Final Fantasy 7 turned 15 today. In many Latin American cultures, it is now a young woman.

2012. The year of dragon. The year of the apocalypse. An Olympic year. An election year. The year that vampires inherit the earth. Major Hollywood blockbuster. And, if your facebook friends are anything like mine, the year that everything changes and everyone gets their life together. 2012 is a pretty big year and if the rumor mill is to be trusted (PROTIP: it probably shouldn't, and pour one out for GamePro), it will see a number of new technologies to change our lives such as the iPad 3, iPhone 5, Google Nexus Android tablet, and the Apple Television. In the gaming sphere, there is a number of high profile games coming out in every genre: Mass Effect, GTA, Bioshock Infinite, Max Payne, Twisted Metal, Diablo, Assassin's Creed, Halo, SoulCalibur, Kid Icarus, Metal Gear Solid, StarCraft, the list goes on and on. And let's not forget that Sony is rolling out a whole new handheld with the PS Vita and with it comes the strongest launch lineup since the US DreamCast launch, plus the Wii-U is expected to make it's debut in the fall. As I said, 2012 is a pretty big year. But I believe that for one company in particular, 2012 is going to be more than just a big year. For one company, 2012 is going to be a break out year that will take it back from dire straits. That company is Square-Enix, and while it's had a really hard time in the last few years with the reception to Final Fantasy 14 and disappointing sales numbers, this year could get it back in the game. Let's look at why.

Final Fantasy XIII-2

Final Fantasy XIII-2: sequel the highest profile JRPG on high definition consoles

I loved Final Fantasy XIII (Will didn't - ed.). And in spite of its virtual crucifixion in the court of public opinion (and Will's - ed.), the game still holds an 83 on MetaCritic and an 85.17% on GameRankings, both higher scores than any other turn-based JRPG on PS3 or Xbox 360. In fact, out of all the reviews for FFXIII by major outlets, only one was distinctly negative and I remain unconvinced that that review wasn't an attempt at trolling the internet with the reviewer's ego. FFXIII wasn't a bad game, but it had its flaws, like its very linear path and no towns. Whether you could look pass this or not more or less defined your reception to the game; I enjoyed the "keep pushing forward, don't look back, don't stop" pseudo-action movie mentality of FFXIII. FFXIII-2 picks up moments after the conclusion of FFXIII and takes a markedly darker tone than the previous game. It will also delve much further into the Fabula Nova Crystalis mythos, with major plot elements and characters referencing it directly. The game is actually much closer to Chrono Trigger than Final Fantasy in concept, with its multiple endings, one of which being the obvious canon ending, others being more "what if" fare, and a plot that has you going to multiple points in Pulse's future including one end of time-type setting. The game has been getting fantastic scores for Japanese publications, something that I expect to continue for the Western release. And yes, the game has non linear paths and towns this time around. Final Fantasy XIII-2 comes out at the end of January.

Final Fantasy Type-0

Final Fantasy Type-0: Final Fantasy + Monster Hunter + a whole lot of fun

Monster Hunter appeals to me. At least, the concept of Monster Hunter appeals to me. It's a cool idea, but I've never been able to get into playing the actual Monster Hunter games in spite of buying three of them. Ironically, I love Monster Hunter clones. Phantasy Star Portable 1 and 2, Gods Eater, even White Knight Chronicles' online mode: I will play any and every one of them. So when I heard that the game then known as Final Fantasy Agito XIII was a Monster Hunter styled game, I thought, "that sounds pretty cool." I can state empirically that this is the greatest understatement I have ever made: I have sunk nearly 40 hours into the three mission Famitsu demo for Type-0. Much like the previous game on this list, Final Fantasy Type-0 is a much darker take than that of typical Final Fantasy fare; the game takes place on a backdrop of war among countries and as students of a military academy, the protagonists soon find themselves in the middle of the battle. As you might expect in a war game, happy things do not happen to the main characters; in fact, the game opens with a pretty depressing character death. This is one of the few PSP games to ship on two UMD's, so the fact that there is going to be a PSN release is welcome. No release date has been set, but a western release has been confirmed. Here's hoping it doesn't slip into 2013.

Kingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Distance

Kingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Distance - Because eff you English language

Little known fact: I bought my PS3 two days before Metal Gear Solid: Guns of the Patriots came out. I bought my first 360 just prior to the second Summer of Arcade. I bought my Wii with Metroid Prime 3, my DS with Feel the Magic XY/XX, and my first PSP with Metal Gear Ac!d. The release date for Kingdom Hearts 3D is the date Nintendo will get my money for a 3DS. Everyone has their favorite game series and this one is mine. Unlike Chain of Memories, 358/2 Days and RE:coded, Dream Drop Distance is a completely new Kingdom Hearts experience. All of the Disney worlds are new and include worlds based on Mickey, Donald, Goofy: The Three Musketeers, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Pinocchio, and Tron: Legacy. Both Sora and Riku will be outfitted in new clothes and the battle system will be once more based on the deck system used in Birth by Sleep and RE:coded. Along with the characters from the various Disney films, the game will feature the return of somebody forms of Organization XIII as well as the antagonists of the previous games Ansem, Seeker of Darkness, Xemnas, Master Xehanort, Vanitas, and Maleficent. Kingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Distance is confirmed for a western release in 2012 and will lead directly in Kingdom Hearts III.

Tomb Raider

Tomb Raider = Lara Croft + Dirt - Age - E cups

The Tomb Raider series was always on the periphery of my gaming experiences. I had heard of lots of things about it (sexist game, nude mods, general suckage), but it wasn't until I played through Uncharted that I finally decided to Tomb Raider a shot. I figured that if I was having this much fun with the off brand "Dude Raider", I might as well give the real deal a try. The first Tomb Raider I played was Tomb Raider Legend and it is good enough to get me to buy Anniversary, Underworld, and The Guardian of Light. Early impressions of the reboot have been generally positive, and though I'm not usually a fan of the "darker and edgier" trope (see Prince of Persia: Warrior Within and Bomberman: Act Zero for examples of why), I think that this game is going to be great.

Hitman Absolution

Hitman: Absolution - Completely Olyphant free

Hitman is a series that has always fascinated me. Hearing people talk about the varied ways you can go about fulfilling your missions made me really want to play these games. Now that the franchise is coming to HD consoles and with it comes a host of features to ease newbies like me into the killing game. Absolution will have an "Instinct Mode" that works very much like Batman's detective mode and Ezio's eagle vision. Instinct mode will maximize 47's disguise, allow him to see enemies through walls, show patrol routes in red, and mark vents and climbable ridges. Of course, in order to not completely break the game, instinct mode consumes a power bar that must be recharged by performing silent takedowns. The game will give you a variety of weapons with which to perform your assassinations including environmental weapons such as a shovels or chair and the ever trusty Garrote wire. Hitman: Absolution comes out sometime in 2012.

In addition to those titles, there are a number of titles without release dates that are likely to drop in 2012. While it's unlikely that Final Fantasy Versus XIII, Kingdom Hearts III, and Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep Volume 2 will come out this year, especially considering the fact that the last two haven't been officially announced yet, this year will certainly bring new info about them. True Crime has never been a huge series, but Square-Enix must have seen something for them to have sunk so much cash into reviving the previously cancelled True Crime: Hong Kong. Bravely Default: Flying Fairy continues the SE trend of pissing all over the rules of grammar, but it's the coolest new IP from SE since The World Ends With You. Theif 4 will hopefully give the franchise the spotlight it so very much deserves and the double whammy of the Dragon Quest X and Final Fantasy XIV 2.0 MMORPG's should make this quite the year for Square-Enix.

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is one of the best games of the year. It's also one of the most imperfect, buggy, and flawed games of the year. Since this is a Bethesda Softworks game, neither of these things should be surprising to you.

