The Future Of MotorStorm

What else could they possibly do?

MotorStorm was the first game I ever played on a Playstation 3, it was in HMV on one of their 50 inch HD TVs and it looked amazing. Even though I kept crashing I still couldn’t stop gawping at the sheer awesomeness of the graphics and it had the essential one more go element which is missing from so many games today.

Well anyway let me give a brief recap of the MotorStorm (MS) games so far.

MotorStorm: The first game was released as part of the European launch of the PS3 on the 23^rd of March 2007 and to be honest, it was the only decent game available at launch (Resistance Fall of Man didn’t do it for me).

It wowed its crowd with a new racing mechanic in which you have to boost and if you boost too much your car will basically blow up, so if your boost gauge overheats then you better lay off, to let it cool down a bit.

Also if you even made a little mistake like hit a little rock your car would fall into pieces, you really need to be a ninja to be good at this game.

This simple way of racing made the game unique, but the developers didn’t think it was different enough to they added trucks, racing cars, buggies, bikes and so and so forth. Adding all these different types of vehicles added more strategic racing, such as which vehicle should you use for which track. It really is a trial and error racing game.

After adding the vehicles the developers said “you know, it’s still no unique enough”. And so they started making overly complicated racing courses in which each vehicle would have to take different routes to get through the track quicker. After that they slapped on some great online racing and they successfully made of the greatest racing games of all time.

They really did make a master piece and it was a solid 9/10 due to the lack of a time trial mode.

MotorStorm Pacific Rift: Released on the 7^th of November 2008 this addition to the MS series didn’t take very long to make if you compare it to when the last one was released in date terms. But it is nothing short of a AAA title, it improved every single aspect of the previous game; better graphics, rocks don’t make your car fall into pieces etc.

They were even more innovative in this game by adding a tropical setting, meaning you’re basically racing through a forest. It’s great they added loads of modes which I won’t go into because I want this mini review to be short.  Time Trial has been added though which was the main complaint from the last one. You can also take pictures of your crashes, as you guessed they made the crashes look so cool that you can now take pictures of them.

This is a amazing game and remains my most favourite racing game of all time.

10/10, I really can’t think what else they could add, they got everything right.

MotorStorm Arctic Edge: Released on the 18th of September 2009, this is the first MS game on Sony’s portable gaming device the PSP and the PS2.

This is another amazing addition to the MS series with amazing graphics that never falter, have yet to see any slow down and the online is absolutely superb.

This is also the first MS game where you get to edit what the car looks like. NO, not the paint thingy that you do on the previous 2, you get to adjust everything. YES, everything wheels and such, you get to earn different parts for your car through career points.

The game is very rewarding with a challenging career mode and the ability to take screen shots when racing. You can also play your own music while playing giving you a feel of control over the game, which is rare in games because they like to control you not the other way around.

I don’t want to give this a rating because I want to give this a full review in the future but at the moment it’s 10/10 perfection love it to bits.

The end bit

Now I bet your wondering why I just basically wrote a mini review for each MS game so far.

Well that is because I really don’t see where the developers can take the game, they have done all the main themes in their tracks, tropical, fire, ice and sand. What else could they possibly do?

I can only think of 3 things they might do in the future.

1, they will remake Arctic Edge for the PS3 with HD graphics and more tracks.

This would be a great idea, because when I play the PSP version I keep thinking to myself, “how awesome would this look on the PS3”. Everybody is thinking the same thing and so I hope they make it happen.

2, they will probably do a massive game with a combination of all the environments. As awesome as that sounds I am against it. It would destroy the theme they have set for each game where they set their games in a different setting. Putting all the different themes in one game would ruin any potential for another game.

3, they could set it in Africa, lots of scenery, mountains, desserts and animals. Can you imagine driving around a herd of Zebra? Also herds of animals would also force you to adapt to the ever changing track.

Well that’s my pitch for the future MS games and I hope they read this, I know they will make the right decision, I believe in Sony to do what is right.

