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Welcome to my oriental edition of Now Playing, where I share little tidbits of games I'm currently running through.
NOW PLAYING: Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan 2 (DS)
Oh boy, this game is a fun one. It's a rhythm game, in the fact that you have to tap, slide, and drag your stylus to the song. The manga/comic style of the game is colorful and fun to look at, and is easy to understand if you don't speak Japanese. The only downside of this one is that the song selection isn't as varied as the first.
NOW PLAYING: Sengoku Basara 2 Heroes (PS2)
This game is also a blast. It's a beat-em-up, very similar to that of Dynasty Warriors, where you take on hundreds of enemies as a single character. The combos are easy to understand and fun to pull off, and the game is filled with a style all of its own. One downside is that without a translation guide, this game could be tricky to play. But it's well worth the time and effort to get in and mess around with the Sengoku period of Japan.
Now I know what you're thinking, "I can't play imports... I don't understand them!" But it's actually easier than it looks. With a little practice, YOU can play Japanese games with ease!
STEP 1: The Basics.
はい (Hai) means Yes, and いいえ (Iie) means No. These options could mean life or death! (A bit too dramatic, I must think)
If you're playing a sony console, Cross (X) is usually the conformation button, and Circle is the cancel button. This is reversed in Japanese games, so pay attention to that. I ended up spending 10 minutes trying to get passed the load screen once.
STEP 2: Explore the Options.
When you see something like this:
ストーリー
天下統一
自由合戦
ギャラリー
各種設定
...Don't worry! Just explore the different options and see what they do. There might be translation guides, or you could write them down yourself. Exploring them all makes things easier for you. That troublesome list above could turn into this:
ストーリー Story Mode
天下統一 Unification Mode
自由合戦 Free Battle Mode
ギャラリー Gallery
各種設定 Options
STEP 3: Play!
After you've explored all of the options available to you, start the game and enjoy!
I just thought I'd write something about Japanese games, because I've been playing a bunch of them myself recently. More on that later. ;3
Time for another 'now playing'. The source that gets YOU in the know of what I play, you creepy stalker you.
NOW PLAYING: GetAmped 2
THIS GAME IS SO ADDICTING. It has to be one of the funnest online games I've played in a long time. There's so many things to do! First of all, you can edit your character anyway you want to.
You can then decorate your room however you want
You can hang out in the lobby...
...And you can participate in battles. These can either be 1 on 1 duels, up to eight person deathmatch, and up to eight person team deathmatch. These battles are very fast-paced, and full of action and satisfaction when you kick someone's butt.
There's barely anything bad I can say about this game. The only issue is that the framerate seems to drop every once in a while, but it's not too extreme, and you can get used to it. All in all, this game is a must for any beat-em-
up fans, as well as people who want to socialize and have a ton of fun.
Website: http://www.getamped2.com/
Violence in video games. It's pretty much one of the biggest critisms around. It's plastered all over the news, it's involved directly with the news, and it just gets spread around like wildfire. Let me toss in my opinion on this matter.
We all know about the school massacres, Colombine for example. There has been some evidence claiming that these kids played violent video games and that's what caused them to go out and kill dozens of people. The big picture is that these kids had WAY more problems than just playing violent video games.
I can be one example for this. I'm your average 16 year old male, and I've been playing M-rated video games since the age of 7. I've had absolutely no anger problems my entire life, and I definately haven't tried to mass murder people.
Violent video games, heck, even video games in general are a way to get away and do things you can't normally do in your life (be it by imagination or legal reasons, ho ho).
Here's a question: If the parents knew that the kids had problems, why didn't they take these 'murder simulators' away from them?
It's simply the parent's fault. You need to trust your child and make sure they're mature enough to handle these things. My parents and I had a talk like this, and they knew I was mature enough to handle these games.
Parents, if you don't talk to your children about these things, you may never know.
Ahhhh, first blog of the week. Since my last post, I've been addicted to a few games.
NOW PLAYING: Lunia (PC)
Oh man, is this game addicting. Like most MMORPGS, it sucks you in with atmosphere (which is a nice anime style) and addicting gameplay (beat-em-ups are always addicting). Then it keeps you pinned down with a multitude of characters (12 classes) and awesome PVP. If you hate anime, then you might not like this game, but if you love beat-em-ups, you'd have a blast here.
