Bastion of Greatness!(Bastion Review)(My 1 Minute Review)

      “Sitting in front of his keyboard, the reviewer feels the pressure of anticipation as he begins to review Bastion.” The calm cool voice of the narrator expounds.

          Bastion is an action game that begins with the player being dropped into the role of “the Kid.”  Who will be the hero of the game.  The player is given a variety of weapons and  tonics to choose from, along with many other enhancements that can be obtained through building different structures throughout the Bastion.  Which is a small island of safety in the Post apocalyptic world of the Calamity.  Of course, throughout this process a wonderful Narrator tells your entire story, fills in backstory, and even comments on your actions.  The player can make the game harder or easier based on how many idols they turn on in the Shrine.  Doing this will make the enemies much tougher and can certainly change things in the game drastically.  Bastion is a very fair, but not necessarily easy game.  There is definitely a learning curve, even without the idols.  There are no difficulty settings, so you just need to learn the game or die.  The game also has a NEW GAME PLUS feature, which while virtually unheard of in XBLA games; it has made just about every premium title that has ever come out at least 25% better.  And in Bastion it is no different, this feature is like the frosting on the all ready incredibly delicious cake.

       I have to say that I loved everything about Bastion.  The art, the music, the gameplay, the story, everything!  I wasn’t a big fan of the automatic save system, I would have much preferred a manual save system.  But as the rest of the ENTIRE game is better than just about anything else I’ve EVER played, I will give it a pass.  Unless you are a horrible, crazy person, you will love Bastion.  And even if you are, you may still love it.  10/10! 

A Legacy Best Left Unknown(Dragon Age 2 DLC Review)

    My One Minute Review:

              Dragon Age 2 was released on March 8th of this year.  Almost 4 months later this lone piece of downloadable content has arrived.  This piece of content is around 4 hours in length, if you fully explore as I did.  The piece of DLC tells the story of a Warden Prison that was set to hold a Darkspawn named, “Corryphus.” Might have the spelling wrong as I couldn’t find a reference for it.  I won’t give the simplistic story away but lets just say you will have it figured out long before the end of the content.

             The content does introduce a new enemy type, a new weapon called, “Hawke’s Key” which you can customize through the latter half the content.  While the add-on can be played at any point in the main game.  Even after the main game.  I played it on a clear save.  My characters ran from level 18-20 throughout the content.  I never died until the final battle against the boss.  Which seemed to me to be a strange spike in difficulty.  Considering the rest of the content, there is little to no challenge; this is an unexpected spike.

           The final boss is an area specific battle reminiscent of the final boss fight in the Deep Roads in the main story.  Except that this battle is even more area specific.  The characters must all run into a different specific area for each phase of the fight.  But the A.I. characters have a tendency not to do this.  With only one character remaining, I did beat the boss. But as a whole the fact that none of the tactics would have needed to be touched throughout the whole game and then they be required in this one battle.  Seems odd to me.  The prize for beating the boss, absolutely NOTHING!

         In fact, the whole piece of content adds virtually nothing to the game as a whole.  Hawke’s Key is a relatively weak weapon compared to others in the game.  If I didn’t all ready have the best armor in the game, there was an armor set you can acquire by exploring that might be helpful later.  But as a whole unless you just need to level up beyond the main game; there is really no reason to play this content.  While there are new cutscenes in the content there is nothing here you can’t live without.  I would have really liked to see a new mage character or perhaps a linking piece of content between Dragon Age 2 and 3.  Than what amounts to at best a side story and at worst a waste of time. 3/10…

I Sincerely hoped that this was a joke(Mortal Kombat)

    Some people think that characters from different franchises ruin the integrity of a fighting game.  I think this goes FAR beyond that.  I normally trust the vision of creators but this seems like a pure cash in and while it may be fun or funny right now.  In a year or two it’s going to seem like a very crappy move.  This very thing is the reason why Capcom won’t have console specific fighters or funny cameos.  If it doesn’t make sense they don’t do it.  Freddy might be in the spirit of Mortal Kombat.  But really, it just makes no sense.

More Arkham City Gameplay off screen from Japan Expo 2011!

If you thought the E3 2011 walkthrough was the whole demo, you would be wrong!

Of Elder Gods and Archons!(My 1 Minute Review) (Dungeon Siege 3)

        Dungeon Siege 3 is a story heavy, action RPG.  The game follows the Legion, a group of knights, for lack of a better description; that have fallen out of favor with the world when this game begins.  Your battle throughout the game is mainly with Jeyne Kassynder and her forces.  The game is very loot driven, but about 2/3 of the way through this stops really being an issue.  I loved the game for the most part, playing it single player.  The choices you make in the game REALLY influence the ending that you get; and that’s cool.  I have to say that the only REAL issue I had with the game was the fact that there is no new game plus and that the loot that you get near the end of the game looks pretty but most of it is crap.

       However, the problems with the multiplayer/coop are probably too much to surmount for this title.  You cannot use your own character in someone else’s game, there is no loot segregation so playing with random people online is out.  And finally, when playing local multiplayer, the game constantly is trying to keep up with having two moving characters on-screen at the same time.

       While I love what this game was TRYING to do; I think it would have been a better game without it.  Perhaps, in Dungeon Siege IV.  But I DID love it single player, at least one time through.  For all these reasons I give Dungeon Siege 3 a 8/10 (XBOX360 version).

 

Klassic Noob and Smoke Skins! (MK9)

G4’s Fighting Words MvC3 with Clockwork Part 3 (Phoenix)

Xbox 360 Games - E3 2011 - Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds

  Fighting Words is a great series, especially these episodes with Clockwork.  Clockwork is a Legendary Marvel vs. Capcom 2 player.  He also has had a descent career in Marvel vs. Capcom 3.