Being a hardcore RPG gamer and a huge fan of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, I have to admit I was a bit reluctant to make this purchase after being disappointed in the previous downloadable content offered by Bethesda. Sure, The Knights of the Nine did satiate my Oblivion appetite for a little while, but by no means did it satisfy my craving as completely as did the expansion packs Tribunal and Bloodmoon for The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind. I am glad to report that the extra investment you will have to fork over for the Shivering Isles expansion will be money well spent.
 
Your quest begins on an island in the Niben Bay, which can be accessed at any time, by any character - there is no prerequisite for entering the domain of the Shivering Isles (there are leveled items in this new world, so level up a bit in Cyrodil if you want to add the really good items to your inventory). In this new realm, you will be greeted by fresh environments across the land and the dungeons/towns that you will frequent. The isles are comprised of two main political factions and their respective lands are portrayed well by the appropriate use of colors, textures, and wild life. The ruler is a fellow named Sheogoreth, who many of us know as the Daedric Prince of Madness. The world has an almost surreal feel to it, which accurately reflects the deranged minds of its inhabitants. Though presented beautifully, this new realm can never be mistaken for the almost 'Sound of Music' atmosphere that the general landscape of Cyrodil screams of.
 
Without giving away any spoilers, your main quest is to protect this demented paradise from, of course, an invasion from an evil force. You must rise through the ranks of this land through both factions, save the country, and become its ruler. New enemies will thwart your efforts, including the Knights of the Order, various hell hounds and the Grumnites, a race that is somewhat similar to the Orcs, though more organized. There are plenty of side quests apart from your main objective that are also available. These include the standard 'fetch item' missions to the more obscure (one nut wants 100 calipers to build a fantasy air ship that only resides in his mind).

The basic gameplay is the same as The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion - there have been no changes to any commands, menus, or the like. That being said, I will not review the general mechanics of the Shivering Isles since this has already been done in various reviews on Oblivion. I will say that certain graphical elements have improved over the already great performance of its parent - frame rate is more consistent, water reflections are improved, general AI of the new fiends you will encounter is better.

Many new types of armor, weapons, and magic are available for your discovery/purchase. Depending on your level, these may not replace any of your current inventory, but are nice additions. There are also two weapon shops that will create new items for you if you collect the respective ore that they request - this is very similar to the quest in the Bloodmoon expansion - not great items, but kind of cool. There are no houses or horses to buy as there are in Cyrodil, but you can acquire a new traveling companion, if completing a certain quest, that will aid you in your efforts against the minions.

You do receive 250 additional achievement points for completing all of the missions, but, curiously, your fame/infamy points are not affected at all for your deeds/actions. I think that this is a severe oversight on Bethesda's part - this is a stat I monitor frequently. Total additional game play will put you around 40 hours or so, more if you spend time exploring the vast isles.

Having the Xbox 360 version of ES IV, I downloaded the new content via Xbox Marketplace. The total download is a little under 1 gig, so make sure that you have the space available on your storage device. I have a relatively slow cable/DSL connection and it took around 40 minutes to download it.

Overall, I was very pleased with The Elder Scrolls IV: Shivering Isles and would highly recommend it. The download is pricey, but the content is varied, interesting, and most important, plentiful. Be prepared to let your loved ones know that, once again, you are a non-factor in real life and instead are going to take another journey into the world of Oblivion: Shivering Isles.

E3 2008: Shigeru Miyamoto says "We're making Pikmin." Posted on Jul 17th 2008 at 03:51:21 AM by (Tondog) Posted under E3 2008, Nintendo, Wii, Pikmin, Finally something for the hardcore gamers

Well, Nintendo has just gave "hardcore" gamers something to get excited for! In a Developer Roundtable at E3, Shigeru Miyamoto was asked if they were considering to revisit Pikmin, he dropped a little bombshell announcement:



OH HELL YES! Still not quite enough to make up for the atrocious press conference yesterday, but it bandages the wound a little bit.

Details about the upcoming Pikmin are not known as of right now. Hopefully Shiggy has something to say about it soon.

Source: Kotaku

E3 2008: Microsoft Press Conference Overview Posted on Jul 17th 2008 at 01:17:35 AM by (Tondog) Posted under E3 2008, Modern Gaming, Microsoft, Xbox 360, Press Conference

Now that the press conferences from the big three console makers have concluded, it's time to take a look back at what was discussed during the conferences. I will be giving you a brief summary of the events along with links to videos showing the events from the conference and other relevant information. First up: Microsoft.

