Category: Archive

Archives – the Good, the Bad, and Ugly pre May 31, 2015.

PSN Capcom Sale

The “official” PlayStation Blog has an article from the good folks at Capcom announcing five weeks of PSN Capcom games at the low, low price of 50% off. The schedule includes …

* February 18, 2010 – Marvel vs. Capcom 2 for only $7.49!
* February 25, 2010 – Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix for only $7.49!
* March 4, 2010 – Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo HD Remix for only $4.99!
* March 11, 2010 – Age of Booty for only $4.99!
* March 18, 2010 – 1942: Joint Strike for only $4.99!

I already have 1942, which may not be worth the full price, but is a pretty good deal at less than $5. Lord knows when I would have time to play Age of Booty, but I have wanted to give this one a spin for a while. $4.99 is a pretty decent price point. As much as I love the Street Fighter, especially the Alpha renditions, I just don’t see putting these in the shopping cart – I have too many new games as it is and my best gaming days for dexterity intensive fighters are far behind me.

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Final Fantasy XIII – Inside The Technical Details

While looking for more news, notes, and whatnots of the upcoming Final Fantasy XIII (FFXIII), I came across this great article on the DigitalFoundry blog (EuroGamer) that takes us inside the math, art, and science of FFXIII. I don’t think I have every come across an article that goes to this length, with this much detail, comparing the PS3 demo of FFXIII against the actual Japanese release of FFXIII. If you are interested in this type of technical details, this article is definitely worth a read.

For me two things stood out, neither of which are part of the detailed technical feature analysis.

Overall, the leaps made by Final Fantasy XIII over its predecessors are mostly visual in nature and that’s clearly been the focus of this tech analysis. However, bearing in mind the four-year gestation period Final Fantasy XIII has had, it’s disappointing that all the key improvements have been in the audio-visuals.

Of course, these are hugely important factors in FFXIII’s make-up, but gameplay-wise this feels like it could’ve been done on PS2. Clearly, there’s much to enjoy in the nature of sumptuous visuals and what is clearly the best-quality CG we’ve seen on a Square-Enix videogame, but early importers of the Japanese version of the game are divided about the merits of the actual game underneath.

To be completely fair, I think this can be said about many of the games in this generation. They are just visual upgrades over their PS2 and Xbox predecessors.

The other item of note fills the entirety of the last page of the three page article, covering speculation on the potential compromises made to port the PS3 originated title to the 360.

However, porting the game across to the 360 must have been a daunting proposition. Taking a look at the structure of the Blu-ray disc, we see an absolutely colossal 32.6GB of what looks to be pre-rendered movies, while the actual gameplay content itself is a more reasonable 6.8GB. Co-incidentally, 6.8GB is also the maximum usable space developers have on the dual-layer DVD (yes, Xbox 360 games theoretically have less storage available than PS2 and Wii titles).

The article mentions that 360 users will only have to switch games at two points in the game, so that does not seem to be much of a burden. I also doubt that 360 owners will care (maybe not even notice) if the movies are not pre-rendered, if they are compressed, or if the sound is compressed. I also think that dual system owners will pick up FFXIII for the PS3 over the 360. In the U.S., due to its larger install base, 360 numbers will slightly surpass the PS3, but elsewhere FFXIII will lead the charge on the PS3.

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MLB 10: The Show – The Waiting Game

After skipping a year [really seems like I skipped the last 2-3 years of gaming entirely] I am really excited about this year’s game, which is set to arrive while I am out of country for work!

The “official” PlayStation Blog site, like any good official mouth-piece runs some great articles pimping their first party offerings. MLB 10 is not an exception.

This year, we have added “calling pitch selection” and “calling pitch location” to your RttS catcher’s responsibilities. When you are in the game defensively as a catcher, you will be responsible to select the pitch that you want thrown. The system works just like it does for selecting pitches as the pitcher does. The pitcher might shake you off, or he might accept that pitch. If he does shake you off, you choose a pitch again. If you choose the same pitch, he will figure it’s really what you want and will accept it, at this point. Once you have selected the pitch, you will be responsible to select where you want the ball thrown. You can choose any of the nine zones within the strike zone, or you can choose eight areas outside of the zone if you want the ball off the plate (four outside edges and four outside corners). Now just like in real life, this doesn’t mean the pitcher will hit his spot. It just means this is where he is aiming. The better the pitcher you have throwing to you, the more effective your location calling will be.

