The following was unceremoniously ripped from the RESET blog. Make sure to check out this week’s comic!


Anyway, lots of big (not really) videogame news this week. Capcom announced, much to my surprise and glee, that they will in fact be localizing Tatsunoko vs. Capcom. Man, I was really becoming pretty convinced this wasn’t going to happen. Thank God I’m constantly wrong about everything! I guess since none of Tatsunoko’s programs were ever particularly popular in the U.S., it didn’t end up being too difficult to get the licensing sorted out. So now the Wii will be getting another awesome and bizarre third party exclusive that probably no one will ever play. No one but me, that is! I’ve been a big fan of the Capcom VS. fighting games since the days of Marvel vs. Capcom 2 on the Dreamcast, and while I always hesitate at paying full price for non-Smash Bros. fighting games, I think I may make an exception for this one. Capcom vs. SNK was a title that made perfect sense, and while Marvel vs. Capcom was a little strange, considering that Capcom had already made tons of Marvel fighting games, it worked if you knew the history. But a game where Capcom characters fight characters from an anime company known primarily for creating popular shows in the ’70s? It’s just such a weird, out-of-left-field concept (not unlike Chaos Wars) that I feel like I need to endorse it just on principle. Plus I always prefer fighting games that are crazy and kind of sloppy, as they allow me to hide my lack of any real technical skills. So now that this “never-going-to-happen” title is finally coming over to the U.S., does that mean Mother 3 will be along soon enough too? Answer: Yeah right.


Also, two new downloadable expansion packs were announced for Fallout 3 (as well as something about all of them being ported to the PS3, but who really cares about that, huh?). This works out great for me since, having completed Broken Steel as well as most of the game’s regular quests, I’ve been looking for other interesting things to do as I make my way to level 30. The first, Point Lookout, is supposed to be some kind of swamp area. Whatever. The second and much more interesting, Mothership Zeta, revolves around the hero being abducted by aliens. Now we’re talking! Without giving away any real spoilers, I had kind of hoped the narrative of Broken Steel was progressing towards some kind of final showdown with the Enclave in outer space, and while the ending was very good, I was still kind of disappointed I didn’t get my big battle amongst the stars. Mothership Zeta sounds like it will be remedying that. All I can say is hot damn.

Ripped from the RESET blog. Make sure to check out this week’s comic!

So, as you may or may not know, the third Fallout 3 expansion, Broken Steel, was released this past Tuesday. While I took a pass on the other two expansions as they frankly looked pretty skimpy, the fact that Broken Steel not only offered what sounded like a fairly robust amount of content, but also upped the level cap from 20 to 30 firmly convinced me to part with 800 Microsoft points. Fallout 3’s level cap was (apart from its possessing the standard western RPG glitchiness) really the only thing I could hold against the game. The problem, though, wasn’t that the game set the cap at twenty. By the time you’ve reached level twenty you’re more than capable of obliterating pretty much anything in your path. No, the real issue is how easy it is to reach level twenty. When I hit twenty huge sections of the game’s map were still relatively unexplored and I had a number of incomplete quests, including the main storyline quest of which there was about a third left to go. Hitting the level cap kind of took away the incentive to finish these things. Sure, I could always dig around for better equipment or items, but with few exceptions gear isn’t nearly as important as stats. Plus, since equipment detereorates so quickly, unless I was pretty sure there was going to be a substantive payoff for my scrounging, without the promise of an experience boost, it usually wasn’t worth exploring. They really should have just slowed down the rate at which the player’s character accumulated XP, as that way there’d actually have been a definitive reason for scouring every corner of the map. Well Broken Steel has handily fixed this problem by giving the player ten more levels they can grind through, each of which seems to require substantively more experience than earlier levels. I hit twenty one over the weekend, which gave gave me a chance to scan over the list of new perks the game has to offer. While there are certainly a few that grant the player even more apocalyptic abilities than before (which is frankly pretty surprising considering how deadly a level twenty character was already) a lot of the new perks seem designed to be more quirky than game breaking. One allows the player to turn ten Nuka Cola’s into one Nuka Cola Quantum. Another causes a Dogmeat puppy to generate at Vault 101 every time Dogmeat is killed, thus essentially making him immortal. A third causes the hero to generate a nuclear blast that incinerates all nearby enemies and allies every time his health drops below 20%. Like I said, unusual stuff. I haven’t had a chance to really delve into the actual new quests and scenarios since I’ve so far just been mopping up the older quests I’d left unfinished, but when I do I’ll be sure to keep you posted on how that goes. I have run into a couple of the advertised Enclave Hellfire Troopers who do, indeed, make more substantive foes than their lower-level brethren. They’re certainly not overwhelmingly difficult, but they feel more like the Enclave soldiers in Fallout 2, in that they represent an actual threat.

