Now Playing: Vexx

 It's a me, hardcore edgelord Mario!

 Do you remember Vexx? I do. It was hyped as 'Mario for adult players', and me, as an edgy forum-frequenter mememaster teen bought into it. And when I finally came across it... it was OK. Still, A nagging feeling of 'I need to complete it' got into my head last year, and here we are.

 First of all... I'm not impressed. It feels like Mario 64, if a bit more clunky. I was excited at first, 'I'm gonna complete it!' and then... I was warped back into the Hub, losing all my progress in the level... yeah, that's way too antiquated and boring for me. I think I'll just do the bare minimum.

 Anyways, I'm not impressed, and while I wasn't expecting much, the issue above kinda soured me about Vexx, so I'm kinda not looking forwards to finishing it. But hey, at least Tony Hawk - American Wasteland is coming up next!

Review #379: Transformers - Devastation

 A beautiful oiled machine or nothing but scrap metal?

 Remember Platinum Games? They make some pretty dope games, focusing on action, creativity in combos and style. However, in order to produce their bigger projects, they also have to dabble into more simple, lower budget games. Not unlike Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles or Legend of Korra, Transformers Devastation follows Platinum's 'Generic Action Game' blueprint to a tee, it's fun, it works... but it leaves something to be desired.

 Basically, Megatron is up to no good, so it's up to Optimus Prime, Gridlock, Bumblebee, Wheeljack and Sideswap to stop him and his cohorts. The first thing that might disappoint players is that Decepticons are unplayble, and while you could argue that they wouldn't fit with the plot, seeing how all five Autobots are pretty much glorified skinswaps, it lays a bit flimsy as an excuse. The game consists of seven chapters that seem to get shorter and shorter as you advance through the game, lasting up to... 4-5 hours at most, but at least stages have optional side missions as well as about 50 challenge missions if you are so inclined.

 If you've ever played an action game by Platinum Games, you'll feel right at home. with both Weak and Strong attacks that can be chained in four-hit combos as well as a dodge button that, if timed correctly, will slow down time, letting you get in some hits on your opponent. There're two gauges below your health bar, one fills slowly over time and lets you use your unique Special Attack, one of the few things that set apart each Autobot, while the other fills as you deal damage, and is used to engage your super attack, which once again, is unique to each character.

 As you low through enemies and explore stages you'll come across loot, not that far unlike Diablo. Each Autobot can equip up to four weapons, most characters can equip most weapons, but there are a very few weapon only usable by some. Regardless, besides the two unique moves mentioned above as well as the stats, every character uses every weapon in the exact same way. Grimlock is a bit more fun than the rest, since his Vehicle mode, a T-Rex, actually gets its own unique moveset, soemthing the Vehicle Modes can't claim. Excess weapons can be used to power up your favorite weapons, as well as putting their unique buffs on them.

 Combat is fast and furious, landing hits in feels very good, and it runs very smoothly. You can also link vehicle attacks after your four hit combos, and these look badass. But, for as fun as melee combat can be, it will eventually grow a bit boring, since there isn't much room for creativity. It doesn't help that the game only has 3 different 'Stages', the Town, which makes up four chapters, and two underground bases. It quickly grows old. And as fun as combat is, it lacks a bit of finesse, there's no hard lock-on, instead, your character will soft lock into the nearest enemy, which can be a bit annoying when you are trying to attack a certain enemy, but the game will lock you on to another enemy, closer to you, but hidden behind the camera or something.

 Transformers - Devastation is a good game, but it's also lacking. It's fun to smash enemies to bits... but it's also repetitive and simplistic to a fault, with little room for creativity on the player's part. The game looks gorgeous... but there're so few environments and enemy types, with most bosses been reused at least once. There're many different weapon types... but the all more or less behave the same, and making all five characters almost indistinct from one another was a missed opportunity, not to mention the lack of playable Decepticons! Whether you're a fan of the franchise or not, there's fun to be had with Transformers, but don't expect another one of Platinum Game's greatest.

 7.0 out of 10

Now Playing: Transformers - Devastation

 Platinum struck gold again.

 Undeterred by my savefile loss, I returned to the PS3 to face Megatron in Transformers Devastation. I'll keep it short and sweet: It's fantastic.

