2015 recap: Wii U

I was lucky enough to pick up the white Wii U seeing how obscure the console has become. This was my first full year of owning the Wii U so I was happy there were many quality games already available. I do hope there are more coming. That being said, I bought the system based on what I already knew what was coming to the console so my expectations are somewhat met.

Buying the Wii U wasn't as easy a decision as some of my past systems.I knew the shaky situation Nintendo is facing as the system was not the hit that they expected.

I finished quite a number of Wii U games this year and have more to go next year.

1. Bayonetta 2
2. Donkey Kong Tropical Freeze
3. Captain Toad
4. The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker
5. Super Mario Maker
6. Bayonetta

Ok I cheated a little with Bayonetta.

2105 recap: Nintendo Wii

It's doesn't take a whole lot to be a Top 10 most played Wii game on my system. Lol

I didn't finish many Wii games this year but the quality more than makes up for it's quantity.

1. The Twillight Princess
2. Metroid Prime
3. Bully Scholarship Edition

The Twillight Princess is such a massive Zelda experience that I didn't expect to take that long to finish. I really should have started this game a few years ago as now I still have Skyward Sword to finish before the new Zelda on Wii U. That's a nice first world problem to have.

It's been years since I picked up the Metroid Prime Trilogy and yet here I am finishing just the first Metroid Prime. I hope I don't take this long to finish the other two Prime games left. Then again, it's going to be a while before we see the next console Metroid game anyways.

It dawned on me that all 3 of these games are enhanced ports of older games from two generations ago. This will change next year as I actively complete the remaining Wii games on my backlog.

2015 recap: PS3

It's nice that Sony knows how big of a deal earning trophies is from this email. I have played quite a number of great PS3 games in 2015,

1. Grand Theft Auto IV
2. The Evil Within
3. Resident Evil Revelations 2
4. Grand Theft Auto V
5. Yakuza Zero

Almost all of these games are available cross-gen but I made peace with getting the older versions. Some I could see myself upgrading to the current gen version when an enhanced version is available. I'm talking about Yakuza Zero in english and The Evil Within with all the DLC content. I probably won't waste anymore money on Revelations 2,  the game is just not worth the money or time anymore.

I would love to try all the new online features Rockstar added to GTA Online with the current gen but too bad Rockstar don't intend to sell GTA Online separately.

2015 recap: Nintendo 3DS

It's a shame that I played 2 very time-consuming games on the 3DS in the same year. That meant I didn't have enough time to play the many other games that I bought for the system. And trust me, there are a lot of games on my backlog.

Project X Zone and MH4U are games that required a lot of dedication but present very little reward. PXZ felt like it could be a 40 hours game if Monolith Soft had cut back on having to fight the same boss over and over again. MH4U? I can't really complain much expect that this is a grind it out game. Always have been, if you can't stand the grinding then maybe this isn't for you.

Just glad to be done with PXZ because now I'm free to play all the other games I got.

2015 Recap: Don't Look Back in Anger

As 2015 is drawing to an end, I'm going to start recounting the games I finished on each systems. It's safe to say that my two most played systems remains the PS3 and 3DS, which is probably the same as last year's. If this generation were to end today I still think the Nintendo 3DS is the best system of this generation. While it's not really fair to pit a portable handheld against home consoles, the current gen systems are still in a pretty sorry state of affairs.

I remained baffled as to why so many people are buying a PS4 right now. To play what? If this was the PS2 era, exclusive games like Bloodborne and Until Dawn are nothing but B-level games. Instead, they received an enormous amount of attention and hype by simply being exclusive on the best-selling console of this generation.

Looking back, getting a Nintendo Wii U instead of PS4 was a pretty sound decision. Nintendo is doing as much as they can to support the system but still there is only so much you can handle as both the publisher/developer. Of course I might have made a completely different decision if my first PS3 didn't YLOD in the first place. I won't have lose faith in the durability of Sony systems and I probably won't feel burnt to get another Sony machine as I do right now.

Playing the Wii U is a complete different cycle with what I went through on the Wii. I didn't really play any first-party Nintendo games until late in the Wii era. This time on the Wii U, I have playing mostly first-party games with the exception of Bayonetta 2. Nintendo does a great job of rewarding customers on the Club Nintendo program. I got a number of these games free through Club Nintendo and they are full-priced games unlike the crap PSN Plus throws out.

OK, that's enough hating for now.

Live. Die. Repeat.

There are a few modern movies which I regret never having seen on the big screen when they were released in the cinema.

Like The Rock and the first Infernal Affairs.

These remained some of my favorite films but I have only watched them on home video release. Sadly the window of catching movies in the cinema is pretty small even with the emergence of multi screen cinemas.

Nowadays video games followed a similar path, the absolute classics that first appear on home consoles re-emerges years later on handheld systems and smartphones.

While I appreciated the notion of having these games on portable devices, I still think that big 3D epics are meant to be enjoyed on the big screen TV.

Especially if it's going to be your first experience.

My first experience of Mario 64 was totally ruined on the DS system because the controls were extremely clunky  without an analog stick. It's still a great game but nothing like Mario Galaxy in my eyes. So I'm pretty apprehensive about these handheld ports of classic games.

Games like Ocarina of Time, Majora's Mask and Xenoblade Chronicles on the 3DS.

I have never played any of these games on their original home consoles. Thankfully the option to play them on a big screen TV is still viable, so long as you keep your old consoles around and have an internet connection.

While on the topic, I do not think everything looks better on a big screen. Certainly not most games originally made for portable systems. But it happens and some of these games leap onto the home console because publishers aren't contend with the sales of the original port. Thankfully I played most of these said games on the handheld and never had to experience what the HD remaster are like. Being a purist, the original format is always the best way to experience it especially if it's going to be your first time.

