My Games of 2012, Part 4

We're hitting the home stretch here and praise everything for that.  There's not a whole lot that I can say here to preface these picks that I haven't already said, and I'm not really up for restating them, so let's just get on with it.

7.  Gravity Rush

Gravity Rush was a rather stunning game from the first time we saw it, to the time we finally got it in our collective hands and to the time where we uncovered all of its secrets, saw its story and gameplay and truly knew what the game was about.  This was among the few games shown off for the Vita, prior to the release that people were clamoring for, the games that people purchased Vitas for and thankfully this was one of the games that made that purchase well worth it.  The art style grabbed and the story charmed and the gameplay amazed.  In all facets, it was just a wonderfully well-done game.  In a lot of ways, Gravity Rush is definitely one of the best games that came out in 2012 because of just how different it was and how good it was as well.

Make no mistake, if you have a Vita and you do not have this game you are, in fact, doing it wrong.  Though I highly doubt that is a possibility because the game is one of the prime staples of the Vita's Playstation Plus Instant Game Collection which means it is -your- game for -free- whenever you want it.  Because if you have a Vita and you don't have Playstation Plus....well, again, you are doing it wrong.  So, by virtue of not being a wrong person, having a Vita and having Gravity Rush is basically hand-in-hand and this is a very good thing indeed because the game deserves to be something that is played by a wide audience.  It's something to be lauded and appreciated and it's something to hold up as a prime example of what a handheld game -can- be and in a lot of ways, what one -should- be.  Whenever the sequel comes out, with any luck, it will definitively reinforce that.

I think my fondest memory of the game, since I haven't played it in so long, is just the feel, the freedom, of 'flying' around the city in which the game takes place.  It's a simple affair, but because it is so simple, it allows for a lot of personalization, if you will, and it inspired a lot of that as well.  It becomes much more than "Shift, point at building, shift to 'fly' to it, you are at your destination".  It becomes "Well, if I launch myself at that angle and cut off my flight at this point, I'll land right there and then I can do this and that"  It becomes a thing that you can finesse and just have fun with on its own merits and, given that it's something we normally don't have access to in games - flight- that is a big deal.  Because not only is it done, but it's done well which is a rarity unto itself.  So long as the sequel has more things to -use- that flight, that finesse of movement, it will be an amazing game itself.

6.  Lollipop Chainsaw

I realize that, around these parts, I did not exactly say a lot about Lollipop Chainsaw once it was released, once I had played it myself and that was not fully intentional.  Rather unfortunately, the game came out at a time in my life and situation where things were hectic and annoying everyday thanks in part to the extreme heat wave, but clearly, there was a bit more going on than just that.  I won't get into the finer details, but there was a -thing- that I was trying to do with Lollipop Chainsaw and it simply fell through, but I didn't want to give up on it completely, so I just sort of held out to see if it could be salvaged.  And time passed, as it does, and I just got into other things that I could and wanted to talk about, so it just sort of fell by the wayside.  That is, of course, rather unfortunate.

So, let's talk about Lollipop Chainsaw.  Let's first discuss that, while playing Lollipop Chainsaw, no matter what the hell was going on around the house, in my life and such at the time that had me down and got in the way of doing things, I could not force the grin off of my face.  Lollipop Chainsaw is a thing of beauty because it is a perpetual entertainment machine.  If you're not enjoying the absolutely stylized, wonderful combat (along with the Sparkle Hunting finishers and the super mode that played "Hey Mickey" in the background while it was active), then you're enjoying the hilarious dialogue between Juliet and Nick, or the other characters, and if you're not enjoying either of those then you just aren't playing the game.  I am mostly serious when I say that I exist in a world where I think it is an impossibility for one to -not- consider Lollipop Chainsaw fun and/or entertaining on some level.

Lollipop Chainsaw does not complicate itself.  It doesn't over-saturate itself.  It simply exists as what it is, and it's because of that simple entertainment factor that it's just so damn wonderful.  It's not going to be one of those games that changes your outlook on anything, it's not going to redefine a genre for you and it doesn't need to.  It is a game that is fun.  That's all it is and that's all it needs to be.  In that vein, there's absolutely no way I could advocate picking up a copy of it yourself, since you probably didn't, and going through it.  You might not laugh at everything, you might struggle with the combat system at first, but if you don't crack a grin, if you don't chuckle here and there, then, well, there might just be something broken inside of you.

5.  Yakuza:  Dead Souls

It is a very, very odd thing for a game with "Yakuza" in the title to not be in the Top Two of any of my lists, and an even more odd thing indeed for said game to barely break the Top Five.  There is a very, very simple reason for why Yakuza:  Dead Souls didn't make the illustrious cut and, put simply, it's just because it was very, very obviously Yakuza Studios' first attempt at a third-person shooter.  Painfully obvious.  It was also fairly obvious that the Yakuza Engine (even modified as it was) was not intended for third-person shooting in any facet beyond cursory.  So, in the end, all it meant was that the Studio wanted to try something different, which is completely and totally admirable, they used a franchise of theirs to make it happen and it just didn't come out with the same level of quality as their other games.  It's unfortunate, but that's just what happened.

Now, clearly I'm not saying the end result was a bad game.  Because it wasn't.  In a way, Dead Souls was an absolute wonder in its own right and a lot of that is because they used the Yakuza franchise.  Not only did they use it, but they respected it (obviously, I mean, it's -theirs-) and made its out-landish story and concept fit into the long-running narrative and canon.  Though, obviously the game is not canon for the series (seeing as Yakuza 5 exists and Tokyo is not in shambles), you could totally believe that it is because of the way it just fits into everything that already exists in the series.  One of the moments that made me actually stop in something approaching shock was when I approached the upper right portion of the map, where Kamurocho Hills had been in development for the last two iterations of the series and suddenly, finally it was there.  It's like going to your old neighborhood and seeing things that are familiar, yet also seeing how time has changed it, the blending of nostalgia and awe of new things.

