Left 4 Dead

Platform: Xbox 360; PC
Developer: Valve
By Torey Nelson, Associate Editor

Stuck in an unknown city, surrounded by thousands of zombies who only have one thing on their mind and only your three team members for backup, Left 4 Dead is a game is full of heart pumping action and monsters that keep the game from ever having a dull moment. The game is designed as a first person shooter, with three other people able to play along side you in co-op on PC or X-Box 360; or play on X-Box live in an eight player verses mode. In this game, you always have to look out for the changes; every time you play the game, the story is different and the enemies are never in the same place. But be careful, if you die while playing on X-Box Live, you reincarnate as one of the monsters, and the object of the game has changed; kill the survivors.
The goal of the game is simple; get out alive. You start off by choosing a scenario of the 4 available. Every level, you are to make it to the “safe houses” before getting killed; these “safe houses” are filled with med kits, guns and unlimited ammo. In Game play, it’s hard to find time to fix your wounds and even harder to help your friends. To save your life, you have two choices; a full medical kit that almost, if not fully, revises you, or painkillers that give you temporary health until you hopefully find a kit. If you are out of luck and have no medical supplies, your teammates are able to heal you if they have the resources. Unfortunately, if you’re not able to be saved, you are out of the game until your team finds another survivor, which looks surprisingly like your character.
Besides regular Zombies, there are five "Hero Zombies" that you’re up against; Hunters, Smokers, Boomers, Witches and Tanks. Hunters are the fastest and the most ninja like, they wil lleap on you, or a team mate, and begin to tear you to pieces, someone, other then the victim, must kill them. Smokers have one thing going for them, their tongues. These guys have tongues that reach forty to fifty feet, grabbing players an pulling them away from the group for an attack; if you get caught by a smoker, the only way to get away is for a team member to come to your rescue by killing the beast them self. Boomers are by far the grossest; their fat bodies make it hard to run after you, so instead, they throw up on you. The catch is that their throw up attracts hordes of zombies all at once. Each "hero zombie" will make a distinct sound and will allow you to identify what is coming though usually not where it's coming from. Tanks are the biggest of them all and almost the most lethal. This abnormally large and muscular zombie relies completely on his strength to kill anything in his path; one hit from this guy can throw you across the level, and until you kill him he won’t stop attacking. You can tell when one is coming because the screen starts to shake, and you can hear him pounding as he come, but he will not the worst thing to appear.
Lurking in the woods or a darkened room, is the Witch. Unlike any of the other "hero Zombies" in this game, the Witch is by far the most deadly and the hardest to kill; you will always hear a Witch before you see it. Her wailing cry will lead you to where she is located, the louder the cry, the closer you are, as well as music will begin to play. Be quiet, and turn off the light as quickly as possible, this girl looks and sounds harmless; but she is super sensitive to light and if you get to close she will surely attack. There are a few ways to attack and hopefully kill the witch; the most logical, is to get the team together and gang up on her; this will not always be the most effective way though. Another way is to find a Molotov Coctail that are hidden all over the levels (you could use a pipe bomb, but they tend to make a noise before landing, so they will awaken her before actually hitting her) and lighting her on fire. Then, there is the choice of picking up a sniper rifle and blowing her head off, this one is nearly impossible, so if you’re counting on a quick kill, you better be good. No matter what you do to kill her, you have to know that whoever is the first to hit her is the one she is coming after. Be sure that everyone is ready to attack, because there is no stopping her when she is on the move. When the Witch is awakened, her sad sobs turn into loud shrieks and she pounces, attacking with her razor sharp claws and teeth. This is one game you aren’t going to want to miss out on.

LotRO: Siege of Mirkwood

Lord of the Rings Online: Siege of Mirkwood
System: PC
Developer: Turbine
By Jake Vanderlinden, Associate Editor

MMO’s seem to be everywhere these days, from World of Warcraft to Star Wars Galaxies and even Age of Conan, with never an end and unlimited numbers of content updates it is easy to see why people love playing them. I have been a veteran of more MMO’s than I care to remember, knowing full well that time spent on productive things around the house or just not planted in front of the computer would be good, but it always came back on me to finish just one more quest before going to bed. But currently the vice I have been dealing with, since its launch in 2007, is Lord of the Rings Online. The basics of any online game are seen in every online game out there, the difference is what you find along the way, and every update keeps the format going. So having gotten the basics out of the way lets talk expansions.