 The Good:
- Combat is fast and furious, it feels so good to land attacks.
- The graphics look phenomenal, it's very colorful, runs at a steady framerate and the animations are top notch.
- Simple mechanics, easy to pick up and play, even the nitty gritty like synthesizing weapons is pretty easy

 The Bad:
 - No playable Decepticons.
 - All five characters are basically clones. It seems like a few weapons are restricted to a certain characters? But I've yet to come across one, I'm just going by the HUD at the LAB.


 And that's about it, I think it's pretty damn good. It might even be better than their Ninja Turtles game.

Review #378: The Hobbit

 More than just a silly cash in.

 Back when Peter Jackson was making mad cash with his Lord of the Rings trilogy, a curious little thing happened... somehow, two companies made out with the rights to The Lord of the Rings, EA had the rights for movie adaptations while Sierra had the rights for Book adaptations. So of course they had to churn out crappy little cash-ins, like that terrible PS2 game. Or that RPG on the GBA that would freeze after a certain battle. Or that fun, if generic, RTS for the PC.... and then there was The Hobbit.

 Based on the book by the same name, The Hobbit puts you in the role of reluctant hero Bilbo Baggins as Gandalf the Grey sort-of forces him into accompanying a group of dwarves on a quest to get back their gold... this quest will take Bilbo through forests, elven towns, human towns, mountains an even face to face with a mighty dragon. Changes in order to make it more 'gamey' not withstanding, it's a decent adaptation of the book. Graphics are colorful, if a bit lacking in detail, music is fine and the voice acting is fine.

 The Hobbit is a linear adventure game. You go from stage to stage solving puzzles, battling enemies and platforming your way through bottomless pits. Most stages have a fair amount of sidequests to complete, as well as a ton of hidden collectibles to find. Collectibles that matter come in three forms: Courage Points, which will increase your HP, money, which can be used to buy items and upgrades after each stage as well as scrolls to enhance your combat capabilities. Sometimes, goodies will be locked inside chests that must be lock-picked in order to pillage them, lock-picking consists of a series of simple minigames that don't really overstay their welcome, and can be bypassed by finding or purchasing skeleton keys.

 Combat and platforming are... serviceable. They are not horrible, but they are not great either, they work just well enough to be considered acceptable. Bilbo relies on three means of offense: His staff, his blade, Sting, as well as throwing stones. The staff works great to defeat fast moving enemies, since the swings cover a wide area, but deal little damage. The sword is your main goblin slayer, able to break shells and deal more damage than the staff, while rocks can be used to slay enemies from afar. For this type of game, the combat showed a curious semblance of depth, since there're reasons to swap weapons depending on your foes, but you'd do just fine sticking to a single weapon as well. Sometimes collision detection might feel a bit wonky, but it's passable.

 Platforming can be a bit challenging since there're a lot of botomless pits and sometimes it's not very clear if you'll make a jump... or even if you were supposed to land a few jumps! At least Bilbo will let you know if you can jump from a rope to another rope, if he extends his arm forward, he can make it. Each level is VERY long, but the game is very generous with multiple save spots... and you'd do well to use them, since death means starting back at your last save. Trust me, you don't want to lose hours of progress due to a poorly planned jump!

 Lastly, there're a few shoe-horned stealth sections, but save that one level, these sections are fairly short and fairly easy, plus, as soon as you get The One Ring you can go invisible for a while and it turns stealth sequences into cake walks.

 One of the game's biggest flaws are the loading times, they're excessively long, but, at least, most levels only need to load once, and continuing after death is seamless... That said, a few of the larger levels will have a few loading screens peppered through, but these are much, much shorter than the initial one. It also has to be said, Bilbo moves rather slowly... running around is very slow, and at times exasperating enough as to warrant trying to bunny-hop your way to your destination! Climbing ladders can also be a bit annoying, since Bilbo is so slow!

 Surprisingly, The Hobbit is a rather good game, limited only by the low budget. Exploring levels is fun, the platforming can be fun as unpolished as it is, and combat needed a lot of tightening in order to make it rewarding, but as a whole, the game works fine. It's no masterpiece, nor a 'hidden gem', but it's definitely worth a look.
 6.5 out of 10

My SaveFile died and Why I hate Modern Gaming

 So there I was, fresh off the Hobbit, ready to start a new game: Transformers - Devastation. So, I turn on my PS3, seems like something went wrong the last time it turned off, so it had to check for errors. So it did... but it got stuck at 49% for 10+ minutes, so I rebooted the system...

...and was forced to wipe off all my data and format the disc.
 There went all the costumes I spent hours getting in JoJo's All Star Battle Royale. I had a lot of games, like Tales of Graces and Xillia, or Devil May Cry, waiting for me to start new files with all the goodies. But alas, it was not meant to be.

