Tales of Resident Evil Revelations

Resident Evil Revelations, previously released on the Nintendo DS, was released for the consoles May 21, 2013. Revelations is a prequel, of sorts, to Resident Evil 6, where the player controls Jill Valentine as she explores an abandoned cruise ship. The game switches points of view sometimes, allowing the player to see the events being played out through the eyes of Chris Redfield, and new characters Parker Luciani and Quint Cetcham.

Revelations is the first Resident Evil to switch points of view, but also is the first to allow the player to upgrade their weapons. Back in Resident Evil 2, if a player found handgun parts as Leon, his handgun would then be a burst fire pistol. In Revelations you can increase the damage, mag capacity, stun, and more, that can change the outcome of any battle. Another new addition to the game is the Genesis, which is able to scan Jill's surroundings for ammo or even scan enemies to make herbs.

Aside from the single player game, there is also a multi-player mode where two players can explore the Queen Zenobia together with their own custom weapon load out, as well as pick their own agent and costume. This is the first Resident Evil to offer a co-op mode that doesn't involve wave after wave of monsters and a timer.In the appropriately named Raid Mode, the duo raids the Queen Zenobia through over twenty levels, unlocked by playing the single player campaign that offers a whole different experience.

One new addition to the game, while really good if you are going to play a chapter or two then put the game down, is a recap after every single chapter. It's a good facet for casual players, but it can get annoying for those playing through the game.. Thankfully, there is a way to skip the recaps allowing you to continue to enjoy your game until you are ready to put the game down.

While the game changes focus between characters every other chapter or so, the main story falls on Jill Valentine. Being dropped off on an abandoned ship with her partner, Parker Luciani, named SS Queen
Zenobia to find Chris and his new partner Jessica Sherawat. For the first time since Resident Evil 3, the player has to go through narrow corridors, dark areas of the ship and survive on small deposits of ammo. As the player delves into the ship and the history of the Queen Zenobia, more ferocious creatures appear.

Resident Evil Revelations brings the series back to its roots, which made a lot of players happy. The controls were hard to get used to at first, as they seemed stiff compared to Resident Evil 5 or 6. Some of the scares are cheesy, but it's good to have the old survival horror game back where ammo is scarce. The story itself can seem really convoluted as it seems to come out of nowhere, but it's interesting and not so cliche, filled with just the right amount of mystery and twists.

Resident Evil Revelations is a must have for any Resident Evil fan, especially those who want to go back to the times of the original three games. The stiff controls could scare players off, but I encourage you to try even still. Revelations is scary, fun, and addicting! Resident Evil Revelations walks away with a 9.5/10, finally Capcom did something marginally right! After the release of Resident Evil 6, as well as revealing that paid DLC was already on the disc and would still need to be paid for, a lot of players have been hating on Capcom.


That's it for this week's Tales of... tune in next Monday for another review by yours truly! Don't forget to subscribe as we will be doing something special for our subscribers, it also lets you know when we post new material. Be sure to comment below to let us know what you think or if you have a game you want us to review, specifically.

Way Back Wednesday: Legend of Dragoon

The Legend of Dragoon is a role-playing game, released for the PSX on June 11, 2000 and published by Sony Computer Entertainment. For the time in which the game was released, the graphics were still blocky but getting better. The music score is beautiful and still to this day, I can hear the music of certain instances playing in my head. The character development is also something that, I believe, is lacking in a vast majority of the games in this day and age.

The Legend of Dragoon centers around a fighter named Dart and his trials as he travels the world. The player is immediately brought into a bleak situation as Dart's hometown is on fire, set by the Sandoran army, and the hero finds himself being attacked by a giant green dragon. Dart is saved by a woman in black who mentions that Seles was attacked, causing the hero to run towards his hometown. Finding the city in ruins, the player is forced to battle their way to the captain and this is where it gets interesting!

The battle system for The Legend of Dragoon is absolutely unique. None of the characters can actually cast magic, and are forced to use weapons and items to defeat a lot of enemies. However, after a certain time, the characters can turn into Dragoon's which can then cast magic as well as attack differently. The first thing in combat a player will realize, when they attack, is a small white box in the center of the screen. Another box also comes in from outside the screen, shrinking until it disappears into the center of the smaller box as well. This is what makes or breaks a character. This box is what helps the player form 'Additions', or simply put, additional attacks leading into a stronger attack. When it comes to battle, attacking both in and out of Dragoon form as well as 'spell-like' items require accurate button pushing, making a unique feel to the game.

Once the battle in Seles is over, Dart learns that his childhood friend Shana was taken to Helena prison. Of course, Dart can't sit back and let the enemy have her. Entering Helena prison reveals more of the special mechanics of the game. When there is a ladder nearby or a small event that requires Dart to move, a yellow diamond shape with an exclamation mark will appear over his head. This tells the player to press the corresponding button in order to have Dart move.

