360

Hi there.

I received this 360 from a friend yesterday. He said that if I fixed it, it would be mine (Although it sounds too good to be true, I'm gonna confirm with him again). So far.. This is what done to the XBOX360..

I stopped because I need to purchase a tool from any 360 shop in Singapore. Apparently, the tool is REQUIRED to open the case.

Before that.. I did some diagnostics from the website itself.

There are three red rings of death on the 360, indicating a general hardware failure. So there are two possible known problems to this. First possible problem, the power brick (Or power supply, some would call) is faulty. I checked the LED on the supply box and it was orange, which indicates that it's on standby and ready to power on whenever ready. However, when I switched on the 360, the LED turned red for a split second and then returns to orange again. I ran the 360 diagnostics from the website and I was told to replace the power brick. Of course, I wanted to make sure that the problem lies with the power brick, and not anything else, so I would request anyone to loan me a power brick for a day. If you can, do inform me. Thanks.

The second possible problem is some kind of motherboard failure. I'm not too sure about this, but many of my friends tried the penny trick and it worked wonders. Check this video for more details.

I'm gonna try this trick when I get the required items for it. But first, I need to determine whether the power brick is at fault.

Thanks for reading. Peace out.

John

Final Fantasy 13 - First Impressions

This is probably my favorite party so far, even though Snow is the REAL playable character.

I developed an infatuation with one of the NPCs of the game, Lebreau. Just look at her, single-wielding a rifle and she's not a recruitable party member? I hate you, Square Enix.

Oh hi there. I supposed you're reading this because you love reading our blog? Then, I'll thank you from the bottom of my heart. I'm deeply touched. Anyway..

Final Fantasy 13. Oh how this famous title irked many of the hardcore FF fans. Having argued umpteen times with hardcore fans, criticized the game for its lack of enjoyable traditions and not to mention, I'm a very old school FF fan, I decided to try the game out with the help of a friend's PS3.

Please note the game I tried was the Japanese version, should it have any minor or major differences from the International version, I apologize.

Firstly, I started off with a cutscene of Lightning and Sazh sitting in a Sci-fi battleship and all of a sudden, they took their robes off and started wreaking havoc everywhere. Due to the fact that it's in Japanese language and I have no idea what is happening, I can't give points to this. For one, the visuals in the game are just amazing, although the game suffers from slight but annoying choppy frame rates. As I played the game, I had a strong Final Fantasy 7 vibe. I'll explain this more in detail later.

As soon as the cutscenes finish, a boss battle was initiated already. The battle system was fast-paced, which is of no surprise to anyone now. I loved the battle system, individually, not as the whole game. Potions can heal your entire party, you issue commands for Sazh (Or rather, your teammates) to attack and there's a pretty obvious way of gaining advantage over your enemies. Battles felt fun at first, but as I played more, it felt more tedious which is just like any typical RPG in the world. Some good points to consider; enemies die rather quick except for bosses of course, loading times between battles and exploration is really fast and the battle music does get you in the mood for fighting.

Still, the game IS very linear, you won't get any freedom and choices till you're a few hours ahead. When I finished with Lightning and Sazh, I then played as Snow and I'm not too pleased with him. I loved his party members more than Snow himself. We're talking about an Asian chick single-wielding a rifle and a spiky dude who looks way more awesome than Snow and Hope combined. On a serious note, the battles so far doesn't get me impressed with Snow at all. His weapons looked cool and all (His weapon are fists together with some kind of armored cape on his back), his punches look so darn weak and he throws grenades, which was very useful for multi-wanking but he doesn't use it anymore when you get out of the godforsaken area. Vanielle, looking as stupid as ever, even with a robe. Seriously, Vanielle should get replaced by Lebreau.

And that's just about my first 30 minutes of gameplay in Final Fantasy 13. Overall, the graphics are amazing and the battle system is decent. It felt like I played this game before.. Oh yeah, Final Fantasy 7! I found some interesting facts about both games.. I would not call FF13 a ripoff since it's made by the same company. (Oh wait, it's not made by the same company, FF7 was created by Squaresoft while FF13 was created by Square Enix, what do you think?)

5 interesting facts about FF7 VS FF13

1) The starting area. Both games, after an introduction, ride in a train before pursuing the enemy.

