We’re gonna end 2011 in style: with an extra Throwback Thursday. Today, I have the unique pleasure of writing about one of my favorite games that I’ve ever had the joy of playing: Final Fantasy VIII. Now, there’s an old saying that gets bandied about plenty by gamers: you always love your first Final Fantasy  the most. That’s definitely true for me, and I’m very defensive of FF8. I remember playing FF8 shortly after its release. It was among the first serious RPGs I ever encountered, and it stays with me to this day. Really, there’s so much to love in Final Fantasy VIII: stunning visuals, a gorgeous soundtrack, a variety of characters, an intuitive combat and statistic system, and a dynamic, captivating story. So, while other FF games have done some things better than FF8, I would argue that no single FF game can stand up to the masterpiece that is Final Fantasy VIII. 

Plot Characters

Spanning four Playstation discs, FF8‘s story is massive. For the most part, the player controls Squall Leonheart, a brooding loner studying at the Balamb Garden, a military academy that prepares students to join the SeeD military force. The game begins as Squall is preparing to take his final exam before joining SeeD. After completing the exam, Squall joins SeeD and his squad is hired by a bunch of rebels, led by Rinoa, hoping to free the city of Timber from the control of the evil Galbadian Army. In doing so, Squall is ordered to assassinate Sorceress Edea, the leader of the Galbadian forces. Squall and his companions initially fail and are imprisoned by Edea. After their escape, they must part ways while they attempt to save Balamb Garden from retaliation by Edea and her Galbadian Garden. I won’t go much further, but the game’s fantastic story explores a wide variety of elements: a burgeoning romance between Squall and Rinoa, a mysterious past seemingly shared by some of the controllable characters all centered around a Galbadian soldier named Laguna, and complex time travel elements. The story has stuck with me for years afterwards.

The characters are all mostly enjoyable. Squall’s brooding nature is offset by the chipper Quistis, Zell, Rinoa, Selphie, and Irvine (the other main, playable characters). Each brings their own distinct flavor to the plot, and they’re all fairly well integrated. They all work together very well and have lots of hilarious interchange. Some other supporting characters, like Laguna, Seifer, Squall’s rival at Balamb Garden, and Edea, al bring a lot of diversity to a very large cast of characters. There’s bound to be a character that everyone can enjoy in this game. The dialogue, though not voice-acted, is hilarious and inviting.

Sound

It has been eleven years since the first time I played this game, and I can still remember most of the game’s soundtrack vividly. Created by legendary composer Nobuo Uematsu, the soundtrack has become one of the series most widely-beloved. Many of FF8′s songs are featured frequently in medleys and both Final Fantasy and game-soundtrack concerts. With such a diverse, dynamic story, Uematsu had a difficult task of creating a soundtrack that could help the player become immersed in the wide variety of emotional responses the game attempted to elicit. His soundtrack was a resounding success in this regard. Even the most “forgettable” pieces (background music in towns/zones) is thoughtfully crafted and wonderfully reflective of the environment. There are some fantastic, pulse-pounding tunes that helped increase the drama of the game’s most action-packed sequences; there are songs that strike the deepest, most profound emotional chords. Each song in this game reflects one moment or idea, and Uematsu’s attempt to create a dynamic unit of music to match an equally dynamic story paid off beautifully. Here’s one of my favorite songs from the game, “Love Grows,” performed by the Distant Worlds Orchestra:

Graphics

When I try and tell people about moments that make me happy to be a gamer, I always come back to the story of the first time I booted up FF8. Eleven years later, I can still remember watching the opening cinematic for the first time. I watched as a camera soared across a beautiful ocean and exploded into a colorful, vibrant field of flowers. The visual standard established by the opening scene was never lowered during the game. Unlike its predecessor, this game had the same visuals both in and out of combat. Cutscenes were beautifully animated, and the game has an overall realistic (relative to 1999 at least) visual atmosphere. Spell effects were wonderfully detailed, as were the characters’ “Limit Breaks” (this game’s equivalent of the “Overdrive Attack”). This entry’s adaptation of the summons, Guardian Forces (GFs), each had a unique summoning animation that really pushed the limits of what we could expect from a Playstation game.