MLB 10: The Show is going to be the real deal and will be a system seller for console baseball fans. I cannot wait to get my hands on this one!

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FFXIII Sucks on the 360

OK, not really, but as I said earlier today, just for the hell of it I will fan the flames. According to NOWGamer, some sacrifices had to be made in order to accommodate this game on the 360:

* While facial detail appears largely unchanged, the characters’ clothes appear at first glance to be lacking finer details, with notably lower resolution textures.
* Incidental environmental objects and enemies appear less detailed, both in texture and geometry.
* The game’s CG is extremely compressed and pales alongside the stunning HD goodness which blu-ray offers.

It would be a travesty if 360 gamers had to experience less detailed incidental environmental objects. You have been warned! Now go have a cold one and celebrate the goodness of Blu-ray. It is calling your name, even if Sony is not allowed to advertise how much goodness awaits your cotton candy, graphic whoring FFXIII pleasure.

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FFXIII – Console Debates Rage As Release Draws Near

This morning I was looking for some new information on FFXIII and came across some interesting articles via N4G. The console wars are far from over, and FFXIII is at the center of the latest rounds of internet fodder. Meanwhile, as a self respecting Final Fantasy fan and Sony loyalists [I don’t own a 360], I am just fanning the flames.

This op-ed from Ironstar discusses Microsoft’s willingness to throw a ton of cash at the 360 release of FFXIII.

Those who look at FFXIII from Sony’s perspective shouldn’t care one bit about Microsoft’s desperate marketing. For one, God of War 3 releases no less than a week after that title; if Sony were to market that game as much Microsoft probably will they would be competing with themselves. Pretty much every enthusiastic Final Fantasy fan will purchase XIII on the PlayStation 3 regardless of it appearing on other platforms. The capacity of Blu-Ray relieves the hassle of having to deal with the tedious disc swapping of 360’s FFXIII. Its 2010 nobody wants to get out of their seat to switch a DVD because the game can’t fit on 1 disc, we dealt with disc swapping 10 years ago via Final Fantasy 7.

The fanboys are all aglow that Microsoft is attempting to “trick” consumers into thinking that FFXIII is a Microsoft exclusive. I did not really think this was the case until I saw this article from the Unofficial Final Fantasy Site that furthers this claim.

Sony should somehow market the FFXIII as the true home of FF titles with references back to all the previous releases, especially bestsellers such as FFVII and FFX. Unless Sony cannot advertise FFXIII for the PS3 due to an exclusive marketing window wrapped up by Microsoft, which would be a new one on me.

After the poor reception of White Knight Chronicles: International I have to wonder if PS3 owners even care about JRPGs. Who I am kidding? FFXIII will sell like hotcakes.

In this article from ConnectedConsoles FFXIII producer Yoshinori Kitase claims that there are no differences in the PS3 and 360 version of the game beyond the number of discs.

“The development team created the PS3 version first, of course, but they didn’t alter the content at all in order to bring it to the 360.” said Kitase in an interview with GamingTarget. “It’s the exact same experience and the same gaming experience that they had set out to create is present on both the PS3 and 360 versions.”

He then added: “Graphics wise as well, they’re comparable there. There’s no difference there in the experience. And, I guess the only minor difference would be the fact that for the 360 version, you have to switch out the discs every once in a while.”

Does anyone actually believe this statement? While on the surface that may be a true statement, PS3 fans are buzzing that making FFXIII available on the 360 compromised the game. Development to the lowest common dominator does that to a multiplatform game.

It will be interesting to see which console wins out – the one with the strongest advertisement and installed base, or the recognized home of FF titles from the last two console generations.

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US F1 To Skip Initial Races?

I missed this article from Racer last week. According to FIA president Jean Todt, the new F1 challengers do not have to show up for the first three races of the 2010 season.

Despite both teams insisting they are on course to make the first race, US F1 and Campos continue to be surrounded by speculation that financial issues will leave them unable to get their cars and outfits ready for the season opener in Bahrain on March 14. Although, under old rules, absence from a single race would result in the teams losing their privileges, F1 commercial rights manager Bernie Ecclestone and Todt have now confirmed that provisions are in place for competitors to miss a total of three races without penalty. This means that US F1 and Campos have theoretically got until the Chinese Grand Prix on April 18 to get their cars ready for action before they would officially fall off the roster.

