Darkstalkers Resurrection is a downloadable title featuring two standout fighting games from the 90s. This dual HD bundle features Night Warriors: Darkstalkers’ Revenge and Darkstalkers 3. These are the two marquee titles that define the series.

The combat is a mix between Street Fighter and the VS. series (X-Men vs Street Fighter; Marvel vs Capcom; etc.). It’s a very fast pace brawler and has a legion of devoted followers ever since it was originally introduced.

The characters are definitely a highlight. Characters such as Morrigan, who is a succubus, Demitri, who is a vampire, Hsien-Ko, who is an undead girl who is partially her also dead sister, Victor, who is Frankenstein’s monster and my personal favorite B.B.Hood who is red riding hood…if she was an assassin bent on taking out the Darkstalkers using guns and knives. All these characters evoke a certain charm that is not found in other games.

Darkstalkers Resurrection has many features including tons of in-game goals to accomplish, a new online mode, tutorials for each character and a slew of options to tweak the visuals and gameplay. There are also tons of unlockables to obtain via the Vault system which encourages you to play the game more and complete tasks in order to unlock exclusive artwork and character endings.

The online mode is very solid featuring GGPO netcode which means nothing but smooth connections for the majority of every match.

Needless to say, I would highly recommend checking this downloadable title out if you’re into old fighters, new fighters, old school horror icons or just want a change of pace from the norm. Plus, at $15 (PSN)/ 1200 MSP (XBL) it’s practically a steal for these arcade perfect ports of two great fighting games.

One of the biggest genres this generation has been the Western-style RPG, typified by games like Skyrim, the Souls games, and The Witcher series. with their gritty Game of Thrones aesthetics and more open-world structure. With Eastern-styled RPGs struggling this generation, Capcom chose a different approach and decided to create its own entry to the Western-style fantasy RPG, while still keeping Capcom’s sensibilities regarding action and combat. The result of this is Dragon’s Dogma, an open-world action-RPG from a team of designers whose members have worked on the PS2 Devil May Cry games, Monster Hunter, and the Eastern-RPG-styled Breath of Fire series.

In Dragon’s Dogma, you play a blank-slate main character of your own design who is attacked by a dragon during the intro sequence and has his/her heart torn out, informed by the dragon that they are now the Chosen One. Known thereafter as the Arisen, you then travel the world fighting the monsters that have suddenly plagued the countryside. The plot is paper-thin pulp fantasy that mainly serves as a backdrop for some great hack-and-slash action. In this way, Dragon’s Dogma is very much like Capcom’s hugely popular Monster Hunter series, only with an eye more towards international audiences.

One of the main features of Dragon’s Dogma is the pawn system. Pawns are player-created servants/battle companions of the main character. They are created using the same classes available to create the main character and are always at the side of the main character. However, in addition to creating your pawn, you can also download pawns created by other players via PSN or Xbox Live, and you can make your own pawn available for download by other players. The pawn system is a community feature. When you draft another player’s pawn into your party, you can rate his/her appearance and abilities as well as send the pawn with a gift for his/her original creator, and likewise other players can do the same with your pawn. You can also share your pawn via Facebook if your Facebook account is connected to your PSN/XBL account. Your companions are controlled by AI, although you do have the standard commands to change your companions’ behaviors as you see fit. The AI is reasonably competent. You generally won’t be frustrated as your pawns throw themselves headlong into an unwinnable situation or draw hordes of enemies upon you before you’re ready to take them on. The pawns will also constantly give you advice and/or warnings about enemies or other hazards in your party’s vicinity, which is helpful at times but can become an annoyance.

The combat is where Dragon’s Dogma really shines and reminds you of its Japanese heritage at Capcom. This is some of the best action RPG combat I’ve ever seen. Unlike so many other RPGs where it feels like you’re fighting paper dolls, the hits in Dragon’s Dogma feel rock solid, both on the giving end and the receiving end. Furthermore, Dragon’s Dogma allows you attacking options like climbing on the backs or heads of large enemies to deal damage, although you’ll have to do your best to hang on. These same large enemies are more than capable of crushing you underneath their feet.  While the combat isn’t as fast as a dedicated hack-and-slash brawler, it’s still among the best in the RPG genre. More than a few long-time Capcom fans have compared the combat in Dragon’s Dogma to that of Capcom’s 90s Dungeons and Dragons arcade brawlers (Tower of Doom and Shadow Over Mystara), and with Dragon’s Dogma’s huge array of melee attacks and magic, this is a fitting comparison.

You’ll be fighting plenty of huge monsters like this as you journey throughout the huge open world of Dragon’s Dogma.

In terms of visuals and sounds, Dragon’s Dogma is solid, if not spectacular. The world is suitably huge and panoramic, with sprawling cityscapes and endless mountains, valleys, and rivers. The character-creation modes are a cut above those of other games and allow you to customize your characters beyond the standard crew-cut males or helmet-haired females. The animations are done well enough, although slowdown rears its ugly head during crowded scenes.  The sound features stock Western-style RPG background motifs and sound effects. As previously noted, your pawns will constantly chatter to you, which may annoy some players, although you do have the option of turning the game’s voices down or off.

