The future

There's a lot that I want to say about the Wii but I just can't find the time to write. The summarized comments are that I love the new way of controlling video games, but I'm not all that pleased with the wiimotes' 20 hour battery life. I also really want to play both the Wii and GCN versions of Twilight Princess and compare the two. If I'm crazy enough, I'll pay another $50 for the GCN version that comes out this week.

First Wii Ad

"What's this? It's a new remote controller. Ninteno Wii remote controller."

I can't wait. I want a Wii now!

Get Over it Already!

I've been hearing and reading a lot of complaints about how crappy the Wii's graphics are. Sure, the Wii may not look any better than a GCN right now, but who cares? It's not like Nintendo lied to you about the graphics. They have specifically said that they're not in the raw graphics output race anymore. They have also said that if what you're looking to get out of a video game is just pure graphics enjoyment, the Wii is not for you.

The Wii isn't about pretty graphics. Nintendo is taking what they've done for the handheld console business and bringing that philosophy to the home consoles. The Nintendo DS and the Wii are both about new ways to experience and play games.

So I'm tired of hearing about Wii's graphical power. If you want to complain about it, keep it to yourself. If you want the best possible graphics in the world get yourself and Xbox 360 or a PS3. The Wii can't compete graphically with those other home consoles, so get over it already!

Happy Birthday Mario!

21 years ago from this day, Super Mario Bros. was released for the Nintendo Famicom. Believe it or not, Super Mario Bros. is still the highest selling game of all time with roughly 40 million units sold worldwide. Happy Birthday Mario, now hurry up and tell us when Super Mario Galaxy is going to be released.

Dead Rising Scares Me

I've been wanting to play Dead Rising for about half a month now, but find myself unable to boot up my Xbox 360 and play that game. It's not that I'm bored by the game or have some other game to play, I'm scared of it. No, the game isn't that scary. What I mean is that I'm scared of the game breaking my $400 gaming investment. Ever since Dead Rising came out, there have been rumors of it literally causing Xbox 360s to die. At first I thought that it was just the initial batch of Xbox 360s sold last year that were failing and even then I assumed that people were just not treating their console with care. Then I started hearing about how some new Xbox 360s were dying as soon as Dead Rising was booted up. Now I find myself unable to play Dead Rising due to being afraid that it'll cause my Xbox 360 to die. (It costs $180 to have the console refurbished by Microsoft.)

I know, it's stupid to not play this game because of this phobia. There are millions of Xbox 360s in the world and a good portion of them playing Dead Rising I'd assume. The percentage of failure is relatively small, about 5% I think. Are these systems just poorly manufactured or were they the victim of a lack of T-L-C?

I really want to play Dead Rising, but I don't want my Xbox 360 to die. Hopefully I'll be able to just throw the phobia out the window and just enjoy this awesome game before the Wii launches.

Are Wii Ready?

Hopefully by Thursday of next week, we will know when the Wii is launching and at what price it will be launching for. Signs are pointing to the Wii having a nice and smooth world-wide launch this year. There doesn't seem to be any hardware shortages nor any problems with the manufacturing process. The only real worry we can have is that Nintendo will delay the Wii to next year cause the software isn't ready - something that they are well known for.

If you haven't noticed, the Wii is close to launch (from what I gather, expect a late October / early November 2006 launch) and we've barely seen any of the games! We don't even know the full capabilities of the Wii itself! And on top of that, we're still not informed of all the functionalities of the wiimote! Is Nintendo doing this purposely to keep the competition (read: Sony) from copying the ideas and technology?


Poor Sony. Their egos have put them in a pretty deep hole. First they screw up the PSP (where are the good games at?). Then they have a rootkit fiasco in their CDs. Then announce the scary price of $500/600 for the PS3 at E3. On top of the scary price, Sony also managed to show nothing note worthy at E3... yawn. And no Kaz Ridge Racer, sorry... Riiiiiiiiidge Racer!, didn't help. And recently Sony has to decrease their estimations on the shipments of the PS3 by 75%. Let's not forget to mention that Europe now has to wait until Spring '07 to get a PS3. (At least they may have a chance to avoid the initial BSOD'ing and DDoD'ing PS3 batch.)

So to that news, I say: "Thanks Sony!"

Thanks for opening the door for either the Xbox 360 or the Nintendo Wii to kick your ass.
Thanks for making me a millionare when I sell my pre-ordered PS3 on eBay.
And thanks for screwing the developers, forcing them to make/port their games to another console.

Hype will only get you so far. Where are the good games at Sony? You can't ride the Metal Gear Solid cash cow forever. You still lack an icon like Mario, Link, or hell... even Master Chief. Kratos maybe cool, but he's still on the PS2.

Sony, you obviously need history lessons. See Wikipedia for NeoGeo, 3D0, TurboExpress, Atari Jaguar, and PSP. You fail to learn, you fail to win.

Wii!!

Odd Similarity

Check out this video from the upcoming Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball 2, which shows off the new Marine Race mode. (If that link didn't work, go here and watch the video titled 'Marine Race'.) Now watch this video from the Nintendo 64 game, Wave Race 64. Is it just me or is the track that Tecmo chose to show off their Marine Race mode very oddly similar to the Southern Island track in Wave Race 64?

First I'll give props to Tecmo for at least (seemingly) basing their new mode after one of the best jetski racing games ever made. Wave Race 64 is one of the N64's best games and, in my opinion, is the only game thus far to accurately simulate water physics (I'm sure plenty of you would disagree with me on that). Props aside, I have to wonder how well the racing game would play. Juding from the previous game's "volleyball" and the fact that the "volleyball" hasn't changed at all in the sequel, I would have to say that the Marine Racing mode is also mediocre.

No one will know how the game plays until it is nearly released to the public. Tecmo seems to do that a lot with their games. To me, that just says that they know their games are all graphics and no gameplay. Shiny oversized gravity defying bouncy graphics... with realistic tan lines...

Since my buddy Eron didn't like the Shadow of the Colossus video I posted last month, here's another video. This one actually uses music from the game and shows off some really cool moves in the process. Enjoy.

Super Smash Bros. Online!

When Super Smash Bros. for the Nintendo64 was announced, I was skeptical about the idea of Nintendo characters fighting each other. To me, it was a weird concept that I felt would never sell. Oh boy, was I wrong. Super Smash Bros. turned out to be one of my favorite multiplayer games for both the Nintendo64 and the GameCube. My friends and I played both games to death (we played the N64 version significantly more though - I'll go into that later).

Now that I'm in SoCal, I want to play Super Smash Bros. online with my friends back in San Francisco. Yeah, I know that Super Smash Bros. Brawl for the Wii is coming out with online gameplay, but SSB:B won't be released until sometime in 2007 and I want to play online now. Thankfully, there are now ways to play both Super Smash Bros. Melee and the original Super Smash Bros. online.

Super Smash Bros. Melee can be played online via the infamous PSO Loader hack. I would try this method to play online, but not all of my friends have the GCN broadband adapter. However, I would say that the biggest downside would be that players 2, 3, and 4 lag by up to a second while playing. Lag == death, especially for fighting games. The lag also causes weird, yet entertaining, errors as you'll see in this video. A valiant effort to get SSB online, but the lag kills the experience.

Oddly enough, you can play Nintendo64 games online and it turns out to be a more enjoyable online experience than SSB:M online too! Playing SSB online resulted in no lag. Simply amazing! Yeah, there are less characters/stages in the Nintendo64 version but SSB is so much fun, I'm willing to "settle" for the N64 online until Brawl comes out. If you want to see an online fighting game done right, try SSB. (Just ignore the graphical glitches - those are the emulator's fault.)

