panzerjedi games

I am vengeance! I am the night! I am Batman!

2009-09-21T00:50:00.000-07:00

It's been far too long since my last post. I seem to say that with every post these days. I guess its been with good reason - wanting to spend time alone with just my thoughts for company. Diving into new hobbies, or obsessions as they probably are, to spend my time and money on. But this post isn't supposed to be about me, it's about Batman: Arkham Asylum.

First things first. Batman: Arkham Asylum is without a doubt the best Batman game ever made. Heck, it's probably the best game ever made based on a comic book super hero. If there's a better game out there, I can't think of it.

What Batman: Arkham Asylum does best is that the game actually makes you feel like you're Batman. Rather than running from location to location and beating up Joker's hired goons, you'll find yourself sneaking around the island, looking for the best spots to gain the advantage. And that's the thing, Batman isn't some brawler that rids Gotham of criminals by just punching them - he's a detective first and foremost. Batman: Arkham Asylum is the first Batman game to use Batman's detective skills as a key element of the game play. The game's developer, Rocksteady, did a wonderful job recreating this in video game form.

If you've played Metroid Prime, remember how Samus had different visors to see the world differently? She had an x-ray visor, scan visor, and a thermal visor. Batman's detective mode is like all three of those visors in one. With detective mode on, Batman can basically see everything within, say, 100 feet or so. You can see the location of the hired goons, whether they're carrying lethal weapons or not, even their heart rate; structurally weak walls; loose duct coverings and collectible items. It's kind of like a cheat mode really. The detective mode is actually the game's biggest problem - there's no negative impact to having it turned on at all times.

And that's a shame really because the graphics designers did an amazing job. If you think Gears of War 2 has destroyed beauty, wait until you see Arkham Island. It really does give off the atmosphere of Gotham City's insane asylum. It looks old, run-down, and used. In many places it feels creepy. In addition, the island is fleshed out in great detail and filled with references to the Batman universe.

I'm not sure if this game is an original story, but there is a graphic novel called Batman: Arkham Asylum. Not having read the graphic novel, I wouldn't know. But, both the game and the graphic novel share the same concept where the inmates have taken over and it's up to Batman to restore the order.

Rocksteady put a lot of care and attention to the game to ensure that it pleased everyone, from the person that only knows of Batman from the movies to the hardcore Batman fans. I appreciate their attention to detail, as it makes the game just that much better than the rest. 2009 for gaming, in my opinion, is kind of lackluster. The only game that I can name from the first half of the year is Street Fighter IV. And while that is an excellent game in the fighting genre, it's no contender for game of the year.

When it comes down to the final vote, mine will go to Batman: Arkham Asylum. There isn't another game that stands out like this one coming out this year. Batman: Arkham Asylum does everything right. It pulls the player into the game's world, lets them take in the atmosphere, and makes the believe they are The Dark Knight himself. It's a truly wonderful experience to play and no one should overlook this game.

E3 2009 Review Summary

2009-06-06T17:01:00.000-07:00

Microsoft:

Project Natal seems like a neat idea. But the technology is unproven and how long will it take for 3rd party developers to make anything useful out of the accessory? Also, no price was given. Anything over $99 is not gonna fly, if you ask me.

I can't wait for Mass Effect 2.

Nintendo:

Another crappy, boring, pointless E3 keynote from Nintendo. Cammie Dunaway needs to go. Seriously. Anyway... Hey Nintendo - we get that you're trying to invent new ways for gamers to play. Now how about showing us freaking games? The time to talk is over. Put out.

Where are all the DSi games? Where's the new Zelda for Wii?

Metroid Other M may be interesting. Gonna have to wait and see how Team Ninja handles the license.

I'll stick to the tried and true games from Nintendo again. Mario Galaxy 2 & Zelda: Spirit Tracks.

Sony:

Keynote went on forever and ever. PSP Go looks way too small for comfort. Analog nub still sucks and is in an even worse place now.

Don't care about Final Fantasy XIV. Try actually showing us FF XIII first.

God of War III looks like a safe sequel. Don't mess with what works I guess.

The Last Guardian looks cool. I want this game.

Multi platform:

I'll probably buy Metal Gear Solid Rising no matter what, but I would have liked to see something more than a teaser. Kojima, you jerk.

The new Castlevania looks cool too.

The Beatles Rock Band. OMG. Yes. Want. Now.

I have high hopes for Batman Dark Asylum, but the Batman franchise is known for very shitty games. Have to wait and see...

Please let this be true!

2009-05-17T01:16:00.001-07:00

Tatsunoko vs Capcom coming to North America? Yes please!

Want.

Dear Capcom

2009-04-01T11:11:00.000-07:00

Please release Street Fighter II: 3rd Strike, Street Fighter Alpha 3, Marvel vs. Capcom 2, Capcom vs. SNK 2, and Vampire Savior 2 on Xbox Live Arcade and/or on PlayStation Network.

Thanks!

There's Something Wrong With Me

2009-03-27T01:49:00.000-07:00

I think there's something wrong with me. I'm happily playing Chrono Trigger and GTA Chinatown Wars on my Colbalt Blue Nintendo DS lite, but at the same time I'm finding myself wanting ANOTHER DS - the Nintendo DSi. What is this hold that Nintendo has over me where I MUST buy EVERY incarnation of their portable consoles (except the Virtual Boy)?

If this the same urge that Apple fans go through every 6 months or so with every new announcement? Eerily familiar...

Must... resist... save money. Aww fuck Black Matte DSi in cart. No! I must resist the urge - that is until Nintendo announces a must have DSi-only game.

Thanks Nintendo!

What the heck Microsoft?

2009-03-25T02:01:00.000-07:00

The Xbox360 design will never win awards of any kind (unless there's a reward for most unreliable video game console of all time) but why does Microsoft save the nice colors for their devkits?

Sure the hard drive enclosure looks ghastly, but it's a pretty color at the least. Even the pattern on the side does something to improve the visual appeal of standing the console vertically.

GG!!!

2009-03-21T18:03:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Twitter.com, I found a StarCraft twitter that links cool matches from Korea. The end result of all this watching StarCraft replays is that I need to get my StarCraft fix on.

Must play StarCraft...

What's the Point?

2009-02-09T21:36:00.000-08:00

I have a couple of friends that own an Xbox 360, but are afraid to buy games for it and use it out of the fear that it will "red ring" on them. I think they're a bit crazy, if it's gonna red ring, it's gonna red ring regardless how much you use it. Secondly, what's the point of owning the thing if you don't use it? You bought it to play games, didn't you?

Time-Exclusive Patches Suck!

2008-06-06T00:34:00.000-07:00

Do you play Call of Duty 4 on the PC? Earlier this week, Nvidia was granted a 24 hour exclusive on the recent 1.6 patch for CoD4, which includes 4 new maps that the console players had to cough up money for. The reason conjured up was that Nvidia was sponsoring the new maps. Well, normally it wouldn't matter all that much because this being the age of the Internet and all, once something appears on the net everyone else will just grab it and distribute it on their site as well - nothing is truly exclusive.

So this is all well and good for your Call of Duty 4 players, right? Well, no. If you purchased the game digitally, you're fucked. Steam and Direct2Drive customers have to wait for their vendors to be allowed to release their versions of the patch. As of this writing, Steam still does not have the patch released.