So now the waiting begins. Will US F1 gracefully bow out given the chance?

Another interesting aspect of the story was Todt’s challenge for F1 to pull its pants up and get on with facing reality.

“We need to cut costs, improve the show and draw investors,” he said. “F1 must understand that the world has changed. How can you explain that an F1 car needs 80 liters of fuel to cover 100 kilometers?

Why not be the pinnacle of motorsports, by doing something impressive? I think this is a great point. F1 teams can achieve innovation, technological breakthroughs, and brand marketing by concentrating on some of the basics.

BTW, where is the next great F1 console title? I miss the yearly releases from back in the PlayStation days.

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Madden 10 – One Final Roster Update?

Last week I complained about the final Madden 10 roster update, and how it affected the Falcons. I failed to notice that Kurt Warner (along with several other players) was removed from the game. According the pastapadre (via N4G), EA is going to correct that issues, and offer yet again, one final roster update. I think this is a great move on EA’s part.

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Monday – Minimalist Gaming Update

Today is another minimalist gaming update. Not a lot to report, but I do need to get a couple of thoughts on “paper” before today comes to a close.

TheSixthAxis Does Heavy Rain
In general the metacritic scores of Heavy Rain have been fantastic, so it was interesting to see that TheSixthAxis is one of three sites (out of 43) to give the uber title a 7 out of 10.

But it’s not a game, is it? It certainly doesn’t play like one. Split firmly down the middle, half of the time you’ll be steering your character around various locales (left stick to look, R2 to walk) and the other half you’ll be performing some of the trickiest Quick Time Events since Dragon’s Lair. Heavy Rain doesn’t just want you to tap – you’ll be holding, twisting, pushing and bashing that controller before the story is done, and often doing several of those at the same time.

I agree that the controls distract from the game. Funny comment – while I enjoy reading a good review, and this one from TheSixthAxis is fantastic, I seldom make a purchase decision on the actual reviews. I use reviews as a starting point; to see if I may be interested in a game. After reading this review I was thinking about punting on the game; almost. Then I regained my senses. Funny how even this jaded gamer came close to being disappointed in a 70% review. OMG – I have crossed over to the Dark Side.

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A Long Race …

I have been posting and posting and posting, for a long time. Maybe too long; maybe not long enough. For better or worse, I have thrown up daily content for something akin to 7+ months, which is a pretty nice achievement, but I am going to have to end this run sooner or later. But not today.

I considered not posting today. It would have been a good day to end my streak because the 6 hour marathon called the 2010 Daytona 500 was rather draining. So it would have been easily excusable. The Daytona 500 had a great ending, so I figured I had to at least go down swinging. Congrats to Jamie McMurray.

Sunday Gaming
I got in some quality time with Out of the Park Baseball 10 (recently joined an online league), and of course continued my assault on the surprising good White Knight Chronicles: International.

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Friday Night Gaming – WKC:I and Heavy Rain Demo Impressions

I started my Friday night gaming session thinking I was going to have a small dose of WKC:I followed by a quick game of Madden Ultimate Team, and maybe a fast-follower nightcap of Zen Pinball or HVB.

Because I pre-ordered Heavy Rain earlier in the day, I decided to download the demo. I figured I could get in some quality gaming action while the demo downloaded in the background. My experience with PSN downloads, unlike yours truly, is that you would not consider them speedy. Surprisingly I had the demo in under a couple of hours.

Thanks to being completely immersed in WKC:I and the Heavy Rain demo, Madden 10 and the others had to wait.

White Knight Chronicles: International
While I am not very far into the game’s story, I continue to enjoy it, exploring its depths. It is funny how much some of the reviews are docking the game for substandard graphics. I really wonder what everyone was expecting. I agree that the graphics are not the best ever, but the large, detail environments more make up for any shortfalls in the character models, animation, and other details that the pundits find lacking. I really think this view is ridiculous, but I think I am just going to back off of it for a while.

The slow-paced, turn-based combat system is another area where most reviewers have damned the game with piss poor review scores. Once again I have to ask what they were expecting. Zelda? Tekken? Give me a break.

