Split Second | Last Gen Regen: Forgotten Favourites

Welcome to the second edition of Last Gen Regen: Forgotten Favourites! Today I'm going to shift things up a gear by taking a look at an overlooked arcade racer by the name of Split Second.  The game was developed by the Brighton based team Black Rock Studios, who had previously released the much loved ATV game, Pure (though that one was made by a different team).  Black Rock Studios were known as Climax Racing in their previous incarnation, before Disney Interactive acquired them. It was Disney that published both Pure and Split Second, before shutting down the studio shortly afterwards. The game was released in May of 2010, just one week before rival racing game Blur was released.  This fact means that neither game performed as well as it might have done unfortunately.  I'm going to cover Blur at another time, as I think both games deserve their own episode.

The premise of Split Second is that at an undisclosed time in the near future, a reality TV series has taken the world by storm where contestants race around a condemned city that is rigged with all manner of explosive devices and traps. As you build up a power meter by drifting around corners, drafting behind opponents, narrowly missing danger and by exceuting big jumps, you can execute what the game calls "Power Plays", that let you trigger these devices around the track in an attempt to wreck your rivals.  They could be racing near a gas station for example, so you can detonate the entire place, or there might be a crane by the track that you can set swinging dangerously into the path of the race.  These examples are both fairly mild, level one Power Plays though.  By banking enough power so that your meter fills up into the red zone, you can release level two Power Plays that have the potential to completely reshape the path of a race.  See that control tower by the side of the airport track? Not any more you don't, it's just been vaporised, forcing everying down a different path for the rest of the race!  While these Power Plays do have the potential to feel a little gimmicky once the novelty has worn off, and the campaign can start to feel just a bit repetitive during the later stages, for the most part they add a lot of excitement to the game and are just dynamic enough to remain interesting. So that's the basic set up, but how does the rest of the game fare? Let's break it down in more depth shall we?

Graphics: 8 out of 10
Almost all of the events take place either at midday or at sunset with just a few set a night, so there's a lot of bright sunlight flooding the screen.  It reminds me of a Michael Bay film back before he started making nothing but crap, such as Bad Boys or The Rock.  I love the way that the game has been designed with almost no HUD at all - your speed, power meter, and lap counter are all cleverly place on a readout situated on the back of the car itself.  This lack of screen clutter allows you to focus on the race and soak in the impressive explosions that are constantly popping off.  For the most part the game performs adequately but there is the occasional frame rate dip when something major is happening such as an entire building collapsing on 4 or 5 cars at the same time.  It doens't really effect the game play too adversely but it is there so I have dock a point for that I'm afraid.  Other than that though, Split Second looks very nice indeed and still holds up pretty well today.

Sound: 9 out of 10
The sound design in Split Second is absolutely glorious, from the way the explosions totally envelop you and the shrapnel flying mere inches away from your car cuts through the air, to the dynamic music.  Special mention has to go to the music in this game, in particular the tune that plays during the Elite Races that cap every "episode" of the show.  It sounds incredibly cinematic, and as you claw your way up the field into the top three (which is the requirement to proceed) another layer of instrumentation is added with more bass coming in and some very funky guitar work.  It really helps build the tension and excitement in these events, which after all are supposed to be the highlight of each episode of the fictional show.  There is not much voice over work in the game, but what's there is very well done as well, with an announcer telling you what's coming up in today's episode and also giving you a sneak peak of the next one.  Great stuff all round!

Wiping out five rivals with an exploding power plant is actually quite satisfying - who knew?

Game Mechanics: 9 out of 10

I've already described how the basic races function in the intro, but there's a bit more to Split Second than that.  The main campaign mode is broken down into 12 episodes, which represent an entire season of the show.  Each episode has 6 events within it, with four being unlocked initially.  The 5th event is always a bonus event which is unlocked by wrecking a certain number of opponents within that chapter.  Normally you will have wrecked enough cars by that point to unlock it, but occasionally you may have to replay an event or two to get enough wrecks.  Event six is always the Elite Race, and is unlocked by earn a certain amount of points in earlier races.  These don't have to be from within the same episode though so say you get to the end of episode 12 and you are a little short of points to be able to take on the Elite Race (which probably will happen) - simple, just go back to a previous episode and find an event that you didn't do as well in as you could have done.  Perform better and earn some more points towards your goal.  Every event in the game has the potential to award your 50 points if you manage to get first place, then 40 for second, 30 for third, etc. While progress was fairly rapid in the first half of the campaign, by the end of it I was having to go back to earlier races for more points.

There are also a few more modes besides the standard races that I've already described.  There is also an Elimination mode much like those seen in other games, except with the added complication of the Power Plays, and a time trial mode called Detonator where you are given a fixed car for the event.  So far, so standard.  Things get more interesting after this though with the addition of some modes that are unique to Split Second.  First up we have Air Attack.  In this, a fully armed and operational attack helicopter will be firing rockets at you, denoted by red targets on the track surface.  You have to avoid taking a direct hit or suffering too much splash damage which will eventually cause your car to explode.  Get wiped out three times and your race is over.  As you clear more and more waves without losing a life, you will build up a score multiplier, and if you don't take any damage at all whilst still maintaining a decent speed you will earn a perfect wave bonus - this is the secret to earning a high score.  Later on in the campaign there is also the addition of an Air Revenge mode, where the attack helicopter returns.  This time, by building up your power play meter, you can then send the missiles back at the helicopter and eventually take it down.  Level one power plays just take one pip off the helicopters health bar, whereas saving up a full meter and releasing a level two power play takes off four pips, so ultimately it's faster to wait until your meter is full.

Finally, for the main game at least, there is Survival mode.  In this, giant big rig trucks are constantly doing laps around the track, all the while dropping red and blue explosive barrels.  The blue barrels will damage you, and the red barrels will wreck you instantly.  You don't have a fixed amount of lives, in this mode you can be wrecked many times.  Instead, you are up against a tight time limit which is increased by passing the trucks.  As you keep passing trucks unscathed, once again you build up a score multiplier.  There are also other cars on the track that are there to get in your way. The first time you play this mode it takes place in a storm drain of the type featured in the famous chase sequence from Terminator 2, which is really awesome!

So that's the structure of the game, but how does it actually play? Really well! The handling feels spot on, with each car having a different weight and drift style to it (new cars are earned by meeting certain point thresholds, by the way).  The drifting feels really good, with you really able to throw the cars around the corners with extreme precision after just a few goes to get a feel for it.  The rumble in this game is also very well implemented, adding to the immersion immensely. It's not something I would normal notice or comment on unless it is truly exceptional, as it is in this game. With Split Second, Black Rock have crafted an arcade racer that rivals the true great of the genre such as Ridge Racer, Sega Rally, and Burnout - it's a tragedy that it isn't as well known as it deserves to be.  Those who do know of it do love it for the most part, though.

This is the Survival mode - watch out for those barrels or say bye bye to your chassis!

Innovation & Cleverness: 7 out of 10
I'm going to give Split Second a fairly high score here (at least, higher than I usually give) because the combination of triggered explosions with the TV show format is quite unique, especially to the racing genre.  The closest thing I can think of is MotorStorm Apocalypse but that came along quite a long time afterwards and you don't actually have any control over the destruction in that game.  It isn't nearly as dynamic either.  Nope, there isn't really anything else quite like Split Second out there.  We may well have received a sequel, but Disney in their infinite wisdom pulled the plug on Black Rock, and the team went their separate ways.  Some of them continued to work on racing games alongside veterans from Bizarre Creations, Eden Studios and Codemasters, to form the Forza Horizon developers Playground Games.  Others moved on to making mobile games at companies like Shortround Games.  So luckily, it wasn't truly game over for most of these guys!

