News - by Bladeex1 - January 14, 2010 - 00:09 UTC - Be first to Comment!
Army of Two 40th Day
So I’m in Best Buy and looking at the new Army of Two 40th Day and I’m just not convinced that I was in love with the first version of the game to bother with this version. After all there are so many games hitting the street in the next few months this title just is not exciting me.
Comment if you feel diffrently and have picked up the title and haven’t put it down since yesterday. So far I’m not seeing any evidence of that in my XBL Friends yet. There may be more activity this weekend.
News - by Bladeex1 - December 25, 2009 - 01:10 UTC - Be first to Comment!
We hope you all have a very Merry Christmas. We all have so much to be thankful for so take time to be with whatever family you have and enjoy.
News - by Bladeex1 - December 14, 2009 - 22:58 UTC - Be first to Comment!
Meta 3D Studios, one of Austin’s leading providers of visual content for computer and console games, is introducing a new service to Apple iPhone™ game and application developers.
Meta 3D Studios now offers Adobe® Flash® services that help clients better communicate their Apple iPhone™ application or game concepts. Customers are able to leverage simulated, fully functional Flash® versions of their application or game ideas in presentations to stakeholders, investors and business partners. Utilizing these services will help optimize development time, better manage client expectations, and reduce business risk.
Meta 3D Studios specializes in providing 2D and 3D visual content not only for major AAA gaming console titles and casual games, but also web applications, music videos and feature films. The studio has recently delivered content to a number of Nintendo DS™ games and is currently working on content for a Microsoft XBOX® 360 game scheduled for release in 2010. Developers and publishers are encouraged to contact the studio for more information about services and pricing.
Meta 3D Studios
www.meta3dstudios.com
News - by Bladeex1 - December 6, 2009 - 15:13 UTC - Be first to Comment!
Hey guys through a special offer these three games are on sale through the Microsoft Store. We don’t normally post sales like this but it’s a good one but it’s only until Midnight.
Bakugan Battle Brawlers for Xbox. Only $29.99 at the Microsoft Store. Offer valid 12.5.09 and 12.6.09 only!
Sold Out:
- Batman
- Beatles Rockband
- Band Hero
News - by Bladeex1 - October 9, 2009 - 12:04 UTC - Be first to Comment!
We wanted to drop a little knowledge on you guys and let you know the upcoming Game releases for October.
Look for this post at least once a month to help you plan for game purchases. I’ve highlighed games you need to pay more attention to.
Xbox 360
Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising X360 Codemasters Oct 9, 2009
Blitz: The League II X360 Midway Oct 13, 2009
Rock Band Metal Track Pack X360 MTV Games Oct 13, 2009
Way of the Samurai 3 X360 UFO Oct 13, 2009
Magna Carta 2 X360 Namco Bandai Oct 16, 2009
Brütal Legend X360 EA Oct 13, 2009
The Strike Griffin Interactive Oct 6, 2009
Lucidity LucasArts Oct 7, 2009
NBA Live 10 EA Oct 9, 2009
Forza Motorsport 3 Microsoft Oct 23, 2009
Lips: Number One Hits Microsoft Oct 23, 2009
PES 2010 Konami Oct 23, 2009
WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2010 THQ Oct 23, 2009
Fairytale Fights Playlogic Oct 27, 2009
Madagascar Kartz Activision Oct 27, 2009
Tekken 6 Namco Bandai Oct 27, 2009 (Get ready to Be Owned)
Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City Rockstar Oct 29, 2009
BioShock 2 2K Games Oct 30, 2009
Cars Race-O-Rama THQ Oct 30, 2009
CSI: Deadly Intent Ubisoft Oct 30, 2009
DJ Hero Activision Oct 30, 2009
PS3
NBA Live 10 PS3 EA Oct 9, 2009
Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising PS3 Codemasters Oct 9, 2009
Blitz: The League II PS3 Midway Oct 13, 2009
Brütal Legend PS3 EA Oct 13, 2009
Rock Band Metal Track Pack PS3 MTV Games Oct 13, 2009
Way of the Samurai 3 PS3 UFO Oct 13, 2009
PES 2010 Konami Oct 23, 2009
WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2010 THQ Oct 23, 2009
Fairytale Fights Playlogic Oct 27, 2009
Madagascar Kartz Activision Oct 27, 2009
Tekken 6 Namco Bandai Oct 27, 2009
BioShock 2 2K Games Oct 30, 2009
Cars Race-O-Rama THQ Oct 30, 2009
DJ Hero Activision Oct 30, 2009
Blur Activision Autumn 2009
Chaotic: Shadow Warriors Activision Autumn 2009
Wii
Cate West: The Vanishing Files Wii Oxygen Oct 9, 2009
A Boy and His Blob Wii Majesco Oct 13, 2009
Rock Band Metal Track Pack Wii MTV Games Oct 13, 2009
LostWinds: Winter of the Melodias Wii (online) Frontier Oct 9, 2009
Spore Wii EA Oct 15, 2009
Drawn to Life: The Next Chapter Wii THQ Oct 16, 2009
Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games Wii Sega Oct 16, 2009
Ninja Captains Wii Nordcurrent Oct 16, 2009
Shimano Xtreme Fishing Mastiff Oct 20, 2009
Marvel Super Hero Squad THQ Oct 23, 2009
WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2010 THQ Oct 23, 2009
101-in-1 Party Megamix Atlus Oct 27, 2009
Madagascar Kartz Activision Oct 27, 2009
NERF: “N-Strike” Elite EA Oct 27, 2009
Arcade Zone Activision Oct 30, 2009
Cars Race-O-Rama THQ Oct 30, 2009
DJ Hero Activision Oct 30, 2009
Dragon Ball: Revenge of King Piccolo Namco Bandai Oct 30, 2009
JU-ON: The Grudge Rising Star Games Oct 30, 2009 (Really?)
