Game-Off: Bleach: Blade of Fate vs. Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin vs. Final Fantasy IV

I had a flight out to Anaheim to go on vacation, and what better way to spend a flight than wrapped in your girlfriend’s arms in the airplane lavatory as you renew your membership to the Mile High Club? However, I opted for another route: I brought along my DS and three new games. A copy of Bionicle Heroes came with Bleach, but I’m still undecided whether I want to keep that or give it to my nephews who may enjoy it more than I ever will.

Bleach: Blade of Fate vs. Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin vs. Final Fantasy IV

Coming Soon to CxM: Game Off

What is a game-off? Well, I take two or more games, start playing them, compare them, and see which one I’d rather play more. It’s not necessarily an indication of which game is better: factor in the mood I am in to play certain games and several other random personal preferences. I think it’s an interesting thing to toy with. They won’t be full reviews: rather, they’ll be much like my first impression of Grand Theft Auto IV.

The first game off will be a triple threat: Bleach: Blade of Fate vs. Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin vs. Final Fantasy IV (DS).

Generally, I’m only try to do this with games I haven’t played before, but I’m open to suggestions provided it’s within reason (I can find the games or I already own them, and it’s not going to cost me a lot of money to get into).

I hope it’s entertaining.

~ Setsuna Setsunai

Game Review: Odin Sphere

Normally, when a casual-hardcore gamer like myself speaks, they will tell you that the key ingredient to a successful game is gameplay. Realistically speaking, there’s almost always an exception to the rule that exists somewhere, but if you ask a gamer where that exception lies, they might not have an easy answer for you. Odin Sphere, an RPG beat-em-up from Atlus and Vanillaware, comes close to being the exception to that rule; at the very least, you will find it an exceptional game.

E3 Announces Chrono Trigger DS, My Life Has New Meaning

Yes, you read the title right: E3 has announced that Chrono Trigger is being re-released on the DS.

The rerelease of Chrono Trigger will utilize the dual-screen technology, as well as integrate a touch-screen interface with the game. Unlike the Final Fantasy remakes, Chrono Trigger is coming back looking like it did back in the 90s, in the classic Toriyama sprite style.

Okay, maybe Chrono Trigger coming to the DS isn’t something that will change my life forever. After all, I’ve beaten the game over 80 times, beaten the game with the lowest possible levels for each character, and have done most of what there is to do with the game. But does Chrono Trigger really need to change my life any more than it did?

Game Review: Grand Theft Auto IV

Let me not be vague about my message about Grand Theft Auto IV: GTA IV is a good game, but it is not the best game ever, not even the best game of its time. I don’t care how many GTA fanboys object to that – there are several problems with the game that no game of high quality should have.

Now, I’m not one for not giving credit where credit is due. I know the reason GTA IV behaves the way it does is because it has to cut corners to overcome technological obstacles. It does this for good reason as well, as the modern GTA series is one of its only games of its kind. However, the game on a technical and playable standpoint is far from the best thing on the market.

Video Games Are Evil And That’s Wonderful

By title alone, this is easily the most fundamentalist Roman Catholic thing I will ever write, and seeing as I am far from a fundamentalist, it embitters me to pander to such a blatant extreme. However, before you start waving the torches and pitchforks, assuming you’ll find a Floridan lawyer briefs-down-to-ankles in my basement and brown marks on my cheek, realize that this is an article exploring a darker side of something we do so haplessly. Yes, a majority of video games out there are violent, and they’re mostly fun when we’ve achieved the glorious climax of this violence. It comes to a point that we release ourselves from moral judgment and concentrate instead on a sense of hubris – we are doing the exact opposite of productivity. However, is this necessarily so bad?

Game Review: Dead Rising

I’ve never been too in love with sandbox games, as I found that the ability to do everything came at the price of not actually being able to do everything. The games were usually too busy with pointless sidequests, sporting a barebones, lackluster story that was trying not to motivate you too hard with hope that the player defines his own experience. Like the horror movie, however, all things are remedied once you throw zombies into the fray. It is the simplistic endeavors of the undead coupled with the dark humor and powerful motivation that makes Dead Rising a success.

The Crumbling Sandcastle: Is a Sandbox Always the Better Solution?

The popularity of sandbox games – games where the player is free to play while ignoring major goals or missions – is on the rise. With huge new titles such as Grand Theft Auto IV, Oblivion, The Witcher, and Mass Effect, players are given a bigger role when it comes to playing games: they have the freedom of doing what they want, when they want, as they like. Or do they? Players are actually more limited than they think in a sandbox game, and in someways moreso than some more linear games. One must ask if all this freedom is necessarily better. There are still many successful games that give a clearly defined mission-per-stage.

Impressions: Grand Theft Auto IV (X360)

DISCLAIMER: This is more of a rant than it is a review, but since this has aspects of both, I shall categorize it as both. Also, this is an impression, not a full review since I only started playing.

We’ve all heard of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas and its infamous Hot Coffee scandal. It’s that controversy that brought Jack Thompson to public attention. The controversy, caused by lazy programmers. ended up making Rockstar execs wipe egg off their face: surely, you can’t add “third party content” to a Playstation 2.It was the only reason I bought San Andreas: they were taking it off the market and it’s now a collector’s item. And the game sucks. I’m not sorry if you disagree. I shouldn’t have to spend five hours doing pointless tasks that feel inane and eventually self-indulgent. It was also the reason I was skeptical to buy Grand Theft Auto IV. With the high ratings given by all – not just many of – the reviewers, I decided this would be one of those games I’d break my rule of “clearly this will be a greatest hit and therefore $20 in the future” and hop on the band wagon early.

Boy, am I glad I was wrong.

Retrograde Review: Kirby Super Star

The Super Nintendo is easily my favorite video game system; I still have it hooked to my HDTV and I still play games on it. While it didn’t have the power to push lifelike polygons and games over 30 hours to today’s standards, it has the soul that hasn’t been in games for a while since the outbreak of CD technology. While there are numerous games on the Super Nintendo that will always be remembered and spoken about, one touching classic does not often pass the lips of the casual gamer who was alive in the early 90’s: Kirby Super Star. While Kirby Super Star isn’t anywhere close to being the paradigm classic of the Super Nintendo, it certainly stands out as a memorable game, and possibly one of the best Kirby games you could play for any system.