Toki Tori - PS3 Review

Toki Tori is a challenging puzzle game wrapped up in an incredibly cute package. This title could definitely catch someone unprepared, as it looks almost like a platforming game. My youngest adores those types of games and was curious about the vibrantly colored yellow chick, but was surprised that it was a slower paced puzzle game instead.

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Dead or Alive 5 - PlayStation 3 Review

Dead or Alive was one of those fighting franchises that always looked nice, but I never got around to playing early on. My first brush with the series was Dead or Alive 4 on the Xbox 360.

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PlayStation Vita - System Review

I waited on the Nintendo 3DS until my wife got it for me for Christmas several months after it had released. In fact she nabbed it for me not too long after the price drop made it a more affordable option. I was interested in the 3DS from the beginning, but questioned the $250 price point it released with.

I have also been following the Sony PlayStation Vita since its initial announcement. Recently my wife picked me up a Vita bundle an additional memory card. It felt to me from day one that the Vita was going to be a more impressive system in terms of hardware, and its price point of $250 and $300 (for the 3G version) seemed a direct threat to the Nintendo 3DS.

It was inevitable that these two handhelds would get compared to one another. Both are trying to dominate in a market that has seen phones and tablets encroach on the mobile gaming market, while releasing around the same time at similar prices. I will be primarily reviewing my impressions of the Vita now that I have had a week and change with it, while probably drawing some parallels to the 3DS as well.

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What have I been up to? Some Gaming Thoughts...

It would seem like with me regularly working 55-65 hours a week over the last month, my dad visiting from Florida for a couple of weeks and the kids starting up on school again that I would be struggling to find time to play games, but that really has not been the case.  I think what I'm sacrificing (other than sanity) is sleep as a result.

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Virtua Fighter 5: Final Showdown - PlayStation 3 Review

I enjoy my fighting games.  I am not always particularly good at them.  I can beat the average button masher in most games, but the truly skilled beat me more often than not.  I do not enjoy the experience any less as a result of that though, because I take it as a personal challenge to get better.  Virtua Fighter is one such game where smashing buttons randomly will almost never end well for the player, but if you sink the time into the deep, precise combat system, you will come away a better player for it.

I have been a fan of the Virtua Fighter series for a long time - ever since I first discovered Virtua Fighter 2 by Sega in the arcade.  While it was not as pretty as say, Street Fighter II, there was a sort of technical precision that drew me in, and it was probably my first brush with a 3D fighter as I believe I discovered Battle Arena Toshinden and Tekken for the PlayStation some time afterward. 

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Happy Monday!

Yeah, that title's about as excited as I can get for a Monday morning.  That said, I had a pretty solid weekend.  Got lots of gaming in over it and got to catch Prometheus to boot (I dug it).  What games have you guys been playing of late?  My list grew a bit over the weekend.  Here's what I've been taking a stab at:

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Gaming Deals on 5/2/12

Just a quick post listing out a handful of the gaming deals out there as of the middle of this week.  I'll lead off with the somewhat disappointing showing by Xbox Live Gold - they have the Battlefield 3 expansion discounted.  Not a bad deal I guess in and of itself, but seeing as I have the game for PS 3 and haven't seen a Gold deal I've liked in over a month, I'm a bit disappointed by this one too.

Steam has Bastion for 60% off on its Midweek Madness, placing it at a pretty solid $5.99.  Their daily deal still has about 4 1/2 hours left on it as of writing this, called Crazy Machines Complete Pack - half off, so $24.99.  It's also worth noting that I have been hearing good things about the Warlock: Master of the Arcane demo, and that my site's been seeing a fair number of hits off from people looking that one up.  One blog I follow said it was like Civ meeting fantasy/Dungeons & Dragons.  Not a bad combination to aspire for in my opinion.  At $20, I may be looking at that one when it comes out May 8th.

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Double Dragon: Neon - screens and thoughts

So as a kid?  Huuuuge fan of all things Double Dragon.  Probably one of the first arcade games I played and actually beat - no easy feat when you're playing cabinets meant to eat your quarters as quickly as possible.  Now there has been an announcement that Double Dragon Neon will be coming out later this year.

