2005 is coming to a close. This year we saw World of WarCraft literally beat the life out of every other PC game released this year. We saw the slow trickle of Nintendo DS games being released. We saw both the uneventful launch of the Sony PSP and the embarassing world wide introduction to the next generation of consoles with the Xbox 360. And lastly, we watched as the layer dust on top of our GameCubes increased at an exponential rate.
In a few words, 2005 was kinda boring for gaming. We had a handful of stand out titles, but for the most part we saw a bunch of lame rehashes. It didn't help that the biggest title of the year, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, was pushed back to Spring 2006.
The tip off that 2005 would be boring should have been obvious, judging from this year's pathetic E3 showing. Will 2006's E3 be better? Only if Nintendo shows off playable Revolution games and Sony shows off playable PS3 games. Sorry guys, tech demos won't cut it. If Microsoft wants any chance at beating the Ps3, they had better get the Japanese developer support that the Xbox 360 so desperately needs. And no, having games that will appear, or have appeard, on a Sony console won't help the Xbox 360 one bit.
What am I looking forward to in 2006? I'm just dying to play The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. Hearing that the game will be playable with the Revolution controller is an unnecessary, but welcome, bonus. Just don't fuck it up. Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence should be cool. I hate the new camera angle, but I'm interested in the online mode and the movie DVD that's included. I'm also looking forward to the upcoming expansion pack for World of WarCraft. And that's about it. I'm sure there's more on my wish list for 2006, they're just not interesting enough titles for me to take the time to mention.
I will say that I'll be buying the Nintendo Revolution at launch - just because I have to. Hopefully there will be an actual Mario game to play this time. Luigi sucks. If we're lucky, we'll also get a Metroid title at launch.
I'm still on the fence about the PS3. My guess is that its launch will be very similar to the Xbox 360. It'll have a title or two that is "unique" to the new platform plus 20 ports from the current generation. Keep in mind that the two "unique" titles will be nothing special either. I'll most likely wait until (a) Sony lowers the price of both the console and the games, (b) Sony gets rid of the systems that are guaranteed to die and DRE after a couple of months, and most importantly (c) the PS3 gets a good amount of quality games.
And since every Dick, Tom, and retard has a top "something" of the year list, here's mine:
Top 5 Games of 2005
1) Shadow of the Colossus (PS2)
2) Civilization IV (PC)
3) Mario Kart DS (Nintendo DS)
4) Lumines (PSP)
5) Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow (Nintendo DS)
I should add as a side note that I would have put World of WarCraft as #1 on my list (I did spend roughly 240 hours playing this one game over the past year), but it was released in 2004.
And just for fun, here are the worst games of 2005.
1) Burnout Legends (Nintendo DS)
2) Marvel Nemesis: Rise of the Imperfects (Nintendo DS)
3) Marvel Nemesis: Rise of the Imperfects (GCN, PS2, Xbox, PSP) (tie)
Amazingly, I still have my free copy of Marvel Nemesis (PS2) in mint condition, shrinkwrap and all. Yes, that's right, I have not burnt this game yet - that would be a waste of a perfectly good match.
Let's all hope that 2006 will have more memorable games and at the same time show us what the next generation of gaming will really be like. Happy New Year!
Saturday, December 31, 2005
Friday, December 23, 2005
Even more Shadow of the Colossus videos
I finally found a site with all 16 colossi speed run videos. These guys are really really insane with the way they kill the colossi. I highly recommend watching this batch. Enjoy!
Also note that these videos come from the Japanese version and that the killing blow to the colossi have a cool bullet-time slowdown effect. I wonder why I this little minute detail was left out of the American version.
Thursday, December 22, 2005
New Epic items
I got some cool new epic priest tier 1 gear in Molten Core today: Pants of Prophecy and Vambraces of Prophecy. I still have yet to obtain the Eye of Divinity so I can get Benediction. Hopefully that will drop this Saturday. If you're wondering about the Benediction quest, I found some videos that show what a priest has to do to obtain the kick ass staff. Wish me luck!
Wednesday, December 21, 2005
Catching up
I haven't talked about recent events in the video game industry lately. So I guess this is as good a time as any.
