Lancer Central

Mobile Suit Gundam 00

2008-04-07T19:59:00.001+02:00

There, I finally finished all 25 episodes and naturally, I should write a little something about what i think. Firs of, I know this is only the first season, so my opinion will only take that into account and I will probably change my opinion after I have finished the series completely in the future. Gundam 00 was certainly was a step up from SEED Destiny and as of yet I would even go as far as to say that this is my second favorite AU series after X (and my opinion about X is biased so overall I would claim that 00 is the best AU series overall, based on the first half anyways)

00 was not as focused on characters as SEED was and that helped it a bit. As far as the story go, there was some good plot twists and interesting events. The great animation quality also helped and the music wasn't bad. Overall it was an interesting series, but it didn't really exceed in any particular area aside form animation, but no aspect of it was outright bad in my opinion. I also liked the format of having two separate seasons. If this was done with SEED then maybe the CE timeline wouldn't have failed so horribly in the end. It helped keeping things well paced and energetic throughout. And as I'm comparing this to other series, 00 feels like a good mix of Wing and UC to me, it takes the best out of both parts and brings a neat series to the table that has a lot of personality to it.

I also liked the design a lot. The cahracters did suffer a bit from how sunrise usually design similar cahracters over and over, but it wasn't as bad as in other anime they have made. What I really like was the mecha designs though. The four main Gundams was all good looking and although there was no mistaking them for not being Gundams, they were more unique in design that any previous AU series (except G Gundam I guess, but...) The Trones trio wasn't bad either, but didn't feel that unique due to similar design. The general mass produced MS design was also good and felt more believable then in previous series. The Gundams was much stronger for a believable reason this time. And it was really nice to see the slick GN-X designs kick the Trones ass by the way.

Some spoilers and story/character opinions bellow:

Setsuna has to be my second favorite main character in an AU Gundam series. He did grow more then they usually do and had some great moments. I also liked Excia more then any other the other seven Gundams in the show now that its over. There are some problems though, a lot of his personality feel like other cahracters, like Sosuke from Full Metal Panic for example, and thats partly why I like him so much I guess. The same goes for Ali Al that is nothing more then a clone of Gauron, also from FMP. I didn't really like how they almost ripped this thing straight form my favorite anime, but sure, it works for the story and they did some unique things with it.

Speaking of FMP similarities: Lockon. I really liked him a lot. He had a personality I like and was important to the story in several ways, even more so then his fellow Gundam Meisters Lieria and Allelujah. Voiced by Shinichiro Miki that knows how his business and did a great job with Lockons voice. And finally, I really like that they killed him of like they did. I'm used to have my favorite cahracters die and at the least Lockon did it to enhance two things. first is forward to plot, but the second and the best is that he is set the rule that Gundam Meisters can be killed. We already know that the director of Gundam 00, Seiji Mizushima, is a cruel bastard that likes to torment his cahracters, but Gundam pilots aren't killed all that often after all.

And as I brought up death, I liked how the Trones pilots was defeated. To bad Nena that i liked the least survived when it was Johann that was the nice one. I'm happy that Sergei and Soma survived, I hope they will get more time in the next season as I really liked those two. And who knows what happened with Ali Al... he felt absent in the finale, but will most likely reappear. I also find it strange that they didn't do more with Saji then to cripple his love interest and kill his sister, but again, more to come in the next season I guess.

On to the finale. It was fairly well thought out and there wasn't to much things going on at the same time and not really anything major left unresolved that probably wont be answered in the second season. I could complain that some things happened without proper setup, like the Alvatore MA and how Graham appeared out of nowhere, but overall I can forgive that as it was done well when it happened and didn't need much explaining either I guess. The series had some great action overall and the plot was solid and fairly exciting so I have nothing to complain about really.

What about the future then? Well, the only thing I fear is that we will have another "its peace and all is calm, but suddenly an armed group start a small conflict that break all alliances and leaves it up to the Gundams to save the day". hopefully there will be more to it then that, and overall there was some interesting things in the preview, like Graham becoming a Char for example. I also like how Livonse "Amuro" Almack seem to be a new major antagonist. It will be interesting to see how the old Gundam Meisters will play a part and what the new generation of Mobile Suits look like. I liked the new UN designs, reminds me a lot of the Crossbone Vanguard era designs form UC with the spears and all. But what is really exciting is the Gundams of course.

To sum up, overall, Gundam 00 is my second favorite AU series, and probably the best one in terms of overall quality... so far. I know this is just the first half of everything, but it was a great start and I hope the quality will continue in part two. There was a lot of great things to see here, everything from cool action and great animation to interesting cahracters and a well written plot. The series feel much more like UC then any of that AU series has done before it, while it also embrace the strength of those shows at the same time. It doesn't exceed in any area, but the overall quality is really good. The second season will be important and has to impress even more then the first half did if I'm going to keep my opinion though. I have high expectations for it and really hope it wont turn out to be another SEED Destiny, but luckily things seem brighter.

I will probably move on to Code Geass now. I didn't like the first season, but it was a lot thanks to the fact that I thought it was going to be something it didn't turn out to be in the end. hopefully it will be more enjoyable now that I know what I'm in for. Its a good proof that mecha anime is still alive and well, and that the world of anime haven't completely drowned in creepy moe and shallow shonen titles. There are many interesting titles in the works and Gundam 00 was one that was well worth my time.

Some movies I made.

2006-07-08T00:25:00.000+02:00

I recently finished my studies and we did a few movies during this time. I studied at a media university so we had a lot of interesting people that knew and learned a lot about video making, music compilation and graphical design amongst other things.

I got the ability to work on 3 bigger productions where I was involved in three movies. I was with the same people in all three movies, where we mainly focused on the video and visual effects, and we also had two different sound and music students involved for the last two movies we made.

As for the quality, at the least we had a lot of fun doing this, and I certainly think the movies are a lot better then other school based things I have seen, and we worked really hard on all of this. The reason I post this here is mainly to keep it in one place so I have the links here at al time personally, but also to perhaps get some feedback on them. And honestly, I think there might be people out there that will get a laugh out of it.

The first movie we did was a fantasy based adventure type movie. We wrote the story ourselves and did all the acting on our own. This movie was also dubbed in English as the original sound we had recorded was so bad we could not use it. The second movie was a comedy action movie. No deep story or anything, but there is some impressive visuals and cool camera work in there. I have to say I like the acting a bit as well. Its all in Swedish, but only the first 4 minutes or so have speech, the rest is mainly action. And the story basically revolves around four gaming addicts that’s in therapy, but the place is taken over by monsters.

The last movie we made was more serious and took a lot more planning and work. We had real actors this time and wrote a detailed story. We also worked a lot to make sure the video and audio quality was as good as can be. Personally, I think the movie turned out just like I hoped in terms of quality, as our hard work really shows, but the final result wasn’t like I imagined it would be. But even so, I'm really proud of the movie, and my part in it.

Basically, the first two movies can be viewed by almost any audience. The first is dubbed in English, really bad English with a heavy Swedish accent over it all, but still. The second only has speech in the beginning, and anyone that doesn’t know Swedish can either watch the beginning either way, or skip ahead 4 minutes or so. The last movie is only available in Swedish at this time though, and heavily story based so you need to understand it to get anything out form it. To se the movies, copy the link and paste it in any media player that can handle streamed movies.

