Frag FX Shark Controller for PS3, PC and Mac

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i'm a pc gamer. hardcore. mouse and keyboard since the quake 3 arena days. i have never been able to compete on the consoles because i can't get my thumbs to make a controller do what i want. while all of my friends play on consoles.

for people like me the Shark is a godsend.

i own the original wired fragfx, a fragenstein, and a scorch. the shark performs well above all of these.

the mouse movement on the shark is perfect. playing mw2 with the in game sensitivity at 9 and the shark set around 2.

my only problem with it is the size. the mouse is just too big. i need to hold my hand a certain way just to reach all of the buttons..kind of annoying. and we can really do without the rapid fire and macros.

when i wear this one out i'll definitely buy another.

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I play games in bed with my TV at the foot. It gets uncomfortable after awhile with my arms holding a dualshock 3 over my stomach. This controller allows them to rest on either side of me. You can also set this controller to the same input as your dualshock Eg. 1. That way you can have a dualshock in your right hand and the fragchuck in your left. I love the "fragchuck". It fits well in hand and everything for the left hand is there, plus motion sensitivity, macros, rapid fire, and more! Could pack 2-3 more buttons in, though.

The mouse feels good, the buttons take a little getting used to, but are intuitive and easy to adapt to. The mous pad is good too. However, it's a little too big for me and I have good sized hands 7 inches from my middle finger to the bottom of my palm. Because of the shape, It actually fits better in my left hand than my right, of course then the buttons are imposable to use. I could have gotton used to the size but didn't want to since it wasen't very compatable with some of my games (See details section below).

There is a lot of disinformation surrounding this product. There are a lot of positive reviews from people playing Calld of Duty (Newer ones) and a lot of bad reviews calling it a "rip off". Aparently compatbility is hit or miss since PS3 was not made for a mouse and the fragfx shark has to emulate a thumb stick. To be fair to Splitfish they made a niche product, great for some of todays most popular games, but it's game manufacturers that are not making their titles compatible with Splitfish controllers. But then, why should they? It is a 3rd party controller. Also, why would Sony make the PS3 compatable with mice when most console gamers like the dualshock 3? I should add that some users don't like to use mice and the only refuge they have from the advantage a mouse gives users is on a console.

Pros:

The Concept is sound

Wireless, no lag

The design looks sweet

The "fragchuck" is almost perfect!

Great Battery life

Works with some F.P.S. games

Cons:

Price!!!

Dosen't work with some F.P.S. games

PS3 Games were ment for Dualshock controllers

3rd parties don't get much support from developers

OK as an optical mouse (Not great, Not laser)

Mouse is a little too big in my opinion

Disinformation about it

THE BOTTOM LINE: DOES IT WORK, AND IS IT WORTH $89?

Yes and no to both points! It works with some games and not with others. It may be worth it if your game is supported, you get past the learning curve, and you really want to take your "hard core" gameing up a level, or if you seriously want to get into PC gaming without the keboard. Otherwise, it's not for you and you will end up unsatisfied. I suggest you keep everything, and thouroughly test out all your games as soon as you get it, then you can get a refund if it does not meet your expectations.

Price I would consider keeping it for (Opinion):

$34.99

Price I would buy the Fragchuck alone (Opinion):

$29.99

DETAILS:

There was no combination of ingame look sensitivity and "dead zone" sensitivity that removed diagonal "staircasing" without making tracking too slow for most of the games I've tested. I saw reviews that mentioned the same thing before I purchased. I decided to give it a try anyway. To their defence, I tried evey combination of dead zone to ingame look sensitivity in the games below with limited success.

Homefront (Demo):

Staircased at dead zones of 0-5 and required too much mouse tracking with 6-9. 6.5 was almost workable except it required me to repeatedly pick up the mouse and reset it to look around. Was less efiecient than the dualshock.

Call of Duty: Classic

Same as aboave, but worse.

Call of Duty: Black Ops (Demo)

Works really well but seems to move up/Down slower than lept/right. No staircasing/jittering with ingame sensitvity at max (Insane) and deadzone = 3. Workable but will take some getting used to. Recommended for this game but it's not perfect.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (Demo)

Same as black ops aboave. Abviously, these are the game it was intended for.

Killzone 2 (Demo):

I was able to resolve staircasing and jittering. Requires maximum ingame sensitivity and a deadzone of 4. Too slow of movement, mouse has to be picked up and drageed all over in this one. Not recomended.

Killzone 3 (Demo):

Better than above but not as good as COD:MW2 or black ops. It is still too slow. too much mouse tracking.

Battlefield 1943:

No staircasing. I needed a dead zone of about 3 to get rid of the jittery/jumping when trying to "pixle point" at an object. Although better, I found tracking was still too slow/difficult to play with. Would take some getting used to. It makes driving vehicals or flying extreemly difficult, if not imposable.

Infamous:

Works well enough to play. Better feel than the dualshock but jittery/staircasing not completly gone.

PC USERS:

When set as a mouse it is fine, sweet to have four extra buttons! Not as good as my logetech MX 5000 laser mouse but it tracks as well as an optical (A cheap one). Also, since I was a console gamer before PC, I tried this on a game I have always dreamed of having a "fragchuck" for...The Descent series. Although windows 7 x64 recognizes it as a gamepad and all of the buttons/analog stick work, it would not recognize the anolog or mouse movement in Descent 1. In Descent 2 this problem is fixed but the mouse has dead zone issues, and when that is ajusted it's too slow, requires too much movement, and is'nt as accurate as my MX5000 laser (Not even close). So, it was esentially useless. Too bad! Fine, I can just use the MX5000 instead by choosing the mouse and joystick option. Worked perfect, very addicting. I set drop bombs to the motion sensative melee and afterburners to the joystick button (L3)! That is sweet and there are 10 buttons on the fragchuck, if you count L3 and the D-Pad, to assign functions to. They could have packed 2-3 more buttons in though. I also, tested a few other FPS games (Older School) that did not work to my satisfaction. Bottom line: if your game supports joystick and mouse operation in tandom (and gives you complete control over button reassignments) then it "might" work like you want it to, otherwise it's a crap shoot. Don't know about newer games like far cry, fallout, and etc.

Note:

I really wanted it to work for me and to give it a fair review. I even pulled it back out of the return box to test it agian on a few titles I forgot about, just to make sure I wanted to return it. No go. Given the range of experiance I got out of it and the problems I was able to almost resolve, I would say my unit was not defective. It just almost works. Maybe it will work better for the games you want it for. Good Luck.

PS:

that guy on youtube (zDD) is displayed prominantly on the packaging and endorsed by Splitfish. Not to say his videos are fake, but his incentive is to paint the product in a positive light. Therefore he's not going to post a video showing what games it doesn't work in! A one sided story is at best a half-truth. So, don't be supprised if your experiance is different form his.

Buy Frag FX Shark Controller for PS3, PC and Mac Now

After several hours of researching the Frag FX Shark, AIMON PS, EagleEye, and XIM3, I finally settled on purchasing the Frag FX Shark controller. Here's the lowdown:

The Frag FX Shark does work as promised, depending on the game being played (based on what I've read). I have only tried it on COD MW3. The best thing about the Frag FX specifically is the sensitivity dial on the controller. This makes it as plug and play as can be with this type of setup. No need to download game specific firmware or any other garbage. The controller is fully customizable as well (remap buttons, macros, blah blah). Basically, you plug in the wireless stick into a USB slot, turn on the mouse and controller, and presto -it works. It is recommended to set in game sensitivity to max and then adjust using the dial on the controller. I've found slightly past 2 to work best for me.

Yes, there is some staircasing with the Frag FX. It won't affect gameplay much for the average gamer and it might even get sorted out with a firmware update later on.

The wireless works well and I had 0 problems with interference. I have a wifi TV, 2 routers, cellphone, cordless house phone, iPad, and the ps3 all in the same area. Did not have any problems at all.

My biggest issue with the product is the ridiculous size of the mouse. I can get over the cheap feel of the plastic, but the size of the mouse is as if it was designed for Captain Banana-hands. This isn't enough to make me return the product.. it is, however, the MAIN reason I knocked the Shark down to 4 stars. The only other issue is more of an annoyance than anything else... even when the controller and mouse are turned off, if the USB stick is plugged in, the ps3 will assign it to controller 1-4. This is annoying in 2-player games if you want to use the dual shock controller and play by yourself as the game will ask player 2 to hit X to join (or automatically add player 2 into the game).

If you are a typical gamer, this is a great product at a great price. It's not as great as a PC mouse in terms of accuracy or quality, but it does do the job.

If you are a hard-core FPS gamer looking to dominate everyone just get the XIM3. This is one area where you definitely get what you pay for.

