.hack: G.U., Vol.3: Redemption Review

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(More customer reviews)With seven games to this series, and an inexhaustible supple of anime, film, toys, etc., the Dot Hack series has reached the heights of longevity shared by very few RPG's.Final Fantasy is the undeniable owner of the title, both in terms of number of episodes and sheer quality, but Dot Hack will always be a contender.And more to the point, a lot of fun as well.The premise of these games is that a multi-player online fantasy game can become larger than life and that threats within the game can endanger the real world.The first 4 games in this series were based on Kite, a young player who finds himself caught up in the game beneath the game.This set of games established the basic pattern - basically a dungeon game with a number of sidequests,

This second series - 'G.U.' - continues this pattern, this time centered on a new set of characters led by Haseo.Haseo, seeking vengeance for the loss of his girlfriend as become an avid killer of player killers whose nickname is 'The Terror of Death.'One of the things that make the three 'G.U.' an improvement over the original games is the strong element of character depth and development.Haseo starts out unlikable and, as the conflict with the viral AIDA develops, becomes more the responsible leader and hero and less the bitter killer.By the end of the game there are some twenty characters that Haseo can team with, oppose AIDA with, or even propose to.

Along with the quality of character the storyline has become more detailed and logical.And the character enemies have become more interesting as well.This last stanza carefully ties many of the threads together.The game uses the interactions in the game, in addition to resources in the computer interface such as emails and discussion groups, to drive the plot forward.In fact, one of the most noticeable flaws in the game is that faithfully reading your emails will drive the story forward faster than you want to go.Of course, this is one of the few games that will let you play all the sidequests after the main story completes but I found this a bit unsatisfactory.But there is a lot of gameplay here in any case.

The game offers a considerable number of sidequests and internal games to keep anyone happy.There's a fight card game where you can go on quests for special cards and challenge other players.There's motorcycle races and arena fights.All of this in addition to the find every one thing or another quests.There is a enough game time here to play until you are senseless.Since this is the last in a long series most of you know what to expect and I promise you that that is exactly what you will get.If you are new to the series I suggest you track down at least the previous two games if you want to understand the plot and the characters.

Now, what should I do until .hack starts up once again?

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Product Description:
The final installment of the exciting .hack//G.U. trilogy logs players back into The World and answers all of their burning questions. In the year 2017, the most popular game is a MMORPG called The World.Some players have found out the hard way that The World can be a dangerous place, with people falling into comas in real life after their characters are killed in the video game.The servers have been infected, so login at your own risk. In .hack//G.U. Vol. 3: Redemption, the evil entity infecting servers of the game have broken free and are reaking havoc in the real world.Haseo and his friends must ask themselves if they can make the ultimate sacrifice in order to save the world.

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.hack: G.U., Vol. 1: Rebirth Review

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(More customer reviews)I fell in love with the original Dot Hack series of games (Infection, Mutation, Outbreak and Quarantine) and when I heard they were coming out with a new series, I was very happy!I went out and bought the game the day it came out, and I have to say, I'm greatly impressed.

First off, the graphics are good.They're not the best, as Valkyrie Profile: Silmeria and Final Fantasy 12 are slightly newer with better graphics, but they don't completely suck.

Sound is pretty good too, but it gets very repetetive after a few hours of gameplay.The combat sounds are exciting and "pop", but the background music gets on your nerves.Especially the background music when you're in the first town, "Mac Anu", gets stale so fast.

The controls are easy to pick up.The R1 button can now be assigned different skills so, unlike in the first games, you don't have to open several menus just to use an attack skill.Sadly enough, though, you cannot assign healing spells to the R1 button.The camera control is somewhat better than the last game, but I feel it still needs work.

The voice acting is decent at best.Most of the characters show little emotion, or over-react their emotion to the point of making it rediculous.Just wait till you meet Gaspard, and you'll know what I'm talking about... The main hero is also rediculously one sided, getting frustrated at each and every event trigger in the game, and often for stupid reasons.If its supposed to portray how gamers react in an MMORPG, its completely off the ball, at least as far as I've seen (been playing Guild Wars and World of Warcraft for about two years.)

There are TONS of stuff to do in this game too.You can become part of a number of guilds, which opens various options to you as a player, such as special shops that allow you to make creative items, access to a faster mode of transportation, etc.You can also do a number of fun and interesting, if not repetetive, quests.The designers definetely tried to capture the MMORPG feel, but I don't think they accurately got it.Close but no cigar.For example, the towns are bustling with people, but oftentimes you'll see one person, turn a corner, and they'll be there again when they were running the opposite direction a few minutes prior.The town recycles the inhabitants over and over, so no matter how far away you get from a "player", they'll be right there when you go to a different district in town.

