Icon. Showstoppah. Main Eventah.

Calling
Developer: Hudson Soft
Publisher: Hudson Soft
Genre: Adventure
Release Date: 3/9/2010

Japanese Horror games have a lot of parallels with the RPG market. Both were started in the west. Early US RPG’s were things like Ultima, Wizardry, The Bard’s Tale the SSI Dungeons & Dragons video games and so on. Early horror games included Haunted House, Uninvited, Shadow of the Comet and Alone in the Dark. Eventually both genres really took hold in Japan and Japan began to outdo the West in both these genres in terms of quantity, and some might say quality as well. The mid to late 1990’s would be the peak of both genres in Japan. The RPG market had the Phantasy Star games, Shining Force, and Final Fantasy VII exploded the genre to new heights of popularity. In the horror market, Japan gave us titles like Echo Night, Clock Tower, Hellnight/Dark Messiah and more. At the same time, although the West’s production of both genres fell during this time, when a game hit, it hit big. Planescape: Torment is an example for RPG’s and The 7th Guest is a perfect example for horror games.

In the past few years though, Japan’s level of quality seems to have slid in both regards allowing some to say the West is back on top in terms of who makes the best in both genres. With games like World of Warcraft, Diablo, Neverwinter Nights, Vampire: The Masquerade and Dragon Age, Western RPG’s have had something of a revival. If we look at our own site, Western RPG’s have won our RPG of the year award for the past two years. Again, horror games have taken a similar route. Japan has either taken the actual horror content out of the games with titles like Resident Evil 4 & 5 that are now more action titles than ones meant to induce terror, or they have made subpar games that fail in quality and tone like Ju-On. Meanwhile the West has had new life breathed into their horror games, displaying a staggering amount of creativity with titles like The Last Crown, Barrow Hill, Tomb of Zojir and more. Even a title like Becky Brogan, which is geared for younger and/or casual gamers tends to elicit a stronger feeling of creepiness than most j-horror games these days. Now there are obvious exceptions like the recent Silent Hill and Theresia that shows Japan is still trying to creep gamers out, but no one would say J-Horror is at the level of quality it was at a decade ago.

So now here we are with Calling. In my hands-on preview of the game, I said the game had potential and that I was hopeful that this came could recapture the magic of the quality J-Horror titles of yesteryear. So did Calling live up to its potential, or did we have another Illbleed on our hands?
Read the rest of this entry »

Heavy Rain Chronicles Episode 1: The Taxidermist
Developer: Quanticdream
Publisher: Sony
Genre: Adventure
Release Date: 03/05/2010

Heavy Rain Chronicles is a downloadable series of games that continues the look and feel of Heavy Rain. The first episode is currently only available to people who preordered Heavy Rain and I have to admit, the way Sony handled the DLC was a two-fold faux pas. First, you had to wait over a week after purchasing the game to even use the voucher code. Then once the PSN Store was updated on March 4th, everyone discovered that the code for Heavy Rain Chronicles wasn’t working. Sony finally got things fixed in the wee hours of March 5th, but between those two issues and the 24 hour down time for the older PS3 models, Sony had some pretty big consume relations issues.

All that aside though, what matters is the game. As of this review’s writing, HRC: Episode One is only available to people who preordered Heavy Rain, but the voucher does say it has a $4.99 value, so it’s only a matter of time before the content is for sale in the store. I’m purposely keeping this separate from my actual Heavy Rain review, which I have yet to finish as I’m waiting to get everything in the game (including) all endings before I post my thoughts on it, and I’m also avoiding both spoilers and YouTube footage. What can I say? I’m anal about my Interactive Cinema. You should have seen me as a kid trying to log all the possible death scenes in Dragon’s Lair.

So how was The Taxidermist? Do the chronicles look like they have potential, or should Heavy Rain been left an island unto itself?
Read the rest of this entry »

Last Rebellion
Publisher: Nippon Ichi Software America
Developer: Hit Maker
Genre: Turn Based RPG
Release Date: 02/24/2010

Despite their name, Hit Maker is not a developer that has produced any real hits. Most reviewers haven’t been kind towards their titles, but I have to admit Blade Dancer wasn’t bad for a $4.99 game, which is what I paid for it when Nippon Ichi put it on sale in the Playstation Store. As well our own Aileen Coe gave a fairly positive review to A Witch’s Tale and we tend to be one of the harsher gaming publications around. I also liked A Witch’s Tale for its innovation and weirdness.

