Did you like the first one?

It's the same game. The exact same game. 4 creature types, spend money to spruce up your castle, forge new weapons, armor. Really. You even have the same set of armor.

The only difference/improvement from the first is occasionally your browns can ride wolves to move faster and there are also stationary constructions like ballistae and catapults you can pilot. There's also a ship you can sail around in one level.

If you liked the first and played it long enough ago that the gameplay will be somewhat fresh and new,

Rent it.

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I am writing this review from the perspective of having beaten the SNES version (not counting Lavos shortcut Game+s) at least fifteen times.  To get the easy parts out of the way:

(1) People who have never played Chrono Trigger and own a DS and don't hate RPGs- must-buy.  Thousands of different reviews anywhere on the internet can explain why.  The story is not terribly innovative, but is executed very well.  And considering the graphics (which still largely hold up for me as great stylized art), music (spectacular), depth, replayability, etc.- its one of the greatest games of the 90s, and imho of all time as well.

(2) Chrono Trigger Fanatics like Me- if you are a fanatic, you already own this.  And if you don't, you'd buy it even if it added one new item or character.  But be warned:  they have changed some iconic lines of dialogue which may cause nerdrage.  They even changed my sig line to something far less cool.    

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This 4X game has gone through quite a ride. I tried it out when the base game was released and frankly, it sucked. Since then, it's been through Three(!) different companies and development studios and has picked up three expansion packs, the most recent being "Argos Naval Yard", released yesterday. I have not put a lot of time into the expansion and the new techs it adds, but that scarcely matters.

This game is the spiritual successor to MOO1. I say MOO1 and not MOO2 because like MOO1, it focuses less on planetary structure optimization and more on overall economic strategy, research, ship design and fleet combat. Economic strategy and research are a few planetary sliders that you rarely touch and one overall one that you adjust almost every turn (Savings<---->Research). Ship design is simple but deep, relying on 3 different ship sections (Command, Mission, Propulsion), and 4 different weapon mounts (small, medium, large, special) which gain expanded options through a MOO/CIV-like research tech-tree.

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Everything below was, is, and continues to be submitted by WindupAtheist:
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So here's the deal. Baldur's Gate is a great old game, but after playing through it often enough the existing story starts to get a little old. The scripted lines of party banter have all been heard to the point of memorization, and it's all become routine after so many years. So with that in mind, I've decided that on this playthrough I'll be taking things into my own hands.

Imoen, Khalid, Jaheira, and all those familiar faces are out. Six homicidal maniacs of my own creation are in, courtesy of the old "multiplayer game by yourself" trick. Oh yes, this is going to be an evil party playthrough. You'll notice I take a lot of liberties with the narration, making up dialogue and motivations for my characters that clearly don't properly exist in the game itself.

That's half (or more) of the fun, serves to liven up a brilliant but ancient and much-played game, and maybe takes a crack at the notion that players who would rather use their own characters are just powergaming munchkins. The vanilla evil playthrough should be as much fun. Note that I'm actually playing Baldur's Gate in the Baldur's Gate 2 engine, thanks to the Baldur's Gate Tutu mod.

With that out of the way, here's our new cast of characters:

As Saints Row 2 is probably my Game of the Year so far, I recently picked up this DLC pack for it quite enthusiastically.

It's made up of 3 missions, and some other junk - some outfits, a few vehicles including the EDF Scout from Red Faction 2 and a cool Attack chopper vaguely based on a Blackhawk, some clothing, a bunch of Moustaches, and Tera Patrick as a new homie once you finish the mission arc.

Well, the missions are a little longer than the norm, but the first two of them are a little bland. Third one is kinda cool though.
There's a few new Multiplayer maps. - Meh.
Also a "meta-game" in co-op mode, where one of you can get some extra cash for killing more enemies than the other guy, or doing more tricks, or blowing up more stuff. Meant to be a non-intrusive little add on of fun for co-op missions. This would have been good if it were included in the base game initially. As an add-on mode, it's really too little too late.

Tera Patrick is a pretty sub-par representation of Tera.

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3rd in my ongoing "I have no DSL so let's dust off the pile of single player games and see what's worth keeping" BiiF series is Roller Coaster Tycoon 3.  I've had a run of really bad luck with sim/building games lately (Spore, City Life, and Civ 4 all looked promising and all disappointed me), so I was starting to wonder if I'd just gotted tired of the genre entirely.  Turns out, no.  Roller Coaster Tycoon is pretty damn fun.

The title of the game gives you a good idea of what sort of game it's going to be.  You build an amusement park and try to make money with it.  And for what this game is, it's implemented REALLY well.  Your success or failure is determined by a horde of simulated parkgoers' ("Peeps") reactions to the stuff in your park, and you can measure it by looking at high-level stats on how much money each ride is making, or follow one Peep around on his visit to see what he does, or lots of levels in between.

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I was initially not going to write anything about my experiences with Civ 4 for fear of the ensuing nerdrage destroying the known universe, but after talking to a few people about it I think a public service announcement needs to be made.  If you are not already a Civ player, Civ 4 is not For You.  If you are not prepared to spend a lot of time and effort having other people help you have fun with Civ, and you don't want to devote your life to figuring it out on your own, Civ 4 is not For You.

If you are one of those people who does already like Civ because you were inoculated against it at an early age, this review is not For You.  Especially the rating at the end.

As for myself, I like the type of game Civ supposedly is, but I couldn't get into it.  The interface is clunky, and behind it I couldn't see a lot there.  Managing the military is a giant pain in the ass, but if you're not doing that you're just watching your cities level up so you can...