All in all, if you like intense, frenetic combat and a huge world to explore and can overlook the paper-thin plot, Dragon’s Dogma is highly recommended. While it isn’t likely to give From Software any cause to worry, Capcom has made a good first foray into the world of gritty console action RPGs, and hopefully we will see more in the future from this promising franchise.

The Sony Conference event, started off light, and on time, with an cavalcade of the history of PlayStation brand through the years; from the PlayStation to the current generation, PlayStation 3. Everything was intermingled with the Dual Shock controller, being focused at some point and other PlayStation item as well. But within the first few seconds after the MC or main presenter, Andrew House began, he announced that Sony is indeed bringing the PlayStation 4, with the release window of Fall of this year. As he continued to speak, he talked about how the developer as well as the consumer is the focal point of the PS4. He additionally wanted it to be known, that the PS4 would be an central hub for all entertainment purposes for next generation.

The specs of the PS4 have definitely come back down to earth, from the cell processors and its raw power to a more easily programmable, but still power X86 CPU and an Advanced GPU, which easily allows 1st & 3rd party developers to get the most out of it. Sony is additionally giving, what all developers wanted, 8GB of unified memory and a supercharged architecture, again, which is catering to the developers, since Sony learned from previous PS3 development, and the grips most developers, that weren’t 1st party had to deal with. And from the out of the gate, a larger internal storage, which will come in handy with what will be explained next.

Sony has completed an massive infrastructure of involving mobile devices and primarily the Vita as the on the go version of the PS4, with turning your PS4 into a server of sorts. With the mention of the Vita, the games from your PS4 with the of Gaikai Cloud computing, which was acquired by Sony last year, is allowing for your catalogue to be on the go with you, mainly with the Vita but with other devices as well. With the Vita on the go, being more integral than before, it was shown by transferring, a new game for the PS4, called Knack, to the Vita as it was played, without missing a beat or any downgrade of graphics to the Vita’s clearly smaller screen. Also, Knack, slightly reminds me of the 360 launch game called Kameo, but that may just be me.

Next, is the new PS4 controller, which is simply called Dual Shock 4, its almost the same design as before, but with a touchpad where the Sony logo and Start & Select buttons were on the Dual 3. This gives the controller, a look of being a bit heavier, but it’s one of those things, people were saying the Dual 3 was too small, and cumbersome. With the touchpad comes, the integrated share button, right on the controller. It looks to be out of the way from accidental sharing, but convenient. Also, the light on the front of the controller, is continuously sending information to an almost Kinect like device, which is a stereo camera, which will track the controller as your playing.

The Share button takes me into the complete social integration as well other steps Sony is taking to further advance the PS4, with 5 words, each explaining the functionality of the PS4. First was Simple. Allowing for developers, be it, big companies or Indies to develop more easily for the PS4, and for the consumer to simply share and gain games for their PS4, more easily than ever before. Second, was Immediate. This was explained in the way of, a second chip, specifically, for background downloads, updates while playing a game either online or offline. Also, allowing for almost immediate, see what I did there, pick up and play from a suspended state of the game, even when its turned off. Third was Social. This is the heavy integration of the Share button.

The PS4 will be partnered with Facebook and Ustream, to allow for a better PSN profile, almost Facebook like, but Sony tailored. Also, with the Ustream and Gaikai, you can stream gameplay or upload screenshots or bits of gameplay directly to Facebook and other social media, and allow for immediate access by your friends on the media site as well as, your PSN friends, all the while retaining your anonymity, if you want. With the ability to stream, you or your friends can sit in on one another, if the person allows it, to watch them play, or even “pass the controls onto them” for help if need be. Also you can leave comments while they’re playing, be it helpful or even trash talk. Fourth was Integrate, allowing for the consumer to continuously, regardless of location or device do almost anything with the PS4. Finally was Personalization. This feature, is like smart shopping where, over time collected data from your purchases, from the PlayStation Store, or actual disk, and give you games and content, already fully downloaded to your PS4, and you’ll have to do is hit the buy button.

Moving back to Gaikai, Dave Perry, mentioned that, over time, the PS4 will have the catalogues of the PS1, 2, and 3, able to play digitally on the PS4, with the use of its technology. Also, with the service, they are adding, the Free to Try ability, giving the consumer, the ability to play actual full games, not a shortened version or a downgraded version, and buy at any point and time during that trial, and all without hassle.

After the beginning, they began to show games, videos, and live demos, from both 1st party and 3rd party. First up was Guerilla Games, with live gameplay of Killzone: Shadow Fall. The game is brighter than previous versions, and looks amazing. Next was Evolution Games, game Drive Club, a team based driving game about challenging the World as a team or Club, with a heavy integration in mobile devices for the challenges. Next, was Sucker Punch, bringing us back to the world of Infamous, the game calling Infamous: Second Son, and I was giddy with joy over this announcement, and I can’t wait. After which, Braid developers, Jonathan Blow, with the next game for the PS4 at launch, with The Witness, this has 25hrs of unique puzzles, and the music amazing with a Celtic feel.

