If your a Blizzard fan, or a World of Warcraft fan you will undoubtedly know that today marks the start of the 30 days you have to convert your WoW account to a Battle.net account.

This is the start to ham agenize the game base that they have which will later consist of Starcraft 2 and Diablo 3.

I for one welcome the change as I am an avid Blizzard fan and will be on Diablo while most my friends will still be playing wow or moving on to Starcraft 2.
I hope this is the first set to building a great Blizzard gaming community and I hope that there will be even more games to be added later.

What do you all thing about this, or do you not give 2 squirts of piss since it is a pc game?


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(side note= I know I put ham agenize, and not homogenize, as the joke was meant to mean they are bleaching all their meat to look the same, as the meat being the games.)

When you think about what is in a game now a day what do you think about. Do you think about what the graphics, controls, story, or something more. Maybe the why. Was there a point the author was trying to make? Now The last post I made I asked my fellow c-blogers to think about the way they talk and feel about the idea of fun and art as one in the same for the pure fact that art is interesting and thus entertaining, and we all know that what is entertaining is in fact fun. I think we need to stop looking at graphics, controls, story, and why for right now. I think we need to look at the how.

Now by nature, games are made and designed to be entertaining in the same way movies are. They are both a visual and audio media. The only real difference is that one is made to be controlled by the one watching it. Now in my mind’s eye movies are an easier media to achieve artistic greatness. The two reasons for this are so;

Movies are not an experience that requires skill to enjoy thus not limiting it’s target user base. I think the greatest example of this I just encountered was when I sat my Japanese friends down that are avid JRPG players and music game players “Feel like this is the majority of the games Japanese people play, with Fighters and Shmups” to play the demo of the game I am exited to buy, WET. Now when I played through the demo the first time I beat it with out dieing one time. By the third time playing through I video taped it for my friend to see and end up having a run time of 9 min. Every time I play the demo it gives me a feeling like I am watching my favorite seen from “Kill Bill” as well as my friends that said they wanted to play it. But here is where this proves “Movies are not an experience that requires skill to enjoy thus not limiting it’s target user base.” When they got there hands on the game they where confused and dismayed. As I explained the controls to them in Japanese they where filled with question about things that I take for granted. For instance: left analog stick to move run, right to aim. White circle means it is not a valid target red means you can kill it. R1 is to shoot a gun and Square is normally melee. Now I never thought about that before as it most of the games I play have this same set up. As I have now build up the gamer skill do this without any problem, and In fact ended up playing the demo on request 2 more times so my friends could watch it in motion, but as soon as I said “why don’t you try again instead of me playing” the quick reply is “we want to see the game but the game feels to difficult to play.” (Japanese translation is a little bit of but means the same for what they said.)

Two, price and mental investment. The investment for, lets just say one system, and lets say the cheapest (Wii). The Wii is $250 and comes with a game. There you have made the investment to play a game by yourself. That is only one game. Now granted you can get many more hours of enjoyment from a game and system then a ticket to the movies or a the movie on a DVD player. If you think about it, if a ticket is $10.00 and the Wii is $250.00 that’s 25 tickets, and depending on the movies you could get at least 38 to 40 hours of entertainment.
Now most Wii owner are casual and have had there 40 hours of fun. But that is $250.00 right off the bat for a experience of entertainment that can be done in small bursts. We all know that is how it works, a $10.00 is a lot easier to use then $250.00 at one time. And lets factor DVD movies. The player can be picked up for like $100 or less new and DVDs are about $20. So that’s The player plus 7 DVDs or about 10 hours to 12 hours of visual and audio entertainment. This comparison is unfair as you can tell, lets look at it from some one walking in to a store. DVDs are an easy and well understood media. Most people already have a DVD play in there home as the common consensus now a days is it would be silly not to. And chances are that people have already by the time their 20 or so years old have at least seen 15 movies if not 50. The mental investment has already been set in stone and at an early age. Video games do not have that same standards yet. The NES era is what gives me hope for the future for the mental investment hopefully removing this as the second cause and will help progress the video games as art and entertainment.

Let me know what you think.

Lets talk about games as a pure entreating media for a sec and not as an art forum it could be.
By definition a game is supposed to be fun and to entertain you. There should be some entertaining value there that makes it enjoyable.

