Chaos Rings (iPhone) First Impressions

I've had the iPhone (currently iPhone 3GS) since near release.  The platform has put out nothing of interest to me gaming-wise other than bite-sized throw away games.  Sword and Poker was the closest thing to a game I would go out of my way to play.  It's surprising too, because the iPhone/iPod Touch is just begging for turn-based RPGs.  Instead, we keep getting action RPGs that necessitate crummy on-screen controls for fighting.  They are all too basic for my tastes.

Along comes SquareEnix with Final Fantasy I & II.  Two games I can't get back into, but I think we're on the right path.  SquareEnix's follow up?  Chaos Rings.  It's a match made in heaven.  Chaos Rings is a near-PSP quality, original RPG.  The story, characters, and development system are all unique.  The story, interestingly enough, appears to be broken apart by the pairs of main characters you select.  I assume it will require at least two play-throughs to put the whole picture together.

Movement on screen is through the use of an on-screen virtual analog stick.  That's the only use for the on-screen control and that's fine with me.  Random encounters were chosen inside dungeons as you move from room to room.  Puzzles break up the dungeons, basically locking off progress until you figure out how to slide boxes into place (sometimes more complicated than it sounds).  The battles themselves are classic JRPG turn-based.  You poke menu selection on screen and flick through lists as you would expect on the iPhone.

Characters grow through levels like normal, but their skill sets are determined by the monsters that they defeat.  You can equip DNA blocks from the monster (like monkey and elephant DNA).  First you equip DNA to a character, I believe up to four of them.  Then as you defeat more of a given type of enemy, you may learn new skills/abilities from them that get imprinted on the DNA.  It's a pretty cool system, if not a bit random in the way you learn them from fights.  The management of the DNA and which to equip is satisfying though.

During fights, you can choose to fight separate or as a pair, only ever two people in your party.  Pairs seem to do more damage, but a single enemy attack hits both of them.  I haven't found it useful outside of finishing off the last enemy from an encounter.  HP regenerates after every fight, so these random encounters are always dangerous.  Sometimes annoyingly so.  Your MP however does not regen and can only be refilled by finishing the dungeon or returning to the starting point (grinding basically).

Like I said, the graphics and presentation are top-notch.  It really looks close to a PSP game, plus there's a fair bit of voice acting.  It's also the first and only iPhone game where I've played with headphones or even actually had the sound on at all.  All in all, even at $12 (at the time of release), this is no brainer addition for your iPhone/iPod if you are looking for a real game or have been waiting for a decent turn-based RPG.

UFC 2010 Press Event Trip Report

It was a whirlwind few days as I flew across country to Vegas to play UFC Undisputed 2010.  Wednesday I spent the majority of the afternoon in the casino at The Palms.  I've been to Vegas a handful of times already.  The Palms is already a very small casino, relatively.  I'm usually lost all day in a Vegas casino, much less being able to see the way out like I could from just about anywhere in The Palms.  It was midweek and mid afternoon so it was pretty slow. Just to have fun, I made it a point to play different games besides the usual fun of craps and blackjack.  So I tried out Crazy 4 Poker, Three Card Poker, and Pai-Gow Poker.  They were all really fun table games and I ended up pretty much even.

We had a nice dinner with THQ over in Palms Place Wednesday night, then I went to the casino for a bit more before bed.  I don't play slots.  As much as I've watched people play, it just seems to never pay off and the since you aren't waiting on anything the pulls, and the money, seem to go fast.  The only one I've ever played with a serious investment is the $1 Wheel of Fortune.  On a $2 play, if you get Spin on the last reel, you get to spin the big wheel up top for up to $1000.  I've played maybe four or five times and always won money, but this trip broke the streak.  I didn't get a single spin all night.  Now I know how you feel Andrew.

23 hours awake from getting the airport until I crashed.  Thursday was another full day.  First thing was meeting downstairs for a healthy and energy filled breakfast.  From there we loaded up on buses and headed to The Ultimate Fighter training facilities.  The location of this place seems to be so secretive, so I figured it was out in the middle of the desert or something, but it was right around the corner from the Palms.  As a big fan of UFC (I actually watched UFC 1 on PPV), it was pretty surreal walking through those doors and onto the set of the TV show.

The place was smaller than I pictured but has everything you'd need to train.  We were set to work out for a few hours before a Q&A with some fighters.  Shawn Tompkins warmed us up with with some cardio and stretching.  From there I went to the boxing area for some circuit training.  Did some rings runs and hit the hand pads with a big time boxing trainer, whose name currently escapes me.  After my time in the ring, I went and worked the heavy bag with Carlos Condit and Todd Duffy.

Following boxing, I moved into The Octagon.  Yes, The Octagon.  Once I got over the awe factor it was time for an intro to Muay Thai.  Shawn Thompkins was the instructor, and he was very cool.  Sam Stout, big fan, was also around to help out.  Jiu Jitsu was the last station, and Marc Laimon was there to lead the way.  Helping out was undefeated UFC welterweight Johny Hendricks.  Marc showed us video and technique behind the kimura and kimura transition to arm bar.  We paired up and found out just how difficult it is to remember the seemingly natural progression of moves to lock in these submissions.

My partner had a hard time getting enough pressure on my elbow to make me tap to an arm bar.  I'm pretty flexible in my elbow and shoulder, so we asked Johny how he handles that situation.  So he was kind enough to oblige our question by quickly locking an arm bar on me, demonstrating how thrusting with the hips or moving the arm more over the thigh can seal the deal.  Indeed, I tapped!

After training, I said hi to Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira who was also very nice.  About then I saw Frank Mir and then Forrest Griffin walk in.  Forrest was huge in person.  He honestly looked bigger than Mir.  The Q&A with this group was pretty awkward.  Only Frank, Johny, and Carlos seemed to have any interest in gaming.  The fighters hadn't played the new game yet, and the press didn't take the hint and move the questions away from the game and onto something the fighters could have actually answered.

After some lunch and a little reprieve, it was off the the Hugh Hefner suite at the Palms to play the game the rest of the night.  We got a good demonstration of upgrades from the previous version of the game.  I've got detailed hands on impressions of the game here on Gaming Age.  We played for about four hours and then we started a big 34-man tournament.  The prize?  An official UFC championship belt.  I'm proud to say I made it to the final match, but I'm sad to say I lost that last fight.  Dakota from Game Zone took home the prize when his Machida finished my Evans by TKO from strikes.  I nearly had a kimura completed mid first round, but once I lost it, the fight was pretty much over.

Pretty awesome couple of days.  I absolutely can't wait for the game to release as that five hours of solo and multi play was a pretty big tease.  I'll hopefully have the pictures and video dumped from my camera so I can update this with some visuals tonight.

Update: One quick picture from my phone.  This was the view off the balcony.  I was playing by the fireplace and the bar around the corner.