your name is written in the stars

new blog

Thu, 27 Mar 2008 01:41:29 GMT

It's been fun, but I'm in the market for a redesign of my blog. Pretty soon, I'll be moving it to my own webspace, and adapting the format a little to cover a slightly broader ranger of subjects (in order to better accommodate more of my friends and family). I'll still be posting a plethora of gaming news, but it'll be dispersed between posts about movies, japanese pop culture events, trials and tribulations of the japanese language, and my continuing effort to define my artistic style.

So, until that happens, posting on here will probably be slow, because most of my efforts will be focused on getting my own website launched.

Mariokart Wii GP to be single player only?

Wed, 26 Mar 2008 16:34:03 GMT

According to the newest Nintendo Podcast, Mariokart Wii will feature a single player only GP mode, with multiplayer being restricted to battle and VS modes. I'm hoping that the standard VS mode is just a different version of the GP, allowing you to race courses against your friend(s) with CPUs still participating. It doesn't really make sense for them to remove multiplayer from GP mode, though. Unless I'm mistaken (and I don't have any of my Mario Kart games with me to verify), multiplayer has been implemented into the GP mode since the original Mario Kart on SNES.

On the upside, Mario Kart is Mario Kart, and there's no way to suck the fun out of it!

Read More.

Wii Rockband fails to impress

Wed, 26 Mar 2008 02:39:01 GMT

Update: It appears that Rock Band Wii will also lack online play. Possible explanations given were that your rockitude levels were too badass for the Wii's hardware.

Harmonix announced Rock Band for the Wii! Fanfare and trumpets! You can get your rock on come June 22nd, with a special edition package set to include drums, a guitar, and a mic for $170. The game will ship with 63 songs in the tracklist, and of course will feature the option to download weekly content. Wait, that's what would have made sense. Oops, I got a little carried away, there. The game will feature no downloadable content, no mii support, will NOT support the wiimote integrated into instruments (which means you can't use your GH3 controller), and no character creation. The Band World Tour mode hasn't been commented on, but since it was said to have a similar feature set as the PS2 version of Rockband, I wouldn't count on it. All the instruments (except for the guitar) will be wired, and it will ship with a USB Hub. So.. uh.. get your rock on, I guess. Read More.

In other news, my PC is up and running, and it's a behemoth now. Although my wallet is a little hurt because of it.

Small Update

Fri, 21 Mar 2008 03:43:36 GMT

I don't have a PC right now (my graphics card finally blew, new parts should be here tomorrow), so that's why I've missed a lot of big news. But until I get my trusty PC back on its feet, news on the blogline might be a little slow.

However, I couldn't pass up posting the sweet, sweet info that a new Valkyrie Profile is in the works, and this time, it's for the DS! Read More.

Also, Guitar Hero DS finally surfaces. It looks awkward and uncomfortable. Read More.

Bioshocked

Sat, 15 Mar 2008 21:50:39 GMT

Sorry for not posting this tidbit sooner, but I'm still playing catch-up from getting a little sidetracked. Bioshock 2 has been confirmed, as well as given a tentative release date of October '09. Read More.

Capcom pushes the limits

Sat, 15 Mar 2008 02:00:15 GMT

Microsoft agreed to extend the file size limit they have artificially imposed on all XBOX Live developers (previously 150MB) for Capcom. Two of Capcom's highly anticipated XBOX Live projects--Super Street Fighter Turbo II HD and Bionic Commando Rearmed--will be allowed to exceed the limit in order to give gamers all of the bang for their buck. Don't get too excited about this carving a path for other developers, though, it's likely the only reason this pardon was given to Capcom was because the same games are being released for the Playstation Network, and Microsoft didn't want to get the short end of the stick. Read More.

No Posts != No News

Fri, 14 Mar 2008 21:24:20 GMT

Sorry for the lack of posting! Meg's arrived, so most of my time has been spent watching Family Guy re-runs and cooking.