This Needs A Remaster

Onimusha is a game that aged well in some areas and not so in others. Still it's hard to believe it was a launch title for the PS2 considering how bad games are in this generation.

The in-game graphics hold up really well but unfortunately not for the CG cinematics. Thankfully the CG was only used sparingly in this game. Even the subtitles doesn't have the usual jagginess you get when watching SD on LCD TV. Somehow the subtitles are missing during the CG making it hard to play in Japanese. I certain don't remember this problem until I started playing it again.

The part that didn't aged well is how you can't switch weapons without going back to the menu. And the game forced you to switch up the weapoons quite a lot to face different enemies and open doors. It's also a lot harder than most newer games but still fair enough so you don't complain. Problem is I don't have the tendency to save often anymore with how lenient games tend to be these days. So I had to replay a lot as it's hard to unlearn what you learnt over the years.

I took 5 hours plus to finish what it roughly a 3 hours game. It wasn't pretty, I felt like Kobe trying to survive in the NBA at his current age.

Zero Expectations

We are who we are because of the events and people that come across in our lives. It's never one singular event or person that shapes someone, more like the snowball effect.

That's why it's hard to make a good prequel story. We all want to know how our favourite character came to be so prequel stories are always popular. The problem is prequel stories only have a window of a small time frame so everything gets distilled into one dramatic event. Often time, it's disappointing to fans as it cannot live up to their expectations.

Snake eater was a great prequel but did Snake truly learnt everything from one lady called the Boss? Let's not even begin with the Darth Vader origins.

Yakuza 0 is a great prequel because it isn't hamstring by the burden of telling how Kiryu and Majima became who they are. Kiryu isn't the dragon of Dojima yet and Majima isn't the mad dog we come to love. No one died in dramatic fashion that caused Majima to go bananas (which frankly would be pretty bad taste). It's just a story set in a time where Kiryu and Majima were young and totally unlike their current self.

The modern day Kiryu simply won't bust out moves at the dance floor or get date raped in old fashion telephone hook-ups. He also didn't have a pal like Nishiki at his side anymore, someone he considers his brother and equal.

The ending where they revert to their trademark outfit was the only bad point of the story. It felt forced and out of the blue. It didn't skipped ahead in time and I was just getting used to how charming Majima looks in a suit and ponytail. Prequel story like this are rare where the creators simply ignore the obvious route and focus on creating a good compelling a story.

Be The Maker

Before Mario Maker

It seems like Mario Maker was what the Wii U system needed after all.  A game that puts the power of creation in the players hand and thrive on community participation. In today's society where everyone has a voice that wants to be heard, Nintendo has created the perfect modern nostalgic game.

Creating a good level is not easy, there is no substitute for creativity so spending hours making a level doesn't necessarily result in a good one. I learnt that the hard way slaving over the level design without much inspiration. Sometimes a good idea pops up by accident when working on the level but one idea alone is never enough to sustain a whole level. So I rather just keep the level on save and continue to work on it instead of uploading on impulse when it really isn't good enough.

Still this game will keep me busy for a long time so Fatal Frame V might just have to wait a little longer. Games aren't cheap these days and getting more than one in a month is not a good habit I want to fall back into. Plus I'm not lucky enough to have a generous wife to spoil me when I control my spending habits.

After Mario Maker

Camera Obscurity

When Nintendo got the rights to Fatal Frame series, some would say they doomed the horror series to obscurity. I think the series is always going to be a niche series compared with the mainstream success of Resident Evil or Silent Hill. Sure Nintendo didn't help the cause by refusing to localized some of the newer games on their system. But under the big N care, the series innovated in ways that simply wasn't possible if it remained on Sony consoles. It's kind of a two steps forward two steps back kind of evolution.

The two games on the Wii system used motion controls  to allow your Wiimote to mimic the flashlight. It didn't place the flashlight in your hands quite like Shattered Memories but that was never the key component of the game anyway. The camera obscura will always be the main feature of the game and the motion controls made it easier to capture the perfect shot.

Tecmo took it up a notch on the Nintendo 3DS by transforming the handheld into the camera obscura, thanks to the gyro sensor function. As funny as it was to wave the 3DS around like a camera, it wasn't very practical to alternate between the light and the dark as you needed to use the AR function to scan pages from the booklet.

Now the latest Fatal Frame on the Wii U is finally getting localised and I'm eager to play it. Eager enough that I simply don't care if there isn't a retail release. I love the Gamepad concept and frankly there isn't enough games on the system that properly utilized the Pad. Fatal Frame took the obvious concept of using the Gamepad as the camera but without the AR function of the 3DS game. Plus it has HD graphics and officially undub for the very first time.

It's going to be a great Halloween this year.

Cing Out

Game types come and go, last year the survival horror genre experienced a bit of renaissance since their high during the 32-bit era. I wonder when will adventure games get their turn?

Adventure games are about as niche as they come these days. Every major studios that specialized in adventure games are now either dead and buried or making other type of games. Nintendo's second party studio CING had a memorable run of games on the DS and Wii (Trace Memory and Hotel Dusk) but they too went bust before the start of this generation. 

As I struggle to solve the mystery of Hotel Dusk, it occurs to me that adventure games will have a hard time making a comeback without undergoing some major overhaul. The chief problem with adventure games are the puzzle or the structure of the storytelling. You missed a vital clue or failed to solve a riddle and the whole structure breaks down and comes to a halt. It's really easy to get stuck in an adventure game and no one likes referring to guides when playing a game.

