TGS 2008: Musou Orochi: Maou Sairin Hands-On

We report for duty in the second Warriors Orochi game to come to the PSP.

It's no secret that developer Koei has found a specific niche with its many Warriors games, and Musou Orochi: Maou Sairin is no exception. When Warriors Orochi first came to the PSP earlier this year, it brought with it the familiar one-against-many combat scenarios and a rich character roster. We hunted down the sequel at Tokyo Game Show 2008, grabbed our halberd/sword/staff, and waded into the fray.
Like its predecessor, Musou Orochi: Maou Sairin is all about combat. You choose a team of three characters from the quasi-historical roster and do battle in samurai keeps, open plains, mountainous passes, and a variety of other environments. Though you represent a team of three warriors, you use only one of them at a time, magically switching between them with the press of a button. Each warrior has a handful of attacks, varying in strength and range, and you'll find yourself employing them all during the course of a battle. In addition to the legions of cannon-fodder enemies, we also encountered stronger foes whose attacks were more varied and powerful. As we cut our way through the demo levels, we found that making use of our full range of attacks was the best way to slaughter hundreds of hapless foes, and was downright necessary when facing stronger opponents.
The battles you engage in are spread across a variety of game modes, ranging from the relatively forgiving Story Mode to the brutally difficult Dramatic Mode. The latter mode grants you but one life, and succumbing to the swords of your enemies will end your game straight away. There is also a Survival Mode that lets you take your favorite characters into one-on-one combat, and a versus and two-player matching mode for online play.
As you might expect, Warriors Orochi's second outing feels a lot like the first. We got a glimpse of a wide variety of game modes, but each seemed to play to the series' strengths: giving players control of a powerful warrior and setting them loose in a densely populated battlefield. Koei isn't reinventing the wheel, but the company seems to have dialed in on what Warriors fans want, and is continuing to deliver with Musou Orochi: Maou Sairin. Keep an eye on GameSpot in the coming months for word on a possible North American release, as well as updated impressions of this hack-and-slash-apalooza.

By Chris Watters, GameSpot

TGS 2008: Final Fantasy Agito XIII Trailer Impressions

Don't be agitated: Square Enix showed off a brief teaser of its upcoming role-playing game for the PSP.

TOKYO--More CGI goodness was on display today at Square Enix's remarkably dark Mega Theater on the TGS show floor. All three Final Fantasy XIII games were represented by trailers, including the PSP iteration, Final Fantasy Agito XIII. The trailer was remarkably similar to the one we'd already seen earlier this year, but in case we missed a detail or two, we thought we'd bring you a quick look at yet another promising game in the famed Final Fantasy series.

The trailer begins by showing us an enormous crystal lighting up as the famous Final Fantasy arpeggios set the stage for the coming drama. We then see imagery that is bound to give most viewers a chill: a Hitler-esque leader stands on a dais, calling out propaganda in a commanding speech to the legions of apparent soldiers ready to cater to his every wish. The placement of the leader and his subjects, as well as the scratchy, black-and-white visual style, hark back to the heyday of the Nazi regime, and it's chilling to see such imagery, even today.
In an even-more chilling twist, the buildings lining the street around the soldiers transform and then fly into the air. They are, in fact, enormous battleships, and they fly across the sky en masse, a terrifying sight to a peaceful nation. The view then changes, and we see a tall, thin spire rising into the air. The camera moves downward toward the crystal that we saw at the beginning of the trailer. The crystal cracks and shatters, and the camera pulls away to reveal its island residence. The entire isle then explodes, perhaps taking all of its residents with it.
But maybe there is a survivor after all. From chaos, a shrouded figure emerges and is soon surrounded by the regimented troops so ready to commit to their apparently evil cause. The troops aim, but our hero isn't a single renegade after all. As the camera rotates, we see that more caped silhouettes join the lone rebel, until there are a dozen or even more. The trailer also cut to something that we didn't see in many of the other trailers in Square Enix's shadowed theater: gameplay footage. Although there wasn't much, we did see that the game will let you command a party of four, and based on that footage, it seems that each party member is assigned one of the four face buttons.
And in a final gasp, the trailer informed us that Final Fantasy Agito XIII will be released for the PSP, but it indicated no release date. Of course, we'd rather show you the footage than describe it, but for now, it seems that there is plenty to look forward to where Agito XIII is concerned, and indeed, for all of the upcoming games in that crystal-themed collection. Keep your eyes open: We'll bring you more news as it becomes available.

By Kevin VanOrd, GameSpot

Resistance 2 Review

Resistance 2 is bigger, better, and broader--everything a stellar sequel should be.

