Cole learned the hard way not to party in New Marais.

With Halloween coming up, you can expect developers to celebrate with sales involving the abundance of zombie titles. Some developers even developed a full release for Halloween, and others updated their games to feature monsters of all sorts. One such game to receive the latter example’s treatment is Sucker Punch’s inFAMOUS series.

InFAMOUS: Festival of Blood was released on PSN just this week, and new players may be happy to hear that inFAMOUS 2 is not required at all. Set in New Marais, Cole has been turned into a vampire by Bloody Mary and if he does not slay her by sunrise he will become her slave.

Publisher: Sony
Developer: Sucker Punch
Release Date: 26th October 2011 (UK)
PEGI: 16+
Platform: PlayStation 3

The game is actually pretty short, but that’s to be expected of a £7.99 release. Overall, I clocked in about two hours for the campaign as well as obtaining all of the collectibles. The story itself is narrated by Zeke as he tells Cole’s tale, whether it’s real or not, to a young woman in a bar. New Marais is bustling with activity as the Pyre Festival is underway. Everyone is in costume; there are balloons, shows and music through-out the city.

Upon trying to save some people who were attacked in the city’s catacombs, Cole is ambushed and captured. His blood is used to re-awaken Bloody Mary, and, essentially, the rest of the tale involves Cole discovering her origins and seeking her out. There is really not much more depth to the narrative than that.

The morality feature found in the previous two titles is gone. With Cole being a vampire, this is to be expected. Instinctually, he will want to devour blood from the citizens of New Marais, and he will need to in order to survive or use his powers to defeat Bloody Mary. Morality is no longer an issue.

The upgrades are also now no longer varied. Instead, the player will unlock upgrades for certain powers by accomplishing certain trophies (such as enhancing the ordinary attack through staking enemies in the heart twenty times). Whilst this may sound somewhat disappointing, given that it’s really just a small PSN game, it’s not really an issue to me. There are still power upgrades, and it serves a purpose as to really try out many of the game’s new features.

The game introduces a flying power for Cole. This uses up the energy he absorbs from blood, but it is pretty damn cool. I love turning into a flock of bats and flying around the town, occasionally attacking enemies in that very form with an ability unlock. Similarly, Cole obtains the power to bite pedestrians and use ‘Vampire Vision’, seeing what vampires can see. Ultimately, Cole can use this ability to detect enemies that appear to ‘teleport’ during their movement,  detect invisible symbols depicting a message from Bloody Mary as well as detecting the collectibles. Finally, Cole can also use it to detect First Borns, the boss enemies, hidden amongst the crowds of people.

The key feature, to me, in this release is the improvements made to UGC. During my run with inFAMOUS 2 I discovered that players enjoyed developing content with narratives. Consequently, Sucker Punch noticed too. As a means of improving UGC, Sucker Punch included a new cutscene mechanic so that users can create comic book stills to enhance their narratives, as well as including more assets to play with.

Otherwise, the game plays more or less like the originals. It’s a fun diversion and a nice little extra for InFAMOUS fans, as well as a cheap little gateway for new fans. At £7.99, I heavily recommend picking it up. Plus, as a bonus, at the time of this review PS+ users get an additional discount, so if you have PS+ then you have no excuse.

Overall, the game is a great little extra that I believe fans will appreciate. I certainly did. It’s a great distraction, it’s fun, and it offers more replayibility thanks to UGC, which is clearly the main focus here. The game has very lasting replaybility, despite how short it is, and is worth every penny. Pick it up today. It serves as an example as to what the DLC standard should be. DLC shouldn’t be a cash in, it’s something for the developers to make something fun and unique with their IP, and Sucker Punch certainly did that here.

Also, for those concerned about score, I’d give it an 8/10. Whilst the offline campaign could have had a little bit extra content, maybe a longer campaign or recovering districts from vampire packs, it offers great value for money and is of high quality all the same. Definitely grab this on PSN if you have a PS3 and enjoy either of the inFAMOUS titles.