Now, doesn't this really defeat the purpose of releasing the patch in the first place? Isn't the basic function of a patch to make a player's experience of the game better, not worse? Instead of playing a couple rounds of multiplayer with my buddies, all of whom have version 1.6, I'm stuck waiting around watching the time pass by while I'm not shooting virtual people in the face.

If sponsored patches are the way of the future, then I'd be very worried as a digital distribution customer. Why should I be forced to wait for something that everyone else gets immediately? Didn't I also pay hard earned money for the same game that retail buyers enjoy? I think I should be entitled to the same rights to a patch as they are.

Echochrome and a little Metal Gear Online

2008-04-27T01:07:00.000-07:00

I tried out the Echochrome demo that is available for download on PSN today. Needless to say, I am impressed with the concept of the game, but not so much with how the controls are set up. For those who don't know, Echochrome is a puzzle game based on the physics of impossible objects where the goal of each level is to guide a walking figure through the impossible object to collect its shadows. In a similar fashion to Super Monkey Ball, you don't control the figure but instead you rotate the stage (though it can be argued that you directly control the camera and not the stage).

As I said earlier, the concept for the game is quite original and intriguing. However I have to complain about the controls. You're given two ways to move the stage/camera - you can either just use the left analog stick for slow precise movements or hold the L1 button and use the Sixaxis/DualShock 3's motion sensing controls. To put it plainly, the motion based controls don't work at all and using the analog to move is painfully slow causing the player to continually pause the figure's movement so you can rotate the camera to where you want it to be. It would have been nice if they gave you an option to turn off motion based controls and map L1 to speed up the analog controls.

In any case, the Echochrome demo is worth checking out. I'm glad there are still developers out there trying something new.

I've been playing a lot of the Metal Gear Online beta since it's release on Friday. It basically feels the same as the MGS3 Subsistence release of MGO and there's not too much to say about it other than that the MGS4 engine looks gorgeous and I'm really enjoying playing MGO again. My only complaint would be that I've only been able to play Team Deathmatch. Once people start losing in TDM they leave the server before the other game types rotate in. I would really like to try out the Capture Missions and Base Missions before the beta ends. Most likely, though, I'll have to wait until MGS4 comes out.

Also, Mario Kart Wii comes out tomorrow. I've played a bit of the Japanese release and was quite impressed by how well the Wii Wheel felt with the game. Battle Mode online is gonna rock. I can't wait!

Quick Time Events In Games

2008-03-03T18:06:00.000-08:00

I don't know about you, but I have never liked the notion of the quick time event in video games.

For those of you that do not know, a quick time event in a video game is a sequence in the game where you have to press a specific button, of which is normally displayed on screen, within a given amount of time. Press the correct button in time and you are allowed to advance; failure results in something bad.

To my knowledge, the quick time event (QTE) first appeared in the game Dragon's Lair, a widely popular title even to this day. I never understood the appeal to that game. It's QTEs had you guessing every step of the game since it didn't have any onscreen display of what button to press. More recent games like Shenmue, God of War, Drake's Fortune, and Heavenly Sword make use of the QTE in a less stricter fashion than Dragon's Lair - namely you don't instantly die when you press the wrong button.

Now, QTEs have never bothered me this much before but thanks to the efforts of the huge success that God of War was, QTEs are finding their way into more and more games. God of War itself had pretty relaxed QTEs, giving you enough time to understand that a QTE is happening and plenty of time to react accordingly. God of War also has the benefit of giving the player a reward of some sort for successful completion. Heavenly Sword, however, is a different story and the reason why I'm writing this post.

I felt that Heavenly Sword's QTEs were brutal and felt like they were tacked on to add some kind of depth to the gameplay. First, they didn't allow enough time for me to react after first popping up onscreen. Secondly, when you failed the QTE the punishment usually screwed me out of the time I just spent getting up to that QTE section. Namely, when you failed during a boss fight, the boss would regain their entire health bar. The whole damn bar! Now that's just wrong and needlessly frustrating. If this is the way that QTEs are gonna be in games, I'm just going to avoid any game that has them.

So to any developer out there that is thinking about putting quick time events in their game, please do it right. Don't make it so frustrating and punishing to the player. Make them fun and rewarding - not just to be there as a means to an end.

Finally, True HD

2008-02-12T20:53:00.000-08:00

Things do look better in 1080p. Mass Effect looks gorgeous.

My Games of the Year 2007

2007-12-29T22:09:00.000-08:00

2007 was an awesome year for gamers. Nearly every genre, save the fighting genre, had a title that could have made my Overall Game of the Year winner. Also, only the PS3 had no exclusive game worth playing this year - maybe 2008's Metal Gear Solid 4 can save the already dying platform.

Nintendo Wii Game of the Year:
Nintendo usually doesn't make it easy for its fans. Every year they release a handful of titles that are must haves. This year, however, was different. Metroid Prime 3 was good, but still remains in the shadow of the first Metroid Prime. And had Super Smash Bros. Brawl been released this year, it would have been a really tough choice. But ultimately, Nintendo EAD never disappoints, giving us a new way to think about how platformers can be played. Never has a platformer been this much fun since Super Mario 64, Super Mario Galaxy is clearly the Wii's game of the year.

Microsoft Xbox 360 Game of the Year:
Unlike the Wii where months went by without a release worth buying, the Xbox 360 had maybe only 2-3 months out of the year where I could make that claim. Of course, most of these titles were multiplatform and don't count, in my opinion, leaving me with only two choices that really stand out: Halo 3 and Mass Effect. If you know me very well, you'd know that I'm not a big fan of the Halo series. I've always felt that it was just another shooter. I'm sure it did great things on teaching other developers on how the FPS genre should be played with a controller, but other than that it just didn't do it for me. Halo 3, however, gave us one thing I really enjoyed: 4-player campaign online co-op via Xbox LIVE. I don't care much for FPS multiplayer, as online gaming is just full of assholes. Giving them voice chat just makes it that much more unbearable. Anyway, my choice of Xbox 360 game of the year obviously goes to Mass Effect for its solid delivery of an epic that just oozes amazing attention to detail as well as a rich history to build a franchise on. Mass Effect, while short for an RPG (roughly 24 hours minimum), still manages to tell a great story that leaves you wanting more. I can guarantee that you won't be playing any other game at the same time you play Mass Effect.

Sony PlayStation 3 Game of the Year:
Sony's behemoth console has had yet another disappointing year. Still overpriced, even after they castrated the console of its PS2 backwards compatibility, and without a title worth mentioning in the same breath as Super Mario Galaxy, Mass Effect, or even Halo 3, the PS3 is just not worth it. It doesn't help when exclusives like Lair and Heavenly Sword were overhyped and, especially in Lair's case, wound up hurting the console's image. But hey, at least we got some laughs out of them when Sony's executives attempted to cover up with their hilarious comments. Uncharted: Drake's Fortune looks to be its best game, but still strikes me as a fancied up Tomb Raider: Legend clone (which is ultimately a fancied up Prince of Persia: Sands of Time clone). I wouldn't spend $60 on it though.

Nintendo DS Game of the Year:
If there's any clear winner in terms of console sales, it's the Nintendo DS. No one is laughing at this console now as it has already outsold the PS2's total sales in Japan. Simply amazing. I don't even think Nintendo thought the NDS would be selling this well. In a way, I feel that the Nintendo DS is all about taking risks in design. The only title this year that really does that is The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass. Many question whether it was the right thing to take the proven game play style of A Link to the Past and Minish Cap and turn it into an entirely touch-screen based style of game play. I think Phantom Hourglass turned out very well given the radical game play style. I especially enjoy being able to write on maps. However, I wish Nintendo had opted to give us the option to choose the tried and true dpad control scheme mixed with touch-screen controls.

