Dr.Flintlock

Errrmm, wow, this is kinda true, the whole dating sims by bioware I mean. See, I was thinking of replaying Mass Effect 2 with my character in Mass Effect 1 JUST so I could prevent him from cheating on Ashley from the first game (I kinda went with Tali the first time around....the accent and "I'm an innocent Quarian who wants to take my suit off with you" kinda did it for me). I perused the latest issue of Gameinformer and noticed Ashley's gone through a redesign and certain....assets of her have become more pronounced. So yeah, in that regard, I guess I do fall into the demographic that plays a bioware game for the dating sim stuff. Shame on me. Although, I'm kinda hoping I get an achievement for being a good boyfriend through all 3 games. I.E. Whipped.

Just two from me. Some of the ones before are pretty zany though. First is from Brave Fencer Musashi, which when you got to the part where this little number played, was rather random in context: And then of course there's Klonoa 2 on the PS2....

Hi guys. I haven't been on OCR in quite awhile (some nasty little thing called "real life" finally caught up with me and kicked me in the teeth), but I figured I'd post a little sumthin' sumthin' about a little DS game I picked up on a whim that I noticed hasn't gotten a ton of attention. Its called Ghost Trick and its made by capcom and, if I'm not mistaken, also made by the same team in charge of the Phoenix Wright games. Its essentially a point and click adventure game, where your character is a ghost of some recently deceased dude and you possess different objects and manipulate them in order to accomplish various goals. These can be as simple as interacting with a living character to thwarting an attack from an assassin. I'm only on Chapter 5 or so and so far its got some of the most likeable characters I've encountered thus far (a pomeranian by the name of Missile comes to mind). Its like someone took the coolest part of the movie Ghost, and put it into a VERY Japanese adventure game. Also, the visuals, oh my god, the visuals. Here's a quick to give you an idea.Overall, highly recommended so far. Was actually curious if anyone was aware of this little gem or not?

Well, regardless of whether or not it was designed to introduce western audiences to western folklore, I won't lie that this game caused me to go pick up a book on Japanese mythology, and I've read some of the stories that are touched on in this game. Stuff like Mr. and Mrs. Cutter and the afformentioned Kaguya and Mr. Bamboo. Also, if anyone remembers Benkei, the warrior monk turned fisherman, his background and story is actually VERY interesting and entertaining to read about. In this regard, Okami did get me interested in Japanese folklore and I'm glad for it in that regard. Bioshock did something similar by actually getting me to pick up some of Ayn Rand's books for something besides a required reading assignment. I think Sephire once did one of his little presentational videos about how video games can educate people properly. He called it "tangential learning" or something to that effect. In any case, I'd kinda like to see that get repeated in the sequel. I'm more just enthused we're even getting a sequel to that game.

Blind (fucking) Guardian: And also since Douli conveniently had them in his snapshot, but it needs to be linked here somewhere, Frankie Goes to Hollywood: Relax

Actually, as long as I get to see Ol' Man Bamboo, I will be happy as a clam. That character was awesome...Maybe even some more Mr. Orange dance would be nice too. As far as getting into Amaterasu and the moon tribe from the last game, I don't really think that's a story that needs to get too much coverage. I mean, it was cool in the first title, but I felt it was a little melodramatic for the overall tone of the game. Getting into it too much may end up causing the tone of the title to dip a little too much into darker territory. That's not to say the original story didn't have its dark moments, what with evil demons requiring maidens as dinner entrees and what have you. Just saying, I didn't care much for the overall sci-fi ish vibe near the end of the series, with the exception of the finale. However, if we got to see Kaguya in the game again, that would be a welcome addition. She was in the game for what? 15 minutes?

Actually, a couple buddies of mine are die-hard Marvel fans and they have played this particular franchise mainly because of the Marvel characters. I actually think the Marvel roster is kinda neat to pair up with Capcom's, in order to keep the game from degenerating into an anime inspired clusterfuck, Sort of like an "EAST MEETS WEST" sort of motif. I think that's what makes the series so damn popular. They've apparently disclosed that the final boss in this game is supposed to be an individual that "marvel fans will love", so I'm thinking potentially Galactus or some other super large baddie of that nature. Although I still think Onslaught was pretty awesome from the first game. Completely out of left field, that one was.

Yeah, a co-worker explained that to me as well, and I noticed a heavy dose of item/weapon management was mentioned in several reviews. Overall, I'm not sure if its going to be my kind of game (I am in the crowd that tends to prefer a plain, ol' action RPG with a higher emphasis on dodging attacks and laying the afformentioned smackdown). That being said though, I'm not ribbing the game in any way, and it does look like a blast if you're into meticulously planning out your attacks and ambushes. Like another person said, I've got other titles to keep me busy for the time being....and school work to finish, heh.

