February, 2010 - The GuildmastersThe Guildmasters

The Guildmasters

RPG Fanatics

Feb 27

White Knight Chronicles |

By Tony

Categories:

Gaming Banter, Merchandise, Reviews
Tags: , , , , , , ,

Well I have new game coming on Monday which i’m looking forward to, White Knight Chronicles: International Edition, this game was released earlier this month so i’m pleased to be getting it so early, it sounds awesome as does the story and the playability, if you read further down you’ll see what I mean.

Available at amazon from as low as $20 used which seems more than fair if the game hold up to it’s promises.



First the gameplay:
White Knight Chronicles is a Japanese RPG (JRPG) centered around a turn-based battle system in a local single player story-driven campaign that is supported by online multiplayer functionality. Gameplay questing occurs from a third-person perspective and follows Leonard and up to three other AI companions, which can include the customizable character that players assume in multiplayer mode. Once quest members are assembled, players utilize the strengths of the overall group as a whole, and are able to switch between characters at will. Combat being turn-based, players must be able to cue up and control the actions of each character in quick sequence for each combat scenario faced. The game facilitates this via the Function Palette, located in its Battle Preparation menu, allowing players to prepare in advance a series of commands for each character to carry out. These can involve magic or weapons use and can be merged into combos. Multiple palettes can be saved, making it possible to optimize actions for specific types of enemies, and making for quick changing of commands. As with any RPG, throughout quests players accumulate experience which allows their character to level up, purchase items and abilities and generally grow stronger with an eye towards besting the increasingly challenging creatures, bosses and situations faced.

Want to know more? Here is the story:
The story of White Knight Chronicles is set in the fictional Kingdom of Balandor and follows the adventures of a boy named Leonard who realizes his role in a drama started thousands of years in the past. Working in the proximity of the palace, Leonard stumbles on a plot to kidnap the enigmatic Princess Cisna. As he helps her escape he also becomes aware of his connection to a transformative power which allows him to take on the ancient shape, and harness the devastating power of the White Knight. Yet there are other elements at work here as well, including the forces of an evil wizard with powers that stretch back to the same ancient times which produced the White Knight. With the help of his friends and the power of the White Knight, these are the forces that Leonard will have to face in his quests.

So what about the online multiplayer?
Along with a compelling single player campaign, White Knight Chronicles also contains an exciting online multiplayer component. Within this, up to four players can engage in more than 50 multiplayer quests, with each player creating their own unique customizable character which can be leveled up in a combined group effort, and take advantage of created items and new skills. Although unique to the online game mode, which is designed for multiplayer action, these quests can also be played alone if players wish. In addition to this functionality available in the online multiplayer mode also includes a variety of ways to interact with the wider White Knight Chronicles community on the PlayStation 3 platform. Included in this is town building through the Georama functionality, which allows players to construct a town to their own specifications that can be populated offline with characters from throughout the single player campaign and then taken online where it serves as a base for quests hosted by players, as well as a persistent online location that other players can visit and buy items your town’s population has for sale. The game also offers an online interface known as GeoNet that allows players to communicate with others via blogs, forums, quest logs and voice chat functionality, as well as post snapshots from their journeys using the Crystal Camera in-game tool.

Key Game Features:

* White Knight Transformation – During single player combat players can transform into the giant White Knight, gaining the ability to challenge large enemies as well as troops of soldiers throughout the adventure.
* The Customizable Avatar Character – Using a wide array of sliders and customization options, players are able to create a unique character that can join the adventure in single player mode as well as online.
* Combo Battle System – Engage in an accessible, active turn-based battle system that caters to players of all levels allowing both default attack settings and a system for for maximum damage.
* JRPG (Japanese RPG) Action for PS3 – Experience true JRPG action on PS3 that incorporates a variety of online gameplay elements.
* Beautiful Environments – Players traverse through 13 stages, as well as visit up to six towns/villages to visit and purchase items at shops or interact with NPCs. Stages include lush fields, open desert, vast wastelands, tunnels, and ruins.
* Multiple Playable Characters – Six playable characters are available, with up to three controllable characters on the screen at the same time.
* Build Special Weapons and Items – Combine different weapons and items to create a huge variety of weapons.
* Quests Galore – Engage in 50+ unique online side quests in which players can gain special items along with unique weapons and armor.
* Town Building – Build an online village for your character where you can invite friends to complete quests online and purchase unique items and gear.
* GeoNet – Through the online component, players have the ability to write their own blogs, communicate with other players via voice chat and more.
* Take Snapshots with Crystal Camera – With Crystal Camera functionality players can take pictures during their journeys which can be shared with other players via their GeoNet page.