Value & Replayability: 7 out of 10
The main campaign mode in Split Second is actually fairly short, lasting roughly 10-12 hours.  You can add on a bit more if you are a completionist and want to try and get first place in every single event.  Also, it may be just because I was trying to play through the whole game in a fairly short space of time, but I was starting to tire of the power play mechanic just a little bit by the end of the whole thing.  I love the Air Attack mode though, so it's a shame that it's totally replaced by the Air Revenge mode about half way through the campaign and never comes back.

As usual in these reviews, I am basing this score on what the game would cost you today, and not what it was originally selling for. So, you should be able to find a copy of Split Second for a fiver or less fairly easily, which is a very good price for the amount of fun on offer. I did hop online to see if anyone was still playing the multiplayer mode, and was surprised to get into a full lobby on my first try.  This was just in the race mode though - the other modes were pretty empty.

Finally, there are some DLC packs available which add a couple of new modes, some extra tracks and cars into the game.  I thought these tracks were really good, so it's a shame they are only in the free play mode and not incorpated into an extra episode or two of the campaign. There was potential for them to do a "Christmas Special" or something and give the DLC a bit more structure.  As it is I can't really see myself playing them that much.

Overall: 9 out of 10
If you haven't played Split Second already and you still have your PS3 or Xbox 360 then you should definitely acquire a copy and play through the campaign, it's a ton of fun.  The game may also be available through the PS Now service, though I'm not sure about that.  Hopefully one day it will also be made backwards compatible on the Xbox One, though I doubt that will happen as Disney don't seem terribly interested in the game industry these days.  Nevertheless, for a short time they were putting out some solid titles with the help of developers like Black Rock and Avalanche. Perhaps we will get a spiritual successor to Split Second one day, in the meantime we still have the original, which I think holds up fantastically well today.  That's all I have for this time - next time I will probably be playing Enslaved: Odyssey to the West, so see you then! In the meantime, take care!

Yakuza 5 review

The Yakuza series is one that I've been interested in for quite some time now.  The first game in the series piqued my interest due to its apparent similarities with my beloved Shenmue, yet when I played the game myself I found the combat rather clunky and lost interest a few hours in.  Something brought me back though and over time I have acquired copies of all the other entries that have been released in the west.  I spent a fair bit of time with Yakuza 3 and really enjoyed it, but I set it aside for some vague time in the future when I would dedicate myself towards completing it properly.  That day never came, but in the meantime the hype over Yakuza 5 and the disappointment from long term fans that it showed no sign of being localised hadn't escaped my notice. 

When Sony finally did announce that the game would be released digitally on the PlayStation Network, I decided it was worth supporting and used some of my birthday money towards it.  Whenever I buy a new game I always have to try it out a little bit, even if I don't intend to play it all the way through there and then.  This is usually only the first few hours of the game, but I had so much fun playing Yakuza 5 that I ended up spending about 12 hours on it!  Still, after that first day and a bit of playtime, I did set it aside so I could concentrate on finishing Tales of Xillia.  Roughly one month later I came back to it though, and have now completed the game having spent about 75 hours on it in total.  Suffice it to say that I really enjoyed myself, and now firmly intend to go back and play the first four games, plus Dead Souls.  If you are curious about the Yakuza franchise and have never taken the plunge, let me attempt to explain why you should strongly consider giving it a go.

Plot and Character: 9 out of 10
Having watched some of the videos that go over the plot of previous games, it is apparent that these games can get rather convoluted and hard to follow.  That wasn't really the case with Yakuza 5 though, despite it being deep into a well established series.  The main protagonist of the games, Kazuma Kiryu, has moved from Tokyo to Fukuoka, changed his identity, and is just trying to make a living as a humble taxi driver.   That all begins to fall apart when the chairman of his former yakuza family cuts in line and gets into his taxi one day, in order to warn Kiryu that there is a war on the horizon between the Tojo Clan and the Omi Alliance.  From this point on his is gradually drawn back into the yakuza life yet again, and the plot deepens from there.  He is only one of five playable characters though, and after about 15 - 20 hours of playtime depending on how thorough you are with the side activities, the game shifts onto Taiga Saejima, who fights differently and has plenty of his own problems.

While there is enough mystery in the plot to keep you interested throughout the games long play time, it never becomes too hard to follow.  Also, by shifting things up every 20 hours or so, the game remains fresh.  Saejima's part of the story was my least favourite but I kept going in the knowledge that I would eventually get to play as three more characters after him.   His main side activity was hunting, which was a nice change of pace from all the fighting, but the opening hours of his chapter really dragged for me.  By far my favourite was Haruka.  She has been in the series since the very first game, where she started out as a little girl that Kiryu had to take care of.  Now she's about 15, and has been noticed by the head of a talent agency for pop idols.  She is in the very early stages of an idol career as week take control of her, preparing for the finals of a TV show called Princess League.  Her chapter was a lot of fun, and the rhythm based concerts and dance battles were a very nice change of pace.  This game really has three key strengths: the characters, the variety of gameplay, and the sense of fun.

Take that! A foot to the armpit.

Graphics: 8 out of 10
Yakuza 5 does look very good for the most part and the engine has obviously had an upgrade since Yakuza 3.  The key cut scenes of the game have had the most attention, with the character models looking extremely detailed and realistic.  Outside of these the rest of the game running in realtime is slightly less detailed and there are one or two rather ugly textures to be found, but overall this is an impressive looking PS3 game.  When things get really hectic there are signs of slowdown, but nothing that's too detrimental to the overall game play.

Sound and Music: 8 out of 10
The Yakuza series hasn't had Enlgish voices since the first game, and from what I heard when I tried to get into it all those years ago, that's no great loss, as it was truly terrible in places.  My untrained ear can't really tell if the Japanese actors are good at their jobs or not, but it all seems perfectly fine and having them speak their native tongue just makes the game feel more authentic.  There are some quite brutul sounding crunches in combat, and the move where Kiryu grates somebodies face on the pavement always makes me wince due to the unpleasant sandpaper noise that accompanies it.  There is some great music in the game as well, from the tunes that play while your in combat, the suitably cheesy ballads that you can belt out at the karaoke parlours, and the pop or dance tunes that Haruka performs to.

Harukaaaaaaaa-chaaaaaaan!

Game Mechanics: 8 out of 10
The Yakuza games are chiefly brawlers - kind of like a modern day equivalent of something like Streets of Rage.  There is a lot more to them than this though as I will attempt to explain.  When you first take control of a new character, their move set and abilities are fairly limited.  By beating random thugs that will come at you in the street or by taking down people in the story, you will earn experience points and level up.  Each time this happens you will be given three pips to spend on a variety of things, from extending your life bar, to learning a completely new move.   By the time you're getting towards the end of that characters chapter, he will be incredibly powerful and able to beat the shit out of most enemies, bar the bosses.  I was playing the game on the default Normal difficulty and never really had too much trouble in any particular fight.  You are given healing items from completing side quests and from random drops so even if I did get close to being defeated I could just down a Staminan Spark or something and be right back in the fight.  Those who are good at action games may want to go straight to Hard mode.

