NeXtBox Reveal Scheduled for May 21st

There's no uncertain terms used here, no rumor, no speculation about it - this is direct from the source.  The reveal for the NeXtBox is the 21st, 19 days before their E3 conference.  So, if nothing else, now we actually have confirmation that there is a NeXtBox that is happening.  Even though it was obvious that there was and all that, nothing's true until it's confirmed, etc. etc. all that stuff.

On Tuesday May 21^st, we’ll mark the beginning of a new generation of games, TV and entertainment. On that day, we’ll be holding a special press event on the Xbox campus and we invite you to join us via the live global stream that will be available on Xbox LIVE and Xbox.com. If you are in the US or Canada, you can also watch the broadcast on Spike TV.

On that day, we’ll share our vision for Xbox, and give you a real taste of the future. Then, 19-days later at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) in Los Angeles, we’ll continue the conversation and showcase our full lineup of blockbuster games.

We are thrilled to pull back the curtain and reveal what we’ve been working on.

Should you want to tune in to see just what in the hell about the machine is actually going to get confirmed and what isn't, your options are pretty simple:  XBox.com, XBox Live and Spike TV for USA and Canada - the former because it's obvious and the latter because Spike is always doing gaming-centric things like this without relying on it.  You like, like G4 did.  You remember G4, right?  No?  Well...that's about what I've got on that part...Moving on then.

The current standing on the rumor mill seems to be as thus:

• The Console will be Always Online meaning if you have no internet, you have no games.  Another, new-ish rumor states it as "must be Internet-Connected to use", yet tries to differentiate from "Always Online" which suggests perhaps a check-in thing at starting a game, similar to Steam.  Still, no internet means you can't start a game in that case, so it's not much better if true.
• There's possibly an "XBox Mini" component to the NeXtBox that will allow Backwards Compatibility...in a very complicated way.  Though a digital-only box (if stand-alone), it can connect to your NeXtBox to allow you to play your 360 titles (Digital and Disk-based, using the NeXtBox Disk drive, but the box's hardware) on your NeXtBox instead of just on the 360 itself.  Think Sega.  The newer rumor dictates that this unit was designated "Yuma" and is indefinitely delayed.
• As per those conflicting rumors, Backwards Compatibility is up in the air leaning towards "No, not going to happen".
• Windows 8 Base (ugh)
• Two models, two pricetags - a Stand-alone unit for $499 and a Model where you're locked into Live for 2 years (at $10/month) at $299 (So, end price $548)
• Every model ships with a Kinect 2.0 that will be integrated into the console from the get-go, meaning it might start being 'required' by games
• 2013 Holiday launch
• The technical specs will be roughly around the PS4's, though possibly with less RAM and/or lesser quality RAM

First off, no way are we getting a price or a proper release window on the 21st, so let's just not worry about that right now.  Those will be E3 announcements and if they're not, then they're going into E3 with a lot of steam built-up already, or a lot of ire that the actual conference will become secondary to end-capping the price, whatever it ends up being. The XBox Mini rumor is so goddamn convoluted that I didn't care to write about it when it came out and I almost left it out here, but since it's in the new-ish rumor page about the Internet-Connected bit, it was officially 'enough' for me to mention it.  That rumor also negates it, so it's probably not happening, but it possibly could still, I guess.  I hope not because it sounds like a lot more trouble than it's worth since it's not going to be something you can just plug into the NeXtBox and work off that power, so it'll be two draws and goddamnit, just buy a 360.  The NeXtBox likely cannot upscale Halo 4 enough that it's worth the hassle.

Backwards Compatibility is likely a no-go, which is sort of a bigger issue for the NeXtBox than it is the PS4, though it's still a very big issue for the PS4 as well.  For a while, XBox Live Arcade was the place to be if you were a digital-focused developer, and with as many promotions and all the weight that XBLA built up because of that focus, there is just a higher-probability that you have digital games on a 360 than a PS3.  And that you're much more attached to those because of some of the ones that have remained exclusive, or the ones that you have unfinished cheevos with or what have you.  Basically, there was always talk about how XBLA was a 'bigger deal' than PSN and now, for better or worse, that school of thought is going to bite back if it's true.  And if the structure of the NeXtBox is so radically different (and in-line with what the PS4 is, more or less) then yeah, it's hard to imagine XBLA/360 games will emulate on it natively.  I'm hopeful, but I was hopeful for the PS4 as well.

The price thing, even though it won't be touched on, is what really riles me up more than anything at this point, however.  I absolutely cannot fucking stand the 'subscription-subsidized' pricing model and I wish it would fucking die.  Yes, I realize that it's the 'right thing' for a lot of people because it's easier to scrape together X amount of money at any one given time than Y amount and sometimes 'just save up' isn't viable because money just kind of goes places.  I understand this.  Here's the rub though:  nobody fucking cares.  This isn't the reason why this sort of thing exists, it's not something to help folks get in by letting them pay less up-front.  It's about making more in the end and it's about marketing.  The $99 dollar 360 exists solely so Microsoft can get away with saying "The XBox 360 is only $99" because it's technically true since you're only paying $99 initially for the box.  But you're not leaving said store with only $99 gone from your account (not accounting from tax) and it's a shit-head practice because of that.  That it's going to continue into next gen (and it is, I have no doubt about that) bothers the shit out of me for fear that it will begin to edge out proper purchasing methods.

Anyway, the stuff that isn't the release window and price will likely get talked about in so many ways on the 21st and, for better or worse, we'll finally have a sort of PS4/NeXtBox comparison readily available.  We'll finally be able to see those two, plus the Wii U and really know what's going to be up with the next five or so years in gaming.  It's....actually almost a little much to think about.  It's a  lot to worry about as well, since even if you're not planning on buying a NeXtBox (Which a lot of people honestly aren't, thanks to the Always Online concerns) it will be a big deal, and it will have some sort of impact on the gaming ecosystem in some form.  There will be people who will say that it does and will affect it in a bad way, and it's just up in the air for now as to how many will say it and how 'right' they actually are about that.

I Haven't Talked About BLOOD DRAGON Yet

After you watch the above video, you'll know why this is a Bad Thing™ that I haven't yet.

So I'll give you some time to do that.

...
...

It's a bad thing because BLOOD DRAGON is every shade of fucking awesome.

I need only remind of my love for absurdity and I think it all becomes crystal clear since Far Cry 3:  Blood Dragon is quite possibly one of the most absurd things to happen to video games in a long time and that is a very good thing.  I mean, if someone does a Live-Action trailer for the game where the main character gets into a cyber katana duel with a robot while a shockwave from a nuclear explosion barrels towards them, you have to give it up for that shit.  Because that's not the craziest bit about the game by a long shot and it's still so fucking awesome that I cannot emphasize the point enough and I think you realize that by now.

If you don't know what Far Cry 3:  Blood Dragon is beyond the sparse ramblings of "it's fucking awesome" that I've put forth, it's....well, rather unique to explain.  Basically Dinosaurs got busy with the 80s and injected pure Neon into the baby.  If you think I'm joking then perhaps have a look at some of the more official things attached to the project, eh?

The Logo, plus some....endorsements.

