Sequels can be a tricky business. They can be games that use the tried-and-tested formula of the first with minor tweaks here and there or they can be games that ride high on success of the original aiming to achieve something different this time around. Gears of War 2, the sequel to the first blockbuster shooter of this generation falls in between both of those categories. It features minor tweaks and improvements in the "cover-n-gun" formula the original popularized while venturing into a "cinematic experience" territory at the same time. It does all that with many adrenaline-pumping action sequences intermittent with an equal amount of yawn-inducing sequences.

To start with things, I shall put a statement plainly in words: Gears of War has easily got the most intense shooter mechanics I've seen in a game in quite a while. Right from the strategic maneuvering that comes from its ability to take cover behind a variety of objects and shoot to the intense melee combat, Gears hits all the right notes when it comes down to plain shooting and good-old fun. You take cover by hitting the A button and you'll instantly take cover behind a nearby object. For most of the time, I never had any issues with cover-mechanics as they were fast, fluid and graceful unlike the various games that have tried involving such cover mechanics (GTA IV and Mass Effect). This time around the cover is destructible.
This might have been an exciting idea if it had been implemented but unfortunately this is all limited to eye-candy only. For most of the time, your cover (comprising of barriers, walls etc) will only be chipped off from its edges but never gets fully destroyed. It gives the chance for the game to show off its graphical detail but besides that it doesn't serve any purpose. The game can be unforgiving if you adopt a "run-n-gun" strategy which will end up with you getting killed within seconds. Cover is the most important thing here and shooting comes after you find yourself a cover. You can also delve into a "Roadie Run" by pressing and holding "A" which is effective for a risky, fast run through the gunfire.

As far as the shooting is concerned not much has changed. You can carry any four weapons at a time – a pistol, two primary weapons and a grenade. Many who find grenade throwing clumsy will find Gears' "grenade projectile" a satisfying and helpful mechanic. Amongst the weapons, obviously the COG Lancer is your default weapon initially. It is a powerful automatic rifle with a chainsaw attached to it's fore. There are others like the Locust favourite Hammerhead or a shotgun, flamethrower, sniper rifle, grenade launcher, mortar besides others. Shotgun in Gears is easily the weakest weapon. It's so badly underpowered that it won't kill anybody unless they're standing right on your toes.

One thing that Gears 1 did very well was keeping the action fast, tense and exciting. It never let your heart beat drop to a normal rate by always keeping you on your toes. Gears 2 mostly follow that tradition by doing the same. Action can be fast, intense facilitated by the ability to dodge or roll instantly to avoid disadvantage in a melee encounter. Melee encounters are easily Gears' best part. They're brutal, fun and immensely satisfying. They bring out the raw danger of the war to the fore as well as to the excitement and fear many soldiers get from their frequent adrenaline rush. Basically you can do a melee hit with any rifle or a pistol knocking the enemy onto the ground. Once the enemy is on the ground, you can perform a variety of submission/execution moves on the fallen enemy. You can do a weapon kill by pressing Y which ends up with you killing the enemy by hitting him with the butt of the rifle.

There is also the immensely brutal yet satisfying curb-stomp. Then there are the melee encounters specific to COG Lancer (the rifle with chainsaw attached to it). These easily give rise to the cream of the best melee encounters in the game. You can sneak behind an unsuspecting enemy and "chainsaw" him by tearing his body into a half with blood flying all over the screen in its gory glory. It becomes even more exciting the moment an enemy has a COG Lancer too. If both end up doing melee attack at the same time with the chainsaw, it leads to a Chainsaw duel. This is basically a button-masher. The faster you mash, the greater your chances to end up in one piece.

There is no strict life bar in Gears 2, just an indication of the "COG" icon on the screen which gets darker the more damage you take. The icon also disappears after sometime (if you're not taking any more damage) essentially meaning that the game refills your life bar after sometime (if you don't end up getting killed that is). In case you do get injured badly enough to see a darkened COG icon on your screen, then you'll go into a desperation mode. Here you'll basically be crawling (with a trail of blood behind you) by continuously tapping "A" towards your nearest team member hoping you can reach him before the screen gets filled with enough red indicating a Game Over. However, mostly you'll be at the danger of being "executed" (or curb-stomped) by an enemy. Enemy AI in general is pretty solid and clever in Gears 2. They generally throw Smoke grenades to knock you out of your cover before moving into attack. Friendly AI can be problematic but for most of the times you'll find it manageable.

Gears 2 has a story purely for the sake of it. It continues the war between humans and underground-aliens called Locusts. You once again reprise the role of Marcus Fenix, the leader of Delta Squad. Dom, Baird and Cole make up for the rest of the Delta Squad. Now, the COG army is planning to strike Locust base underground to stop them from sinking Jacinto, the final frontier for the humans. As expected things go wrong, the Delta Squad gets scattered and it is finally back to good old shooting again (thankfully!!). For most of the time, you'll be accompanied by Dom who also is searching the Locust base for his missing wife, Maria. To put a long story short, I simply must say that plot is inconsequential, a necessary ornament in Gears 2. Frankly, most of us wouldn't bother with the plot or its characters as long as the shooting remains exciting and fun (which Gears is always good at).

But therein lies the real problem with Gears 2. It doesn't accept the notion that plots aren't of primary importance in shooters, action and plain-shooting is. But apparently CliffyB and guys at Epic Games had grander ambitions for their shooter here. In Gears 2, they often choose to abandon the game's real strength (which is shooting) and instead focus on the game's story. They project it as mature, poignant and they want you to feel for the characters. They even hired someone to write the plot for the game too. Laughably, this same plot can be even written by an eight-year old for a school competition (and he may still not win it). It's THAT bad. It doesn't help that the voice-acting is incredibly poor and dialogues will make you wince and facepalm simultaneously on multiple occasions ("OMG! It's a GIANT WORM!!"). Like I said all that could be forgiven if only Gears 2 didn't insist on feeding us with a hare-brained plot (they even have a collectible section, where they explain the history behind the war…like we care!), wince-inducing dialogues and lengthy cutscenes. There's only few cutscenes you'll truly enjoy and that is primarily due to the arguments, cursing between Cole and Baird, easily the ONLY two likeable characters in the game. There is a hilarious "cursing the Locust Queen spree" by Cole that will have you in splits. Otherwise, any momentum or adrenaline rush you've built up in the preceding action is lost when you see the voice actors hamming dialogues on screen. It's not a good sight.

If that weren't enough, Gears 2 goes for the bigger canvas. The kind of grand set-pieces or sequences that games like God of War have thrived on. Problem is that the game in question here is a shooter. Shooters aren't exactly the best genre to have non-shooting based sequences in. Epic Games didn't understand that unfortunately and we're left to contend with a couple of highly annoying semi-platforming sequences (with Gears 2's clumsy movement you can imagine what kind of a dream it would be). In a sequence, you'll find yourself in the stomach of a giant worm (don't ask me HOW ask me WHY) running and dodging its "intestinal mechanism" and finally running through perils from its gastric juice. Add to that mind-numbing sequence, there are extended sequences of nothingness. A sequence where you explore through a BioShock-like abandoned factory is awfully boring. Yes, it's highly atmospheric and it does give the game a space to show off its graphical power. But besides that it's a 30-40 minutes of nothingness in a shooter of a 9-hour long campaign. There are also land rover sequences which can range from exciting to annoying depending on how quickly you adapt to its rather tacky controls. There's perhaps a single sequence in the final level that seems a bit lame but is cinematic and "epic" nonetheless. That last sequence is grand in both scope and size something the game couldn't achieve before sadly.

The strength of first Gears of War was its multiplayer. It was easily the biggest thing on Xbox Live since Halo 2 and people were hooked for months after the game's release with its multiplayer. The quick accessibility to a quick round of multiplayer and efficient matchmaking around the already winning formula of shooting made Gears of War 1's multiplayer amongst the best. Gears 2 adds a few new modes mainly the Horde. In Horde, your team has to face wave-after-wave of enemies with each wave getting stronger (in both number and power) than the previous one. There are total 50 waves to contend with which test even the most seasoned of all players. Horde is a pretty solid mode and it's fun and innovative at the same time. Besides that there are old modes like Annex, King of the Hill, Deathmatch and Execution to name a few. Annex is easily my favourite since it involves equal amounts of teamwork, co-ordination and efficient strategy. The maps are well-designed (which has always been Epic's strength) and they never give you a disadvantage no matter what your starting point is. Maps like Hail or Avalanche even add the twist of an occasional danger of a fatal hail or an avalanche into the map for your squad. Gears 2 also adds a "Ghost Mode" which allows you to browse through the active map if you die in a multiplayer session, observing the action either from a ghost camera or from the view of one of your surviving team-mates.

Gears 2's multiplayer however has a few problems. Firstly, the matchmaking feature(non-existant) had problems until a patch arrived much later. Secondly, the multiplayer has lag. Lots of it at times. The lag exists uniformly throughout all the modes (although I do feel the Horde mode is more lag-free than others). It also particularly works in favour of the host, meaning all the client players will be forced to contend with a slower multiplayer. This may not have been noticeable if Gears 2 wasn't such a fast shooter. Even a lag of a second could lead to your death, further fuelling your frustration. It's unfortunate because Gears 2's multiplayer was pretty damn good if it hadn't been for the lag and match-making issues.

Gears of War 2 will give you plenty of adrenaline rushes in its still remarkable shooting sequences, hours of lag-ridden multiplayer fun (it can be fun despite of lag) and satisfying, gory executions. But ultimately, Gears 2 is a disappointment in more than one ways. It is a disappointment as a sequel to one of the most intense, and finest shooters ever made. It is a disappointment because of its failure to stand upto its own expectations and hype. A disappointment because of its failure to stand upto its own potential. In the end, Gears of War 2 is as intense a shooter the original was AS LONG as it sticks to its true strengths.

SCORE

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Post Review Notes

• This is my 50th review.Too bad I couldnt' do anything awesome like NeonNinja's "Road to Fifty".Hmm...maybe I'll do a PATH TO HUNDRED :P
• I was a little bit generous to Gears 2 considering this was my first Gears game and I played and finished Gears 1 AFTER this.
• Cole and Baird rock.If in Gears 3,Dom and Marcus die in the first hour and then we control Cole and Baird,I'll like that game a whole lot more.
• The giant worm sequence is so bad that it goes down as "Worst Sequences in Video Gaming" list for me which contains other infamous games including (yes) Daikatana. :P
• I am thankful to everyone who recommended (thumbs up) the review as well as praised it without doing so. Put a lot of effort into GTA IV review,and I am glad you all liked it. :)
• I wanted my 50th review to be either FFVIII review or BGII review. Unfortunately,it couldn't be.
• Normal blogs will most likely be back from next time. I have few rants/articles to post later in the next month,let's see how that pans out.

That's all for now,folks!

C ya

Lightwarrior179

Gaming has given us many unforgettable, immersive, soul-sucking settings in which countless gamers have lost themselves in for months, even years sometimes. GTA IV, the entry of the acclaimed (and notorious) open-world series into this generation of consoles is based in a similar unforgettable setting in the form of Liberty City. A setting that pulls you within its concrete skyscrapers, crime-infested alleyways and posh estates for an experience that will stay with you long after it's over. However it is the shift towards a more mature narrative featuring characters all in shades of grey that makes GTA IV such a daring step forward for a series otherwise notorious for mostly the wrong reasons.

