Warning for the gamers

Don't bother with Pelican wireless controllers. Two xbox, one PS2, one Gamecube have *all* ended up with the identical problem. There is quite frequently a "bounce back" where you go in a reverse or random direction after the stick or gamepad returns to center. We haven't seen the same problem with Logitech nor Nintendo wireless controllers.

Game Review - DQ8

Title: Dragon Quest VII - Journey of the Cursed King
Platform: PS2
Genre: RPG
Complete: Yes (mainline quest, first ending)
Price Paid: $49.99 (new)
Would Pay: $59.99

First game that I've ever felt was really worth it at more than the prevailing price. The graphics are good, the music is high symphonic, played by the Tokyo Orchestra. The game world is huge, with lots of nooks and crannies to explore.

This is an old school RPG, little changed from early console games. You go around, bashing monsters to get better items and level up. There are some minor changes (an extremely useful "Heal All" menu option), but everything it is quite close to its pedigree as a console RPG. It's the classic "Teenager's town gets destroyed, goes after destroyer" cliche, but with enough twists to keep you engaged. The sideline quests that opened up after the first ending brought to a close some loose ends that were nagging (and telegraphed from a mile away), and then closes loose ends you never even thought of as loose ends. The removal of the curse ranks right up there with the revelation of the precursors in the Jak and Daxter series. (and yes, if you've played both games, this can be construed as a spoiler ;)

This isn't the perfect RPG, but it's damn good. I would've preferred a save anywhere system rather than save points, but you have to admit, they were creative with the implementation of the save points, with a save being a "confession of your deeds to the Goddess". It took me a while to get used to the monsters, many of which are bad puns (such as the rabbit with a horn - a bunicorn). More disappointing is that they frequently reused models, simply changing their coloration. The more advanced level of the bunicorn, looking the same, only darker, was the "spiked hare". There was a minor bug I ran into with my team, where if they killed a monster with a special move, the monster would happily be standing there with his animations for the rest of the battle. This was the only bug I noticed, and unlike certain other RPGs, it was only cosmetic.

If you've played and enjoyed any turn based RPGs, you owe it to yourself to get this game. I've been playing it for some 140 odd hours, so it is quite the timesink. jenbooks swore she hated turn based RPGs, she can't stand watching the battle going in an order when they should just be pounding the snot out of each other. She is some 60 hours in now.

Game Review - Syberia 2

Title: Syberia II
Platform: XBox
Genre: Adventure
Complete: Yes
Price Paid: $17.99 (new)
Would Pay: $3.99

I bought this because I wanted to see where it was going to go after Syberia. To be perfectly honest, that was a pretty poor reason to buy this. Crap like this is why people repeat the litany "Adventure games are dead". I could not bring myself to care about the characters, and the only reason I finished was that I went through so much trouble trying to find it. I simply went through the motions, referring to the FAQ more and more as I got further along. My preference is to use FAQs to the smallest degree possible, but trying to solve some of these puzzles was more of a chore than anything else. Alternating between this and Dragon's Quest may have highlighted the flaws in my mind, but there certainly didn't seem to be anything done right enough to wipe the bad taste out of my mouth. Sure, the graphics are absolutely gorgeous, but that doesn't make up for the lack of pacing and kludgy interface.