http://pwned.com/ssr777/blogs/ Pwned.com - Setre's Blog Feed en-us http://pwned.com/showblog/4944/ssr777/Third-Times-A-Charm/ My relationship with Mass Effect has been quite a confusing one. Back when it was first released I saw the review on X-Play and thought it looked awesome, so I went out and bought. After completing the Citadel I simply stopped playing, a few months passed and I traded it in for something else. As time passed I realized I had missed out on a great game but I shrugged it off and went about my way. Enter three months ago when I decided yet again to buy Mass Effect, except this time for the PC. I had heard a bunch of stuff about Mass Effect 2 and decided to finally beat Mass Effect. Well it turns out that the game worked when it felt like it on my PC, so eventually I got tired of it not working and stopped playing once again. I did manage to get past the Citadel and explore a little this time around. nbsp;Now I have rebought the game yet again, this time used and for 360. I haven’t start http://pwned.com/showblog/4944/ssr777/Third-Times-A-Charm/ http://pwned.com/showblog/4675/ssr777/First-Impressions---Other-Crap/ So I bought F.E.A.R. 2 the other day plus Street Fighter IV today. I’ll start off with F.E.A.R. If you’ve played the first F.E.A.R. you’ve played the second one as well, so it pretty much boils down to the same old crap. Not that there’s anything wrong with that in fact I’m enjoying my time with the game. You just shouldn’t expect anything groundbreaking is all. I’ve had a few jump moments but nothing that’s made me want to stop playing like Dead Space did. I can’t wait to see where the story goes and I hope I get some more time with dear sweet Alma. Moving on to Street Fighter IV. I’ve spent the last 3 hours or so playing and I love the game. I haven’t unlocked everyone but I think Sakura might have stolen my heart away. I’m pretty sure I’ll suck against real people but I’m having a blast pounding the computer. I think it’s pretty safe to say I like SFIV http://pwned.com/showblog/4675/ssr777/First-Impressions---Other-Crap/ http://pwned.com/showblog/3995/ssr777/RE5--KZ2-Demo-Impressions/ So let’s start off with RE5. I’ve never been a big fan of Resident Evil due to watching my brother play 2 and it giving me nightmares for a few days then watching him play 1 and it creeping me out. Needless to say I went into the RE5 demo with an open mind. After picking the first mission I wondered around the area and then entered a house to be greeted by a cutscene, I pressed a few buttons to see if I could skip it but it didn’t seem to work. I watched the cutscene then was presented with a loading screen so I waited. And waited….And waited…. Realizing something was wrong I tried to bring up the XMB on my PS3 but had no luck, I was stuck in loading limbo. I turned the system off from the back then turned it back on and went back to try the demo again. By now I was angry so when I got to the house and the cutscene I mashed all the buttons on my controller at once and was able http://pwned.com/showblog/3995/ssr777/RE5--KZ2-Demo-Impressions/ http://pwned.com/showblog/3991/ssr777/A-Realization-About-The-Wii/ I’ve come to the realization that the Wii sucks. After spending an hour with Tenchu: Shadow Assassins I realized that I had just wasted 60 dollars. Maybe I should have figured this with how mediocre Wario Land: Shake It was but I guess I’m a little slow on the uptake. I’m now hesitant to buy Deadly Creatures in fear that it will have horrible waggle like Tenchu. A greater fear though is that Punch-Out may suck and that makes me sad. Why can’t developers just design the game to work with the Classic Controller as well? With games like Mad World, Deadly Creatures, and The Conduit coming out I was expecting to give some love to my Wii but now I’m afraid to spend money on these games in fear that they’ll suck. Maybe I’m being a little harsh but I can’t hide my disappointment. Hopefully I’ll be proven wrong and Tenchu was just an error of judgment on my part (as well as War http://pwned.com/showblog/3991/ssr777/A-Realization-About-The-Wii/ http://pwned.com/showblog/3983/ssr777/Yakuza-12-Final-Thoughts/ Yakuza 2 Final Thoughts I had originally planned to review both Yakuza and Yakuza 2 separately but decided not to. The reason being is because Yakuza 2 improves on everything Yakuza did but kept it pretty much the same. The only thing really different was the story. Now in both games you play as a guy named Kazuma Kiryu and the game sets you up to fill like a bad ass. While the first game does this to some extent you don’t really feel like you’re that much of one. However in the second game you feel like