Throughout the game. Dart meets new friends and old enemies. The tale of The Legend of Dragoon is told over four discs with more twists, turns, and agonizing losses on each disc. I highly recommend this game to anyone who enjoys role-playing games as it's one of the best I've ever played. The Legend of Dragoon walks away with a 9.5/10, close to perfect again! The only real negative to The Legend of Dragoon is how hard it can be for players to adapt to the battle system. Apart from the difficult learning curve, the game itself is flawless.

That's it for this week's Way Back Wednesday, stay tuned for more. Don't forget to comment to let us know what games you would like to see, or what you think about a review, and subscribe to get updates every time we put new content up.

Tales of Metro: Last Light

Metro: Last Light is the direct sequel to Metro 2033, released on May 17, 2013, and was previously announced as Metro 2034. Last Light is a first person survival horror where ammo and money are limited. Money, in fact, is a rare type of bullet from the old age that the player can find on bodies or laying in a dark corner. Generic bullets for guns can be found easily. One of the most defining mechanics of the Metro games is going to the surface. Being that the the world above the metro is all radioactive, the player needs a mask and oxygen to survive.

The character Artyom is back in Last Light, being controlled by the player and taken through the world of Metro. For a lot of players, this game can get really frustrating as they don't exactly explain what happened in Metro 2033. Because of this, Metro: Last Light can be a huge turn off. There are monsters called Dark Ones, political wars, and other creatures that make up the NPCs and monsters.

One thing I wished either Metro game had, was the option to choose what Artyom says to the characters he interacts with. Without this, the main character is another mute with only a few phrases. The survival aspect of Last Light can also be frustrating as the game puts Artyom in, sometimes, inescapable danger.

The graphics of Last Light haven't improved since 2033 and the musical score, rather I should say lack of musical score, brings the rating down a lot. It was an interesting pick up, though the game doesn't tell you all of the controls and pretty much lets you flop around like a giant Magikarp waiting to learn an attack

Apart from all the negatives, once the player learns how to play and develops their own way of getting past enemies and moving through the metro, Last Light is a pretty fun game. The characters Artyom meets throughout the game give you a look on the inside of the dystopian world and what people will do for fame, fortune, or just to live.

Metro: Last Light walks away with a 7/10, not horrible but not amazing. It's worth a pick up if you are continuing the story of Artyom from Metro 2033, but outside players may be completely confused.

That's it for this week's Tales of... be sure to comment to let us know what you think as well as subscribe to get notifications every time we post new material.

Way Back Wednesday: Suikoden

Suikoden is a role playing game released by Konami, and is the first installment of the Suikoden series, in NA December 1996. Suikoden gives the player many things that games don't do these days, as well as being overbearing at the same time. In each game, there are 108 Stars, characters, that are able to be recruited and a castle that is built over time that increases in size as more characters are recruited.

Suikoden centers around a political struggle of the Scarlet Moon Empire, the story being led by a silent protagonist and son of a famous general, Teo McDohl. During the first few moments, Teo is called away to a battle leaving his son in the guardianship of his friends and servants. Among these servants is Young McDohl's best friend Ted, and possessor of the Soul Eater Rune.

Young McDohl is given a mission by a corrupt commander, Kraze, to seek out a Rune Seer named Leknaat, also being acompanied by a corrupt official named Kanaan. On this journey, Ted is forced to use his Soul Eater Rune to dispatch a strong beast. After returning to the capital, to report their accomplished mission, Ted is called into the capital by Windy, the Emperor's sorceress, and attacked. Ted manages to return home to Young McDohl, but is followed by the empire soldiers. Young McDohl is forced to retreat and leave Ted behind, but not before being bestowed with the Soul Eater Rune from Ted.

Young McDohl flees the empire, joining up with a resistance group headed by a woman named Odessa. To prove their loyalty to Odessa and her crew, Young McDohl and his team has to help bandits, Varkas and Syndonia to earn Odessa's trust. Later in the game, Young McDohl meets Odessa's brother Mathiu, a famed strategist, who helps Young McDohl acquire a castle and allows the player to start recruiting party members.

The game is rather lengthy, lasting fifty plus hours, depending on whether or not the player tries to recruit all characters or not. The graphics are pixel based on the World Map, drawn out more in battle and towns. The music in Suikoden is really important, able to set the mood perfectly. While the story seems overly cliche in this day and age, the story for when it was released was engaging and emotional.

Suikoden walks away with a 8/10 for the great character development, story, music, and unforgettable moments. Even with all of the good, there still is some bad. With 108 characters, it's really hard for some characters to get the spot light, and don't develop. Meanwhile there are a lot of characters that get developed the right way.

