Disgaea: Hour of Darkness

Fans of Final Fantasy Tactics or Dynasty Tactics will immediately recognize the basic game play of Disgaea. It strongly resembles Final Fantasy Tactics for Playstation, with slightly updated graphics.

At first, I had the feeling that this game could have been done on the Playstation One, but the average graphics soon became unnoticeable once the action started. This is where the genre has gotten a real facelift, allowing for many, many options during the fighting, which translate into much more strategy.

The options outside of battle are good, too, including the ability to create your own characters. Now that I can do this, I wonder how I've ever liked a strategy game without it. The game play is smooth, which helps differentiate it from a Playstation game, and everything works well to set the mood.

The music in Disgaea is great, catchy music with enough variation to avoid becoming stale. In fact, the whole game manages to keep from getting stale, even doing the same map multiple times for extra experience.

The story of Disgaea is good, and while it seems familiar much of the time, it's pretty original. The cut scenes are well done, and often hilarious, sometimes poking fun at the lack of actual strategy found in other games of this genre.

So if you liked Final Fantasy Tactics, you will like this game. If you didn't like it because it didn't actually have all that much strategy, you should like this game. If you never played Final Fantasy Tactics, but you are looking for a game that is a lot of fun and has a good story, this is a good game to get. Disgaea is a very solid purchase, combining all the important elements of what makes a great game and even sometimes managing to be original.

Impire 2013 Strategy Game

Impire is a three-dimensional single-player and co-operative real-time strategy video game that Cyanide Studios is developing, and Paradox Interactive publishing, for the PC in Q1 2013.

Gameplay:Initial press reactions to Impire drew comparisons with Bullfrog Productions's Dungeon Keeper, a real-time strategy game released in 1997 that received widespread critical acclaim. Alongside Dungeon Keeper, Impire similarly grants the player command over a subterranean empire, with the ability to construct buildings, recruit monsters, and engage minions in combat.

Setting: Within the fictional universe of Impire, the player assumes the persona of Baʿal-Abaddon, a primordial evil summoned from Tartarus and imprisoned in the physical form of a demonic imp, initially forced to serve the incompetent sorcerer Oscar van Fairweather. During the course of Impire, Baal-Abaddon escapes van Fairweather's control and attempts to reconstruct his ancient, nefarious empire under the continent of Ardania.

Development: Shortly after announcing the project on 26 July 2012, Yves Bordeleau, the Studio Director of Cyanide Montreal indicated that Impire was in 'pre-pre-alpha' during his presentation to GameSpot staff. Throughout Bordeleau's demonstration, he frequently referenced the 'scenarios' in the single-player and co-operative campaign setting of Impire, suggesting that the structure of the game is predominantly mission-based.

Champions of Norrath

Champions of Norrath is a standard hack'n slash action RPG similar to the Baulder's Gate series. Nonetheless, the fun that it brings to the player is far ahead of Baulder's Gate.

Basically Champions is created with the idea of being a fun multiplayer game. It is a great game to play with when you have up to four players. The single player mode is not bad for you would be able to get the standard satisfaction from an action RPG. You still level up and solve very basic puzzles but when being ambushed by enemies, you would regret coming on to the adventure alone. Some of the boss fights are tremendously difficult when you are in the single player mode. Luckily you could save and reload your adventure at any point to go through the level again and again for a speedy level up. That could help you a bit at the beginning of the adventure.


In terms of battle system, it is basic hack'n slash with the support of a quick spell book menu where you assign your different spells to your convenience. However, since all the other buttons on the controller are already occupied, you would only be able to assing two quick spell or ability at one time. So in case things go bad in a battle, that means your strategy is not working out. Once the quick spell book is full you have to change it from the menu screen. Certain abilities and spell consumes mana, and mana is the only thing that you can use to cast spell, so for magic users, carrying a lot of mana is a must, but this at the same time reduce your load capacity, which in return limits your the number of items that you can carry and sell (for all the hard earning gold). So some strategy is needed if you want to go through the battles and adventure more easily. Also replenishing life by usuing potion takes time too. So if you try to heal in the middle of an ambush, there would be a good chance that you die during the healing.

