Faery: Legends of Avalon is a Role Playing / Adventure game packed with an original and unique atmosphere, and a graphics design close to illustration. The game immerses players in a fantasy world inhabited by many colourful characters and magical creatures.
In Faery: Legends of Avalon, the player plays as an elf or a fairy that will evolve during the story, through numerous quests and epic turn-based battles. Throughout the adventure, the player will customize his avatar thanks to a unique system changing not only the whole look of the character in every detail, but also its spells and special abilities! The player will recruit various companions during his journey to assist him in his mission, and he will be given the chance to explore mythical places full of magic such as the World Tree, the famous ‘Flying Dutchman’ ghost ship, and many others, in order to try to understand why the Kingdom of Avalon is dying.
Vandal Hearts: Flames of Judgment, an Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network game, is a great example of a tactical RPG, or may be described more accurately as a platform turn based strategy RPG. This game reminds me a lot of Final Fantasy Tactics how you can move your characters from one box to another. You are to use these characters you are given against a pre-determined amount of “baddies” on that particular level. In the training exercises that they have you do at the beginning of the game, you are Tobias, a young boy, who is, you guessed it, just learning about the ways of the sword, the bow, and magic. This does not mean that you are restricted to controlling only one character, you control everyone on the battle field unless there is a special character that assists you in that specific battle.
The game play aspect started out a little clunky and slow but once the game got going it really felt like you could get sucked in and keep playing this game for hours at a time. You are able to use different types of physical attacks such as a regular sword slashing attack and a long range attack that you can switch to, like a bow or another long range weapon and target your enemies from afar. There are also magic attacks like a regular damage attack used to hurt enemies directly, hexes that can slow down or hurt enemies over time like a snare or poison; your magic can also be used to help your characters like the heal spell that gives an ally of your choosing his/her health back, or cure that can take off poisons or snares. Even the technical aspect of this game is exceptional; for example, some regular attacks that you do can actually hurt allies standing next to you if you swing a huge weapon around. The same thing goes with magic, if a magic spell that you use has an area of effect damage to it, you will hurt any allies in the area. So be careful when you choose to unleash a huge magic spell around your allies, because your enemies may die but your allies probably will as well.
The graphics in this game were decent as far as the reactions to attacks and the magic spells that are cast for an arcade game. But as far as the surroundings you can tell that there wasn’t that much put into it and that they were more focused on the game play aspect instead of how the game looked. There were no problems with any of the sounds while attacks were being made, but the surrounding ambiance sounds were very plain.
This game is rated teen for blood, fantasy violence, and mild language. When playing the game, the blood was squirts of red bubbles coming up from a character or enemy that had been attacked, and a prolonged squirt when that character or enemy dies. As far as fantasy violence goes, the above fight sequences is as much violence that you are going to get from this game. If there is any language it is unnoticeable and not overly vulgar.
This relatively new XBLA/PSN game is developed by Hijinx Studios LLC (previously known as PhoenixSoft) and published by Konami Digital Entertainment Inc.
The next DLC for EA and BioWare’s Dragon Age: Origins, a heart-warming tale of revenge and ogre massacre called Return to Ostagar, hits Xbox Live and the PC on January 5. PSN will see the DLC pack sometime later. If you want to know what to expect in the pack, catch a glimpse below, courtesy of Gamerfuzion and Youtube.
When Nintendo Power announced the upcoming Mega Man 10 for WiiWare, they neglected to mention that the retro 8-bit sequel will also grace Xbox Live and PlayStation Network. Makes sense, given that it is a Nintendo publication.
Anyhoo, I just thought you XBL and PSN folks would like to know. If you’re hankering for more punishing old-school gameplay that makes Demon’s Souls look like a Disney game, but you don’t have a Wii, Capcom still has you covered. Capcom has plenty of Sheep Man to go around.
Sony’s new Comic Store addition to the PlayStation Store begins today. Fitting start date, given that Wednesday is the official new comics day in the U.S. The service goes live in the States at noon PST—that’s 3 PM for all the East Coast kids. Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and Ireland can get their comic bookin’ on starting at 5 PM GMT.
