CUT ALL THE THINGS

If you will allow me one thing before I get started...

Ahem.

Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee~!

Alright.

So, obviously, I picked up my Limited Edition copy of Metal Gear Rising:  REVENGEANCE (I will be doing a Bonus Post to go over the box, the contents and offering pictures.  Also bragging.) today and brought it home after a few detours that cut into my playing time drastically.  That was not so great, but it's a thing that happens sometimes.  When I did manage to get home and unbox the thing finally, the first thing I did was pull out the Soundtrack and pop that into the ol' PS3 to import it, taking a look at what we were talking about in terms of Video Game OST here.  Since a lot of "included" OSTs tend to be like, 10 tracks when the -actual- OST has like 40.  I figured that would be the case here since, really, how many tracks could the game have, and how many were they just going to 'give away' like that?  So, imagine my surprise when I popped up the little disk icon on the XMB, hit Triangle and hit Import and was first introduced to the 32-Track, 630 (ish) MB, Hour and change long OST.  I will assist you in this venture:  my surprise was vast and all encompassing.  I haven't -actually- listened to it yet, just imported it, but I will because I've already heard some pretty great things in the game itself.

That was not the first, nor the last surprise that I was visited by this game and specifically this Limited Edition.  No, the first surprise was when I walked into GameStop, informed the clerk of my reason for being there, and he reached down and pulled out this massively tall box (comparatively speaking) by a handle on the top of it and placed it on the counter.  "Holy crap", I said, unable to stop myself.  "That is huge."  "Yeah, I was really surprised with just how big they were.", said the clerk with a little grin that I myself shared.  Right then and there, I knew my purchase was 100% justified, yet it would astound me hours later when I didn't even know the half of it then.  "It's blue."  someone chipped in from behind me.  Both myself and I looked back to another customer in line directly behind me, as he was pointing at my box.  "The sword lamp.  The electricity is blue, it's awesome looking.  My friend sent me a picture of it earlier because he knew I had to wait until later to get mine."  He then produced his smartphone, brought up the picture of the arcing blue electricity contained within another sword lamp to which myself and the clerk "Oooo"d and "Ahhh"d over for a moment.  Good times were had by all, I concluded my purchase (After also pre-ordering Tearaway, Soul Sacrifice, Deadly Premonition:  Director's Cut, Tomb Raider and The Last of Us Suvivalist LE since the Post-Apocalypse is all sold out whyyyy) and left, eager to get my foray into REVENGEANCE started.

Hours later, when I got home after the annoying sidethings I had to do, I went through the process described above, popped in the disk and allowed its Day One patch (presumably for the DLC, both pre-order and non) before it then had to install as well.  These times, when these things are downloading and installing, these are the hardest times ever, and it's only when a game like Binary Domain and Metal Gear Solid 4 comes along and -does- something with Install screens that you truly appreciate them for doing that.  Because the install wasn't that big, nor did it take too long, but the minutes stretched into hours and I only steadied myself with a quick couple rounds of Jetpack Joyride on my Vita - the last mission eludes me yet, but I will accomplish it one day.  Eventually, the download, the install were all done and I could finally, finally begin seeking revenge with a vengeance.

Like with the just mentioned Binary Domain, I didn't know quite what to expect, walking into REVENGEANCE, but I did expect something good.  Something fun.  And much the same as with that situation, I got a -lot- more than I expected, finding that at no point in my four hours of playing did I stop grinning, did I stop chuckling and getting excited by all of the wonderfully awesome things on the screen.  The game is beyond fun, it's beyond good - it is exquisite, and it's a whole different beast than I was expecting, but a beast that I've been wanting without knowing it.  I'm only a couple boss fights into the game as it stands, but it has already been a goddamn experience and my mind has gone wild with the possibilities and the realities of just what this is.  And what REVENGEANCE, so far, is, is a game where you do so much cool shit, so much fun shit, that it makes your head spin.  I jumped on a string of missiles to cut a Metal Gear RAY in half.  I remote controlled a Dwarf (those things with the arms) to zap a bunch of guards into unconsciousness where I then went around, cutting them up and absorbing their sweet, sweet electrolytes.  I cut a Gekko into 100+ pieces while wearing a Sombrero.

Cut all the things indeed.

It Was a Good Day

Happy Chie is Happy.

I didn't do much today.  Well, really, I did, but in the sort of grand scheme of things, what I did wasn't really a lot, but it was pretty fulfilling nonetheless.  I went out and bought myself a few things including a copy of Taken 2 on Blu-Ray/DVD Combo, Persona 4 Arena (because it's $20 at GameStop currently...or at least, it was at my GameStop), Dark Souls and topped it all off with a nice $25 pre-order of Metal Gear Rising:  REVENGEANCE's Collector's Edition, since I made it before the cut-off, thankfully.  Then I came home and eschewed my purchases for the comfort (relatively speaking) of Sorcery, which I played for the majority of the day and did, indeed, end up beating.  I'll save some words for a potential review, but suffice to say that it was good.  Really good.  Like....surprisingly good.  A bit short, but I am very, very happy with the end-product and it's a shame that there will literally be nothing else from that unless the heavens open and the stars align in the proper way.