Mountains Sports Activision Oct 30, 2009
Science Papa Activision Oct 30, 2009
U-SING Mindscape Oct 30, 2009
We Sing Nordic Games Oct 30, 2009
Charm Girls Club EA Oct 31, 2009
Littlest Pet Shop Friends EA Oct 31, 2009
Medieval Games Bethesda Oct 31, 2009
DS
Cate West: The Vanishing Files DS Oxygen Oct 9, 2009
Spore Hero Arena DS EA Oct 9, 2009
Amazing Adventures DS Ubisoft Oct 9, 2009
Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days DS Square Enix Oct 9, 2009
Scribblenauts DS Warner Bros. Oct 9, 2009 (May be Best Game 2009)
Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky DS Nintendo Oct 12, 2009
DRAGON QUEST: WARS DS (online) Square Enix Oct 9, 2009
Cake Mania 3 DS Majesco Oct 14, 2009
Petz Pony Beauty Pageant DS Ubisoft Oct 14, 2009
Angel Cat Sugar DS Rising Star Games Oct 16, 2009
Drawn to Life: The Next Chapter DS THQ Oct 16, 2009
FIFA Soccer 10 DS EA Oct 16, 2009
Harvest Fishing DS Rising Star Games Oct 16, 2009
Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games DS Sega Oct 16, 2009
Ninja Captains DS Nordcurrent Oct 16, 2009
Tracy Beaker Ubisoft Oct 16, 2009
Jillian Michaels’ Fitness Ultimatum 2010 Majesco Oct 20, 2009
Marvel Super Hero Squad THQ Oct 23, 2009
WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2010 THQ Oct 23, 2009
Madagascar Kartz Activision Oct 27, 2009
Petz Nursery Ubisoft Oct 27, 2009
Agatha Christie: The ABC Murders JoWooD Oct 28, 2009
7 Wonders II Avanquest Oct 30, 2009
Cars Race-O-Rama THQ Oct 30, 2009
CSI: Deadly Intent Ubisoft Oct 30, 2009
Dolphin Island 2: Underwater Adventure Ubisoft Oct 30, 2009
Science Papa Activision Oct 30, 2009
Charm Girls Club EA Oct 31, 2009
Littlest Pet Shop Friends EA Oct 31, 2009
PSP
NBA Live 10 PSP EA Oct 16, 2009
Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars Rockstar Oct 23, 2009
Marvel Super Hero Squad THQ Oct 23, 2009
WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2010 THQ Oct 23, 2009
Cars Race-O-Rama THQ Oct 30, 2009
Football Manager Handheld 2010 Sega Oct 30, 2009
iPhone
iCasino CTXM Oct 1, 2009
FIFA Soccer 10 EA Oct 2, 2009
Unbalanced: Fall of the Blorbs 2Real Media Oct 2, 2009
HATTRICK – Spring Loaded Soccer Cinemax Oct 5, 2009
PDC World Darts Championship I-play Oct 5, 2009
BombLink Capcom October 5, 2009
Bass Fishing Mania 2 I-play Oct 8, 2009
Arcade Reality Chillingo Oct 9, 2009
Beneath A Steel Sky – Remastered Revolution Oct 9, 2009
Creepy Slots Mobile Amusements Oct 9, 2009
Cash Cow Chillingo Oct 2009
Extreme Lawn Bowls Mediatonic Oct 2009
Omniball Vendetta Studios Oct 2009
Squeeballs Party PDP Oct 2009
PC
Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising PC Codemasters Oct 9, 2009
CITIES XL PC Monte Cristo Oct 9, 2009
Crusaders: Thy Kingdom Come PC (online) Virgin PLAY Oct 9, 2009
Freestyle Manager PC (online) JCE Corp. Oct 9, 2009
HISTORY Great Battles Medieval PC (online) Slitherine Software Oct 9, 2009
Scrabble 2009 PC Ubisoft Oct 9, 2009
Zeno Clash PC Iceberg Interactive Oct 9, 2009
Angel Cat Sugar PC Rising Star Games Oct 16, 2009
East India Company: Privateer PC (online) Paradox Interactive Oct 16, 2009
PureSim Baseball 2 Wolverine Studios Oct 16, 2009
Return to Mysterious Island 2 Iceberg Interactive Oct 16, 2009
Buccaneer: The Pursuit of Infamy Nobilis Oct 23, 2009
Elven Legacy: Ranger Paradox Interactive Oct 23, 2009
Light of Altair Mamba Games Oct 23, 2009
PES 2010 Konami Oct 23, 2009
Scorpion Disfigured Mamba Games Oct 23, 2009
Sokal Pack: Amerzone, Syberia 1, 2 Iceberg Interactive Oct 23, 2009
Torchlight Runic Games Oct 27, 2009
Cricket Revolution Mamba Games Oct 30, 2009
CSI: Deadly Intent Ubisoft Oct 30, 2009
Dracula Trilogy pack Iceberg Interactive Oct 30, 2009
Football Manager 2010 Sega Oct 30, 2009
Featured - by Bladeex1 - September 9, 2009 - 10:45 UTC - 1 Comment
No Yesterday at least right now it seems so far away Full Story