In addition to regular moves, each character also has their own array of heat moves.  You earn heat by successfully beating on your opponents, or by blocking incoming attacks.  Once the bar is filled you can then trigger some really painful looking attacks like the face grating one I mentioned earlier.  You can also pick up a large variety of background objects and use them as weapons as well, all of which have their own heat move associated with them.  So you could pick up a bicycle, beat somebody around the head a few times with it, throw it at them and them stomp on top of them for good measure.

If the combat was all the game had going for it then I would start to tire of it eventually, and this is pretty much what happened back when I tried to play the first game. The great thing about this series though - the later games at least - is the vast variety of things to do.  Aside from the taxi driving, hunting, pop idol business and other main side modes that each character has, there are also many more side activities.  You can go to a hostess club and attempt woo a pretty girl, you can go bowling, play darts, air hockey and billiards.  Virtua Fighter 2, Taiko no Tatsujin and UFO Catcher machines can be found in Club SEGA that are based in most of the cities, and there are a whole host of gambling games like poker, pachislots and more in there.  Plenty of things to break up the fighting.  All of the mini games are at least competently implemented as well, which is important. 

Just grin and bear it!

Innovation & Cleverness: 7 out of 10
While Yakuza 5 is building on the previous titles in the series, it does bring a lot of its own new stuff to the table as well.  The decision to allow you to play as Haruka and make musical performance the focus of her chapter instead of combat was a masterstroke.  Really a lot of the reason that I played all the way to the end is because I couldn't wait to see what new thing the game would throw at me next.  The story is good enough to back up the game play though, resulting in a highly polished experience.

Value and Replayabilty: 9 out of 10
As I mentioned in the intro, it took me 75 hours to get to the end of Yakuza 5 and while I did complete most of the sidestories for each character, I came nowhere near to doing everything that is possible to do in the game.  My overall completion rate was about 25%, so if you were truly determined to get 100% it would take a long long time indeed.  When you get to the end of the story for the first time you unlock two extra modes - one where you can play through the story again but with all of your levels and abilities intact from last time, and one where you can visit any city with any character and complete anything that you skipped while playing through the story.  So even when you're done playing the the game once, there's plenty to come back to.

Overall: 8 out of 10
Yakuza superfans will probably hate me for not giving this game at least a nine out of ten, but the combat can get somewhat repetitive and so I'm marking it down slightly for that.  This is based on my own enjoyment of the game after all.   I did have a lot of fun playing through the story though, a few dull moments aside, and all of the optional content was a ton of fun.  I definitely will be going back and playing through all of the previous games now, and any future titles such as Yakuza 0 and Yakuza 6 that will hopefully be brought over eventually.  If you have never tried this series before then jump on board, you're missing out on quite a lot!

Jetpack Joyride | Mini Review

I’ve got a shorter review for this week, and the game I’m going to be looking at is actually fairly old.  It is Jetpack Joyride – more specifically the Deluxe PS3 version.  I have put a ton of hours into both this version and the Android version on my Kindle Fire.  The game is fundamentally the same on both platforms  except that because it is part of Amazon’s Underground scheme it is 100% on their devices, including all DLC and coin packs that would normally cost you money elsewhere.  You many think that this is a good thing but when infinite coins are so easy to obtain, you can pretty much break the game for yourself and render it pretty pointless.  So if you have the willpower I would recommend not touching any of the free stuff at all, or if you know that you won’t be able to manage that, spend the paltry £1.39 asking price for the PS3 version and earn everything properly with the in game currency.   I’ll go into more detail about this later on in the review.

So then, the overall plot behind the game sees you take control of Barry Steakfries, the hero, who takes a prototype jet pack for a joyride.  In order to escape the laboratory with the purloined pack, you will have to first navigate 30,000 meters of deadly zappers and missiles, which is way, way easier said than done.  I’ve put quite a bit of time into the game and furthest I’ve managed to get is about the 4,500 meter mark.  This game is firmly in the “endless runner” category, except in theory it’s not actually endless.  From your point of view when you first start out, it may as well be though.  The layout of the lab changes each time, and before long you are careening along at a breakneck pace.   Eventually it will become unmanageable and you will make a mistake, bringing your run to an end.    While you’ve been dodging the many dangers though, you’ve been picking up coins, which can be spent in the Stash on a variety of things.   Probably the most useful are the Gadgets, which change up certain aspects of the game – but you can only equip two of these at a time.   They include stuff like a device that causes the missiles to misfire more often than not, and another that randomly turns certain coins into precious gems.   As you purchase gadgets from the earlier tiers, you will gradually unlock later ones with more useful stuff.  Then there are Utilities, which are one time use items such as hearts that can be used to resurrect you one time, and other items that will let you instantly pass a particularly tricky mission (more on these in a minute).

Awww, it's Mr Cuddles!!!

The Stash is also home a variety of clothing, different types of jet pack, and vehicle upgrades.   The clothing is purely cosmetic, but the other things may change up the gameplay a little bit.  Because you start with the machine gun jet pack, as you boost you will be inadvertently filling poor unsuspecting scientists full of lead as you go.  Most of the time that’s perfectly fine, but sometimes you may have a mission to not harm any scientists on a run.   By changing the jet pack you’ve got equipped – to a steam powered one for example, you can make it much easier to avoid scientist slaughter.  You still need to avoid crushing into them, of course, but that’s pretty straight forward if you have decent throttle control.   During a typical run through the lab you will find randomly place vehicle icons, which let you go on a rampage in a robot suit called Lil Stomper, or a mechanical dragon called Mr Cuddles, for example.  The upgrades mostly give you different skins to equip, but you can also buy magnet upgrades which will then attract precious coins.  Very useful indeed.     The items in the stash will go on sale periodically, and new items may appear from time to time.  Some of them, like the sleigh and the Santa outfit, are seasonal and available for a limited time only.  Others cost real money if you want them straight away, or if you are patient you can get them for free if you wait about 15 days.

The missions are part of what playing the game so addictive.    Usually you will have three assigned to you at the same time, and they include things like high-fiving a certain amount of scientists, having a near miss with a certain number of missiles, or gathering a certain number of coins.  Sometimes your target will be fairly high but can be spread over as many runs as you need in order to complete it – for example 5000 coins.  Other targets may be good for just one run, and so are a bit trickier to get.   Each mission has a star value of one to three, and these stars contribute to your level. Every time you level up, you get a bonus in coins.   Once you get to level 15, you will have finished that set of missions, but that’s not the end.  You are then awarded a medal and the whole process starts again.  There are many different mission types and they are randomised, so the chances of you getting the exact same ones are pretty remote.  There are 175 medals, so if you want to get all of them, it will take you a long long time indeed!   So in addition to just managing to get all the way to 30,000 meters, you also have the additional objective of earning all those medals.  For such a cheap game, Jetpack Joyride has a ton of content!  There is also a reward for coming back every day.   Every 24 hours, three tokens will appear that spell out S.A.M, which is short for Strong Arm Machine.  Once you get all three, you will be encased in a giant robot suit until you get hit by five missiles. The amount of coins that appear increase dramatically during this mode, so you can really bolster your coffers if you’re reaction times are good!  Once the S.A.M. has been destroyed and that run ends, you are then given a daily bonus.   If you do this every day for five days, you will be given a random outfit for free.

Make good use of the S.A.M. to earn a ton of extra coins.

