The Last Hope

The first two entrants to the series have only just recently made their way over from Japan as ports on the PSP and the third was a PS2 exclusive. Just to make sure things get extra muddled for fans, this latest saga, The Last Hope, is an Xbox 360 exclusive. Don't let the system hopping deter you.
Despite some rough pacing and a story that could be told in a much more engaging manner, tri-Ace and Square Enix's latest RPG holds together quite well thanks to some action-packed gameplay. Those who have been starved for a solid Japanese role-playing game in recent months will find a lot to like here. The Last Hope is a prequel saga, laying the groundwork for the previous three games.
There is no knowledge needed of those past entrants to the franchise to enjoy this game, but you will recognize a few nods towards the future if you're in the know. This game details mankind's first steps into space after World War III has left Earth's surface inhospitable. It all picks up after a quick rundown of the devastating war with the introduction of the main character, Edge Maverick, and his childhood friend, Reimi Saionji. These two are members of a select group that will scour the galaxy in search of a new homeland for humanity. They are, in effect, our last hope now that Earth has been ravaged. Of course, things don't go smoothly from the opening faster-than-light jump and the two are quickly thrust into a series of events that finds the search for a new home planet a small problem in the grand scheme of things.
You'll have to deal with arch-demons, characters getting poisoned in battle and turning green, and unguarded chests filled with goodies in the most random of locations. And you'll get to do it while playing as a band of merry young heroes, led by a wide-eyed fellow with spiky blond hair, on the cusp of adulthood who still have so much to learn. In other words, don't go into Star Ocean expecting a revolutionary game. This is very much a traditional JRPG that fans of past entrants to the franchise, or past Square Enix games in general, will feel right at home with. The themes of this tale -- friendship, evolution and growth to name a few -- are pounded home with bluntness and tempo that can be off-putting, particularly when you consider that cutscenes can last upwards of 30 or 40 minutes. The story isn't necessarily bad and there are a few genuinely tender moments towards the end of the game, but the way it is delivered through extended scenes that feature stiff and overdramatic animations, unnatural dialogue, and a tendency to restate the same plot development several times mute its strengths. Some of these long cutscenes feel needlessly drawn out and only amplify one of the biggest problems with Star Ocean: Pacing. Dungeons, if fully explored, can take hours to complete. These are then followed by story segments that seem to last forever. The delineation between gameplay and storytelling couldn't be more distinct which is in stark contrast to the overall direction of game design these days. None of this would be as noticeable if you could save anywhere you wanted but that option isn't present.
Star Ocean: The Last Hope uses the outdated save point system where you can only back up your progress at predetermined places. While I find a compelling story, delivery, and character evolution to be critical to the overall experience in a JRPG, their shortcomings in Star Ocean: The Last Hope are not large enough to spoil the overall game. That's all thanks to the combat and leveling mechanics, two aspects that had me completely engrossed and kept me coming back for more. The action is all real-time with the option to pause and issue specific commands and you won't run into any random battles.
Fights do take place on a separate battle arena that you warp to upon running into a monster, but you'll have complete control over your combatant throughout the fight. The rest of your squad (up to four of the eight members can be brought into battles at one time) is controlled by AI, but you are free to swap from one character to the next at any time during the fight. Each character has their own strengths and weaknesses, allowing you to shape a team to your specific style of play quite easily. A few new additions have been added to the formula for this outing, including a jump ability that lets you dodge attacks or swoop around behind enemies for a blindside strike.
For me, the craziest part about Star Ocean: The Last Hope is that I was still excited about fights at the end of the game after battling through thousands upon thousands of baddies. With the Bonus Board -- a reward system for finishing off enemies in specific ways during fights -- I found myself power leveling in tough dungeons just to continue improving skills and unlocking new ones. Even at level 70, my squad still has room to grow and is continuing to unlock new symbology spells and special attack arts. There is a lot of depth to the character building that, combined with the great combat, really sold me on Star Ocean. This isn't the sort of game where you'll level up and just watch a few stats increase, then rinse and repeat.
Alongside that standard is a complex item creation system, the ability to combine weapons and items to make more potent equipment, a great deal of optional skills that you can purchase and improve, and more. Though each character holds a preset role and can only equip specific equipment, I still found that there was quite a bit of hands-on building and management of the squad to be had. And if you fall into that hardcore category, you'll likely take solace in the knowledge that you'll have to play through the entire game multiple times to see everything.
Beat the game once and you'll unlock a harder difficulty. Beat that to unlock the ultimate mode. You can carry all of your collection data (Battle Trophies are back and boy are they ever numerous) over from one play through to the next -- something you'll have to do if you want all of the achievements. But the best reason to play the game a second or third time is to see the different endings.
The Private Action system, a series of optional story sequences that help to flesh out characters and determine which game ending you see, which you may remember from Star Ocean: 'Til the End of Time, is back here in a more accessible form. The last Star Ocean game was notorious for forcing players to do lots and lots of backtracking, wasting hours wandering the game at specific times to get Private Actions and collect other hidden goodies. There is very little back tracking in The Last Hope at all and most of the Private Actions can be done on board your starship, the Calnus. With this streamlined approach and the Private Actions emphasis on relationships between characters, the whole system feels like a rudimentary form of what we saw in Mass Effect.

