The title implies on what part of the Final Fantasy timeline this game falls under. Every question on all Final Fantasy 7 iterations were answered on this game. Yes, Before Crisis, Dirge of Cerberus, Final Fantasy 7 itself, and even the movie Advent Children were highlighted on this game. This game is a must-have for all FF7 fans and finishing the game is really worth the effort.

"For the both of us, you must live. You are my living legacy. My honor, my dreams, they're yours now." ~Zack Fair, Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII

Labels: final-fantasy, psp, reviews

Posted by Siopao Master on 4/10/2008 12:57:00 AM | 0 comments |

Three cellphones pitted against each other to know who among them is the best snapper on their category. Just a reminder guys, these are not the "cream of the crop" line, but the entry level line of models. No Carl Zeiss nor Cybershot here on this review. Just wanted to compare these three fine cellphones against each other and nothing else. Now let's begin:

Nokia 6280

Nokia is the dominant brand here in the Philippines and their 2 megapixel camphone is no pushover. The orientation of 6280's camera is similar to a digital camera. You hold the phone horizontally, press the capture button and viola! Instant shots!. You can choose from high, normal or basic image quality. It has a night mode feature, zoom up to 10x (interpolated),can manipulate the white balance and add some effects. Amongst the three, 6280's flash is the best, mimicking the real flash of a digicam.You can store the pictures on a memory (6280 can support up to 2gb of miniSD card)

Pros: Point-and-shoot interface

Cons: Very slow rasterization

Motorola RAZR V3x

Motorola struck gold with their RAZR series and V3x is not an exception. V3x main asset is its very fast startup time and rasterization of pictures, best when you're about to capture that best moment. You won't miss a thing! Also, great for discreetly capturing pictures of beautiful women (boso shots anyone?). Has a 4x digital zoom and you can change the lighting condition and exposures. A light that acts as a flash and you can store pictures in a mircoSD card up to 1gb.

Pros: Fast camera operation

Cons: Weak on poor lighting conditions

Sony Ericsson K750i

The oldest among the three, K750i can prove that quality can stand the test of time. The camera phone which was the predecessor of K800i, Sony Ericsson's Cybershot phone, packs some solid features. K750i's main advantage is its autofocus feature. SE's K line of models main weapon is their camera and K750i is one good example. Like the 6280, you use K750i like a real digital camera, horizontal and all. It's resolution is like a .2 higher than the other 2 (1632x1224).Packs a lot of features like burst mode, panorama mode, frames mode, macro mode, night mode and white balance...Just like a real digital camera. You can save pictures on a memory stick pro duo that supports up to 4gb!!

Pros: Digital camera features

Cons: Autofocus sometimes ruin the shot

Overall: The Sony Ericsson K750i is the winner in terms of image quality and functionality.

Shot with Nokia 6280
Shot with Motorola RAZR V3x
Shot with Sony Ericsson K750i
Shot with Nokia 6280 with flash
Shot with Motorola RAZR V3x with flash
Shot with Sony Ericsson K750i with flash

Labels: gadgets, reviews

Posted by Siopao Master on 11/11/2007 06:12:00 PM | 0 comments |

The 3rd Generation Ipod Nano looks like an Ipod trampled by an elephant. It's wafer thin!

The packaging is oh so sweet and the unit itself made me drool. The transferring of music is very simple, thanks to iTunes (you need the latest version though). But the highlight of the new nano is its video playback capability. I downloaded a movie on my favorite torrent site and sync it on my iPod and viola! The quality is crisp and the sound is superb (may vary from video quality). You can add pictures too, and you can also see the album art of your favorite music. There's the usual extras like the contacts, podcasts, equalizer and many many more. This seems to be the best Ipod Nano on the Apple lineup and it is a must buy.

Labels: apple, nano, reviews

Posted by Siopao Master on 9/27/2007 11:59:00 PM | 0 comments |

History meets fantasy, Jeanne D'Arc or better known as Joan of Arc, the savior of France and a saint to the Catholics.

