Here's a preview of the new entry into the Guilty Gear series. And below is an interview with its creator Daisuke Ishiwatari, where he revisits the history of the series, leading up to creation of Guilty Gear 2.
First of all, this was quite a surprise. When I first heard of this, I didn't know what to think, and I'm still kinda confused.
On the one hand, it's not what you'd expect for a Guilty Gear sequel. It's like Street Fighter doing kart racing. Or DOA doing volleyball.
On the other hand, I'm all for a developer trying something new. More game companies could use stepping away from what they're familiar with to take risks on a different genre.
Experimentation can yield good results. For examples, lesbians.
Although I guess I'm more concerned about interrupting the progression of a series still in the act of establishing itself. Guilty Gear is not brand new, but it's not as ubiquitous as it could be. And sure this game could help increase the series's reputation, granted that it has decent gameplay, release date, and marketing. Or it could be a flop and have deprived us of a proper sequel.
Yeah they're working on other games like BlazBlue and Battle Fantasia, but then why couldn't those games have been the RTS?
From the interview, Ishiwatari sounds pretty confident that this new Guilty Gear is the first to pull off a good mix of action and strategy, and is rather proud of it. That offers me some assurance, but then again what developer wouldn't want to appear enthusiastic about their game?
Personally, I still can't shake the image of Dynasty Warriors. Some would consider that a good thing, I'm still not quite sure.
Planned for release on September 2008 in the U.S., and maybe 10 years later in Europe. You can download the demo in the Japanese XBLA Marketplace now (though it's been out since October last year), Google on how to do that if you don't live there.
So after taking advantage of Gamestop's buy two get one free deal from this weekend, I came away with 7 brand new used (newsed?) games and $150 poorer.
And yeah, I decided to forgo GTA4. I figure that game will always be there. Plus, I didn't want to be the cheap bastard who asked if they had any used copies of GTA4 the first week it came out.
So what did I get instead?
NBA Street Homecourt - I skipped Vol 3, but loved 2 and I'd probably still be playing it if it was backwards compatible. I've gotten into Homecourt for a few hours, and I'm somewhat disappointed that some things have been gimped like create-a-player. But still, it's pretty solid all around, and this is as close to a next-gen NBA Jam as it's gonna can get.
The Darkness - I used to read the comic book, so I've had my eye on this since I first heard of it. I wish I had darklings.
Bioshock - I heard this game was decent. Game of the year or something?
Virtua Fighter 5 - Took me long enough to get this. Hooray for collecting accessories and not button mashing.
Tomb Raider Legend - I played the demo... over 2 years ago? Holy fuck it's been a long while. I liked it alright, plus I've never owned a Tomb Raider game. But there's no instruction booklet! No!
Dead Rising - I enjoyed slicing up zombies in the demo. And they say demos don't sell games. Can't wait to get in to this.
Star Wars KOTOR II - I'm not sure whether or not if this is a rare game, but when I first saw it at the store I spazzed, then immediately tried to act as if everything was normal. Like I just unearthed hidden treasure and didn't want anyone to know about it. But now I gotta get the first one before I play this, because things have to go in order n stuff. It'd be nice to know what Mass Effect's predecessors were like. But again there's no instruction booklet! Bah!
Also, I still don't see what's so wrong with Gamestop. There seems to be this unreasonable hatred towards them here at Dtoid. I know it has a lot to do with personal experience, so I guess I'm just lucky that the dude who runs the Gamestop I go to is a decent guy. I mean, yeah he sometimes kinda mumbles and doesn't make eye contact, but he's not even close to being the moron that he's supposed to supposedly be. And there's no alleged smell, I checked everybody.
Okay, so they're making money by selling used games, money that the developers don't get to see. But you could say the same thing for Blockbuster, Netflix, Goozex, and Ebay. I don't see what the big deal is.
All this used games talk just gave me a great idea. Wouldn't it be awesome if you could sell your unwanted Xbox Live Arcade games to others at a reduced price? Imagine something like an XBLA Community Marketplace.
Here's a scenario: One guy pays 800 MS points for an arcade game, go through it a couple of times, and decide they're done with it.
Now there's this other guy who's interested in the same game, wants something beyond the demo, but doesn't want to pay full price (hmmm... sounds like me).
So, let the first guy set the price, to something like 400 MS points, buyer pays, Live transfers the game license, bingo-bango, everyone's happy.
And just to keep the developers in the loop, maybe they get a small percentage of the resale price too. Something like that.
Yeah that idea needs some work. Oh well, back to the playoffs.
An old ad of Xbox 360's "Jump In" campaign from a couple of years ago. It was banned for some reason. Maybe to cut down on the rampant fingerbanging incidents sweeping the country I suppose. Seriously, censorship *#@%<s!
But more than anything, it reminds me of GTA4 (along with every other blog), which I can't quite get yet until sometime this weekend. I imagine that if the video is what multiplayer will be like, I'm the cab driver near the end who's waving the other guy off.