Sony PlayStation Portable Game of the Year:
You have to give Sony credit as they totally refuse to admit defeat in the portable market. The PSP continues to try to be a thorn in the Nintendo DS's stylus but will always fall short. The notable titles this year are Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops, Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles, and Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions. MGS:PO and Castlevania were solid efforts by Konami as they both gave PSP owners to dust off their PSPs. Though I never felt the need to finish either title. It is however, very hard to resist not returning to Ivalice in Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions. FFT tells an awesome story of political and religious deceit and how Ivalice was saved by Ramza. It is one of the best strategy RPG games in the genre and its now available in portable form. If you don't have a PSP, go and find Final Fantasy Tactics on the PS1 and play it on your PS2 or PS3. You won't be disappointed.

PC Game of the Year:
The PC also had a great year, much like the XBox 360. Well, it doesn't hurt that many of the great Xbox 360 titles, like BioShock, also appeared on the PC at the same time. Some like Gears of War took a while longer to appear, but eventually showed up with minor improvements. But in terms of enjoyability that can only be found on the PC, I would have to say that World in Conflict is the clear winner. Yes, World in Conflict is/may eventually find its way onto the Xbox 360, but I still have doubts on whether the RTS genre can be done right on the console and played with the controller. World in Conflict's game play was built for action. Gone are the tried and true RTS methods of resource gathering and tech trees. Instead, World in Conflict focuses on teamwork. It's really hard, if not impossible, to win a multiplayer game in World in Conflict by yourself. I haven't enjoyed an RTS game this much since StarCraft: Brood War.

Overall Game of the Year:
2007, as I have mentioned, was filled with awesome games. Many are fun to play alone and some are only fun when played with friends. It's really hard to choose one game that defines 2007's level of quality. BioShock should win solely on its story and its ability to draw the player into the creepiness of Rapture. It doesn't hurt that it also had solid game play. Guitar Hero 3 should win because of its ability to draw gamers into thinking they're an actual guitarist (and well, because it's freaking fun!). Rock Band should win because its just fun to pretend you're in a rock band, singer and all. And who doesn't like rocking out to good music with friends? (If you ask me, Guitar Hero 3's music selection is better overall.) Super Mario Galaxy and Mass Effect should win, well, because they're just that much fun to play.

In the end, I have to choose Mass Effect as my Overall Game of the Year 2007. These days it's hard for me to actually find the time to get to sit down and enjoy playing games. Mass Effect made me make the time to do this. Mass Effect tells an epic story that's just as grand, if not more so, than that of Star Wars and does all of this with fully spoken dialogue. It lets the player choose what kind of savior they want to be, allowing the player to really care about their actions in the Mass Effect universe. I can only hope that the sequels build upon this, as well as continue Commander Shepard's quest. If you only play one game from 2007, please let it be Mass Effect.

The Grass is Always Greener

2007-12-20T15:05:00.000-08:00

I've had a Macbook Pro for just about a month now and I'm willing to admit that yes, all those Apple freaks I've been making fun of all these years were right. Apple makes one damn fine computer. Mac OS X is truly an amazing piece of software engineering, as every little detail that you'd think they'd glance over was taken care of with care. Many times I've been doing something I'd normally do on Windows and it was made so much easier to do on Mac OS X.

Maybe I what I really want to say is that Mac OS X is a more efficient OS to use. I can see many aspects of Mac OS X that Microsoft has tried to copy in Windows XP and Windows Vista, but ultimately screwed up in some way or another. For example, Mac OS X has something similar to UAC on Vista. Yet somehow it doesn't seem as intrusive or annoying as it does on Vista. I don't really understand why that is, but it just is.

I never really thought I'd be recommending buying a Mac to anyone, but here I am telling everyone I know how great these machines are. My only real issue with the Mac platform is the continuing lack of options for gaming. Hopefully this will change with time. But if not, well, there's always the work machines or my Wii, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, etc.

Probably the final question to answer is: would I buy another Mac in 5 years or so? Well, right now I'd say definitely but as we've all seen with me, anything can change.

That time of the year

2007-10-08T23:12:00.000-07:00

Roughly around the same time every year, I get into this mood where I must listen to The Beatles. I don't know why, but I just do. Maybe because their music helps to soothe my nerves and lighten my mood.

Hey Jude, in particular, is lifting my spirits at the moment.

Hey Jude written by Paul McCartney and John Lennon

Hey, Jude, don't make it bad
Take a sad song and make it better
Remember to let her into your heart
Then you can start to make it better

Hey, Jude, don't be afraid
You were made to go out and get her
The minute you let her under your skin
Then you begin to make it better.

And any time you feel the pain, hey, Jude, refrain
Don't carry the world upon your shoulders
Well don't you know that its a fool who plays it cool
By making his world a little colder

Hey, Jude! Don't let her down
You have found her, now go and get her
Remember, to let her into your heart
Then you can start to make it better.

So let it out and let it in, hey, Jude, begin
You're waiting for someone to perform with
And don't you know that it's just you, hey, Jude,
You'll do, the movement you need is on your shoulder

Hey, Jude, don't make it bad
Take a sad song and make it better
Remember to let her into your heart
Then you can start to make it better

It's been a while

2007-09-14T21:03:00.000-07:00

I've wanted to make a post here for a long time, but unable to do so due to various reasons such as work, moving to a new apartment, or just being unable to write about something interesting.

First and foremost, I'm really unhappy with my PS3 purchase. Sure, I'm glad that I got a PS3 with PS2 hardware built-in but I'm not even currently using it to play PS2 games. The most use that my PS3 gets is being the main DVD player in the apartment for myself and both of my new roommates. Other than this use, the PS3 is a dust magnet and won't see a PS3 game in its BluRay drive until March 2008. Thanks for supporting your system with quality games Sony. Thanks a lot.

I feel even more burned by my PS3 purchase with the recent announcement that Paramout and Dreamworks will no longer support BluRay for the foreseeable future. That basically means for me that there won't be a BluRay release for Transformers. =(

On the PC front, BioShock was impressive, but I think more for it's actual emphasis on story instead of mindless violence. We definitely need more games that emphasize on story. Having said that, gameplay is still what's important for a video game. A game can have the best story ever written and still suck if the game play isn't any fun. BioShock manages to get both done right, and I think everyone should experience the game if they have the chance.

Having said that, I'm also finding Stranglehold to be an enjoyable game. Sure the story is kinda cliché but sometimes a gamer just wants to stop thinking and just have some fun.

A game that I'm really really looking forward to is World in Conflict. I already had the chance to play through the single player campaign, which was a total blast mind you, and I'm eagerly awaiting the game's release date so I can play it online. I really like what Massive has done for this RTS. They took out all of the resource gathering and need for speeding through your tech tree to get the units you need. They also designed the UI in a minimalist way, allowing you to use your entire screen to view the battlefield. All I can say is that it's beautiful and that I wish other RTSes had this minimalist approach.

I'm finding it very hard to get back into playing Company of Heroes after playing World in Conflict. CoH just feels so slow in comparison - UI wise and gameplay wise. It irks me to say this... but I wish that StarCraft II would borrow WiC's UI enhancements for itself. I really feel that WiC's UI brings the player that much more into the game. I can't imagine being forced to go back to playing RTSes "the old way."

