Do Not Disturb Any Further

Tokyo Game Show promos: Castlevania, Asura's Wrath, DMC5, Dissidia 012, FFIX, Last Guardian, et al

Here's some promo videos from this year's Tokyo Game Show.

Castlevania -Lords of Shadow- Hideo Kojima Special Edition Preview (looks totally awesome)

 

Asura's Wrath (violence and blood and violence)

 

Devil May Cry 5 (with an inexplicably dark-haired and snub-nosed Dante)

  

Dissidia 012: Duodecim Final Fantasy (more Dissidia fun)

  

Final Fantasy XIV Online (looks like it's an MMORPG like FFXI; I thought I wouln't be playing it, but this preview is freakin' gorgeous; maybe I'll check it out and see how much I can manage as a solo player)

 

The Last Guardian (latest from Team Ico; looking forward to it)

 

Deus Ex Human Revolution (haven't played Deus Ex anything before, but it's a very positively reviewed series, so I'll probably check this one out)

 

Shadows of the Damned (demons and motorcycles and Suda51; I'm so there)

 

Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep Final Mix (sweet: a Final Mix version that will be released in the U.S., unlike the first two Kingdom Hearts)

 

Yakuza of the End (Yakuza + zombies could be hella fun)

 

Knights Contract (how in the world did this manage to look boring? May skip this one.)

 

Marvel vs. Capcom 3 (with Okami's Amaterasu! Hells yeah!)

 

And finally, Dead Rising 2 Case West (zombies are still not old for me)

 

Vanquish game promo with Flow's "Soul Red"

Some enterprising genius added my favorite song from Flow's latest album Microcosm, "Soul Red", to a promo video for the upcoming game Vanquish. It's a good filler till an official video. At least, I hope there will be a video.

 

Gaming fun: bringing the pain in Skate 2

Haven't played any of the Skate series, but it's damn fun to watch a montage of the physics-defying falls and crashes you can achieve in Skate 2. Enjoy!

 

 

Missing more geek fun: Tokyo Game Show

Maybe one day I'll get to the Tokyo Game Show. Meantime, I'll just have to check out videos of other attendees, like this collection of cosplayers.

Note: Turn down the volume before you watch this. The background "music" is atrocious.

 

Reviews that make me avoid a game: Fatal gets brutalized

I probably spent more time reading this blistering review of the FATAL tabletop game than I would have attempted with the game itself, but damn, that review is impressive for the sheer quantity and degree of vitriol. It starts off like this, and just keeps on going and going:

If this is the first time that you've ever heard of FATAL, you're in for a fun ride. Well, let me rephrase: You're in for a "fun ride" if you consider a fun ride to be, say, hitting your nutsack with a tack hammer. For about four hours.

You gotta work to piss off a reviewer that much. I learned some really fun new insults from that review, too. Thanks, RPG.net!

Yakuza game reviewed by real yakuza

Never played a Yakuza game, but it looks like Yakuza 3 is provisionally yakuza-approved. Great fun and really pleasant viewing layout for the article itself.

Closing quote:

Ironically, the sections that Shirokawa seemed to enjoy the most were cut out of the US version: mahjong, the sexual massage parlor, and the hostess clubs. After I explain to him what Sega cut from the US version, he said: アメリカ版を買った奴がかわいそうだ。セガＵＳＡが最低だね.(Translation: I feel sorry for the people who bought the American version. SEGA USA sucks.)

Nerd epitaphs

Taking inside jokes just about as far as they can go at Topless Robot. I may rethink my own disposal plans. Some of my favorites:

• If only I had collected all 108 Stars of Destiny, all of this could have been avoided.
• Was eaten by a grue.
• In case of zombification: aim for head, apply violence.
• This is not an exit.

Missing Comic-Con again

Speaking of Comic-Con, I'm once again devastated that I can't afford to go. So I'll torment myself by reviewing what I'm missing. Not going to surf the shopping reports just yet. I think I'll cry.

Yoshitaka Amano was there! I have a huge stack of his art books, even the rare Japanese limited editions. Not sure if he was doing signings for books people brought with them, but man, I would've tried.

Capcom debuted the upcoming Sengoku Basara: Samurai Heroes game and the Nintendo DS Okamiden game, a follow-up of the gorgeous Okami.

Robert Rodriguez talked Sin City 2.

