Atlus has stated that they will be releasing a 3DS remake of Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers. No word of a localised version, but its about as early as is possible. I've not played this one in it's original form, but I bet it will be interesting, SMT is always a good thing =p Link
This one interests me quite a lot, as I've had a "colour-coded loot" craving in recent months, but I haven't been able to satisfy it with any of the games I have (other than Diablo II, but I've played that game so many times anyway.) I still need to pick up Torchlight, but I refuse to for the price they ask on Steam...
Anyway, some more info on the upcoming Heroes of Ruin for the 3DS; Link
Some of Kotaku's 'burning questions' on fantasy worlds in a couple recent western RPGs; Link
A bit of an older story by a couple days, but one that interests me as a PAL gamer, Ghostlight (who have released some nice looking boxsets recently), will be bringing some Shin Megami Tensei over to this side of the pond. Link
I played Devil Survivor when it first came out, and was really impressed with the story. The depth to the combat and extensiveness of the monster compendium is perhaps not as great as some of the other games, but it was really fun. Its an interesting mesh of strategy RPG-esque grid based battles, and standard Shin Megami Tensei weaknesses and resistances, magic and physical attacks.
They are also bringing over Fate/Extra, which I'm still seriously on the fence about even though I've known about it for a while now...It didn't get the greatest of reviews... Link
Wednesday, April 25, 2012
Sunday, April 22, 2012
The World Ends With You sequel hinted at
Over the past day or two, a couple news sites have picked up on this story. Apparantely Tetsuya Nomura has said a bit too much, but like Joystiq says, its going to be difficult to tell without some more info from the translator. Then again, this is only still in the rumour realm I'd say...But with the Kingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Distance TWEWY section (something I never expected in the first place), perhaps this could come true one day. I really don't see how they'd name the sequel if they did bring it out, then again, its Square Enix...recently the games have had some...interesting names.
http://www.joystiq.com/2012/04/21/square-enix-hints-nudges-and-winks-about-the-world-ends-with-yo/
http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2012/04/20/the-world-ends-with-you-sequel-hinted-at-by-series-artist.aspx
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-04-20-the-world-ends-with-you-follow-up-hinted-at-by-square-enix
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/116879-The-World-Ends-With-You-May-Get-a-Sequel
Wednesday, April 11, 2012
Some more links and videos
Some more links and videos for your perusal! Some interesting games are on the way it seems. Skullgirls is one I'm interested in, as well as Journey. That last 10 or 15 quid on my PSN account has a lot of options that it could be spent on...might have to put some more money on it.
http://www.edge-online.com/reviews/skullgirls-review
http://kotaku.com/5900794/bioware-developers-discuss-ideas-and-share-concept-art-for-the-hypothetical-next-dragon-age-game
http://blog.bioware.com/2012/04/10/bioware-and-dragon-age-at-pax-east/
http://www.3dsbuzz.com/dragon-quest-monsters-3d-trailer-is-over-four-minutes-of-brilliance/
I never expected this Pokemon crossover to leave Japan...then again, Pokemon games sell a lot of copies. I'll probably pick it up as I can never seem to get over my Pokemon obsession. Dragon Quest Monsters 3D was a nice surprise for me as well, there looks to be a lot of content in that, definitely what I'm looking for from my 3DS RPG (which have not been particularly great so far, all one of them?)
http://www.edge-online.com/reviews/skullgirls-review
http://kotaku.com/5900794/bioware-developers-discuss-ideas-and-share-concept-art-for-the-hypothetical-next-dragon-age-game
http://blog.bioware.com/2012/04/10/bioware-and-dragon-age-at-pax-east/
http://www.3dsbuzz.com/dragon-quest-monsters-3d-trailer-is-over-four-minutes-of-brilliance/
I never expected this Pokemon crossover to leave Japan...then again, Pokemon games sell a lot of copies. I'll probably pick it up as I can never seem to get over my Pokemon obsession. Dragon Quest Monsters 3D was a nice surprise for me as well, there looks to be a lot of content in that, definitely what I'm looking for from my 3DS RPG (which have not been particularly great so far, all one of them?)
Tuesday, April 3, 2012
More articles and news stories
Some Dragon Age news, some good some bad, but some interesting reading;
http://kotaku.com/5894716/bioware-takes-dragon-age-back-to-the-drawing-board
Its not really a surprise that they aren't doing Dragon Age II DLC after chucking it out the door early and working on other games like ME3.
http://kotaku.com/5896021/skyrim-is-the-wrong-place-to-look-for-dragon-age-iii-inspiration
Tales of Graces f and Tales of Xillia have been talked about a lot online. I'm holding out for the Graces f Europe release, which better come out otherwise I'll have to pay a lot more to import it from the states.
Back on the 20th of March the trademark was taken out for Xillia in Europe, and I'm fairly sure I heard it was taken out for America after that. http://gematsu.com/2012/03/tales-of-xillia-trademarked-in-europe
and indeed, for the US http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2012/03/26/tales-of-xillia-trademarked-in-the-u-s.aspx
which, added to this old story (that I only just found out about), could point to localisation projects for PAL and NTSC regions! http://gematsu.com/2011/09/possible-localization-files-found-in-tales-of-xillia
XSeed announced they will be bringing the stupidly named Unchained Blades Rexx to the US as a digital download for PSP and 3DS. http://www.siliconera.com/2012/03/28/unchained-blades-coming-to-psp-and-3ds-as-a-digital-download/ I'm hoping this one is good and that it comes out in Europe. I'm still a bit on the fence with it though. I'm a fan of dungeon RPGs, but with different character designers drawing the different characters, it could be a bit...patchwork and all over the place. Then again, there are some quite cool designs in there. Some of the character designs and differences between versions can be seen here; http://www.siliconera.com/2011/07/05/unchainblades-rexx-differences-between-psp-and-3ds-appear-to-be-minor/
NIS has announced a whole bunch more games that will be coming out from August onwards;
http://blog.us.playstation.com/2012/03/30/nis-talks-ps3-rpgs-legasista-mugen-souls-the-witch-and-the-hundred-knights/
http://www.gamesradar.com/nis-america-announces-legasista-mugen-souls-and-witch-and-hundred-knights/
Mugen Souls, Legasista and The Witch and the Hundred Knights are 3 quirky looking RPGs that will be coming out on the PS3, perhaps with some Vita compatibility? (Although thats just speculation on my part.)
And a couple of interesting editorial type articles now;
http://www.thatvideogameblog.com/2012/03/10/editorial-appreciating-a-medium/
I don't think I've ever heard a good word said about Fox News... *facedesk* I've always claimed that video games are just one way in which art can be conveyed.
http://www.rpgamer.com/editor/2012/040312mc.html?utm_medium=facebook&utm_source=twitterfeed
Final Fantasy XIII and XIII-2 have been talked about a fair bit in the news recently, and for the most part, people seem to have preferred the sequel, even though it isn't without its faults. I'm reserving judgement as I only just got round to finding a good deal and picking it up. Still waiting on that through the post, but I'm interested to try it out even though I didn't entirely enjoy FFXIII.
Dragon Quest X, will it be more like DQIX than anything else? http://www.1up.com/do/blogEntry?bId=9097827
I've preordered all 3 "Operation Rainfall" titles as they became available for PAL regions, and last on that list to come out will be Pandora's Tower within a week or two. Hopefully it sells well and offers something a little different to Wii gamers looking for something a bit more mature than cash-ins and shovel ware. http://www.computerandvideogames.com/339192/previews/pandoras-tower-a-frustrating-swan-song-for-the-wii/
I reckon Xenoblade Chronicles seems to have sold pretty well in American preorders...will Nintendo of America learn from this that JRPGs can sell? http://operationrainfall.com/xenoblade-chronicles-final-pre-order-numbers-from-vgchartz/
The recent post Phantasy Star Online games in the PS series have always intrigued me as I've heard they are very similar to Monster Hunter (is that right?) so perhaps Phantasy Star Online 2 will make me put down money for the series. http://www.siliconera.com/2012/03/27/new-phantasy-star-online-2-footage-shows-environments-and-battle/
Lastly, does Kingdom Hearts confuse you? Don't worry, you're not the only one. I'm interested to see how convoluted and fucked up they can make KH: DDD... http://www.siliconera.com/2012/04/03/kingdom-hearts-3ds-opening-movie-summaries-the-entire-series-in-four-minutes/
http://kotaku.com/5894716/bioware-takes-dragon-age-back-to-the-drawing-board
Its not really a surprise that they aren't doing Dragon Age II DLC after chucking it out the door early and working on other games like ME3.
http://kotaku.com/5896021/skyrim-is-the-wrong-place-to-look-for-dragon-age-iii-inspiration
Tales of Graces f and Tales of Xillia have been talked about a lot online. I'm holding out for the Graces f Europe release, which better come out otherwise I'll have to pay a lot more to import it from the states.