Here’s the aforementioned opening scene. I’m willing to say that even now, eleven years later, these visuals still look pretty darn good:

Gameplay

Okay, here’s where fans can become bitterly divided: The Junction System. Each FF title has a unique combat/power-up system that really differentiates it from its siblings. Junctioning, arguably, is one of the most complicated systems. There is no “mana” in this game; instead, players “draw” spells from creatures and have a limited number of uses of that spell (e.g., you draw 5 “Fire” from one enemy, and then you can use those 5 yourself). You can then assign those drawn spells to certain attributes to help boost your stats. Initially, you only have access to basic spells like “Fire,” which just provides raw stat gain; however, as you encounter more diverse spells, you can assign them to all kinds of different categories, which are unlocked by leveling up your summoned GFs. For example, you can add a poison-based spell to your weapon in order to poison enemies on contact. As you max out your GFs’ levels, you gain a bunch of different stat conversion and assignment tools that provide for an unbelievable amount of customization. Yes, Junctioning is incredibly complicated. It takes a long time to learn the intricacies of the system; however, once you get the hang of it, you can do some really neat stuff to your characters and their stats.

Combat was turn-based, and pretty similar to FF7. The main difference is that characters’ Limit Breaks don’t slowly fill; instead, a character’s Limit Break unlocks when they reach the bottom 10% of their HP. Each character, arguably, has a class. They’re all very different, and most variations lie in their weapons and limit breaks. Quistis, for example, is a Blue Mage (i.e., she uses enemy spells for her limit breaks). It takes a lot of effort to acquire all of a character’s weapons and limit breaks (as it should), but in the end, you wind up with some very powerful characters that each fill a different role. Here’s the boss fight against the game’s toughest foe: the Omega Weapon. Don’t worry, there aren’t any spoilers (this is an optional boss fight that rewards you with some high-level weapons and items).

The last notable gameplay element that demands mentioning is Triple Triad, FF8‘s insanely addictive card game. FF8 is one of the only games I have ever 100% completed, and the madness I experienced while becoming a master of Triple Triad is something I will never forget. The premise is simple: on a nine-box grid, you and an opponent compete to take over each other’s cards, which have one stats in each of the cardinal directions. There is a card for basically every creature and playable character in the game; obviously, the cards for playable characters, bosses, and GFs are the best. Cards can also be converted into rare items if you have a GF with that ability. Some of the side quests for pursuing even one card are so insanely difficult and time-consuming that I’m wondering how twelve-year-old Kyle had the patience to do all of that. There are wide variety of rules that change based on when and where you play the game. The Card Club Group and Queen of Cards side-quests haunt me to this day. Players have been demanding a proper, real-life Triple Triad for years. In fact, Triple Triad is so popular that you have to go to the fifth result on Google to access that previously-linked encyclopedia entry because of all the online TT simulators.

Overall

See, FF8 brings a lot to the table, and there’s so much more that I’m forgetting. There are a bunch of side missions and subplots that only obsessive completionists would even think of attempting. The main story is a beautiful, if not complex, testament to the power of storytelling in gaming. The characters all have unique personalities and mesh together quite well. The game’s soundtrack is a further testament to the serious artistic potential that this form of entertainment possesses. The astounding visuals pushed the envelope for what we could expect from the Playstation. The variety of different gameplay elements, though maddening and perhaps needlessly intricate, invite many different types of gamers to explore this fantastic RPG. Give FF8 a chance if you never have – I think you’ll be pleased.

Tags: comic booked, FF8, Final Fantasy 8, Final Fantasy VIII, GF, Guardian Force, Junctioning, Kyle Black, Nobuo Uematsu, SEED, Throwback Thursday

About the Author

Written by Kyle Black

Kyle Black has been a gamer his whole life. Recently, he has decided to merge his love of gaming with his love of writing. The resulting product: a gig here on Comic Booked writing about, what else, video games!

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Article source: http://www.comicbooked.com/throwback-thursday-18-final-fantasy-viii/

Valve’s Half-Life 2 is still highly regarded as a near-critic proof game. Its re-release as part of the Orange Box, along with Portal and Team Fortress 2, ensured that a second wave of fans were won over by this dystopian fantasy’s clever innovations with linear gameplay. The influence of Half-Life can be seen not only in Valve’s continuing successes both creatively and commercially (Steam anyone…?), but even Neill Blomkamp’s District 9 owes it an obvious debt (as can be seen even in the original short). All this praise for a humble shooter? Let’s dive in to find out why.

