Finish Them!

Quest Log Upated

I continue to buy games even when I have a huge library still to finish off, my latest game would be Resident Evil Outbreak File 2. I bought it while Jared was having fun at the eye doctors. It has 5 senerios to play threw and you can unlock bonus stages, such as elimination and Showdown, I will write up a full review once I get my loads of homework out of the way.


I don't know about you, but I like to compile a list of things to complete, like a list of games to complete before picking another one up. This list includes spoilers:
1) Oblivion - I started playing it again, and got through the first portal and start doing some arena side quests. I am a bit worried about this game because once you start you will look over at your clock and notice that you blew through 2 hours in no time. I can see how many people can easily get to around 80+ hours on it, seeing as the world is so massive and beautiful that you don't really have many boundaries that stop you from exploring such a vast world.


2) The Warriors - Great game, I mostly bought it for the co-operative play, but it is actually pretty fun solo, Vic and I played it at his house and got me back into it.


3) GTA VC & SA - ok, Vice City is really pissing me off at the moment because I'm stuck on one of the missions where you have to rescue your "Gaurdian Angel", Lance, then drive him to a hospital while one of the local gangs ram your car into every wall possible. San Andreas is a bit of a different story, I have spent quite a bit of time on that game, but it's such a long game that it will take around 60 to 80 hours complete the main story + any distractions along the way. I just recently got kicked out of San Andreas after finding out that my gang has been working for a rival gang.


4) Neverwinter Nights - Another one of my neglected games, I wanted to start it from the beginning but the first chapter is so boring to play through, so instead I started to play through Kingmaker which is one of the good mods included with the diamond edition.


5) Doom 3 - I really love this game, but I tend to be a big wuss when it comes to games that have amazingly graphics for the creepy atmosphere and the creatures that run around in the dark trying to rip your little head off. The action scares never stop in this game, luckily someone thought to make a mod that attached a flashlight to all the guns or else the game likes to throw you in the dark and let you shoot.


So ya, there is my small list of games that I would like to beat sometime and you know start having fun with them instead of letting them rot on my shelf. I was going to throw Half Life 2: Episode One on the list but a few days back I beat it. It is pretty much like Half Life 2 gameplay wise, and the story is your journey out of the shattered city that once ruled humanity with an ironfist. Also, expect to see a review of Okami for PS2 in the next few days.

Reward: 100 Exp

Resident Evil...4 (PS2)

Published by: Capcom
Developed by: Capcom
Genre: Third-Person Action Adventure
Number of Players: 1
Release Date:
US: October 25, 2005
Japan: December 31, 2005

Story

Leon Scott Kennedy, a former police officer of Raccoon city, is asigned to find the where abouts of the President's daughter, Ashley Graham. Opon arrival of a small village where Ashley is said to be kept, Leon incounters some hostile locals. After killing one, the game makes it clean that these people are not zombies. Leon's mission is clear, find Ashley and get the hell out of this crazy village.

Differences

Resident Evil 4 was ported from the Gamecube, which I assure you was no small task for the Capcom team. While the GC version makes the game look a lot better with more lighting effects and higher polygon counts, the PS2 has the unlockable mini game called Seperate ways. It follows Ada Wong, an special agent working for an unknown organization. Through out the main game Ada will appear to help Leon through the tougher battles that might occur, this mini game shows how she got there when she did. I found it a nice add on, but like most mini games it seemed more tacked on then actually wanting to explain why Ada was there. But beating this mode will earn you the swankiest costume around, a 30's gangster get up for Leon and armour plating for Ashley (can't get hurt or be carried away). The armour makes the game play so much more relaxed, I mean you can leave Ashley to fend for herself knowing she won't die.

Conclusion

When I worked at T&C I bought the Gamecube version of RE4, which since then I believe I have went through it more then 4 times to unlock everything. But that wasn't the only reason I played it, I was hooked. The adrenalin rush of a villager running at you with a double bladed chainsaw as you realize you have only a handgun. Or having a stand off in a cabin as villager after villager breaks through the doors and windows. This is what makes RE4 an amazingly good game, it never slows down on the action. As far as which version to buy depends on the person, GC for the excellent graphics or PS2 for the extra costume and guns. I didn't find the seperate ways missions all that exciting, I doubt you would play it more then once through. Then again there is always the computer version, it might have everything...

Final Score GC:10 PS2:10

a win win situation

In the Summer time dah de dah do do

So after realizing for the billionth time that I send too much money on games, that I don't play, I decided to start making a list of games to complete.
Without further Apo here is the list:
Console:
1. Challenge of the Gods - After beating God of War these 10 challenges are unlocked, completing them will earn you a cow costume for Kratos which lets you start out with more mana. I tried for 2 hours last night, getting to the 7th challenge, and accidentally exitting the challenge. In retrospect, I think it was for the best, seeing that I would have broken something if I didn't stop soon.


2. Resident Evil 4 Handconnon - I love going through RE4, it never seems to get boring. Mercenaries is the unlockable for completing this game. Getting 5 stars on all for levels with all five characters will unlock the handconnon (AKA magnum) for the normal story mode. I also started crawling through Professional mode, nothing scares you more when a chainsaw wheelding maniac runs after you when
there is no ammo in sight. Knife runs are always fun as well....


3. Zelda "with only 3 hearts" replay - I got this from Nintendo Power way back when, but when it comes to Zelda I think this is a give. Or trying to beat 64 games without the targetting system.


4.Fatal Frame 2 - Beat last challenge to unlock costumes, maybe another run through is in order.


5. Silent Hill 2 - Get all endings


6. Megaman Anniversery Collection - Beat a Megaman game


7. King Kong - Unlock the saving Kong Ending


8. Beat all the other damn games I have that I barely play.


So, ya, that's my list of stuff I can do instead of buying more games and wasting my money. This is also my summer project, which really doesn't differ from my other seasons. I will try to do something besides play games all summer, maybe do a bit of reading. You know, some H.P Lovecraft...

Obscure

Published by: DreamCatcher Interactive
Developed by: Hydravision Entertainment
Genre: Third-Person Action Adventure
Number of Players: 1-2
Release Date:
US: April 4, 2005

Obscure or Ob's Cure as Steve would call it, starts you out playing as Kenny, a student at a high school where there have been reports of students suddenly disappearing. Kenny decides to stay around after school to practice shooting hoops, when he hears the gym doors close beside him. He follows them outside, but only notices the person walking through another door. He follows him to the basement of an old house beside the school (which is locked off till the end of the game of course). After searching the basement he finds a student that was locked in a room, they try to escape together but mutants capture them before they can. The game throws you into a new group of students which you can originally pick from 3 to play as, but increases as you advance through the game. Each character has their own special abilities, like fast lock picking or faster running. You can team up with a computer controlled character or have a friend take control of the other character, I didn't get to try out the two play mode, but I thought the computer had decide AI not to screw up the whole game. When picking up objects, they either fall under the puzzle/ health button, which is L2 or the weapons button R2. You use the right analog for R2 and of course left for L2, pretty simple, but after picking up too many items the scroll through them might be a bit hard we you are being chased by the monsters that run around the school. Oh, right, I almost forgot, the enemies are weak against light, it seeems the game designers almost forgot about this as well seeing it only gets used a few times in the game. If you get stuck on a puzzle pressing up on the d-pad will give you advice from the other player. You can also switch players on the fly by pressing O, it helps when the computer doesn't feeling like running from a monster. You can also give them commands with the other d-pad directions, like follow, stay or switch their weapons. One complaint about the level design was that you would find some doors locked on both sides, I don't know if they wanted to annoy you or this school really didn't want you to escape, either way it was annoying.

Closing Comments

I found Obscure to be a solid game, even if there are better survival horror games out there (Resident Evil, Silent Hill), but I found the second teammate switching rather easy to do on the fly, unlike Resident Evil: 0 where it felt clunky to use, but that might have been because the game had more to load then Obscures few rooms it loads at once. The was like hunter in almost everyway, but I don't think it comes close to the orignal Hunter: The Reckoning. Oh well, I will just have to wait for High Voltage Software / White Wolf Game Studio to make a longer Hunter... ya right.

Final Score: 7.7

Radiata Story

Published by: Square Enix
Developed by: tri-Ace
Genre: Real-Time RPG
Number of Players: 1
Release Date:
US: September 6, 2005

Radiata Story is about a teenager that is training to become a great Radiata knight. After the tournment he is accepted into the ranks of the knights, only because his father was a legendary hero. The knights are sent on a task to escort a dwarven carrier from the dwarven town to their's. Alright, not bad, even before senting out we meet up with the healer, who is also a hick that obivously doesn't know anything.. so he says. The battles are like Tales of Symphonia, which I bought awhile ago, but in the beginning of this game you are fighting random bugs. I know fighting bugs is one of the worst things a game can do to you but this made it even boring then usual. It might be real-time action battles but they are so boring always repeatly tapping X then switch enemies and repeat. Needless to say I got to the Dwarf town and quit. One thing that amused me for a bit was the kick, in this game to search an object the character kicks it. It's nothing hard, but it is pretty fun making a guard drop a coin everytime you kick him.

