Playstation | For the Players Since 1995

I've been with the Playstation since the beginning so this commercial hit home for me. Like the advertisement, I spent my years of university playing PS2 and PS3 whenever I had the chance. That was a successful commercial in my opinion, even more reason for me to be persuaded to buy a PS4.

Yours Truly

FIFA 14 | Gameplay Trailer

FIFA is still among one of our favourite past times between my circle of friends. Over the past few years, the game has gotten much better. From graphics to the realistic situations in the game of soccer, there has definitely been improvements made by EA. I can't wait for the release, you'll have to add my PSN in the future if you want to tango.

Yours Truly

Grand Theft Auto V | Gameplay Trailer

This franchise is what really sold the PS2 to me, other than my love for Capcom. Grand Theft Auto III and Vice City were my first two games for the system. I love that there is more than a story line, you can be interactive with the open world and literally do whatever you want to, grab a bite, drive fast cars, beat on gangsters and take women out on dates with your infinite amount of cash.

Yours Truly

Video Game Review: The Last of Us

Never have I ever played a game where I legitimately felt an emotional connection with characters. I mean, how lame is that? 'Cause like, y'know, they're not real. So lame right?

Seriously though, if there's a game this year, it's this game. And I probably say that about every bloody game I write about, but no, this game will become a classic. It proves that video games aren't just about flashy bang gun violence (even though there's a lot of that in this game), but can be about true engaging story telling.

20 years after an epidemic of mutant cordyceps sweeps across the world turning people into mindless husks, much of civilization is in ruins. The story follows Joel who works as a smuggler unwillingly tasked with escorting Ellie, a teenaged girl, across country to a resistance group called the Fireflies.

On this journey they are faced with the never ending danger of the hostile world as it is after the pandemic; infected humans, hostile scavengers and bandits, even cannibals.



What I did like.

As mentioned before, this game attaches you to the characters. As if you are Joel and you are escorting Ellie. There are times where I've caught myself waiting, just so that Ellie can catch up with me. It's definitely the little things.

Example: Ellie cannot swim, and when hopping on debris to reach to the other side of a rushing sewer, I stopped myself when I got to the other side, turned around and watched Ellie make her way across, just in case she didn't make it. Even though it's a game and I knew she was gonna make it, I still watched anyways because the attachment made me worry.

The chemistry between Joel and Ellie are second to none, there are times in this game, I admit, that got me choked up. If there's anything that this game proves, it's that video games aren't just games anymore, they're stories, stories as good as any book or movie out there.

Ellie will stop to notice the environment from time to time, and even though she swears like a sailor and has seen her fair share of violence, she's still a child at heart. Not only are you protecting her, but you're also seeing the world through her eyes.

I thoroughly enjoyed the survival aspect of the game. Depending on how you handle situations is well tied into how much supplies you had. If there's a situation where you are swarmed by enemies, you can go one of two ways, guns-a-blazing or sneak it out. Both are equally as challenging in any case.

America 2033 is a cruel world and I felt that the environment was beautifully captured. Think I Am Legend. The world is dilapidated and over grown with plants and the like, while hidden in the bowels of buildings, the infected lay in wait for their next meal. Wonderfully well lit, a little bit of graphical tweaking goes a long way.



A huge problem with a lot of video games I find that is that the AI is too predictable or that they're just out right awful and always in the way. Naughty Dog (producers of the game) seemingly found the solution. AI is usually a hindrance, but when going around with Ellie, she actually helps out. If I'm in a fire fight and I run out of bullets, she'll hand me some. If I'm too distracted with shooting people in front of me and there's a baddy flanking (another smart AI perk) me, Ellie will point that out by shouting where he is, or in some cases, she will even take care of him for me.

The little things. Oh man, the little things. Example: Normally in games if an AI is around you sneaking as well, they'll just phase right through the character, like a game glitch. When you're sneaking around all crouched and what not, Joel will always have his hand to the wall, if Ellie is around, Joel's hand will move around Ellie, protecting her.



What I didn't like.

This is probably just me, but games that are very story driven generally don't have much replay value aside from the "visit here and find 6 relics". But since I am not an achievement hunter I don't care for these things. To some this may by an issue, but for myself, when I beat a game, I never touch it again, unless it's something really good. (Mass Effect)

At first the controls feel a little stiff as if you don't have complete control of the character. It felt really sluggish, but over time I got used to it.

There's the option to upgrade your weapons at work benches as the game progresses, but the times you come across work benches is so infrequent that it makes me wonder why weapon upgrading was a component in this game. Even though you upgrade your weapons, they still feel the same.



Naughty Dog knows how to make a good game. Remember when you first got a Playstation and Crash Bandicoot was one of the launch titles, that was Naughty Dog. Over the years they have definitely matured as shown in their current gen video games, most notably in the Uncharted series and most recently, this game, The Last of Us.

The Last of Us, albeit late to the party, is absolutely one of Playstation 3's significant titles that must be played.

Video Game Review: XCOM Enemy Unknown

XCOM Enemy Unknown is a turn based strategy game available for PC, Playstation 3 and Xbox 360. Not a lot of games of this kind of genre out there nowadays. If you've ever played Final Fantasy Tactics, it's something like that. But instead of spending four rounds walking a maximum of two blocks per round just trying to get to your enemy so you can hack them up with your whack ass swords.

