As usual, I spent my hard earned wages on video games that came out this friday, those games being Infinite Undiscovery, and the long awaited (by me at least) sequal to Viva Pinata - Trouble in Paradise.

Now, as much as I would love to tell you that I have played Infinite Undiscover, I actually found myself playing Viva Pinata until the early morning, and never really got to touch the recent Square-Enix release.

As always, I endeavour to give you an honest opinion of the game, and that is that this game is just as fantastic as its predecessor.  All the original Pinatas are there for us to coo over and admire, and now there are tons of other Pinatas for you to love and care for.  My personal favourite of the new breed of Pinatas is the Jeli.  It is a huge Yeti that can be found in the Snow area of the game.

Which brings me onto another subject.  There are two areas where you can capture Pinatas for your garden, the Pentarctic and the Dessert Desert.  Here you can find multiple new breeds (and old) of Pinatas that you can capture using traps and baits.  Much like Pokeballs in pokemon, these traps are not always successful, but it is a nice little quirk to the game.

There are also more Ruffians and Sour pinatas ready to wreck your garden.  In fact, there are so many new things in the game that they could have just released the game with all the new things and I would have been satissfied.  There are new plants, items, pinatas, ruffians and sour pinatas, that the game keeps its game playing ability for HOURS!!!

However, as with every game there are so flaws.  For example, it is ridiculously difficult to get the new rare Chocolodocus…in fact, the only reason I know how to get it is because I was sad enough to buy the walkthrough guide to the game…but that is beside the point.

Also, and I am unsure if this is a fault with my game, or if it is a general fault with all of them, but for the 30 hours that I have been playing the game (in total…not in one sitting) the weather has done nothing but rain, that is, the in-game weather…although weather in the UK has been similar from the past…year.  See, its not so much an issue as it means I dont have to water all the plants, however, my Pinata keep getting depressed by the terrible weather…and nothing tugs at your heart strings than watching a Redhot cry with tears falling from its eyes.

I know I am sad, but I really love this game.  It looks like a childs game, but I can assure you that this game appeals to people of all ages.  All my friends (aged between 22-30) play this game and love it so if you are looking for something new, dont be put off by the games girly appearance, it is a brilliant play, and the fun lasts for many hours!

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This is one of those games that I was really looking forward to, but have been unable to afford until now. And I can tell you that this game was definitely worth the wait.

Naruto: Rise of the Ninja follows the story of the anime series. Unlike the Dragonball Z game, they have not remade the cut scenes into hd cell-shaded CGI, instead tehy have simply inserted theminto the video game. I actually find this to be quite lazy, especially since the game can be completed in about 10 hours. If they had added some nice CGI it would have made it a little bit more enjoyable.

However, despite the length of this game, I really enjoyed playing through it. The graphics are impressive, the story immersive and the voice acting exaclty what you can expect from a top class anime series. Although graphically impressive, there is one flaw, and that is the fact that the in game characters never actually move their mouths to speak…the voice overs simply sound, this is unlike the Dragonball game where they speak even in battle.

I do think that they have cut many corners in this game, there are things that I would have included in order to improve the style of the game. I would have been much more impressed if they ahd bothered to animate things other than your character travelling from A to B…which brings me to another issue.

Missions CONSTANTLY require you to travel from A to B, then back to A, back to B about five times before you can proceed to the story mission. This becomes ridiculous and irritating after the third time, and I couldnt help but think I would have enjoyed the experience a bit more had they implemented some kind of teleportation device. And before I get the, maybe they couldnt…they could, as after each mission, you can warp back to leaf village.

However, despite the many gripes I have about this game, and what appears its lazy development, I am still really impressed with the game and have enjoyed playing through it. I have even decided to watch the complete Naruto series, something that up until now I have failed to manage.

So anyway, if you fancy a steal, this game is available from Play.com currently for £17 instead of its £39.99 RRP, so it’s definitely worth the purchase. Either that or go to your local GAME store and you can get it preowned buy 1 get 1 half price, for £22, its a little more, but you have the chance of getting another game too.