Star Ocean: The Last Hope Cheats, Codes, Hints, Tips Unlockable: The Wandering Dungeon Defeat Gabriel Celeste in the Cave of the Seven Stars to unlock The Wandering Dungeon. Find Barago at the Old Road to Sanctuary and he'll show you the entrance. This dungeon is randomly generated and has no save / restoration points. The boss, the Ethereal Queen, is on the 20th floor, but the dungeon continues infinitely.
Unlockable: Secret Dungeon After beating the game, return to your final save and go up the stairs and into the door on the left. Here you'll fight the Undying Dragon -- beat it and you'll receive the Darkness Ring. In the Colosseum in Tatroi, head to the glyph on the wall in the left hallway on the first floor. Use the Darkness Ring to expose the entrance to a secret dungeon.
Unlockable: Difficulties There are two additional difficulty settings for the game: * Chaos Mode - Complete the game on Universe mode * Universe Mode - Complete the game on Galaxy mode
Hint: 100% Boss Info To get all info for bosses (since you only fight them once), simply save your game before you fight them. After you beat them, save your game in a diffrent slot then reload the save before you fought the boss. The info you got for beating them is still unlocked!
Unlockable: Battle Trophy Rewards Collect battle trophies with a character to unlock rewards for that character as follows: * Collect 1/3 of the Battle Trophies - Additional Battle Voices (Set 1) * Character collects 50 battle trophies - Level cap increase .
The Last Hope
# ESRB rating: T (Teen)
# Publisher: Not Available
# Developer: tri-Ace
xbox 360

Overlord

Game for Xbox 360 & PC :

In Overlord, you're only as strong as your servants, and your leadership ability will decide how successful you become. A true villain lets his minions do his work for him, which includes pillaging, looting, and even knocking back the odd tankard of ale. You'll begin the story with access to the brown minions, who are your basic fighting types with access to many types of weapon and armor. As you progress through the game, you'll regain control of other minion types. The fiery reds are immune to heat-based damage, and can fire off a powerful ranged attack. The greens are immune to poison, and are able to launch powerful attacks from stealth. The blues are magic-immune healer types, able to bring other fallen minions back from the dead.
he real success in Overlord comes from the interactions that can be had between the minions and the rest of the world. Sweep your horde over a table with a few pints of beer and the minions will drink it and then empty their bladders with a maniacal chuckle. Give them access to a pumpkin patch and they'll tear it to bits and create sweet helmets to wear. The minions are animated well, even though the overlord looks a bit stiff, and watching them smash and interact with their surroundings is a joy.
Since you have to control both the dark overlord and his minions at the same time, control can get a bit frustrating at times. The left analog stick directs the overlord, while the right offers more precise control over your minions. This leaves no room for the camera, which becomes primarily controlled by the game itself. You can swing it back around behind your overlord and are also afforded the luxury of switching to a more overhead view of the action by clicking the right thumbstick, but neither of these solutions works exceptionally well. The camera is an issue, particularly when you go into one of the many small tunnel portions of Overlord and attempt to control the minions in any way that requires precision. The camera is never so bad that the game is unplayable and with practice you can get used to it, but it still presents more frustration than it should.
With four types of minions that each possesses their own unique abilities, Overlord is primed for some fancy puzzles. For the most part, though, the game shies away from forcing gamers to use their brains. Most of the game is in fact a trial in collecting enough minions and directing them forward to overwhelm obstacles or enemies. We did come across a decent number of puzzles, but these are few and far between. When the puzzles do exist, they aren't so difficult due to problem solving. They're difficult due to camera and control issues. In fact, much of the thinking in Overlord comes from being lost as you try to figure out where to head next. An in game map would have greatly reduced this issue, but then the game would be about as straightforward and linear as they come.
And getting lost in the world is one of the best parts about Overlord. The detailed environments, clever missions, and quirky inhabitants are all as interesting as they are visually appealing. Exploring the world as you seek to improve your dark tower and please your mistress (Good or evil, it's your choice as to which to take home. Bonus!) remains interesting for hours on end, even though the puzzle design isn't the most intriguing. There's a lot packed into Overlord that all encourages completists to have a go at nailing every optional task.
Overlord is a visually, and for the most part, aurally pleasing game. The visual style feels ripped straight out of Fable with a healthy dose of The Lord of the Rings thrown in for good measure. The dwarves, elves, and Sauron-esque overlord aren't particularly original, but Codemaster's take on them is. There's a great deal of voice acting that is done quite well, though it could have been coded a bit better. Most non-player characters (NPCs) have speech triggered by your character crossing a specific point on the ground. Walk past a vendor and he asks if your minions are for sale. Cross paths with an NPC in one village and he'll decry his leader. It sounds nice the first time, but if you're lost (and you often are) you'll walk past the same NPC numerous times in short order making the single line of dialogue shift from funny to annoying. Still, Overlord does not disappoint the eyes and ears.
On top of the sufficiently extensive and deep single player mode are several online multiplayer options. There's a co-op survival test and two versus modes. These play fairly similarly to the campaign except for the ever present enemy overlord vying for resources through strategy and upfront attacks. Unsurprisingly, compared to the single player game these online features feel light and unsatisfying. I encountered a significant amount of lag while playing online too, further hurting the experience.
Overlord
ESRB rating: T (Teen)
Publisher: Codemasters
Developer: Triumph Studios
Available: PC and xbox 360

