General gaming

General gaming

The Prehistory of Nihon Falcom

Posted: 01 Nov 2011 06:26 AM PDT

Toshihiro Kondo, president of Nihon Falcom, spoke about the history of his company to Japan's Famitsu magazine a few weeks back. He's currently heading a company that, after a lull, is going from strength to strength -- its latest PSP RPG, The Legend of Heroes: Ao no Kiseki, has sold nearly a quarter million copies in Japan, making it one of the most successful titles for Japan's oldest RPG company in years.

In the very beginning, though -- all the way back in 1981 -- Falcom consisted entirely of Masayuki Kato, a computer engineer who became enraptured with the first personal computers that hit stores in the 1970s. "I'm one of the rare people in this industry who came here from a 'normal' job," he told Famitsu this week. "After college I worked for a decade or so as a computer technician at an automaker. I was stationed overseas at Bangkok when I touched an Apple II computer for the first time, and it was just a massive sort of culture shock to me -- I thought to myself 'What have I been doing with myself all this time?' So I bought one and started messing with it, and compared to the large-scale computers we had at work, it really seemed like they were more suited for entertainment purposes. I had tons of fun playing games on it, typing in the programs they printed in magazines and playing them with my son. He would keep saying to me 'Dad, can you have it so I have more bullets?' or 'Can you make that bad guy stop showing up?', and in the midst of modifying programs, I learned how to make my own games."

Japan Review Check: Driver, Peace Walker HD

Posted: 01 Nov 2011 05:39 AM PDT

A quick look at the highlights among the games coming out in Japan this coming week, courtesy the review pages of Famitsu magazine:

- Metal Gear Solid Peace Walker: HD Collection (10/10/9/10 PS3; 10/9/9/9 Xbox 360): The US version of the HD Collection includes MGS2, MGS3: Subsistence, Peace Walker and an optional limited-edition artbook, but in Japan the HD Peace Walker is a standalone release. Famitsu loves the game, of course. "The thrilling story and incredible sense of immersion is right up there with the PSP version," one editor said, "and being able to experience that in HD on a big screen is pure excitement. The difficulty is high, and the controls don't help with that, but all the stuff you can do with Mother Base provides a lot of neat fun."

All About the New Devil May Cry

Posted: 01 Nov 2011 05:05 AM PDT

To Motohide Eshiro, the Capcom producer overseeing work on DmC: Devil May Cry, the aim with this series reboot is to rock the boat without overturning it. "The theme with this DMC is 'rebirth,'" he told Japan's Famitsu magazine in an interview published this week. "We want to make a new Devil May Cry that still retains and takes advantage of the current game world, and I thought it'd be best to leave that task to a team that understood what makes DMC fun while being able to approach it from a different viewpoint than a Japanese outfit. Ninja Theory has a great deal of talent when it comes to visuals, and I figured that combining that with Capcom's action-game experience would give us that new game we're looking for."

Is Dante's new look part of that rebirth? Absolutely: "We had Ninja Theory think about what Dante would look like if he was 'cool' from an overseas perspective. He has to be appealing to Japanese people as well, though, so the current design is the result of several rounds of fine-tuning."

Analysts Paint Optimistic Picture of 3DS's Future in Japan

Posted: 01 Nov 2011 04:35 AM PDT

It's not a secret to anyone that the Nintendo 3DS's launch hasn't gone as well as the hardware giant would have hoped. The system, which was heavily discounted in July after failing to meet its sales targets, has shipped a total of 6.68 million units worldwide as of the end of September, well below expectations. This, coupled with an expensive yen and slower-than-expected software sales, led Nintendo to announce its first expected yearly loss since it first began to release consolidated earnings reports in 1981.