Speaking on Reviews, I was halfway through one for Assassin's Creed 3:  Liberation when my mind just sort of went blank and I had to put it aside for the night.  Hopefully I'll be able to bang through the other half of it tonight and get that up.  I don't mean to get all review-heavy all of a sudden, despite appearances (having just done one for FFXIII-2 recently, this one and talking of doing one for Sorcery as well), but you just go with what works, I suppose, and that is really working for now.  Don't expect it to be a thing that starts something, but enjoy it while it lasts since that is totally an indeterminate amount of time between now and a few months from now probably as I power through a few games in rapid succession.  Hopefully.  Or I'll spend like, two weeks straight playing Demon's Souls and then jump into Dark Souls.  Because I am apparently a masochist or something.

Speaking of Dark Souls, there was a little story to tell about it, I suppose.  I didn't think too much of it, but in retelling the tale to a few people, it seemed a bit more of a thing to them than I assumed it might've been.  So, at GameStop after perusing their selection for a good few minutes, I picked out my bounty - a new copy of Persona 4 Arena and a used copy of Dark Souls because, hey, it didn't come with a code or anything that I know of and I saved a couple bucks because of it.  The girl working the register, fairly cute, engaged me by being positive about my pick of P4A and asking me if I'd bought Golden on the Vita.  After assuring her that I have it and beat it last week, she nodded and mentioned that she wasn't too far into it, but her Personae were all up to level 30 which isn't bad to be sure.  We chatted a little bit more before she turned her attention to Dark Souls, hesitating for just a moment before looking over at me past the rim of her glasses.

"Just so you know, you can always bring Dark Souls back if it's not your type of game," she warned.  I chuckled and waved it off.  "Yeah, I know it's rough.  I've been playing Demon's Souls recently."  "Dark Souls is harder."  "I know, but I've got a friend who has been bothering me to pick it up and she is fairly relentless."  She nodded and shrugged a bit with a smile.  "Fair enough.  I just personally found myself ripping my hair out playing it and that's not why I play games at all."  I smirked; it's a common sentiment, one that I was well acquainted with.  "Yeah, when I played Demon's Souls the first time, I was of the same opinion, just sort of raging at the whole thing.  But when you keep at it, eventually it clicks and it becomes a finesse thing and when it works, it's amazing....it's just the getting it to work part that's a problem."  To that, she laughed.  And we chatted a bit more before I asked about REVENGEANCE's Limited Edition and got that pre-order taken care of.  Then I paid and I left with a few kind words because I'm just nice like that.

I didn't think anything of it and truly I still don't, but when I told that story to a couple people, they flipped.  "You made her laugh?"  "What, yeah.  I make people laugh sometimes.  It happens."  "Nah, not like that."  Apparently, I was flirting, according to these people.  You...would think that this is something I would realize/consider before anyone else.  In other news, I know some weird people, it seems.  Fairly weird.  Weird people with weird ideas.  Since I was just being nice and sharing enthusiasm.  Still, no matter the outcome and the intent, it was an amusing story to me and it helped elevate the day from pretty good to good overall.  And because of that, I just wanted to share tonight because it's not always about the games, but rather sometimes it's about getting the games and the amusing stories that come with that activity.  Overall, as I said, it was a good day, no real issues aside from my arms being sore from working out and moving things yesterday, but such is the way of things and flicking my wrist and such a billion times playing Sorcery probably didn't help with that.  Worth it, regardless.

The Last Of Us Has Confirmed Multi-Player

When you're announcing something, there's generally three ways it comes out:  1.)  You just say "Hey, this is happening" with some sort of aplomb or spectacle, 2.)  You -try- to say "Hey, this is happening" with some sort of aplomb or spectacle but some sort of promo material or leak steals your thunder or 3.)  You just sort of mention it casually, presumably with a little grin on your lips as you do so.  The third method is not often employed, and when it is, it's actually really kind of effective at disseminating a bit of information more than actually making a spectacle of it would be, since, with an off-hand mention, you're ensuring people are going to pick up on it more intently as if they've discovered a really obscure little fact or something.  I say all this because this is what happened with The Last of Us - multi-player was announced in the Playstation Blog Post that offers a new trailer, a re-affirmation of the release date which is May 6th, 2013 and the reveal of both pre-order bonuses.