LotRO: Siege of Mirkwood is the newest installment in the Lord of the Rings Online Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game (MMORPG though usually just an MMO) and from the get go any player will note key differences that come with this addition.

We find ourselves following the Fellowship of the Ring after they have left Loth Lorien and struck out on there journey to destroy the ring. However rather than following our heroes on their journey to Mount Doom, we are instead tasked by the Lord and Lady of the Galadhrim to help remove the evils from Mirkwood and retaking the strong hold of Dol Guldur.

The additional story and book work is pretty straight forward and leads you throughout the expanse of Mirkwood at a good pace and allows you to complete all the quests at any given camp before pushing you on into the next part of the story. Though a forest Mirkwood is a dark and foreboding place filled with more enemies than a Warden can shake his spear at. As I moved through the areas and worked my way through the new five levels I found that random encounters got a bit tedious and that I was almost always in combat. But even these encounters are useful as you move your character from level 60 to 65, and the slayer deeds come a lot faster too, which is the new level cap for characters.

With new dungeons and instances the addition seemed more like an update than an actual expansion, the actual size of Mirkwood only rivals about the size of Loth Lorien which was an update itself, but the expansion part of it comes in the new combat system and single player Skirmishes.

The combat system has had a complete overhaul beginning with the new auto attack functions, originally you would have to wait for an auto attack to finish before a skill would activate, but now skills interrupt auto attacks thus allowing for a more seamless form of combat. Though every improvement must come with a set back as well, in this case it is in the form of running out of power more quickly, so as you burn through your skills and tear enemies to pieces you also need to watch your power pool more closely and make sure you have those celebrant salves ready. As a further note to combat all the weapons have had a retooling allowing for people to play a cosmetic weapon. Being a Warden I have always ran with a spear, and will continue to do so, but with the weapon changes all damage is even and weapon speeds are the same based on single or double hand use. What this means is that a single handed sword will do as much damage, and at the same speed, as for instance a dagger or mace. The same goes for two handed weapons like great swords and war hammers. Though an interesting idea I find it a poor attempt at simplifying weapons, as a veteran MMO player I really don’t like the thoughts of a dagger doing as much damage as a sword, or a sword attacking as fast as a dagger, but as for the overall adjustment I can see why they made it and applaud them for even trying.

Now the meat and potatoes of the expansion comes with the Skirmish addition which are small in game instances that allow some one to gain decent rewards and experience in a small amount of time. This is done simply by opening a window and creating a Skirmish, there are multiple choices all of which are automatically scaled to your current level and repeatable, and choosing where you want to go. You are given a soldier that can be leveled up and gains training in different arts to assist you through out the Skirmish, different classes of soldiers have different uses from healing to tanking and everything in between, and just like any character the higher the level the more useful the soldier. Skirmishes also have the capacity to accompany a multiplayer format allowing to be ran them as duos, 3-man, 6-man, and 12-man instances, with rewards being given in the form of Marks that can be bartered with various NPC traders, to get you everything from weapons and armor to a nice piece of jewelry or a cosmetic hat.

As expansions to games go this is one of the better ones I have played and the changes bring an all new dynamic to the game, with a little time I have found that even for someone that has played since launch the changes in combat can be overcome quickly, and the Skirmishes give a nice break on the tedium of level grinding that is found in all MMO’s. To this extent LotRO: Siege of Mirkwood earns 4 critical Subtle Stabs out of 5.

Netflix: An Objective Evaluation

By: Kevin Nelson, Senior Editor

I am an avid movie watcher. On average, I watch movies more frequently than I watch TV which, I suppose, makes me partially responsible for Conan O’Brien losing The Tonight Show. I realize that I and I alone, cannot shoulder the blame, after all, one person doesn’t even register on the Nielsen ratings, or at least not to my knowledge. My research on the topic was limited to Season 6 of King of the Hill which offered no insights on how these ratings are obtained, though I did learn a little about what it means to be a family and love despite our differences, and in the end, isn’t that more profound?