It's funny really. Using the latest hardware, Xbox Live Arcade's Street Fighter II' Hyperfighting suffers from terrible lag (1+ second delay from input to screen? No thanks.) yet a N64 emulator suffers nearly zero lag. What's up with that? It is the way Xbox Live's network structure is set up that is causing the lag? Or is it buggy network code? Or could SFII be doing the same thing as the SSB:M online hack where player 1 is the host and player 2 has to wait for his own data to come back from player 1? Either way, it's really funny and only helps me enjoy SSB even more.

Going back to what I said earlier, my friends and I spent countless hours playing SSB on the N64 yet in comparison we barely played SSB:M on the GCN. Why is that? SSB:M is a better game overall. It's more balanced, offers more characters and stages, and has tighter controls. I noticed this trend for most, if not all, of the GameCube's multiplayer games. We played the N64 versions significantly more than the GCN versions. Are the GCN versions actualy inferior or are they just more of the same that we've already played too much of? I'm betting it's the latter.

I find that Nintendo has a habit of evolving the gaming industry every ten years. The NES jump started the current industry after the crash, the N64 evolved the industry into the 3D era with analog controls, and the Wii is going to evolve the industry again with spacial controls. To me, both the SNES and GameCube are just more powerful versions of the NES and N64, respectively. I'm not saying that the SNES and GameCube are bad consoles, they each have their games that are contenders for the best game(s) of all time. I just think that these two consoles took the ideas of the NES and N64 and refined them into near perfection. If this history holds true, what can we expect of the Wii's successor? (Also note that Nintendo evolves the industry with controls, not graphics.)

The Greatest Game of its Time

The one game that I will remember the PlayStation 2 for is, of course, Shadow of the Colossus. I don't think that there's any game on the PS2, Xbox, or GameCube that can top SotC for pure enjoyment.

A couple of my friends don't see what's so great about Shadow of the Colossus. They say that the controls are too simple, that the graphics aren't as good as people say, and that the gameplay itself is just boring. On the plus side, none of my friends have said anything negative about the game's soundtrack. Do yourself a favor and buy it. =D

All I'll say about their opinion on the graphics is: How can the graphics not be as beautiful as we say?

I feel these friends of mine have missed the whole point of the game. It's not about just killing the bosses. The developers have left much of the story up to speculation for a purpose, just like they did for ICO. They wanted us to put our own emotions into the game. This way, we would be more connected with the Wanderer and his adventure. They leave it up to us to decide who the girl is. And ultimately, it is left up to us to imagine the lives of the game's characters after the credits have rolled past.

You just don't get that kind of immersion from games that straight up tell you what the characters are feeling.

The personalized emotional investment that SCEI allows to have for the characters in Shadow of Colossus is reason enough for me to claim that it is the best game of the PS2/Xbox/GCN era. It doesn't hurt that the game is also a lot of fun to play.

Dead Rising

The end of the current generation of video game consoles has brought a huge resurrection of "classic" titles. We've seen Nintendo re-release the core Mario games for the GBA and Nintendo DS. Square is in the process of re-releasing as many Final Fantasy games as they can for the GBA. And Atari, Midway, and Capcom are releasing a ton of their old arcade games for various platforms.

Probably the biggest of the re-releases is Street Fighter II' Hyper Fighting for Xbox Live Arcade. As you know, I'm a huge fan of the Street Fighter series but I'm not totally happy with the Xbox Live Arcade's version. My gripe is that the game is stupidly difficult. I don't know if it's just because I've lost all the skill I once had over the years, if it's because the Xbox 360's directional pad just plain sucks ass, or if it's because Capcom went and decided to make the game more difficult just for the hell of it. Either way, it's not very much fun to get your ass kicked by the cheap AI of the 3rd fighter (of 12) on the default difficulty. (I blame the 360's controller for sucking... I never had difficulty problems with Street Fighter II Anniversary Collection.)

Sadly, I don't have an active Xbox Live Gold account, so I can't test the online portion of the game. But, from what I hear, it is hard to find someone to fight a ranked match against.

Bringing back retro titles for new gamers is good, in my opinion. I'd personally love to see the newer gamers get a greater understanding of gaming history, but I doubt most of today's gamers would understand the significance of why some of these games are classics. (Most aren't, but that's for another blog.) However, knowing companies for being companies and following capitalism, they're only re-releasing their older games because it's an easy and cheap way to make money.

It may just be me, but these re-releases never play the same as they used to. I don't remember Mega Man being so damn difficult, nor was Mega Man X for that matter. Again, is it just my getting old and forgetting how to play or is it because of the controller? Mega Man Anniversary Collection for GameCube sucked because some genius at Capcom decided to switch the shoot and jump buttons around. It's just not the way I'm used to playing Mega Man. For me at least, changing the feel of the controller for a given game seems to really screw up my timing. =(

Well, since this blog post is titled Dead Rising, here's a music video for Capcom's amazingly fun game Dead Rising.

Transformers Herecy

By now I'm sure you've seen the teaser trailer for the upcoming Transformers movie. (If you haven't seen it yet, you can see it from the movie's official site, linked above.) As a huge Transformers fan, I have a lot of worries about this movie. First of which is the fact that it's being directed by that idiot Michael Bay. My other worry is how faithful the story will be kept to the original American storyline.

Granted, the Transformers storyline has always been in a non-static state - America, Europe, and Japan each have their own storylines for the "G1" era. The G1 era is further changed by each regions' comic book line. But regardless, I would really prefer that the movie doesn't go too far from the "norm" of the American G1 era, but I doubt that will happen. Bumblebee has always been a VW Beetle, but he's a freaking Chevy Camaro in the movie! Well, at least Starscream is a F22 Raptor.


The original Transformers movie took chances too. Hell, they killed off every fan's favorite hero, Optimus Prime, within the first 30 minutes! Now that sucked, especially since they changed the American cartoon to reflect the changes from the movie - it turned from cool to very lame instantly. Very, very lame. Hopefully a new box set DVD will be released when the new movie comes closer to release.

Till then, I'll just enjoy the episodes that I've downloaded. Here's the intro to the American cartoon - just for that warm feeling retro stuff gives. Enjoy. =D

Must get!

There are some things that a game collector would really want to get, and there are some things that a game collector really has to get. It's no secret that I really love Shadow of the Colossus. I still have yet to beat all 16 colossi in normal time attack as well as the hard mode. I'm planning on getting around to those soon.

I normally don't like statues, or large figurines, but I think in this case I'll make an exception just because it's from this game. What I like most about this figurine is that the Wanderer is standing in front of the colossus with his head tilted all the way up to look at his adversary. Really cool, in my opinion.

The thing that is holding me back from getting one is the price - US$88 not including shipping and handling from overseas! If only I knew a place here in Orange County that sells them. Although I would think the price would be jacked up to $120 or so. =
A gamer could still wish though.

Sony Fucked Up

Those three words have summed up my thoughts on the PS3. Hell, I can even say the same for the PSP. From the look of it, Sony has no clear goal for their PlayStation brand. Sure they're the leader of the pack in the current generation systems, but what about the future? What does Sony have in store for us?

Higher prices for one. Cool looking games, sure. But are cool graphics worth paying a $600 base for? (Not to mention the $60+ for each game.)

The PSP offers PS2 quality graphics in handheld form. But at the cost of a base $250 and $50 per game. Not very affordable for a market in which the norm price for a game is $30.