The first pre-order bonus pack, the Sights and Sounds Pack as it's called, is going to be available everywhere, it seems, and simply includes the Official Soundtrack (presumably as a download), a dynamic theme and two avatars, one each of our main characters Joel and Ellie.  The other pack, the Survival Pack you see above, is set to be a GameStop exclusive as a bonus to the Sights and Sounds Pack (so pre-ordering at GameStop nets you both) and focuses primarily on the not-yet-mentioned Multiplayer modes that...continue to be not mentioned.  From the items in the pre-order flyer, we can assume it's likely going to be something like the Uncharted MP, but possibly with less Deathmatch (or maybe the same amount of Deathmatch because squads of survivors are out there as trailers have shown) and because if it isn't broke, you don't fix it.  Uncharted's MP is certainly not broke and, if I had more time, I would likely spend quite a bit of time with it, but I just do not as I've lamented here several times.  But if you don't believe me about the MP just being mentioned off-handedly and don't care to click the link, then hey, here's a quote for you:

Multiplayer, wha? We’re not quite ready to talk about it yet, but stay tuned as we’ll be revealing more details on multiplayer before The Last of Us is released on May 7th, 2013.

That, of course, suggests that there just might be a little more to the whole MP onion than we know of, which is a really intriguing thing.  I could sit here and ponder of all the different things that could really be possible, but I'm not...not really going to do that.  Since there will either be cooperative MP against Platforming/Puzzles, Cooperative MP against waves of AI, or various modes of Deathmatch or some combination thereof.  We've really more or less exhausted the well of just -how- you keep people who are playing a video game on the internet interested in continuing to play a game on the internet, and those three options are pretty much the stand-outs.  Mostly because they are in every single game that has multiplayer in its own way, from Assassin's Creed which sort of re-invented the wheel to fit its own mold to Call of Duty which has turned it into a refined, near-game all its own, to Mass Effect which was sort of the last series you would expect to get MP within its casing.  What with being a Shooter-RPG with a single-player focus and everything.

If anything, it's just what 'twist' on the existing formulas the game offers that makes it something stand-out.  As stated, Assassin's Creed took it and ran with it in its own direction - giving you the single-player focused character feel and turning it on its head as everyone had that as well, in game modes that actively tried to get you to not act as you do when you play Single-Player.  You're still killing mans for points at the end of the day, but the line between Point A and Point B bends and swerves in all the different places than most others attempt, and that's what made it stand out.  Call of Duty's twist is that there really -is- no twist - it's simply meant to be a very polished, very refined experience and generally lives up to that with the odd exception here or there.  The line for it from Point A to Point B is very straight, but lined with all the best, so to speak, which makes it its own beast.  So, much as most things in life, it more or less boils down to what is essentially semantics - not what you say, but how you say it.

My own personal hope is that the game sort of takes a page from another popular game that I won't really mention because I am being cryptic or something, and focuses more on survival in its MP.  Not survival from enemies, be they AI or Player primarily, but simply survival from the environment I suppose.  The game has already shown off a crafting system to create a few things like molotov cocktails and the like made from random supplies and I imagine that could be extended to other things.  Things like torches and fires to keep warm, meals to eat and the like.  A multiplayer mode in which you simply try to out-live another individual with or without direct contact with them seems intriguing enough, really, and it would likely involve the trappings of enemies whether they're just scavengers or those strange mutants from the first trailer.  Regardless, I doubt I'll be disappointed by the MP because I'm not looking forward to it as much as I am the single player campaign.  That's what we know of and that's what's exciting and, for all intents and purposes, that's all I really care about.  May simply cannot come fast enough.

The Week The Wallet And Spare Time Died

The above (admittedly low-quality since I gave zero fucks about making it pretty) image displays the pick-ups I made today which is a lead-in to stating that the $100 I spent right there is me getting off light compared to some this week.  By spending only a meager one hundred dollars, I am getting the precise amount of entertainment I want and I am lucky that my desires, my wants, came that cheap this week.  You see, if you've been living under a rock or something, you will know that this was the week that a fucking metric ton of things came out, including but not limited to:  The above Playstation All-Stars Battle Royale (which is faring a bit better in reviews than one would assume - The bulk of the negatives being that it's 'not enough of a Smash Bros clone' which is absolutely fucking hilarious and god I hate critics) and Persona 4 Golden (a must-have for any Vita owner), as well as Hitman:  Absolution, Disney's Epic Mickey 2, and a little thing known as the Wii U which you might've heard of, I guess, plus a whole slew* of games for it.

*Slew not guaranteed quality

If that weren't enough, some of you will recall that this is also the week of Black Friday, which also means that it is the week where a bunch of people replace their brains with their wallets and their common sense with concrete-solid self-centeredness.  (Not in a wholly negative way, but I'm sure you know what I mean.  The bulk of the people shopping on Black Friday are pushy brutes who will trample you to save three dollars on something they don't even want.)  That all means that if you can truly get through this week without spending a dime on games or such, then I salute you, for you clearly have a will that is more steeled than my own.  I mean, I'm in a dangerous situation as it is - I bought those two games as is, and man was I tempted to look further for something else.  "Oh, I'm sure they have a copy of Zone of the Enders HD Collection - I really do want that Rising demo..."  "Oh, perhaps they have 999?  Or at least Virtue's Last Reward - don't wanna miss out on that."  "No, no, I cannot buy the Metal Gear Solid HD Collection on PS3 or Vita yet still.  God help me, I want to, but I can't."  These and more all circulated through my head in the scant ten minutes or so that I spent within the walls of GameStop as I purchased my items and left; being extra careful to give the Wii U demo console a wide berth lest I feel compelled to play it for 'just a minute'.

