God of War II (God of War Collection)

God of War Collection: God of War II

Platform Playstation 3 (Originally released on PS2)
Created by SCE Studio Santa Monica
Published by Sony

Overview

God of War II takes place where God of War II left off with Kratos as the new God of War. Being threatened by Kratos, Zeus strips Kratos of his god powers and leaves him to die... Kratos not having that goes on a quest to change his destiny and fate. Will he succeed?

Gameplay

God of War II features the same style of game play as the first only it seems easier to pull off finishing moves on some of the mythical creatures. The controls are virtually identical as the first game the only difference are now doors are opened by pressing O instead of tapping R1 repeatedly. I think the controls are more responsive this time around so because of that the gameplay gets nice bump up in points. The puzzles are a little more difficult this time around I actually had to use a walkthrough in a few spots but nothing wrong with that.

9 out of 10

Graphics

The graphics are essentially the same as God of War from the God of War Collection so see my review on that. The textures and upgrades are still great, though GoWII has shinier compared to the first game in the collection.

9 out of 10

Sound

Not really much to talk about here other than the sound effects are just a great in this game as they were in the first. The score is amazing too one of the best parts of the game.

9.5 out of 10

Content

This is where GoWII shines over the first game. It is jammed pack full of story and things to do. In fact this took me about 15 hours on normal to complete whereas the first game took me about 10 hours. Some of the trophies are a little more difficult to get this time around for example you have to really look to collect all the Gorgon Eyes, Phoenix Feathers and Cyclops eyes. There's also a bonus mode that allows you to add new content to the game by completing challenges. Sure this was in GoW1 too.

8 out of 10

Overall 8.9 out 10

Pros
-Longer Story
-Intriguing Story
-Amazing Score

Cons
-Some puzzles are extremely frustrating
-Some boss battles are lack luster
-Again poor replay value after you gotten all trophies and beat bonus stuff

God of War Review (God of War Collection)

God of War Collection: God of War

Platform PS3 (Originally released on PS2)
Created by SCE Studio Santa Monica
Published by Sony

Overview

God of War tells the story of Kratos a man haunted by nightmares after selling his "soul" to the God of War; Aries. He then starts a mission after one faithful night to end his servitude to Aries and kill the god that enslaved him. Will he succeed? God of War Collection is a visually upgraded version of both God of War and God of War II; both games have gotten increased textures in some aspects as well as a frame rate that runs at a constant 60FPS (Frames per second). Another cool thing is that they added Trophies to the games as well.

Gameplay

The gameplay is like your typical beat-em up game where you have a strong and normal attack. Plus you gain various magic attacks throughout your progress in the story. These can be activated by holding the R2 bumper and pressing the square button. Besides fighting the game also features puzzles which range from being very easy to somewhat difficult. There's also a platforming aspect where you have to climb up cliffs or avoid spikes and what have you these can be sometimes very frustrating like at the end of the game you have cross a spinning board that has blades, think of the thorn things from the first sonic game. This part is very frustrating. Another aspect the game features is real-time events when you get certain enemies and bosses down in life. Real time events as I said occur when you get an enemy or boss down to a certain amount of life then you press the circle button to grab onto them and start the event for example a cyclops you'll press any one of the four face buttons X, O, Square or Triangle then do that again three times to get an instant kill and red orb bonus. The orbs are divided into three types: Red Orbs are used to power up your weapons and magic, Green restore life and Blue orbs restore magic. You collect "gorgon eyes" to increase your life bar and "phoenix feathers" to increase your magic bar. The best way to describe this game would be "Clash of the Titans" meets "Devil May Cry". Despite having some frustrating aspects the game gets an 8.5 out of 10 in gameplay.

