30 October 2007

I have been "Invited"

Hey, my first post!!! So to make things interesting, I'm am going to steer clear from my impressions of Guitar Hero III, and instead give you my impression of a smaller game.
Just got ManHunt 2 today, and I know I got what I payed for. Another Rockstar game that got too much attention because of some "explicit content". While I am sure Rockstar always has this in mind when they create a game, they certainly used it to their advantage this time. This game, which would of most likely plummeted in sales if it weren't for that AO rating it achieved earlier this year, didn't really live up to anything, including the first Manhunt. The camera, while not awful, gives you a worse feeling than Twilight princess does; Less control. The only time you can choose where the camera is is when you are in first-person and stationary. There is a targeting system, but only usable when targeted on something, unlike that of Twilight princess where you can press Z at any time to face forward.
The Graphics were low, even for Wii standards. I was expecting at least something two thirds as good as Metroid, instead we got good ol' 64 bit graphics reminding me of Golden Eye oddly enough. Where you would expect them to make a jump for higher standards, for what violence is worthy of an AO if it has shitty graphics, instead you can't tell whether or not the sledgehammer you are about to pick up is even there, or the killing scenes which is supposed to be the "high point" of the game is so watered down where the only thing you can see clearly are the instructions for the Wiimote and Nunchuck. While I might be sick for wanting to see these disgustingly realistic deaths, knowing they are going on and not able to know... whats going on is more confusing than sickening.
Humor in this game is dark and witty, enjoyable overall. Though three levels in i have not been able to really hear all the jokes. But, the time i have spent in this sick and twisted asylum (and surrounding areas) just sitting and listening to the characters search for you can bring up some humerous dialect... which i forget right now which one made me actually laugh. Must of been empty.
The Wii controls are stable and enjoyable. While it is a little frustrating not to be able to change camera angles, or lift your hands to block, the combination system the Wii version introduces takes over a lot of that empty gameplay. Keeping you on your toes and a little more stressed out than usual.
Could of been better. Wasn't. Oh well, naruto comes out tomorrow.
Fortunately, bought an amazing game along with ManHunt 2.
Bleach: Blade of Fate
A simple fighting game. so simple, that the combinations that characters can dish out can be used either by button combos, or by touching the touch screen. Both have their advantages of course, when doing the combos yourself you are able to really understand which card you can use and its effect (did i mention card elements?). with the touch screen open for combos, everything is smaller and you are not completely sure what you are doing with the card system, which can be a major tide turner in a battle.
Story mode is unnecessary at some points, making you re battle certain people with certain objectives in mind; such as, not using any reiatsu, killing teams in certain orders, whatever. But on the bright side, by doing this the game elongates that which is already too short.
Unfortunately, I beat the main story in under an hour.
Fortunately, soon after i realized there are 20 or so more story lines where you play other as other characters. so along with this Big story line, consisting of many, many hours of game play, there is a challenge system, arcade, versus, training, and a shop to collect many things from the show, including music.
if you love bleach, pick it up. Try not to be disappointed with how they tell the main story.
if you have not even heard of bleach, pick it up, it is a fantastic, light-hearted fighting game that sure to bring hours of entertainment for one or multiple people. (download play)

thats all, hope my misspelling and misuse of grammar wasn't too distracting
-Granger

29 October 2007

New Week, New Games - Guitar Hero

First off, let me apologize for not getting a new Cover Art up last night. I'm having computer problems and Photoshop is not saving or allowing me to edit images. I'm trying to find a quick fix so I can just get this weeks up real quick. Now on to business.

Back a few months ago, I was saying that I wasn't excited about Guitar Hero III. Harmonix had been sold off to MTV and Activision had put all the responsibility of making the sequel to Neversoft. Plus I had been a little disappointed by GHII because of how mainstream it had all of a sudden become and I didn't pick up Rock the 80's for fear of oversaturation. I was one of the few who took a chance with Guitar Hero by buying it day one and I got to see Guitar Hero grow into the beast it is now from ground level. The new game came out and honestly I was about to pass on it or just pick up the PS2 game only but when I found out the bundle came with a wireless guitar, that was the selling point for me.

With that said, the best thing about GHIII by far is the guitar. I completely underestimated the importance of RedOctane in the success of the franchise and their ability to make quality peripherals. The new guitar (I have the 360 version) is near flawless. It's wireless without any extra attachments or dongles and sports a nice port on the bottom for the headset. The biggest improvement has to be the strum bar. The Xploder's strum bar was trash and that's one of the reasons I didn't pick up the XB360 release of GHII. I like to really get into the game and I often make large exaggerated movements. With the old guitars, I had problems with a term I call kickback. I would make a hard finishing downstroke but old strum bar would pop back up from the force and would make a second registering therein misreading and ending a combo or breaking a hold. Now with the new guitar, those problems are alleviated. This of course makes me extremely worried about RockBand. I'm not hearing good things about the peripherals and that will only make the gameplay and the fans suffer.

Now that I've gotten the compliments out of the way, I can really sink my teeth into the game. My biggest complaint has nothing to do with the game itself, but more of with how the game looks. The characters look bad. The main male singer just creeps me out when I look at him singing. He basically doesn't have a face and is just huge chin. They put way too much detail on the inside of his mouth and teeth. The character movements are very robotic and janky. Everytime I see the drummer I think I'm watching a bad Chuck E. Cheese performance. If you've seen the GHII 360 commercial or started playing career mode in GHIII, you've seen the anime-inspired look. It fits the game wonderfully and I wish they would have completely gone to that look for this game, but I guess that's just a personal preference.

I've said it multiple times before, the most important part about a music game is the songlist. I'm about halfway through the game the first time through and I have to say, the music is a disappointment. I wasn't expecting too much from GHIII and I'm still very disappointed. In the first GH you had these songs that were made by their guitar solos. You'd play through a difficult song and then just completely get owned by the solo. It sucked because you'd have to play the whole song over again to get to that part just to die again. That culture was mainly preserved over to the second game. But now in the third, there's this feeling that the song selection a bit out of place. There's some dead space in songs where you're not doing anything because theres only a bass line. The boss battles are a new addition. I'm a big fan of Tom Morello and it's awesome to have his uniqueness added to the mix, but honestly the battles aren't exactly fun, mostly because you're battling a computer. I have yet to try it online (I don't know if it's even possible) but I could see that getting interesting. I'll have to wait and see what else is left, but so far it's anything new or exciting.

Finally, I want to comment about the popularity of Guitar Hero. It's become this big thing where the fan base is spreading out beyond video game nerds and music game fans. There are parents, kids, and girlfriends buying this game. Along with that so go the nicheness of the game. It won't be a cult hit anymore. It'll be open to commercialism, as we can see with the licensing of guitars and product names. The store in GHIII is actually called Guitar Center and sports the logo and everything. Of course there are good things that come out of this, such as songs that sound good and aren't covers. (I was disappointed however, when I looked at the RockBand song list, I found a few that are in GHIII as well. I'm not talking about Artists but actually the same songs.) I'm worried about the future of the guitar franchise because I can see it becoming this cash cow where micro-transactions and online downloads flood the market and make it not fun anymore. People like me will avoid buying them in a semi-boycott but as long as there are people buying up products, as useless as they may be, the people making money off it will keep producing. I just really hope that the series doesn't get run completely into the ground and become a shadow of their former self like another Activision/Neversoft game.

