Josh H

PS2:

Dark Cloud 2- 9.5, 8.0, 8.0, Game of the Month, Silver Award

Devil May Cry 2- 9.0, 7.0, 7.0 (say it is extremely easy and can be beaten in one night no problem. Guess Capcom over compensated for all the people, including myself and one of the reviewers here, who thought the original was too hard.)

Everquest Online Adventures- 7.5, 6.0, 5.0
The Getaway- 8.0, 7.5, 6.0
Guilty Gear X2- 8.5, 8.5, 8.0, Silver Award
Pride FC- 6.5, 6.0, 5.5
World Tour Soccer 2003- 6.5

Xenosaga- 8.0, 8.0, 6.5 (The 6.5 complained about watching the game more than playing, mentions several 20+ minute cinemas).

Gamecube:

Cubix Robots For Everyone: Showdown- 6.0
Summoner: A Goddess Reborn- 6.5

Xbox:

Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball- 8.0, 7.5, 6.0
Apex- 8.0, Silver Award
ATV Quad Power Racing 2- 7.5

GBA:

Lufia: The Ruins of Lore- 8.0, Silver Award
Crash Bandicoot 2: N-Tranced- 6.5
Daredevil- 4.0

darkside

I've got Lufia Preordered. Looks like money well spent.

I kind of thought the first DMC was too hard as well, but Capcom shouldn't have overcorrected by making it too easy.

Mattalos

I can't wait to watch Xenosaga - I've had the import for months now and have been enjoying it immensely. It's definitely not going to be for everybody. It's very story driven.

Kellehair

I was afraid Xenosaga would get all perfect scores from every site and publication and I would be practically forced to buy it. It looks like this is a step in the right direction for me not wasting $50 and lots of my time like I did with Xenogears.

I am looking forward to Lufia though. I really enjoyed one of the previous Lufia games on the SNES.

Mattalos

I'm telling ya, don't knock it til you've tried it. The battle system is actually pretty damn good.

C-Killer Redux

Is that true about Xenosaga having several 20+ minute long cinemas? I remember reading somewhere that all cinemas combined totaled 20+ minutes. Maybe they hadn't counted in game cutscenes?

Mattalos

There are scenes that are about 20 minutes long, and some that are a shorter. Whenever there is a long cutscene, after it finishes (or sometimes in the middle) there is a save point.

Even in the first 5 hours there was a 20 minute scene, a save point, and then it continued. But I love that! Woo!

C-Killer Redux

Wow, yeah it's cool, if it's good anyway. I'm into The Getaway and I don't find the cutscenes overly long.

NeonGlow

I didn't expect Dark Cloud 2 to get that high of a score after the mixed reviews the first one got. I guess I'll look into that game now.

Decker

I was hoping that DMC2 would be better received. Still, I can't complain when I'm getting it for two crap games and ten bucks. Maybe it won't seem that easy to me as I could barely crack the third level of the original as it was so hard for me. Tech TV gave it four stars, so that's not too bad. We'll see, I guess...

I'm shocked about Dark Cloud 2, as the original was blasted so hard by the critics. What do they say about it, Josh?

RichC2

I'm shocked about Dark Cloud 2, as the original was blasted so hard by the critics. What do they say about it, Josh?

^^ I'm curious too, Dark Cloud was one of the most generic games I've ever played, and was in turn incredibly boring.

I don't see them fixing all the problems soooo... what'd they say?

Deftones

I haven't played this, so I can't comment on the game itself. But, isn't it funny that they didn't complain too much when another game had 20 minute cinemas (FFX).

Josh H

No it's not funny. They have a lot of different reviewers. It was just the one dude that didn't like the cinemas. The other two didn't mention having a problem with them. That guy probably didn't review FFX, hence the difference. Though it does sound like Xenosaga has more cinemas than FFX from what I've read.

Best Feature: Extensive Weapons Customization
Worst Feature: Hopelessy jumbled inventory

"Simply put, it's a rare game indeed that combines convention and innovation this well."

"...its experience system and world-building quests spice up the timeworn RPG canon"

"...the game delivers an entertaining whimsical adventure with style to spare. The determined gamer can push through the game in about 30 hours, while a more lackadaisical player might spend twice as long..."

"The lack of any challenging puzzles..."

"creative mini-games and sidequests"

"A very solid action-RPG"

"Dark Cloud 2 is completely, utterly addictive

"At its heard, the game is basically a real-time dungeon-hack, but it has tons of variety and gripping gameplay options"

"the story is weak, but with gameplay like this, who cares?"

I wouldn't count on it. From the review it really seems like they overcompesated for the original being too tough.

"...the first game was probably too hard, but come on, I've played tougher Rugrats games.."

young

if i remember correctly, the 2nd part of xenogears was all pretty much scripted. nevertheless, i quite enjoyed it and will pick up xenosaga once it reaches the magic $20 threshold. yeah, i'm cheap and patient.

they only reviewed 2 games for the cube and 3 for the xbox? or are you just listing some of them?

Josh H

Nope, that's all the games they reviewed. This is the slowest period of the year, hardly anything comes out in January and February. All the developers rush to get their games out before x-mas, plus most gamers are still playing all the stuff they got for x-mas (especially casual gamers) and aren't going to buy a lot of games right now.

Simpson Purist

Looks like Circuit City is also compensating for the easyness of DMC2 by giving the first DMC free with purchase of DMC2 .

Decker

Ouch! Well, I guess there's not much I can do now that I'm locked into the EB deal. Maybe some shifty exchanging at Wally World is in order????
Thanks for the update, Josh!

Outlaw

What did they say about the english voice acting for Xenosaga? I'm buying it regardless, but I've been wondering how it was going to turn out and havn't heard anything about it. I missed Extended Play's preview of the US Xenosaga when they showed it , they showed the japanese version a few months ago and it was excellent!

Mattalos

Outlaw, IGN has posted about 20 movies from the English version of Xenosaga, from about 10 of the initial characters.

mr.snowmizer

Locked into the EB deal?

Unless things have changed since I last partook of an EB special 'trade-in for new game' promotion, once you pick it up, you still have the normal EB return policy.

Just return it unopened for full credit or open it, play it, and exchange it within 14 days.

Decker

I'm pretty sure I read in the trade-in thread that you can't do something like that on this deal; that you'd only get your actual trade-in value for your games in that case. Of course, it never hurts to ask...

Draven

Hmmm...

Maybe I'm in the minority, but I'm not finding the first DMC to be that hard. I had a little trouble with one of the bosses early on, but I was trying to use my guns too much. After beating him I've literally flown through the next 10 chapters without dying.

Looks like I'm just renting DMC2.

WhiteRob

What did they say about Disaster Report? I saw the scores earlier. It was really one of those games I was looking forward to.

Josh H

They had pretty much nothing good to say about it.

Best Feature: Wardrobe customization
Worst Feature: Pervasive Slowdown

"Be warned the game doesn't have frequent slowdown so much as it has infrequent bursts of normal speed."

"it's just a good survival horror game without the horror.

"the story meanders a fine line between sappy melodrama and cheesiness, all made worse by stunted voice acting and the awkward translation."

Souljahh

dammit, they made dmc2 easy?