Zircon's "Gods Eater Burst" Review

“Gods Eater Burst” has now come to America, land of the free, and home of the “Monster Hunter” franchise. Does this new contender to the throne that monster hunting built have what it takes captivate PSP players here in the states as well as it has in Japan? “Gods Eater Burst” has enjoyed an incredible following in Japan where over 1,000,000 units have sold. The “Burst” version that we here in America have a chance to enjoy is an enhanced version with many more missions and yes a very addictive story that will draw the player into this crazy world and compel them to see just what twist is coming next.

In the game “Gods Eater Burst” the earth of the not too distant future has become plagued by tremendously terrifying beasts known only as the “Aragami” (not to be mistaken for delicately folded paper Unicorns). Humanity’s last and sole hope lies in an elite group of hunters called the “Gods Eaters” who have a natural ability to wield a special weapon called the “God Arc”. This weapon which is roughly the size of a motorcycle has an incredible ability to morph from Bastard Sword size blades to a Rail Gun and then change again to a Predatory gaping Maw in which to devour these beasts once they are down. So you hunt down huge mutant beasts, kill them and then devour them for raw materials. Players will create their own unique hero and battle alongside others in your group against many different types of mutant enemies. Players can hunt with an artificial intelligence controlled party or switch to Ad Hoc and invite up to four other friends to work together to free the world of this increasing menace. While battling, the player will be able to craft unique blades, guns, and bullets to customize your loadout to take down the ever evolving “Aragami”.
The furious battle pace will send players through hundreds of missions, some that are story based and some that are considered free play to add to your money coffers and raw material base. The game will demand quick thinking on the behalf of the player for tactical shifting between your weapon types so as to exploit the weaknesses of the current mission’s mutant threat.

So now on to my personal views of this new action role playing experience that has come to our game hungry PSP’s. Quite frankly, in the beginning I found the overwhelming amount of reading required to understand what has transpired in this world to be very cumbersome, I wanted to get out there and kill me some monsters. But no, I needed to go through some long and drawn out tutorials that I later was thankful for as they explained the extensive use of nearly every button on the console. This now leads me to my only complaint on this otherwise fantastic game...THE CONTROLS!!! “Gods Eater Burst” is an action game that demands the use of two analog sticks, alas my PSP has only one so imagine trying to constantly re-orient myself in a three dimensional space by having to press the upper left bumper button on my PSP, I think I wore it out. These monsters that you fight are very, very agile and your character only runs so fast so during battle they are hopping, flying and running all over the place and then I need to turn around and quickly press my left button to shift the camera only to find the monster has just jumped to a new location. That being said (it is what it is) this game had me coming back for more and more as I wanted to complete yet another mission and another to advance the story.

Running around swinging a sword the size of a “Smart Car” to defeat a monster the size of a City Bus had me hooked, yes hooked, line, and sinker. Then the monsters kept coming and kept getting bigger and badder and even more evolved. The story explains that these mutants have no brains rather each individual cell of these beasts has its own intelligence and they continue to mimic what they devour from organic creatures to even machinery. So much like a freakish Chimera, you will come up against a lion, bird, and fish tailed creature with the face of a human and the ability to launch missiles and use other aspects of machinery. The researchers of this world then fear that it is only a matter of time before they start seeing human forms of these creatures that will eventually infiltrate and replace human kind. Time to kill some monsters! So there you have it my fellow gamers. “Gods Eater Burst” is definitely worth the purchase and only your purchase will keep these games coming. So run to your Game store and pick up this game today.
With that, I am off to immerse myself in yet another PSP Treat to review for you loyal readers.

Till then … Zircon has left the blog. Z-man Out.

