Well, the exchange rate is terrible at the moment, so buying imported videogames from US/Asia is very costly right now. So it's time to look at the UK market for bargains. Fortunately, the market downturn is producing a lot of bargains that are remarkably good for the last quarter of the year / run up to Christmas.
We still don't have Tales Of Vesperia - that comes out in June 2009, and we don't have Chrono Trigger DS or Castlevania Order Of Ecclesia either - they come out in February 2009 (from what I've seen). Square Enix will be publishing the European versions of Persona 4 (PS2) and Disgaea 3 (PS3) next year, though they're made by Atlus and Nippon Ichi.
But here are some bargains I found:
For XBOX 360:
Fallout 3 and Fable 2 were under £20 each on Amazon.co.uk recently, and in-store in branches of Gamestation, last week and the week before last - though the price has gone up again.
If you want a Square Enix RPG: Last Remnant was featured on a "Deal Of The Day" offer on play.com soon after it came out - at £17.99 but it's gone back up in price again now. It's under £25 on Amazon if you're impatient, but I think it'll drop to under £20. The Tri-Ace game Infinite Undiscovery - published by Square Enix - is currently £17.99 on play.com as well. They haven't received that good reviews but I do like Infinite Undiscovery (though the achievements are annoying). I haven't tried out Last Remnant.
Pure is currently £9.99 and that's a good deal, I bought it for twice that and it's a great game - a lot of fun racing dirt buggies and doing SSX style tricks on them.
Also for £17.99 on play.com at the moment are: Farcry 2, Grand Theft Auto 4 and Midnight Club: Los Angeles, if you're interested. I'm playing GTA4 at the moment and I like it a lot because I find it pretty funny, and a lot less buggy than the previous games (though this weekend I did manage to go for a date with a girl in the game, we got drunk in a bar so I thought I'd stand there waiting for us to sober up before leaving. Then all of a sudden she was lying dead on the floor, two barstools lying on her. I have no idea why, but I suspect a bug rather than natural causes).
Mirror's Edge was down to £19.99 on both Xbox 360 and PS3 over the weekend, but from the demo I played I wouldn't rate it as worth that much.
For PSP:
LocoRoco 2 and Star Ocean First Departure are £17.99 each on play.com - there haven't been very many other notable releases on the PSP for a while, IMHO.
For DS:
Some really terrible games are really popular on DS here in the UK; Brain Training and Nintendogs are still popular here, and you get DS ports of gameshows like Deal Or No Deal or Golden Balls, and board games that make no sense to play on a DS like Pass The Pigs. Wading through that, though, Dragon Quest Monsters Joker is £9.99 right now on play.com and the newest Dragon Quest Monsters game if you like those or Pokemon style collect-em-ups (I like the DQM games because you don't have to be gentle in catching monsters, so you don't have to keep anyone in your party deliberately weak just for recruiting monsters). Also, The World Ends With You is £14.99 and that's the RPG I've spent most time on this console; definitely worth it at that price, I think. Bangai-O Spirits is only £12.71 on Amazon if you want story-devoid frantic-but-intentionally-laggy shmup fun. Dragon Quest: The Chapters Of The Chosen (the remake of the 4th Dragon Quest game) is listed as £12.45 but I think it's 3rd party.
EDIT: If you're wondering why I'm listing old bargains that no longer exist, I'm just saying that even though the games are a few months - or sometimes a few weeks old, their price has halved, and it's worth checking daily for the best prices.
Monday 15 December 2008
ALI Project style Anpanman no March!
I think the song on this video is really funny and brilliant, in a way. :D
ALI Project style Anpanman no March
Now, I know jokes don't work if you have to explain them, but I will anyway...
There is a much-loved popular long running small-children's anime called Anpanman. It is about the adventures of a hero whose head is made of a dessert which is bread filled with red bean paste, and his friends (and enemies) whose heads are also food and household objects and strange things. There's a theme song that I keep hearing (for Soreike! Anpanman), called Anpanman no March; in videos of NHK anime song concerts, in Taiko No Tatsujin games, Karaoke Revolution games, and so on. It's performed by a female twin duo called Dreaming, who are so synchronised in their performances and interviews that I find them a bit unnerving.
There is also a music group called ALI Project, whose work I really really like. I first heard them doing the OP to the anime series Noir, then I bought a non-anime album of theirs called "EROTIC & HERETIC" - which is a great album, and have liked their work ever since - the music to Avenger is the best part of the series and I listen to that soundtrack a lot, as well as their work on the .hack//ROOTS soundtracks and Rozen Maiden OP/ED themes, Code Geass ED, etc. Their current sound is distinctive; a combination of electronic and classical music, sometimes seemingly entirely chaotic at first listen but with a ton of depth to explore with further listens. They increasingly present a feeling of class and dignity and mystery, and often feature complex gothic and dark lyrics, often with references to bondage and other strictly adult themes.
So there's a big contrast from Anpanman to ALI Project. When I'd finished laughing, I realised just how brilliant the song in this video is, bridging the gap so naturally and hilariously. It sounds recognisably in the distinctive style of ALI Project, and the song suits the treatment incredibly well. The tune to "Anpanman no March" sounds like a classical piece in parts which helps, it's just really well done.
I wish the sound quality on the video was better though. XD
ALI Project style Anpanman no March
Now, I know jokes don't work if you have to explain them, but I will anyway...
There is a much-loved popular long running small-children's anime called Anpanman. It is about the adventures of a hero whose head is made of a dessert which is bread filled with red bean paste, and his friends (and enemies) whose heads are also food and household objects and strange things. There's a theme song that I keep hearing (for Soreike! Anpanman), called Anpanman no March; in videos of NHK anime song concerts, in Taiko No Tatsujin games, Karaoke Revolution games, and so on. It's performed by a female twin duo called Dreaming, who are so synchronised in their performances and interviews that I find them a bit unnerving.
There is also a music group called ALI Project, whose work I really really like. I first heard them doing the OP to the anime series Noir, then I bought a non-anime album of theirs called "EROTIC & HERETIC" - which is a great album, and have liked their work ever since - the music to Avenger is the best part of the series and I listen to that soundtrack a lot, as well as their work on the .hack//ROOTS soundtracks and Rozen Maiden OP/ED themes, Code Geass ED, etc. Their current sound is distinctive; a combination of electronic and classical music, sometimes seemingly entirely chaotic at first listen but with a ton of depth to explore with further listens. They increasingly present a feeling of class and dignity and mystery, and often feature complex gothic and dark lyrics, often with references to bondage and other strictly adult themes.
So there's a big contrast from Anpanman to ALI Project. When I'd finished laughing, I realised just how brilliant the song in this video is, bridging the gap so naturally and hilariously. It sounds recognisably in the distinctive style of ALI Project, and the song suits the treatment incredibly well. The tune to "Anpanman no March" sounds like a classical piece in parts which helps, it's just really well done.
I wish the sound quality on the video was better though. XD
Sunday 14 December 2008
Shin Megami Tensei Imagine MMO now in beta
Shin Megami Tensei: Imagine: the free-to-play MMO (developed by Cave), based on Atlus's Megami Tensei series of RPGs is now in the process of being localised to English by Aeria Games, and is now in closed beta. Actually, it has been since the beginning of December but I didn't get round to installing it until this weekend (I've been busy!)
Although it's a closed beta, Filefront are giving away 20000 free access keys, so it's not very closed if you want to join in! I got one of those keys last week, then got sent an invite from Aeria games on Friday via email, so now I have the access key spare. :/
All character data is going to be erased when it goes to open beta, so I'm hesitant to put much time into it. All I've done so far is create a character, follow the tutorial and do the first mission. My character is level six.
I was thinking, from the MegaTen games I've played, and from people's descriptions of the game, that it would be kind of like an online and demon-filled, dark, grown-up version of Pokemon. The reality is that it feels like a cross between Phantasy Star Online and playing as a beastmaster in Final Fantasy XI, and I get the feeling that the game may have borrowed some of the stylistic elements from the .hack games/anime. Well, I don't know really, since this MMO fits in the storyline between the 1st and 2nd SMT games and I only started playing at the 3rd game, so I don't know the style of those older games.
It seems that you can only summon one of your demons at a time, and you fight alongside it. You choose how to allocate stat points to your character as you level up, and which skills to train up in as you fight, and in this way you mould your character into a melee fighter, long-range shooter, or magic user. I'm completely undecided as to what I'd like to be at the moment! Before I started playing, I was under the impression that I would be controlling the demons, not both the player and their summoned demon both at once.
There's only one server (Cerberus), containing several "channels", and their load has always been labelled "sparse" when I've gone in, however it's still a bit laggy (sometimes it becomes somewhat unplayable), and there's something on the front of the site saying that everyone should suffer fewer disconnect issues now. Another issue - I did notice that during the tutorial mission, the final cutscene was subtitled in Japanese rather than English (NB: it is easy to work out what happened even if you can't understand the language). So it's definitely a work in progress. But, worth a look if you're at all interested at getting to play this part of the MegaTen series, and it's free! :D
Although it's a closed beta, Filefront are giving away 20000 free access keys, so it's not very closed if you want to join in! I got one of those keys last week, then got sent an invite from Aeria games on Friday via email, so now I have the access key spare. :/
All character data is going to be erased when it goes to open beta, so I'm hesitant to put much time into it. All I've done so far is create a character, follow the tutorial and do the first mission. My character is level six.
I was thinking, from the MegaTen games I've played, and from people's descriptions of the game, that it would be kind of like an online and demon-filled, dark, grown-up version of Pokemon. The reality is that it feels like a cross between Phantasy Star Online and playing as a beastmaster in Final Fantasy XI, and I get the feeling that the game may have borrowed some of the stylistic elements from the .hack games/anime. Well, I don't know really, since this MMO fits in the storyline between the 1st and 2nd SMT games and I only started playing at the 3rd game, so I don't know the style of those older games.
It seems that you can only summon one of your demons at a time, and you fight alongside it. You choose how to allocate stat points to your character as you level up, and which skills to train up in as you fight, and in this way you mould your character into a melee fighter, long-range shooter, or magic user. I'm completely undecided as to what I'd like to be at the moment! Before I started playing, I was under the impression that I would be controlling the demons, not both the player and their summoned demon both at once.
There's only one server (Cerberus), containing several "channels", and their load has always been labelled "sparse" when I've gone in, however it's still a bit laggy (sometimes it becomes somewhat unplayable), and there's something on the front of the site saying that everyone should suffer fewer disconnect issues now. Another issue - I did notice that during the tutorial mission, the final cutscene was subtitled in Japanese rather than English (NB: it is easy to work out what happened even if you can't understand the language). So it's definitely a work in progress. But, worth a look if you're at all interested at getting to play this part of the MegaTen series, and it's free! :D
Wednesday 10 December 2008
One man's work is another man's play
I've never played World Of Warcraft, but I still found this little comedy video quite funny. :)
World Of Workcraft
(This is 6 months old, but I've only just seen it!)
World Of Workcraft
(This is 6 months old, but I've only just seen it!)
Monday 8 December 2008
Yuen Shan restaurant, Sheffield
I ate in a little Chinese restaurant called Yuen Shan on Saturday. When I had finished my meal, I was all *_* [sparkly sparkly]
My boyfriend and I walked up London Road looking for a good place to eat, undecided where to go, looking for somewhere inexpensive that would sell good, tasty food, suitable for one person who wanted something interesting that they can't easily cook themselves, and one vegetarian who wanted something less adventurous. This place fitted the bill really well.
It's fairly new, and I hadn't seen it there before. There were menus and advertisements posted on the windows - a recession-busting 20% off everything, special offer. All you can eat buffet. Special Hot Pot. Then the menus had the general individual things you could order, including some really speciality exotic dishes that you don't normally see on offer, like dishes using chicken feet, cow lungs, pig ears, etc. Menus were in both English and Chinese.
As we were waiting outside, I could see that the staff were anticipating us, which scared me off a little bit. We tried to see what was on offer at the restaurant next door but the windows were steamed up, so we came back to the Yuen Shan. No regrets!
The interior is not flashy at all, it's like a little café or canteen. It seems clean - they clear down and spray clean tables immediately after customers leave. There is one big room, with a counter to the right, and toilets to the back. As we sat down, they gave us a huge pile of menus, along with free Chinese tea and prawn crackers. There are... maybe hundreds of dishes to choose from, hehe.
"Yay! Free tea! This is the best place ever! And free crackers! Oh! And they supply chilli oil as well as soy sauce!! Wow! I like this place!!" ^__^ was my reaction.
The "Eat As Much As You Can" buffet costs more than at most places in the area, and is not actually a buffet - it's table service. You choose whatever you would like on that menu and they bring it to you. That seems quite nice and far more hygenic than how it is done in most restaurants, but it seems... I dunno, embarassing to individually order so much food rather than take it. It's got a far larger vegetarian menu than most all-you-can-eat buffets.
I decided to order a "Big Plate" of boiled rice, mixed seafood and tofu. My boyfriend opted for a tofu dish and boiled rice separately. The food arrived quickly, far quickly than in most restaurants I have been to. The "Big plate" really is big! I was very impressed. The selection of seafood was good as well - great big king prawns, squid, scallops, and fried tofu. There were large slices of ginger on top which made the dish hot, and I added some of the chilli oil (which seemed to contain crushed shrimp) as well. Oh, it was gorgeous. Really well prepared. ^_^ My boyfriend's meal was a large plate of tofu and (I forget what) sauce which contained water chestnuts and peanuts and celery, together with a small bowl of rice. He seemed to enjoy it. ^_^
Around us, there were lots of Chinese patrons - who had all opted for the restaurant's speciality hot pot. From 2 people to 6 people parties, that seemed to be what everyone was eating. For this, they brought out a huge pot of boiling water over a little hot plate to keep it boiling, and put it in the centre of the table. Then they brought out plates of raw vegetables and meat and seafood and noodles, and placed those plates around the table. Each person chooses what they would like and they put the food into the pot, put the lid on and wait for it to cook. It's also all-you-can-eat, I think. Looks great, a very social way to eat, but I guess some people wouldn't like to eat with raw meat in front of them, and you risk giving yourself food poisoning if you don't cook it all properly!
So, we had a good meal, and everyone around us seemed to have a good meal as well. My dinner - a large, filling, plate of rice and seafood, and a pot of chinese tea, came to £4.80. My boyfriend's meal came to a little more due to ordering rice separately and his soft drink, but it still came to a total of under £12 for both our meals together. Really good value for money!