DEAD SPACE

DEAD SPACE

By Jamie Selby

Why do we play games? I found myself asking this question once I had played this game for every last pixel I had to offer. And it really does ask the question, why do we play games? Some people play them for challenge, some people play for the adrenalin rush and some people just play for fun. I on the other hand, play for all three of them reasons. I play games because I want to be challenged, scared, happy and most importantly *immersed*.

 

Immersion is this games only selling point, from the second you turn the game on your immersed, the graphics are consistent even the scenarios when the story moves the graphics are the same, that is what keeps you immersed, the lack of any cut scenes, just game play. The closest thing you’re going to get to a cut scene is a Star Wars style hologram that emits from your space suit. It’s the immersion in this game that keeps you going, without emersion I probably wouldn’t have even finished it due to lack of interest in the story.

 

The story kicks off when a crew of 3 are sent to a space station to make some repairs after receiving a distress signal, but not all is as it seems because, they are great big monsters on board bent on your destruction.

The story is mainly about a religious cult called Unitology, this cult believes that the human race is extinct and no one realises it and so they release all these monsters that will eventually take over the world.

It’s a typical story with a typical ending, though typical as the ending is, it’s still awesome and it also points out that there may be a sequel in the not too distant future.

 

For the people that have played resident evil 4 or resident evil 5, you will find the controls easy to access mainly because they have been ripped straight out the game itself. I am not even kidding. The whole game is in a third person perspective; you walk with the right analogue stick and aim with the right, it all simple procedure. L1 to aim and R1 to shoot, you know the drill.

Everything in this game is done in real time from selecting your weapons to using a first aid kit to make your health bar go up. There is never any need to pause unless you need a cuppa tea. Also my main concern with the real time menu was what if you’re dying and you don’t get to your first aid in time. Well they solved that problem, all you have to do is press square and then you will be healed automatically.

 

The zero G (zero gravity) aspect of the game has to be the most interesting part of the game, the way to can zero jump to just about any part of a room is a amazing and innovative idea. This is also become more apparent when it comes to solving puzzles and stuff.

 

 

 

The graphics are also incredibly fantastic, though very dull at times; it never fails in creating a high level of atmosphere. This also boosted the horror factor, though I didn’t find the game scary. I did find that the game did make me jump out of my seat when I least expected it to. Plus that way the holograms are made in a kind of blurred blue also adds the amazing sense of depth and atmosphere this game is trying so hard to achieve.

 

Now even though I have been pretty much singing its praises so far, the game does have some major issues, which in my opinion ruined the game for me.

The designers clearly got lazy when it came to designing the enemies, each one pretty much like the last, a tall alien and you need to shoot its limbs of to kill it, that’s it. That is pretty much what it is like throughout the game. They would sometimes attempt at adding variety such as making the alien black there making it harder to kill, but you still only needed take it apart with your weapons. The boss battles were a real let down also, they ARE exactly the same, even though there is a little bit more to it each time, it just does not excuse the fact that you are still fighting the same enemy.

For a game that is held in such high regard by reviewers and even PLAY itself, this game has been such a big let down and I feel betrayed by the very people who I look up to.

 

The game isn’t even remotely challenging because:

A, Every enemy is like the last therefore you just end up using the same winning method over and over again.

B, by pressing R3 it tells you where to go, which completely abandons the go and explore feature we all love in games.

C, As if the game wasn’t easy enough to complete, you can also collect power nodes to make the game even easier.

 

I can only think of one more positive thing about this game, and that is the constant save locations, they appear like every 10-20mins. Plus every chapter take approx 1hr. This makes the game very accessible for short bursts of gaming, which how I played. I made a commitment to complete 1 chapter a day on this game no more and no less. And trust me it’s a great way to game and I wish all games were structured like this.

It also took me 11:48:50 to complete the game.

 

My verdict? Well put it this way, if you came up to me and asked me to recommend a survival horror game that amazing graphics and immersive game play I would without a doubt recommend Resident Evil 5 & 4, seeming as that is where the idea for this game came from and Capcom did a better job also.

 

7/10: Lack of variety in the game left only the story and graphics to keep the game standing on its own two feet.

