Well I’ve slowly been getting back in the groove of things….
Mac People, lulz
Still way behind on numerous fronts, so apologies to everyone out there to whom I owe something. But I really need to take it easy at the moment, to collect myself and perhaps indulge in some overdue rest. Especially since things are gonna get real hectic in the next couple of weeks. Kinda not looking forward to speaking at a film festival in Connecticut AND doing the MoCCA Art Fest in the same weekend, yet at the same time, I am! But before that, there’s some stuff going on at Funspot in New Hampshire next weekend, and Jason insists I attend with him. Hopefully I’ll have most of what I need for MoCCA done by then. Though I highly doubt it!
Nothing terribly exciting to report since my return. There was yet another beer and animu fest with Hilary the other night, which was just what the doctor ordered after a long, grueling trip back home. PBR and pantsu animu is a fine mix, but I totally f’d up and brought way too much Strike Witches and not enough Sky Girls. Damn. I also fixed her internet; Hilary’s sister’s ex-boyfriend set the wireless network up, some dude who works at the Apple Store. Which I guess is all one needs to know regarding his technical abilities. I still fondly remember that one stretch of time in which I was fixing one Mac after another, from all these people who had just gotten their machines back from Tekserve, supposedly fixed but much worse after than before it was taken to the shop. I naturally had to bore Hilary to death about the time I went there looking to nab the repair person slot that was available, but wasn’t hired because I didn’t have to the look, according to the head douche in charge. Which I’m clearly still hung up on! Point is, whether the person is at Tekserve or the Apple Store (around here at least), he or she more than likely doesn’t know jack about Macs. Period.
Hey, It’s A FPS For The Wii That Doesn’t Suck
Though yesterday, I did get a chance to check out The Conduit, the new Sega FPS coming out in a few weeks. Long story short, I’ve had plenty of chances to check it out at Sega press events past, but never bothered since A) I generally like FPSs and B) you don’t have to be a fan of the genre to know that they usually suck hard on the Wii (Metroid Prime 3 not withstanding). But then I began to hear a lot about the game at places like NeoGAF… some bad (like the totally Genesis-tastic box art), though mostly good (like the awesome graphics). So when I heard that Sega was coming back to NYC to specifically pimp this one game, I figured something was up!
So I spend a good amount of time with the practically finished game, running around the first two levels, and… the verdict? I was seriously impressed. I know Phil Fish made mentioned of how ultra generic looking the main character is on Twitter, a stance that I honestly can’t argue against. But then again, I find pretty much everything in FPSs these days to be ultra generic, plus I guess that there is one benefit of a first person perspective, not being able to see how dumb your character looks! Besides, I’m so sick of those types of games taking place in the Vietcong or Mars, so contemporary DC is a nice change of pace. The first level takes place in the Metro, which I’m a huge fan of, architecturally speaking.
I don’t know too much about the story, other than some alien threat that was kinda under the control of a super clandestine government organization that’s now out of control. Apparently the plot will be filled to the brim with all sorts of conspiracy stuff, everything from Area 51 to the Kennedy Assassination. For all you trufers out there, no, didn’t ask about 9/11. lol. Anyhow, I guess it’s perfect timing, since Angles and Demons comes out real soon as well (I still can’t believe The Da Vinci Code made so much damn money… though I wonder how the video game sold). Moving on, the graphics were indeed quite splendid. Some of the outdoor environments were downright stunning. The Conduit certainly pushes the system, and then some; the folks at High Voltage Software, who created the engine the game is built upon, has good reason to be proud (and members of the team who were on-hand were clearly beaming). But it’s the controls that sucked me in; it’s pretty sad how the Wii is so custom built for FPS gaming, yet hardly anyone does anything with it, at least anything worth talking about (again, Metroid Prime 3 not withstanding). Everything just felt so spot-on, with tons of customizable options.
Can’t really say much about the AI, since I only played a tiny bit of the game, and the very beginning, but it certainly kept me on my toes. Apparently, it’ll adjust on the fly, to suit a player’s skill-level, which can even be tweeked further via the options. All in all, The Conduit is most definitely a Wii game of the year candidate already. It’s sure to be a success…. provided that hardcore gamers don’t immediately write it off like they did with MadWorld and No More Heroes. Time will tell I suppose.