Are there any downsides to the Yuen Shan? well, my boyfriend tried to order a drink and it was quite troublesome - first of all the man who appeared to be the boss of the place didn't seem to understand what my boyfriend wanted at all, then he called over a waitress who also had trouble understanding what a "soft drink" is. The staff are attentive, but their poor English communication skills let it down. Also, I think you might be stuck if you can't use chopsticks, it's hard to tell whether meals will be spicy or contain nuts from the menu, a dish with oyster sauce is in the vegetarian section (unless their Oyster sauce doesn't contain oysters?), and there are no desserts on the menu. None of that really affected me, though, and I had a great time. ^_^
There are several good Chinese restaurants in Sheffield; the Wong Ting, and Mei's Restaurant are both favourites of mine which sell really excellent food, but the price is twice what you would pay in the Yuen Shan - perhaps more. This is more downmarket but is a very authentic small-scale Chinese restaurant experience with a huge range of meals to choose from, and is very good value for money. And they give you free tea! *_*
My boyfriend and I walked up London Road looking for a good place to eat, undecided where to go, looking for somewhere inexpensive that would sell good, tasty food, suitable for one person who wanted something interesting that they can't easily cook themselves, and one vegetarian who wanted something less adventurous. This place fitted the bill really well.
It's fairly new, and I hadn't seen it there before. There were menus and advertisements posted on the windows - a recession-busting 20% off everything, special offer. All you can eat buffet. Special Hot Pot. Then the menus had the general individual things you could order, including some really speciality exotic dishes that you don't normally see on offer, like dishes using chicken feet, cow lungs, pig ears, etc. Menus were in both English and Chinese.
As we were waiting outside, I could see that the staff were anticipating us, which scared me off a little bit. We tried to see what was on offer at the restaurant next door but the windows were steamed up, so we came back to the Yuen Shan. No regrets!
The interior is not flashy at all, it's like a little café or canteen. It seems clean - they clear down and spray clean tables immediately after customers leave. There is one big room, with a counter to the right, and toilets to the back. As we sat down, they gave us a huge pile of menus, along with free Chinese tea and prawn crackers. There are... maybe hundreds of dishes to choose from, hehe.
"Yay! Free tea! This is the best place ever! And free crackers! Oh! And they supply chilli oil as well as soy sauce!! Wow! I like this place!!" ^__^ was my reaction.
The "Eat As Much As You Can" buffet costs more than at most places in the area, and is not actually a buffet - it's table service. You choose whatever you would like on that menu and they bring it to you. That seems quite nice and far more hygenic than how it is done in most restaurants, but it seems... I dunno, embarassing to individually order so much food rather than take it. It's got a far larger vegetarian menu than most all-you-can-eat buffets.
I decided to order a "Big Plate" of boiled rice, mixed seafood and tofu. My boyfriend opted for a tofu dish and boiled rice separately. The food arrived quickly, far quickly than in most restaurants I have been to. The "Big plate" really is big! I was very impressed. The selection of seafood was good as well - great big king prawns, squid, scallops, and fried tofu. There were large slices of ginger on top which made the dish hot, and I added some of the chilli oil (which seemed to contain crushed shrimp) as well. Oh, it was gorgeous. Really well prepared. ^_^ My boyfriend's meal was a large plate of tofu and (I forget what) sauce which contained water chestnuts and peanuts and celery, together with a small bowl of rice. He seemed to enjoy it. ^_^
Around us, there were lots of Chinese patrons - who had all opted for the restaurant's speciality hot pot. From 2 people to 6 people parties, that seemed to be what everyone was eating. For this, they brought out a huge pot of boiling water over a little hot plate to keep it boiling, and put it in the centre of the table. Then they brought out plates of raw vegetables and meat and seafood and noodles, and placed those plates around the table. Each person chooses what they would like and they put the food into the pot, put the lid on and wait for it to cook. It's also all-you-can-eat, I think. Looks great, a very social way to eat, but I guess some people wouldn't like to eat with raw meat in front of them, and you risk giving yourself food poisoning if you don't cook it all properly!
So, we had a good meal, and everyone around us seemed to have a good meal as well. My dinner - a large, filling, plate of rice and seafood, and a pot of chinese tea, came to £4.80. My boyfriend's meal came to a little more due to ordering rice separately and his soft drink, but it still came to a total of under £12 for both our meals together. Really good value for money!
Are there any downsides to the Yuen Shan? well, my boyfriend tried to order a drink and it was quite troublesome - first of all the man who appeared to be the boss of the place didn't seem to understand what my boyfriend wanted at all, then he called over a waitress who also had trouble understanding what a "soft drink" is. The staff are attentive, but their poor English communication skills let it down. Also, I think you might be stuck if you can't use chopsticks, it's hard to tell whether meals will be spicy or contain nuts from the menu, a dish with oyster sauce is in the vegetarian section (unless their Oyster sauce doesn't contain oysters?), and there are no desserts on the menu. None of that really affected me, though, and I had a great time. ^_^
There are several good Chinese restaurants in Sheffield; the Wong Ting, and Mei's Restaurant are both favourites of mine which sell really excellent food, but the price is twice what you would pay in the Yuen Shan - perhaps more. This is more downmarket but is a very authentic small-scale Chinese restaurant experience with a huge range of meals to choose from, and is very good value for money. And they give you free tea! *_*
Wednesday 3 December 2008
Vote in the seiyuu awards
There's a new "Overseas fan's choice" category in this year's seiyuu awards (3rd annual). So that specifically people outside of Japan can vote for their favourites!
See:
http://www.seiyuawards.jp/eng/
It says:
"Enter voice actors and actress name and the name of the characters that voice actors and actress has played."
So don't forget to mention some characters as well as the name of your favourite seiyuu!
You can only vote for one person. Oh it's so hard to decide!! >_<
See:
http://www.seiyuawards.jp/eng/
It says:
"Enter voice actors and actress name and the name of the characters that voice actors and actress has played."
So don't forget to mention some characters as well as the name of your favourite seiyuu!
You can only vote for one person. Oh it's so hard to decide!! >_<
Monday 17 November 2008
LocoRoco 2 Demo flash game
I owned a demo of the first LocoRoco game even before I owned a PSP to play it on! Eventually I bought a PSP, then played the demo, and didn't understand why people liked the game.
So it was a long while before I bought a full copy of LocoRoco to play - only when it had come down in price to about £6 or something.
And... I really like the full game! It's basically a really cute 2D platform game, which you mainly play with the shoulder buttons (it's a bit strange at first but becomes comfortable and tactile). And it sings to you. In some mysterious made-up language. ^_^
I even bought the soundtrack (and it cost more than the game!)
So yeah. LocoRoco 2 comes out on the 21st of November, and I can see it's available as a pre-order for £17.99 on play.com which is a reasonable enough price for me to preorder a copy.
The demo of the first game really put me off it! And the graphical style made me think "this looks like a Flash game!" :/
So what do we have for the 2nd game? A playable demo in flash!
LocoRoco 2 demo
It's quite fun! And it sings cutely at you (songs reused from the 1st game). And is.... oh it's frustrating sometimes! But too cute for you to stay mad at it. Haha!
I wonder how representative of the full game this is...
Quick comparison of the 2nd game demo with the 1st game:
* Rather than rolling around looking for budding flowers, you have to run over the wilted flowers with the right colour LocoRocos.
* The demo levels are very short and the music is annoyingly repetitive.
* There are also purple LocoRocos.
* There's no "split into loads of little LocoRocos" button.
* Black spiky things don't harm you.
* There is a clock counting *down* instead of up.
So it was a long while before I bought a full copy of LocoRoco to play - only when it had come down in price to about £6 or something.
And... I really like the full game! It's basically a really cute 2D platform game, which you mainly play with the shoulder buttons (it's a bit strange at first but becomes comfortable and tactile). And it sings to you. In some mysterious made-up language. ^_^
I even bought the soundtrack (and it cost more than the game!)
So yeah. LocoRoco 2 comes out on the 21st of November, and I can see it's available as a pre-order for £17.99 on play.com which is a reasonable enough price for me to preorder a copy.
The demo of the first game really put me off it! And the graphical style made me think "this looks like a Flash game!" :/
So what do we have for the 2nd game? A playable demo in flash!
LocoRoco 2 demo
It's quite fun! And it sings cutely at you (songs reused from the 1st game). And is.... oh it's frustrating sometimes! But too cute for you to stay mad at it. Haha!
I wonder how representative of the full game this is...
Quick comparison of the 2nd game demo with the 1st game:
* Rather than rolling around looking for budding flowers, you have to run over the wilted flowers with the right colour LocoRocos.
* The demo levels are very short and the music is annoyingly repetitive.
* There are also purple LocoRocos.
* There's no "split into loads of little LocoRocos" button.
* Black spiky things don't harm you.
* There is a clock counting *down* instead of up.
Friday 14 November 2008
Momoi Halko - more and more quality albums!
Momoi Halko is releasing 2 albums in December:
more&more Quality White -Self song cover- and more&more Quality Red -Anime song cover-.
I thought I'd have a look for the expected track listing for the Anime Song cover album on the internet, to see what she'll be covering. I really like her anime songs, video game songs and anime song covers (I listen to the Famison albums and Wonder Momo-i and Tenbatsu Angel Rabbie and the Akahori Gedou Hour LoveGe songs most). I found this page, so here's what's listed:
more&more quality RED ～Anime song cover～
Release Date: 3rd December 2009
Catalogue Number: AVCA-26991
Price: 3,000 yen (including tax)
1. Give A Reason
Originally the opening theme to "Slayers Next", performed by Hayashibara Megumi
2. Ai Oboeteimasuka
Originally from the SDF Macross film Do You Remember Love?, perfomed by Iijima Mari
3. STEP
Originally the opening theme to Mashin Eiyuden Wataru, performed by a・chi-a・chi
4. Happy☆Material
Originally an opening to Mahou Sensei Negima, performed by the series cast (Mahoragakuen Chutobu 2-A)
5. Butter-Fly
Originally the opening song to Digimon Adventure, performed by Wada Kouji
6. Gamble Rumble
Originally the opening song to Initial D: Third Stage, performed by m.o.v.e
7. Soldier Dream
Originally the 2nd Opening theme to Saint Seiya, performed by Hironobu Kageyama
8. INVOKE
Originally the opening theme to Gundam Seed, performed by T.M. Revolution
9. Romance no Kamisama
Performed by Hirose Kohmi. Here's the video, was this in an anime?
10. [unconfirmed song; an original song?]
Well, that's my take on the tracklisting. I might be incorrect, I don't recognise some of the songs. At the moment, I am especially interested in hearing her sing Butter-Fly. ^_^ It could be fantastic, but it could go horribly wrong! XD
(I would have done the self cover album as well but this one took ages!)
more&more Quality White -Self song cover- and more&more Quality Red -Anime song cover-.
I thought I'd have a look for the expected track listing for the Anime Song cover album on the internet, to see what she'll be covering. I really like her anime songs, video game songs and anime song covers (I listen to the Famison albums and Wonder Momo-i and Tenbatsu Angel Rabbie and the Akahori Gedou Hour LoveGe songs most). I found this page, so here's what's listed:
more&more quality RED ～Anime song cover～
Release Date: 3rd December 2009
Catalogue Number: AVCA-26991
Price: 3,000 yen (including tax)
1. Give A Reason
Originally the opening theme to "Slayers Next", performed by Hayashibara Megumi
2. Ai Oboeteimasuka
Originally from the SDF Macross film Do You Remember Love?, perfomed by Iijima Mari
3. STEP
Originally the opening theme to Mashin Eiyuden Wataru, performed by a・chi-a・chi
4. Happy☆Material
Originally an opening to Mahou Sensei Negima, performed by the series cast (Mahoragakuen Chutobu 2-A)
5. Butter-Fly
Originally the opening song to Digimon Adventure, performed by Wada Kouji
6. Gamble Rumble
Originally the opening song to Initial D: Third Stage, performed by m.o.v.e
7. Soldier Dream
Originally the 2nd Opening theme to Saint Seiya, performed by Hironobu Kageyama
8. INVOKE
Originally the opening theme to Gundam Seed, performed by T.M. Revolution
9. Romance no Kamisama
Performed by Hirose Kohmi. Here's the video, was this in an anime?
10. [unconfirmed song; an original song?]
Well, that's my take on the tracklisting. I might be incorrect, I don't recognise some of the songs. At the moment, I am especially interested in hearing her sing Butter-Fly. ^_^ It could be fantastic, but it could go horribly wrong! XD
(I would have done the self cover album as well but this one took ages!)
Tuesday 28 October 2008
MGS4 Case-modded PS3 sells for over $17k USD
I saw this the other day... it's a really really amazingly nice looking Metal Gear Solid 4 themed case-mod for a PS3. They even got autographs to put on it!
I don't really care much for MGS games and I don't own a PS3 myself, but this really caught my eye as a work of great craftsmanship.
It was up for sale on ebay, along with a modified third-party controller and with a bunch of rare MGS4 merchandise, and has now sold for $17100 US dollars! (A portion goes to charity too)
Take a look at the auction before the photos disappear:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=130263869818
It's nice but no way would I pay anything near that much for it!
I don't really care much for MGS games and I don't own a PS3 myself, but this really caught my eye as a work of great craftsmanship.
It was up for sale on ebay, along with a modified third-party controller and with a bunch of rare MGS4 merchandise, and has now sold for $17100 US dollars! (A portion goes to charity too)
Take a look at the auction before the photos disappear:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=130263869818
It's nice but no way would I pay anything near that much for it!
