Attempting something for the first time is usually difficult and could possibly lead to bad results. FireRed and LeafGreen were the first Pokemon remakes, improved versions of Red and Blue respectively. The standard Pokemon gameplay remained, the story was expanded from the original games, and all discovered Pokemon since the game's release date were included, not only the 1st Generation Pokemon.
GAMEPLAY:
FireRed and LeafGreen was not different than any other Pokemon game in terms of basic gameplay. Catch Pokemon, make them stronger and eventually become the Champion. They had expanded gameplay compared to the original Red and Green games, with an additional storyline after the end of the game, and also the opportunity to play with a female character. Despite being very simple, this kind of game can get really addicting, so expect FireRed and LeafGreen to take up quite a bit of your time. Even after finishing the entire story, you'll still want to get your Pokemon to Level 100.
GRAPHICS:
A 2D game doesn't have much room to show off graphics. FireRed and LeafGreen's graphics are decent, somewhat enjoyable while not anything special, but not bad either. There were complaints about the games not having much improvement in this department compared to the previous Pokemon games, Ruby and Sapphire, however I disagree, as the improvement is noticeable immediately.
SOUND:
While containing some bright tracks and well-remade music from the 1st Generation, the soundtrack of FireRed and LeafGreen suffers from huge repetitiveness, like any other Pokemon game. Expect the battle theme to get very frustrating after some time, when that happens muting your game would be a good idea. However, be sure not to miss the bright tracks mentioned above, especially the great Gym Battle theme.
VALUE:
If you like this game, it will take away very much of your time. Any game that you'll spent many dozens of hours playing and still not get bored is a great buy.
TILT:
While mashing the A Button can occasionally get annoying, this game is an enjoyable experience. Don't worry about anything, just venture into the game world and do as you wish. FINAL RATING: 7.6, Good The Bottom Line: Suitable for everyone, but if you want much variety, you should stay away from this game.
A Nintendo Direct recently aired on Nintendo's website announced the newest Pokemon games, Pokemon X and Pokemon Y!
For the first time, the games will be released on the same month all around the world, October 2013. So, until then!
To watch the Nintendo Direct video in which the president of Nintendo, Satoru Iwata, tells about the history of the main series Pokemon games, compares each generation and then presents the game's trailer, click here.
Or you can watch just the trailer by clicking here.
The most notable new feature so far is that the games are now in 3D!
Below are pictures of the starter Pokemon, taken from the trailer. Thanks to Serebii for them.
As it has been for the last few years, EA's FIFA franchise has outshone Konami's Pro Evolution Soccer games, and FIFA 12 is no exception building on the Superb FIFA 11 to make the best football game out there.
GAMEPLAY:
As with any game, gameplay is king and this is where FIFA 12 really excells, over 10 years of EA tweaking the gameplay has not gone to waste and FIFA 12 is a perfect example of how a game realeased every year can adapt and change. Pre-release there were 3 very important changes to the game engine, dubbed the 'Holy Trinity of gameplay changes' by line producer, David Rutter. These 3 changes promised to revolutionise FIFA and in some ways they have.
The first change was the 'player impact engine' which after two years of development has been implemented to convey more realistic collisions between players. This feature was the weakest of the three gameplay changes, it was very hit and miss and sparked a whole host of 'fails' videos on youtube. Despite the player impact engine working the majority of the time, when it didnt work the results where unexcuseable for such a big release like this. The main concequence of this (aside from looking extreamly ugly) was match officials often making wrong decisions which somewhat ruins the gameplay, especially when you lose a match due to a wrong call by an official.
The second change, the 'precision dribbling' feature was the least hyped of the three, and it was a nice feature and worked well. However it was rarely useful and at times you forget it is even there. It seems to be a tool only used by the higher skilled players to manipulate the ball more deftly; however for the average player it is totally unneccesary, though it can be fun at times.
Last but not least is the new 'tactical defending' feature. On the face of it, it doesn't seem like it changes much and was overlooked. But that was until you played the demo for the first time. In previous FIFA's defending was a one button press system, which made your player hone in on an attacker with no skill involved. But tactical defending changed this. Defending became a real challenge to master and provoked uproar in the FIFA community. For offline matches, players can turn the defending back to the somewhat crude 'legacy defending' but online there isn't an option for this, forcing players to use the new tactical defending, so it is unadviseable for players to do this if they want to play offline as well as online.
Overall, the gameplay is almost perfect, as you could expect from EA Sports' biggest franchise. The experience is very enjoyable, which is only helped by the seemless controls. One thing of note is the fact that I play FIFA 12 on my laptop, and a gamepad helps a lot, personally I recommend the Xbox Controller for Windows
GRAPHICS:
The graphics of FIFA 12 are excellent, with fluid and vivid animations. The little touches are very thoughtfull; from player warming up before kick off to getting frustrated after a decision hasn't gone their way, FIFA 12 looks amazing (aside from the unfortunate moments when the player impact engine doesn't work well, but this has a comedic affect so that somewhat makes up for it). Suprisingly, the graphical specifications are not too high for the PC versions of the game - which for the first time are identical to the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions, and personally I can run the game on its highest settings with my £400 laptop.
SOUND:
Being a sports game, it is hard to excell in the sound department. The in-game music is as ever excellent and is an excelent background when scrolling though the menus of FIFA 12. The commentary team for the first time is taken over by two sets of commentators (for the English version) and both handle their job without any trouble. Occasionaly, they try to make the commentary more realistic providing in depth anysis. However after playing with the same club or players for a few months, you bound to get repeats which can't be helped, but aren't the best either (for example there is a piece of commentary on Man City's Yaya Toure which I have heard at least 5 times, which gets annoying very quickly).