===

Title: Beyond the Gate. Length: 7 minutes. Genre: Fantasy. Time in production: Can’t remember. Budget: 0 kr. mms://streamserv-2.khn.bth.se/ht03/themoviemt03/gr1/btgbroadbandstream.wmv

---

Title: Fanboys. Length: 12 minutes. Genre: Comedy. Time in production: 4 weeks. Budget: 0 kr. mms://streamserv-2.khn.bth.se/ht03/maeg03/proj3g23stream.wmv

---

Title: Jag Minns Tillräckligt. Length: 31 minutes. Genre: Thriller. Time in production: 5 months. Budget: 1000 kr. mms://streamserv-2.khn.bth.se/ht03/palle/jagminnstillrackligtsteram.wmv

Command & Conquer - The First Decade

2006-02-08T02:07:00.000+01:00

Command & Conquer - The First Decade is a compilation pack, containing every single game in one of the world’s greatest game series ever made. And what more, it’s not even at the price of a full, new game. There is no excuse for any gamer not to own this piece of gaming history, let alone a RTS fan. After all, CnC has always been one of the greatest RTS series with great games spawning over a entire decade.

This is just the first decade though, as the title of this game compilation form heaven suggests more CnC games will come in the future, and we can only hope they will. I know some people complained about some of the later games in the series, but as far as I know, all the games in the CnC series have been well above decent and had tons of value for any RTS fan. If you truly appreciate a good game, any CnC game will deliver.

CnC was also the game series to show us that FMV’s in games, was not necessary a bad thing. Sure, they never won and Oscar, but they absolutely helped put a lot of attitude and style into the games. I also want to mention the music of the games in the series, music that really made you feel like you could take on the world and that send a shiver down your spine even though you heard them about a 100 times.

So, what about the actual gameplay? Straight RTS at its best! The games was for the most part balanced (with a few exceptions of course), and each sides had its personality in all three universes of the CnC universe. You just can’t forget Kane, or the Global Defence Initiative in the Tiberian universe. Or what happens if you erase Hitler from time, only to have Stalin take his place in the history books in Red alert. Or just the Generals of the modern battlefield, complete with the almighty USA, some mad terrorists and off course he communistic China.

As for units and scenarios, everyone has their favourites. I always liked the Tesla Coil, and who doesn’t? Another favourite of mine is the Helix helicopter in Generals. And who didn’t walk their troops into a Stealth Tank squadron at the least once? The units were always both innovative and interesting. Most of them really representing that their army stood for, and as far as other gameplay features go, buildings had a system that worked well, resource gathering was often well thought of and really evolved over the years. Not to mention all the value in playing several intense and well made campaigns, as well as hectic multiplayer matches against your friends and enemies.

Command & Conquer - The First Decade is something you should really owe yourself own. Considering for what you get for the money, it should be worth you money no mater if you’re a old-time fan back from the Tiberian Dawn days, or a new RTS fan that tried some of the newer RTS games, like perhaps CnC Generals, this is a great opportunity to appoint yourself with games that helped make the genre what it is and that have pleased fans of RTS and gaming in general, for well over a decade. The games aren’t new, you have probably been playing them before and RTS might not be everyone’s coup of tea. But hey, this is a part of gaming history, to a low price and that easily can give any gamer, new or old, hours of fun even today.

===

“He who controls the past, commands the future. He who commands the future, conquers the past.”

-Kane

Revolutionizing - RTS

2005-12-14T16:35:00.000+01:00

I’m a big fan of the RTS genre of games. There are some great titles out there, both new and old. A few classics is the good old Command and Conquer series that helped build the genre, and we cant talk RTS without mentioning Star Craft and War Craft. But there have been a few great new RTS released as well, my personal favourite being Dawn of War, set in the Warhammer universe that I previously had little knowledge about, in its tabletop game form. ===

Now, some time after I saw the Revolution controller, I began to think of what games we could do now. FPS games was claimed to never be the same by those that played the modified Metroid Prime 2 demo, and FPS games could absolutely be interesting with the controller mainly because other, regular console controllers, have not come even close to a mouse and keyboard setup on a PC FPS game. We also have RPGs, where menu using how will be easier and so on. But what really came to mind for me, was the idea of how RTS games would play. Up until now, no RTS game on a console had a good controller setup that worked well. The buttons and analog stick just don’t cut it in terms of precise and fast decision making. The Revolution controller might change all that. Here are a few ideas I had on how a RTS game could look on the Nintendo Revolution console, not only taking the new controller into consideration, but everything else we currently know about the system.

First of, the game I'm thinking of is a sci-fi themed RTS game, but a fantasy setting would probably work well to. OK, so for starters, the controller is the only thing you need to play. No add-ons is required and you can play the entire game with your single revolution controller. It will function similar to a mouse in functions and you move a cursor around the map by pointing the controller in different directions, use the (A) button to select units and issue orders, as well as use buttons on the interface. To make things easier, using the [B] button allow the player to open up a smaller menu, lets say if he has a few units selected and use the [B] button on open terrain, you get a few options on how you want the troops to move to this position, or if there is something, like a particular object on the location, how they should interact with it. the [B] button acts like a right click on a computer mouse basically, and have different options depending on where the cursor is placed at the moment. In the meantime, the (A) button is you standard left click on a mouse and give you those features.

There are a few other buttons on the revolution controller as well. The most useful is probably the D-pad. It could allow you to scroll through ten different slots with the right and left buttons, slots you can place certain troops in, just like you would form a group on a regular RTS, for easy access. Pressing up on the D-pad could make you move to the group, or other bookmarked objects, like a building or special object. The down arrow on the D-pad could make a special menu appear that allows you to easy and fast give direct orders and issue command s to the active bookmark, similar to a [B] button menu, but with special commands for the current selection only, regardless of cursor location. Aside form that we have a few other buttons on the controller, but we don’t know to much about them. The start button obviously could give you a game menu for saving the game and changing certain options.

As for direct gameplay features, you will have a standard campaign to play through, one for each availably civilisation or race in the game, lets say there are five of them, each with a different story to follow and they all have their own struggle and reason to go to war. The missions are composed of a certain number of missions you play through, some with special mission objectives you must achieve, like always protecting a certain unit and get it to safety, or to finish the map under a set time. Aside form this you have the more free form gameplay in a skirmish match, a single match against the computer where you go all out against one or more computer opponents. Aside from that we have online multiplayer, and possibly a few other gameplay modes.

One additional mode that I would find interesting, is this variation of what I would like to call Tournament Mode. Basically, you start out with a two player mode that you play together with a friend. But the catch is that you wont be using a Rev controller each. Instead, one of you will use a Revolution controller, and the other person will use his NDS machine. Either the game has a sibling game on the NDS already with a option for this mode, or with can get the software you need on the NDS via Download play. Here is how everything works. Player 1 has the Revolution controller, and he or she is in charge of the combat. Moving the troops around, deciding on what strategy to use and where to attack, as well as building new units. At the same time, Player 2 uses the NDS to take care of the financial parts of bas building, research and sending support to player one by sending reinforcements, activating super weapons or using other support features.

You now have to play together, where Player 1 moves out, tries to capture resources that Player 2 need for the research, and of course Player 1 will have to request what research that is needed the most, and also what buildings they need in the base. Player 2 will have to try to build those buildings, and also established a base defence and send reinforcements when needed. Communication between the two players is key. And as both players share the same resources, they will have to debate over how much to put into new units and whet to put into constructing new buildings and what to use for research, and as both these tasks are split between them you cant just go ahead and build things without consulting your partner first. What could make things even more exciting is if Player 1 only se the game on the TV, and player 2 only se the game on his NDS for more limitation and making communicating even more critical.

To fill this idea out with more things, you could have a team of 4 people playing the same team. Two players each control a separate branch of the army, so they get a base each, and can’t control the others units, although they fight as the same army. And at the same time, two additional players use their NDS, one to build buildings and taking care of both bases and anything building and base features related. The other focuses on research and use of super weapons and support attacks. Communication is now even more critical for success, as you have four players using the same resources, relying on each other to advance and ultimately, perform well as a team, capable of swift decision making, acting and adapting to what’s up ahead.

Now, add the fact that each of the five playable armies all plays quite different, both in how units are constructed, how you gather research, and how the research aspects function. You have a complex, yet fun game, all meant to be played against other teams as the name “Tournament Mode” would imply. Teamwork is key, and what if you team up one four player team with another team of four players, against two teams with four players each. All this is setup and played online, possibly even in official tournaments. I don’t know if it’s just me, but this game would really revolutionize RTS games for me, in more then one way.

