Since the days of the SNES, Squaresoft and Enix have been putting out some of the most memorable JRPG’s in gaming history. Since 2001, these companies have merged into one gaming force, Square Enix, unfortunately for their games, the quality hasn’t survived the transition.

What happened?

Their past games include the Final Fantasy series, the Chrono series, the Dragon Quest series, the Star Ocean series, and more. Games like Final Fantasy VII and Chrono Trigger are the epitome of RPG success. They are what JRPG fans want when it comes to the cream of the crop.

Though since the merger and since Square Enix got rid of Final Fantasy creator Hironubo Sakaguchi, their games have not had anywhere near the success of their SNES and Playstation 1 games.

Quality has been dropping since Final Fantasy X

Final Fantasy X is considered by many to be one of the best Final Fantasy games and JRPG’s in gaming history, but since then Square Enix has slowly but surely gotten worse with each game. This is very evident in how they’ve handled their biggest franchise, Final Fantasy. Final Fantasy X-2, Final Fantasy XI, and Final Fantasy XII is easily the worst run in the franchises history. All the games have been been clouded in mediocrity, and many fans are getting fed up with this.

It’s gotten even worse this generation

Infinite Undiscovery, Star Ocean 4, and The Last Remnant were all released within the last year, and all of them were mediocre at best. None of these games pushed the JRPG-genre like their games in the past. Some blame this to Square Enix being “greedy” and releasing games on consoles that they are unfamiliar to. They have yet to release a PS3 Square Enix game this generation, and have yet to release the next-gen Final Fantasy.

They continue to push out PSP games and games for consoles such as the Wii/360. All the 360 games have been mediocre, the Wii games are either ports or crappy 2nd hand games, and while the PSP games are decent most would like to have games like Crisis Core and Dissidia on a home console.

Ever since Sakaguchi and Uematsu left…

Squre Enix games have not felt the same.  Even Lost Odyssey felt more like an old-school classic Squaresoft/Enix game than the stuff Square Enix has produced the past couple of years. They are putting out products to make money, and not to create great games. This is obvious in how they’ve changed their buisness strategies over time.

Hopefully with Final Fantasy XIII being a year away they can change their current trend and turn it around. Gamers also have Final Fantasy XIII Versus and a new Kingdom Hearts to look forward to in the future. Hopefully they stop ignoring what made them great, and worry about making great games, and not just broadening their audience.

Intro
I recently wrote a piece that took a look at the percentage of the Playstation 3 install base that to this point have purchased Killzone 2. The results indicated that a meager 6% have purchased this title. Many concluded that this was a weak outcome for arguably the most anticipated title on any console this generation. These results also further enforced the notion that many Playstation 3 owners bought the console first and foremost as a blu-ray player and the fact that is also a games console is just extra. On that note, I decided to delve a little bit deeper in order to find definitive evidence that would support the notion that PS3’s are for the most part purchased as blu-ray players. Here are the results.

Click To Enlarge

Click To Enlarge

Note: Disregard those raw sales numbers to the left, as they were simply used as cell references to calculate the Xbox 360 percentages.

Results
In order to find a more definitive answer as to whether or not PS3 owners actually purchased less games than 360 owners, I decided to do a comparison of 9 of the most popular multiplatform games that have been released in roughly the last year. I did not account for incentives to buy one version over the other such as DLC, achievements, ect as all of those factors are beyond the scope of this analysis. Be that as it may, the results are interesting. As it turns out, a higher percentage of the PS3 install base bought multi-platform title when compared to the 360 version. What is much more surprising, this simple study shows that exactly 11.4% of each console base actually went out and purchased the most popular multiplatform titles of this generation. This should help to change the mind of those(including myself) that previously assumed that 360 owners purchased more games than PS3 owners.

**Source: www.vgchartz.com**
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Psn ID: ph8al
Gamertag: ph8al

This girl can spit that fiyaaa!

Did Resident Evil 5 live up to hype?:

Well I finally finished Resident Evil 5 (on both systems I might add) and while it was great game it was deeply flawed. It wasn’t even close to 20% of the hype. As a Resident Evil fan, I was deeply disappointed, I felt the developing team behind this project had way more than enough time to take the franchise into a new direction, but instead they did nothing innovating.

Three reasons why Resident Evil 5 is not better than its predecessor?:

1. It was nothing new, it’s just a HD version of Resident Evil 4. Resident Evil 5 would’ve been an incredible game if came out 2 years ago, when gamers were still familiar with structure of Resident Evil 4. It shouldn’t have took the developing team 4 years to make the same game to was on last generation consoles.

