Whatcha Playing?

Domino Master (Demo): There is no "knock over Dominos" mode, so I didn't play this game for more than two minutes.

Dragon Quest IV: Chapters of The Chosen: Dragon Warrior IV was one of my favorite games growing up, and it's a real shame I haven't played the game since I was eight years old. However this remake of the classic game has provided me with plenty of nostalgia and glee even though I'm only half way through chapter 2 at this point.

True to the series, DQIV is about as old school as it gets, with pretty archaic gameplay, and tons of grinding. However I'm finding it to be a rather pleasant experience at the moment, which makes me wonder why I couldn't get into the series eighth installment. Maybe it helps that the game is portable, and I can play it while I'm on the can, just grinding away. Who knows?

My only real complaint with the remake so far is the new translations. I'm sure they're better than the old ones, but for whatever reason Square Enix decided to give most of the people in the game accents. And no, there's no voice acting, so you have to read these accents. It can be rather painful at times. Despite that though, I'm really enjoying the game and will be playing it off and on for some time.

Feeding Frenzy 2 (Demo): Feeding Frenzy 1 was better.

Fracture (Demo): I was expecting Fracture to suck for whatever reason, despite knowing nothing about the game. Imagine my surprise when I found a pretty unique experience. Fracture is a Third-Person shooter with a twist. Several of your weapons can effect the terrain, by either raising or lowering the ground. It might sound like a gimmick similar to the environmental destruction found in Red Faction so many years ago. However it's surprisingly clever in that you can manipulate the land to access platforms, provide cover and blow your way through a tunnel.

Despite the fact that I could give a shit about the game's plot or any of it's generic looking characters - I found myself enjoying the short demo quite a bit. I'm not sure that I would buy the game, but it certainly seems like prime rental material. It's hard to say if the whole terrain manipulation thing will get old, but it should provide a couple hours of entertainment at least.

Mercenaries 2: World in Flames (Demo): I didn't like the first Mercenaries, so it isn't really a surprise that I don't like the second one either. But maybe I'm being unfair, after all - all I played of it was the demo. Still, it doesn't seem like much has changed to win me over. The game is still a sandbox for mindless destruction. Which you'd think would be fun, but I'm just not feeling it.

The game also seems to throw way too many enemies at you, and while you don't actually die very easily - you don't feel very powerful either. It's easy enough to kill a few guys, but you never seem to be able to squash all of them. So like annoying little insects they constantly swarm around you and you rinse and repeat the whole process.

Tales of Vesperia: I'm just about done with my first run of the game, and man have my impressions changed since my previous entry about the game. I'm pretty much fully in love with the game at this point, and can't wait to dive into a second playthrough. I'll have a full post for Vesperia coming up shortly, so I'll leave it at that for now.

Warhammer Online: Not much has changed in WAR since my last entry. The RvR is still a mess, and it's getting harder and harder to find people to complete public quest with. Admittedly I haven't played the game much yesterday - launch day - so things could be different at this point. I'll keep you posted.

Next Month: I don't know what I'm going to do next month with so many games coming out. I'll have to give up on purchasing a good deal of them I'm afraid. I got lucky this month with Force Unleashed and Guilty Gear 2 getting less than stellar reviews, bumping them down to rentals. Plus I think the Guilty Gear got bumped back to next month anyway. Silent Hill is still coming out at the end of the month but I'm flat broke at the moment, plus I think I'm too scared to play that shit anymore - I dunno.

Next month I'll have to pick up Fable 2, Fallout 3, and Little Big Planet. I'm sure there will be something else I really want. And that's not even mentioning Rock Band 2 and Guitar Hero World Tour. I'm still not sure which bundle to get, but I'll probably end up getting one as a Christmas present. I'd like to think that I don't have to worry about picking up too many more games for the rest of the year after October. But sadly that isn't the case - as November is also full of tempting purchases. Too many games.