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This weeks gaming deals at a glance

Another week, another Wednesday and another slew of deals out there.  I will post my top five moments form Mass Effect 2 a bit later in the day as well today, so if you're interested in those, keep an eye out for that. 

So this week in Xbox Live Gold land we have a shooter and fighter mix.  All games are half off their normal prices.  We have some fighters and shooters in this mix with:

- King of Fighters 98 Ultimate Match
- King of Fighters 2002 Ultimate Match
- King of Fighters Sky Stage
- Metal Slug 3
- Metal Slug XX
- Trouble Witches Neo.

All of these are usually 800, now at 400 Microsoft Points except Metal Slug XX, which is normally 1200 and is currently 600 for this week.

Steam's Midweek Madness is the entire X series for 50% off.  Their current daily deal is Capsized for 75% off.  That will be good for about five more hours.

Over at Gamersgate they have Supreme Ruler Cold War for 75% off, Serious Sam 3: BFE for 60% off and Patrician IV Gold Edition for 75% off.  They are also flying a banner for Serious Sam games in general as being 60% off this week. 

Amazon's got a smattering of deals.  Their daily game one is Jewel Link Chronicles: Mountains of Madness for the DS for $14.99, and their deals of the eek range from $10 off on Mass Effect 3, to $20 off for the Syndicate and Soul Calibur V, $40 off the HORI Soul Calibur V Arcade Stick, $20 off of King of Fighters XIII, $70 off the Call of Duty: Black Ops Prestige Edition for the 360, $10 off of Twisted Metal and up to 75% off of THQ game downloads.

Lastly, the PlayStation stuff.  It's a pretty solid week to be a PlayStation Plus user:

• Canabalt (Mini, Free)
• Farm Frenzy 2 (Mini, Free)
• Mortal Kombat (DLC, Discount)
• Mortal Kombat Arcade Kollection (PSN, Discount)
• Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe (Retail, Discount)
• Shank 2 (PSN, Free)
• Shift 2 Unleashed (Retail, Free)
• Silent Hill (PSone, Free)
• Wheels of Destruction: World Tour (PSN, Discount)

And here's the general discounts this week as well:

• Mortal Kombat (DLC)
• Mortal Kombat Arcade Kollection (PSN)
• Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe (Retail)
• MotorStorm RC (DLC)
• Prototype (Retail)

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Mass Effect 3, NBA Jam, Final Fantasy XIII-2, Kid Icarus and game deals

I have had a pretty focused run on games over the last week or so.  Once I beat Sakura Wars and Kingdoms of Amalur, I decided to beat up on Final Fantasy XIII-2 and Mass Effect 3.  I'm only about twelve or so hours into Final Fantasy at this point, but I am enjoying the game quite a bit so far - but then I enjoyed the initial XIII as well.

I am really enjoying NBA Jam: On Fire Edition for the PlayStation 3 as well.  I squeeze in a quick match or two every morning before work, and have been for about two months now, so hopefully I'll get a review of that up in the near future.

Finally got my copy of Kid Icarus: Uprising for the 3DS yesterday (I had it on pre-order, but standard shipping.  I wanted to play it pretty quickly, but I knew I'd have a day or two of playing some other title by the name of Mass Effect 3).  I can only say that my initial impression is pretty positive.  I loved the pre-order bonus of the original Kid Icarus game from the NES, but 3D-ized (yup, that's a word now.  True story).  I haven't touched the original in soooo long (despite having the old cartridge still bouncing around here next to our NES).  My son has been giving Icarus a thorough playing so far too, already on level 5 and having done a lot of multiplayer, which he says is pretty awesome.

And then there's Mass Effect 3.  I know this release has been polarizing people, and no - I haven't seen the ending yet.  Based on what I have heard, I suspect I will be slightly disappointed because my actions do not greatly effect the ending from what I have seen and heard.  However, there is talk now that Bioware is going to change or add to the ending.  What that means?  No one really knows at this point.  Maybe new endings, maybe more content with future DLC?  I am not really sure what to think at this point.  I know that the game itself has played out as my favorite so far, and that while there are quirks (some texture pop in is pretty rough graphically, and just odd audio/video things like James 'talking and playing cards' but not being visible, or Liara conversing with Jacob and not being visible) - the game itself plays very solidly.  Right now, I'm using the default character and not an import, but it's easy to see how my actions from ME 2 could radically change my experience in ME 3.  I'm already plotting my next play through.  If I am looking forward to another round of the game, it would be safe to say I am enjoying it.