I started to wonder why can't adventure games be more open-world? You get stuck in one part then maybe you can go and do other stuff while the story branches off to a different outcome. Sadly I have never really seen that in any modern adventure game. The storytelling are usually far too rigid and focused to allow such radical changes. 

I love adventure games and playing Hotel Dusk reminds of those old Lucasarts and Sierra heydays. But I remember I tend to use guides even back in those days to finish those games.

Going through the Motions (and Minions)

I have been playing PxZ for almost 80 hours now and have yet to finish the game. Now I'm beginning to understand why the Xenosaga games during the ps2 era always shipped on two discs. And to think, I originally intended to go back and play these Xeno games (lol).

As honest paying gamers, we naturally prefer our games to be as long as possible. After all we are paying our hard earned money and games aren't cheap so the longer it is the more value we see in the product. I'm not sure if I agree with that sentiment anymore, the value simply cannot be judged by the length. Vanquish is just a 5-hour game and anyone who played through it are likely be satisfied with the game.

PxZ is just a tediously long game, each chapter lasts close to 2 hours of gameplay with no shortcuts allowed. You fight minions after minions and the same bosses over and over again. Each boss usually have about 10 minions with them and there are more than one boss in each level. The fan service starts to wear thin after a while. I started to skipped the silly banter at the start of the fight because I just want to get the level over with.

The grinding is compulsory as the objective is always destroy every enemy so you can't take a shortcut by just finishing off the boss. Grinding is one of the things I hate most about RPG and here it's forced upon the gamer. The biggest problem with the combat sytem is the enemies display no AI whatsoever. The minions are there to just get beaten up by the super-team. Even the bosses feel the same way albeit with a lot more HP and cool finishing move. It's like a strategy RPG where the gamer has to strategize against a mindless opponent.

I was surprised that a sequel to PxZ was announced as fans weren't exactly demanding one. In fact most have yet to finish the game like myself partly because of how tedious it is. The sequel will feature Kiryu and Majima from the RGG series and that is probably one of the few reasons why I would even bother with the next game. 

Last Hurrah for Chivalry

Yakuza Zero is really impressive, I can't remember any recent prequel game that is this good. I think Studio RGG is simply incapable of making a bad Yakuza game.

Each time a major female character is introduced in these games, something magical happens for the series.
These stories usually revolves around honour and loyalty but having a female character brings some good old chivalry and romance plot into the mixture. It's no coincidence that Yakuza 2 and 4 are the best games in the series.

I was very happy that Kiryu is back as the main lead character when studio RGG decided to cut back on the number of playable characters.I was a little skeptic about having Majima drive the story of the game because his character is used quite sparingly in the older games. Overexposing him in this game could potentially diminishes the greatness of the Majima character. Thankfully I was wrong and I could definitely see Majima heading future Yakuza games all by himself.

There is a real sense of threat and urgency in this game, the story is a lot darker than the recent games. Studio RGG has a habit of saving lame characters from dying so they could use them again in future games. Maybe because of the prequel nature, a lot of characters die in this game and these are very good characters.

Finally we get to switch the fighting styles of the characters which I have been longing for since the PSP spin-off games. Changing the fighting styles on the fly makes the whole gameplay feels fresh again. Some say the series is suffering from fatigue but I feel it's been re-invigorated by this game.

Thanks to Salty Yen for his video translations. It's nice to play the games alongside with him and I don't think I could enjoy the game this much without him.

Zombie On The Go

Mercenaries 3D gathered quite a bad rap upon release that people barely remember anything else about this game. Bad enough that Capcom decided to charge for what used to be a free mini-game but then they went ahead and locked the save file too. Preventing owners from re-selling the 3DS game which Capcom later acknowledged was a bad move and left Revelations alone.

I purchased the digital copy of this game when it was on sale during Halloween. I wasn't really planning on getting it so I never made any attempt to look for the retail copy. This Mercenaries is more of a greatest hits compilation of all the stages and characters from RE 4 and RE 5. There is barely any new content until very late into the game where you get some nice new stages. 

On the surface, the game looks better than Revelations because of all the re-used assets from old RE games. However play it long enough and you will realise this is certainly not the case. A lot of the character animations have been simplified which becomes apparent when you perform melee attacks. The reused stages are also cut down in size compared with the original. At least the game performance is pretty steady even with the 3D effects on, thanks to all these graphical shortcuts.

As much as I hated RE6, I still had a pretty good time with the game's Mercenaries Mode. Of course, Capcom decided to ruin a good thing by making most of those stages DLC. This prevents most gamers from enjoying the complete Mercenaries Mode on RE6 which is a shame. Looking at the current state, the Mercenaries 3D is still the only way to enjoy the mini-game on the go. Maybe it's not too absurd now to think why Capcom would charge money for this game after all. 

Like A Boss

I love the video montage at the beginning of each Yakuza games. No matter how many times I have seen it, I rarely ever press to skip especially if I like the theme music too. It reminds of those Hong Kong TVB series where you also have a video montage before each episode.

When you first play the game, those video montage offers a glimpse of the story that lies ahead. As you progress through the game, the montage turns into a mixture of scenes you have seen and those you have not. These montages are carefully mixed so there are no big spoilers but just enough teasers to entice you to play on and on. I loved picking out the scenes to come and predicting how the story will unfold based on those scenes.

It really does feel like a TV serial and in a lot of ways, the Yakuza series is actually more like a TV serial than a summer blockbuster. The cutscenes are usually grounded on human drama with most of the action occurring during the game play. That's probably one of the reason why the series have difficulty breaking out of Japan in terms of mainstream success. For all its criminal undertones, it's more about the characters themselves rather than the shady stuff that yakuzas do.