In other news, I’ve also started up Dragon Quest IV: Chapters of the Chosen, for the DS. Way back in the day I played through a decent chunk of Dragon Warrior IV on the NES and enjoyed it quite a bit, so I’m expecting good things from this remake. Dragon Quest games are great no-nonsense RPGs. You grind levels. You go to towns. You buy equipment. You go to dungeons. You fight bosses. You grind levels. That’s it. It’s awesome! No irritating melodrama. No strange combat system you have to learn. Sure there’s a high random encounter rate and you have to do tons of grinding for experience and money, but battles fly by so quickly it’s not frustrating at all. I would urge anyone who is feeling disenchanted with modern JRPGs to pick up any of the Dragon Quest/Warrior games, particularly VIII or either of the two DS remakes to remind themselves of what rock-solid JRPG game design feels like.

In sad news, according to an interview over at RPGamer it appears XSEED won’t be localizing the sequel to Retro Game Challenge. That’s too bad, because it really looks like it’s a fantastic game. Maybe someone else will pick it up, though.

So yes, I’ve waited for days to finally talk about what is quickly becoming my most anticipated game for the rest of the year - Assassin’s Creed 2. At the risk of feeling a bit like a closet homosexual, I have to come out and finally say it publicly: I LOVED ASSASSIN’S CREED!

Yes, I did. After all the controversy, and the sharp criticisms (including those in our own review), looking back at it after all this time I realize that there was just something about that game that worked really well for my inner gamer. Strange as it may seem in this advanced gaming age of ours, I actually liked the repetitive simplicity, and the beauty of the parkour gameplay and the stunning setting never really grew old on me.

But enough about the old! If our friends over at Game Informer can be believed, the new Assassin’s Creed will be a formidable leap forward (parkour-style of course!), with the developers at Ubisoft taking some time to listen to and think about gamer criticisms of the first installation. The simplistic and repetitive “go to bureau, pick up job, kill and repeat” structure is gone, with all missions now developing directly as outgrowths of the sprawling storyline. The combat has also been revamped with a wider variety of weapons, and more strategic assassination options - the main character (who is not Altair, btw) can now swim, among other things. The enemies themselves will also have a lot more variety, both in terms of how they pursue, attack, and behave, as well as in terms of what weapons work best against them. And the new location - 15th century Italy, complete with Leonardo Da Vinci and the Medici family - surely will not disappoint.

All in all, I am excited. As I’ve written on this blog before, AC was one of those games that was sheer brilliance with a few crude design mistakes that splattered dirt on its otherwise magnificent face. Now it looks like AC2 will have no trouble correcting those minor goofs and taking the game to stellar new heights. Literally.

Hey there! It’s me, Mike, the lovable writer of GameLemon’s smash hit comic, RESET! For those of you who don’t read my comic blog, I recently returned from a trip to Japan. Ostensibly this trip was to see more of the world, become cultured, bond with some of my good friends, blah, blah, blah. Really I went for the games. And let me tell you, I was not disappointed. Tokyo really is the world’s gaming capitol (and Osaka is not too far behind). I’ve been promising the readers of my comic some gaming-centric pictures (i.e. those from Akihabara) for about a week now, so here they are:

Okay, so these are just some general shots of Akihabara. What you can’t see are endless shelves of games, manga, anime, and toys inside each of those buildings. Really, you can’t. You’re not allowed.

Here’s a mighty Taito Game Station, an arcade that was something like seven stories high and absolutely packed. Surprisingly there were significantly more than just Taito games inside. Seeing the dozens of Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Cross Generation of Heroes machines lined up one after another made me sad all over again that the game probably isn’t going to get a U.S. console release. Dang…

This is the banner for one of Japan’s infamous maid cafes. You have to pay to take pictures inside, and I was having none of that. If I want pictures of pretty girls I’ll hide in the bushes and get them for free thank you very much.

Why if it isn’t my old friend Persona 3, here realized as a painting on a bunch of coin lockers! I don’t know about you, but I trust a public locker with my possessions just that much more if it has a painting of some of my favorite characters on them.

Here’s a couple of shots of Akihabara at night. Look how happy that little guy is! That was one of the first things I saw when I arrived in Tokyo, so needless to say I felt very welcome.

Sorry folks, but this is probably the only picture I actually got of a game. It’s House of the Dead EX, but despite bearing the House of the Dead name, it plays very, very differently than your typical House of the Dead game. In fact it was so bizarre that my extremely limited knowledge of Japanese failed to penetrate its mysteries. It had something to do with conducting a zombie choir and bowling with zombies. I kind of doubt we’ll be seeing this one in America.

So remember The World Ends with You? No? Ah… Well, anyway, that game takes place in Shibuya, a real, honest to God district in Tokyo. That means if you go to Shibuya you can actually visit some of the places you traversed in the game! This totally blew my mind. What’s next, a trip to Hyrule or Zebes? This particular place is the statue of Hachiko, a very popular spot for loitering seeing as how it’s adjacent to Shibuya’s massive scramble crossing. A lot of pretty important stuff goes down here in The World Ends with You, so it was pretty neat to actually visit it in the real world.

