Bleary eyed and fighting sleep, I bring to you good (and sadly late) news for European D-Toiders that I may have inadvertently hyped up for the coming of Way of Samurai 3. By way of GameFAQs (JOURNALISM!), I've found official word that Way of the Samurai 3 will be coming your way early next year for 360 and PS3!!!
via ElectronicTheatre.com, it seems that Gamebridge will be handling the port job, under the publishing umbrella of Rising Star Games (If I'm reading correctly at 4AM GMT-5). Also, it sounds like they're going to be making a fuss about this game at something called the London MCM Expo later this month.
Right Honorable Gentlemen (and Ladies), prepare to FLIP OUT!
Also, as a bonus, here's a righteous preview by GamesRadar.com They clarify somethings I had only been fuzzy on, like the sword creation system and the non-lethal fighting option. Also, WotS totally scoops Mass Effect 2's violent interruption dialog mechanic by a few years! Worth the read!
Can you taste it? Its coming out next week. Its just a few days away! Survive the weekend and a few days, and you will be rewarded with a B-List Masterwork!
Way of the Samurai 3 is coming out next week on Oct. 13th, for PS3 and 360. Priced at $50 ($40 at BestSku.com ), this two year old release from Japan has been the cause of much zeal from your humble resident tuba man. There's something about this game that's very special. I'm not even that much of a japan-o-phile anymore, but I still have a soft spot in my heart for the romanticisizing of Bushido and samurai ethics. Even in the face of Uncharted 2, Brutal Legend, and the newly remade A Boy and his Blob, I am supremely stoked for the next installment from one of the best mediocre-to-great gaming series of all time.
Its been a long strange zealous trip, my friends. And for me, I have to say, its already "Mission Accomplished". At least three people commented that they either didn't know about this series, or had no idea that the North American port was even happening, before they read my blogs. Its a game that, reasonably, doesn't get alot of attention. Ad budget is slim (though making an iPhone game was a slightly clever gesture), and blog/bigsite coverage has been sparse, save for occasional press releases. If I've turned one person on to this modest game, blogging has proven to be an effective tool for spreading the joy of sub-AAA gaming.
WE CAN HAZ RECAPS?!
But enough of that! Find here, fellow D-Toiders, the collected blog journey of my Way of the Samurai zealotry! Discover, relive, and enjoy!
There you have it folks. You can expect an impressions blog and a rare, honest-to-goodness review from me once I get my hands on this one. I'll do my best to write something coherent. Or at least lolcat coherent.
When last we left "Off The Grid", it was brought to the general attention that Way of the Samurai 3 (scheduled for release on October 13th for 360 and PS3) was in Jeopardy of being scarce-to-difficult to find in stores. While its still listed in all major online capacities and as a super deal over at BestSku.com, not everything was settled in the land of gaming zeal and fervor.
While many of you are ready-set-go for an online delivery, the nuance of it all does not sit well with me. Best Sku presented a great price, but ultimately just won't do. Long story short: limited shipping options + required billing/shipping address matching + apartment living plus + cutbacks in the Baltimore Postal hours = probably not getting my hands on this game until Saturday, at best.
Unacceptable indeed, lolcat.
Its a strange thing. I could easily secure a delivery and score the game somewhere around the release date. But that would be waiting. There's nothing like hitting the store, picking up the game and being reasonably distracted by the prospect of jumping all over a game when you get home! Illogical, yes. Priceless, double yes. Luckily, my wife gets me. Over several Sims 2 Expansion pack releases, we've double teamed the local Best Buys and GameStops in a 50 mile radius to score first day gaming playtime. After explaining the situation, she replies "So, where do you need me to look?". She may not be hardcore, but she's totally a gamer.
At any rate, I've done a little recon, and it turns out that some GameStops are definitely getting the game. GameStops that are getting the game have been sent a memo congratulating them in being selected to take part in a special promotion: selling Way of the Samurai 3 and giving away the fabled promotional DVD.
I've taken a stab at a few key stores along the Annapolis to Baltimore corridor. Marylanders, Annapolis Mall and Arundel Mills have confirmed they're getting it. Annapolis Mall even guessed at arrival on Monday the 12 (!?). The general responses you can expect are 1) "Hmm, I think i saw an email about that...oh yeah, we're getting it" or 2) "Sorry, we don't have that in our system." . There was also 3) "Huh. Well I know we have a Samurai Shodown...", so watch out for that one.
