confessions of an OG PILOT

Knowing that SRT: Original Generation is quite similar to the better-known Fire Emblem series may help you to quickly understand what sort of game this is. It isn't quite as great as the two Fire Emblem games released for the Game Boy Advance in recent years, but it's not too far off. The games share the same structure, with rather long-winded but engaging cutscenes placed before and after some simple, entertaining turn-based strategy missions. The missions are scripted so that bits of the story also unfold during battle, so the story doesn't feel disconnected. Another similarity between SRT and Fire Emblem is how the stories feature a huge ensemble cast and spend plenty of time developing characters besides the main protagonists--in this case, a gifted and enthusiastic young pilot named Ryusei, and a cool-under-fire soldier named Kyosuke, either of whom you can choose as the main character at the beginning of the game.

Though the two main characters and their comrades eventually meet up and join forces, the first halves of their respective stories are completely different, yet interconnected. Just playing through one character's storyline (consisting of about 40 missions) could easily take 30 or more hours, and there's a ton of dialogue all throughout. So it's impressive just how much dialogue was crammed into this game, and the English localization turned out quite well for the most part. The story sequences consist simply of static postage-stamp-size character portraits and written dialogue, but even so, the different characters' personalities are made distinctive through the writing, and many characters are likable, even memorable.

Of course, the stars of the show are the giant robots themselves. While all the game's dozens of different robots are original designs, many of them look suspiciously similar to many of anime's most recognizable mecha, in a way that seems like a loving tribute rather than a cheap knockoff. And besides, many of these guys are genuinely cool in their own right and have plenty of great weapons for you to play around with, like laser-spewing, double-sided rifles and gigantic rocket-propelled swords that can cut spaceships in half with a single stroke. The mechs all have tough-sounding names like the Alteisen and Grungust Type 0, and the story explains a lot of their origins and introduces upgraded parts and new abilities to some of them, which helps you grow attached to the mechs even as you grow to like their pilots. A few of the mechs can even join together for combination attacks. All the mechs are depicted in a cutesy, "super deformed" style that seems contradictory to the mostly serious story about a world on the brink of alien invasion, but the art style is cohesive and it works. Some excellent, rousing music and great sound effects help the presentation substantially.

If you look past the story and characters toward the underlying gameplay, you'll find a good turn-based strategy game with role-playing elements. In any given battle, you control some number of giant robots (represented by little images of the robots' heads) and take turns with enemy forces moving your troops into position and attacking. Enemies that survive your assault may retaliate, but by using the right weapons and special abilities at the right times, and by positioning your units so that they can provide support, it's possible to prevail against intimidating odds. Factors like your pilot's stats and abilities, your weapons' range and ammo, and your giant robots' special equipment and the nearby terrain all play a part in the outcome of a battle. Your pilots earn experience and money in battle, which may be used to augment pilots' skills or your mechs' defenses. Between battles, you can equip different weapons on your mechs, boost your pilots' stats, and more, though the text-based menu system for all this could have been a lot easier to use.

imagees courtesy of gamespot

Even if it is not halloween, there are many ways to get things that can bring creeps, bone-chills to you this season.

Actually its more of a bone-chilling, because its bone-chilling + psychological disturbance + great stunning graphics!

Konami's survival horror series makes its first appearance on the Xbox 360 and PS3.


This is something that should be looking forward to.

According to our fellow gamespot gamer, Guy Cocker, GameSpot UK

"The demo itself was similar to the one that we played at this year's E3, but we were able play a different level of the game in Germany. It started with us viewing through t
he eyes of the protagonist, who was strapped down to a medical stretcher that was being led through a hospital. As we looked around, we could see people being operated on (or tortured, as is probably more accurate) by the crazed creatures who had taken over the establishment. Shortly after, we were left in an operating room while a strange creature waited outside. Thankfully, we were able to tap the X button to escape from the shackles, allowing us more freedom to explore the world."

(Sounds exciting! should grab a PS3 in no time.)



"It's clear that Silent Hill has taken a few tips from Resident Evil in updating the franchise. The main character moves more quickly and freely than in previous games, and though it can still be difficult to move quickly enough when engaging an enemy, the controls feel much more nimble than before. The combat also feels more frenetic, and we were able to finish off some of the nurses by grabbing their heads and stabbing them in the neck. Needless to say, gushers of blood sprayed all over the place, some of it even hitting the camera.


