Well, I was planning on making more “what’s been going on at thesavepoints.com” posts, but I’m like 2 months late and don’t want to waste my time.

So instead this post will link to the actual website and I won’t bother with making posts here, unless we post something big. Which doesn’t seem to be the case for a while.

So yeah… COME VISIT US AT www.thesavepoints.com

there will be cake

http://www.thesavepoints.com/

Valkryst started his cosplay feature (which he’s late on right now…), and the contest announced last time was cancelled because we literally had no response out of it, but we’ll do something else later on.

DS Import Impressions- Ragnarok Online DS
http://www.thesavepoints.com/2009/01/ds-import-impressions-ragnarok-online-ds/

Cosplay Maids (maids are awesome)
http://www.thesavepoints.com/2009/01/cosplay-pictures-of-the-week-maid-edition/ 

Hajime no Ippo season 2 episode 1 impressions
http://www.thesavepoints.com/2009/01/hajime-no-ippo-new-challenger-first-episode-impressions/

Jobocan’s Analysis: The current-generation of gaming consoles (big post, good analysis of each console and such)
http://www.thesavepoints.com/2009/01/jobocans-analysis-the-current-generation-of-gaming-consoles/

Overlooked Wii game Review – Castle of Shikigami 3 
http://www.thesavepoints.com/2009/01/overlooked-wii-game-review-castle-of-shikigami-3/ 

Cosplay Code Geass
http://www.thesavepoints.com/2009/01/cosplay-tuesday-code-geass-edition/

 Anime – Best of 2008 (big list with 30 (!) categories)
http://www.thesavepoints.com/2009/01/anime-best-of-2008/ 

Crappy PS3/360 game review – Golden Axe: Beast Rider
http://www.thesavepoints.com/2009/01/ps3-review-golden-axe-beast-rider-aka-how-to-completely-ruin-a-sequel/

Kyolux mini-rant about Crunchyroll
http://www.thesavepoints.com/2009/01/praise-crunchyroll/

Random post by Jobocan – Maintaining a Blog
http://www.thesavepoints.com/2009/01/jobocans-random-rants-maintaining-a-blog/

Well things have been rather crazy but we still squeezed out a bunch of posts since we bought our new domain name.

Reviews, rants, impressions and, most importantly, A CONTEST(with more to come eventually, of course)! Oh, and in-depth review of Dissidia Final Fantasy… w00t.

Check it out:

CONTEST!: http://www.thesavepoints.com/2009/01/the-save-points-first-ever-contest-registerfest/

Dissidia Final Fantasy review: http://www.thesavepoints.com/2009/01/dissidia-final-fantasy-review/ BIG REVIEW

Persona 4 review: http://www.thesavepoints.com/2009/01/ps2-review-shin-megami-tensei-persona-4/ (long review)

Ninja Blade demo impressions: http://www.thesavepoints.com/2009/01/xbox-360-demo-first-impressions-ninja-blade/ (AKA how to make a bad game)

Soldner-X Himmelssturmer PSN review: http://www.thesavepoints.com/2008/12/psn-game-review-soldner-x-himmelssturmer/ 

Chaos;Head Anime/Visual Novel thoughts: http://www.thesavepoints.com/2008/12/chaos-head-anime-is-over-visual-novel-thoughts/ 

MGS4 in LBP DLC: http://www.thesavepoints.com/2008/12/ps3-dlc-review-youve-got-mgs4-in-my-lbp/ 

Yakuza 2 review: http://www.thesavepoints.com/2008/12/ps2-hands-on-impressions-yakuza-2/ 

What’s coming in 2009?: http://www.thesavepoints.com/2008/12/video-games-in-2009-what-are-the-good-titles-coming-out/ (do you like lists? I like lists)

Hajime no Ippo DS review: http://www.thesavepoints.com/2008/12/ds-import-review-hajime-no-ippo-the-fighting-ds/ 

Prince of Persia DS review: http://www.thesavepoints.com/2008/12/ds-review-prince-of-persia-the-fallen-king/ 

Prince of Persia review: http://www.thesavepoints.com/2008/12/ps3-review-–-prince-of-persia/ 

Mortal Kombat vs DC review: http://www.thesavepoints.com/2008/12/ps3360-review-mortal-kombat-vs-dc-universe/ 

Metal Slug 7 review: http://www.thesavepoints.com/2008/12/ds-review-metal-slug-7/ 

Star Ocean First Departure review: http://www.thesavepoints.com/2008/12/psp-review-star-ocean-first-departure/ 

Best of 2008 in gaming: http://www.thesavepoints.com/2008/12/best-of-2008-video-games/ (this “list” includes impressions of each writer here, so it’s a pretty solid “list”)

Want to write for us yourself? or just wanna comment our posts? Come see us there and you can always contact us (using the “contact us” page ). Come check us out, register and comment! http://www.thesavepoints.com !