We're, like, 8 days away from WAY of the MOTHER FREAKING SAMURAI 3! Get pumped folks! Brutal Legend looks awesome, and the scores for Uncharted 2 are off the... sigh... but a game like...ugh...just...
The short answer: Seems like a smart move to me, at least not from GameStop...
So as I walk out of my work-local GameStop with my EXTREME impulse buy of the week (Marvel Ultimate Alliance/ Forza 2 package: Its two games for $14! Don't judge me!) I decide to ask about my main game crush at the moment, Way of the Samurai 3. Now if you've seen about half the things I've written on D-Toid, you know that the common electronic statement on WotS 3's release date is October 13th, for 360 and PS3. What I got back was a very strange response indeed.
The jist of it being, while there's at least the title in his system, my friendly Game Advisor had no release date information for the title. Elaborating on this, the title could very well be coming out tomorrow...but there's just no way to know from his system.
HUH?!
Crazy right!? And thus, I Matlocked. It turns out that this isn't just my local being weird: there's been reports of this happening at least in the last month or so. The general opinion around GameFAQs (how's THAT for JOURNALISM!), is that this could point to a very limited number of copies actually in store. Certainly, this could very well be a testament to the not-Triple-A roll out of this niche title. Agetec/UFO operate out of the same distribution company, Tommo Inc, which in itself, honestly looks a little sketch from its website chops.
What's the deal though? Is Tommo not getting info out to GameStop? Is GameStop retail dropping the ball on a title that, admittedly, may bring in the least amount of revenue for the week of Brutal Legend and Uncharted 2's release?
As your friendly neighborhood zealot, I've put the basic question out there on Agetec's forum (lolwut? Ghosttown!). What gives?! Watch this spot for an answer on what's going on from very nearly the horse's mouth!
Though technically, this is from the hay producer's mouth...
No wait. Its actually like the American subsidiary that processes half of the hay of the hay producer's mouth...
Look, I'll order online if I have to! Just what the deal, doods!?
{UPDATE!} The honorable Johnathan Holmes just hooked us up with some serious knowledge in the comments here. Looks like GameStop maay not be the place to pick up your copy of Way of the Samurai 3! He's tipped us off to BestSku.com, which has both version available for ordering online.
No details. However, Corenthian and his excellent avatar tells us some GameStops will get the game, but not all. Also, possible Special Extra DVD GET from GameStop? Still more mystery!
** Started playing inFamous last weekend. Its pretty enjoyable so far, having gotten to the first island for a couple missions already. The evil options are a little ridiculous at times, but overall, its doing a much better job of using perception as a tool to drop you in evil situations that, if they were a bit more nuanced, could be turned around with tact and diplomacy. I dunno, I'm playing it as an evil jerk, but they're allowing me to feel at least a little justified in that route.
** Scribblenauts. I'm still enjoying it in small doses by necessity (busy busy busy). I'm still enjoying finding new ways to go about doing things. Sometimes, you've got to let yourself STFU about imperfect controls, learn how they work, and adapt. Did they mean for figuring out that "lift bridge" is the longer bridge you always wanted? Probably not. But I was pretty jazzed when i found it myself though! But certainly, I could see this being indeed frustrating on a more complex puzzle, much further than I am now (about 4 "worlds" in)
** Played the Brutal Legend demo. I'm prettty much sold, aside from holding back on most purchases this fall. Way of the Samurai 3 still wins October 13th. But that game does the most startling things with expressiveness and characterization. More than any other game, even Metal Gear Solid 4, the human-ish characters in Brutal Legend completely sell their humanity to me. Eddie Riggs, his roadie buddy and that random rocker chick are completely believable real entities. Hyperbole incoming, but I have to strain to NOT feel like these characters are genuine, complex people. Even without being ultra realistic looking, they all feel more alive to me than anybody I've seen in previews of Heavy Rain. If you're going for real, games industry, you're going in the wrong direction.