So why, if I may ask, is Sony trying to force new types of media on us? Way back when they tried to get us interested in BetaMax or MiniDisc. Sure they may have had higher quality, but when a BetaMax tape costs $50? No thanks. Sony is doing the same thing now. UMD and Blu-Ray. Of course, UMD is already dead. No one wants to pay $30 for a movie that you can only view on a tiny 3-inch LCD screen (with no extras on the disc either). Blu-Ray isn't looking cheap either. In my opinion, the rumored $60 for a movie is asking a lot.

This brings me to my next point. Why buy such an expensive system that plays expensive media when our home systems are not even capable of displaying images of that quality? I don't know about you, but I sure as hell cannot afford a 1080p TV. Is Sony trying to force customers to upgrade before they really want to?

With that said, is the PS3 worth the asking price? Based on what we all saw at E3, I'd have to say no. What is the PS3 offering other than the same stuff that we've already seen? MGS4 looks pretty, sure, but odds are that Konami will port the game to the Xbox 360 in order to make any profit. I'm expecting more and more development houses to focus on the Xbox 360 now that customers know the asking price of the PS3.

I don't know about you, but the Xbox 360 is a lot more appealing now. It's certainly more affordable and offers similar games if not the exact same game for comparable quality. I'll most likely be joining the likes of these gamers and buy the Wii and Xbox 360 combo.

Yes, I'll miss out on several game from favorite developers. I'll miss the ICO team's PS3 game and possibly Final Fantasy XIII and MGS4. And if 3rd party games such as FF XIII and MGS4 stay on PS3, I'll just have to wait until the PS3 becomes more affordable in 5 years.

Oh and Sony, way to go fucking up the Cell processor and increasing the PS3's price for the sake of keeping backwards compatibility.

Who'd have thought that I'd be buying an Xbox 360? OMG, the sky must be faling! And for that matter, where's my Wii? Gaming will be fine without Sony.

Still in shock

It's been a good two weeks after E3 2006 and I, as well as many other gamers across the globe, am still reeling from the stick shock price of the PS3. I'm so shocked, in fact, that the Xbox 360 is looking to be the more attractive secondary console for me. Naturally, this will all depend on whether Microsoft can pull the big titles away from Sony.

In my opinion, Sony seems to be digging the deepest grave in the history of grave making when they claim that the PS3 will overtake/replace PCs. I also feel that Sony should just admit that they're scared of the Wiimote. It really couldn't be more obvious than it already is.


I'm confused by Microsoft and Sony's designs for their next-gen systems. While consoles from Nintendo are getting smaller and smaller. My understanding in the Japanese market is that they prefer smaller electronics since their apartments are extremely small. I assumed that this was one of the deciding factors of the Xbox in the Japanese market. I could be wrong though.

I think it's sad that Microsoft will eventually pull the plug on backwards compatibility for the Xbo 360. Most of the 200+ Xbox games that are ready to play on the 360 suck major ass. Could they at least get Panzer Dragoon Orta working? I'd be happy if they got that working. I'm also more than positive that there are plenty of people that want to play their Xbox games on their 360. They're not showing interest plainly because Microsoft is emulating the wrong games.


Occasionally, we play Super Smash Bros. Melee at the office. I knew I was bad at the game, but playing with the guys at GameSpy really showed me how bad I really am. Regardless of coming in 4th place 99% of the time, it's a blast to play. I'm really looking forward to Wii's Super Smash Bros. Brawl, especially the online mode because then I'll be able to play Smash Bros. with my friends back in South San Francisco.


When I first heard that the Transformers animated movie was being released on DVD, I was hoping for a higher quality transfer. Needless to say, I was really disappointed with the lack of widescreen mode and a low quality video transfer. Years later, I'm pleased to hear that the movie will be getting the DVD release that I've been wanting all this time. To celebrate this release, Hasbro is also releasing a tribute line of toys in November. Starscream and Optimus Prime look particularly cool. While he is back in his gun-form, Megatron is nowhere near as cool as he was in the 1980's.

As if November (Fall-Winter 2006) wasn't expensive enough already. =D

My Review of E3 2006

I was going to comment on the Nintendo and Microsoft press conferences like I did with the Sony conference, but I decided that it'd be more interesting for myself if I actually wrote about my first hand experience at E3.


This E3 was all about Nintendo. Seriously. Just the line to get into the Nintendo Wii booth was at least a 4 hour wait average. Don't believe me? Check out the lines. Of course, once you get inside, there are more lines for the Wii games themselves. Was the wait worth it? Hell yes. Every demo inside the Wii booth displayed the depth of thought that the developers are putting into the Wii.

Wii Sports looks like a fun party game. Metroid Prime 3 and Red Steel look like promising FPS style games. Although, Metroid looks far better than Red Steel does. (I do have a small reservation about the wiimote and FPS games: turning. Turning is done very slowly, as you have to aim the wiimote off screen in order to turn.) Tony Hawk and Excite Truck showed a promising future for racing games and maybe finally we'll have actual realistic analog input for racing. Finally, even EA's Madden managed to use the wiimote effectively.


The game I waited in line for was Zelda: Twilight Princess. I waited 45 minutes just to play the game for 5. That 5 minutes of game time with Zelda on the Wii was worth my 2 hour wait to get in (I'll talk about that later) and the 45 minute wait in line in the unairconditioned Nintendo booth. For being on GameCube hardware, Zelda looked beautiful. But the important thing is how the wiimote is used in the Zelda universe. The demo mainly centered around Link's bow and arrows. I loved the experience, but had some trouble aiming due to the controller being too sensitive. I'm more than positive Nintendo will polish this as time goes by but the demo served its purpose showing how games will be played in the future.


I really wanted to play Super Mario Galaxy as well (only got to play Zelda and Madden), but after spending about 3.5 hours in the Nintendo booth on Friday morning/afternoon I felt that I should give myself a chance to see the other booths before the show closed for the year.


Next to the insanely packed Nintendo booth was the relatively empty Sony booth. All of the PS3 games sucked ass. In fact, the only memorable thing from Sony was during their press conference. Sure they looked nice... but not $600 nice. The only PS3 game I tried was Warhawk and I only tried that game for one reason - to check out the new PS3 controller. First off, yes, the controller is extremely light and feels cheap. I guess that's to be expected when the controller was hacked together in less than two weeks before the start of E3. The Warhawk demo was the only game that made use of the PS3 controllers tilt functionality and it was implemented very poorly. Unlike the seemless motion based controls on the Wii games, I found myself repeatedly trying to control the ship with the left analog stick rather than tilting the controller. It also didn't help that there was a couple millisecond delay between my tilting and the movement on screen. Sony's fault was keeping the familiar dual shock style controller. It's just not meant for spacial movement. The only other game I wanted to try out at the Sony booth was God of War 2, but I forgot about that game until after the show closed.

I didn't spend all that much time at the Microsoft booth. There wasn't really anything on Xbox 360 to see. I would have checked out Gears of War had it been on the show floor. Doesn't make sense to not have the currently overhyped Xbox 360 game on the show floor. When something like this is done, it either means there's something wrong with the game or the game is still in the pre-alpha phase of development. Not good for Microsoft.

Spore was another game I wanted to see in person, but it was only available via another wait in line for a private screening. Lame.


I wanted to go to this year's E3 for one reason: Wii. I saw it, I touched the wiimote, and I got to play Zelda. Considering what else was on the show floor, I could have stayed in the Nintendo booth all day and still go home happy.

The second most memorable moment of E3 2006 was my wait in line for the Wii. Two hours into the queue, I decided to get on Pictochat to search for other DS owners in line to start up a game of Tetris DS. Soon after we started, a Nintendo rep came by and asked for the people who just started a Tetris DS game via Pictochat. We were asked to leave the line and immediately enter the Nintendo Wii booth as invited guests. Sweet.

