Need for Speed Underground 2

Need for Speed Underground 2 – (personal opinion) If you like to tune cars up, than this, my friend, is the game for you. A quite excellent sequel to an already great game, EA games, are showing everyone who’s boss with this one. A great driving simulator with the intense addition of street racing. This game is quite excellent in every aspect, as you will see by my analysis. Well, NFSU2 has great graphics, both the cars and the scenery are incredibly well designed and have an immense realism, I really like the aspect in all of NFSU that in the beginning of the race you can see the crowd all around you and the hot babes giving the signal to start your engines, that really gets the adrenalin pumping. As for sound, you can’t complain, Snoop Dog and Rise Against are just some of the big names in the track listing. Not much can be said about the story of this game, normally it has always an undercover path similar to the Fast and Furious movies. As for this game’s game play, it has been improved very much because of the free roam mode that has been included in the game, now you have a whole world to uncover; this freedom brings the game to a higher level (in my opinion there should be an even bigger exploration of this freedom). To conclude my approach to this game I would like to add that I really love the detail and the variety of things with which you can modify your car, and I believe that the whole world would appreciate you (EA) to continue developing this aspect and don’t downgrade it to, let’s say, tuning kits (needless to say, they didn’t listen to me). Well but we can’t whine, nobody is perfect, and neither can a game be, but this one came close.
Tuning at its very best


RZ RATING (1 to 10): 9

Bloody Roar 2

Bloody Roar 2 – (personal opinion) One of my favourite Beat’em up games, Bloody Roar 2 has not only entertaining qualities as a fight game, but the story behind is also cool and involving. Graphically this game is very interesting for, although it doesn’t have a level of visuals that makes you cry just to see them, it has quite good graphics that assure a great fighting experience. I personally like the fact that when you make your final attack that makes you win the fight, if that attack sends your opponent to one of the walls of the arena, these walls will break and your opponent can be (depending on which scenery you are playing in) thrown in to water, fall about 20 meters on to the ground, etc… But this also could be improved, I always thought that although the arena with walls isn’t bad, it would always be better to fight in an open space, something where the environment itself can hurt you (much like Tekken 5), if Virgin were to look in to this, (which didn’t happen in Bloody Roar 3) they could have made a good game, excellent. As for the gameplay, there are excellent combo moves and attacks that will amaze you, and also, and as I always say, a game where characters transform is always fun to play. As for the sound, there are incredible songs and riffs in this game that have surprised me a lot (being an enthusiastic fan of Rock music), there is one music (in the opening of the story mode) that has even made me think about going to the Avenged Sevenfold Myspace to try and comment that, that specific tune and riff could be one of their songs. So, big thumbs up for the music coordinators in BR2.As for the story and as I was saying, like in every fight game, each character has his different story and\or problems and\or rivalries, but in this game the story attracts the player very much for the exclusiveness of each character, either you must save your friend, or get revenge.. etc. All this in a place where mutants are real, and as some feel ashamed of being one and try to find the cure for this, others are strong and prideful that think of themselves as superior beings (very close to the X-Men story right?). To conclude, I can clearly state that this game is a very entertaining one, and I still, often, find myself playing it and enjoying myself enough to scream “Take that Bitch!!!” or “Can’t touch this motherfucker!!!”. Definitely recommended.
A game where the true fury resides

RZ RATING (1 to 10): 8

Bloody Roar 2's characters:

Rampage 2 - Universal Tour

Rampage 2 - Universal Tour – (personal opinion) The sequel to the Rampage World Tour, where you could destroy everything and kill anyone in the World. Now you can destroy everything and kill anyone in the Universe. In other words, nothing much changed, the first game, for me was better in a way that it was a breakthrough. A new idea that actually had potential. But with the release of the sequel I had thought that the main problem could have been solved but, to my surprised, it still remained (monotony). Don’t take me wrong, I know that it is hard to find an adequate solution for this problem but some better attempts could have been made. Let us begin the review. The graphical work of this game is one of the improvements I was talking about, neither GT Interactive nor Midway had the idea of improving the visual of this game, and so it remained the same. As for the sound, it has about the same capacity as the first game, so there isn’t much more to say. In terms of gameplay, here should have been some improvements, I’m no game designer, but you always destroy the buildings the same way, there should be some other ways of doing that, or even, other ways to eat people (may I remember you that in the first Rampage when you tried to eat a nun you would get struck by lightning. Now, not even that occurs). As for the improvements in this game, for me there were only three, the ability to control four or five more creatures to destroy the world (other than the three already included from the first game); the fact that you can travel through the world and free these creatures. And the fact that you can now go to other worlds and destroy the alien civilizations as well.
To conclude, I can suggest this game to you if you don’t mind to have a game that you will only play once or twice and feel that you have played it one or two hundred times. It will give you a good experience because it is always fun to destroy things, but its monotony increases throughout the game.
A different adventure of destruction

RZ RATING (1 to 10): 6

Valkyrie Profile

Valkyrie Profile – (personal opinion) This is one different RPG. Not only in terms of combat, but in terms of story too. I never got the chance to finish this game, but I got to the very end, which I believe it is enough information to create a dignified review. As the title shows, the main character is a symbol of the Norse mythology. The stories of these characters had the power and the duty to reach out to the dead and recruit their souls to come and fight the forces of evil in the Judgement Day (Ragnarok). This is the story of the game, the main character recruits souls. And as if the story isn’t polemic enough you see how these people have died, and you discover a bit of each person’s personal history and even, their own personality.
This game’s graphics are nothing really special but the scenery has great beauty and actually makes you feel inside the game, despite the 2D characters (which although they don’t involve you like 3D characters, it is better a great 2D than a shity 3D). Not much to say about the musical score of this game, it has great songs but nothing from another world.
A great innovative detail about this game is its combat system, It’s incredibly active, in the firs place you are never surprised with random combats that appear from time to time, you can see the enemy and you have about 3 choices, go next to him and attack him, which will initiate the battle system (and make you the first to attack); you can also merely touch him, which will initiate the combat system (and make your enemy strike first); or you could freeze him and never even start the combat system.
Once you have attacked or touched the enemy you shall start the battle where your team will align in a diamond formation and a button shall be assigned to each character (for instance, the character in the top of the diamond will be the triangle button, the character in the front of the formation will be the square button, in the bottom will be the X button, and in the back the O button. When it is your turn to attack you press these buttons in the order you want, so that the characters strike in the order you want. If the combo is good, you will get a special attack (in which you can also decide which of the characters will do it).
To finish, I recommend this game to the enthusiasts of RPG for it definitely is a different experience, I was positively surprised, in a good way.
A sad but prideful epic.



RZ RATING: 8

Breath of Fire IV

Breath of Fire IV – (personal opinion) The sequel of the game that had lured me to the RPG for the very first time. I was definitely surprised with the outcome of this game. I didn’t expect much of a sequel to the third chapter, not because I didn’t like it (because I really loved it), but because I knew it didn’t have the success I hoped it could have. But this game surpassed my previsions and, for me, it surpassed the quality of its ancestor. The main hero and his love are always the same people, only changing the hair and the garments. This in my opinion is a great quality of originality in these series of games.
But on with the criticism… From my point of view there is a whole panoply of improvements to this game that where constructed upon a great revision of Breath of Fire III. One of them is the graphical work, which almost didn’t change, but changed enough to make the game much more interesting and cool. Still with 2D characters and 3D scenario, the makers of this game surely wanted to keep in mind the tradition behind the arts of the BOF3, but they wanted to, somewhat, improve the graphics, so what they did was turn some of the magic, dragon summons, and the dragons the main character transforms into, into 3D. I can gladly say that I like transforming the main character in the BOF3, but they even changed the transformation design in the BOF4, to which now I love transforming the main character and his nemesis. In terms of sound, the music is very good (I particularly like the combat music when you play with Fou-Lu), like the BOF3 music (in which the combat tunes were always excellent), with a similarity that both of these games have in the main moments of the game songs that derivate from a principal tune that, for me, is the main song of the game.(Another exclusivity for BOF).
Other things of interest have been added to this game, such as minigames to proceed with the plot; the summoning of Dragons, which was unheard of in the third chapter; the creation of magic combos which can increase the damage given to un opponent was an excellent feature, the detail of mixing a water magic with an earth magic to make a mud attack is filled with potential to make the next BOF’ even better (which didn’t occur), or the ability to attack monsters with a poisonous magic and afterwards make an attack that becomes poisonous because of the previous attack is nothing short of fantastic in a game. The only thing that I can find that was not constructive when this game was created is that the about 30 crystals I had mentioned in BOF3 to make the main character transform into a dragon have disappeared. This is a shame, because before there were a great variety of transformations we could use (which is always a good thing in any game, God knows how I like variety, especially in terms of women, but that’s another story), and know we can only have about 6 different dragons to turn into (and one of them is everything but a dragon (that’s right, I’m talking about Punk)).
But in the end, this is a mere one inch stain in a house sized cloth. 4 thumbs up for BOF4.
A classical (and yet new) RPG adventure


