Dead Space 2 Collector’s Edition

I’ve not updated anything in a long while and I’d like to say that I’m lazy but that would mean I have time to waste. Totally not true. Family always comes first and the past few months have been family heavy. It’s been tough. Anyway we’re not here to discuss family, we’re here to discuss my opinion on Dead Space 2.

First I’ll fill you in on what’s in the Collector’s Edition. First and foremost it comes with the game (manual, case and all) but as a bonus it’s the Limited Edition version of the game. What makes it a limited edition is that the disc comes with a full copy of Dead Space Extraction on it. If you don’t know what this is, it’s essentially a HD version of the prequel to Dead Space that was originally released on the Wii. It’s a great bonus to an already awesome game. I had always wanted this for the Wii but never got around to purchasing it. Now I have it for the lowly sum of FREE and it has a full trophy set also. EA dun me proud.

Secondly it comes with a little plastic replica of the plasma cutter in Dead Space 2. Now when I say little… that’s exactly what it is. It seems to be about 1/2 – 2/3 scale model of what you’re using in the game. Makes it look comical and actually feels rather comical when equipping it in real life 😀
Lastly there is a soundtrack CD and art cell in the box which aren’t a big deal on their own but a nice bonus overall.

I finished up my platinum in Dead Space 2 last week so I figured I’d comment on the game. Simply put, it’s great. If you loved the original, there isn’t a darn thing about this game that you wouldn’t like. It’s everything you loved in the first one but more of it… Oh and there isn’t an asteroid shooting gallery to slow you up this time round ;P
Story is pretty good though can get old on multiple play throughs. Wouldn’t be a problem but you can’t skip through scenes or anything. You just have to let everything play through on its own. Kinda sucks but but overall not bad considering that’s my only gripe. Make sure to stay through the entire credits. There’s a little bit at the end of it that I’d say is an important piece of the puzzle.
Gameplay and controls are essentially identical to the first one with very minor tweaks. I guess they felt that if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. One nice fix is that you can now reload without having to hold the aim button at the same time. Simple change but helps tremendously when you are trying to skeedaddle away from some necromorphs.
Music and sound is just as good as the original. It’s excellent. Surround sound is the only way to go when playing this game. I feel sorry for any of you who only have your tv speakers. Just the thought of it makes me sad.
I won’t comment on multiplay. I never tried it and don’t really intend to.

I honestly can’t say there was much that was added that was new. Basically if you liked the original, you’ll love this sequel.

I’d give the Collector’s Edition a $75/80. The game with bonus Extraction is already worth that amount. Everything else is just icing on the cake.
I’d give the standard edition wo/Extraction a $55/60. Definitely a great game and worth your time.

Well I must be off. Dead Space Severed just got released today. Gonna go kill me some more necromorphs… or would I be RE-killing them? Who knows? It’s gonna be a great ride anyway!

1000 Trophies

Just broke the 1000 mark on trophies. Coincidentally it was also my Heavy Rain Platinum trophy that made the 1000 mark. My 11th platinum trophy was also my 1000th trophy. How strange and almost mind bending. My head asplode!

Mushroom Wars

Simply put – I love this game. It’s so simple yet satisfying. I would liken it to a very very simplified RTS (real time strategy) game. I remember my first time playing Warcraft and Warcraft 2. I loved those games. You create units and send them off to harvest wood or gold. With these supplies you upgrade your buildings and units. You send your units to defeat the opposing forces. Pretty simple wouldn’t you say? Well Mushroom Wars is even simpler. You start with 1 or multiple mushroom “bases”. Each of these bases generates mushroom units at a steady pace. The speed at which the base generates units depends on the level of the base. In order to upgrade your base you sacrifice your units. So in essence your units are your defense/offense as well as your currency. You can send your units to other bases (either neutral or opponent controlled) and if you are lucky enough to defeat the forces, the base becomes yours. As you send the units to other bases, obviously the units in the base you sent them from dwindle. You can choose 100%, 75%, 50%, or 25% of your units to go from one base to the one of your choosing. You can of course divvy your units across all bases but that’s not always the best solution. With this basic tactic of moving units from base to base, you can play defense as well as offense. Learning where to send units and at what time is key to success. You can also convert your bases into towers or forges but I won’t get into these details. You’ll just have to find out on your own.