Something that Yakuza Studios said about Dead Souls was that, if the game were to get localized, they would 'like' to change up the gameplay some to more mirror Binary Domain's controls, the second third-person shooter they released that is much, -much- more like a third-person shooter.  After playing both games, I can safely say that that, unfortunately, did not happen even in the slightest, and Dead Souls really flounders in that respect.  It's not bad, it's just kind of clunky which is not at all what I would ever suggest is an attribute of a Yakuza game.  So, it's bad in comparison to its pedigree, I should say.  Yet, on the whole, it's a wonderfully realized game with the same things you love about a Yakuza game (aside from the combat system), which means it's a quality product indeed.  That might seem to clash with some of the things I said, but realize that I have a far more vested interest in the series than most, so I'm going to be a little over-critical of it.  And, considering it still made it as high on my list as it did, despite my grumblings, that should be a message in itself.

I Pre-Ordered Five Games Today

In the extended campaign of assaulting a rotting horse, I am once again going to stake just how goddamn confused and worried I am about 2012.  Last night, knowing that I would be heading into GameStop today, I put pencil to post-it to leave a little reminder for myself on what games I'm looking out for that come out this year.  That list comprised of seven games, and that fact still does not fail to amaze me because of how most years go for me, as you might know if you read this blog fairly regularly.  It's not that I am very very picky, it's just that I usually narrow the games that are coming out to things I absolutely want, since the rest can usually be picked up later for less (even as a New product, which I try to buy when I can).  So, come Game of the Year tally time, I end up scraping my purchases together to produce a list of ten or twelve games that I bought that year to rate, rather than being games that I could hand-pick from my acquisitions and rate.  I'm not sure that I'll have that option this year.

The list, for those of you who are curious (though you might know it already) is:  Sleeping Dogs, Lollipop Chainsaw, Resistance:  Burning Skies, Gravity Rush (pre-ordered before today, hence why it's not on the receipt), LittleBigPlanet Vita, LittleBigPlanet Karting, and Persona 4: Golden.  You might notice Sleeping Dogs and LittleBigPlanet Karting are absent from my pre-order receipt and this is both so that I didn't spend $35 in one swing just pre-ordering games, and because I don't know if I'll have $60 to throw down both times for the games when they come out.  Make no mistake:  I crave them, but slightly less than the other games, which means that they rest on the precipice of purchasing, rather than falling from it to my waiting arms.  If I can swing it, there is no doubt that they will be mine, especially Sleeping Dogs, since as you might know I am kind of excited for it.

Now, the more observant of you might also notice that the above receipt contains a game that was not on the list I wrote up before heading to GameStop.  Ragnarok Odyssey, which I have also expressed desire for was pretty far from my mind when I was thinking up this list, purely because I am only now familiarizing myself with the idea of being able to buy it.  Yet, while going down my laundry list of pre-orders for the Vita, I asked "Can you take pre-orders for Persona 4: Golden yet?" to which the clerk, Leo, replied "Oh yeah, I got you covered there."  He then went on to say, "We're also taking pre-orders for Ragnarok Odyssey, if you're interested in that." to which I said, "Oh, Leo you're killing me.  Yes, put money on it, please."  Suddenly, my list had eight games on it, and then something flashed through my head, letting a chill of dread climb down through my spine.  "Do you have a release date for Metal Gear Rising:  Revengeance yet?", I inquired.  "Yeah...let's see.  Actually exactly a month from now."

Ffffuuu-  I grit my teeth against the news and as he asked if I had anything else to pre-order, perhaps Revengeance after all, I heaved a heavy little sigh and shook my head.  "No Leo, that's all for today.  I'm already cutting games off my list and I didn't even remember those two before now."  After I pre-ordered the five games only (knowing that Gravity Rush, already ordered, made six), I shared the rest of the games with him and he chuckled a little, saying "Yeah, this year is just brutal in releases."  It's only about now that I can wonder just how people who have a 360, Wii, and/or 3DS as well keep up with it all since it's all I can to to keep up with my Vita and PS3, both monetarily and where it concerns time.  God help us all if one of Sony's E3 reveals is a, no -the- firmware update that allows PSOne Emulation because with Final Fantasy 7, 8 and Xenogears already on my account, plus a desire to jump into those, I will be fucked.  In a way, I hope they do that since it'll quiet a lot of complaints and be a big deal (always a nice buzz generated when you get to say "Presto!  New functionality right now!  For free!") for the Vita and Sony both, but I dread such a time terribly.

I've pretty much run out of words at this point.  Between what I've bought already, and the nine games that I will get, provided I have the scratch to do so, I'm already ready for Game of the Year time; my list will be no challenge in filling up.  (Ordering yes, but still)  And yet, this is only for games that I know about.  Games that have been announced and are in my mind at least semi-regularly.  I shudder to think that there are other games that I for-Goddamnit, Playstation All-Stars Battle Royale is slated for the Holiday season.  Ten.  Ten goddamn games.  And yet, through it all, even as I, someone who barely buys a lot of games, pre-ordered four Vita games (with a fifth one done already) that will likely be out sooner rather than later (LBP, Gravity Rush in June, P4G in the 'Fall', likely with Ragnarok, Resistance this month), and in fact, turned down pre-ordering others (Warrior's Lair for instance) people continue to smugly state that the Vita has nothing coming out for it and is totally doomed despite being out for only three months.  Some fuckin' people, I tell you.