Now here we are with Hit Maker’s fourth game, Last Rebellion. Even before the game was officially out, people were badmouthing it and some were even proclaiming it the worst game of the year, which shows that said publication hadn’t experience the hell that is Walk It Out. The weirdest things I heard was the bitching that the game used static images for dialogue instead of fully rendered CGI. This confused me greatly because MOST RPG’s have gone that route. I grew up in the 8 and 16 bit era so this is pretty standard for me. I mean the old Sega Genesis Shadowrun didn’t have CGI or animated cinematics and it’s still one of the ten best RPG’s ever released. Disgaea didn’t have either of those things and it won our 2003 Game of the Year. So I went into this game assuming that these complainers were only concerned with how a game looks rather than how it actually PLAYED (which is both stupid and sadly how many gaming publications actually look at products these days) or that these were younger people who have probably never played quality RPG’s like The Bard’s Tale, Ultima IV or Shining Force that earned their status as legends through gameplay and story.

So did that turn out to be the case? Was Last Rebellion actually a good game that just happened to be retro in look and feel? Was this a case of judging a budget niche game by Final Fantasy fanboys (the second creepiest scourge in gaming). Or did it turn out that Last Rebellion was indeed a pile of pure unadulterated suck?
Read the rest of this entry »

Endless Ocean: Blue World
Developer: Arika
Publisher: Nintendo of America
Genre: Simulation
Release Date: 02/23/2010

The first Endless Ocean is one of my favorite games of this console generation. I raved about it in January of 2008, and at the end of the year, Endless Ocean would go on to win our “Nintendo Wii Game of the Year” and “All-Ages Game of the Year in our 2008 Gaming Awards. It was my #3 game of 2008, (Behind Valkyria Chronicles and The Lost Crown).

Here we are two years later, with the second game in the series. It’s been released at a budget price of $29.99 and some come bundled with a free copy of Wii Speak, which will allow you to talk to other gamers playing this title as long as you both have a Wii Speak. This is a great way to move both products since you’re getting a fantastic deal. At least on the surface. After all, there are only five other games besides this one that are Wii Speak compatible (Uno, The Conduit, NBA 2K10, NHL: 2K10 and Animal Crossing: City Folk. I have neither owned, nor even played any of those games, which makes Wii Speak a nice bargain to be thrown in with EO:BW, but ultimately an object that will just take up space.

It’s rare you see a Nintendo title with budget pricing. After all, many of their games are actually slightly above the average price for a game on one of their systems. We see this most often on the DS where Nintendo first party games go for $34.99 while third party titles tend to go for $29.99. Is this a subtle warning from Nintendo, an obvious fear that it won’t move many copies due to an overt lack of violence, or is it an unexpected gift, giving gamers a title that is superior to 95% of the titles we’ve received this console generation regardless of system, yet at half the price?
Read the rest of this entry »

Ragnarok DS
Publisher: XSEED Games
Developer: GungHo Works
Genre: Action RPG
Release Date: 02/16/2010

I’m not really an MMORPG person. This is mainly because people tend to be dicks for the sake of being dicks on them. There have only been two MMOPRG’s I can say I have enjoyed and they are Dungeons and Dragons Online for the PC and Phantasy Star Online for the Sega Dreamcast. I guess I’m still a bit anti-social with my RPG’s. Ragnarok Online is a Korean MMORPG that has been around for nearly a decade, and one I’d never actually heard of until the offline beat ‘em up game, Ragnarok Battle Offline which I played in French for a short time. I enjoyed the gameplay and the visual styling of that game so I was always tempted to try the MMORPG, but I just never had a chance. Now XSEED has brought us another non-MMORPG spin-off for the series, and this one is thankfully in English.