GTA IV puts you in the shoes of a Serbian immigrant, Niko Bellic who has come to the "land of dreams and oppurtunities", Liberty City to meet his cousin Roman who is supposedly filthy rich with huge mansions, a garage full of sports cars and hot tubs with three women. Niko is enticed enough to break his poverty-ridden shackles of post-war Serbia and come to Liberty City to fulfill his "American dream".
Enter reality.
Roman is debt-ridden, lives in a run-down apartment that has no women but certainly has enough cockroaches and wants Niko to help him run his struggling taxi business to help him get rid of the ever-increasing debt from the Russian crime barons.
On his journey, Niko will meet many characters, each more memorable and likeable than the other. The fact that these characters have unique personalities backed by the series' trademark powerful, witty, street-smart dialogues and voice-acting helps their cause too. Brucie, the pill-popping alpha male is easily the most likeable from the lot. His dialogues and presence-of-mind catches even the usually witty and sarcastic Niko off guard and has you rolling around in laughter.
You'll meet similarly likeable oddballs, misfits in Niko's Machiavellian odyssey but there's a difference when it comes to characters from the past titles in the series and GTAIV's characters. While characters in past titles could often be defined in a clichéd nutshell, GTA IV's characters although might appear clichéd initially, but they eventually rise above such clichés and pack surprising amount of complexity within them enough to demand your respect.

These misfits all have their own little ambitions, fears and devils from their past that makes you realize that these characters aren't just supporting tools for your protagonists. They are characters who are also struggling to achieve their ambitions in a harsh, unforgiving city and in a tale with a theme involving "survival of the fittest" you can often see why some of the characters end up doing things as they do in the game. They have their own goals and they can go to lengths against you the moment Niko's and their interests' conflict.

Niko came to America hoping to leave behind his dark, scarred past behind and begin afresh. But poverty forces him to enter the never-ending vicious cycle of crime where he's forced to do things he would otherwise never dream of doing just for mere sustenance. He isn't a mindless, psychopath like the previous protagonists in the series. He does it because he has no other alternative. He shows a blatant dislike for his work, hesitates doing them, often argues with his employer to avoid killing someone and at times even spares innocent targets lives. You feel for Niko and the predicament he finds himself in. Every loss he suffers makes you feel pitiful for him and every little step he climbs in the success ladder makes you feel proud of him.

Gameplay in GTA IV has received a "cloaked revamp" staying true to its shift of tone of the series towards more realism. Things have definitely been revamped for good and many older features have been rehashed too and presented differently.Where the game has changed is in the way you play it. Firstly, the physics engine is the core driving force behind this change.
The gameplay changes are more apparent the moment you're behind the steering wheel of a car. The wild, arcade-like controls of previous GTA games are long forgotten. Instead GTA IV has realistic controls often resembling the likes of semi-simulation racers like Forza Motorsport.GTA IV also has realistic damage physics, so any dent on the car's body will show up genuinely. Unlike the previous games where excessive damage to car led to it going up in flames eventually ending in an explosion, GTA IV has a more realistic design.

The core shooting has been worked upon as well. The lock-n-shoot system remains the same but this time with an addition of the ability to take cover behind objects or walls. When near such an object, a touch of the left bumper puts you in cover. The idea is good however its implementation leaves few things to be desired. Firstly, the camera is restricted when you take cover. Often, the game takes cover behind a far object rather than a nearby one which can be annoying considering there is little margin of error in a game like this. Nonetheless, despite these minor niggles, GTA IV's shooting can be immensely fun just like in any other GTA game.
Police system has been revamped a bit in this game. The amount of police attention you've attracted is still described in stars. The larger crime spree you go into, the greater number of stars and more police attention you gain. The chases have this time been changed. Earlier, if you could avoid police for few minutes, you could lose stars. This time, you have to escape from a "sphere" of police vigilance that appears on the game's mini-map. If you're able to escape the sphere without being spotted and stay low for sometime, you will lose the police attention. It is an easier but nonetheless a lot more streamlined approach to the series' concept of police chases.

What GTA IV does do is create RPG-like "decision-making" situations. New to the series, certain story missions ask you to make a decision. You might have an innocent thug at gun point and you might be asked if you would save him or kill him. Saving him might mean he will never forget your gratefulness but might mean you facing the wrath of your employers. Killing him will ultimately mean hurting Niko's conscience.These decisions despite being few in number can be intensely impactful upon both the player and Niko. Different missions might open up based upon the different decisions you might take. This not only leads to a worthy incentive for multiple playthroughs but also forces the players to consider Niko's predicament frequently. Killing a friend might give you a posh Algonquin apartment, but would you really want to lose a friend in a city as hostile as Liberty City? The game forces you to answer similar questions like that and with surprising intensity.

Easily the most revolutionary change in GTA IV is the inclusion of mobile phone. This little device which has become an essential part of most of our lives today plays an important role in the life in Liberty City as well. Nearly everything you do is integrated via mobile phone. People you meet in the city will often give you their phone numbers. You'll also receive messages from your friends or employers at time informing you about an important event taking place in the game. Many of the game's missions use the camera of your cell phone to take pictures of for example a double-crossing agent caught red-handed stealthily.
You can also call your friends and hang out with them at the local pub, play a game of pool or you can use the special "friend" services they offer.
Besides all that, an important use of mobile phone is its integration of multiplayer modes. While playing single-player mode, you can jump into multiplayer game by a single touch of mobile phone along with your friends. This seamless transition is not only an innovative idea but it is well executed too.

GTA multiplayer has always been fun but often overshadowed by its much-superior single player mode. GTA IV does introduce few new modes besides the traditional deathmatch, free-roam, racing, capture the flag etc. It's mostly nothing special beyond the usual GTA fun but with friends. The single-player mode will still take up the bulk of gaming time for most of the players.

realistic. But unlike any other open-world game I've ever played, Liberty City is very well a living, breathing place with its own charm and soul. Every building, every street of Liberty City will strike you as having its own unique personality. Each street has something special which sets it apart from every other street in the city, gives it its very own identity. This becomes apparent from the very moment you first step in the city. Smoke bellowing out of the sewers, dark crime-ridden alleyways, cheap apartments greet you into what is apparently GTA IV's rendition of Brooklyn. The moment you step into the streets of Liberty City, you realize with a shiver down your spine that Rockstar's efforts of creating a realistic version of New York has been fulfilled and how.
Few hours into the game, you'll have your own distinct memory of every part of the city accessible to you. You'll have to rarely refer a map from this point on, since every road has now become familiar to you. You've become a part of the city.
This gives each area of the city its own distinct flavor and nothing seems out of place in this city.

Perhaps more than anything else what adds more to city's already absorbing persona is the entertainment, the TV shows, the radio stations, the internet sites, the random strangers you meet in the city.
GTA series is usually famous (or infamous depending upon your sense of humor) for its humor and GTA IV has undoubtedly got to be one of the funniest games of this generation….if you've got an acquired sense of humor that is. GTA IV takes a satirical stance at the entire American culture driven by Niko's sarcastic remarks as an outsider and its radio stations and TV shows. It has enough misogynistic comments, racial digs, stereotypes of all sorts to offend anybody but the game always does it in a sense that will have you rolling around in laughter even if the joke was meant to offend you. Witty social critique humor doesn't get better than this.

Like the previous GTA games the game features radio stations which play every time you enter a car. Liberty City has a wide array of radio stations (much like what we find today) ranging from usual suspects like rock, metal, alternative, punk, indie, rap, hip-hop, 80s pop, jazz to surprisingly unique additions like a Russian radio station featuring its indigenous artists which are surprisingly good.There are also some "radio soaps", a hilarious one featuring a sexist judge who works in a divorce court. He can be funny or offensive depending yet again upon your sense of humour.

Now in GTA IV you can also watch TV in your apartment/safehouse. There are usually 6 to 7 odd channels most of them ranging from uproaringly hilarious parodies of popular real-life TV shows (like VH1's Fabulous Life) to stand-up comedy shows. The TV shows are easily the biggest draws when it comes to humor in GTA IV. There's a channel that shows live poker challenge 24-hrs a day with the same players playing till the end of eternity. The commentators on that show parody what we often hear our sports commentators do –hyperbole and exaggerate. Easily the two of my favourite TV shows are "The Men's Room" and "Republican Space Rangers". The latter is a cross-parody between Halo and the stereotypical Republican. Hilarious is an understatement here.

Internet plays a key role in GTA IV. Besides offering hundred or more sites for leisure browsing and source of instant humour, it also acts as a portal for certain story missions later in the game. You also have your very own email account which gets spams (which again are funny) as well as emails from your mother (which builds up back story of Niko), friends or potential date interests. Yes, GTA IV does have the girlfriends feature from San Andreas but this time you can browse through potential girlfriends from a dating site. You can meet them for a blind date and if things go well you can get her number by the end of first date too. Besides that, there are dozens of detailed sites which parody some or the other part of the internet world.

There are entertainment activities that you can enjoy alone or with a friend in Liberty City too. Besides, bowling and pool (which feature their own minigames) there are pubs, stand-up comedy shows and strip clubs. When you go to a pub, you usually end up drunk and driving under such circumstances can be dangerously hilarious. When drunk, the game's camera goes haywire, the vision gets blurred and the controls purposely unresponsive. Driving back to your home in one piece while dodging cops can be incredibly fun. The stand-up comedy shows feature two prominent real-life stand-up comedy artists Ricky Gervais and Katt Williams. Both bring their unique sense of humor to tickle your funny bones. The strip clubs usually have dingy, little rooms that have strippers in G-strings "entertaining" you while your controller vibrates. Fan-service to pervs, anyone?
You also meet random strangers across the city more than once and they have their own little stories attached to them. Some of these however short they maybe are surprisingly good like the one featuring an illegal immigrant who was in the same ship as you or a teenage girl who ran from her Kentucky home to Liberty City but became a junkie instead. What these missions do at most is give Niko's character more space to develop and it certainly shows. Niko is a protagonist most of the gamers will care and sympathize about.

GTA IV isn't flawless though. Perhaps the only "valid" flaw is also the game's biggest strength. It's shift towards a more mature and serious tone creates a wonderful story with complex, grey-shaded characters but also the realism kills the "over-the-top" fun the series became popular for in the first place. Sure, it is obvious that neither of those two things can co-exist but lack of "over-the-top" fun also kills the replay value to an extent. Causing random mayhem isn't easy now. However, to be honest irrespective of what GTA fan community might think, I personally prefer this kind of a serious GTA.
There are also weak moments in the story line too.
Somewhere after the midway and before the final stretch of story missions, the game starts feeling repetitive. Mission design becomes bland, cutscenes lose the same ferocity of earlier and even Niko starts doing questionable things without asking questions. The missions start feeling boring with clear repetition in between the halfway mark and the final stretch. That's the only part of the game GTA IV appears on unstable footing.
All those worries are however safely buried when GTA IV easily features a complete, fulfilling albeit a poignant ending. I won't tell the nature of the ending to avoid spoiling it for those who haven't played it, but GTA IV's ending will stay in your mind long after it's over at the awe of the way Rockstar have managed to answer its critics.