That's it for this week's Way back Wednesday, be sure to comment and subscribe!

Tales of Tekken Revolution

A new Tekken game has been released for the Playstation Network, Tekken Revolution. The last Tekken game was Tekken 6 released on the Xbox 360, PS3, and PSP. Revolution was released only on the Playstation Network as a free-to-play arcade game, on June 11. The game may be free-to-play but, like most "free" games these days, Revolution uses microtransactions for Premium Coins and Tickets, coins being used for Arcade and Tickets for Player vs Player matches.

There are several different modes to accommodate the players, Arcade, Ranked Match, and Player Match. Arcade takes the layer through a series of matches, best two out of three, until they defeat the boss character. Ranked match is exactly what it sounds like, players who battle to be the best and have the most points PSN. Player Match, same thing but without points, players combat each other to see who will reign supreme.

An interesting system that was implemented in Tekken Revolution is the ability to power up your favorite, or all, character(s). Earning money and points from Arcade Mode, a player is able to take said money and increase the strength of a character in either Power, Vigor, or Endurance. Power increases the character's overall strength and damage, Vigor increases critical chance and raises the chances of a character going into a rage, and Endurance increases the character's hit points. This way, any character can be improved and made stronger.


The biggest downfall to Tekken Revolution is their small cast. There are a few characters that can be unlocked, but not enough to consider Revolution over any other Tekken game. Revolution starts with eight characters already unlocked, and four that are locked but can be earned through playing and obtaining Gift Points.

While it's great to have a free-to-play arcade game at my command, I was let down by the cast. Being a veteran Tekken player, having played since the first one, I was expecting to see some other characters like Eddie, Jin, or some of their more silly characters like Gon. The battles are fast and the special attacks are easy to learn, points for that at least! Tekken Revolution walks away with a 5/10, good to play for a time but not a permanent fix for Tekken lovers or an Arcade Fighter.

The Last of Us... Oh! I Play this Game!

The Last of Us is one of the most amazing games I have played. It is a survival horror game developed by Naughty Dog, the studio that brought us Jak and Daxter, and Uncharted. Last of Us was released on June 14th, 2013 exclusively for the Playstation 3. Not only does it bring us a survival horror experience, but it also gives us a riveting story, good stealth mechanics, and a fun online multiplayer mode. I believe that this game will be the game of the year for 2013.

Story - 10

Twenty years prior to the story, a strange fungal infection began spreading through mankind. It was called "Cordyceps", because of its relation to the fungi genus. Cordyceps is a parasite that grows on the subject's brain, causing them to become highly aggressive and almost primal. Over time the fungus grows even further to mutate its host and imbue it with special abilities. Most of the human race has fallen prey to the infection. Those who survive must fight to survive. Some become cutthroat survivalists, scavenging the abandoned world for whatever they can find. Others stay behind the walls of the quarantine zone, safe from infection, but under the iron fist of a harsh martial government.

Infected Aren't the Only Thing to be Afraid of

You play most of the game as Joel, a man forced to take extreme measures to survive in this post apocalyptic world. To do so, he becomes a smuggler. After his supplies are taken from him in a deal gone wrong, Joel is forced to smuggle a young girl named Ellie outside of the quarantine zone. Not much is revealed about her, other than that the rebel group called the "Fireflies" want her safe. As you can imagine, there are many complications along the way, but I won't get into them at risk of spoiling anything. Trust me when I say that the story is fantastic, and really stands out as unique in many ways.

Audio - 10

The Last of Us does an amazing job putting together great, atmospheric music, eerie sound effects, and superb voice acting. Troy Baker (Bioshock Infinite, Arkham City) plays Joel, and Ashley Johnson plays Ellie. Though Ashley hasn't done much voice acting for video games in the past, her performance truly breathes life into Ellie. I was quite surprised to find Nolan North (Uncharted, Assassin's Creed) in the credits as well. he plays the side character, David, so keep your eyes open for him if you give the game a shot. The music and sound effects also really set the mood for the game. In some areas the music is evident, setting up a big fight or chase, while in others its nearly non-existent giving room for the strange sounds of the world to sink in and unsettle you.

Video - 10

A Hungry Clicker

The animation for Last of Us is really amazing. It is hard to tell whether you are in a scripted cutscene, or actually playing the game simply because the visuals don't really change much, and there is usually a seamless transition. Beyond graphics themselves, the character designs are fantastic. Each character's appearance gives them as much personality as the voice acting itself. The enemies are also very well designed are quite intimidating. The clicker is especially intimidating, as it makes eerie sounds, moves in unpredictable jerky motions, and has a creepy mutated face. You can check out one of the more recent trailers below.