Taking place in a near future as an alien invasion begins, the world's nations group together to create the XCOM (Extraterrestrial Combat Unit) project which is tasked with protecting earth from the imminent alien invasion. You play as the commander who commands a squadron of up to six soldiers who vary between skills and classes.

XCOM Enemy Unknown is something of a reimagined remake of the original XCOM games, which were initially released in the early to mid 90s. These games were hailed as masterpieces, so it's only assumed that when somebody wants to remake a game that's being called a "masterpiece", well, you'd better not muck it up.

On the upside, XCOM Enemy Unknown is nothing short of fantastic.

How fantastic? Well it's my favourite game of 2012 (and 2013, so far) and I'm not even a big fan of turn based strategy games. How can a video game make me a fan if I dislike its genre? Well let's find out.

What I did like.

I enjoyed the level of difficulty in this game. It was made in such a way that being gung-ho is a bad idea. But I suppose that's why it's a strategy game. On top of that, you're never really stuck with six set characters, your squad consists of recruits that you must hire.

A squad of six

Each recruit starts as a rookie, but as they level up, they're assigned one of four classes.

• Assault Class
• Support Class
• Sniper Class
• Heavy Class

Each class has their advantages and disadvantages, but to really make a great squadron, you'll definitely have to mix it up. Because I mean, if you have a team of six heavies, it doesn't really help out since they're not too accurate at long or close range. And if enough enemies converge on you, then you're kinda boned.

As mentioned before, this game is turn based strategy where each move has to be carefully laid out. Every turn I made was made with extreme caution, because you never know what's hiding behind the fog.

Bomb disposal battle type

Even if you were to lose, it sucks because you lose all the squad mates that you had brought along (when they die, they stay dead), you still feel the need to keep going. Sure you might rage quit, which I did on numerous occasions (and when I do, I won't play a game for months at a time), you'd come back, because nothing is ever hopeless in this game and everything is entirely doable. Granted you will have to make some decisions that may not be for the best, but you can't win 'em all right?

Soldier memorial

Even though XCOM didn't really have a story line, I still liked it. It's straight forward. It's "Hey aliens are here, you're now an anti alien army, go fight them and learn from what you salvage after battles so that you can become stronger, so you can take down the mothership".

That's it.

No disappointing plot twists or surprise endings. A lot of games try that nowadays, but they almost try too hard. And the result is a silly story.

But what I did enjoy the most out of it was, it's a good time killer. Got an hour to spare before you gotta do something important? Play some XCOM, before you know it. You're ready to leave. Or your late.

What I didn't like.

Only two things really bugged me about this game.

One being, the money management system. The game runs on something of a date system, and at the end of every month, you're granted some funding from nations that are all aboard on your XCOM project. You get this money and you gotta spend it wisely.

Do I purchase new gear for my soldiers? Should I get more ships to defend continents? Should I start up another satellite uplink so that I can deploy satellites over nations?

The list is never ending.

And on more than one occasion, I always feel like I've made a bad choice.

Example: I'll buy a satellite for a nation, because if there isn't a satellite monitoring the skies of a nation, the panic levels increase across that nation. If the nation reaches full chaos, they will back out of the XCOM project and you will lose certain perks that come along with that nation.

That being said, satellites sound like a sound choice right? Usually they are. But then all of a sudden you're next invasion consists of some baddies you've never seen before and they just absolutely demolish your team because you're under equipped.

So that's my problem. Every decision has its pros and cons. But that's just the nature of the game. It's like real life. Except not really.

XCOM Situation Room

The other thing that annoyed me was that even though your attacks were based on your character's aim and accuracy, even with a high accuracy percentage and some decent aim, it still all feels like it's left up to chance.

I can be two square tiles away from a bad guy, and still miss.

It's moments like that where I wanna shake the plasma outta my monitor. But as I said, maybe that's just the nature of the game.

If you wanna change it up, definitely try out XCOM Enemy Unknown. I'm not a big fan of strategy games and if it can make me a huge fan out of it, then it's definitely worth something to check out. And besides, it's available for PC, Xbox 360 and PS3, so you really don't have any excuses.

FIFA 13 Commercial

With the demo releasing last week, I am very excited for the release of FIFA 13 (September 25, 2012). Hopefully there are more of you who are excited as well. If you play on the PS3, play me in 2v2 at @hellosaskatoon or 1v1 @MackHS.

Yours Truly

HS x VG: Tekken Tag Tournament 2

Tekken Tag Tournament 2, the latest in the Namco Bandai Tekken series.

My brother and I (whom you probably know and don’t even know it, because everybody knows him, because I get the whole “Are you Chester’s brother?” line probably once a month.) are secret fighting gamers.

In a saturated world of competitive FPS gamers, I’ve always seen the competitive fighting scene very niche. Hell, when I went to go pick this game up, it was sitting a glass showcase behind the cash register surrounded by Xbox 360 and PS3 copies of NHL 13 in its own lonely little corner.

If there are fighting gamers out there, this review is for you. For those who have absolutely no interest in fighting games, you might not know what I’m rambling on about.

Anyways, TTT2 does not follow the Tekken canon at all for it is a comprehensive compilation of everything in the Tekken universe, such as characters that were in the previous games that have since died in the story or old fighting stages from the previous games ranging back from TTT1. Honestly, I don’t know squat about the story lines of fighting games because frankly, who follows them?

We’re in it for the action and bragging rights.

What I did like.

