Eternal Sonata Review - A Dream That Disappoints

Eternal Sonata is a PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 exclusive video game that comes from Namco. The game is a role playing game set in an alternate reality. It transpires in Paris, and the protagonist is named Frederic Francois Chopin. He succumbs to a disease and dies; however, something occurs before his untimely death. Before dying, he dreamed of a mystical world full of enchantment and mystery. Herein lies the dilemma. Was the dream more real than he could ever imagine? Is it possible that the dream was nothing but a figment of his imagination? That is what gamers will ponder in Eternal Sonata.

If this storyline sounds monotonous, then it is because it is monotonous. I would like to take the been there done that approach with the plot in this game. There have been a few similarities to the parallel world in this game to The Matrix Trilogy. Now that I think about it, I was waiting Frederic to wake from his dream and say "I know kung fu." Unfortunately, that never came to fruition. The game might have had a cohesive plot from the start, but that swiftly dissipates as gamers progress. It turns into this bizarre and ineffable story that is all over the place. This game is definitely not the best storytelling from a next generation console like the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

Luckily, the gameplay is a significant improvement over the convoluted plot. Up to four players can be in a party. All of the adversaries can be seen in real time (ala Chrono Cross and Final Fantast XII); furthermore, they can easily be ignored. The combat is fast and furious throughout the duration of the game. Members of your party have a certain amount of time in which they are given to perform a specific task. Within the time given, the player can attack, heal, move, and various other actions. The trick is to find an action that increases the time gauge higher and higher. Linking combination attacks together will enable gamers to execute more powerful maneuvers. This provides a real strategic contemplation to the gameplay. When a foe attacks your character, you can chose to block or counter attack if you time it correctly. Moving around during combat can have different ramifications on the battle. For instance, being in the shade can have either positive or negative results (depending on the character).

Conversely, the same rule applies for the opponents. There could be an appearance alteration when they are in the sunlight, or their attributes might be bolstered. The controls are fairly responsive in the game, and I had no gripes about how to do an attack. There is also a cooperative multiplayer that was a nice touch. The graphics in the game are egregious. It looks like this game was on a Nintendo Wii console. This is not what I have come to expect from the hardware on the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3. If any gamer were to do a side by side comparison of the visuals in Eternal Sonata and Oblivion, then it would be obvious that Oblivion is superior. I do not know what the game developers were thinking with the visuals in this game.

The one aspect of the game that really intrigued me was the audio. I have to admit the musical score is amazing. There is a wide variety of instruments from pianos to violins that perfectly fit the theme of the game. The countless number of crescendos and decrescendos is absolutely brilliant. Disappointingly, the voice acting itself is average at best. Occasionally, I felt like the dialogue was unintentionally humorous. Overall, Eternal Sonata will not keep anyone up all night playing. The game is easily something that can had potential to be fascinating, but the flaws are too enormous to dismiss.

final verdict 6.5 out of 10

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AP - General Motors Corp. said Tuesday it will offer financing as low as zero percent over the next week for several 2008 and 2009 models as the automaker makes a big year-end push to improve sales.

Download Free Games For PSP Today

Would you like to discover some of the great ways to download PSP games? If so, then you are about to discover some of the various ways to download free games for PSP using the internet.

Due to the wide availability of online versions of games, you can now equip yourself with some of the latest modules that you can enjoy using your PSP device. Here are some of the main sources of PSP games that you can download;

The first option you can download free games for PSP is through free sites. There are various web portals that provide free versions of games for download. Most of these sites are hosted by game enthusiasts who share the common thought of letting other PSP players have free game versions.

There are other free sites that let you download free games upon registration. You will have to provide your e-mail and some contact details in order for you to acquire the links lading to the game software.
However, there is a little concern with these free sites.

For a beginner, these free sites are somewhat difficult to find because most of the time, they are hidden along torrent portals due of copyright issues. Also, most of the offered software games are a little old compared to game versions available in the market today. Some people even experience technical difficulties because a number of these free PSP games do not work or no longer compatible for current versions of PSP.

The next possible option would be to use a pay per download website. Here, you can access unlimited numbers of PSP games for a minimal fee. With such condition, you will have to pay for each download request upon retrieval. Although available games here are at least better than free sites, some people find them too expensive to buy, especially for frequent downloads. Also, not all available games in the market may be found in pay per view websites.

One more option for you download free games for PSP is through membership portals. Some websites offer membership applications for PSP players. This option is far the most common modes of downloading PSP games among users. Most psp gamers think this as the most efficient and convenient way to get PSP games.

You will just have to pay a one time registration fee and you are all set to download unlimited files anytime. You can opt to choose only the games that you want without wasting time for searches. The websites are all very easy to use because they are customized for simplicity and reliability for users. Also, you can get additional value added services such as game reviews; soundtracks download and even receive newsletters for game updates.