Zircon's Review of "Y's" Books I and II Chronicles

The Legacy of the Y’s franchise is one that quite simply can be considered to be one that birthed the modern day RPG. Nihon Falcom Corporation which many attribute to be the Grandfather Development house that began the trend towards role playing games started this genre in 1984. Founded in 1981 Falcom as they are known today started churning out PC titles, then they defined themselves with an early RPG known as “Dragon Slayer”. This game exhibited all the RPG elements that we here in America were playing as a paper, pen and a 20 sided dice Game called “Dungeons and Dragons”. These elements of Leveling through experience, Loot collecting, Obtaining new Armor and Magic Spells not to mention the slaying of many a monster was finally played out in a Graphic Video Game Experience. Japanese gamers were quickly consumed by this new questing genre and many, many more copycat titles began to follow. In 1987 Falcom introduced the first game in what was a planned franchise called “Y’s” (Pronounced Ease. Trust me so many gamers still get it wrong). This top down action RPG was originally released for the Sega Master System. And Yes I actually still own that cartridge.

“Y’s” tells the story of a Young Red headed adventurer named “Adol Christin” and later on his longtime companion “Dogi” The term “Y’s” refers to a long lost race of beings whom documented their wisdom in 6 books known as the “books of Y’s”. So “Adol” sets off to save the land of Esteria and recover the ancient books of wisdom.A year later came its Sequel titled appropriately “Y’s” II and the skirmish begins anew with a very similar quest that nearly mirrors the first with some new aspects. The franchise was now gaining a high following in Japan while here in America the quests of “Esteria” seemed to be overlooked in favor of other competing RPG’s. Fast forward to our gaming appetites of today and we now have “Y’s” Seven. Yes “Adol” still continues to be the hero to count on when the monsters come for our lands and Women.

So imagine my excitement when Xseed announced at E-3 Last year that RPG lovers were about to have bestowed upon them “Y’s” Seven , a Remake of “Wanderers of “Y’s” (retitled “”Y’s” Oath of Felghana”) and yes the remakes of “Y’s” Books I and II. Rejoice my fellow RPG’ers Rejoice indeed. “Y’s” Books I and II Chronicles are a graphic reboot of the Classic “Y’s” Originals, the gameplay has remained true but nearly every graphical aspect of these titles has been updated and now looks amazing. The landscapes look very lush and colorful and the townships and the people that inhabit them have been redone to a point where the gameplay feels new and relevant. You start out being washed ashore and saved by a local who brings you to a doctor and his nurse who save you and help introduce you to the perils that have befallen this small little berg. Soon you are off on a quest to find the source of the current monster menace and retrieve the 6 Books of “Y’s”. Once done with this quest you have a calling to save the world again with “Y’s” Book II. Yes, more monsters and more questing await as the weight of this world and its liberation from evil is on your shoulders. Thus is the curse of the True Hero.

Depending on how you play, each game will give you anywhere from 10 to 12 hours of play and you get two games to enjoy, so this package is definitely worth the price of admission. I would recommend that you purchase all three titles as I noticed today that when all the Packages are put together they complete a spinal representation of the “Y’s” Logo. A tip of my hat goes out to Xseed for giving us these fantastic blasts from the past and keeping the world of “Y’s” alive and well. Earlier in this review I mentioned the Granddad of RPGS “Dragon Slayer” well Xseed is not done with us yet as soon we will see “Legend of Heroes Trails in the Sky” which is the heir apparent to the “Dragon Slayer” Franchise. So as you can see the goodness continues and I can only hope to be at E-3 this year to see what the future holds for us and the new releases for the aging PSP and its offspring, the NGP (no not the PSP 2 as we thought but the “Next Generation Portable” from Sony).

Xseed, you are rapidly becoming a contender to be at the top of my Christmas card list.

This is Zircon and I have left the build…. Er, rather I have left the blog. Till next time.

The 3rd Birthday makes me want a PSP

We have gotten the newest trailer from Square Enix for The 3rd Birthday, the sequel to the Parasite Eve franchise. I loved the first title on the original PlayStation and now the the trailers and videos have been surfacing, it may be time to get another PSP. You can check out the trailer below.

