Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City review

 Grand Theft Auto IV is next Tuesday, exactly two years ago. The game is to this day much, but if you have not done recently, then you now have an additional reason for you to travel back in Liberty City. The two exclusive episodes for Grand Theft Auto IV, which appeared earlier on the Xbox 360, are now available for the PlayStation 3, which means that we both like Johnny Klebitz Luis Lopez to experience an adventure!

For a reasonable price, you get to Liberty City Episodes From a pair of games, which in terms of gameplay or shorter than Grand Theft Auto IV, but a lot more fun. You play in the Lost and Damned Johnny Klebitz. He's a biker and for some time been the leader of the motorcycle club The Lost, because the real boss in prison. You enter the game when the real boss returns to the club. However, there is a difference between the two. Johnny is someone who is tough, but the club have kept running without too many people to them. The real boss, Billy, is more the butt face of the fright and not back from two heavy guns at the slightest provocation.

This difference allows for a gradual split between the two and that will eventually break. The result for us as players in an interesting story that is more interesting than the ones we know from the regular game, so with Nico. The adventure consists of twenty missions run by the story primarily revolves around Johnny and Billy and since they are bikers get the game (GTA IV is) a completely different face. Where you are as an immigrant Nico the brutal thief and hang yourself reprocesses, Johnny is a respected person within the club and the way of approach is also different from the Lost in a Luis Nico or the case.

We will not go too deep on the story of The Lost and Damned go. The only thing we have to lose like substance that is very strong and it fits together for a special dimension in Liberty City. Johnny beside you in Episodes From Liberty City to work also in The Ballad of Tony Gay, but as Luis Lopez. He is a tough guy who has the right of the nightclub owner Tony Prince. Tony is gay man and the owner of two trendy clubs in town and Tony is in itself a great comic character, but despite that he is an art that he has two successful clubs have been set up, because really useful, he is not .

Behind Luis, Tony some matters that are not really smart. Tony is too cumbersome to solve this yourself so you can pay for it as Luis. This in turn produces different and varied missions and the best thing is of course the movies you get in between. Here are the most backward past figures, highlighted by Amir Yusuf. This guy will often double up with laughter and leave to set the right tone of The Ballad of Tony Gay. This expansion is more a humorous variation on the dark gray and The Lost and Damned. Both episodes fits well with the current GTA IV and the different personalities and style of play is extremely entertaining.

Both episodes show you Liberty City from a different perspective and what Rockstar has once again get together for a fantastic atmosphere. Each part in the franchise has a good atmosphere, but these episodes are still jumping above it, especially The Ballad of Tony Gay is great. Just to the story, the many dialogues and the atmosphere is worth it, despite being a bit late. The nice thing about these episodes is that they occur in parallel with the story of GTA IV, Niko so. This culminated in a mission that you play three times. Have you played GTA IV? You know the mission established by the museum in the park yet.

This mission is quite broad because what you do in the first instance with Niko experienced this mission you will play with Johnny again and again with Luis. Additionally you get the necessary characters to which you previously in other games already have been displayed. Because all parallel Rockstar knows a special experience to put down. Everything is alright and with each other and once you start then you're the world of GTA IV is particularly ingenious in terms of storytelling. Broadly there is also precious little to notice these extensions. One positive aspect is that at least more worthwhile than the story of GTA IV, so that in itself says enough.

But this is not the only, because in addition to a storyline that both episodes have been there to do the necessary zijmissies. If you like Luis to work with you as a thief with some old mates here and there disturbed drug shipments and transfers. If Johnny can participate in rough motorcycle, where weapons are not avoided. Also, the simple things like take a measure to different locations to entertain yourself not forget, you can play darts, bowling, pool, golf and even play Air Hockey. Through these things, combined with the trophies to achieve, you quickly each episode one hour or twenty to thirty working, especially if you are someone who likes 100% on the screen.