Of course, if you follow my Twitter (I apologize for bringing it up so much), you might have noticed that I became less impressed with it by a fair deal when a double-tap of bad news (coupled with something I already knew) put everything to a halt.  I'm not going to speak on it too long here, as I want to do a different post for that, but suffice to say if I had made a checklist of "Ways Nintendo Can Make the Wii U Completely Unappealing To Me", then that was a lot of boxes checked all at the same time on a list that wasn't realistically very long to begin with.  On top of that, there's all sorts of reports of consoles bricking left and right because the reportedly 5 gig or so firmware update you have to download when you first power up the system was being interrupted by users and/or bad luck.  (Turning the machine off because there's no canceling the firmware update in the former, internet cutting out in the latter)  Even if I were geared up and ready to get my Mario ZombiU Warriors Orochi 3 Hyper on on the Wii U, all that would've been enough to give me pause - enough so that I think I can resist its charms even after a hands-on.  But I dare not gamble when it comes to these things because it is a fire that I'm not risking a burn with, not yet.

Regardless of whether you do somehow manage to avoid the temptations of spending this week, or you succumb to throwing green (or whatever color your money is) at a clerk for items bound by plastic shells, your free time is in a deathmatch with all that is offered this week.  Why is that, you ask, even if I don't spend a dime?  Well, that's because Playstation Plus arrived on the Vita this week in all its glory, throwing six full games, at least one of which you're guaranteed to not own on a Vita, into your lap or your hands or wherever your Vita spends the bulk of its time when you're actually playing it.  Uncharted:  Golden Abyss (which is getting a wonderful-looking Card Game Add-on at the start of December), Gravity Rush, Wipeout 2048, Mutant Blobs Attack!!!, Jet Set Radio (!) and Final Fantasy Tactics:  War of the Lions join the stable of games included in the Instant Game Collection, not replacing a single existing one in the PS3's list, meaning you have access to an entire 18 games right off the bat for your price of entry.  These Plus games are yours after you download the Vita's 2.00 Firmware Update that went live Monday Nig-

Wait.  Wait.  Did I just say Vita's 2.00 Firmware Update?  Why yes.  Yes I did.  Let's talk about the 2.00 update for a moment.

Okay, 2.00 is awesome.  When it was announced, it was just like "Oh, it's the Plus update, woo" and as it got closer and closer, little things were being said, things about folders for music and pictures and videos which is nice, and things about the browser that were very noncommittal and it was just like "Oh well, some other tweak-y stuff, that's always cool.".  And indeed, there -are- a lot of tweaks; the PSP and PSOne Emulators saw a bit of an update in terms of letting you know how to get into the Emulator options (touch the screen for a few moments) as well as adding some more control and viewing options which is always nice.  Near has once again been revamped for whatever that's worth, and most instances of "Please Wait..." for various things (the one I noticed being Trophy Synching) seems to have been phased out completely which is alright.  But the thing to take away from this update?  The singular thing that elevates it from cool to holy shit yesssss?  Open a game.  Any game.  Whatever, open your copy of Xenogears (because you should have a copy of Xenogears) or Persona 4 Golden, whatever you want, and start playing it some, then press the PS button, swipe over and find your Internet Browser bubble, open it and look up your website of choice.

Yeah.

Yeah.

That just happened.  

That just happened and it's awesome that it works now without a LiveTweet workaround.

Anyways, as I was saying, your time is being contested by these free games out there, simply waiting for you to give them a good home and a little attention and for someone like myself, that's going to be a goddamn chore.  I'm not done with Ragnarok Odyssey yet in terms of I haven't finished it, but with Persona 4 Golden in my possession, I am done with Ragnarok Odyssey for now.  Then I have a copy of PASBR for my Vita on my PS3 disk just waiting to be transferred over (at least, I believe that's how it works) which I actually intend to play because it looks neat.  The aforementioned Mutants Blobs Attack!!! has been downloaded and I put a little time into it already - it's a neat little game, I'll give it that much, but tilt sections are the worst.  On top of all that, I have Jet Set Radio downloading right this moment (and, well, for the last three hours and the next....three...hours) which you know damn well I am going to put some time into.  I do not have time for all this.  At all.  But goddamnit, I am going to make time for it all because this is prime-time right here and I haven't been this excited at being in the middle of a field of options in....well, quite a while.

Bonus Post: LittleBigPlanet Vita Being Sold Early

So, there were rumblings throughout the internet speaking to the possibility that LittleBigPlanet Vita had its street date broken, quite a bit moreso than usual for a release game (not considering that it's two weeks early) and it was more or less proven accurate by a statement made by Sony's PR Manager, Eric Levine, who made a little post on the Playstation Blog about it.