A strategy turn-base RPG that follows the adventure of the "La Pucelle" that was commanded by voices which she claimed came from God himself. The battle system is great and the effects and the sound is superb. Thrown in some Anime clips between the story and a very very unusual twist that made gamers scratch their heads in disbelief.

View the screen shots here

Labels: psp, reviews

Posted by Siopao Master on 9/18/2007 11:22:00 PM | 0 comments |

Think of Kingdom Hearts, Final Fantasy and .hack, mix it and you'll have Brave Story: New Traveler.

Pardon for comparing this game to these 3 top ranking games but this is the reason I like this game. A boy from another world using a sword that upgrades every now and then sounds like Kingdom Hearts to me. The multi racial concept (kitkin, waterkin, err goatkin?) and cinematic cut scenes sounds Final Fantasy to me, and finally the cross between the Anime / Novel and the Video Game is oh so .hack to me. You see, this makes this game a solid RPG. You get to collect tons of stuff and "Dark Arms" also known as ultimate weapons, You solve sub quests and battle birdbrawls using your captured goalfinch. There are lots and lots of things to do here and the battle system although menu driven is full of action. The only downside of this game is that random battles occur frequently and oddly enough, you cannot save on the world map. but overall this is one solid RPG

You can view the screen shots here

Labels: psp, reviews

Posted by Siopao Master on 8/27/2007 01:20:00 PM | 0 comments |

If you are a fan of the "Tales of" series, this one's a keep.

You can choose between a male or a female "descender" and interact with "Tales of" character. One of my favorite is Stahn, I remember him as the lead character of Tales of Destiny and that brings back memories of the Playstation days The game is basically a dungeon crawler / grinding type of RPG with button pressing to execute actions or special moves / spells, which is, the trademark of the series. The voice acting is great and the bg music really makes you feel the game. Spend lots of hours grinding or mastering techniques, collect armor sets or just cook to your heart's delight. Yes, you can cook, forge, refine, create stuff that can help you finish quests or even save your arse during a fierce battle. The only chip on this gem is the repetitive quests that will suck all your gaming hours. Oh well, overall this one's a solid RPG

Labels: psp, reviews

Posted by Siopao Master on 8/15/2007 09:51:00 PM | 0 comments |

Based on Tolkien's fantasy story Lord of the Rings which spawned a hefty number of franchises which sold millions and Battle for Middle Earth 2 is not an exception.

The gameplay reminds me of Command and Conquer Generals and Preatorians. Add them up and put some Tolkien fantasy and you'll have this game. I can say, the game is very addicting if you're into real time strategy. The campaign makes you choose between good and evil which I might say evil rocks. Heck most of your missions are destroying this and killing that. While the good side makes you defend this and escort that. Typical good and bad situations. The highlight of this game however is the War of the Ring mode. A turn based / RTS hybrid wherein you fight for the one ring that rules them all. Overall, graphics and sounds added the icing to this well crafted RTS.

Labels: pc, reviews

Posted by Siopao Master on 8/04/2007 11:52:00 PM | 0 comments |

Xseed Games released a dungeon crawler RPG that sucks the time in your life literally

Yes you read it right, in order for you to advance on the story of this RPG, you need to grind all day and all night just to beat the hell out of that monster. Valhalla Knights is not a typical RPG wherein when you achieve a high level, it doesn't mean you can beat the crap out of the bosses out there. You need teammates to help in battle, heck having a healer in the party is necessary. The graphics are good, lightings and some effects attest to that. The sound is kind of tiring maybe due to the fact that you grind on the same place for a gazillion time. The gameplay is rather difficult for those new to the RPG genre. Customization is neat, you can choose a male or a female, a human, elf, half-ling, dwarf (which is by the way, human-sized in this game) a machine (that can only be accessed later on). There are lots of job classes to choose from, wherein fighter,priest,mage,and thief are available in the beginning,later on, anchors,knights,samurais and ninjas become available if you picked up a job card so your character can change to that specific job. By the way, the drop rate is like hell, getting a rare item took me an entire day. Overall, if you have all the time in the world or does not have a social life,this game is for you

Labels: psp, reviews

Posted by Siopao Master on 5/14/2007 10:11:00 PM | 0 comments |

The final installment to the Spiderman franchise,maybe, unless Sony wants to milk more from this cash cow.

