FlatOut: Ultimate Carnage review

The FlatOut series started life on the original Xbox, with the original game being a fun but flawed off-road racer. The sequel beefed up the graphics and refined the gameplay, but came just a little too late in the system's life to sell in decent amounts. The developers, Bugbear, have based Ultimate Carnage on FlatOut 2, but used the extra power that the 360 offers to deliver vastly improved graphics and gameplay. What's more, the game is considerably cheaper than most new 360 releases. Is it a worthy alternative to the Burnout series, of just worthless scrap? Let's see...

Format: Xbox 360
Publisher: Empire Interactive
Developer: Bugbear
Genre: Arcade Racing
Region: Europe
Price: £39.99

Graphics: 9 out 10
Seriously, FlatOut: Ultimate Carnage is one of the best looking games I've seen on the 360 so far. Maybe not up there with the very latest games like BioShock but seriously impressive none the less. The tracks are excellently designed with tons of debris and destructible objects to plough through, as well as having many different routes with split and converge throughout. The amount of chaos that can be going on at any one time is huge, and I've never seen the game slow down once. The only thing that really lets the side down with the graphics is the slightly dodgy clipping. This is most noticeable in the Stunt mode where your drive will get stuck half way through a solid object, but can also occur in the racing mode when a garage door or some other object becomes embedded in your car. It's not a game-breaking glitch but it does spoil the sense of immersion somewhat.

Sound and Music: 6 out of 10
This category is a bit of a mixed bag for me. Maybe if you enjoy your crappy American teen rock you may enjoy the soundtrack featured here, but to me it just got annoying fast and that wasn't helped by the fact that there's only a handful of songs to begin with and they repeat ad nauseum. Thank god for the 360's Custom Soundtrack feature, it's a life saver. The game fares slightly better from a sound effect point of view. The smashes and crashes all sound pleasantly weighty and the comedy screams as your driver flies through the windscreen always raises a chuckle. My recommendation is put a half dozen or so of your favourite albums on the hard drive, leave the sound effects as they are, and enjoy (this may work better with more upbeat stuff - Enja might not go quite so well).

Your car becomes increasingly battered as the race goes on. This doesn't effect handling but if you do incur too much punishment you will be "wrecked" and out of the race. This is especially embarrassing in online races, unless you do it to someone else, of course.

This game won't be rated for Plot & Character because it's not relevant.

Game Mechanics: 9 out of 10
There are three different styles of gameplay to be found in FlatOut: UC, all based around the same physics engine. The first is racing, which pits you against 15 other computer controlled drivers, or up to 7 real life drivers over Xbox Live. As well as trying to finish in first place and progress through the various championships, there are also a variety of other awards that you can receive, which vary from causing the most damage to the other drivers, obtaining the fastest lap of the race, completely wrecking another car, and more. You will earn money for achieving these as well as unlocking some achievements if you do them enough times.

When you first start playing FlatOut mode, which is the main single player career, you will have to start in one of the slowest cars and to start with you'll have a hard time finishing in the top slots. So you have to cause as much carnage as you can instead, earning cash while doing so, and then upgrade your chosen car. Gradually, as you increase your top speed, acceleration, handling as so on, you will become much more competitive and start to win. You start off in the Derby class of car but when you get enough cash you can move up to the Race and Street classes, where the cars get faster but are less resilient as a result.

As well as racing, there's also Stunt mode, which consists of twelve different mini games that all involve launching your driver through the windscreen and on to some kind of target. The games include Bowling, Stone Skipping (where you have to press the A button as the poor sod hits the water to keep him bouncing along), and guiding the bloke through rings of fire. These are all good fun but a bit repetitive as they are all really variations of the same thing. They can be played both locally with friends or over Xbox Live.

Finally, there are the Deathmatch Derbys. If you ever played Destruction Derby on the PlayStation, you will remember the bowl stages where you and all the other drivers smash each other to the death. There are a variety of different stages, including the classic bowls as well as car parks, the top of a skyscraper and a figure eight circuit.

In addition to the FlatOut mode, there's another single player campaign known as Carnage mode. Instead of championships, there are various levels of individual challenges which could be a race, a Deathmatch Derby or a Stunt. You can earn Gold, Silver or Bronze, and earning all Gold gets you another achievement.

The achievements in FlatOut: UC walk the line between easy and challenging quite nicely. You will unlock your first few within hours of starting the game, while others such as 25 online race wins will take considerably longer. There's no nasty nigh-on impossible achievements like the ones in Ridge Racer 5, which is a relief. The other modes are Live, where you'll find the usually player or ranked options for each of the three game types, and Party, which is where you go to play the Stunt mini games with your friend.

This poor rag doll chap will meet his demise in many amusing and grisly ways, including getting burned to a crisp when fired through burning hoops.

Innovation and Cleverness: 4 out of 10
Because this game is the third in a franchise, and a remake of the second game at that, I can't give it a high score in this category. There's no doubt that when the rag doll man mini games made their first appearance in the original game they were both clever and innovative, but this is the third time they've been used now.

Value and Replayability: 8 out of 10
There is a nice range of things to do in this game. Just the FlatOut mode itself will take a significant amount of time to complete, especially if you want to get gold medals in all the events. Then you have Carnage mode, which is also pretty extensive, and when you've finished with that there's almost limitless replayability to be found from the multi player modes, both online and off. There was also no shortage of people to play online, even just after the release of Halo 3.

Overall: 9 out 10
FlatOut: Ultimate Carnage is pure digital fun. Never mind the small flaws, at it's core is a highly-polished, solidly designed piece of entertainment and is a welcome antidote to the serious, stuffy racers like Forza Motorsport 2. The Burnout series may be the more well known of the two, but FlatOut is just as good - better than the more recent offerings in fact because if you want pure racing without all of the other nonsense you can have it with the FlatOut mode, and if you want stupid mini games you can have those too.

Should somebody drive into one of the petrol stations that are scattered around the tracks you will certainly know about it.

Sonic Rush Adventure review

Well, talk about a miracle, but here I am with another post barely a week after my last! I hope I can keep this up for a while, I have a few games I would like to write about. This time it's the turn of Sonic Rush Adventure, the brand new hedgehog based platformer from Sega for the Nintendo DS. The original took Sonic back to his high speed 2D roots and was very well received, so does the sequel make any improvements? Let's see...

Format: Nintendo DS
Publisher: Sega
Developer: DIMPS
Genre: 2D Platformer
Region: Europe
Price: £29.99

When Sonic Rush was released shortly before Christmas a few years ago, it was a welcome return to form for the ageing mammal. It fused the high speed retro flavoured gameplay we all knew and loved from the Megadrive games, with a funked up soundtrack and some nifty graphical tricks. Rather than trying to force Sonic into 3D like Sega had done on the home consoles (to mediocre effect), they decided to stick with what they do best and it paid off. Now, with the follow up, the word Adventure has crept into the title - but don't let that concern you do much. There is a bit of light exploration to do but at it's heart this is still the classic style platforming action that fans want.