Hi everyone – production on LittleBigPlanet PlayStation Vita was completed earlier than expected, and due to the excitement from our retail partners, some have decided to put it on shelves as soon as the product was received. You’ll still be able to fully enjoy all the offline features of the game, but the servers will not go live until September 18th. We apologize for any confusion this may cause and will keep you posted on any further updates.

That statement is basically saying "GameStop broke street date because I don't know, and we're not going to go after them because it means they're selling our game and that's pretty cool at least", which is a rather nice way to handle it, really.  They also point out that because the game was being sold, again, two weeks early that the servers weren't online and won't go online until a week before.  This is probably customary procedure, as not only do companies tend to try and stress test them, but so that reviewers can partake in the online offerings of a game for the purpose of the review.  Again, this is a pretty cool move to say "Just so you know, the servers are going up this day" instead of....well, just not mentioning it, or even worse, trying to deter people from playing it online on the 18th.  Which, if the Sound Shapes release is anything to go by, would probably be alright, since it would likely have the effect of having people slowly ween themselves to them when it becomes 'more okay' with each passing day, instead of slamming them day one, ensuring that the traffic makes it difficult to play.

I don't generally advocate looking into the comment sections of posts I link to because they are generally a sinkhole of idiocy and this is really no different.  However, I have gazed into the eyes of madness and if you should choose to do so yourself, you'll see that a lot of people are unhappy about this for reasons that....are quite silly, really.  Namely that Sony wasn't prepared for GameStop to break the street date by two full weeks and, as such, aren't releasing the digital version of the game early.  Since clearly, clearly all you have to do to release a game digitally is flip a switch, right?  RIGHT?!  It can be done whenever because Digital Distribution is just magical like that and when the switch is flipped, you can pay for it with unicorn farts and sunshine nuggets.  Because this is imagination land, you see.

For my part, I'm just going to brush that off because I know that the 19th, not the 25th, is the day that I will have LittleBigPlanet Vita in my hands, and thus the 19th will be a glorious day.  Unless GameStop shennanigans occur which would be a surprise, as I've never been on the receiving end of one of these 'horror stories' that float around out there when it comes to GameStop as a whole.  I'm not figuring that I will be, but there is a fairly sizeable amount of weirdness going on already.  Namely that they told me to come in on the 19th to get it which is A) not the release date and B) a Wednesday when games are generally released on Tuesday.  Still, a call to the store before I go there will likely save a lot of hassle on my part, so I'm none too worried.  And I'm certainly excited to have it that much closer to the horizon since I'll be jumping right into the creator after I get enough pieces to put a decent level together.  And it will be glorious.

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.

Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

If you couldn't guess, the above is my current Page One of my Vita that I bought today, actually held and played with and finally experienced exactly what this machine had to offer.  If you're surprised that my background, rather, that the first place I went to was Drakengard, you clearly don't know me too well but that's okay, I forgive you.  While I haven't gotten to really look around for proper-sized Vita backgrounds just yet, as I assume it'll still be something of a task to do so, I have that and a few others that I'm toying about with the prospect of using so I am not left wanting.  All that aside, I did, obviously, spend the bulk of the night with my Vita after  I finally got home from purchasing it and having it charge and then download and install the update that had been pushed out last week for maps.  Which wasn't painful at all and I wasn't pacing around the house the entire time or anything crazy like that no sir.

My first experience was, clearly, a fantastic one, and I come away, having finally turned it off prior to working on this post, feeling a satisfaction that I didn't quite expect, despite barely dipping into the device whatsoever.  My journey to GameStop didn't yield the results I'd hoped for, unfortunately; while I got my Vita and Uncharted with no hassle (in fact, I forgot to tell the guy I had Uncharted pre-ordered and only by virtue of the magical computer did he grab it), the prospect of owning a 16 gig stick on this way was snatched from me for a brief moment when the clerk, 'Leo' (who was a fantastic guy) told me in no uncertain terms "We're out."  This was directly after he informed me that they did not get nor have any copies of Dynasty Warriors Next for sale, so my response and in fact the only response one could have at that moment was to say, "Aww, man you are killing me here".  A quick assurance that they did, in fact, have more 16 Gig sticks from the other clerk working the store made it alright however and $335.17 later ($35.17 after my gift cards) I exited the store with a big bag of the three mentioned items and a sense of unbridled excitement.

The obvious kink in my aforementioned plan is present now as, with no Dynasty Warriors Next, I cannot play Dynasty Warriors Next before Uncharted:  Golden Abyss which I -actually- have and that presents a rather real and annoying problem.  Namely, after waiting so very very long for this thing, I'm not quite ready to play it since, while I assure you that I am chomping at the proverbial bit here to play Uncharted, I know that when I begin playing it, I will not stop and at the launch of a system, you want to have options or at least the illusion of them.  If I play Uncharted for the simple reason that I can't afford to not play Uncharted, then I will not, then, be playing Uncharted specifically because I want to.  It's insanity in pure text, I realize, but this is what's going on in my head and it's for this reason that I spent the majority of the day playing with Welcome Park, rather than the Gilded Chasm, as it were.