Here is the actual product description which could have actually been put in the story part:
White Knight Chronicles is an epic fantasy tale about two kingdoms in midst of a longstanding war. The King of Balandor, wishing to put an end to the war, invites the duke of Faria to his castle to celebrate his daughter’s coming of age. But this celebration is sabotaged by the Magi, a rogue sect seeking to steal the White Knight, an ancient weapon of war sealed beneath Balandor castle, in order to take over the world. During the ensuing chaos, a young man named Leonard accidentally unlocks the power of the White Knight as he attempts to save the princess. With this power, Leonard manages to fend off the Magi attack, but not before they escape with the princess. With the kingdoms in chaos, Leonard is entrusted with the mission to find the Magi and rescue the princess. With the help of his trusted companions, they travel throughout Balandor and beyond on a quest to save the princess before the Magi unlock the other knights. The journey is fraught with danger, with Magi warriors at every turn, mythical beasts and monsters to battle, and forbidden powers revealed. As Leonard learns more about the power of the Knight, he realizes that unsealing all of them could trigger a calamity that could end the world.

Ok by now your either bored stiff or your thinking about giving this one a go yourself, if you do drop us a post here and if requested we can even do a play by post right here, let me know ok? Oh yes, i’ve just checked and it appears to be exclusive to the PS3 so hopefully that’s what you have.

Tony 🙂

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Feb 26

Hustle Kings = Cool Pool. |

By Tony

Categories:

Gaming Banter, Reviews
Tags: , , , , , , , ,

Hustle Kings is my most recent purchase on the playstation network or playstation store to be more exact, at $9.99 I wasn’t too sure about what to expect but I certainly didn’t expect such a realistic pool game.

The graphics are really sharp,everything is crystal clear, it runs so smoothly too and it’s definitely the most realistic pool game i’ve ever played and I have a few from the older systems which were pretty cool.

If there is a shot that can be made on a real table then it can be made on Hustle Kings tables also.

PS3 trophy hunters will be pleased to know there are trophies in this game but some are going to be fairly hard to come by, 11 trophies in all, the harder one’s being silver.

This game will suit anyone that is interested in pool, the beginner, the novice, even pro’s can play this one it’s that good. There is a career mode which covers pretty much all the different game types as well as a couple you may not have heard of depending on what country your from.

There are trick shots which you can learn and to be fair they look really cool and are not that hard to accomplish with a bit of practice, the tuition is easy to understand and if you follow what it written you’ll be performing some pro trick shots in no time, i’ve decided to upload all my trick shots to youtube if anyone wants to check them out, I think i’ve put about 4 up at the moment.

This is the link to go to to check out my trick shots and see for yourself how cool this game really looks. Tony’s Trickshots



At only $9.99 it's well worth it plus you have online play, one trophy is to beat 100 online players so if you want to go for it there is plenty of action in this game, you can purchase que's, balls and more with your career earnings, basically a lot of fun.

If you want to catch me for a game my username on PSN is Knightofthe9, catch you later.

Tony :)

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Feb 22

Got My PS3 Eye Today, Pretty Cool. |

By Tony

Categories:

Gaming Banter, Merchandise, Reviews
Tags: , , , ,

I just bought my playstation eye today, after searching for the best price online it turned out that Amazon and Walmart had the best price at $32.82, I decided to get it straight from the store as we was going out anyway so we popped into walmart and it turns out the price was $40 in store, so now the fun starts.