===

I will continue to put up more articles like this if I think of another way a game could be played on the Revolution or on the NDS... and like here, especially if I can think of a way to unite the two. That as well as other articles that is.

DOOM

2005-10-31T22:29:00.000+01:00

I'm not a really big fan of the games, and I haven’t actually finished any of them. I played the demo of Doom 2, and played Doom 3 for about five hours before I got stuck and fed up with it crashing all the time. That said, the games are still good. The movie wasn’t. I’m not really in a position to say for sure if the movie lives up to what one would expect from the games. But I'm going to say this, the movie is not good, cant possibly remind anyone of the games, or make fans of the game feel like the move is what they wanted, and you might as well spend the one and a half hour of the movies length on playing the games or se another action move.

=SPOILERS=

OK, so the story is simple. A research facility on Mars get a situation where some scientist disappear in the research complex, and other strange things happen. So they send in the strike team, lead by The Rock who plays the character Sarge, to clear up the situation. The arrive on Mars start to examine the place and sooner enough, the team of eight people, start to loose members, one after another. There are some monsters suddenly appearing, and it’s soon discovered that they are mutated humans that have been injected with a extra chromosome that either turn humans into monsters, or “super humans”. The scientists have also been infected and turned into monsters. The strike team clear the place out, but one monster gets through the portal that leads from Mars back to Earth. The team is reduced to about half and they get back to Earth to deal with the situation to try to stop the monster to escape through the elevator that leads to the surface as that would be the potential end of man kind.

Sarge orders the remaining members of his team to kill everyone at the base, one of them refuse and gets shot by Sarge. Remaining are him, John Grimm (played by actor Karl Urban) and his sister Samantha (played by actress Rosamund Pike) who was the scientist that discovered the secret behind the project to genetically mutate people. Monsters have appeared and after a while John gets hit by a ricochet bullet, and in order to save him, Samantha injects him with a chromosome sample she brought with her, and when he wakes up later on, he is a super human that starts to kill all monsters in sight form the now infamous First Person camera angle sequence. He soon encounter Sarge who appears to have been infected, but haven’t turned a monster yet. So they start a fight, a battle between the good and bad side of the secret project. Soon enough, Sarge mutates into an almost complete monster, but John manage to kick him back through the portal to Mars and throws a grenade after him that supposedly destroy the base on Mars. The move ends with John going up through the elevator towards earth’s surface with his wounded sister in his hands.

===

That is the basic story of the move. There isn’t more to it really. So, I basically think that the move is kind of decent in some areas, but there are way too much that make it fall apart. First of is the one dimensional members of the strike team that gets almost no interesting character development, and it almost only focus on Sarge and John, and his sister, for the most part. The first half-hour of the movie is the most boring, as nothing really happens. The story is presented of course, but for the most part they are just sneaking around the facility on Mars, going through badly lit corridors with crappy flashlights attached to their weapons that don’t make anyone se anything. After a while, the monsters show up, but as they start shoot at them, they are already gone so nothing really happens, and this happens over and over, often involving some member of the strike team getting killed in one more or less horrible way.

The action takes up about halfway through, but it’s repetitive and uninteresting. Some of them mutate and they whole genetic experiment thing is revealed and explained. Its not really original or anything makes perfect sense as they only explain a few things on how the virus works, an it makes me wonder if its Resident Evil 3 I’m watching. The survival horror feeling is there, but not something that if built up to enough to make you surprised when something happen at all.

The end is probably the highlight though, but even that is really mediocre most of the time. As John (or Reaper as his codename is) turns into a super human the FPS sequence start and its really cool and a concept that they made work... the first minute or two. It last about 5 to 10 minutes to tall and it is basically one long sequence... in with they make some strange cuts that make no sense as its supposed to be, well... from Johns eyes, so it only makes you confused. That is only in one part of the sequence though, and the rest of walking around the corridors blowing up monsters is quite enjoyable, but confusing and not as flexible as you would want. There is also a part where he picks up a chainsaw, that appear out of nowhere for no apparent reason, and have a longer fight sequence with some dog like mutant where he gets bitten over and over.

There ids a neat plot twist, of sorts, where you think that The Rock is the main character and then he turns out to be a real bastard and in the end turn into a half monster and get to fight the new main character, Karl Urban. It was a bit unexpected and the fight was quite good, but to dragged out and to obvious. Also the infamous BFG weapon is in the move, and used about two or three times, and not in focus or anything that contribute anything to the move at all.

The movie doesn’t feel like a Doom move at all. It reminded me a lot more of Resident Evil if anything, and although some parts are quite good, the move falls apart for being dragged out, slow and most of all, the story don’t grip you enough to make it feel like you care much about the characters. I would not waste time on the movie unless you want to se it as a fan of the games and don’t care if it’s good or not, or if you like action movies with some survival horror in it.

Dawn of Sorrow

2005-10-31T01:47:00.001+01:00

Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow is the game that brings Konami’s bellowed game series Castlevania to Nintendos new portable system, the Nintendo DS. And it is about now I stop sounding like just about any other boring review out there, and get down to business: This game is great. If you were ever a fan of Castlevania, or just of platform and/or action games in general, you will most likely find this game enjoyable. It’s quite similar to the older games in the series, or the Castleroid that is, mostly Aria of Sorrow, and this is the sequel so it makes perfect sense.

The story closely follow its prequel and although I should not spoil it as Aria of Sorrow is a great game that should be played by anyone that haven’t so far, basically, the main character, Soma Cruz, is the reincarnation of Dracula’s body. In AoS he refused to become the dark lord by refusing to merge with the darkness of chaos that he encountered after he accidentally ended up inside the Castle in Transylvania in AoS that take place during the year 2035. Now, a year later, a religious cult with the belief that for God to be good, there has to be a evil counterpart as well, want to resurrect Dracula was destroyed in 1999. As Soma don’t want to, the cults leader, Celia, has found two candidates that can also become Dracula... But Soma is still the bodily incarnation of Dracula, so ha have to be dealt with first. So Celia confront Soma, and he decide to confront the cult and ends up at their monastery, a place that appears to be a recreation of Castlevania.

After a short tutorial on the game, you end up outside the castle. A lot of monster bashing awaits you form here on out. In this game, like older “Castleroids” Soma gain levels similar to a character in a RPG. As you slay demons, your stats boos with each level and you get to equip different equipment that suit your gaming style, like if you want to raise your defence, or do more damage with weapons. Speaking of, in order to defeat all the evil in the castle, you get to use several type of weapons you find throughout the castle. Sword, maces, spears and a few others area available, but you won’t find the best weapons in the castle though, as you will have to go to Yoko, another returning character from AoS, that can use monsters souls to a weapon to upgrade it to the next weapon in the chain of its type. This is a system that works great as all weapons will be useful when you find them, and you will never really encounter and that aren’t worth using as they can get upgraded to better ones. To get monster souls, you simply kill a monster and there is a certain possibility you will get that monsters soul, all based on luck. Some are harder to get then others, and the main reason you want many souls is because they give you different abilities. All depending on the enemy you got it from, you get such powers as throwing knifes, summon familiars or put up different defensive shields and auras. Some souls are also boosting your movement or ability to get around the castle by giving you powers for reaching areas you could not get to before, like throwing a puppet through a hole in the wall and then switch place with it, ninja style. Most movement souls are gained from bosses, which you must beat before you can get further in the castle.

The game is fairly open ended, but you must do things in a certain order if you want to progress, mainly get a boss soul for an ability that get you to the area with the next boss, who in turn has a ability that will take you to the next are and so on. You can still go to several alternative places, and there are some backtracking to be done as well, but its all fun considering how several areas of the castle is linked up with each other in different ways, so you will often get several routes for the backtracking. In the end, it all depends on if you like backtracking or can tolerate it or not if you will like the setup. I really enjoyed it as all the places in the game is simply gorgeous to look at, and because there are so many cool areas in the castle to begin with.

