Temporary Hiatus: EFR returns on 02-15-2010

Hi everybody!

To the regular readers of this little blog (5 thousand unique hits and counting! Thank you all very much, BTW) I haven't closed shop yet, but I'm busy completing my grad school thesis and I can't really devote as much time as I'd like to updating EFR. I'm therefore putting it on hiatus for a bit so I can focus on getting this goddarn final paper done (and play some games of course!).

I'll have a whole bunch of new stuff to read by mid-February 2010 (maybe a review of Darksiders and Dante's Inferno, if I have it by then), but for now chillax muna ko dito.

John out! :-)

Ten for 2010: First Quarter Storm

Yayaman na naman tong mga to sakin. Bwiset.

The first quarter of 2010 keeps looking worse and worse for my wallet. :-( Putang ina talaga, daming gastos, buti nalang quarterly bonus na sa March. I mean, just look at that forecast, man. Just think, when I walk into Datablitz at various points during the first quarter, these (presumably) fantastic titles will be right there on the shelf, staring me in the face, just begging me to buy them. How the heck am I going to resist? Instead of being broke for just one quarter a year, it looks like we're all going to be broke for two this time around.

Who decided to move all this shit into Q1, anyway? Fucking publishers, y'all pussies! Cowering in fear of Modern Warfare 2, this is all your fault.

Here's what I've got lined up. It's not pretty, people. Witness the instruments of my impending financial ruin!


SCALDING HOT!
Will buy the very moment they become available.
No, seriously, I'll be camped outside the fucking door.

Yakuza 3

Pictured: Si Brando Braganza, hari ng romansa.

In English? FOR REAL?!?! Two words buddy, FUCK YEAH!

After a sustained (and quite painful) absence, everybody's favorite gold-hearted gangster Kazuma Kiryu has come back to us - gulpihan na! This is easily my most anticipated PS3 exclusive of Q1, and one of my favorite Sega series of all time. For those of you who havent played a Yakuza series game yet, feel free to get an education by playing either of the two PS2 installments - it's basically the evolution of Yu Suzuki's Shenmue series, but with 200% more brutality and criminal cool. What other game series allows you do to quirky stuff like participate in home run derbies and mack on GRO's, while still allowing you to cave some poor thug's face in with a bicycle? Simply priceless.

Dante's Inferno

In Visceral Games we trust.

That incredible demo a couple of weeks back sold me on this. The fact that the PS3 version has a lot of extra freebies packed in on the disc is just added incentive - Blu-Ray FTW! It's amazing how they managed to find a control scheme that allows you to smoothly combine a lot of abilities into a single string (I find that the L1 toggle for special moves is a lot more natural-feeling than the GoW digital pad switch). I trust Visceral Games will come up with a title that meets our lofty expectations.

Then those hard working bastards can get around to finishing Dead Space 2! :-D

Right?

Oh please please please finish that within 2010.

Final Fantasy XIII

Jesus, who cares if the gameplay isn't all that special? I dare you to tell me that this image isn't 100% made of awesome.

Yes, I know, FFXIII has been savaged by the Japanese fans who bought it (as opposed to the Japanese press, which apparently loved it - malaki ata budget ng Square Enix sa usapang bayaran), and most tellingly, the game's sales have dropped like a rock after a stellar first week. Not good signs at all. It's possible however that the reason that so many fans gave negative feedback is the very distinct possibility that they bought a PS3 just to play this game - when it didn't live up to their lofty expectations, they found that they just burned $360 (instead of just $60) just to play what turned out to be a merely mediocre/decent game. Thus, the explicable fanboy rage.

But hey, like I give a fuck, right? Even if it ends up sucking, so what? Bahala na, when you've been waiting for something this long, quality concerns give way to morbid curiosity, and the Squeenix sheep like myself will pick it up regardless. Besides, I absolutely can't resist writing a review of a game this controversial, and I don't want to be the only one among my gaming friends who doesn't know how the story turned out. And then we'll all have the authority to complain in unison - nagbayad tayo eh. ;-)

Bioshock 2

Ah, back in Rapture at last. Love is always sweeter the second time around.

I was late in coming to Ken Levine's monster's ball the first time around - I ignored Bioshock when it first came out on X360, because at the time I was totally OD'd on FPS games. I eventually played it when it came out on PS3, and nagsisi ako - few games did a better job of creating atmosphere and immersing you in its world, and if not for the game forcing you to play through twice or more to get the Platinum, I would have gladly done so. I know that the first game's story was perfectly self contained, and that creating a sequel that unneccesarily extends the fiction sounds to some people like a Very Bad Idea(tm). I don't really mind, though, I'm sure they'll come up with something that's at least decent to good, plot holes be damned. Plus, in an ingenious twist, the multiplayer seems to be based on the the civil war that took place before the events of the first game (during the collapse of Andrew Ryan's Rapture).

A multiplayer suite that expands on the story of the single player game? Fuckin' A, this is going to kick so much ass!

Just Plain Ol' Hot
Will buy as soon as I can, when I come into some extra cash.