“So, wake up, Mr. Freeman. Wake up and smell the ashes.”

Plot Characters 9/10: Protagonist Gordon Freeman is ‘inserted’ back into the plot of Half-Life following the disastrous events of the first game by the mysterious G-Man. Coming to in City 17, located somewhere in Eastern Europe and controlled by the alien empire known as the Combine, Freeman has reappeared decades after the Black Mesa incident and is now revered as a figurehead of the dwindling human revolutionary movement. Quisling Dr Wallace Breen has sold out humanity wholesale, the planet is being stripped of its resources and alien vermin (such as the persistent head-crabs) have overwhelmed the deserted city outskirts. Freeman encounters several colleagues from his former life, who encourage him to do his part to defeat the Combine and eventually storm the citadel. First though, there’s the small matter of surviving the wave after wave of Combine Overwatch soldiers, head-crab zombies and Ant-Lions.

Sound 8/10: The electronic soundtrack of Half-Life enlivens several brutal encounters, in particular a heart-pounding hovercraft chase sequence in the first section of the game when Freeman is still searching for the rebel base. But it’s the game’s atmospherics that stick in the memory. From the eerie head-crab zombie cries in Ravenholm, to the vertiginous, wind-swept underside of a bridge where Freeman must contend with Overwatch soldiers and gunships, the soundscape of this game is never less than totally immersive.

Graphics 8/10: The difficulty with recommending classic games like Fallout, or Planescape Torment to contemporary fans is that modern graphics often spoil players. Unable to see beyond the rigid isometric views to the narratives behind, some engaging storylines have a half-life of two years past their release date. This game was first released in 2004 and managed to impressively capture actual human facial expressions without a dip into the Uncanny Valley, all credit to Valve’s Source engine.

Gameplay 9/10: The groundbreaking use of physics in Half-Life 2 was not only part and parcel of the immersiveness of the game, but it also lends itself to many interesting ways of killing sundry opponents. The Ravenholm chapter in particular has Freeman enter rooms with numerous explosive barrels and saw blades scattered about, and him with a gravity gun to hand. What is a scientist surprisingly capable in a gunfight to do? The game even comes with a ‘Zombie Chopper’ achievement for beating the Ravenholm level using nothing but the gravity gun – certainly possible, but nothing feels better than shooting a zombie in the head with a shotgun.

Overall 9/10: Half-Life 2 is a classic of the genre that holds up years after its first release. It is a testament to how video games as a medium have achieved critical mass were a title can be returned to at any point after its release, which in effect is a handy definition of what a classic is. This game is to linear shooters what Watchmen was to superhero fist-fights.

Tags: comic booked, dystopia, Emmet OCuana, Gordon Freeman, Half-Life 2, Portal, Source, Team Fortress 2, The Orange Box, Throwback Thursday, Valve

About the Author

Written by Emmet OCuana

My name is Emmet and I have recently made the move to Australia from Ireland. I’m a freelance writer with experience writing about film and literature, online and in print media.You can find my portfolio on http://emmetocuana.blogspot.com/

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Article source: http://www.comicbooked.com/throwback-thursday-17-half-life-2/

As 2011 comes to a close, it’s safe to say that it has been a banner year for the comics industry and fans alike. Here at Comic Booked, we have always taken our comics pretty seriously, and after a stellar year of new material, we are pleased to present you with our awards for Best of 2011! For this year’s awards we asked each of our team members for their input and nominations to see who they thought were the best of the best in the comic book industry over the past year! After a few weeks of careful thought, consideration and deliberation, we’ve selected these titles as our choices for the best that 2011 had to offer!

On top of being big comic book fans, we’re also pretty into video games here at Comic Booked! The majority of our team members enjoy video games quite a bit, so we’re here to bring you the top video game offerings of 2011! Without further adieu, here are the nominees for Best Video Game!