As said, the graphics is just awesome. Each area in the game really spring to life due to all details. One of the most impressive thing are the 3D backgrounds found in some areas of the game, and they look stunning. It’s really nothing that affects gameplay, but makes the game great as a whole. Also the music help set the mood in the game. Although the sound quality is lacking a bit due to the limited space of a NDS game cart, they really did a good job with it. The highlights are the classic Castlevania tunes, Bloody Tears and Beginning, that you get to hear as alternative music if you beat the game to unlock the secret characters to play as.

Secret characters are Julius Belmont, the strongest Belmont of them all and the person that destroyed Dracula in 1999 to begin with, and he has the trusty Vampire Killer whip and all the classic Castlevania sub weapons ready from the get go. A bit into the bonus mode you find Yoko who joins you, and she is a real boss slayer with strong magic, but can’t take a lot of damage or move around that well, but she can be good to use if you are low on health as she drain some from the enemy with her main weapon. Last of all, you get Alucard. He probably doesn’t require any further introduction, but he is Dracula’s son in case you didn’t know. His main contribution to the team is his mobility, so you might not want to use him for the more battle heavy parts though. He still has his super cool backstab special attack though.

The bonus mode is played similar to the regular one, but more open ended as you have all the abilities to get to every part of the castle as you find all three characters, so you can go about it in any order you want. Also, you don’t get any upgrades or new weapons for these characters, but they got some good features as it is, so it won’t matter. This mode is also harder then the main game, and therefore more challenging. And you also get to unlock Hard Mode for a game you beat, with makes you play with Soma from the beginning of the game, but you get to keep all the things you got from the last save file. So if you want a real challenge, you should release all souls, sell all equipment and get rid of all money and play Hard Mode that way, and you will se the definition of “Hard”. Other unlockables in the game are Boss Ruch Mode that basically pit you against all the bosses form the game, one after another, that you will have to defeat as fast as you can. You also get bonus items for your save file you played with if you get a good time, and a few exclusive weapons as well.

All in all, this game is really enjoyable, and even if some might fear the fact that you can beat the game I about 10 hours, if you play all modes and try to get 100%, the game easily last a lot longer. The gameplay works great, and it’s a lot more balanced the in other games in the series. There are a lot of things to discover in the castle, and you will encounter many interesting places and enemies of all kinds are in there. Everything from Witch students that try to crash lad on you with their broom and maids that attack you with martialarts, to hell spawned daemons and knights in armour that are about 10 times your size. And don’t even get me started on the bosses.

The game don’t really have any big shortcoming to be honest, so if you like game like this or find this game interesting, you should owe yourself the treat of playing this great game. The gameplay is fun and challenging, the graphics are stunning and make the castle really come alive, and last but not least, the music is really good and what would require of a Castlevania game. There are loads of features, bonuses, things to do and challenges to take on. A great game that realy live up to what you would require and expect form a Castlevania game.

Gimmick or not?

2005-10-31T00:28:00.000+01:00

I feel the need to say this only because of the people that either fear that the Revolution Controller will be a gimmick or those that are honestly having the belief that it will be and say so many negative things on it.

That games will be shorter, easier, boring after 5 minutes and only have the Revolution controller itself as its main selling argument is...

1: Not the controllers fault in itself. It’s rather the developers that don’t put their time into making a good game, and instead tries to make some fast money. Some people may just not have any good ideas or want to put their time into understanding and using this new system, and to say that it will be “gimmicky, crappy, cheap, I-wish-I-hadn't-bought-it gimmick games based around that controller than you can ever possibly imagine.” is just about the most immature thing I have heard in a long time. (Actual quote form a relatively big game studio by the way). At least there are some other respected game developers out there that se the potential in it, and that seem to appreciate that Nintendo is trying to evolve the gaming industry in terms of actual gameplay as well.

2: Nothing that will be new to Revolution at all. There always has been, and always will be games like that, no mater what system. The only difference being that on Revolution, just like it was on Nintendo DS, people will use the excuse “they tried to make a crappy game and make money out of it by taking advantage of the controller” rather then “the game is just carp, how the heck did they think they could sell a single copy”. Obviously, people will blame a bad game in the controller if its something innovative rather then just says it’s a bad game in this case.

3: Not a game that anyone if forcing you to buy. If a game get bad reviews or if you are not happy with a game you just bought, you can just decide to not buy it or sell it again, respectively.

===

It’s always fun to hear people talk about stuff and give long speeches on things they haven’t even carefully thought through, or possibly could not have. And even say things about products they haven’t tried or got much info on yet. Those people need to se things out of more then one perspective. Like how a game developer may spend several years and really put their heart and soul into a project that in the end, can’t be called anything other then perfect. Does it really mater what you do or use to control the game if that control is flawless? We don’t even know for sure if the controller will work as good as expected or not. And I don’t deny that there will be short games, that are boring, and that only have the controller going for them because they tried to use it in some way. But is that reason enough to blame the controller for being gimmicky with a seriously negative tone, just because the game developers was lazy and didn’t actually make a good game no mater if they actually tried or not?

For a contrast, is Play Station 3’s Blue-Ray discs a gimmick if the game developers don’t fill them to the limit just because they are new? A stupid reference, I agree, but I hope that someone get my point at the least. (I have nothing negative to say about Blue-Ray at all, just so that you know).

===

Lets think about some semi related stuff for a moment: Imagine a game developer that makes a great FPS game that is really awesome and fun to play with all the features you could ever ask for. Should it be that hard to implement the Revolution controller for the game based on what we know about it so far? Answer: Don’t look that way. Conclusion: It won’t be hard to develop games using the revolution controller, so game developers can put their main focus on making a good game, not on making the controller work right.

Question: Would it be better if all game developers only made epic games that took them 5 years to make and that are filled with content? Answer: Heck no! Reason: The industry would loose a lot of gamers that want a short game to pass some time, or to play for a few hours every week, or on Friday night with some buddies. Not everyone is into longer games that take ages to complete and that will require your attention for several days if you want to get something out of it. Then it can be argued what a game really need fo4r criteria to be a good game, if pricing is fair and a lot of other things, but that is aside the point here really.

===

This is my take on the Revolution controller. I don’t think it is flawless by any means, and I know that most sane people at the least acknowledge the controller for what it is no mater if they like it or not. In the end we don’t have all that much info about it, and even less so on what games we will actually get to play using it. So I don’t say anything for sure until I get more info and actually get to try one out, other then that people that call Revolutions controller a gimmick with that negative tone, really don’t know what they are talking about. if you are sceptic, or just hate it, try to be more understanding and less immature. You might even find negative things about it if you like it that you would not find if you hate it...

Attitude in games.

2005-10-03T02:16:00.000+02:00

There is one important thing that I value really high in games. Its not graphics with an incredible detail amount and a polygon count that pushes the hardware to its limits: Tetris for the Game Boy looks good to me as it don’t need to look any better then this to play really well and still be visually impressive without going over the top. Its not sound, as although the sound is important, it is really hard to make the music suit everyone’s taste and for the voice acting to be done by someone who actually knows how to voice act to make it convincing: Sound is important but not all there is to it. It is not plot, as I love well done puzzle games above most games with a deep plot, and the plot sometimes take away what makes good games and make them into semi-interactive movies: A good plot is required only sometimes. So what is it then...

It is a badass attitude!

