I didn't always agree with the scores she gave games, and I often cry myself to sleep that she gave Valkyria Chronicles II an 8 instead of a 10. But in the end, she really was one of the best reviewers GameSpot had, and I'd even include her among the likes of Greg and Alex. Her review writing style influenced mine in the ones I wrote that were actually good, can you believe it? That's like finding out Matt Tuck's songwriting was influenced by Bruce Springsteen. Which is true.

And to top it off, like all the other greats, she left. It's almost romantic.

Also, she included a Bullet For My Valentine reference in her Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D Review, so I have to like her a little bit extra.

So, yeah, I was signed in, and I came here to read a review on Little Red Riding Hood's Zombie BBQ, and I found I had a PM by GameSpot that I'd been invited to the beta. I won't go into too much detail or post images in case I get moderated, but what I have to say is that while I'm pleased that our user reviews are being carried over into the new site now, it's still dang fugly. Remember when I said rumour had it it was gonna look like GiantBomb? It does. Actually it's like the illegitimate child of GiantBomb and IGN. Oh hell. Oh, hell.

I like how the top of the news pages are - showing a big image of the game and over it the text - and that's about it along with the user reviews. That's all I like about the new site. It has some problems (avatars are not for me or a lot of other people) but it's a beta so those'll most probably be fixed when the site actually rolls around. Not that I care.

The forums are poorly structured, and they show the Top 10 threads most prominently (even on top of the sections) which I can easily see getting messed up by the jerks who constitute about 40% of GameSpot's population and live their lives on the forums. The Terms of Use look like they have been changed to make people more respectful, which is good, but people are still gonna use Off-Topic more than anything else because they need to tell everyone how ignorant and stupid they are.

The user reviews are there, but they're poorly structured too. The blurb that is currently used as a review deck is used as an article heading for the user review and it shows the first few sentences of your review beneath. What they should have done if they can't afford to make user reviews look like reviews is to make the headings '[Insert Game Name Here] Review' and the review deck as the summary shown beneath. That hasn't been done.

The status update thingamijigs are huge and the news feed below tinier. Your current feed doesn't bother you if you don't want to know if another guy posted a blog but it seems for everything someone else does you get a notification on the new site.

I chose GameSpot over all other gaming sites because its current layout is absolutely brilliant and great (when it used to work anyway... 2011, see), but now with the site changes they've got rid of the only good thing they had left.

And uh... yeah. That's all I want to say here because who really cares? This post is probably gonna get moderated anyway.

Currently I'm a writer for 3DSPedia and it's certainly more rewarding than all the reviews I wrote here. People actually read them and smaller publishers send me download codes for their games to review. Isn't getting free games and reviewing them the life? :P I'm also thinking of starting a blog of my own; I tried tumblr but the layout was awful so if I do start one now it'll be WordPress.

So yeah, now you know I won't be coming back after the site changes either, so goodbye and I wish you all good luck since you guys are pretty much the only reason I stayed here in late 2012 and 2013.

GameSpot being as negligent of Fuse as ever, I see. Yeah, drive off the people who only stayed on for Fuse, that' right.

I'll just post some Valkyria Chronicles fan art out of habit. Actually, you know what, I think I'll post the one that was my absolute favourite, since I'm leaving this place now.

What a disappointing end for me to a once great site.

It really feels like ten years ago, even though it's been just two weeks, that almost everyone I liked on GameSpot posted their swan songs and left. I stayed on, partially to see if anyone else would stay and make this site worth using, partially because I was secretly hoping that a few of the people who left would come back. They always did, I mean, before this exodus whenever someone left they'd be back the next day and if they weren't then everyone would be like WTF :P

But to make a very long story short, no one came back, the ones who stayed remained mostly silent, and Legacy Platforms - the only forum I still visited regularly - flooded itself with one too many trolls (or rather, one too many accounts of the same troll, but let's not go there). I don't really think 'sticking around literally' to see if the new site isn't absolute crap is a good use of my time.

