Back in October, I had the privilege of attending Nintendo's Fall Media Summit and getting some much-needed hands-on time with some upcoming RPGs for RPGamer. I dutifully wrote up my impressions of the games, which can be found below:
Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon DS
Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia DS
Pokemon Ranger: Shadows of Almia DS
All games were great fun to play, and Nintendo was more than accommodating during the entirety of the event. This was where the DSi was first premiered to the US, which generated relatively mixed reviews from those who had a peek at it, but I remain optimistic until I get it in my hands. I'll miss the GBA slot, though! I was also able to make it down to BlizzCon, which netted the following impression:
Diablo 3 - BlizzCon Impression
Woohoo!
Showing posts with label RPGamer. Show all posts
Showing posts with label RPGamer. Show all posts
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
RPGamer – 2008 NIS Press Event Impressions
Almost a month ago (!) I had the privilege of heading up to San Francisco to cover the 2008 NIS press event for RPGamer. I bumped elbows with some internet friends and rivals, enjoyed some delicious food on the house, hosted an interview, and was lucky enough to get my hands on a few new RPGs from NIS that are coming stateside this year. I wish I could have broken this into a few separate updates to make myself seem more productive, but since this event occurred three days before my last final and graduation, I obviously had no time for that.
Anyways! Take a look at the impressions below. It's always fun actually playing something before writing about them and I think they turned out rather well. Especially A Witches Tale, considering I saw no actual footage of the game. Enjoy.
(I also covered Disgaea 3 again, but I wanted to save those impressions for the big preview of the game I'm writing this month. Now that I can go in-depth into the storyline, churning out another "I walked here and threw this" impression would be absurdly redundant.)
Anyways! Take a look at the impressions below. It's always fun actually playing something before writing about them and I think they turned out rather well. Especially A Witches Tale, considering I saw no actual footage of the game. Enjoy.
(I also covered Disgaea 3 again, but I wanted to save those impressions for the big preview of the game I'm writing this month. Now that I can go in-depth into the storyline, churning out another "I walked here and threw this" impression would be absurdly redundant.)
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
RPGamer - Disgaea 3 Impressions
The second half of the Run to the Sun meetings I was able to attend consisted of a trip to NIS America to meet up with a few staff members and play an early build of Disgaea 3. While embargoes forbid me from going into too much detail at this time, things are certainly shaping up well for fans of outlandish Tactical RPGs. Disgaea 3 was rough around the edges, but left many of us happy with NIS's progress so far. While it didn't score too high in our overall rankings, a lot of that can be chalked up to the early build we played and the ways that D3 can't really be picked up and enjoyed like a good shooter or fighter can be. I have high hopes for August.
Here's my impressions. A in-depth preview will be going up sometime during the first week of June, and I'll be attending a press event for NIS to spend some more time with their upcoming lineup and do an interview. Things are looking up!
Read: Disgaea 3 Impressions
Here's my impressions. A in-depth preview will be going up sometime during the first week of June, and I'll be attending a press event for NIS to spend some more time with their upcoming lineup and do an interview. Things are looking up!
Read: Disgaea 3 Impressions
RPGamer - Summon Night: Twin Age Impression
Yikes!
In one of my more memorable strokes of luck, I had the chance to meet up with a few other fun fellows from RPGamer down in Southern California to talk videogames with two huge RPG publishers - Atlus and Nippon Ichi Software (NIS) America. The latter was a complete stroke of luck, as I was only originally planning to meet up, talk with Atlus, and help relieve some of the coverage pressure from the publisher's eight+ games. Luckily I was able to tag along and go to dinner, and even get asked to go to a press event in SF next month. Exciting!
Here's the first game Atlus let us get our hands on, Summon Night: Twin Age. It's an Action RPG through and through, but looks to be surprisingly fun and fresh, allowing for neat exploration, item conjuring, and other interesting things to do in comparison to your usual hack-'n-slash. I wrote up more of my impressions over at RPGamer, so go take a look over there.
Read: Summon Night: Twin Age Impression
In one of my more memorable strokes of luck, I had the chance to meet up with a few other fun fellows from RPGamer down in Southern California to talk videogames with two huge RPG publishers - Atlus and Nippon Ichi Software (NIS) America. The latter was a complete stroke of luck, as I was only originally planning to meet up, talk with Atlus, and help relieve some of the coverage pressure from the publisher's eight+ games. Luckily I was able to tag along and go to dinner, and even get asked to go to a press event in SF next month. Exciting!
Here's the first game Atlus let us get our hands on, Summon Night: Twin Age. It's an Action RPG through and through, but looks to be surprisingly fun and fresh, allowing for neat exploration, item conjuring, and other interesting things to do in comparison to your usual hack-'n-slash. I wrote up more of my impressions over at RPGamer, so go take a look over there.
