G-pinions

We've discussed Okami briefly before (third entry that day), but the Japanese trailer for it just posted over at GameTrailers tells me that it needs more attention paid to it. Despite the fact that it's not necessarily even coming out stateside (though I think it will, due to it's pedigree), I'm more than ever to play this gorgeous, unique game. Well, I'm assuming it's unique; you play as Ama Terasu the sun god, come down to earth to bring life and color to an otherwise boring world (by defeating enemies and such). IGN gave a little description of two of the revealed enemies, Ama no Jyaku and the Nue. "Ama no Jyaku has the ability to peep on what others are thinking and disturbs them by doing the opposite of what they want. Nue, meanwhile, gains strength with every sip of the alcohol that he carries with him." So yeah, I think it's safe to say the gameplay will be unique. And even if the stars align oddly and I turn out to be wrong, the graphical approach is wholly original, and looking amazing. If for whatever reason you're too stupid or lazy or technologically inept to watch the video which I linked to above, I'll give you the lowdown - it looks like a watercolor painting, no joke. This isn't cel-shading or toon shading or any horse shit like that (however nice some of that might look) - this is art. And really, I'd expect nothing less from Shinji Mikami (Resident Evil), Hideki Kamiya (Devil May Cry), and Atsushi Inaba (Viewtiful Joe and Steel Battalion), who all hooked up earlier this year to found Clover Studio, the developer behind Okami (and VJ2). Keep a keen artsy eye open for this one.

Next in the saga of G-pinions' favorite-game-neither-of-us-have-played-but-are-both-dying-to, Katamari Damacy, some news - apparently the game will be released at a lusciously cheap $19.99 price point. Not too surprising considering the subject matter, but sweet nonetheless.

Lastly, I'm glad to see that they're finally making Psi-Ops and Second Sight into a movie. And with Ben "I won an Oscar for Species through a loophole" Kingsley, no less!

Just a day after officially relieving the redesign of the Nintendo DS and once and for all nailing down the name of their product, Nintendo has started their ad campaign for the little handheld you can control with a Q Tip:




Ah, if only Nintendo had that sense of humor. That is clearly a fake, but made me laugh hard enough I attempted to pass it off as legitimate news. While those other sites give you all the news that’s fit to print, we offer up a nice selection of both real and fictional news that leaves readers with a sense of optimism those truthful places just can’t offer.

In other news, NFL2K5 has completely taken over my life. I am currently typing this with my feet as I attempt to kick a 50 yard field goal. If I make this I go up by an even 33 points. I must be playing someone better than Brendan, shocking as that may seem.

I had every intention of writing about my exploits in the greatest football game ever, but got tired at the thought of it. I will have to compose some sort of 5 part series on NFL2K5 as it is the only way I could cover every amazing aspect of this game.

Moving on to other news – EA has further cemented themselves as the most evil company in all the land. They just announced today that they have purchased little known Criterion. I had never heard of them before today, but apparently they are in charged of the much loved Burnout series. This announcement comes only days after EA announced a strategic partnership with Crytek, the developers of the critically acclaimed FarCry first person shooter released for the PC earlier this year.

While it may seem hypocritical to piss on EA for buying developers while I look away when Microsoft or Nintendo does the same thing, I feel I have some right to do this. First of all, EA is more evil than Tonya Harding with a shotgun. But, most importantly, EA just buys any good PC developer and any console developer they can get their hands on. They already bought and ruined Westwood and Maxis (what self respecting gamer plays the Sims anyway), are they going to run the beloved Burnout series into the ground as well?

The reason why everyone should be upset about this is complete lack of competition. You may like EA and their games, but, as EA grows larger and purchases more developers, there is less and less competition in the world. Crytek created one of the most amazing game engines available on the PC for FarCry, a game many gamers loved. And now, with just a flick of their check writing wrist, EA has purchased the rights to this technology.

You may not see a problem with this, but the idea that EA is in charge of some of the best technology in gaming is a scary idea indeed. Whereas Microsoft is trying to help the gaming community as a whole by building the XNA engine, EA is hording developers to turn the industry into a one publisher monopoly. Think about it in terms of sports. It’s hard to get upset at an owner who shells out money for the best players. He clearly wants to build a championship team more than anything else in life. But, as he spends more and more money to assemble this unbeatable super team, the sport suffers because no one else is able to compete with them. No one else can spend as much money as they can. Sure, the owner has every right to spend his money and fans of the team are obviously happy, but everyone is losing because there is no more competition.

I’m sad now… if only I had a super great football game to cheer me up….


NICK'S DISAGREEMENT WITH THIS:
(Mc Shea - I figured we should just keep arguments/discussions within the same post, if you don't like the idea I can make it it's own post)

It's been said before, but I'll say it again - Tom, you ignorant slut. First, before I get into another boring EA argument no one wants to read, let me learn you a thing or two about Criterion. They are not "little known"; any gamer worth his weight in great football games knows that they're responsible for developing RenderWare, the software/studio kit, or 'engine' as some would call it, that powers roughly a quarter of all games on the market (now listen up kids...). Sega, UbiSoft, Rockstar, Midway, Konami, Sammy, Sony, SOE, Lionhead, Activision, Atari, THQ and EA are just some of the companies that use RenderWare extensively to power everything from Grand Theft Auto to NBA Ballers to Spongebob Squarepants: Battle for Bikini Bottom. You slut. They might have only made a handful of games themselves, but without their middleware many of our games would look and play a whole lot uglier. Plus, they're developing Black, the apparent "everything-killer". Recognize.

