Reviews by Matt_VIII

Enchanted Arms (PS3) review

I needed something to fill the void in my RPG gaming until the next Final Fantasy comes along. This didn't manage it unfortunatly. It's a standard kind of RPG setup with characters gaining EXP and upgrading your team to the best you see fit but it felt like the characters levelling up were improving at a snails pace. You can take control of things called 'Golems', you find them dotted around the world and once you create them, they're added to your team. There are so many Golems that it gets a bit overwhelming, not knowing which one to use. If you're like me, then you like to stick with the same team and beef them up to becom an unstoppable force! Quite hard to do when you chop and change to the next Golem you unlock. They should've maybe made it more like FFVIII GF's, assigning different Golems to different people, giving them different attributes in the process. Fights are the old fashioned random encounter style, really annoying when you take a wrong turn and have to backtrack, getting into 5 battles on the way there and back! Characters are put on a grid system (which i didn't much like) and battles are turn-based. You have an option to let the computer sort your turn out for you. I found myself doing that everytime as it did just as good a job as me! All in all, i felt like i was watching the cut-scenes and letting the CPU control the fights. All i felt i needed to do was walk the character around in between all that. Not that exciting to be honest!

Dynasty Warriors 6 (PS3) review

It's the same old Dynasty Warriors to be honest. If you've played a previous game then the only big change is the graphics. No real skill is involved, just keep tapping the square button and maybe triangle for just a little bit of variation. Uninteresting/Irrelevant storyline and more characters than you could ever need, all with pretty similar moves and same storylines (a few characters may have parts specific to them, but they're only small and yet again uninteresting). Don't bother wasting your time on this.

Saints Row 2 (PS3) review

I rented this game not knowing at all what it was like and i'm glad i did! It was a real joy to play. It doesn't take itself too seriously, meaning driving, flying, shooting, fighting....infact all of it was more enjoyable than GTA IV in my opinion. Theres a lot of customisable options, from what your character looks like, to how your hideouts look. You can even have your gang dress up like ninjas! How cool's that!? You need to forget all that GTA has done for the genre and just have fun with this instead of trying to look for flaws that GTA does better. Get it!

Assassin's Creed (PS3) review

Expected a little more variety but all in all a fun game to play. Climbing up walls and towers is great and once you're at the top you can admire the view before you dive off into a conveniently placed haystack. The free-running element is well done and feels easy and satisfying. Fighting is quite exciting, executing counter attacks and finisher moves requires a little skill, but not much! There is a stealthy element allowing for a different approach with regards to missions. Having a low profile allows you to get right up to you assassination target before doing the deed! Or you could just run in there and hack everyone to pieces, it's up to you! You unlock new items, combos and abilities as you go which keeps it interesting. Story-wise its a nice idea but not fully engaging, i definitly hope they release a 2nd game to tie up the loose ends left in this one. Theres a lot of things to do if you can really be bothered, like find all the templars, flags view points dotted around the world of AS but there's no real incentive to do it unless suffer a little from OCD. It does get very repetetive but if you can put up with the lack of variety then give this game a go.

darkSector (PS3) review

I quite enjoyed playing throught his game. Sure, there were a few frustrating moments but that aside it was rather fun! The glaive is what gives it its originality. You can direct it's path after you've thrown it, like aftertouch to guide it towards enemies limbs and heads. You have the option to fry an enemy with electric, burn them with fire or freeze them with ice. Story's ok, graphics are dark and voice acting is ok. Even though it's the actor who plays Lex Luther in Smallville providing the voice for the main character. It has a multiplayer mode, but don't even bother with it. The lag is awful!

Far Cry 2 (PS3) review

I feel that if this game let you warp to different locations on it's dense map then half of the play time would be gone. You spend so long in a battered old jeep/car/buggy it gets to be more boring than real driving. There are a lot of enemy outposts which you can choose to clear from enemies. It was sometimes a bit broken, i found if i went in and totally destroyed everything it wouldn't register that i'd cleared it from bad guys. But if i took them all out with gunshots it would, and even then i had walk round the whole outpost! Annoying! Add to that the fact that even if you do clear it, the enemies come back when you pass though again....pointless! This is on of a few little niggles with the game. Nothing was more frustrating than driving for 10 minutes only to be killed and then having to do it all over again! Totally lost interest in the story, you can have allies help you out (all they do is rescue you once if you're close to death, they don't offer anything else) but it usually takes a lot of driving to sort all that out before the mission. Driving places will become something you want to avoid at all costs! It looks stunning and has moments of greatness. But the flawed gameplay, awful lag online and no 4-player multiplayer on one console really stops it from being worth a purchase.

Fallout 3 (PS3) review

It's a lot more instantly accesible than Oblivion but lacks the depth. I felt that in Oblivion you could really define your character to the way you play. In Fallout all you really do is find a decent gun and upgrade the stats associated with it accordingly. Not that that's a bad thing, i just rather enjoyed moulding my onscreen counterpart to a spellcasting, maiming ugly killing machine! I played 95% of the game in first person as the character movement looks clunky and unatural in 3rd person. You start out in Vault 101, a kind of shelter from the nuclear war and all the mess/ghouls/super-mutants it's left in its wake. People are born, live and die in these vaults, except you who escapes to face the wasteland outside in search of your Father. It's a great prospect for a game and i think it's very well done. I found myself engrossed in it, not wanting to put it down. It's not quite as good as Oblivion but is still definitly worth a look if you've got the time.

Devil May Cry 4 (PS3) review

For me this was the sort of game you play through, enjoy it very much, complete it and forget about it straight away. Storyline is pretty decent and the fighting cut-scenes look great. It provided a much needed challenge after a lot of (easy) games. Worth a go!

VIKING: Battle For Asgard (PS3) review

Quite an enjoyable slash fest. You roam around a world completing different tasks to advance in the game and add to your moves list. It's nothing special visually and the game gets repetetive quickly. Luckily the fighting is great. Slicing the head off an enemy grunt never gets old, but don't think you can take a whole army on yourself like the Dynasty Warriors series. You do need to try to attack on a handful at a time otherwise it's Valhalla for you! Not to sound like a masochist, rent if you want to vent a little bit of anger as its the combat that makes this game really satisfying to play.

Fight Night Round 3 (PS3) review

Pretty boring to play through the single player. Loading times are very long and having pumping Rap/RnB music accompanying them, great if you're a fan.....not so much if you're not! You can choose to train you're boxer through a series of MASSIVELY tedious minigames, involving hitting a bag using the correct punch or just plain button bashing! You can choose to automatically train your boxer, but you can get far less improvement in whatever category (Stamina, Chin, Heart etc) if you do so. Once you're in the ring, there is a little flicker of excitment as you land a few blows but that's about as far as it goes. Some rivals have to be punched to the canvas 4 or 5 times before a 10-count is heard. Frustrating to say the least! Novel use of the analogue sticks to execute punching, with each stick assigned to each arm, but can sometimes be difficult to get him to throw the puch you wanted. All in all, not great.