Tekken 6 was intensely addicting for me. I could play it for hours on end, honing what little skill I had. This time around, TTT2 improves upon the gameplay of Tekken 6, not changing much of the move list (which is a good thing) and introducing the game mechanic of tagging.

TTT2 is a tag fighting game, with options to play 2 vs. 2, 2 vs. 1 or 1 vs. 1 like traditional Tekken.

With 2 vs. 2, players have the option to switch between two characters on a team, such as tag is, like wrestling. Press a button and your other character will swap out. Then you can throw down crunchy combos for maximum damage. But if you be so bold, you can combine combos between the two characters with the tagging system.

Certain moves allow players to tag their partners seamlessly to allow for more face pumping. Some people in this world are so good at this that if you get caught up in these combos, you could pretty much die from the drop of the hat. It’s a cruel world.



The online mode has been improved 10 fold. Before it would be like matching making in a FPS server where you would have to wait around until the game found you a match, granted you still have to wait for the search to complete, but while you’re waiting you get put in practice. I’m all for this. It’s a great way to kill time and to loosen up before your next online match.

But if you prefer, you can create lobbies where other online players can connect to depending on your search criteria like, I only wanna play against people who don’t have microphones and people who live in my region.

Region selecting helps with lag issues. You don’t wanna play against some dude located in London, too far away, so the connection between matches might not be so nice. Which leads me to my next point, in Tekken 6, the lag online was so bad. Lag does not fly in fighting games.

Tekken is based on timing, and with lag throwing you off, you could be in the middle of something, next thing you know you’re dead. Not rad.

TTT2 definitely fixed the latency issues. Even in online matches where I would have full bars, my timing would still be off. Totally not my fault.

There are also a slew of little things that I love in this game. So I’ve made a list.

• Your move list can be locked on screen when practicing moves; you can also traverse through it while in game play. So you don’t have to pause the game, go down a few paces, select the command list, open it up, find the move you were working on, memorize it, then try it out. A little cumbersome I’d think
• There are also little icons that indicate what type of moves do what in the command list. Such as, “you can do a seamless tag swap out with this move” or “this move is a ground smash”, just little things like that.
• You can throw in your own soundtrack in this game. So if you don’t wanna listen to the in game music, you can upload your own playlist and have so and so song play in so and so stage.
• They put back the regular arcade mode. 9 stages, 3 boss fights, that kinda thing. Tekken 6 had just a never ending arcade mode where you would fight and fight and nothing would get accomplished. No ending movie, you had to unlock that elsewhere.

Yeah I’m kind of swooning over this game, it’s basically the only game that I’ve been looking forward to in the past few months.

What I didn’t like.

Load screens are still prevalent in this game. Granted the wait is still a little less, but having to load up everything, every time, is a bit annoying.

This will probably be something very minute to most people, but in the character customization mode, nobody has their own unique hair options. Everybody has the same select hair types. I want my Kazuya to have a pompadour. Now he can’t get it anymore. How am I supposed to strike fear into other players if my Kazuya doesn’t look like this?

The tag combo system is very tricky to get used to. Having to switch your mindset to each characters move list is taxing. It’s probably just me, but if I’m playing a character for a bit and I switch to another character, I’m still trying to do moves that my previous character has, but the commands won’t register with my current character. Basically I’m just flailing around until I realize I’m somebody else.

Fighting games are definitely not everybody’s cup of tea. But if you’ve been keeping up with Tekken, this is definitely one to pick up. It basically improves everything about Tekken 6, which was already a swell game.

Most might think fighting games are just a bunch of idiots button mashing to win, but actually they’re amazingly in-depth. More so, you wouldn't think it, but I Tekken easier to play than Street Fighter, which is extremely technical. Ask my brother if you run into him. That’s his jam.

If you are interested in fighting games but don’t really know if you could commit, check this one out anyways. You can still rent video games at Hi-Tech Game Traders. But like all things, practice practice practice.

Fighting games are fun and competitive, they don’t make me wanna take my PS3 and suplex it through a table off the top turn buckle, unlike FPS games.

But if you don’t give two hoots about fighting games then carry on.

HS x VG: Sleeping Dogs

Sleeping Dogs, a title formally known as True Crime: Hong Kong.

After Activision had pulled the plug on True Crime 3, Square Enix took the reins, with United Front Games on the development side of things.

Sleeping Dogs is something of an open world, good cop, bad cop game. You play as Wei Shen, an undercover cop who must infiltrate the Sun On Yee, a Hong Kong triad gang, and rise in ranks in order to take them down.

But like all undercover cases in video games, Wei Shen becomes emotionally invested.

This game is basically "Donnie Yen: The Official Video Game"

What I did Like.

Despite this game taking place in Hong Kong, much of the dialogue is scripted in English. That being said, the makers of this game definitely didn’t forget about the Hong Kong fact. Much of the word play was a mixture between English and Cantonese, (don’t worry there were subtitles) at times it did seem a bit forced, but eventually you got used to it.

With the Cantonese, it definitely did help with the feel of the game. Much of the interaction with characters in the game was in English, but as you are running around on the streets, everybody speaks Cantonese.

The voices behind this game were all notable actors. Emma Stone, Kelly Hu, Lucy Liu, James Hong, even Robin Shou (Liu Kang from the Mortal Kombat movies). All solid voice actors, and you can really tell.

I’ve never been to Hong Kong before, but this game seemed to me that it did a bang up job on capturing the environment.