New Lollipop Chainsaw Trailer!

Well, I was all set to write up a nice meaty post about Digital Distribution (which I only got a paragraph into) when I got distracted with a rather silly conversation that completely wrecked the mood I was in to write it.  As such, I've got it saved as a draft and will just pick it back up at a later date, like tomorrow or the day after.  To make up for it, I did want to offer at least something and, after seeing it on Siliconera and The Games of Chance, I wanted to feature the latest Lollipop Chainsaw trailer as well.  It is, so far, Japanese Only so unless you speak that, it won't make a whole lot of sense, but I would suggest that, given the context, it probably wouldn't make much more sense in English.  Would still be as awesome, however.

Looking at it, I can't help but notice just how far it's come in the animations since it was first shown off.  It's not completely seemless yet, but it is a lot smoother, which is impressive given the amount of variety in control that the game seems to offer.  All the different types and ways you can attack and link in with combos, I kind of start to wonder just how you'll be able to keep it all straight, but I'm sure it'll be fine.  I am, however, a little bothered by the idea that the blaster might have replaced the Grenade Launcher attachment we have seen in the past.  (Go ahead, look in the past trailers, I think it's in one of those)  Do I have any evidence of that beyond considering a Blaster transformation might render an attachment redundant?  No.  Does it matter in the grand scheme?  No.  Just the pure absurdity of having a grenade launcher attachment was a little amazing to consider, so I will be a little sad if it's gone.

Regardless, it's looking spectacular.  Knowing the writing and design chops behind the game lets me be excited for that half of it, so it really all comes down to the gameplay which, so far, looks like it will be high-action, high-versatility enough to keep me (and other gamers) entertained for its duration and hopefully beyond.  I only wish it came out sooner; partly because I want to play it nowwww, and partly because I really don't want to accept the fact that I might have to drop $100 in the same day for this and Gravity Rush and then have the difficult task of deciding which I play when.  Since my gaming time tends to overlap in most points, as I play portable games pretty much at home as well.  That's....not the point, though.  The point is that I'm still -so excited- for this game and I can't wait for it.

Upcoming Purchases: April-June

As I have pointed out several times, to the point where it's almost a running theme for 2012, there are simply just too many games out already, as well as games that are -going- to come out.  While I've barely weathered the storm of games that are out (indeed, I missed Binary Domain, which I hope to grab at some point, as well as the whole Warriors Orochi 3 fiasco), there's still a veritable juggernaut of games as a collective on the horizon, both near and far, and, much like trying to play Shadow of the Colossus on a time limit, I'm not sure just how many of these things I will be able to encounter and conquer which is a bit worrisome.  It's a completely different scenario from last year, really and I'm not quite sure if too much is better than too little or vice versa.  Still, that's not the matter at hand; that matter being deciding just what games to get, what's a necessity, which of these colossi that I -must- slay, as opposed to the ones I can let wander for a time when I -have- time.

For several reasons, the Vita is the beast that I look to feed first, and Resistance:  Burning Skies looks to be the first game in line to do just this.  Wikipedia states that it's going to release on May 29th, GameStop says the 30th, but either way, it's slated up first in way of something that I 'need' to get.  It -haunts- me that I never made time for Resistance 3, nor have I secured a copy for myself, but in my defense, I had to be a little spendthrift at the end of the year (and still do, really) and because of that and the other titles I'm looking forward to, I just couldn't really fit it in.  As I've said times before, the Vita's portability and reliability (at least, the reliability I feel when I play it for extended periods of time without worry) make it my preferred gaming machine, and the Resistance series is one of which I am certainly a fan.  Were Resistance:  Retribution for PSP available for purchase on the Vita, I likely would have snatched it up by now, but that it isn't is a blessing still.

I don't know a lot about Burning Skies, nor do I need to.  The Chimera are on Earth at a time between Resistance 1 and 3, but not necessarily during 2's events and our protagonist in alien slaughter is a firefighter, as is denoted by the expert usage of a fire axe; a crucial element of the game, apparently.  This is basically all I know, and this is pretty much all you need to know about Resistance:  Burning Skies, much less any -other- FPS out there, because you're looking at, in a best circumstance scenario, a game where the story evolves over the course of the game to become more than simple or, in a worst case scenario, a half-hearted reason for indiscriminate destruction.  Either or works just fine, I assure you, and whether Burning Skies offers the former or the latter (I would bet on the former, of course), it should be a fun little romp as 1 and 2 were for me.  Especially so if anyone who worked on 3 has a hand in the Vita's incarnation, as 3 is apparently the best of the bunch, which makes it all the more painful to not play.

If Wikipedia and/or GameStop are to be believed, June is exactly what I didn't want, and as I type this I feel a very real sensation of fear for that month.  Not only is the game above, Lollipop Chainsaw, slated to release on June 12th, but so is the next game I want to talk about, where GameStop also places the last game I'll talk about for this go in the month, though it is assuredly not official yet.  Regardless, I suppose I'll simply have to suck it up and manage, somehow, because of all three games, I'm definitely not going to skip any of them, and assuredly not Lollipop Chainsaw.  You might know if you're a faithful reader, but if not, then let me paint a picture:  I am really, really excited for this friggin' game.  Not for the obvious reasons of course, but for the simple fact that this looks like one of the most absurd things to come out this year and I am all over that shit.  That it involves zombies which I am admittedly on a kick of lately is pretty much just a happy accident; after all, I wasn't doing much talking about Dead Souls way back in August.

