MASSIVE DAMAGE

How to feel good about yourself today.

2010-12-16T03:45:00.000-08:00

[As originally posted here]

Who doesn't like feeling like a good person once in a while ? And who doesn't like getting something for it to boot ?

Well, guess what, for a little more than 6 days still, that's exactly what you can do !

Here's the deal : you buy 5 great games for any price you want, then decide who gets the money. Sounds good? Head over to the Humble Indie Bundle #2 page.

Still not convinced ? Then please take a couple of minutes to read about some specifics after the break...

As last year, 5 independently-developed PC games are being offered as a downloadable pack, which you are invited to buy for any price you decide. This can be as low as $1, and right now the top contributor is Notch, developer of the hugely successful Minecraft, with a whopping $2.000.The average donation is currently a little above $7, and I paid $30 for mine... So really, your call.

Then, once you decided on the money you wish to donate, you get to choose how it gets splitted. You can divide it between :

The game developers. Remember, those games are made by very small teams, and they need the support.
Child's Play, a charity started by the guys over at Penny Arcade, with the intent of bringing toys and games into hospitals to make the lives of children there a bit better.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation, whose goal is to defend people's liberties and rights in the digital age.
The organisators of the bundle, via a "humble tip", to help cover the hosting and related costs, and to give them the opportunity of creating another bundle next year.

Now, what about the games? Because helping charities is all well and good, but this is still a game bundle, right ? Last year, you could have gotten World of Goo, Aquaria, Penumbra: Overture, Lugaru HD and Gish (four of which have subsequently been open-sourced, mind you). And this year, the lineup is just as great :

Braid : A platformer/puzzle hybrid in which you'll need to make use of the character's various time-bending abilities to grab puzzle pieces and unravel the story. Very unusual, and some of the puzzles are sure to keep you thinking for a while...
Cortex Command : Buy artificial bodies and remote-control them to gather resources in a game that is still under active development (fear not, your purchase make you eligible for all future updates), but already impresses with extremely detailed physics, excellent 2D graphics, and more (also, multiplayer !).
Machinarium : A point-and-click adventure which is as gripping as it is beautiful. Superb art style, inventive challenges, and a wonderful soundtrack. Speaking of which... Said soundtrack is even included in the bundle !
Osmos : Very soothing physics-based gameplay. Absorb creatures smaller than you while avoiding the same fate, to complete various objectives. And if you're stuck, you can always try a randomized version of the level giving you trouble... A mini-album with some of the game's music is also included, but you won't listen to it, because you'll still be playing the addictive game.
Revenge of the Titans : Like Tower Defense games ? Good. Like real time strategy games ? Even better, because Revenge of the Titans is a mix of both. Another game still under active development (and again, you'll get all the updates for free), RotT is also available for the first time inside the bundle, so be hype and play it before anybody else !

So there you have it, a very, very nice way to do some good during this holiday season. Oh, and not to forget, all games run on Linux (32 and 64 bits), Mac OSX and Windows !!! All. Of. Them. Isn't that awesome ? And one last word for the competitive among you : checking the stats at http://www.humblebundle.com/ , you can see that the most (on average) generous people are the Linux folks with $13.55/sale on average, before Mac users with $8.12/sale, and finally Windows guys give $5.96 on average. So go increase the gap or turn the tables ! Buy the Humble Indie Bundle for yourself or a friend. Or both. Game on !

I can see how you may have confused those

2010-11-29T15:03:00.000-08:00

I was chatting with a Spanish-speaking friend a bit ago and I was trying to remember how to say "I am lonely." So I googled it hoping for the best, and here I found this...

My personal favorite is 'I am in business school at Victoria and eventually want to do chinese business," but "I am going to rape you" is pretty funny, too.

Donkey Kong Country 3 GBA Rip

2009-03-29T20:05:00.000-07:00

Dave Wise was brought back to do the soundtrack for the GBA port of Donkey Kong Country 3, and it was epic. There isn't a direct format rip circulating and a soundtrack was never released, but here's a game rip. Spread it around.

It's better with no shirt on

2009-01-27T03:29:00.000-08:00

Originally posted on insert credit, I literally cannot stop watching this video every few hours or so the past couple days because it brings me that much joy. What is it? Well, judging by the author's tags and what we see, it's a guy playing Galaga in New Jersey in an arcade with his shirt off...and really getting into it:

There are so many minute happenings in this glorious 0:26 second clip, but let's start at the beginning. 0:01 in, where is that left leg going? It looks like the machine's pushing him away or he is a runner ready to bolt at the start of a race. How this helps him or is natural at all to anyone playing games baffles me. 0:03 in, there it goes again, but this time it looks like he's playing Twister and he just got left foot yellow and the only yellow dot left is somewhere in the back. He then plays pretty intently for about 9 more seconds when at 0:12 he does some sort of swatting motion with his right arm, which could possibly be construed as a fist pump. It's hard to say. He resumes playing and whoever keeps pulling the rope on his left leg tugs it just a little, and then again at 0:20. But then something changes, and he closes the gap between himself and the machine. Knees bent, torso mostly parallel to the arcade cabinet's upright position, he begins to rock and thrust his pelvis toward the coin slots, 3 pumps perfectly synchronized with the 'wahs' coming from the game. Soon after, the 26 seconds of pure voyeuristic pleasure ends. Great stuff. (Also worth mentioning is his presumably sweaty tee hanging over the Pac-Man machine.)

Hori Fighting Stick EX2 Get!

2009-01-19T17:50:00.000-08:00

Best 15 Dollars I've Ever Spent

2009-01-19T07:48:00.000-08:00

Does anyone remember the days when a little money could go a long way if you were careful and considerate? I sure as hell don't, but some people do, if the many hours spent accompanying the elderly down Memory Lane (or perhaps Dementia Boulevard) are any indication. In the modern world of entertainment, people are somehow managing to warm up to the idea of spending more and more of their (sometimes) hard-earned money to get less and less of the actual entertainment. Video games are a perfect example, with 60 dollars or more rarely earning more than 15 hours of gameplay. That's 4 dollars per hour of fun. Would you pay 4 dollars for an hour of fun? If so, you probably won't really appreciate what I'm about to tell you.

Just three days ago, I spent 15 dollars on a somewhat esoteric side-scrolling action title for Xbox Live Arcade called Castle Crashers. The next day, I started said game with my friends and ended up playing a total of about 12 hours over the duration of the weekend.

Let's see... that's 12 hours of fun for a 15-dollar game, and the fun is only just beginning.

I think we have a winner.

To put it simply, Castle Crashers is a masterpiece of the modern gaming age. Deceptively simple and elegant, it slid its way onto the online stage and quickly took the spotlight as one of the best selling XBLA games ever, if not the best. Full of wit and nonstop hack-and-slash action, the game's controls never get in the way of a good time, and the difficulty is enough to make you pay attention, but not so challenging as to marginalize that always-feared "casual gamer." The designers know their sidescrollers, and used their knowledge well to keep the fast-paced game varied enough to avoid it growing stale or repetitive. Possessing a myriad of unlockables, tunes any Newgrounds fan should recognize, and a general air of out-of-this-world enjoyment, Castle Crashers has impressed me more than at least 90% of the 60 dollar games I've paid for in the past few years. I recommend it without qualification, although the game becomes leagues more enjoyable with friends to play with you.

After a weekend of this refreshing game, one can only hope that projects from these kinds of developers continues to flourish, and that the consumer may finally decide that big price tags don't always equate to big fun.

Best 15 dollars I've ever spent.

On Assassin's Creed's "Interruptions"

2009-01-12T13:43:00.000-08:00

In storytelling, there is a pattern where suspense is built, then released. Once established, the degree of suspense built can be increased with every iteration of the cycle, until the storyteller reaches the climax of the story and the plot is resolved. Alternatively, he or she, after having established the pattern, can deny the release until the pressure has built to a fever pitch, making the release that much more intense whenever it comes.

Normally I'd be talking about a movie, not a game in this respect (just a personal peeve, each seems too disparate a medium to be trying to compare directly), but in this I think that this principle can be applied very well to the flow of modern games. I'll use Assassin's Creed as an example (it's been a while so bear with any inconsistencies): Going into the scenes where you actually slay your marks, everything is calm and quiet (though it is possible to bust in the front door most of the time, it isn't the most successful strategy and not the one I'll use for an example here). Tension builds as you near the target (and you're forced into seeing an example of the exact kind of villany the mark is about to die for). The release comes when you drop in on your target and deliver the neck stabbin', while the chase afterward (however tense) is, in fact, the falling action.

Now, that's the cycle for the actual assassinations. After each one, however, the overall stakes are raised: The player's equipment gets upgraded or he learns a new attack, and the guards in the game become just a little more aware of Altair's appearance. In this, the tension of the entire game is raised, and a release from this is also required for the cycle to be complete.

I'd argue that being booted out of the memory after a successful execution provides that release for the overall tension being built by playing through them. Some called it an interruption; I call it an intermission. When I was playing through, I found myself actually looking forward to these sequences (not just for the curiously faithful representation of the deliciously demure Kristen Bell). Maybe it was only for the bits and pieces of story it meted out at a very deliberate pace or the light adventure game elements it put before me, but whatever it was, I think the entire game might have been a little bit flatter without them.