Different classes - Dark Elf, High Elf Cleric, Wood Elf Ranger, Babarian and Wizards - have their own abilities and spells that you could upgrade throughout your hard earned level up experience. Further, you need to open up certain abilities or reach certain levels before you could open up other abilities or spells in the line. So you have to really plan what you want so that you won't be wasting the ability points that you earned through the levelling up. The maximum level of each ability and spell is 20 and there are quite a number of them for you to master, which keeps the game replayabel in this aspect. Also at the beginning of the game, you can assign a basic 20 upgrade points for your character to customise the style and ability that you want to start the game off with. You can also customise the look of your character and every time you assign or equip new items to the character, it will be shown in the menu screen, which adds to the fun as some of the equipment make them look very silly indeed. :)
You can also assign gems and stones to your weapon and armours to increase certain stats or add certain status effects to your attack. Nonetheless, gems are hard to find and in case you are in a four player game, that could be one of the things to compete for and start arguments. However, not all the gems are useful for they may benefit more to certain classes but this is also the interesting part as throughout the course of the game you could even change a magic user into a striker.

The levels are well design and each area have their own type of enemies. The enemies once got killed will lie on the ground so you know that you have visited this area before. That is something really good as the whole environment in a level looks a like, it is a good indication of showing that you have been here. Also the dungeons are randomly generated, so every time you revisit a place it could be different, which adds the replay value of the game. In terms of puzzles, there aren't a lot and most of them you know what to do through the storyline. It is just that some of the puzzles and missions could be pretty annoying if you just fast forward the conversation when you play it for the first time.

Storywise, the story is quite basic with some twist and turns but the fun you gain from the game is from the customisation and gameplay, which makes the story less important which could be a down side in a way that this is after all a RPG. You couldn't not expect an epic story like the Final Fantasy or Tales of Symphonia, but it offers a different type of enjoyment. Also the way the character communicates with you when his/her load capacity is full is very funny too.

For gamers, this is a definite good choice as a multiplayer RPG and it is great fun going alongside with your commrades to kill orcs and zombies. Nonetheless, there are quite a number of bugs in the game, including frame rate and also the most annoying freezing when you are in 4 player mode (usually happens when you try to get into your inventory. So save before opening inventory when you are in 4 player mode). Once froze you have to restart and all the hard work are gone. Hopefully Ubisoft will pay attention to this in the sequel release. Othe than that it is one of the more promising multiplayer RPG in the market.

Far Cry 3 PC Is Like Open World Uncharted In 1080P And High Resolution Textures

Far Cry 3 is a terrific game and almost all the critics have said that it’s better than Far Cry 2 and one of the best games ever released this gen. Our review round-up over here will tell you how many of them have praised it. There’s a reason for the praise, though. The game looks magnificent on PC.

Shadow Hearts: Covenant (Third-Person 3D RPG)

The Shadow Hearts series is a real alternative type of RPG that makes itself stands out from other RPGs in the market. The first one got the unfortunate fate with a close launch with Final Fantasy X, so it got sunk to the bottom. Nonetheless, this doesn't discouraged Midway and Azure to roll out the second instalment of the Shadow Hearts.

Covenant's event happened 6 months after the first game when Yuri the ill fated hero decided to move into a peaceful life in a small country village. Nonetheless, with the outbreak of World War I, no place is safe and peaceful. Thus he was forced into fight to protect this small village from German invasion, which eventually led him back into arms.


The character designs are much better this time round with each of the character having their own personality that actually shows up in the story. An old puppeteer whose puppet is a mirror image of his late daughter, a German official, a gay vampire wrestler, a spoiled and adventurous Russian princess, a single hearted samurai, a tarot card reader and a white wolf. They together formed a very unique party one had ever seen in a RPG. Their abilities also hovered around their nature. Abilities like Marionette, Tarot Cards, Aromatherapy, Muscle skills etc. are very well thought of and designed. They also exhibit different types of attribute that makes the formation of your favourite team a very enjoyable experience.