OK, so basically, its just my opinion, and it all depends on what game we are talking about, but most of the time it is those detail that enhance the moment that makes a game go from good, to great. It is hard to say overall what I’m talking about, and not all games can really have an attitude in the same way as another, but to give you a few examples of when attitude (in lack of a better word) makes a game go from being really great, to being awesome:

Imagine a hard Advance Wars match where your enemy has just run you over almost completely. His main front is far away from his base and although you have some money left for new units, you will have to defeat the opposing foes so that they don’t occupy your factories, something that will be easier said then done as you are outnumbered and out gunned... But as your opponents turn ends, you will hear a sound that much likely will send a wave of fear down you enemies spine... the sound of your CO Power being powered to max and ready for use.

Now, as for what I'm talking about here, it is when you activate the CO (Commanding Officer) Power the whole attitude thing kicks in. Its actually hard to describe the pure power of the moment that is loaded into a CO Power of the advance wars games for someone that haven’t played them. So basically your CO will grow stronger for one turn, and gain bonuses of different kinds. But what makes it so cool is the whole presentation where you will se you CO deliver a cool punch-line, the screen will clearly present the word “Super Power”, followed by the name of the CO Power itself and the music will change to a cool rock tune. You sill se all your units power up and after that it is just a mater of start the dominion and push back the enemy.

It is a bit hard for someone who haven’t played Advance Wars to get what I'm talking about, but there are other examples in other games that all have to do with a cool and/or well presented attitude. Like the radio chit chat in the Star Fox games where your wingmen all brag about how many enemies they shot down and such. Or several well directed cut-sheens in the Metal Gear Solid games. Maybe a completely unexpected plot twist or return of a previously missing character in a Final Fantasy game. Or it can just be the combination of music, visuals, characters and the setting of the game.

Its not just the moment or situation in themselves, but the overall presentation of certain powerful parts of a game that gives them a cool and good attitude. The word attitude is probably not entirely right, but whatever you want to call that feeling or moment when you completely own your opponent by kicking their ass and taking their name. Or that moment in the game where your hair rise and a shiver go down your spine all over or perhaps get scared to death by a unexpected scene. Basically it is when the game creators and designer have made a game of such quality that some powerful moments and event, you feel like the games attitude is overwhelming enough for you to understand how much time, money and soul they put into delivering that experience.

===

(By the way, I was thinking of adding a review for Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow and one for Advance Wars: Dual Strike on here... and I probably will, later... Just in case anyone would like to know...)

The Revolution

2005-09-16T19:13:00.000+02:00

By now, most people know about the newly announced controller for the future Revolution console from Nintendo. To go over its features briefly, the basic design is that of a remotecontrol for a TV. It is meant to be hold like a remotecontrol and used similar to one. You basically have a d-pad, as seen on all Nintendo controllers all the way since the birth of the NES. Below it there is a big round (A) button, another returning feature. From here on out if gets a bit different. There is a [B] button on the controller, but its location is underneath the controller, similar to the [Z] button on the Nintendo 64 controller. On the top side there is both a (Start) and, a bit more sprucing (Select) makes a return after being absent on Nintendo controls for about 10 years. There is also a mysterious (Home) button in between them, and its use isn’t known, but a safe guess is that it has something to do with either Revolution OS, or that it can be used for online purposes. At the opposite end of the controller we also have a (a) and (b) button, and these buttons have also been referred to as (X) and (Y). Additionally, in the top right corner, there is a small power button that supposedly are meant to turn of the system, or for similar purposes. And in the bottom of the interface of the controller, there are 4 lights that can help you indicate what player you are playing as in a multiplayer game.

Now, this setup seems, and IS a bit strange. The idea seem to be that you can hold the controller as a remotecontrol for some games, or as a NES controller for, well... NES games. Revolution is supposed to be a virtual console where you can play NES, SNES, N64 and Game Cube Games. And this controller can handle those easily. and even so, there are ports for plugging in Game Cube controls into the Revolution hardware, and this would make it much easier to play games for N64 and Game Cube, and even SNES as the Game Cube controller resembles a SNES controller quite a lot.

This is not the full story however. As interesting as a remotecontrol can be, the use of it is quite limited after all, as you seem to be able to use two buttons at the same time, and only ONE button at the same time as the d-pad. To counter these possible limitations, there is a slot at the backside of the controller where you can plug in add-on attachments. The first add-on attachment, and only to have been revealed along with the revealing of the controller itself, is a joystick that looks like a Game Cube control stick. It can easily be hold in you left hand, while having the controller itself in your right. The attachment also has two shoulder buttons, named [Z1] and [Z2] for additional input. What other things that can be plugged in is not known, but many things could be possible and anything that might feel like it is missing from the original controller for a game can easily be countered by plugging.

Again, not really that revolutionary as similar things have been done before... But there is more. On the top of the controller there is a device that can make the Resolution hardware read exactly where the controller is in the room, how close to the TV it is and read it’s every movement and register them as input information. You probably get the idea of this feature directly. You can now interact with the game only by moving the input device around. You can point at the screen and move the controller to select things, or to aim in a FPS game for example. This means a few things. First of, we finally get a setup that can actually compete with the mouse and keyboard on a PC in FPS game on home consoles. There have been FPS games on home consoles even since 3D gaming begun, but even today, a controller of a home console cant compete with the standard PC input... until now. And it is not for the first time possible to actually play RTS games on a home system, something that have been to sluggish and hard with regular controllers. So finally we can probably se the first exclusive RTS games on home systems.

Additionally, the controller can also simulate a tool in certain sports. You can swing the controller as a baseball bat, golf club or a tennis racket. Or simply use it to swing your sword in a adventure game. Other things, like minigames about fishing, cooking and other activities can be preformed. The limitations and the possibilities are only limited by the game creators ideas and imagination.

It will probably be an issue of how we are supposed to control some games with this controller as it is so different form what we have seen so far. However, thinking in that way is probably the wrong way. It’s not a question of thinking “you can probably not do this anyone” and instead we should be thinking “how can I do this now”. Of course you won’t be able to play a fighting game like you used to, but there are probably loads of different ways to play them if you just try to adjust to the controller. And do we really need more games in the fighting genera? What about all the new genres you can create with this? Just thinking about it and you will realise how the boundaries can now be broken and we aren’t locked into the same set of genres anymore. Gaming is evolving, undergoing a revolution. And it was a bout time it happened and that someone had the guts to try to do something like this.

After all, the competitors are now using input devices, based on technology that are almost 10 years old. This is something new and fresh. And even so, you can plug in a Game Cube controller to the system and play games like normal. After all, Xbox 360 and Play Station 3 aren’t going to use controllers much different from this generation. Revolution will have the better of two worlds. The best of the old era of gaming, and also be the starting point for something new and exciting that is different from almost everything we have got to play and experience so far.

Are you going to join the revolution and explore the future? Or are you going to stay behind and live in the past?

Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children

2005-09-12T23:29:00.000+02:00

The move follows the events of final Fantasy VII two years after the game ends. The story in the movie does actually feel a bit weak and slightly rushed, but it isn’t bad. The best part of the movie is the action and the presentation. The graphics and sound are among the best I have ever seen. Much of the music is remixed form the game, and the fighting themes are really action tense. The story is good, but as mentioned it feels a bit weak, but it don’t really mater that much, although a better story writing would have made the move even more awesome then it already is though.

The fighting cant bee described. They use dynamic angels and tense cuts that make you sit on the edge of your seat in ecstasy. Although the old characters from the game don’t play a major role except for cloud and partly Tifa, it’s nice to se them fight again and they al look great. The design is spot on and it still stays true to how you would imagine them. The Turks also play a big role, but not a that important one. Still, Reno is more or less the movies comic relief. Sadly, there is really little comedy in the movie, and only Reno and Loz’s cell phone will probably make you laugh.

We are also introduced to Clouds new sword, or swords, as he now wields 7 that are set into a special stand of the motorbike, but the swords can all combine into each other and be taken apart again in different ways. It doesn’t seem to directly affect how he uses the sword though. It’s a really cool idea and it looks really neat.

