Tag Archives: games

The Outrun Test : An Exercise In Self-Evaluation

It only took a week, but I finally achieved a single clear in Outrun, perhaps my favorite of the ‘classic’ SEGA library.

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This wasn’t my first rodeo, I own and finished ports for both Nintendo 3DS and SEGA CD. What changed things up this time around was that the arcade machine in Yakuza 0 has fixed difficulty settings and it’s pretty brutal.

And when I say it took a week, these were pretty big sessions, an average of three hours every day. The last session when I finally won reached just short of seven hours. For reference, a playthrough from beginning to end only takes about six minutes.

For me, Outrun has always been a therapeutic outlet. Clearing it only took so long because I couldn’t focus, my mind was elsewhere. It’s not only useful for treatment, this is the perfect game for testing mental stability.

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Matsumoto: Wii U Controller Could Be Beneficial To JRPGs

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I know it’s more a Strategy Game than an SRPG, but think about it.

Marvelous AQL and The Last Story Lead Designer Takuya Matsumoto said in a Siliconera interview that the Wii U Gamepad could be beneficial for JRPG strategizing. “I feel that the Wii U’s interface… works best for browsing and arranging information,” said the Lead Designer, alluding to how menu heavy JRPGs can be at times. “This special feature will likely bring about opportunities for deep research into JRPG strategy.” He went on to say that other info, like bios, story synopsis, enemy bestiaries, etc. could also be handled by the Wii U Gamepad.

This could bring about a much more streamlined experience for JRPGs. Now by streamlined I don’t mean “dumbing-down,” but more that it’ll make the actual selecting of menu items a lot faster than on a standard controller layout. Think of how quickly you might’ve selected things on Wii games using the IR Pointer. It was pretty damn quick. Also, while Matsumoto says JRPG strategizing, this could apply to Strategy RPGs. Games like Final Fantasy Tactics, Disgaea, Valkyria Chronicles, and Front Mission could benefit from this approach. These games are rife important information on terrain, units, and other miscellaneous info that the gamepad could provide without having to take you to a separate screen on the TV, or clogging up the screen with info (think Final Fantasy Tactics Advance). Heck, it could even work for RTS games like Starcraft. Some might see the Gamepad being used for just menu based stuff like maps and menu items in the future, rather than playing a more pivotal role. It happened on the DS with one of the screens being used as such, and it was fine by me.

Wii U Controller Will Push JRPG Strategizing, Says The Last Story Lead Designer [Siliconera]

Wii U Titles Leaked By BlockBuster UK

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As we come closer to E3 and the Wii U’s holiday launch, Joystiq reports that BlockBuster UK has leaked a picture of what appears to be launch titles for the Wii U. Besides the 10 in the picture up there, the lists goes deeper, showing titles in the Splinter Cell, Tekken, and Aliens franchises. For now, most of these names look like placeholders. Joystiq had updated their article stating that a former Blockuster employee on NeoGaf says that the titles upthere now are placeholders and that the list was formulated by the sales team. So far what we’re not sure of is which of these titles are launch titles and which aren’t. Some are pretty obvious, like Rayman Legends, Metro: Last Light, and Just Dance 4.

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Say Hello to Nyu Media, Your Newest Niche-Game Publisher [UPDATE]

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In a world full of Battlefields, Call of Dutys, and Skyrims, it’s nice to play something out of the ordinary (and a helluva lot more colorful). So far, there’s primarily Atlus, NIS America, XSEED, and Ignition that cater to the niche market by bringing over Japanese games that the big guys are too scared to publish in the U.S. Well now you can add Nyu Media to the mix. They’ll be specializing in bringing doujin games over. “The high price of imports, limited distribution, and the language barrier have prevented gamers from fully enjoying many quality doujin games,” says founder Seon King on the company’s new page in regard to how hard it is to acquire these games and support the often small dev teams. So far they have six games they’ll be publishing this year, with more on the way in 2012. The gaame will be available on PC through regular distribution platforms. No word yet on if they’ll be publishing the games as downloadables on consoles and/or handhelds. You can hit up the company’s website to see what they’ll be bringing over.

[UPDATE] I’ve contacted Seon King, and he said that they’re in talks to release these games on online platforms like Steam. On the handheld/console front, they’ll also be release games on smartphone devices. There are currently no plans to release these games on PSN or XBLA (Understandably so since these services can have some steep hosting fees).

New Doujin Publisher, Nyu Media, Publishing Japanese Indie Games [Siliconera]

Peter Molyneux Promises the Moon and the Stars in Next “Fable” Game, Gamers Everywhere Chortle.

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Oh Pete, you just don’t know when to quit, do you?

During an interview with CVG, Lionhead Studios…head (?) Peter Molyneux stated that, should the next “Fable” game come to fruition, it will stand as a shining paragon of drama, world creation, and storytelling, and will also cure cancer and make delicious milkshakes. Only two of those are lies…

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