The presentation of Jetpack Joyride is fantastic, with really well drawn and animated sprites and backgrounds.   There is a ton of detail and lots of little hidden things to uncover.  The tune that plays on a loop in the background is also extremely catchy, as are the remixed dub step and Christmas versions when you are in the S.A.M. and the sleigh respectively.   For such as cheap game you really can get a ton of play time out of it, if you get really hooked!  While there are items that are on sale for real money in the Stash, you are always given ways to obtain them for free if you just wait or save up the required number of coins, so the micro transactions are not evil in that regard like they can be in other games.  The great thing about the PlayStation version is that not only can you play it on your big screen TV, you can also play it on your Vita if you happen to own one with Cross Save!  The special Back to the Future content may be missing on Sony consoles (from what I can tell at any rate) but the base game is still great fun without it.   If you’ve never played it before, I urge you to download Jetpack Joyride on whatever compatible platform you own, and prepare to be addicted!

Overall: 9 out of 10

Tales of Xillia Review

Over the Christmas break, I picked up a copy of Tales of Zestiria on the PS4 for a reasonable price (£25).  After checking it out for an hour or two, I remembered that I never quite finished Tales of Xillia despite really enjoying what I had played of it, so I decided to set aside Zestiria for the time being and go back and try to finish Xillia.  As it turns out, I didn't have very much of the game left to go - just the last chapter of the story.  I managed to play through this content in a couple of days, then after a quick break I decided to start Tales of Xillia 2 rather than attempting the bonus dungeon of the first game.  I'm now about ten hours into the sequel, so you can expect a follow up review to this one at some point, hopefully a few weeks rather than months or years!  Anyway, now I will attempt break down exactly why I found Tales of Xillia so enjoyable and why I think it may just be my new favourite in the Tales franchise.

Plot and Character: 8 out of 10
The main plot of Tales of Xillia is pretty compelling, and carried me through most of the game.  Things do get a little weird and convoluted in the final stages of the game, which is a bit detrimental to the overall quality, but for the most part the game is well written and what's going on have a nice mysterious quality to them that makes you want to learn more.  The story revolves around two main characters, and you can choose which one to play as at the start of the game.  The story plays out the same way regardless for the most part though there are times throughout the game where the two will become separated for a while and you will experience scenes and areas that the other character won't.  In order to see every little thing you will have to play the game through twice.

So on the one hand we have Jude, a medical student who is running late for an important exam as the game begins.  On the other, we have Milla, who is actually the human embodiment of the Great Spirit Maxwell.  She has control over the four elements of earth, wind, fire and water, at least for a time.  Something happens very early on in the story that robs her of her powers, and leaves her pretty much as a normal human being, but with no knowledge of human culture, manners and typical day to day things that the average person just knows. As you can imagine, the comedy potential of this is pretty high, with all sorts of little scenes playing out such as Milla trying to work out why her stomach keeps rumbling, and things of that nature.

In addition to these two protagonists, there are four other characters that will eventually join your party over time - we have Elize, a troubled little girl with an animated (and very opinionated) puppet called Teepo.  I loved Teepo, he was one of the highlights of the game for me - it was always a delight to see what he would come out with next. Then there's Alvin, a rather cocky mercenary type who is more than a little shifty in his motives, and then Rowen, a butler who was formally a great warrior on the battlefield, where he was known as the Conductor.  Rounding out the main cast is Leia, a childhood friend of Jude who happens to have a crush on him, while Jude himself is slowly falling for the enigmatic Milla.

While the main story is indeed decent for the most part, as in most Tales games it's actually the characters that is the stronger part of the game, and I believe this is the strongest cast they've ever had in a Tales game.  As veterans of the series will know, there are hundreds of optional skits that you can watch, all of which are fully voice acted and most of which are very funny and entertaining.

It's great to play such a colourful game for a change!

Graphics: 9 out of 10
While the game doesn't really look light years ahead of Tales of Vesperia, the previous game in the series that was designed for HD consoles, I still think the game looks great, especially the vibrant colours.  With so many games going for a colour palette consisting of brown, mud and turds these days it is very refreshing to see such brilliant blues, gorgeous greens and ravishing reds.  The towns are all nicely designed for the most part, but the wide open areas of the world can look a little sparse and lacking in detail at times.  There's also some quite noticeable pop up at times as townsfolk and background elements are drawn in seconds after the rest of the environment is loaded.  It's a bit jarring, but it's nothing that effects the gameplay.  Finally, while the main characters and the antagonists they go up against are all well designed, less important characters and the humans that are just milling about in towns definitely look like they've had less effort spent on them.  This is understandable I suppose, but still a little disappointing.

Sound and Music: 8 out of 10
The soundtrack of Tales of Xillia has once again been composed by series stalwart Motoi Sakuraba, who as far as I know has worked on every game in the series, which is a lot of games by this point.  As a result of the sheer volume of music he's had to come up with over the years, and also from the fact that he has his own style, his work does have a habit of sounding extremely samey at times.  There are most definitely pieces of music in the Xillia soundtrack that are extremely reminiscent of stuff that's come before, but there's also a fair few pieces that sound a bit different from previous titles.  I'm thinking specifically of the Chinese style tunes from the city of Xan Diu and surrounding areas like the Xagut Floodmeadows.   Even the standard sounding stuff is still well done, it just comes across as a little derivative.

Now let's turn to the voice acting, which I thought was great!  I do know that people had issues with Milla's voice work, but to me it sounded perfect.  Yes, so alright, her lines often sounded a little stilted and unnatural, but think about it - she's not used to being human!  She's a great spirit who has suddenly been thrust into a world she knows very little about, so of course her mannerisms are going to be a little strange.  The other characters are really well performed as well, in particular Teepo, Rowen and Alvin.

Choosing to play as Jude or Milla does add a bit of replay value to the game, but it doesn't change things in a major way.

Game Mechanics: 8 out of 10
The Tales series are action RPG's through and through, with quick, often hectic battles that can be over in seconds.  They play out a bit like a fighting game, except there is a lot more depth, especially when it comes to boss fights that often require more than just mashing the attack button to defeat.  Careful defence, exploitation of the enemies weakness and command of your other characters is important to succeed.  Of course, being the right level for the fight helps as well, but I never really found that I needed to grind in Xillia at any point, until after the story and the bonus dungeon comes into play.  After dabbling with that place for a little while, I decided to put it off until later.  You can also link with any of the other three characters in your party by pressing a direction on the d-pad, which gives you access to specific abilities.  In the case of Leia, it allows you to steal items from downed enemies.  While linked you will also be filling up a bar on the left hand side of the screen.  As the segments fill up, you can unleash powerful link attacks with your partner character, and it's it's completely full you can fire off Artes without using up any TP until the bar is drained and you start over.

In Tales of Xillia, character development mainly takes place with the Lillium Orb system.  It's reminiscent of stuff like the sphere grid from Final Fantasy X where you have nodes that you can activate with points earned from levelling up.  The nodes around the outside of a segment typically give you a small stat increase of some kind, but by completing a segment the middle will then be filled in, earning you a more significant upgrade such as an Arte or a Skill.   Artes are your active abilities that you use in battle, which are either offensive moves or buffing / healing spells.  Jude and Milla both tend to favour attacking directly with their fists or weapons, whereas other characters like Elize serve more of a healing role with a nice sideline in powerful magic spells.  Skills are more passive in their nature, and your character has a pool of skill points to spend, which increases as they level up.  The skills can be turned on and off at any time so you can tweak your characters for different boss scenarios.