World in Conflict is a definite must play and will get my vote for game of the year.

My New Expensive Toy

2007-07-19T00:31:00.001-07:00

Set up the PlayStation 3 and the girlfriend says "It takes up too much space." The PS3 really is an eyesore and looks out of place.

Let's not forget how much heat the unit generates when simply idling. Always place the PS3 in a well ventilated area, preferably with a desk fan blowing cool air towards the unit. Well, I'm not sure if the last part is necessary - or even helps at all.

And what's up with downloaded games having to be installed? Isn't this a video game console, not a Windows PC? =\

I do like that the PS3 is relatively quiet compared to the Xbox 360. But that's about it so far. No games for my PS3 until Metal Gear Solid 4 comes out in 2008. Well, that is if you don't count PS2 games, of which there's plenty for me to play with upscaled graphics and smooth shading.

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night with smooth shading puts the Xbox 360 version to shame.

Just for Fun

2007-07-17T22:59:00.000-07:00

My blog getting a PG rating is quite an amazing feat in itself. I'm surprised with myself actually. Just wow. That's not like me at all...

Disgust

2007-07-09T23:45:00.000-07:00

I'm disgusted with myself. I caved in. I went against everything I said about not buying a PS3 for years. With the $100 price drop for the 60GB model plus the announcement that future models will not have the Emotion Engine chip, the urge to buy now was hard to overcome.

I went searching for the PS3 at local retailers, most of them already sold out by the time I got off work. Amazon.com turns out to have the best deal, given the fact that there's free shipping and no sales tax (at least for me).

So yeah, I will soon be the owner of a PS3, but without any games that I really want to buy until MGS4 comes out next year. On the plus side, I can start buying Blu-Ray movies.

Hurry up with Transformers and Spider-Man 3 on Blu-Ray disc!

WST Dinobots

2007-06-26T00:24:00.000-07:00

Some of my most favorite Transformers toys were the Dinobots. I mean, how could you go wrong with robots that transform into dinosaurs? I'm sorry, but it's impossible.

Grimlock was my favorite of the 5 Dinobots, and probably was the favorite of every other child as well. Sludge and Swoop were my next favorites with Snarl and Slag as my least favorites. I think Snarl and Slag are my least favorites due to their ugly transformations into robot mode. Snarl was way to top-heavy while Slag's tail just looked weird in robot mode. Oh well, their alternate modes still rocked.

Every time I played with my Transformers, the Dinobot had to have a key role that would lead my Autobots to victory. It was just the way it had to be.

Imagine how sad I was as a child when I broke Swoop. His fragile top beak broke off while I was having the dinobots reenact a scene from the TV show against Devastator. Oh yes, I remember that day dearly. T'was a sad day for all my Transformers, Autobot and Decepticon.

I never threw him away though, as I swore to one day repair my might Dinobot Swoop. To this day he lays in a box in my parent's garage with my other G1 toys.

To my dismay, Hasbro never re-released Swoop or most of the Dinobots for that matter when G2 came around in the early 90's. They re-released Grimlock and Slag for sure, but I can't remember if they also re-released Sludge or Snarl. What I am certain about is that they didn't re-release Swoop. Curses!

Maybe it was for the best since Hasbro did recolor most of the toys for G2. Grimlock wound up to be blue of all colors. =\

I recently purchased some new Dinobots, three of which you can see here. These aren't your normal sized Transformers however (nor are they officially licensed toys).

Over in Japan, Takara released a new line of Transformers called "World's Smallest Transformers" or WST. They released the staple Transformers such as Optimus Prime, Megatron, Starscream and various others. Sadly, Takara decided to stop making WST toys due to the lack of interest.

The WST Dinobots come from a company called JustItToys, a Hong Kong company that specializes in making 3rd party collectible Transformers toys and accessories. The quality of their products is just amazing.

JustItToys managed to shrink the Dinobots into a height of less than three inches! On top of that the Dinobots transform almost with 100% accuracy.

Snarl was the first one to be released by JustItToys, followed by Slag and then Grimlock. Grimlock is the only of the three with a 100% authentic transformation - Snarl and Slag require you to attach their hands separately for robot mode (originally, their hands were hidden inside their legs). Sludge and Swoop will be released later this year, hopefully with even better build quality.

I really enjoy these toys, particularly because of the nostalgia but especially after seeing and feeling the quality of the toys in hand. I can't wait to get my hands on Sludge and Swoop.

If you want to collect these toys, I purchased them from TFSource.com. The website is run by only one guy, but my toys were still shipped to me in two business days and with packaging that keeps the toys' safety in mind. Happy collecting!

Transformers toys

2007-06-19T23:23:00.001-07:00

Being in the Transformers mood that I've been in lately (all thanks to the upcoming movie) I went and bought a couple of the movie toys, namely Leader Class Optimus Prime, Voyager Class Starscream, and the Target exclusive Robo-vision Optimus Prime.

I'm really impressed by the quality of these toys. They have a lot of fine details that the old Transformers toys didn't have. Additionally, the Leader Class Optimus Prime has rubber tires (something that the Transformers toys of recent years have neglected).

I'm most impressed by Starscream. When I first saw the toy, I hated the design because I thought that it made him look top heavy and bulky. Not something I normally think of when I think of a F22 Raptor or a fighter jet in general. After buying the toy (I had to, it's freaking Starscream) I was instantly amazed how well designed the toy was. The transformation is very nicely done and goes very smoothly.

The transformation for Leader Class Optimus isn't as nice as I feel it should be. I think it's over-complicated for a kids toy. Sure, it is rated as one of the more difficult toys to transform, but I still think it's too complicated. Regardless, both the robot and truck forms are impressive.

I'd like to get a Megatron toy, but I don't like the look of the Leader Class version. Hopefully the Voyager Class Megatron will be better.

Less than two weeks until the movie premieres in the US. I can't wait!

Online Fun

2007-04-17T01:10:00.000-07:00

I recently got the chance to play Gears of War co-op via Xbox Live and I am very happy with the experience. Online play like this allows me to have a chance to play video games with my long-time friends up north in San Francisco.

I miss the good old days when I didn't have to worry that much about work and whatnot. I could just hang out with my friends and play video games all day. Those days are gone now, especially now when I'm living in So. Cal., and I miss having the chance to play the latest games with the guys. (I've known these guys for most of my life!)

Anyway, I wish there were more games that offered the option for online co-op. I'm glad there's plenty of competitive online gaming, but I'm usually getting my ass kicked. Sure, winning isn't everything, but last place all the time gets tiring after a while. (I want to play games online, not watch them!)

I also wish that Nintendo would hurry up and let developers get their hands on the Nintendo WiFi middleware. The earlier they have the toolsets, the sooner we'll have online gaming on the Wii.

Super Smash Bros. Brawl had better learn from other fighting games' online experiences. I don't want some crappy half-assed online modes.

Finally, Megatron!

2007-04-08T02:08:00.000-07:00

I've been dying to get my hands on the original Megatron toy for several years now. Heck, it could be at least 10 years I've been looking for a reasonable price on an unopened box.

It's been a while since I've checked eBay prices on Megatron but last time I did, the toy was hovering at around $50-100 for the varying degrees of loose-unboxed to opened-box qualities. Unacceptable to a TransFormer fan and collector like me (at least in my opinion).