Skyrim takes place 200 years after Oblivion, and Tamriel has changed. It's now the Fourth Era, and the Empire has weakened. The Septim bloodline is gone, and the Empire has survived a bloody war with the Thalmor, an alliance of elves that broke away. Now they have  peace agreement that keeps the Empire under some rules, including banning the worship of Talos, the first Emperor and the Ninth Divine. The people of Skyrim aren't happy about that, so Ulfric Stormcloak killed the High King of Skyrim and started a bloody civil war in the region. Also, dragons are back, and no one knows why. You start as a prisoner who escapes and has to find out why he has the power to speak in the words of dragons and absorb their souls. Begin the game.

If you've played an Elder Scrolls game, Fallout 3, or Fallout: New Vegas, you know the deal. It's a first-person RPG that puts you in the middle of a big world and sends you on a vague quest you might or might not eventually get around to. It's a lot of freedom, little direction, and an absurd amount of things to do. The main quest is a small fraction of the content, which includes taking a side in the civil war, rising through different guilds and groups (the Mage Guild is gone, but the College of Winterhold serves as the mage guild quest line), finding shrines and ruins, getting famous and becoming nobility in the different parts of the game, and killing lots of things. We've talked about this before. If you want hand-holding and a single path through the whole world, pick up a Final Fantasy game. In Skyrim, you can go anywhere you want.

Of course, that's not always a good idea. While enemies grow with you and get better equipment and powers, the curve is much less linked than it was in Oblivion and Morrowind. In Skyrim, if you're a low level and you find a saber cat, an ice troll, or a hagraven without preparation, you're probably going to die. The combat feels more frustrating because of this less equal curve, but it also feels more rewarding, because the challenge is there and you get a real sense of power and growth as you play.

The character system has gotten an overhaul, with only three attributes (Magicka, Health, and Stamina) defining your character and everything else controlled by your skills and the perks in your skills. You get directly better at things as you do them, and the higher your skills go the more points you can put into their perk trees, which unlock very useful things. You can learn to cast destruction magic with both hands at once to make spells more powerful, make your favorite type of armor weigh nothing when you wear it, let you smith magical items, and brew more useful potions and poisons. If you want a class-specific benefit, you can look for the different Guardian Stones, which give you star sign powers, like turning invisible once a day or boosting your combat/stealth/magic experience rate. It lets you play the way you want and create your class while you do it, instead of pigeonholing you in a specific role and forcing you to put much more work into your off-class skills.

Crafting has become much more useful. You can still enchant items and brew potions, but now you can also smith your own items. More importantly, you can improve the equipment you already have based on your smithing skill, turning a good blade into a great one. It adds a new level of interactivity, giving you reason to search mines and toil at forges. When you have a (Superior) or (Legendary) piece of armor, it's something you didn't just find in a dungeon. It's something you made your own. Like all Elder Scrolls crafting systems, this is easily abused with an alchemy enchantment-smithing potion cycle that lets you build up your smithing very high and create overpowered weapons. You shouldn't do this, because it takes the fun out of the game. It's also not something the game forces upon you, so even though it's present it's not something that automatically makes the game too easy. If you want to break the game, it's your choice, and it's not pushed on you.

The world is huge, with several dozen caves, ruins, and keeps that you can explore. There are nine Holds in Skyrim, each with their own town, so there's plenty of urban adventure even if there aren't any cities as large as Imperial City or Vivec. Several groups have their own lengthy quest lines, and you're never more than a few minutes from a new lead on what to do. The Radiant Story system even nudges you towards parts of Skyrim you haven't explored, by giving you random quests based on where you've been and how you play. Most importantly, the different places you can explore feel different, and I didn't get any sense of the copy and paste repetition of caves and ruins I felt in Oblivion and Morrowind.

I talked about this before, but the story takes a back seat to the adventure in Skyrim, like most western RPGs. The story with the dragons is interesting, but it doesn't rise above the war between the Imperials and the Stormcloaks, the intrigue of the College of Winterhold, or the secret of the Companions. There's less a "main quest" and more a "quest you should probably get through to say you 'beat' the game as you play dozens of other interesting quests." Unfortunately, most quests boil down to dungeon crawling and finding an item, but there's enough variety to keep things fun.