Why does only the RockBand XB360 Bundle come with a wired guitar? Thats Crap!
David

Oh, one last thing, I'm using the new Japanese female guitarist, Midori, as my character in GHIII.
As if you couldn't have guessed.

28 October 2007

What I'm Sure You Were All Waiting For...

First let me say sorry for my lack of updates, i'm currently working on a speech for class and it is taking a lot of my time. On a side note, my speech topic is about the evolution of the video game industry so at least my time is being kept relevent. But my real intention with this post is to give my impressions of Jericho now that I am about 3 hours into the game. Brad and David both seem to be very turned off by this game and David apparently thinks it funny that I enjoy games that have recieved somewhat negative scores. But here goes:

First off, let me start by saying that game sites like 1up.com have really trash talked this game on a ridiculous level by pointing out a lot of its faults. Heres the thing though, while their complaints are mostly justified, the faults they point out are not as severe as they make them seem. On the other end of the spectrum, game magazines like Play have rated it higher than it deserves as usual. So heres my take on it. First, ill point out that this game is a hell of a lot better than Lair. That is saying something right there. On the other hand, the game does suffer from things like weak weapons, repetitive enemies and environments, and chaotic battle mechanics that usually show themselves when attempting to change characters mid battle. However, these are usually not so bad that they distract from the thrill of exploration and discovery. The game does have a rather creepy feel and look to it and the creatures are just downright disturbing. One thing I hated about other reviews, is that they wouldn't shut up about the terrible voice acting.... but the voice acting isn't terrible! It may be a bit bland at points and repetitive during gameplay but it is far from terrible. On another note, I do like the premise of the story and the characters even though they aren't developed as well as they should have been. My main complaint is that some points in the game just get ridiculously hard to survive. I can't give my final score right now, but i'm predicting around a 6 or 6.5 out of 10. I will say this, I am thouroughly enjoying the game despite it's faults and I am happy with Barkers vision that he was trying to portay.

O yeah, I really want to pick up Guitar Hero III......

-Nick

Brad's been busy

Been playing:

Castlevania: Dracula X Chronicles - The game is hard, very hard. I've come to a realization that old Castlevania games (this one came out in 1993) were difficult because the controls and movement were sluggish. I do enjoy the challenge of the game, but it takes quite some time to get used to the old style of play again. Nick, if you picked this up I have no doubt you find Rondo of Blood way too hard, but you don't have to beat the game to unlock SotN. It's only 3 stages in and you don't even have to beat that 3rd stage. Just look up how to unlock it because it will be totally worth it. You will also gain a lot of respect for Koji Igarashi since he basically made CV what it is today when he made SotN. I've been playing through SotN as well. I just love the game so much. They added a new playable character for SotN too. Just have to beat it once to unlock her.

Orange Box - I'm almost done with HL2: Episode 1. It's pretty great. You spend the game fighting along side Alyx Vance and it's amazing how well you become attached to this character. Valve revolutionized real time story development with the original Half Life and now it seems they are doing some really cool things with character development. Her AI is actually really awesome too. You will be surprised just how many time she will save your ass.

Final Fantasy Tactics - Yep, still the greatest game ever. Better now actually. The story is terrific.

Halo 3 - Beat it with David. Still don't get why the last few missions were so bad. There were some moments in the middle of the game that were pretty amazing. I just don't get it. Multiplayer is still really amazing and have been playing a ton of it lately. Bungie needs to stick with multiplayer only games.

Front Mission 1st - This was a SNES games and it still looks like one. If you can get past that you will find a great game that started a pretty amazing and underplayed series.

Jericho - Just kidding. This game got a 3/10 from 1up so I'm hoping to read Nick's impressions soon. Can it really be that bad?

Zelda: Phantom Hourglass - Haven't really played it in awhile. Nothing against it really, just been busy playing other games.

Demos Demos Demos - I had no idea you could download PSP demos off the net. I found this website that has a ton in both Japanese and English. The demo for the new Warhammer game actually seemed pretty cool. It's a pretty cool turn based (but not grid based) strategy game with destructable environments. Gurumin also surprised me a little since it ran rather smoothly for a PSP game and the animations looked nice.

Best Week In A While

This was probably the best week for me probably in the last two years for playing video games. I finished Gears of War at the beginning of the week. Phantom Hourglass during the middle. And just wrapped up Halo 3 right as it's turning the new week. I have to say though, I was disappointed in all three. I never thought Gears was as amazing as everyone made it out to be, thank goodness for Co-op mode or else I wouldn't given it any more thought at all. The Co-Op mode is far superior to Halo 3's and it's in my opinion that the game itself is better too. All three games started out very strong but towards the middle to end they just all seem to lacking finishing power. It was just nice to have a week where I didn't really get bogged down by a game and also spend the week really excited about playing when I got off work. I'll post a checklist for the games I'm going through. Keep an eye out for that.

Going to sleep,
David

27 October 2007

Today's Final Thought

Assassin's Creed went gold this week and is coming out November 13th. I'm honestly terrified this game is way too early. I heard there were still a lot of bugs at E for All. Why didn't they just push it back? Ubisoft is known for shipping games ridden with bugs and glitches, and I'm worried they might have made a mistake here. Don't get excited until you see the reviews guys.

Sorry for my lack of posting lately, I got sucked back into Halo and have been playing mad hours in matchmaking. Expect daily postings and weekly top 5s start next week again.

26 October 2007

Quick HL Update

Just wanted to give a quick update. I just finished Half Life 2 (the main game). It took me approx 12 hours and was a blast all the way through. The game is definately one to be remembered. Like I said, I picked up Jericho yesterday so I think I will go ahead and play through that before I come back and play through episodes 1 and 2 for the sake of not getting burnt out on HL. Now, if I could just finish Phantom Hourglass and get out of that damn Eternal Sonata dungeon...

-Nick

25 October 2007

Where has Nick Been?

Hey everyone, its been a while since I could post. I've been really busy with school this week but I have finally finished a lot of what I had to work on. So here is whats been on my mind lately (since I haven't actually had time to play anything!):

- Almost finished with Phantom Hourglass, I will hopefully finish it this weekend along with Half Life 2.

- Picked up Jericho today for the PS3 and i'm really excited to play it. It will be next on my list once I complete HL episodes 1 and 2.

- F&#^ that damn dungeon in Eternal Sonata!

- I just realized that our store will be having an employee appreciation day, so some of the titles I have chosen to temporaily hold off on will be picked up then: Including Final Fantasy Tactics (PSP), Final Fantasy Revenant Wings, Castelvania Dracula X Chronicles and FEAR.

- Assassins Creed went gold today... this means one of two things:
1- They worked out all the bugs and are about to release one of the best games on a next gen console
or
2- They rushed it out without fixing all the bugs in order to get it out in time for the holidays which will make it one of this years biggest disappointments.