In all, the move is great, and fans of the game, or just general action fans will most likely love it. its way better ten Spirits Within, and it lives up to the hype quite well in my opinion. All the powerful moments and the way the movie was directed make it a joy to se and experience. The graphics are so beautiful that every still image will fell like a masterpiece and I'm seriously impressed with the fact that about 50% of the movie is filled with none stop action sequences. You would imagine that they would do some dragged out scenes as it would be easier to animate, but no, they did the movie with the action in mind. There is a reason it got delayed, and it was well worth it, although a bit more polished story would not hurt.

That said, the movie ties some things from the game well, and is a really worthy sequel to it.

Now when is the Final fantasy VI movie coming out?

===

Here is the full story from Final Fantasy VII: Advent children. Written down by me (hence the fact that it sucks so much) Obvious spoilers is there, so read at your own risk.

Synopsis:

First we get to se what happened in the game, sort of like a recap for those who didn’t play the game. its not really important, as if you didn’t play the game you wont get some of the things anyways, but its kind of nice to se it anyway. We se some kids on the street of Midgar and learn that some people have a sickness called Geostigma.

When the actual movie begins we get to se what Cloud and Tifa have been up to after the game ended. They are taking care of Denzel and Marlene, and they have opened “Strife Delivery Service” so Cloud is now an errand boy. It doesn’t have anything to do with the story though, but it is fun to se what they have been up to. Cloud gets a message from Tifa, saying that Reno from the Turks wants to se him. He takes of on his motorbike, but is soon attacked by Kadaj’s gang, and they consist of Kadaj, Loz and Yazoo. The fight is really action packed, as they fight on their motorbikes at high speeds, using guns and swords, and Kadaj have summoned some monsters called Shadow Creepers that surrounds Cloud.

But just as they are about to defeat Cloud, they cease the attack and run of. So cloud head over to Healin Lodge to meet up with Reno. Rude from the Turls is also there as, well as a mysterious man in a wheelchair that has a hood over his head. e tells Cloud that he want Clouds power to rebuild the world, but Reno mess up and say they want to rebuild Shinra, so Cloud say he isn’t interested and leaves.

Tifa, looking for Cloud, arrives in the church with the flowers on the floor. Marlene, is with her. But cloud isn’t there. Back at the Turks place, some time after Cloud left, Kadaj is there and he have beaten up Reno and Rude and is talking about that he is looking for “mothers powers” for the “reunion”. Back at the church, Loz walks in and ask where “Mother” is, but Tifa says no one is there, so he says he want to play. Marlene runs to hide and Tifa putt on some leather gloves and starts to fight with Loz. He has an electric punch attachment on his arm, but Tifa is a martial arts expert so it becomes an intense fight and they are running all over the place and using all kinds of insane melee moves on each other. After a while, Tifa slams Loz against the floor and he appears to be defeated.

What happens next is that the music turns down and it gets quiet... and then we here “Victory theme” from the game. At first I was wondering what the heck they were doing and if they wanted to destroy the movie deliberately, but Loz smash away the debris on top of him and pick up his cell phone, that’s has the victory theme for ring tone and I start to laugh insanely.

Loz answers and it looks like someone in the other end isn’t happy. He has to get serious now. So he throws a bench at Tifa, and she smash it away, but he runs in fast as a lightning and zap her with his arm attachment until she is knocked out. Loz takes Marlene and some time later, Cloud gets to the Church and find Tifa unconscious. She awakes, but Cloud starts to fell some aches from his geostigma sickness and falls unconscious. He awakes in a bed later and Reno and Rude is there, as well as Tifa, still sleeping.

Back at the streets of Midgar, a girl comes up to Denzel who is sitting in a alley, and she says there are some people that has a cure for geostigma, so he follows her, and it appears that Kadaj is gathering kids with the geostigma disease.

Cloud is told about this by Rude who says they have headed for Forgotten Capital Ajit and Cloud decides to go to stop them and save the children. Kadaj walks into a pound of water and drinks from it, and tell the children, Denzel is amongst them, to follow his lead. At the same time, Cloud is on his motorbike going through the forest but falls into trance and sees Aeris who talks to him, but he soon wakes up and finds Kadaj’s gang shooting at him. In high speed, Cloud is racing towards them, but gets startled when all the children, Denzel amongst them, moves right in his way as they have fallen in trance after drinking the water. So Cloud falls of his bike to avoid crashing into the kids, and drops his sword while doing so. Kadaj walks up to him and hold his double blade sword against him, but Marlene that has also been kidnapped but never drank any water calls out to him, and as Kadaj looks at her he grabs for his sword and start to fight them.

They run through the forest and the fight is really dynamic. Kadaj’s gang have used Materia to become stronger, but Cloud manages to hold them of for a while. But as it starts to get really tough, none other then Vincent shows up to save him, flying through the forest in an elusive robe form, would be the best way to describe it. He fends of Kadaj and they run away. They talk for a while and Cloud eventually walks Marlene home.

Now we are in Midgar, where Loz and Yazoo have started a ruckus, looking for “mother” who they think is hidden under the monument at the town square, and they have the children with them. People gather around, but they summon some Shadow Creepers to drive them away. But Reno and Rude shows up, and gets asked if “mother” is there, but they say they have no idea where she is. Yazoo eventually gets Reno Pissed of and he charges at them with his trademark war-cry.

In an old damaged building not that far away, high above the ground, Kadaj is talking to the man in a wheelchair. It gets clear that Kadaj is looking for the remains of Jenova. He summons the huge dragon, Bahamut SIN in order to easier find “mother”. Bahamut appears and sweep down towards Midgar and lands on the monument. Reno run towards , but get so surprised that he accidentally knocks Rude with his baton. Tifa is there now as well, and tries to make Denzel snap out of his trance. Bahamut now charges up a big energy blast and fires at the monument, and the blast sends everyone flying.

After the smoke thins out, Reno and Rude gets up from the ground only to stand face to face with Loz and Yazoo, so they engage them in battle. There is some impressive fighting here, mainly as Turks fight with brute force. But they eventually get beaten when a large sign falls down and hits Rude in the head, only to have Reno fall after and land on him as well. They get up, and Reno steps on Rude’s sunglasses, and he gets mad but puts on a spare pair.

Back at the town square, Bahamut is still lose, but suddenly Barret shows up and starts to fire his arm gun at the dragon and after him, Red XIII charges in with Cait Sith on his back. They manages to knock it down, but it runs toward Barret, who gets saved by a big throwing star that flies through the air and cuts it. Yuffie has arrived as well. And not short thereafter, Cid arrives and fends of some Shadow Creepers that is attacking Tiffa Denzel. Also Vincent appears and joins the fight. Last of the people to join the party is Cloud who appears on his motorbike and from here on out it is basically a non-stop fight where everyone is running around the city, trying to defeat Bahamut SIN. The fight is intense and impossible to describe in detail.

At the same time, back where Kadaj is, the man in the wheelchair suddenly gets out of the chair and throws of his mantle to reveal his true identity. As expected, it is Rufus Shinra. In his hand he has a box, and Kadaj realise that it contains the remains of Jenova. But before he can do anything, Rufus throws it of the building and it is falling from the high building towards the ground.

Back at the city, the gang continues to fight Bahamut, and by getting some altitude boost from his team-mates, Cloud is sent flying high up in the air towards Bahamut SIN whom he now defeats in a single sword slash and Bahamut falls down and crash towards the city, and in the meantime, Kadaj is attacking Rufus, who doge and falls of the building down towards the box, and Kadaj jumps after while Rufus pulls out a gun and fires at him. Kadaj falls ahead and grasp for the box, but Rufus manages to hit it with a bullet and some of the liquid content falls out.

Kadaj lands and get on some motorbikes with Loz and Yazoo and the sets of. But Cloud races after and chase them up on a empty highway. The fight tha follows in one of the most high speed and insane action sequences I have ever seen and it has some really cool stuff in it, and a great soundtrack comes with it. After some intense action, it cuts to Reno and Rude who are ahead on the freeway holding some explosives. Cloud goes past them, but when Loz and Yazoo gets there, they run straight into the fireworks.

