Boss VG Review: Final Fantasy XIII

George reviews a game that came out a year ago. I hope you enjoy it.

SWTOR raid video? YES PLEASE!

I get excited for everything Bioware announces regarding SWTOR. They could announce that I will have to chop off my penis in order to play the game and I would still be excited.

But today they released a video showcasing the games dungeons and shit. The videos awesome but mostly because the character animation looks WAY WAY WAY better than it did in previous videos. It definitely looks like Bioware is taking their time and polishing this game up. Which is extremely reassuring.

Champions Online is Free to Play, If You Want

As Joe said two weeks ago, Champions Online now offers a "Free to Play" option, as of today. This F2P version differs from the paid version of the game in a variety of ways, as expected.

I was initially excited to log in and screw around on my old account for a couple of hours. (I never planned on coming back to the game, after all.) It was a fun game, at its core, but the lack of endgame at the time, the PvP imbalances, and the overwhelming amount of bugs were just too much. Anyway, I tried to convert one of my characters over to "silver" so that I could play him, but the servers were having issues and wouldn't complete the conversion. So, I figured I might as well make a new account. I did and was greeted by an Archetype selection page when I went to make my character. I guess one of the main limitations of the free to play version of the game is that you can't choose your powers.

There are eight Archetypes to choose from which determine the powers your character will gain as they level. In other words, you don't get to pick your powers, the game does it for you. That was enough for me to uninstall the game a second time.

Why would I want to play a superhero MMO if I don't get to choose my powers? It is the F2P version, but it feels like too much of a limitation. Whatever, not like I was really going to play the game.

L.A. Noire is looking Claaaaaassy

The trailer and release date for the upcoming open world crime game from new comer Team Bondi was released a few days ago and holy shit does it looks hot.

The only thing is that they have not shown us any of the gameplay, and for a game that's coming out in about four months that's fairly strange. I'm hoping this game does well but as of right now I am worried that it will be like 2003's The Getaway. Which was a beautiful game at the time especially compared to GTA III, but lacked in the gameplay department. This could very well happen again since Team Bondi is actually made up of ex Team Soho developers including the former Director of Development.

I guess we will have to wait and see. Honestly I am not to worried because I actually enjoyed The Getaway very much regardless of flaws.

L.A. Noir is being released on May 17th

TellTale might be working on a Walking Dead game

In mid-feburary Telltale is holding an event where they are going to announce five brand new multi-platform games. The invites sent out to the press say that one of the titles is "based on a just-launched property from the TV and comic book world whose popularity is changing life as some know it."

This has led many media outlets to jump to conclusions and speculate that its a Walking Dead game and it probably will. But as of right now nothing is set in stone.

This sounds awesome but I'm actually more excited by the fact that we might get a trailer for the Jurassic Park game or maybe the games release date at this event.

But either way its really cool to see such a small studio getting so many big IPs. Its a mind trip.

Duke Nukem Forever launches May 3rd

It's been announced today that Duke Nukem Forever will be launching on May 3rd!! Wooop Woop! Its hurting my head just thinking about how this game actually has a real release date, it doesnt seem real.

Here is a trailer to watch, full of censored boobs and pissing.

Professor Layton vs Phoenix Wright

This is slightly old news, but I never really talked about this here. Capcom and Level 5 (the creators of Professor Layton) are teaming up to bring us the game shown in the trailer above.

Capcom has made some great "Versus" games over the course of their history, Marvel Vs Capcom being one of the most prolific and successful. Never before though had it crossed the minds of fans that Phoenix Wright would be crossing paths with Professor Layton.

Obvious questions that came to mind when I first watched this trailer (today is actually the day when I've watched the full trailer, I only saw the 15 second announcement trailer a while ago). The first of which was "WHEN DO I GET THIS OMG!!!!" After I calmed down and took my meds, I started asking the more logical questions. One game being a puzzle-driven story game, the other being a text-based problem-solving courtroom game, how exactly will this play out? So far, no gameplay has been discussed or shown off, but if the quality of the trailer is anything to judge this by, it's going to be GLORIOUS.