Then Fuse broke, and this was the technicolor yawn that also broke my camel's back. I've tried to still keep this site as my main one, which I visit and post on regularly. But while I've visited several times a day, I haven't posted at all. Not that I'm really bothered about Fuse breaking, since I wasn't posting on it anyway, but still, it was at least functional. Which by GameSpot's standards is an achievement.

It's not like I'm happy about leaving, but what I'm doing here is just a massive waste of time. It's like sitting next to a stranger who's just as silent, waiting for one of us to say something to start a conversation. You can hear the crickets in the background. Or even in the foreground it's so quiet.

So, without further ado, I'll just say something to the users I liked most who appear to be staying and aren't almost completely silent before I post my Valkyria Chronicles fan art and blow out the door.

GunBladeHero: I may reiterate for the umpteenth time - you're my favourite user here. And really, towards the end, one of the very few users who understood I was trying to be funny or acting stupid on purpose - everyone else just said something they thought was heartfelt like a bunch of slack-jawed idiots. A lot of users were self-centred and just wanted everyone to adore them, but you were always the right guy. And you were pretty hilarious, but also knew how to be sane. I'll miss you the most. Or maybe not *holds up Swapnote in one hand and Chatzy in the other* :P

phoenixgaiangel/phoenixangel9: You're also one of the earliest users I talked to regularly here and also one of my favourites, even if you never really realized how deeply I cared for you :P I think we annoyed each other a few times but it's still a 'Stay Free' kind of friendship at least to me. I hope you're always contented.

BenFireFox: Your avatar is so cute still! :D  Thank you for introducing me to Alice Cooper's music, by the way, even if you don't remember that it was you who posted a link to School's Out so I could listen to it. All in all you've always been very nice. Thanks for being so cute and fluffy.

armin0jrpg: Animes are cartoons - now kill me. :P You little Persona fan you, I hope you have a beary happy life :)

iowastate: You're a gamer grandpa and that makes you awesome. I respect you for still having faith in the administrators even though in my opinion, they've failed over and over again. It was nice to find an American who understands cricket :)

matastig: I'm sorry that towards the end of my time here I've been a little cold towards you. I honestly felt you were a little self-centred, but still, since this ends it with GameSpot for me, I want to say I'll always like you. I hope your personal life gets much better soon.

Other users I'd like to mention:

Emerald_Warrior

MonkeySpot

Dudersaper

benleslie5

Uesgi-dono

RiKanKiDD

CamoBullo

endorbr

WCAR18

F22_King_Raptor

And almost all the rest of you. I hope you remember me as the guy who raved all the time about Valkyria Chronicles :) My chance of returning to the site in its current state is close to zero unless all of a sudden everyone I liked comes back, and that of returning after the site changes, is pretty much zero.

Again, my contact info for people who want to keep in touch:

E-Mail: spinnerweb895 (at) hotmail (dot) com

Steam: Spinnerweb

MyAnimeList: Spinnerweb

3DS Friend Code: 2621-2657-7188

And that's it. Let's post some Valkyria Chronicles fan art and see how many people sing 'Please Don't Go', exchange contact info and then fully leave tomorrow and break their hearts. :P

Goodbye guys. And thanks for all the memories.

Holidays in the Sun - Sex Pistols

Since everyone is writing little love notes to the users who mattered to them most :P

I don't know yet if I will stay after the site changes. It depends on how many of my great friends stay here. But damn, it turns out a lot of people are leaving GameSpot, giving me very little reason to say I'm staying. At least most of the ones I talked to regularly, and always liked. So, before they leave, I'll post this blog to tell the users that I know of who are leaving or might be exactly what I thought of them. Overall, I might not be able to write it out for every single one of you - it would take three weeks - but I'll say this for all the GameSpotters I knew and liked: you are an awesome bunch of people.

Alphabetically...

2ndWonder: I don't know if you're leaving or not (sounds like it :( ) but to me you were always the 'ultimate GameSpotter.' The highest level (except for MAILER_DAEMON and he hacked his way up :P) and I was waiting for the day when you'd get to Level 72 100%. Unfortunately it looks like that day's never coming. Despite me only PMing you once in a while to troll you friendly-like, you were patient and nice.

berto64: You're one of the very many users I regret not talking to enough. But talk we did every once in a while - I remember I was quite the troll when I first talked to you on Fuse, but like many of the people who ended up being my favourites, you were patient. Good luck with your life.

