Coming To America (Not)

The truth is finally out, it looks like Yakuza 3 won't be leaving its native home Japan after all.

Can't say i'm really surprised though it does leave me with the inevitable decision which i knew i would have to arrive at, playing the import version. I foresee it to be a long and ultimately unrewarding process since the real charm of the Yakuza series has always lies in its side missions. To top it off, the game is still selling at its original price so it likely won't be cheap to import at this stage. I certainly have the time to go through this meticulous process of playing the import version but i would probably have to finish the second one before i even consider it right now.

You Only Live Twice

There was a common theory that Separate Ways was conceived or at least the idea of it before the Gamecube version of RE4 even shipped. That it was held back so Capcom would have the added incentive to tempt gamers who played RE4 on the Gamecube to pick it up again. There are parts of the game that feels pretty clever how like the developers manage explain what happened to leon jacket but then there are also parts that doesn't make any sense at all.

Take the part where chapter 2 ends and chapter 3 begins, at the end of chapter 2 we see ada watching in the shadow as luis sera dies and the sample falls into saddler's hands. Then she proceeds to radio wesker and tells him the location of the sample only to arrive at the start of chapter 3 when she meets krauser and ask him the same thing wesker just asked her only moments again. Ok so the scene where krauser is having a conversation with ada while playing with his knife was in the original game but you would think the developers could have done a better job of making the scenes all tied up. Of course this could go on forever like did krauser actually die in Separate Ways or the end of Assignment Ada? It's pretty clear that ada was the one who put him away for good but it's as how mikami intended in Assignment Ada or what kawata envisioned in Separate Ways?

One at a Time

I have a habit of not leaving my games unfinished before moving on to the next one, whether it's a game i have played before or for the first time. To me it's a meticulous process of figuring what to play now, when i would roughly finish and what would be next. Of course along the way, new games come in to the picture and i have to change my schedule to suit everything but often than not, the process is very satisfying. What i'm currently playing would be influenced by what interests me right now and that in turn will influence what i play on the other platform as well. It sure sounds like a lot of thought and work is put into this but i realised i tend to get the most out of the games by playing them in the right order at the right time.

For instance i could have just leave No More Heroes aside when i got hold of my copy of Madworld but i decided to play Yasumi Matsuno earlier hit Vagrant Story instead in the mean time. The timing was just right as i doubt i will have any desire to play Vagrant Story again in the foreseeable future. Now that i have finished NMH, it worked out pretty well with July being a big month for my favourite comic books and a game as artistic-influenced by comic books as Madworld.

A Shot of Tequila (Time)

I logged into the multiplayer mode of Stranglehold today to see if there is anyone around for a quick game and sure enough, i did managed to find someone this time. With him hosting, we quickly engage a game of mano a mano deathmatch with just the two of us trapped in that teahouse. The game runs surprisingly smooth on multiplayer online even smoother than the actual single player campaign i believed, perhaps because it's just two players in one largely destructible environment.

The first 8 minutes were pure fun as the tequila time gauge has yet to fill up so both of us were on even ground more or less, the nice thing is there are healthpacks and weapons all around so you can easily engage in a very long duel of running and gunning without actually killing anyone. Once the tequila time gauge finally tops up however, a player can easily dispatch the other away by using the tequila time to their advantage because the other player has no idea when their opponent is in tequila time or not. The game also doesn't engage tequila time automatically like the single player campaign so i die a few times before i realised my opponent was using tequila time to his advantage. The worst part was when i actually got my first kill and by doing so, resetting my opponent tequila time made him go into hiding while waiting for his gauge to fill up again. Having being new to the multiplayer mode, i was certainly surprised by this move but maybe it's the same for everyone else because of how invaluable tequila time advantage is.

Separate Opinion

Now that i have finished No More Heroes i can really sink my teeth into RE4 Wii edition to see how much better it's compared with the Gamecube version. With the help of some save files on gamefaqs, i was able to unlock everything from the go and immediately jump into Assignment Ada and Separate Ways. True enough, Assignment Ada does feature knife attacks now so it's possible for RE fanatics to do their knife-runs. As much as i liked the Wii controls i also notice it makes the game almost too easy to play, aiming is second nature and you can switch back and forth between knife attack instantaneously. I didn't even get hit one bit by krauser during my first run on assignment ada which i usually struggled before.