The official reveal trailer for the game

A screenshot literally steeped in Neon Lights

I guess I can throw down some actual technical aspects of this thing since that's about the only coherent thing you'll get from me about it.  Blood Dragon is a stand-alone expansion to Far Cry 3 coming out for PSN, XBLA and Steam which means you do not have to own Far Cry 3 to buy and play Blood Dragon.  It's simply built off of the same engine which is fairly evident.  Of course, you -should- own Far Cry 3 because it was fantastic as well, even if Blood Dragon will literally be better than it in every conceivable way.  It's set for release on May 1st which means there is no reason it shouldn't be the very first game you buy in May, especially since it'll only be $15.  (I believe)  Being that it's built on the Far Cry 3 engine, it's carrying over a lot of tenets from that game, even if it paints them all with neon and badassness - people might've noticed a neon bow and arrow in the trailer, plus the knife which looked like a futuristic dragon dagger (like you eventually get in FC3), so those remain, as will at least some of the wildlife.  The free-roaming island won't be anywhere near as large as FC3's, but it'll still be expansive to be sure and similarly filled with things to do, like larger outposts to infiltrate and conquer.

I...really don't know what else I can say.  I really don't think there's anything else I have to say.

You want Blood Dragon.

Buy it.

fuck yeah Blood Dragon fuck yeah

Retro City Rampage has a Release Date!

I gotta be honest with you folks, as you all know I generally am.  I love doing this blog, you know that and I know it.  But some nights are just harder than others because it's an ever-shifting thing and one night, you can have something to talk about and others you have to kind of reach for straws.  Few things (several things, I'm lying) annoy me more than having one of those reaching nights and then there being something rather big announced after I've gone and scraped together a post of something after much searching and pondering.  I welcome the challenge, of course, but sometimes it just overstays its welcome, you see.  So I'm sure you can all imagine my reaction after last night's post about the Zero Escape:  Virtue's Last Reward demo when not one, not two, not three, but eight different games either saw an unveiling, announcement or release date between last night and right this moment as I am typing this.  Eight games.  In a single night/day.  I have to tell you that I was very, very tempted to actually upend a table earlier at around the sixth thing I noticed.  Because what the fuck, man.

This is the veritable other extreme of the problem I have most times, which is usually only a problem I have around E3, TGS or a similar show:  Entirely too much to speak of.  You know how I roll - I pick one to a few things and usually can drum up about 3-5 paragraphs bare minimum about the topic, trying to bring in opinions, other information and the like.  I don't really like just saying "Here is this thing, here is some info, bam, there's a paragraph, new topic".  Yet it's on nights like this where it seems that I am almost tempted to do just that because how else am I going to cover everything aside from doing that -or- a friggin' essay-level News Dump?  That's the real question here and the answer is pretty simple - I'll talk about everything else tomorrow.  Mostly because I don't really care about the rest of it so much as I care about one of the things in particular, and that thing is Retro City Rampage, which finally has a release date of This Coming Friggin' Tuesday.  (October 9th.)

It's been a long time since I talked about Retro City Rampage which is pretty much what's been expected so far as anything related to the game has been, apparently.  Though I really can't blame anyone for it since the game is being made by one dude but for five different platforms entirely - entire teams of developers apparently can't always get the finer points of porting simple content between one system to another, so can you imagine trying to get the same game working on five different platforms by yourself?  Yeah.  Probably not.  Still, whether or not he's actually gotten the game up and running on said five platforms is up for debate as October 9th is only the release date for three of them, specifically the PC version and the PS3/Vita versions.  The PC version will be offered through three different venues alone, with Steam, GOG and the developer's website (which will give you a Steam or GOG key, your choice) but no matter where you buy it, the game will be $15.  However, and this is where you would put a drumroll if you were into that sort of thing, the PS3/Vita versions will be Cross-Buy!  Meaning for $15 through PSN, you'll actually be getting -two- versions, one for both PS3 and Vita no matter which you buy it through, so unless you are a super dedicated PC gamer, perhaps the wiser option would be something with a Playstation logo on it.  Just...saying.

Nobody really knows why it's taken the game so long to come out (aside from the common sense answer) and similarly mysterious is why it's only releasing on about half of the platforms it was announced for.  Specifically egregious is the lack of the XBLA version which, well, might just cause some problems for the game down the road.  We've all had a peek into the fairly restrictive guidelines that Microsoft has on XBLA releases, particularly the ones where the game cannot have released on another platform prior unless X, Y and Z are met which has only been 'broken' a mite few times.  Some whisper in the recesses of the dark corners of the internet that it's in fact Microsoft's guidelines and rigid structure that have caused the delay, where others go so far as to suggest that it's been delayed for months because they didn't want to slot it in for the Summar of Arcade (because of the exclusivity that goes along with it) which creates a problem on either side of things.  I'm not one to suggest rumors where it's unnecessary, but I could very well see either scenario, though not completely at the face value with which they're presented.  But still, the whole kernel of truth thing and such.

For my part, I....don't really care.  Yes, yes, I'm supposed to care and blah blah, but I'm going to get to play Retro City Rampage on my Vita Tuesday so I really don't care about much else to do with the game.  I certainly hope not releasing day one on XBLA won't cause problems for the dude with releasing on that platform and I similarly hope that it won't be remedied by 'platform-exclusive' content or support or the like, but that's all well in the future, I suppose.  What will happen will happen, but I wouldn't really expect the XBLA version to be 'the definitive version' whenever it comes out, if any of the rumors have even the slightest bit of truth to them.  That probably means that in three months, I'll be quoting this post as something awesome is announced as 360-exclusive DLC for the game or something, but whatever, I really don't care at the moment.  Still getting over the fact that this game is a thing I will be playing by week's end if I can tear myself away from everything else, as well as the fact that I have to write a post tomorrow about seven games.  Seriously, I said it already, but what the hell, industry?

Fez Is Busted, Will Remain Busted

Oh boy.  Strap in for this one, kids, it's gonna be a bumpy ride.

This was somewhat of a hot story yesterday that seems to have died down because...well, I'm not quite sure why.  I believe I'll submit a few theories towards the end here, but let's just start off with the facts, shall we?  So, I'm sure you've all at least heard of the game, Fez, considering it apparently has about five years of development under its belt, with the last two of them simply being release date delays and the like for the casual outsider.  It did, eventually, release to the surprise of most people, on XBLA all the way back in April and, surprising absolutely nobody, it was really really buggy.  As in, 'game-breaking problems' buggy.  As in, corrupt your save buggy.  This is important, do not forget it.  About a month later, specifically May 17th, the long-awaited patch was submitted to Microsoft and failed certification about a week later due to two 'critical issues'.  Truly a good omen and not a sign of things yet to come.  So it took some time, but around June 8th, a new build of the patch was submitted and was finally released June 22nd to the tune of everyone stating in a completely flat manner: "Do not use it."

This is because the patch, finally released, did manage to fix a number of the problems that were in the game since its release two months earlier, but it also introduced another one that, surprise had the nasty side-effect of corrupting your save game.  Again.  The only suggested method was to clear your 360's cache which, I will be honest in saying I have absolutely no idea how that would help, clearly because I am not a brilliant developer, but aside from that, not a whole lot could be done.  Because of the issue which, at the time was said to be "fairly widespread" (seriously, it's in the post go look at it), the patch was pulled and Polytron set to work on trying to patch the patch.  It was all really kind of sad, I suppose, and it just seemed like Polytron couldn't catch a break.  You take a look at stories like this and go "Well, this is one of the flaws of the 'indie' team, in that you don't have a whole lot of people and resources to test as extensively as larger developers" which is a sad truth, but a truth nonetheless.  And clearly, trying to give the people who have supported you the best product you can make is the goal.

...Unless it costs money to patch it a second time.  Then everybody can go get fucked.  While a bit over-dramatic on my part admittedly, that is unfortunately the message that I read, even though I'm not part of the people who are affected by the 'fairly widespread' problem.  Which apparently wasn't 'fairly widespread' if you believe Polytron, who are saying that the issue only affects under 1% of the people who played the game.  Which seems totally legit and I can't see any reason why that would be a falsehood at all or anything.  I would, of course, like to know just how this information was ascertained since I am apparently not savvy enough to know just how your save game getting corrupted can be reported back to the developer without going to loony "Big Brother" types of lengths.  Apparently included in this less-than-1% of people are generally people who have either beaten Fez or are close to the end of the game, which means that they are apparently people who have 'pretty much seen what Fez has to offer' which the implication is that they are fairly low-priority because of that.

