When You Don't Succeed....

There's nothing quite like experiencing something for the first time, that exciting feeling of discovery is just not possible to replicate again. Maybe that's why certain people I know never plays the same game again after completing it the first time. 

I have mixed feelings about this game, better than Ace Attorney series? Not Quite

From what I read, developers Naughty Dog always make it a point when crafting a key moment in the Uncharted games to allow the players to clear that segment during the first try. As top notch developers, they are conscious that with each retry the impact of the moment on the player starts to cease - so dropping the player into a quick time event where a single wrong button prompt instantly kills off the player never occurs in their game.

Yes I was talking about Capcom games (RE6) and also Platinum games

Then you have a game like Ghost Trick where the whole theme of the game is dying and resurrection so you know there's bound to be many retries and many events repeat over again. It's a great game for sure, otherwise Capcom wouldn't have bother porting it to smartphones (then again, this is Capcom we are talking about) but these days my tolerance for retries isn't where it used to be. Maybe I will appreciate the game more once I finish it and learn the whole story with the twist in the end, hopefully it will erase the memory of repeating each events several times. To think my friend used to think of highly of this game and he was the guy that never re-play any of his old games !

Yakuza 5 Final Impressions

When Team RGG made Dead Souls, they clearly pushed the game engine as far as they could. In fact, I would say they over-exert the system resulting in frequent frame-rate drops and long loading time. Dead Souls is a low point in SEGA stellar series especially after reaching great heights with Kenzan (the first spin-off), it would be a shame if the game ends the series run outside Japan.

Yakuza 5 is a turning point for the franchise with a new game engine which will be basis for the next few installments in the series (Ishin appears to be running on the same engine). When you first play Yakuza 5, the difference is not immediately noticeable as there isn't a great graphic leap from previous installments. The improvements comes from a gameplay perspective which I will share from my observations having finished the game. Obviously there won't be any spoilers as I will probably cover the story some time later, now onto the improvements found in Yakuza 5.

1. The Gang Fights

Kiryu is a beast when it comes to fighting even with hoards of yakuzas, it doesn't matter how many they are Kiryu will always be the last man standing. The last few RGG games have big epic brawls but you can fight up to about 6 to 8 yakuzas the most at one time, the game will usually show a screen of more yakuzas stepping in before 'loading' a new wave of enemies. This time you get to fight them all, no screen to hide the loading if you can see them, you can fight them. This is a major step, big epic brawls are what RGG games are all about - just imagine how many more yakuzas the game will have on PS4 system. 

2. The Chase Sequence

I can't remember when the chase sequence in RGG games started but it was really clumsy at the beginning and team RGG knew this as they kept improving it with each installments. It always felt ridiculous when you begin running around in the same 'laps' over and over again if you can't catch up to the guy fast enough. Now you can do more that just tackle the guy, you can execute a whole set of moves including a cool drop kick if you get close enough. No more laps too, the chase sequence actually covers a wide area of the city crossing through busy traffic and crowd (Did I mention the cars are no longer just part of the background?). Team RGG finally nails it right in Yakuza 5 but I wish they would focus more on tailing missions instead, which was introduced in the Kurohyou PSP game and seen briefly here in the taxi missions.

3. Seamless Transition 

This was the big selling point before Yakuza 5 was released but I'm not convinced if it's a fully seamless transition to 'combat mode' when it comes to random encounters. It feels more or less similar to Yakuza 3 which was a big leap from Yakuza 2, there is still a loading time only this time - more enemies can join in or escape from the fight depending on how well you are doing. You are never quite sure how many you are fighting unlike in the past games' random encounters, it's always a fixed number of enemies you have to clear them all to win the fight. In Yakuza 5 if the remaining enemy gets scared and run off - you automatically win the fight, I can't really appreciate this feature so I'm writing it down last. 

There you have it, Yakuza 5 improvements if you can't be bothered with the game or was not impressed by the demo. The last game engine was use for up to 4 installments so it remains to see how long team RGG will keep with this.

When Being Sneaky Isn't Enough

There was one particular moment in The Last of Us when Joel and Ellie are still trapped in the city ruled by the hunters that I encounter a bug. I sneak past two hunters positioned at the upper floor of a building then took down one hunter in the way of the escape route but when I got to the ladder - the button prompt to lower the ladder didn't appear ! 

I could tell from the Ellie's body language that the two were still in sneaking mode as the remaining enemies were nearby. I had no choice but the proceed back to the nearby building and take care of those hunters on the upper floor before the button prompt would appear. This being a survival game where resources are limited, sneaking is a big part of the game. Unfortunately the one moment when you decide to kill only when necessary, the bug in the game forces you to go out of your way to kill the remaining and waste more precious resources. 

Last of the Generation

Just the other day I was having a conversation with a friend about the games left on our buying list for the PS3 - be it games that are already out or yet to be released. He only named one game (GTAV - GOTY edition) and while I did the same, I can't quite remember which game it was. 

I do remember I left The Last of Us out from my list which I quickly added that it would be nice to own the game when it's all said and done, especially since Naughty Dogs denied rumours of an enhanced PS4 port. Well I have finally added the game to my shopping cart when Play-Asia announced their weekly deals line-up for this week. Now it's just a matter of waiting for the game to ship once the next stock arrives and pretty soon, I will be able to see what the fuss was all about. 

Blowing It Out of the Waters

I knew Uncharted was a great game but i didn't expect it to be a technical marvel on such a beastly machine like the ps3. Apart from the initial loading time when booting the game there is virtually no loading time on this game not even when you die and have to restart from a checkpoint. The game runs seamlessly from one part to another without the need of any data installed onto the hard disk, how did naughty dog pull off such a feat?

The best part is probably the no loading time when you view cutscene on the bonus gallery which Resident Evil 5 despite coming one year later couldn't do.

Fortune and Thieves

I have been around the gaming block long enough to know that first-party games almost never get a price drop especially the Nintendo made ones. I was fortunate enough to pick up both first issue of Uncharted and Uncharted 2 at budget label price and if these games turned out to be as good as they say then it would really be a steal. I'm aware that Uncharted 2 haven't actually received a re-issue but up until recently, the game didn't look like it was going to get a major price drop. Maybe a budget label or Game of the Year re-issue is on the horizons because the dealer told me that the price drop was attributed to making way for a new version. This certainly deviate from my original plan of finishing the first Uncharted before even considering of picking up the sequel so looks like I would have to make haste with the first game.

It all started with my friends finally getting their bluetooth headsets and playing RE5 co-op with them over the weekend. It felt good playing co-op with old friends and part of me long to play co-op over a new game with all three of us together, something I thought Uncharted 2 fit the bill to the tee. I didn't really want to play Operation Flashpoint again though that isn't completely out of the question I did make a pact with my old friends that I would pick up Uncharted 2 if they would get their headsets. With the price drop just at the right time, I'm glad I was able to keep to my word without going overbudget.