The Negative Edge News Report 03.21.07
Posted by Tommy Coloma on 03.21.2007
Taking advantage of those around you (in a good way), the Dragon Ball MMO, and that Castlevania game you keep hearing about. All that and more in this week's edition of The Negative Edge!
I was thinking about picking up a 360 this week just so that I can play the Xbox Live Arcade version of Symphony of the Night. Yes, the game is that good. Yes, I can be that stupid sometimes. Two things deterred me (three if you count the realization that spending $400+ just to play a game that I already have on the PS1 is ultra stupid dumb) - rumors of a quieter, cooler, and black Xbox 360 coming out some time next month (it better not be an April Fools Day joke!) and the fact that I just started getting into Guild Wars again.
Before I get into that, let me go into philosophical mode for a minute. Let's talk about regret. With the upcoming release of Command and Conquer 3, I looked back on my Red Alert 2 days and remembered one of my roommates in college. This guy was very good against human opponents. At one point, he was ranked in the top 50 on Westwood's servers (somewhere in the 30s or 40s). That year, I had the opportunity to play against and learn from someone that was really good at one of my favorite games. What did I do? Nothing. I just pissed the time away. I also had a similar situation with respect to Street Fighter. When I lived in Southern California, I was mere minutes away from Golfland, a place where the types of people that you see at Tournaments usually congregated. What better way to get good than by getting my ass kicked by the best? I lived in the area for six years but I only started to go there a few months before the place closed down. Again, another wasted opportunity.
Back to Guild Wars - Right now I have a friend that's way into the game and knows pretty much all there is to know. I used to throw GW on every once in a while but I didn't seem to be getting anywhere as far as the missions were concerned. Many of them require the formation of groups but oftentimes the groups that I join are full of people that don't know what they're doing. This shouldn't be a problem since I know someone that I can turn to. This time I am not going to let this opportunity slip by. I know someone that's good. He actually asks me to come along on missions. It's time for me to go along, even if only for a little bit at a time.
Do you know someone that's interested in a game that you like? Have fun while you can. They might not be around forever and/or their interests might change.
Alright, let's get to the good stuff -
The news as I see it
How many weeks will it take me to power up my character?
The development of a Dragon Ball MMO is currently underway. Beta testing will take place in Korea this summer and the final game is expected in Japan some time in 2008. Players will be allowed to use the various races that were seen in the anime (even weak humans?). Akira Toriyama will be on hand to design new characters and backgrounds for the game.
Hey! I'll admit it. I liked the series. If you can get past the fact that it took weeks for the characters to power up for one fight and that that one fight also took weeks to finish, then it was great! Now, with the advent of Tivo, you can just pass through all the crap and get to the good stuff. As far as the game is concerned, it might seem like another typical MMO, but it has the potential to be big. REALLY BIG. The game is set 200 years after the original story ends so the designers won't be stuck having to work around already established characters. They've got 42 books, 153 + 291 + 64 television episodes, and a bunch of movies as source material and they've also got the original creator on board. Plus, there are rabid fans all over the place (even if they don't want to admit it) so the developers know that they are risking their lives by putting this software out. Then again, this is a game based on an anime. Fans are probability already expecting the worst...
I want it all... and I want it now!
Presenting the European backwards compatibility list - PS2 BC list
Why does this matter to us? It's a taste of things to come. Savor it! Isn't it great?
But what about better controls?
According to GameDev.Net, AMD will be releasing tools which will allow content providers to leverage OpenVG, OpenGL ES 2.0, and AMD's Unified Shader Architecture while creating applications for handheld devices. The purpose of this release is to prepare developers for the upcoming introduction of phones that will be powered by AMD's next-generation graphics technology.
I gave cell phone games a chance some time last year before I got my DS Lite. I figured that they should at least be on par with the original monochrome Gameboy by now. You know what? They weren't even close. Not by a long shot. I got both Frogger and Boulderdash - two games that my old Apple ][ Plus back in the 80s could handle with ease. What did I get? Super ultra choppy crap. Whenever I see that Java symbol I cringe. So now cell phone game makers will finally get past those piss-poor graphical limitations. But how about the controls? I know there are some aesthetics involved in the reasons why they don't include a d-pad. That's understandable. Cell phones need to look good to gamers and non-gamers alike. So, if we have to use the number pad, why do cell phone game makers still insist on forcing us to use 2, 4, 6, and 8 as the directional keys. How long is it going to take for them to give us the option to use a QUERTY setup like 2, 4, 5, and 6? Or even better, the ability to choose our own controls? A simple game like snake would have benefited from the option. Instead, we have to move our thumbs all over the place. Grrrr!
I can see cell phone games (as crappy as they are) selling a lot in the next few years. It just a shame that the experience is severely hindered by the beyond-terrible control schemes that cell-phone manufacturers will continue to throw at us.
Seeing as how one of the best 2D games in existence is going to be released on Xbox Live this week, I thought that it would be a good idea to find something to celebrate such a momentous occasion. Unfortunately, I couldn't find any good Alucard pictures that I thought were wallpaper worthy so I ditched that idea and decided to find something with Maria instead. She's a minor character in this game (unless you count the Saturn version) but I'll let that slide since my search for things related to her yielded this week's gem of a wallpaper.
This picture features seven well known princesses from seven different videogame franchises. Well, the author says they are all princesses but I am pretty sure that Maria isn't one unless it was mentioned in Rondo of Blood. I guess I'll have to wait for the PSP version to drop before I can find out. Each character is supposed to represent one of the colors of the rainbow. I was only able to identify five of them (highlight to see which ones: Athena, Princess Peach, Maria, Kitana, and Morgan). I didn't get the other two since I never played the games that they were from. How many can you ID?
This week's releases
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (Xbox Live Arcade)
You've probably already seen the above video if you browse other video game sites. However, if you haven't, take a look. It looks fairly faithful to the original, though I was able to spot at least two differences from the video alone. They don't affect gameplay, but I wouldn't be able to sleep at night if I didn't at least mention them. The first is the lack of slowdown after the bosses are defeated at the 2:30 mark. In the PlayStation version, everything goes to slo-mo while the jar materializes in the middle of the screen. Maybe it was due to the PlayStation's limitations, but it was a cool effect nonetheless. This is clearly absent in the video. It just looked weird and somewhat anti-climactic without the slowdown. The other difference is the sound effect when saving at the very end of the video. That is clearly not the same one that was used in the PS version. Again, nothing different as far as gameplay is concerned but it is something to consider if you were expecting the original. People who haven't played it before won't know or care. Maybe that is a video of the enhanced version that I keep hearing about. I'll have more on this next week.
Still... Good controls. Some of the best in-game music ever. Memorable bosses. As far as I'm concerned, this is the biggest release this week.
Last week they had TMNT and this week they have one of the best side-scrollers in existence. Whatever game they release next week cannot possibly live up to this 2-punch combo.
Tetris Evolution (Xbox 360)
Unless the plan is to release this on Xbox Live Arcade after a few months, this is probably one of the stupidest moves that I've seen in a little while (outside of whatever Sony does these days). Downloadable Tetris on Live Arcade just screams impulse buy. I certainly would have picked it up. As it stands, the only reason I'd pick this release up would be so that I can use custom soundtracks to play Tetris using the music from the NES version (both Nintendo's and Tengen's).
Rocky Balboa
It isn't a video game release but it is well worth your time to rent or your money to buy.
Other notables
Virtua Tennis 3 (Xbox 360 / PS3)
Lost in Blue 2 (DS)
Theme Park (DS)
That's it for this week. Are men miserable piles of secrets? If I find the answer to that eternal question, I'll be back next week.