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After purchasing Dragonball Z: Burst Limit on the Xbox 360 on the day of its release, I actually played this anime game for over 5 hours at a time. The reason why is very simple, this game is just amazing. Its not your everyday run of the mill fighting game.

The most amazing aspect of this game is the fact that they have taken actual footage from the Dragonball Z series, and turned it into a cell-shaded work of art, and unlike most anime games, most of the voices are from the original series, with the addition of Vegeta being voiced by Christopher Sabat and not Brian Drummond. This is not exactly a problem as Sabat did voice over 200 episodes, whilst Drummond did about 50.

The gameplay is also really easy to get used to, and you can even equip cutscenes that can help you during the battle. For example, in the Saiyan saga, you can equip Piccolo’s Sepcial Beam Cannon, which he will perform once you have reached all the requirements.

This game is ridiculously pretty, and extremely well made, though I do have one grumble, and that is the lack of the Buu Saga. Im not entirely sure how you can call it Dragonball Z when it lacks all the saga’s from that series. I mean, it even includes the stupid Brolli saga, but neglects to include the Buu saga whihc would have introduced to us all the fusion characters.

The reason this is also an issue is because it means that the next game they bring out cant be a Dragonball Z game, only a Dragonball game, or a GT game…and if they included the Buu Saga in this, then that wold be incorrect as these series’ are about 15 years apart. For none fans, this may not be an issue, but it is a huge contingency error, and they would in fact do better to miss the Buu Saga out all together…though it is one of the best.

So if you like the Dragonball Z anime series, you should love this game, as it brigns you everything a fan could want

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As an anime fan, I realise that there is more to us than just anime.  Most of us ar attracted to games such as Final Fantasy, Resident Evil and many other games.  In fact, most people that I know that play Final Fantasy games, also love anime.  So this is why I write this about the new Resident Evil 5 game.

Resident Evil 5 seems to be based in a poor African country and a devestating disease has been released into the environment.  Chris Redfield, as usual, is caught in the middle of it all just as everything seems to kick off.

The ‘Zombies’ in this game are more like those in Resident Evil 4 with Leon, than the traditional zombies from previous games.  However, from the short videos that I have seen of this game, these ‘Zombies’ do have some kind of supernatural aspect to them.  They have very strange mouths that split open into  three and hold an tongue that is about 7ft in length…weird.

Anyway, aside from how cool this game looks, there has been much conflict over the fact that the game is based in an African country  as this apparently makes the game racist.  Apparently, if you come from anywhere but Africa, and then make a game that is based there, then you too are racist.  The thing is though, I have no idea as to how they can even say this! 

Resident Evil 4 is based in some Western European village, where the people speak some kind of French sounding language.  However, this game was made by (probably) the Japanese and Americans, however, those of us from the EU never complained saying that it was racist to have Leon going  around killing ‘Our People’.  The whole concept of people making a game because of their opinion on races is rediculous.

But whatever, they are trying to ban this game at the moment because of this, though we know that they wont succeed…if the did, then the people that banned it, must be a bunch of monkeys incapable of intellectual thought and individual opinions.

This game is not set to come out until the middle of next year, so far the date is about August 2009.

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Well, it’s been a long time coming, but I have finally managed to finish this awesome game. Now, don’t get me wrong, as with many released games, this has its flaws, but to be honest, there aren’t many that I can think of. To begin with, we are taken to the extraordinary world of Eternal Sonata, full of beauty, and introduced to our characters and the first inclings of a story.

Now, as I have mentioned previously, this game is beautiful…not in the same way as Bioshock is, where you dont know where the cutscene ends and where the games begin, but in an "oh my God, I think I may cry" kind of way. Not only are the characters textured to look truly as though you are watching an anime, but they are in there is all their HD glory, with cell shading to boot, however, the jaw droppingly gorgeous scenery is the thing that impressed me the most. Now i’m an animator and a concept artist, but these are possibly the most impressive thig I have ever seen in my life.

