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Post by Ayen Matthews on Oct 26, 2019 19:49:14 GMT -6
Monster Rancher (Monster Farm in Japan) is a life simulation game developed and published by Tecmo for the Sony PlayStation that was released to North America on November 30th, 1997. Making it over twenty years old. It stars you in the role of a Monster Breeder with an assistant that helps take care of your monster as you strengthen it to fight other monsters and rise through the ranks as the ultimate Monster Breeder. So, without further ado, let's dive into Monster Rancher.  It's so small.Monster Rancher starts out at your home where you're visited by the mailman with a package to sign. This allows you to put in your name, or any name you wish, and begin playing the game. Once you acquire your assistant you can go to town and find your first monster. The market has three basic types you can generate to start out with while the shrine allows you to use a disc in your collection to generate a random monster.
Discs you can use include other PlayStation games, demos, computer CDs, and albums. It's completely random, but some discs can generate interesting selections. For example the original Resident Evil game will give you a Suezo which only has one eye, similar to the eye ball symbol you see on the title screen of Resident Evil. Final Fantasy VII gives you a pixie which is appropriate when you think about Final Fantasy. And Metal Gear Solid gives you a Monols which is basically a wall that Snake could hide behind. Monsters include the Dino, Tiger, Suezo, Monols, Golems, Hares, Gails, Worms, and countless others.  My favorite monster of all. The Dino!Monsters' stats are important once you get to the ranch. The stats include Life, Power, Defense, Skill, Speed, and Intelligence. The higher you can get these stats the better chances you have in fighting other monsters with similar stats. Although, the monster can and will die once it reaches a certain age. Making it hard to really grind to raise monsters' stats in order to defeat harder opponents as you rise the ranks to win the game. Frankly, I find it impossible to beat the game without the use of cheat codes. Which reminds me, I almost forgot to introduce you to your assistant.  Holly... Oh, just an old crush. It's nothing...
LET ME LOVE YOU! Holly is the main character you spend the most time with in the first Monster Rancher game. She lets you know your monster status, when you're being too hard on it, when it's tired, when a tournament is coming up, and explains to you the details of what each option does when you ask. She's also a friendly character with plenty of personality and facial expressions to go with the occasion. As you can probably tell from reading this, Holly is somewhat of a personal favorite character of mine. She was great in the anime which the picture comes from, too.  LET'S GET READY TO RUMBLE!Battles can take two different forms. One where you tell your monster which attack to use, and one where you just watch your monster do it by himself. Personally, I always control my monster myself to make sure things go over the way I want. If your monster has little loyalty it will tend to act confuse. It stats will determine how effective it can hit, how many hits it can take, and how fast it can dodge and deliver an attack. So training your monster at the ranch is very important if you want to get anywhere in the arena. Granted, you don't have to win every match, but enough to get in the winning spot and watch your fame and money go up. If you ever run out of money it's game over, just like in real life!
Once you get to Rank C an old man will visit your ranch offering you the chance to join him on an expedition. This offers a nice change of pace in your daily routine and you can explore ancient ruins with your monster and break through obstacles if your monster's power is high enough. Be careful searching for artifacts in the buildings as your monster could get lost. Monsters can also be injured in battle, or get sick. Artifacts you find can be something to sell at the shop, or help you combine monsters at the lab in town. Some artifacts are require to unlock certain rare monsters you can find in the Major 4. If you're good enough, or flat out cheat, to get there.
Overall, Monster Rancher is an enjoyable experience that may get a little repetitive, but is worth the time to look at if you're looking for a fun game where you can raise monsters and battle them with others. So, in other words:
Get it!
Dedicated to
Virginia Norland
1922 - 2019
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Post by Ayen Matthews on Oct 26, 2019 19:49:47 GMT -6
F.E.A.R. (First Encounter Assault Recon) is a first person shooter/psychological horror game developed by Monolith Productions and published by Vivendi Universal Game and Warner Bros. Games released in North America on October 18th, 2005 for the Xbox 360 and Microsoft PC. And a year later on the PlayStation 3. It stars the Point Man, a new recruit that goes on a mission to detain Paxton Fettel, a rogue psychic who takes control of a clone army under the influence of a creepy little girl known as Alma Wade. So, without further ado, let's dive into F.E.A.R.
 Does the TV get Netflix?The game starts off with a mission briefing before you arrive at the ATC headquarters at Fairport, Washington. From there on out you take control of the Point Man. The game looks pretty clean for being released in 2005. You can even see your own shadow. You can cycle between pistols, assault rifles, and submachine guns, but the best part of the game is the super reflexes you can call upon at any time to fire at enemies faster and do more damage, but it only last for a limited time before it runs out, so use it wisely.  This is no fun! No fun! Staring at the wall!Most of the game you're by yourself creating a feeling of isolation. Alone against an army, and hallucinations that happens at specific times in the game. So much staged that they lose their shock value when you know when a hallucination is coming. In these hallucinations there's nothing you can do except ride it out. I myself have been known to waste bullets thinking the enemies were real, but they aren't real. They were never real. You know what? I don't think this game is good for my mental health.  You've been struck by a smooth criminal!The AI in this game is pretty smart. They'll work together to try to kill you and even kick over objects to provide cover in gun fights. This provides a fair challenge when confronting enemies from stage to stage. They won't just stand there and let you shoot them to death, they'll get behind cover quickly and go from there. Just like if you were fighting trained soldiers for real. The AI was so well received that the game earned awards for it, and rightfully so.  Don't move, dirt bag! I know how to use this thing.Let's talk about the horror aspect for a bit, since that's the main thing that helps this game stands out among the sea of FPS titles in the world. The suspense in-between each scare tactic is well executed. You're really dreading the next time you're going to be scared, but the payoff is hit and miss. The game relies on jump scares to get your heart moving. And jump scares are the lowest forms of horror tools you can ask for. About the scariest part in the game is when you're climbing down the ladder and the camera turns in front of you to display Alma Wade who is just standing there while you're descending the ladder.