GunBladeHero: You're my favourite user and closest friend on GameSpot (at least from this end! :P) I remember posting my first update on Fuse and trying to be funny and you responding as if I was actually sane. Of course, you still said that you might be leaving - I hope you stay. You used Fuse regularly through its two years of existence when other users dropped in and out or left altogether. It was very warm-and-fuzzy-feeling inducing knowing there was another person who was as big a Sega fan as I was. It was nicer still that you tolerated my lame attempts at humour, when Fuse was young and fun. I always looked forward to talking to you on Fuse and I'm glad we're 3DS friends so even if one or both of us leave we're not gonna be out of contact altogether.

Hanzoadam: I remember going into your ratings once and finding out you had given both Valkyria Chronicles and Valkyria Chronicles II a perfect 10 - from that moment on I decided it would be friendship total. Your blogs were very fun to read - you've collected a lot of stuff, man! It's a good thing I managed to send you a friend request on Steam. Hope we'll be in touch.

josephl64: I have to admit I was kind of scared of you at first, when I talked to you on Fuse. For one thing you didn't use smileys a lot, so I thought that you wouldn't take kindly to my pathetic attempts to be funny. But you turned out to be quite funny and one of the nicest and most awesome people here. It really sucks that you've confirmed you're going. But I'll always remember Mio's head going back and forth, back and forth - and at least we're added on MAL!

megamannt123: You got rid of killer weeds for your friend, so everyone knows what a nice friend you are to have. GameSpot won't be the same without a Lucky Star avatar-donning person in it. Glad we're added on Steam, and hope you and Fablesway will always be best friends (OK, I'm not really good at this stuff, so I'm not sure if I said the right thing :P)

Sundberg_man: For the umpteenth time, I only unfolllowed you because of your avatar of the guy getting his face bloody! :P Then I followed you again because of your avatar of that trollface going "1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7... YOU MAD!" :lol: Good times good times - you were always a really nice guy and one of my favourite Fusers. Let's add each other on MAL, I guess? :)

Thesuperstar2k: Seems like you were around alot but I didn't talk to you enough, but I always recognized you, and you were cool. It's quite a pity you might be leaving - good luck.

ZanarkandTidus: Matastig told me about you. I think I barely ever talked to you, but I loved reading your reviews. I hope your personal life goes well.

That's the people who I know are leaving or most likely will when the time comes. If you think I forgot you, it means I didn't know you were leaving, so go ahead and tell me and make me even unhappier.

Also, to keep in touch, I think we should exchange our contact info, so here's mine:

E-Mail: spinnerweb895 (at) hotmail (dot) com

Steam: Spinnerweb

MyAnimeList: Spinnerweb

3DS Friend Code: 2621-2657-7188

I'm very unhappy about you guys leaving, so I hope we'll stay in touch one way or another. I'll stick around to see if the new site is any good or not, but after hearing it's gonna be like Giant Bomb, I think I'll be posting my swan song pretty soon.

Everyone's posting gifs at the end of such posts, so I will too. You always try to be like the people you like :P

I miss 2011.

I managed to hear a few months ago that the GameSpot site was being rebuilt from scratch. That's something to be happy about, right? No more glitches, no more BONK! errors, no more trouble changing your avatar or signature. Unfortunately, that's not the full list.

The full list of changes is no more unions, no more user created boards, no more downloads, no more advanced forum settings, no more emblems, no more levels, and possibly no more blogs. What hurt most of all was no more Fuse.

Uh wait... so what are the improvements? Nothing, it seems. It was so bad it wasn't even funny reading Lark Anderson writing in such a jumpy manner to  make it sound like things are getting better. It's like Dean Winchester saying, "Stay out of her underwear drawer," in Supernatural Season 1 Episode 7. He might as well have written:

"So GUYS, aren't you so EXCITED for the so CHANGES on the SITE? RIGHT GUYS? *nudge nudge* RIGHT?"

