Tales of Graces f Demo Impressions

The Tales of Graces f demo was finally put on the Japanese PSN store about a week ago. Luckily for me the PlayStation 3 system that I have access to was finally repaired and sent back to me! Anyways, long story short I made sure that the first thing I did was download the demo.

I started off not having any interest at all in Tales of Graces f, but after having to report a bit of news and having to pay such close attention to every single detail released about this game my opinion changed. The more and more I read up about this game, the more and more interesting it started to sound. I had started to make up my mind right before this demo came out that I was going to import it.

After playing through the demo, even though I can't read or understand Japanese even close to an elementary level, I've found that the game is quite a bit better than I was expecting. I have had very little previous experience with Tales games so I was sort of walking into this one blindly.

Alright first of all, I have a feeling that the story for this game will be pretty good. I'm aware that when I play it, I'll be looking through some fan translations and such but I won't let that take away from my enjoying this game for what it is. The characters seem pretty likable based solely on the demo, I really like the character design of Sophie and Asbel seems like a good main character to control.

I should have stated this sooner but all my opinions are based solely on what I know of Tales of Graces f, I have no prior knowledge of Tales of Graces for the Wii, so if I get something wrong at any point, I apologize.

The battle system in this game, from what I got a taste of in the demo seems very interesting to say the least. I like how it takes the regular typical Tales battle system, that of attacks and artes, and combines in the new Accelerate Mode. To be fair the demo has you playing with characters that are level 65, but Accelerate Mode is just amazing for lack of better words. It's visually amazing and its also enemy-destroying amazing.

Well in conclusion all I can say for sure is that, funds providing, I'll have this game in my hands a little after Christmas and when I do, you will know!

inFAMOUS Review

inFAMOUS 22.3.2010

Infamous is a 2009 sandbox style game. The game was made by Suckerpunch and published by Sony. Released in May/June 2009 Infamous centers around a courier named Cole MacGrath. Cole lives in a fictional city by the name of Empire City. Early in the game Cole is supposed to be delivering a package for an unnamed client when the package explodes killing hundreds of people. Rather than kill Cole however, the explosion gives him super powers.

The concept of the game is pretty nice. Personally I loved it. The story isn't forgettable and the ending is a good one. However, if you like to get trophies, this game can be evil. One thing a lot of games seem to have in common lately is that they constantly have two to four trophies for finding 100+ items that are well hidden throughout the entire game. In most cases, like Assassin's Creed 2, this isn't too hard, but good luck finding all 350 Blast Shard in Infamous.

The main premise of the game is to make good or evil choices, zap power back into different parts of Empire City, kill the bad guys and complete a number of side quests so that you can free up the entire city. It's not really that hard, its just rather tedious.

Breakdown of Opinions:

Controls: The controls of the game are simple. They seem to flow smoothly and nothing seems awkward in the least, unless you happen to be bad with the Sixaxis, then the Arc Lightning power might not be your calling.

Characters: Most of the characters in Infamous are rather enjoyable. If you're anything like me though, about half way through the game you'll want to kill either Zeke or Trish. Oh, and trust me, when you hear the Voice of Survival guy; just run away. The blast shards and quests will go nowhere, and you won't have to deal with his god awful voice.

Story: The story is a good one. It takes the classic comic book hero and puts you in his shoes allowing you to decide if he turns into the good guy or the super villain. The only thing that is a disappointment really is that once you get to a certain point, you can't make good decisions anymore if you've been a big baddie, and as always, the story line is pretty much the same no matter what decisions you make.

Score: 9/10 Infamous is a great game, but its not the greatest. It has its flaws, but putting them aside I see no reason why the game shouldn't be enjoyed.