Zircon's review of Lord of Arcana

Well my PSP-RPGer's, Lord of Arcana, a multiplayer guild, fetch, dungeon crawling RPG has been released on the gaming masses. Can it live up to the reputation of awesome RPG's that have come before it? We shall see.

Lord of Arcana is a Dungeon crawler that starts out with the typical story of a land in chaos that was saved when a legendary warrior fought an evil and powerful dragon, saved Mankind, and then passed into myth. You start your journey as the intrepid warrior-savior of old, going on to defeat the dragon. The story then advances a generation and reincarnates you into the present world as the true heir of Legendary Hero, leaving you soon to realize your current vocation.

Monster Hunter! Before I go any further, lets talk about the presentation of this game from our beloved Squeenix. (Square Enix, get it?) The graphics are truly amazing, looking like developers really loved making this title, while taking the time to appease us all, so big thumbs up, way up. Character animation is detailed and clean, not like the pixels on a paper plate effect that many DS RPG's give us. The artistic style behind this title, provides the player are so pretty that you may find yourself just looking around once in a while.

The story continues to release bit after bit as you continue on and guess what? The game gets better! A dear friend of mine a few weeks ago was describing a game he was playing as, "The first hour was painful and I immediately started to hate the game, but hours 2 through 18 have been AWESOME!". Well, I don't know if "awesome" should be the description about Lord of Arcana, but I will say, a job well done. The game had me engrossed for many hours and I am happy that Square has released it.

The PSP has been the portable go to system for these lost and overlooked RPG's so being that I love them, I will always have uber respect for the developers who take the risk and release these for us to enjoy. Lord of Arcana also hails its multiplayer chops with a robust multiplayer aspect, which I tried and it was very fluid with no lag issues so far. Square has also just announced that they are prepping Final Fantasy 4 and 5 for release on the PSP, possibly in time for the release of the NGP (PSP 2), so lets hope they polish them up a bit and not just provide the Playstation One Chronicles or Anthology versions, amazing as they may have been.

Thank you Square-Enix, next up, Mindjack!

Zircon’s Gladiator Begins Review

"I AM SPARTACUS!!!" Okay, so I have yet to complete my Cos-play Spartacus Outfit...but, I have the next best thing, Gladiator Begins on the Sony PSP. So if you have ever wondered what it would be like to be a Gladiator Slave working your way up from common labor slave to the pride of the Roman combat arena well, short of a weekend Cos-play Session this is your means to rise up and be called the glory of the coliseum!

Your Career starts with you being a common slave sold to a gladiatorial ludus and after a long series of training exercises you win your chance to fight in the largest venue of Rome, the Coliseum and soon your skills will begin to draw the Eyes of many a Slave owner and Roman dignitary's. As in ancient Rome, You earn a meager salary to pay for many things such as many trips to the area doctor to be sewn up after a bout or to buy and trade weapons and armor upgrades which will help to advance you to the next level of fighting in the blood and sand.

Then as the legend of your name and accomplishments waft into the ears and eyes of the higher elite class of roman citizens you find that many have ulterior motives and use of your skill at the sword and blood letting. In one case the Wife of a Roman Dignitary reveals to you that she has had many a late night encounter with the gladiators that you will be fighting and now they are blackmailing her with the threat of revealing her well, let’s call it indiscretion. So if you kill them in the arena, those tongues will be silenced and your purse will grow accordingly. Debauchery in Ancient Rome...I love it.

The game play is the typical sword swatting, head bashing, and exercise as well as learned defensive posturing. You will quickly learn the moves as well as new ones as the game progresses. My personal favorite is the tried and true sword to head routine but that means nothing if you don't have you defensive moves ready to employ at a moment’s notice.

And there you have it, Gladiator Begins is up to you and your skills to take you to the top and wear the mantle of ultimate fighter glory. Are you up to the challenge? So prepare your battle cry, don your loin cloth, and become the treasure of the Roman battle circuit. Just don't stand on the coffee table while doing so, I have found out the hard way those tables are not that strong.

