SwordBreaker

I kind of expected that to happen sooner or later despite the closure of Clover Studios. Okami's controls BEG for some motion. I agree with DarkeSword here. Okami is possibly one of the most unique games on the PS2 despite borrowing elements from the 3D Zelda games. It definitely stands out on its own, especially on the audiovisual appeal font. This game will most likely be in a budget price for the Wii ala RE4. Very nice move on Capcom's font since I'm sure fans of the Zelda series will eat this game up. They need to market it correctly, though. I don't want this game to be overlooked.

Man...you're on fire with these releases, zircon. Nice job. I've yet to buy any of your albums, unfortunately...

@ Drack You bring up an excellent point on enemy AI. Reminds me of a recent story, actually. Hear me out. Recently, I read a 1UP interview with Mr. Itagaki, producer of the recent Ninja Gaiden games. Apparently from the interview, there's some very bad blood between Itagaki and Devil May Cry 4 producer Mr. Kobayashi, as each one disses the other game series, calling one another "not true action games". My friend tells me that Itagaki is very arrogant in nature, claiming Ninja Gaiden to be "the only true action game ever", which is what put off Mr. Kobayashi first this time by dissing NG: Dragon Sword. Itagaki surprisingly handled it very well in the interview, and he brought up an excellent point regarding the upcoming Devil May Cry 4. He played it, and noticed that the enemy just stands there, using one attack animation or two regardless of what your character does. The point of DMC is beating your enemies in the coolest way possible, and the difficulty mostly rises from multiple enemies and type/frequency of their attacks. No wonder Itagaki is a bit showy with Ninja Gaiden...I'm playing Sigma on the PS3, and I noticed how damn aggressive the enemies are. The difficulty of the game comes from that...the enemies react according to what you do...if you defend, they just wait until you lower your guard or come at you in another way...if you attack, they defend...they move around and have multiple ways of coming at you, etc. I never really noticed what Itagaki pointed out because I'm usually focused on attacking and being on the offensive in DMC. But he's right. It's not a bad thing in DMC's case since the point of the game is being showy in your attacks. But it's something that should be taken note of in action games in general. Twilight Princess mostly falls into the same category, save for a couple of particular enemies and bosses. With the power of the next-gen consoles, enemy AI shouldn't be one-dimensional, using typical patterns of attacks and such. Ninja Gaiden Sigma is truly an example in which enemy AI shines.

@ zircon I've been hearing the same about Eternal Sonata. It's a shame that an RPG THIS innovative is just too easy to go through. Tri-Crecsendo's last game, Baten Kaitos, at least offered some challenge with innovation. Not the same with Eternal Sonata, unfortunately. I think most developers nowadays have a mentality of "hard games drive people away". I'm not so sure that's right. Sometimes, however, I'm willing to overlook a game's easy difficulty as long as it's innovative and fun to play. Speaking of SRPGs...you reminded me of Final Fantasy Tactics. Now that was one hell of a game. Gets very challenging at times. I'm really looking forward to buying the PSP port to relive the experience. I also that the recently-released GrimGrimoire for PS2 is a pretty challenging SRPG.

