Sonic Adventure again!?

Yep, Sonic Adventure has yet again been ported, this time to the XBL Arcade. It comes in its basic release form, which was the original Dreamcast version or you can fork out an extra 400 points and get the DX upgrade, which basically makes the game like the Gamecube port with Mission mode and Metal Sonic, etc.

I know it's been out for a while and this might be a little overdue, but with Christmas fast approaching, some of you may get points and may be wondering what to buy, so here's my two cents about one of my favorite games of all time, Sonic Adventure.

My first memories of this game were at the tender age of 11, when i got a Dreamcast for Christmas along with a few games, one of which was Sonic Adventure. I wasn't really a massive Sonic fan at the time and had really only played Sonic & Knuckles for the Sega Genesis, so this didn't really catch my attention to start with and was promptly left to sit on my sideboard for a couple of weeks. Once i had eventually ran out of things to play i decided to pop it in and at least have a look, just to alleviate some of my boredom. What i ran into was something that completely blew me away. I was totally gripped from the start, everything grabbed my attention; The intro cinematic, the game play, the music, the story. It sang to me on so many levels that games had not done previously, it was and still is, one of my must play games of your lifetime. So i'll begin.

The Demo:
The demo game on the XBLA does not do this game any justice whatsoever. It slaps you into one of the driest parts of the game with no storyline whatsoever and a little bit of a spoiler and, being a dated title of Dreamcast origin, the game play is not enough to draw you into its world. While the game play of the game is fantastic it remains a little bit clunky and, at points awkward. Like i said, it's a dated title but it's a solid title, nonetheless.

The Sound:
The soundtrack for this game is amazing, it even got its own section, see? We aren't talking about just mere stage themes here, we're talking about full blown, studio produced audio by the now fairly well known Crush 40. Each of it's stages themes are beautifully composed and fit each location perfectly and the theme songs for some characters will have you bobbing your head more times than not. While some of the voice acting can be a little on the dodgy side, most of the voice acting is brilliant and each of the voices perfectly mirror the character. 10/10 for the sound.

The Story:
As you are most likely aware, Sonic games have never been to great for the storyline until the subsequent stream of 3D games that have graced the consoles. The story for this one, however, is somewhat special. It's completely unique and rings back to Sonics old glory days. The story feels like a narrated and scripted version of one of the 2D games, which carries a great amount of immersion just in itself alone. It also gives you 6 playable characters, each with their own story and viewpoint of the events that occur, some play a pivotal role, others break away from the main story to provide back story on the character or to provide decent filler story. The only thing that is a bit of a disappointment is that some characters stories will seem more like rigmarole than actual canonical inclusion, as if they were put there just to make you play for longer. 8/10 for the story.

The Game Play:
Like i said a little earlier, it's a little bit clunky, but what would you expect from a dated console. The only thing that will really piss you off beyond measure is the sometimes awkward camera angles, where you won't actually be able to see what you're trying to get to or anything, but this can be quickly rectified with the triggers. Sometimes you will slam into a wall and come to a complete stop, which can be annoying at times, but it isn't really that much of a problem. If there is one thing in this game that will most likely cause you to stop playing, that would be the final boss of Sonics storyline, not for the fact that it is hard, but sometimes the game has actually done me over and I've dashed straight through the final bosses hit area on the final hit and to my death in the bottomless pit below. Certain portions of game play (AKA Big the Cat's story/Amy Rose's story) will make you want to gouge your own eyes out with a rusty spoon, because it's just overbearingly boring and tedious. Overall it gets 6/10 for game play, controls are great, but there are things that can really make you an unhappy camper.

The Graphics:
Now i'm not a graphics gamer, but this is pretty mandatory, because some of you are. The graphics for this game are pretty outdated but the cinematic scenes (Such as the intro) are fantastic and almost puts some of today's game cinematic sequences to shame. In game however, that is somewhat of a different story. I wouldn't say that the graphics suck, because they don't, they're just outdated and may look crappy to some of the younger gamers out there. The characters are beautifully designed, but the animation during cut scenes can be a little shoddy in appearance, but this is only due to the fact that the mouth movements were originally animated to talk in Japanese and not English. 8/10.

In any case and it's definitely worth a look at if you like platformer titles. All in all it's a solid title with a fairly large amount of mandatory play time required to complete it. It's a worthwhile distraction from actual Xbox 360 titles and well worth the points, even if you buy the basic version and on that note, i recommend that players with less time just buy the basic version and not the DX add on DLC because you won't actually use it and you'll definitely be wasting points. That's all from me for this time, cheers!

                        Buy my games kids! Or Sega will feed me to the dogs. D:>

Fable III Gameplay Tips.

Now i know some of you are going to be a little bit skeptical since Fable III HAS been plagued by some pretty game wrecking glitches as of late, but rest assured, they ARE being patched, slowly but surely.

This post isn't about bashing Lionhead, instead this is some general tips for game improvement and better all round enjoyment. So take a seat, sit back, relax and have a good ol' read.

Part One: Building your character.

