Previously on The Final Fantasy XIII-2 Diaries! Noel, a boy from the future has to get main character Serah, Lightning’s younger sister, to Valhalla via time warp gates! A moogle with a fat head named Mog accompanies them! The Paradigm Shift battle system from Final Fantasy XIII returns with a few tweaks, random encounters with weak monsters happen, and I’m pleasantly surprised by just about everything so far!
Part One of a chronicle through the time-traveling odyssey Final Fantasy XIII-2. Does this RPG sequel start with a bang or a whimper? With this sequel, Square Enix set out to right the wrongs of the previous game, namely tunnel vision level design, off-kilter pacing, and a lack of player immediacy. But this new one promises to be a different beast. Let’s find out together if that’s true. Instead of playing, finishing the game and then posting my final review I will chronicle my time with it. This will be different from my typical reviews. The format will be looser, a bit more free-form. It should be fun! So let’s dive in.
People love Final Fantasy, and if there’s anything people love more than Final Fanatsy, it’s arguing about Final Fantasy. Who’s the best villain? What’s the best piece of music? Where’s the best place to dry clean my replica Squall jacket? Too many arguments, too much to fight over. And, of course, every discussion about Square’s flagship RPG series devolves into “Which game in the series is the best?” Well, that’s easy. There are five of them, and you can find out which ones they are right now, right here.
Final Fantasy XIII-2 really has potential to bring burned players back to the fold. Goes to show, sometimes strides can be made between the demo and the final product, or uh, the second demo in this case. With the game only a couple weeks away I think it’s safe to say it’s representative of the final game. And strides were made here.
The role-playing game genre has made great strides since its early days as a thinly veiled Dungeons & Dragons rip-off. Stories have grown increasingly complex, the music and graphics have greatly improved, and the battle systems have evolved into wonderfully varied schemes. There are many great RPGS, but which is the best of the bunch? A handful of 2D-X RPG-lovers offer their selections for the best RPG of all time.
Bug and glitches continue to plague Skyrim, with Playstation 3 owners facing the worst of them. Players that have logged large amount of time into the game are experiencing game-breaking lag. It seems like the lag is associated with large save files. The current issues have lead many experts with know how on the PS3′s hardware to say that these issues might not be fixable.You see this isn’t the case of a backward flying dragon, or enemies falling through the game world, both of which are tolerable. This is the case of gamers which are also customers, that are not able to play the game at an enjoyable level due to a bug that should have been spotted and corrected.
I’ve had the privilege to review many great titles this year, but The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim stands alone on a pedestal as my game of the year. Any respectable gamer owes it to them to go out and purchase a copy; this is near-perfection. This is a true achievement in gaming, and one that should be experienced by every gamer.
Grinding your way through Middle Earth? Here are 13 Lord of the Rings: War in the North tips that will make the trek a bit easier.
There are lots of quests, side-quests and knick-knacks to collect like photos and music, and various other things throughout the world to find. None of that matters though if there isn’t a compelling central game to anchor it all. There isn’t one here. Button-mashing the same ability over again and trudging through page after page of repetitive dialogue isn’t how I like to spend my time gaming on the Nintendo DS or any other platform, and I can’t imagine anyone else would either despite the beautiful and nostalgic artstyle Solatorobo uses. In that regard, the game’s aesthetic is like a Siren call. Get lured in by the pretty surface, get disappointed by the shallow insides. If there’s any audience for Solatorobo it’s the very young, very inexperienced or very forgiving. But even then, for all the playing there is to do in Solatorobo it’s more akin to a Let’s Play video than a substantial video game.
A look inside the Skyrim Collector’s Edition. Prepare to drool.