And multiplayer is pretty solid.  Not perfect.  You can get stuck in spaces where Brutes beat you and you just can't move, and when you mean to roll you stick to a wall in coverage, but the gameplay is a lot of fun in my opinion.  The dual currency of coins and experience really helps keep me invested in growing.  But as of writing this, my lowest level character is 14, and my highest is 17 and there's a level 20 cap.  Between that and the relatively limited number of maps, I wonder if Bioware is eying DLC for the multiplayer as well as the single player or not?

I just can't see the ending, even if it underwhelms me, causing me to get up into arms the way so many other players are yet.  The rest of the journey has been entirely too much fun so far.  That said?  It sounds like Bioware is taking the commentary to heart based on their impending patch to fix the face import bug as well as planning to 'address' the ending in some fashion.

Now, onto the deals...

Atlus has several great RPGs for the PSP downloadable at pretty hefty discounts via PSN here.  The most notable are the Persona titles, but there are several others worth taking note of as well.

Steam has a King Arthur sale - the original titles are 75% off, and King Arthur II is 40% off as their midweek deal.  Their daily deal for the next five hours or so is the Luxor Collection for 66% off - or $13.59.

Fox Xbox Live Gold members, racing is the name of the game.  Various packs for Forza Motorsport 4, Joe Danger Special Edition, Daytona USA and Sega Rally Online Arcade.

Good Old Games has some DRM free indie titles such as Trine, The Whispered Word and a pre-order for legend of Grimlock, plus having recently added Anachronix as well to their lineup. 

GamersGate has Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days and Thief: The Dark Project for 75% off, and Lunar Flight for 50% off.

Amazon has James Bond 007: GoldenEye for the Wii for $14.99.

Sony's offering is pretty weak for PlayStation plus, with nothing really free, though there is a lot of discounting, including the new Closure puzzler that IGN scored an 8.5 this morning. also, there is a very heavy Tom Clancy theme as you'll see.

PlayStation Plus:

• Closure (PSN, Discount)
• Dead Block (Mini, Discount)
• MotorStorm RC (DLC, Discount)
• Skydrift (PSN, Discount)
• Tom Clancy's End War (PSP, Discount)
• Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter 2 (PSP, Discount)
• Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter 2 (Retail, Discount)
• Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Predator (PSP, Discount)
• Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Vegas (PSP, Discount)
• Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Vegas (Retail, Discount)
• Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Vegas 2 (Retail, Discount)
• Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory HD (Retail, Discount)
• Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Classic Trilogy HD (Retail, Discount)
• Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Double Agent (Retail, Discount)
• Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow (Retail, Discount)
• Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell HD (PSN, Discount)
• Zack Zero (PSN, Discount)

General Discounts:

• Armored Core 3 (PSN)
• Armored Core: Last Raven (PSN)
• Armored Core: Silent Line (PSN)
• Puzzle Dimension (PSN)
• Zack Zero (PSN)

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Midweek deals and thoughts

So I'll start with a quick few gaming thoughts off of the top of my head:

- I've been playing a lot of Mass Effect 3 and so far am digging it.  For my initial play through I am not doing an import of one of my prior Mass Effect 2 campaigns as I want to approach it using default settings, something like a new player would experience.

- I'm doing a lot more of the multiplayer than I had originally thought I would.  The mulitplayer ties into the campaign mode by raising your Galactic Readiness - which impacts the final ending it seems.  I got mine to 100% in all areas in about a day and change of heavy multiplayer.

- Multiplayer Pros: The variety sprinkled into the missions is nice, and the ability to create and use a bunch of different classes makes leveling up lots of fun.  The credits system works for me too, because as a one-time sports card collector, the idea of 'opening' a pack of 5 random items is sort of fun, especially if you get a rare or uncommon (I tend to save up for the top-shelf Specter package).

