Review: 3D Dot Game Heroes

Retro gaming has been seeing a lot of love lately. Games like Megaman 10 and Final Fight: Double Impact have breathed new life into their respective series; re-releases of classics like Wolfenstein 3D on XBLA and PSN and the plethora of games out via the Wii’s Virtual Console have introduced a generation of younger gamers to gems that they may have missed out on the first time around. It is in that vein that the people at From Software have given us their latest creation: 3D Dot Game Heroes.

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45 Minutes of Resonance of Fate

Box Art - PS3

Box Art - Ps3

I started Resonance of Fate last night, a PS3/360, steam-punk, gun-based JRPG published by Sega, and got 45 minutes in.  That is to say, I saw the opening [extremely confusing and vague] cut scene, walked around a town some, and played through the SIXTEEN battle tutorials one of which I had to look up online how to do because it didn’t explain it well enough.

First impressions?  Well, if you like complexity, you’re going to love this game.  Just based on all the stuff you can do in a battle, you’re likely to love the mechanics.  For as complex and “real time” as the battles are, one great shining point is that the controls are not complex at all.  I’m going to outline the battle stuff here, partially because nothing I’ve seen online has but mostly because I think that writing it all out may help me wrap my head around all of it:

Simple mechanics
3 characters in battle, you get them from the get go (no idea if they change or swap or whatever). There’s HP, no MP, and a “reverse” ATB gauge that works similar to Valkyria Chronicles in that regard.  Once you start a character’s turn, you run, do actions, etc. and that winds down their stamina gauge.  When all characters have [Read more...]

10 Days In: Bayonetta & Darksiders

On January 5th, North America saw the release of their first two action titles of 2010 of arguably what might be a saturation of genre for the start of the year.  Well, that’s at least what the debate has been thus far.  If you’ve been frustrated over which action title you should dedicate yourself to, you might as well stop because Bayonetta and Darksiders aren’t even in the same club.  [Read more...]

Mad Moxxi – My First Trip to the Underdome

So after the glorious success of the Zombie Island DLC for Borderlands, it was an understatement to say that I was excited at the release of the second installment of DLC for this wonderful title.  By now, most people paying attention to Borderlands knows some of the bullet points of this $10 (800 space buck) download, but just in case you don’t, here’s a quick setup:

Mad Moxxi’s Underdome is a new area that is available via fast travel as soon as you hit your first New-U station.  [Read more...]

First Impressions of MadWorld

New Year’s Day is fast approaching, which means that the long holiday season is over for most of us. With that in mind, I’m going to take a moment to talk about one of my favorite new pick ups of the season which I grabbed from the super-cheap clearance bin at one of the big box stores. That game is MadWorld for the Wii. [Read more...]

REVIEW: Torchlight

Context:

I’ve played over 40 hours of Torchlight, split between three different characters. I have a character with each of the game’s classes, but I have definitely devoted the most time to my Alchemist. He is in the 32nd floor of the dungeon at the time of this writing, while the other two characters (Destroyer and Vanquisher) are hovering around the 10th floor. If you’ve been keeping up to date with the GOO podcast, you probably already know just how much of a fan of Torchlight I am (and how addicted, as well). And really, it isn’t that hard to become hooked on a game as good as this one is for its genre.

Story:

(Pretext: Each of the character classes has a slight variation in the story at the onset of the game, but your choice does not affect the plot thereafter; each class has to fight the same baddies and bosses along the way.) [Read more...]

REVIEW: MW2 Single Player

by: Scott

Context
It’s probably known by now that I don’t automatically flock towards First Person Shooters, but I tend to dabble in them on occasion.  In this case, I was able to play through the entire single player campaign of Modern Warfare 2 on the Regular difficulty (PS3 version), and it ended up being about a 7 hour endeavor.  Don’t confuse that time though, because being the completionist that I am, I went after every piece of Intel and ended up with 43 of the 45 said treasures.  Since then, I have also spent some time in the Spec Ops, running a small handful of the missions solo.

Story
Some games, such as the recent Borderlands, attempt to thinly add story where the enjoyment is primarily found from the gameplay experience.  Modern Warfare 2 however, takes the storytelling to the complete opposite extreme.  [Read more...]