Duality

Thanks for the E3 updates, Xero. In past years, I’d spend hours reading all the gaming news sites. Now I can just look here. =)

For those of you interested in the here and now, Toys R Us has a couple nice coupons: save $10 on any purchase of $50 or more; and save 20% on any one item. Both coupons exclude hardware, so stop dreaming about $110 DSs and $190 PSPs. The coupons can be stacked though, so you can save a good bit on games.

I, personally, picked up five games today for ~$115. Devil May Cry 3, Pikmin 2, Alien Hominid, Namco Museum, and Midway Arcade Treasures 1. Looks like I’ll have plenty to do in the coming months. =)

(Yes, I did a suboptimal split. I should’ve been able to get the games for ~$105. I didn’t plan on getting that many games. It just kinda happened…)

RPG developers take note: hiding goodies in random locations and rewarding players for going everywhere else besides where they’re supposed to go is not a good idea. When I enter buildings, I run around pressing A, hoping to find items. When I’m told to go somewhere and talk to someone, I go everywhere else and talk to everyone else first. At least in Tales of Symphonia, there is a pattern to where hidden treasure chests are placed and there isn’t much back-tracking necessary to trigger side events.

But still, it’s tedious. Why do I keep buying RPGs, again?

(Acceptable answers: (1) Paper Mario, (2) because I tend to get them cheap, (3) because I’m a sucker for campy stories, (4) because I don’t have a DS yet)

Now you can create GIF’s without hemorrhaging cash.

Just a heads up: once I have free time again, I’ll be redesigning this place. The big change might be switching from a side-by-side post format to a one-post-after-another format. Or not. Switching would give “above the fold” room to recent post / comment listings and links to the latest reviews. Not switching maintains the balance—visually and structurally (can’t quite put it into words at the moment).

Comments appreciated*.

*as long as the comments are not about adding recent comments listings (it’ll be there) or adding avatars of some sort (those’ll be there). =)

When I started this weblog, I thought I would let you follow my search for a job. I got gunshy halfway through, which is why you probably didn’t know that Power Integrations has been checking up on me for the past month or so.

Today, I verbally agreed to their offer. In a week and half, I’ll be driving down there to sign the papers. I’ll become only the eighth member of their design team. The thought scares me, yet excites me at the time.

Now I need to get a hold of the EE 143 textbook and reader and download the EE 241 lecture notes. I don’t why my parents think I won’t want to go back to school after working. I won’t get tired of school. Working will be just like school—except with better pay.

Also announced in the Nintendo Press Conference was their new Gameboy. However, it’s just a GBA, only smaller. Which has me confused. Sure it’s sexy and small, but they lost two buttons! Well, have a look for yourself. (Am I the only one who think it looks like an NES controller?)

Early this morning at Nintendo’s Press conference, they reveled their new system to the world, the Revolution! Yeah, that’s the actual name. Now since the press conference is still going on at the moment, more details have yet to be released, but soon as I can get em, you’ll get em. For now, enjoy the beauty that is the Revolution!

A recent article at Gamespot has stated that Square-Enix has teamed up with Microsoft to bring Final Fantasy XI to the XBOX 360. This will be the third platform that FFXI has been on since its release in 2003.

And in other news, Microsoft has stated that the new XBOX 360 WILL be backwards compatible with the current XBOX

During Sony’s massive press conference, it showed off some of it’s new games and a few tech demos. One of which was to recreate the entire opening scene from Final Fantasy VII. Is this only a tech demo, or a sign of things to come. I know I’m not the only one praying for Square-Enix to cash in on a remake. And if this is where they start from, there’s not a whole lot to improve upon. You can see the video yourself at Gamespot.

Sony’s press conference today was quite impressive as they showed off their new Playstation 3. The Playstation 3 will be a “Super computer for computer entertainment,” said Sony Computer Entertainment’s head Ken Kutaragi. With it’s much publicized ‘Cell’ chip, the PS3 will be running it’s chip at 3.2 Ghz, giving it roughly 2.18 teraflops of overall performance (beat that XBOX 360!). It will also have a new RSX graphics card from Nvidia, which is capable of twice the performance of their current top of the line video card (the Nvidia GeForce 6800 Ultra). Also, it will have some built in features like video chat, Internet access, and digital photo, audio and video viewing.

The new Blu-Ray media that the PS3 will be using can hold up to SIX times the amount of data of current DVDs, and the PS3’s media bay can read CDROM, CD-RW, DVD, DVD-ROM, DVD-R, and DVD+R. Not to mention the fact that it will be backwards compatible all the way to the original Playstation. Other features include slots for the Memory Stick Duo, an SD slot, a compact flash memory slot and six USB slots. Also, like the XBOX 360, it will have a detachable external hardrive. And let’s not forget it’s ability to support seven bluetooth controllers.

More things will be released as this week moves on but for now, Sony has done it again. Amazing…

Today, Blizzard (or more specifically VU-Games) bought Swinging Ape Studies. For those of you who don’t know, SAS has been developing Starcraft: Ghost, Blizzard’s first console game. Today just seals the deal between the two studios. You can go here to read more info about the buy-out.