As one of the commenters on YouTube pointed out:

"[T]his shouldn't be a game, it should become an anime... that's how godly it is"

I have to tend to agree with them. I actually really like the US voice cast of both games, and I would go see this in the theater/buy the DVD (or Blu-ray) of this day 1. This trailer looks really exciting, and I wonder how they will play everything out. I hope the dialogue is mostly voice-casted, as it would be one of the first times we've actually gotten to hear Phoenix Wright talk beyond a sentence or two, or his famous "OBJECTION!!!!"

From the few whisperings I've heard about this game, it'll be coming out for the 3DS.


Yet another game I hope makes it to our shore. If it doesn't, I'll just have to learn Japanese (which will come in handy for my import of Catherine, which I'm about 80% sure won't ever see the light of day in America).

3DS Info!!!!!!

What happens when Snake makes sweet love on the 3DS.


Gamers everywhere have been holding their breath since E3 (which is why the casualty rate of gamers has been so high since then), watching and waiting for any word from Nintendo about the 3DS' information. All the while we've heard unofficial rumors via outlets like Gamestop pricing/dating things, and other sources spreading rumors as well. This morning, Nintendo held a press conference where they finally came clean about the 3DS, they released a ton of information, including (finally) the release date and pricing for North America.

Mark it on your calendars friends, and start saving now. The 3DS will be available March 27th for $249.99 (and in Europe on March 25th for the equivalent in their funny-symbol currency [pounds? Or are they still using Euros?]). (EDIT: They use Euros. - Jerv)

They released a lot of other info about the system, such as some of its software features:
Games:
- Pilotwings Resort (from the sound of it, I'm going to be extremely excited for it)
- Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3DS
- Dead or Alive Dimensions (Can you say 3DD? XD)
- Few other games from third party developers

Features:
-Activity log (If you've played a Wii you're familiar with this, it tells you how much of your sad life was spent playing a game for what time that day, except this also tracks your physical activity)
- Pedometer (for logging the steps you take, allows you to earn coins to unlock things in games)
- Mii Maker *
- AR (Alternate Reality) cards
- Friend code for playing games.

Before you start groaning about the friend code (one of the worst ideas Nintendo has ever had), they finally fixed the number 1 top complaint about the Wii friend codes. The friend code is now unique to your system, and doesn't change between games. Why they didn't just implement an ID system like every other game company so far, I couldn't tell you, but at least they fixed one of the biggest issues plaguing online gameplay.

The friend code can be transmitted a lot easier too. When two 3DS peeps are connected via wireless hotspot, code swapping is instant, no typing necessary. There's also a feature called "Street Pass" which allows units in sleep mode to exchange common game data (no word yet on what exactly) instantly. "SpotPass" will allow 3DS users to access the Internet (via Opera I'm guessing?) and recieve info via hotspots regardless of the game in the cart slot.


So what does everyone think about the 3DS info so far? I'm pretty excited. My birthday is the 12th, so I'm hoping I can goad all family members/friends into chipping in on the 3DS for me. Would be AWESOME.


The most common complaint is "$250? That's kinda steep..." Keep in mind that the original PSP was $226, and although the console didn't do nearly as well as the DS, it sold nonetheless. That was about 7 years ago, and factoring in inflation and other world-events, we are lucky Nintendo didn't price at $300, which they COULD HAVE gotten away with, and still had the 3DS be extremely successful.

No word yet on what the games will be priced at, although Gamestop is listing at $40, which makes sense (every generation goes up by about $10, except from GBA->DS)

I'll either be updating this post later, or making another post with some of the videos from the press conference.

Deus Ex 3 will be 25 hours long

Nobody likes getting their hands on a great game just to have it end in 10 hours. So its great that Edios is coming out and saying that Deus Ex: Human Revolution will take over 25 hours to complete.

The games producer David Anfossi has stated that the game can now be played to completion and that none of their testers could reach the end within the six days they had to play it.

He also noted that he is pleased with how players are realizing the depth of strategy in the game.

