Well, I'm a bit surprised. It turned out better than I thought.

I mean a lot of my issues still stand but overall I had a positive experience for the game. The setting and art was excellent, the gameplay ideas were great (although the execution wasn't), and I won't lie, I liked the plot.

The gameplay does definitely get better once you get farther into the game and get more augments. By the end of the game I was pretty boss at almost everything. I could hack up to Level 4 with max Hacking Stealth upgrade, had 60% damage reduction, maximum cloaking abilities, you get the deal. It's a game that really feels proper once you get more abilities to play with.

That being said, I still feel it's a fault of the developer to have such a slow beginning. At least give us more Piraxis points (or whatever they're called) in the beginning to help us develop our skills. Otherwise you're stuck in a pretty boring rut for the first few hours. I had to spend so much time into investing into almost basic necessities, like the Icarus upgrade or whatever it is (which eliminated fall damage), moving heavy objects upgrade, stuff that was just for convenience. Only later was I really able to invest into the fun stuff like cloaking, double takedowns, etc.

Yeah, boss battles are fucking shit. Like seriously, whoever designed them needs to quit game developing. Even if this was some hyper action FPS game they'd still be awful. They were just designed terribly, putting aside the big "fuck you" they present to everyone who wanted to go stealth or hacking.

Overall I'd say the game was better than DA2 on terms of a WRPG, although that isn't saying much, but I still enjoyed it. Incredibly flawed in parts? Absolutely. But a terrible game? I wouldn't say that. A lot of the things I thought I would hate, like some of the art and the plot, grew on me. It has its hiccups but it's a worthwhile game.

I finally got it on loan from a friend.

First off, I'm not that impressed. Which is sad because it's a game I really want to like. I think the art is great, the setting is great, basically everything not about the game is great. But the game itself... That's a different story.

For the Xbox at least, the controls are just senselessly bad. I mean why would anyone design something like this? You'd think A would snap you to cover, you move along it, just basic Mass Effect 2/3 style cover. It worked for that series of TPS RPGs, why not this one? But instead they map cover to LT (which you have to hold), there's no quick swap weapon option, it's a pain to navigate around cover, and they mapped ADS to left analog click for some reason. I mean shooters have established good button mappings on the Xbox, why just throw that all away?

RPG elements are alright, if not a little overwhelming. Like I want to invest in hacking to unlock more stuff... But I also need to invest in something for combat, whether it's stealth or straight up combat. The RPG side of it isn't bad though although it seems to take a really long time to level up.

I can't say the AI is at all good or consistent. I was doing the first level that leads up to the first boss and the AI would just detect me for no reason. It just bugged me and completely killed any hopes for a stealth bonus.

Load times are also long, which is particularly annoying if you're at a part you keep dying at.

Open world really isn't that open. It's just a really small and lifeless hub with a few side quests to do. I like how sidequests are actually pretty decent though and not just some typical "deliver my X to the Y" crap.

Story, can't say much on that yet. I'm still in the beginning.

I can see why people complain about the boss fights. Putting the whole "you're fucked if you don't go combat" thing aside, it's just like a really boring boss (the first one at least). He just... walks and shoots, and occasionally he throws a grenade or two. So you just run to cover and shoot back. It's incredibly uninteresting and it feels like a 5 year old designed it. There's no "hit his weak points for massive damage" stuff, it's just basically a bullet sponge. I could accept the boss fights if they were at least interesting. Combat focused, but interesting, but if the first boss fight is any indication, then this is just awful.

The whole "do it your way" thing is neat, but it doesn't feel terribly new. Like I swear there's been other games where you can go in guns blazing or find a more tactical route. Maybe not in the extent here, where you can shoot your way in, stealth your way in, hack your way in, etc, but it's been here before.

For now I'll keep playing it but I'm really unimpressed. Which is quite a shame.

So I got $80 from my dad today and journeyed off to Wal-Mart (we had to pick up other stuff, don't judge me) and decided to pick these two up.

Lumines I wanted from the start but I couldn't nab it on Amazon, so I got Dynasty Warriors Next instead.

