When I first started this site, the first game I reviewed was Naruto:Rise of a Ninja. I gave it a favourable review but noting some issues that came with it. Naruto:Broken Bond is the direct follow on and I do mean direct. It goes straight from the point we left the first game and it goes straight into the new one in which you start as the Third Hokage facing off against Orochimaru. So with this sequel, it did have a bit to live up to as well as correcting some of the mistakes it made last time. The result? Success

If one were to look at the games side by side on two screens, one could easily get confused between the two as Ubisoft seems to have simply copied the graphics and style from the first game and pasted it directly into the second. However since both were brilliant in the first, copying them isn't a sin, rather a brilliant idea. In fact a lot of things seem to have just been copied and pasted over with maybe a little bit of extra polish being put on them. The village of Konoha looks exactly the same, gameplay for better or worse (fighting for better, RPG for worse) and all of the extra activities you had in the first one. 

Fortunatly its not all copy and paste. The Fire Country has been extended somewhat with Naruto being able to explore beautiful forest areas surrounding the Village. Since the Konoha village had been pretty much taken care of, the quality of the graphics in these areas are spectacular as well as their design. The gameplay has also been improved with a team element included with some of our favourite characters being brought along; and playable. They are not just along for the ride, they actually play there part and should you so choose you could avoid playing Naruto for a large portion of the game. Combat has also been given a small improvement with the stick combo for the jutsus that you are able to perform being shown on the screen rather than trying to remember each one for each character which more often than not led people to hit the pause button to look them up. 

It doesn't all come up roses however. Mini-games have been extended with some truly disasterously designed choices. The RPG element still exists, something I really feel isn't necessary but at least they improved it so there is some real diversity in the type of character you choose to play. The game has also had a boost in its game length but since much of this boost has been taken the form of activities that don't really contribute to the story, one could argue, such as me, that were these taken out, it would be the same length as the old one. 

Overall, i think this game is fantastic. What Ubisoft has done is take the game and make every little thing, a little bit better and I applaud them for it. 

That time of year has come around again when the air is filled with joy and cheer and subsequently set on fire....by me; carollers are singing and subsequently shot.....by me and everyone else is looking back over the past year to determine what they did wrong 90% and what they did right the last 10%. I, along with my other endevours, have looked back over the past year in gaming to see what my top five for year would be. 

5. Blue Dragon
This game was a random pick up at the local store and boy was it worth it. This lil Japanese RPG took away so much of my time, envelloping me in its gameplay and story. Despite a few niggling issues, this game has reached a well deserved place.
4. Saint's Row 2
The sequel from the original Saint's Row, this GTA clone was just so ridiculously entertaining and fun to play, With a good story and lots of new features, those shaking from GTA IV withdrawal could easily pick this up and get a hit.
3. Ninja Gaiden 2
This game had some changes to the original, but many of the things stayed the same. Ridiculously high difficulty, bloody battle and many weapons to slice with and many enemies to dice. 
2. World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King
I was debating whether or not to include this game in the top five. It's only been out for about a month, i'd been playing WoW for a long time beforehand and it would be too easy for the game to place high. But it's a game, it's came out this year, and I love it. Therefore it has a rightful spot high on my list.
1. GTA IV
This game had it all. Great story, great gameplay, great graphics, great everything. This game was true perfection. I easily played for hours upon hours on end. This game was a simple and easy choice for number one for this year.

Honourable meantions
Mirror's Edge, Age of Conan and Naruto:Broken Bond all deserve a meantion. Mirror's Edge was an innovative and reasonably executed first person running game. Age of Conan dragged me away from the WoW drug for a reasonably long period of times despite niggling game issues. Naruto:Broken Bond? Well that was just a lot of fun and had so many improvement on the original. Each of these meantions could have made the top five but was just lacking something. 

Just without decent net access up until now. Since the 18th of this month, I have been overseas and whilst net has been available, I haven't really had the time or I was using net that required me to cut it short, both of which have prevented me from updating this. But either way

I'm not going to do a huge thing on my vacation because I can do that when I get back. The vacation is still not over and there are still things to do. It's like sitting down to a movie and having it being paused halfway through for about..... 6 days.... which is the amount of time I have left here.... actually its closer to 5 because on Monday, I have to start travelling at 4am to get me from where I am now on the Island of Koh Samui back home to Brisbane by 9:25am the next morning. I will literally be spending more than 24hrs travelling, mostly due to an 3hr stop over in Bangkok (hopes the airport will not be taken over by stupid locals again) and an approximate 8hr stop over in Hong Kong. But nevertheless, hopefully all goes well and I will be back on Australian shores soon.

I wish everyone who reads this a Happy New Year. Try not to stuff it up as badly as the last one.