Xillia also has a rather strange shop system where you have to donate random items that you've picked up from shiny spots on the overworld or in dungeons, as well as from random drops from defeated monsters.  It all seems rather complicated initially but there's actually not that much to it.  What I would do is choose either weapons or armour and then donate all the crap that I'd picked up recently to level up the shop and unlock the next tier of equipment.  Then the next time I would do the same for the other type of gear.  You still have to have the money to be able to buy the gear as well, so it's difficult to actually break the game by unlocking multiple tiers of weapon at the same time, for example.  I played with game with the combat difficulty set to Normal, which wasn't very challenging for the most part.  Those confidant in their abilities might want to turn this up a notch.

The story of the game is broken up into chapters, and as you progress you will also unlock opportunities for completing various side quests and sub stories.  Some of these are very simple one and done fetch quests, others are more in depth and will take you most of the game to finish as the next little piece of the story is doled out.  It is possible to miss out on these optional scenes (and a good many of the skits as well) if you plough on with the main story too quickly and don't take the time revisit towns that you've been to previously.  It is quite easy to go back to other areas because you can access a map and fast travel to them with ease.  I would definitely recommend doing everything that you can to get the most out of the game.

Teepo is my favourite character by far!

Innovation & Cleverness: 6 out of 10
When you get down to it, the Tales games are all quite similar to one another, with just subtle improvements and differences from one iteration to the next.  Tales of Xillia is at least a bit more free form that previous games in the series, with the wide open environments between towns to explore and the optional side content that you can take part in.  Otherwise, mechanically and stylistically, it's pretty much business as usual and will hold no real surprises if you've played one of these games before.

Value & Replayability: 8 out of 10
My completion time for Jude's side of the story was about 35 hours, without tackling the extra dungeon.  It would take roughly the same amount of time go through the game as Milla as well, and I had such a fun time going through the game that I could actually see myself doing that at some point in the future.  For now, I'm focused on completing the sequel, which takes place one year after the first game.

Overall: 9 out of 10
As I said in my intro, Tales of Xillia has knocked Tales of the Abyss off of its number one slot in this series.  The whole game was hugely enjoyable from beginning to end, and I may well come back and play through Milla's version of the story if I can find the time to do so.  From what little I've played of Tales of Zestiria so far, I doubt it's going to beat Xillia - the characters just aren't as immediately like able and the the camera seems to have quite a few issues in combat.  That's another review for another day, however.  For now, I would recommend Tales of Xillia to both newcomers and those who have played a Tales game before without reservation.  It's a refreshing change of pace from all of the western RPG's that have been released recently.

Beyond: Two Souls review

Before I get on with the main review of Beyond: Two Souls, the latest game by David Cage and his development studio Quantic Dream, I would like to briefly summarise what I thought of their previous two games.  First up was Fahrenheit (aka Indigo Prophecy) - a game that had a truly amazing beginning and maintained this for at least the first half.  The game lost me, however, when the plot got weird.  Now, I have no problem with science fiction or fantasy plots, quite the opposite, but I feel that I was led to believe that the game was one thing (a psychological crime drama) and it became something quite different.  That's not to say it's a bad game - it isn't.  It's also certainly a good deal more interesting than most games that came out around that time.  You can read my full review here. 

Next up was Heavy Rain, which I enjoyed quite a bit more. The story was quite thrilling, with you taking control of a distraught father trying to free his kidnapped son from a serial killer, amongst several other characters.  It was by no means perfect, being quite linear and limited in actual game play despite the illusions of choice presented to the player.  It looked quite stunning, being a new benchmark in what could be achieved in mo cap.  Now, can their latest offering push things even further?  Time to get on with the review!

Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment
Developer: Quantic Dream

Expect to pay: £20

Beyond: Two Souls sees you in control of two main characters.  Firstly we have Jodie, played by Ellen Page.  She has a spirit companion with her at all times that goes by the name of Aiden, the other character that you will be controlling at key points during the game.  The narrative jumps back and forth throughout various key points in Jodie's life, highlighting her connection with Aiden, the "Infraworld" where the spirits hang out, and various attempts by the CIA and the military to interfere with her life.  She doesn't have an easy time of it, that's for sure, as her "gift" makes her a loner and a target for scientific study.  The other big name actor supporting Ellen Page is Willem Dafoe, well known to members of the geek community for playing Norman "Green Goblin" Osborn in the first of Sam Raimi's Spiderman trilogy.  He plays Nathan, a scientist who has long been studying the paranormal, who ends up essentially playing the role of her father, after her adoptive parents freak the hell out and give her up.

The main plot of the game follows a very nonlinear path, jumping backwards and forwards in time to various important events in Jodie's life.  One minute she may be around her mid twenties, then the game may leap all the way back to when she was a small child, or somewhere in her teenage years.  I quite like this structure personally, as it keeps an air of mystery to the whole thing, with you slowly piecing things together until you finally get a clear picture of what has transpired throughout her life by the time everything is over and done with.  In most of the chapters, you're given a choice in which direction to take the story.  I'm going to give an example from fairly early in the game now, so if you don't want to be spoiled at all I suggest you skip the rest of this paragraph.  So, there's a chapter where Jodie goes to the birthday party of a girl she barely knows, with a hideous dress and a musty old book of Edgar Allen Poe poetry as a present - so you just know that things aren't going to go well.  Sure enough, these arsehole teenagers end up pressuring Jodie into demonstrating her powers.  You can either agree, freak them all out, and get stuffed in a cupboard.  Or you can refuse, and get stuffed in a cupboard.  So for most of the game your choices don't actually change the outcome much at all, with the exception of the ending.

Graphics: 8 out of 10
When Heavy Rain came out, the graphics were something of a leap forward for the PlayStation 3 and motion capture.  Things haven't moved on all that much in the interim though, and while the digital representations of Page and Dafoe are impressive, they still have that tell tale waxwork quality that is incredibly hard to overcome.  Also, while the rest of the graphics are by no means poor, for most of the time you are playing what is basically an interactive movie, so the hardware isn't being pushed all that hard.  There is one chapter that stands out from the rest because of the fairly large, open, area in which it's set, and it's here that pop up rears it's head.  It's nothing serious, but it is noticeable.

Sound and Music: 9 out of 10
You would hope that professional actors like Dafoe could turn in a decent voice over performance for a video game, and this is indeed the case.  The rest of the cast also do a good job as well.  However the real stand out in this category is the music, which is a fantastic score composed by Lorne Balfe and produced by Hans Zimmer.  Balfe has previously composed one of my favourite video game soundtracks ever - that of Assassin's Creed Revelations - and his work on Beyond: Two Souls comes close to matching it.  Zimmer is very well known these days having worked on many big movies including Gladiator and Inception.  The main theme that plays on the title screen and his reprised in various configurations throughout the story is incredibly strong, with a female vocalist providing an extremely memorable central melody - an earworm indeed!

Welcome to the Ellen and Will show!

Game Mechanics: 7 out of 10
This is where some may find issue with the game.  Despite giving the illusion of choice, as I indicated earlier your actions really have very little impact on the outcome of the game.  In addition to this, if you have come to hate "Quick Time Events" (pressing a button indicated on screen within a time limit) then you won't get on with Beyond: Two Souls at all, as I would say that's what at least 80% of the game is.  However if you get into the story and just want to go along for the ride, you will probably really enjoy this.  It probably comes down to whether you just like to play action games, or if you're not against sitting back and enjoying a good adventure title once in a while.