Graphically there are flaws as well. While it is visually sound, the pop-up issues from the series remain. Skyscrapers pop up from the horizon as you fly across the sky which is unfitting for a game of as much finesse and budget as GTA IV's The frame rate tends to suffer at rare occasions when you create too much of frenzy on-screen.
Then there are the taxi missions, vigilante missions, delivery missions as well as hidden packages and stunt jumps all given a face-lift for the new generation. That still doesn't hide the fact that such missions are mostly unnecessary and the fact that you can continue causing random mayhem after the story ending lessens the amazing impact of the story.

GTA IV was unarguably one of the most important game in this generation so far. San Andreas attracted acclaim and controversy in equal amounts within and outside of the gaming community. Rockstar had to redeem themselves while keeping the series' acclaim intact. All they could have done was give us a bigger, better GTA game and we would be happy. But instead what they did was shift the tone towards realism and a more mature narrative and characterization chucking aside "over-the-top" violence. GTA IV still retains everything we've loved about the series. The trademark sharp, satirical humor is still here with enough racial digs and stereotypical and sexist jokes to offend and humor equal amounts of people.
It still features oddball misfit characters which have surprising amount of depth in them this time around. Above all, GTA IV succeeds in creating two of its chief strengths – Liberty City and Niko Bellic. The story of the harsh, unforgiving city and a struggling illegal immigrant forced to face his past to meet ends is something we could never have imagined Rockstar pulling it off in the kind of manner they did.
Perhaps, in Rockstar's eyes, the best way to answer their critics who feel their games promote violence is to make them watch the final dialogue of GTA IV. The single sentence alone could make them believe that maybe, just maybe the bad-boy of gaming is changing for the good.
GTA IV is an experience that transcends all its flaws to become easily one of the finest games in recent years.

SCORE

PARTIALLY EDITED REVIEW TO FIT WORD LIMIT(CURSE YOU GS!).FOLLOW THE LINK FOR THE FULL REVIEW

Cave Story is a nostalgic masterpiece. I could end the review there itself because that alone describes the game in a nutshell. But it would be an injustice to ignore the game's obvious influences from timeless 2D gems like Super Metroid or Castlevania and how despite that it manages to combine decade-old mechanics into something completely fresh and innovative that evokes nostalgia and excitement in complete servings. Created over a period of five years by Hideki "Pixel" Amaya using a customized engine, Cave Story is an action platformer at its core but with adequate twists to its tried-and-tested formula.

You progress the story by dodging obstacles, solving puzzles and shooting enemies all of it culminating in a boss battle at the end. Sweet and simple. However, it features a RPG-like experience meter for every weapon you equip. You gain experience "triangles" by shooting an enemy. These triangles when collected fill up your experience meter for your currently equipped weapon. Each weapon has three levels. Your weapon gets more powerful the more levels you gain. So the previously weak Level 1 Pulsar Star can wipe out hordes of enemies within seconds on Level 3. But it doesn't end there. The twist to this is that each time you take a hit, you not only lose health but you ALSO lose your experience. So go all guns blazing and you'll end up not only damaging your health but also equipping a very underpowered weapon. This forces you to adapt your playing $tyle according to the situation very quickly. Cave Story is very good at this.

Later on in the game, you'll also come across an interesting weapon that adds another twist to the experience formula. This weapon easily the most powerful in the game WEAKENS the more levels you gain. The game gives you a warning along with the weapon saying it's meant only for "advanced or clever gamers". Finding out the trick to using is both exciting and challenging. Basic elements like save rooms and health kits are present in Cave Story like any other action platformer of its type.
Throughout the game you'll also find treasure chests (many of which are well-guarded) which contain power-ups, new weapons as well as story-related items.

Cave Story tells an excellent story of an amnesiac robot who finds himself inside a huge cave-like island inhabited by cute rabbit-like creatures called Mimigas. He also discovers that there is an evil Doctor who has set his eyes on world domination and naturally we have to stop him.
Did I call such simple, clichéd, childish story as excellent? Yes, because Cave Story's um..story shines not because of it's plot content but because of it's storytelling. Beginning with a silent, amnesiac protagonist with no clue as to where he is or what he is supposed to do (just like the gamer) things slowly begin to unfold in a humorous, poignant and disturbing manner. Yes, Cave Story can be poignant and disturbing. Poignant because of themes like "having human like emotions despite being a machine" and disturbing because of "the way how the innocent can be easily corrupted by the selfish world".

The story has multiple endings although how you achieve that has another innovative idea associated with it. A remarkable achievement of Cave Story's story is the way how the story branches out without you mostly never even realizing it. It has a way of scripting the plot in a pretty unique manner depending upon what event is triggered by your position. For example, if you decide to explore a room you might trigger an event which is completely different from the event you might have triggered had you decided not to explore that room. Without spoiling anything, this causes the story to branch in different manners depending upon such event triggers. The game has three different "complete" endings besides a couple abnormal endings. It's another reason to replay this tremendously fun game.

Of course, a 2D platformer can't be called one if it doesn't have epic boss battles set pieces. Cave Story has got a dozen of them, ranging from "joke bosses" that evoke a "WTF was that?" to series of tough boss battles that will have you utilizing every trick you've learnt in the game to it's best use. Despite that, Cave Story isn't a very easy game. For large parts, the game remains in the "normal" difficulty mode but suddenly ups the difficulty in the final cave. To add to that the final cave has got two different versions depending which story branch you end up on.
Since Cave Story is homage in many ways to countless 2D platformers, it has a series of tough FOUR final boss battles (without any saving or health kits) that evoke memories from the likes of Ninja Gaiden or Metroid. There is also a couple of levels where you do a co-op with a computer-controlled character, Curly (a-la Contra albeit in single-player) and those levels are nothing but absolute fun.

Strangely, the game never gets frustrating or annoying despite the fact that the PC controls don't make the game simpler. Whenever you see Game Over screen, you always discover a flaw in your strategy and you immediately want to improve on that. The game can be punishing sometimes but can be immensely rewarding with satisfaction when you do manage to complete the hard part. Yet again, an aspect of 2D games many of old-school gamers like me still cherish.

True to its source of inspiration like Super Metroid, Cave Story is highly atmospheric. From eerie looking caves to dream-like scenery, the game's NES-like graphics do their best to evoke the game's underlying disturbing tone well. More than the graphics, it's the music that really hits the spot. Featuring 8-bit tunes (actually they're just normal electronica ) ranging from upbeat, cheerful moods to ambient, disturbing, fore-boding danger tunes. Both of them combine to create an inescapable, claustrophobic (again Super Metroid-esque) atmosphere in a cave that could have otherwise been so generic.

A special mention needs to be given to the game's creator, designer, artist, music director, and programmer in short almost everything --Hideki "Pixel" Amaya. He created this game single-handedly for a period of 5 years with nothing but plain dedication towards his game. It shows because unlike many action platformers of past, Cave Story hardly has any "weak levels". Every level is wonderfully designed; it's balanced and shows that proper time has been devoted to every part of the game. Other than a sequence where you have to travel through a pitch dark room, the game is devoid of any frustrating sequence either (go eat boot, Battletoads power-bike sequence :P )


Cave Story is an important game. It was the first game to develop a massive underground cult following which led to an indie-gaming revolution back in 2004 on a declining platform and encouraged passionate gamers to put forward their passion and ideas into a game without any sort of "executive" pressure. Since then, the indie-community has gone from strength to strength expanding from its PC/Mac/Linux roots onto consoles. Till date, Cave Story along with other games like Darwinia remain icons within the niche indie community.
But besides all its importance, Cave Story is a tremendously entertaining, wholly innovative game that reminds you of the best-of-the best from its genre yet standing its own ground against them. It may not be right to compare Cave Story and the likes of Super Metroid directly but in their own right, they're games that deserve to be played any way you put it. Cave Story is that sweet, little package of nostalgic innovation that reminds us why we fell in love with 2D games in the first place.
Oh and all of this is absolutely free.

SCORE

Also a special Cave Story link to it's official tribute site which has a download portal. For those of you interested, you should download it.

CAVE STORY

That's all for now

C ya

Lightwarrior179

A considerable section of the game developing community has always had far-reaching ambitions of making it into movies someday. It is perhaps a natural ambition for a storyteller to harbor a desire for his story to be told to a wider audience through movies. It is from such ambitious game developers that gaming owes some of its most mature stories to. Hideo Kojima, Ragnar Tornquist are few of the names that first spring to my mind. Such men have brought a tighter narrative and powerful characters into their games giving their gamers almost a "movie-like" experience.
David Cage is another amongst such visionaries. His last game Fahrenheit (known as Indigo Prophecy in NA) was an ambitious title. Bringing movie-****cutscenes and interactive features loaded with generous doses of Quick Time Events (QTEs) to give the adventuring genre a totally different perspective and an appeal to a wider audience. It was one of the freshest ideas in years and if it weren't for its lackluster execution and pathetic second half, the game would have been hailed as one of the finest.

Six years later and Quantic Dream comes up with Heavy Rain, a game promising to bring forth a "film-noir murder/mystery" story for mature audiences. Boasting of realistic motion-capture graphics and facial animations, Heavy Rain harbored a lot of expectations to not only build upon the concept introduced in Fahrenheit but to actually execute it effectively.
In stark contrast to Fahrenheit's tense opening sequence, Heavy Rain begins slowly. Instead of delving the gamers face-first into key moments of the plot, it chooses to introduce its four protagonists one by one slowly while developing their personalities and background. The first two hours continues in this relaxed manner bedazzling you with its visual $tyle as well as its surprisingly powerful way of making you feel uncomfortable. The sequence where you play as Madison in a lonely apartment is a testament of that. By this time you're sure of one thing – Quantic Dream hasn't lost their knack for film-noir visual $tyle treatment to their games.

Heavy Rain tells a story of a city haunted by a mysterious serial killer called "The Origami Killer" who leaves behind small origami pieces at the crime scene. The game's story is divided into "Skits" and Chapters, each chapter initially focusing on each of the four protagonist's hunt for the Origami Killer.

The four lead characters-- Ethan Mars, a distraught father already depressed by the unfortunate death of his first son and now faced with rescuing his second child, Shaun from an imminent death after Origami Killer kidnaps him. Norman Jayden, a FBI agent addicted to a fictitious drug called Triptocaine is probably the best and my favourite amongst the cast and is tracking Origami Killer for his own reasons. Madison Paige, a journalist and Scott Shelby, a private eye detective round up the main protagonists all of which have their own reasons behind their quest to search for the Origami Killer.
The game also has an innovative feature where the death of any protagonist doesn't mean a game over. Instead the story will continue to progress albeit a bit differently in that character's absence. This leads to the story branching out differently at various points terminating in multiple endings. While this does lead to some problems (mentioned later in the review) it adds much more value to the replayability.