But movies aren’t cheap. As one with a limited income, I can’t afford to see all the latest blockbusters in theaters, and Best Buy stopped taking plasma as a form of payment recently. So what am I to do? I could turn to one of the internet’s many download sites, but I like having physical media in my possession. That is literally the only reason. In fact, I have a message to any film industry professionals reading this right now: if you want us to keep buying your movies, you’re going to have to give us more bang for our buck. A lot of movies are terrible, and if I spend $45.00 on a Blu-Ray copy of Dunston Checks In, not only am I certifiably insane, but I demand better incentive than ‘crew recommendations’. Those are already on the DVD; they’re called trailers and I can no longer skip them. Not only am I paying for a bad movie, but now I’m also paying to watch three agonizing minutes of some Michael Bay movie. In most countries, this is an open act of torture.

This combination of pickiness and practicality are what make Netflix ideal for me. Well, those and my inability to return a movie on time. For those of you who have been living in a shelter deep below the Earth for the past decade, welcome to the surface world. The war never happened, Baseball is marred with drug scandals, and we can now get any movie on the planet sent to our mailbox in (ABOUT) one business day.

Do you have an overwhelming desire to see The Garbage Pail Kids? Me neither, but if you did, Netflix could get it to you tomorrow. That’s a great feeling of empowerment, and the knowledge that, if by tomorrow I have decided I don’t want to see the copy of The Devil Wears Prada I requested, I can leave it sitting on top of my computer for four months until I have one of my infrequent Meryl Streep attacks and not have to worry about a late fee.

One of my favorite features of Netflix is the Instant Queue. This handy fellow exists for those of us whom feel that one business day is NOT FAST ENOUGH. We’re busy (or more frequently, friendless) people and we need entertainment RIGHT NOW. The Battlestar Galactica marathon isn’t on for another two hours and I’m not walking all the way out to my mailbox without pants on again –a note, putting on pants is NOT an option.
Thanks to the good people at Microsoft, Nintendo, and Sony, I no longer have to. Hell, I don’t even have to walk to my computer anymore. With any of these online enabled consoles, I can now browse and stream as many movies as I want every month. But how do the services stack up? If you have all three consoles in your house, how do you decide which one to turn into your own personal video store? Well, I compared two of these services (because my PS3 streaming disk hasn’t yet arrived) in an effort to inform you, the consumer. Don’t say I never gave you anything.

Xbox 360
Requirements: Netflix subscription, Xbox Live subscription, HDD, Cable Internet or better

The 360 delivers a great Netflix experience. The interface is great for anyone who is used to using the dashboard, and you can browse for new movies and rate what you’ve seen right on the screen. The Xbox also supports full HD streaming now, which is nice if you have one of those newfangled HD TV’s and insists the movie is better when you can see the imperfections on Nicholas Cages’ face.
The major downside here is that there’s no search or sort functionality. You basically just have to wade through all the movies to find something new to watch. It would also be nice to see what a movie’s star rating is or a description without having to load a separate panel.
The other turn off here is that you need to pay for the Xbox Live service to use the Netflix streaming. While this isn’t a problem for most 360 users who already use Live, it does add an additional $50 price tag to your year of Netflix.

Nintendo Wii
Requirements: Netflix Subscription, Netflix Wii disk, wireless internet

The major advantage of the Wii version of Netflix is the remote browsing interface. Like everything else menu related on the Wii, the remote pointer is very natural. I was very surprised when I got my disk for the Wii how well the service actually works, and though I was expecting a dumbed down version of the 360’s interface, was pleasantly surprised how well it all fell together. Also, the load times in general for the movies seemed to be less when browsing on the Wii.

Of course, the usual Wii issue is relevant here, the lack of HD. This was, however, another unexpected surprise for me, as I fully expected the videos to look like a low-rez YouTube clip. The quality, though not HD is certainly broadcast level with a decent internet connection with no significant slowdown. Fans of HD though, are going to be less than impressed by this.

If you have a Wii, you’re certainly not losing out by getting the disk. The Wii is free online and the disk is free from Netflix. You don’t have to send it back so it’s ready anytime and you still get the full range of Instant services. They also sent me a 10% discount coupon for using my Wii for Netflix, so it’s great to have as a backup option.

Of course, I’ll be adding my PS3 streaming review to this list as soon as the disk is available.

In the end, no matter what option you chose, the only real way to lose is by not using the service at all. Of course, if you have a TiVo or –God forbid- a library card, well aren’t you special? But if you have Netflix already and are ready to throw out those uncomfortable pants, then this service is right for you.