Nintendo is counting on brisk holiday sales to help the 3DS win back its good name, and -- in Japan, at least -- industry watchers are optimistic about the company's chances. "Hardware sales are usually five to eight times what they usually are for the rest of the year," SMBC Nikko Securities analyst Eiji Maeda told Japan's Famitsu magazine. "Reflecting that, I think around 2 to 2.5 million systems sold [in November and December] is a given, and it being the first Christmas for the 3DS, I think it's possible to expect more than that."

inFamous: Festival of Blood is a Quirky Little Standalone Halloween Special

Posted: 31 Oct 2011 06:34 PM PDT

A universal problem with canon -- whether for a video game, a television series, a saga in either graphic or prose novel form -- is that it takes commitment and following to fully enjoy. A property with a deep canon rewards those who have followed from the beginning and can pick up on all the jokes, references, "previously ons", and so forth. But if you haven't been actively following said property, then such a thing might appear daunting; which leads to, "nah, I didn't play the others, so I'll skip this one." One solution that other media has provided is the standalone special: a frivolous holiday themed adventure that requires little knowledge and has no bearing on the story. Think Star Wars: Holiday Special or It's The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown. inFamous: Festival of Blood presents itself as a video game equivalent of such.

Festival of Blood has no particular time or place -- it simply chronicles a tall tale told from faithful sidekick Zeke to a prospective woman at a bar. In an attempt to snare her, Zeke goes off about Pyre Night, a local festival in New Marais, and Cole MacGrath's solitary crappy night celebrating it. That is, how Cole gets bitten by Bloody Mary, a local vampire queen, and spends the whole night trying to figure out how to break free from turning into her vampire thrall.

Review: Sonic Generations Shows That Sega's Learned From Their Mistakes

Posted: 31 Oct 2011 04:55 PM PDT

I have to admit, taking on the Sonic Generations review stemmed mostly from my own morbid curiosity; having not kept tabs on Sonic since his abysmal 2006 360/PS3 reboot, I simply assumed that the series continued spiraling downwards, forever rehashing the same terrible ideas plaguing its post-Genesis existence. My cynical presumptions held fast, but news about the quality of 2010's Sonic Colors -- even in the face of another failed revival (this one in 2D) -- made me wonder: after more than a decade of experimentation, had Sega actually stumbled upon the secret of making a modern Sonic game?

Amazingly -- through one of the greatest exercises in self-control the franchise has seen since Macarena jokes were topical -- Sonic Generations comes closer than ever to delivering the true evolution Sonic fans have been anticipating since the advent of the Dreamcast. And even though Sonic entered this world 20 years ago as the anti-Mario, Generations' liberal borrowing from Nintendo's school of game design stands as one of Sega's smartest decisions in years.

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword Special Edition Unboxing

Posted: 31 Oct 2011 02:16 PM PDT

Rumor: "Massive Layoffs" at Canadian Studio Silicon Knights

Posted: 31 Oct 2011 01:14 PM PDT

Silicon Knights Logo

All but 25 staff at the Canadian video game development studio Silicon Knights have been laid off, according to sources close to the company.

Silicon Knights has not officially confirmed the cuts, but two credible independent sources contacted us with the information over the weekend. One wrote that "Silicon Knights has had massive layoffs. They are now down to a core staff of 25 people." The other said, "It may interest you to note that SK laid off all but 25 employees today."

Where Are They Now?

Posted: 31 Oct 2011 12:22 PM PDT

Feature

Where Are They Now?
Can you guess which former game industry personalities ended up on Law & Order, 30 Rock, and the Food Network?

By Ray Barnholt

Video games are an interesting field for a ton of reasons. One would be that we sometimes remember people associated with games even more than the people who actually made them. If you've been reading/watching game magazines/shows over the years, you probably have a memory of That Guy who wrote those reviews you like, or That Guy on that one game TV show, or That Guy who played the ninja in that fighting game, or That Guy who was in those silly advertisements.

Dozens of people like that came and went throughout our gaming lives, especially in the '90s, when magazines were the primary source of getting game information and digitized actors in fighting games and awful full-motion video titles were increasingly becoming the norm. So we handpicked a bunch of those and tracked them down to find out if they stayed in the business, moved on to other pursuits, or at least got better haircuts.

KOMBATANTS

Daniel Pesina

Daniel Pesina
Posted by Shri Krishna

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