Lost Odyssey

Platform: Xbox 360
Verdict: 4 discs of epic.
Rating: 4/5
Retro gaming is enjoying quite a renaissance at the moment with the Wii's Virtual Arcade and Xbox Live Arcade jointly offering glimpses into cherished pasts and shattering rose tints while swimming in nostalgia. They rarely are as good as you remember, spoilt by the heady modernities of adaptive difficulty, quick saves and the removal of pixels from perfect jumps.
Lost Odyssey is somewhat of a retro title too. Despite its super HD sheen and now-gen residence on Microsoft's box of tricks, it's a game that could easily hark from the PS1 era (or beyond to the distant ages of Dragon Quest on the NES), namely mimicking such titles as Final Fantasy VII. Coming from Hironobu Sakaguchi, creator of the Final Fantasy series that's hardly surprising.
From the traditional turn-based combat and amnesiac hero to the victory fanfare motif, Lost Odyssey screams Final Fantasy, and for many that's a great thing – with few Japanese style RPGs on the 360 it's a welcome addition to a catalogue obsessed with shooters and racers.
Compared to the West's forward looking titles like Oblivion and Mass Effect though, it's a game that seems lost in time. Even the Final Fantasy series has moved on from the staid and static turn-taking (as seen in its 12th iteration on the PS2) and while that may be a bugbear to many, the epic, emotionally charged and superbly translated story about immortals and a world at war (penned by award winning novelist Kiyoshi Shigematsu) will be enough to satiate any misgivings.
Despite such a traditional template, Lost Odyssey does bring new variants to the genre such as larger combat parties. The Ring System is also one such mechanic which introduces a rhythmic requirement to timing for otherwise predetermined attacks. With random battles rearing their ugly head though it may not be enough to compensate.
While Lost Odyssey may tread old gameplay with only a few pleasing additions, it's a game that prides itself on story telling, stunning graphics and cinematic direction that reward only the determined and time rich profusely – almost enough to make me want to be a student again.

Kingdom Under Fire: Circle of Doom

Platform: Xbox 360
Verdict: Infinitely boring.
Rating: 2.5/5
The circle is many things to many people – a special ellipse in which the two foci are coincident, a symbol of divinity through the halo, of infinity in the serpent Jörmungandr who could encircle the world and grasp its tail in its teeth and, according to Plato, an immortal, self-eating being of perfection that existed at the dawn of the universe. Unfortunately there's nothing as profound or perfect about the Circle of Doom, apart from an unwanted lesson in mediocrity.
Spin-off sequel to the popular yet niche original Xbox series, Circle of Doom is a Lord of the Rings wannabe full of swords and sorcery. Debuting as an interesting and fun pseudo RTS, Kingdom Under Fire cut itself a path between button mashing combat and the strategic deployment of troops in massive battles.
Eschewing the tactics and mass-battle mayhem for a traditional dungeon crawling template, Circle of Doom's bid to appeal to a wider audience comes at the sacrifice of depth. But then again, when all you want is to rend and sunder with a massive sword perhaps that's ok. Well it would be if the game actually delivered on its promise of satisfying barbarism.
Circle of Doom isn't a game that requires curious exploration or puzzle solving, it's about fighting monsters with an ever expanding arsenal of enchanted pants and big choppers. Choosing from a selection of warriors with predictable stats (fast but weak katana wielder, slow but strong hammer slammer etc), it allows for plenty of stat heavy customisability and weapon crafting.
Unfortunately such self-made variety is nulled by the painfully stilted combat. Relying on a slowly recharging meter to merely swing your sword means button mashing is impotent early on, while the lack of a block move or deep combos means titles like God of War are way above where it needs to hit.
From the obscure opening cinematic to the easily broken tutorial, Circle of Doom does little to convince of its immediate merits and problems unfortunately persist throughout the game – graphical pop-in and glitching shadows disapoint while the audio is generic and repetitive with abruptly reactive music framing each encounter with little subtlety.
There's little positive to say about Circle of Doom other than the fact that it includes online play if you want to share the adventure with a far away friend. Perhaps it was rushed out before Ninja Gaiden 2's inevitable domination of the genre once again. Whatever the cause, it can't be desirable to desire the Game Over screen which is more confounding than the nature of 3.14159.

Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions

Platform: PSP
Verdict: Wizard Chess
Rating: 4/5
While I may suck at board games (curse you dice and your random ways!), I tend to fair better with videogames. Funnily enough, stick a board game onto a computer and i'm usually a whizz, although admittedly these tend to be board games that stem from that geekier pursuit of tabletop fantasy gaming, and before that Chess of course.
Final Fantasy Tactics is one such game, (landing on the PSP after brief forays on the PS1 and GBA) and draws from a long history of turn based strategy games like Front Mission and Advance Wars, albeit with more depth and more wizards.
Looking great on the PSP's screen and suiting long, ponderous train journeys, it feels like its finally come home. With a mix of pixel based sprites and isometric 3D it exudes charm and cute character (despite a heady tale of politics, war and betrayal) and is accompanied by gorgeous animated sequences to propel the story forward at times when a little extra drama is required.
Gameplay remains the same with slow paced, tactical battles as you and your opponent take turns to move your squad of soldiers, archers and mages. Stat heavy mechanics decide things like how much damage your characters give or take while job points are earned through engaging in combat.
These job points allow your characters to grow in any direction you choose, such as becoming a gladiator or assassin. The number of job types is massive and each brings its own strength and weakness, allowing you to tailor make a squad to your own tastes, providing masses of depth and replayability.
At times the combination of tall buildings and an isometric viewpoint can obscure your view but map controls help ensure it never becomes too detrimental to gameplay.
The difficulty curve is also a little too steep - a firm grasp of the game's customisation options are required close to the start, meaning new players can be caught unawares. When characters die on the battlefield they remain dead off it too, so pay heed to the brutality of (an admittedly cute) war.
Monopoly leaves scars too.

The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass

Platform: Nintendo DS.
Sequel to the lovely Wind Waker on the Gamecube, Phantom Hourglass continues with the cartoonish style and sea faring adventures.
Showing how things should really be done, Nintendo have bestowed Phantom Hourglass with sublime controls and the perfect example of how to use the DS’ features without making anything feel forced or unnecessary (ok, so being required to shout at the DS may not be desirable when you’re gaming on the go).
With perfect, touch screen controls and charming presentation it’s a synch to lose yourself in the princess rescuing adventure. Puzzles may be too easy for some but it’s an adventure aimed at the younger generation with the added bonus of reduced frustration for those of us with adventure in our hearts.
9/10

Mass Effect

Platform: Xbox 360.
Verdict: Stars and wars.
Rating: 4/5
Conversation has never been considered a skill of the stereotypical slack jawed, square eyed gamer. With our Grandparents adopting gaming through the likes of Brain Training, that mistaken cultural perception is thankfully on the way out. For those that still need convincing, perhaps Super Deluxe Conversation Simulator can help, otherwise known as Mass Effect.
Created by Bioware, the highly respected developers who made one of the only decent Star Wars games (Knights of the Old Republic), Mass Effect is a similarly epic Sci-fi, telling the Solar System spanning tale of civilisation’s stand against an ancient robotic nemesis.
With a state of the art spaceship and the fate of the solar system on your shoulders, you can travel galaxies as you choose, investigating leads, battling robotic monsters and talking your way into or out of situations.
Trading the light sabres and space cowboys of Star Wars for a cleaner aesthetic and emphasis on guns, Mass Effect still treads similar territory as George Lucas’ modern mythology while borrowing from 3rd person shooters like Ghost Recon.
With squad based gunplay and cover based mechanics, Mass Effect differs through its use of under the bonnet RPG elements. As well as levelling up through experience and upgrading skills, action can be paused at any time to issue Biotic and Tech commands (otherwise known as Jedi powers).
Touting a much hyped conversation system, Mass Effect allows you to talk (almost as much as shoot) with a convincing degree of flexibility. Although it can rest a little too much on friendly/neutral/aggressive branches, the freedom to choose if you’re a Luke or Anakin provides satisfyingly different results.
As engrossing, epic Sci-fi goes, Mass Effect ticks all the right boxes at creating a living, breathing universe through sublime art direction. Unfortunately it’s ultimately let down by a graphics engine that struggles to keep up with the action, some frustratingly placed restart points and combat that doesn’t quite work as well as it should. Still, there’s plenty to talk about.