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So my home internet is out for a few days (thanks AT&T) and in my enforced vacation from TF2 I'm firing up a few of the single-player games that I keep installed for just such an occasion.  First up is Assassin's Creed.  I've played worse, but after a couple of hours I think I'm done with it.  There are faint glimmerings of a good game there -- I like the plot (such as it is), and I like climbing and jumping around stuff.  And it's kinda pretty even if it's mostly brown.  But the walking.  Dear God, the walking.  Not just the walking, but the fact that if you walk any faster than an amble past one of the Templar guards, they get pissed at you and you have to run around looking for a hay bale to jump into.  I just got to the point of needing to travel cross-country to the next town, and although galloping around on my horse is fun I keep getting hung up on medieval speed traps unless I go at crawling speed.  FTS.  I got this game on sale for $10 and right now I'm feeling like I got robbed.

Rating: Avoid.

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So this was on sale a couple of weeks ago at bargain bin levels, so my wife bought it for me as a gift when she stopped into a store to buy herself GH: Metallica.

Taking a brief break from other things, I've been having a muck about with it. It's basically a familiar sandbox-style super-hero genre game. Apparently it's a movie-licence game of the recent Hulk film with Ed Norton in it. Since I haven't seen the film, I'm not sure how much it follows the plot of the film. Not terribly much, I imagine, aside from of one of the several missions-plot-streams, but really, who cares?

Good:
Running around as Hulk, beating the shit out of things.
Smashing New York City Landmarks and in fact tearing them down. (until they respawn later)
The way that Hulk can bound around the city, and climb buildings and so forth give it a bit of a Spidey-vibe, and is a lot of fun.
HULK SMASH!

Average:
Hulk doesn't control particularly well.

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"I'm the best at what I do, but my movie wasn't very nice."

But it's a good thing they let the developers ditch the PG rating on this. If I recall correctly there should be an Uncaged version that feature the violent stuff. This is probably the bloodiest comic book game I've ever played. And the best movie tied game ever. It didn't bother with tutorial or too much drama at the start, all you get is several cutscenes of Logan stabbing soldiers through the walls and him wondering how he got to this mess. After that brief interlude was over with, we get him diving off a helicopter before landing on a poor soldier with both of his claws extended.

Control wise, it's very responsive. With simple combo keys to execute special moves and a rage bar you could spend to execute fury attacks. Killing enemies will replenish your rage, or you can simply bash on destructible stuff, like crates and desk. Although it's disappointing to know you won't be playing other characters than Wolverine, it's still pretty fun.

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Valkyrie Profile: Covenant of the Plume is the latest in the VP series, making its debut on the DS. Unlike the first two, which were action-RPGs, CotP is an SRPG. You command up to 4 characters on a grid based map that will be familiar to anyone who's played...well, any SRPG released in the last decade. One interesting thing is that whenever any unit attacks, if you have other units in range of the enemy they can attack as well. When attacking, instead of just swinging once, each character has multiple attacks that you can chain into combos; when you have an enemy surrounded with all 4 of your guys, this allows you to really unload.

Like the previous VP games, CotP continues the Norse mythology theme. In the previous VP games the Valkyries chose glorious warriors to go fight in the battle of Ragnarok. In CotP your father was chosen; his loss caused much suffering for the main character and his family. As a result, you swear to get revenge on the Valkyrie.

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Most nights I find myself chatting with Schild over MSN and lately we’ve been discussing games that have been looked over because there is no hype behind them or they aren’t AAA titles. We got on the topic of games that evoke emotion from the player and really make you think about the decisions you should be making in a game. We came to the conclusion that Grey’s Anatomy was probably the most underrated game, especially in this category. We debated for hours and put Grey’s Anatomy up against stiff competition like Hell’s Kitchen and CSI (ALL OF THEM! SORRY GRISSOM!) But, Grey’s won out in the end and thus I set out to experience a game that “allows you to truly experience the world of ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ through the eyes of a doctor, the hands of a surgeon, the mind of a professional and the heart of a romantic.

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Available via Steam or directly from Popcap, this is a pretty cute take on the classic tower defence games that anyone who's ever been bored at work will know of old. The basic gameplay doesn't break any new ground - zombies walk towards your house and you get to plant a variety of turrets to kill them before they make your back door and eat your brains. Over time you unlock new plants, encounter new zombie types and gain access to a bunch of puzzles and mini-games. There's also an item shop where you can buy upgrades of various types.

The game itself is fairly easy, you have to try pretty hard to fail a level in the core 'adventure' mode - at least the first time around. There's a Mario style boss fight at the end after which you go around again but with various twists applied to the levels.

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...or, "Somebody Tell Those Fucking Germans That Barrels Are For Smashing."


We spent about 2 or 3 hours on it last night, and I am kind of looking forward to playing more tonight. But you can't smash barrels or share loot (you can only sell or scrap loot that you can't equip - boo, I say!).

Character set-up for co-op mode is buggy. It wouldn't let player 2 make a character, so player 1 had to create an additional character that sort of disappeared into the ethers when it came time to start (I ended up having to jump in after Sauced started playing). Boo, I say. This is apparently being worked on, but still. How did it get released this way? Did I mention that the world is laden with juicy barrels and boxes that you can't smash?

The world is dauntingly large, and Sauced and I both found this really exciting, but just because the map is big doesn't mean you can actually access all of it. I suspect some of it is just for show, but maybe I'll be wrong.

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