Graphics: 9 out of 10
On the ultra bright screen of my DS Lite, the graphics of Sonic Rush Adventure look absolutely fantastic. The game like it's predecessor makes use of the "2.5D" technique where 3D polygons are viewed side on for classic 2D gameplay with modern 3D presentation, and because Sonic is so small you can hardly tell the difference between the polygonal model and the old 2D sprites of yesteryear. Highlights include the Coral Canyon levels, with it's nice blue/purple colour scheme and shimmery undersea lighting effects, and the bosses. These bosses, while not particularly challenging to beat (at least not on the default setting) are very impressive to look at, and include a robotic T-Rex, a robotic whale, and a robotic pirate. Noticing a theme here? The boss battles take place over both screens of the DS and you will often need to jump from the bottom screen to the top and vice versa. There are also some 3D vehicular mini games and these look OK, but not as good as the rest of the game in my opinion.

Of course good looks would be nothing in a Sonic game without the most important factor - speed. I'm happy to say that SRA moves along at a tremendous pace. This can be irritating in later stages when there are sudden drops into oblivion but when you know the stages you will know when to take care and avoid this.

The loops and spirals which the series is famous for stretch over both screens on the DS to impressive effect.

Sound and Music: 9 out of 10
The first Sonic Rush featured a very funky soundtrack that has been compared to that of Jet Set Radio, and SRA continues this new tradition with aplomb. The beat box style lyrics may irk some players but I didn't mind it too much. The boss music in particular is very exciting and when you have depleted half of the bosses energy bar the music goes into overdrive and can cause you to panic if you don't have any rings left. Otherwise, you can expect the famous chime as Sonic collects rings, and all the other noises, like the "wub-wub" sound when Sonic is drowning and he pops a much needed air bubble.

Plot and Character: 3 out of 10
SRA tries to be deeper than the average Sonic game by having lots of cut scenes and story interludes in between the stages, but it fails pretty miserably by all accounts. There isn't really much of a plot apart from "stop evil cat pirate thing" and "collect Chaos Emeralds and Sol Crystals" but Sega felt the need to try and shoe-horn one in anyway. To exacerbate things further, they also continued the trend of adding one annoying extra character per game which started with Sonic Adventure on the Dreamcast. This time it's a Racoon named Marine, who is cursed with the most god-awful cliched faux Australian accent you'll have ever read. At times she is amusing but for the most part she is incredibly irritating. Thank god you can skip the story scenes. Ironically, if SRA had no plot at all it would have gained a better score in this category, because a Sonic game doesn't really need one.

This is the island base that Sonic and chums use to build new vehicles and plan their next move. A bit like Thunderbirds - but with anthropomorphic animals.

Game Mechanics: 7 out of 10
When SRA sticks to what Sonic games do really well (i.e. really fast, exciting platform stages) then it's great fun. When it goes off on it's various tangents it gets into trouble. These include the afore-mentioned excruciating story sequences, but also to a lesser degree include the vehicular mini games and the amount of repetition involved. You see, Tails being the qualified mechanic that he is, can build a range of new vehicles each with their own corresponding mini game and each able to go slightly farther than the last. The downside of this is that he need a certain number of materials before he can build a new vehicle, which you gain from completing the stages. The better your Rank for a given stage the more materials you will obtain, with a C earning 1 material and an A earning 3. So chances are you will have to replay many of the stages at least once before you can build the next vehicle and journey to the next island, which can get rather boring after a while.

The vehicle mini games are OK... just OK. The touch screen controls work well enough, and the games are mercifully brief, but personally I just wanted to get on with the next platform stage as they are by far the best thing about this game.

Innovation & Cleverness: 6 out of 10
One thing that SRA does do well is the introduction of new worlds to explore. For all too long the Sonic games have been stuck in a loop of the same old Casino worlds, underwater stages, etc. but at least this time DIMPS have shaken things up a bit with a Ghost Ship for example. The other "innovations" like the touch screen mini games I've already mentioned really add very little to your enjoyment of the game and I'd rather they were left out personally.

Value and Replayability: 8 out of 10

The main story mode of the game is quite easy and fairly brief, but it's really only the beginning of the game. Once it's done, you still have to find and earn all of the Chaos Emeralds and Sol Crystals, plus there are 100 Missions to try and clear if you so wish. As well as the main levels there are also quite a few hidden islands to seek out so to do everything in the game will take a fair old while and it lasts a considerable time longer than the original Sonic Rush. You can also play as Blaze the Cat who has a slightly different move set and has to face tougher versions of the bosses.

Overall: 7 out of 10

When you take every aspect into consideration, Sonic Rush Adventure actually feels like a step back compared to the last game, which is a shame because the heart of the game - the platforming and the bosses, is actually an improvement. By cramming in a needless plot, a stupid and annoying Racoon and pointless vehicular mini games, Sega have managed to spoil what would've been one of the best DS games of the year. Well done!

The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar review - Book 1: The First 25 Levels

OK, when I said I'd be back "soon" in my last post, I obviously meant "in two months time". However, here I am at last with the first part of what will hopefully become at three part (or Books as I'm calling them) review of The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadow of Angmar sometime in the future. The first part will look at all the stuff I usefully cover in my reviews - graphics, sound, plot, game mechanics, innovation, and value. However, it will purely concentrate on the first 25 levels of gameplay. The second part will cover the other 25 levels, and part 3 will cover the "end game" material and possibly PvP if I can bring myself to try it. My opinions may change over time. For example when I first started playing World of Warcraft I was very impressed with the graphics. However, by the time I'd reached level 45 I started to notice how often the same buildings were repeated throughout the world which felt like lazy design. Anyway, we've got a lot to talk about so let's get started.

Format: PC DVD-ROM
Publisher: Codemasters
Developer: Turbine
Genre: MMORPG
Region: Europe
Price: £30 for the game, then £9 a month for subscription

Some five or six years ago, Sierra announced plans to bring Tolkien's world alive on the PC as an MMORPG, originally titled Middle-Earth Online. After a rather protracted and troubled gestation period Sierra eventually gave up on the idea, and developers Turbine took over the project. It eventually found a home under the wing of Codemasters in Europe, who were taking their first strides into the world of online gaming with games like Archlord and RF Online. Over the years the game has changed significantly - for example there were originally over 30 different character classes planned for the game, in the end there are only 7 in the final product. While some may see this as a disappointment I see it as good thing, as it meant that the finished game was more focused and honed. New character classes aren't completely ruled out anyway, they can always be introduced in future expansions.

Graphics: 9 out of 10
Considering I can only run my copy of the game at the "Medium" setting (there's High and Very High after that), the graphics are still very impressive. Turbine have done a tremendous job of bringing Tolkien's vision of Middle-Earth to live. Players can explore famous areas such as The Shire, with it's grassy fields, round doors and good, tilled earth. Or they can venture into spooky lands like The Old Forest or the Barrow-Downs, or downright evil and treacherous areas like the Ettenmoors or Angmar itself. The look of the game is definitely inspired by the film trilogy to a certain extent, but things look just different enough to avoid a law suit. But the beauty of the game is that it can go into far more detail than the films, or even the book trilogy could afford. Events in the game run parallel to Frodo's epic journey to Mount Doom and take to you to places that the Fellowship never went near, such as Lake Evendim and Ered Luin (the Blue Mountains). It is obvious that Turbine have done an incredible amount of research in order to create this game, not simply reading the trilogy but also the many back stories that flesh out the history of the world.