So when I found out that the Masterpiece version of Megatron was going to be released, I immediately asked "how much?". Thankfully, it's not costing an insane amount but it's still pricey. BBTS has the toy for $99.99 + shipping, or roughly $110 to import from Japan. BBTS also has to modify the toy so it conforms to US law regarding toy gun-replicas. Minor downside, but I'm just to thrilled to finally being able to have a toy Megatron in his intended transformation. None of that tank crap that he's been reduced to in recent years (or whatever horror he's going to be in the TransFormers movie).

Hurry up and ship that toy to me! =D

Video Games Live Review

2007-03-20T20:27:00.000-07:00

Sorry I'm late with my personal take on the Video Games Live experience. It's been really busy at work.

First off, the hands down best part of this Video Games Live was Koji Kondo's appearance in person. Everything else at the concert paled in comparison. I would have loved it if he performed more than the Mario theme on piano, namely the Legend of Zelda theme.

This brings me to my biggest gripe about the VGL. While it's not VGL's fault and more fault of the audience (and American culture), I found it very difficult to hear the music itself due to the cheering throughout the pieces. Yeah, I'm sure you're totally stoked about hearing music from popular games but wouldn't it be nice (not to mention respectful to others in attendance) to keep quiet and hear the music that is to be enjoyed? It's not that hard really. Clapping and cheering after the piece is done is fine (though aren't you supposed to wait until the end of the entire concert to applaud?).

With that said, let's move on to the music itself. (I won't go piece by piece or in order of appearance, just the stuff that stood out.)

The VGL started off with two pieces that can be found on IGN Insider in HD quality (click on links for low quality versions), the classic games medley and the theme from Metal Gear Solid 2. They were both very nice, but it was nothing new to me thanks to seeing them on IGN Insider. The MGS piece stands out solely because of Tallarico creeping onto the stage in a box while the genome solider is on alert mode. Funny stuff.

Koji Kondo is invited on stage to introduce the VGL's rendition of the Mario Bros. theme.

Lucasarts' old audio team is formed on stage to play some of their classic themes.

Martin Leung, The Video Game Pianist, came out to play his Final Fantasy medley and various Mario music. This guy has talent. I think it'd be nice to see him play his own scores, if any, someday.

Another very talented musican, VertexGuy, comes out to play the Contra theme. His solo performance was one of the highlights of the night. (I was sitting next to the guy that made this recording.) Kudos.

A very well performed piece was that of the Civilization IV main theme. Another highlight of the evening.

Tallarico also exposed the audience to his work for Advent Rising. Apparently it was rewritten to be an opera. It was very well done, but the music itself was not very memorable. I only remember this piece because my friend said "what the fuck was that crap?"

The Legend of Zelda theme was played, but I would have much rather heard it being performed by Koji Kondo himself.

There were several pieces on SquareEnix titles, FF8's Liberti Fatali, the Kingdom Hearts theme, and FF7's One Winged Angel. For reasons unknown, SquareEnix didn't allow the VGL to show video from the games. For Kingdom Hearts, clips from Disney movies were shown. It's a scary day when Disney allows rights and when SquareEnix does not. It could have been a technical glitch or something, but the chorus could not be heard at all. This made the piece suck, as the chorus is the main focus of Liberti Fatali.

The concert ended with One Winged Angel. The group of guys in front of me were begging for this music piece to show up all night. Once it did, they were very into it. Now I don't know why One Winged Angel is so popular. Is it just because it's attached to the game that many people consider the best RPG of all time? (FF7 is not the best RPG of all time nor is it anywhere close, but that's for another post.) I personally think there's far better music to play to end the concert. Another problem with this piece was that Tallarico and VertexGuy both came out to play it. The problem isn't that they came out - it was that they couldn't be heard at all.

One Winged Angel ended the concert in a very unsatisfying way.

The last piece that I'd like to mention is the Halo theme. I believe that the VGL faked a bit on this one, as the chorus and synth music was being played off a synthesizer and not being performed live. (Some of the chorus didn't even look like they were singing.) I'm sure they'd dispute my claim, but I know what I heard, and it sounded too close to the original score to be performed live. I'd be disappointed but I'm one of those people that can't understand why Halo fans are, well, Halo fans.

Overall, I'd have to say that my VGL experience was enjoyable, but not worth the $77 priced I paid. Sure there's music that I would have preferred to hear, but that's my preference and they're just trying to appeal to the masses. It'd be nice to see the VGL perform pieces that are not main themes from popular games, but rather selective tracks from a game with good music.

(For another blogger's take on the VGL concert, read this article.)

Colossal Squid

2007-02-27T23:34:00.000-08:00

Ever since I learned about their existence, I've been fascinated by giant and colossal squid. I'm not intrigued by the tales of the Kraken but just interested in learning more about how they grow to become that size and just what the hell they do their whole lives.

In fact, I remember i wanted to go for marine biology as my major because of my fascination over these squid. I guess my dislike of swimming overcame that real easy.

I still enjoy learning about these animals and I watch and read everything that I can. So when I read news about a complete colossal squid being caught, I just get totally re-energized about the animal all over again.

It's really cool stuff and makes one wonder what else lies in the depths of Earth's oceans.

IE sucks

2007-02-18T00:36:00.000-08:00

Apparently this blog isn't happy when you use IE. =\

I'm lazy and IE users should be using Firefox instead.

Go get Firefox.

Shadow of the Colossus Collectables

2007-02-17T23:47:00.000-08:00

I recently purchased a box of ten Shadow of the Colossus One Coin Grande Figures. (click the link to see the pictures I took)

My first impression, other than the fact that these totally kick ass, was how detailed they were especially since they're 3" tall figures. My second thought is how well some of them capture the actual events of the game, especially the figure for Colossus 14 (as shown above). My other favorite is Colossus 1 where Wander is hanging on for dear life on the colossus' back.

Sadly, they only made 6 of the 16 colossi into figures. My friend and I hope that they'll eventually release the rest of the figures.

Now that I have these, I really want to start playing the game once again. I'm also wondering what the development team for SotC is making for the PS3.

Ashamed

2007-02-05T00:15:00.000-08:00

I'm weak. I went and bought The Burning Crusade and have even reunited with my old guild. I don't know what's wrong with me - I just felt that I really had to see Outland and try out the two new races. I'm currently hoping to just get my priest to level 70 and level up a Draenei shaman and a Blood Elf warlock to whatever levels I can within 3 months.

Now that I've finished Twilight Princess, I can now move on to other games that I've had in the queue. I'm still about halfway through both Metal Gear Solid 3 and Okami, so I'm going to start with those first. I also have Final Fantasy XII to go through. But with WoW back in my gaming schedule, there's no telling what I'm going to actually play.

Stupid WoW.

Seriously Annoyed

2007-01-24T20:12:00.000-08:00

Lucky me. I finally get a moment to play some Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess - 27 hours into the game, just about ready to go to the Sky Temple. But no, I run into a known glitch that leaves me no choice but to start over from the beginning.

The glitch goes like this:
Once you collect all 6 symbols to unlock the statue that blocks the cannon to the Sky Temple and enter the room if you save and exit the game after this, you cannot continue because an NPC that should be in the room isn't there when you load your save game. You have to talk to him in order to progress the story and advance to the Sky Temple. (See attached video below for an example.)

That just sucks.