Is there anything Sony won't rip-off?

Sony held their E3 press conference today to, I'm guessing, the excitement of many gamers worldwide. Obviously the main focus was to show off what the PS3 can actually do. I'll give Sony some credit - what they showed did look good... but only if it was real time. As of right now, I can't tell. I have to wait for IGN to host their HD quality video before I'll be able to tell.

Sony started off their conference like they always do - with a bunch of bullshit. PS2 is so great 'cause it sold all these millions. Blah, blah, blah. Yeah, we all know you sold a lot of crap to a lot of stupid people. Sometimes you sold awesome games, but they were never markted to the stupid people. The stupid people are missing out on great games.

Anyway, Sony then started going on about their PSP and how it is "unrivaled". Well, if unrivaled means getting its ass kicked 10 times over and then getting /spit on while their down by the Nintendo DS then Sony is correct. But for those of us who are in reality, the PSP is tanking. The UMD format has failed and believe it or not, the handheld market still shows that quality games rules over graphics quality. I wonder why this doesn't also apply to the home console market.


The first PlayStation 3 game Sony showed off was Gran Turismo HD. But before you get your hopes up, please note that Kazunori Yamauchi specifically said that Polyphony took Gran Turismo 4 and upgraded the graphics. That tells me one thing - GT HD is nothing but a cheap lame-ass port of a lame PS2 game. Polyphony Digital has really gone downhill over the last 5 years. It's a shame really...

An interesting demo using the next EyeToy was shown next. Basically you lay down cards on a grid and the EyeToy will "read" the cards and display creatures on screen. Hand motions will then instruct those creatures. If they wanted to, Wizards of the Coast could make a pretty neat Magic the Gathering video game with that technology.

Skipping the old trailers from last year and the usual garbage EA had to show...


Final Fantasy XIII looks very pretty. Look carefully though, as usual Square-Enix mixes pre-rendered video and actual gameplay. Unless I'm wrong and the PS3 more powerful than the render-farm Square used to make Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children. If the FFXIII trailer was all real-time, then that's some mighty raw power the PS3 is packing. I still have my doubts though.



What PlayStation launch is complete without showing off a new Metal Gear, in this case, Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots. Kojima Productions always out does themselves. It's really insane how much more effort they put into their games than everyone else. Too bad I won't be able to play MGS4 for many years...


Because the price of the PS3 is $499 (with 20GB harddrive) and $599 (with 60GB harddrive). OMG WTF! Is it just me or is Sony asking a lot of money? Also, what is the need to have two versions of the PS3? If you look at the pictures above, you can clearly see that the one of the left is the gimp Ps3. It's missing the HDMI port and according to IGN, it's also missing several other features. That is fucking lame. Having two separate system packages at launch will only lead to confusion, customer dis-satisfaction, and low supplies of a console that's already low in supply. Didn't Sony learn anything from the Xbox 360 launch fiasco?


Sony yet again shows that they have no imagination of their own as they showed off the new PS3 controller. Gladly, it looks like the tried and true PS2 controller and is wireless. Oddly enough, if you get the gimp package, the controller doesn't have rumble feature. The real kicker is that the PS3 controller can also sense 6 motions, or in other words, has spacial controls. Gee, I wonder where Sony got that idea? I'll see how this hacked spacial controller works when I attend E3 this Friday. My thought is that Sony is playing catch up to Nintendo but from the description, the PS3 controller has no where near the spacial ability of the Wii. Sony also ripped off Microsoft's Xbox-button, as you can see.

Overall, I felt the press conference was boring but there were some good surprises. I also appreciate Sony's acknowledgement that Nintendo is on the right path.

E3 2006!

I have high hopes for this year's E3 to be very exciting and interesting. Last year was a huge disappointment thanks to the poor showing from the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 as well as the Nintendo Wii not being present at all.

Like many gamers, I've been dying to see how the Wii plays. At this point in time, I can't even imagine how the gameplay for Mario Revolution will be. How can we just use that wand controller to move Mario around the Mushroom Kingdom? How will Smash Bros. Revolution or Mario Kart Revolution play? And for that matter... will it they online playable at launch? It'd kick so much ass if they were and I hope Nintendo realizes this too.

For this Nintendo fan, it's both an exhilarating and scary time.

Like they did with the N64, Nintendo is attempting to show the industry new ways of interacting with the game worlds. I remember thinking the same things I'm thinking now about how would analog controls work in a video game when Mario 64 was announced. Of course, now using analog controls are a tried and true standard. Will the same be said about spacial controls in five years? I certainly hope so, because pressing the A button to swing a tennis racket is nothing like actually making a swinging motion to swing a tennis racket.

Even better still, I'll be going to this year's E3. First thing that I'm gonna do when I get there? Head straight to the Nintendo booth and get in line to play the Wii. Even if that's the only thing I get to do at E3, I'll go home extremely happy.

Cell Phone Gaming? LOL

During a previous interview, I remember being told that cell phone games are going to be the wave of the future for gaming. As I said before in a previous blog post, there's no chance in hell of that ever happening. Earlier this week, Slashdot posted news that shows that I'm right. So I give a /golfclap to those poor people working for the cell phone gaming industry. You tried your best, and the only games that are selling are Tetris and Pac-Man. Woohoo.

Try as they might to convince people, the fact remains is that gamers aren't interested in gaming on phones. Hell, even the people I interviewed with admitted that they'd rather play a game on a console than on a cell phone. It is true that cell phone gaming is popular in Japan, but you have to figure in the fact that the main method of travel in Japan is public transit. That's a lot of free time for Japanese gamers to play portable games or read manga.

EA FTL

EA, in all it's wisdom, has stated that development for the Nintendo Wii/Revolution is very difficult thanks to it not being HD and not being as powerful as a PS3 or Xbox360. This is very hypocritical of EA, as they have previously stated that the reason for the craptacular Xbox360 launch titles was due to the difficulty in developing for the powerful platform. So what exactly is the reason for EA sucking major ass?

How can it be difficult to develop for the Wii/Revolution as it is basically a "Super GameCube"? My understanding is that the APIs have barely changed at all. Is HD gaming hard to develop for or not? Make up your damn mind and stop feeding us crap excuses to cover up for your laziness. Yeah, that's right, EA is the absolute laziest developer in the industry. The real reason why they make up crap that Wii/Revolution is hard to develop for is because they're too fucking lazy to think up how to effectively use the console's unique controller. Need evidence? Look at their Nintendo DS releases. Nothing original at all - just GBA ports with half-assed touch screen functionality added. Fucking lame.

EA has gone on record stating that Madden Wii/Revolution isn't a port but a unique title that will effectively use the controller. I wouldn't put my hopes up. EA is willing to say anything and everything in order to sell a game - even if it's for a platform the don't believe in.

I'm pleased to see that EA is losing money. I'm hoping that it's a sign that casual gamers are no longer satisfied with being fed the same rehashed games year after year. Maybe they're finally interested in trying something new, something different. In order for the industry to continue increasing their consumer base, the rehashes will have to go.

So EA, get off your ass and stop being lazy. It's damn time that you actually earn that money and praise.

Wii? Oui, Wii.

I'm sure you've read, or at leasts heard, of the new name for the Nintendo Revolution: Wii. Video game journalists have had a lot to say about the new name. I had to endure an entire day of on and off long discussions about it at work. Not an easy thing considering I'm not even in the GameSpy department. Despite all the noise, it was fun to overhear.