Publisher: EA
Developer: Bioware
Release Date: 11th March 2011 (UK)
PEGI: 18+
Platform: PC, PlayStation 3 [Reviewed], Xbox 360

Dragon Age II follows Hawke, a refugee in the city of Kirkwall who is destined to be the Champion of Kirkwall. He escapes during the Fifth Blight, in Fereldan (the events of which conspire in Dragon Age: Origins), with his family into his mother’s birthplace. It is here that Hawke has a run with the Qunari and becomes an important figure in the ever ensuing fued between the Mages, whom are deemed too dangerous to let free, and the Templars, the knights who oppress the mages. The narrative itself focuses on a central theme of whether human rights should be sacrificed in order to maintain order.

The game is split into three acts seperated by key narrative events, with each act complimented by its own series of quests. The story being split into three acts, each seperated over the course of a number of years, allows the player to experience and involve themself in the change of Kirkwall under the ever-corrupting rule of the Templars, as well as discovering the consequences of earlier actions in previous years. As of such, players may also initiate quests which actually continue from a previous act, developing their own narrative and becoming a reasonably strong subplot which integrate with the central theme. These subplots delve deeper into the player’s sense of morality, resultingly making them question whether the ends is worth the means. I personally found myself siding with the rebel faction – the mages – more than I ever did the Templars, but there were a couple of tricky situations of which I struggled to pick a choice I felt was the right one as I played my character as a noble hero.

Being a role-playing game, you’d expect a lot of freedom to play the character you want to play. Unfortunately, this is when Dragon Age II becomes a shell of its former self. Whilst the previous title allowed you to choose from six origin stories, three classes and both genders of three races, Dragon Age II only allows you to choose both genders for three classes.  The origin is the same, and the story itself is generally the same regardless of the actions you make. Indeed, the only real impactful choice in the game comes at the end. Beyond that, the game pretty much plays the same both times. This results in the replayibility of the game being completely underwhelming in comparison to the previous outing. Despite this, I did find exploring the other perspectives interesting. It just wasn’t enough to keep my second playthrough fresh.

The combat system feels significantly different in comparison to the previous title, but less has been changed as may appear. The pace has been increased, with battles becoming much faster and have now taken on the pace of an action game such as God of War. Players attack enemies through button mashing, occasonally mixing in abilities for various effects. While this is more immersive than the previous, with the user feeling more involved in the battle, it doesn’t take very long for the experience to become very shallow. Ultimately, there is nothing really to gain from being more in control of battle. Instead of watching them fight, and making impactful decisions, you are mashing the attack key while trying to keep your eyes out for an opening for one of your abilities – and that’s if you ever use them.

I found the majority of battles that I participated in were over in a flash, with myself only ever really mashing attack. My abilities were usually left unused, as they were relatively unnecessary in the many skirmishes you will face. Even with the difficulty turned up, I found that I rarely had to bother with the exception of the higher class enemies. The strategy from the previous outing was lost in exchange for short and flashy battles. While I do admit that there is still the useful tactics system, and how you develop your character requires some level of thought, they didn’t seem to be as effective in the previous. When a new ability is obtained, the characters’ tactics slots are usually updated to include their new skill; meanwhile levelling up has been made more simpler, with each class having two attributes that they specialise in – leaving the others pretty redundant.

Essentially, the new battle system seems to open up a new level of control in battle. And yet, it doesn’t take this new system anywhere. It plays out much of the same as the initial title did, with the bonus of possibly suffering a sore thumb or finger by the end of your playthrough. What could have lead to more depth (maybe invoking a combo system where the effectiveness of an ability is altered based upon the actual ability and when in the combo it is used?) only leads to an experience that, in all honesty, just feels more shallow than the last outing – despite the fact that it does not take anything of substance away (albeit the pace does often make abilities redundant, but I would chalk that up to the change in enemy attributes over anything).

There are plenty of quests to partake, but they usually all amount to the same ‘go here, kill that’ formula. It’s great that they add more story to their quests, but the quests still need more variety in terms of actual gameplay.