From the posh downtown to the seedy areas, all in a compact world.

You will probably read a lot of reviews mentioning that this game is a GTA clone. And technically it is, but it definitely feels like all the good parts in a GTA game. It’s a combination of Yakuza and GTA in which you have the environment and gameplay of GTA and the fighting mechanics of Yakuza.

While brawling in Yakuza, you utilize the environment a lot. The same went for Sleeping Dogs, albeit, it’s probably five times more brutal. You can grab a guy, drag him to a fan and chuck him into it then watch him get sliced up. My favourite one had to be throwing a guy onto a pallet of swordfish heads. Rugged.

The music in the game was quite good, for it did a great job on capture moods. Not much else you can really hope for with music. I suppose there was the radio as well, a few channels that ranged from Classical Chinese music to UK dance music to classic rock. Different strokes for different folks.

There a few things you can do in this game aside from missions. If it peeks your interest, you can go to a bar and sing karaoke songs or you can find a local street race and win some cash or participate in a fight club.

The story was quite surprising. I didn’t think it would too substantial, but it was the main reason why I kept playing. Like all good games should be. It reminded me of a good Chinese movie. And I’m a damn sucker for Chinese movies.

What I didn’t like.

My inner traditionalist kind of wishes that this game would have been completely Cantonese, with the odd exception of Wei Shen speaking English to his cop subordinates from Interpol, but alas it wasn’t. When they meshed the Cantonese into the English speaking Triad members, it felt really forced.

Pardon my language.

“Dogeyes? He’s a pok guy. That lok chat is worse than puk gai.”

With subtitles on you will see this.

“Dogeyes? He’s a (mother fucker). That (cock) is worse than (shit).”

But luckily, it doesn’t take away from the game too much. You get used to it, and I’m just glad that they kept the Cantonese aspect in the game.

A lot of the side missions were extremely repetitive. Mucho chase sequences, whether it be in cars or on foot. After a while it got pretty old. The first times around it’s a rather exhilarating. Shooting a car while it explodes in slo-mo then jumping from your car to another car to hi-jack it. Not too shabby. But after doing it for 15 times in a row, you get kinda tired of it.

The fighting mechanics in this game took a lot of getting used to. I was still sorta stuck on the Yakuza game play, where it would be: square for attacks and triangle for heavy attacks, but this one it’s square for attacks and hold square for heavy attacks and triangle is counter.

First time around I was jamming square and at the end of the combo I’d hit triangle expecting a heavy attack combo finisher, but what it actually does is, it puts Wei Shen into a defense kinda mode where he will pose, waiting for a baddy to hit you. But if the baddy doesn’t hit you at the right time, it just leaves you open for attack. Kinda sucky.

But like the Cantonese and English meshing, you got used to it. Actually after a while, it wasn’t so bad. I was kinda salty at dying all the time because I was screwing everything up. But as your skills got better, you become unstoppable.

If you’re looking for a game that is something new, definitely check out Sleeping Dogs. It’s not too long of a game if you just do the story, but if you are a completionist and wanna do everything, there’s no doubt in my mind that this game could range up to 30+ hours.

This game does a spot on job on capturing the fictitious seedy world of Hong Kong triads, and it more or less feels like you’re playing a movie. You won’t wanna turn off the game until you figure out the next piece to the story and in my mind that alone is worth the purchase.



Bonus because I like this trailer:

Let's Chat: Video Game Magazines

Today it was announced that Nintendo Power would cease publication sometime later this year. Prior to Nintendo Power, another video game magazine closed its doors after a 22 year run, GamePro.

Video game magazines have been steadily declining in sales, there’s no lie there, but how long will it be before magazines in general become completely obsolete?

The first telltale sign to me that video game magazines were becoming a thing of a past was when EGM (Electronic Gaming Monthly) ceased publication for the first time. This was the magazine. I bought every issue, every month for as long as I can remember.

When I heard that they were shutting down, I was kinda bummed out. I’m not sure what it is about magazines that I like so much. I rather read my gaming news from a magazine rather than online.

But online is just so much more instantaneous. This is essentially the reason why these video game magazines are shutting down.

Before the big internet boom, the only way to figure out anything about video games was through magazines. It’d be a little blurb, some screenshots, some quotes. And that was just a slight taste that would get you hyped.

Today, it’s bloody information overload. Kinda defeats the mysticism of a video game.

Not that it even matters since 70% of video games are copies of each other, but that’s something for another time.

You can watch trailers for games, gameplay demos, watch fan made analyses of gameplay trailer one, interviews, conferences, everything, all online.

And since everybody has the internet, information is easier to get out there. Fans can get updated by their favourite companies whenever the company wants to release info as opposed to having to wait a month to figure out more info on so and so game.

Call me old fashion, but video game magazines gave me something to look forward to every month. Now if I wanna find something out, I can just Google it.

Now that I think about it, I guess this is something of a first world problem huh?

I guess I’m just going to have to cave and buy a tablet or something. Gotta kill time in the bathroom somehow.

But, what do you think? Should magazines go or stay?

Get at us below. Or you can e-mail us at hellosaskatoon@gmail.com

Saskatoon Blitz!

On June 9th, SLLAG (Saskatoon Love Love Anime Group) is putting on this event. It will be taking place at the Saskatoon Inn. Here you can check out things to do with comics, anime, games, sci-fi and all of that other geeky stuff! This convention can cater up to 1 500 people and there will also be special guests.

