Category Archives: Progressive Review

Review in Progress #14 : Darksiders (PS3 [played]/Xbox360)

Status : Game cleared (Apocalyptic)

A few weeks ago, I remember mentioning how upon getting The Legend of Zelda : Ocarina of Time 3D I’ve been playing quite a few adventure games of a similar style. Beyond Good & Evil, was incredibly fun despite me not reviewing it (I’m lazy sometimes). I talked on one of our video-podcasts about how Ocarina overshadowed adventure games for years to come including Beyond Good & Evil‘s initial release and Star Fox Adventures, both games that I would not come to appreciate until the past year or so.

Thankfully, it is much easier setting the 3DS aside because I already played the hell out of that game. To be honest there has not been much interesting on the new releases side. Darksiders had been still in plastic since Christmas and the second I heard that Liam O’Brien was voicing the main character, it was just a matter of finding a window to play in. The guy has a habit of voicing a lot of my favorite characters, so a game where I can hear him grunt and yell for hours upon hours had me pumped up from the very beginning.

One of those few times I can really say : That's some pretty sweet box art. From the splattered paint highlights to the almost copper tone of War riding atop Ruin, there is an overall intensity that I don't see too often.

Now, with a little over 23 hours logged on my last save final, I can say that I finished Darksiders on Apocalyptic (hard) mode and boy was it…. easy.

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Review in Progress #13 : Shadows of the Damned

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Status : Game cleared (hard)

For those of you who checked out my Infamous 2 review, at the end I promised to cover Duke Nukem Forever, but as it turns out, the game was so awful yet so fascinating that I decided to attempt a defense for the game instead. A full length review would be redundant, and as it just so happens, I was saved by the bell (my Shadows of the Damned package).

The love child of a trio well known to the gaming community : Akira Yamaoka, former composer of the Silent Hill series, Shinji Mikami who is responsible for a certain Resident Evil series (notably RE4 which he directed as well as Godhand) and Suda51 who brought such games as No More Heroes and Killer 7 (the latter of which had Mikami as the executive producer).

It makes sense, the game has a heavy Killer 7 vibe going on. Not with the politically complex themes, oh no, the foreshadowing is way too apparent, and the game revels more in being over the top and obscene than trying to make the player piece the story together bit by bit. The combat feels very reminiscent of fending off various Heaven’s Smile types for those of you familiar with them.

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Review in Progress #12 : Infamous 2

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Status : Good story route cleared (hard).

One of my most anticipated sequels of the year, Infamous 2 released with some pretty big shoes to fill. The original is one of my favorite PS3 games and with some pretty big changes such as the city you play in and the protagonist, Cole Mcgrath’s voice actor being replaced with some other guy. Another cause for concern was the addition of many online features such as the ability to create missions and share them for all other players via the internet. Did Sucker Punch develop a good single player experience, or did the online overhaul take priority and ruin the fun of the original?

It's strange that the boxart draws my attention to Cole's blue hand than anything else

To get it out of the way, Cole’s new voice actor is terrible. Ever watch a tv show or cartoon where the token nerd has a weird speech impediment that makes every “S” come out like a “Sh”? Imagine that guy trying to sound like a badass. I think I heard “YESH” enough times to make M. Bison jealous.

You stole my meme, New-Cole!

Maybe it’s just me, but Cole seems to magnetize to a nearby surface while jumping much more frequently. I died a couple of times just because I’m trying to jump over something and wind up grabbing an unrelated ledge on the way and hanging like a jackass while dying. Also, if you’re as much a fan of the slo-mo death scenes in the first game as I was, you’ll be happy to know that they make a return, funny noises and all!

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Review in Progress #11 : Legacy of Kain : Soul Reaver 2 (PS2)

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Status : Finished

After my rave review of Legacy of Kain : Soul Reaver, the one thing that was left open, a proper ending, It was only a matter of time until I would play the sequel. Thankfully, there’s a big wait for Infamous 2 and Duke Nukem Forever which leaves a lot of time to tackle stuff on my backlog.

Don't let this image fool you, you cannot attack or make this threatening pose while climbing a wall ingame.

