Lost Odyssey Review

I've always been a fan of RPG's, ever since i can first remember gaming on my old SNES. After being dissapointed with Mistwalkers previous 360 RPG, Blue Dragon, i was unsure of how to approach Lost Oddyssey. I'd heard good things, but the same could have been said about Blue Dragon, so i was a bit apprehensive about dropping £40 on this game. Nevertheless, i hadn't played a good RPG in a donkeys age, so hit up PLAY.com and within a few days it was on my doorstep.

Upon loading up Lost Odyssey, i was treated to a pretty awesome opening FMV which seamlessly rode into the first battle. It was fairly standard affair, with a system akin to Final Fantasy X's CTB system. After the introductory battle, the game slowly eases you into its mechanics, the most prominent being the Ring and Immortal system. The ring system is a reflex mechanic that allows you to deal extra damage, inflict status or even mug (all dependant on which ring you have equiped) enemies with a well timed hold-and-release if the right trigger. It makes the battles that much more interactive, with out making it an action RPG. The Immortal element of gameplay is like a constant auto-life on some of your characters, which means provided at least one person in your party remains alive, within a few turns any immortal characters will be revived! it can be quite handy in those optional boss battles.
Of course, the heart if any RPG is its story, and this a cracking one. I wouldnt want to say anything to spoil it, so ill leave it at its not a worn out rebel vs empire, or light vs dark story, its a fresh and excellent concept.
The game was desgined to be anti-grinding (except for optional bosses), so you are always proceeding, never hanging around trying to get those few extra levels to beat the next boss, which is a welcome addition in my book.
It really looks the part too, although sometimes this did cause a bit of stutter. Having said that, my 360 did RRoD about 50 hours in, so that may be why. It was a shame really, because all i had left to do was get a few acheivments then defeat the final boss. By the time i got my 360 back i had forgotten what i was doing and what was going on. Alas, i finshed it anyway, and despite the hicup, i was pleasantly suprised at how much i had enjoyed the game. This is an RPG, though while not as good as classics like Chrono Trigger or FFVII, is definately the best RPG ive played on this or the previous generation.

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Game Log

Game Title	Lost Odyssey
Platform	Xbox 360
Other Platforms possible	-
Dates Played	3/3/08 - 16/4/08
Number of Players	One
Release Date	29/2/08
Developer	Mistwalker
Developer Loacation	Japan
Brief Overview	Deep RPG woth fresh twists on worn out concepts
Primary Game Genre	RPG
Secondary Game Genre	-
Tertiary Game Genre	-
Single Player/Multiplayer	Single Player Onlye
Typical Duration of Game	60 Hours +
Out of 10	9/10
Target Audience	Young Adults, RPG Fans
Out of 10 for Audience	9/10
Is it a Success	Yes
Why	Has flipped turn based RPG's on their head with and enagaging story and great battle system

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Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare Review

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare was my first foray into the Call of Duty series, and was the series' first non WWII game. Having worn myself out of WWII shooters by the sixth generation Medal of Honour games, i had no real intention of buying CoD4 either, despite the new modern setting. However, after having played a few missions on a friends PS3 version, i decided i would pick it up for my 360 with left over Christmas vouchers.

The FPS genre to me is overpopulated and dreary, but CoD4 shines through for me because its more than just a FPS. Its has a great, well told story told in Half-Life 2 way. Its that exact reason that i enjoy the single player campaign, I'm not just 'a guy' shooting 'the enemy' for 'no reason'. I'm Soap MacTavish, a newbie SAS operative hunting a nuclear device hoarded by a one-armed villain. My comrades aren't just cannon fodder designed to soak up bullets, they're AI's with names and skill. Aside from the standard run and gun the game offers, there also brief moments of bullet-time esque precision shooting. The shining star of this game however has to be the 'All Ghillied up' level, a sort of Stealth-em-up level, where you follow your CO with nothing but a sniper rifle, a leaf suit, and your wits. It was the first level in any FPS i've played that actually felt good to play through.
The game can only be played on the hardest difficulty to get the most out of it though. On Veteran, enemies flank you, a few bullets will kill, and grenades are thrown back at you. At any other difficulty the game is two predictable, and not nearly as enjoyable. The game offers many weapons to the player, each with various pitfalls and strengths to consider, although i often found myself using the default level starting weapon, unless i needed some sniping done.
The online multiplayer was a surprise to me as well, with a multitude of game modes and character customization options. I think however my experience was heightened once i realised that all the whiney kids that populate Xbox LIVE and make my online experiences less than desiriable were all to busy playing Halo 3 to notice what a great game had arrived to take on the crown of most played LIVE game. Cod4 even managed this, albeit for only two weeks, but at least i now know im not the only one who doesnt like the god-like status Halo seems to have.
All in all a great single player game reinforced with a good online portion.

