Remember when everyone knew someone with a modded PlayStation or PS2?  When pirating console games was the norm?  Well, I do anyway.  Looking back on those days where bootleg games were so common and easy to find, it's interesting to think about how just a generation later, Sony and Microsoft have the problem virtually nailed down.

And how did they do it?  By adding in all sorts of insurmountable copy protection, and thrwarting the geniuses that manage to crack every bit of copy protection?

Well, maybe a little, but not really.

No, they offered something more desirable than stealing.  By making connectivity a crucial and desirable part of the platform, and only allowing unmodified hardware onto the network.  Many of the games have a major multiplayer components that, for some, easily eclipse the single player component.  Others have compelling downloadable content that can change the game even after release.

This is the way to discourage piracy and similar practices!

Sadly, this doesn't always work, and with more open platforms like the PC, it's doubtful it could ever be solved.

I've finished Fable 2.  I'm not sure how long I played it, but I'd guess about 20 hours.

It's a lot better than the first game, I'll say that right off.  Sadly, with some of the really impressive offerings this fall (Fallout, Dead Space, LittleBigPlanet) I think Fable gets a little overshadowed. 

When I think back to the original Xbox, Fable is not in my list of top 10 games - it doesn't stand well with games like KOTOR and Riddick as being especially memorable.  The huge list of disappointments that came with the first Fable also permanently mar that title.

Fable 2 does a lot of stuff right, but it's got its share of problems.

Peter Molyneux managed to reign himself in this time around.  He didn't make lots of stupid promises that he couldn't keep.  He showed us, instead, already implemented gameplay concepts.  He just overinflated them a little.

I should try this "structure" thing I've been hearing about while writing.

The things I liked about Fable are pretty easy to whip through, so it's going to sound like I hated the game, but that's not true.  The combat is quite a bit of fun.  Switching between ranged, melee, and magic is simple and fun, and it really is a three-button system.  I wish there were some more tutorials for counters and combos, but even without them the combat was easy to pick up and managed to keep from getting boring through the whole game.  One interesting decision made by the guys over at Lionhead is the choice to remove death from your hero's list of life possibilities.  You get knocked out and jump right back up.  Honestly, there's no reason to die.  The game borders on being too easy, but it would've been annoying and unnecessary to send you running all over the place.

The experience system works well too.  You don't really level up the same way you might in other games; it's more gradual.  It feels organic and incremental rather than like a sudden change.

The save system is mighty nice too, in terms of enforcing your decisions.  In a lot of these games, you can save, try something, and go back if it doesn't work.  In Fable, once you've made a decision, that's your decision.  The game saves and you're stuck with it.  It puts some real gravity behind the things you do.  No taking make all those three and four-ways with my wives...

That said, a lot of Fable, once again, doesn't live up to the monumental expectations that inevitably come with it.  I'll start with the dog.  As the man himself said, it's just a dog.  He certainly helps along with the game: finding treasure, attacking downed enemies, and growling when trouble is near.  However, I don't feel the game would be lacking without him.  Even his involvement in the final story is a bit of a disappointment. I'll be honest: I just never cared a lick about the dog.   I'd say the lack of cutscenes in the game played a role in this.  The dog didn't have any sort of real character beyond that of the endlessly faithful dog

The expressions, too, felt entirely unnecessary.  With Fable being so minimalist in the hud, the overly complex expressions wheel felt rather shoehorned in.  It added some really unnecessary meters and menus to the game.  Even ignoring that, it just felt too goofy for a game as serious and generally grim as this.  Alright, so I just slaughtered an entire town.  Now I think I'll go visit the next down, fart and burp like a jackass for 2 minutes and suddenly I've got a huge discount? 

Speaking of discounts, I'm not sure how I feel about the economic aspect of the game.  I liked that there are so many options available.  You can work, you can hunt for treasure, you can invest in property, not to mention more shadowy options like gambling and slave trading.  To get the best weapons out there, you'll need to do at least a little investing.  It's pretty well integrated, but again I don't feel like it helped either.  At least it wasn't a pain in the butt like the expressions.