One of the key improvements, however, is the level of role playing in regards to a linear story. Bioware have a great tale to tell with Dragon Age II, even if the conclusion can leave the player disatisfied. It’s obvious to me that the story was the focus of this game, with gameplay shunned to second place. Despite that, the role-playing mechanics are superb. The player’s character, Hawke, develops his personality based upon your interactions with other characters. If you make many jokes, then Hawke will become a more sarcastic and witty character, for example. Furthermore, there are still plenty of choices for him to make that cover both ends of the spectrum. It’s just a shame that they usually amount to little more than just an immediate effect, with little consequence beyond the present dialogue.

While the soundtrack was pretty well made, in my opinion, it quickly gets repetitive as a result of the sheer lackluster amount of locales to explore. The player often finds themselves revisiting the same handful of areas. The worst offender here are the interior maps – be it inside a cave or inside a building – there are about three or four of these maps total, and that’s more accurate than I wish to admit. Yet, considering the sheer number, quests almost always lead to visiting at least one of them, if not more. What results from this is nothing more than the repetitive formula quests becoming even more repetitive with their shared maps. It really doesn’t help that all of these maps are very plain, with the most interesting visuals being the background that I was left just wishing I could explore more of.

I can’t help but write negatively of Dragon Age II, despite it being a game I easly spent over one hundred hours of my life on. I personally found its repetitive nature strangely addicting. While the title doesn’t have much going for itself when you compare it to what the original was, don’t let it be said that Dragon Age II is an awful game. Far from it. It just becomes increasingly frustrating seeing the potential that the game has, and how it squanders it with what seems to be too little development time. And no wonder too. The game was released but a year and a half after the original. That’s shockingly short considering the genre, scale and content of the game, and what it had to live up to. There was no way that Bioware could have ever hoped to achieve anything slightly less of the game they were developing a sequel for, let alone surpass themselves.

To me, Dragon Age II is an example of a game that truly has so much going for it, and yet seemingly has little to show. It’s a great and fun game, with an immersive story and experience to play, but ultimately falls short of any expectations. In many regards, it feels incomplete with its lack of maps, underwhelming consequences from all those choices that you get to make, reducing number of quests as the game goes on, and the seemingly shallow combat. This game is an example of what happens to a game when developers try to make a title more accessible to the market. The title just feels more shallow, even if the substance found in previous titles remains. It is also an example of the terrible effects of a bad development cycle, with this game apparently getting too little time to be worked on – most likely a consequence of the older brother title, Mass Effect 3, being released later in the same year. A game of this magnitude should surely get at least two years of development time, otherwise the outcome is an unfinished and underwhelming game that leaves a disatisfying after-taste.

For what it’s worth, Dragon Age II was a title I love, but it does not really earn that love from me. It aims high but falls significantly short, as the game feels unfinished and rushed. There aren’t many people I would genuinely recommend it to over Dragon Age: Origins. In fact, there aren’t many I would recommend it to at all. If you like Dragon Age, I suggest you give it at least a rent, because it does have an interesting tale to be told, but you will be done with it after your first play-through. For anyone else: give this game a miss. It’s a real shame, too.

(Because people fret over scores so much, I have to give Dragon Age II a 6/10. This value means that the game is above average, but has nothing special going for it. In this case, it failed to live up to its predecessor, therefore it not only failed at its own potential, but at the potential of the game it was meant to be improving.)

So, Devil May Cry is getting a reboot. For many, this may appear strange, but in fact, it makes perfect sense. Dante as we knew him is no longer cool. No, he was what was cool ten years ago. It’s about time they made change, and they found the perfect change for Dante to suit modern times. This trailer gives us more insight into the new Dante.

Every year, in the very same month of November, Ubisoft release their arguably biggest AAA title: Assassin’s Creed. Every new title saw the inclusion of a new special edition as well. This year is no different, as Ubisoft announce three special editions for their latest instalment.

The first special edition is the dull and boring “Special Edition”. It features Turkish Assassin armour and gives access to two playable multiplayer characters: the Crusader and the Ottoman Doctor. Likewise, it will contain special packaging (I’m assuming that means the same foiled packaging as the Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood special edition) and the game’s soundtrack. The Special Edition will retail at £44.99 or £39.99 (PC).

