If there is one game that is criminally overlooked this year it would have to be the PS3 exclusive:

Valkyria Chronicles


because crouchin on a tank is awesome

It managed to pull off 33k sales in America since it launched according to the NPD sales charts, which if it hasn't clicked, means it totally bombed. You may say that its a very niche game for the unpopular console and it launched at a very bad time in the year, but 33k is still very bad even considering those factors for instance games like:



Sold more copies in a single week than VC did for 3 and 1/2 weeks.

Even other RPG games such as Lost Remnant pulled off over 3x the number of sales in the same period.

Why it is AWESOME:

The game is a Strategy role playing game (SRPG) set in an alternate Europe during the outbreak of the Second European war and chronicles the battles of a militia military unit led by the son of a war veteran of the first European war, who incidently has a kickass tank lying around at his house. You fight to defend your country against the invading Imperial forces (read: Nazis) who wish to take over all of Europe.

The gameplay is simply unlike anything I have ever played before, it is apparentely very different from any other SRPG (apparentely because the only other SRPG I have ever played is Advanced wars). You are given control points which you may use to move units in real time across the map utilising a 3rd person view and movement scheme, emeies that can see you will open fire in real-time as you move around the battlefield.


Alicia about to get pasted by a tank

You may choose to aim and shoot at any time during your movement and aiming is done manually with the analog stick. Proper line of sight, unit positiong, aiming and cover is implemented into the game making it feel more involved than your traditional RPG. All in all the gameplay is VERY addictive and is the main reason why I would recommend you buy this game. If I had to describe it I would say it is sort of like a mix between a RPG, a RTS, WW2 and Gears of war.

Watch the trailer!

Its EPIC!


The only gripe I have the game is the sometimes pretentious story, some darker themes are introduced throughout the game but they are usually underdeveloped and the character developement for the enemies are also underdeveloped. However the characters in your squad are largely likable and they are well developed by the end of the game as well which is a plus. Also there are some pretty interesting twists throughout the story which helps keep it interesting. Overall I thought the story was more than servicable and I enjoyed most of it.


Imperial soldiers

The presentation is also top-notch, the graphics like really nice as you can see from the screenshots, it looks like a watercolour painting come to life. The musical score is also excellent being composed by the composer who did FFXII, it really pulls you into the epic war mood.

Listen to the main theme: (it's also epic!)

click the play button:

Upload Music | Upload Pictures

So why should you buy it instead of other big PS3 titles like LPB, Call of Duty WaW and Resistance 2?

Firstly it is a damned good game (incidently it is probably my favourite game this year), secondly you don't have to enjoy JRPG games or even RPG games to enjoy this (I normally don't play JRPGs because I don't really enjoy them).

Thirdly and most importantly because it is sad to see a game of this caliber be totally ignored at retail, if you are waiting for the price to go down before buying or are interested but would rather buy it after playing the other Christmas games let me tell you it is already getting difficult to find at retail and the prices on ebay have started to go up, buy it now if you are remotely interested as SEGA will most likely not do a 2nd print of it since it failed so bad at retail. Trust me, you will not regret getting it.

DO YOUR PART!

nb.This game is still 19.99 at Gamestation in the UK if anyone is interested.

Get your freinds to buy it as well! they will thank you!