Quantic Dream, creators of amazing Heavy Rain, showcased its pushing of the PS4 with a live demo of rendering facial and eye design and emotions with amazing lighting and textures, and small nuances. Media Molecule, the creators of Little Big Planet, shows full use of the Move with an sculpting and allowing your dreams to be created. This gave way to a recorded live performance of a show featuring “puppeteers” of a musical performance. With that, House mentioned that it had full support from, almost, if not, every major 3rd party developer for the PS4.

Capcom, with Yoshinori Ono, showing a gaming engine code named Panta Rhel, built specifically for the PS4 and a game being developed in conjunction with Panta, called, Deep Down (Working Title), showing beautiful lighting, character models, and amazing action, that seemed to be what real time action will be. Square Enix, showed the tech demo running the Luminous Engine by Hashimoto Yoshihisa, and the other Hashimoto, Shinji saying a new Final Fantasy title is in opening stages of development and more information released at E3. Ubisoft Montreal, showing an live demo of Watch Dogs running on the PS4. And the game looks amazing, and can’t wait till I get my hands on it. Blizzard, with Chris Metzen, announced that Diablo 3 will be coming to both the PS3 & PS4. And finally, the last announcement was from Activision’s Eric Hershberg, bringing Bungie’s new IP Destiny, to the PS4 as well as, the PS3, with exclusive content to the Sony family. All gameplay trailers, demos and videos will be on our site as well.

Sony came out hard hitting in this press conference. Showcasing that they have learned from their previous mistakes in the current generation, and looking forward to showing why Sony’s PlayStation was always a bright star, and not a waning one, as they were saying Sony was. Sony, came out saying, contest us now Microsoft, we will see you on the field of battle come this console launch. And Sony certainly means business, this generation.

What do you get when you take the makers of Naruto: Ultimate Ninja & Ultimate Ninja Storm, and most of the .hack games? You get a game that plays like an anime, with an very basic gameplay mechanic, and the over the topness of Dragonball Z, and you’ll get CyberConnect2’s Asura’s Wrath. An original story developed by CyberConnect2 and produced by Capcom. The story focuses on the titular character, Asura. The game melds together Hinduism and Buddhism, with a splash of Science Fiction, giving the game an interesting blend with the anime style of the game. Now all these elements turned into a game is rather great blend, but to me personally, it fell short on quite a few instances throughout the game.

I’ll start with the good. The good revolves around the amazing story crafted from the tales in both Buddhism and Hinduism, and allowing for such a colorful story to be created, and played out in Parts, each named after the level of achieving enlightenment. The story centers around an age old war of apparent evil against the righteous elected Eight Guardian Generals to defeat the evil on Gaea or Earth. The evil is called the Gohma, and they ravaged the world and destroy anything that isn’t a Gohma. But behind the scenes, the leader of the Eight Guardian Generals, Deus, sets into place his plan to gain complete power over Gaea and the Gohma as well as be sole ruler in everything. But his plan requires Asura be the scapegoat for the Emperor’s murder, having his wife, Durga, killed, while kidnapping his daughter, Mithra. After being killed by Dues, Asura is sent to Naraka. Now Asura is already an angry demi-god, but once all these events transpire, and his death over the 12,000 years causes memory loss, he begins to gain them back and what he must fight for in a blood fueled and revenge induced rage to defeat all Seven Deities for killing him and his wife and rescue Mithra.

As I mentioned before, the game is played in parts, and each part is broken into a number of episodes, this is where the anime feel of the game comes in. Each episode starts with the naming the artist, producer, voice actors, and such. And at the end of each episode, it gives you a preview of the next in the form of the cinematics that will be played at some point during the episode. This nuance is quite cool, and makes you feel like you’re playing an anime, but after the 4th or 5th episode, its gets annoying and you just want to skip it, but you don’t want to miss anything. This and the way it’s played, its more on a level of a “interactive media” than video game. As you play, you’ll either love or hate the graphics of the game, which is a blend of anime, 3D CG graphics, and cel-shading, giving the game a gritty feeling, completely matching at times the mood and feeling of the characters. The level design, is limited since the arenas you fight in, are essentially set pieces, and no real exploration is given to you, the player, at any given time. You jump from one set piece, to the next, like an episode of any anime.

But as any high budget anime from any of the major anime production companies, the voice acting is top notch, and over the top as you would expect for a game like this. Each characters personality nailed down for the plot against the Emperor, to the self loathing of Yasha, the rage monster that is Asura, and the forgiving and imprisoned Mithra. The voice actors, be it in the original Japanese voices, or the English voices, they give their all to give you the player, the complete emotion of the scene present. As I’m not intimately familiar with Japanese voice acting, I’ll mention the outstanding voice action by Liam O’Brien (Asura), Robin Atkins Downes (Yasha), Kari Wahlgren (Mithra), and David Pizzuto (Deus), to name a few.

