The EFR Top Ten: Best PS3 Games of 2009

It's taken some time, but I finally got around to finalizing this list. There were some painful cuts, but hey, that's why they call it a Top TEN.

From worst to first, here's what I thought were the best PS3 games of 2009.

PS: Do not stone me for leading off this article with a picture of ugly-ass MFer Forest Griffin.

10. UFC 2009: Undisputed

An absolute beast of a game, UFC 2009 Undisputed was the most unexpected surprise I had this year. I downloaded the demo, played it, smiled like a fucking idiot, and immediately set my sights on picking this up. I wasn't disappointed, and neither was publisher THQ - this was the surprise smash of the summer in terms of sales, and I'm telling you right now it wasn't (just) because the UFC fanbase is 50% composed of crazy wildin'-out type drunkies who will buy anything - this is a HIGH QUALITY game here folks. Why buy Fight Night when you can have this? We want Undisputed 2010, NOW!

9. Killzone 2

Just a funny thing I noticed when doing this writeup - you know how people (myself included) always bag on Killzone 2 for being colorless and relentlessly grey? Well, its true! Just type "Killzone 2" into Google image search and the images you get will be pretty much monochrome. :-) Despite the bleak tone of the game's visuals (and the game in general) however, KZ2 still offered up a highly entertaining single-player experience, with visuals good enough to make me do double takes every so often, and a killer, killer sound effects suite. The multiplayer, on the other hand... um, wasn't exactly on Modern Warfare's level, but then, what is?

8. Assassin's Creed II

I'm a bit surprised at myself for including AC2 on this list, considering the deep-seated hatred I have for the first game. Hey, you have to admit, the first AC was a pretty love it or hate it type of game. And you can't say that I didn't give it a fair shot - I bought AC1 at launch (fueled by some Jade Raymond hype), played through the first few towns, absolutely hated it, traded it away, got it back in a "filler" trade, ignored it for the better part of a year, tried it again to maybe get hyped for AC2, hated it even more, and chucked it in disgust to the very bottom of my sizable box of PS3 crap. But Assassin's Creed 2 really is a marked improvement over the first game - the world is livelier, there's a much larger amount of stuff to do, and they came up with a great reward system that makes you want to push forward. It really shows that Patrice Desilets and his team really took the sometimes savage criticism of the first game, sucked it up, and proceeded to work on making this Creed sequel the best damn game they could possibly make. Sure, it wasn't enough to overcome the awesome shit that the other developers came up with, but that French bastard has at least regained my respect. (Disclaimer: As I have yet to get my hands on the PS3 version - I ran out of money - this opinion is based on the Xbox 360 version, which I played all the way through. I still plan to get the PS3 version eventually, though... for cheap.)

7. Dragon Age: Origins

Although I got suckered into buying what has to be one of the worst special editions ever made for a game, I'm not bitter - Dragon Age: Origins is still, gameplay-wise, one of the best titles Bioware ever made. The characters are interesting, the plot is filled with some wonderfully epic stuff, and the combat is a simplified version of the Neverwinter Nights engine, adapted for consoles but still retaining the strategic depth. Well, it did have an Achilles heel -- it, errr, looked like crap. But most RPG nerds I've talked to think it's an equitable tradeoff.

6. Street Fighter IV

It speaks volumes of the overall quality of this year's crop of games that the best (IMHO) 2009 entry in one of my all-time favorite genres could only manage overall 6th place. Although it came out much earlier in the year, there is no reason to deny Street Fighter IV its place in the sun. Yes, like the majority of fighting games, it's a rehash, but it's an expertly crafted, gorgeous, and very, very, VERY fun rehash that I'm willing to pay for again next year in the form of Super Street Fighter IV.

5. Batman: Arkham Asylum

Length. That's all this game had going against it in terms of Game of the Year contention. Unfortunately, Arkham really was short - maikli masyado for most people. The game was over too quickly for many people to consider more than a rent or a short-term buy (bili, tapos pasa kaagad). You couldn't fault the game based on quality though: It had MetroidVania-style exploration, loads of secrets to find, a great script (and fantastic voice acting), and the most unique combat system I saw all year.

