 This is going to be a bare bones review, because I'm only on Day 23.
The graphics are spectacular, especially for Nintendo. Nintendo has never been known for their graphics (always pixelated and basic) - but the improbable is possible when you mix Squeenix and Nintendo. They've managed to combine the best of both worlds, artistry and technique. Tetsuya Nomura's brainchild has been unleashed on the DS in such magnificent fashion. You know this game is something only HE could have created. Everything from the music down to the sound you hear when you're trying to select something that you're unable to at that time mimics Kingdom hearts 1 and 2. How they managed this feat, I don't know. When you look at Chain of memories for the Gameboy Advance, it was NOTHING compared to this. It was just a failed attempt at an original game. 358/2 Is NOTHING like Chain of memories for the GBA (i hated CoM and the card system). This is a game unto itself. A game that delves into the history of the organization, and more specifically Roxas. This takes place before, during, and after Chain of memories.
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Which may sound weird considering that I only like to play my PSP at home, and the Go is a much more travel-friendly portable console than the previous systems; with a smaller screen and smaller buttons.
Firstly, I enjoy the idea of owning everything digitally. I am moving in this direction with all of my home media, including music and movies, as well. Who needs a bunch cases lying all over the place and taking up a bunch of shelf space - and discs to get dirty and scratched as time goes on? Plus, there is no more worrying about the disc reader in the systems themselves going faulty. I was always particularly concerned with the rather flimsy looking disc-reading compartment in the original PSP models. That is no longer a concern.
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No one can resist the urge to keep playing Resistance: Fall of Man once the game is started. Chapter after chapter of exhilarating battles against a plethora of creatures that you use a plethora of weapons to defeat (and they'll use them against you too).
To really put the plot of the game in context (if you care about the plot), it's well worth the visit to the official Resistance: Fall of Man web site; there's a ton of story there that I'd bet 90% of the people who start the game are unaware of. For me, the story helped me "get into character" for the game. If you just want to start wasting some nasty beasts, "Get to it, soldier!" Rest assured, the story won't help you beat the enemies or evade the barrage of defenses that will be fired at you by them.
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Over a decade ago, at the tender age of 13, I purchased "Revelations: Persona" for the Playstation. The game received very good review scores, and the Playstation console was somewhat starved for Japanese RPGs in America at the time, so as a fan of the genre, I figured I couldn't go wrong.
What I didn't expect was just HOW different Persona would be from the standard JRPG, such as the Final Fantasy games. With a good localization and a user-friendly interface, the game could have helped me to overcome the initial culture shock that I experienced and enjoy a deep and unique role-playing experience.
Unfortunately, the translation/localization was beyond shoddy, and at times even offensive (one of the characters' ethnicity was changed to African-American for the US release - a change that was not handled with much tact), and the already intimidating interface was hampered by convoluted menus. Needless to say, the game didn't click with me at the time, and it wasn't long before I banished it to the back of my closet.
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So, to start. If I see one more "Xbox 360 this and that compared to PS3" I'm going to throw up. I hope you feel the same. Folks, they are 2 different systems, both are great for their own reasons, no need to compare.
So for Rainbow Six: Vegas on the PS3. I've never played it on 360, never looked at it on 360, never really cared to. All I can say is, the game plays fantastic, it doesn't feel like some "ported" game. The graphics look great, I am yet to have any loss of framerate, everything is super fluid, controls are fantastic as well.
The controls feel extremely natural, all the buttons are in just the right spot, and overall the game plays extremely well, I was very impressed. You aren't trying to quickly switch between stick and d-pad/buttons to do certain things, for instance, instead of pressing down on the d-pad to kneel, you just press down on your left thumbstick that you almost always already have your thumb on. Everything plays this way.
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I just received the game this morning (thanks amazon for the release date shipping!) and installed it in the evening to test it out. I obviously have not gotten far into the game, but once you play a racer for an hour+, you've played 90% of the core features of the game, so I figure I can safely write a review for it.
Unlike previous titles, there is no cinematic storyline that tells of some bad guy who hates you for some reason, and how you have to climb the ranks of some underground racers to one day best him in an epic race. Also, unlike a titles way back ago, all these races are legal and done on tracks--No intense police chases here. The basic premise here is that you start off at the bottom rung of an enormous ladder tournament that one day leads you to a world championship race with some of the most exotic cars on the planet. Sounds good, lets get racing!
You start off being put into the seat of a BMW that you only get for 1 day before you start off your career. You do a test lap and the game will offer up some suggestions on difficulty level settings (turning traction control on, ABS, etc). It did a pretty good job at guessing the settings I would have picked, so I liked that feature. You can tweak it as necessary, so this isn't a one time only thing.
The racing itself is incredible. It is a huge departure from the previous arcade style racing games that the NFS titles seemed to focus on. With max simulation on, it races like a car would race. You can't take 90 degree turns at 190 mph, you can't smash into a barrier wall at 140mph, backup and still win the race, etc. To help those of us who have a true "need for speed", the game does offer a racing line with speed indicators that change dynamically as you race (for example, it'll turn red as you approach a hard turn, indicating you should slow down.)
The game also has a system of style points, which you get for things such as tightly following the racing line, passing people, drafting, etc. One thing I did like is that these style points is not just for those of us who play 100% "nice". They have split up style points into "precision" and "aggression." Precision points are for those who like to finesse their way to 1st (drafting, passing politely, nice cornering). Aggression points go to those like me, who basically smash their way through cars until I'm in 1st place and half the group is totaled. You can even get points for spinning people off the track! Awesome.
These points go towards winning stars, and stars increase your driver level, and increasing your driver level unlocks more cars, modifications, etc. Like I said earlier, it is a pretty large ladder system of unlocks and races. I am incredibly impressed so far with how the game feels and runs.
A few final thoughts:
The interior mode of racing (which I highly recommend) puts you as if you were actually inside the car, and the details are INCREDIBLE. They really spent the time to actually copy what the car interior should look like. The BMW has the iDrive system even. Also, the graphics (when played on high) are unbelievable. There is unfortunately a significant loading time between races, but that might be because I set my settings to max on everything.
Also, it is clearly a port, because it tells me not to "turn my system off while saving." When was the last time I reached for my power button to turn my computer off, mid-anything? It's not like I'm sitting there, getting impatient mid-game while it's saving ,and then flipping the switch on my surge protector and being like, I'm outta here! Oh well. Despite that, everything else runs smoothly. (I'm running it on Windows 7 and there weren't any hiccups in the install.)
So overall, I am incredibly happy with this purchase. I'm also happy to see a real racing game from the NFS guys--it's about time they get back to their roots of simulation racing. The arcade stuff was fun, but this is what I'm really interested in. If you've played NFS before, buy this title. You won't be disappointed.
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Tuesday, 13 October 2009 14:27 | 
Author: Administrator | 