We believe the save file corruption issue mostly happened to players who had completed, or almost completed the game. If you hadn’t already seen most of what FEZ had to offer, your save file is probably safe.

That's how that reads to me at least.  Maybe, again, I'm looking a little too hard into it and picking out stuff that isn't there or whatever.  But this is my post and this is pretty much where my editorializing starts, since I pretty much laid out the 'facts' as they are over the course of the end of Fez's journey through development to release to post-release support, such as it is.  Regardless, all that the above means is that the patch that was pulled because there was apparently a reason that it had to be pulled was put right back out for players to download against all previous warning because it's 'good enough'.  Because getting to the end of the game, going off to do....you know anything and coming back to a corrupt save is totally acceptable and we should all just go "Oh, Polytron, you jokesters, now I get to play your game again so I can see the ending!" Likely as canned laughter comes out of somewhere and the credits begin rolling.  Because this is not a realistic situation, you see, that's the joke.

Now, something that I feel I should put down before I go on any further; is everything on Microsoft's side perfectly acceptable, considering I'm of a mind that Polytron's position is not?  Of course not.  Many developers have said that the patch certification process (for the second and beyond patches to a game as everyone gets a free one, which I've stated) can be as expensive as $40,000, which is the number everybody is throwing around regardless.  While I understand that the members of the certification process have a very specialized task, are numerous in number to increase their overall effectivity and must be paid for their time, I really doubt they're seeing, as a whole, a good portion of the alleged $40,000.  I would go so far as to suggest that they barely see any of it, as QA testers (which I assume the Cert. board basically is) do not really have an enviable job in any aspect as the work is tedious, the conditions are often less-than-stellar and the pay is not supposed to be all that great.  So clearly, if the number is indeed $40,000, it's entirely too high, especially if that is attached to patch number two, number three, four, etc. individually.

So honestly, from a pure logistics angle, I can't -really- blame Polytron and/or Phil Fish (seeing as he gets tossed out regardless, he seems to have been thrust into a spokesperson seat for the developers and thus is held responsible accordingly) since if the numbers they're using are true (which we might as well assume they are, considering we're probably never going to get any other 'truth' of the situation) then it's ridiculous.  Let's use the 100,000 copies sold figure that was tossed out as the early earnings figure.  Obviously they've probably sold quite a few more of those, but it's a nice, easy number for math purposes.  (You didn't think you'd get out of a post like this without math from me, did you?) 100,000 copies at $10 a copy (yes yes, Microsoft points, blah blah, it's ten fucking dollars) is, obviously, a cool million that Polytron probably sees, like a half of, conservatively.  If that.  Using the <1% figure, that means that less than 1,000 people are affected by the issue.  Does it suck to be in that group of 999 people?  Absolutely.  But from a purely numbers stand-point (I have to stress the numbers part since I will be making a radical 180 next paragraph) it's very minute, considering that $40K is 8% of the, again, very conservative estimate regarding the net gains Polytron saw from Fez.

Here's the thing, though.  Just because it doesn't make sense from a numbers standpoint, that doesn't mean you get to be a dick about it.  Marginalizing people, looking at cost vs. profits and the like is a big part of what people dislike about big developers/publishers, and it's likely one of the driving forces behind Indie Gaming as a whole.  Since it's supposed to be about a person or small group of people with a vision and a little bit of programming talent bringing that vision to all of us in any manner possible.  In that vein, it's how we've seen such games as Breath of Death VII and Cthulhu Saves the World from Zeboyd Games, and other such Indie 'darlings' as they've appeared over the last couple of years.  Just people who said "Hey, I want to make an awesome game" and then did so.  Steam was the most accommodating service for these people, apparently, so a lot of them went that direction.  Others (yes, like Zeboyd) turned to XBox Live Indie Games, considering it was a game development platform put out there for the very specific purpose of delivering the tools to make a game to Indie Devs and then giving them a platform to sell it from.  Of course, Microsoft doesn't seem very good at the latter part since XBLIG seems to get little attention, but that's a whole other story.

Saying "Thanks for the money, hope your save doesn't get corrupted, good luck!" is the very epitome of something you don't get to say in -any- circumstance if you are a developer.  No matter if you're an Indie Developer, a big-name one, or whatever, this is simply something that you don't get to do without expecting justified backlash.  The fact that Microsoft is a big company and expects you to pay when you screw up absolves you of exactly zero.  And honestly, the thing that annoys me the most with this whole situation is that instead of just thinking for precisely -one minute- or any other quantifiable amount of time, Polytron dusted off the Indie soapbox and hopped onto it, despite how silly doing so is, all things considered.  "THE MAN is oppressing us!  This is why Indie things are superior!  RA RA!  They want a large sum of money so we can fix our thrice-bugged game!"  All said after paying for the XBLA exclusivity (which entitles, among other things, a rather sizeable amount of advertising, thus ensuring your game likely sells fairly well) and going on record as saying they went with XBLA purely because Fez is a console game, one that you have to play, and enjoy, on a console whilst sitting on your couch or such.

“Fez is a console game, not a PC game,” he states, emphatically. “It’s made to be played with a controller, on a couch, on a Saturday morning. To me, that matters; that’s part of the medium.” I get so many comments shouting at me that I’m an idiot for not making a PC version. ‘You’d make so much more money! Can’t you see? Meatboy sold more on Steam!’ Good for them. But this matters more to me than sales or revenue. It’s a console game on a console. End of story.”

Obviously, Fez is about the experience, man, and not the money.  No sir.  And when the timed exclusivity expires, I'm sure we won't see the game hit Steam because who cares if "the game would have been fixed two weeks after release, at no cost to us.", because money doesn't matter!  No amount of money, no tens of thousands of dollars, matters!  Because it's about the -game-, goddamnit, because this is Indie Gaming.  It's about the principle of it all, which means standing up for the little guy who gets ignored when it's not profitable to help them!  So, seriously that settles it.  You won't be seeing Fez on any other platform even after the exclusivity runs out, because it's purely about making sure everybody gets the full experience of the game and not like....most of the experience.  Minus the ending.  The whole experience.

It should probably be illegal to have that much snark condensed in a single paragraph.  I think it sums up my thoughts on the matter rather nicely, however.  Now, if you will excuse me, I'm going to resume playing a game where a patch has completely improved the experience without adding any game-breaking glitches.  Which is apparently an impossible process.

And the Next Dreamcast HD Title Is...

...Sonic Adventure 2.  Obviously.  On the one hand, I am completely surprised, because there had been several hints and leaks and such in the past that painted the game following Jet Grind Radio HD to be Shenmue (which was from a reliable source, even!) which I honestly would have really liked.  On the other hand, I am completely -not- surprised, since in all honesty this is a little late as-is, considering Sonic Adventure 1's port was released last year and it's not like it took an entire year to port it.  It also likely would have been a much stronger start to the string of four Dreamcast releases Sega is more or less expected to come out with.  Yes, Jet Set Radio HD is certainly nicer to have, and ultimately something to be more excited about than SA2, but everybody knows what Sonic Adventure 2 is.  I will never understand the methods with which companies and such decide to do this sort of thing, and as I will likely always be on the consumer side of dealings, it's not like it matters since it seems like a matter of eventuality rather than anything else.  Which is a good thing, all said.