The single player is that despite all this shows is definitely worth it. It's fun, gives a different face to the city and is particularly pretty extensive. Certainly something that initially a simple extension. If only there were more of these extensions, but hey, that aside. Besides an entertaining single-player game, this course also multiplayer. This multiplayer is a bit on the single episode of the set, at least in the Lost and Damned. So you get in The Lost and Damned the possibility of motorcycle racing which involved weapons. This is a fun mode and the one where you must flee your engine while another you from the air with a helicopter to crash into the afterlife. The Ballad of Tony Gay is not special modes, such as The Lost and Damned are thus in that respect it is a shame.

The fact remains that in the multiplayer of The Ballad of Tony Gay also plenty to offer. All in all, it's a disc full of funny material, and perhaps it would have been nice if there is a special The Ballad of Tony Gay multiplayer mode, but we can live with that. What is annoying is that both episodes have a private online area. If you're in The Ballad of Tony is gay, then you may close it and The Lost and Damned before you start the special modes of that episode to play. This means you constantly change, especially if you're an avid player and multiplayer which is unfortunate.

Ultimately Episodes From Liberty City if it were something you should get GTA fan instantly. Newcomers, we recommend this, because both stories are fantastic, the whole market is huge and the atmosphere is above all very entertaining. The cost of the package are not too high in proportion to the number of hours gameplay is, it was all worth it. Want to see more of Liberty City, then you got to see in GTA IV, then this will be an additional reason for Episodes From Liberty City to purchase. Believe us, despite what it may appear earlier, it was twice over your hard-earned money.

Final Fantasy X review

 I believe that Final Fantasy X is the last game from Square that is really, awesomely good. It was all downhill after they joined Enix, in my opinion (I hope Final Fantasy XIII redeems them). Even FF12 was only average, to me. Anyway, this game is fantastic. Why? Well, let's find out!

Graphics (score 10/10): The graphics are really excellent for the PS2. I believe this game boasts the second-best graphics on the PS2, next to Final Fantasy XII. Although FFXII has the technically better graphics, FFX has much more creative and unique environments, so it's more graphically impressive to me. I guess it's kind of the difference between staring at a shimmering forest made out of crystalline trees and filled with iridescent swirls of light versus a big field filled with...grass...and just grass. So, FFX makes very good use of the graphical capabilities that it does have.

Music (score 10/10): Excellent, just excellent. The music is really quite beautiful, with my favorite song being "To Zanarkand". I even went and bought the soundtrack. And yes, I even like the song "Otherworld", which I've heard some people hated. Now, as for the voice acting... I thought it was great. Why do so many people hate on the voice acting for this game? I really can't figure it out. Other than the scene where Tidus and Yuna engage in fake laughter (it's cringe-worthy, trust me, but at least it doesn't last very long), the voice acting is top notch. I really found no faults with it. If you want to hear truly awful voice acting, listen to some scenes from the first Grandia game (on a side note, I got slaughtered with unhelpful votes for my review on that game; go figure).

Characters (score 10/10): Characterizations are excellent; everyone has a distinct personality and is well-portrayed. I know that everyone likes to complain about Tidus being a "crybaby" and whatnot, but I don't really think that's the case. To me, he's a realistic protagonist. With Final Fantasy 7 and 8, you had protagonists who were already used to battle, and who already had military training. It makes sense that they were used to dealing with stress (whether they actually handled that stress well is arguable, though, but that just makes them that much more interesting as protagonists). Tidus is just an average guy who is suddenly thrown into extraordinary events. In this light, I think his reactions (and subsequent narrations) are very realistic and appropriate for his character. I mean, he was living the good life before (he was a star athlete and living well, for the most part); why wouldn't he be unhappy about getting thrown into a world, which, through his eyes, must've seemed very inferior to what he just came from?! In fact, if he had immediately adopted a hung-ho, "this is so much fun" attitude, I would have found it very questionable. That being said, if he had been excessively whiney, it would've been annoying, but I don't really think that he is. As for the other characters, they all have subtle nuanced personalities, with the standout character being Yuna. So much of the story has to do with her, and she is extremely well developed. I love the fact that this game actually gives us a female character who is quiet, mature, and actually wears clothing that covers her breasts. Seriously, I get so sick of game developers thinking that all female characters must show cleavage, so it's awesome that Yuna actually has a real personality and isn't just eye candy. Not that eye candy is always bad or anything, it's just that I like to have some variety. I really love Yuna though because she is such a strong character without being a stereotypical gun-toting bad-ass female. She simply has a strong will and is dedicated to her morals and beliefs without being closed-minded. To me, she embodies what a "strong female character" should be rather than what Hollywood thinks that term means (ex. Large busted, cleavage exposing woman who wields guns). Once again, I have nothing against seeing that kind of portrayal once in a while, but there needs to be other kinds of heroines too. Too bad they ruin the good thing that they have going here in X-2, the sequel (see my review of that if you want to see how they screw over these fine characters). Whew, enough of my soap box. Overall, I think the characters are excellent, and yes, I even loved Tidus.

