Game Reviews

Well I started an Anime Review thread so what the hell why not do a videogame reveiw thread.

The rules are bascially the same from the anime thread:
1) Only one review per game. If someone reviews a game no one else needs to review it, even if you dont agree with the review.
2) Give some info on the game (ie: story, what systems its on, number of players, etc).
3)No remarks about a review , unless the reviewer got some information wrong about the game.
4) Go into detail with the review.
5) At the end of the review give that game a score of 1 - 10 with 10 being the best game ever invented and 1 being useful only as a torture device.

Thats all te rules, so please follow them. I'll start with a review so everyone gets an idea of what to do.

Game: Dynasty Warriors 4 Empires

Systems: Playstation 2

Number Of Players: 2

Story: You get to create your own empire using Dynasty Warriors characters.

Review: I've been a huge fan of the Dynasty Warriors games ever since I played Dynasty Warriors 2, so it pains me to do this review about a Dynasty Warriors game. In this version of Dynasty Warriors 4 you get to build up your own empire using either a created character or from one of the existing kingdoms (Meng Huo, Dong Zhuo, Lui Bei, Cao Cao, Sun Jian, etc.). You start out with just one piece of land and from that you have to conquer all of China. To do this you select a connecting piece of land to attack and if you win the battle you get control of the land, or if the land you attack contains that empires ruler and you win you get control of the rulers entire empire. Its a cool concept to use with the Dynasty Warriors series, but sadly there are so many problems that even this unique idea goes to waste. For starters you only start out with three characters and can only have a limit of ten, though this isnt really a problem just about all the starting empires have sucky starter characters so your stuck with them til you recruit new ones, which leads me to the second problem. To do anything in this game you need gold, which is obtained by conquering more lands. With the gold you can do various things like restore your troop count (yea you actually have a troop count in this one), "purchase" new generals and leutinants, upgrade your wepaons, or get new items. The problem with the money is is that you don't really start getting enough of it til after you've already conquered most of the land. Another problem with the money thing is is that since you need it to "purchase" new warriors, if you dont have enough (the minimum I've seen is around 2000 with the maximum being something like 3400) you can't get the warriors and they get "purchased" by your enemies. The third problem with the game is is that now instead of the gates there are strongholds which, depending on the stage, make you job difficult because there can be so many. The strongholds are the lifeline of your army in that they give you reinforcements and are the only way you can heal yourself. Also to win a stage you have to make it to the enemies main stronghold basically playing connect the dots with the strongholds. Fourth problem the AI for your allies has gotten even worse. For instance your allies will roam off and try to take other strongholds leaving your base virtually defenseless. You still have to babysit your allies just like in all the other Dynasty Warrior games which gets annoying as always. Fifth problem, unless your on the defensive you have or get the card to extend the battle time you have only 30 minutes to complete each stage. This is made even worse with stages that are really big like Luo Yang. When your on the defensive you have 15 minutes to defend your stronghold from being captured or you can just eliminate the enemy grand general to win. Sixth problem: every turn you get to choose from a total of 6-8 "cards" that your generals give you as suggestions. These cards can contain things like restoring your troops, recruiting new warriors, getting new items, upgrading items and wepaons, forming alliances, etc. all these cost money and some cost alot of money. For even more annoyance with the cards if you don't choose a generals cards, after awhile they start to complain that your not picking there cards. Seventh problem, the replayt value of this one is virtually non-existant. As any Dynasty Warriors veteren will tell you one of the best parts of any Dynasty Warriors game is trying to get all the characters weapons. In Empires this is gone and replaced with artowrk and while there is alot of it if you have existing Dynasty Warriors 4 file on your memory card half the art work is already obtained. To get the artwork you have to beat Empire mode with a general on your side. Eighth problem: with Dynasty Warriors 4 you had four endings per side, in Empires you have four endings period. The endings are: Emporer ending (I'll tell you about this later), Tryant ending (same as Emporer), Victory ending, and Failure ending. The emporer ending is obatined by selecting cards such as "Inspect The Countryside" and "Share Gold With Peasents", once you've done this roughly 20 times on of the cards with ask if you want your leader to become emporer, if you agree you'll not only getr the ending but the amount of gold you'll get per turn increases (which is useless cause by the time you become emporer its alraesy near the end of the game). Ther tryant ending is pretty much the same except you pick the tax cards. I haven't managed to get this one yet as the cards needed are hard to get. The victory ending is just if you beat the game with becoming emporer or tryant. Failure ending is if you don't conquer all that land by turn 100. Ninth problem: the enemy AI is more cheap than ever. I can't tell you the number of times I've been attacked by an enemy and not able to do anything cause they keep juggling me without me being able to do anything. And as always theres the troops at magically appear right by your strongholds. Tenth problem: sorceress. This is a new enemy they put in the game to annoy the hell outta you. Has the name implies they use magic to attack you and thats all they do. The magic they use is basically just the orbs you can equip you wepaons with. THe most annoying part is is that when you get up from an attack you'll more than likly just get knocked right back down or frozen by the sorceress. I think thats enough with the review cause if I go on I'm afraid I might start hating the rest of the Dynasty Warriors games.