We argued with the store clerk that you can’t advertise a product online at one price then advertise it in store at another price, it’s not ethical. Apparently they can do that but after we insisted on speaking with the manager he let us have it for the same price as advertised online, i’m sure they will adjust it soon though.

This means that Amazon is now the cheapest price for the eye.



The playstation eye is probably the easiest thing i’ve ever had the pleasure of using, no installations instructions needed as you just simply plug it into your usb port on the PS3 system and that’s it.

If you then go to playstation store you can download Eyecreate which is a free piece of software which lets you mess around with your photo’s, it’s fairly cool.

The biggest surprise was once hooked up it made my bedroom look like it was newly decorated, it came out so clear and bright, i’ve seen worse clarity on more expensive products. The voice distorter is pretty cool too, we messed around for it like a couple of kids for about an hour, strange how when it comes to talking into a mic nothing comes to mind and you end up just making stupid noises, it was fun to act like a teenager for a bit.

The mic picks up voices very clearly and you don’t have to find yourself shouting 3 inches away from it like some i’ve had in the past.

All in all this product is well worth the money, even at $40 it would be worth it, my only downside is it’s not compatible with my pc but that’s no big deal.

Here is the product features for the playstation eye:

* A sophisticated microphone with the ability to reduce background noise and focus on spoken word for smoother, more accurate speech recognition
* Faster frame rate for improved tracking, responsiveness and smoothness
* Two position zoom lens for close-up and full body options
* Free EyeCreate editing software, which allows users to save, edit and add cool visual effects to photos, video and audio clips
* 4 channel audio input – 16-bits/channel, 48kHz, SNR 90db

Tony:)

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Feb 19

Heavy Rain Release Date: Feb 23rd |

By Tony

Categories:

Gaming Banter, Merchandise
Tags: , , , , , ,

It’s been a long few days searching for another decent new release but I think i’ve found one in Heavy Rain, actually i’m downloading this demo as I type.

I’ve just finished watching the trailer and what i’ve seen so far looks promising, there is a lot of hype about this game but I don’t usually take much notice of that, I like to see things for myself and the trailer led me to download the demo to see if it turns out to be as good as promised.

The pre-order price at amazon at the moment is $54.96 which is a saving of over $5 on the list price and there is a pre-order bonus if you order before the release date, this is Heavy Rain Chronicles: Chaper 1 – The Taxidermist which is a downloadable episode,but first lets see what the story is about:



Game Description:A serial killer stalks the city and four characters have only four days to find him before he strikes again. Spend 96 hours living on the edge in this cinematic psychological thriller. In a game that evolves like a living movie, you’ll step into the shoes of four different individuals. Each has their own leads and motives, and each desperately wants to find the Origami Killer. Little is known about your target, other than the folded paper found in the hand of each of his victims. Explore a deep and dark storyline that forces you to decide how far you’ll go to save someone you love.

I will add to this post once i’ve tried the demo, this is a PS3 Exclusive and the reason i’ve posted it early is purely because of the pre-order bonus, the trailer reminded me of Uncharted and from what i’ve read so far plays like a movie, pretty cool graphics so it good be a big hit.

Will update tomorrow after playing tonight.

Tony 🙂

Update:Well this game is a definite buy, by the time i’d walked to the end of the alley I made up my mind I was going to get this game. When Uncharted 2 came out they said it was a game which played like a movie, I wasn’t exactly sure how they would go about that until playing the demo of Heavy Rain last night, it is like an actual movie only you get to perform the moves, scenarios and dialect which takes it one way or another.

The games graphics are pretty realistic, expressions, actions, gestures all make for a real life feel to the game, just the tutorial is a basic walk down an alley but i’ve never before seen such advancement in any other game.

Halfway down the alley your confronted by a dumpster or garbage skip, the only way around it is to press a sequence of button which actually allow you to turn sideways and navigate between the wall and the dumpster, once you pass the dumpster, a small way forward and the rain starts playing with your characters asthma, by hitting one of the front buttons you can actually hear what your character is thinking, at this point it’s about how the rain makes it difficult for him to breathe, this in turn encourages you to use the analogue button to retrieve your inhaler from your right pocket, then with a shake of the sixaxis controller he shakes the inhaler before using it, using the right analogue to lift it to your mouth and pressing R1 to push on the inhaler and saving yoiurself from the unpleasantness of an asthma attack.