I pretty much just love everything I've seen about the game individually as well as a whole.  Juliet Sterling, a cheerleader for San Romero High School, seems to be the only hope of the local life.  Armed with a chainsaw adorned with pink decorations and hearts, the true spirit and moves of a cheerleader, and the voice talents of Tara Strong, she seems to be the best bet San Romero has against the zombie outbreak.  And of course, not only is she deadly, but she's very stylish as well, which is quite evident if you watch the Debut Trailer in one of the above links.  (Seriously, go do that now.  I'm waiting.)  Also she gets a grenade launcher (among other attachments, presumably) for her chainsaw at some point.  No matter what, I cannot reiterate that point enough times - a chainsaw with a grenade launcher.  There is absolutely no reason I could fathom not wanting this game, and I only fear my ability to play it when I get it, rather than waiting for the embrace of Fall.

Slated to release the same day as Lollipop Chainsaw, as I said above, Gravity Rush could not be more different.  Though they both tout quite nice, different art styles and female protagonists, that's where the similarities end as Gravity Rush trades Lollipop Chainsaw's campy, absurd approach to unabashed violence against the undead for something more serious and game play that revolves around the ability to control gravity to combat, solve puzzles, and just get around.  It's uniquely interesting on several levels and I've commented on it before, so to say I'm interested in it is restating the obvious in such a way that stating the obvious is obvious is-nevermind.  People who've messed around with the demo say that the useage of the gravity mechanic is a good one, and it's certainly one I look forward to bending to my own whims to explore whatever amount of world they give me to do so.

Like with Burning Skies, I don't know a whole lot about Gravity Rush beyond the basics, so playing it will assuredly be a gem as it begins to unfold for me.  Since I -want- this type of game to succeed that's what I hope it will do; I hope that it will offer a presentation so slick, combined with a good story that I won't want to put it down.  I hope the mechanics are solid and enjoyable, that they don't make ridiculous usage of the Vita's extra features but rather implements them in fairly natural ways as many other games have managed to do so far.  And I hope that it creates characters that are compelling and well-written, so that when I get it and play it, I can say as much here so that maybe it'll sway someone else into buying the game, because this type of game will sell on word of mouth alone, I'm sure.  Am I hoping for a lot?  Assuredly, but I am excited for it and use that to justify it; hopefully that level is well-placed.

I'm sure I don't have to say anything beyond "It's LittleBigPlanet.  On the Vita."  It's apparently out on the 27th of June, according to GameStop, but that's not solid in the least, and I would put money on it being a quite different date.  At least, I'm hoping for it.  Because all of my money, etc. etc.

So that is the foreseeable future in terms of my gaming purchases.  I'm sure there's plenty of others that could be on here, and it certainly doesn't include games that are already out, but there's a whole lotta game for this year, even beyond what I've featured here.  With any luck, we'll see the other games and a window for them as well, so I can make yet another post lamenting the overflow we're all suffering from.  Also as a random side-note, this post is late because halfway through it, my internet cut out.  I'd set it back to 11-something to make sure it hits yesterday, but I'm going to post tonight too, so it'll be fine.

Celebrating My Birthday with News

There's a plethora of things that have been tossed out today - partly because of GDC I imagine and partly because it's Monday, and companies just like throwing things out on Mondays, I've found.  Regardless, the first bit here is that Assassin's Creed 3 has more information than a mere setting confirmation and box art release.  The first official trailer, the reveal trailer, for Assassin's Creed 3 is above and you've likely already watched it by the time you get to here, but if you haven't, you might as well get to it.  A little additional information to go along with that is the fact that our Native American protagonist has a name that I'm sure tongues of this generation just are not meant to pronounce, ("Ratohnhaké:ton" apparently) and will be known as "Connor" for about 90% of the game.  Just because, I guess.

The trailer also doesn't so much as confirm something I had suspected, but at least hints towards it with the extensive showing of nature scenes rather than large, sprawling buildings.  Especially the parkour in the trees section (the trailer is apparently all in-engine, or at least that's what I've heard) leads me to think that there's not really going to be the safety of the city around you and that this might just be a very, very different game than AC2.  Perhaps it'll go back to the roots of the original game, with all the wilderness areas that existed in it.  Granted, it's looking like that might be the majority of the area to cover (I could see some American and/or British camps being navigational, perhaps even some settlements) but if there's anything the Assassin's Creed team is good at doing, it's making interesting vistas to traverse, as that's the majority of what I spent my time doing during Brotherhood.  With any luck, they'll still be as interesting, especially if the majority of the game takes place during the winter as it looks like it might.

I'm a little surprised, honestly, that it's not really that great of a trailer.  I get that they wanted to do in-engine (again, that's what I heard it is) rather than FMV which basically means a little bit of quality loss (Unless you're Naughty Dog) since you can't tweak every single thing like in FMV, but I expected a little more than that.  Overall it looks pretty decent aside from a few poor spots here and there (my main issue is when he's pulling the hatchet out of the soldier and tugs it out near weightlessly by the middle of the haft of it; that's not how you do that at all) but it lacks the real -punch- that previous trailers have had.  For the reveal of a brand new game theory, a brand new character, and the 'final' chapter of the game, it deserved a little more time and effort, I think, and it's just a shame that it didn't get it.  Still, we'll see how it starts shaping up real soon; as said last time, we'll start to get some real details in April when GameInformer features it as their cover story.

