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--- sb:recommended:playstation3 [2015/08/06 07:18]
the_blueberry_hill formatting fix
+++ sb:recommended:playstation3 [2016/02/19 06:13]
the_blueberry_hill Grow Home, Alpha Protocol, Vanquish quotes
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 Sony promised that the PS3 would have a 10-year lifespan, only to announce the non-backwards-compatible PS4 after less than seven. Promises, promises.
-^ Is whoever wrote this really that bitter? It's still getting lots of high-profile releases into 2014 (//Metal Gear//, //EDF//, //Dark Souls//), which is much better than the last several console traditions. The first few years were a trainwreck and I wouldn't even count them on the scorecard, but if you assess in terms of a regular five-or-so-year console lifespan from 2009-2014, I think it's done just fine.
+^ Is whoever wrote this really that bitter? It's still getting lots of high-profile releases into 2014 (//Metal Gear//, //EDF//, //[[game:Dark Souls]]//), which is much better than the last several console traditions. The first few years were a trainwreck and I wouldn't even count them on the scorecard, but if you assess in terms of a regular five-or-so-year console lifespan from 2009-2014, I think it's done just fine.
 ===== Recommended =====
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   ***//Alpha Protocol//** (also on: PC, 360)
-    * Tulpa: I played Alpha Protocol twice and had a riot of a time the second time through. I loved the first time through as a totally ridiculous game, but the second time showed me how versatile the game was.
+    * Tulpa: I played //Alpha Protocol// twice and had a riot of a time the second time through. I loved the first time through as a totally ridiculous game, but the second time showed me how versatile the game was.
-    * space_jam: alpha protocol is a mess but it's a totally fucking amazing mess
+    * space_jam: //alpha protocol// is a mess but it's a totally fucking amazing mess
-    * costel: Alpha Protocol is at times, one of the most engaging games I've ever played. A purely stealth based character has been somewhat difficult to manage, but more than anything I find myself at odds with what to do regarding the characters I interact with. Faced with meaningful choices and consequences, is an experience that I was completely unprepared for.
+    * costel: //Alpha Protocol// is at times, one of the most engaging games I've ever played. A purely stealth based character has been somewhat difficult to manage, but more than anything I find myself at odds with what to do regarding the characters I interact with. Faced with meaningful choices and consequences, is an experience that I was completely unprepared for.
     * Ni Go Zero Ichi: It's a hideous buggy mess with some intriguing ideas buried inside. Maybe on PC it's had some of the technical shittiness patched/modded out.
+    * CubaLibre: The more I think about //Alpha Protocol// the more I believe it is the shit. It's a criminally ignored and underappreciated version of the "choices & consequences" gameform that is completely narratively coherent and completely shits all over Bioware's inexplicably vastly more popular efforts.
+    * Mr. Mechanical: Everyone should play //Alpha Protocol//. Always go for the "be a jerk" dialog option. Every time.
+      * boojiboy7: PROTIP: Almost every dialogue option is "be a jerk". It's just a matter of choosing what kind of jerk you want to be.
+    * Tulpa: //Alpha Protocol//'s pretty much the best kind of mess, the things it does good it really does better than any other game and the things it does bad are mediocre to bad but not so bad that you want to stop (unless you are a weenie)
+scratchmonkey: Really, I have no arguments with anybody who suggests that //Alpha Protocol// is one of the great misunderstood games of our time.
+    * Guillotine: //Alpha Protocol// is brilliant. The smallish-medium scale (for a videogame anyway) probably helps mantaining its strong cohesion, The are tons of variations and it really feels your choices matters - even if the story doesn't really change much, how you go along for the ride does significantly.\\ I remember this little detail, sadly I'm a bit fuzzy about it: There's this big ex pro boxer guy, and in a dialogue your character will say something akin to "yeah? well I got first place in my college tournament". Later you can fight him, and by defeating him unarmed just after the fact your character will briefly talk to himself: "...told you so..." or something to this effect.\\ And yeah Mike is the best jerk.
   ***//Anarchy Reigns//** (also on: 360)
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     * Loki: An obscenely fun 3d beatemup about a witch killing angels.
