Friday, July 10, 2015

Gaming, Blogging & Life

I have the overwhelming urge to spill my guts about how I'm feeling about certain things. I feel I owe it to everyone to be honest. In this article I'm going to talk about some things that are currently on my mind regarding the gaming industry, gaming in general, blogging, and life. I'll try to keep it all to the point, and elaborate on things when I feel it is necessary. Life for me has become complicated, and I just need to get some stuff off of my chest.

Wednesday, July 8, 2015

Samurai Warriors Chronicles 3 (3DS)

The Nintendo 3DS, and Tecmo Koei's "Samurai Warriors Chronicles 3". That's a mash-up I never thought would happen. After having played it for a while, and having sampled the way it's deeply involved features were applied on the 3DS I can kind of understand why I felt that way in the first place. Certain aspects of this game port did a huge disservice to the gamer, and functionally made things more difficult than they should have been. Without disclosing all of that intended point in one paragraph, and spoiling the purpose of this review early on I will say that sometimes one screen is better than two ...

For those of you unfamiliar with the "Samurai Warriors", or "Dynasty Warriors" franchise you'll find that each game in the allotted series is an objective based action RPG experience with a historical timeline of events geared towards driving the exclusively included story forward. Most, if not all games in said franchises feature epic campaigns with various warring Asian empires/dynasties involved who are each trying to overpower one another for some reason. The games are always rich with content including a variety of different combat-centric modes of play, historical references, and a story mode that centers around a base conflict. In the midst of it all you get to play as a created character, or a character from a selection of available or unlockable protagonists. These characters of choice help to win the wars, or engagements for the generals, and warlords they choose to align with, or whom they are assigned to. When it comes to the "Samurai Warriors" games your duty as a samurai warrior will of course be combat related, and objective oriented throughout all modes of play. In the way of objectives there are always targets laid out for you in the form of characters of interest whom you must defeat with your weapons/abilities as well as lesser soldiers who attack in army sized hordes that must be defeated as well. Objectives do vary as you progress in said games, but you'll find that the provided challenges always come with a time oriented nature.

Monday, July 6, 2015

BlazBlue Chronophantasma EXTEND (PS4)

BlazBlue is a fighting game experience that is closely akin to it's Guilty Gear predecessors. In it you'll find an assorted variety of different character archetypes some of which are very close to what Guilty Gear has offered in the past. You'll also find one of the richest, if not the richest of fighting game mythologies surrounding said characters within the game's structural story mode confines. At heart this unique mythology, or lore does have subtle nods to Guilty Gears timeline of events, but seems to pick up after some of it's own world changing tragedies regarding a magic war against a recurring threat. There's various governing orders involved, and characters whose given abilities vary according to their role in the plot. Some characters wield a type of Seithr driven magic known as Ars Magus while others use science to do their bidding. There's even a council of seven heroes whose past feats have come back to haunt them in the form of an apocalypse seeking group of puppeteers. There are constant clashes between the law abiding NOL "Novus Orvis Librarium", the renegade lone wolves like 'Ragna the Bloodedge', the science foundation built/managed by Kokonoe, and the "Phantoms of Time". The conflicts are many, and those involved are continuously getting dragged into the fray whether they like it or not. While Chronophantasma is not by any means the conclusive end of the story at hand it does clear up a lot of details while advancing the ongoing plot significantly. Along with the story, and it's provided mythology/history are also plenty of offline, and online activities to enjoy as usual. Each of which offer the gamer more bang for their buck.

Hobby Pick-Ups (July 5, 2015)

As a hobbyist I've got a long list of things I like to collect. These include various entertainment related items (DVDs, Video Games ...), comic books, and toys. While out shopping this past Sunday I decided to use some of my extra monthly funds to treat myself to some of said collectibles. Seeing as my monthly budget is limited I had to choose wisely, so I spent a good hour browsing all the toys, and DVDs that Targets had to offer. When it comes to DVDs Targets usually has a nice selection with some discounted options made available. They've even started carrying steel book collector's DVDs/Blu-rays for those hardcore collectors out there. As far as my DVD browsing goes I tend to look for unique horror releases, and anything anime related. Luckily while browsing the newly released Studio Ghibli Blu-ray collection I happened upon the coveted "Spirited Away". This is the first time it was released in a DVD plus Blu-ray combo pack, and for $24.99 it was a heck of a deal!

Saturday, July 4, 2015

BlazBlue Chronophantasma EXTEND - Preview Review

In my time spent with the latest release of BBCPEX I've come to realize that I'm going to have to invest some quality time in a proper playthrough of the game in order to gain an understanding about everything it offers, and to give it a fair chance. So far I've sampled the key modes of play, and features, but have yet to try out the two new characters. I can say that for the most part the game remains the same as the last version technically, and functionally. It is also a mostly all-inclusive port. By "mostly all-inclusive" I mean that you don't have to pay for a majority of the lobby, color palette, or stage DLC that you had to pay for in the vanilla version of the game. This can all be unlocked through the gallery via the in-game currency you earn as you play online, and offline modes. Aksys Games did create some new DLC though that you will have to pony up the dough for in order to obtain. This includes a couple new color palettes, some new voice-over options, and a handful of lobby avatar items. As far as the new characters go one is a third Carl Clover clone (Celica), and the other a Nu-13 clone.