Borderlands

Platform: XBox 360
Developer: Gearbox
By: Taylor McLelland, Associate Editor

So I finally got around to playing Borderlands, and I got to say. It is a lot of fun! If you like Fallout 3, you will like this game. They are very similar in game play. And if you are unfamiliar with Fallout 3, It is a first person shooter, RPG. Basically, you go around killing things, earn experience, then choose what new skill you would like to upgrade. But Borderlands adds one thing Fallout 3 didn't have, Multi-Player.

First, let me go into the game play. The game plays great. It starts off you get to choose one of five characters. I decided to go with a tank like guy. He is big, and can take a hit. But the big factor of why I chose him was that he started with a shotgun. And seeing how I don't have the quickest aim due to a lack of finger dexterity, the shotgun is always my friend in any FPS.So the game starts, I am on this bus, and some guy drops me off in the middle of no where to search from lost treasure. Then I get this vision of some sort of angel, and she tells me I am the chosen one, destined to find this lost treasure. A feet many have died trying to do apparently. Not the best premise for a game, really, but do we need an excuse to kill some bad guys?

So it's not the best plot or story in the world, but the game play makes up for that in a big way. Very typical to first person shooter RPG's, you are given missionsto go about saving towns from some vicious warlord or another. Each mission getting harder and harder. So you have to make sure you level up before taking on some missions. This can get a little repetitive, but it's the same for any RPG, so not a huge issue. And if you ever come across a mission that is to hard, you can always team up with your friends, with xBox live, and take it on together. And if they happen to be at a higher level then you, all the better. They can take on any harder guy, and you still get the experience for it. this can really help in the leveling up process.

Another plus for this game is all the new content that is continuously coming out for it. So if you ever beat the game, or get sick of the same levels, you can download the new ones. I haven't been able to try it yet, but any level called Zombie island has got to be good in my book. But that may just be the zombie slayer in me.

Replay value of the game seems pretty high, mainly because of the DLC, and also trying it with a different character. Though if your like me, I usually like to play with just the one character, so I doubt I will ever start over again. But the DLC is something worth looking into. So if you have the money, the game will never end.

The graphics of the game really help set the feel for it. It is a cell shaded look, and really helps get the gritty-ness of the planet across. Some people are not going to like the style, but I really did, and as I said, helped get the theme across for the game. All in All, I give Border lands for the 360, 4 out of 5.

Mass Effect 2

Mass Effect 2
System: Xbox 360
Creator: Bioware
By Jake Vanderlinden, Associate Editor

An avid fan of RPG games since I first played A Link to the Past on my SNES system when I was a kid. Bioware launched me into a new galaxy far, far away when they released Knights of the Old Republic on the Xbox. I instantly became a fan of the developers, as well as the fresh take on Star Wars. And as the years passed and consoles got better they showed me that my devotion to their company was not misplaced. Mass Effect exploded onto the scene in 2007 and gave me a reason to switch out my light saber for an assault rifle, and to change my force powers for a fist full of biotics. Even the lightside/darkside affiliation got a revamp, becoming paragon/renegade.

This highly anticipated sequel has taken the franchise to new heights, and brought the RPG game to all the die hard shooter players out there. Taking what Mass Effect started and improving in nearly every way, it was not hard for me to instantly fall in love with this game.

Mass Effect 2 follows Commander Shepard as he systematically hunts down the Geth following the attack on the Citadel at the end of Mass Effect. While many may know what happens next, I would be remiss to say any more as Mass Effect 2 delivers the drama and surprises from the first ten minutes on. Enter Cerberus, a black ops style organization looking to keep humanity the front runners in a galaxy where we are highly outnumbered. Led by a highly intelligent and well informed individual known as the Illusive Man (voiced by Martin Sheen) he sets Shepard onto a path of assembling a team to find out why the inhabitants of human colonies are disappearing. As you explore the galaxy and build relationships with your crew the game impresses upon you that the end will bring either a crushing blow to your enemies or absolute catastrophe for the people aboard the Normandy, Shepard’s advanced warship.

The driving force of any Bioware title is the story, which no one will find lacking here, brings the player an understanding and an intimacy with the characters that sets a new standard for RPG’s. As you make your decisions and build loyalties, or choose to leave crew members singled out, the sense of ownership and connection with Shepard really makes the game unique for every person that picks up the controller. This one-ness with our hero is really the heart and soul of the game, where your decisions can become truly discomforting but with pay offs as visceral as any combat situation. The innovative “interrupt” system brings a dynamic to cut scenes that “interactive” cut scenes brought to games like Resident Evil 4, allowing a player to stop a random encounter individual from entering a combat situation that could potentially kill them or to throw an insolent mercenary from a high rise window, gives the player the freedom to control the drama not just intermittent decision making.