The land of The Shire is relatively peaceful and stress free, however you will have to travel to far worse places in your quest to aid Strider and the Rangers under his command.

Sound and Music: 8 out of 10
Music, much like the graphics, shares the style of the blockbuster film trilogy while managing not to directly steal from it out right. Many of the pieces written for the game would not feel out of place at all in Peter Jackson's opus. There are the quaint ditties of the Shire, the foreboding and unsettling tunes of The Great Barrow, and the pounding drum fuelled music that plays when you venture into Orc territory. It's all great stuff.

As well as the music composed specifically for the game Turbine also decided to enable players to play their own instruments in the game using various buttons on the keyboard. This is both a blessing and a curse, a for every person who hear playing a magnificent rendition of the theme from The Legend of Zelda, there will be three others making sounds that sound like somebody mangling a cat, or even worse, playing Mmmm-bop by Hanson!

Sound is alright but after a while you start to notice the same sounds appearing again and again, for example a disgusting flesh eating worm makes that same gurgling sound as a "cave claw" (nasty underground beasty) and the various lynxes you come across in the game.

It's also worth mentioning that the game has voice chat built in that you can use to talk to your Fellowship, however I haven't personally tried it so I don't know how well it works. If it's decent, it means you won't have to worry about using a third part application like Ventrilo or TeamSpeak while you play.

Plot and Character: 9 out of 10
Why do I have a rating for Plot and Character when this is an MMO, you ask? Simple - LOTRO uses instances to tell a story that only you and your party will experience. Not that there aren't hundreds of other people taking part as well, but they won't be able to interrupt or steal the item you're supposed to be looking for. At the time of me writing this review, there are currently 10 separate "Books" to play through each with multiple chapters, and they revolve around helping out Frodo and the Fellowship without them realising, by aiding the Rangers and keeping the Witch Lord of Angmar off their backs. The first 8 Books were included in the game at launch, and Books 9 and 10 have been added as expansions later on. These expansions brought with them more plot, as well as around 100 new quests per update and entire new areas such as Evendim.

The view of Weathertop from the Lone Lands

Game Mechanics: 9 out of 10
LOTRO is built around a very similar template to World of Warcraft, and shares many of the same features that helped make that game so successful, such as "rest XP" (where you earn bonus experience points while you're logged out of your account, which helps infrequent players keep up with those who can afford to spend many hours a day in Middle-Earth).

It also brings quite a few minor innovations and improvements of its own to the table, which include not having to constantly buy arrows if you use a bow, and the Deeds, Titles and Traits. Deeds can be compared to Xbox 360 Achievements, for example killing 100 goblins in a certain area, completing a certain amount of quests, or achieving a certain rank in one of your three professions. By completing Deeds you also earn Titles, which are simply pieces of text that you can choose to display after your character name. For example, at the moment my character is known as "Davriel Dawnspire, Grand Master Farmer" but there are dozens of these to choose from and your repertoire is constantly expanding. Traits are also earned from completing Deeds, but are arguably more useful. They range from stat boosts to new abilities. For example finding every Elf ruin in Ered Luin may give you +1 Wisdom. The Traits are also divided in various types, from standard traits, class traits, race traits and eventually legendary traits if you can find the deeds that unlock them. You are only allowed to equip a certain amount of these depending on your level and they also cost money to equip, so you have to pick and choose them carefully.

Also new in LOTRO is the Hope/Dread system. In happy, sunny areas such as the Shire, you heart will be full of hope and your morale (HP) will increase slightly. When you visit a slightly scarier area like the Old Forest, you will suffer a slight dip in HP as your morale goes down a bit. When faced with the servants of Angmar such as the Nazgul, you will suffer from Dread and your morale with decrease even further. When you are defeated in combat you also gain some Dread, which will either dissipate after about 10 minutes or if you get defeated again before it wears off, will get even worse. When under the influence of Dread you will also experience certain visual effects such as the border of the screen becoming blurry and the sky becoming much darker.

I'm now going to attempt to take you through the first 25 levels of the game. Not in great detail or we'd be here all day, but just enough to give you a taste of what to expect. When you first start the game, you will be asked to choose your race from either Man, Elf, Dwarf or Hobbit, your characters sex, their appearance, their name, the area of origin, and finally their class. There are seven classes in all (Hunter, Burglar, Lore-master, Guardian, Champion, Captain and Minstrel), but some of them will be locked depending on the race your choose. Each class has its own benefits - for example I chose to be a Hunter, who is very good from a distance (being adept with the bow and arrow), can use traps, track animals and enemies, and also use wayfaring skills to instantly warp themselves and their entire party to various major locations in Middle-Earth. These skills are gradually dished out every time you level up and will cost you money to buy.

Anyway, your first level will be set in an instance (an area containing only you) and the scene will be set. This also varies depending on which race you choose. Personally, I started in the Elven sanctuary of Edhelion many years in the past, just before evil dwarf Skorgrim Dourhand destroyed it. After escaping with the help of Elrond, I left the instance and was in my character starting area near Thorin's Gate. I then did some fairly simple quests until I was around level 6, before being taken to another instance so I could finish my Introduction. After this instance was finished I was then moved to the town of Celondim and urged to visit the Hunter Trainer and the Vocation Trainer. At the Vocation trainer I chose which package of professions I wanted to take up. In this game, you can't choose your profession individually (like in WoW), you have to pick a group of three that are associated with each other in some way. As I am an Hunter, I chose to be a Woodsman, which includes the professions of Woodworker, Forester and Farmer. So I can chop, gather and treat wood with the Forester profession, then combine it with other materials and make wood based weapons with my Woodworking skills. The third profession, Farmer, allows me to grow my own vegetables, crops and pipeweed, which can be sold to other players (mainly Cooks). All of the Vocations are interdependent in some way - for example my Forestry profession also allows me to turn animal hides into leather. This is not really useful for myself, but other jobs such as armourers or tailors need the leather in order to do their jobs, so the leather becomes my main source of income when sold in the Auction House. Many of my woodworking recipes also need metal ingots which have to be dug up and smelted by Prospectors.

Somewhere between levels 10-20, you will be able to train your character to wear better armour, depending on how good the armour was when you started with. My Hunter could only wear light armour when I started, but upon reaching level 10 I was allowed to move up to medium armour. I don't know whether I'll also be able to wear heavy armour eventually, but I expect so. You also unlock more weapon proficiencies, so if you want to be a Hunter two can dual wield two swords instead of using a bow and arrow, then so be it.

