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Maybe this is a good game. I'll never know. I gave up on it after 20 minutes killing rats on a barn. Might have been a glitch, might have been just awful game design. It was enough to make me regret spending 8 dollars on a PSM game and move on to something fun. What kills me is that Chrono Trigger is on sale on PSN. Terrific game for 3 dollars.

First things first: I'm very happy to have a Roguelike game on Vita with all the perks of the platform: portable, trophy support and countless hours of gameplay at my disposal. That alone is great, and the game makes for a fine addition to the Vita Library. The story is funny and the characters are great. The cartoonish style is also very cool, so I'm hooked on that front. Sometimes I wish the cutscenes where shorter, specially at the very beginning when I was anxious to dig into the meat of the gameplay without missing any important part of the plot. But overall its fine. I'm not 100% on the gameplay department, though. Being a fan of deep Roguelike games like Dungeons of Dredmor, I'm finding it a bit too simplistic. Fighting is pretty easy and you don't have a lot of depth to it (the abilities at your disposal are limited, so you're pretty much finding a good position and melee attacking the foes until they are finished). You can also trow some itens at the enemies, but this strategy is quite inefficient. The skills are overpowered, so they are usually very limited. For me, that is the biggest missed opportunity. I'd rather have more variety with some kind of cool down to the skills, so I could use them more often (granted, they'd be less powerful). This simplicity is more evident when you level up. There is no big decisions to be made, your stats just get better as you character grow stronger. On a positive note, there is one companion that you have to watch (his health don't regenerate, so you need to feed it with loot in order to level him up and heal). Its an interesting concept that adds a layer of complexity to the exploration. Since you could use the loot to upgrade your weapons, it makes for some interesting choices along the way. I'm about 12 hours in, and I'm still hoping that the gameplay will improve. If it does, I'll gladly ad another point to my review. Once again, I'm happy with the game overall. Vita seems to be the perfect platform for roguelikes. For the asking price, though, I was expecting something deeper than what we got. I'd give it a 7,5 ou of 10. A good, but not great roguelike.

This game means a turning point with my Xbox one. After some really bad experiences with Kinect, I was ready to return my console. I solved that problem turning Kinect off. Then there was Forza. The last racing game that hooked me like this was the Grand Turismo on PS2. The engine sounds, the handling and the whole Drivatar thing made me get into driving games immediately. The tracks are, indeed, a let down though. After 3 days of playing it non stop, I'm already burned on them. Hopefully we'll get more (I can see myself getting new tracks in form of DLC). Still, this is a great experience!

This is my first next gen title, and although it is a fun game the performance could be better. I couldn't tell the graphics difference between a good looking current gen game and this. Note that my last games where Last of Us and GTA V and those games look great. Putting the fact that its my 1st next gen game aside, I'd also add that the controls are often sluggish. This is a major problem in this game jumping, running and, above all, picking up itens on the floor is needlessly difficult and frustrating. During any boss fight (or in the middle of a horde), good luck if you need to get any specific resource fast. Trying to pick up food among a lot of garbage, eat it, select the right weapon and continue the fight is incredibly difficult. Still, its a cool game. The streets are filled with a ridiculous amount of zombies, weapons crafting and zombie fighting is very satisfying. There is a lot to do in form of side quests and collectibles, and the map is big enough to allow exploration and immersion. There is also a interesting night and day cycle, and watch out because zombies are more powerful during the night. Leveling up is easily the best part of the game in my opinion. Once you level up enough weapon creation tools, you'll always have some ridiculously fun weapon at hand This is where the gameplay shines, in my opinion. Its not a game that will showcase what the new Xbox can do. In that sense, I felt a bit disappointed by it. But crafting weapons and upgrading the character make up for the shortcomings. It feels like a action RPG with zombies and that is always a win in my book. It'd be a 7,5 for me. It only misses the 8 score mark because of controls.