2. It’s was shorter than Resident evil 4. What in God’s name was this “brain dead” producer and his team thinking of making a game shorter than it’s predecessor? For the PS3 and Xbox 360 I clocked in about 11 hours. I believe Resident Evil 4 was around 15 to 18 hrs.

3. The issues that plague both systems, screen tearing vs. framerate issues. On the Xbox 360 it’s has some screen tearing here and there, nothing to serious. While the PS3 doesn’t have any screen tearing, it suffers from framerate issuses. Once again developers gave the PS3 version the short end of the stick when comes to multi-platform titles. I hope Capcom isn’t jumping on the M$ bandwagon, if they are, then good luck too them, because I won’t be supporting them anymore. I think it’s stupid for any third developer to cater to one system, they’re ruining their reputation by doing that and to cover it up, their excuse is; ”it’s easier to develop on the Xbox 360″. Then make a damn exclusive for the 360 then there won’t be any confusion. It’s not fair for PS3 owners to get a crappy port.

Final comments:

Resident Evil 5 was one of the titles I was looking forward to this year and sadly, it disappoints. As I stated before, it’s a great game with a good story to go along with it, but it could’ve been much more.

Kool G Rap ft. Prinz- We G’s produced by DJ Green Latern

This is a special track. The beat was sampled from a Final Fantasy battle song. You guys tell me which one it is from. The beat is just down right amazing. I will ruin it, it is from Final Fantasy VII. They used a Final Fantasy VII battle song and made it into a beat. The beat alone is worth posting regardless if the lyrics are good or not. I freaked when I heard this the first time. I bet a lot of you guys did not hear this one

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Introduction
Brutal Legend is truly looking to be an innovate title for the entire game industry. It is pushing the action genre forward as well as the music genre. Before Brutal Legend, the music genre basically consisted of Guitar Hero and Rock Band. Basically a game focused on one music genre where all you had to do was, follow the notes, and hit the button corresponding to the note at the right time. Guitar Hero and Rock Band does not appeal to everybody, and the only thing that really appealed to people is the music. If you took out the music, it’s just crap. Go listen to people playing Rock Band with the music off. You know that sounds boring. The Action Adventure genre was never keen on music, especially rock or any other major genre. Instead it has more emphasis on action itself. No action adventure game has come close to making you feel like a badass music star. Now Brutal Legend seems like the perfect marriage between the two genres. It will attract both genre lovers, and clearly it will set the bar for future games.

How it will change the music genre?
Rock Band and Guitar Hero is essentially a game where your avatar stands on the stage, and plays music, but you never control that person. You never move his hands, or make him do what he does on the stage. Instead you play notes on the screen, and all your focus really goes into following the notes, instead of the background and what your avatar is doing. As gamers we always want more to do. We want more interactivity, better graphics, or something new or innovating to the genre. Brutal Legend will clearly do that, in that you play music and you kick ass. Instead of just following the notes and hitting buttons at the right time to get points, which you have no use for really, you are more focused on using your music skills in the game to defeat enemies. Instead of hitting a button to hit a note on the screen, you are hitting a button to use your guitar and slash somebody’s head off. It pushes the music genre forward in that, it doesn’t have to be just following the notes, and hitting them at the right time or singing what is on screen. It can be different and still be a music based game. You can use music to defeat enemies, and it can still be a music genre based game.

How it will change the action adventure genre?
The Action Adventure genre was never really keen on appealing to the music hungry players. Instead it focuses on just action adventure. Why not give a kick ass soundtrack to go along with it. Something that appeals to a certain audience instead of going the orchestral route, with cellos, violins, etc. Brutal Legend is appealing more to the fans of rock and roll. Essentially the Guitar Hero and Rock Band fans. So the soundtrack will not consist of any orchestral mixes, but instead straight rock and roll music. So that just appeals to more people since they enjoy that type of music. Brutal Legend looks to start that trend where the soundtrack can cater to well known music genre instead of the usual route. Brutal Legend itself will prove that Action Adventure games does not always have to be pure action. It can be about different elements. Jack Black is the voicing the main character, and when you hear Jack Black is in a video game, you know funny shit is going to happen. It is going to be a comedic action game. On top of that we all know Jack Black can play guitar and sing, so he is a perfect choice for the game.

Trendsetter
Now we have a comedy, rock and roll, action, and adventure game. No other game has done anything like that. If this game succeeds then this will start a trend and I am positive other developers will do something familiar. Maybe instead of rock and roll they will try hip hop. Brutal Legend is taking a big risk, but if it pays off, this will definitely open doors and eyes. Developers will see that a game like Brutal Legend will sell and that taking risks like that in order to move some genres forward is worth trying.

THIS IS GONNA BE HOT AND A NEW STANDARD FOR GAMES. HOME SPACES