true potential.

I hesitate to say it, but I actually kinda sort of like Auto-Battle. Some call it a huge departure from traditional turn-based combat, but to me it’s more akin to what we’ve seen in older Final Fantasies than say, the gambit system in FFXII. The game plays itself in a sense, with players taking a backseat to the main action. While you can have up to three characters in your party, you’ve only got control of one, and even then control means pressing the X button and letting your party leader run wild with the single command of Auto-Battle. Attacks, healing, and all other abilities (all Auto) are determined by the game’s artificial intelligence; you can manually select techniques if you’re so inclined, but there’s really no reason to do so. In fact, the AI fights better and faster than you probably ever could, generally making the right decisions in the shortest amount of time possible. You’re just going to fuck it the fuck up.

The very idea will probably spike the blood pressure of devoted strategists, but actually, Auto-Battle can be hella fun. Instead of taking direct action, you watch over the party acting as a monitor of sorts, inserting special techniques when needed, determining the correct timing for healing and attacks, interrupting the chain of commands if you have to, and shifting Paradigms. Paradigms determine what role each of your party members will play during combat, from one of six. There’s the heavy hitting Commando, red mage-inspired Ravagers, healing Medics, supportive Synergists, status ailment inflicting Saboteurs, and damage absorbing Sentinels. You’ve got to pick the right combination and pick them fast, switching in between pre-arranged Paradigms from your Paradigm deck mid-battle. All conflicts begin with a clean slate, as after each and every encounter party members are fully healed, making items like potions and phoenix downs only marginally important. Magic and spells are unlimited and there is no MP cost for anything. Techniques expend TP points which are not automatically refilled, but you don’t use them often enough in order for this to become a problem. Timing becomes the player’s main focus.

It sounds easy, but boss fights will test your skills, forcing you to switch continuously in and out of Paradigms in order to keep your party healthy and your opponent covered. Your battle score—which determines the quality of spoils earned from the encounter—is based on how quickly you can eliminate your opponents. With a preemptive strike involved, battles can end in as little as two seconds. You’ve got to keep an eye at all times on the newly introduced Chain Gauge, attempting to build it up and maintain your chain bonus to maximize your damage dealing potential. Your goal is to fill up the gauge and Stagger your enemies, a task that when faced with enemies that have superior resistance, is vital to the success of the party. It can also be completely engaging.

At other times, not so much. It’s no more repetitive a system than we’ve seen in previous Final Fantasy titles, but the constant, unchanging use of Auto-Battle in common enemy encounters can get way old way fast. You have the opportunity to experiment with tougher foes, but the best and simplest solution for defeating certain enemy types is always the same, so you’ll find yourself using preset strategies over and over. There’s countless combinations of roles for a seemingly limitless number of Paradigms, but there’s bound to be those you’ll always depend on, and those you never use at all. It’s up to the player to keep experimenting.

I think XIII was headed in the right direction, but some of Auto-Battle’s minor kinks hurt its overall enjoyment factor. I mentioned that the pace of combat is often too quick for you to get tricky and start manually inputting commands. The intense speed is what makes tougher battles fun, but slowing combat down and forcing players to choose their own techniques—whether for a party leader or even all characters—might have put the kibosh on button mashing. I had huge issues with targeting. Some AI roles manually target the enemy you select as the target of your party leader, some don’t and attack enemies at random. There is really no way to change this, and inevitably sometimes the AI will just refuse to do what you want it to. Also, when you control a Medic or a Synergist within Paradigms that feature an AI character of the same role, you have no way of telling which party member they’ll target. If you chose to heal or support the same character the secondary party member does, you may be wasting spells and valuable ATB segments.