God of War III

Even when you only show his eyes, that wacky Kratos guy always looks way too uptight. Valiums, buddy, Valiums.

This would normally be on the first list, and I absolutely loved the demo, but after ODing on the Kratos-filled-violence-fest that was God of War Collection (God of War II FTW!) I'm all God-Of-Warred out for the time being. Don't get me wrong, I'm definitely still buying this, no questions asked. Just not on launch day.

Well, that was a short writeup, wasn't it? Perhaps that's the way the Ghost of Sparta would have wanted it - direct and to the point.

White Knight Chronicles: International Edition

Yes, I realize that this game's graphics look like shit. I don't care, it's by Level 5, baby!

Another game that would normally be on the top list, I want to see how White Knight Chronicles does critically before I make the purchase (although kung tinopak ako I may still just buy it outright). The graphics look pretty crap, yes, but that's mostly because this game is actually really old (it took its sweet time coming over from Japan). What I'm worried about is actually the gameplay - Level-5 almost always makes fantastic games (Dark Cloud, Professor Layton, Rogue Galaxy, Dragon Quest VIII, nuff said) but I've never been a big fan of games like Monster Hunter or Phantasy Star Online... I love collecting loot as much as the next nerd but something about their online implementation just turns me off.

Ah well, I have faith that they'll come through. They're Level-5, buddy - I hear Jesus works there. :-)

Bayonetta

Will an abysmal port ruin this sexytary's chance at success?

Loading issues (if they're not fixed in time) push this firmly into the second tier, despite the rock solid gameplay. Plus I've finished like a quarter of it on Xbox, so I have validation that the game itself is really great, but if the Sony technical team assigned to iron out the various issues fails, this has to be assigned a lower buying priority. Especially the framerate issues! Dammit, if there's one technical issue I really detest, it's a bad fps count, dahil nakakahilo laruin ng matagal yung mga larong ganyan. Now, this wouldn't be so bad if this was a consistent issue across all versions of the game, but the 360 version really is far superior, at least from my experience playing the import versions.

It says a lot about Bayonetta's overall quality, though, that I'm still willing to buy this despite the possibility that Sony fails to fix the port.


Comfortably Warm
Might buy, depending on reviews and user feedback.

Gran Turismo 5

You know your graphics are amazing when even a boring picture of sand looks this good.

There should be an asterisk next to this selection - we're of course assuming that GT5 actually comes out in English within Q1 2010. If it does though, you may be asking: Why the hell did I put it in the third list? I mean, it's only GRAN TURISMO MOTHERFUCKING 5!

I don't know if it's just me, but I've enjoyed GT less and less with each successive installment. I almost broke up with my then-girlfriend way back in high school because I played Gran Turismo 2 so much. Gran Turismo 3 A-Spec I also played the crap out of, but the limited car selection hurt it a bit in terms of play length. Gran Turismo 4 I didn't enjoy very much - yes, the car selection was outstanding , but it was a wee bit too unforgiving for me - I'm not a hardcore driving game fan (aside from this, I basically just play arcadey stuff like Ridge Racer, Midnight Club and Burnout) and sometimes it felt more like work than play.

Gran Turismo 5 Prologue was fun, yes, but the recent demo (the time trial with the Nissan test car) gave me pause. The loading was absolutely terrible (especially considering all of the game data was already on my hard drive), and the handling was as unforgivingly realistic as I remember. To Kaz Yamauchi - please make sure this kicks ass... bring me back to the GT fold!

Heavy Rain

Yeah, the story looks really interesting, and this is still on the do want list, but I can also get a good story by buying a book. And that doesn't cost motherfucking 2 1/2 kyaw.

I liked Indigo Prophecy, yes, but if this turns out to be too short I'll probably pass on buying and just borrow. I'm beginning to get pissed off at this game's producer - David Cage seems to be of the idea that his game has transcended being just that - a game - and is supposed to be a artsy-fartsy "cinematic experience". This is all well and good when it comes to Metal Gear (and *ahem* FFXIII, I guess) because there's still some gameplay left under the hood. If Cage errs too far on the side of cinematic and makes like a five hour game full of quick time events, I have a feeling that most people will choose to loan a copy from richer pals.

Darksiders

Damn, that's a really big fucking sword!
Take that, you evil door lock!

Preview feedback on this has been quite positive from a lot of sources - it still hasn't gotten a full review from a trustworthy source yet though, so dropping money on this sight unseen isn't a sure thing yet by any means. The only existing purely positive review is from Play Magazine's Dave Halverson - although I love Play as a gaming publication, and I respect Halverson as being an authentic hardcore gamer, I often find that you have to take Dave's reviews with a grain of salt. After all, this is the guy who absolutely loved Golden Axe: Beast Rider, RTX Red Rock, Tomb Raider: Angel of Darkness & Devil May Cry 2 (and came out with early reviews of all four). I'm not sure if he's on the take from the publishers or just has incredibly weird taste in games, but I'll need a positive review from a more stable source like GameSpot or 1UP to convince me to pick this up brand new.

Edit: Gamespot said it was great! I'm picking this up. :-D Cha-ching!