I'll post what I think of all this rigmarole categorically:

Removal of Unions: I have to say with a small amount of regret that I was not a long-time regular user on any union. But I know that a lot of users are, and they love their unions. The site got cluttered with abandoned unions, that is true, but whether that is because of the lack of support they got or a lack of interest, you can decide for yourself. The staff should have let users ask which unions they wanted to keep and if the level of activity was deemed good enough, they would be carried over into the new site. Some users even moved their unions to new boards because of this change.

Removal of Downloads: I first signed up for GameSpot to download a patch and some mods. The download speed was so pathetic that I couldn't finish the smallest file. GameSpot's servers can barely hold the site down with parts of it shut off in E3s, so I suppose they don't have the resources to host downloads. I suppose everyone is OK with this.

Removal of Member Levels and Emblems: After the shutting-down of Fuse, this part hurts the most. I thought of GameSpot's gamification through levels and emblems as one of the most successful perks system of all time, and now they're freezing it and moving the incomplete stuff into a Trophy room of sorts. Maybe for the Off-Topic/System Wars jerks who spend all their time on the forums and get modded down ten levels everyday because of their crap, this doesn't matter much. But some users took this seriously, and I cannot for the life of me see why GameSpot thought that the removal of these systems was a good idea. I'm very unhappy about this.

Removal of Animated GIFs in Forum Signatures: I think one user summed it up best in the comments - "You remove animated gifs in forum signatures and then post two gifs in the article to rub it in."

Removal of Fuse: I was lucky enough to be on Fuse when it was still new, and it was what really made me a regular user on GameSpot. It was so separate from the main site that there wasn't evena  link go back once you entered it! (You had to write in the normal site's URL manually). A safe haven from the 80% population of idiotic trolls in the Off-Topic and System Wars forums, since none of them, I believe, used Fuse more than a few times. In early 2012 the layout was changed so it was closer to the main site, but a bunch of users didn't like the new layout and went off (Truggly, why did you have to leave? :cry: ) But despite all the glitches there were us users who used it regularly. It got ruined yet again by a few jerks who turned it into a goddamn animal-picture/memebase, and it wasn't as fun as it used to be, but still it was there, and worked sometimes :P
Now Fuse is being integrated into user profiles, much like the 'wall' system that IGN used which was a massive failure. This basically means that Fuse will cease to exist. Even if we use it, the Off-Topic and System Wars users will be all over it because 'it's sooooo like Facebook and it makes me feel cool h33t 1337 haxor wot roflmao."  This is the change that I hate most, because not only will it cause another bunch of people to leave, it will make the site more cluttered than a separate Fuse ever did. Fuse was good as a separate place and it didn't bother users who didn't want to use it either. All the 'Oh it will be better, ha' people can see for themselves once it's done. Then I'll write a blog called Who's Laughing Now? unless blogs are removed as well :P :cry:

As for whether I'll stay on, since I know a lot of users are leaving ... I'll stay long enough to see how the new site is, and I've asked my favourite users on here who've said basically the same thing. If they leave, then I'll have very little reason to stay on. So, how many of you guys are staying?

Should I Stay or Should I Go? - The Clash

Hi guys, two things before we get to the point.

School (they call it college now but I still call it school :P) is starting tomorrow :cry: So I'll be on GameSpot regularly enough, but I won't be using Fuse regularly. I know I was rarely posting there anyway for a few days, but anyway, I won't be visiting Fuse as frequently. Too much nonsensical shit to put up with by users who want to be the Most Active User, too little time and patience.

Also, the touchpad buttons on my laptop stopped working, which is kind of a big problem for me. I had this problem before and fixed it but :P I can't remember how. I searched around and all but got nothing. Depressing, it is. Anyway, I'm going to have to get used to using an external mouse, but it's like getting used to life with a wooden leg. :lol:

So I decided, after much deep and profound brain things inside my head, to post my 50 favourite songs (i.e. the songs I decided to keep on my computer while I deleted everything else.) By artist. Weird, huh? See, it's far too hard to pick them out individually and I felt I couldn't choose that way, so I came up with a clever solution - arrange them by my favourite artist (a.k.a. band - it's all rock 'n' roll here!) and double whammy! You learn my favourite bands and songs in one go.

