Batman: Arkham City Review for Xbox 360 and PS3

     Well, Arkham Asylum won game of the year and one game of the year always deserves a sequel, am I right? At least Rocksteady and Warner Bros thought it did. Getting to release was sort of haphazard towards the end with the intentional spoilers and the announcement that Catwoman, who was touted from the beginning as a key feature of the game, was now locked out of the game as $10 DLC, unless you bought the game new, just 4 days from release.

     I dunno, I was a fan of Arkham Asylum even though it took me a second playthrough to really get a more positive feel for it. I'm a rather large Batman fan, not in the sense of having an extensive background knowledge of the comics (Though I've dabbled here and there in some ****ing awesome stories (Hush, anyone?)), but rather that he's been my favorite hero since I could walk. Arkham Asylum took a bit for me to catch on to so I was only mildly excited for the sequel and was hoping that there'd be more villains and more polished combat mechanics. I don't have enough money to buy every game that comes out though, so I had to play it without Catwoman since I use Gamefly. Let's get down to what I thought of it.

Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood Review for the Xbox 360 and PS3

     Assassin's Creed 2 (AC2) saved the series for me. It updated the game in just the right way so that everything worked mostly the way it was supposed to the first time around. The story was also very character-driven and delivered several hours worth of varying gameplay. But then, it was given plenty of time to change for the better.
     What's going on with the series now is that Ubisoft wants their AC team to produce a game every year. Most games take several years to make from scratch with some series being able to pump out a sequel in about 2 years using the same, updated engine. But what you get with those sequels are improvements for the series, worthy additions that create new, staple mechanics or features for that game. With that in mind, when Ubisoft touted releasing this game only a year after AC2 and all they wanted to talk about was the new multiplayer mode, I was completely put off and I never picked it up. My thoughts were that AC shouldn't be about multiplayer and I didn't believe Ubisoft was a capable enough developer to pull off a complete, hazard-free game in one year.
     Now, Revelations is on it's way out and I've heard very mixed things from longtime fans of the series saying that Brotherhood was either very decent or a letdown so I thought it would be time to play the game for myself and draw my own conclusions. Allow me to shed some light on the release. Also, in this review I'm going to assume you've played the previous Assassin's Creed games or at least know a fair bit about them. This sequel isn't exactly a departure from what the series has been doing thus far.

Fable 3 Review for Xbox 360.

Fable 3 review for xbox 360.

There's one thing that Peter Molyneux is good at, and that is hyping his games up without meaning too. Fable is one of the most well-known RPG (lite) series on consoles. With Fable 2 being a satisfying, albeit simplistic, approach to an open-ended RPG/life-sim surely it was a case of building upon a solid foundation? After all, Mr. Molyneux had promised so much for Fable 3. Morphing weapons in real-time, touch mechanics with towns-folk and much more. Has it lived up to the hype? Read on!


STORY & PRESENTATION

+ Well, the story is a large improvement over that of the 2nd game (not exactly difficult). You play as the son of the Hero from the 2nd game and it is upto you as the son to discover that you are also a hero as your father before you. Events do follow on loosely from Fable 2 without ever having to re-tread old ground which is a blessed relief. Events quickly unfold and before you know it, you're building an army in order to take the crown from the Hero's tyrannical brother (although all is not what it seems).

= The good thing about Fable 3's characters is that they are genuinely interesting and you do form an attachment to certain characters. Having said that, the characters you meet don't have much of a chance to develop, nor do they impact the story in any significant or meaningful way.

SOUND

+ Without doubt this is Fable 3's strongest aspect. With the exception of some repeating music, Lionhead Studio's should be applauded for their sterling work on the voices and scripting. Parts of the game are genuinely funny to listen to and help add to the whimsical charm of the game overall. One of my favourite parts (spoilers ahead) is when you help a trio of wizards play a table-top RPG!! I'll say no more than that but it was definitely a highlight for me (I'll certainly have new respect for chickens)!

GRAPHICS

- Well, it certainly looks nice but it is NOT a huge graphical leap. I know the old adage of "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" will be mentioned by some but for me there was definite room for improvement from Fable 2. Some of the textures can be quite bland, pop-up is infrequent but still present while slow-down and frame-rate issues popped up more times than they should during my playthrough. The real crime about these issues is that they happen when there's not much happenning on-screen so it's very baffling.

GAMEPLAY

- Well, where to start on this subject. To be honest, as much as I enjoyed myself for a while, I felt the game lacked any form of focus. Did Lionhead want an RPG? A life-sim? A simple action adventure? Fable 3 seems very unsure of itself and ends up spreading itself too thinly over several differing genres instead of focusing on a few to strengthen its appeal.

- Combat has also remained very simplistic (to the point of absurdity). Hammering the 'X' button will allow you to swing your sword/hammer, the 'Y' your guns and 'B' your magic. Fighting never feels fluid and you can quickly exploit the stupid A.I to stand in one place whilst you pick them all off. The levelling system is replaced by 'The Road to Rule'. This is where you earn Guild Seals to unlock chests that will make you stonger in different areas (magic, melee, ranged). Again, it's far too simplistic and does not live upto the promises made during the initial development of this game. Also, character/monster design is severely lacking. With only a handful of designs for both friend and foe, there is a horrible sense of apathy from the art-design team.

- There are plenty of weapons in the game but only half of them are available in your 1st playthrough, the rest have to be traded online (what about people who don't have internet?). Lionhead have only included 6 magic spells in the game and even though you can combine 2 different spells, you don't need anything else apart from Shock+Fireball to completely dominate with magic.

- You can get married, have children and buy property but the only useful one of these is the property as it gives you a steady income to buy weaponry & items. To get married, you have to befriend someone first which, in turn, means talking/dancing/hugging them until they give you a menial quest to do to earn their friendship. Why am I limited to so few expressions and actions? What happenned to the expression wheel from Fable 2?

- The quests are un-imaginative and repetitive and only serve to highlight the flaws in this game. The glowing trail makes its re-appearance in Fable 3 and will guide you (sometimes) to your next quest objective. I say sometimes though as it can dis-appear completely or lead you to a previous quest or even the long way around. Quick travel is anything but that as you cannot pin-point whereabouts in a town you wish to go to. You're transported to the general area and then made to run the rest. Why?