Casual observers often compared the Yakuza games with Grand Theft Auto which is such a poor comparisons. You hardly ever do any criminal activity in the Yakuza games, just regular badass stuff that makes you feel like the boss.

Badass stuff like this following video montage

Good Old Fashioned Fun

Satoru Iwata, the beloved CEO of Nintendo has sadly passed away last weekend. It's hard to understate the impact of his passing because he was such a public figure for Nintendo. Having possessed all the Nintendo systems released during Iwata's reign, I do feel the desire to talk about what makes them great, or even superior to their peers.

I loved how Nintendo games has no difficulty class. This may create a perception that the games are easy but personally, attaining 100% in any one of these games is probably harder than any platinum trophy I have earned. The lack of difficulty class puts everyone on the same page, how far you decide to take it is up to you. In some ways, Nintendo is teaching you to let go of your elitism and all just co-exist as one. There are no casual or hardcore gamers, just the love for the game. Playing games is not an entitlement, I can play anything I choose without someone making a funny comment.

I also loved how Nintendo games speaks to their audience in a way other games just don't. Most games treat you as a dumb ass who can't remember what you learn in the first 5 hours and are content to hold your hand all the way by spoon feeding you. Metroid and Zelda teaches you the basic tools and expect you to apply them throughout the game. When you get stuck in the game, there are no hints to help bail you out that will just magically appear. It can be frustrating at times but the feeling of finding your own way out is unlike anything. It also speaks of the level of confidence Nintendo have to deliver a game and expect gamers to "get it". Like a masterful filmmaker who doesn't do unnecessary frequent flashbacks because all the cues are there.

I didn't have many Nintendo systems when I was younger due to strict parenting. I did get a Gameboy but have always long for a Super NES during my childhood. While modern games strive to be cinematic and forget gameplay, Nintendo never loses sight of what's important. Some may find that old fashioned but sometimes we just need a little old fashion. Right, agent Coulson?

Sexual Awakening

Here's my perspective of the Fire Emblem series as a relative outsider - it only became popular after IS incorporated dating sim elements into the game. This proves that nothing sells a product better than a little sex appeal. Of course, it may not be true but ever since Awakening made the series a mainstream success, every time it make headlines is concerning sexual elements like censored images and gay marriages.

I wanted to play the Fire Emblem series as I developed a fondness for SRPG on handheld systems. I'm still pretty noob when it comes to RPG so real-time combat in RPG is always daunting to me. In SRPG, you take turns to fight and move the players around on the grid a bit like a chess game.

To prepare myself for Awakening, I played the last Fire Emblem game on the Wii system - Radiant Dawn. It's pretty hardcore and old school, I was playing for hours and made little progress since the early chapters as I keep failing to survive. I would love to finish that game but I'm not sure if I can without resorting to Casual mode.

When I downloaded the demo for Awakening, I was immediately  blown away by the production value of the game. Radiant Dawn on the Wii wasn't a very good looking game by any means, in fact it looked like a Gamecube game (Hello Star Fox Zero!). Speaking of the Gamecube, its amazing how games these days still get referred to as Gamecube standards, shows you how ahead of the curve that system was at the time. Anyway back to Awakening, it's hard to believe Radiant Dawn and Awakening were released back to back on two vastly different system.

IS went all out when making Awakening as they realised the series was slowly declining and that this might very well be the last Fire Emblem game. They certainly didn't held back on the production value from what I seen from the demo so far. Now if only I can finish PxZ so I can get started on this now that my copy has arrived.

Greatness in Half

Bayonetta 2 is a game that nearly never got made and you have to wonder why Sega felt lukewarm about publishing the sequel. It does feel like a lower budget game than the first game for sure, clocking in about two-thirds the length of the first Bayonetta. You could make the case that the first game was a little too long but the way Bayonetta 2 ended left me feeling like THAT WAS IT? Ok the ending was nice and wrapped the story up nicely leading to the events of the first game even if it's way too similar to DMC3 ending.

The story of Bayonetta 2 does not revolved around Cereza, her story arc was done in the first game and here she is just dragged into the thick of things. A bit like how Kiryu story was completed in the first Yakuza and every installment of Yakuza games is not really about Kiryu. I was playing Max Payne 3 recently and I didn't like how the story narrative shifts from the wealthy family Payne was protecting to human trafficking. Bayonetta 2 has the same type of narrative shift, first the story is about Cereza trying to rescue her friend Jeanne and then suddenly, it's about time travelling and trying to get to Fimbulventr. I supposed you can't expect much of a story when the game starts and ends with Bayonetta shopping in a high end district.

The fighting mechanic is very much the same as the first game except now you can use a widespread climax attack instead of one torture attack on a single enemy. It's useful when you are fighting in a big crowd especially if you don't want to waste the torture on the wrong enemy in the midst of the chaos.

Platinum Games are learning from their western counterparts, you can see them trying to create these cinematic interactive experience like the Uncharted games. When you fighting a boss sometimes the background shifts and your summoned is fighting the other summoned in the background. It's frantic and looks really good but having to juggle combos while being distracted by all this is sometimes a bit too much. Go back to the first game that is included in the packaging and you can appreciate some definite graphical improvement.

In the end this doesn't feel like a full fledged sequel to me more like, Bayonetta 1.5. All the players that made the first game great are back but constraints held this one back a bit.

Keep The Home Fires Burning

This mobile strap comes with first edition copies of Devil May Cry 3 JP Edition

The Devil and Bayo series shares this weird symbiotic relationship. They obviously have the same fanbase (me being one) but coincidentally the games never competed head on. 

The Devil series did their thing and faded away for a bit then the Bayo games came and kept the fires burning. I don't think it would be too far to say that if it wasn't for Bayonetta, DMC4SE would never have happened. 

