Brothers of War

Kratos is the alpha male dog, there is possibly no other character as manly as him in the realm of video games. So it's only natural that Kratos gets to show another side of his man-liness by engaging in a little male-bonding in the new PSP chapter, Ghost of Sparta.

It's so weird to see Kratos searching for his lost brother Deimos and being all apologetic with him as the man is usually angry at everyone he meets. Strangely enough he still talk with his guff angry voice even when reunited with his brother Deimos. Male bonding may be as cliche as old love songs but some things just never go out of style.

Code-breaker

Even with the two current handhelds, i have rarely played a handheld game devotely for some time now. Not even with the latest God of War PSP game, but Circle of the Moon recently had me playing religously all the way till the end, despite being a japanese import and i had to refer to an english script translation just to keep track of the storyline. It actually wasn't the storyline that kept me engrossed but the tight gameplay and finely-knitted level design that made things interesting enough to keep me hooked. I finished the game after having clocked 9 plus hours into it and the games' storyline and ending seems like a remiscent to one of the very first Castlevanina games i played, Belmont's Revenge on the Gameboy. Seeing that Konami decided to skip the Gameboy Color during that time by not releasing any Castlevania games on that platform, Circle of the Moon is a memorable return and an early sign of the great success that Konami would soon enjoy on the platform with its Castlevania series.

However if only the game didn't run into some slowdown issues whenever the action is too intense, it would have been worthy of the high praise and score that Gamespot bestowed upon it. Some fanboys call it "bad-coding", the fact that Circle of the Moon was one of the early games in the Gameboy Advance library certainly points towards that. Save for perhaps the last boss fight with the transformed Dracula, the game wasn't too overly difficult to the point where it was impossible. In fact, having just come off playing Rondo of Blood must have helped a lot, as i had a greater endurance to withstand and replay again and again some of the more difficult the boss battles. In the end, i manage to unlock the magician by inputting the password FIREBALL as the player's name which i have yet to try out.

The Great Pretender

Next gen games define the expectations of what the platform is capable of. When everyone finally got to play Resident Evil 4, no one could believe the Gamecube was capable of such feats so much so that the mere idea (back then) of porting it to a lesser platform seems impossible.

God of War Chains of Olympus evoke the same kinda feelings, the game looks and plays just like the Playstation2 games it spawned off from, save perhaps for some jagged edges on some of the background textures. Back when the PSP was first launched Sony said it's performance lies somewhere in between a PSOne and a PS2, now the PSP is looking more like a PS2 made portable. Does this make Chains of Olympus a great game? Not necessarily so as i always believe the needs like a handheld game and console game are very much different and just because some developers are smart and capable enough to 'shoe-horn' their console franchise onto a handheld without making any compromise doesn't mean that it's a great handheld game. In fact, it is pretty sad seeing that handhelds were supposed to be the perfect platform for innovations for developers to take risks and try new things without running into a budget big enough to sink the company.

But this is the PSP we are talking about and Sony has from day one marketed their system on this very basis, a handheld able to offer console gaming experience on the go. I applaud Ready at Dawn for their efforts, the game is just overflowing with production values the God of War franchise is famous for. However it's greatest strength is also its' biggest weakness as the game is painfully devoid of any innovations, it's the same type of game we played three years ago on the PS2, so as long as you don't mind playing the same type of game again on your PSP then you are sure be very well pleased with Chains of Olympus. To be fair, this is still a hit in Sony and RAD books, if Okami Wii is just as pleasing then RAD would have gone three for three on their first three games, not bad. However, putting out a game using others intellectual property is much easier than doing your own, as there is already a proven winning formula to follow so the jury is still out on whether Ready At Dawn can cut it with their own games.

Faulty Experience

It's hard to imagine Eternal Darkness before the birth of survival horror. Though not created in the mold as Resident Evil or Fatal Frame, it's clear that Eternal Darkness was made with the vision of addressing many of the genre's trappings and pitfalls. Sick of controlling characters which moves like tank? The heroes and heroines of Eternal Darkness moves and attacks fluidly thanks to a clever use of the control stick and shoulder button to either run or walk.Tired of fixed camera angle and getting blind hits as a result of that? Eternal Darkness has none of those as the game uses a smart camera that tracks and pans around locations to give the game a cinematic feel ala the God of War series. The bad voice acting that the genre is infamous for is also not present here as the game has a dark and serious tone unlike the B-movie horror atmosphere of Resident Evil. Playing this game made me realise just how these flaws that critics often take aim against the survival horror genre have made the genre unique in a way and by taking it away like what the creators did with Eternal Darkness the game loses some of its charm. It's not to say that the game is bad, far from it, it's almost feels like a love letter to anyone who ever love (or hated for that matter) survival horror games.

5 hours into the game and i'm huge impressed with it.. almost enough to make me forget it's a rotten rental copy.