Curry + Ramen = WIN
Afterwards I had lunch at Curry-Ya, this pretty fab Japanese-style curry joint in the East Village… for the second day in a row. It’s just that good. But I’ll have to save the details for my review! It’ll be my first for Americurry, so be on the look out for it sometime later today or tomorrow, I hope! It’s been a long time coming; been meaning to file a report for them for seemingly ages, but stuff just kept coming up, like last week’s trip. Actually, my first review was originally supposed to be for Rai Rai Ken’s awesome curry, hence my visit there a while ago with Katie when she had the day off. Much to my shock and dismay, I was told that they stopped serving the dish during late winter (it had been a little while since I’d been there). Though I’d discover that it wasn’t totally gone forever; they had recently opened up a new shop, dedicated entirely to curry, right next door. AKA Curry-Ra! But since Katie really wanted ramen, and cuz it had been a while since my last bowl of their heavenly curry raman…. also because the folks at Americurry are only interested in reviews on curry, and no off-shoots… here’s a pic of lunch that day…
Blast From The Past
Back to my trip, one last time. It’s been quite flattering to hear that all the Twittering I did during my stay was quite the hit back home! There’s nothing like infantile bitching and moaning on the internet to help make an unbearable situation slightly more amusing. I guess those that missed out and might be interested can go here, but you’ll have to dig a bit, since it’s since been replaced with me bitching about these two idiots at Curry-Ya on Monday, plus assorted chit-chat about games and links to random YouTube vids, as is usually the case.
On a related note, I really wish Twitter had a way to go through old “tweets” (God I hate using that term). I’d love to go through that time I live-blogged being in traffic court in NJ.
BTW, one additional pic related to home; whenever I go back, I generally try to bring back a bit of childhood with me. Over the past thirteen years, I’ve managed to reclaim most of my comics and game magazines, at least the ones worth holding on to. This was the first time I brought back old toys, mostly because all my Transformers and everything else related had been tossed out ages ago. Needless to say, I was both shocked and elated to see the following, which might actually be the oldest possessions of my period…
… Wind up Pac Man toys, right when Pac Man Fever was actually happening. Those are from, I’d say, circa 1982. Picked up at a toy store on the military base I lived at when my folks were stationed in South Korea. And they’re in phenomenal shape! I wonder if they’re worth anything? Anyway, when Pac Man is wound up, he walks while opening his mouth, to reveal….
… And when the ghost moves, it’s eyes dart back and forth! They’re now resting comfortably on the shelf where I have all my little game related toys and figures, right next to my Sonic and Nights mini statues!
“They plan on taping three gamecubes together.”
Well a lot’s been going on in the world of games as of late, with E3 just a couple of weeks away, plus with all the stuff I wasn’t around to report due to being back in Washington, I don’t even know where to begin. Despite not being a proper video game news blog, I do know at least a few people out there that rely upon me to keep them current to a certain degree (again, not everyone has the patience to sift through Kotaku or Gaming Age Forums), but instead of writing another long as post of epic proportions, I’m just gonna pass a few things along for the next couple of days. Cool? Let’s see…
- The biggest headline from the past couple of week is easily… no, not how Duke Nukem Forever might actually be, once and for all, something that none of us will ever get to play (I still say that Take-Two will try to recover their loss and hand the assets to another developer to finish the game, and that developer being Bob of Bob’s Game fame)… but how Tatsunoko vs. Capcom! I honestly thought it was a joke at first, but apparently, it’s for real!
When I last spoke with Seth Killian, it just seemed like an impossibility given how so many different people holds the copyrights to all the different Tatsunoko characters, here in America. Well, I’m guessing that everyone’s asking price was far lower than expected. The fact that virtually no one on this side of the ocean is familiar with most of those faces must have played a big part; maybe all the copyright holders figured it’d be in their best interest to just let their assets loose, to gain some recognition for better rewards later down the road?
Well with that goes my primary reason to look into solutions for importing Wii software. All that’s left is Captain Rainbow and Illmatic Envelope.