Bruce Campbell showed up in his usual Tommy Bahama shirt to talk Burn Notice. That silvery hair looks good on him!

Seth MacFarlane doing live Family Guy stuff was doubtless hysterical.

Ryan Reynolds, who is both hilarious and deliciously buff lately, showed up to talk about the Green Lantern movie.

Harrison freakin' Ford. In handcuffs.

And Joss! Just Joss!

Action-figure lust: FFXIII Odin figure from SquareEnix

A while back, I wrote about an amazing-looking prototype for a new Play Arts action figure of the Odin summons from Final Fantasy XIII they showed at last year's Comic-Con.

Looks like that figure is finally coming out.

I have mixed feelings about the chosen color scheme compared to the prototype's grey, but it still looks fabulous. Must have! (Possibly before I even get FFXIII...)

Lots of ways to die in Dead Space

So I haven't played Dead Space yet, but the previews look pretty damn fun. Then I came across this video that shows dozens of gory deaths from the game.

11 freakin' minutes of dismemberment, splosions, blood, and some of the quickest death I've ever seen in a game. Twice, I yelled "How the hell do you dodge that?!" at the screen. I knew the monsters were fast, but damn, even in the game demos I've seen they weren't that fast.

Go forth and enjoy the carnage.

Video Games | | Dead Space Death Montage

XBox 360 | Playstation 3 | Nintendo Wii

Karmic justice: killing the psion with your brain

Well, he did tempt fate by pointing out his preferred method...

Warhammer 40K movie "Ultramarines"

So I haven't played or read anything Warhammer 40,000, but it looks like a lot of fun. Found out they're making a movie, and they made some kick-ass casting calls, including Sean Pertwee (criminally underemployed in worthwhile movies) and Terence Stamp.

Check out the vids for Ultramarines!

Unskippable: mocking the "art" form that is video-game animations

Highly recommended: Unskippable, in which two cheeky guys deconstruct various video-game animations. Named "Unskippable" because a lot of earlier games (and an annoying percentage of current ones) would not let you skip the opening animations, so you were stuck watching them and wondering how you could possibly get back those 5 minutes of wasted life.

I suggest starting from the beginning, because the narrators frequently reference their earlier jokes.

Here's a recent example of Resonance of Fate:

Game-geek fun: Things Mr. Welch can no longer do in an RPG

While the rules provided by the game designer are sufficient for most situations, play any game long enough (especially a complex RPG) and you'll encounter situations where you've got to get specific and make your own rules. Here's one guy's extensive take on rules developed over years of gaming experience:

Things Mr. Welch can no longer do in an RPG

Examples:

521. I will not convince the entire party to play Amish for the cyberpunk campaign.

540. A full minute of stunned silence means "My God what did you do?" not "Please continue."

601. If we run out of cannonballs armadillos will not do in a pinch.

651. My alignment is not Sarcastic Good.

912. Droogie is not a starting language.

817. Cannot challenge anyone to a dance off. To the death.

999. I can't train squirrel mobs to abuse the grapple rules.

1207. There is no such thing as ‘ambiguously elven’

1370. Halflings are not used as currency.

1410. Bleaching the drow won't help.

1646. I am not Wombatman. [[from the Captain N: The Game Master cartoon; who knew? I learn the funnest stuff just from researching geek lore]]

More fan-made gaming fun: machinima

Machinima - making videos using existing CG properties, like video-game footage - has been around for a while, but there's tons more of it than I ever knew before. I've mostly only seen Red vs. Blue, which is delightful. So I'm looking forward to exploring more of it. Courtesy of http://www.machinima.com, these look like an excellent place to start:

Bright Falls: the prequel to Alan Wake

Arby 'n' the Chief (more Halo fun)

P.A.N.I.C.S. (F.E.A.R. fun)

Let's Play = vicarious video game fun

So for some strange reason, I only recently learned about "Let's Play" videos: fan-made video-game walkthroughs. (Well, maybe not all that strange, since they originated at Something Awful, which I'm not a member of and I seldom visit.)

This is something so relevant to my interests that I damn well should have been able to sense it psychically. Ah, well, now that I know, I think I'll take advantage of the handy visuals and notes to check out some games I've been thinking about playing but haven't gotten to yet, like Neverwinter Nights 2 and F.E.A.R.

