Sunday, September 23, 2007
Metal Gear Solid Online Impressions
11:30PM Brian Crecente | I probably spent more time hearing about Metal Gear Solid Online and having Metal Gear Solid Online tactics spoon-fed to me then I spent actually playing the game. But the single 6v6 match I did participate in was enough to give me a sense of whether I would like it or not: I sorta liked it. The graphics are the best thing about the game, and I don’t say that as some sort of backhanded compliment. The graphics really are quite good. The feel of the game was also well tuned. The movement and aiming, typical to most shooters, was tight but not too tight. It was a little weird aiming in a third-person view, especially without a reticule, but once I turned that on, it was fine. In fact, it wasn’t something that I even noticed, which is the best thing you can say about controls, they should never get in the way of the experience. More »
Schooled in Metal Gear Solid Online
11:00PM Brian Crecente |
King of Fighters XII Confirmed for PS3 and Xbox 360
10:00PM Brian Ashcraft | Back in 2006, SNK’s Overseas Marketing Manager Yoshihito Koyama told me that the Osaka-based developer thought a “good time” to release a PS3 game was 2009-10. SNK confirmed that King of Fighters XII would be hitting North America on the PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360 in early 2009. The last non-spinoff entry in the series was KOF XI in 2005, and the upcoming game is a 3D fighter that is shaded to look 2D. Koyama described it as “3D mixed with 2D”. Before that, the title will be rolled in its Japanese arcade version in late 2009. Looking forward to seeing how SNK combines this. More »
Enix Prodigy On Ninja, Samurai and the DS
9:00PM Brian Crecente | Outside of Japan, and hardcore game importers, the name Koichi Nakamura probably doesn’t ring a bell. The unassuming Nakamura hit the limelight in the early 80s when as a high schooler he won Enix’s national programming contest with Door Door. In 1984 he founded Chunsoft. While probably best known for the Fushigi no Dungeon series and their work on the first five installments of the Dragon Quest series, the company also worked on Pokemon games. Now for the first time since the creation of the Fushigi no Dungeon series, one of the titles is coming to North America, published by Sega. More »
TGS Throngs Obsessed With Jubblies
8:00PM Luke Plunkett | These gentlemen are not taking this lightly. This is a human feeding frenzy. They’re taking snaps of a QR (Quick Response) Code, an advanced type of barcode found all over the place in Japan. Why the snaps? The QR Code can carry data, so as soon as they take this pic, their phone will read it and be sent a new wallpaper image. Of the lady with the enormous norgs to their right. And it’s been that busy all day, every day. More »
Duel Love: Scrub That Boy!
7:00PM Flynn De Marco | Despite rumours to the contrary, being the resident gay dude I do not enjoy wiping the sweat off of high school boys. But when I heard there was a game where you could do such a thing I had to go try it out, mostly because I just had to see what is was about and also because no one else wanted to. More »
Callous Booth Babe Moment: What They Really Think Of You
6:00PM Flynn De Marco | Don’t believe me? Make the jump… More »
Hudson Going After the Casual Gamers
5:00PM Brian Ashcraft | Takahashi Meijin taps the table. We’re backstage at the Hudson booth. He’s been on stage all afternoon, doing calestenics for upcoming Wii fitness game DECASPORTA. He taps the table as if pressing a button. Tap, tap, tap. Takahashi Meijin is Hudson’s quick button pushing human mascot and has been since the Sapporo-based company entered the gaming industry when it began writing code for the Famicom back in the early 1980s. Takahashi Meijin has achieved an iconic status in Japan for the gaming industry. He writes a popular blog and designs T-shirts for games like Adventure Island — a side-scroller in which Takahashi appeared in with the localised language moniker “Master Higgins”. More »
R-Type Tactics Hands-On Impressions
4:00PM Luke Plunkett | I didn’t even know R-Type Tactics was being shown here, so (literally) bumping into it was a nice surprise. Even nicer was the fact that nobody was playing it, so I went ahead and gave it some of my precious time. First impression was that my inability to read Japanese was going to hurt: the game’s got a billion menu screens, none of which are in English, which meant ten of my 25 minutes with the thing were spent fumbling through the menus. Once I finally got there though, it’s… what you’d expect! It’s a hex, turn-based strategy game, where you’re controlling an entire fleet (capital ships, the works) instead of just one. A basic, old-fashioned game, then, but it does look nice, and as a fan of older PC titles like Panzer General it’s great seeing the genre alive and kicking. Might be worth a look-in for R-Type fanboys, but probably more of an investment for strategy fans. More »