On Game Reviews

2009-01-08T08:12:00.001-08:00

The most important thing a review can give me is an idea of what I’m going to be doing while I’m playing the game. If it’s Metal Gear Solid 4, I don’t need to know how ridiculous the story is going to be. I need to know if it has multiple axis inversion options, if the control scheme is conducive to the activities I’ll be doing through the course of the game and if not, if the control scheme is at all customizable. If it’s SoulCalibur IV, I don’t need to know that the story mode can be finished in fifteen minutes with a scrub character like Yoda, I need to know that the online is riddled with lag, the options for customizing a character have actually been scaled back from the previous installment, and that game balance in general will need some severe tweaking before the game can even be taken seriously. And for Burnout Paradise, I don’t need to know how immersive DJ Atomica’s blurbs help make the game, I need to know whether I can silence him if I find him annoying without changing the volume of my vehicle’s engine, if I can retry events I just failed, or if I can even cancel events I’m currently participating in that I already know I’m going to fail (for the record, you can’t do any of these things–but you could in previous Burnout games. Progress?).

It’s all about what I’ll be doing and how I’ll be doing it, what impedance I’ll face from bad design decisions, poor programming, or what have you. These are the things that make my controller fly, as opposed to anything having to do with story, setting, themes, graphics, etc. In a well-written review, those kinds of things can have a place, but for what I play games for and what I get out of games, these things are completely tertiary to me, as is an arbitrary number with no meaning or value to me placed on the sum total worth of the game.

That said, I haven’t been reading reviews much anymore. If I do, I’m looking at them after I’ve played a game to see what the person writing the review got out of the game compared to what I did. As for choosing what I spend my time with, I play demos, I rent, and I talk to people whose opinions I understand. I know my own tastes and what I want from a game well enough that trusting someone else’s opinion I’ve never met and never will meet or understand (however valid it may be by being published or on a website) is both counterproductive and a waste of time. I think I remember an ad from a gaming era past, and it’s still a valid quote: “Trust no one. Play it for yourself.” Really, if we aren’t playing for ourselves anyway, who are we playing for?

Left 4 Dead

2008-12-15T13:20:00.000-08:00

Finally played it last week. I tried playing through "No Mercy" with the first party I found. Two of them dropped out, and after we failed the in-hospital segment, the last human player dropped as well. While having four humans proved entertaining (even if only one of them had a mic), having just one flesh-and-blood ally wasn't as much fun, and I didn't even last a minute playing it on my own.

I was able to play all the way through "Blood Harvest" with three other humans, and while the last portion was very exciting, it all felt very similar to the previous scenario. The scenery changed, but the enemies didn't, and the environmental differences weren't drastic enough to change the nature of the combat to an appreciable degree.

Then I played Versus, and I was in love. We started as The Infected, and I a Hunter. It took me a bit to get the hang of it, but once I did, I was pouncing survivors left and right. I kind of hate the Belcher or whatever it's called, and the Smoker isn't much good to me either, but that Hunter is the business. I spawned as a Tank at the end of the scenario (this was Blood Harvest again), but I didn't like that much, either.

Altogether, I enjoyed the game, but I can see that it's pretty thin for me; fighting the AI infected isn't entertaining to me. Someone's going to tell me to ratchet up the difficulty, but challenge isn't what's lacking here, it's variety. Zombies do not make everything better to me. Ninja swords, maybe. High-powered explosives, destructible surfaces, energy weapons, and other things, sure, they can make things better, but zombies? Stupid enemies who rush you constantly? I never understood the nerd attraction to them, but they don't do it for me, and without that, there just isn't enough in this game to do it for me, either. Enjoy it while it lasts, zombie fans. I think I'm going to have to go back to Call of Duty 4 for my multiplayer jollies.

Living on the edge

2008-12-08T01:05:00.000-08:00

I know I'm a little behind regarding new games (probably due to me not owning a "no-longer-next-but-now-current-gen" console), and I should have spotted it earlier, but yesterday was the first time I played Mirror's Edge. Not even the full, game, only the demo, but still...

And boy, was I blown away. Even on a smallish SD television, it was completely awesome. Not only did it look great, it's fun as hell to play. After only a couple of minutes, you find yourself jumping around everywhere almost without a pause, and it feels pretty kickass. It's somewhat like the feeling I got when trying Assassin's Creed for the first time.

I could go on and on about how much I like the environment the game takes place in, or pretty much every other aspect I could taste during the demo, but I think I'll save that for a future post about the game when I'm done with the full thing. So I'll rather go back to listening to "Still Alive" (NO, not the Portal one, the one sung by Lisa Miskovsky for my new addiction :D ).

Oh and I can't wait for one of my friend to come around with his PS3 to play the demo again, but on my 40" HDTV. THAT will be a treat!

The Top 10 Broken Crap Fighting Game Bosses of All Time

2008-12-07T12:45:00.000-08:00

This post is for all the fighting game players out there who have ever had to invest in replacement controllers that were destroyed in a fit of rage because you just couldn't beat that one impossible boss that you could swear was omnipotent. I too, have felt your pain. Many times have I expressed my negative sentiments for overpowered bosses by cursing the gods in anger and asserting my superiority over my controller for its insubordination. The following is a list of those broken crap bosses that provoked my aggression, from the least frustrating to the most ridiculous:

10. Shin M.Bison - Street Fighter Alpha 3
This guy isn't so bad until he uses the X-Ism super exclusive to him; the Mega Psycho Crusher. This is a screen-filling super that decimates your entire life bar in one fell swoop, and the CPU just happens to be smart enough to use it as a counter attack in most cases. His other attacks don't have nearly as much priority, thankfully, which makes him manageable in comparison to the other guys on this list.

9. Baiken - Guilty Gear
Baiken is a one armed, one eyed samurai chick, but don't let these handicaps fool you. She will kick your ass all over her stage and stain her sword with your blood. She literally has many tricks up her sleeve, which allows her to deal damage in a big way. Her specials have insane priority, and she practically has an infinite number of ways to set up her most damaging combos, but then again, even her smallest combos inflict ludicrous amounts of damage. She's a blast to fight with provided you can meet the requirements to do so.

8. Zankuro - Samurai Spirits/Shodown III
Zankuro is probably the coolest samurai to grace a fighting game ever. As if his towering presence wasn't intimidating enough, this guy's normal attacks do incredulous amounts of damage, and even if your attack was to come out first, he could perform one of his specials at the last possible second and it would still counter your attack. He has tremendous reach with his sword, and his heavy slash attack is faster than anyone else's in the game, so in a sense, the fight is over well before it starts. This battle will truly test your patience.

7. Omega Rugal Bernstein - The King of Fighters '98/2002
Rugal is adept at picking you off at a distance with his incredible amount of projectile attacks, namely the Kaiser Wave, which is a screen filling special that must be rolled through or jumped over at the last possible minute. And just when you get close enough to mount an offense, Rugal will simply perform his classic Genocide Cutter anti-air, which has godlike priority over every single special and Desperation Move in the entire game, to send you flying across the screen, forcing you to play his little keep-away game all over again. However, his priority and projectile attacks would actually be manageable if it weren't for the amount of damage they inflict when they score a successful hit, coupled with Rugal's extreme defenses against your own attacks and combos, which is really what makes this battle so irritating. Perseverance is key, here.

6. Magneto - X-Men: Children of the Atom
Magneto is, perhaps, the only opponent in CotA that actually requires some strategy to dispatch effectively. Normally all you have to do is spam the same combo over and over again, like any versus series game, but Magneto doesn't even give you the chance to get in close enough to set one up. He has two unblockable techniques, one special, one super, and they are both frustrating as hell for you. This guy can also generate a force field around himself to nullify your attacks altogether, which lasts a little too long for its own good. If you can't beat this guy, don't sweat it, just turn the game off and say fuck it.

5. Igniz - The King of Fighters 2001
I hate this guy. Supposedly there's some weakness in the A.I. you can exploit, but I never found out what it was. He has a standard projectile attack that negates and passes through other special and super projectiles, and has priority over everything else in general. He has an infinite combo that he can and will use against you whenever he feels like it. His DMs may as well be instant kills, which still doesn't say anything about the rape his SDM opens up when he lands it. This guy literally is broken crap because there's just no strategy you can implement that is effective against his brokenness.

4. Magaki - The King of Fighters XI
This little shit is broken garbage. He can have like, eight projectiles on screen at once, projectiles that can and will cross you up if you don't anticipate their direction, his LDM is a screen-filling super that has priority over everything, does outlandish amounts of chip damage when blocked, and may as well be an instant kill otherwise. If you manage to get in close enough to deal any real damage to this bastard, he has an invincible multi-hit explosion attack that covers the area in front of him that hits for major damage, and sends you flying across the screen, just like Rugal's Genocide Cutter. Avoid this guy at all costs, he's taken the fun out of the game for me many times.

3. Goenitz - The King of Fighters '96
We're entering the top three broken crap bosses now. Goenitz is one of them. Many people believe this guy is actually the penultimate broken boss, but I'm not giving him the satisfaction. For starters, his DMs are normal specials. He loves to just walk up to you until you're cornered so he can spam his Yamidouko unblockable grab, which does like, 25% damage. But, what makes him so cheap are his tornadoes. This guy can erect a vertical tornado in four different places on the screen, and he spams them with impunity. And when I say vertical, I mean these tornadoes extend from the bottom of your screen all the way up to the top, they can't be jumped over. And he can TELEPORT. He plays the most dangerous game of keep-away in fighting game history. After a while, you will have memorized his signature taunt, "Koku desu ka?", meaning, "Right here?", whenever he erects these tornadoes. Its fun attempting to bypass these tornadoes for a time, but after a while, it becomes too difficult to keep your cool. Goenitz is classic broken crap.