Almost two years after Resistance: Fall of Man gave PlayStation 3 owners their first great exclusive shooter, Resistance 2 has arrived bearing more great news. No, humanity hasn't gained an edge in its desperate fight against the alien Chimera (quite the opposite, in fact). The news is that Resistance 2 takes the grand apocalyptic setting and tight, fast-paced action of its predecessor and improves upon it in almost every way. Bigger battles, richer environments, and an outstanding new eight-player cooperative mode elevate Resistance 2 above almost every other shooter on the PS3.

From the first moments of the single-player campaign, Resistance 2 proclaims its dedication to grandeur. As you crawl from the wreckage of your transport helicopter, you look up to see a sinister, towering machine laying waste to your surroundings, its shiny black bulk standing in stark relief to the smoky blue sky and green Nordic scrub. Environments (and enemies) like these, vividly colored and remarkably big, are prevalent throughout the campaign. Your journey will take you across North America, where you'll visit a fantastic variety of rural, suburban, urban, and alien landscapes. You'll see attention to detail in the plants under your feet, in the towering skyscrapers above your head, and everywhere in between. The scars of the Chimeran invasion clash dramatically against the technicolor mid-century American backdrop, setting a superb stage for exciting action.

And make no mistake, the action is the real star here. The protagonist, Nathan Hale, and his fellow soldiers are run-of-the-mill characters, and the functional story is a bit too vague to be interesting. Intel documents scattered about each level provide intriguing background and foreshadowing, but most of them are hidden away and require too much errant exploration to find. The only time you'll feel any emotional connection to the proceedings is when you stop to listen to the radio. The scattered monologues from radioman Henry Stillman provide a wrenching window into the despair of a nation overrun, and they're the lone narrative highlight.
Despite the lackluster story, Resistance 2's excellent single-player campaign is a thrilling roller coaster ride across dozens of varied locales, each infested with Chimera. Your horrible alien foes run the gamut from tiny chittering scorpions to fanged foot soldiers, from shielded two-story titans to lumbering forty-story leviathans. They come at you in waves of increasing size and intensity; they are quick, aggressive, and accurate, and dispatching them will take skill and persistence. Resistance 2 isn't an easy game, but that just makes your hard-fought victories sweeter.
To achieve these victories, you'll need to stay alive. You can fully recover your health by ducking out of the line of fire for a few seconds, a tactic you'll need to use often. While you usually aren't too far from a checkpoint, you're often far enough to make death very unappealing. This is particularly true during the massive boss battles and the large-scale conflicts that pit you against legions of increasingly nasty Chimera. These are the most exciting encounters in the game, and though the former are less challenging than the latter, there's nothing quite like squaring off against a beast the size of the Chrysler Building.

The 12 guns you wield throughout the campaign are also quite satisfying. Some old favorites have returned, like the workhorse M5A2 Carbine, and there are a few great additions, like the .44 Magnum that shoots bullets that double as remote-detonated explosives. Secondary attacks like this one are a feature on every gun, and they effectively double the destructive options at your disposal. Though the weapons don't feel particularly realistic, they are so uniquely deadly and fun to use that you'll hardly notice. You can only carry two guns at a time, but the game does a good job of making sure you have a chance to use them all. There are also a few different types of powerful grenades at your disposal (notably the fiery air-fuel and spiky hedgehog), and they round out your very effective and very gratifying arsenal.
While the campaign is a lengthy (about 10 hours) and satisfying endeavor, the online cooperative mode is what really sets Resistance 2 apart. In this mode, up to eight players fight their way through hordes of Chimera to accomplish a set of objectives. Each player must choose one of three specific classes, each with its own guns and special abilities. The Medic drains enemy health and passes it on to teammates, an essential function because no one can regenerate health. The Special Ops uses a battle rifle of sorts and is the only source of ammunition refills. The Soldier carries a gatling gun that can generate a protective shield, defending his teammates and shredding the Chimera simultaneously. This interdependency binds players together and creates a frantic, engaging team dynamic.
As a further incentive, each player earns experience and currency throughout the mission that can be used to unlock more weapons, special abilities, and stat-enhancing gear. These powerful bonuses aren't easy to attain, which makes earning them all the more satisfying. The action plays out on a variety of sizable multiplayer maps inspired by the campaign levels. These maps each have a bevy of objectives, and every mission takes a few objectives at random and strings them together, so subsequent playthroughs of the same map feel different. This is a good thing, because you'll have to run a number of successful missions on the first map before you unlock the next, and so on. Each map is designed so that enemies can (and will) come at you from a number of directions. Missions are hard and demand teamwork and skill, so each time you vanquish a wave of enemies it feels like a small victory. Add this sense of accomplishment to the addictive and rewarding experience system, and you've got a game mode that's truly excellent.