     * Rudie: It also really makes you feel awful for dying and I kind of resent the game for it.  I enjoy it when I played it then I die and it pretty much kills all my interest again and again.
-    * gatotsu2501: I wish Hideki Kamiya had played Ninja Gaiden instead of God of War. Oh well, it's still a decently fun character-actioner.
+    * gatotsu2501: I wish [[people:Hideki Kamiya]] had played //[[game:ninja_gaiden_series|Ninja Gaiden]]// instead of //[[game:god_of_war_series|God of War]]//. Oh well, it's still a decently fun character-actioner.
     * diplo: Was a time when I thought this was fun. Not anymore! Returning to it last year (2013) was the most cheerless thing. Really not into the Perfect Dodge = COMBO TIME mechanic, the chances for instant failure offered by the QTEs, enemies' rococo makeup that make reading their movements unnecessarily hard, or the finger-hurting button mashing and joystick twirling required by the contextual Murder Moves.
-    * Felix: It was Platinum's flagship title in their only genre and it's not quite as good as anything they've done since (Revengeance, Vanquish, Anarchy Reigns) or for that matter anything Capcom/Clover did immediately prior (DMC3, God Hand), mainly due to the dumb mechanics catalogued by Diplo. It's not a bad representative of this type of game, and no other developer could really even pull this off, but it's also not that super great.
+    * Felix: It was [[company:Platinum]]'s flagship title in their only genre and it's not quite as good as anything they've done since (//[[game:metal_gear_rising_revengeance|Revengeance]]//, //[[game:Vanquish]]//, //[[game:Anarchy Reigns]]//) or for that matter anything Capcom/Clover did immediately prior (DMC3, God Hand), mainly due to the dumb mechanics catalogued by Diplo. It's not a bad representative of this type of game, and no other developer could really even pull this off, but it's also not that super great.
   ***//[[game:bionic_commando_2009]]//** (also on: 360, PC) - [[http://forums.selectbutton.net/viewtopic.php?t=41577|forum thread]]
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     * gatotsu2501: Rough and unpolished shooter with some really neat ideas and excellent presentation - the voice acting is some of the best I've heard in video games, the environments are beautiful, twisted and haunting, and there are some truly unforgettable event sequences thrown in there. The 360 version looks better and runs smoother.
-  ***//Dark Souls//** (also on: 360, PC) - [[http://forums.selectbutton.net/viewtopic.php?t=32130|forum thread]] [[http://forums.selectbutton.net/viewtopic.php?t=36306|forum thread]] [[http://forums.selectbutton.net/viewtopic.php?t=35471|forum thread]]
+  ***//[[game:Dark Souls]]//** (also on: 360, PC) - [[http://forums.selectbutton.net/viewtopic.php?t=32130|forum thread]] [[http://forums.selectbutton.net/viewtopic.php?t=36306|forum thread]] [[http://forums.selectbutton.net/viewtopic.php?t=35471|forum thread]]
     * Youpi: //Dark Souls// makes me wish the internet didn't exist so I could only get my information about it from the other kids trying to sort out the useful strategies from the ludicrous playground rumors.
     * Adilegian: When I got to the first boss, that guardian drake thing of the crypt, I thought, "Oh, haha [[company:from_software|From]], this is where I die and get taken somewhere or something. You can't fool me!" And then I just died!
       * Adilegian: Holy crap this game is hard.
     * TXTSWORD: I would certainly not say it's perfect --- there are valid complaints... but the positives so far outweigh any problems that I just can't bring myself to care too much. A lot of their ideas were so ambitious that there are bound to be problems and to me this only shows great promise for the future of the souls games. More refinement on solid ideas and probably more ambitious ideas that maybe don't work perfectly but so fucking what. It's progress and it's daring and it's brilliant.\\ Last weekend I decided I'd //Dark Souls//'d out after making 3 new character to completion in less than 2 weeks time. I made it almost a week before I started Generic Knight and I've had as much fun as I've ever had. I'm sitting on several more character ideas I'll want to make. Sometimes I'm freshly aware and appreciative of how bizarre and wondrous the world design is and how interesting and gorgeous the environments are. I'm so appreciative of a game that isn't trying to be "bad ass". I mean reading((http://www.edge-online.com/features/dark-matters-0/2/)) [[people:hidetaka_miyazaki|the game's producer]] talking about his refusal to include gratuitous blood and gore seems so refreshing. It's not so much the exact subject --- blood and gore --- as the mindset. It's a sort of desire for refinement, for quality, for a cohesive and unique vision and direction. For having principals. It's as if the game has respect for itself and refuses to lower itself to people who want a hard ass protagonist spouting one liners (as an example). It's the kind of thing I'm not used to seeing and I don't think it's occurred to me just how deeply I appreciate and respect that. It's kind of difficult for me to articulate, and for that I'm sorry.