On one hand, I don't mind because Twilight Princess is a really fun game. On the other hand, I'm really seriously annoyed that a simple glitch like this got past Nintendo QA.

Time to start my adventures in Hyrule once again... and delay playing FFXII and finishing Okami until much later. =(

Update: I'm glad that GameFAQs has save files for download. Huzzah for standardized data storage!

Tempted by Evil

2007-01-16T22:58:00.000-08:00

I was once a rabid WoW addict. For almost two years I played WoW and only WoW for as many hours I could every single day. I played a priest, took her to level 60, raided with Avatars of Destruction in Molten Core over and over, perfected ZG and AQ20, and hell we even killed Nefarian in under 5 attempts. We kicked ass. My priest was tricked out PvP gear, 6/8 tier 1, and even had 4/8 tier 2.

Purples galore and in longest running and most revered Alliance guild on the Uldum Realm. It was the Azeroth version of heaven.

And then, I woke up.

I spent nearly $400 playing WoW for those 22 months. Not to mention the 60+ days worth of game time accrued amongst all my characters. The game literally became a new life for me. It was time to stop. And stopped I did...

I quit the guild, deleted all my lesser leveled characters and sharded all my shiny purples. Once the sharding was complete, the remaining characters were erased from WoW existence.

Knowing all the crap I put myself, friends and family through just to play this game, why, oh why, am I tempted to start anew in The Burning Crusade?

Damn you Blizzard, you evil, evil empire. Just give me Diablo 3 and/or StarCraft 2 already.

Wii louder than 360? o_O

2007-01-15T20:21:00.000-08:00

I'm sure we all saw this article on Engadget stating that the Wii is the loudest console out of the big three.

I'm confused by this, being the owner of both a Wii and an Xbox 360. (No, no PS3... it's not worth it.) And in my time spent with both consoles it's very clear to me that the Xbox 360 is the loudest console by far.

A friend of mine believed the article until I took some videos of my consoles booting and then loading a game. You be the judge...

This is in no way scientific, obviously, and I don't have a fancy instrument that measures decibels. Some 360s may be in fact quieter than the one I have due to different DVD drives. But I still doubt that any current 360 on the market is more quiet than a Wii.

Symphony of the Night

2007-01-13T23:18:00.000-08:00

Even though I have both the PS1 and Saturn (import) versions of Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, I'm really looking forward to playing it again on the Xbox 360. Hopefully nothing will be lost from the move to the 360, but from what I have read I won't be disappointed.

In related news, I'm also looking forward to seeing Super Metroid 3 appearing on Wii Virtual Console.

Laziness

2007-01-06T00:54:00.000-08:00

It's been a while since I've written regular updates. I really want to keep this blog active and I'm going to to write at least every Friday evening from now on. =)

Previously working for EA, I've seen a lot of bugs that get past QA for reasons known and unknown. Understandably, publishers have a deadline to meet and the developers will never have enough time to fix everything that QA would like fixed.

But some bugs just astound me. How can simple things like this get past QA? RITCHITER mode? That's almost as bad as "Bimmy and Jimmy" from Double Dragon III. (See the attached Angry Nintendo Nerd video at the end of this post.) I also remember that Alien Hominid for the GameCube had its button mapping instructions all screwed up. Whatever was listed in the game and in the manual wasn't even close to the actual controls. Amazing to say the least.

Now, I totally understand a game can't be 100% bug free even when the developer is given all the time in the world. However, leaving simple bugs such as the ones mentioned above do reflect the quality of the game and shows a lack of interest by the publisher to make the game the absolute best that it can be.

EA's company motto is ACTION. Each letter stands for something, but the only one I remember is "O" which stands for Ownership. No matter what industry you work in and what job you have, if you take ownership of your projects you will reflect your dedication into your product and make it all the better for the consumer.

The future

2006-12-11T00:30:00.000-08:00

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

2006-10-11T00:44:00.000-07:00

"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!

2006-09-22T07:23:00.000-07:00

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!

2006-09-13T21:38:00.000-07:00

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

2006-09-12T02:05:00.000-07:00

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?

2006-09-08T01:16:00.000-07:00

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

2006-09-06T00:27:00.000-07:00

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!

2006-09-02T02:40:00.000-07:00

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

2006-08-23T00:43:00.000-07:00

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

2006-08-14T01:29:00.000-07:00

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

2006-07-18T03:04:00.000-07:00

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!

2006-07-17T00:52:00.000-07:00

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

2006-06-05T21:24:00.000-07:00

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

2006-06-01T22:48:00.000-07:00

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

2006-05-18T20:45:00.000-07:00

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?

2006-05-09T01:20:00.000-07:00

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!

2006-05-08T02:14:00.000-07:00

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

2006-05-05T01:49:00.000-07:00

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

2006-05-04T00:07:00.000-07:00

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.

2006-04-28T01:38:00.000-07:00

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

2006-04-06T15:50:00.001-07:00

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?

2006-03-23T14:27:00.000-08:00

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.

2006-03-16T23:44:00.000-08:00

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

2006-03-10T03:45:00.000-08:00

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

2006-02-28T11:56:00.000-08:00

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

2006-02-16T02:55:00.000-08:00

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

2006-02-10T14:27:00.000-08:00

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

2006-02-09T03:09:00.000-08:00

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

2006-02-03T23:43:00.000-08:00

"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

2006-01-31T21:53:00.000-08:00

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

2006-01-26T00:45:00.000-08:00

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...

2006-01-24T02:19:00.000-08:00

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

2006-01-21T22:49:00.000-08:00

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

2006-01-19T03:01:00.000-08:00

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

2006-01-14T21:13:00.000-08:00

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

2006-01-11T22:20:00.000-08:00

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

2006-01-11T14:07:00.000-08:00

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.

Arcades dead? Not yet.

2006-01-07T16:16:00.000-08:00

I'd like to respond to this article, posted at Slashdot, that states that the arcade scene in the U.S. is dead. He justifies his claim by leading towards the notion that Dance Dance Revolution dumbed down the gamers at arcades.

If you actually think about it, arcades were already declining in attendance by the time that DDR came around. In fact, DDR probably re-energized the arcade scene for a good 5 years. It brought gamers back to the arcades. It gave them an experience that they could not find at home.

And that's just it. Arcades are a place for gamers to play games that they cannot play at home. Arcades have low attendance now because, quite frankly, home consoles can now offer arcade like experiences at home. For a while, DDR did just that.

When will the next re-energizing arcade game come out? Hard to say. Home entertainment systems and video game consoles are so powerful now, there's no technological peripheral that can make arcades stand out. The fact that all next generation consoles are going to have online gaming doesn't help arcades either.

But for now, Mario Kart Arcade GP is good enough to get me back into the arcades.

Blu-ray for the win!

2006-01-05T01:24:00.000-08:00

Microsoft, in all its wisdom, has decided that the Xbox 360 will be compatible with HD-DVD. But it's not what you think. Rather than screwing over early adopters of the Xbox 360 and release a new version with a built-in HD-DVD drive, they screw over everyone and have them buy an external HD-DVD drive for at least $300.

Naturally, it'll be an awesome peripheral as it is attached to the console via USB 2.0 and its blazing fast throughput. Yeah, right.

As any gamer should know, external perihperals are supported immensely by 3rd party developers. Granted, not all of the peripherals I linked to were accessories intended to be a major part of that console's gaming, but keep in mind that some were. The HD-DVD peripheral falls into the latter category.