This is how pricing works:

It costs $30 for an adult or $42 for a VIP pass. The VIP ticket includes early entry, special seating and extra autograph sessions. There is even a VIP Exclusive option that costs $129 but includes a private brunch at Botanica with the special guests the next morning. Children under the age of five are free with an adult. Children under 10 cost $20 with an adult.

You can purchase tickets online or in Saskatoon at Unreal City, 8th Street Books and Comics, Amazing Stories and Next Level.

I've always wanted to experience Comic Con. Dress up like your favourite character and check it out!

Love the North

Diablo III

I spent about nine years off and on playing the second Diablo. To this day it was the most addicting. I spent my time slowly getting wealthy and made Godly whirlwind barbarian vs barbarian characters and uber smiters to reward myself with torches and the Anni. I am honestly worried about the third one coming out. It should be a lot of fun, but I am going to try and wait a bit until I buy it. What are your thoughts on this game finally releasing?



Love the North

HS x VG: Dark Souls

Note: I accidentally published the incomplete review early. This is the full review.

Another game review that's a little late on the draw. Normally reviews review a game roughly in the same month it was released, this is a bit unorthodox and I can explain. The reason why this review is technically late is because it's Dark Souls.

Just so you know, I am trying my hardest to refrain from swearing whilst writing this review. You will understand in a bit.

If you've heard anything about this game, it's that it does not care about you, it hates your stupid face and it wishes you were dead. It wants you to realize that you're an idiot for spending money on this frustratingly horribly hard game. But this is good. It's good because nowadays video games hold your hand too much. Name one game in the past year that doesn't have some sort of regenerating health bar or ammo every second corner, or some sort of upgrade that will help you win everything and become obscenely over powered throughout the entire game.

It's every game.

Okay, maybe not every game, but a lot of games.

This game is the exact opposite.

Dark Souls is the spiritual successor to Demon's Souls but not a direct sequel. It has a very minimal plot that is more explained by talking to the NPCs (Non-Player Characters) rather than cut scenes and even then, everything is left up to the player's interpretations. I won't lie to you, I had no idea what this game was about.

All I know is that I played a human who had died and the world I traverse, humans who have died will eventually turn hollow, essentially a thoughtless, violent undead being. You then learn of the prophecy of the chosen undead that escapes from the Undead Asylum will be the one that liberates the oppressed undead from the age of fire. Low and behold, that's you, because you escaped from the Undead Asylum. Which was the first stage of the game. Yeah.

Anyways the plot isn't what matters.

What I Did Like.

I thoroughly enjoyed the gameplay, it was quite addicting. Usually in most games, everybody hates grinding (running around killing things to gain experience to level up). I hate grinding. A lot. But thanks to the gameplay, grinding wasn't too much of an issue.

Also the nice thing with grinding was that the monsters you kill will always be in the exact same spot. If you make a round trip, run up a hill, kill so and so monster, you can head back to a bonfire, the bonfire respawns the exact same monsters in the exact same spots, rinse and repeat, so on so forth. Eventually it becomes a method that you just get used to. Tedious, but I never noticed.

The controls were basic enough. The top buttons control what's in your hands. Left top buttons control what's in your left hand and the right top buttons control what's in your right hand. You also got your standard move, sprint, action button, item use buttons, etc. Why complicate that?

The bonfire system is something of a throwback to old school video games. Bonfires are more or less safe zones in which here you can level up your character's stats, store away items, warp to other bonfires, etc. On that note, if your character dies, he/she will be warped back to the last bonfire they sat at.

This can be a gift or a curse in that these bonfires are checkpoints. You can be running along for what seems like hours and if you make it far, die, you will be transported back to the last previous bonfire. Similarly, if you've been running around and you come across a bonfire, it's a bloody miracle on 34th street.

The levelling system is reliant on souls. You obtain souls from killing monsters, as you proceed in the game, monsters become stronger thus dropping more souls. On the flip side, souls are also the currency in this game. So with the amount of souls you gained, you have to choose on whether or not you wanna save them up to level up further or to buy crucial items.

I liked this idea because it added to the sense of urgency in this game, everything was a bloody decision in this game that could either be something great or lead to your imminent rage quit.

If you die, whatever souls you had collected become lost and the only way you can retrieve those souls is if you return to the exact location you died at. Granted if you die again, the souls in your previous death location will be lost and you will have to start from zero.

But if you got some souls while going to your old souls, the souls will be retrievable at the spot you last died. It's on going like that. Many-a-times I've wanted to jump out my window and rob a bank because I lose a substantial amount of souls. But it's all in good fun right?

This game throws you immediately into the dumps. The only tutorials you receive are little hints on the ground that only tell you the button schemes on the controller. "R1 to attack" or "Hold O to sprint". The rest is up to you to figure out. Honestly.

If you have online capabilities with your Xbox 360 or PS3 (very soon PC), other players can leave hints on the ground that you can read. Granted they are quite vague and most of the time you'll have to make a judgement call on whether or not these hints are credible.

E.g. you will see a hint at the edge of a cliff that will simply say "Try Jumping". Should you? Maybe it's a secret path to some treasure. Chances are it's some bloody tosser sitting in his dank basement dropping these hints to get a chuckle. Never again will I listen to hints by a cliff.

