Xenogears on the PS1. Meant to be an awesome game. Put in 5 hours so far ([UPDATE]: Played another hour) and I am very very bored. Rated 9.0 by GS and praised very vocally by fans of the game I thought I'd give it a try, and suffice to say, this game has seriously shaken my interest in rpgs. Its not until I started playing Xenosaga today has my faith in rpgs been slightly rekindled, though I've only played an hour so far, thus far so I'm reserving judgement. Will I end up selling almost half of my PS2 rpg library (namely all 3 Xenosagas, Grandia 1 and 3, Suikoden V, StarOcean 3and DragonQuest VIII)? We shall see. I'll definitely keep the big hitters though like FF XII because I'm almost guaranteed to enjoy that and Tales of the Abyss + Legendia since I loved TOS on the GC.

I'm trying to put my finger on why I found Xenogears boring. Is it the needlessly endless and pointless waffle that makes up the game's dialogue? It is a very text heavy game so that might be the problem, however I am extremely fond of the Phoenix Wright games so this text volume is not a factor. What it is then is the terrible script and dialogue that drags on for AGES, making a point that could fill a very badly written novel instead of just a few lines. This is not a case of "Oh Amir's just being impatient and doesn't want to read a bit when playing a game" - I cringed atmost of the character exchanges I've encountered so far. And that brings me on to my next point: Characters. Very bland and boring. Sure it's personal taste but none of the characters stood out to me and I couldn't Identify with any of them (again part of the problem is the writing which makes it hard to identify with them since their situations are so poorly written, presented and scripted). The reason I'm finding Xenosaga's 1st hour quite intriguing is because I like the way the characters look and I want to learn more about them (mainly KOS-MOS).

The second major problem is that I don't think the game has been tested and streamlined properly. There are annoying load times for entering all buildings (even 1 room!)and even when exiting a menu screen it pauses for a few seconds. A small thing yes. A small thing that you encounter frequently? That makes it a big deal. Also in several areas you can't see you character becuase he is blocked by buildings and other features (rotating the camera doesn't help), and in general the areas are very confusing with little reference points making it hard to find your way around.

Another problem is that the battles are not exciting (though it is innovative). I like the look of Xenosagas battles more already. Maybe its because its a PS1 game but I'm sure I remember FF 7, 8 and 9's battles to be far more exciting (I only played them last summer).

And finally my last problem with the game: God of War II and my dear friend Kratos. He stole MrT's tank, drove over my disk and then started throwing Snickers bars at it:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NySN_plfiNI Don't worry there is a point to this (apart from the awesomeness of that link). In GOW2, during the first 5 hours I'd battled with a massive colossus, escaped from the pits of Hades, rode on giant horses, traversed into a hidden temple and mused with Titans. During the first 5 hours of Xenogears, I've ran from my village, walked through a forest, walked through a desert, entered a city, some dialogue, walked through the desert again, dialogue, fell through the desert, walked and talked some more, fought an insect, dialogue. old man said hello, more dialogue,and then some more dialogue, find out where missing girl is dialogue. (Even after all the dialogue there is actually very little story so far. Just goes to show how pointless most of it is).

I know I haven't finished the game but I can bear it no longer. My gaze shifts to my shelf as I play and sees so many wonders and potential in games I've yet to play. It wonders back to the tv and I find myself wanting to turn it off. Its off to ebay soon.

6.5/10

Response: http://objection.mrdictionary.net/go.php?n=2057693

Reply: http://objection.mrdictionary.net/go.php?n=2057704

With regard to God of War II what can I say? Amazing visuals, great voice-acting, the most badass character ever conceived, intriguing plot, I love Greek mythology (I love it even more when they play around with it) and satisfying combat. If you have a PS2, you owe it to yourself to get it (get the first game first though if you haven't played it!)

9.5/10

Now onto E3. The Microsoft press conference starts at 4:30 am on Wednesday here in the UK! I'll probably be getting up for it, I can't bear reading through all the announcements afterward. Lucky for me the other 2 conferences are held on the same day later on in the evening (about 5pm for Nintendo and 7:30pm for Sony). Still there are the developer conferences as well that also start at ridiculous times in the night. Won't be getting much sleep these next two days (yes you read right, in the UK, E3 will only last 2 days because a lot of the stuff happens at night and on the same day while in America it will cross over from evenings to morning etc).