Sunday 19 October 2008
TMNT - 2007 video game
TMNT is a lot more fun than I though it would be from the box. I thought it would be (another) endless hordes melee battle game, but it's more of a free-running style 3D platform game (with fight scenes). Normally I hate 3D platform games because I'm terrible at them and can't judge distance or direction when jumping, but I like this game because a lot of the time if you can't make the jump you can just run along the walls instead or something. It gives you a lot of freedom to get from A to B using the skills you know, rather than just playing the game in the rigid fashion the game designer thought you should play it, and I have a lot of respect for that. It's also often spectacular just to watch yourself play, zooming about the place. There's a lot more emphasis on the "Ninja" part of the title in this game than you often see in TMNT games, especially in the way they move around the city - it's quite fun. Raphael (who is mostly an agressive moody loner in this game) also spends a few levels in the guise of a vigilante, calling himself "The Nightwatcher", but in that armour I can only think "he's a sentai character pretending to be a metal hero!". This game is based on a recent (2007) Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles film, and... it's kinda dark-feeling and there is more about the internal feud between the turtles than there is with the storyline against the bad guys - maybe it's more like the old comic books. I kind of like the way they narrate the story all the way through as if reminiscing it to each other "ooh ooh the best bit comes next!", but unfortunately... to me that also works as a barrier that prevents me from feeling really involved or excited about what's happening in the story. Even though there isn't much of one. Still, it's quite fun to just jump around and enjoy the sights of leaping from rooftop to rooftop in the big city, and marvel as they scramble along walls over toxic waste in sewers...
Thoughts on various games
I've been xboxing a lot this weekend. ^__^ I decided to keep away from my family and my boyfriend and do the really terribly unhealthy thing of doing nothing but playing videogames. (No really... it's good for me once in a while... I think... hehe)
Here are some thoughts on games I have played recently:
Surf's Up is a pretty good game, even though it's a game tied in with a kids' film. It's just really short! It's a surfing game, all about scoring points for doing tricks... kind of like.... a skating game on rails? SSX without the downhill sloping terrain? And just a hint of "Nights into Dreams if you could only go forwards"...
Mega Man 9 is awesome in its 8-bit glory. It's as though it's the world's last NES game, with authentic-sounding music (that is deliberately limited in channels so that it cuts out one when sound effects are heard), deliberate little graphical glitches when sprites are just on the edge of the screen or too many on screen or whatever (you can switch the glitch off in the options!), deliberate slowdown in places... it really feels like a game from the 1908s! And it's really difficult! Or at least, it seems that way until you replay it a few times and then you know exactly what to expect and it's not so hard... and you feel proud of yourself as you progress. In a lot of cases when I first started playing it felt like the Jinsei Owata no Daibouken ("Your Life Is End") flash game because when I would finally succeed and get to the next screen I was rewarded with unexpected spikes and death, or unexpected enemy and death, etc. You just progress slowly one screen at a time, die and work your way back to that screen... I've only killed 3 bosses so far! But I still feel enough enjoyment and fighting spirit to go on! :D
Fusion Frenzy 2 is a terrible game, and was a chore to play. I mean, even low budget party games like "Party Girls" for PS2 are way better than this.
Here are some thoughts on games I have played recently:
Surf's Up is a pretty good game, even though it's a game tied in with a kids' film. It's just really short! It's a surfing game, all about scoring points for doing tricks... kind of like.... a skating game on rails? SSX without the downhill sloping terrain? And just a hint of "Nights into Dreams if you could only go forwards"...
Mega Man 9 is awesome in its 8-bit glory. It's as though it's the world's last NES game, with authentic-sounding music (that is deliberately limited in channels so that it cuts out one when sound effects are heard), deliberate little graphical glitches when sprites are just on the edge of the screen or too many on screen or whatever (you can switch the glitch off in the options!), deliberate slowdown in places... it really feels like a game from the 1908s! And it's really difficult! Or at least, it seems that way until you replay it a few times and then you know exactly what to expect and it's not so hard... and you feel proud of yourself as you progress. In a lot of cases when I first started playing it felt like the Jinsei Owata no Daibouken ("Your Life Is End") flash game because when I would finally succeed and get to the next screen I was rewarded with unexpected spikes and death, or unexpected enemy and death, etc. You just progress slowly one screen at a time, die and work your way back to that screen... I've only killed 3 bosses so far! But I still feel enough enjoyment and fighting spirit to go on! :D
Fusion Frenzy 2 is a terrible game, and was a chore to play. I mean, even low budget party games like "Party Girls" for PS2 are way better than this.
Friday 10 October 2008
Calendar preorder time!
It's the time of year to order next year's calendars! ^__^
I like anime calendars; they work as posters or giant artbooks... (well, artbooks with 6-7 pages...).
If you want to buy anime/manga/tokusatsu/other-Japanese calendars, I recommend buying them from CD Japan! They always deliver, and everything arrives on time in nice green paper. :D
I'm thinking of getting these ones:
Higurashi no Naku Koro ni calendar... except if there are any nasty pictures I'm stuck with them for a month!
All That's Ultraman calendar. :) I've had an Ultraman calendar every year for the past 2 years! They're great! :D
Code Geass - Lelouch of the Rebellion R2 calendar. My brother had one of these calendars last year (for season one) and now he wants the season two calendar!
Kurogane no Line Barrel calendar. Hirashi Hirai's newest character designs feature in this one, and that's a very s.CRY.ed type of pose on the front, IMHO, hehe.
Clannad calendar.
Kuroro Gunso calendar, since my boyfriend seems to be a big fan. I got him a "Yotsuba to" calendar last year! So cute!
Yes! Precure 5 calendar! :D
Chi's Sweet Home - Desktop calendar or Chi's Sweet Home - Wall calendar, I'm not sure which. It's soooooo cute! >^_^<
I NEED MORE WALL SPACE! Hahahaha... XD
Preorder early because everything is in limited supply! Oh and there's a special offer where if you spend over 5000 yen you get a voucher for 500 yen (so I'm splitting up my orders into 500 yen each...)
I like anime calendars; they work as posters or giant artbooks... (well, artbooks with 6-7 pages...).
If you want to buy anime/manga/tokusatsu/other-Japanese calendars, I recommend buying them from CD Japan! They always deliver, and everything arrives on time in nice green paper. :D
I'm thinking of getting these ones:
Higurashi no Naku Koro ni calendar... except if there are any nasty pictures I'm stuck with them for a month!
All That's Ultraman calendar. :) I've had an Ultraman calendar every year for the past 2 years! They're great! :D
Code Geass - Lelouch of the Rebellion R2 calendar. My brother had one of these calendars last year (for season one) and now he wants the season two calendar!
Kurogane no Line Barrel calendar. Hirashi Hirai's newest character designs feature in this one, and that's a very s.CRY.ed type of pose on the front, IMHO, hehe.
Clannad calendar.
Kuroro Gunso calendar, since my boyfriend seems to be a big fan. I got him a "Yotsuba to" calendar last year! So cute!
Yes! Precure 5 calendar! :D
Chi's Sweet Home - Desktop calendar or Chi's Sweet Home - Wall calendar, I'm not sure which. It's soooooo cute! >^_^<
I NEED MORE WALL SPACE! Hahahaha... XD
Preorder early because everything is in limited supply! Oh and there's a special offer where if you spend over 5000 yen you get a voucher for 500 yen (so I'm splitting up my orders into 500 yen each...)
Awesome Super Mario cake!
Just take a look at this Super Mario themed wedding cake! It's astounding! :D
Sources:
Cakewrecks blog
Flickr album
I'm not even sure how it manages to keep from falling over!
Sources:
Cakewrecks blog
Flickr album
I'm not even sure how it manages to keep from falling over!
Dynasty Warriors Gundam 2: UK version June next year
Yay! My thumbs can wear out all over again. :P
Preorder page on play.com
"£39.99 Free Delivery
RRP: £49.99 | You save: £10.00 (20%)
Pre-order. | Due for release on 26/06/2009"
...hmmm, no preorder from me at that price!
Preorder page on play.com
"£39.99 Free Delivery
RRP: £49.99 | You save: £10.00 (20%)
Pre-order. | Due for release on 26/06/2009"
...hmmm, no preorder from me at that price!
Friday 12 September 2008
Infinite Undiscovery first impressions
So I took up the offer and bought a copy of Infinite Undiscovery for £19.99 from Gamestation. It arrived in the post yesterday.
I'm only a very little way into the game - probably not even out of receiving tutorials.
The options for sound in the menu are: Voice (deafult), Voice + subtitles, Subtitles only.
So I selected Voice + Subtitles because I'm like that.
I start the game and the first cutscene starts. Then I get a set of tutorial pages on how to do battle and it's bordering too much to take in. Battle starts, mash A and B buttons, battle ends. Then we're not in a cutscene but the girl says something. I can hear her but there are no subtitles!
So we run around, and then I walk forward - mini-cut scene - has subtitles but no voice!
I started wondering what was going on! The game continues this way as far as I've seen - some cutscenes are voiced, others aren't, and incidental spoken dialogue is not subtitled. It's realy uneven and feels really unnatural. I would switch to subtitle-only, but then I would probably miss the incidental dialogue.
The subtitles are a small white serif font which isn't really a good (comfortable, clear to read quickly) choice as a subtitling font, in my opinion.
The voice work isn't as bad as I'd been led to believe before playing the game, but the fact that it's so patchy is very annoying (BTW apparently it was like that in the Japanese version too). The protagonist has a move called "Diminuendo Dive" but every time he uses it and shouts his move it sounds like he's yelling "Innuendo Dive!", which I find amusing. (Sometimes I hear the "Dim" part, but mostly it sounds like he's advertising some dodgy nightclub!)
The battle system as I've seen so far is an action combat system - the guy you play as wields a short blade weapon, but you can connect with other party members and use their skills too (at the start you team up with a girl who uses a bow and arrow, so there's variety). There's also a sneaking system - exclamation marks appear over enemies' heads if they see you, and question marks if they hear you (and they go to investigate). A bit like what I've seen in some Metal Gear Solid games and Boktai...
The characters seem fairly likeable - the protagonist reminds me of Jack in Radiata Stories, if there was a super-wussy version, that is... and I can't make him power-walk hilariously or kick random things (aww)... I think that the strength of the characterisations will probably be what makes this game enjoyable. The story will probably be quite generic (something about someone ensaring the moon in chains and monsters springing up... a group of people are breaking the chains...), but will still remain entertaining thanks to the script. I hope. Well, it seems like that's how it will be from what I've seen.
The character designs aren't as cute as in Radiata Stories or Eternal Sonata, but at least they don't look as plastic as modern Final Fantasy characters.
So, those are my impressions so far.
My boyfriend sent me a message on Xbox live just before I stopped:
XD @ Your current XBL status. "Infinite Undiscovery: Ep. 1 - Hanging out in prison. (A great place to meet chicks!)"
So... that's as far as I got so far. That status message isn't really truly representative of what was happening in the game, but it's funny. XD
I'm only a very little way into the game - probably not even out of receiving tutorials.
The options for sound in the menu are: Voice (deafult), Voice + subtitles, Subtitles only.
So I selected Voice + Subtitles because I'm like that.
I start the game and the first cutscene starts. Then I get a set of tutorial pages on how to do battle and it's bordering too much to take in. Battle starts, mash A and B buttons, battle ends. Then we're not in a cutscene but the girl says something. I can hear her but there are no subtitles!
So we run around, and then I walk forward - mini-cut scene - has subtitles but no voice!
I started wondering what was going on! The game continues this way as far as I've seen - some cutscenes are voiced, others aren't, and incidental spoken dialogue is not subtitled. It's realy uneven and feels really unnatural. I would switch to subtitle-only, but then I would probably miss the incidental dialogue.
The subtitles are a small white serif font which isn't really a good (comfortable, clear to read quickly) choice as a subtitling font, in my opinion.
The voice work isn't as bad as I'd been led to believe before playing the game, but the fact that it's so patchy is very annoying (BTW apparently it was like that in the Japanese version too). The protagonist has a move called "Diminuendo Dive" but every time he uses it and shouts his move it sounds like he's yelling "Innuendo Dive!", which I find amusing. (Sometimes I hear the "Dim" part, but mostly it sounds like he's advertising some dodgy nightclub!)
The battle system as I've seen so far is an action combat system - the guy you play as wields a short blade weapon, but you can connect with other party members and use their skills too (at the start you team up with a girl who uses a bow and arrow, so there's variety). There's also a sneaking system - exclamation marks appear over enemies' heads if they see you, and question marks if they hear you (and they go to investigate). A bit like what I've seen in some Metal Gear Solid games and Boktai...
The characters seem fairly likeable - the protagonist reminds me of Jack in Radiata Stories, if there was a super-wussy version, that is... and I can't make him power-walk hilariously or kick random things (aww)... I think that the strength of the characterisations will probably be what makes this game enjoyable. The story will probably be quite generic (something about someone ensaring the moon in chains and monsters springing up... a group of people are breaking the chains...), but will still remain entertaining thanks to the script. I hope. Well, it seems like that's how it will be from what I've seen.
The character designs aren't as cute as in Radiata Stories or Eternal Sonata, but at least they don't look as plastic as modern Final Fantasy characters.
So, those are my impressions so far.
My boyfriend sent me a message on Xbox live just before I stopped:
XD @ Your current XBL status. "Infinite Undiscovery: Ep. 1 - Hanging out in prison. (A great place to meet chicks!)"
So... that's as far as I got so far. That status message isn't really truly representative of what was happening in the game, but it's funny. XD
Wednesday 10 September 2008
Infinite Undiscovery - under 1/2 price, 4 days after launch
Yesterday afternoon I noticed that Gamestation (large mainstream UK high-street videogame retailer) are selling the new Tri-Ace RPG "Infinite Undiscovery" for £19.99. It only came out last Friday! After 4 days, it had already dropped from £44.99 RRP to under 1/2 price!
I had predicted that the price would drop quickly, as every JRPG on the current-gen home consoles has up to this point... I just didn't think it would be so quick to happen.
BTW I don't know if it's any good - I ought to read some reviews really. I know that it contains bad voice acting (in English, Japanese is not an option). The product description in that shop makes it sound like the most generic game ever, too, ending in "Come on. It's time for a journey of epic proportions and...well, you know the rest."
I had predicted that the price would drop quickly, as every JRPG on the current-gen home consoles has up to this point... I just didn't think it would be so quick to happen.
BTW I don't know if it's any good - I ought to read some reviews really. I know that it contains bad voice acting (in English, Japanese is not an option). The product description in that shop makes it sound like the most generic game ever, too, ending in "Come on. It's time for a journey of epic proportions and...well, you know the rest."
Saturday 30 August 2008
My new Xbox 360 (5)
I've been playing on my Xbox 360 every night I can. It's got some good games for it, and some bad ones, but I'm happy with what I own.
I saw someone post on a forum today about their 360 failing with the RROD, and loads of people piled in moaning about the high mortality rate of 360s, and how appalling it is that a piece of equipment should still routinely fail for so many people.