The Xbox 360 has finally reached all three major markets: USA, Japan, and Europe. While the Xbox 360 isn't doing as well as Microsoft hoped (which was expected as such by me), the system is pretty much dead in the water at this moment in Japan. Despite what ever pompous comment J Allard has to say about the Xbox 360 launch lineup, I feel that it's the lineup that is hurting the Xbox 360 the most. Sure it has awesome graphics and a snazzy new integrated Xbox Live interface but what does all of this fancy crap mean when there's nothing worth playing? It's really sad that Activision's Call of Duty 2, a PC port and the #1 selling Xbox 360 title in the U.S., is the game that shows what the hardware can do. Of course, CoD2 and Kameo were the only two playable titles at every demo station so that could have only helped that game to sell more. In fact, there's not one title in the lineup that hasn't been already seen in some way or form on another platform. And Microsoft wants us to pay $400 for the system plus $60 per game? I don't think so.
Oh, and kick ass job on adding the dated Final Fantasy XI demo with every Xbox 360 system in Japan. There no better way to show off the abilities of a new system with a PS2 port. Kudos!
The fact that the PSP is tanking in every market is not surprising. It's been out since March 2005 and there still is not even one must have title. Yes, I do enjoy Lumines very much, but it is by no means a must have title. If you think about it, the PSP suffers from the same problem that the Xbox 360 is suffering from. All PSP titles to date are simply direct ports from the PS2 - minus some features but with the same exact price. Huzzah!
And I still think that anyone that buys a UMD movie is a dumbass. DVDs are perfectly fine thank you. DVDs have an added bonus, for a lower price you get better quality and more extras. WOW!
Poor Nintendo. The GameCube platform is fading away from gamers' memories. Oh where art thou Link? Come and bring back the life to our GameCubes. On the other hand, the Nintendo DS is fairing very well thanks to Nintendogs (not my kind of game, but my girlfriend really enjoys it). The games that really valided my purchase of a Nintendo DS are Castlevania and, of course, Mario Kart DS. I do hate the fact that Mario Kart DS is missing an online Battle Mode, but hopefully Nintendo will learn from this and no exclude a major feature of their future online games. I'm even more amazed that the Game Boy Advance is still selling as well as it is. It didn't really have any big titles until the end of the year - that being Final Fantasy IV Advance.
Well if you think about it, the Nintendo DS had a very slow start. Maybe the PSP will have a better go in 2006. Or maybe not... look out for the PS3 and Revolution. 2007 maybe? Hmm... no, Nintendo will probably announce the Game Boy Evolution at that year's E3. The PSP is screwed.
Speaking of the Revolution, some hardware specs have been unveiled. While there's no way of knowing these specs are true, they are very interesting. Personally, I feel Nintendo is doing exactly as they said they would when they announced the GameCube. They said that the GameCube platform will be used for the next 10 years or so (I'd quote it, but I can't find the original comment nor a reference to quote from other than my memory). This statement will hold very true if the Revolution is just an upgraded GameCube. Without snazzy graphics to make the casual gamer sheep follow the revolution, Nintendo will have to have so really kick ass titles at launch and soon after launch. Hopefully, unlike the GameCube, the Revolution will launch with a Mario game. A Metroid title would really help in the U.S.
I do applaud Nintendo for trying to bring new ways of game playing to the industry. However, at the same time, I'm worried that casual gamers won't be as interested in playing something so radically new. It's not as "safe" as playing on the PS3 or Xbox 360 where you're guaranteed to play a sequel or something you've already seen previously. Let's hope my worries aren't warranted.
The Xbox 360 has finally reached all three major markets: USA, Japan, and Europe. While the Xbox 360 isn't doing as well as Microsoft hoped (which was expected as such by me), the system is pretty much dead in the water at this moment in Japan. Despite what ever pompous comment J Allard has to say about the Xbox 360 launch lineup, I feel that it's the lineup that is hurting the Xbox 360 the most. Sure it has awesome graphics and a snazzy new integrated Xbox Live interface but what does all of this fancy crap mean when there's nothing worth playing? It's really sad that Activision's Call of Duty 2, a PC port and the #1 selling Xbox 360 title in the U.S., is the game that shows what the hardware can do. Of course, CoD2 and Kameo were the only two playable titles at every demo station so that could have only helped that game to sell more. In fact, there's not one title in the lineup that hasn't been already seen in some way or form on another platform. And Microsoft wants us to pay $400 for the system plus $60 per game? I don't think so.