2) Lightning resembles Cloud because of their spikyness and swords. Sazh resembles Barret because of their skin color and long range artillery. Snow resembles Tifa because both of them are the third permanent party members and both of them use their fists as weapons.

3) The first boss fight in both games is a scorpion, although you have to fight through a number of foot soldiers before engaging with the boss in FF7 while in FF13, you engage the boss monster as your first enemy in the game.

4) Both games started with foot soldiers and four legged animals as the first few enemies.

5) Both games are set in Sci-fi settings.

Honestly speaking, I loved the game so far. Despite its linearity, it's easily overlooked by the amazing graphics and battles. I'm looking forward to actually play the game dedicatedly.

I thank you for reading this long article. Peace out.

John

Resident Evil 4 - Old vs New

Hi there.

Years ago, I stumbled on this video on Youtube. To my awe, it was really amazing.



It was the early version of Resident Evil 4, which used the traditional Resident Evil styles from the earlier games. It was more of an improved version of the tradition since you can actually aim manually instead of the automatic aim in the previous games. The atmosphere and surroundings looked creepy and the lack of music enhances the mood.

What do you think? Would it have made the Resident Evil 4 BETTER? Or worse?

John

I love horror!

Gotta love it, Linda <3. More updates tomorrow!

xoxo

Erin

How do you feel about horror games?

Before I continue, I, for one, am very afraid of horror games. Whenever I play any horror games, I would get a bolster and hug it whilst holding the controller. One of the most recent games I played was Ju-On: The Grudge for the Nintendo Wii in my friend's house. It wasn't fully scary because I have 2 of my friends playing and commentating alongside with me. My hand was literally trembling due to the atmospheric music the game has. Mind you, the game has one of the most cheap scares you'll ever see in a horror game. Some examples of cheap scares are while opening a door, there would be a small cinematic sequence and suddenly a hand reaches out for your hand and you're forced to look at a woman with a rather distorted, bloody face. It's very scary, but you will feel it's so cheap that it's not worth going forward anymore. Anyway, horror games make me feel insecure. It never fails to make me think about myself, about what I've done. It makes me guilty once a while, and I believe in karma. In short, horror games make me lament on my past.

I was introduced to Fatal Frame from one of my friends. The first time I played was Fatal Frame 2: Crimson Butterfly during a sleepover at his house and as we play, we could not take the pressure and everything around us just felt cold. The scariest moment about Fatal Frame 2 was when we took a break, we did not pause the game, we just let it run as we relaxed. Apparently, the game still haunts you while taking a break. A creepy screensaver comes out of nowhere and loops over forever. It was the image of the Limbo Woman. Somehow, only one of my friends and myself noticed it and the rest didn't. That screensaver alone have set the mood for my whole night; terrified. You can view the screensaver here.

One of the earlier horror games I played was the F.E.A.R franchise. It featured a long-haired girl in red clothing and supposedly, she follows you whenever you go. The first time I heard that, I had nightmares. Back then, I was only 17 years old. I was quite timid but now, I grown more immune to horror. The atmosphere in F.E.A.R is incredibly scary. It's all silent as you move forward and you'll hear every interaction happening in your environment. Be it soldiers talking, objects dropping or of course, scares. Unlike Fatal Frame, you don't feel vulnerable at all. You have an arsenal of weapons to fight against enemies and in Fatal Frame, all you get is an upgradable camera. F.E.A.R is nothing compared to Fatal Frame in my opinion, but it is still an honorable mention.

Of course, I'll be looking forward to any horror games releasing this year. I really hope there will be a Fatal Frame 5, an improved Silent Hill from all the crap releases and F.E.A.R 3 hopefully.

Thanks for reading. Peace out.

John

Nostalgia!

Hiya!

How do you like our new look? Pretty awesome isn't it? I'm loving it every second. All credits goes to John for finding an incredible theme and polishing our blog with pages and labels. Thanks John!

For today's topic, I wanna touch on nostalgia.

Personally, I loved every single moment when I get nostalgic about something. I agreed with what John said in the past. He said that most technologies are going downhill and gaming is no exception. For the past few years, I have yet to discover an RPG game dedicated to its traditional mechanics. The closest was The Last Remnant. It had turn-based battles with a squad system which was extremely flawed.