Just like in Fahrenheit, control scheme for Heavy Rain will please some while annoying others. It adopts a tighter sensitivity going for realistic movement rather than exaggerated. The result is your character will move more slowly and less haphazardly. Even actions like opening a tap involves "intuitive" controls which require you to rotate the analog as you would to open a tap. Like in Fahrenheit, these controls end up being a stylish and mostly an effective idea to implement old elements of point-and-click adventure games.

New to this game are the SixAxis "motion controls". Certain actions on-screen require you to move your SixAxis in a particular way to perform the action. For example, when you have to brush your teeth, you actually have to move the SixAxis controller in a manner you would to brush your teeth. This gets on your nerves from the very first time and appears to be not only a poor excuse to implement PS3's SixAxis controls but also a cheesy gimmick as an excuse for actual innovation. For those with a very short attention span, the first two hours which feature a large chunk of such SixAxis motion controls will test your patience.

The game progresses via cutscenes most of which are interactive and require you to follow the sequence of control commands better known as Quick Time Events (QTEs). This time the QTEs have been greatly improved from Fahrenheit seeming more dynamic and less obstructive. Now the QTE commands only appear where the command would actually effect the action and don't obstruct the whole screen like they did in Fahrenheit. As a result the action sequences appear more intense and involving without you losing the track of action on-screen. Quantic Dream adds a bit more spice to these QTEs by blurring them during situations where the characters are under pressure or tension. Certain QTE sequences involving Norman Jayden, the Triptocaine-addicted FBI agent have QTE commands dazed out when he is on a "high". Sequences involve him (and thus you) fighting to avoid the urge of succumbing to his addiction is another example of this unique, innovative outlook towards QTEs.

Largely known for his "direction" skills, David Cage still amazes during the game's thrilling split-screen set-pieces. He also puts a great deal of importance on camera angles during general conversations adding more excitement and "movie-like" touch to it. Continuing on its aim of presenting decade-old adventure elements in a unique manner, Heavy Rain features a "thought box" which is a rough outlook of the thoughts going in character's minds. Long-time adventuring fans will easily recognize this as an equivalent of "clicking the sprite" to know a character's thoughts in old point-and-click PC adventures. Most of such thoughts are largely related to the current situation the character finds him/herself in while few other thoughts add a bit more into their largely-shallow personalities.

Shallow, you say?

Yes. While Heavy Rain manages to nail the gaming part of "interactive movie" almost perfectly, it's the basic core of adventure games – plot and characters, where it stumbles and in a grand fashion too. To begin with the plot is incredibly weak and shallow. Halfway through the game and few twists through, almost anyone can easily tell who the actual Origami Killer is. For a story that claims to be a "murder/mystery", the mystery element is totally lost by the time you're five hours into the game. For those who're still puzzled, the game throws off few lackluster "decoy elements" and "deus ex machina" along the way to keep you off figuring who the serial killer actually is. These are not enough to hide away the fact that the core mystery is so predictable. The entire charm of a murder/mystery is lost the moment you know who the culprit is. Here it's far before the game wants you.
Apparently the developers have seriously underestimated an average gamers' I.Q or they've totally overestimated their story's capability.

Either way, the plot falls flat on its face and fails to keep you engaged beyond the half-way mark. The dozens of aforementioned "decoys" and "deus ex machina" don't make it easy for the game. As the game moves towards it's end, instead of answering things, the questions keep piling one upon another as ditching logic and simple common-sense (much like it's predecessor Fahrenheit did in it's second half) the game goes for confusing it's gamers. There's almost a moment just before the ending that you actually HOPE Quantic Dream will come out with a grand ending that shocks you and answers all the questions simultaneously.

Unfortunately, there's no such masterstroke and without spoiling anything, I'll just say the ending is a disappointment of epic proportions. For many gamers like me, who got a sense of who's the serial killer long back, the ending won't come as a surprise. Instead you'll be frustrated at the dozens of loopholes and unanswered questions the ending leaves in its wake. The fact that the storyline branches at numerous points doesn't help its cause as well. Many of the endings of say one storyline branch ignore established facts in another branch leaving you as the gamer to ponder which is true and which is false. That unfortunately will remain an unsolved mystery.

Unless you meet an immature ending, the actual ending is largely the same but with variations. The ending was supposedly meant to be poignant and dramatic, but for me the mere "motive" of the serial killer had me going into a face-palm followed by uncontrollable laughter. Suffice to say, if you've watched enough murder/mystery movies, you'll be doing mostly the same by the end.

The fact that much of the main character's personalities are largely two-dimensional doesn't help the game either. Amongst the bunch, Ethan and Madison are easily the weakest. While their introductions in the prologue did establish their background, their personalities are incredibly weak and the trials and tribulations they go through don't draw sympathy from you either. The fact that they're voiced rather poorly by today's gaming standards doesn't help. Just like Lucas-Carla angle in Fahrenheit, Ethan-Madison romantic angle looks terribly forced and unnecessary. When someone is as desperate as Ethan is to save his son, you can't imagine why he would want to get involved with a woman who was a stranger a few moments ago. You can't help but be skeptical about this being Quantic Dream's excuse of adding a sex scene into a game.

That leaves Scott Shelby and Norman Jayden. Both are likeable for large parts of the game. They don't try to be over-dramatic to draw emotions from you cheaply. They just act naturally and you like them for who they are. Unfortunately, much of the game's "emotional quotient" is with Ethan and this meant that at least I never found this game emotionally overwhelming. As mentioned before, the voice acting is largely mediocre having a distinct French and British accents for characters who're supposed to be Americans. The music is pretty efficient choosing to remain minimalist for large parts of the game to emphasize on the game's "noir" $tyle

Heavy Rain does a brilliant effort in presenting decade-old genre elements in a fresh perspective and unlike its predecessor; it actually combines and executes them effectively this time. Every scene is a visual treat to the eyes and many sequences will involve, engage and thrill you like few other videogames can. Unfortunately, as much as I would love to laud it for its remarkable achievements, Heavy Rain is marred by a highly predictable plot that loses its mystery (and thus its charm) by the time it's half-way through as well as an ending that will make you go in fits of laughter for its sheer cheesiness and goofiness. A story that ditches logic and then goes to great lengths to put you off from guessing its predictable end while ignoring the numerous loopholes it leaves in its trail. Characters draw a mixed response from you-some likeable due to their personalities, others annoying and hate-worthy for their personalities (or their lack of it).

The end result is a game that will entertain and annoy you in equal amounts. Unlike the studio's past titles, Heavy Rain nails the "interactive movie" part almost perfectly. Unfortunately, this "movie" has one predictable storyline. Gaming community, in general is a lot more forgiving than movie-goers towards poor plots and under-developed characters in presence of a better presentation as it has been proved by this game's "universal acclaim". In that sense, Heavy Rain can count itself lucky to be called a "videogame".

SCORE

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POST REVIEW NOTES :

• I didn't rant too much on Heavy Rain here since it was a review, but there's ATLEAST ONE rant coming in May based on this game.
• For those who don't know, I played this at my cousin's who recently purchased a PS3. Did 3 playthroughs, put in roughly 24 hrs. End result is what the review states. ;)
• I would like to give a long lecture to David Cage if I meet him in real
• My opinion on Quantic Dream hasn't changed much since I played their first game "Omikron : The Nomad Soul". They're an ambitious bunch with interesting ideas. Yet they manage to spoil their own game everytime.
• The game was cheesy on many occasions. Even the so called "emotional" moments were more cheesy than a JRPG. :P

That's it for now,

C ya

Lightwarrior179

P.S : Happy Easter to all in advance! :)

It wasn't very long back in gaming history when adventure gaming was at its peak. Point-and-click adventures thrived and people appreciated complex, likeable characters with a story-oriented gameplay with elements of puzzle-solving involved in it. When games like Grim Fandango and The Longest Journey had a faithful fan following behind them. All of that remains nothing but history now.
Gaming has evolved and apparently adventure gaming is considered too archaic for "modern-day" gamers today. Hoping to revive this dying genre, Quantic Dream's David Cage once said, "The genre needs a new perspective". To deliver upon his words, Cage came up with a sort of new re-imagining the genre needed in the form of Fahrenheit (known as Indigo Prophecy in North America for some strange reason).

Calling Fahrenheit "different" would be an understatement. It plays like anything but a conventional game. To start off, it controls differently. Instead of the usual use of analog sticks you would expect in a third-person perspective game, Fahrenheit comes up innovative control design. With tighter controls which aim at making character movements seem realistic rather than exaggerated this game definitely gets the re-imagining part of adventure games on consoles spot-on. But, Quantic Dream doesn't stop there. Instead they go one step ahead and bring out "intuitive, immersive controls" (as put forward quite humorously by David Cage in the game's tutorial) which really sets Fahrenheit apart from any game of it's time.
These "intuitive controls" are nothing but a simple but unique refinement of console controls. So if your character wants to open a door, you have to do push the analog stick forward to push the door open. Similarly if you want to pick up a mug, you push the right analog up. Such actions always appear on the top of the screen whenever you approach any such "interactive" objects, so you always have an idea of which direction of analog stick will do what. It's a smart idea and is implemented pretty well to an extent.

The game also uses quick-time events (QTE) in generous (and in latter stages, excessive) amounts to involve you in the action taking place on-screen. Most of the times, QTEs are used in fight sequences taking place on-screen but they're also used for different slightly irrelevant purposes like playing a guitar, dodging and scoring a basket in a one-on-one basketball match etc. It's not unique (unlike much of the game) and remains as a bleak contrast to the rest of the game.


Fahrenheit's story is a psychological thriller. It begins with easily one of the most tense, exciting sequences I've played in a game. You are Lucas Kane, an average Joe that has apparently been "manipulated" into committing a cold-blooded murder in the restroom of a diner in New York City. The game begins here and you take control of Kane. In a thrilling split-screen set-piece, you're supposed to clear the crime scene of any evidence before a cop sitting in the diner finishes his coffee and visits the restroom to wash his hands. Everything best about the genre is put to use here. Keen visual observation, quick thinking and strong reflexes of player are put to test here. Miss cleaning out bloodstains off your shirt or hiding the knife and you'll probably see a Game Over screen in less than two minutes of the game.

The game features a pretty likeable cast. Lucas Kane as the grim, depressive, paranoid "victim" of an unknown force is probably the most likeable since you'll be playing as him for most of the game. Other playable characters include Carla Valenti, a NYPD agent and her sidekick, Tyler Miles. Their camaraderie is the humor relief of the game. There's also Marcus Kane, Lucas' estranged brother who is a Catholic priest. All of them are voice-acted in an "okay, good" kind of way you would generally expect from a game.

Calling Fahrenheit an "interactive movie" wouldn't be too wrong to an extent. Much of the game progresses in the form of cutscenes many of which are interactive and all of which are very stylishly shot. David Cage uses the game's camera like a movie director would. Never shying away from utilizing different angles during conversations nor using split screen sequences during numerous cutscenes. There are gameplay sequences similar to the first mentioned above all of them being as exciting. The game is so ambitious on its ****and design that it even uses sepia-textured art design in flashback sequences. The game is definitely heavy on cut-scenes but unlike some other games of its type, Fahrenheit has so many tricks up its sleeves that make most of the scenes interesting enough.