To anyone that played Mass Effect or any other Bioware title for that matter, the story telling will be the least surprising part of ME2; if anything it will be the revamped game play, combat systems, ability trees and inventory (or lack there of) that will be the true shockers. The combat system is all real time, removing the pause and issue system of the first Mass Effect, allowing for combat to continue at a steady pace and forcing the player to find a comfortable hot button set up for specific powers. The squad based dynamic of the game is stronger than ever and the AI control for the NPC characters is great, a player could go through an entire play through having to never once issue orders to your companions, and at times they almost seem more capable of taking out hostile enemies more efficiently than Shepard ever could. With weapons being tailored to each class and not carrying anything that your class can’t use the selection of the appropriate tool for the job is made extremely simple and micromanagement of squad members almost nonexistent. To put it simply the game has phenomenal shooter combat, very reminiscent of Gears of War, lovers of multiple genres of games can enjoy.

Tech and Biotic combat skills have a great new look as well, starting right from the beginning when they are low level, by bringing a robust dynamic to combat; while using cover fire to keep an enemies head down you can unleash a biotic shockwave to hurl him into a bottomless pit. This time around though they have a more reasonable cost in that the use of one power puts all powers on cool down, thus keeping for you a reason for using the “conventional” weaponry. The variety and choice in powers gives more than enough reason to want to play this game over and over just to see all the special powers each class has to offer; from a cloak that renders the player invisible for a brief period, to a charge attack the slows down the combat allowing the player to rush across the field and stagger an opponent to deal the fatal blow, each class brings surprises.

Building a personally-designed Shepard has been simplified in ways that would make any seasoned Mass Effect player want to kiss the hands of the game designers. Rather than having a huge list of improvements that you can build upon ME2 has brought it down to much more manageable proportions. Giving each skill a 4 level tree and with levels being immediately noticeable in combat the game keeps the player from staring at the screen trying to determine where to allocate the gained points and more time into the actual playing of the game.

With so many praises to sing of this game only one fault comes to mind and its form comes in the guise of planet scanning. While traveling throughout all the planetary systems you find weapon, armor, and skill upgrades in the form of research projects. All of these enhancements are paid for with minerals and resources you pick up on missions and from scanning planets and retrieving them with probes. The scanning is extremely tedious, not to mention the fact that it is not based on toggle abilities so hand cramping can become a problem, even after purchasing the upgrade to increase the scanners speed. This necessary evil I can understand since they don’t want players having all the advancements in the first fifteen minutes of the game, however I think it could have been better implemented with a larger scanning reticule or a mineral tracker.

All in all I cannot seem to get enough of this game, and with so many options for endings I think it will keep me busy until the third and final installment of this epic trilogy comes out. I give Mass Effect 2 a 5 mercenaries thrown to there death out of 5.

Final Fantasy 13

Platform: xBox 360 and Play Station 3
Developer: Square Enix
By: Taylor McLelland, Associate Editor

I've been playing Final Fantasy games for almost 20 years now, the first being Final Fantasy 2. (Which I would later discover was actually 4) And for all those years I have been a huge fan of most of the games. While there were a few let downs, and I still don't consider 11 to be an actual numbered FF game, (it should have been Final Fantasy Online in my opinion.) The newest installment to the series is actually a lot of fun. While it is pretty different from most of the other installments in a few key ways, it still keeps true to the series. First, the differences.
While most FF titles, after about an hour or so of the story being set up, you can immediately wander about the world, and do as you please, for the most part. This isn't true of FF 13. This game is very linear for most of the game. You have an objective, and you can only go from A to B. There is no going from A to C to J to M to B like in previous installments. In fact, there are really no side quests till you beat the game; then they unlock. But despite this, the game is still fun, just has a different feel to it.

Some of the other differences are that the random encounters, are now not so random. You see the monsters roaming around the map, and if you enter their territory, they will run after you. In some ways, this is the thing I hate most. I don't know if it is just me, but when I can see the monster standing there, I tend to want to run past him and avoid the fight. Square did find a way to lessen my want to do this by having chests, that are near monsters, locked until they are beaten. So if you want the goods, you gotta fight for them. And seeing as how battles don't win you gold anymore. Chests are your only chance of earning dough for spending money.