I have not read the manual, and I have not looked at any guidebooks or online FAQs. I really have no idea if I taking my characters in the right direction with my skill, magic, and combat choices. The key for me is that I am having fun in the process; learning how to make new combat combinations is part of the experience. I think WKC:I will open up to a whole different level of RPG combat joy once I actually bother to read the manual, and master some of the skill and combo techniques. In other words, if I actually knew WTF I was doing, I bet I would be effective with WKC:I’s combat system, which begs the question. Who pissed in the reviewers’ Cheerios?

Last night I also attempted to do the online Georama thing for the first time. I did not spend much time in online other than poking around a little bit; it was getting late and the Heavy Rain demo was calling my name.

Getting online was not a simple process. After accepting an overbearing on-line agreement, that looks to be one that you have to accept each time you enter the online mode, I had to enter a new character name; for some reason my avatar’s name was unacceptable.

I am not sure what was wrong with Ming-Fu. Was this name already taken? Are special characters (i.e. a hyphen) not allowed? Does the game engine have some sort of filter that deemed my avatar’s name offensive and generally not acceptable? As my grandmother used to say – that was a hell of a note.

I attempted multiple combinations [Ming-Fu, MingFu, Fu-Ming, Meing-Fu, MeingFu, Fuu-Ming, etc] before finally giving up and going with jcalvert. The one and only; I’m so original. I am not sure what sort of consequences this will have on my offline silent partner avatar, Ming-Fu. Maybe he will have split personalities.

While WKC:I may not be for everyone, especially the pundits that are trashing the game, I implore JRPG fans to give it a spin because WKC:I is a very solid outing.

Heavy Rain – Demo. Spoiler Free Comments
If you are attempting to stay spoiler free, I will oblige to the best of my abilities, but be forewarned that based on the content of the game, it is almost impossible to not give away something.

There are enough reviews and critiques of the demo that I am debating on not going to go into a ton of details yet on the demo. Let’s stick with this approach for a few minutes and see where this takes us once we reach the end of my comments. I’ll stay away from the specifics of the story, at least as it unfolds in the demo; instead I’ll concentrate on Heavy Rain’s gameplay aspects.

It may be a sign of where I am in my gaming career, but I really have not read that much about Heavy Rain. I have seen it mentioned in print magazines, various sites, etc for a long time. Other than it being “the next great game” I did not have any expectations.

I started seeing more and more hype, complete with impressive review scores, which takes us right up to the point where I pre-ordered the game and downloaded the demo.

From the trailer it is obvious that this game is very dark, and will feature heavy content, especially for parents. In fact, I know enough details about some of the back-story that I may consider pulling the plug on my preorder. Call me sensitive to this sort of thing; you can read between the lines … you have been warned.

My first thoughts about the game: an immersive cinematic story-based experience. Dare I say an interactive Myst? I think I have seen this type of game before – being prompted for button presses and certain actions and controller movements is nothing revolutionary. In the case of Heavy Rain, these controls are integral to the game and overall experience. After one session with the demo, I am not sure if my initial thoughts are fair because Heavy Rain is about the experience. Immersive, deep, brooding; I think gamers will get lost in their gaming sessions, which is the point of a well designed game.

Think of Heavy Rain as an interactive R rated movie – violence that is appropriate to the story, very mature content that is pertinent to the overall journey. Of course Heavy Rain’s nudity is well documented, none of which is featured in the demo (at least I did not uncover any); however the demo does have some very suggestive sexual content. Once again, go elsewhere for spoilers.

I wrapped up the two chapters in the demo in about 30-40 minutes, so an obvious concern with the actual game will be replay factor. I have read that the game can be completed in 8-10 hours, but I am trying to stay away from spoilers so I am not sure if this includes a single play-through or if taking different actions and branches increases the overall length of the game.

Based on my 30 minutes with the demo, I believe that Heavy Rain will go down in history as a ground breaking, revolutionary gaming experience. Heavy Rain features high quality production values that broach topics that have never been covered in a video game. Heavy Rain will break taboos that will put it squarely in the arena of appropriate, tastefully done adult gaming content. Heavy Rain truly brings gaming into an adult arena; video games have grown up.

In spite of my trepidations about the main catalyst of the story, I am very much looking forward to the game, and am anxious to play the demo again. Of course I will have to wait until the kids go to bed due to the adult content.

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Damning Indictment of the iPad

I am sitting at the auxiliary kitchen bar watching it snow. The kids have already got fill of the cold, wet stuff, so I am indulging on an Ultra Amber (or two) looking for some entertainment value on the web; legitimate of course!