Despite all of the mentioned praise-worthy elements, Fahrenheit stumbles at many places. Most of these flaws are concentrated or highlighted repeatedly in the absolutely awful second-half of the game. In fact to be honest, calling Fahrenheit's 2nd half a bleak contrast to the first would be an understatement.
For instance, the game relies on quick-time events (QTE) a LOT. They were used restrictively in the 1st half but the game goes overboard with them in later stages. At times, there are three to four long-winded QTEs performed to emerge victorious in a battle. Fail in any one of those QTEs and you're subject to being tortured with again right from the first QTE.
Add to that the annoying use of QTE in things as simple as watching a cutscene. Later in the game, Lucas has the ability to "see the unseen" through his dreams (in other words, parallel universe). However, while you're seeing his dream via a cutscene you're subjected to constant QTE that needs to be pressed without fail if you want to watch the cutscene. The problem with this and with every QTE is its core idea. The developers apparently wanted to involve gamers in the action of cutscenes by the use of QTE. The problem with that is that you're SO busy in pressing controls as displayed by QTE that you actually don't give a damn about what goes on in the cutscene beyond. You're just too scared about missing a QTE and starting from all over again.

Certain flashback sequences involve you infiltrating an army base. You have to use stealth here. Ironically for a game that uses a variety of camera modes otherwise, these flashback "stealth" sequences have a fixed camera that hinders you from getting any proper view of the surrounding and turns out to be a major annoyance.

All of this might have been still acceptable had Fahrenheit's story not deserted it in the 2nd half. There's a twist almost midway through the game which turns the story from a psychological thriller into a supernatural Mayan mythology one. After this there's no looking back. The game ditches logic and sense and brings about every possible cliché and bizarre twist in the book turning a murder mystery into "saving the world". You're expected to digest the fact when a realistic, mature story turns into something where "the world is controlled by three clans-Indigo Clan, Orange Clan, Purple Clan". You're expected to digest the fact that the protagonist who until sometime was a paranoid, suspiciously psychotic but nonetheless likeable person turns into a superhuman who can blow cars away just by the movement of a finger (and no it doesn't utilize any of those "intuitive controls" ). You're expected to also digest that two of the leads who were earlier on opposite paths thinking of each other as enemies, suddenly come across each other, say sorry and have a gimmicky sex scene. If this is how shockingly a great game is going to degrade into a mindlessly numb one, then it is tragic.

Characters that you earlier empathized for start taking weird decisions, blurting out dialogues you would have otherwise never expected from this well-written game. This apparently leads to a feeling that the game was rushed in development. The story definitely feels rushed by the end and every bizarre twist the game puts makes you feel that the game did not live upto its potential in the 1st half. Wince-inducing is a polite remark to what I would call 2nd half.
Maybe it's not as bad as I make it sound, but it still remains like a dark shadow of the game's excellent 1st half.

Quantic Dream are a rare breed of developers. They're highly ambitious and don't mind taking unconventional steps if needed to achieve that. Their last game, Omnikron : The Nomad Soul was a sci-fi genre masher that wasn't a particularly good game and not "better than sum of it's parts" unfortunately.
Fahrenheit is definitely better. It will dazzle and amaze you with it's brilliantly shot and directed cut scenes. It will create a feeling of tension and excitement with the split-screen sequences. It's story will initially make you wonder upon the sanity of your own character. Yeah, it's that powerful. But the over-reliance of quick-time events and the pathetic degradation of game's into a mindless, clichéd one are easily the two most glaring downfalls of the game. Give Fahrenheit a try but with caution of its possible shortcomings. It's a shining but flawed example of what adventure genre can potentially achieve.

Score

There used to be a time when every dream you dreamt was achievable. Every world you fantasized about came to life once you closed your eyes. There was a time when the world was a better place to live in with lesser burdens and lesser people to judge you.

However, today the inevitable has finally happened. That magical time has finally slipped away from my hands and I've become what many call as an adult. Yesterday I celebrated my 18th birthday bidding farewell to my childhood taking away only it's wonderful memories with me in my mind. These memories will eventually fade but I hope they last for much of this life.

I am not writing this NOT because I am depressed with my life (it's quite the contrary actually). It's just that I've spent a greater part of my childhood wishing I could "grow-up" someday and do things like driving a car or voting like all grown-ups do. And now when I've finally become what I wanted to, I kinda wish I could relive all those times only for one single moment.

A few days ago I was walking past the playground where we used to play EVERY day when we were kids. The joyous laughter was ingrained into the very essence of that playground. However having moved from that area I didn't see that playground until earlier this week. It just felt like a dark,bleak shadow of it's former self. It was completely abandoned, wild grass growing waist-high seeming more like a colony for insects than the place where young,tender,free-spirits came to celebrate their freedom from the ways of the world.

I feel like blaming this on the changing culture everywhere. Children prefer staying home sitting in front of the TV watching cartoons or playing games on their consoles (or worse MMOs) never knowing what the outside world looks like. I know gamers are often stereotyped as nerds or geeks but hey when you spend your whole childhood sitting in front of a monitor,talking random crap to total strangers rather than smiling and playing with your neighbour's kid, then you DESERVE to be called a freaking geek.

It's a problem with parenting as well. Nowadays, parents assume good parenting is giving what makes your child happy. Without ever caring to tell him the distinction between good or bad, or without giving him any sort of morals.

I'll tell you something. I've played "M" rated games since I was 12. I've wasted (see how I call it wasted) 6 months of my life addicted to Diablo II multiplayer.

But I've learnt important lessons from that. Despite playing violent games, I've NEVER been involved in a single fight in school. In fact I was often the peace-maker between two fighting parties in school (which sometimes caused a random blow to fall upon me as well :P ) but I would rather walk away from that place then get caught in a fight. People called me coward. But I didn't care. I just knew fighting for no freaking reason was wrong.

Why then did me playing Vice City or other violent games not make me violent as well? (PLEASE NOTE all you moronic mediapersons and attorneys. Violent games do NOT make a violent person. BAD parenting does maketh a violent,unethical man). My parents mean a world to me (and so does my family) because they've made me the person I am and I owe them that for my entire life.

I also learnt another important lesson from that Diablo II incident. I swore never to play a MMO or anything similar to that again. Those vile things are made out of the very fibres of addiction that's so deadly that it can ruin those wonderful years of life without you even realising that. I am just glad I survived that phase. In fact,now that I am recollecting those things I remember most of the memories from the childhood AFTER I got out of Battle.Net addiction (come on! don't look at me like I was a drug addict! I bet some of you were addicts to MMO or multiplayer at some point! :P )

Childhood is a time that is so precious and you're not going to realize that until you've lost it...just like every god damn thing in this world. For all the kids out there in GameSpot! Stop browsing the net,stop staring at those pixelated boobies :lol: , get off those damned over-crowded servers of WoW, start playing the REAL-LIFE MMORPG (which unfortunately doesn't have Mass Effect $tyle dialogue options :P )!

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No More Heroes 2 and Mass Effect 2.

I know I've talked a bit about this on hart704's blog but I thought I would emphasize my point a bit more elaborately and just state my preferences.

For me both those games releasing on the very same day represent the kind of apparently broad divide in video gaming world today.

Mass Effect 2 is very much an example of the blockbuster game with high production values, a massive budget that is more than enough to buy an all-star cast, finely polished graphics, interactive storytelling and combination of multiple genres (I see this is an increasing trend almost everywhere in games). These are the games that appear everywhere on billboards,TV,sites. They'll make sure you don't forget to pre-order it. They'll repeat the same ad until you're sick and tired of it's "Hollywood wannabe" trailers.

No More Heroes 2 on the other hand belongs to the rare-dying breed of games that punches you in the guts and still makes you call it as your best buddy. I wish I had a Wii because missing this game makes me feel guilty. It's because NMH has everything I love in varying proportions. Violence,blood and gore, slapstick humour,boobies, pop-culture references, fourth-wall breaking dialogues...hell it has everything I like! Pre-release,there were hardly a few NMH "official" trailers but the single one featuring it's creator Suda51 was the BEST FREAKING TRAILER! It's better than trailers of 1000 other "so-called" big name games. There's not a single dull moment in that trailer. :D

It's not ME2 alone. I could cite much better examples. Mainly Uncharted 2. I'll be straight. I've got no prejudices against the series and I like Naughty Dog's games (I love their Jak and Daxter series), but nearly EVERYONE I've come across who has played Uncharted 2 keeps talking about the "great realistic visuals, a stellar voice cast and an action-packed story and a game that feels like a Hollywood blockbuster". Hardly anyone remembers to mention about its gameplay. Even when it came to the GotY where most of the sites went for the most popular and obvious choice to give Uncharted 2 the GotY they mentioned those merits over and over again.

I keep wondering. Those merits could apply for a movie as well. But what really worries me sometimes is "game feels like a Hollywood blockbuster". Isn't this what most of the games are aiming for nowadays? They give you a short 4-6 hr single-player campaign with high-quality visuals, grand score and voice acting and BOOM! it's all over.

Video game is a medium of entertainment. Let it remain one. Imitating another form of medium will lead to an identity crisis. We don't want that to happen. I am not saying that games should remain stagnated. But don't focus solely on making games accessible for a wider audience by forgetting what those games where popular for in the first place.

Also I'll make one thing clear. I am not a very big fan of Bethesda. Atleast not this generation. I consider Morrowind to be one of the better games of this decade and Oblivion disappointed me in comparison in nearly every sense other than refinements in combat. Oblivion's wide-world that has 1,000000 quests in it was other bland,bleak,boring and totally uninteresting. It's AI was worse than Half Life 2's AI. So much so for the "first biggest thing in RPG this gen".It was made accessible to a broader audience but the game lost what was the most cherished thing about the series : "the immersiveness of it's setting".

Instead my respect for BioWare has reached a maxima as of late. Sure playing Baldur's Gate saga the entire last year was the single most memorable gaming experience of my life (and I am ready to repeat that 1000 times) but it was the double whammy of Mass Effect and Dragon Age Origins that has made me respect them.

Mass Effect is the kind of future I want the mainstream RPGs to be. Notice I use the word "mainstream". Sure,BioWare tried to deliver a blockbuster sci-fi like experience but without every the beauty of the core game. Moreover, Mass Effect stands true to the definition of role-playing. It puts you into the role of Commander Shepard and there's no falsity in that. Everything you do will impact the game in some or the other way.

Dragon Age Origins is something quite similar like a Demon's Souls or No More Heroes in it's stature. It will appeal to a very niche audience. Probably because many have just dismissed it seeing it's Tolkein-esque world or it's generic looking gameplay. But having played it (YES!! I did pre-order it for my birthday and put in few hours on it yesterday), I can proudly say that for core role-playing enthusiasts Dragon Age Origins is the game you've been waiting for your whole life. And I say that with the most honest,unhyped intentions.

With that I sign off.