My expectations for the first two games were low actually. Blood Omen originally put me off with its terrible load times, and Soul Reaver was such a drastic change, from a top view adventure to a platformer that I worried the game would never capture the atmosphere of Nosgoth as well as the first. Unfortunately, I came into this one with incredibly high expectations.

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Review in Progress Top Ten : Episode 1 (Reviews 1 – 10)

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Finally my Review in Progress series has reached double digits. About 2 – 3 games a month starting from February is not bad considering the amount of school work that went with it. A number of genres and platforms were covered, some familiar series’ and some entirely fresh games.

Of course, the impact of each game has yet to be quantified, so without further ado, I’m going to list the games I played in order from my least favorite to favorite, as a nice way to condense what games I recommend and in what order. Depending how well this goes, expect one summary/top 10 like this for every 10 Reviews in Progress.

The sandwich, a classic and easy to prepare meal and an almighty placeholder when no other image applies to the topic.

This one’s a quickie and more of a catalog of articles that might have been missed to newcomers of The Wired Fish, so more detailed information, pictures and video clips can be found in the respective articles.

#10 – Okamiden (Review in Progress #4)

No, I never went back to playing Okamiden from where I was at the time of review. As a fan of the original, some of the changes were actually cool, such as the inclusion of partners that you could use to solve various puzzles. Unfortunately, most of the time you walk them around by drawing a path, it’s a slow hike to an out of reach treasure chest, and another line to return. Going for all the treasure in the dungeons was more tedious than it should have been as a result.

In short, the additions are poorly executed and elements carried over from the original were nowhere close to keeping my interest.

A second opinion was given by Steven offering different, and a more positive look on the game, check it out!

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Review in Progress #8 : Final Fantasy IV : The Complete Collection

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Status : Main game and Interlude cleared.

The title Review in Progress is a bit misleading. I prefer my first impressions in separate articles, and typically start the Reviewing at around the 80 – 100% mark of a game’s story. My very first RiP was for Final Fantasy II, a game that the format worked perfectly on because it had two different story modes. I finished one campaign, wrote what I thought about it, and saved the second part for a future update. I loved it although most of my later Reviews would just be “in Progress” by name, cause there’s only one campaign. Somebody clearly understood my pain as Final Fantasy IV : The Complete Collection contains not two, but three different stories for me to play through.

Actually, it really only has one new story for me. I beat FFIV in that collection with Chrono Trigger for PSX and I religiously played Final Fantasy IV : The After Years when it came out episodically on the Wii (I dread eventually having to replay Edward’s chapter). I also tried the DS remake and fucking hated it. For completion’s sake, I started with the original, so let’s get on with the review!

Square Enix sure loves using interesting color schemes for the boxes of their remakes... this time it's a nice white and grey.

Part 1 : Final Fantasy IV

Clear time : 24:49 (at least 2 of those hours were leaving the PSP idle though)

Stats : Cecil Lv55, Rosa Lv54, Kain Lv56, Rydia Lv51, Edge Lv55 Continue reading →

Review in Progress #10 : L.A. Noire – PS3(playing)/Xbox360

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Progress : 21/21 Story Cases Complete, 80.6% overall progress, 22h 41m 17s – logged game time.

Part 1 : Early Impressions

My relationship with Rockstar Games is a strange one. I am not a GTA fan at all, but that’s not to say I don’t enjoy my sandbox game every now and then (Impatiently waiting for Infamous 2). Red Dead Redemption, turned out to be one of my favorite games of last year surprisingly enough. Not knowing what to expect, L.A. Noire for the past few months has been not much more than a growing curiosity. Would it be like GTA? Would it be like RDR? The anticipation lasted until the copy landed on my doorstep three days ago.

Nothing screams catchy logo like classic yellow neon lights. Nothing.

The tutorial investigation was admittedly a pain in the ass. It took me a while to get the controls down in RDR and it took me probably longer this time around. Roaming around the alleyway, figuring out the run button from the search button, looking around for something to climb while my partner refuses to shut the fuck up… it was a nightmare. The control gets more comfortable over time with a single exception : the climbing. You have to be spot-on if you want to climb a pipe or ladder, otherwise you’ll be running into wall for a few seconds while trying to realign yourself. Usually this happens when in pursuit of a fleeing suspect making things harder than they should be. Because there is no jump or climb button, any action that involves leverage happens automatically by running into the proper obstacle. By doing this, you climb the ladder, hop the fence, jump across the rooftop, etc…

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Review in Progress #9 : Mortal Kombat : Xbox360, PS3 (Played)

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Status : One playthrough of Arcade mode, one 2 player team ladder playthrough, story mode finished and challenge tower complete.

