James Skemp's StrivingLife

If you enjoyed The Saboteur, you'll enjoy this

While I was playing Mafia II I was constantly reminded of The Saboteur (2009), and since I enjoyed that game, I would consider that a good thing. The game features much of the same, with gun and hand fights (the latter of which plays an important part in the story) and driving.

I experienced no technical issues while playing the game, and the hard difficulty featured some cheap kills, but after a bit of practice everything worked out just fine.

I came into this game without knowing having played the first Mafia game (and I honestly have looked into whether there's any tie-ins), and found the story to be fairly good and engaging. I certainly felt as though the main character was understandable, but I do wonder how much pressure they may have gotten to make the ending what it is. I don't necessarily believe it was forced, but ...

Having finished it on hard, I may pick up some of the trophies I still need, however I don't believe I'll platinum this (due to one collectibles trophy that seems like a pain, and a couple others), and don't see myself replaying the story again. It was good, but now that I know it there's nothing deep to get me to go through it again.

I'm on the fence about it, but after some thought have decided to give it 3 of 5 stars (I'd give it 3.5 if I could). It's a fun game, but I'll probably trade this in before too long.

A *lot* of quick time events, but an overlooked gem

God of War was a pretty good game, but the game made popular quick time events, which I absolutely despised.

When I saw Ninja Blade at a used media store I was taken back by how little it cost, for what seemed like a fairly enjoyable game, similar to Ninja Gaiden (note: Ninja Gaiden 2 for the Xbox 360 is kicking my butt, but I fully plan on finishing it, have picked up Sigma for the PlayStation 3, and am semi-interested in picking up others in the series).

When I popped it in I was impressed with the visuals, and then the quick time events started. And they never stop. If you're as poor at quick times events as I am, expect to have approximately half your time taken up by them. Of course, I kid, but only slightly.

However, after finishing Ninja Blade, I was actually rather happy with the game, and can absolutely see myself putting it in in the future to pick up some of the achievements (less than half) that I'm missing. Sure, the quick time events are harsh, but the ability to replay them with little ill-effect tones the frustration down.

I also rather liked the story, which reminded me of The Third Birthday and Drakengard (keeping in mind that I read an English translation of a Nier book).

With the exception of weapon switching, which is mostly due to the 360's inferior d-pad, the game was also rather fluid, suffering from only a bit of slowness at extremely 'intense' periods of activity.

If you like Ninja Gaiden's game play, and aren't afraid of fairly intense quick time events, definitely give Ninja Blade a try.

4 of 5 stars for a difficult, but rewarding, and replayable, game.

Inconsistent targeting is easily overlooked in this gem

When I first heard about Yakuza Dead Souls I was a little worried. The best part about the Yakuza series is the story, and I feared that they were jumping on the zombie bandwagon (albeit late). However, I should have reminded myself about the multitude of games I have that has the Sega logo on the box, as there was nothing to fear with this iteration in the Yakuza series.

First, supposedly the game is not part of the official Yakuza canon. The way it's wrapped up (don't worry, the ending isn't cheap) it could be, but it's probably better that it's not.

Unlike the other games in the series the combat is focused on guns, instead of hand to hand combat / picking up weapons from the environment. However, after a short time (excluding targetting hiccups), the combat felt fairly natural.

Perhaps because of the change in combat focus, this game was also the easiest of the last three in the series. Recovery items are fairly plentiful, and I rarely found myself in a bad situation, and never died, during my 24 hours on normal (default) difficulty.

Like Yakuza 4 you play as one of four characters as the story progresses, but unlike 4 you're only able to switch between the four at will in the premium adventure. There's nothing really wrong with that, but I would have liked to finish up a couple items before I got the trophy for completing the game. However, premium adventure allows you to continue where you're at, so I can finish the items I started. Once the game is completed two additional difficulty levels are unlocked, one of which is supposedly extremely difficult, so there's plenty of replayability.

I'm quite honestly a huge fan of the series, so without a doubt the game gets 5 of 5 stars. There is an issue with inconsistent targetting, however, once you realize the issue you'll find it impacting your game very rarely, and you'll be able to recover from it fairly quickly.

If you enjoyed Yakuza 3 and/or 4, and/or like the sound of a third-person zombie killing game, pick up Yakuza Dead Souls!