I hate to get too excited about a new attempt at revitalizing the Tomb Raider franchise because of all the botched attempts in the past, but boy does this trailer look sharp. Crystal Dynamics is working the epic origin story angle for Lara Croft and the results look both epic and fun.
Let’s clear one thing up: Square Enix’s The 3rd Birthday is for all intents and purposes Parasite Eve 3. Apparently Square considers this a “spinoff” game from the franchise, but it stars the main character from the other Parasite Eve games!
I’m getting ahead of myself. Most people have probably forgotten (or haven’t played) the Parasite Eve franchise. In very broad terms it’s Resident Evil meets Final Fantasy. Survival horror meets RPG if you will. In New York.
It may not incorporate wholly original elements, but the entire package is strangely alluring to me. Something about the modern sounding electro-piano soundtrack with the contemporary urban city landscape just clicks with me.
Or maybe it’s just the cute blonde girl with short hair and a stylish outfit.
Either way, the almost-forgotten Sony PSP is in dire need for some good new titles. Hopefully The 3rd Birthday delivers. The above trailer from Gamescom certainly looks like it’s headed in the right direction.
I think the my days of having the patience to sit through a 40 hour video game are through.
It took me almost 5 months to put in the 45 hours needed to finish Final Fantasy 13, with a lot of it feeling like an obligation to my sometimes misguided principle to always finish what i start. That’s not to say there weren’t some great moments in the experience, but by and large everything the Final Fantasy franchise stands for has become stale.
Final Fantasy 13 tries so very hard to advance the aging Japanese RPG genre and actually does succeed in doing so on some levels. I, for one, am actually glad they got rid of towns in this game. When you boil it down, the only thing towns are good for are a) buying items and equipment and b) fulfilling a required plot/character interaction in order to advance the storyline. Getting rid of them streamlines the gameplay. It’s much more convenient to be able to buy items at any save point instead of hunting for several buildings in a town to complete your shopping list.