GB Review: Infinite Undiscovery (360)

Solomon Lee — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 20:48:45 -0500

Infinite Undiscovery is an action RPG from tri-Ace, the folks behind Valkryie Profile and the Star Ocean series. The game employs an interactive real-time combat system. Teamwork is a vital part of the game as the game has its fair share of puzzles that can only be solved with the aid of a party member. While the visuals and sound design are decent, the game fails to achieve its potential. It's overcomplicated and unresponsive, and altogether feels like an incomplete package. Fans of tri-Ace and RPGs in general might get a kick out of the 30-or-so hour game, but it's nothing for casual gamers to get excited about.

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Infinite Undiscovery is the latest title developed by tri-Ace, the development powerhouse behind the Valkryie Profile and the Star Ocean series. At its core, it's an action RPG that blends situational battles with open exploration. These battles are influenced by conditions and choices made by players resulting in, as the name implies, new discoveries that affect the world around you. The first of three highly anticipated Square Enix RPGs (The Last Remnant, Star Ocean: The Last Hope), Infinite Undiscovery marks tri-Ace's return to the RPG limelight.

Infinite Undiscovery puts you in the role of Capell, a young lad who is imprisoned and mistaken for the leader of a Liberation force. The Liberation force is a band of resistance warriors rebelling against the Dreadknight and the Order of Chains -- an evil force that has bound the moon with chains and brought chaos to the surrounding lands. After a period of three days, he is rescued by Aya, a brave girl who is shocked to learn Capell is, in fact, a cowardly flutist. Against his own wishes, he reluctantly joins Aya to regroup with the Liberation force in their efforts to stop the Order's sinister plans. On his journey, Capell meets the real Liberation leader, Sigmund, to whom he bears a striking resemblance. Further in the game, he teams up with various allies like Edmund, a loyal swordsman; Balbagan, a brash warrior and the conniving twins, Rico and Rucha.

The game employs an interactive real-time combat system. Both standard and power attacks are used to perform combos and special attacks. Though Capell lacks the ability to cast magic, his flute is used in place of it to cast special status effects on his party members. In the thick of battle, the A.I. is quite receptive to the tactics you assign to them that range from "Spread out" to "Focus on single target". You are also able to sneak up from afar or behind your enemy directly for a higher chance to acquire rare items -- thus giving you the "Player's Advantage." After a chain of successful attacks and combos, the AP sword gauge will gradually rise; boosting the power of your special attacks that can be used to devastate your enemies. In addition, you can issue healing requests from your party members to reduce the extra time spent scrolling the menu for healing items.

Teamwork is a vital part of the game as the game has its fair share of puzzles that can only be solved with the aid of a party member. This is done by "connecting" with a team member that allows you to use their battle skills that are mapped to two buttons. The ability to use a team member's skills only works some of the time as they tend to be slow in responding; which is frustrating. Outside of combat, the team member acts on your behalf by opening treasure boxes, inspecting items and talking with others. Consequently, Capell can only connect with one party member at a time. Notable skills include Sigmund's Observant skill that allows you to view enemy stats and Rico's Beastmaster skill to speak directly with animals.

Party members will automatically split up upon entry to towns and villages. You can connect with them to discuss the party's current affairs or to chat with the locals. Specific team members are handy as they can draw out different responses from the townspeople and help with mini-quests. However, the towns differ so greatly in size from one another that simply searching around for your comrade is tiring enough. Granted, the ability to connect and to collaborate with your team members is a promising feature that should have been better implemented in this game. What's more, Capell will recruit up to 17 allies over the course of the game that is quite a hassle to manage. Assigning weapons, armor and accessories to all of your respective team members is a very cumbersome task.

Certain missions throughout the game require you to divide the party members into separate groups. Your choice of team members ultimately dictates the items, Fol (currency) and the experience gained. All items and spoils found by the other party will be added to the inventory list. With respect to Item Creation skills, Aya and Rucha are bestowed with cooking abilities, Rico is a composer, and Capell has the enchantment skills as a flute player. During the missions, food that is acquired is useful for curing negative status effects and healing party members. Each character has their own food preferences as the item's effects are more effective when they eat their choice foods.

Infinite Undiscovery's visuals are decent. The character designs are average and the surrounding environments respectable. One particular note: the game's graphics are not bad by any means. It's just that the game does not sport the imagery or gorgeous visuals of other Square Enix titles like the Final Fantasy series. The voice acting is standard -- but it's odd how many cut-scenes have no voiceovers at all. Fortunately, the voice behind Aya and a few other characters was performed well and was very believable. As for the soundtrack, composed by Motoi Sakuraba, the music fits the game accordingly and provides acceptable accompaniment.

Overall, the game fails to achieve its potential. It's hindered by the number of party members falling under its management system. It could have been enjoyable with half as many characters; demonstrating in this case that less is more. On top of this, the connecting feature in battle feels sluggish as the A.I. reaction times are slow at best. While the game is short and can be completed by most players in less than thirty hours, Infinite Undiscovery is still worth checking out for tri-Ace fans and RPG enthusiasts.

Deadliest Catch Alaskan Storm Boxart, Sails Into Stores

Tim Grube — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 08:14:13 -0500

They do say it's one of the dangerous jobs in the world because every season at least one person dies to the horrible environment they get placed in trying to obtain these delicious crabs. So with that "insider tip" of the day, we just received word that Deadliest Catch Alaskan Storm has shipped to stores nationwide for the Xbox 360.

Features:

Career Mode (Extremely realistic and challenging simulation for gamers and Deadliest Catch fans
Missions (Includes United States Coast Guard missions, ice flow navigation)
Mini-Games (Allows casual gamers to enjoy fun crab boat challenges, including crab boat races and skiff races)
Five Authentic Crab Boats (including Northwestern and Cornelia Marie)
Customize Your Own Boat
20 Real Fishermen (including Edgar and Norman Hansen, Josh and Jake Harris)
Five Authentic Captains (including Captains Sig Hansen, Phil Harris and Larry Hendricks)
4,500 lines of recorded character dialogue
1st Time United States Coast Guard in Video Game
Captain the 370ft. USCG Cutter Mellon
Throw-the-Hook Mini-Game
Skiff Racing Mini-Game
34,000 Miles Actual Coastline
Four real Bering Sea harbors (Akutan, Dutch Harbor, King Cove and St. Paul)
Virtual tour of the Northwestern crab boat
100 exclusive crew videos
Xbox Live multiplayer for up to eight players

The game is rated T and is $59.99 on Xbox 360 and $39.99 for PC. The PC version is expected soon. Hit the jump for the box art.

'Rise of the Video Game' Discovery Channel Documentary Begins Tonight

Aaron Dunlap — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 14:38:43 -0600

The history of video games and the industry thereof is very interesting and conveniently very short. It's sad, though, how few people are familiar with it. People know about the Atari and Pong and all that, but after that exists some kind of inky mystery period until the NES came around and "generations" became so easy to measure.

Those people should be pleased to know that the Discovery Channel is beginning a five-part look at the video game legacy starting tonight at 8pm called Rise of the Video Game.

Sometimes "mainstream" coverage of video game history can be pretty shaky (anyone who went to the "Game On" video game exhibit at the science museum in Chicago might understand), but from the episode guide it looks like the series will be going into great detail. Set your TiVo/Generic DVRs!

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GB Review: Infinite Undiscovery (360)

Deadliest Catch Alaskan Storm Boxart, Sails Into Stores

'Rise of the Video Game' Discovery Channel Documentary Begins Tonight