Well that’s a game I was not hyped for. Which is sad since I love the Castlevania franchise. I mean, I even beat Simon’s Quest. Other than a few crappy games in the series, such as… most of the 3D games (I haven’t played the ones on PS2… though I haven’t heard much good about them) and Encore of the Night, Castlevania has been one of the most solid series in the history of gaming, with incredible super-challenging side-scrolling platformers on the NES, SNES, Genesis and Turbo CD, to more exploration-based platformers on the Playstation and portable systems.

When I saw that this one was rebooting the franchise, and going for a more God of War style of combat, I couldn’t help but be very skeptical about it. The gameplay videos I’ve seen, as well as various previews/impressions have done nothing to convince me that this was not much more than a God of War game with Castlevania elements tacked-on to it.

Well, the European PSN just got a demo of the game, and I had to check it out, see if it would prove me right about what I thought the game might be like, or if it would actually prove to be awesome.

Usually, for demo impressions, I usually name what I liked about the demo and what I didn’t, but here’s I’ll go for a more standard style.

So, read on!
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jobocan Console, demo, Games, impressions, ps3, xbox 360

Well, this is a moment I was quite hyped for. Finally getting the play the demo for Vanquish. One part of me is very excited for this game, and then there’s the part of me that says “calm down, it’s probably just another bland TPS”. SURE, it’s being made by Platinum games, who made the incredibly badass Bayonetta, but, on the other hand, it’s a TPS with a cover system, which has pretty much never been really enjoyable to me (too slow, too easy, rarely actually any fun to play).

Me getting excited about a TPS is all sorts of weird. Almost as weird as me getting excited about an FPS. In both cases, I usually end up being disappointed (most recent example: Singularity… Please don’t suck Bulletstorm, PLEASE), and this is why I’m being VERY skeptical about Vanquish.

So does this game follow the blandness of most TPS, or is it actually good?

Read on and see!
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jobocan Console, Games, impressions, ps3, xbox 360

Earthworm Jim, amongst the biggest badasses in the video game world. I mean, they just don’t make heroes like him anymore. Random earthworm who had a super-advanced space suit falling on him from outer space, making him a super powerful, lasergun-totting, super hero? And he can use his head as a whip? Awesome.
He hasn’t seen lots of action in quite some time (let’s just forget Earthworm Jim 3D, shall we?), but finally Jim is back and awesome as he should be.

I wanted to do a full review of this, but, well, I can’t find the motivation/originality to write a full complete review of such a classic game without sounding like a broken record. Instead, I’ll just quickly give my impressions on it, which will be a lot simpler.

Read on!
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jobocan Console, Games, impressions, ps3, PSN, XBLA, xbox 360

Well, at first I was planning to do a full review of Blur. It seemed like an interesting racing game, combining more realistic racers to Mario Kart. I had pretty good hopes for it.

It’s been out for a while, and I finally got around to renting it, and after quite some play time, I just can’t get into it at all, and, as such, I’ll just give my impressions on the game, and explain why I don’t really like it, or at least why I don’t feel like it lived up to its incredible potential.

Read on!
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jobocan Console, Games, impressions, PC, 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, impressions, Review, xbox 360

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, ds, e3, Games, 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 impressions, metal, Music

Well the E3 conferences are done. Some of them sucked, one of them was fucking awesome, and here I am to give my impressions on them.

I’ll comment about both things that were announced, and my impressions about the conferences as a whole. There were 5 big conferences, and I’ll talk about all of them, though I will just skim through the less interesting ones.

And I know that E3 isn’t done yet, more could be announced, but this is just about the conferences.

So read on!
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jobocan Console, ds, e3, Games, Handheld, impressions, News, Opinion, PC, ps3, PSN, psp, Rant, wii, xbox 360

I was rather excited for this game for 2 reasons. First, well it’s published by NISA, and second, it’s the first game in the long-running Sakura Taisen series to make it to America. So I definitely wanted to see what it was all about.

When I finally received it from the online game rental thingy, I couldn’t wait to try it… except it didn’t work on my Wii since it’s seemingly dual-layered, and somehow my Wii can’t read dual-layered discs (such as Super Smash Bros Brawl…dammit). But today I got the chance to go try it at a friend’s house, and put in 3 and a half hours of gameplay.

So here are my initial impressions of the game. I won’t write a full review, at least not for a while, unless I find the PS2 version for cheap, or if I rent the PS2 version.

Read on and see what I thought!
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jobocan Console, Games, impressions, PS2, wii

Well I took a while to actually play this game. But I definitely had to check it out no matter what, because it’s a remake of “Lufia 2: Rise of the Sinistrals” on the SNES. Lufia 2 is probably my favorite RPG ever. So of course I wanted to see what they had in store for a remake.

Sure, it’s in Japanese, and I can barely read what’s being said (I can read most of it, except for most Kanji, but I don’t know what half the words mean), so I’m not getting the full experience, but I can still follow a lot of what is going on nonetheless.

Since it’s an import, I can’t actually review it, but I’ll say as much as I can despite the game being Japanese.

So let’s go right away and talk about this thing! Read on!
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jobocan ds, Games, Handheld, import, impressions