It's goddamn Lumines. You can't go wrong. My big complaint when the 3DS launch was the lack of such a "killer app". To me, "killer apps" aren't just a good game. It's a game that lasts. Something that will endure time and time again through the console's lifespan. Samurai Warrior Chronicles almost looked like it was there (with Warriors games having a token amount of large content) but not quite. It didn't get a "killer app" in my opinion until Tetris Axis. And Lumines is kinda like Tetris with music and a different puzzle structure.

The music is good, the visuals are alright but I'm usually too focused on the game to notice them, and it supports buttons or touch screen controls, whatever's too your liking. It's a good "evergreen" title so I'd suggest it as a day one purchase for any Vita owner.

Unit 13, you may ask me "Why would you buy this?" Well, I have UMvC3 and Rayman Origins on the Xbox so I didn't see much of a reason to buy them again.

I heard some rather positive things for Unit 13, that it actually wasn't quite your standard TPS shlock. I played a couple of missions (by "couple" I mean two and the training mission) and I do enjoy it. I just think it's structured very well. It's much more "arcadey". I don't mean this in a "die in five seconds and respawn instantly" way, but in a "score-based leaderboards" type of way. Which is rather interesting. You can wrack up points by using stealth or getting kills, headshots, melees, whatever. It controls alright, with a pretty heavy amount of assisted aiming, but it lacks the sexy gyro-assisted aiming of Uncharted: GA, which was a huge disappointment for me. But I think it's a pretty solid game. The score-based aspects really differentiate it from your run-of-the-mill TPS like SOCOM or Syphon Filter, it has some minor RPG leveling aspects which I thought were interesting, and the daily challenges seem like a really cool way to keep it fresh. But yeah, the AI is kinda the equivalent of a pile of bricks, the graphics aren't great, and the lack of the gyro aiming bothers me, but overall it's a satisfying package. If you ever see it on sale or something, definitely buy it.

Also it has online co-op apparently which is pretty fun but odds are I'll never get the chance to try it. It does require an online pass though so if you're really hellbent on going online, make sure you're willing to buy new or buy one off the PSN Store.

---

A side observation on Vita games in general, I do find them really bringing back a "good ol' way of gaming".

3G gaming seemed pretty silly at first. Like what's the point of having "anywhere online" if it's not good enough for person-to-person play? Well, tons of games are using leaderboards to fill this issue, and yes, I've bought into the leaderboard thing. It is quite fun to be able to beat your friends and compete with them for times in Motorstorm RC or scores in Super Stardust Delta. It's an aspect I'm really liking, and it really brings out the "arcade" feeling. Unfortunately I don't have 3G (and I don't feel like buying into some stupid AT&T plan) but I can see why it's desired now. Also being able to web browse, check Facebook, send messages, update your trophies, and even do Parties on the go is a rather tempting prospect.

Well, looks like I'm completely satisfied.

When I heard the PSP had (and was getting) Warriors games, I was ecstatic. I really grew a deep love for the series in elementary school when I used to go to a friend's house like every weekend and play Dynasty Warriors 4 on his PS2. I didn't touch the franchise until I got a PS2 a couple of years ago and I made sure to get that as one of my first games.

But I wasn't entirely satisfied with the PSP games. The system was just too limited. Low enemy counts or slowdowns, really ugly character models (even for Warriors standards), really bad fog of war, and I wasn't particularly fond of some of the changes they made, like trying to add strategy (I know, funny) to the game. I did enjoy Warriors Orochi the most though since it was rather faithful to the standard hack and slash formula.

But lemme tell ya, Dynasty Warriors Next scratches that itch hard. It's rather faithful to the series. Here's my list of things that make a Dynasty Warriors game:

• Incredibly confusing story that you'll never be able to follow (thanks Romance of the Three Kingdoms and your like 120 characters)
  
• Terrible voice acting
  
• Awful wanging guitar soundtrack
  
• Hacking
  
• Slashing
  
• More hacking
  
• More slashing
  
• High enemy counts with no slowdowns or terribly restrictive fog of war
  
• Enemy pop ins!