In the meantime, Kadaj is at the church with the flowers and realises that the box is empty. Cloud gets there and race through the front doors, but Kadaj blast a pillar and goes up to the floor above and blast Cloud with an energy attack but it miss and hit the floor with the flowers. Suddenly, a spring of water burst out of the ground and Kadaj seem to get hurt by the water and takes off. Cloud once again chase after him and when they meet up, a awesome remix of the “Jenova theme” starts and they begin to fight.

The rest of Clouds theme appears in Cid’s airship, but they talk a while, and decide to let him fight his fight alone. The battle between Cloud and Kadaj continues with some impressive sword fights and jumping around the deserted city of Midgar. Eventually, Cloud sends Kadaj flying, he drops his sword and is hanging at a ravine with one hand and he has the box in the other, with cloud standing on the edge with his sword towards him. With no other way out, Kadaj throws the box away and jumps after it, and absorbs the Jenova material inside it. The box wasn’t empty after all. He falls and eventually lands far below, Cloud who has jumped down after him swings at him with his sword but he blocks it with a flash and change appearance.

Sephiroth is now standing eye to eye with cloud, reincarnated in Kadaj’s body with help of the Jenova materia. The music track “one winged angel stars” and Sephiroth send Cloud flying. They stand up and clash against each other with their drawn swords with “one winged angel” in the background. The fight itself cant be described in words. it has to be seen, and it is something of the most impressive I have ever seen. The surrounding occasionally get cut to pieces as they clash, and eventually Sephiroth has cloud trapped standing on his sword that is stuck in the wall of a high tower. He then slashes at the top and has debris fall down towards Cloud, whu manages to cut his way through the rocks and debris, but hiding behind it is Sephiroth that manages to weaken Cloud enough, and when they land, Cloud gets thrown into the wall as he is so tired, and Sephiroth stabs his sword at him.

He penetrate Clouds right shoulder, but Cloud, out of pure willpower takes the sword out and put it into the wall behind him. He then engages Sephiroth with his ultimate sword attack, attacking with all parts of his sword. Sephiroth is defeated, and a angel wing appears on his back that he wraps around himself. The wing disappears and left behind in Kadaj. He has no power, and when he tries to attack Cloud he trips and end up falling but Cloud hold him.

it starts to rain, and the raid affects Kadaj in such a way that he starts do disappear and break apart into tiny green light fragments. He disperse and back in the city, people seem to be healed of geostigma by the rain. Cloud stands still in the raid, facing the sky and closes his eyes.

A gun shot flies past and hits cloud. Behind him stand Loz and Yazoo, and it was Yazoo who fired the bullet. Both of them have also started to disappear, but Cloud arises on weak legs form the severs wound, but manage to jump at them with his sword in the air just as they charge up a energy blast against him. The result is a huge explosion that swallows the three of them. Cloud is floating in a completely white surrounding, and just after that, he is standing in the pound of water created in the church, surrounded by children.

Clouds old team mates are also in the church, and as he looks at them, he can se further behind them, a girl in pink outfit who is starting t walk away towards the churches door that appears in a bright white light. She stops and turn towards him and smiles. Behind her is Zack who waves calmly at Cloud. Both of term turns around and walks into the white light and eventually they disappear.

A short update.

2005-09-12T23:18:00.000+02:00

A short update before a larger one. I just wanted to give some credit to a good friend of mine, Mikey Lland , for making the new blog banner for me. I absolutely love it. ^__^ I also made some minor updates to the blog template, but nothing big or fancy. Anyways, thanks again for the banner Mikey, and stay tuned for the next post everyone. Its about Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, and my impression on this new CG movie from one of the worlds most beloved videogame series....

Edits of anime and manga.

2005-08-28T02:20:00.000+02:00

It’s nothing new that the content of anime and manga get changed when it is brought officially outside Japan. Anime and manga are two superior media of storytelling in my opinion. In manga you get a dialogue like form a book, where the images represent the text that is not dialogue and you always get to se exactly how things look like. And in anime you can visualise so many more things then what can be done in a regular movie, and as you have possibly even more genres found in manga and anime then in movies and books it is something I found to be a interesting media with my broad taste when it comes to entertainment. Now, people generally edit the contents of anime and manga, and here is my view on this phenomenon.

First of all, I can understand why they censor some content in anime. I don’t like it or agree with the reasons, but I can understand them. I mean, when you air something on TV, anyone can accidentally come across it and thus it has to meet a few standards so it won’t upset someone that might not want to se some of that content. In Japan, those requirements aren’t that strict, and anime in general are not thought of as something for kids, so that is why anime can have basically any kind of content, anime for kids and school drama, to horror anime and hentai. Any possible genre is there. And even though some stuff has more critical content then a similar show would if it wasn’t anime, those that decide what to air on the TV really should not buy the rights to a show if they have to change the content in order to air it. Nothing good will come of it, other then the fact that those that buy the rights will make more money that way. A lot of fun for us fans and anime lovers. Not.

Secondly, as I said, I can understand why they edit anime, even though I don’t like it or agree with it, one thing that makes me pissed as hell is when they edit manga. There is absolutely NO reason to do that out of another perspective then for the greedy bastards that buy the rights to sell it will be able to sell it to more people that way. Like they did with the Tenjou Tenge manga in the US. They edited the pages, made speech bubbles to cover up nudity and almost changed the entire dialogue so it would not sound as extreme. Now, a manga is something you pick up, buy and read. You are responsible for what you are buying yourself, and it isn’t like something you might come across on the TV by accident. Editing manga is the most disgraceful thing someone can do to an artist’s original work. There is no respect in that from those that made that decision, and in such cases I would like to go out to everyone and tell those to download the fan translated ones, those are the REAL translation of the manga. It’s the same with the One Piece anime. Everyone, downloads the fansubed episodes of such animes, or buy the DVDs if they are uncut.

I just can’t stand see some greedy bastards destroy anime and manga just because they want to earn a few more buck to but I their already disgustingly thick wallets. Boycott edits, there is no reason that anyone should accept that people can destroy a story or artists original work for more profit then if they didn’t. Not in my opinion at the least, and I'm sure many agree.

I personally don’t run across this luckily. The anime and manga I have read that was released here in Sweden haven’t been edited to my knowledge, but I really think this is something that people should not have to put up with. It makes me pissed enough to hear about it, and what is probably even more sad is when people become really big fans of an edited show without having really seen the actual show as it gets turned into something else after it is edited.

For some links you may find interesting on this issue:

Info on the Tenjou Tenge manga edits: http://digitalsin.bebopboard.net/

A few things from the One Piece anime: http://www.arlongpark.com/?page=dubedits

General editing info: http://www.animeprime.com/edit/index.shtml

(By the way, the image for this topic originally showed a person holding a gun in his hand... until someone wanted to turn the adventure anime One Piece, into a kids cartoon that is. Seriously, what is that, a hammer?)

The brightest star. Part 1

2005-08-24T07:33:00.000+02:00

In the year 1993, Nintendo released a game that would forever change my view on games. A game that blew so many boundaries and borders and that opened up the doors to something new and unexplored. A game that was almost completely unique and in style and appearance and gameplay that moved its players beyond the stars. A game that was, and still is, in my eyes, the brightest star. The game is StarFox for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System home console and this is my commemoration, not only to one of the best games ever made, but to the series of excellent it spawned as well.

===

To touch briefly on what StarFox is all about for someone that haven’t heard of, or played the game, StarFox is shooter game in which you take the role of the pilot named Fox McCloud and where you, along with your Star Fox team has to save the solar system Lylat from an invasion by the evil scientist Andros. The Corneria army can’t stop him, so it is up to you and your three wingmen that makes up the star Fox team, to stop him and his evil plans. The setup and genera isn’t new, but the way it is all executed in this game is simply amazing and not like something I had ever seen before.