News - by Bladeex1 - September 7, 2009 - 11:36 UTC - 1 Comment
Only in Japan can you find someplace were American Hottie Olivia Munn wouldn’t be allowed. You gotta love the Japanese. The picture below shows Olivia and her brother John posing in front of soon to be famous sign.
In case you missed the Ninja Warrior here’s a great behind the scenes with Olivia Munn and Luci Romberg (the girl from the egg commercial) Chugg a Venom energy drink. Not really news but I just can’t get enough of how cool Olivia Munn seems to be with just about anyone. It may be an act but I think she may just be the real deal.
Reviews - by Bladeex1 - September 4, 2009 - 00:02 UTC - Be first to Comment!
After seeing the overwhelming success of both Street Fighter II Hyper Fighting and Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix, it was only a matter of time before Capcom decided to port more of their popular 2D fighting games to the Xbox Live Arcade. With so many classic fighting games to choose from, Capcom could have gone a number of directions. They could have given us an underrated classic like Street Fighter III, or perhaps tried to reboot a franchise like Darkstalkers, or even offered up something obscure like Red Earth. But instead they went with a fan favorite, none other than Marvel vs. Capcom 2.
Originally an arcade release, this nine year old game is best known for its stellar Dreamcast port. While it was also released on the Xbox and PlayStation 2, but versions were fairly rare and something of a disappointment for those of us looking for added content. This Xbox 360 port plays it safe, denying us any new characters or single-player game modes. What it does offer is an online mode that may just be worth the $15 asking price.
As the name suggests, Marvel vs. Capcom 2 is a 2D fighting game that pits some of your favorite comic book superheroes (and super villains) against some of the greatest video game characters of all time. This is more than just a game with Street Fighter and X-Men characters, it manages to pull in dozens of characters you would never have imagined fitting in a fighting game. There are a whopping 56 characters, a staggering amount for any fighting game, especially one from Capcom. While not every character is balanced, the sheer variety should attract just about anybody that is even remotely interested in fighting games.
Each side is predictably split into two sets of 28, which by itself is more than most modern fighting games (in contrast, SNK’s recent The King of Fighters XII only has 22 playable characters). On the Marvel side you get some of the biggest comic book characters of all time, including Spider-Man, Wolverine, Captain America, Doctor Doom, the Incredible Hulk, Storm, Iron Man, Gambit and Magneto. You also get a good helping of comic book characters I’m only vaguely familiar with, such as Cable, Thanos and Shuma-Gorath.
As a fan of Capcom since the early 8-bit days, it’s the Capcom side that makes my heart start palpitating in weird patterns. Yes, you get many of the classic Street Fighter characters, including Ryu, Ken, Chun Li, Cammy, M. Bison and so on. But what’s exciting about this game is that you also get other classic characters, such as Jill from Resident Evil, Mega Man, Strider Hiryu, Servbot from Mega Man Legends, Captain Commando and Hayato from the little played Star Gladiator. There’s also a nice selection of characters from the Darkstalkers games, which overwhelms this Morrigan fanboy with excitement.
I promised myself I wouldn’t just spout out lists, but frankly with 56 characters it’s easy to fall into that trap. Needless to say, there is a character for just about everyone, be it a Tron Bonne, Doctor Doom, or just plain old Dan. Any way you slice it; there are a lot of characters to take into this intense three-on-three battle royale.
