I’ve played RPGs for as long as I can remember, which means I’ve saved the world approximately 372 times, been a victim of mistaken identity many times and been imprisoned while innocent countless times and Infinite Undiscovery’s story is no different at first. The main character, Capell, is initially mistaken for Sigmund, a liberator against the evil Order who have chained the moon (yes, really) so that they can siphon its power for their own evil doings. To be fair, it’s a slightly original take on the ‘good vs evil, world at stake’ theme. The only ones who can destroy these chains are Capell and Sigmund, who bear an uncanny resemblance to each other. Initially rescued by Aya, a strong female lead (for once) you, as Capell, are plunged into the battle to save the world. Capell at first is not the most enthusiastic of heroes, in no way demonstrating the cockiness that has driven me insane previously in other games such as Tidus in Final Fantasy X for example, but this brings nice warmth to the character as he’s actually fairly down to earth considering the situation and quietly humble. However, this warmth and character development does take a while to show its face as in the early stages, the game is somewhat confusing and not at all appealing. Prepare to fight your way through the first hour or two of this game, as it’s far from pleasant. For some reason, a games designer somewhere thought it would be a good idea to throw you into a fast paced chase scene in a prison without fully knowing the controls, then just as you think you’re safe, it chucks you into a pitch black wood that you have to traverse before you can really get anywhere in the game. These two segments are briefly interspersed with basic tutorials explaining how to fight and use items, but it really could have been approached better as I certainly felt it a trial to get through.

The controls and battle system are actually pretty well implemented albeit with the odd design choice. The battle system heavily borrows from Tri-Ace’s other hits: the Star Ocean series and Tales of… series with the action being in full real time rather than a turn based system that is often used in RPGs. For those of you that have played Eternal Sonata, it is very similar but rather than switching to a separate screen to fight, the fighting commences in the same area that you are exploring. At first, it makes things seem much more exciting but there are flaws to this system. Capell only has two buttons that you can use to attack, essentially a weak attack and a slower, stronger attack. A combination of these two buttons can form other attacks but for the most part, it’s all very similar and simply a matter of hammering the two buttons at times. The rest of the party (up to 3 companions can follow you at any one time) is controlled by the game AI which is a double edged sword. It makes things simpler as there’s no need to juggle many characters at the same time during a boss fight, especially as the AI is reasonably good. However, you are also worryingly reliant on them as the commands you can give them are limited to pressing the Y button to signify healing is required for one or more members of the party. If you die, you lose that power and have to watch helplessly as your comrades continue to fight, and hope that they revive you within the time limit otherwise it is game over. It can get a little frustrating due to this, although once or twice it did mean I won a boss fight despite being out of action so the AI isn’t bad at coping by itself. You can control it slightly more with the d-pad controls but this controls aspects such as whether to focus on one enemy or whether to conserve MP (which I found was often the most useful setting). It does work, but it also takes a lot of adjustment especially if you are more used to the Final Fantasy style of fighting with menus and turns. The only true downfall to the real time system is that the main menu is also in real time, this being the menu that amongst other things allows you to select healing items during fights. There’s nothing more annoying than trying to use a healing item while avoiding blows from your enemies, and hoping that your AI controller companions might cast a healing spell in time to save you. Again, it’s something you get used to but I’m really not sure why it was deemed to be a good idea in the first place. The fighting on the whole can get a little tedious at times, especially as the save points can be a little spread out meaning you have to replay quite large segments sometimes if you die. There just isn’t enough variety to the fighting to really be compelling. It also introduces a new element in Capell’s ability to play the flute. One key element this introduces is the ability to reach secret areas that appear to be blocked by walls until you play your flute.

Obviously an RPG isn’t all about the fighting, and luckily Infinite Undiscovery makes up for what it’s lacking, with an interesting story and side quests. It is a little unfortunate however that sometimes descriptions of where to go next can be a bit vague at times leaving you a bit uncertain of what to do next, something that really could have been tightened up with better writing. There are plenty of side quests available, as well as cooking abilities and other creation abilities that greatly extend the game. The game options on the whole extend the game’s life as it offers easy, normal, hard and infinity modes, although only easy and normal are available on your first play through. Infinity mode is meant to be especially challenging to complete, and as the game on normal is hardly easy, it provides quite a decent amount of replayability.

Infinite Undiscovery is not a bad RPG at all, it won’t convert people to the genre but it provides a great stop gap for RPG fans while they wait for Fable 2, Last Remnant, Final Fantasy XIII et al. If a few niggles had been corrected such as the slightly dull fighting and vague directions, or the off/on voice acting that makes you wonder if the sound has suddenly cut out (it hasn’t, for some reason, only bits of conversations have voice acting), this game really could have been something a bit special. However, as it stands, it’s still much like my All you can eat Chinese Buffet: good but not quite right. But that doesn’t stop a fan gorging on it; it’ll still hit the spot if you like the style enough! Just don’t let the initial first couple of hours put you off, it is a struggle but it ends up worth it.

As you can see in the past week and a half, it’s not been a big one for points. The vast bulk of the points came from Halo 3 which we finished on Legendary the other night. It was brilliant fun, a true testament to how a relatively average game can become something special when you play it with friends. If it wasn’t for the fact Bungie upped the game’s points a few days ago, I’d have a fairly respectable 760/1000 but as it stands, 760/1750 is a bit poor. I doubt I’ll play much multiplayer though, just not my thing, I much prefer CoD4 online. I’ll keep Halo 3 in the hope for the rumoured expansion pack though and our team of four can return to it then!

