Weekend, what are you playing?

A lot of new games reached Philippine shores this week. Tomb Raider, the new Sim City, the new Naruto game, Castlevania: Mirrors of fate, and many more hit shelves last Tuesday giving a good variety of new games to enjoy during the weekend. so pick your poison, what are you playing this weekend?

Quash:For me, instead of going for something new, I weirdly chose to backtrack for the weekend. I bought Final Fantasy XIII-2 for P950 for my Xbox 360 and I'll most likely be playing that over the weekend. I guess it was the price, plus the urge to play an JRPG. I wasn't impressed with how Final Fantasy XIII turned out, and from what I was hearing about the sequel made me decide to not get it on release. But a year later with its price down, I decided to give it a try, see if it actually turns out good for me in the end.

Well, 11 hours in, and many time travel jumps later, it's actually a lot of fun. The story though is very forgettable at this point, but the combat mechanic is still one of the best in the series. O wasn't too fond with the whole third character being captured monsters found in the wild, but the merging of monsters and finding different combinations for new skills and all always get me thinking. The freedom and the ability to backtrack is also welcome. The sequel has what the first game lacked, and if Square actually merged the two and minus the whole time travel storyline, the Final Fantasy XIII series would have gone so much better. Oh, and that damn moogle is just as annoying as Vanille, just saying.

I also might get Tomb Raider this weekend for my Xbox 360, or maybe start preparing for BioShock: Infinite?

Migoy: Don't have much planned for this weekend. I just need to finish my LP of Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance and DmC Devil May Cry before I go into / continue anything else. Oh that and maybe some Battlefield 3 online with the crew and homies. All of which have videos up on our youtube channel that you can check out.

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (PS1)

Most people disregard games based on movies as they are usually low budget, rushed developed, cash grabbers to tie in with the movies that they are associated with. Which is true for the most part. However, there are some gems out there that are quite good or at least decent.

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone was one of the few movie tie-in games that I remember liking a lot back in the day. Even though this is an obvious movie tie-in, it appears as if the game took more from the books than the actual movie. Riddled with Zelda like controls, simple platforming, mini games, and a sort of sandbox world/castle, this is a game that was obviously made for a youngr audience but still provides a good enough challenge from time to time to be entertaining.

Recent Buys: Episode 22 - Video Edition

Thought I'd do something different for this episode of Recent Buys.

Final Fantasy Trading Arts Kai Mini No. 01 – Cloud Strife

Possibly the most well known Final Fantasy character in the whole world, it's no surprise that the first figure of the Final Fantasy Trading Arts Kai Mini series of figures is Cloud.

The box goes through the same design with all the figures (at least, as of this post, until No. 06 Lightning). A clear window up front shows off the figures as well as the accessories that come with it while the back of the box shows various poses that the figure can do and all the signs and speech bubbles unique to this figure.

Cloud comes with a total of 4 interchangeable faces. The default small pupil angry eyes that seem to come with all the figures, a pair of neutral anime eyes, closed calm eyes and a blank face. Cloud also comes with 1 interchangeable hand to hold the Buster Sword. A base with the standard stand arms and sign clips is also included. Cloud's second body is him riding the bike seen in Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children. And finally 2 speech bubbles and a sign showing directions to various areas similar to the ones you would see in Midgar.

Aside from the ball jointed head, Cloud has 2 other points of articulation. His right arm is connected to his shoulder via a ball joint and since his right hand is removable, you have some extra wrist rotation.

Replacing the hand is simple enough. Though the extra hand holds the Buster Sword very well, the index finger and thumb were connected together which I ended up tearing when I stuffed the sword handle in. This left a white mark which I'm guessing is the underlying plastic color. Easily fixable but it might be a bother to others. The arm has no problem holding the weight of the sword so you can pose it in any way you like.

The 2nd body is attached to the bike and the effect is done via a head swap. Unlike the Lightning figure, where in you unpeg her legs and attach her whole upper torso to the 2nd body to have her riding the horse, Cloud's head swap is a more straight forward uproach. There are no connection points on the bike riding body to connect to the base with so the bike balances on its own. Though not the most stable of bikes, the figure can hold its own against gravity. Cloud will just be looking down for the most part.

My Cloud figure suffers the same problem I have with my Squall figure. The body doesn't attach well to the stand arms for the base meaning that posing Cloud on the base cane be a bit tricky. Again this does not mean that all Cloud figures are like that and maybe just be the luck of the draw. For it being the first figure in this new line, it's pretty darn good. I do wish that they went for the classic Final Fantasy VII Cloud instead of his Advent Children look.

Dragon War Garand Gaming Headset Unboxing

Unboxing of the Dragon War Garand Gaming Headset. Sorry for the terrible video angle.

I think the full name of this headset is Dragon War G-HS-001 Garand Gaming Headset. Got this at Datablitz for 1595php. It's pretty darn cool. This headset offers a 5.1 Surround Sound and the 4-in-1 means that the headset works on PS3, Xbox360, Wii, PC and Mac. I guess you could say that this is a 5-in-1.

http://www.dragonwar.jp/product-detail.php?id=13