Also during levels 10-20 I took part in the first of the 10 Books, which is where the main story line takes place. Book 1 consisted of 12 Chapters, most of which required assistance from other players and also took part in instances. Book 1 climaxes in a trip to the Great Barrow to face off against the dreaded Wight-Lord, but he's not too hard to see off as long as you bring friends and you're not all the same class. It's important to have a varied party, and strongly recommended to bring at least one Minstrel (the healing class) and one Champion (the tank). My role in parties is mostly to drop a trap, then go behind everyone else and fire arrows at our enemies. These arrows can inflict various status effects such as slowing them down to half speed.

At level 22 I earned my first major wayfaring skill, which allows me to instantly warp my entire party to Michel Delving in the Shire. As the game gradually goes on I will obtain more and more of these, with the more important places having quests associated with them before I can get the skill.

The next part will cover levels 26-50, but don't expect a full review next time, this is it. It will be more of an update. I know one thing I've got to look forward to is buying my mount at level 35, for the sum of 4 Gold and 250 Silver pieces. I'm already up to 3 gold thanks to my business in the Auction House, so I should have enough cash by the time I'm there.

Here he is boys and girls, the baddy of the story (so far) - the very naughty
Witch-King of Angmar.

Innovation and Cleverness: 7 out of 10
While LOTRO does indeed borrow a lot from WoW, it has undoubtedly improved upon the high standard set by Blizzard with the gameplay additions such as the Deeds, Titles, Traits, Hope/Dread, and in many other little ways. I can't give it full marks because after all it is based upon someone else's world. I can't imagine Tolkien would have ever imagined that people would be able to wander around a virtual Middle-Earth, or what he would have thought about the idea, but Turbine have done the best job possible in my opinion. They haven't just used the main book trilogy as their inspiration and source for material, it's obvious in the details they've put in that they're also very familiar with all of the back story as well, such as the The Silmarillion and the 12 volume History of Middle-Earth. This makes the world of LOTRO a very rich and exciting place to be, and while the lands that are currently unlocked aren't as big as the world in WoW there's actually more to do in that smaller space.

Value and Replayability: 8 out of 10
The high score in this category is mainly for how replayable the game is. There are hundreds of quests, four races and seven classes which all play very differently thanks to their unique abilities. Like WoW, you can have more than one character on the go (I think the maximum is 7) so if you wanted to you could play a little of each class before deciding which one to concentrate your efforts on.

Whether a subscription based MMO could ever be called good value for money is debatable. In the case of LOTRO, you pay around £30 for the game and get 30 days free, then you have to pay another £9 for every month you want to keep playing after that. On the plus side, extra content and tweaks to the game are being added all the time by a dedicated support team which isn't free to provide after all. Personally, I traded in another game when I bought this, and got £22 for it so the game only cost me £8. I'm going to review how I feel about the game at the end of every month and if I'm not enjoying it or not playing it any more I will walk away - just like I did with WoW and Final Fantasy XI. There is currently a 7 day free trial available - but I have to warn you the game is so addictive you'll probably end up buying it if you try it!

Overall (for the first 25 levels): 9 out of 10
Fans of Lord of the Rings, be it in book or film form, will get a lot out of this. Those who have played WoW for months and are starting to get a bit tired of it may feel refreshed after a visit to Middle-Earth. At the moment, I'm still enjoying it despite the occasional run-in with a complete idiot (you get this in every online game, but it doesn't seem quite as bad as most in LOTRO because a lot of the people playing are quite intelligent).

Normal service will be resumed...

...soon.

For now, check out this episode of GameHead dedicated to the voice of Mario, Charles Martinet...

Segment one also include a review of Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer and a preview of Juiced 2: Hot Import Nights

Segment two looks at some of the other roles that Charles Martinet has played, and also includes a preview of God of War: Chains of Olympus and a retro look at Leisure Suit Larry.


Segment three looks at how Charles performs as Mario during events such as E3, and also includes a review of Scarface: The World Is Yours on the Wii, plus a look at the Pac Man Championship Edition event.


Segment four takes a look at Super Mario Galaxy, a preview of the Konami vs Capcom episode of VS, and a review of Big Brain Academy: Wii Degree.

Hotel Dusk: Room 215 review

The Nintendo DS platform has seemed suited to the graphic adventure genre since the beginning, and last year saw the official release of Another Code: Two Memories and the unofficial release of ScummVM, which allows owners capable of running homebrew to load up some of the true genre classics including The Secret of Monkey Island, Sam & Max and Broken Sword. If there's any genre that deserves to be reinvigorated then I would have to say that the graphic adventure is it, as they were by far my preferred type of game before LucasArts stopped developing them and I moved to RPG's to get my kicks.

Now, along comes Cing again (they were responsible for Another Code) with a new adventure for the DS, and they've learnt from some of their mistakes from the first game but have also made some new ones. Can I recommend it? Let's find out...

Format: Nintendo DS

Publisher: Nintendo

Developer: Cing

Genre: Graphic Adventure

Region: US (PAL out soon)

Price: £30

Graphics: 8 out of 10
The first thing you notice when you fire up the game is the striking visual style. All of the characters in the game are drawn as black and white pencil sketches which animate when you converse and interact with them. More than one review I've seen has made the comparison to the classic Aha music video for Take on Me from the 80's, and that's really the best way to visualise what it looks like (if you're old enough to have seen the video in the first place of course). The cast are realistically designed as well and together with the believable script Cing do a good job of making them feel like real people.

The environment that you explore (which is the hotel, basically, as you're not allowed to go anywhere else) isn't quite up the the same quality as the characters, being made of rather basic 3D, but at least things are fairly clear and you can tell what you can interact with because it's highlighted in yellow when you touch it with your stylus. A second touch looks at or uses the object depending on the circumstances. I would compare the graphics of the hotel to those of the mansion in the PlayStation and DS port of the original Resident Evil - rather blocky and basic but functional.

The proprietor of Hotel Dusk, Dunning Smith, is one of the first people you will encounter in the game

Sound and Music: 6 out of 10
The music in the game is rather cheesy and reminded me of lift music or the crap that's piped down the phone when you get put on hold, which I suppose fits in to the whole 70's hotel vibe but isn't really my thing. There are a few pieces of "tension music" as things ramp up but they still have a slight cheap Bontempi organ feel to them.

Sound effects are dotted around to give a little atmosphere, such as footsteps as you walk around or somebody whistling from one of the rooms (which you have to track down). What little sound effects there are, are well done, but overall the sound didn't really amaze.

Plot and Character: 9 out of 10
The combination of the plot and character is really what kept me playing Hotel Dusk through to the end. The characters are all believable (but no necessarily like able - including the main character Kyle Hyde) and the story is compelling and well written. The "game" if you can really call it that (which is debatable) is a little to heavy on dialogue and exposition, and some of the 10 chapters can see you literally clicking through one conversation after another without a single puzzle. This may be too much for some, it really depends on how invested in the characters you become.

Another slightly infuriating feature which tends to exacerbate the lengthy chats is that fact that a wrong conversational choice can lead to a game over and will usually mean you have to sit through the whole thing again. Really, Cing should have allowed the player to skip a conversation they've already read. Several times I had to stop playing because I was too annoyed with the game after a supposedly innocent comment led to a restart.