In somewhat shocking news, I’ve sold (yes sold, NOT bought) 14 games! I had a bit of a clearout of games that I keep intending to go back to, but never actually do. This also included Infinite Undiscovery which I realised I just wouldn’t get round to properly completing, so figured I’d cut my losses and sell it while it still had some value to it. Not like it cost me anything in the first place anyhow. Didn’t get much for many of the other games but I should now have enough set back to be able to fulfill my pre-orders of Fable 2: CE (despite its lack of figurine, fate cards and fancy box anymore ), Gears of War 2: CE and Banjo Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts (with a free copy of the original on XBLA).

I did however somewhat impulsively buy Fifa 09. The first football game I’ve bought since buying PES6 for about £10 two years ago when I first got my 360, and possibly the first football game I’ve ever bought in the first week of launch (I can’t remember any others at least). I mainly bought it on the strength of its demo, a few forum threads and Nokkon raving about it, and I’m glad I did. The tides really have turned in Fifa’s favour rather than PES. It’s truly the full package with manager mode, be a pro and updated stats for the year. I love Be a Pro, it’s a feature I’ve wanted for years in football games and it’s finally been realised! And I love it Plus the achievements aren’t bad to achieve either. The game’s definitely going to take some practice but it’s very rewarding to score an impressive goal.

The only other noteworthy game I’ve been playing is Viva Pinata. I returned to this as after playing Viva Pinata:TIP I felt like going back to the original until I have a vision cam. It’s at a nice and relaxed pace so far but the micromanagement hasn’t kicked in full time yet so I’m sure that’ll change things a bit. I still feel pangs of guilt when I have to sacrifice my Bunnycomb to attract a Pretztail to my garden…..I’m sure that makes so much sense to someone who’s never played it

Birthday Thursday, and I’m fairly certain I’ve got either Too Human or Brothers In Arms:Hell’s Highway. Either will be good by me I think, I love WW2 FPSes and BiA has had some ok reviews. Too Human is a little hit and miss but hoping my RPG loving nature will convert me to the ‘liking it’ side.

Operation Find the Dog that makes me and my Mum think we must have it (catchy title eh?) isn’t going brilliantly. Just not found the one yet. We are pretty exact with what we want. We want a rescue dog, young dog (well, under 5 but not a puppy), reasonably active but not crazy active, good with kids and cats and small to medium but not too small as my Mum wants to feel safe walking it on her own. Bit like Goldilocks isn’t it?
We’re regularly looking on a few sites and visiting our local RSPCA so fingers crossed we get lucky soon We’re not rushing into a dog that’s ‘ok’, it just seems like something that instinctively we’ll know when the dog is right (even if half the things I just listed aren’t the case, the only true essential is being ok with the cat), but it’s just not happened yet!

Gaming wise, it’s been a bit bitty. Not really sunk my teeth into anything other than the two review games (which doesn’t really count as I had to do that!). I’ve played a bit of Halo 3 on Legendary with friends, started with just one friend but it was getting hard and tedious so now there’s four of us which has made it much quicker and more enjoyable. Got the first three levels done last night, and doing more tonight. Not overly impressed with the game but it’s ok, worth it for a laugh with friends but I doubt I’d play it single player. It was the same with the first two. I played the first one with my ex a few years ago, we played it solidly for the day and it was great fun. But when I had a chance to play it in single player, I really wasn’t interested. We started on Halo 2 but broke up before we finished it so I’ll probably never get that done now. I hope Halo 3 doesn’t have an annoying library part like in Halo 1, that was sooooooo dull! Halo 3 online doesn’t appeal to me at all so doubt I’ll get any multiplayer achievements but I might give it a go.

Played through Prince Caspian slowly. It’s a total Lego Star Wars clone but without the charm. Identical game engine and identical bugs (such as not being able to pick up an item because it’s sticking halfway into a wall), it’s just not overly fun. It’s ok, it passed the time and I stuck by it to 1k it. That’s my only real score whoring I think, otherwise I’ve played purely for fun and gained a few achievements on the way.

I’m still liking Forza 2 but it is getting a bit boring now. The tracks are repeating themselves over and over again, so it’s getting a bit predictable. I love the RPG like elements of collecting all the cars (like Pokemon for petrolheads!) though so I’ll keep working on it. I’m over half way anyway now at level 35ish.

I picked up Viva Pinata: Trouble in Paradise for £25 when Morrisons were doing a week of cheap games. Paid for it by also buying Guitar Hero on the DS and ebaying it! Selling the review games has also helped me nicely. It’s just like the first game, so if you liked that, you’ll like this. It’s encouraged me to go back to the first game, which I suppose slightly ruins the point!

Birthday’s coming up fast and I keep being asked what game I want….and I don’t actually know! Lots of reasonable games about, but they all look like rentals to me, like Mercs 2 and Force Unleashed. Fable 2 comes out a couple of weeks after my birthday and I’ve got it pre-ordered anyway so that’s no good.

Not bad going that I mentioned in my last entry that I wanted both Viva Pinata:TIP and Infinite Undiscovery and now I have them both! At least I didn’t pay for one of them and hardly paid for the other in the end

More entries to come eventually….