But, on to what has transpired:

Rumors surfaced that Microsoft was in talks with Sony about supporting Blu-Ray in "all facets of their business", which people took to mean Windows and the XBOX 360. Subsequently, Microsoft announced that there were no plans to integrate Blu-Ray into the 360. PS3 owners rejoiced, 360 fans either cried or remained indifferent.
Square Enix (that's the first time I've ever referred to them as anything but Squaresoft) had a new title pop up on the ESRB ratings for the Virtual Console. What is it? King's Knight! The wacky medieval-themed vertical shooter from the NES days. This is a game that's so bad, it's good. Especially with a score by Nobuo Uematsu. Read More.
Downloadable Content for Burnout Paradise was also announced. Not only will it be packing a hefty dose of new cars and new islands to explore (accessed via bridges leading off of Paradise Island), but it will also cost approximately $0. That translates to 0￥ for all of your people overseas. Read More.
And, just because I love it, here is the newest trailer for Valkyrie Chronicles (Valkyrie of the Battlefield). Remember, it's coming to America, so if you own a PS3, you have no reason not to buy it. Watch the Trailer.

Do you still own a Dreamcast?

Sun, 09 Mar 2008 19:05:06 GMT

If the answer is yes (which it should be), navigate on over to www.Dreamcast.com and be rewarded for your loyalty to the greatest console of all time. Sega is offering up free e-mail accounts (blahblah@user.dreamcast.com) to anyone who can register their Dreamcast's serial number on the website. It appears to be down from high traffic right now, but keep on refreshing the page, because this is just too odd to pass up!

Super Smash Brothers: BRAWL

Sun, 09 Mar 2008 01:43:14 GMT

Just a friendly reminder that at most of your friendly neighborhood Gamestop/EB Games locations, you can pick up Super Smash Brothers: BRAWL tonight at midnight. So dust off your Wii's, and get your wavebirds ready, folks, because it's going to be a long spring break. Unless you're like me, and you are pathetically broke. In which case you can just keep pretending the game isn't out yet, so you don't get wracked with fits of depression.

In other news, I might apply for an internship with Nippon Ichi (the lovely people behind Disgaea) over the summer. They have a job listing open I could apply for, but since I'm not graduating until the winter, that is kind of off limits. Here's hoping I'll be spending the summer in sunny Santa Ana, though.

More Disgaea DS News

Sat, 08 Mar 2008 06:30:24 GMT

Disgaea DS will be coming out this Summer, and it will be a port of Disgaea: Afternoon of Darkness for the PSP. That means it will include the additional Etna Mode content! Huzzah! Also, the top screen will be a grid so you can better position your units. Which basically boils down to being totally and completely useless. Here's hoping they allow you to use it as a status screen for selected units or something like that, since that would actually be useful. Read More.

Disgaea DS confirmed

Wed, 05 Mar 2008 22:21:38 GMT

This week's issue of Famitsu confirmed that Disgaea would indeed be making its debut on the DS in the future. The title (roughly translated to "The Prince of the Demon World and the Red Moon") hints that it'll probably star Laharl. With that in mind, the only question that needs answered is if it's a port of the original Disgaea with new content, or an all new adventure. Either way, we already know it will be awesome, and everyone should buy it as soon as possible.

In other news, Mario Kart Wii will feature 24 Characters (Mario, Luigi, Wario, Waluigi, Toad, Peach, Baby Mario, Baby Peach, Bowser, Donkey Kong, Koopa Troopa, and Yoshi all confirmed).

Read More.

PS3 Purchase Justified; Mario Kart Wii sends ghosts global

Wed, 05 Mar 2008 15:55:45 GMT

First and foremost: my purchase of a PS3 has been justified. While I was in Japan, I got to test out the Initial D Arcade Stage 4 machine, complete with high-definition widescreen displays and everything. It was amazing (even moreso was the fact that I dominated a few of the races in a stock FD, after not playing for almost a year and a half. Looks like I still have the Team Silent blood in me.), and ever since I've yearned deeply for it. Well, looks like it is being ported to the PS3. I know I'll be purchasing this day one. It's unlikely that it'll ever come over to America (the PS2 and PSP ports of the arcade games didn't), but luckily the PS3 is region free, so who cares? Read More.

Also, Mario Kart Wii looks to have a pretty amazing Channel attached to it. From within the channel, you'll be able to register new racing buddies and check their online status, as well as look at rankings and take a peak at whatever the current Nintendo Competition is. The Nintendo Competition is basically just an Official Nintendo Challenge that will be accessible for (likely) a limited time period. Oh, you can also download Ghost Data for racers you find and use that to play against in the game later on. And you can access all of this without even having the game disc in, which is awesome! (Though, note that you won't be able to actually initiate the races against Ghost Data without the disc in the console) Read More.