• The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. I used to nominate other games, but then I took an arrow to the knee! For anyone that has ever played an Elder Scrolls game, you will know exactly why this game is nominated for this award. Skyrim is, without question, one of the single best role playing games of all time. This fantasy epic continues Bethesda Softworks tradition of giant open world RPG’s that redefine the entire genre. There really isn’t much else that needs saying.  – Jordamus Prime

• Skyrim blew up the social networks like dynamite more than any other game this year. 100 hours of gameplay?  Uncharted 3 is also a viable choice.- Robb Orr

• This has to go to The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword. Let’s count the reasons: It’s Zelda. Do you really need another reason?- Colin Bell

• I declare a tie between Mortal Kombat 9 and Saint’s Row the Third! – Nicole Sixx

• Arkham City! Why? Other than the fact that batman rules? The art is very good and the story is strong. I think the portrayal of the villains in the game though is what puts it over the edge. – Jason Padua

• Batman: Arkham City. If Arkham Asylum was the Batman game I’ve always wanted, Arkham City is the game I didn’t know I wanted but absolutely needed.- Robert LeMoyne

• Batman Arkham City, it offers so much replay value, not to mention the epic story. – James Halstead
• Batman: Arkham City. Wow, just wow. Take the greatness of the Arkham Asylum, crank it up 11 notches, and you’ve got Arkham City- Jeremy Boreske

• Limbo from Danish developer Playdead was the little indie game that could this year. Similar to the surreal Little Red Riding Hood title ‘The Path’, Limbo feels like half-puzzle adventure, half-arthouse game. Disturbing, a little bit creepy and representing a true alternative to mainstream gaming. Honorable mentions go to CD Projekt’s The Witcher 2 for not only being a great game, but adapting the novels of Andrzej Sapkowski. Let’s hope Cyanide’s Game of Thrones RPG next year is half as good. -Emmet O’Cuana

Winner, Comic Booked’s Best Video Game 2011-

Batman Arkham City

Congratulations to Batman: Arkham City‘s creative team for being Comic Booked’s Best Video Game of 2011! A special congratulations also goes out to all of the other nominees for being some of the best titles available this year!

Tags: Arkham City, awards, Batman, Batman: Arkham City, best of 2011, Best Video Game, Bethesda, comic booked, Elder Scrolls, Limbo, mortal kombat, Saints Row, Saints Row the Third, Skyrim, Video Games

About the Author

Written by Jordamus Prime

Born and raised in Northeast Philadelphia, Jordan DesJardins is what many would call a “Geek”. An avid collector of both comic books and action figures, Jordan can often be seen at comic conventions or scouring the city for the latest Transformers to hit the shelves. Contact Jordan at jordamusprime@comicbooked.com

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Article source: http://www.comicbooked.com/best-of-2011-best-video-game/

Cyanide Studios have released trailers for their Game of Thrones RPG title, set for release in early 2012. Expectant fans are invited to visit the official page, with character profiles available for preview, as well as selected dialogue sound files and details of the different ‘classes’ for players. Be a brother of the Night’s Watch, or a red priest of the cult of R’hllor – broadly applicable to RPG warrior and mage classes. Apparently the game’s social networking promotion has yet to be launched. Visitors to the site are encouraged to ‘like’ their Facebook page in order to unlock the different locations within the preview sections. Hopefully once the marketing strategy gains traction this will bring the readers of A Song of Ice and Fire in droves.

But first let’s check out the trailer -

While it is a treat to see that the developers have not shied away from featuring actual characters from George R.R. Martin‘s books within the narrative, Cyanide are clearly capitalizing on the popularity of the HBO show. The announcement in the trailer that the story has been written ‘in conjunction’ with Martin is less reassuring than it is probably intended to be. In effect this game is a spin-off of the television show, similar to how the Lord of the Rings games cleave closely to the Peter Jackson movies. The other point of concern is that the gameplay footage released so far seems like a weaker version of The Witcher/Dragon Age. Expectations are high, so it would be a shame for this game to be a poor man’s RPG, cashing in on the passing fame of a television show.

Fingers crossed.