  I also have to download all my DLC again, which isn't much fun. But then again, unlocking characters in ArkSys games is gonna be a chore. Unlocking everything in Saint Seiya Soldiers Souls is gonna be a drag, Raging Blast 2 was boring as well.

 My 100+ hours invested in Dynasty Warriors: Gundam 3? Gone.
 I was planning on giving Escape Dead Island another go with its DLC, the one that needs you beating it once in order to access? Those plans went down the drain. Fun. Warriors Orochi 3 was really fun, but unlocking every character? That wasn't fun. Unlocking as much as I did in Xenoverse was a grueling chore, and I'm not doing that again.

 Man, I miss memory cards. At least if my Wii dies, everything's in my SD card.

Now Playing: The Hobbit

 Ain't no cow milked enough like The Lord of the Rings.

 Nostalgia is a powerful coat of paint. It makes you remember things as being better, shinier and more beautiful than they really were. Case in point, Sierra's The Hobbit, a game I had rather fond memories of... but turns out to be rather mediocre. Kinda.

 My first impressions were not good. Bilbo moved like a sack of potatoes, invisible walls everywhere, and rather stiff movement.... But it was an interesting first level, not unlike Twilight Princess: An introduction with no combat, but instead a ton of mundane tasks that sets the mood for the beginning of the adventure. By the end of the first level, I was kinda impressed!

 Basically, it's not as fantastic as I remembered it to be, but it has an undeniable charm

Review #377: Tony Hawk's Underground 2

 Stands tall as the peak of Tony Hawk's games.

 Now this, this what I think about anytime someone brings up Tony Hawk. Fast, simple gameplay, ridiculous goals and a very immature sense of humor. Realism is thrown out the window, this game embraces what's made the Tony Hawk games so good before and delivers what I consider to be the finest in the series.

 There're two main modes to choose from: Story Mode and Classic Mode. Story Mode centers in a contest around the world between Bam Margera and Tony Hawk, with your own custom skater caught in the middle. It's a hilarious, ridiculous, if short, adventure that has you seeking secret skaters and secret vehicles while trashing everything around you. You'll spend time raising the dead, throwing shrimp at lifesavers as well as playing chicken with a stampeding bull. To cal it over the top is an understatement. But hey, maybe, just maybe, you don't enjoy Tony Hawk post THPS3, and that's fine, THUG2's got you covered with Classic Mode, featuring repurposed levels from the Story Mode as well as 7 new levels(Remakes from levels from THPS 1 to 3) as well as the 2-minute, multiple objective structure.

 Story Mode is a blast, you'll never be doing the same thing for too long, and every level lets you skate with four different characters: Your custom skater, a pro, a guest and a vehicle-character. Vehicle Characters come with their own set of wheels, from karts to rocket-propelled wheelchairs, and they control well enough, save maybe Steve-O and his bull. The character creator is fairly robust, so you'll be able to create something to your liking. I found it brilliant how you develop your stats in story mode: By accomplishing feats, like grinding for X amount of seconds, landing X amount of grabs in a single combo, etc. This lets you raise your stats at your own leisure. You could pretty much max your stats on the first level, or you can ignore it and develop it as you accomplish goals. In Classic Mode, however, it's back to finding stat points hidden throughout the levels.

 But what really makes Tony Hawk's Underground 2 my favorite game in the franchise are its levels. There's so much variety, and every level stands out from each other... well, at least as far as Underground 2's exclusive levels go, but hey, the retro-levels selection is pretty good as well. These new original levels feature all sorts of landmarks that make them so memorable and fun to just fool around in. It helps that there's a ton of secret skaters to unlock by completing both classic and story modes in different difficulty settings.

 But maybe you are the creative type? That's just as fine, create-a-park returns as well as create-a-trick, and now you can even create your own goals, with a few types that didn't even make it into the story mode. Basically, if you like to create? The game's got you covered. You like Multiplayer? You're accounted for as well, featuring the classic suspects like HORSE, or even 2-Player free skating. You like Classic Tony Hawk? It's got you covered as well. You like Modern Tony Hawk? Enjoy. There's something for everyone in here.

 I don't know what else to say, I love Underground 2. If I was to complain about it, it'd be about the short length of the Story Mode, since it's what I enjoyed the most. Regardless, if you like Tony Hawk's games, Underground 2 is a no brainer.
 9.0 out of 10