The squad system consists of a group of teammates, each with their individual abilities and powers. Interestingly enough, you're able to create a squad dedicated solely to magic or power, thus creating a mixed squad is not advisable, in my opinion. The major flaw about the squad system is that all 6 members' Health Points are combined into one. Defeating just one member kills the whole squad most of the time. Nevertheless, the story of The Last Remnant was captivating enough to keep me occupied. Then, I went on another search for the graphically enhanced RPG with traditional mechanics. I eventually found one, which was Xenosaga Episode III: Also Sprach Zarathustra.

It had everything a true classic RPG should have. Turn-based battles, engaging storyline and a beautiful artwork. I never played the earlier episodes, but I'm really in love with this episode. Unfortunately, I do not own this game. It was a Playstation 2 game and not to mention, most PS2 games are rare! I'm waiting to borrow this game from someone I know, she still hasn't completed it so I'll have to wait. This game would be on my playlist during the holidays. Right now, I'm still studying and hating it as always.

There was another game as well, named Persona 4 which I'm waiting for John to finish so that I could play it too. So far, there isn't a game that met my expectations of a true RPG.

My formula of a true, nostalgically enhanced RPG is...

Chrono Trigger OST + Final Fantasy 9 Equipment Skill Learning + Free Roaming and Area Discovery and Exploration + Anything Else Cute + Xenogears Storyline and Characters + Turn-based battles = My dream RPG.

xoxo

Erin

Mass Effect 2 finished. Thoughts?

The Terminator? No, it's a human reaper.. Or a reaper human?

It was an intense fight. Don't use the Cain for increased difficulty.


Pretty much. All weakpoints are very obvious.

I was on the Paragon road to be greatest hero in Mass Effect 2. I finished the game with half of my teammates gone for good. Somewhere beneath the Bioware forums, there's a strategy on how to bring every teammate out of the suicide mission. Miranda was gone too.. I lost Miranda's loyalty and she did not get fresh with me (I wished she would though, she's just about the most attractive among the teammates).

So the suicide mission, wasn't that suicidal at all. The teammates died a ridiculous death. Don't anyone use Medi-gels anymore? Why couldn't Shepard just use Unity to revive them? Is Mass Effect 2's advanced technology not advanced enough to revive a thermal-shotted victim but advanced enough to revive Shepard from his/her death, although I recalled Miranda saying that revival technology was very expensive. Oh well.

The final battle was easy as hell. Of course, don't use the heavy weapon Cain. It just makes it so much easier but less fun. I kept something which the Illusive Man wanted and gotten Renegade points. Damn, I should have destroyed it.. The Illusive Man wasn't that friendly anyway.

For the whole game, collecting resources from umpteen planets was never this stressful. Moving the mouse aka the scanner around is stiff as hell. It feels rather good to extract resources at first, then it gradually depletes, and then you would rather find it a nuisance. Gameplay showed the most improvement from its predecessor, the first Mass Effect. Taking cover was comfortable and sensitive. Using thermal clips instead of the infinite ammo from the first Mass Effect felt more realistic and forces you to salvage clips every now and then, especially if you're using a Sniper Rifle. Overall, the gameplay difficulty have been stepped up but survival isn't an issue because you regenerate health overtime, unlike the excessive usage of Medi-gels from the first. It's definitely a huge step up from its predecessor.

The environments in-game are all carefully designed and every detail shows the amount of work put into the game. Unlike most games (Fallout 3, Oblivion, The Last Remnant etc), environments are not recycled frequently in the game. Almost every place you visit, every anomaly you discovered are different in many ways. This easily kills the boredom you get from exploring. Every new discovery, is a new adventure. Quests are aplenty in the game, which should occupy you with enough time to prepare until the suicide mission. Most quests are not generic at all as most of it comes with a believable story.

The dialogue, voice acting and character design are almost flawless. The fact that the character textures in Mass Effect 2 are lower in quality from its predecessor doesn't cut you off the game. It still looks amazing from far and affects the game in no negative manner.

The whole game is a new blast. The mechanics are fresh, with a smooth learning curve. The game still contains the same occupations. Weapons are not acquired from killing enemies but salvaged from various locations. Still, it's easily overlooked anyway. The only things I hate is resource scanning and the final battle could have been a bit more harder, because it's a huge ass robot for God's sake.

Game Score = 9/10

John