I'm fairly confident that they have worked out most of the kinks but the second possibility will be in the back of my mind until I have played the game first hand.

- I actually played Guitar Hero III a few days back... making that my first time playing a guitar hero. I played on Easy because it was my first time but I was actually quite impressed. I might actually pick this one up.

Thats all for now. Ill be back in the swing of things in the coming weeks.
Peace!

-Nick

Theater Mode a.k.a Let's Play Halo 3

So as I said this morning in my post, Brad and I played quite a bit of the campaign co-op last night. One of the coolest things about Halo 3 is that it saves your game play so you can go watch it later in your own free time. So while playing online last night there were a few funny parts that before Halo3 theater mode were only kept alive in our memories. But now we can rewatch them and share them with friends. The only problem is that in campaign mode you can't rewind or save on the XB360. You can only do that in Multiplayer mode (and possibly forge mode). So I apologize about the quality as I had to record it with my digital camera. Also I like higher quality video so I choose to upload the videos to stage6 which is a divx video based site so you may need to install divx player if you don't already have it.

Part 1 [Link]
Part 2 [Link]

David

Loose Ends

So Brad and I just got done with our Halo session tonight. I was surprised that I enjoyed it as much as I did. As the same with Gears, I think it was more of the Co-Op play that made me enjoy it than the compelling storyline or enthralling gameplay. I find it sad that cooperative play has been dwindled down to FPS and splinter cell.

Zach & Wiki for the Wii, I've been watching that game for months now. It looks very "kiddie" a word many gaming elite are so damn paranoid about. I'm about 85% sure I'll pick it up tomorrow after work. It's been getting good reviews which is not a lot of my quirky picks tend to pull off. More importantly this got me thinking to what games I should really be buying this holiday season and in the future. There's Galaxy that I must pick up. But then after that I honestly could pass on everything else. Rock Band sounds great but that's another 200ish bucks. If I had the money I'd try Mass Effect, Ratchet & Clank, and Assassin's Creed. Same goes for Guitar Hero III and a slew of games that I have reserved but still don't have the money to pick them up. But then I got to thinking. Even if I had the money, why would I pick them up? I don't physically have the time to play all these games. As much as I love games, I can't play them every second of the day. I don't want to either. I want to hang out with friends, exercise, work on other projects and hobbies. I've got so many games I don't know what to do with them. I could not buy another game for the next year and still have plenty to play. So I keep asking myself the question, why buy more? It's something that's really troubling me. I'll have to get back to you on that one for the answer....

David

**Oh yeah, after having a 360 since launch day, I've finally broken 1000 Gamer Score. Hooray.

23 October 2007

Gears of War impressions

I've been doing a lot less posting and a lot more gaming lately. Hopefully we all get back into the normal routine of things.

David and I beat Gears of War over the weekend. It was my first time playing and was happy to get it finished so quickly. Overall the game was pretty good. I haven't played any multiplayer yet, but me and David gave the game an honest effort, and I'm not getting the "OMG greatest game ever" syndrome a lot of other people seemed to have experienced. I think a lot of it had to do with how amazing the game looked. The game did have very satisfying gunplay and it felt really nice when you landed a well placed shotgun blast to the face. I just wish there were more weapons and more ammo for the better weapon as I spent nearly the whole game using just the chainsaw gun and the shotgun.

The teamwork aspect is really cool. The way the game keeps tension high with the teammate spawn system is pretty awesome. The best moments were when I was dodging rockets and torque bolts trying to get to David in time to save him in time. Although he was doing most of the saving I guess since I prefer the "Rambo" style of gameplay. In contrast, the worst parts of the game were when we were split up and one death meant we had to go back to a checkpoint. It became very much a trial-and-error game where we had to figure out at what points we should be helping the other teammate. It became borderline ridiculous in one part when we were literally like 10 feet from each other but our rocky paths were separated by a small gap and therefore one death meant game over.

One more noteworthy part of the game had to be enemy AI. There was rarely a moment to breath in the game because the enemy was always advancing on us. Much like the players, the enemy uses cover to its advantage in both combat and sneaking up on the player. Nothing is more terrifying than the sound of an enemy chainsaw or the orange glow of the enemy torque bow. The enemies aggressive nature was pretty refreshing.

Overall it was pretty enjoyable as it seemed the last two acts really cut down on the splitting up and David and I really started to develop our combat skills. I'll try to get a full review up when I try out the multiplayer.

22 October 2007

Cover Art Comparison #051

Well, I'm pretty embarrassed that it's taking me this long to get this section back up to date. I decided to start at least doing current ones before I try to catch up with all the rest of them again. I appreciate Brad's suggestion for cover art comparison this week and hope to have all this caught up before the end of the month.

This weeks it's Front Mission DS [Cover Art Archive]

See you next week,
David

**Update Added**
048 - Phantom Hourglass
040 - Brave Story: New Traveler

Piece of Cake

So Brad and yours truly just finished Gears of War. There were parts that were overly frustrating and then some parts near the end that seemed too easy. Over all it's a solid game. I don't think it's as amazing as many made it out to be last year. The best feature for me has to be the online Co-op. I can't see me going back and wanting to collect all the Cog Tags. What's even more ridiculous is that there are downloadable videos on the marketplace that show you where all the tags are. They cost money and are basically strat-guides. The only thing that would have been worse is if you could just pay money for the tags.

So next on the 360 is Halo 3. Brad and I will begin our play through of that. Nick/Granger, if you're free it's looking like it'll be Tuesday sometime. Possibly early afternoon. I'd love to do the multiplayer Co-Op. I'm thinking think after that I'll start up Lost Planet again.

Thanks again Brad for staying up late to play GoW with me. Maybe we can finally finish through Chaos Theory.

Going to bed,
David

21 October 2007

New Section: Photos

So I finally got around to adding the new section. I made a Flickr account and now we'll be adding photos, hopefully regularly. If you want, click the link in the menu to the right. We've got pictures from Halo 3 launch night up right now. Nick's pretty proud of them so make sure you take a look.

Have Fun,
David

Another Sunday

Well it's been a fun week and a lot happened.

I finished Portal earlier this week when Brad was in town, thanks again for that. Portal was great. It's definitely on my top 20 and I want to finish the advance mode, but I don't know if I'm gonna go buy it just yet. I'm at the end of Phantom Hourglass and should be finished soon.

Brad and I have been rolling through Gears of War Co-Op online the last two nights. Overall I don't find the game too extremely fantastic, but there are just so few good Cooperative games that it's great just to be able to play it with someone online. The game is satisfying enough that we keep playing it after all the cheap one hit kill deaths and stupid split up missions. The game looks absolutely fantastic but the controls are still very clunky and at times frustrating. It's funny that it's almost a year later and I'm really just not sitting down with this game. We're somewhere in Act 4 and I should be able to finished it tonight. I like the game play quite a bit so it makes me not look forward to playing Halo 3.

I finally got paid this week so I've got a little cash to spend. I picked up a copy of Flash Focus for the DS because my eyes really suck and I'm curious to see how the vision based games will play. My import copy of Arcana Heart came in last night so I'm ready to pop it in and get my dose of cuteness overload.