Oh, and kick ass job on adding the dated Final Fantasy XI demo with every Xbox 360 system in Japan. There no better way to show off the abilities of a new system with a PS2 port. Kudos!
The fact that the PSP is tanking in every market is not surprising. It's been out since March 2005 and there still is not even one must have title. Yes, I do enjoy Lumines very much, but it is by no means a must have title. If you think about it, the PSP suffers from the same problem that the Xbox 360 is suffering from. All PSP titles to date are simply direct ports from the PS2 - minus some features but with the same exact price. Huzzah!
And I still think that anyone that buys a UMD movie is a dumbass. DVDs are perfectly fine thank you. DVDs have an added bonus, for a lower price you get better quality and more extras. WOW!
Poor Nintendo. The GameCube platform is fading away from gamers' memories. Oh where art thou Link? Come and bring back the life to our GameCubes. On the other hand, the Nintendo DS is fairing very well thanks to Nintendogs (not my kind of game, but my girlfriend really enjoys it). The games that really valided my purchase of a Nintendo DS are Castlevania and, of course, Mario Kart DS. I do hate the fact that Mario Kart DS is missing an online Battle Mode, but hopefully Nintendo will learn from this and no exclude a major feature of their future online games. I'm even more amazed that the Game Boy Advance is still selling as well as it is. It didn't really have any big titles until the end of the year - that being Final Fantasy IV Advance.
Well if you think about it, the Nintendo DS had a very slow start. Maybe the PSP will have a better go in 2006. Or maybe not... look out for the PS3 and Revolution. 2007 maybe? Hmm... no, Nintendo will probably announce the Game Boy Evolution at that year's E3. The PSP is screwed.
Speaking of the Revolution, some hardware specs have been unveiled. While there's no way of knowing these specs are true, they are very interesting. Personally, I feel Nintendo is doing exactly as they said they would when they announced the GameCube. They said that the GameCube platform will be used for the next 10 years or so (I'd quote it, but I can't find the original comment nor a reference to quote from other than my memory). This statement will hold very true if the Revolution is just an upgraded GameCube. Without snazzy graphics to make the casual gamer sheep follow the revolution, Nintendo will have to have so really kick ass titles at launch and soon after launch. Hopefully, unlike the GameCube, the Revolution will launch with a Mario game. A Metroid title would really help in the U.S.
I do applaud Nintendo for trying to bring new ways of game playing to the industry. However, at the same time, I'm worried that casual gamers won't be as interested in playing something so radically new. It's not as "safe" as playing on the PS3 or Xbox 360 where you're guaranteed to play a sequel or something you've already seen previously. Let's hope my worries aren't warranted.
Friday, December 16, 2005
Leaving the City of Villains
For the past month, I've tried my best to stay interested in City of Villains. I even purposely stopped my WoW subscription in order to give this game a fair chance. Needless to say, I still barely played the game. It's just not that much fun. I found the missions to be repetitive. Every mission is "go here and kills all these mobs" for whatever reason seems dandy at the time. Occasionally you'll get to "collect" items for your mission giver, but even then the mission itself is basically the same kill everything style. From what I'm told, this mission style is the same as City of Heroes. While CoH was a great MMO, one must remember that it came out before World of WarCraft. City of Villains could have taken the successful CoH and improved upon it by adding some WoW-like features (or more of them, depending on how you see it). In order to be successful in this post WoW MMO genre, you can't simply re-release last year's game with a minor graphics update. You have to take what innovations you can from that other game, and try to improve upon it.