Naturally, all the talk has been about whether this is actually a good name for the console or not. To me, a name is just a name. Wii may sound silly as a console name, but the fact still remains that it is a Nintendo console that will have exclusive Nintendo titles. That's all that I ask from my Nintendo console. Nintendo could call it anything and I would still buy it at launch because you just can't get anything like Nintendo games on any other console out there.

It seems to me that people have also forgot the purpose of a name - to get consumers to remember the product when they go to buy something. The name has to be catchy and rememorable. Regardless of whether you like it or not, you will remember the Wii when you go to your local video game store. Nintendo FTW. That's right, FTW.


I don't know why, but I'm still excitied to get FF7: Advent Children on DVD later this week. I've seen it already... months ago when it should have been released, but wasn't for whatever stupid reason. My only guess is that seeing it as an .avi file will never be the same as watching it on DVD. I wish Amazon would hurry up and ship it to me.

New Beginnings

It's been a while since I've posted here. I guess it's time to let everyone know what I've been up to.

Most importantly, I have finally secured a new job! No more temporary/contract employment for me. Full time employee baby! =D

I'm still a part of the gaming industry, but instead of development, I'm going to be in digital retail. Specifically, Direct2Drive.com as their DRM Admin. It's pretty neat stuff and a very exciting opportunity as digital retail is growing very rapidly.

I guess I was looking in all the wrong places. Game development is harsh. Programming, designing, and even QA are all very selective and strict. They're tough jobs to get, and even harder to keep. For many months now, I was trying to be a part of that. Temp work isn't satisfying to me, so it was time to move on.


Aside from getting a new job, I've been very active playing WoW. I figured that with a new job, I wouldn't get to play as much so I'm enjoying it while I still can. The best part is that I finally got my epic weapon: Benediction. It took me three attempts on the quest before I was able to get my weapon. Not too bad, I guess. Guildie of mine had like 12 attempts... poor guy.

Have I mentioned how kick ass, MGS3: Subsistence's online mode is? If not, it rocks. The gameplay is seemless from the single player story. They didn't dumb down the gameplay to FPS style, nor did they add anything that would break the MGS formula. Bliss.

Keeping my new found enjoyment of getting gamers to enjoy their games, I wrote a FAQ for MGS3's online mode. I wrote it to help people with their problems of getting online and not being able to host games. I think it worked out pretty well, as I've been getting many emails from gamers sending their thanks. Those thank you's made it worth all the effort.

As if I wasn't tempted enough to buy an Apple MacBook Pro, those nerds at Apple go and release software to allow their Intel Mac owners dual boot Windows XP. I think it's safe to say that there now is absolutely zero excuse for not owning a Mac. I'm thinking about saving up for one. =)

What is the future of gaming?

So yeah? What is the future of gaming? Listening to Microsoft, Sony, or Nintendo doesn't help - they will all say that their way is the future. If you've been talking with me on a regular basis, you'll know that I'm placing my bets with Nintendo. I always have, and always will. Nintendo hasn't let me down yet.

The only reason I bring this topic up is because of a recent job interview I had. I won't mention the company to save themselves from their own embarassment, but I'll say that they are a big player in the mobile phone gaming industry.

Anyway, during the interview they made a very bold statement. They said that mobile phones are the future of video gaming. They backed up this claim with sales numbers of both mobile phone sales and console sales. (Don't ask me why they were preaching business stuff during a job interview, I didn't get it either.) Finally, they claimed that mobile phone games will overtake and kill the console games industry in the near future.

So yeah, sales numbers... Hmm... Well, let's start off from the basics. Cell phones. Nearly everyone has them nowdays. These little phones, once luxury items, do quite a number of amazing things. You can take pictures with them, capture video clips, listen to music, watch tv, browse the web, play games, chat on Instant Messenger, PDA functionality, and some even let you talk to other people where ever you please. OMFG!

Mobile phone games are growing in sales, I'll admit that. Have you ever stopped to think why they're selling so well and why the game developers are making so much money off of them? Here's what I think. Mobile phones are very simple computers. Their main function, at least I would hope, is to allow the user to talk on the phone where ever they may be at the time. Secondary to this, would be the extra features that people pay so much money for. As such, raw processing power for gaming can be limiting at times (depending on the phone). This will mean that games will have to stay reletively simplistic in order to: (1) run smoothly on a given phone and (2) be able to fit in the phone's small amount of flash RAM. This fact makes cell phone games cheap to produce and with minimal staff. What corporation wouldn't love them?

These games go for an average of $5. Five dollars is a magic number to consumers. Kind of like what $20 means to a console game buyer. People would buy a game and not care at all how well the it plays or if it's fun at all. "This game sucks ass, but oh well it was only five bucks." This fact alongside the fact that these games are cheap as fuck to produce, is the reason that the mobile phone industry is making so much money.

I will never trade my console games and handheld console games for a mobile phone game. Never.

To me, cellular phones are just a means to talk to people and for those people to reach me whenever. All of those secondary features I mentioned above are crap on cell phones. Would you trade a digital camera for a cell phone camera? Would you trade Firefox to browse the web on your cell phone? Chatting on Instant Messenger is surely a lot easier, not to mention cheaper, on your PC. And unless you have a phone with PalmOS, the PDA functionality is piss poor. So why would you want trade your consoles to play games on a cell phone?

Mobile phone gaming exists purely as a time waster. I certainly wouldn't play a cell phone game for enjoyment. I can't even stand my cell phone's games. My cell phone's blackjack game lets the dealer win on pushes. I'd only touch that garbage when I'm waiting for my girlfriend to finish trying on new shoes. Even then, I'd rather watch her try on shoes than play a cell phone game.

Remeber the N-Gage? Gizmondo? Tapwave Zodiac? These all represent the mobile gaming industry. Where are they now?

So let's talk about the real future of gaming. I'm sad to say that I still don't like what the Xbox 360 has to offer. Well okay, I'm not sad at all. Burnout Revenge on the Xbox 360 looks nice, but I've had my 100 hours of gameplay on both the PS2 and Xbox. That console has been out for four months now and the best game is a port from the XBox. Sad, indeed.

Okay, now I'm really going to talk about the future of gaming. In a cool move, Sony announced that the PS3 is going to have region free gaming like the PSP. While MGS4: Guns of the Patriots looks freaking awesome, I'm really turned off by the rumors of the PS3's launch price. $500-800 does not sound like an optimal price to me.

I'm still very much looking forward to the Nintendo Revolution and what it'll offer for gaming. I just wish I knew more...

The Nintendo DS never ceases to amaze me. It's unbelieveable that I'm having so much fun with Tetris DS, especially its online modes. The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass looks very cool.

Subsistence. Persistence. Existence.

Much to my delight, Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence has finally arrived. Well, delight and disappointment but only because I still have yet to finish the original Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater. Shame on me.


If you know me, you'd know that I really like to collect video games as well as play them. I'm usually more than happy to pay more for a game just to get some stupid little extra. It doesn't really change my experience of the game - that's just the way I am. Pretty silly if you think about it. Anyway, I just had to get my hands on the Limited Edition version of MGS3: Subsistence for the extra 3rd disc which contains a movie like edit of the game's cutscenes.

For some reason, this 3rd disc is only playable on the PS2. Why I don't know. The video isn't rendered in real time like they are when you play the game. Instead we get a moderately high compressed video that could, and should, have been playable in DVD players. In my opinion, since Existence is only playable on the PS2, it should have rendered the scenes in real time so the video quality would be better. I haven't watched all of the Existence movie, I don't want to ruin the story development that I haven't seen in the game yet, I just watched the intro to see what it was like.