Another gripe I have pertains to sort of the general attitude of the game.  It puts on this show like it's somehow less "gamey." You don't get treasure from crates or missions.  Even then, it's telling you that you can shoot 50 gargoyle heads and collect 50 silver keys to get special items!  Then you fart and burp like a jackass for 2 minutes.

Once again referncing how generally HUDless the game is trying to be with the golden crumb trail, I have to complain about the worthless map system.  You'll get a mission to go to Location X, where you haven't been yet. You get that crumb trail.  But then there's no indication on the map of what direction it's in, or what the nearest 'already visited' location is to it.  So you can' just quick-travel to the nearest spot and then walk, you have to walk all the way there.  I mean really, what?

Then there's the... number halo, for lack of better word.  Every transaction you make, whether it's monetary, emotional, or pure/corrupt, is represented by a number over your head.  So when you sell 10 potions and buy 10 more, you get to watch numbers tick over your head for the next two minutes.  Then if you own any property that is making you money, you get a little status message about that.  And about your wife.  By the end of the game you'll have a constant string of numbers over your head.  There's even one point where you're in a sort of dream sequence and even THEN you still have numbers appearing over your head.

This information could've been delivered more elegantly, is all I'm saying.

Now the graphics, they're nearly impeccable.  The world you run around in is one of the lushest, most gorgeous game environments.  Coming off of Fallout 3, it's truly refreshing to find everything so colorful.  It's definitely not a brown game like so many out there.  The character designs are cartoony but consistent and they feel like they fit into the sort of Dickens fantasy world presented.  I do wish the game wasn't always stuck in Autumn as it seems to be.  With the amount of time it spans, some snow and such would've been a real treat to see.

In all, I DID enjoy the game.  It's just not quite as memorable as some of the other stuff that hit the market this season. 

One problem I come across when I sit down to write a review is the age old "How do I start?" question.  I don't want to type "Dead Space is..." and then leave it for two weeks.  So here goes nothing.


Dead Space is good.  Really, really good.  The EA I complained about years ago is.... just gone, apparently. The EA under John Riticello is publishing new IPs left and right, making solid, interesting games that people are genuinely excited about. It's unheard of!

Dead Space is one of the first of these.  They've really gone all out here, too.  A comic book, a DVD, a game, interactive websites; the creators are truly committed to presenting a nice, vivid world to enjoy.

From the moment you step onto the Ishimura until the credits roll, the quality of the craftsmanship is obvious.

The first thing you learn about any game is always visual.  Dead Space makes a decision early on: This is a big, ugly, industrial mining ship, and we're going to make it big, ugly, and industrial from end to end.

At the risk of sounding like I think it's repetitive, not much changes as you tromp around the massive vessel.  You never forget you're in the Ishimura; it's all very cohesive.  It wouldn't make much sense to have a "lava level" and a "jungle level," though things do mix up enough that you don't feel like you're doing much backtracking.

The monsters and your chararcter, too, are excellent.  Isaac Clarke is one of the coolest silent-but-deadly working-men since Gordon Freeman.  His animation set is small but effective.  The necromorphs are solid as well.  I would've liked a bit more variety but the ones you fight are so well-done that it doesn't ever feel repetitive.  Maybe I was just too busy keeping my head attached to my neck that I didn't notice!

One complaint I do have is that the human characters, both the few you meet face-to-face and the ones you see in the holograms, could've used a bit more detail.  Compared the the world they live in, they feel a bit fake.

Speaking of holograms, the heads-up display is worth mentioning here.  That's to say, there is no formal hud.  It's all integrated into your suit and it's really, really cool.  It's a really well-executed idea.  Your life, stasis, and oxygen are integrated into the back of your suit.  I'm not sure how this benefits Isaac but it looks cool and works really well to increase the immersiveness of the world.  You'll be watching a recorded video or messing around in your inventory, only to hear the tell-tale sound of a necromorph busting out of a vent.  Oh man, stuck in your inventory when a monster attacks? Crap!  No - just do what you'd always do.  Raise your plasma cutter and get ready to shoot.  The menu disappears, allowing you to take care of the matter at hand.