- Multiplayer Cons: The matchmaking needs work. When the host leaves, it gives you a message that you are mgrating, but in truth you're just getting punted back out to the loby.  Also, there needs to be a way to force people to 'ready' status after a time.  You can have four people to a team, 3 of them ready, and you can sit there twiddling your thumbs on that fourth unready person indefinitely.  When you find a good group of 4, you can plow through the waves pretty wel, but for every 1 really good group, I go through about 5-15 failed matchmaking attempts just to get a round of play going

- I'm probably about 1/3 of the way through the single player campaign and I am thoroughly enjoying it so far.  I got the collector's edition, so I will be touching on that as well as my regular review soon.  I'll be kicking off a series of Mass Effect reviews starting Friday I believe.

- Speaking of big, backlogged games, my Skyrim review will be going live soon too.  I don't really plan to go through my impressions quite so much as Mass Effect 3, which is a much newer title, but suffice to say I have enjoyed Skyrim quite a bit as well.

- RPG Maker VX Ace has been awesome so far.  I've been digging into it several different ways.  I made a very short game as just sort of a test demo for my son to play, and I have approached it from the building standpoint, to the ease of adding your own materials and also applying and tweaking scripts.  I will do two different write-ups on the software.  One for Otaku Gaming that is a straight review of the experience, and one here on this blog discussion it and the changes I see from being a heavy RPG Maker XP user and skipping VX to go to VX Ace.  The tiny game I wrote up for my son (seriously, it's like a 10 or 15 minute play through) is something I may post somewhere for others to view as well if interested.

- A little title called Diablo III is announced to be releasing exactly a week before my birthday.  I know what I'll be asking for. :)

So the above are just some bullet point updates for those interested.  I definitely have more on tap to post about here over the coming weeks, but my hope is you will really enjoy the Mass effect series, which will probably span about two weeks of posts on here.  Now, for the weekly deals on Xbox Live and PlayStation Network and more.

Gamersgate has Warhammer 40,000 for 66% off, The Guild Complete for 75% off and Neverwinter Nights 2 for the Mac for a whopping 95% off.

Amazon has a couple of smaller deals like a discount on the latest Mario and Sonic Olympics and an offer to get FF XIII with the purchase of XIII-2.

Steam's midweek madness deal is Portal 2 for half-off and their daily deal up until around 1PM EST today is Spellforce 2 Gold Edition for $3.74.

The Deal of the Week is all Bioshock 2 related - with DLC packs and Avator items being 50% off on Xbox Live for Gold members.

With the PlayStation Plus it is pretty evident that most of the free stuff happens at the beginning of the month, but some of the deals throughout the month are definitely of note too.  This week?  Huge emphasis on the Final Fantasy titles.  Here's the full list below of PSN updates:


PSN Games

Rayman 3: Hoodlum Havoc HD ($9.99)
Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine ($39.99)
Warriors Orochi 3 ($49.99)


Vita Games

Sumioni: Demon Arts ($19.99)


PlayStation Minis

SAR: Search and Rescue ($2.99)


PlayStation Plus

Dissidia Final Fantasy (PSP)
Final Fantasy IV: The Complete Collection (PSP)
Final Fantasy V (PSone)
Final Fantasy VI (PSone)
Final Fantasy VII (PSone)
Final Fantasy VIII (PSone)
Final Fantasy Origins (PSone)
Final Fantasy Tactics (PSone)
Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions (PSP)
Rayman 3: Hoodlum Havoc HD


DLC

Ace Combat: Assault Horizon -- Various DLC (Free-$4.99)
Blazblue: Continuum Shift Extend -- System Voice Arrange DLC ($5.99)
Disney Universe -- Various DLC ($0.99-$2.99)
EyePet & Friends -- Various DLC ($0.69-$2.99)
Hyperdimension Neptunia Mk. 2 -- Various DLC (Free-$2.99)
Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning -- The Legend of Dead Kel ($9.99)
MotorStorm RC -- Various DLC ($0.25-$0.99)
Ninja Gaiden 3 -- Online Pass ($9.99)
Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City -- USS Wolfpack Uniforms ($2.99)
Rock Band 3 -- Various Tracks ($1.99 each)
Rock Band Network -- Various Tracks ($0.99-$1.99)
Rocksmith -- Various Tracks ($2.99 each)
Saints Row The Third -- The Trouble With Clones ($6.99)
Tales of Graces F -- Various DLC (Free-$3.99)
UFC Undisputed 3 -- Upsets Pack ($4.99)