Back on the 20th of March the trademark was taken out for Xillia in Europe, and I'm fairly sure I heard it was taken out for America after that. http://gematsu.com/2012/03/tales-of-xillia-trademarked-in-europe
and indeed, for the US http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2012/03/26/tales-of-xillia-trademarked-in-the-u-s.aspx
which, added to this old story (that I only just found out about), could point to localisation projects for PAL and NTSC regions! http://gematsu.com/2011/09/possible-localization-files-found-in-tales-of-xillia
XSeed announced they will be bringing the stupidly named Unchained Blades Rexx to the US as a digital download for PSP and 3DS. http://www.siliconera.com/2012/03/28/unchained-blades-coming-to-psp-and-3ds-as-a-digital-download/ I'm hoping this one is good and that it comes out in Europe. I'm still a bit on the fence with it though. I'm a fan of dungeon RPGs, but with different character designers drawing the different characters, it could be a bit...patchwork and all over the place. Then again, there are some quite cool designs in there. Some of the character designs and differences between versions can be seen here; http://www.siliconera.com/2011/07/05/unchainblades-rexx-differences-between-psp-and-3ds-appear-to-be-minor/
NIS has announced a whole bunch more games that will be coming out from August onwards;
http://blog.us.playstation.com/2012/03/30/nis-talks-ps3-rpgs-legasista-mugen-souls-the-witch-and-the-hundred-knights/
http://www.gamesradar.com/nis-america-announces-legasista-mugen-souls-and-witch-and-hundred-knights/
Mugen Souls, Legasista and The Witch and the Hundred Knights are 3 quirky looking RPGs that will be coming out on the PS3, perhaps with some Vita compatibility? (Although thats just speculation on my part.)
And a couple of interesting editorial type articles now;
http://www.thatvideogameblog.com/2012/03/10/editorial-appreciating-a-medium/
I don't think I've ever heard a good word said about Fox News... *facedesk* I've always claimed that video games are just one way in which art can be conveyed.
http://www.rpgamer.com/editor/2012/040312mc.html?utm_medium=facebook&utm_source=twitterfeed
Final Fantasy XIII and XIII-2 have been talked about a fair bit in the news recently, and for the most part, people seem to have preferred the sequel, even though it isn't without its faults. I'm reserving judgement as I only just got round to finding a good deal and picking it up. Still waiting on that through the post, but I'm interested to try it out even though I didn't entirely enjoy FFXIII.
Dragon Quest X, will it be more like DQIX than anything else? http://www.1up.com/do/blogEntry?bId=9097827
I've preordered all 3 "Operation Rainfall" titles as they became available for PAL regions, and last on that list to come out will be Pandora's Tower within a week or two. Hopefully it sells well and offers something a little different to Wii gamers looking for something a bit more mature than cash-ins and shovel ware. http://www.computerandvideogames.com/339192/previews/pandoras-tower-a-frustrating-swan-song-for-the-wii/
I reckon Xenoblade Chronicles seems to have sold pretty well in American preorders...will Nintendo of America learn from this that JRPGs can sell? http://operationrainfall.com/xenoblade-chronicles-final-pre-order-numbers-from-vgchartz/
The recent post Phantasy Star Online games in the PS series have always intrigued me as I've heard they are very similar to Monster Hunter (is that right?) so perhaps Phantasy Star Online 2 will make me put down money for the series. http://www.siliconera.com/2012/03/27/new-phantasy-star-online-2-footage-shows-environments-and-battle/
Lastly, does Kingdom Hearts confuse you? Don't worry, you're not the only one. I'm interested to see how convoluted and fucked up they can make KH: DDD... http://www.siliconera.com/2012/04/03/kingdom-hearts-3ds-opening-movie-summaries-the-entire-series-in-four-minutes/
Wtf is going on?
Last week we had the hottest weather on record for this time of year in Scotland. This week we have snow? 0_o
Anyways...it doesn't really matter, I've got a lot of work to do for uni so I doubt I will be going out unless I have to. Yesterday I had nearly finished a lab report that needed to be handed in by thursday, and I was about to get back to studying for the final exams. What do they do? Throw us a curveball by letting us know a log book needed to be handed in by Thursday as well (as it is the last day of term.) Throughout the semester, we had been told that we didn't really need to hand these in as they weren't assessed unless it was a borderline pass/fail thing, then they might take the clinic log books into account. Now we apparantely have to hand them in with whatever we have in them. This kind of threw my planning off, so I'm headed back into the clinic for (hopefully) the last time this semester to get some readings with some of the tests I didn't fill into my log book...
This course is pretty terribly planned out sometimes...why give us only a few days to sort out our log books? I suppose I shouldn't worry about it too much, they probably won't use most of them in the marking...
Back to finishing up my lab report and studying I suppose =p
Anyways...it doesn't really matter, I've got a lot of work to do for uni so I doubt I will be going out unless I have to. Yesterday I had nearly finished a lab report that needed to be handed in by thursday, and I was about to get back to studying for the final exams. What do they do? Throw us a curveball by letting us know a log book needed to be handed in by Thursday as well (as it is the last day of term.) Throughout the semester, we had been told that we didn't really need to hand these in as they weren't assessed unless it was a borderline pass/fail thing, then they might take the clinic log books into account. Now we apparantely have to hand them in with whatever we have in them. This kind of threw my planning off, so I'm headed back into the clinic for (hopefully) the last time this semester to get some readings with some of the tests I didn't fill into my log book...
This course is pretty terribly planned out sometimes...why give us only a few days to sort out our log books? I suppose I shouldn't worry about it too much, they probably won't use most of them in the marking...
Back to finishing up my lab report and studying I suppose =p
Saturday, March 24, 2012
Various links to read
I found a rather awesome mod project based on the Dragon Age engine on GamersNexus - have a look at their momentous task over here. Seriously Bioware, either take a page from these guy's book, or just give them a damn job working on Dragon Age III. I want more throwback to the good old Black Isle days of BG and BGII. The blog for the team is over at this link.