God Of War: Chains Of Olympus

Let me start of this review by saying that, prior to writing this I had never played a God Of War (GOW) game before. Nope not once in my life, even though I had every intention to do so I always seemed to end up playing, GTA or Socom on the PS2.
Well when I bought by sexy new PSP-GO I decided to see what all the fuss was about. And I mean really I had not heard so much talk about a game since GTA san Andres was being released.
Game took up 1121mb of my internal memory and let me you not a single megabyte went to waste.
GOW COO, is easily the best looking, ground breaking, action packed game I have played on a handheld console since Legend Of Zelda Phantom Hour Glass.

I am sure as hell you want to know what the story is, well you will have to wait. This is because even though to me a story is a very important aspect of the game and it’s what keeps you playing, it’s also important that you know how the game controls. Why would I do a review in this order? Well that’s because, you wouldn’t want me to tell you that the game has a awesome story only to find out that it’s practically unplayable would you? That’s like telling a child that there is no Santa.
The controls are simple and very easy to use, square for the small attacks and triangle for the more powerful attacks. You can combine these 2 main attacks to make deadly combos and such. Speaking of which you can also collect red orbs so you can level up your weapons, for me this is great because it keeps the game fresh and you from getting bored. A few RPG elements never hurt anyone did they? So yeah when you level up for your weapons you can then hold down L (which is also your guard button) and press either square or triangle to make more spectacular attacks. Furthermore you can also learn magic attacks such as the efreet, in which by hold down R and triangle you can engulf everyone around you in flames. This attack can also be levelled up and made much more devastating than it already was. So as you guessed the controls are simple enough to grasp.
The story is quite a strange and I have never heard any of its sort, it’s about a man called Kratos who is a servant to the gods and has to go around carrying out their deeds and fighting there fights for them. He hates the gods but yet he serves them for reasons I feel I should not go into. But basically from what I have noticed the game is a direct prequel to the original god of war finishing where the first one starts of. If that makes sense. Anyway, Kratos is looking for his daughter Coliape and he also wants the gods to release him from his past. To fully understand this story you would have to play the first GOW Which I fully recommend because I don’t understand it as much as I would like to.
The game itself is very short, even though I played it on hard my first time round which took over 11hrs, people have been completing it on normal in 6-7 ours. I have played through it again on normal to see how I match up against the more seasoned players and clocked it in 5 1/2hrs. But I am not writing this to gloat (well maybe a little), I am writing this to addressee my main issue with the game. Now even though it is a handheld game and the PSP is well known for having a short battery life, but does this really justify how long it takes to complete? When reading reviews I hear about people spending 24hrs completing it. I just can’t help feel that this game is half baked at times, including the difficulty issues. With all of this in mind I decided to go through my back issues of *PLAY* to find there reviews of the games. I only want to point out one point from there review and that’s about the head scratching puzzle solving. From what I read puzzles were a huge element in the GOW games and it seems nearly nonexistent in this version.
The game does have extra challenges for you to complete so you can see videos of them making the game, but is it really worth playing through again? Well… yes it is. It’s a very good game and shouldn’t take you long to complete it on god mode.
All in all, the game is very polished, it’s just too easy to complete I don’t remember often being stuck and I would find it unfair rating this game to high because of its easiness. Hmmm… well here is my final verdict.
9.2/10: The frequent game saves make the game very accessible on bus journeys, it’s too easy for the people who are looking for a challenge. The graphics and over all gameplay is truly phenomenal I recommend it over all PSP games. Except metal gear ac!d 2, which is the best game on the PSP EVER.

Let me start of this review by saying that, prior to writing this I had never played a God Of War (GOW) game before. Nope not once in my life, even though I had every intention to do so I always seemed to end up playing, GTA or Socom on the PS2.
Well when I bought by sexy new PSP-GO I decided to see what all the fuss was about. And I mean really I had not heard so much talk about a game since GTA san Andres was being released.
Game took up 1121mb of my internal memory and let me you not a single megabyte went to waste.
GOW COO, is easily the best looking, ground breaking, action packed game I have played on a handheld console since Legend Of Zelda Phantom Hour Glass.