As the game, cannot stand alone on solely voice acting, high budget, and story, the gameplay is what brings people to the table to play, and the story is what makes them stay. And the gameplay for this game runs the gambit: Action, Beat ‘Em Up, Hack And Slash, Rail Shooter, Rhythm Game, Quick Time Events, and Third Person Shooter. At various points in the game, it turns into one of the many different game types. Each with a rather basic control scheme, nothing revolutionary, by no means. Much of the gameplay isn’t amazing; it’s rather pedestrian, and just to get you through an event that requires you to utterly destroy a Gohma, or one of the Deities. The game completely encompasses an over the top action, and consistently gives the player, the feeling, everything is certainly bigger and more angry from Asura, especially with the duel against Deus… but his anger is never abated.

The game comes down to, not in this exact order: cutscene, fight for a bit, cutscene, quick time, cutscene, button mash, and burst event which triggers more cutscenes. During some of these cutscenes, you’ll have to input a button that will appear on the screen for you to continue. This is where the gameplay is melded with the presentation of the game, allowing for the most over the top fights, and the badassery from Asura, and certain characters during their interactions with each other. For instance, the fight between Asura and Augus, you fight on the moon, and Augus, uses a Sword imbued with the mystic trait of extending no

matter the length, which ends with Asura and Augus plummeting towards Gaea with Asura being impaled back towards Gaea. But guess what, this all preceded by a hot springs quick time event involving a big busty servant.

Don’t get me wrong, Asura’s Wrath is an solid game, as long as you go into it, knowing full well, that you’re more so getting anime episodes in game form, where you slightly interact with the game and various quick time events, to spice up the ride during Asura’s anger induced revenge. The story with its roots in Buddhism and Hinduism, and sci-fi twist, allow for a fresh story, not done before. The game visually, isn’t stunning, but the gameplay melded with it, gives you a sensory overload, to a degree, allowing you to watch, somewhat at a distance, but still interact. At the end of the day, if you can get Asura’s Wrath for cheap, it’ll be worth the money, but when it was first released, I wouldn’t say the $60 price tag, was worth what was given at the end of the day.

Street Fighter X Tekken is back and much better with it’s recent 2013 update. Improving the core mechanics of its fighting system and making every match more fun, Street Fighter X Tekken finally deserves the recognition it should deserve.

Upon starting up your copy of SFxT, you are prompted with an update to the game which will in turn change a huge portion of the game. For starters, the damage is more apparent as combos just seem to hurt more and it also helps that when tagging out your point character, any damage received takes longer to regenerate. It helps to alleviate the frequency of time outs that the prior version had far too many of.

There are also small changes done such as more time added to Pandora Mode, having the Fight! logo remove quicker and not having the camera pan in at the end of a Cross Rush combo. It helps to quicken up the pace while also making matches seem in better control of the player(s).

Even subtle tweaks such as gems not being so bright on top of characters helps. There are also tons of character specific changes that alter the majority of the rosters take on their matchups. I almost forgot to mention in my opinion the biggest change to the system, normally when you are attacked you have two different parts of health (yellow life & red life). The red life is recoverable when the character is not on point but now as soon as a throw is performed on any character with red life all of their recoverable health is gone along with the damage of the throw. It invokes a certain mind game mechanic in competition especially since you cannot roll safely off a knockdown.

With all these changes made to the game it helps freshen up a lifeless corpse that everyone in the fighting game community had long forgotten. But I sense a strong sense of change happening to make this dead game rise from its grave. I strongly recommend any naysayer of the game to try it again. Who knows, it might change your opinion. Plus its free…what harm can it do?

Cherry Tree Comedy Club is the type of Japanese game you never see brought over to English audiences because it’s a type of game rather obscure to the action seeking video game audiences here (at least what you’d think it’s what they are from video game developer decisions), a visual novel, what makes it even more unique is it comes from a small doujin group known as 773.

You are Miley Verisse, the school’s goofball, and your ultimate dream is to become the next great stand up comic to come out of your high school and to get closer to that goal you aspire to revive the CTHCC, the comedy club founded by the famous comedy duo The Grinmeisters. So far you and your best friend are the sole members of the comedy club and you need a minimum of five founding members to create an official school club, so your goal is to recruit at least three more students to get your club up and running. Of course you have your arch nemesis and former friend Octavia Richmond trying to see that it doesn’t get to happen. Via social interaction and coordinating your daily activities, you work towards becoming close friends with potential recruits until they decide to join.

CTHCC is unlike a typical visual novel considering you manipulate your character strategically to achieve the goal of the game. Visual novels tend to be pure dialogue as the story is already made up for the player and the only interaction the player will get goes along the lines of, do action A or action B, and after that the story goes on. This game has you move your character as an 8 bit version of themselves throughout Cherry Tree Town and doing whatever the hell they want (sometimes only if she has the money for it).