I'm also getting excited about Guitar Hero III. I said a few months back that I was tired of the series and only looking forward to RockBand, but now that it's only a week away, I can feel the hype and excitement building up. I don't really care for the new songs. Most times songs chosen for music games are second choice, I'm guessing because the more well known songs by the artist would cost too much? Or maybe been overplayed? I'm actually more excited about GHIII because of the new guitar coming out with the bundle. It's a much better design than the crappy exploder. The buttons feel good and the strum bar seems like an absolute improvement. Plus I'll probably need another guitar for when RockBand comes out and it'd be nice to have different ones. I just hate that it's only going to come wired. That's major suckage right there.

I read recently that CheapyD, of cheapassgamer.com, and his wife had his first child. First of course congratulations. I went to his flickr site to look at pictures of his newborn and then I started browsing photos that he had taken in Japan. I came across one that make me really laugh so here it is. It's a picture of a sign from a the video game store AstroBit in Akihabara. [Link]

Yep, so in response to that video that Brad posted with Mario Galaxy and the cute girls that I'm supposed to be attracted to. They're not really my type. I like them younger.

Thanks
David

18 October 2007

Thursday's Thankless Thoughts

- Okami has been confirmed for the Wii. This is awesome but when is the Wii's best games going to stop being ports? *coughzeldapapermarioresidentevilokamicough*

- You need to watch this Assassins Creed footage. It's pretty stunning. The world navigation alone has gotten me excited. I'm still hoping this game gets pushed back. It's pretty ambitious and they need to iron out all the bugs. Video

- Most of story for Half Life 2 popped back into my head when I was playing recently. There is just too much awesomeness coming out soon so I'm going to get started with Episode 1. Going to start Portal advance mode soon and still playing a ton of TF2. Pro Tip: I like to place my sticky bombs on the ceiling... look up before you run to a capture point.

- Fire Emblem DS is going to be a remake. WTF... The series has made necessary advances in its 10 entries and doesn't need to take a step back. They could literally reuse the GBA graphics engine and coble together a new script and I'd be happier than with this crap. This game should have been 5 dollars (6 for imports) on the Wii but instead it will be 35 on the DS.

- Guess which part of this video makes David want this game? Hint: It's probably not any of the gameplay. Video

Holiday Confusion

Why does Microsoft keep doing this? They keep making up different SKUs for their XB360 and confusing the hell out of people. All last Christmas I had to explain to every person inquiring about a 360 about the difference between a Core and a Premium. Then earlier this year it was between a Core, Premium, and an Elite. The core is gone, but now there's an Arcade Xbox 360 Console. It's just basically a Core but with HDMI, some XB Arcade games and a memory card. I still don't understand why they and Sony went and made multiple versions of their systems in the first place. Now Microsoft wants to complicate things more. I've heard people say that they're trying to be competitive. That this is a new product to be competitive with Sony's new price drop today and the new 40 GB that Sony is putting out for the holidays. I think if they want to make it competitive, they should just worry about the big system. I mean how many Arcade Consoles are they going to sell this year? I can tell you it'll be less than the Premiums, Elites, and it'll be less than the Halo 3 consoles that are still just sitting around right now. Microsoft is spreading out themselves trying to appeal to everyone. Sure they'll be able to convert a few. For the cheaper system they'll look at a Wii and say "hey why don't I pay a little more and get a 360." But aren't those the same casual game players that are buying up Wii systems right now? Haven't we established that they're new to gaming and aren't the game buying fiends that Microsoft needs. And if they do convert to bigger game buyers, won't they need all the items which are left out of the "Core" system? Is Microsoft's plan to nickel and dime these customers with extras needed later on? I mean I've seen it 50 plus times where a customer comes, buys a "core" because they don't really play games and just want to spend as little money as possible. They a week/month later they come in paying for the ridiculously over priced hundred dollar hard drive. I know for a fact that Microsoft makes more of a profit off of accessories than they do on system sales, so is it possible that's their plan? I don't think these people are stupid, just misinformed and taken advantaged of. On top of that retailers are forced to deal with this insanity. When is it all going to end? The sad thing, Never.

*Sigh*
David

Brads's Thoughtful Thoughts

- Lloyd from Tales of Symphonia is in Soul Calibur Legends. This is cool but since the game will most obviously suck, why wouldn't Namco put him in Soul Calibur 4? Or is this a sign that console exclusive characters have returned and the 360 and PS3 versions will have exclusive characters in SC4... who knows. I hope the PS3 version gets tomahawk wielding Julia Chang.

- I just watched the Disgaea 3 footage and I was stunned. I can't believe how awesomely crazy the combat looks. This makes me want to finally start Disgaea 2.

- Introducing Bionic Spidermando: Video

- Something funny happened while playing Phantom Hourglass tonight. Some goron dude started talking to me in a dungeon and suddenly Link responded to him. I sat there stunned until I realized that the dialogue actually came from Link's fairy. There was no indication who was speaking and I started to wonder. From every Zelda game since Ocarina of Time it seems Link has had some sort of character that stays with him and talks for him. Every time he meets a new character the navi, boat, or bird hat (friggen Minish Cap) seems to talk to the character for him. Doesn't this seem a little forced and cheesy? Why isn't Link doing the talking since these other characters are there specifically to speak for him. Kinda wacky.

- Fear my Demoman or he will esplode you.

17 October 2007

Podcast #032

So yesterday was a first. We had everyone show up and we ramble on about Portal, Phantom Hourglass, and other games out right now. Thanks again Sean C. for the opening and Brad for driving up. [Podcast Archive]

Thanks again

16 October 2007

Jericho Impressions

So aside from doing our very first 4-Player Podcast tonight, I had a chance to play the demo for the upcoming next gen title "Clive Barker's Jericho". I chose to play the PS3 Demo because that was the console I intended to pick it up on. The game is a new FPS/Horror adventure from the sick twisted world that exists in the mind of Clive Barker. First off, the main menu is a close up shot of rotting flesh complete with a swarm of flies.... awesome. Prior to playing this game, Touchdown Travis told me that he was not impressed with the game, Brad wasn't impressed and David of course has bashed it from the beginning. Needless to say, I was nervous going in. The main complaints that were mentioned concerned the confusing mechanics and the clunky character switching controls. After actually playing the game, I do somewhat agree with the these problems but I believe that these are problems that can be fixed for the most part with a little bit of time. Basically, what I'm saying is that this game will have a little bit of a learning curve. We have become so use to FPS's that have absolutely no learning curve that any curve seems unacceptable. So first of all, you basically play as 6 characters each with their own weapons and special abilities. After one of your team mates is killed, his ghost is able to inhabit the bodies of each character and control them so by using the d-pad, you can jump from body to body in the heat of battle in order achieve certain goals. The hard part comes in learning the intricacies of each characters and quickly adjusting to each character when you switch in the middle of a firefight. The thing that attacted me to this title is the unique, disturbing look and feel of this game. Everything in this world is outright disgusting but at the same time, it's beautiful. My main complaint is that the actual shooting controls can be a bit clunky but it is definately another solid FPS for the next gen consoles. As Brad watched me play, he acknowledged that there are things he didn't realize he could do and their were things that suddenly became clear. I admit that I am probably one of the few gamers who will give this game a chance which is a shame because it looks to be another sleeper hit. We'll see what happens after it's release next Wednesday.