Does  this simplicity detract from the overall enjoyment of the game? Absolutely not, it actually makes it quite charming. The fast paced action, colorful and crisp graphics, and catchy beats makes this a must have game from the PSN.

Totally a $9.99/9.99

-MY- Demon’s Souls Review

Been sitting in my “to publish” list for over 4 months now. Figured I might as well publish it.

You know, I’ve actually beat this game twice (which is unheard of lately for me) and have yet to write a review on it. Why you may ask? Well the fact is that I consider it such a great game that I don’t even know if I could do it justice in describing it. I know this will be a long winded review so I’ll put my rating at the beginning rather than the end for your convenience ;D

I’m saying the deluxe edition of this game is well worth $80/$66.99 <— what I spent on it

For the standard edition that is currently available I’d say $60/$60 Totally worth the full price

What I consider so great about Demon’s Souls:

The biggest thing that makes this game great is that it doesn’t try to be any other game out there. It is its own unique creature. I guess you could lump it into the category of action rpg but it’s so much more than that.

Gameplay is superb. I love fighting the enemies in this game. Granted there are a few boss battles that I wouldn’t mind just not ever battling again. There is a definite weight to the battles. Each enemy seems to have substance. It’s like you are actually fighting something real. When your sword hits them, it feels like your hitting an object and not just swinging at air. When they block, you feel that block. Same when they swing at you. If you block or parry, it feels real. There is a true sense of accomplishment to defeating enemies because of this. In contrast, most hack and slashers allow your weapon to go through enemies like a hot knife through butter. This is rather unrealistic and it actually makes killing enemies kind of boring. It’s kinda like, would you rather swing a sledge hammer against a car door or a pile of pillows. Yeah, that’s what I’m talkin bout.

People complain about the difficulty in this game and I say shadddup ya babies. Difficulty is quite high but not impossible. What makes the game hard is that we’ve been spoon fed so many games that once we are forced to work for our food, we don’t know how to handle it. It’s only as difficult as YOU make it. Playing it like a standard button mashing hack and slash will kill you quickly. Hell the first enemy will kill you if you try the button mashing technique. This game forces you to relearn how a game is played. It forces you to be patient and alert. Running into the fray will only get you killed. Once you get surrounded, there is little chance of escape. This is even with the easy enemies.

This comes to another point about this game… Unlike in… well most if not all other games, enemies were put in Demon’s Souls to kill you… they weren’t put in the game for you to kill. This is a huuuuge part of why this game is different from many many other games out there. You have to constantly be alert and aware of your surroundings. It’s almost certain death if an enemy pulls a backstab on you.

The musical score is minimal if any. I only recall a little bit of music in the intro movie. In game I don’t recall any music at all. I only recall the sounds of enemy armor clanking, dragons breathing fire, barrels exploding and my own spirit being lifted away when I die. This is by no means a bad thing. There is more of a sense of loneliness and realness to it. I mean seriously, how often do you hear music blaring in the background as you’re taking a walk or working? I guess that’s where mp3 players come in. Anyway I feel it adds to the ambiance and it feels great.

Graphics are beautiful and dark all at the same time. It’s a lonely dirty world and Demon’s Souls portrays it perfectly. There are areas that are so dark in fact that you can barely see a car length in front of you. That’s of course if they had cars in the game. In these areas you need to be extra careful because enemies can get the surprise on you. Depending on the enemy it could be certain death. It creates tension almost all the time. Perhaps too much tension even.

Online play is unique to say the least. While playing online I still feel as if I’m playing solo. It’s the only lonely online multiplayer game that I have ever played. By lonely I mean that even though you have 2 others by your side in battle, they are distant. There is no traditional chat system. You can’t talk to them and you cant text them. It’s strange but in an odd way satisfying. You don’t have to get to know them. You just need to know if they have your back. It may be considered a flaw to some but I rather like it.

I really could go on and on but I won’t. Just wanted to say that this is definitely on my top 10 favorite games of all time. Even so I don’t think this game is for everyone. In fact I don’t think it’s for a large sum of the gamers out there. It’s for people like me. Some of the 30 somethings who grew up on difficult games like Contra, Ghosts’n Goblins, Ninja Gaiden, and Rush’n Attack. We never gave up. If it was tough, we’d try harder. If we died a lot, we’d just keep dying but we didn’t care. There was a simple goal. Beat the game even though there really wasn’t a story or even a real ending to most of those games. It was punishing but fun. This is what Demon’s Souls is to me. An updated version of the games I played back when. I’ve got no complaints.