Anyway, SM Cinemas today was packed by lots and lots of Spidey fans. I can't blame them, this is the chance they can see Venom immortalize in 3D.The story revolves around Spiderman (of course!) and his struggle in living a normal life and as a action hero. This movie portrays the "dark side" of Peter Parker as the symbiote took over his life. Anyway, this is a review not a storytelling article, now what can I say? As far as I know, the special effects are awesome. Come on, the sand on Sand Man's body, the symbiote on Spidey, the explosions etc. Sony did a great job delivering the story, but the downfall of the movie is Venom. Come on, Venom is one mean spider machine, and the Venom I saw on that movie lacks protein and muscle. But despite that flaw, I consider part 3 as the greatest of all Spiderman film

Labels: reviews, spiderman-3

Posted by Siopao Master on 5/01/2007 07:26:00 PM | 1 comments |

Westwood studio will relase the next installment of Command and Conquer this comming March 28 (March 29 here in the Philippines) for the PC market.

They have made it possible that you can try out the latest Command and Conquer 3 prior to its worldwide release by a demo software that you can download it here, anyway it's around 1206mb. anyway I have been testing it for almost 2 days and based from my own experience, it's kinda mixed up of C&C Generals Graphics plus C&C Tiberian Sun plot and gameplay, for starters its kinda ammusing because of it's eyecandy but in the long run its kinda boring, same old mission, save the world plot.... anyway if I'll rank this game based from this demo I can say 3 out 5 stars (5 is the highest)

Minimum Requirement

OS: Windows XP, Windows Vista (32-bit; 64-bit versions of Vista are not supported)

CPU: 2.0GHz or high, or AMD equivalent, Vista - 2.2 GHZ

RAM: 512 MB or more, Vista - 1GB RAM or more

Disk Drive: 8x or faster DVD drive for retail SKUs, not required for digitally downloaded version

Hard Drive: 6.0 GB or more of free space

Video: GeForce4, ATI Radeon 8500 or greater (ATI Radeon 9200 and 9250 PCI, NVIDIA Geforce 4 MX cards not supported.). Windows Vista - NVIDIA GeForce 6100 or ATI Radeon 9500 or greater. Labtop versions of these chipsets may work but are not supported.

Sound: DirectX 9.0c compatible sound card

Network, Internet Multiplayer: 2 players (no voice support) – 56 Kbps Internet connection; 2-8 players (with voice transmission) – Broadband-class connection

Labels: pc, pc-dvd, reviews

Posted by Karlo on 3/26/2007 04:15:00 PM | 0 comments |

Squenix (as fans affectionately call Square Enix) overdid it this time.

Not in a negative way, but, they say they'll remake Final Fantasy III in DS but not just by directly porting it, but redoing it in full 3D! The classic gameplay is still there, the turn-base system and the job system. But what makes it good is the full 3D facelift. One word of advice though, if you are not a hardcore FF fan, you'll get boring in the long run due to repeatedly leveling your character. But hey, this WAS a hit back then. other than that, this is a solid RPG in the palm of your hands. Now I wait for Final Fantasy Tactics on the PSP

Labels: nintendo-ds, reviews

Posted by Siopao Master on 3/25/2007 01:30:00 PM | 0 comments |

[ THIS ARTICLE WAS ORIGINALLY POSTED BY JAY ENCARNACION ON DECEMBER 28th 2000 ]



It is very common for us to see modifications (mods) being developed by the gamers themselves for the reason that the game has a great engine or they just want to experiment, but unfortunately, not all the mods out there are that great. Only a few mods became quite popular, like Counterstrike, a mod for the game Half-life which lets you experience team based gameplay using strategy instead of running around like some crazed Rambo, which gives realism in games a level-up. But not every mod wants to be "realistic"... just like........

Bid For Power. If you haven't heard about this, then you might be one of these: You are not interested in PC games or mods, you have been banned by the government to be near a computer, or you simply don't like Dragonball...