DWN has all this stuff. It can support pretty high enemy counts despite some terribly obvious pop-ins. Still, there's no "fog of war", which makes the game look better. It's entirely based on hacking and slashing, no more of this trying-to-be-a-SRPG-but-it's-goddamn-Warriors bullshit. And I do actually like the new changes. The mini-game segments are alright. Dueling takes a while but once you master it, it's actually pretty fun. And there's lots of hacking and slashing.

I like the graphics too, the character models look nice and their combat animations are alright. Can't say the same for the rest.

Still a must-have for Warriors fans. I'm still in the campaign mode, but then there's Conquest mode and other stuff to keep me busy.

Out of the box impressions so nothing too serious or in-depth yet.

• Dat screen. Absolutely stunning. Plus it's really fucking big. So it's a truly "HD" experience.
  
• Analog sticks. I still haven't gotten used to 'em yet so I kinda shoot for shit in Uncharted. Still, it's so nice to have a handheld with TWO analog STICKS for once.
  
• Uncharted has awesome graphics. Basically looks almost as good as most console games but with some jaggies. But for a launch title, it's incredibly promising.
  
• I wasn't too keen on the back touchpad when it was first announced and, with the system finally in my hands, I can safely say my opinion hasn't changed. Not a whole lot uses it and it seems like any functions it'd have I could just do with the front touchscreen anyway. Mind you the only experiences I've had with it are like Uncharted and the Facebook app but otherwise I don't see a point. But it's neither forced on you or does it get in the way so I won't complain.
  
• I was pretty unimpressed with augmented reality/AR stuff before and after trying some AR stuff I can safely say I'm still not. I tried the football SOCCER game and the fireworks game. Didn't really impress me. Range is too close to actually have an impressive display or anything. It'd be cool to see like a giant AR statue taking up your entire table but you can't do that with the cards you have (with the 3DS you can apparently print out larger cards though so I'd assume it works for the Vita).
  
• The Fireworks game was kinda fun though. Reminded me a bit of Fruit Ninja, which I do like. It's simple and arcade-y. I would say "pick up and play" but setting up an entire series of AR cards isn't exactly "pick up and play". Still, it's free and it's a fun "tech demo" that I may revisit a few times.
  
• Really do love the LiveArea/GUI. Very fluid, very easy to access. I do like the multitasking abilities though, although no downloading while playing a game is a bit of a letdown.
  
• I can't say anything about PSP games yet. My bank still has to update my available cash so I can buy like Monster Hunter and Syphon Filter to test it out.
  
• Uncharted is pretty fun. I got past basically the tutorial and then quit to let my shit download. Can't really say much else until I get a hang of the game. Still, I do think it's quite amazing how you can use the touchscreen/motion options or play it like a real gamer. It's how games should be, not forcing you to use a touchscreen or motion controls when you can just use a button instead.
  
• Motorstorm RC was fun as well, for free it's hard to beat. I was disappointed at first that it was a top-down racer but it's starting to grow on me.
  
• Dynasty Warriors Next is shipping still (TAKE YOUR TIME AMAZON NO RUSH) so I can't say much about that. It'll be nice to see if it can deliver a console-level Dynasty Warriors experience, something handhelds have failed to do. The PSP got close over time, especially with Warriors Orochi, but still suffered from low enemy counts, N64-quality graphics, and the dreaded "fog of war". It'll be nice to see if the Vita can save all this and give me a shit load of play time until I get more cash for like... Lumines, UMvC3, pre-order for Gravity Rush, pre-order for Resistance, and all these PSP games that can now be played with two analog sticks.

On a side note, anyone know where the Skype app is? I couldn't find it on the PSN Store but it should exist.

Otherwise, I'm loving the system, will post more later and I'll probably do a review as well.

Um, isn't this just Inception, but with assassins and memories within memories instead of dreams within dreams?

But seriously, it's alright. I mean it's relatively samey to Brotherhood, just with a few new things. It's still not as significant as Brotherhood was. Criticize Brotherhood all you want, but it was rather fresh and new. The city building mechanics were greatly expanded and changed, the recruitment/training of assassins became an addictive RPG aspect, and even how the game was structured, by gaining control of areas by shitting around with Templar strongholds, changed it up a bit. Also, it had fucking multiplayer (which I haven't tried yet but I'll try it in Revelations).

