Wednesday, August 29, 2007

Phoenix Wright 3

Yay everybody's favourite awesome lawyer game is back! PW: Trials and Tribulations came out a little while ago in Japan. This Japanese version actually has an English option so us who can't read Japanese can still play it, which causes quite a bit of confusion, considering that this game has yet to come out across the Pacific yet. I've just played the first chapter, and I can swear that the translations are clearly not direct like all of the other PW games, but it does have that crazy humour that we've all come to love, including the awesome Judge who never seems to ever age. It's on my list, again.

Tuesday, August 28, 2007

More Higurashi?

Heck no! 7th Expansion is clearly sick of the killer loli squad ad moved on to greater and bigger things! Well, Umineko no Naku Koro ni (which I think just means "we're too lazy to think of a new name") just hit Japan like a flaming sack of Douglas. From Insert Credit, apparently this game you have to figure out how the murders happen rather than who did the murders (as in Higurashi). The basic premise is about a family that is trapped in an island mansion in a thunderstorm, and pretty much everyone was dead by the time the storm was over. It would be your job to figure out wtf happened in there during the storm, or something along those lines.

Monday, August 27, 2007

Rockstar Scandal?

Here's something from the conspiracy theories.

I was at the Pure Pwnage booth on Saturday and there was one interesting thing that did happen. Jarett from PP (who plays Jeremy) was talking apparently with a graphics artist for Rockstar when I was just standing there. It IS partially a gaming expo after all, and WCG, WUVG (or w/e that was), Intel, etc. were all there, so I don't think I would personally doubt that the guy would just be randomly lying about where he was from.

Either way, the news of Manhunt 2 going to Mature was already done by that time, so the question naturally was put out. What I found interesting was that he said that they simply decreased the blood content and changed the camera angles for the graphic execution scenes. I asked if the controls for the Wii would be changed, and was given an emphatic no. Have fun with this bit of controversy.

Friday, August 24, 2007

Dokuro-chan 2

So Dokuro-chan is back and online again. And you know what? It's pretty much the same type of messed up anime as it was before. The thing about Dokuro-chan now is that there are scenes where it's "too violent" to be shown or some other reason similar to that, and shows Monkey Dude along with random aerial shots of some island or the sky. I think the animators are just cutting down on the budget myself though. I mean, you get to see what happens after (sort of), so you have an idea of what happened anyway. Ah whatever, it's still pretty funny, and it still has the same winning formula: fan service, humour, and violence. The problem is that the gore is toned down nowadays, so it's not as good as before.

Also, it doesn't explain why Zakuro all of a sudden is in their house AND is no longer hunting Sakura, nor what happened to Sakura's parents. Oh well, this series was not made to make sense anyway.

Wednesday, August 22, 2007

Zero's Familiar 2 Ep 7

Is it just me or is the gig where Saito is being "baka hentai inu" getting rather old now? Or is it simply just randomly giving people fan service? We also find out that apparently Louise and Siesta have a similar waistline, since they both fit into the same skirt and all.

The actual plot of this episode is thin as usual, not that it matters anyway. Stupidity happens for most of the episode with only a little be of story movement. Overall, the episode was ok in terms of entertainment, but nothing that special.

An Chii-nee-san is going to have a large barn by the end of the series at the rate she's going. XD

Monday, August 20, 2007

Learn English :D

For some reason, there is always this fascination to learn English in Japan (well this is kind of obvious...). Kotaku posted about some gundam book that should teach those Japanese people the useful things in life, right? XD

Of course, with this comes parodying. In this case Moe-tan (contains swearing) comes in with dual purpose. This must be a "wtf" moment. I mean, at least for me anyway.

Sunday, August 19, 2007

Too Human?

Silicon Knights is Canadian-based. Well actually Silicon Knights is somewhere around here anyway. If you know Canadians, you know that Silicon Knights is moving at around the right pace. It's kind of sad, but at the same time, they do make great games even if they're so slow that it isn't funny.

Anyway, Too Human has been around since the PS1 days (yes PS1!). So what hopes do we have about this? I'm going to guess they're going to miss the deadlines, whatever it is. If they do make deadline, well I guess they're not as slow as I had thought.

Friday, August 17, 2007

Persona 3

More first impressions! Persona 3 has been a hugely anticipated title. And seriously, I'm an hour into the game and I've had a single battle screen. The video is crisp and very gripping overall. It might move a bit to slow at the beginning though. Development and what not hasn't even STARTED yet, let alone anything else.

The silent protagonist returns in this game though, meaning EVERYTHING you do is what the protagonist does.