For reference: (based on my e-findings)

FRAG FX SHARK $60 (when I purchased) $90 now

See above for review

pros (no setup, sensitivity dial, includes lap board, great fragchuck design, 'snipe' button which slows mouse movement)

cons (cost, mouse size, staircasing, works better on some games than others)

AIMON PS ELITE $80

pros (better mouse, less staircasing, better 'quality')

cons (complicated setup, firmware flashing required for each game, no MAC support to do said flashing, possible wireless signal issues, cost, no sensitivity dial)

EAGLE EYE $55

pros (real keyboard and mouse, cost)

cons (complicated setup, need PC to set up the hardware, game specific settings required)

XIM3 $150

pros (unsurpassed accuracy and quality, real mouse and keyboard, LCD screen to assist setup, 1:1 conversion)

cons (requires an xbox controller to be plugged in, can make a mess with all the cables necessary to use product, very high cost, no mac support for updating firmware, made for xbox and requires adapters to use on ps3)

note: $300 on amazon market. It costs $150 at the maker's website (google xim3)

SUMMARY:

Average gamer who wants a plug and play solution? Get the FRAG FX SHARK

Want a higher quality product and don't mind tweaking settings and tinkering? Get the AIMON PS ELITE (then head to their forums and read up)

Want to use a real keyboard and mouse at low cost? Get the EAGLE EYE (then head to their forums and read up)

Insist on the absolute best, regardless of price (hardcore gamer)? Get the XIM3 (then head to their forums and read up)

You can't really go wrong with any of the 4 options.. I got the Frag FX because there's no setup and amazon prime shipping was offered.

I will update this review after testing the Frag FX on Battlefield 3.. I've held off because I doubt it will work very well as the game itself currently has lag issues.

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I was scared when ordering the shark. I thought it may not be worth the money. but i am glad i did get it. It works great in call of duty and battlefield bad company 2. i also tried it in fall out 3 and new vegas. I works ok but it does smoothly go diagonally in these games. ALso in the fallouts you can not get the sensitivity high enough to make it seem like you are playing on computer i have to constantly pick up the mouse. In call of duty is where it shines it gives me pixel by pixel aiming i can turn quickly up down side to side diagonally it all works really good.

i mostly play call of duty black ops so the controller was worth it to me if you play games other than fps it might not work good but for fps it is alot of fun. It makes target acquisition much easier as well as following moving targets.

the build feels sturdy doesnt feel cheap. It is really easy to set up

comes with a mouse pad that is pretty good

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I just picked up the new fragfx shark... I have never used a mouse for gaming before, as I never game on a pc. Been gaming on consoles since Atari, but wanted to try this out based on all the hype about mouse being better than analog sticks for aiming and all. The thing cst $90 plus shipping, but I took the plunge to try it out with black ops. Got it in thursday after playing black ops for a few days with my dualshock 3. The first day I thought i had wasted over $100 on something that I could never learn. My first 3 matches I went roughly 1 kill and 23 deaths average. Considering I had been going 21-16 K/D with the dualshock it wasn't very promising. I decided to stick it out for a week before putting it on craigslist and ebay.. I am sooooo glad i did that, because after only 2 or 3 days I finally got used to using the mouse to aim, and now I feel quicker and better in game. Played a round of Battlefield and went 36-9 K/D playing conquest on white pass, No camping , moving from flag to flag the whole time. On Black Ops had my first ever 7 kill streak and did it twice with a k/d of 21-9 in one game. granted the game is new and I undoubtedly got better as I learned the maps, but I have been playing BFBC2 since launch and this was my best round ever.. I got the Shark which is wireless, and I have noticed no lag, but the price is steep. I have no experience with any of the other models, but this one works great for me and I will probably never go back to using the dualshock for an fps.

A few side notes. I have heard reviews say the mousepad isn't good. I am hoping to buy a better mousepad to compare but the one it comes with does seem a little smaller than I would like.

I bought a 4 pack of pre charged duracell 2000 MaH rechargeable batteries with the charger at walmart for $13 and still haven't ran the first 2 batteries dead. The battery life is very good, and with rechargeable batteries cost should be minimal.

UPDATE...... I bought a rocketfish gaming mousepad from best buy and would highly recommend it. A little bigger, way more responsive, and has a speed and control side. I prefer the speed side but both are better than the one provided by splitfish.

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Metal Flames Colors Skin by WraptorSkinz fits Guitar Hero 4 World Tour Drum Set

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List Price: $29.99
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I got these for my 360 and they look great. Real easy to put on but after playing on them for only 2 days (20 songs maybe ) the red one is already starting to crack in the middle. I am 34 years old and do not beat them excessively hard. For the price it is a waste of money because you can not return stickers.

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Afterglow AP.1 Controller for PS3 - Green

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List Price: $24.99
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The Afterglow AP.1 "New for 2010" controller is a good controller if you consider the price comparison to a PS3 Sixaxis controller. The lights are cool and it is responsive but not nearly as responsive as the $44.99 PS3 controllers are. Considering I paid $24.99 for it, I can't complain. I used this controller to play MLB10 The Show and I was able to play the game very easily with this controller. Again, the Sixaxis controller is far more responsive. If you want another controller to actually play competitively with, stick with what works. If you want a cool looking, fun to play with in the dark controller which you'll use just to have a little fun without needing it to be completely responsive, the Afterglow controller should be fine.

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. . . but I wouldn't bother trying to play any games with it. The control sticks on this piece are horribly unresponsive, a small detail that make a big difference in most games. But I will admit the lights are pretty.

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This product is a complete peice of junk, don't waste your money on this. I purchased this controller from Best Buy and after one day the left thumb stick stoped working and the camera in the game would just spin. After taking the controller back to Best Buy and exchanging it for another one it worked fine up until a week and a half later when the same thing happened. I called customer service and complained, they are sending me the newest model they make so I'll see how that goes. Next time I will just spend the $54 for a real PS3 controller.

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I'll admit, the controller looks great when plugged in. That's about it, however. I play a lot of First Person Shooters, so I figured the altered L2 and R2 shoulder buttons would help me play more competitively(The buttons are dropped in the back to encourage using both pointer and middle fingers, rather than controlling all four buttons with just the pointer fingers.) The L2 and R2 are poorly designed, though, being both hard to push in due to over coiled springs and are they're very noisy when pushed. The analog sticks are also fairly unresponsive causing a "dead zone," which is when the player has to completely push the analog sticks over to get a response, rather than movement at the slightest touch. For those that care, the controller is also wired, so it's not as convenient as a wire-free controller.

Also note that this controller is not compatible with Playstation 2 games being played on the PS3, since the PS3 does not recognize the controller when trying to play a Playstation 2 game on it. This was also a surprise to me, for I still have quite the collection of Playstation 2 games which I play on my PS3.

A very poor product.

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The controller looks cool and the joysticks were as smooth as the Dual Shock 3. The controller is smaller than the Dual Shock 3 which takes time to get use to. Even the buttons are smaller than the regular Dual Shock 3 buttons. The 3 LED's on the controller are very bright and can light up a dark room but you won't be able to see the labels on the buttons. I had to send this controller back because the top R1 button didn't work properly. I would be playing Modern Warfare 2 and the gun would stop shooting until i pressed the button in even harder. I'm not the type of person to abuse my controllers so for me to jam a button down is unnatural.

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PS3 Lime Green Full Parts Set for Playstation

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They're buttons. Not much more to say.

The color is pretty true to the picture, maybe a bit more green and less yellow. Plastic is typical quality, feels fine when playing. I appreciate that the buttons actually have the X, O, R2, etc. on them as others I've purchased before were not labeled (which looks a bit weird in my opinion).

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Great parts, they work like the original (with two minor exceptions) and the thumb sticks are rubberized, not plastic like you find in some of the third party controllers.

Small tip, for the R2/L2 buttons, you may have to use the inside piece from the original as the one provided was a bit longer and didn't allow the buttons to work properly. The other thing I did was use the original "PS" button and just cut the start and select pieces off to fit. this was only because the one that comes with it has a slightly lower profile that I did not like.

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Only giving it a 4 because i had some issues installing the L2 and R2 bumbers and the Start/Select doesn't make a good connection to the controller so i kept the normal Black start/select buttons but still looks sick on my controller

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Final Fantasy XIII-2 Collector's Edition

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Final Fantasy XIII-2 is the sequel to the controversial 2010 release Final Fantasy XIII. It is loved by many, and hated by others. This is something that it has in common with many of the predecessors that came before it. Square-Enix was determined to try and fix many of the mistakes they felt that they had made.

Personally I have enjoyed every Final Fantasy, even Final Fantasy XI, XII, XIII, and XIV (now). I come into each, and every one of them with a different set of eyes. This is not a series that is not going to stay along a specific formula. Each chapter in the Final Fantasy saga is constantly evolving, and changing. It is up to the fans to embrace that change or sadly this Fantasy may be Final for you.