If you're not feeling cooperative, Resistance 2 boasts a robust competitive mode as well. Maps accommodate as few as two and as many as 60 players, and do so with virtually no lag. The usual Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, and Capture the Flag ("Core Control") modes are available, but the best of the bunch is Skirmish. In this mode, teams are divided up into squads, and each squad receives on-the-fly objectives to complete. Objectives are updated often and can change the flow of battle drastically, so each match has a unique, frantic feel. Unlike in the cooperative mode, you have all the abilities and weapons in the single-player campaign readily available to you, so everyone is more or less evenly matched. You can also play ranked matches to earn experience and upgrades, and even though it's not quite as engaging as the cooperative mode, the competitive multiplayer is still a blast.
All in all, Resistance 2 is an excellent game. The stirring scale of the single-player levels is impressive and the pervasive details make them truly awesome. Despite the squandered story, blasting your way through the campaign is electrifying, thanks largely to the deadly weapons in your arsenal. The cooperative multiplayer is a resounding success, and the competitive modes are terrific in their own right. Anyone looking for a superb shooter experience need look no further than Resistance 2.

By Chris Watters, GameSpot

Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe Review

The MK and DC crowds are a surprisingly good combo, but questionable roster balancing keeps this enjoyable fighter from achieving greatness.

In a way, it feels as if many fighting game characters have stepped right out of the pages of a comic book. They wear bizarre costumes, spend a lot of time punching and kicking other people, and possess inexplicable powers. Pitting fighting game characters against comic book heroes and villains has been done before, and in Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe, the meshing of Raiden's crew and Superman's posse makes for some pretty exciting action--especially online. But even as the game moves the series back toward the fundamental strengths of Mortal Kombat in some ways, it departs from the series' essence in others. As a result, longtime fans may be left with mixed feelings, and newcomers drawn to the series for the first time by the inclusion of DC characters may find it hard to get a handle on things.

The story that explains just how these two distinct sets of outlandishly attired, superpowered beings clash is such pure, unabashed comic book silliness that you'll have a hard time not being won over. Simultaneous mishaps involving Darkseid in the DC universe and Shao Kahn in the MK universe result in these two evil beings merging into the exponentially evil Dark Kahn. Dark Kahn's power causes the two universes to begin fusing, and the heroes and villains on each side of the universal divide mistakenly blame the weirdos from the other side for invading their land. This merging of universes also causes severe imbalances in the powers of some characters, and serves as a convenient excuse for how the Joker can go toe-to-toe with Superman and have a fighting chance. As you play through the game's two story mode offerings, the flimsy excuses that cause the unlikely matchups almost become something of a running joke, and help make these modes fun for the few hours that they last.

Unless you've somehow managed to avoid playing a fighting game for your entire life, you'll immediately grasp the basic concept of MK vs. DC: punch, kick, throw, and otherwise bludgeon your opponent into submission before they do the same to you. While some Mortal Kombat games have offered two or three fighting styles per character, MK vs. DC does away with that, creating a back-to-basics feel that switches the emphasis back to the special moves that really differentiate the characters. And while the action takes place in 3D and you can move left and right in the environment as well as back and forth, sidestepping is slow and only occasionally useful. The majority of the action takes place on a 2D plane, which also contributes to the game feeling very much like a solid return to the roots of the Mortal Kombat series. The action is fast-paced, controls tightly, and is just a lot of fun.

With a total of 22 playable characters, the roster may be a bit short compared to what fans of the series have come to expect, but it makes up for that by making each character play very differently from the others. The 11 Mortal Kombat warriors on hand are all top-shelf, and while one or two of the DC characters may seem like odd choices the majority of them mesh surprisingly well with the MK crowd. While the powers of some DC characters have been toned down a bit as a result of that darn universe-merging fluctuation of energies, the characters themselves have been created here with a great deal of loyalty to the source material. Their personalities are intact, and the arsenals of special attacks at their disposal are impressive.

While the core gameplay is largely a return to the feel of the early Mortal Kombat games, there are some elements here that are pretty minor when taken individually, but add up to make MK vs. DC distinctly different from its predecessors. There are a few minigames that pop up when certain circumstances occur, and they all blend in to the action seamlessly. For example, if you're close to your opponent, you can attempt to grab him or her and initiate Klose Kombat. If you're successful, the camera will pull in, and for a short time, you can perform a variety of painful-looking moves by pressing one of the four face buttons. There's a great risk-versus-reward dynamic at play: your button presses are displayed onscreen, and if your opponents match them, they'll counter your attack with powerful blows of their own and escape from Klose Kombat in the process. It's a cool system that gives the attacker a decent advantage but still offers the defender a pretty good chance of turning the tables.