Tags: Cyanide Studios, Dragon Age, Game of Throne, George R R Martin, HBO, RPG, The Lord of the Rings, The Witcher

About the Author

Written by Emmet OCuana

My name is Emmet and I have recently made the move to Australia from Ireland. I’m a freelance writer with experience writing about film and literature, online and in print media.You can find my portfolio on http://emmetocuana.blogspot.com/

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Article source: http://www.comicbooked.com/game-of-thrones-there-will-be-thrones-in-this-game/

Hitman is back with I/O Interactive’s Hitman: Absolution. Last time we saw Agent 47 he faked his own funeral, only to wake up from his slumber and like a boss killed everyone in attendance; a very loud and flashy ending, for a normally stealthy and quiet killer. Now our acclaimed Hitman finds himself tangled in a conspiracy that has made him the target of a manhunt. The new storyline not only promises a brand new take where the hunter becomes the hunted, but it also gives the player new tricks to keep tucked away in their proverbial sleeve.

The Hitman series has always given the player options on how to dispose of their enemies. You could burst into a room guns blazing, or you could dress up as a waiter and poison your target’s dinner. I/O Interactive has taken that idea to the next level in its new iteration by allowing the environment to become our assassin’s weapon of choice. Are you in an abandoned building with a room full of guards hunting you down? Rip an exposed wire out of the wall and choke each one out as you fade back into the darkness. This is not to say that the Twin Ballers will not make a return along with the rest of Agent 47’s arsenal, but the devs have added another layer of stealth and violence for the gamers to enjoy. Thanks to IO Interactive’s Glacier 2 engine we will be able to enjoy Hitman: Absolution and all its glory with updated graphics as well as intelligent A.I.

Taking a page from the Arkham series, Hitman now uses something similar to detective mode, and can see through walls. In efforts to avoid the players from abusing the feature (see Batman: Arkham Asylum) the use of it will be limited. When stalking your prey the A.I. will react accordingly. As shown in the video above, Agent 47 is locked up in a library with a police squad holding down the fort and on the lookout. As 47 makes his way through the library and takes down enemies they become frightened and unstable. This causes the characters to break from orders given, or even make rash decisions. Allowing the A.I. to have emotion makes them feel real and organic, which in turn makes Agent 47 feel that much more potent and ominous.

There is no release date yet for Hitman: Absolution, but it is expected sometime in 2012. If the earlier videos and pictures are any indication we are in for quite a treat. Series like Assassins’ Creed and Batman have filled the void for a stealth game since Hitman: Blood Money, but with his return I think the Stealth King is ready to take back his throne.

Tags: Absolution, comicbooked, Hitman, I/O Interactive, Jorgie, Jorgie Hernandez, PC, PS3, Video Games, Xbox 360

About the Author

Written by Jorgie

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Article source: http://www.comicbooked.com/hitman-absolution-preview/

Ahoy internet! InfaPlat here with another week of Gamer Pulse. As Kyle has already mentioned, this year’s Holiday season seems to be more about pushing the big titles that are already out, rather than announcing new ones, but that’s not such a big surprise.  This time of year is usually a time to reflect , and more importantly, to spend money.  That said, some interesting stuff was  announced this week. So lets get right to it!

Skyrim….ONLINE!?

While certainly not official, one of the biggest wishes (at least one of my biggest wishes) is to be able to play Skyrim online. Not an MMORPG mind you, but something like the not so recent Neverwinter Nights; a chance for friends to get together, explore the world, and maybe do a bit of role playing between one character and another. GameFront, a news, reviews, and file sharing site for gamers has been working on a new mod titled simply Skyrim Online. A test module is already up for download on their site.  According to the author, the mod was created to “play with your friends, chat with people worldwide, trade with other players”. It still has a lot of work before it can be considered remotely finished, but [A sentence just like the others was written here...but then it took an arrow to the knee]. Here’s a look at it below; the launcher is available for download here. 

Under New Direction

According to a report over at Cnet, Dan Coyner, the design and marketing lead for the original Xbox and 360, will not be returning to his position for the next generation of Microsoft console. Instead, he will be replaced by Emma Williams, who assisted with the launch of the new 360 interface.  Williams joined Microsoft’s team in 2003, and her current position is General Lead of Xbox Experiences. This is the woman behind the more social, hub based design of the Xbox interface.

Since the new console is scheduled for released in 2013 it gives me that much more time to mess around with the new interface. And by mess around I, of course, mean try to find ways to bring it down from the inside using only my bubbling hatred of it as a guide.  In all honesty, I will be interested in seeing what the future holds in store for the console. What do you think?

