Earlier this week, Dtiods Dale North posted up a link to a teaser site for a new Bandai Namco RPG and then proceeded to wish for a new Xenosaga game.

Of course, due to various issues with the franchise, development team and whatnot that was always going to be impossible.
Nevertheless, a small group of vocal fans then chimed in with the support for the idea and started going on about how Xenogears was one of the best games ever made (which it is!!!)

But the timer is up now, and it's time to completely crush any dreams and aspirations anyone may have had when playing "guess the game from the really vague splash page)
Bandai Namco are doing Digimon story: Lost evolution and it's for the DS.

That, people is the mystery RPG!

Seems that it's a sequel to another Digimon DS RPG which was last seen in 2007. I wouldn't know since I don't keep up with this stuff. the series was released in Japan and the US but not europe so I guess it will probably follow this pattern.
I guess it was interesting to see that Bandai Namco have worked on RPGs
other than the tales series...

Dear Readers,

I believe that it is now time to take a moments silence to mark the death of a constant companion, one which has been with video games since it all began! The instruction manual.
For many years now, it has been in ill health and largely ignored but it has doggedly stuck by us like a travelling companion as we raided tombs, beat up aliens, took over liberty city and saved the world, again! Sure, the PC games have long forsaken the printed manual but it always had a home with the console games!
But now, it seems that it has reached the end of it's life and it's ready to go. Not with a bang, but with a whimper!

What caused this "sudden" revelation? What else, Modern Warfare 2! A quick glance at the instruction manual for the 360 version of MW2 shows that it's a whole 4 pages long. 4 PAGES!!!! Oh how the mighty have fallen.



Admittedly, the humble instruction manual was never an essential item for most games. Back in the 8 & 16 bit era, when 80% of all games were variations on the 2D platform game, all the player needed to know was what the jump button was and what was the other button did (usually shoot) so he didn't need to read the instruction manual to play the game. He could, however, read it to gain some backstory on the game setting, seeing as most games pretty much threw you into the thick of things!
The other, now forgotten, use of the instruction manual was due to it's last few blank pages where gamers would furiously scribble passwords, hints and cheats to help themselves along the way!
A look at my SNES Megaman X (and X2) instruction manual shows a mountain of passwords to let me progress from where I left off, back before the advent of the memory card!



There were some notable exceptions to the rule, however, where the manual not only was useful, but was required reading. Like in Flashback for the MegaDrive/Amiga/SNES



Flashback was one of my earliest memories of a context sensitive control system, where one button could do multiple tasks. I vividly remember reading the manual and it describing the "A" button on my megadrive as the "action" button. Pretty apt considering it was responsible for everything from operating lifts to jumping to shooting my gun!
The single button did so much it was impossible to work out everything by yourself so the manual became a "must read" as there was no tutorial to explain everything within the game.

But then, with increasingly more complicated controls, the developers figured it would be easier to created tutorial levels within their games which taught the player how to control their character in the game. And with it's last remaining use taken away from it, the manual started it's descent into oblivion!
Except when Gran Turismo came out in Europe...



Despite having the license system as a test and tutorial rolled into 1, SCEE chose to print a massive manual detailing everything you could ever want to know about driving and tuning your car in GT. In fact, very little content for for the game itself and it instead focused on explaining driving techniques and what the various tuning options would actually do to your car!!
The japanese version had to make do with the bare bones of controller layout and menu explainations.

Nowadays, it is almost expected for games to have either a tutorial level or popup notifications in game to help them learn the ropes just by jumping in. Storage media have long since rendered the password system of old obsolete and the storytelling abilities of the medium as a whole have improved so much that back history and settings can be done as part of the overall game itself so the manual is simply no longer needed!
The effort placed into making instruction manuals, even now, can often be clearly seen. Many games have quite in depth instructions, far more than what the tutorial provides yet players can easily work such things out for themselves with a little experimentation. One has to wonder "why make all that effort?"
Some recent titles have tried to spice things up a little, with the GTA series having fake "adverts" in their manuals to cryptically help the player and Metal Gear Solid 4 gave basic instructions in a (kinda cool) manga within the manual.
But these are the exceptions rather than the norm. Chances are, most instruction manuals in games are left unopened and are simply left in the box.
In some ways, it's amazing that they have lasted this long anyway!!

Perhaps is it now time for the instruction manual to move on. I doubt many gamers would notice if titles no longer included them in the packaging but I, for one, would miss them.

Goodnight Sweet Prince...

Crossposting FTW!!!!

Greetings true believers!!

It's not often that there is synergy between 2 of my loves, Model kit building and Video games but one just turned up and it's a doozy!
For some reason I feel compelled to share this little nugget after I posted it up on Tomopop. Not sure why it was never announced on the destructoid front page like when the persona figures did, but whatever!

Here is a look at one of my most recent purchases, straight from Japan. And lets just say she was not cheap!!




This is a resin kit of KOS-MOS ver 4 from Xenosaga Episode 3 from a Japanese company called VOLKS.
1/4 scale and reaching 43cm in height, she's rather big and very expensive to boot. I won't bore you with numbers but the kit itself cost more than a PS3 (that's before the slim btw) but she was so gorgeous that I just had to get one.

But an unfinished, unpainted kit probably isn't too interesting right now, so here's what it's supposed to look like (but won't) once I'm done with it.



You can find a few more pics on the volks website

Greetings True believers!!
For my first D-toid C-blog post, I thought I would share my thoughts on the games I played at the Eurogamer Expo which happened today. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get any cool freebies like a PSP-GO as I was a miserable 4th in the queue...
In any case, here are my thoughts on the games I played today. It's pretty much a copy and paste job from my post on my personal blog, so it's a little wordy!
Next time, I'll try and add more pics. Honest!!