The biggest problem with the game is the menu system. It doesn't feel right for PC or consoles. While Morrowind's menus were clearly PC-oriented, and Oblivion's were console-oriented, Skyrim's menus seem to be a strange compromise that relies mostly on text, partitioned into arbitrary columns on the screen. Items, magic, skills, and the map are separated by directions, meaning you have to either leave the menu screen completely and come back or jump up through several levels of tabs through which you've sorted your spells and items to find something else. There are no tabs, except in the quest screen (which is puzzlingly not even part of the main menu, and instead tucked away with statistics and save and load screens). A favorites menu lets you bring up your most commonly used spells and items, but it still feels like a convoluted mess. A patch that returns Skyrim to Oblivion's menu system would be very welcome, even if Oblivion's wasn't particularly good.

Then there are the bugs. This is an Elder Scrolls game, so of course there are bugs. Lots of them. Quest triggers can sometimes fail to happen, NPCs can act confused, companions can act stupid, and Skyrim can sometimes simply freeze. It's not perfect, and you will have to save often (at 5 MB a save).

Skyrim is an immensely rewarding game if you can push through the awkward menus and numerous bugs. You're going to have to go through sections of dungeons more than once. You're going to have to reload. You're going to have to dive into menus more often than you should. Despite all of this, you're going to keep coming back if you like even a tiny bit of the western RPG genre. There's so much to do and so much to see in Skyrim that it's a great game, even with its flaws. And there are many, many flaws.

I reviewed the PlayStation 3 version, but if you have a computer that can handle it, pick up the PC version. You can mod and adjust the game to be visually spectacular beyond the consoles' abilities to show, and the inevitable mods from the community will add a lot of value to the game.

Saints Row: The Third isn't a sandbox crime game. You don't play a criminal. You don't run around committing crimes. You play a freaking supervillain. This isn't an exaggeration.

By the time I got through the game, I lived in a nuclear plant, had an attack helicopter, an army of ninjas, and dressed in a green waistcoat and top hat like a steampunk Riddler.

How am I not a supervillain?

Like Saints Row 2 threw out the gang drama and most serious subjects in favor of sheer destruction, Saints Row: The Third further steps away from reality. There are clones. There's virtual reality. There are paramilitary forces with their own supercarrier. There are zombies. This isn't a game about just running around and capturing neighborhoods anymore. You're trying to get the entire city of Steelport in your insane iron grip, and you get a lot of toys to do it.

It's basically the same game as Saints Row 2, but in a different city. You can upgrade your weapons in addition to your vehicles, and you can also pay money for perks instead of earning them just through doing all of one type of mission. You can get a few bonuses for doing all the activities, but most bonuses come from getting levels through respect points and paying money for things like extra ammo or nitro on all cars. Running around, driving, shooting, all of that's pretty much the same. It's definitely worth saving up to completely max out your pistols, because dual-wielded, fully-upgraded 45's can cut through even armored enemies with ease.

There are plenty of activities for making money, getting respect, and taking control of neighborhoods. There are the classics from Saints Row 2 like Snatch and Trail Blazer, plus a few new ones. Unfortunately, the best activity from Saints Row 2, Septic Avenger, is nowhere to be seen. There better be some poo-spraying DLC in the future, Volition! Professor Genki's Ethical Reality Climax is the biggest new activity, and unfortunately it's not that unique. There are enemies in funny costumes and pop-up animal targets, but it amounts to just a series of shooting gallery gauntlets, where you have to earn money by shooting people and then get to the end of the maze. That's it, and it's unfortunately not as fun as it sounds and doesn't reach the levels of wackiness shown in the commercials for the game or implied by the very nature of Japanese game shows. It's just another run-and-gun activity, like the game's missions.