This game is great. Go get it! I played a couple of hours. It reminded me a lot of Ys 7 (and that is a great thing). Fast paced, great music, heartwarming story so far (I've put about 15 hours). You feel right at home with the game if you're into Ys or action jRPGs. Graphics won't blow your mind (seems like a game that could be on PSP), but levels and characters are varied, colorful and interesting. The universe itself is quite cool it manages to be a familiar jRPG without ever feeling generic. I really dig the style. Besides, its all about gameplay. Controls are tight, levels and enemies are varied, and the combat has some depth to it. I'm playing on normal difficulty here, so I can go by most situations mashing square, dodging enemy attacks and switching characters to deal with monsters weaknesses. Heck, if you read it this far you probably is just looking for a reason to buy the game. In my opinion, its worth the buy. One last piece of information: I'm not the biggest jRPG fan out there, so it could mean something that I'm that interested in this game.

I have to start saying that I'm a big nerd and a hardcore gamer. I love deep RPGs (Dragon Age, Fallout, KOTOR, etc). And reading the official reviews, I can see where this guys are coming from: I guess the iPad crowd is very different from your average PC or console gamer, and they might not have the patience (or desire) to play trough such a deep and cerebral game. The presentation is indeed simple: animations are stiff and graphics are simple (even when compared with old CRPGs such as Baldurs Gate). Yet, this game shines in the fun department. It masters 2 fundamental aspects for a good RPG, in my opinion: STORYTELLING AND WRITING This story is very interesting. Even though its delivered trough text, it manages to inject great mood in very simple looking environment. It complements the simple presentation, making you feel the tone the developers want to transmit along the dungeons and levels. This is a game that is making me want to sink into the lore like just a few before. Is Redbeard a hero or a tyrant? What is true and what is not about his 3 wives? What else can you find about the distant lands in this world? You'll want to know. COMBAT AND CHARACTER CUSTOMIZATION So the story is great, but what about gameplay? Its incredible. The combat is deep, strategic and offers great variety. Its turn based and grid based like the combat in the best rogue like games. Also, you have loads of options to when choosing how to develop your character (you upgrade basic stats talent tree). CONTROLS This is the area that sometimes I had some issues with. In some tight situations, I accidentally pressed the wrong tile making my character move instead of attacking. Its a very minor issue, and consider that I'm playing it on iPad mini (it might be mitigated on the regular iPad). CONCLUSION This game makes me believe that gaming on iPad could be something great. If it manages to receive more great games like this, I think it'll be hard to deny the potential of the platform for greatness. And this is coming from a PSVita enthusiast, mind you.

Don't let the generic zombies premisse scare you away. This is a very innovative game with a simple yet addictive concept. Going after all platinums (or gold medals) is good fun, and is what makes the game worth your while (otherwise, it can be considered rather short). Still, nothing wrong with that considering the budget asking price. This is how it works: you kill a mob of zombies with just a couple of shots (3 at the beginning). The trick is to time your shots just right (and choose the right zombie) so you start a chain reaction to clear enough undead to grant you a pass. That unlock extra levels, reward you with some money, and that's how you keep going. There is a light RPG aspect to it, and this is probably the tweak that make it such addictive. You get money by clearing a level, spend the money to 'upgrade' the destructive power of the zombies. Before you know it, you'll be clearing levels with one shot that seemed impossible prior to upgrades. Its very satisfying to watch all zombies die on the screen once you upgrade them enough. Since the levels are rather quick, its the kind of game that is hard to put down. It has that 'one more level' hook to it. I've spent about 3 days 'obsessed' with this game. When everything was set and done I went prestige, and to be honest I couldn't find the motivation to keep going again. There is one last golden trophy to persue (prestige it 20 times), so I might come back to it eventually. Anyhow, its totally worth your time and money if you're into simple puzzle games like this.

This game is just too much fun, I had it as a Mini and now its even better: trophy support, HD visuals, and a kick ass comic book style cutscenes. I have no idea what's going on with the story, but the drawings are nice nonetheless. It is all about gameplay, though. Level designs are tight and controls feel very precise. The latter levels are quite hard, but its always a good time. Velocity should be right up your alley if you're into shoot em ups and puzzle games. I personally like the straight forward levels more (some that you have to shoot all enemies, or rush trough the level due to time constraints). The more elaborate, puzzle like levels are cool as well, but they require some memorization and I'm awful at that. I should warn, though, that it might not be to everybody. If you're looking for fancy graphics or epic sagas, this game is not for you. I showed Velocity to my nephews (9 and 11 YO), and they couldn't get into the straight forward approach and difficulty level. They'd rather play Fifa and Uncharted on easy, so they can feel like super powerful dudes.