NOW PLAYING: Pokemon HeartGold Version (DS)
Just when I thought I'd escape from Pokemon, it drags me back in. The all-around improvements and fun addons make this game even more enjoyable than the game it's based on. That said, it's kinda sad that you can't mess around with your room, but the Pokewalker accessory more than makes up for it.
NOW PLAYING: League of Legends (PC)
Ah, DotA style games. I usually hate you, with your repetitive gameplay, bland characters, and elitist community. But League of Legends takes everything DotA is and improves it to the extreme.
First off, the characters are flat-out awesome. Each character is unique and has their own personalities, and none of them feel out-of-place. Even with guns, magic, and so on.
Second, the gameplay is extremely fun. It is of course repetitive, but it's easy to understand and once you get the hang of it, playing with friends and using superior teamwork always feels great.
Third, the community is almost completely void of elitist snobs. I hate elitists, if I wanted to be told how to play a game, I would play the tutorial (which I did). Friendly advice is one thing, but just flat out swearing and calling names is immature and rude. Good thing League of Legends pretty much has no elitists, so I don't have to worry about them! (Yay!)
That about wraps up today. Thanks for reading!
We only expect the best from developers and publishers of Video Games. Despite this, you can obviously see the decline of certain series.
One obvious example is the Sonic the Hedgehog Series.
When he bursted on the scene in the early '90s, he was an instant hit. Sonic the Hedgehog 1, 2, 3, Sonic and Knuckles, and Sonic CD were immensly popular. He became Sega's new mascot, almost beating out Nintendo's Mario as the universal Video Game mascot. Things could only go up from here... Right?
Wrong.
On the Dreamcast, he blasted into 3D with a duo of great games with obvious flaws. Sonic Adventure was his first true 3D game. It featured a great sense of speed, beautiful graphics (for the time) and an actual stab at a plot. The game added a couple of new characters, which were pretty much forgetable and had no real affect on the plot as a whole. The camera angles, although good at times, would get you killed plently of times, and the game was pretty buggy. The follow-up, Sonic Adventure 2, was a step in the right direction. It added new characters that actually affected the plot, and more variety. This game too was brought down by bugs and bad camera angles, but it is still arguablly the best 3D Sonic game.
After Sonic Heroes (which was also in that same realm of 3D games), Sega decided to take a... Shall we say... Different route. We were treated with Shadow the Hedgehog, a game that lost it's sense of speed for guns. Yeah, you heard me, guns. This game steered away from almost everything that made Sonic, Sonic.
After Shadow the Hedgehog, Sega gave us... Sonic the Hedgehog '06. This is the bottom of the pit for the series. The game was extremely slow, it was extremely buggy, and the plot made absolutely NO sense what-so-ever.
After a few more horrible games, Sonic Unleashed was released. This is the turning point of the series. They tried taking a few good leaps out of the pit with original genuine Sonic platformming at it's finest, but brought it down with a beat-em-up section. Without that section, the game would have been perfect.
With the announcement of Sonic the Hedgehog 4, Sega might be getting out of the pit this time. But only time will tell.
/end rant
I see that you have arrived. Welcome to the Game Corner, where I'll just throw my thoughts and opinions about games, what I am looking foreward to in the future, and other things like that.
A few things you should know... I'm a huge RPG gamer, espically jRPG's. They capture a story like no other... And the gameplay is enjoyable. Keep in mind: I DO enjoy wRPG's, just not as much.
NOW PLAYING: The Last Remnant (PC)
Although this game as a LOT of technical flaws, it's enjoyable overall. The combat is like nothing I've ever seen before (and I've played a lot of games).
That being said, there are a few things that I would've liked to be done differently. The strategy itself is good, but you can't select your own skills yourself. This could be a problem, as the AI sometimes picks horrible skill choices. Also, the special attacks never seem to show up for me. I've only been able to use it once by luck. And there's no indication of how to actually use them. There is also an extreme difficulty curve. Things could be going smoothly, and then suddenly you have to fight a boss that can one-shot your entire party.
The characters for the most part are interesting, and the variety of creatures ensure that there arn't any palette swaps.
All in all, this game is very overlooked, and is a blast to play if you're in the right mindset.