Final World of Pokemon Fantasy

Whether it’s following in World of Warcraft’s footsteps, or joining in on Facebook’s Change your Picture into a Pokemon month, Final Fantasy XIII-2 released a new trailer demonstrating player ability to catch monsters for use in battle. Have at it, and remember..Life can be a c..Forget it.

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Dad, Are you Space?

Seen above, a quote from one of my favorite Portal 2 characters. Seen below:  New York City’s Astor Place Cube, all bundled up for winter. Students from California’s Institute of Technology gave the cube this makeover and left behind a note as well, also seen below:

Tags: Final Fantasy, Pokemon, Portal, Skyrim, World of Warcraft, xbox360

About the Author

Written by InfaPlat

As an avid writer, gamer, and dungeon master, it would be hard to classify Jessica Lynn as anything but a geek. Her favorite past times involve raining unholy fire upon her enemies, devising the next great way to kill her party, and figuring out just how far she can push a PC before it explodes. When not taking out her nerd rage on fantasy characters or inanimate objects, she can be found toiling away in the dungeon known as the IT department. If you’re wondering; InfaPlat is short for Infamous Platypus.

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Article source: http://www.comicbooked.com/gamer-pulse-when-life-gives-you-lemons-demand-to-see-its-manager/

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Article source: http://www.comicbooked.com/gamer-pulse-when-life-gives-you-lemons-demand-to-see-its-manager/

Amid a sea of, for lack of a better term, crap that launched with Nintendo’s GameCube was what is widely-regaled as one of the best Star Wars games ever made: Star Wars Rogue Squadron II: Rogue Leader, a flight-based combat/adventure title. A sequel to the much-beloved N64 title Star Wars: Rogue Squadron, Rogue Leader was one of the first games to really dig in and show gamers what the GameCube could do. It reigns as one of the most critically-praised GameCube titles (it’s ranked 24th on GameRankings). So, what made this game so special? Let’s take a look.

Plot Characters

The plot spans the entire run of the original Star Wars trilogy. Levels fall into one of two categories: representations of moments from the movie (such as the Battle of Yavin, the Battle of Hoth, and the Battle of Endor) or new missions that tie-in to implied events from the movies (like Crix Madine’s defection to the Rebel Alliance or the theft of Shuttle Tiderium). The plot flows beautifully across the entire game. For the most part, players control Wedge Antilles who leads the eponymous Rogue Squadron. Fans of Star Wars will find much to love in this game’s story. The movie moments are captured faithfully by their in-game counterparts, and the new story lines are also wonderfully constructed and thoughtfully tied-in to the established continuity. It’s clear that this game’s writers knew the source material incredibly well – their script pays the utmost respect to the canon while brilliantly filling in the dots that tied the movies together.

Sound

Much of John Williams’ original score was used for this game, so the music faithfully echoes the grand fanfares and epic battle music that we’re all used to. The original music created for the game, while not nearly as grand as Williams’ score, fits in very well with the established legacy of Star Wars’ much-regaled excellence. The voice acting was equally fantastic. Denis Lawson returned to voice Wedge Antilles, which was a great touch. While no other original actors returned, the sound-a-likes all did a good job recreating the famous characters we all know and love.

Graphics

As I said before, this game really showed off what the GameCube was capable of. The space environments were all beautifully detailed and open. The level of detail on each vehicle was top-notch as well. A number of levels take place on the surface of planets, and those environments were all rich and fully realized. The visuals were smooth and crisp, something which received high praise from critics upon release. Even now, ten years later, this game’s visuals still ring true as some of the best we saw on the GameCube.

Gameplay

The combat in this game was smooth, intuitive, and downright enjoyable. Flight controls handled perfectly, as users were able to pull off tight maneuvers with astonishing precision. The overall difficulty of the game scaled well. A great blend of tough dogfights and nerve-wracking obstacle courses really brought a lot to this game. Combat was fantastic – I still get excited thinking about the thrill I got chasing down Tie Fighters for hours on end when I was younger. It was an incredibly immersive experience, one which tied me into the a fictional universe that I was absolutely enamored with. I felt like I was a pilot fighting for the cause of the Rebel Alliance.