Story (Spoiler free):

The story in XIII-2 is pretty interesting. It plays off similarly to a mystery. It starts off 3 years after the events of the previous game. Lightning is gone, and Serah is determined to find her along with Noel. They set off on their grand adventure. Where did Lightning go? How is Noel involved? Who is Etro, and how is she involved? What is the main goal of the antagonist? All of these questions popped into my mind several times. Luckily XIII-2 succeeds in the story department, especially in the later segments of the game. XIII-2 has an excellent cast of characters, with one of the best antagonists in recent memory.

If you aren't a fan of getting the overall plot in smaller portions, and then a grand finale in the later segments of the game. You will more than likely dislike XIII-2s story. Also one needs to remember that this is a time travel game so you need to keep an open mind of what is happening because there are certain things that don't make sense at first, but they will later on. Outside of the story from the cinematics, some bits and pieces are told through data logs and through NPCs (Talk to ALL of them). This was a nice addition because I really enjoyed reading those extra tidbits from the datalog fragments.

Gameplay:

Final Fantasy XIII-2 is a time traveling game. You will be delving through the Historia Crux jumping between the timelines to enter new areas. In these areas you can of course do the main plot, but Square also implemented many outside additions for the players to do. These biggest additions include:

Monster Hunting One of the best additions to the game. The 3rd slot in the party belongs to a monster, so hunting is essential. You can capture tonberrys, cactaurs, ochus, and even in some cases primals! Each monster has a different role, and can be leveled through the Crystarium (similarly to the main characters, except they take monster components). In certain cases, there are even one of kind monsters. So choose wisely before you level them up. Monsters can be infused to inherit abilities, and traits. One can lose hours of their lives with this system, especially if you want to catch them all.

Sidequests There are tons of these throughout the game. There are simple fetch quests, killing quests, detailing a map, obtaining 100% of the beastiary, solving puzzles, answering questions, and many more. The nice addition that Square did here is that every character in the game has a voice over, and they aren't reused. If Square did re-use voice actors for NPCs they did a darn good job of hiding it, and I'm pretty good at catching that sort of thing. Also every quest is started in the form of a basic cut-scene. Gone are the days of long dreadful text walls.

Paradox Puzzles Square implemented puzzles to the game in the form of Paradox Puzzles. These puzzles take place in what seems like a rift between time, and there are three different forms of puzzles. Running tile puzzles, connect the dots of sorts, and the brain crunching clock puzzles. Some of these puzzles had me stumped. One in particular took me close to an hour to figure out. (By the way, those clock puzzles are random. Good luck finding a guide).

Serendipity This optional area is a theme park of sorts if you wish to call it that. There is Chocobo Racing, Slot machines, and more that will be added later via DLC such as card games. There are dozens of adornments to be found, tons of prizes to win, and lots of money to be lost.

The battle system is pretty much the same as Final Fantasy XIII. At first I actually had a hard time readjusting to it because it's so darn fast. I still dislike the "Auto-Battle" option but I do understand why it's there. You never have to use it once through the entire game if you wish not too.

Square redid a lot of the animations, especially in the magic department. The later tier magic spells seemed to have a lot more effects than its predecessor which I found to be really nice. Though there was a lot of reuse in abilities such as "Ruin, Blitz, Imperil" and more. Monsters from XIII are also reused in a lot of areas, which is also understandable because it's still the same world so they aren't going to just disappear. However if in the future a sequel is made (oh and there will be) I would like to see more additions. There is enough for it not too be annoying, but I would like to see more variations.

Characters advance through the Crystarium, a system used in Final Fantasy XIII. While it may look similar in style to its counterpart it's actually a lot different. There is still a one way path for each role, but depending on what role you level and when, the stats you have at the end of the Crystarium may differ greatly from another player. When leveling the "Bigger Orbs" there are stat bonuses determined by that role. For example a Commando is a 2 STR bonus, while a Ravager is 2 MAG bonus. Choose wisely.

Square implemented dialogue trees, and cinematic actions for more of a western appeal approach. These additions were alright, but as a fan of JRPGs over WRPGs. I hope that in the future, they stay far away from the genre. It's not that I dislike them, but I would rather appreciate 100% of the story, and watch the impressive cutscenes.

Music:

The music in Final Fantasy XIII-2 is a bit of a departure from other games in the series. A good portion of the soundtrack which boasts over 70 songs has vocals. Luckily the rap tracks have been eliminated from the western version, but almost all of the songs are a delight to listen too. Naoshi Mizuta, Masashi Hamauzu, Nobuo Uematsu, and Mitsuto Suzuki put together a very decent soundtrack.

There were only a few songs I really disliked, and unsurprisingly they were composed by Nobuo. I am a big fan of Nobuo's early work but that Crazy Chocobo theme was entirely unnecessary, and didn't fit with the Final Fantasy universe at all. Head banging, and really crazy death metal isn't my style especially in a boss fight or, when riding a cute little bird.

Naoshi Mizuta continues to impress me with themes like "Warrior Goddess" and "Caius Theme." I really hope that he is a part of all future Final Fantasy installments. In my opinion he is the new Nobuo Uematsu of this time period.

Technical Problems:

In a generation where video game technical issues seem to be the norm, it is nice that Square-Enix is ahead of the curve with their single player Final Fantasy games. However the game is not perfect. There are frame drops in cut scenes. They aren't anything that will significantly irritate the player (and most people probably will not notice it at all) but it does break my focus.

Thankfully though out of the entire time I spent with the game that was all I encountered. No freezes, no screen tears, no cutting out music, hell my entire 24MB save didn't drop to 10 frames at all!

What I played:

My adventure in XIII-2 lasted about 65 hours (the main story took me roughly 35 hours, and I skipped some content). That time will differ heavily depending on what content you do. The Platinum trophy has been obtained, and I have conquered a majority of the games content. I have seen every Paradox ending, the secret ending, and all 160 fragments have been found. I however did not capture every monster (but I did kill them all ^^), or obtain all of the adornments that can be found throughout the game. I also did not collect the weapons that require ridiculous farming time.

My score and final thoughts:

Final Fantasy XIII-2 is by no means a perfect game, because it isn't. Not everyone will enjoy XIII-2 but I do believe that Square succeeded in bringing back the joy for many Final Fantasy Fans. XIII-2 boasts a very decent story, great music, decent characters, one hell of a protagonist, and one of the most memorable endings I have ever seen. Time literally flew by while playing XIII-2 for me, so thanks Square for the fun.

Quick Recap:

Pros:

Characters

Story

Music

Caius is EPIC

Monster Hunting

Ending

Illusion of freedom is back

Collector's Edition has an amazing casing

Neutral:

Dialogue Trees

Cinematic Actions

Re-use of Monster assets

Cons:

Inconsistent Difficulty (Luckily the Final Boss is insanely fun!)

Frame drops in cut scenes

Nobuo's ridiculous head banging music

Note: This review has also been posted on the standard edition, because I purchased them both. I think it's fair that it gets credit on both fronts.

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I'm one of those that liked the first one, though I had some problems with its game design. XIII-2 fixes most of those problems. The combat is faster and you're thrown into the story without a 12 hour tutorial. The graphics are gorgeous, the music is gorgeous, and the gameplay is a lot more fun.

However, you had to have finished FFXIII to really understand whats going on.

If you liked FFXIII you'll love this one.

If you hated FFXIII you'll hate this one a bit less than you hated XIII.

Buy Final Fantasy XIII-2 Collector's Edition Now

I just want to say that I really enjoyed the first one, FFXIII. I had a lot of fun with it and nearly spent 120 hours on it, damn you treasure hunter trophy, but i've also played every other final fantasy except FFX, FFXI, FFXII, and FFXIV. If your going to compare it to the best the final fantasy franchise has to offer, sure it's going to be a little disappointing. Though it still is a really fun JRPG. I feel people just hold it to an extremely high expectation because, will I mean come on FFIX,FFVIII, FFIV, FFV as well as FFVI...which all are really incredible games so it's understandable to a point. In my opinion sqeenix was doing what they always have done, which is to change the formula of their own standard they set on the previous title. They generally outperform, or at the very least are on par, with their previous title. I will have to agree that they fell short on quite a few aspects, definitely not the graphics though, on their FFXIII title.

FFXIII-2 is so much of an upgrade, as far as my 6 hours of game play can tell, that it's astounding some of the reviews that gave it a lower score than it's predecessor. I'm enjoying the story and especially the fighting of this game, it is roughly the same, which I personally loved the battle system of FFXIII to begin with and the only thing they changed was instead of a third person as a party member you get to choose any number of monsters that you tame throughout your journey. I feel this is a decent trade off from a third person party member but I will really have to see with more experience with the game. I do like the idea of it all though. The environments of the areas I've explored as well as the character designs and enemy designs are fantastic. I especially love the way Sarah looks, quite cute if I say so myself, and the boss you fight at the beach area is really cool looking, but a bit easy. I'm playing on normal and only every once in a while I get 4 stars, but it's quite rare so I'd have to say that it's pretty easy.