one, oh how you feel like one. Over all the second game is a much better game, in my opinion, the story is better and everything has been improved. That’s not to say Yakuza is a bad game but you can defiantly tell it lacks in certain areas. The thing that makes Yakuza 2 so much better is that the story is more drawn out, the characters seem to have more depth and you get to pun http://pwned.com/showblog/3983/ssr777/Yakuza-12-Final-Thoughts/ http://pwned.com/showblog/3949/ssr777/More-Yakuza-3-Awesomeness/ Argh, don't know why the videos won't show up. Here are the links to the trailers:http://www.gametrailers.com/player/44726.htmlhttp://www.gametrailers.com/player/44725.htmlWatch them, they're awesome! http://pwned.com/showblog/3949/ssr777/More-Yakuza-3-Awesomeness/ http://pwned.com/showblog/3919/ssr777/Yakuza-3-Combat-Gameplay/ Back in 2005 there was a game that I wanted to buy but at the time I was so into PC gaming that I hardly ever touched a console. So time passed and I soon forgot about this game until several months ago. It wasn’t until a week ago that I decided to find this game and its sequel and begin to play through them. My objective was to learn the story and hope that my efforts might help in getting the third game in the series, and its spin-off, released here in the US. The game I speak of is Yakuza. This blog of course is not about the first or second in the series but the soon to be released (in Japan) Yakuza 3. So without further adieu I give you the videos!http://www.gametrailers.com/player/44291.htmlhttp://www.gametrailers.com/player/44292.html Note:nbsp; You may have already seen these, if not then place watch and enjoy.Second Note: Couldn't figure out how to embed a video on the new la http://pwned.com/showblog/3919/ssr777/Yakuza-3-Combat-Gameplay/ http://pwned.com/showblog/3863/ssr777/Valkyria-Chronicles-Final-Thoughts-/ You’re as pretty as a white winged gull! I want to write a review on Valkyria Chronicles but I find that I can’t. This is a game that I love. The story moves me, the characters intrigue me, and combat is fan-fucking-tastic. nbsp;I’m not able to compose my thoughts on this game without praising it and am unable to express just how much I really enjoy this game. As such these are just my closing thoughts on a game that will go down as my favorite of all time. The graphics in Valkyria Chronicles are like a moving watercolor painting and truly are beautiful. The music really pulls you into the game and helps to make certain events even more emotional. The dub for the English voice actors is also very well done. Sure some of the lines are corny (the white winged gull is among them) but that’s what gives VC some of its charm. One of the best things about VC is its story, and the char http://pwned.com/showblog/3863/ssr777/Valkyria-Chronicles-Final-Thoughts-/ http://pwned.com/showblog/3843/ssr777/Games-We-Shamefully-Love/ As gamers we’ve played a lot of the good and a lot of the bad. Sometimes we come across a game others may consider bad but we love. We all have that one game that we lock our selves away with and let no one see us play it. That one guilty pleasure you let yourself indulge in every now and then. I’m of course talking about the Pokemon, the Dynasty Warriors, the Hello Kitties, the dating sims, and the countless other titles I’m sure I’ve nbsp;neglected to mentioned. Now allow me to tell you the game I shamefully love. My game is more of a series rather just one title and that series is of course Dynasty Warriors. I own just about every one of them (in the main series) excluding the first one, which was a fighting game, and the 6th. I remember the first time I played Dynasty Warriors 2; it captivated me because of all the enemies and just how much fun it was to repeatedly kill them http://pwned.com/showblog/3843/ssr777/Games-We-Shamefully-Love/ http://pwned.com/showblog/3797/ssr777/Top-Five-Games-Of-2008/ So 2008 is almost over and not many more games are coming out before 2009. I figured I’d list my top five games of 08 and if you’d like you can too! Here are my top five games of 2008. 