Score: 2/10

+
Can create you own empire.
Same action as the previous Dynasty Warriors games.

-
Everything else.

Hahaha...What a great way to review fanboys favorite games, if any ...fufufufu, all the years of watching X Play and not being able to watch it anymore is going to pay off.

Uhh...lessee...

Kingdom Hearts

Let's be honest...When I first heard about this game, I was thinking "Uh oh...another terrible Disney Game."...Then I saw that it was made by Square Enix and I was all like ^_^ and 0.o; huh? At the same time. Let's go piece by piece, hee hee.

Graphics- 9/10

Graphically speaking, it's not half bad. The animation is smooth, and the mouth-movements match their words almost perfectly. Very well detailed on the characters in the game, ranging from classic FF characters to all the Disney characters. The boss fight in Atlantica with Ursala was incredible! No flaws at all with the animation or the smoothness of the polygons, blah blah.

Now...here's the only complaint about the graphics really. Magic attacks aren't as detailed as I would have liked, and the size of Sora's feet make me stare at them every now and then 0.o...And Sora's ridiculous fighting stance. That's about it really.

Sound- 6/10

Okay, this is a small problem I had. The music wasn't all that great in area's that aren't really in the Disney Universe. The Disney music was fine, but places like when you first start and boss fights didn't really get me in the mood of it all.

Spell sounds are pretty good, and when you hit enemies it sounds cool but its the same sound over and over...I think...Swimming underwater is absent, but echoes in certain areas sounded pretty neat...

Gameplay

Ah! Hmm...Well, it's definitely a lot of fun when you get to wander around your favorite Disney areas (Mine's the Halloween place with Jack Skellington ^_^), which is probably the coolest thing about Kingdom Hearts. The worlds, however, are rather small, but you can't really expect to much with so many places they had to make for this game.

Now then, on to the combat. Repetitive. Plain and simple. A typical hack and slash, beat 'em up, gain experience, and level up. Not only that, when you enter a certain area of the world, when several baddies appear, about ten of 'em at a time, when you think your done, more and more come out. THen you got those fat heartless who block your way from getting away. When you clear away that wave, ANOTHER one comes...thus more hacking and slashing goes on and on and...well...eh.

But then in the combat comes magic. Each magic attack has a different effect. Thunder, for instance, is weak, but can strike several enemies at a time. Fire is strong but only hits one enemy. Blizzard...well, haven't really used that too much. You also have Gravity (Like Demi from final fantasy games), Aero, Cure and Cura, blah blah. Without these this game would be so friggin repetitive.

Story-10/10

WOW! THis story is one of the most creative I've ever seen since Final Fantasy 7. I won't go into too much detail, but I'm telling you now, this story is great! It starts off weak, then gets better and better as you progress.

My ONLY complaint about this game, is the Final Fantasy characters aren't a very big influence. Apparently the Heartless destroyed their world, and they are stuck in another world. Cloud Strife...well, he's okay, he says he's "Searching for something" when you first meet him, and you can fight him in the first fight in Olympia...he's easy though, it's a couple years before FFVII.