I went to the zoo while I was in Tokyo. God I love Japanese signs.

A totally awesome mural right outside of Kyoto station.

This is basically the Japense equivalent of a corn dog. Not nearly as gross as it looks, although not really that good either.

Oh my God! Look out lady! I don’t know what this thing was, but it was capering about and hugging people in the subway station.

That’s all for now. Maybe if I think anyone is interested I’ll toss up some more culturally relevant pictures.

So you still don’t have an Xbox 360, huh? Well, get ready for the deal to end all deals. At least, I think that’s what Microsoft is hoping.

The latest SKU for their Elite console will be bundled with Halo 3 and Fable II, and should be on store shelves in May. Why, you ask? Because they’re Games of the Year, according to the sticker on the box.

But the more important question: Which year?

The bundle is coming out in May of 2009 - way too early for THIS year’s GOTY candidates to be touted so highly. So it must be 2008, right? Well, Fable II certainly came out late 2008, and many do consider it a worthy game, so I guess that’s okay, but Halo 3 came out in September of 2007. Hmm. Microsoft, you have baffled the consumer once again. Congratulations.

This is also a strange combination. While both are assuredly big games with lots of fans, are there really that many people who love/want both enough to buy the combo? If you’re starving for an Elite, you could do worse with your $399 (the system’s price will remain the same with the 2 games, hence why the games are FREE), but if you just want the Pro system and aren’t really a fan of one or the other game, save yourself the extra $40-$60 and buy another game you’ll actually play.

Plus, I’m thinking that everyone who wants either of these two games probably has a 360 already. Am I wrong? Anyone out there that’s been waiting for a bundle just like this to come along?

Thanks to 1up.com for the pic.

Over at Kotaku it’s rumored that there is a Lego Rock Band coming our way from Harmonix and Traveler’s Tales (the makers of the Lego Star Wars games) later on this year. Now, you’re either thinking this may be the best nerd offspring ever or that you’d rather gouge your eyes out with a melon baller before allowing yourself to play another Guitar Hero/Rock Band spawn. Personally I think it’s about time the Lego dudes rock out with their blocks out!  What say you?

(My amazingly life-like rendition)

…or something to that effect.

In an effort to keep up with the ever-growing world of facebook, we’ve expanded beyond merely having our own fb group to now having a full-blown fan page on the social network site. You can find us here, so if you’re a facebook member, be sure to join our insanity over there, and spread the word to your friends. Leave some comments, share some pictures, tell video game related tales, or just hang out and stalk other people (isn’t that what social network sites are for, anyway?) - it’s entirely up to you.

As always, thanks for the support!

Wow. This thing is awesome.

The latest update to the Nintendo DS line - the DSi - finally released today, and boy is it hard to put down. Let me show you what it’s all about. Hey, the bigger guys can get to do their own “unboxing” special reports when they get the systems ahead of us regular folk, why can’t we join in the fun, too, right?

(more…)

Do you have $99? Are you overcome by a need to play some last-gen titles on a nearly decade-old system? Do you enjoy purchasing memory cards for storage rather than utilizing a built-in hard drive?

Well, you poor soul, you’re in luck, because Sony’s Playstation 2, what some consider the best console ever and certainly the one with the longest shelf-life, has finally dropped below that magical $100 price point (before tax, anyway). Starting today, you can pick one up for $30 less than you could yesterday.

Now, sure, there are plenty of good games on the system, and many are at reasonable - if not downright silly - prices, due to their age (and graphics, on newer titles), but do you really need a PS2? Take your $99, put it in a savings account, get a damn job, and buy a current-gen system already. The PS3 has been out for nearly 2 and a half years already!

I’m a little upset that it took Sony this long to drop the price. I can’t fault them for trying to sap every last dollar out of the system - it was still moving plenty of units, so why not, right? - but not that long ago, if you could find a GameCube on the shelf, it was selling for $49. And, though there are a few games I’d like to play on the PS2, it’s never been enough to sway me over to spending that much money. I’d much rather enjoy the likes of Zelda and Smash Bros. than yet another Final Fantasy or MLB The Show. (Yes, you’re understanding that correct - I have never owned a Playstation console. It’s not some deep-rooted hate for Sony or fanboy-love for the other guys, just never had a want/need to play the games that were only on Playstation. Commence flaming, I suppose.)

If anyone out there has suggestions on games that would be good add-on purchases to the new $99 PS2, feel free to leave some comments. Meanwhile, I’ll be sitting here playing my 360 and Wii.

Ok, everyone who follows us knows about my, well, obsession with Lara Croft [see here, here, etc.] but today we’ve come across a feature for the ladies in the audience - pics of Jake Gyllenhaal as the title character in the upcoming movie adaptation of Prince of Persia. Oh, and he’s not wearing a shirt.

You’re welcome.

Thanks to 1up.com for the story and pics (via Huffington Post, apparently).