15 October 2007

My new most anticipated game!

Advance Wars: Days of Ruin is going to be awesome.

Not only does the series have a new looks but they retooled and refined a lot of the core mechanics.

The smartest change was the toning down of CO powers and removing the Tag CO Powers. They were just way too powerful before and most of the strategy in the previous DS game were just setting up these rapecapades. It actually killed some of the core strategy in the series.

The game will also have online battles with voice chat! Frakkin' awesome. Only thing I'm worried about is dropped connections in long battles. Hopefully they can refine the game in such a way that battles can't go on for too long.

14 October 2007

Sunday + Podcast #031

Good News: I had three packages at my apartment office.
Bad News: None of those were my XB360.
Good News: I actually had four packages and one was my XB360.
Bad News: Microsoft didn't give me a HDMI console and gave me 1 month free Xbox Live instead.
Good News: I have a system to play Orange Box on now.
Bad News: I have no money to purchase Orange Box.
Good News: I can play Halo 3 now.
Bad News: I'd rather play Lost Planet.


That was basically it today. Nick, Touchdown, and I got together to do our 31st show. We talked about what we're playing, mostly Half-Life, Portal and Phantom Hourglass. We talk about a few Underated games along with a few Shameful Secrets. Mostly we ramble on about what games we're waiting for this year. Finally, the Pikmin Challenge was set and Nick's offering to pay for my copy of Pikmin 3. [Podcast Archive]

Waiting...

So still no XB360. I got a message from my apartment complex saying that I have three packages waiting for me. One of them I hope is my 360. But then again I order a lot of stuff, so from my calculations, it's a 50-50 chance. I'm beginning to think that my 360 may have gotten lost in the mail. Or lost in the mountain of red ring 360s Microsoft is having to sort through. Either way I didn't realize what a problem it was until Nick pointed out that my $400 console is floating around in limbo. So if today I don't have my console it looks like I'll have to deal with Microsoft's crappy automated MAX 5000 tomorrow morning.

On a lighter note, I'm excited about this week. Nick, Touchdown, and I are getting together to do a show after work tonight. I should have Phantom Hourglass finished either Monday or Tuesday. Bad Boy Brad hopefully won't be thrown in jail after his court hearing and we'll be able to do a show this week, possibly a 4-player podcast? And my eyes will finally get the work out they've been craving when Flash Focus comes out on the DS. Hooray. Maybe I don't need my 360 after all.


David

12 October 2007

RE: Real Movie with a Video Game in it.

Trust me. It wasn't Sony at work here. The movie came out long after the game and that game wasn't selling well anyways. Also, if Sony was paying, they wouldn't have said the wrong name.

The game was never supposed to be a big part of the movie... but the game itself did matter I think. My guess in the writer/director of the film was a fan of the game or at least knew what it was. The video game did serve as an escape from the real world, but the content of the game itself (content that was made clear in the film), did play an a role in the story. In SotC you deal with insurmountable odds. One small person vs a foe larger than life itself. I find it an interesting parallel to the extremely large problem that Sandler can't seem to overcome in his personal life.

Notice that when he starts to open up to Don Cheadle's character and lets him play the game it parallels with him letting Cheadle in into his very closed off life. They take down these colossi together just as they work together in the real world to deal with the real life problems. Remember they both have problems that each friend helps each other out with.

Secondly, notice that Cheadle becomes somewhat dedicated to keep playing the game paralleling his determination to help out Sandler. He wants to stay and give it "one more try" until he defeats the Colossi or whatever while Sandler is trying to get him to go home.

When Sandler kind of snaps and starts to push Cheadle away, you see Sandler return to playing the game alone. Remember... this is a game that he repeatedly plays over and over throughout the film, as if he can never quite beat it... just like his real life Colossi. Even in scenes where he isn't playing you can see the game still on in the background.

I might be overreading the part of the game in this movie, but this is how I saw it(it has been awhile since i've seen it though). The films creator took time to show closeups of the game at several points making it clear the premise of the game. The film was shot quite beautifully and it was clear that the director wanted to show the beauty of the game as well. If it was marketing... they would have picked a game that would have actually sold... Plus I don't think the audience for this type of movie is an audience Sony is trying to sell video games to. Now Gears of War in Die Hard... that's marketing.

This may be the biggest stretch... but perhaps the Shadow(s) plural(ness?) was intentional because the story was about two friends working together to defeat this insurmountable "foe" in Sandler's life. It wasn't just one "Shadow"... but two.

Film is very calculated when done well. Reign Over Me's creator wrote and directed it all himself. Content isn't just thrown in haphazardly. I feel he knew what he was doing with SotC. I may sound like I'm full of crap... but reading into this stuff is done the same way in film as it is in literature. I don't know if movie critics saw it the way I did. I think it almost takes someone with an understanding of this game to maybe catch these parallels... although maybe not. In fact I should look up what Ebert said about it since SotC is "art" in my opinion and he thinks no video game is art.

All in all I thought the movie was pretty good as well. I liked the performances quite a bit. Don Cheadle never seems to fail me either.

Video Game Movie

I just finished Reign Over Me. The movie with Adam Sandler and Don Cheadle. It's the movie about the man who lost his family in 911 and how his life changes when his college roommate runs into him and sees the shell his life has become. It got a lot of buzz from the video game community over the fact that Sandler's character is constantly playing Shadow of the Colossus. So I decided to check it out to see what the hoopla was about. First off, it's a good/great movie. I'm still not too sure how good/great it is. I'll have to let it sink in a little bit before I make any actual opinions. Secondly, and this is not exactly disappointing or anything, but the game was a very very very minor focus of the movie. It could have easily been replaced by anything, not even a video game. They didn't explain the epicness of the game's story or why you were fighting the Colossi. It was just the character's fixation on playing games to distract himself from other things. What's worse is that they kept calling it SHADOWS. Plural. It makes me wonder why the game was chosen for the movie. Initially I thought it had some tragic tie in with loss. Maybe it was someone's favorite game so they decided to use it as a personal effect. What I'd be really worried about is if that's just Sony's advertising dollars hard at work. That would totally disgust me and cheapen the movie and one of my favorite games. It's quite possibly the case so I'm trying to avoid thinking about it. Some times it's best to to think about painful memories and just pretend they never happened.


David

11 October 2007

I Love/Hate it When I'm Right

So it's official, February 10th, the new date for SMB: Brawl. I won't take complete credit. Through various newsites, I had an idea and tip off. Plus I believe I mentioned it in a previous Podcast that I didn't actually believe it was coming out this year. I'm just gonna blame this delay on that Blue Bastard Sonic.

I heard that Everyday Shooter was going to be on the Playstation Network today, I checked earlier today, but I didn't see anything. This makes me wonder where all the good download games are? Still no dates on any of the XB360 download stuff.