The above is the video that accompanies the second piece of news which is more or less only tangentially related to it, but it's worth a look anyway, since it gives us a good look at MotorStorm RC for the Vita.  Now, why would you want to get a good look at MotorStorm RC, you might ask?  Aside from likely being quite a good game, since it's from a really established franchise, it's going to be free on the Vita for North America.  At least, it will be free on March 6th; I can't attest for any time thereafter.  "North America" is often a more exclusive term than it would imply, oftentimes meaning just "USA", but the Director of Network Advertising for SCEA, David Winding, assure us that this offer includes Canada, so with any luck that holds and you'll get a shot at it too, Chance.  The quote, specifically is the below:

"Is the “deal” available in Canada as well?? Please say yes…"

David Winding on March 5th, 2012 at 8:27 am said: OK… Yes it is.

I wouldn't be surprised if people aren't going to hold their breath for it, but I'm rather hopeful, despite it being quite easy for me to be as much.  For the wonderful price of Free, of course I'm going to give it a shot as I gave Rag Doll Kung-Fu a shot years ago when there was a similar promotion.  Sprint sponsored the game, making it free of charge for a limited time, and I was one of the countless that grabbed it by virtue of being a free game.  Unfortunately...I don't think it was quite worth it, as it wasn't really a good game, shoe-horning in some of the worst usages of Sixaxis controls to date, but the music was nice and it had a little bit of charm at least.  Still, as I said, I don't think that will be an issue with MotorStorm RC since it has a pedigree behind it and looks pretty interesting on its own.

I've said time and time again and will likely continue to do so, but I'm not really a racing guy, nor am I a fan of overhead cameras like that (I'm not against them, but they certainly take a lot of getting used to, like in Grand Theft Auto:  Chinatown Wars).  That's not to say I haven't had a cursory interest in the games ever since I got a copy of MotorStorm bundled in with my PS3 (that I admittedly never opened), but I've certainly not put forth the effort in grabbing one up and playing it yet until now.  I figure it's the best shot in on it that I'm gonna get, and I'm going to capitalize on that proper.  If nothing else, it'll keep the PSP games company that I'm going to grab in a couple days with the PSN funbux I'm going to get in a day or so.  All of the games!

Capcom has been catching quite a bit of flak for some DLC concerns lately and while that is nonsense, I find that I'm not as fussed by it as I am by the other DLC issue that's reared its ugly, mutated head.  I am really, really tired of 'exclusive' DLC being used as a means to try and buy your way to a certain platform.  Sure, I guess I don't mind it when it's on the PS3's foot which is a bit hypocritical of me, but let's face it:  How often does that happen?  Even when it's a game that I have absolutely zero interest in, I find that knowing, should I find myself wanting to buy it, I just plain won't get to buy the same amount of content as someone else just because there's a lot of money being exchanged elsewhere.  It is, in fact, directly counter to what any good developer should want to do, since it alienates potential buyers for reasons that don't really matter in the long run.

"Nemesis Mode" for Resident Evil:  Operation Raccoon City sounds pretty poor in all honesty.  In so much as I don't quite know what the hell is being said in its description.  "Nemesis Mode has the USS verses the Spec Ops in an eight-man battle with someone able to control a Nemesis. While one team tracks down a control unit, the other can "give the Nemesis orders to destroy the opposition.""  I guess...four versus four, but one team has a friggin' Nemesis that's controlled by a player?  Where's the balance in that?  The hell is a 'control unit' and why is it the mission goal?  I guess it is a little silly to expect something cohesive out of day one, console-exclusive, charged DLC, but oh well.  I'm sure it'll make a few people happy; people who will likely enjoy the game for reasons beyond shooting Leon Kennedy in the face at some point in the storyline.

That's quite a good bit of news and while the majority of it is good, it can't all be good news.  But, to ensure that I end this on a high note, I'll go ahead and just pass along the fact that came up whilst I was typing this up.  Lollipop Chainsaw hits June 12th.  I can't wait to slice up some undead douchebags then and, with any luck, I'll be able to pick it up with minimal hassle.  Until then, I guess I'll just have to ceaselessly watch all the trailers out for it.

....Again.

A Grab-Bag of Mini-Topics

It's one of those days again, I'm afraid.  Nothing too interesting in my life that I can write about it (not yet at least, I have something in the works, but it requires a little more time with the subject material), and there's not really something news-worthy that is also something I can go on about for four or five paragraphs.  But there are a lot of little stories that I can cover in a broad swath of text, so that's what I'm going to do.  First off, as you might suspect from the above image is the fact that The Simpsons Arcade is finally coming to consoles starting with PSN on the Seventh of February.  I imagine the graphics will be a little nicer looking, perhaps up to par with its iPhone brother, but it will also support up to four player online multi-player since, let's face it - it's an arcade game.  It's meant to be played with more than one person.  I -imagine- given the type of game, Couch co-op is possible as well, but it doesn't explicitly say that.  Anyone subscribing to Playstation Plus will enjoy the game at the easy price of "Free" where the rest of us can expect $10 which is likely a small price to pay for nostalgia and also playing a Simpsons game that doesn't suck.

Much like the rest of us in the same age range as I and, I suspect, the bulk of the 'main' gamers out there who do like we do - read the news about games, get excited for everything and just generally live it in a bigger capacity than most, I have fond memories of playing The Simpsons Arcade.  Not sure if anyone out there knows what this is, but when I was but a tot, my older siblings would sometimes take me to a place called Chuck E. Cheese which was, well, a place where you took kids to run around and do whatever and have fun in while you either unwound yourself with a few games or just tried to catch a breather amidst the chatter and clamor of dozens of other kids adding to the shouts of your own.  There was all the standard fare for a playground as well as an arcade section and little games that would win you tickets for prizes like at a midway or what have you.  And while my sister loved Skee-ball and I sometimes helped with that, the real, main reason, the main draw was the arcade section where there were plenty of games, but there was also The Simpsons Arcade.  And while I don't remember a single thing about the game, I remember playing it, and I suspect that's enough.