In an interesting move (that doesn’t feel as novel as it did nine years ago), Marvel vs. Capcom employs a three-on-three fighting style. This means that you select a three-person team, similar to how you play most of the classic King of Fighters games. However, unlike SNK’s long-running series, Marvel vs. Capcom 2 allows you to cycle through characters on the fly, allowing you to not only give your fighters some much needed rest, but also create multi-character combos. It’s an interesting style that can feel a little jarring at first; you can either tag out or simply bring one of your sideline characters in for a brief attack. What’s more, you can also bring all three characters in for a massive special attack that literally fills up the entire screen.
Breaking from a decade old tradition, Capcom has decided to only use four attack buttons instead of six. The moves haven’t been changed, so you will have no excuses this time. The game plays just like all the classic games this title is derived from, and feels even better with the PlayStation 2 control. This fighter has been optimized for the layout of the control, which has never felt more natural.
The game lacks any real story, which is probably a good thing, since I really don’t want to know why Felicia, the cat-woman from the Darkstalkers series, is fighting Iron Man. What surprises me, though, is the general lack of one player modes. Besides the arcade mode and a score attack mode, which is basically exactly the same as the arcade mode, this game has nothing else for you to do. It would have been nice if Capcom had included a Survival mode or something, but I guess Capcom didn’t feel like adding much to the original Dreamcast release.
The game is starting to show its age a little. Some of the characters look a tad rough, especially when put up against the beautifully 3D rendered backgrounds. The graphics don’t look bad, but they certainly could use some polishing. This is especially true when you play the game on a high definition television. There are definitely things about the game that pop out, but there’s also a fair amount of pixelization that can really damper the overall experience. The good news is that you can test out a couple of different filters that smooth out the graphics, but neither of them is ideal. It would have been nice to see a true HD update to this game, but that’s probably asking a bit too much.
Oddly enough I do have what sounds like a very minor complaint about this game. You see, in all of the other versions of the game you started with only a handful of characters, making you earn the rest of them. Each time you played a match (no matter if you won or lost) you would earn tokens that you could use to buy new characters, costumes and stages. This kept me playing both the Dreamcast and PlayStation 2 versions of the game long past the time I got bored simply fighting. It kept me engaged and coming back for more, even if it was only one or two matches a day. For whatever reason, all of that was stripped out in this Xbox Live Arcade version. Instead you get all of the characters unlocked from the get-go. While this is fine for the multiplayer mode, I miss having an incentive (other than achievement points) to keep coming back. In a lot of ways it makes this release feel like a bare bones package, even though it offers several dozen characters to choose from. It’s funny how something so small can make me view it in a negative way.
While I’m complaining, I would also like to spend a few seconds griping about the Xbox 360’s horrible D-pad. Yes, I know I mention it every time I review a game like this, but there’s really no excuse for how shoddy a product the Xbox 360 D-pad is. You can play the game with the analog stick, but it doesn’t feel right. Obviously the best way to play the game is with an arcade stick, so hopefully you already picked one of those up for Street Fighter IV. If not, maybe now is the time to do so.
The game more than makes up for these two problems with a solid online mode. Like Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix and Street Fighter IV, Marvel vs. Capcom 2 manages to give you exciting battles with a minimum amount of lag. That’s not to say that you won’t run into it from time to time, but my experience with the online mode was mostly positive. There aren’t a ton of online modes to choose from, but at the end of the day all you really need is a second player to fight.
While it may not wow the crowds like Street Fighter IV or BlazBlue, Marvel vs. Capcom 2 is absolutely one of the best fighting games on the Xbox Live Arcade. It’s different enough from all of the other releases on the platform to warrant the price, and I guarantee that you’ll get your $15 worth out of just trying out all 56 characters. Now that we have one of Capcom’s most successful fighters out of the way, it’s time to bring on Street Fighter III or Darkstalkers.
SUMMARY: Believe it or not, Marvel vs. Capcom 2 is different enough from all of the other fighting games on the Xbox Live Arcade to warrant a purchase. With 56 characters and a fun online component, it’s going to take a long time before you get sick of this must-own game!
By Cyril Lachel http://defucntgames.com
Reviews - by Bladeex1 - September 3, 2009 - 23:12 UTC - Be first to Comment!
Mere months after Capcom successfully managed to reboot the Street Fighter franchise, here is SNK Playmore doing the same thing with their longest running fighting game series. With a new graphic style, a few noticeable gameplay changes and a brand new line-up of characters, The King of Fighters desperately wants to be relevant. Unfortunately there is far too little in this package to get excited about, especially with the uncharacteristically strong competition coming from all sides.
Fifteen years ago SNK had an idea, what if they took two of popular (albeit mediocre) franchises and turned them into one three-on-three fighting game for the ages. Believe it or not, the idea worked. Fatal Fury and Art of Fighting were reborn as The King of Fighters, which also included characters from Ikari Warriors and Psycho Soldier, two other SNK arcade games. Here we are 15 years later and we’re now 12 games into the series (15 if you include the Neowave and Maximum Impact spin-offs). In those years we’ve seen new characters added, new storylines told and some truly amazing fights. In a lot of ways The King of Fighters XII does a good job of keeping the spirit of the series alive.