Going with the battle system XIII’s method for leveling, the Crystarium, has its own ups and downs. In a fashion similar to FFX’s Sphere grid, you spend Crystogen Points in order for each character to move through their respective Crystarium grids, learning abilities and upping stats by acquiring crystals in each of the different available character roles. All of the characters have their own specialties, excelling in certain roles and possessing limited abilities in others, making leveling them up a great way to utilize the strategy many may find lacking in Auto-Battle. By picking and choosing what roles to advance each character in, you can make the most of your favorite Paradigms. It’s a good, solid system that allows for the kind of contained customization Final Fantasy is known for.

The only problem? The Crystarium is completely set, and different levels of it are only unlocked at certain points in the storyline. While you can respawn enemies and level grind to your heart’s content, you won’t be able to fully take advantage of all the EXP you’ve earned (Crystogen Points are EXP, no matter what the Piggyback strategy guide says) until the endgame. In fact, beating the game’s final boss is the only thing that will unlock the entire Crystarium. You can not hope to achieve max level for any character role until you complete the main storyline. You can top out your potential for each chapter, but no more than what the game sees fit to allow.

This level cap is XIII’s way of evening the odds, preventing players like me, who like to level up keeping one step above enemies, from getting too tough too fast. The first two chapters of the game actually offer zero character growth, making battles pointless except as a way of stockpiling components or CP for the third chapter, when the Crystarium is finally introduced.

The difficulty curve is bullshit frustrating, and the fact that we’ve got to beatthe game before we can max out levels is ridiculous. The game guide lets players know right away, finishing all of the XIII’s sidequests is near impossible without fulfilling certain parts of the final Crystarium stages, so if you want 100% completion you’ll have to earn it after your first playthrough. This won’t bother some people, but for the player who views the game as a complete story, the player whose main goal is to complete the storyline, the mark missions—XIII’s most promising sidequest and a dumbed-down version of FFXII’s hunts—are rendered pointless.

Everyone’s talked about how linear much of the game is, and it’s true. It is starkly, unforgivingly linear. Within the initial stages, alternate paths within your environments are extremely limited. Travel from location to location is completely fixed. You’re forced into using particular parties with unchangeable party leaders at all times until Chapter 10. Combine this with the level capping and the overload of cutscenes, and you’ve got a game with an introduction that spans 9 Chapters. The slow reveal of the Crystarium and full access to the battle system is a risky maneuver; many players aren’t going to make it past the early stages, abandoning XIII before it the hours of gameplay finally come to fruition.

XIII is supposed to open up when you leave the shelter of the artificial world Cocoon and end up in the untamed lowlands of Gran Pulse. And while it does and your horizon is much bigger and wider than in Cocoon, I felt the opportunities for sidequests and exploration were still very limited compared to previous Final Fantasies. There’s a few optional areas to mine for treasure, the ability to dig up buried goods while riding chocobos, the choice to hunt marks and set free the souls of failed l’Cie, and that’s about it. None of these sidequests really complements the storyline, their aim not to advance or deepen XIII’s world, plot, or characters&8212hence there is no problem completing them after the storyline is over—but rather to get components for weapons upgrading, new accessories, or CP. Mark hunting is the only sidequest with real potential but even it fails to compare to its predecessor, the massive hunt missions of FFXII which despite my distaste for XII in general were a thoroughly engaging gameplay experience on their own. In XIII you’ve got only 64 Marks to complete, and all exist only within a few set areas of Gran Pulse. You do have the opportunity to work towards Trophies and Achievements, which will be a definite draw some players, but out of the thirty something Trophies available, 13 are awarded for completing regular gameplay, and eight are wrapped up within the mark missions sidequest.

The same level cap that stunts the development of characters also affects weapons and accessories. In XIII, each character has just eight basic weapons to find or buy throughout the main storyline, but each of these weapons can be upgraded, leveled up with items called compounds and then changed with a catalyst into a completely new, better weapon. These improved versions can be upgraded as well, with further use of components for leveling and a second catalyst. By means of this second transformation each of the weapons is changed to its final form, the character’s ultimate weapon, which can also be leveled up until it reaches maximum capacity. Gone are the days when best weapons were a direct reward for traversing dangerous locales, defeating challenging battles, or completing obscure sidequests. Now there’s as many as eight ultimate weapons for each character, and they are all obtainable through the same process. Accessories are upgraded similarly.