That kinda leads me to my next gripe about CoV. You just don't feel evil. You want be become a member of Lord Recluse's army... for some unknown reason. Alternatively, being a hero is easy - all you have to do is stop evil doers from their insane schemes. And since CoV is essentially CoH with a new coat of paint, your supposed villain is acting more like a hero to the bad guys rather than a bad guy to the heroes. In order to be a successful villain, you have to have some schtick, a reason for being bad, some overall grand scheme to take over the world... hell, even simple revenge would work. That being said, CoV's story structure is just too generic to achieve the feel of being evil.
Whenever I did play CoV, I found myself wishing it played more like WoW. I wanted the Stalker class character I created to play like a Rogue from WoW. I wanted the UI to be more friendly and simple, just like it is in WoW. Okay, I'll admit it. I wanted WoW in comic book form. Oh well, time to cancel my CoV subscription and resubscribe to WoW.
Lesson learned: When you release a stand-alone expansion pack, it had better be vastly improved over the previous title. Otherwise it'll feel dated. Oh, it'd also help that a game about being a bad guy makes the user feel like they're being evil.
That kinda leads me to my next gripe about CoV. You just don't feel evil. You want be become a member of Lord Recluse's army... for some unknown reason. Alternatively, being a hero is easy - all you have to do is stop evil doers from their insane schemes. And since CoV is essentially CoH with a new coat of paint, your supposed villain is acting more like a hero to the bad guys rather than a bad guy to the heroes. In order to be a successful villain, you have to have some schtick, a reason for being bad, some overall grand scheme to take over the world... hell, even simple revenge would work. That being said, CoV's story structure is just too generic to achieve the feel of being evil.
Whenever I did play CoV, I found myself wishing it played more like WoW. I wanted the Stalker class character I created to play like a Rogue from WoW. I wanted the UI to be more friendly and simple, just like it is in WoW. Okay, I'll admit it. I wanted WoW in comic book form. Oh well, time to cancel my CoV subscription and resubscribe to WoW.
Lesson learned: When you release a stand-alone expansion pack, it had better be vastly improved over the previous title. Otherwise it'll feel dated. Oh, it'd also help that a game about being a bad guy makes the user feel like they're being evil.
Thursday, December 15, 2005
More Shadow of the Colossus videos
Yes, I'm still very fascinated by Shadow of the Colossus' unique gameplay experience. I've also been looking for the latest speed run videos. I still haven't found anyone's speed runs for colossi #12 to 15, but did find one for #16 (part 1 and part 2). While not a speed run this cool video shows how to climb up to the Secret Garden. I'll keep posting these as I find them. Enjoy!
Wednesday, December 14, 2005
Tuesday, December 13, 2005
Video Game Awards?
For some reason unknown to me, Spike TV hosts some annual farce called the Video Game Awards. Why they think they're qualified enough to host it, we'll probably never know. In any case, Spike TV's VGAs are nothing but the breeding grounds for bringing stupidity to the gaming industry. On second thought, they bring more stupidity. Half of the awards are for rewarding "good work" to members of the Screen Actors Guild - the group that bitched and whined for more undeserved money for their half-assed performances in our video games.
I'd like all the publishers in the industry to know that I hate 99% of the English voice acting in video games. They suck. A user's experience can be single-handedly ruined by the crappy performances they give due to their lack of understanding the emotion of the moment in the game. Yes, some games have wonderful English voice acting, most notably the Metal Gear Solid series. But other games, Final Fantasy X comes to mind for its horrible "laughing scene", just don't seem like anyone gave a rat's ass. What I'd really like in all of our games is the option to use the originating language instead of English. While I wouldn't have any idea what the hell they characters are saying, at least I'd get the correct emotion from the speech (assumingly) to go along with the text on screen.
But I'm off topic...
There's another thing I hate about awards or top ten lists. There are a lot of categories that seem to exist only to justify giving a popular game an award. In other cases, it seems like Xbox related material has to be mentioned at least once whether the point was valid or not. Most notably, in this IGN article stating the Top Ten Controller Innovations and 1up.com's Top Ten reasons why the Xbox 360 won't be the next Dreamcast.