Separate Ways is definitely re-built from the ground up using the Gamecube engine so everything looks on par with the rest of the game. I have heard that ada model is ripped definitely from the ps2 version without any enhancements so that could possibly be the only downside of this Wii edition. The cutscenes are also in FMV like the ps2 version but since Separate Ways doesn't feature any alternative costume, it's not such a major issue. It has taken me a long time to finally play the Wii edition but i'm glad the time is finally here since i told myself i won't bother with it until i'm on LCD display.

Reality Bites

I used to think No More Heroes was a pretty easy game so much so that i didn't give it a second thought whether or not i could actually finish it on Bitter mode. Finishing the Bitter mode however has managed to send my (gamer) ego come crashing back to reality and nearly reduce me to tears. Ok maybe not that but i easily spent over 5 hours to dispose of both Bad Girl and Jeanne as both boss fight require a heavy dose of patience especially if you tend to be very careful. I have certainly come to appreciate the game and the intricacy boss fights a lot more, something that would have been lost on an easier mode as you can basically button-mash your way through them.

I remember when finishing DMC4 on Hard mode i got message screen with a rather cheeky remark about how you are not just a casual gamer after all. These days i try to get the most out of my games so playing it first on a cheap easy mode is another way of prolonging the life of these games. Action games tend to have a pretty short playing time so looks like it's the ribbon of disgrace for now in Ninja Gaiden Sigma.

The Ultimate Shame

A couple of stuff came in before the end of this week, the last two of my Organic zombie diorama and Ninja Gaiden Sigma. I ran into a bit of problem when placing this order last week as i didn't have any coupon codes with me anymore and had to look everywhere for one. Luckily i find a kind soul who posted some on his blog, wished i could remember his blog now so i can quote him but if you are reading this, you have my thanks.

Looking back maybe i should have ordered Dragon Sword on the DS instead as it was only USD16.90 right about that time and quickly reverted back to its original price. The Greatest Hits red casing for Sigma is a lot worse than i expected, as it wasn't the slightly transparent case shown on that page but completely shiny red which you can't see through. It looks pretty cheap to be honest, perhaps befitting for a Greatest Hits label as it's the ultimate shame for not picking up the title initially.

Wii Edition Impressions

I finally finished playing Resident Evil 4 on professional mode last night, the entire run took roughly two hours more than my previous and seeing that i clocked a Leon death count of triple digits, i suspected a lot of the time was spent replaying some of the more difficult set pieces in the game. I had my copy of the Wii edition ready with me so by the time the credits finished rolling, i immediately popped in it for comparisons.

Sure enough, the Wii edition is indeed enhanced 16:9 widescreen so you don't have the black borders if you are on widescreen display. A couple of minor issues worth noting, Capcom has included all the game demos that played when the game is left idle from the previous versions and had enough sense to change the gameplay scenes to Wii controls so that's a really nice touch. The game manual also has a couple of extra pages introducing the supporting cast of RE4 which i really liked, complete with classic quote from the game and a portrait shot. The bonus trailer of Umbrella Chronicles included does a good job of tempting gamers to buy it but i wished Capcom didn't try to disguise it by sneaking it onto the extras menu and calling it a bonus video. No shame in advertising your product if it's a quality game and Umbrella Chronicles certainly deserves much better.

Now onto the game itself the controls are as great as what reviewers have raved about, it's hard to believe the Wii controls lend itself so well to the game without dumbing it down. I like the little buzz from the Wii mote speaker when Hunnigan radios Leon and kinda wish Capcom would have included her dialogue onto the speaker ala No More Heroes but seeing it's a two way conversation between Leon, it would be a little difficult to realised. I do foresee the inventory menu being a bit cumbersome with the Wii controls, Capcom should have just went all the way and implement a drag and drop function for that whole part. Of course the big question remains whether the previously-ps2 exclusive Separate Ways campaign was completely redone in the original Gamecube game engine but unfortunately you still have to finish the main campaign in order to unlock it. Perhaps i can steal a save file from somewhere just to see for myself first.

Red Hot and Ready to Rumble

My decision to purchase Ninja Gaiden Sigma Greatest Hits was purely an impulsive one, for the longest time i have avoided the series because of Itagaki verbal sparring with Kamiya. Of course being a kamiya fanboy, i was naturally on kamiya side but it pains me as an action junkie not having played what critics touted as one of the best action game of this generation.