But really, what makes the game enjoyable is a pure speculation by each person who plays it. And with that in mind almost any game, no mater how bad contextually it is be it the controls or graphics ect, that some one will like it.

Now lets jump in to the games as art. Now I hear allot of people talking about how a game can be art and liked by many and spark intrigue and still not be fun.

This, in my opinion is false for everyone that says so. By the nature of it being interesting and thought provoking it has now become entertainment and has now become fun.

Now I understand that many people don’t like to think when playing games and that’s fine. But for people to draw the line in the sand about what makes games fun and what makes games art is ridicules. And with that I say that games as art should be looked at the same way that what makes games fun is. And in fact should be under the same category to begin with.

Tell me what you think. And lets find where stand on this.

Now as this is going to be a international title soon I will be reviewing the Japanese version, as well as giving any commentary to help other with the imported version.

Now most were extremely disappointed with the way the last Katamari game turned out with its “added content” being on the disc itself.

I am here to say that Katamari Damacy is a different story and feels a lot better than the last Katamari and gives a some what epic ending to the games later levels which might make you feel tingly in your nether parts. But don’t mistake what I say now. This game does have its many flaws, some of which can not be overlooked.




Lets start by looking at the game‘s Story.
King of All Cosmos gets hit in the head and suffers from amnesia. The levels that deal with the King of All Cosmos are monochrome and are a rehash of past game levels. Making a bigger ball will gradually bring more color in to the world. The other side to the story is Robo King of All Cosmos(created by the cousins because the real King of All Cosmos got knocked out) who goes crazy and destroys all the stars. These levels are more about the creation of new stars the same way as past games.


There is a deep set of items and characters to collect that may keep things fresh for many many hours but does not excuse one of the major flaws, and that is the fact that the game feels a little short and can be rushed through in about 15 hours or so and that does include the secondary Slow and speed challenges to the game. You can spend your time changing character items and accessories around, taking photos, but in the end feels like they could have spent more time making more interesting and different levels.

That in no way, means that there are no more interesting level and goals, it just feels like there are not that many “more” interesting level and goals, which the interesting new levels are one of the greatest things about this game. The addition of the creative levels is like a breath of fresh air for the game’s “let make a giant ball“ levels and you will find yourself going back to these the most when you replaying the game. Some examples are collection items to make a big fire without touching any items that would put a fire out, fire flies to light a camp site, or one of my favorite levels where you are using water to make the plants grow in a garden. These are a welcome addition that add to the difficulty nicely with out to much frustration and really makes you wonder “What can I do to make a bigger ball of fire, light, or to make a beautiful area.

For the graphics I would say that they feel a little lacking being that it is on the Playstation 3, I do know that it is part of the art style but some areas do feel like they could have been smoothed out and cleaned up a bit. There is also a feeling like some more effects that could have gone in to the game like how items are collected into your ball. Also there is a ton of clipping and some times you will get stuck, which should have been ironed out before the games release I think.

As for the music and sound, It is perfect for the game. It gets you in to the mood and sound great. There are no flaws in it and it sometimes helps you forget about the other things the game has going wrong with it.

And with that…

Now lets talk about what the major problem with this game. The controls. Now I know that most say the dual analog stick system of turning and moving is the style of the game but there are some problems, that have not shown up in the past games so much such as it not registering the direction you are pointing to properly, and this was tested on 2 different dualshock3. An other thing I have noticed that the speed boost system ( requires you to push the analog sticks up and down in the opposite directions from each other many times to use the boost) which will break your speed and control and will make it difficult for you to really even use the boost. It not only feels clunky but could have been very easily mapped to L1 R1 fast tapping or something. And also you really don’t need to do so and hold no real use. Other problems is that sometime the controls don’t feel as responsive as they could be and feel like they really could have been fine tuned. I know it sounds like I am saying the same thing twice but hear me out here on these two different problems. The first one I stated was more of a drifting issue, now moving on to this issue of the controls feeling delayed and unresponsive to what you want to do or exactly how far in front of you, you really want to move. This is compounded when you use the new jumping ability. You will find your self unable to fully control where you want to go and sometimes frustratingly so. It just does not feel tested or tuned as well as a $50-60 game should be.