Pandora's Tower will most likely be the next game I buy, and I'm hoping its up to the level of the other Operation Rainfall titles. Have a look at this link here
Poh-tay-toe ~ Poh-tah-toe Square Enix, why are you trolling us remaking, no wait, remastering that game.. Link
Pandora's Tower will most likely be the next game I buy, and I'm hoping its up to the level of the other Operation Rainfall titles. Have a look at this link here
Poh-tay-toe ~ Poh-tah-toe Square Enix, why are you trolling us remaking, no wait, remastering that game.. Link
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
Some more Game news
It seems there will be major change in the future of Game chain. The spring sales that have been going on for the past week or two were in fact a bad sign for the company, who has suffered financially recently.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/retailandconsumer/9157253/Game-Group-heads-for-pre-pack-administration-shares-suspended.html
http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/gamestation-to-be-sacrificed-as-new-company-emerges-from-game-s-ashes/093064
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-17455742
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/money/4208563/Worthless-Game-Group-on-brink-of-collapse.html
I have £27 on a reward card, so hopefully I can get it sent in the mail before they shut down. Pretty selfish view I suppose...but anyway, it will suck if they can't continue to trade after this. Its a massive thing to get past, it looks like. =(
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/retailandconsumer/9157253/Game-Group-heads-for-pre-pack-administration-shares-suspended.html
http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/gamestation-to-be-sacrificed-as-new-company-emerges-from-game-s-ashes/093064
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-17455742
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/money/4208563/Worthless-Game-Group-on-brink-of-collapse.html
I have £27 on a reward card, so hopefully I can get it sent in the mail before they shut down. Pretty selfish view I suppose...but anyway, it will suck if they can't continue to trade after this. Its a massive thing to get past, it looks like. =(
Some more Baldur's Gate links
If you're like me and can't wait for the Baldur's Gate Enhanced games coming out, check out these links:
http://www.1up.com/do/blogEntry?bId=9097619
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-03-04-retrospective-baldurs-gate-1-and-2
I really need to pick the digital copies of BG and BGII up from GOG and play them a bit once more =)
http://www.1up.com/do/blogEntry?bId=9097619
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-03-04-retrospective-baldurs-gate-1-and-2
I really need to pick the digital copies of BG and BGII up from GOG and play them a bit once more =)
Thursday, March 15, 2012
Baldur's Gate announcement
Have I died and gone to heaven? One of my favourite series will be getting an announcement of some kind at 12pm PST tomorrow (16th March 2012) from what I can tell. There have been various announcements and rumours going about, from BGII running on tablets suggesting an upressed version for tablets to continuation of the series in a full 3rd game. Its been so long since came out though, I'm not sure if they would sell enough copies...Then again, I'm fairly sure Dragon Age: Origins and Dragon Age II sold fairly well (I actually bought the 2nd one today) so that could bode well for another Baldur's Gate game =D
http://manatank.com/2012/03/new-baldurs-gate-horizon/
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/116330-The-Baldurs-Gate-Countdown-Begins
http://www.slashgear.com/baldurs-gate-iii-the-black-hound-tipped-14218443/
This countdown should apparantely be up on the website, but it seems to be down at the moment. At least for me. Here is where it should be anyway: http://baldursgate.com/
Wow. Literally as I was writing this, there has been a further development; http://uk.pc.gamespy.com/pc/baldurs-gate/1220888p1.html
http://www.rpgfan.com/news/2012/1256.html
http://kotaku.com/5893670/baldurs-gate-enhanced-edition-announced-server-explodes?utm_campaign=socialflow_kotaku_facebook&utm_source=kotaku_facebook&utm_medium=socialflow
http://www.joystiq.com/2012/03/15/baldurs-gate-enhanced-edition-arrives-this-summer/
http://www.thesixthaxis.com/2012/03/15/baldurs-gate-enhanced-edition-announced/
The technical difficulties lead to the early announcement of Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition for Summer 2012 release window. I'm super excited for this!! I'll try and keep ontop of this story as BGII is my favourite game of all time!
http://www.gamershell.com/news_134918.html
http://www.pcworld.com/article/251935/baldurs_gate_making_a_triumphant_return.html
http://www.bigshinyrobot.com/reviews/archives/38320
Take some of these links with a pinch of salt, but it seems the games could be seperate, with enhanced editions for each of the original PC games. DON'T confuse these for the Dark Alliance games on PS2/Gamecube.
http://uk.gamespot.com/news/baldurs-gate-and-sequel-getting-enhanced-editions-6366369
http://www.giantbomb.com/forums/general-discussion/30/baldurs-gate-enhanced-edition/539580/
http://manatank.com/2012/03/new-baldurs-gate-horizon/
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/116330-The-Baldurs-Gate-Countdown-Begins
http://www.slashgear.com/baldurs-gate-iii-the-black-hound-tipped-14218443/
This countdown should apparantely be up on the website, but it seems to be down at the moment. At least for me. Here is where it should be anyway: http://baldursgate.com/
Wow. Literally as I was writing this, there has been a further development; http://uk.pc.gamespy.com/pc/baldurs-gate/1220888p1.html
http://www.rpgfan.com/news/2012/1256.html
http://kotaku.com/5893670/baldurs-gate-enhanced-edition-announced-server-explodes?utm_campaign=socialflow_kotaku_facebook&utm_source=kotaku_facebook&utm_medium=socialflow
http://www.joystiq.com/2012/03/15/baldurs-gate-enhanced-edition-arrives-this-summer/
http://www.thesixthaxis.com/2012/03/15/baldurs-gate-enhanced-edition-announced/
The technical difficulties lead to the early announcement of Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition for Summer 2012 release window. I'm super excited for this!! I'll try and keep ontop of this story as BGII is my favourite game of all time!
http://www.gamershell.com/news_134918.html
http://www.pcworld.com/article/251935/baldurs_gate_making_a_triumphant_return.html
http://www.bigshinyrobot.com/reviews/archives/38320
Take some of these links with a pinch of salt, but it seems the games could be seperate, with enhanced editions for each of the original PC games. DON'T confuse these for the Dark Alliance games on PS2/Gamecube.
http://uk.gamespot.com/news/baldurs-gate-and-sequel-getting-enhanced-editions-6366369
http://www.giantbomb.com/forums/general-discussion/30/baldurs-gate-enhanced-edition/539580/
Saturday, March 10, 2012
Game rant
I was in Game during the week with some friends from uni and the company (who owns Gamestation as well) has been in the news a lot recently. They said that they wouldn't be getting a lot of games at launch (for what seems to be financial reasons.) Mass Effect 3, Mario Party 9, Street Fighter x Tekken, Asura's Wrath and some other EA titles I think..
Add to that the fact that they are having a fire sale (which they call a spring clean) on preowned stock and the future doesn't look terribly good for the company.
So anyways, I heard about all this crap online and remembered I still had a fair bit of money on a gift card from the Christmas break. I'd picked up Dodonpachi Resurrection on sale with it at Christmas for £15, and then a replacement Xbox 360 charger cable and battery pack as mine had gone missing... So that left me some for the sales.
So as I was saying I was in the shop...I was rooting through the preowned sale stuff for ages, while I finally decided on Dragon Age II on the 360.
The reason I had held off buying this game was because I had grown more and more pissed off with EA and Bioware (who I belive are being pressured into releasing tonnes of DLC and pushing games out for release prematurely) after Mass Effect 2's debacle. Ok, so way back, I picked up Mass Effect and at that point, I was really happy with it so of course was looking forward to getting the 2nd one at launch. I had my eye on the special edition pack for some DLC codes and more than that, some nice extras. Didn't think I needed to preorder though, so went into Game (fuck this store, seriously) to see if they had any. Nope. The idiot working there told me it was just preorders for the special edition. Oh well...none for me then? Nope. I had to have it, I wouldn't admit defeat, so as soon as I went home, I went on ebay and paid about 80 or 90 quid for it. I bloody regretted it and had a sour taste in my mouth from then onwards. Even moreso when the game arrived and the Cerberus network DLC wouldn't work for me. I don't know wtf was going on with it. I played the game and really enjoyed it though, I suppose thats what matters. In between that and ME1, there was Dragon Age: Origins, which I had a similar experience with...again concerning Game. I didn't preorder. Ok before you judge me, they are stupid when it comes to preorders...some of the time you'll have to pay, sometimes they won't get enough in for the preorders they have...I just don't trust them. Anyway, I went all over Edinburgh looking for the special edition of DA:O. Pretty much every store sold out of it. Did some phone calls and found that the branch at the other end of Edinburgh (past my house from town) so I went home and got a lift out there to the shopping centre. Went to pick it up (thankfully they still had a copy or two), got asked for ID as it was an 18. I was 18 at the time, but hadn't brought ID. Ok, this is bullshit. I was so frustrated after spending the entire day finding this special edition. I just walked out, went to the car and told my mum...she knew how pissed off I'd been for the day, so went in and picked it up for me thankfully. I understand why they need to restrict some games, but it always seems to happen to me when I don't have my goddamn ID with me. Plus among my friends I am usually the eldest one there. Its happened at clubs and stuff as well. I should start taking ID wherever I go I suppose...damn young looks I apparantely have...
So back to the present day.
I'm in Game and I decide on Dragon Age II. I'm guessing you can see where this story is going. I take it up there to pay with my gift card which had a tenner on it (I thought) ~ £7.99 for DAII and a 2 pound set of headphones for my psp. Pretty good prices...
The guy looks at me (in my shirt and tie from the day of clinic at uni-I'll come back to this) and says hesitantly that they have an "as 25 age policy." I shuffle in my pocket for my passport and realise its at home..I'm like "I don't have my passport with me" and just walk away. He tries to get me to pay for the headphones but I explain I didn't want them as I had a tenner on my gift card and wanted to use it up.
I leave pretty pissed off...
Like I was saying, I was pretty smart that day, with suit trousers, shirt and tie as I'd had my first paid patient in uni for an optometric refraction lab. So I was clean shaven and shit, but what pissed me off is what would the old lady that came in think of me if I looked like a kid or something...respect from the patient is something I am worrying about...I should say, I am 25, so I shouldn't worry as much as some of the others in the class who came straight from school and are 19 or so now.