5. Super Smash Brothers Brawl I have always loved the Smash series and Brawl is just as awesome as the other two. I haven’t played the original Smash Bros in a long time but I have to go and say Brawl is my favorite. It has a variety of characters, levels, and challenges. On top of that there’s a level creator (although it’s sort of meh) and online (it works for me most of the time)! Over all it’s a great game and I hope we get a fourth one. 4. Left4Dead Zombies? First Person Shooter? Online Multiplayer? Valve? What isn’t’ there to love? I have been waiting for a game like this for a while now and Valve truly delivered. Sure I’d like the multiplayer to hold a few more p http://pwned.com/showblog/3797/ssr777/Top-Five-Games-Of-2008/ http://pwned.com/showblog/3779/ssr777/HOME-FIrst-Impressions/ br> So HOME was released yesterday in the form of an Open Beta. I tried logging on at around 8 pm central and got an error so I put in Valkyria Chronicles and played for a few hours. At about 11 I tried home again and kept getting an error, well I continued to try and log on and my persistence paid off. I was able to make my character and finally explore HOME. First off I am disappointed that there’s no option to let your avatar have a beard, what the fuck Sony? Anyway I’ve got to say that it does look nice. The “view” from your apartment is pretty cool and so are the other areas. My favorite is probably the Far Cry train station. I played some “arcade” games in the bowling ally but they only held my attention for a bit. In the mall there was an area to play chess but there was a line so I didn’t bother with it. I did go into all the stores and wow, Sony is going to nic http://pwned.com/showblog/3779/ssr777/HOME-FIrst-Impressions/ http://pwned.com/showblog/3756/ssr777/Valkyria-Chronicles-First-Impression/ Thanks to Kotaku I learned about 4PP (4 Player Podcast) and thanks to them I learned about Valkyria Chronicles. As I said in my Chrono Trigger blog I’m willing to give JRPG style games a chance and after watching 4PP play some VC I decided to try the demo out on PSN. Needless to say I liked the game enough to buy it. I’ve been playing it for probably the past 4 or 5 hours now non-stop and have to say I think I’m in love. The art style is awesome, the combat is addictive, and the world/story is quite fascinating. I would recommend trying out the demo for VC if you’re a fan of SJRPGs (The S stands for strategy for those who don’t know). For those of you who have glanced at the game and saw it was made by Sega I urge you to not let that stop you. Yes Sega may suck at Sonic games now but I have faith in them with their other games. The only thing I’m sad about is that Valkyr http://pwned.com/showblog/3756/ssr777/Valkyria-Chronicles-First-Impression/ http://pwned.com/showblog/3745/ssr777/Prince-of-Persia-Review--Spoilers-/ I just got through beating the new Prince of Persia and decided to go ahead and write my review. This is going to be a little different then the usual way I write them. So without further ado let’s get to it. The first thing I noticed in videos when I heard about PoP was how stunning it looked and I can assure you it looks just as stunning, if not more so, on your own TV. It looks like a moving painting and really is beautiful. You may not be able to see the beauty when you enter a corrupted area but once you heal it it’ll be like an orgasm to your eyes. That may be a little bit of an exaggeration but you have to see it in person to really appreciate it. As far as the character models for the Prince and Elika go they’re pretty good. I really like the detail put into their outfits and how when they run along the wall their cloths billow behind them or how Elika’s ha http://pwned.com/showblog/3745/ssr777/Prince-of-Persia-Review--Spoilers-/ http://pwned.com/showblog/3714/ssr777/Prince-of-Persia-First-Impressions/ I bought Prince of Persia today and have played for about an hour so here are my first impressions. The game is beautiful; it’s almost like looking at a moving painting. The combat is some of the best I’ve played in a while; I love the combos you can pull off with the Prince and Elika. Speaking of the Princess I’ve got say she doesn’t seem tacked on, of course I’ve only played for an hour. The story is also pretty decent from what I’ve experienced so far. The controls are taking me a while to get use too, not because the configuration is weird it’s just the jumps. Like when you run up a while I always push X again, to get to the ledge, but in reality what that does is make you jump off of the wall and behind you. To continue up to the ledge you simply keep pressing up, so it’s taking me a while to wrap my mind around not having to press X again to grab onto the ledge. Ov http://pwned.com/showblog/3714/ssr777/Prince-of-Persia-First-Impressions/ http://pwned.com/showblog/3707/ssr777/GameStop-Confuses-Me/ I’ve been wanting to get this off of my chest for a while, so here we go (Imagine that was said in a Mario voice for some lolz)! Anyway let me start off by saying that I’m not loyal to any one store, whichever store I’m closes to I’ll stop in and buy the games I want. The only reason I go to GameStop is because they get some nice pre-order goodies and I have some games I can trade