So, without further ado, clever idea in application:

1. Sex Pistols

1. Anarchy in the UK
2. Bodies
3. God Save the Queen
4. Holidays in the Sun
5. No Feelings
6. Pretty Vacant
7. Liar

2. Alice Cooper

1. School's Out
2. Poison
3. I'm Eighteen
4. No More Mr. Nice Guy
5. Elected

3. Bon Jovi

1. Livin' On a Prayer
2. It's My Life
3. Have a Nice Day
4. Wanted Dead or Alive
5. Bad Medicine

4. Bullet for My Valentine

1. Hand of Blood
2. Tears Don't Fall
3. 4 Words (To Choke Upon)
4. Your Betrayal
5. Waking the Demon

5. AC/DC

1. Back in Black
2. Highway to Hell
3. You Shook Me All Night Long
4. It's a Long Way to the Top (If You Wanna Rock 'n' Roll)
5. Thunderstruck
6. Hell's Bells

6. The Clash

1. Straight to Hell
2. Clampdown
3. London Calling

7. Led Zeppelin

1. Stairway to Heaven
2. Immigrant Song
3. Kashmir

8. Ramones

1. Bonzo Goes to Bitburg (My Brain is Hanging Upside Down)
2. Blitzkrieg Bop

That wraps up the top artists I chose who had more than one song surviving on my computer :P Now for the ones who had only one song each and therefore do not warrant me breaking my back looking on Google Images for pictures of the band :P arranged, yes, individually.

37. Iron Man (Black Sabbath)
38. Comfortably Numb (Pink Floyd)
39. Smoke on the Water (Deep Purple)
40. Master of Puppets (Metallica)
41. Decadence (Disturbed)
42. Killed by Death (Motorhead)
43. Breaking the Law (Judas Priest)
44. The Passenger (Iggy Pop)
45. Holy Wars... The Punishment Due (Megadeth)
46. Unholy Confessions (Avenged Sevenfold)
47. Public Image (Public Image Ltd)
48. My Own Worst Enemy (Lit)
49. (Don't Fear) The Reaper (Blue Oyster Cult)
50. Baba O'Riley (The Who)

That's the list, then. What do you think of it? Did you find anything you yourself like in there? If so, then you're great :)

Being the producer for a Jason Statham film is the easiest job on Earth. You just follow the steps given below, take an exceedingly large piece of the pie for doing nothing, go to Greece, buy a yatch and spend the post-production stage sailing around undiscovered islands with rich-looking young folks. The film is then released, is a huge box office hit, garners no Oscar nominations and gets a 45% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. You leave your yatch in Greece, fly back to your own country and buy another one.

But how is this job so easy?

I will attempt to explain.

A film starring the baldy will always be made from this recipe, that has for long been concealed by the film people but was finally found out after a Splinter Cell operation. Take these ingredients and make your own home-made Jason Statham film:

Ingredients:

• 1 scruffy-voiced emtionless anti-hero protagonist played by Jason Statham
• 1 Asian/European villain who has a gang of totally easy-to-kill useless henchmen
• 3 nice cars, preferably BMWs, out of which two will blow up and one will be badly damaged and left where it is
• 2 normal cars that Jason will drive when he needs to escape/chase an escaping villain and doesn't have time to look cool
• 1 door that Jason will kick down and then use as cover against the baddies' guns
• 2 henchmen stronger than the rest that will beat Jason down once before he kicks their butts effortlessly as well
• Optional: 1 villanous femme fatale
• 1 child/young woman that Jason will rescue from the Asian/European antagonist
• Approximately 15 fight scenes, 13 of which will have axes and baseball bats used in them, 2 of which will have Jason use his tie/shirt to tie up two henchmen and beat them both
• 2 shootouts, one which will have a melee fight in between

Steps:

1. Throw all the ingredients together and serve.

Warnings:

• Do not have Sylvester Stallone in the film.
• Do not have Jason express any sign of emotion except mild anger.
  