Welcome Park is....well, it's not 'satisfying', but at the same time, it's far more surprising than I had anticipated.  The five mini-games are there simply to do as you have been told - to teach you how to use the functions of the system that are, in fact, so intuitive that you don't really need to be taught them.  Regardless, they're mostly all fun in their own right besides the one that revolves around the camera, since it involves you taking a picture with it and then solving that picture as a sliding tile puzzle of 7, 8, 14 or 15 tiles.  I'm sure it's stated somewhere in the big book of Collected Video Game Knowledge, but in the off-chance it is not:  Fuck sliding tile games.  They are never fun.  They are not fun now, they were not fun when I was a wee young'n playing The Simpsons:  Bart vs. the World, they will not be fun when I'm forty and playing Final Fantasy 16.  It's just never going to happen and their mere existence annoys me beyond words.

However, the other four games (well, three, I don't explicitly count the Sound one as a game) are fun in their own right; the touch screen-based game has the right level of "27 seconds?  Psh, I can get 26" replayability, Face Finder is interesting enough that I actually remembered the name of it and will likely be looking for faces in the real world because of it now, and the Sixaxis game is just....just fun, actually.  I was surprised too, and maybe it's just the twenty minutes of collected time I spent playing with it talking, but I got the trophy for it with no trouble on my first go and have played it three times since, content to just try and hop all those bouncey orbs as a little distraction.  It's not going to sate my gaming desires for long periods of time, but it'll do in a pinch.  I only hope that my quest to Target tomorrow yields positive results as I believe my time with Welcome Park drew to a close earlier and I won't be able to sustain another day on it exclusively.  I guess we'll see, though!

Merry Christmas! - The Haul

Now, we all like Christmas for various reasons, whether it's for the time with family, the great meals, simply getting a day off of work (In most cases), or a combination of all those reasons or something else.  But we all enjoy presents, all of us, and almost better than getting the presents is being able to talk about just what you got.  Not to gloat, of course, but just to show off the excitement we feel in getting something we wanted without parting with sweet sweet cash to do so.  It is a time-honored tradition after all, of talking about presents that you get, whether it be for your birthday, holiday or some other occasion; mostly because it's in answer to someone inquiring about your gains.

So to answer the question that wasn't asked here, I got quite a nice haul between my parents and siblings and couldn't be happier.  Honestly, I probably got a little too much, but I certainly can't complain nor do I intend to.  Nor will I suggest that I deserve it all, but it has been a fairly rough year so getting what I got was quite nice, not to mention that my actual Christmas day went quite a lot better than I had expected.  Without saying too much on it, my family hasn't all been in the best state this year (Which is part of why it's been a rough year, but not near the full reason) but we managed to get together today and really mend fences and be...well, a family for once and it was nice.  I was quite surprised by that really, and while the cynic in me is being cynical, I'm just going to roll with it.

I got a few games this year which were the main highlight obviously, but the above-pictured Sonic Generations was the real surprise here.  Three of the games I got, Dynasty Warriors Gundam 3, Fist of the North Star:  Ken's Rage (Two more Warriors-esque games?  I'm obviously a madman) and Shadows of the Damned (in preparation for Lollipop Chainsaw of course), I knew about before Christmas unfortunately as I had to take part in ordering them since folks in my family aren't too well-versed in computer things and the first two games are fairly difficult to find in store.  Ken's Rage and Shadows were both used (only option, unfortunately) so they didn't cost a lot thankfully and I'm just glad to have them, but as I said the element of surprise had been lost on them.

When I went to GameStop with my dad to fix a screw-up with a present for my nephews (more online ordering, got a pretty bad case/game, managed to swap the game) and he not-so-subtly sent me back to the car while remaining, it was fairly obvious that there was at least something else in store.  Being an over-analytical ass, I saw some white in the bag that he carried out and (correctly) deduced that it was Assassin's Creed:  Brotherhood as it had been on my list, which again ruined a bit of the surprise.  But I couldn't tell if there was anything in that bag which sparked the fire of wonderment; really I think that's half the fun of Christmas presents, wondering just what they are.  At the top of my list of possible suspects were Alpha Protocol or Mass Effect 2 for PS3 which are both, thankfully, a mere $20 a piece and just one of them would have been more than enough. 

So as you can see, Sonic Generations completely and happily took me by surprise and I found myself in the delightful quandary of trying to decide between playing DWG3, Sonic Generations or AssBro.  It's a lucky dilemma to be in, let me tell you, and one I don't take lightly.  DWG3 won out, as I loved DWG2 dearly despite not playing enough of it, and as such I've been excited for DWG3 for quite a while.  At face value from a few hours of playing it I am a bit...conflicted, actually.  But that's exactly how I felt between the original and the sequel, so I figure it just takes a little bit of time to get used to how this one works.  If nothing else, I'm sure the new mobile suits and pilots will be enough to make me love the game (especially since I believe Duo Maxwell and Deathscythe made the cut) and can't wait to really get into it.