Say hello,to the adult lightwarrior (I should probably get my avatar image changed. Any ideas? )

--lightwarrior179

[EDIT] : I currently have the Dragon Age Origins : Collector's Edition. I am not one of those who gets these CEs but the amount of extra stuff and a SWEET cloth map sold me on it. I've also pre-ordered ME2 (normal edition...I am not a sucker for making-of-DVDs). Both of the games will be the first ones I delve into once May arrives. Until that I must sadly set them aside. Now I REALLY wish I was back in my childhood! :P

Hello there everyone,

This blog page looks really unfamiliar to me. It's almost as if I am visiting a place from a distant memory in my past life. But hey,it's been two months since I wrote my last blog and you can't help me from feeling that I've neglected my blogs way too much this year. I've been around GS quite regularly keeping up with all the happenings in gaming world as well as that of all of you, but I've never really had time (or mood..yeah I happen to be very moody when it comes to blogging) to make a new blog.

But since I've finally made a new one owing to the obligatary end of the year blogs, I guess all of you deserve an update from me about what I've been upto.

To that I reply,nothing much. Life has been more or less the same. School's got very busy,the classes even more busier. Loads of assignments and projects were completed and loads are yet to be submitted and their number just keeps rising (hail the art of chronic procrastination! :P ). I've been doing pretty well in my studies and with those important dates (April 11,April 24 and two more days scheduled to be somewhere in mid-May) approaching ever so closer, I've got to keep myself continuously motivated AND most importantly focused. It's not been easy let me tell you. I've always had this kind of short-term attention disorder sometimes where I just can't sit doing one thing for a while. It happens ESPECIALLY when I am studying a topic I hate. Oh well..can't help! Atleast it's not effecting my result which is a good thing. :D :P

Before that let's look back on various things of 2009

Best Movie (English)

5. Avatar : Okay,this WAS the amazing cinematic experience we were promised. When I saw Pandora for the first time in 3D I clearly remember the stoned look on everyone's faces.Nobody knew what hit them. And that was worth every single penny of the 300 million dollars James Cameron spent on this visual treat. Sure,beneath ALL the visual fluff,the film was very ordinary with an average script. But still those visuals and motion-capture makes this seem like a crystal gaze into the future of movies.

4. Up in the Air : I loved Jason Reitman's Juno and was looking forward to this. Plus George Clooney has been constantly growing on me after Ocean's Eleven, Syriana and Michael Clayton. A unique kind of a drama/comedy hitting all the right notes throughout. Excellent performances by it's leads as well. Does a good job in depicting the life of an business executive always on the move, for whom airports is his home and strangers his family. :)

3. District 9 : This was a biggie! Definitely THE sci-fi blockbuster in this year of awful ones. Neill Blomkamp created a tremendously endearing setting and a plot that grabs you by the gut and doesn't leave until you can't escape this marvellous movie's clutches. It's also got some very random and humorous moments as well.

2. A Serious Man : This one is an uproaringly hilarious yet darkly true comedy/drama situated in the mid-60s by the Coen Brothers. I've been a fan of their work (Fargo and No Country...rocked! :D ).It's one of those rare movies where the coming of existential understanding and the importance of cultural society in the mind of an ordinary man is shown in an impeccable fashion. :D

1. Inglourious Basterds : You must have seen this one coming,knowing the Tarantino fan that I am! Is it his best movie since Pulp Fiction? Probably (Jackie Brown makes me question that)! Possibly the only Tarantino movie where scenes dominate over the rest of the play where it's all build-up,build-up and then BOOM! Makes you always anticipate something's going to happen (see the movie's first scene for the perfect example).The movie has a brilliant ensemble cast (OSCAR to Christoph Waltz!),a great score and one of the most epic endings I've seen in a LONG time. :lol:

BEST MOVIE (HINDI)

In my opinion, 2009 was the year of Bollywood backlash. Commercial cinema was chucked out,multi-starrers bombed at the box-office and arthouse cinema was recognized by urban audience. Directors realized the potential of visual imagery as an art in movies. Powerful social messages were delivered straight to the heart of the viewer in a non-preachy fashion.

I never thought I would say this but we've had a better year than the Hollywood! Sorry! :P

5. Delhi 6 : It's a mystery to me as to why people didn't like this movie.And they criticized the Ram Leela sequences for god's sake! An excellent movie by the director of my all-time fave movie(Rang De Basanti) this one is about all the minor prejudices we hold against the very communities we live together with and how easily communal ties are shattered in times of trouble (Kala Bandar idea FTW! :D )

4. Wake Up Sid : A youth favorite. Basically a coming of an age tale told brilliantly through charming,endearing characters and the situations they find themselves in. Ranbir Kapoor,the star of today's gen was born in this movie! ;)

3. 3 Idiots : The highly anticipated Christmas release, the Aamir Khan-Raju Hirani combo worked ABSOLUTE wonders. I've never seen a packed theatre standing up and applauding a movie as much as this. Full-on entertainer, that will make you go in fits and give you cramps in your stomach and some scenes will make you emotional.

This movie was special to me because it's characters are in the same situation as I am right now. And I found each of the three primary characters relatable to me in some way or the other. Never felt that way! Awesome stuff again! :D

AND NOW ONTO TWO REALLY EPIC WIN MOVIES! :P

2. Dev D : Words fail to describe this radical piece of ****** up art by the Anurag Kashyap (nicknamed Maverick by many here).

What is Dev D you wonder? Well, you take the most overused,overrated literary piece from 19th century India featuring the most pathetic,sore loser who goes down the path of self-destruction after falling in love and being dumped TWICE thanks to his Mt.Everest-sized ego and turn it into one contemporary ride straight to the pits of Hell.

Much like Clockwork Orange, the first hour of Dev D will shock you at the sheer shamelessness of it's anti-hero. This is where Dev D works (and other movies based on the same story epically failed!). The movie doesn't try to sympathize you with the protagonist. How can you?He's a sore loser for god's sake! But instead they alienate you enough so that when he goes through all the hell in the movie's stylishly and colourful visual delight of a 2nd half, and comes out alive you actually realize you care about this renewed soul.

It's probably got one of the best movie soundtracks EVER! Amit Trivedi = GOD! There's nobody or nothing like it!

1. Kaminey : How can the year of recognization of new-age Indian cinema not end with this topping it all off. The master of dark action/drama/humor. A wild mish-mash of multiple genres and narrative $tyle ranging from Guy Ritchie to Quentin Tarantino. But Vishal Bharadwaj (director AND music composer AND singer) is a freaking genius that he turns an overused tale into something so refreshingly new and bubbling with a spirit that would destroy any unsuspecting fool. Packed with energy unmatched, unparallelled performances and a killer title track. Plus it's got an ending that's strayed into one of my fave discussions over on the Internetz! :D

Homages to 70s music and movies, visual artistry at it's peak, dark,dry humor taking pot-shots at some real-life personalities and two twins (one who stammers and the other with a lisp ) It's not easy to mix smart cinema with such high-degree commercial one. But this makes it seem like a piece of cake.

MUSIC

I'll be honest. I've listened to more music this year than I EVER have in my whole life. :D

BEST ALBUMS

5. Resistance--(Muse) : An unexpected discovery,Muse sound very much like a modern-day Pink Floyd minus the "snoozy" parts of The Dark Side of the Moon.

4. Veckatimest--(Grizzly Bear) : You must have heard of em probably! The indie band got considerable commercial attention this year. This Brooklyn quartet came up with this folksy,often psychedelic but mostly soothing,charming album which always has it's emotions well-intentioned. Also it featured more complex instrumentation than their previous works. Sweet and nice! :D

3. Merriweather Post Pavilion--(Animal Collective) : An achievement in every sense! Breaking from the traditional pop/rhythm structure,this Brooklyn indie band,created their own free-flowing structure combined with their neo-psychedelic music. Hard to listen for more than 8 songs, because they're just so ridiculously complex and mind-boggling (you'll literally see random colors around you if you listen too carefully into the album for the first time :P ) these same tunes slowly become catchy upon repeated listens and reveal their true beauty underneath. MUST LISTEN! :D

2. Actor--(St.Vincent) : Again a thrilling sophomore attempt by this Brooklyn (AGAIN!!) based indie artist which was apparently inspired by Woody Allen's movies. Combining soft and rough textures often at the same time, Actor's lyrical themes are also of compassionate love with a hidden malicious intent behind. St.Vincent (real name Annie Clark) is a true wonder when she sings in contrasting tones. :D

1. Bitte Orca--(The Dirty Projectors) : Probably one of the best albums I've listened from this decade (amongst the likes of Radiohead,Interpol etc), it's a sheer aural bliss. This Brooklyn (WTF!! This place has got somethin' special in it :P ) based indie band spearheaded by the wildy talented, Dave"love-to-experiment" Longstreth has finally hit upon gold...diamond...whatever.

Supported by two more fellow vocalists this time,Amber Coffman and Angel Deradoorian (Armenian surname in case you're wondering). Like the album cover shows both of them, this album is at parts about the stunning contrast between both of their voices. Amber's spunky,slightly naive tone to Angel's hair-raising,sweeping contralto. Plus, Dave has got a fascination of "Jimmy Page meets Dave Bryne in a booze party kind of guitar". Simply fabulous! MUST LISTEN! :D

GAMES

2009 was probably my worst year for gaming. I purchased only THREE NEW GAMES!(RE5,Blazblue and Football Manager 2009) However, I opened a stashful of unplayed, long-forgotten games from the yore. THEY FEATURE ON THE LIST AS WELL!

To be honest,I am even kinda ashamed to show the list seeing the tremendous lack of new games in it !! :P

Ahh....what can be done

5. Final Fantasy IX : Look I'll be straight with all of ya FFIX lovers out there. I simply didn't like FFIX as much as I liked the previous two PS1 era FFs(FFVIII is of course my undying love :D ). You cannot give nostalgia as an excuse for poorly developed characters and uninspired battle system. But due to the sheer lack of new games I've played this year,it had to be either this or Resident Evil 5 (which is even worse!). FFIX does have it's good parts. But uninspired game mechanics and an uneven story that has 20% engrossing parts and 80% meh parts. Other than few really cool ones,the rest of the character cast is boring and cliched. My least favorite FF of the 3D era.

4. Football Manager 2009 : Often called as a glorified spread-sheet, FM2009 expanded it's horizons by becoming a technical equivalent of it's "more $tyle, less substance" rival FIFA Manager series. Sega's FM series has always brought out the true love and passion amongst football fans by it's in-depth managerial and strategy. With a 3D engine,FM2009 is undoubtedly the best and the most addictive of all the games. Spent above 100-110 hrs on this. :D

3. Blazblue : Calamity Trigger : There's a story behind this fantastic,one-of-a-kind unique fighting game when it comes to me. My cousin who's also got a 360 got a wild idea once. His 360's warranty had expired anyways (he bought it in 2006 I think),so he thought why not take a risk and do one of those illegal things about modifying one's consoles (not recommended to anybody though). So eventually we were able to play NTSC games on our PAL TV. Blazblue was a sheer delight. It's characters all likeable,their fighting **** completely distinguishing them and it's frenzied pace a treat to witness. My favorite characters were Noel and Litchi. It's a real shame that this game got overlooked by many over big name titles like SFIV and Tekken 6. :(

2. Mass Effect : BioWare has grown up on me A LOT ! Saying that would be a mere understatement. I've played nothing but their games ALL this year. BGII (see below),Mass Effect,KotOR,Neverwinter Nights.Insane,but true! And I've found out that it's true that BioWare IS one of the greatest RPG developers out there. Mass Effect isn't the most perfect RPG out there,but it's definitely the most entertaining,immersive and engrossing. That's what essentially elevates a great RPG into a memorable one. Moreover, ME is provides the kind of cinematic role-playing experience with superb narrative and dialogue options that might indicate how RPGs will be in the future. Well,if ME is an indication of RPGs future,then it's safe to say it's in good hands of BioWare. ;)

1. Baldur's Gate II : Shadows of Amn : Well,well!! What do I say about this? A game that could enthrall,encapture me in it's beautiful,spell-binding world for over 200 hours this year deserves more than a GotY. Thanks to BGII, I realized just how obsolete many of today's RPGs looked in the tactical/strategical/party mechanics department. Hell,so called best RPGs of this gen like Oblivion and ME are obsolete in comparison to certain aspects with this juggernaut. I won't praise much about BGII. I'll save it for the review. But what I will tell you is that this is a game you just cannot miss. I feel sad especially for the console-RPG players since they won't be able to play this (I feel a strange,cynical sense of humor in this :lol: ).