I'd like to think that Dark Souls gives us a fresh take on the whole fantasy world. I'm talking about monsters, weapons, armours, environments, etc. Every time I find new things in this game, I always manage to utter something out of my useless mouth and for a game to make me actually talk while playing is a rare feat. Granted half the time it's just non-sense with swears jumbled in there.

Like this thing:

God that's creepy.

Once in a while you'll run into hints that say "Gorgeous View". If you take moment to just take a look at the landscape, it's rather breathtaking.

With the vagueness of the plot, there's really no back story with any of the areas you traverse. Maybe I'm the only one, but I wanted to know the story of each place. One part you're in some crappily lit Mordor looking hell hole, next you're taking an elevator to a castle. Why? WHY? Why are these places connected? But of course, Dark Souls doesn't care about your feelings and it's not here to sate your curiosity.


But probably what tops it all is the world you're in. Although there is no map to guide you anywhere in the game, you learn to traverse this world solely by memorization. Every area is connected one way or another and it's beautifully done. You might be running in an unfamiliar area and when you open up a door, it might lead to somewhere that you know and with that, you know where the bonfire is located. It's like a well oiled machine.

What I Didn't Like.

Off the bat. I hate the online players. I've mentioned this several times, but this game is unforgiving. It allows the ability for other players to "invade your world" engaging you in pvp (player vs. player). 89.5% of the time the guy is some ridiculously powerful player that absolutely crushes you in a few swings. Once defeated the user takes all your souls and gains humanity. Granted you can return to your point of death and retrieve your souls. So that's nice.

But there were so many bloody times where I've been invaded / inconvenienced by these guys. I just wanna get my souls back, but no, you gotta come in my world, crap in my pool and leave. I hate all of you.

Granted the only time other players can invade your world is if you are human. Your character has two states, "undead" or "human". Majority of the game you'll be parading around undead. There are really only two benefits of being human and those are: you can "kindle your estus flasks" meaning you can up the limit of number of health potions you carry and you can summon other players to help you on your journey. Summoning other players helps a lot, especially with the bosses.

At times when I'm getting reamed on by enemies, I need to drink my potions and I swear to god that my character never registers the fact that he needs to heal when I press the "use item" button. So in a frenzy I jam on the □ button to heal. Finally when the stupid guy figures it out, he chugs everything. I only wanted one. Now you have no more potions and you're gonna die anyways.

Similar things happen while rolling to dodge attacks. I only wanna roll once, but the character tends to roll twice, thus draining my stamina, thus unable to block, thus taking damage, thus dying, thus losing all my souls, thus freaking out.

Boss fights drove me up the wall as well. I'm used to the whole notion that spamming attacks at the boss' face will kill it. Unfortunately that's not the case. It will take several tries to figure out how to kill a boss. Some boss fights are just a puzzle. Some are just attack to win. After a while you grow a sort of paranoia when entering a new area. You never know what's around the corner. But I suppose one can argue that this is a good thing, because too many video games with bosses are simply "press X to win". True. This point is morally grey.

Every time I ran into this thing, I trembled in fear and anger.

If you're dissatisfied with the difficulty levels of video games nowadays, this game is for you. If you like to be hit for sexual gratification, this game is likely for you as well. It's truly a beautiful game that requires the player's patience in order to recognize this as a wonderfully put together game. Hell, it's taken me three tries to get into this game. After realizing the character class that I had chosen was the hardest one, I re-did the game with a slightly easier class and that did the trick. I love this game. I would honestly say that this is one of the best games I've played all year.

HS x VG: Mass Effect 3

The final chapter of the Mass Effect trilogy.

This series that has been very near and dear to my heart. The feeling I got when I first beat Mass Effect 1 must have been the same feeling people got when they first saw Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope.

It opened my mind and legitimately made me wonder what else was out there in the stars. It's very rare for anything to do that to me especially since I'm so apathetic to most things.

The story to Mass Effect 3 begins as the Reapers begin their destruction of Earth. Commander Shepard, the protagonist of the series, must run around and unite the races of the galaxy to help him take back Earth and ultimately stop the Reapers from destroying all of the galaxy.

A rather cliché sci-fi sounding story, I know, but there's much more to it all.

What I did like.

The story is phenomenal. The whole schtick with the ME series is that as you are playing, you are making choices. Choices that will directly influence every outcome of the game. That being said, the choices you had made in the previous games (if you had carried over your saves) will ultimately decide the outcome of the story.

It's basically "Choose Your Own Adventure: The Video Game".

As the series progresses you will run into people that you had helped out in the previous game. ME3 did that perfectly. A lot of "OOOHH DIIIPPPP" moments. Seemingly everybody had to make a grand entrance in this game and I ate it all up.

The gameplay was A+. If you've played Mass Effect 2, you will know that the gameplay was a huge improvement from Mass Effect 1. The gameplay in ME3 felt like ME2 but perfected. With all the amount of gun fights in this game, I couldn't even imagine what it'd be like with the ME1 gameplay. Aside from the 3rd person view, it had the same feel as a 1st person shooter.



During some of the fights there would be cut-scenes which were virtually seamless. Even the little things such as, you're running through a field and a big explosion drops infront of you, instead of you just running through it like a sweet tough guy, Shepard will react to it. Once again, the little things.