That was just the tutorial to get you used to the controls, the way the characters move and behave are very realistic, I played it in front of my 3 eldest sons and they was mesmerized by it’s movie like behaviour, they didn’t know if I was controlling the character or if it was a cut scene, it’s really that good.

The story line is excellent and you really get into it in a big way, I played the whole demo which is free to download on playstation store and it’s really worth the wait.

I actually played the demo 3 times and there is a scene where you have to fight a guy who likes to beat up on women, all three occasions I fought this guy it was different each time, I even ended up in 3 different areas of the apartment when the fight was over.

The controls are really put to use in this game, R2 to walk and lots of use on the analogue buttons to perform many different actions sounds difficult but after just a few minutes feels almost natural.

That’s my update on Heavy Rain for now but don’t take my word for it, download the demo free on playstaton store and see for yourself, you won’t have seen anything like this before, this is going to be the way forward in games and I expect to see many more games in the future playing like this, it’s really amazing.

Tony:)

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Feb 12

Nintendo Consol Sells For Record $16,105 |

By Tony

Categories:

Gaming Banter
Tags: , , , , , , ,

Wow, that’s what I said when I saw that article in the news, after clicking through to the story it turns out that a lady decided to sell her old Nintendo system along with 5 games, after just a short while the price was over $6,000

By the end of the auction the grand total was a staggering $16,105 and it wasn’t even the system or the games which was worth the large amount, it was actually the boxed game Stadium Events, the box alone being worth a staggering 10K.

The reason behind this really is because there are as few as 10 of these games known to still be in existence, so purely the rarity of a game decides the value.

I know your all going to be hunting through the attic and basements now for your old Nintendo games, sometimes it’s always worth keeping hold of stuff if your one of those who like to keep your gear in good order.

The only other Nintendo game which surpasses this one is Nintendo World Championships which sold for an amazing $17,500 on ebay

The moral here is make sure you look after your new games, especially the boxes and especially those limited editions.

That’s one amazing result though, hoping to gain a few bucks to maybe go to a concert or something and end up being able to buy a decent plasma screen to go with the latest PS3 system and a whole bunch of limited editions,lol

Tony:)

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Feb 11

Zen Pinball Trophies = Very Hard |

By Tony

Categories:

Gaming Banter, Merchandise, Reviews
Tags: , , , , , ,

Well I decided to try a couple of the PSN download games and being a fan of pinball I decided to try this one, the full game is $9.99 which is a little on the expensive side for me but at least it is the full game and you can play online and it is trophy enabled.

First the machines, they are about as realistic as you could expect to find in a game, very smooth, lots of features once you understand them and where they are and very fun to play if you like pinball.

The one i’m concentrating on at the moment is El Dorado, because i’m going for the trophies it means really playing the machine, understanding the angles and knowing what the features are, i’ve only got two of the trophies on this one and there are at least four trophies that I know are going to be extremely hard.

Downside is it doesn’t look like there is a platinum trophy which is disappointing as if any game deserved one it should be this one. There are 24 trophies in all made up of bronze, silver and gold and i’ve managed to pick myself up 6 of those, all being bronze.

There are four machines in all and i’d say it’s only worth buying if like me your waiting on other games to come in the mail and you really want a go at some very hard trophies, it goes without saying you would have to be a person that appreciates the pinball game or your going to get fairly annoyed pretty quickly.

Overall this game is easily a 9/10 as it runs very smoothly, the balls act very naturally like a real pinball machine, the features are pretty awesome once you learn how to get them and it runs seamlessly, no glitches from what i’ve seen so far and a nice break from the norm, there is a free download demo of the El Dorado table and you can play that up to two and a half million points to give you a feel of how it plays if your thinking of buying this.