The audio also works to increase the immersive feeling of Dead Space.  The sound design is on-par with classics like Silent Hill 2.  Strange mutterings, clanking and thunking metal, and other ambient sounds lay a good canvas down to get that feeling of unease just right.

The coolest aspect of the sound design is definitely the vacuum of space.  Instead of hearing space, you feel it.  The only things that make noise outside are the things big enough to send a vibration up into your suit - so when that guy pops out of the vent and sneaks up behind you without any indication, it's awesome instead of irritating.  It makes being outside that much more unnerving than the rest of the ship, coupled with the frantic feeling of suffocation.  I found myself holding my breath whenever the oxygen was sucked out of the room.

More than any technical aspect, what keeps the game from getting repetitive or uninteresting is just how damn fun it is to lop of those necromorphs' limbs.  As an engineer instead of a warrior, you're presented with a number of mining tools.  The main weapon is a plasma cutter.  You could play through the whole game with this, but some of the other weapons are just too much fun to ignore.  The Ripper, a space-aged circular saw, is some of the most gory fun you'll have all year.  Hit the trigger and you launch a spinning saw blade in front of you to wave around as you wish, slicing off arms, legs, and heads and sending blood spraying everywhere.

To make these tools even more entertaining, the game is littered with Power Nodes that you can collect and use to power up your rig and your arsenal, sometimes leading to impressive visual effects and always to more mayhem.

In addition to running around severing limbs, you're also tasked with repairing the ship both to figure out what the heck is going on and to get home.  These manage to stay pretty well-varied.  From replacing the communications array to sending a distress beacon into outer space, these sections tend to make the best use of the zero gravity littered throughout the game.  The Zero-G is a bit under-used, but it doesn't feel like an afterthought either.

One complaint I DO have, in all this warm adulation, is that the game is just too dang easy.  I played through on normal and rarely felt a challenge.  Yeah, I made a few mistakes that made it more difficult, but we're going to ignore those and pretend I'm more observant.  There is a save point, almost literally every two minutes.  I found myself skipping save points because there were so many and I never felt I was punished for it.  Of course as I begin playing through Impossible difficulty, I'll say that those save points seem a lot more important now. 

The other big sticking point is the asteroid shooting sequence midway through.  The sequence is overly difficult and doesn't use anything you've learned up to this point.  It takes me two or three tries to make it through and others many more.  The sequence DOES prepare you for a more interesting use of the same weapon later on, but I think it could've been executed more gracefully.  A slight tweak could've made it easy enough that it felt like it was adding variety instead of unnecessarily using skills you've never developed.

My favorite thing about Dead Space has to be that nothing felt tedious.  I never felt like I was being made to do busywork, or that the waves of enemies were unnecessary, or anything like that.  As I work on my third playthrough, the ONLY thing I dread (in the boredom sense, not the "can't sleep, necromorphs will eat me" sense) is that asteroid sequence.  Even then, that doesn't take too long to get through.

Finally, Dead Space will appeal most to fans of games like Resident Evil 4 and movies like The Thing, Aliens, and Event Horizon.  DS owes a lot to them and it never feels like it's hiding it.  Snuggling up with those movies and those games would be the perfect weekend of science-fiction-horror bliss.  If you're a fan of ANY of those, you'll find Dead Space very worth your time.

Sorry I've been so slow to update.  When my choices are between "Play More Fallout" and sit at my computer, it's play more Fallout.

I do intend to write up a review of Dead Space (short version: GO GET IT) and I have an article about Open World games about 75% done.

That said, I have a lot of thoughts about Fallout.  I don't normally cheat.  Sometimes when I'm stuck I'll check a guide or board online to get past that one part.  I never put in cheat codes under any circumstances unless I've finished the game and I'm just having fun.  So, I am pretty good about it.

What's interesting with Fallout is that I WANT to go out and read boards and learn as much as I can so that I don't miss anything.  But at the same time, using all my willpower, I'm actually avoiding doing that.  I'm also skipping the Making-Of disc and the artbook that came with the box set until I get further in, because I don't want to spoil the monsters or gadgets.

