Wild Arms 5 Review

• Name: Wild Arms 5  
• Platform: PS2 
• Release date: 8/28/2007  
• Current price: $14.99 
• Genre: RPG  
• Publisher: XSEED Games  
• Developer: Media Vision 
• Rating: T 
• Number of local players: 1 (No online multiplayer)

Story:
The story isn't worth talking about for too much. It's got a pretty standard JRPG story: A young kid is somehow tasked with saving the world from an evil society. He makes many friendships and rivalries along the way. The story of Wild Arms 5 is by the books, but that doesn't mean it's bad. But it won't win any awards for its story.


The game is very story driven, there are plenty of cutscenes and the voice acting is pretty good. It's believable. Making cutscenes entertaining to watch. Despite being by the books, the setting and theme of Wild Arms 5 is very interesting. Learning about the world of Filgaia is a good experience.

Graphics/Presentation:
The game is very polished. The graphics are smooth, detailed and technically impressive, especially for the PS2.

What else is there to say about the graphics?

The atmosphere of the game is also incredible. The game has an incredible soundtrack that reminiscent of the wild west. The character design is also really good in the same way.

Gameplay:
Wild Arms 5 (4 as well) by far has the most intuitive turn-based battle system I've ever played. (With Grandia coming in a close second)

Like most other JRPGs, the combat is a huge part of the game. And that's where Wild Arms 5 shines. The way the combat works is that the battle field is divided up into seven hexagonal regions, and you're allowed to have up to three characters on the field at a time. Characters are allowed to move into any other adjacent space as long as no enemy is in said space. You have to take positioning and spacing into account.

And whenever you heal allies, attack enemies, get poisoned by an attack or get a debuff that lowers your defense, the characters themselves are technically not being directly affected. It's the hex they're standing in that gets affected. For example, if you want to attack a certain enemy, if there are other enemies in the same hex, they'll also receive damage. Or when you lower an enemies defense, they can move to a different hex and no longer have their defense lowered. But anyone who moves into that hex will have their defenses lowered.

This is unlike any turn-based combat system I've ever played. I really like it. It's because knowing the enemies weaknesses and attack patterns isn't enough. You also need to take positioning into account. Having an organized battle field to move around in adds a really nice dynamic. Using hexes instead of a standard grid is also very innovative. This way you have to take more into account because enemies can attack you from multiple sides.

The verdict:
Wild Arms 5 is a very innovative and intuitive RPG. You'll have loads of fun with the dynamic combat system. Sometimes I find myself running around aimlessly looking for random encounters.

9/10

Name: Halo 4
Release date: November 6, 2012
Current price: $59.99
Genre: 1st person shooter
Publisher: Microsoft
Developer: 343 industries
Rating: M

Game Details

Connectivity

System Link 1 - 4

Content Download

Yes

Co-op Mode

Offline co-op 1 - 2 / Online co-op 1 - 4

Leaderboards

Yes

Number of Online Players

Online multiplayer 1 - 16

Number of Players

Offline players 1 - 4

Sound

Dolby Digital

Voice

Yes

(Resolution) wire compatibility VGA, Component, HDMI
Game is in full HD (HDMI, Component) but can be played through AV. (we recommend HD)

Good day fellow Spartans! Dark here with the official halo 4 review! Where to start?

The story has been something that has been keeping halo fans comeback for more ever since combat evolved. Good news; Halo 4 has the same butterfly wings flapping in your stomach as in combat evolved. The cutscene level in this game has set a new standard for shooters to come. Feeling has been hardwired into every step you take in your armor and every decision you make has underlying consequences down the road. When you awaken you are in a sea of covenant which you must dispatch as quickly as possible. Cortana keeps on your ass the entire time giving you objectives which to follow, but deep inside you feel lost. There is no bigger picture...kill. Kill the covenant. Repel and kill them all. The feeling once you land on requiem is one of confusion and then beauty. After climbing through the wreckage of battles cruisers and through a passage way you are brought into this amazing environment that really captures the beauty and detail put into this game. It was the first time during the whole Halo series I have felt so insignificant and scrambling to get my bearings and the confusion of having nothing to shoot at. You cant help but just look around. After a quick sprint down the path Cortana mentions that there may be a way to save her from thinking herself to death, but the key to all of this is Catherine Halsey. John now has his mission and races to contact the UNSC Infinity to make Cortana whole again. It is not an easy road for John as he is forced into conflict with an unknown race and must battle the very power that he was derived from....the forerunners. With Cortana put on the back burner John must now face this immediate threat to humanity.

Campaign Score 10/10

Multiplayer is one of the things that the halo faithful love. With all knew game modes like dominion, infinite slayer, and infection players will be happy for a long time. In Dominion you must capture and build base defenses. The more bases you control the more points your team gets! Infinite slayer rewards payers for performance to fill up a gauge which allows the player to call down weapons and support drops to improve their own and team performance. This aspect in slayer creates an ever changing game environment. Infection is now a different game mode with actual flood models and built in traits! The flood feel is as creepy as ever with crazy flood noises and abilities that would make anyones skin crawl. The game play is very clean and not blocky at all. Even little things like environmental damage were taken into consideration. I myself have played hours of Infinite Slayer and dont regret a minute of it!