That was almost everything I could think of for the final year of the first decade of the first century of the second millenium.

Wish you all a Happy New Year!

Stay safe and have fun! :)

C ya soon

Lightwarrior179

Role-playing owes it's origins to the classic board game "Dungeons & Dragons" in more than one way. The genre as we know today, has not only inherited many of it's finer tactical and strategic elements from the board game, but also the core element of adventuring, party-mechanics and decision-making from it.
Baldur's Gate wasn't the first attempt at making a D&D based game. However, it was the first attempt in making a real-time D&D game. Back then, the announcement of such a feature was met with ridicule. The fact that it was being developed by a then-little known developer, BioWare further fueled such thoughts. A board-game as a real-time action-RPG would surely end up as a horror show, most of the people thought.
Turns out BioWare had couple of cards up their sleeves. All aces.

Baldur's Gate isn't only a tremendously brave and fantastic re-imagining of the cla$$ic board game, but it puts nearly every role-playing game that has come out before it to utter shame. It seamlessly combines multiple genres like turn-based combat, RTS-like party management and real-time action into a seamless game that doesn't falter even once in it's 30-40 odd hours length.

Baldur's Gate starts like almost any other RPG of it's time albeit with a minor difference. You get to create your character, choose his/her race (which will have implications in the game) and even a unique sound set for them. The difference is it utilizes the attributes used in D&D for your character. So, like you have a fixed number of throws to decide what will be the value of say, your character's strength, in the board game, the same idea is carried forth here.

Relatively newcomers back then, BioWare realized the single largest obstacle that stood between a successful transition of D&D into real-time was the fact that D&D being a board games utilized dice, saving throws and cards to play whereas one couldn't utilize them in real-time. Here, they came forward with an ingenious idea that is the very foundation of what Baldur's Gate is. They relate your actions in real-time game as a trigger to the actions you would perform while playing the board game.

For instance, attacking an enemy would be equivalent to you and your enemy throwing the respective dies and then depending upon who gets the bigger number, appropriate damage (or no damage) is taken up.
However all of this takes place, without you even knowing it is taking place. If you just keep your eyes transfixed on the action happening on the screen, you may never realize all this is taking place "behind the screen". BioWare adds spice to this and displays a small window at the bottom showing what's going on. This will certainly please the hardcore D&D fans who love this particular element of the game.

Moreover, on hitting the space bar, the game pauses and you're free to look around the screen and issue commands to your party members. Upon hitting the space bar again, the game returns to the real-time and your party carries out your orders virtually making this particular element of gameplay seem like a turn-based RPG.

If you haven't realized it by now, then any knowledge about Advanced D&D and it's rules is absolutely NOT necessary to play and enjoy Baldur's Gate. However, a mere knowledge of what's what goes a long way in making the role-playing experience even deeper for you. I had no previous experience with anything to do with D&D but by the time I was done with Baldur's Gate, I was well-acquainted with all it's nuances.


If at this point, some of you might be wondering if this is all there is special about Baldur's Gate, then one is doing a great deal of injustice to this stellar RPG. Aside from all those innovations in gameplay, Baldur's Gate has got a superbly narrated plot rich in political skullduggery, intrigue and mystery. Your character has grown up within the walls of the fortress of Candlekeep, a place where all the books containing knowledge about Sword Coast and the far-reaching lands can be found. Raised by your foster-father, Gorion, you know little of your past, until suddenly Gorion asks you to leave on a long journey along with him. Gorion gets murdered by a mysterious figure, early on, and what starts as a mystery of who murdered your foster-father turns out into a tale of political backstabbing, involving rebellion guilds. A twist midway also turns the story on it's head which speeds up the and eventually culminates in a thrilling finale.

Baldur's Gate is set in Forgotten Realms, a hugely popular D&D setting containing most of it's basic elements as well as adding a few of it's own. This particular game focuses only on a particular part of Forgotten Realms, namely Sword Coast. The world is vastly detailed when it comes to history of it's races, their relations with others, as well as depicting the increasing tensions and rising suspicions between two neighboring states.
Needless to say, anybody will find the Sword Coast tremendously immersive and likeable as a setting.

You will meet a variety of heroes and villains on your journey, some of which will join you, the others meet their end with your blade. The characters that accompany you in during the course of the game are nothing short of amazing. They provide a tremendous sense of companionship and camaraderie as you journey across Sword Coast. You are allowed to have six members including yourself in the party. You'll meet various NPCs on your journey, some of whom you can recruit. Each of these playable NPC is tremendously well-written and come with a unique personality of their own which make them instantly memorable. Few of them strike particularly as being instant favorites when it comes to popular opinion. The likes of Minsc, the amnesiac,hot-headed warrior who carries a "space hamster" Boo on his shoulders and has got some golden-humorous lines in combat like, "Go for his eyes Boo!!" or "I need healing immediately lest Boo becomes an orphan". Such lines are refreshing in a day and age when dialogues in games are becoming very predictable and clichéd.

There is also an element of morality and decision-making influenced from earlier games like Ultima. When you create your character, you choose a particular alignment for your character based upon the D&D default alignments. There's the basic Good, Neutral and Evil with Lawful, True and Chaotic being the subsets of them. However, this idea which developed a lot in BioWare's later games isn't fully realized here. No matter how much contradictory decisions you make to your alignment, they seem to have little effect on your set alignment. You might be a "Good Lawful" character, but can commit evil acts without your character's conscience hurting.

The only impact the alignment makes is the way some characters might react towards you. The kind of decisions and actions you take have an indirect or direct implication in the world you live. Often a decision you make might either end a small sub-quest or might instead trigger a major side-quest.
Decisions like these often tend to put players into dilemma since there isn't a clarity whether being good will lead to good consequences or vice-versa. In short, there are shades of grey when it comes to morality.
Your reputation is numbered in points which depends upon the kind of decisions (or more specifically the kind of outcomes your decisions lead to). A higher reputation has it's benefits with minor discounts at shops and temples. A low reputation might lead to hostile civilians and guards which isn't so good.

The playable NPCs which are tremendously well-written also are indirectly affected by the decisions you make. They're too have their own moral alignment and agenda. So if you start making "evil decisions", which some of your party members may not agree with, they might start complaining more, sometimes even leaving your party in the midst of the combat. Such a kind of action really helps you realize that you're traveling in a party of sensible characters with their own minds and not some mindless AI controlled puppets.

The party mechanics are further deepened when you delve into scripting. Scripting refers to setting basic stance to your characters. If you set one of your character's stance as "Cleric Defensive", then the character will cast defensive spells at the sight of an enemy. Similarly for a "Fighter Ranged", a character uses ranged weapons only and maintains a distance even when an enemy is chasing him around. Such minor AI variable help make Baldur's Gate a truly one-of-a kind gaming experience back then, and it mostly remains unique even until this day.
The downside of such scripts is that they're limited and they can be mis-assigned. For example, if you assign "Cleric Defensive" to a non-cleric, then they will often not do anything at all.
You do have the option to create your own scripts and while it is fun, it is something that can't be recommended to all, as it tends to be a bit time-consuming. There is also a journal system to keep track of all the quests, side-quests or mere observations you notice during your travels.

The graphics weren't too advanced for it's time, and they haven't aged too well,but it's top-down perspective does a good job in showing both the immersiveness of the world as well as serving as a good vantage point to carry out all the tactical, strategical and turn-based actions that the game has to offer. There are minor clips of cutscenes at various points of the game as well.
The sounds of Baldur's Gate plays a key-role in contributing to the immersiveness of the world you play in. In a town, you often hear the sounds of spouses quarreling with each other, or tavern drunkards roaming around the streets, or dogs barking, guards going about their usual patrol duty. It all makes the world feel like a beating, breathing place.
There are bits of voice acting for each of the characters that appear in the game, all of them being well-done.

The BioWare back then, much like today excels when it comes to writing. Their quick and tightly narrated plot with richly-written dialogues peppered with fiery interjections, interesting banters and often humorous punch-lines makes it an adventure you just won't want to get off until it's over.

There are hardly any flaws in the near-perfect game, and if there are any they have been mostly brought out by time and the sheer superiority of it's sequel. One can point out that some of it's ideas could have been better implemented, or there was an apparent lack of party interaction (especially when compared with it's majestic sequel), but those come out as half-baked excuses to point out flaws at this superlative role-playing experience.

Whether or not you've had any acquaintance with D&D in past shouldn't stop you from trying out this wonderful example of clever implementation of tons of innovative ideas. A tremendous fulfillment of a vision to reimagine the ****c board game into a real-time RPG seamlessly combining multiple genres like turn-based combat elements, RTS-like party mechanics, and real-time combat. Baldur's Gate is a one of a kind role-playing experience and truly there is nothing quite like it.

http://www.gamespot.com/pc/rpg/baldursgate/player_review.html?id=689788&tag=player-reviews;continue;1

If you liked the review,then please do recommend it. I had to do a lot of convincing to myself to write this review before I wrote the review of it's stellar sequel (the best game ever.Period. :D ). The latter's review is coming up next.

How is everyone faring? Hopefully, everyone out there is doing well (in whatever they're doing :P )

Take care now guys and gals.

C ya

Lightwarrior179

Another month has flown by confirming my suspicions that time is indeed flowing at warp speed. Soon after a few months, it will be 2010—the year of reckoning. The year where I give one very important exam. It's also the year that holds three of my most anticipated releases of the year, two of them being my most awaited games this gen. :D So unlike my last few blogs, this time I do have something to say about games. *hears the readers of his blog scream out, "Thank god!!We were sick and tired of this warrior punk writing boring things about how busy his life was"* :P

As surprising as it might sound, I DO seem to finally have something to say on the topic of gaming. Despite the fact that I haven't touched any game in weeks (making me a temporary celibate gamer :lol: ) , I've tried my best to stay in touch with the gaming world. So, when the TGS 09 finally arrived I was getting ready to write a blog with loads of things to write about. Turns out TGS was as bland as they come. Other than few announcements like Ryu Ga Gotoku 4 (a.k.a Yakuza 4) and Shirokishi Monogatari 2 (a.k.a White Knight Chronicles 4) ,TGS was mediocre. As for those two games, it would be better if they first released Yakuza 3 and WKC 1 in English FIRST!!