One man that has a hand on both series is action director Yuji Shimomura. He crafted the cutscenes in both the series, making the games just as fun to watch as it is to play. Yuji started in this genre with DMC3 which is probably still his best work if you asked me. His work on the Bayonetta series has been less impressive perhaps because the Devil work were so outstanding.

I can't pick out a single impressive scene from Bayonetta 2. That creative energy that I expect from Yuji just isn't there, not sure if the story and characters just didn't suit his strengths. Bayonetta 2 felt like a lower budget game to me and considering how hard Platinum fought to make that game, I believe that to be the case. The cutscenes felt just as long as the first Bayo but less impactful, there isn't much scenes of showing off that you come to expect. 

DMC4SE new scenes looked very promising, I can't wait to see what Yuji has cooked up as it certainly looked like he found his vigor again. 

The inside of the strap has a different color depending on which character

This is for Vergil. There is also one for Dante and Lady

The Waiting Game

These days, games get released not once, not twice.... you get the drill. Lebron knows what I'm saying.

I'm talking about Game of The Year Edition, never mind the remastered and HD edition this time. 

I waited a really long time for Red Dead Redemption GOTY edition almost to the point where I forget why I wanted the game at the first place. Looking back, I wasn't very eager about this game until the Undead Nightmare DLC came about. Being a fan of all things horror, I was probably more interested in the DLC than the actual game itself so it made sense to wait it out for a complete edition. Sure I could have gotten the standalone DLC first but I always find DLC pricing too absurd for my liking. For the record, I did actually play the original Red Dead first before getting into the Undead Nightmare. 

Most of the time it's almost impossible to wait for a Complete edition if you are really eager on the game since day one. Quality DLC takes time to develop, unless it's some cheap tactic employed by a publisher to withheld finished content to release down the line. Most of the good DLC like Left Behind and RE5 felt like genuine afterthought made due to positive feedback of the original game. By the time those DLC came out, the original games were aging in dog years by gamer's standards.

I had no idea that The Evil Within was going to have DLC story content when I picked up the original game. I don't keep track of every game out there to point where I even know about games I have no intention of playing. Thankfully the main game was satisfying and pretty meaty content for a single player game. Mikami isn't one to cut back, I always thought RE4 was probably a tad bit too long for its own good. The Evil Within never overstayed its welcome, it's long but never felt draggy. The DLC added more to what was already a pretty strong content for a survival horror game. Probably good enough for me to consider double-dipping on a complete edition for The Evil Within PS4/Xbone version.

It's nice to own the complete edition of a game, having all that content in one convenient package. However, there is something cool about owning the first edition of the game. You can denied that, it's almost like a badge of honour among your geek friends.

Playing for Fun

Playing games should always be about having fun. I remember reading that the worst thing a game can do is to make you feel like you wasted your time.

I totally agree with that but unfortunately that sometimes means achievements. Or in this case, trophies.

A game can be fun but in the end if I failed to make any progress during that time I would feel like I wasted my time. Like when I’m about to power down the console and realized I didn’t make a new save file, the feeling of wasted effort comes creeping in. It could be a brutally hard action game or an adventure game with a devilish puzzle (Cing).

It could also be a second play through when I need to locate every emblem (RE) or collectible (TLoU) in the game. By then, I would need the help of a guide because I obviously couldn’t locate every bit in my first play through. The problem is the more dependent I’m on the guide, the less fun the experience becomes. I don’t play by my normal instincts anymore and the constant need to check the guide breaks any mood the game creates.

In the end, I don’t feel like I wasted my time because I achieved something. Did I have fun? Probably not as much as I would like to. 

Silently Gone

The good ole days of demo discs

Crazy things that only happen in this digital age - digital copy of demos selling at a high price.

Yes the PT debacle. 

Now I'm not going to talk about my disdain for the project but I figure the news of PS4 containing a digital copy of the demo warrants a mention. After this game was announced to be cancelled, sellers started putting their ps4 with the demo up for sale on eBay for absurd prices. 

The thing about digital files is that it multiplies each time it's copied or in this case, downloaded. That's part of the appeal for publishers to go digital, they don't have to deal with the hassle of estimating how much to print. The more they print the more cost they incur. Instead just put the digital file online and the demand will determine the distribution flow with no additional cost.

So the PT demo was available was quite a while as I remembered a certain penny-pincher talking about it more than six months ago. Its distribution easily exceeded several millions if we just estimated a percentage of the 20 million plus ps4 users downloaded it.Now it's no longer available and unless someone reserve-engineer the ps4 hardware to copy the demo, you are not likely to get it anymore. But at the end of the day, it's still just a digital file made up of nothing tangible and distributed over a million times before. Who in the right mind would pay so much for a demo of a cancelled game?

A few years ago, EA sports also cancelled their NBA Elite (a re-branding of sorts of their long running NBA Live series) game shortly before release. A demo of that game was available on PSN before the game was cancelled. The removed demo never amount to anything of value but I read that retail copies of the finished game surfaced briefly before being pulled from the stores. Now those retail copies are serious collector items which I can understand but not this digital age nonsense.

Jumping The Gun

I have a set of 5 figures but I keep coming back to these two

What's the first button you instinctively reach for when you want the character to jump?

It's usually the lowest button on the controller regardless of what system or generation, that's how buttons are normally mapped to by default. You don't go against the system especially if it's a technical action game like Devil May Cry or Bayonetta.

The first Devil May Cry game mapped the jump action to the Triangle button. That's right, it's on the highest button on the gamepad for reasons I failed to understand. The buttons also cannot be re-configured so you are basically stuck with unlearning what you learnt through years of playing these games.