-    * spectralsound: Both //Souls// games are amazing even if only for the fact that they're content with keeping quiet about some things, and leaving it up to the player to determine what that character's history is or what his motives are or where he's going. It's honestly about a much of a selling point for me as the gameplay is, especially in this era of //[[game:tes_v|Skyrim]]//s and //[[game:mass_effect_series|Mass Effect]]//s, where every random villager or space tourist has this dense backstory that is presented to you in text dumps with such frequency that it becomes suffocating. Playing //Dark Souls// after playing those games feels like zen meditation.
+    * spectralsound: Both //[[game:souls_series|Souls]]// games are amazing even if only for the fact that they're content with keeping quiet about some things, and leaving it up to the player to determine what that character's history is or what his motives are or where he's going. It's honestly about a much of a selling point for me as the gameplay is, especially in this era of //[[game:tes_v|Skyrim]]//s and //[[game:mass_effect_series|Mass Effect]]//s, where every random villager or space tourist has this dense backstory that is presented to you in text dumps with such frequency that it becomes suffocating. Playing //Dark Souls// after playing those games feels like zen meditation.
     * remote: //Dark Souls// is a bit more ambitious than its predecessor and is thus more engrossing (or just as engrossing, but perhaps with greater longevity) despite a couple of late areas that feel like big ideas with disappointingly very little to be seen or explored. I can't really bring myself to say that //[[game:demons_souls|Demon's Souls]]// was hands-down the better game, but "more graceful" might be an apt enough way of putting it. It feels more elegant and complete in its simplicity, whereas //Dark Souls// has left me wanting more, driving me to keep playing and experimenting with covenants, new characters/classes, PVP and co-op, narrative aspects I have not yet discovered, etc. I'm definitely consumed by it as well.
-    * Tulpa: Tulpa: I think one of the most aesthetically appealing things about Dark Souls, especially compared to other fantasy games, is the way it taps into a mythopoeic style of fantasy as opposed to an ersatz medievalism+monsters.\\ Within //Dark Souls//, the player character interacts with gods and demons from the very start and fights to change the cosmology of the world instead of wandering around a traditional and ultimately unsatisfying fantasy setting that feels like pop culture medieval earth plus orcs.
+    * Tulpa: Tulpa: I think one of the most aesthetically appealing things about //Dark Souls//, especially compared to other fantasy games, is the way it taps into a mythopoeic style of fantasy as opposed to an ersatz medievalism+monsters.\\ Within //Dark Souls//, the player character interacts with gods and demons from the very start and fights to change the cosmology of the world instead of wandering around a traditional and ultimately unsatisfying fantasy setting that feels like pop culture medieval earth plus orcs.
-    * diplo: The intensity and duration of interest surrounding Dark Souls shows that it satisfied some aesthetic and/or interactive need that titles seemingly haven't satisfied very often. Of course, it's much easier to see the game's fumbles today than back in 2011 (it's a very improvable videogame) -- even so, those several-hundred hours I invested don't feel misguided or of-the-moment. Personally the most important and enjoyable game I've played in years, and one of the most successful attempts by a game to turn the often ignored morbidity of videogames into a central, explicable theme. Its level design does a bunch of special things, one being that you'll often preemptively see landmarks and networks which you go on to explore one way or another, lending the sequences of exploration a visually prophetic air. Rare and excellent.