For an extra $300, Microsoft is going to have a hard time influencing people that they need that drive. Especially if they want to further promote the Xbox 360 as the wave of the future. Hmm... I wonder... $400-500 would get me a PS3 that already has the latest optical disc technology while for an additional $300 (on top of a $400 console) you could get the other format for your year old Xbox 360. Yeah, tough choice there.

How much you wanna bet that Microsoft will screw themselves over and release Halo 3 only on the HD-DVD format? I can only hope... I'm dying to see the Halo series die. If not Halo 3, definitely Halo 4. Keep up the awesome work Microsoft! Way to let Sony walk all over you.

A new dawn

2005-12-31T01:46:00.000-08:00

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!

Even more Shadow of the Colossus videos

2005-12-23T14:32:00.000-08:00

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.

New Epic items

2005-12-22T02:40:00.000-08:00

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!

Catching up

2005-12-21T15:37:00.000-08:00

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.

Leaving the City of Villains

2005-12-16T01:52:00.000-08:00

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.

MGS2: Substance

2005-12-14T10:23:00.000-08:00

I finished MGS2: Substance last night. Time to start on MGS3.

Video Game Awards?

2005-12-13T01:56:00.000-08:00

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.

Metal Gear week

2005-12-09T22:59:00.000-08:00

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.

As time goes by

2005-12-08T04:06:00.000-08:00

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."

Best Auction Ever

2005-12-07T10:30:00.000-08:00

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.

The Soul Still Burns (and not in a good way)

2005-12-04T00:22:00.000-08:00

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.

Colossal Viral Marketing

2005-12-01T23:16:00.000-08:00

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.

Star Wars AND Transformers?!

2005-12-01T21:12:00.000-08:00

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.

Lazy Dumbass Finger Pointers

2005-11-29T22:36:00.000-08:00

Politicians suck ass. "OMG! There's violence, sexuality, racism, and religious themes in video game! We must protect the children! Oh why doesn't someone think about the children!" Hey guys, all that stuff is in the movie theatres, television, radio, and printed media. Oh and there's that little thing called the Internet. Why just blame video games? Why punish just us? It's not our fault today's parents have no control over their children.

Just today at the mall, this one lady's kid (maybe 6 or so) was running around, bumping into people and making a mess. For 5 minutes, while I was waiting in line for my food, the kid never stopped moving nor once shut the hell up. All the mother did was say "stop that." I mean, wow. That's awesome parenting. I can tell right now that that kid is gonna be a failure at school. Congratulations lady, your kid is yet another idiot bogging down the schools for everyone else.

Anyway, my point is that parents should point the blame at themselves for failing their children, not video games or any other media. Yes, media has a heavy influence. But the parent has the ultimate power to restrict that media in the home.

How can I put this in a way that you'd understand it...

You see, Anakin was a promising padawan. He had all the potential in the world to become the greatest Jedi Master. Yet, the Jedi council, and more directly, Obi-wan didn't take heed to restrict Anakin from falling in love with Padme nor restrict Anakin talking with Senator Palpatine. They weren't the parents, or teachers, that Anakin needed to focus his abilities. They let him roam free to do as he pleased. The only discipline Anakin got was "mind your feelings, they betray you." Yeah, that really taught him a lesson. We all know how the rest of the story goes.

Left on the cutting room floor

2005-11-28T20:30:00.000-08:00

I found a couple of interesting facts about Shadow of the Colossus. Apparently, the designers initially planned for there to be over 40 colossi in the game. Given that there are only 16 in the game (with an 8 hour average play time), 40 colossi would have been really amazing. If you think about it though, the game might have suffered with that many colossi. Time and money constraints rule above all in the game industry. Keep in mind, SotC took roughly 4 years to make. To make the game as unique as it is, not to mention make 40 unique colossi, would have taken the development team at least 6 or so years to do. I'm happy with the way SotC is, and so should you. We could always hope for a director's cut edition. =)

Here are some pics of colossi that were cut out of the final game.

Here's a picture of the 3rd colossus in his prefinal in-game-model. Note the much thicker armor.

Here's a preview trailer that shows some of the left out colossi. I wonder why they were left out of the game when they seemed to already have AI, models, etc. already completed.

Finally, here's a post on GameFAQs that ties (or tries to) SotC to the Bible. While GameFAQs may not be the best source for acurate information, it still is interesting to read.

Needless to say, I'm having fun searching for info about this game.

edit: Here's Wikipedia's entry for Shadow of the Colossus. (note: severe spoilers ahead)

Xbox Gamer Profile

2005-11-28T01:24:00.000-08:00

Ignore the Xbox360 Gamer Profile link that's on this blog. If you click on it, you'll be able to see that I don't play any Xbox360 games. I just thought it'd be neat to have on my blog though.

It's a feature that I wish Blizzard would do for their games. I could link to my WoW characters, for example, and any interested person would be able to see how I spec'd that character and see what equipped items that character has. Hell, they could just unify all the logins for all of their games and then have a link to your win-loss records. Or even maybe have a smal database of StarCraft or WarCraft III replays! That'd be freaking awesome!

Shadow of the Colossus (video game heaven)

2005-11-27T21:09:00.000-08:00

Having completed SotC over the weekend (freaking awesome ending, btw), I've been looking for videos on the Internet that are SotC related. Here's a strange one. I'll post more when I find them.

Now to beat Hard mode. =)

Here are some speed runs (note, severe spoiler alert):
1st Colossus
2nd Colossus
3rd Colossus (link to a tutorial)
4th Colossus
5th Colossus
6th Colossus
7th Colossus
8th Colossus
9th Colossus
10th Colossus
11th Colossus

Insanity!

2005-11-22T16:14:00.000-08:00

So the Xbox 360 is finally here. Whoopie. Woohoo. Huzzah. So, are all of those who actually got one happy with your $400+ purchase? If not, you should feel "lucky" that you were actually able to get one. You should also thank the stars that you weren't robbed. Of course, if you're a rich bastard, you don't have to worry about such things and just buy it off eBay.

However, if you were an intelligent person, you'd at least wait until the PlayStation 3 launches and then buy an Xbox 360 at a lower price. I bet you that the games would no longer be $60 by that time too.

On the other hand, the PS3 should be pretty sweet. I mean c'mon, aren't you just dying to play games that you've haven't played since the days of the PS1? This time they're prettier. Oooooohhh.. Pretty bump mapping, sharp textures, the curves of the hundred million polygons... I just can't wait for new gripping styles of gameplay like what MGS4 will offer. Surely it won't be like MGS1, MGS2, or MGS3. Let's hope it plays like MGA!!! That's worth the $450+ price of the console.

Me personally, I'm waiting for Nintendo. Sure, I have absolutely no idea what the console offers. Other than a remote control wand. Sure as hell would make Star Wars or Harry Potter games more fun. Well, okay... just the Star Wars games.

All in all, I'm sure Microsoft is damn happy with their launch. But hey, if you're dying to get your hands on an Xbox 360 this Christmas. Why don't you import one from Japan? They'll have plenty of 360s to sell.

Hmm... let's call this segment: Insanity Part 2.

