Back again!
E3 Day One
Once again, the biggest video game event of the year, at least here in America (whereas the Tokyo Game Show has more or less stolen the title of the biggest show in the world), began earlier today. It’s time for E3! And once again… I am not there. Oh well. That’s just how it is. Again, it simply makes no sense for an editor of mine to fly my ass out there and fork the bill for accommodations when there’s tons of writers locally at the event. Then again, its not the grand spectacle that it once was, hence why I’m not too bummed out that I can’t be present, while I still kick myself for not going in the past, and even turning down the opportunity, and still give shit to fellow journalists that bitch and moan about having to attend it in the past. To the point that I’m pretty sure everyone has heard heard my “I’m sure that guy working triple shifts at McDonald’s is happy that he’s at least not at some boring as Square-Enix press conference!” example at least three times by now, so perhaps it’s about time I retire it?
Anyway, pretty much all the highlights of day one are Microsoft related, such as Final Fantasy XIII coming out for the Xbox 360. And while at this point, I’m somewhat annoyed by all the attention that NeoGAF generates, it once again proves itself as the #1 source for comedy gold during times like these…
“Thanks for selling out your fanbase S-E. I poured probably thousands of dollars into your lap with your offerings on Sony platforms. Your support of the PS3 was instrumental in my purchasing one. Now you’re murdering your flagship series for a quick cash grab. Why? Because you have no faith in your fans. Konami turned out all right with Metal Gear, what makes you think we’d be any different for motherfucking Final Fantasy? I and millions of others have rushed out to buy your major releases precisely at release time and time again. I’m certain many of us were still poised to do so, and still are.
I’m not happy that you drank the kool-aid. You had no reason to get into bed with Microsoft and take it this far.”
… For even more wackiness, simply check out the source, this thread, which as of this writing is up to 59 pages. Christ.
Other things of interest, at least to me, mostly on the XBLA front…
- Geometry Wars 2 is on the way! Thus far is looks a lot like the original, which to be honest, ain’t such a bad thing.
- Also coming soon is Portal: Still Alive, which includes the original game plus a bunch of brand new levels. And I was just about to pick up Orange Box, just for Portal, too! Yes, I’ve also heard about that game called Half Life 2 and how its worth checking out too.
- Then there’s the Galaga Legions, which is supposed to be a sequel in the vein of Pac Man Championship Edition. And if its as good as CE, then consider it sold on day one.
EDIT: At least it already looks like CE!
- The much talked about (at least on message boards) Live overhaul has been officially unveiled, including a completely different interface and fully realized avatars that are basically Xbox Miis.
Cue the “200 ms points for yellow hair!” wisecrack from NeoGAF. But yeah, they look like Miis all right, but without the charm. Though there seems to be a far better level of interaction online in this instance, such as the virtual game shows one can take part in.
- Two additional neat looking features is the ability directly download movies from Netflix onto the 360 hard drive (though everyone’s assuming its only the stuff that’s available for streaming via a PC, and not the entire library… so no The Best of Midnight Blue I’m afraid). Apparently, if you already have a Netflix account (and at this point, who doesn’t), one can easily jump in and immediately take part. It’s also said content can be shared between friends…. I have no idea what that means. Can I watch what my friends are watching at that very moment? That would be neat.
- The second is the ability to rip games and play them directly from the HD, though one will have to have the original game in the disc tray, for obvious security reasons (watch that get cracked REAL quick). This will allow for zero load times, and not having to hear that loud as fuck laser in the box. I guess I might have to finally spend money of the way too expensive 120 gigger!
- Not Microsoft related purely, but coming out for the 360 (and the PS) early next year is Resident Evil 5, and here’s the latest trailer! Two words: zombie bikers.
… Guess I’ll be back for more tomorrow. By then, we should all know what the Wii Motion Plus is actually all about (I wonder if it’s the real reason why we haven’t gotten a real-deal light saber game thus far?) as well see if the DS even Liter is indeed a reality (which I thought was a sure bet, until Guitar Hero On Tour came out, which also needs the GBA slot).
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Anyhow, as mentioned several times in previous updates, I’ve been playing a LOT of things as of late, and one of things I’ve been meaning to do are game reviews (which is odd, considering this is a mostly game-centric blog, and all I seem to review, at least these days, are movies). I’ve already had “guest reviews” courtesy of Katie and Dave, so I guess it’s about damn time that I starting doing some myself, especially after promising them for so many folks… specifically game publishers that have passed along their wares for coverage. Unfortunately, things have been crazy, and I’ve let the pile of titles to talk about just pile on up… Then again, as I’ve seen at assorted places that shall remain nameless, it would seem that folks are still interested in hearing what certain folks have to say, no matter how long the game in question might be. But right off the back, I’m not gonna talk about Link To The Past or Symphony Of The Night. Sorry!