+    * diplo: The intensity and duration of interest surrounding //Dark Souls// shows that it satisfied some aesthetic and/or interactive need that titles seemingly haven't satisfied very often. Of course, it's much easier to see the game's fumbles today than back in 2011 (it's a very improvable videogame) -- even so, those several-hundred hours I invested don't feel misguided or of-the-moment. Personally the most important and enjoyable game I've played in years, and one of the most successful attempts by a game to turn the often ignored morbidity of videogames into a central, explicable theme. Its level design does a bunch of special things, one being that you'll often preemptively see landmarks and networks which you go on to explore one way or another, lending the sequences of exploration a visually prophetic air. Rare and excellent.
-  ***//Dark Souls II//** (also on: 360, PC)
+  ***//Dark Souls II//** (also on: 360, PC, PS4, XB1)
-    * CubaLibre: it adds some mechanical improvements at the expense of thematic depth. In other words they improved the stuff that I didn't really think needed improving at the expense of the one thing //D'Souls// did better than anyone. It's still a good game, it's just not a great game. You play it through once and you don't feel a whole lot of pull to experience it again.
+    * CubaLibre: it adds some mechanical improvements at the expense of thematic depth. In other words they improved the stuff that I didn't really think needed improving at the expense of the one thing //[[game:dark_souls|D'Souls]]// did better than anyone. It's still a good game, it's just not a great game. You play it through once and you don't feel a whole lot of pull to experience it again.
-    * mauve: //DS2// is one step forwards two steps backwards. It does some things really well (the aforementioned mechanical issues, which are unfortunately marred by ridiculous hitbox issues and perhaps an over-nerf of sprinting), but the overall world is simply not as compelling and the level design has fewer moments of greatness. And soul memory is off-putting to playing characters for long periods of time, as you can't simply designate a cut-off point for your character anymore without becoming wildly outclassed in multiplayer.\\ It's still a good game. It's just, well, it's not the //Dark Souls 2// of //Dark Souls//, it's the //Dark Souls 2// of //Dark Souls 2//. It's doing its own thing, and overall it is not as good for it.
+    * mauve: //DS2// is one step forwards two steps backwards. It does some things really well (the aforementioned mechanical issues, which are unfortunately marred by ridiculous hitbox issues and perhaps an over-nerf of sprinting), but the overall world is simply not as compelling and the level design has fewer moments of greatness. And soul memory is off-putting to playing characters for long periods of time, as you can't simply designate a cut-off point for your character anymore without becoming wildly outclassed in multiplayer.\\ It's still a good game. It's just, well, it's not the //Dark Souls 2// of //[[game:Dark Souls]]//, it's the //Dark Souls 2// of //Dark Souls 2//. It's doing its own thing, and overall it is not as good for it.
   ***//Deadly Premonition: Director's Cut//** (also on: 360, PC) - [[http://forums.selectbutton.net/viewtopic.php?t=26281|forum thread]]
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     * Rudie: I still think extremely highly of this game even if it made me sigh a few times.  The bosses aren't as challenging as they could have been, and the New Game + is just numbers are higher.  You absolutely must play it as it is still a stellar game.
     * ChairTax: This game was easily my favorite game from this console generation and it's no hyperbole to say that it completely reshaped how and why I play videogames.
-    * diplo: By now, in 2014, it's been hugely overshadowed by Dark Souls (and the upcoming sequel), but it's hardly irrelevant. In fact, at times I find it preferable to Dark Souls. Environments are often dark and frightening, the challenge is tenser (no poise, dying puts you at the start of a world, co-op is a bit more strict), architecture has a bluntness tied to the appearance of early European castles that really drives home a feeling of labyrinthine monumentality, carry-weight matters, and in general the atmosphere has an air of desperation and failure that I find more appealing than the one in Dark Souls. Its greatest issues are probably the obtuse weapon-upgrading system, the too-vague-to-be-fully-enjoyed World Tendency aspect, a lack of heft to character physics, and a boss that's just too much to deal with on your own as a busy adult if you're doing NG+ and beyond.