I had a few thoughts on it, and yes it is really shockingly bad how often these units fail. But worse than that, it's a big part of why I own one, and why I am playing with it so much.
I'm a person who sees no value in buying the newest console just to keep up with trends or keeping up with other players, and for a few years it was impossible to care even slightly about 360/PS3/wii, but I know that if I forget about the 360 now... it's not going to be like any other console where I can just buy the machine 5 years later and all the games cheap and play my little heart out, oh no. Every single 360 is going to be dead in 5 years. It's going to have been superceded by whatever Microsoft want and they always drop their old stuff as soon as possible (because it's poo). It's the same with their operating systems, their applications, everything - they drop all their old stuff and old support because the old stuff is bad, even when the current technology is worse (points at Vista, points at 360 hardware - there are older examples as well). So I have to buy one now and play it to death now if I'm ever going to play with it at all. Not only will the machines be dead but I bet all online stuff will die out too - all the servers will be shut down.
I bet the retro market in 360s is going to be roaring in 20 years - even though there are tons of the machines around now, they will all be dead by then. And everyone who owns one will be scared to play on it, or it'll be like vintage wines - you either sell them for a ton of money or you drink it all down - one hour and it's gone forever. And so is the £££ you spent on buying it.
The whole situation kind of disgusts me as a gamer and a person who loves their old faithful consoles and never stops playing games when they're old.
I'm having fun playing on the 360 right now, but it also saddens me that it's like a child with a terminal disease who doesn't really know it. It's going to be far more dead as a console than any other that I own, in 5 years. In 5 years I will still be able to play on my Atari 2600 but my Xbox 360 will be dead. It's terrible.
There's a cute website which sets up a blog for your Xbox 360, which actually just auto-generates posts based on activity on your gamertag. It also gives your Xbox 360 a bit of a personality based on how much you've been playing and what you've been doing, so it's all quite amusing. Mine is currently happy and randomly quotes dialogue from the game "Portal", and says things that aren't true about me (I'm really not the controller-throwing type!), but it's all in the name of cheap entertainment so I don't mind. If you want to read it, it is here:
tenshi alpha's Xbox 360 Blog
Who knows? Within a few weeks I might be back to normal, playing on my DS and PS2 and Megadrive, and watching anime... or I might still be Xboxing while I still can...
This weekend I'm going to play PS2 ports of "Bubble Symphony" and "Bubble Memories" (Bubble Bobble sequels) with my brother. He says that he looked it up and the last last boss in "Bubble Memories", after to go through the game once then go through on "super" mode, is a Skelmonsta with a Wave Motion Cannon! O_O ooh, wish us luck...! XD
I saw someone post on a forum today about their 360 failing with the RROD, and loads of people piled in moaning about the high mortality rate of 360s, and how appalling it is that a piece of equipment should still routinely fail for so many people.
I had a few thoughts on it, and yes it is really shockingly bad how often these units fail. But worse than that, it's a big part of why I own one, and why I am playing with it so much.
I'm a person who sees no value in buying the newest console just to keep up with trends or keeping up with other players, and for a few years it was impossible to care even slightly about 360/PS3/wii, but I know that if I forget about the 360 now... it's not going to be like any other console where I can just buy the machine 5 years later and all the games cheap and play my little heart out, oh no. Every single 360 is going to be dead in 5 years. It's going to have been superceded by whatever Microsoft want and they always drop their old stuff as soon as possible (because it's poo). It's the same with their operating systems, their applications, everything - they drop all their old stuff and old support because the old stuff is bad, even when the current technology is worse (points at Vista, points at 360 hardware - there are older examples as well). So I have to buy one now and play it to death now if I'm ever going to play with it at all. Not only will the machines be dead but I bet all online stuff will die out too - all the servers will be shut down.
I bet the retro market in 360s is going to be roaring in 20 years - even though there are tons of the machines around now, they will all be dead by then. And everyone who owns one will be scared to play on it, or it'll be like vintage wines - you either sell them for a ton of money or you drink it all down - one hour and it's gone forever. And so is the £££ you spent on buying it.
The whole situation kind of disgusts me as a gamer and a person who loves their old faithful consoles and never stops playing games when they're old.
I'm having fun playing on the 360 right now, but it also saddens me that it's like a child with a terminal disease who doesn't really know it. It's going to be far more dead as a console than any other that I own, in 5 years. In 5 years I will still be able to play on my Atari 2600 but my Xbox 360 will be dead. It's terrible.
There's a cute website which sets up a blog for your Xbox 360, which actually just auto-generates posts based on activity on your gamertag. It also gives your Xbox 360 a bit of a personality based on how much you've been playing and what you've been doing, so it's all quite amusing. Mine is currently happy and randomly quotes dialogue from the game "Portal", and says things that aren't true about me (I'm really not the controller-throwing type!), but it's all in the name of cheap entertainment so I don't mind. If you want to read it, it is here:
tenshi alpha's Xbox 360 Blog
Who knows? Within a few weeks I might be back to normal, playing on my DS and PS2 and Megadrive, and watching anime... or I might still be Xboxing while I still can...
This weekend I'm going to play PS2 ports of "Bubble Symphony" and "Bubble Memories" (Bubble Bobble sequels) with my brother. He says that he looked it up and the last last boss in "Bubble Memories", after to go through the game once then go through on "super" mode, is a Skelmonsta with a Wave Motion Cannon! O_O ooh, wish us luck...! XD
Tuesday 12 August 2008
Thoughts on Xbox Live Arcade
General thoughts about Xbox Live Arcade.
In some ways I really like it, in other ways I really don't.
Things I like
I like that I can download game trailers and demos and trial versions onto my Xbox 360 hard drive for free.
I like that certain games available to buy are old games where buying the original version of the game for whatever platform would now cost far more than what they're asking, due to scarcity of the game (e.g. Triggerheart Exelica for Dreamcast costs about £60 for the Japanese import game on ebay, but is only 800 points = about £6.80 on XBLA... though changes are it doesn't have "story mode", and has HDTV support...)
I like that it queues things up for download, pauses the download when it needs to, and you can set it to carry on downloading while the rest of the console is switched off too (though my guess is that it uses about the same amount of power as being fully switched on).
I like the convenience of loading games from the hard drive, not having to look for discs.
Things I don't like
I don't like the way buying Microsoft points with a credit card leaves your card on the Xbox 360 by default (I mentioned this a few times in earlier posts).
I don't like the way that games are often advertised as the full game, just like the original, but they're often missing crucial parts of the game (e.g. "Story mode" in Soul Calibur and Triggerheart Exelica...)
I don't like separately priced "downloadable content" for games - the way that game publishers now charge you for most of a game when it's released, then you can buy more of the game (and avatars and wallpapers to use on XBLA) for Microsoft Points afterwards. "Beautiful Katamari" was especially terrible for this!
I don't like the way that the price is fixed for a game with Microsoft Points under XBLA and the price never comes down.
e.g. A normal game comes out on a console, the RRP is £50. After a week it's £40. After a month it's £30. After a year you'll find 2nd hand copies in the "4 for £20" section in your local high-street video-games shops, and about the same price on ebay.
That's my favourite time to buy games, when they're cheap as chips. When you have a game on XBLA, the price never drops. So you have a situation where supposedly budget releases of little downloadable games are more expensive than popular high-budget games like "Mass Effect" or "Bioshock" or "Blue Dragon" on the high street.
I bought two compilation disks from ebay of XBLA games - the one that comes with the "Arcade" version of the console, and one called "Live Unplugged". Buying them like this on disk, the games work out as about £2 each which is far closer to what they're worth.
Some examples of how contemporary price cuts compare to XBLA prices... You can buy "Doom" on XBLA for 400 points (about £3.40), or you can buy "Doom 3" for Xbox in any high-street videogames store in a "4 for £10" offer, which includes "Ultimate Doom" and "Doom 2" - for £2.50. Doom 3 was originally priced at about 20 times more than it is worth now, but now that game packaged with the original Doom as a bonus is cheaper than just Doom on its own on XBLA.
You need another game to get the most out of your "4 for £10" offer? I suggest "Midway Arcade Classics", which includes "Defender" (400 points), "Gauntlet" (400 points), Joust (400 points), Paperboy (400 points), Robotron: 2084 (400 points), Smash TV (400 points), and Root Beer Tapper (400 points). So... 2800 points, that's, oh... £23.80 for games you can buy on a compilation disk for £2.50 in shops.
The game applies to more XBLA games that are re-releases of old games - there's usually a cheaper compilation out or another remake that ends up being cheaper if you just wait patiently.
See how this all pans out? How it works against the way that high-street videogame pricing typically works, to the player's disadvantage? It feels like another method that a games distributor is using to keep prices artificially high, though I suppose it technically isn't. If XBLA games dropped in price the same way that normal games drop in price, I'd be far more inclined to buy games. I'd feel like it was a bargain, a good deal.
You can "beat" the system a little bit, by buying pre-paid Microsoft Points online from Amazon or whoever, as they sometimes undercut the RRP of those cards by a pound or two, but that's generally the best discount you can hope for.
I also don't like the way licensing works. If a friend is visiting you, and they want to play a game they bought on XBLA, they can download it onto the hard-drive of your Xbox 360, but will only have full game access on their own account - you can't play it with them unless you go to their house and play it on their Xbox 360. Or, you buy a copy. That's not very social.
I've also wanted to play some games multiplayer with a friend in my house, but it turns out that multiplayer is only supported on the game if my friend and I each play on our own Xbox 360s in our own houses, via the Internet through two Xbox Live Arcade Gold Membership accounts. Two people sitting next to each other in front of one console can't have fun playing the same game, oh no! That also makes for very un-social gaming! >_<
In some ways I really like it, in other ways I really don't.
Things I like
I like that I can download game trailers and demos and trial versions onto my Xbox 360 hard drive for free.
I like that certain games available to buy are old games where buying the original version of the game for whatever platform would now cost far more than what they're asking, due to scarcity of the game (e.g. Triggerheart Exelica for Dreamcast costs about £60 for the Japanese import game on ebay, but is only 800 points = about £6.80 on XBLA... though changes are it doesn't have "story mode", and has HDTV support...)
I like that it queues things up for download, pauses the download when it needs to, and you can set it to carry on downloading while the rest of the console is switched off too (though my guess is that it uses about the same amount of power as being fully switched on).
I like the convenience of loading games from the hard drive, not having to look for discs.
Things I don't like
I don't like the way buying Microsoft points with a credit card leaves your card on the Xbox 360 by default (I mentioned this a few times in earlier posts).
I don't like the way that games are often advertised as the full game, just like the original, but they're often missing crucial parts of the game (e.g. "Story mode" in Soul Calibur and Triggerheart Exelica...)
I don't like separately priced "downloadable content" for games - the way that game publishers now charge you for most of a game when it's released, then you can buy more of the game (and avatars and wallpapers to use on XBLA) for Microsoft Points afterwards. "Beautiful Katamari" was especially terrible for this!
I don't like the way that the price is fixed for a game with Microsoft Points under XBLA and the price never comes down.
e.g. A normal game comes out on a console, the RRP is £50. After a week it's £40. After a month it's £30. After a year you'll find 2nd hand copies in the "4 for £20" section in your local high-street video-games shops, and about the same price on ebay.
That's my favourite time to buy games, when they're cheap as chips. When you have a game on XBLA, the price never drops. So you have a situation where supposedly budget releases of little downloadable games are more expensive than popular high-budget games like "Mass Effect" or "Bioshock" or "Blue Dragon" on the high street.
I bought two compilation disks from ebay of XBLA games - the one that comes with the "Arcade" version of the console, and one called "Live Unplugged". Buying them like this on disk, the games work out as about £2 each which is far closer to what they're worth.
Some examples of how contemporary price cuts compare to XBLA prices... You can buy "Doom" on XBLA for 400 points (about £3.40), or you can buy "Doom 3" for Xbox in any high-street videogames store in a "4 for £10" offer, which includes "Ultimate Doom" and "Doom 2" - for £2.50. Doom 3 was originally priced at about 20 times more than it is worth now, but now that game packaged with the original Doom as a bonus is cheaper than just Doom on its own on XBLA.
You need another game to get the most out of your "4 for £10" offer? I suggest "Midway Arcade Classics", which includes "Defender" (400 points), "Gauntlet" (400 points), Joust (400 points), Paperboy (400 points), Robotron: 2084 (400 points), Smash TV (400 points), and Root Beer Tapper (400 points). So... 2800 points, that's, oh... £23.80 for games you can buy on a compilation disk for £2.50 in shops.
The game applies to more XBLA games that are re-releases of old games - there's usually a cheaper compilation out or another remake that ends up being cheaper if you just wait patiently.
See how this all pans out? How it works against the way that high-street videogame pricing typically works, to the player's disadvantage? It feels like another method that a games distributor is using to keep prices artificially high, though I suppose it technically isn't. If XBLA games dropped in price the same way that normal games drop in price, I'd be far more inclined to buy games. I'd feel like it was a bargain, a good deal.
You can "beat" the system a little bit, by buying pre-paid Microsoft Points online from Amazon or whoever, as they sometimes undercut the RRP of those cards by a pound or two, but that's generally the best discount you can hope for.
I also don't like the way licensing works. If a friend is visiting you, and they want to play a game they bought on XBLA, they can download it onto the hard-drive of your Xbox 360, but will only have full game access on their own account - you can't play it with them unless you go to their house and play it on their Xbox 360. Or, you buy a copy. That's not very social.
I've also wanted to play some games multiplayer with a friend in my house, but it turns out that multiplayer is only supported on the game if my friend and I each play on our own Xbox 360s in our own houses, via the Internet through two Xbox Live Arcade Gold Membership accounts. Two people sitting next to each other in front of one console can't have fun playing the same game, oh no! That also makes for very un-social gaming! >_<
Monday 11 August 2008
Braid (Xbox Live Arcade game)
I got my Xbox 360 back from repair last Thursday and have put it to use. ^_^
Braid is the new big thing on Xbox Live Arcade, so I downloaded the trial and tried it out. Here are my thoughts.
Braid is a 2D platform / puzzle game with nifty gameplay elements, nice backgrounds, and nice music. I don't want to play any more of it past the trial game.
Back in the days of the Great Giana Sisters, Nintendo would've sued the pants off of the makers of this game for making a profit out of blatant copyright infringement. There are a ton of allusions to Super Mario Bros all over the place. You go through levels jumping on the heads of your enemies, on a quest for your princess, meeting a dinosaur (presumably to be like Yoshi but it looks more like Barney The Dinosaur) at the castle in each level. I guess these days you call it "a tribute" rather than "theft" though.