Comparatively to ME1, the inventory system has been refined even more. ME1's inventory system was ultimate butt. There was no such thing as filtering in it. It was just a giant list of rubbish you had to traverse through just to find so-and-so thing to add to so-and-so gun. ME3's system was simply: use money, upgrade gun, find parts, upgrade gun stats. Not hard at all.

The graphics in ME3 haven't changed too much since ME2, which isn't a bad thing. The only thing worth noting though are the face lifts given to the characters.

I'm horrible with describing things so here's a picture



The model remains the same, but there's been more depth added.

What I Didn't Like.

In Mass Effect 3, they found it necessary to add a multiplayer mode in it. It's true that Bioware had always planned for Mass Effect to have a multiplayer mode in it but it almost seemed unnecessary. Not everything has to have multiplayer in it.

I liked the Mass Effect series because it was heavily based around the fact that it was a single player game. You do not see this too often anymore. Everything and their dog has to have some sort of multiplayer mode in it. The gameplay of Mass Effect 3 was excellent, but for shooting at AI, not other people.

During the playthrough of the game I had to switch the disc a lot. Normally this would be a huge problem if the Xbox 360 was on the other side of the room. But since I went hyper introvert mode with this game, I hooked up my Xbox 360 to my computer monitor so the console was exactly to my left.

With disc changing, I'm used to doing it when I get to a certain point in a game, exactly what old PSX RPG games did (e.g. SquareSoft/SquareEnix games). It seems they just did this to allocate certain missions onto which ever disc had the capacity to hold it which is understandable if you want to it all without having to trim the fat.



In the end, call me a fanboy if you want, but there wasn't much that I didn't like with this game. I could almost say that this game is near perfection for me, besides the obvious. If you follow any sort of gaming blog they will all note that the ending left many people unsatisfied. I would be one of those people.

But for the sake of a spoiler free review I will not go into that. That being said, do not let that scare you away from this game. I highly highly highly recommend that you play this game.

For those who would like to pick this game up without playing the first and second ones, it's recommended that you play those first so that you can have a character that you can carry throughout the series. It makes the story of this game much more enjoyable.

But if you're simply looking for a game just to play and are not concerned with the story, this will do it for you. Although it will be sort of like watching Return of the Jedi without watching A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back. It's a good movie on its own, but it may be a tad confusing.

The Mass Effect series is a labour of love that begs you to play the first two. With all the character development and the back stories, to get the full effect of ME3, you would be silly not to play the other two in my opinion.

You might think "oh I missed the ship on this game." but it's never too late. Mass Effect 1 and 2 are both excellent games in their own regards. I could pick up either of those games on a whim and be content with it.

I'm sad to see this series end, but I am more than content to be apart of this grand journey.

HS x VG: The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

Oh boy. Put your reading glasses on for this one.

So maybe a review of this video game is a little late seeing as it came out in November, but regardless it's here. Also I'm not gonna lie, I'm not completely done this game. But I've clocked in 100+ hours already so I think I can say a few things about it.

I picked this up for Xbox 360, I did a graphics comparison before I went out and aside from PC, Xbox 360 was the winner. Sorry PS3, you know I love you. Besides my Xbox 360 could use more games, it's turning into a $300.00 Mass Effect playing machine.

Skyrim is huge and I mean that in every sense. Frankly it baffles me how they managed to stuff all this into one disc. From the lush environments to whatever it is that you're wielding. This game is huge.

It is a *gasp* open world first person action role-playing game *exhale*. It is as it sounds. You run around in an open world, doing quests (either main story quests or miscellaneous other quests for people) while killing things with swords or magic or whatever tickles your spine.

The short of it is: Skyrim is in turmoil after the murder of Imperial High King Torygg by Ulfric Stormcloak, leader of the rebel faction the Stormcloaks. You take on the role of Dragonborn, or Dovahkiin in the Dragon language, who is currently on his/her's way to their execution. As you are about to get your head chopped off, a big silly, thought to be extinct, dragon interrupts allowing you to flee with either a Stormcloak soldier named Ralof or an Imperial Soldier by the name of Hadvar. Whichever you choose, the path to revealing that you are the legendary Dragonborn is revealed by the prophecy foretold in the Elder Scrolls.

And that would have to be the geekiest synopsis I have ever written for anything ever.

So off the bat.

What I did like.

Being a Fallout 3 and New Vegas fan, this game played like a dream. If you've played Halo or Call of Duty or anything of the sort like that, you'll pick this game up, no problem. That's how well it plays.

The graphics are stunning, I could run around in awe for hours. So much attention to details. What I particularly liked was the skies. Not many games care about the skies, but the skies in Skyrim were dynamic.


Depending on what was going on in the sky, you will notice on the ground just by the lighting it casts. Over casts gave the land a dreary look, moonlight from the dark sky lit everything up like radioactivity, sunlight beamed across the land and you could see for what seemed like miles. It's the little things you know?

If you've played Oblivion or know of it at least, you'll know that this game is a complete graphical overhaul in the Elder Scrolls series. Honestly, Oblivion looked like butt. Take a look below.



Oblivion, everybody looks like crayons that were moulded to sorta look like "people". So yeah, Skyrim graphics are cripsy.

The whole lore behind The Elder Scrolls world is massive. If something counts as a noun then chances are it has a story behind it. The last game I found to be this in depth was Mass Effect and even then, Mass Effect's lore is only a mere fraction compared to The Elder Scrolls. Mind you I have never played any of the other Elder Scrolls games, but I've read a crap load about them. You could probably fill a bookshelf with all of it.