** Zynga. Casual games are crazy hot, aren't they? So many people sinking so much play into facebook games like Mafia Wars and Farmville! Its even got me thinking about scaling down my crazy space game idea into a much simpler form. But what I think would be really interesting: taking all that activity, and harnessing it for interaction with a more traditional MMO or other online game. Its like Demon Souls. What if we started doing online "co-op" and "multiplayer" in different ways?
This is the website for Way of the Samurai 3, what drops Oct 13 for PS3 and 360 . Its chock full of trailers, character information, and THE WHOLE MANUAL in pdf format! SQUEEEEEE! Oddly enough, they play up an idea of good vs evil, though traditionally, its not even about that on such certain terms. Meh. Sometimes you've got to pander, I guess.
We're only three weeks away from, personally, the most anticipated game of the last two years. Its lunchtime here, and I don't want to get off on too much of a muse but I've been thinking about the games that I chose to be my landmark titles for this holiday season.
In an effort to be mad frugal, I'm limiting my MUST-HAVE list to Muramasa (check), Scribblenauts (Check) and the nearly upon us Way of the Samurai 3 (Aw YEAH!). What I've notice din my personal selections is that I'm pretty hot for some pretty janky, potentially busted, great but flawed games. Sure fire, polished-by-resources-and-pedigree games like ODST, Brutal Legends, Uncharted and Left 4 Dead 2 are very solidly on my "maybe" list.
I mean, I'm a gamer, yeah? I've been doing this games thing for a long time, and I KNOW that those Triple-A titles are going to deliver this prestine, gaming experience that should be very hard to complain about at that basic skeleton of a game level. Maybe I like busted games as an unconsious rule? Or maybe, I love rooting for the little guy so much that control and presentation deficiency isn't a blocker for me.
Well, whatever. All I know is that arcade hand-drawn samurai action is fun, summoning an engineer to flip switches is brilliant, and forging my own blade from the pieces of other blades is something I'm REALLY looking forward to!
I've beaten all the properly numbered original Mega Man games.
Mrs. Tubatic is a Sims player, and played a mean game of Harvest Moon back in the day.
Way of The Samurai, Shadow of the Colossus, Castle Crashers, Jet Grind Radio, ICO, Super DodgeBall, Final Fantasy VI and X-Com are some of the finest games ever made in ever
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Players can elect to summon "cartoony" versions of bats, bombs, guns, and flamethrowers. These types of items can be used to destroy objects or even other summoned items (e.g., a club can be used to hit an animal; steak can be attached to a baby to attract lions; rockets can be lobbed at a man).
-From the ESRB description of Scribblenauts
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"Right after getting back to Japan, [Miyamoto] suddenly said: "You know we're including golf now." Apparently he'd stated in an interview that this time round golf shots would be determined by the backswing, even though at that time a golf game didn't exist in any shape or form!"
-A Nintendo Staffer explaining why Golf was added to Wii Sports Resort
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"I have seen the Summa that everyone talks about. And I want to pour gasoline on him and cut off his ear. "
-Pendleton21 after listening to the disavowed Podtoid 94: So Baller
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HarassmentPanda: @pantslessyoda1
Was "pantslessyoda" really taken already?
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"question, did you play with controller or keyboard?
because controller is unplayable"
-Luc Bernard re: the first release version of Eternity's Child on Steam
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"Just because u like a game doesn't mean u have to give it a high score"
-excerpt from the epic trolling on the Prototype review, inFamous/Protoype Wars, June 2009
Well [InsertBloggerNameHere], I'm personally indifferent about you, which is ok.
But, the posting regulars at the site will generally get a little twisty about such frequent, light on content posts. Since everything you post in a C-Blog (Community, Blog) hits the front page immediately, people like to see things there of substance (Longer reviews, different from normal opinions, pretty pictures). Otherwise, the effect is that your light-on-content post pushes down posts of people that put lots and lots of effort into a high quality blog post.
Atheistium, ThisYearsPink, Yoj1mb0, Thefil (sort of), and the early works of Conrad Zimmerman are examples of posters that clearly put a good amount of effort into their posts, and contribute interesting stuff to the site through the C-Blogs.
Soooo, its not because you're ten, specifically.
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Ashimura painstakingly ripped the Chun Li sprite.
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Nominees for Trailer of the Year 2009:
Destructoid is an independently-run publication forged by our love of video games and the gaming community's need of accountable enthusiast press living the dream since March 16, 2006
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