Japan Games Festa

So, it was mentioned on my other blog that Carla and I attended the Japan Games Festa. And that it was good. Both those statements are true. If that is all you need to know, then you can probably stop reading now. Cuz I'm gonna go way more in depth about it. Geeky crazy more in depth. Or maybe I'll get tired and do a really half-assed job.

As I mentioned on my other site, the first game I tried out was one from Sega called kimi no tame nara shineru. Loosely translated, it means "I would die for you". The American title is Feel the Magic: XX/XY or somesuch. And it was good. As were the shirts that the people wore to promote the game. As was the cute Japanese girl who whispered words of encouragement as I tried to get the guy in the game to vomit up goldfish. She clapped when I succeeded. That made me happy.

The game was harder than I was expecting, mainly because the people in line in front of me didn't seem to have nearly the problems I did. Maybe because I held the stylus funny, I don't know. I still had fun. The DS, I am willing to state right now, will be pantloads of fun.

While I was waiting in line to play the DS, (the DS games had the biggest lines in the show. Followed closely, or tied, by Capcom's Biohazard 4 and Devil May Cry 3) I looked at some of the other games on display around where I was standing. There was some kind of RPG that looked cute and good, full of hand drawn sprite-y goodness. Shining Tears it may have been called. Next to that were some Altered Beast demo units. I meant to go back and play them later but I never did. Looked like a 3-D beat-em-up with gruesome CG transformation cut scenes. There was some Outrun 2 which I also didn't play and some fighting games that I also didn't play. Wow, I really didn't play a lot of Sega games, really only the one, because it will be released on a Nintendo system. Man, Kelly must hate me right now. To be fair, I meant to go back and play Altered Beast, and I didn't want to be embarrassed in front of elite Japanese haxxorz when I suxxored at Outrun 2 and the 2-D fighters. I didn't want to loose face.

Opposite all these Sega games were a whole lot of EA games and a dating simulation game. I didn't play the dating sim, but one time when I looked over, an anime girl in a short skirt was sitting on some guy's face. Looked like fun. Anyhoo, EA had a fair few games on display. The Lord of the Rings RPG was there. It looked nice, from what I could see when other people played it. I didn't play it myself, as the menu screens were full of kanji that I couldn't read. There was Need For Speed Underground 2 which looked much like the first. I wasn't interested in the first one either. Burnout 3 was there, but I own that game. It rocks. I meant to play that game at some point during the day as well. Then there were a lot of sports games. Then there was Goldeneye: Rogue Agent. It was playable on both the PS2 and the Gamecube. Every other game in the whole hall had line ups except for the Rogue Agent demo units. I know that the Japanese aren't all that fond of First Person Shooters, but this was kind of ridiculous. Plus, as I later saw, the Halo2 section of Demo units always had a line and all 5 of their machines were always in use.

I'm gonna break from strict chronology here. You see, I didn't play Goldeneye: Rogue Agent right away, Carla and I wandered the floor after the Sega DS game (BUY IT!). I came back to Rogue Agent (I refuse to call it Goldeneye) much later in the day. I'm gonna talk about it now though, because it was easily the worst game I played all day and I don't want it bothering me later.

So yeah, when I went back to play it the first time, the Cube version wasn't working. It was on some kind of error message and no combination of button pushing would get it to do anything. Maybe I am a bit biased, but I think the GameCube is the most stable console on the market right now. The PS2, and my feelings towards it are fairly well known. I think it sucks. I think PS2s are manufactured with built in obsolescence. And not the regular, "Have to buy the PS3!" obsolescence, but having to buy multiple PS2s cuz they crap out obsolescence. The XBox is flaky as well. I've lost count of the number of demo units I've seen in game stores with error messages on their screens. The GameCube is not without it's faults but it's a sturdier piece of hardware. I'm willing to bet that the error message from the Rogue Agent game had nothing to do with a malfunction in the Cube. Rather, it was some crap code that EA missed cuz they shit out crap product. Or maybe there wasn't a memory card inserted. EA, unlike every other publisher/developer out there can't seem to figure out how to make their games run without memory cards. It's fucking annoying.