Finally, B-Rad is coming up to do a show next week. Hopefully it'll be a Phantom Hourglass Special, but from the pace that he and nick are going at, I'm thinking it'll be a one man show. Maybe we'll find a way to play some sort of multiplayer game instead, possible Exclamation Warriors?

Later,
David

They only half screwed me.

Looks like I'm getting my sexy battle sprites, but ass ugly portraits in story sequences. We get redone beautiful character sprites in AW and crap for this series.

Here's some pics.

I'm half excited. I did call it though. At least the crappy graphics are less embarrassing on a handheld.

Edit: Bleh, I take that back. The battle sprites looks kinda crappy too. They lack detail and have a weird thick black line around their edges. WTF. Maybe I need to see them in motion.

OMG OMFG I Love Teh Videogames

Got Orange Box today.

Cover looks like crap, but the cream on the inside sure is sweet.

Played nonstop since I got off work. I'll post full impressions tomorrow or Friday but OMFG everything is awesome. Played some nice silky smooth matches of TF2. Some people are getting lag in bigger maps so I stuck to max 8. Had no problems yet. Awesome awesome awesome. Just wish Bungie did the matchmaking. DemoMan FTW.

Played some Portal. Mind bending. I'll beat it this weekend I'm sure so expect full impressions on that as well.

Started to sky rocket through HL2. Man I'm going fast. Much nicer than that crappy xbox version. Got get through to get to the episodic content. Both which are new to me. FRAKKIN excited.

About to curl up with FFT. Cover art so beautiful. I intend to play just a couple of hours tonight but I have this sick feeling it will be until my battery on my PSP dies. Limitations of the PSP battery are probably a good thing.

On my way to dungeon 3 in Zelda. Gonna speed things up in Zelda a bit.

It feels great to play both Halo 3 and TF2. They are both really amazing multiplayer games in the same genre but two extremely different experiences.

10 October 2007

It's Official, Sonic is in Brawl

With all the hub-ba-lub about Sonic & Mario Olympics, we should have known. Back when Snake was announced Masahiro Sakurai mentioned there would be a few more characters making appearances. So Sonic making his appearance as a playable character is not as big of a surprise. After looking at the videos and such, I have to say. Sonic is the cheesiest video game character still around. His music is awful. His one liners are a joke. And don't get me started about his games. But his reputation does add to Brawls potential. If only we would see Captain Olimar or possibly Viewtiful Joe. It's just a shame that Brawl won't make it out this year. (That's right I said it.)

Banking on Galaxy,
David

Nick Finished the Fight!

I'm in a bit of a rush so this will be quick. I just wanted to give a brief update:

- I finished Halo 3 on Heroic.... very disappointed in the ending. I kind of wish I had played Legendary to see the better ending but thats for another day. Anywho... that was definately the best Halo in the trilogy.

- Just finished second dungeon in Phantom Hourglass last night. So far, I am really enjoying the game with only a few very minor complaints.

-I'm picking up Half Life 2: Orange Box and Folklore today and probably FF Tactics next week.

-Still stuck in that crappy dungeon in Eternal Sonata!!! It's driving me crazy but I will esape today... I swear.

Peace!

Nintendo Borrowing More Ideas?

Amidst all the talk about Spherical Worlds, comes more evidence that Nintendo maybe borrowing more ideas and in turn may not be that innovative of a company. In the new DS game, Phantom Hourglass, there are enemies that closely resemble the monsters from the horror film tremors. They are completely underground and react on sound and listen to your footsteps to attack you. They come from underneath and swallow you whole. How do you defeat them? Exactly how the characters in the movie did. You throw bombs which when bounced on the ground attract the monsters to swallow them up. The bombs then explode, killing the baddie internally. Could this "borrowing" of ideas be a sign that Nintendo is struggling to find new ideas and is losing their touch? Honestly I don't think so but it's funny that there's a connection.

My Impressions of Phantom Hourglass: Love it.

08 October 2007

Podcast #030

Hey Guys,

It was a busy day yesterday so I just finally got around to posting the new show. Nick and I talk about the gamer stereotype, Japan Games, Over/Under, and of course what we're playing. [Link]

On top of that I've been putting my PS3 to use with Super Rub A Duck. And I've been trying to cure cancer with my PS3 too.

Have a good day,
David

07 October 2007

Re: David

I'm by no means here to defend R&C. We all know King Kai created spherical worlds.

My problem is you are so much more acidic towards this R&C series which never pretends to be more than it is. This most recent comment from that Marketing Director, to be honest, sounded like more of a joke. Who really knows.

But to say Nintendo is always innovative a couple of days after you post about how much Zelda is still the same is a little crazy. You seem much more forgiving when it's a Zelda game. Also maybe because they don't come out very often. But isn't that even more reason to innovate? My guess is the new R&C is going to be a lot more different than Yoshi's Island 2 was to its predecessor or New Super Mario Bros was to its. It's one thing to praise Miyamoto.... but to lump his ideas and the rest of Nintendo's developers together is crazy talk. I would prefer you came off as a Miyamoto disciple than a Nintendo fanboy.

As for that demo.... I've only played one game in the series, the third game, and enjoyed it quite a bit. I tried to go back and play the other games, but they don't have the FPS style control scheme that I think makes the third game work. I heard that the demo for the PS3 game didn't have this control option so that would really really suck. As for the gameplay... yeah... I saw videos of this thing. It's the demo everyones been playing at these expos. After only playing one game, even I was worried that it seemed like I've seen it before. And while it seems, because of this demo, that you should avoid the game entirely... understand it's just a demo. Now I can't say it is representative of the full game. I have no idea. But if someone showed me just the first dungeon in Twilight Princess or Phantom Hourglass, or maybe the first world in any Super Mario game as a demo level, I would also be extremely unimpressed.

So for the time being (and because I love video games) I'm going to hope the R&C demo was just a bad demo and not representative of the full game. I do respect Insomniac to a degree, and they said that they feel this is the best game they have ever made, and I'm curious to see how it pans out.

PS I posted this in full post because it was too much for the comments section.

Stretching it a Little

Ok, So I know I'm totally going to come off as a fanboy at some parts of this. But if I don't say it, it's going to eat at me. To get straight to the point, there's a Marketing Director, who's name I'm probably sure no one knows or will remember, that is flirting with the thought that Super Mario Galaxy "borrowed" ideas from the Ratchet and Clank series. Namely he's talking about the Spherical Worlds mechanic from the second and third games. (ie like the levels where you're Mega Clank fighting bad guys trying to take out those towers). So he's really flattered that the great "Miyamoto-san" would take that aspect and incorporate into the Mario franchise.

Now I'm not the first or only one to speak out about this, but I do feel the guy at Insomniac is a little high on life. First of all, the claim is a little over the top. While it is a very unique perspective on platforming the spherical worlds idea I'm pretty sure was not began with the Ratchet and Clank series. On top of that other games have used similar mechanics since R&C, I don't see Insomniac talking about how Super Stardust HD is using the same movement mechanic. Why? Because there's not much to hold on to. I'm sorry to say this but Super Stardust is not the figure Mario is. There's nothing to sink their hooks into and there's basically no reward for making that claim with Stardust. So it's not worth doing.