Revelations basically has all this stuff and most of the new things it adds really don't add a lot. The HOOOOOKBLADE just essentially makes you make slightly longer jumps or scale buildings a bit more quickly. The zipline thing is a rather minor aspect and is just a quicker way of running from A to B. Bomb making offers a lot but it's really rather useless. I mean there are times when you could use a bomb to distract two guards... or you could just walk up to them and do a double assassination before they get two suspicious.

This brings me to another issue I had with Brotherhood: combo counterkills. Stealth games generally have combat mechanics but the purpose of stealth games is to have them be so bad that they're the least desirable option. Like if I could run around and go Gears of War on everyone in Metal Gear Solid 3, then yeah, they may send guards after me, but who gives a shit if I mow them all down until the alert drops? Instead the combat in MGS3 was like playing trombone backwards. In Assassin's Creed, the combat has always been rather good in terms of being effective. I could just as easily draw my sword, run into a Templar base, and kill every bastard in there. In Assassin's Creed 2, this took a bit more time since you could only counterkill one person. But in Brotherhood, with the ability to chain counterkills almost infinitely, it makes combat almost the most desirable option. Of course they also introduced the "Optional Objectives" thing which usually favored going stealth over Leroy Jenkins but if you're not a completionist then counterkilling 10 guys with a hidden blade is still the best thing. But my point is that the bombs are rather useless because of this and most situations can have you just stealth killing with the hidden blade just as well.

Yeah, they introduce a variety of enemies who resist counterkilling but you can just counterkill his friend and chain your counterkill to get them too.

There's a new tower defense minigame type thing that I did really like but I found it was too infrequent. It only happens when a den is under attack. There's no quest line that involves tower defense, which was a bit of a bummer. The angle they also set you at is pretty bad. It's basically the same behind-the-back angle of the main game and you have to target rooftops to place Assassin Leaders or whatever they're called, who open that rooftop for troop placement, and then select a variety of units to place there. I'd prefer a wider angle so I can target these rooftops more easily and still see where the enemies are coming from.

Still, it's Assassin's Creed and it's still pretty fun. Story is kinda phoned in and definitely feels very spin-off-ish (despite basically being a main series game) but if you're looking for more Assassin's Creed fun, this works pretty well. Single player still has plenty of stuff to do, from assassin training to challenges to sidequests, and there's of course multiplayer which is apparently quite popular.

NOW IN ALL ITS GLORY.

I'm not terribly far into the story. Maybe 4-5 hours so far. I don't even have all my teammates yet. Some observations...

Small presentation issues, like the disc swapping are annoying. It's two discs (like Mass Effect 2) and from what I can tell, the side missions are on the second disc. So if you want to mix side missions in between story missions, you better be close to your Xbox (yeah, this is only the Xbox 360 version by the way).

The narrative is a lot more "on-wheels". Meaning a lot of the dialogue is automatically chosen (well, the irrelevant stuff), compared to earlier Mass Effect games where Shepard didn't cough unless you chose it as a dialogue option. I can't say I like it. It adds character to Shepard. While you may think "WHAT CHARACTERS SHOULD HAVE CHARACTER!" Shepard is meant as a stand in for you. Making him his own character really breaks that. While it definitely improves the flow of the game, allowing for a bit more interesting cinematography (considering previous dialogue would just be close up shots cutting back and forth with little movement). But I'd still prefer the older system of dialogue.

The story itself is what you'd expect: Reapers are reaping everything and you have to unite the races to defeat them. There's a whole thing called "Galactic Readiness" or something where basically, depending on the amount of missions and stuff you do (or multiplayer), you'll gain a higher Galactic Readiness. I'm assuming higher ratings means less people will die on the final mission or something.

Vega is by far the worst BioWare character ever. I'll give Carth, Kaiden, Jacob, everyone else a pass over Vega. He's just obnoxious and... boring. His backstory is standard (boohoo my previous commander made a risky decision and now I feel guilty boohoo) and his character design is fucking terrible. He's like goddamn Carlos Mencia but buffer than the Hulk. Just dumb.