Innovation and Cleverness: 5 out of 10
I'm going to give the game some props for the way the story is told in a non linear fashion, though to be honest, most of the things that Beyond: Two Souls is doing were established in Heavy Rain, and they haven't really moved the medium on very far.  Again, if you're coming this game to be told an entertaining story, then that's fine.  Just don't go expecting anything radically different from Quantic Dream's last game.

Overall: 8 out of 10
I went into Beyond: Two Souls without having much knowledge about it at all - just the fact that there were famous actors involved, and that it was the next game from the people who made Fahrenheit and Heavy Rain.  An hour or so in, I still wasn't too sure whether I liked it.   After spending another hour or so getting to know the characters of Jodie and Nathan, I was hooked and really wanted to see how the story resolved itself.  I was quite satisfied with the game as whole, and when all is said and done I would say it's just as good as Heavy Rain, though with quite a different storyline.  As the game has been out for a little while now, you can pick it up for a decent price.  If you haven't played it yet, I would definitely recommend it - after all, you need something to keep you entertained while you're waiting for Xbox One and PS4 titles to start coming out, don't you?

More Let's Plays - The Last Story and Beyond: Two Souls

I've recently launched two more Let's Plays on my RMGB TV 2 YouTube Channel, for The Last Story and Beyond: Two Souls respectively.  I've decided that two concurrent series is enough, as the lengthy upload process limits how much I can produce anyway.  Beyond: Two Souls shouldn't be all that long - maybe somewhere in the region of 20 episodes total.  The Last Story may go on for quite a lot longer, such is the nature of RPG's.  After one of these has run their course, I will then start a new one and tell you all about it here.  My intention is to include PlayStation 1 and 2 titles eventually, but I have to buy a special PS2 to HDMI cable first before I can do this.  You can find the playlists below.

Pinball Arcade: Bride of Pin-bot Table Review

Today I'm bringing you a brief review of one of my favourite tables currently available for Pinball Arcade.  All being well, I will do more of these in future once I've played some of the other tables a bit more.  The version of the game I've mostly been playing is for the PlayStation 3, and a little bit on the Vita as once price gives you access the game on all three Sony consoles.  This makes it the best value by far of all the formats the game is available for.  I actually didn't even buy this particular table pack in order to play Bride of Pin-bot at all - in fact I wanted to play Medieval Madness, but have instead found myself coming back to the table it comes bundled with.

Before I get on with describing the basic rules of the game and then exactly what I like and don't like about it, I want to give a bit of background about the real life table.  It was released by Williams in 1991 and was designed by John Trudeau and Python Anghelo, based upon a concept by Python. The striking artwork was by John Youssi, and the music was composed by Dan Forden, perhaps most famous as the chap that popped out of the corner of the screen in Mortal Kombat II and yelled "Toasty!".  The game is the sequel to the original PIN-BOT from 1989, and had a sequel called Jack-Bot in 1995 which incorporated a gambling/casino theme together with the established robot motif.

The thing I like most about this table is it's relative simplicity, which I could also see being a weakness for professional players.  For amateurs like me though it means that the rules are easy to learn, while the act of playing the game well is where the skill lies.  It lends itself to the limited viewpoint of an HDTV (where you can't see the whole table) quite well, whereas the detailed playfield of Medieval Madness makes it hard to distinguish the different elements on the field (this problem is lessened significantly on the Vita, where you can play with the screen held vertically, but if you've played the real table then then playing on a home console pales in comparison, no matter how good the emulation is). 

Your main objective in this game is to shoot the ball into the left hand ramp and activate the Bride herself.  You will be doing this a lot.  The first time you manage to shoot the ball up there, you activate her voice module.  The following shot then goes up into the mini bagatelle section of the playfield in the top right corner, and activates the Bride again.  Two more shots up the Bride ramp will activate her eyes, and trigger a two ball multiball mode.  You then have to get both balls back up there yet again (without letting one go out of play) to activate "metamorphosis".  Both balls are released once more, and returning them both up the ramp one more time will activate the larger of the two wheels in the middle of the playfield.  If you're lucky, the wheel will then land one the 1 Billion Point Jackpot, and it is then up to you to shoot the ball up the central heart ramp.  This shot is trickier than it appears, as if the ball doesn't have enough momentum to get all the way up the ramp it will most likely be headed right toward the out hole.  Once the first multiball is triggered, letting any of the balls go out of play resets the entire sequence to the beginning.

The real life table in all it's glory.

In addition to this main jackpot mode, the ball can also be shot into the right most lane to activate the smaller wheel, which may activate another much smaller jackpot, light up the extra ball, or award you with the extra ball immediately.  There is a lot of speech throughout the game, from the robotic voice of the original PIN-BOT, to the sultry female tones of the Bride.  I enjoy the whole B-Movie atmosphere of the game, and the overall robotic theme.  Definitely a strong design - every comes together nicely, from the table layout, the art, and the sound.

As I hinted at earlier, the difficulty level is just right for an amateur player like me, as I don't have to worry about remembering pages of complex rules and instead can focus on enjoying a fast paced game that flows extremely well.  This table shares this in common with my personal favourite table - High Speed II: The Getaway.  At just £3.99 for access to both this and Medieval Madness on every Sony console, it's an absolute bargain - especially when you consider that owning the real machines would easily set you back around £7000, not to mention the space you would also need and the upkeep of the inner workings.

Overall: 8 out of 10

You can check out a video version of this review below, where you can see the game in action on my PlayStation 3!

My favourite games of 2013

Here I am with my top ten favourite games that were released in 2013! I didn't finish all them, which is a bit naughty, so I'll have to make sure I go back to them this year before too many new ones come along.  Before I get stuck in however, here are a few notable absences - you won't find The Last of Us on here because I haven't played it yet.  Similarly there's no Batman: Arkham Origins or Fire Emblem: Awakening because I've barely started them.  Finally, Bioshock Infinite isn't on here because I simply didn't like it very much.  With that out of the way, let's see what did make the cut...

10. Pikmin 3 - Wii U
Now then, I'm actually not all that deep into the single player mode, but I have spent many hours playing the Bingo Battle mode with my brother and his family, which has cemented Pikmin 3's place in this list and ensured it will be in rotation for years to come. Bingo Battle is the perfect mix of strategic planning, chaotic scrambling, and screwing over the other guy that ensures that it's great fun to play. The five or so hours I have spent with the single player mode have been highly enjoyable, and Nintendo seems to have found the ideal mix of time pressure due to the daily limit, yet it gives players who aren't all that good at this sort of thing (me included) enough space to explore, experiment and try again if things go horribly awry.

9. Lego City Undercover - Wii U
This game came along at precisely the right time for me.  There wasn't a lot coming out for the other consoles, and the Wii U itself had been starved of software since it launched, so it desperately needed something.  Thankfully, Traveller's Tales and Nintendo teamed up to deliver a genuinely funny open world Lego game that should appeal both to adults and children.  The single player story is lengthy enough to keep you occupied for some time, but that's really just the tip of the iceberg.  There are hundreds of optional things to do and items to collect, a lot of which aren't unlocked until you get the right item in the main missions.  I hear that Lego Marvel Superheroes is even better, but I haven't had the chance to try it yet.