"The ones that are more casual gamers, who are used to more 'corridor, cut-scene, corridor, cut-scene' type of gameplay - they play it that way for a while. Then suddenly, there's this new world that opens to them, and they start getting a bit more creative."

Deus Ex III is my most anticipated game of this year so this is excellent news. And its safe to say that if the game is good enough I will play the game multiple times and spend way over 25 hours on it.

Final Fantasy XIII-2 Trailer

Final Fantasy XIII was a game that people loved to hate, even I thought it was really mediocre. They worked to hard trying to impress people with their games engine that Square Enix forgot about everything else that made the Final Fantasy series great.

Earlier this week there was a rumor about a direct sequel to the game. but I didn't care to post anything about it because XIII licked balls and the last direct sequel to a Final Fantasy game did as well.

But square Enix released this Trailer today. And while I'm still not excited I cant help but think that maybe this time around the story and characters will be better since they shouldent have to worry about graphics anymore.

Taskmaster and Akuma Confirmed!

So fighting fans have been baiting their breath for every little release for MVC3, from characters to costumes. This week, a Japanese retailer "leaked" Akuma as a character in one of their ads for the game.

Today, not only did Capcom confirm Akuma (video below), but they released that Marvel's Taskmaster (video above) would be in the game as well.



Fighting fans should be familiar with Akuma by now, he's kind of the evil, stronger version of Ryu (not to be confused with Dark Ryu), and he performs the infamous "Raging Demon" (as seen at the end of the video).

For those who don't keep current with Marvel Comics (or have never picked up a Marvel comic for that matter), Taskmaster may sound a little unfamiliar.

He's a B or D list villain in the Marvel universe. For the most part, recently he's been a trainer of villains (though after the Siege event in the Marvel universe I wouldn't be able to tell you what he's been doing). He has the ability to copy any move that he sees. Whether or not that will actually be the case in the game is yet to be seen. From the trailer it looks like he does a lot of slashing, as well as some reflective attacks.


Who will be the rest of the character roster? For some reason I have a feeling that a lot of characters will be unlockable, and that they're not going to give us the full roster even after the game has been released.

Killzone 3 has gone gold

Killzone 3 has gone gold today showing that Guerrilla is set to release their PS3 exclusive on February 22nd.

After the huge let down that was Killzone 2 I am actually not excited for this game at all. And I would honestly rather continue to play COD: Black Ops. But earlier this week it was announced that the game had 70 minutes of cut scenes, which could mean that they are going to try and flush out the story a bit, something Killzone 2 failed to do.

While that's interesting I just cant get excited for this game. Still its cool that its coming out I guess.

Bulletstorm demo on the 25th!!

Its pretty obvious that I am excited for Bulletstorm, I think we all are. So its exciting news that people can fly will be releasing a demo of the game on Xbox Live and PSN on the 25th of this month.

The demo will let us play a game mode called Echo which is a score based mode where you use skillshots to rack up points for online leaderboards. 45 different skillshots will be available as well as three different guns.

PSP2 might be revealed on January 27

The new PlayStation Portable that everyone has known about for years now miiiiight finally be revealed on January 27th. Its all speculation at this point but Sony is having a press event on the 27th conveniently placed after a press even Nintendo is having on the 19th, which is sure to be full of news on the 3DS.

Actually now that I think about it we might get a US launch date for the 3DS on the 19th. OHHHHH SHIIIIIIIT!!

I'm just glad we are finally going to see the damn thing and I hope my mind gets blooooown!!!

Super hot Bulletstorm vid

People Can Fly released a video today showcasing a few of the skillshots you can perform in their upcoming FPS Bulletstorm.

The game looks awesome as always and I can't wait to play it. I can't think of a better way to start the new year.

The Return of Boss Talk

Boss Talk will be back.

Frictional Games saved by Amnesia sales

I have never played Amnesia and I hadn't even heard about the game 'til a few days ago when I came home and saw my brother Krinkor playing it. When I asked what the hell he was playing, he said "A REALLY fucking scary game where the only weapon you have is a lantern and you have to run away from really scary shit." I said it sounded cool and continued to forget about it.