Video game concept art

Joakim Hellstedt shares a bunch of his video game concept art, including sketches for "Project Fortress" (a spin-off for Final Fantasy XII) from his time with defunct Swedish developer Grin. 

Here's a sketch of a moogle mechanic:

And here's one of his original works:

Go check out the rest!

Update: More art from Grin's artists Martin Bergquist and Tony Holmsten is available.

Update: And more "Fortress" concept stuff from Bjorn Albihn.

Game geek + gadget geek = Xmas light fun

A guy has hooked up Guitar Hero to the Xmas lights on his house. People can visit and play the game using the Xmas lights instead of the usual monitor.

Christmas Light Hero is using 7 light controllers from Light-O-Rama built from kits to control 21,268 lights and LEDs. Each controller has 16 outputs and 2-3 TTL level control inputs that are used by the game system to fire different programmed light sequences depending on what happens in the game. It relies on the fact that the game sequence is very consistent. If the game and the lighting sequences start together, they will stay in very good sync through the length of the song. The light program allows branching and overlays for fail, star power and "ready."

Oh, and he did it for Halloween too. I so want that level of energy plus gadget-tinkering skills!

Anticipatory dread (?) for Demon's Souls

Today's topic is: Philosophical Quandaries of the Dedicated Gamer.

My favorite video-game publisher, Atlus, recently brought out Demon's Souls here in the U.S. I usually buy everything they release, and I end up liking about 75% of their offerings, a high percentage indeed. (YMMV.)

But I have decidedly mixed feelings when considering Demon's Souls. I adore deep, intricate storylines, but according to teh interwebz, the game can be a bit... challenging. Stuff like this:

Since the dungeons are so unforgiving, you have to use bloodstains to see how other players died in the game in order not to die. Oh and some players are out to kill you as well. Have fun! 

It's stoic, uncompromising, difficult to get to know, but also deep, intriguingly disturbed and perversely rewarding. You can learn to love Demon's Souls like few other games in the world. But only if you're prepared to give yourself over to it.

I'm not the most patient of gamers. Is it a moral failing of sorts if I end up not liking it enough to slog through the learning curve?

Final Fantasy VII Ultimania English translations

Ultimania guides are complex tomes stuff with information about a game's characters, story, art, game play, maps, statistics, and creator commentary. They're also exclusively in Japanese. I've got a few of my own for the pretty pictures and maps, but that's only a quarter of the vast amount of data available.

Some devoted Final Fantasy VII fans took it upon themselves to translate portions of the Final Fantasy VII 10 Anniversary Ultimania into English. As they describe it:

In honor of Final Fantasy VII's 10th Anniversary, Square-Enix published the "Final Fantasy VII 10th Anniversary Ultimania" in September of 2007. This 207 page book was given a limited release, with only 77,777 copies printed which were included in the Final Fantasy VII 10th Anniversary Potion bundle. This guidebook acted as a reference and compendium of plot information from the entire Compilation of FFVII, for fans who wanted a collection of all the information of FFVII in one source.

It's a shiny new toy for both my inner gaming geek and my inner word geek. Oh, and did I mention that I freakin' adore limited-edition game releases? If I'd known about this when it was released, I would so own this right now.

Aion beta is over

And I'm worn out. Don't know how much actual in-game time I spent, but it sure added up over 7 days. I took lots of screen shots that I'll post eventually.

This Aion beta, my guild, Oculus of Nex, played the "enemy" race, Elyos, so we could scope out the enemy's territory and abilities. I found them to be pretty similar to our preferred race, Asmodian.

However, the Elyos are the "light" side, and they're supposed to look prettier. This meant that I sometimes ended up with clothing I found very unattractive.

The worst was the pink boots. I hate pink. And the dyes to change the color of your armor are hella 'spensive, and I was always broke. Pink clothes shouldn't be a problem once I get to switch back to Asmodean in the live game.

Now, if I can just learn some actual strategy so I'm less of a burden on my more-experienced guild-mates...

Okamiden: Okami game coming to DS

The gorgeous and deservedly lauded Okami will be getting a spinoff for the Nintendo DS called Okamiden: Chisaki Taiyou (Okami Chronicles: Tiny Sun). Looks like the main character is another wolf, Chibiterasu (a chibi version of Okami's main character Amaterasu). Check out the news from IGN, Escapist, Sarcastic Gamer, 1Up, and Joystiq. Sweet!