On the topic of releases and release-related news, Naughty Dog released this video above that shows the making-of process of the trailer that went out at last year's VGAs in so much as you get to see some of the mo-cap work done compared to the very, very bare-bones animation that Naughty Dog apparently shines to a mirror polish with tools that may just be infused with some sort of magic.  It's a neat little look into the world 'beyond the veil' as they say, and aside from that, I daresay there's some voice-over by the main character that isn't in the trailer proper.  In fact, there -is- some voice-over that isn't in the trailer proper since I just watched it again and holy shit.  My interest in the game just sort of regrows rapidly to a fever pitch whenever I really think about it, only subsiding to acceptable levels when I don't.  I honestly can't wait for the release and hope that some of the nonchalance its met with is slapped back in a few faces.  If people are so willing to accept questionable genre attempts from other studios, then 'just another zombie game' from Naughty Dog should turn quite a few more heads than it has.  But there's still time yet, of course.

The final bit of news comes from the world of Lollipop Chainsaw which, you might have noticed, I've completely neglected talking about for...well, ever now.  I assure you this is intentional and for purist reasons as I know in my head what the game was, so when I play it when I buy it, and I will do both of those things ASAP, I can see where the game has gotten which will surely give it a little bit of an unfair advantage over other games, but I don't even care because it's Lollipop Chainsaw.  I'm sure the graphical presentation won't impact my overall view of the game that much anyway, so no real worries there.  Though I have caught the headlines here and there of the game, I've mostly ignored them by and large for the above mentioned reason, as I want to know as little about the game as possible.

But the headline "Lollipop Chainsaw Boss Battle Composer is Also a Zombie Boss" was a little too tantalizing to pass up on and in seeing that and the article itself, I've found quite a bit of new pearls of information.  I think, if anything, Lollipop Chainsaw has been a very very interesting experiment on blending East and West if you really look at it:  the story being written as a joint-effort by James Gunn and Grasshopper Manufacture through a collaborative effort brought about by Warner Bros., and now the fact that, while Akira Yamanoka is the main composer of the game, Jimmy Euringer of Mindless Self Indulgence is the composer for all the boss music and is, in fact, the Punk Rock Zombie Zed that we've seen in so many trailers already.  (If your memory is a little foggy, he is the boss who attacks by yelling profanities which then materialize into words that fly towards poor Juliet.)

I was originally going to do a Music! post dedicated to Mindless Self Indulgence because of this fact, but I decided against it for a few reasons.  The bulk of them being that while I enjoy MSI, I'm not sure I like it, nor am I sure that it's something I'd want to freely toss out here for you, since you might then take that as an indicator of acceptance and enjoyment or something.  And while I don't -not- accept the music because, hey, it's music what the hell else do you need?, I also don't need to really throw it out there in the same type of post that's covered music from Nier, Chrono Trigger and the Sonic games.  Which is a really fancy way of saying "I stumbled across a cover of a Method Man song and went, 'nope.jpeg'."  But I did want to bring up that story at least because, hey, Lollipop Chainsaw.

That's about it for tonight though, kiddies.  If all goes well tomorrow, I might just have the first review of the new year posted up.  Maybe.  I kind of have to decide if I got into the game enough to qualify for actually reviewing it.  Guess we'll all just see how it turns out!

Happy Birthday Kupowered!

As you might have seen in the Year in Review by the numbers post I made last month, January 5th of 2011 marked the first post of Kupowered and, given this is January 5th of 2012, that means an entire year has gone by and this is still going strong.  It occurs to me that, had I not done a 'by the numbers' post already, that this would be another great time to do it, but it's done and linked, so if you're curious about those numbers, there you go.  And I guess another thing to do here would be to say how good of a year it's been and talk about what I plan on doing this year....which I have also already done.

....hrmm.

Note to self:  Next year, think this over better.

There's honestly nothing really to talk about tonight.  Nothing newsworthy other than former-PSN Exclusive 'Amy' getting official release details/pricing for Europe and a somewhat sketchy-sounding release/pricing for NA.  It seems the Playstation Network version will be $12.99 where the XBLA version will be, more or less, $10.  The fact that it's a dual-release suggests there's content parity as well, so I couldn't even suggest that we PS3 owners are getting more bang for our buck.  Perhaps there'll be an announcement down the pipeline talking of exclusive 'free' DLC or something, but any interest I had for the title, personally, has been shot.  Not that I'm feeling some sort of outrage against the devs, simply I'm not even going to consider paying $13 what others pay $10 for at the exact same time without a little extra assurance of getting that full $13-worth.

But that's a fairly sour note to go on (all things considered) so why don't I just end this post with one of my favorite trailers of 2011, if just to remind you all that it's coming~

Mmmm.  I can't wait.  Heads will roll!  Literally!

Huzzah for Localization Announcements!

At TGS, Level-5 went and did the thing we all have hoped for for quite a while and announced that their crossover game with Studio Ghibli, Ni no Kuni:  Queen of the White Holy Ashes, is actually getting localized for America and will be out at some point next year.  Honestly, I said from day one that I was pretty sure we'd get the game, but there always was a little part of me that wondered, that feared we would not.  Those fears have been assuaged, however, and now all I can do is anxiously await an actual release date so I can start planning how I'm going to pay for it.