+    * diplo: By now, in 2014, it's been hugely overshadowed by //[[game:Dark Souls]]// (and the upcoming sequel), but it's hardly irrelevant. In fact, at times I find it preferable to //Dark Souls//. Environments are often dark and frightening, the challenge is tenser (no poise, dying puts you at the start of a world, co-op is a bit more strict), architecture has a bluntness tied to the appearance of early European castles that really drives home a feeling of labyrinthine monumentality, carry-weight matters, and in general the atmosphere has an air of desperation and failure that I find more appealing than the one in //Dark Souls//. Its greatest issues are probably the obtuse weapon-upgrading system, the too-vague-to-be-fully-enjoyed World Tendency aspect, a lack of heft to character physics, and a boss that's just too much to deal with on your own as a busy adult if you're doing NG+ and beyond.
   ***//Devil May Cry 4//** (also on: 360, PC, PS4, XB1)
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   ***//Devil May Cry HD Collection//** (also on: 360)
+  ***//Dishonored//** (also on: 360, PC)
+    * Ni Go Zero Ichi: Steampunk-themed spiritual successor to //Deus Ex//, by some of the original designers (unlike the more popular //Human Revolution//). It's an unexpectedly slow-burn sort of game, and probably the more faithful successor to //Deus Ex// when all is said and done, lacking the big-budget frills and streamlined mechanics of AAA gaming in favor of more choices, more playstyle flexibility, more freedom. I really don't dig steampunk at all, but the writing is honestly pretty good in a graphic novel sort of way.
   ***//[[game:edf_series#Earth Defense Force Insect Armageddon]]//** (also on: 360) - [[http://forums.selectbutton.net/viewtopic.php?t=33398|forum thread]]
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   ***//Grand Theft Auto V//** (also on: 360, PC, PS4, XB1)
+  ***//Grow Home//** (also on: PC)
+    * Mikey: //Grow Home// is the first [[hardware:playstation_4|PS4]] game I've played that has made me use the [[hardware:playstation_4#Share_Button|Share button]]. It's a game about moving a clumsy robot around, making a towering vine grow by connecting offshoots of the vine to floating islands. It's captures the simple joy of locomotion and has a really attractive, colorful, low-poly aesthetic. The robot's clumsiness also makes for some white-knuckle climbing/platforming which makes it a perfect antidote to a game like Shadow of Mordor where the climbing is semi-automatic and purely a means to an end, but manages to be a pain in the ass by way of dodgy geometry/controls.\\ So yeah I've dropped that game and I'm just playing //Grow Home// now because it doesn't make me feel tired of video games.\\ edit: Also it's kind of shocking that this came out of a [[company:Ubisoft]] studio but I guess it's probably one of those smaller companies that they snapped up and slapped a generic Ubi moniker on
+    * Felix: fwiw //Grow Home// seriously scratched my //[[game:Mario 64]]// platformer itch that I had no idea was there + //Grow Home// is fantastic. probably my favourite game of the year other than //[[game:Her Story]]//. I honestly don't think anyone's made an exploratory-style 3D platformer that well since 1996
+    * Mr Mechanical: So //Grow Home//, [...] is a pretty chill exploration/platformer thing featuring a cute robot with goofy procedural animation and really fun climbing. Like you can climb on everything and each of your two robot hands corresponds to a button on the controller so climbing around involves getting into a little rhythm and also you can grab objects this way as well and drag them around.\\ There are crystals in each level that when you find enough they upgrade your abilities. I just unlocked a jetpack ability that's kind of weaksauce right now but I assume will get better with more upgrades. Also there are flower things you can get to float down from really tall heights and the whole game has kind of a floaty feel to it in general.\\ I think it was some kind of small student project or something from a few people inside Ubisoft that miraculously got turned into a game. Basically each level has a certain plant you have to reach that has certain branches that you climb on and then grow them out to floating power sources that make the plant itself grow taller. The goal is to grow the plant up into space so your spaceship can reach it and take it back to earth.\\ It's all kind of janky but it's also pretty cute and very relaxing in a way. I have a blast just climbing around the environment looking for crystals or dragging new plants/animals into the checkpoint spot to be scanned into the database. I think this one's a keeper.