Just as many of the Mark missions are beatable only after winning XIII’s final boss fight, unless you’re prepared to devote some serious time to excess battling, you won’t have nearly enough components to efficiently level up a weapon or accessory until the later stages of the game. You can buy components too, but gil is difficult to come by, and the best shops aren’t immediately available. You earn most of your money selling spoils so either way, if you want better gear you’ve got to fight hard for it.

The upgrade system does lend another dimension of complexity to the game. You’ve got to plan early on, determine which weapons and accessories you want to use and how to develop them efficiently and effectively. Unless you’ve got all the time and/or gil in the world, you aren’t going to be able to max out more than one or two for each character during regular gameplay and even then the right combination is crucial. Equipping accessories and weapons in the same Synthesis Group will produce special hidden abilities in your characters. Figuring out the most effective mix itself can be a time consuming but interesting process.

I did say hidden abilities. Much of the special properties associated with weapons and accessories are not spelled out for you onscreen, you’ve got to figure them out yourself through experimentation. If you want to make the most of leveling weapons but you’re the type of person that prefers not to use a strategy guide, good luck to you, sir. The dependency of a perfect playthrough on having an expensive strategy guide has been a plague of the series for some time, but its especially apparent with XIII and its upgrading system.

There’s minor factors that contribute to the game’s strengths and weaknesses. While in general the main menu is sleekly, effectively designed, the Crystarium section in particular is just beautiful. Everything on the field maps from save stations to treasure spheres blends in perfectly with the environment, except perhaps when you get to Gran Pulse. Attention to detail is spectacular, from the glow on Lightning’s Guardian Force armor to the writing etched into her gunblade.

Although I wasn’t initially impressed by the game’s first level The Hanging Edge—a bunch of bridges with similarly arranged rubble throughout—as the locations expanded and became more exotic, so did the scenery. The skyscapes, both during gameplay and in FMVs, are absolutely breathtaking. The battle interface is nice, allowing prime viewing space, although it comes at the expense of the Health bar, which I found to be a bit small and hard to read even when sitting close to a high definition screen. The way some staple Final Fantasy creatures have been updated and reimagined demonstrates the best of the Square team’s creativity. The battle camera rotates automatically and rarely needs adjusting, but the field map camera can be wonky, especially when you’re trying to get a preemptive strike or figure out where you’re going after a fight. The Datalog, a massive compilation of story and character information, enemy intel, and tutorials, is impressive, but useless unless you want to sit for hours reading instead of actually playing the game.

Taking both pros and cons into consideration Final Fantasy XIII is by no means a bad game, but it’s not a great one either. Lacking a compelling storyline and remaining unflinchingly linear throughout much of its main events, XIII is by no means near perfect. It’s a Final Fantasy, and will have its devoted fanbase, but compared to precious installments it lacks complexity, and the level caps and Crystarium locks prevent players from realizing the battle system’s potential in a timely, effective manner.

I’m torn between two ratings. My gut says three but excluding my opinions on storyline, which I can admit are subjective, and comparing this game to other games as opposed to other Final Fantasies, a four seems more appropriate. Taking a look at Binge Gamer’s scoring criteria confirms it, Final Fantasy XIII fits in well with four-seal requirements—Pretty-to-very good. While not “zomg” quality excellence, these games are more than adequate and even show flashes of brilliance—especially considering the amount of effort that went into making it. Keep in mind it’s much closer to being pretty good than very.

I’m still interested to hear what non-fans of the series have to say about it. If by some one in a million chance you’re a person for whom XIII was the first Final Fantasy, please hit up the comments section and let me know what you think.

Note: I own and have only played the PS3 version of the game. I have not seen its Xbox 360 incarnation.