The first game came out with a Gamestop-exclusive Collector's Edition and the standard version quickly went out of the print to be replaced by a Greatest Hits version. My only option was the Greatest Hits version and i wrestled with the notion of owning a GH this soon for the longest time. Since graphics are much more of a concern for me now, the fact the game runs at 60fps on 1080p certainly helped in making my decision. Also Itagaki's lack of involvement with the Sigma series and also his eventual departure from Tecmo also made the decision a lot easier. In the essence, it was the perfect fit as i was looking for something new to play on my ps3 and also to top up my order of the last remaining two Organic Biohazard diorama.

What's The Deal with Qore?

One of the dumbest thing i did when i got my playstation3 bundle was not claim my free PSN game bundled inside. You see there was a coupon inserted inside the blu-ray demo disc for complimentary download of the PSN game, Pain. A couple of the thing held me back from doing so during that time, the worry of storage capacity and the concern of a long download time. Eventually when i finally decide on claiming it, the coupon had already expired sometime at the end of last year.

So when i got a couple of back dated game magazine today and discovered one of them contained codes for free download of QORE Episode 8, i was determined not to let this opportunity slipped by me again. Never mind that the said issue with the code is already five months, it doesn't hurt to give it a try and sure enough, the code still works! Being a bit of an old school gamer, i rarely ever take my playstation3 online so i'm not terribly familiar with either QORE or Pulse, gaming programs produced by Sony aiming to bring you the latest in the world of Playstation. My friends download Pulse religiously which i believed is because it's free and also partly because it's got some asian chick hosting it. QORE on the hand, requires subscription fee which i initially thought is because it's a high definition gaming program and thus requires more work than Pulse but then i found out that Pulse is also available in high definition too. So why is Sony charging for one show and not the other? The file size is pretty big at 1.5GB so it would probably be a while before i finish downloading the entire episode and see what the fuss is all about.

The Great Mistake

My first experience with Sony Greatest Hits label was not a pleasant one so since then i have swore off against all things Greatest Hits but rest assured this biased is not unfound. You see i got my sister and mum to pick up a copy of the first Devil May Cry when they were visiting in Singapore. What they came back with was a Greatest Hits label as the game has been out for some time now but what was worse was the manual inside had a copy of pages missing! I kid you not, ok the number of pages were correct but in place of the correct pages were misprint of some other pages. Sure it could all be a bad coincidence but it just reaffirms my belief about how subpar these Greatest Hits can be.

Now i'm about to embark into that territory again as i have just ordered a copy of Ninja Gaiden Sigma. I couldn't resist the offered price and on top of that, i need something to make up the order.

Robbed Zombie

Alas the two Organic zombie dioramas which i have yet to purchase are no longer in stock, i seriously miscalculated as they were the first two to go out of stock, not the chris and jill ones. Looks like unless i source the remaining two from somewhere other than Play-asia, i would likely end up with incomplete set of the Organic Biohazard series. Such a crying shame as these diorama are some of the best i have seen, they are certainly worth every cent of their full price and when discounted are an absolute steal.

I used to have high expectations when it comes to gashapons and models but thanks to my friend's usual skepticism i have learnt to expect a lot less when it comes to the actual finished product versus the early prototypes. This is certainly not the case here as these finished products looked even better than i would have imagined. I will admit that i'm gushing a bit more than usual perhaps it's because i haven't bought these stuffs for so long until now.

Emotions of the Game

Backward compatibility seems to be a very thorny subject when it comes to Sony and their playstation3, ever since they remove it from their current SKU they have never come fore to say why they did so or whether it will ever make its way back to future SKU. In fact their latter SKUs which feature limited compatibility like my 80GB also seems to have problems of their own. By removing the Emotion Engine chip which powers the original ps2 from the ps3 hardware, the system have to rely on software emulation to run ps2 games thus there is never any guarantee that every game will work and if they did, that any technical problems might arise.

I have been quite fortunate with my string of ps2 games running on ps3 however i can't help but to notice the Cell processor works extra hard to emulate the EE chip as the cooling fan spins faster than usual. This has led me to believe that while there have been some talks about backward compatibility coming back to ps3, it won't happen without some hardware change inside the system because it sounds to me like the Cell is just straining itself to keep up right now.