The only communicating I'm doing regarding the game is talking to people that I know in real life.  Without any pictures or reference to guide you, the conversations with my friends feel more like talking to another citizen of the Capital Wasteland.  "Where have you been?" "Oh, I went here and found this." "You found a what?! I want one!"  The exchanges go back and forth, and it's more like hearsay than it is a guide.  It's actually adding to the experience for me, along with avoiding all FAQery and strategy guides.

I'm quite enamored of this "Fallout" game, if you couldn't tell.

This week, I've been playing Dead Space, as a break from the frustration (and fear/tension!) that Silent Hill Homecoming is responsible for.

I have to say that in every way, Dead Space is a design masterpiece.  It's just plain well-crafted.  EA clearly let its best people work on a project they wanted to work on and gave them proper funding to do it.  But, I haven't finished the game, so I'm not going to review it yet.  Instead, I'm going to talk about what a complete idiot I am.

I did a few dumb things - or didn't do, more importantly - and I blame myself entirely.  First up is 'Crates of Stuff.'

Items have been feeling really scarce lately and in frustration I shot at one of the light-up crates.  It broke, revealing an item inside.  Wait, what? These things have STUFF inside?  What the crap?  I should've figured it out earlier, what with them being ALL OVER and also having lights on them.  So I missed out on all sorts of ammo and healing stuff throughout the game.  Again, this is my mistake.  As a gamer this is embarassing because I should be able to spot the Crates of Stuff after years of doing it.  At the same time it's a compliment to the designers that they created something that fit in the world without sticking out like an item.

The other thing concerns Alternate Fire.  At some point in the game, a little tutorial box popped up telling me I have alternate fire on my weapons, and I thought, "I don't have much ammo, and I'm between savepoints, so I'll wait and try it out after I save."

Then I promptly forgot about it, utterly and completely until... Chapter 6 of 12. Yeah, I'm not almost done, but I feel like a tardhole.

I kept bitching about how my circular saw didn't have a projectile function.  Hit right shoulder button - Oh hey look!  I just launched a whirling sawblade!  I thought it was weird that my plasma cutter only shot in a vertical line.  Hit RB - fwip! - horizontal shooting!

The third and final dumb thing I did while playing Dead Space is related to the second and just about me as a gamer.  I tend to get into ruts and just do things a certain way in the games, and then forget about my other options, moves, paths.

So, I'm fighting this tentacle-tastic boss that any hentai monster would be proud of, and it's getting really frustrating.  I'm swearing, annoyed, low on weapons.  So, I put the game down, and go read some boards.  Then it clicks.

First, relating to the second thing, this is where I figured out I had way more ammo than I thought.  That was one mistake. The other is this whole "kinesis" thing they give you.  I've used to pull platforms, grab items, but I never thought to use it to catch the crap this guy was throwing at me and throw it back at him!

Not only did I get a much easier and more entertaining battle from this, but I also, spoilers! got a secret acheivement for catching his explody goo lumps.

So, I regret the mistakes but I'm also liking the game even more now. It still isn't scary, but is it ever a fine piece of work.

So, Nintendo has formally announced the DSi, the upgrade of the insanely successful DS.

I'll admit, freely, that I was wrong to question the necessity of the DS.  It has become a solid successor to the GBA that is selling way better than I could've thought.  That said, I can't see the point of the DSi. 

So, what's different?
Two cameras have been added, and the GBA port has been removed.  There's an SD Card Slot. The screens are slightly bigger.  There's also an online store.  Of all these changes, the only one I don't question is the screen-size.

This might be due to a skew of the people I spend my time around, but almost everyone I know with a DS owns a few GBA games.  No one is happy about the absence of the GBA port around here.  I'm betting Activision is a little grumpy about it too, what with the Guitar Hero On-Tour games using that port.

Then there's the cameras.  They're .3MP.  They're not big enough to be actually useful for anything outside of in-game use, so how are they going to integrate them into games without it being chintzy?  The microphone use has been weird at best and embarassing at worst.  But then it's my own fault for playing WarioWare in public...