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Update on Michael Pachter Back and Forth

NEWS:

-Sony Announces PlayStation Move Motion Controller, Has Lots of Developer Support

-OnLive Launches on June 17th, During E3 Week

-GDC: Ninja Bee sez… GameStop Will Die

-PC Gaming Is Not Dead, Made $13 Billion in 2009

-Ubisoft’s Servers Being Repeatedly Attacked, Assumingly By Irate PC Gamers

-Survey Hints at Netflix on Nintendo DS

-Rock Band 3 Announced, as Was Lady Gaga Track Pack

-Modern Warfare 2 DLC Coming This Month

-Unreal Engine 3 Running on iPhone. Seriously.

-Donkey Kong World Record Smashed by a Plastic Surgeon From new York

The entry that receives the most expert votes will net its creator a pretty incredible prize. New York-based publisher Zoo Games will grant the developer a multi-platform release deal and a cash prize of 100,000 dollars. There’s money and possible publishing negotiations in store for the fan favorite entry as well.

Zoo Games CEO Mark Seremet is enthusiastic about the contest and the opportunities it provides for independent developers, who often don’t get the chance to reach as many gamers as they’d like. Regarding the wide range of talent and creativity 2Bee contests have seen in the past, Seremet said that if more than one great game is submitted, other developers besides the contest winner may also have a shot at publishing deals.

The two previous champions, Auditorium and Storm, are both slated for 2010 release. One of the only contests of its kind, the 2Bee competition is sure to attract .

via PRWeb

Modern Warfare 2 is kind of popular. So popular, in fact, that Infinity Ward and Activision are set to release a new map pack on March 30th. Robert Bowling, aka fourzerotwo aka the dude with the awesome ringtone, went on Major Nelson’s podcast to talk about the upcoming map pack. As Bowling was on Xbox LIVE’s Major Nelson Radio (catchy name), a description for the new maps appeared briefly on Xbox.com.

So, what are these maps?

• “Bailout” – a multi-story apartment complex
• “Salvage” – an arctic junkyard
• “Storm” – open-area industrial park
• “Crash” – urban area centered around a downed chopper
• “Overgrown” – open area with big ass creek bed

The last two in bold are tweaked maps from Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. It’s not unusual for a company to release rehashed maps for a sequel to a popular game, especially if they’re fan favorites — but companies with any semblance of decency tend to include said maps with the game and have their players purchase new maps.

But here’s the kicker — this map pack? It’s going to run 1,200 Microsoft Space Bucks — or $15 in real currency. You’re paying 1/4th the total cost of the game for what is essentially three new maps. Sadly, though, people will buy it. People will buy it in droves and with over 25 million copies sold all it takes is a quarter of them to buy the map pack for Infinity Ward to earn some $93 million.

I won’t be among them. Considering there are still game-breaking glitches in the MW2 multiplayer (contrary to what has been said, the shotgun range glitch still persists), $15 for three maps is a laughable proposition — especially if Activision tries to be cheeky and attempt to somehow force people to buy it.

Cosplay was quite heavy the first day, as there were enough great pictures where I had to make a second page, so lets get right into it:

(Note: Guess which cosplayer in the picture above named himself “Green Lanturtle”)

Check out more of Wolf Pack @ Wolfpackelite.com

Return to page one of the MegaCon Day 1 Cosplay – the Video Games

Return to Binge Gamer’s MegaCon 2010 Home Page

For the first day of MegaCon, a day which usually tends to be a ‘meh’ day overall to any convention. The day when some people are in school, work, etc.. basically saving the Saturday to soak themselves in geekiness. This Friday was far different than previous MegaCon’s I have attended, as people were ready to role play as though there was a competition going on (Note: of course there was a competition, but that was on Saturday). Enough jibber jabber, let’s see some people in tights, first, representing video games were these fine people:

Not too shabby for the first day, I ended up leaving more impressed however by the mixture of both comic book and characters from all sorts of mediums on page two of the MegaCon Day 1 cosplay

Return to Binge Gamer’s MegaCon 2010 Home Page

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