- The latest “leak” from the big show is this footage of Project Trico, from the folks behind Ico and Shadow of the Colossus. AKA, the one game that will get me to purchase a PS3 when all is said and done.
And it looks awesome! Though that’s hardly a shock; somewhat of a combination of SOTC, the person plus animal dynamic, but a bit more Panzer Dragoon Zweii-ish, with that animal being some powerful, otherworldly creature and all.
- The fact that there’s a tiny realm of possibility that this might be the PS3 slim…
… simply blows my mind.
- In case anyone’s wondering, the one thing I’m looking forward to most at E3 is the possible new game console from Apple. That and this supposed iPhone and PSP killer from MS, which I guess is supposed to be a guzzied up Zune. lol.
Plus I’m hoping that there’s finally some new word regarding Tetsuya Mizuguchi’s upcoming Atari backed Wii title, especially since things have been a bit rough on his end. Should be well worth the wait, I hope.
- You know, I’m just so sick and tired off Activision. Virtually every single move they make these days gives me serious douche chills. For starters, word on the street is how music games aren’t doing so hot these days. Which is pretty disconcerting, since I’m such a big fan of the genre. And not just because I’m actually in the process of making one!
There’s many possible reasons for this, such as the crap economy, which really hurts the fact that stuff like Guitar Hero and Rock Band are inherently expensive, given those fake instruments and all. But more so than anything else, it?s over saturation of the marketplace, and that’s primarily one party’s fault: Activision, for their piss-poor handling of the Guitar Hero franchise. Things were going great for a while, but it’s evident that the party is over and tough times are ahead, so there’s two ways of handling the situation: either proceeding with caution, to help ensure the long-term health of the genre, and that would mean scaling back and making smarter creative decisions, or going full steam ahead, to beat that dead horse into the ground with as much gusto as possible, to make as some quick and easy cash while the going’s good. The fact that there’s seriously like seven different Guitar Hero franchises in the works should clue anyone in as to their current stratagem.
Seriously, Guitar Hero Van Halen? You’ve got to be sh*tting me. And a television show, as well as a tour? A tour of what, dorks playing the game in concert? Originally I thought Lego Rock Band was the most shameless attempt at pandering to the family friendly market one could ever come up with. Wrong! That crown now goes to Band Hero, which thus far sounds like all those crappy Guitar Hero clones for kids that folks like Disney else came up with years ago. Meanwhile, the folks behind Rock Band are playing it cool, with a far stronger and daring creative vision of the future, which might be in jeopardy thanks to their former creation screwing it up for everyone. It must be killing the folks at Harmonix inside to see their baby being suffocated by the same folks that killed the Tony Hawk franchise. Unfortunately, no matter how much more critical praise and overall respect Rock Band gets, the masses still prefer Guitar Hero. If the Beatles game doesn’t revive the genre, then nothing will. And for the record, I don’t blame Wii Music for helping to sour things as some like to believe. Yet it certainly didn’t help matters either. Though I will say, I’m morbidly interested in how Guitar Hero 5′s ability to support four of the same instruments at the same time will turn out, as well as this change in art direction as well (which is sorely needed).
Next, and I know people are gonna laugh at me for being genuinely bothered by this, is this whole Science Papa nonsense. I mean come on Activision, can you be any less original than that? At least Majesco is taking it in stride. But now more than ever, it’s crystal clear why Activision is the new EA (and man, did that company ever redeem itself or what). Anyhow, enough about Activision bitching for now…
EDIT: Alright, I’m willing to admit that the new Tony Hawk does looking promising. Which of course is primarily thanks to the new hands its in, and I guess the only way Guitar Hero is actually going to develop is when it’s officially a lame duck. But it shouldn’t have to be that way. As for DJ Hero… the jury is out till I can get my hands on that goofy looking turntable controller.
- Hey, Critter Crunch is coming to PSN! And as wonderful as it looked on the iPhone, on the PS3, it’s practically jaw-dropping…
… I can only imagine how amazing the actual thing will animate. EDIT: Actually, Oddworld (naturally) has a trailer for the game, and it does indeed move beautifully.
- As some folks already know, Contra ReBirth recently came out in Japan on WiiWare. Many, myself included, assumed it was going to be like Gradius ReBirth, with a bunch of old stages from assorted games, all thrown together with new bells and whistles. Apparently we were all wrong, it’s an entirely new game.