Thinking about the game, I'm pretty sure none of us know anything really about it beyond the fact that it looks amazing and is a cooperative project with Studio Ghibli (which would be -why- it looks so good, of course.)  If you're not really familiar with Studio Ghibli's works by the Studio name, you've likely heard of what they've made; the more prominent works being Grave of the Fireflies, Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke, and most recently Ponyo.  And if you've not heard of any of those, then...well...go look them up.  Like right now.  Italics.  I myself have only seen Princess Mononoke and Ponyo, and they were fairly fantastic to watch.  If you're worried about quality, the rather difficult-to-please Movie Meta-Rating website Rotten Tomatoes (which I'm not a fan of, hence not linking) has all their movies (save two) sitting at 80/100 at the lowest.

From what I've seen, I can only expect Ni no Kuni to be an Action RPG, which would be just fine by me.  Looking at the Wiki article for it, all I can see is stuff about a magic book and using the stylus because it's only for the DS version at the moment, so yeah, I'm gonna go with Action RPG.  Still, pretty alright by me if the game is going to look as good as it does in screenshots.  In fact, it'll probably look better in motion, which is almost drool-worthy.  Is it shallow to be all over a game just because how it looks?  I think it is, in theory.  That's fine, I can live with being a shallow gamer for Ni no Kuni.

Also being localized is Hyperdimension Neptunia Mk. II, sequel to this year's Hyperdimension Neptunia (surprise!), pictured above, which won many awards for being the absolute weirdest premise to a game in quite a while.  Set in the world of Gameindustri (seriously), it has something to do with console goddesses and other such things that are representative of the Gaming World today (Seriously, the four Goddesses are based on the PS3, 360, Wii and a fictional Sega Console, the Neptune) and other things that I don't know about since my only exposure is a bit of livestreaming of the game in which I heard one of the characters call another "Thunder Tits" and resolved to buy the game at some point.

Some notable bits of weirdness in the sequel include Keiji Inafune being included in the game as a weapon and...a head that shoots lasers from his mouth.  I made the link as long as possible in hopes that you would go to it and see the pictures in it because...well....as the article says, 'some things you just have to see to believe'.  If you need anything else weird to entice your curiosity then I....well, I think you may need some form of help, but there will also be cameos from, among others, NISA and Gust created characters, much like the first game, if you're into that sort of thing.  Honestly, though, it's not a game that you play because it's going to be...er, great.  It's something you play to see just how absurd this hobby of ours can be and be uplifted by the fact that the playground is this open.

And while this isn't exactly localization based, and just more...er...release-based, there is a new trailer out there for Lollipop Chainsaw and Chance got it first so go see it there.  Because it's Lollipop friggin' Chainsaw and it's going to be awesome.  It is totally Mogs Approved.

Lollipop Chainsaw - Now There's Gameplay Video(s)

I think it's kind of funny that the two biggest things that get my excited right now are the Playstation Vita and Lollipop Chainsaw (which is not going to be on the Vita.  But Oh God, if it was).  There will be days where I have something in mind and say "Yes, this is what I'm going to write about today", or nights where I say, "Well, I could write about that, it'll be a nice challenge to make something of it..", but when there's Vita news or Lollipop Chainsaw news, this tab is opened, and this blank screen is not blank for long.  Even if it's basically just me going "Aaaahhhhhhhhhhhh!  LOOK LOOK, LOOK HOW EXCITED I AM!" in a...much more eloquent fashion for five or so paragraphs.

In all honesty, I have two videos here that I can post, and that I'm going to post, but there's one that I just.....I don't like it.  The guy in it is just not....really making a lot of sense and is just being completely uninteresting and unfunny.  His enthusiasm seems a little forced or he's really really bad at expressing it.  Also, there's terrible cosplay.  Oh, and also it's Destructoid.  I am not really a fan of Destructoid whatsoever, so I'm just....really not too happy with posting something from there, but I may as well just do it and get it over with since, at the very least, it does show off a little more than the -real- video, and gives us the hilarious-sounding formula for one of the boss characters.




It may not be quite as bad as I made it seem, and like I said, you do get valuable insight into the Punk Rock Zombie boss-fight, which just....just sounds hilarious.  (Also proves this guy can't read or has a bad memory)  But then again, terrible cosplay, and this guy who manages, somehow, to make everything in the game just seem not funny whatsoever unless you're also seeing it in the game.  Still, whatever it's a video, and it's actually decent quality, so I will take it.

This next video is two minutes and thirteen seconds of pure, unaltered demo gameplay from PAX taken by someone holding a camera up at the TV in terrible LP fashion while two other people blather on in the background.  It's really nice that you can appreciate the game because it makes you laugh guy, but, y'know, maybe Shut up for two minutes when someone is clearly recording the footage.  I mean, I imagine whoever was recording this was standing there, holding his camera out in the most obvious fashion, and the sound of the people was close enough that they had to be just standing right there.  Common courtesy, people!

A...anyways.



First thing that comes to mind when I see it is "Yessssssssssssssssssss, this looks much better than the gameplay in the debut trailer", because, well, it does.  It's smooth.  It flows now.  And you can see the more 'advanced' techniques coming into play already, what with the Escaping QTEs and showing off all the different ways you can attack with the chainsaw itself.  As well as showing off, somewhat, (like the previous video did) that your chainsaw is not your only weapon, merely your primary one.  That wasn't so much unknown as it needed pointing out just because I needed something else to get excited about.