in. Surprisingly enough this small rant will be about GameStop trade-in prices, fascinating, no? So a week or so ago when I went to pre-order Chrono Trigger I had my two little cousins with me and they wanted to look around. They only have a DS and a PS2 so I first looked at the DS games then shuffled them over to the PS2 games. While they were looking at the wrestling games I noticed something out of the corner of my eye: Capcom vs Marvel 2. I picked it up and glanced at the box and saw the price http://pwned.com/showblog/3707/ssr777/GameStop-Confuses-Me/ http://pwned.com/showblog/3700/ssr777/Uncharted-2--Among-Thieves-Trailer/ Here's a trailer for Uncharted 2: Among Thieves. The next issue of Game Informer should have more info on the game. Also during the SpikeTV Video Game Awards some info should be released. Anyone else as excited as I am for this game? Here’s hoping we get it in 09! http://pwned.com/showblog/3700/ssr777/Uncharted-2--Among-Thieves-Trailer/ http://pwned.com/showblog/3699/ssr777/Super-Street-Fighter-II-Turbo-HD-Remix-PWNED-Tournament/ So I’ve been playing a lot of HD Remix lately and decided to see if anyone on PWNED would be interested in a tournament. If you are just leave a comment below or send me a PM. Also tell me what system you have the game for. Thanks in advance! http://pwned.com/showblog/3699/ssr777/Super-Street-Fighter-II-Turbo-HD-Remix-PWNED-Tournament/ http://pwned.com/showblog/3677/ssr777/Street-Fighter-Turbo-HD-Remix-Trailers-Are-E-P-I-C-/ Yes, yes I know these are old but they're still awesome. Honestly I was thinking about skipping HD Remix but these trailers, they fucking sold me on it. I'll be getting it Friday once I go and buy a PSN Card. Behold the awesomeness! I mean Jesus they're just awesome! I suck at fighting games but these get me excited to get my ass handed to me. I was a Mortal Kombat kid growing up and still enjoy it but I can see my self becoming a Street Fighter fanboy. I can't say I was excited for SF IV but now I'm pumped (even if these are for a different game)! I mean words can not express how epic I think these are! I think I'll shut up now... http://pwned.com/showblog/3677/ssr777/Street-Fighter-Turbo-HD-Remix-Trailers-Are-E-P-I-C-/ http://pwned.com/showblog/3671/ssr777/Chrono-Trigger-DS-First-Impressions/ As I said in my previous blog I've wanted to try Chrono Trigger for a long time and today I finally got my chance. I've got to say I've been enjoying my self for the past two hours. I'm not a big fan of JRPGs but I'm finding my self enjoying the combat (that's my biggest beef with them). It's still to early to tell but I'm leaning towards saying I could try future JRPGs and even enjoy them. So far I just got past the trial, was found not guilty, and still got sentenced to death...Bastard Chancellor. Anyway the story isn't anything special yet but I'm enjoying it. I'm not using the stylus just sticking to the buttons and d-pad. Don't know when I'll beat the game but I'll do a review when I do. Side Note: Because I ordered at GameStop I got the CD bonus thing. The two songs are Chrono Trigger Orchestra Version and Chrono Trigger Medley Orchestra Version, I like them both. http://pwned.com/showblog/3671/ssr777/Chrono-Trigger-DS-First-Impressions/ http://pwned.com/showblog/3669/ssr777/Chrono-Trigger---JRPGS/ So I traded in Far Cry 2 yesterday and put it towards Chrono Trigger on the DS. I've always been interested in playing CT, ecspecially when I learned Akira Toriyama did the character designs. Yes I am a Dragon Ball Z fan, actually just watched the new movie earlier today, it was based on one of Akira's ideas. Anyway as I've said many times before I'm not a big JRPG fan so I don't know how much of the game I'll play. Hopefully I'll beat it and enjoy every minute of it, if so it may open up the possibility of me trying other JRPGs (gasp, dare I try a Final Fantasy!?!). I tried Chrono Cross and enjoyed what I played but for some reason I never beat it, I think I got bored or simply forgot about it. Anyway let's move on to a question I pose for all of you. Do you plan on picking up Chrono Trigger or are you going to stay away and stick to the SNES version? http://pwned.com/showblog/3669/ssr777/Chrono-Trigger---JRPGS/ http://pwned.com/showblog/3649/ssr777/Left4Dead-First-Impressions/ Let me start off by saying I love zombies. From the "realistic" horror of Dawn of the Dead (both old and new) to the funny stuff such as the Return of the Living Dead series. I've read the Zombie Survival Guide by Max Brooks at least twice and World War Z. So I'm a pretty big Zombie fan. Needless to say after playing a zombie mod for Half Life 2 I've been waiting for an FPS zombie