The story is o.k. as far as I've been.A lot of it feels forced, like the hero has to do this because the programmers made it that way, not because the hero "wants" to.It started out that way, but quickly took a dive.

I'm not impressed with the grading system after you complete dungeons and fields.You get graded on how many things you kill, sneak up on, boxes or other destructable items you destroy, how many items you collect etc.There is almost no explanation of that system that I've encountered, and I feel its useless.All you can unlock is extra words to create new dungeons and fields and useless items. Literally, I've had 50 health drinks, which is like a potion in other RPGs, since the first couple hours of playtime.I never use them, cause I don't take that much damage ever.

Thats another thing.The game's battles are entirely too easy!No one battle provides any sort of challenge.If you go to an area three levels higher than you, it gets harder, but the difficulty is masked in more hitpoints and damage capability, not true improved AI or anything.

All in all, however, the game is a vast improvement over the previous games.There are tons of unlockable stuff, tons of places to go, and you'll be entertained for hours on end.I would definetely pick this game up if you get the chance!

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Product Description:
.Hack G.U. Volume 1 delivers an epic, immersive RPG experience in the world of the hit sci-fi fantasy game and TV series. What if what you do as a player in a game impacted your real world? What is reality? .hack has pursued this innovative concept in the previous 4-part series where "The World" was ultimately destroyed. Years after the events of the first .hack series, "The World" was rebuilt. As a new player, you are saved on your first day in "The World" from several PKs (Player Killers) by a mysterious man. From this day on, you have dedicated your time to hunt down PKs. Word in "The World" is that the legendary PK you have been searching for has surfaced, and you must now set out to find "it". Your world is thrown into chaos when you finally encounter this PK, and are defeated by him!

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Mobile Suit Gundam: Encounters in Space Review

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(More customer reviews)When I heard that Encounters in Space was supposed to play like Zone of the Enders, I was pretty stoked since ZOE was probably one of the best mecha games made for PS2, with the exception of RAD. But since I'm a Gundam fan, this grabbed my attention. Bandai has hit the nail on the head with this title. Fans of Gundam or mecha in particular will eat this up. First off is the animation for the series as shown in the game. The original Mobile Suit Gundam has been re-animated so it looks brand new and that just rocks. The sound effects and music is replicated to a tee. It is EXACTLY like the series, which isn't bad for us Gundamanics. The controls take a little getting used to, but they're not completely horrible. Graphics are good, but think a sharper, better looking Star Fox 64. The CG intro is great and is leagues better than that kiddie-pleaser SD Gundam currently on Toonami ( hopefully Zeta Gundam will be out soon and take SD Gundam off). The most impressive thing about this game is you can play as almost any of the Mobile Suits. Sadly, you can't play as most of the Gundams from Gundam Wing or G-Gundam. But they do have a good selection. Master Gundam,Burning(God)Gundam,Wing Gundam Zero Custom and TallGeese III. This is a game strictly for Gundam fans, but a darn good, if not, fun one.

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Product Description:
Mobile Suit Gundam: Encounters In Space puts you on the front lines, in the ongoing battle for control of the spaceways!

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Katamari Forever Review

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(More customer reviews)I was lucky enough to get the first Katamari game for the ps2 when it first came out, and experience it before seemingly everyone got Katamari fever. The game was completely original, fun, had an excellent soundtrack, and I place it in my top 10 ps2 games. It got a sequel fairly quickly, and then another one on the PSP a few years later. I enjoyed the PSP game a bit, though was a bit curious as to why so many levels from the first game (and apparently the second, though I never got to play it all the way through) were in there. Now with Katamari Forever, I can see that the developers don't know what to do with this franchise, and it's easy to see why the creator has moved on to other things- this is more of the same.

If you haven't played a Katamari game before, then you'll probably really enjoy this game, and can add another star to the rating. You play as the Prince, a little green guy who rolls around a Bumble Ball-looking object called a Katamari. You roll it around rooms, streets, towns, and over the entire world eventually, collecting everything in your path. Your Katamari will start out small, but can grow to be thousands of kilometers in size! An example being that you start out in someone's messy bedroom, but after you collect enough, you'll be big enough to pick up cars and people outside, and after that, you'll be picking up islands, boats and entire countries. When done in a level, your Katamari is used to create an object in space like a star, satellite or planet. It's totally fun, and somehow relaxing, though there are a few problems I'll get into in a bit. You control the Prince/Katamari with both analog sticks- if you want to move forward, you tilt both up, etc. You're collecting objects this time because your dad, the King of all Cosmos has lost his memory, and to have someone in his place temporarily, the Prince and his cousins made a robot king, but he's going a bit crazy. You'll be rolling up in levels for both the King and the RoboKing.