Graphics

As I stated in the overview the God of War Collection is upgraded ports of GoW and GoWII. While the graphics aren't something special by today’s means they are pretty good for a game that’s going on five years old. The new effects make the game very bearable not that it was bad to begin with. There's rarely any slow down on the screen like there used to be and some textures looked really great. 9/10

Sound

The sound is one of God of Wars strong points from its orchestral soundtrack to little sounds that make it feel as though your fighting a mythological creature. 9.5/10

Content

The story is decent enough to keep you hooked but sadly the game is pretty short, experienced players can beat the game in under five hours in fact there's a trophy for doing such a task. Plus the game really doesn't leave much for replay value unless you want to go back and try the game on a harder difficulty other than that there's a challenge of the gods mode which I haven't tested out yet and then with Trophy support you can go back and get some that you missed in the first place. 7.5 Out 10 just because of the lack of replay value.

Overall 8.6

Pros
-Engaging Story
-Neat Boss Battles and classic mythological beasts
-Trophies and visual enhancements

Cons
-Short Game
-Barely any replay value

inFamous Review

inFamous

Platforms: PS3

Developed By: Sucker Punch

Published By: Sony

Overview

You assume the role of Cole MacGrath a bike messenger who resides in Empire City. After delivering a package that contained an experimental weapon Cole finds himself with the powers similar to Marvel Comics villain Electro.

Gameplay

inFamous is your typical sandbox game. You can stick to mainly doing the main quest or just explore Empire City looking for collectibles or helping out citizens in need. Over the course of the game Cole finds himself gaining new powers including balls of lightning that explode like grenades or a precision shot which acts like a sniper rifle to give you exact shots. The controls are great they aren’t really clunky like in some sandbox games. Another unique feature is you can make good or bad choices depending on the route you take effects the overall story of the game. Empire City is divided up in to three locations and as you progress through the game you’ll be able to go back and forth between each of the locations. Each location has its own unique set of enemies to it.

8.5 out of 10

Graphics

Like most sandbox games this is generally the low point of them because they have some much to program in that not everything can look as good as games that have predetermined levels. inFamous manages to keep the graphics looking decent throughout the game but they’re kind of dull compared to what the PS3 is capable of. Still the game does look pretty albeit a little gritty.

8.0 out of 10

Sound

inFamous features a decent OST when there’s music playing. The sound effects are well done as well. As you progress further in the game you’ll hear the civilians of Empire city either chanting for you or wanting to get their torches and pitchforks depending on what path you chose. For my first play through I chose to play the good route so everyone was cheering for me. Not really much else to comment on here.

8.0 out of 10

Content

Being a sandbox game there’s plenty to do here if you rush through the main story the game will take you a good 10 to 15 hours. If you do all the side quests and go for all the collectibles which consists of finding pieces of earth scattered about the city from the explosion and collecting messages called dropped calls then add another 20 or so hours to that. Plus it’s always fun to come back and run around the city and mess around.

9.0 out of 10

Overall 8.4 out of 10 (rounded up from 8.38)

Pros

-Massive city to explore

-Plenty of content to keep you busy

-An actually twist ending

Cons

-Graphics not as good as they could be

-Story is predictable in most parts

Heavy Rain Review

Heavy Rain

Platform PS3
Created by Quantic Dream
Published by Sony

 

Overview

In Heavy Rain you assume the role of one of four characters in your quest to solve the riddle of who the Origami Killer maybe and to find and save a boy before it's too late.

Gameplay

The game is very similar to Shenmue in terms of play style it's very open ended and offer a unique way of playing the game. Most action is done by doing a move with the Right Thumbstick. Walking is done by holding down the R2 button sort of like how you used to in the old RE games. Sometimes the controls seem a little sluggish and unresponsive but for the most part they work fine. Each character plays the same so there's really no difference between them. The only difference is the FBI Agent character has a special set of glasses that can help him find clues at crime scenes, which is done by pressing the R1 shoulder button.

8 out of 10

Graphics

This is where the game really shines. It really pulls in the power of the PS3 here. Most of the stuff is really good looking but there are a few bad textures here and there. One issue is the game does suffer from screen tearing (lines across the screen when you move the camera to fast) but for the most part the graphics are incredible.

9.5 out of 10

Sound

The game features a lovely sound track but more often than not a lot of the game's cues get repeated. As for sound effects they're really nice and to sadly I didn't play this game with my Dolby Digital Headphones so I can't comment on how well the game does surround sound.

