GameInformer

    There was a deal recently on Xbox LIVE that priced Bastion at 600 Microsoft Points (normally 1200). I heard about the game and the great reviews it scored, but wasn't that interested in it. I never tend to buy downloadable games anyway, but I did purchase Outland a few months ago and loved it. Who knows, I might dive into another treasure cove. After some thought, I took the plunge to see what awaited me...little did I know what I was about to discover.
    Bastion is a special kind of game. It's one of those gems you don't find that often where everything is near perfect. The sound, the story, the graphics. Everything. Supergiant Games poured their souls and passion into Bastion, and it's evident in every single aspect of the game. Without further delay, here's why I think these things.

    There's not much to say about the graphics except that they are amazing. I'd put them on par with Metal Gear Solid 4 and Uncharted 2. Detail to the characters, environments, and weapons is top-notch. The lighting and weather effects are realistic and look great. So...if there is any complaint, it's that sometimes characters' mouths don't move or look strange when they're talking. Look, I'm trying to find a complaint here! Compared to KZ2, the graphics are about the same. However, something makes KZ3 look better than its predecessor. The campaign in KZ2 mainly took place around a lot of steel buildings. Yes, the graphics were incredible, but mostly everything you saw was grey, brown, and black. Not very exciting. In KZ3, Guerilla Games took advantage of varied environments. Ice-covered mountains in a glacier filled sea, bug invested jungles with weird plants, and are among a few of the awesome places you'll visit. Like I said earlier, the graphics are just amazing...period.

    KZ3 is one, big KABOOM! A shockwave of stupendous sound penetrating your ears. Since I started off with a boom, I'll say that explosions sound like they should, as well as weapons being fired and reloaded. Every sound effect in KZ3 combines together to make KZ3 a more immersive game than most FPS titles. I should mention the voice acting as well, which was only okay. Characters like Sev and Rico sound like corny superheroes played by bad actors. Although, if I have to pick a character that had a good voice behind him, it would be Jorhan Stahl. The voice actor conveyed Stahl's personality pretty well. So yeah, not much else to say about the voice acting. On the other hand, the music was incredible.
    Joris de Man (awesome name) composed a beautiful, fitting score for KZ3.  However, his music is very familiar. Being surprisingly similar to John Williams' music at times. I swear, while I was listening to the music during a cutscene showing the foggy, dense jungles of Helghan, I immediately thought of the scene where Luke Skywalker met Yoda. Moments like this happened only a few times throughout the game. It's a good thing Joris de Man has his own style of music that is heavy, epic, and explosive (just like the game) and sometimes even slow, soft, and spine-chilling. Great pieces such as "And We Ever Fight On" are a treat to listen to. Look it up on Youtube and you'll understand what I'm talking about.

    How long will KZ3 last you? The campaign is about 8-10 hours (on hard difficulty), so that won't take too long. If you want to play through it one more time, you can do it with a friend in split-screen. Strangely, co-op can't be played online, which is disappointing. Thankfully, I was able to test co-op with a good friend of mine, and it seems to work fine. Besides the campaign, multiplayer is what will keep you coming back for months. If you don't want to play with real people, you can play against a whole team of bots by yourself. So here's the big question...is the multiplayer good? Yes; it's a good change of pace from other FPS games. Guerilla Games has added public matchmaking with more game modes. The class system has added "perks" and works as a currency system like Black Op's COD points. As you level up, you'll earn credits to unlock weapons, perks, and equipment. The multiplayer maps look fantastic too. They have those varied environments I was talking about earlier. The flow of the maps (that I played on) is consistent and lag isn't an issue. There are some complaints I have about the multiplayer, and it has to do mostly with balancing issues. For example, a specific class allows you to cloak yourself to look like the opposing team, and gives you one of the names of the enemy team. Sounds useful, but a lot of people use this class, which results in some frustrating matches. In one game, I couldn't figure out who to shoot. Everyone on the opposite team was using this perk and looked exactly like my teammates, I had to shoot everyone to see if they were an enemy. Yes, this can be slightly counteracted with a class that gives you a radar, but it isn't very effective against this bothersome issue. I found myself getting stabbed from behind by a "teammate" many times. Another thing that bothered me was grenades. For some reason, they won't go where you want them to go. If your grenade hits an object, it will bounce everywhere. Hopefully Guerilla Games will tone done the ricochet effect of grenades later on. There's not much else for me to nitpick at.
    Just to let you know again, I only played KZ3 for two weeks. So some things I've said about multiplayer may have been changed in the past few months. So anyway, the campaign and multiplayer will keep you busy for a while.

I never thought I was going to play Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep. The reason for this is because I don't own a PSP. I may not own one, my sister does. I asked her if I could borrow her PSP if I bought Birth by Sleep, and she said that was okay with her. So eventually, I ended up getting the game. That's how I was able to play Birth by Sleep. Now you may be wondering why I don't own a PSP. It's because I think the gaming library for the PSP isn't good enough. Sure, Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker and Resistance: Retribution look like some good games, but they didn't really interest me. But Birth by Sleep got my attention, and therefore, it is the first game I ever truly wanted to play on the PSP. I don't not own a PSP, and I haven't played enough games on it, but I firmly believe this is one of the greatest games made for the PSP.

Darth Vader invades the planet Kashyykk in order to find a rebel Jedi that escaped Order 66. He finds him, defeats him, and is ready to kill him. But before Vader deals the final blow, a young boy surprises him from behind by using the force to take his lightsaber. This happens to be the Jedi's son. Just then, Stormtroopers arrive on the scene to see what's happening. Vader kills them all and the Jedi...but spares the boy. Vader senses that the Force is strong in him, and sees that he could be of use.