And here's where my problems kick in- the King's levels start out in black and white, which is cool because as you pick up more, the world comes into color, showing that he's regaining his memory. But from what I could tell, all of these levels are from the previous games. While that makes some sense because they're things that happened in the past, I see it as the developers just being cheap and not wanting to put time into creating original levels. There were many times when I thought to myself "hey, I played this in 2005". Again, if you haven't played the games before, it'll be no big deal, but for myself- some of these levels are making their appearance for the 5th time now (twice on the ps2, once on the PSP and maybe once on the Xbox360's game). Next, the camera is still just as bad as it was in the old games. Sometimes you'll get in front of a wall and the camera won't zoom in more, or do the nice x-ray thing it does every now and then, and you'll be trying to get your way around whatever it is you may be stuck on. There's also a lot of slowdown in some levels, which stuck me as odd considering how powerful the ps3 is, and how light this game is in the graphics department. If games like SoulCalibur 4 and Dead Space can play smoothly, why is Katamari Forever getting such bad slowdown here and there? Finally, get this- remember all the great songs from the first game? The same songs that got remixed and put in all the sequels? They've been remixed again and make up most of the soundtrack! Granted, 2 or 3 of the remixes are good, but once more, can we get something new PLEASE??

There are a few new things thrown in, but nothing too big. The Prince can now jump(!) with the Katamari if you press R2 or shake the controller. You're better off with R2 because everyone I know can never pull it off by shaking, and it's not the controller's fault either. This jump is useful but still has some control issues. There's also a multiplayer option- you can battle another player on the same console and try to roll up more objects than them or get a certain item before they do and hold it until time's up. Or you can play cooperatively and complete a level together...using the same Katamari. This is pretty clever but requires a lot of communication since one person controls the left side and the other controls the right. There are also a lot of Trophies you can get here to keep you busy, though a few require more patience than skill. And finally, I have to give them some credit for having a level where you roll around a sumo instead of a Katamari, and collect food to make him bigger in order to challenge another sumo. I can play that level at any time and still smile seeing this giant sumo rolling around with dogs and bikes stuck to it.

Don't get me wrong- I enjoyed playing this game, and I can't stress it enough when I say that if you've never played a game in the series before, the score gets an extra star. But after 5+ years, the series should be making progress- not be stuck with the same levels with a story of amnesia to be used as a cheap excuse for it. And at that price? Ouch. Either until it drops, or borrow it and then see how you like it. You'd think that with it being so close to the previous games, it could've stayed at their price points when they first came out too.

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Product Description:
When the King of All Cosmos bumps his head and loses his memory, thePrince and his cousins design a RoboKing to replace him. But thesituation goes terribly awry when the RoboKing goes out of control anddestroys all the stars. With the fate of the Cosmos hanging in thebalance, the Prince and his cousins must roll their Catamarans to fixthe RoboKing's destruction, restore the King's memory and bring colorback to the world.


New Visual Effects
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Suck in Nearby Objects
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Use your Katamari Ball
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Synopsis
Prepare to roll your Katamari again in Katamari Forever. Thisexciting new installment in the series comes packed with new visualeffects, a new gameplay system, exclusive features for PlayStation 3and more. Select wood, comic, classic or new default graphic filters,and use your SIXAXIS controller to jump your Katamari with the newPrince Hop action. Choose any of more than 50 playable cousins you canequip with an array of accessories. Experience the excitement of a newsystem in which the Katamari will suck in nearby objects under certainconditions, and even snap photos in the game to save them to yourPlayStation 3 hard drive.


Key Game Features:

Help the Prince and his cousins restore the Cosmos to rights after the disastrous creation of the RoboKing
Use the new Prince Hop action to jump your Katamari with the SIXAXIS controller (not included)
See the Katamari world come to life in a new way with visual effects,including wood, comic, classic and new default graphic filters
Select any of more than 50 cousins you can equip with a variety of accessories
Take advantage of a new gameplay system in which the Katamari will suck in nearby objects under certain conditions
Save photos taken in the game to your PlayStation 3 hard drive
Consult network rankings, and see the game come to life in crisp clarity with full 1080p support and HD resolution
View 16 in-game movies for additional excitement

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