“I’m not interested in Mortal Kombat, I’ll wait for a price drop and get Portal 2 in the meantime”.

That was my input on one of the biggest release days of this year. Half of my planned Portal 2 review is still in progress or might even be co-reviewed, half of my Portal 2 review is waiting until Sony and these hackers stop their shit and get service running smooth again. Mortal Kombat also had a pretty quick price drop which was when I decided to snag the game.

360 players need not feel bad about the fancy exclusive label on the box. Kratos is garbage and has no challenges in the tower or place in story mode.

For me, Mortal Kombat was a fad I jumped into along with many other kids my age, just like pogs and Yu-Gi-Oh. Never had serious interest in them, but it was what all the cool kids played, so of course I tagged along. I bought most of the early series, played so I could look at the fatalities, feel really trendy by playing a game that dares to go against spelling “Combat” with a K and then move on to a fighting game that wasn’t so stiff. It was more about the spectacle than kompetition… see what I did there?

Having played Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe last month with ol’ Prota, I can honestly say I was hardly expecting a fighter worth my time, but gave it a chance anyway. So, how does this game measure up with other recent fighters?

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Review in Progress #7 – Legacy of Kain : Soul Reaver (PS1)

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Status : Game complete, not 100% explored, but well above 90.

My first experience with the Legacy of Kain series took place about a year ago. I already had Blood Omen and both Soul Reaver 1 and 2, but never had the time to give the series a chance until a fateful replaying of Eternal Darkness : Sanity’s Requiem. In the mood to play something else developed by Silicon Knights, I gave Blood Omen a shot despite being put off by the horrendous load times. Somewhere down the line I fell in love as I realized that Blood Omen was essentially a western take on the Zelda formula, with a boatload of secrets, places to explore and overhead camera (Soul Reaver switches to the standard 3D view). Sure the combat was choppy at times, but there was a certain morbid charm to the whole experience. I felt let down when I discovered that only the first Blood Omen was developed by Silicon Knights and never felt the urge to continue the series.

If theres one thing I remember from oldschool Eidos, its pushing boxes around all day. Glad to say Soul Reaver keeps the tradition going!

That is until playing Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light with a friend having the Kain and Raziel character models turned on. I was pretty pissed off that I was stuck with Raziel, since he’s the character that corresponds to Lara who I happened to be controlling. Looking back, I’m still pissed I was stuck with Raziel… Here, my story comes full circle as that the puzzles in Guardian of Light were quite fun, and the game itself was developed by Crystal Dynamics, the same company who carried the Legacy of Kain torch post Silicon Knights. I just had to give the game a shot while waiting for my big April releases to start shipping. Continue reading →

Review in Progress #6 : Pilotwings Resort (3DS)

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Well, this one took a week longer than anticipated… Pilotwings Resort is one of those games that you can clear in 10 hours total playtime, but the kind you can only play in 20 minute to half hour bursts. Not because it’s a bad game, but it gets really taxing on the eyes, especially if you’re like me and play the whole time with 3D turned on.

The logo remains classy as ever!

In fact, let’s start by talking about the 3D effects since being the 3Ds and all, it’s the first feature that comes to mind. The extra visual depth makes Wuhu Island a marvel to look at the first time, and makes the various landmarks and locations you visit feel all the more tangible. The ruins, volcano, and caves here and there add personality to the island. Toward the end of my goal to get a 3 star ranking on each mission and unlock the Diamond Class, I had to turn off the 3D effects because it was getting distracting when it came down to just a few more points for the 3 star.

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Review in Progress #5 : Pokemon Black/White (White played, DS)

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Status : Main game cleared, Time – 52:42

Final Team : Braviary (55) Reuniclus (50) Zekrom (50) Chandelure (56) Scolipede (50) Seismitoad (50)

Pokemon removed from my final team but still get an honorable mention : Zebstrika, Simisage, Emboar (Thought Zekrom was mandatory, otherwise, he’d have been on the final team)

Still enjoying the boxart!