Now that I'm done educating, I'm ready for a good ol' fashioned EA argument. Look. You're missing the main difference between EA buying a company and Microsoft/Nintendo/Sony buying one. When one of the big three does it, it's to have exclusive publishing rights - always, every time. They are buying a name, or a brand or line of products people are familiar with and enjoy, or someone who they feel can earn them an even better name in the marketplace with their games. Nothing more. It's adding weapons to your arsenal, and you, as a self-professed capitalist, understand that I'm sure. When EA buys a company, they're looking to make money, and they're not picky about whose money they take. Almost all of their games are brought to every platform. The upside of this? They can put a ton of money back into game development - since they're not catering to a particular system or demographic, their only goal is to make the most kick-ass games possible, to uphold their reputation. And with enough money and marketing backing 5-star companies like Oddworld Inhabitants and Criterion, the possibilities are amazing. They're expanding their tastes, and we'll get better games because of it. All they do is add money to a project, and make sure to reap the rewards. This way developers can do what they want (or even, more than they had hoped for thanks to the financial backing), while EA builds an even more quality name for themselves.

Why is a "strategic partnership" (read: they make games for EA now, capiche?) with Crytek a bad thing? This assures not only that FarCry: Instincts won't suck, but that they'll have the resources to be more than a one-trick pony, and keep their name out there. And they didn't ruin Westwood or Maxis, I dunno where you got that from. Westwood have been doing what they've always done - release a few decent-to-great C&C games, and a few other random underappreciated things. And you might not like Sim City or the Sims, but they're as popular as ever and Maxis would have obviously been doing what they're doing (in fact, almost definitely less), EA or no EA.

And here's the difference between a sports team manager buying up all the talent and a game publisher doing it - I'd be more than happy to be able to play ten great third-party games a year, even if that was every one released. Monopolies can ruin industries, no doubt, but it hasn't been going that way with videogames so far. Why do you think ESPN NFL 2K5 is so awesome? Nothing like a little competition, eh?

In the end, it comes down to this: If I can regularly play games like Burnout 3, The Stranger, and Timesplitters 3, I'll be completely content. And if my money can go back into development of games of that caliber (assumed caliber, obviously, but I'd bet my cat those all turn out as good as they look), fine by me.

Out with the old.



And in with the sexy.

The final name is the Nintendo DS, and yes, it looks like a GBA SP knocked up a PSP.

Apparently Tom is too enraptured with ESPN NFL 2K5 to update (understandably), so I'll do the honors. Not too much news on the digital entertainment frontier, so I figure I'll just rant about a games or two.

First off, X-Men Legends is going to rule more than even I previously thought, for two reasons: 4-player co-op, and "classic" missions. Few games sport co-op of this extent (Gauntlet, and...?), and I'm looking forward to tearing up some sentinels with Dan, Ben and possibly Tom more than most things. I obviously have dibs on Wolverine. The meat of the game is a bit like Norrath, only with more combo attacks, bosses, team-ups, strategy, characters, puzzles, and, I can assume, fun (don't get me wrong, Norrath kicked ass, but this license alone can't be beat). Each character has a handful of their powers, so the experience differs greatly depending on who you're playing as. I figure a team of Wolvie, Nightcrawler, Colossus and Forge can't be defeated, but we'll see. And as far as the "classic" missions, well, they're basically individual missions based on various famous X-Men battles (Juggernaut attacking the mansion, etc.), and you get to wear the era-appropriate costumes for each. This kind of thing makes a fanboy like myself weep openly with joy.

Did anyone else see PSM's "PS2's 5 Next Mega-Hits" feature this month? God of War, Destroy All Humans!, Mercenaries, Area 51, and Viewtiful Joe 2. I'd just like to point out that I've been talking about how good those first four games look for months; I'm glad the mainstream gaming media is taking notice, because our scope of influence is fairly limited.

Man, you know what game I'm not looking forward to? Prince of Persia 2. I mean, of course I'll play it through when it comes out, but I have several reasons to be suspect of it's quality, especially in relation to the first game. First off, they seem to be spending a ton of time on making the fighting engine better - making the attacks flow into the acrobatics, adding lots of gore, making the combat combo-heavy, etc. Does anyone else think this will lead to a much more combat-centered game? The first game had a perfect balance of exploring and combat, the fighting just kind of sucked after the first few fights. The fights might be a whole lot more fun this time around, but I have a billion other games to get my fighting fix from - I want to swing through rafters, backflip off of walls, and run over spike pits with the greatest of ease. Take a look at the video I linked to above; the levels are looking gorgeous, but they don't look very platform-plentiful, do they? I also don't approve of the dark, edgy, 'I'm a badass in the sequel' look for the prince. It's been way overdone in games (ahem, Jak 2), and I just don't think it fits the PoP universe well. Add all that to the fact that the game will have had roughly a year-long development cycle when it's released (unless it gets delayed, which I'm hoping for). That's fine for a game like Ratchet & Clank, where they spend all their time on level, gadget and game design, since the engine is so solid and only needs minor tweaks with each iteration. With PoP2, it seems the majority of the work so far is going into the basic engine, which would seem to leave little time for more of the ingenious puzzle design we saw in the first game. After all, that one was in development for what, three years plus? I hope like hell that I'm wrong about all this, but I figured I'd get my concerns out of the way now, before they reveal some kickass footage to get me excited about it again.