Random Question

Just got myself a PSPgo (Dell is the shizzle: white PSPgo for $158 and that includes tax no shipping). Anyway I’m reading up on all the dandy features of the PSP in general and noticed something odd. It can sync up with a PS3, log onto the internet via wifi or bluetooth, download games and etc. Well all this being true, why aren’t there any PSP games with trophy support???? Wouldn’t adding trophy support be a no brainer? Just wondering.

Leap Day PS3K Bug

I’m only speculating as to what the issues are hence the title of this post.

Ok I’m sure most if not all PS3 Phat owners already know that there’s a problem with their system. It’s near impossible to use the system because of some internal clock error according to Playstation.blog

Of course this was rather apparent to most of us owners because of our system clock reset to 5:30PM December 31st of 1999 and barely anything works. I am unable to access the Playstation network with my 60GB Phat and worse yet, I can’t even play or use any of my DLC that I have purchased. Now this issue is apparently only affecting old systems and I can vouch for that. My 250GB slim works find but my 60GB phat is out of commission.Sony is hard at work figuring this out and they say not to use your system until they find out more. They hope to have it resolved within 24 hrs. Here’s to hoping that all my data on my hdd isn’t completely corrupt.

Oh and regarding the internal clock being reset to 1999,

PS3: It only does Time Travel

Braid

I don’t think I can say enough about this game.

I am more than pleasantly surprised by it. Its simple play style opens up to some very complex puzzles. You really need to think outside the box to figure some of them out. Oh and the final level – Brilliant!

Story is quite touching as well. Thought provoking yet presented in simple text format. Love that contrast.

In a time when graphics are a huge selling point, Braid shows that it’s not the biggest selling point. It’s simple, clean and quite honestly, the perfect way of presenting this game. I love the artistic flair to the graphics. The brush strokes give it a natural and organic feel to the world. It’s a visual treat.

If you were to ask me what dollar value I’d put on the game… I couldn’t. I will simply say that it deserves every penny of the $15 price point that it goes for. People have argued that the price point is too high because of the games length. I believe the length has no bearing on the quality of this two man show. It has definitely made me rethink what is truly necessary in a game. Its value goes beyond generic dollar terms.

A simply amazing game that has deserved all of the rave reviews that it has received.

My Thoughts – Darksiders

Well I have finished it… On Apocalyptic mode I might add. Twas much easier than expected but I would have to say that I thoroughly enjoyed it.

It’s a great third person hack and slash game. Anyone who has played any Devil May Cry or God of War will be comfortable in the apocalyptic lands of Darksiders.
Actually, anyone who has played either of those should jump straight to apocalyptic mode. It’s a much easier and forgiving game than those.

Controls are tight which is one of my favorite aspects of the game. There was just enough story to keep my interest but not too much to detract from the core purpose of the game. That would be to just kick ass all over the place (don’t even bother with taking names). Considering that this game is about the apocalypse or end of days or whatever you want to call it, the art style had a punch that I didn’t expect. It looks amazing! Sharp details and bright colors aplenty. The contrast of gritty demons to bright and vibrant angels looks pretty awesome. I especially liked the glow of War’s Sword with different enhancements. Purple flames look pretty sweet on his obscenely large sword.

The one thing they could have done away with was Mercy. Seriously guys, what would War need with a revolver? Couldn’t you have thought up some much cooler projectile weapon? The only time I used the silly thing was to kill the worms… which was unfortunately the ONLY way to kill them.

Anyway, this game is a great fill in before God of War III gets released. Don’t expect anything new here though. Darksiders plays it safe. It takes the great parts from so many other games and melds them into one tight little package and it does a surprisingly good job at it.

Overall I’d give it a $55/$60 for the mere fact that it tries nothing new but does an excellent job with combining the tried and true.

Trophy Level 10

I have finally broken double digits on my trophy score! I was hoping to be able to enter into 2010 with lvl 10 already but then again, January 8th aint so bad.