Thankfully as I tend to have multiple copies of these games, I discovered that the Japanese version of Devil May Cry doesn't have this type of insane button mapping. Jump is actually mapped to the X button like how it usually is. For once, owning multiple copies of the same game actually paid off and I can put this import copy to use despite have to start all over. Or if you are not the nostalgic type, you can always pick up the HD collection as it's seems they have fixed this problem on the HD reissue.

This anniversary re-issue is actually pretty sweet, it comes with a bonus soundtrack disc and a nice new cover art. When I first bought it, I even got a bonus DVD of the wesker report and trailers for other Capcom games. Those were good times, too bad it never lasts as with all good thing.

The Crossroads

As a consumer, cross generation games have really put me in a dilemma.

On one hand, I don't want buy a new hardware to play games that I can also play on my old system.

On the other, I don't want buy an inferior version (last gen) of a game that I know will undoubtedly look better on newer consoles.

Yes the old master race. Yet I find myself buying PS3 games lately that contradicts myself. Partly some are for collection purposes which I will gladly buy the PS4 version as well. But mostly it's also because the price drop is sufficient to the point where I think it's justifiable for a last gen version. 

You see I could never understand why the pricing of cross-generation games are roughly about the same. There is no logic to that, yes it's the same product but not exactly the same quality (in terms of aesthetic not the actual quality). If the pricing was adjusted to reflected that maybe it would make things easier. Then again, nobody will upgrade their hardware if games cost less and are still available on old consoles. 

I also realised the game itself is more important winning the master race. RE4 on the Playstation 2 was a pretty inferior port but it didn't diminished the greatness of that game. Everyone had good memories of it despite the fact that the inferior port was probably the most played version. 

In the end a great game will undoubtedly a great game, everything else is just superficial. 

Unless we are talking about RE4 Iphone edition or Dead Rising Wii.

Double Dragon

Importing the Yakuza games has been a sound decision so far. I started with a late purchase of Kenzan and never looked back. At first I had doubts as I didn't want to double dip but looking at the trend, I might never had to. I finished Kenzan and RGG5 this way and was planning to start Ishin soon. Now maybe I will play Zero first.

There is one thing I didn't count on that is the online guides won't be online forever. It daunted on me when some translators took their RGG5 guides down after the English version was announced. It's a strange feeling. It's almost like owning a digital copy of the game but not having it on your HD and not knowing how long it would remain on the servers. Ishin and RGG5 aren't so bad because I still have the chinese scriptbooks but not Zero and Kenzan. It's impossible to archive the entire guide as different translators have their own way of expressing them with most using subtitled videos.I don't have the greatest memory either so it's not like I can remember every dialogue after finishing it once.

Maybe I do have the buy these games twice after all but the real question is, are there more localisation on the way?

Why So Serious?

We all know at least one in our life.

The one who overreacts and stops you when you get to spoiler territory. You know, the one who starts covering their ears and singing to themselves to avoid being spoil. Some people just take their entertainment way too serious.

I find spoilers part of the perils of being a latecomer. It doesn't bother me as much as the next guy. Sure sometimes I get disappointed when I stumbled into one but in this age, it's hard to avoid spoilers.

I found out John Marston dies at the end of Red Dead while I was still playing the GOTY edition. As you know the GOTY edition took forever to come out and I was taking my sweet time playing it. In this case, I was actually intrigued how he dies and the ending certainly didn't disappoint. There is a silver lining I guess but of course if it was really lame ending then a spoiler could quickly defused all interest.

If you really want to avoid spoilers then join the master race and be the first to play everything. Very difficult task as even when I buy a game on the first day, I still take my time and never finish it in one go. So don't blame the guy who tells you Brad Pitt is actually Edward's imaginary friend. Blame yourself for not getting around to watching it.

A Zap from the Past

Now I already pointed out that Revelations 2 is very similar to Zero in terms of gameplay. That nostalgic call back is ultimately its main downfall. 

As RE fans are aware, there are two types of RE games – the early fixed camera angle games and the RE4 styled games. Zero lets you control your both characters at the same time which works well in the early fixed camera angle games. You could separate both characters and place them in in different rooms. You determine where each character goes and does what. In that aspect, the game is light years ahead of RE5 or Revelations 2. The two characters never felt like they were attached at the hip like in the latter games.

In Revelations 2, you can’t separate the two characters and one of them is helpless but not completely unarmed. You have separate inventory for each character even though they can never be apart and one don’t actually use firearms.Online co-op would have be nice though it’s hard to imagine how much fun it is controlling a character that doesn’t fight. Using the second character to wave the flashlight around is as boring as it sounds.

Capcom wisely put the RE0 remaster on hold as they didn't want to saturate the market with another game. In retrospect they should have just remaster Zero and forget about the lame Revelations sequel. 

I Need More Controller

Devil May Cry is never far from gamers' minds despite not having a proper sequel for more than 5 years. It's a cult series for sure and cult followers expect more. Like retail copy more, I get that because I'm one of those too. DMC4 SE will be released strictly through digital distribution on current hardware. Looking back at DMC3 SE, it's unreasonable to think that Capcom would do more than distribute this on the digital medium.

This reissue looks largely the same as DMC3 SE in terms of content except it took 7 years to arrive. DMC3 SE only had a Greatest Hits cover despite being a year apart. I remember importing the japanese edition of DMC3 SE just for the new cover art. I dusted off the game to play recently after a bit of Bayonetta fatigue and the game still holds up remarkably well. Of course, it claimed the life of another dualshock2 controller but these imitation stuff never do last anyway.