The effect of using these Super Mario Bros elements is mainly that I pine for the simple cheerfulness and happiness of the Mushroom Kingdom, as I read through the annoyingly self-serving story laid out in various diaries you get to read before starting each world. It seems to detail a romantic relationship that went horribly wrong. Worse than just that, from the way it's written I can picture a guy using this game to try to get back together with a girl who's dumped him. And, well, as it's all of a personal nature, the end result is that it just makes me think "the author of this game must be a real jerk. If this story applies to his real life, it's wrong to use a game as the platform for your lamentation, and I can tell he still can't quite see how unattractive he is (and was). Even when he thinks he's been a loser, you can tell he still feels something else - it's disgenuine on a level that even the writer doesn't see. He deserves to be dumped by the princess. Well and truly. She's better off with Bowser. Even if he's all spiky and breathes fire.".
The game's story is its main downfall, for me. If the game has all the text in some language I don't understand, it would have been a great game. I'd be raving about it. I would probably have bought it.
The main character looks like a chibi Jonathan Ross, there is a nice rewind button which is really quite cool. No need for extra lives, and it forms part of the gameplay as well. The music is quite nice. The backgrounds are quite nice. 2D platform / puzzle games are good.
But I really hate the main character from those bits of text, so I don't want to help him, I would actually rather keep him away from the "princess" (that's by far the happiest ending I can picture for the story), and I don't want to put my money in the hands of the person who made the game to make him think like he did the right thing. I really really really dislike him.
I can take all sorts of bad storylines in games, or no real storyline at all, but... not this. This is just horrible and I feel bad playing it because of that. He should not be allowed to rewind himself back into that girl's life. He made his mistakes, that's it. Final. Done. No going back. That's how it should be. He should learn from it and move forwards, a better person. I don't want to be the person this game wants me to role-play as.
I also think Jade Empire for the same price on Xbox Live Arcade is better value. There's no way this game is worth three Space Giraffes.
Since playing the demo, I've found that the game gets all sorts of critical acclaim, first an award from innvations in game design, then good reviews for the game. The maker, however, does seem to be as much of a jerk as his script would imply. It's not just that he's using his game (which would otherwise be great) as a soapbox for his old relationship problems, but also... I get the impression that he's really proud of what he's done, thinks he's great, and that his work is higher art than, say, Super Mario Bros because of his tackling of adult relationship issues, but in reality, it's worse than reading a 14 year old's whining on social networking site.
Braid is the new big thing on Xbox Live Arcade, so I downloaded the trial and tried it out. Here are my thoughts.
Braid is a 2D platform / puzzle game with nifty gameplay elements, nice backgrounds, and nice music. I don't want to play any more of it past the trial game.
Back in the days of the Great Giana Sisters, Nintendo would've sued the pants off of the makers of this game for making a profit out of blatant copyright infringement. There are a ton of allusions to Super Mario Bros all over the place. You go through levels jumping on the heads of your enemies, on a quest for your princess, meeting a dinosaur (presumably to be like Yoshi but it looks more like Barney The Dinosaur) at the castle in each level. I guess these days you call it "a tribute" rather than "theft" though.
The effect of using these Super Mario Bros elements is mainly that I pine for the simple cheerfulness and happiness of the Mushroom Kingdom, as I read through the annoyingly self-serving story laid out in various diaries you get to read before starting each world. It seems to detail a romantic relationship that went horribly wrong. Worse than just that, from the way it's written I can picture a guy using this game to try to get back together with a girl who's dumped him. And, well, as it's all of a personal nature, the end result is that it just makes me think "the author of this game must be a real jerk. If this story applies to his real life, it's wrong to use a game as the platform for your lamentation, and I can tell he still can't quite see how unattractive he is (and was). Even when he thinks he's been a loser, you can tell he still feels something else - it's disgenuine on a level that even the writer doesn't see. He deserves to be dumped by the princess. Well and truly. She's better off with Bowser. Even if he's all spiky and breathes fire.".
The game's story is its main downfall, for me. If the game has all the text in some language I don't understand, it would have been a great game. I'd be raving about it. I would probably have bought it.
The main character looks like a chibi Jonathan Ross, there is a nice rewind button which is really quite cool. No need for extra lives, and it forms part of the gameplay as well. The music is quite nice. The backgrounds are quite nice. 2D platform / puzzle games are good.
But I really hate the main character from those bits of text, so I don't want to help him, I would actually rather keep him away from the "princess" (that's by far the happiest ending I can picture for the story), and I don't want to put my money in the hands of the person who made the game to make him think like he did the right thing. I really really really dislike him.
I can take all sorts of bad storylines in games, or no real storyline at all, but... not this. This is just horrible and I feel bad playing it because of that. He should not be allowed to rewind himself back into that girl's life. He made his mistakes, that's it. Final. Done. No going back. That's how it should be. He should learn from it and move forwards, a better person. I don't want to be the person this game wants me to role-play as.
I also think Jade Empire for the same price on Xbox Live Arcade is better value. There's no way this game is worth three Space Giraffes.
Since playing the demo, I've found that the game gets all sorts of critical acclaim, first an award from innvations in game design, then good reviews for the game. The maker, however, does seem to be as much of a jerk as his script would imply. It's not just that he's using his game (which would otherwise be great) as a soapbox for his old relationship problems, but also... I get the impression that he's really proud of what he's done, thinks he's great, and that his work is higher art than, say, Super Mario Bros because of his tackling of adult relationship issues, but in reality, it's worse than reading a 14 year old's whining on social networking site.
Tuesday 5 August 2008
CD Japan Magazine Subscription special offer
CD Japan have a special offer on at the moment - a 500 yen coupon towards any of their magazine subscriptions!
Follow this link for details and to get your coupon!
They're valid until the 31st of August 2008. It's an overall discount, not off each magazine, but a money-off coupon is still money-off! ^_^ I'm taking out a subscription to Voice Newtype, as I haven't seen that magazine for sale anywhere for several years now. (I used to buy individual issues from Anime Jungle) ^_^
NOTE: On the page advertising Voice Newtype, the table of shipping costs shown on the site appears to conflict with the figures that come out of the shipping calculator during the checkout process. Despite what the page says SAL is much cheaper - there's a bit of a wait on each magazine, but otherwise you'll end up paying more than the cost of the magazine in shipping for each issue!
Follow this link for details and to get your coupon!
They're valid until the 31st of August 2008. It's an overall discount, not off each magazine, but a money-off coupon is still money-off! ^_^ I'm taking out a subscription to Voice Newtype, as I haven't seen that magazine for sale anywhere for several years now. (I used to buy individual issues from Anime Jungle) ^_^
NOTE: On the page advertising Voice Newtype, the table of shipping costs shown on the site appears to conflict with the figures that come out of the shipping calculator during the checkout process. Despite what the page says SAL is much cheaper - there's a bit of a wait on each magazine, but otherwise you'll end up paying more than the cost of the magazine in shipping for each issue!
Friday 1 August 2008
Infinite Undiscovery preorders
A small price war seems to have broken out for the European release of the upcoming tri-Ace RPG for Xbox 360 (which will be published by Square Enix). It's listed at about £15 below RRP - that's a few pennies under £30 with free shipping - on both Play.com and Amazon UK. It's misspelled on Amazon, which probably won't help them lure customers!
Play
Amazon
There's something about RPGs on this generation of home consoles, though... they seem to drop in price a lot faster than in previous generations, and a lot faster than on handheld consoles. So it might be worth waiting it out and seeing how much it goes for about a month after release - it might be even less than this preorder price!
Play
Amazon
There's something about RPGs on this generation of home consoles, though... they seem to drop in price a lot faster than in previous generations, and a lot faster than on handheld consoles. So it might be worth waiting it out and seeing how much it goes for about a month after release - it might be even less than this preorder price!
Wednesday 30 July 2008
Fatal Labyrinth
I started a game of FATAL LABYRINTH on megadrive yesterday. Popped the cartridge in, fought my way through all 30 levels of the dungeon (some levels repeated as I fell into a few pits) and defeated the final boss. Watched the end credits roll. ^_^
I first played this game about a decade ago, and never got very far with it. I kept dying! This week, I decided to buy myself a copy on ebay, started a game and didn't die once! I guess I must be luckier these days than I used to be. Or I have more patience. Or something.
Ah, even though it's easy by the standards of other roguelikes, it feels good to have finished a game that just kept killing me over and over again in the past. That doesn't have any save points or "password" system. That makes you eat to stay alive but the food items (which you can't carry round with you - you have to eat them when you pick them up) may be of any size and if you eat too much you die. Where enemies at the end of the game take anything from about 6 to 99 off your health with each hit and at maximum level you have under 800 health total and have run out of all the potions you had... yeah, I feel like luck was on my side...
Maybe I should attempt Sword Of Fargoal again... I've never been able to finish that either...
I first played this game about a decade ago, and never got very far with it. I kept dying! This week, I decided to buy myself a copy on ebay, started a game and didn't die once! I guess I must be luckier these days than I used to be. Or I have more patience. Or something.
Ah, even though it's easy by the standards of other roguelikes, it feels good to have finished a game that just kept killing me over and over again in the past. That doesn't have any save points or "password" system. That makes you eat to stay alive but the food items (which you can't carry round with you - you have to eat them when you pick them up) may be of any size and if you eat too much you die. Where enemies at the end of the game take anything from about 6 to 99 off your health with each hit and at maximum level you have under 800 health total and have run out of all the potions you had... yeah, I feel like luck was on my side...
Maybe I should attempt Sword Of Fargoal again... I've never been able to finish that either...
Rollercoaster Tycoon pinball and Dragon's Fury
Here's a game that's even less suited to being made into an arcade machine than Silent Hill. It's Rollercoaster Tycoon the pinball table.
Now, I like pinball. There are fewer and fewer pinball tables around in arcades and pubs as each year passes, so every time I see a table I haven't seen before, and the cost to play is about 50p, I'll give it a go.
However... I don't know whether it was due to how the table was set up, maybe the angle it was being played at was wrong... but this table wasn't much fun at all. It was slow - both the ball and the flippers. There was a voice to tell you what to do, which ramps to aim for etc, but it wasn't immediately obvious which features it was referring to each time. I was lucky enough to get a "Match" and a free credit, but it still wasn't enough to make me really like the machine enough to put in more money.
--
This week I played a copy of "Dragon's Fury" for Megadrive. I play a few pinball videogames as it's quite hard to find tables around anymore - mostly on handheld consoles - Pokemon Pinball games, Super Robot pinball and Metroid Prime Pinball. Super Mario Pinball was fun too and is the only videogame pinball I'd really class as 3D pinball - all the others are really 2D pinball with emulated ramps and things. Most video pinball games are terrible, though. The only good PC or console pinball game I've played is Epic Pinball and that was a very long time ago now - I played it on a 486/66.
Well, I guess the one that comes free with Windows isn't that bad, but it feels like the angles are preordained by the timing at which the ball strikes each thing on the table, or something like that, rather than being calculated using maths and physics - it's very old-style Microsoft; you can only play this game the way we say it should be played, travelling the paths which we think the ball should take! There is no way to hit the ball at an angle which we have not accounted for!
So, "Dragon's Fury", which came with the Megadrive when I bought it second hand ages ago but I never started it up. It said on the box "The Best 3D Pinball Game In The World", to which I felt extremely skeptical, but no, it's actually really good - much better than this "real" pinball table, renewing my enthusiasm for pinball. ^_^ I like the style of the graphics, I like the table and the bonus stages, I like the way it has most of the winning elements of modern video pinball games yet it predates most of them. My only wish is that there would be some kind of multiball function in there.
Video pinball is certainly different from "real" pinball, and so gameplay elements tend to be very different. Video pinball games tend to be much easier to give the player a longer game, as we've already taken their money before they start up the game. There's no benefit to the developer in making the player use more "credits". Replay value is not just in getting a higher score (although they always have a high score table) - modern tables and video pinball games both tend to give you short "missions" to complete then you can defeat the final mission and win the game, but for video pinball the final mission is likely to take the form of a "boss" character for you to hit repeatedly with your ball in the right spots or at the right time. With some video pinball games - like Dragon's Fury, Kirby's Pinball, Super Mario Pinball and Metroid Prime Pinball, enemies wander around each stage as targets. I also really like the video pinball games that let you collect things as you play - the Pokemon Pinball games and Super Robot Pinball being my favourites that allow you to do that. That really adds something substantial to do as replay value.
I like some elements of video pinball an awful lot, but as I said, only a handful of video pinball games are really good. I'm always happy to try out a table I've never played before, even though the same is true and lots of real pinball tables aren't very good either... ^_^;;
Now, I like pinball. There are fewer and fewer pinball tables around in arcades and pubs as each year passes, so every time I see a table I haven't seen before, and the cost to play is about 50p, I'll give it a go.
However... I don't know whether it was due to how the table was set up, maybe the angle it was being played at was wrong... but this table wasn't much fun at all. It was slow - both the ball and the flippers. There was a voice to tell you what to do, which ramps to aim for etc, but it wasn't immediately obvious which features it was referring to each time. I was lucky enough to get a "Match" and a free credit, but it still wasn't enough to make me really like the machine enough to put in more money.
--
This week I played a copy of "Dragon's Fury" for Megadrive. I play a few pinball videogames as it's quite hard to find tables around anymore - mostly on handheld consoles - Pokemon Pinball games, Super Robot pinball and Metroid Prime Pinball. Super Mario Pinball was fun too and is the only videogame pinball I'd really class as 3D pinball - all the others are really 2D pinball with emulated ramps and things. Most video pinball games are terrible, though. The only good PC or console pinball game I've played is Epic Pinball and that was a very long time ago now - I played it on a 486/66.
Well, I guess the one that comes free with Windows isn't that bad, but it feels like the angles are preordained by the timing at which the ball strikes each thing on the table, or something like that, rather than being calculated using maths and physics - it's very old-style Microsoft; you can only play this game the way we say it should be played, travelling the paths which we think the ball should take! There is no way to hit the ball at an angle which we have not accounted for!