This is Zircon, no Sparticon!! (Wow, sounds like a Transformer) and I have left the Blog.
_Z_

Car Carnage in the form of reality TV coming to the PSP

Yes, that Michael Bay looking, highly addictive, racer that is chock full of triggers to take our your competitors is coming to the PSP. For those that are still not following, I am speaking of Split/Second. Now you don't have a reason to stay inside as you can now take it with you, well this holiday season you can.

Lunar: Silver Star Harmony Review

Howdee all, XSeed was so kind as to stuff our mail box with a copy of Lunar, Silver Star Harmony on the PSP. Here is my most humble review.

Synopsis: The wonderful tale of Lunar makes its way to the PSP. Harmony is not the first iteration of the Lunar story. The franchise first started on the Sega CD, went onto just about every known video game platform before the time of PS2. It’s a classic Hero coming of age tale where Alex who is on a adventure to be the next Dragonmaster following in the footsteps of his hero, Dragonmaster Dyne. Alex, along with Luna and his flying best friend, Nall, team up with various people along the way to complete the quest to become the next guardian of the goddess Althena.

New Playable Parts...WOHOO

Praise: Lunar: Silver Star Harmony is a great adventure with a great cast of characters. The graphics of the main game have been improved as well as they have added voice over for some of the text. They also added showing the main characters as they are talking with text. This is a new feature that gives you a view of the character and the emotions they are showing during those moments. The original Lunar was famous for likable characters, great character development, and a story that was top notch. The original had animation cut scenes that became the trademark of the Lunar games. Harmony has all of this and more.

The 2-D graphics have been completely revamped as well as they have added a playable Prologue that wasn’t available in previous editions. The musical scores of the game have been improved upon and are really enjoyable. They give you a good feeling as you are playing and as the music changes depending on the situation you are in, will completely submerse you in the game play. The witty commentary by Alex’s flying smart talking friend, Nall, gives the game a lot of humor and I found myself waiting to see what he said next. He insults, he begs for fish (his fav food) and just all around hits on the women.

One Eyed monster and plant dog AAAHHH

A feature that you no longer see in RPG is the Auto-Battle option. You can choose to have the computer choose the choice of your characters, or choose a tactic that will either have all attach, defend, or individual AI for the character. You also have an option to make your own tactics, i.e. one defends, one attack, and one uses AI. This is a great feature that I miss in the RPG games of today. When you are battling a bunch of low level characters, just choose all attack and let it go to work. This will save you time and energy of assigning actions to characters on low level enemies.

Complaints: With new graphics, voice over, and stylish drawing type graphics, comes the load times. Each time you change the current scene you are on, i.e. going into a building, going to a new section of town, gives you a lengthy 5-6 second load time and a drawn fade out and fades in type scene. This might sound petty, but when the towns are only two or three screens big, and you can go into damn near every house, this load time really adds up.

Flying smarty Nall, but don't call him a cat

Another thing that annoyed me, but this is coming from a fan of the original, is they changed the songs at the beginning of the game and a scene on a boat with Luna singing. Believe it or not, these were some of my favorite songs when I was a kid and I was really looking forward to hearing them again, but alas, they were not there. The songs were changed to fit a more, romantic feel of the game. I also felt they could have redid the animation scenes, with changing the songs, they kept the mouth moving to the dialogue of the old songs, giving it a kind of dubbed Japanese kung fu flick.

The voice over is very inconsistent. It goes from good one scene to bleeding from the ears in another. I feel these little issues keep Harmony from being the end all Lunar game. It really will not draw too much away from the game, but for original fans such as myself, it can be really annoying.

Overall: Lunar: Silver Star Harmony is a great game with new features. The story line, though cliché by today’s standards, is still a great tale of Alex and his friends. For anyone that has not played a Lunar game, I would suggest starting here if you have a PSP. Xseed did a fantastic job on everything with a few minor issues that do not draw too much away from the game.