2. Shin Shishioh/King Leo - Neogeo Battle Coliseum
Shin Shishioh is one of my favorite characters of all time, so major kudos to SNK for creating him. His first appearance was in a little known game called Savage Reign, where there was a selectable version of the character called King Lion, or Kage Shishioh, and an unplayable(without a secret code) final boss version called King Leo, or Shin Shishioh. He has since returned after a 12 year hiatus in Neogeo Battle Coliseum, and he's back with a vengeance baby. Shin Shishioh has two exclusive moves that King Lion does not possess; the Hunter Killer, and the King Upper, and various properties on his other specials are different as well. In particular, his Beast Blow hits LOW, meaning it cannot be blocked from a standing position at all, and he will use it to completely pass through mid and high level projectiles unharmed. His fierce Earth Chopper is completely unblockable, and can OTG if you don't quick recover after a knockdown. The Hunter Killer is an extremely fast horizontal kick attack that he uses to hit you out of slow start-up specials and supers, but the big kicker is that it doubles as an overhead. You can imagine how difficult it becomes to remember to block his Beast Blow in a crouched position and the Hunter Killer in a standing one after a while. And the King Upper is a vertical projectile attack that does 50% damage if all three hits connect. This guy is seriously one of the coolest guys ever, and fighting him is a true test of your skills as a warrior. King Lion owns you for free.

1. Shin Akuma - Street Fighter Alpha 2/Street Fighter Alpha 3/Capcom vs. SNK 2/SNK vs. Capcom: Chaos
And last but not least, Shin Akuma takes his rightful place at the top of this list for being THE original broken crap boss designed to test your skills. His double aerial Zankuu Hadouken attack is easily one of the cheapest attacks in fighting game history, his Shungokusatsu, or Instant Hell Murder super art is usually enhanced in some way to make it even more devastating than regular Akuma's, and he's always so fast that he can pull a combo out of his ass at any moment. Shin Akuma easily earns his place on this list for being such a classic character, and I don't think he'll be dethroned anytime soon. Long live Shin Akuma!

Deck the halls, bitches

2008-12-06T23:31:00.000-08:00

Well, 'tis the season or so they say, though I've never felt jolly around the holidays so much as I come down with seasonal affective disorder. But the video gaming industry has never looked better than it does this holiday season, which is definitely something to feel good about because this year's hottest new games are worth their weight in silver and gold.

Don't just deck the halls, deck your friends too! The fighting game front is finally starting to make a comeback, with titles like Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix and Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe, which despite its criticisms, can be a blast to play with your friends. Street Fighter IV is all the rage these days it seems, but SNK's working King of Fighters title may just be enough to break Capcom's chokehold on the genre once it hits arcades here before long, which I'm eagerly anticipating. Namco's Tekken 6 is shaping up to be something truly promising, and while some people's hatred for Namco's "scams" discourages them from playing their games, Tekken is an awesome contributor to the 3D fighting arena, so if your arcade has it, pump a few quarters into it, your opinion may just change. So dust off those older titles like Capcom vs. SNK 2, SNK vs. Capcom: Chaos, and Neogeo Battle Coliseum, because its time for Street Fighter III to step aside!

Persona 4 will be hitting store shelves on December 9th, and having gotten into the MegaTen games myself here recently, I can certainly recommend this title to any serious RPG player out there looking for something different outside the realm of Final Fantasy.

The only front I can honestly say is still lacking is the action/adventure genre. Games like Mirror's Edge and Tomb Raider: Underworld are refreshing new additions to the genre, but as a whole, it just doesn't have as much to offer you as you might think. Devil May Cry 4 is still the best action title I've played on a next-gen platform, and I'm not sure if that will change anytime soon, so keep your eyes peeled for something that truly stands out.

Merry Christmas and happy holidays everyone!

It's 2008 And I Still Can't E-mail Game Saves Without Hassle.

2008-11-07T09:15:00.001-08:00

Microsoft runs Hotmail, a free e-mail service. Hotmail gives you five gigabytes of space. Microsoft also runs Xbox Live, which gives you no online space, but does require you to associate your Xbox Live Gamertag with a Microsoft network account.

What I'm proposing is a way to use a portion of your online free e-mail storage as dedicated Xbox game save backup space. You would be able to see what game saves you have in your online space from Hotmail or whatever service you're using, but you wouldn't be able to download them to a PC. The only places the files could exist would be in the online storage or on your Xbox. Sharing game saves wouldn't even have to be included in this feature, though in a perfect world that would be integrated into the data management system as well.

I understand why this kind of thing isn't being done right now: Primarily, allowing game saves to be backed up online could cut into Xbox Memory Unit sales. Second, sharing game saves is already being done, but mostly so that people can cheat their way to high gamerscore or other nefarious ends.

If there were a way to sign a game save with a player's information (the way that Microsoft signs Xbox executables so that only authorized code can run on the Xbox), then we could share saves through Microsoft, we just wouldn't be able to earn Achievements with someone else's saves.

What do you think? Do you see anything wrong with the lack of some kind of game save backup and/or sharing service from Sony, Nintendo, and Microsoft?

Demo Impressions: Mirror's Edge

2008-10-31T08:16:00.000-07:00

I was happy with the demo, but one thing that irks me to no end in first person games cropped up: When a scripted story event happens in your normal view, the game suspends your control of your character and forces your view to where they want you to look. Someone called this "eyejacking" once, and I think the term is appropriate for something so intrusive, so annoying, and so unfair. When Valve wants you to look in a particular direction, they design their geometry so that you are encouraged to look in that direction, though you are at all times free not to. It takes a whole helluva lot more time to construct things that way, but it also never, ever, ever robs you of your own "free will" to look where you like. Here though, you have no choice. I felt like I was back playing Haze during those portions.

Otherwise though, I was pleased. Playing well is rewarded with a smooth play experience--a lot like an evolved Dragon's Lair where you have to hit a linear series of points, but leaving how you hit those points up to you. I was pretty pissed that you couldn't skip first-person story sequences, though. In training, I had to keep playing the bit where you bound off of a wall to hang on another surface then pull yourself up onto it over again because I was landing on the surface I was to hang from. Even though I was ending up in the same place, the game wanted me to hang, so I awarded a "FAILED" message and forced to watch the other runner go through the exact same sequence before I could go in. There were a couple of other segments where I had to watch that stuff--I halfway expected a valkyrie to come down and lift my dead carcass off of the screen before the next retry. I'm hoping that the finished game will allow you to skipping scenes like these, but considering the fact that several triggers or events need to happen in-engine for other things to play well, I'm not expecting it.

I did like it, though!

Ninja Gaiden II

2008-10-13T16:05:00.000-07:00

Okay, so I read this really great review at Edge Magazine Online. After doing so, I decided to give Ninja Gaiden II another chance.

It may be one of the most incredible modern games I've ever played, even as it's one of the most infuriating. You must learn to play it, not just jump in and expect to be the HNIC (Head Ninja In Charge). But after giving myself to it completely (and having the tar knocked out of me time and time again) I can see why one would cotton to its thrills and challenge more than any of the other would-be end-all, be-alls of modern action gaming. Both God of War games are pretty good, and the Devil May Cry games I've played can be fun, too, but both of those series seem tame when Ryu Hayabusa Flying Swallows into the room. I'll never say another bad thing about the Ninja Gaiden series again, except that if it doesn't hit the bar with the next one it'll be a sad day for all of us.

P.S. Make that two things, the camera really is bad.

Fine Gaming Theatre 101

2008-07-11T21:22:00.001-07:00

Today's Subject: Mr. Bill Ritch, and our namesake.

Fine Gaming Theatre 101

2008-07-10T18:23:00.000-07:00

Today's Subject: Resident Evil.

Fine Gaming Theatre 101

2008-07-09T18:21:00.001-07:00

Today's Subject: Devil May Cry.

Fine Gaming Theatre 101

2008-07-08T16:28:00.000-07:00

Today's Subject: Metal Gear Solid.

Fine Gaming Theatre 101

2008-07-07T21:08:00.000-07:00

Today's Subject: Mega Man X4.

Doujin Spotlight 00

2008-06-17T23:12:00.000-07:00

The following is an excerpt from the Wikipedia entry for the term "Dojin".

Dojin: often romanized as doujin, is a general Japanese term for a group of people or friends who share an interest, activity, hobbies, or achievement. The word is sometimes translated into English as clique, coterie, society, or circle (e.g., a "sewing circle").

In Japan the term is used to refer to amateur self-published works, including but not limited to manga, novels, fan guides, art collections, music and video games. Some professional artists participate as a way to publish material outside the regular publishing industry.

So you're a fan of games like Street Fighter and Guilty Gear, but are frustrated by the lack of other quality 2D fighters on the market. What are you to do? Or you're a fiend for old-school shooters, in the vein of Gradius, R-Type, or Thunder Force. Where do you go for your fix now that these series' entries have slowed to a nearly dead state? How about if you like classic action platforming action to the tune of a Contra or a MegaMan, but can't find anything to sate that appetite in today's gaming market?

If you live in Japan and are somewhat talented, you get together with some like-minded individuals and start making your own games. You go to events like Reitaisai and Comiket and show your wares along with other groups (doujin circles), where people less talented but no less interested will pay good Yen to purchase your hard work.

If you don't live in Japan (and aren't talented) though, you just play these doujin works. But what doujin games are out there? That's where I come in. I will be doing a series of posts on my favorite doujin titles. These posts will not so much be reviews, but I hope to show all interested where the fun resides in this very niche hobby of mine.

The World Ends With You

2008-06-04T03:10:00.000-07:00

I have some kind of a bad habit. Once in a while, I'll go into a store selling books, video games or CDs, and there I'll look through the available items to finally end up buying something I know nothing about. That is, a good cover art and an unusual title can be enough to make me buy something. In this day and age, many would consider that a little dumb. Surely enough would it be better to write down the title of the interesting discovery, then check on the internet to see if it's really good or if it's just a cool package with a boring content.