The plot itself is neatly chopped up into 10 chapters, each lasting approximately an hour each (depending on whether you get stuck or not). At the end of each chapter, the main character Kyle Hyde goes over the facts in his mind and you have to answer 6 multiple choice questions based on events that have just transpired. This is a quite a neat way of reminding those with short attention spans (I'm talking to you there - WAKE UP!) of the important facts, and it was also used in Another Code.

I won't go into too much detail of what happens, but the basic premise sees you taking on the role of ex-cop turned salesman Kyle Hyde as he is sent to Hotel Dusk by his boss. He's also trying to track down his ex partner Bradley who turned traitor and then vanished without a trace. In order to get to the truth you will have to eek out the dirty secrets of some of the other hotel residents and set a few lives back on course for good measure. One thing's for sure, it's going to be a long night (seriously, doesn't anyone sleep in this place?).

Aspiring actress Iris tends to have a rather abrasive personality, especially where Kyle Hyde is concerned.

Game Mechanics: 7 out of 10
In each of the 10 chapters of Hotel Dusk, you will wander the building, chatting to the many staff members and residents who each have their own stories, foibles and secrets. Every so often you a question symbol will appear that denotes that you can grill somebody further to glean more info, or you may have to choose from one of two conversation options, with the wrong one leading to an infuriating game over screen. As already mentioned, these conversations can drag on for rather too long and often tend to repeat information you already know.

Every so often your snooping around will trigger a puzzle which is usually pretty simple to solve but sometimes they are a bit more imaginative. The controls are pretty good, being almost completely reliant on the stylus, though you can press a button to click through a conversation if you get tired of tapping on the screen. Then at the end of the chapter you get the quick quiz which is very if you don't have the memory of a dead guppy. Following that you get the chance to save your game and then it's off to the next chapter. It's hardly the gameplay that dreams are made of because a lot of the time you feel like a passive observer. You even have a notepad that you can write on with the stylus, but it's of little use because your character will stop and tell you exactly what you're supposed to be doing anyway. Yet somehow the plot and characterisation draws you on.

Innovation and Cleverness: 6 out of 10
The unique art style earns a few points here as does the setting and tone of the story with is a bit more mature than the typical fare that usually gets put on to the DS, but for the most part Hotel Dusk would've benefited greatly from a larger range of puzzles and tougher ones to boot. As such it doesn't quite live up to the potential of the concept.

Value & Replayability: 6 out of 10
The game will take you round about 10 hours to finish, and there are apparently multiple endings depending on certain choices you make throughout the game. Whether or not you will bother to go back in order to see a different one is debatable though as you will have to sit through the same events and page upon page of text yet again. When everything is fresh and new and you don't know exactly what makes each character tick, then Hotel Dusk is quite a "page turner", but once you've seen it all before then much of the mystery is gone.

Overall: 7 out of 10
While a lot of my comments here may seem rather harsh, I do think Cing should be applauded and encouraged for bringing the adventure genre to a new audience on the DS and they should also continue to develop their style. If they could just readdress the balance of the conversations and the puzzles then they'd be on to a real winner. As it is, I think all of the reading involved will be a big turn off to many - but if they look past this they will find an engrossing and interesting story wrapped up in an intriguing visual style.

New Releases - 06/04/07

Only a very quick releases section this week because there's not really much worth bothering with. In fact, there's only three games that I would consider picking up...

Sony PSP and Nintendo Wii



Prince of Persia: Rival Swords

A new version of Prince of Persia 3: The Two Thrones which supposedly takes advantage of the unique Wii controller and the portable nature of the PSP. If you've already played that game on one of the other formats then I doubt there's much to keep you interested here - if you haven't though it may be worth checking out.

Xbox 360



Guitar Hero II

The hit music game from Harmonix comes to the big beige box along with 10 new songs including tracks by Alice Cooper, Deep Purple and Pearl Jam. If you still haven't paid out the fairly hefty price to pick this up, then you really should!

Import Watch



Super Paper Mario

The Wii version of Datel's Freeloader disc cannot come soon enough as far as I'm concerned, especially now that the latest game in the long running Mario RPG series is available in the US. There seems to be more emphasis on action and platform style gameplay than the RPG side this time around which worries me a bit, but I have faith in Nintendo and Intelligent systems. It's a shame we have no idea how long we'll have to wait for a European release!

The RetroModern Gaming blog Pick of the Week

Super Paper Mario
This was an easy choice this week - I've loved every moment of every game in the series so far and I expect great things from this one too.

New Releases - 16/03/07

Before I get started with my regular release update, I have a quick note to say that as soon as my R4 Revolution flash cartridge arrives, I shall be delving into the wonderful world of Nintendo DS homebrew and I will most likely report my findings here. There's some very exciting stuff out there and new developments come up on a regular basis.

Without further ado, let's see if there's anything worth spending your cash on this week...

Nintendo DS



Phoenix Wright: Justice For All
Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords
Rayman Raving Rabbids

Some interesting stuff for Nintendo's handheld this week. For me, Puzzle Quest is probably the most intriguing of the three because it promises to meld a Tetris style puzzler with RPG elements such as a storyline and levelling up. It could be good, it could blow goats, we'll have to wait and see. Raving Rayman Rabbids isn't the same game as the Wii mini game frenzy. Instead we have a return to the classic 2D platform genre that made him famous in the first place. While a mini game orientated package probably would have worked quite well, I welcome this more traditional game and look forward to giving it a try.

Finally, the original Phoenix Wright passed me by, which I plan to rectify some day as I keep hearing great things about the franchise. They've been likened to the classic graphic adventure games of yesteryear, which has always been one of my favourite types of game, but of course they also incorporate the unique strengths of the DS such as the touch screen and microphone.

PlayStation 2



Pac Man World Rally
Test Drive Unlimited

I do love a good kart racing game, but it has to be said most pretenders don't manage to beat Mario Kart in any of its guises when it comes down to it. I watched some video clips of Pac Man World Rally a while back and it has potential but whether it can live up to Nintendo's benchmark series remains in doubt.

Test Drive Unlimited gets released today on several formats, a few months after the original Xbox 360 version. It's a very ambitious game to try and port over to such comparatively under powered hardware as the PS2 and PSP, so I'm very curious to find out how good it's turned out.

Nintendo Wii



SSX Blur

Several weeks after appearing in the Import Corner, SSX Blur gets a European release this week. It looks like a rather stripped down version of SSX Out of Bounds, so if you already own that you may want to think twice about purchasing this as well. Perhaps the motion based controls will push it to another level?

Import Corner



Cooking Mama: Cook Off (Wii)
Wing Island (Wii)

A couple of cool looking games for the Wii this week. Cooking Mama is another one of those clever little games that originated on the DS (see also Trauma Center) being given a new lease of life. It features over 300 recipes and requires you to hold the remote in various poses, such as like a rolling pin to make pastry, or like a wooden spoon to stir a stew.