Aaarrrrgh!! Must... stop thinking... about GTA!
Also here's a supposed cast audition video from the above commercial. I have serious doubts as to whether or not it's a fake, but either way that old lady cracks me up. I guess bang!=pah! in Spanish or whatever the hell it is they're speaking.
Here's an update on Alone In The Dark from X-Play. Apparently, fire is a very prominent element of the game. It serves as your primary weapon, but most importantly, lets you live out all your pyro dreams. Let's all hope Jack Thompson's in this game.
Another interesting point of note is that there's no need to fetch keys to open doors. Any locked door you encounter, you're probably able to break open.
One nagging tidbit from the video that the very short driving sequence shown looks a little janky. It might not be a major part of the game, but it still bugs me a little.
For some reason, this game keeps dropping off my radar. Maybe that's because I'm not a big survival-horror fan. I blame those zombie-dogs that jumped twice through the windows in that hallway that one time. With this video though, the game has my attention.
Something about mythical world rebelling against humanity, invisible realm of the fantastic, must save the world, destiny yada yada. All I know is that I remember enjoying the first Hellboy movie, even though I wasn't really that big a fan of the funnybooks, and this one looks just as interesting. So "end of the world" cliched retread be damned. Comes out this summer July 11.
The video shows off the hand-to-hand combat that's one of the movie's trademarks. Basically, you use light and heavy attacks to build up your adrenaline meter, which, once full, allows you to perform take-downs. You can pretty much use anything in the environment to take-down your opponents, including furniture, a fountain pen, and yes, even the kitchen sink. Plus, the higher you fill up the meter, the more enemies you can execute at once.
From the hands-on developer preview from X-Play a few months back, I remember the gun-play seemed a little janky and wasn't all that exciting, but showed some promise with the hand-to-hand combat. With this new trailer, things are looking pretty sleek. It's fast-paced, visceral, and heavy on the action, just how I likes it.
The game is a mix of the plot from The Bourne Identity (first film in the series) and new back story. It lets you play several key sequences from the movie such as the Paris chase scene, along with flashbacks exclusive to the game, like the events that lead to the opening scene that left Bourne floating in the Mediterranean. Also, if you didn't notice, it's not Matt Damon in the game, not that it matters, but it would have been nice. And lastly, there's no multiplayer, which makes sense I guess, but apparently the developer has "great ideas and plans for it" for the sequel.
Might this be a movie-based game that could actually be decent? Release date for the US is June 3, 2008.
I'm reposting this because that horde of Turning Point blogs just came out of nowhere. So here's something to tide you over until the next zombie attack.
Sumo wrestlers with anime special effects. Everything should be edited like this.
Fighters Megamix was released over a decade ago, and I regret not having it in my collection. The concept behind the game was simple: Take several characters from various Sega franchises and pit them against one another. It featured the cast from Virtua Fighter and Fighting Vipers, along with quirky appearances like Janet from Virtua Cop, a car from Daytona USA, and the missing letter L from the word Virtua.
Being a fighting game fan myself and not having had a good fix in a long while, I would love to see a brand new Fighters Megamix.
Of course a new iteration wouldn't be half as appealing if it weren't for the guest stars. But instead of Sega limiting the game to just their franchises, I think the idea of cross-company collaborations is much more enticing. Soul Calibur II included Spawn and Link, the upcoming installment borrows Yoda and Darth Vader, and the recently released Brawl has Snake. That should be enough to tell you that any character cameo from any series is possible.
Personally, I can't imagine a better crossover than Virtua Fighter vs. Tekken. These games are two of the most finely tuned 3D fighters around (the only ones still around? besides Soul Calibur), and a collaboration between Namco and Sega would be a wet dream cum true. While there are subtle differences in each game's play styles, their in-game mechanics are similar enough that it wouldn't take much tweaking to get the feel right. Plus, a joint fighting game between both developers would not only be great fanservice, but potentially generate more excitement together than their respective titles could ever produce individually.
As a reminder, Capcom Vs. SNK somehow happened. I don't exactly know how, but it happened. So why not Namco Vs. Sega?
And just to let my imagination run loose for a second, here are some other cameo/crossover possibilities:
• Wayne from Lost Planet (grappling hook, "Get over here!")
• Ethan from Condemned (what a bumfighter)
• Dante/Nero from Devil May Cry (may be more fitting in Soul Calibur, someone contact Namco)
• Nemesis from Resident Evil
• Big Daddy from Bioshock (again, maybe more appropriate for Soul Calibur)
• Street Fighter cast (hasn't been done in real 3D, and since Capcom seems reluctant to evolve the series beyond the 2D plane, they ought to lend some of the characters to a developer that handles it well)
• Weighted Companion Cube (just because)
And as a separate idea altogether, how about something like hip-hop artists vs. rock stars? Kinda like Def Jam Fight For NY but with musicians from other types of genres. Imagine taking control of Trent Reznor and beating down on Soulja Boy, or leading G-Unit in taking out Slipknot, or smashing a guitar into Fergie's face.