This is a little bit more interesting than what it is on the surface, however, since it highlights a few things that I can't decide if they're worrying or just strange.  At the end of the video embedded in the Joystiq link above, the logos denoted as the platforms it's coming out on are simply ones that suggest Playstation Network (PS3) and XBox Live Arcade (360) with nothing suggesting the PC at all.  So if you'll just play along with me for a moment, let's look at the last three ports that Sega has announced, along with the platforms suggested for them.  Jet Set Radio is set to release on PS3, 360, Vita and PC through Steam.  Nights Into Dreams (from the Saturn) is set for release on PS3, 360 and PC through Steam.  And now Sonic Adventure 2, as already stated, is simply set to release on PS3 and 360.  So it seems like with each successive announcement, they lose a system.  This sort of gives me the mental image that Sega is simply using what little manpower remains to pump out all of these ports at the exact same time, meaning that every new thing gets less and less of the attention that it deserves.  Which could very well just translate over the entirety of all three remasters.

Of course, the fact that all three games are set to release in the "Fall" does sort of help tip one off of the fact that maybe they're stretching themselves too thin.  Just....potentially.  I imagine the thought process is that, if they release everything so close together, they'll make a steady stream of money through the season and be able to go into the new year flirting with what lies above the red line.  Regardless, I wouldn't be surprised if a PC version of SA2 was simply overlooked, as Sonic Adventure 1 was released through Steam, and it would be rather odd if the sequel skipped that avenue, especially considering how vocal the Steam community seems to be about Sega in general.  I'm not too optimistic, however, on the games announced to reach to systems they're not otherwise announced on which does sort of crush my dreams of continued Sega support through their Dreamcast re-release library this go around.  At this rate, 'Volume 2' as it were, will be Jet Set Radio, Sonic Adventure 2, ??? (theoretically Shenmue, but I'm not holding my breath on it currently) and possibly Seaman to round us up around the Holidays.  Not bad, of course, especially if the third game -does- end up being Shenmue, which would elevate it from "Not Bad" to "Yaaaaaay!".  With any luck, a Disc-based Collection won't be exclusive to Non-PS3 this time around.

I can't say that I have especially fond memories of Sonic Adventure 2 as I barely remember the lot of it, if we're being simply honest.  I don't even own it, having only been exposed to playing the game by borrowing a friend's copy of it.  I think.  I might've rented it.  Regardless, the point is that I don't remember.  Except I do remember that while I was playing it, I also had to do a Science Fair experiment which I did in between sessions of playing as Rouge since playing as the bad guys was so new and awesome even though, looking back, they were....fairly sub-par.  Character-wise, that is.  Again, the memory, she is not so great.  I do remember the Chao Garden, of course, which I will likely enjoy the hell out of whenever I get around to playing the game.  Because I will, you see.  Regardless of what systems it is and isn't released on, this is Sega, and I've given in to the fact that I will simply play all of the Sega games.  Sometime.  Eventually.  On something.

I can only hope that Sega at least releases one or two of these games before the next announcement comes around.  Even if it's Shenmue, because I would hate to think and worry that the Shenmue HD port might be 'tainted' by lack of focus.  I doubt there'll be a problem with the way any of these turn out; I don't recall there being any issues commonly stated for the last year's versions, but at the same time, one could assume that Sega was doing at least a little better last year.  With any luck, however, these remasters, fired off in quick succession as well as a hopefully present Yakuza Collection (that will come out in the states on-disc, I'm still holding out hope considering it'll cost me a lot of cash if it does) will bring in some serious cash for Sega, alongside Phantasy Star Online 2.  More money for them means more greatness for us, after all, so long as you're not buying a new Sonic game.  Though, after Generations....well, still maybe hold out for reviews, if such a thing were to happen.

Nights Into Dreams HD Is a Thing That Is Happening

In their continued effort of reminding everyone why they were liked in the first place, Sega has chosen another of their classic games to get the HD treatment for the current systems out there.  Nights Into Dreams, a Saturn Title (which would likely be the explanation for why a lot of people haven't played it) is getting all gussied up for the Fall when it will release on the Playstation Network, XBLA and Steam for PS3, 360 and PC players respectively.  Though, to say that it's from the Saturn title -might- just be stretching it as apparently the game was remade for the PS2 which would likely be the version of the game we'll be getting ported from, as I can only imagine it would simply be easier to work with, code-wise.  Or, at least that's what a commenter on the story over at Siliconera seems to think, and it does make a lot of sense, so hell, I'm running with it.  The PS2 version was Japan-only, but featured much the same as what we could expect from this HD version, since the PS2 version also had a "Saturn version" which was simply the same game with Saturn graphics, versus the remastered ones for the remake.

On top of the Saturn mode and the obvious widescreen support, Nights Into Dreams HD will feature the usual trophies/achievements as well as Leaderboard support so you can prove to your friends just who is the best flying Jester thing.  Which wasn't meant to sound flippant, but it did, but this explanation should sort of absolve that since I just cannot think of a different way to say it, considering I don't usually factor Leaderboards into much of anything.  But it was listed, and there's not a whole lot else that was mentioned in regards to being added to the game.  It's fairly unclear if, as stated, the game is being based on the PS2 remake or not, but if it was, then it would suggest that the Christmas Nights 'demo' that came out will be bundled in with the game.  Of course, being that Sega -needs the money-, it's just as logical to think that the Christmas thing might be held off for a few extra bucks (I'd figure a $2.99 pricetag on it) for a DLC add-on which, let's face it, everyone (including me) will likely be more than happy to buy, despite it just being a couple levels.  Because they will be Christmas levels.  This is important.

If it isn't painfully obvious by now, I have not played Nights Into Dreams and it's only due to my in-recent-years championing of Sega that I'm concerned with the game at all.  Or, rather, I like to think that even if I wasn't a super Sega supporter currently, the lovely look that the game carries, as well as the fairly magical charm it seems to have would sway me, but I'm not so sure it would.  Being that I had no idea it was considered a platformer, despite knowing of the game previously in a cursory manner, speaks volumes for my hesitation in admitting I'd buy the game otherwise, but hey, we don't really have to worry about that.  That is kind of the point I'm trying to make.  Knowledge that there is a Christmas -thing- involved whatsoever with the game might have swayed me otherwise now that I think of it, but until I know just what capacity it will come in (Originally included or as DLC, which, come on, we know which it'll be) I'll just default to the Sega thing.

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, the only thing I'm not too happy with, in regards to this all, is the lack of a Playstation Vita version being announced alongside the others.  I know I bring the Vita up like every day, but it's because I like it, which is pretty obvious, I should think.  And I like Sega.  So it makes sense that I would like to play Sega games on it, as I am being slightly lead to believe is a thing Sega wants as well, what with Jet Set Radio HD and Phantasy Star Online 2 both being playable on it and all.  Being that there's a good chance this up-port is being ported from the PS2 version, it's a good bet to say that it would be simple to port the port of the PS3 version to the Vita, since that is apparently an exceptionally easy process and profit.  Because people will buy it several times!  I'm sure I have made this much obvious with my previous statements of such with regards to other games being ported to the Vita.  Once again, simply because I really like the thing and it's....well, a great gaming device.  For gaming.  Which is why I want a lot of games on it.

