Host Gone Ghost

Yakuza is shaping up to be a series where Sega seems to never get things right from the beginning of the franchise up until now. Yakuza 1 was dubbed much to purists dismay though Yakuza 2 was left pretty much intact after localization, it was released way too late to even make an impact.

Now Yakuza 3 will have some content cut from its original Japanese version because of cultural differences and lack of time to properly localise everything. Its the kind of stuff that fanboys will chew and debate over for ages to come though it's unlikely to make or break the game. The problem is the content removed though trivial to the eyes of the Sega team happens to be the main appeal to many of Yakuza fans. Yes the hostess game which has evolved from each of yakuza game will not be featured in this forthcoming yakuza release. Not many will admit it but i have seen enough forums and friends to know that a lot of gamers play yakuza because of the hostess side missions.

Bullet and Brain

Part of the fear within the resident evil games has always been how scarce it is to stock up ammunition against the undead. I remember how that fear eventually led to obsession in the early PSOne games as i spend more and more time organising and arranging the inventory in my item box. Of course that all changed in RE4 where the enemies sometimes drop ammunition in addition to the ones found in crates and barrels.

In Lost in Nightmares there isn't enough time to create that sort of fear but the developers did squeeze in a segment where you and your partner are stripped of your weapon and have to make it out of the area by using your wits and cunning to outsmart the executioners. Sure it sounds cliche as hell and it certainly feels like the way but having a live partner makes the sequence a lot more enjoyable that it looks. It's the sort of puzzle that reviewers have always found fault with and it's probably no different here but that has always bit part of the appeal of the series to me. It is either scary nor smart but sometimes a hint of nostalgia is all it takes to me smile.

The Undead Diaries

For resident evil 5, Capcom delivered hollywood quality cinematics to go with the tried and true gameplay of re4. So it's of little surprise that the new dlc 'lost of nightmares' doesn't contain any new spectacular custcenes instead relying on the traditional notes and diaries to drive the story. After all assembling the mo-cap actors and crew for the little amount of work involved here wouldn't not have been worthwhile for capcom but that's just fine with me. For one thing i thought the original resident evil 5 placed a little too much emphasis on the production of the cutscenes to the point where they devoted the entire behind-the-scenes disc to the making of it. The production design and art direction of the 'lost in nightmare' chapter takes center stage here, delivering creepy atmosphere that were sorely missed in the original resident evil 5. This is how resident evil 5 should be, where solid visuals and gameplay takes precedence over everything else.

When The STARS Align

You can probably tell I was very excited to play new DLC content for Resident Evil 5 but what i haven't count on was getting hooked on playing the mercenaries reunion game instead. You see playing co-op on the original story campaign of resident evil 5 has got me a bit reluctant to play the new 'lost in nightmares' by myself and since i have not managed to catch hold of any of my friends for a co-op session, all that was left was to brush up my zombie-slaying skills on mercenaries. Not that i mind, i left half of the characters and levels in the original mercenaries mode untouched for the chance to go back at it again so now seems like a fitting time to pick up where i left off.

Having familiar faces like Barry and Rebecca joining the fray certainly didn't hurt either. This STARS reunion was a long time coming but it's been worth the wait.

Maximum Thrill

After finally updating my Sony PSP, I hit upon a great way of playing the new Silent Hill: Shattered Memories. Yes i will attempt to play the game on both the Sony PSP and Playstation2 at the same time like i earlier envisioned how i would for Okami.

Well maybe not simultaneously since i have yet to clear enough space on my ps2 memory card in order to play the game but close enough as i'm nearly finished with fatal frame 3. That way since the game storyline and character changes depending on the player's behaviour, i will be able to live out two contrasting characters and see how the story ends for both. While ideally i should be playing this on my Wii, i still have a handful of games to finish on that platform before i really consider getting anymore.

Well at least until Fragile ships anyway.

Re-light My Fire

I have a bit of a hot and cold relationship when it comes to my Sony PSP, after finishing almost ten games in 2008 i left it to cool and could barely finish one game in 2009. Things are looking for the the Sony PSP in 2010 and that has gotten me interested to rekindle the flame with the old portable again.

I spent almost the entire afternoon today updating my custom firmware and much to my surprise it was easier than i would imagine. I suspect a lot of the hard part was already taken care of during the earlier update so this time around it was just a matter to plugging in the patch and running it. Having an old PSP-1000 model also helps of course, as the process was a lot simpler compared with the latter models. As with all Sony products of late, it pays to buy the early models especially with a product that has seen so many hardware revisions like the Sony PSP.

Midnight Attack

Since I don't live in the US, it's hard to tell when exactly a product will be made available on Playstation Network even if i know the release date. Obviously i can't be logging on when the clock strikes midnight upon the day of release as we are roughly ahead by 12 hours. That's why it's important for me to log on today as soon as i can to see if the Heavy Rain demo is available for download, after all this is the last week of PSN updates before the re5 dlc is release on PSN next week.

Come next week i will still be away from work on the 18th so hopefully this will get me better prepared as to what time to log on to PSN to purchase those dlc.

Evil Now Has a Voice

I gave myself an early treat this chinese new year when i finally bought the official sony bluetooth headset for my playstation3. Despite constant urging from my friends since we started on the operation flashpoint 2 campaign, i didn't see that game as one worthy for me to spend any more money on especially since i have never made good use of any of my past nintendo peripherals. While that has not change, i did buy headset because i knew i didn't have enough time to get another game before Yakuza 3 ships and also i thought it would compliment my re5 dlc purchase rather nicely later this month.

With my PSN store credit in place and my new headset, i'm all ready to take a trip down memory lane when the 'lost in nightmare' episode is unleashed. It would be fun to reminisce about the series with long-time fans over the headset as the new episode promises to conjure up all sorts of old memories.