+    * The Blueberry Hill: Adding my voice to Mikey, Felix and Mr Mech in saying the //Grow Home// is really ace. One of the nicest feeling games I've played in ages, especially when plucking crystals (shame flowers kinda don't fully pluck). So far it's progressing really nicely and naturally: There was the having fun just climbing phase, the finding lots of surprising areas phase, and then the lets pick things up and throw them in the teleporter phase (they don't teleport, just get scanned).\\ I really like the wobbly procedural animation (he feels alive!), and zooming the camera out (by clicking the right stick) makes it feel kinda //[[game:Ico]]//-y. Also the wobblyness and sound effects remind me of //[[game:Vib-Ribbon]]//. Dropping those two names made me think that something I like here is that I feel like I'm helping out this robot guy, rather than him being an avatar for me.\\ Also it's fun to feel like a sperm when you're controlling the new plant offshots and guiding them towards power crytals/eggs.
   ***//Ico & Shadow of the Colossus HD Collection//**
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   ***//Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance//** (also on: 360, PC)
+  ***//Metal Slug 3//** (also on: 360, Arcade, Neo-Geo, PC, PS2, PS4, PS Vita, XBox, Wii)
+    * Broco: Everything is a bullet sponge, even the first [[character:crab|crab enemies]] in Stage 1. Most of the bosses don't give you any weapon drops so you need to kill them with the pistol if you die once.\\ There sure is a lot of great artwork in it so it's worth playing once or twice for that. But //[[game:metal_slug_series#Metal Slug X]]// is definitely where the most fun is to be had in general.
+    * Loki Laufeyson: //3// would be the best if the final stage wasn't such absolute bullshit
+    * allensmithee: //3// is fucking tiresome but it has the most sights to see so i feel it is worth playing for that purpose. it gets really fucking ridiculous
   ***//Mirror's Edge//** (also on: 360, PC) - [[http://forums.selectbutton.net/viewtopic.php?t=13563|forum thread]]
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     * Felix: Before I played this, I thought: I never want to actually relax and take my time in a game to the extent that's required to appreciate an open world, and I'm sure that way too much of the game is centred around middling shooting, and I'm sick of narratives about men trying to leave a life of crime, and it doesn't seem like you can create chaos to the same extent as you can in GTA to overlook the insufficiently crunchy mechanics. This game has every one of those flaws, but the world design and the dialogue are actually that good and it's still a lot of fun. Also, the amount of ground you lackadaisically cover gave me a new appreciation for custom soundtracks, even if the PS3 implementation is a little clumsy. Feels a little like no one gave any thought to a difficulty curve; the shooting never really gets any tougher after 1/3 of the way through, and about 10 of the game's 60 or so missions could've been cut and it would have been better for it.
     * Ni Go Zero Ichi: The combat gets really dull, really fast, and the mission design isn't nearly varied or clever enough to make up for it. That said, the world is designed with such care, thematic consistency and attention to detail that wandering around and exploring it remains a simple joy for quite some time. This game's inevitable sequel will probably blow it out of the water.
+  ***//Remember Me//** (also on: 360, PC, PS3) - [[http://forums.selectbutton.net/viewtopic.php?t=41459|forum thread]]
+    * Jaihson: Imagine the simpler hang and jump sections of a modern Prince of Persia game. Now add a giant yellow arrow pointing at every possible interactable surface within a certain distance of you at all times. Intersperse encounters that are pretty much a stripped down, less impactful version of the pattern recognition fighting in Rocksteady's Batman games. Defeat 90s movie Lawnmower Man at the end. That's pretty much it.
+    * Talbain: From my experience, rather the concept art looks nice, and the game's a terrible mess. Weird lighting, visual discontinuity, and for some reason a fighting game when it could have been a pretty cool spy thing. And that combo system has to be the dumbest thing I've seen thought up in ages. Play the dumbest version of Simon Says, but only when Simon Says that you can play a certain version of Simon Says. Yeah. Radical.
+    * meauxdal: this game does pretty much suck ass, yes. i've been trying to muster up the motivation to play more of it, but... nah
+    * Mikey: I have to say I really like this. It's the sort of cyberpunk dystopia stuff I eat up. Playing this in French with subtitles is pretty great, too. The memory-remixing is way too paint-by-numbers, but the funky combo lab stuff is kinda fun. I don't mind the icons that show you where to climb as, honestly, it's not like most other games of this type don't make it absurdly easy to do that kind of stuff, anyway. Gonna keep playing.