The game had a lot of replay value as well. While there was no multiplayer, an oversight corrected by the final installment in the Rogue Squadron franchise, players could replay previous labels to achieve higher ratings (you could receive a completion award, or a bronze, silver, or gold medal for your performance). The higher the medal, the tighter the restraints were for achieving it. Your success was measured by the number of friendlies lost, the total number of player deaths, the total number of player kills, and the completion time. Unlocking more medals gave players access to secret ships, which they could use in further replays of the levels. There were also a few secret missions that could only be unlocked by meeting certain criteria.

Overall

Rogue Leader still reigns as one of my favorite GameCub titles. I’m a lifelong Star Wars fan, so this game was an absolute treat for me. It improved upon everything its predecessor did in every way imaginable. There was plenty do once you beat the game. That, coupled with a fantastic story and insanely enjoyable gameplay mechanics, makes Rogue Leader the absolute gold standard in terms of Star Wars gaming.

Tags: comic booked, Gamecube, Kyle Black, retro game review, Rogue Leader, Star Wars, Star wars gamecube game, Star Wars Rogue Squadron II: Rogue Leader, Throwback Thursday

About the Author

Written by Kyle Black

Kyle Black has been a gamer his whole life. Recently, he has decided to merge his love of gaming with his love of writing. The resulting product: a gig here on Comic Booked writing about, what else, video games!

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Article source: http://www.comicbooked.com/throwback-thursday-16-star-wars-rogue-squadron-ii-rogue-leader/

If this were a local news channel, then today I’d be doing a bunch of stories about local firemen rescuing pets from trees or school children winning the science fair with a baking soda volcano. Alas, this is the Internet, and when we don’t have news, we have pictures of cute animals. All of the major releases for the year are out (and probably getting some play time right now), and the Spring line-up is just a bit far off. Aside from financial news, there isn’t much going on. Still, let’s take a look at what happened this week.

Miyamoto Nintendo’s Futures

Sometimes, I’m glad I wait until the end of the week to do this column. This week’s Miyamoto mix-up is one such reason. Earlier in the week, many major outlets began reporting that legendary Nintendo game designer Shigeru Miyamoto was stepping down from his current position within the company. Needless to say, people were upset. Several days later, the truth finally came out thanks to the Wall Street Journal: Miyamoto would like the company to conform to a new structure that isn’t so contingent upon his involvement. Here’s the quote:

“We have to construct the structure so that the organization so that it can make it without me,” he said. “I should also admit that it might be better without me; I mean that a different approach and different talent might emerge, though I shouldn’t dwell on this because then the article might indeed say ‘Mr. Miyamoto is thinking about retiring,’ because that is not the case.”

This is, of course, good news. Miyamoto is a figurehead in the gaming community, and his departure from Nintendo would be the end of a long legacy of intuitive game design direction. Miyamoto is 59, it’s good to start planning for a future where he’s less involved.

Dance the Night Away

I’ll spare you from the Van Halen song, don’t worry. Star Wars: The Old Republic officially ended all beta testing this week. The folks at Bioware are reported to be very happy with the data gathered during the beta test, reporting over two million unique users during the entire period. It all ended this week with a massive rave in the game’s capital cities. DualShockers has a gallery from one such dance party. The game is set to officially launch on December 20th, but those who pre-ordered the game can play up to 5 days early.

GTA III Mobile Killing Civilians on an iPhone Near You

I saw the mobile edition of GTA III in action at NYCC earlier this year. It was just a rough build, so I wasn’t too worried about the glitches. I was really impressed by just how well the game was running on an iPad 2. It was a really fun experience, and Rockstar did a great job porting to the game to iOS. On December 15th, you can check out the mobile version of the one of the most venerated titles in gaming history. Priced at the beyond reasonable tag of $4.99, GTA III Mobile will be launching on the following devices.

Valve Employee Spotted with Half-Life 3…

…t-shirt. Uber Entertainment employee Chandana Ekanayake was at  local game developer meeting when he spotted a Valve employee wearing a crisp Half-Life 3 t-shirt. He snapped a pic and uploaded it to twitter, saying:

@ekanaut: All I’m saying is I saw this at a local game developer event worn by a Valve employee. http://twitpic.com/7mxh6r #HalfLife3 #ValveTrolling

 

 

Curse you, Gabe Newell, you sadistic bastard.

