Archive for June, 2009

Superman. Batman. Blu-Ray. Nuff said.

Today I read an article from Electronic Theater. It concerned the state of the PS3, financially within the industry. Recently Activision complained that if Sony did not drop the price of the system, they would remove support from both PS3, and PSP. Personally I think Activision, as well as other companies want development cost cut for the PS3. That is understandable. With Sony pulling dead last in these so called console wars. And we all know just how lazy we can be sometimes. Easier is always better. RIGHT?!? Well that’s what so many believe. Anyway, I’m here to set the record on this whole X Box 360 vs. PlayStation debate. First off I have both systems and they are both great. I am here on behalf of my PS3. time and again price and quality of the the two systems. What ever your preference is, I’m not here to dispute that. Only to show that truly the systems aren’t very different. We just think that they are.The differences are there and they do set the machines apart. But the core of the systems do the same things.
PS3: Blu-Ray: Allowing for true high def games. More disc space. And Blu-ray playback. Upgradable hard drive up to 500 GB. I have it in mine. The PSN is free. And the firmware upgrade allowing for Divx video playback. Let me explain this little part. Most of us own DVR’s. I don’t. And I never miss a show. There are places to download TV shows, cartoons ect. After you download them. Transfer the videos to your PS3. And Presto…TV shows to watch at your convenience without a time limit before it deletes itself. Whatever you may be into. You can find it and download it. I can’t even describe the amount of shows I have. Anime and all.

X Box 360: This system gets all it’s glory from X Box Live. I can’t say I know anything about the software the internet service runs on. But it can guess it would be safe to say that it runs on something a kin to windows. That gives X Box a better network to run on. And also more room for problems. Three rings of death. The cheaper development cost allow for more developers to lean towards Microsoft. Giving them a broader library of games.

Pricing: This is where things get really ugly. It’s always WOW the PS3 is SOOOO expensive. I can get an X Box for less. And yes you can. Especially if you’re a 12 year old kid with no job. I broke down the things that set the consoles apart, from out of  the box. Comparing what it would take to make buy each console and have them on equal footing. Because that’s what this is all about. Right?!

PS3 Uncharted Bundle:( 160 gb hard drive, wi fi free PSN, Uncharted game, and Pain down loadable voucher.) PS3 head set. HDMI wire. $549.97

X Box Elite Year End Bundle: (120gb hard drive, HDMI cable, head set, Halo 3 and Fable 2), wireless network adapter, 12 month subscription to X Box Live. $549.99

PS3 Standard: (80gb hard drive, wi fi free PSN). $399.99

X Box Arcade: 60gb hard drive, wireless network adapter, and X Box Live subscription. $449.96

As you can see it is relatively equal. We can debate all day and night about who is better and why. But in the end to achieve the same value of game play and to receive the highest quality from each machine, they fall on EQUAL ground. Now I say, let the the software do the talking. That is really going to suck for my wallet. I have so much to buy for both. Well Some guys have all the luck.

Please leave your thoughts on this. This debate goes on continually at my job. It would be cool to hear what other people think.

X Box Exclusives:

PlayStation Exclusives;

It doesn’t matter which console you own. Or witch you  ay be looking to buy. You can’t lose regardless. Game On People!!!!

I am a Role Playing fanatic. never have i seen a RPG such as this. Picture a John Woo Film, The Matrix, and RPG gaming intertwined. With that in mind we’ve only grazed the surface.

Final Fantasy Fabula Nova Crystallis is the name that encompasses Final Fantasy XIII compilation of games. The compilation consists of three games. Final Fantasy XIII coming out for both PS3, and X Box 360. Final Fantasy Versus XIII, which is exclusive to the PS3. And Final Fantasy Agito XIII, for the PSP.

