So if I'm gonna start using this site again, I should probably freshen up this page. It's mostly filled with stuff I did two years ago, back when the Giant Bomb guys were still here.

So Complex/Rockets is this amateur game podcast run by myself (Kyle Churchill), my cousin Keith Carberry, and my "friend" Andy Short. We do it every week, and have been for a little over two months at this point. We are slowly improving with each episode (so please DON'T listen to episode 1 first).

The general format is a two-segment show. The first half is the obligatory 'Whatcha Been Playin' feature where we discuss.... what we've been playin', both old and new - I'm usually the only one that plays the current games because my co-hosts are (practically) jobless bums. And our second segment is news. Now, obviously no one will be using our podcast as their primary source of video game news, so I've started trying to look for the more unusual or intertesing stories, rather than just what's current.

Like I said, we are still improving with each show and I know that we have not yet reached anywhere near our full potential, so we would wholly appreciate any amount of support, no matter how small.

If you want to try listening to an episode, I would recommend #6. We feel this is our strongest episode so far.

You can find all our shows on iTunes or you can visit us at ComplexRockets.com.

Please send any input or feedback or whatevers to podcast@complexrockets.com

That's all I need to say.

www.giantbomb.com - If you're stupid and don't know what it is, it's basically Gamespot mixed with Wikipedia and deepfried in pure liquid awesome. It's headed up by Jeff Gerstmann, Ryan Davis, Brad Shoemaker, and Vinny Carravela.

friend me on there - my screen name's Kyle (i made my account within minutes of the site going up : P )

Could it be that Square finally made an FF7 spin-off that didn't make me wanna line up every one of those responsible and systematically knee each one in the face?

So far, Crisis Core says "yes". I went in with no expectations at all and found it actually enjoyable. I was amazed when I found myself away from my PSP, really wishing I was playing it. That really hasn't happened for me with a PSP game yet. 'Cept maybe Jeanne D'arc.

It's not perfect, but I'm still liking it a lot. The visuals and sound are equally amazing. There are sometimes FMVs in the middle of battle! (See: Bahamut's Mega Flare - 1:30). The battle system isn't flawless, but I think I find it much less repetative and uninspired than I was expecting, or at least not as easy.

The real shocker is the fact that not every single moment in the story makes me want to kill myself, unlike in Advent Children. Where I'm at right now, the story doesnt really have much to do yet with the first game, in fact it appears to be blatantly repeating it with different characters, but maybe once Cloud and Aerith become involved (yes, that's right, I said Aerith. I figured I might as well get used to it.) the story might start to go down hill. EDIT:now that I've seen mor, I'd say Aerith is my favorite character, so that's good. Cloud hasn't really done anything yet. It's weird, the story seems to have no predictable direction. I can't really see where it's going at all. Which is crazy, because it's a prequel, I should know exactly wear it's going.

However, there have been, so far, two moments in which something in the story that you think is real turns about to be something happening on a Star Trek-like holodeck. TWO!! It's happened TWICE!! ALREADY!! How does that happen? Who thought that was a good idea?! I encountered the first incident of this while I was trying out the Japanese version and it almost convinced me that Crisis Core would be terrible. AND THEN THEY DID IT AGAIN?! I'm still confused about the whole thing.

But at least I know how the game will end now. The words "500 years later" will appear on the screen, we'll see RedXIII running up a canyon, then midgar will come into view, miles away, he'll look out at it, and then it's all on a holodeck.

Crisis Core - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - A holodeck