8 out of 10

Content

With an intriguing story that borrows some elements from Saw and the support of downloadable content in the form of more single player stories plus multiple endings and different results for several scenarios there's more than enough here to keep busy here for awhile. Defiantly worth picking up if you have a PS3.

9.5 out of 10

Overall 8.75 out of 10

Pros
-Intriguing story
-Different endings to unlock and different ways to do scenarios
-Downloadable content
-Interesting control scheme

Cons
-Repetitive controls
-Controls sometimes not responsive
-Soundtrack cues play often.

Dragon Age: Origins Review

Dragon Age Origins (Xbox 360 Version)
Platforms Xbox 360, PS3 and PC

Created by Bioware

Published by EA

 

Overview:

The game Dragon Age Origins tells the tale of the fictitious land of Ferrelden which is plagued by creatures called Darkspawn. These creatures where created via man's greed and every few hundred years the Darkspawn come to the surface to try and take over the world in what the topsiders call a "Blight". You take control of a character you create and become a Grey Warden to try and defeat the blight. You have several creation choices to choose from including Human which can become a warrior, a mage or a rogue; an Elf which can become the same and a Dwarf which can become a warrior and rogue. Then those choices are further divided into other choices. Can your character defeat the Blight or is Ferrelden destined to become over ran by Darkspawn?

Gameplay

The gameplay is one of DA: O strong points basically all Bioware RPGs are modeled after the action RPG genre in which you don't take turns doing attacks. You can map your attacks to X (Square for PS3 version I assume) Y (Triangle for PS3 I again assume) and B (O for PS3 I again assume). These are your special abilities and by default you can press the A button to do your basic attack (X button for the PS3 version I would assume). During combat you can hold down the Left Trigger to bring up the radial menu where you can select your inventory, do a quick heal or assign tactics to your party members as well as cast spells or abilities you don't have mapped out. You can have up to four party members at a time and there are several different party members to get including Alistair a templar (warrior), a Morrigan a witch (aka a mage) who specializes in shape shifting, Wynne a healer (again a mage type), Sten a Quannari warrior, a dog which you can name and it acts as a warrior. Finally there are two Rouge bard type classes, a bard and a thief. With day one DLC they had a golem party member. For the most part the AI is pretty competent but other times you have to select them in combat and do heal them or else they'll end up dying. Overall I give the gameplay an 8.5/10

Graphics

This is where the game takes a nose dive the only bad thing about the game is the graphics. They can be distracting but once you get further into the game they grow on you. The reason for the graphics being so bad is the game was started shortly after Bioware's Jade Empire game and it was originally supposed to be a PC game that came out shortly afterwards. By the time it was switched over to a 360 and PS3 game too much work had gone into it to create a new engine. The main complaint is the textures which on the 360 (the worst version for graphics) looked muddled some look like last gen graphics. Cut scenes are well done and show up quite an improvement from in game graphics but overall this is the games downfall. 6.5/10

Sound

Sadly I haven't been able to play the game in a nice surround so-so I don't know how well it does that but the games sound from the TV speakers is great another strong part for the game. Sound also covers the soundtrack which is one of the most amazing scores I've ever heard thankfully the CE comes with a soundtrack so I'll be putting this on the iPod for sure. Excellent stuff here, defiantly a highlight of the game. 9/10

Content

This category I'll talk about the story as well as lasting appeal. The story as paraphrased in the overview is about you trying to stop the Blight from happening. It has a slow start but then again all Bioware RPGs start off slow but once you get into the meat of the game Bioware has crafted yet another masterpiece in RPG gaming one that's sure to please fans of the genre. There's enough side quest and stuff to do to get you to play through a few times and plus the game supports DLC to help keep it fresh. 9.5/10

Overall 8.4

Pros
-Excellent story
-Enough content to keep you busy for awhile (my first play through I had over 30 vested in the game)
-Great controls

Cons
-Graphics could be better (only con I can think of)