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[img align=right width=200]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/b/b6/RaCbox.jpg[/img]Just like fellow Playstation platform developer Naughty Dog did with Crash Bandicoot, Insomniac Games decided to sell their PSone franchise Spyro and start with a fresh game on the PS2. Furthermore, Ratchet & Clank (2002), too, features a main character and a side companion that stay together during most of the games. Coincidence? Not really, because both studios used to be located in the same building on a Universal Studios backlot and continue to have a close relationship.
In Ratchet & Clank, you play as Ratchet, a creature that doesn't really fall under a specific animal-category, but can be best described as a sort of cross between a lynx and a human. Ratchet lives on the planet Veldin, where he spends most of his time working on his spaceship, dreaming of leaving Veldin in search of galactic adventures. One day, a little robot named Clank crashes near Ratchet's home. Clank comes form a robot factory on the planet Quartu, where he discovered an infobot that revealed that Chairman Drek, leader of the Blarg race has decided to start building a new planet for his race, made up from pieces of other planets. When Ratchet finds Clank, Clank shows him the infobot and says he fears that Drek is going to destroy the universe. After some compromises, the odd duo sets of to rescue the galaxy from Drek's madness.
The rest of the story is brought to the player in a similar fashion: after reaching a certain point in each level, a new infobot plays another cutscene and gives the coordinates for a next planet. The game makes handful use of this concept to make each planet/level completely different in terms of environment, backgrounds and "feel", thus making the game varied from start to finish. Along the way you'll find yourself on space stations, polluted planets, tropical planets, urban-themed planets and more. As you can expect, the story is very light-hearted and the well written cutscenes are often hilarious, making the game enjoyable for both young and old.
When arriving at a new planet there's usually several directions you can go in, each leading to a different objective. Pressing start will reveal a map of the planet you're on, along with the objectives you've found so far. You can also watch the corresponding infobot again in case you missed out on anything.
To keep frustrations on a low, backtracking is kept to a minimum with the ability to teleport back to your ship after reaching the end of a certain path. There's also plenty of invisible checkpoints on each planet so gamers won't have to replay most of a level because they died right before the end.
Compared to other platform games, Ratchet & Clank's focus mainly lies on the many different weapons and gadgets in the game than on jumping about from platform to platform. At the start of the game, Ratchet is equiped with his Omniwrench 3000, your main melee weapon that you can smash or throw at enemies or boxes. Still on Veldin, Ratchet receives the free Bomb Glove, a glove that, you've guessed it, throws out bombs at unsuspecting enemies. The more progress you make, the bigger your weapons assortment will become. Some weapons have to be bought at the Gadgetron vendor, which can be found at each planet, others are prizes for completing objectives. Besides the first two, you'll be able to have fun with the Blaster, Pyrociter, Devastator or the more exotic Glove of Doom, Suck Cannon and Morph-o-Ray.
All weapons are fun to use, although you'll find yourself using two/three of them most of the time. To change weapons, you can display a quick-select menu on screen by pressing the triangle button. Sadly enough, the game doesn't pause when you're changing weapons, something that was only added in Ratchet & Clank 2 (= Ratchet & Clank: Going Commando in North America) Not all weapons can fit in the quick-select menu at once, but you can select which ones you want it to contain in the main menu. The Gadgetron vendors also serve as ammunition shops for the weapons you've aquired.
Despite being more combat-orientated than most games in the genre, there's still a fair bit of platforming and puzzle-solving to be done. For these puzzles you'll need to use certain Gadgets, similar in use to the weapons. Gadgets are devided into 4 subcategories: hand items include things like a Trespasser (to open sealed doors in a mini game), Hydrodisplacer (a device that can store highly compressed water) and Swingshot (a hook shot that latches on special floating balls, which you can swing from).
Then there's backpacks: modifications for Clank that let you glide through the air or swim faster under water. Third are head items for Ratchet like an O2-mask or Pilot Helmet. Lastly there's foot items which include the awesome Grindboots. With these boots you can grind on rails which is something you'll have to do on several ocassions.
The gameplay itself is a lot of fun. After defeating an enemy with your weapon of choice, he'll burst out into Bolts, the game's main currency. You can also collect Bolts by smashing crates that are placed on all levels. For those who can't get enough of the game there's also a select number of Golden Bolts to be found on each planet, usually in hidden areas. These are then tradable for rare goodies.
To keep the game exciting at all times, there's also mini games in which you'll have to fly in your spaceship in a 3D-style shooter or stages that you play with Clank. Those are particulary fun because you'll get to control tiny robots than will follow Clank's instructions such as "Follow", "Wait" or "Attack".
The controls are good and even the camera adjustment has been done right (a rare thing in 3D Platform games) with a camera that stays where the player wants it. I do have to admit that I missed the possibility to strafe as seen in the game's sequels but then again, this never bothered me when I first played the game in 2002.
At the time of its release, Ratchet & Clank gained much praise for its fantastic graphics. Although not as good as later games for the PS2, Ratchet & Clank's graphics are still very much enjoyable. The levels are big, there's no load times (except when moving from one planet to another) and textures are detailed and colorful. There's very little glitches and the frame rate is constant at all times. Animations are very well done, especially in cutscenes. Speaking of the cutscenes, despite them being funny, some of the jokes between Ratchet and Clank are a bit lame compared to those in Jak and Daxter.
The game's sound is on par with its graphics with a funky up-tempo beat on each planet, good voice acting and solid sound effects. Nothing felt out of place to me, usually a good sign that the audio is good.
With its light-hearted story and humor, wide range of weapons and gadgets and beautiful graphics and sound, I think Ratchet & Clank is what you could call a "perfect" game that'll interest a broad range of gamers, not just platform fans. Recommended to all. 9.0/10
[img align=right width=200]http://www.rfgeneration.com/images/games/E-072/bf/E-072-S-00730-A.jpg[/img]What would happen if we put many of Disney's famous characters, some random evil guys, a couple of Final Fantasy's greatest heroes and some new spike-haired kids all in one game? That must've been the question Squaresoft and Disney were asking themselves when they were creating the concept of Kingdom Hearts. What made them came up with such a crazy question? I have no idea. Does it make for an enjoyable RPG? It sure does.
No matter which way you look at it, Kingdom Hearts (2002) is a pretty unique game. It shares some common points with the Final Fantasy series, but it's profoundly different otherwise.
At the start of the game we meet Sora, Riku and Kairi. These three friends are simply enjoying the little tropical world they live in and spend their days playing, talking or staring at the ocean. One day changes everything when the Heartless, a purple army of toy-like bad guys, attack the island. Both Kari and Riku disappear and Sora decides to go and look for his friends, with the help of his magical Keyblade.
Before the main story takes off, you're placed in a church-like darkness, with only glass windows displaying sleeping princesses to walk on. This area serves as a tutorial for basic combat action as well as facing you with a choice that'll decide your "destiny". Destiny may be a big word, but it comes down to you having to choose a strength and weakness with "attack", "defense" and "magic" as your options. This will later influence the way your character (Sora) levels up, what abilities he'll get first and even how fast he'll level.
Soon after embarking on his quest, Sora will meet up with Donald and Goofy, who will accompany you throughout the rest of the game. You stumbled upon the hilarious duo because they are on a quest of themselves: to find King Mickey, who has given them instructions to assist the Keyblade wearer, which just happens to be Sora.
Although the plot may seem quite heavy, it is treated pretty lightly during most of the game, mainly because you'll be working to get all the sub-plots in the different Disney worlds settled out. There's more to say about the main plot but revealing any more story feels like spoiling to me, so I won't. I'll just say that even though the story has its depth, it's clear to see that Square wanted to make this a lighter digestible plot than the average Final Fantasy; a decision that's also reflected in Kingdom Heart's gameplay - but more about that in a minute.
You'll meet many famous Disney characters on your quest to find Riku and Kairi, all living in their specific world based upon their movie counterparts. Funny is how these Disney characters (except Donald and Goofy) don't know anything about the major story, but are preoccupied with their own little problems. Along the way you'll find yourself playing alongside characters like Alladin and Jack Skellington in worlds such as Wonderland, Agrabah, the Hundred Acre Wood, Halloween Town, etc... Next to that there are some new worlds designed specifically for this game such as Traverse Town and Hollow Bastion.
Now for one of the most irritating aspects of the game: travelling between all these worlds. Rather than just having your party "teleport" to a world, you'll have to play a minigame each time you'll travel to a new world. Your ship, called a Gummi ship, travels along a determined path until you reach the next world. While flying around you'll have to shoot (often unidentifiable) enemies. This is clearly a Star Fox rip-off, and a bad one at that. By defeating enemies you'll receive "Gummi blocks" which you can use to upgrade your ship. Instead of making this easy, Square decided to put in an awkward ship editor in the game that allows you to make your ship stronger by adding parts or even create a new one. This sounds better than it actually is because there isn't any point in doing so. The Gummi levels are so easy, you'll just want to get them over with quickly to advance to the next world; so what's the point of upgrading the basic ship? The whole feature could have been left out of the game for me, but I guess Square found it necessary to let players "experience" how the party travels between worlds.
Luckily, the game is a whole lot better when inside one of the worlds. Unlike the (until then) Final Fantasy series, Kingdom hearts is an Action RPG. This means all combat happens directly in the main environments, without "going" into a turn-based combat area. Your main weapon is Sora's Keyblade, with which you can use to hit the enemies one time or in combo's (depending on the abilities you have). You can also cast traditional FF-style magic such as fire, blizzard, thunder, slow, etc... These can be selected in the "Command menu" in the lower left corner of the screen with either the D-pad or the right analog stick. You can also assign up to three magics to the cross, triangle and square buttons that allow for easy-casting in combination with L1. Lastly, you can summon Disney characters that'll temporarily help Sora out, giving Donald and Goofy a break. The camera can be moved only to the left and right by holding down either L2 or R2, which feels quite restricted. In fact, it's the main thing that bothered me while playing Kingdom Hearts; I find the camera much too close to Sora's back to give a overall perspective of your environment. Oftentimes you won't even see the enemies you're fighting, with the camera struggling to get them into view. If it wasn't for the lock-on function (activated with R1), Kingdom Hearts would be almost unplayable.
Combat happens frequently, with enemies spawning almost everywhere on the map. Sadly enough the limited tactical options will make fighting the hordes of Heartless a rather boring venture, and feels like "something you have to do" instead of being a source of fun. It isn't so irritating that it'll make you stop playing, but it could've been done a lot better. As I said earlier, Donald and Goofy will accompany you on your quest, so they're also with you during combat; helping out by attacking enemies, using magic or throwing a potion your way when your health is low. You can also opt to temporarily exchange one of the two by an optional character, depending on the world you're in. On a positive note I can say that the boss fights are much more fun than the random battles and can be quite challenging, too. (if you haven't leveled up your characters too much, that is)
Besides the fighting, there's the traditional RPG action to be done such as talking to characters, buying items and weapons in stores and saving your game at save points. There's also a bit of platforming included, which is a nice distraction from the combat but suffers from the same camera problems as well as the not-so-fluid jumping animation. Kingdom Hearts clearly is an RPG with some platform elements rather than a platform game with RPG elements.
In the main menu there are the traditional "item", "equipment", "status" and "abilities" menus as well as a "customize" and "journal" menu. In the customize menu you can set the quick-access magics for Sora and determine Donald and Goofy's combat behavior by selecting if they have to do certain things "constantly", "frequently" or "occasionally". The journal menu serves as a log in which a summary of the story is kept, next to character and world descriptions.
Graphically, Kingdom Hearts is a feast for the eyes, especially if you're a Disney fan. Both the worlds and characters accurately resemble their traditional animation counterparts, something Square can be proud of. You can also enjoy the colorful scenery in first-person view when pressing the select button. Once again, the restricted camera is the only thing that keeps this game from being a sightseers' dream.
Vocally, Square has done their best with much of the dialog being voiced over by an excellent cast of voice actors. Most of the actual Disney voice actors have lent their voices to their respective characters and Haley Joel "I see dead people" Osment gave his voice to Sora. Sound effects are average but just like in most of Square's RPG's, music is excellent. Each world is accompanied by its own theme (often a variation or adaptation of the famous Disney themes) that either sets a happy tone (in the Disney worlds) or a more serious tone (in the non-Disney worlds).
Despite its flaws, Kingdom Hearts is a unique game that successfully merges the worlds of Disney and Square into a unique experience. Whether you're an RPG fan, Square fan, Disney fan or action fan; there's a little for everybody in Kingdom Hearts. 8.4/10
[img align=right width=200]http://www.rfgeneration.com/images/games/U-072/bf/U-072-S-08110-A.jpg[/img]Dragon Quest: The Journey of the Cursed King (in the US: Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King) is Level-5's third RPG for the Playstation 2, and also the third game ever by the developer. After the good Dark Cloud (2000) and the great Dark Chronicle (2002), Level-5 decided to take on the massive task of making the next instalment of the long lasting Dragon Quest franchise. Not only that, Dragon Quest: The Journey of the Cursed King (from now on called Dragon Quest 8 ) would become the first game of the series for the Playstation 2, as well as being the first Dragon Quest game with 3D graphics. Not an easy task, but Level-5 fulfilled all expectations.
The game starts when the evil mage Dhoulmagus tries to steal a legendary sceptre, locked away in a local castle. To reach his goal, Dhoulmagus cursed the castle and petrified everyone inside into plant-like beings except for three individuals. The King, Throde, gets transformed into a Yoda-like toad, while his daughter, princess Medea, gets turned into a horse. The last survivor of the curse is you, the hero of this tale, and the only one not affected by the curse in any way.
Despite the shallowness and classic feel of the story, there are some interesting plot twists that'll keep you entertained until the end. Along the way you'll meet three more characters that'll join you on your adventure: Yangus, Jessica and Angelo. Yangus is rough fellow that got his life saved by the hero and calls him "guv" out of respect. Another recurring line of Yangus is "Cor' Blimey!" whenever King Throde appears out of nowhere. Jessica is a hard headed aristocratic girl that wants to avenge the death of her brother, Alister, who got killed by Dhoulmagus some time before his attack on the castle. Angelo is a Templar Knight, devoted to Abbot Francisco, but lacking the will to follow the Templars' strict moral code.
This lively bunch sets out to find Dhoulmagus, and while doing so encounter countless other characters that need assitance of some sort to advance the main plot. The game offers alot of content and a whole world to discover. Rushing through the story without doing any sidequests will almost take up 50 hours. You can almost double that number when playing at a normal pace and getting involved in most of the sidequests.
Gameplay-wise, Dragon Quest 8 is an as classic RPG as it gets. Combat is turn-based and gets triggered by random encouters. Because there are only 4 playable characters, switching characters isn't an option, meaning all characters will level up at the same speed. When faced against a number of monsters, you'll have to assign tasks to all 4 of your characters first and then watch them get executed together with enemy attacks. Besides melee and ranged attacks, characters can cast offensive or healing spells, aswell as use weapon-specific abilities. Lastly, players can opt to raise the tension of a character to build up energy that can be released in a single, devastating blow; especially useful when doing a boss fight.
Characters differ concerning the spells they can cast, aswell as the attributes they can raise. When a characters levels up, you can assign points to any of 5 attributes of that character. 4 of those attributes are to increase damage done with specific weapons, 1 attribute is different for each character. Some tactics lie in the fact that not all characters can use all types of weapons. For example, Angelo is the only one that can wield bows. The maximum amount of points that can be assigned to an attribute is 100, which can be obtained at around level 40. This gives players some time to experiment with different weapon types first before having to stick to one type to get it as strong as possible. The different weapon types are swords, boomerangs, axes, clubs, knives, scythes, whips, staves, bows and fisticuffs (no weapon equiped).
Besides weapons, characters can also equip a piece of body armor, a helmet, a shield and an accessory. These aren't as many categories as in some other RPGs, but you'll still spend a great deal of time finding, buying or making better weapons and armour. That last option is available once aquiring an Alchemy Pot. You can throw in multiple items and see what new item pops out. This mini-game is similar to the "invention" system in Dark Chronicle or the weapon system in Rogue Galaxy. It's quite important to try out as much combinations as you can, because it's the best way to get a hold of some strong weapons/armour/items before being able to purchase them. That's needed, because the game can be pretty challenging, especially early on when it doesn't take much hits to get your party wiped out. After the game's ending you can load your saved game again to just before defeating the final boss and enter a complete new dungeon after which some of the hardest boss battles can be found. Sometimes you'll have to go through large stretches of land without really knowing what to look for. Although this might set off the less experienced RPGer, old-school gamers will love the classic approach to this RPG.
If I could say only one thing about Dragon Quest 8, it would be that it's a very polished, rich and complete games. Alot of thought went into the menu, which looks particulary nice. All your items can easily be sorted with an auto-sort option in the menu, where they are displayed with beautiful icons. Also nice is that, when pressing select, you get a "battle records" menu in which you can watch a full list of of monsters, collected items and Alchemy Pot recepies.
Coupled to the great gameplay are stunning visuals and sound. Graphics are some of the best on the PS2 and the best ever in the Dragon Quest series. The cel-shading suits the game perfectly, with characters and monsters looking like they've just escaped from an anime, yet staying faithful to the Dragon Quest franchise. Akira Toriyama did the character design of this game and is the man responsible for the Dragon Ball Z series.
Sound is just as nice with convincing voice acting (despite the sometimes over-the-top voice of King Throde), great sound effects and fantastic music. The songs are all classic orchestral tracks that really set the mood for the many areas that the game is rich. From the regal intro tune to the upbeat battle song or the creepy dungeon track; they all maintain the same high level and are never out of place.
I'll wrap it up by saying that Dragon Quest 8 is one of the best games in the series aswell as one of the best RPGs on the PS2. If you're looking for a good RPG, a game that will last a long time or just a good game in general, this is a must-buy. 9.3/10
[img align=right width=200]http://www.rfgeneration.com/images/games/U-072/bf/U-072-S-08790-A.jpg[/img]Fahrenheit (Indigo Prophecy in the US) is a 2005 game released by Quantic Dream. With the studio's second release they wanted to create a truly cinematic game and let me tell you: they succeeded.
The game starts in a cold, snow-covered New York City where we find protagonist of the game, Lucas Kane, sitting on a toilet of a diner with a knife in his hands. Something's not right with Lucas because he used the knive to kill an innocent man and carved strange markings in his forearms. Seconds later, he regains control over himself and is stunned to find the man on the bathroom floor, realising he's a murderer.
From there on the player gets to control Lucas and has to make quick decisions in his place to get him away from the crimescene in one piece. I won't go into further detail about the story because that would spoil too much of the experience. All I'll add is that you also get to play as Carla Valenti and Tyler Miles, two detectives working the case of Lucas' murder. This makes for some interesting moments because you're playing as two sides who are literally working against each other.
I'd like to stress how important the story in this game is, which is of a far superior level and suspense normally found in games. While advancing through the game you'll really start to care about alot of characters, which aren't stereotypical good or bad guys but rather undergo an evolution as the game progresses.
What makes Fahrenheit different from most games is not only its deep story but also the way you can influence that story. Depending on what decisions you make, the story changes. When talking to another character, different dialog options are shown. (Like in Mass Effect) A timer runs out so you have to make quick decisions as to what you want your character to say. Although the story isn't completely changeable (some decisions simply end up with Lucas in prison, forcing you to do things differently) there are entire scenes that can be unlocked when making the right decisions. (including two sex scenes cut from the US version)
All actions in the game are performed via the analog sticks. The left one controls Lucas' movement while the right one is context-sensitive. Depending where you are or what object you're facing, a small icon on the screen shows what movement you should make with the stick. (Much like Skate's way of performing tricks)
During the more intense action sequences you'll have to perform a sort of rhythm mini game with the analog sticks. Two 4-button icons will show up in the middle of the screen (like the memory game Simon) and depending on which color lights up, you'll have to press the corresponding analog stick in that direction. Although this seems stupid on paper it works rather well in this game and I never got the feeling I'm simply pressing random buttons because the rhythm game is made so it matches the actions on screen.
Another fun feature of Fahrenheit is you'll also do some everyday life actions like drink some water, play some guitar or take a shower. This supports the bond you have with the characters and shows they're no superheroes but regular people like you and me. They also have a mental health bar that goes up or down depending on your actions in the game. At maximum this shows as "Neutral" but will say things like "Stressed" or "Depressed" when worse.
What's most irritating about Fahrenheit are character and camera movement. Character movement is slow and feels stiff. Maybe this has been done to add to the realistic feel of the game, I'm not really sure. Although the camera does a decent job, it tends to get stuck behind objects in small rooms making it hard to regain a good perspective. Graphics aren't fantastic either (comparable to those of GTA: Vice City and San Andreas) with some animations looking a bit unnatural, despite the use of motion capture. This never bothered me though, because it's easy to forgive a game for its lesser graphics when it has such an intense storyline.
Much better than the visuals is the audio and a place where Fahrenheit really shines. Luckily for its storyline, voice acting is performed excellent for all characters. The way you can hear them think in their heads is especially convincing, together with the voice of main character Lucas. Musically, Fahrenheit uses both licensed songs and an original score. Licensed songs are usually found when a radio is playing in-game while the original score accompanies alot of dialog and action scenes. I think both are used very well and give Fahrenheit that memorable feel that you'll remember even after finishing the game.
Although only an 8-hour game, Fahrenheit is the kind of of game you'll still think about weeks after completing it. It gets under your skin like few other games do and has a story even fewer can compare with. Definately worth your attention despite the flaws I've mentioned. 8.3/10
[img align=right width=200]http://www.rfgeneration.com/images/games/U-072/bf/U-072-S-01210-A.jpg[/img]Maximo: Ghosts To Glory (2002) is Capcom's effort in trying to create a modern platform game with the classic Ghosts 'N Goblins feel to it. The game was originally planned for release on the Nintendo 64, but after being delayed a couple of years it found itself on the PS2 instead.
When starting a new game you'll see Maximo returning home after war in a nice CGI cutscene. Things aren't exactly as he had hoped because Achille has taken over his kingdom and opened the door to the underworld. To make matters worse, Achille has captured four princesses aswell as Maximo's wife, Sophia. With a devastation spell, Achille sends Maximo to the underworld where he's given a chance by the Grim Reaper to resque the princesses and regain control over his kingdom.
Despite being a difficult game, the gameplay of Maximo isn't complicated at all. Maximo is restricted to four moves: a basic swing of his sword, a power strike, a downward strike after double-jumping and throwing his shield. When venturing through the five worlds of the game you'll encounter different enemies that each require a unique combination of moves to defeat.
Knowing how to defeat each enemy is critical for your success, because just like in games of the past, Maximo dies after only a couple of hits. Furthermore, you need 100 coins each time you want to save; which is only possible in the central hub-level of each world. If Maximo happens to loose all his lives he'll return to the underworld where the Grim Reaper will ask for a Death Coin to revive the fallen hero. A Death Coins is obtained by collecting 50 Blue Spirits. If you die without any Death Coins, it's game over for good. All of this results in a game that's far more difficult than other platform games on the PS2, or even modern games in general.
Needless to say, Maximo will require a lot of trial & error, figuring out how to defeat certain enemies or remembering where the next armor chest is located.
To make things less repetitive, Maximo will find abilities along the way aswell as power-ups for his sword and shield. Some abilities are almost vital to survive (like the double swing or throw shield abilities) while others aren't of much use throughout most of the game (like Thunderbolt) The sword power-ups however always come in handy, as they make Maximo's sword stronger and are needed for certain abilities. To get the most out of these abilities it's best not to die, because Maximo looses all but a few "locked" ones when faced with death.
Each world features five levels that are to be completed to gain access to the world's boss and the next world eventually. Each level has its own difficult moments but luckily a couple of checkpoints can be activated, so death doesn't necessarily mean starting all the way from the beginning of the level. After clearing a level you'll get a great feeling of success that is hardly present anymore in most modern games.
Maximo's graphics match its old-school gameplay in a sense that everything (except the character models) looks a bit blocked and flat. Often, walls or floors aren't more than a single huge polygon with a texture slapped onto it, clearly showing Maximo's history on the N64. This never bothers me because Maximo is intended to feel like a 16-bit era game. On the other hand, character models are detailed and animations are fast and smooth.
The sound of the game does the job well, with nice sound effects and good voice-acting for the (scarce) CGI cutscenes. I especially like the the game's music that enhances its classic mood aswell as each world at the same time. A couple more songs would have been nice though.
Overall, Maximo is a double-edged sword. Novice gamers will be frustrated with the game's trial & error gameplay and cumbersome save system while old-school gamers will love the game's nostalgic feel. If you're up for a challenge, like platform games or like 16-bit games, be sure to check out Maximo: Ghosts To Glory. 8.6/10
[img align=right width=200]http://www.rfgeneration.com/images/games/E-072/bf/E-072-S-00670-A.jpg[/img]Gran Turismo. One of the names most associated with the Playstation-brand whose popularity is met by only a couple other franchises out there. In 1998, with the release of the original Gran Turismo came the DualShock, probably the most recognizable modern-day game pad there is and something that shows how big an impact this series has had.
Gran Turismo 3: A-spec (2001) was the first racer Polyphony Digital released to the world to show what the Playstation 2 was capable of. With Gran Turismo 4 (2005), Polyphony Digital tried to realise what they couldn't with part 3.
Let's start out with what is new. Immediate eyecatcher is the highly needed, slick new menu layout. Every screen in the game feels like it's part of a bigger whole and the same fonts, colors and icons are used throughout. This gives GT4 a much more streamlined feel, aswell as provide easier mobility while navigating through the game's massive options.
As usual, there's an Arcade Mode where you can do single races, time trials or go up against others in a 2-player splitscreen or LAN. The not-so-interesting Replay Theatre is back aswell, but most important still is the Gran Turismo mode, the place where you'll spend 98% of your time.
Here, you'll immediately notice the difference in layout, with much more icons than in the past. In the classic home screen, the garage has become much more flexible for searching through your collection of cars with listing categories like country, power-to-weight ratio and so on. You'll also notice your "diary" which is nothing more than a log of your purchases and race results.
In GT4, races are devided into much more categories than before. The beginner, professional and expert races make a return, but new are the country- and manufacturer-specific races. There are, for example, Japanese, American and European events, while you have to go to the manufacturers to see if there are model-specific races available.
One thing in which GT4 excels is content: There's over 700 cars and 50 tracks in the game, making it a much bigger game than GT3. The same however was true for GT2 compared to GT1, probably because the developer has more time for their second release on each console. New this time are all the classic cars from the 50ies and beyond, aswell as some crazy concept cars and some of the first cars ever made. To make things easier in the beginning of the game, you can buy used cars of all ages. However, there's so many races to do and cars to collect in this game, it'll take you weeks (or even months) to finish it.
Also new are the B-spec and Photo mode. In B-spec mode you don't drive yourself but assist an AI driver by giving him/her directions (accelerate, break, etc...) for what to do next. Photo mode is (as the name indicates) a mode in which you can take pictures of your favorite cars, put them on a USB stick and print them out if you want.
Now for the actual driving. (This is where opinions will clash the most concerning GT4) Depending from what you, the gamer, expect from a racing-game, you'll either love GT4 or you won't. If you're looking for adrenaline-pumping, faster-than-lightning races with brutal competition, chances are big you won't like GT4. If, however, you're looking for a realistic (and therefor sometimes a bit boring) driving simulator, you'll find GT4 (almost) everything you're longing for.
When it comes to simply simulating driving, GT4 is fan-tas-tic. Especially when turning off electronic aids you'll be able to really show what you're made of. Couple this with the rich content and you can already justify buying GT4. However, there's some bad sides to the game aswell, quite a few actually...
For starters, there's no online play. This'll surely dissapoint alot of people wanting to test their skills against others online, who don't have a racing friend nearby.
Secondly, the AI is as dumb as ever. The other cars (still only 5) always drive in the perfect racing line, almost never miss a turn and stay together as a group unless there are major differences in the cars' performances. A third complaint is the fact that you can still use cars ahead of you as airbags for taking sharp corners aswell as ride off-track on several courses. (Apricot Hill, anyone?)
A penalty system has been introduced in the Dirt & Snow events, making you drive 50km/h for 5 seconds if you hit the other car, however, sometimes you get a penalty for the other car hitting you! These Dirt & Snow events are another thing that bothers me in GT4. Instead of them being realistic (like, say: Colin Mcrae) you feel like you're trying to manoeuvre a bar of soap on a wet plastic surface, constantly sliding towards the sides unless you break like mad. Although the B-spec mode sounds like a nice new feature at first, it's boring as hell and I really don't see the fun of not driving yourself.
Lastly, there's still no damage model, but it depends on what you expect from a driving simulator if that's a bad thing or not.
On the bright side, both graphics and sound are perfect in GT4, with beautiful cars and circuits aswell as realistic engine sounds. The soundtrack is elaborate although I'm not sure it'll appeal to all with mostly rock songs. Luckily, you can customize it in the "jukebox" so you only have to listen to the songs you like. Especially graphically, you can see the improvements made since GT3 with nicer cars, reflections and lighting. Especially the clouds seem to have been improved, showing much more detail than before. The addition of a new over-the-hood view of your car is very welcome, bring the best of the other 2 views together.
Scoring GT4 is difficult because it really depends on what you expect from it. I'd personally give it a 8.8 or maybe even a 9.0 out of 10 but considering the many faults this game has I'll give it a more diplomatic 8.2/10.
[img align=right width=200]http://www.rfgeneration.com/images/games/U-072/bf/U-072-S-01010-A.jpg[/img]After their wildly succesful Crash Bandicoot series on the original Playstation, Naughty Dog decided to venture into the unknown for the PS2 and in 2001 they came out with Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy.
I'll cut right to the chase: Jak and Daxter was one of the first PS2 games I played and has since conquered a special place in my heart. Why? Because it rocks, plain and simple.
The game's story isn't anything spectacular but serves its purpose well, for a game in the Platform-genre. Jak and Daxter are two friends who adventure to Misty Island where they find a group of lurkers (bad guys of the blocked type) being addressed by two unknown individuals. When suddenly a lurker attacks the duo, Daxter falls into a pit of Dark Eco (A purple goo) and gets transformed into an ottsel. They search help from Sage Samos who sends them on their quest to find Gol, Sage of the Dark Eco and the only one who can return Daxter to his human form.
Much more important than the story is the gameplay of a platformer, which in this case feels solid and smooth. Jak is the only playable character of the game with Daxter riding along on Jak's shoulder, letting him do all the work. Jak's moves are simple: you can jump and double jump, punch and perform a spin-kick. Your moves list may be small but animations for them are smooth. (and in Daxter's case: funny) Enemies aren't exactly difficult to defeat, but this suits the game well considering the fact you die after three hits.
To make the gameplay a bit more interesting, for a limited amount of time, Jak can attain some extra abilities after running into a beam of Eco. Green Eco charges your health, blue Eco makes Jak jump higher and run faster, yellow Eco gives him the ability to shoot blasts of energy and red Eco makes Jak stronger. Using these Eco powers is one of the cornerstones of the gameplay and is often required to complete an objective.
Objectives of the game are simple tasks which get rewarded with Power Cells, the main collectible in the game. To gain access to a next part of the world, you need a certain amount of these. Precursor Orbs are much more common and can be traded in with NPCs or special statues for more Power Cells. Also, when finding all Scout Flies in an area, you are rewarded with yet another Power Cell.
Although the gameplay might sound a bit simple and dull, it certainly isn't and this is largely due to the impressive 3D engine Naughty Dog has made for this game. Instead of seperate levels, players are thrown into a large world, devided by seperate (themed) areas. Travelling between these areas can be done through portals at each Sage's home. Loading times get avoided by streaming data from the disk while playing, enhancing to the effect of a single world.
Graphics are detailed and colorful and the cartoon-look of characters and enemies help create a laid-back atmosphere throughout most of the game.
Background music for each of the areas does its job well and never gets irritating. Sound effects are great aswell as voice-acting. Especially Daxter's voice brings life to the character's slapstick humor.
Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy is a game that set the bar for future 3D Platformers and pushed the genre as a whole to a next level. Sadly enough, 3D Platform games seem to be over their peak with few games in the genre being made for the next-gen consoles, an evolution that saddens me.
This evolution makes Jak and Daxter all the more precious and a game no PS2 owner should miss. The game gets a well-earned 9.2/10 from me.
[img align=right width=200]http://www.rfgeneration.com/images/games/U-072/bf/U-072-S-13000-A.jpg[/img]The Final Fantasy series is one of the longest game series out there. What started as a failing company's "Final" Fantasy, ended up as one of the most succesful franchises of all time, with 12 parts in the main series and dozens of remakes and spin-offs.
Final Fantasy XII (2006) is the second game of the main series on the PS2, after Final Fantasy X (2001) and it's semi spin-off Final Fantasy X-2 (2003).
Final Fantasy XII (FF12) takes place in the world of Ivalice, where two major kingdoms, Rosaria and Arcadia are at war. Our main character Vaan comes from the smaller kingdom Dalmasca, trapped between the two fighting nations. He lives in Rabanastre, capital of Dalmasca, with his friend Penelo, and dreams of one day becoming a sky pirate.
FF12 starts with a small prequel (which serves the function of tutorial), where we meet Reks, the two year older brother of Vaan, who gets murdered in a fight with Aradia. We also meet Bash, captain of the Dalmascan army, who prevents his king from signing a treaty, by murdering him. Because of his action, Dalmasca doesn't become part of the Arcadian empire and a resiliance rises against the opressing nation.
From here, the story continues and it doesn't take long until you meet (in typical FF style) the other characters of your party.
A couple of negative remarkes should be made about this story:
1) The main character Vaan is a pretty ordinary guy who doesn't seem to influence the story all that much. Balthier (and to a lesser extend: Ashe), a member of your party, seems to be making the decisions when it comes to what to do next, which makes me wonder why you don't view the story more out of his perspective.
2) Although the voice acting is fine (with some characters having a refreshing non-American accent) a lot of the sentences spoken, are not. Lots of the "higher" class character speak as if they just walked out of a Shakespear play. This makes the story sometimes hard to follow, especially in cut-scenes where text is being said rather fast. This maybe fun for those who major in english, but for others (and those whose first language isn't english) this can be a problem.
Anyway, enough about the story, let's talk gameplay. For FF12, Square dared to innovate. Whether you like this or not, that's up to you to decide, but certain things have pretty radically changed.
Most noticably: The random encounter, turn-based battle system is gone. Now, you can simply see your enemies walk in the same environment as you, and even avoid them if you don't feel like fighting. The battle system changed aswell. What Square calls the "Active Dimension Battle" (ADB) is a real-time battle system in which your characters and the enemies can freely move. Blue and Red curved lines indicate which char/enemy is atacking another. Because the battle is in real-time, the gameplay is much faster (a good thing) but can get pretty hectic with lots of enemies on the screen or during a boss battle (a bad thing).
Another new addition to FF12 is the gambit system. Gambits are commands your characters (both the character you're controlling and the 2 others) will execute under certain conditions.
Things like "Attack enemy who is HP critical" to "Throw elexir on character with MP>10%". The order in which you place these in the Gambit screen will mark the importance of each action, the highest placed gambit being the most important. Lots of different options make this an interesting system to experiment with, aswell as making the battles more enjoyable; because the player doesn't have to select each action manually.
The "License Board" serves the same function as the "Sphere Grid" in FF10, although less complicated. License Points are required to activate licenses, which you gain next to experience in battle. It's basically a large chess board, with magic spells, augments, armor and weapons on all spots. This board controls what the characters can do/wear, because you can only activate a license that borders a license your character has already learned. In the first 20 (or so) hours of the game, it's important not to waste your License Points, so your characters can wear the latest armor, use the latest spells, etc. So if you want to use the spell "Fira" with a character, you have to activate the corresponding license on the board, aswell as buy the spell in a magic shop. This seems rather complicated, but works pretty smoothly.
A bad thing however is that it's much too easy to complete the License Board. With a character at level 50, he/she will probably have almost the entire License Board activated, which makes all characters identical and renders character tactics completely useless.
Graphics of this game are very good for a PS2 game, with the addition of a fully 3D world where you can control the camera in, something that makes the game much more accesible, and maybe even more mainstream. Also new is that non-playable-characters (NPCs) who have something to say are indicated with a text-balloon above their heads, making it unnecessary to try and talk to each NPC in an area. I have the feeling the amount of CGI has gone down alot compared to FF10, but I might be wrong.
As I said earlier, the voicework for the main characters is done well, apart from the lip-sync being wrong alot, which is a common problem when dubbing a Japanese game.
Music in this game has the typical FF-atmosphere to it, but is composed by Hitoshi Sakimoto, instead of Nobuo Uematsu. Don't let that scare you though, because Sakimoto is also responsible for the music of Final Fantasy Tactics (1997) and Vagrant Story (2000) to name a few.
As always, FF12 is filled with side quests and little things you can busy yourself with apart from the main story such as: going on Hunts or finding Unique (rare) monsters.
If you'd like to skip these completely, it'll still take 50-60 hours to finish the game, depending on how much you try to rush your way through it. Doing all sidequests too will keep you busy for atleast 120 hours. In other words, this game is good value for the money.
I can conclude with saying I enjoyed playing this game, despite of the couple faults I named, and think anyone who likes RPG's should get it, aswell as those looking for a game that'll keep them busy for a longer time. 9.1/10
PS: I realise now this is no longer a "little" review, but it's hard to review a game like FF12 in only a couple of lines 
[img align=right width=200]http://www.sofacinema.co.uk/guardian/images/products/1/60241-large.jpg[/img]For my first review, I've decided to take up SSX 3 for the PS2.
SSX 3 is the third installment in the SSX series by EA, following the succesful launch title SSX (2000) and SSX Tricky (2001).
SSX 3 continues on the succesful formula of the previous two games in the series. In short: smooth, fast and easy to pick up gameplay combined with nice graphics and good soundtrack.
New however, is the fact that all tracks are located on the same mountain, devided into three peaks. To get access to the next peak, it is sufficient to complete the challenges in one particular aspect of the game (for example, the race events)
Depending on which character you're playing with; another character will "challenge" you on every peak. In the off-course area called "The Backcountry" you have to show him/her who's boss.
Gameplay of SSX 3 is rock-solid and the main reason I enjoyed this game as much as I did. Learning curve is very short and you'll be throwing out "Uber-tricks" in no time. After doing enough of these to spell out the words "SUPER UBER", you'll get unlimited boost for a relatively long time. The events you can take place in are: "Race", "Slopestyle", "Super Pipe", "Big Air" and "Backcountry".
By winning events and picking up collectibles on the tracks, you get the necessary cash to outfit your character as you see fit or to (more importantly) upgrade his/her attributes such as "Speed", "Tricks", "Acceleration", etc which will noticabilly improve your boarders' abilities.
Graphics of this game are very nice for a PS2 game with the snow and ice beautifully depicted as your rider glides through it. Once at the top of the mountain, you can get to the bottem of it (which takes about 30min) without a single loading screen.
I like the soundtrack of this game, which sets the atmosphere well as you participate in one of the events with songs from Basement Jaxx, Black Eyed Peace, Fatboy Slim and others. Particulary well done is how the music fades out when you're in the air for a longer period of time or when entering a cave. While not racing you get to listen to the never irritating "DJ Atomica" who briefs you in with all the latest updates on the mountain news.
All in all I can say this is a great game with solid gameplay, nice graphics and funky soundtrack which can appeal to both less experienced gamers aswell as the hardcore.
SSX 3 gets a 9.0/10 from me and I recommend it to anyone who owns a PS2.
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