The King of Fighters XII offers 22 different characters, including a number of fan favorites. You get Terry and Andy Bogard, Joe Higashi, Mature, Iori, Kyo, Ash, Goro and a number of other familiar faces. In fact, the only brand new character in the line-up is Raiden, the large wrestler from the original Fatal Fury and 3 Count Bout.
Interestingly enough, it’s not who is in the game that is worth mentioning, but rather who is NOT in the game. The most notable absents seems to be Mai Shiranui, easily the most popular female fighter in the SNK universe. Also missing are a few of my favorite characters, including the Garou Team (Gato, B. Jenet and Tizoc), the Geese Howard team (Billy Kane, Blue Mary, Mr. Big, etc.), Seth, Vanessa and Wolfgang Krauser. It’s not that they’ve been replaced with better characters, but rather that they are just missing in action.
I’ll admit that much of that last paragraph was the very definition of “geeky.” But by the time you’ve made it to the twelfth game isn’t that to be expected? The core audience for this series is largely made up of gamers like me who have played many (if not all) of the installments, finding teams and characters that kept you interested in the three-on-three battles. This game can’t seem to decide if it’s trying to cater to all of the old fans or trying to attract a bunch of new players. In either case, it doesn’t have enough of the beloved characters from the past to satisfy old timers like myself and it makes no attempt to bring new players in. And that’s the problem with The King of Fighters XII; it can’t decide what it wants to be.
Did I mention that The King of Fighters XII only has 22 characters? It’s true, you didn’t just imagine that. While two dozen may sound like a lot for some series, that’s nothing for The King of Fighters franchise. This is a series that routinely has three and four dozen characters to choose from, while this 2009 installment doesn’t even hit two dozen. In comparison, the last installment had more than 40 characters to choose from, many of which were brand new. Heck, even the game’s first installment had more characters than The King of Fighters XII. For a game that requires you to choose three characters at a time, 22 isn’t enough to truly satisfy the hardcore fan.
For the most part the game plays like many of the recent King of Fighters installments. You are still choosing a team of three characters and going against another team of equal size. Unlike Marvel vs. Capcom 2 (Capcom’s answer to the three-on-three fighting game), The King of Fighter XII doesn’t allow you to switch characters on the fly. That means that you will have to fight with one character at a time, only switching characters when one guy runs out of health. The good news is that you can choose your character order at the start of each match.
Fans of the series will notice a few changes to the way the game handles. For example, the Tactical Shift System from The King of Fighters 2003 is gone. However, the game does offer a brand new system called “critical counter,” which allows you to perform an impressive looking (and damaging) counter attack when your opponent tries to land a strong punch on you. This system can really turn the momentum of a match, because the player will go into a special mode where you can link a bunch of moves together seamlessly. There’s also a new “clash” system, which will trigger if two characters try and hit each other at the same time. The characters will actually generate a break effect and are pushed away from each other. It won’t change the momentum, but it is an interesting idea that you don’t see in a lot of 2D fighting games.
Beyond the new gimmicks, The King of Fighters XII really has a nice feel to it. The characters have never felt more natural than they do in this game, perhaps helped by the incredible animation and responsive controls. The special moves are (for the most part) easy to pull off and the game feels fine on the standard Xbox 360 game pad, though I would certainly recommend some sort of arcade stick if you plan on taking this game seriously. The game’s four button system works well with the standard four face button layout of the Xbox 360 controller, something I cannot say about every other fighting game on the market.
The big change to this 2009 installment is the presentation, which received a major overhaul. Not have all of the characters been redrawn, but the arenas you fight in are absolutely massive. Well … maybe they aren’t “massive,” but they are definitely the largest I’ve seen in a King of Fighters game. Not only are they big, but the backgrounds are also full of vibrant. In one level you are fighting in a giant sports arena, with a jumbo TV in the background showing your every move. The backgrounds are at their best when they are showing people watching, there’s something about the humanity looking on that contrasts perfectly with these violent three-on-three fights. The background graphics are easily the best looking aspect to this game.
For some strange reason I wasn’t as impressed with the characters as I was with the backgrounds. I can tell just from looking at these 22 characters that SNK Playmore spent a lot of time on the art. Without a doubt, these are the best looking characters I’ve seen in an SNK game. The problem is, depending on the kind of television you own, these characters may end up with a shocking amount of pixelation. Thankfully there’s an option to smooth out the graphics, but they’re nowhere near as satisfying as Capcom’s recent Super Street Fighter II HD Remix. However, don’t let this minor complaint give you the wrong impression, The King of Fighters XII is an amazing looking fighting game, and nobody is going to debate that.