That’s right. We bought our own domain and hosting, so now you can see us at  http://www.thesavepoints.com/ . We were setting this up in the last few days. There are still some adjustments to be done, but overall it’s done setting up.
 (Dave, wintrale, vic,valkryst(?) if you have trouble logging on at the new address just tell me) 

In the future we’ll be personalizing that quite a bit. New design, we’ll have a logo, you know the works. Currently it looks just like this one, but in a while we’ll be adding changes.

This blog won’t die though. I’ll keep updating here, just posting from time to time with  ”What’s been going on at thesavepoints.com” kinda posts.

As for post we’ll be doing over there, I have like 5 reviews lined up and maybe some rants. Kyolux and Vic also have some reviews (and Kyo has a fun post) coming up, not sure what else.  Wintrale might have some nice import reviews before the end of year if all goes well on highly anticipated titles, and Valkryst might eventually start posting his new feature.

Well, not much more to say, come meet us at http://www.thesavepoints.com/, we’ve got some cool stuff coming.

For starters on our new site: The best of 2008 in gaming!

More after the break!

Tactics!

As a survivor, you NEED to stick together. You also want to survive. The longer the level lasts, the lower your probability of survival is. I’m not saying run for your life, slow pokes be damned. I mean… once one person gets eliminated the rest of you just became that much easier to incapacitate!

Close the doors behind you! Zombies can’t open them by clicking X or whatever PC users press. They need to bust through. If you manage to close them and gain distance from them, you’re that much better off. Special zombies are slower than you. They’ll only catch up once they can press X due to the fact that they’re so far behind.

Use your pipe bombs and molotovs well. I’ve seen some folk just throw them cause they got them. It can be such a waste at times. For the final stretch of any level, when you call an evacuation, use molotovs on tanks only. Keep a pipe bomb for your rush to the vehicle. Before that last point in the map, I’d suggest using molotovs to cover holes in the ground from where the zombies climb up from, or possibly when you believe a tank might get triggered. By now you should know the usual spots or patterns that the AI director spawns the tank. As for pipe bombs before the evacuation segment, I’d suggest using it at moments when you “alert the horde” or get puked on by a boomer.

Melee, Melee, Melee. It’s EXTREMELY practical VS Hunters and Smokers. Someone’s tangled right next to you, melee. Can’t reach the smoker? Melee. Don’t bother killing him, you should know where he is and he can’t bother you for a while. Hunter’s pounced a guy next to you, instead of unloading your clip on the hunter and the survivor. Try to melee! I’ve seen people pump the shotgun for a few seconds without getting the hunter off the person. All this time the hunter’s just eating away at the survivor’s HP.

If you REALLY need to move and you feel the need to heal the survivor in front of you… don’t toss him some pills if you have some. That shit’s instant. Bandaging isn’t.

As a special zombie, there are tactics you can use too! As a boomer, when you manage to puke on folk, your regen timer for the puke takes a while to come back, just wait a while and then jump in your your kamikaze attack. The fact that they’ll shoot you will ooze them for that much longer. And of course, coordinated attacker with other specials works quite well when the survivors can’t see each other. As a smoker, dragging someone to a precipice, is AWESOME. Dragging someone from a window, making them retrace their steps is AWESOME. Dragging them off a roof to fall and take damage is AWESOME. You can almost kill a guy if you drag them off the roof during the last segment where they go to get evacuated from mercy hospital. Pairing up with a hunter benifits you alot. As a hunter… pouncing on folk that have just climbed stairs will get them to fall back down. Getting those people running point alone, lets you dig into their chest for a while before they get help. Same goes for those folks that are lost or alone in the back. If they manage to be alone in a point of no return this usually spells death. As a tank, cars can be your friend. You can pin people down with them. Try and not kill your fellow zombies in the process. Stay away from fire. Stay away from the line of sight of those turrets.

That’s it for now! Comment if you can think of other tactics!

So what improvements should valve bring to Left 4 Dead? Vote return to lobby. I once played a game with a guy spamming this every moment he had. This idiot was pissed that his buddy was stuck in spectator and instead of exiting the game and finding another one, he decided it was great to make everyone vote continuously. The return to lobby screen takes a LARGE portion of the screen. To improve this, I would say that capping the amount of times you can call such a vote would be a wise move. Another one would be to announce who is calling the vote. I knew who was doing it because I was observant enough to notice such a pattern. I couldn’t however vote kick the dude. He was on the other team. They had no idea who it was and we had to suffer through this for a fairly long period of time.

