With #9 finally submitted, it's time for a new update. Yes, I know, it's been FAR too long since I last updated on this site. Reasons? Well, fuirst would be, last time :iconMarcelesKhaldern came over to my place, he loaned me his PS3 and some of the games he brought while he concentrates on his college work. That, and I ended up making some videos. However, I can't post them here. Nor can I post them now. I'll notify you all when I finally get them up. Right. Time for game reviews!

Heavenly Sword:
This is just ONE of the games I've been drooling over since hearing about the PS3 and have been eagerly waiting to get. If you're a fan of God of War, then you're likely to be fond of this game. The game follows the story of Nariko, a girl cursed by her clan because she's seen as a curse thanks to a prophecy. She soon comes to wield a sacred weapon, the Heavenly Sword, and has to safeguard it from King Bohan and his overly freakish Generals: Flying Fox, Whiptail, and Roach. Unlocking features takes filling a combo gauge in each part of a chapter, lighting up glyphs to do so, with 3 glyphs per level, including bosses. The same applies for unlocking combos for the Speed Stance (Default Twin Blade stance), Power Stance (Complete sword stance), and Ranged Stance (Twin Chainblade stance). To do so, you need to highly vary combos and smash special pots. Also, you have a second character, Kai, an Archer. To fill the gauge with her requires you kill enemies effectively with as little arrows as possible, mostly using the Aftertouch feature where you guide an object, weapon, or body you've thrown. Unfortunately the game's story is quite short and ontop of that, there's only one way to replenish health lost, by smashing the same special pots that fill your gauge. Overall, it's a beautiful and quite addictive game that makes you feel like you're the main character in one of those Hong Kong martial arts films. As a bonus, hidden within the game is super blatant God of War reference! I'm not telling where it is! Find it yourselves! One more thing.... TWING TWANG!!!!

The Darkness:
Possibly the first ever First Person Shooter that's more than just your average shoot-em-up game. You play a mafia hitman named Jackie Estacado living in New York. After you get into a real bad situation and being betrayed by your prick of an uncle mafia boss, you become possessed by The Darkness, an evil power that has taken you as it's host, but at the same time gives you great power. But remember to stay in the shadows when using them. Light is bad for the creature. This game makes for nice graphics and a huge environment, with even the ability to watch full cartoons and movies on TV sets. Unlocking features requires you to either find and dial odd phone numbers where you are answered by the most odd answering machine messages in history, in a specific place in the game, find letters of deceased soldiers and mail them to their families, or in some cases perform a specific action in a certain part of the game. Gain Dark Minions and new Darkness Abilities throughout the story, but you can't keep em! The game also allows you to shoot up Nazis, which is always a good thing. However, this game may not meet everyone's tastes.

Elder Scrolls IV - Oblivion:
A realtime RPG set in a complete fantasy word, Oblivion allows you to create and customize your own character and run around saving the world from Oblivion, which basically is what we all envision Hell to look like, using your skills defined by your class, birth sign and rage. You can even customize your own class. You start off as a prisoner in a castle for some unknown reason, and for yet another unknown reason, the castle is attacked. The King's guard try to help him escape, and the entrance escape route happens to be right in your sell. The King is eventually killed and he gives you the task of finding his only remaining son in order to save the world from destruction. The game boasts a rather large world where it can literally take you a while to reach a single location. And in first person view, it can be a little easy to get lost. However, don't think you can get away with what other RPGs let you do. You can take what you've earned, bought or have been given, or take items no one has claim to. But otherwise, you're stealing and you have to pay the consequences, usually by the blade. Casting spells is also something you have to be very careful with. In lamens terms, healing spells good, attack spells bad! Weapons and armour can also wear down and lose effectiveness, in which case you need to repair them or get replacements. Magic weapons need a magical charge to work. And so on and so forth. Basically, you have to run around playing super-powered errand boy in most cases. And be VERY careful when doing so. It's rather easy to get in over your head. It's not a bad game that can keep RPG fans happy. But I'm looking more forward to Final Fantasy XIII.

Shin Megami Tensei - Lucifer's Call:
A Pokemon-ish RPG involving demons! You play a human character who you can name and nickname (But can't change gender. Sorry. He's a he and that's that) and lives in Tokyo. Tokyo goes through a general Apocolypse called the Convection, and congratulations, the world has gone straight to hell! Literally! Well, at least Tokyo does. The whole city becomes an inverted world infested with demons and you have to become half demon just to survive. Now it's up to you to set things right. But don't worry, you don't have to do it alone. There's a catch! This is where the Pokemon-ish style comes in. After gaining your first ally, you can talk to various demons in battle, and if you give them what they ask for, or tell them what they wanna hear, they might just join your team! However, having two of the same demon is a no-no. If you already have a particular demon and you try to talk to another of the same race, they'll just leave you alone. Some demons will give you items, but this is only occasional. Another catch? There's this thing in the skyi now called Kagatsuchi. And it affects the demons depending on it's face. While in New Phase, demons are at their weakest and are easy to negotiate with. In Half Phase, they're stronger, but you can still negotiate with them. At Full Phase, they're at their strongest, and very few are able to be negotiated with. Note, not all demons will listen to you and you have to wait for them to join you on their own. You can also customize your own strengths and weaknesses with Magatama, fuse demons together to get stronger demons, and other various things. And as a bonus, it features Dante from the Devil May Cry series. The combat system however can be a little complicated. You get 1 turn for every demon in your party, including yourself. Taking advantage of a demon's weakness gives you a free turn, no matter how many are have the same weakness. The same goes for critical hits. However, missing demon or hitting them with an ineffective attack, causes you to lose two turns, including the one you just used. However, the same is also true for your enemy. But this doesn't make the game any easier for you. The cell shading graphics are quite good and work for it. And this comes from someone who's not a big fan of cell-shading in general. The game may be a little static, but it's also quite addictive.

I'll try to come up with more updates real soon. But I can make no real guarantees.