I am sure as hell you want to know what the story is, well you will have to wait. This is because even though to me a story is a very important aspect of the game and it’s what keeps you playing, it’s also important that you know how the game controls. Why would I do a review in this order? Well that’s because, you wouldn’t want me to tell you that the game has a awesome story only to find out that it’s practically unplayable would you? That’s like telling a child that there is no Santa.
The controls are simple and very easy to use, square for the small attacks and triangle for the more powerful attacks. You can combine these 2 main attacks to make deadly combos and such. Speaking of which you can also collect red orbs so you can level up your weapons, for me this is great because it keeps the game fresh and you from getting bored. A few RPG elements never hurt anyone did they? So yeah when you level up for your weapons you can then hold down L (which is also your guard button) and press either square or triangle to make more spectacular attacks. Furthermore you can also learn magic attacks such as the efreet, in which by hold down R and triangle you can engulf everyone around you in flames. This attack can also be levelled up and made much more devastating than it already was. So as you guessed the controls are simple enough to grasp.
The story is quite a strange and I have never heard any of its sort, it’s about a man called Kratos who is a servant to the gods and has to go around carrying out their deeds and fighting there fights for them. He hates the gods but yet he serves them for reasons I feel I should not go into. But basically from what I have noticed the game is a direct prequel to the original god of war finishing where the first one starts of. If that makes sense. Anyway, Kratos is looking for his daughter Coliape and he also wants the gods to release him from his past. To fully understand this story you would have to play the first GOW Which I fully recommend because I don’t understand it as much as I would like to.
The game itself is very short, even though I played it on hard my first time round which took over 11hrs, people have been completing it on normal in 6-7 ours. I have played through it again on normal to see how I match up against the more seasoned players and clocked it in 5 1/2hrs. But I am not writing this to gloat (well maybe a little), I am writing this to addressee my main issue with the game. Now even though it is a handheld game and the PSP is well known for having a short battery life, but does this really justify how long it takes to complete? When reading reviews I hear about people spending 24hrs completing it. I just can’t help feel that this game is half baked at times, including the difficulty issues. With all of this in mind I decided to go through my back issues of *PLAY* to find there reviews of the games. I only want to point out one point from there review and that’s about the head scratching puzzle solving. From what I read puzzles were a huge element in the GOW games and it seems nearly nonexistent in this version.
The game does have extra challenges for you to complete so you can see videos of them making the game, but is it really worth playing through again? Well… yes it is. It’s a very good game and shouldn’t take you long to complete it on god mode.
All in all, the game is very polished, it’s just too easy to complete I don’t remember often being stuck and I would find it unfair rating this game to high because of its easiness. Hmmm… well here is my final verdict.
9.2/10: The frequent game saves make the game very accessible on bus journeys, it’s too easy for the people who are looking for a challenge. The graphics and over all gameplay is truly phenomenal I recommend it over all PSP games. Except metal gear ac!d 2, which is the best game on the PSP EVER.

P.S, shame on you Samuel for using the same review from play, shame.

CONSOLE WARS

My earliest form of a games console was the sega mega drive, I used to play on that best 12 hours a day. I still remember blowing the cartridges trying to make the more played games work such as streets of rage 2 and sonic the hedgehog 2. God I miss them days.

There is a reason why I have told you this, SEGA Vs NINTENDO. This was (in my opinion) the greatest war in console gaming history, they even had slogans for each other. Nintendo’s slogan for sega was, sega take ages to make games. this was by inverting the name, I think that was very clever but Segas was better. Segas slogan for Nintendo was, istead of NINTENDO just NINTENDON’T. I still role on the floor when ever I hear them slogans. They hold a specail place in my heart. That war between Sega and Nintendo is well known as the 16bit war. Which I am sorry to say, Sega lost and they are now reduced to making games for the consoles today.

Now that I have finished the history lesson of the famous 16bit war, lets fast forward to 2007 where the newest war started to wage, which will be best known as the next gen war. With Sega out of the picture it’s now between Mircosoft with there X-BOX 360, Nintendo with there Wii and Sony with there Playstation 3. I have to admit this war is more fierce than a Taliban war in Afghanistan, Ok maybe not that fierce no one has died… yet. But it’s a war all the same and yes I know that sentence probably will offend a lot people. but I only put it in there in hope that this blog entry will go viral.