One of the best changes is the fact that you get gil from winning battles. My god the most annoying thing about FFXIII was the fact you couldn't get gil any other way besides selling things. That is why the treasure hunter trophy is stupidly hard to get. Not sure how this will effect trophies but it's much better than having to hope you get something worth selling. Another welcomed upgrade is the fact that there are NPC's which you can talk to, and towns which you get to explore. This, to me at least, is what final fantasy is all about, I mean who doesn't love to explore areas endlessly in the hopes that a rare treasure is behind some random corner, or even that some NPC will give you the scoop on the best item in the game if you talk to him a couple of times. It's one of the appeals to the franchise in my opinion and this definitely has that.

I do wonder though, if this is a case of a little to late. I feel people were so turned off by the linearity of the first one, in combination with all the things aforementioned in my review of this title, that it makes it hard for people to even give this a chance. If FFXIII would have been more like this title then I definitely feel that it would have gotten better reviews. Ultimately anybody who is a fan of the final fantasy franchise will really enjoy this title as it's aesthetically pleasing and has fixed everything wrong with the first title. The only thing would be if you didn't like the battle system of the first one you wont like the battle system of this as it's essentially the same. If you were ok with the battle system then please pick this up as it is by far and away an improvement and I don't see how you wouldn't enjoy it.

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First of all, let me just say I absolutely fell in love with FF13. I sat there mesmerised when seeing the intro sequence for the first time. I was completely captivated by the story. I fell in love with the characters (I even got to like Snow in time). Even outside of the main story, there were so many moments I loved... It was so nice to see Light levitate a behemoth for the first time and then jump after it and continue her work... I laughed out loud the first time I saw Lightning head towards an opponent to start her combo and then very skilfully stab the empty place where the monster used to be... It was so nice to finally beat a (ne)ochu thanks to vanille's unique skill... The first time using an eidolon and the first zantetsuken... So many firsts, and so much to enjoy... What can I say, overall it was a masterpiece, and in my opinion it is almost impossible to improve it. And as far as I'm concerned, 13-2 did not improve it in any way.

It's impossible for me to try and judge it as a standalone, so mostly I'll just compare it with the original. The gameplay / battle system is mostly unchanged. You get the same six roles, the same paradigm system, but just two playable characters. The third member of the party is always a monster you have to capture. Unlike the main characters, monsters only have one fixed role, and you can use only three monsters when building your paradigm deck. Naturally, this limits the strategic choices available, and as such the introduction of the possibility to save/load paradigm decks is quite welcomed (this being a feature I for one would have loved to have in the original as well). The game feels more difficult at maximum level, but you can so easily be over-levelled for a particular area during the main story that overall the game is considerably easier. This is in direct contrast with the original, where it was pretty impossible to be over-levelled for a particular area (I for one was completely humiliated by a shaolong gui on my first visit to the archylte steppe (yes, shaolong gui, not adamanchelid)).

Visually, the game still has the same (extremely high) quality, the only loss here is that the gorgeous cut-scenes from the original are no more (from what I understand they are no longer pre-rendered but generated live, and you can see this loss of quality quite clearly in the game).

The fights overall feel faster than in the original. The ATB bar seems to fill faster, paradigm shift is always instantaneous. This is not really a bad thing, but compared to the original, I found myself relying much more on the auto-combat option. While in the original, halfway through I changed the default option from auto to manual, for this one it was impossible. I simply do not have time to manually queue commands (well, maybe if I'm really efficient, I can populate a queue with 5*fire) without wasting a at least half a turn (and this is non-hasted with standard weapons, I won't even begin to describe how many turns I'd waste when the character is hasted and wielding a +50% atb rate weapon).

The adding of the "playable" monsters unfortunately also means no more summons (and implicitly no more zantetsuken ;_;). The ultimate character-specific moves are still there, but are considerably easier to get, and nowhere near as impressive as the original. You won't see Lightning's time dilation inducing army of one, or vanille's rather frightening death here...

The story is... well... you get a lot of choices. And for people who value the illusion of freedom, this may be a good thing. My opinion about all this is that no good game offers that much freedom to begin with. For me, a good game is one that tells a story worth hearing, worth living, and I for one do not know of any good story that can be read with its chapters shuffled. I did play many games offering the illusion of freedom, but the truth is that although you may choose to go to B before you go to A, more often than not all you can do once there is learn that you should go to A if you want to advance the story, and this is why I called it "illusion of freedom". Choices are never a bad thing, the real problem with the story for me was... well... it's really difficult to say exactly what... it just falls (waaaay) short of the original story. As others said before, it's difficult to have a good story with time travel as the main theme, and the story is really not that bad, it's just... not impressive.

About characters... Now, since she's Light's sister I won't say anything about Serah, I'll just say that compared to the first, I was greatly disappointed by the lack of real characters. There's just Serah and Noel, and neither gets much of a story. The "bad guys" get a much better story here, for me Noel just felt like Caius's shadow just as much as Serah is just Light's sister. Serah already had a story and character, beautifully exposed in the original, but Noel could have used a better story imo.

It is painful to give a game featuring Lightning anything but a perfect score, but things just went in the wrong direction in my opinion. While 13 was designed around a story, around characters, it had a different battle system, and the result was nothing short of a masterpiece, this one just feels like a "let's give the fans what they want" version. There's nothing wrong with listening to fans, but people should try and remember that fans are created by great games and great games created by fans are rare to say the least. It still has enough of the original to make it a very good game, it just lacks that certain something that got me addicted to 13.

Is it still worth buying? Yes. Would I have had a better opinion of it if I played it without having tried 13? Yes. But to call it an improvement in all aspects over the original, that it fixes all the things that were wrong in the original... That just feels like a joke to me. Then again, I honestly do not think there was anything important in the original that needed fixing.

All in all, it's a good game, with considerably more playable content. It will keep you busy probably twice as long as 13 and getting all achievements is a titanic task. Oh, and I would highly recommend buying the guide too if you are interested in 100% completion, there are certain vital things that can be so easily missed the first time you play an area (or in my case the 10th time as well).

It's just not the same without Light. And it's a pity too, because Serah had such potential as a character...

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I love Final Fantasy and have been playing each installment ever since I was young. I also enjoyed Final Fantasy 13 even though many did not, it may not have been a great Final Fantasy but I enjoyed the game anyways. Because of the enjoyment I had playing Final Fantasy 13 as soon as I heard Final Fantasy 13-2 was announced I wanted it. Unfortunately, though the game is fun it is not as good as I had hoped.

PROS -

-The game has much more explorations and gives you a lot of freedom from the start.

-The monster mechanic is pretty fun and collecting and infusing to make an ultimate monster in endgame will prove to be very fun.

CONS -

-The story is not even finished, I payed $80 for an unfinished game to say I am angry would be an understatment

-The music though not necessarily bad is by far my least favorite of all the FF games which is disappointing since I payed $40 more for the collectors edition.(since Amazon was giving $20 credit on normal edition)

-The game is unbelievably easy even on normal difficulty. Final Fantasy 13 wasn't necessarily hard but at least it wasn't so easy you dominated everything. The game is so easy I kill bosses usually in less than 90 seconds and I haven't went out of my way to farm at all, in fact I stopped spending crystarium points about 25 hours into the game because I was hoping the game would get harder but no it hasn't I still kill every pack of monsters I run into in less that 5-10 seconds.

-Lastly my biggest gripe which is the scourge of gaming in my opinion and will only get worse, DLC. It has already been announced that things that would normally have been in a Final Fantasy game will be released in the future as DLC, this includes a finished story. Yes, you read right the story is not finished and it has already been announced that extra character stories will be released in the future and that Lightnings would bring about the resolution of the end of the game. Also, in the casino there is a card game that has not been implemented yet and when asking how to play it gives a message saying will be available in future downloadable content. The coliseum which is kind of like the one in Final Fantasy 10 where you can pick a boss to fight is also a mainly dlc feature with the earliest bosses being classic lightning and master sergeant Amodar for $3 being released on February 7th.

CONCLUSION -

This is the first review I have ever written so it is not that great. Yes, I know there is probably lots of grammar errors if you want to point them out in comments so I can correct them in future reviews that would be great. Overall, Final Fantasy 13-2 is still fun which I why I gave it a 4/5 for fun. The reason for the 3/5 rating is because the game is unfinished with the rest of the story being released in DLC at a later date which just sickens and infuriates me, I think my 3/5 is very generous considering this but I am enjoying the game regardless so I will cut it some slack. I can only hope this money milking trend called DLC does not get any worse than it already has but I foresee a future where 75% of a game is with held for DLC. Don't get me wrong I have nothing against DLC my main problem with it is the rampant abuse of DLC currently in the market. I have bought every single Final Fantasy since 7 the day it was released (excluding FF11 and FF14) but if Square continues this disgusting practice it started with FF13-2 I will wait for each one to drop to $20 before I buy them in the future for a couple of reasons. Not only will waiting for it to drop to $20 make up for all the money I will be spending on DLC but I usually do not even bother with DLC even if it is something I would want because after beating a game I rarely go back to it as I am busy with other games.