Story (score 10/10): This game's story is just awesome. It's one of the best RPG stories ever told, in my opinion. At its core, it's about a group of people coming to question the things that they have always believed in. I really enjoyed the themes of questioning traditional power structures and religious doctrine that is in place in the world of Spira, as well as themes of sacrifice, death, and hope. I don't know if the developers intended this, but you could almost interpret this story to be critique of real-world religions. The game even deals with the idea of prejudice in it's portrayal of the Al-Bhed. On top of these fine thematic elements, the plot keeps you engaged with various twists, culminating with the biggest twist of all at the end of the game. I'm not going to spoil that just in case you haven't played this game, but suffice it to say, it was so emotionally gripping that I actually cried at the end. Well, the story is awesome. What more can I say?

Battle System (score 10/10): The battle system is pretty unique compared to previous Final Fantasy games. Of course, I'm not talking about the turn-based fights; they're pretty similar. I'm talking about the ability to switch party members in the middle of battle. In previous FFs, you pretty much picked a party of three people and stuck to them, never using any other characters. In FFX, they actively discourage this by making each party member have very specific strengths and weaknesses, and having a variety of enemies that require everyone's skills. The fact that you need to switch people mid-battle to accommodate for different enemy types means that you really need to use everyone equally. This is a nice change of pace from the older games, although I still like doing it the old way equally well too.

Gameplay (score 10/10): This is a bit of a catch-all category for me. Let's see...FFX is very well paced in difficulty level, the controls and camera angle are good, and there's a wealth of interesting sidequests to take part in. Overall, I'm pretty happy with it. My only small complaint would be that I wish there was a way to skip cut scenes. It's annoying to have to sit through a long cut scene again when you have to re-do a boss battle. Other than that, no complaints at all.

Overall (score 10/10): NOTE this score is not an average; it's my subjective overall score. FFX is a fine and excellent game. In my opinion, FFX is one of the best RPGs out there, and definitely should be added your collection if you're an RPG fan. And for its (currently) cheap price, you can't afford to pass this one up!

Vanquish review

 Taken in small portions, this is an absolutely amazing game experience - it really is as fast as advertised, runs as smooth as butter, and feels absolutely great to play from the off. The sound is excellent, the gunplay is BAD ASS, and the whole thing seems like an instant classic. It is hardcore. It is a tough game and not for casual gamers, and I fell very quickly in love with it!

I think the early levels in the game were best -- there's lots of close-quarters combat, and this somehow suits the game's mechanics. Gradually though it opens out into an 'epic' and the battlefields become huge expanses with either giant bosses or little enemies who can be swatted like flies. Same problem as in Gear of War 2 -- the scale reduced the feeling of actually being in the middle of a fight. I never had less than fun, but it did start to feel like a chore at times - and the run of boss battles at the end? Surely all game designers by now know that this is just stale.

I was hoping that it would be in the same mold as Bayonetta - a game that demanded and rewarded mastery, where the first play through is really a warm up for the main course - but although Vanquish has some challenge rooms, it doesn't really have incentives for sinking a lot of time into it. You don't unlock anything, and there's a slightly annoying punitive weapons upgrade system, whereby upgrades are deducted when you die. Also, upgrades don't seem to carry over when you replay missions and you start with your default set. Huh?

Despite these minor disappointments, I thought the game was brilliant and I absolutely had a blast for the most of it. And I didn't find it too short as some are saying - I actually thought it was too long. Either that or not quite varied enough. Anyway, if you like to shoot stuff, this is one of the best out there!