The original “fat” model PS3 sits similarly on my shelf.

Last week I examined the Xbox 360 and my experience with it. The week before that I took a look at the GameCube. This week shall be PlayStation 3′s time to shine. The PS3 had a rough start, launching at a very high price point relative to the 360, and also coming out a year after the 360 launched giving up a crucial head start. But what those disadvantages did to hurt Sony, the pack in of the would-be dominant HD movie format, Blu-ray, would handsomely compensate for them. Priced between five and six hundred dollars, the PS3 was not a cheap game console but in 2006 it was a cheap Blu-ray player and consequently found itself as many people’s only means of playing that format. Sony’s gambit on the media format would pay off, eventually trumping the rival format HD DVD. The games for the PS3 would also benefit from the higher capacity disc, as PS3 games have yet to require a multiple disc game whereas the 360 has required, in some cases, up the three discs to the PS3′s one. Being a Sony console, and particularly one that follows up the RPG haven of the PS2, I would look to the system for continued RPG support. However this generation, and not necessarily any one console, was not particularly supportive of RPGs. However, some gems did come down the line this generation, including the very special Valkyria Chronicles.

Sega’s beautifully cell shaded semi-realtime strategy RPG released exclusively for the PS3 in 2008. The game would instantly win my heart with its perfect mix of top town strategy, turn based movement, and realtime battle mechanics. But when I realized they had slipped in a few charming Skies of Arcadia references I was over the moon. The game gives the player control of a squad of units to move with a limited supply of action points to do so. When moving, that unit then has his or her own action gauge that limits their actions and movement range on the field. While moving a unit around, the game snaps into action as all enemy units will take fire when the unit is in line of sight. Stop moving and they stop shooting. In some ways it is akin to a Fire Emblem game, but with out the grid lines, and with guns. These games may actually be a bit more different than that, but I digress. The most striking feature of the game, and why I lament the movement of Valkyria Chronicles 2 & 3 to handheld screens, is the aforementioned cell shaded art style. It does not simply add a black outline on characters that have flat colors, as many cell shaded games aping Wind Waker have done. Instead it goes for an almost water color appearance, or hand drawn look. The effect is hard to describe but amazing to behold. The game also offers its share of challenge but not nearly the level of difficulty my next game provides.

Even Demon’s Souls‘ promotional art features a beaten and defeated knight. Ah, what fun!

Demon’s Souls. The name should make any gamer quiver. Not the considerably easier, but much more bemoaned, spiritual successor Dark Souls. No, I speak of the original. The game that, in response to the player dieing multiple times in a world, increases the health and damage output of the enemies in that world. The game that halves the player’s HP when they die for the first time. Yes, From Software’s Demon’s Souls released in 2009 is the truly hard game that gamers have allegedly been clamoring for. A seemingly straight forward action game, Demon’s Souls asks patience and observation of the player before they go barging into a room or encounter. A steady pace and a keen eye will be the best tools of any player with the perseverance to see this game to its end. The combat system, which uses the right trigger buttons for light and strong actions on the character’s right hand and the left triggers for the same on the left hand, is also deceptively simple. Most actions cannot be canceled, and following through or committing to an attack can be the player’s downfall as much as their key to victory. Upon death, all of the player’s souls (which can be spent on item purchases or on upgrading character stats) are deposited on the ground where they died. Should the player die again attempting to recover them, those souls are replaced with another blood stain containing the current souls on hand. And therein lies the greatest source of frustration and anguish a Souls player will experience. But when it happens to me, I try to remember that progress in this game is not numerical, it is psychological. When the world resets upon death, I now know how to avoid that last mistake. And in this I take solace, for what else can I do in a game as punishing as this?

My overall experience with my PS3 has been a highly positive one. As a competent and reliable machine, not host to the horrid breakdown problems of the 360, I would always opt for the PS3 version of any cross platform titles. In fact I purchased a few games a second time just so I could play them again on my PS3. The greatest asset of the PS3, however, is the free online services of the PlayStation Network. Whereas Xbox Live requires a subscription fee, and I therefore never took my 360 online until much later, the PS3 would become my first real foray into online gaming. Unfortunately the PS3 looks to be the first and last well supported and readily online console with a free online component. Be that as it may, the PS3 still stands as the console that may not have over taken the 360 (though it is close as both systems recently reached eighty million units sold worldwide) but it has done a lot to claw its way back from rocky beginnings.

It seems like not as many of you readers were 360 owners as I had thought. But perhaps you did buy the PS3? I should hope so, because any rational gamer looking to save money (read: not me this gen) would have done very well to buy a post-price drop PS3. As such, I fully expect you to regale me with your tales of love for the PS3 and your favorite games. Or tales of lament for not having owned one, which ever. REGALE! DO IT NOW.

This is how Nintendo view ALL of their customers.

Nintendo of Europe Restricts Access to Mature Content

Unbelievably, Nintendo has insisted on making the news for yet another week through the rolling disaster that is the Wii U. Nintendo of Europe has clearly identified their Wii U console as the laughably child-oriented Fisher Price play-centre that it so resembles, by locking eshop access to any and all mature rated content, be it game, demo, or trailer. Such material is only available between the hours of 11pm and 3am, effectively meaning that the majority of content supplied by Nintendo’s biggest third-party backers is inaccessible for all but four hours of the day. Then again, the cynic may suggest that such a dick-move makes perfect sense for a profit-driven company such as Nintendo, whose wares consist exclusively of all-ages appropriate software. For twenty hours of the day there is literally no competition for New Super Mario Bros. U and Nintendo Land. Any attempt to buy Electronic Bioturd’s Mass Effect 3, download a demo for Ubisoft’s Zombi U, or stream a trailer for THQ’s Darksiders II will result in the error message: “You cannot view this content. The times during which this content can be viewed have been restricted.” The best thing about it is that the error message does not even inform would-be customers as to the hours whereat their desired content will become available for purchase.

While it may have pleased Nintendo to lie about returning their focus to core gamers, the truth is that bone-headed measures like this put paid to that notion. Mature content restrictions are just another hassle in a long line of Nintendo’s Wii U cock-ups, which unambiguously mark it as a kiddie console – not fit for serious gaming. Unambitious hardware, three hour battery life, lack of dedicated voice chat functionality, lack of [useless] achievements; the evidence of Nintendo’s deceit only seems to be gathering pace in these weeks following the launch of the Wii U. Meanwhile, Nintendo of Europe for their part have only provided the watery response: “Dear customer, we would like to let you know that Nintendo has always aimed to offer gameplay experiences suited to all age groups, observing carefully all the relevant regulations regarding content access that are present in the various European countries. We have thus decided to restrict the access to content which is unsuitable to minors (PEGI) to the 11pm – 3am time window.”

Note how Nintendo cite European regulations as the reason for restricting adults from accessing entertainment: even now in their personal missives with customers Nintendo cannot keep from telling blatant falsehoods. There is no regulation restricting the hours of the day that digital adult content is available for purchase, as evidenced by the fact that PSN and XBL face no such restrictions anywhere in the world. There is no legitimate reason for Nintendo to paternalistically control the content that is available to their adult customers, and there is no logical reason for them to do this at all, other than in an attempt to drive up the sale of Nintendo’s own first party titles – but then Nintendo titles have never had a problem with outselling the competition ten-to-one. It is utterly inconceivable to imagine that the absentee parents of Europe actually have a legitimate claim to restricting the hours of availability for content simply to compensate for their own laziness, and it is also completely bonkers to think that an 11:00pm curfew will be sufficient to block access to youngsters who have the unfettered run of their parent’s credit card. Moreover, this should be absolutely redundant, given the fact that Nintendo has been compelling Wii U owners to pay a fifty cent fee in order to prove their age bona fides. At any rate, one hopes to see a brick-and-mortar storefront analog to Nintendo’s digital policy, requiring mature titles to be kept behind the counter in nondescript paper bags, just so that adult customers can know that what they are doing is properly unclean and shameful before they slink away, shame-faced, like pornographers into the night.

One cannot envision a future wherein this screen does not play a large part in the next Dark Souls game.

Dark Souls Receives Sequel

Dark Souls, like Demon’s Souls before it, was a robust game. Complex and sprawling with catacombs and hidden byways, yet intricate in level design and gameplay systems. The world was well developed and immersive, while the gameplay itself was finely balanced, and renowned for its difficulty. It is fair to say that Dark Souls was a very ambitious title for a modest studio like From Software, which is why, when it barely sold over one million copies, the franchise was doomed to obscurity, and had to be mothballed seeing as everyone knows that AAA console games need to sell at least five million copies in order to be profitable – or rather, that is what would be said if that myopic industry sob-story were actually true.

Dark Souls is set to receive a sequel due to the reality that selling over one million copies of a well-made game is in fact a respectable and eminently sustainable figure to achieve. Electronic churn-mills like EA may wish to refute this claim, owing to the fact that their perverse mutilation of Dead Space was ostensibly done in service to the requirement of selling five million units just to break even, but this is either an admission of gross incompetence or an outright lie to cover for their obscene and ham-fisted greed.

The announcement of Dark Souls 2 has been the cause of much in the way of celebration among gamers, yet it has also occasioned some disquiet within certain quarters of the fanbase. This is because series director, Hidetaka Miyazaki, has been relegated to a supervisory role, while Tomohiro Shibuya will be filling his directorial shoes. Shibuya has previously worked on the Monster Hunter and Resident Evil Outbreak series, which has provoked fan concerns that he either will not be capable of delivering such a finely balanced hardcore experience as Miyazaki, or worse, will attempt to broaden the game’s appeal, and in so doing will flush the qualities that made the series unique down the crapper. Shibuya himself does not look to have done the project any favours when he stated: “I personally am the sort of person who likes to be more direct than subtle. [Dark Souls II] will be more straightforward and more understandable.”, but then talk of greater accessibility was had when From Software first announced Dark Souls, and that certainly did not appear to have any ill effect upon the quality of the game. Dark Souls 2 will be available on PS3, Xbox 360, and PC.

One can always tell which archival screenshots were uploaded by former staff-member, Jenifer Biggs.

Rumour: Epic To Be Bought by Microsoft?

It is beginning to look as though Epic Games is about to be purchased by Microsoft or some other large corporate entity. This story comes not by way of an inside scoop from an industry deep-throat, but rather by putting two and two together, so it must be taken with appropriate amounts of salt. This week Mike Capps has stepped down from his ten year stint as president of Epic Games. This event would not be overly remarkable if viewed in isolation, yet it comes hot on the heels of the departure of Gears of War senior gameplay designer, Lee Perry, back in July, the resignation of Gears of War producer, Rod Fergusson, back in August, and the resignation of company mascot and Gears of War lead designer, Cliffy B., back in October – representing a fairly significant purge of senior Epic personnel. Similarly, Epic owned studio, People Can Fly, has lost Bulletstorm producer and designer, Adrian Chmielarz, along with Andzej Poznanski and Michal Kosieradzki in recent months.

It is theoretically possible that all of these very important figures within the company simultaneously came to the decision to move on within months of one another. It is also entirely possible that Cliffy B. suddenly discovered humility, and thus sought to flee the spotlight. It does however seem most likely that push factors have played a large part in their decision to step aside, with the most likely push factor being the knowledge that Epic is about to be bought out by a larger entity, and will subsequently be afforded less latitude in the game projects that it is able to pursue.

The situation resembles nothing so much as the mass exodus of talent back when Microsoft purchased Rareware. Moreover, Microsoft would be the predictable suitor for Epic Games due to their historically beneficial relationship, which has resulted in Epic Games developing one of the Xbox 360′s pillar franchises in the form of Gears of War. Taking ownership of the fourth iteration of the Unreal Engine would also allow for the Nextbox to get the jump on brand Playstation, though this factor may prove to be something of a double-edged sword, as failure to kill Playstation outright would result in Epic Games losing a tremendous amount of value if their engine can no longer be used for multiplatform games. Nonetheless, Microsoft shooting themselves in the foot due to their anti-competitive overreach is entirely in keeping with their corporate character. At any rate, this could all very easily be coincidence.

Dark Souls Boss Fight

Hello, LusiSlaves! I have returned! Yes, yes I know you all were so saddened by my departure from the site but I saw fit to return and give you all my pleasure of my company once again. Last October, I punishingly played through the PlayStation 3 action role playing game, Demon’s Souls. After beating Demon’s Souls I was thoroughly flogged and beaten down, so much so that I didn’t even want to attempt the recently released sequel Dark Souls. Flash forward to the beginning of June, 2012 and the itch of a punishingly hard video game experience had returned and with that itch I turned to the long shelved Dark Souls. So I came up with the idea of chronicling the adventures through the game. For those of you not in the know about the Souls series, consider yourself lucky. The Souls series are probably the closest thing that the current generation of games has to a “NES hard” adventure game. These games are set in dying fantasy worlds where the gods have decided to punish man kind for being insolent, which players see in Demon’s Souls. In Dark Souls the player finds that similar gods have gone to war and the result of such a war is that certain people can no longer die but turn into the zombie like start of the Horrow. Now before I get into my thoughts let me set the stage for you all by giving you my character info and such:

Name:Pearson Sloan
Level: 37
Covenant: Way of White
Class: Warrior
Play Time: 17:47:21

Up to this point I have fought through the Bell Gargoyle(s), sounded the first Bell in the Undead Parish, cut my way through the Darkroot Garden taking the Moonlight Butterfly as I went, died countless times to the Capra Demon in the lower Undead Burg, waded my way through the dark and dank Depths, cut the heads of the Hydra, and finally claimed the life of the Undead Dragon. Overall the difficulty level has periodically gotten to the level of Demon Souls. More and more I am finding that the majority of my time with Dark Souls is MUCH easier then is predecessor. That being said the game does have harsh spikes of difficulty. The Bell Gargoyles, the first real bosses, will gang up on you and unless you take them one-on-one you will perish in a matter of moments. All this talk of difficulty has gotten me thinking what if From Software did bring down the overall difficulty of Dark Souls? If that is so could a possible third Souls game be easier than its predecessor? On a similar note, when did it become the norm to have certain developers only developing hard games that give gamers a real challenge? Shouldn’t all studios strive to have the same level of challenge as their competitors? The sad truth is that because of the causal gamer boom of this generation the hardcore gamers are finding that shovelware has become the dominating selling force behind the majority of video game sales. In a frightening reality we may see the day when studios like From Software can no longer survive in the causal gaming world where waggle motes and video sensor bars are the only way to play games. Where will we be then readers?

3D Dot Game Heroes boxart

With everyone going crazy over Skyward Sword, it seems fitting to review another amazing Zelda game! One so amazing that it does not even have The Legend of Zelda in its title! 3D Dot Game Heroes does such a great job mimicking the classic top-down Zelda games that it almost feels odd that the player’s character is not set to Link by default. Dungeons play out just like one would expect from a not-quite-Zelda game, and the various sidequests and NPCs in town all parody other gaming classics. However, despite all of its 8-bit charm and retro game nods, 3DDGH feels strangely empty and railroaded compared to the older Zelda games it tries so hard to impress.

The dungeons in 3DDGH are just like what one would expect from The Legend of Zelda. The player, who is definitely not-Link, runs around the dungeon, hunting for the boss key. In each dungeon, not-Link finds a new weapon to use throughout his journeys, but unlike the newer Zelda games, the boss of each dungeon does not require the player to use the dungeon’s treasure. Instead of the puzzle-like boss fights of newer games, boss battles involve bashing the boss with a sword until he dies. The first two bosses can prove to be somewhat challenging, due to the players low amount of hearts, but as the game progresses and the player gets access to a larger health bar, potions, and magic, the bosses get easier. By the end of the game, it is possible to simply chug potions while slashing the final boss to death.

3DDGH lets players design any kind of 8-bit hero they want!

Sadly, 3DDGH lacks many puzzles throughout the game, unlike its Zelda role-models. There are a few puzzles in the game, such as simple block sliding puzzles and a labyrinthine forest, but the bulk of the gameplay lies in smashing things with a sword, an area which 3DDGH makes some interesting improvements in. Rather than having one or two swords, such as a wooden sword and Master Sword, 3DDGH features a ton of swords, ranging from the stereotypical “hero’s sword” to a giant fish. Each sword can be upgraded to do more damage, have a farther reach, or do various magical effects. The sword upgrade system is tons of fun and lets players have different weapons for all kinds of situations, but in nearly every case, the player needs to be at full health to use the upgraded swords. With even half a hearts worth of damage, all of the strength and size improvements to one’s sword vanish. Yes, it is possible for players to grind up a sword with strength high enough to top bosses in a few swings, so one could argue that requiring a full health bar for all those upgrades to work balances the game out, but that does not make it any less frustrating!

Believe it or not, that is one of the smaller swords.

3DDGH features all of the locations one would expect from a Japanese fantasy game. A magical forest, a volcano, a desert, and so on. And with those locations comes a cast of characters all heavily inspired by other popular retro games. Nearly every NPC features some kind of joke our reference about another game, of course, the bulk of the jokes will not be understood by any sane video game fans, since they are almost all Dragon Quest related. Catching a reference or two when chatting with NPCs is always a little funny, but it also makes it extremely hard to differentiate between an NPC who simply exists to spew out jokes and an NPC who is giving the hero information about a sidequest; 3DDGH features a lot of sidequests. Ranging from grabbing an item for a hidden cave, to playing tower defense minigames, to running items back and forth between NPCs, and more, these little fetch quests usually give the hero a heart container or sword, and the best part is that many of them are time sensitive! While it is perfectly possible to beat the game without hunting down every little heart piece and bonus sword, players paranoid about finding everything will definitely need to use a guide.

While, unlike Metroid, Zelda-like games are known for exploration, 3DDGH really drops the ball when it comes time to adventure. The game is always eager to point the player in the right direction, and anytime the player must trek through the world to find a new dungeon, the game is nice enough to put a marker on the player’s map, right where the dungeon entrance is. A few of the dungeons end up being pretty far from towns, but there’s a massive lack of anything interesting between towns and dungeons. Players may find an item shop or fairy fountain along the way, but other than that, the game spends no time trying to entertain the adventurous. It is by no means a game breaker, but keeping the time sensitive sidequests in mind, players might beat themselves up as they scour every inch of the game, paranoid about missing any bit of extra content.

3DDGH still manages to be an enjoyable experience, especially for anyone who has been playing games since the early days of the NES. The dungeons and bosses are all very fun, and they all prove to be a pleasant challenge. The constant retro references always make chatting with NPCs worthwhile, and the whole sidequest issue will only bother perfectionists. Unlike the newer Zelda titles, 3DDGH uses a regular controller! So should one find themselves with broken arms after flailing through a session of Skyward Twilight Sword, 3DDGH is the perfect alternative!

Dark Souls' standard edition box art

Simply put, Dark Souls is an amazing game. As soon as the player steps out of the game’s tutorial area Dark Souls begins to pull itself away from Demon’s Souls, making Demon’s feel like an early demo version of Dark Souls. On a technical level, Dark Souls received a much needed balance to the status and magic systems of Demon’s Souls making the game as a whole much easier to play. The inclusion of Bonfires, Dark Souls’ fancy term for checkpoints, over the level selection area in Demon’s Souls, along with the open world format not only makes Dark Souls much easier to progress in, but it also leads to the game feeling more like a 3D Symphony of the Night rather than the spiritual sequel to The Game from Hell. Of course, the term “easier” is used lightly here; Dark Souls is still very difficult when it wants to be, and slowly weans players off of frequent checkpoints until entire levels lack any Bonfire at all. But even with its much better soundtrack, strangely engrossing story, improved graphics, and awesome assortment of magical treasures, Dark Souls has to have one major weak point; sadly, that weak point is its online play, which in some ways is actually worse than it was in Demon’s Souls’. Forget about online play, though! Someone with the determination to finish Demon’s Souls probably has no friends to play with, which is all the more reason for them to shut up and buy Dark Souls!

Demon’s Souls was not very friendly to dexterity-based characters or Red Mage-like hybrid characters, but thanks to some very boring work done on the numbers in Dark Souls, nearly every character type and play style becomes viable. Additionally, upgrades to weapons and stats make a noticeable difference in effectiveness. Simply upgrading a sword one level or increasing strength by a few points can knock down the difficulty of an area quite a bit. The ailment system, which previously featured three ailments that all did the same thing, now includes three very unique ailments that, unlike Demon’s Souls again, can actually be inflicted upon enemies. Bleed causes a massive burst of damage after a few quick attacks, poison does what poison always does, and the monster-only curse ability instantly kills the player and permanently halves their health. However, despite all of the effort put into balancing the numbers out, the elemental system still sucks; everything everywhere is weak to fire or non-elemental attacks, and the few enemies that have a major weakness to the other elements are just as weak to non-elemental damage.

The Bell Gargoyle is one of the first major bosses players will encounter.

Rather than sticking to the level-by-level progression of Demon’s Souls, Dark Souls features an open world, with dungeons and checkpoints scattered all over. The world of Dark Souls is absolutely amazing to explore. There are just the right amounts of shortcuts and treasures in each area to keep wandering throughout a dungeon extremely interesting the first time through, and nearly every area has an extremely strong mini-boss monster for players to hunt down and kill on a return visit. While the aim of Dark Souls is still killing the boss monsters, the areas are so amazing that they may drive players to slay a boss not to progress the story, but simply to continue the exploration. Much like Symphony of the Night, each area leads players to a boss fight or power up that progresses the story or strengthens the player.

Dark Souls is easier than Demon’s Souls, but that is not really saying much. Early on, checkpoints always seem to be right where they are needed, and time spent leveling up really makes a difference, but that does not mean Dark Souls is Baby’s First Action-RPG. Levels still remain a pleasant challenge, but no longer resort to shoving players down pits or pushing them face first into insanely strong enemies. Rather, the real difficulty comes from rationing out the limited healing items players get at each checkpoint, because it is very, very easy to spend up all of one’s potions before getting even remotely close to a boss fight. Checkpoints become less frequent as the player progresses through the game, and the final handful of levels have absolutely no checkpoints at all, just like good old Demon’s Souls.

Players get to see this message a lot!

The most disappointing aspect of Dark Souls, and the one it should have improved upon the most, is its multiplayer. It is basically the same as Demon’s Souls, players can summon other players into their world for help, or they can invade the world of others and wreak havok. But this time around, players need to be in human form for either, and reaching human form requires a very valuable and rare resource, aptly named “Humanity,” which has many other uses that are all much better than playing with strangers. Co-op play still requires players to throw down “sign” and wait for someone to decide they are worth playing with, meaning it is impossible to guarantee being summoned by a friend. Covenants, Dark Souls version of factions or guilds, exist that make cooperative and player-versus-player play easier, but there is no excuse, other than “it would make the game too easy!”, for players not being able to simply send PSN friends an invite for a quick boss fight or PvP match. If balance is an issue, simply reducing the rewards players receive if they chose to hand-pick partners from their friend list would be an easy fix.

From start to finish, Dark Souls is a great game, and can easily absorb fifty hours of one’s life. Rather than trying to make its players cry, Dark Souls gives players a wonderful fantasy world to explore, while keeping the difficulty at a reasonable level. If Castlevania plus Monster Hunter without the boring start-up quests of Monster Hunter sounds appealing, go pick up Dark Souls as soon as possible, but anyone expecting an MMO-like multiplayer experience should look elsewhere.

Fable II

It only makes sense, given my previous review, for this review to be about Dark Souls, and it really should be, since Dark Souls is amazing. So, now, without further ado, prepare for another trip into the land of Hellish difficulty and demons, which is where this review would have been going, were this not the long awaited Fable Week! In many ways the Fable II is a lot like Dark Souls; it takes a very special kind of person to finish each game, each game is playable on the Xbox 360, they are both sequels, and they are action RPGs. However, one of the two is a good sequel, while the other is somewhat bad. Although it may be hard to believe, Fable II is the bad half of this sequel duo.

Fable II, the simply named sequel to Peter Molyneux’s Fable, and like Fable, it too claims to have an ever-changing world full of choices and repercussions. The game does have a character moral system, and NPCs will react to the choices the hero makes, that much is true, but Fable II is in no way ever-changing or full of choices. For example, with the typical NPC, the player can basically either talk to them or murder them, and that is the extent of the morality system. An evil character will scare off NPCs, while a good character will easily impress them, but neither have any effect on the story. Even if the player becomes so evil that they resemble Satan or so pure they have a halo, each player is still given the option between the “good,” “evil,” and “neutral” endings at the very end of the game, meaning it is possible for pure evil characters to receive the good ending and vice-versa. It is also worth noting that it is extremely easy to manipulate a character’s moral standing, provided players have enough money to pay beggars, or strength to kill the town guardsmen.

In many ways, Fable II is like “Baby’s First Action RPG.” The nice glowing trail that points players to their next quest destination removes any sense of or need for adventure, while instantly reviving upon death removes any difficulty the fights may have. It is also extremely easy to reach the max level with each of the games three skills, removing any customization in character building. Combat itself is very simple, with only one button for melee attacks, one for ranged, and one for magic, but despite the simplicity, cutting one’s way through a horde of enemies is still pretty fun. Of course, the simplistic system does lose the little bit of fun it has after a few hours of play, but luckily enough for Fable II, there are only a few hours of core gameplay in the game.

This is the appropriate reaction to Fable II.

Fable II is extremely short, and may be one of the shortest RPGs this console generation. The story is mediocre, and hardly ties into the original Fable at all. The final boss, which appears out of no where, is simply a fight between the hero and waves of regular enemies, and the final showdown between the hero and Lucien is over in one gun shot. Despite how disappointing the core story of Fable II is, though, the sidequests have that same simplistic fun to them. The bulk of the side content involves hunting down collectible items such as dog tricks or silver keys, but others have full fledged side stories, such as defending Fairfax Castle from bandits, or exploring the hero’s dream world.

Another great thing Fable II claims to include is multiplayer, which, yes, it does include, but, like many other mechanics, it absolutely botches it. Rather than joining a friend’s world and wandering about while they clear a quest, or possibly assisting them with their adventure, players must use a pre-made character and are forced to stay on the same screen as the game host. Not the same dungeon, not split-screen, but literally the same screen. The camera will only follow the host, and player two can not move beyond the screen borders, very similar to the way Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles handled single-screen multiplayer. Many other open-world RPGs such as the Elder Scrolls or Fallout series have yet to even touch multiplayer, so Fable II might deserve compliments for attempting to include it, but it being done in such a poor way, combined with the other horrible parts of the game, really just adds more garbage to the pile.

Fans of action RPGs should not play Fable II, they should play something like Dark Souls, or Fallout. Casual gamers or those who have never experienced an action RPG or adventure game before might enjoy the Fable series for the very little things, or for the simple freedom it gives players, but it is in no way the hardcore game it tries to bill itself as. Those of us unlucky enough to have stumbled upon this game have gained at least one thing from it, the right to say “I played a Fable game before Fable Week forced me to!”

Demon's Souls!

By now, most console gamers have heard tales of Demon’s Souls and its brutal difficulty, with its horror stories of ruthless player-killers and impossible levels. Some gamers took these horror stories as challenge to their abilities, giving them a desire to buy the game and prove that it was not actually that difficult. At the same time, however, other gamers were turned off by the difficulty. While it is no cakewalk, Demon’s Souls is never unfair in its difficulty; all monsters have one or two major weaknesses players can exploit, and all of the traps, enemies, and bosses in a level follow easy-to learn-patterns. Thankfully, there are not any overpowered or underpowered classes in the game, instead players are given complete control over character progression, with all spells and equipment being available to every starting class. Sadly, due to Demon’s Souls being two years old, the game’s multiplayer function is not widely used, and those who do use it will be a much higher level than players just starting out. With Dark Souls having just been released the day before this review post, any gamers on the fence about picking it up should definitely try Demon’s Souls out first, and any gamers lucky enough to enjoy Dark Souls on release day should not pass up the original if they are looking for more demon hunting frustration.