Oh, and the opening video has McDonalds music.

Thursday, August 16, 2007

New Soul Calibur 4 Screens

Yeah...

Seriously, wtf is with all these companies competing with Temco and their DOA series? I would prefer the old times when the characters look pretty and the game engine is robust...not how big they can make the twins. :-/

Luminous Arc

I guess it's about that time to give out some first impressions on L Arc. The cover and the packaging itself looks very nice. Overall, you can pretty much see the target audience is for them otakus or something. This game falls into the old "strategy RPG" category, and really is played like a traditional sRPG.

As you start the game, you are asked a question and 6 choices. I have no idea what each of these do, personally, so I'm just going to assume it's something random that has little impact in the game. This game is "special" in it that you can use the stylus to move your characters, which take turns FFTA style - that is, characters get turns, rather than players getting turns - and you control where characters move and whether or not they attack, use a skill, wait, or anything else. The stylus feature is very nice, but I find it not good at detecting my targets very well, so it does have some problems with it, which caused me to switch back to normal cursor movement. There are some other things about the gameplay overall. You can choose talk with different characters after battle, and depending on your choices, you can increase or decrease their affection towards you. Sounds fair to me, but since you can continue to do that over and over with a single character after random battles, it may be a way to exploit the system. One beef I have is the lack of a job system. Strategy RPGs almost always have a job system in which you can customize characters and what not. It seems rather strange that this is missing, and it would be very probable that there would not be any recruiting of generic characters either, considering that there are only 15 character slots in the dispatch screen. Overall, the gameplay is nothing special, and is closer to weak than it is strong.

The storyline itself sounds like it has some potential, as you're seeing two sides of a single story from two different characters, though this early in the game you can already see who the good guys and bad guys are. Nobody would be surprised either, considering that this game looks to be built on a fairly shakey storyline and potentially weak character development would happen as well. I mean, anything that starts with "witches are evil, destroy them all" as a plot is not quite a masterpiece. But then again, we're not looking for an Oscar-winning plot, but rather one that isn't too bad. In that aspect, Luminous Arc passes.

The music is good, but not memorable at the moment. I'm not quite sure what else to talk about with this.

Overall, Luminous Arc has the potential to be good, but failed to do so in favour of cute anime people graphics (main hero is bishounen, main heroine is bishoujo, etc.).

Beautiful Katamari

Looks like BK for the 360 will be sporting the ever so awesome 4 player mode. Did somebody say...win?

Wednesday, August 15, 2007

Interactions and Games

One of the "blogs" that I like to read once in a while is Lost Garden. Danc generally writes about game design mostly, but sometimes he'd write about some crazy economics game theory, like the essay he did on Nintendo back when Wii was announced.

He did a recent essay on games and interactions, and how it can be applied to other things, and his discussion of limitations of these ideas and what not. I've only really skimmed it, but it seems like a good read considering that it talks about why webpages love games and the like.

Monday, August 13, 2007

Need more proof that Okami wins?

Okami wins the Edge Award

That's right. The ultimate game wins again! Game of the Year 2007 is not enough. Okami takes more cake. I'd swear, this game gets quite a bit of credit only amongst the hardcore gamers and what not. Sad, I know.

Soul Nomad

So I randomly went to NIS's website and checked it out, considering that I haven't heard much from them ever since Grim Grimoire came out (and I have yet to pick that one up, though there is no rush to do that). Then I found this. Oh look, another NIS game coming out. On look, it uses like the same sprites as Disgaea and them all. This game's supposed to be SERIOUS? :O

So all of a sudden, I'll have to get that...

And for those who aren't keeping track, that's Persona 3, Growlanser, Grim Grimoire, and Soul Nomad (and the World Eaters) on my list now. That's what we get for supporting the little guys, right? :-/

New Games this week

So this week's games are:

Madden 08
Really. Madden again? Guess it's that time of the year. Another big seller, I suppose.

Heroes of Mana
Children of Mana was "meh", and same with Dawn of Mana. Heroes of Mana is also a DS game, so perhaps we're going to have another one of those "meh" titles again. Either that, or it can potentially be good. It's got potential! That's all that matters, right?

Luminous Arc
sRPG game for the DS. Hurray sRPGs! That's really all I can say about it. I have no clue about it other than the fact that the art is cute. >.>

Rune Factory: A Fantasy Harvest Moon
This one's for DS. I'm assuming if it's like the futuristic PSP Harvest Moon they cranked out, it's probably not worth a look. I got tired of that one real quick.

Dungeons & Dragons Tactics
I have no clue about this one. It does have D&D on it, and it's for the PSP.