8. Animal Crossing: New Leaf - 3DS
I haven't picked this game up for a while now, so I expect when I finally do I will discover that a lot of my little animal buddies have moved out.  For a solid three month period though, my 3DS and my ACNL cartridge went wherever I did.  It's a very laid back, relaxing experience, and this entry in the series is arguably more of a proper game than any of the previous versions thanks to the vast array of mini games you can play on the tropical island.  That's just one of many things to keep you occupied - town planning, regular bug and fishing contests, random visits from shady art dealers and confused seagulls - all charmingly written by the Treehouse team at Nintendo.  The ideal portable experience!

7. Super Mario 3D World - Wii U
Now, the reason that this game is only in seventh place on my list is because I am not enjoying it as much as the absolutely mind blowing pair of Super Mario Galaxy titles that came out on the original Wii. The basic idea is just not as fresh, it being based around Super Mario 3D Land on the 3DS.  That being said, there is still a lot of creativity in the levels, from the new suits like the cat suit and the double cherry, to the wide range of different environments and task for you to complete.  Finding all the green stars, the stamps and landing on the top of the flag pole with every character is quite the challenge, but definitely rewarding if you have the skill for it!

6. Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch - PlayStation 3
This is one of the games on my list that remains unfinished, which is a terrible crime as it's so good.  I spent a good deal of 2012 looking forward to this - an interactive Studio Ghibli movie with RPG mechanics!  I did spend a solid 40 hours playing it, and loved every minute of it.  The graphics are absolutely stunning, the soundtrack by Joe Hisaishi is sublime, and the game play is solid if a little traditional.  It seems like great JRPG's like this one only come along a few times a year these days.  We were lucky to get two of them in 2013, another of which you will find further down this list!

5. Tomb Raider - Xbox 360
The Tomb Raider reboot did play quite a lot like the Uncharted series, but in my opinion it was a better game than Nathan Drake's series.  The skillful writing by Rhianna Pratchett ensured that the game was much more believable, even though Lara had pretty much become a gun toting bad ass by the end.  Traversing the world and finding all the hidden collectibles was a fun diversion, and I even spent a little while doing this after I'd finished the main plot (though I didn't get everything).  I'm looking forward to the next entry in the revived franchise now.

4. Grand Theft Auto 5 - Xbox 360
Now here's a game that I actually did manage to finish - and it's a GTA game too!  That's the very first time that I've ever got to the end of one of them (not counting The Ballad of Gay Tony or The Lost and the Damned, as they were quite short). What Rockstar managed to achieve on the ageing Xbox 360 and PS3 was stunning, and some of the design from Red Dead Redemption has trickled down into this series for it's overall betterment.  I still prefer Red Dead by quite a large margin because I don't find it to be as cynical and bitter in tone compared to certain sections of GTA 5, but it is a remarkable achievement nonetheless.

3. Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag - Xbox 360
Ooops, another game I didn't quite get around to finishing.  I wasn't far off though.  This is one game where I do want to try and do 100% of everything though, as it is such fun doing piratey things like sailing your brig across the vast ocean, plundering ships for their cargo, harpooning great white sharks and digging up buried treasure.  Some of the on land mechanics that have been present in every Assassin's Creed are definitely starting to show their age, though on the open sea the game is a pure joy to play.  I am very interested to see in which direction the series will go next, and if the rumours of a spin off pirate game are true!

2. Path of Exile - PC
I love Diablo style loot 'em ups, and in 2013 Grinding Gear Games gave us one for free.  It features everything you would expect from a full price release - seven character classes, tons of levellable skill gems, a truly vast passive skill tree, and three sizable acts to play through.  The whole game has been designed to be replayable as well, with the random map and item generation that you've come to expect from the best games of this type, in addition to a large range of optional ladder leagues with which to challenge yourself and others.  There's enough game in here to keep anyone occupied for months, and you don't have to spend a single penny to get it!  That's deserving of second place in my book.

1. Bravely Default - 3DS
Another game that I'm only about halfway through, though I think I can be forgiven this time around because it only came out in mid December.  Poor players in the US don't get in until February of this year!  I did debate whether or not it had come out too soon for me to feasibly place it in first place on my list, but I think it should be permitted as it is the game I have enjoyed the most in 2013 by far.  Very much a traditional Final Fantasy game in the vein of FF V or FF VI in all but name, it sees you take control of your four warriors of light and set off on a quest to restore the crystals.  There is a vast range of jobs that you can assign your characters, roughly half of which are unlocked by completing side missions, and some innovative uses of StreetPass and sleep mode.  Now that I'm back at work and commuting every day, I will be playing the rest of this game - I urge anybody who misses the "golden years" of Final Fantasy to do the same!

Game Diary: Xillia Rating

It's game diary time again already! Anyways, for about a week I've had "Zone of the Enders HD Collection review" listed in the Content Coming Soon sidebar widget, but I've now decided that I'm not going to review it.  The main reason is I got bored part way through ZOE 2 and sent it back to the rental company I got it from.  I have already completed both the games in their original PS2 incarnations though, and while I enjoyed playing through them the first time back then, replaying them was actually a bit of a chore. Despite both games only taking around five hours to complete, then can still feel pretty repetitive.  I supposed if you were to play them on a higher difficulty setting where you couldn't win by simply meleeing every enemy to death then it may be a bit more enjoyable, but... meh, life's too short.

Don't get me wrong, it's not that they don't have anything to offer, and if you're a Kojima fan who for whatever reason has never played them before then I recommend checking them out.  The soundtrack for both games is amazing and the design of the orbital frames is pretty damn good also.  The Metal Gear Solid series could also learn a thing or two about pacing from this series - cut scenes do not ramble on for what seems like forever and the story moves at a decent pace.  It's a shame that the first game takes place almost entirely in the one environment - just as you feel that the game is about to get going, it ends.  The second game has a lot more variety and is just better all round - you may even start to like Leo Stenbuck! Putting him the Vic Viper complete with the Gradius music is also a very nice touch for Konami fans.

This past weekend was largely taken up by Tales of Xillia, despite my intention not to get into it until I'd finished one or two other games. I haven't even completed Tales of Graces f that came out last year yet! Oh well... It is by and large what you would expect from a Tales game - well written characters, extremely anime style graphics, and fast paced battles - but it does shake things up a little bit.  The world feels a lot more open than previous instalments, and the line between the world map and dungeons is somewhat blurred, so everything feels like one world instead of a video game with discrete sections. 

There is a nice amount of side quests to take on, both large and small, though some of these are basically simple fetch quests.  Also, I don't really like the shop expansion system where you trade in materials dropped by monsters or found in the field, as you never really know if you've got the right equipment for where you are in the game.  I haven't really found it particularly challenging so far though, so I guess I'm doing alright in that regard.  Finally, Milla is one of the most interesting characters in the series to date, being the Lord of Spirits who has taken mortal form and then been stripped of her powers.  She is very forthright and wise on certain topics, yet knows little of human customs or day to day life. As you can imagine this set up has plenty of comedic potential.

Finally, I picked up Gran Turismo and Untold Legends on the PSP for £5 - just the UMD's though. I played a little of both last night, and had a good time doing so.  As it was a launch game, I was expecting Untold Legends to be showing its age, but it has held up fairly well.  It basically follows the same hack and slash template as Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance or Champions of Norrath, so if you liked those games I would say definitely check it or its sequel out.  Gran Turismo works surprisingly well on the PSP - the graphics are more or less on par with Gran Turismo 4 on the PS2, the great handling model is still present, and there are a ton of tracks to race on.  The absence of a properly structured career mode is a bit of a shame, but if you can get past this then the game offers plenty of quality racing action on the go.