The game did something that was new to me, something I had never experienced before. I remember the first feeling that almost overwhelmed me as I played this game for the first time. A feeling, similar to fear, yet not exactly, but I was afraid to play the game as it scared me. This probably sounds silly to you, but have you ever been moved like that by a game you have ever played? I didn’t like the game at first, but as I tried it, I played more and the game grew on me over time and now it is my favourite game series of all time.

What made me repel from the game like that you might ask then? Well, simply put, I had never seen anything like this before, as this was the first game I ever played that had 3D graphics like this. The graphics of this game was so commanding that the SNES itself could not handle the game. It was the Super-FX chip that was implemented into the games cartridge that made it this work. The chip is basically a 3D accelerator that allows the SNES to handle and display, for its time, complex three-dimensional models with polygons. You flew through gorgeous levels like the a city on the planet Corneria, dense asteroid fields in space, enemy space stations and wide planets where dinosaurs leap out of the water as you fly over an oceans surface. Not to mention the games intro video that still is one of the coolest ones ever made.

But this isn’t what makes this game so special. There is so much more to it then just the awesome and jaw dropping graphics. First off, and the fight that would first thing to strike you when you come in contact with this game is the truly unique box-art. Using the Japanese art style kimono, in which you find animals that have taken human form, the games main character Fox McCloud, who happens to be, well... a fox. Your wing mates consist of the cocky ace-pilot Falco Lombardi, the wise veteran Peppy Hare and the team mechanic Slippy Toad. One thing that will make them so charming is that you will hear them complain on the radio when you kill one of the targets they are chasing, give you some advice on what’s up ahead, and many other things that will really make you feel how tight the team is.

The music in the game deserves a small section of its own. It’s really amazing what the composer could perform with the SNES sound chip. The favourites would be the theme music from the first planet, Corneria, a track that is timeless and sound just as good today as it did over ten years ago. The sheer mix of music that is in the game ranges from the catchy rock tunes on just named track, and the groovy theme you hear after clearing each level, to the music of lonely space in Sector Y. And last but not least there is the StarFox theme itself is probably my all time favourite video game music.

The gameplay itself is spot on, and you would never imagine it could be this easy to fly a high-tech space craft in 3D. But your Arwing, as the spacecrafts your team are flying are called, handles like a charm, although it can get a bit sluggish one in a while, mainly because of the slightly low frame rate the game has. You even get to choose one of three ways to the final level, the planet Venom where you will strike back at the evil emperor Andros and stop his plans once and for all. The routes you can take are of different difficulty though, where the hard route is super challenging, and this also gives the game excellent replay value. And there are so many enemies in your way from start to finish, from the smallest enemy fighter craft that can barely aim, to the biggest of enemy attack carriers. The bosses also deserve some credit, as they really have something special about each and every one of them. You will encounter things like the spider like robot, Dancing Insector that will try to pierce you with it razor sharp legs, to the Metal Smasher in outer space that will try to smash you into space dust.

===

Here I have touched on some of the things of the StarFox universe, like the main characters of the game, the gameplay and also the graphics which really mad a huge impact on me. However, there is only so much you can say about this game. My interest in the StarFox games and the world they take place in goes way beyond this. StarFox for the SNES was only the start and don’t really tell that much of the overall story as the later games would come to do. Here it is the gameplay and the start of its style that is important. There are so much more to be found beyond this game, and there aren’t too much to say about anything else right here in particular...

I will continue from here, and judging by this games content, I think that my next text in this series will be more interesting to read as it will go beyond explaining the game itself. This game was just the beginning, and as it doesn’t have that much more to it then what I have written so far it is also the best way to start like this. The next game in the series would further expand what was established here, and it gives the series so much depth and a even brighter character... but that, is another story. Until next time.

The definition of Gaming.

2005-08-21T01:36:00.000+02:00

I usually have to defend my favourite gaming company Nintendo, as almost every time I talk about them, someone shows up and say something along the lines of “Nintendo suck”, “Nintendo are for kids” and other stuff. It is hard to fight the ignorance of people like that as they also naturally assume that I hate anything that is not Nintendo. As soon as I start praise Nintendo DS as the remarkable piece of hardware that it is, people immediately shows up to say “PSP is way better then NDS and sells so much better and has far superior hardware” is it that these people are afraid of that the PSP might loose to NDS? I mean I didn’t even start to compare the two systems, just said that I like something about NDS and immediately I'm bashing PSP? So to clear a few things up: Both NDS and PSP are two remarkable handheld gaming devices. Nintendo DS sells good because of its games, PSP because of its combination of games, music and movies. The hardware of the consoles is equally great. The power of the hardware in PSP is stronger and the features of the NDS better suited for games. NDS has sold more systems worldwide then PSP has, and also more games. There are, arguably, more interesting games being released overall for the NDS. The reason PSP is so popular is because of its functionality of the movies, music and lately web browser, and the other multimedia things. But not because of the games alone. If you happen to disagree on anything of the above then you are probably ignorant and/or misinformed. Both systems are great and if you are pissed at me for what I wrote above or say, and thing that it is completely wrong (I agree that some things can be argued, but for the most part everything is true) or in any other way love the PSP and think that I'm unfair, then you are probably just ignorant and/orafraid of the reality. I personally favour the NDS over the PSP by far for its superiority to play games, as I don’t need movies or music, and also my budget is short. I can only afford one, and I personally will get more value out of a NDS then a PSP. If you have a different opinion, then good for you. Please stick to that, be open-minded to the fact that not everyone else HAS to think just like you in for the world to be at balance and enjoy your handheld gaming system. DON’T flame those that don’t chare your opinion just because they don’t chare your interest and thus cant be allowed to be happy with their choice. Both Nintendo DS and PlayStation Portable are two remarkable pieces of hardware for two different markets, both with potential and great entertainment platforms to stand on. That end my NDS vs. PSP rant. I don’t really care to discuss much further unless someone has a valid point as all of my opinion on this is up there. === As for defending Nintendo as a company, they are doing just fine financially. They aren’t kings of the hill like they were before, but it is as they said with the NDS and PSP, when you have a 100% share and someone wants to take a part of it, the only way it can go is down. Nintendo aren’t in any financial crisis, their games and hardware sell well, and what they don’t sell in hardware they make up in software so even if Nintendo sell less systemsthen the compeditors, the company itself will still earn the money it need. Another thing I want to mention is that Nintendo is the single company that really try to evolve the industry. We se people like EA that just released Maden 2006. A game that was EXACTLY the same as Maden 2005 but with a few new features, things a PC game could have fixed with a patch. There was new content, but it was to little to mean anything. Nintendo try new things all the time. They take what is good about a game, keep it and then they test some really original mechanic or style to make it look fresh and new, and even if it don’t always feel that way or turn out good, sometimes it really does. I won’t go into details with exactly what they have done, anyone who have played their games or anent ignorant enough to ignore them and assume things so they have no idea what they are talking about, will know what I'm talking about. Manny other companies follow along the same lines of course, but there is one difference to most of them. Where Nintendo change something because they want to test new things or implement an idea they got that sounds good, other companies often change stuff and try new things because they feel that they have to, and force themselves to do it, when for Nintendo it comes more naturally. It is the way it feels at the least, and if it changes anything I don’t know. People rule out Nintendo and say that they will soon be forgotten, end up like SEGA and loads of other negative things. They have been doing worse then they did years ago lately, but are they getting bad in any area? Not at all, it is more that other companies have caught up. Nintendo still holds some of the strongest icons and franchises in the industry, they sell millions of games and systems each year and people do like what they do. The only way they could get destroyed were if they gave up. And they will never do that. The will continue to expand the definition of gaming and to explore what the future holds for the industry.