First I want to say that I don’t normally write game reviews. Reading through a table of contents for this blog might demonstrate that fact. But, I want to note that this is possibly something I’m going to do more of as my experience with the PS3 grows.

In this episode, I’m going to talk about my experiences and thoughts on Heavenly Sword. The title is only out on PS3 as far as I know. It features time-segmented chapters that guide our main character Nariko through a personal hell with a sword that has the power to banish evil in the hands of its proper beholder. Nariko and her clansmen, including her father Shem, are the last clan of the land to remain free from the unitarian rule of King Bohan, who also seeks the sword as an emblem to demonstrate his power.

The story begins at the end. This is one of those games where you don’t need the instruction manual to tell you how to play; when you encounter something for the first time, the game pauses to teach you how to do it. I think that’s a plus; some people would be annoyed by it. But, the story (the game) begins at the end. Soon after, it begins the “real” game with a trip back in time to learn how the end at the beginning came to be.

Over the chapterized episodes of the story, Nariko (and sometimes her friend Kai) works through pre-defined routes and basically just kicks a lot of ass that leads back to an ultimate good vs. evil fight at the end, which comes full circle back to the beginning of the game.

On the story, I think it’s one of the better stories out there for this type of first-person hack/slash game. Graphically, it’s amazing - especially in the cutscenes, but even during gameplay at a very fast pace, the game and the motions are just wonderfully done.

However, I thought the game needed a bit more freestyle - the possiblity of multiple paths to achieve the same outcome - where some paths are riskier but more rewarding and others are more tame but more mediocre in the end. It is certainly not that kind of game. There are very few places where Nariko or Kai have any choice as to how they can complete an episode.

Being fair, the main focus of this game is hand-to-hand, combination ass whipping courtesy of the heavenly sword itself. It’s a literal button-mashing frenzy that leaves little to be desired for those who enjoy games like mortal kombat or its likes. While it’s combo heavy, it lacks in things like the ability to aim easily. There are many points in the game where you either have to shoot something or throw something, and it’s difficult to aim in some spots because of the movement system, which is pretty NSEW and doesn’t do very well with corner movements.

The boss fights are pretty ho-hum. Yes, they’re difficult at first, but once you learn how to counter-attack properly (in like chapter 2) then these fights are really not that difficult. Even the last fight of the game is not hard for a player who can counter properly and consistently.

Once you beat the game, you unlock a new mode called “Hell mode”. I didn’t bother to try it; I’d had my fill of hack by the time I beat it the first time.

Overall - I’d rate Heavenly Sword with the following scores:
Gameplay: 8
Challenge: 6
Graphics: 10
Fun factor: 8.5
Replay value: 7.5
Total: 8.25

Would I recommend this game to someone else? Yes, if you can find a used copy. Don’t spend $60 for a new one.

Sign your name and your ID to hook up online and do some racing. I will add anyone who posts their number. My friend code is:

0774-4678-5003

I’m not quite done with this post yet, but I’m going to go ahead and publish it anyway. I’m sure that I’ll get mixed reviews since I have a pretty cynical, mixed gender audience. I mean to entertain as well as offer up some personal frustrations associated with living in Denver, the land of the California transplants cross-bred with 400k illegal immigrants - if it’s not funny, no refunds; you’re not obligated to read.

Here’s a not so new take on a concept that is recently just getting me more and more upset with American society - behold, the advent of the soccer mom and her place in the world. Much akin to the redneck in many regards, I have uncovered several behavioral habits and nuances and made several observations which may help you to identify if you are indeed one of this breed. I’m sorry if you are.

You might be a soccer mom if…

• …you own more down vests than you own jackets.
• …you have ever ordered Starbucks (or its equivalent) as decaf 1/2 skim 1/2 soy nofoam nowhip
• …every one of your children wears crocs in the snow
• …your primary means of communication with other people is by cell phone. while driving. and drinking your coffee.
• …you never take the time to properly park your larger-than-the-parking-space SUV.
• …long-sleeved turtleneck shirts are the extent of your fashion sense.
• …your pants get tucked in to your boots, no matter the season. Even in summer.
• …you traded in an SUV, mid-size sedan, or a minivan to get a new, roomier minivan with captain’s chairs
• …you refuse to put gas in your own car because “that’s my husband’s job” tee hee hee when actually you don’t know how to use the gas pump.
• …you own more foldable beach/lawn chairs than wooden ones. If you use both indoors, then you may be a redneck soccer mom.
• …you let your kids wander off in a store so you can have some peace and quiet for your cell phone conversation. about what your friends are wearing. and why they should go see a hair stylist.
• …you keep more food in the minivan for the kids than in the cupboards.
• …you drink “chai” because one of your cell phone friends says it’s healthy, and you believe her.
• …you actually have kids that play soccer, but you have no idea how the game is played.
• …you actually have kids that play soccer, and you are rabid with the airhorn every time your kid gets a touch.
• …your idea of “going out to eat” is hitting a McDonalds or Chik-fil-A with an indoor playground so the kids can play instead of eat.
• …the highlight of your day is when one of your cellphone friends actually calls you when you’re driving.
• …your idea of competition is keeping up with your soccer mom neighbors’ purchases.
• …you’ve ever hosted a partylite, tupperware, amway, pampered chef or mary kay party for which you are not the “distributor” or “agent”
• …you have ever been an agent for a pyramid scheme goods company and tattooed your ambition on your car(s) with decals.

Eventually, I knew this would happen; eventually, I knew there would be a line crossed from which the temptation could not be overcome; eventually, I knew that I would find myself owning one of Sony’s most love-hate debated toys, the convexoconvex-shaped obsidian-black PS3.  I have the 40GB model, which means I was also treated to a comp of Spiderman 3 (THWIPP!) on Blu-Ray and I got a single sixaxis controller, but that was about it.

My first thought was something like “damn this hog is heavy” when I compare it to the Wii, which is about the size and weight of 3 DVD cases stacked together.  Granted, the Wii isn’t the biggest badass in gaming over the last year+ and it isn’t the most highly rated fun machine in the universe … oh wait, yeah it is.  Ok so granted, the Wii doesn’t advertise 1080p graphics and Blu-Ray playback, but my dissertation on the Wii is a different post.  The point is, the PS3 is a big bitch, and she’s got a fat ass to go with it; must be a Georgia girl.

Of course I had to have a game with it to justify taking it out of the box.  My game of choice - Rock Band.  As the proud owner of GH3 on Wii, and a prior owner of GH2 and GH2 80’s encore both on PS2, I have to admit that I’m pretty sold on the GH line of games except for the coming title that is GH:Aerosmith.  While I believe Joe Perry is one of the iconic music figures of the last 30 years, there are a zillion people who don’t think so and the target audience for GH:Aerosmith is going to be the 30+ crowd since today’s heavy gamers aren’t old enough to truly respect Aerosmith’s heyday.  Anyway, second sidebar finished.  I got Rock Band.  I love it. 

Most people who are experience GH players will say Rock Band is “too easy” in its guitar parts.  What I’ve played of the guitar sets, comparing the “Hard” level difficulty on both games, I am inclined to agree that GH3 is “harder” than Rock Band at the end of the game.  I haven’t played through Rock Band on “Expert” with the guitar yet so I don’t know how it stacks up.  HOWEVER, that is where the comparisons effectively end.  In every other way - from character creation to online play to downloadable music (I’m biased here b/c of GH3 on Wii and RB on PS3) to just the overall soundtrack of the game - RB is hands down better than GH3.  Plus, if I get bored of “Green Grass and High Tides Forever” on expert, I can always plug in the microphone and sing while I play for an added challenge that GH3 could never provide.  My only knock on Rock Band is that there should be a tour mode available for the bass guitar parts - bass is pretty fun in RB.

Back to the PS3 itself.  I found the “home” menu a little unwieldy, honestly.  Sure it has all of the options, but the fishbone layout is nearly awful and some features aren’t where I’d expect them to be in their main menu categories.  The sixaxis controller, regardless of the palindrome, is actually pretty nice once it gets a full charge - I learned that I could just charge it off of my PC instead of leaving the PS3 on for years, so that helped.  My one other knock on the PS3 overall is that it doesn’t have a standby mode.  It is either fully on or fully off with no happy medium.  But that is where the Wii smokes it with its messaging protocol/feature.  My blue Wii lights are flashing right now, even.

What I need in order to make the PS3 a mainstay at home - some family titles like stuff I could do with my boys.  Assassin’s Creed doesn’t quite cut it, neither does COD4, Heavenly Sword or GTA4, though those titles would be great for me by myself.  The EA sports line just won’t ever make it at my house because, except for Tiger Woods’ golf games, their sports games blow.  The other thing that needs to happen here is that Sony needs to branch out and stop reaching into only the heaviest gamer genres with their titles.  They could certainly take a lesson from Nintendo on this one.  But, now that the Blu-Ray versus HD-DVD (HHD DVVDD BVD for those in the know) battle is officially over, it looks like PS3 sales are going to have a leg to stand on, finally.

As a disclaimer, this discussion will probably not be technical enough to satisfy the extremely passionate readers who have an opinion on one side or another.  Further, the release cycles aren’t exactly in sync - as of this writing, IE8 has a developer-focused beta 1 available, while Mozilla is nearer release with Firefox 3 now in beta 4.

I’ve had IE8’s beta1 for around a week now.  What really turns me on to IE8 is that the development team at MS is really trying to produce a next-gen browser capable of supporting standards for things like CSS 2.1 and HTML5.  MS touts IE8 as a release aimed at creating and promoting interoperability - of course we have learned that we cannot place much trust in MS press releases about how good their products are going to be or even which features they will ultimately contain.  In this case, however, I believe MS has some must-deliver goods on the table and the ultimate fate of IE’s viability hangs in the balance with this release.

Despite being the de facto browser for millions of PC users that know no better, it’s the developers who are writing these new, rich Internet multimedia technologies that are going to swing the pendulum one way or the other with IE8.  If Joe User gets random crashes and badly rendered stuff in IE8, but gold-plated mastery in Firefox, then Joe is probably going to convert.  The same is true for the converse - where people find Firefox to suck they will usually go with IE (I mean Windows users).

One interesting addition in IE8 that I want to see is the WebSlices feature.  In my beta1 I’ve gotten it to work once but it was on static text in a page that holds little value.  The point of webslices are to serve as mini-feeds that web services can implement/call and provide info back to the user without requiring the user to be in that webspace to do it.  I love this function; I want to see it work first, though, before I start throwing myself at it.

But what about Firefox 3?  First of all, unlike IE8, the Firefox project has their product requirements document publicly available on the Mozilla wiki.  Some of the interesting features I pulled from the requirements document myself:

• Integrate with Vista Parental Controls
• Revised download manager
• Support for Linux ATK (accessibility)
• Several security improvements

I guess what I mean to say is that, it’s not a rewrite-style release like IE8, so the list of features isn’t going to include a bunch of grandiose “make the Internet cooler” type requirements.  The honest truth is that IE8 is trying to catch up with and arguably surpass the capabilities of Firefox.  While Firefox does have CSS issues from time to time - especially on sites that were written specifically for IE5.5 or IE6 - its version 2 evolved from feedback about what people wanted in IE but were less likely to “get”.

Ultimately, one of these browsers will prevail.  For completely unrelated reasons, I’m going to say that Firefox is the real winner regardless of IE8’s potential successes.  Corporate America is slowly moving its desktop users away from MS platforms and onto either Macs or Linux distributions (semantics at this level).  I personally would like nothing more than to convert my laptop from Windows XP SP2 to something like K/Ubuntu or Fedora.  In the Linux space, Firefox pretty much reigns though the flavors of browsing technology begin to vary vastly into personal preference when dealing with higher computer literacy percentages; the point there is that there’s no home for IE on Linux, and little welcome for it on Mac.