VALUE:
The one advantage of the PC is that it is generally cheaper, with a fairly steep difference in the price bewteen the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions. which seems quite steep. But the amount of gameplay from FIFA 12 is immense and endless and it is still great value whatever price you pay.
TILT:
Being a massive football fan, I enjoyed the game immensely and I'm sure any other football fans will as well. I am glad that EA respect the PC gaming market and porting the next-gen FIFA games for PC gamers to enjoy.
FINAL RATING: 9.0, Superb
The Bottom Line: The Best Football Game of All Time has Gotten Better, a Must Buy Despite its Minor Flaws
(review was written by Parasect4win and polished by Rigas)
Making a sequel to Oblivion was going to be a big challenge for Bethesda to pull off right. With all the hype this game had before release it may have been susceptible to "Overhype" syndrome, fortunately for Bethesda, I try to ignore all hype before a game's release and take everything as it happens. I am glad I did this for Skyrim...
GAMEPLAY
Bethesda hit the payload when Oblivion was released gameplay-wise. With visceral First Person combat with swords and spells coming out of your ears and an easy to navigate world. Skyrim hasn't exactly changed much, though now Spells are mapped to each hand instead of being used with your standard kit and Bethesda have implemented dual wield of 1H weapons and said spells.
Dual wielding weapons (I used swords for my playthrough) increases output damage by double,
if using the same weapon on both hands that is, and balances itself out by the inability to
block. Same thing happens with Spells, except after certain perks are purchased in the
destruction perk tree (more on leveling later) you can combine 2 destruction spells into a
deadly combination. This added depth is great for the combat in Skyrim, and with each
attack having slightly more weight to it, it feels a whole lot more brutal.
One of my quarrels with Oblivion has been completely fixed in Skyrim. No longer do you have
to micro manage which skills you raise each level to max specific stats, they've dropped
stats all together and weapon/spell damage is based on the skill tree it falls under. Minor
and Major skills have been removed as well, meaning every skill increase goes towards your
next level, and with the removal of Acrobatics and Athletics, you won't receive random
skill increases just traversing around the world. Each skill has a perk tree associated with it. Each tier has a skill requirement, and are generally great for creating the character you want to play. Lockpicking's tree is a bit less useful with the change to Fallout's style of Lockpicking, but Bethesda could have removed the tree all together and added with sneak to fix that.
Exploring the world and taking quests couldn't be better. Bethesda have discontinued being able to Fast travel to every city straight away, but have replaced it with a taxi service (horse and cart) that costs 20/50 gold to travel to the cities instantly, though once you've been there once you can fast travel as many times as you like. The map of the world ingame does start out a bit confusing. It's 3D layout confused me for the first 30 hours or so though when I became more accustomed to it I could traverse all the mountains and such by swivelling the map around to get different angles of said mountains. Its a great little map for fast travelling with the locations marked clearly and having objectives in its own menu with the ability to switch them on and off helps with clutter issues.
Overall the general gameplay of Skyrim is second to none. If you loved Oblivion, I can see no reason why you wouldn't thoroughly enjoy exploring and killing in Skyrim.
GRAPHICS
Oblivion's graphics were incredible when it was released for the PC in 2006. Skyrim's graphics take it to a whole new level. The environmental effects are superb, I thorougly enjoy trotting about in the rain and staring off into the distance watching lighting strike various places. The draw distance is great, though with the save file bug you see these popping in more often when you have a large save file. It's not exactly game breaking but it slightly detracts you from the experience.
Character models are great. Oblivion had round faces and ugly women, Skyrim has more detailed faces with a combination of hideous (in a good way) and attractive women and men living in the cities. Armor looks great, Bethesda combining cuirass and greaves has been useful in making most well armed characters look good. It also helps remove some of the random combinations of clothes which can be good and bad, but it's for the greater good. The amount of characters on screen has improved dramatically because of this change, and cities barely have frame drops because of it.
SOUND
The sound in Skyrim is phenomonal. I get chills whenever I'm exploring and I hear some wolves howling to alert its comrades of my presence. All monsters have their quirks, I don't want to spoil all of them for you.
The weapons sound meatier than in Oblivion. Each strike sounds like its hitting something solid now unlike the sound of hitting leather in Oblivion.
Oblivion's voice acting problem of too few actors has been fixed. There are at least 70 different voices from what I can tell, though generic characters of each race all share the same voice which isn't that bad.
The soundtrack sets the mood really well, with heart pumping action beats and tranquil
sounds when exploring the roads and cities.
VALUE
I like to judge games value by how many hours you get per dollar. I spent $110 on my limited edition copy, have 70 hours so far and I can see MANY more to follow. If you want a game thats going to last you months, GRAB THIS GAME.
TILT
Bethesda have struck gold again with Skyrim. I enjoyed every minute of it. I can foresee nothing to detract me from my gameplay, this game is that good.
FINAL RATING: 9.8, Superb
The Bottom Line: Masterpiece, Well Worth The Hype
(review was written by Galblade and polished by Rigas)
FireRed and LeafGreen was not different than any other Pokemon game in terms of basic gameplay. Catch Pokemon, make them stronger and eventually become the Champion. They had expanded gameplay compared to the original Red and Green games, with an additional storyline after the end of the game, and also the opportunity to play with a female character. Despite being very simple, this kind of game can get really addicting, so expect FireRed and LeafGreen to take up quite a bit of your time. Even after finishing the entire story, you'll still want to get your Pokemon to Level 100.