If you want to see my initial impressions of Pokemon White, look at my article comparing and contrasting that and Okamiden where I gush about how awesome it is. Do those original feelings remain, or did the second half of the game ruin the magic?

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Sequels of March (DS Edition) : Okamiden vs Pokemon White/Black

Review in Progress #4 : Okamiden (DS)

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Current Status : 7 hours in, 3 major bosses defeated

It’s so awkward whenever Chibiterasu moves into a new screen, jumps into the portal and the camera zooms into his butthole…

Okami was quite possibly my favorite mid-life PS2 game. Ar Tonelico 2 was good, Persona 3 was fun (I was going through a big RPG phase at the time), but Okami is the game that I always swear to my friends blows even the Zelda games that came out around its time : Wind Waker and Twilight Princess out of the water… and more memorable than AT2/P3 for that matter.

It had everything I wanted : a nice variety of weapons (always was fond of the beads myself), one hell of a soundtrack/atmosphere, a beautiful art-style, a memorable cast and most of all, it had a lot of meat to it – plenty of dungeons and huge areas to explore and purify… and explore again. There were secrets all over the place and unique abilities to use on the canvas were abundant. Viewtiful Joe might be the series most people remember Clover for, but I was not a huge fan. Instead I’ll always remember them for one of the best adventure games I’ve played.

The second game, development switching to Capcom this time around had me skeptical for the longest. Intentionally I had not looked at any news or details until my copy came in. Chibiterasu is cool and all, but the way the first game ended, it looked like Amaterasu was going to move on to bigger things, different places. At first I was thinking that Chibiterasu would explore brand new regions in his stead, but I spoiled myself when I bumped into a track listing for the soundtrack… it was the same places you go through as Ammy!

Not sure what they're jumping at, but the boxart seems to give off the impression of great battles to come.

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Review in Progress #3 : Majin and the Forsaken Kingdom

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Status : 6 hours in (PS3 Version)

This is the first time using my long intended First Taste section, so to introduce it and elaborate on its purpose, many games I play don’t actually get completed for one reason or another. Writing a full review for a game that I’ve only played half of is just plain wrong, which is where the first taste section comes to play. It’s a temporary space where I can write my opinions between points of play without finalizing which will be periodically updated until the time of completion for the final review, if it ever gets to that point. Call it an incomplete review, I plan to have multiple of these going on simultaneously in the near future, and whether or not the Review in Progress becomes a full Review is up to the game in question.

Oh I get it, They're making the same pose...

Part 1 : First Taste

My first impression of Majin and the Forsaken Kingdom : Cheap Zelda knockoff where you have a buddy constantly follow you and you command him to do stuff while together you work to solve puzzles and save the day. Kinda sounds like Star Fox Adventures.

Star Fox Adventures? Wait a second, I used to shit on that game as a kid all the time until I gave it a random second chance last year and fell in love with it! This is awesome!

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Review in Progress #2 : Bulletstorm (PS3)

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Current Status : Campaign cleared (Very Hard).

Next Update : Covering my Echoes mode and multiplayer experience.

Nothing says good boxart like a foot in the face (if you got the limited edition)

Part I : Bulletstorm at its hardest.

Fucking Ishi, if you block my slide one more time, I’m going to strangle you.

Before anything, I gotta admit, I hate games like Halo and Gears of War when it comes to fps games. Growing up on the old wad based games like Doom, Heretic and Hexen and the early games that used 3d models (Unreal Tournament before the awful sequels and Quake 2/3) along with many of their custom mods and maps, I did not really enjoy the sluggish nature of either game whenever I would gather with some friends to play… Nowadays I just say “No thanks, give me a call if you put on Timesplitters”.

Bulletstorm’s claim to fame is that it is different than every other boring fps on the market today. I didn’t know what to think, coming from People Can Fly and Epic, the company responsible for both Gears of War and Unreal Tournament. Nowadays, I don’t know what the fuck my computer can run when it comes to gaming, and since I have enough modded games to go back to on the PC, I ended up getting the PS3 version of Bulletstorm.

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