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Game Log

Game Title	Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
Platform	Xbox 360
Other Platforms possible	PS3, Windows, Mac OSX
Dates Played	31/12/07 - 19/1/08
Number of Players	One, 1-4 Split Screen, Online Multiplayer 2-18
Release Date	9/11/07
Developer	Infinity Ward
Developer Loacation	California, USA
Brief Overview	Involving FPS with a challenging difficulty and solid Story
Primary Game Genre	FPS
Secondary Game Genre	-
Tertiary Game Genre	-
Single Player/Multiplayer	Both
Typical Duration of Game	15 Hours
Out of 10	8/10
Target Audience	Young Adults, Military Personnel
Out of 10 for Audience	7/10
Is it a Success	Yes
Why	Believable FPS with realistic features.

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Mass Effect Review

With already glowing reviews from major gaming sites and the public as well, Mass Effect is definitely Game of the Year material. On the surface it is a clean and unique RPG that improves upon RPG giants Bioware's previous successes of Jade Empire and Knights of the Old Republic. On the whole it delivers a great next-gen experience with stunning visuals and narrative despite some technical and game play issues. Hit the jump for the rest.

While Mass Effect has very little in the way a brand new genre-defining innovation, it does however, vastly improve upon what has been done before. The best example, and quite possibly the greatest part of this game, is the unique narrative interface. In previous Bioware games such as Knights of the Old Republic, conversation choices appeared after the character you were talking to had finished, resulting in a stop-start feel to conversations as you read and then choose possible responses. Mass Effect how ever will give you your choices during conversation so you can be ready when its your turn to speak. Also, as oppose to giving you word-for-word responses, Mass Effect will offer you a sort of tone of response choice, with the words describing how you will respond, not what you will respond with. This system is presented in a unique wheel, with kinder options at the top and harsher ones at the bottom. Left hand choices generally offer more conversation, while right hand ones generally signal a conversation end.
This results in a smooth flowing narrative, one in which i don't find myself reading the subtitles just to get to the end and collect my loot, Although the presentation of the speech wheel will allow you to skip through conversation once you know how it works if you so wish.

The Story line is brilliant too, with new and well executed twists on sci-fi standards. Its only a shame that the main plot line is horribly short, clocking in around 12 Hours, although with all the side quests a good 30-40 hours can be had. It has also caused quite a controversy as a possible romance subplot can involve not only interspecies sexual relations (even though the 'scenes' are hilarious to watch) but also lesbian interspecies sexual relations. The game was initially banned in Singapore over this, but this has since been reversed.

Anyway, that's enough praise for now. Underneath all of this lies a unpolished pseudo-RPG that could have been so much better.
For starters the Visuals. OK, so they look amazing. But they also bog the game down like nobody's business, with texture pop-ins happening frequently throughout game play. "Official" loading times, where the game tells you its loading are short (albeit with texture pop-ins again), but its where the game tries to disguise loading times with painfully long elevator rides or "bio-hazard decontamination" that you start to get impatient as the game hastily tries to load all that data. The games unique locations look brilliant, but its when you start doing the side quests you notice the recycled textures.

The combat plays more like Gears of War than the updated KOTOR like it was touted, with the whole cover-duck-shoot playing more like a third person shooter with a overused over the shoulder camera angle than the careful tactical play an RPG should have. The game will occasionally experience horrible FPS drops at critical times as it tries load all the combat physics at once.

Vehicular exploration and combat, while fun at first, turns out to be not only boring and in some cases unrealistic (driving up vertical slopes anyone?), but also insanely hard at higher difficulty levels.

Although i should give credit to Bioware for trying to make an accessible RPG, its exactly that which makes it feel exactly not like an RPG. The dumbed down level system feels abandoned, and the team dynamics feel rushed, with squad control coming across like a tacked on afterthought. Also, standard RPG conventions, the very substance that makes an RPG an RPG, is almost unrecognizable. There are no unique character weapons, with all characters carrying the same four weapons and an encouragement by the game and its achievements to use two squad members exclusively (A point we discussed in class the other day, RPG's generally having uses for all the characters at different points)

However, despite all of its short comings, Mass effect remains a great RPG (late nights being a good indicator) that i cant help but love. A great story and impressive visuals make this a must play RPG Third Person Shooter.

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Game Log

Game Title	Mass Effect
Platform	Xbox 360
Other Platforms possible	-
Dates Played	23/11/07 - 05/12/07
Number of Players	One
Release Date	23/11/07
Developer	BioWare
Developer Loacation	Canada
Brief Overview	Space opera RPG with unique dialogue system. Deep involving narrative, and gameplay that shines through technical faults.
Primary Game Genre	Third Person Shooter
Secondary Game Genre	RPG
Tertiary Game Genre	Third Person Adventure
Single Player/Multiplayer	Single Player
Typical Duration of Game	30 Hours
Out of 10	8/10
Target Audience	Young Adults / Adults
Out of 10 for Audience	9/10
Is it a Success	Yes
Why	Builds upon previous developer successes without being complacent in their accomplishments

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