So I watched the video review for Perfect Dark Zero this morning. And I have to say... the game looks like garbage. Is it just me, or is the bump mapping for the game totally fucked up? I've seen better bump mapping in Halo 2. Freaking Halo 2! What a rush job. It'a also amazing how poorly rendered the hair is in PDZ. Especially when in their most recent games (Conker: Live and Uncut and Star Fox Adventures) hair and fur are rendered insanely. What went wrong? Who knows. All I know is that yet again Perfect Dark is just around to copy a previous FPS (this time it's Halo 2).

Finally, I'd just like to say that, for video reviews, it should be a requirement that the person demonstrating the game during the review should know how to play the game. The idea should be to show the game at its best and that cannot be done by watching a bumbling fool attempt to play the game. Oh, it'd also be nice if what is being talked about by the reviewer is shown on screen by the demonstrator. Just a thought...

Woohoo! My first epic item!

2005-11-19T17:12:00.000-08:00

This afternoon, I looted my first epic item in WoW, The Eye of Shadow. Now I only need The Eye of Divinity and the Splinter of Nordrassil so I can form Benediction/Anathema. Needless to say, that staff kicks serious ass. More Molten Core tonight!

Quality - It's in the game

2005-11-17T16:48:00.000-08:00

I recently started playing City of Villains. I wanted to try City of Heroes when it first came out, but decided that if I'm going to pay monthly for a game it had better be a Blizzard game. City of Villains, so far, is no World of WarCraft - it's not even close to the quality of WoW.

Blizzard has really spoiled the MMO genre with WoW. There are so many minute details in the game design that you wouldn't notice unless you played one of the competition's games. You know, something like not having to select the server where your character is located everytime you load the game. And on top of that, displaying how many characters you have created for a given server. Simple stuff like that makes WoW so much better than every other MMO.

This takes me back to a previous post on my blog. Blizzard takes their damn sweet time when developing a game. And it shows. Even as you read this, Microsoft is in a rush to get every launch title ready for the Nov. 22 release of the Xbox360. To them, it doesn't matter how good the game is, just get it out there.

Perfect Dark Zero is Microsoft's flagship title. I can tell you right now, it's gonna suck ass. No, I haven't seen it in person or played a demo. I've only seen the screenshots that you have seen. Why do I think it'll suck? One reason. Microsoft has not yet allowed game reviewer sites, like GameSpot or IGN, to even play a pre-final version of the game. If a title skips the reviewers before being released, the publisher is very concerned over the reviews the game will get. Movie companies do this all the time. Microsoft is scared shitless that the game will get bombed by reviewers and thus PDZ would only sell to the really stupid. Microsoft could always use an excuse like "we didn't have enough time to get the game to reviewers before launch because the games couldn't be pressed in time." That, of course, is a lie. Game companies will normally send the reviewers pre-final software (before mass production begins).

Perfect Dark Zero will sell, no doubt. People just have not learned why Nintendo got rid of Rare in the first place. Rare just sucks. Out of all the games they developed, only GoldenEye for the N64 is worth playing. Sure, Conker is a favorite of mine. But by no means is it a good game - it's just entertaining enough to overlook the huge flaws in gameplay design. Granted, I've said this many times before and I know people still don't believe me. Hey, it's your time and money. Waste it if you want. Just remember I told you so.

I've also been playing a lot of Mario Kart DS - offline and online. The mix of race tracks from the previous 4 Mario Kart games is nice, although it does show how crappy Mario Kart: Double Dash is compared to the rest. And while an online Battle mode will surely be missed, racing online is just too damn cool. It just sucks that there's no penalty for disconnecting from a race. It's something that must be fixed in future online games from Nintendo. And yes, Mario Kart DS is the best Mario Kart ever.

Backwards Crapability

2005-11-12T11:51:00.000-08:00

Microsoft finally released the list of Xbox games that will initially be playable on the Xbox 360. Thank god that Catwoman is on that list and not crap like Panzer Dragoon Orta or Project Gotham Racing. (end sarcasim)

What the hell is this broken backwards compatibility shit? Either you have backwards compatibility, or you don't. You don't give us this half assed approach.

Trickling the supply of the Xbox 360 to generate demand is a lame approach too.

I'm waiting for Nintendo's Revolution and Sony's PS3. Screw the Xbox 360.

Disappointing news

2005-11-10T18:45:00.000-08:00

Couple of disappointing news items today. Mario Kart DS' online mode does not support Battle Mode. That seriously sucks major ass. I was really looking forward to playing that mode online. Mario Kart racing is fun, but was never as much fun as battle mode.

The other news item is that the creator of Katamari Damacy may soon stop making games. Yet again, the bottom line is more important than actually making games that are fun.

As if it weren't cool enough

2005-11-09T21:11:00.000-08:00

I just found this video of one guy's method for climbing to the 3rd Colossus' head. Very cool indeed. Now, where are the speed runs?

Thy next foe is...

2005-11-09T18:07:00.000-08:00

I've been playing a lot of Shadow of the Colossus lately. We all know that this game kicks serious ass and is definitely the PS2's best game ever. My question is why don't more companies give development teams more time to perfect their games? Sony's had two gems this year, those being God of War and Shadow of the Colossus. Both games had a development time of roughly 4 years. Other companies, such as EA, have much shorter development cycles - roughly 6-9 months from concept to retail. Far too short in my opinion.

Don't get me wrong here... I'm all for making cheap games to sell to idiots. Those morons keep the industry out of the red. I just want more gems in a given year.

Exciting times

2005-11-07T22:36:00.000-08:00

I can't wait for November 14th. Mario Kart goes online on that day. I've always enjoyed Mario Kart - not for it's racing but more for it's multiplayer battle mode. I remember that my friends and I would spend an entire day just playing the 4 battle mode stages in Mario Kart 64. Those were the days. Even though Mario Kart: Double Dash really disappointed me, I have high hopes for Mario Kart DS. I just wish that more of my friends owned a NintendoDS so that we could all join in on the fun. Oh well, I suppose that WoW and Civilization IV will have to suffice for now. They'll cave in and buy a NDS soon enough. =)

Come Nov. 14th, I challenge everyone to Mario Kart!!!

Especially you. Yes, you. You know who you are...

Slime Keychains & Civ IV

2005-10-29T23:41:00.000-07:00

I recently received some cool promotional items for the upcoming RPG, Dragon Quest VIII. As we all know, the slime creature has been the unofficial mascot for Enix and Dragon Quest for many years. Along with getting the DQVIII demo for free, I got two slime keychains. Pretty cool huh? Funny thing... I've never finished a Dragon Quest game. I still want to get around to playing DQ7 though. All I need is roughly 100 free hours to do so.

I've spent the good part of this week trying to get my hands on the Civilization IV Collector's Edition. You're only supposed to get it by preordering it. After being told by the local EB and GameStop that I should have preordered it, I was hoping that I'd be able to grab one from Fry's. After 4 delayed shipments, Fry's got them in on Friday afternoon (first told me Wed. morning, then Thurs. afternoon, then Fri. morning). So after being informed by a good friend that Fry's actually got their shipment, I went straight to buy it after work. How is the game? So far, I'm enjoying it a lot. More so than Civ 3. I'm not so impressed with how little effort went into customer quality control for the packaging and hardware compatibility. The game's two discs are mislabeled - disc two is labeled as the play disc when it's actually disc one. I've read reports that Civ IV doesn't work on certain ATi video cards. I guess I'm lucky - no problems so far with my Radeon 9700PRO. Let's hope it stays that way.

Level 60!!!

2005-10-16T13:38:00.000-07:00

Hooray! My priest just reached level 60!