- You can gain employment to earn extra gold if you so wish. Pie-making, Iron Smith or Lute Hero........yes Lute Hero.......I'm not making it up!! Fun for 5 minutes before tedium sets in or the frame-rate cocks your timing up and resets your gold multiplier!! Just stick to buying and renting property!!

OVERALL

Despite all its flaws, I have enjoyed Fable 3 albeit only for the story and voice-acting. Lionhead have really shot themselves in the foot by promising so much change and delivering a watered-down version of said promises. Simplistic combat, mediocre RPG elements and a Sims-style approach to interaction are things that could've and definitely should've been rectified before this games release!! Roll on Fable 4!!

IS IT WORTH BUYING?

Sadly no. It's worth a rental at best. There are just too many things that make the game feel rushed and unfinished as a whole.

Fable 3 was developed by Lionhead Studios. Published by Microsoft Game Studios.

Castlevania: Harmony of Despair Review for the Xbox 360

    When it comes to this new release in the Castlevania family, I've never been more disappointed with gamers' reactions to it. A lot of it actually seems to stem from playing the game like a ****ing noob. I'm extremely opinionated on this topic thanks to things like previews and reviews from "gamers" on Youtube, the majority of which only played the demo or chose to play this as their first Castlevania game. Mainstream reviews haven't helped it along either as they slashed the game's score to bits. In fact, it seems hard to get a true opinion from someone who actually TRIED the game. Well here we go, I played the game for 40 hours strong, and I'm still going. I got both the Castlevania noobie and fan in mind, so here we go!

+ Tell me how it feels! - Imagine an arcade version of Castlevania and that's just what Harmony of Despair is. It's Castlevania without the story and giant castle maps. It introduces you to the boss at the beginning of each level and it's up to you to discover how to reach the boss and figure out the other nuances inbetween. 

     Compared to the other games in the series, the gameplay is a bit more sluggish. It's similar to going from Devil May Cry 3 to Ninja Gaiden; You feel sort of cemented in your animations compared to what feels like a free-flowing ballet of attacks. Attacks feel slower as does just walking around the castle. You get used to it pretty quick though and there's never even a second thought about the sluggish feel after that. For the new player, it helps them focus on the smaller details of battle and platforming, introducing complicated mechanics that have been series staples in a slower, simpler fashion. It's a good idea since it doesn't pull down the vets and helps the new ones move along together.

     And finally just some odds and ends: You don't gain levels, you obtain new equipment and perform actions with each respectable character to make them stronger. How to do that exactly, you'll need to play each one and find out for yourself. In Multiplayer, Loot is given to every player (given that they haven't died and been turned into a skeleton) and every character is given equipment specific to the item set of that character i.e. If Charlotte and Jonathan are working together and they open a chest, Charlotte will get an item belonging to her and Jonathan will get an item belonging to him. 

+ Our heroes come together to battle evil! - Jonathan! Charlotte! Soma! Shanoa! Alucard! They're working together and combining their skills in ways that, surprisingly, work! Honestly, you gotta wonder if they had this game in the works since the release of Dawn of Sorrow. All of the characters work so differently from one another yet work together in perfect harmony. Also, breaking down one character and their specific set of mechanics to build them up to an unstoppable force can take hours upon hours! It's a bit more addictive and fun than it sounds, I promise. Every character gains potential in a different way and playing with others online will make you want to burn the midnight oil to get them all performing at 100% perfection. There's talks of DLC to bring Maria Renard and Julius Belmont which tickles my desire to master more characters. Be warned: You will be addicted.

+ Six heads are better than one - In multiplayer, up to 6 players can traverse through the castle maps at a time. The difficulty of those maps are scaled depending on the number of players present in the map. I gotta say, when you have a full party and the character selection is diverse between you, the game feels like the ultimate crossover of heroes pulling together to destroy evil. There's a constant desire to pull through for the rest of the group and make your hero shine and become their best. And no worries about lag, it's basically non-existent.

- The noobs... - Noobs are annoying. Noobs approach every situation with a mindless solution regardless of whether there's a more useful one right in front of them. Unfortunately, this generation of gamers have not grown up on platformers and they have NO idea what they're doing and they chose a rather difficult game as their first platformer/Castlevania game. Unfortunately, there are troves of these noobs on the game and you can tell that the reviewers of the game are noobs as well, reporting some bosses as difficult asses. Here are some tips to avoid being a noob:

• Choose a simple character: Too many people use a character that's no good for their skill level. This is mostly true for girls since they want to choose Charlotte and Shanoa since they're girls. This is a dumb notion and should be snuffed. Charlotte and Shanoa are for advanced players. If you're not doing well with a character or you can't figure out their growth, switch to another. There are five to choose from. Here's a list of the players so you know who to go for when starting out:

1. Alucard: Simple use. Good for beginners. Medium growth over time, maybe a bit too slow for most.
2. Soma: Easy use. Also good for beginners. Medium growth over time, introduces different powers and feels rewarding right at the get-go and beyond.
3. Jonathan: Good for understanding the way the game works. Super slow growth so I wouldn't recommend sticking with him for too long unless you get attached to his style. Making him stronger is for the determined and patient, though.
4. Charlotte: Advanced. Unless you work on her strength in single player, she will never be worth a dime in a group. Grind, grind, grind.
5. Shanoa: Advanced. She gets nothing to work with until the later stages. Before then, she's not worth it unless you know what you're doing. If you do, you'll be rewarded early on but there isn't a whole lot of variation with her play, so she'll get stale soon after use.

• Double Jump: You have two jumps. Learn to use them. You jump once, and at the height of that jump, jump again. Some situations may call for more distance than height so delay the second jump to accrue more distance.