Death Don't Come Cheap

The Evil Within is a pretty brutal game. The manual even warns you that death will come often and when you least expect it. I probably had a dozen retries on the prologue alone before the title sequence rolled. I would say the prologue is the weakest part of the game. It gave a really bad impression of what the game isn't actually about. 

Apart from the prologue, this isn't an unfair game and the death count can certainly be cut down. I think making the game any easier removes a lot of tension within the game. Mikami pacing and structure of the game is excellent, he creates space for tension and also the big payoff moments. It's never one element for too long , this isn't strictly a stealth game that seems to be trend after the emergence of The Last of Us.

Even the active cinematic moments that looked cool in other games but really all you are doing is just pushing a button or holding down the analog stick to run is different here. I won't spoil it but rest assured you need some skill and quick wits to survive these moments.  

Doggie Bites

As I was looking for something new to play on the Wii, it dawned on me that I have yet to finish Bully. It's been more than a year since I started as I vividly remember talking about it last CNY. After Red Dead Redemption, I was eager for more Rockstar and this was certainly more convenient since it was ported to the Wii.

I was a bit apprehension about the Wii motion controls but it wasn't as bad as I expected. It works well enough for the school classes mini-game especially the new classes introduced in the Scholarship edition. It gets tiring to waggle when engaging in fights which thankfully can be avoided sometimes. Overall the graphics looked sharp for the Wii version and loading time are not noticeably long. I was disappointed at the size and scale of Bullworth town but I guess it's not fair to expect GTA-scope.

At least I got this game done before any sequel was announced. 

So Bad That's Good

Deadly Premonition is a quirky game that I haven’t really talk about yet. I bought the game during a sale without really knowing what’s it about except it had some elements of survival horror. I ended up playing the game from start to finish and some more after that until I achieved the Platinum Trophy. Maybe it was a quiet period when I didn't have anything to distract me but that would be denying how great the game is.

Most game offers the player an escape from the real world but not many convey the feeling of discovering a town as an outsider quite like this.  This game is about special agent Morgan who visits a rural town where bizarre murder cases has occurred. It slowly introduces the player to the town and the job at hand but really goes into all of the daily grind that is usually not worth exploring in-game. Daily routines like checking into the hotel, deciding what to wear in the morning and having dinner with co-workers. Sure some games do that to superficially make their game feel longer and bigger than it actually is. Here there are some of the best bits of the game.

The action elements in the game is your standard RE4 shooting affair but the framerate is much too choppy to enjoy any of it. It's pretty bad to the point I would consider it a deal breaker if it wasn't for everything else the game did right. The adventure element, the quirky characters and voice-casting are what made the game so memorable. Removing the action sequence would have turned this into an all-time classic but this is the sort of  'so bad that's good' kind of game. Perfection won't have fit it as well as the final product it turned out to be.

Collector Sense

When debating about whether a Collector Edition is worth the extra dollars, even the most diehard fan will have a hard time rationalizing. To the casual observer, the extra content looks like a bunch of useless trinkets unless it's something practical. I have bought my fair share of CE and while some were great and some not so great, I don't really look at them that way.

I tend to spend on CE the same way one is willing to spend a little extra on a lavish meal on their birthday or anniversary. That lavish meal is never going to be worth the money but when you are in the mood during a special occasion, the purse just feels a bit looser. I feel that way with a highly anticipated game, it's a bit more special than the average game so spending more is ok. Sure once in a while but not every game, that would be like eating a lavish meal every day. 

The Art of Remastering

Bayonetta Wii U and Resident Evil HD are two recent high-profile ports that really show you the different philosophy adopted by its publishers/developers.

Nintendo could have easily slap a Definitive Edition label to Bayonetta and charge $30 for the port but instead they decided to bundle the game free with every purchase of the sequel.

Of course, Capcom is infamous for making a quick buck off everything they can find in their vault so no one was expecting them to give RE HD away for free. 

The issue here is the level of effort put into the port and despite charging for RE HD, Capcom's effort on RE HD remains subpar as usual. Early on Capcom announced that Chris and Jill BSAA costumes will be new additions to the HD Remaster. The logical assumption would be to have the young Chris and Jill wearing the BSAA costumes of their older counterparts. That would be the ideal case except it required a lot more work than simply pulling the BSAA models from the RE5 DLC and sticking it in HD remaster. Which of course, Capcom did so in the end. 

I wasn't very surprised with Capcom's efforts on RE HD Remaster but I was surprised with what Nintendo and Platinum Games did on Bayonetta Wii U. Now when the Bayonetta port was announced, the Nintendo costume were highly publicized and were directly supervised by original director, Hideki Kamiya. Recently, the concept artist revealed sketches of the costumes on Platinum Games blog and divulged that Kamiya insisted small details like the Samus suit had to be the classic original from the NES Metroid. 

Nintendo and Platinum games did a fine job on the Nintendo themed costumes. If they had delivered just a steady port with no additional costumes, a lot of gamers would have been more than satisfied. What I didn't expect was that these concept drawings also made their way into the bonus gallery after you completed the game. Clearly one publisher went the extra mile with the small details while the other was quick to call it a day. 

Labels like Remaster really don't mean all that much anymore and in the end, you got to walk the talk or risk becoming easy target for obsessive fanboys. Sure Capcom are patting themselves on the back because RE HD broke all sorts of digital sale records while Bayonetta 2 probably sold a criminally obscene amount. But passionate gamers care and so do passionate developers, some of which used to work in Capcom and are now working in Platinum Games.

Pretty Ballerina

Sometimes I get the urge to boot up an old game and the beautiful thing about that is I never have to feel guilty about not finishing it if I do. After all, I probably finished that game several times already so if the itch isn't there anymore I will just leave it be.

