Persona 5 (PS3) Review

This is a game that's been waiting probably a lot longer then it should have. When it came out, I was excited to get my hands on it... until Atlus started coming after people for streaming the game like they thought people who didn't want to have it spoiled would not have the self control to just not watch. I put a damper on it, but ultimately I did get my hands on the game and put it in my backlog for several years... enough for me to play several other games in the franchise first. But I have to say it... this one was worth the wait.

Now before we continue, I must say that offhand, your experience with this game may vary from mine. My actual PS3 died a few years ago, so while I ripped the game myself, I was playing through an emulator. But with that in mind, let's get into it.

Ragnarok Odyssey ACE (PS3) Review

My history with Ragnarok has been scarce, but personal. Back in the day, a now ex of mine that to this day I consider a damn good friend introduced me to the original game on a private server she played on, and we had fun running around and wrecking monsters for a little while. But I never found myself interested in the game itself enough to go play any of it’s sequels. But it’s introduction left the series feeling warm and something I might to play with later. When I saw this game, it was already late in it’s life, but that warmth and wanting to see if something can stand up to Phantasy Star with Sega refusing to bring their newest game to the west, I gave it a shot. All I can say is I hope I'm not looking at the original game with rose-colored glasses due to who I was playing with at the time.

Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner - Raidou Kuzunoha vs. the Soulless Army (PS3) Review

When I discovered Persona 3 years ago, I discovered Atlus for the first time. And I absolutely loved their creation. To this day it’s still one of my favorite RPGs, so… not a bad first impression. By the time I played Persona 4, I understood the games were a spin-off of another franchise called Shin Megami Tensei which we never got the first entries of because SNES games in the day when Nintendo of America REALLY hated bringing over anything with a base in religion, but I was interested in trying a game or two we could get… and the sequel to this very title just launched, so of course I had to have it. (Raidou-Jack still sits on my desk at work.)

Fast forward a few years and several games from this franchise in my library later, however, I still only had part 2… that is until I found this title on PSN dirt cheap. How could I resist?

Xenogears (PS3) Review

When I first heard of this game, I was in college and some buddies were finishing it up. At the time, it looked cool, but I made note of it for later, as I had much more on my PC I wanted to get to. But I never forgot the game, so when I found out the prequel games were coming out for PS2, I decided to start there, but that proved an utter mistake as I found the game used the strategy guide as an extra-expensive manual. Still, that did not mean I didn't want to play this one, so when I could get it on PSN, I jumped. Now, as I’ve finally played through the whole 90 hour adventure, I have to say… I’m glad I did, but I’m not to sure everyone should.

Persona 2: Eternal Punishment (PS3/PSP) Review

Under normal circumstances, should the dice include a Persona game in the list, it’s usually one of the top 3 games I will pick. With this being the last currently released game in the franchise I had not yet played, I would be more likely to. So when this game came up with Persona 5 in the works and coming out in the fairly near future, it was not even a question. And now as I put my controller down, I am glad to have played through, and not just because I am fully caught up on one of my favorite game series. Come on in and have a look.

Star Ocean: The Last Hope (PS3) Review

Here we are. I finally finished playing yet another one of the original 5 games that convinced me to buy a PS3. When I first saw this game, I got a very “Phantasy Star” vibe from it, and being a huge fan of that series, I knew I wanted this game. Fast-forward to about a month ago, I decided it was time to play with the PS3 and having been kinda bummed out by the odds that we would never see Phantasy Star Online 2 officially hit the United States, I came back to this box. It was better then nothing, and I refuse to hack a game to play it when I have so many others to play now, so I wasn’t going to be playing the Japanese PSO2 anytime soon.

I finished the game today, and all I can say is you might want to sit down for this one. What I’m about to say isn’t pretty, but it must be said. While this game really isn’t bad, it definitely isn’t good… and there are a lot of parts to it that downright suck.

2 Weeks till we have our Raffle And oh Yeah… Persona 5 is Announced

A lot of excitement in the air this morning! First and most direct to the site, our Extra Life Raffle is in 2 weeks. Yes, the main event has come and gone, but we will be having a gamer night on Dec 7th, during which we will be having a LIVE raffle based on donations made to our Extra Life page. Read on for more:

The Unfinished Swan (PS3) Review

Sometimes, we all find “that game.” It’s a title we know we are going to find interesting, but are not sure we will enjoy, and most of our friends will probably not want to hear about… and we buy it anyway. For me, this probably happens a lot more then I would care to admit… and this would be one of them. The question, however, is was it worth it? I believe the best answer I can give you is “yes.” Not a “FUCK YEAH!” but… “yes. Im glad I played this.”

It’s EXTRA LIFE TIME!

While this entry is being posted a few days early, we have BIG news for the event! First, and foremost, we are still using our UStream page to broadcast our gaming, but we will be showing the video here as well! We have other details to reveal which should improve your viewing greatly from last year, so please, feel free to click and read more!