And speaking of battles, the battle system in FF 13 is one of the best battle systems in any FF game. Not best, necessarily, in that you control a ton of people, and certainly not the fact that if your main character at the time dies, it's game over. (even though you can clearly see that your other team mates are alive and kickin, and probably would be able to bring you back with a phoenix down, or something.) But this battle system is the best in creating a ton of fun, that will keep you on your toes the whole time. Seeing how this is just a review, and not a strategy guide, I won't go into detail on how to make the most of your battles. All you need to know is that they took the old turned based battle system, and made it a lot faster paced, and got rid of the feeling that you are taking turns.

And finally one of the big differences, is that there are no more towns. So no shops, or anything like that. You do all your shopping at save points. This was a choice by Square enix that has to do with the story. So while it makes sense, it does leave you craving something more from the game, if you have played previous titles.

Certain things that many people have come to expect from FF titles, such as Chocobos and a guy named Cid, are not left out of the game; and it helps keep the nostalgia alive for those you have been long time fans. Plus when you top that off with amazing graphics, and some awesome characters, Sazh being the best, (again, my opinion) you have a great all around game, despite a few problems. The main problem, which actually is not a big one, being the story. I feel the story isn't quite as epic as previous titles, though it is better then some. All in all, I give Final Fantasy 13 for the 360, a 4.5 out of 5.

Silent Hill: Shattered Memories

Platform: Wii
Developer: Climax
By: Torey Nelson, Associate Editor

Silent Hill Shattered Memories is by far one of the best games I have ever played. It has everything that I look for in a game. Though the graphics on the Wii aren’t my favorite, unfortunately it seems you can’t find any other games quite like this for the system. This game incorporates I think all the best features of the Wii into the game in a very natural way and almost every move you make in the game changes how the ending will turn out.
Starting out the game, a short scene involving a mysterious car crash erupts then cuts to Dr. Michael Kaufmann’s office. The psychiatrist gives you his first test which is a questionnaire that you must answer completely honest if you want to get the ending that best fits your personality. After you finish filling out the survey, the scene cuts back to the car crash. Enter Harry Mason, a middle aged man who was the driver of the car who has discovered that his daughter Sharon is missing! After frantically looking around the crash for her, he realizes that she must have ran off and begins his long journey to finding her.
Now the game begins getting really interesting. The first time you play is the best, because you will get most honest ending, then you can work on getting the other four. The thing you must remember is that anything and everything you look at, zoom in on, all the places you go or places you call or don’t call, changes the game.
There are usually going to be two or three choices you can make on where to go in Silent Hill. All the choices will lead you to the same place, but you may see different things, or get different trinkets along the way. Eventually you’ll come across Cybil, a hard ass police officer, depending on which way your game is going you’ll meet her before the next scene in the psychiatrists office, or after, but either way she’ll be in and out of the game up until the end.
You go through the next little part of the game and end up in an…interesting predicament. The town has seemed to freeze over and you’re now being chased by Them. They can’t see you, but They can hear you and They will find you. You have no weapon, but the key to making it through the nightmare is to look for little signs that will lead you out of it.
After the second nightmare, you’ll end up at a high school and eventually you’ll meet Michelle Valdez, who will lead you through the next bit of the game and into the next nightmare. The most important character doesn’t come until after you leave the high school however. Michelle will meet you outside the high school after the nightmare is over where she’ll get you to go get her boss’ car at the nightclub that she works at yet. This is where you will stumble upon Dahlia. The “hottest piece of ass” in town. She’s the main girl in the game and you’ll have more than a few odd encounters. The last girl you meet is a nurse named Lisa who will take you back to her apartment and ask you to grab her a pill for the head injury. She’ll fall soundly asleep on the couch and you’ll have to leave, but you’ll be back.
Toward the end of the game the nightmare’s get more and more intense and finally, you’ll make it to the last of the nightmares, which is the hardest and definitely the most confusing. But no matter what ending you end up getting, the journey getting there will always surprise you and you’ll never have to same game twice.