Multiplayer is also 10/10
*DOUBLE KILL*

Spartan Ops is a Mini Campaign that keeps the campaign going on even after the game ends, not as John, but one of the many Spartan IIIs sent to the surface to gather intel on requiem. Spartan Ops has weekly episodes with missions for you to play through. The main thing this lacks though is substance, the lack of cutscenes for each independent mission makes it feel like something is missing and quite frankly does not make sense considering the amazing weekly episodes are supposed to immerse you in another world. I enjoy playing Spartan ops, but I dont feel personally connected. Somethings

Spartan Ops 6/10
No triple kill here.

Overall im still giving it a 10/10

Halo 4

HALO 4.......maybe ill decide to explain more when im out of my nerdgasm........IF YOU DONT HAVE IT GET IT! GET IT IMMEDIATELY!
This game reminded me of what true art is. The graphics and cutscenes and use of emotion was completely enthralling......I am nursing a semi right now..... 10/10...id give it an 11/10 if I could.

Amendment.....because its too mean to leave you in the dark.
Halo 4.... The campaign is honestly a work of art. It is very smooth. Not blocky at all. The graphics get a 10/10. The amount of options in this game to go about completing objectives is something that I love. The AI are tough nuts to crack and thankfully the guys at 343 give you the tools needed to crack them! (They didnt waste any time getting you familiar and in love with the new weapons) My first time in a Mantis made me smile from ear to ear and made my excitement that much more intensified.

~continued~
What I love about Halo 4 is the type of hook used in the story line; yes it is a continuation, but the way it lured you was a flash back to the butterflies of Halo:CE. It does this through beautiful story telling and mystifying graphics. One more thing is the mystery of this new world of play. An ancient evil really does awake and just like in Combat Evolved the more you play the more questions you are left with. The mystery itself is enthralling to say the least and the end leaves more questions and more butterflies than a first kiss. This game is something special. 343 delivered. 

 Cortana: What if we miss? 
The Master Chief: *I* won't 

I also am sorry this segmant was not in our nomal professional format but I was too excited. Thanks all ~Dark

Tales of Graces f review

Name: Tales of Graces f
Platform: PS3
Release date: 3/13/2012 
Current price: $39.99 
Genre: RPG
Publisher: Namco Bandai Games 
Developer: Namco Tales Studio
Rating: T
Number of local players: 1-4 (Co-op)
(No online multiplayer)
(resolution) wire compatibility VGA, Component, HDMI
Game is in full HD (HDMI, Component) but can be played through AV.

First, some background:
Tales of Graces f is the first Tales game to be released outside of Japan since Tales of Vesperia back in 2008. The original Tales of Graces was released for the Wii in Japan back in 2009, 3 years later, we finally got to play the game for ourselves on the PS3. 

After Tales of Vesperia, the series fell into obscurity in the United States for a little bit. But because Tales of Graces and Tales of Graces f were such huge successes in Japan, they finally decided to localize it for the rest of the world, to see if the rest of us still like the series. Namco Bandai sure seemed hesitant, but Tales of Graces f was enough of a success in the United States for them to announce that they will also localize Tales of Xillia in 2013! Huzzah!

On to the review. Let's get the story out of way:
I'll start by saying the story of Tales of Graces f is sub-par. But this doesn't really come as a surprise after seeing all of the trailers about "the power of friendship" and such. While I can appreciate the message they're trying to send, I hate the way they send it. It's very predictable and it's got its fair share of cliches. On average, the voice acting is decent. There are some TERRIBLE, over-dramatic and cheesy scenes that are painful to watch. But there are also some entertaining and intense scenes. This game won't win any awards for it's story though.

(Yeah! Friendship tree! -_-)

But I always say it's a good thing for a game to focus on the story. The story is what keeps you interested and motivated to keep going. Even if the plot sucks, that doesn't mean the game can't have memorable and likeable characters. What this game does well in regards to story is the fact that by the end of it, you feel some sort of connection to the characters in the game because you went on an epic adventure with them. That's because the game focuses on the story a lot, there are lengthy cutscenes and some good character development over the 50-60 hours it takes to complete the game.

Graphics/Presentation:

For the style they were going for, the graphics are excellent. The game looks just like an anime. Because the graphics are cell-shaded, they don't need to be very realistic, but the textures are detailed enough to look impressive. Everything about this game's presentation is very fluid and smooth. The character models are very smooth and the animations all flow together nicely.

The gameplay!:

The Tales series is known for its fun, real time battle system. Up until Graces, the battle system stayed the same in most of the Tales games, with some tweaks here and there to make each game feel unique. (Such as the addition of fields of fonons in Tales of the Abyss, or the addition of burst artes in Tales of Vesperia.)