The King of Fighters series has never been known for their vast quantities of extra modes. This is an arcade series, after all. But considering that this is a full price $60 release, I can’t help but notice the complete lack of things to do in The King of Fighters XII. The game gives you an arcade mode, which has you fighting through seven rounds as fast as possible (no really, it’s timed). Then there’s the practice mode, which lets you, well, practice your moves and combos. Outside of the multiplayer modes (which includes online), there’s really nothing else for you here. You can look at the replays and a picture gallery, but that’s just about it. This game is as bare bones as you could possibly get.
This might be fine if this was 194 and SNK was new to the fighting game franchise, but we’re talking about a company that has two decades experience making this kind of game. We’re talking about a series that has been around for 15 years, always adding new modes and extras to play around with. We’re talking about a console game here, not an arcade release. When you spend full price, you expect at least a few more modes to keep you interested. How difficult would it have been to add some sort of survival mode? Couple this lack of modes with the fact that the arcade mode is small and unsatisfying, and you have a 2D fighting game that comes up far short of what it should have been.
Thankfully the game has an online mode, but even that was marred by instability and lag issues. For what it’s worth, SNK Playmore did patch the online mode in the course of my review. This added patch seemed to fix many of the laggy online problems I was experiencing, but didn’t seem to resolve everything. For the most part this mode worked as promised, though it doesn’t have the bells and whistles found in other contemporary fighting games.
That seems to be a reoccurring theme when it comes to The King of Fighters XII. While there’s no doubt that SNK Playmore was on the right track with many of their changes, there just isn’t enough in this package to warrant the high price tag. There aren’t enough characters to choose from, the backgrounds repeat far too often, there’s really only one game mode for single-players and the online is as bare bones as it comes. There just isn’t enough here, which makes it hard to get on board with this product.
But I’ll admit, the more I played the game, the more it grew on me. Talking with other people who have been playing the game, it seems clear that the game has something of a slow burn. It definitely leaves a bad first impression, but as I played through it I couldn’t help but like what it was trying to do. I like many of the characters here, I think the graphics are the best they’ve ever been and I love the way the game handles. It makes me wonder if next year’s model will end up solving most of these problems, especially when it comes to the lack of characters.
Speaking of lack of characters, I noticed that there’s a marketplace tab right in the game’s main menu. Perhaps that suggests that the game will start charging people for individual characters and teams, milking even more money out of you over time. This might not have been a problem had SNK supplied us with more than 22 characters, but I have a hard time not looking at this as a cynical money grab. I hope I’m wrong.
The King of Fighter XII is a solid fighting game that is marred by several major problems. The game’s lack of content wouldn’t be a problem if the game was $20, but at $60 it’s hard to justify. I also have to take into account the fact that The King of Fighters ‘98, a superior game by all accounts, is available on the Xbox Live Arcade for a mere $10. There is fun to be found in this newest SNK fighting game, but that fun is not worth the asking price.
SUMMARY: While there’s no doubt that SNK Playmore was on the right track with many of their changes to The King of Fighters XII, there just isn’t enough in this package to warrant the high price tag. There aren’t enough characters to choose from, the backgrounds repeat far too often, there’s really only one game mode for single-players and the online is as bare bones as it comes. Better luck with The King of Fighters XIII!
While there’s no doubt that SNK Playmore was on the right track with many of their changes to The King of Fighters XII, there just isn’t enough in this package to warrant the high price tag. There aren’t enough characters to choose from, the backgrounds repeat far too often, there’s really only one game mode for single-players and the online is as bare bones as it comes. Better luck with The King of Fighters XIII!
There aren’t enough characters to choose from, the backgrounds repeat far too often, there’s really only one game mode for single-players and the online is as bare bones as it comes. Better luck with The King of Fighters XIII!
Reviews - by Bladeex1 - September 3, 2009 - 23:12 UTC - Be first to Comment!
The word “epic” sure gets thrown around a lot in video game reviews. It seems like whenever somebody is reviewing a role-playing game, suddenly it becomes an epic struggle between good and bad. And it’s not just traditional role-playing games, the word “epic” is often used to describe the length of a Grand Theft Auto game or the way Halo wrapped up. Yet as long as those games are, they pale in comparison to Sacred 2: Fallen Angel, the sequel to hugely successful 2004 PC game. With hundreds of quests, huge bosses and a story that will take you dozens (if not hundreds) of hours to complete, Sacred 2 is the one game I’ve played this year that can most accurately be described as epic.
Released six months after the PC version, Fallen Angel attempts to mix two different adventure genres. On one hand it’s like your standard Diablo II-style hack-n-slash dungeon crawler. However, what Ascaron has done is mix this with the trappings of a massively multiplayer online role-playing game. You get an absolutely gigantic world to explore, all without having to worry about thousands of other people getting in your way. The game isn’t completely offline; it’s just not as dependent on having other players populate the world.
