While Record of Agarest War was just like Cross Edge in almost every way, this is another game I had up as this year’s candidate for “game that will have the same kind of reviews as Cross Edge”. Surprisingly enough, it seems like people were a bit more lenient on this one than they were with Cross Edge. Granted, it doesn’t suffer from as many problems as Cross Edge, but it’s still aiming at exactly the same audience.

I was interested in the game partly because of the Disgaea crossovers, but also because the gameplay seemed fairly solid. So I had some fairly good expectations for this.

Read on!
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jobocan Console, Games, Review, ps3

(Despite the Xbox 360 boxart here, the PS3 version is reviewed… there’s no PS3 boxart so I went with the closest thing)
Remember Cross Edge? It came out last year, and it was hated by critics and gamers overall. But I still thought it was a very fun game, there were just a lot of hurdles to jump over before really getting to enjoy it, hurdles which the average gamer or reviewer just didn’t want to bother with (which is quite understandable). And then there’s the fact that it was incredibly badly optimized, with pixelated/blurry 2D graphics and relatively long load times (even when the game was installed). It was still a fun game, with a really good battle system and lots of fun leveling systems.

This year we get Record of Agarest War. Made by the same company, and it has a lot in common. So maybe this is this year’s “Cross Edge” in a sense. It’s been out for a while now, I just took my sweet time playing it and finally getting to review it. But, from the little research I made, I found that it got more favorable reviews than Cross Edge did.

So read on and see if it really deserves the slightly more favorable reviews!

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jobocan Console, Games, PSN, Review, ps3, xbox 360

The level of details this game goes for in terms of art presentation is outstanding and way beyond what you’d expect of a “casual” game.

The steampunk setting is a setup we don’t see all that often in recent works (or at least not that I’ve noticed). So it doesn’t come as overplayed when games like Clockwork Man 2 – The Hidden World comes along.  I’ve never tried the prequel to this casual game, but it didn’t stop me from being able to enjoy this one.

So what exactly is this game? It’s a puzzle adventure game, not unlike the such as the Monkey Islands, with its own rules and features. It mixes the elements of the prior mentioned game, where you need to use and mix items to solve puzzles and another part where you’re looking for specific items in screens filled with beautifully-drawn objects.

So did I enjoy it enough to recommend this game to the casual gamers in you? Read on to find out!

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David A. Games

We’re still pretty much in the “summer drought” for August, but there’s still a few interesting/noteworthy releases. Even some that might be worth buying! I found 11 games to put in the list for August, obviously ignoring the crap/shovelware.

This month there are: 3 multiplatform releases, 1 PS3 release, 1 Nintendo DS release, 2 Xbox 360 releases, 2 Nintendo Wii releases, and 2 PSP releases. August is PC’s turn not to get interesting exclusive releases.

Read on and see what might interesting you in August!
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jobocan Console, Games, Handheld, PSN, XBLA, ds, games of the month, ps3, psp, wii, xbox 360

Well, just based on the premise of this game, the developers might as well have come to my house and taken my money, because it was 100% sure I’d buy it. I mean…a humorous Diablo clone, with a great graphic style and made by Ron Gilbert (one of the Monkey Island creators)? Sounds like awesomeness to me.

Read on and see if it reached my expectations!
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jobocan Console, Games, PSN, Review, XBLA, ps3, xbox 360

I was planning on making a full review for this game, but I don’t feel like it, so instead I’ll make a shorter impressions post.

DeathSmiles took over a year to get here after coming out in Japan, and frankly I’m surprised it came out here at all. But after seeing that it was selling for 65$ here in Canada (though it did go down at 55$ already, which I still feel is too high), I decided that I would just rent it.

So read on and see what I thought about it!

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jobocan Games, Review, impressions, xbox 360

The first game in the series only made it to America recently via the Wii’s Virtual Console. So we can be pretty happy that the second one came out here in a relatively timely matter.

The original on the N64 was a fun shooter in the veins of Star Fox, but with really confusing controls, since you had to control the character seperately from the cursor that you use to aim at enemies, it was a bit hard to manage (though not impossible once you got the hang of it). So the Wii release should logically correct that minor problem, and at the same time make for a very fun game.

Read on and see if it’s any good!
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jobocan Console, Games, Review, wii

The Nintendo DS has proven, through its multiple versions to be a solid product in terms of marketing and mass appeal. Nintendo was ready at this year’s E3 to let part of the public get their hands on the next iteration of their portable gaming system, the Nintendo 3DS.

I’ve had the chance to try it after waiting a relatively short time (about 25 minutes in line) and I’ve got good things and bad things to say about it.

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David A. 3DS, Console, Games, ds, e3, impressions

I just came back from the live Iron Maiden show at the Ottawa Bluefest. I’m generally not much of a showgoer, but when I learned Iron Maiden were coming to Ottawa, I just had to go. And they have Dream Theater playnig just before them for this tour, which is pretty cool.

It was my first time seeing them live, so here’s a brief recounting of my experience seeing the awesomest band in the world live!

Read on! (Note: there will be spoilers, so if you’d rather have the setlist be a surprise for when you see the show yourself, don’t read the first 3 paragraphs of the Iron Maiden segment)
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jobocan Music, impressions, metal

From looking at some gameplay videos and interviews, I thought Singularity might be a fun, original FPS, with different gameplay than the average military shooter or Halo clone. As such, I had good expectations for the game, thinking it might be more interesting than the average modern FPS.

In a time where every FPS looks and plays the same, I had hopes that Singularity would be one of the few to divert from what FPS are nowadays.

Read on and see if it ended up being what I hoped it would be, or if it went for the “we’ll be the same as everyone” route!
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jobocan Console, Games, PC, Review, ps3, xbox 360