I was just driving on 101 and sort of zoning out when I realized I was behind this guy. I imagine the sensation that followed is comparable to what a soccer striker would feel if the other team's goalie suddenly vanished. Somehow I was able to resist doing anything rash.
So what am I supposed to do when Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence, Metroid Prime: Hunters, and Tetris DS all come out during the same week? I'm hoping the correct answer is: buy all of them. While the impact on my wallet will probably not be as bad as I think (with only one or two more really compelling titles coming out in the next six months), I expect I'll have some difficulty juggling the online modes in three games at once (plus making sure my ACWW town doesn't rot). Also, in order to keep track of all my friend codes/online game aliases, I created a separate page for them here: Metaly's friend codes. That covers all my DS Wi-fi games and a few others as well.
Drop me a comment or IM with your code(s) if you want to play.
OK so it's actually hail, but I think this qualifies as a snowstorm in California.
Via Gamasutra:
RedOctane CEO Kelly Sumner has confirmed to UK trade magazine that the company is working with Harmonix for several future Guitar Hero sequels. "We are working on Guitar Hero 2, which will have 40-plus new tracks," said Sumner, as well as country music and heavy metal-themed expansions. The company plans to produce "a further five or six titles by the middle of 2007." In addition, says Sumner, a standalone plug and play version not requiring a PS2 may be in the works. Still unconfirmed are rumors of a second model of guitar controller modeled after the Gibson Flying V.
I don't really feel the need to add anything to that.
Oh god I think that was more TV than I think I've watched all year. Or, at least this month, I guess. Jon Stewart did a fine job as host, although I'm disappointed that everyone snubbed the Baldwin brothers joke, because it was awesome.
To commemorate, there are eight new Famous Actors!, including the big winners, then Matt Dillon and Keira Knightley because the camera cut away to them like a billion times, and finally Patrick Swayze because somebody asked for him. I decided to let them all enjoy their evening and did without the obnoxious commentary this time around. I think Patrick Swayze got the best deal out of this.
OK, so I did write all over Philip Seymour Hoffman, but only because the Mission: Impossible III trailer sucks and his lines in it are totally goofy and not good trailer material.
Anyway, Famous Actors!
EB called me the other day to tell me my pre-order bonus for Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence, the Metal Gear Saga Vol. 1 DVD, had arrived. It even had my name on it when I picked it up, which was very kind considering that my previous EB (in Santa Barbara) seemed to employ an alternate policy of just giving my things away to random customers.
The main content of the DVD is a five-part overview of the five released [canon] Metal Gear titles. It's hard to say what Konami's target audience was when they put this together, since it keeps switching between some great interview segments with Hideo Kojima giving background info and details on how he came up with each installment, and an overly-dramatic narrator who keeps providing plot recaps and raving about the series's success, like he's trying to get viewers all caught up. The narration also curiously glosses right over the Japan-only Metal Gear 2, which receives the least attention out of all the five games. If they were really trying to fill people in, that would have been a good opportunity.
So, not as probingly in-depth as I would have liked. Still, at least the Kojima interviews are informative. The part I found most interesting was when he revealed this bit on Metal Gear Solid 2:
The original plot for the game was very different. The setting was Iran and Iraq, and the story focused on nuclear weapons inspections; Metal Gear was rumored to be hidden behind closed doors and inspectors were being denied access. [...] But about a half year into the project, the Middle East started to heat up again and we realized we couldn't develop a game like that.
Personally, I think that would have been a much more interesting game. For some reason I always found the Big Shell a bit dreary. It would have been great to see Snake in a more exotic location (although I guess that did eventually happen in Snake Eater). The Iraq nuclear weapons inspection thing is a little creepy, though, especially considering that Kojima came up with the plot back in 1998.1
There's also this interesting explanation of Raiden's origin:
After completing work on the first Metal Gear Solid we conducted a survey by gathering a group of women that don't normally buy games. So based on the results of this survey, we intended to begin planning for the next game. A number of junior high school girls participated, but one response stood out: "I hate games about stupid old men!" "They're so worthless!" "I can't stand them!" Asked if she would buy a game like MGS she wrote, "No way would I buy this stupid sort of game!" The team became very depressed. Character artist [Yoji] Shinkawa and I asked ourselves what we could do to fix this problem. So with the users in mind we came up with the new lead character "Raiden."
I suppose it's impressive that they'd make such a huge change to the game in pursuit of one demographic, but wouldn't it have been more logical to poll some existing fans as well? Also, I wonder who they polled to come up with MGS4's geriatric Snake, and how that group of non-gaming women feels about that.
1 According to The Document of Metal Gear Solid 2.
Just got back from the revered/infamous Emerald Hills Golfland. It was pretty much deserted, maybe because everyone was waiting until this evening's $6 free play session. But, it was great having full access to all the games they had, including Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection, Virtua Cop 3, Mario Kart Arcade GP, and the requisite array of music games, including a new (to me) one called Percussion Master or something along those lines.
Some thoughts:
Tekken 5: DR - The first things I noticed about this were the new character art and "remixed" stages, which were cool variations on the originals. Dragunov was fun to try and felt sort of like Kazuya, but I'll probably need more time to play this and pick up all the subtleties before I can reasonably evaluate the new characters, or the changes they made to the existing ones.
Mario Kart Arcade GP - I tried this before and wasn't too impressed, so I passed it up this time. I couldn't really get used to playing a Mario Kart game using an actual steering wheel/pedal setup, plus all of the items were pretty boring.
Virtua Cop 3 - I didn't even know this was in the works, so it was a fun surprise. Since graphics have come so far since Virtua Cop 2's blocky characters, it was hard to recognize this as a Virtua Cop game, save for the classic targeting reticles around each enemy. Upon seeing the Time Crisis-esque floor pedals in front of the cabinet, I thought maybe Sega had copped out1 and added in a hiding mechanic, but instead stepping on the pedal sends you into bullet-time, dubbed "ES mode," which lets you shoot incoming bullets or grenades out of the air. Very useful for the enemies with fast-moving reticles. Also, occasionally the action would stop and highlight several targets, like the windows of an oncoming truck, and you'd have a limited amount of time to shoot them out before the action resumed. It was hard to tell whether success in these situations affected the course of the level or maybe just saved you some health. Overall, it was pretty fun. I'm looking forward to seeing it pop up in more locations, since I've played Time Crisis 3 almost to death.
DrumMania - This was admittedly the first time I'ved tried a DrumMania game, since finally there was no long line or huge crowd gathered around the machine to see me flailing around. Verdict: It is fun to hit things with sticks, especially to Tomoyasu Hotei music. Also, I suspect this particular machine linked with the Guitar Freaks unit beside it, which I've never seen an arcade actually utilize. Didn't get to try that out, though.
Percussion Master - Speaking of hitting things with sticks, there was this other game that was sort of like an arcade version of Taiko Drum Master, except it had two extra pads on either side of the center drum. I actually think I liked this better than DrumMania, since the smaller number of targets and their more centralized arrangement made for a much more intuitive experience. I was able to pull off some decent scores on intermediate-level songs, which was not the case with DrumMania. I hope this is still there the next time, as it's apparently a couple years old.
In conclusion: Empty arcade + shooting/rhythm games = :]
1 Virtua copped out. AHAHAHAHAHA.