Wing Island could be the game that fans of Pilotwings and Pilotwings 64 have been waiting for, although it looks rather different from the screenshots I've seen. Holding the Wii remote like a paper airplane, it's your job to steer a formation of planes through hoops while performing various stunts. Looking good!

The RetroModern Gaming blog Pick of the Week
Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords
This game sounds different enough to be worth a look!

Hidden Gems 2007 Volume 1

Time for another series of Hidden Gems! As before, each game featured here was overlooked in some way on its original release and is actually well worth checking out. They can often be found nice and cheap to, which makes them extremely good value for money. The more open-mined gamers out there could pick up quite a few bargains if they're willing to look past the crap that regularly appears in the sales charts.

This week I'm looking at a double pack of racing games for the PC which are available via the Steam online distribution service for the equivalent of £10. They are Xpand Rally and GTI Racing, and while not perfect by any means, both offer plenty of game to get your teeth into.

Despite being a few years old, the Chromed engine that powers both games is capable of producing some impressive graphics.

Of the two games on offer here, Xpand Rally is perhaps the more famous of the two, but that's not really saying much. It aims to offer PC rally fans an alernative to the big name Colin McRae franchise, and almost pulls it off. It's actually a very solidly made game, with crisp clean graphics (though not quite as detailed as Colin McRae), a sizeable career mode and a nice range of well designed tracks. However, the cars in the game are not officially licenced, but it's pretty obvious what they're supposed to be. Mini Coopers are renamed Tiny Hoopers, and Peugeots are replaced by Lions. It doesn't really matter that much that they're not the real deal, they still look good.

The game is not quite perfect however. It is let down slightly both by the controls and the game structure. When you first create your profile, you can choose between an Arcade or a Simulation style control model. While you'd expect it to be much easier to chuck the car around the bends in Arcade mode, I actually found Simulation easier as Arcade was too floaty and unpredictable. The cars still start of rather twitchy in Simulation mode as well, but it's much less pronounced and gets better once you replace the stock suspension and steering parts that come with your new car.

This brings up the next problem I have wit the game. Each race in the career mode gets a little harder to beat, but rather than using pure skill, victory is largely dependant on how much you've upgraded your car. This results in you having to basically replay the first four races until you've got enough money to buy a car in the next class up and start over again upgrading that car. This is the same problem I have with the Gran Turismo games - it feels like you're not really racing but merely repeating the same process over and over again until your car is good enough to move on. Despite this however, driving around the many environments, such as the Grand Canyon, Poland, and Sweden is good fun and the rather challenging handling makes victory all the sweeter. The replay function is well done too with many different cameras and visual effects such as saturation, blur and black & white filters.

GTI Racing takes the same sort of structure, but this time the handling is pure arcade style through and through and feels spot on. Progress is also much easier as well, because you can make your first car last for a good 8-10 racers before you need to start thinking about changing up to the next class. The cost of repairs is also much less than in Xpand Rally, so you won't have to spend out so much off your valuable prize fund on fixing up your car after every race.

GTI Racing also has a full Volkswagen licence, which means you'll be driving Beetles, Baha Bugs and Golfs to name but a few. The game has a very European flavour which is represented by the track selection. You will be racing around areas in Bavaria, Sicily, and the UK, and not just in straight circuit races. There are also drift challenges and off road events where you race your rivals to be the first to a selection of checkpoints.

Both games also feature online player, and you can choose to either switch collisions on or have everyone as ghosts. If you do decide to switch the collisions on, you may notice a bit of lag unless everyone has a powerful PC and a fast internet connection.

So while the games have their little quirks, they're still well worth a look at the price that they're on offer for. Personally I thought GTI Racing was the better game of the two due to being more accessible and forgiving.

If you don't own a joypad for the PC (which helps immensely with driving games) but you do own a PlayStation 2, there are a variety of PS2 to PC adaptors on the market. I own a Joytech one which only cost me £7 and has worked with every game I've tested it with (it even supports rumble if the game in question also supports it, which Xpand Rally and GTI Racing do).

Whereas Xpand Rally is quite a solitary affair, GTI Racing features pack racing with a fair amount of jostling for position.

New Releases - 09/03/07

Here I am again with this weeks new releases. Let's see if there's anything exciting in store this time...

Nintendo DS



Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin
Mario vs Donkey Kong 2: March of the Minis

It's a pretty good week for DS fans if you're a fan of platform puzzlers. Personally I'm starting to get a little tired of the Metroid style Castlevania games as Konami seemingly chuck another one out every year, and they've been doing it since Symphony of the Night (which has never been bettered). A return of the original straight platforming instead of the RPG hybrid would be a nice change of pace. MvDK2 has been compared to Lemmings, but it has plenty of original ideas of its own and is well worth a look.

PC



Silverfall
Trackmania United

Silverfall has potential - it's a new action RPG and you just can't get enough of those in my opinion. Will it go down the Diablo-esque route that so many others have or manage to bring something new to the table? Trackmania United is a "best of" compilation of all the games in the series so far (Original, Power Up, Sunrise, Extreme and Nations) brought together under one interface and given a visual update. There's also new building blocks and a more organised multiplayer mode that makes it easier to find clans and teams divided by country.

Nintendo Wii



SSX Blur

I've been a fan of the SSX games ever since the original came out at the launch of the PS2, but I didn't enjoy the last game, SSX On Tour quite so much. SSX Blur looks like it has more in common with Tricky and Out of Bounds which is no bad thing as they were the best games in the series. As long as the controls don't let the side down we should be in for another quality snow racer with a stonking soundtrack.

Import Corner



God of War II - PS2
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 07 - Wii

I wasn't that keen of the original God of War really, I found it a bit boring. Not because of the setting, I love Greek mythology, but the gameplay didn't really grab me. I know an awful lot of people thought it was fantastic though, so they should definitely check out the sequel. If anything, it definitely shows of the power of the PS2.

I would really like to try Tiger Woods on the Wii just to see how well they've carried off the controls. If it plays well I would probably buy it, as the previous games in the franchise have been absolutely rammed with content.

The RetroModern Gaming blog Pick of the Week
Silverfall
I do love my RPG's and Silverfall looks extremely promising.

Final Fantasy XII review

Just like the year before, for me the winter months were spent mostly playing an epic RPG by genre powerhouse Square-Enix. Instead of Dragon Quest VIII however, this time it was the turn of Final Fantasy XII. While arguably not as popular as the Dragon Quest series in its native country of Japan, if the whole world is taken into account then the Final Fantasy series is the leader, ever since Final Fantasy VII wowed RPG addicts and non fans alike some 10 years ago. Yet, some fans were not pleased by the changes made in FFXII, which are most radical changes the series has seen in its history. Which way do I lean? Read on to find out...

Format: PlayStation 2
Publisher: Square-Enix
Developer: Square-Enix
Genre: RPG
Region: NTSC (USA)
Price: Around £30

How does one even begin to review a game as huge as Final Fantasy XII, which has already won countless awards, including Game of the Year from Edge Magazine? Well, firstly I will try not to be biased by what other people have said, and to be as honest as I possibly can. I will go through each area of the game and try and come to a sensible conclusion.