Secondly, R&C has not exactly been the most evolving game series. Outside of some neat weapon designs, the single player has been a cardboard cut out of the previous ones. And even the weapons have been getting lackluster. There is template that they follow to create each weapon idea. For example, one of the weapons templates is a morph type. But it doesn't matter if the bad guys are turned into chickens or sheep, it's the same idea and no longer an original weapon. The series has done this multiple times with their games, tweaking a few weapons and adding a few new cool ones. And while I understand this may sound like I'm attacking Insomniac outside of the spherical worlds topic, but if you're going to start making claims to ideas and innovation, prepare to defend yourself. Oh, and I especially like Wii Fanboys' JC Fletchers quote from his Insomniac invented the spherical world post, "You know who else did spherical worlds? The universe. You may remember some awesome levels like Earth and Neptune"

HAHA, Zing~!!

Finally, I think what we all have to remember this guy is a MARKETING DIRECTOR. There's a new ratchet and clank coming out at the end of the month. Coincidence? Controversy causes more interest which in turn leads to more sales. And all of us arguing about this and pointing fingers is just free advertising. Which by the way, Tools of Destruction needs, because the demo I played, quite frankly sucked. I haven't played a R&C game in a few years since Up Your Arsenal and I'm still tired of the same game play. (NO MORE RAIL GRINDING) There's plenty of reasons why my money will be going towards buying Mario Galaxy and not Tools of Destruction. The only one of which I will go into is the fact that Miyamoto and his teams are amazing. There's a reason why he is the developer he is. Why he has the reputation he does. From game to game there are always important game play improvements and fresh ideas. And Galaxy looks to be another extension of this.


David

06 October 2007

Quick Update. Not looking too good.

I finally beat Bioshock. Expect a review in the future.

Just got a cannon for my boat in Zelda. On my way to second dungeon.

Jeanne D'Arc is a slow process. The game is pleasantly difficult. I may focus most of my attention on this as FFT is a similar game.

Halo campaign is... well I'm waiting to play with people who actually enjoy doing the campaign.

Unfortunately I've been sucked into Lumines here and there.

I've been playing more Halo 3 multiplayer. I'm gradually losing interest. Some of the maps are kinda lame. Others are great. A mixed bag. I badly want TF2.


Next week will make be very happy. Haven't been this excited since DMC3 and Tekken 5 came out same day.

05 October 2007

On The Dot

I'm predicting that my XB360 will come back in the mail today. It's been exactly a month since it broke (not shipped). It's not exactly that I have time for an XB360. I'm swamped with games to play and seeing how "the biggest video game launch in history just occurred," Lost Planet may not be the first XB360 game I pop in when I get it back. I have to say I am a little fed up with Microsoft. It's not like I can write them off, but I'm wondering if or why other people don't more often. I mean faulty XB360 and scratched Halo discs. I know a few people for said screw it and went to the PS3, but it's not like Sony is doing that much better of a job either. They're still lacking games and the Playstation Store is a joke. There's a lot of spectacular games coming out, but really I'm just not that excited. I am really enjoying Phantom Hourglass. But that's only because of the new control scheme and "timed" dungeons. If not for that, it would be the game the same Zelda formula I've seen since the SNES. Semi-funny characters. Coward partners. Can't buy bombs because no bomb bags. Let's get the boomerang in the first dungeon. Save up enough rupees to buy a shield. Is there no possibility in change of the game play? Does anyone even want to see that? Thank goodness for Nintendo dramatically changing things in their portable and console. But now I'm more worried about where games will go from here. Where will the next innovation come from? I know it's a little early to start thinking about this kind of thing, and there's plenty of things they can make on their current consoles and even the next console. But if you stay to happily content in one spot, you die. You always need to be challenged and either be chasing someone or have someone chasing you. Write that down.

I really don't care right now when my Xbox 360 comes back. I'd like to play Halo and the Orange Box, but honestly I don't really feel like giving Microsoft too much money right now, especially since they have so much. I am considering a Zune 2 though.

David

04 October 2007

Poor guy. Wrong place at the wrong time.

Link

03 October 2007

Nicks Phantom Hourglass Impressions

Ok, so it finally arrived. The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass released yesterday for the Nintendo DS and I am proud to say that Nintendo seems to have done it again. I have only played about an hour of the game so far but I am already pleased to see what they have done. There are a few minor complaints but as far as i'm concerned, this is a Zelda that is intended to hold us over until the next "next gen" Zelda will be unveiled. First of all, the game looks great for a DS game and it successfully holds onto that cartoony feel of it's predecessor, "Wind Waker". Since they, couldn't actually duplicate the cel shaded graphics from the GC, they went with a similar style that closely mimics that of Animal Crossing DS. Most of the environments have a very Animal Crossing feel to them but the character animations seem a little bit closer to those of the WInd Waker style. When it comes to story, i'm not sure what I think yet simply because i'm only an hour in and I haven't found the Phantom Hourglass yet but it does have another classic Zelda storyline and it's also nice to pick up where Wind Waker left off and see what Link and Tetra were up to. I was a little bit worried about how the controls would turn out considering that the entire game is controlled with a stylus but I'm happy to say that they really do work. I was under the impression that you would have to basically drag Link across the screen but all you have to do is touch the stylus to the screen where you want Link to go and he will walk or run towards that point. It actually makes for very fluid controls. Its also very easy to pick things up or open doors because it simply requires you to tap the object or door. The only minor complaint is that sometimes it can be a bit tricky attacking because if you are running and you want to attack, you have to quickly switch from the movement frame of mind and start thinking about attacking which can sometimes create a delay that might cause you to get hit first. The only other akward control is the rolling, which requires you to make fast cirles on the screen on the side of the screen that you want Link to roll towards but it only works about 50% of the time. Last but not least, the touch screen mechanics are pretty solid. You can make notes on your dungeon maps, draw boomerang paths, and even chart your course for your boat. So far the game is a lot of fun and I can't wait to see where it goes because I have been itching for a new Zelda ever since I finished Twilight Princess! Expect my full review in the coming weeks! Peace!

Nick

It's Good To Be Back

Ah, it's been a while since I've felt like this. Immediately after work yesterday, I rushed home, tore open my new DS game and popped it into my DS, which was still charged like how a portable should be. It was nice to be able to revisit a gaming franchise I hadn't played in almost a year. familiar characters and complex puzzles, what else could a game player ask for. If you haven't realized what I'm talking about, it's Brain Age 2!!

David

PS - I'll start Zelda later today.

For some reason beyond me I can't stop laughing at this.

Link

Ragdoll physics gone horribly right.


On a side note: David, the new Chibi Robo game is out for the DS. If you are wondering why your store hasn't received it yet, it's because it's exclusive to Walmart. Odd I know, but I thought I'd give you a heads up since you were a fan of the first game.

Brad's short term October goals.