Fable II

Fable II (games for Xbox 360) begins more than 500 years after the events of the original. You don't have to know a thing about the first Fable to enjoy the sequel, but there are numerous references to the past. There are plenty of surprises waiting for those fond of the first Fable; consider it a reward for having played the original. In Fable II, you play as a new character – either male or female – who begins life as a street urchin and eventually becomes savior of Albion. The main story is brief and has little in the way of plot. It's about as basic a hero's tale as can be fashioned. It's the atmosphere and elements outside the main storyline that prove most rewarding.
Coming along for the journey is your dog. If you're a cat lover, this may not be the game for you. A dog is a hero's best friend, as we all know, and your dog is no exception. He loves you unconditionally. You can scold him all you want, leave his wounds unhealed, or never pay him any attention whatsoever. It doesn't matter. You are his master and he will always be on your side – even if you're a total jerk. Play with your dog or give him treats and you'll probably feel better about yourself. Either way, your dog is a welcome ally. He's your pathfinder, sniffing out treasure chests and hidden items, warning of approaching danger, and tearing at the throats of fallen enemies. You may never give him a single kindness, but by the end of Fable II, you'll have become completely reliant on his abilities.
he dog is a success. I can't say that you will fall in love with your dog and keep a special place in your heart for him even after the disc's stopped spinning in the drive, but some will. And the rest can at least appreciate a canine companion who is helpful and almost never gets in the way or acts as a nuisance. You never control the dog. It acts independently and wisely. And though, on occasion, you may see him walk through a closed door or witness the textures on his fur disappear, he is a well-crafted pet.
Your dog is not your only navigational tool. There is also a golden breadcrumb trail that (usually) points in the proper direction for your next quest. Instead of taking up a chunk of screen real-estate with a mini-map, the breadcrumb trail fits nicely into the scenery. It can be turned off, but that would be a mistake. The trail at first might seem like a lame gimmick, but it actually frees you up for exploration. Fable II's world is significantly larger than the original and is packed with secrets to discover. There are 50 silver keys to collect, 50 gargoyle statues to destroy, nine Demon Doors to be opened, and a half-dozen magical statues with mysteries to solve. Also, there are whores to screw.
If you take the time to explore, you'd discover Albion is an interesting world with some really odd characters in the mix to lend personality. Lionhead moved away from the storybook look of the original, settling on a grimmer world. While areas around Bowerstone are lush and beautiful, many of the later areas such as Wraithmarsh and Bloodstone are depressing. Even in Bowerstone, there is a distinctly Dickensian feel. Dickens, by the way, not the most uplifting of writers. The charm and whimsy of the original is lost in Fable II. Modernity encroaches on fantasy.
Fable II
ESRB rating: M (Mature)
Publisher: Microsoft
Developer: Big Blue Box Studios