So, I finished Ratchet & Clank Future a few days ago, and I must say I was pretty satisfied with the experience overall. If you want my complete thoughts on the game, I highly recommend you check out the review I did for the site I freelance for.
My current endeavor, which I'm also reviewing, is:
Obviously, I'm not playing the PS2 version. I'm playing the newly released Rez HD for XBLA. I'm absolutely loving it so far, and it's a steal at 800 points. I've "finished" it multiple times already, but I'm still in the process of unlocking stage 5. Even though I've "finished" the game multiple times, that doesn't mean much. This isn't a game that's about completion, it's about the experience. It has a great soundtrack with booming, bassy songs that power out of the system which, along with the vibration (with up to four controllers ;)) really get you into the game. I hope to have my review of it up sometime soon, so look for that in the next couple of days.
On top of Rez HD, I picked up Sonic 2 for XBLA with the extra points left on my Live account. It's quite a flashback to when I was a kid. While I did has an NES, the Genesis was the first system I really owned a good amount of games for. Even as a kid, I had about 30 games for that system, until my parents randomly threw them out:(. They said something along the lines of "You don't play them anymore, you have newer systems!". Apparently, to them, games go bad or something. Ugh, I don't get them sometimes. What would they say if I threw out some of their old DVDs and said "You haven't watched them for 2 years!"? Oh well, people who play games just don't "get it", so why even bother. So where was I? Oh yeah, Sonic 2! Even though I owned a ton of games for the Genesis, Sonic 2 was probably my most played. The only other game that really came close was X-men 2. Sonic still hold up, and it's gameplay is as great as I remember it. What's even better is, the soundtrack is better than I remember it being. The music for the Chemical Plant and Casino Night zones are incredible, as is most of the music throughout the game. It's too bad Sega has lost it's touch with music. Some of these tracks can rival some of the great Mario themes of the past. all in all, well worth the 400 points a sank into it on a whim. I was going to choose Streets of Rage 2, but I figured Sonic 2 would get more play. What do you guys think, did I make the right choice?
Oh, I guess I should mention I'm still playing Blue Dragon, and I still think it's worth a look. It's not the best JRPG there is, but it's still very good, in my opinion. I think a lot of people get into this habit of thinking games that don't live up to the hype are immediately "bad". Just because it isn't the next Chrono Trigger, that doesn't mean it's a terrible game, know what I mean? Anyway, I talked about BD last time, so I'll just wrap this up.
I plan on going back to Yakuza very soon. I was really enjoying it. It's just that, I feel like since I'm trying to get my skills up as a writer, and I'm trying to get bigger, better freelance work, I should be focusing on reviewing recent games. I'm trying to get a groove going of reviewing at least a game every 2 or so weeks, and if I keep this game ADD up, I won't be able to hold up to that. I'm going back to school in the fall for three years to take English so I can become a journalist (hopefully in games). I don't want to waste a huge time and money investment because I wanted to play a ton of games at once for the hell of it. I need to have more discipline than that if I want to make it into the industry, and I think I'm finally ready to make that much of a commitment. Anyway, enough jabbering about my boring attempts to become a Game Journalist.
As always, comments are greatly appreciated, and pretty much any question asked, whether by PM or commenting, will be answered. I'm out for the night!
Also, I'm still playing Blue Dragon, and it's going well. Nothing really new to report on that front.