This game gets a 8 out of technical merit alone: it looks great, it sounds great, and its impressive trough and trough. I still think its baffling why people don't recognize what a achievement to be experienced on a handheld. So there you go, what this game pull off from the Vita is incredible proving what this system is able to do. But this game one extra point (making it a 9), in my book, due to the fun factor. The story is great. It made me go back to Killzone 2 and 3 to pinpoint the timeframe only to find out that the most interesting part of the war was being fought by Admiral Grey and her gang of mercenaries. It might be hard to grasp how interesting the story is during your first play trough, but if you pay attention you realize all the conflicts behind the decisions. It clearly shows that there is no 'good' and 'bad' side in this war. It was the first time I really paid attention to it and wanted to know more about the Killzone lore. Then, there is the gameplay. Sure, controls take some getting used to and some tweaking I amped the sensitivity, for example. But once you get trough that, you'll be immersed in a beautiful, varied and exciting game. I truly came to admire how deep the gameplay can be when I went to complete all contracts that demand you to explore different weapons and different approach to the levels. But the varied level design is there from the get go. You can tackle the problems presented to you in a wide range of ways for me, the greatest sign of a masterfully designed game. Of course, you can just run and gun away (as you can in deep games like FarCry 3 or Deus Ex, for example) if you set it to easy. The game can look generic if you play it this way. I think many reviewers just did a rushed job, and didn't bothered to peel one more layer of the game to experience how great it is. And I'm talking about pure great level design regardless of it being on a handheld, running smoothly and beautifully what makes it even more impressive. So there you go, if you like shooters and own a Vita you probably already got this game. I'm writing to help out people who'll get the Vita later (maybe due to PS4 launch) to cut trough the garbage that many outlets have put out about this game. This is the best shooter on the go that you can find right now (2013), and it's better than many console shooters (I'm looking at you, Black Ops 2).

This game was a great surprise on Vita. I loved how much depth they managed to squeeze into such a simple premise. Each fight seems like a puzzle that requires good timing, skill and a lot of strategy. The graphics won't blow you away, but are great for what the game is (a small indie game). I won't give it a 8 because it could be cheaper for what it is, or more polished for how much it cost (maybe with more game modes or trophies). Anyhow, this game took me off guard and surprised me for the amount of fun it offered. I've completed the career mode twice now. I still have one trophy to collect, so I guess I'll be revisiting it every now and then.

Arkham Origins is a fresh take on Arkham Asylum universe, and it successfully translates the console game world into a handheld experience. PRESENTAION: I've played it on Vita, and the graphics and textures are solid. Voice acting is strong, and despite many critics I found the plot decent enough to keep me interested throughout the game. The drawn cutscenes are beautiful on Vitas screen and add personality to the handheld version GAMEPLAY: Fighting is lots of fun, with some depht to it even though they are usually not very challenging. Gameplay wise, I guess the biggest critic the game is receiving is about exploration. Yes, navigating in a 2,5 map with a 3D map requires some getting used to, but gamers are smart and they figure it out. The pace of the navigation is slower due to its complexity (comparing to, say, Metroid), but I like it like that. I think its more fitting to Batman Universe. THE NAVIGATION ISSUE The requirement to constantly use Detective Mode can be confusing at times, but I'd say the same about the console Batman games (specially Arkham City). Being a fan of the series, for me its more a characteristic of Arkham games than a problem of the handheld version. Detective mode requirement comes down to taste. I like to know that the prison is full of secrets, but it might have been better to keep this necessity out of the main path (sometimes you won't progress in the game unless you are thorough and detect well hidden passages). CONCLUSION: I had lots of fun with the game: advancing trough the environment while discovering new gadgets made it one of those games that its hard to put down. The game could benefit from a streamlined navigation system, but overall it is the kind of experience that I expect to find more on Vita rather than ports. I give it a 8 out of 10.