I've been meaning to write an article about this for quite sometime, and recently I read an article which addresses this so-called "situation". A nice discussion with you guys can perhaps inspire me with more ideas. Take the Zelda series as an example. Now, I'm sure a lot of you have noticed, but the series seems to be getting easier over time. Games like The Wind Waker and The Minish Cap were total cakewalks, and I've been hearing that Phantom Hourglass somewhat falls into the "easy" category. Twilight Princess' difficulty fluctuates between easy and hard. As a fan, I feel a bit upset...yet in the same time I can't say that TP and The Wind Waker were bad experiences...I loved both games even though they weren't that hard to me, yet in the same time wish that Nintendo can put a "hard mode" in the series someday... I'm sure that there are a lot of games or game series you can think of which seems to be easy now, but started difficult back in the old days. Difficulty was never an issue in the NES/SNES era. At first glance, NES games like Little Nemo, Duck Tales, and Chip and Dale didn't seem to be difficult to me, but lo and behold...I was surprised by how hard those games were. I lost count of how many times I died in Zelda II...and I still loved that installment in particular even though it gets frustratingly difficult at times. Now, I think most of us who started playing in the NES/SNES era currently thrive for games that have that "hard difficulty" we all love. There are currently a few game series which keep that type of difficulty alive like Ninja Gaiden and Mega Man, and I truly respect the developers for doing so. It's a shame that series like Zelda did not keep its classic difficulty. On the other hand, there are a couple of recent games which really crossed the line in terms of difficulty in my opinion. Devil May Cry 3, for example...man, I couldn't get through the first freggin' boss. There was something REALLY off with the default normal difficulty of that game...then after reading a bit about the game it turns out that the US "normal" difficulty is actually placed as "hard mode" in Japan. Weird. I personally love games which let you choose the difficulty you want. I'm not the type of guy who would play through those "impossible" difficulty settings (going through MGS without being seen...my ass), but at times I love the "hard" mode when it's all balanced out and just right. Odin Sphere, for example, has a really cool hard mode. Resistance for PS3 really got the balance right with its difficulty modes...adding more levels or segments in the hard mode while giving the player more cool weapons to compensate for the difficulty...hard mode feels like a different game at times in Resistance. It's a shame that Halo 3 didn't do the same...I've been hearing that the campaign mode on Legendary isn't that hard, especially if you have 4-player co-op...nothing to compensate for the number of players... I'm currently worried about Super Mario Galaxy in particular. I've always found Mario's 2D and 3D games to have a couple of really nice challenges (Sunshine's waterpack-less segments come to mind). Yoshi's Island and Yoshi's Island DS in particular were extremely challenging to me since I go all the way to get perfect scores in each level (did that twice for the first YI for SNES and GBA, but I'm finding it very hard in YIDS). Despite New Super Mario Bros awesome level design, it didn't feel hard at all. I'm really hoping that Galaxy does not water down its difficulty in order to appeal to "mainstream" gamers. Nonetheless, I'm sure I'm going to enjoy Galaxy even if it's not that hard. So...does difficulty matter to you in this day and age? Are you the type of person who picks "easy mode" just to experience the game's other highlights like innovative gameplay or awesome story? Do you like frustratingly hard games or game series like Maximo, Ninja Gaiden, and Devil May Cry? Discuss your opinions here!

A lot of people were having similar problems with Black Wing Metamorphosis in particular, including one of my friends. Like DarkeSword said, the file name for that track is too long because it credits 5 remixers. Just rename it to something shorter..."Various Artists" instead of the 5 remixers.

10 years in the making. It's hard to believe that the series is 20 years old and there are only FOUR numbered installments. Capcom better not disappoint me. I don't want a Street Fighter that feels like a damn modification of the series...we need a retooling... Street Fighter Gamma Alpha Omega EX plus the Damn Kitchen Sink...that's how the series has always been in my view...

Well...I'm still trying to get a good start of musically achieving something here. But I guess the first thing I was proud of is singing in front of people for the first time two years back. Then, there are these: http://www.ocremix.org/forums/showthread.php?t=7382 http://dod.vgmix.com/past/july07/ Initially, I was really proud in completing these two entries. Then, after the impressions and reviews came in, I felt a little bit down. I let the criticisms sink in, though...and since then I've been trying to improve... http://www.esnips.com/doc/4169ecd5-7400-422c-bd02-5d618ce69b8d/Saxers-Fun-Collab I consider this one of my good vocal performances. So thanks to Skrypnyk for hyping me up with that cool beat he made.

Wow...how could someone go so low? And he thought he was going to get away with it... Nice job in getting this fixed. I'm curious, though...how did you find this out in the first place, Dave?

Whoops. Wrong link. Fixed.

http://www.gamespot.com/event/live/bionic-commando/?tag=topslot;title;1&om_act=convert&om_clk=topslot A classic that fans love is getting a remake for the 360 and PS3. I've never played the original before, but I'm sure a lot of you guys are excited. I wonder if it's on the VC. Worth downloading and playing, you think?

http://www.1up.com/do/feature?cId=3163610 Nice interview. One interesting thing for you guys, though: 1UP: You play percussion in a band, right? Can you tell us about that? Aonuma: Yeah, in a Nintendo brass band called The Wind Wakers. It started out as me and five friends at Nintendo, but then it expanded to over 40 people. The band's actually been around for about 12 years. I'm the leader and I play Latin percussion. I've known about this for quite some time, and I'm glad Anouma mentioned his band once again. I hope they release an album sometime, though. OR make music for a game...