The slightly more interesting “Collector’s Edition” of Revelations will feature two multiplayer characters. Like the Special Edition, it will come with the Crusader; however, unlike the special edition this version will include the Ottoman Jester instead of the Doctor. It will also be excluding the Turkish Armour in favour for a whole new map: explore the dungeons of Vlad the Impaler (inspiration of Dracula) and unlock his dagger, which can apparently slay anything. Finally, the Collector’s Edition will come prized inside a special box, a fifty-page artbook and an animated short film for Assassin’s Creed. All for a nice £49.99 or £39.99 (PC).

Finally, we have the cream of the crop. The Animus Edition. It’ll come with all of the content of the Collector’s Edition, as well as the Brutus Armour from Brotherhood, increased ammo capacity, and an exclusive customizable item. It will also feature a special box packaging, the sound track and the animated film. I see no inclusion of the art book, but in its stead is an encyclopaedia on everything Assassin’s Creed. The Animus Edition is currently GameStop exclusive, meaning there is no confirmed UK release. My bets are on it being another Play.com or HMV exclusive, so expect to be severely ripped off.

So there you go. Something for huge fans of the franchise to drool over. Me? I’ll probably go with the Collector’s Edition and take advantage of my student discount (as well as a GAME reward card). I like the extra map and I’m a fan of gathering artbooks for games. I do have little enthusiasm for their number of special editions though. Surely one would be enough?

Official Website: Assassin’s Creed

To contact the author of this post, feel free to reach him at: Rasenore.Spoony@hotmail.co.uk or alternatively through his Twitter (@Rasenore). Furthermore, a poorer more personal blog can be found at Rasenore Gaming.

In a recent interview on Edge with Todd Howard, the director on TES, he was questioned whether he would ever give the future of TES away to another company; like with Fallout and Obsidian Entertainment.

“I mean New Vegas was unique: as a publisher, we wanted to do something with Obsidian; we knew we were moving on Elder Scrolls; they had a team available. They gave us the pitch and we were like, ‘That would be a really fun game’. But they had experience with the IP, and with Elder Scrolls we don’t have that. I wouldn’t rule that out, but generally with everything we want to keep it internal”.

He doesn’t completely rule out the possibility, but for now (thankfully), Bethesda themselves will continue to develop TES. Perhaps in the future they will give Obsidian publishing rights.

CVG: Bethesda wants to keep Elder Scrolls development in-house.

Contact me at dralel@hotmail.co.uk or through my Twitter.

SEGA have confirmed over Twitter that Metal Sonic will make an appearance in their upcoming title: Sonic Generations. The character will play a rival role within the game and will be faced sometime during the gameplay. Judging by his appearance, this seems like Classic Metal Sonic. Is there a possibility of a Modern Metal Sonic too?

Sonic Generations is due for release late this year and will feature a variety of popular Sonic levels (including Green Hill Zone and City Escape) and will also feature two protagonists: fat Classic Sonic and skinny green-eyed Modern Sonic. Each with their own gameplay style.

Twitter: @SEGA

To contact the author of this post, feel free to reach him at: Rasenore.Spoony@hotmail.co.uk or alternatively through his Twitter (@Rasenore). Furthermore, a poorer more personal blog can be found at Rasenore Gaming.

5.

Uncharted 3

Why?

The original UK release date for Uncharted 3 has been pushed forward to November 2nd, as confirmed by Sony. This means we can expect Uncharted 3 sooner, and I can expect to beat it in time for some Skyrim. Excellent.

Uncharted 3 is a PlayStation 3 exclusive developed by Naughty Dog (Crash Bandicoot, Jak and Daxter), and the franchise has one several Game of the Year awards. There is also a beta version for the multiplayer that is available via PlayStation Network.

I’m just excited that I get the title in my hands even sooner.

CVG: Uncharted 3 release date moved forward

To contact the author of this post, feel free to reach him at: Rasenore.Spoony@hotmail.co.uk or alternatively through his Twitter (@Rasenore). Furthermore, a poorer more personal blog can be found at Rasenore Gaming.