Who can be blamed for such a boring TGS? Nintendo? They went in too hard at E3 trying to impress everybody (whether they were successful at that or not is contentious). Is that why they had little to nothing new at TGS?

What about Sony? They were going ga-ga (not to be mistaken for that so-called singer with a weird fashion sense) about PSP Go which I honestly don't care about. It lost it's credibility in my eyes when it was announced that all the previous UMD-based games will not be functional on PSP Go! And you're supposed to pay 250USD for that too! Humbug,I say!

As for MS,they were always like spectators at TGS for me. They did one or two bits of promotion for Halo 3 ODST (which has impressed me for the series successful transition into a spin-off title) but that was as far as they went.

However,that wasn't all there was to TGS.

There was a MASSIVELY EPIC 7-minute trailer of Final Fantasy XIII. And did I say it was MASSIVELY EPIC?

I've always emphasized on this point before and I do it again. Final Fantasy was what got me into gaming. It was what KEPT me into gaming when I thought of quitting it (it was back in 2005) and it has always been what has rejuvenated my interests into gaming when I was going through a dry patch in gaming.So once again it was Final Fantasy to the rescue of lightwarrior179 from getting lost forever in the big,bad world! :P

Jokes aside, I thought that this was a proper time to give my thoughts and expectations as well as fears related to two of my most anticipated games this entire GEN!-- Final Fantasy XIII and Mass Effect 2

Let's start with FFXIII shall we? If you haven't watched the FFXIII TGS 09 trailerhen click the linkhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HjpcknSFFqU. It is a subbed version,so it's recommended in that sense as well! ;)

So...why is FFXIII so special? Surely when Final Fantasy games are coming out like Megadeth albums why should anybody even bother? One,this is the MAIN series. Traditionally,main series games have always been critically and commercially successful (and that even includes the "black sheep of the series" FFXI too). Secondly, FFXIII is very important to Square Enix for a variety of reasons. There has been obviously a lot of money and effort put into this game and the fact that they traded their Sony exclusivity and went multi-platform SHOWS that they intend to sell this game well and earn back the costs.

I think FFXIII looks promising enough. One cannot easily trust SE's games nowadays (I am looking at you Last Remnant),but they've always been great with the FF main series so I trust them on this. I read the plot premise on Wikipedia for the first time, and it showed instant promise in my eyes. The main group becoming something like "enemies of mankind" against their will. Such a plot premise hasn't been explored much in previous games. Add the first female protagonist (I still believe that TERRA from FFVI was the first female protagonist of the series,though many disagree on this) who's not only looking incredibly hot (kudos to Nomura for adding the strawberry blonde colour to her hair, thus helping to differentiate her character from Cloud) but sounds like an interesting character as well.

The battle system has been a subject of debate for months now amongst fans and I don't really have much to say other than it looks good. There seems to be a lot of pace injected into the battles making them seem frenzy and very "FFVII and FFVIII-ish" which is great. I still don't understand much about the break system. It's hard to keep your eyes on the screen with so much happening during combat,which once again reminds me of FFVII and FFVIII.

We all can trust SE to do extremely well in the graphics department,so no worries there.

My worries are with the "over-the-top" factor. SE have talked about bringing over-the-top nature of the combat reminiscent of FFVII and FFVIII back into the series,thus deviating from it's more strategic and complex predecessor,FFXII. Sure,we all love flashiness. Who doesn't love flashy moves? But I was recently appalled when I saw a summoned creature (like Shiva) turning into a BIKE! And another fire-elemental summoned creature (no,not Ifrit) turning into a car with mounted cannons!! Seriously, is this the best SE can think of??

As a die-hard FF fan, I feel kinda sad to see summons being part of such a pathetic idea. :evil:

Overall,it is going to be a treat and challenge for all of those who will play FFXIII,since every installment in the series tends to bring something new. As for me, it is even a BIGGER treat and a BIGGER challenge since this will be probably my first FF since FFIX.

Now to Mass Effect 2.Let's face it! There may have been a great deal of amazing RPGs,both Western and Japanese but none have come even close to matching the superiority of Mass Effect. And I say that being a long-time RPG nut. Mass Effect isn't a superlative sci-fi adventure with a plot that makes even the likes of Empire Strikes Back look down, it is an amazing RPG experience which could have been perfect with few refinements.

Those refinements would mainly have been something to do with the cover system and driving with the in-game vehicle called Mako. Both these have supposedly been addressed in ME2. If BioWare had just left ME2 at that, it would have been a fantastic sequel.

But no! BioWare aren't content with making a "fantastic" sequel. They want to make ME2 a kind of game that would make Mass Effect obsolete. It's just dizzying the amount of features they're adding into the game. Moreover,the shooting mechanics have been refined (which is already evident from the gameplay vids) making ME2 seem more like a shooter than a RPG.

The plot seems to be designed in a very unique way such that all the decisions,minor and major you made in the first game will have an impact in the sequel as well. BioWare earlier tried doing this with the Baldur's Gate Trilogy box set linking BG1 and BG2 with such but weren't quite successful in doing so.

So what are my fears related to ME2? I fear it might get a bit too action-oriented and forget what genre it actually belongs to? I wouldn't want that to happen. I still want the combat to retain it's strategic nature. Also, considering ME1's plot was such an EPIC, ME2's plot might fall short of it. But that's just a MIGHT. Who knows what BioWare has in store for us next year? :D

That's all for the thoughts part,dudes and dudettes.

Hope you all liked it.

C ya

Lightwarrior179

They tried to kill him. Tried to bury him in the ground with all his ambitions. They tried to drain out his desire to live and enjoy his life. They tried to take him away from all the things he loved and lived for. They tried to take him away from those whom he loved and cared for. His friends. They tried to make him into their slave and turn his vibrant,artistic and occasionally rebellious mind into a robotic one that would function only monotonically thinking only about one thing--study. But this warrior wasn't born to be any slave. Instead he was going to take revenge on them.

Revenge for making him stay away from his "home away from his home" (cheesy! :P ). They had wanted to take away his will to live, now he shall take away their RIGHT to live.They shall realize the extent of his revenge only when his sword has pierced through their dark heart flowing with RBC,WBC,platelets and stuff like that. Sure he won't be allowed to make a movie on this because it might get too gory but hell he is a warrior and not some Tarantino-wannabe.

So he stares at the Death-List Five (yeah I know it's been taken from some samurai movie with over-the-top action). The list that holds the names of his fiercest enemies written in the gentle ink of the pen that he was gifted when his father's father's father's wife's husband (which again means father :P )'s father got from the French Revolution. Supposedly stolen from Hitler (I know he came MUCH later,but let's assume there was some time warping involved) who has developed a strong dislike for cats after seeing there were more cats than humans in Paris. Yes,he was allergic to them! AACHOO!

Oh wait. Where was I? Yeah so I,the warrior was staring at the names of my enemies that have constantly tortured me (in other words reasons for my absence) for nearly two months and have kept me away from my friends (you)and my "home away from my home" (that is GS! ;) ) :

1) The Nerd (meaning studies)

2) The Man With a Suitcase with Clothes in it (meaning vacation)

3) The Dude with Chart Paper and Sketches (meaning projects)

4) The Gamer Who's Having the Time of his life (meaning I've been playing some AMAZING games like Baldur's Gate II, The Longest Journey and Blazblue : Calamity Trigger :D )

5) The One Who Clicks the "New Blog" Button first but is unable to write anything (meaning Blogger's block)

These were the enemies that would taste the steel (along with a little rust) of my sword. *gives a vicious snarl* YAARGH!

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That was a little childish but of a different way of telling what I've been upto in the past two months,what have been the reasons of my absence etc. As many of you may have noticed, I wasn't really away from GS for THAT long. I've tried my best to comment on as many of your blogs as possible. It's just that it's been long since I've written a blog.

Nothing else. The gaming world has been pretty busy I guess.

PS3 Slim's announcement was probably the biggest thing though really it didn't come as a surprise to many of us. While a cheaper PS3 might make some consider buying it, it hasn't made me change my mind much. Yes,I am still going to get a PS3 eventually but not with that much heart. The reason? Lack of PS2 backwards compatibility in ANY of it's current versions. The 60GB version is now out of production and it's becoming increasingly frustrating for the likes of me who're waiting for PS3 to have a PS2 b/c.

If people like me are Sony's "potential target" then they should be trying to convince me. Wii plays GC games,360 does the same for Xbox,then why not PS2? Is it because Sony still expects people to be buying PS2? (actually there are many doing so as the numbers suggest). But still it appears as a mere excuse to me for not putting b/c on PS2. Either way whenever I get a PS3, I am ALSO getting a PS2 along with it. If Sony wants to FORCE me to buy two of their consoles,then FINE!

Gaming-wise, I've been having one of my best times with games since a long,LONG time! I am playing three ABSOLUTELY TOP-CLA$$ (it feels nostalgic typing the "$$" again :P ) games. Baldur's Gate II (mark my words.BEST ROLE-PLAYING GAME EVER MADE. PERIOD! A better RPG than all the Final Fantasies and Oblivions and Mass Effects of this world), The Longest Journey (wonderful adventure game that drifts slowly like a dream :) ) and BlazBlue : The Calamity Trigger (which is a "kick-your butt" kinda fun fighter with "kick-your butt and hand it to you" kinda characters :P ) which I bought a month or so ago (on NeonNinja's recommendation) hence breaking my promise of not buying any game until May within a week or so of making that promise. :P

2009 is turning out to being an okay year. After seeing the various big delays (BioShock II and StarCraft II most importantly) many of us thought that 2009 will be a dud year. But there have been couple of interesting games so far. SFIV, BlazBlue, Sims 3,Killzone 2,Infamoushave so far done pretty well. Arkham Asylum looks good from it's videos too and I might consider getting it in May (that's right no more games until May. I promise. :P ...Hey,I am trying...stop giving me those looks! :P ). Alpha Protocol seems like a promising action-RPG hybrid but since it's Obsidian and their reputation of buggy games (examples? KotOR II and NWN2) precedes them. I don't care much about MW2. Beatles Rock Band will be good and popular (hey,it's the Beatles. The least thing you can expect from them is to top the sales charts ;) )

But of course,the ONLY game I am REALLY looking forward to this year is Dragon Age Origins. Sure,it might be a spiritual successor to the legendary Baldur's Gate series (which has heavily inspired all future BioWare projects in some or the other way) but besides that it seems to be bringing forth loads of undeveloped ideas from past BioWare games into reality. Take this for example. You make a decision that goes against the morality of your party member. Then they might initially raise their voice against your decision,which might turn into argument and can in ultimate cases lead the party member to backstab you in the middle of the combat. Just how freakin cool is THAT! :D .I remember something like that happened in BGII but only amongst party members not involving me. :P

I also have decided that it's time for me to start writing some reviews seeing the last one I wrote was for Mass Effect and that was waaay back early this year. So,expect some reviews from me in one or two blogs.

But for now, I am just glad to be back here. :)

C ya

Lightwarrior179

P.S : *see below*

Question of the Blog : What have all of you been upto?