Noted Releases III

Finally, a small breather. This week has been a bit leaner for releases to catch our eye then the past few, but that doesn’t mean nothing happened. In fact we are sure a lot of you found these very interesting… or will.

Noted Releases II

Well it’s that time again, and we are ready with a few more interesting titles that have come around to gamers. Once again, some are brand new, and some have been around, but are now available in places they were not before… but all are interesting in their own right. So please, have a look, and check out anything you find more interesting….

Noted Releases

We’ve been thinking here at the Red Sector, and while we clearly have spent time talking about current news in gaming and what might happen depending on how it goes, we spend shockingly little time in the Now of gaming. And with 2013 already exploding out of the gates, this is a bit of a shame. To remedy this, we are beginning two new series of articles. The first of which you are about to enjoy, as we go over the releases that caught our eye, for whatever reason. Some will be for good, others for bad, but all to give you a heads up on what we have seen. Now, without any further adieu, let’s see the releases of this week.

Preserving Games As a Generation Ends

As the gaming world knows, the 7th generation of console gaming is nearing it’s completion. A number of bargain hunters will probably begin looking into the systems they missed (self included) to experience the remaining gems before the next takes over. And normally, this process could wait till we could get bargains on the old hardware and games… but this generation is different. This generation, consoles took on a lot of PC features like digital sales and online patches. The problem with this is that being closed systems, once the system’s service goes offline, access to these pieces will no longer be available. And with the WiiU out now to be followed quickly by the next xbox and playstation, this will be an issue for collectors pretty quickly. This is a word of warning… and maybe to get an early start on what you might have missed out on.

We Will Now Score Our games….

Almost a year ago now when I first published the Red Sector, it was done with a few ideas in mind. I never wrote these down in stone, but they were the core tenants of what I had in mind on day one. Among them, was that I would not use or require review scores for a review to be on this site. However, as explained after the break, this is now changing.

Linux: A Possible Future?

A little while ago, Gamespy produced a short article in which they suggested we might, just might, be seeing the beginning of a shift in PC gaming from Windows dominating to Linux taking over. In the short article, they promptly asked at the end if we as gamers would embrace such a change. Today, we explore the possibilities… what if we are about to see the beginning of this shift? How would it happen, and how would we be effected? Join me in a little “future history” and see if maybe you could see this happening.

Journey: Collector’s Edition (PS3) Review

…Guys… usually I write for you: the people who want to see what I think of the game. But this time, I need to talk to the publishers, so if you could excuse me for a moment, I’ll have my say and then get back to the review… but this really needs to be said.

Sony, I appreciate a collection disc as much as the next guy. In one swoop, you can catch a new gamer up to everything, and it’s great to do that. Doom 3 BFG is a prime example of doing that well. But would it be so hard to ask that if you make a disc like this, you make it a quality one? In the case of this disc, which while it’s called Journey, is actually a ThatGameCompany collection disc, you messed up, and you messed up big.

Weekly Roundup: 11/1/2012

Welcome back for another week’s worth of news. There has been a delay from the original planned date of this, but then again a hurricane has a way of doing that. So after a few days without power followed by Halloween, we are back with the gaming news that frankly, struck me as interesting. So what has happened? Why not read on?

Extra Life begins!

Friends and readers, the time is now! We have come together as a community to raise what we can for the kids, and now it is time to get to the fun part… and play! Obviously if we have some late donors, we are more then happy to accommodate. After all, this what it’s about… helping the kids by doing what we love.

But for now, we can focus on the gaming at hand, and to that end, we have a UStream Channel setup just for this event. If you want to see how we game, then please, follow the link below to it…. and on behalf of every gamer in this marathon, every hospital to be helped by this marathon, and every child we are reaching out to through them and the event… thank you… thank you so much for your support.

You can watch us game at http://www.ustream.tv/channel/red-sector

You can watch many others listed at http://blog.extra-life.org/2012/10/the-extra-life-live-stream-directory.html

One Week till Extra Life

The time is coming, my friends. We are about 1 week away from the Extra Life, things are looking great, but that doesn’t mean we can relax yet. It’s crunch time to bring as much in for the kids as possible. But it’s also time to reveal how we are doing here at the Red Sector. Read on to see a special message, a preview of what to expect, as well as links to participate/donate.

Interested? Read on…..

Dear Console Makers: PLEASE don’t do this.

I’m writing this not as a fan of any one platform, but as a fan of gaming. We keep hearing rumors about what the “Next Gen” of gaming is going to do: and all of it seems bad. From download only to locking out used games, it seems like every story we hear isn’t even about how powerful the next gen will be (like we used to get each time a new one was coming), but how it is poised to bend over it’s fans and have it’s way with them.