On top of the Mercy Hospital, there’s some metal ramp you can hide under. This ramp allows zombie access through one narrow passage. It’s the best and easiest way to camp it out until the chopper. Hunters can’t pounce in because they hit the top of the ramp. Smokers are completely open to being shot down while trying to pull one out. Boomers can puke on them from the side of the ramp but it’s useless, the zombies can’t make it inside. The tank will get killed on his way in. a simple molotov and all the survivors shooting in the same direction will take him down quite fast.

Here’s the full list of Trophies for White Knight Chronicles. The list isn’t completely accurate, seeing as how PS3Trophies doesn’t list the source of their article and decided to use Google to translate whatever they found, so I had to fix up what they said. Sorry. Also, there’s a new story trailer for the game, located after the Trophies. If I find a better quality version, I’ll update the video.

One Platinum;
Eight Gold;
Seven Silver;
Eight Bronze;

Platinum Trophy

Platinum Crown
An Ancient King’s crown said to be in possession of those who have drawn all from the world.

Bronze Trophies

Item Searcher
A bronze figurine of a card, given when a person collects 100 different types of items.

Weapon Searcher
A bronze figurine of a Swordsman, given when a person collects 50 different kinds of equipment.

Bronze Star
A glowing copper medal that reflects the spirit of the person, given when they draw and use one of their skills.

Corner of Copper Ornaments
The corner of a genie shaped ornament, given when a person defeats 100 monsters.

Proof of the Hunter
A certificate awarded by the Order to those that clear 5 quests with an S rank.

Moth Man Stone
A slightly moist item given to those who synthesised 50 species, given by the Henchman.

Bronze Medal
A medal shaped like a long grain of rice, given to the adventurous members of the Guild.

Bronze Embroidered Drawstring Bag
Given when a person earns 10’000 10 Gilda coins.

Silver Trophies

Silver Medal
A medal shaped after the Guild’s chief rice, given only to the praised members of the Guild.

Clarification of the Certificate
A certificate awarded by the Order to those that clear 20 quests with an S rank.

Item Mania
A silver figurine of a card, given when a person collects 300 different types of items.

Weapon Mania
A silver figurine of a Swordsman, given when a person collects 200 different kinds of equipment.

The Corner of the Favorite Decorations
The corner of a large headed ornament, given when a person defeats 3000 monsters.

Amanda’s Ruby
A slightly moist item given to those who synthesised 200 species by Madam Amanda.

Silver Embroidered Drawstring Bag
Given when a person earns 10’000 100 Gilda coins.

Gold Trophies

Collector’s Items
A gold figurine of a card, given when a person collects 600 different types of items.

Collector’s Weapons
A gold figurine of a Swordsman, given when a person collects 500 different kinds of equipment.

Gold Star
A sparkling gold medal that reflects the skill of the person, given when they draw and use eight of their skills.

The Corner of Golden Ornaments
The corner of the Horned Dragon God ornament, given when a person defeats 10000 monsters.

Proof of Domination
A certificate awarded by the Guild to those that clear 50 quests with an S rank.

Diamond Moth Man
A slightly greasy item given to those who synthesised 450 species.

Gold Medal
A medal shaped after the dearest of the Guild’s chief rice, given to the most adventurous members of the Guild.

Gold Embroidered Drawstring Bag
Given when a person earns 10’000 1’000 Gilda coins.

And now for the video!

Edit:
If you like this post, be sure to keep following us at our new website, http://www.thesavepoints.com/ . We’ll have reviews, rants, random stuff, and maybe more news like this one.

The new look Leon and Claire, back in action.

Resident Evil Degeneration is Capcom’s answer to the Hollywood smash hit take on the survival horror franchise that has revolutionised the genre time and time again. Instead of Alice and her telekinetic powers, we see a pre-Resident Evil 4 Leon team up with an old friend to combat a new outbreak. Is this film the true film adaptation of Resident Evil? Or is it as lifeless as a zombie? Read on to find out…

Note: Beware of a few spoilers.