4. Borderlands

I was one of Borderlands' chief boosters before the game saw release (promoting the game every chance I got), and Gearbox Software didn't let me down - Borderlands effectively was, as Gears of War designer Cliff Blesinzki said, "Diablo for the FPS generation". Sure, it had its flaws here and there (such as being buggier than a jar full of cockroaches) but the game was just so fun and well-put-together that it deserved to succeed... and succeed it did, becoming the sleeper hit of the year by a mile. We can only hope that Gearbox's recent trademarking of the name "Borderworlds" means we get a sequel in 2010 (although I doubt it, seeing as they're also developing Aliens: Colonial Marines for Sega. Anyway, a man can dream.

3. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2

Two years after the untouchable Modern Warfare 1 dropped we got this shiny, mega-hyped sequel.

So what changed from COD4?

Well, not the story, definitely. The plot STILL doesn't make sense, it's more a series of extremely well put together action sequences that don't really gel.

And while the graphics have improved in spots, it's still running on the same old-ass engine, so it can look a little messy at times.

The multiplayer has a load of cool stuff to unlock, and is as fun as ever, but the structure remains largely the same.

So in a nutshell, the only "new" feature they added was the very entertaining Spec Ops co-op mode, and a whole truckload of minor refinements.

And you know what? The end result was still so motherfucking FUN I had to make it number 3. Thank you, Infinity Ward. Thank you.

2. Demon's Souls

The first few hours I spent with Demon's Souls weren't what I would call enjoyable. Me and Death? We became best pals. Inadvertently walking off incredibly high spiral staircases, getting burned to death by dragons I had no idea were coming, eaten alive by wolves, getting caught in an unfortunate yet still somewhat hilarious accident involving exploding barrels -- it felt like it was always SOMETHING, goddamnit, and I was beginning to wonder if I was losing my hardcore gamer "edge". I even considered trading Demon's Souls away for something else. Well, I'm glad I reconsidered, because when I started playing again, something just clicked, and I suddenly "got it". At first I cursed at Demon's Souls for killing me so indiscriminately -- then I realized that it was simply trying to teach me the correct way to play. This is some truly masterful work by From Software, and the best game they ever made (seriously, I didn't think they would ever top Otogi 2 for the original Xbox). Sequel please!

1. Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

Considering that Naughty Dog is one of my favorite developers of all time (I'm still waiting on that REAL Jak and Daxter sequel, guys), and that Uncharted: Drake's Fortune still has a very special place in my heart, it's no surprise that I really, REALLY wanted to play this. Unsurprisingly, ND came through. But what I didn't expect was just how great U2AT would turn out - I've been burned by excessive hype before, but U2AT deserved every bit of praise that came its way. Amazingly cinematic, with the same disarming panache and light-hearted wit that made the first game so great, Uncharted 2 was a shining reminder of exactly why, despite being twenty-fucking-six years old, I still love gaming so much.

That's pretty much a wrap, folks, unless you count...

EFR's Honorable Mentions

a.k.a.

The Best of the Losers


Ratchet And Clank Future: A Crack In Time - A pretty good game, but didn't wow me enough to make me pick it up. I played through it at a friend's house and don't plan to pick it up again until it becomes really, really dirt cheap (for collection/Trophy purposes).

God of War Collection - Disqualified because neither GoW game really came out in 2009. Would have made it in if that wasn't the case.

Fallout 3: Game of the Year Edition - See God of War Collection.

Band Hero - I love this game but I can't in good conscience put a glorified track pack/Guitar Hero reskin on my 2009 best-of list. It feels... dirty, somehow.

inFamous - Because some fucker will send me another angry email if I dont include this on here. Seriously dude, it wasn't the BEST GAME EVER, so get over it.

so... Fuck inFamous! Muhahahaha! X-D

-fin-

PS2HDL: In Loving Memory

The definition. Like, the once-Mecca of Philippine videogames.

I can still clearly remember the day when the path of my life first crossed with PS2HDL. It was a dreary Saturday morning, and my PS2 fat was on the fritz again (the lens needed a little cleaning). Resignedly, I lugged the old girl over to the pre-fire Virra Mall to get it fixed. Not trusting the nasty fellows over at WenGem (at that time, they had already become pretty notorious for swapping out old parts into units sent in for repair) and not wanting to pay the huge prices Tonton charged over at GameStuff, I happened upon a small, innocuous store on the second floor called EYO Sales. I decided to give it a shot, and while the shop staff went through the process of checking out the defective unit (in plain view pa, para walang duda) the friendly, smiling Chinese man behind the counter struck up a conversation with me. Turns out he was the proprietor of the store, and he wanted to know: was I interested in having a PS2 that ran games exclusively from the hard drive? Thankfully, I said yes, and I walked out of the store with my wallet Php 5,500.00 lighter and my PS2 loaded for bear. Yeah, Eric really did a number on my wallet that day (especially considering I was still a student then) but what I got in return was totally worth the cash I gave him, and to this day, when any of my gaming equipment breaks down, I leave my beloved, overpriced pieces of technology in the care of good old Eric Ong.

