Online Games, Game Cheats, Latest Games

As the March release of "Final Fantasy XIII" draws nearer, it seems appropriate to look back on what the popular Japanese RPG series was up to a decade ago in "Final Fantasy VIII," recently released on PSN for download to the PS3 and PSP.

The main character is Squall Leonhart, a gifted but socially aloof student at Balamb Garden, a school for the elite SeeD corps of mercenaries. The game's first couple of hours are spent on Squall's final exam, a live combat exercise.

After that, he and some fellow SeeD agents are given an assignment to help a resistance group free their backwater town, an assignment that turns into a quest to save the world from a wicked sorceress. The story is interesting, and the characters, while prone to teen drama, make for a memorable cast.

"Final Fantasy VIII" makes some pretty drastic departures from longstanding "Final Fantasy" tropes, and in so doing it delivers one of the more intricate game-play experiences in the series.

Instead of gaining money from defeated enemies, the player's party pulls down a regular salary from the Garden. Instead of many pieces of equipment, there are only weapon upgrades.

Instead of the familiar magic point system for casting spells, magic is drawn from monsters during battle, found at draw points scattered around the world or refined from items and lower-level spells. Characters can carry up to 100 of each spell, which are used up like consumable items; they can also be traded between party members.

Spells serve another purpose as well: When attached – or Junctioned – to one of a character's core statistics, such as strength or hit points, the right spell can boost that statistic to varying degrees. Spells also can be Junctioned to allow their effects – such as poison and blindness, or fire and ice elemental damage – to be passed on or guarded against.

This system offers an intricate way to customize each character, but makes it easy to transfer their bonuses to another if needed.

To Junction magic to anything, however, a character must first have Junctioned a Guardian Force. These powerful beings can be summoned for battle, but their real utility is the many abilities they can learn and impart to their users.

The downside to this Junctioning is that it makes the six main characters more or less blank slates. Each of these wonder teens has a unique attack that can be called on in times of danger, but other than that, there's little difference between them.

FINAL FANTASY VIII

3 1/2 stars

PUBLISHER: Square Enix

SYSTEM: Sony PlayStation Portable and PS3 (PlayStation Network download)

PRICE: $9.99

AGE RATING: Teen

In this video game image released by Electronic Arts, a scene is shown from "Mass Effect 2."

At the end of "Mass Effect," Commander Shepard saved all sentient life in the galaxy from annihilation at the hands of the Reapers, ancient machines that exterminate all intelligent species every 50 millennia or so.

At the beginning of "Mass Effect 2," Shepard dies.

And two years later, the commander is brought back to life by the shadowy Cerberus organization, which believes what the galactic government of the Citadel Council denies: The Reapers are still coming, and Shepard is the only one who can stop them.

Cerberus' mysterious head, the Illusive Man, has directed enormous resources into rebuilding Shepard just as he or she (player's choice) was before death.

Players can begin the game with the same Shepard they completed the first game with, or start from scratch with a new one. Starting with a seasoned Shepard confers some advantages and has numerous other effects on the game, depending on what choices the player made in the original.

Did Shepard spare the Rachni Queen or destroy her? Romance Liara T'Soni or Kaidan Alenko? Let the Citadel Council live or die? The game notices these and other events and incorporates them into the "Mass Effect 2" universe.

One thing is constant: The Illusive Man has big things in mind for the resurrected Spectre. Whole colonies are disappearing, their human settlers gone without a trace, which Cerberus believes to be the work of an enigmatic race called the Collectors.

The Illusive Man suspects that the Reapers are truly behind these mass kidnappings. He dispatches Shepard to gather a new team of specialists to eliminate the Collector and Reaper threat.

That's as much of the plot as this review will give away. Interesting things are going on in "Mass Effect 2," and it would be a shame to spoil any surprises.

The new cast is full of interesting characters – most new, a few old – with a variety of combat, technical and biotic (space magic) powers. The combat system has been streamlined and upgraded, as has the selection of powers each character can learn, (typically four, with the final one closed until Shepard has earned that character's loyalty).

No longer do players have to juggle armor and weapon types for several alien races; when players find or research a new weapon, it becomes available for everyone to use but only Shepard can carry the new heavy weapon class, which includes a grenade launcher, a freeze cannon and even more exotic weaponry.

Bayonetta is a witch with a memory problem. Awakened from a long slumber 20 years ago, she remembers little of her past life, but she knows how to fight and wield magic against legions of angels in a continuation of an ancient war between her line, the Umbra Witches, and the Lumen Sages.

"Bayonetta," the game, is ridiculously over-the-top. The action is amped up, the sound is loud, and the graphics are flashy. Bayonetta, the character, is equally ridiculous – her exaggerated figure makes a Barbie doll's look natural.

The game's Mature rating applies not only to the violence but to the numerous suggestive elements of the character and how she's presented. She wears a tight leather catsuit, sucks on lollipops, carries a quartet of guns (two by hand, two strapped to her legs as stiletto heels) and morphs herself, her hair and her clothing into various forms for powerful attacks.

The angels also take on monstrous forms – some huge, some small, one a giant upside-down head with dragon heads sprouting from it.

"Bayonetta's" highly polished guns-and-melee game play owes an obvious debt to the "Devil May Cry" series. The resemblance is no accident; the game was directed by Hideki Kamiya, the man responsible for the first game in the "DMC" series.