IGN's article is riddled with errors. The error that pisses me off the most is that reason #8 fails to mention that the Sega Saturn 3D-pad had trigger buttons before the Dreamcast. My real problem with that top ten list is #7. Breakaway cords are just stupid and they have no effect on the way the user interacts with the game.
For 1up.com's article, #7 makes it obvious that a fanboy made the list. The Dreamcast has a lot of awesome games, but it sucked because it doesn't have Halo 3. But Xbox 360 owners are lucky, cause they're gonna have the awesome Halo 3! Oh by the way, if you didn't know, Halo sucks major ass.
Halo is one of those games where people think it's the best thing ever - when it's initially released. Given enough time, people will realize that it didn't age well. A perfect example of this is Donkey Kong Country, made by Rare who was owned by Nintendo at the time. When DKC first came out everyone thought it kicked ass. Nearly ten years later, we're seeing it being re-released on the GBA. Let me tell you, time was not kind to this "gem" at all. I cannot believe I actualy found this game fun.
Games like Halo and DKC are remembered not for their gameplay nor for their story, they're remembered for their graphics. People always misunderstand me when I say that graphics don't matter (and I say this all the time). Yes, graphics are the first thing the consumer sees and usually what sells the game. But pretty graphics are just that - a selling point. Games can be played and enjoyed no matter how good the graphics are. If the developer makes their game enjoyable enough, the user will be happy with whatever graphics are used. Can you honestly say that your #1 favorite game is because of its graphics? If so, then you're not a gamer at all.
I'd like all the publishers in the industry to know that I hate 99% of the English voice acting in video games. They suck. A user's experience can be single-handedly ruined by the crappy performances they give due to their lack of understanding the emotion of the moment in the game. Yes, some games have wonderful English voice acting, most notably the Metal Gear Solid series. But other games, Final Fantasy X comes to mind for its horrible "laughing scene", just don't seem like anyone gave a rat's ass. What I'd really like in all of our games is the option to use the originating language instead of English. While I wouldn't have any idea what the hell they characters are saying, at least I'd get the correct emotion from the speech (assumingly) to go along with the text on screen.
But I'm off topic...
There's another thing I hate about awards or top ten lists. There are a lot of categories that seem to exist only to justify giving a popular game an award. In other cases, it seems like Xbox related material has to be mentioned at least once whether the point was valid or not. Most notably, in this IGN article stating the Top Ten Controller Innovations and 1up.com's Top Ten reasons why the Xbox 360 won't be the next Dreamcast.
IGN's article is riddled with errors. The error that pisses me off the most is that reason #8 fails to mention that the Sega Saturn 3D-pad had trigger buttons before the Dreamcast. My real problem with that top ten list is #7. Breakaway cords are just stupid and they have no effect on the way the user interacts with the game.
For 1up.com's article, #7 makes it obvious that a fanboy made the list. The Dreamcast has a lot of awesome games, but it sucked because it doesn't have Halo 3. But Xbox 360 owners are lucky, cause they're gonna have the awesome Halo 3! Oh by the way, if you didn't know, Halo sucks major ass.
Halo is one of those games where people think it's the best thing ever - when it's initially released. Given enough time, people will realize that it didn't age well. A perfect example of this is Donkey Kong Country, made by Rare who was owned by Nintendo at the time. When DKC first came out everyone thought it kicked ass. Nearly ten years later, we're seeing it being re-released on the GBA. Let me tell you, time was not kind to this "gem" at all. I cannot believe I actualy found this game fun.
Games like Halo and DKC are remembered not for their gameplay nor for their story, they're remembered for their graphics. People always misunderstand me when I say that graphics don't matter (and I say this all the time). Yes, graphics are the first thing the consumer sees and usually what sells the game. But pretty graphics are just that - a selling point. Games can be played and enjoyed no matter how good the graphics are. If the developer makes their game enjoyable enough, the user will be happy with whatever graphics are used. Can you honestly say that your #1 favorite game is because of its graphics? If so, then you're not a gamer at all.