Maybe they're just waiting for the sales of Jet Set Radio HD on the Vita to see if it will be a profitable platform for their games, but logic would dictate that it's....probably better to just give it a couple shots before getting skittish about it.  I mean, it's not like it's going to make Sega super-duper financially screwed porting the game over, but maybe I'm wrong.  And maybe it's just as simple as saying Sega might not be thinking that far ahead with the Remaster, considering Christmas Nights is just completely up in the air at the moment.  They do have a bit of time to play around with setting things firmly in place, of course, considering "Fall 2012" is a rather loose schedule, so I'm sure we'll be getting a bit more news about the game in the coming months featuring some more concrete details.  But the moral of the story, of course, is buy the shit out of Jet Set Radio HD on Vita if you're even the least bit hopeful of getting Nights Into Dreams on the platform as well.  Since at the very worst, you'll just get friggin' Jet Set Radio HD on your Vita to enjoy the magical soundtrack and entertaining gameplay of tagging neighborhoods and pulling off mad tricks and the like.  Not a bad deal.

Santa Seaman Signifies Sega Secret?

So, fairly recently, there was a tweet from the creator of Seaman, Yoot Saito, which contained one strange thing.  The tweet, as reported by Joystiq, contained an image of a Santa-themed Seaman, as well as a statement that basically says "Time to start thinking of the end of the year".  For as subtle as it is, it is -not-, but that's kind of the point and for that alone, well the fact that there was a Santa Seaman alone, is pretty amazing, I should say.  I mean, as you know, I am kind of a Christmas fiend, as well as a Sega fiend, so seeing the both of them together like that.....yeah, that'll get the ol' mind going into overdrive at the possibilities.  Of course, in this scenario, as it's been presented, there's really only three real possibilities that could come from this.  Okay, maybe four.

The first possibility is, of course, the one I prefer the most.  As Sega is wont to do, they seem to release a group of four of their classics through the digital services with remastering work done and updates where appropriate.  With Sonic Adventure, Space Channel, Crazy Taxi and Sega Bass Fishing being last year's offerings (Which was then bundled together in a collection for PC and 360 users only; damnit Sega), this year's group seems to have already been started with the upcoming Jet Set Radio HD for....well, everything but the 3DS it seems.  With reports that state Shenmue 1 & 2 are up next in the remaster list, as well as rumors associated with those saying Skies of Arcadia is a possibility too, we might just have our full Dreamcast volume for this year, if we figure that Seaman HD would be the last one, as it would come out during the holidays.  Assuming they either do five games this year or only do the first Shenmue, leaving Sonic Adventure 2 and Shenmue 2 both for next year, which is precisely the kind of dickery Sega would pull.

Obviously, this is tantalizing to me because not only would I love to just throw money at Sega through remasters for PS3/PSN (as well as collection disks if you would let me, Sega!), but with Jet Set Radio's position on the Vita, it would suggest that the rest of this year's catalog might make it to it as well.  As in, portable Jet Set Radio, Shenmue, Skies of Arcadia and Seaman (which would totally work, what with the built-in microphone).  Are you drooling yet at the very thought of this?  I AM.  I'm sure you know this already, but I did really want to lay it out like that.  Because it is very delicious looking laid out like that, and if I could dedicate an entire Vita page to a straight-up Sega page.....man.  Now I want this very badly.  Like....-so very badly- you don't even know.  I didn't even play Seaman on the Dreamcast (mostly because I didn't even know what the hell), but I would throw down $10 for the ability to do so nowadays, especially if I could take the experience anywhere.

The second option, which may or may not be more likely all things considered, is that this is merely a teaser for a possible 3DS release of the game that has apparently been rumored of for two years.  As in a release around the holidays, or an announcement that will come around the holidays to say that Seaman will come out....sometime after the holidays.  I'm sure you can figure out where I was going with that.  You're smart people.  While still delicious as a prospect, since it is still portable Seaman which has been updated (and will be able to use a mic, ala 3DS mic) I'm sure you all know that I more prefer the Vita, despite my acquiescence to the fact that I will have to get a 3DS at some point to get my Harvest Moon fix.  (I may go with the XL if they release a Circle Pad Pro for it.  By my estimations, if they do that, the thing will be the same width as a Wii U pad.  Wonder if that will be a coincidence?)  So regardless of what portable the theoretical Seaman HD comes out on, I'll be able to buy it, and you can bet that I will.

The third and fourth options are, then, fairly simple.  Being that Nintendo is in the midst of a bigger digital push, a combination of these two previous options could be possible.  As in, Seaman HD swims to the 3DS....as well as everything else.  Kinect (and headsets), Playstation Eye (and headsets), Built-in Mics, PC Headsets, every platform has an option, granted not a 'guaranteed' one but a likely one, that the game will be playable, so Sega could simply decide, as they need to do, that the most money possible is the best option.  Let everyone buy it and, guess what?  Some people totally will!  Amazing!  Conversely, on the flip side for the fourth option, this could all just be an elaborate ruse and the end-result will be something Japan specific involving Seaman that nobody cares about.  Like.....a urinal game featuring Seama-oh god nevermind.

...Anyways.  With Sega, all things are possible, I suppose.  How many of them are positive is always up in the air and questionable, but any of the above are viable options for this bit of news.  Of course, we just won't be able to know what will come of it for a long while and by then, who knows if we'll remember this.  I...probably will.  Since I'll be able to link this post and say "Hey, this happened" when I talk about just what was announced.  Everyone else?  Might not score too high on the old "things I need to remember" scale.  Still, it will probably be neat, whatever happens!  Because Dreamcast revivals are what we need to thrive - for we lost it too soon.  Too soon.  Sadface.

Let's Talk About Minecraft - XBLA Release Edition

I've said it a few times before and I'll probably say it again, but I've been fairly eagerly awaiting news on the XBLA version of Minecraft, as while I still don't own a 360, I based my hopes on -a- console version meaning that there could be -more-, and I still stand by that, no matter what Mojang says.  I'll cling to my hopes, damnit, and there's nothing you can do to stop me!  Now while the game has not officially launched, it's close enough - so much so that there are already people with the game (obtained via gift codes, legally mind you) and youtube accounts to show off for we unwashed masses.  One such example of this is ChimneySwift11, a fairly well-known Minecrafter, who already has five episodes (of this writing) of a little mini-series of Minecraft for XBLA appropriately titled "Minecraft on XBox" (Linked to the first episode since the show-list doesn't seem to be up yet).  In fact at this point, it's pretty much my only exposure to the XBLA version of the game and it's....a bit worrying honestly.

First of all, the big thing which is big enough to me to be the elephant in the room, is that the game is actually not based on the Release Version of the game.  I kind of understand this, since it was really started before the Release Version came out, but....at the same time, if you base a version of a game on anything, it should be the version that is officially a real not-beta, not-alpha game.  That's just kind of basic theory here, so I would imagine that the whole point would be to hold off porting the game until said Release Version was portable but that's why I'm just writing about games, I guess, instead of making them.  Anyways, the reason why it's a big deal is just that - It's a pretty damn big deal since the game was based off the Beta 1.6.6 version of Minecraft which was far before a lot of the 'integral' game mechanic parts came into play.  Namely a hunger bar, Enchanting, and Potion-Making.  I'm....not quite sure, even, if The End realm was in 1.6.6, but I doubt it, and I highly doubt that it was added to the XBLA version as, you'll notice, I said "based off".  Minecraft XBLA, at this point, does carry some changes and some improvements (such as the quick-shift from chests to inventory and vice versa), but by-and-large, it seems like a Beta build of the game.

This pretty much further compounds the "Is Minecraft really a game" debate as, with the release version of the game that had this and that, The End Realm, a 'boss' and a credit roll ending, the answer could pretty much be swayed in favor of saying "Yes".  There was 'depth' in the form of gaining experience that was then used to Enchant Items to your whims, as well as the potion-making that could be used to add further strategy to your playstyle, and while the NPCs did absolutely nothing, they still existed.  It skirted lines, but from the 'crossed' side of them, whereas before that, before the Adventure Update and the additions in the Release Version, solid arguments could be made for the side that said "No", and as someone who sees the XBLA version in the wake of the current version, I'm inclined to agree, as it's basically like seeing into the future from what was and seeing not only what doesn't exist in Minecraft XBLA, but what -still- doesn't exist in the base version of the game for PC.