Though according to this very decent write-up, it does share certain qualities with Gradius ReBirth, in the sense that it too has somewhat of a Genesis-like vibe, at least with the music. Then again, there was already a Contra on that system (whereas Gradius never made an appearance, hence the appeal for it’s ReBirth for me), and this new title looks nowhere near as interesting as Hard Corps. Now that’s a game that’s just begging for a Virtual Console release…. along with Ranger X, Thunder Force 4, Rocket Knight Adventures, Panorama Cotton, Yoshi’s Island, Starfox, Pock & Rocky, UN Squardron, about six hundred others.
- Though the only WiiWare game I really care about is Muscle March!
- Remember that Leve-5/Studio Ghibli collaboration that was announced some time ago? Not a peep has been heard since, but it’s supposedly still on target for a release (in Japan) later this year:
Ghibli’s involvement with Ninokuni was a surprise to some in the game industry because the studio — in particular Hayao Miyazaki, director of most of its greatest work — has a reputation for hating video games. The last time Ghibli crossed paths with the game business was in the mid-1980s, when a set of disastrously bad titles based off Nausica? of the Valley of the Wind was released on Japanese computers. In the interview, Suzuki admits that his studio has been approached many times in the ensuing years with game-related work, but has turned it all down — until now. “Normally we wouldn’t have done it, but Ponyo was just about to debut in theaters, and our heads were still running full tilt. He caught us right when we were at our weakest!”, he said with a laugh.
“I think [Level-5 head Akihiro] Hino really has luck on his side,” added Fujimaki. “The entirety of Ghibli was free of work at just that moment. Miyazaki may say that he hates games, but being a businessman, Suzuki isn’t going to just let his staff play around all day.“
- And on the Sega end of things, Jambo! Safari is FINALLY coming to a home system. On the Wii, as well as the DS. At first I was gonna say about damn time, since it so should have been released for the Dreamcast ages ago, but based on the following screenshot, it appears that Sega is actually bothering to update the visuals…
… A bit of a shock, considering that they didn’t touch the looks of Virtual On for XBLA (one of quite a few problems with that game). Sega’s also coming out with a Hatsune Miku PSP game, and one of the outfits that a player can adorn their vocaloid with is this Ulala from Space Channel 5 get-up…
… I love how Sega waits almost ten years to shamelessly pimp their cast of characters. Has anyone unlocked the Gun Valkyrie chick in Valkyria Chronicles yet?
- The upcoming American release of King of Fighter XII is generating a certain degree of fuss. Primarily the box art: folks weren’t too happy with the originally proposed design and demanded that the Japanese versions, mostly on the Xbox 360 side of things. Here’s a closer look…
… But it would seem that not everyone agrees! Though I’m somewhat more interested in the PS3 side of things; the Japanese version here is clearly the superior…
- Sticking with the subject of SNK, guess what import DS title I’m looking forward to the most this summer? Why the third installment of Doki Doki Majo Shinpan of course! You know, that game where you have to rub the bodies of young girls to see if they’re a witch or not. Well JC Fletcher over at Tiny Cartridge recently pointed out how there’s a blog being maintained by one of the characters you’ll be molesting, and how she re-writes SNK’s history of Psycho Soldier ports. That’s… kinda neat!
- And on the subject of pervy gaming, you know that Japanese styled dating sim made in America, the one where you try to pick up crippled girls, right? Yup, Katawa Shoujo! If you’re a fan, or simply curious, here’s a fairly decent Q&A featuring one of it’s chief architects. Nice to see that the work is indeed progressing on the full game… and that it will be far more salacious than the demo! What can I say? I like what I like. And sticking with the theme at hand…
- One of my more recent favorite things to play on the PSP Ikki Tousen: Eloquent Fist, which I forget if I’ve mentioned here before. Basically, imagine Final Fight except with Japanese schoolgirls, with lots of skin. Well, I had no idea that there was a PS2 game, and it was apparently due out here in America! The key word here being was. Time to hit eBay I guess. And speaking off…
- Check out these TOTALLY awesome Tron Bonne in her Gustaff mecha & Giga Servbot cosplay outfits for sale!