Fatal Fury: Battle Archives Volume 1
This is where Mai (the original fan service?) debuted, right? I dunno, I played Fatal Fury back when it was SNES, and it was pretty cool. It was my only fighting game until Street Fighter 2: Turbo was given to me, after all. I heard it's pretty cheap too.

Operation: Vietnam
No clue what it is and why it's on DS. Nor do I care, with a name that screams war.

1914 Shells of Fury
Apparently it's a sub sim?

Billy the Wizard: Rocket Broomstick Racing
wtf?

Shin Megami Tenshi: Persona 3
Best game from this list. I decided to wrap it up with the best game this week. Besides, the top of the list there will be the one that would sell the most anyway.

Source: Kotaku

Saturday, August 11, 2007

Freedom?

When you see an article like this, you sometimes wonder just why this is the case. These people are simply assassinated for speaking their minds, and it makes one sometimes wonder whether or not one can trust that this world is the same one we all know, or want it to be. Just to what account is freedom? I don't think I can even answer that question, considering that there is doubt on any country that can actually truly be "free", whatever that means.

New Izuna

It's been a while, but Success actually did announce that a second Izuna is apparently in the works. Those that bought the first one because the girl had pink hair and looked cute would probably have been shocked at the difficulty of the game for the most part, but the game was good nonetheless. It's nice to see our cute pink-haired heroine will get a second go at crawling through those dungeons again.

Source: Insert Credit

Evolution vs Creationism

It's an age old debate, but of course there has been a twist on this silly little battle in the form of Intelligent Design. Professor Lawrence Moran of the blog "Sandwalk" recently posted an essay on the topic of defining creationism. It's a good read for anyone who wants to understand this from the point of view of an evolutionist, though one should never necessarily have to believe it all either.

Ken Akamatsu interview

Ken Akamatsu interview and home visit

A lil' bit about the creator of Love Hina and Negima (aka "bling bling" in American terms). I'd swear that is a NICE house. He's been pulling in the cash with The "bling bling" really, and I guess this is the result of all that. Impressive indeed, at least for a mangaka.

His wife is like a bishoujo who jumped right out of the anime screen. Well, in his case, used as the basis of the main character for Negima... Where can one find these kinds of win and awesome? Why can't I ever find them? XD

Source: Danny Choo

Friday, August 10, 2007

PR's and Gaming Media

PR's and Game Media

Seriously, when you look at something like this, it would be pretty much similar to most other industries in this case, wouldn't it? I mean, movies get movie reviews, and entertainment mags would likely get advertising and what not. Seems like this can be applied to many other industries, overall.

Popcorn!

Get the popcorn!

The beginning
Hey man, if you gotta sue, you gotta sue. That's what I say. So this is the beginning of it all.
More details on the lawsuit itself.

Anyway, so this was the beginning. It was relatively quiet really, a lawsuit of contracts and stuff. Seriously, and then more fun happens as other developers start complaining. Yay!

So all is well, considering that SK is suing and stuff. Epic comes back with a countersuit against Silicon Knights. Of course, SK, like all parties suing responds.

Is it just me, or is this legal battle getting more and more hilarious? We need Phoenix Wright to set this straight! :D

Source: Kotaku

Thursday, August 9, 2007

Persona 3

Well I found a "review" of Persona 3 that really does give quite a bit of insight into the world of Persona 3. I preordered this one months ago myself, though I have not touched its legacy (until a couple of days from now, that is), but really this game looks to be a very good one indeed.

Persona 3 is published by Atlus.
Official Persona 3 website

Mama makes more cooking

505 Games just announced that Cooking Mama will receive a sequel, which will come out early 2008 on the DS and Wii. I still have my copy of the first one lying around somewhere, actually. It's kinda strange that a game like this, which is generally just a bunch of repetitive tasks that may or may not be practical (like the mixing mini game...there HAS to be an order to this, right? The game has it randomized...) in the real world...well more likely not practical than yes, but whatever.

Source Kotaku

Wednesday, August 8, 2007

Higurashi

Directly translated, higurashi means "Cicada", which is a brown beetle-like insect that makes a characteristic sound. So why am I randomly talking about a cicada?

Volume 1
Volume 2

Hey, we're just hitting the tip of this iceberg here.


Higurashi no Naku Koro ni itself spans 26 episodes, covering many aspects of this anime's mystery. In my opinion, it is definitely worth a watch. Besides, this series is likely only going for 2 seasons anyway (with Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kai as season 2). Most likely this new season will come here as well. Cheers.