The locations, graphic style and overall feel of the game such as classes are supposedly very similar to the MMORPG, which is great in terms of continuity and keeping the more diehard fans of the franchise happy. However the most important point is whether or not the game is any good and if the game can bring in any people outside of the current Ragnarok fanbase. So is this a worthy game for your DS regardless of your Ragnarok experience, or is it a game that fails to please anyone in its attempts to bridge the gap between PC MMORPG and portable action RPG?
Read the rest of this entry »

Off to Cancun in late April to early May. Can the bunnies be good for four days by themselves? They generally are, but after the four months of bunnies health scares, I have to admit I’m nervous about leaving them.

First, I come home from Gamestop to learn mail was delivered at like 8pm last night so I had mail after all. In there was a copy of the game I have to review. You know, then on I just bought? Well, at least I can get a refund by return the thing.

Then there was this in the mail.

Notice the lack of a return address right? Well, I open it.

Okay then. That’s a little creepy. From the hearts though, it looks like a gothie valentine of sorts, right?

Yeah, that’s not creepy at all, right?

1. I was asked to basically change the entire way we run statistics today and to do it for three years of information in two hours. It takes me half a day to do it for a month. Oy. That was a great way to wake up.

2. I have had to explain to one of my shelter’s program managers how to do a simple task for the past year and he still doesn’t get it and even though his lack of doing it correctly continually gets us scolded by our funder, his response was “It’s you that doesn’t understand what i’m doing.” Even though he’s only one doing it wrong and even the funder has confronted him directly about how he does it wrong. Holy fuck. Honestly, these people are so against self-improvement or taking responsibility for their own mistakes that you have to get downright MEAN with them to make any progress. It’s insane.

3. Chewie has been very destructive today and in trying to stop him, I ended up slashing my right kneecap pretty badly.

4. I barely slept last night.

5. I had to deal with Gamestop employee today who was so stoned he had no idea what he was doing. This wa sbecause said Gamestop didn’t get in the game I needed to review yesterday and because the developer is late in sending me the review copy. Had they been on time, I wouldn’t have had to deal with this particular annoyance.

6. It hasn’t snowed in like a week and the mall still hasn’t shoveled the parking lot yet. That was a fun surprise.

7. Water and heat was out today form 10am to noon as the building did some renovations.

8. I ended up having to miss a mandatory training at work due to items #1 and #2.

#9. I just realized I haven’t gotten to eat today yet due to all of the above.

I am so looking forward to today being over.

Since it’s Adopt-a-Rabbit month and Chewie and Baby have had bunny health issues, I decided to take them to the Animal Welfare League of Arlington today for a bunny playdate. It was to see if maybe it was time for a third bunny again.

First up was Chester, a little baby white dwarf bunny with blue eyes that is the most hyperactive animal I’ve ever seen. He absolutely loved me and he enjoyed Baby and Chewie as well. They didn’t mind him at all and even let him get a hump in. He’s the size of Chewie’s head though and he’s not going to get much bigger. Chewie eventually sat on hChester to calm him down.

Second was Cosette. She was a very sweet Lionhead that liked me, but was terrfied of Chewie and Baby even though they really liked her. So that was a no.

Third was Snowball. She was a three year old albino mini-lop and she got along great with Chewie and Baby although there was an occasional moment of agression by all three. She is much more a people bunny and loves to be held and snuggle. She liked me more than my buns and right now she’s tied with Chester for being bunny #3. However, she’s three years old and unspayed with is a bad sign as it means she’ll develop uterine cancer if she doesn’t already have it. She also has nasal and occular discharge which is a bad sign as well. Great and super sweet bun, but rather sickly so I’m waiting to hear fromt he volunteer vet about her overall health and spaying before she is a definite choice.

Fourth was Ty. Ty was a mini albino-rex, so he was basically a smaller, colourless Chewie Biteums. They got along okay, but not as well as Snowball and Chester.

Finally there was Orion who was a Baby Florida White. These things are huge and as a baby, he’s the size of Chewie, who is a large bunny to begin with. This did not go well and eventually Chewie bit Orion’s weener.

So it looks like Snowball and Chester are the finalists. I’m waiting to hear from the vet on the health conditions of both and then it’s back for another bunny playdate. Hopefully Chewie and Baby will like one enough to be our third bunny.