But I only rarely do that, and when I do that doesn't mean I make the right choice: I researched before buying Electroplankton, and that was a quite expensive mistake. On the other hand, random buying introduced me to After Forever, Ayreon, the "His Dark Material" trilogy from Philip Pullman, and countless other great stuff.

So, not long ago, I walked into one of the video game stores I regularly go to, and browsed through the DS games they had for sale. I was almost done when one of them caught my eyes. Its title was rather unusual, and the art on the box looked classy enough. Only after I was out of the store did I take the time to read what was written on the back of the box, and find out that what I got myself was a new game by the RPG giant Square Enix : The World Ends With You.

I skimmed through the instruction booklet on my way home, and the more I read, the more it intrigued me. Square Enix, a company best known for their classic fantasy-styled RPGs, seemed to have come up with something really fresh, set in an urban setting.

The World Ends With You is about Neku Sakuraba, a teenager which is your typical angsty protagonist, unwilling to get to know those who are around him, in a fashion somewhat reminiscent of FFVII's Cloud or FFVIII's Squall at the start of their respective games. But at the beginning of his story, Neku wakes up lying in the middle of one of the world's most famous crossroads in the middle of Tokyo's Shibuya. Quickly, Neku gets attacked by strange frogs, and runs into Shiki Misaki, a girl with who he has to make a "pact" in order to be able to defeat those weird frogs. As the battle dust settles, things get explained a little : he's part of a game run by people called the "Reapers", and must complete a mission each day. And if he fails, he'll be "erased".

That's the basic plot of this modern tale, and believe me when I say there is a lot more : the story will twist and turn in many ways, some of them you can see coming, some not quite. But the plot, great as it is, isn't the first thing that'll grab your attention.

First is the overall "look and feel" of the game. Everything, from the characters' designs to the environment, including the in-game menus, are made to make the game feel "urban", or "in". And that works extremely well. Even if you didn't like Tetsuya Nomura's work for Final Fantasy X or Kingdom Hearts, here it really fits well, giving the various protagonists a trendy look fitting for the game. As for the places you'll visit, they're pretty close transposition of the real Shibuya landmarks (you could find some of the places on a real map after playing the game), albeit with slightly changed names - the 109 building is 104 in the game, HMV becomes AMX, etc.

Your ears won't be left alone either. The game's soundtrack really compliments the visuals, with a great variety of style represented. Takeharu Ishimoto, a really talented up-and-coming Square Enix composer that worked on FFVII Crisis Core for example, put together a score composed of rock, electronica, pop and hip-hop, with around half of the songs having vocals performed by various artists. And that choice was really a good one, as it help you get immersed in the lively Shibuya.

And lively the game's Shibuya certainly is: dozens of sprites walk around the screen, making you feel like you're really making your way around a busy retail district.

As you progress through the game, the overall design continue to be spot-on, and fun, but what'll keep you playing are the countless great ideas that Square Enix put into their title. It is so full of neat gameplay elements that it's difficult to know where to start...

For one, the game's designers have succeeded in using two modern crazes to add to the experience : mobile phones and pins, or badges. The former is used as your menu, and is integrated nicely into the plot, so that you constantly use it, as would any other japanese teenager. The latter are one of the core aspects of the gameplay. Because to find the monsters (called the "Noise"), you'll need to use psychic powers contained in collectible pins. There are more than 300, so you'll have quite a bit of choice, from bullet-firing badges to healing pins.

And those pins are activated by doing various moves on the DS touchscreen. Drawing lines, slashing across enemies, tapping a spot repeatedly, shouting or blowing into the microphone, you'll have to do all that, and more. And even if that alone would make for a fun battle system, you'll also have to control your partner, who'll be fighting on the top screen.

I could go on and on about the myriad of things that make The World Ends With You an atypical yet awesome game. Like how brands and trends are important (you'll have to dress with the right attire if you want to be at the top of your abilities), how you can eat to raise your stat, but with a real-life time limit, how you gain experience by not playing the game (I'm serious ^^), how you can make the game as hard or easy as you like, or the huge replay value.

So if you want to test something fresh, with great concepts and with the careful attention to details that Square Enix can put into their games, do yourself a favor and buy The World Ends With You, you won't be disappointed. Even if you don't own a DS, I think this game alone would be a good enough reason to get one.

My Windows Misadventure: Older Games with Dual Core (or More) Processors

2008-05-08T21:47:00.000-07:00

Seven months ago I finally got a PC that was capable of playing games from say, oh, the last 7 years. (My last computer had 4 MB VRAM. Yeah.) It's a Dell Inspiron 531 and it came with an AMD64 X2 3800+ 2.0 GHz Dual Core processor, 1 GB of RAM and Vista Home Basic installed, and shortly after getting it I installed a GEFORCE 7300GT video card which is fairly outdated now but it's still not a bad card by any means.

So now I say to myself, "Well, now that I have a relative beast compared to what was needed in the last 15 years, I can play whatever games I want," and for awhile this was true. I had trouble getting some games working properly such Command & Conquer, Red Alert and SHOGO: Mobile Armor Division, and they were certainly far from stable, but with some updates and compatibility mode toggling they ran and I was happy.

More recently PerfectCircle suggested that a few of us at the blog here play Serious Sam: First Encounter together, so I installed First Encounter and when I went to run it, it was chugging/stuttering majorly. So much so that I could barely manage the menus. I poked around on the internet and found a couple forums saying that the first two Serious Sam encounters won't work on Vista, and after months of contemplating it I came to the conclusion that it was finally time to install Windows XP.

What I decided to do was make a partition on my main drive (which involved a lot of tinkering around with settings, see: http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/working-around-windows-vistas-shrink-volume-inadequacy-problems/) so I could install Windows XP and dual boot so that I could keep Vista around, too. Well, that didn't work out too well as the XP install went awry, and I formatted the whole drive thinking that it was some sort of conflict. It wasn't, and I determined that the problem was the XP installation disk, so I had to get another one and that one did work. However, it wasn't smooth sailing after that.

The XP disk had no drivers for my nVidia network controller or my onboard Realtek soundcard, and this is where I delved into Linux head first for the first time. Before I tried dual booting I made an Ubuntu Live CD (Gutsy build, for those curious), and I didn't plan on using it but it really came in handy because running right off the CD I could do everything I needed to including go online and download drivers onto my other hard drive. It was really convenient and saved me the trouble of switching computers and burning those drivers onto a disk. For anyone who hasn't tried Ubuntu, it's really rather impressive how great it is 'out of the box' and can be useful for troubleshooting something that could be wrong in Windows, and I liked it so much that I'm now dual booting Ubuntu and Windows XP instead. Moving on...

So everything's installed, I get XP running and a bunch of the programs that I usually use installed and wow, I am impressed. XP users out there might be wondering why, but after using Windows 2000 for the past 5 years and then jumping to my Vista setup directly, I entirely skipped Windows XP except for when I had to use it at work and at school for mostly non-intensive things. It's not as lightweight as 2000 is, but it runs one hell of a lot faster than Vista did for me.

Anyway, I get around to setting up Serious Sam, and it installs fine, but when I go to play the framerate's jumpy, and it's not nearly as bad as when I installed it on Vista, but bad enough to the point where it hampered gameplay. So what the hell, right? Why wouldn't this work? I've literally spent all this damned time trying to get shit to work and it STILL won't work properly!? I had remained amazingly patient throughout this whole learning experience and process, but goddamn it I wanted things to work right for once. I was all out of answers when Dirkmenace found a forum post that suggested that the reason why the game wouldn't run smoothly was my dual core processor. In order to get it to work properly, what it said to do was hit Ctrl+Shift+Esc during gameplay to bring up Task Manager, right click on the program's .exe process, select Set Affinity and uncheck one of the cores. And...it worked! Hallelujah!! No more stuttering framerate: it was incredibly smooth, it was perfect, huge success, etc.

However, as I moved on to some other games, I noticed that it was pretty much every game that I wanted to play that seemed to have stuttering problems. From both First and Second Encounters of Serious Sam to Call of Duty 2 to even a game as recent as NHL 08 (side note: EA doesn't really care about their PC sports ports), none of them seemed to utilize my dual core processor without any hiccups. It gets kind of annoying to do that process every single time you start up the game, and by chance I discovered a way to make the game's executables start up using one core every single time.

This permanent method (it changes the executable, so be sure to make a backup of the .exe before trying anything) involves using imagecfg.exe. I grabbed it off a site via searching on Google (http://www.google.com/search?q=download+imagecfg) which probably isn't the safest thing to do, but if you want to pull it off certain Windows CDs you can.

What imagecfg.exe does is hardcodes the affinity a program starts up with and uses. Here's how I did it for CoD2 (after backing up the CoD2MP_s.exe and CoD2SP_s.exe files to another location, of course):
1. I copied imagecfg.exe to the main CoD2 folder where the executables for both single player and multiplayer are located.
2. Made 2 new .bat files, one for single player and one for multiplayer. (Right click in the folder, make a new text document, and just save it as something like cod2mp_affinity.bat. The .bat is the important part, and you can name it whatever you want.)
3. I edited those .bat files in Notepad, and inside the multiplayer one I put:

imagecfg -a 0x1 CoD2MP_s.exe

That's it, and saved the changes. The single player one's the same except you change the name of the .exe to CoD2SP_s.exe.
4. I doubleclicked on the newly edited and saved .bat files and just like that my CoD2 executables now load up and run with just one core instead of two.