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Skylanders Giants Portal Owner Pack

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List Price: $59.99
Sale Price: $31.95
Today's Bonus: 47% Off

I am writing this review for my 11 year old son. He loved the first skylanders game and collected all the guys. He saved his money and bought the new game and reached the end in less than 24 hours. He felt cheated. He said you don't even need all the new giants and figures to play the game. The one it come with is all you really need. He was disappointed because there are only 16 levels and they are to easy to beat. He thought this game should have been about half the price he paid for it, because you only got about half a game.

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Okay, needless to say, the game is great! It'll keep you and the kids entertained for hours.

However, if you plan on collecting all the characters like I did for The first Skylanders game; you'll be disapointed if you buy the Portal Owners pack. First off you only get the disk and one Giant (Tree-Rex) character (boo, hiss, boo!) If you spend an extra $15 bucks and get the starter pack you get the disk, and one Giant (Tree-Rex) and two regular sized characters (Jet Vac & Cynder) *$11.99 each sold separately plus an extra portal of power.

Lets see (for you collectors) the extra two characters you get with the Starter pack run about $12 bucks each separately. Pay an extra $15 bucks on the starter pack, save yourself approximately $9 and the hassle of collecting these two separately. Plus you'll have an extra portal of power in case yours craps out on you. The Starter Pack is the better deal!

Once again, the previous owners of a great game, get screwed over again. More money for less stuff??? Because that's how it works in the long run.

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Lots of fun for kids under 10. I wish it took longer to clear the game. Kids cleared it in a matter of days!!

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Only because we didn't receive all the characters, other than that great product. My son will love this for Christmas, now if I can find Giant Spyro....

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Make sure you have to portal from the other game (Skylanders) as this does not include it. Great game, kid appropriate, and very nice to continue the adventure started by Skylanders.

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Sacred 2: Fallen Angel

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I love me some RPGs. I also love me some offline 2-player coop games, a residual effect of having grown up on Atari and NES platforms. So it is a rare day indeed when an offline 2 player RPG coop comes down the pike. Unfortunately, this one does more to reveal what is missing from a good RPG than to stand out on its own.

Sacred 2 is basically a poor man's Diablo 2. It has good visuals, but that's about where any favorable comparison ends. For example, combat in Sacred 2 is fairly uncertain and frustrating -you can cast a spell that goes right through someone without injuring them, or continue standing in place and swinging a sword and hitting someone who is running away over a distant hill. It really drops you out of the game when you can actually "feel" the combat code locking you into a fight with a foe, artificially rotating your character and triggering combat moves and the like, instead of just intelligently dealing damage like Diablo 2 did. Btw, Diablo 2 came out like a decade ago.

A variety of other frustrations require you to actively ignore elements of the game in order to enjoy it -never a good idea in a game:

1) Horrible, hammy in-jokes by the programmers. I don't even try to read the "hilarious" gravestone warnings anymore. And the catchphrases spouted by your characters are beyond atrocious. Remember how annoying it was for Anakin Skywalker to shout "Yippie!!!!!!!!" in The Phantom Menace? Well, apparently the 1 person in America who loved that movie ended up working on Sacred 2, particularly the Seraphim character. She shouts that phrase about every 5 dead monster. I recommend playing with earplugs.

2) Numerous broken skills. For example, on the PS3, the Blacksmithing skill doesn't even work. At all. Good thing I told you that before you built up that level 40 warrior, right? Wish someone had told me. Another skill claims that it will unlock "additional powers" of various divine relics that you pick up, in addition to their basic armor boosting abilities. Like an antidote relic might do more than give you more poison "armor". At least, that's what the skill says. However, pumping points into it does exactly nothing. 30 points later, I finally looked it up online and apparently none of the relics actually have any other attributes you can unlock. Another character goes onto the trash heap.

3) Extremely elaborate skill system. If you even figure out what fraction of player skills actually work, pumping them up and distributing related "modification" points is confusing in the extreme. Modification points are additional points that might make a given skill do more damage, or last longer, or have a greater area of effect, or the like. They are in addition to just pumping up a skill directly from runes or skill points. Get it? Me neither. Anyway, they unlock at seemingly random, and you get trapped in the "modification" page, so sometimes you end up having to modify and waste points on a skill you never use just so you can get back to the game. Better still, the higher a skill level, the longer it takes for cooldown between uses. The game itself warns you to NOT make skill levels high quickly, because you won't be able to use them often. Fantastic.

4) Every fetch quest known to man. "Fetch" quests are common quests in RPGs where you have to get Vial X or Lump of Metal Q and take it back to NPC Y to do something. Who cares what. Well, this game has hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of those quests. They are everywhere. Seemingly every single person in the game world has a burning problem, and none of them can solve them alone. It's all up to you. I had a 45th level undead warrior character chasing rabbits around a city park. They're faster than you can run, so eventually he had to go buy a longbow for the sole purpose of helping a groundskeeper kill rabbits. Again: rabbits. What makes this worse is that once you wise up and start ignoring these people, you actually miss some good stuff. 99.9% of the quests are worthless time sinks that require you to run or teleport halfway across the globe to recover someone's teddy bear (actual quest!) but that 0.1% of real quests will net you a unique longsword that deals 250 damage or permit you to, say, actually use Runemasters. It's beyond annoying -it makes you wonder if the game is actually a gigantic social experiment thrown together by our space ant overlords to see how well we could be trained to chase sugar cubes across the galaxy. Answer: quite well.

5) Loot. Most of everything you find is garbage. However, occasionally, completely at random, you will find unique armor or the like. Unless you happen to see a suspicious name pop up when auto-collecting another field full of trash ("Axe," "Broken dagger," "Alex's Firey Blaster Mace of Tyrannical Justice," "Boots"), odds are you will just sell it by accident at some point. Better still, many items are class-specific AND CANNOT BE TRADED DURING OFFLINE COOP. So if your warrior picks up that unique magic staff that only a dryad can use, the only way to give it to your friend is to sell it to a shopkeeper, and then spend millions of gold pieces buying it right back with a dryad character. Brilliant.

6) Uniques. Most foes are a dime a dozen. There are vast fields filled with annoying kobolds just waiting to lard up your inventory with worthless equipment. To paraphrase the Matrix, for the longest time I wouldn't believe it, but then I saw those fields with my own eyes. So too will you discover the beaches of a Million Identical Pirates, or the Forest of a Thousand Nearsighted Wolves. But the truly interesting monsters are unique. Once you kill them, they apparently never ever come back. For example, one time I followed this random river deep into the mountains. It kept going and going and going. And going. Honest to god, a good 30 minutes later, I popped out into this cave in which I was assaulted by a gigantic, screen-filling dragon. It was AWESOME. Then I killed that dragon, and got some mediocre loot. Later, after some saves and reloads, I went back. Dragon was still dead. Confused, I checked online, and learned I had killed one of maybe 7-8 dragons in the entire game. If I want to fight it again, I have to start all over again -including a reset of the eleventy zillion quests I'd already completed. If it was a quest-related foe, I might understand -but why purposefully make it so you can't fight any of the FUN monsters more than a few times? Why??

A related annoyance is that monster difficulty can vary wildly, and XP is related. Now when I start a new character, I simply take an hour and sprint -literally running and ignoring everything -until I reach the desert area where I can actually stock up on XP. It's far, far faster than popping skeletons on the head for 7 XP a whack.

7) Two player offline coop is very lukewarm in terms of fun. This is probably the kicker for me. Basically, one character starts a typical quest, and the other joins as the character class of their choice. In addition to the stupefying idiocy of not actually being able to trade with each other directly, it's also random as to who the computer will even permit to pick up dropped loot. Sometimes you can, sometimes your friend can -and it bears no relation to which person opened the chest, which killed the foe, or anything like that. You just have to hope for the best. Having two players also reveals enemy pathfinding to be a joke: foes usually gang attack one player and ignore the other. You can kite a vast herd of foes in a circle with your friend as the hub and your friend can just kill and kill and kill and nobody notices. It's even more hilarious when you have NPCs travelling with you because of some stupid travel quest you may have picked up -some NPCs, apparently chosen at random, are immortal. I've had NPCs in full plate with magical swords die almost immediately (you fail the quest, of course), while at present my 38th level Temple Guardian has an accompanying NPC fishwife -literally an unarmed woman who screams and runs away at the sight of a foe -traveling with him for a good 20 levels. She won't die. She can't die. And she's awesome at drawing all the incoming fire. It's like a Monty Python skit where she just runs by screaming in one direction, we blast her pursuers with magic or arrows, she runs back screaming in the other direction, etc etc.

All told, Sacred 2 could have used about another 6 months of development work. Some of its foibles are traced back to the old PC game and apparently were deemed "good enough" to keep (although I note that game at least had Dragons come back to life so you could fight them again) but others are sheer laziness. If there are character skills that don't work at all, and players cannot trade items, your game should not be released. It's just one of those rules gamers have collectively decided upon.