Gameplay - 10

True survival horror is really hard to come by in today's age, but The Last of Us pulls it off quite well. That is not it's full focus though, it also provides strong stealth mechanics, has crafting features, and fun combat. It uses a shooting system similar to Uncharted, but adds a sway feature. That combined with ammo being hard to come by creates a unique and challenging first person shooter. While hand to hand combat is usually just mashing the square button, the animations for it are extremely dynamic and sleek. Another interesting feature is the crafting ability. There are very few things that you can actually craft, but they are all very useful. You can make nail bombs, molotov cocktails, shivs, smoke bombs and med kits. One thing I really like about The Last of Us, is that everything takes place in real time, so you have to plan ahead for every situation. It is quite a challenging game, even on normal difficulty.

Can You Survive The Last of Us Multiplayer?

The multiplayer features two game modes which are both quite fun. Each game mode features 4v4 combat. The first game type is "supply raid", this is a typical death match. There are a certain number of tickets, or lives for your team to spend, and the first team to lose all their lives loses. The second mode is called "survivors". Survivors is similar to to supply raid, but each player only has one life. When you die, you stay dead till the next round. Each round you gain a certain number of points to upgrade your equipment for the next round. Survivors reminds me of games like Counterstrike. Something that I find interesting about The Last of Us' multiplayer is the idea that you are the leader of a group of survivors. Each match you play gains supplies for your group, and the more supplies you get, the bigger your group grows. The bigger your group is, the more costumes and weapons you unlock. This adds interesting flavor to the usual experience and level system in online shooters.

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The Last of Us is a great game, and the first game that I actually give a perfect 10 to. It is a masterpiece, and a must own for any Playstation 3 owner. This is not a game for players under the age of 16. There is little to no sexual content, but very gruesome violence, and a lot of foul language. The plot also contains a lot of difficult, uncomfortable issues centering around what it takes to survive. I love this game, and really think that this is what modern zombie games should feel like. What did you think of Last of Us? Leave a comment below telling us what you liked about the game, try and keep it spoiler free though. Also, don't forget to subscribe, its a great way to show your support and interest in our posts, and in the coming months we'll be doing something special, exclusively for subscribers.

Breaking News: Xbox One80, Top Dogs at E3, Beta XIV

Microsoft hopes to be top dog again with their new changes, after the fans raged about the system's inability to allow borrowing of friend's games and a daily internet check. There will still be games that must be connected to the internet, much like the video game Mag, and the Kinect is also still a requirement. It seems like no matter how much of a backlash, the Xbox One will still be able to spy on you with it's ever open eye. The company announced on June 19th, 2013 the removal of these aspects, hoping to make their fans happy and to raise the sales of their already bombing system. The real question is, is it too late for Microsoft to regain the faith of their fans? The following links cover the announcement and an IGN article that shows the differences of the next gen consoles.

E3 reveals made a large splash with headline titles we haven't seen in a long time. Mirror's Edge is brought back, but with a prequel. Mirror's Edge has been a game of the past for close to five years, only to be brought back into the light at E3. Another forgotten title to hit the new consoles is Killer Instinct! Lost back in 1996 with it's last installment of Killer Instinct: Gold. Killer Instinct (2013) will be a free-to-play game, set to release with the Xbox One, with one character unlocked, and the rest to be bought with micro-transactions. Star Wars Battlefront is also back, after having been left behind four years ago on the Nintendo DS and Playstation Portable.

Square-Enix came out swinging at E3 with two titles nobody expected to see the light of day. Personally I have lost interest with the Kingdom Hearts series as every other Kingdom Hearts game requires you to buy a new system or handheld in order to play. Kingdom Hearts III was finally announced however at E3 to be released on both the Xbox One and the PS4.

Final Fantasy fans were ecstatic to hear that Final Fantasy Versus didn't die after being announced, originally, back in May 2006. As some fans were happy, others were confused. The game was named, to start, Final Fantasy XIII Versus and was supposed to be a part of the Fabula Nova Crystallis series. The title now, however, is Final Fantasy XV. The game, while extremely late, looks absolutely amazing, and brings the Final Fantasy fans a new taste of game play that's different from anything we have seen thus far.

Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn has also been stirring a lot of talk lately, as their relentless ads for beta testers have been plaguing the social networks lately. A lot of fans feel jaded as the game flopped hard during it's release. Since it's initial release the game has been taken down, destroyed, and remade. The game is still undergoing final touch-ups for it's future release in August, with the help of their faithful fans who signed up to become beta testers. Hopefully this time, Square-Enix learned from their mistakes and wont make a MMO that makes their fans think twice about every purchasing an online game from them.

That's it for this week's Breaking News. Comment to let us know what you think, and be sure to subscribe!