Basically the imagecfg is what calls the imagecfg.exe in the folder, the -a sets the affinity, 0x1 chooses my first core, and CoD2MP_s.exe is the program this batch file is doing all this to. If you want more information about how this works and what these commands mean, I suggest you look at these links because they explain it pretty well:

After all this, it made me wonder if maybe the problem in Vista was just the dual cores since it was running, although it was far worse in Vista and unplayable unlike in XP. I'll probably reinstall Vista some day but for now I think I'll enjoy my games actually working properly.

EDIT: Seeing as how CoD2 uses the Punkbuster cheating/hack guard, CoD2 prrrobably isn't the best game to change your MP .exe, seeing as it got me booted off the server when I failed the MD5Tools check. So yeah, don't do it.

.hack//MISS

2008-04-21T01:01:00.000-07:00

Lately, I've been in ".hack" mode, as I played through the first game (.hack//INFECTION), bought the first .hack//Roots DVD and am downloading again .hack//SIGN (can't find the DVDs anywhere :( ). I plan on playing the second game soon, and get the novels and so forth. So you see, I don't even know why, but I'm now, years after the launch of the whole project, enjoying it a lot.

And thinking about it. Because there's a lot of things going on. For those who don't know, the .hack project is a way for Bandai to sell many things at once : Anime series, video games, mangas, novels, OVAs, ... A lot of things. What's special about it is that all those medias are linked to each other, each part revealing new aspects of the .hack universe, which is centered around "The World", a fictionnal MMORPG. And, of course, strange things happen in and around the game.

And it was a good idea, as there are many great things about it :

- The overall idea is pretty neat. Playing a game set in "The World", and watching an OVA depicting some of the same events, but seen from the "real world" gives you the feeling that something bigger is happening.
- "The World" is a good MMORPG. From what you can see in the anime series, at least. The landscapes are vast, the concept is simple but it works, and the idea of using separate areas generated by keywords is pretty cool. Watching .hack//SIGN (first anime in the project's timeline) really makes you want to play it.
- Who wouldn't like the idea of playing a game and then suddenly coming across something really strange, before trying to solve the mystery ? Doesn't happen in real life, but would still be cool ^^

So with that, you'd figure that making something awesome would be easy enough. Unfortunately, I think that Bandai missed a really really big opportunity. And what's to blame for this is the overall story. Even if the various medias interact pretty well, the whole plot is too slow to develop. Granted, I've yet to see and play everything, but I've read numerous reviews, and the vast majority of them agrees with what I'm already feeling. If the second game is like the first, it will consist of around 15-20 hours of dungeon crawling with little progress in the scenario. Granted, it'll be some good dungeon crawling, but not much than that.

It's really a pity though, what Bandai should have done is maybe not making that many games or anime series, but focus on like two games, with OVA's and one anime, and then get the whole thing online. Yes, I'm aware there was a semi-online game called .hack//Fragment, but there could have been so much more...

Imagine a game where there is not one monolithic server (like in most MMORPGs), but a myriad of servers, with anyone able to run one. What would be on each server is a Root Town, that could be created by the server's admin, maybe by building it from basic blocs so that it is easier. Then, from those, players can either teleport to combat fields (as it is done in the games, in fact) or to another server's Root Town. Now, add the possibility to have some kind of "Game Masters", who have the possibility to modify things in the world, or control NPCs at will. Then, include big incentives for people to roleplay properly (like a moderation system that can get one banned or something). With that basic concept, you could have a game where "strange things" COULD happen. People could set up servers maybe organize special quests for their friends or something, with maybe others caught in the middle because they were there and happened to see something fishy was going on. As an added bonus, this kind of gameplay would enable users to introduce new content to the game, keeping it fresh.

Well, enough daydreaming, something like this didn't happen. But I still think it would have been awesome...

Now if you'll excuse me, I still have plenty of .hack material to go through. And who knows, maybe I'll change my mind about the whole project afterwards!

Thanks Xbox Live!

2008-04-20T13:32:00.000-07:00

Remember the days when online gaming consisted of playing on a dedicated server with a good connection? When map packs were free, or came included (in good number) with new gameplay features? When you could play in a server with 48 people with ease? When you could play a game without a bunch of kids shouting racial slurs and swears? Thankfully, there is no longer a need to worry about any of that, thanks to the wonderful Xbox Live.

Xbox Live has allowed a wonderful world where you can play a game with someone on the other side of the country using his 768k DSL line on his non-dedicated Xbox. Afterall, a ping less than 150 and some people may have trouble keeping up. Sure the entire game is only going on as long as he feels like playing, or his Xbox still functions; afterall, who needs redundant power, right? The best thing is, they are practically giving this service away. A mere $50 annually isn't too much to ask for to play in high ping unstable matches. Match making is a very heavy function for a server and it connection, I'm just glad that my 50 dollars is helping to handle this incredibly trying task.

Another great thing about Xbox Live is how companies are able to give new content to their customers for a price. Anyone can tell you, after you've played the same maps enough times 10 dollars for 3 maps, well, maybe 2 good ones, is fair. Afterall, I'm sure a great deal of company resources were spent to make those maps, as a matter of fact, I'll bet that they did what they could to reduce costs and passed the savings onto the consumer, 3 maps is a rather heavy financial burden on a company. Actually, it makes me think of all the people in the modding community that make maps and release them for free. They're just taking money away from the company, money that could be used for more games, and why make a total conversion mod of a game? If its worth doing the company will make it, and give me the pleasure of buying it from them.

Before the wonderful advent of VoIP people were reduced to typing out words and acronyms. When you're dodging bullets, this can be difficult without practice. Thankfully, VoIP was created, but it was limited in use, someone would have to host server, and only people with the right software (and an invitation) could join. Who would want to play a game, but only talk to friends or clanmates, you ask? Exactly, no one. Thankfully Valve got the ball rolling by putting integrated voicechat into all of their games, of course for this to work everyone would need a microphone, you can see the problem can't you? Microsoft had the foresight to give everyone microphones for free and make sure all the games have voicechat, even the ones not made by them. Remember, communication is important in battle, I'd much rather hear JMoney307 talk about how he got head from my mom last night than the footsteps of my enemy behind me any day.

Remember, whenever you pay to play with lag, get a few maps, and be insulted, just think of Xbox Live.

Thanks Xbox Live!

This isn't Helm and Grungi's thoughts on cucumbers; or, A Review of Utada Hikaru's HEART STATION

2008-04-05T10:40:00.000-07:00

Introduction
After nearly two years since her last Japanese album hit the market, Utada Hikaru has released the follow up to her largely successful 'ULTRA BLUE,' entitled 'HEART STATION.' So when two sexy guys like Grungi Ankhfire and myself got our hands on the album, we decided to review it together and look at it from a multiperspectival view and combine our thoughts and analyses.

Here are some of the basics about the album:

Tracklist

1. Fight The Blues
2. HEART STATION
3. Beautiful World
4. Flavor Of Life -Ballad Version-
5. Stay Gold
6. Kiss & Cry
7. Gentle Beast Interlude
8. Celebrate
9. Prisoner Of Love
10. Take 5 (テイク 5)
11. Boku wa Kuma (ぼくはくま I'm a Bear)
12. Niji-iro Bus (虹色バス Rainbow Colored Bus)
13. Flavor Of Life (Bonus Track)

Much like ULTRA BLUE, HEART STATION has a lot of advance singles, six of them in fact, or seven if you count the bonus Flavor of Life, which appears twice on the album in the ballad and original mix forms. This means that half (or more) of the album has been heard already, so the exciting part of the album for those who have heard the singles already are, of course, the tracks that are only on the album.

So without further ado, let's get to some reviewin'!

Helm's Assessment:

Finally. It's felt a lot longer than it's actually been, but I've been really anticipating this ever since ULTRA BLUE came out and simply blew me away. I had never really followed Utada Hikaru before that, except for seeing the Keep Tryin' Promotional Video and liking her theme for the game Kingdom Hearts, Simple and Clean. ULTRA BLUE is easily one of my top J-Pop albums, and a favorite that I come back to every so often. I enjoy it every single time, so my expectations for HEART STATION were pretty high, of course.

So, finally HEART STATION arrived, and I listened. My first reaction upon finishing listening to this album was that "This is the best album I've heard so far in 2008." My second reaction, though, was that it feels like this has been done before, and it has--by Utada herself. I'm just going to say it: This is ULTRA BLUE 2. The album feels like an extension of ULTRA BLUE in the sense that the songs aren't very different sounding stylistically. There isn't anything surprising here: You still have Utada singing with several layers of her own voice over lots of simplistic micro-melodies that cling to your brain, which are accompanied by upbeat percussions, and to top it off they are of course expertly mixed and mastered. This is what Utada does and she does it well, however, it's not as good this time, and it might even be getting a little old. There is less variety, less Passion (pun alert!) and less originality.

In spite of that (and my caustic tone), these are still some very, very good songs that I enjoy quite a bit, with my favorite probably being Kiss & Cry, along with Heart Station, Fight the Blues, and Flavor of Life. Most of the new tracks are pretty good, although I wish there were more of them; I really feel like she releases too many advance singles and the album starts to feel like a compilation album, especially in the first half. (Also, Take 5 is cut tragically short...which may have been the idea.) The melodies that she made here are some of the strongest and best she's made. They're engaging, intricate and touching, yet they have trouble standing out when placed side by side, which leads to...