The SD Card Slot is there, I presume, to support the online store.  Gotta have some place to store all those downloaded games!  It's actually not a bad solution, seeing as its not proprietary, so maybe I don't have any complaints there.

What I really, really do not like however, is the online store.  From what I understand - and correct me if I'm wrong - is that Wii points and DSi points do not transfer, and neither do the point cards.



What the hell?  Really, Nintendo?  Do I have to have a different card for each too? And a different "user number?"  How does Nintendo even have a website? They're so internet and technoconvergence-phobic that it's almost hard to joke about anymore.  Microsoft had no problem integrating the Zune pass and Xbox Live and as a result has gained a faithful Zune user in me. 

I personally will NOT be picking up a DSi right away - if ever.  Nintendo needs to move forward if they want people to drop another $180 on a relatively unchanged DS.

The category list along the line has not only "Video Games," but also "Anime," something I've thoroughly neglected thus far.  That changes now!

I read a fair amount of manga both in my spare time and as a writer for anime.advancedmn.com.  It used to be that when manga came over here, it was mirrored over to Left-to-Right format.  Then, around the time Tokyopop busted out onto the manga scene, Right-To-Left became the standard.  This enhanced the authenticity of the release and also actually made less work for the Western distributor.  Along with this came the inclusion of a lot of Japanese words and honorifics to further complete that authentic feeling. 

At the same time, however, this change served to limit the audience that manga could be marketed to.  No longer is it just a black-and-white comic book, but it's now this foreign thing you have to read backwards, with names that end with "kun" and "chan."

That doesn't seem to concern most distributors.  The vast majority of manga wouldn't have an audience outside of that hardcore audience so familiar with the medium and its characteristics.  You're just not going to market Kuchi Kuchi Pachinko to a broad audience.  No, that's not a real manga title.

One example that bucks the trend is Dark Horse's Blade of the Immortal.  Dark Horse has been in the manga market longer than just about anyone else, and Blade of the Immortal is one of the longest-running US manga releases.  Before manga was cool, Manji was slicing dudes up left-to-right-style.  Artist and writer Hiroaki Samura didn't want to just sit back and let it go mirrored without his intervention, however.  In one of the best compromises I've seen, Samura requested that instead of just flipping the pages, he would actually reorganize the panels and even redraw them if necessary to allow a left-to-right read without losing his original intention in the change.

One instance of a flip-that-almost-happened concerns Tezuka's manga Black Jack, distributed by the passionate people over at Vertical.  Tezuka's estate wanted the manga flipped for a broader appeal in the US.  With manga as legendary and significant as Tezuka's, it's easy to see why.

Many of Tezuka's works have been flipped to good effect, including Buddha and MW.  In the case of Black Jack, Vertical argued - successfully - that this would compromise the manga.  For example, the doctor Black Jack's iconic scar would be on the wrong side of his face, they explained.  This would be akin to swapping the S on Superman's crest.  Yeah, sure, it's recognizable, but it's hardly the same thing. See Serdar Yegulalp's review of the book on AMN for a bit more about this.

Nowadays, flipping manga is mostly looked down on the same way editing anime is.  It's only done for mainstream appeal and it compromises the work.  However, due to the higher level of author control in manga, you're more likely to see authors exerting their control to influence how a book comes out here.

If I'm going to talk about my opinion directly, I'll say this: However the author feels it should be done is how it should be done.  If the author wants the book flipped for US release, then I see no problem flipping it, cases like Black Jack notwithstanding.

As long as the manga is coherent and faithful, then I consider myself lucky to be reading it.

What do you think?  Should the manga be left faithful at all costs?  Or is it 'down with those weird backwards books?'

After hearing about it on the newest episode of The 1UP Show, I decided to pick up Sega's Yakuza 2.  After never finishing the first one, but liking it a lot, I had been on the fence about it.  A few things turned the tables for me.

First was the glowing review from pretty much the entire 1UP staff.  After watching their show for a while I've come to trust their opinions and they all had a lot of good things to say about it.

Next is the price point - it's $30 new.  I ordered it off Amazon last night.  Not too bad.