Fortunately, what craziness the Professor Genki bits lack the rest of the game has in spades. You can beat people to death with a four-foot dildo or giant fists that make them explode. You can shoot people with a mega buster or a sonic boom weapon that makes them pop like water balloons. You can drive around in a neon green voxel tank that fires cubes or a light cycle. You can fly a fighter jet or a high-tech VTOL motorcycle. You can dress like a furry or a spaceman. There's a lot of weird shit out there you can enjoy.

Steelport isn't much of a change from Stilwater, but Stilwater felt like it had more distinct neighborhoods. Besides the military base, nuclear plant, and airport, the city of Steelport kind of blurs together into an indistinct urban mass. It's unfortunate, because a game with this much personality needs a setting with personality, and Steelport doesn't deliver. It's a functional sandbox, but compared to Stilwater, San Andreas, and Liberty City, it feels a bit bland. The Saints' strongholds look great and the mission settings have a lot of interesting appeal, but the city just doesn't seem that interesting.

Saints Row: The Third isn't a deep or engrossing game, but it doesn't try to be. It knows it's there to fulfill our desire for insanity and violence, and provides a loose structure that lets you do it. It knows what it wants, and it gives it to you without pretenses. If you loved Saints Row 2, if you felt bored or stifled by the drama of Grand Theft Auto 4, and if you like the idea of flying around a cardboard city, mowing down crowds of people with various weapons, Saints Row: The Third is your game.

This is pretty big, if not specifically useful yet. Jesse from Finland on Tumblr went to the edge of Skyrim and beyond, and found that the game has land masses modeled all the way to Morrowind and Cyrodil. You need to turn on no clipping after you go east of Stendarr's Beacon, but from there you can find the landscape of Morrowind, with Vvardenfell and the Red Mountain. If you go south of that, you can find Cyrodil, and even the island where the Imperial City should be located.

There's no content there, or even any foliage, but the fact that the land masses are modeled could indicate ambitions for remakes of Morrowind and Oblivion, or expansions into Morrowind and Cyrodil. Modders now have big land masses ready for them to get started with their own remake projects, and that could mean some great things for PC users (and me kicking myself for getting the PS3 version). Skyrim's already a massive game, but if you can move out to the other provinces? Best RPG ever. I want my Telvanni wizard tower back.

[Source: Destructoid]

These are the headphones from the Saints Row: The Third Platinum Pack. I'm a sucker for collectors editions, and when I heard Saints Row: The Third would have Saints Row headphones that autotune your voice, I knew I had to get it.

They're pretty cool, but they feel cheap. For a $99 collector's edition of a $60 game, you can't expect high-quality headphones. They're decent, and they look great, though. The vocoder effect is pretty great, but the mic picks up a lot of background noise. I could describe it to you, but instead, here's the first Aggrogate micro-podcast, Saints Row Edition!

If the buzzing drives you nuts, here's a version I cleaned up in Audacity, for the pure autotuned goodness.

Final verdict: Pretty cool. Worth it, if you like messing with your voice and have low standards for headphones.

I'm just saying.

The Warhammer 40,000 universe is a grimdark place, where a corrupt, crumbling empire rules over millions of worlds, endlessly warring with aliens, demons, and other nightmarish creatures (and said empire is the only "good" faction, save for the psychic space elves of the Eldar). Life is short, brutal, and often meaningless except as fuel for the for the Imperial war machine. Few aspects of this setting are as emblematic as the Space Marines: immortal, genetically enhanced, psychotically xenophobic super warriors clad in power armor and charged with defending humanity from terrible threats both without and within. As such, it's no surprise that an action title featuring Space Marines prominently would appear at some point, especially after nearly every sci-fi shooter since Doom has effectively involved less badass versions of them. Relic and THQ's Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine is the game fans have been waiting for, since it finally puts them in the power armor of an actual Space Marine.

Space Marine is a third person action title that follows Captain Titus of the Ultramarines as he attempts to secure a valuable strategic asset on a world ravaged by Orks. The greenskin horde has shattered the planetary defenses and what few defenders are left are fighting a desperate, losing battle for survival. Players are immediately thrust into the action with little exposition, starting with Titus' arrival to Forge World Graia.Space Marine is unequivocally and unapologetically an action game. It doesn't have any puzzles, or dialog choice sequences. It doesn't allow for exploration, it doesn't offer more than the pretense of drama, and it doesn't involve any character leveling, gear tinkering, skill trees, or work benches. What it does offer is an orgy of bone crunching and enjoyable combat with a variety of satisfying weapons in a beautifully rendered world that perfectly captures the feel of the Warhammer 40,000 universe.