Lets move on to some of the other things you can do. You can always try your 2 player skills out but, I can say with ease “why would you want to”. You know right when you play the intro level that the controls are going to make it difficult, but then adding in split screen to the mix and you just got plain bad. The 2 player mode just makes for more aggravating moments with the controls and split screen and god help you if you have a small tv. Add uninspired rehashed multiplayer mod from the past games and you will only be looking at the game disc and ask why did they even bother.
You can take photos but then again it’s the same feeling of “why”. Unless you’re going for the trophies then I don’t see the point in ever using it, as the game it self is nothing special graphic wise. The auto connect to the leader boards is a nice touch and interesting to look throw. I can’t help to feel like they could have done more but it is what it is. The menus are sometimes a pain to navigate as your walking around a little city area that is used to navigate gameplay rather then the normal menu set up. This would be fine but when you collect more and more cousins, the will get in your way and switch out your Katamari when you just want to pick the stage select. Now the levels are divided in two different areas, one being the King of the Cosmos and the other being Robo King of the Cosmos. This sometimes gets to be a pain running back and forth from each one, and every time you beat a level being jetted out to the little city area.

Now if you like strange Japanese humor this is the game for you. Even though it has some huge flaws It is a game that you have to buy to really enjoy as if you rented it and rushed through you would burn your self out on this game. This is a game to enjoy in short bursts, and no means in a long haul gaming all nighter. But with all that said it does have enough to warrant a buy, or at least a buy when you find it used from some one going through the game in one night. Enjoy it for what it is and all the things it is not (A colorful game filled with humor and no serious nature) and is a great “take a break” type of game when your burned out from games like Infamous and Prototype.

7.6

Graphics: 6.5
Sound: 9
Gameplay: 6.5
Intrigue : 8
Fun factor: 8

Despite the flaws it will shine through, it is not a great game but it is a fun and interesting game that can be enjoyed over a long period of time if you don’t burn yourself out on it.

Well if anyone has read some of my post they would know that i have been living in Japan for about 2 years now.
And with all good things it will be coming to an end.

As most of you know a teacher no matter where you are does not get paid much, and I have now been pushed to low as my job has started paying me late as well making things much worse. So with that and some other things that happened with a crazy ex-girlfriend I bid far well to my land of gaming.

I loved being able to get the latest Famitsu while on my way to the local arcade to play some hot Tatsunoko Vs Capcom action. As poor as I was I could still get 2 hours of game time with 100yen or about a buck. Some times going to the Shmup lane and picking 1 of the 12 Shmups they had or maybe just a little gundam 2v2 fighting action. All the new friends that I made while living here I will miss dearly. Still remembering drunken talks with my friends of why Metal gear solid 2 was better then 1(The Japanese love metal gear solid 2 for some reason.) Playing volleyball on sunny Hikari beach with everyone as we drink and make jokes about the girls to shy to strip down to a bathing suit and going it to the water with all there cloths on( yes they do that out here, guess they dont want us to see the bush).

All in all it has been a crazy ride, and I love being able be here and learn a bit more of the world while I was here. I leave to move back to LA CA USA on the 9/15 and I have never been sadder.

So as I bid far well I remember that one site that helped me out when I needed a laugh and was down before I meet all my great friends here, was Dtiod and all the great people posting all the great things they got to say as well as letting me act like a bit of an ass :D when I just wanted to rant.

Thanks Dtoid ya helped me allot this last 2 years hand made me laugh and think when I was in a slump.
Thanks for all your hard work(everyone on Dtoid.)

Much love
~Michael

You know a day is good when you get a perfict condition PS3 game for $17 in a store.
Talk about my good luck this month. Being that I live in Japan I would never thing that I would be able to get many games from the US of A to easy and with out some huge fee. O boy was I wrong. 1st getting the new 80g system for around $350 usd, then getting Prototype new imported copy for $55 usd and now I got a used but looks like new condition Killzone 2 for (get this) 1750 yen or $17.50 usd. I was shocked to even see it in the store let alone for $17.50 when other imports like fallout 3 where going for close to $70.00 used.

Well today is a good day, and I hope to see ya all online soon.