The bulk of the game is dedicated to combat, as Bayonetta makes her way through various gorgeous locations packed with angelic enemies. The witch has a wide repertoire of fighting moves to start with, and she can buy more as she progresses through the game.

Bayonetta's moves include attack combos that vary depending on which weapons she has equipped; she can switch between two sets of weapons at will. Dodging attacks at the last moment activates Witch Time, which slows down enemy movement for a few moments.

Special golden records can be traded in for new weapons, such as a pair of shotguns or a sword. Bayonetta can also craft her own power-up and restorative items from components she finds.

Chaining together long strings of attacks activates Wicked Weave, powerful moves that use the witch's shape-changing hair. And with enough magic power, Bayonetta can summon infernal torture devices from the underworld to cause massive damage to her foes.

Defeated angels drop halos that Bayonetta can use as currency for new moves, items and upgrades. Sometimes angels leave behind their own weapons, which don't last long in Bayonetta's hands but are quite powerful as long as they do.

Harry Mason searches the spooky, frozen town of Silent Hill for his daughter in "Silent Hill: Shattered Memories."

The "Silent Hill" series has been creeping players out for more than a decade.

Now the original game has been reimagined as "Silent Hill: Shattered Memories," which shakes up the series' horror formula.

The story's basic setup is familiar: Harry Mason is searching Silent Hill for his daughter, Cheryl, who went missing after a car crash at the edge of town. At certain points in the game, the perspective switches to a therapist's office, and the player answers questions that the game uses to create a personality profile and mold the experience to the player.

Instead of the previous games' pervasive fog, this version of Silent Hill is snowed in by a massive storm. It's dark, it's cold, and Harry's flashlight illuminates just enough to get around. That's bad enough, but sometimes Silent Hill freezes over, and the monsters come out to play.

When Harry's not running from the horrors that plague him, he's exploring the town of Silent Hill, talking with the people who live there and trying to find ways around and through areas blocked off by the storm. There are puzzles to solve as well, typically requiring the player to use the Wii Remote to manipulate objects.

Past games in the series have allowed their characters – including the original game's Harry – to defend themselves, albeit clumsily, with 2-by-4s, guns and other weapons. Not this time. Harry can't fight back in this nightmarish realm of ice; he can only run.

If a monster catches him, he can hurl it away, but there's no way to kill his creepy foes, and if he takes too many hits, he'll be overwhelmed and die. Flares can keep the creatures at bay for a time, and obstacles and doorways highlighted in blue show the way to safety, but it's not easy to escape.

These encounters are harrowing enough but become repetitive, and the sharp line between safe exploration and desperate flight prevents the game's creepy mood from developing into real tension. Also, when the action heats up, the visuals sometimes slow down or freeze for a moment, a hiccup in the game's otherwise good looks.

Harry's cell phone warns him of nearby foes, alerts him to points of interest, maps his location with a GPS uplink (which is a pain to use), allows him to call people he's met or receive text and voice messages, and lets him take photos that reveal the truth behind shadowy figures he finds frozen in place around the town.

Games set in World War II are common to the point of oversaturation. But most of them are first-person shooters or strategy types.

"The Saboteur," though it takes place during that terrible conflict, offers a fresh perspective by putting the player in control of a resistance fighter in Nazi-occupied France and parts of Germany.

The resistance fighter is Sean Devlin, an Irishman whose racing career was ended by a run-in with a German racer – and Nazi officer – just before the war began. Embittered and hiding at a friend's cabaret hall in Paris, Sean is quickly drawn into efforts to disrupt the Nazis' operations.

Take note: The game works to earn its Mature rating, with plenty of violence and foul language. New copies of the game include a code for the downloadable "The Midnight Show" add-on, which unlocks an option for topless nudity, along with some more practical features. The content can also be purchased.

"The Saboteur" feels like a "Grand Theft Auto" game with a bit of "Assassin's Creed" and "Red Faction: Guerilla" thrown in. The game world is open to exploration; contacts assign missions against Nazi targets, and between missions there are plenty of free-form objectives to attack and weaken the Nazi presence.

As Devlin completes important missions and inspires the French people, their will to fight is symbolized in a striking way. When the Nazis control an area, the world is rendered in black-and-white except for the red of Nazi flags and armbands – and of blood. Inspire an area to resistance and color will return to it, the Nazi presence will be reduced, and citizens will come to Devlin's aid.

In his fight against the Nazis, Devlin has many tools and allies. Black marketeers will trade him weapons and upgrades in exchange for contraband, and their garages provide him with cars.

Devlin can plant explosives to destroy guard towers, anti-aircraft guns, fuel tanks and other targets, and he can clamber up buildings and over walls to reach them. The controls are a bit loose, especially when climbing buildings, but they work well enough.

If Devlin kills a Nazi without using a weapon, he can take the soldier's uniform and blend into the ranks, as long as he's careful. And if he's discovered, he can summon a band of resistance fighters and a getaway car to escape a tough spot.

Performing certain tasks – making a number of stealthy kills, for example, or collecting certain kinds of cars – will unlock perks, providing permanent boosts to Devlin's abilities. Each perk category has three levels whose conditions grow increasingly difficult to fulfill, and some higher-level perks unlock special weapons in the black market.