So, "Dragon's Fury", which came with the Megadrive when I bought it second hand ages ago but I never started it up. It said on the box "The Best 3D Pinball Game In The World", to which I felt extremely skeptical, but no, it's actually really good - much better than this "real" pinball table, renewing my enthusiasm for pinball. ^_^ I like the style of the graphics, I like the table and the bonus stages, I like the way it has most of the winning elements of modern video pinball games yet it predates most of them. My only wish is that there would be some kind of multiball function in there.
Video pinball is certainly different from "real" pinball, and so gameplay elements tend to be very different. Video pinball games tend to be much easier to give the player a longer game, as we've already taken their money before they start up the game. There's no benefit to the developer in making the player use more "credits". Replay value is not just in getting a higher score (although they always have a high score table) - modern tables and video pinball games both tend to give you short "missions" to complete then you can defeat the final mission and win the game, but for video pinball the final mission is likely to take the form of a "boss" character for you to hit repeatedly with your ball in the right spots or at the right time. With some video pinball games - like Dragon's Fury, Kirby's Pinball, Super Mario Pinball and Metroid Prime Pinball, enemies wander around each stage as targets. I also really like the video pinball games that let you collect things as you play - the Pokemon Pinball games and Super Robot Pinball being my favourites that allow you to do that. That really adds something substantial to do as replay value.
I like some elements of video pinball an awful lot, but as I said, only a handful of video pinball games are really good. I'm always happy to try out a table I've never played before, even though the same is true and lots of real pinball tables aren't very good either... ^_^;;
Silent Hill The Arcade
While I was on holiday last week, I saw a machine I'd never seen before (so that probably means it's at least a year old already, hahaha). Silent Hill The Arcade.
Now, the first Silent Hill game for PS1 is one game I just can't play because I find it too scary. I gave up somewhere that must actually be fairly near the start in real terms - running around in the fog looking for a little girl, armed with barely anything... dying so often... it's partly the poor visibility making me peer closer, partly the alarming visuals when something does come along, partly the fact I feel utterly powerless, partly the feeling of being in an unknown place, partly the very small amount of sound used... but on top of that there must be some craftsmanship that makes the atmosphere just that little bit more terrifying than every other game I've played. The graphics are so dated now, I tried to convince myself "it's just some red pixels on screen! It's really blocky! They're just squares, come on, that can't really be scary!", but that didn't work. My imagination made it scarier than anything I could see.
The later games... I haven't tried. I just don't feel right playing a later game in a series where I couldn't play the first.
But I saw this machine and decided that I should give it a go, since it seemed the newest machine there and was a strange franchise to convert into an arcade machine.
It's a lightgun game. You put your money in, and you're in Silent Hill, it's very foggy and zombies and dogs etc come towards you so you shoot them. It's on rails so you aren't exploring, so there's no fear factor associated with peering closely at the environment to see where to head next. You're probably playing this while standing in a noisy arcade and besides, the game provides noisy voiceovers (with bad acting) from NPCs shouting at you all the time so there's no atmospheric silence to scare you. You have unlimited bullets, shoot offscreen to reload - same as any modern lightgun game, and there's nothing you can't kill by shooting it a few times, so there's no feeling of defenselessness. Graphically, everything seems rather plastic and harmless.
It's not in the slightest bit scary. It's more "House Of The Dead" than Silent Hill. Except that... it's slow. Really slow. I think someone must have thought slow = atmospheric? I don't know. I spent a lot of time waiting around for enemies to turn up.
Overall, it's not very good. The scariest thing about it is that the tacky obviously-cut-to-look-ragged cloth surrounding the cabinet is harbouring some disease you might catch. The second scariest thing is that this is what happened to the Silent Hill franchise. As a lightgun game it's fairly dreary. If it ever heads for a home console... well, I paid £1 for my go on this, and that's enough for me. I'd say that ought to be a price guide for what the game is worth to a player.
(I know, I would not normally judge a game by 10 minutes of gameplay, but that's all I was prepared to put into the machine, so that's all the attention it gets from me)
Now, the first Silent Hill game for PS1 is one game I just can't play because I find it too scary. I gave up somewhere that must actually be fairly near the start in real terms - running around in the fog looking for a little girl, armed with barely anything... dying so often... it's partly the poor visibility making me peer closer, partly the alarming visuals when something does come along, partly the fact I feel utterly powerless, partly the feeling of being in an unknown place, partly the very small amount of sound used... but on top of that there must be some craftsmanship that makes the atmosphere just that little bit more terrifying than every other game I've played. The graphics are so dated now, I tried to convince myself "it's just some red pixels on screen! It's really blocky! They're just squares, come on, that can't really be scary!", but that didn't work. My imagination made it scarier than anything I could see.
The later games... I haven't tried. I just don't feel right playing a later game in a series where I couldn't play the first.
But I saw this machine and decided that I should give it a go, since it seemed the newest machine there and was a strange franchise to convert into an arcade machine.
It's a lightgun game. You put your money in, and you're in Silent Hill, it's very foggy and zombies and dogs etc come towards you so you shoot them. It's on rails so you aren't exploring, so there's no fear factor associated with peering closely at the environment to see where to head next. You're probably playing this while standing in a noisy arcade and besides, the game provides noisy voiceovers (with bad acting) from NPCs shouting at you all the time so there's no atmospheric silence to scare you. You have unlimited bullets, shoot offscreen to reload - same as any modern lightgun game, and there's nothing you can't kill by shooting it a few times, so there's no feeling of defenselessness. Graphically, everything seems rather plastic and harmless.
It's not in the slightest bit scary. It's more "House Of The Dead" than Silent Hill. Except that... it's slow. Really slow. I think someone must have thought slow = atmospheric? I don't know. I spent a lot of time waiting around for enemies to turn up.
Overall, it's not very good. The scariest thing about it is that the tacky obviously-cut-to-look-ragged cloth surrounding the cabinet is harbouring some disease you might catch. The second scariest thing is that this is what happened to the Silent Hill franchise. As a lightgun game it's fairly dreary. If it ever heads for a home console... well, I paid £1 for my go on this, and that's enough for me. I'd say that ought to be a price guide for what the game is worth to a player.
(I know, I would not normally judge a game by 10 minutes of gameplay, but that's all I was prepared to put into the machine, so that's all the attention it gets from me)
Sunday 27 July 2008
Shojo Kakumei Utena Complete CD Box (Ltd Ed)
I just noticed there's a limited release CD box set of Utena soundtracks coming out.
Catalog No.: KICA-920
Format: CD
Number of discs (or other units): 10
Release Date: 2008/08/27
Price: 12000yen (12600yen Tax incl.)
Item weight: 840 g
As far as I can see, it contains every soundtrack and has a bonus disk of house remixes, it comes in a nice display box, with a 100 page booklet. Well, I could be wrong about that because that's according to Neowing when roughly auto-translated by Rikaichan. Perhaps if you can read Japanese, the official website will be more accurate and helpful.
The music to Utena is really really great. Most of the music is by Mitsumune Shinkichi - some peaceful, some experimental and jazzy, the big choral battle themes for duels by J.A.Seazer - which are really the high points of the soundtracks for me - there hasn't been much like those songs before or since, and the opening theme sung by Okui Masami. All fitting really well within the series, where it wants to be peaceful, where it wants to be contemplative, where it wants to be weird and experimental, etc. I highly recommend this collection. Most of the original releases of the CDs are out of print now.
I need to look through my collection to find out whether it would be worth me picking this up, or I own most of it anyway (I'm not too bothered about house remixes).
Preorder at CD Japan: Shojo Kakumei Utena Complete CD Box [Limited Release], or if you prefer - preorder from Play Asia who might be a little more expensive for the item but cheaper on shipping... but I would trust CD Japan far more for a preorder, as I've known people disappointed on launch day with Play Asia in the past.
(If you're wondering, yeah I'd collect commission if you click through on either link, and I'll collect less from CD Japan if you opt for that but still recommend them the highest for preorders. Play Asia are great if the product is in stock but sometimes don't meet the demand of their popular preorders.)
Utena is also being rereleased on remastered Japanese region 2 DVDs, at the end of September, but it costs 30000 yen for the first DVD box only (24 episodes of 39) so I think the full set will cost more than a car...
Catalog No.: KICA-920
Format: CD
Number of discs (or other units): 10
Release Date: 2008/08/27
Price: 12000yen (12600yen Tax incl.)
Item weight: 840 g
As far as I can see, it contains every soundtrack and has a bonus disk of house remixes, it comes in a nice display box, with a 100 page booklet. Well, I could be wrong about that because that's according to Neowing when roughly auto-translated by Rikaichan. Perhaps if you can read Japanese, the official website will be more accurate and helpful.
The music to Utena is really really great. Most of the music is by Mitsumune Shinkichi - some peaceful, some experimental and jazzy, the big choral battle themes for duels by J.A.Seazer - which are really the high points of the soundtracks for me - there hasn't been much like those songs before or since, and the opening theme sung by Okui Masami. All fitting really well within the series, where it wants to be peaceful, where it wants to be contemplative, where it wants to be weird and experimental, etc. I highly recommend this collection. Most of the original releases of the CDs are out of print now.
I need to look through my collection to find out whether it would be worth me picking this up, or I own most of it anyway (I'm not too bothered about house remixes).
Preorder at CD Japan: Shojo Kakumei Utena Complete CD Box [Limited Release], or if you prefer - preorder from Play Asia who might be a little more expensive for the item but cheaper on shipping... but I would trust CD Japan far more for a preorder, as I've known people disappointed on launch day with Play Asia in the past.
(If you're wondering, yeah I'd collect commission if you click through on either link, and I'll collect less from CD Japan if you opt for that but still recommend them the highest for preorders. Play Asia are great if the product is in stock but sometimes don't meet the demand of their popular preorders.)
Utena is also being rereleased on remastered Japanese region 2 DVDs, at the end of September, but it costs 30000 yen for the first DVD box only (24 episodes of 39) so I think the full set will cost more than a car...
My new Xbox 360 (4)
I've owned my Xbox 360 since the 2nd of this month, including one week when I've been away on holiday and haven't touched it, and already... I've been on the phone to Microsoft support twice today to arrange repairs under warranty. I'm quite disappointed - I didn't even get to see the famous "Red Ring Of Death". What's happened is that the console refuses to read games or DVDs. It gave me an error message last night - a disc read error, asking me to open the tray and remove any dust... so I opened the tray, took a look at the disc which was absolutely immaculate, pristine, brand new and super nice and shiny - not a speck of dust. I shrugged and put the disc back into the tray and got on with my game. It was a compilation disc of games, so I guess it didn't need to read very much, so I didn't have any problems for hours until I stopped playing.
After that, it wouldn't read any discs. I put in a disc, it says "reading" .... and then instead of the name of the game, it says "open tray". It doesn't recognise discs. I tried a whole pile of different games, nothing would work.
So I went to bed, and in the morning tried to ring the support line. They're only open 9am to 5pm so I spent some time jotting down the serial number ready. When I got through, I was through to a woman with an Indian accent. I have a cold so I suppose I must have been hard to understand. I ended up repeating myself an awful lot, and the line kept cutting out and beeping so she was hard to understand, too.
We went through all sorts of things, I explained the problem a few times, told her what I could see... registered the console with the serial number... for some reason she kept asking me if the time and date were right on the console - which are automatically updated when it's connected to the internet, but the internal battery is dead so the clock is wrong otherwise - went through the menu to "console settings" -> "startup" -> "disc" but now it won't let me change whether to start on the dashboard or DVD, it just goes backwards to the previous page on the menu. (?)
At her request I tried a DVD and an audio CD - the DVD failed, but the CD works (it even grabbed the track listing which quite impressed me, since it was an import Utena soundtrack). She asked me if the console was too hot. I said yes, it's hot but how hot is too hot? She asked if it was too hot. I said it's hot, you could use it as a hand-dryer. She asked me if there was ventilation, I said it's sitting there on its own, nowhere near anything else, and that it's a smokeless environment, there shouldn't be a problem with the air. She said maybe I should switch it off and let it cool down for a few hours. I told her it had stopped working since the night before and that I had left it switched off overnight and it still wouldn't work. She suggested I switch the machine off and remove the hard drive like that would make a difference. It didn't.
She eventually got me off the line by saying that she couldn't go any further with this until we had ascertained whether the problem was with the console or the discs, and she claimed that the only way to do this was for me to re-try the pile of games and DVDs out on another console to see whether it was an issue with the games or the console. I told her that my games had all been working, and I'd tried them before, everything had been in perfect working order right up until last night. I told her that my console is under a month old and that my games are brand new and the discs are completely unscratched. She wouldn't accept that. She insisted that I try my games out on another console, gave me a reference number and would not discuss the matter any further.
She did ask me if I had any other questions, so I asked about the other enquiry I had made, a week and a half ago, about removing the credit card details from my xbox, so that if the console is stolen no-one can commit fraud and buy points with my credit card. She went "let me tell you this!" and told me something about the details sticking around until the next billing cycle (whenever that may be), and that the last 4 digits of a card will be shown in the dashboard but they cannot be used.
Grr, Microsoft. Always doing half a job and leaving a huge mess and expecting the user to be happy with it.
At that point I could tell she was really really annoyed with me, she was all snappy and I knew she wanted to get rid of me, so I hung up. I felt really quite angry with her. So I decided to give it a rest for a few hours.
I am sorry to make a post here in which I feel angry. I didn't intend for this blog to be a venting ground, but this is what happened.
I rang back after 4pm, quoted my reference number to the woman on the phone (who also had an Indian accent), and she spent a while reading the details of the case. I told her that it was definitely a problem with the console and not the discs, and she said she would set up a repair ticket for me ("please bear with me, the system is very slow"). She asked if I would like a shipping label by email or by post, saying that by email would be faster and more convenient, and I said that by post would be faster and more convenient because I don't own a printer. She seemed alright with that. Again, I waited. She apologised for making me wait, saying that the system had just crashed. Again, I waited. She was coughing and making uncomfortable throat noises quite often. I felt quite sorry for her, as working in a call centre is the worst place for a person with a sore throat! She told me that the delivery and collection would be done by UPS, it would be taken for repair and should be returned within 2-3 weeks and there would be no charge as the console is under warranty.
That's just as well. If they had dared to charge me money for repairing a console that stopped working in under a month, I would have been so angry!
She told me that before returning the console, I should remove any custom faceplates and the hard drive and any other peripherals and accessories. And asked me to patiently wait.