The other big thing would be the dearth of Gift Cards to GameStop that I received from just about all sides, meaning that my expectations for February's finances just got a whole lot easier.  To say that I got more than I expected is quite the understatement as I saw a figure on a list that was obviously for me because my dad is....not very good at being sneaky with such things.  This completely neglected to factor in my siblings adding to that total (as I didn't figure they would) or the idea that my dad could, er....forget that he bought the amount he was supposed to get for me and buy it again.  The first, I could probably think on, but the latter, well....that was just one of those happy accidents that never ever happen, I'd say.  And I am quite happy with the fact that it did of course.

It was really a very Merry Christmas over here as you can tell, and I hope you all have had equally wonderful Holidays.

As if Millions of Gamers Suddenly Cried Out In Terror, etc. etc.

Hands clutched to hearts and eyes moistened earlier today when it was reported that The Last Guardian disappeared from GameStop's system, rendering all ability to pre-order it null and, even more worryingly, suggesting that the game was not going to come out.  Okay, it possibly wasn't all that dramatic, but the very idea that the latest game from Fumito Ueda, who has recently left Sony but is working on TLG as a freelancer, would not see an actual release is a realistic one in a lot of minds and that alone makes it a possibility to be feared.  Just the fact that Ueda left under the circumstances he did suggests that there has been some sort of strife internally, which only leads credence to the idea that the game has been scrapped.  And from what I've seen, it was a few long, miserable hours at least before any real clarification against the gigantic rumor mill that is the internet and games journalism came out to relax and assuage our fears.

First came a statement from Patrick Seybold, SCEA's Senior Director of Corporate Communications stating simply that the rumors of The Last Guardian's cancellation were, simply, "not true".  Mind that this is different if only because he didn't spout the normal company line of "Sony doesn't comment on rumors or speculations", which....sort of implies that they do.  Sometimes.  When an issue is clearly pants-on-head stupid to consider, as the cancellation of The Last Guardian is.  Still, that wasn't enough for some people and it certainly didn't help that the only people who picked it up at first seemed to be Kotaku and IGN (withholding links; IGN gets enough from me using their Screenshots and Kotaku.....urgh.), but eventually a statement from GameStop itself (yes, apparently Joystiq thinks it was a GameStop store or the entity of GameStop that issued a statement, since they couldn't list whoever issued the statement) that really sorts everything up.

"The Last Guardian has not been cancelled by Sony as we incorrectly stated in an automated call to reservation customers. Because the game did not have a specific release date, GameStop made the decision to remove the game from our system. The Last Guardian will be reinstated for pre-order when a firm launch date is known."

So, basically, GameStop unlisted the game because it hasn't had a firm release date in the entirety of its stay within their database which isn't entirely unreasonable at face value.  Of course, again this is The Last Guardian and it's going to come out, but it's also going to take a hell of a long time.  That's just how it is, and you gotta be ready to ride that out.  Common logic dictates that if the game had been in the system for as long as it's been, the best thing would be to just....y'know, put it back in now, rather than waiting for a release date, but I guess it's not an issue.  I just don't think it's likely taking up that much space.  But at the very least, GameStop did come out and say "our bad" since it was, indeed, their bad.

Perhaps I'm able to be passive about the entire situation since it had clarified by itself by the time I came around to find out about it, but I imagine I would've been highly speculative of it anyway.  After all, GameStop's system hasn't been all that accurate on Pricing and Release Dates in the past, and there are numerous examples of that.  Still, I'm sure there were plenty out there that believed this at face value, either by seeing the different outcroppings of 'news' stating that it was 'definitely' cancelled, or by speaking to people who had seen things and made it all seem worse than it was.  Any other company, and I'd almost expect them to capitalize on this to send out a new trailer or something but with Ueda/Team Ico....

Well, they'll just keep on truckin'.  And you can't help but like them for that at least, if not for the feelings you'll have when you finally play The Last Guardian.  Because trust me, there will be feelings.  Plenty of them.

Wait, What? GameStop Tablet?

As if there weren't enough things to give and get from GameStop, it's been announced that, not only will you be able to sell GameStop your Phones and Tablets, but apparently they will eventually be making their own tablet to sell you.  I guess....well, I guess this isn't a surprise to a lot of people, but honestly I wouldn't have seen this coming.  I probably would have expected the glut of GameStop-centric software these tablets are going to come loaded with, but not a GameStop-branded thing.  They just haven't seemed that...er...that permeated into things yet, I guess.

Still, it's supposed to be out next year, and is supposed to be an actual 'Gaming Tablet', as opposed to the current "Tablets what can play games" and is going the extra mile to accentuate this by making a (probably optional) controller peripheral.  I wonder how that'll work.  Maybe it'll be like a thing that clicks onto the bottom of the tablet (held horizontally) and has a stick or two and some buttons.  I would hope that the controller -attaches- to the tablet, or else it wouldn't be a very mobile device.

