articles

Final Fantasy XII

  • Reading time:1 mins read

by [name redacted]

I have never been all that hot on Final Fantasy. A few games in the series have managed to amuse me, on one level or another. In general, I am bored by what Square has continually tried to accomplish with this series. I feel often that they have gone in the wrong directions, for the wrong reasons, and have as a result — given how much political influence they have within the design community, and how misdirected and conservative their design philosophy has been — been largely responsible for the lack of substantial evolution in the Japanese console RPG genre which they helped to popularize. They just set a bad popular precedent, for the rest of the industry to follow. And follow, you know the industry will. Biohazard was another problem; Mikami is now on his way toward fixing it. Now, though, I think Square might be on its way to joining Capcom in this trend toward repairing a whole genre.

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Myst IV: Revelation

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by [name redacted]

This was a surprise; I had heard nothing of a new Myst. I knew about Uru, and I knew of its troubles. It has been a long time since I have bought a PC game, however; I just haven’t had the computer to run anything made after 1997. Then, since there hasn’t been a lot interesting going on with the PC scene since the mid-’90s (unless you’re into whack-a-rat or first-person shooters, or you absolutely must have the fastest graphics card and processor, to show off the newest tech demo), I have for some time felt safe to ignore that whole segment of the industry. Yet, it seems like there is still some activity worth tracking. I think.

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Altered Sega

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by [name redacted]

There was nothing going on at Sega. Perhaps that’s why they decided to hide the booth in a small room off a little-used hallway, apart from the show floor, where no one who found it did so by accident and few who did intend to take a look remembered to do so. Out of sight, out of mind. Yu Suzuki strolled around, gently sipping his bottomless Coca-Cola. Some other high-level Sega staff sat crosslegged on the carpet in the hall outside, chatting. No one paid attention.

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I should have gotten the horizontal stand.

  • Reading time:3 mins read

So, I now have a PS2. However, it chooses to patronize me. When I put in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring: Extended Edition: Disc One, the system complains. It asks me if I really want to play such an inappropriate movie. I insist that I do. It asks me for a password. I enter zerozerozerozero. The movie plays. I go into the options, to change the parental settings… and it doesn’t allow me access.

I shall have to do research here.

Shinobi is rather entertaining, so far. I don’t know what people are complaining about, as far as difficulty. I kept falling to my death on one section, although that was due mostly to my own stupidity. I do know that the dub could… use some work. I wonder how the original acting is. Hotsuma’s inherent envelope of cool stoicism is shattered somewhat whenever he opens his mouth and a high-pitched, bored American voice burbles out.

The PS2 memory card browser utility is interesting. I like how it applies old PSOne saves to 3D tiles. I like even more the way PS2 games can use polygonal models for their icons. Lament of Innocence has a little, animated Leon. Standing next to him is a slightly-chibi K’, from The King of Fighters 2000. Next to him is a blow-up of his fist, from KoF2001. All different sizes and shapes. Eccentric!

I also got a second controller for my Gamecube — an orange one, to replace the orange one on the old Gamecube that my old roommate from college, Matt, used to have. It will be of aid in future Monkey exploits. Now that, you know, I have people to play with.

What a novelty.

It seems the one E3 feature I have yet finished (I assure, more soon pend) has gotten slashdotted. Although this is common for some other writers, it is a first for me. So. One more item on the checklist.

I received two emails in a row, in response to the article. The first, from the person who informed me of the slashdot link, is titled “Contrats on KOF:MI article being slashdotted!”. This is a good title, to help me sort out the message from all of the others with titles like “tuft blustery” and “all i want is.. dumbbell abdicate” and “Generic Phentermine is just as good!” Thing is, the message just after it is titled “Congratz 2 a real player”. That one was also in response to the article, although from… someone else.

It is time to eat burritos.

I think tonight I will probably finish the next article. It’s just. I take a while to do things.