I have spent a good amount of time playing the online mode though. It's pretty damn fun. Aiming is a bit difficult, 1st person camera is useless, and claymores don't seem to work. Those are my biggest complaints so far. I just had to get used to the aiming system, which is odd since I don't think it's changed since Snake Eater was released. It could just be the new camera mode.

I'll comment on the new camera mode once I've gotten a chance to play around with it. Until then, it's time to finish Snake Eater and play Metal Gear Online during my breaks.

PixelBlocks

I just opened my latest blog which is dedicated solely to recreating my favorite video game characters using PixelBlocks. I hope you find it as interesting as I do!

WoW

It's been some time since I last updated my blog. There's been a good amount of stuff for me to comment on since then and I've been wondering what subject I'll talk about next. But I realized, why think so much about a blog post? It's about damn time to just talk about me having fun playing games.

I've been working on getting MGS3: Snake Eater finished before MGS3: Subsistence comes out next month. Those plans have been mostly delayed thanks to the Winter Olympics and World of WarCraft. Now that the Olympics are over, I should be playing more MGS3 (since my TV is now once again free of sports programming).

The World of WarCraft server I play on just recently had its Gates of Ahn'Qiraj opened. As you can see from the screenshot above, Silithus was jam packed with players wanting to join in on the opening events. At 9:00:00PM the gates were opened. At 9:00:01PM, the server crashed. Three times, to be exact. The madness didn't stop there. For the next two hours after the opening, that I played, I experienced the most amount of lag that I've ever seen since the times when I played WoW via dial-up. Ugh. Let's not forget to mention the extreme queue times my server is now experiencing. Anyway, despite the lag and the crashes, the event was a total blast. Sometimes it's just fun to get in a guild raid and kill things mindlessly without having to worry about strategies. We even tried to take out a huge ass bug, which naturally kicked the crap out of us in 5 minutes. Rage mode FTW.

This Saturday (Feb 25, 2006) I finally was able to join the guild raid kill of Ragnaros and thus have killed every boss in Molten Core. Naturally, I had to take a screenshot. Sure everyone else has taken a similar screenshot, but what the hell, I was proud of having completed Molten Core. Who's that silly druid in the background ruining my picture? I'm still waiting for the priests with more DKP to get their Eye of Divinity so I can finally get my stupid Benediction staff. Freaking Major Domo should drop an EoD everytime he's killed!

Against my money-saving-inner-voice, I went ahead and imported Street Fighter Zero 3 for the PSP. It came with this attachment that is supposed to improve the PSP's dpad. I can't really say whether it'd work or not because I'd rather not glue a permanent and ugly attachment over my PSP's dpad. Other than the PSP's stupid controls, SFZ3 for the PSP is awesome. Arcade perfection in portable form. Makes me kinda want to find SFA3 for the GBA and compare them. I still wouldn't recommend buying a PSP though. It's over a year old now and still without any games that make it stand out. Oh well, I'm stuck with my stupid purchase. At least I didn't buy an expensive space heater. coughxbox360cough.

I also bought Mega Man: Maverick Hunter X for the PSP despite recently buying the Mega Man X Collection for the GCN. I just wanted to see what they changed. For the most part, the game is exactly the same. All Capcom did was change the layout of a couple stages to incorporate the changed locations of the armor upgrades. A nice touch was adding a new difficulty and a new game where you can play as Vile. Pretty cool stuff. Playing as Vile is a nice new challenge that I'm enjoying. I wonder if they'll update the other Mega Man X games too.

Mega Man: Maverick Hunter X also included a demo of the upcoming update to Mega Man 1. I can't stand this game. Mega Man is rendered in the super deformed style. I can't correctly time my jumps at all thanks to the huge ass head that Mega Man has now. It may sound stupid... but it really is the truth. My jumping and timing is all thrown off by the art style. I'll stick to my Mega Man Anniversary Collection.

I'd love to go to E3 this year so I can play some Revolution games. I can't wait!

Stop ruining the fun for everyone else

I was at the Sunnyvale Golfland Arcade today with some of my friends for its special $6-infinite-play evening. It was very nice. Not too many people. Nearly all arcade games set to Free Play. Bliss... or so I would think.

There is one aspect of the arcade scene that I do not like at all. You know those people that are better at you at acrade games like Street Fighter II? Did you know that the majority of them are total jerks? You see them standing around watching other people's games and seemingly not interested in using a free machine on their own. Well, that is until you sit down to play the game yourself. They wait until you put your money in and play a couple of games before they decide to join in and just ruin all your fun. This doesn't matter as much for an infinite play evening, but the idea is still the same.

Why do these asses have to ruin all your fun? Yes, I know I'm not that good of a gamer as you are. I don't fucking care if you can play Street Fighter II with one hand tied behind your back (yes, that happened tonight to a friend of mine). It's a nice and impressive skill I'm sure, but it's both impractical in real play and makes you look like a jerk all at the same time.

So why bother showing off? Do you get a boost to your ego for beating up on a n00b or average gamer? No one benefits from these actions. It only ruins the fun for the average arcade gamers. If you had any honor, you'd try your fancy one-handed street fighting against a fellow expert street fighter. Do that to show off your skill. And I must stress this point again, beating up on n00bs or average gamers just makes you look like an asshole.

Of course, there are also those people that insist on insulting you while you're playing. "Oh my god you suck." "Holy crap, don't you know what you're doing?" "Get off the machine, you're wasting people's time." You know what? It's people like these that ruin the arcade experience. Arcades are not just for the expert gamers. They're for everyone to enjoy. Arcades are a place for both serious competition and friendly carefree gaming.

You want to know the real reason why arcades are fading away? It's because of the jerks that think they own the place just because they can pwn n00bs. To those jerks, all I have to say is: Get a fucking life and let the average arcade gamer have their fun.

Microsoft knows not of shame

Microsoft has announced that Halo 2 will be released for the PC. If this a normal Halo product announcement, I'd be saying "who gives a fuck" right about now. But this isn't a normal Halo product announcement. Microsoft, in all of its glory and wisdom, has announced that Halo 2 will be only for PCs with the Windows Vista operating system. Now, PCs aren't video game consoles. But hell, I think this is just a low brow attempt on Microsoft's part to make people upgrade to their new resource hog of an OS. So not only do the PC gamers that want to play Halo 2 on their PC (all 3 of them) have to buy the new OS, but they have to buy hardware that is compatible and powerful enough to run it. That's a huge kick in the already drained wallet of a gamer.

What next I wonder? Every 5 years will Microsoft release a new version of Microsoft Office that only runs on the latest OS? Are we going to be forced to buy booster packs for Vista just to get the latest security upgrades? I'm sure there will be tons of upgrades and hotfixes. Shits and giggles abound.

If there's one thing I hate Microsoft for, it's for allowing developers to patch their Xbox games after their released. I expect that for the PC just because there is so much variation it's almost impossible to get everything working 100% on every system configuration. Patching doesn't belong in consoles. It makes developers lazy. Instead of making the game the best it can be when it launches, developers will just "half-ass it and fix it later if anyone notices" as seen in many of Team Ninja's games.

I'm sure there are benefits to being able to add content to a console game. New maps are always nice I guess. How many people actually use the downloaded maps for those game though? I'd say only the fanatics do. I'd like to see more effort on developers' parts on getting the game right the first time. Isn't that more important than having your game look like a hack job?

Spartan: Total Warrior

As I mentioned in a previous post, I’ve been playing Spartan: Total Warrior since the beginning of the New Year. I know that in that post I said I would have a review for the game ready in a couple of days, but I never foresaw the difficulties I would have in the story mode, and thus I did not review the game until now.