I love the sense of adventure in this game. This point I can't really explain, it's just something different. Just accept it.

After +100 hours, I still haven't completed the main story of this game. There is just so much to do. I could see myself playing this game for another 100 hours to be honest, and I don't have a problem with that.

What I didn't like.

My last point I said there was much to do. Well in this point I'm saying there is too much to do. Honestly.

Scenario, I'm running from one town to another town because a quest requires me to. When I get to the new town, everybody wants you to solve their stupid problems.

"There are too many skeletons in the mines. Please kill them all."
"I need 10 bear pelts because I hate bears."
"I really like old swords, get me one."

So I oblige to all these townsfolk, because I get sidetracked easy. By the time you're done all these quests, things are way different from when you first entered the town/city. You're the leader of a guild, you're wearing new stuff and everybody loves you. What was the original quest you were doing? Who cares, probably wasn't important.

A lot of these quests tend to get very repetitive. I had to take a break from this game because I simply got bored of it, granted I'm back into it and I still enjoy it a lot.

It's all "go in a dungeon, kill things, get something, return it to someone, get something else, bring it to this person". It just keeps going and going. All this wouldn't be so bad if the game didn't have to load every time I opened a door or fast travelled.

The loading gets painful after a while. When you traverse all of Skyrim, you discover points that get marked down on your map and the quickest way to get around is "fast travelling" which is essentially, pick a point on the map, go there. If I fast travel to some place where I wanna buy a sword or something, I go, load screen, run for ten seconds, open a door, load screen, talk to the guy, buy my thing, leave, load screen, fast travel back to wherever, load screen. I read more facts about the world of Skyrim than I actually get to play.



In Skyrim you get companions and companions hurt my feelings. As you run around Skyrim you run into people that can follow you on your adventure. They do help out a bit, but they tend to get in the way more often. Most of the time they pick fights you don't need/want.

If I'm running around and I just want to get to the next town because I'm hurting or out of potions I don't need a fight. But of course a dragon will appear out of thin air and of course your companion has to start shooting arrows at the damn thing. Since it's a dragon, you get done up right quick and you gotta load back to your last save point, which may have been an hour ago.

Companions also have this tendency to just vanish. At some point you'll forget that you had a companion and when you look around for him/her, they're nowhere to be found. Sometimes you give them things to hold onto, because they're essentially pack mules with swords, and when you need a certain thing from them, they're gone. Chances are they're dead because they picked a fight with a bear. So say good bye to all that hot loot you found you think you may need because this game shaped you into a hoarder.

The menu system took me a while to get a hang of. It's separated into two menus. The one menu is your personalization, that includes your inventory (weapons, armour, etc.), your skills set, your magic and your map. The other menu has your quests and options. It is a bit cumbersome to go between the two menus all the time. I found it unnecessary to put quests in a different menu. If they had thrown the quests into the first menu, I would've been a happy camper.

Case and Point

Alright it seems that I knock on this game more than I actually like it and truthfully I could keep going on and on about the flaws because frankly it's easier to complain than to say something nice.

What I'm trying to get at is, the cons of this game are so miniscule, you only notice them because you've clocked in 100+ hours and it's 4AM and you're tired. But nevertheless you're up at 4AM playing a wonderfully crafted video game, that is simply beautiful and exciting to play.

This is a bloody awesome game, I'd almost say the best I've played in 2011 and 2012 and it sets the standards high for any other games that are coming out in 2012.

Should you go out and buy it? By the Eights, yes. You won't be disappointed.

Nostalgia Moment: Metal Gear Solid 2

I recently picked up the Metal Gear Solid HD Collection for Playstation 3 (also available on Xbox 360) from our local video game one-stop-shop Hi Tech Gametraders. Lucky break for me, Hi Tech had, what seemed to me, the last copy in the entire city.

I'm having a killer time going through MGS2 again. It's nice to play now that I'm older and can comprehend things better. When I first played MGS2 I was only 12, it was a fun game at the time, but I had no idea what the hell was going on. Even now, I'm learning more stuff about the MGS story than I ever did during my Nth play through. But damn can I still speed run through this game.

This fun pack comes loaded with HD re-releases of Metal Gear Solid 2, Metal Gear Solid 3 and Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker which was originally released on the Playstation Portable.

If you wanna get technical, the Metal Gear Solid 2 game is the Substance version, which includes the MGS2 game and hours (I'm talking like 50+ hours) of extras, which ranges from challenges to non-canon stories all of which are a challenge and a boat load of fun.

Metal Gear Solid 3 is the Subsistence version, which includes MGS3 with the updated camera handling and Metal Gear 1 and 2, albeit it does not include the original Metal Gear Online, Snake Vs. Monkey game mode or Secret Theater mode.

For $40 some dollars it basically pays for itself.

Never has any set of games have such rich storyline and consistent gameplay which remain true to its nature but improve as the series progresses.

As for Metal Gear Solid 1, you can obtain that through the PSN network, unfortunately for Xbox 360 owners, you will have to find other means to play it, or you can read the Wikipedia article on it or something.

Although if you own a Gamecube or Wii, run out and get MGS: The Twin Snakes. It's MGS1 that plays like MGS2 and from personal experience, it's a bloody good game. Frankly it was the only game that I played on Gamecube.

So if you were ever interested in the MGS series, now is the time.

And just get it from Hi Tech Gametraders. Support local.