That's how you make a Jason Statham movie. Now that everyone knows how, I suppose that if you fail in everything else, you have this get-rich-quick scheme to fall back on. G'bye :D

Last night I had the best dream ever. I dunno if it's meaningless or true and meaningful and a spiritual message that's very important for my destiny, because I can't find anything about it in the fake dream interpretation book I have. Not that I was expecting to, because it only has one-sentence dreams like 'seeing a rat,' 'grabbing a rat,' 'eating a rat,' etc. Actually I didn't even bother to look so of course I didn't find anything.

Allow me to explain.

First of all, last night I dreamt it was winter - winter! - in this searing hot summer of reality. Then, even better, there we all were, in the academy I go to, which is a little bit underground so it was even more rub-your-nose-with-gloved-hands-cold-wintery. Even better, if possible, my hair didn't hurt from being in a wool cap, which it always does in real life unless I cut it to near-baldness, which I hate doing, because I love my hair. Oh, and the few friends I saw in my dream, we were sitting and leaning against the wall, so our backs didn't hurt from being upright on those goddamn hard benches. And we were just sitting there. Our teacher was there but we weren't really studying.

Decent enough dream here, but it gets better. Much better. See, one of my friends, who I have not seen in real life in a long, long while, was playing his PSP (I dunno if he actually has one) and I recognized the music from Danganronpa in it, though I couldn't ask him there.

Then my dream skipped the boring parts and went to me waking up (in my dream) in the dark dead of night and seeing the same friend lying on the floor a small distance from the foot of my bed and playing his PSP again. This time I recognized the Danganronpa music again and asked him if he was playing Danganronpa, to which he said yes. After watching him play it for a while, I asked him if he'd played Valkyria Chronicles II. He said yes and showed it to me, the title screen of it. It was somewhat different from the actual title screen of the real game but what the heck, it was Valkyria Chronicles II!

Which aspect you think makes this my best dream ever is entirely up to you :P

I'd listened to a lot of 1970s AC/DC and the Clash in daytime, and as night fell, so did my spirits as I remembered that both Bon Scott and Joe Strummer were dead, which upset me so much I couldn't sleep half the night. But this dream made up for it, and I want to remember it forever, when I'm old and white-haired and bent like an elbow pipe so I'm blogging it.

Think of me as weird as you want, because I am :P

Don't you think video games have gotten harder to enjoy? There are very, very few games in the past two years I played addictively to the end. Luckily, I got two such good games in the same month, and liked them both enough to finish them without adding them to my backlog and leaving them there for five years.

These excellent games are:

DanganRonpa (PSP)

Play Time: 14 Hours (estimated)

Played Over: 8 Days

Rating: 10 (I haven't reviewed it yet, but I will)

Recommendation: Hell yes. If you can get the PSP the Best version with which the English patch works, then definitely buy it. You'll love it. Yes, yes you will. Especially if you wanted to be an anime-ish Sherlock Holmes :D
And since Fury X-4 said so, I'll mention it's being localized for the Vita.

Project X Zone (3DS)

Play Time: 47 hours, 5 minutes

Played Over: 19 Days

Rating: 9 (review)

Recommendation: Yes. Unless you don't like all of the following (which is impossible) - Tekken, Devil May Cry, Valkyria Chronicles (in which case I'll sever all communication with you :P), Sakura Wars, Darkstalkers, Resident Evil, Tales of Vesparia, Virtua Fighter, Street Fighter, etc.

I started playing what many regard as one of the best games ever, now in 3D.

I really like it currently. I haven't played it too far though - up to the first time you visit Kakariko Village - but still, I'm enjoying it.

The other game is one I have already completed, but now from 'an all-new female viewpoint!' like they say in the advertisements.

I already love Persona 3 Portable - it's one of my favourite PSP games - so of course I'm having fun with it. I couldn't think of a proper name to give the female protagonist though, so I went with Baba O'Riley :lol:

Also, I'm looking forward to God Eater 2, which will be released in Japan soon, but there is no word of a PSP localization, though I hope there is one, and Sweet Fuse: At Your Side, which is getting localized for the PSP. Yay! :D

Finally, the long-time-coming Valkyria Chronicles fan art.