Playing PSP games are fast becoming the hype among game enthusiasts. Aside from the portability of the device, games are at par with the normal Playstation game quality. Hopefully, you can choose from the given options for downloading PSP games on the internet.

Vick Carusso is a PSP gamers who also writes articles about psp and other games. For a review on psp game download websites, check out Download Free Games For PSP review today.

AP - Mexican authorities have suspended their search for a Florida woman who apparently fell from a ship balcony during a Christmas week cruise.

Remembering Che Guevara

On October 1967, the Bolivian army, assisted by the CIA agent Flix Rodrguez murdered Che Guevara in the remote Bolivian mountains. After the murder, they dismembered his two hands from the body and preserved them in formaldehyde. The reason was to maintain a CIA style proof for the disbelievers about his death. On 1997, thirty years later, in the Bolivian town of Vallegrande, a team of Cuban and Argentine scientists dug up a grave of seven skeletons. An olive army jacket shrouded the scull of "Skeleton No. 2," which was lying face down without the hands. Watched by the silent crowd of journalists and local folks, a Cuban member of the team bowed his head in respect and removed the olive jacket. Several Cuban scientists broke down in sobs. Patricia Bernardi, one of the three Argentine forensic anthropologists on the excavation team clarified, "Everyone was overcome with emotion, not just the Cubans. Che was such a mythic figure." (Ref: Newsweek July 21, 1997, p.17-23) His remains returned to Cuba and finally lay to rest at Santa Clara, the legendary city where Che had won the decisive battle of the Cuban Revolution.

In the recent years, the consumer culture has on purpose transformed Che as its dearest icon, an icon of rebellion. This trend has aggravated from the eve of the 30th anniversary of his death in the nineties. The Walter Salles directed film The Motorcycle Diaries released in 2004 and based on the young Guevara's early travels through Latin America received a lot of media hype. The original book, also a surprised hit, sold very well in America and Europe. This year a nearly four-and-a-half-hour long epic film directed by Steven Soderbergh on Che, was premired at Cannes in May and expected to be another hit as the film, according to media reports, stresses his last days in Bolivia and also is prominently featuring Che's comrade in arms Tania. Che merchandises has flooded the markets of Northern America and Western Europe with Che branded T-shirts, posters, cigars, cigarettes, coffee mugs, baseball caps, wristwatches and liquor bottle labels. It is paradoxical that after murdering Che, America transformed him to a profit-earning commodity.

Che's resurrection as a popular icon has nothing to do with the ideals for which he lived and died. He was born in an aristocratic family, educated as a doctor but turned instead a dynamic revolutionary, a dreamer, who had dreamed to erase inequality from the world. His journey on the revolutionary path started in 1951 while traveling through Latin American countries on the motorcycle La Poderosa II where Che witnessed extensive poverty, oppression and misery of the common people. He also developed the viewpoint to perceive the entire Latin America as a single entity, not as a group of separate nations. This travel experience and his study of Marxist literature were forming his world outlook. Later in 1953 on a trip through Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, and El Salvador he finally arrived at Guatemala. It was here that Ernesto Guevara de la Serna will acquire the nickname 'Che' through which, in the later days he will be known worldwide. In Guatemala, President Jacobo Arbenz was leading a democratically elected government, rarity for this continent, and through land reforms and other social initiatives he was trying to redress the country's socio-economic inequality against the looming US dominance. But the Arbenz regime was overthrown soon by a coup d'tat backed by the CIA in 1954 and Guevara, a close witness of the events was now convinced that only armed revolution was the only solution for a better world. He also realized by heart that United States would never allow any government to exist who attempts to change the socio-economic inequality and will always whole-heartedly try to destroy it. From Guatemala, Che arrived in Mexico City in the early September of 1954 where he first met Fidel Castro. The next is the history of Ernesto Guevara's transformation to Commandante 'Che' Guevara.

In Algiers on 24 February 1965, Che delivered his last public speech to the "Second Economic Seminar on Afro-Asian Solidarity" where he said:

"We cannot be indifferent to what happens anywhere in the world, for a victory by any country over imperialism is our victory; just as any country's defeat is a defeat for all of us. The practice of proletarian internationalism is not only a duty for the peoples struggling for a better future, it is an inescapable necessity. If the imperialist enemy, American or any other, develops its attack against the underdeveloped peoples and the socialist countries, simple logic determines the necessity of an alliance between the underdeveloped peoples and the socialist countries. If there were no other uniting factor, the common enemy should be it."

Today, most of the socialist countries of 1965 had erased off themselves but the fortitude to carry ahead proletarian internationalism is the true legacy of Comandante 'Che' Guevara. 'An inescapable necessity' as Che had emphasized in his last speech. The post 1997 hype has intentionally tried to bury this spirit.