If you would like to view the entire presentation, you may do so at G4's website or it should be on the Xbox Live Marketplace for download.

The presentation was hosted by Don Mattrick, Senior VP of Interactive Entertainment Business at Microsoft. He starts off by warning us that the games being showed during this conference "are INTENSE games! Many are not for the faint of heart."

A new trailer for Fallout 3 is played and Todd Howard, the game's director, then takes the stage to give us . What he showed looks astonishing and I highly recommend taking a look at the demo. I never really was interested in this game until seeing the demo and how it meshes a futuristic setting with a 1950's kind of vibe. Todd also announces that the Xbox 360 and Games For Windows will be receiving exclusive downloadable content for the game. He also appeared on G4 and gave them a 10 minute demonstration of the game.

Up next: the first demonstration of Resident Evil 5! The game is looking INCREDIBLE and looks like Gears of War crossed with Resident Evil. They also showcase the all-new online co-op mode and display how Chris and Sheva can work together to solve puzzles and destroy zombies. Resident Evil 5 will be released on Friday the 13th of March 2009 on both Xbox 360 and Playstation 3.

Peter Molyneux shows us Fable 2 and informs us that the game is completed and will ship in October. The game looks pretty cool, and the online co-op mode is extremely innovative. Also: the game has belching!

And now the game everyone's been waiting to see more of, Gears of War 2! Cliff Blezenski shows some gameplay footage and a new trailer. I think it looks like Gears 1 but outside, however I'm biased. Chainsawing people is AWESOME!!! Voice acting sounds horribly generic, but that's to be expected. Guess I'm spoiled after Metal Gear Solid 4. Great looking flame effects. New multiplayer mode is announced: Horde. Up to 5 people take on wave after wave of Locust of increasing difficulty. Game comes out on November 7.

Cliff exits, Don comes back on stage and starts the businessy part of the show. He informs us that games are the biggest form of entertainment in the world and claims that the 360 will sell more consoles than PS3 this generation. We'll see about that.

Now the Xbox Live portion of the show. NBC and Universal Studios join the Xbox Live Video marketplace. MGM and Constantin Film join in Europe.

This fall, the Xbox 360 interface you all know and love will be replaced with a newer, more minimalist design. I think it looks better than the old one, but my opinion would change if they plaster it with ads like they do the current one. Along with the new interface comes several new features. First of those new features is avatars, which is pretty much a ripoff of Nintendo's Mii feature. These avatars could possibly replace your GamerPic that you currently have (no information is known for sure), but these avatars will show up in games just like on the Wii. Second, the community channel will be changed from a list of your friends to showing their avatars. The new community channel will also allow you to create a party, which allows you to join up with your friends to chat, share photos, and play games. Third, there is a new channel of Live called Xbox Live Primetime that will allow you to play free game shows online with people.
 
After that, they showed us a glimpse of many new Xbox Live Arcade titles. Among the titles shown are Uno Rush, Geometry Wars 2, Galaga Legions (done by the team that did Pac-Man Championship Edition, and holy shit it looks INCREDIBLE!), Portal: Still Alive, and South Park.

Microsoft then showed off clips of a few community games before dropping a bombshell: they have formed an exclusive partnership with Netflix. Subscribers to Netflix will be able to watch all of Netflix instant queue library on their console. But it doesn't end there! Your Xbox Live party can all join together and watch the same movie. Incredible idea, and a fantastic partnership for them.

Next: trailers for Banjo Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts and Viva Pinata: Trouble in Paradise

A sequel to Scene It is unveiled.

Now things get awkward with the showing of You're In The Movies, which is a party game compilation of minigames that all use the Xbox Live Vision Camera. Watch the video to see people acting like jackasses and for GIANT ENEMY LIZARDS!

Guitar Hero: World Tour gets an apathetic reaction from the crowd while announcing that Metallica's new album will be available as DLC in Guitar Hero 3 on the day the album comes out.

Next up: the long-rumored unveil of Lips, Microsoft's upcoming SingStar ripoff Karoke Revolution ripoff karoke game. Developed by iNiS (Gitaroo Man, Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan, Elite Beat Agents), Lips will allow you to sing along to not just the songs they gave you, but dance using the motion sensitive wireless microphone. The coolest part about this game is that you can actually use your own music from your iPod/Zune (lol). Some pop "star" I've never heard of named Duffy comes out on stage and starts singing. I promptly run for the mute button.