Anyway, before I discuss further, I'd like to give a short primer on PS2HDL for those who may not know what it is. HDLoader is the name of a program that plays on a PS2 that basically allows you to run games off the system's hard drive. (The PS2 Slim has no hard drive port, which makes it incompatible with HDLoader; this is why PS2 fat models have higher resale value than slims.) This is usually the recommended option for gamers whose PS2 lenses have stopped reading DVD's but can still read CD's - you burn the program to a regular compact disc. (For the less fortunate souls whose PS2 lens has totally broken, it is also possible to launch HD Loader from a memory card, although this is considerably more difficult to do, and requires that your nerd skillz be Better Than The Average Bear.)

The program requires that you have access to a PS2 compatible hard drive, like a Maxtor (I'm not sure what the upper limit was - 300GB? I'm not sure) and obviously an original Sony Network Adaptor, which is what you use to connect the PS2 fat to the hard disk. You can't play online or anything (games like SOCOM will crash), as the NA merely serves as a very expensive "cable" that allows the program to work. Basically, it's the bulky predecessor to the PSP's firmware hack - the one that allows you to play games off the memory stick. Also, note that HDLoader doesn't necessarily have to be used for piracy (although that's what a whole lot of people use it for) - you can install your legitimate games to the hard disk with no issues or glitches propping up.

I hope that clears things up. :-) Moving on, why did I love this mod so much?

Even Borat approves of PS2HDL. You can trust Borat!

Firstly, as any reader of EFR knows, I'm a pretty big gamer, and my brother plays a lot as well. This puts undue stress on the consoles and handhelds we have in the house, and I'm very paranoid with regards to wear and tear on our systems, especially disc-based ones like PlayStations. With PS2HDL, we could now leave the lovable black box on for days on end without worrying about the useless thing conking out. (Up until this day, I still consider PS3 games that install large amounts of game data or the whole game to the hard drive - like Unreal Tournament 3, Arkham Asylum and Oblivion - to be easier to play for long amounts of time because of the reduced wear on the disc drive lens.)

Countless NBA 2K5 grudges were settled using PS2HD.

Playing a heated game of NBA 2K but the parental units forcing you to break for lunch? Playing through an engrossing RPG, with a save point nowhere within the next country mile? No problem, just leave the damn thing on! PS2HDL allowed me to engage in epic gaming marathons without the nagging feeling that I was wrecking my console - I clearly remember doing a start-to-finish Resident Evil 4 run on that thing. It was glorious! Just think - using PS2HDL resulted in a console that is, for all intents and purposes, immortal. There are no moving parts to break, and when the hard drive eventually fails due to overuse (which will take quite some time) you can just chuck it and slide in a new one.

PS2HD somehow made damn-near-perfect games even better!

Another huge benefit of PS2HDL was how it greatly reduced load time. I'm a huge RPG fan, and one thing I really can't stand is incessant disc reading times because they make random (or semi-random) battles that much more annoying. (Even great games, like Persona 3, suffered from this glaring flaw. And I tested it on a brand new PS2 Slim, so don't tell me it was because I was testing it on an old lens.) Yes, PS2HDL cut into loading time by a significant amount, and it made for less waiting around and more gaming, which is inarguably a good thing.

Lastly, PS2HDL offered convenience. All the games currently on my playlist, accessible at the touch of a button! The huge hard drive sizes also left me plenty of space left over to hoard multiplayer games (you know, the ones you tend to break out only when friends come over, like Street Fighter and TimeSplitters) and timeless classics that I want to try and revisit. It also greatly improved the console's portability - if I was going on an extended road trip, or visiting a friend's house, all I would have to lug along was the PS2 itself, no disc games required.

This game had to be forced to cooperate. Thank God for patches!