Combat is both brutal and fun, capturing the sort of carnage that only a genetically engineered, immortal killing machine could unleash. Melee and ranged combat play an equal roll, and the game allows you to seamlessly switch between the two as the fight demands. Enemies are plentiful and often come in large waves that Titus wades through with gusto. Titus feels extremely responsive, letting the character dodge, shoot, stab, and blast his way through the hordes of enemies in his way with ease.

The weaponry in Space Marine includes a wide variety of both ranged and melee options. Even Titus' initial compliment, a bolt pistol and a combat knife, feel powerful in his hands, and that feeling only increases as he acquires more tools of destruction. All of the melee weapons are excellent, with the over-the-top, silly ultraviolence of the chainsword particularly noteworthy. The ranged weapons fair almost as well, and are representative of the usual assortment of weapon types found in 3rd person action games. The bolter fills the role of the assault rifle, but with a lot more punch. The meltagun serves admirably as a close range area burst weapon, turning its victims into cinders. The lascannon serves as the sniper rifle,firing through objects to kill whatever's hiding behind. Only a grenade launcher seems superfluous, having no counterpart within the setting and feeling a little sluggish in comparison with the rest of the arsenal.

Despite the blood-spattered nature of the game, it often looks beautiful, perfectly capturing the horror and the grandeur of the Imperium of Man. The massive edifices and sprawling vistas are one of the strongest points of Space Marine. The characters themselves are also beautifully rendered, with the Space Marines and the other characters perfectly in keeping with the source material. Any fan looking for a visual representation of the Warhammer 40,000 universe is certain to get a treat out of the gorgeous sights, and even players unfamiliar with the setting are likely to enjoy the visuals.

Space Marine's campaign is not without its flaws, however. The campaign is short, and while paced reasonably well it slows down in the middle. The game's plot is little more than a pretense for the action to take place and isn't particularly interesting. The character's are flat and the dialog is often stilted and forced. Titus is well-represented, but his fellow Space Marines and most of the other supporting characters are little more than cardboard cut outs. While there are a few moments that work extremely well within the confines of the story, most of it leaves little impact.

Space Marine's multiplayer is entertaining but shallow, with only a few modes of play. While the character customization options are a ton of fun, they can't add enough to extend the longevity of the multiplayer experience. Certain die hard aficionados are likely to enjoy it for a long time, but most players will lose interest quickly.

Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine offers an excellent experience that captures the feel what we can imagine Space Marine combat to resemble. The combat is fun and deeply satisfying, the setting is beautifully realized, and many of the environments are astounding. While the campaign has a few issues it's still an utter blast, and the multiplayer offers a pleasant diversion. Space Marine is definitely worth it for any fan of the setting or the genre, and will offer a solid play experience for everyone else. It's too bad it doesn't have enough meat to it to be worth much more than a rental.

As you may have heard, the latest PSN update, among other things, opted you out of any "collective legal action".

"Any dispute resolution proceedings, whether in arbitration or court, will be conducted only on an individual basis and not in a class or representative action or as a named or unnamed member in a class, consolidated, representative or private attorney general legal action, unless both you and the Sony entity with which you have a dispute specifically agree to do so in writing following initiation of the arbitration. This provision does not preclude your participation as a member in a class action filed on or before August 20, 2011."