Rock Band totally blows Guitar Hero away with a tracklist over 100 songs, the ability to port all your old Rock Band 1 DLC, and for $5 you will be able to play most Rock Band 1 songs in Rock Band 2 without the need to swap discs! By the end of the year Rock Band 2 will have a library of OVER 500 SONGS! Guitar Hero is done for.

Then comes Square-Enix with new trailers for Infinite Undiscovery, Star Ocean: The Last Hope, and The Last Remnant. First they talk about The Last Remnant and show a new trailer. The game is out this holiday season for 360 and sometime later for PC.

Don thanks us all for attending, but Yoichi Wada won't have any of that. He's got something to say! Lights go down, and the shot heard round the world is fired. Final Fantasy XIII is coming to Xbox 360.

That's it for Microsoft. Stay tuned for summaries of both Nintendo and Sony, coming soon.

MG's Game Take: King's Field II - Sony Playstation Posted on Jul 16th 2008 at 11:15:41 PM by (Marriott_Guy) Posted under MGs Game Take, Kings Field II, ASCII, From Software

Was this review interesting and\or helpful? (KF2)

Yes-Good stuff

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Obviously, I am a big fan of this series.  Let's take a look at arguably the best release in this rather obscure FP RPG saga.

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The second U.S. release in this series, King's Field II for the Sony PlayStation, published by ASCII Entertainment and developed by From Software, perfected the FP RPG genre set in its predecessor. True to form, you are free to undertake this extensive adventure as you deem fit. This may seem somewhat daunting to gamers who prefer a more linear approach to their gaming experience.

With the kingdom of Verdite once again in peril and the King having gone insane, this lengthy quest pits our hero (Lyle, son of the cursed King) in search of the source of terrible evil that has blighted his homeland. Once again, you are in search of the infamous Moonlight Sword and the magical power that is contained within.

Fans of the first release will feel right at home when playing King's Field II. The tried and true format of discovery and exploration are not only intact, but have been improved upon greatly. Many more weapons, armor, magic, and ancient artifacts are to be found in the vast country of Verdite. The main difference gamers will appreciate is the much improved environments that you will explore. The vastness of the outdoors are richly detailed and in complete 3D, full polygonal graphics. Earth tones are still the dominant color of choice, but have been put on steroids and communicate effectively the grim nature of the danger at hand.

This time around, interaction with various NPCs (non-playable characters) is required to complete certain facets of the game. Do not worry though - they still sport the same ghastly, undefined faces as in the original. This may be a disappointment for some, but it does add to the dreamlike tone of the game. Significant differences now include the ability to review past conversations you have had with these individuals. This does assist when trying to complete certain side quests for that special set of armor that you have been searching for.

Another welcomed addition is the 'Pixie' map that you can acquire rather early on in the game. This is extremely helpful in navigating the various areas, and saves a great deal of time in unnecessary back-tracking. Monster AI has been improved upon as well, but employing 'strike-back up-move forward-strike again' tactics are again effective. Enemies will utilize different strategies against you, but the main advantage (or disadvantage) is the level of hit points they have compared to yours.

The FP game play rate hovers around 15-30 FPS, depending upon the amount of activity at any given time. The World is seamless and huge - there are no loading times between various sections of the country. As in the original King's Field, an almost surreal atmosphere prevails during game play. Levelssections of the homeland are varied and unique, with a strong sound theme accompanying each. Again, sound samplings for the creatures and actions are perfect and well utilized, both in the time used and comparative sound level to other ambient musiceffects.
 
The control is excellent, using the D-Pad to navigatemovelook at this richly detailed world. Executing attacks and other actions are intuitive and easy to perform. Your progress through the various sections is impeded by the level of the fiends that you encounter, right from the beginning of this saga.

Overall, King's Field II is an excellent sequel. Most arguably the best in the series, King's Field II is still not for everyone. The game play is still rather slow, even being compared to the standards utilized when it was released in 1996. However, the solid game play and overall presentation rate this game high amongst its contemporaries. Arm yourself with patience and diligence - this is an epic journey. This is a definite must-have for any fan of the RPG genre.

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E3 2008: Megaton #1: Concerning that Final Fantasy XIII Game... Posted on Jul 14th 2008 at 08:21:51 PM by (Tondog) Posted under E3 2008, Microsoft, Sony, Square, Final Fantasy XIII, OH NOOOO!

Yup. You read it correctly.

Source: 1up.com

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