Tony Hawk's Pro Skater HD Review

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater HD
Developed By: Robomodo
Published By: Activision
Date of Release: July 18, 2012
Price: 1200 MSP

Since the dawn of time man has always felt the need to set forth and prove himself by doing increasingly stupid things. Surfing. Wakeboarding. Parasailing. Snowboarding. Hotdog Eating Contests. All of these increasingly dangerous stunts lead up to one thing: Professional Skateboarding. Thanks to this amazing sport anyone out there can hop on a board and make an arse of themselves, sometimes even earning a Darwin Award in the process. However thanks to Tony Hawk and his video game series Tony Hawk's Pro Skater, those of us with a strong aversion to getting maimed or dying can enjoy the thrills and spills of skateboarding from the comfort of our own couch.




Tony Hawk's Pro Skater HD is the latest in a long line of fine skateboarding experiences in the series, however it may seem familiar to veteran fans. Perhaps even doubly so. That is because it is a mixture of the best bits and pieces from the first two titles in the series, remade for modern audiences on the Unreal 3 engine. The gameplay mechanics have been tweaked to perfection with the controls being spot on compared to previous enrtries, and the addition of an intense new multiplayer survival mode (where you have to continuously perform tricks, lest your head explode) evens out the experience. The only thing sadly missing is the ability to customize the ingame soundtrack, sadly the option to even change the current track is missing. However you DO have the option to play your own music through the Xbox 360 dash, so all is not lost.




If you've never played a Tony Hawk game before, here's how it works. You have two minutes to meet as many goals as you can, whether it is collecting all the cash in a level, beating the high score, collecting the letters of the word SKATE, and so on. Each level also has it's own unique fetch quest, and a series of specifically themed goals. Once you complete the required amount of objectives, the next level is unlocked for play, and the process begins anew. The cash you receive for completing the objectives can be spent on new boards in the skate shop, or to buy stat points for your skater. Speaking of skaters, the ability to create a custom skater has been replaced in this version with the ability to play as your Avatar, which IMO is pretty freaking cool. Feel free to go wild with your attire, as it all is perfectly rendered ingame.




All in all, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater HD is a worthy addition to the series, and if you've never played a Tony Hawk game before there's never been a better place to start. The only real negatives I could find were that the framerate sometimes dips during particularly intense moments (though not as horribly as in the demo, it was a real lagfest!), and the lack of musical customization. The newer additions to the soundtrack are also not quite up to par with the rest of the classic tracks. However the good outweighs the bad, and I feel more than comfortable recommending the game at it's current price. The decent multiplayer and ability to play as your outlandishly outfitted Avatar definitely adds to the fun!

Divine Divinity Steam Review

Divine Divinity (Steam)
Developed and Published By: Larian Studios
Date of Release: July 5, 2012
Price: $5.99

It would seem to be that as of late, classic RPGS are making a comeback. The classic Avernum has seen a revival as Escape From the Pit, and RUNE has been exhumed from it's grave and polished up to run on modern PCs. So it should come as no surprise that a classic gem such as the redundantly titled Divine Divinity has been given new life. Retooled to run on 32 and 64 bit systems alike, on it's 10th anniversary Divine Divinity has been given a new lease on life with an impressive host of bugfixes, and support for widescreen HD resolutions. The ability to play in higher resolutions definitely brings attention to the massive detail present in the graphical assets, quite belying the fact that the game is a decade old.




What sort of game IS Divine Divinity, you might ask? Imagine, dear reader, if Ultima VII and Diablo II were to have a lovechild, who then was brought up lovingly by Baldur's Gate. This game borrows heavily from the best parts of the finest examples of the genre, and yet manages to not be a walking cliche in the process. Perhaps the best part of Divine Divinity is the fact that the game allows you to just kick back and do your own thing, rather than forcing you down a linear path and beating you about the head with a +5 Cricket Bat of Bludgeoning when you try to stray from it.




When beginning your adventure in Divine Divinity you get to choose from 3 character builds, Warrior, wizard and Survivor(essentially a rogue). Your choice of character merely sets your appearance and starting skillset however. You are free to learn skills from any class as your progress, once again showing the open-endedness of the game system. Character progression is completely up to the player. The point and click combat is near-identical to Diablo II, with the added benefit of automatic targeting, which can take some of the frustration out of battles. As for the game's lore, Divine Divinity has a masterfully woven tale to back it's gameplay, filled with epic storytelling, and often over the top humor. The voice acting in particular is a tad overacted, which adds a lot to the game's charm.




I'm going to be brutally honest here, Diablo III was heralded to be the greatest RPG to ever grace the genre, a classic for modern times. And yet it was an utter disappointment in every way possible, from the clunky server issues to the rampant hacking of player accounts. And yet here is Divine Divinity, managine to upstage the big-budget Diablo III even at 10 years old. For less than a Big Mac combo you can hop on Steam and download an adventure that will keep you occupied for hours while Diablo III molders forgotten in the corner. It just goes to show that they really knew how to make games back in the day, before devs turned their attention to how they can screw over paying customers with so called "copy protection". If you want a well-crafted adventure that will keep you clicking into the wee hours of the morning while running on even the most anemic netbook, then you should pick up Divine Divinity. Anyone who is an RPG fan whether casual or hardcore owes it to themselves to experience this fine piece of art.

Unchained Blades Review

Unchained Blades (PSP)
Developed By: FuRyu
Localized and Published By: XSEED
Date of Release: June 26, 2012
Price: $29.99

Now to those those of you who have been reading my reviews for a while now, it is definitely no secret that I am quite fond of the oldschool first-person dungeon crawler genre. From Grimrock to Wizardry, how can you go wrong? Luckily the PSP and the 3DS now have their own worthwhile entry into the genre, Unchained Blades!




From the moment I set eyes on Unchained Blade's anime intro, I was hooked. The art direction in this game rivals that of any other JRPG I have played lately, even surpassing the detail in games such as Tales of Vesperia. Gorgeous hand-drawn artwork permeates every facet of this game, and expressive character portraits abound. A good amount of the main dialog is voiced, and the soundtrack is a real treat for the ears.
All of this serves to enrich the already epic story, filled with masterfully woven plot twists and character development.




As for gameplay, typical exploration is the name of the game for the most part. The battle system is where things get kicked up a notch. Imagine a Final Fantasy turn based system mixed with the fluid turn management of the Grandia series, and the ability to take on 3 screens worth of enemies at a time thrown in for extra measure. Not only that, but each character in your party has up to four captured monsters supporting them. So just imagine the delicious chaos a 20-character party can unleash upon 3 screens packed full of monsters!




The quality of Unchained Blades should be no surprise considering the all-star dev team who built it. Toshio Akashi of Lunar fame directed the whole project, with Grandia's Takashi Hino taking up the scenario design reins. The bulk of the soundtrack was written by Tsutomo Narita, and Final Fantasy veteran Nubuo Uematsu provided the main themes. Taking all of this into account it is no wonder that Unchained Blades is such a masterpiece. In my humble opinion it should grace the library of PSP gamers everywhere. The experience is certainly worth the price of admission!