This raises a question though: why is he a squad mate and character over your shuttle pilot, who is by far more interesting? One of your dialogues with him and he goes "My husband was killed on some battle". So A) he's gay (the first male BioWare character to openly show it) and B) he actually has an interesting tragedy behind him. I spend more time talking to him than goddamn Vega.

My other thing is that you get a bunch of great characters (from the past and new, if they survived) but they're not squadmates. Wrex comes back, Mordin comes back, Jack comes back (not a great character but I'd take her over Vega), etc.

Other than that, the rest of my part is from previous games (Liara, Garrus, and EDE) so you kinda know their stories. Garrus is fucking awesome and Liara is fine (I didn't romance her previously). EDE is EDE, now with a body.

Gameplay is fine. Considering the series, gameplay wise, went from a flailing, rough, and pretty much terrible TPS in the first one, it's a huge (and wonderful) evolution. Pretty much the same as Mass Effect 2 except for some class changes and the expansion of melee. The RPG stuff is fine. There's multiple weapons to equip as well as armor, all with pros and cons. You can get weapon mods to add stuff like scopes, stability, higher clip size, damage, etc. I'm rather familiar with this system from the multiplayer and it's basically the same in the single player. While people will baww that it's becoming "Gears of War", there's certainly nothing wrong with having a RPG that has, you know, non-shit combat. It's not a prerequisite.

Graphics are rather amazing. The demo wasn't a good representation. While the character models are a bit eh in some respects (mainly facial animations), the set pieces are amazing. One of the early story missions you do involves defending a Turian moon from Reapers. And when you look at the sky, you see the Turian homeworld, set ablaze by the reapers. And it looks so cool.

I haven't touched multiplayer since the demo but I played the demo to hell and back. I'm assuming this is just as good, but now with more maps and enemies.

Despite all my complaints, it's still a fantastic game. I'll be playing it a lot throughout the week and further.

HOLY SHIT THIS GAME IS AMAZING.

Easily the best 2D platformer of this generation. Like seriously, it nails EVERYTHING perfectly.

The difficulty curve is perfect. It also does a remarkable thing that is rarely seen in games today. I suggest you watch this for reference:



The part he talks about how the game teaches you everything without throwing a tutorial at your face is exactly what Rayman Origins does. Outside of a few minor pointers like "Hold RT to Sprint" or "Press A to Jump", everything else you can learn on your own. For example, you get a new power, and you'll learn it from there. You'll be given a simple objective to use the power to complete (like getting to the next room) and you'll have to use your new found power to complete it. Then the game will progressive throw harder tasks at you that require that power throughout that level and the next ones. It's awesome.

The same also applies to basic obstacles (much like what was mentioned in Sequelitis). It's hard to explain but anyone whose played the game and noticed this will know what I mean.

There's also just a lot to do. Collecting all the Electoons will take up time, but there's time trials, medals, and teeth to collect.

Oh, did I mention the game also gets really fucking hard eventually? But by that time the difficulty curves so perfectly that it feels genuinely challenging.

It also gets a Super Meat Boy "trial and error" thing going on when it counts, like for the Tricky Chest levels. They're quite difficult but the trial and error works for that. The normal levels don't incorporate this, which is a good thing.

It's really hard to describe how good this game is but seriously, it's like the best platform this generation and one of the best, period.

On a co-op note though, I played it a while ago, around New Year's, with about four friends (this was before I had the game, one of my friends got it). It's pretty much a shitty mess equal to NSMB Wii. I wouldn't suggest it. It's either too cluttered for the harder levels to work effectively or too easy to break when you essentially have an infinite supply of instant revivals when you can just have a teammate sit at a safe area. It's fun if you just want to dick around but nothing substantial. Multiplayer platformers will probably always be a mess.

The demo for the multiplayer opened up yesterday. I'm shockingly pleased with it.

I mean it basically gives you what you want: team-based Mass Effect 3 co-op. It'd be hard to say it's not like Horde mode from Gears of War (being a wave/survival based third person shooter co-op mode), but it's still Mass Effect at its core.