PSN to become not so revolting!

Wed, 05 Mar 2008 01:50:56 GMT

As reported here, it looks like the Playstation Network will finally be receiving a visual upgrade in April. It's a long time overdue, as the store is an assault in usability and visual layout, but hopefully this update will change all of that.

ロストオデッセィ

Sun, 02 Mar 2008 09:06:54 GMT

If you have a 360, and you like traditional RPGs, do yourself a favor and buy the newest attempt at making the 360 popular in Japan: Mistwalker's Lost Odyssey. But, I'm not here to gush over games (or, at least, not right now anyway). The entire reason for mentioning the game is to tell you that there was some sort of Pre-Order bonus at EBGames consisting off a bonus dream scenario and a bonus accessory. If you weren't lucky enough to pre-order it, if you act fast you can still snag the extra content. Make a Japanese XBOX Live account, then navigate to the Lost Odyssey section (spelled ロストオデッセィin Japanese). If you scroll down through the content, you'll notice that there is one free downloadable content item, and one for 200points.

If you download the free content, it turns out that it's the exact same content as the US pre-order bonus. Originally, the US bonus was supposed to be a new weapon instead of an accessory, but it seems like they got lazy and just used the same content. If you're wondering about the 200point content, yes, it is also compatible with US 360s and US versions of Lost Odyssey. It contains an FMV viewer that lets you view old movies from the game, as well as an additional item and dream sequence.

Enjoy!

No demo for GTAIV; People more interested in chainsaw birds

Fri, 29 Feb 2008 19:55:03 GMT

Rockstar confirmed that there won't be any demo created for GTAIV, but to be honest, does anyone really care? The fans of the series are going to buy it on launch day without question, and pretty much everyone else knows what the game is about. And in case you've been living under a rock, it comes out at the end of April, so get ready and save up those sick days, because killing cops and smackin' hoes can take a lot of time.

In more important news, the Lyrebird is a bird that can use its vocal abilities to mimic other sounds it hears. Normally this is just the sound of other birds, but that doesn't mean that its talent ends there. This particular one can mimic shutter noises from cameras, chainsaw sounds from loggers, and even a car alarm! Read More.

Wii News: Lunch Edition

Thu, 28 Feb 2008 17:31:14 GMT

So, this is basically going to be a summary of a summary, but here goes:

House of the Dead will contain the Dreamcast version of 2 and the XBOX version of 3, an will launch at $29.99. It is also supposedly stretched to widescreen, which doesn't exactly get my hopes up.

Sega SuperStar Tennis runs at 60FPS, but has slowdown in some mini-games. The DS game is bare bones.

Mario Kart Wii is apparently NOT a pretty game. I guess it looks decent enough, but the character models suffer. I don't know if I believe that it isn't pretty (all the movies I've seen made it look pretty awesome), but I will believe that the character models might be subpar.

Pay to Play Wii Games as reported before, you'll subscribed on a game by game basis. ALSO IT WILL BE IN EFFECT FOR ANIMAL CROSSING. Both in the form of pay to play online, and pay to download content. Guess what? They just ruined my favorite game.

WiiFit will be ~$89.99. More importantly (and the thing that makes me want to buy it now) is that you can go out for a run, and then come back in and add your stats from the run to it, and it will keep a log of it and update accordingly. You can also watch TV while using it, and it will update you via the wiimote with new instructions.

Random Notes include that there are 100 WiiWare Titles in Development (but where will I store them?), with a likely schedule of 5 released per week. Commodore 64 is definitely coming next to the VC, Atari will be approached next. We'll still get Mario Kart in the spring, but no date is set yet.

Read More.

Sony fixes up its new Home; Completion date unknown

Thu, 28 Feb 2008 02:57:46 GMT

Sony's Home is making a triumphant leap out of the "cheesy Second Life clone" area and into the "very awesome integration" camp. Integration plans were just announced for Warhawk, Uncharted, and Resistance, and they certainly look amazing. Home was something I originally didn't care about (and it's still second on my list to LittleBigPlanet), but this update will definitely make me check it out whenever it sets up shop on my PS3. Read More.