• Bosses: DO NOT MINDLESSLY ATTACK A BOSS. This is an old-school platforming-action game. Bosses have patterns. Focus on those patterns. Only attack when you know you're out of harm's way. Most of the time, the safe spot is behind the boss. If you get demolished by an attack, learn the signal for the attack and think about how it can be dodged (Can you slide under it? Can you heel-stomp the boss to get behind them?). If you get hit by something, work on figuring it out so that you don't get slammed by the attack again. There is a way to dodge every attack and most of them very easily. If you continue to get pummeled, you're not paying attention.

• Puppet Master: ATTACK THE PUPPET, NOT THE MASTER. The Puppet Master (Master of Illusions) uses iron maidens with a summoned puppet to transport you into in the iron maiden either killing you or bringing you to the brink of death. These puppets have no health. They are destroyed by a certain number of hits that increases depending on the number of players in the party. The number of hits is based upon the attack speeds of all characters in play so 3 players cannot destroy a puppet for a 5 player team. All 5 must attack. When traversing through the level, push crates in front of iron maidens. When the Master leaves the boss room, stop attacking, look at your map (you have lots of time) and figure out what iron maiden he's headed for. Get there and wait for him. If you don't get there first, he can actually block you from reaching the puppet so really, get there first or you're all dead.

• Pay attention: Please don't go on autopilot. That's what a bad Castlevania player does. If your whole party is doing something, maybe they're doing something you should be doing too. If you know better than them, don't follow the lemmings off the cliff. By the way, attacking the Puppet Master while everyone is attacking his puppet means you're being an idiot. Play smart, not rushed. If you can't get hit, you can't die and it won't matter how long the boss is alive. 

+ Good times - There's a 30-minute timer on every run in a level. I've heard the complaints and whatnot. They're all completely unfounded. Playing solo you can take your time grabbing every chest, killing every monster, and defeat the boss with time still leftover. If you ever run out of time, it's likely that you really had no sense of how to get around the stage but that really only applies to people who have never played a game like this before, and since the levels are meant to be played again and again, it doesn't really matter if you run out of time. 

     Other than that, it's a great built-in timer for speed-runners, it keeps some form of pressure on players to keep moving, and since it subtracts 3 minutes from the clock if you die as a skeleton, it keeps people from being a hero and making stupid decisions. It's a really small addition to the game that seems like it could make the game worse or not matter at all, but it does serve a purpose to keep the game going whether you know it's there or not.

Story and Presentation

- This is not the story you are looking for... - There's really no story here. It's just an excuse for the action


- I'm so confused! - The menus can be confusing. After you get used to them, it doesn't really affect you but just jumping into the game, you could be confused about where to go to do what. Clarity on these menu options should've been present and I'd make the call to say it was lazy that it was absent.

= Skin and bones - The presentation is nothing flashy but it still manages to feel like Castlevania. More effort would've been nice.

Graphics

= Reduce, Reuse, Recycle! - All sprites and backgrounds are brought over from the DS games. They look fine on the TV though. It just would have been cool if they had remade the sprites with a little extra detail since this is an HD title and high definition is the name of the game. I still enjoy all of the visuals regardless.

Sound

+ REMIX!!! - They took many different Castlevania themes and remixed them into high-quality works of art. Music to my ears so to speak. They even let you customize the game soundtrack with over 30 remixed and reworked Castlevania tunes.
     Adding to that, all of the sound effect samples and voice work are crisp and superbly recorded. 

Should you buy?

     Buy it if you've been a lasting fan of the franchise. Please, if this is your first Castlevania title, don't play this game. At least not yet. Purchase Castlevania: Symphony of the Night on the Marketplace and use that as your first romp through the franchise.
     There's LOTS of replay value and even some future DLC in the works so it goes way beyond it's $15 asking price. Unless you're a spoiled gamer, it's hard to be disappointed with what Castlevania: Harmony of Despair has to offer.

Castlevania: Harmony of Despair was developed and published by Konami for the Xbox Live Arcade Marketplace. Played over 40 hours and generally mastered each character available aside from Alucard.

Megaman Zero Collection Review for the Nintendo DS

     When this game was first announced, it was supposed to be Japan only. I wished and hoped and PRAYED it would finally come to our shores! The gaming gods smiled down upon us and finally delivered. You get all four Megaman Zero games packed perfectly unaltered inside of one cartridge. Considering that Megaman Zero was one of THE best series on the Gameboy Advance, this is a collection not to be passed up. And being that I only had the first one, I was totally in for a treat.

Gameplay

+ The “Devil May Cry” of handhelds - Pure, unadulterated speed and destruction. Never are you standing still, it’s just a constant push to the end of the stage until your final showdown with the residing boss of the area.

     Like the Megaman X games, you have your dash and wall-climb abilities, Zero’s sword and Megaman’s buster (although it’s just a pistol in these games). Basically you play through a stage as fast as possible, taking as little damage as you can manage. As you dash through the stage, you’ll end up using the sword to slice through enemies, watching their bodies separate as they explode in the wake of your speed and mercilessness. SUCH A RUSH! It just has that “Devil May Cry” feel to it when it comes down to the speed and precision of everything. If only they transplanted Dante's personality into Zero... Hmm...

+ Tough as nails, smooth as butter - First time going through each title, you’ll be dying endlessly as the waves of enemies, level design, and bosses just don’t give a **** about your wellbeing. If you stop out of frustration though, you’ll be missing out. Fighting through the frustration to complete every level is what makes you a better, more confident, and precise gamer. Playing this collection is an opportunity to prove your worth.

      After you go through a level once successfully, you know how it’s done; when to dash, to jump, and to slash. It gives you the opportunity to transform yourself into a total bad-ass as you ambush baddies before they even appear on the screen. Going through the stage again after that, you get to try for the high S ranks, awarded only to those with the best speed, enemies destroyed, damage taken and items collected. It’s HARD to S-rank and if you manage to receive one, it’s because you really deserve it and you worked hard memorizing every step and rhythm of the level.

= A mode for all mankind - So the games are just way too hard for you. Fine. Lucky for you, there’s a continuous mode where you play through all four games without breaking up the story and every game is set to an easy difficulty. I wouldn’t recommend this unless you really can’t push yourself to make it through the rough difficulty or you’re in a supreme rush and you just want to know the story. It’s much more worth your time to just fight through each game and show it what’s for. BE A WO/MAN! It would have been really cool if you could have adjusted the difficulty for continuous mode.

