Nintendo has launched the official website for Metroid: Other M — at least the Japanese one — although there's not a whole lot there besides this tease. Not so much a trailer as simply the flash animation that plays when you visit the site, it's still an intriguing tease. (And Game Trailers helpfully translated the tiny bit of dialogue.)
Instead of gangbusters action, they almost seem to be going for atmosphere with the lilting piano and somber imagery. Personally, they've got my attention... how about you?
Capcom wanted me to let you know that a demo for the upcoming Nintendo DS title Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth is available for dowload starting today! Just direct your Wii over ot the Nintendo Channel or take your DS to download station at a participating retailer to get a sneak peek at the game, due out on February 16. Naturally, I couldn't resist giving it a sample myself.
The game plays out just like the other Ace Attorney games, even if it plays a little differently. You get your little scene of the crime occurring, and then Miles starts his investigation. The delightful banter between Edgeworth and Gumshoe is still as awesome as ever. And let's just say that the ambiguous sexuality expands onto the other characters, like the other prosecutor who may just be a cold blooded killer.
You use the D-pad to move around the scene, and the A button to examine items or talk to other characters. Gumshoe follows you around like a lovesick puppy dog in case you need to get some "professional" investigative advice. After finding pieces of evidence, you use the "Logic" system to connect pieces of information to draw a new conclusion and advance the story. There's a little life bard during these segments, so presumably if you make the wrong connections, you'll lose life. You also find and point out contradictions, although hilariously, Edgeworth doesn't want to call them that, since it reminds him of... that other guy.
The demo is really only the first scene of the first case, but it gives you a decent glimpse of how the game will play, and reassures you that the graphics, sound and writing are still up to snuff and makes Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth a worthy addition to the series. Just don't dilly dally, because according to the Nintendo Channel, the demo is only available until February 7.
Name: Marsten Eccleston
Age: 27
Location: South-east of England
Gay, Straight or Bi: Around 80% Gay
Relationship Status: In a relationship, but still charming
Consoles you own: Not many anymore these days, just my PC and my trusty old DS
The
Disgaea series has always been known for its irreverent humor and over-the-top dialog sequences, some of which were even more fun than the actual battles they endcapped. And who can say no to a game with exploding demon penguins?
Well, Nippon Ichi hopes you can't get enough, as they're bringing Disgaea Infinite to North American PSPs this May. They must have had some decent success with the rerelease of Disgaea and then the action game Prinny: Can I Really Be The Hero? on the system, since releasing a game in the visual novel category outside of Japan is almost unheard of.
More commonly associated with the dating sim genre in the West, visual novels have a long and far more varied history in Japan, usually as spinoffs from popular shows or manga to extend their storylines and please fans. Disgaea Infinite will be a "mystery suspense thriller," wherein a Prinny is charged with the task of finding out who tried to assassinate former protagonist Laharl. Given that that could be just about any character in the lawless and spiteful land of the Underworld, the story promises to be quite a ride of hilarious dialog, accusations, and puzzles (NIS even managed to work in a Professor Layton reference into the promotional artwork)!
If you've loved the humor and story of this series so far, make sure to check out Disgaea Infinite when it comes this way in May!
Live life as a Prinny in Disgaea Infinite this May, dood! [Japanator]
Well to those of you that listened to the podcast last week, you probably already heard the news that once again, we're putting on a panel at PAX; however, this time we'll be in Boston. That's right, we submitted yet another 'getting into the game industry' panel with many of the GayGamer.net folks and friends for PAX East, and apparently the folks running the event are gluttons for punishment (little bit of S&M in them) and green-lighted the panel.
Some might remember that we kept it classy with the name of our last panel and we wanted to do the same for this one. In fact, this time with our acceptance email I was even told by the coordinator, "I have to say I always enjoy your panel titles." So it should come as no surprise that the new panel is named thusly: Forcing Your Way In & Coming Out On Top: The Game Industry in Rainbow Color. Here's the summary of what the panel will be:
Many of the friends and writers of the GayGamer.net community are a mixture of people that work or have worked in various fields within the gaming industry from big-time producers to lowly QA grunts. We're back again, with our east coast crew to impart our wisdom of what the industry is like for anyone trying to get a foot in the door as well as what it can be like for someone doesn't quite fit the status quo. Chris Schroyer, David Edison, Helen McWilliams, and Chip Smith will divulge how we made it into programming, production, marketing, and media, impart war stories we've collected from the trenches, discuss the multitude of issues that can arise in the ever expanding ecosystem that is the game industry, and show how the game industry is growing with everyone in mind and in action.
So as you can see Chris, Helen, and I will be back for this panel, and this time we'll actually have Flynn (Fruit Brute) and David (Tiny Dancer) there to round out the panel. We even got a (tentatively) prime time slot of March 27th (Sat.) from 7:30pm - 8:30pm in the Wyvern Theatre. With the late night Saturday timeslot, you can be sure that we'll be heading out to live it up in Boston shortly after the panel.
A reminder that the current schedule is still in flux. We'll be sure to let you know if the panel slips to another slot, but we're more than pumped to be putting on another panel and hope that just as many (if not more) of you guys come out to help us set the crazy standard to a new level for PAX. Remember to buy your badges early as there's a good chance of PAX East 3-day badges selling out early.
See you at the show!
I am in the process of sending out all the Muscle March skins to the winners but still have not heard from five people. If I don't hear from these five folks by the end of tomorrow, I will give these away to the next five posters from the original contest post.
Here are the five names still needing mailing address confirmation. please send your mailing addresses to info@gaygamer.net with the subject "Muscle march Skin Winner":
- Mad Mage
- Goshadole
- Yamil
- Mrtall
- thepickupbear
Keep checking back as we have another Muscle march giveaway happening this week. In the interest of fairness, please be aware that if you won the first contest, you won't be eligible for the next one.