Anyway these 3 consoles all have there own goals in the console market, Nintendo’s Wii is aimed at children, Microsoft’s 360 is aimed at the on-line gamers and Sony’s Playstation3 is aimed at the adult market and potential Blu Ray buyers. A three also have there problems.

The 360 has the infamous red ring of death, which basically makes your console redundant to playing games, it also damages your disk leaving a huge circle making your games useless. Even with the obvious flaws the console still sells strong, mainly down to the fact that Microsoft offer a break down recover program for all its consoles and they also have a huge library of games ready to play. Microsoft has to be the most dirty player in the console market with it’s recent campaign. They recently said that any people wanting to upgrade from there PS2 may have a 360 Elite at a reduced price. I can’t quite remember how much they are offering but I am sure you can google that yourself. There most famous attack on other consoles was against Nintendo it self, when they bought a famous video game developer called Rare, they have been known to make such games as Banjo Kazzoie and StarFox. Even though Nintendo managed to keep the rights to StarFox, they lost Banjo Kazzoie which to be honest wasn’t very special.

Sony’s Playstation 3 doesn’t have a very serious problem, the Blu ray disk drive is prone to stop working though, this is mainly down to the consumer not giving there console a regular dust. The PS3 wasn’t selling strong in its first few years, but recently it’s sales went up by 999% (lmao), this was down to them releasing the long awaited PS3 slim with a lower price tag of £299 and there new firmware update. Even though Microsoft did later release a new price tag for there 360, they are struggling to keep up. But at the moment 360 is still in the lead in terms of sales. Even though more people are now buying PS3’s Sony still have alot of catching up to do. Hopefully there releases next year of GOW III and Gran turismo 5 will put them in the clear lead.

Nintendo’s Wii, is clearly the star of the console market you can’t go to a friends house who doesn’t have a Wii  and if they don’t have one then they really want one. Nintendo Wii is one of the biggest selling consoles in history. There is only one problem with the console and that’s the on-line play, there is no real sense of community and everyone has a friend code with looks a bit like this 45678909876567898765, I find it amazing that people are actually able to remember them. That being the only problem, they have a amazing library of games and there mascot super Mario is still going strong with games like Super Mario Galaxy. Just yesterday I went into my local game store and there Wii consoles had sold out AGAIN for the third year running, not even the 360 has managed this. The amazing thing is that Nintendo only made the Wii to prove a point to the world and they proved it well. They wanted to show us that gameplay should come before graphics and they weren’t half right. With there graphics card only just topping that of the PS2’s  they actually have amazing games. The main reason why it has sold so well is because of the price tag which has been the same for over 3 years now, £179. Even though it’s no longer the cheapest console on the market I can still say that it really is the best console for the kids.

what console did you buy? I have a PS3 XD

PSP GO hands on

Whilst watching this video in awe it got me thinking about what a failure this console is going to be.
Now before you get your torches and pitchforks let me explain, I will list everything each PSP can do right through to the PSP go.

PSP 1000: Bulky heavy and at the time was pretty expensive, mainly due to the technological advancement in technology at the time, it had a slot for your memory card and with each passing firmware update it could do a little more. though it had poor battery life.

PSP 2000: not much difference and not worth the price for something that’s just brighter and lighter. It also has better battery life.

PSP 3000: Still not much difference, in my opinion they should never have released the slim and lite, it wasn’t a big enough leap, if this one was a direct up grade on the 1st one rather than the second one then maybe this would have met better appraisal. this one comes with a microphone and skype built in, the call quality is excellent and is better than when i use my computer. the battery life is improved, but when I am playing games only seems to last for arounf 4 hours. I don’t know if that’s because of how long I have had it though.