Loved the physics on New Super Mario Bros. since it brought a couple of moves from the 3D games and successfully implemented it to the 2D-style. However, one of the reasons I love The Lost Levels and the US SMB2 is differentiating between Mario and Luigi in terms of physics. I'm glad the GBA ports of the 2D titles were able to do the same thing with Luigi.

So, the new Alter Bridge album is out, and it kicks ass. It's a lot grittier than the first album...and the fact that Myles Kennedy (lead vocals) now contributes in songwriting and guitar-work makes this 2nd album more diverse. Although I personally prefer the slow-rock-style of the first album a lot more...I fell in love with all of the tracks, yet in the 2nd album I only truly loved a handful of tracks. Not that the rest of the album sucks, it's just that some of the tracks didn't grab me as much as the first album. Maybe if I listen to the album more... I've been a huge supporter of Alter Bridge ever since Creed broke up. Myles Kennedy has an AWESOME voice, and the composition and guitar-work from Mark Tremonti is a lot cooler than what he used to do with Creed. Favorite tracks: Come to Life, Brand New Start, Coming Home, Watch Over You, Wayward One.

This seriously sucks. I HATE how EA operates anyway, and now buying out BioWare and Pandemic means that both those studios will get eaten slowly. Trust me when I say this...but in time fans will start to compare between the old and new BioWare. Oh well, we can look forward to the independent spiritual sequel of BioWare. I'm 99% sure that a lot of people quit because of that buy-out. Let's hope Ubisoft doesn't come next...

Just read the Judges' dicisions on "Collision". It's too bad that this awesome track hasn't been accepted after the re-vote. I can understand where they're coming from regarding usage of other source material. Still though, I can't imagine this track sounding vastly different from what it is now. I'm glad Darangen was able to easily combine his inspiration to the track itself. Plus, now I'm interested about David Crowder Band... BTW, glad you liked the reviews, Dhsu.

http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=78403168&blogID=304101882 MySpace of the vocalist behind Ashley's theme. She has a nice voice and seems active. She did wrongly name the game "Super Mario Bros. Smash". LOL.

Thanks, man. Here you go: http://www.projectcoe.com/sony/features/ffvii_voices.html Nothing too long. Short, sweet, and to the point.

Updated Impressions in the first post. Enjoy.

K, I just finished writing a review of this album along with details on my favorite tracks. As soon as it get posted in the site I write for, I'm going to post the link here. http://www.projectcoe.com

A very nice start. Extremely catchy, especially towards the end. Some parts in the beginning feel empty, but that's the way it is with WIPs. Man...if you can get someone to play some live guitar riffs for this, it would rock!