Firstly though, you have to respect just what Square-Enix has achieved here. Last year I found it remarkable exactly how much they managed to fit on one DVD Rom for DQVIII, and yet FFXII outstrips even that game by a considerable margin, content wise. When I had finished the game, I had almost 110 hours on the clock, and I hadn't even seen and done everything. I might go back and finish off the last few optional quests some time but other games have already enticed me with their siren calls, so it's difficult. Don't go into Final Fantasy XII unprepared however, you have to be willing to lose yourself in the game. Yes, you can finish the main plot in about 40 hours if you really want to, but to me the most enjoyable parts were the optional extras. I'll get back to those later. In the meantime here's what I think about each aspect of FFXII in turn.

Graphics: 10 out of 10
The visuals of Final Fantasy XII are easily some of the most impressive that the PS2 has ever produced, easily rivalling anything that the next generation machines have to offer. A lot of this is down to the age of the PS2 and the power that has slowly been drawn out and exploited by the more expert development teams over the years. You will explore vast deserts, gargantuan tombs and mighty aerial fortresses, all in real time 3D. There's no prerendered backgrounds (as in the PS1 games) or being locked to a particular path through an area (ala FFX), you are free to roam wherever you want, as long as you are either strong enough to withstand the attacks of the monsters or fast enough to avoid them. A lot of the cut scenes are actually powered by the 3D engine as well, and the close up shots of the characters really give you the chance to appreciate how much detail there is in the character models and how high res the textures look. Everybody looks incredibly crisp and clean instead of suffering from aliasing (jaggies) like in the early days on the PS2.

Of course it wouldn't be a Final Fantasy game without plenty of FMV sequences, and these do make a return as well. They're nowhere near as prominent as in say, FFVII and personally I think this is a good thing. The story in FFXII has been rather simplified and pared down compared to the last few games in the series, something I think it needed. That's not to say that what's there isn't good, but the changes are refreshing.

Sound and Music: 10 out of 10
First of all think the music in FFXII is absolutely amazing. As the drama unfolded during the opening FMV and the main theme of the game came in, I had goosebumps go up my arms and back, it was that exciting. The same thing happened throughout the game, mainly during boss battles, and I also remember the Phon Coast having some outstanding music. This is definitely one game I would consider buying the soundtrack for. Even though Hironobu Sakaguchi has taken Nobuo Uematsu with him to Mistwalker, Hitoshi Sakimoto has managed to fill his shoes brilliantly and is just as good, if not better in my opinion.

The voiceovers are also some of the best I heard in a game, and for once most of the performances are nice and understated, rather than being overacted to the point of being annoying which so often happens in the RPG genre. Of course it helps that the actors have such a good script to work with. The localisation for FFXII is easily one of the best jobs that Square-Enix has ever done (along with DQVIII of course). It wasn't so long ago that Square-Enix were regularly critiscised for their localisation efforts, for games such as Final Fantasy Tactics and Final Fantasy IV. It appears that they are finally taking the western fans seriously and giving them the attention they deserve. Some may find the style of the dialogue a little "flowery" for their tastes, but I found it suited the medieval/industrial fusion of the world of Ivalice. At time it reminded me of something like Gladiator, where the characters would talk to each other with an air of polite menace.

The voice actors include Cat Taber as Penelo, who should be familiar to Knights of the Old Republic fans as the voice of Mission Vao. Phil Lamarr who has played many videogame roles including Vamp in Metal Gear Solid 2 is also in the supporting cast, along with Dwight "Mad Murdoc" Schultz who returns from a successful stint in Final Fantasy X in a number of small roles throughout the game.

The sound effects are the icing on the cake and they do their job well, from the typical sounds of battle (weapon hits, magical explosions and so forth) to the background noise of the city (your characters foosteps, the sound of market traders promoting their wares). It all adds to ensure that FFXII gets another perfect mark.

Fran is not your typical bunny girl.

Plot and Character: 8 out of 10
For the most part, the main characters and those that support them are a pretty likeable bunch, with as mentioned elsewhere well written dialogue and skillfully delivered lines. We have Fran, the exotic looking Viera (rabbit creatures, seemingly all women) with an accent to match. I can't quite place where the actress is from but it may be a Scandinavian country. Sounds cute anyway.

Then there's Balthier, a scoundrel of a sky pirate who seems to be in the quest only for fortune and glory but really has a heart of gold. People have compared the plot and characters to the Star Wars trilogy and it's not really hard to see the resemblance. Balthier would definitely play the part of Han Solo, which would make Fran Chewbacca... except rather less hairy and certainly more attractive (unless you have some strange fetish I'd prefer not to know about).

Accompanying those two are Princess Ashe, who has witnessed her kingdom become the victim of a powerplay between to rival nations, not to mention seeing her own father and husband killed in acts of battle and betrayal respectively. Joining the party a short way into the game is Basch, formally a captain of the Rabanastran army, but stripped of his rank and imprisoned for killing Ashe's father and a young recruit by the name of Reks.

Finishing off the main cast are Vaan, who is the elder brother of Reks, and his childhood friend Penelo, who get swept along in the quest and are motivated by feelings of hatred towards the Empire which has occupied their home city by force. They long for the day that their people can walk freely again and not have to suffer the suspicious gaze of an imperial soldier on every street corner.

There are also many supporting characters that frequently fill the fourth guest spot in your active party roster, and you don't have direct control over them. These include Larsa, the youngest member of the house Solidor, which also includes the old Emperor and Vayne, his evil, scheming son. Larsa doesn't agree with the tactics that his family have put into play, and longs for peaceful cohabitation between the various countries.

No, any problems in this category aren't the fault of the characters, but rather the plot that carries them along. Everything starts off extremely well with the promise of political intrigue, betrayal, heroic deeds (dare I say "derring-do"? Perhaps not), and an epic quest. Many plot threads dangle but rather than coming together neatly at the end, everything starts to unravel because things that were started are never followed up on. This could well be deliberate, because Final Fantasy XII is just one part of the "Ivalice Alliance" series that Square-Enix has got planned, which also include Revenant Wings on the DS, Final Fantasy Tactics: The Lion War on the PSP and Final Fantasy Tactics Advance 2, also for the DS. The plot also isn't as spectacular as past games in the series, but to me that was actually a plus. It makes things seem more believable in a way, and the amount of background detail that Square has piled in to the environments and the bestiary keep you interested enough to keep exploring the world.

Vaan and Penelo are the young whippersnappers of the story.

Game Mechanics: 8 out of 10
The basic design of the Final Fantasy series has stayed more or less the same through its history, with the odd tweak here and there for each new game. Final Fantasy XII is the first truly radical change in over 20 years. The turn based, random nature of the battles has been replaced with monsters roaming in the field and a more hectic battle system. Those of you brave enough to attempt the game with the battles set to Active instead of Wait can expect to have quite a tough time of it.