This section is all about building your character in a way to make the game more enjoyable for you. Now, i know what you're thinking...Hey it's my character, why should i listen to you? Well, truth is, you don't have to, it's all up to you, but here are some things that made my play throughs of Fable III most enjoyable.
Step one: Spread all your Guild seals into one Hero path. For example, go full magic or full ranged. It leads to a much more enjoyable experience and also leads you to appreciate each medium of combat a lot more. This brings us to our next step. Step two: Spending the rest of your Guild seals. I would wholly recommend putting your leftover Guild seals into Blacksmithing as it is probably the easiest job AND generates the largest amount of income over time. And a quick tip for Blacksmithing too, try to keep a constant rhythm instead of just pressing the buttons when they appear in the fields for the applicable button. You will be able to keep a multiplier of 10 much easier this way. Although it takes a bit of practice to get the rhythm down.

Part Two: Filling your time.
Fable III has a massive world and lots of side quests to offer, so make sure when playing through you take full advantage of all the Guild seals on offering for the side quests as they are not as tedious as they were in previous installments and some are actually rather enjoyable. Just take your time and take a little break in between your rise to rule with a few side quests. There are also several mini games available, if you have the DLC for a couple of them. There's the Mourningwood fort game, the Bandit shooting range (Understone DLC) and The wheel of misfortune (Understone DLC), all of which offer you some fantastic rewards upon completion. There are also hidden areas to hunt for, such as the Dark Sanctum, Driftwood and Sunset house which, again, offer some amazing rewards for finding them.

Part Three: Earning masses of Gold.
As was explained earlier, you're going to need that Level 5 Blacksmithing if you want to make serious amounts of Gold (Some people prefer Pie-Making). The principle is simple, make a ton of money and buy businesses after unlocking the Entrepreneur pack from the Road to Rule. Soon enough, after buying most of the businesses in Bowerstone Market, you should start generating a great amount of income, which is credited to your Gold balance every 5 minutes. It's also important to make the right decisions throughout the games choices. Please skip this next part if you don't want any spoilers. So spoiler alert out the way, it's a good idea to bail out the economy when you get the decision to do so and it is also advised that you keep your promises whilst you are King/Queen. It is NOT advised to take money from the treasury, nor is it advised to keep any donations from donation items that are supposed to be for the treasury. Your income at end game after buying multiple stores and stalls in various locations should be enough to save your entire population AND make you very, very rich. And saving the population is key, since, no one likes a dead world (And yes, it's that bad, even if you save 6,400,000 of the full 6.5 million, it still looks desolate afterward).

Part Four: Demon Doors and Collectibles.
Even though you get the choice to start these off during the course of the game, it is advised that you leave the majority of the collecting until the end game, just because it's a lot easier, since you have full access to the world and because it will give you something to extend the lifespan of your Hero. There are also a variety of Demon Doors who have a whole host of outrageous prerequisites to fulfill before they will part for you. Here i will explain some tricks to getting into certain Demon Doors. Millfields Demon Door wants you to be ugly, but he doesn't just want you to be ugly, he wants you to be super ugly and he'll only budge if you follow these quick steps, there are also some steps for "De-uglification". To begin with you will need to wear your Pyjamas, you should buy some dye packs and dye ALL parts of the suit different colors (Even the trims must be different from the main colors), next, get hold of a weapon called Slimquick, it will help you shed the excess weight after getting fat as a house (NOTE: Make sure you have Slimquick equipped BEFORE getting yourself fat, it's bonus will allow you to lose weight, but you must gain 100% fatness first). Once you have done these things, the Millfields Demon Door will open for you. The Mourningwood Demon Door can be a bit confusing too, since it's hints are perplexing at best. Simply, you will need a level 5 Melee weapon or a level 5 Ranged weapon to gain access (Only one and you must unsheathe it in front of the Demon Door). City of Aurora's Demon Door may sound like a tall order, but simply finish the main storyline of the game and return here after you've gained your "Wings" and he will open up. For Brightwall's Demon Door, just adopt a child from Bowerstone Industrial and hold it's hand and fast travel to Brightwall then perform an expression on the child in front of the Demon Door, then you can just fire your nanny and be on your merry way.

That's pretty much it for this post, since it's dragged it's heels for far too long now. Hope this was at least informative. Cheers, i hope to see you next time.

First Post! Wahoo!

Alright, so first things first. Unless they're second, then they aren't first, you get the idea. I may (Hopefully) seem familiar to some of you, as we may have crossed paths on Xbox live perhaps a few times, which brings me to my second point. I will be posting strictly for Xbox 360 games, so if you're a PS3 owner, i still love you, but this is probably not the place for you, unless of course you're here to see my posts about multi-format games.

As for me, the current games i am playing are:

• Fable 3 (Understone DLC included)
• Halo Reach
• Call of Duty Black Ops
• Super Street Fighter IV (I never stop playing this)

So it'll be more than likely that my first post will be about one of these 4 amazing games. I know a couple of them have been out for a while, so what i will post won't be reviews, it will most likely be tips and tricks.

That's about it from me on this post, cheers.