     As a plus though, if you go through on easy and learn the layouts of the levels, normal will become much easier. At least it should…

+ Weapons cache - The main weapons available in each title only get better through every game. You have the Z-saber, buster, shield boomerang, and triple rod. Most of the time, you’ll only use the Z-saber but there really isn’t a drawback from using everything else. It really depends on how you want to play. The shield can reflect bullets and be tossed about the screen like a saw blade on a boomerang and the triple rod can be extended three times (you’ll stab in one of 8 directions and you can attack two more times while increasing the strength and reach of the rod), you can jump and stab downwards to bounce on enemies, and you can charge for a rod-spin attack to negate any bullets. I preferred the Z-saber for dash-cuts and spin-slashes; it was just more speed-oriented and that's how I roll, pardon the pun... Get it? Roll, Megaman, his sister?...


+ The way a sequel is meant to be - Every next installment of the series improves on the last at the same time as succeeding at trying to do something new. Megaman Zero 4 was really good but after hitting its plateau with Megaman Zero 3, the series was bound to begin losing steam. Luckily enough, it seems like they recognized that and gave the fourth installment to the fans as a last hurrah. Every one of the games are incredibly awesome and it pays to go through them in order. Jumping around to whatever title can cause you to perform poorly since they evolve the gameplay formula in each title so drastically. The Megaman Zero series on the GBA is a great example to the rest of the industry on how to constantly build and improve on something already so successful.


Story and Presentation

= Am I good or bad? - The tale woven through the four titles is a story of Zero kind of figuring out who he is. Is he a savior of mankind or is he really just a tool of destruction gone rogue for the moment. While the stories aren't incredibly deep, it's holds your interest enough to actually wonder what might happen in the next game and how the series will conclude.


+ Humans or robots... Does it matter? - Reploids have been cast out from the society of humans and it seems, in the role of Zero, that you are protecting them from a genocide of their kind. There are reploids who protect the humans in their utopia and form assaults on helpless, outcast reploids. When you kill the attacking reploids though, instead of just feeling that you destroyed a machine, they split apart, showing their insides and motion their bodies in a reactionary pose of pain. You destroyed a sentient being, not merely a machine. Making observations between the morals and ethics of how artificial lifeforms should be treated are part of what makes the series interesting. It's also alluring to be aware of such violence even though the game is hardly that gratuitous.


= Don't judge a book by it's cover - While all of the artwork for the Megaman Zero series has been nothing but AWESOME, there seems to be a lack of focus in the look of the game's menus. Kinda lets me down since I feel like the game deserves a blaring fanfare for its achievements of being such a bad-ass action game but the games tend to speak for themselves. I guess it keeps the unwanted demographics from a gem... Whoever those demographics are... I wanted more artwork! *weeps*


Sound


= Just enough - The soundtrack can be good at times but I seem to get a much larger rush from playing using my own music. I'd suggest you do the same. If not though, no worries. Nothing ever hurt anyone's ears while playing.


Graphics

= You look good for your age - For whatever they lack in any technical area, they make up for with great artwork. At times, it comes of as visually simplistic but it does what it needs to to stay aesthetically pleasing. Luckily, it still holds up today, avoiding a visual style that plagues old Playstation games.


Should you buy it?


     YES! A large, emphatic YES! There's so much bang for your buck with this collection! You get 4 full games in their original form to play through and the gameplay is fitting for small sittings or lengthy run-throughs. If you're a fan of action games, or if you want something new to play on your DS, or both, I can't imagine that there exists any reason that you haven't picked this up. Go out and buy it, NOW!


Megaman Zero Collection was developed by Inti Creates and Natsume and published by Capcom for the Nintendo DS. Completed the entire collection and attempted the various difficulties and S-ranks clocking in at a playtime over 20 hours.

Lego Harry Potter review for Xbox 360 and PS3

     Take one of the most well-known children's toy and mix it with one of the most well-known characters in fiction and what do you get? A bloody good game! :-)

GRAPHICS AND PRESENTATION

= Nothing to see, move along! - All Lego games have the same graphics engine so there's not much to shout about really, although the Hogwarts school is fantastically recreated in the Lego universe. All the characters from the books are here in there toy form and, for the most part, are instantly recognisable.

+ I know that place! - As mentioned above, Hogwarts is recreated extremely well in-game but it's not just the school that has had the attention. The surrounding grounds, hallways, gardens and general background feel like they've been ripped from the pages of one of the novels. Paintings wave at you as you walk past, students perform spells, Quidditch players fly in the background. A very nice touch indeed.

SOUND

= Errrrmmmmmmm....! - I'm not sure what I was expecting here as I've played all the other Lego games enough to know what the music is like in these games. The Harry Potter theme music is present and correct whilst each specific section of the game ie: the Dark Forest has the appropriate music. It just feels a little......repetitive.

+ Zap! Crunch! - The SE's in this game are, as usual, spot-on. Although none of the characters talk, you are easily able to recognise the emtions conveyed on-screen via their mannerisms and strange grunt-noises.

GAMEPLAY

- Anyone got a map?! - Okay, I know Hogwarts is a magical place but bloody hell!! Did they have to make it so hard to find your way around?! There's no map and the school is a big place. Each door seems to lead somewhere although for the first few hours, you're never quite sure where. A ghost character leads you through the school for the main missions but other than that, you're on your own. Not great!

= So many spells, so few useful ones! - There are well over a dozen different spells to learn and buy in the game. Yet, all the ones you purchase in the shops are pointless, useless and redundant. The ones you do learn, however, are quite fun to use and you will have to know your Wingardium Leviosa from your Expecto Patronum!