game. Valve has delivered in the form of Left4Dead. The controls perfom on the PC as you would expect an FPS too: awesome. I did have a little bit of lag so I had to turn my settings down (something I don't mind doing). I've only played the singe-player and multiplayer so far and from what I've experienced it's a blast. I much prefer playing as the zombies then I do the survivors. So far I'm having fun and I bet I will for the next few weeks. http://pwned.com/showblog/3649/ssr777/Left4Dead-First-Impressions/ http://pwned.com/showblog/3636/ssr777/Mirror-s-Edge-Review/ Hello Faithy. I’ve been waiting for a first person platformer sense the N64 era after having put countless hours into Mario 64 and Golden Eye, wishing I could combine the two. Mirror’s Edge seemed to be the game that would make that dream come true. I was drawn to ME after the first time I saw it, not only was it a first person platformer but it was beautiful. There was just something about this game that made me want it and after playing the demo on PSN I had made up my mind, Mirror’s Edge would be a first day purchase. As always I’m going to go ahead and get the graphics out of the way. As I said up there Mirror’s Edge is a beautiful game. The graphics are crisp, the colors are simply outstanding, and the character models look pretty good. But dear God why did they do the cutscenes in that animated fashion? Sure it looks stylish but I can only imagine how awes http://pwned.com/showblog/3636/ssr777/Mirror-s-Edge-Review/ http://pwned.com/showblog/3621/ssr777/I-Don-t-Want-to-Set-The-World-on-Fire----Fallout-3-Review/ War…War never changes. Fallout 3 is a game I had been anticipating sense the first time I hear about it. Was it because I was a fan of the earlier Fallouts? Was it because Bethesda was making it? Neither of these, it was because of the post-apocalyptic America setting and because of Dogmeat. There are a few things I’ve always wanted in a game; to play in a post-apocalyptic America and to have a dog follow me around, Fallout 3 offered me both. Before hearing about F3 I’d never even heard of the Fallout franchise so as the release date approached I began to look up information about the earlier titles. I was a bit disappointed that the America I’d be playing in wasn’t the same as ours but also intrigued by the 50s type setting. Needless to say as time wore on I grew use to the idea and when I learned robots would be in the game I was ready to play. Enough with this little int http://pwned.com/showblog/3621/ssr777/I-Don-t-Want-to-Set-The-World-on-Fire----Fallout-3-Review/ http://pwned.com/showblog/3539/ssr777/Far-Cry-2---Web-of-Shadows-First-Impressions/ I bought both of these games yesterday and have put a few good hours into both, so here are my thoughts so far, starting with Far Cry 2. Far Cry 2 was a game I wasn’t very excited about but decided to give it a shot anyway. My first impression was that it was boring, this was still during the tutorial which I had no idea was still going on. So after the tutorial finally ended I decided to go and take my first mission; kill some guy. This is where I started to realize that I was going to enjoy this game. As I made my way to the mission one of the in-game buddies called me up and told me he had an alternate way to get the mission done, I decided to oblige him and took his route. I ended up at a village surrounded by water. Wanting to do a Rambo thing I jumped into the water and swam towards the base I ended up under a walkway and could see enemy troops walking above me. I pulled out http://pwned.com/showblog/3539/ssr777/Far-Cry-2---Web-of-Shadows-First-Impressions/ http://pwned.com/showblog/3525/ssr777/SOCOM--Confrontation-First--Last-Impressions/ I went to Best Buy yesterday to look for the new official Sony blue-tooth headset and didn’t find it except bundled with SOCOM. So I figured I’d buy it and get a free game. When I got home I popped SOCOM into my PS3 and sat down to play a round or two, I’ve never played a SOCOM game before and the closets thing I’ve come to it is probably Metal Gear Online. Let’s just say my experience has made me never want to it play again… Upon being told there was no saved data I said that I wanted to create it, the game then went to a second screen which then said in order to play I had to install the game. I was told to quit the game (wtf?) and go install it from the XMB. Now to those who don’t have a PS3 installing games is a normal procedure the thing is that the game usually does it by its self without any prompting from the player. This was my first sign of the suck-fest I wa http://pwned.com/showblog/3525/ssr777/SOCOM--Confrontation-First--Last-Impressions/