Final Fantasy XIII

FF XIII is the only one of the three that has a substantial amount of information on it. Verses and Agito only have a trailer, some pics and a lot of speculation surrounding them. With the release of FF XIII coming at the end of this year in Japan and a Spring 2010 release for America. Everyone has forgotten that there are two games attached to the FF XIII Compilation. Every month see’s more, and more info on FF XIII. Trailers, new screen shots, game play announcements. Slowly we’re getting closer to unraveling the mystery of Square Enix new masterpiece. So far we’ve been shown that there are four characters featured in FF XIII. Nearly all if the iteration of the series has had more than four members, except the original Final Fantasy. Are there more playable characters? And how long will it be before they release images of them? Only Square Enix knows. Only two Summons have been officially listed. Although there have been screen shots of three others. As of now we don’t know the extent of the Summons abilities. Each character will be linked to one Summon. Lightning has Odin. And Snow has Shiva. Obviously the Summons are a represented as parallels of the characters. Sazh, and Vanille have not shown which Summon they are linked to. But there is a picture of Vanille holding Carbuncle. Although I believe that information will be shown soon. Most likely in a game play trailer. The Tokyo Game Show isn’t to far ahead. I’d expect more to released around that time. And maybe we might get a glimpse of the other two games that Square Enix has been keeping a tight lid on.

Final Fantasy Versus XIII

This game is just gorgeous. The CG movies that have been shown so far are amazing. We don’t know anything about this game besides how pretty it looks. The trailers do reveal some odd things. The main character has a conversation with a woman and later in the trailer they seem to be getting ready to face off. There are a number of fascinating clues to what the story may be. But you have to know Japanese. The game is being headed by the guys that brought us Kingdom Hearts and Kingdom Hearts 2. And the guys behind Advent Children are on Versus also. I dare say we’ll have a Final Fantasy that plays similar to Kingdom Hearts. Although much more violent. Waiting for information on this game is like waiting for a steak and lobster dinner after not eating for a long time. Square Enix is starving us. But really, this is the darkest I;ve seen a Final Fantasy go. And it looks just stunning.

There are some Square Enix heavy weights working on this title. Let’s hope it stays exclusive to the PS3.

Final Fantasy Agito XIII

This PSP version of FF XIII is shaping up to be quite different from the others. But very similar to another Final Fantasy. Agito reminds me of  FF Tactics. It seems like they have all the job classes in this. And nothing is cooler than that. I have no idea what this game is about. But it’s about time Final Fantasy comes to the PSP.

Prepare yourselves. We are going to have the time of our lives.

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
By: Vicious12 with Neo Windu

The highly anticipated sequel to 2007’s blockbuster was released this week. And will no doubt shatter records, but that does not make it a great movie.  First off let me say I have loved transformers since I was a small child, and the first movie rocked.  I even enjoy Michael Bay’s movies. Come on he made The Rock. I even found some enjoyment out of travesty that was Pearl Harbor.  So needless to say I came into this movie with incredibly high expectations. Even after little idiosyncrasies started coming out, for instance Devastator having giant wrecking ball…balls I was still hyped but sadly I was left underwhelmed.

The Good:

The action of course was perfect, it’s a Michael Bay Film. But you can’t comment on the action without mentioning the spectacular visual effects provided by Industrial Light and Magic. The combination was once again lethal. The robot on robot violence were smooth and thrilling, spilling debris from there metal frames and collateral damage everywhere.
I know I mentioned the effects but it was more than just action orientated. As in the first these mechanical men truly came to life.  Bumblebee tears deserve special mention as do the mostly terrific voice acting.
The underlining plot introducing the Matrix of Leadership, Energon, and their history with Earth was a great re imaging of the Transformer lore.  Optimus Prime was a beast. In a sense you could have called the movie “The Rise of Optimus Prime”, and you wouldn’t have been off at all. Everything dealing with Optimus was great. Compared to his performance in the first film you would think, 1.That he’s been spending way too much time with Tyrese and Ironhide. 2.When did he learn advanced combat techniques? It was outstanding.