+ How big?! - This is, by far, the biggest Lego game to date. With a masive hub world (where you can return to buy characters, spells etc), huge school + grounds to wander, bonus levels, character tokens to find, cheats to unlock, spells to test there really is a lot to do. And yet it never feels repetitive in a way that you get bored. :-) There are 167 characters, 20 or so cheat/power bricks to find, 200 gold bricks and that's on top of the main story missions of which there are 4 years. Each year is based upon a seperate book and is then broken up into 6 levels. So, 24 main story missions, which you can re-visit to unlock more stuff later on! Perfect. :-)

= Familiar territory. - The gameplay is similar (as expected) to many of the other Lego games. Enter a room, destroy stuff, build something, move on. Not a bad formula by any means but it is getting a bit samey. But then again, it's Lego, what are you gonna do with it if not build it?

Should you buy it?

I reckon so, yes! This really is a great value-for-money game and a worthy addition to the Lego game franchise. Easy enough for kids and addictive enough for adults.

Lego Harry Potter was developed by TT Games and published by Warner Bros. Hours played: 35+ (all offline). Review is based on the Xbox 360 version.

Achievement difficulty: 3/10. They're not difficult by any means but it'll take you a while (30+ hours) to get them all.

Style Savvy Review for Nintendo DS

     I HAD to give this game a shot! With such high review scores and recommendations, I was pretty enticed to try out this fashion game. And besides that, I was already interested when I found out that it was a fashion game that didn't play down to it's audience. It treats you like a person, not a generic 8 year-old girl that likes Barbie dolls. So here's what I got out of my experience:

= Try this on for size! - Here's the barebones of Style Savvy: Look at your customer's personality and clothing style and try to match it. That's it! Unfortunately, it didn't really work for me. I don't think anyone really knows that I secretly love women's clothes. I also have no better way of wording that sentence either at the moment! I mean it in the sense that I love the way women look in different fashions. It seems so much more fun than what guys tend to have going on. I looked forward to playing since I think that I may have a good eye for what goes with what to make an attractive outfit. I wanted to have my own store and sell styles that I liked. That's what any fashion store would do, right? You don't go to Hot Topic to find stuff you'd see at Abercrombie and Fitch (Their clothes don't breathe worth a damn by the way). Unfortunately, that's not what you get with Style Savvy and it was a bit disappointing.
     You get your own store and you get to choose what kind of fashions it sells, what the front of the store looks like, and even the music of your shop! None of this seems to factor into what kind of customers you get. I ran a boho-chic shop (Think indie, earthy wear) and I kept getting teenyboppers and elite class women. I went out of my way to make sure the game recognized what kind of clothes I wanted to sell but it just wouldn't give me the right customers.

+ Maybe this is more you? - There is a bit more depth to the game than I've seen with a couple of other fashion-oriented games, not that I've played any though. There's a bit too much to go through and they'd all get small explanations anyway so lets just shoot right through what else Style Savvy offers.

• Hard Sells - Just because someone wants what they asked for doesn't mean you have to give it to them. Sometimes someone just wanted a prissy mini-skirt but you just don't have it. Offer them something else that might compliment they're current attire or personality and you might rope them in to try something new. 

• Fashion Shows - You can enter into fashion shows to win premium clothing pieces and gain recognition for your store. They're incredibly easy to win though, I can't say that I felt like my competitors were even trying.

• Guest Designer - A company can hire you to design a piece with one of their own stylists but the only thing you can do is change two colors of specific designs on the clothes. Kind of a missed opportunity right there because how cool would it be is you could really just make your own designs?

• Customize The Store - You get to choose the looks, the sounds, and the styles of your store as well as making your own mannequin displays, creating advertisement flyers, and declaring sales.

• Magazine Features - At times, you can be interviewed for a magazine article where you can show them one outfit and two additional pieces of clothing to show off. I didn't get interviewed more than once and customers were constantly asking for what was featured in the article when I could no longer acquire them.

• Seasonal Outfits - The styles that you can buy actually change around the year.

• Interact With Other Store Owners - You can connect to the internet to obtain exclusive fashion items and receive flyers from other players to shop at their stores. For a game like this, this specific feature is genius to me. 

- Sorry, I wanted leather, not pleather - For all that it does to vary the gameplay, there's just so much that it fails to fully deliver on which sucks because there's so much potential! The more you play it, the more you begin to see that the whole game is just based on giving clothes to picky NPC's. I expected more from Style Savvy.

- The Fashion Police have arrived - I wanted self-expression. I wanted to dress up women and I wanted to influence the styles of my new customers that were looking for something different or to change the perspectives of those who think certain clothes and colors can't mix. It wasn't here. I mean, it is but it follows a method that takes creativity and passion to a more mechanical level. Don't mix brands even if the clothes go together, don't work with customers who don't want what you have, it's the design of a game with the goal of attaining a win with no reward at the finish line. Animal Crossing is a good example of what this game should have been with it's surprise events, constantly changing cast, and rewards out the wazoo.

+ That is, like, so you! - Playing dress-up with your character is extremely varied, deep, and my favorite part of the entire game. There are so many styles when it came to the eyes, hair, lips, clothes, highlights, eyeshadow, you really get to make your character exactly how you want! While it's not on the same lines of customization available in a game like ModRacers on the PS3, it's comparable to Little Big Planet's sackboy creation tools. A GREAT feature in a game such as this!

- I had no idea - They don't really help you in this game at all. If you have zero fashion sense, you're gonna have to figure it out for yourself because the game rarely ever clearly recognizes what you did right or wrong. There's no indicator for what goes together either except for brand names, colors, and common sense. I was asked to prepare an outfit for the customer many times and a bunch of them were flat out rejected. I have 7-9 items in that outfit and it could be literally one thing that makes the customer flat-out disgusted and she won't tell you what it is. To me, the outfit made complete, perfect sense but it didn't work according to the game's logic and it didn't care to illustrate why that was.
     Also, be sure to get a hold of the booklet because there were a few things that are immensely helpful to your success that are just never brought to your attention, things like expanding your inventory and gaining the ability to declare sales.

Story and Presentation

+ Made in Japan - You can tell from the aesthetics that it came from Japan. In fact, I believe this game was brought over to the states after becoming such a huge success overseas. It works really well for the game actually. It's got some aesthetics in common with the popular Bratz dolls and the design brings a lot of life to the game making everything feel happy and upbeat! While it might put off some potential buyers that aren't into things they shallowly cast off as "anime crap" I can't think of a better look for Style Savvy.