Zen Pinball: available from the playstation store on PSN

If anyone else has played this one i’d like to hear if you managed to get all the trophies, still waiting on Borderlands, seems by the time I actually get it number 2 will be out, lol, it’s obviously popular.

Tony:)

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Feb 07

Final Fantasy XIII Release Date March 9th |

By Tony

Categories:

Gaming Banter, Merchandise
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

This game is one i’ve been waiting for a long time now, i’m a final fantasy fanatic ever since I played my first final fantasy on ps1, I think at that time it was about final fantasy 6 or 7 and it was awesome.

I’ve just watched the trailer for this latest final fantasy and it looks like it’s been worth the wait, the graphics are stunning, no other word for it, the gameplay looks like it’s as good as it’s ever going to get, in fact i’ve just pre-ordered mine without even thinking too much about it which is rare for me, it looks that good.

Available on both the PS3 and XBox360 and around $60 I believe it’s going to be one of the few games worth the money you spend on it.

You can pre-order from amazon with the pre-order price guarantee and this is one game you won’t be disappointed with.

If you have on demand on your tv the final fantasy official trailer is under cutting edge, check it out man.




Game Description:
Prepare to be blown away by the first Final Fantasy game to harness the power of HD. Follow a new cast of characters who have been cursed with a horrible fate by the gods. Will they have the courage to stand up and reshape their destiny? Experience seamless transitions between gameplay and cinematics as the franchise’s already remarkable visuals gain an unprecedented level of detail. Play has been rebuilt around a new Active Time Battle system and a new game mechanic that makes the action more immersive than ever. Execute multiple commands in a single turn, redefine your party members’ roles mid-battle, and deal crushing blows with a powerful new summons system.

Yes they still have the familiar chocobo’s, wouldn’t be the same without them,lol. And it looks like you can still summon, I still find myself calling them GF’s and I can confirm that there are PS3 trophies/XBox360 achievements.

Tony

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Feb 04

Burnout Paradise: Review |

By Tony

Categories:

Gaming Banter, Merchandise, Reviews
Tags: , , , , ,

Ok I know this game is already two years old but I only got this one a couple of days ago because after doing a search online for the game with the most ps3 trophies it turned out to be Burnout Paradise.

At less than $20 it’s not a bad buy, another break from the norm I know but a fun game and a mindless sort of pleasure out of racing and smashing into other cars, it’s pretty realistic and there are a ton of road “quests”, time trials, takedowns, marked man and many more.

You have to work your way up through the licenses, you start off a beginner and via racing, smashing and taking off ramps you gradually upgrade your license, this will be a good game when you’ve spent days on a really decent RPG and your stuck on something and need a break for a day or two before returning to it.

I am disappointed in a few things about this game, sure it’s cheap enough but if your trying to do what I was and get all trophies then it’s going to cost you more. I attempted to play online and even though it let me register I couldn’t actually race online unless I purchased the Big Surf Island, that’s another $12.99 then there are tons of different cars to purchase ranging from $1.99 up to $5.99 and other party packs at another $12.99, basically if you wanted everything in this game it would cost a small fortune. I’ve always been against high price download content and I understand it from a marketing point of view as well as additional income from an already established game but there comes a point where I just think that some companies are just completely taking advantage, that’s my own personal opinion and not everyone shares this and that’s ok.

I have found out that if you purchase just the Big Surf Island it is possible to still achieve all trophies but I haven’t confirmed this, I just wanted those to know who haven’t yet played this and wanted it for the trophies you won’t get them all without some extra cost, some won’t mind but for me it’s another downer.



With good points and bad points overall the gameplay is great, tons of quests and stuff to do, you can acquire 75 vehicles some of which are awesome and up to 4 bikes but that’s it unless you purchase, there are cop cars, legend cars etc..There are 5 people in my household which play games and all 5 of us ranging over 3 generations enjoyed playing this one so that’s something.

I wouldn’t have played this game if it hadn’t initially been for the amount of trophies I saw listed, about 98 I think and it came pretty quick in the mail instead of Borderlands which I was expecting, i’m glad I had the chance to play it though, it’s great fun.

Tony

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