Star Ocean: The Last Hope Review

I just got my hands on Star Ocean: The Last Hope through my Gamefly video game rental account and have been playing for the past week. So far I am fairly pleased with the game. The gameplay is fairly fast and addictive, the graphics are gorgeous and the story is solid so far (though maybe a little trite). Here is a quick gameplay video to get you started, then I will go into a little more review of the game:

The Star Ocean Story

A.D 2064...Planet Earth was on the brink of destruction as clashes between the World Republic Federation and the various nations that opposed it sparked the outbreak of World War III. Weapons of mass destruction, deployed with complete impunity razed the land in the blink of an eye. The dire situation forced the two opposing factions to negotiate a cease-fire and an agreement was quickly reached, but although the war may have ended, its effects remained. With the deteriorating environment, Earth's population was drastically reduced and those who survived lived a confined existence trapped in underground cities. Eventually countries joined together to form the Greater United Nations and turned their eyes skyward, to space. With the establishment of the USTA, the Universal Science and Technology Administration, man began to seek new worlds beyond the stars.



AD 2087...The first year of the spacedate (SD) calendar. Thanks to the success of Professor Trillas Bachstein's warp drive experiments, mankind's dream of a spacebourne existence has inched closer to reality and the USTA secretly began to implement its SRF project, the Space Reconnaissance Force. Now it is SD 0010, and the first official SRF mission and your adventure has begun.

The Star Ocean Review

So how good is the game? When it comes down to the battles and basic gameplay, Star Ocean is a ton of fun. The fighting is all real time and the pace is very fast. You control one out of the four party members at a time while the others are controlled by basic AI. You can switch between the different members anytime during the battle so you can take better control over your battle strategy. Each character has a different set of skills and abilities, so you will find yourself using the other characters quite a bit as each of them are fun to use. Battles are made even more exciting with monster aggro and rush mode with its party combos and bonuses.

I have not finished the game by any means, but I have played enough to get a good feel of the story and characters. Unfortunately the characters are a little cliche and the voice acting is not that great. There are some long cut scenes as well and some of them can be tough to get through. You can skip them if you want and the game then provides you with the text of the cut scene so you can figure out what is going on. However the story is not too bad and I do not think it takes too much away from the game experience.

So far I have been very pleased with Star Ocean: The Last Hope. I would recommend it for RPG fans in general and definitely for fans of the series. If you are unsure, then what better way to try the game out then renting it at Gamefly!

Resident Evil 5 Release Date... Today!

I have been waiting for a LONG time for this. Resident Evil 5 ships today! Woo hoo! You can get Resident Evil 5 today with free shipping, or you can rent Resident Evil 5 today!

Killzone 2 Video Review

I actually played the original Killzone back in 2004 on my PS2. It was a decent first person shooter that had a great storyline and solid gameplay. It had its fair share of issues, though, and ended up just a so-so game. There were many good things about the game, but it just missed. There are a lot of games out there like that. They do so many things right, but screw up on a few vital areas of the game and it really affects the overall quality of the game.

So when I heard about Killzone 2 I was not quite sure what to think. If the makers of Killzone were able to take the good aspects of the original, fix the technical shortcomings and make the transition over to the PS3, then it could be one hell of a game! Killzone 2 started shipping on February 27th, so the reviews are starting to pour in. From everything I have read so far, it is a great game and one of the best first person shooters around. The guys over at Gamespot even gave it an Editor's Choice. Below is a video preview for Killzone 2 for PS3.



Ready to give Killzone 2 a try? Why not rent Killzone 2 for 10 days free at Gamefly?

Gamefly Video Game Rental Review

For many years I have purchased most of my video games either new or used at my local game store. I usually traded in games once I was done with them, and only kept the ones I planned on playing again. For the most part I thought I was getting a pretty good deal by buying used when possible and trading my games in. Yet a few months back I decided to go back and see how much I had spent on games. I just looked at the past year and went through all of my credit card charges and receipts. I was shocked to realize that I had spent almost $700 in video games in one year. That includes the trades!

Now I am more than happy to spend money on video games. They are an entertainment form that I enjoy and I feel like you can get a lot of value out of video games when compared to other forms of entertainment. Heck, going to a movie will run you $10 and that is only for a couple hours of entertainment! Games provide many hours of enjoyment and I believe they are a good value even when buying new.