There’s a plot here, however it’s so loose that you may not even notice it at first. The story mainly involves you running errands for people and solving a lot of problems. Gamers expecting a coherent Final Fantasy-style story will no doubt be disappointed. You play one of six different characters, ranging from a Shadow Warrior, an Inquisitor, a Temple Guardian and more. I chose Seraphim, who is described as an angel-like figure who comes bearing deadly weapons. With her curvy figure (to put it mildly) and uncomfortable high heels, my warrior was ready to take on tens of thousands of bad guys and (hopefully) save the day.
The game starts you out with a traditional quest, it involves you talking to townspeople and then fighting a huge monster. However, at any time you can either choose to run through the story or sit back and take out the many, MANY side quests. In each town there are people with large question marks above their heads, you can talk to them to get quests that will earn you gold and experience once completed. There’s no rush on these quests, either. You can talk to a bunch of people and take on these missions whenever it’s convenient for you. All of the side quests are in white, while your main quest is denoted by orange.
It’s easy to get overwhelmed by the amount of side quests early on. I spend the first ten hours of my time doing nothing more than helping parents find their kids, killing monsters that are threatening the local crops and ridding caves of pirates. However, as much fun as these quests are, it’s not until you start taking on the main quest that you realize just how enormous the world is. In order to explore the rest of the massive world you are going to have to defeat bosses and advance the storyline.
The entire game takes place in Ancaria, a gigantic world full of diverse locations and plenty of out of the way areas to explore. While I don’t know exactly how large Ancaria really is, I can tell you that it’s significantly larger than the continent found in The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. Not only is it larger, but it’s also a whole lot more interesting. While I loved Oblivion, I couldn’t help but notice how similar everything looked. That’s not the case here, in one part of the world you will be fighting through the forests, while in another part of the world you will be in the middle of a sandstorm. And that’s just the beginning, eventually you’ll make your way through the marshy wilderness, through volcanic tunnels and much, much more. If the game is good at anything, it’s taking you to far off lands that look nothing like where you came from.
Although this type of game is normally played with a mouse and keyboard, Ascaron managed to find a way to get the most out of the Xbox 360 control. Each of the game’s attacks are mapped to the four face buttons, so you can set it up in whatever way is most comfortable for you. At first you can do just about everything you want with the basic four face buttons, but after a few hours you will begin to amass special abilities, extra weapons and a few powerful magic spells. Because there are so many different spells and abilities to keep track of, the developers have added eight more face button slots. To access these you can hold either the right or left trigger, allowing for a total of twelve possible slots. What’s more, you are also able to map potions and other items to the D-pad.
All this may sound complicated at first, but it’s a breeze switching between slots and performing the right task. It may not be as sleek as just pushing a button on a keyboard, but this is about the best you can hope for when it comes to a console port. In fact, I would argue that this is the very best example of how to port a Diablo-style dungeon crawler to a home console. I can only hope that if Blizzard decides to port their upcoming Diablo III to a console, they pay close attention to what Ascaron was able to accomplish with this release.
For the most part the weapons and items are traditional fantasy fair. You are given swords, hammers, hatchets, spears, and a whole host of other items you would see in just about any game in the genre. The difference here is that you aren’t necessarily stuck using only one weapon at a time. In so many role-playing games you have to go into the menu and equip a new weapon when you want a change, in Sacred 2 you are able to switch weapons on the fly. This quick switch reminded me of what Fable II did last year, how you can go from hacking somebody up with a sword to shooting them with your gun. In my case I had highly advanced ninja throwing stars, a weapon that made taking out long distance enemies a breeze. However, if for some reason I missed the bad guys and they advanced, then I was ready with my sword to finish them off. All this is done at the touch of a button, making the control and feel of the game very streamlined.
Like the weaponry, the enemies and bosses you fight are straight out of every fantasy MMO you’ve ever played. Expect to hack and slash orcs, spiders, dragons, zombies, skeletons and a whole host of other baddies. In fact, outside of having a masterfully done control scheme, there really isn’t a lot that feels brand new about Sacred 2. Now granted, few adventure games are this large and of such quality when they hit the console, but it’s not like this game is breaking new ground or anything. Fans of the genre will feel right at home here and if you’re somebody who generally doesn’t like this kind of game, then chances are Sacred 2 isn’t going to change your mind. Still, there are very few adventure games as good as this on the Xbox 360, so it’s worth putting up with some genre cliches here and there.
Unlike something like Final Fantasy XI or World of Warcraft, Sacred 2 is a perfectly enjoyable experience for a solo player. There comes a time in most MMO games where you need a large group of people in order to beat a dungeon or particular boss. That’s not the case here. With the right weapons, armor and magic, you can kick just about any bad guy’s butt. And if you can’t, then don’t worry, because all it will take is you leveling up a few more times and buying better equipment. The bad guys scale to your experience level, but not in a way where you never feel very powerful. It was around my tenth hour that I realized that I’m a force to be reckoned with, and from then on I felt like I was able to take down any enemy that got in my way. Unfortunately that cocky attitude ultimately got me killed a few times, but even then I felt a sense of power that is missing in Oblivion and other similar games.