What Minecraft really needs, and what it's been getting very, very slowly, is quite simply:  More.  More what?  More everything.  More mobs, more blocks, more biomes, more NPCs, more interaction, more recipes, just more things.  I hate to draw the comparison to the game that got compared to it a lot at release, but, Terraria released with more content in the form of unique blocks and items than Minecraft has even -now-, or if not more, then close.  Regardless, it received a lot of post-release support (which has unfortunately dried up due to the two dudes splitting up) which infused even more -things- into the game, yet managed to leave stones unturned.  (which is why I say unfortunately, since there seem to be a lot of unfulfilled developer promises involved)  There are just now more than 20 mobs in Minecraft, both passive and unfriendly (Zombie, Skeleton, Spider, Creeper, Slime, Silverfish, Cave Spiders, Endermen, Ghast, Blaze, Magma Slime, Zombie Pigmen, Pigs, Sheep, Chickens, Cows, Squids, Wolves, Ocelots, Testificates, Iron Golems, Snow Golems, Ender Dragon), and the last new mineral to be added to the game was Lapis Lazuli, which was a while ago and remains fairly useless, despite Minerals being a fairly untapped resource for the game.  (Pardon the pun)

The point I'm trying to hammer in here is that the Minecraft of now on PC doesn't have a whole lot of what it really needs, and the Minecraft of now on XBLA has drastically less than the PC version.  I don't know the full extent of what it lacks, as I've stated a couple times, but I can tell right now that it is in a big way.  And while there are apparently plans in place for fast and plentiful updates for the XBLA version, it's already entirely too far behind.  Especially with the way in which Minecraft has been updating lately, however unofficial it may be.  I'm talking about the Snapshots, of course, which are basically "the update thus far, or what works of it" that get released every week as an optional download from the main site, adding a few new things with each one, which can be big or little.  It's mainly used for testing those updates on a broad scale before the next full update includes the sum of them.  Thus, as examples of Snapshot additions, the books within which you can write from the last snapshot and the cocoa plants from the next (or one of the next) will all be in the game proper when the next official update drops, provided they don't break the game entirely.  Unless the next update (or the one after, depending on the actual time between them) for the XBLA version can match parity with the official release version of Minecraft on PC currently, it'll always be a game of catch-up and, depending on when and how that content gets added could be an additional problem.

I guess a little of the green in my eyes has been taken away by seeing how this has gone down, as I honestly can't think of Minecraft in the context of how it was back in 1.6.6 anymore, in terms of things to build or experiences to be had.  I can hardly say that it's the same game and it doesn't really matter, even, since it's....quite different and in ways that are quantifiable and large.  Still Minecraft as a basis is tantalizing for me who has nothing of it.  I'm sure if my only option was to buy a computer for Minecraft or be able to play a rather old version of it on something I own (particularly my Vita), I would opt for the latter and happily so, but that option isn't before me, so it's a little easier to say I'm not too interested in the XBLA version of the game.  Regardless, I'll be taking a look at it to see just how easily it comes to parity with the PC version, or if it really ever does.  Certainly something to watch.

Pretty Bleh

I hate to do this, really, because it just feels like I'm not trying, but it's been a long, long day, I have a headache and I just don't feel good because the temperature and conditions have changed rapidly over and over again in the past few days.  So yeah, not really a whole lot to post about tonight, I'm just going to throw down a couple of trailers for Retro City Rampage which was announced last month as heading to Playstation 3 and Playstation Vita both which made it fall squarely onto my radar.  Quite clearly, once you take a look at the game, you'll see that it appears to be a take on an 8-Bit style Grand Theft Auto with all sorts of other NES-related shennanigans.  In other words, it looks awesome.  Previously exclusive to WiiWare and XBLA, everyone seems to get a chance at it now since, as I said, it will be available for those, PS3, PS Vita and PC, either supported by Steam or exclusively through it.  So, with that said, let's take a look.

Looks pretty wild, really.  I went with an older trailer after the teaser because of the clear Batman parody to show off some of the other things they try to do, and then the final trailer is the "Big News" one, wherein I assume it was first announced (in video form) that it was coming to more platforms than previously thought.  I'm sure you can have a nice rousing game of "Spot the Parody" with the last trailer, definitely.  Personally, I can't wait for this; it'll have quite the nice home on my Vita.  And with that, I say good night.

Is Shenmue HD the Next Dreamcast Remake?

That's what a place called Gamerzines would like you to think and, while I would usually just toss off this rumor as just that, but a fellow over at the Penny Arcade forums who goes by (and this is an affectionate title, I assure you) "TheSonicRetard" has thrown this out as truth.  If there is one thing that TSR does not mess around with, it's anything to do with Sega, so for him to say "I know who this is, too. It is indeed real" makes me almost completely believe it as gospel because TSR has some connections.  It also makes complete sense since Sega has been tossing out a lot of their old Dreamcast hits in HD, seems to want to continue doing so and, well, people do indeed like Shenmue.  They like it a lot, so much so that rumors of Shenmue III existing seem to hold up part of the internet on their own.  So it's not crazy to think that Shenmue is on the list of games to get HD-ified.

Now, there is one of the finer details of the post that I'm not too sure about, and since TSR has not said that the entirety of the story is 100% truth, I am going to go ahead and poke at it a bit.  They claim that their insider says Shenmue HD has been done for over a year, as has Shenmue II HD (I assume not for over a year, but done nonetheless), but both have been held off in favor of getting a 'clearer picture of the future for the Shenmue franchise, namely, whether or not Shenmue III will see the light of day".  Of course, if Shenmue HD is announced after Jet Set Radio HD comes out, that either means we'll have some Shenmue III news around that time or, the entirely likely scenario here, we'll never hear anything of any importance from Sega about Shenmue III again as we haven't for years now.  So really, I'm just a little iffy on whether or not the games have really been finished for that amount of time.

Don't get me wrong - I, like the rest of everyone who had even a cursory interest in the Dreamcast and Sega while they were both still around in their former capacities, would love to see a Shenmue III.  And let's face it, we exist in a world where Duke Nukem Forever was actually released, so miracles -can- happen.  (Not simultaneously, however, which would be why DNF -was- released, but was sub-par)  Similarly, Penny Arcade Adventures:  On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness Episode 3 is being released despite being 'canceled' directly from the creators and then 'finished' in a novella.  So we really, truly cannot say 'Never' again because history has made us all the fool for doing so.  However, on the list of things that I believe could possibly happen, Shenmue HD and Shenmue 2 HD are pretty high up whereas Shenmue III being a thing ranks just under "Sega rejoins the Console Market" which itself is under "Microsoft releases a handheld to compete against the 3DS and Vita".  They're all possible, technically, but not exactly plausible.

Regardless, my first instinct when I saw "Shenmue HD" was the pull money out of my wallet and start throwing it at the computer monitor and my PS3, but neither had the effect of, well, getting me the game.  This might be because it's not out yet, or maybe, just maybe, because this is not how you purchase things digitally.  The fact that it hasn't been officially announced, much less had a price-tag attached to it or a release date further complicates matters but, no doubt, whenever it's announced it'll be like the others.  Fair price-tag, probably release in a few months or so from now, and it'll be pretty righteous.  Then, hopefully after it's released, the next two Dreamcast titles will be released and another collection Disk will come out, but for -all- the systems and not just 360 and PC.  I will literally double-dip on Shenmue HD and I don't even care.  I will also double-dip for Shenmue 2 HD and Skies of Arcadia, should these things ever come to pass and would even triple-dip if even just a single one were available for the Vita.  Can you imagine Skies of Arcadia as a portable game?  I can.  It's amazing.