KOF: Maximum Impact

  • Reading time:1 mins read

by [name redacted]

From the beginning, SNK has tried to spruce up 2D fighters by incorporating elements of three-dimensionality. With 1991’s Fatal Fury, SNK introduced the idea of multi-planar fighting, where the characters may step along a Z axis, into or out of the screen. The King of Fighters ’94 adapted the idea of a sidestep for a single plane: press two buttons, and dodge into the background for a moment, to avoid being hit. SNK already had the technique down, that was not rediscovered until five years later, in Sega’s Virtua Fighter 3.

All of that I see now, in retrospect.

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The Secret of Pac-Man’s Success: Making Fun First

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by [name redacted]

The radios were on the seats, this time. Most of the radios remained in place. On the screen to the right, An isometric illustration of Pac-Man greeted newcomers. A scruffy middle-aged man fumbled behind the podium. Brandon and I chose seats close and to the right of center. When most of the seats were filled, the man behind the podium turned on his microphone; it was Iwatani. He introduced himself, and his topic, in an English which might have carried him through the lecture, were he able to keep it up.

He wasn’t. To fill in the language gap, Iwatani was given a tag-team of feuding translators. Every few minutes, one woman would trade off for the other. It was a little bizarre to listen to, as it was clear that neither translation was as accurate or well-phrased as it could have been. One of the women tried at least three times, and ultimately failed, to pronounce “Galaxian”. Neither seemed to notice Iwatani’s well-organized slides, which almost narrated his lecture on their own. According to Brandon, who chose to listen to the Japanese channel on his radio, there was a point when one of the translators shouted at the other to “shut up”.

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dep3D

  • Reading time:1 mins read

by [name redacted]

While we bode our time for Zelda time, Brandon and I drifted into the lonely walled-off corridors to the left of the main entrance. Beyond a door and a glass wall, in a far corner, we encountered a low-key display of several otherwise-unmemorable driving games. The only immediate sign of life was in that the place seemed oddly crowded. As we neared, it became evident why: the driving game on the big-screen TV was… blurry. I looked down, and at my feet I saw a bucket full of paper spectacles: 3D glasses. Oh my. It has been a while, hasn’t it. And these were not your old-style red-and-blue glasses; these are the newer type, which provide a clear, untinted picture.

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OutRun2

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by [name redacted]

As we strolled past the Megaking booth on the show floor, I spotted an OutRun2 machine in the distance. Drawing closer, I noticed that it was a feature of the CRI (now a subdivision of SEGA-AM2) booth. A polite elderly Japanese fellow swiped Brandon’s and my ID cards; he handed us pamphlets and old-fashioned Japanese fans with the CRI logo on them. Only two people were before us. The initial plan was, I — being such a fan of the original OutRun — would play the game, and subsequently write up my impressions. Time was short.

As we waited, I read through a bilingual “Naze Nani CRI” comic, which illustrated for kids on both shores the benefits of MPEG SofDec and the ADX compression algorithm. A middle-aged Asian man stood behind me, arms crossed in front of his ID badge. “Do you like the original?” he asked. We nodded and grinned, politely.

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The Evolution of a Franchise: The Legend of Zelda

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by [name redacted]

We arrived late; the conference was already half-over, and the crowd had spilled to standing-room-in-the-hall-outside-the-conference-room-only. An Asian woman with a nervous smile asked us if we wanted headphones — sort of like what people wear during international debates. “Channel two is English” she said. I had no trouble setting my radio to channel two, or turning it on, or even adjusing the volume. Somehow, though, it still refused to work. Being the tall one, Brandon suggested I wedge myself just inside the door. I could see over everyone’s head. Eiji Aonuma stood on-stage, pontificating as if on a PBS special. To his left (and my right) was a large screen, showing a clip of Link, from The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker, running through the first few scenes of that game.