That’ll do it for Gamer Pulse. Stay tuned to Comic Booked, and, as always, thanks for reading!

Tags: comic booked, Gamer Pulse, Grand theft auto 3, grand theft auto iii, gta, gta android, gta iphone, gta mobile, half life 3, Kyle Black, Miyamoto retiring, Nintendo, Shigeru Miyamoto, Star Wars, The Old Republic, The Old republic Beta

About the Author

Written by Kyle Black

Kyle Black has been a gamer his whole life. Recently, he has decided to merge his love of gaming with his love of writing. The resulting product: a gig here on Comic Booked writing about, what else, video games!

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Article source: http://www.comicbooked.com/gamer-pulse-the-winter-drought/

In this adventure, you do not follow Link around the expansive land of Hyrule, but rather the remote isle of Koholint, where you are stranded after a storm wrecks havoc upon your ship. You wake and are greeted by Tarin and his daughter Marin. Once you obtain the Master Sword, you are told by way of messenger owl that you must wake the mythical Wind Fish by obtaining the eight Siren Song instruments. Only then can you return home to Hyrule, and to the princess Zelda.

As a mute vessel for the player, there is not much character development in this current incarnation of our destined hero. Instead, I found myself intrigued and amused by the variety of side characters and NPCs who come to your aid and work against you. Of particular interest to me was how tongue in cheek this rendition of the game seemed to be in retrospect. NPCs would teach you the controls and then break the fourth wall by saying that they ‘really don’t know what any of it means’.  Easter eggs from other franchises (Such as the Yoshi doll and the Chain Chomp) were common place. This added to the overall enjoyment of the game, at least for me. Each NPC was quirky and interesting, if not highly developed, and the story was simplistic without being stupid. Over all, both the characters and the plot worked to further the action adventure standard we come to expect from a Zelda game.

Sound

Music plays an important part in any Zelda game, and Link’s Awakening did not disappoint. One of my favorites was the unique take on the “main” Zelda theme used for the Mt. Tamaranch area of the game. The tracks could get fairly repetitive at times, but never got annoying unless I was really failing particularly miserably at a dungeon, or else got horribly lost somewhere in the expansive world created for us to explore.
Needless to say, a game based around eight instruments and waking the Windfish with a song is going to need to make the most of that song and Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening does not disappoint. The music can speak louder than my words, give The Ballad of the Windfish a listen and decide for yourself:

Graphics:

I never played the original version of this game that was released in 1993. Instead, I played the version released on the Game Boy Color in 1998. Having only played Pokemon Red before this, the graphics, to me, were absolutely stunning for a portable game. The colors were vivid and never once did I mistake a character for an orange stack of blocks (I’m looking at you, Final Fantasy VII). The character designs and dungeon layouts were crisp and clear, and nothing on the screen was ever dull.

There were not very many cut scenes, but one picture of a fully drawn and colored Link braving a storm in the beginning of the game did stand out, as well as a few at the end. These were your standard artsy affair, and did not move, but were still very beautiful.

Gameplay:

The way a game handles can make or break any action adventure game, especially in The Legend of Zelda series. Luckily, Link’s Awakening is near perfect in this regard. Controls are handled simply. You equip one of your items to the A button and one to the B button. You move around with the D pad. That’s it.

The real fun of this game is two fold. One is the dungeon puzzles and boss battles, which started off very simple but got challenging as the game went on. I remember dying to a boss three times at the fifth or sixth dungeon before I finally got the hang of what I was supposed to do.
What was more fun though, was how exploration of Koholint Island was furthered with every dungeon you completed. Each dungeon would hold an item which made solving puzzles and reaching previously blocked off areas possible. A roc feather would allow you to jump (which was a first for overhead Zelda games). The Power Bracelet would allow you to throw heavy rocks away from your path. With each of these new discoveries I found it possible to lose myself in the many areas of the island, and this to me was just as  fun as solving a dungeon.

Overall:

Anyone who considers themselves a Zelda fan should play this game. Even if it doesn’t take place in Hyrule, even if the princess Zelda does not get more than a passing mention, this installment in the series is easily one of my favorite, and most fondly remembered.

Article source: http://www.comicbooked.com/throwback-thursday-15-the-legend-of-zelda-links-awakening/