One of the problems that HEART STATION has is that it never bothers to really slow things down, and I think the album suffers a great deal because of it. The upbeat tempo throughout is almost nonstop. The singles she's released from the past 2 years that made it onto the album have been almost entirely uptempo, with the exception being Boku wa Kuma. These upbeat singles are stacked next to each other so tightly that it just feels like a big blur when I listen. This is due to the very apparent lack of pacing, and the album actually starts to sound kind of samey. The lack of breaks or changes in pace doesn't let the songs set themselves apart, and I think she realized this because she opted to put the Ballad Version of Flavor of Life in the fourth slot for this album. Why is this noteworthy? Simple, really. While I at first objected to the Ballad Version being there over the original mix, it's obvious to me now that the regular single version of Flavor of Life would blend in too much with the five tracks that surround that fourth slot. It's almost as if she was putting the album together and said to herself, "Oh shit! I forgot to write some ballads!" It was put there for a reason, and that reason is to try (furtively) to give the listener a breather because as I said before, the rest of this album is a pretty active listen. Ironically, one of the slow parts of Celebrate she says "Stop...let me breathe." That's about all you'll get to soak in the tracks' differences and nuances.

The bottom line: We all know that people are going to buy her stuff up because of rampant fanboy/girlism for one of the biggest pop stars in Asia, but let's not sell Utada short: there are some damned good songs on here. She is still putting out incredibly catchy and enjoyable music that I think has quite the lasting appeal. As firmly as I believe that last statement, I'm hoping that Utada does a little different the next time around. I'm not saying that she has to reinvent herself, but that she's gotten a little too comfortable with her own sound and that she's not challenging herself enough. However, with her new English album on the horizon we may see some new ideas come to life as she tries to reach different audiences, and it'll be interesting to see what she has in store for the different markets.

Grung's two cents:

Now that I've gotten a hold of Utada Hikaru's new album, I can confirm what I feared from the singles : It's a "disappointment". But don't you go thinking that I don't like it, it's still really good, just not as good as I had hoped it to be. I think that there are a number of things wrong with this album.

As a start, take the tracklist itself : 7 tracks out of 13 were already released on singles before the release, and even if that's just one more than for ULTRA BLUE, they're not as well placed. I mean, after the first track, you get 5 single tracks in a row. That's just too much, and you rapidly feel you're listening to some kind of singles compilation. What's worse, the album closes with Flavor of Life, the ballad version of which you already heard on track 4. Add to that Boku wa Kuma, which may be cute and all, but can't really be compared to Utada's usual tracks, and you're left with something quite weaker than her previous effort.

That said, the singles were good for the most part, so that kinda makes up for the poor ordering.
And after a fair number of listening sessions, as you become used to all the tracks, the "compilation effect" tends to wear off. But another characteristic of the album surfaces then : it's less varied than ULTRA BLUE.

At first, I was sad not to be listening to a second ULTRA BLUE, but after I while, I saw it was for the better. The softer overtone that's dominating HEART STATION kind of make room for a future album with more bells and whistles, while letting Utada try some new stuff. Because if you listen to her back catalog, you'll see that she never went that far into the "electro" territory. Before ULTRA BLUE, she was doing stuff that was close to R'n'B, then she did an album really driven by her voice (that was what really stood out from ULTRA BLUE for me, more than the instrumentations, even if they were her best so far), and now this.

With HEART STATION, Hikki retains the grooviness of her earlier works but modifies her sound palette. The result is a song where vocals really become an instrument, more than something dominating the whole album. Of course, that's not to say she sings too quietly or that her voice isn't well used. But I found myself humming instrumental parts almost as often as I mumbled vocal melodies. And that is something that never happened with her last album, where the singing had a more prominent role in almost all songs. And in addition, the impression I got from HEART STATION was that she somewhat used more layering than before, which certainly explains partly my feelings about this album's vocal melodies...

All in all, HEART STATION is still an awesome album. Take 5, for example, is one of those track I'm sure I'll get back to quite frequently and for a long time. Beautiful World also is one of my favourites Hikki tracks since the release of the single. So there's a lot to love about the disc, despite some "disappointing" aspects. But now that she did something a little bit more toned down, I sure hope she's going to deliver another epic record like ULTRA BLUE was. Still, good job, Ms. Utada !

Reactions:

Helmholz says: It's clear that we agree on a lot of things, including what you called the "compilation effect," which is compounded when you take into consideration that one of those thirteen tracks is an interlude that's not very long, and that Flavor of Life at the end is just a bonus track. Will future reprints even include that one? Not to mention Take 5 really feels like a rip-off because of the way it ends. Although to be entirely fair, ULTRA BLUE had a lot of advance singles, an interlude, and COLORS which was on her first Singles Compilation before it was on an album. Seriously, it took three and a half years for COLORS to be on an album. That seems to be kind of cheap when you think about it.

I'm less familiar with her older stuff so after listening to these two albums it is clear to me that this woman is in love with her own voice. As you said, her voice becomes an instrument for her and she does this while singing the main parts and I think it might be just a little too much. Maybe she should learn a new instrument.

Other than that I'm not sure how you can not call this a second ULTRA BLUE, as some of the songs sound like they were just leftover from the last album. But that's what I think!

And Ms. Utada, indeed. She's single again now, right?

Grungi says: Correct, she is now single. But back to the album, even if I do agree that a couple songs on HEART STATION could almost have made it on ULTRA BLUE, my opinion that it wasn't ULTRA BLUE II comes from the album as a whole. To give an analogy, ULTRA BLUE was akin to riding a rollercoaster, whereas HEART STATION felt more like cruising on a highway. That's exaggerating, of course, but still, it depicts what I felt quite well.

And as for me, one of the few things that I didn't really agree with was the fact that you call listening to HEART STATION a "pretty active listen". On the contrary, even after quite a few listens, I'm still thinking that this new album makes for better background music than her previous offering, but as is almost everything about music, it's very subjective.

But one conclusion that comes quite clearly out of this little joint review is that, yes, it is a very good album, albeit some weaknesses, but that each listener will probably get something different from it, depending on their tastes. And isn't that what music should be all about ?

A little bit of this...

2008-03-09T15:01:00.000-07:00

...and a little bit of that. This post will be a quick rundown of what games I'm currently playing and what I like or don't like about them. Sounds boring enough ? Well then, let's go !

Look, it's happening one year after, and they look younger! Awesome!or Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings. I'll have this one finished in a week or so, but I can't bring myself to pick it up these days. But don't get me wrong : the game itself is really enjoyable, the story is not too bad, and the graphics are gorgeous. Also, it's my first strategy game on the DS, and I must say I find the controls very well done... All in all, the game gets a 7/10 from me so far, maybe even 8 for the graphics (except the fact that I don't like the way all the characters look like 12 years old) and the music.

Ridley! Give back that larva, will you?! or, more commonly, Super Metroid. I'm literally digging this one. I loved playing Metroid 2 when I was little, and I'm finding a similar experience with Super Metroid. The game looks good, plays well, has a great atmosphere... The only thing from the second installment in the series I'm missing is the fear of stumbling upon a metroid at every corner. But apart from that, excellent game : 8.5/10.

When you drive trucks, you don't have to act rationally a.k.a. Silent Hill Origins (on PS2). This one I've just started, and I really hope my first impressions will be proven wrong. Because for what I saw, even if you overlook the graphics (it's still a port from the PSP, I was not expecting miracles), the game feels somewhat like a real step back, almost as if it was another Silent Hill 1. My main gripe is with the protagonist's way of reacting. Nothing seems that abnormal to him, and honestly, when you played a character like Heather in Silent Hill 3, you can't help but to notice that the difference is huge... But well, it's Silent Hill, so hopefully the game will still be good. I really hope so. 7/10 so far...

And that's it, I'm sure I forgot a game or two that I started in the last months, but well, they must not have been that great if I can't even remember starting them... So see you next time with something maybe a little more interesting ^^

Death by Awesomeness

2008-03-03T16:46:00.000-08:00

Yo. After playing and beating the latest installment in the Gyakuten Saiban series, Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney, it has occurred to me that among the series' four installments, none of them was as satisfactory to me like the first one. I've put some thought into the reason for that, and I narrowed it down to the legacy that game left to its sequels, which inevitably had to meet the unfair expectation it generated. Such awkward situation fits particularly well here, because the first chapter was already complete: granted, it was a no-gimmicks type of gameplay (no magatamas or scientific analysis at work), but its strengths outweigh by far the additions made to the original concept.

It all comes down to three elements, mainly: the first would be, of course, the music. PWAA was mind-blowingly awesome in that respect: the themes were just perfect for their roles, from the soothing vibes of the Fey sisters' theme (which got remixed to all hell and back in JFA) to the annoying themes used for characters such as April May or Lotta Hart, quite fitting in context; from the anticipation the music caused when cornering a guilty opponent, straight to the aural climax of having him in your hand and yelling OBJECTION! to one of the most incisive, satisfying themes to ever appear in a game. That's simply something I never saw again in the series, and it's a shame because if there ever was a game element I wouldn't mind seeing reused over and over, that would have to be it.

Second on the list is good storywriting: the genre PW falls in can be viewed as interactive mystery literature, and as it happens novels need a compelling story to be deemed successful works. In PWAA every case left you hanging with that familiar "I'll just play a little more to see how it goes" feeling that forces you to advance further in the game, and the narration either didn't really tip you off to the murderer's identity until it wanted you to, or built around the obvious culprit in order to fuel the player's drive to nail him; something that was never pulled off as masterfully as it was in PWAA.
Specifically, JFA had plain dull writing, except for case 4 which literally sparked the player's lust for revenge; T&T mostly tried to wrap up Phoenix's past and the Fey family's bizznazz, so the writing had a specific purpose on that one (although it came close to the original there) and AJAA is too obvious for comfort; you're simply not left wondering on the culprit's identity, he's usually the most obvious person in the cast.