Overall: 8/10

Okay... Now, lemme think... I don't play an excessive amount of games, and the one I've been playing most recently:

Animal Crossing!

I fell in love with this game when I first saw the pictures in Nintedo Power. Who can hate a game full of big headed animals wearing dresses and two kids wearing strange hats, one viking, one pointy gnome? Surprisingly, my brother also wanted this game... I got it for Hanukkah and played it the next day, loving it from the moment I talked to Rover.

Okay, Graphics:

I give them a 5. Sure, they're N64 style and really cheep and blocky, but sometimes they're pretty good.
I love the little emotion things the animals have, like the red exclamation point when they're mad (that scared me the first time I saw it... O_<) The only other graphic style I could imagine Animal Crossing in is Cel Shading, which I think it would look excelent in. Unfortunatly, the DS doesn't look like it'll be exploring Celd Shading at all.

5/10

Sound/Music:

The music is catchy and changes depending on the time of day, and evokes the mood very well. Early morning is sad, slow music, afternoon is bouncy and happy, and night is pretty quiet. I also love the "I did it" music when your character poses after paying off a lone. If you listen to it for a while, it has neat little sound effects. One song that I remember though haven't heard in a while is the cat song, in which a bunch of cats meow and scream. It's okay the first time through, but after a while it gets pretty darn annoying. One of the best features is making a town tune, in which I've managed to make part of Saria's song and Mario's theme song. One of the greatest things is getting a song from K.K. Slider. Some of his songs are terrible, while others want to make you get up and dance! Gyroids are great if you know how to put them together to create right sounds (some day I'll kill those bovoids or whatever the cow ones are.)

The sound effects are good. Hitting a rock sounds like hitting a rock, the rain cloud sounds like rain when a charcters depressed, I love the "B-yu!" of the red exclamation point, etc.

So, it gets a... 7/10

Story:

The story cannot be beat. You are on a train, a nosy cat comes up to you, finds out you're headed to some town but you don't have money and don't have a house, he calls his good pal Tom Nook, and your on your way. ...There is no story, really... You create your own. Which is why it earns... No grade for story!

Gameplay:

As amazing as it is, I have never once gotten tired of Tom Nook's chores, though I know I've completed them more than ten times. Gameplay is great. I don't deliver things for animals as much as I used to when I first started playing, but talking to them is never boring. Especially when they're singing- then they talk about some strange things. I love visiting Tom Nook's store each morning and finding out he has nothing I want. Cleaning Gracies car is great fun if you know how to do it (take a pen or something long and rub it over the button), and getting a reading from Katrina is wonderful too. Especially if you become popular and the entire male/female population follows you around like a hoard of zombies, stopping you every second to say they love you. Or if you get an unlucky reading, and trip over your own feet, which is not fun, though funny to watch. There is no shortage of things to do. Push your least favorite animal into a pit fall. Fish. Hunt bugs and scare the heck out of Blathers with them. Listen to Kapp'n the kappa sing about cucumbers while going to the island. Mail letters using all the sationary you collected from doing chores when you really wanted furniture or a decent shirt. Plant fruit, pull weeds, plant a flower garden only to realize that your garden has been mysterioulsy shrinking not due to the flower eating ghosts, but due to your stupid brother running through them all the time. Invite friends, family! Find out your dad some how is Animal Crossing God (like mine) and can get his gold statue and afford part of your's and your sister's. Create a house that's Feng Shui or Kiddie Theme or a miniture town modle. Collect Gyroids after a rain storm, or make the one near your house hold items other human players want badly but put the item at a ridiculously high price. Squish cockroaches in your home, get a song from K.K. Slider, hit animals with your bug net, chop trees, brake your ax, get stung by bees, and get all your money taken away while playing some silly game with an animal!

10/10.

All in all, AC get's a:

9/10!

This looks like fun. I finished it recently.

Story: You start of as a child in a small town in the land of Albion. It just so happens its is your sisters birthday. So your father asks you to buy her a present. And luckily a merchant will sell you a box of choclates for 3 gold pieces. So what you have to do is go around town, and collect the gold pieces, in bad or good ways. Then after you give your sister her birthday present, your village gets attacked by bandits. Your father is killed, and your mother and sister go missing.