PSP GO: And now they have taken away the UMD drive and replaced it with a hard drive with a capacity of 16GB, they then make it 48% lighter because of all the expensive stuff they have taken out. They give it a slide screen which is also smaller. It still bares everything from the previous systems and to be honest there is not that much new.
Oh and did I mention that due to all the new stuff they added in they to charge us £250. This would be acceptable if it had the wow factor, but what’s new about it? The fact that you can download games? WOO HOO so could all the other PSP systems. 
Also it now takes a Micro rather than the Pro duo, so if you dont have a PS3, good luck transferring your games.

Thats my new on all the PSP systems so far.

And now hear is what I think it should have.

Vibration (makes games more immersive)
Motion sensitive (that alone will make it worth the price)
Touch Screen (Iphone showed us that touch game play is awesome)
Second Anolog stick (this will make the FPS games easier to play)
Better graphics (its possible)

Ok now that I have layed the facts down. Lets just think for a moment it had all them features.
Wouldn’t it be great, hell they could even call it the psp 2.
What a great system it would be and it could be backwards compatible with the games already on PSN.
It will also save the embarrasment for sony, but its to late for that and being the sony fan boy I am, I will be buying the PSP GO, just like all you idiots.

Child hood memories of video games

I first started playing video games when I was about 5-6 years old, I still remember the sheer excitement of making it to the next level on super mario on my GAMEBOY or when I first got my hands on Ridge Racer on my old playstation.

I’m not sure what the first game I ever played was, but I am pretty sure it was tetris,  a simple puzzle game, best described as a falling jig saw puzzle, just make as many lines break as possible to make it to the next level simple. I bet not many gamers will remember what there first game was either, but I am sure they have a rough idea of what there earliest memory was.

I think I was about 6 years old when I got my sega mega drive, and with it I got sonic and sonic the hedgehog 2, they were wonderfull games, playing them was like magic, but there was all ways a bloody time limit and becuase I didn’t know how to spin I could never complete the third level (I managed eventually) I used to cry about it and that song that came on when the time was running out is still on loop in my head right now. My family still remind me about the time when my mother used to wake me up in the middle of the night because I was having a nightmare, (haha) a nightmare of sonic dying when I couldn’t do the spin. Apparantly I used to cry in my sleep.

For my seventh birthday I got a playstation and what a glorius piece of technology it was, stunning 3D graphics and my first taste of racing games. The first racing game I ever played was Ridge Racer which I still own to this very day, it holds a specail place in my child hood memories, it was truely revolutionary the loading screen was a game in its own right and I had never seen such life in a game, women on the road helicopters following me and that annoying commentater that made me wish the game had a gun. My PS1 days also became the days when I started playing Final Fantasy IX, it was a magical game and had amazing graphics that I used record each cut scene on video, just so I could play them over and over.

I am currently re purchasing alot of my old Playstation titles, and some of them I am shocked to find are unplayable. For example, the origanal Wipeout has not aged well at all, in fact I think it is a true example on how far games have come since the 90s. Just making a simple jump accross the track is a challange, I suppose I might find it more playable if I give it a little more play time.

Anyways they are my earliest childhood memories, I am sorry if the writing is bad. I have never written a blog before.

Thanks for reading.

BattleField 1943

The Game: For many months Call of Duty 4 was my FPS of choice with over a dozen game modes and maps it felt like heaven, and for many months I have been waiting for something to match it. So imagine my excitement when all this hype started coming out about BF 1943, I was restless, am talking restless nights waiting for my new injection of FPS.

Unfortunately it wasn’t nearly as good as I had hoped.

Here is why.

Maps: There are three huge maps to explore each one with the same objective, capture as many areas as possible, if you see an area with a red or white flag on the map then go capture it.

Vehicles: There are four different vehicles you can use, Boat, Plane, Tank and Car.

Each vehicle has its disadvantages and advantages, the Boat for example is great for getting to the other side of the island, but it is very unlikely for you to get any kills.

The car is great for getting from area to are really fast, when I use a car with someone on the turrets I feel unstoppable. The tank is very slow but extremely powerful, it can destroy just about anything on the game. The Plane is the hardest form of transport, its fast but its not very use full, bombing is almost surely to miss and you can easily go out of control and crash.

