The Last Remnant for Xbox 360 Review

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The latest delivering from Square Enix, for the Microsoft Xbox 360, is The Last Remnant. A Strategy RPG released on November 20, 2008, many Square Enix fans are hoping Last Remnant will be the Xbox 360’s answer to the Final Fantasy series. While this game will appeal to many gamers, it isn’t really comparable to Final Fantasy as it is a drastically different game.

Rush Sykes (no, I’m not kidding), the main character, stumbles upon a battle in which he believes his sister Irina is taking part. He approaches the battle in an attempt to protect her, only to discover that this mysterious woman isn’t his sister at all. Rather, she is an Emma, a soldier whom will accompany Rush on his quest to find his sister who was mysteriously kidnapped, which is what brought him to meet Emma in the first place.

Rush and Irina’s parents are scientists researching the Remnants, ancient machines, in some cases holding immeasurable power. Rush apparently wields some magical power from his amulet, an example of one of these Remnants. With the amulet, Rush is apparently inadvertently able to destroy large hordes of enemies with a mysterious power that only he seems to understand.

Remnants seem to typically be magical items that simply “know” what the users needs from them. Remnants can be anything from treasure chests to massive weapons. This seems to be a stretch, an over the top attempt by Square Enix to make the Remnants seem utterly important in Rush’s world. Instead, they simply needed to tell the players of their power, versus incorporating them in all aspects of life.

The Last Remnant combines traditional RPG combat with actual military command, in that you can order units to perform certain actions, or allow them to make their own decision based on what situations they encounter. The combat has a much less personal feel than previous Square Enix entries, such as the later Final Fantasy games, due to the fact that your character is acting more as a general than as a soldier. The player is tasked with commanding an entire army in a large scale battle.

While this method of handling he combat in The Last Remnant is different from almost anything on the market right now, it may be just the niche genre many gamers are looking for. The trade-off for the less personal feel to combat is the much more realistic actions of the battle. If nothing else, such drastically different gameplay may be able to interest players previously uninterested in the Fantasy/RPG genres.

The music in The Last Remnant, especially during “tense” times in the game can get pretty repetative, so I went ahead and switched over to one of my own soundtracks. For more information on how to set up your own custom soundtrack for ANY game, click HERE. The voice acting is decent, but sadly, during the cut-scene is about the only time you get a taste of the voice. This game is far from full “talkie,” in that man conversations are text only.

The Last Remnant definitely has a lot to offer, if nothing else, for those looking for a different kind of combat experience. The strategy involved in the fighting system is reminiscent of Dynasty Warriors if it were a turn based RPG.

World of Warcraft Vanity Pets

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Anyone who plays WoW knows that companion pets can cost a lot of gold to buy or take a lot of time to earn. Some people could care less how many pets they have, while others feel deep within their heart that they must collect as many as possible, earn all pet related achievements, and eagerly await the next expansion for even more pets. Regardless of which category you might fall under, below is a list of the pets you’ll find worth your effort, plus the ones that aren’t worth a copper of your time.

Top Five Worthless Pets

Little Fawn

This pet is an achievement reward for acquiring 75 different companion pets. This takes an extreme amount of dedication, time, and money to earn. I am sorry to say that you will be very disappointed upon receiving your fawn, as the little guy is quite anti-climactic. It simply follows you around like the pets you earn at level 1. For all that hard work my fawn better sing, dance the tango, and laugh maniacally as it says “Beat this Bambi!” It doesn’t.

Hyacinth Macaw

An extremely rare bird, this pet can be bought off the auction house for all the gold you have (usually over 8k) or be looted (a very unlikely scenario). It looks like the parrots and cockatiels that cost 5g. My advice save your money and by a cooler pet if you really want to spend that much on a companion. Also, if you happen to be one of the few people that get the pet off a drop, sell it! I repeat do NOT learn it! You could earn 8k+ gold off the auction house easily.

Father Winter’s Helper/ Winter’s Little Helper

These are the two creepiest pets in the game. Ask yourself if you really want some mini-gnome (yes they are even smaller than the average gnome) staring at your ankles as it follows you around in a Christmas outfit. Enough said.

Argent Squire/Argent Gruntling

These two pets, one for Alliance and one for Horde, are close runners up to the gnome helper pets above. They are gangly, pretween, pimply faced boys who follow you around with a flag. Don’t let him become your stalker!

Westfall Chicken

This pet is a reward from a quest. In a nutshell you end up spending too much of your time clucking at a chicken. Even with a /chicken macro, you will be flapping your arms and clucking about for a while before you get the chicken to give you the egg to learn this pet. Plus, out of all the other available pets, are you really ever going to have that chicken out? Nope.

Top Five Worthwhile Pets

Teldrassil Sproutling Tree

Not only do you get to have a mini-tree that looks exactly like druid healers follow you around, you get to watch him fall asleep when you’ve worn him out or dance the twist when he wants to celebrate. Plus, it’s fairly easy to get; he can be bought at the Argent Tournament Grounds with Champion’s Seals or bought off the Auction House for around 500-800 gold depending on the server (even Hordies can get him off the neutral AH).

Lil XT

This pet is modeled after XT in Ulduar. If you’ve fought this boss, you know he likes to do aerobic stretches, pound his fists on the ground, and whine “No No No No!!” Well if you find those qualities funny, you’re in luck. This pet does those things too!