While you can go through the game by yourself, the real fun comes when you and a friend team up to take on Ancaria. Sacred 2 can be played co-op both online and off, with up to four players going through the quest at once. The game is clearly built around the communal nature of the game, since even when you’re playing by yourself you are still technically online. With friends the idea of having more than 600 quests to complete doesn’t feel as daunting. And if you’re the type of gamer who wants to get their money’s worth out of every game they buy, then you can’t go wrong with Fallen Angel. Completists will be hacking away at this game for months … if not longer. I cannot stress enough how much there is to do in this game; this is a massive, massive game that I feel like I only touched the tip of. Did I end up beating all 600 missions? Of course not, but I look forward to jumping back in and helping each and every person I find out.
In case you haven’t noticed, I really enjoyed my time with Sacred 2. But having said that, there are some major problems that keep this game from getting an even higher score. For one thing, the game has some severe technical problems. On my system I found the frame rate to be terribly inconsistent, sometimes slowing down to a crawl. Worse yet, the game has a tendency of crashing at some inappropriate times (as opposed to all of those times when you want your Xbox 360 to freeze up). Perhaps the biggest problem I’ve read about (but not experience firsthand, thank god) is the fact that from time to time your save data will become corrupted. Thankfully this did not happen to me, but I can imagine being irate if all my time in the game was erased because of some technical snafu. Your opinion of the game will no doubt have a lot to do with how well the game runs on your system, if you have limited problems (like me) then you’ll come away happy with your experience. However, if the game constantly freezes and you lose your data, then I have a hunch that Sacred 2 will sit on your shelf collecting dust while you curse its very existence.
There’s another problem, though for some people it may not be an issue. The problem is pausing … or rather, the lack of pausing. It’s been a long time since I played a console game where you couldn’t pause the action, and I can tell you right now that I don’t like it. I’m sure there are some gamers who won’t have a problem with this, they’ll just sit down and kick butt for hours on end. But I’m not that kind of gamer. I tend to have quite a few things going on at once, so from time to time I actually need to pause. The only respite you get is to teleport yourself to a town or find a nice hiding spot. This is doable, but even that is a pain. I found myself ignoring the phone and not answering the door because I was in the middle of heated battles, something that I shouldn’t have to put up with when playing a console game. This problem also plagued the PC version, however, after much complaining, the fans ended up getting a pause button with a patch. Yet despite seeing the outrage by the PC fans, Ascaron opted against adding it to this port. Hopefully Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 owners will get this issue patched, but it should have been something that was included from the get-go.
There are a few other minor complaints. For example, the world can be a little convoluted and hard to navigate. This isn’t a big deal in the wide-open areas, but when you’re dealing with mountains and forests it’s sometimes hard to see where you can and cannot go. The game has this weird thing about throwing up invisible walls, some of which don’t make a lot of sense. Why much my character walk all the way around a tiny foot-high hill, why not just jump down? Why can’t I seem to go through the forests? Is that really how close I can get to a mountain? These are questions I kept asking as I played through the game. These issues aren’t as important as not being able to pause or having the game freeze on you, but they are issues nonetheless.
The game’s graphics are deceiving. I wasn’t impressed by the visuals on the back of the box, but when I started playing the game I was blown away. Yes there are frame rate issues, however when the game is moving smoothly it looks about as good as this type of game can look. You’re seeing things from a slightly overhead perspective, one that you can zoom in and out of. The problem with this type of camera angle is that it’s kind of hard to see what’s directly ahead of you, so you don’t get the sense of grandeur that you did in Oblivion. I wish I could look out and see what was in front of me, but I can’t. Even with that limitation, the graphics are spectacular. The bosses are large and beautifully animated, the diverse locations are all incredibly detailed and everything looks as good as you would hope from this type of game.
With its amazing graphics, worthwhile online gameplay, enormous world and creatively implemented control scheme, Sacred 2: Fallen Angel is a real winner. In fact, the only things keeping this game from being a near perfect entry in the genre are the terrible technical issues, the lack of a pause button and a generic storyline. If you can get past those few small problems, then you and your friends are going to find a lot to like in Sacred 2. It may not have the impact of Diablo II, but Fallen Angel is a real gem worth tracking down. I love this game … and will love it even more when somebody makes a match that fixes the technical problems and adds a pause button.
SUMMARY: Sacred 2: Fallen Angel is a stunning accomplishment. Not only because it’s one of the few console ports to get the Diablo-style formula right, but also because of its size and scope. You may not care much for the story and will probably find a few technical problems along the way, but that shouldn’t deter you from having a great time with one of the best adventure games for the Xbox 360!