But a game can’t rely on graphics alone, and this one surely doesn’t. When I initiated my first battle, and was introduced to this weird ‘real-time’ and turn-based battle system, I couldn’t help but look back at Final Fantasy XII and think that this wasn’t going to be fun (don’t get me wrong, I love FFXII, but why mess with perfection?" however, I was pleasantly suprised. The game relies on you moving around the enemies and attacking, however the best thing is, that depending on the lighting you are in whilst commencing your attack, the attack chages. For example, if in the light and you use a special ability, you may heal yourself and your party, but when in dark you unleash a ridiculously powerful magick attack.

Then there is the engrossing story, and the weird, yet interesting pieces of history, real history we are told about the character Chopin…and in fact the actual guy. I actually watched all these scenes simply as found them compelling, and I guess it developed the character in the game too…interesting style, not even one that would work with most games, and it barely works with this, but somehow I believe it has succeeded in achieving its goal.

Now for the bad parts…what were they? Probably the worst thing about this game is the near to last level…its jsut too long. In fact, it was so long I gave up after a while and decided to play Lost Odyssey instead…hence why I have only just completed the game now. But don’t let this bother you, the only reason i quit was because I had to go to work and couldn’t play for 2 hours in one row. And the proof is that I actually went back to play it ^_^ - it’s a positive thing. But thats about the only negative thing I can actually think to say about this game, other than, for me, a hardcore RPG gamer, it was a tad easy in places, but I didn’t care.

In fact, I cant even complain about the voice acting, as in actual fact it was good…even had the person who voiced Izzy in Digimon doing one of the characters. So if you have some money spare, I suggest you try and pick this game up, a lot of places are selling this for around £25 now, which is a bargain for such an awesome game!

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Just today I got my copy of House of the Dead on the Nintendo Wii from my beloved Amazon again.  I know, I love games too much, but now that I purchase all such goods online, I can afford to.

For those of you who don’t know, House of the Dead is a first person shooter, where you, and a team mate should you desire so, blast your way through hoards  of flesh eating zombies…so basically, just good fun.

The reason I decided to buy the game is because recently I have spent a lot of money down at the arcades at my local cinema, playing House of the Dead…and this way I save LOADS of money ^_^ - that’s what I like to hear.

Also, for those who care, you can buy it now on Amazon.co.uk for under £25, which to be honest, is a steal compared to the prices on the highstreet.  GAME and most other video games outlets are selling it for £30.

House of the Dead is one of the best shooter arcade games that you can buy, and the use of the Wii-Remote has been well implemented in this latest release of the game (which includes House of the Dead 2 and 3!).

So if you want to scare your partner, or if you just want to take out your boom-stick and pebble dash zombies all over the floor, this game is definitely the one for you.

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I recently purchased a game called Folklore from Amazon, after having had my PS3 a year, and successfully owning only four games.

Given the fact that Folklore was a PS3 exclusive game, my natural instinct was to assume that it would be a horrendous, monotonous excuse of a game.  However, I was pleasantly suprised when I got to actually playing the game.

See Folklore actually plays like the Broken Sword games, which are brilliant…and that’s not just my opinion, its the opinion of thousands…millions…of gamers worldwide.  Now, as with any game, Folklore has its faults, for example, the fact that most of the talking between characters is text, something, that as a programmer and a gamer, I believe shouldn’t exist in next-gen games.

However, having played Folklore for a good few hours, I can tell you that it is actually a good game, suprisingly so.  It was even voted best of E3 by IGN…if that means anything to anyone.

The problem I have with games these days are that if you go into a store for a game, they are ridiculously expensive, thats why i have boycotted shopping in favour of online shopping.  I can’t even begin to think how much money I have saved over the past few months from online shopping. For starters, Folklore cost me all of £29…and thats cos I bought it new.  I even got FFXII on the DS for £12…what a steal!

So for you PS3 owners out there, that fancy something different from the usual games already released (and to kill time before MGS4 comes out), I would seriously advise you to go and check out Folklore, its affordable and a good, enjoyable play.