+    * Gironika: it's kinda like an [[company:Irem]] game, really.\\ You just cannot honestly recommend it to anyone, because you need to have a certain amount of enthusiasm to ignore issues that can be dealbreakers for most people.\\ It's like advising someone to buy a vintage car instead of a new one --- like you'll pretty much have more problems running it, it's less safe, less powerful, hasn't got the bells'n'whistles of ipod connectivity bluetooth integration disc changers, you might not even get spare parts easily … can you seriously recommend buying such a car to anyone? Your 18 year old daughter that might break down with it at 1am in the morning?\\ You need to be an enthusiast that can enjoy the moments when it works --- this must be enough for you to put up with the rest. Are you such a person? Then yeah, go ahead and try it!
   ***//Resident Evil 5: Gold Edition//** (also on: 360, PS3)
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     * Felix: The narrative is, for lack of a better word, appalling (jRPG tropes out the yin-yang + alternate history WW2 = liberating cel-shaded concentration camps), and makes you wonder if Skies of Arcadia has really aged that poorly. Pacing is also a bit funny -- you go from a somewhat protracted introduction to a succession of gimmicky battles that make you long for a chance to just play with the core rules of the game. Suffers slightly from Final Fantasy X syndrome when it comes to building your characters, in that you're forced to approve a bunch of non-decisions manually. Has one of the weirder sets of binary-mechanics-overlaid-on-analogue-ones I've encountered, and initially feels awkward and abusable, but eventually clicks. In spite of all that, this is easily the most inventive narrative-driven strategy RPG on a console that wasn't made by [[people:yasumi_matsuno|Matsuno]], and pretty much the only game of its class in close to a decade. Makes as many smart design decisions as dumb ones; fans of the genre have no reason not to pick it up.
-  ***//Vanquish//** (also on: 360) - [[http://forums.selectbutton.net/viewtopic.php?t=28031|forum thread]]
+  ***//[[game:Vanquish]]//** (also on: 360) - [[http://forums.selectbutton.net/viewtopic.php?t=28031|forum thread]]
     * gatotsu2501: Level and enemy design are a bit bland and the story, even as little of it as there is, is jarringly atrocious. That said, the controls and core mechanics (shooting, dashing, using your suit powers, etc.) are solid as steel, and it's still a better action game than just about any other you're likely to play.
     * CubaLibre: It's a pretty good game with a couple of very crippling flaws. It could have been truly great, but instead it's just pretty fun.
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     * Baseballkappe: I think I saw Dracko comparing it to //[[game:MDK]]// here and it's absolutely true and it's great fun and I kind of really love the game.\\ If anything it's the most cheerful militaryish shooter on the market.\\ Also boosting right through enemy lines and trying to attack them from the rear while being showered with bullets is cool.
     * Felix: The shooting is more solid than any cover shooter I've played apart from Gears, the boosting and dodging are tons of fun (hell, I refuse to play any shooter that doesn't have some kind of cool dodge mechanic), and there's a real brawler/shmup vibe to the whole thing, in terms of the enemy variety and the bosses which you can shoot turrets off of. Despite being a very grey-coloured game, the whole thing looks and moves really, really well. That said, it's one of those games that's both too short for the amount of money you're likely to pay for it and too long for the length of time its mechanics remain interesting. I finally played it after it was released for $20 on PSN, and I really dug it, but I can see why it didn't do too well at retail (definitely don't give a damn about the lack of multiplayer, though). Also, I think the narrative is actually pretty enjoyable -- it's stupid as hell, but the writing is way better for what it is than any number of other games'.
+    * kiken: It's very much a 3rd person version of //[[game:ESPGaluda]]// (sans gender-swapping). I think it stems from the fact that Sam's combat movement options are always available from the word "go" (there's no gaining of new abilities) and that learning to play the game well boils down to effective utilization and meter management. The weapon upgrade system may seem a tad counter-intuitive at first, but it actually strikes a nice chord with the movement system as managing weapons requires you to prioritize between ammo conservation and the usage of upgrade icons. All of this combines into a very tight and smooth flowing combat system.\\ In a nutshell, //Vanquish// fixes every awkward mechanic in //[[game:PN03]]//.
   ***//Virtua Tennis//** (also on: 360, PC)