For like 5 years, I have been hot on the heels of this half life 2 mod, Neotokyo. In the beginning, there wasn't much to see, but the concept art was hot. And I am excited to see that they have for the most part, kept true to that sci fi cyberpunk dystopian urban society looks, reminiscent of such works as Bladerunner, Akira, and Ghost in the Shell. More recently though, they have been steadily releasing new media to the public, in hopes of generating interest.

For the past THREE years, I've kept close ties with the IRC channel community, where I really got a chance to know the devs behind this game. They are really not shy about the influences. Hell, the name of the game is Neotokyo! and it's got tachikoma like robots! The game is vaguely similar to Counter Strike in that two factions square off against each other and use mainly automatic weapons.

The delivery, though, is completely different. The gameplay is quite versatile from what I hear, and does not get stale easily. Currently, the game is pretty much done. But, for a mod to be successful, it needs a fair amount of users, especially at launch. So they have been working on increasing interest. I am proud to be a fan of this game even though I haven't played it, I know I won't be let down. I have seen it develop from concept art into full gameplay.

Neotokyo was recently selected as the runner up in the 2008 best upcoming mod award competition held on moddb.com

A few months ago, they also released an original soundtrack, available for purchase online. It has been praised by virtually everyone who listens to it.

There was also a trailer released in December, which the devs humbly noted 'generated too much interest'.

In the past few weeks, they have released tips for beginners and early concept art.

The amount of work that has gone into this game is unheard of for most mods. Keep in mind that none of these people are earning anything to make this game and all have full time jobs and families to commit to. The Radi-8 team is a really well accomplished group of designers with great ideas and creative minds. They have impressive resumes; one of them works with the prestigious Weta Workshop! I really hope that this game gets a lot of players. It is aesthetically very creative and makes great use of the engine to create some dynamic gameplay.

I don't want to give anything away and load my post with gameplay details and screenshots; I believe that finding out about this game is quite an experience in itself. [/existentialism]

So GameVideos.com just posted a debut trailer of King of Fighters Online.

It appears to have the SNK playmore license, so it's not like that street fighter online thing I presume.

The design and graphics look pretty sweet. There are a few things I'm concerned about:
-By opening up the fighting area(instead of just being a straight 2d enclosed stage it's a 3D arena), I think the difficulty will be toned down; especially with coop matches. Although I haven't played any of the Maximum Impact games, so I dunno.
-I really hope they make full use of the huge roster they've accumulated over the years(unlike XII). Very odd that Iori wasn't in the trailer but Kula was... But that probably means that the characters they showed are definitely not a finalized roster.
-It would be cool if they incorporated some crap from old games' plotlines(Orochi, NESTS, etc.) even if they were half-assed.
-I know it sounds stupid but it would be pretty shway if they revamped some old stages. Or combine several old stages to make separate 'regions'(for example a Korea region would feature subregions that look like some of the Korea stages from previous games)

No Ignition though... I guess no coverage from Shane?

I just played Xenogears for like 3-4 hours. I am 21 years old. I have been gaming for an awfully long time now but have not completed as many games as I would have liked. Overall difficulty is not a reason for me to stop playing. Getting stuck is. I am used to slowly chipping away at a game day by day(as I did after coming home from school). But sometime after I beat Final Fantasy 7 in 1999, I started feeling the drain and became less motivated to finish my games. Maybe it was because as I grew older, my brother and I were able to procure more videogames, or maybe it's because I grew tired... at age 12.

So here is the first segment in the series "Putting down the controller". Do any of you chumps remember Xenogears? I do. It was the third Playstation game I got. My brother and I played it and got through several quests, learning new skills, doing cool combos, beating the living crap out of Gebler with our badass gears(giant robots)... It's a long and very fulfilling game. After 10 years, I have yet to get to the second disc! Only recently have I learned the importance of abilities, accessories, and gear parts. Unlike other games, you can't just muscle your way through each battle. I found myself fiddling around with bart's setup several times today before I actually beat Shahkhan at the Ignas gate.

Sounds awesome, right? Yea well it is. Except for the long conversations. But like many rpgs, there are points where you will get stuck. Points where you cannot level your characters any further, buy equipment, or make any other such improvements and must face a boss. And sometimes, you can screw around with equipment and strategies in order to win. This is when I learned to create TWO save states. (well ok, there were several times I should have learned and done this but didn't-- FFtactics Balk fight anyone?)



One such fight was the somewhat infamous 'shevat generator battles'. Here you have to protect four generators from the gebler who have four different attacking teams. Two are rather easy, two are difficult as hell if you don't know what you're doing. The latter two involve gel and sonic attacks that can be quite damaging. And at the time I was rather careless and sold everything I did not already have equipped, not realizing the usefulness of 'response' in the gear stat screen. So in the past 10 years I tried again and again to get back to that spot in the game to get another chance. But I simply did not have the patience to sit through everything again. But I made minor progress here and there. Then, this past fall, I did make it. My response was high; I kept my old and resp circuits. I didn't sell anything. After failing to beat these battles again and again(but now at age 21 and not 13) I was forced to do something I did not think about-- fiddle around with my accessories. I have played several rpgs and all, many classics that were great in their own right, but none of them made me make full use of my accessories like Xenogears. Sure, I put the controller down again soon after, but I will cover that later.

Not only did I have to change equipment and players based on the battles, but I also had to choose the order of the fights. Different battles gave me different parts and these parts could help another player, so I had to choose carefully. And even if I had everything equipped properly, it all came down to chance and strategy. Because not only do you have to worry about making your hits count and avoiding your enemy-- you have to worry about running out of fuel if the battle lasts long enough. And it can all be quite nervewracking.


I can't tell you how many times I read that screen-- Xenogears suffered from having longass unskippable conversations and cutscenes, many of which where directly before a boss battle, AFTER the last save point, ARGHH!!!

While the game does not offer the greatest array of equipment or abilities, each decision you make is quite crucial to the outcome of the battle.

The Shevat Generator Battles. I did not use the same setup as this person, as I did not have many of the useful accessories he or she did.

This is the chief, signing out.(Guess what game that's from)


All pictures from RPGclassics.com's Xenogears Shrine

This is so fucking awesome for me.

Tetsuo Hara's is made of pure win. Weeaboo FTW.

This weekend, UT III Black will be free on steam. Also, the game's price was lowered to $9.99! What are you waiting for?! Get it now!!

Also, let's not forget that the Titan Expansion Pack comes free with the game.

I am really all over this. This is a really awesome deal. It's up there with the orange box. You could at least give it a try.

According to rpgamer (still a very awesome site), the US release date for this FF IV sequel has been set for June 1 for WiiWare. Naice.

http://www.rpgamer.com/news/Q2-2009/051809a.html