Apparently, the developer Frictional Games had seen better times money wise, but after selling 200,000 units is now financially stable. Over on their blog they also go on to say that after this huge success they now have found a new confidence in the PC as a gaming system and plan on developing more games for it.

I believe my baby Krinkor, but I should get around to playing Amnesia because I really want to know if its THAT scary.

Champions Online is Freeeeeeeee!!!

Cryptic has come out and said that on Jan 25 they are going to dump their subscription service in favor of a free to play with transactions payment method. I have absolutely no interest in going back to this game because of the bad taste it left in my mouth, and I feel like a tool for even playing it for as long as I did!

But I find this news interesting because I want to know how all of the suckers who shelled out 200 bucks for the lifetime sub feel. Because I don't think they are going to get jack shit for throwing money at Cryptic.

Its also a good idea since DC universe just launched. But everyone knows that game is going to be a steaming pile anyway.

Good things are coming.

Damn, you know you have been fucking up when you forgot the password to your blog. Its been way too long, but the ideas that have been thrown around the past couple days have me so excited to do this shit again that its all I thought about all day today and last night. I couldn't even sleep so I stayed up and watched all of our old videos even though I had to wake up at 3am.

Good things are coming and I can't wait for everyone to check 'em out. This also means I am going to start posting stories like a crazy person.

100% hyped.

Professor Layton And The Unwound Future

I'm a pretty big fan of puzzle games. Most of the time, just random logic puzzle games are fine, or games like Tetris and Lumines. Sometimes there comes a puzzle game that has an excellent story to go along with the puzzles. The Professor Layton series for the Nintendo DS has always been a great example of the latter.


For those who aren't familiar with the game series, it's about an English Gentleman (who's a university Professor who teaches Archaeology) and his young boy apprentice. Together they go around solving puzzles. Layton has such a reputation as a problem-solver that many people contact him regarding mysteries that are generally considered unsolveable. So far (at least game wise), the score stands at 2-0, with Layton figuring out every mystery thrown his way so far.

As the player, you play primarily as Layton, though the perspectives shift (inconsequentially) to his apprentice Luke and some of the other side characters.

The gameplay is largely unchanged from the previous games. You encounter people who challenge you to solve mystery after mystery, and as you work your way through puzzles (and the city(s)) you delve deeper and deeper into the plot.

Some of the puzzles repeat a little bit from the previous games, but that's to be expected. I have a feeling there can only be so many puzzles that exist, and they do have to save some more for the next game in the series. The puzzles this time around, however, are generally worded a lot better than the previous puzzles in the series. While there were a few puzzles that were extremely hard, most of the puzzles succeeded in keeping me busy for at least a few minutes.

The graphics are as good as the previous installments in the series. They consist of lovably animated characters and architecture. My only complaint when it comes to the graphics is that sometimes during cutscenes you get some patches of discoloration, which is largely due to the DS not being made to play video, and the video codec that's widely used throughout the industry for the DS still isn't the best.


The story itself is actually amazing. This game is, by far, my favorite in the series. You don't see the twist for quite a while, and even then the plot has many twists on it's various subplots.

The ending was also deservingly sad. I say deservingly because not every form of entertainment builds up to something sad. They usually throw it in in the end "because the writer wanted it to end that way" not necessarily having planned it in that manner from the beginning. For this game, without the player even realizing it, the whole game was building to the sad conclusion. It even leads you away from this sad conclusion for a little while, only to make the emotionally charged ending all the more bittersweet.

This game has Professor Layton more characterized than he usually is. In the previous outings, he's just been the dashing English Gentleman that always has all the answers. In this we get to see his past and some of the things (and people) that have shaped him into what he is today.

If you have a DS, I strongly recommend purchasing this game. It is a must-have for any DS owner, with fun (yet challenging) puzzles, an engaging storyline, and great visuals.

And for the lulz, here's a comic that's relevant to the game: