Blue Dragon: Because magic means having a weird ass shadow

THIS IS MAGIC

Blue Dragon is a unique game for me.  Namely, it’s one that I have actually beaten.  Oh, granted, it took me a while.  I teetered on the edge of no return of this JRPG for about a year and a half before I finally piloted my airship-fish into the atmosphere sucking hole at the end of the game in order to throw down with the last boss.  I’m glad I did.  While Blue Dragon is pretty much what you’d expect to find in JRPG fare, the ending was something bizarre enough to keep the game in my head nearly a year after I’ve beaten it.  I’ve played through portions of the game since then as well, mainly because I’m a sucker for games that have a job system in place.

That’s not to say Blue Dragon doesn’t have problems.  Most games do.  But the way Blue Dragon bypassed its own, personal issues was by being totally messed up and throwing in a liberal helping of cubes late game.  There’s probably going to be spoilers in here, for the record, though I’ll let you know when they’re coming.

Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit

I am not a car guy.  As long as my car gets me from point A to point B without losing parts on the way, I’m pretty happy.  So when a game like Gran Turismo 5 comes out, my reaction is pretty meh.  I know there are tons of gear heads out there that want to adjust the torque or over inflate the tires or upgrade the johnson rod to eek out that last few horsepower on their virtual dream machine.  That does nothing for me.  Sounds suspiciously like math, so f that.  What I want from a driving game isn’t amazingly accurate real world handling.  I want total insanity.  I want cars doing things that would destroy them in real life.  Now, for those of you out there like me, forget Gran Turismo with its fancy PHYSICS and REALITY.  Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit is our over the top salvation.

Castlevania: Lords of Shadow

Castlevania is a long and storied franchise.  Or so I’m told.  I’ll admit, I’ve never really played any of myriad of Castlevania games.  All I knew going in to Lords of Shadow is that Dracula is a bad dude and will generally need to be whipped back into undeath.  As it turns out, my lack of knowledge was probably a good thing.  Developer Mercury Stream has taken the Castlevania name and tradition, but basically rebooted the franchise.  This game isn’t considered canon to the rest of the series, which basically gave them a pretty blank slate as to the type and story of the game.  What they ended up with is a pretty sweet action game in the vein of God of War or Devil May Cry.  If you are a fan of such games and a fan of gothic style horror, Lords of Shadow is a must play.

Just Cause 2: Mayhem on the end of a grappling hook

That's what I'm talking about

I think we all saw the developer walkthrough for Just Cause 2. I decided to rent the game based on that 10 minute video alone. It sounded like it had everything I love in a sandbox videogame. Over the top stunts and explosions, an expansive area to explore, and something I’d never seen before. The grappling hook looked really cool. Especially when coupled with the parachute.

Ghostbusters: Needs more Rick Moranis

No no no I said DON'T cross the streams, jerkface!

Who doesn’t love Ghostbusters?  The cheesy 80s music, the ridiculously over-the-top special effects, and the bumbling antics of Peter Venkman, Egon Spengler, Ray Stantz and Winston…  Churchill? (IMDB says his last name was Zeddmore.  Do they ever say that in the movie?  I certainly don’t remember it.) quickly became cultural icons from 1984 and well into the nineties.  Cartoon shows were created.  Delicious flavors of Kool Aid were spawned.  The merchandising potential was endless.

So then fast forward about twenty years when Ghostbusters writers Harold Ramis and Dan Aykroyd got the old team together and decided to produce a game as a sequel to Ghostbusters 2.  Aykroyd, Ramis, Bill Murray and Ernie Hudson all gave eachother one final high-five and teamed up to do some of the best voice acting available in current generation games.  But don’t go busting out the proton packs just yet.  Ghostbusters has its share of problems as well, and you’re not going to be able to make them go away by stashing them in a containment unit.

Halo Reach

I’ve never had a meaningful relationship with the Halo franchise.  Having never owned an original Xbox, I missed out on the universe Bungie has painstakingly crafted over the last ten odd years.  I played Halo and Halo 2 multiplayer via friends over the years, but never in a serious way and I never did more than one or two campaign missions.  I picked up Halo 3 because at the time I had just purchased my 360 and was looking for stuff to play.  I enjoyed the game, but felt like I was missing something story wise having not played the first two, so I played through it once, messed with the multiplayer for a few hours, then shelved it.  I share this information because I feel like reviewing a Halo game is a difficult proposition for somebody like me.  There are fanatics (Zealots if you will….I know enough to drop lame puns in this article!) that will enter a state of lunacy at the slightest criticism of their beloved franchise, but honestly, they are probably not reading many reviews anyway, they’re playing the game.  So take this review from a specific perspective:  Is Halo Reach worth buying as a game on its own, aside from all the hype and fanboyism?  The answer is yes, but the game is not flawless as many tout it to be.

XBLA 2: I’ve lost that shining feeling

Has your wallet been stolen by ninjas?  Are you not a bad enough dude to get it back?  It might be time to hit up Xbox Live for your next game.  There’s a lot of gems and a lot of junk in the Xbox Live system though, so make sure you know what you’re getting into before you start digitally buying Microsoft points.  This week we’ll touch on Vandal Hearts: Flames of Judgement and Sam and Max: Beyond Time and Space, since both of these games are kinda short for a full post each.  I guess this is the second installment of Xbox Live Adventures.  If you missed the first one, check it out here.

Bayonetta: Because Kratos isn’t a hot chick

Many games out there aim for realism now a days.  Not real in setting or story, but take a look around any FPS and “dark and gritty” is going to be pretty much the norm.  Bayonetta is not such a game.  Bayonetta looks reality in its stupid face and then uses a giant bird hair demon to poke out its eyes.  It is this embrace of the insane that makes the game worth playing.  Sure, you might not know what the hell is going on but the game presents such a sexy and stylized world to play around in that the total lunacy becomes charming instead of annoying.

Splinter Cell Conviction

Splinter Cell star Sam Fischer has always been about stealth.  The old formula involved catching foes unawares one guy at a time and sneaking up behind them to put them down.  Then a couple of things happened.  Number one is Ubisoft clearly started watching 24.  Number two is Sam Fischer decided that while it’s fun to sneak up behind guys and take them out one at a time it’s even more fun to shoot 4 people in the face in the span of 3 seconds.  As gamers, we should be thankful for both of these things.

Dead Space: I am scared

I’m not really a scary movie type person.  It’s not that I dislike being scared but I feel like finding a good horror movie amidst the giant sea of absolute crap that comes out is very difficult.  I want the scares to be EARNED.  I want a plot that at least makes sense.  Most movies fail miserably.  One game that surprised (and scared!) the hell out of me though was Dead Space.  An original property from EA (weird, I know) that supposedly was less about action and more about making you curl up in the fetal position had me intrigued.  If the now Gears of War style Resident Evil games make you angry, Dead Space is what should be in your console.