Well, because I’m determined to keep things as short and sweet as possible, I’m now going to do said reviews, quick and dirty style. Given my penchant to just ramble on and on, it’s perhaps better this way. So with no further adieu…
REVIEW: Persona 3 FES (PS2)
So if you wish you could enjoy Japanese role playing games because of the super cool aesthetics, but simply can’t due to all the clich?s the genre is plagued with, as well as all the mindless grinding that appears to be par for the course, and if you also can’t fathom how anyone could play a rouge-like title, let alone actually enjoy it… Persona 3 FES is exactly the game for you, despite being both of those things! Not since Panzer Dragoon Saga have I been so enthralled by a JRPG, though that’s not to say that Persona 3 completely re-invents the genre or anything like that. Instead it simply follows the conventions, but just does everything just so well, and with so much charm to boot!
Actually, it’s a tiny bit original, at least for a JRPG; instead of being in some far away kingdom in outer space, trying to reunite the land or win the princess’s heart, you play the role of a high school student that has the ability to enter another realm and do battle with beasts that threaten everyday folk in the regular world. You immediately become acquainted with several other teenagers with the same ability as yours and a team is then formed. You and your gang do all the monster fighting at night… whereas during daytime hours, you attend high school and do all the stuff normal teenagers guys engage in (or are supposed to), like studying, hanging out with friends, going to the mall, dating girls, etc. So the game is part dungeon crawler, part teen simulator, and it’s quite enthralling. Seriously! In order to defeat monsters, which fill randomly generated dungeons, you wage battle via Personas, these beings that dwells in one’s mind. There’s quite a few of them to be discovered and utilized, and can even be combined to form altogether new ones.
Personas can be made stronger by leveling them up in battle, but the real key is to strengthen the lead character’s various skill-sets, which in turn has an impact on Persona creation, which all goes down during the day. Every little action has an affect: studying increases intelligence for example, though most attributes are tied into various folks that represent them and whom you socialize with. Get in good with the head of the student council and your justice level will increase, leading to stronger possible Justice Personas, as another example. So as important as it is to vanquish evil, it’s equally vital that you do stuff and have an active social life. The game is ultimately a real balancing act, especially when you find several girls coming onto you, again, each representing various attributes that that you’ll want in your arsenal, nice and strong. There’s also plenty of dumb little things to do that seemingly wastes time and money (two things that teenagers do all too much) that still pays off in the end, like hanging out at a coffee shop, which makes you “cool” and increases your charm, which in turn gets the ladies to like you more, and so on. Getting rest is also equally important; not only being tired make battles difficult, but cause problems when hitting the books. At first it’s all a bit overwhelming. If you have OCD like me, you will struggle during the first couple of hours, doing things one way, and then another way, to then compare the net gains. There was a point where I had like six save files going, each with a slightly different scenario playing out. Till I said fuck it and threw caution in the wind. Which is like real life! You just can’t spread yourself thing and be cautious all the time, one must choose a direction and stick with it.
Additionally, the story is nothing mind-blowing, but again, it’s all in the details. So on that note, the script is rather enjoyable, and even the America voice is decent. Graphics are excellent, and the music is for the most part pretty neat, though some folks might cringe at the Engrish nature of certain tunes (but they grew on me after time). The first edition came out late last year, followed by the FES edition, which is what I played, and it’s basically the original game with a bunch of extras, like additional Personas, weapons, story elements, and costumes. Meaning you can dress the girls on your team in all sorts of ridiculous, and scantily clad outfits, which still constitutes body protecting “armor” like I did! Oh, and there’s an epilogue/follow up chapter as well. The original was hailed as the best RPG for the PS2 bar none last year, and the RPG out of all the systems as well for many, and for good reason. Persona FES is absolutely outstanding, and shows that even stuff that’s you’ve seen and heard about before are still worth doing if it’s all done so well.
REVIEW: R-Type Command (PSP)
Wheras I could go on and on about Persona 3, in the case of this game, there’s really not much to say… Image R-Type, the classic shump series, if it was remade as a strategy game, a la Advance Wars. That’s R-Type Command in a nutshell. Too bad it has far more strategizing than shooting, and the strategy parts is not nearly as good as one would hope or expect in this day and age.