Objectives: You capture flags by standing next to it, also if you kill people whilst in your territory you get defence points, all your points get added together at the end of the game, the more points you get the higher the level you will reach.

Weapons: There are 3 different classes of weapons, Rifleman, Infantry and Scout. Each class of weapon requires a different strategy for example. Rifleman is for long range, its good for killing the soldiers at close and long range, the Infantry is good for battling the pesky tanks which continue to be a big problem when the opposing team has a tank and you have a grenade and finally the scout is good for long distance kills using the sniper rifle.

Graphics: The graphics are reasonable, the environments are full of life and fully destructible, there is nothing better than feeling the destructive power of running over palm trees with a massive tank only to blow up a building.

Verdict: It s good game, but with a lack of different game modes, variety in weapons and level choice for this game into the pile of OK games rather than the Spectacular game pile which has games like COD4, Wipeout and Little Big Planet.

Maybe if the game had a few more levels and game modes I might have enjoyed the game a bit more and then it might not have got so repetitive.

The price was a big selling point for me, £9.99 is a small price for such an amazing game.

Score: 89% fun to play for a few hours, but after a while you will get bored of doing the same thing over and over again.

Final Fantasy IX

Final Fantasy IX

By Jamie Selby

 

 

Just about every FF fan to date has the same fond memory of the FF series and in 1997 Final Fantasy VII came out, a game with so much depth and mystery that people became obsessed with turning over every stone and discovering every secret. That game to this day is ranked as one of the greatest games in history, and when Square decided to release the 8^th game in the series you can imagine how high expectations were.

Well let me tell you it wasn’t a bad game by anyone’s standards people were just expecting a game that would surpass what was before it.

I bet your wondering why I am giving you this brief FF history lesson, well before writing this I thought maybe they want to know what makes FFIX so great, well you see the thing is FFVIII was so bad (compared to VII) that the  9^th game could only be good. Well that is the case for most people; FFIX is one of the best games I have ever played. From the moment you turn the game on you see the technical achievement in visuals. When I was a kid I used to sit in front of my TV and just listen to the score on the start menu (I am humming it as I write this).

There is more to a game than a start menu of course because the real magic happens when to press start, from the moment you press that god like button you can kiss your sweet life good bye and say hello to kidnapping princesses and chasing evil jesters. Some parts of this near perfect game are so stupid and funny that it’s a wonder how they made the game feel so serious.  

Anyway let’s get on with this then shall we, I shall start by naming the bad things about the game because to be honest its good fun taking the piss out of a game.

First of all although the game is long and has a amazing story, it can be hard to follow at times and sometimes you kind of lose track of what you was suppose to be doing in the first place, this can only be a bad thing when you are spending too much time on side quests rather than playing the actual game like I did. Ok I’m stuck now; there is nothing else bad to say about the game.

It has the most amazing graphics I have ever seen in a PS1 game, and the part where the forest turns to stone is one of my key memories and still to this day brings back the excitement to my heart.

The game is based on a character called Zidane who doesn’t know much about himself and so he sets of trying to find the answers, along his travels he joins a rouge group called the Tantalus and with them he has to kidnap the princess for reasons I won’t go into.

Each character in the game has their own seemingly never ending back story, there are so many twists and turns in the game that just aren’t expected in the game.

The combat system is extremely simple, what I love about it is that absolutely anybody can pick it up and understand exactly what’s going on in it. The battle system is all turn based and when you make your move, your bar goes down and you have to wait for that bar to refill before your next go. And as usual there is a everlasting amount of magic for you to try out, and yes there is a black mage and a white witch, some things that a FF game is incomplete without. The black mage is called Vivi Ornitier and he has the most amazing back story, basically he has no idea who he is or where he came from, and he isn’t sure if he is even suppose to exist.

The game is graphically more childish compared to VII or VIII it is reverting to the old style of earlier FF games, but thankfully the story telling remains immense, with a sense of love, loss and anger. I cried 6 times while playing this game and have fond memories of dreaming about what might happen next, the story in fact should be a book as well as a game, I would love to read it whilst on my bus ride to and thro form work and college. A story as immersing as FFIX is very hard to find.

