Valkyria Chronicles

Well, I'm guessing that there won't be a huge amount of people interested in this, as PS3 seems to be the least loved current system around here, but this game is truly awesome, so I'm going to rant about it anyways.

My friend downloaded the demo while he was over a couple of weeks ago, and I had to curse him because after only a few minutes playing I knew I must own this. Cue an early mornning trip out to Gamestop.

It's taken me from then till now to actually beat it. My time shows around 60 hours, but that's deceptive on a couple of fronts. One is that I often had to go back and retry missions(easily an hour down the drain when one goes bad near the end), and the other problem is that I have a habit of leaving the game running while watching a tv show or eating.... Actual game length is prob in the 40-50 hour range.

Anyhow, it's a turn based stategy game, a little bit like FF Tactics. Cept here you're running around each turn almost like you're in the middle of a call of duty game. Each turn you get a set number of command points to move your troops. When you select a unit, you move them around third person, and you are actually under live fire while moving. You can stop, aim, and shoot any time during this turn, and can move as far as the action points for that unit will take you. Hiding in grass and crouching behind sandbags help give you ways to protect your units during the other turn as well. You go on a variety of missions, from stopping giant tanks to storming town streets and fortresses.

There are five classes of soldiers, and also your team of officers, who are mostly made up of these classes, plus the tank commander. The classes are scouts, engineers, shocktroopers, lancers, and snipers, each with thier own strengths and weaknesses. Though later on the scouts become a massive force to be reckoned with. You pull your troops from an available pool that expands out to 50, though you only ever have 11 units on the field at maximum. Each unit has a name, a little backstory that gets bigger as you continue to use them, and even their own voice in which they tend to say a few lines. I grew quite attached to my troops, and managed to go through the game without permanently losing a single one.

There are some mystical parts, but mostly it's an in the trenches tanks and soldiers war game, though with a pretty upbeat cast of characters. There's some emotional parts, some really fun parts, and some parts which will make you want to tear your hair out in frustration.

The art is wonderful, and the first thing that seemed to draw a lot of people's interest, including mine. It stays great throughout the game, and though a few of the cutscenes are a bit cheaty on showing action, overall they are very well done, especially since it is a strategy type game. And speaking of cutscenes, my lord. If you like lots of story, this will not dissapoint. The game plays out through a book, most chapters having 1 battle and a few having 2. But each chapter also usually has 5 or more little cutscenes. A few of the videos are quite awesome, especially when the much dreaded valkyria and a few superweapons show up.

Anyways, if you enjoy tactical games like this, I highly recommend picking it up. It's easily the best RPG that's been on the ps3, and is probably my favorite game for the system so far.

MISB Alternators Hound for Sale

Got a MISB Alternators Hound that I need to sell, Box looks good, shelf quality. Taking offers on it if anyone is interested, just shoot me a pm.

Henkei Skyfire

Ok, first off, if you have Jetfire, you undoubtably can tell there isn't a huge difference here. The changes, while easy to see, are not anything breathtaking. Probably the biggest change overall is the way the cockpit is made much smaller via painting over the back half, giving him a much larger look in comparision to Jetfire. Overall he has a very clean look to him, though the blue on the back kind of stands out. I kind of wish the thrusters had been done in a dark chrome, but it's not really a big deal.
(IMG:http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y4/crazyjw18/Skyfire/DSCF1309.jpg)
(IMG:http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y4/crazyjw18/Skyfire/DSCF1306.jpg)
Robot mode is a bit more interesting. While I miss the red that the nose put on Jetfire's chest, Skyfire does have the blue accents here. He's got a red stripe on the side of each lower leg, which somewhat harkens back to the leg armor on the G1 toy, and he also has nice little red accents on his hips.

I really like his face. It's silver with a dark grey surrounding, making it looks like he's wearing some kind of padded helmet. His plastic is a very clear translucent color, and it gives his eyes an interesting blue. As for his helmet, it has an orange viser, also somewhat harkening back to the red visor on the g1 toy.

He has the exact same backheaviness problem as the US release.
(IMG:http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y4/crazyjw18/Skyfire/DSCF1312.jpg)
(IMG:http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y4/crazyjw18/Skyfire/DSCF1313.jpg)
(IMG:http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y4/crazyjw18/Skyfire/DSCF1315.jpg)
If you don't really love this mold or the character, I wouldn't really recommend putting down $40 towards this toy, as he's very very similiar to Jetfire. If you're like me, then he really is a really nice variant.

WALL-E

I snatched up the PC version of Wall-E the other day, as it was only $20 and I loved the movie enough to want to give it a try, despite movie games usually being crap.

Turns out it's a pretty fun game. It follows the plot of the movie fairly well, with a couple of added adventures and a few changes for the sake of gameplay. The character you play as for almost the whole game, WALL-E, is a good bit more aggressive here. You use your laser for a lot more than garbage cutting, let's just say. Steward bots beware.

The gameplay is pretty fun. Mostly a platformer, but it has a lot of little puzzle aspects as well. And they mix it up quite a bit, with several parts being akin to frogger, and also EVE has to go on some fast paced flights once in awhile. Later on you have to fight some Stweards, but fighting is not the focus of the game, it's mostly about manuevering yourself through the levels and collecting what you need to advance.

WALL-E's got several moves to help you along. Aside from the laser, if you go up to a trash pile, he'll compact it into a cube, perfect for tossing at enemies, crates, or switches. There are magnetic cubes that can be used to attract large blocks, and exploding cubes that can knock out barriers. WALL-E can turn into his box form, which you will need to do quite a lot to skid under low barriers and fit through tight spaces. He can jump as well, though he won't get far if you aren't going at a good clip. You'll often need to use a rapid combination of speeding, jumping, and transforming to get through the levels. There's even half pipes that WALL-E has to navigate through skater style. Later on you can enlist rogue robots to help you through certain spots as well.

Controls are a bit iffy when you are using the keyboard. You're often moving at a good clip and you need your usual directional keys along with space e, f, and c quite often, and it can get difficult not to hit the wrong key. It's made to use an xbox controller as well, but I didn't have one, so I can only imagine it's better. In any case you get the hang of it eventually and can move WALL-E pretty well.

Aphel Aura

Made a deal for the Micromaster Hot Rod Patrol. Communication was swift, very good, and very pleasant. Items arrived well packed and quickly, very professional. I would definitely do business with him again.