Green with Envy

I was out yesterday catching the new Hulk movie which i have been waiting forever to be released ever since they casted Edward Norton and Liv Tyler. While I was shopping with my friends who were eager to get the new Metal Gear Solid 4, I happened to pick up a game of my own.

It was something i have been looking for quite a while and after seeing it lying in this particular store's shelf gathering dust i just had to rescue it and add it to my collection. Granted, it's not a legitimate copy and I probably won't get to play it until I visit my uncle's place and borrow my cousins' GBA but it's still a cool find nonetheless.

The only Gameboy Color game in my collection right now and it will sit very nicely alongside with my original Gameboy games collection. The only question is how long will the battery backed-up save last?

So what's next? Metal Gear: Ghost Babel? The search continues...

Bundled Excitement

My anticipation for the 80GB Metal Gear bundle has reached a fever pitch now, i don't know if it's the console i'm excited about or the game, perhaps a bit of both but i'm unable to concentrate on any other game now. Okami and my Nintendo Wii has been sitting cold for a bit now and i wonder if i will even get around to finishing Okami before it gets here next week.

It would be just nice if that were the case but i would need to dedicate some serious long hours into it right now. I still have Portable Ops and Snake Eater to re-run through but fortunately there is a demo theater included in Subsistence to access the cutscenes. Which will it be, Okami or Snake Eater?

Sound of the Inevitable

How much is a soundtrack disc worth? Quite a lot in this case, apparently local asian forumers are tearing up a storm over the fact that the region 3 Metal Gear Solid 4 Limited Edition will not include the bonus soundtrack disc like the US Gamestop exclusive. While i myself am sore over it too, it's not like i didn't see it coming. I have never really been a fan of region3/asian release of games, i find them cheap and practically worthless in my eyes nor do i care about supporting the local gaming community like some others. I think it's a mere illusion that purchasing an asian release will help drive up the sales of games in this region and encourage publishers to do more regionally release, after all most of these asian releases are meant for the Hong Kong market anyway. Nor do i have much of a choice in this case, seeing that I don't have access to ordering the exclusive limited edition from Gamestop and i'm not planning to go out of my way to acquire it.

I remember a similar scenario occurring when i pre-ordered the konamistyle edition of Castlevania Dracula X Chornicles only to later discover that the "complete" version should contain the soundtrack disc as well. Major bumper as i have always been a fan of Castlevania music but ultimately i bought the soundtrack separately and ended up with the complete collection anyway. Now that this has happened with the Metal Gear Limited Edition, i have to make some changes and formulate a plan to make the most out of it. I intend to sell the R3 version of the game included in the Limited Edition package as i'm not much of an online gamer anyway and keep the R1 version of the game that comes with the console bundle.

And of course, the bonus blu-ray from the Limited Edition.....hehe

Now i can put the R1 game together with the R3 bonus blu-ray disc and have my ideal collection. I just need to get hold of the soundtrack disc somehow...

Dark Secret

The secret is out....well, it has been speculated for some time now that Castlevania was heading for the Wii console when leaked pictures of the new Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia game menu featured a link-up with the Wii console. During then, Order of Ecclesia wasn't officially announced yet so no one had a chance to grill IGA on this but now that he is currently promoting the new Castlevania DS, he still denies any truth about Castlevania heading to the Wii.

Apparently comic book specialist, Preview were the ones to leak the news in their preview of the upcoming Curse of Darkness comic adaption so i'm not sure how credible this rumour may be. The thought of two Castlevania games been released before the end of 2008 does seem too good to be true but seeing how disappointed i'm over Captivate 08, this certainly is good news rumour or not.

Sons of Liberty Speed-run

OK i admit, 10 hours isn't much of a speed-run, the whole point of me doing this was to get a better grip of the plotline for MGS2 and five years later, it still make no sense as it did then.

Play time : 11' 01" 18
Save : 15 times
Continue : 28 times
Alert mode: 13 times
Persons : 58 killed
Ration : 40 used

I heard kojima manage to tie up most of the loose ends in MGS2 pretty well in MGS4, let's just hope so.

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.

Lost for words

In the wake of Capcom's disappointing showing of quality Wii software during Captivate 08, i have started looking at possible PS3 titles that might interested me instead.

While MGS4 and DMC4 are sure to keep me occupied once i get my hardware, the truth is there are other titles that i would rather play first before moving on to those. Top on my list would be Lost Planet, a Capcom action adventure game that was ported from the XBOX360. The port received its' fair share of flak for not taking advantage of the delay and PS3 hardware in improving the visual and experience but despite all that, i would still very much want to play that game. I remember Onimusha being the first game i ever played on my PS2 and to me, Lost Planet is very much the Onimusha of PS3. Both games were produced by the father of Megaman, keiji inafune and featured the likeness of an asian celebrity, in this case lee byung hun.

Also playing a new game is always more rewarding than sequel, though sequels have their own charms as well. But unfortunately with the MGS4 release only days away and my hardware arriving bundled together with the game, it looks like i may very well have to play MGS4 first to keep up with my friends.


Looks like my encounter with the lovely Luka will just have to wait...