Friday, December 09, 2005
Metal Gear week
Since the gamecard on my WoW account expired, I decided to take some time off from the timesink so I could finish up some of the other games in my library that I've been meaning to get to. One of those games is the entire Metal Gear Solid series (except for the PS1 version of MGS). The only game that I haven't really played is MGS3. As for MGS2 and MGS: Twin Snakes, I never played them per se, but I did watch my friends play them from start to finish. And if you're wondering, both times were a single segment run. MGS2 took my friend about 14 hours and MGS:TT took my other friend about 8 hours. I tried to stay awake through both, but sometimes I just couldn't keep my eyes open. Now that I'm playing them myself, I'm sure to be awake.
Unless I get distracted by some other game (Final Fantasy IV Advance) I should be able to finish all 3 this week. Then I can start playing Prince of Persia: Two Thrones.
Unless I get distracted by some other game (Final Fantasy IV Advance) I should be able to finish all 3 this week. Then I can start playing Prince of Persia: Two Thrones.
Thursday, December 08, 2005
As time goes by
So I'm a year older today. What have I learned in the past year? Outside of video game related knowledge, practically nothing. Working at EA this past year, I did learn a lot about game design solely by being forced to sit through genres I normally would never play. Who knows if I'll ever get to use that knowledge.
Oh, I also learned what it's like to own a $250 paperweight. It's clear that Sony had no idea what they were competing against when they designed the PSP. What's the mindset you have to be in, in order to actually think that people would be willing to pay $30 for a movie on UMD - keeping in mind that the UMD movie has less extra features and costs more than a DVD of the same movie.
Anyway, I'm getting old real fast. I suppose it's time to start thinking about settling down and start a family of my own. Is a job in the video game industry stable enough to carry all of that? Maybe not. That probably explains why I haven't been searching for industry jobs lately and going back to my programming roots. I'd love to stay in the industry and reach my goals for game design, but maybe it'll take too long and it isn't financially good enough. Or maybe that's just my parents nagging that's stuck in the back of my head.
As my girlfriend says, "choose a career that you enjoy and the money will follow later." And I always tell her, "it's hard to do that with constant nagging by parents."
Oh, I also learned what it's like to own a $250 paperweight. It's clear that Sony had no idea what they were competing against when they designed the PSP. What's the mindset you have to be in, in order to actually think that people would be willing to pay $30 for a movie on UMD - keeping in mind that the UMD movie has less extra features and costs more than a DVD of the same movie.
Anyway, I'm getting old real fast. I suppose it's time to start thinking about settling down and start a family of my own. Is a job in the video game industry stable enough to carry all of that? Maybe not. That probably explains why I haven't been searching for industry jobs lately and going back to my programming roots. I'd love to stay in the industry and reach my goals for game design, but maybe it'll take too long and it isn't financially good enough. Or maybe that's just my parents nagging that's stuck in the back of my head.
As my girlfriend says, "choose a career that you enjoy and the money will follow later." And I always tell her, "it's hard to do that with constant nagging by parents."
Wednesday, December 07, 2005
Best Auction Ever
Lot's of people try to sell Xbox 360s on eBay for profit, including this dumbass. He thought it'd be cool to include tickets to a local sporting event and make even more cash. Well, the plan backfired and the auction ended at $80 - because that's the maximum price allowed for resale tickets in Kentucky. Lesson learned, if you're gonna scalp tickets do it offline and if you're gonna sell an Xbox 360, just sell the stupid Xbox 360. To the buyer, grats on your awesome purchase. To the seller, it really sucks to be you.
Thanks to Rob for pointing me to this article.
Thanks to Rob for pointing me to this article.
Sunday, December 04, 2005
The Soul Still Burns (and not in a good way)
Apparently it is possible for the Soul Calibur 3 savefile to become corrupted. From what I've read, it occurs when you delete, move, or update a savefile that was made previous to the SC3 savefile. Here is Namco's official response. Basically, that means once you save a SC3 game, you can't play another game if you don't want your SC3 data to become corrupt. That's just stupid.
Having worked in the testing division of the game industry I can see why it got overlooked. I would have never thought that deleting a savefile would affect another game's savefile. I do remember seeing something similar at work (Eron may remember what I'm referring to), but it was nothing close to this. IMO, there's a really stupid/sloppy programmer working on the Project Soul team at Namco Japan. The tip-off should have been that the game autosaves after every single versus battle. UGH!
