I-n-j-i-n

The art looks.... worse than the GC version IMO. Also, while characterizations are solid in Tales games, it seems the stories are mostly cliche garbage or an approximation of that. A direct sequel? I won't hope for a great story but expect cliche again.

I only had to say 'ew' about this one: http://kotaku.com/5065452/dead-space-team-studied-car-wreck-victims I can't figure out why artists can't figure out how to make a zombie alien.

And for a genuine AAA title too. Amazing.

I might want to rent it or just let the ultra gaming nerd I know play it and let me watch... sorta like with Silent Hill Homecoming.. From the looks of the videos, the game just seems too scary. The sound design just sounds awesome (lots of breathing-inside-suit stuff that just comes off as creepy, even if it's by the main character) and it could even win some sound-design awards by the end of the year. This game is basically what Doom 3 was supposed to be. Enemies flanking you smartly, truly disturbing monster designs and FLASHLIGHTS. Also the action doesn't get interrupted by PDA-bullshit like in Doom 3.

I'm sorry, but I'm not buying that StarCraft's music didn't fit the action. It so totally did. I'm not listening to that argument any further. As for Yoko Kanno, while she does great work, the sci-fi orchestrals she does is a bit plain vanilla. Everyone does it and in many cases in anime, they do it better than she does. She gets WAY too much credit just because she dabbles in many genres. She's great at all of them, but master of none.

I wouldn't even say I'm a real Mother fan because I only played the SNES one and appreciated it to death. But I think I sort of speak for the more hardcore Earthbound/Mother fans on that. Strip away that quirkiness and postmodernism or whatever fancy word you can use to describe its JRPG parody aspect, then all you have is a middling Dragon Quest ripoff.. I think even Itoi (the games' director) admitted as much.

I think one has to really play the game critically to really come to the feeling that the story they're putting out definitely isn't the only facet to the story. I don't think there's really that 'one' aspect that makes you realize it's a fantasy (not like in Star Ocean 3 where they give you a slap to your face yelling "IT'S NOT REAL" to make the point). Also, I think this site shows one of the ways players own imaginations and preconceptions basically shape Earthbound. The general ways the Mother games have been made is just pure genius. I mean, if you want to play RPGs for their gameplay, there's always Star Ocean and Tales games.. But the exotic, quirky and the surreal always tends to belong in the Mother series.

On the surface, yes, but the quirkiness had a reason to it. It's not popular just because it takes place in a modern day setting. The game isn't even REMOTELY realistic to begin with. It's because Earthbound/Mother was a distinct post-modern game of criticizing and analyzing the old Japanese RPG conventions while staying within it. The quirkiness basically comes from that entire context and study of existentialism pertaining to a child's imagination (you never really know if the RPG is basically someone's imagination or not). It was just so much more than the generic 'story' + 'action' you typically get out of videogames. It was basically an artistic expression within the JRPG format.

I have to disagree with the idea that horrible and restrictive and outright stupid control schemes = horror. Now if they restrict you in ways that doesn't equal horrible battle/camera/control mechanic, then great. But play Silent Hill 4 the Room. It's a scary game and all, but the dumb control scheme basically took any immersion you could have with it. Silent Hill 3 was pretty creepy too, except the enemies hanging on rooftops with the player having almost no way to properly counter that just made the scary situation into me taking notice how badly the game is made in a design point of view for the actual gameplay. I honestly could not care less if a game has a decent shake of action as long as it keeps things tense. RE4 was pretty action oriented, I agree though. But Home Coming being action, I think that's more because of the easy difficulty because the horrible gameplay mechanics have always complemented monsters that were pushovers once you had the means to fight them. I know Eternal Darkness is not made for everyone, but it had a very intrinsic creepiness to it with the idea of demonic gods in that old Lovecraftian horror style. As for the whole 'wacky control scheme', I have to disagree with that one. The battle system in Eternal Darkness to me is still one of the more intuitive schemes that tried to fashion itself after the oldschool Resident Evil games. And the battle/limb-severing system actually WORKED, unlike most older survival horror games.

I'm slightly torn about it having a 'contemporary' makeover. The first version was so unabashedly 8-bit and free for everyone, the new version just doesn't seem to have the general edge and the hype the original had. Pixel, release it on the 360 too, so I can get more achievements. Or PS3 for trophy collectors.

It's not just that either. Most shows can't be bothered for the normal 13 eps and most have 12 episodes or even only 10. In the 90's, most anime were at least the standard 26 episodes long. But now, they barely sputter to episode 24 or 25. But I still do think chiptunes is all the range with anime openings and endings though. It's awesome, but it's like they caught onto a trend and aren't letting go: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxtg7KEuuSw http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2nsPhy5jY58 As for Casshern, the study on the extinction of robots is sort of like looking into what humans will devolve down to (ZOMBIES!) when faced with the prospect of certain death. It's quite ironic really. And easily one of the best anime running right now.

MEH. j/k. I basically forgot what Earthbound was all about and I wanted to take a marathon session for all the Earthbound/Mother games available. I'm still bitter Nintendo can't be bothered to do this and listen to hardcore gaming fans' opinions. But that bitterness is a decade old now..

Anybody just sit and listen to the Diablo Tristram theme and just sit dazed at how awesome the gothic guitar piece is? I'm not into gothic stuff AT ALL, but I was pretty stunned at the Tristram theme. Stay a while and listen!

November 19th-ish? I'm personally looking forward to it a lot. Avatars are nice, but the entire interface will be smoothened out (FINALLY) and you can actually get to see the wallpaper a bit. And finally a non-Xbox1-era user interface. I still wish it was as ambitious as Home is, but that might be a bit too ambitious..

LOL at Wii MM9 players who can't get onto the leaderboards. I think that's just tragic. Right now I'm stuck anywhere between rank 100 to rank 250. The top ranks are getting higher and higher. And some maniac beat the entire game in 20 minutes...

I don't see why having the entire experience in one package is supposed to be bad... If the original could do it well, then you'd expect them to do the same. I guess not everybody felt that way. Now I really don't want to see Warcraft 4 with 5 different versions for its different races (if it goes up to 5).

I do think some of the latter battles in Lost Odyssey were incredible. Very nice balance of difficulty for the most part. Turn based battle is just incredibly oldschool, so I can see why people wouldn't be so impressed nowadays. Like I said, the game is good as long as you're the type of gamer to be impressed with that kind of effort in 2008. Haunting Ground, you're just a girl with a dog. To my knowledge, all you do is run, run, run. Which is frankly the scariest thing ever you can do in a survival horror game. Especially when the game turns monochrome when you get really scared (in game), the girl actually becomes harder to control (like with Clock Tower apparently) and your best way of 'attacking' is by sending a dog onto them. The overall package isn't as impressive as Silent Hill or Resident Evil, so no wonder people overlooked it. But that kind of game is simply too scary.

Toradora proved to be really good show from the second episode. The first ep was all introductions and nothing much. Ep2 had way more comedy and relevant drama. Also Casshern is turning out into a classic from the looks of episode 2. Also, what's with anime openings and endings having chiptune music? It's all the rage nowadays.

That.... was a review? Even the MM9 slamming reviews on GameFAQs have better material, even if their opinions suck. Newbies shouldn't play Megaman games, period. They won't get any relief if Inti Creates made a modern, high def Megaman game. Actually, they might get destroyed more often.

Episodic content in which EVERYONE will buy. They might actually be smart for doing it, even if I'd still prefer the oldschool 'everything in a single CD/DVD' format.

Well, there's also the fact that Japanese gamers have the Wiis in droves. Even the top Xbox360 scores was at least 30% Japanese from what I've seen. Also, the score is going up to 1000+ and it's rising. I guess they're just constantly playing without rest. Um. When you make it to a safe ground, immediately cast the circling crystals and never let go of it until you reach another ledge. I found out that using any other gun is moronic since there's too much room for error. As for the traditional speedrun, I actually became competitive a bit in the Tornado Man stage. Just pure luck to get the big weapon-refills. I'm sure the top scorers do it also with fancy footwork, but that is just so dangerous. Oh yeah, and lucky weapon-refills. Lucky bastards.

Christ. That's 1 and some years away. Maybe a bit soon to announce it when the game is so far away? Oh well.

This seasons so far has unexpectedly been very good. Hyakko (Azumanga-lite), Clannad, ef, Shugo Chara, Bounen no Xam, Casshern, Tales of the Abyss, etc etc. I don't need to introduce Gundam 00 or Nodame Cantabile to anyone. And there's even other really good watches. Kannagi looks like it'll be a lot of fun too. I think the funniest and potentially the most unique one is One Outs, which basically combines serious gambling with baseball. Really weird but really fun. Also has that old Akagi/Kaiji feel. And speaking of comedy series, I think Detroit Metal City is easily one of the funniest anime running right now. Basically a much more digestible version of Metalocalpyse. Also its two-episodes-per format makes it seem like oldschool cartoons.

Endless Attack is worth it, I agree. Some crazy bastard has over 850 rooms on the XBLA leaderboards. I played it semi-seriously and reached 50 rooms or so. As for Protoman, I'm personally having a lot of fun. Deflecting enemies' own attacks to kill themselves is so satisfying. I just wish more enemies had the circle attacks that he can deflect. Also, having the slide and charge beam is how Megaman is meant to be played, IMO. I think Protoman is slightly more worth it than Endless Attack. The difficulty sometimes with platform ing with Protoman is insane. Though not too different from Megaman's situations, one blow to the head and Protoman is in dire straits. Maybe Protoman is just that cool and/or I missed the Megaman 4 gameplay, but I'm actually having more fun with Proto than with Megaman. Even if things are scary difficult this time around.

Three full blown rape scenes. Even for the South Park guys, this was a bit much. I laughed at simply how ridiculous TV has come to be for a cartoon to show rape. THREE TIMES.