PN03 was an obvious choice this time, I looked back fondly at the Gamecube library of games and realised that slowly one by one of its exclusives are slowly being remastered for new platforms. Probably not this one though, Capcom sees no commercial value in remastering this game and it will probably stay one of the last surviving Gamecube exclusives.

It's a pretty short game that you can simply blast through on a lazy Sunday afternoon but of course, I still took several weeks to finish the game. When playing it again, it occurs to me that Vanessa's Aegis suits are no different apart from the color change. There are like a dozen different Aegis Suits that you can use in the game and one doesn't feel any different from the other - aesthetic wise or functionality wise.

Another thing that also occurred to me when reflecting on Mikami's body of work is the man has a serious fetish for woman's posterior. Well, I will just leave it at that for now.

What A Revelation

When playing Revelations 2, I knew it was going to be a very nostalgic game and so far the quiet nods to the series past games hasn't been as cringe-worthy as say, Resident Evil 6. But I was surprised that the game resembles Resident Evil Zero the most as you can zap between the two characters just like Zero. I always thought that the character zapping mechanics from RE Zero was a relic from the past, made redundant now that games have advanced to the point where you can have a second player play together. Certainly Capcom must have other ideas about this or simply couldn't be bothered to rework the game engine around to include online co-op.

The game looks almost exactly like Revelations HD and it's pretty sad because past RE games are usually heralded for it's cutting edge graphics. The first Revelations was able to push the boundaries of what was thought impossible for the 3DS system and now Revelations 2 looks remarkably less impressive than RE5 or RE6. The series deserved better and certainly so do the long time fans but it's hard to see a resurgence with the exodus of talent Capcom experienced over the years.

The Content Within

Back in the day all video games come with manuals but these days with the emergence of digital distribution most retail copies don't carry manuals anymore. I remember during the PS2 generation, Nintendo's Gamecube had the best manuals - full color and printed on heavy paper stock, a really incentive to pick the Gamecube version over the others. Now Nintendo has gone cheap, the manuals are no longer printed and worse, the Club Nintendo codes are printed on the back of the cover art! I always thought the back of the cover art is meant for a nice alternate cover but I guess Nintendo had other ideas.

The Evil Within is certainly not as bad as most recent games, it comes with a nice double-sided cover and full color manual. Of course the most important content is the game itself and so far, the game is pretty amazing. The game performance came under fire upon release due to its technical issues but so far I haven't encounter anything I would consider a deal-breaker. In fact, I was so absorbed playing this game that it's hard for me to pay any attention to Revelations 2 which has turned out to be a bit lackluster in my opinion. 

Forgotten Wolf

One of the first games I finished this year was The Legend of Zelda: The Twilight Princess. I felt like playing and finishing this Zelda game was a grand adventure itself.

First of all, I owned a Gamecube copy of the game and while my Wii is completely compatible with Gamecube, it's much more convenient playing the Wii version. That saves me the trouble of hooking up a Gamecube controller and memory card but more importantly, it tracks my playing time on.  So long story short, I was finally able to play the Wii version once I started running roms on the hard drive.

I loved my first Zelda console game The Wind Waker but there is no denying that The Twilight Princess is the better game. The Wii controls integrated into the game late in the development are a mixed bag for me while it's certainly useful when aiming in first person view, the use of Wii controls during combat feels tiring and cumbersome.

What really separates this game from the the Wind Waker were the dungeons, the staple of all Zelda games. The dungeons in the Twilight Princess were simply epic and really make you use each and every tool that you acquired throughout the game. There were a lot of the dungeons featured in this game and each of the dungeon were designed differently so it never felt like more of the same thing. 

I always thought that each of the recent Zelda game has a very clear theme, the Wind Waker was an experience set in the sea while Skyward Sword was obviously an adventure set in the sky. So where does that leaves The Twilight Princess? Well, The Twillight Princess covers all grounds, there was a dungeon buried deep beneath the sea and the last dungeon takes Link all the way up to the skies. Now I can't imagine playing the Skyward Sword and being confined to an adventure in the sky. 

Some fans complained that in between all of these impressive dungeons is a barren wasteland which offer little or not much to do. That's true but complaining about that is sort of missing the point, after all the dungeons are what most fans paid money to play and here they are scarily good. 

Crossing That Line

Who can complain of more Valkyria Chronicles 3 on the 3DS?

Project X is one of those guilty pleasure games, it’s not an excellent game by any means but certainly very addictive and fun. The crossover theme seems to be a common fad in Japanese modern games and here it’s demonstrated to great effect as classic characters from mega franchises come together for one big team-up mash. The chemistry between all these different characters is the highlight of the game, never mind the fact the story makes no sense and it’s just an excuse to pile as many characters together as possible.  I was surprised by the level of detail as the amount of voiceover work is extensive and the characters are all voiced by the original voice actors (from what I can tell with the Valkyria Chronicles 3). Each fixed pair of characters can be assisted by a third party member and I often mixed up each pair with a new character just to see what silly banter they throw at each other.

The game is a strategy RPG but there are action elements thrown on that allows you to string together combo attacks. Basically it’s a bit like the first Devil May Cry game where you juggle the enemy in the air but here it’s all about the timing of the buttons to keep the combo going as long as possible. The animation and 3D effects when you unleash the special attack is simply awesome, no matter how many times you seen it. It’s high unlikely to know every character in the game but there is a useful crosspedia to help you catch up to speed with them and the universe. I started playing Sakura Wars on the PS2 after being introduced to the Gemini character and that’s the beauty of the game, you learn more of other game series.

The game has a repetitive and predictable structure but somehow I'm always drawn back by the familiar characters, theme music and before I know it, another hour has passed. I guess that’s what it means by having fun.