Or not. Maybe I'm just hard-up for a brand new fighter that I'd take any new IP concept. It's a shame that the fighting game genre has suffered from a recession. It's slowly making a recovery, as indicated by Soul Calibur IV, BlazBlue, King of Fighters XII, and Street Fighter IV, but for me, it's simply not enough. And while I don't miss the glut of uninspired fighters from the last few console generations, I keep getting this nagging feeling of emptiness deep inside, just past the rectum where your finger can't reach.
I doubt anything I've mentioned is even close to being in the works, but one can dream, right? So I guess in the meantime I'll have to make do with Virtua Fighter 5 (once I get it) and those Dead Fantasy videos.
That's what the stickers say. I've gotten some flak for keeping them on my laptop, but not as much flak as when I use the word "flak." It's a couple of years old by the way.
I only use the touchpad. No room for a mouse. I mean, I could make room, but ehhhh...
And the part of the speakers where the edge of my palm rests on has worn away into this gross, grimy, filthy, yuckhole. So I patched the area with stickers to stop my hand from smelling like rusted metal.
Do you actually have to play games to consider it a rig? Well, I played that pinball game when I first got the laptop. And I play with myself all the time, so yeah.
I first heard about Destructoid on Attack of the Show when they featured Nerdcore a while back. I checked out the site, drooled over the pics, but then sorta kinda forgot about it. Then a few months ago the whole Fox News-Mass Effect debacle happened and while searching for details about the topic, I stumbled upon Destructoid once again. It was such a fun read, and so was the rest of the site. The stories had a good mix of information, reporting, satire, personality, variety, attitude, flavor, and cocks. So I've been hooked ever since.
As for videogames, the two that I've clocked the most hours in are probably MTV Music Generator and NFL 2K5. I guess the first one doesn't fully count as a game, but I surely played the hell out of it back then, when I thought I could write music for a living. And 2K5, I still play to this day, trying to get all of the "achievements," which I've gladly restarted since it became BC on the 360. A distant third would have to be the Tony Hawk series. I loyally played every game to completion up until the first Underground. By the THUG era, I realized that for me personally, it became more about just skating around, fiddling with the skate park editor, and enjoying the music (custom soundtracks) rather than actually completing the goals, so I moved on.
Rewinding further back, I owned an NES, then the SNES, but as a kid I had the worst tastes/instincts when it came to buying games. I didn't get any major releases beyond NBA Jam and TMNT IV Turtles In Time. And as a side note, I've never even finished any Mario title. For shame!
Then I got the Saturn because it came with... three free games? I thought those were going to be enough. And I didn't purchase anything substantial for that system either. Die Hard Arcade, maybe?
Then came the PS1 and the Xbox. My memory is a little hazy so I'm overlooking plenty of games, but there were quite a few that left a lasting impression. Lunar SSSC was the first and only JRPG I've played, and also the first time I was genuinely concerned about characters in a game. In Prince of Persia Sands of Time, I clenched in anxiety worrying about Farah's safety everytime she left me. I just recently replayed Castlevania SotN with 198% done, and being the completionist and gamerscore slut that I am, I'll probably get it on Xbox live sometime later. I have a bootleg copy of Tobal No. 2, and wished I had some fucking clue what all that ching chang chong means.
And speaking of fighters, I overdosed on Tekken 3, Dead or Alive, Bloody Roar, Rival Schools, Bushido Blade, Street Fighter Alpha 3, and Soul Calibur 2. I was in fighting-game heaven.
Currently, Xbox 360 is my platform of choice. I'm a recovering Puzzle Quest addict, relapsing now and again. Geometry Wars Retro Evolved was my Pac-Man/Donkey Kong/Space Invaders/Centipede, where I tried and tried for that new high score until my contacts dried up to a crusty shell. I've postponed Mass Effect a fourth of the way through, for no better reason than I can't beat that first Krogan but I'm too proud to look up hints or lower the difficulty. I've planned on replaying Guilty Gear X2 # Reload soon, which is another reason why I think BC is a godsend.
Lastly, I usually wait for price drops, as I have more patience than money. For example, I'm about to go on a little spree and snap-up last year's marked down titles. Because of this, I'm almost always late to the party and have plenty of games' endings spoiled. But hey that's my fault. It's not you, it's me.
Anyways, that's probably more than enough. So in closing, videogames are awesome.
I'll add more stuff later, but for now...
Most anticipated games, sorta in order:
Fracture
Ninja Gaiden 2
Prince of Persia "Prodigy"
Banjo & Kazooie 3
Prototype
BlazBlue
Street Fighter IV
Soul Calibur IV