You take control of one of the party (you get to decide who) and any other party members including your guest follow along behind you. Most enemies will be hostile from the moment they detect you and you will see a red arc of light from the enemy to the party member they are targeting. This also works in reverse when you are targeting a monster, with a blue arc denoting an attack and a green arc denoting magic or items. For those that have played an MMORPG such as World of Warcraft, Final Fantasy XI or Dark Age of Camelot, combat works in much the same way.

Pressing the X button on the joypad brings up your menu of available attacks, spells and specials. There are quite a few different options here, which grow as you buy more spells (divided into White, Black, Green, Arcane and Time), technicks (special skills which are free to use), Quickenings (basically this games Limit Breaks), Espers (Summons). Being able to use anything in the game isn't quite as simple as just buying it and equipping it however, each character also has a licence board and you have to buy a licence for anything you want to use, including weapons, armour, magic, espers (once you've defeated them) and augments (which permanently give your character a boost in a certain area, such as blocking). This can be a bit of a pain at times, and in the long run it doesn't really aid character customisation that much because you can easily obtain everything on the grid with every character, meaning they become facsimiles of themselves towards the end of the game.

Another aspect to Final Fantasy XII is the Gambit system. This basically acts like a very simple programming language for your characters, letting you set up various rules and conditions. So for example you could tell your characters to buff themselves up with Protect, Shell, Regen and many other spells in a quiet moment, or cast Curaga on undead creatures (who are extremely weak to White magic). You can chop and change Gambits at any time, even in the middle of a battle, and at times you will have to because one set of rules may be completely unsuited to that particular battle. It all works extremely well, and you can set up your characters to basically do most of the fighting for you, with you only stepping in in an emergency. The only major downside to the Gambit system is that for some reason beyond my comprehension Square-Enix decided to dole out new conditions (e.g. Ally HP is less than 20% or, Enemy = Undead) gradually throughout the game and they are unlocked depending on how far you are through the story.

Most of the battles against standard creatures can be fought and won without having to use the Gambits all that much as long as you are at a sensible level, but some of the optional bosses are much easier to finish off with their help. It's just a bit of a shame that on one hand Square-Enix give you this great tool to customise your characters, but on the other hand limit what you can do with it.

Innovation & Cleverness: 9 out of 10
Square-Enix should be applauded for the way that they've shaken up their oldest and most important franchise. The battle system, while not completely new to MMO fan, is at least new to players offline RPG's, and while elements like the Gambits and the Espers (which are a bit of a waste of time) don't quite work out, it's a very valiant attempt to inject some life in the flagging series. I also applaud their decision to veer away from adolescent whiny male main characters and feature a much more cheerful bunch where no one can really be considered the lead character. While a couple are left in the shadows for a lot of the time (Penelo being a good example), others such as Vaan, Ashe and Balthier all get equal time in the spotlight.

Personally, I think Final Fantasy XII is just what the series needed, but Square-Enix had better be careful because they're in danger of reaching saturation point with the amount of FF related games they're releasing. We've already had 4 games in the last 6 months, with another 6 or so on the way. Even if all of them are great games, that's still too many considering the time commitment you have to give to each one.

Value & Replayability: 9 out of 10
While it is questionable whether you'd replay such a long game, it has be said that Final Fantasy XII is phenomenal value for money. The main quest itself takes around 40 hours to finish. If you add on the major side quests, which include going on dozens of monster hunts for Clan Centurio and then tracking down another 60 rare monsters for the Hunter Club late in the game, that number can easily be pushed over 100 hours. There's even more to see though, because a good half of the Espers you can add to your party are optional and they have to be found and defeated first. I haven't even mentioned all the other little quests throughout the game yet, including hunting for lost Cluckatrice chicks and delivering a letter to every sister who each work on a different airship route.

Then we have the bestiary, which is extremely well written and will take even the most thorough player a considerable time to complete. When you defeat a monster you get a page of information about them, but when you defeat a monster a particular number of times a second page is unlocked which contains a variety of things including details on the various areas of Ivalice, hints as to what the monster may drop or other random tidbits.

While the game is enjoyable for most of the time, I must admit on occasion it began to feel like hard work as you have to level grind in order to be able to defeat some of the tougher monsters. At least Square-Enix has taken that into consideration as you are rewarded with better and better loot depending on how many monsters of the same type you can chain together. Personally I found the monster hunts to be the most enjoyable part of the game and I felt compelled to try and beat them all (which I haven't quite done yet, as the final beastie has around 5 million hit points).

Other races first introduced in Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, such as the Bangraa, also make an appearance. These guys are particularly nasty bounty hunters that are after Balthiers head.

Overall: 9 out of 10
While I have absolutely no hesitation in recommending Final Fantasy XII, I don't think it's a perfect as Edge magazine or Eurogamer did. When you've played for over 100 hours, the small flaws start to show themselves. I'd much rather play a game that's a fresh feeling and exciting as this rather than the same sort of thing all over again though (see Final Fantasy VII-X). Apparently, at least one of the three(!) announced Final Fantasy XIII games will be an action RPG, which has caused a bit of a stir among die hard fans. I have faith that Square-Enix can pull it off though after what they've managed to achieve here.

Note: The PAL version has only just come out, and I have no experience with it, so I don't know if Square-Enix have learnt their lesson from FFX and FX-2 and actually taken the time to optimise the game for PAL TV's. I would certainly hope so. If you have played the PAL version, add a comment and let me know.

New Releases: 02/03/07

I'm going to try and bring back an old feature this week where I comment on the new releases in time for each Friday. Instead of listing everything coming out for every format however, I'm just going to stick to the games that I think are worth your attention and money.

Nintendo DS



Elite Beat Agents

To those that haven't imported Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan! already, then I urge you to give Elite Beat Agents a try. It's much more than a simple translation however, as all of the music and levels are brand new. In fact, even if you have already played the original game, it's still worth picking up this pseudo sequel.

PC



Resident Evil 4
Jade Empire: SE
Titan Quest: Immortal Throne

A couple of oldies but goodies finally get released on the PC this week. Resident Evil 4 remains one of the best games of the last decade. Jade Empire isn't quite in the same league but is a fun little game in its own right. Finally we have the new expansion pack to the recently reviewed Titan Quest, which I hope to get my hands on soon.

Nintendo Wii

Sonic & The Secret Rings

Sonic has never really impressed much when he's appeared in 3D, except for in the original Sonic Adventure for the Dreamcast. Sonic & The Secret Rings promises to be a return to form however, as Sega have stripped things back and concentrated on what makes a Sonic game special - speed.

Import Watch

Burnout Dominator

North American gamers get a brand new Burnout this week in the shape of Dominator. There's no radical changes to the formula this time around (those are being saved for the next generation Burnout 5). Does a new range of tracks and challenges merit a purchase for the fifth time in a row? Personally, I thought the formula was starting to get a little tired in Burnout Revenge so I have my doubts about this one.

The RetroModern Gaming Blog Pick of the Week
Elite Beat Agents
Go on, don't let the fact that it's a Rhythm Action game put you off, EBA is well worth it.