RZ RATING: (1 to 10): 9.5

Breath of Fire IV's characters:

Doom 3

Doom 3 – (personal opinion) This game introduced me to the horror FPS, and what an introduction it was! This is one great game, which will make you tremble as you enter each different room. This video game is, for me, a success because of many aspects. One of the best is the inclusion of the PDA in this type of game, and the ability to download information from other PDA’s, this makes the horror experience of the game increase for it gives you the advantage to read other peoples SMS and voice recordings. These voice recordings were made with incredible precision to give a horrific sense to the game, you can actually hear and feel the terror creeping in the voice and words of the people. It is a sensational addition to a great game. In terms of sound, I can say that this game is close to perfection, the detail of the noises in each different environment is exquisite. Graphically, it has much realism which, of course, contributes to the enrolment in the game. One interesting detail that this game has presented to me is that, every time I play it, the feeling of loneliness and solitude becomes evident as every time you encounter a person alive you feel better and you want to follow that person. That is a great sign of a great game. Wouldn’t it be a good idea to mix this type of game with the saving of the creatures in Abe’s odyssey? As you make your way to save yourself, you find civilians to come with you… and you must protect them from harm. Good right?? But that’s beside the point.
Back to Doom 3, I have only found one problem with this game, its environmental monotony. From start to almost the end of the game, the environments are all practically the same. The creation of different environments to play on would make this great game even better. But I understand the difficulty of managing different environments on Mars… This is practically unconceivable. But in the end you will enjoy this game very much, believe me, I sure did.
A lone mission of horror


RZ RATING (1 to 10) – 8,5

Resident Evil 2

Resident Evil 2 – (personal opinion) I never thought I would like the games with too much gore and horror in it. Ohh how this game proved me wrong! It gave me more profound experiences than many RPG games. Let’s begin by analysing the usual aspects. Firstly, the musical score, one word, phenomenal. I can’t remember how many times the music fooled me to think that there was a zombie behind me, or a door opening. The background music involved in this game really aids in scaring your pants off. Graphically speaking this game can’t brag too much, for it hasn’t the graphics that could have been implied to give a true scare, although the scenery is very very good, it is the normal PSX graphics, but both me and the reader know that this console, if well worked, can provide great graphics. Concerning the story, it is basically always the same; if something is good why change it right?? But I still believe that there is some other way to give more impact to the game than the traditional T Virus. I’ll try to come up with something to send to Capcom. Don’t worry, I won’t complain about this game, I’ll rather thank them for the moments of stood up hair that they have provided me with.
Horror like you never witnessed