Final Score: 6.0

Warhammer 40k: Fire Warrior

Review

Published by: THQ
Developed by: Kuju Entertainment
Genre: First-Person Shooter
Number of Players: 8
Release Date:
US: November 17, 2003

After picking through Movie Gallery's game *ugh*, Pilon found this game. I remembered seeing screenshots of the game around it's release but never actually read anything about it. So we rented it hoping that Kuju Entertainment did a good job creating a Warhammer 40k environment, that the fans of the table top game would enjoy. So after watching beginning trailer, we were excited to try the actual game out. We started by checking if there was a Co-op mode, nothing, so we decide on a nice team deathmatch. It wasn't really a team deathmatch, seeing the game didn't have any bots, so it was more of a throw back to the Goldeneye and Quake games that seemed to entertain us for hours on end on the Nintendo 64. That isn't bad, but it wasn't up to speed for games like Timesplitters 2, which have both co-op and bots. So I was a bit disappointed about the multiplayer, instead we try out taking turns on singleplayer. The first levels were all about the trench warfare, we were the Tau going into the enemy trenches and killing everything in our path. Finding keys was usually easy to do, seeing that they were usually on the captain that had a chainsaw blade. The screen would slash diagonally and burr a bit if you got hit by it, which was a nice touch. The Tau battlesuit also recharged if you sat around a bit. But going through about 5 levels of trenches it gets tiring seeing the same enemies pop up, finally, we found a Spacemarine, and boy was he tough... till Pilon used gernades on him.

Closing Comments

Fire Warrior was a solid game, great level design, I found the controls were something to get used to but I think we had fun with this game. I could have used more enemies, but the last level we went through they changed them a bit so I wont complain about that. Multiplayer also used the multitap, which could have been good, and it had online capabilities for up to 8 players. After playing through some of singleplayer, I now want some company to make a multi-race warhammer 40k FPS. Though making that many races and that many campaigns would take a very long time. I guess it will have to sit on the shelf like my free roaming zombie FPS. Some day...

Final Score: 8.3

Virtua Fighter 4 Evolution

I bought Virtua Fighter 4 awhile back at Wal-mart for about 30 bucks. Since then I have played through a bit of the quest mode and tried a bit of Vs. mode, and that was about it. So, not wanting to think this game was a waste of money I started to go through the tutorial mode. This mode shows you first hand what types of moves you can pull off, via computer controlled fighters, and then lets you practice them afterwards. After going through most of the tutorial, I started to get a bit scared of all the technical moves they built in. For example, they have a throw escape, evade, evading throw escape, recovery and all that other jazz. It seemed like a million things to remember! I don't think I would have time to think about escaping or evading when a human player is charging at me! But I guess you just have to spend some more quality time with this game to start getting the hang of things. After a few hours of evading and escaping throws I was, somewhat, ready to tackle the Quest mode. This is where you get to custumize your character, giving him/ her a unique look with accessories that you can unlock by going through tournments or completing quests. The quests are a nice addition to the fighter genre, on each level of tournment you get different objectives to fufill. One might be winning 10 matches in a row or throwing someone 5 times... of course these quests get harder as you work your way through the tournments. Finishing a quest will allow you to buy new accessories or costumes for your character and of course you get gold to buy said new items. There are also movies that can be purchased showing off one of the character's special moves... but you don't want to buy them.

Quest Log Update

April 12 '06 playtime: 1 and a half hours

I have just finished off the first two tournments with very little difficulty. The third one scares me a bit with it's three match win system instead of the normal 2. In order to get into the tournment you must fight a given amount of computers before entering, just like an actual tournment. Alright, so I have to fight 30 characters at 3 matches each? Even if I win ever match that is still 90 matches! As I enter the first match I notice the fighter's name, each character in the tournies have different names, so after awhile you start to hate some of the characters. For example, I had to fight Overbite 5 times! He was about my level, which by the way you get promotions for every now and then, so we were about equal almost every match which is good seeing nobody wants to just walk through a tournment in a fighting game. Finally beating all 30 requirement characters, I gain entrance to the tournment. First time, I made it to the second match, and had my ass handed to me by a lightning fast character. Second time was a cake walk, even the final round was a joke! I could have laid on the X button and would have won. But I was a gentleman, I threw in some throws to feel like I earned the win. So, now I start onto the fourth tournment, I assume this is where hell breaks loose.