What I want from E3:

PSP redesign or price drop

Games for Europe for Wii (Paper Mario and Truma Center STLL haven't arrived yet!)

Details of new360 Falcon chipset and when it will be rolling out

Another Tales of... game

A new God of War announcement

Sonic in Smash Bros Brawl

More on the new Phoenix Wright game and a release date for the 3rd one

The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from butcher bay is amazing! I just beat the game and liked it so much I feel the need to tell you - a thing which I rarely do I might add. I'm really looking forward to playing The Darkness now, and the Riddick remake when I eventually get an Xbox 360. The thing that makes the game so good is hard to describe. Part of it is the really cool character Riddick, given a really low menacing growl by Vin Diesel. Another part is the Metroid Prime level of atmosphere the game has, and the way the music changes depending on the flow of the ala Halo. The soundtrack is awesome, the production values are through the roof and ultimately, its just incredibly fun. Whats strange for an FPS game is that a lot of the time you are without a gun! So it makes stalking up behinda guard and finally getting yourself a weapon all the more satisfying. Andat the end when you get to use the heavy guard, man thatis poetic justice. Brilliant.If you have an Xbox, you have no excuse not to pick this up.

9.5/10

On another note, here are some other games I've finished recently (so far this summer):

Halo 2 - I've been playing this game along with the first with my friend in co-op but he has kept on cancelling due to being busy and since I was half way through I was desperate to finish it. I wasn't enjoying it much but as soon as I started playing it by myself I actually started enjoying it! Maybe it was because with my friend we were trying to rush through it where as on my own, I died a lot less and it was more fun since I finally learnt my own ****of FPS play. Still looking forward to playing it with my friend though, I wanna hear MC say "Finishing this fight" one more time. Since I'm late to the Xbox scene and haven't got live I've missed out on a big part of this game. I tend to prefer single player anyway, but giving the game a 9/10 wouldn't be fair considering I've missed out on quite a bit. That said, I did much prefer Riddick. Oh and I actually liked the ending of Halo 2, I don't quite understand what all the fuss about it being a badending was about.

9.5/10

Crimson Skies - I liked games like Star Fox (N64 one, not the terrible recent entries) and Rogue Squadron games so I though I'd give it ago. Nothing special, but if you like the genre then definitely pick this up. Again though, I missed out on the live component

8.5/10

Fable the Lost Chapters - I've heard this game be called a disappointment by many but I actually liked it. Maybe becuse I didn't have the big black box at the time so hype levels never affected me and I went in with my own expectations. I loved it, though it was a quality production, had great music (though storyline was maybe a bit weak) and I very much look forward to the sequel.

9/10

Beyond Good and Evil - I've heard this game called "underrated" etc by many so I decided to check it out. People said the score on GS an 8.2 or something was too low. The game deserved the score it got. It is a good game, but good is all it is, not a great game or a masterpiece like some I've heard touting. The storying line is very weak for a game that is supposedly meant to have an amazing one. Only pick up if you're a big fan of platformers/adventure games. Its a good that it is, but nothing special.

7.5/10

As you may have noticed, all these games are Xbox games. This is because my Xbox library is much smaller than my PS2 one, and the PS2 one has lots of 40h rpgs, so I though I'd concentrate on Xbox and finish all the games I have on it this summer so I can put it away. I also need to play Twilight Princess on the GC though. I might take a break from the Xbox to play either Grandia or Xenogears on the PS1 though. Pretty good so far though, 5 games completed so far - that was about as much as ALL of last summer, partly because last time I was forcing my way through Kingdom Hearts. Man I hate that game. Never again. Anyways, anyone else excited for E3? What are you excited about?

More blog posts coming at you faster than 100m sprinter on laxatives.