Hey guys! Look what I got:

Yes, it's the crossover game Project X Zone for the 3DS. On my really cool-patterned bed. Like I told anyone who would listen, I have been waiting for this game for quite a while... and it's awesome!

Six hours in, I love this game. The graphics are not revolutionary, but the art style is cute and the 2D character sprites look good, kinda like the Metal Slug character sprites, see? They become really pixel-y close to the screen, but that only makes them more Metal Slug-y and in turn, more endearing. However, the animations are great and the battles go a long way to show how much handhelds can handle on screen.

The gameplay is fun, and very addictive. It's an SRPG, but it's more accessible for all kinds of players compared to other SPRGs. In the beginning most of the battles are a cakewalk, button-mashy players will get away with them. But later on the game does reward players who pause rather than mashing the Circle Pad and A button because the timing really matters to make the most of your attacks. Generally you can have four combos in a single attack. If you make the most of them, up to the point I've played, and use your Solo Units and Support Units (I'll talk about those in a minute) you can get rid of enemies in a single attack, but if you can't then it'll cost you since fighting an enemy uses up a whole character's turn and you can't move after fighting an enemy until your next turn comes up.

Solo Units are basically assists, called in by pressing the L button, and Support Units are other character pairs standing close to where you are, called in by pressing the R button. Solo Units can be assigned manually in intermissions between chapters. You can use both once per attack.

XP (Cross Points) are a percentage guage that fills up as you dole out or sustain damage. When it is 100% full, you can press Y to launch a special attack - a cool animation and massive damage to your enemy. The XP guage normally only fills to 100%, but attacking with Solo and Support units can take it up to 150%.

Also, let's get onto a touchy topic while we're here. I kind of doubt Carolyn Petit (who gave it a 6.5 in her GameSpot review) played this game past the prologue chapters, since everything in her review seems to be based on the start of the game. The whole thing about the scantily clad unintelligent chick character too is near the start of the game, and is made of two dialogue boxes, was supposed to be humorous, and is entirely forgettable. This may be flogging a dead horse and maybe it's even an exaggeration to make the point but I feel that Carolyn shouldn't have let two dialogue boxes and her feminism be pointed out as a bad point of the game and rate the whole game down over it. Not that I'm vengeful or anything over it. I don't dislike Carolyn, but having played this game gives me all the more reason to disagree with her review. It's not the first time we've seen her rate a game based on its start and not even bother to play it through - she didn't even know how to save on the map in Growlanser for the PSP (which she gave a 6) and I find it difficult to think that anyone who didn't even know how to save on such a hard game could have actually finished it. Moving on.

Say hello to our little friends - two original characters for this game:

Mii and her tutor, Korogo. Awesome characters.

The music has the themes of many of the characters and the games they come from. I always get really pumped up when there's music I recognize, like Jin's theme from Tekken or the ship music from Resident Evil Revelations when it's the turn of Chris Redfield and Jill Valentine. The character voices are in Japanese.

The game is funny as well. Soma is annoyed at how the game he features in, God Eater, was localized as Gods Eater Burst (which I'm playing currently on the PSP and it's awesome) and everyone is mistakenly calling him a Gods Eater over it. At the end of some attacks, Mii and Korogo poke fun at how gamers expect fan service from her. There are funny moments when the characters comment on battles being repeatedly interrupted for the sake of introducing new characters. The characters' mannerisms and personalities have been translated almost perfectly into this huge crossover. There were somecharacters I didn't recognize, too. No problem - the in-game Crosspedia has detailed information on them all.

Overall, Project X Zone has already become my favourite 3DS game yet, as quick as that may seem. It's fun, funny and addictive. Frustratingly, a lot of people might pass this up as fan service when it really is a great game. I'll write a full review when I'm done with it, though of course nobody's gonna read it I mean, how could I actually suggest something so preposterous. Have a good day.