It’s hard to know where to begin; despite a promising premise (as a shump fan, I’m one of those people that actually pays attention to and cares about the backstory, so the chance to actually explore R-Type’s is an enticing one), the game simply fails to deliver with an extremely chunky interface that is never properly explained. I literally had to refer to the tutorial in Advance Wars to know what the hell was going on and what move to do next in R-Type Command, since the PSP game has no tutorial whatsoever. The game also runs at a total snail’s pace, with battle taking forever to play them out. What’s worse is the wacky difficulty level: things going along well, to the point that things are a cakewalk, and then WHAM, all of a sudden you’re screwed, with not many options at your disposal. Actually, there might be, but again, since nothing is properly explained.
Basically the game is really not for fans of the original series, despite trying hard to dig into it’s rich history, nor shumps in general, unless they also happen to be fans of the hardcore strategy titles, and while there is some overlap, I can’t imagine it being all that much. To be honest, I found myself rather bored to the point that I actually didn’t finish it, even knowing that there’s supposed to be some wacky twist near the end that will make all R-Type diehards go bonkers. It was just THAT boring for me. But I guess for a traditional strategy aficionado, this game will be more than serviceable. Otherwise, R-Type enthusiasts will be disappointed, and perhaps become frustrated as I was, that they’re not playing a real deal shooter instead. The last one was R-Type Final, which as the name implies, was supposed to be the last game in the series, so let’s just hope that Irem didn’t decide to change their minds for just this one bizarre experiment.
REVIEW: Rock Band (Wii)
Before getting into the game itself, may as well address what everyone’s been wondering: months after folks have been rocking out to Rock Band on the 360 and the PS3 (and the PS2) comes the Wii version. So how does it compare? Well, it’s basically the PS2 version, in the sense that several “next-gen” (I hate to say it) features were cut, like character creation. Instead, each of the song comes with pre-rendered videos of band members that do their own thing, independent to how you’re faring. To be honest, it’s not that big a deal really…. After all, when you’re playing, one hardly has any time to see what’s going on behind the notes coming down the line, right? Though when one does get the chance to take a look, and noticed how artifact-ridden the footage is, its a real turn-off. But the world tour mode has also been significantly scaled back as well, and that’s a real bummer.
Though the biggest issue is the lack of downloadable content. Again, “next-gen” players have a wide selection of tracks to choose from the virtual market-place, with new songs being rolled out on a very regular basis. Whereas the Wii version gets all the songs that came out originally for everything else, plus a measly five extra songs. Well, at least they include (Don’t Fear) The Reaper by Blue ?yster Cult, Enter Sandman by Metallica, Suffragette City by David Bowie, Won’t Get Fooled Again by The Who, and Wanted Dead or Alive by Bon Jovi, the last of which is easily my fave song of the entire catalogue.
As for the core gameplay experience, it’s still awesome on its own terms, despite not being quite awesome as the other versions before it. In fact, as a result, the stuff that separates it from Guitar Hero is actually lost, bringing it closer to the competition; with the world tour out the door, what is left is a set-up similar to Guitar Hero 1 & 2. Though speaking as someone who spent all of his previous virtual guitaring with those two titles, it was simply an automatic thrill to hear and interact with the songs with their original vocals and instrumentation. And when also comparing controllers, the Rock Band axes win hands down, without a doubt; they just look and feel nice and real, and not at all like the kids toys that those Guitar Hero controllers end up feeling like immediately afterwards. There is simply no going back, and in a sense, Rock Band truly represent how far the genre has come in so short a time, as well as a real insight into what Harmonix truly had in mind (which is what the developer has been saying all along: MTV and EA asked them what they wanted to do after bringing them on-board, thus their grand vision all along). Though maybe its just me, but I had some isolated instances in which it felt like communication between my guitar and the game was lost for a brief instant, resulting in mistakes and lost points. Plus, RB’s own version of star power would sometimes just activate by itself, which further messes up one’s game-plan. Then again, I’ve heard plenty of people grumbling about the controllers as well. Regarding the drums, I actually had a ton of fun with them in the beginning, but as time went on, something failed to click. I guess as I began to learn how the real things work (and I wonder if everyone, as they get into the groove of things with virtual musical instruments, begin to find out more about their real life counterparts like I did) that it?s just kinda awkward to have cymbals represented by drum pads. I know its a video game, but still… At least the white, Wii edition of the drum kit looks really nice, and apparently is built better than the other versions. As for the singing, I must also admit to not having much of a stab at it, but from my limited experience it’s kinda like karaoke, in the sense that it’s more fun when you’re drunk.
So yeah, if you have a Wii… and ONLY have a Wii… then its version of Rock Band is a good fun for you and three buds. But if you have a 360 or PS3, then it’s far better to invest in kits for those systems, if only for the downloadable content that’s available.
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… Okay, it?s now past four, and I’m clearly not going to get through all the games I wanted to at this point. I guess the plan now is to simply pass along a few reviews, here and there, when I get the chance, like at the end of each post. That works for everyone, right?
