Demon's Souls: I'm a soul man

Since MA17 showed me up and put up two reviews since I said I would put one up for this game, I'll relent and throw another half assed review out here. Demon's Souls is a PS3 exclusive that doesn't disappoint.

Demon's Souls is hands down the best game that has been released this year. No other game I have played before has been as capable of getting my heart racing and adrenaline pumping with consistency. Demon's Souls is difficult but fair. It gives you your chance, but if you make a mistake, the game will punish you for it.

The environment is dark and lonely. There are a minimal number of NPCs in the town/hub known as the Nexus, where you can buy gear, interact with your bank, earn levels, and venture out into the world. As soon as you venture out into the world, you are alone and fighting for your life. The levels tend to be cramped quarters with little room to dodge around or perilous rises with dangerous footing, and the enemies tend to be simple but effective.

The combat is actually quite simple, mostly based around ranged sniping, blocking, dodging, and attacking. It forces you to be patient and wait for an opportunity to attack, or else it will punish you, unapologetically so.

The currency of the game is souls. You earn them for killing enemies. This currency is used for everything. You buy gear and consumables with souls, you repair and upgrade equipment with souls, and you pay souls to gain levels at a polynomial growth rate. The difficulty in the game is that if you ever die you lose all souls on you, and can only get them back by returning to your body after the level has reset. Those souls then vanish upon a subsequent death.

The beauty of the game, however, is the multiplayer functionality. You exist in 2 states: alive and spirit. Both states allow you to progress through your game, but the each state gives you a different interaction with other players. When you are dead, you can drop a signal that will persist in every other person's game on the given location. Other players may summon you to their game to aid them in defeating the level you have made yourself available for. As soon as the level is completed you must venture back to your own world. The twist being that you can only summon other players to your game when you are alive. Becoming a spirit is as simple as dying, but returning to life is a whole other task. There are a few ways to do it, the most common is to defeat a major demon, a boss of a given level. Alternatively, you can use a certain item to do so or more interestingly, you can use an item that will transport you to a random living person's game and assault them. If you defeat them, you return to life. Those moments can be the most stressful, when you are trying to continue your game and are assaulted by a Black Phantom, and by stressful, I mean awesome.

Let me stress again, this is my vote for game of the year, and if you have a PS3 get it and play it now. If you don't have a PS3 ponder getting one for this game.

Valkyria Chronicles: Almost worth buying a PS3 for

Let me preface this by saying that no one game is worth buying a PS3 for, but if you are thinking of getting one, Valkyria Chronicles makes that decision a lot easier.

Valkyria Chronicles, if I am forced to categorize it, a Tactical RPG, but it brings with it an elements of Gears of War, and Battlefield. Never before when playing a TRPG, have I felt as if I were truly in a battle. I always treated the games more like a chess match than a war. Valkyria Chronicles changes that.

Set in a Earth-like setting, similar to our own WWII era. Following a great War, the world has broken out in another war as the evil empire from the east has it's sights set on lowly Gallia, a neutral state. If you don't like cut scenes and story this game is not for you. Thankfully, I love me some stories. After only a few hours of play, I'm guessing 6 or so, I'm deeply engrossed and find myself constantly wanting more.

Your squad consists of 20 hand picked members, of which you can use 9 at a time (as has been the case for me thus far), but you can retreat them out if near a base and replace them the next turn. (both actions however cost resources). Each unit type has a situational use. Scouts are fast and efficient, Shocktroopers provide even offense and mobility, Lancers are anti tank troops, snipers are just that, and engineers are a useful utility class with great movement.


The game's combat system is an interesting mix of turn based strategy and gears of war. The turn based strategy part is the command view. You see a map view of the scenario, with tokens representing your troops and visible opposition troops. At the start of each turn you are awarded a certain number of "Command Points"(CP). These can be spent on troops actions and orders. Each troop action costs one CP, a tank action costs two CP, and orders have different CP costs depending on the power of the ability. Once you decide to spend a CP on a troop action, you are moved into a third person over the shoulder view similar to Gears of War. Like GoW you are able to crouch behind bunkers to secure cover, and have an aiming view to fire shots. For the most part, you only get one round of shots (at a single target) per action (CP spent). As you are moving your units, you are often under fire from opposing units in their bunkers. This part really gives you the feel of being in an actual combat zone. As scenarios play out, there are often bases to take as you cross the landscape, allowing you to retreat faster troops that took the base and move in some heavier troops to help break the lines to the next base.

Another interesting feature of the game includes group leveling and equipping. In an attempt to reduce the micromanagement involved in a game with such a large squad, you level your units as a unit type (IE all scouts or all snipers). Also, when you pay for a new rifle upgrade, all of your rifle users get this upgrade automatically. I'm finding I love this feature for equipment, but am a little disappointed that my troops don't level up differently.

This game brings a refreshing new perspective on TRPGs, and I am hooked.

Final Fantasy XIII on Xbox 360

Final Fantasy 13 will be released on the Xbox 360 as well as the PS3.

1.2 million PS3s sold...

Sony Corp. said Monday that PlayStation 3 game machine sales totaled 1.2 million in North America during the key holiday season.

I received a PS3 and the PS3 version of Rock Band for Christmas. On the day after Christmas I returned the PS3 and the PS3 version of Rock Band to the stores from whence they came and collected the money.

So, 1.2 million units may have been sold. But you have to then ask how many were returned shortly thereafter by persons disgusted by the idea of owning one of the damn things.

So please, Sony. Subtract one from those sales numbers. And then kindly crawl into a hole and die along with your proprietary Blu-Ray bullshit and your damned marketing campaign.

Do you want it? No.
Do you need it? No.
Let me hear it!
Fuck you, Sony.

Why Sony is awesome.

This Venn Diagram shows the features of all 4 PS3s so you can figure out which is best for you.

I heart Sony and their simplistic approach to console design.