NAME	GRANDIA II
SYSTEM:	PS2, DREAMCAST
TYPE:	RPG
HAVE I BEATEN IT YET?:	NO

Grandia II was a Dreamcast game that was ported over to the PS2. I've only played the PS2 version but I hear their the exact same except that the PS2 version has 20 more minutes of cinimatics. Grandia II's strenght lies in its battle engine. It perfectly combines turn-based battles with real-time battles to make a truely unique battle engine that is both fast-pased and stratigic. It's the kind of battle engine that makes such mundain activities as just attacking weald a new expeirence every time. And its because of this that the rest of the game sometimes feels like a nesseccary evil to fight more battles. The story is a tad bit leniar but does have its fair share of surprises. The graphics pretty blocky and don't even attempt to make use of any of the PS2's graphic capabilities but that's because its a direct port from the Dreamcast. One major problem with the graphics is that the PS2 does some things differently than the Dreamcast, so sometimes the graphics will rub the system the wrong way and you'll get some slow down, especially when you're in large towns. Overall its a good game but doesn't do anything to try to push itself ahead of the pack. Provided that you didn't let Final Fantasy X raise your expectations too high, you should enjoy Grandia II.

SCORE: 7/10

NAME:	FINAL FANTASY X (FFX)
SYSTEM:	PS2
TYPE:	RPG
HAVE I BEATEN IT YET?:	YES

Final Fantasy has a reputation for raising the standards for which all other RPGs are judged. But this time Squaresoft has really outdone itself. Needless to say, FFX is in total 3D now (as opposed to the 3D characters over pre-rendered backgrounds in the last three Final Fantasy's). And it features full, you hear me FULL, vioce overs. A feat never performed in a 50 to 80 hour long RPG before (that I know of). Also the battle engine has been almost completely redone. At first glance it may look the same, hero's on one side and monsters on the other taking turns at hitting each other, but that's where the simalarities end. I won't go into detail, but the battle engine has undergone some major changes that make it fast-pased and stratigic. I could go on for pages about the new battle engine but it would be better for you to see for yourself. The story is as original and epic as you'd expect a Final Fantasy story line to be. The only difference is that the story is simple to understand and won't leave you scratching your head in confusion or saying "what the hell is he talking about? Who is that person? Is she speaking literally or is this some kind of medafore? Arge, my head hurts." (remember FFVIII and that whole time compression thing? Went way over my head.) I'll stop right here before I spoil everything there is about the game for you. All I can say is that I very highly recommend this game even if you're not a RPG fan.

SCORE: 10/10

NAME:	ADVANCE WARS
SYSTEM:	GAME BOY ADVANCE
TYPE:	STRAGITY
HAVE I BEATEN IT YET?:	NO

This is a nice little game for those who don't really play that many stargity games. Advance Wars draws you in with stylistic menu graphics and sharp sprite animations. The idea is that you command the Orange Star Army across various missons to defend your counrty against invaders from other armies. The interface and gameplay is quick and easy to use but may lack the depth that hard-core stagity gamers are looking for. Adcance Wars manages to keep you busy with over 100 maps to battle on plus whatever you can come up with in Design Maps mode. Advance Wars features many different modes of play to keep things interesting like Campaian (your basic story mode), Field Training (teaches you how to play the game), Design Maps mode (lets you build your own maps to battle on against the computer or against friends), War Room (battle on the maps you've earned in Campaian or Design Maps mode), Stats (tells your rank and how well you're doing), Battle Maps (purchase maps to use in War Room with the money you earn from Campaian), Link Mode (play against up to four players via the link cable, you can play Link Mode with other game paks or just one, or trade maps), or if you're really cheap and don't have a link cable or friends with a GBA, play Vs. Mode where up to four people can play a game with only one system. Its a good game that you can pull out and play whenever you're not busy.

PROS:	CONS:
-quicks gameplay with cool anime sprite animations -many modes of play keep you busy. -can play against your friends even if they don't have a GBA.	- It would have been nice to have the ability to make your army bigger over the course of the game. - battles lack real depth.

OVERALL SCORE: 8/10

NAME:	METAL GEAR SOLID 2 (MGS2)
SYSTEM:	PS2
TYPE:	ACTION
HAVE I BEATEN IT YET?:	YES

How can I even begin to describe this game? The graphics are amazing and the controls feel like second nature. For those of you who have played Metal Gear Solid, you know what this game's all about. But for those who haven't played Metal Gear Solid, what's it like living in that cave of your's? And for those of you who have played and beaten every Metal Gear game ever released including Snake's Revenge, I recommend you leave your room for a little while and see what the sun looks like. The basic idea for the MGS games is that you are one man, Solid Snake, pinned up against an army of blood thursty terrorist armered up to their eye-balls with nuclear weapons. How do you avoid being killed before you get your foot in the door? You have to out-wit and avoid the enemy. If you go into MGS2 with your guns blazing killing everything that moves, then you're not going to last very long. MGS2 takes place after the events in MGS where Revolver Ocolat has made off with the test data for a walking nuclear battle tank called Metal Gear Rex and has long since sold it on the black market. Now every hostile country and terrorist group has their own model of Metal Gear Rex. Solid Snake is called back into action to sneak aboard a Marine tanker to investigate a rumor of a new model of Metal Gear called Metal Gear Ray being transported in that tanker. You are to make your way down to the hold and take incrimimating pictures of Metal Gear Ray to blow the cover off this new weapon. At least that's how it starts. But it wouldn't be a MGS game unless the sh*t hits the fan at some point or another. I'm sorry but its my duty as a gamer not to spoil anything else about the game beyond this point. This review will self destruct as soon as you read this line.