Bethesda, well, Todd Howard, said the team don’t need to dumb down Skyrim to attract a wider, broader range of audience. Speaking to Gamaustra, Todd Howard says that hardcore games can still attract alot of players. He references Call of Duty as a prime example, with its perk and RPG elements.“Honestly, [it's] not something that we think about a lot, in that we’ve found that we’re getting a pretty big audience making a game that we want to make”, Howard states. “We want to make it for whoever it is – even if you’ve played Elder Scrolls before, you haven’t played this one, so you don’t understand what a skill does yet”. This is another reason, amongst many, why TES is one of the best series out there. It’s widely accessible from the get-go, easy to pickup and overall; a fun, epic, addicting experience.

“What we’re trying to do now is lead you into it more… in our games or others’ games, they give you a character menu and say: ‘who do you want to be, what powers do you want’? [Players think,] ‘I don’t know, I haven’t played yet!’

“What happens in Oblivion is you start the game, play for three hours, and then think ‘I want to start over, I chose wrong.’ So we’d like to sort of alleviate some of that. I also think the controls work better [too] … it’s more elegant.

“You look at Call of Duty, the most popular game in the world, and that’s actually pretty hardcore. At the end of the day, it’s a hardcore game, has RPG elements in multiplayer, making classes, picking perks. I think the audiences are there, and we tend to make our game more for ourselves and other people who play a lot of games.”

I agree with Howard that Oblivion had the problem with classes, especially not actually having played the game yet, you wouldn’t know how your character could fit in well with the world. You would find many players restarting entirely to get that correct class they are looking for. With Skyrim, your skills increase as you use them, making an easy curve of learning and allowing more freedom with the type of character you want to play as.

Read the full Q&A here!

From: CVG.

To contact the author of this post, feel free to reach him at: Dralel.Spoony@hotmail.co.uk

Fans of the Halo franchise that can never have enough Halo will be pleased to know about the upcoming release of the novel Halo: Grasslands. Grasslands serves as the sequel to the previous Halo novel: Ghosts of Onyx, and will also further detail the events between the old and new video game trilogies.

Published by Tor Books, the novel is slated for an October 25th release.

Joystiq: Halo: Grasslands novel arrives this October

To contact the author of this post, feel free to reach him at: Rasenore.Spoony@hotmail.co.uk or alternatively through his Twitter (@Rasenore). Furthermore, a poorer more personal blog can be found at Inside the Video Game.

Sony has listed and detailed the welcome back gift (about a month late) for PlayStation Home users, resulting from the PSN hack two months ago. Between June 30th (today) and the 28th July, there will be a bunch of free content released that is apparently worth around £65. Here’s the list:

• “Anime Style Apartment
• Anime themed clothing and furniture sets
• Paris Modern Office furniture set
• nDreams Big Bash party bundle
• nDreams Fantasy Fashion and Funkster costumes
• Aurora OrbRunner Booster Bundle
• A cuddly Stitchkins Bunny Toy from Lockwood
• A Midway Green ticket (50 plays)
• Cardboard Cartel Furniture from Codeglue
• Fortune Cookie active item
• A selection of Tops, Shirts, Skirts, High-top trainers and glasses
• Go Fish – a new, free-to-play fishing game based in the Shopping Centre”

And after 28th July, you will be expected to pay for the above content. It’s just too bad Sony didn’t offer PSN users with free dlc, avatars, wallpapers and themes on the PlayStation Store. That would of been a real apology.

As a PlayStation Plus member (like most of the rest of the current online PlayStation 3 users), I have been granted access to Uncharted 3′s Multiplayer beta testing. This post is essentially a mini-review on how the game is so far. Naughty Dog are still currently updating and fixing the bugs that seem to be present in the game.

First of all, let me just say that I haven’t played the Uncharted 2 multiplayer so I have no idea how they differ, ‘nor did I know what to expect.

One of the first things noticeable things in the multiplayer is the ability to customise your character. Unfortunately, at least within the beta, this is not to a great extent. There are two teams of which you may customise your look specifically for that team. These teams are Hero and Villain. You may customise your taunts or clothing, and select one of four character skins (Drake, Victor and Treasure Hunter or Pirate on the villains team).