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I've been waiting for a good hack 'n slash for the PS3 for a while, like Baldur's Gate Dark Alliance and Champions of Norrath. In some respects, this fits the bill but it is lacking in others.

First of all, this game is pretty complex. Learning about forging, runes, and upgrading Combat Arts takes some time. I've been playing for a few hours and am just starting to feel like I understand all of this. Also, the quests are plentiful, so it can be interesting trying to keep track of them all and determine the order in which you'd like to do them.

I found several frustrations with the "couch co-op", or offline multiplayer. There is no way to zoom in the camera for this mode, and the camera is zoomed pretty far out, so the characters are pretty small. Also, there is no way to trade between characters in this mode (currently), so it can be annoying when one person picks up some cool gear that is meant for the other person. I did find that drops are so plentiful, though, so this may not be a big issue later on when lots of stuff is being picked up by both parties.

The combat is fun and the world is huge.

Once I felt like I knew that I was doing, I've been having a lot of fun questing, exploring, and trying out the various combat arts.

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This is a solid dungeon crawl. Plenty of loot, and lots of Diablo style killing. There are a few things that are curiously absent from the game. First, the ability to customize your character. I know this is a small thing in the bigger game picture, however not being able to change the gender of your character is odd. Even stranger is they give you two options for hair and eight or so hair colors. RPG games tend to be all about customizing your character, and you really can't do this in Sacred 2. Maybe they will add some more options in a patch or future release, but for the time being you are sort of stuck with the few flat character options.

The character classes are all solid. Nothing too exciting. The Temple Guardian is sort of silly, but unique (he is a laser totting Egyptian robo-dog). There is a token spell caster (elf), warrior (shadow warrior), ranger (dryad), and warrior mage (seraphim in the light campaign, inquisitor in the shadow campaign). These are all rough descriptions of the classes, as combat is central in the game so one way or the other it all comes down to your weapon load out.

Being able to play co-op is a huge for a game in this genre. One major complaint, you can't give items to the other player if you are playing co-op on the same PS3, which is really odd. I have no idea why the programers would have set things up this way.

All in all it is a fun game. If you enjoyed Diablo this is a good option for the PS3. Nothing really unique or original here, but not a bad game either.

I heard there were a number of glitches with the game right out of the box. When I put the game in my PS3 it auto-updated, and I can't say I have had any major issues with the game.

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My husband and I bought this game because it's an RPG with a multi-player (offline) option. Not many games allow cooperative play, especially in the RPG genre, and whenever one comes out we scoop it up.

This particular game also offers gorgeous graphics, lots of customizable player options, and tons of potential playing time in a huge, well-developed fantasy world.

With all these ingredients pulling in its favor, it is frustrating as you go along to discover one stupid oversight after another by the developers, who in all their success in creating this vast adventure seemed to have forgotten a few crucial details which would have made this game really amazing.

Prime irritations:

1. The game cannot be paused. Let me repeat that: the game cannot be paused. This includes times when the player is consulting the map or inventory screen, at which time enemies can approach and maim your distracted character (at which time the border of said screen flashes red), forcing you to quit those screens and return later, again at his or her peril.

2. The game logistics are IMMENSELY complex, and the manual explains NONE of them. We are 40 hours in, and I still can't always judge whether one piece of armor is better than another. You find yourself asking (your fellow player, or the air, since you can't ask the manual) lots of questions that are hard to answer via intuitive investigation, and left frustrated as to what half the basic terms used to describe your inventory even mean.

3. Two players in offline cooperative play can pick up armor that would be potentially useful to another, but cannot trade. This would be less frustrating if the "trade with player" option did not constantly pop up. That option is, apparently, only for trading items with online players using other consoles. grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. "Yes, we'd love to trade, but you won't let us, so stop asking!"

4. The "trade with player" option appears whenever two cooperative players are nearby one another. To trade (or attempt pointlessly to do so), you push L1. You also push L1 to inspect/open treasure chests, open doors etc. Thus, two players seeking to open/inspect nearby chests, doors, etc. end up inadvertently opening the "trade" screen which, of course, tells you that trading is impossible. Awesome.

6. Jerking graphics and freezing are rare, but do occur, especially in certain areas. There is one annoying town where the game requires a lot of loading, and we've had to reset several times due to freezing.

7. The landscapes are really beautiful, but navigating the topography is completely infuriating. Your super-strength magical character who can shoot magic out of every orifice and smite every enemy is unfortunately burdened with the Achilles heel of being unable to climb a slight incline or step over a small shrub, much less a fence or fallen log. And this particular landscape is replete with inclines, shrubs, fences and fallen logs. The circuitous routes required by this feature are truly ridiculous, especially inside the towns. It isn't always obvious when a way will be blocked, which often means running around in circles and getting stuck until you chance on the exact spot where the ground is sufficiently devoid of bumps to let you pass.

I think those are most of the things that have caused us to rip out our hair during this game so far. Still, there is lots to enjoy about the game, too. The developers could end a lot of the frustrations with a few minor fixes, the easiest of which (it seems to me) would be to expand the manual. That would REALLY help. Really.

Most of all, I'm glad someone is still trying to make games like this. I wish there were a lot more like it, and would and will continue to brave any number of glitches and deficiencies for the pleasure of an action RPG with cooperative multiplayer play.

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I actually own two copies of Sacred 2, that is how much I loved the first game. I own the PC version and PS3 version but for a reason. The PC version (I am on Vista x64) just wouldn't run right for me no matter what drivers I used, vista patching etc. It has been the only PC game I own that ever gave me nonstop problems and I wasn't about to build a new PC just to play one game :P So I purchased this for PS3 to be able to just sit back and enjoy (I purchased this May 2009, for PS3 Jan 2010... re-installed it up a few weeks ago to replay it for reviewing)

GAMEPLAY

Sacred 2 changed very little from the original game, Sacred. This is a good thing as the system they had in place was just amazing I thought. Combat is handled very similar to Diablo and other point/click hack n' slash games just on the PS3 you just move and the game will auto target for you and outline the mob you are attacking. While this really was helpful vs blind hack n' slash... at times you might end up selecting the wrong mob because it path'd by and have to reacquire the mob you were pounding on. There is even mounted combat! The entire game is going to be pretty much sending you on a giant quest throughout the vast map Sacred 2 has to offer. With so much to offer here is a breakdown of what Sacred 2's gameplay will throw at you

1. Hordes of mobs! Mobs mobs everywhere . It is raining mobs sometimes with how many show up. This provides nonstop hack n' slash action but with so much combat going on I actually began to get a little bored with the unnecessary combat. To much of a good thing perhaps but there is no downtime in Sacred 2.

2. Skill / Combo System Mobs will drop skill charms that you use to increase your skill level often increasing effectiveness at the cost of cool down time. You can take charms for skills you don't have and trade them for a skill charm of your choice. There also is a combo system you can advance by spending skill points. Map skills to the combo button and with a single cast of the combo you could perform multiple skills at once. Very helpful just be cautious of skills with different cooldown values

3. Quests tons upon tons of them in fact, after the first 15hrs of gameplay I began to get bored with the quests. They are very repetitive and are "fetch" quests pretty much. GO run and kill this mob and return. Kill this guy to get this item . Kill x mobs. Not that this isn't bad but after your 50th quest to go kill a bunch of mobs for quest drops you'll start twitching. By the time I got about 3/4 through the game I simply did storyline quests only and just ran past towns. There are just an insane amount of quests to do; it is just a shame they are incredibly repetitive.