Elwynn Lamb

Another Argent Tournament Ground pet, this lamb gets killed by a wolf every so often and dies. Its funny to watch your raid ask “What the heck was that?!?” when a wolf suddenly appears, runs past them, and slashes your poor little lamb to pieces. Don’t worry, your lamb can be brought right back out to start the whole circle of life over again.

Core Hound Pup

This pet comes “free” when you buy an authenticator from Blizzard. Considering the authenticator helps keep your account secure, while only costing six bucks, why not get this pet while you’re at it? He does a lot of entertaining things too: rolls over, digs up a bone, and fights with his other head for possession of said bone.

Giant Sewer Rat

This one takes a little bit of time to fish out of the Dalaran sewers, but considering there is a daily fishing quest there too and an opportunity to simultaneously max your fishing, you should be down there anyway. Some people have better luck fishing up the rat than others, but eventually you should get him (especially if you attach a fishing lure).

So, next time you think about which pet to buy or spend countless hours pursuing, remember this guide before you decide which one to set your mind to; it might save you your sanity!

World of Warcraft: Cataclysm First Aid Crafting – Heavy Mageweave Bandage

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This guide covers the Heavy Mageweave Bandage craftable item from the First Aid secondary profession in the mmorpg World of Warcraft, reflecting any and all changes made with the release of Cataclysm and the shattering of Azeroth (patch 4.0.3). You can see additional pictures of this item and recipe by clicking the numbers by the thumbnail above.

Heavy Mageweave Bandage is the upgrade to the Mageweave Bandage healing item, becoming useable at First Aid 175 and craftable at 240. It is important to find a place where you can avoid damage before applying a bandage, as taking damage will interrupt the healing done, while still leaving the one minute debuff preventing further bandaging. If it’s a close battle however, and only a few hp may make the difference, it might be worth using one even for a single tick of healing in some cases.

World of Warcraft First Aid Crafted Items: Heavy Mageweave Bandage
Requires First Aid (175) to use; Item Quality Normal (White)
Item level 1; Sell to vendor price: 8 Silver, 0 Copper
Average auction house buyout price: 6 Silver 25 Copper
Use: Heals 1104 damage over 8 seconds. (138 Health restored per second)
Item ID: 8545, First seen in WoW version 1.11.1

World of Warcraft First Aid Recipe: Heavy Mageweave Bandage
This recipe is taught by any of the First Aid trainers in the game for 1 Gold.
Requires First Aid (240) to craft, Crafting time: 1.5 seconds
Recipe reagents: Mageweave Cloth (x2)
Spell ID: 10841

Chance to gain skill points by crafting (this chance scales -1.6% for each level past 240)
Skill Level 240: 100% chance to gain a skill point. Skill Lvl 250: 83.3%, Skill Lvl 260: 66.6%, Skill Lvl 270: 50%, Skill Lvl 280: 33.3%, Skill Lvl 290: 16.6%, Skill Lvl 300: 0%

The average cost of the 2 Mageweave Cloth to make this item is 86 Silver, 68 Copper when purchased through the auction house. With the vendor sell to price for Heavy Mageweave Bandage of 8 Silver, 0 Copper, this means making you can expect to spend or lose around 78 Silver, 68 Copper for each item made. It is not worth selling this on the auction house as the average buyout price is lower than the vendor sell price, especially including the deposit required. Typically most First Aid items do not sell well in the auction house, however they are always appreciated when used appropriately on allies in battlegrounds.

Here you will find additional information on first aid and the various recipes available, including any updates.

Runescape: The Pit Review

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Agility is most definitely one of the most unpopular skills in Runescape. This is for good reason considering that the skill is held back by boring courses that offer no real variety. The Pit Distraction amp; Diversion is designed to encourage more players to train their Agility levels by completing courses to catch the eye of a talent scout who now oversees every course. So what exactly does this talent scout have in store for you?

As I said earlier, Agility is not a very popular skill when it comes to the Runescape community. However, this new Distraction was made to make things a little more interesting. After completing one of the many agility courses around Runescape, a talent scout will eventually give you his attention so that he could take you to, you guessed it, The Pit. I should note that it’s gonna take you a while to get his attention so sit back and watch your Agility experience go up a little bit. However, if you’re wearing an Agility skillcape, you can just go up to the scout and he’ll let you right in but your reward will be smaller. Here, you will be greeted by two men and a different type of agility course. This different type of agility course is called an event and there are currently six of them. The events range from guessing numbers to punching sheep. It sounds ridiculous but it’s pretty fun and you gain a good amount of experience. If you fail to properly execute an event, the amount of experience you gain will be lower. Fair enough. If you successfully complete an event, you will be given the option to gamble your experience for more or just leave and accept your reward. It’s a nice little addition to spice things up. It should also be known that you must wait at least an hour to be called up for another event. It’s a good idea since these events have the possibility of getting really repetitive. Who would want to replay the same event over three times within an hour?

PROS:

  • Agility finally gets some love.
  • The events can be really fun.

CONS:

  • There are only six events.

Overall Thoughts and Rating:
I’m sure people are going to look at The Pit as a glorified random event. However, take into consideration what an unpopular skill Agility is, I’ll let it slide. Better yet, I’ll just welcome this new little addition with open arms.
Rating: 4/5

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