This eweek article pretty much pisses on Apple’s iPad parade.

Steve Jobs said the iPad was revolutionary during the iPad announcement. But further inspection reveals that it’s really nothing more than a larger iPod Touch. More importantly, it’s competing in a space where several products, including those from Dell and HP, might provide a better tablet experience. Of course, Apple doesn’t want users to know about the competition. But they might be surprised to learn that when it comes to tablets, the iPad isn’t necessarily the best offering

It was not like I was planning on getting one anyway. It will be interesting to see how these things sell. Apple has a very loyal fan base, but it is hard to imagine them taking the bait on this one.

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Heavy Rain – Incoming February 23

A few minutes ago I decided to preorder Heavy Rain, and not because of the glitz nudity (via N4G). Of course sex sells; no need to comment on that aspect of the game. I really started to wait on this one, but I am buying into the hype. Apparently I am once again an addict.

It sounds like Heavy Rain takes only 10 or so hours to complete (the first time), with a gameplay experience that is supposed to be GOTY quality. Seems to be a nitche title, which is right up my alley.

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WKC:I – Finally, A Reviewer Hits The Mark

I cannot remember how I stumbled upon this review last night; my dotage or the Ultra Amber tends to make me forgetful, but I digress. HookedGamers have put together a compelling White Knight Chronicles: International (WKC:I) review, awarding the game an 8.5/10. This is the first review I have seen that truly recognizes WKC:I for what it is and does not dissect the game for not being Final Fantasy or a Western style RPG.

For example, take WKC:I’s much beleaguered combat system. This reviewer actually gets it and is not afraid of taking the contrarian view.

The game is Final Fantasy-esque at heart, but strays from the negative aspects of that franchise. No longer will you be so rudely interrupted by a battle sequence, on a screen completely separate from that which you were just traveling. You will inherit the same turn-based rules, but the enemies are free-roaming and present on the map on which you travel, enabling you to fight and keep moving, not having to wait for the screen to change and a battle to begin. Once you realize that you are in a strict, turn-based system, but with a touch of freedom and convenience, you will begin to fall in love with the gameplay. It is everything that a turn-based RPG should and shouldn’t be, without straying too far from the family and becoming a complete real-time system, such as Dragon Age:Origins.

Beautifully said; gamers with short attention spans need not bother picking up WKC:I. Much like the majority of reviewers, they will be sorely disappointed. Now on to the all important visuals …

This is where the game becomes iffy, again. The environments are absolutely beautiful, as you would expect from just about any next-gen RPG, but the characters and animation leave a bit to be desired. This, however, is because of when the game was made. White Knight Chronicles is actually a port from Japan, where the original was released in late 2008. In order to truly appreciate the graphics for what they are, you have to take yourself back to that time. It is very well done, but by no means are the visuals in the upper-echelon of today’s newest releases. Given the time that the game was created, it is difficult to speak negatively of WKC’s visuals.

In other words, graphics whores will complain. WKC:I is not for connoisseurs of eye candy. I can understand that the majority of reviewers are critical of the game for its dated graphics, but as I have previously pointed out, it is disingenuous to say WKC:I features PS2 graphics. That is simply not the case.

I had to get this off my chest for a couple of reasons. First, I always enjoy a well written review. Second, I think WKC:I is being unfairly criticized. Is it possible that the majority of gamers do not really want freedom of choice? Be careful what we wish for because a day may come when the only RPG available is Final Fantasy and to me that would indeed be a sad state of affairs.

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Hide The Women and Children – Here Comes The Snow

The Columbus area is expecting snow Friday: 1-2 inches of accumulation. The city will shut down – grocery stores will be raided, schools will be closed, and non essential employees will not have to report to their places of employment.

It is funny watching the panic and chaos. Yesterday my wife went to the grocery store – a planned mid-week milk and produce run. Big mistake. In anticipation of Friday’s snow, the parking lot of full, with bread and milk was flying off the shelves. Classic – have to make sure you have bread and milk on Friday before the snow melts on Saturday.

Of course we are not equipped for snow and icy roads. The city probably has a couple of dump trucks filled with sand, so if the roads become hazardous, it should make for great drama for the local media.

Come on Frosty! My how we have missed ya!

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