Mashbuttons gives Lunar: Silver Star Harmony a 8 of 10

Marvel Super Hero Squad | Review

Synopsis: THQ has just released Marvel Super Heroes, an action adventure game based on the animated series, on a handful of systems, both console and handheld. In this title, the player is tasked with recovering Fractal fragments of the “Infinity Sword” throughout the city and ultimately to help or destroy the city. There is two available games modes available, adventure mode consists of six campaigns based on the TV series, and battle mode allow four players to fight to their demise. There are more than twenty Marvel characters available in this game, each with their own special powers and abilities to choose from and play as.

Praise: It is Marvel we are talking about here and almost everything they touch turns to gold. You start the game choosing two characters to play through the mission as and since there are a number of characters to choose from, the variety is there to keep you coming back to either master their moves or just to change things up throughout the story. The graphics and gameplay are targeting a younger audience, so it is easy to pick up and play, while the graphics are bright and characters, both playable and not, have the cute look of those in the animated series. The battle mode adds to the replay value when you have played through the story or have a group of people that are up for some arena fighting. Controls are easy to get the hang of, as you use the remote and nunchuk buttons for movement and attacks, and it does use the motion sensors to execute character specific special attacks.

Gripes: The first issue I had with this game from the start and throughout the game was the camera, it never seems to be where you need it, especially when in heated fights and you see you are being shot at but can’t find the enemy to attack due to the camera placement. Enemy AI and the level of ease are the only other issues with this title as I was able to play through without even worrying about dying as health is easily replenished. The problem with the enemy AI is that a number of times, characters of the opposing side, would sit in one place, not moving or attacking at times, while this could be put in place to make the game more playable for a younger audience or a game glitch, it was a little frustrating.

Overall, Marvel Super Hero Squad is an entertaining game to play through for a Marvel fan. However, the main focus of this title is towards a younger audience, which may turn away adult gamers such as myself, but makes for a great game to buy for a child. Since the Wii is an easier console to play with multiple people, this game is good for two people to play through and if you have a group, battle mode is even more fun to play when you have two to four people trying to prove who the better gamer is.

Mashbuttons.com gives Marvel Super Hero Squad a 6 out of 10.

Marvel Super Hero Squad is available now for the Nintendo Wii, DS, Playstation 2, and Playstation Portable.

DiRT 2 | Review

Synopsis: DiRT 2 is the sequel to its critically acclaimed predecessor that was released in 2007, adding new technology, race types, large scale events, locations, drivers, and vehicles. Players are taken on a World Tour, consisting of over 100 events across nine different locations, combining solo and multi car races. Up and coming rally racers Ken Block, Travis Pastrana, and Dave Mirra compete with and against you throughout your career, along with voicing their strongdisapproval when you’re trading paint or sending them out of control. Online gameplay allows for two to eight players, racing individually or on teams, to gain experience towards increasing their online level or just make their way up the leaderboards. To help provide that fast paced racing style that Codemasters is known for, DiRT 2 includes a garage, chocked full of the “best-in-class” licensed rally cars and off-road vehicles.

Praise: The graphics in dirt 2 are amazing and with everything going on at the same time the game play does not give the player a slowdown in frame rate. There are a large number of events across the globe to keep anyone busy for hours on end, while the variety of vehicles, keep racing along the same tracks fresh. The ability to choose the skill level before each race is a great feature, so you can begin your career on casual as the game starts while moving to a higher difficulty to make more cash as you get more familiar with how each car and race type plays. Flashbacks are a godsend with the white knuckle gameplay as it is easy to lose control or total your vehicle, and if that happens, there is the ability to rewind to a few seconds before you are out of commission to correct the mistake and complete the event. Online play is great, whether playing ranked or practice matches, there was virtually no lag, finding a match is quick, and I found myself saying “one more level and then I can turn it off” a few too many times.