Sure, PS2HDL had its own share of inconveniences - when Sony and the rest of the big shots like Square Enix caught on to the concept of PS2HD (which could allow Americans to rent games legitimately then burn the ISO for to use for an unlimited amount of time using WinHIIP) newer big games began having "mysterious conflicts" with the software, requiring patches or a total OS update in order to play off the hard drive. But it was always worth the effort in the end... I have fond memories of playing FFXII until I puked Gambits.

So where IS my PS2HDL unit? Having given Persona 4 the business, I have no use for it at the moment, so I lent it to my little cousin so he could experience the joy of having a veritable gaming buffet at his fingertips. The younger generation deserves to play those games, and enjoy them as we once did.

But someday, I'll dig up the old component cable, pick the scratched, dusty old warrior back up, and relive the joys of a generation where HD didn't mean high definition...

... it meant hard disk.

Impressions: God of War Collection (R3)

I've been wanting to pick this up for some time now but the horrible traffic and parking situation in the Greenhills area scared me off. After facing my fears and braving the horrors of GSC in mid-December, I came home with my copy of GoW Collection, with my car drained of a quarter tank of gas, and my mind bearing horrible, traumatic scars that will take some time to heal.

I picked up the R3 version because it came with a voucher for the GoW 3 demo, which sad to say I hadn't played yet before now. After queueing the DL for that up (at an expectedly monstrous 2.6 gigs), I got started on God of War 1, which, as I previously stated, I never finished all the way through on the PS2 due to my buying a dud copy. Amazingly, the graphics still hold up pretty well even after all these years, primarily because of the HD facelift (and the consistent framerate of 60fps). Things get a bit hairy when you do an extreme closeup (as the character models, which were left unchanged, are pretty blocky) but when I was actually playing the game it didn't really bother me that much. The only beef I have with the presentation is the video - as many reviews have stated, it's jarringly poor-quality, and when you're playing on an HDTV (which, really, is the only reason anybody would have to pick this game up) the shift to low-res video then back to the high-res game engine really takes you out of the experience.

Still, the fantastic direction, great gameplay and pinpoint perfect control are all present and accounted for, and in the end that's what counts. Having never played God of War II in my life (and hearing such universally glowing praise - by most accounts, the sequel was a far superior game to the first, which is rare), I'm really excited about polishing off the first game and getting started on GoW2. I just hope all this relentless God-of-War-ing I'm doing doesn't burn me out for the third game. March na lalabas yun!.... kasabay ng Yakuza 3 and Final Fantasy XIII. Ouch, tatlo. Yari na naman wallet ko. :-(


Oh, and speaking of GoW3, I know I'm way late to the party on this but that demo kicked major, major ass. That was fucking incredible! :-)

Dante's Inferno kicks ass!

Have you downloaded the demo for this yet? If you haven't, WTF are you waiting for? GO!!!

Seriously, this is SO worth the time it takes you to download. It started off pretty crap, with the hacking and slashing looking like a more monotonous version of Devil May Cry. But stick with it (it starts picking up after the boss fight with Death) and you'll find that you'll be having a whole lot of fun - the FPS is really smooth, and the combo system feels utterly fantastic!

On a side note: I don't know how Bayonetta is supposed to stand up to this, given that they're releasing within the same January window - I mean, Bayonetta is fantastic gameplay-wise, but the PS3 version just looks so crap visually: bad textures and an incredibly poor framerate, especially in comparison to the 360 version. Dante's Inferno makes it look terrible, hopefully Sega fixes it up.

And just in case you didn't know, Dante's was developed by the same guys who made Dead Space.

NEVER DOUBT THEM AGAIN!

This just rocketed WAAAAAY up the wish list. Damn!

Discuss! Top 50 games of the past decade (Destructoid article)

First off, if you haven't already, I'd like you to read the Destructoid feature I've linked below. (Start from part one, etc.)

Part One: #50 - #41
Part Two: #40 - #31
Part Three: #30 - #21
Part Four: # 20 - #11
Part Five: # 10 - #1

I hope you agree that this article (see the links above, spread out over 5 posts) was a very
interesting read. Normally these "top" lists are either "best games of the year" rankings (which we're very used to seeing, and usually feature games we're all sick of hearing aboutdue to overexposure) or a "best games of all time" list (which usually see the same old chestnuts like Super Metroid, Symphony of the Night and the original Super Mario Bros. crowding the upper echelons of the rankings).