I wanted to come back the next day anyway with my passport, find that fucker and show him how old I am. But I thought I'd look in a different branch and see if they had anything decent, some games like the Atelier games on PS3 always seem to be expensive but interesting...anyway, this was on the Thursday (which is normally the day when shops are open later) so we got there pretty late after half 5 when we finished uni. I had a look and found a lot of good stuff in the sale-Super Paper Mario, Epic Mickey for under a tenner, Battalion Wars 2 for 2 quid, Dragon Quest Monster: Joker 2 for 13, no Borderlands or DAII though..2 games I'd been considering. Anyway, they were closing so I went for Joker 2 and prepared to add in 2 or 3 quid ontop of my gift card. The guy said that it covered it though, so I did some calculations and realised I had more than I thought-15 beforehand.
So it kinda sucked that it shut early, but we headed along to Buchanan Galleries to the other game where I'd been the day before and got ID'd for Dragon Age 2. I was thinking of getting it, but I would have had to put in like 6 quid...and thats not a lot, but at the time I didn't have a lot of money to spare. So I picked up Trauma Center: New Blood on the Wii for £1.99 or so. I'd wanted to get into those games for a long time.
And that finished up my reward card from Christmas.
Starting off with £40 on it, I got;
Dodonpachi Resurrection (360) £15
Xbox 360 Plug and Play Charge Kit £10
Dragon Warrior Monsters: Joker 2 (DS) £12.98
Trauma Center: New Blood (Wii) £1.98
So after all that, I don't have Dragon Age II. I can get it for next to nothing online...so that'll probably be the case when I can be bothered...
I'm gonna get a replacement reward card from Game so I can spend my points I've accrued over the years just incase they go under. To be honest, as much as I rant about them and say they suck, I don't think I'd want them and Gamestation to go under...as that would leave us without high street game retailers in the UK.
Whoa...long rant is long.
Add to that the fact that they are having a fire sale (which they call a spring clean) on preowned stock and the future doesn't look terribly good for the company.
So anyways, I heard about all this crap online and remembered I still had a fair bit of money on a gift card from the Christmas break. I'd picked up Dodonpachi Resurrection on sale with it at Christmas for £15, and then a replacement Xbox 360 charger cable and battery pack as mine had gone missing... So that left me some for the sales.
So as I was saying I was in the shop...I was rooting through the preowned sale stuff for ages, while I finally decided on Dragon Age II on the 360.
The reason I had held off buying this game was because I had grown more and more pissed off with EA and Bioware (who I belive are being pressured into releasing tonnes of DLC and pushing games out for release prematurely) after Mass Effect 2's debacle. Ok, so way back, I picked up Mass Effect and at that point, I was really happy with it so of course was looking forward to getting the 2nd one at launch. I had my eye on the special edition pack for some DLC codes and more than that, some nice extras. Didn't think I needed to preorder though, so went into Game (fuck this store, seriously) to see if they had any. Nope. The idiot working there told me it was just preorders for the special edition. Oh well...none for me then? Nope. I had to have it, I wouldn't admit defeat, so as soon as I went home, I went on ebay and paid about 80 or 90 quid for it. I bloody regretted it and had a sour taste in my mouth from then onwards. Even moreso when the game arrived and the Cerberus network DLC wouldn't work for me. I don't know wtf was going on with it. I played the game and really enjoyed it though, I suppose thats what matters. In between that and ME1, there was Dragon Age: Origins, which I had a similar experience with...again concerning Game. I didn't preorder. Ok before you judge me, they are stupid when it comes to preorders...some of the time you'll have to pay, sometimes they won't get enough in for the preorders they have...I just don't trust them. Anyway, I went all over Edinburgh looking for the special edition of DA:O. Pretty much every store sold out of it. Did some phone calls and found that the branch at the other end of Edinburgh (past my house from town) so I went home and got a lift out there to the shopping centre. Went to pick it up (thankfully they still had a copy or two), got asked for ID as it was an 18. I was 18 at the time, but hadn't brought ID. Ok, this is bullshit. I was so frustrated after spending the entire day finding this special edition. I just walked out, went to the car and told my mum...she knew how pissed off I'd been for the day, so went in and picked it up for me thankfully. I understand why they need to restrict some games, but it always seems to happen to me when I don't have my goddamn ID with me. Plus among my friends I am usually the eldest one there. Its happened at clubs and stuff as well. I should start taking ID wherever I go I suppose...damn young looks I apparantely have...
So back to the present day.
I'm in Game and I decide on Dragon Age II. I'm guessing you can see where this story is going. I take it up there to pay with my gift card which had a tenner on it (I thought) ~ £7.99 for DAII and a 2 pound set of headphones for my psp. Pretty good prices...
The guy looks at me (in my shirt and tie from the day of clinic at uni-I'll come back to this) and says hesitantly that they have an "as 25 age policy." I shuffle in my pocket for my passport and realise its at home..I'm like "I don't have my passport with me" and just walk away. He tries to get me to pay for the headphones but I explain I didn't want them as I had a tenner on my gift card and wanted to use it up.
I leave pretty pissed off...
Like I was saying, I was pretty smart that day, with suit trousers, shirt and tie as I'd had my first paid patient in uni for an optometric refraction lab. So I was clean shaven and shit, but what pissed me off is what would the old lady that came in think of me if I looked like a kid or something...respect from the patient is something I am worrying about...I should say, I am 25, so I shouldn't worry as much as some of the others in the class who came straight from school and are 19 or so now.
I wanted to come back the next day anyway with my passport, find that fucker and show him how old I am. But I thought I'd look in a different branch and see if they had anything decent, some games like the Atelier games on PS3 always seem to be expensive but interesting...anyway, this was on the Thursday (which is normally the day when shops are open later) so we got there pretty late after half 5 when we finished uni. I had a look and found a lot of good stuff in the sale-Super Paper Mario, Epic Mickey for under a tenner, Battalion Wars 2 for 2 quid, Dragon Quest Monster: Joker 2 for 13, no Borderlands or DAII though..2 games I'd been considering. Anyway, they were closing so I went for Joker 2 and prepared to add in 2 or 3 quid ontop of my gift card. The guy said that it covered it though, so I did some calculations and realised I had more than I thought-15 beforehand.
So it kinda sucked that it shut early, but we headed along to Buchanan Galleries to the other game where I'd been the day before and got ID'd for Dragon Age 2. I was thinking of getting it, but I would have had to put in like 6 quid...and thats not a lot, but at the time I didn't have a lot of money to spare. So I picked up Trauma Center: New Blood on the Wii for £1.99 or so. I'd wanted to get into those games for a long time.
And that finished up my reward card from Christmas.
Starting off with £40 on it, I got;
Dodonpachi Resurrection (360) £15
Xbox 360 Plug and Play Charge Kit £10
Dragon Warrior Monsters: Joker 2 (DS) £12.98
Trauma Center: New Blood (Wii) £1.98
So after all that, I don't have Dragon Age II. I can get it for next to nothing online...so that'll probably be the case when I can be bothered...
I'm gonna get a replacement reward card from Game so I can spend my points I've accrued over the years just incase they go under. To be honest, as much as I rant about them and say they suck, I don't think I'd want them and Gamestation to go under...as that would leave us without high street game retailers in the UK.
Whoa...long rant is long.
Sunday, March 4, 2012
Now Playing - "why you gotta bust my walls like that?!"
Its been a while since I posted one of these on a sunday (or regularly for that matter) so I thought I would try and fix that. I'm about halfway through my semester at uni now, and things are starting to move quite quickly...it'll be a few weeks till we have exams just before summer. Scary thought, but we've had quite a few days off - we get every Tuesday off and barely any classes on Wednesdays. The thing is, I don't really like the fact that we start at 9am some of the days, and in the afternoons on other days. It makes it harder to get a good routine going. I would actually prefer it was always at 9 or later on. Anyways, tangent aside....I've been playing quite a bit here and there of different games. Hopefully some of them seem interesting to you readers!