Last but not least are the characters and their interactions: the very soul of the game. Throughout the entire series, bystanders wouldn't just cough up the info you needed but made you go through hoops to obtain it: case in point, Grossberg and Gumshoe, with their whole "I wish I could help you but my hands are tied" attitude. You often would have to do something else in order to get them talking, but as a personal preference I can't seem to find magatama-based third grades as satisfactory as directly facing the other characters and see them confess thanks to the player's deduction was, but that's just me.
But these interactions shone their brightest during the trials: the rivalry between Phoenix and Edgeworth, arguably one of the most fortunate duos to appear in recent gaming history, gave birth to fierce arguments between the two, leaving the player in awe at the battles of wits that appeared before his eyes. This simply doesn't happen in future games: either the opponents posed a dull or annoying resistance, or actively worked with the player to solve the cases at hand, which while being an interesting (and maybe more realistic) idea -- one that was amazingly pulled off in PWAA's case 4, by the way -- it's simply not as exciting as an outright animosity between the involved characters.

After all of this, we can safely conclude that given any work of art of good quality, such as PWAA was, its sequels will have a tough time trying to live up to that kind of reputation, causing them to be paradoxically marred by the sheer awesomeness of their prequels; we see this phenomenon everywhere, from games to movies to comics, and it's especially peculiar when the sequels have original ideas that miserably pale in the shadow of their legacy, such as magatamas, different viewpoints on court interactions and, why not, even musical accompaniments.

In closure I'd like to leave you with a question: in these specific situations, would we have seen the later chapters of a given series under the same light, had they been unleashed earlier on an audience still unaware of just how great the original concept could become, and would they have had the same dynamics and gimmicks they usually end up with in order to try and keep the charm of the new installment up to par with the original work? I wouldn't bet on it.

Audiosurf? More like Awesomesurf

2008-02-28T20:29:00.001-08:00

To turn a phrase, and without any hyperbole at all, Audiosurf is the best thing to happen to music since music. What is Audiosurf, you may ask? Why, it's nothing more than a song analyzer/visualizer, that tacks on a curiously compelling game to the experience. With just enough visual pizazz to make you want to see what your favorite songs will look like in it and competitive online leaderboards to fight to the top of, it is easily the best $10 game you'll buy this year.

Dynasty Warriors 6, or: The Axes of Evil

2008-02-27T22:55:00.000-08:00

When the jump to three-dimensional graphics was made, most western games went with either normal, up-is-up control for the vertical axis when moving the camera, or the inverted up-is-down. There were usually options to choose between the two, but even if there weren't, the universally agreed on method for the horizontal axis was direct left-is-left, right-is-right control.

For Japanese games though, for some reason, right-is-left became popular. And although there have been a number of titles where there were options to invert one or both of the axes, this little hanging point can throw things into disarray. Case in point: The Samurai Warriors 2 port to the Xbox 360. It had only two options: Invert or Normal. Picking Invert meant that both your up and down as well as left and right were reversed. Going with Normal, left and right were direct, but up and down were reversed. If you preferred your vertical axis inverted, there was no winning no matter what.

Seeing other Japanese-developed titles like Capcom's Dead Rising and Lost Planet deal with this issue correctly (simply offer the option to invert the axes independentely) and both had come out before the last Musou/Warriors game, Warriors Orochi, I was hoping that Koei/Omega Force would take that example and not make me choose which axis I would have to relearn with every play session. They didn't, so I was filled with dread as the approaching Dynasty Warriors 6 release loomed closer.

Now playing the title, I am happy to report that upon my first visit to the controller settings menu in Dynasty Warriors 6, I was greeted by that happiest of compromises: There are now independent axis inversion settings available, and I couldn't be happier. Well maybe if I was playing Devil May Cry 4, but I still have to try out this title. Either way, it's my hope that other Japanese developers (*cough*SONIC TEAM*cough*) learn from the people who are actually making money on games in the west and enable this easy fix to a fundamental problem in all of the titles coming out of the east in the future.

Now if you'll excuse me, it's time for me to get Chinese on some mofos.

Out with the old, in with the new?

2008-02-27T14:08:00.000-08:00

Greetings, all. If there's one thing I can't stand, its when people call themselves a fighting game fan when they've never even heard of a fighting game developer by the name of Shin Nihan Kikaku, or as it is commonly abbreviated, SNK. Although as it stands, SNK's fighting games are generally recognized as fighters that just aren't as good as say, fighting games made by the leading contender in the genre, Capcom, it can still be easily said that SNK was a pioneer in the fighting game industry with their classic Neo-Geo arcade titles. SNK might have been the company that got me hooked on fighting games to begin with. I remember when I was younger, and I would walk into this arcade and pool hall called Hot Shots that was in one of the malls around here, and it had this weathered, beat up looking Neo-Geo arcade machine in it. It had two of the not so latest but greatest fighting games on it, the first Art of Fighting game, and the very first Samurai Shodown game, along with something called Bubble Bobber I think...moving on. I remember seeing the opening cinematic of sorts in Samurai Shodown time and time again, the image of the main character, Haohmaru, meditating in a forest, then the image of his silhouette suddenly unsheathing his sword and chopping down some small trees on either side of him. It really made an imprint on my fledgling fighting game psyche at that time.

That is until a fighting game called Marvel Super Heroes moved in. It was made by Capcom, and it was very much so open for business. I remembered coming in there at one point and I watched this one guy who was a lot older than me beat the entire game with the unstoppable Juggernaut, and I was just absolutely infatuated with not only his prowess, but the level of detail that went into this game in comparison to the old Neogeo titles I once gazed at in awe.

Years later, I would go on to purchase a fighting game called Capcom vs. SNK 2 before I ever bought an individual The King of Fighters game. It apparently featured some of SNK's most prominent and popular characters in it, and sure enough, I did recognize a plethora of their pantheon of legendary champions, such as Ryo Sakazaki, and none other than Haohmaru himself. However, most of Capcom's fighter's sprites did not look as gorgeous as I thought they would, considering I had already seen half of them in a little known Street Fighter installment called Street Fighter Alpha 3. I was also one of the few people lucky enough to possess one of the rare gems that is a Darkstalkers fighting game, so the character Morrigan's sprite did not look that new to me either. It was not until later that I would see The King of Fighters '99 on a shelf in the then known as Software Etc. store.

SNK's games were not generally released on mainstream consoles like the Playstation, so I picked it up in sheer anticipation of fighting with the giants I had grown so fond of in Capcom vs. SNK 2. Only to realize that the graphics still looked like they had from years ago. The difficulty of the game's final boss, Krizalid, was also astonishing, and really provided a challenge.

So where do I draw the line? SNK's fighting games are every bit as good as Capcom's, they just don't always *look* as good. SNK has been trying to come out of their shell to use the most up-to-date technology to make their games look good, but people seemingly just can't get over the Street Fighter III series of games and how animated Capcom's fighters look in general. And so the myriad of fighting games that SNK keeps producing and churning out will go on overlooked by most of the fighting game following. An unfortunate fate for the only company that is willing to stand up to Capcom.

antennasia: It's only my first post here...

2008-02-18T13:29:00.000-08:00

...and I'm already showing that I don't have any respect for traditions. I'm not posting about gaming. That's right! And no, the fact that I don't have any "next-gen" console (are they not "cur-gen" now or something ?) or can't play recent PC games on my machine has nothing to do with that. Or does it ?

Anyway, as this blog is supposed to be "a blog for gaming, movies, music, TV, and whatever the hell else we want", I'm going for the third theme, music. But to prevent this introduction to go on for too long, I'll introduce (no pun intended) you to the sweet sound and weird hats of antennasia.

Sweet, or maybe sugary, are the words that in my mind describe their music best. They started making music in 1999, and overall they make a really enjoyable slow trip-hop. I'm not going to add much detail on why you should listen to their stuff, but let me say that even Ryuichi Sakamoto recommends their album. That's something!

Now, just because this first video up there probably wasn't enough, here's another short clip. Of course, you can go to their myspace page to listen to some complete songs. So I'm leaving you with "Sorrow (version about me)".

Devil May Cry 4

2008-02-07T23:12:00.000-08:00

Okay, so I don't have a Wii (HAHA, you get it?) and I thought Assassin's Creed was bad. Really bad. I'm going to have to blog about something 10 times cooler.

Picked up Devil May Cry 4 today for my 360, which has been collecting a nice amount of dust until now. Actually, this is a pretty good month for the 360. DMC4 and Lost Odyssey. I've been anticipating Lost Odyssey although I admit I haven't really been following it. The reviews seem pretty average stating that it's your typical JRPG standard fare and it really isn't anything new. I'll blog about that later when I pick it up next week.

Anyways, onto Devil May Cry 4. Initially, I was put off by the lack of Dante as the main character and the fact that he's.. much older. Dante takes the back seat in this game, while Nero is our new hero. In the two hours I've played, I've learned Nero is quite fun to use. He basically moves just like Dante but he has a power called the 'Devil Bringer.' The 'Devil Bringer' is Nero's demon arm that can grab and toss enemies around. It's actually quite fun to use. Mix that up with some fast and furious gun and swordplay and you've got an awesome combination.

I'm just a few missions in but so far, this is turning out pretty good. I had a blast with DMC3 when it came out, and man, that game kicked my ass so hard.

Zack & Wiki: Quest for Barbaros' Treasure (Wii)

2008-02-05T19:51:00.000-08:00

The hosts of the IGN "Wii-k in Review" podcast have been raving about a Capcom title known in Japan as "Treasure Island Z" since they saw it under its new title at E3 this year. I've since kept it on my radar, and when I picked it up and played it recently, I approached it with as open a mind as possible.