SCORE: 9/10

NAME:	STATE OF EMERGENCY (SOE)
SYSTEM:	PS2
TYPE:	ACTION
HAVE I BEATEN IT?:	NO

I'm sorry to say that not all games for the PS2 are instant hits. SOE is one of those rare crap-shots. You would honestly think that running around a crowded mall with hundreds of panicy NPC's running in every direction while you pick up a missle launcher and kill 700 people in under 5 minutes would be fun, but it isn't. Anyone who is playing the game for the very first time will tell you that they don't see how anyone could ever go tired of this chaos. Now leave the room and come back in about an hour or so, that same person will be asking themself's why they waisted a moment of their time on that game. I'll give the people at Rock Star Interactive this much; not many people could design a game that can have you totally hooked one minute and than completely lose your interest after that. Even if you try to busy yourself with the story mode, in a little while you'll become so frusturated that you'll end up testing how well the TV screen holds up against a Daul Shock controller being hurled at it at 90m/h. By now you get my point, avoid State of Emergency at all cost.

SCORE: 1/10

NAME:	ZELDA: MAJORA'S MASK (ZMM)
SYSTEM:	NINTENDO 64
TYPE:	ACTION, ADVENTURE, RPG
HAVE I BEATEN IT?:	REGRETABLY YES

I know that Majora's Mask is old news now but I just have to get this off my chest. Legend of Zelda: Majara's Mask SUCKED! It sucked way mocho, it sucked more than a hyperventallating industral vaccuum cleaner.Why does it suck? I'll tell you: Time limits and RPGs don't mix. The idea is that the moon is going to crash into the earth in three days and you must stop it. In order to keep you from running out of time, you have to save your game which will automatically bring you back to the first of the three days. Now this next part really burns my balls and I still can't imagine the stupid twit who thought of this one. Whenever you save and return to the first day, you lose everything! That means you lose all your expendable items, all your money, all your dungeon keys (and that includes the hard earned boss chamber key), and any progress you've made in the game thus far. That means that you have to go through an entire dungeon within one sitting without saving if you want to make it to the dungeon's boss. The only things that you get to keep when you save are your non-expendable items, the songs you've learned on the orcrina, and the masks you've found (which play a important role in this game). But the saving method is not the only crappy thing about Majora's Mask, the NPCs all look exactly like the ones in Orcrina of Time. At first I thought it was kind of cool, its like "Hey look, the twin witches you fought in the last game are potion shop owners. Hey look, the girl who lost her chickens in the last game works at an Inn." But after a while you'll being to wonder if any of these characters are new. The graphics are not very well improved from the last game, all they got was a bit of spit and polish. And the ending is simply retarded. Nintendo really dropped the ball on this one.

SCORE: 2/10

NAME:	DEVIL MAY CRY (DMC)
SYSTEM:	PS2
TYPE:	ACTION
HAVE I BEATEN IT?:	YES

Let the chaos begin! I haven't played a good jump around shoot'em up game since Gunstar Heroes for the Sega Genesis or the Mega Man X series. This game really brings mindless acts of mass carnage into the twentysecond century. The anti-hero, Dante, always has a melle weapon and a gun or two ready at all times which you can use in combination. And the best part is that there is unlimited ammo for your guns. So you can go barging into a room with guns blazing like its nobody's bussiness and not give a second thought about consurving your ammo. But Dante's hugh sword is nobody's bench warmer. Considerably more powerful and fun to use than the guns, Dante can uppercut an enemy into the air and pull out his guns to pump'em full of holes before it hits the ground. Or you can spend red orbs left behind from vanquished enemies on learning new techniques for your sword that really help tip the scale in your favor. The story lne is no Final Fantasy but it fits the game pretty well, its very melodramatic. Unfourtunatly, witty diolog is not Dante's strong point, "Flock off feather face, or you can come down here and find out the hard way." See what I mean. Devil May Cry offers little replay value besides fighting more bosses on higher difficulty settings but its a hell of a ride while it lasts.

SCORE: 7/10

NAME:	RPG MAKER 2000 (RM2K)
SYSTEM:	PC (DOWNLOAD)
TYPE:	RPG CREATION PROGRAM
HAVE I BEATEN IT YET?:	N/A

Though technically its not a game, it is the answer to every person who ever wanted to make their own RPG. Go to my Links page if you want to download it. When you first start it up it'll appear so complex that you won't even know how to put your character on the screen, but after a while of just playing around with it you'll be orcistrating complex scenes like its second nature. RM2K is the sequal to RM95+ and it covers vertually every sinario that you can think of. As opposed to the 1995 version, RM2K lets you easily import files to customize your RPG via the RAW Material Editer which is right on the tool bar. The program was originally Japanese then translated to German then traslated to English to understandably there'd be some glitches alone the way. But the only problem I've found thus far was trying to use the insert hero name command which lets the player name the hero. Its not a nesseccary part of the program but it would have been cool if it had worked. And if you're having any trouble at all with the program, the help tutorial covers every single last aspect about the program in clear and simple english (no confusing tech-talk). I highly recommend this program and since it makes RPGs that look like the ones you played on the Super Nintendo, it doesn't take up that much room on your computer.

SCORE: 10/10