= Oh. Em. Gee. He JUST looked at me! *scream* - As you start to branch off into your own store and strive to become the best stylist internationally, you are basically being pimped by a dude named Dominic who is oh-too-cute! He pays for your store and helps you finance things as you go along. Your co-worker won't stop gabbing about how cute he is though and sometimes it can get annoying but it never really bothered me. That's about all the story there is though.

Sound

- You missed a beat... - The soundtrack is horrendous. I dunno how many people it's likely to affect but it's looping began to aggravate me. Past that, there's nothing good to hear or anything that adds to the experience really so I suggest turning the volume down. All the way.

Graphics

= Not so Haute Couture... - It ain't pushin' any limits but it does what it needs to to serve the style they're goin' for.

Should you buy it?

     No, at least, not for yourself anyway (that is if you're the stereotypical, hardened gamer that desires complicated mechanics). But I would advise any and all gamers to not hesitate whatsoever in getting this game for any girl you know that is into the whole fashion scene or loves dress-up. I'd say the perfect age for this game would be in the 12 and up area. And if you're looking to get a girl into gaming at all, I'd be inclined to say that they might learn a thing or two through Style Savvy that someone else might learn through an action game or an rpg. I may actually write up an article on that sometime, we'll see. Otherwise, a rent could definitely not hurt if you've ever been interested in something along these lines. I did enjoy my time with the game as a whole for the most part.

Style Savvy was developed by syn Sophia and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo DS. Played for 12+ hours and got my store "Neptune*" up to a three-star store rating.

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night Review for Xbox 360 and PS3

     Maybe you've heard of a little series that goes by the name of Castlevania? Despite it's following and the great record of it's titles, I'm always surprised to find that there are so many gamers that don't know a thing about it! Well now there should be no reason to know nothing of this great series! Castlevania: Symphony of the Night is on the PSN (PlayStation Network) and XBLA (Xbox Live Arcade) marketplaces. This game was so well loved that all of the Castlevania games today use the same formula established in this 1997 PlayStation title.
     You see, Castlevania used to be a side-scrolling adventure game, pretty straight-forward. Symphony, however, changed up the game by using the exploration gameplay found in the beloved Metroid series, thus creating a new style of games dubbed, Metroidvania. It's a timeless game and in my opinion, it takes what Metroid does and does it even better. Here's the review for Castlevania: Symphony of the Night.

Gameplay

+ Simple, yet intricate - There's a jump button, a right and left attack button, and a back-dash button. That's it. and the game merely requires the use of only those four buttons. You can always go head-first at an enemy and succeed. It may be a little harder than observing all of your abilities at hand but you certainly don't need them which gives it appeal to those who aren't good with complicated controls. But there's another layer to it.

     Depending on the weapon you're using to attack, there's a certain amount of recovery before you can attack again. You're also stuck to the ground during that recovery. If you can be ingenious enough, there's a way around the recovery. If you attack while jumping, the recovery of the attack is reset when you hit the ground allowing you to jump and attack again or immediately attack when you hit the ground for a quick two hit combo. Eventually a flow is gained (YES!! FLOW!!!) and you'll find yourself hopping forward, slashing monsters out of the way as you speed on through. Even battles with tougher enemies become fast paced as you time your jumps and attacks to dodge their attacks and counter them quickly. 

     There are a lot more examples I could go through but figuring it all out is part of the fun and strategy of Castlevania. That tip up there is a key one to learn that's applicable to the rest of the Castlevania series.

+ How did I do that!? - One thing about certain games that I'm in love with is when they keep certain aspects a secret from you. You got frustrated with the game or got bored and just started mashing buttons and you accidentally did something you didn't know was even possible! There's a plethora of different commands you can perform with different weapons for secret attacks, secret magic spells you can perform, there are even different ways of getting around the environment if you can figure it all out. 

+ Left or right? - Alright, I love Metroid. It's fun, addictive, different. The only thing I don't like about it is that I never felt as compelled to explore the world as I would like to be. Symphony of the Night delivers on exploration and rewards curiosity in spades. It is rare to play a game that is so unbelievably rewarding and wrapped up in secrets. Break holes in walls to find secret weapons and rooms, find special switches that only appear to do nothing unless you have the spark of curiosity to investigate them, the surprises are never-ending. I mean, as scary as Dracula's castle is, it's so imaginative and exciting that you can't help but feel like you wish you could be there. It's hard to stop until you've uncovered every unexplored area in the game.

+ A pinch of RPG - Alucard (who you play as) is built up of various stats. These aren't stats you choose or influence the rise of but they are made up of numerical values and they affect certain aspects of the game. You can use items and equipment to raise specific stats for the duration of their use allowing you to work with stats that you personally find important. You also gain better stats as you level up from killing monsters. It's not a huge element to the game but it has just enough to make a difference in the way you go through the game.

+ How would you like to play? - There's a weapon for just about everyone's preference when it comes to dispatching the monstrosities within the castle, and being able to have a weapon assigned to one of two different attack buttons, you're free to customize the way you want to play. If you want to go through weak hordes at a fast pace, there are gauntlets. If you'd rather stay away from enemies, there's a spear. There are tonfas, wands, flails, maces, broadswords, ninja stars, it's all up to you! They all have different properties and work in different ways with their own secret attacks and everything! You'd be hard pressed to not find a weapon you can be happy with.

+ There's so much! - When you begin playing, you're gonna be sad when you realize you're close to the end. Luckily, the game has a few ways to extend the life of it's duration. When you've gone through the entire castle and you get to the first ending, I don't think you'll be satisfied with the results, and you shouldn't be. To get the real ending, you need to go through the inverted castle!!!! Not only is it just flipped upside down but there are new enemies, bosses, items, weapons, abilities, it's like a whole new game! And after that, you can go through the whole game as Richter Belmont, an older protagonist of the series, who utilizes the trusty Belmont whip and a completely new move-set. Believe me when I say playing with Richter is so different, it's like playing a new game. There's some amazing content and replayability here!