I could hear a man shouting in the background behind her. Not just plain yelling, but perhaps angrily demanding something? I wondered if I should ask if everything was alright. More people were coughing in the background.
Eventually, she told me that the system had returned with an error, and gave me a reference number to ring back with tomorrow. [sigh] She asked me if there were any other issues I'd like to discuss, and I let her go. This phone call had lasted over 30 minutes and there had probably been under 5 minutes of talking! Such a long wait, so much apologising!
So... I'll be sending my nice new console in for repair very soon. I hope they are good to it, and that my console is all nice and shiny when it comes back. I've heard that sometimes people get replacements when they're sent in for repair, and I'm dreading that I might get my nice shiny new broken console replaced by a tatty old nasty 2nd-hand refurbished only-just-working console. :(
Well, at least in the meantime, the only thing that is broken is the DVD drive so I can play Space Giraffe off the hard drive... ^_^
After that, it wouldn't read any discs. I put in a disc, it says "reading" .... and then instead of the name of the game, it says "open tray". It doesn't recognise discs. I tried a whole pile of different games, nothing would work.
So I went to bed, and in the morning tried to ring the support line. They're only open 9am to 5pm so I spent some time jotting down the serial number ready. When I got through, I was through to a woman with an Indian accent. I have a cold so I suppose I must have been hard to understand. I ended up repeating myself an awful lot, and the line kept cutting out and beeping so she was hard to understand, too.
We went through all sorts of things, I explained the problem a few times, told her what I could see... registered the console with the serial number... for some reason she kept asking me if the time and date were right on the console - which are automatically updated when it's connected to the internet, but the internal battery is dead so the clock is wrong otherwise - went through the menu to "console settings" -> "startup" -> "disc" but now it won't let me change whether to start on the dashboard or DVD, it just goes backwards to the previous page on the menu. (?)
At her request I tried a DVD and an audio CD - the DVD failed, but the CD works (it even grabbed the track listing which quite impressed me, since it was an import Utena soundtrack). She asked me if the console was too hot. I said yes, it's hot but how hot is too hot? She asked if it was too hot. I said it's hot, you could use it as a hand-dryer. She asked me if there was ventilation, I said it's sitting there on its own, nowhere near anything else, and that it's a smokeless environment, there shouldn't be a problem with the air. She said maybe I should switch it off and let it cool down for a few hours. I told her it had stopped working since the night before and that I had left it switched off overnight and it still wouldn't work. She suggested I switch the machine off and remove the hard drive like that would make a difference. It didn't.
She eventually got me off the line by saying that she couldn't go any further with this until we had ascertained whether the problem was with the console or the discs, and she claimed that the only way to do this was for me to re-try the pile of games and DVDs out on another console to see whether it was an issue with the games or the console. I told her that my games had all been working, and I'd tried them before, everything had been in perfect working order right up until last night. I told her that my console is under a month old and that my games are brand new and the discs are completely unscratched. She wouldn't accept that. She insisted that I try my games out on another console, gave me a reference number and would not discuss the matter any further.
She did ask me if I had any other questions, so I asked about the other enquiry I had made, a week and a half ago, about removing the credit card details from my xbox, so that if the console is stolen no-one can commit fraud and buy points with my credit card. She went "let me tell you this!" and told me something about the details sticking around until the next billing cycle (whenever that may be), and that the last 4 digits of a card will be shown in the dashboard but they cannot be used.
Grr, Microsoft. Always doing half a job and leaving a huge mess and expecting the user to be happy with it.
At that point I could tell she was really really annoyed with me, she was all snappy and I knew she wanted to get rid of me, so I hung up. I felt really quite angry with her. So I decided to give it a rest for a few hours.
I am sorry to make a post here in which I feel angry. I didn't intend for this blog to be a venting ground, but this is what happened.
I rang back after 4pm, quoted my reference number to the woman on the phone (who also had an Indian accent), and she spent a while reading the details of the case. I told her that it was definitely a problem with the console and not the discs, and she said she would set up a repair ticket for me ("please bear with me, the system is very slow"). She asked if I would like a shipping label by email or by post, saying that by email would be faster and more convenient, and I said that by post would be faster and more convenient because I don't own a printer. She seemed alright with that. Again, I waited. She apologised for making me wait, saying that the system had just crashed. Again, I waited. She was coughing and making uncomfortable throat noises quite often. I felt quite sorry for her, as working in a call centre is the worst place for a person with a sore throat! She told me that the delivery and collection would be done by UPS, it would be taken for repair and should be returned within 2-3 weeks and there would be no charge as the console is under warranty.
That's just as well. If they had dared to charge me money for repairing a console that stopped working in under a month, I would have been so angry!
She told me that before returning the console, I should remove any custom faceplates and the hard drive and any other peripherals and accessories. And asked me to patiently wait.
I could hear a man shouting in the background behind her. Not just plain yelling, but perhaps angrily demanding something? I wondered if I should ask if everything was alright. More people were coughing in the background.
Eventually, she told me that the system had returned with an error, and gave me a reference number to ring back with tomorrow. [sigh] She asked me if there were any other issues I'd like to discuss, and I let her go. This phone call had lasted over 30 minutes and there had probably been under 5 minutes of talking! Such a long wait, so much apologising!
So... I'll be sending my nice new console in for repair very soon. I hope they are good to it, and that my console is all nice and shiny when it comes back. I've heard that sometimes people get replacements when they're sent in for repair, and I'm dreading that I might get my nice shiny new broken console replaced by a tatty old nasty 2nd-hand refurbished only-just-working console. :(
Well, at least in the meantime, the only thing that is broken is the DVD drive so I can play Space Giraffe off the hard drive... ^_^
Global Arcade Classics
I was away on holiday last week, off to Hemsby near Great Yarmouth, a seaside resort on the east coast of England. We've been going there every summer since before I can remember. I used to love going to the seaside in the 1980s and 1990s to see the newest games and have a lot of fun in the amusement arcades. ^_^
In the amusement arcades this year... well, on the whole there wasn't a great selection. They're mostly packed out with jackpot machines and penny-pushers and things that aren't much about having fun, but mostly about gambling and collecting tickets to win prizes. There are some light-gun type games too, and a lot of driving games. I did see two multi-game retro games cabinets, though. One was in the Rio Bar and was called "Arcade Classics". It was playing Frogger when I first looked, then Space Invaders when I looked back. It was in a classic style cabinet that had obviously been sitting around since the early 1980s too. There was no way to find out what games were available to play, so I didn't investigate further.
The one I played on the most with, and the one that I'm going to talk about was in the "Palace Casino", however. That machine is called "Global Arcade Classics".
As you can see, it's an upright cabinet featuring two sets of joystick and 6 buttons, and has a trackball in the middle. They feel good, though my brother was complaining that the left joystick was sticking sometimes (I was generally being player 2). I don't know how much use the machine has had or anything. I didn't actually try any games using the trackball but I was impressed to see it there - it's the only was to be able to replicate some old machines they have listed on there, like 720 degrees or Rampart.
It features dozens of games - mostly Midway and Taito games, a few Atari games too. It has every Bubble Bobble and Puzzle Bobble game and Rainbow Islands (no Parasol Stars as it never came out as an arcade machine). It has Mortal Kombat, Paperboy, Robotron and Tapper. It has laserdisc games - Dragon's Lair 1 and 2, and Space Ace. It has loads of versions of Space Invaders, and Arkanoid, and some golf games, etc... there are 80 games in total - a full list of games here - it's a shop, selling the machine. I'd probably buy one if I had the space to put it.
BTW in case you're wondering - because I know I was - the version of "New Zealand Story" in this machine is the same as the "Japan" version, which just happens to be the one that I played all those years ago (even though I was in the UK). Each version had very different level design, so it's important to know which version.
Pros:
* Good selection of games - some of these games haven't been released on home consoles in this country.
* In some cases, better / more accurate than MAME emulation.
* Has nice controls and a trackball
* Professional looking menu, with nostalgic sound effects as you change from game to game.
Cons:
* If you put your money in while the wrong game is showing, you have to play that game or lose your credit. It won't let you change games and carry over credits.
* The stupid annoying "do you want to exit the game" screen keeps popping up if you haven't touched the controls (e.g. if you're watching the end credits roll after beating a game), and it doesn't pause the game when that comes up.
In the amusement arcades this year... well, on the whole there wasn't a great selection. They're mostly packed out with jackpot machines and penny-pushers and things that aren't much about having fun, but mostly about gambling and collecting tickets to win prizes. There are some light-gun type games too, and a lot of driving games. I did see two multi-game retro games cabinets, though. One was in the Rio Bar and was called "Arcade Classics". It was playing Frogger when I first looked, then Space Invaders when I looked back. It was in a classic style cabinet that had obviously been sitting around since the early 1980s too. There was no way to find out what games were available to play, so I didn't investigate further.
The one I played on the most with, and the one that I'm going to talk about was in the "Palace Casino", however. That machine is called "Global Arcade Classics".
As you can see, it's an upright cabinet featuring two sets of joystick and 6 buttons, and has a trackball in the middle. They feel good, though my brother was complaining that the left joystick was sticking sometimes (I was generally being player 2). I don't know how much use the machine has had or anything. I didn't actually try any games using the trackball but I was impressed to see it there - it's the only was to be able to replicate some old machines they have listed on there, like 720 degrees or Rampart.
It features dozens of games - mostly Midway and Taito games, a few Atari games too. It has every Bubble Bobble and Puzzle Bobble game and Rainbow Islands (no Parasol Stars as it never came out as an arcade machine). It has Mortal Kombat, Paperboy, Robotron and Tapper. It has laserdisc games - Dragon's Lair 1 and 2, and Space Ace. It has loads of versions of Space Invaders, and Arkanoid, and some golf games, etc... there are 80 games in total - a full list of games here - it's a shop, selling the machine. I'd probably buy one if I had the space to put it.
BTW in case you're wondering - because I know I was - the version of "New Zealand Story" in this machine is the same as the "Japan" version, which just happens to be the one that I played all those years ago (even though I was in the UK). Each version had very different level design, so it's important to know which version.
Pros:
* Good selection of games - some of these games haven't been released on home consoles in this country.
* In some cases, better / more accurate than MAME emulation.
* Has nice controls and a trackball
* Professional looking menu, with nostalgic sound effects as you change from game to game.
Cons:
* If you put your money in while the wrong game is showing, you have to play that game or lose your credit. It won't let you change games and carry over credits.
* The stupid annoying "do you want to exit the game" screen keeps popping up if you haven't touched the controls (e.g. if you're watching the end credits roll after beating a game), and it doesn't pause the game when that comes up.
Beware of faulty DS Lite adapters
I read a newspaper article last week, saying that there have been a spate of incidents surrounding cheap Nintendo DS Lite chargers that you can buy on ebay or wherever. One electrocuted a seven year old boy. I've since found a BBC news report on it.
There weren't any photos with the article in the newspaper and it was only a few lines long, but yeah.. I think I own one of those chargers (since I have an American DS Lite and wanted a convenient replacement charger) so I thought I'd post and help get the word out there.
It cost me £6 on ebay, which I think is a fair amount and the genuine ones are overpriced. No really, that's a lot for a power adapter. You can get a USB one for £2 (at Play Asia) and they're perfectly safe, after all. But, that's one way you can tell it's likely to be a fake. Also, if you take a look at the photos below, two things are noticeable.
One is that the wire is coming loose. I can imagine it becoming a little frayed and then, yeah, electrocution... the other thing that's noticeable is that the top pin is made out of plastic. There is no earth pin on this plug! It's very unsafe.
It also gets unusually warm when being used, and is unshielded - when I switch it on, it causes terrible interference if I'm listening to am-band radio.
It has a CE mark on it, which normally indicates that it passed EU regulations, but they probably just printed it there themselves.
So if you have one of these as well... go get yourself a replacement DS Lite charger!
There weren't any photos with the article in the newspaper and it was only a few lines long, but yeah.. I think I own one of those chargers (since I have an American DS Lite and wanted a convenient replacement charger) so I thought I'd post and help get the word out there.
It cost me £6 on ebay, which I think is a fair amount and the genuine ones are overpriced. No really, that's a lot for a power adapter. You can get a USB one for £2 (at Play Asia) and they're perfectly safe, after all. But, that's one way you can tell it's likely to be a fake. Also, if you take a look at the photos below, two things are noticeable.
One is that the wire is coming loose. I can imagine it becoming a little frayed and then, yeah, electrocution... the other thing that's noticeable is that the top pin is made out of plastic. There is no earth pin on this plug! It's very unsafe.
It also gets unusually warm when being used, and is unshielded - when I switch it on, it causes terrible interference if I'm listening to am-band radio.
It has a CE mark on it, which normally indicates that it passed EU regulations, but they probably just printed it there themselves.
So if you have one of these as well... go get yourself a replacement DS Lite charger!
Friday 18 July 2008
Portal
Last weekend, my boyfriend let me borrow his copy of The Orange Box for Xbox 360. It contains Half Life 2, and Half Life 2 episodes 1 and 2, Team Fortress 2, and Portal.
So I ignored the other games and tried out Portal.
The basic game concepts are explained best in the trailer for the game.
I was quite surprised that unlike most FPS games and recent Katamari Damacy titles, this game did not make me suffer Simulator Sickness, even though the game is set out as a simulator and requires lots of looking around and the environment has these portals. Even with the levels where you do a lot of flying and falling.
It's a fairly short game, I played it all the way to just-before-the-finish within 2 and a half hours of starting it, went to bed, then completed it after under an hour's time when I restarted playing in the morning. It doesn't feel short though, as it feels rewarding to complete each puzzle and it seems like each level has been lovingly crafted and play-tested hundreds of times to see how people would tackle the game. Unlike Beautiful Katamari, for example, which is short and too easy (and full price).
After you've finished, you can play out the same levels as before in "advanced" mode to make them harder, or attempt to finish the levels using a certain amount of time or portals.
Portal is really brilliant. Oh not only is the concept of the game great, and the level design great, but it's really well written. A puzzle game with a story? Yes, it's got a story, it's got an interesting character with some really funny dialogue, and there are little things you see in the environment and mentioned by the character that hint towards a bigger story... and I really liked the ending.
There's a new version of Portal coming out on Xbox Live Arcade later this year called "Portal: Still Alive", I've heard there will be extra levels and challenges, and maybe the ability to play user-designed levels. I'm looking forward to it!