We'll see what all comes of this in the coming months.  At the very least, we can reasonably expect to come away with two more amazing up-ports of games that are fan favorites and for good reason.   The games weren't afraid to do things that you weren't really accustomed to, and we really enjoyed it because of that and because it just had a really neat combat system in what was actually not a very combat-focused game.  It was at least a 50/50 split, where the story was just as important as the mechanics and it's a very precarious line that few games and developers can really walk with any certainty.  Perhaps with it back in the forefront when/if Shenmue and II are re-released, it'll have a good impact on the way we look at or enjoy games again.  Because certainly, at the time, it did that for me and is quite possibly one of the reasons as to why I loved the Dreamcast (and consequently, more Japan-focused things) and continue to do so.

I Have to Do News

Even though I could go on and on and on about my Vita and how I got Dynasty Warriors Next today and played it and spent entirely too much money also buying the starter kit from GameStop that includes a cleaning cloth, card case for eight games and two memory sticks, a slip-case for the Vita, ear buds that I will never use and screen protectors, I shouldn't.  To cement that fact, I want to do one of these mish-mashy 'here's a few news stories' posts because 1.) Not only is there not a whole lot of news (imagine that!) but, 2.) I need to catch up on posting things that aren't, roughly translated OHMYGODTHEVITAEEEEEEEEE!".  Roughly.  Very roughly.  So throwing down a few things to contemplate will likely help, even if they're just little bits of news.

The above image is a picture tweeted by Hideo Kojima himself to confirm to everyone that, much like with the MGS HD Collection that had Metal Gear Solid 3:  Subsistence, the version of Zone of the Enders 2 included in the ZoE HD Collection will be the "Special Edition" that never saw release in the states.  The Special Edition apparently saw the addition of extra difficulty options (I imagine one is the "European Extreme" equivalent), some more cutscenes and story, and some more missions to play.  The only downside to this that I can foresee is the possibility of having to -play- Zone of the Enders on a really really hard difficulty to appease the trophy gods which I really wouldn't look forward to.  At the same time, there is no other occasion where I would -not- look forward to playing Zone of the Enders 1 and/or 2 (Especially on my Vita, sorry, had to do that one) so more game is much more appreciated.

Some more information on this all would be nice, like when we can expect to buy and play the game for instance, but any news is good news.  Some stylish giant robot action will be exceptional but I don't know when I'll be able to fit it in, as this is officially the year of too many games.  I have two Vita games that I've barely played, three more to buy during the summer, and three PS3 games in the near-immediate future that I have to buy.  You know that I average about 12 games a year, at least games -from- that year, and already I have eight on my plate, technically speaking, before I've even started the year proper!  But there is always time for Zone of the Enders and that's why I'm excited for the Vita version since, as a basic fact, I just have more time with the hand-held.  It is, in fact, sitting right in front of me as I type, eagerly awaiting a push of the PS button so I can rip away the lock screen to play again.  Which reminds me - Note to self:  Look for Zone of the Enders Wallpapers.

Speaking of this being the year of too many games, Sega of America has teased the next Dreamcast game to receive the PSN/XBLA port treatment.  With no title.  No characters.  No Release date.  Really no information at all.  So why are people excited for it?  Because it is very obviously motherfucking Jet Set Grind Radio for the Dreamcast.  It doesn't need to be said in anything beyond what was offered in the video.  Funky beats, stylistic approach of visuals and, the tell-tale of all tell-tales, the character boombox at the end from Jet Grind Radio, these are all of the things that point to this thing of beauty becoming an actuality, an answer to so many dreams and hopes.

At least....a possible one.  I don't mean to harsh any buzzes, especially my own, but we did have another game, fairly famous for its soundtrack, having that stripped out when it was re-released because of licensing issues.  I imagine that's the main reason a lot of people have held off on Crazy Taxi, and I should certainly hope that the issue with it is not one with JGR as well, since that will most likely kill a -lot- of desire surrounding it.  About 26 songs (version dependent) is a lot, and while I don't remember if Crazy Taxi saw the majority of the songs taken out or, in fact, all of them, you can bet that if even a one is missing, you will not hear the end of it from the internet.

Still, starting the next group of Dreamcast titles to be released with JGR, music or no, is a hell of a move and makes one wonder just what could possibly be next.  Will the try and top it with the game that will never be finished in Shenmue?  Or the game we never wanted to end in Skies of Arcadia?  Or will they pretend Sonic Adventure 2 was important beyond a few of the stages with fantastic music and pretend it's a bigger deal?  Smart money is probably on the latter of the options, but it's more than possible that all three games will see a release on at least one of these fancy digital platforms before all is said and done.  And let's just hope that if they re-release them all combined on a disk, they don't lock it to 360 and PC only because, damnit, I would've bought it, I don't even care.  Sonic Adventure and the (gimped) Crazy Taxi are more than worth it.

Some of you might remember the year of Amnesia:  The Dark Descent as "When did that come out?", but I'm guessing the vast majority of the internet remembers Frictional Games' horrific first-person romp with some perverse combination of wistful adoration and sheer terror.  So the news that a sequel is being made is likely good and awful news for all since it means another Amnesia game.  This is one of those cases where you can say the exact same thing like "Oh god, Amnesia Sequel!" and the inflection is what makes the case for the joke, but this is the internet and text, so just imagine your own internal dialogue for that.  Because there are certainly things there.

You might wonder about the video I linked above and it's purely for convenience and a point of reference.  I've talked about Helloween4545 several times for the pure simple fact that he is really really entertaining.  That he has a Let's Play of Amnesia:  The Dark Descent is not only expected (given that he's a horror-LPer) but welcome for the obvious facts of topical-ness as well as that it's just absolutely wonderful.  Despite it being hilarious, it allows for moments where you actually can genuinely be frightened by the game.  And that's precisely what The Dark Descent tries to pull from you, that fear and terror you have - it yearns to drag it to the surface and revel as you don't know what to do with it.  It is, actually, a lofty goal that A Machine of Pigs seeks to surpass by not only hitting that bar again (with new tricks, since gamers are likely immune to the ones The Dark Descent employed) but by evoking more feelings than just fear.  I have faith that they'll be able to do just that, though what feelings they're going for, I can't be sure.

While the game is a sequel, it will not be a direct one and the only connection will be that it takes place in the same universe as the first game, though several decades later, bringing it up to 1899.  The Victorian Age will be in full swing in the game, and, if the title is anything to go by, there will likely be heavy usage of machinery and industrialization.  Not only in the puzzle elements of the game, but the driving force behind it - this apparent machine that is 'fit only for pigs. Fit for the slaughtering of pigs.'  I'm not sure just what that means, but I think I'm already getting the chills at the considerations.  With any luck, the game will be out right before Halloween to be perfectly timed for everyone involved.

More Details on the Amy Price Discrepancy

So I touched on it slightly the other day during the Birthday Post, but I didn't extrapolate a bunch because there just wasn't a lot of information.  Since then, an official explanation has come out of the developer and it's....it's a thing.  For every bit of sense it makes, it also makes -negative- sense, which is something I'll just have to explain when I really get into it.  Suffice to say, it's understandable and they're even going about ways of letting 'us' decide, provided we have a facebook, which means they're letting 'other people' decide.  But before I get into the explanation, why don't I go into the game that is Amy for a moment, since I haven't really taken much notice of it before these last few days.

