4 posts tagged “console”

I bought - nay - pre-ordered Eternal Sonata after I enjoyed the demo on Xbox Live to little itty bitty bits. Then, I never completed the game.

It seems like Tri-Crescendo has learned their lessons.

What I really detested about the 360 version:

1. The game makes me play through the exact same preachy storyline TWICE to get everything. That means going through some crazy long dungeons, again. Fighting the same repetitive sets of enemies. Again. Watching the cut scenes which looked marvelous the first time, but now drag on and irritate you the second time. I'd gladly play through again knowing there's multiple endings that depend on my choices.
   
2. Repetitive battles. Great battle system squandered on total lack of variety of enemies.
   
3. Brutal linearity. If you pass up doing something when you're supposed to do it right then and there you don't have chances to go back. I hope for a bit more freedom, especially when it comes to the side quests.
4. Characters aren't too well developed. They've got personality built through their choices of voice actor/actress as well as attacks, but for a game where story is a big deal, not knowing so much about everyone is a disappointment.

A lot of RPGs that interest me are headed towards the Xbox 360 pretty soon, but I really don't know if they're going to be exclusives for long. A lot of them are Japanese made, but I seeing how a lot of people outside of Japan disdain their taste in RPGs, keeping them on a console not doing so well in Japan is madness. Star Ocean 4 started as a PS3 exclusive according to Kotaku. Tales of Vesperia for PS3 is camping out on a "Coming Soon!" page at Namco without a date.

Anyways, moving on from the Xbox360 Crash Test Dummy phase of RPGs, the Wall Street Journal of all places had an article on Monster Hunter. Playing with other people, face to face? I know some people that play various online games meet up in the real world, but I doubt this "same space" gaming would work too well in the US. If anything, I find it a bit comforting that I'm not near some of the people I've played online games with. Especially children I've encountered over Xbox Live. I don't know what I'd do if I was in the same room as Chocolate Milk Boy(Warning: NOT WORKPLACE SAFE! Video contains heavy duty profanity.) Monster Hunter Frontier-Capcom's PC based online game has potential to succeed in the US but the PSP version...not so much.

Interview with Super Mario Galaxy's director, Yoshiaki Koizumi.

It seems as though in Japan, the director of a game is like the director of the movie. Highly responsible for all aspects of where the development goes. Where he or she points, the rest of the team begins to build towards that point.

Good read.

Yes, I know I have been blabbing quite a bit about Earth Defense Force. To me, it is a very important game; it shows that there's still people with sense out there in the industry. Takehiro Homma is some kind of ray of sunshine and he reassures me that I'm not a moron for making a game fun my #1 priority.

Takehiro Homma on developing Earth Defense Force 2017.

Summary
Interviewer: Why did you do something this way? It's not realistic!
Homma: Because it's fun.

EDF is a game people certainly like to bag on. It's not without its flaws, but it's an addictively fun game. Although, hell, a lot of these flaws such as the blatantly unrealistic physics, cheap-for-a-360-game graphics, and destructability of the environment do lead to it being so much fun.

It's refreshing to hear someone who has a leadership role in games that puts fun at the top of his priority list. I've worked with people who tend to be wrapped up in "immersive," "emotionally moving," "full of verbs," or "strategically deep." EDF reeks of B-movie goodness so I suppose it does have immersion. Emotionally moving? It's hardly a Homer or Lord Tennyson poem but thrill and joy? Those are emotions.  Verbs? Really, all I need is "shoot." "Fly" and "Ride" also apply, but vehicles in the game are unwieldly. Stay on foot, you can't collect power ups in vehicles.

Ok, I'm rambling now. Enough of this.

Recently, I've become a fan of D3 Publisher. D3 Publisher of Japan has been publishing a series of game known as the "Simple Series." They're very low budget, low priced titles priced from 1500 yen(PS1 titles) to 2800 yen(Nintendo DS titles) and Playstation2 games at 2000 yen a pop. Not bad at all when you consider that full priced games run at 6800, 5800 and 7800 yen per system respectively. Not to mention movie tickets in Japan are about 3000 yen. The Simple 2000 series for the PS2 is freakin' huge!

In a Simple Series game, you're not unmasking layers of drama as you dynamically interface in a virtual confine with storytronics. You are playing a very straightforward, simple game. A lot of these are low budget knockoffs of full priced games that offer about 5-10 hours of game play a pop. The titles of these games are as straightforward as "Snakes on a Plane." For example, Zombie vs Ambulance. And The Crime Scene Investigator. The Maid Uniform & Machineguns. The R.C. Helicopter. The Block Crushing Game.

D3 Publisher has released Earth Defence Force for the Xbox360. The MSRP is only $40. The graphics aren't much better than a PS2 game, there are framerate/performance issues and there isn't a tremendous amount of variety to the gameplay. There's no online features. On the other hand, you do get 200 weapon types(only 5 of which I really find myself using) EVERY building can be destroyed, you can duck for cover, strafe around and the action is very accessible. Best of all, you can do 2-player same-console co-op. Oh no, co-op where you have to sit next to the other player! GADS! Sure, this is no Gears of War or Crackdown. You get what you pay for, you don't get what you don't pay for.

This interview with D3 USA is kind of sad. If you can't view Gamasutra's articles, Kotaku has a quick & dirty summary. No Zombie vs Ambulance for America. And Sony Approvals seems to be filibustering D3 USA's attempts at bringing the Simple Series to America in general. This is really sad. Why is a simple, value priced line of games so darn intimidating? Scared that your every day consumer doesn't care about all those budget busting features that you blew millions of dollars to implement? The Simple Series would most likely perish if it was subject to the same horrible retail distribution treatment that all games suffer from in the US. I've spent a ton of my money and I can't really justify buying Gears of War when I can borrow it from a buddy. Crackdown, while vastly technically superior to Earth Defense Force...Hmm, I'm just not interested in the extra sophistication the $20+tax brings. Besides, it's going through a patch to theoretically fix its horrible, Dead Rising-like save system that keeps you from getting all your achievements in one play. And heck, D3 could really use my support.

Dear D3. Bring Zombie vs Ambulance to Xbox360.