So having totaled up my annual costs for video games in a year, I decided to see if there were some other option out there to bring down the costs further. I looked at buying and selling on eBay, but there are risks involved and a lot of work as well. Scratch that. I then stumbled on the idea of renting video games. Looking at a couple of options, I realized that I may have found the best possible way to save money and play as many games as I wanted!

There are only a few options online for renting video games, so I asked around a bit to see if any of my friends were renting. I had a buddy who used Gamefly and he was very happy with them overall, so decided to give GameFly a try. I started with the free 10 day Gamefly trial.


After filling out my basic details, I started searching the Gamefly website for games I wanted to play. I had a list built up inside of my head already and was able to find about a dozen games I wanted to play right away. I added them to my game queue and sorted them in the order I wanted them.

The very next day I received an e-mail from Gamefly letting me know that the first two games I had in my queue were shipping. One day later I found two envelopes from Gamefly in my mailbox. 48 hours from signup and I was ready to play!

Both games arrived in good shape and were in good condition. There were no manuals with the games, but Gamefly has some basic control information on their site. You can also locate game manuals pretty easily online, so this was not much of a problem. One of the games I rented was a game I wanted to try for a while, but it was not rated well and I was not sure I would like it. Sure enough, the game sucked and I decided to send it back. Perfect opportunity to see how quickly the game would get turned around!

I put the game back in the prepaid envelope and dropped it in the mail. Two days later I received an e-mail stating that they had received the game and that same day I received an e-mail informing me that my next game rental in the queue was shipping. The next day I had the replacement game in my mailbox! Now I am in California and there is a hub close by, so not everyone will see the same speed of delivery. Yet from what I have heard, most people get games pretty quickly.

So what does it cost to rent video games from Gamefly? First of all they offer the free 10 day trial on the two disc plan, or you can get a 40% discount on your first month for either the one game or the two game rental plan. The one game plan starts at $8.95 for the first month and is $15.95 after that. The two game plan starts at $12.95 (if you do no take the free 10 day offer) for the first month and is $22.95 after that. So I am looking at $23 a month to be able to rent two video games at a time with unlimited game rentals.

What was I spending before per month when I was buying games? Almost $60 a month! So I am looking to save several hundred dollars a year by renting video games through Gamefly. Plus, I am playing more games now than before and I have the chance to try some games that I otherwise might not have tried. It is great to try a game you are not sure you will like, because if you hate it you just drop it back in the mail. No regrets!

I have been using Gamefly for the past three months and have received about a dozen games from them. I have had zero problems so far and have been very happy with the service. It is going to save me LOTS of money and will allow me to experience even more games than before. If I decide I want to keep a game, I can simply let Gamefly know I want it and they send me the case and manual and give me a great used price on the game. It is that easy!

So I would absolutely recommend that gamers out there take a look at renting video games from Gamefly. Go ahead, try the free 10 day Gamefly video game rental trial today!

Guitar Hero Metallica Interview

Less than one month until the Guitar Hero Metallica release date! The release date for Guitar Hero Metallica is
March 29th and I already have my preorder placed with the Red Octane Guitar Hero shop. So I plan on rocking out immediately after release.

I was cruising around the web and found a cool interview on the Gamespot website with Alan Flores, the producer at Neversoft for the Guitar Hero Metallica game. He talks about the basic gameplay and the ability to play career mode, or jump right in and play any of the songs immediately. With the career mode you can take your band from a starting garage band to world famous metal heroes while unlocking songs, characters, guitars and many more extras.

Another thing I found very interesting is the fact that they are providing the ability to play the drums with the double bass. Apparently there will be a splitter with a second pedal which will allow for the double bass to be used. The standard modes will only use the single bass, but the most difficult mode will allow the double bass to play just like Metallica! Pretty cool...

Anyways, here is the Guitar Hero Metallica interview video:

Mass Effect 2 Teaser Trailer

I thought that Mass Effect was one of the best games on the market last year. It was not perfect by any means, but it was a game you could find yourself immersed in for hours at a time. It had great RPG components, excellent shooter gameplay and a huge universe to explore. Yet when it ended I found myself wanting more... much more! Enter Mass Effect 2! Admittedly this trailer is just a teaser and gives us very little... but it certainly whets the appetite for more of the Mass Effect universe. Without further ado, here it is...