There are about four things Miley can do. One of the most important things is she can do several activities to increase her expertise on select subjects, video games, romance, whodunnits, fashion, music, sports, art, travel, history, pets, politics, and cooking. Getting expertise on subjects is of primal importance because the best way to quickly advance the relationship you have with the characters is by discussing subjects with them, but be careful, characters can either love, like, feel neutral, or dislike a subject, and the best way to figure out their feelings on them to select the right conversations is to occasionally chat with them and get notes about it on their profiles. Now knowledge can be gained in a variety of ways whether it’s through reading, watching something, or going to various locations, but the options are as endless as the cash to accomplish some of these activities is limited. You go up to level 5 at the highest for each category starting from this.

The second activity Miley can do is earn money. One of the easiest way to earn it is to run around town and look for yellow circles on the floor. You can get a bottle you’ll collect and once you collect 10 turn them into your dorm manager for a bit of cash. Sometimes you’ll get an old discarded magazine and get a free boost from whatever category it covers, a great free advancement…. or if you’re really unlucky dog poop, but whatever. The only other “jobs” Miley has is making jewelry, cleaning up at a shrine, and later on in the game help at organizing an art museum. But watch your fatigue or Miley screws up whatever she’s doing.

Dammit Miley!

The single most important action however is interacting with other characters, some just drop from the sky while others have to be discovered. I didn’t discover the last character until playing a second time and actually chatting with Harriet Sinclair, the only friend in the club with me. Choose your conversation topics and give them time to chat idly in school and over the phone because the deadline will be close before you know it.

The fourth thing and definitely the last thing you want Miley to do is have her waste her time by going back to her dorm early. If you ever do that you’ll regret that precious lost chance to do something.

With the game explained I’ll go further into my personal opinions about this game. The translation from Japanese to English has been done in a Phoenix Wright fashion, with the story localized in America and with the script occasionally changed to make references and jokes any English gamer can understand. I’m usually against localizing because sometimes I find it extremely unnecessary to deny the fact a game takes place in Japan, but because this series centers around stand up comedy and I’m sure Japanese people don’t know who the hell Dane Cook is any more than we know their stand up comics so it’s fair use. They did a pretty good job explaining why there was a shrine in America and they changed a character’s background pretty well. Basically an air headed foreigner’s ethnicity was changed from American to Swedish, however if you play the game with this knowledge it might be painful seeing how other countries view Americans.

The humor in this game is pretty nice, Miley Verisse is basically the type of overly excited girl often seen in anime and manga, and as a result some pretty funny stuff comes out of her. Also some outrageous shenanigans and subtle manipulation occurs, keep the every day aspect of the game interesting.

Miley’s comment afterward: Those were all rumors I started myself!

The characters you recruit in this game in general are very multi- dimensional and have a story that comes with them. As you get to learn more about them they start revealing themselves to you and you begin to understand them more. It’s sad that Miley on the other hand is more of what I call a “simulation character” on that aspect, a character who is rather undefined compared to the others so the player can feel it’s them in the story. It’s sad you only learn about the person who’s had the most impact on Miley’s life from Harriet and she doesn’t break out from her genki mold even in serious moments.

MILEY WIPE THAT EXPRESSION OFF YOUR FACE DAMMIT.

As for the look and feel of the game it’s very smooth. The background is charming, but a bit too simple in some parts. My only real complain is that I can’t play this game full screen and I’m restricted to a small window. I’ve read many other reviews complaining about the music but I personally like it and always keep it on while playing the game. Different atmospheres and scenes also changes the music so it doesn’t get very repetitive. The controls are simple and allow me what I want to do, all you’ll need to play are your arrow keys, enter, and escape, just perfect.

This game makes it easier to attain the best ending by saving your info on likes and dislikes of potential recruits as well as all the gains you’ve made with your repertoire. I still haven’t attained it, but I know it’ll be worth it. Honestly I really want a second Cherry Tree High Comedy Club game where you manage the club that time around, but whether or not that’ll happen depends on the support the game gets. Here’s my first ending.

And with that I give Cherry Tree High Comedy Club an 8/10.

You can buy the game now for $7.99 from the official website and other sources such as Steam, Gamestop, and GamersGate.

Capcom wanted to reboot the Devil May Cry games to bring in new life and a new crowd into Dante’s universe. Sarah, who hasn’t played all the way through any of the previous DMC games, enjoyed this game as a newcomer. I, on the other hand, played all of the other games and really enjoyed the series. I must admit, I was one of those people who threw a temper tantrum when I heard about the reboot and saw the new Dante. But I wanted to give this game a fair shake, so how does DMC hold up to a fan of the original? It has its ups and downs, but overall it’s a solid game that original fans should play.