The film’s premise is quite a simple one. In a post-Raccoon City Incident world, Umbrella have fallen and new companies are vying for it’s position as the leading pharmaceutical corporation in the world – with WilPharma leading the charge, so to speak, with the promise that they have taken extra precautions to prevent a similar catastrophe to Umbrella. There’s also some news regarding the usual terrorist stuff thrown in there for good measure. The story begins properly when a viral outbreak occurs at an unnamed Airport in mid-Western America, which just so happens to be where Claire Redfield has arrived. As things take their turn, the virus spreads out as zombies start eating more people within the Airport. Before long, the Special Response Team comes to the Airport and cordon it off to prevent the spread of the infection. With them, by order of the President himself, is Leon Kennedy. Graphically, everyone in the film looks spectacular – the zombies are very well designed, with a great variety and plenty of detail in regards to disfigurements, and the main cast are extremely well done. Leon looks drastically different to how he does in Resident Evil 4, with far more detail in his face and composure, even though he has the same voice actor and the same attire. It’s not so hard to believe he has the most attention to detail in terms of design, given how popular Leon is and how much of screentime he has. Claire is similarly detailed, her attire being quite different to what we remember her wearing back in RE2, with a more detailed body overall. The only problem I have with how the characters look in the film is that some of them look too fake – almost as if the guys at Capcom were trying to hard to get a realistic appearance for some characters.

The plot of the film moves along very nicely, being far better paced and interesting than the Hollywood counterparts, with some nice twists and turns throughout and some cliché scenes line the lot to give a very good and very full feel overall. The connection various characters have are surprising, to be honest, with Leon and Claire’s relationship not actually taking centre stage for much of the film. The script is very solid, even if it does change how certain characters behave, with very few corny lines in it at all and the voice actors all deliver their roles perfectly – fans of Crispin Freeman should keep an ear out for his role as Frederic Downing, an important yet small role in the film. In stark contrast to the wonderfully played out vocals, one of the film’s biggest issues seems to be motion capture – surprising, given how the credits place a lot of emphasis on the work that had been done. While for the most part the characters move about quite well, there are certain scenes where they either walk worse than the zombies do or they move in a strangely detached way. It can really break the mood at times. Thankfully, that’s where the music comes into play. A collection of gentle tunes line the majority of the film, offering the kind of soundtrack that really does complement the film well. When the action picks up, so does the music. In place of the relaxed tunes are stronger, more vibrant ones. Tetsuya Takahashi wrote all of the music in the film, proving how outstanding he is at composing. The action sequences in this film are definitely the highlights, showing us why Leon and Claire survived Raccoon City through their use. Leon, for example, easily dispatches of all the zombies he comes across with single shots to the head. Used as a mechanic to underscore just how professional and badass Leon is, are the two SRT soldiers who are armed with better guns yet kill far less zombies – spending more time spreading fire than anything else. In another scene, we’re shown how skilled Claire is with a gun, when she deftly takes care of a trio of zombies while also protecting a survivor from harm.

Overall, Resident Evil Degeneration is what fans of the series have been looking for. It’s a great representation of the franchise with better set pieces and battles than their Hollywood counterpart. I’d highly suggest this to any fan of the series as well as anyone who would like to watch a good zombie flick. While this won’t beat out films like Dawn of the Dead, it does its job very well and delivers on its promise.

Hey guys, Kyolux here! Seriously, if you grew up in the 80′s, you have to make yourself the favor of watching this game trailer. I was ever-doubting the success this game would get once released, but after seeing this? I don’t really care how it’ll play (still hopefully good), the story and characters are going to be awesome.

Read my full rant after the break

I’m slowly and surely getting back in the gaming world, after submerging myself into end of semester works.  Ok I did play a few games. Vluk was nice enough to let me give a go at Left 4 Dead, which plainly rock.  Sorry we didn’t kept up with you back then.  I since then planned to grab it on pc when I’ll have time for it.

On the upcoming reviews from me part, well, I finally got around to get my copy of Yakuza 2, so expect that when I’ve given it a full go, I’ve got an almost finished game of Star Ocean on PSP, which I’ll review and compare it to my memories of the Super Famicom version and I also have this sweet heavenly game (sorry guys, I’m a sell-out on this one) Valkyria Chronicles.  When SEGA planned this game, they just told themselves: “Hey let’s use all those seiyuu (voice actors) this Kyolux guy likes” and put them in our next game.  I’ll be covering that in detail in my review though. I’ll try to get all three of those games reviewed by the end of the month, I know it’s still a while, but 2 of them are RPG, and one has RPG elements too.  SEGA has really surprised me though, both Yakuza II (I sadly never tried the first game, but I’m drooling over the PS3 sequel) and VC are two games they didn’t seem to have messed up. (I’m talking to you Sonic the werehog)

So that’s all from me tonight, I’m off to watch Code Geass Lelouch of the Rebellion in 1080i before some well-needed sleep.

Oh yeah, coming up real soon is our new feature, which we hired an expert on the matter to fill it in.