Sorry, Alucard.
Yeah, your game was fuckin' awesome, but it's time to give others a shot.

Limiting the coverage to just this past decade (meaning 2000 - 2009) keeps the games relatively fresh (excluding the sacred cows of the 8-bit, 16-bit and most of the 32-bit era) while still leaving room for games from multiple generations to represent (the list even includes late-era PS1 games, and has a pretty good sample of Dreamcast classics as well). It also allows cult classics like Katamari Damacy (which would otherwise have little to no chance of sneaking in) to claim prominent positions on the list.

Sing it with me, now: "Naaaaaaaaaa... nanana nana na na, Katamari Damacy...."

Now, Destructoid just loves being controversial (any website that gainfully employs a crazy yet lovable nut like Jim Sterling clearly isn't the conservative type) and there's going to be a lot of arguments about games being excluded from the list, or where they were ranked in relation to
other games. What did you guys like or dislike about the rankings? In any case, reading through that list brought back a whole lot of memories, and as always, I had a lot of things on my mind. I'd like to share my opinions here with you, and hopefully it'll help you reflect on what your own
personal favorites were.

Here goes nothing!

Pictured: The world's finest black guy simulator. (I kid, I kid.)

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas! Oh yeah! I've always thought that GTA:SA was the finest installment in the entire series, and it's great to see that many other people feel the same way. The customizability, the sheer size of its open world, the extremely varied gameplay, and the perfect balance of humor (it's Loc, baby!) and balls-out action, San Andreas set the bar so high that even its next generation successor GTAIV was hard-pressed to match it. GTA4 isn't a 10, IGN. But San Andreas? Now THAT'S a 10. It's Grove Street, bitches!

Although there was enough sailing in the game to make you seasick in real life, Wind Waker's best moments will stick with me for a long time.

Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker was also an excellent pick - this is especially relevant here in the Philippines, where most gamers didn't have access to the hardware that plays it (the admittedly crap GameCube). Admittedly, it wasn't up against much competition - Phantom Hourglass was an OK game. but the one-large-dungeon conceit just wasn't my thing; while Twilight Princess on the other hand was just an overrated piece of shit. Still, that shouldn't dull the shine on this superlative game, which is a close third on my list of Best Zelda Games Ever (behind A Link To The Past and Link's Awakening).

Seriously, if Capcom pushed through with their plan to put Phoenix Wright in Tatsunoko VS. Capcom, I totally would've bought a Wii. TAKE THAT!

Was a big fan of Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney (the first game) squeaking in at number 48. Being a DS near-launch title, my favorite attorney's first adventure proved it still has the Wright stuff -- it remains an enduring classic, and deserves every bit of pub it gets. It's not complicated enough a game to get ranked much higher than this, but I'm pretty happy about good
old Feenie getting a spot.

One of the most criminally underappreciated games of all time. Plus, main character Jade looks like Alyx Vance from Half-Life 2! That's always a plus.

Beyond Good and Evil is a game that every PS2 owner must play. Nobody bought it (or at least bought ORIGINAL copies. Ahem.), but Rayman creator Michel Ancel really brought his A game with this one. The story is really interesting, the stealth segments are very well done (a rarity in the action adventure genre), the photography meta-game is addictive... I could go on and on about this superlative title, but if you haven't played it yet, I'd prefer that you stop reading, open a new tab on your browser, and download this shit from the usual suspects right now. I'd usually do the responsible thing here and endorse buying an original copy, but the chances of you actually landing one today are pretty low at best. So just play it, enjoy it, then join me in bugging UbiSoft to finally release the sequel.

(At least I can buy an original copy of THAT! Bawi ako.)

(In Samuel L. Jackson voice): "I'm a stone cold zombie KILLAH, muthafucka!"

Resident Evil 4 is another great pick - I mean, it's only the undisputed best Resident Evil game ever made! Yes, it's a divisive game among Resident Evil diehards, as it was the installment that officially cemented the RE series' transition from "survival horror" to its current "action horror" status. And to those people I say...

ARE YOU ON CRACK?!?!?!