The fact that you're a super soldier with super reflexes and armed to the teeth takes away from the horror aspect also. Why should you be afraid of a little girl, or whatever she can throw at you when you're already a super soldier that can deal damage to a whole group of soldiers by yourself? Some could say it's because Alma can't be harmed by regular bullets, but she never tries to actually harm you for most of the game anyway, so at the end of the day she's just stalking you in a creepy, "I want a restraining order," fashion. Speaking of Alma Wade...  Come play with us, Point Man.Alma Wade is the primarily antagonist of F.E.A.R. She's a powerful psychic who was held in captivity by Armacham Technology Corporation who use her in inhuman experiments throughout her childhood. Making her somewhat of a sympathetic character. That's a card they play a bit too heavily in the sequels. She was killed as an adult, but her abilities and pure hatred of Armacham made her last long after death and come back to get revenge.
For most of the early stages of the game you see her child form, which is as shown in the picture above. Later on in the game the vault she was in is opened and her adult body comes out, and she's... naked. Don't ask. Personally, I find her child form scarier than her adult form. There is just something about the innocent, but creepy child aspect that frightens me. While I'm critical of the game's ability to be scary, Alma Wade herself has been the star of several nightmares of mine since I played the original game. So while the game isn't always scary, there's something extremely unnerving about Alma Wade herself that can make or break the whole game. She's the star of the show, and she's going to shine all the way through.
Overall, F.E.A.R. is a fun action game with horror elements that work some of the time, but not all of the time. Alma Wade appearances are unique and really what make the game special. That and the mystery surrounding her existence that will be answered as you get farther into the game. If you're into the first person shooters and want something a little different, then F.E.A.R. may be just what the doctor ordered.
Get it! |
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Post by Ayen Matthews on Oct 26, 2019 19:50:44 GMT -6
Evil Zone is a versus fighting game developed by Yuke's Future Media Creators and published by Titus Interactive for the Sony PlayStation console. Released to North America on May 31, 1999 and has became a cult classic ever since its initial release. Without further ado, let dive into Evil Zone.  Get set? Is this a fight or a race?Evil Zone has simple game mechanics compared to most fighters. You're not trying to string together a bunch of combos to get the upper-hand on your opponent. Instead a lot of your attacks involve the triangle button and D-Pad. With simple projectiles being with the triangle button while the D-Pad go through different moves, like stun moves and specials, that can help you beat your opponent. You can even hold down triangle to charge up a finisher that can deal enough damage to end your opponent if their health is low enough. To block just push the square button. You can even break out of specials if you time your pressing of the block button well enough when your opponent is using a special on you.
 Why can't people just have normal hair colors?Evil Zone has ten playable characters. One that you can unlock by playing through the story mode, and the other nine being playable right out of the gate. Technically there are eleven characters, but one is an ally to one of the ten playable characters.
You have Danzaiver, Al, Keiya, Erel, Midori, Setsuna, Gally "Vanish" Gregman, Lie, Kakurine, and Ihadulca. Each character has one alternate costume you can select in versus mode, and a second set that you can unlock later in the game. Each character has their own story mode and unique personality that makes them stand out. Each with their own move list, finisher, and stage dedicated to their character. Karen is the eleventh character I mentioned and is a spirit that assists Setsuna in her story. They have a kind of close knitted friendship/lesbian hints relationship.  Japanese triplets. Now that's just scary.Each character story is presented as a new program coming to TV. With ten episodes overall. Meaning that through the story each character comes into contact with their double. Each character represents a different genre of show. Like Danzaiver being your V.R. Trooper, or Setsuna being more like a shojo. Which means 'girl' in Japanese. Before each fight the character voices a preview of the next battle/episode and then we go to a cut-scene before and after each fight that tells a different narrative with some characters being connected like Kakurine and Ihadulca.  Disposing the body, huh?While the game isn't based off of any anime in Japan, it is heavily anime inspired. With the opening being hand-drawn anime and the closing scenes during the credits being animated. Another factor of the game is the voice acting. There's some melodrama in the game, but that's natural for Japanese games being dubbed to English. And I have to say something about the dubbing. The dubbing is horrible.
There will be moments where the character is clearly still speaking, but no sound is coming out of their mouth. I don't know if it's because of how speech is determined in Japanese compared to English, or what, but the voice syncing to the lips is just gosh darn terrible. If you can look pass that though, the game is pretty darn incredible for what it is.  All that armor and you're still being sliced up.Overall the game has a simple 'pick up and play' vibe to it that isn't daunting to new players looking for something fun to play. The game shows that the fighting genre can have good story and characterization and the anime inspiration is a nice treat for anybody who loves anime. Despite being twenty years old, I still recommend this game for anyone who loves fighting games and don't mind simplicity.
Get it! |
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