I just played the demo of FF XIII-2 and decided to give everyone a short review of my experience with the demo.

There were many issues that needed to be addressed in the previous FF title, and here is what they have done so far.

COMBAT:

The combat now starts of by and enemy popping up out of now where, since they are no longer visible, so that's at bit like the older FF titles, except now when they pop up, u can charge at them by pressing A on the X-box and X on PlayStation controller. If you succeed in this event, you wil gain a preemptive strike and the battle will begin for real.

In combat you can now choose who the leader of the party is, thereby giving you control of any character you wish, but don't let this fool you, you can still only command one character in the fight, unless you want to switch party leader constantly, which might result in a lower battle score like changing Paradigms.

Some monsters will turn in to crystals when defeated, and can then be used as full combat party members, which is a very nice treat, but they can not be summoned like in the old FF games, bear in mind that these are not Eidolons or GF's or Aeons, they are just regular monsters.

The neat thing about these captured monsters is that they can be upgraded using the Crystariums just like the main characters, and monsters can even be merged to become more powerful versions of the original, and gain new abilities.

EXPLORATION:

In FF XIII there was pretty much NO exploration AT ALL, which was the main reason why the game was NOT well received in North America or Europe. The only exploration was on Grand Pulse, and that didn't last as long as your time on Cocoon. Further more, the Exploration on any stage of the game, was very linear and boring. there were no people to talk to, there was no lore or mythologi to read about, no great world secrets to learn of, and none of Final Fantasy's famous mini-games, like cardplaying or dice games or Blitzball(Yyyeeeaaahhhh... Blitzball ROCKS.)

In this game they have shown video clips or some machine gambling and chocobo races, all of which are fine and good, but it is some thing we have all had before in the old games, but maybe that is just their way of saying "We are going back to what the fans like about these games."

When talking about exploration, this games has so far NOT shown anything new. The only difference this time, is that you can now talk to a few people, and get some small quests from them, but these are very small quests, NOTHING like Skyrim or The Witcher 2.

Ones through the demo, I was given the choice to fight a great big stone giant head on, or try to explore a weakness first, this was done by a choice wheel that looked like it came out of Alpha Protocol. This was a nice addition to the game play, but in modern RPG's these choices should be given to you at least every 30 min or so, or not at all.

Otherwise, this game has very, very few significant changes, and this FORMER fan of Square Enix products is not convinced that this game will be any better than it's predecessor, but only time will tell.

My best advise: DO NOT PRE-ORDER, wait until the general reviews have come in.

Found this little beauty in a bar somewhere in SKYRIM!

I've been sitting all weekend BETA Testing SWTOR, and have since read many different posts regarding the upcoming MMORPG, but there are so many different oppinions on this matter, that it is impossible to say, weather it will have the desired effect on the MMO community or not.

There is nothing new about the movements, all is as it is in games like WOW or Guild Wars, but the companion characters actually make you care about what you do, and how you do it. Being e member of the republic, does'nt mean that you can not fall to the temptations of The Dark Side, and Visa-Versa.

For those who aren't big fans of MMO games, but ARE fans of Bioware, this will be a fantastic entry point to the MMO experience. It is the MMO game for single-player RPG Fans, but for Hardcore MMO fans who DON*T care about story and characters, then it will bedifficult to please them.

OK. First of all, I think a lot of people had this exact reaction to Bethesda's newest game. And what a game it is. Almost everything about the previous Bethesda RPG's have been improved on. The dialog without zooming in on peoples faces, which seemed creepy in some ways, and the 3'rd person view and movement's is much more realistic than before, so now I ONLY play in 3'rd person.

I have not, so far, experienced ANY of the bugs that people have talked about, but neither did I in Fallout 3 or New Vegas, but maybe that's just me having good luck.

Can anyone tell me when they usually get the infamous Bethesda gaming bugs I've heard so much about. Do they show up at specific times, places or just around certain objects? I really want to review this game, but not until I can give it an all-around review.

I know most people play FPS games solely for the Mulitplayer combat, but what about those of us, who love singleplayer campaigns, and whose friends don't necessarily share the same enthusiasm in the world of gaming a us? Are we doomed never again to enjoy a Fist Person Shooter, or ANY game for that matter?

Most of this comes from the fact that I have been ALPHA- and BETA testing the new Battlefield 3, and i loved the multiplayer action in this game. Then i bought the full game, and to my GREAT disappointment, I found that the single player campaign was A JOKE, and A BAD JOKE at that. It seems like all the resources of DICE was put in to the multiplayer experience, and the singleplayer campaign was just a hick-up. But Bulletstorm got the same review score, and in my experience it was a FAR better game, and multiplayer would have made it only a little better.

Most of my friends don't play a lot of games, so multiplayer is not my number one, since today, it has become almost a necessity to join up with friends in any form of multiplayer game, be that FPS's or and MMORPG's. And I can't take every Friday or Sunday off just for the sake of gaming, some Fridays I can, and some fridays I can't. Should I be punished for this?

Is the Market really to low for game producers to make games in these categories, that have more singleplayer experience than multiplayer? And if it has to be multiplayer, does it have to be team matches?Why not more free-for-all combat, where everyone is every body's enemy? Has the multiplayer gaming industry become an excuse for us to socialise on a computer, instead of turning off the damn TV and taking a walk outside our own home, and have face-2-face conversations with people, and not online?