Next is the ‘loadouts’. You get two options for them: competitive (for general online battles) and co-op loadouts (for when you team up with a partner against hordes of enemies). The loudouts contain weapons and boosters (aka ‘perks’).

You also get Emblems in this game, most likely for clans and such. And, as previously touched upon, the final customisations are Taunts. These are the most pointless things to have in the game; although, a booster does allow you to get extra ammo for taunting over an enemy you killed. But the taunts, especially when used by Drake just seem … really … bad. The animation isn’t that good, and just makes him look… for lack of a better word … camp. They are funny for a second, but after that you just tend to forget about them. In the game you are usually moving constantly, and the taunt requires you to stand still. Of course with the map size (which I’ll go on to explain in a minute) standing still for just a second could get you killed.

Now, we’ll talk about the maps. You get two maps “Airstrip” and “Chateau”, both of about equal size. Airstrip has two parts. The first segment is the most interesting part. This section of the map involves a battle for control of the actual plane itself, as it ‘drives’ down the airstrip. Players will be jumping on and off moving trucks to reach the plane, leading to a seemingly cinematic multiplayer experience. These trucks aren’t stationary either, and are often moving as well. The second part is the base, not really much to say about this part apart from the fact that it’s a base where the two opposing teams attempt to dish it out.

The second map is ‘Chateau’. It is an old building with a garden both front and back. The interior is old and a little bit rotten. The middle part of the building can be burned down – and there is even a zip-line. This map is particularly well suited for Uncharted, with lots of great architecture for climbing to lay an ambush on enemies. It is also more colourful.

Now, on with the gameplay. So basically, you can imagine, it’s the same as most 3^rd person shooters – except with the fact it also includes parkour, which Uncharted is famous for. So there’s not really much for me to discuss. Sometimes it’s annoying as you don’t get much health, and even if you dodge out of the way when you’re being shot at, you can still die – or if you’re punched – but you get used to them. Fortunately, health regenerates fast and the maps are full of different materials for cover. The fighting is very quick, but the game isn’t as dumbed down as titles such as Call of Duty.

Players can climb the buildings and various other objects, rather fluidly I might add. It adds a whole new dimension to the third person shooting. Weapons feel well balanced, where even the incredibly powerful rocket launchers have setbacks.

There were a few early bugs, which included the beta freezing your PlayStation or lag being so severe that even if the game ran out of time it would proceed into negative seconds. This results in you having to force yourself to quit and lose all of your money earned from the match, and possibly an updated rank. Also when this happened and you quit, you were disconnected from the server, and couldn’t get back in until you rebooted your PlayStation. Now, these bugs have been mostly fixed. Earlier today we managed to get through a match, then it froze before we could get the winnings (I was the MVP too).

Now, I’d expect the updates to further improve gameplay. As a games student I find this process quite interesting and I’m really glad that I am able to take part of this beta.  Uncharted 3 seems to be a game that I will, indeed, be definitely getting.

And so ends my mini-review. I told you it was mini, but hey, when you’re reviewing multiplayer you can’t do a full review – especially when it’s still in production. And so closes my first ever review. Peace.

Bethesda’s intention for upcoming Skyrim is that their dlc releases will not include as many as other games do, but their dlc would act like expansion packs. Imagine two or three Shivering Isles’, compared to ten or twelve items.

Todd Howard, during an interview with AUS Gamers, says the dlc will be “more substantial” with the “expansion pack” feel. This is great news for TES fans, because Skyrim is sticking to the tradition of TES by instead of releasing highly-priced, cheap dlc; they release full-on hours worth of content. Howard says he has no plans at the moment of the type of dlc he would like see released. Hopefully for Skyrim, Bethesda learned their lesson from Fallout 3 by not relasing glitchy dlc and teasing us fans with the infamous horse armour dlc.

CVG: Bethesda wants ‘less but bigger’ Skyrim dlc.

To contact the author of this post, feel free to reach him at: Dralel.Spoony@hotmail.co.uk.

The box art for the DS port of the title.