Read: Summon Night: Twin Age Impression
Thursday, February 21, 2008
RPGamer - Opoona Preview
Alright! Here's something a bit more substantial: a full blown preview! I've been a fan of Opoona since it was announced for Western shores and jumped at the opportunity to write a preview about it for RPGamer. I tried to do previews last year, but after an unfortunate mishap with a Fire Emblem write up, I retreated into hibernation. Alas, I am back and in full effect, and I hope you will enjoy.
The preview is a bit "by the numbers," but considering it was written for RPGamer and intended to by a synopsis of my internet sleuthing combined with press releases, I think it turned out pretty well. I should hopefully be getting a review copy for MyWiiNews sometime around the time that Opoona launches, so look forward to my hands-on impressions of the game sometime soon.
Onward! To Obscurity!
Read: RPGamer's Opoona Preview
The preview is a bit "by the numbers," but considering it was written for RPGamer and intended to by a synopsis of my internet sleuthing combined with press releases, I think it turned out pretty well. I should hopefully be getting a review copy for MyWiiNews sometime around the time that Opoona launches, so look forward to my hands-on impressions of the game sometime soon.
Onward! To Obscurity!
Read: RPGamer's Opoona Preview
Thursday, January 24, 2008
RPGamer Editorial - Classic Gaming: Great or Gilded?
It sure has been an involved week. Between working on my first review for GameSpite, churning out a piece over at MyWiiNews about one of my personal loves (Guitar Hero), and other random things like school and work, I sure was busy. One of my pieces that I felt pretty invested in finally went up over at RPGamer, where I discussed whether or not classic games are legitimately good, or just simply nostalgia-fests. I felt pretty strongly about the topic, especially when I look back at games that I love (but not everyone can) like the original Zelda. I feel like there almost has to be a different mindset for people to really appreciate these old games that truly emphasize exploration and adventure, rather than the way that later "adventure" titles tell you where to go, what to bomb, and how to make it through the landscape safely. Quite frankly, the original Zelda beats your ass; there's practically no guidance at all (save for a few cryptic old men) and all the pressure lies on you to create your own adventure and explore the landscape.
As I noted on the boards, the original Zelda is extremely liberating in the way that it allows you to embark on an adventure where you're actually exploring every inch of a world for the first time, just like you would in real life. Sure, you probably can't make homemade pipe bombs and go exploring in the same way that you do in Zelda, but that's what videogames are for, right? They provide us with a way to live out those childhood fantasies in ways that you might never be able to in real life. Instead of feeling muddled because there are no rupee-laden arrows showing you which way to go while playing the original Zelda, embrace the fact that every wall and every bush holds a potential secret to uncover. It's difficult for me to do as I make my way through the second quest for the first time, but it's an amazing feeling when I do stumble upon something new.
It's really difficult for gamers nowadays to pick up and enjoy older games in the same way that many of us did as kids. I believe it's chiefly due to the amount of independent exploration and trial-and-error experimentation that these games require, rather than holding your hand through the same ten levels. GamaSutra did a nice little piece that relates to this, talking about the verisimilitude of classic games which are constructed in the way that makes the player think that the world that they are interacting with is an actual LIVING, BREATHING, environment through hidden gems and randomization. While Zelda is a helluva lot more forgiving than the random mess known as Rogue ever was, the basic idea of interacting with a world that has hidden elements that need to be uncovered through exploration and experimentation is one that is shared among a lot of retro games and alien to a lot of current-gen titles. I think that this is one of the biggest reasons that games older than the 16-Bit era have difficulties reaching a wider audience, and just might be something to write about for a future column for RPGamer.
As I noted on the boards, the original Zelda is extremely liberating in the way that it allows you to embark on an adventure where you're actually exploring every inch of a world for the first time, just like you would in real life. Sure, you probably can't make homemade pipe bombs and go exploring in the same way that you do in Zelda, but that's what videogames are for, right? They provide us with a way to live out those childhood fantasies in ways that you might never be able to in real life. Instead of feeling muddled because there are no rupee-laden arrows showing you which way to go while playing the original Zelda, embrace the fact that every wall and every bush holds a potential secret to uncover. It's difficult for me to do as I make my way through the second quest for the first time, but it's an amazing feeling when I do stumble upon something new.
It's really difficult for gamers nowadays to pick up and enjoy older games in the same way that many of us did as kids. I believe it's chiefly due to the amount of independent exploration and trial-and-error experimentation that these games require, rather than holding your hand through the same ten levels. GamaSutra did a nice little piece that relates to this, talking about the verisimilitude of classic games which are constructed in the way that makes the player think that the world that they are interacting with is an actual LIVING, BREATHING, environment through hidden gems and randomization. While Zelda is a helluva lot more forgiving than the random mess known as Rogue ever was, the basic idea of interacting with a world that has hidden elements that need to be uncovered through exploration and experimentation is one that is shared among a lot of retro games and alien to a lot of current-gen titles. I think that this is one of the biggest reasons that games older than the 16-Bit era have difficulties reaching a wider audience, and just might be something to write about for a future column for RPGamer.
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