I'm not so much concerned about the SC3 data on my memory card. If that gets corrupted it's no big deal - at least to me. I'm more concerned about the other data on my memory card. There's countless hours of gaming saved on that memory card and I'd be seriously pissed if SC3 caused it all to become corrupt.
It reminds me of a previous incident about savefile deletion. Earlier this year, the Viewtiful Joe 2 demo on the OPM demo disc would delete the saved data off the memory card in slot 1. Who knows why a demo has to access the memory card. But for whatever reason, it severely pissed off a lot of people.
Needless to say, I'm kinda scared to play SC3 now.
---
Penny Arcade agrees with me...
They think Perfect Dark Zero sucks ass,
And that Arcane Missiles don't work at all. (I told the guys at work this, but no one believed me. Maybe if they actually played mages.)
Although, I don't agree with PA about Killer Instinct. That series just needs to stay dead.
Having worked in the testing division of the game industry I can see why it got overlooked. I would have never thought that deleting a savefile would affect another game's savefile. I do remember seeing something similar at work (Eron may remember what I'm referring to), but it was nothing close to this. IMO, there's a really stupid/sloppy programmer working on the Project Soul team at Namco Japan. The tip-off should have been that the game autosaves after every single versus battle. UGH!
I'm not so much concerned about the SC3 data on my memory card. If that gets corrupted it's no big deal - at least to me. I'm more concerned about the other data on my memory card. There's countless hours of gaming saved on that memory card and I'd be seriously pissed if SC3 caused it all to become corrupt.
It reminds me of a previous incident about savefile deletion. Earlier this year, the Viewtiful Joe 2 demo on the OPM demo disc would delete the saved data off the memory card in slot 1. Who knows why a demo has to access the memory card. But for whatever reason, it severely pissed off a lot of people.
Needless to say, I'm kinda scared to play SC3 now.
---
Penny Arcade agrees with me...
They think Perfect Dark Zero sucks ass,
And that Arcane Missiles don't work at all. (I told the guys at work this, but no one believed me. Maybe if they actually played mages.)Although, I don't agree with PA about Killer Instinct. That series just needs to stay dead.
Thursday, December 01, 2005
Colossal Viral Marketing
As we all know, I've been looking for Shadow of the Colossus stuff lately. I find it sad that Sony isn't doing more to getting more gamers interested in SotC. To the naked eye, there's only the print ad which appears in various gaming magazines. In an earlier post, I showed you a video of a discovery of a colossus-like creature in the snow. That video is apparently a part of Sony's viral marketing campaign for SotC. The videos are fun to watch and should be checked out if you're a fan of SotC. All videos, etc. of this campaign are conveniently located at a blog about Giantology. (view posts from Oct. and Nov. 2005)
Finally, I found the preview/concept trailer for NICO, which is what SotC was called during its development. This trailer was taken from the NICO DVD was provided to people who preordered SotC in Japan. Enjoy!
And yes, I'm looking for the full DVD.
Finally, I found the preview/concept trailer for NICO, which is what SotC was called during its development. This trailer was taken from the NICO DVD was provided to people who preordered SotC in Japan. Enjoy!
And yes, I'm looking for the full DVD.
Star Wars AND Transformers?!
If you know me, you'll know that I'm a big Star Wars fan. If you really know me, you'll know that I'm a huge Transformers collector. Well, not so much anymore. But I still enjoy getting a nice rare Transformers item now and then. Much to my amazement, there's a new line of Transformers coming out that are Star Wars based. Obi-Wan looks pretty stupid imo since the toy doesn't even look anything like Obi-Wan. Grevious looks the most like the movie character. I'll probably pick up Vader and Grevious whenever I see them.
I've also been looking for the Shockblast figure from the Alternator line of Transformers. They just don't seem to carry it in the stores near me. Kinda sucks since I'd rather not order it online.
I've also been looking for the Shockblast figure from the Alternator line of Transformers. They just don't seem to carry it in the stores near me. Kinda sucks since I'd rather not order it online.
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