After Resident Evil: Code Veronica (Dreamcast), I was beginning to feel that they'd done all they could with the existing formula, as Code Veronica felt overly long, and was a bit dragging at points. Instead of another cookie-cutter installment in the series, Capcom decided to bless us with the most incredible fucking franchise reboot I'd ever seen in my life. Filled with some of the most entertaining action sequences in any game EVER, RE4 basically replaced the "oppressive fear" from the first four installments with a feeling of suspense. It was also a considerably better
game than RE5 - it was devoid of that game's supremely annoying co-op gameplay elements, and was considerably longer.

"You're WRONG!
I know now,
without a doubt,
Kingdom Hearts...

IS LIGHT!"

The first Kingdom Hearts is a game that's very dear to me; the strange combination of Disney and Square turned out to be two great tastes that taste great together. Remembering that cheesy fucktard Sephiroth still makes my hand ball up into a fist! KH is also memorable in my view for being the first (and only) videogame that ever made me shed a couple of tears - the ending (and the ending song, which was the orchestral, no-lyrics mix of Utada Hikaru's "Simple and Clean") hit me with massive waves of nostalgia, and I just couldn't help it.

A big part of the fun of modern-day Persona is pretend-macking on all the chicks. The main dude is always getting a lot of action, despite dressing like Big Gay Al half the time :-)

Persona 4 is my favorite RPG of all time. In fact, if Atlus R&D1 ever got off their asses and made a Persona 5 for the PS3, I'd happily ignore Final Fantasy XIII just to play it. Hell, if they just remade Persona 4 (or Persona 3: FES for that matter) for the PS3 with HD graphics I'd still buy it in a heartbeat, no matter how much they asked for it. Needless to sayI'm quite happy with the fact it's way up there on the list in terms of ranking. Great dialogue/localization, fantastic soundtrack, swabe din ang graphics, and the usual great gameplay.

It may not look all that special, but Lost Odyssey was (and is) one of the finest RPG's I've played in this current generation. See? Not everything Sakaguchi did post-Final Fantasy sucked balls after all!

Lost Odyssey was another excellent choice; in many ways, seeing as LO was a Final Fantasy game in all but name, I consider it as a much-beloved "lost chapter" in the series. Great story, characters, and gameplay, plus it was long as hell - my kind of RPG. And hey, while it took Square until the end of 2009 to (finally) translate FF into HD, Lost Odyssey has been out for TWO FUCKING YEARS. Sakaguchi had you bastards beat by a mile, you moogle-hugging fools!

Recognize!

Riskbreakers, motherfuckers!

Vagrant Story (which recently saw a PSN release) is one of the most unique games on the whole list; it came, it kicked ass, and summarily disappeared. A sequel was never announced, and the game's dungeon-crawler-mixed-with-Parasite-Eve structure was so strange that Square's other RPG-developer contemporaries at the time didn't even attempt to copy it, so the idea remains fresh. Sounds about time for a remake, or even... a clone?

Paging From Software, paging From Software...

I hope that between this article and the DToid list I've managed to jog some of your treasured gaming memories. It's fun to reminisce, huh? :-)

Retro Love: Final Fantasy Tactics - War of the Lions

For the Beoulves!

As you may have noticed, I've been on a bit of a retro kick lately. There's just so much awesome stuff to talk about from the past generations - an excellent example of said "awesome stuff" is the legendary Final Fantasy Tactics. Nearing its 15th year of kicking ass and taking names, the original FFT still stands, in my opinion, as the greatest example of the console turn-based strategy game ever developed.

As I no longer have access to the original PS1 version (my PS1's been broken for well over 5 years already, and FFT has some serious emulation issues when played over ePSXe) I'm going to be using the excellent PSP remake, War of the Lions, to refresh my memory for this installment of Retro Love.

Moving on, I decided to write this article because I've gotten back into playing Tactics again after a long hiatus - this is my fifth (!) time playing through the game, making it second only to Diablo II: Lord of Destruction (PC) as the game I've replayed the most. What is it about this game that inspires such devotion and love?

The graphics of the game have aged surprisingly well - especially when compared to other games released in the same time frame. The 2D sprites for the characters are very expressive and convey a lot of emotion, while the battlefields are simple in terms of polygonal architecture but are textured very nicely - they feel very "natural". Compare the same to more recent SRPG releases like Vandal Hearts II (PS1) or even the first Disgaea (PS2) and you'll better appreciate the effort present in every frame. (Note: The PSP remake looks considerably better than the PSOne version available online due to the smaller screen size and what seems to be a subtle smoothing effect, which cuts down on jaggies.)

A truly masterful OST.