4. LOOT! if you enjoyed diablo/diablo 2 or two worlds/two worlds 2 where loot basically rained from the sky this is going to be loot heaven. Only problem I had is that just like in other hack and slash RPGs, the loot often is just total junk. I found better items at vendors

*** I found the PC handled far better than PS3 when it came to managing inventory, controls etc. There is no replacement for a good mouse/keyboard in games like this ***

GRAPHICS / SOUND

For its time, Sacred 2 has some pretty good graphics. The PC easily is superior to the PS3 version but nothing to the point that ruins the PS3 version. Armor and weapons look very detailed, maps look very high quality and crisp coloring. Mobs are detailed well but I did run into some hiccups if you would sprint through heavily detailed areas; loading times were actually very short when I did run into them. *** SOUND was actually average in my book. Weapon sounds, effects, voices were actually not bad however the repetitive nature of combat dialogue did get very annoying, fast. The Music was really really good! Blind Guardian did a few songs in the game and you actually will hear them in game when visiting towns and there supposedly is even a quest where you meet Blind Guardian (in game, their "sacred" likeness') but I never ran across it (might of skipped it w/o realizing it)

REPLAY / STORY

Sacred 2 takes place BEFORE Sacred in terms of storyline . If you played Sacred you will recognize some elements from sacred that gives a little more background to events in Sacred; but you are not missing much if you never played Sacred before. The storyline isn't bad but does lose some of its punch if you consistently do your side quests. This is because there are just so many side quests so there is a lot of downtime between the storyline quests. Replay value is exactly what you might expect from like Titan Quest, or Diablo. Multiple difficulty levels that will turn your Super Powerful character into a newbie all over again. Rinse and repeat pretty much as you continue to get stronger and stronger. I enjoy that element as replaying the campaign is a whole new experience. You still get better item, stronger armor sets and bosses require new strategies sometimes, just keep in mind you are redoing the same side-quests all over again ^_^

OVERALL (79% 7.9/C+)

Is sacred 2 a great game? No... a good game YES. There is plenty to do, with tons of mobs to fight and lots of quests to keep you busy. However things do get repetitive and there are some broken elements to this game that hampers gameplay(will be in pro/con section below) Sacred 2 scores a 79% (7.9 / C+) in my book just missing the mark of a 4 star game. A few more months of polish and some better quest variety would of made this game a much more enjoyable trek. I'll be honest, if you had a choice between Sacred 2(PC) and Titan Quest(PC) I'd pick Titan Quest.. BUT Sacred 2 is a decent game but expect to start finding some tediousness after 20-25 hrs

PROS

Great skill/combo system setup

Tons upon tons of loot and wide variety of gear

Classes are generic but handle very well for their specialties

World map is MASSIVE

Tons upon tons of quests (to many I think) , and Loads of mobs to hack, slash, nuke etc

Mounted Combat

CONS

Combo system is buggy sometimes especially with skills that have varying cooldowns. Your combo might say "READY" to use, but will only attack twice then stop not sure why the combo cooldowns don't match the longest cooldown skill bound to it

Blacksmith was very iffy and in fact I stopped using it by level 30 because I was finding far better drops

Skill leveling was very unbalanced sometimes. I would upgrade a skill and get +1.5s cooldown for basically +20dmg?! So NOT WORTH upgrading but you have to for stronger skills at higher difficulties. (not every skill level had this problem and it was only with certain skills)

Quests are just far to generic and repetitive. By the time you are 70% or so through the game you might find yourself so sick of questing only to find out you only did 60% of the quests and still have 90+ more side quests to go for 100% completion

Mob XP and targeting is iffy. Sometimes I found myself doing quests in areas I was getting barely any XP for yet it was where I had to be for my storyline quest(easy to overlevel an area at times) and on PS3, auto targeting can sometimes play games with you

** As you can see, in my book this game has lots of pros and cons... many of the Cons could of been resolved with some polishing. Sacred 2 is a good game that did improve upon the original but just did not improve enough to put it in the heavy hitter category **

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PlayStation Network Card / Ticket (3000 YEN / for Japanese network only)

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Sale Price: $44.99
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Just a note to you all. 3000 yen is slightly over 30 dollars so these people are making a huge profit off of you. You're better off finding one on another site

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I give this item 5 stars cause I have always wanted a Japanese PSN card and it was easy to get it here than most sites which deal in PayPal, which I can't use for various reason, but yeah this is a great product if you need funds for your Japanese PSN account and want to buy the stuff there. I would recommend this to anybody!!! :)

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XL4 Big Boy Xlerator Wheel Stand for Logitech Driving Force GT

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Sale Price: $109.99
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I'm a huge fan of driving and racing games, so as an early Christmas present, my wife bought a Logitech G27 for me. Great wheel, but when I tried to attach it to a fold out table it just flopped around and was too unstable. So I looked at wheel seats, but at $400, that was too much for me and then where to store it. After a little searching on Amazon, I found the Xlerator BigBoy wheel stand. ( because I'm quite a bit over weight ) with the G27 adaptor. It came with free shipping and arrived within a week. Assembly took less than an hour and I was up and driving NFS Shift in no time.

I really like the fact that this stand allows you to sit back in your couch or chair and is very adjustable. Most of the other stands I looked at really made you sit up over the wheel, which could not be comfortable for any long period of time. The stand with the G27 is a great combination, it's light enough to move around after use, but sturdy enough to keep everything in place even under heavy driver `input'. The pedals stay in place even when you heal toe or stamp on the brake. The finish stands up to my klutzy movements haven't marred it yet. You might find the need for a USB 2 extension if you are using this on the couch, but Amazon sells a 3 meter version for about $8.

Again, one of the great features about this stand is that it can easily be picked up and stored in the closet. When you pick it up for storage, the foot print is only as large as the pedals since the wheel / shifter bar rise up. It doesn't lock in place, but if you rest the upper end against a wall or other object it will stay in place.

Lastly, the pre and post sales support from Xlerator is wonderful. They are very response and helpful.

Overall, 5 stars for a excellent product and a great value.

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I purchased this for my husband to go along with his new Logitech Driving Force GT wheel. It arrived quickly, was packaged well, easy to assemble and very well made.

Getting in and out of the chair is easy since the wheel arm pivots up to lift out of the way. It fits comfortably on our couch or recliner and really enhances game play. The frame holds the wheel and pedals in place so you actually feel like you're driving, right from your own comfy couch.

We highly recommend this. Driving games wouldn't be as realistic without it. There is a smaller (regular) version available but hubby is a big guy so we appreciate the extra room of this stand.

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I reviewed this over at PS3Blog.net, since I purchased this to go with Gran Turismo 5 and the Logitech PlayStation 3 Driving Force GT Racing Wheel. Here is the bulk of my review from that site:

The outside legs that wrap around your lap are adjustable (all the adjustments are done with spring pins that you line up with the holes). Since I have a large lap, I had to extend the legs all the way, but it still sits comfortably. You can also adjust the length of the support beam (where the lap bar connects to it) to put the foot pedals either closer to you or further out. I like the design they have with this better than a lot of the wheel stands you get at retail stores and the like (since most of them have a support beam that goes between your legs; a less than ideal setup). The only drawback would be if you use a small chair, as the outside legs are best suited for wide chairs and couches (the Big Boy has a 22 inch spread for the lap legs).

With the main support beam going out and then over to the foot pedal base, your legs are free of obstruction, which makes the driving feel more comfortable. The foot pedal itself is a flat piece of metal that, surprisingly, really holds the pedal base in place quite well. While putting it together, I did lose my footing a little bit and stepped right on it (I weigh over 350lbs), and it morphed, but it was also easily bent back into shape (the metal is still sturdy, but I'm not surprised my weight bent it like that).

Keep in mind, the wheel stand was specifically designed for the Driving Force GT, but the manufacturer does have adapters to be able to use it on other wheels (including the G27 and the 360 wireless wheel). With that said, the stand allows you to pivot the main frame back so you can easily get in and out of your chair (the base and lap bars all have rubber feet, so it doesn't slide around and is pretty stable, even in a vertical position), and to make the steering wheel setup easier. Slide the wheel over the flat wheel base plate and lock it in place.

As far as the actual racing goes and how well it works, the simple answer would be amazingly well. For being one of the cheapest stands on the market, I think it's also one of the sturdiest. No matter how high you have the force feedback settings, and how hard you play, the wheel stand stays in place (it slipped on me once at the base, mainly because the carpet is so worn out that it carries little grip, so being able to find a little bit of traction like that was a plus in my book :lol: ).

Since it is easy to take apart and stand, storage is easily done, too. If you have enough room, you can have it rest in the vertical position in a corner, or you can take the steering wheel support/lap bars off and set those to the side to reduce space even more. Personally, I just either leave it in front of the TV, or move it into the corner of my room. The footprint is pretty small.

Even with my wide body and thick legs, the stand didn't get in the way, nor did it twist and turn while I used the wheel. It's surprising how sturdy this thing is based on how it looks (minimal parts, no flashiness). I think that alone (and being able to pivot the bars back to easily get in and out of your seating area) makes this one of the better, understated accessories out there (similar to PS3 RealTriggers, but this likely won't catch on as fast since it's aimed at a much smaller market).

Overall, though, for $120 ($99 if you get the regular sized one), this is quite a bargain if you're big into racing games and want a very sturdy, and affordable (compared to others), wheel stand.

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i have been playing GT5 for the last month or so and got tired of struggling with the standard PS3 controller and decided to get the Logitech DRIVING FORCE GT wheel since the G27 isn't fully supported in GT5 the wheel itself is awesome but after using a tray table for @ a week, i needed something more solid so i bought this stand

It came very well packaged and even though the box was kinda beat (thanks UPS) the stand itself was in great condition without a scratch on it

The stand went together very easy and mounting the wheel/pedals was extremely straight forward i was a little concerned about the wobble when the wheel was mounted in the UP position but once you have it "down" in your chair or sofa this thing DOESN'T MOVE ONE BIT

the "arm" the wheel mounts to flips up so if you are playing for a long time or an endurance race & need to snack, do a bathroom run or whatever you just pause the game & flip the wheel stand up

the only complaints i have (minor ones at that)are:

1 no real way to mount the pedals to the base the instruction manual recommends either drilling through base or velcro i went with double sided 3M mounting squares in 3 places & the pedals don't move one bit

2 no way to cable maintenance all the wiring the GT wheel has alot of wiring (i need to use a USB extension cable to get to my PS3)so i would recommend going to a home hardware store and invest a few $ in black cable ties and lay out exactly where u want everything, then put a few ties around the wires & the stand takes way from the sleek look but keeps the wires out of the way while you play

i am very happy with my purchase, very stable & comfortable while playing especially during the Endurance races, quality materials & styling, with this and a Logitech GT wheel its the only way to play GT5!