# Bayonetta: The organisers wisely chose to only display the 360 version at the show. Unfortunately, it was just the First Climax demo which has been available for a few weeks already so I already had my fill.

# Assassins Creed 2: Pretty much more of the same. Controls have been tightened and the number of moves have been increased, but all in all, it’s very similar to the original. Those who likes Assassins creed will enjoy it while haters won’t have their minds changed. Those on the fence might find that the tweaks are enough to persuade them tho.

# Tatsunoko vs Capcom: Managed to have a go with 2 of the new characters, Tekkaman Blade (VOLTEKKA!!!!) and zero from Megaman X. Both seemed to fit in well with the established characters but zero was harder to get used to than I expected. And I still think the wii isn’t suited for the game.

# SAW: It was pants!!! The game was pretty much you solving a problem which releases someone from a deathtrap and then moving to the next while picking up clues from jigsaw. The graphics were poor, the game repetitive and the puzzles far too long to keep your interest. One to miss.

# MAG: As a game, MAG was very generic and almost forgettable, but the underlying tech was pretty amazing. I only played on a small-ish portion of the game map but I could still tell that the map was damn large and fairly busy, even when compared to other FPS but I never noticed any lag or control issues!! Not sure if I would buy it but it does give plenty of food for thought!

# Lost Planet 2: Got a chance to play some competitive multiplayer at the Expo and the game still plays well and solidly. But I get the feeling that it’s the co-op on which the final product will live or die!

# Left 4 Dead 2: The Expo gave us a chance to try out the new “charging” multiplayer mode, where the human team need to collect petrol tanks to feed a generator to keep it running and the zombies at bay while the zombies need to do their usual killing. The mode works pretty well, with a best of 3 format and the teams swapping over. The team which collects the most tanks by the end, wins! Extra time is added with each tank and there’s a “sudden death” rule where the game will continue until the humans no longer carry a tank among them.
Overall, it’s still very fun but it doesn’t have the impact of the first game last year and the it’s very hard to justify this game as being a full blown sequel. It’s an add-on pack at best really, so I can see why some gamers are annoyed by it. Not sure if it warrants a full pricetag. Maybe valve should take a page from Capcom and their handling of Super Streetfighter 4!

# Dante’s Inferno: God of War Lite, which brings me neatly to…

# God of War 3: Simple, engaging and ridiculously visceral and graphic. If this was an action/horror movie it would be one from the late 80’s where they used dodgy special effects to make incredibly fake but incredibly graphic death scenes! Like the one with the Cyclops or Hermes! It was still good fun tho and I think I will buy it when it arrives in March next year, just as soon as I play through the first 2…

# Aliens VS Predator: The bigger they are, the harder they fall. I was really looking forward to playing AvP and I got a chance to play as an alien in a deathmatch and also a predator hunt, where everyone bar 1 player is a marine. The odd one out is the predator and he scores by killing marines. If a marine kills the predator, he becomes the next one. Simple.
There are 2 main issues I had with AvP. The first was that the game felt a little sluggish with the controls. I think it could do with being a little more responsive. The other issue was the complete lack of balance between the 3 races. In deathmatch, if you are a marine, you may as well paint a target on your back and wave a white flag as a weapon. Aliens and Predators have access to what are known as stealth kills, attacks on the back of enemies which kill in a single blow. They are very easy to abuse and the only weakness is that it leaves you open for someone else to come in and stealth kill you! But the reward outweighs the risk so you just end up doing them anyway. Add the predators long range weaponry which is still stupidly powerful and can be used indefinitely and it’s easy to see which race is the strongest by a large margin!!

# Dark Void: Disappointingly average. The Jetpack gimmick doesn’t really add much to the game and didn’t really open up many new possibilities for combat, but that may just be because of the early settings in the game. One thing which really annoyed me, however, was the fact that ledge climbing was context sensitive! You were not allowed to climb up to the next ledge unless the game thinks that you are in the right area to allow you to press the button. It meant a fair amount of endless shuffling just to be allowed to climb up cliffs!

# New Super Mario Bros Wii: A bit of a surprise hit here. 4 of us had a go and we had a right royal time playing the game as we helped/hindered eachother to progress in the stages. It was basically LittleBigPlanet with 4 players, 4 bluetooth mics and zero lag if you were playing online and with a group. With 4 controllers 3 mates and lots of booze, you could have a hell of an entertaining night, but on it’s own, it doesn’t cut the mustard.This game lives and dies on it’s “more than 2-player” multiplayer and given the difficulty in making the ultimate setup, while it entertained, none of us felt as though we would buy it!

# Heavy Rain: Out of all the games I played today, I’d say that Heavy Rain impressed the most. It was rather refreshing to play a slower paced game than what I have been getting used to recently. There were 2 scenarios present, the FBI agent at the car workshop and the Private investigator in a convenience store. The FBI agent was the longer of the 2 and showed off combat and more timed scenarios while the investigator was more about character interaction and dialogue.
Contrary to what the developers have been showing (and demoing) about heavy rain, these 2 scenarios were incredibly linear. No matter what you did, it always led to specific events and either a resolution or your characters death. That was a bit of a shame but it was still sufficient to give players an idea on how the game system works. How the characters move and investigate their surroundings as well as how to choose options and how the game handles QTEs were all on show and they all worked pretty well and kept the player engaged.
Kudos should be given to Sony for having the balls to release a title like this as it’s not a type of game you see nowadays. It’s a slow burner and a thinking game more than an action one. Without the instant access and gratification of action games in it, I’m not sure how well the game will be received but I’m looking forward to learning more about the origami killer!