Amy seems to be a rather nice-looking Survival Horror game that's set just barely in the future as the world is slowly crumbling in on itself because of global warming.  If that's not bad enough, apparently a comet has also impacted near Silver City, where the game takes place, that has brought about a new virus to compound issues.  One of the survivors of all this, Lana, has been infected by the virus as she tries to find safety and finds that, after running across a mysterious little mute girl named Amy that she can actually control or reverse the spread of the infection to a certain limit which actually offers a lot of strategic advantages in avoiding the other infected who've devolved into little better than monsters.  The goal of the game seems to be surviving long enough to get Lana and Amy into safety, since Amy seems to be the key in stopping the infection the comet brought.

The game's big selling point seems to be its attention to its own graphics; they worked really hard to make the game look as nice as it does, after all, and the biggest area of effort, the faces of the characters, is the one they've put at the forefront.  Amy, being mute, can only communicate through her facial expressions and her body language, so the philosophy seems to be that they needed to make a system that facilitated that well enough.  The gameplay itself seems to be the other top priority (which is good) but everyone says that, so who knows whether it'll work or not.  A lot of games try the open-ended style of "Fight, Run or Hide", very few games actually achieve it, as more often than not, some encounters end up leaving you wondering just how you could be expected to hide from this one or run from that one leaving you with just a clumsy combat system that was made clumsy for the express purpose of making you think to run or hide.  I don't really expect that from Amy of course, but given the genre it comes from, it's quite possible.

Now, getting back to the issue at hand, Lexis Numerique is very obviously a European Company which seems to be the issue this all stems from in a sense.  As we all know, things just generally cost more in non-American countries if you just take the prices and do a straight conversion between the two.  $10 and €10 are not the same in overall currency, so generally, a little fudging has to be done that more or less ends with our pals in PAL-land taking the financial hit.  This is further complicated when you take 800 Microsoft Points, which is actually ten dollars and more or less translated into that much, and see that the above variation of ten is the price for both, because it seems to draw a line of concept that states 800=$10=€10 and it simply does not.  So this is where Lexis Numerique's pricing structure comes into play.

The game, quite simply, is €10.  Using PAL-Land math, €10 translates roughly into $12.73 which is precisely the reason why the American price showed up at $12.99/800 points.  Because that, essentially, is the exact same price until you come to the fact that 800 MS Points in America is $10 which is only about €7.82.  However, due to the nebulous factor of Points not being a direct indication of money, you can't exactly change the amount of points something's going to be just because you want to.  Microsoft has these price brackets of points and you, as a developer, have to attach one of them to it.  It's all very very confusing when you try to think about it, but the basic flow here is thus:  Amy is €10 which is $12.73 when straight-converted, not $10 which is €7.82 when straight-converted, however 800 Points isn't € or $, thus can't be switched.  Or, if you're not interested in that, you could just take the gist of this:  This is stupid.

Lexis Numerique is, dare I say it, not a collection of dumb people who dumb people because they are dumb.  You cannot tell me that they all took a look at the 800 Points/$12.99 pricing structure and went, "Yeah, no that won't ruffle any feathers or raise any suspicion.", and now they're doing damage control by letting 'fans' feel like they've done something in telling them to make the game $10 on PSN (which is going to happen and shouldn't have even come to this) and trying to shift as much blame onto Sony as possible by bringing up the fact that if the price is changed, the game will have to be delayed on PSN.  Of course it has to be delayed for the change to take place - the change that Lexis Numerique should have seen and made before they green-lit it.  It's all just a very unfortunate situation, since all it's going to do is drag a whole bunch of bad press onto the game, but hopefully it'll get reviewed well enough to off-set that.

PSN Exclusives Loses Two Titles

So, I've been sitting on this one for a bit and with nothing else really striking out to me as something to write about news-wise (and my only gaming being Uncharted 3 which reduces me to a Near-Vita-Level inability to articulate my enjoyment), but I think it bears being brought up.  "Exclusives" get tossed around a lot and it's usually a pretty big deal when whoever 'loses' that exclusivity unless it was announced as such to begin with (Think Summer of Arcade stuff), but these two went without too much fanfare.  I don't know if it's because they're (former) PSN exclusives which apparently only get a resounding 'meh' from the internet at large, or what, but in pretty rapid succession two exclusive games ended up being announced for other platforms, one of which being a real surprise.

The above pictured Joe Danger is likely the bigger one, as it was promoted quite heavily and even partook in the Sony Pub Fund to be made (I -believe-) so it was sort of like how some of the more prominent XBLA titles have been brought about and made/kept exclusive.  When Joe Danger's sequel, Joe Danger: The Movie, was announced for both PSN and XBLA, it wasn't that much of a surprise, honestly, but given how difficult MS Publishing Standards have seemed in the past, the last thing I would have expected was a re-release of Joe Danger on XBLA.  But that's exactly what's happening with Joe Danger:  Special Edition.  As per the previously mentioned standards, the game will be an enhanced edition, featuring things exclusive to the XBLA version (much like a PSN version when the shoe is, as it often has been in the past, on the other foot) in exchange for appearing on the platform, er.....late.

I'm not too fussed myself; I never really cared for Joe Danger after playing the demo for quite a bit to make sure I had an opinion established on playing, rather than impression, but this is kind of a big thing, really.  I'm pretty certain that this is a first, but if we can't take anything else from this, at least we can take away the idea that, yes, PSN does have quality offerings; quality enough that other platforms feel the need to poach them, as it were.  (That's not how it is at all.)  Since my main platform is PS3/PSN, I'm obviously against the theory of having PSN exclusives heading off to XBLA with content I'll never have access to without buying it again, but, well, I suppose this is what 360-centric players have been feeling for quite a while.  Though, in all fairness, I think the last big 'exclusive lost' was Braid, which, well.....we'll not get into that.  I just can't think of anything else besides that and Castle Crashers.

Also on the first bus out of PSN-town is Rochard, which I'm going to Chance a guess that everyone who reads this would've known this by now.  On November 15th, it'll hit PC through Steam (at least, not sure if it'll see a release through the developers, Recoil Games, themselves as well) and offer just that many more people the chance to play around with Gravity Guns in a third person/sidescroller perspective.  The latter is for emphasis as, well, whenever I see Gravity Gun I think of another game that I shan't mention here until it's finished which could be a while.

I've not seen, heard, or played a lot of Rochard beyond seeing it a few times when the playstation blog brought it up, but it seems like a neat game if on concept alone.  Not enough games deal with gravity in such a direct way (that I can think of anyhow) and while physics puzzles are commonplace now, I don't think they've really overstayed their welcome, personally.  Of course, personally, I don't think the Puzzle game genre gets enough representation nowadays; at least proper puzzle games, not "figure out how to do something in two seconds, take thirty minutes trying to do it because it's so goddamn precise" types.  Or "have only the vaguest of tiny clues given to you to know how to achieve this outlandish resolution to a bullshit puzzle" types of puzzle games.  It is a delicate balance, is my point, and a lot of developers don't really get that middle-ground.  Hopefully Recoil Games has done just that, though.

I guess we'll just see what this all will mean for PSN as a whole, but I honestly doubt we're going to lose out on a lot of exclusivity here.  I think we can identify the 'core' games that were developed for PS3/PSN and have no intent of shifting anywhere else.  Not that moving around is a bad thing, of course, just that some companies want to have the most focused product they can offer which is, pretty much, too difficult or bordering on impossible to do over two different platforms, since every platform has its ups, downs, strengths and weaknesses that can't be quantified in simple terms with others.  Still, I just have to wonder why a bigger to-do hasn't been made by the internet as a whole.