But this time around, the battle system has been revamped almost completely. Instead of TP in this Tales game, there's something called CC. The way this works is that you need CC to do any kind of attack. Even a melee basic attack. Different attacks use up different amounts of CC. You have two modes of attack, A-artes and B-artes. A-artes are weaker but require less CC so their more easily chained together into combos. B-artes are more powerful but require more CC. So they're good for burst damage. CC regenerates very quickly. So once you finish a combo and run out of CC, you won't be able to attack for a few seconds while your CC regenerates. You can continue attacking as soon as you have any amount of CC. It's up to you to decide if you want to react quickly and attack for a little burst damage with low CC, or wait a little bit longer so you can create a long combo with more CC.

Essentially, CC acts as a representation of how many hits you can chain together in your next combo. I like this system a lot more than the TP system of previous Tales games. TP was regenerated by hitting enemies with the same melee basic combo over and over and over again. There's no more mindless button mashing because CC regenerates by itself very quickly. The new CC system makes the battle system a lot more intense.

The addition of side-stepping is also a really great improvement. Before you could only leap backwards while blocking to avoid attacks, but now you can also slide left or right while holding block. It seems like a minor addition, but it drastically changes the dynamics of the game. When side-stepping, your character stays fixed on the current enemy you're targeting so that you circle around them. But while side-stepping, you leave yourself open, but it's a great way to quickly avoid vertical attacks, or attacks that have limited range.

CC and side-stepping both make the battle system so much more dynamic.

The battle system has been vastly improved this time around.

The verdict:
Despite the mediocre story, this is most fun I've had playing a video game for a while. Without a doubt, Tales of Graces f is the best Tales game yet. 
The battle system is what makes this game great.
With multiple fighting styles to choose from, and endless combos to experiment with for each fighting style, the game never gets old.
The game takes about 50-60 hours to complete, so you know that you're really getting your money's worth for $40.
And then there's also an epilogue that's unlocked once you beat the game that offers even MORE hours a gameplay.
It's a must own for anyone who owns a PS3 and likes RPGs.

10/10

Name: Battlefield 3: Armored Kill Expansion
Release date: 09/11/2012
Current price: $49.99 or 4000 MS points
Genre: 3rd person Shooter
Publisher: EA
Developer: Dice
Rating: M
Number of players both local and online (more specifically online split screen if fps or not able)
Number of local players:1
Number of players online: 2-24
(resolution) wire compatibility VGA, Component, HDMI
Game is in full HD (HDMI, Component) but can be played through AV. (we recommend HD)

This expansion pack does not expand upon the campaign at all, but instead delivers a massively chaotic (in a good way) online experience. Most players do not enjoy being spawn killed, but there is something about a balanced AC-130 (yes I did just say balanced AC-130) shelling all around your spawn and trees and debris flying everywhere while trying to scramble for the nearest ATV to get the hell out of dodge. A cute scenario for a cutscene, but also my first spawn into the new armored kill expansion. Since we are on the topic the AC-130 is one of the newest additions to the multiplayer experience.

The call of duty killstreak favorite is now controlled directly by a flight crew made up of in game players! As terrifying as it is from the ground the beast still packs an air to air punch with its vulcan mini-guns, however since the plane is on rails (very much like our favorite disney rides) it is a little the challenge of peppering a enemy aircraft is no easy task. Even with the preset fight plan one good burst from a vulcan will most certainly disable or destroy most enemy aircraft. The AC-130 is also equipped with many flares and flies high making it nearly impossible to take down with a shoulder fired launcher. This solid defense does not make it invincible however; a seasoned jet pilot can rain on the AC-130s parade with two solid passes setting it ablaze and ultimately destroying the craft. The downing of one of these badass machines is a huge morale booster and is almost immediately followed by a strong push by the team that shot it down.

The new armored units in the game pack a heavy punch, however the splash damage seems to be quite underpowered compared to that of the Abrams and T-90. The accuracy of these new machines seems quite high and the speed makes them very formidable as a light troop transport or fast attack vehicle. Honestly the replay value of the game itself hasn’t changed, but has been made the slightest bit more entertaining. As filling as this meal of a add-on is it still left me hungering for more. I feel the maps are too large for console play and often its a struggle on a few maps to even stay in the fight unless you are spawning into enemy fire. This is a major issue within this franchise. The maps have been getting larger and larger and the unlimited sprint is a plus, but without the players to occupy the space on the maps it is useless to have so much area. I would like to see a 20 on 20 console game not a 12 on 12. This is one of the few flaws that Battlefield has on the console and due to this many would be players stick to faster paced games like call of duty.

Special features: New armored units and air support such as AC-130

-Armor customization/ Loadouts

-same loadout system as BF3

Realism: Pretty standard for a Battlefield game, pretty scenery with less focus on gun graphics.

Overall: This is a pretty kick ass add-on as far as size and scope. I'm not sure it was worth the $49 premium membership, but ill decide that at a later date.

Personal rating is an 7/10.

~Dark