Marvel, IDW, 2000AD, and Disney will all have comics online and ready for download to your PSP or PSPgo. Strangely absent is DC Comics, who is working on a MMO with Sony as I type this. You can get your Spider-Man and Hulk fix, kids, but forget about Batman for the time being.
For future updates, be sure to keep track of the PlayStation Comic Store via Twitter. If any significant changes are made in the future—such as the addition of DC Comics—we’ll let you know.
Sony overlord Kaz Harai announced to attendees of a Sony press conference on Thursday that the company the PlayStation Network will become a two-tier service next year, adding a premium tier on top of what players already use on their PlayStation 3 consoles.
The new premium service won’t supersede the current format. Players will still be able to play multiplayer games with friends and family free of charge. The new premium subscription will simply add services. Harai did not elaborate on what kind of services a subscriber can expect.
This news might intrigue gamers that do not own a 360 and/or have a Xbox Live Gold subscription, but it doesn’t do much for me. I (and many of our readers) do the majority of my multiplayer gaming on XBL, so paying for additional services on top of something that works fine in its free state seems silly. Perhaps you folks disagree. If so, let us know.
Sony’s upcoming 3.10 firmware update for the PlayStation 3 will add Facebook integration. Also included in the update: improved photo browsing via a new photo browser, and a cleaner friends list.
Update 3.00 drove some PS3 fans nuts due to the changes to the friend’s list. Sony seems to be addressing these complaints with a revised friend’s list that is similar to the current style but a bit more streamlined. Also, PSN users will be able to add a color that represents their personality.
Doesn’t sound like much, does it? Sony made no mention of the rumored cross-game chat option being included in the upcoming update. Maybe they’re holding out on purpose, trying to keep one secret close for a change? We’ll see.
PS3-only folks, tell us: do you really care enough about Facebook to rejoice at its inclusion in 3.10? Let us know!
Gearbox Software, developers of the shoot-and-loot “RPS” (that’s “role-playing shooter” for you slow folks) Borderlands, claims the game is flying off of store shelves so fast it’s nowhere to be found in many retail markets, but especially on the East Coast. GameSpot counters this claim, stating that there are no shortage issues on the West Coast, as calls to area stores met with claims that Borderlands is still very much in stock—particularly the PlayStation 3 version.
Speaking of the PS3 version: co-op is apparently a bit jacked at the moment. Apparently, PS3 owners who bought Borderlands are unable to see who else is playing said game on their friend’s list due to a bug, making co-op sessions all but impossible to achieve. Gearbox promises a patch is coming soon to address this issue.
Did any of you pick up the PS3 version of Borderlands? If so, has the friend’s list issue affected your ability to get into a co-op session with your buddies? Gearbox claims the bug never surfaced during testing sessions, but I find that a little hard to believe given how widespread the issue is. I bought the Xbox 360 version, which thankfully doesn’t have this bug, so I can’t comment on how it affects players. PS3 owners, let us know about your experiences.
After several days of headaches brought about by trying to get into matches, I can now confidently review EA and DICE’s Battlefield 1942 download-only sequel, Battlefield 1943. I wish I was joking about the online issues, but sadly they were quite real. Getting into a quick match was incredibly difficult, and playing with friends was all but impossible. DICE stepped up though, adding several additional servers and ironing out most of the connection wrinkles prohibiting gamers from getting into matches.
These issues seem to have largely existed on the Xbox Live side of things, as there are far fewer reports of connectivity issues from PlayStation Network users. I played the Xbox Live Arcade version of Battlefield 1943 for review purposes, but the PSN version is identical in form and function, so PS3 owners may feel free to use my review to aid in their buying decisions.
So, after all those headaches, was the game worth waiting for? The answer to that question depends largely on what kind of gamer you are. If you’re a fan of Battlefield 1942, the answer is an enthusiastic “yes.” Although the DICE team behind 1943 did not develop the original, they paid great homage to the PC classic, and even improved upon the already-stellar gameplay with a few tweaks. Ammo is now infinite; snipers can’t go prone; teams are limited to 12 players; and so on. (more…)
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