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The computer software, Hatsune Miku Virtual Idol, has hit the number 1 spot on Amazon!

Crypton Future Media is promoting its new Hatsune Miku virtual idol software that makes human singers obsolete. It allows musicians to inject the voice of their self styled 16-year-old pop idol into any melody and sing the lyrics to any song they choose.

Voice actress Saki Fujita (Tokimeki Memorial) provided the model voice for the program. The software ranked in 1st place in Amazon Japan’s top software sales rankings as of September, 10th and sales have just increased since then. The achievement is very unusual for DTM (Desktop Music) package. Retail stocks of the software are said to be extremely low and in many places are completely depleted!

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Atari and FUNimation Announce Next Chapter in DBZ Video Game Series

Attention all Dragonball Z fans: Atari and FUNimation have announced the latest chapter in DBZ next generation video games. Dubbed Dragon Ball Z: Burst Limit, the new game is being developed for both XBox 360 and Playstation 3.

Burst Limit is the latest in a long line of DBZ video games that includes Budokai Tenkaichi 3 (PS2), Harukanaru Densentsu (DS)and Super Dragonball Z (PS2).

But Burst Limit has something its predecessors doesn’t - amazing 3D graphics that can only be experienced by next generation play systems.

"Atari is excited and ready to offer fans the next iteration of the Dragon Ball Z video game series on the next-gen consoles," said Donny Clay, Producer, Atari, Inc., in a recent press release. "With explosive cinematic graphics and online gameplay, fans of the series and of the fighting genre will surely enjoy Dragon Ball Z: Burst Limit."

The new game will feature online battle capabilities, graphically enhanced playable characters and a realistic battle environment.

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I recently purchased a game for my XBox 360 called Lost Odyssey.  For those of you who are not up-to-date with the latest video games from Japan, Lost Odyssey is a RPG style game created by Mistwalker and the people who so lovingly brought us the Final Fantasy series.

Now at first I was dubious about Lost Odyssey, after all, Mistwalker did create Blue Dragon, a game that is not only ridiculously long, but the story is not as compelling as an RPG requires in order to keep the gamers attention.  Now, don’t get me wrong, I love RPG’s, and at first I really enjoyed Blue Dragon.  I loved the Akira Toriyama style of characters, as I am a huge fan of the Dragonball/Z/GT series, and the fact that we FINALLY had a real RPG on the 360, but that can only take you so far, and after 20 hours of gaming, I gave up due to the poor plot and character development…it left a bad taste in my mouth.

However, I decided to give Mistwalker another chance, more so because of the difference in style between the two games.  And I am so glad that I did!  Lost Odyssey brings you everything that you could possibly hope for from an RPG.  IT has beautiful scenery, characters and cut-scenes.  The plot development, though obvious in places, is there.  The story is not long winded and tedious.

Now, the box says that the game is photo-realistic.  Let me tell you, it isn’t, and the day games are photo realistic is the day they are banned.  However, there have been times IN GAME where the camera has suddenly focussed on a character and I have thought, that looks near as damn it to real.  Now, bare in mind this is IN GAME graphics, the cut scenes are even more impressive.

Also, one of the other things that truly impresses me about Lost Odyssey is the character development.  The immortals have lost their memories and are trying to find them.  When they find them, a text scene ensues which you can either read or skip, but you see the characters reaction to their own memories, and at times, I too have ‘felt’ their pain..weird.

One of the best things, and it is such a small thing, but a really nice touch, is that when characters start to cry, you see the tears actually build up in their eyes before they fall down their cheeks…I have never seen this style implemented in ANY game before and found that this small thing actually made such a difference to the game.  As if by including the build up of tears, actually made the characters express more emotion.

Obviously, as with any game there are flaws, but not enough to stop me from playing.  The voice acting is brilliant, the character design and development is on a level that I have never witnessed before, and the plot, so far, has been engrossing and completely enjoyable.

So, if you find you have any spare cash, and you are one for RPG’s, I would strongly advise you to go out and purchase Lost Odyssey…and maybe a strategy guide, because it is one purchase you will not regret.

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