And here’s a pair of custom Mega Man and Protoman figures, based upon some random GI Joe figures, with Protoman one still up for sale, and at a fairly reasonable price (at least at the moment)…
… I guess Mega Man’s been sold already? I’m dying to know how much it fetched in the end. EDIT: Man, lots of updates to today’s post! Check out Fire Man and Guts Man by the same artist!
- Though I’d MUCH rather have this totally hawt Solid Snake, thank you very much…
There’s also a new Virtual On figure on the horizon…
… I’m still more of a Raiden fan, but still pretty hawt nonetheless.
- Remember when the Konami code did magical things to ESPN’s website a few weeks ago? Well apparently, it does stuff all over the place, and here’s a handy list of said sites!
- Going back even further, and I mean way back further, does anyone remember when the makers of DJ Max announced that they were working on a shooter? Anyone know what happened to that?
- I was also playing some old-school shumps on the PSone yesterday, and was reminded of Cosmic Race! Any former readers of Game Players magazine out there? Still kicking myself in the ass for not picking up a copy, which was on sale for just $25 at J&L a few years back, as part of some big sale.
- Been meaning to pass this one along for sometime now: via the always awesome Sankaku Complex, here’s a decent piece of fan art featuring the pretty damn obscure Fighting Vipers…
- Going back to the topic of pervy games, those of you who caught my talk radio appearance from this past weekend might recall that the subject of Rapelay was not really touched upon… and thank goodness.
Still, the heat is on for it’s associated sub-genre of gaming in Japan (for the record, as much as I’m fascinated by eroge, RapeLay is far too uncreative and crude to be my cup of tea, thank you very much… yet I still don’t believe it should have been banned), with the most recent example being the formation of something called ?Project Team for Creating a Protective Rearing Environment for Children.” Interesting.
I guess you can add folks within Japan to the increasingly growling list of those outside that want to see h-games obliterated from the face of this earth, including Equality Now, along with UNICEFF, and even the Philippines!
On a semi-related note, and something I love talking about with friends like Mooney, how there’s this misconception that Japan is this wonderful kingdom ruled by gaming and animu dorks, but at the end of the day, the word otaku is still a very dirty word. So all this unwanted attention certainly doesn’t not help their case whatsoever (which has been pretty shaky as of late, ever sine that one crazy 2channer went on a killing rampage in Akihabara last year). Still, its not like nerds there have no friends at all, and at least the man in charge feels that they’re the key to it’s nation’s survival.
- Sankaku Complex is also where I first came to learn about Queen’s Blade, which for the uninformed is this insanely wacky hentai series that I can’t believe is actually airing on Japanese television at the moment. I’ve got four words for you: nipples that shoot acid.
Anyhow, it’s getting a PSP game, and I’m saddened my the fact that it’s not some ultra cheesecake fighter. Though at the very least it looks to be an extremely competent Super Robot Wars clone!
- And as I might have already mentioned at least once or twice by now, I’m putting together the second edition of the fort90zine for the upcoming MoCCA Art Fest! And it’s gonna be killer, I can just feel it. Mostly due to the two fine artists who are lending their talents; I’ve got Mia Schwartz handing the pin-up this time around (you all know her, she’s the girl who nabbed the grand prize in the Persona 4 fan art contest) and Lamar Abrams, aka Neo Rama, taking care of the cover.
Not to give anything away, but the cover will strongly appeal to those who enjoy shumps! So to help make it happen, for the past couple of days now, I’ve been scouring the web for reference material for Lamar. And along the way, I’ve come across some pretty neat things. Like this old (I think) Japanese fan site dedicated to Thunder Force 4!
Then there’s this…
… from this, and if you scroll down, you’ll find footage from some based Thunder Force doujin tile called Thunder Future!
At the end of the day, it’s all about the Rynex, and my search for decent pics took me all over the place, including Flickr of course, like this one dude who loves to recreate assorted shmup ships in Legos. Including you know what…
But all that stuff pales in comparison to this guy’s work. I believe they’re based upon starships from Homeworld, right? Plus for whatever reason he had this, which really takes me back…
… Anyway, that’s it for right now. More to come.