October 9th is the release of my Final Fantasy Tactics: War of the Lions. This IS the greastest strategy/rpg ever released. This is also my favorite game of all time. To see it finally get an appropriate translation, albeit a Shakespeareanish one, is what I am truly most excited about. New battles, cameos, weapons and armor, job classes, and multiplayer also doesn't hurt. There are some annoying port issues, but they are easily overlooked by me and should be overlooked anyone who has yet to try this game.

October 10th is the release of Half Life 2: The Orange Box. Half Life 2 is my favorite single player FPS to date and an outstanding game altogether. I played the crappy xbox1 port and the game still had a huge impact on me. To be able to play the updated PC port of HL2 means a lot to me. Half Life 2 Episode 1 and 2 are also included and essentially double the amount of game in both time and story. I can't wait. The fact that Portal and Team Fortress 2 are included in the packable is really all too generous of Valve. Team Fortress 2 will most likely be the multiplayer game I choose to stay with and get good at. I've been addicted to watching beta footage of this game and can't explain how much I love the games style and class based content. Portal is another beast in itself. This puzzle game isn't extremely long (4-6 hours I hear), but he creativity and innovation potential I see in this IP is amazing. Early impressions of the final build have been quite stunning. I hear that not only does the game tie into the HL2 world, but it is infact very funny. I'm not going to spoil the details, but I think people will be getting more of an "experience" than what was seen in early trailers.


Ok... so basically these are two very big releases for me coming out very soon and far from the end of fantastic games coming out this fall. In order to not get overwhelmed and swamped in AAA titles, I plan (much like my colleagues on this site) to take a more organized approach to playing what I have recently started.

This is where I am:

Jeanne D'Arc - I've spent at least 14 hours playing so far. I'd say I'm about 1/3 to 1/2 of the way through the game.

Lumines 2 - I've unlocked about 60 skins with still a ton more to go.

Halo 3 - I actually started the Campaign with some friends and then some solo. About 4 missions in.

Bioshock - A couple of hours from the end I predict.

Phantom Hourglass - Barely started. First Island.

Persona 3 - 10 hours in?

Oblivion - 20 hours in?

It will be a heavy week but I plan to beat Jeanne D'Arc, Halo 3 Campaign (hopefully with Nick and David), beat Bioshock, and yes beat Phantom Hourglass. I also plan to put down Lumines for the time being. I've become pretty good at the game now and can play for an hour in one session. I'm so friggen addicted to this game that it has been taking up a lot of the time I could be using playing other single player games. For Persona 3 I plan to play another few hours in order to keep the game fresh in my mind. I don't want it getting lost under the shuffle. Oblivion will be put on the shelf for now. Reason being I know I will never have a problem getting back into it later and I haven't really done much of the main quest.

These are not my goals for the month but actually my goals before October 10th. I haven't done a gaming binge this crazy in a long time but it's going to be cool. You can start expecting reviews for some of these games toward the end of the month when I find the time to write them. Also expect daily updates for my progress in each of these games.

Now time to watch some Full Metal Panic (sigh... forgot about my movie/tvshow/anime hobby).

02 October 2007

It's a Snake!!!!

So I went and watched some of the Snake footage from Super Smash Brawl. It looks awesome. If you haven't seen it yet watch some of the stuff from the official blog. There's about 3-4 mini clips with Snake talking to the familiars from the Metal Gear series about Nintendo Characters. I wasn't extremely excited about Super Smash, but now it's starting to build. I just hope it can keep up until December.

On a few other notes. Nintendo is offering silicone Wii sleeves which they are now shipping with controllers and systems. If you have an older Wii thats didn't come with them go to Nintendo.com to get yours ordered. You will need your Wii Serial Number ready.

Also I've been on an Import crazy lately. I got Mag Kid yesterday. Guitar Freaks V3 is in the mail. Arcana Heart in a few weeks. I just had to order another one this morning when I found out this previously Club Nintendo ONLY title was being offered by YesAsia.com. Yep, that's right. Zekkyou Senshi Sakebu Ren
(Exclamation Warriors) is available to the US. You can order the voice controlled game [Here]
Here is a super awesome video of gameplay.

Well, that's really all I can think of for now. In a few hours I've got to be at work and also pick up my copy of Phantom Hourglass. I love you Nintendo
DS!! As long as I have my DS and my cuddle pillow, I am invincible.

Chenchi-bakaretsu!
David

OMG I'm buying all of these.

I'm opening them too!!

http://www.play-asia.com/paOS-13-71-92-49-en-70-25o0.html

I wish they had a Mustadio or a Beowulf though.

October = best video gamer month in years.

01 October 2007

October Brings New Games and New Goals

Hey everyone, much like David's revitalized motivation, I have set myself a new goal that I intend to follow from here on out. Because I am a college student with a job, it is very hard to balance everything, especially as my classes get more and more advanced. So in order to stay on top of things for the site, I intend to play at least 2 solid hours of games a day unless I have to study for a test or work won't permit it. So I am going to kick that off in just a few minutes after this post. On another note, October looks to be a pretty good month to be a gamer but for me, it is only the prologue for November which for me might be the best month of gaming ever! So heres my highlights of the month:

Oct 2- Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass- This will be the first DS game that I have genuinly cared about enough to see it through to completion. My DS will go where I go for the next several weeks!

Oct 10- I will be picking up Folklore (PS3), Half Life 2 Orange Box (360), and FF Tactics War of Lions (PSP)! Where will I find the time!

Oct 24- Jericho (PS3) and Castlevania X Chronicles (PSP)

Thats it for me for now. Catch ya'll later and I'm sure to post about my Phantom Hourglass Impressions tomorrow!

Nick

New Month = New Motivation

AWESOME! I get the honor of having the first post of October.
So if everyone didn't know September was a pretty busy month for me. On top of school kicking in full gear, work was relentless with Halo launch on top of the regular work pile. It was a busy but fun month, but I neglected a lot of my game playing time and contributing to the blog. It looks like October is starting off on the right foot. I've got plenty of games lined up and I should be getting my XB360 back sometime this week.

Brad called me this morning right after class and let me know that Sin & Punishment is downloadable on the Virtual Console. So as I am typing this, I'm waiting for it to finish downloading, take that Xbox Live Arcade! This is the type of content I've been waiting for Nintendo to start pushing out. Who knows what will be next? Maybe Brad will get some of the Import Fire Emblem games here. Or we may get some of the Mother (Earthbound) series. Maybe if we get those, I'll finally give a crap about who this Lucas character is on the new SMB.

I won a copy of Slide Adventure: Mag Kid off of eBay. I received it this morning after class. It's an Import DS game that required an extra mouse-like peripheral. You attach it to the GBA slot and thats how you control your character by sliding the system around the table top. The levels are timed like Katamari but while you're collecting this you have Kirby like power ups where you take on the form and powers of your enemy. I finished a level and it seems like it's going to be interesting. Here's a commercial [Link]

For Nick, this is why Japan kicks butt and America sucks. Silent Hill: The Arcade
Also for Nick, new Fatal Frame Info [Link]

Phantom Hourglass tomorrow, enough said. Looks like the DS is once again going to pull me out of my gaming slump.

Well, I hear Mario hitting coin blocks so that must mean Sin & Punishment is finished downloading, gotta go!

David