I'm not one to complain much about the controls of a game but quite honestly the controls for Metroid Prime: Hunters on the DS make this game completely unplayable (for me at least). I loved the Metroid games on the cube and the 2d GBA versions but this game I can offer no love. When using the stylus, its very presice if a little "slippery" but I am in PHYSICAL PAIN after only 10mins playtime! I was facing the 2nd boss the other day and I swear I thought I had crippled my hands after beating it. Switching to the duel d-pad/buttons combo didn't help much either - I am no longer in pain but now I can't aim properly! Sadly the first metroid game, heck even the first nintendo game thatIcannot enjoy at all due to controls. I've read many people praising the controls for this game, but quite honestly, I don't think FPSs work on the DS.

There are other reasons I don't like the game much (mainly because it is more "shooty" than other Metroids) but controls are the big one, so thats off to ebay.

On another note - I love boxing training! Its harder than my previous Taekwondo training and I get to punch doods in the face as an added bonus. Very therapeutical. Silat (a French martial art) is also pretty cool too (as is of course the main Jeet Kune Do I'm doing.

More blog posts coming up faster than a Ryu Shhhhrrrrrrrrrroyuken! Uppercut.

Finally got a pic of myself up, I tried to put it on the 'about me' thingy, but I couldn't resize it etc so now I'm stuck with this massive image of me greeting you - it's kinda like the beginning of Super Mario 64, only less stretchy.

Anywyays, this is just a short update, I have a two-week block of exams next week, and then one long summer in which I shall do the things I love most: Training, Eating, Reading, Playing games, and spending time with friends and family - and the two cats! So I'll post in three weeks, saying how my exams went, what I'll be reading (last Harry Potter!), how my crazy training regime is going (six-pack of doom coming up!) and what games I will be playing this summer - I have a backlog of about 25 games! And a lot of those are 40h rpgs! *Wide-eyed gasp*

Wooooooooooooooooohoooooooooooooooo! Finished 1st term of uni! I'm so happy! Its-the-holidays-and-its-time-to-play-games!!!!!

I haven't written much on GS during this 1st term and probably won't the next coz damn is my course hard! Well it is the 5th best uni in the world for engineering - but damn its hard! So yeah, I'll only blog during the holidays k doods?

Anyway, my 3 loves: Training, reading and games! Starting a new martial art in January - haven't been able to afford it till now but once I get my grant money I'm putting some of it into my savings so I can finally afford to do it! Oh yeah, more happiness - spread some love.

Read a ton of books - mostly done 2 and from uni on the train. I've read 3 Discworld novels, To kill a mockingbird, The assassin's apprentice, A storm of swords and am now reading Eragon (film and games are rubbish apparently but the book is quite good, though it is aimed at a slightly younger audience than me.

And-now-games! A big stand out during my 1st term in uni - MGS 3. This game is awesome. Not quite as shocking and good as MGS, but far more coherent than the narrative mess that was MGS 2 - I still don't understand the story in MGS 2 (what were they smoking at Konami?). Ah but MGS 3 - wow. This game felt REAL. It is far more "believable" than MGS 2 - you could almost "believe" that the events that took place actuall happened and well, I don't know what to say. A lot has already been written that my input would be meaningless, but nonetheless my opinion still counts and it is still in awe.

And now Guitar Hero. When I'm feeling stressed this is the perfect game to play. And now I am finally on hard mode! (ok, yeah u guys have been there for ages but I'm not good at rhythm games because, er...well...I have no rhythm! :P )

Of course I play a few others but these are the ones that stand out. And now for games I just can't get into.

I just can't do it. I'm sorry but FF X-2 is a mess. I've spent 10 hours on this game (possibly 20 with all the resets) trying to complete the game on 100% using about 4 guides (3 internet - Gamefaqs and 1 official guide) but I'm not having any fun. The stress of worring about 0.1% missing because you missed some tiny thing is not worth it. I want to see the full ending but IMO meticulously picking through the game at a snails pace with a fine-toothed comb is just no fun. And I don't want to put more hours in and not see the full ending. I loved FF 7, REALLY loved FF 8, loved FF 9, loved the first half of FF 10 and loathed the 2nd half of FF 10 but FF X-2 I just can't love one bit. A game should be fun. You shouldn't have to worry about details. It should be let and rip and let loose, not having a care for what you do - the opposite of real life. Playing FF X-2 felt like a full time job - not a game. Could this be the end of my love affair with the Final Fantasy series? Or will FF 12 come and give me a warm apologetic embrace come its release in Europe? Time will tell...