I present to you, Teh NITEDO Revolution!

And for irony’s sake, it turns out that the new XBOX 360 will be able to hook up with the PSP. Since the new XBOX 360 will have USB 2.0 slots, it can be used to connect digital cameras, MP3 players, etc. However, the PSP, when connected to a USB slot, simply registers as an external hard drive (I’ve got it set up on my comp…it’s a sweet gig). So this means that you can hook up the PSP to the XBOX 360. How’s that for cross-platforming. You can read more about this ‘merger’ at Tom’s Hardware Guide.

A recent article at gamesindustry.biz mentioned that according to some sources inside Nintendo of America, Nintendo will only be showing videos of new technology, and no actual hardware, at this years E3. To find out whether or not this turns out to be true (and whether or not the Nintendo fan boys will start a riot in downtown LA), we’ll just have to wait for the Nintendo press conference on Tuesday. *holds breath*

Sony, always the sly one, aren’t you. Early today, LA residents got an early tease of Sony’s new Playstation 3 with adds popping up all over the city. Asking residents to “WELCOME CHANG3″, it features cut up versions of the Playstation buttons.

Some details about the new Katamari Damacy game, “We Love Katamari” came out yesterday and I’ve got some of that info for you here. First and foremost, it’s back! The small Japanese crazy gaming fans have won a great battle over the conglomerates of America. Also, it’s fun. For those of you who haven’t played the original (Go buy it now! It’s only 20 bucks!) you were the Prince and your father, the King of all Cosmos, destroyed all the stars. It was your job, to roll things up in your Katamari and replace the stars. In We Love Katamari, we find out that we only replaced the stars around Earth, and all the other stars in the solar system are still missing. So back we go to collect more things!

Since the events of Katamari 1, the Prince and the King have become giant celebrities, and you no longer get your mission info from the King. You now get them from you’re adoring fans. And we now have new environments like underwater, in the snow, and at a school, just to name a few. Probably the most interesting thing about Katamari 2 is that it will have Co-op play for every level. However, it’s not split screen, you both control the same Katamari. This, of course, means that the Prince’s cousins will be back, but unlike last time where they were only usable in multiplayer, you can choose to play the normal game as any of the cousins! (go naked guy!) Anyway, there’s still a lot more to find out, but it’s looking like We Love Katamari is shaping up to be just as good, if not better, than the original. We’ll just have to see for ourselves later this year.

With only about half a day gone since Microsoft’s X-BOX 360 announcement, Nintendo gave up some very juicy details about it’s next console, code named “Revolution.” According to Nintendo, they’re new console will be about the size of three DVD cases (thickness), and just a little longer. That’s almost as small as Sony’s slimmer PS2. But the biggest news for Nintendo fans is that the Revolution will be backwards compatible with the Gamecube, while still using new Dual layer DVDs as they’re media discs. Also, the Revolution will be online enabled from the beginning, which has a lot of us (me included) giving a sigh of relief. It appears that Nintendo has finally realized where the future of gaming is headed and I’m glad that they’ve decided to join.

These released details seem perfectly timed to extinguish the fires of Microsoft’s big announcement and they’ve worked for me. We’ll have to wait until next week to hear more, but for now you can read Nintendo’s press release here.

Today, Microsoft finally gave away the last remaining details of what’s got to be the worst kept console secret of all time. While the X-BOX 360 has some incredibly powerful hardware (we’re looking at a Tera-flop of data per second) there are some who can draw some similarities between the new X-BOX 360 and the Dreamcast. Both were the leading technological breakthroughs of their time periods, both had the next Sony Console coming out about a half a year afterwards, and most importantly, both were white. That’s right, the new X-BOX is white. Will the new 360 peak before it’s time and go the way of the Dreamcast? Well, with Microsoft’s infinite pockets probably not, but it’ll be interesting to see. Oh, and did I mention it’s coming out THIS CHRISTMAS!

Anyway, for more info, check out this article at Gamespot. And I’d love to hear your comments (without the unnecessary bashing). In the meantime, just know that Sony and Nintendo are due for their own announcements next week. (God I can’t wait to hear about the Revolution!)

While next week is going to be mainly focused on the release of the final Star Wars movie, it is also the week of E3 and I for one couldn’t be more excited. Every year I spend a good 90% of my free time during the week of E3 finding out every single detail I can. Usually I only have my roommates to share this information with (and usually my schoolgirl glee is met with unenthusiastic responses), but this year I have you guys. So, for the next week or so prepare to have the best and worst of E3 brought right to your doorstep. I’ve even created a new E3 category for you all to check out. This year marks the premier of Sony, Nintendo, and Microsoft’s new consoles and there’s going to be a lot to discuss. Feel free to comment on any and all of my postings and I’ll do my best to bring you as much as I can.

The fun is almost here!!

For those of you who don’t know who Tim Schafer is, then you’ve been missing out on some of the greatest games of all time. His most recent of those being Psychonauts. So, does it live up to the legendary Tim Schafer reputation? You damn right it does.