Thanks!
A big GayGamer birthday greeting goes out to our very own bear lovin' Pixel Poet today. He's done some great stuff here at GG including his rampage against the Dante's Inferno "booth babe" PR stunt and setting up panels for GayGamer at PAX last year and this year at PAX East.
Happy Birthday, Pixel Poet. My your day be filled with bears, beards, rainbows and lollipops.
Having just finished up with Bayonetta, fans of Platinum Games (formerly Clover) have been anxiously clamoring for news of their next title. The wait is now over with the release of the teaser trailer of Vanquish. With Shinji Mikami of Resident Evil fame serving as game director on the title, this title (probably for the PS3/360 from the looks of it) promises lots of shooting and explosions without the overt sexual overtones seen in their last title. While the teaser doesn't give us any solid gameplay footage or information, it certainly sets up a unique atmosphere and manages to mix it up with some odd/creepy live action footage. Could Platinum be really ready to set aside silliness for sincerity?
On a side note, is it just me or does the futuristic soldier in the white armor look strikingly familiar for some reason. As much as I hope we'll see the return of Vanessa Z. Schneider I'm not going to hold my breath. This game looks much too serious for rhythmic shooting, but I'm anxious to be proven wrong.
It's a big week for the DSi this week on Nintendo's online storefront with five new titles for the handheld. First up is True Swing Golf Express, a downloadable version of the DS golf game that was released back in 2006. Then we have Legends of Exidia, an RPG from Gameloft that is actually a port of their mobile game Might and Magic 2 minus the license. For card game fans both Downtown Texas Hold 'Em and 5 in 1 Solitaire see release, the latter of which includes Klondike, Spider, Freecell, Golf, and Gaps variants. And in an interesting twist, we get a DSi motion controlled game with Move your Brain Rollway Puzzle. By tilting your DSi the system's camera will sense your movements to roll a ball around the levels. I'm both terrified at how imprecise that could be and intrigued to see if it all works.
Getting away from the handheld, WiiWare has some fine offerings of its own this week. The fifth and final chapter of Tales of Monkey Island finally arrives on the Wii, assuming you haven't already played through it on PC. Zuma Tumblebugs 2 also arrives on WiiWare, bringing a familiar puzzle design to the console. 5 in 1 Solitaire also arrives on the Wii this week, though for $3 more than its DSi sibling. And finally, the Wii's sole virtual console release is the final game in the Alex Kidd series, Alex Kidd in Shinobi World.
Check after the jump for full descriptions of each of this week's games.
System Shock, and its sequel System Shock 2, comprise what is hands down one of my favorite IPs of all time. Bioshock was all right, but it wasn't quite the experience that was System Shock 2, and the older title remains one of the few games I still play repeatedly and religiously. It's also one of the few games that still utterly terrifies me no matter how many times I complete it, leaving me screaming like a terrified girl hiding from the monsters.
Over on the Irrational Games blog there's an entry titled "What Might Have Been," which features a treasure trove of secrets and behind-the-scenes stuff about the game from its Creative Director, Ken Levine.
One of the most interesting revelations is the fact that the cliff-hanger ending for System Shock 2 wasn't actually intended at all; Levine had plans for something completely different, but due to miscommunications with the team that developed the ending clip, the final video he was handed didn't resemble anything like the script he'd written. Unable to afford the time and resources to send it back to be redone, the team instead squished their story around to match up with the fixed plot of the final FMV.
"Due to miscommunications or differing ideas, a different cinematic video was created from the one that I originally scripted," says Levine. "It had this elaborate sequence where Shodan would attempt to kill you in a double-cross, as this 'cyber stinger' that was in view provided tension of your impending doom." Upon getting his hands on the video for the ending sequence, Levine didn't see anything that he wrote in the script. "We didn't have much to work with. It was like when you look in the cupboard and you're trying to make soup, and you have a bag of salt and couple of pinto beans." Working with fixed assets can be extremely challenging especially with limited time and resources as well as fighting the technology back then. Levine remembers, "We had to write to the assets we had at that point, and all we could do was edit it. We completely ran out of time and that cut scene wasn't the right ending for the game."
There's other fun stuff, like how the transition from the Von Braunn to The Rickenbacker was meant to be a zero-gee level but the technology wasn't feasible so it was dropped, along with Levine's commentary on how "fucking with" the player-- one of System Shock 2's greatest accomplishments, was something that the creative team pushed back against and didn't initially support.
All in all there's a lot of cool stuff in the interview. I've long hoped that an actual third game in the series would be released, paying proper respects to the first two, and just reading this blog entry has me nostalgic to start up yet another play-through.
System Shock 2's Surprise Ending -- for Ken Levine, Anyway [Kotaku]
- Some beta testers are reporting (anonymously) that OnLive may not deliver on its lofty promises.
- Asterick gave us some macro thoughts on the micro-game Escapee GO!
- Capcom dated a slew of its big Spring releases.
- Ubisoft admitted that all of its upcoming PC releases will require a constant connection to the internet.
- Fruit Brute reviewed Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Ultimate All-Stars.
- While it's not exactly a game, Game Boy had some praise for the cataloging program Delicious Library.
- mixvio profiled a way for you to help invest in some quality indie gaming.
- Reports started surfacing of a major new Pokemon game due in Japan this year.
- We wished ROCsteady a very happy birthday.
- This week's podcast featured a special guest: Sid Shuman, the former senior editor of GamePro magazine.
- Wootini went ginger in this week's Animal Crossing Diary.
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