Two Tales

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 23:37:20 GMT

Namco-Bandai announced that both Tales games in development would come out in America, and we will finally get voiced skits! Hurrah! That includes the Tales of Symphonia spinoff, as well as the brand new Tales of Vesperia. Read more.

Wii Homebrew Moves Forward

Tue, 26 Feb 2008 03:22:04 GMT

All I seem to be posting about is Wii news, lately. But Wii Homebrew took some major strides forward. A port of the SNES emulator, SNES9X was released today, along with an MP3 player. Add that to the Proof of Concept LINUX install, and things are looking bright. Read more here.

I'm more excited about Valkyrie of the Battlefield (I posted screenshots a few posts back) and Persona 3: FES Edition both getting US release dates, though! Yahoo!

My Life as a King

Sun, 24 Feb 2008 21:36:35 GMT

This is 95% of the reason I still actively care about the Wii. The sad thing, is that it looks better than 90% of the Wii games out in the market right now, and it only clocks in at 32MB. It's a shame more developers don't seriously develop for the Wii, instead of just bringing out shitty minigame collections.

Mario Kart Wii

Sun, 24 Feb 2008 01:35:39 GMT

It's been kind of a sparce day for news, but besides the MGS4 release date being a fake, there was a pretty cool video posted of Mario Kart Wii.

The Nintendo Wii: One Part Awesome, Six Parts "Screw you," Mix Until Sold Out.

Sat, 23 Feb 2008 00:59:05 GMT

Throughout my entire life, Nintendo has never ceased to amaze me. The only depressing thing is, when I was a kid, it was because of things like Super Mario Brothers 3 having overworld maps for each of the worlds, or Super Mario World letting me save my game. But nothing stays golden forever, I suppose, because now they just amaze me with all of their blatant "screw you's!" to the audience that built them their throne that they sit upon.

The Wii will begin to offer downloadable content for both the upcoming WiiWare titles, and fully fledged Wii games. Unlike most "casual gamers" (which, to be fair, is who Nintendo seems solely interested in this generation) the first thing that came to my mind wasn't, "Sweet! Now I can download some new songs for Guitar Hero!" No, true believers, what came to my head was this, "Sweet! Now I have even MORE crap to try and fit on the 512mb of flash memory!" But, surely, with this announcement, Nintendo would also announce that they would allow this content to run off of an SD card, or unveil a proprietary hard drive for the Wii, right?

No. Instead, Nintendo expects the developers to deal with the space limitations. Yes, that's right. Just like the kid who sold you his Pokemon card in 5th grade, and it turned out to be fake, Nintendo is pulling the "It's not my problem, you figure out what to do with it" card. I guess when you can't keep your systems stocked on shelves, even a year after its debut, you have the power to do whatever you want, because no matter how you treat developers, they'll still want to create games for you (although the argument is there about the Wii having a low attachment rate for software).

Well, that's all my Nintendo bashing for today.

Just kidding. I wish I could say that. I really, really do. I don't want to be mean to Nintendo, I want to embrace the lovable giant and play Mario Kart with it all night long. But then they just keep spitting in my face and yanking my controller out of the Super Nintendo.

Nintendo also announced that certain titles will be pay-to-play online in the future. It will be on a title-by-title basis (WHAT?) and users will have to subscribe to each title and pay the fee to play the games online with wii points. What games they will charge for remains to be seen, but if it is Smash Brothers or Mario Kart, then I'm going to have to kiss my plans of making levels and playing them online with Brett goodbye, because I'm not buying into this shit. Especially not after Nintendo touted themselves for offering a free online solution to XBOX Live way, way back in the beginning of the Wii's life (all 16 months or so ago).

So, for now, my Wii is going to sit and collect dust for a while longer. I'm going to go play Super Metroid.

The Biggest Jellyfish.... IN THE WORLD

Fri, 22 Feb 2008 02:11:25 GMT

The largest recorded tentacles from one of these beasts clocked in at 120 feet. I'll just let that sink in.

A nightcap for you all

Thu, 21 Feb 2008 01:40:07 GMT

The Atlas Moth is a pretty interesting fellow. They're billed as being the largest moths in the world (reaching up to a one foot wingspan) and survive entirely off of nutrients that were collected during its larval stages.

Valkyrie of the Battlefield

Wed, 20 Feb 2008 15:43:00 GMT

More screens can be found here, but let's be honest: this game looks like the shit.