October 5: So I finished the 2nd Island. Apparently, not every Island has a dungeon. I kept looking everywhere in the island for a dungeon, but there was nothing. I got a long side-quest out of it and that was it. Apparently, it was more important than I initially thought, which made me sink into a fatal mistake in terms of rupees. See, after I helped out the NPC of this side-quest, I'm supposed to ask for rupees in reward. I should put in the amount I want, but I was afraid to get too greedy. I asked for 60 Rupees when he could've gave me more. Thankfully, I didn't need to restart my game despite this fatal mistake. Just quested around in the 2nd Island for items, which I sold, then gained enough Rupees to go to the third Island. Speaking of progression, here's how things work. There's this Rupee tower in which you throw Rupees into its lake (think A Link to the Past). Once you throw enough Rupees, the tower becomes bigger. With each growth a new area opens up. Here's the frustrating part; think of the tower as an animal which needs food. I can't leave the tower without Rupees for too long or else it'll shrink down in size...that in turn forces me to backtrack occasionally to the tower. The thing is that there's lots of side-questing and exploration involved in this game...and it gets downright boring to stop adventuring just to go back and feed the tower. So anyway, in the third Island I've also had an encounter in which I ask for a reward. Went with 700 Rupees this time. Thankfully, I got it. I've also gotten to know more about the bodyguard system in place. Remember when I talked about combat? There's this bar in which you hire a bodyguard who accompanies you and helps you fight. Lots of characters and types are available, obviously. And the bar isn't the only area you find people to hire. There are freelance people, too. I tried out 4 different bodyguards so far, and each one actually behaves differently from the other. Mind you, combat is still simple. But with a bodyguard, there's an added depth. You approach an enemy, a cloud of smoke appears, and you're in a fight. Think of Tom and Jerry cartoons where a huge brawl is in place that's blurred by the cloud. See, what you can do here is move around and gather multiple enemies inside the cloud, along with your bodyguard of course. The more enemies you gather and the more you tap on the cloud, the better the results; you beat your enemies faster and get more items/Rupees. Simple and fun. More about cooking. You have a pot at home. You can gather ingredients from felled enemies or just by exploring. You'll have to look for recipes hard, although you do have the option to cook freely without a recipe in hand...I've never made anything successful out of that by randomly experimenting, but one of the NPCs mentioned a recipe (after bribing her, obviously) that's not officially in the menu list, and all I had to do was experiment on the amount of ingredients needed to make it. So keep an eye out for those. All in all, cooking isn't exactly different from other games which use item forging systems. I still need to see if it becomes deeper later in the game. I'm starting to get used to bribing the right amount of money for information, but there are still a couple of frustrating moments in which I have to pay a lot higher than usual...so what I do is save occasionally and play around with bribing a particular person, and once I get it right I restart my game and give him/her the exact amount of money needed. That's it for now. I have I dungeon I need to finish on the third Island...and yes, the dungeon does ask for Rupees to enter. Madness, I tell you! PS: Oh yeah, one thing to add to the PEGI 12+ rating...a male worker in tight clothes with a visible crotch bulge who occasionally does a thrusting motion with his hips. Disturbingly funny. October 2: Freshly-picked from the UK, people! Imported it a couple of days ago.Played for the first time today. 45 minutes. Done with the first dungeon. It's very appealing so far. The characters and humor are unique and funny. There's one part where I finished up a puzzle with my partner, and he brings up a jukebox out of nowhere, plays it...and here comes the classic Zelda chime. Hilarious. I don't see why they gave it a 12+ PEGI rating so far. However, Pingle, Tingle's girlfriend, is slutty. She moans as I save the game. Disturbing, I know. Anyway, gameplay is certainly different from your typical Zelda game. In fact, this is more of an adventure-type game with RPG elements. Think of it as Dreamfall or Trace Memory with a unique twist. You explore towns and dungeons, talk to a lot of people, and pay up rupees frequently for bribing and whatnot. Rupees isn't just a currency; its the meat of the game. It's your health. It's how you access new areas. It's how you solve puzzles and gather information. Then, the trial-and-error parts come in...it all depends on how much you're willing to pay up in order to get what you want. If you pay a lower-than-expected fee, you don't get your Rupees back so you'll have to pay up again until you get it right. Occasionally, it's vice versa and you'll be in a position where you ask for Rupees. Don't ask for too much or you won't get it. It's fun, yet a bit frustrating since you'll never know when you're hot or cold. Not much going on regarding action. There's a very basic "battle system" in place. Just approach an enemy and keep on tapping the touch screen until it dies. You'll have a partner to direct orders to if you pay up the right fee. Bosses, however, seem to be really unique. I fought the first boss, and it was a nice battle which reminded me of the Zelda series. Nice, colorful graphics. Cool animation. Very weird music. Nothing special, yet not bad. I'm liking it so far. I'll update my impressions as I play along. Keep your eyes peeled.

Wow...I do actually remember this track from the FF8 demo disk. I was kind of surprised when I found it replaced in the full version of game, because the demo version is extremely catchy. I never knew they kept it in the Japanese version. I also listened to that theme from The Rock...surprisingly very similar.

This is my favorite track in Xenogears. While very simple in structure, it's surprisingly very moody. So I hope these upcoming remixes do justice and keep that moodiness alive.

Hell yes. Thanks for reminding me of this movie. I LOVED the movie itself A LOT, and the soundtrack really fit the overall space theme. At times, it was very relaxing and atmospheric...and at others, it gets incredibly intense...overall, the soundtrack flows really well with the scenes.