Boy Cried Wolf

Being a metal gear fan who have lost interest in the series after MGS4, i haven't been keeping up to date with the development of Peace Walker the folllow-up to Portable Ops that's set to be release on PSP this May. Now with the release just months away, i'm only beginning to catch up with what's the game all about since i do have a Sony PSP gathering dust at one corner.

The marketing advert are proclaiming this to be the first true Hideo Kojima game on the PSP and while they are pretty accurate with the statement, this actually isn't the first time they have said such a thing. Portable Ops was also hailed as the first Hideo Kojima Game on the PSP when it came out which most fans knew wasn't entirely true as kojima only wrote and produced that game. This was because the earlier two Metal Gear Acid! game were not part of the Metal Gear canon and had little to no involvement from kojima though it isn't to say that they were terrible games. While i understand that Hideo Kojima name is a big sell among Sony gamers, you kinda get the feeling of boy cried wolf here and maybe, just maybe kojima fans has left the dire portable in search of other thrills. Let's hope there is still enough of an audience on the platform to meet the expectations.

Order of the Day

I don't usually pre-order games aside from limited edition, the last being metal gear portable ops. However playing symphony of the night has got me all worked up that i decided to pre-order Order of Ecclesia from Play-Asia. After all, Castlevania games are notorious for having a low print run and tend to disppear off the shelf pretty quickly upon release.

I haven't decided yet whether i will play it as soon as i get it, seeing that i have yet to play Portrait of Ruins.

Ashes to ashes

I was really looking forward to Metal Gear Solid Digital Graphic Novel 2 especially after Konami reveal that it will come with full-voiceovers accompanying the art. Somewhere along the way, Konami decided to release the game on DVD instead of coming exclusively to PSP and its release was coincided with the worldwide release of Metal Gear Solid 4, probably their last chance to release it since interest in Metal Gear is sure to drop after that.While i was a little disappointed that it's no longer on the PSP, i was quite relieved to learn that the voice bubble accompanying the voiceovers will still be retained in its original english form thereby enabling non-japanese speaking audience to understand the plot. Well it is certainly a rare occasion as never in Metal Gear history has there been such an import-friendly japanese release which retains it's original japanese voices while still being accessible to non-japanese speaking fans.

After getting seduced by Ashley Wood's artwork again on my second run through Portable Ops, i decided to finally purchase it. After all, there probably won't be any big Metal Gear release for a while so this will probably be kojima's last chance at getting my money. If only the DVD is not region locked so i could watch it on my Playstation3....

Portable Ops Speed-Run

Again, not much of a speed run seeing that i took over ten hours to finish and i actually skipped all the side missions and only played the key plot missions. I think it's partly due to boss fights as i spent quite some time figuring out their attacks as i have forgotten most of the strategy to defeating them.

Difficulty : Normal
Play time : 12' 56"
Times Saved : 24
Restart : 95
Times Alert mode Triggered: 98 times
Humans killed : 30
Comrades secured : 8
Comrades killed : 26
Rank : RABBIT

I think i better stop lollygagging around and really get started on Metal Gear Solid 4 because i don't know how long more i can keep up surfing the internet without running into spoilers. Granted, anyone with an interest in Metal Gear and have the means to play it would have at least started by now and i really don't know why i'm still prolonging it. Perhaps it's partly due to my friends who are also in no hurry to get started because they are still busy with GTAIV. While i admire their patience and resistance, i will surely kick myself if i were to discover any more spoilers before playing the game.

Touch of a Ninja

Ninja Gaiden fans have been taken on a whirlwind ride lately what with Itagaki announcing that he was leaving Tecmo just days before Ninja Gaiden 2 shipped for the XBOX360. Perhaps he felt that he was betrayed when Tecmo failed to honour their end of the deal over work done for Dead or Alive 4, and the only option left was to leave. Itagaki sure is one of the most eccentric game developer you will find in the japanese game industry, he speaks what's on his mind and isn't afraid to talk down on any games he feels is inferior, sometimes at expense of enraging other fans. Now his brash outspoken ways certainly isn't very much part of the often reserved japanese culture but it makes him far more entertaining than most average game developers. I have yet to play any of his games and i'm afraid i may never will seeing his dislike for the Playstation platform, i lost interest in Ninja Gaiden Sigma when he started bashing his own game as well.

Fortunately he was kind enough to grace the Nintendo DS with another one of his labour of love, Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword a welcome addition to the DS seeing how few action games are there on the platform. Playing Dragon Sword is unlike any other action game on the Nintendo DS but in essence it's just like any action game which require a quick trigger finger and plenty of button mashing. The button mashing this time, comes in the form of swiping the stylus across the touch screen as an array of moves can be accomplished depending on how the lines are drawn. It's a neat idea i'll give you that but because of how small the DS screen is, most of the subtle moves ends up registering as just mindless slashing across the screen. This is one area where it looks like Team Ninja's ambition are too big for Nintendo's handheld but given how few action games actually manage to succeed on handhelds, this is still an amazing achievement.

The highlight of the game are the artwork depicting the story of the game, in a similar fashion to Konami's Portable Ops minus the voiceovers. It's rare to find artwork in modern games these days let alone good ones.

Born From A Wish

If you happened to play Konami's Silent Hill Zero on your PSP you will notice a slightly amusing disclaimer right before the start menu, one that suggest that this game is designed to be played in the dark with your headphones on. For all intents and purposes, the game does manage to be a lot scarier when it is played that way but it also begs the question, when did handheld cease being portable? Well it all started with Sony making a brave foray into the handheld market with their Sony PSP. The approach was very clear right from the start, a handheld that is able to provide a console experience on the go. Well, Sony certainly packed a lot of horsepower under that PSP hood because the PSP still continues to amaze me with what it can do even three years after it's launch.

Silent Hill Zero does more justice to the series than Portable Ops did for Metal Gear, you don't get the sense of any compromise being made because it's a handheld game, the series' famed meticulous art style is still prevalent throughtout the game and the soundtrack is just awesome, albeit a bit familiar. I finished both this game and Umbrella Chronicles yesterday and came off wishing Umbrella Chronicles could be more like Origins and thoroughly surprised by the level of polish in this handheld title. It just goes to shows you can really revitalize a series by injecting new talents, possibly the reason why Konami decided to go with a different development team in Silent Hill 5. Sure the back-tracking and puzzle elements feel archaic by today's gaming standards but Origins had a good sense of storytelling which just improve and adds to the series mythos of the mysterious town. This is probably the last time you will get to play Silent Hill in its' traditional style as Silent Hill 5 is surely to reboot and reinvent the series in unimaginable ways.... so what are you waiting for?