Visually, Spartan is impressive. The environments for each of the missions are nicely detailed and full of life. Even more impressive is that while playing, the player will be surrounded (literally) by at least several dozen NPCs and/or enemy soldiers. Sure, the NPCs and soldiers have a low polygon count, but this is understandable given that so many enemies are on screen at one time. You’ll never notice this while fighting anyway.

At the heart of Spartan is a classic arcade style beat-em up that successfully recreates the gameplay that is expected from the genre. The controls, for the most part, are very simple with the face buttons consisting of vertical and horizontal attacks, jumping, and a context sensitive action button. The controls become slightly more complicated when dealing with button combinations to block, deflect enemies, roll, or shoot arrows. Rolling to avoid enemy attacks is somewhat useless, as you are not given direct control over which direction you roll in. Instead a roll will circle about the nearest enemy.

My biggest complaint about the control style is how the game handles shooting arrows. Rather than giving the player an easy means of aiming their shot, the aiming system will automatically lock on the nearest enemy and force the player to slowly shift through the queue of targets one by one before selecting that barrel that they want to blow up. Keep in mind that the player is still vulnerable to attack while selecting their target. It’s not the best aiming system for such a high paced game. It only leads to frustration and could have been easily avoided by implementing an aiming system like the one found in Resident Evil 4.

Each mission in the game is basically the Spartan vs. the entire enemy army. There’s hardly a moment when the Spartan isn’t surrounded by at least 20 or so enemy soldiers. Each mission has its own set of objectives ranging from setting buildings on fire, destroying key enemy resources, or the dreaded “protect the NPC(s)”. Protecting NPCs in this game isn’t as bad as in others, but only if you run ahead of the NPCs and kill the soldiers before the NPC gets there. If you don’t do that, the NPCs literally commit suicide by running up to attack the soldiers. Unarmed citizens versus battle hardened Romans – you get the picture.

The missions as a whole don’t provide much variety. Most of the challenge comes from being surrounded at all times by the enemy – naturally, you can only block in one direction at a time. However, the biggest problem with the game comes from the way the missions themselves are divided. Each mission has at least three submissions where upon completing a submission, the game will autosave your progress. This is kind of a mixed blessing as while I appreciate not having to restart a mission from the beginning, I usually found myself too low on health to face the onslaught of the remaining Roman army. The low number of health recharge stations and the fact that enemies won’t drop health unless you’re nearly dead doesn’t help this issue. (If you’re curious to know, this alone was the reason for my long time it took me to write this review).

I’d also like to point out that this game would have greatly benefited with multiplayer capabilities. Killing soldiers by yourself is fun, but if your friend(s) can join in would make it all the more fun.

There is also an Arena mode that lets you use the unlocked items from mission play in a gladiator style battle. It is a novel concept but I found it to be less fun than the missions because of the total lack of mission objectives. In the arena, your only mission is to survive the waves and wave of soldiers and get a high score – fun for a while, but gets old pretty quickly.

Needless to say, even with all of these complaints Spartan: Total Warrior is still a very enjoyable game. It may be a frustrating experience at times, but if it didn’t have these challenges it would have been a very generic beat-em up. I especially like that you are able to replay any of your favorite missions at any time after you’ve completed it.

If you enjoy beat-em ups like Final Fight or Dynasty Warriors, you should check out Spartan: Total Warrior. Let’s all hope that there will be multiplayer modes in the sequel.

Dumbass Quote of the Century

"Nintendo games aren't going to hold up."

That's what Xbox Live Arcade manager Greg Canessa has to say about Nintendo's Virtual Console technology in the upcoming Revolution. Is he really suggesting that games like Bejeweled, Joust, and Breakout have more and longer lasting appeal than Super Mario Bros. and The Legend of Zelda? Or is he just being hypocritical? Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't Xbox Live Arcade just a fancy GUI based emulator as well?

A friend of mine, Shay from Rattox.com, says: "If a game is good, it's good forever." That statement is mostly correct (with a few exceptions). If a game was fun 20 years ago, it doesn't mean that it's still not fun today? If Canessa's feelings were true, then why is there such demand for retro games?

In the end, Microsoft should be pleased. For once, Nintendo is actually taking another company's idea. It's just that when Nintendo does it, it'll be better thanks to the much richer game library and history.

It's okay to be jealous, Mr. Canessa.

Shadow of the Colossus Art Book

Amazon.co.jp has a listing for a Shadow of the Colossus Art Book that includes pictures of unused colossi. Pretty neat stuff, as shown by this forum post on Games Are Fun. Again, I wish more merchandise like this would reach our shores (without having to import).

Nintendo DS lite

What the heck just happened? Didn't Nintendo just say that there's no redesign in the works for the Nintendo DS? And yet, here we are with a new announcement that the Nintendo DS lite will be released on March 2nd.

Now, I don't mind the redesign all that much. Sure I'm annoyed that Nintendo keeps releasing better designed handheld systems after I buy them, but it's something that I should be used to and expect from Nintendo by now. I was never really happy with the NDS design anyway. To me, it's too bulky and heavy to be a portable system. The NDS lite's design is not all that dissimilar to the design that I drew in a previous post. The main point of my drawing was to show that the new design would be slimmer. My guess was correct (I even guessed correctly about a brighter screen!).

Based on the image that Nintendo provided, it seems as though the directional pad and face buttons will be made of the same plastic that is used for the GameBoy Micro's buttons. Good choice. Something that I don't like is how the bottom LCD screen seems to be elevated (or at least have a ridge around the screen). This ridge/elevation is on the original NDS design as well, but it seems more pronounced in the NDS lite.

Sony could learn a thing or two from this design (another of Nintendo's seemingly Apple inspired designs). Note that the Nintendo DS can no longer be powered off by accident (power button is now in a similar position as it is on the GBm - or seems to be at least). I've never had that problem with the NDS myself, but others complain about it now and then. And while Select and Start have been moved, they seem to be very easily accessible still.

The real question to me is: Will it continue to use the old GBA SP/NDS charger or use the GBm charger? Hopefully it'll be either one. Yet another charger would suck. I also think Nintendo has learned its lesson about not having a standard headphone audio jack in their systems, so there should be no problem about that. I'd also like to know if Nintendo is going to replace the crappy volume slider in the NDS. I hate the volume slider on the NDS. It sucks - I can never adjust the volume to a level that I like.

Looks like I'm replacing my bulky NDS afterall.

Six days...

I haven't posted lately about Shadow of the Colossus. I haven't lost interest in the game yet - I've just been busy with other games. I only write about SotC today to inform everyone that in less than six days, SotC will be finally released in Europe. Those poor gamers had to wait a long time for this game. Believe me Europe, it's worth the wait. Sony has officially updated the Shadow of the Colossus website for those new languages.

The one thing that bothers me though is that the European version of the website has a much more artistic design that fits the SotC universe. It is far better than the Japanese and American versions. This leads me back to my previous complaints about box art for American games. Why does America get these cold and unartistic designs? Is it just a matter of getting the game logo in as big a print as possible? Or is it that publishers (or marketers) think that artistic designs won't sell the product?

At least give us something relevant to the game's universe and subject matter, okay guys? Let there be no more fiascos like that of ICO. Thanks.

My week in review

My week has been pretty eventful. The majority of it was spent playing Spartan: Total Warrior - a game I recently received in the mail. I'll be reviewing it in a day or so.


If you didn't already notice, I achieved my first Onyxia kill on Friday. It's something I'm very proud of. The battle seemed very basic overall due to Onyxia's limited AI. Don't get me wrong, the battle was still challenging - she hits very hard. You try playing as a priest and keeping your group healed along with the main tank. =D

The battle did remind me of fighting the dragon boss from Phantasy Star Online. In either case, it was damn cool. I can't wait to go to Onyxia's Lair again.