Gripes: The ability to tune your vehicle is missing from DiRT 2, and while you are able to choose cars that vary in regards to speed, acceleration, and drivability, I was hoping for the ability to fine tune the performance and handling of vehicles. Some of the personalization abilities such as dashboard and mirror ornaments are not noticeable unless you choose to race in the first person view, however, the vehicle wraps, known as liveries, help you personalize the way each vehicle in your stable looks. My biggest gripe with online play, which has nothing to do with the development of this title, is that occasionally, you will race against the person who expects to win the race by barreling into or through you without any sort of penalty, and this concern would not exist if there was any sort of penalty for crashing.

Small gripes aside, DiRT 2 is a perfect rally racer with loads of replay value, after the world tour is completed. As long as you have your Xbox online, there is just as much time to be spent, if not more, racing against the online community. From the stunning visuals to the break neck speed of the white knuckle gameplay, any racing fan should pick this up as they will not be disappointed, as Codemasters has stayed true to the sport of racing once again.

Mashbuttons.com gives DiRT 2 a 10 out of 10 to a very well executed title for any rally racing fan to enjoy until DiRT 3.(Here is to hoping for a sequel)

DiRT 2 is available now for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PC, PSP, Wii, and DS.

Sony Playstation GamesCom Press Conference is today! | Breaking News (UPDATE)

Today may not feel like any special day, but across the Atlantic, in Cologne, Germany, there's a new Games festival, called Gamescom. Open to everyone, tomorrow marks the premier of the new gaming convention and some of the biggest names in gaming are there to dish out the news.

First up is Sony's Press conference, beginning right now! Stay tuned to the site for updates of Sony's platform as we get them in. Rumored is the new PS3 Slim, and price drop. Oh, I, wish...

Stay tuned...

[UPDATE] You can follow along with our friends over at Kotaku in there live-blog. Check it out here

Things to do on 8/14 | Madden

So apparently there's this game coming out today, some sports thing, something to do with a tear-shaped ball, that's tossed arond a field of sorts - I think they call it Football. There's usually some running, some hitting, it's apparently a real man's game.

For those of you who have no idea what I'm talking about, please direct your attention to the release of EA's Madden NFL 10. Apparently this is a BIG deal to millions of football fans across the globe. Personally, I'm looking forward to going to a Ponyo/Time Travelers Wife double-feature tonight.

All kidding aside, it really is the beginning of the gridiron season, the "Fight for Every Yard", the road to the big game, not only on the videogame front, but we're already into the first week of Pre-season for the NFL.

Madden NFL 10 (actually the 21st iteration of the game, not the 10th), continues the tradition of the most realistic NFL experience on any console, cause they're the ONLY NFL experience on any console. Either way - it's out, you want it, go get it.

Madden NFL 10 is available now on Xbox 360, Playstation 2, Playstation 3, Wii, and PSP. Will also be on the App Store in September for all of you who want to take it on the road.

Codemasters gives us the DiRT on DiRT 2

DiRT studio tour is the newest video showing what is going on behind closed doors in the development of DiRT 2. Okay, maybe it is not as exciting as it sounds, unless that is your sort of thing, but we did get so see what changes are going to be made from the original title.

In comparison to Codemasters original, DiRT, water will have a more significant effect to how the car controls and will slow down the vehicle from the drag it creates. Along with these new physics, body kits are interchangeable depending on the type of race and the handling has been changed to add more to the sense of realism. Some other details indicate that the game will have social networking functions to become part of an extreme sports community, could be interesting.



Looks like I will be playing the four letter "F" word racing game that comes out this month until DiRT 2 gets closer. Fuel not fu...oh nevermind check out the "Studio Tour" video.

DiRT 2, one of the many four letter word racing games, will be available this September for the XBox 360 and Playstations, PC, Wii, DS, and PSP.