Demo Disc Day

Ok as I said I was going to do, I played through the PSM demo disc (although after some thought, this probably won't be a regular thing, there's a good reason I rarely buy these types of mags-the extra content rarely justifies the price). I didn't check out every single demo, but here's some observations on what I did try out:

Shadowhearts: The New World-Oh dear god what have they done to my beloved underground franchise? The classic ring-based battle system is still there, but half the reason the first two games were so good were the great characters that weren't your usual bratty underage youths and great dialogue and voice acting. This demo shows the hero, a 16-year old bratty rich kid who fancies himself a detective, and his Lurch-like bodyguard, both with laughably awful voices and dialogue. I might give a rent, but at this point no way I'm purchasing Shadow Hearts unless I hear of a drastic voice overhaul.

Sonic Riders: If I had any doubt left that Sonic needs to either be drastically revamped or killed off completely, this "extreme" title is it. Not only are the controls horrible, but does anybody give a rat's ass that anybody other than Sonic is even in this game? Time to go back to the drawing board guys.

Teen Titans: I like the show, so I had an outside hope that this would be different from the other licensed crap out there. It shows some potential, but it's choppy and why the hell can't I turn into a T-rex (or several other animals) as Beast Boy? In fact, all the characters abilities seem to be rather limited, which is just lazy on the developers'part.

State of Emergency 2: You know, the first game was a fucking pile of shit, and admittedly, this seems a slight step up from that, but only slightly. It's still the same redundant crap, except no there seems to be no lame escort missions.

Drakengard 2: I wasn't too impressed by the first title, and the 2nd one isn't much of an improvement quite frankly. It's trying to be Panzer Dragoon, but it's just not nearly as good, and realyl, if you can't at least match that level of excellence why bother?

Onimusha: Dawn of Dreams: I love how they said that the last Onimusha game was actually going to be the last one, yet here we are less than 2 years later with another game on the same platform. And it still plays like crap.

And there wasn't a playable demo, but a video of the making of Grandia III that was none too reassuring either. I was seriously excited about this game until I heard the developers trying to explain their concept. Luckily the reviews have been really solid, so it'll probably be the perfect thing to pick up right after I'm done with Tales of Legendia and will hopefully keep me busy until Kingdom Hearts II is out.

Ok, that's all for today. FREE GAME OF THE WEEK: Alien Hominid-A classic shooter