After rescuing Kairi and then Riku, and saving all of the worlds twice, Sora is finally given time to rest. True enough, the protagonist of Kingdom Hearts and Kingdom Hearts II barely makes a cameo appearance in his own series. Instead players will take the role of Sora, the digital data stored in Jiminy Cricket’s journal as he fights the data bugs to restore the journal to its former glory. Yeah, this will be interesting.

Publisher: Square Enix
Developer: Square Enix, h.a.n.d. (DS version)
Release Date: 14th January 2011 (UK)
PEGI: 12+
Platform: Nintendo DS (Port, enhanced), Mobile

The game takes place within the “datascape”, essentially the manifestation of what the data within the journal looks like. While bizarre, considering this treats a handwritten journal identical to an iPad, it leads to some very interesting game mechanics and, to be honest, fits in the Disney universe that Kingdom Hearts takes place in (considering Tron is one such available world to visit).

Taking off where Kingdom Hearts II left off, familiar faces: King Mickey, Goof, Donald Duck, Jiminy, Chip and Dale attempt to find the missing information, that was once written in the journal, as well decrypt a message in the journal that wasn’t written by Jiminy, through deep computer analysis. They discover that the journal is filled with bugs. With little hope of cleaning up the journal’s data themselves, the group conscript the help of the datascape Sora, a Sora simulated by the journal and is consisting of solely data. This is not the same Sora as the one found in Kingdom Hearts, Chain of Memories and II. He doesn’t even have the memory or bonds as the very same Sora he is modelled after.

As the player character, Sora must travel through various worlds that exist within the journal – worlds that Sora had visited in the original Kingdom Hearts. While the story initially seems disconnected from the main franchise, it serves its purpose upon the conclusion. Indeed, this title explains the message written to Sora by King Mickey in the epilogue of Kingdom Hearts II.

Sora running around a collection of destructible blocks or 'bugs'.

While not being too strong narratively, the title deals with themes involving bonds even after the person has left (or, in particular, has forgotten). The datascape Sora rebuilds the friendship and bonds that he had formed in the “real world”. The plot is not deep by a long shot, and is, in fact, rather shallow. The whole title serves to introduce the cast from the recently released Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep on the PSP, as well as set up Kingdom Hearts 3.

While explaining any more would be giving far too much away, this title is the weakest in the Kingdom Hearts franchise in regards to story, at least in my own experience. However, this title serves as probably the closest that the Nintendo handheld system has gotten to replicating the gameplay experience of the main games in the franchise.

Kingdom Hearts is an action role-playing game (and I use the term ‘role-playing game’ loosely, as rather than role-playing the role plays you). It combines elements from the JRPG genre – involving battle commands instead of free actions, lack of real role playing choices, young protagonists, and anything else you’d expect from a title such as Final Fantasy. However, Kingdom Hearts is a much more fast paced game. The player may block or dodge on-coming attacks, or chain up a combo with the attack command. It is a true evolution of the rather stagnant JRPG genre, and a great innovation by Square Enix.

In particular, this title also adds a third genre into the mix. Kingdom Hearts: Re:Coded features several platforming sections deriving from when Sora enters the raw datascape, where the landscape is made up from blocks rather than being a replication of his alternative self’s visits abroad. The platforming sequences involve a variety of different blocks (usually referred to as ‘bugs’). Several of these blocks have various purposes such as: being destructible, bouncing the player, or even serving as a treasure box. Later levels see complicated arrangements involving vanishing blocks or blocks that explode shortly after collision with the player. While the DS controls can make these sections feel a bit clunky, they are in fact very welcome and serve as some of the best moments of the game.

Frequently, Sora will have to clear out the bugs in each world. Attempting to do so will send him into the datascape, where he must successfully pass through these platforming sections. While there is not a heavy emphasis on the platforming in these sections, players will be challenged to do some of the more difficult platforming sequences to be rewarded with extra equipment or for increasing their stats – values that determine how much damage is dealt or received by an enemy, or how much health Sora has. Furthermore, the player is scored on performance within the datascape and is given the option to gamble this score on set challenges in each stage.