It's also possible that it'll be able to stream games from their recent online gaming acquisition, and something they're looking into, but no real confirmation on that.  Not to mention that the system already has a veritable glut of games to be played on it via Kongregate, which is already owned by GameStop and has been for some time.  It's hard to say the level of...er.....'quality' in the flash games at Kongregate isn't around the same level of all those cheap games you can buy from all the App Stores, honestly.  Granted, with real, actually meaty games coming to these devices (Final Fantasy Tactics:  War of the Lions for iPhone/Pad) it'll be hard to say that for much longer.  This isn't to say the fun little cheap, flash-games you can buy aren't 'real games', of course, but....well, you know what I'm getting at.

I'm surprising even myself in saying this, but I'm looking forward to new information about this thing with the barest hints of interest, hoping that they don't really screw the pooch on this.  I don't have a tablet currently, don't plan on getting one soon, but something gaming-centric is bound to get my interest roused of course, and while I harbor no real ill will to GameStop, I can hope there'll be some sort of parity there to make shopping there a bit easier.  Perhaps being able to pre-order a game through the tablet rather than going to the actual store (Which might just be a thing that can't happen), or having a credit calculator or something to waste time with.  (Seeing as I won't be selling my games to GAmeStop, but I know people who do and might be able to help them out with it.)  Something other than pure bloatware designed to just advertise new games coming out and to 'entice' you into the store proper.

Resident Evil: Mercenaries 3D, aka, "The Art of Pooch-Screwing"

Developers suggesting only a single playthrough of a game is hardly something new in the gaming world, but so far, it's only been that, a suggestion, which is where it really deserved to be.  Between David Cage suggesting you only play Heavy Rain once, so the magic is there for you, and you'll always remember your play and Hideo Kojima's pipe dreams for a system that would destroy a game disk if you died (I have no article for this, but I'm pretty sure it's a real thing), the theory has been out there for a while, but nobody's really been dumb enough to try and implement it, because, and I'm assuming here, nobody wants to be seen as being that dumb.

But, Capcom can now claim to be the pioneer of this idea that I cannot stress enough as being dumb.

Earlier this week, Joystiq reported that RE: Mercs 3D saves are 'forever', which, at the time, I brushed off as being a silly misinterpretation.  And while I don't know how the words "Saved data on this software cannot be reset." can be taken at anything but that, I couldn't imagine, couldn't fathom that it would be gone through with.  But, I'm going to suggest that it is that big of a deal, given GameStop refused to take it as a trade-in, presumably because it has, in fact, no resale value.  They have gone back on that, of course, but others haven't been so wishy-washy.  HMV, a British retailer also put a halt on any and all trade-ins of the game, and EB Games Australia just plain aren't stocking the game.  They'll order you a copy, if you want it, but they're pretty outward with their distaste of the system.

I'd still like to know whether or not there's truly no way to reset the game to factory default, but from what I've been seeing around the interwebs, it ain't good.  Bravo, Capcom.  I wonder how the fallout/backlash from this will affect the chances of MML3..

People like some Tablet computers, apparently.

So right after Sony officially announced a Tablet, (as well as saying, perhaps prematurely now, that the NGP might not meet release this year), it seems GameStop wants in on the action too.  Which, part of me thinks is pretty great.  I'm not a big fan of Apple products (said as someone who carries around a four year old or so iPod video, with a version of iTunes several versions out-of-date because the updater actually breaks my internet) so competition against them can, possibly, end with Apple getting less than the absolute majority of the world buying into their shit.  Of course, it won't, but it could.

But the rest of me, rather, the logical part of me, isn't enthused whatsoever.  From Sony Ericsson's batshit insane pricing, to GameStop's....well, GameStop pricing, I'm not expecting anything wallet-friendly, nor am I expecting a lot of people jumping onto it as they have with the Apple App Store, in terms of actual gaming.  I imagine GameStop's a little ahead in that they've purchased Impulse and Kongregate to allow for both free mini-games, and paid 'fuller' games, not to mention Sony Ericsson has access to the Playstation Suite, (Honestly, the Tablet will probably be the touchscreen of the Xperia Play, but bigger, and you can sync a PS3 controller to it if you don't want touch controls, though I could be wrong) and such.

I think this is a mock-up.  I'm pretty sure.  As in, I'd hope the real thing would be....smoother.

Also not to mention that Sony's been sort of in the tablet market already with their series of e-readers (which, will probably be phased out of the market in favor of the tablets which will likely have, well, an e-reader in it.) and the blanket of the unified Playstation Network theory will likely make the transition fairly smooth for those involved (or, at least, we can hope), so there is a chance that even with an almost inevitable stupid price, it might just be a viable item out of the box.

I'm a bit all over the place on these right now, honestly.  I've never really though of getting a tablet thing outside of for the simple "This is the future" feeling of having one.  I mean, some of these look straight out of Star Trek, and I know I'm not the only one seeing this, which does lend it a little weight in terms of nerd-cool, but in terms of practicality, they're just not really there yet.  At least, not as far as I know.  I can almost guarantee I won't be getting either of them unless they prove to be amazing, since there are more important things for me to look at, but in terms of pure gadgetry fun, well, I guess we can always use more.