Jeanne d' Arc 'Preview'

Author: Martyn Posted under:
Formats: PSP
Format Played: PSP
Import: USA
Another tactics game and it’s not Final Fantasy or Square-Enix. I heard about this game through a forum and as it’s not on a UK release I had to buy it from the states.
I have only just found out that the game was made by the same people who did Dark Cloud so I am expecting a lot from this.
I have had it for a while but have only just gotten around to playing it. I guess it’s not out in the UK because you have to fight the English and that might not go down to well ha-ha.
Jeanne d' Arc takes place in a fictitious world inspired by Jeanne d' Arc (known more commonly in English as Joan of Arc.) The game's background story begins far in the past, during a long war where dark gods attempted to use their demon armies to enter the human world but were stopped by five heroes. The story jumps forward to the 15th century AD as France and England battle during the 100 Years' War. You play as Jeanne as a 17 year old girl.
Jeanne is attached and then the game throws you straight into your first battle but do not worry, it’s simple and everything is explained as you go ahead.
Before entering each battle you get a chance to shop and equip new items. Once the battle begins you can not save but you can use quicksave which you will lose once you load the game back up.
The help menu’s I found a bit compact and confusing but as I have played other tactic games I knew what to do as this really isn’t anything ground breaking and follows suit of ever other tactic game out there.

The only real thing that separates these games is their strong story and so far so good with Jeanne d’Arc.
The world map is easy to travel around and it’s just a case of the towns and woods etc and a joining line with your character able to move between them.
Fighting is the same as any other tactic game and the PSP shows good graphics but I will come back to this once I have played more.
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Final Fantasy VII Crisis Core ‘Preview’

Author: Martyn Posted under:
Formats: PSP
Format Played: PSP
Import: Japanese

Ok so I was a little impatient and went ahead and bought a new copy from Hong Kong no less. Despite waiting 3 weeks for postage at £15 it wasn’t to be sniffed at for a brand new copy.

This is only a quick preview as the game only arrived yesterday and I have only done two missions but spent a while on it trying to work out what everything means and how to heal!

The game starts with a breathtaking cut scene which I will not go into but post below





See I told ya!
Now the game itself starts you off in a programme session where you will face some shinra solders. You will automatically target the nearest person and basically press x to attack. Triangle blocks and the L1 and L2 buttons move your icon in the bottom left to select material/attack and items. The game is free roaming like kingdom hearts and final fantasy 11 and 12 but the battle system is far simplified.
You can pretty much make it through the first mission just hitting x which is a shame and I hope things get more in depth as I progress through the game.
As you walk around you will enter random battles but there will be a long pause until you start fighting while you will hear “Activating combat mode” when you start and “conflict resolved” when you finish.
As you fight there will be a spinning fruit machine style cogs at the top left of the screen which will constantly spin until a pattern comes up. From what I can make out certain numbers and characters, increase speed, level up and provide HP.

So far I have met a young Yuffie from FFVII and a hologram version of Sephiroth.
I have seen two CGI cut scenes which match Advent Children.
I can not tell you anything about the story as I have no idea what is going on. I will keep you updated as I progress through.
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Guitar Hero 3 'Review'

Author: Martyn Posted under:
Formats: Xbox360, PS3, Wii
Format Played: Xbox360
Import: N/A

Continuing on from my Guitar Hero 2 review there isn’t much more I could add about the latest version of GH. New tracks and a new look style of play is really the only thing that has changed and also the battles which I will go into soon.

Guitar Hero 3 IMO has a weaker track listing then 2 but this is not felt by my fellow gamers who prefer the track listening of the new version. This I think is because the new one has more up-to-date music.





The two main new features in GH3 are online play and battles. This is really good fun and great for people who don’t have two guitars. The only problem being is for some strange reason you can not play the co-op campaign on live which I can not understand at all.
The battle modes (also available on live) are a nice extra, you play against a guitar start eg Slash or online against a friend. You both play through the song and gain powers you can use against each other like cutting a string or upping the level of difficulty. The loser is the first one to let their meter fall past the red. If both players reach the end of the song you go into sudden death.




The look of GH3 is improved and buttons are easier to locate and see. I think that it’s slightly easier then GH2 despite having more notes in each song.

Those of you who have bought it with the new guitar will be holding a wireless version which IMO does not feel any better then the previous one.





All I ask is to releases Queens Tie your mother down as this would be an amazing song to play.

8.5/10
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Call of Duty 4 'Review'

Author: Martyn Posted under:
Formats: Xbox360, PS3, Wii
Format Played: Xbox360
Import: N/A

Wow wow and wow again. I asked for this game for Christmas as I had so many games to play already and my parents only seem to buy me war games when I ask for them at Christmas and no other. What does that say about them huh?

Unlike the other Call of Duty games this one is more modern and I feel a cross between COD3/Rainbow Six and GRAW. The game on a whole is quite short and so are some of the missions. Medium/Normal is too easy and I would suggest starting on Hardened. Your missions are split up from first person with some Gunship missions which are superb and also sniper missions. There is one sniper mission which is one of my most favourite levels of any game where you and a partner roam around taking out enemies from a distance and working as a sniper team to get to your destination. You get a choice to either take out groups or sneak past them and also hiding in the tall grass. The idea is not to be seen as you crawl, sneak and take out single enemies until you reach your destination where you have to take out one person from the top of a abandoned hotel room suite.
Once you do that it’s escape time which also brings up two bad points about this game. The game flows quite freely but there are two sections of this game which you will have to play over and over again because they are just two damn hard. One is when you and your injured partner reach a destination and then call for back up. You have to defend your spot until they arrive but the enemies keep respewning all the time and it’s hard to man. The second is the last level where you have a small section to get through but are being shot at from two angles. Again there are too many respawning enemies.

The game has great graphics and although short is incredibly enjoyable. I would say this is one of the best games of 2007. Long may COD continue!

9/10
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