While I was out shopping earlier this week, I got the chance to try out the Black demo from EA. Hmm... I suppose I should choose my words carefully from here on. Let's put it this way. Based on what I played, Black seems like an average FPS. The only differences I saw were an AI system that is seemingly loosely based on AI found in Halo and that hiding behind objects is now out of the question as bullets now destroy windows, walls, cars, barrels, etc. Of course, while I did find it neat that games like Black now have more realistic bullets and physics, I should point out that Black seemingly does not do anything else to push the envelope of the FPS gameplay style to make them interesting again. We'll have to wait to see if Black offers anything more than just faster paced gameplay. I personally wouldn't hold my breath - but then again I'm not a big fan of FPS games.

I'd also like to point out to everyone that it was proven that shooting cars won't cause them to explode (as proven by the Mythbusters). I'm sure this is true for barrels as well.

Back to Black for a moment, I'd like to point out that while playing I found myself struggling with the PS2's controls to keep up with where I wanted to move and aim. It could be that the movement speed just needs adjusting or the controls are not yet tuned to perfection yet. Of course, those are developer's reasons (if they were to respond to my comments). The real reason is that the controller just doesn't feel right for the FPS genre. I'm sure there are some that will disagree with me, but those people are Halo fans and thus their stupid opinions don't count. Console FPS games should give the user the option to use a mouse and keyboard - the only way to play a FPS (unless the Nintendo Revolution can do better).

I also found it awkward to have the crouch button placed on the L2 button. In my opinion it should be placed on one of the face buttons where it can be accessed easier. Customizable controls will fix that problem.

Also, at the same store where I played the Black demo a customer was chatting with the salesclerk about the Xbox 360. Naturally, I listened in on their conversation for a while. Basically, the customer was non stop praising the Xbox 360. He even boasted that once the Xbox 360s are more available, he'll buy a new one and sell his old one so that he'll have a system that doesn't have any hardware problems. He never really mentioned how great the games for the Xbox 360 are - he only mentioned the graphics. Beautiful graphics. Is that all the system has to offer? He didn't mention any game titles. The closest he came to mentioning a game was when he said "that football game." In any case, this type of "gamer" pisses me off the most. Games shouldn't be played for their visual appeal. To me, gameplay rules above all.

I also found it funny that he's going to buy Burnout Revenge for the Xbox 360 even though he has it already for the Xbox. Not that I think he played it all that much though - he said that there's only one track in Burnout Revenge and commented that Burnout 3 had a lot more tracks. But whatever, I just think that if you're going to praise a game you should at least play more than the basic unlocked levels.


Moving off the subject of video games, I'd like to complain about DVDs. More specifically, DVD releases from anime publishers. I once complained about how many different DVD releases Neon Genesis Evangelion was getting. There was first the standard edition (8 discs), then the compilation package (all 8 in one package), then the director's cut DVDs, then the platinum edition (7 discs), and finally the platinum compilation package. There might be a remastered eidtion in there somewhere... I don't remember though. I thought it couldn't get worse than this. I was wrong. The Robotech series is now the king of re-releases. It first had the standard releases, roughly 4 episodes per disc (85 episodes total, Robotech audio tracks only). Then three compilation packages, one package for each "generation" in the Robotech series. Then came the Macross/Southern Cross/Mospeada editions that have both the Robotech audio track and the original Japanese audio tracks. Then came the Remastered editions, followed by the Protoculture Collection package (Robotech audio tracks only). And now finally, the most recent release with the original Japanese audio track and a new English track.

I don't care much for the new English audio track - it just doesn't sound right since I'm so used to the Robotech audio track. What I'm most pissed off about is why they have to release so many god damn versions of Robotech. I can understand the reason for the Macross releases - Robotech is basically a huge cut and paste of the Macross, Southern Cross, and Mospeada shows. I don't know about the rest of you, but it pisses me off to buy a series on DVD only to find out that the studios are going to release a (usually) better version of the same series you just bought. Maybe it's just me...

(If you're curious, I own the non compilation Neon Genesis Evangelion Platinum Edition DVDs and the Robotech Protoculture Collection. I'm really interested in seeing the original Macross story though - I hear it's quite different from the Robotech story.)

Crappy American Box Art

Yet again, North America is screwed out of the beautiful box art featured on the Japanese release. Just take a look at the Japanese box art for Street Fighter Zero 3 Double Upper.


And now take a look at the box art for Street Fighter Alpha 3 Max.


Why do game companies change the box art when they release the game over here? Why?! I'm sure some marketing guy would say: "the box art is changed to better catch the eyes of American customers" or some garbage like that. I just hate it when they ruin the artistic value of a game's box art just so they can make the game's logo stand out more. I hate it. It's garbage. It looks awful. Give me my Japanese box art.

Phantasy Star Online Returns

I have found myself drawn back into playing Phantasy Star Online ever since I found this site. I've always wanted to play PSO online with my friends, but was never willing to pay a monthly fee to do so (I didn't have a Dreamcast at the time the first PSO was around and thus could not play on those free servers). It wasn't until PSO Episodes 1 & 2 was released for the GameCube that I really got to sit down and play PSO. And while I had fun, I still didn't get to play multiplayer - on or offline. World of WarCraft ended my PSO playing. Now that I've found a free server to play on, some of my friends and I have found ourselves being drawn back to PSO. We can finally play online now. And I must say that, for it time, PSO did online multiplayer beautifully. Now where can I get my character one of those Spread Needle rifles?

Nintendo also sucks

As usual, once we spend our money on one of their handhelds, Nintendo announces either a new handheld or an update to the current one. In this case, roughly a year and a half ater after its launch, the Nintendo DS will see an update. My guess is that the new design will look very similar to the GBA SP. It won't have a bulky and curved clam shell design that it currently has. I expect the updated Nintendo DS to be slimmer and flatter if not totally flat. It should keep it's current size screen, if not improved (brighter, slightly larger, more pixels). See my crappy concept illustration below.


This would make the Nintendo DS a much easier and lighter handheld to carry around - one of my biggest complaints about the Nintendo DS. It'll still have the GBA slot thanks to using left over parts from the GameBoy Micro design. Watch me sell my old style Nintendo DS and buy the slimmer one like the idiot that I am. Stupid Nintendo. =D

Apple Sucks

I hate Apple. No, not because there's a lack of a gaming scene on their Macintosh platform. It's because they make everything so god damn sexy, people think that they just have to own one or look uncool.

Now, I don't own an iPod. This is because I only listen to the music that is being played while I'm playing a game. There are some exceptions of course. I'm just not interested in the iPod. Plus, I don't like how freaking everyone, especially teenagers, walk around with those damn white iPod ear-buds stuck in their ears.

Anyway, the Apple product that I am really interested in is their computers. I like the sexiness of the operating system. It just seems so simple. It just seems to do everything right that Windows has gone wrong. I was actually thinking about buying a Mac Mini, but decided against it because I'm not looking for another desktop system. I have been looking for a notebook though, I for a while I thought that the Power Book was the way to go. Of course, the only thing that really stopped me were the facts that the Apple platform is just too expensive and Apple just announced the new Intel based notebooks - the MacBook Pro. And yes, the new notebook is the king of Apple sexiness.

I really want to start playing around and working with Macs. It seems more and more jobs require knowledge of the Mac platform nowadays. There is the illegal course - VMware plus finding the developer ISO of x86 Mac OX. But I don't want to screw up my main computer - and if I can't play a Blizzard game, I'm not a pleasant person to be around. I guess I'll just have to wait until I have more disposable money.