Realm of the Mad God (Steam) is a pretty nifty co-op bullet hell MMORPG with a fast paced action battle system. I saw some adverts on Steam for it and probably was drawn in by the sprite artstyle, which looks really good. It has servers of up to 85 at a time, and it really gets fun if you work together in a group, doing what they call an exp train, where a group of players runs along the paths in the world, with attack toggled on. This means you are a really effective weapon, killing the enemies that happen to be nearby. The cool thing is, all the nearby players receive exp whether they shot the enemies or not. This is a really quick way to get to the level cap of 20 (a bit dissapointing perhaps, but there is a lot more to do once you hit that cap.) Oh, I should mention that the game has permadeath like in roguelike RPGs. If you run out of health, you die permanently. I've only really played about 10 or 12 hours of it so far, and seemed to struggle with the bosses in the game (well, the Gods, and the endgame level) as they hit very hard and there is so much going on...I put the game down though, as I felt I wasn't getting anywhere in terms of gear, or understanding tactics for some of the more difficult fights. Somehow it seems like I only scratched the surface on this. Maybe I'll go back to it some day, but for now, I'm concentrating on other games.
I've picked up my save on Dragon Quest VI: Realms of Revelation (DS) again, after I got around 10 or 15 hours into it initially and put it off for a while. I really enjoyed DQIV and DQV on the DS, but this one is proving a bit more difficult for me to fully get into for some reason. I think the story is really slow moving and a bit confusing...especially if you put the game down for a while...so I don't recommend doing that lol. It has the job system of some of the other games, but its a bit easier to master jobs than in DQIX. Nonetheless, it adds a lot of interesting stuff to levelling up your party and building a good team. In fact, they didn't do a lot to actually tell you about the Alltrades Abbey. At one point it just becomes available. So for a while I was progressing through the story without even having jobs for each of my party members...Which reminds me about the way they give you minimal direction (like in many older rpgs) concerning the next story area. I'm not sure if I'm doing optional quests or actually progressing the story right now. All they said was that I had to go out into the world and travel with the aim of becoming a hero. Aside from some flaws, and very slow pacing (but its a Dragon Quest game, so hey, I suppose its expected) I'm enjoying this game and the 25 or 30 hours I've put in so far.
After pretty much a solid day of playing at uni, as well as a good few months of playing through this game in small bits, I finished the last online urgent quest in Monster Hunter Portable 3rd (PSP), beating the Amatsumagatsuchi. After that I kind of lost interest as I was starting to find solo-ing the remaining double monster online quests difficult. Unlocking Akantor, Ukanlos and Alatreon would prove very difficult...and perhaps I was a bit burnt out after over 200 hours of this game. So I also did a little bit of multiplayer with some friends on Monster Hunter Tri (Wii) once I had finally shaken my obsession with MHP3, which I was worrying would get me re-addicted again, but it didn't thankfully. I got up to HR19 or so in Tri, and it kind of bugs me how slow and dragged out the multiplayer is. I think they just wanted to spread the content as far as they could, but more event quests could have easily done this more effectively. Grinding for HR points is never really that fun, so far at least...
There is a pretty small, but quite cool collection of roguelike RPGs on the IOS store, and I've long wanted to get into this (obscure? It definitely doesn't get much love these days) sub-genre of RPGs. One of the ones that I've kept on my Ipod for a while now has been 100 Rogues (IOS) I really liked the balancing and quirky sense of humour (although nothing compared to the amazing detailed craziness that is Dungeons of Dredmor) and it kept me sporadically playing through the game with various different character builds. I actually got to the final boss (from what I can tell) with a Wizard before dying. They have some really unbalanced attacks. Teleport can take you anywhere (within reason) nearby and doesn't even cost a turn. If you know how these games work, that can be easily abused, as you can always be at least one step ahead of enemies, attacking from range, or backstabbing if you want. I really recommend 100 Rogues. Since I bought it, it has climbed up to £1.99, which a lot of the better RPGs seem to have done also. I miss the days when most games were less than a pound... Ash (IOS) is another one I played a tiny little bit of. Since the update (2.0 or whatever one it was that massively changed character art and rebalanced the game) I've not really wanted to continue my save, instead I want to start over completely...just to see what has changed. Not to mention the fact that I started to run into really difficult battles after a couple hours in. I just hope its got the same feel..If you are wanting to change a game, I don't see why you would release the original copy only to patch it much later down the line. Make up your mind...Its almost as bad as the DLC nonsense you get nowadays...day 1 DLC...
I picked up Shin Megami Tensei: Persona (PSP) after it dropped in price to £9.99 on the PSN...We don't get a physical release of this game here, and I was ideally wanting to pick up the special edition from America to go with my P2 and P3 PSP special editions, but I would have to pay a shitload more than 9.99 to import it...and it didn't really seem like it was worth it for a 2 disc soundtrack (I'm more keen on artbooks than soundtracks) So I started up a game on this, as I had an urge to get into this series recently, and liked the way it went from the opening (very high school/paranormal anime story-wise) but didn't actually play more than about 10 mins or so. The school you start in is super confusing...
Rage (360) Very nice graphics and world building from the start, but I don't think its that realistic the way they take the story in the first 10 minutes...As soon as you are rescued by an inhabitant at the start of the game, you are taken to his settlement in his car, and immediately sent back the way you came to clear out a bandit hideout. Not so much as a morsel of food, drink, or even a word of explanation concerning the post apocalyptic world you have just woken up in. Just here's a gun, go and get em is about all you get. The enemy AI, animation and gunfire is a bit...unusual I found. There are some nice ideas, so hopefully this game doesn't dissapoint me, I hopefully improve my opinion of it as I go in a bit further.
Dodonpachi Resurrection Deluxe Edition (360) I picked this one up at Christmas with a gift card from Game. It was on sale down to £15ish, and this price is pretty good. I wouldn't want to pay much more, as its a very short game. I like the SHMUP genre but I'm not one of those super crazy fans who import the games from Japan. I can't imagine how dissapointed I would be if I did that, popped it in the 360, and finished the game within a half hour or so... I'll still pick up Akai Katana if it does end up coming out in Europe =D
Realm of the Mad God (Steam) is a pretty nifty co-op bullet hell MMORPG with a fast paced action battle system. I saw some adverts on Steam for it and probably was drawn in by the sprite artstyle, which looks really good. It has servers of up to 85 at a time, and it really gets fun if you work together in a group, doing what they call an exp train, where a group of players runs along the paths in the world, with attack toggled on. This means you are a really effective weapon, killing the enemies that happen to be nearby. The cool thing is, all the nearby players receive exp whether they shot the enemies or not. This is a really quick way to get to the level cap of 20 (a bit dissapointing perhaps, but there is a lot more to do once you hit that cap.) Oh, I should mention that the game has permadeath like in roguelike RPGs. If you run out of health, you die permanently. I've only really played about 10 or 12 hours of it so far, and seemed to struggle with the bosses in the game (well, the Gods, and the endgame level) as they hit very hard and there is so much going on...I put the game down though, as I felt I wasn't getting anywhere in terms of gear, or understanding tactics for some of the more difficult fights. Somehow it seems like I only scratched the surface on this. Maybe I'll go back to it some day, but for now, I'm concentrating on other games.
I've picked up my save on Dragon Quest VI: Realms of Revelation (DS) again, after I got around 10 or 15 hours into it initially and put it off for a while. I really enjoyed DQIV and DQV on the DS, but this one is proving a bit more difficult for me to fully get into for some reason. I think the story is really slow moving and a bit confusing...especially if you put the game down for a while...so I don't recommend doing that lol. It has the job system of some of the other games, but its a bit easier to master jobs than in DQIX. Nonetheless, it adds a lot of interesting stuff to levelling up your party and building a good team. In fact, they didn't do a lot to actually tell you about the Alltrades Abbey. At one point it just becomes available. So for a while I was progressing through the story without even having jobs for each of my party members...Which reminds me about the way they give you minimal direction (like in many older rpgs) concerning the next story area. I'm not sure if I'm doing optional quests or actually progressing the story right now. All they said was that I had to go out into the world and travel with the aim of becoming a hero. Aside from some flaws, and very slow pacing (but its a Dragon Quest game, so hey, I suppose its expected) I'm enjoying this game and the 25 or 30 hours I've put in so far.