PLOT

This retelling of DMC brings back first big baddy of the series, Mundus, as the Demon overlord who killed Dante’s mother and imprisoned his Father for all eternity. No longer half demon, but half demon and half angel, Dante is recruited by his long lost brother Vergil to take down Mundus and free humanity while hacking and slashing every demon in Limbo along the way. One of the best things of this story is the relationship between Dante, Vergil, and Kat. Dante comes off as punkish and uncaring at first and through Kat finds something worth fighting for. Vergil and Dante really feel like brothers here, I really loved the little banter they had closer to the end of the game one upping each other by saying how they are stronger or smarter than the other. Mundus, however, felt really bland as a villain. He has more personality than in the original game, but it’s still very cookie cutter villain. The story is pretty predictable and not great but was able to create some pretty tense cut scenes which I never saw in any of the original DMCs. But the biggest issue I had, and maybe it’s because I’m a fan of the original, was Dante. Dante was a punk and a smart ass, not emo, and that’s perfectly fine. Yet a lot of his quips fell flat. It felt like Ninja Theory couldn’t decide if they wanted their Dante to be his own man or harp back to the original. His dialogue lacked the charm it felt like it was going for. Overall, the story wasn’t great but still good.

Design

DMC takes place in Limbo, a parallel world where the demons reside. Levels are impressive, with ever changing landscapes and the world literally trying to kill you.  It makes for some fun platforming action. My favorite had to have been the club level, which looks like every raver’s dream. Yet it seems that near the end, the developers ran out of ideas and fall back on some contrive and all too familiar level design. The graphics are good and flow smoothly. I didn’t run into any lag, which is important for a combat game that moves this quickly. There were a few times when textures took a while to pop up during cut scenes but that rarely happened. Overall a great looking game

Combat

The most important aspect of any Devil May Cry game is the combat, and it shines here.  You will get access to five weapons and 3 guns over the course of the game, all of which you can switch to on the fly. This can make for some crazy combos. While the initial combat is easy enough for newcomers to grasp, veterans can appreciate the depth of the hack-n-slash of DMC. And with the new emphasis on air combo and juggling, you can literally fly upward and off the screen if you time all your moves right. Fans of the hack-n-slash genre will enjoy this game. A problem I ran into is that when you finally unlock your devil trigger, the ability to slow down time and fling all your enemies in the air to do extra damage, it takes so long to build up the meter that it becomes almost unusable. Not a huge issue but still an annoyance. After each play through you unlock more difficult settings that remix the enemies you run into and with some settings making you die in one hit. This provides moderate replayability reserved only for the most serious of DMC fans.

Rating 

Overall this game hits many of the marks it sets out to hit, while not a perfect game, its still solid and a “Hell” of a lot of fun. See what I did there?  Yes, this is a different Dante and a different DMC but long time fans should give this game a try before making their decision, you may be surprised in how much you like it. I give this DMC: Devil May Cry 8 out of 10

So, let me start this review off with a confession: I did not play any of the other Devil May Cry games for longer than an hour each. I just couldn’t get into them. So if you’re looking for someone to compare the reboot with the old franchise, I’m not the one!

The new DMC: Devil May Cry was met with trepidation by fans of the series, mostly because Dante is now a smoking-hot emo bro. Okay, so in the pictures, he didn’t look that hot, but once I started playing, I was quickly won over by his looks and roguish charm.

Oh yes, won over, because the introduction of the game immediately alienated me. The game begins with a cut scene of Dante enjoying some ladies. It was very graphic and suggestive and stupid. My first thought was: why go through all the trouble of making Dante pretty if this game is CLEARLY just for the guys, filled with gratuitous T&A?

And then we got our Dante T&A scene (yes, I’m calling it that) where he flies through the air and into my pants. I mean heart. Into my heart.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0E2313MMVsE]

Plot

As this is a reboot of the series, the plot and some details are a little different than the previous series. Dante is the son of Sparda and an angel, making him a Nephilim. He is recruited by The Order to take down Mundus, the demon who murdered his mother and imprisoned his father.

The plot has no major surprises, but it is wonderfully tongue-in-cheek as the problems in Dante’s world align with modern issues facing the world today. In other words, a conspiracy theorist would love this game.

Characters/Voice Acting

The characters were both wonderfully compelling and perfectly voiced. I didn’t think I would like Dante, but with impeccable comedic timing, Tim Phillipps stole my heart. Once in a while, I even laughed at loud at things Dante said.

But it wasn’t just Dante. Each of the characters had such good voice actors that I actually noticed it.

Kat’s character design is a mess (why in the world is she wearing a low-cut hoodie, booty shorts, and thick comfy socks? She looks kray) but her character is compelling in her simultaneous weakness and strength. She lacks confidence in herself, yet spends most of the game rescuing Dante. She’s often a companion in the game, but never a burden, which I appreciated. And her voice actress, Sage Mears, played that perfectly.

With all of the characters, there were no strange pauses, no parts that sounded like someone was reading it, and no overacting. Everyone’s voice really fit their character, and the banter between Dante and the villains was exciting and fun. Kudos to this voice cast!