Vita DLC

Blazblue: Continuum Shift Extend -- System Voice Arrange DLC ($5.99)
MotorStorm RC -- Various DLC ($0.25-$0.99)
Ridge Racer -- Various DLC (Free-$1.49)


Demos

Birds of Steel
Rayman 3 HD
Under Siege


Discounts

Ace Combat: Assault Horizon (DLC)
Coconut Dodge (Mini)
Dissidia Final Fantasy (PSP)
Final Fantasy IV: The Complete Collection (PSP)
Final Fantasy V (PSone)
Final Fantasy VI (PSone)
Final Fantasy VII (PSone)
Final Fantasy VIII (PSone)
Final Fantasy Origins (PSone)
Final Fantasy Tactics (PSone)
Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions (PSP)

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X-Men: The Arcade Game - Retro Reflections

Like Streets of Rage 2, this is another title on the PlayStation Network that is both something that can be purchased and a throwback to a classic title.  I'm going to treat it like a Retro Reflection though as I talk about it.  Now, Streets of Rage 2 held up pretty well for me through the glasses of nostalgia, but it was a free title where as X-Men was one I bought on the PSN.

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Gaming News and Deals for 3/7/12

Peter Molyneux is a pretty controversial figure who has overseen some pretty impressive titles in the past like Black and White and the commercially successful Fable series.  Well, he has apparently left Microsoft's Lionhead Studios for a new company called 22 Cans.  Molyneux has always been a bit of a lightning rod for criticism, often promising a lot more than he can deliver - but the games that were delivered still generally got good reviews and were commercially successful.

Moving on to various deals that caught my eye this week:

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Streets of Rage 2 - Retro Reflections

This could fall under a Retro Reflection or a PlayStation Network Review, but I really did not want to break this down into a series of score points.  One of the titles I got to play while using PlayStation Plus was Streets of Rage 2 on the PSN.

This was a classic beat 'em up game from Sega that I played over and over again on my Sega Genesis.  I actually played Streets of Rage 1, 2 and 3 back then - but 2 for some reason was always my favorite of the trilogy.  By today's standards, it can be a bit slow and sometimes the fighting is a bit 'cheap' - but it is still a good throwback to the older days of gaming for those of us who recall Final Fight, Golden Axe, Double Dragon and Streets of Rage so fondly.

The premise is pretty simple - you walk from one side of the screen to the other, causing it to scroll in your direction as you take on wave after wave of street thugs.  Each level culminates in some sort of a boss battle that is equal parts amusing and frustratingly cheap.  Along the way you will pick up a variety of items like food, money and weapons stored in random barrels, benches and more from the environment around you.

You can play the game with a friend, which I recall doing repeatedly when I was younger and it is still fun today.  There is an online versus mode as well that does not hold up nearly as well, for a variety of reasons.  One, the fighting mechanics are really shallow - Street Fighter IV this is not.  Additionally, it seemed like the connections were flaky at best a lot of times.  If I can run around environments like Modern Warfare 3 and Battlefield 3 and suffer no lag, then it seems baffling to me that a game like this would consistently have trouble keeping up during a single isolated fight.

Beyond that, it seemed like every time I was about to win, my opponent would disconnect with no fear of tangible penalty that I could detect.  Anyway, not a big deal as the majority of my time spent playing was just trucking through the actual story mode on my own.  I beat it two or three times over the span of a few days, and it definitely provided me with a nice dose of nostalgia along the way.

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Madden NFL Arcade - PlayStation Network Review

With the Super Bowl upon us, this seems like the perfect time to talk football.  I already reviewed Madden this year, and if you want to review it, you'll see that I enjoyed it despite its several glaring flaws.  So I decided to review Madden NFL Arcade, which I picked up some time ago when it was on sale for $5 on the PlayStation Network.  It's unlikely this game is on anyone's radar right now, but because the NFL is going to be a theme today, I decided I should do my civic duty here and warn you away from this title.

Basically, this was a way for EA to try and capture over-the-top fast and furious football action without any of the slowdown found in the actual Madden sim.  The experience is a game that seems confused right from the get-go as you play with smaller teams and with altered rules that just are not as much fun as they should be.  Do not confuse this game with the recent Blitz release, though their style has a few things in common

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