A very similar minigame is initiated any time one player knocks another to a lower level of the arena. As in Klose Kombat, the attacker can pummel the defender by pushing face buttons, and the defender can turn the tables by matching the attacker's inputs. In Free Fall Kombat, the attacker is able, after a damage meter has been filled to a certain point with standard attacks, to execute a special move that sends the opponent flying into the ground below in a particularly painful, damaging way. Like Klose Kombat, there's a good risk-versus-reward principle at work here, and the fact that these fisticuffs are taking place while the characters dramatically plummet through the air gives the action a larger-than-life, comic book feel.

Last and least among the minigames is Test Your Might, which occurs in certain areas when one combatant lands a powerful attack on the other and sends the opponent flying back against a wall. The initiator then charges at the defender and propels the latter through the walls of the office building or dungeon. Both parties then pound on the buttons as furiously as they can. If the attacker out-pounds the defender, more damage will be done, while the defender pounds buttons in the hopes of reducing the amount of damage he or she suffers. The simplicity of this minigame makes it less compelling than the other two, and only three of the game's 14 arenas have the horizontal arrangement for it, so it occurs far less frequently.

One final, important addition to the action here is the rage meter, which fills up as you take damage or are blocked by your opponent. Your build-up of rage can be used for one of two things. If the meter is halfway full or more, you can spend one full segment of it on a combo breaker, immediately putting a stop to the flurry of attacks your opponent is unleashing. If both sections are full, you can opt to spend the whole thing to enter rage mode, which allows you to pummel your opponent uninterrupted by his or her attacks and fight your way through his or her blocks, though you'll still take damage from any blows he or she lands. Either of these can turn the tables in a fight if used well, and since using rage for one purpose sacrifices your ability to use it for the other, this seemingly simple feature calls for some significant and often split-second decision-making.

On the default difficulty setting, the game seems to adjust dramatically in response to your skill level. Lose a match in the story or arcade modes a few times and it suddenly gets a whole lot easier, which means that players of just about any skill level can fumble their way through these modes. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but it makes the game feel more like a brawler in which you can button-mash your way through just about anything, rather than a well-tuned fighting game that rewards precise, skillful play. This impression is deceiving, though, and upping the difficulty of the AI, or better yet, playing against other people, reveals the depth of a fighting system that's sure to please veteran fighters. With precise timing, you can chain together combo attacks that juggle your enemies in the air helplessly for a bit, but these are extremely difficult to pull off. Neophytes drawn to the game by the DC characters may find themselves a bit out of their league, and while there's a standard practice mode in which you can attempt attacks at your leisure, the finer points can be difficult to pick up without a proper training mode.

Of course, past Mortal Kombat games have been known as much for their over-the-top gore as for their gameplay, and for those fans who feel this is an intrinsic part of what makes Mortal Kombat what it is, MK vs. DC will be disappointing. While there are still ridiculous amounts of blood that go flying each time you so much as punch your opponent, you won't see any comically grisly beheadings, dismemberments, and other bombastic acts of violence that have characterized the series. The victor still gets the opportunity to pull off an extremely painful fatality or, in the case of the good guys on the DC side, a heroic brutality. Many of them are clever and funny, but they're still far tamer than what we've seen in the past. Ultimately, this change doesn’t impact the gameplay itself, but that gore is part of the MK experience, so the way it's been toned down here may turn some fans off.

A more material issue is the surprisingly limited amount of content you get in this package. There are the two stories that don't take you long to complete, and after you finish them, you'll have unlocked only two additional characters and seen just about everything the game has to offer. There's an arcade mode which, in typical Mortal Kombat fashion, has you fight your way to the top of a ladder, and in a nice touch, you can choose to have your opponents made up of exclusively Mortal Kombat characters, DC characters, or a combination of the two. But the short, disappointing endings you get for finishing arcade mode with any given character provide little incentive to come back to it much. There's also a mode called Kombo Challenge in which you pick a character and choose one of 10 combo attacks to attempt to pull off. At first glance, this looks like a useful mode to help newcomers pick up the finer points of the game's combat, but the timing required to successfully do even the easiest of the combos in Kombo Challenge is unforgivingly precise. With only 22 characters, 14 arenas, and no special costumes or anything else worth unlocking, the single-player experience dries up a little too quickly.