 Disgaea. Now I can see why people like this game - its bloody massive and you could loose 1000s of hours in it and customisation is near infinite. But it is WAY too hardcore for me. Now I like Advance wars and Fire Emblem - more universal strategy games but like I said, Disgaea is too hardcore for my tastes - anyone else feel the same way?

Dark Chronicle (Dark Cloud 2). Its funny how I always get hyped about playing Level 5 games and then end up not enjoying them at all (hope this doesn't happen with Rogue Galaxy - I really like the look of that). My problem with DC 2 is that I don't find it fun. The combat feels broken and jagged, the dugeon design is horrible, the menus and tutorials are a mess and overall, crawling through dungeon after same old dungeon is just boring. There is also very little story - little good story anyway and I need my games to either be really fun, or have a really good story - preferably both. On the plus side, the sound and graphics are very good - I love listening to the music in the game. But is this what DC 2 is like? Crawl through loads of dungeon levels and then rebuild cities? Is there anything else besides? If not, then this game is not for me.

Finally - I got an American (NTSC) PS2! I can now play all the games that a lot of you guys take for granted! Here is my list of games I bought - bear in mind that these games never/will not get released in Europe:

• Final Fantasy Tactics (ps1)
• Final Fantasy Chronicles (ps1) - chrono trigger never got released in Europe - can you believe that!?
• Chrono Cross (ps1)
• Xenogears (ps1)
• Xenosaga 1 (ps2) - They don't release Xenosaga 1 in Europe but they do release Xenosaga 2 - can you see how much we get screwed!
• Xenosaga 3 (ps2)
• Grandia 3
• Valkyrie Profile (psp) - psp is region free anyway but this game never got released in Europe.
• Valkyrie profile 2 (ps2)
• Tales of legendia (ps2) I loved TOS  on GC - so I want more tales games!
• Tales of the Abyss (ps2)

As you can see that are all RPGs - we do get most games; action and sports games do really well in Europe but RPGs don't  - only the big hitters like FF have any chance of success.

Wow, long blog and I usually hate typing and writing about stuff - especially myself. Enjoy ur Hols guys and gals - I sure am gonna enjoy mine! Stay happy and spread some love - peace out.

Starting University 2moro! Scary stuff - I've had a 4 month holiday and it's finally back to study. I'm doing Civil and Environmental Engineering at Imperial College London. Hopefully all goes well, but I need advice on the following: what clubs and societies should I join? Here is list of the ones I find interesting:

Airsoft/Paintball - run, duck, cover and shoot dudes

Anime - they've got a cinema where they screen classic anime films and the latest releases. They also have loads of manga

Archery - learn to use the bow and arrow! I could be the next Robin Hood or Legolas... 

Law - I find law kinda interesting, perhaps this could help with become an environmental lawyer or something

Mountaineering - Climb mountains etc. Sounds fun

Parachute - Jump out a plane and hurtle towards the ground at over 100mph! Exciting!

Riding - Riding a horse sounds cool *pictures myself as Aragorn in LOTR*

So what do you guys think? Which ones would you join and why?

This month for Muslims is the holy month of Ramadan which means that I'll be very thirsty, hungry and near dead for the next month. It's one of the 5 pillar of Islam, and the reason we do this is to feel what it is like to be really poor i.e. going through starvation etc. It's meant to enlighten you onto what you have, and make you appreciate the smaller things in life; and trusty me, it really works - I haven't thought about any of my life's worries for the past 13 hours except how woefully empty my stomach is.

*Sigh* I really don't like it though and I can't wait till it's over, because I can't do training during the day (which is a big thing for someone like me) so I have to wait till the evening to eat, then wait till my stomach settles, and then train at some ridiculous time in the night which makes me more tired and therefore train less (last year I went running at mid-night alot. Problem was that I had this irritating police helicopter follow me around every time I went. Suppose you can't blame them really, I mean I was running at midnight wearing a black hooded top lol :P).