After pretty much a solid day of playing at uni, as well as a good few months of playing through this game in small bits, I finished the last online urgent quest in Monster Hunter Portable 3rd (PSP), beating the Amatsumagatsuchi. After that I kind of lost interest as I was starting to find solo-ing the remaining double monster online quests difficult. Unlocking Akantor, Ukanlos and Alatreon would prove very difficult...and perhaps I was a bit burnt out after over 200 hours of this game. So I also did a little bit of multiplayer with some friends on Monster Hunter Tri (Wii) once I had finally shaken my obsession with MHP3, which I was worrying would get me re-addicted again, but it didn't thankfully. I got up to HR19 or so in Tri, and it kind of bugs me how slow and dragged out the multiplayer is. I think they just wanted to spread the content as far as they could, but more event quests could have easily done this more effectively. Grinding for HR points is never really that fun, so far at least...
There is a pretty small, but quite cool collection of roguelike RPGs on the IOS store, and I've long wanted to get into this (obscure? It definitely doesn't get much love these days) sub-genre of RPGs. One of the ones that I've kept on my Ipod for a while now has been 100 Rogues (IOS) I really liked the balancing and quirky sense of humour (although nothing compared to the amazing detailed craziness that is Dungeons of Dredmor) and it kept me sporadically playing through the game with various different character builds. I actually got to the final boss (from what I can tell) with a Wizard before dying. They have some really unbalanced attacks. Teleport can take you anywhere (within reason) nearby and doesn't even cost a turn. If you know how these games work, that can be easily abused, as you can always be at least one step ahead of enemies, attacking from range, or backstabbing if you want. I really recommend 100 Rogues. Since I bought it, it has climbed up to £1.99, which a lot of the better RPGs seem to have done also. I miss the days when most games were less than a pound... Ash (IOS) is another one I played a tiny little bit of. Since the update (2.0 or whatever one it was that massively changed character art and rebalanced the game) I've not really wanted to continue my save, instead I want to start over completely...just to see what has changed. Not to mention the fact that I started to run into really difficult battles after a couple hours in. I just hope its got the same feel..If you are wanting to change a game, I don't see why you would release the original copy only to patch it much later down the line. Make up your mind...Its almost as bad as the DLC nonsense you get nowadays...day 1 DLC...
I picked up Shin Megami Tensei: Persona (PSP) after it dropped in price to £9.99 on the PSN...We don't get a physical release of this game here, and I was ideally wanting to pick up the special edition from America to go with my P2 and P3 PSP special editions, but I would have to pay a shitload more than 9.99 to import it...and it didn't really seem like it was worth it for a 2 disc soundtrack (I'm more keen on artbooks than soundtracks) So I started up a game on this, as I had an urge to get into this series recently, and liked the way it went from the opening (very high school/paranormal anime story-wise) but didn't actually play more than about 10 mins or so. The school you start in is super confusing...
Rage (360) Very nice graphics and world building from the start, but I don't think its that realistic the way they take the story in the first 10 minutes...As soon as you are rescued by an inhabitant at the start of the game, you are taken to his settlement in his car, and immediately sent back the way you came to clear out a bandit hideout. Not so much as a morsel of food, drink, or even a word of explanation concerning the post apocalyptic world you have just woken up in. Just here's a gun, go and get em is about all you get. The enemy AI, animation and gunfire is a bit...unusual I found. There are some nice ideas, so hopefully this game doesn't dissapoint me, I hopefully improve my opinion of it as I go in a bit further.
Dodonpachi Resurrection Deluxe Edition (360) I picked this one up at Christmas with a gift card from Game. It was on sale down to £15ish, and this price is pretty good. I wouldn't want to pay much more, as its a very short game. I like the SHMUP genre but I'm not one of those super crazy fans who import the games from Japan. I can't imagine how dissapointed I would be if I did that, popped it in the 360, and finished the game within a half hour or so... I'll still pick up Akai Katana if it does end up coming out in Europe =D
Tuesday, February 21, 2012
February-March releases
How are you people getting on with the current onslaught of videogame releases? Hyped for the Vita? Coping fine? Getting close to testing the bounds of your overdrafts like me? Anyway, I hope you've been doing well since I last posted (and promised to do a Vita post... sorry for the lack thereof)
We're kind of midway(or almost) through this really busy window of game releases and I've only picked up one so far to try and save some money. Note that some of these might be slightly different for North America. I'll post dates of the noteable titles if I can find them.
February
3rd February
Final Fantasy XIII-2 (PS3/360) This really interests me despite how much I hated XIII...
Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective (IOS)
Metal Gear Solid HD Collection (PS3/360)
Soul Calibur 5 (PS3/360)
10th February
Catherine (PS3/360)
Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning (PS3/360/PC)
The Darkness II (PS3/360)
12th February
Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood (PC)
16th February
Alan Wake (PC) It kinda sucks how long some games take to get the PC treatment sometimes...
22nd February (Oh god, the sound of bank balances screaming in unison as the Vita releases)
Vita Stuff- First-Party games:
Uncharted: Golden Abyss - €49.99/£44.99/$69.95 AUD/$89.95 NZD
ModNation Racers: Road Trip - €39.99/£34.99/$54.95 AUD/$69.95 NZD
Everybody's Golf - €39.99/£34.99/$54.95 AUD/$69.95 NZD
WipEout 2048 - €39.99/£34.99/$54.95 AUD/$69.95 NZD
Unit 13 - €39.99/£34.99/$54.95 AUD/$69.95 NZD
Little Deviants - €29.99/£24.99/$39.95 AUD/$54.95 NZD
Reality Fighters - €29.99/£24.99/$39.95 AUD/$54.95 NZD
Memory Cards:
4Gb Memory Card - €19.99/£17.99/$26.95 AUD/$34.95 NZD
8Gb Memory Card - €34.99/£31.99/$44.95 AUD/$59.95 NZD
16Gb Memory Card - €49.99/£44.99/$64.95 AUD/$84.95 NZD
Peripherals:
AC adaptor - €9.99/£8.99/$12.95 AUD/$16.95 NZD
Portable charger - €49.99/£44.99/$64.95 AUD/$84.95 NZD
USB cable - €9.99/£8.99/$12.95 AUD/$16.95 NZD
In-ear headset - €19.99/£17.99/$26.95 AUD/$34.95 NZD
Starter kit - €24.99/ £21.99/$34.95 AUD/$44.95 NZD
Travel kit - €29.99/ £25.99/$39.95 AUD/$49.95 NZD
[From Link]
And some other ones(some of which I'm not sure if they will be out at launch);
[From Link]
24th February
The Last Story (Wii) This is the only one so far that I've preordered out of these games.
Hyperdimension Neptunia Mk.2 (PS3)
Syndicate (PS3/360)
Binary Domain (PS3/360)
8th March
Metal Gear Solid: Snake Eater 3D (3DS)
9th March
Mass Effect 3 (PS3/360/PC) Will be awesome, perhaps minus the multiplayer...
Asura's Wrath (PS3/360)
Street Fighter x Tekken (PS3/360)
13th March
Silent Hill Downpour (PS3/360) I'm wanting to get into this franchise but I'm a wuss...
14th March
Journey (PS3) Interesting looking game from the developers of Flower.
16th March (Should be renamed Bit. Trip Day!)
Bit. Trip Complete (Wii)
Bit. Trip Saga (3DS)
Rayman Origins (3DS) Way later than this should have come out, is this date right?
Yakuza: Dead Souls (PS3)
22nd March
Angry Birds Space (IOS) A few more million copies to be sold?
23rd March
Armored Core 5 (PS3/360)
Kid Icarus: Uprising (3DS) Should really have been a launch title...or earlier in the year IMO
Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City (PS3/360)
Ninja Gaiden 3 (PS3/360) Don't know much about NG other than they like to release the same games
[Used info from Link]
There are a lot more, like Diablo III, Akai Katana and many others that I didn't include, so hopefully this is slightly helpful in keeping track of things...
We're kind of midway(or almost) through this really busy window of game releases and I've only picked up one so far to try and save some money. Note that some of these might be slightly different for North America. I'll post dates of the noteable titles if I can find them.
February
3rd February
Final Fantasy XIII-2 (PS3/360) This really interests me despite how much I hated XIII...
Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective (IOS)
Metal Gear Solid HD Collection (PS3/360)
Soul Calibur 5 (PS3/360)
10th February
Catherine (PS3/360)
Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning (PS3/360/PC)
The Darkness II (PS3/360)
12th February
Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood (PC)
16th February
Alan Wake (PC) It kinda sucks how long some games take to get the PC treatment sometimes...