Soundtrack

Another home run for the game was the soundtrack. The music was finger-lickin’ good, with the pounding, electro tech music setting the scene of a broken world perfectly. There is even one level where the music actually becomes part of the level design, but we’ll get to that in a moment. The music was composed by electronic groups Noisia and Combichrist, to give you an idea of what to expect. I ended up on YouTube for hours listening to the soundtrack after I finished the game.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5AFQnELhPmY]

Gameplay

Speaking of finishing the game, let’s have a few more confessions: I suck at this game. Some people might tell you that the game is too easy; well, I am not one of them. I found the enemies challenging, the environments and puzzles often took some thought, and I wasn’t always sure what to do.

All of which I loved. DMC really reminded me of old school games, where the way you learned a level was by playing it. The first time you played Super Mario Bros., no one told you to look out and jump over that second hole. You either made it or you missed and had to try again. I liked that about this game.

In general, this game is not hard to pick up for someone who has never played any of the Devil May Cry games. Simply toggle on “tutorials,” and it will guide you through the different buttons. There are A LOT of buttons to learn, but in general, the game does a good job of giving you a level to play around in that mostly requires the new skill you’ve learned, helping to solidify your command of it.

Combat

Combos made combat fun and wild. Your goal is to get style points, and those points go down if you use the same move within a certain amount of time. In other words, you get a lower score for spamming an attack that works really well. The solution? String crazy, mind-blowing combos together. Add to this the myriad combinations of enemy types that can only be killed with this kind of weapon or after that kind of move, and you have chaos in a bowl. Once you gain access to the demon trigger power, aerial combat gets even cooler.

The boss fights in some ways were amazing in their creativity and then in other ways became repetitive, as bosses sometimes re-used tactics from other bosses. In general, boss fights were easier than many of the combat situations, but were also often more dazzling and memorable as far as concept is concerned.

Auto-targeting proved to be the devil in some cases. Not being able to choose which enemy I was targeting proved to a be a serious challenge as the game progressed, but I learned to compensate by dodging like a drunken donkey.

Another gameplay negative was the repetition of enemy types with (pretend) new names, ie: Rage, Blood Rage, Ghost Rage, rage puppies…they are all still just Rages!

There were also sections of the game where each place you fought looked just like the last area, which got annoying around the third courtyard battle. However, this was not the norm, as the majority of the game had excellent level design.

In fact, to me, the most amazing part of DMC was the level design.

Level Design

I had to go and look up the word I needed to describe just what enchanted me so much about DMC: Devil May Cry: it was the level design. This game looks like the artists and developers HAD FUN creating the twisted levels and the world of Limbo.

You will fight in areas that remind you of What Dreams May Come, you will climb symbolic representations of human greed, and you will spend one mission following Kat around while being helpless to protect her. The world will turn over upside down and sideways, you’ll be on a television, you’ll be in sound waves in a club, and you’ll watch the story of your parents’ love in street graffiti. I was just blown away by the creativity. Giant demon heads would crash into your scenery, actually creating the feeling of smallness and fear that one imagines Dante must feel on the inside…until Dante tells the demon to go do something very rude with something seemingly impossible. The mission with Kat stuck outside of Limbo was especially compelling because it gave Dante such a feeling of helplessness. You truly felt powerless and frustrated along with Dante as that level progresses.

Levels were also designed with multiple playthroughs in mind, as some of the secrets are inaccessible until you gain certain abilities, leading me to come back and start over again after I beat the game. But I’m a completionist, and many others might not feel the need to go back and find all the secrets; therefore, the replay value of the game is a little low.

Speaking of which, it should be noted that the game is pretty short, with only about twenty missions. Powering through the game could definitely be completed in one day.

Graphics

One can’t discuss the level design without discussing the beautiful graphics. Colors were great and almost saturated looking, vaguely reminiscent of bright red blood in a way. The backgrounds were huge and glorious, giving the impression of cities of twisted shapes floating on a blue sea. The characters had very expressive and unique faces as well.

Cutscenes and actual action were often indistinguishable from each other, leaving me to frantically hover over my controller in case I was suddenly required to demon pull something in the scene. In a way, these cutscenes were kind of annoying, as they looked so much like gameplay that I often felt they just should be gameplay. Why take my hands off the steering wheel at crucial moments?

Bottom Line

The negatives as far as how the females in the game were mostly portrayed, the repetitive enemy types, and the jarring cutscenes are all balanced by the amazing level design, hilarious dialogue, and visceral combat. Despite the game being a little short, it does have some replayability factor for those who want new skins or to get all the trophies.

Overall, this game is really fun and far surpassed my expectations for a reboot with a new pretty-boy protagonist. The characters are badasses, the combat is fierce, and the levels are exciting and creative. I’m already excited for the sequel!

First appeared on Nerdy But Flirty.