Recap! The second game includes a cutscene recap of the first game, which will keep me from needing to play through the game over again if I don't want to.  Though, I still play boot it up and play through it.  This is a great way to get people who are new to the game into the lore.

Last is the city represented.  The first game gave a great view of Tokyo that had a very realistic feel to it. This one does that with Osaka.  The screenshots I've seen look pretty accurate and I really want to check out that aspect of the game.

All that combined with some apparently improved gameplay and a pretty compelling criminal story makes it look very interesting.

As often as I wonder why Earthbound doesn't get more service states-side, I find myself wondering why other titles are ever made - why certain titles make it past the planning stages.

The most recent example of this is The Punisher: No Mercy, announced on the US Playstation blog as a PSN-only multiplayer-focused first person shooter.

Wait, WHAT?

I'm sorry, but Punisher, while about guns and killing, is not... about guns and killing.  It's about the person doing the killing, why he's doing the killing, and what the ramifications of it are.  It's about a psychotic focus on revenge, the other side of the coin Batman inhabits.

With regard to The Punisher, no one - outside of hardcore Punisher fans - cares about anyone except Frank Castle himself.  No one wants to play as Silver Sable, Bushwacker, whatever.  It's like they're making it because it will flop.  I can't imagine what demographic or market this is for.  Unless it has some insanely catchy mechanics, no one's going to care about a game like this with Unreal, Halo, Gears of War, and Counterstrike hanging around.

I just can't make heads or tails of why this game even exists.

Anyone want to weigh in with opinions - or more examples of games that just don't make any sense in the same way?

I certainly haven't played through Rock Band 2 in its entirety yet, but I've played enough to make some fair conclusions.

Songs
The song mix is certainly unique.  By that I mean, there's something for literally just about everyone.  As a result there's a lot of stuff I wouldn't listen to in a thousand years.  For every song I'm pumping my fist about, there's another I've never heard of.

YES

• Foo Fighters - Everlong
• Survivor - Eye of the Tiger
• Fleetwood Mac - Go Your Own Way
• Metallica - Battery
  

HUH?

• Rush - The Trees (There's gotta be a more rocking Rush song than this one)
  
• Panic at the Disco - Nine in the afternoon
  
• Paramore - That's what You Get
  

NO

• The Go-Go's - We Got the Beat
• Lit - My Own Worst Enemy

Obviously I am not the end-all for musical taste, so that's just my personal list.  Even the first one had a few songs I wouldn't ever want to play again like that goddamn Aerosmith song, where he makes out with the dude or whatever.

Aside from the songs, the differences are much more subtle - or not there at all.
One thing I like is the fact that career mode has been combined.  More specifically, there is no differentiation between Solo Tour and Band Tour. I can go through and sing the songs I like, play the songs I don't know, and get friends to play the songs I don't care for, all in the same career mode.  I have found that Make a Setlist is getting a lot of use because of this, which is pretty neat.

You can also set your band up to look the way you want.  By that I mean you can assign characters to positions in your band.  Then when you are trying to make a sweet punk rock band, you don't end up with some inappropriate 80s hair metal guy spoiling the aesthetic.

The Drum Trainer is also quite sweet.... if you don't suck at the drums.  Good lord am I horrible at drums!  I have no coordination.  It's a really neat way to get used to various beats and tempos though.  There's also a drum-fill trainer which I would really like to have all my friends who play the drums in the game go through.  One of my pet peeves is when someone hammers like crazy on the drums and drowns out the song - sure you got more points, but you threw off the singer and the guitarists while you were going nuts.

Sadly, a lot of the game is exactly the same.  The art for the map is identical.  The clothing and hair choices are mostly if not entirely the same.  Leaving these things untouched makes the game feel almost a bit unfinished; more like an expansion pack than a game.

One thing that going back and playing it has sold me on is getting a new drum set.  The drum set for the first Rock Band title is really, really loud.  It might just be my house, but over the sound of the drumming, song is getting lost.  I can't hear the song I'm singing/playing over it.

I'm happy with the game overall, and the changes are pretty much all for the better, but I would definitely like to see more newness the next time around; make sure I know I've bought a new game, not an expansion pack.