22nd February (Oh god, the sound of bank balances screaming in unison as the Vita releases)
Vita Stuff- First-Party games:
Uncharted: Golden Abyss - €49.99/£44.99/$69.95 AUD/$89.95 NZD
ModNation Racers: Road Trip - €39.99/£34.99/$54.95 AUD/$69.95 NZD
Everybody's Golf - €39.99/£34.99/$54.95 AUD/$69.95 NZD
WipEout 2048 - €39.99/£34.99/$54.95 AUD/$69.95 NZD
Unit 13 - €39.99/£34.99/$54.95 AUD/$69.95 NZD
Little Deviants - €29.99/£24.99/$39.95 AUD/$54.95 NZD
Reality Fighters - €29.99/£24.99/$39.95 AUD/$54.95 NZD
Memory Cards:
4Gb Memory Card - €19.99/£17.99/$26.95 AUD/$34.95 NZD
8Gb Memory Card - €34.99/£31.99/$44.95 AUD/$59.95 NZD
16Gb Memory Card - €49.99/£44.99/$64.95 AUD/$84.95 NZD
Peripherals:
AC adaptor - €9.99/£8.99/$12.95 AUD/$16.95 NZD
Portable charger - €49.99/£44.99/$64.95 AUD/$84.95 NZD
USB cable - €9.99/£8.99/$12.95 AUD/$16.95 NZD
In-ear headset - €19.99/£17.99/$26.95 AUD/$34.95 NZD
Starter kit - €24.99/ £21.99/$34.95 AUD/$44.95 NZD
Travel kit - €29.99/ £25.99/$39.95 AUD/$49.95 NZD
[From Link]
And some other ones(some of which I'm not sure if they will be out at launch);
- Everybody’s Golf
- Escape Plan
- Gravity Rush
- Hustle Kings
- MotorStorm RC
- Top Darts
- Super StarDust Delta
24th February
The Last Story (Wii) This is the only one so far that I've preordered out of these games.
Hyperdimension Neptunia Mk.2 (PS3)
Syndicate (PS3/360)
Binary Domain (PS3/360)
8th March
Metal Gear Solid: Snake Eater 3D (3DS)
9th March
Mass Effect 3 (PS3/360/PC) Will be awesome, perhaps minus the multiplayer...
Asura's Wrath (PS3/360)
Street Fighter x Tekken (PS3/360)
13th March
Silent Hill Downpour (PS3/360) I'm wanting to get into this franchise but I'm a wuss...
14th March
Journey (PS3) Interesting looking game from the developers of Flower.
16th March (Should be renamed Bit. Trip Day!)
Bit. Trip Complete (Wii)
Bit. Trip Saga (3DS)
Rayman Origins (3DS) Way later than this should have come out, is this date right?
Yakuza: Dead Souls (PS3)
22nd March
Angry Birds Space (IOS) A few more million copies to be sold?
23rd March
Armored Core 5 (PS3/360)
Kid Icarus: Uprising (3DS) Should really have been a launch title...or earlier in the year IMO
Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City (PS3/360)
Ninja Gaiden 3 (PS3/360) Don't know much about NG other than they like to release the same games
[Used info from Link]
There are a lot more, like Diablo III, Akai Katana and many others that I didn't include, so hopefully this is slightly helpful in keeping track of things...
Tuesday, February 7, 2012
Now Playing - "Hey granny, give me some miso."
Its been ages since I did one of these posts, well kind of...I did a bit of a massive recap as to what I've been playing recently in the last post...Anyways, I've been playing some games in between uni and other stuff. Actually, I've not done much more for uni other than the lectures and labs in the first week. I have a day off this year(Tuesdays), but apart from that and Wednesdays, its quite a busy timetable. So I've managed to procrastinate to a satisfactory level so far, at least in terms of games... =p
My laptop charger broke for my laptop a few days before Christmas. Either my dad is psychic and knew that was going to happen, or it was his need to buy uneccessary new gadgets every christmas. Either way, him and my mum got me a laptop for Christmas, which I am still trying to get used to. The touchpad is a bit annoying, as it will often jump if I am typing and touch it, highlighting words I've typed, so what happens is I either start typing a few paragraphs back or just deleting huge chunks of text. So thats a bit annoying. Its also managed to crash and blue screen a few times.. I don't think its the greatest laptop ever, but its new and shiny =) I still want to pick up a replacement charger for my old laptop as it has a lot of files on it with my uni stuff, bookmarks, music, save games for some of my steam games and a few other things I could use. Well I'd rather have access to them than not. Then again, money is a bit of an issue...I need to somehow ration my money at the moment, eating frugally and all that, purchase a few of the games that come out in the February-March onslaught (I'm going to figure out what ones need to be bought that won't be available in shops after launch or the ones that will go up in price hugely.), and save enough money for presents around the time as well. I could really use a job.
So the things I'd really want to get if I have the money: I don't think The Last Story (PAL special edition) will be able to wait. Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor 2 might be a good pickup, but might go cheaper on ebay over time, like I'm hoping to do with Radiant Historia... Also I'll have to get Tales of Graces f whenever that comes out in Europe. Tales of the Abyss didn't even come out in shops so I don't want to risk not being able to find it...
Games that will have to wait (and there are some excellent looking games here..) Final Fantasy XIII-2, Mass Effect 3 (really would like to pick this up if I can)
The February-March slew of games releases has started and it looks like I'n going to have to wait a bit to play FFXIII-2, hopefully I'll be able to pick some games up when they drop in price a little bit.
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After finishing off Tales of Phantasia a few weeks back (around the 20th of December that I finished that one...I only remember because it was my last day of Semester A, and I had a dentist appointment the same day) I started up Tales of the Abyss (3DS) and played it for a few weeks, putting in just over 60 hours to finish the main story. I found the characters a little annoying at times. Perhaps the main character annoyed me at first, but he really grew on me with time. He had some lines where it actually made me burst out laughing, just from how obscenely impolite, brash and arrogant he is. The story went through quite a strange turn at some point (I'm being deliberately vague, as many people may not want it spoiled) and this lead to the group of characters becoming a bit seperated and essentially abandoning the main character. As comrades, they are all ridiculously secretive and ready to drop each other at the slightest thing. Anyway, I'm pretty pleased with the way the story went, it takes a few twists and turns before turning out quite nicely. Graphically, it doesn't seem like they have done much with the game though, it looks nice for sure, but it doesn't seem to change much from the original PS2 game. Thats the same with a lot of aspects. It doesn't really include the 3D element to a great extent or put more in in terms of additions. So it remains a pretty solid, but not that different, port of the PS2 RPG. So it comes recommended if you can find a copy of this game. It didn't really seem to come out in shops anywhere on the UK high street. So I really hope online sales are good and Namco Bandai decide to bring more Tales games like Graces f and Xillia our way.
Actually, after playing this and finishing it, I started up a new game+ as I really like the way newer Tales games use the grade shop so you can buy bonuses for the next playthrough and always wanted to try it. And it seems I will do some more of this game now. After going back to uni and having Monster Hunter Portable 3rd (PSP) take up a lot of my time, I think I'll be playing some more 3DS. I signed up for a 4th year Optometry student's dissertation project. They were looking for volunteers to assess any deterioration or improvement to the binocular vision system's ability to fuse images and perceive 3D stereoscopic images after using the 3DS for an hour per week. I was quite interested in the sound of the project (being an Optom student myself, and owning a 3DS) and to see the outcome of their study if I can in the end. So I'll be playing Tales of the Abyss (3DS) in the 2D mode (as part of the control group) for a new game+ run. He did mention that since me and my friend had 3DS's, we should use our own and since we were quite big gamers, our fusion was quite good already. My friend Kris was nearly off the chart using a prism bar test to assess his brain's ability to fuse double vision(diplopia) together. Damn kids and their young eyes... If you are interested more in the study I'm taking part in, feel free to email me or comment below. I don't think I've explained things too well in the post here.
Over the Christmas break I played a lot of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (PS3) with my girlfriend (who I must thank for getting me Skyrim!) and got through the main story eventually. Its really an amazing, enthralling game at times. There are a few faults I found that kind of detracted from my experience. Perhaps playing on the PS3 was not the best choice, but I heard that both console releases were (equally?) buggy and glitchy. Sometimes it will lead to hilarious glitching out objects in the world or unusual sights such as Wooly Mammoths falling from the sky randomly.