Console RPGs cliches

Hours of fun matching your favorite console RPGs with this list of cliches.

Some of my favorites:

• "No! My beloved peasant village!": The hero's home town, city, slum, or planet will usually be annihilated in a spectacular fashion before the end of the game, and often before the end of the opening scene.
• Supply and Demand Axiom: Killing a powerful enemy will usually yield an item or weapon that would've been extremely useful if you had gotten it before killing that enemy.
• Sephiroth Memorial Escape Clause: Any misdeed up to and including multiple genocide is forgivable if you're cool enough.

Next Aion countdown in progress

Only 6 days until the next Aion beta test. This one will last a whole week, so maybe I'll advance far enough to actually get out and hunt the enemy instead of just grinding levels. Sweet anticipation!

Pretty monsters from Kazuma Kaneko

Kazuma Kaneko is the artist behind the brilliant monsters for the Shin Megami Tensei, Persona, Digital Devil Saga, and Devil Summoner games, as well as Zone of the Enders and Devil May Cry 3.

His creatures are influenced by all sorts of mythologies, and part of the fun is learning more about their origins.

For example, I first learned about the Japanese nue through DDS. I had a happy little geeky thrill years later watching Bleach, when I learned that Renji's zanpakuto, Zabimaru, is also a nue. Kazuma's looks very different, of course, but it's still fun to have that mental web established.

There's lots more at the Megaten wiki's demonic compendium.

I was doing some visual research, and I ended up with a bunch of scans of Kaneko's art. Below are some of my favorites from this batch of research.

About the print versions: I have most of Kazuma's art books, but they're both expensive and out of print because they were only published in small numbers. I need Works III and the Pandaemonium Characters artbook (the purple one). If you ever spot them cheap (under $30) at a used-book store, grab 'em for me! And if Works IV is released on the same 2-year timeline as I-III, it should come out next year. Keep your eyes peeled for news.

Now, on to the pretty!

  

 

 

 

Distracted by Aion beta this weekend

So I got the chance to play the closed betas of Aion, an MMORPG where allegedly I'll get wings and be able to fly at some point.

Damn forced leveling. After 7+ hours of gameplay yesterday, I've only leveled my mage up to 6, but you have to be at least 20 to get your wings. (Yes, I'm playing a mage. I usually play melee characters, not mages, but it's widely recommended that you play a mage if you wanna stick to PvE instead of PvP. The 2-second casting time for my best offensive spells is literally killing me.) 

Since all of the beta characters will be wiped before the official game is released, though, I can try out the other types of characters too, including the assassin that's supposedly harder to play PvE than the mage.

Wish me luck with the wings today.

On the plus side, it's really easy to create beautiful characters. I made 3 in less than an hour, even wingless. I'll try to get some more pics of them this weekend.

Here's the intro screen showing my level 2 assassin (okay, he's not really an assassin just yet) and level 6 mage.

Being a prinny spy isn't easy, dood

Video clips of Etna and the prinny spy from Cross Edge, which I'm not in any big rush to buy since it has gotten horrible reviews. You can kinda see why just from the slow text loads and less-than-stellar voice acting. And cripes, the cheesy music!

The video has very low audio, so crank up the volume.

Prinny, dood!

Horse model is Odin from FFXIII

Yay, teh interwebz!

That horse model I mentioned earlier, which was being shown at the Square Enix booth at Comic-Con, is a model of an Odin summons. The writer says it's from Final Fantasy XII, but I'm wondering if it's actually from FFXIII, which hasn't been released yet.

Oh, wait, someone else confirms that it's FFXIII.

Can't wait to see it painted.

And holy crap, look at the painted Shiva model!

Live blogging from Comic-Con

Not by me. By G4TV.

I'm drowning in jealousy.

Mmmm, Prince of Persia movie

The Prince of Persia games have very life-like characters, so it should translate well to an actual human playing the role on-screen.

I'm not a huge Jake Gyllenhaal fan, but with the long hair, his buggy eyes don't seem so prominent, plus he's deliciously buff in his most recent flicks.

Also, I'm very relieved that the truncated headline that led me to this story, "Jake Gyllenhaal is Prince of..." did not turn out to refer to Prince of Tennis. It's probably a hint that I'm watching too much anime when  "tennis" is the first thing I thought of in this circumstance.