= Medusa Heads - I personally don't think it's a negative against the game but I gotta call out the Medusa Heads for being so irritating in the Clock Tower. They're such bitches that I guarantee everyone will have their own anger-filled rage-story the first time you run into them at a low level and get ripped apart by harpies. I'm not gonna be specific about why they're so irritating, I'm going to let you have the fun of finding out why. Enjoy!

Story and Presentation

+ Alucard will Kill. Dracula. - Dunno if that pun really worked out or not. Anyway, the story isn't exactly at Mass Effect's level but it is indeed a step up from Mario and Kirby games. Normally you play through the Castlevania games as the Belmonts, a family tasked through the generations with the slaying of the ever-immortal, Dracula. Symphony of the Night changes this up a bit by placing you in the shoes of Alucard, son of a human mother and Dracula, and Alucard is out for blood; His father's blood! 

     The game utilizes unique devices to propel the story forward that are always intriguing and unpredictable making a supremely simple story into an addictive fare.

+ "What is a human?" - The voice-acting is so cheesy you just can't help but love it! Sometimes it gets so ridiculous that you can't help but have a giggle. This is nowhere near being taken seriously but it is absolutely meant to be enjoyed.

+ Welcome to my castle... - This is Dracula's castle and you know it. The environment combined with the monsters and the soundtrack, they mix together to make the Reese's of gaming. The choice of exploration adds a lot to this title as well because the game didn't show you this and that, you discovered them. They didn't exist until you found them! From hideous creations, to rooms filled with eerie sequences making you wonder if you really saw what you just observed, they bring Dracula's castle to the forefront of your imagination. There's nothing like it out there. It's addictive, beautiful, harrowing, and creepy all at once and you can't stop wanting more!

+ Is there no end to them all!? - I could go on for days about all the great things of this game but I did want a shorter review and that's not what I'm getting at all! Just to touch upon a couple things very quickly: The bosses are crazy awesome! Some of them are straight-up cool and some, like Beelzebub and Granfalloon, are so repulsively sickening that they will never fade from a gamer's mind. EVER. 

     The diversity in enemies and their appearances are astounding. There's always a new monster to dispatch and a new strategy to formulate. You will always be on your toes and you will love every second of it.

     Finally, the art direction. Whoever came up with the concepts of all these monsters, locations and such, who I believe is Ayami Kojima, is an imaginative genius. Everything is so beautiful to look at and so detailed too! And that's saying something for a game with 13-year-old graphics!

Sound

+ GET OUT OF MY HEAD!!!! - That's you after playing this game. It's everyone after playing this game. The music is fantastic!!!! Symphony of the Night has some of the most treasured music in the history of games. So much atmosphere is added to the entire game through the soundtrack, every song becomes memorable. You'll be addicted and at times, you won't even want to leave the section of the castle you're in because it would mean the end of the song. Unfortunately, they stay with you which may cause you to lose sleep since the only way to get them out of your head is to keep playing the game.

= It's nice - The game's from 1997, what do you expect? The sound effects are what they need to be and that's that. It's not like they're blasphemous in quality.

Graphics

+ Like a fine wine... - It's a 2D game made up of pixel art. It's not really flexing much muscle but it more than makes up for it in subtle and detailed animations and it's diverse palette of colors. Every time I look at the game, I instantly gain a feel for it's moody architecture and atmosphere. I had no problem looking at this splattered across my HDTV. In fact, I think I'd feel maybe even a bit upset if the graphics were drastically updated from the original game. It's hard not to appreciate the visual detailing, the time and care that went into the way the game looks. It's a very beautiful game by my standards.

Should you buy it?

     Ok, I would say anything if it meant you purchasing and buying this game. This is a timeless masterpiece. It is by definition timeless! Really! It's on almost every top-games-of-all-time list out there and it won game-of-the-year from several different critics. I can't even think of one negative for the game. I played it back in 2007, beat it twice. I just went through it again and it is still just as good. 13 YEARS OLD AND IT IS STILL KICKING THE BUTTS OF THIS GENERATION'S GAMES!!!!

     I've recommended this game to so many people and they always blew it off because of several factors: They don't like scary-looking games, horror isn't their preferred genre, they don't like Dracula, they think it's just a dated game surrounded by false memories of nostalgia, I don't care what your reasoning is because it doesn't apply to Symphony of the Night. Any one of those people that finally caved and played it raved to me about how amazing it was. You will too but you just have to buy it first.

     One thing I do need to say though is that if you have a choice, get it for the system with the d-pad you like. If you can't, it won't make the game worse but it helps ease a little frustration that can come up from that. So buy it. NOW! BUY IT NOW! NOOWWW!!!!!1!1111!!!1!1!!!!1!

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night was developed and published by Konami. It is available for download on the PlayStation Network Store and the Xbox Live Arcade Marketplace for $10 (It's a steal!). Played for 13+ hours or so, got the true ending with 200.6% of the map complete and finished an entire run with Richter. 

BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger Review for Xbox 360 and PS3

Given the popularity of Steet Fighter 4/Super Street Fighter 4, many people overlooked and/or blatantly ignored a little 2D fighter called 'BlazBlue' from developer 'Arc System Works'. Given the fact that BB garnered very impressive review scores (rivalling that of SSF4) it was a mystery to me as to why many people weren't giving this game a go.

GRAPHICS + PRESENTATION.

+ Breath of fresh air. Unlike SSF4's 3D models, BlazBlue is a 2D fighter in the strictest sense. All the characters have been pain-stakingly hand-drawn in stunning detail. Each character is extremly diverse and fits the overall theme of the game. And BB is not rough around the edges either, being presented in glorious HD does nothing but make the game even more pleasing to the eye. Colours are incredibly vibrant and it feels like you're watching characters from an Anime/Manga film. Backgrounds are not ignored either. In fact, I would say that the backgrounds in BB are superior to those in SSF4 (and yes, that includes the SSF4 Hippo/Eclipse background)!