Fragile Dreams: Farewell Ruins of the Moon

Platform: Wii

Developer: XSeed
By: Kevin Nelson -Senior Editor

I was a huge supporter of the Wii from the very first time I played Twilight Princess on the E3 show floor. When I took the remote in my hand and used it as a sword, a bow and arrow, and boomerang, I was sold on the concept. Nintendo would go on to make the Wii one of the most successful consoles in video game history, and there I was, loyally at their side telling everyone that “I told them so”. As the years went by, however, I became less enchanted with the little white box. Each time a ‘hardcore’ title was released, gamers would pass it over for games with better graphics and the result was more shovelware crapped out into the marketplace.

It wasn’t all bad, every once in awhile there was a diamond in the rough; a game that despite being on the Wii was truly amazing, fun to play, and immersive. But I’ll applaud the No More Heroes franchise another time.

Enter Fragile Dreams: Farewell Ruins of the Moon, a Wii exclusive and inexplicably a damn fine game. This one was a bit of a mystery and I must confess that I bought it specifically because it was one of the titles that I couldn’t believe was getting a domestic release. When I saw the first trailer it evoked feelings I’ve not had since I originally ventured into Silent Hill so many years ago and I was pleased that the game was able to convey this feeling throughout.

Fragile Dreams tells the story of Seto, a young boy who, following the death of his caregiver may be the last human being alive. Following his elders’ last words, Seto sets off in the direction of a distant glowing tower where other survivors might be found. En route, he encounters Ren, a mysterious girl who, noticing Seto’s distinctly Yu-Gi-Oh style of fashion runs away from him, leading him deeper and deeper into the ruined world looking for a place to belong.

What is most intriguing to me about this game is that unlike games like Fallout or Gears of War, there is really no evidence of an apocalypse in the usual sense. Seto’s world is falling into decay from lack of use rather than a huge bomb or constant warfare. In fact, besides a few earthquakes, it seems that one day everyone simply vanished. This adds a distinctly eerie feeling to the world that a lot of games miss entirely. There are cryptic hints around the world, describing monsters and odd events that lead up to…something.

The game play itself is a slightly different story. It’s solid, but rough around the edges. The main mechanic is using the remote like a flashlight to explore the environments which works well most of the time. The biggest downside is the lack of a quick turn function which is a major hindrance when fighting large numbers of ghosts….or quick ghosts….or ghosts that teleport. All of these you will encounter often, and the addition of this feature would have been a very welcome one.

The other major gripe I have with Fragile Dreams is the enemy respawn mechanic. This is a game that requires FREQUENT backtracking, and if you run through an area with lots of baddies, you’d better just get comfortable with the fact that you’ll be battling them all every time you run through that area. This might not be such an issue if not for weapon breakdown. If you run into a tough spot and are running low on weapons or health you’ll be spending a lot of time running away from enemies, just hoping to come across something to pull your butt out of the fire.

Overall though, the game chock full of pleasant surprises. The melancholy feeling that originally drew me to the game is present wherever you are, from abandoned subway tunnels to derelict hotels. Even during Seto’s daytime adventures, there is a deeply disconcerting feeling that you’re not really safe. Instead of being a straight up adventure title, the game has some interesting RPG elements that make the constant enemy respawns at least worthwhile to fight. Perhaps most importantly, the supporting characters, from your first partner, PF, to your ghostly sidekick Sai, and all the way to the chicken-headed merchant are unique and interesting.

Fragile Dreams: Farewell Ruins of the Moon is an excellent example of how a great idea can still be made into an amazing game even without the latest in consumer electronic technology. For the story-driven gamer in need of something to make the Wii worthwhile again this game is a must play, and for anyone who considers themselves a non-biased gamer just looking for something different in a world awash with the same first-person shooter being released over and over again, you could find a lot worse ways to spend your money.

The Good:
I cried. Even Mass Effect, a game where one of the major mechanics is to get to know your team as real people, couldn’t make me do this. There’s something so much more beautiful and tragic about a character who has finally found happiness after years of being beaten down, only to then die…

The Bad:
I had to backtrack through three whole areas because I misunderstood the objective. Also, the game isn’t particularly difficult.

The Ugly:
Seriously Seto, where the HELL did you find that jacket/backpack combo? If the world HADN’T ended, you’d be the biggest nerd EVER.

BONUS! The WTF:
There’s this red painting in the hotel of a kid running away. Every time I saw it, I expected something horrible to happen. I didn’t know what, or how, but SOMETHING was going to happen. Nothing did. I want to know what the story is with that painting. SOMEONE TELL ME!!

I give Fragile Dreams: Farewell Ruins of the Moon 4 disconcerting red paintings out of 5.

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