What that means is that you can't be a member of any class action lawsuits against Sony if you intend to keep using PlayStation Network. However you are able to opt back into class action law suits and all you'll need is a stamp. In order to opt out of the class action waiver, you need to confirm it with Sony in writing within thirty days. You need to include your name, your address, your PSN account number, and a clear statement that you do not wish to resolve any potential legal disputes with Sony through an arbitrator. The catch is finding your PSN account number. Thus far, no one has located said number; when called, a Sony phone rep said that the email address, PSN ID, and PS3 console serial and model numbers for your PS3. To streamline the process, a PSN forum member made this letter template; all you'll need to do is fill in your info, print and mail the letter to:

SONY NETWORK ENTERTAINMENT INTERNATIONAL LLC
ATTN: Legal Department/Arbitration
6080 Center Dr. 10th Floor
Los Angeles, CA 90045

Remember, you have to send your letter within 30 days, else you'll only get to sue Sony by your lonesome.

There are two types of tactical JRPGs. One type is the unforgiving, tactics-minded, chess-like game where you can lose units permanently and will reset maps hundreds of times just to get through them. These games include Fire Emblem, Tactics Ogre, and Final Fantasy Tactics (the original one). The other type is the grind-heavy, brute force, wacky, full-scale war game where you build tons of powerful units and steamroller through enemies as you build levels in the four digits range. These games include anything NIS America makes, including Disgaea 4: A Promise Unforgotten. The two tactical RPG game types are like comparing a delicious gourmet meal to really good junk food. One game is an artistic indulgence, one so rich and satisfying you can't enjoy it all the time and, after getting through it, couldn't possibly have another playthrough for a while. The other game is a tasty, mindless meal you can shovel down at lunch and, depending on how drunk, stoned, or lazy you are, will feel both guilty and happy after finishing it.

Yes, I'm calling Disgaea 4 video game junk food. It's not good for you, but it's so damn mindlessly enjoyable. After you've beaten all of the secret bosses and realize that you put hundreds of hours into a game that really doesn't have "tactics" so much as endless grinding and massive squad building, you'll feel guilty. And you'll know that when the next Makai Wars (that's the Disgaea series, including both the main Disgaea games and side games like Makai Kingdom, Phantom Brave, and others) game comes, you'll do the same thing.

Once again, the story is about an aspiring overlord in the netherworld, trying to become the ruler of everything evil. This time, it's the vampire Valvatorez and his loyal werewolf steward Fenrich trying to overthrow the leadership of the netherworld from the prison of Hades. The characters are much less grating than in previous Disgaea games, with Valvatorez leaps and bounds more likeable than the irritating kids from Disgaea 3. Even the whiny little girl and gibberish-speaking monster Fuka and Desco are strangely charming.

For the first time in years, NIS has overhauled the graphics of the series, giving Disgaea 4 the upgrade Disgaea 3 arguably should have gotten. The sprites are all in high definition now, and they look gorgeous. They're not animated any more smoothly and the designs are the same as the older sprites, but they're much more crisp and detailed. It's a Disgaea game worthy of the PS3. If you want to play with the old school graphics, you can use the classic sprites, too.

The gameplay is standard Disgaea, and that's good. Tons of units, map-altering geo panels, and four digit levels. If you played any of the previous Disgaea games, you know how it works. This time, the twist is the Cam-Pain HQ, a board game system that lets you arrange your units and various facilities to give them bonuses. It's a fairly deep system, once again combined with a voting mechanic where you have to convince other demons to go along with your plans.

Once again, the big appeal is just how much gameplay you can get out of it. Besides the dozens of maps in the main story, there are tons of brutal bonus maps, randomly generated worlds in each item you can drill into to power them up and get levels, and you can increase the strength of any map to give yourself more challenge. In this case, the challenge is almost always an issue of numbers, grinding up your units to make them powerful. This isn't Fire Emblem or Advance Wars, where careful planning will make or break your fight. It's a war of power, and who has the most badass units. Oh, and now there's a map editor, so you can make your own maps and download other user maps for even more gameplay.

Disgaea 4 is a great, entertaining game that will make you feel ridiculous after you spent hundreds of hours to get every single character and conquer every item world. It's tactical RPG junk food, and that's fine. It doesn't change much, but the changes it does make are welcome, and it presents a satisfying game that, while we've all seen it before, is still darn enjoyable.