Dante Dante Dante, you’ve gone from a pretty white haired demon slayer to a British punk rock demon slayer. He’s not British in the game, I just think that’s a more accurate description of his look than emo. You have a game close to release and a lot of us are wondering what to expect. Having played Devil May Cry 1 – 4, I was part of the initial outcry over the aesthetic change in appearance. But the more Team Ninja put out, the more I was willing to give it a chance, to the point where I became excited. Well, I just got a chance to play the demo for the upcoming DMC and I must say, if you were worried this game would suck, this demo will prove you wrong.

The demo provides you with the demo level in the city that’s trying to kill you, and the boss fight with the giant slug monster who makes the soda everyone is drinking a la Futurama’s Slurm drink. This demo ran smooth, no lags or anything and with a game that promotes fast paced action and combo stringing, that’s what I expect. The fighting felt deep, yet confusing as well. I do feel like I’m playing Devil May Cry, but with the new ability to swap between your base weapon, angel weapon, and devil weapon, I felt a little overwhelmed at first. There were a few times when I wanted to do one thing, only to mistake for another button combination before I figured it out. However, as I kept playing, it became a lot easier to pull over some amazing combinations while fighting. By the end of the level, I felt like a total badass being able to juggle multiple enemies in the air at once and zipping between them as I reach a SSS rating. By then end I was clamoring for more.

The game looks beautiful and there were never any slow downs when I was fighting. I noticed a few times either during loading or right after in a cut scene the sound would drop out. It happened probably three times. I understand that this is a demo but I will definitely be looking for it in the finished product. Other than that I could not complain, even as a long time DMC fan. I got over the whole makeover brouhaha once I started seeing the game play, and this gameplay is a lot of fun. I won’t pass judgment on game simply from the demo but this demo has peaked my interest for this game. You can download the DMC demo on Xbox live and PSN. Will this game soar with the angels, or be dragged down into hell? DMC will be released on Xbox and Playstation 3 January 15, 2013.

Lately when moviegoers and gamers alike talk about great movies based off videogames, most think of Disney’s latest hit. “Wreck it Ralph.” but another movie was released this year, and unfortunately, due to its relatively quiet release in Japan, it didn’t get the appeal it deserved.

Equally, Ace Attorney is a videogame series that had been relatively unknown outside its fandom, but as the character was used on Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3, it has gained more recognition.

To many of you reading this, it may sound obvious, but with the success of the previously mentioned Disney movie, I believe it is as good a time as any to bring this movie to the masses’ attention.

“Gyakuten Saiban” or rather “Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney.” as it is known in the West, is the name of a movie released in theaters in Japan on February 2012, and it is probably the most successful adaptation of a videogame to movie medium. Period.

The movie stars our spiky haired attorney (played by Hiroki Narimiya) who begins his career as an attorney in the not so far future, and soon after his first trial, tries to unfold a dark secret involving his close friends, as well as his rival Miles Edgeworth (played by Takumi Saito), and many plot twists await, the sotry is based in the first game in the series, meaning that you probably know what is gonna happen.

The movie may follow the game’s story closely, but takes liberties by shrinking it down to the bare plot essentials, and it follows the game’s humor and atmosphere, which is both its high, and low points, but it succeeds in delivering the most believable setting during its course.

To an usual moviegoer, the movie will seem odd, random, and somewhat lighthearted (specially on character’s deaths), it also gets away with ridiculous plot points from the game that being seen on screen will make people question the writers (a parrot is summoned to the stand)  and the characters themselves seem way too comical for what is supposed to be a courtroom drama, not to mention the movie is a bit too long being over 2 hours long.

On the other hand, to the gamers/fans who want to check the movie out, you will find enough to love, the actors deliver a great performance giving them the personality that matches the characters, crazy antics that in real life may get you banned from the courtroom, (just like in the game) and over the top “Objections” given by both the Defense and Prosecution.

The soundtrack on the other hand is nothing short of amazing, it features orchestrated tracks from the game itself, but add something extra to the movie by becoming dramatic on its performance, helping the mood of the scenes, and bringing out the seriousness of the moment in which it plays.

Here is a trailer:

The movie’s setting is not very open, most of the time is spend on the courtroom, so it doesn’t bring much to the table in terms of variety, a moment Phoenix and his assistant are investigating, the next they are back in court, no surprise as the game does the same thing, and even if the movie tries to add great effects to the courtroom itself, this will still keep many from fully enjoying it.

The only sad thing about this movie, is that it hasn’t gotten enough attention, and as such, it is difficult to find it online, much less find it subtitled, I don’t condone piracy, but if you are intrigued, and you look hard enough, you may just find it hidden somewhere.

In conclusion, this film is great for those who enjoyed the games, as well as those who enjoy quirky, oddball random movies such as this one, Takashi Miike did a fantastic job in directing this, keeping just about enough things to make it at least appealing to casual moviegoers, as well as being loyal to the source material.

Now, if Uwe Boll could take lessons from this talented director…