The Bad:

There didn’t seem to be any significant plot with Witwicky(LaBeouf), The movie focused to heavily on him being comic relief. I could have done without the entire college section of the movie.  Nothing substantive was added to the plot and worst it yielded yet another comic relief in his roommate Leo(Rodriguez).  If you were to cut the heavily comedic Witwicky parts, you would have 37 minutes of the greatest sci-fi movie ever.
I’m not certain if this should be in the bad but as a fan I thought they really underpowered Megatron.  I know he got the kill but he had to triple team Prime. I understand he was not the main antagonist of the movie but his skills in comparison to Prime who’s butt he kicked in the first flick was glaring.  As was the human firepower. A dozen soldiers and three Autobots against an onslaught of Decepticons?!? And we fight them to a stand still?! Really!? My favorite Decepticon Devastator, great concept horribly executed. How could the little twin bots even put up a fight. The logic and physics of defying death. Come On!!
You have heard it before and you’re going to hear it again, WTF was with the Stereotype-Bots.  Joe Pesci Tonka truck and the Racist Twins, I guess he wanted to make sure he captured the magic that was Jazz but I digress. The movie would have been fine with out them. Also whatever happened to R.C and Sideswipe. Their roles were almost non existent. We need better writers. No wonder they went on strike. I would too.

Conclusion:

The movie felt very chaotic and campy. The dark tone that began the movie ended abruptly after the first fight scene. Replaced with an overt stretch for comedy that mostly fell flat.  The pacing combined with the feeling of chaos detracted somewhat but the action and the beauty of the effects just blew me away.
A few years ago this movie would have placed higher on my chart. But the action movie genre has stepped its game up. No longer is explosions and violence enough.  The script, acting and general quality of the movies are so high that you have to (automobile pun intended) hit on all cylinders or go home.
The overall movie despite its flaws was a very good and enjoyable.Not the sequel I expected,but a decent follow up to the original. Good, but not Great.

7/10

Special Thans to Vicious 12

A lot of us may look at this movie and see nothing more than another childs film. It may be a CG animated film, but it is far from childish. If we look hard enough. Listen closely enough. And search deep enough. We can enjoy and learn so much from this miraculous film.

These nine were given the responsibility to rebuild the world after the fall of humanity. And each of the nine  was given a  PURPOSE.

1. To Protect

2. To Inspire Us

3. To Define Us, 4. To Teach Us

5. To Guide Us

6. To Lead Us

7. To Defend Us

8. To Guard Us

9. TO SAVE US

So often we are bombarded by new and fresh titles in the gaming industry. So much that we forget some of the games that made playing video games so great. This column will be for the discussion of bringing old, favorite, and poorly made games that would make awesome franchises on these next gen systems.
We all think of a game or franchise that sits in the back of our minds. Wishing that they can make it now. What happened to this game? Why haven’t they done another of that game? Here I’ll go through one game at a time, and discuss what I think the next iteration of that title should be. I love Japanese culture. So I’m going to start with one of my favorites.

Onimusha: The game that had people saying Resident Evil with a samurai. Onimusha Warlord the first of this  series had it’s protagonist modeled after the actor Takashi Kenishiro. Set in feudal Japan during the rise of Oda Nobunaga. Samanosuke Akechi is sent to find a kidnapped princess, only to fall into a war between the Oni and Genma. Given the Oni gauntlet he sets out to to save Japan and the princess from the Genma demons.

Onimusha 2: Samurai Destiny: The second game in the series brought a new hero to the fore front, Jubei Yagyu.The Yagyu character had been modeled after the late actor Yuasku Matsuda.  Jubei was given a brand on his hand that worked similar to Samanosukes gauntlet. With a more rock and roll feel to the game and four other characters to interact and team up with, gave Samurais Destiny it’s own space and blended it right in with the original. Jubei had a reoccurring rival in the Genma Gogandantess who acted quite chivalrous. An earth war hammer was added to his arsenal. And you could transform into the Oni powered up form. A nice addition to the franchise.

Onimusha 3: Demon Siege: The third installment, and the return of Samanosuke also add another new ally to the mix. Jean Reno (The Professional). it would seem odd to mix the past and future together in a series that is based on feudal Japan. Between the time jumping and switching between the two characters, Demon Siege proved to be very entertaining. Nobunaga was defeated and his soul sealed within Samanosukes gauntlet. Unbeknown to our hero, the power of the Genma had been passed to a new host.  Hideyoshi Toyotomi.

Onimusha: Dawn of Dreams: Being the last game of the series on the PS2, Dawn of Dreams was a work of art. The new new protagonist was a far cry from either Samanosuke or Jubei. Soki The Blue Demon had been like no samurai before him. This game featured four characters that you played along side with( I.A. co-op). You could perform devastating team combos. And you had a ridiculous amount of weapons to choose from. The ability to up grade weapons as well as armor was a treat. We were  given a wide variety of accessories that did anything from increasing power to Oni power boosts. The only action game that was ever two dvds. An amazing story with a nice little twist involving one of your companions. One hundred levels of the Dark Realm. And an ending that had you in anticipation of another game. Dawn of Dreams is the best of the series.

The PlayStation 3 and X Box 360 has been out for some years. I was looking for Capcom to unveil Another devil May Cry or a Next gen Onimusha. Since they didn’t I’m going to give my wish list of what I’d like to see in the next Onimusha.

The last game Dawn of Dreams ended with Jubei and Minokichi starting a new quest. Jubei Yagyu proved to be a formidable character. With her quick draw ability and amazing agility she would be a nice addition to the leading heroes of the series. And also Jubei would be the first that was a supporting character that really deserved their own game. Having a female lead may expand the scope of the story. Jubei is young. And it would stand to say that she can carry the series. Bring Samanosuke back. Have him teach her more about the Oni. Let her grow up some. Add a bit of platforming into the game. Show off her superior agility. You don’t want that?! Have Samanosuke be the star again. Follow his exploits that lead him to become the monk Tenki. Or a tale of him sealing the gauntlet back to the realm of the Oni. Also make the game co-op, similar to .Resident Evil 5. More weapons and armor. And give the characters a clothes change, when their armor changes. Apply level up grades to the Oni abilities. More interactive back grounds. And I can’t forget. The legendary blacksmith. Muramasa. Add a side quest for special components that you can give to Muramasa to forge the ultimate weapon. The Dark Realm should also reap a very nice reward. A power up or skill. With all this and graphics that are up to Resident Evil 5 or better. People would love it. Well that’s if Capcom even wants to bring this series back. Only time can tell.

Lastly it is my dream is to see a film of Onimusha. A big budget production. With Japanese actors and japanese language. Staring Takeshi Kaneshiro as Samanosuke Akechi.

Before E3 Konomi and Kojima productions had two teaser sites. And both were well worth it. Revealing Metal Gear Rising and Castlevania The Lords Of Darkness. Now Square Enix and Capcom both have launched their own teaser sites. No titles or anything very revealing. Square Enix has a sketch and a countdown timer. Capcom only has a date fading in and out. With nothing else to go on besides hopes and dreams, we can only wait and see what these sites reveal.

Sony’s exclusive game Uncharted Drakes Fortune is geared for it’s Hollywood debut. The game is being developed for the big screen by Columbia Pictures. Kyle Ward is set to write the adaptation of the game. Who will they get to play Nate Drake? And who do feel would be a good Drake?

Not too often do we get good films, with heart and soul that doesn’t suck. Amelia is one of those movies. Just as Benjamin Button, it is just an awesome piece of art to watch. The movie also stars Richard Gere, and Ewan McGregor. Directed by Mira Nair, it opens October 23, 2009. Here’s the trailer.