LTTP or ‘late to the party’ pieces are opportunities for us to catch up and write about games we missed out on the first time around. They may contain spoilers.

After the honeymoon weeks with the original Gears of War back in November of 2006, I began looking through the Xbox Live! Marketplace for some new demos. Capcom’s Dead Rising was the first demo I gravitated towards. It reviewed well, but at the time I just didn’t get it and thought it lacked substance. Two years later and I still didn’t get it! For the first few hours, I felt disoriented, lost and clumsy – nothing was working the way I expected. Despite all of that, I managed to complete the game and even enjoyed it. Hell, I even put off starting Fable II to finish the game properly.

(more…)

LTTP or ‘late to the party’ pieces are opportunities for us to catch up and write about games we missed out on the first time around. They may contain spoilers.

It’s been quite some time since I’ve invested 80+ hours into a Japanese role playing game. I’ve played my share of them, but nothing quite like Atlus’ Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 FES. I’ve played RPGs which placed me in medieval times, in space and far into the future, but never as a Japanese school student living in modern Japan. Now, I’ve said I spent 80+ hours with it, but was it all worth it? I believe the obvious answer is: yes.

(more…)

LTTP or ‘late to the party’ pieces are opportunities for us to catch up and write about games we missed out on the first time around. They may contain spoilers.

It’s rare for me to pick up a console at its launch. To me, the games available at that time aren’t worth picking up and thus I ignored Resistance: Fall of Man when I finally picked up my 60 GB PS3 in mid-2007. The consensus for Insomniac’s first person shooter was “generally favorable“, but despite the praise, I didn’t deem it worthy of a $59.99 CAD price tag. With Resistance 2 on its way and my new appreciation for Insomniac’s work after the fantastic Ratchet & Clank: Tools of Destruction, I thought it would be a prime opportunity to play through Resistance: Fall of Man. So, I got my hands on the game via other means. Through a trade via CheapAssGamer no less! Let’s see if I made a good trade.

(more…)

LTTP or late to the party pieces are opportunities for us to catch up and write about games we missed out on the first time around. They may contain spoilers.

I toiled with VanillaWare’s Odin Sphere quite some time. It’s one of those games which I was skeptical of despite glowing reviews. Let me cut to the chase: Odin Sphere is not a good game. It’s a border line “okay” game with a handful of painful flaws. I picked up the game months after its North American release through a Boxing Day deal, but even then I don’t believe it’s worth the $29.99 CAD price tag. Well enough with the intro; let’s get down to it. (more…)

LTTP or late to the party pieces are opportunities for us to catch up and write about games we missed out on the first time around. They may contain spoilers.

I am no stranger to the Tomb Raider and Lara Croft phenomenon. Lara’s debut in 1996 with the original Tomb Raider for the PC, PlayStation and the Sega Saturn sent shockwaves throughout the gaming industry. At the time I was stuck in the limbo of being a PC gamer without the necessary hardware to play the game. I also lacked a PlayStation and thus Tomb Raider’s revolutionary visuals and gameplay were a stranger to me. The Tomb Raider-esque experience would remain a mystery me until late November of 2007 with the release of Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune.

(more…)

LTTP or late to the party pieces are opportunities for us to catch up and write about games we missed out on the first time around. They may contain spoilers.

I have been trying to play Final Fantasy Tactics for about a decade. I believe I made 3 actual attempts at it and every time I would leave before finishing the first act. The reasons for quitting? I would either get bored out of my mind or sidetracked by some other “superior” game.

Years later, Square Enix, decided to rerelease Final Fantasy Tactics for the Sony PlayStation Portable with a retranslated script, improved presentation and a handful of other additions. What better way to play this game than through an updated release? I decided to return to Ivalice’s strategy world once again. Unfortunately, I did not finish the game again since I was stonewalled and grew bored by the number of retries I was attempting.

I am an open gamer and enjoy a vast variety of genres, but one genre which I neglect regularly is the turn-based strategy RPG genre. The last strategy game I played and truly enjoyed was Shining Force II for the Sega Genesis. (I have to go back and beat that one as well). In a sense, Final Fantasy Tactics is my first turn-based strategy RPG and I did not enjoy it very much at all. Perhaps I am not made for strategy turned-based RPGs or perhaps Final Fantasy Tactics is a broken? I am unsure.

(more…)