I'm hoping to get a review of Animal Crossing: New Leaf put together soon.  I've already started writing it once and have given up, as it's a surprisingly hard game to review!  My second rental game from my Boomerang free trial should also be here in a couple of days, and if their priority system does its job, it should be either Luigi's Mansion 2, Pikmin 3 or The Last of Us.  All games I have wanted to play for a while, yet haven't picked up for cash flow reasons.  I'll be back with another update once I've had a chance to play the game for a while, and I should have a review of Lunar: Silver Star Harmony in a few weeks time. I also need to bring back the Commodore Classics, PS2 Tuesdays and Random Retro Round Up series!

RMGB Awards 2011: Part One

Welcome to my selection of the best games that were released during 2011, broken down by format, genre and then some overall awards. It's been a few years since I last did this, mostly because I normally don't play enough new games within a given year to be able to make an informed choice. This year though I was able to buy all the games that I wanted, due to having a nice redundancy payout from my previous employer. However I still didn't have enough time to play all the big games that were released, especially those towards the end of the year, so instead I will just have to include them in the honourable mentions category at the end and try to come back and review them in future.  The awards will be split over two days, with the first covering each individual format plus a few other categories such as Most Disappointing Game, and the second covering the various gaming genre, Most Anticipated Game of 2012, and my actual game of the year. So without further ado, let's get on with the show...

Best Xbox 360 Exclusive
 

Winner - Forza Motorsport 4
Where Gran Turismo was once the undisputed king of realistic driving games, now the Forza series has stolen the crown without a doubt. Forza 3 was really the game that pushed the series to the heights that it now enjoys, but the fourth entry in the series adds further refinements to the gameplay and the presentation.  Forget the worthless Kinect modes - instead, enjoy a lengthy single player career mode, a gargantuan range of events to race in, and a true online community of racers, tuners and painters. Where in the third game you could progress to level 50 fairly quickly, this time the cap is a massive 150.  What's more you have a separate level for each car manufacturer, which goes up to 50.

Runner Up - Gears of War 3
Whilst the two previous entries in the Gears trilogy were certainly good games, Epic Games raised the bar considerably with the final part of the Marcus Fenix saga.  The single player campaign is much more diverse in both location and colour palette, and each of the major characters from Delta Squad get their own moment in the spotlight before the curtain falls.  The Horde and competitive multiplayer modes have also been significantly overhauled, and a persistent levelling mechanic added across all the various modes. With the promise of significant single player DLC recently coming to fruition with the release of the Raam's Shadow pack, Gears of War 3 cements its place as one of the finest Xbox 360 releases from 2011.

Best PS3 Exclusive

Winner - Uncharted 3
Whilst Uncharted 2: Among Thieves is a very hard act to follow, Naughty Dog have almost but not quite bettered it with their third instalment in the series. This time things get rather personal as we get a glimpse into Nathan Drake's past and his friendship with Sully, before racing an ancient organisation to be the first to discover the mythical Iram of the Pillars. Drakes pride may just cause him or one of his friends their lives, as he journeys around the world, finding clues, solving puzzles and getting into many life threatening situations. This game once again shows the developers technical and storytelling prowess, and not only a fantastic single player campaign, but also a in depth mutliplayer mode and a co-op mode.

Best Wii Exclusive

Winner: Xenoblade Chronicles
The outcry from US gamers who believed that they would never see this game released in their territory was well deserved, as this is a truly remarkable RPG and one of the best games ever released on the Wii. Playing rather like an offline MMO, and delivering hundreds of hours of gameplay, Xenoblade Chronicles also pushes the hardware to the limits of its performance with its huge breathtaking vistas and epic score. Thankfully Nintendo have recently announced that the game will indeed get a US release later in 2012, thus serving as a fitting swansong for the Wii before it is usurped by its successor, the Wii-U.

Runner Up: The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword
It may have taken until the Wii is on the way out as a viable gaming platform, but Nintendo has finally captured the full potential of motion control with the release of the latest in the Zelda franchise.  Though the graphics are beautiful for the most part, the Wii does occasionally start to show its age, and the MotionPlus controller does have to be recalibrated just often enough to make it become a minor annoyance.  These issues are just enough to knock Skyward Sword down to the runner up position.

Best DS Exclusive

Winner: Solatorobo
Solatorobo is actually the sequel to a much loved yet little played PS1 game called Tail Concerto.  Both games take place in world populated by anthropomorphic heroic canines and antagonistic (or just plain naughty) felines as the travel amongst a chain of floating islands in their airships and robotic walkers.  These games have all the charm of a classic Miyazaki animation such as Castle in the Sky, and are essentially action RPG's that also feature flying sections quite heavily.

Runner Up:  Okami-den
The original Okami was one of the most beautiful games to be released on the PS2, and this DS follow up does a brilliant job of shrinking everything down whilst maintaining same style.  Quite literally, in the case of the wolf god main character Chibiterasu, who is the smaller, cutesified son of Amaterasu from the first game.  The controls are not quite perfect which prevented Okami-den from stealing the top spot, but in every every aspect this is a great action adventure game and easily rivals the Zelda games available for the DS.

Best PSP Exclusive

Winner: Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky
I reviewed a game in the Legend of Heroes series in the early days of this blog and gave it quite a high score. In hindsight it wasn't quite as good as I said at the time because it has an appalling translation, mediocre story and unremarkable mechanics.  When you compare this latest entry to that one, the difference is quite astounding. You can still tell they share the same lineage, but XSEED have spent much more care in localising Trails in the Sky, and combined with the charming graphics and excellent soundtrack it all adds up to a fantastic package for fans of playing RPG's on the go. The battles are still a little traditional, but you probably wont care as the rest of the package is just so much fun.

Most Disappointing Game

Winner: Fable III
Compared to Fable II, it just felt that Molyneux and Lionhead Studios had basically phoned in this entry to the series.  Most of the enemies you encounter are reused from the previous game - in fact the whole experience feels like a hand-me-down and not the least bit fresh. I did still quite enjoy playing through it but compared after all the excellent new mechanics of the second game in the series it just didn't do enough to stand out in a year that has seen a staggering amount of top class games released.

Runner Up: L.A. Noire
The new facial animation technology developed by Team Bondi and implemented in L.A. Noire is extremely impressive, and the grimy setting is also a fascinating place to explore, but mechanically this game was not without it's problems.  The main one was the interrogation scenes - you would often press the button to challenge a suspect and expect protagonist Cole Phelps to say one thing, only for him to completely go off on one without warning and basically accuse whoever happens to be in the hot seat of murder.  The other issue I have is the the pacing - the game is entertaining up to a certain point and then it feels like it should have ended, only it keeps going for many hours past this point.  A briefer game would have actually been more enjoyable in my opinion.

Worst Game of the Year

Winner: Hyperdimension Neptunia
I am always keen to try out as many RPG's as I can that are released throughout the year as it is my favourite genre, but boy do I wish I had never tried this one.  Stupid anime characters that barely feature any animation whatsoever explore the most boring random dungeons ever seen, or star in barely animated cut scenes that contain some of the worst dialogue and misguided attempts at humour ever to be included in a video game.  Whatever you do, do not buy this game!

That's it for part one, come back soon for part two which will include genre awards, the most pleasant surprise of the year, and my overall game of the year!