Then stuff happens and the story progresses, and gets much better.

8/10

Gameplay: This game is awesome gameplay wise. Its like a cross between KOTOR, OoT, GTA, and some other games worth mentioning. Its an action adventure RPG. An interesting twist is you can be evil or good. If your evil you can go in a town, and slaughter innocent villagers. If your good you can, help protect traveling merchants and other innocent people. And you can always change being good or evil, because of your actions.

Your character starts out with the default look, and there is no way to change that. However throughout the game you can get different hair cuts, clothing, weapons, and more. Your character, will even get scars from fighting and can get a tan or become pale white, on whether he is in the sun or not. Plus your appearance will change, when your good or evil. If your good, a halo will appear over your head, and butterflies will surround you, while a beam of light shines down on you. If your evil, you will grow horns, flies will surround you, red mist will follow your footsteps and you will have glowing red eyes.

Then theres renown. If your evil, people will run away from you and be scared. If your good, people will praise you and women will instantly fall in love with you. I'm just scratching the surface here. There is so many things to do in the game. There is no wrong way to play it.

Now about the rest of the gameplay. It is kind of simmiliar to OoT. You have a sword, axe, pick or what ever, for melee combat. And you also have a bow or crossbow for long range combat. Then you have magical attacks, which are quite fun to play with. Or if you don't want to use any of that you can just use your fists. Now when ever you kill an enemy, that enemy drops experience orbs. Which if you collect will raise your experience points. And with Exp, you can buy new skills, strength, spells, or upgrade any of those.

I'm just going to leave gameplay there. Cause it would take me forever to tell you everything. But this is all you need to know.

10/10

Graphics: Ther graphics here are very detailed. Everything looks great and the animations are very good. And uh... I'm really no graphic guru, so thats all I can really say about that.

10/10

Sound: The sound here is great. All of the sound effects, are very well done, and just make you feel like ytour in the land of Albion even better. However the music isn't very good. It does fit the situations your in but isn't worth downloading.

8/10

Overall 9/10.

It is the OoT for the Xbox.

Console: Xbox
Genre: action adventure RPG
Title: Fable
Rated: T

I think its worth buying. If your still a little skeptic, give it a rental for sure.

AH, of course. The guy who made the game said it was going to be the ultimate RPG ever! I liked it, but it would have been cooler if you could be a girl in it too, for my sake anyway. He also couldn't put in a lot of stuff like he promised, but it was definitely fun. ANd no matter what I do I always feel bad if I start getting evil, eh...

Final Fantasy 7
A review of my favorite game of all time.

Developer: Square-Enix
Console: Playstation

Graphics:9/10
Well, looking back to 1997, and comparing them to the games now, I can't say they were great. But they were very good for their time. Especially the ending cutscene, that amazed me. The detail of the children and the looks on their faces as the lifestream arroached were outstanding.

Sound:9/10
The music was great also. Out of this world for a PS game. The most memorable piece of music in the game IMO is "One Winged Angel" the song that plays as you're fighting Safer Sephiroth, the "true" last boss of the game.

Story:10/10
Incredable. Breathtaking. A better story in an rpg I have yet to find. The plot is so deep and rich, you can't put the game down. The characters were really well done, Sephiroth is probably still the most sinister, memorable villian in any RPG. What starts off as a routine mission turns into much, much more...

Gameplay:10/10
Again, awesome. See the pattern? The battle system is superbly done, with three party members at a time. It is the first Final Fantasy game that ventured into 3d, and did it spectacularly. The world map control is the only thing that feels a bit lacking. Besides that, there are a ton of fun, unique minigames that once you play, you can replay them any time you want at the Gold Saucer casino. Another great aspect is the materia system, allowing you to custimize your characters any way you want. The game can be easy, but the Emerald and Ruby weapons provide a challenge to even the most seasoned veterans (Like me )

Overall:10/10 The best selling game of all time, and in my opinion, the best...EVER

Can you say Fanboy? Even back then, though, the graphics weren't all that great...and some of the children looked like lego dolls, but hey, it was 1997...eh...