Each character has a unique skill like Zidane can thief gold from his enemies; Princess Garnet has the ability to use White magic and Summon. I won’t say nothing more on this matter so as not to ruin the game any further.

So yeah you probably guessed this game is freaking awesome, so awesome in fact that I am just about to go complete it the 100^th time.

So with that I am going to rate this game and then leave you to do the right thing, GO BUY THE GAME.

 

99% This games only flaw is that it is easy to lose the plot, other than that the entire game is perfect.

WipEout HD review

Wait, there are two ways I can do this there is the right of writing a review and a wrong way and nearly everybody does it the wrong way, I believe al video game reviews should be told through expressions from the moment you turned the game on.

I promise there will be limited spoilers,

From the moment you turn the game on you are blinded by the sheer brightness of the game which will later only be dubbed as amazing, because once you get over the bright white light, you see a game with more detail than a Vincent Van Goth painting. The races are phenomenal with each race being different, I started of going in the race box which has a menu to create your own matches on any level you want, I went on speed lap and bloody hell I was hooked, considering I was racing against myself this is my favourite part of wipEout, racing against myself has never been so satisfying. Basically you are doing a maximum of 99 laps on any chosen course and you have to beat your own lap time THATS IT, no special gimmick no more no less just simplicity at its best.

Next I decided to go on the campaigns which is like a grand prix except there’re extra challenges such as beating a particular time limit on a course or just completing as many zones as possible but the best by far was the time trial one where I’m just beating set time, this is most fun due to my recent addiction to speed lap, there not the only challenges you have to complete though there are also the classic races with all the classic weapons and more. The weapons are absolutely fantastic I will only reveal the a few though because I believe saying to much is like telling someone what happens at the end of a book (I hate that) so yeah like I said not to many spoilers unless you ask me. The weapons that remain well three of the ones I will mention are the speed up where you just go really quickly, autopilot (the name speaks for itself) and mines where you just lay ten mines onto the unfortunate victim behind you.

Now let’s not forget that there is of course an online mode which in mode wise, is split in to two categories there is the single race which consists of one race at a time until the host or hostess gets bored or there is the tournament which is many a race at once based on how many points you have after the set races will determine you rank in which I mean the person with the most points gets placed at the top and the person with the least amount of points is at the bottom (what a noob). The online races are fantastic with no slow down to have caught my immediate attention the only problem with the online is that some people have been having races with more than 50 friends and have had their stats wiped clean.  This hasn’t happened to me I just thought I would let you know.

The next thing I decided to do was browse the in game menu it has all the standard options such as music volume etc, but the thing that caught my eye was that you can take pictures while playing so if you are having an awesome race and you narrowly avoid a set of mines only for the guy next to you to take the damage then you press pause select the photo option and take the picture, but and this is a BIG but there are many options (bet you thought it was a bad but) such as setting the focus and screen blur these are fantastic extras which really brings out the creativity of gamers. The only problem with it is that sometimes you can’t pause the game fast enough maybe I’m to slow (chuckles to himself) but the fun does not stop there either.

Next I started earning trophies which is really something that has turned into a hobby for me, because the trophies bring so much more life into a game that is so close to being perfect it is scary, and even though wipEout is my favourite racing franchise, this won’t stop me from having little digs at the game (it’s fun).

Firstly this game is WAY too cheap 11.99 for a game with the PS3s most gracious graphics and amazing game play not to mention they practically threw in online for free. Also what is with the option to play your own music from your PS3 instead of the music it came packaged with its like they want you to stop listening to it. Not to mention the fact that you can play the game using motion sensitive controls and if you don’t like that you can even custom the sensitivity of the control to make it more easy for you. Geez sometimes I feel like I should be paying at least £25 for this but if they say £11.99 then I suppose we better get used to this price range.

So due to the absurd price and extra I find it only fitting that I give this game…

 

97% due to the 50 player fiasco and the fact that it nearly blinded me at the beginning.

Thanks for reading

Written by

Jamie Selby

Watch the video review hear