One of the alternative gameplay sections involving Kingdom Hearts playing like a 'classic JRPG' such as Final Fantasy.

After clearing the world of bugs, Sora will locate the source of the problems within that world and will use his Keyblade to reach this source. Each world has its own unique approach to this “boss stage”, with some examples being a 2D platforming stage or a third person shooter. While being the weakest segments of the game, these serve as temporary refreshing breaks between, what would have been, repetitive platforming or button mashing.

As expected of Square Enix, levelling up has become rather convoluted. This doesn’t necessarily mean that it is terrible – in fact I find the levelling up mechanic in Re:Coded to be rather interesting. Sora’s statistical growth involves the use of a motherboard, with Sora unlocking a ‘level up chip’ upon receiving enough experience from fighting enemies. Sora will place this level up chip, or a specific stat chip (eg. Strength +1 or Thunder Resistance+3), in a slot on this motherboard. The player will receive double the effect of these chips through linking two CPU’s. Furthermore, new abilities (such as the previously mentioned ‘block’ ability) will be unlocked once reached by a path of chips. Finally, the player may also adjust elements of the game (difficulty, experience gained vs. money gained) through ‘cheats’ unlocked on the motherboard.

The gameplay is very fun and is definitely what makes this title stand out on the DS. Graphically, the game looks great on the DS – capturing the unique graphics style of the franchise well. The game is very colourful and pleasing to look at. Characters are also designed, within the datascape, based upon their Kingdom Hearts (original title) designs.

Audibly, the title doesn’t particularly stand out. In fact, it made very little difference to me having the game on mute or with full volume. I can add that the, essentially, theme song of the first title (Simple and Clean by Utada Hikaru) will make an appearance alongside a remix edition. Voice acting is particularly well done, but something seems off to me about Sora’s voice. I guess it may be due to the fact that he sounds completely different than he did in the original Kingdom Hearts, a title where this version of Sora is essentially derived from.

The game itself has some great replay value, giving players the options to unlock trophies from achieving such tasks as completing maxing out Sora’s growth or completing a variety of fetch quests – or indeed getting a particularly high score in the datascape stages. The game even gives the player the option to continue their save after completing a game, which is a rare thing for Square to do. I easily got twenty hours of the title, and I still have a few trophies to go.

Kingdom Hearts: Re:Coded is a solid title on the DS, allowing players to recapture the basic fun of the first title without having to deal with too much of a clustered mess of a narrative – only ever heading towards that level near the conclusion of the game. If you own a DS and need a new and fun portable game, I highly recommend Kingdom Hearts: Re:Coded. As such, Re:Coded earns a 7/10.

To contact the author of this post, feel free to reach him at: Rasenore.Spoony@hotmail.co.uk or alternatively through his Twitter (@Rasenore). Furthermore, a poorer more personal blog can be found at Inside the Video Game.

Ryan Cleary, a suspect hacker belonging to the widely-known group Lulzsec, has been grantred bail from jail, under extremely and unethical-type conditions, that his mother happily agreed to. The conditions of the bail means that Cleary must observe a cerfew between 9am and 7pm and, according to Reuters, must wear an electronic tag. If you think this is bad, he’s only allowed to leave home with one parent. Obviously, this has gone far enough… not allowing a human-being to be independant and allow social interaction within his region of privacy. But it gets worse still.

He is not allowed access to the internet, by whatever means, he is not allowed to possess an electronic device that can connect him to the internet. Be it an iPad, iPhone, or even any type of mobile device. It still gets even worse, however. Cleary has been diagnosed with an autism known as Asperger’s Syndrome; which characterises in difficulties with social interaction and repetitive behavious or repulsion. You can see how the internet was a major part of his life. Now, he has been banned from that and pretty much every electronic device.

His mother responded with: “I’m aware that I’m his best friend as well as his mother, because he’s reclusive“. I guess psychological warfare is more dangerous than it physically, this is pure torture for Cleary.

Reuters: British teen hacker suspect granted bail.

To contact the author of this post, feel free to reach him at: Dralel.Spoony@hotmail.co.uk.