The judgement ring system is back but much better. The judgement ring is a dial that appears with every single command that you use, no matter it is attack, ability, magic or item. You have to hit certain required areas to make the move successful. The last game has the flaw of being too difficult to use a lack of customisation. But in this game you can customise the ring with a lot of flexibility, be it enlarging strike (critical hit) or hit areas, increasing the number of hit areas, slowing down the indicator or add on more status effects with attacks. This makes the game more enjoyable for a lot of people. You also have the choice of auto ring, although it trades of the damage you can do to you enemies.

The side quests are interesting and they actually enriched the story of each character. The downside is most side quests are not available until the end of the game. However, that makes up with the difficulty of the bosses associated with these quests. The game also makes fun of the game itself and thus put more personality inside the game itself. The story of the Ring Soul is one of them. Nonetheless, the game has a lot of homosexual elements in it, which further takes the game out of normal RPG conventions. So probably might not be suitable for under age kids to play it and at least teenage about 15 would be recommended to venture into this game.

The story is engrossing though still quite fall into most RPG story conventions. The cut scenes are very well done and could rival every single Final Fantasy game in the market. The best part is when you finished the game once, you are rewarded with the theatre mode where you can watch all the movies and semi-movies again without going through the whole game again.
Shadow Hearts: Covenant really stands out as an outstanding RPG and for gamers who are eagerly waiting for FF XII to come out. Covenant could well quench your thirst with a lot of joy.

Rockstar states that GTA V PC is up for consideration, PC gamers launch a petition to show interest

Therefore, and in order to show Rockstar their interest, a petition for GTA V PC has been launched. The petition currently has 8.877 supporters and aims to gather 100.000 signatures. It has a long way until then though, and that's precisely why are backing it up.

We Love Katamari

We Love Katamari is the sequel to 2004's insanely fun and original Katamari Damacy. The overall story of the first game was for you, the Prince of All Cosmos, to collect items using Katamaris so that you could make constellations after the King of All Cosmos accidentally destroys them. Katamari Damacy was probably the best "budget title" to ever be released on the Playstation 2 and even though it was shortlived, it was still a very fun game. It featured trippy Japanese humor, as well as some imaginative gameplay. Although it featured mostly cel drawn animation and purposeful blocky 3D animation, everything meshed really well. The second one is pretty similar, but in this game, you are trying to appease the wishes of your fans from the first game. You go from person to person fulfilling thier request, as they bow down to their hero, the King of All Cosmos.

Although the second game in many respects is better than Katamari Damacy, with a whole year of work, there could have been more to the game. The game was definately longer, and the new types of modes and multiplayer options make this game really fun, but it failed to innovate on the first game. I'll break it down by catagory to make it easy to understand.

Graphics - 8/10 - The first game had incredible cartoony and fun Japanese humor in 3D form. Crisper edges, and more vivid colors make this game's graphics pop a little more from the first game, but is mostly running on the same engine, which is somewhat disappointing, but expected. Even though it does use mostly the same engine, everything still looks really nice, and isn't an eyesoar to look at.

Gameplay - 10/10 - Just as fun as ever. Good framerate and some of the technical problems that were in the first game were solved, which is really nice. Although there were minor differences in gameplay for each cousin, it would have been nice to see a larger variation, but either way, it was pretty good. The new types of levels really came out nicely, and don't seem awkward like I thought they would, and glitches and bugs are realatively low.

Sound - 10/10 - Probably the best part of this game. Amazing soundtrack, hilarious noises, and great bass. Just as the first game, this brings this game to an all time excellence. I wish the entire game could be as good as the sound, but even though it isn't, it doesn't make it a bad game.

Replay Value - 8/10 - The new co-op mode is alright, but my friend is really bad at listening, so it wasn't too exciting. The battle mode is still fun, and I liked how they made variety in it this time. You can now multiplay to collect the most of a certain type of item instead of just making a larger Katamari. The game was a little longer than the first game, which is good, and expected due to the price of game increasing from $20 to $30 over the previous one.

BOTTOM LINE - If you liked or played the first game, get it... and if your looking for a light hearted, fun, and way out there game, We Love Katamari fits your mold.