So ultimately, whatever longevity the game has lies in its multiplayer offerings, and playing the game with others, either locally or online, is great fun. There aren't any special modes available online. It's all just no-frills, one-on-one matches, which is really all you need. Xbox 360 's online setup is a bit more fleshed out, with options to jump right into a ranked or unranked match, and a TrueSkill matchmaking system for ranked matches. On the PlayStation 3, you need to enter a lobby where you'll see a list of everyone else hanging out in the room, and you can challenge or accept challenges from the other players. In both cases, once you're actually down to the business of punching and kicking each other, the action plays smoothly, provided both parties have a steady connection. The only caveat about online play in our experience is that a disproportionate number of players are currently trying to rack up wins using the same few overpowered special attacks by The Flash (and a couple of other characters) ad nauseam, and while this isn't impossible to defeat, it sure is annoying. You might prefer to quit a match than bother with it when you come across such a cheap competitor, but doing so counts as a loss, and in the case of ranked matches on the 360, hurts your TrueSkill ranking.

The game looks great. The characters animate well, their attacks look powerful, and there's a consistency of design that helps make the bizarre crossover seem natural. There's an especially great detail to the game's presentation in the way that damage isn't just reflected in the energy bars across the top of the screen. As characters suffer attacks, their skin gets bruised and bloody, their costumes get torn, and by the end, if the loser put up a good fight, even the victor will look much worse for wear. Of the 14 arenas, most of them look pretty cool. There are a few Mortal Kombat arenas, but the majority of locales come from the DC side, or reflect a merger of the two universes. There's a devastated downtown Metropolis and a high-tech Batcave, among other noteworthy locations, and they're packed with details that will please fans of the characters. Dynamic elements such as the elevated train you see rattling below you as you plummet from one level of Gotham City to another also help bring the environments to life.

The game’s audio isn’t amazing, but it gets the job done--matches definitely sound like those in previous Mortal Kombat offerings, and the voice acting for the characters is solid, but sadly you rarely hear them outside of the cutscenes of the story mode. The music doesn't draw much attention to itself and isn't exciting enough to match the action. If you're trying to decide between versions, it's a bit of a toss-up. They both look and play pretty much identically. The Xbox 360 's online system makes it more convenient for just jumping into a match, but the PS3's D pad is better suited to fighting games and feels more precise. The PS3 version has trophies to match the 360's achievements.
Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe feels a bit like a mutant of a game. On one hand, the fighting mechanics are solid and fun and represent a refreshing return to the fundamental strengths that made Mortal Kombat's gameplay so compelling in the first place. On the other hand, the shift in tone from completely insane amounts of gore to only outrageous amounts of blood will put off some fans of the series’ usual ultra-violence. Newcomers, on the other hand, will have little trouble button-mashing their way through the game's single-player offerings, but may find it difficult coming to grips with the more technical aspects of the gameplay necessary to get the most from the multiplayer. If the idea of beating the hell out of Liu Kang with Lex Luthor (or vice versa) appeals to you and you don't mind going online for serious competition, you'll find a satisfying fighting game in this strange but enjoyable crossover.

By Carolyn Petit, GameSpot

Phantasy Star Zero Impressions

Sega's Phantasy Star franchise is finally making its way to the DS, and we've got the first peek straight from Sega's TGS stage show.

TOKYO--It seemed like just a matter of time before Sega would make a Phantasy Star game for the Nintendo DS, and today, the game was finally announced. Titled Phantasy Star Zero, the game will be hitting Japan on December 25. To give details on the game and explain how its name came about, producer Satoshi Sakai appeared on stage at the 2008 Tokyo Game Show.
"With the decision to make a completely new Phantasy Star, we've started out with a new world view, storyline, and characters. We decided to give the game this name to symbolize that we're starting back from the roots again", said Sakai.
Sakai then showed off some gameplay to explain the new systems in Phantasy Star Zero. Communication has always been a big point in the series, and with the shift to the DS, the game takes advantage of the hardware's stylus with its new "Visual Chat" system. Rather than type messages to comrades, you'll be able to write and draw on the bottom screen much like Pictochat. It'll then appear on dialogue balloons in the main top screen where the game is played. The drawings can be recorded onto shortcuts, so you don't have to rush on your writings in the middle of battles. The game also allows you to copy other users, which will come convenient if you're not good at drawing.
Phantasy Star Zero takes place on two locations: the Earth and the Moon. You start off the game by creating your character out of three races (Newman, Human, Cast) and their three professions types. Sakai commented that there are a total of 14 different types of characters you can make. Similarly to previous Phantasy Star games, you can customize the look of your character using different body parts. Up to three characters can be saved.
Phantasy Star Zero will feature three gaming modes. Story mode allows you to enjoy the game alone. A demo showed a scene from the flourishing Dairon City, where the main character meets up with his/her teacher, Kai. The game plays in 3D like previous Phantasy Star installments, but the conversation scenes are in illustrated 2D graphics, and there are also anime clips in event scenes.
In wireless communication mode, you can play with three other friends close by and go on missions, communicating with each other using visual chat.
In Wi-Fi mode, you can select three ways to play online: friends play, free play, and single play. Friends play, as the name suggests, will allow you to type in friends codes and play with people you know; visual chat is supported. Free play lets you play with other users though matchmaking; but communication will be done through preset sentences rather than visual chat. Details weren't given on the single play.
In terms of battle, Phantasy Star Zero seems similar to previous installments albeit with some new additions. The game adopts the action palette system from Phantasy Star Online, and you can customize your own actions. As a new element, you can now dodge roll to quickly evade enemy attacks. There's also a charge attack, where you can hold on to your attack button before letting go to pull off powerful photon arts that consumes some photon points. Charging also works for technique moves.
According to Sakai, Phantasy Star Zero will have more than 300 weapons. This time, there will be shields that allow the player to defend against enemy attacks with the use of photon points. There's also a new weapon category called gun slash. As a hybrid weapon, it acts as a sword in close range and as a gun from a distance. Stay tuned for more on the game as it becomes available.

By Hirohiko Niizumi, GameSpot

Tales of the World: Radiant Mythology 2 Impressions

If you threw your favorite Tales characters into a giant pot and brought them to a boil, you'd get something like this sequel for the Sony PSP.

TOKYO--Tales series enthusiasts, brace yourselves: Another Radiant Mythology game is coming to the PSP, and it will be overflowing with all of the fan service that the first one provided. We talked with Tales of the World: Radiant Mythology 2 producer Hideo Baba on the Tokyo Game Show floor this weekend and asked him some questions while getting in some hands-on time with this PSP role-playing game.

The most important facet of the original Tales of the World was its cast. It was the video game equivalent of fan fiction, tossing a crowd of well-known characters along with a few original creations into a stew of random quests and a standard Tales combat system. Baba told us that the sequel's structure will remain essentially the same. If his statement applies to the mission structure, it means that you will take various unrelated quests from a local guild, and be able to recruit up to three other characters into your party at any given time. Baba did confirm that the friendship system from the first game will remain mostly the same, so to recruit people, you will want to remain on his their good side. We were more curious about the full cast, but Baba didn't wish to share details, and told us that this information hadn't yet been passed on to the Japanese press either. We also asked if Tales of Vesperia, the most recent game in the series, would be represented, but Baba would only confirm that Tales of the World 2 would include more than double the number of characters as the first.

However, it's unclear why Baba was so tight-lipped regarding the character list. By accident, we were flipping through some Tokyo Game Show promotional material, and a two-page ad for the game showed a complete list of playable and non-playable characters that will inhabit the Tales of the World: Radiant Mythology 2 story. They include Zelos and Presea from Tales of Symphonia, Bruiser and Rutee from Tales of Destiny, Chat and Reid from Tales of Eternia, and Suzu and Arche from Tales of Phantasia. Other characters are ripped from Tales of Destiny 2, Tales of Rebirth, Tales of Legendia, and other games that, as you can guess, all have titles that begin with the same two words. It's a huge and familiar cast, numbering more than three dozen, so if you're a franchise fan, you'll be quite pleased with the selection. However, the biggest news in the ad is that Yuri will represent Tales of Vesperia, and due to the way that the page is laid out, it seems that he will be a playable character. This is good news indeed for those who enjoyed the most recent entry.

As for the story itself, no surprises sprung from the pages of the ad, and Baba didn't have much to say on the subject. He did tell us that the story will be completely different from the first game and will take place in a totally different world. Like in the original, you will create a character from scratch and choose a profession, though we don't yet know what the job choices will be. You can also choose from other options, such as clothing and voice-over styles. From there, your goal is to find out exactly who you are, which leaves things rather vague. But for now, that's all we know.

As for gameplay, combat should be familiar to anyone who has ever played a Tales game. You take control of a single party member, and battles take place in real time within the combat arena. Pressing the attack button will automatically target an enemy, at which point your character will run toward it and perform the move. You can also perform spells known as artes, and though you can have only a limited number of them mapped to the PSP's buttons at a particular time, you have a good variety from which to choose, so you have a certain amount of flexibility in customizing party members to your own style. The three characters you don't control will attack, heal, and use items as the artificial intelligence sees fit, or you can customize their behavior in various ways.

The one play mechanic that we were curious about was a third gauge at the bottom of the screen. We wondered aloud to Baba about what that meter indicated, but like with other facets of the game, he didn't want to get into specifics and indicated only that it related to additional party skills. Nevertheless, we assume that it's the overlimit gauge of the first game, and screenshots confirm this assumption. Perhaps it's just as well that Baba has been so cryptic; RPGs are at their best when we let them surprise us as we play. Regardless, the one thing that we will spring on RPG fans is the release date--when one is announced, that is. Keep your eyes on this space for future updates!

By Kevin VanOrd, GameSpot

TNA iMPACT! Review

Professional wrestling has long been maligned as a place where spandex-clad ogre-men go to act out contrived rivalries and pretend to actually wrestle. While these derisions certainly hit on some truths about "sports entertainment," the remarkable talents and impressive athleticism of its practitioners cannot be denied. If you're the kind of person who enjoys the high-flying, hard-hitting spectacle of pro wrestling in spite of its myriad absurdities, then TNA Impact may be the game for you. It has some aggravating problems, but it does a good job of translating the excitement of TNA Wrestling into fluid action and visceral fun.

A wrestling game is only as fun as the moves you can perform, and in this regard, TNA Impact does quite well. You ratchet up your basic punch and kick attacks by holding the strong modifier or by performing them from a run or in a grapple. This simple layering allows for a wide range of moves without requiring complex button combinations, so it's easy to unleash your nastiest attacks right from the get-go. You can also reverse almost any attack with a well-timed button press, and many reversals can be reversed again. The accessible variety of attacks and the ever-looming possibility of reversals make the action fast and furious.

The more you mix up your moves, the more likely you are to come across some of the game's many technical hitches. When the animations run smoothly, they look good and produce satisfying impacts. When they don't quite line up, you see fists and feet clipping through torsos, as well as apparent misses registering as hits. These oddities are a minor distraction, though, because at least you are still performing the moves you want. The more frustrating glitches cause your character to perform an unintended maneuver, often with disastrous results.

The glitches are prone to surface in a few situations, the most frequent of which are transitions, such as when your character is getting up off the mat, climbing a turnbuckle, or exiting the ring. Because your attack changes depending on your opponent's position, you may often find yourself aiming to punch an enemy as soon as he stands up, only to execute an elbow drop and lay yourself out at his stomp-happy feet. You can also dodge grapples or attacks when you're near the edge of the ring because the animation of rolling out of the ring will often negate incoming moves. Then, there's the particularly tricky situation when your opponent is down near the edge of the ring. Climbing up on the turnbuckle, rolling out of the ring, and pinning an opponent are all mapped to the same button, which makes it very difficult to figure out how to position yourself to execute the action you want. In this case, you're better off avoiding those three actions altogether.

When you're playing against other human players, these hang-ups don't feel so frustrating because you are all subject to the same pitfalls. In the single-player Story mode you can suffer a few miscues and still scrape out a win a win early on. You'll hit a wall when the foes get tougher, though, because the room for error diminishes so much so that a missed move or missed opportunity can cost you the match. This is vexing enough when it's an honest mistake, but it becomes downright infuriating when it's an animation glitch.

The punishing difficulty in the latter part of the Story mode isn't its only weak point. The voice acting feels flat in contrast with the vigorous banter featured on the actual show, and the actor who voices your character is just terrible, dragging every other character down with his lifeless tone (the closest thing you'll find to personality is in the training videos featured in the extras menu). The only incentive to play the Story mode is to unlock new characters and arenas. With each victory, you earn style points, and the more various and risky your moves are, the more points you'll earn. Unlike in the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions, these points don't actually appear to earn you anything, given that you don't actually customize your character or move set. As if to compensate for the puzzling lack of character creation, there are a lot more unlockable wrestlers in the PlayStation 2 version, though many of them are no-name goons.

Multiplayer is the best way to enjoy TNA Impact, and there's a full array of match types available. One-on-one matches, three-way free-for-alls, tag-team brawls, handicap contests, and the signature Ultimate X matches are all playable, though only two players can actually compete at a time. Ultimate X matches, while dramatic on television, often feel less exciting than normal matches because the focus becomes staying aloft on the cables rather than pummeling your opponents. There's nothing unexciting about that per se, but the hanging combat is awkward and limited. Actually grabbing the X also requires you to tap a button when a moving cursor lines up with a target area--an action that could be diplomatically described as "anticlimactic."
So, TNA Impact is not without its flaws. The character models are good, and the animation is fluid and lively, but the unpolished physics of fighting can create some frustrating situations, and the lo-fi audio often sounds flat. Yet despite these technical shortcomings (and silly costumes), it's still good fun to clothesline, drop-kick, and power-bomb your friends all around the ring. And, ultimately, isn't that what pro wrestling is all about?

By Chris Watters, GameSpot

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed Review

You hear the big chord and the brass fanfare, and you know what's coming. It's easy to get excited when you hear the rousing Star Wars theme, though the franchise has hardly been known for exceeding expectations in recent years. If you're interested in Star Wars: The Force Unleashed for its story and theme, you won't be disappointed: It supplies a weighty plot with a few stunning surprises. If you're more interested in the action, you'll find that the game is a mixture of fun and frustration that you'll get some enjoyment from, but ultimately fails to live up to its potential.

You're cast as Galen Marek, aka Starkiller, Darth Vader's secret apprentice. The Clone Wars have ended, and Vader orders you to hunt and destroy the last of the remaining Jedi. Exploring the universe from this dark perspective is remarkably compelling. The story is brief (expect to finish the campaign in about seven hours), but it contains multiple twists, features some friendly and not-so-friendly faces, and is both explosive and remarkably intimate. You'll interact with Vader, of course, but Starkiller spends most of his time with an android called PROXY and his female pilot, Juno Eclipse. Sharing the details of the trio's adventures would spoil too much, so suffice it to say that you'll grow remarkably fond of Starkiller and his companions, and their moral conflicts carry a lot of weight.

Unfortunately, the game's limited visual capabilities somewhat soften the story's dramatic impact. The cutscenes are rendered within the game engine, and are undercut by stiff animations and abrupt, jarring transitions in and out of gameplay, as well as some odd-looking character models and occasional glitches, such as blinking geometry. Audio also takes a hit, which is odd, considering that much of the voice-over work is lifted directly from the Xbox 360/PlayStation 3 version of the game. Poor compression is the culprit here, and it makes the dialogue sound as if you're listening to it on an old record player.

That's not to say that Force Unleashed looks and sounds bad, considering the aging hardware pumping these elements out. The moderately sized environments are fairly detailed, and the saber action and powerful-looking Force abilities produce flurries of particles and other special effects. However, there are some brief moments of slowdown not seen in the Wii version, which uses the same graphics engine (and looks essentially the same). John Williams' music and some original tracks, as well as the familiar swooshes of sabers, sound like you'd expect, and they only occasionally suffer from the poor compression to which the voice-over was subjected.

The star of the visual parade is the robust physics engine that powers your most impressive moves. Using Force grip, you can grab and fling any number of objects, including your enemies; with Force push, you can shove items and foes out of your path. These skills and their variants deliver the game's best moments. Whether you're flinging Felucians into each other or offing swarms of rebels with a burst of energy, there are a number of "did you see that?" moments that will have you grabbing your friends to show them your saber-slinging prowess. Nevertheless, it's disappointing that these moves can't be strung together more easily. The controls can be unresponsive and sometimes lack the fluidity of the other versions. At times, you might be mashing on the square button and wondering why you aren't swinging your saber, or tapping X but not making the corresponding jump. Additionally, it's odd that the triangle button does double duty, activating both Force push (if you tap it) and Force grip (if you hold it). The other versions use separate buttons to perform these powers, which is a more logical choice and feels more intuitive.

Although the environments aren't totally cluttered with useful objects, this actually works to the game's advantage, considering that the targeting problems prevalent in the other console versions are diminished as a result. There are still some moments when you'll grab a different object than you intended, but given that there are fewer objects to grab, these moments will provide only the occasional frustration. The annoying camera of the Wii version has been leashed and tamed a bit on the PlayStation 2 thanks to the right analog stick, which gives you the full camera control that you would expect. However, many of the levels are claustrophobic, which makes it difficult to move the camera into helpful positions, especially when you are fending off multiple enemies.

Nevertheless, the game moves along at a relatively quick pace, so between droid encounters and boss battles, you'll always be in the thick of the action. You won't find much challenge here; there are plenty of health drops scattered around, including respawning ones during boss battles. Should you die, you'll restart at the most recent checkpoint with all of the damage you've already done to your enemies still intact. This is probably for the best because it keeps the pace moving. Some variety comes by way of Force Unleashed's God of War-style quick-time events, which result in some terrific, flashy-looking moves, whether you're smashing on an opposing Jedi or defeating a rancor in a series of thrilling acrobatics. And it's a welcome sort of variety, given that you'll be visiting the same exact levels several times over.

Unlockable costumes and other extras won't give you much reason to return, but some extra levels lengthen the playtime over the mostly similar Wii version. So if you're in the mood to slash up Jawas, this is your chance, though The Force Unleashed may not be as raucously entertaining as you may have expected. Nevertheless, if you've got six or seven hours to kill, this is a fair way to spend them, particularly if you're a Star Wars devotee looking to fill in the gaps between Episodes III and IV.

By Kevin VanOrd, GameSpot