In terms of puzzles, the game seems to be in more familiar Silent Hill territory. We encountered a door with an electronic lock, but in the adjacent room we found a clue: half of an X-ray sheet that had a number scrawled across it. With a little help from our Konami representative, we were able to find the other half of the sheet and put together the code. Shortly after, we entered the hospital toilets (and what Silent Hill game would be complete without toilets?), where we saw the game slip into the "alternate universe" state, which should be familiar to fans of the series. The walls stripped away to reveal a much grimier hospital than before."

"This Silent Hill takes the series' traditional art style and filters it through to create an arresting new look. The flashlight looks particularly realistic, especially in casting shadows, and a lot of the medical equipment lying around would shake if we bumped into it. The characters and environments are detailed, but the intentionally grimy look makes the game feel as if it has been captured on old, decaying film. It won't be to everyone's taste, but it certainly adds to the atmosphere of the game"

When you think of Silent Hill, what jumps to mind? A foggy town? Cryptic dialogue? Walls dripping with blood? Well, the good news is that Silent Hill Origins has all those things. That alone should please series fans who are looking to developer Climax's prequel to provide plenty of atmosphere and further expand on the Silent Hill mythos. But in this case, the good news is also the bad news because from a gameplay perspective, Origins is exactly what you would expect, delivering an entirely conventional adventure that relies on eight-year-old franchise hallmarks at the expense of anything truly new.

Origins is a prequel set before the events of the original PlayStation game. This time, you're in the shoes of Travis Grady, a trucker navigating through a downpour of rain on an eerie, foreboding night. If that sounds familiar, well, that's because it is. Like the previous Silent Hill games, Origins is light on scares but heavy on murky atmosphere and mysterious dialogue. In this case, it also relies heavily on nostalgia to set its mood, which may be fine for many fans, but the setup lacks the originality of prior series plots. In any case, Travis spots a little girl in the middle of the highway just in time to avoid hitting her. She runs off, and Travis, for no apparent reason, takes pursuit. If you're a Silent Hill fan, you may already have an idea of who she might be.

What's missing here is a clear sense of suspense. Unlike with previous series installments, Travis doesn't have any pressing reason to visit Silent Hill, save for pursuing the strange child. A subsequent fire rescue adds some missing urgency, but the opening never gives you the sense that Travis needs to be in Silent Hill, which makes him the least interesting of the franchise's protagonists. Nevertheless, how Travis fits in to the ongoing mystery of Silent Hill eventually becomes clear. If you're here to fill in missing pieces to series lore, Origins has plenty of meat for you to chew on and plenty of familiar locales to explore.

You control Travis from a third-person view, navigating through the foggy streets of the titular town between destinations. There's a lot to piece together here in the way of puzzles, many of which are entangled in other puzzles. For the most part, they are pretty clever, requiring you to explore every nook and cranny for scraps of clues and various items. They also require you to move in and out of the otherworld (an alternate dimension) at will by touching any of the various mirrors scattered about, which is a new mechanic for the series. It's in the otherworld that Origins is at its most disturbing. Dirty, bloody asylum walls and ragged teddy bears are series standards that still manage to elicit chills. Random groans and sudden encounters with other characters are also appropriately creepy, if not exactly scary.

You'll encounter your fair share of monstrous oddities--some new, many familiar. Unfortunately, combat is as weak as ever for the series. Melee is as plodding and unsatisfying as you remember, usually bloody but too measured and monotonous to be much fun. In all fairness, there are some attempts to spice things up. At times, an enemy attack will trigger a contextual minigame that requires you to hit the necessary buttons within a prescribed time limit to avoid taking damage. Of course, we've seen this mechanic in countless games this year alone, and Origins does nothing to make it any more interesting, so it might as well have been left out.

The other main combat addition is that of limited-use melee weapons. You can grab a television, radio, or hospital drip stand to bash your enemies with. You'll get multiple uses out of some of them, while others are done after a single hit. As long as you avoid combat, however (usually an easy task), you'll have plenty of weapons at your disposal. It begs the question, though: How can Travis carry a TV, a hatchet, a drip stand, a scalpel, a meat cleaver, a filing cabinet, and a huge plank of wood at the same time? It's not that impossibly huge inventory space is new to games, but the extent to which it's carried out here feels wildly out of place. Gunplay feels better, though again, it's wiser to simply avoid combat whenever possible and save your ammo for the boss fights. This is where Origins is at its best: Boss monsters are huge, designed well, and a challenge to take down.