BEST OF LUCK TO YOU IN LIFE & RACING !

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I ordered this item, so I could sit back on my couch and play GT5 (preordered here in Amazon). The assembly was very easy. My old Driving Force Pro fits perfectly. The actual item is solid, functional, easy-to-store, and fits my needs.

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Lightning Blue WraptorSkinz Skin fits Rock Band Stratocaster Guitar

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List Price: $19.95
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This guitar skin is so awesome. It really dresses up the guitar and makes it unique. We have two wireless guitars, one for bass and the regular one so now it it easy to distinguish whose guitar belongs to who. Skin sticks and stays on very nicely.

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Dead Space 2

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List Price: $59.99
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+ PROS:

+ Improved weaponry, armor, etc.

+ Even more ways to kill Necromorphs

+ Extra difficulty modes of Zealot and Hard Core

+ Extra game "Dead Space: Extraction" included

CONS:

Has a "been there, done that" feeling

Scare factor is diminished with repeated play-throughs

Multiplayer can be very frustrating

PLOT:

Dead Space 2 takes place three years after the conclusion of the previous game. Isaac Clarke, our hero, has been reduced to an asylum patient in The Sprawl. Before long, he escapes his confinement and discovers yet another plot by the Unitologists to use him and his Marker-infected mind.

Using his wits, his trusty plasma cutter and some strategic dismemberment, Isaac starts on another journey to eliminate as many Necromorphs as he can.

GAMEPLAY:

As before, we take control of Isaac in a 3rd person, over-the-right-shoulder view. As the game progresses, various weapons and schematics can be found. We can also find power nodes for weapon upgrades, armor upgrades, and more.

We're not confined to the Ishimura anymore, and Isaac has different objectives to complete each level. There isn't as much emphasis on puzzle-solving as we had in the first game...this was dialed back, and the amount of firefights with Necromorphs has clearly increased.

Though it's been 3 years since the last game, Isaac remembers that shots to the body only stun, and even decapitations are ineffective...and in some cases, make Necromorphs more dangerous. He's ready to strategically dismember each enemy until there's nothing left but a bullet-riddled mess.

A power-up called STASIS can be used to freeze Necromorphs while Isaac uses them for target practice/dissection, and another power-up called KINESIS can bring objects to Isaac or hurtle them away with lethal velocity. I LOVED the tweak in gameplay where Isaac can use kinesis to rip a bladed arm off a dead Necromorph, and impale another enemy against the wall with it. This is also a great way to save ammunition.

Players still have the in-game store to buy and sell items; and the upgrade Benches are back to maximize effectiveness for weapons and armor. There's been an additional tweak: if you spend 5000 credits, you can remove all the power nodes from one weapon and assign them to another.

Mercifully, the game still spoon-feeds us objective locations, store locations and save points by using the R3 button.

Dead Space 2 also increased the number of zero-gravity areas, where Isaac can jump off the floor and use suit thrusters to propel him towards his objective.

When you play through this game on the easier settings, you might think you've got it made. However, when you try playing on Zealot mode, that's where you have to carefully plan out each attack so you don't run out of ammunition. Hard Core mode cranks the difficulty level up for seasoned players...you can only save 3 times across the 15 levels of gameplay, and there are no checkpoints. If you die, you go back to your last save point.

MULTIPLAYER:

This is a new addition to Dead Space. These are team-based matches, which last 2 rounds. You can play a Necromorph trying to keep a team of humans from reaching their tactical goals, or you could be a human trying to cleanse a path through a vicious pack of Necromorphs.

HOW ABOUT THAT EXTRA GAME, DEAD SPACE: EXTRACTION?

This was a VERY pleasant surprise. A port from the Nintendo Wii, Extraction takes place prior to the events of the first Dead Space game, and it's played in a first person rail-shooter view. If you don't have a Playstation Move controller, the game can still be played with a DualShock controller. However, since there's virtually no lag while shooting with the Move, that's what I prefer using.

There are 10 levels to play, and there's a large replay value because of all the extra powerups and trophies you can earn. If you're on the fence about buying Dead Space 2, I think this additional game will tip your scales to the "purchase" side. You're basically getting 2 full games for the price of one.

TROPHIES:

Trophy lovers, now is the time to REJOICE. Dead Space 2 has 51 trophies to earn (8 more if you purchase the DLC pack), and Dead Space Extraction offers 48 additional trophies.

Many of the trophies are earned for completing chapters of the game, using certain weapons to kill Necromorphs, and so forth.

Without a doubt, the hardest trophy to earn is to complete the game on the "Hard Core" difficulty setting. You can only save 3 times throughout the course of the entire game. Your skills will be pushed to the ultimate limits, as well as your patience. If you manage to complete this task, you are rewarded with a ridiculously overpowered weapon that will make all subsequent playthroughs as easy as falling off a log.

CONS:

The first Dead Space game had a very, VERY claustrophobic feel to it. The creaking of the ship's deck plates, the sound of Isaac's breathing, the sharp music changes when a Necromorph appeared, it was all designed to scare us to our core.

Even though I enjoyed Dead Space 2, I didn't get the same sense of all-encompassing fear as I did when I played the first game. There weren't many new monsters, and most of the fetch-questing was toned down in favor of more face-to-face combat. To me, it simply felt less scary and more predictable. I found the scare factor diminished with each New Game+.

The weakest part of Dead Space 2, by far, was the Multiplayer mode. In a nutshell, you play as either a Necromorph or a human. Humans will regenerate at one central spawn point, but if playing as a Necromorph, you can choose where you want to emerge from.

The problem is, the spawning is so slow that it paints a bulls-eye on your face while your online opponents turn you into hamburger.

Powerups can be earned as you accumulate experience points, which in turn increases your attack damage, but the matching of players is completely random and unbalanced. I played with a couple of other people that were levels 3 to 10, but a few of my opponents were upwards of level 20-30...This was the same problem with Multiplayer matches in TRON: Evolution. I found the Necromorphs were very slow and clunky to control instead of performing a slashing attack, I usually ended up jumping up and down in front of my opponents.

FINAL VERDICT?

While I enjoyed the harder difficulty settings and the addition of Dead Space: Extraction in this package, I didn't find myself as scared. Killing Necromorphs and upgrading my weapons and armor was fun, but the fear factor and the puzzle gameplay definitely felt like they were dialed back. I didn't get much enjoyment out of the multiplayer mode, but to each their own. However, if you like killing Necromorphs, you'll get a lot of enjoyment out of Dead Space 2.

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Very good game, not "for a sequel", just a great game in general. Just as much if not more suspense than Dead Space (1), mixed with an awesome continuing storyline and cinematics, cool upgradeable weapons and suits, crazy monsters, everything you could ask for! Would definitely recommend.

The Limited Edition gets you an extra game, Dead Space: Extraction, which is kind of a prologue to Dead Space, and it's designed for the Playstation Move, though you can also use it with just the controller. It's not particularly awesome, but it's a cool little extra Dead Space experience!

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Dead Space 2 is one of my favorite scary games included Bioshock. Dead Space 2 takes in space a engineer named Isaac had to fight a deadly alien race called the Necromorphs again. The Necromorphs are scary enough to make me jump and scream, deadly, and they come in many different kinds. Isaac had many different weapons like the deadly Line Gun, the kickass Contact Gun, and the Plasma Cutter, he had different armors like the badass Advance Suit and the Elite Suits after you beat the game and play a new game. Dead Space had beautiful graphics but they had many scary scenes like the brutal deaths by the Necromorphs and the infamous Needle in Eye scene. If you made one single mistake, the needle will become a drill like needle, stab Isaac in the eye and killing him. If you like scary games, Bioshock games and Dead Space trilogy games are the ones. Like in the alien games and films: no one can hear you scream.

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The game is great, but this edition is only for serious collectors now. The limited Edition was great because it came with Dead Space: Extraction as a bonus. That game is now included free with the Dead Space 2 Greatest Hits edition, which is $30.00 cheaper at the time of writing. This is the original release, which has been discontinued; but its only difference from the Greatest Hits edition now is that the GH comes in a red case with a red label.

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I wanted a U.S. new, black label edition just as it is pictured. Insted i recieved a Canadian edition, greatest hits edition. Said nothing of that in the description when i bought it. Very disappointed with the false advertisement.

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