I also really, really like how clear the style is now; in the first vid, mostly, you can actually really see the animation style which has the very, very subtle comic book style colors and lines like we've seen in screenshots, not to mention that the UI practically screams Comic Book style.  I mean, look at the frigging Score part.  Straight from the pages of any comic book you could find, I'm sure.  And that's good; I like that the game has something besides it's amazing set-up that it can hang its hat on.  I'm sure, in the end, a lot of us honestly value great art direction over the most amazing graphics out there, though the latter is definitely nice as well.  (Note to self:  Why haven't you pre-ordered Uncharted 3 yet?)

This all sates me for now, but I cannot wait for the next breadcrumbs of information to get tossed out into the gaming wild, because I will pounce on them like.....something that pounces.  Fast.

Not a shark.

Lollipop Chainsaw's Debut Trailer is Everything I Wanted

Now, while I don't usually like covering the exact same topic as Chance, sometimes it's got to inevitably happen, as, clearly we have similar tastes.  So when I saw his post showing off the Lollipop Chainsaw trailer I just had to bite the bullet on it because after I saw it, it was the only thing I wanted to talk about.  I've been sitting here for two hours trying to think of a new topic, and came up with a half-complete idea of a pokemon-centric post that I've more or less made already, so it'd just be reiteration.  Which...we all know I'm not above doing, but I didn't feel like it today.

So without further ado, this would be the trailer in question:



And like Chance said, it is a really nice trailer.

I have a couple complaints with it, in that it still looks fairly....well, not close to release, in terms of fluidity of movement which is understandable since it's not close to release, and I'm not absolutely sold on the VA for Juliet (hopefully she's just a stand-in or they tone her down/soften her voice).  The whole trailer could have used a little more audio management actually, but bleh, it was still fantastic.

What really makes me giddy about it is the style it imparts.  Sure, the majority of the trailer is just pre-rendered, but it sets the stage well enough and matches kind of what we've already seen and/or expected.  And the in-game parts don't really show off the animation style that previous screenshots have (the No More Heroes-esque cel-shading or whatever you want to name it), but the direction and the style with that is clear enough. 

Also apparently Juliet gets a grenade launcher for her Chainsaw.

Read that again with me:  Apparently Juliet gets a Grenade Launcher for her Chainsaw.

Day One, friends.  Unless something majorly bad comes out before then, this is a Day One purchase for me.  Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to watch this about ten more times.  In 720p.  Because I like it that much.  That should be saying something.

Some Pleasant Game Updates

Looks like a Suda/Grasshopper game, for sure.

A couple really nice bits of info came around today.  Warner Bros. has announced they're localizing Lollipop Chainsaw in the west, and not only that, but they're throwing some real talent (and money) behind it.  James Gunn, who was a writer on such movies as Slither, Dawn of the Dead (the remake), and uhh.....Scooby-Doo (The live action movies) will apparently have a hand in the Western version of the script (Or, perhaps the script in general; the game isn't due out in Japan until sometime in 2012, so...) to ensure it's got a nice bit of cult humor for American audiences.  (Really, though, San Romero High School; I imagine the game would've done fine without him.  It's certainly an interesting experiment at least, as we'll see how a 'pro' affects a video game story!)

It's actually a pretty welcoming thing, however; just a couple weeks ago when it was announced, I worried on whether or not it would see a release over here, thinking we would have to wait far closer to the game's Japanese release to hear word.  So that's quite a bit of fear assuaged there.  I don't have to peruse articles of the game wondering if or when I'd be able to play it myself because it just hadn't been announced outside of Japan.  Now I get to be all giddy about the game when new news comes out for it!  (So, more information on it is welcome anytime now!)

Update!:  It turns out that James Gunn started working on Lollipop Chainsaw's story last year.  As in, he has already had his hands deep in the project and helped flesh out the base story, characters and such.  So, his brand of the cult humor and such might already be what we've seen, and not the other way around.  That's just really neat, I guess, that Warner Bros. had faith in the game a year ago and still quite obviously do.

I like this picture because the dude in the middle is -fucked-.

The other big surprise that came out today was that Squeenix up and bought True Crime: Hong Kong.  Way back during the Great Activision Purge, many games felt the blade of the axe of cancellation.  One among them was True Crime, and it was arguably the most surprising cut of the bunch, since, well, the game seemed nearly done.  It was getting magazine features, had preview-builds up, advertising and all that jazz, well on its way to being a game proper.  I suppose the sentiment was shared throughout game players and developers alike, as, despite Activision's harsh words for the game, Squeenix London was more than happy to pick up the game and take it by the hand.

The unfortunate(?) part of the ordeal is that, technically, True Crime:  Hong Kong is still dead.  Squeenix seemed a little more interested in the game and not the, er, 'pedigree' of the series, and as such only bought the game and not the IP rights to the True Crime franchise.  So, whatever SEL does with the game, it'll end up having a shiny new name attached to it on top of, what I imagine, some script and design changes.  SEL does have one big advantage in all this, in that they can give the game what Activision never could - hope bordering on blind faith.  SEL oversees Rocksteady and the makers of Just Cause 2, Avalanche studios, so it's not inconceivable to imagine that special brand of fun might just make its way into whatever True Crime turns into.  I guess it more depends on how well SEL can manage United Front Games.

Still, it's a positive note, both stories are even.  It's pretty easy to get a bit cynical about the industry, after all, so when you get stories like this of developers/companies just doing "cool" things that, in all honesty might not pay off, you can't help but cheer them on for trying.  I know I will be (though I'm sure I don't have to say that, after gushing about Lollipop Chainsaw for two out of two blog posts mentioning it), and with any luck, both companies really get behind their games in the marketing/advertising department to make them really known and get buys that they might not have otherwise.