= Have we met before? For most people, BB's cast list looks very impressive (and it is). However, there are some similarities between BB and other 2D fighter ' Guilty Gear'. Although not detrimental to the game in any significant manner, it does raise the question about originality. This is, however, a small criticism is an, otherwise, superb looking game.

+ Pay attention! BB, unlike many other fighters, actually has a decent in-depth story behind it. All the fighters are inter-twined with each other which gives the game a feeling of depth that is often amiss in this genre. Every character has a colourful history and reason for fighting (rather than VF5's or DOA4's ambiguous story lines). To go into depth about the story would take a long time (and I'm at work, so my time is limited).

SOUND

+ What we know and love! Let's face it. No Japanese fighter would be complete without some crazy J-Rock! And BB doesn't dis-appoint. The theme music in each stage is a nice composition and mixture of original and jazzy rock tracks that suit the action down to the ground.


+ You said what?! What the hell? Good voice-overs in a fighting game!? Yep, both the Japanese and English voice-acting in this game are excellently implemeneted. It is cheesy at times but to be honest, that kinda adds to the charm as a whole. At the beginning of each round, certain characters will have different dialogue openings depending on who they face. My personal favourite without a doubt is Taokaka (a weird cat-lady). If she faces another female fighter called Litchi, she cries out "IT'S THE BOOBIE LADY!" Immature maybe, but it makes me laugh. :-)

- EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAARRRRGGGGHHH!!! Are the Japanese completely obssessed with making the death-screams of female characters as annoying as possible? Seriously! C. Viper and Chun-Li from SSF4 were bad enough!!!!

GAMEPLAY

+ Not for beginners! Yes, this is a plus point. To get good at Blazblue means you have to practice with your chosen character. Mashing 'Dragon Punch' motions will get you nothing a kick up the arse in this game. Combat itself is a satisfying and flashy affair with larger-than-life moves filling the screen. Occasionally it can get confusing but it's FUN!!! There is also a huge sense of satisfaction when you do connect with a move. Everything just feels fine tuned. From barrier bursts+cancels, mid-air dashes, instant blocking, counter attacks....everything fits superbly well.

= Not for beginners! Yep. Pretty much the same thing. Although BB is a purist's fighter, it can be very off-putting to newcomers. Accessability is not high on BlazBlue's priority list. The collector's edition does go someway to remedying this though by including a tutorial dvd that shows basics and advanced combos for all characters! :-)

- Is that everyone? Given the roster lists in current fighters eg: Tekken 6, SSF4, MK vs. DC, King of Fighters etc it's quite dis-appointing to see that there are only 12 fighters on offer in the whole game. As mentioned before, the characters are very original (no Shoto clones here) but it doesn't take long to grow tired of each character (especially online)!

= Plenty to do. BB doesn't scrimp on the game modes but nor does it do anything that hasn't been seen before. Arcade Mode, Story Mode (the best mode available), training, gallery and online.

- Oh look......another Jin player!! All it takes is for one person to start abusing certain move properties online before everyone realises they can get easy wins. One of the characters (Jin Kisaragi) is one such character. I played online for 3 hours solid, here's a true representation of the characters I faced:


Jin, Jin, Jin, Jin, Jin, Jin, V-13, Ragna, Jin, Jin, Tager, Jin, Jin, Arakune, Jin, Noel, Jin, Jin, Jin, Jin, Jin, Jin.


You get the point. Being beaten by a good Jin player is great but being beaten by a scrubby Jin who abuses certain moves because you can't counter online very quickly? It gets annoying. Character balance is great offline and it's recommended that this is how you play BB ie: against your friends OFFLINE.


SHOULD I BUY OR RENT?

I would defintely recommend buying this title. The production value is first class and you can see the attention to detail that has gone into creating this game. This is a worthy alternative to Super Street Fighter 4 and really doesn't deserve to be ignored.

BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger was developed by Arc System Works and published by Zen United (Aksys Games in the US). Hours played: 40+ (all modes beaten, all achievements unlocked). Review is based on the 360 version.

Achievement difficulty: 7/10. For the most part the achievements are enjoyable. The online achievements can be a bit of a grind so it's worth finding someone you can boost the achievements with.


Opinion:
C-C-C-COMBO BREAKER!!!!


     Our first opinion post! This is where you get a split take on the written review. Why an opinion? Well Simon's done a damn good job on this review so I don't think there's a need for a second one. There's just one thing I'd like to chime in on though. 
     Have you ever played fighting games and just felt that you weren't really good enough to tangle with the vets? Were the mechanics too much for you to grasp? Well BlazBlue is your game! The aim of BlazBlue has been to simplify the mechanics of the genre while retaining the depth of a complex fighter. There's no l/m/h. punches or kicks, just 4 simple buttons. You have the A, B, and C attack buttons and a special D button. 
     With the majority of the fighters, you can get an easy combo off just by pressing the first three in succession. The D button activates a character's "Drive" attack. The idea of the Drive is to allow newcomers to perform what would normally be a command special attack with just the push of a button. It's works 100% differently for every fighter and serves to also give an idea on how a certain character should be used. With such controls in place, it's easy for anyone to feel that they've really got the hang of the game and it instills great confidence. After that point, you will then be sent down the road of complex mechanics such as bursts and rapid cancels.
     So in my opinion, BlazBlue is indeed a fighter for beginners but also intricate enough for a hardened veteran of the genre. Go pick it up and have some fun!

-Ashton

Update: Production halts once again

     Alright, I'm off to a convention. I won't be back until Tues. We'll see if we get a review up then. I have a few I could do so all I have to do is just get to doing them!
     Right now we're also in the middle of hiring another reviewer! We've given him a game to play and he will write up a mock-review and I'll soon interview him and if he fits, he's in! Just to toss it out there, if you want to be a reviewer on the site, just message us. We only want more gamers. We'll set you up the same way we're doing for this gamer and we'll see if you fit.
     I also received a message from Wix about how to fix the site and it actually works. When I get back, I'll put everything as it should be and we'll be back to normal! Alright, I think I'm done with exclamation marks for the day. See ya soon!

-Ashton