The sound, on the other hand is absolutely AMAZING. This is one of my favorite game OST's of all time (second only to Square's own Chrono Trigger) - the stirring music really captures the mood of each moment, from stirring war beats, to gentler symphonies that convey a sense of wonder and adventure, and even melancholic, darker compositions that accompany key
moments in the game's twisted, circuitous plot.

Speaking of the original plot, that might be the game's only true weakness. It's well written and interesting, but the translation of the script for the original PS1 version was beyond abysmal. In fact, it gets progressively worse throughout the game, to the point where exactly what happened in the ending was pretty unclear to me. Happily, this glaring chink in FFT's armor was fixed on the PSP version, which has one of the finest Square scripts ever written.)

Ahhhh. Job System goodness.
(Note: Some classes in this screenshot limited to the PSP version.)

But all of those positive attributes don't hold a candle to the game's absolutely immaculate gameplay. I can think of few examples, in any game genre, where I feel that a game that was released more than a decade ago can be demonstrably better than a game released today. Yes, Disgaea and its Nippon Ichi Software brethren (Makai Kingdom, La Pucelle, Phantom Brave etc.) may have their complicated gameplay systems and damage counts in the bazillions, but the simple elegance of Final Fantasy Tactics' amazing Job System (still better than FFV's) provides a compelling reason to keep playing. The abilities you can learn are varied and have many different tactical applications, and provide an addictive carrot/incentive to fight "just one more battle". I also like that the game puts up a good fight - I'm a FFT veteran, as I previously mentioned, and I've seen everything the game has to offer, but the random enemy/party positioning and enemy levels that scale to your party's level help to keep you on your toes. (Just the other day, I got wiped out on Lenalia Plateau! Grrrr.)

In closing, if you've somehow never played FFT before, and have an passing interest in (or an open mind about) playing turn-based strategy RPG's in the Vandal Hearts vein, you owe it to yourself to play this immediately. Hey, if you have a PSP, the file's pretty small - less than half a gig if I remember right - so you've got no excuses. PS: Do not play this game, pictured below, as it's a much, much crappier title.

I give you... the most disappointing game ever.

Sigh. It's never a good sign when the sequel you've waited for for so long puts you to sleep in 25 minutes. Never a good sign, I'm telling you.

"I got a good feeling!"

B-Grade Bonanza: Mediocre/Crap PS3 Games That For Some Reason I Really Want To Play, Installment No. 1

One of the things I miss the most about the PS1 and PS2 generations (aside from the scads of adventure and RPG games that seem to be in short supply these days) is the fact that I could purchase B and C grade games on a whim,because they were so cheap. You know the ones I'm talking about - broken, simplistic fighting games like Evil Zone, horrifying FMV titles like Combat Queen, bad anime adaptations like School Rumble, Osama bin Laden-hunting games like... uh, Fugitive Hunter... the list goes on and on. Now, obviously, I can't go doing the same thing nowadays, as most crap games are
still going to run me over 2 kyaw (I was laughing my ass off at Datablitz the other day - they were selling Rogue Warrior for Php 2,950.00!!! WTF, good luck with that, pals.) So my only choice is to track down the games that I'm morbidly curious about second hand, so I can have the pleasure (?) of playing them all.

Or borrowing them from beloved friends. Where art thou, my wealthy, like-minded, generous benefactors?

One game I really wish those benefactors would lend me is 50 Cent: Blood On The Sand.

"You filthy gentleman of Arab descent! Wheh Mah Skull????"

Now, I'm well aware that this isn't a "bad" game by any means - simplistic, arcadey and low-IQ, yes, but not bad. But I really want to play Blood On The Sand for the "story". Ever since the "Wheh Mah Skull?" meme made the rounds of gaming blogs and message boards everywhere, my secret, forbidden desire to play this game has grown ever larger.

Just think about it, people - this is the plot, in a nutshell:

1) Mr. Cent, for some inexplicable reason, decides to do a show in the Middle East.

2) The concert promoters pay him in kind, in the form of a crystal skull.

3) Dirty terroristic middle-eastern types steal his skull.

4) Mr. Cent says "Wheh Mah Skull?!?!", gets royally pissed off, and kills a whole bunch of unfortunate Arab dudes with his, um, G-Unit.

THAT'S THE BEST FUCKING STORY I'VE EVER HEARD! I need this.