Anyway, where was I? Basically I have to get up around 4:40am, eat until 5:00am, and then 14 hours of empty stomach later I can fill my belly again at 7:00pm. For 30 days. I normally wouldn't mind but it's so hard because I cannot train as much...that is until I read a quote from the famous and upcoming British boxer Amir Khan (we share the same name!): "I'm fasting. I can fast and train at the same time - it's not a problem. I can still spar during the day and I hit my opponents very hard." If Amir Khan can fast and train, then so can I! Amir, for the next month, you are my hero!

Anyone ever have something unfortunate happen on their Birthdays? Well, I’ve had quite a few:

 On my 13th Birthday I was so excited at having my friends come round (hadn’t seen them in a while) that I rode my bike round my area to try and see them coming. Unfortunately, I DID NOT see that car coming – and there goes me flying through the air LOL! Luckily I escaped with only minor bruises and a twisted ankle

 15th Birthday: It was a rehearsal for drama class, and I was lying face down on the floor for a scene scene. A girl nearby did not see me on the floor, tripped and FELL ON MY FACE. Since I was laying face down, my nose smacked on the floor hard and ooops! There goes a hell of a lot blood – my blood! This incident left me with a slightly bent nose (luckily you can only see it up close and under a certain light).

 18th Birthday (This year!): Me and my brother were practiced stick fighting (yes I’m THAT obsessive about my training that I even do it on my Birthday – it’s my idea of fun), and oh, there he goes! He slips, and his staff goes slamming right into the back of my left eye. I rolled on the floor and SCREAMED in pain. It was horrible, blood was pouring out of my eye. You know that scene in MGS2 were Solidus looses an eye in the harrier? Poorly done. Now I’m pretty tough – got kicked in the face loads of times in martial arts tournaments and I don’t even flinch – but if you loose an eye/almost loose an eye as I did, trust me, you’ll be SCREAMING in pain (not like how Solidus calmly says something like “Damn. My eye”). Anyway, I was rushed to hospital etc, and for about 2 weeks I had limited vision in my left eye. Now things are fine though; a perfect 20-20 vision.

lol, when I talk about it I find what happened to me kinda funny (yes I’m weird:P), and although I may not seem lucky, I consider myself lucky to still have a) my now perfectly fine ankle, b) a more or less an unbent nose and c) my left eye!

 Has anyone else had any unfortunate events on their birthday? If so do tell!:D

Punchie: Ah, my first punch bag, lasted me a good 4-5 years. Such a cute little thing…needed a new one though because little old punchie was get battered and bruised, and leaking sand all over my training room floor…

 In comes my second punch bag, bought at the end of last year. A 5 foot monster, all was well and good (I could practice low and high attacks due to its size) until one day (a few months later) BOOM! My fist rips a hole through the bag. For a moment, bliss: “Wow, I must be really strong!” And then alas, sorrow: “Noooooooooooooo! My new punch bag!” I can’t say why there was a loud bang that shook the rafters in my training area: I think it’s because the force of the blow build up air pressure inside the bag and it was too much too quick for the air to escape through the seams so it “boomed” as my first made a hole in it.

Anyway, I get a refund, and buy another bag – same model in fact. It is here that I get angry: I hadn’t been training for a month due to exams, and one day I get up from study and decided to just hit it a bit. A loud ripping noise ensues. My fist ends up in the bag again…why…why?!

 Ok, now I’m mad, so I get the most expensive punch bag possible; four feet of reinforced cow hide leather shell. So far things are going fine, I just pray this one doesn’t go soon because in one year I’ve spent about $500 on punch bags…:(

Martial Artist/fitness fanatic that loves to play games and read when recovering from training. I like good food (yum!), especially fruit, fish, rice - all the healthy stuff to keep my body well tuned. A typical day for me would be study, eat, do training, and then games. I only play quality games across all platforms though I have a soft spot for Sonic (Sonic introduced me to video games) and lately I've been getting into rpgs since I just love a good story - especially ones with a bit of romance in it (yes I'm a cuddly little teddy bear deep down...with claws...and razor sharp teeth...just who's idea was it to make a bear into a child's toy anyway?!)