Learn From the Past
Tim Schafer is considered to be a god in the Adventure gaming world. More specifically, PC Adventure games. Back when times were simpler and games were point and click, Tim Schafer found a job at LucasArts (then known as LucasGames) and began working on games built around the SCUMM (Script Creation Utility for Maniac Mansion) engine. One of the first games he worked on was The Secret of Monkey Island. He was primarily a writer and it was because of his hard work Monkey Island became on of the funniest games available. Afterwords it was quickly followed up Monkey Island 2 - LeChuck’s Revenge. Again, the game was unrivaled in it’s hilarity and ingenuity. The most amazing thing about them was how perfectly they got the secret of comedy, timing. Timing in video games was, and still is, a hard thing to get, but Schafer and his teams seemed to hit on the head every time. Other titles that you might have heard of are Day of the Tentacle, Full Throttle, and one of my favorite games of all time, Grim Fandango.

Look Towards the Future
After Grim Fandango, Schafer took many of his Fandango teammates and formed there own company, Double Fine. This was back in July of 2000 and they’ve been working on Psychonauts ever since so you can only imagine how perfectly polished this game is. And it is! Throughout the entire game I never ran into a single bug! They’re that good. Anyway, unlike all of Schafer’s previous games, Psychonauts is not a point and click adventure game. It is a fully 3D action adventure game and unlike most games these days that strive for ‘realism’, Psychonauts has its own brand of almost cartoony graphics that fit perfectly into its world.

A story for the Ages
The story of Psychonauts centers around a young boy named Rasputin (but everyone calls him Raz) who’s sole dream is to become a secret government agent of the mind, aka a Psychonaut! To accomplish this goal, he runs away from the circus to join a summer camp for the psychically gifted. While there, he discovers a horrible plot to steal all the children’s brains and implant them in psychic death tanks to take over the world! Of course, it’s up to Raz to set things right, earn all his merit badges, and try to become a Psychonaut before his dad comes and picks him up. To do this, Raz will psychically enter people’s minds to try to unravel all the clues and help set things right.

A style of your own
To me, the most impressive thing about Psychonauts was its design. The main focus of the game is entering people’s minds. Inside you find a whole new world filled with figments of imagination, emotional baggage, and memory vaults. But the truly amazing thing about it is that each person’s mind is completely different from everyone else’s. They are completely unique. For example, at one point you enter the head of an old actress and enter the world of a theatre—complete with actors, sets, and even it’s own critic. At another point you go inside the head of a conspiracy theory nut. Inside is one of the most absurd and genius level designs I have ever seen. The world may look like 1950’s suburbia (complete with mailboxes, fire hydrants, and plastic pink flamingos, all of which can turn into cameras and take your picture. They’re always watching!) but that’s only until you look up and realize that what should be a straight road curves and twists in every direction imaginable. Imagine a roller coaster loop-de-loop and you’ll begin to see what I’m trying to describe. As you walk, the world around you moves and what was upside down and right above you is now rightside up and just as it should be. I could go on and talk about the levels where you’re a giant (Godzilla-size) and destroying a city inhabited by lungfish, or the level where you play a board game version of “Waterloo” against Napoleon. There are non-stop dance party levels, and even one that is literally a six-sided cube and you can travel from face to face. There is no simple way to describe the design and style of Psychonauts other than ‘extremely unique.’

And the Fun Starts Here
Remember when I said Tim Schafer was amazing at using comedy in his games? Well Psychonauts is no different than any other. The writing is so superb I can barely describe it. The timing of every line is perfect and cutscenes will have you rolling on the floor. And in regards to the cutscenes, they are placed apart just far enough to make you feel like you can’t wait to see the next one. They’re so good that you can end up playing the game only so that you can get to see the next cutscene. But Raz isn’t the only funny character. Your friends are just as good. Along your adventures you meet everyone from a Russian child who wants to fight bears, to a giant, deep-voiced, mutated lungfish named Linda. And who could forget the smooth-talking, “Issac Hayes”-voiced turtle, Sam Pokelope.

Gotta Catch ‘em All!
For me and those of you who like collection games (Pokémon, I’m looking at you) then Psychonauts is perfect. Every world has Emotional Baggage, Emotional Vaults, and most numerously Figments of Imagination. The latter of which can sometimes rise above 300 in a single world. Now, while collecting them all is not a necessity, it is needed if you want to reach level 100 and acquire all the Psychic powers (like telekinesis, levitation, and pyrokinesis just to name a few). If you do manage to reach level 100, you’re awarded with a scandalous cutscene involving Linda and Sam. ;)

In the end…
To sum it all up, Psychonauts is one of those completely original and purely fun games (lighting squirrels on fire never gets old) that come around all too rarely these days. It has no bugs (none that I found at least) and such a slick presentation, you can tell that a lot of people put a lot of work into making this game what it is. If you own an XBOX, you owe it to them, to the gaming community, and—most importantly—to yourself to try this game. I guarantee you’ll be hooked by minute one and laughing till it hurts.

5 out of 5 and my highest recommendation.