I turned to Brandon. I pointed toward my radio. Brandon pressed the power button. He adjusted the volume. He fiddled with the antenna. Then he shrugged and began to turn away. A moment later, he grabbed the end of my headphones and plugged them into the radio. My ears began to melt with Hell’s very own translation. I seized the radio and spun the volume dial to half of what it was.

When my senses recovered, Aonuma was talking about all of the little, insignificant details in the Zelda series, and how they bring reality to the game. He spoke of the difference between reality and realism. “To Miyamoto, reality is far more important,” Aonuma explained. This seemed fair enough, if a bit obvious. He then took the time to give several examples of just what reality means in the context of a game like Wind Waker.

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The 2004 Game Developers Choice Awards

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by [name redacted]

I watched the Academy Awards for the first time, a few weeks ago. The MPAA’s screener ban (instituted in part to cut down on indie competition, under the ruse of piracy prevention) had apparently backfired, as the 2003 nominees consisted of perhaps the most well-chosen bunch of the right movies, for the right awards, that the Academy had ever selected. I thought, hey. Why not.

After an hour and a half, three hundred commercials, Billy Crystal’s singing, Billy Crystal’s unfunny jokes, Billy Crystal’s just-this-side-of-unkind remarks to Clint Eastwood and others, endless Hobbit awards, and Billy Crystal, I wandered away. I now thought I understood, first-hand, the general antipathy for award ceremonies.

With this in mind, I was unsure what to expect when I walked into the IGDA Game Developers Choice Awards. I had read about the Gunpei Yokoi ceremony the year before; that had sounded unconventional and sincere. Yet: it was still an awards ceremony. How long could I tolerate the pomp, I wondered.

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Inner Dimensions

  • Reading time:3 mins read

by [name redacted]

A bit of reporting for Xbox Nation Magazine, which was actually printed in both the May and June issues. It seemed I had an in for writing more complex material — I notice a bunch of notes for further articles — but then the magazine folded. A shame.

As relative newcomer to the console scene, Microsoft arrived in the silence after the storm. Those who were present recall the trials of the mid-nineties, as Sony squeezed the industry through a macabre cleansing operation. Developers were forced to convert to 3D development or not only risk public dismissal, but risk disapproval from Sony. Without Sony’s OK, games go unpublished — and Sony has its own agenda. Crushing to many smaller houses, this policy continues even today.

Even so, some studios, like SNK, refuse to surrender.

Kof, Please

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by [name redacted]

Where is KoF’03?

I surely can’t be the only one who’s wondering; usually the roster and some hints of the gameplay mechanics are announced by mid-July. And yet, at the time that I write this, SNK Playmore has yet to even confirm that the game is in development, or for which platform it might be intended.

To add to the mystery: when I asked SNK NeoGeo USA Consumer president Ben Herman about the game at E3, he was oddly hesitant. After a few false starts, he said only that it would “make sense” if there were a King of Fighters this year (aside from the 3D one). He wasn’t willing to comment further, but he looked pretty darned unsure to me.

So. What’s going on with this series?

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The King of Fighters 2002 (DC/Playmore)

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by [name redacted]

I don’t like The King of Fighters 2002. I don’t consider it in the spirit of the series, or more broadly in the spirit of SNK. Especially after the tremendous success of their previous collaboration, I’m pretty surprised — and saddened — that Eolith and Brezza managed to devise such an inane follow-up.

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Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow (GBA/Konami)

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by [name redacted]

Last year, Harmony of Dissonance presented to me an interesting dilema. Although a better Castlevania game (as such) than KCE Kobe’s Circle of the Moon, Harmony lacks the mindless glee of its (now-apocryphal) predecessor. Indeed, it is rather a heady experience. It’s more well-conceived than Kobe’s game, it has a pleasantly glitchy atmosphere, it’s full of neat continuity. It’s just that it’s not as crunchy; not as much empty fun.

Well, no such dilemma here. Aria of Sorrow is both a good Castlevania game and a fun game on its own right. I daresay, and do say, and am in the process of daring to say, that this is one of the most joyous, well-designed games in the series.

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