I'd like to hope that Capcom will put Nathan "Radd" Spencer in their line-up. They already announced a sequel to Rearmed as part of their list of mega-announcements. He could use his arm and various weaposn for special attacks and his hyper combo could be a bazooka rocket fired at someone's face....IIIIN SLOOOOOOWWW MOOOOTION! Completed with glorious headsplosion, or something. Just a thought.

I know a lot of you are pretty stoked about the announcement of MvC 3 but I'm actually a little more excited to see that we may actually see this gem come stateside : It certainly does look adorable and I have to say I like that the visuals look about on par with the PS2. Also nice to see familiar faces like Susano and Sakuya in this one. Perhaps they'll elaborate on Kaguya in this one as well, and maybe give us a boss fight against a chibi-orochi hehe. And here I thought I'd be potentially selling my DS when I finished Infinite Space. So much for that brilliant plan

Well, I think its safe to say that after playing the demo awhile back, I've come to the conclusion that I pretty much suck at video games, or am at least seriously out of practice. I couldn't even kill the easiest monster in the demo is how bad I was. They don't kid when they say this game is made FOR gamers. In any case, I'm probably going to wait for it to drop to 50 or 40 before picking it up. I'm loving the visuals and the underwater fights but I just can't get out the nagging vibe that this game will hand my ass to me repeatedly if I don't get a few other opinions on it. Keep in mind I'm also a newcomer to the franchise and I guess the difficulty is part of what people like about this series. I just don't care for aggravating games as much as I used to. On top of this, I've got a bunch of lame-ass friends who either don't own Wiis, sold them, or use them as paper weights and I guess this is one of those titles that's much more entertaining and fun with friends of yours. In conclusion, I'll pick it up eventually, but not on launch day.

I got around to reading The Long Halloween a few weeks back. Liked the illustration style used in the stories and the whole progression from Gotham being controlled by mob bosses to deranged lunatics was neat. In particular, the "Christmas Special" with the Joker was very funny. Seeing Solomon Grundy again was a major plus too.

You know, I've remained cautiously skeptical about FF XIII for awhile now, but after reading a little more about the combat, plot and such, I may still give this one a go. I once made a premature decision that after XII and the milking of FFVII that I would not go back to Final Fantasy, but I'm kinda liking the vibe I'm getting from new trailers and snippets to this game. In particular, I guess I was living under a rock because I didn't know the summons were like biomechanical vehicles. That's kinda cool. Shiva as a motorcycle thing and such. I'll be honest, I was a little turned off by the character designs originally. The way I felt about them was similar to how people get pissed off with human characters in Mass Effect all looking American. I've never been too keen on Squeenix's characters all looking decidedly Asian in physique and facial expressions. But again, I'm overcoming this hurdle and just trying to enjoy the visuals for what their doing, which is frankly gorgeous. Basically, I look forward to FF XIII, not as some hardcore fanatic of the series, but as a guy looking forward to enjoying a crazily realized world and the characters it inhabits. That's part of the whole point of these games, isn't it? Also, is there any news on who the supposed villain starting out will be? I know he/she will probably be usurped by someone else far worse, but I'd like to see them churn out an antagonist that can sit up their with the likes of Kefka and Sephiroth. Perhaps the return of a lead female antagonist. It would kinda make sense, given the presence Lightning has.

See, like Mr. SoloGamer, I too enjoyed Sonic Unleashed (and as an aside, the intro cutscene still looks bloody brilliant) even with the werehog bits. Its not a broken system necessarily. Its just that people don't give it the time of day. Unlike him though, I kinda liked the Eggmanland stage just because it was the only stage in the game that wasn't based off of a real world location. It was kinda like (gasp) an original sonic stage. Now I enjoy the old games just as much as the next guy, but the new ones (with the exception of that '06 title) have been pretty good and fun (yes Bleck, fun) despite their subtle nuances. I think titles like SA and SA2 actually expanded the narrative of the sonic universe a little and even developed Dr. Eggman into a legitimate villain with some background and personality and not just the fat endboss in a giant mechanical contraption. I'd personally like to see Sonic 4 deliver on a sidescroller level, similar to the originals, but that doesn't mean I want it to forgo what some of the latest ones have done. Also, as an aside to sonic unleashed, the soundtrack is pretty good, particularly the theme for Empire City and the fight against the Egg Dragoon.

Its only a falcon punch away from that, I fear.