Demon’s Souls is hard, at least on the first time through. The enemies and traps within levels always start at the same position, and the enemies’ attack patterns are usually very easy to learn. The enemies in each level do not vary that much, and almost always include a weak poorly equipped monster, a lightly equipped variation of the weak monster, and a very strong or heavily armored monster. Thankfully, due to the small variation in enemies, all of the enemies in a level end up sharing the same weaknesses, and after a few minutes of trial and error in each area players can figure out which weapons to rely on. For example, every enemy in the first level is weak to fire, even the boss. Fans of older RPGs or action games will have no problem figuring out enemy weaknesses and attack patterns.

Believe it or not, that is just a normal enemy.

Not every gamer can memorize the frame-by-frame movement of an enemy, though, and for those of us that have a hard time with it, the RPG elements of the game save the day, while reflexes and memorization take the back seat. Rather than leveling up and following predetermined class progression routes, players are able to add points to their character’s ability scores one by one, making it is possible for one character to wield every weapon and spell without investing much time into level grinding. Along with ability upgrades, players can take each of the game’s weapons through various upgrade trees, creating weapons that poison, burn, or pull their strength from dexterity or intelligence, rather than strength. Most character builds the average player will dream up remain pretty balanced, thanks to the weapon system, and even with high ability scores and a fully upgraded weapon, players will still find the game challenging. Any player looking to break the game wide open for an easy playthrough, however, should consider using a character centered on magic.

The best part of Demon’s Souls is definitely the boss fight at the end of each level. Unlike the long and difficult level leading up to the fight, most boss battles are very easy. With the exception of two fights, the bosses are usually large and slow moving, giving patient players all the time they need to slowly learn the boss’s weakness and chip away at its health cautiously. Like a death anywhere else in the level, dying during a boss battle will send a player crying back to the start of the level, and unlike generic level monsters, bosses hit extremely hard, making defense and evasion an absolute must. Each boss fight is totally unique, ranging from slime blobs, Ifrit-like demons, and massive Gundam-like knights. Sadly, there is no way to re-fight bosses without using the game’s multiplayer functions or New Game+ options.

Let's see a TF2 hat match this!

While the difficulty might be a deal breaker for some gamers already, Demon’s Souls has a few other small flaws. The multiplayer system, while innovative, can make playing with friends a chore; rather than forming parties in a hub city, like most online RPGs, players in soul form can be summoned to the worlds of players in human form, something which requires rare consumable items or the death of a boss to reach. The story of Demon’s Souls is rather simplistic, with only a handful of introductory cut scenes and dialogue to get the player up to speed with the affairs of the Nexus, and while each level has some introductory text to provide back story, the game lacks any active narration for players, meaning players must rely purely on the desire to crush the next boss in order to push themselves through the harder parts of the game. Once a player learns the patterns of the common enemies, the game relies on its levels for the difficulty, which results in some massive labyrinthine levels that require a great deal of luck to finish quickly.

Fans of the Monster Hunter series will likely have the patience to enjoy Demon’s Souls to the very end, but others will definitely have to rely on friends or self-motivation to push themselves through the game. Due to the similarities between Dark and Demon’s Souls, anyone waiting for reviews or price drops before picking up Dark Souls should instead treat Demon’s Souls like a demo for Dark, and pick up a cheap used copy in order to form one’s own opinions on the series, or to hold oneself over until the eventual price cut. For any readers that now find themselves scoffing at the claims of difficulty, or shouting “Entire review is by baby!” in a Russian accent, know that Demon’s Souls scoffs back and will offer anyone with this mindset a challenging surprise.

''The industry rebellion has been foiled. The remaining developers will be hunted down and defeated. The attempt to curtail my profits has left me scarred and deformed, but I assure you, my resolve has never been stronger. In order to ensure security and continuing stability, the industry will be reorganised into the Global Activision Empire!''

Darth Lane uses the force to ensure that the panelists eagerly report on the Tokyo Game Show, show their love for Activision games, and profess their unswerving belief in the right-minded thinking of Emperor Kotick. All hail the GLOBAL ACTIVISION EMPIRE!

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The panel explores the week’s releases, including 3D Dot Game Heroes and… well, nothing else. There’s also Final Fantasy X to discuss–but a far more important matter intervenes: the TIMELY arrival of Lusipurr’s new wall clock. Get it? Ha! Ha!