Planet Sillicon

Review of Soulcalibur IV- Part 2

By blog on Sep. 6, 2009.

Continuing from the previous post…

Other game mechanics that I think really add to this game is the chance to level up playing styles. I’ll get to why it’s styles your levelling, rather than characters, in just a second. There are many single player modes, which is nice, making it a game that you really don’t have to play online to get the best benefit from. If leader boards are your thing, though, then you will have to play online to be a part of them, obviously. You will unlock achievements as you go through, though in this particular game they are referred to as ‘Honours’

Now, for what really sets this title apart as an amazing contribution to this series is the character creation. Not only can you go and give the standard characters better weapons, as you used to be able to in previous titles, but you can go in and make a character from scratch. You can choose male or female, and then any of the weapon styles for your new character. That’s why levelling a style in this game, rather than a specific character, even though the styles are referred to by the original character who use them. You can unlock many different costume items, weapons, and armour by going through the game. Some you need to pay for, using the gold you earn by playing in the single player modes. It’s a nice system, and it adds so much depth to the game.

From the point of view of my SO, who loves the games but gets aggravated at the costumes or physiques many of the female characters are subjected to, she loves this customisability. She’s made a female samurai based on Mitsurugi, who is actually dressed like a samurai, and is really pleased to be able to play as a variety of female characters, not just those with little on.

I’m really enjoying the ability to create characters that don’t look silly, as many unfortunately do. They are all part of the game, and that’s fine, but it’s nice to have more control over the characters you most like to play as. There are even some characters included in the game that were made by manga artists, so this is obviously a very key feature of the game.

There are a few oddballs in the game, being Darth Vader and The Apprentice, and Yoda is available on the 360 version, and for download for a small fee from the PlayStation Network. I still want to talk more about this game, but I can see this post is becoming rather huge, so I’ll leave it at that.

Overall, I’m very impressed with the game, and I really didn’t expect to be playing this more than the other three, but I’m finding that it’s taking up most of my game time at the moment. I’m awarding the game a 9.2 in score, it’s really a great game that every fighting game fan should have!

I’m looking forward to getting into the other games some more to bring you more reviews.

Review of Soulcalibur IV- Part 1

By blog on Sep. 6, 2009.

Here is the first of my game reviews that I stated I would be doing for my new PS3 games… Soulcalibur IV.

I’ve played the previous two version of this game, Soulcalibur II on the Dreamcast – right before Sega gave up on creating consoles – and Soulcalibur III on the XBOX, so I was already familiar with many of the game mechanics and characters. SCIV has a few new characters, most of which use weapon styles that veteran players will already be familiar with. The graphics are nice and clear, with good interfaces and character models. The backgrounds are nice in most cases, but the voicing at the beginning of each battle is inane to the point of irritation or hilarity, depending on your mood.

The fighting is very responsive, with no control lag to speak of. Some of the characters moves remain the same from previous games, though some moves are achieved with distinctly different button and direction combinations. Some of the new game mechanics really add a nice touch to the game, such as armour destruction and the Soul Gauge Critical Finish manoeuvre. The Soul Gauge can be found at the end of your character’s health bar, and is a small coloured gem type thing. It starts green, but if you are blocking all your opponent’s attacks without landing any hits yourself – blocked or not – then this gem will slowly turn yellow and then red. Once it’s flashing red, the opponent has a chance to do a Critical Finish, which is an instant kill move, but it only works if your opponent has also broken a piece of your armour, or broken through your defence, which is when they hit your weapon a whole lot and there’s a metallic breaking sound followed by your guard being down in spite of you still holding the correct button. To do this move you have to hit all four face buttons at the same time, or simply L1.

Now, there is too much more to put in just this post, so I’ve decided to spread the review over two. Not sure if that will happen with all my reviews, but it will with this one.

Time for a PS3 – Part 2

By blog on Jul. 31, 2009.

Now the second part of my last post.

BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger: This game looks fantastic! Very unique look to the game, with some amazing characters. I’m excited to play off against my SO and learn my way around all the interesting characters. It’s nice to see a fighting game where so much effort has been put into the backgrounds, as well as non-generic characters. I like the complexity of the fighting mechanic too, button mashing will only get you so far.

Soulcalibur IV: Another fighting game, but one that I am more familiar with. I’ve always found these games to be very entertaining, and a nice divergence from the norm to be able to fight in these sorts of games with weapons. I think this is the only fighting game where you really get to use a weapon, and the game has always been really slick. You can button mash to a small extent, but in the end you do need to learn the controls of the game to really excel. It’s nice to see the old characters we know so well, with a few new ones thrown in there too. Darth Vader makes an appearance in the PS3 version, and apparently is good to fight with… not as ridiculously over-powered as Yoda in the 360 version.

Metal Gear Solid 4: This game looks amazing; it has been called one of the best games of all time. I’m very impressed by the graphics, as well as the story-line. I respect where the franchise has taken the main character, and like this fond farewell to him. I find the story of the entire world to be a war-zone thanks to PMCs to be very interesting, and look forward to see how it all plays out.

Final Fantasy XIII: The Final Fantasy series is one that has well and truly stood the test of time. I’ve enjoyed every iteration of the game that I have played, and I am really looking forward to the release of this one. The trailer looks amazing, and the voice acting seems to be quite good. The story is intriguing, and I am really happy to see the good old GFs included. This game is set to ship later this year.

There are other games out there that look amazing for this console, but these are the ones I am most interested in right now.

Time for a PS3 – Part 1

By blog on Jul. 30, 2009.

I think it is now time for a PS3. I’ve waited for a while before getting one, mainly because the price was ludicrous to begin with, but it’s come down now and I think it’s quite fair.

I’ve been an Xbox 360 and PC Gamer for a long time now, mainly PC for the last few years, but before that, I had an Xbox and then an Xbox 360 as well. Before that I had a PlayStation, but I went the way of Xbox instead of moving onto a PS2, as the hardware was much better. Now, though, I want to get back into console gaming. PC gaming is great, there is often a good range, the Real Time Strategy games can’t be beaten, and there are other benefits to the PC, but there is the bugginess that often plagues PC games. I own Fallout 3, Grand Theft Auto IV, and Far Cry 2, for instance, and can’t play any of them due to bugginess.

When I do get the console, I am interested in a few games specifically. I’ve no doubt there are others out there I would want to play, and I’m sure that there are games on the horizon that I’m not aware of but would want to play, but for now, here are three of the six games that have most caught my eye.

Little Big Planet: This is a rather unusual console game, because not only is it a rather nice looking platformer, it also allows players to create their own levels, and share them on the online community, where they can download other people’s created levels and play them. It looks like a lot of fun, and very unique, and Sack Boy is a fun little mascot that diverges from the norm.

Ninja Gaiden Sigma: Whilst this is a re-release of an original title, the game nonetheless looks amazing. It is somewhat off putting that the game is not really giving any new gameplay, that you will be re-playing an old game with better graphics, but it was a good game originally so I do look forward to playing it again. There is some new gameplay, being able to play as Rachel seems like a nice change of pace for a short while, but I am just really looking forward to flipping around as a Ninja.

Infamous: This is a game that looks like a heck of a lot of fun. It has that comic book vibe, but isn’t based on a comic in existence, which means that it can be designed to work in game-form, rather than comic-form. It is set in a sand-box style city, and you play a character who has recently gained special abilities which all revolve around the use of electricity. I like the karma aspect of the game, where your decisions make an obvious difference. When you’re closer to the Hero side, your electric attacks are blue and white, and when you are closer to the Infamous side, your attacks are red and black.

Before this entry becomes enormous, I’m going to move onto a second post.