Some of the AI isn't done too well. Companions or people travelling with you will sometimes dissapear or get confused by other NPCs, terrain, stairs (OMG Lydia, learn how to use stairs!) and other things. It just doesn't seem well polished enough for an Elder Scrolls game. I realise they HAD to get it out for that really nice release date (11.11.11) but it really could of benefited from some extra testing. Sure, it is a massive game, and play testing must be an absolute nightmare, but come on Bethesda. Nonetheless, it is a very good game, and I really enjoyed playing through it. Amazing music and some very good world building here. Definitely one of the better games to come out last year.
I started up Dragon Quest VI: Realms of Revelation (DS) after I couldn't decide what to play. I have a lot of DS and PSP games that I need to get through, and I asked my girlfriend to pick out on for me from a handful, I think which included Tales of the Abyss (NG+), Valkyrie Profile Lenneth, Persona 2: Innocent Sin and Dragon Quest VI: Realms of Revelation. So I've put in about 15 or 20 hours to this game so far and I think its quite different to the other games closely related to it (IV and V namely.) I'm liking the degree of mystery and how they are not explaining things right away, building the story up slowly. Actually, the game is a little slow moving at times and I think, like with all DQ games, that can put people off. In fact I've been taking a break from this game due to my current MHP3rd obsession, and I hope to go back to this game soon before I forget too much of the story. Maybe the 3DS project I'm taking part in will make me play this after my hour-per-day sessions.
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OH! I nearly forgot completely! I was going to do a seperate post for an event I went to recently, I might leave my impressions to that post. All I'll say is that I got to play the Vita a week or two ago at a pre-launch event Sony had brought all across the UK (I think?) Stay tuned for that in the next day or two. I'll be giving mini reviews of a lot of the launch games and what I think of the system itself. =)
My laptop charger broke for my laptop a few days before Christmas. Either my dad is psychic and knew that was going to happen, or it was his need to buy uneccessary new gadgets every christmas. Either way, him and my mum got me a laptop for Christmas, which I am still trying to get used to. The touchpad is a bit annoying, as it will often jump if I am typing and touch it, highlighting words I've typed, so what happens is I either start typing a few paragraphs back or just deleting huge chunks of text. So thats a bit annoying. Its also managed to crash and blue screen a few times.. I don't think its the greatest laptop ever, but its new and shiny =) I still want to pick up a replacement charger for my old laptop as it has a lot of files on it with my uni stuff, bookmarks, music, save games for some of my steam games and a few other things I could use. Well I'd rather have access to them than not. Then again, money is a bit of an issue...I need to somehow ration my money at the moment, eating frugally and all that, purchase a few of the games that come out in the February-March onslaught (I'm going to figure out what ones need to be bought that won't be available in shops after launch or the ones that will go up in price hugely.), and save enough money for presents around the time as well. I could really use a job.
So the things I'd really want to get if I have the money: I don't think The Last Story (PAL special edition) will be able to wait. Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor 2 might be a good pickup, but might go cheaper on ebay over time, like I'm hoping to do with Radiant Historia... Also I'll have to get Tales of Graces f whenever that comes out in Europe. Tales of the Abyss didn't even come out in shops so I don't want to risk not being able to find it...
Games that will have to wait (and there are some excellent looking games here..) Final Fantasy XIII-2, Mass Effect 3 (really would like to pick this up if I can)
The February-March slew of games releases has started and it looks like I'n going to have to wait a bit to play FFXIII-2, hopefully I'll be able to pick some games up when they drop in price a little bit.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
After finishing off Tales of Phantasia a few weeks back (around the 20th of December that I finished that one...I only remember because it was my last day of Semester A, and I had a dentist appointment the same day) I started up Tales of the Abyss (3DS) and played it for a few weeks, putting in just over 60 hours to finish the main story. I found the characters a little annoying at times. Perhaps the main character annoyed me at first, but he really grew on me with time. He had some lines where it actually made me burst out laughing, just from how obscenely impolite, brash and arrogant he is. The story went through quite a strange turn at some point (I'm being deliberately vague, as many people may not want it spoiled) and this lead to the group of characters becoming a bit seperated and essentially abandoning the main character. As comrades, they are all ridiculously secretive and ready to drop each other at the slightest thing. Anyway, I'm pretty pleased with the way the story went, it takes a few twists and turns before turning out quite nicely. Graphically, it doesn't seem like they have done much with the game though, it looks nice for sure, but it doesn't seem to change much from the original PS2 game. Thats the same with a lot of aspects. It doesn't really include the 3D element to a great extent or put more in in terms of additions. So it remains a pretty solid, but not that different, port of the PS2 RPG. So it comes recommended if you can find a copy of this game. It didn't really seem to come out in shops anywhere on the UK high street. So I really hope online sales are good and Namco Bandai decide to bring more Tales games like Graces f and Xillia our way.
Actually, after playing this and finishing it, I started up a new game+ as I really like the way newer Tales games use the grade shop so you can buy bonuses for the next playthrough and always wanted to try it. And it seems I will do some more of this game now. After going back to uni and having Monster Hunter Portable 3rd (PSP) take up a lot of my time, I think I'll be playing some more 3DS. I signed up for a 4th year Optometry student's dissertation project. They were looking for volunteers to assess any deterioration or improvement to the binocular vision system's ability to fuse images and perceive 3D stereoscopic images after using the 3DS for an hour per week. I was quite interested in the sound of the project (being an Optom student myself, and owning a 3DS) and to see the outcome of their study if I can in the end. So I'll be playing Tales of the Abyss (3DS) in the 2D mode (as part of the control group) for a new game+ run. He did mention that since me and my friend had 3DS's, we should use our own and since we were quite big gamers, our fusion was quite good already. My friend Kris was nearly off the chart using a prism bar test to assess his brain's ability to fuse double vision(diplopia) together. Damn kids and their young eyes... If you are interested more in the study I'm taking part in, feel free to email me or comment below. I don't think I've explained things too well in the post here.
Over the Christmas break I played a lot of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (PS3) with my girlfriend (who I must thank for getting me Skyrim!) and got through the main story eventually. Its really an amazing, enthralling game at times. There are a few faults I found that kind of detracted from my experience. Perhaps playing on the PS3 was not the best choice, but I heard that both console releases were (equally?) buggy and glitchy. Sometimes it will lead to hilarious glitching out objects in the world or unusual sights such as Wooly Mammoths falling from the sky randomly.
Some of the AI isn't done too well. Companions or people travelling with you will sometimes dissapear or get confused by other NPCs, terrain, stairs (OMG Lydia, learn how to use stairs!) and other things. It just doesn't seem well polished enough for an Elder Scrolls game. I realise they HAD to get it out for that really nice release date (11.11.11) but it really could of benefited from some extra testing. Sure, it is a massive game, and play testing must be an absolute nightmare, but come on Bethesda. Nonetheless, it is a very good game, and I really enjoyed playing through it. Amazing music and some very good world building here. Definitely one of the better games to come out last year.
I started up Dragon Quest VI: Realms of Revelation (DS) after I couldn't decide what to play. I have a lot of DS and PSP games that I need to get through, and I asked my girlfriend to pick out on for me from a handful, I think which included Tales of the Abyss (NG+), Valkyrie Profile Lenneth, Persona 2: Innocent Sin and Dragon Quest VI: Realms of Revelation. So I've put in about 15 or 20 hours to this game so far and I think its quite different to the other games closely related to it (IV and V namely.) I'm liking the degree of mystery and how they are not explaining things right away, building the story up slowly. Actually, the game is a little slow moving at times and I think, like with all DQ games, that can put people off. In fact I've been taking a break from this game due to my current MHP3rd obsession, and I hope to go back to this game soon before I forget too much of the story. Maybe the 3DS project I'm taking part in will make me play this after my hour-per-day sessions.
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OH! I nearly forgot completely! I was going to do a seperate post for an event I went to recently, I might leave my impressions to that post. All I'll say is that I got to play the Vita a week or two ago at a pre-launch event Sony had brought all across the UK (I think?) Stay tuned for that in the next day or two. I'll be giving mini reviews of a lot of the launch games and what I think of the system itself. =)
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