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.

I'm Off to the UFC 2010 Event

I'll be out for the next few days at the UFC 2010 event in Vegas.  I'll going hands on with the new single player career mode and enhanced multiplayer mode.  I'll have the report up on Gaming Age when I get back, and I'll hopefully have some video to put here as well.

New Screens and Trailer from EA's MMA

EA has released some new media in conjunction with the Strikeforce event on CBS this past weekend.  You can see the newest screens on Gaming Age, and I've linked the trailer below.  EA is showing off the fighters from the show.  The graphics aren't too bad, but the animation doesn't look all that great.  Of course it remains to be seen how it will play (a lot like UFC I would imagine).  It'll be nice to have two companies making a sports game again, which seems to be more and more rare.

Might and Magic Go MMO, Beta May 2010

Heroes of Might and Magic is a series of RPGs on the PC that blend strategy of world building with turn-based combat.  I've had a passing interest in the series and have played a bit of III, IV, and V.  Looks like the online (MMO) version of the game will be based on HOMM III with the updated graphics of V.  It sounds like it's going to be more than just an online game though, as they promise a persistent world with guilds and the rest of the trimming you'd expect from an MMO.  I'm intrigued at the thought of an MMO with a turn-based rule set.  We'll see how it turns out soon as the beta is coming early May 2010.

Mythos Pyromancer Class Announced, Release This Year

I've been following Mythos off and on since its inception.  It's an interesting history.  I first heard about the game around 2007 and remember it being developed by ex-Blizzard/Diablo team members.  At the time, that was an offshoot of Flagship Studios.  The game, also very much like Diablo from what I saw, went into closed beta soon after, but before open beta could ever occur, the company folded.  That team went on to form Runic Games and put out the excellent title Torchlight last year.  The rights to the game were picked up by Korean dev Hanbitsoft, and they've been working on resurrecting Mythos.

So, here we are now.  Mythos, published by Redbana in the US, has an expected release data in the US later this year, and the closed beta should be starting soon.  It looks like Hanbitsoft has taken the focus of the game to be more online (MMO) oriented.  From looking at the trailer though (below), it seems the core Diablo-like gameplay is completely intact.  Looks like another great entry into the genre, and one more thing that will help ease the wait for Diablo III.



Update: Screenshots

Yu-Gi-Oh TCG Finally Coming to XBLA

I can never figure myself out sometimes.  I rail on kiddie games like Pokemon, but I love a kid/teen trading card game like Yu-Gi-Oh.  I have a serious weak spot for card games, but there aren't that many that really last.  Magic, Yu-Gi-Oh, and Marvel Vs. DC are certainly three long standing games.  Yu-Gi-Oh has really been the only one that's put any effort into bringing the card game to digital format though.

The Vs. game was awesome (PSP/DS/PC), but it was only Marvel cards and there's no sign of there ever being another one made, too sad.  Magic tried early on the PC and then went AWOL (minus a bad spin-off on the original Xbox) until Magic the Gathering showed up on Xbox Live Arcade.  The Magic XBLA game was a nice representation of the card game, but it was severely held back by having a very small card pool and lack of acquiring and editing decks.  The cards were also very basic, using mostly entry level rules and reactions.

Yu-Gi-Oh on the other hand has been putting out full-fledged games for years.  The games, mainly on PSP and DS have kept the series up to date with newly released expansions and rules.  They generally come packed with thousands of cards, which you earn buying in-game packs with in-game money (thankfully).  This is why I'm so excited about the announcement.  It'll be great to get these handheld games with the full rules and high resolution graphics on a current console.  I wish I had more details about the number of cards and how current the set list will be, but I'll be sure to keep my eyes and ears open.