The second time I went back, it was stuck on a different screen.

Why didn't I play the PS2 version? Because I am biased, that's why. Plus I prefer the Cube controller for shooters. To be honest, I think the XBox controller is best for shooters. But that may have something to do with Halo being on that machine. Plus you couldn't play multiplayer on the PS2. There were 4 controllers hooked up to the Cube only one to the PS2. Wow, I'm spending entirely too much time on Rogue Agent. Especially since I might write a later blog entry about how much EA sucks.

The third time I went back to try the game, one of the Festa staff members was trying to get it working. He waded through menu screen after menu screen. I think he went through the same ones a few times over as well. That EA, they sure know how to craft a user friendly front end! He eventually got it working, but only in multiplayer. No one wanted to play with me. Not even Carla. So I gave it a go on my own. This game sucks. It sucks hard. This game looks like crap in mulitiplayer. Like a non-blurry N64 Goldeneye. That ain't a compliment. And it moves so slow! Slower than the N64 original. And when I say original, I do not intend to infer that Rogue Agent is in any way a sequel. No one who worked on the N64 game had anything to do with this piece of shit. This game has nothing to do with the movie. It is called Goldeneye because the main character, an evil guy, has a Golden eye. How fucking stupid is that? So yeah, the multiplayer plays worse than a seven year old game. How is that even possible? I mean, they could have just added some new characters to the N64 game, maybe a couple new weapons and speeded it up a bit and it would have been just fine. But no, they manage to fuck it up completely. From what I saw of the single player version, it fares only slightly better. The enemies seemed dim, and the animation was fairly crap. So bad. Fuck EA. Carla, who took pitty on me, picked up another controller and played for no more than 2 minutes before setting the controller back down and declaring that the game sucked ass. When the lady is right, she's right.

Let's lighten the mood a little. Halo 2 rocked. I'm sure a most of you already know that. Looked gorgeous. I only saw one instance of texture pop in, but who the fuck cares man, those grenade explosions are divine! And if they propel someone into a wall, where they realistically slide to the ground and crumple in all sorts of interesting ways, so much the better. And it controls like a dream. It wasn't configured to my liking at all, but still I was killing and evading like a pro. Only occasionally staring at the ground or the sky. I didn't play my best, in fact I out and out sucked my first round, but I did okay. That sword is awesome. As is double wielding. I didn't carjack anyone, nor did anyone else. Man, I can't wait to get home and have Seve smite me over and over and over in that game. The gaping chasm of quality between Halo 2 and the Bond game could not be bigger.

Dragon Quest 7 was there, but I didn't play any of the role playing games on offer because that is just too much reading and I read too damn slow. There were other SquareEnix games on offer, including one that no one was allowed to take pictures of. It was some kind of strategy card game starring super deformed versions of all sorts of characters form all sorts of Square and Enix games.

There was an Incredibles game for the GBA and one for the PS2. The GBA game looked like a run of the mill beat em up with a fairly limited arsenal of moves. The PS2 game looked really good and played fairly well. I beat up a bunch of goons in a very nice looking roof top level and then caught some explosives and threw them back at the flying bastards who had lobbed them at me. The I triggered a cinema that froze. So I slunk away. There was some kind of quasi Matrix-y looking game from Taito. It looked lame but fun. I didn't play it.

I played Rumble Roses. And I urge you all to do the same. Seriously. All of you who have access to a PS2, go play this game right now. This game makes Dead or Alive look tame. It is so over the top in its objectification of the female form that it's impossible to take seriously. So much jiggle. And the game engine under all the eye candy is pretty solid. You need to experience a mudwrestling match in skimpy bikinis. Every time there is an excuse for the camera to zoom into one of the girls' crotch or chest area, it does. Man. It almost makes me want to get a PS2 when I get back home. Almost.

I've gone on for a fair bit here, and Carla and I have an excursion planned for tomorrow so maybe I will split this coverage into two parts, maybe more.

I guess that's all for now. Tune in next time where I will bitch about Metal Gear Solid!