The demo was basically the entire multiplayer suite from what I could tell, minus some maps and options (probably the most notable one being Cerberus locked in as the only enemy type). Leveling and stuff seemed intact. Basically you choose one of the classes in Mass Effect (Soldier, Sentinel, Adept, Vanguard, Infiltrator, Engineer) and get dropped into a map where you have to survive waves until extract. You can choose the Bronze, Silver, or Gold challenge mode, each of them varying in difficulty. I've stuck with Bronze mostly since my characters are still rather low level.

Each wave has a variety of objectives. Most of the time it's simply "kill all the enemies", but now and then you'll have to do something else to complete the wave. Usually it involves activating beacons around the map in a time limit, guarding an area until time runs out, or killing key targets on the enemy team in a time limit. The variety is nice and makes you run around instead of hunkering down for 10 waves.

Classes are a bit unique but not in a "TF2" type of way. You can all choose the same weapons with the same mods and have the same proficiency, each class just gets unique powers. For example, Adepts have access to Warp (a rather generic damage biotic), Singularity (which sends enemies into a zero gravity ragdoll state), and Shockwave (which sends a shock wave across a distance and knocks enemies out of the way). It creates pros and cons for each class but overall they're all playable.

I haven't unlocked any races yet so I unfortunately don't know if there's any benefits past aesthetics. By the way, unlocking works by earning credits from matches. You can then use credits to buy different degrees of "reinforcement packs", which contain one-time use power ups, weapons, weapon mods, and sometimes characters.

Gameplay though is rather intact from the main game, exception being everything's real time. I couldn't pull up the power wheel either, probably since you only have three powers at a time and they're all mapped to different keys.

Overall though it's a lot of fun. It's simple but addictive. Definitely give it a try. I think your stuff carries over to the main game as well. I'm not sure how long the multiplayer will be available though, hopefully until launch.

Ran through the Mass Effect 3 demo not too long ago.

It plays a lot like Mass Effect 2 from what I can see. Unfortunately for these large RPGs, a demo doesn't do it enough justice. It was mainly showcasing combat, which is essentially the same as Mass Effect 2. There was some leveling to be done but it's much better to see over the course of an entire game then throwing you a bunch of points at a random level.

You also can't transfer your ME2 save data here. You choose most of your basic characteristics though. Gender, backstory, and who died (you can choose Kaiden, Ashley, or numerous deaths if you lost members in the ME2 finale). There's also options for basically no dialogue options, everything is done in cutscenes, some middle option that I chose, and the "RPG option" when I obviously didn't. You can also choose class and I chose Vanguard.

First section was the intro to the game. It was basically the tutorial and it showed off the opening stage of the game. Since I'm assuming you all finished Mass Effect 2, I'll just not give a shit about spoilers. Basically Reapers touch down on Earth and after getting to the Normandy, you are sent to the Citadel to unite the alien races against them. I noticed you're introduced to Vega, the latest addition to the cast, but he's not really introduced. It's you and Anderson for the demo (no, Anderson is not a teammate, he's only on for the demo).

Second part is a bit farther into the game (they auto level you to level 12) where you're essentially getting one of the only fertile Krogan females to Wrex so he can rumpy pumpy with her. Talk about a wingman. But yeah, you go to a Solarian (spelling?) facility to retrieve her, only for Cerberus to attack. You get Garrus and Liara on your team, with Mordin being the scientist with the Krogan. You help Morgan transfer her to the ship, killing Cerberus troops along the way, eventually facing off with a mech. You also can level your character, which seems pretty basic. You get a bunch of different skills to level, from weapon proficiency to biotics. There's a skill tree for each skill, requiring certain points to level up that skill, and eventually splitting into two paths of your choice. You'll level up about twice in this section as well.

One thing I noticed was the lack of the Omniblade. They taught a basic melee attack with B and a stronger one that drains your shields by holding B. I saw no tutorial on Omniblade usage. Maybe I'm missing something or maybe it's class tied?

I really liked how the set up the experience though. It definitely feels more lively than ME2 and the original. The first level saw Reapers attacking in the background, buildings collapsing, stuff like that. It's not exactly Call of Duty but it feels a little more actiony, which I enjoy.

The multiplayer launches on Friday and all Xbox 360 players get access to Gold membership for a limited time because of it. I'll certainly be giving it a go with a few friends.