PSP Games: Lost Planet - Extreme Condition

"Wayne, promise you'll come back to me", says the hopeful and confused snow pirate damsel who's also got her heart beating for Dr. Yuri.

Alas, a good thing that our character ends up having amnesia and starts fresh on a planet that finally gets some green after the son of his father's killer does some good.

This game's controls felt a bit like that of GoW, or at least the part where you have to continuously press on "O" and get the waypoints working.

Even at Easy mode its challenging and I have to agree on that setting decision. The boss stages are a fair amount of fun.

Online gameplay isn't as exciting as UT but not as frustrating as Halo and you at least spawn at base with some form of shielding without having to get sniped right away. Looks to be a very popular game in Japan as most game servers and players were hailing from there at midnight with just a handful of players like myself from North America or the UK.

Game Gems: Haze (PS3)

Finished.

I must say that the seizure warning is apt for this game, in fact the wife got a bit woozy after watching me kick some butt on "easy mode".

Yes, I know thats just so n00by of me to use weaner level but that's not the point of it all anyway when I go through a game. Some are in it for the realism or to test their whatever, I am in it for the story. After all you're supposed to play an immersing game with a complete plot that should be worth a movie (or even several so say hello Resident Evil franchise?).

That being said you start out as a Mantel soldier and brain washed (or should we say drug-washed) with Nectar (you have to love the allusion to bee's here, but nature has some fun color combo's, eh).

Nectar appears to be made out of a plant somewhere they speak Spanish. Its effects in the game include razor sharp targeting and a boost of speed. Now thats an interesting drug right there, more so that in-game calls of being a junkie are apt.

Game play has you start to go after the Rebels and eventually change sides for under the command of "Skin Coat", the Mantel nick name for a guy named Marino. The nick name is of course a lie fed to Mantel soldiers to increase emotional response against a supposedly viscous and inhumane cannibal. Disinformation in the ranks, Sun Tzu, ho hum ....

I think the telling piece here is when your buddy reveals the truth behind Mantel soldier disappearances and dies in the process. Classic. But this is where you get a question of morality between what is right and wrong. Basically, listen to your conscience to tell you what should be. The line references to "chemicals in your brain" said by both sides should be a dead give-away along the story line and lets you know that inevitably you should really be on neither but yourself. To some thats called indecision, to some that could be called integrity. I go for the latter having had too many landmark decisions happen in the course of work myself. At that point of surviving its time to sing "Vindicated" (surprisingly song #1 in the Spider Man soundtrack, how apt in the lines "with great power comes great responsibility").

There isn't much more depth in the story after disabling the "administrator" atop the highest peak in an observatory, then finally making the land carrier run aground and shooting up that drug crazed seargeant who' still ashamed to let mommy know he was a bad boy. Duh. The whole plot ends with Marino telling you he's going to manufacture a derivative of Nectar and make it available for anyone who wants it of his own free will. Thats the spoiler here folks, but that end does make it interesting as fodder for moral reflection -- at least to me.

I digress by saying the earlier TV show on law and crime in New York also puts alot of moral issues on the table. How far would anyone go to protect thousands of people and would you take the blame for it? What defiance of law and order is bad enough for you to be crucified after following your internal moral compass? Is a moral compass to do good built-in or is it taught? Thoughts to ponder. :-)

Overall, a good game to play on campaign. The online as far as I've tested works well, call me Head Shot Jones :-p

Final Fantasy - Total Recall

Hmm, perhaps I should treat myself :-))

Game Gems: Clibe Barker's Jericho (PS3)

Yes, yes, just finished on "Easy" but that wasn't the point in playing it. In fact the game story line was quite good and immersive. Since I had it running through the HDMI it was nicely rendered 1080i HD.

Its all difficult running until you reach the temple of 7 priests whereupon banishing the First Born isn't as difficult as expected. In fact, at that point I'd say it was corny. Although the small tid-bits of the story did unfold throughout don't we all expect a rather long-ish story at the end?

Hold on, thats only for movies isn't it? Well now, that just goes to show how movie-like the play is and I would recommend this game if you aren't squeamish on the rather rough language used (but hey, if you've ever been in war with dozens of bad guys and what not surrounding you at all sides wouldn't you say "F* me!" is a fair expression to say? :-).

Anyway, game done, yay! Now to go through the whole thing one more time on "Hard" and unlock all the game extras.

Oh one more thing, Yna played through this with me as my navigator and keeper of the emergency walk-through. Heh!