Coming out of my play session two hours later, I must say that it is an exceptional title indeed. Bypassing the whimsical premise (consisting of sky pirate clans and flying monkeys), the gameplay could be described as a "wave-and-click" adventure. For example, one of the puzzles requires you to stack three portions of a broken statue on an altar. Selecting one of the parts from a pile, you twist the Wiimote to set the part's onscreen orientation before placing it on the altar. Set all three parts correctly and you proceed on to the next leg of the puzzle. The thing of it is, there's nothing in the scenario that explicitly tells you to do this, you're just put into the stage with the altar and the parts in a heap. There's just enough discovery involved in solving the puzzles that the payoff of following your intuition--and being right--drives you onward.

This is not to say that it is without its problems. Wiimote imprecision works against you in some of the unique actions you take now and then. When swimming, pathfinding doesn't seem to work as well as it does while walking. It's also worth noting that while I found the childish theme to be amusing, other gamers may be turned off by its younger-skewing stylings.

These are minor quibbles, however. I haven't played a better original third-party Wii title this year, and outside of Metroid Prime 3 and Super Mario Galaxy, I haven't played a better first-party title either. If you have a taste for contextual puzzle/adventure gaming, this game deserves your attention.

Slayer01's 3 Up 3 Down Video Review

2008-01-27T10:43:00.000-08:00

Episode 001: Assassin's Creed

Just a few words about some things I like (and don't) about Assassin's Creed.

X-MEN (The Arcade Game): One of America's Favorite Beat 'em Ups Revisited

2008-01-18T00:37:00.000-08:00

One of my favorite arcade games growing up was X-MEN (1992), known to many as X-MEN: The Arcade Game. In case you've never played the game, it's a sidescrolling beat 'em up which was riding the popularity of games like Double Dragon (1987), Final Fight (1989), and Streets of Rage (1991), which were all very popular arcade-styled games involving hand-to-hand combat (sometimes with various handheld weapons) where the player directs his or her character from one side of the screen to the other, beating up generic thugs and a few other types of enemies before you get to the boss of each particular level. In X-MEN, the same concept applies but instead of weapons you get mutant powers respective to the character you choose, which are a blessing and a curse, as I'll explain later. So basically, you get to the end of the level, beat the boss, and you're onto the next level with a few cut scenes in between to explain the simplistic (but not unwelcome) story for the game.

Recently I decided it was time to go back and see how X-MEN held up. I was also seeking revenge since I don't remember ever beating the game as it seemed to always eat up all the tokens I had. I figured that my older, more talented and experienced self would have no problems tearing through the game on just a handful of credits.

Well, I was wrong. I played through it and discovered a lot of things. Among these the fact that I wasn't giving my former self enough credit. This game is tough, but not in the right way. It is a very cheap game. The kind of game that makes you want to give up but not after already pumping in a few dollars worth of quarters and then discovering said cheapness.

This game has several flaws which hinder enjoyment:

The Inevitability of Death. This is by far the greatest flaw in the game. You WILL die in this game. Lots. Some of the reasons that follow in this list will help explain this, but it's mainly because the game doesn't follow the ethos of arcade games: Reward the player for being good. The game does no such thing, and being good only entails that you are getting punished less than the average player.
No Power-Ups. Throughout the level you will be outnumbered and there will be hits which you will almost certainly have to take, and there are no health bonuses or anything that will increase your attacking abilities. There aren't even any interactive weapons that you can pick up, and although that might seem stupid since the X-MEN have mutant powers, you should be able to get some kind of temporary advantage over your foes, if not just to break up the repetition. Your only reward is given at the end of the levels after beating the bosses, an extra orb for additional mutant power usage. This is not a good deal.
Mutant Powers = Pain? The fact that your character's mutant power hurts you unless you have three or less bars of health is just stupid. When you have three or less, you can use your special orb(s) up, which is usually going to be just one since you will probably have died and not beaten a boss in between deaths. Coupled with no health restoration (unless you count adding tokens to respawn--I don't!), this game is unforgiving and this would be slightly more okay if you could just use your power without simultaneously harming yourself.
Redundant Enemies. Get used to fighting mini-Sentinels in all their palette-swapping glory, because by the end of the game you will be fighting hundreds of these for no reason whatsoever, along with some bazooka toting Sentinel-esque enemies and some laser machines which look like something you'd see in a metal cutting shop.
Repetitive and Crippled Attacking. Also get used to the same three-hit combos and a couple of other animated attacks, such as a random throw or turnaround attack that seems to work better for some characters than others. Yes, Colossus sucks in this game because he will be unable to fend off attackers on his backside mostly without using a special, which leads to the Catch-22 of you taking damage to deal damage no matter how you approach the situation. Nevermind the fact that your attack combos can and will be broken by the bosses mercilessly, forcing you to use life-shaving mutant powers which in turn lead to death.

Does that mean this game isn't fun? No, it doesn't. In fact it's a lot of fun if you have some other players or friends with you and I may even go so far to say that this game's fun is directly proportional to the number of players you have, because playing alone is frustrating and ultimately an unrewarding experience. In playing alone, you will die and die and get by (provided you have enough credits), and while beating the bosses should be satisfying it's mostly just a relief that you will survive (probably) for at least a few more screens of mini-Sentinels and company.

As I said, the game still can be enjoyable. However, this game would have held up better if it had better balancing that worked more in favor of the player's skills rather than his wallet.

Video Game Movies: They Only Seem Like a Good Idea....

2008-01-17T20:38:00.000-08:00

Recently at the cinemas, the notorious Uwe Boll's newest film, In The Name of The King: A Dungeon Siege Tale, was released to little fanfare from both audiences and his most dedicated followers. Perhaps it was a sign that the better he got at making films, the more unwatchable that they became; perhaps it was the stigma of January being the dumping ground of awful programming that only becomes successful because it's either a broad comedy or an inoffensive action film (or, as an alternate answer, it's a film made by one of Sony's movie studios and ran ads every two seconds on TV). Whatever the case may be, ITNOTK's failure really can't blamed on either of those things, or that it is, in fact, a film directed by Uwe Boll; video game films simply haven't lit the charts on fire since Angelina Jolie managed to make millions of dollar by keeping her clothes on for Tomb Raider in 2001 (but only the first one; the second film's failure was, amusingly, blamed on the poor reception of Tomb Raider: Angel of Darkness).

The biggest reason behind this is fairly obvious: people will flock to the films that they've heard about and may have actually played. At first, this may seem like a flawed and an even unreliable explanation, especially given the early failures of films like Super Mario Bros. and Street Fighter. However, there was nothing in the advertising for the Super Mario Bros. film that could ever be mistaken for something that was actually inspired by the game millions bought and loved, opting for a more Gilliam-esque approach to the setting. Street Fighter's failure is obvious if you even so much as glanced at the publicity still for the film, revealing it for the "you cannot be serious" cheesiness that inevitably ended up ignored by the public. For a while, it actually seemed as though that the can't miss combination of video games and films was less "peanut butter and jelly" and more "peanut butter and live hand grenade." In 1995, Mortal Kombat all changed that, and it's actually not hard to see why:

1.) It wasn't a dramatic departure from the source material. As I mentioned, the Super Mario Bros. film looked less like the Mushroom Kingdom and more like Time Bandits, minus all the craft; outside of the lack of gore, Mortal Kombat managed to actually resemble the game it was based off, even if it did borrow liberally from Enter the Dragon.
2.) It delivered the action without taxing its audience. Street Fighter's focus was on Guile, but the film often made detours into the histories of the other characters, shifting around with little regard for the patience that the crowd that it primarily targeted. Mortal Kombat, on the other hand, wisely kept the focus on the three hero characters who all had simple motivations for participating in the tournament, with their supporting characters only there to essentially cheer them on while they fought against the villains.
3.) It was a movie based on the most popular game on earth at the time. Super Mario Bros. came out at a time when a blue hedgehog captivated children, whereas Street Fighter's success laid more in the arcades at the time rather than in homes. In 1995, you couldn't walk anywhere without walking into something related to Mortal Kombat; the sequel had just been recently released into arcades with a home port due later that year and the first game was a best-seller.

The film being a success wasn't in question; the degree of success, however, was what took Hollywood by surprise. The film made back it's entire budget ($20 million) in its opening weekend and went on to earn more than $100 million worldwide, an unheard of sum at that time for the fledgling genre. However, this surge ended rather quickly when Mortal Kombat: Annihilation bombed two years later.

Since then, success has always come in the form of "one film does decent-good, three more do awful." For every blockbuster pre-packaged for success like Tomb Raider, you have expensive failures like Wing Commander and Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within that fail. The Resident Evil and Silent Hill franchises do well enough to justify making sequels (and not much else), but no one was clamoring for House of the Dead 2 or BloodRayne 2. Timing also affected films that were long in gestation, Doom, Hitman and Dead or Alive being forgotten even before they came out.

Maybe audiences just don't want these kinds films; if that's the case, Hollywood needs to reconsider what they can actually sell to audiences. The Halo film seemed like a no brainer, but that project is considered dead these days. Films with less broad appeal like Spy Hunter and Driver remain in limbo. There's other films further off like Onimusha and the much anticipated/dreaded Metal Gear Solid, but is it enough. This isn't the best argument since films based off of comic books continue to do well, with no less than three adaptations poised to do monster business in 2008

What could be the ultimate problem is that in this day and age, we don't need films based off our the games we play to really appreciate them. With budgets being comparable to actual Hollywood production, we can get the same kind of action that they can provide, but in the comfort of our own living rooms. Why drive to the theater to see an action/sci-fi film when you could fire up Gears of War for a couple of hours? A decade ago, you would never have thought that Hollywood's biggest competition wouldn't have come from a box you attach to your TV, but you have to figure they said similar things when the TV itself was introduced.