You say "Dragonball?" Yes... Bid For Power is a mod for the game Quake III Arena which features styles from the popular anime Dragonball Z. If you're already drooling and you want to grab a copy of this mod, well, sorry but it's not yet going to be realeased by the developers anytime soon, because they are still tweaking some bugs in this mod. Of course, being the lucky bastard that I am, I have gotten myself a... well, an "official" copy of its first release... now I'm not gonna disclose my sources since it might cause some problems so I'm just gonna share all I know about Bid For Power... well of course for release one. I even included screenshots here that I took while playing it...

The first thing you'll see of course is the main screen with the usual options. If you have to configure your controls, then do it now. If you are comfortable with the default settings from the Quake controls, I still suggest that you check out the controls since you are gonna use a lot of the keys on the keyboard. Just imagine this, you are in the universe of Dragonball Z and you will have to charge your ki, fly, run, teleport out of harms way, and more.... now see why I wanted you to check the controls?

After configuring it to the way you want it, we start the game! Of course, I chose Goku as my first character since he is the star of the show after all...

SCREENSHOTS:
































Ok, it's judgement time!

Sound: The voices sound nice... especially Goku's "Ka...me...ha..me..ha!!!" and the other's as well. Since this is just the first "release" (I should say leak) well, I think they will be improving especially in this department.

Graphics: For a first build game, this one proves that team work will produce quality products... like this mod! Models look professional, but I heard that they have improved this in RC2, and just wait till RC3... the public release version!

Controls: I have no problems with the controls whatsoever since configuration is allowed... it depends on you anyway.

Replayability: PERFECT! I mean, I play my copy only with myself (because I don't have friends that have this game yet... and there's no modem dial-up feature here only lan thingies) against bots, and I still keep coming back! for more!


Playing Tips:

1. Watch Dragonball Z and learn how the attacks work... anyway I'll give you a brief run down on them now...

2. When playing a serious game, use Piccolo's Eye Beam for irritating your unsuspecting friends.

3. The longer you charge your ki for your attack, the stronger it gets.

4. Don't be afraid to fight and explore underwater, you cannot drown, you're super humans (beings.)

5. Freeza's Death Ball attack is the LARGEST attack of them all, but it also is slow and can be avoided with the proper technique.

6. Don't forget to charge up your ki after firing a ki attack.

7. When all else fail, use melee attacks! Just charge at your opponent and hold the key you assigned for your melee attacks!

8. Kuririns Kakusanha is the best weapon for newbies. First, it flies towards opponents at a good rate, then when you press your fire button again, the energy ball splits up into four homing energy bombs!!! I've done this a few times and the result was very amusing! The whole screen was littered with those energy bombs chasing all 14 of my enemies!!! Plus, it doesn't use too much ki.

9. Gohan's Angry Explosion has a range of about 100 meters, full power.

10. Kuririn's Kienzan is hard to aim, since it doesn't have a homing feature AND it is VERY THIN. The only good part here is it's almost a one hit kill if it touches anyone.

11. Freeza's Kienzan is deadlier, packed with a HOMING feature.

12. Don't touch the electricity in the city levels as they cause minor damage.

13. Your own ki attacks can hurt you.

14. When charging your ki, be sure you are well hidden as enemies can see your powerful glow if you charge your ki.

15. Never blast your team mate and kill him as this will decrease your frag score.


Fun Stuff With Bid For Power

1. Pick a character for your team color. On the other team, assign all the available slots for your enemies! Put the difficulty in NIGHTMARE! Just imagine you against 14 Freezas!!! YEEEHAAA!!!

2. You can kill your friends... as in team mates!


I hope you're all envious... err I mean excited now! Let's wait for the official realease of Bid For Power and hope it is a lot better!!!


[ THIS ARTICLE WAS ORIGINALLY POSTED BY JAY ENCARNACION ON DECEMBER 28th 2000 ]

Labels: archive, homebrews, pc, reviews

Posted by Jepoy on 12/28/2000 09:03:00 PM | 0 comments |