360 top JRPGS

by Marius Gheorghe 30. July 2009 05:51

Here my personal top of JRPGS  on the 360 :

1. Lost Oddysey

By far the best one on the platform. It's a massive release (spanning 4 DVD) and takes around 30 hours to complete. The best feature of the game it's the writing (both the storyline and the little stories you find through the game). Related to the little stories......it's pretty weird to have a 28GB game on a HD system and say that the best time you have in the game is simply squinting to read pieces of text. The combat is kind of annoying (standard turn based jrpg fare) but again the writing more than makes up for all the game shortcomings.

2.Tales of Vesperia

This one is a game from the tales series by Namco. Pretty good overall, with some "strong" connections between the party members and some genuine funny writing. The overall story arc is not that interesting. I liked the graphics style (cell shading) and while the quality doesn't reach Eternal Sonata's level , it is quite good.

 

3.Eternal Sonata

Gorgeous cell shaded graphic and THE best battle system (it's real time in a "arena") in any JRPG. These 2 are the best elements of this game. The quirky setting also helps....the game is based on the last hours in the life of Chopin. The storyline is not that interesting unfortunately.

4. Infinite undiscovery

The only good part of this game is the battle system (it's real time on the same map as exploring). Unfortunately the characters are not that interesting and neither is the story.

5. The last remnant

Again a interesting battle system (it's a little more tactical than the rest and it's based on the idea of controlling multiple units) is the only good part of this game.

 

6. Star Ocean : The last Hope

From my point of view the worst game so far....uninteresting plot, cliche characters, worst checkpoint position in the history of JRPGS and the list goes on. Avoid this one.

Tags:

gaming

Lately playing…

by Marius Gheorghe 4. March 2009 09:28

Rise of the Argonauts

This is a game which has been slammed pretty hard in the reviews . Which is a shame because if you can ignore the technical shortcomings (and trust me …at least in the first part of the game this is a bug fest. Frankly i haven’t played another XBOX360 game this buggy)  you’ll discover a pretty good action RPG with very good writing (which is by far the best aspect of the game). It’s the story of Jason searching for the golden fleece.

 

Silent Hill : Homecoming

I’ve been waiting for another Silent Hill game for a while (especially since the game was launched 6 months late in Europe) and i’m happy to say that i haven’t been disappointed. This is a solid entry in the series with good graphics ( love the white noise graphic filter), pretty good overall story, excellent sound (you need to play this on a 5+1 setup) and the chilling atmosphere that the series is known for.  In short….must play.

Tags:

gaming

Microsoft closing down Ensemble Studios

by Marius Gheorghe 10. September 2008 08:51

This is a bad decision. Ensemble you will be greatly missed. AOE2 is, along with Starcraft, the best RTS ever released.

Tags:

gaming

Battlefield Bad Company

by Marius Gheorghe 7. July 2008 14:27


It's a fairly entertaining shooter with a interesting "twist" in level design : you can almost blow anything up. I liked the detailed graphics, incredible sound, the storyline was fine too (instead of opting for gritty realism like COD4, the story is about 4 soldiers who want to get rich by stealing some gold). The biggest criticism is for the controls which are pretty bad (or simply suck when you have to drive the chopper).
Overall...a fairly good "military type" shooter.

Tags:

gaming

Ninja Gaiden 2

by Marius Gheorghe 17. June 2008 12:21


I've finished NG2 a couple of days before and the game was a blast (played on acolyte difficulty). It has smooth controls, over the top violence and the best (and fastest) battle mode to ever grace a console (yes it is faster than Ninja Gaiden Black). The fighting is a delight.....smooth as silk.
Unfortunately not everything is perfect and the game is pulled back by retarded design decisions (like fighting 2 bosses one right after another, fighting all the bosses in the game twice, and the biggest of them all....the fact that you are forced to use the bow in boss battles). Graphic is ranging from butt ugly (chapter 8) to cool (chapters 10/11), sound is good and the storyline is simply crap. On acolyte the difficulty is "just right" so , hopefully, you won't feel like throwing the controller in the TV.
Overall....recommended.

Tags:

gaming

Got a XBOX 360

by Marius Gheorghe 6. December 2007 18:15
Finally...i'm the happy owner of a XBOX 360 ( i went for the Premium version with the PGR 4 bundle....and i was lucky to get a new and quiet Benq drive). So far it's funtastic. I'm playing on a 40 inch Samsung LCD TV(1080i....hope to get a HDMI cable and hook it on 1080p) and the experience blows out of the water the PC gaming experience.

More impressions after i'll finish PGR4... :D

Tags:

gaming

Xbox 360 + games minireview

by Marius Gheorghe 17. June 2007 12:39
I mentioned a while ago that i've got a XBOX360. Now that i've played a few games i can write a minireview.
First of all the XBOX360. I love it and i'm simply not going back to PC gaming. I love the wireless, playing on the 42 inch HDTV with a 5.1 audio system and the overall simplicity ( no drivers, installs, resolutions, Starforce and all that crap). You just insert the disc and play. But, from my point of view, the best thing about playing on a console is the fact that you are not "tied" to a desk as in PC gaming.( as a programmer i'm already spending ~10h/day in front of a monitor).

Games :
Assassin's Creeed

This is a really mixed bag. Nothing is "medium" in this game.....it's either absolutely fantastic or crap. The good parts are, without a doubt, the graphic and animations: i haven't played Crysis but this is, by far, the best looking game ever. Seriously. The graphics and animation are simply amazing. Most of the games you'll play after Assasin's Creed will seem bland (graphics wise).
The biggest bad part is the gameplay which is simply repetitive and boring. Storywise is not that great either. I really hope the sequel will be better because it's simply shame to waste that graphic.

PGR 4 : PGR4 is a blast. Great selection of cars and tracks, with furious gameplay. Really good in split screen mode.

Timeshift : this a "old school" ( and by that i mean no story, linear design) FPS. It has a few nice graphical effects but "the thing" is that you can manipulate time in this.

Call of Duty 4 Nice. Had a few great gameplay portions.

Gears of war : i would venture to say that this is the best game i've played so far on XBOX360.

Halo 3 : it's mediocre : graphic (except for the draw distance....this game has the longest draw distance i have seen so far) and gameplay. The music was nice (especially the main menu music).

Virtua Fighter 5 : it's ok but i really wished it had more characters to choose from.

Virtua Tennis 3 : it's GREAT when you play in 2 player mode. Also it has some nice additional play modes. If you like tennis don't miss this.

MX vs ATV : Graphics are really crappy and the gameplay is not that great either.

Stranglehold

This is something like Max Payne 3 ( without the great story and the cool character). It has bullet time and absolutely GREAT destructive environments.

Conan : THQ should have given more time to Nihilistic for this ( Nihilistic are a great bunch of guys ....they made the original Vampire Masquerade Redemption and i'm sure Nihilistic would have made a great game). Instead ...only the fighting (aka combo system) is great but the rest is simply mediocre (story, gameplay, sound) or simply bad (graphics...it looks like a mediocre PS2 game). Also the last boss fight was crap.

Tags:

gaming

Heroes V

by Marius Gheorghe 10. June 2006 18:47

This brings back memories of the wasted….err….nights spend playing Heroes 2 and 3 with my brother. The most important thing is that Heroes V stays true to his heritage. Practically the game mechanics are almost the same as Heroes 3. Sure there are lots of changes: the graphic engine, faction changes (do they have to change these in each and every single game ?!), UI etc but the core is the same.  

So if you’re interested in a TBS ….play it.

Tags:

gaming

Forgotten realms - Demon stone

by Marius Gheorghe 15. April 2006 12:46

Finished the game last night. I was interested in the game because the story was written by R.A. Salvatoare so i thought it's going to be good. Big dissapoiment. The game is simply a 3rd person hack and slash  with a vaguely sketched story. Anyway :

good stuff :

- you get to play as Drizzt :)

-nice action packed scenes in the last 3-4 chapters.

bad stuff :

- bugs. Lots of them. I couldn't finished 2 chapters because of showstopping bugs (i had the patch installed).

-simple story.

-fixed keys.

-one dialog said "Please press the triangle button !!!!".

-the game is a little bit hard.

-battle pshysics and mechanics were downright bad when compared to games like POP: Warrior Within.

- too short.

Tags:

gaming


marius gheorghe

developer, dad, gamer

Contact me

My Resume

Favourite Tools