Without any doubt, we greatly need the iconic presence of Che Guevara today but for different reasons. We want him as our symbol of inspiration for the anti-imperialist struggle we are fighting from different corners of the globe. We want him to inspire us to believe in our hearts, that a new and better world is achievable. We want our children to know about this utterly honesty and selfless human being, a tireless fighter who was born in Argentina, played an essential role in the revolution of Cuba and to free Congo and Bolivia devoted all his efforts and ultimately, life.

In the farewell letter to his children, Che had written:

Grow up as good revolutionaries.... Remember that the revolution is what is important, and each one of us, alone, is worth nothing.

Above all, always be capable of feeling deeply any injustice committed against anyone, anywhere in the world. This is the most beautiful quality in a revolutionary.

Orlando Borrego, one of Che's closest confidants during the early years of the revolution said, "In a world of ferocious competition and consumerism, some element of humanity is still looking for a hero with values". Erroneous interpretation of these 'values' which largely facilitated the process of making the 'Che icon' is apparently innocent looking but has an evil design behind. It must be deeply condemned and strongly prevented. Wearing a Che T-shirt is not the way to show our respect for this great man. Similarly, by decorating our walls and computer screens with the Alberto Korda photograph after shedding his ideological or political significances aside will not make us revolutionaries. Not even a true sympathizer for the great cause. Christopher Hitchens's intention is amply clear when he writes, "Che's iconic status was assured because he failed." Here, we want to raise the other question to this former socialist: did Che really failed?

At the end let us recall what Fidel said in his speech at the mass meeting in memory of Che on 19 October 1967:

"If we want to say how we want the men of future generations to be, we should say: let them be like Che.

If we want a model of a man, a model of a man who does not belong to his time, a model of a man who belongs to future times, from the heart, I say that the model, without a single blemish in its conduct, without a single blemish in its attitude, without a single blemish in its actions - that model is Che.

If we want to know how we want our children to be, we should say, with all our mind and heart: we want them to be like Che."

AP - Palestinian militants sent a deadly barrage of missiles flying deep into Israel on Monday, demonstrating that Hamas still had firepower three days into Israel's punishing air offensive in Gaza.

Give A Hoot

Give a hoot, and let yourself go, your way. Go ahead and get in my way, my way, today, if you please! Thank's a mighty plenty, you peace-maker, no love faker, no love faker, good health maker! Jesse James, would have said the same. So, give a hoot, and not just a, shoot in the back. Give Jesse James, a come back call, a welcome back, come back call; Cause in spirit we must have some of the good side of Jesse, in us all, in us all.

Give a hoot, and kick the boot, no matter how they get you; Even if you should not die, you should not die. See you are a part of me, and I of you, when you really mean to give a hoot; Yea, go beyond the peace maker, if you can, if you can; Take it from love, not as the shoot in the back, as yes, Jesse did, Jesse did; Don't shoot Jesse down again, and again, like Pat Garret, like Pat Garret; Give a dam, should I say, before my grave, before I die, as Jesse did; no, no, some don't know, that he did, or did not, did not; Give a hoot, and kick the boot, more alive, more alive than ever!

So we both can live and read to find out, more than just to a degree, of one end or another, of one end or another; For this or another one, such as Jesse James; Search be as it may, maybe beyond the book; Just look at you, and be self-centered enough to know you best love you, you best love you; But don't love you best, don't just love you best, or your not fit to be the hero, Jesse James was; beyond the shot in the back, the shot in the back.

Don't let this shot make a come back, give a hoot-hot-dam, give a hoot-hot-dam, if you should take any kind of aim at all. Your time has come, and may it come, and come, and then come back to come; for you to make, a come back, a come back; Like the heroic spirit of Jesse James has here. Hear his hoots-heart-love, hoots-heart-love; Hoot-hot-dam-sha-bang, bang, bang your more alive than dead; Shot up with the love of Jesse James, after life love aim, from the heavens.

Thank heavens for you, give a hoot, boot-up-booters, boot-up-booters of love's aim; Tame to the touch, in touch with the out of touch, touching them in new ways, in new ways; Jesse love's you,
and I'm sure Elvis, love's you too; Elvis love's you too; You give a hoot-hot-dam, sha-bang-bang-bang, love spanking, fair and square; life unto life, rather than death unto death, and don't hoot-out grace, don't hoot out grace!

To seek out, and "Not" to divide and conquer; But let love, through encouragements of talents, without jealousy, nor envy; That has, and can again rob us of the best of the best, has to offer, at this time period. Having oats for brains, humbleness of heart, if that's what it take's to help feed the world, a bowl of oats daily, in the least so they too, can even in the here and now, now!; Wow! Share what, we've helped give them a chance too! Talents can be as vast as the Universe has stars, and I hope in faith, to see these "new universes" of talents, love offers somewhat now even, as we give heed, to the needs.

AP - Most world stock markets rose Tuesday as Middle East tensions boosted energy stocks and the Nikkei eked out a modest gain in the last session of a year that was the worst on record for Japanese stocks.