RZ RATING (1 to 10): 8,5

Final Fantasy IX

Final Fantasy IX – (personal opinion) Another chapter of his incredible series of games, and it is my honour to keep commenting these great quests of adventure, love and friendship. And this is one of the best Final Fantasy’s that have been made, second only, in my opinion, to the seventh chapter. Well, the first thing I can clearly state is that when I saw the graphics of this game for the first time I was absolutely blown away. Although the game didn’t have the realism of the seventh and eighth chapters, it had almost enough graphical work to be a PS2 game. It took the PSX to its limit. Musically speaking this game has incredible symphonies, I personally love the one that appears in the main title, it is superb; even the combat music is very cool, as you would expect. As for the story that surrounds this great epic, it captures the player and releases him in an in an astounding adventure through out the world, where your objectives keep changing with time and as you discover that you are involved in a bigger and bigger matter every time. But, but in terms of characters I have found that each of their personalities aren’t as charismatic or as epic as the characters of this game’s ancestors, it is always a good characteristic of a game if there is a certain character that the player himself wants to become. This is a recipe for success in an RPG. Another detail that I have found somewhat confusing is that most (and I mean most with capital m) of the most interesting items and the best summon of all in the game can only be acquired by using the traditional chocoboos, and, as I see it, it downgrades the game a bit. Aside from this, it is a great gaming experience for those who like this genre.
A magical epic

RZ RATING (1 to 10): 9

Final Fantasy IX's characters:

In Cold Blood

In Cold Blood – I really like this game, I played it about two or three times and it gave me a very positive experience. Its not my favourite type of game, but when it comes to a good game, I’m not a picky player. This is a great action thriller with imaginative gameplay and stealth action. The story starts in an incredibly different fashion from other similar games, as the main character’s memory is the key to the whole game, the problem is that this character doesn’t remember much, and to make matters worse he has been captured and his captors torture him to make him remember everything. The story unfolds from the visions of the memory of the main character as you play from the past to the present. Graphically, this game is very well designed, the backgrounds are exquisite and the characters have strong personalities, but remember that this is an espionage game, and you can’t afford to trust anyone but yourself. In terms of constructive criticism, I always finish this game with one thought “New Record! I finished this game in 2 days!”; in other words, it lacks in longitude. A game so good should have been bigger, 2 or even 3 discs could have made the difference in my rating. But, never the less, it is a good gaming experience, and if you like the type of game, you will most definitely love this one. An intense and immersive adventure

RZ RATING (1 to 10). 7,5

Breath of Fire III

Breath of Fire III – My first RPG game. I bought it when I was about 8 or 9 years old and I still feel a connection to it, for it introduced me to this style of video game which I, now, love.
This is and has always been another of my personal favourite games, but most people don’t even know of its existence. It is another case of a game that should have been given more publicity; its games like these that really develop your culture as it has a incredibly mature theme that makes you think, and, in my opinion, that is what a excellent game must do. In revision of this game, I should salient that its graphics aren’t optimal (but 2D never hurt anyone), but the combat sequences are very good, I just found one problem with these, the player doesn’t run towards the opponent when attacks, it is as if I were to attack you and you are 20mts away from me and I just swing my sword in the air, but you still get attacked. How? Beats me. But the rest is pretty impressive with well thought game planning. My favourite detail in this game is the fact that you follow the development of the main character since his childhood to his teenage days, but not only that, other characters will change with time which is a great detail for a game, and increases the feeling of its story. Another great detail in this game is that you need crystals that make you main character transform into a dragon, the beauty in this is that you can collect about 30 crystals, and in one transformation you can combine up to 3 of them, this makes the game very intriguing because it gives you hundreds of possible combinations, which gives you different types of dragons. I’m trying to find all of the combinations, if you can help me, please post! A classic adventure.

RZ RATING (1 to 10): 8,5

Breath of Fire III's Characters:

The Legend of Dragoon

The Legend of Dragoon – (personal opinion). This is one great RPG. I have played this game dozens of times and it still provides excellent entertainment. One of the my favourite details about this game is the fact that its music and scenario have a touch of the feeling of mystery and beauty of the Middle East, this can be noticed through out the game. Another of my personal favourite details in this game are: the revolutionary water graphics, that were absolutely impressive; and, of course, its unique attacking system which differs from other epic RPG’s because a character can build up combos by pressing repeatedly the X button in the right moments. Added to all this, The Legend Of Dragoon has a stunning story, which has great durability (nothing else would be expected with 4 CD’s) and heroic characters.(its always a cool game when all the characters can transform themselves!). The only problem I have found with this game some parts of it have been translated very poorly. All and all a game that, for me, should have gotten more popularity. It deserved more! I beg for a second release. If you have the same opinion click here.


RZ RATING (1 to 10): 9

The Legend of Dragoon's characters: