Twin Snakes First Playthrough

Going through my copy of Sons of Librerty, i seems to have stumbled onto my play result for my first run through Twin Snakes

Game Level - Normal
Play time - 18: 38 : 26
Save - 41 times
Continue - 20 times
Alert mode - 43 times
Enemies - 052 killed
Rations - 065 used
Codename - CAPIBARA
CLEAR CODE : Q5N9 JxJM H9Q5 FP3R KVHH L3RQ N78

Despite the controls being mapped differently on the Gamecube, my recent play of Twin Snakes does helped as i attempt to speed-run through Sons of Liberty in anticipation for Guns of the Patriots. Sons of Liberty really isn't one of my favourite Metal Gear titles but i must say it has aged remarkably well. I don't know if agruments were made when Twin Snakes first come out on which game looked better but take it from me, Sons of Liberty win hands down.

Cover story

Never judge a book by it's cover...unfortunately, when it comes to games where every bit of minor detail are scrutinised by zealous fans most of the time, even the box art is not spared. I admit i'm often swayed by how attractive the cover looks before deciding on which version to get as demonstrated by Biohazard 4 on the PS2. Metal Gear Solid series has had some of the best box art largely contributed by the artistic strengths of series designer yoji shinkawa.

However as technological advancements allow for more realistic graphics, having an artistic cover may not always attracted attention from casual buyers especially those who are unfamiliar with the series. It's no secret i'm not a fan of the recent Metal Gear covers starting with Snake Eater, i once contemplated of getting the Japanese version which featured Boss and Naked Snake instead of the CGI snake on the US cover. The latest Metal Gear 4 chapter is by far the worst, and now with the prospect of me getting the normal US 80GB bundle looks i'm going to be stuck with CGI old snake after all.

I really wasn't considering the Limited Edition Guns of the Patriots, far too often have i missed the limited edition release of games for this generation and it look like this trend was going to continue for some time, well at least till Resident Evil 5. I mean i already missed out on the limited edition of Devil May Cry 4, what's more if i missed out on Metal Gear Solid 4 right? Finally it dawned on me, if i didn't like the cover of the US version which i'm going to be stuck with, why don't i just get the limited edition which featured an artwork cover?

In My Restless Dreams...

My latest Play stuff, came in on saturday while i was home a pretty nice surprise seeing i'm usually at work when the postie arrives. While it may seem like random purchases, i actually have these in mind for some time now. I recently saw an akira yamaoka retrospective on the Silent Hill series which remind me i have yet to add Silent Hill 2: Restless Dreams to my collection. I still remember shopping for this game at Sim Lim Plaza and having to choose between the two-disc PAL edition and the Japanese release of Silent Hill 2: Restless Dreams. It was a hard choice naturally but ultimately i couldn't resist having the 2-disc set,what with it's sexy cardboard digipak packaging. This may not be the original release of Restless Dreams from those years back but it will do just nicely...

The Gamecube memory card is another essential purchase that i have been putting off for far too long, you see i have been using the memory card that came with Biohazard 0 all this long and while it's suffice, it's been subjected to a long of wear and tear seeing that i don't usually leave the card at it's port. So having this memory card allows me to back-up my saves to free up some much needed space so i can get on with playing the other games in my collection namely PN03, Twilight Princess, killer7...etc.

Hot Coffee

After going through three episodes of Phoenix Wright, it's finally time to bid farewell to Nick and the others. Though they were released over the span of a few years on the GBA in Japan, Capcom had a lot of catching up to do when they decided to localized it for the Western market. As a result, us english-speaking fans got to enjoy the courtroom drama, all the three episodes in the span of less than two years before the newest episode featuring Apollo Justice arrived.

Honestly speaking, the main attraction of the series has always been the characters and the drama so there really was no reason for Capcom to "reboot" the series as they did with introducing Apollo Justice. Perhaps Capcom felt they have taken the previous storyline and cast of characters as far as they could, no one really knows. This final part of the first trilogy is by far, the best one so far every case ties all the earlier loose ends pretty well and the last case has to be seen to believe, as it feature all your favourite phoenix wright characters in one case. The enigmatic Godot is one of Capcom's most memorable character and it's a shame we won't get to see anymore of him.

Perhaps i could have taken a special liking to him because he was voiced by hideki kamiya in the japanese version...i'll sure miss his coffee proverbs

Going Backwards

Life never works out as you expect it to, even when it comes to games. When Sony first launched the playstation3, they stressed on including backward compartibility as an added incentive for the long term investment their users have invested on them, especially those who owned all their previous consoles. Later on, as a cost-cutting measurement the backward compartibility via hardware emulation was dropped in favour of software emulation. Now even that is becoming scarce as the need of BC-hardware in this region is just not as relevant given the rampant piracy problem of the past console.

Given my retro gaming nature, BC is a big deal for me in fact analysts are still unsure how big of a factor BC is when it comes to driving the sales of a new hardware but it certainly doesn't hurt to include it. I have amassed a collection of mostly NTSC-J games but it seems like now i might be getting a US region PS3 after all now that production for 80GB in this region has ceased. While i do have a fair collection of some of my favourite games on NTSC U/C region too, i can't really say i anticipated this. Either way, i stand to miss out on playing some of my favourite games once i finally settle on which region PS3 i'm getting.

Zero Options

With the release of Biohazard Zero Wii in Japan less than two months away, i'm still undecided on whether i will be picking up the import release. I recently discovered that Okami Wii has updated my Wii system firmware, something i have refrained from up till now in hopes of using the datel freeloader to play import games. A small price to play such a classic game i suppose, maybe now i should start downloading those retro games on Nintendo Virtual Console, gotta get around to playing kamiya's all-time favourite The Legend of Zelda : A Link to the Past at some point.

Now back to the matter at hand, so Japan gets Biohazard Zero and America gets Okami both being ports of last-generation games that didn't sell very well and neither games scheduled to be crossing the shores. Okami was really a necessary purchase for me, as i have been putting off playing that game for far too long and having Wii controls was a really incentive for me, not to mention playing it on my "newer" console. Biohazard Zero on the other hand, is still a bit of a question mark for me at the moment since i already have three copies of the Gamecube version, making this my fourth copy.

Solid Fanbase

I was a pretty latecomer when it comes to the Metal Gear bandwagon, not having play the original MSX or even NES installments. In fact, when i first played Metal Gear Solid on my PC, development on the sequel was already well underway on the upcoming Playstation2. I guess you could say i was bought into the franchise by the enormous hype surrounding it and its large fanbase, among them being some of my close friends. To it's credit, every Metal Gear that i have played did live up to its hype but by the nature of my gaming preferences, i just lacked the patience for stealth games. In fact, i rarely ever score a good ranking at the end of the game as my number of times spotted will simply astonish you.

The great thing about Metal Gear is that everyone is attracted to the games for their own reasons or preferences, some loved the stealth gameplay others are intrigued by the storyline and quirky characters. For me, it would have to be the voice acting and motion-capture that you rarely find that kind of quality anywhere else. As much of a retro gamer that i am, the thing that fsacinate me the most about modern games are the cinematic aspect of it mainly the voice acting and motion capture work.

and what do i think of Hideo Kojima?

Let's just say he is not in my top five list of developers, not until he can proved that he can do something else apart just as good as Metal Gear.

It's a Mad Mad World

It took the guys at Clover studios a while to realise but eventually they finally got around to realising the cold hard truth, sex and violence sells even more so in video games. Developers are still very cautious when it comes to pushing the envelope for sex in video games but they are certainly not shy of pushing the level of violence in video games. While everyone applaud and sing praises for Viewtiful Joe and Okami, there is no denying that the lack of violence in those games was what led to the lack of interest among the general gaming community and ultimately, their poor sales.

Now the newly reformed Platinum Games seems to have abandon their previous approach and have decided to follow the trend of the market by doing exactly what the public wants, more violence action games. The first two up are Madworld and Bayonetta, with the latter being a return to the action genre for hideki kamiya since his last foray being the first Devil May Cry. I personally am pretty excited to see Bayonetta though it would have been nicer if it came out before Bulletwitch because the early concept of the lead female character looks awfully lot like her. It remains to be seen if these games will go down well with the critics but one thing's for sure, better or worse, these games look to sell bucketloads more than Okami or Viewtiful Joe.

Kinda sad when you really think about it don't you think?

Thank you for Okami

Thank you.... a lot of people take it for granted but certainly not Capcom. For as long as i remember, Capcom has always included a brief thank you note at the first few pages of the game manual included with the game. I remembered first reading it upon ripping open my Megaman for the Gameboy, the first ever Capcom game in my collection and finding this rather peculiar thank you in the first few pages of the manual. This has continued to be a tradition for Capcom games, as i would find this same note appearing future Capcom games that i got for my Playstation, Playstation2 and Wii.

While it's always the same few lines about how Capcom is proud to bring you this thrilling new addition to your video game library, i admit it lose some of its strength over the years of seeing it. Today when i got home and found my copy of Okami Wii waiting for me, I was happy to flip through the manual (full-color at last!) and discover that apart from the generic thank you note of the past, Capcom has also included a full-page note on how they have set out to create an exceptional game like Okami and are thrilled to present this to you (again). Though it wasn't personally written by hideki, it really made my day... it may not be much but Capcom is the only publisher that bothered to do this and i do appreciated the effort that went into it.

Play time

While i usually get my latest gaming scoop online like most, i do enjoy collecting game magazines every now and then for the free demo disc included. Unfortunately amidst the flood of game magazines out there, there are only a couple actually worth reading. I used to liked UK PSM3 but lately i found their layouts and writing a little too 'immature; for my taste.

My favourite for the last couple of years has been Play US magazine, a magazine dedicated to gaming, anime and all other cool guy stuff. I wholeheartedly recommend this magazine to any gamers who enjoy good writing spread out on simple layouts, nothing too fancy that would make your head spin.Play is not exactly your average conventional game magazine either, as they have done numerous cover stories on games that other magazines won't dare or bother to. Most recently, they ran a cover story to commemorate the Wii edition of Okami. Doing a cover on a two-year old port? Now, that takes guts and not to mention good taste too....

Twin Snakes Second Playthrough

With Metal Gear 4 release less than a month away, those of us without any new games to play are feverishly re-playing through the earlier installments in efforts to brush up on our stealth techniques and also, freshen our memory of the storyline so far.

Game Level - Hard
Play time - 14: 15 : 40
Save - 12 times
Continue - 35 times
Alert mode - 49 times
Enemies - 070 killed
Rations - 071 used
Codename - JACKAL

CLEAR CODE : WRZ7 HF37 2WLJ DFLM 93B5 F8Q5 7LB

This is my second playthrough The Twin Snakes and i must say, it has been far more enjoyable than my first as i kinda gotten used to the Gamecube controls after having played earlier installments on Sony's pad. Contrary to what i said earlier last month, it seems i may get the chance to play Metal Gear 4 sooner than i thought as someone i know is able to bring in the Metal Gear 80gig bundle to our shores. While it's all great news, the truth is i really didn't think i was able to acquire a US PS3, especially having amassed an entire collection of mostly japanese import games in anticipation of an asian BC-Playstation 3. Well i suppose you can't have everything and i'm certainly not passing up the offer to get a US region unit seeing how hard it's to import one at this stage.

Reflections

Someone on the local forum made an interesting remark upon trying out the new Metal Gear Solid Essential Collection bundle, presumably after not having played them for a while or probably not at all as i were to guess. While Metal Gear Solid 2 & 3 still looked great, he nearly "puked" while he saw the original Metal Gear Solid for the PSOne. Unfortunately, this is the grim reality that technology advances in the video game industry has spoilt us all and most new comers are unable to tolerate older games with graphics that hasn't aged well.

Gametrailers, in light of the upcoming release of MGS4 has just started their Metal Gear retrospective which is a great introduction and reflection of the series, something both new comers and long time fans will enjoy. The first part released, covers the events of Metal Gear and Metal Gear 2 as well as the non-canon Snake's Revenge. kojima took great efforts to include these games in the recent Subsistence collection as they probably meant a lot to him and his career. i can't help but to feel that many who purchased Subsistence never even bother to give these retro games a try, given their outdated graphics. However, the great thing about video games is that watching them is usually just as exciting as playing but video games are meant to be played. kojima himself even stressed this point in the foot note of the third disc of Subsistence, featuring the movie-cut of Snake Eater's storyline.

For me, Metal Gear 1 and 2 were the highlight of the Subsistence package and though i have yet to try out the free-camera in the actual Snake Eater mission i have completed both Metal Gear 1 & 2. I'm just wondering how many others did the same?

Laws of Nature

I went back to playing HUNK on the 4th survivor mini-game recently after having played the HUNK side mission on Umbrella Chronicles, which of course is based on the 4th survivor scenario. I must say that the HUNK side mission was pretty enjoyable and faithful to the original inspiration, especially when compared to the Resident Evil 3 missions.

The 4th survivor is one of my favourite Resident Evil mini-game and i was pretty chuffed when i first managed to make it to the end, having memorized most of the enemy placement and routes. It's actually not as hard as one might think but of course, having a good grips of the tank-like controls and knowing which enemies to fight and which to run from helps a great deal.

4th survivor will also one of those Resident Evil mini-games that enforces the laws of nature within the Resident Evil universe so strongly that you can't help but to learn and abide by it as well.

What is this laws of nature within Resident Evil universe you say?

Simple, no two different type of monsters should ever co-exist in the one same room or area. It's a simple rule that was probably born out of the complications of programming but one that makes absolute sense when you sit down and think about it.

If say, the crows were in the same hallway as a zombie, wouldn't they be tempted to pick the flesh off their bodies since zombies do possess a body of decaying flesh? It makes complete sense to me so when the development team behind the Deadly Silence port decided to tweak with the formula and create a more challenging Rebirth mode, i was absolutely dismayed. While i adored the original Resident Evil and kinda liked the Deadly Silence port, i absolutely loathe the Rebirth mode included.

There, all my worst nightmares came to life, as Hunters, zombies and crows were all running rampant in the mansion, most of the time in the same area. You could say that this was due to the limitations of the hardware during that time so that's why you never get two different type of monsters attacking you in the one same area but think back to when you last played Resident Evil 4.

Did that game have two different monsters in the one same area?

Head to Head

Next week i shall attempt the unthinkable, to try and play both version of Okami simultaneously on my Wii and PS2. Playing different versions of multi-platform games is nothing new, I done so before with Resident Evil 4 on my Wii but there was roughly a year and a half gap between my first play on my PS2. I came off the experience, having new profound respect for the Gamecube version despite what many would say that the differences were hardly "noticeable".

With Okami, the differences aren't so clear cut i'm afraid. Sure, the PS2 version will likely remain the definitive version but the vibrant colours of the Wii version appeals to me as i have never been very fond of the washed-out look from the paper filter of the original version. In fact, to be honest i sorta lost interest during my first play-through of Okami on the PS2 and never even finished it! Of course, things are much different now that i have parted with my hard-earned money to get the Wii edition and will be playing it on my relatively "new" console. And being the completist that i am, i just have to see the credit sequence to round up the experience so that's why i'm intending to play both version together.

Killer Instinct

A lot of people have been buying new consoles and handhelds lately and it's not due to any price drop either but rather the appearance of several killer app titles. You see, a killer app title is one that is usually so anticipated and hyped that it helps generate hardware sales as well ie. people who don't own console are willing to buy the system just to play that one game. A friend of mine recently got a Sony PSP to play Final Fantasy's Crisis Core, sure he has been contemplating about getting one for some time now, surveying the market and reading up on custom firmware but it took the release of Crisis Core to push him over the edge. More recently I got friends eager to take the PS3 plunge to play the highly anticipated Grand Theft Auto IV, so i guess killer apps are not restricted to console exclusive titles only seeing that GTAIV is multi-platform.

So what are the games that would convince you to part with your hard-earned money to pick up the console to play it? For me, these games are sure to raise a couple of eyebrows but it's not like i'm saying so in order to be different. The game that led me to get a Nintendo DS? Resident Evil Deadly Silence. Sure, it's a port of a ten year-old game which i played to death but the thought of playing such a cherished game in the palm of my hands was so unimaginable for me then that i had to get one just to experience it. Sure enough, i wasn't disappointed as the DS would go on to be the hottest selling handheld of recent years thereby ensuring a healthy supply of quality games. My most recent console is of course, the Nintendo Wii and a large part of it has to do with the phenomenon success of the Nintendo DS as with most Wii users i'm sure. But it was Resident Evil Umbrella Chronicles that finally convinced me to get the Wii after watching Nintendo gamers with envy playing exclusive Resident Evil and Metal Gear games over the years. So far, the Wii has not showed it's full potential like the DS but it has sold so many units now it's hard to imagine it being any less of a success than the DS.

Omoi about Okami

You gotta take your hat off to Hideki Kamiya, what a guy he is! When news of Okami Wii missing it's ending credits got around to the creator/visionary (albeit a little late seeing the port is only US-bound and has no plans for a Japan release), you can bet he wasn't very pleased.However, instead of being mad about not getting the credit he and his team deserve, as you would expect, he was actually more concerned about how this will affect the player ! You see, he has this philosophy of this special omoi (don't ask me what it is i'm just as clueless as you guys) that brings a sense of closure to the game and rewards the player with a sense of accomplishment. Basically the harder or longer the game is, the greater the reward and he also goes on to talk about what was the theme and message that went into each of his previous games (Resident Evil 2, Devil May Cry and Viewtiful Joe).

Oh in the end, Hideki is also aware that many have not finished Okami and choose not to reveal it for the benefit of those, despite being aware that the game is actually two years old now. Hideki-san, you rock!