In the meantime, maybe I'll try the fan-made 2D flash game based on Portal... :D
So I ignored the other games and tried out Portal.
The basic game concepts are explained best in the trailer for the game.
I was quite surprised that unlike most FPS games and recent Katamari Damacy titles, this game did not make me suffer Simulator Sickness, even though the game is set out as a simulator and requires lots of looking around and the environment has these portals. Even with the levels where you do a lot of flying and falling.
It's a fairly short game, I played it all the way to just-before-the-finish within 2 and a half hours of starting it, went to bed, then completed it after under an hour's time when I restarted playing in the morning. It doesn't feel short though, as it feels rewarding to complete each puzzle and it seems like each level has been lovingly crafted and play-tested hundreds of times to see how people would tackle the game. Unlike Beautiful Katamari, for example, which is short and too easy (and full price).
After you've finished, you can play out the same levels as before in "advanced" mode to make them harder, or attempt to finish the levels using a certain amount of time or portals.
Portal is really brilliant. Oh not only is the concept of the game great, and the level design great, but it's really well written. A puzzle game with a story? Yes, it's got a story, it's got an interesting character with some really funny dialogue, and there are little things you see in the environment and mentioned by the character that hint towards a bigger story... and I really liked the ending.
There's a new version of Portal coming out on Xbox Live Arcade later this year called "Portal: Still Alive", I've heard there will be extra levels and challenges, and maybe the ability to play user-designed levels. I'm looking forward to it!
In the meantime, maybe I'll try the fan-made 2D flash game based on Portal... :D
Chrono Cross (US) going cheap
Play-Asia have a sale on at the moment. 25% off everything in stock.
One of the best deals (in my opinion) is Chrono Cross for $24.90 US dollars. That's about £12.50 in UK money, a pretty good price for a game that never came out in this country. It's the sequel to Chrono Trigger which is a really good RPG, and Chrono Trigger is being ported to the Nintendo DS later this year. :D
Oh and hurry since there's only about a day left of the sale.
One of the best deals (in my opinion) is Chrono Cross for $24.90 US dollars. That's about £12.50 in UK money, a pretty good price for a game that never came out in this country. It's the sequel to Chrono Trigger which is a really good RPG, and Chrono Trigger is being ported to the Nintendo DS later this year. :D
Oh and hurry since there's only about a day left of the sale.
Friday 11 July 2008
My new Xbox 360 (3)
Well, I've owned this machine for over a week, so I thought I'd post an update on my thoughts.
I'm surprised at how into the Xbox 360 I am. People go on about these big testosterone-fuelled games for the system, people-killing soldier games and things, which isn't my thing, but I've found games that I like - both the games you can buy in shops on shelves, and the ones that are available to download - full games and trials and demos. There's so much simple fun stuff on live arcade and having the games on the hard drive is very convenient.
That's a photo of my collection of Xbox 360 games so far. I also have a copy of the RPG "Lost Odyssey" coming in the post, and own 4 Xbox Live Arcade games - Space Giraffe, and three games that came free with my MadCatz joystick - Time Pilot, Frogger and Astro Pop.
(Astro Pop is a rip-off of Magical Drop in endless mode, the biggest real difference is that the player can sometimes use a special move. It's made by Popcap games)
I haven't played half those games. Hey, I haven't even played half of the old Xbox games either! (I own some FPS for Xbox just because I feel I ought to give the genre a go again... but it's low on my priority list)
My thoughts on High Definition gaming - I've plugged my Xbox into my super-nice monitor (I had to buy a new cable to do that), and now games look.... well, as good as PC games in 1280 x 1024 resolution. Considering that my normal desktop I use for windows is an effortless 1600 x 1200, I don't consider high definition very high. It means I can see more detail though, everything does look very nice, and for some games it means I can now read the on-screen text, whereas it was impossible to do so on normal TV-sized resolution (e.g. the instructions on how-to-play in the demo of Triggerheart Exelica).
Part of it is down to how wonderful my monitor is, I'm sure. ^_^ Hooray for the Samsung Syncmaster XL20! (I think I need to tweak the colour settings again, though...). It looks nicer than any HDTV I've ever had and there's no lag or weird side effects like you often see on LCD monitors. It's just perfect, doesn't get in the way of a good gaming experience. ^_^
The Xbox 360 is definitely more powerful than any PC I've ever owned or seen, so the extra detail it's possible to show is well utilised.
My thoughts on the interfaces. Well, I think that the Xbox marketplace interface, and the Xbox live website are both horrible to navigate properly. The game genre categorisation system is not useful, and if you know the name of a game but not the genre it's categorised as and want to find it, you pretty much have to browse all games and find it yourself. e.g. I want to find this "Pinball FX" game for a demo? What's that under? ...eventually I find it, and it's under "bar games". I didn't even know what that genre meant! Games categorised under the venue in which they were played - e.g. bar or arcade - aren't very helpful to describe the content of a game, or its gameplay. At least, I think so.
The Xbox website is flaky and hard to navigate. Half of it is in flash, so I can't open new tabs to read game descriptions or easily go back to read other ones.
The network for the console and website is also slow, even when I allow it full use of my internet connection. Browsing lists means loading up text and icons separately, and it takes ages, not letting me go further in the list until the current page has loaded all its icons and stuff I just want to skip past.
It's all just really badly thought out and annoying to use.
I also don't know how to remove my credit card details from my profile. I don't want it there! It's not safe! I'm automatically logged in just by switching on my console - so the card details are under that. If the console were stolen or whatever, that would leave it open for abuse. I'm busy playing games, I don't want my card tied to the account. But I bought some Microsoft points (to buy Space Giraffe and some Katamari levels), and the card details have been stored there ever since. T_T
The games are pretty fun, though.
I'm surprised at how into the Xbox 360 I am. People go on about these big testosterone-fuelled games for the system, people-killing soldier games and things, which isn't my thing, but I've found games that I like - both the games you can buy in shops on shelves, and the ones that are available to download - full games and trials and demos. There's so much simple fun stuff on live arcade and having the games on the hard drive is very convenient.
That's a photo of my collection of Xbox 360 games so far. I also have a copy of the RPG "Lost Odyssey" coming in the post, and own 4 Xbox Live Arcade games - Space Giraffe, and three games that came free with my MadCatz joystick - Time Pilot, Frogger and Astro Pop.
(Astro Pop is a rip-off of Magical Drop in endless mode, the biggest real difference is that the player can sometimes use a special move. It's made by Popcap games)
I haven't played half those games. Hey, I haven't even played half of the old Xbox games either! (I own some FPS for Xbox just because I feel I ought to give the genre a go again... but it's low on my priority list)
My thoughts on High Definition gaming - I've plugged my Xbox into my super-nice monitor (I had to buy a new cable to do that), and now games look.... well, as good as PC games in 1280 x 1024 resolution. Considering that my normal desktop I use for windows is an effortless 1600 x 1200, I don't consider high definition very high. It means I can see more detail though, everything does look very nice, and for some games it means I can now read the on-screen text, whereas it was impossible to do so on normal TV-sized resolution (e.g. the instructions on how-to-play in the demo of Triggerheart Exelica).
Part of it is down to how wonderful my monitor is, I'm sure. ^_^ Hooray for the Samsung Syncmaster XL20! (I think I need to tweak the colour settings again, though...). It looks nicer than any HDTV I've ever had and there's no lag or weird side effects like you often see on LCD monitors. It's just perfect, doesn't get in the way of a good gaming experience. ^_^
The Xbox 360 is definitely more powerful than any PC I've ever owned or seen, so the extra detail it's possible to show is well utilised.
My thoughts on the interfaces. Well, I think that the Xbox marketplace interface, and the Xbox live website are both horrible to navigate properly. The game genre categorisation system is not useful, and if you know the name of a game but not the genre it's categorised as and want to find it, you pretty much have to browse all games and find it yourself. e.g. I want to find this "Pinball FX" game for a demo? What's that under? ...eventually I find it, and it's under "bar games". I didn't even know what that genre meant! Games categorised under the venue in which they were played - e.g. bar or arcade - aren't very helpful to describe the content of a game, or its gameplay. At least, I think so.
The Xbox website is flaky and hard to navigate. Half of it is in flash, so I can't open new tabs to read game descriptions or easily go back to read other ones.
The network for the console and website is also slow, even when I allow it full use of my internet connection. Browsing lists means loading up text and icons separately, and it takes ages, not letting me go further in the list until the current page has loaded all its icons and stuff I just want to skip past.
It's all just really badly thought out and annoying to use.
I also don't know how to remove my credit card details from my profile. I don't want it there! It's not safe! I'm automatically logged in just by switching on my console - so the card details are under that. If the console were stolen or whatever, that would leave it open for abuse. I'm busy playing games, I don't want my card tied to the account. But I bought some Microsoft points (to buy Space Giraffe and some Katamari levels), and the card details have been stored there ever since. T_T
The games are pretty fun, though.
Wednesday 9 July 2008
Space Giraffe
I bought a copy of Space Giraffe last Friday (4th July), after playing through the tutorial and trial version. It's an Xbox Live Arcade game, that costs 400 points (about £3.40), and is the newest game from Jeff "Yak" Minter of Llamasoft. It came out last year, but this is my first chance to actually try a copy. Now, I've been a fan of Jeff Minter's games since I was very very young, playing games on the Commodore 64. My favourites are probably Batalyx, Anticipal, and Revenge of the Mutant Camels. I also remember things like Attack Of The Mutant Camels, Gridrunner, Hellgate, Laser Zone, Sheep In Space, Hovver Bovver, Psychedelia, Return of the Mutant Camels... fond memories. He excelled in shoot-em-ups, really playable games - especially when you consider what else was available at the time. He's also got a common "beastie" theme running through his works, and references to drugs and Pink Floyd...
...but enough of the past.
Space Giraffe is Llamasoft's new game, and I bought it and it's a lot of fun. I got a lot more mileage out of it than the 2 Katamari levels I bought for the same price. The first thing to note is it's not Tempest, though it looks a lot like his versions of that game. It seems to be what he's been famous for the last few years, but I never played a copy, so I have no problem with that concept. The next thing to note is that the best way to clear a level isn't to shoot at the things coming towards you, but to let them come, and then ram into them, when it's safe to. You get more points and a better ranking, that way. It's only safe to ram into things when they've come to the same edge of the grid you're on, your "power zone" is extended, and you're not running into bullets or other invincible things.
It's difficult to explain in a few words, even though the game is fairly simple. There are other elements of gameplay too, and each one is like a new gameplay mechanic as it's introduced, forcing you to re-evaluate your strategies when each new one comes in. There are 100 levels, and I believe that each one has been lovingly crafted, since it seems like there's a best strategy to playing every single level to be discovered - I think each one has been played to death before deciding it's good enough.
Space Giraffe does something that I think Rez was trying to do, but failed to. It blends visuals and audio flawlessly. The music does not change according to the action in the game like in Rez, it's not the same in that way. Space Giraffe is built on a media visualisation engine, and plays like that. It's like playing a game on a winamp plugin with the music still running. This means that the visuals and audio are linked completely. The things you shoot at make noise and there's an effect on what you see. Sometimes you can't see what's going on in the level, and so you are listening to audio clues to guide you as you play the level. "I can't see that part of the grid, but I heard that some bullets were fired, so I had better not stand there just now" is how you play the game. It feels quite rewarding, playing a shoot-em-up by ear. ^_^
At the moment, I have unlocked 4 achievements, and my highest score is 29,454,079 and the furthest I've got is level 19. On the world leaderboards, that makes me the 733rd best player in the world, of all time! And you know what? I think that's terrible! There should be plenty of people better than me at this game by now, I only just started playing! XD
I'm also 15th best in the weekly rankings. More people should be playing this game!
BTW I found a talk given by Jeff Minter for a google thing on youtube. It's quite long - about an hour long, but I found it quite interesting and entertaining and nostalgic. Follow the link below:
Video
I wish he was better at working in teams, to deadlines... so that it would be more likely to see new games from him more than once every few years! But, if it's the only way he can make good quality games... well, I can't complain about getting good quality games, can I?
...but enough of the past.
Space Giraffe is Llamasoft's new game, and I bought it and it's a lot of fun. I got a lot more mileage out of it than the 2 Katamari levels I bought for the same price. The first thing to note is it's not Tempest, though it looks a lot like his versions of that game. It seems to be what he's been famous for the last few years, but I never played a copy, so I have no problem with that concept. The next thing to note is that the best way to clear a level isn't to shoot at the things coming towards you, but to let them come, and then ram into them, when it's safe to. You get more points and a better ranking, that way. It's only safe to ram into things when they've come to the same edge of the grid you're on, your "power zone" is extended, and you're not running into bullets or other invincible things.
It's difficult to explain in a few words, even though the game is fairly simple. There are other elements of gameplay too, and each one is like a new gameplay mechanic as it's introduced, forcing you to re-evaluate your strategies when each new one comes in. There are 100 levels, and I believe that each one has been lovingly crafted, since it seems like there's a best strategy to playing every single level to be discovered - I think each one has been played to death before deciding it's good enough.
Space Giraffe does something that I think Rez was trying to do, but failed to. It blends visuals and audio flawlessly. The music does not change according to the action in the game like in Rez, it's not the same in that way. Space Giraffe is built on a media visualisation engine, and plays like that. It's like playing a game on a winamp plugin with the music still running. This means that the visuals and audio are linked completely. The things you shoot at make noise and there's an effect on what you see. Sometimes you can't see what's going on in the level, and so you are listening to audio clues to guide you as you play the level. "I can't see that part of the grid, but I heard that some bullets were fired, so I had better not stand there just now" is how you play the game. It feels quite rewarding, playing a shoot-em-up by ear. ^_^
At the moment, I have unlocked 4 achievements, and my highest score is 29,454,079 and the furthest I've got is level 19. On the world leaderboards, that makes me the 733rd best player in the world, of all time! And you know what? I think that's terrible! There should be plenty of people better than me at this game by now, I only just started playing! XD
I'm also 15th best in the weekly rankings. More people should be playing this game!
BTW I found a talk given by Jeff Minter for a google thing on youtube. It's quite long - about an hour long, but I found it quite interesting and entertaining and nostalgic. Follow the link below:
Video
I wish he was better at working in teams, to deadlines... so that it would be more likely to see new games from him more than once every few years! But, if it's the only way he can make good quality games... well, I can't complain about getting good quality games, can I?
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