I just put together a little chip episode of the Jon and Carlos Show for anyone who had missed our previous shows. Because we switched servers, those older episodes are no longer available, but I cut out all the crappy parts and ended up with about 3o minutes worth of worthwhile material to cut together. I'll get it onto PodBean and iTunes later tonight, as well as some embedded players here and on the site.
I've played about 2 hours of Arc Rise Fantasia so far, and it's a worthwhile purchase if you're hungry for a very traditional JRPG. But since very traditional JRPG's are somewhat of a rarity, I guess labeling it "traditional" is somewhat of a misnomer. I want to progress a bit further before putting up a full review, but I'm satisfied with it so far.
When I was purchasing Arc Rise Fantasia, I could not resist Starcraft II. I have not played as computer game in years (aside from the Braid demo) nor a good RTS (Pikmin and Little King's Story excluded, but those are more hybrids than real RTS's), and it's allure was impossible to ignore. However, I neglected to upgrade my RAM last summer and forgot that I... forgot. So, it'll make a good birthday gift for my brother. I'm a little disappointed that I won't get to try it myself, but I will in time.
Pricing of the 3DS scares me a bit. I think it's expanded-audience suicide to release a handheld at $200+. I'm hopeful that it will come out at $199. $150 would be phenomenal but at little too much to ask. Most people are saying $250. I can't imagine that being a good strategy. The hardcore Nintendo fans will buy it up right away (myself included), but they'd need a price drop pretty quick to reach DS levels of sales.
I'm putting together a feature article about what other features would be cool to have on the 3DS. Look for that tonight.
Look for the Arc Rise Fantasia review tomorrow, and as well as a feature about the 5 most necessary games for a virtual handheld for the 3DS.
UPDATE: Here it is.
Thursday, July 29, 2010
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
Counter Productive
So, Capcom thinks that they can drive sales by diluting the market. Not buying Capcom games, well they're going to make more. To me, this seems backwards. If you sell apples, but no one is buying apples, then the last thing you want to do is to pick more apples to sell. And I know this from a high school level understanding of economics. Someone really should clue Capcom in.
I personally don't mind more content from them, as long as they maintain high quality. I was one of the 20 people who actually bought Darkside Chronicles as well and Zack and Wiki. I like even their B-list of content is what I'm saying. If Capcom is making a game, I'm immediately interested. However, they do have to make money. And my particular niche is probably not the most profitable market.
My local Gamestop has had Arc Rise Fantasia in stock since Friday, but as my summer classes are winding down, I need to focus on them all the more. I could not have gotten sucked into an RPG over the weekend. But now I can. I'll be picking it up tonight and have some thoughts on it (possibly even a full review) tomorrow.
I personally don't mind more content from them, as long as they maintain high quality. I was one of the 20 people who actually bought Darkside Chronicles as well and Zack and Wiki. I like even their B-list of content is what I'm saying. If Capcom is making a game, I'm immediately interested. However, they do have to make money. And my particular niche is probably not the most profitable market.
My local Gamestop has had Arc Rise Fantasia in stock since Friday, but as my summer classes are winding down, I need to focus on them all the more. I could not have gotten sucked into an RPG over the weekend. But now I can. I'll be picking it up tonight and have some thoughts on it (possibly even a full review) tomorrow.
Thursday, July 22, 2010
First Movie Podcast
Ryan and I recorded our first ever movie podcast, which you can hear on the site, on PodBean, and right here.
In this episode, we discuss Inception, Predators as well as Repo Men, The Runaways and break down some trailers of Due Date and The Town. Enjoy!
Update: the Podcast is now available on iTunes.
In this episode, we discuss Inception, Predators as well as Repo Men, The Runaways and break down some trailers of Due Date and The Town. Enjoy!
Update: the Podcast is now available on iTunes.
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Fighting Through
Times are tough in the world of gaming. Though some Gamestop locations are selling Arc Rise Fantasia a week early, mine is not. The Starcraft Beta is gone. No Metroid for another month. And there's 4 or 5 green stars that are just fucking sadistic. But this was not all unexpected. I still have Sin & Punishment.
The drought of games may eventually lead to me falling back into the Dragon Quest trap. Nintendo and Square Enix really want my money on this one, and they're not going to stop until they get it. They even cleared the gaming forecast for weeks to try to coax me into buying. I will be resolute. You won't fool me again.
I usually hate replace gaming with physical fitness, but Rebounderz looks just to awesome to pass up. It's a room full of trampolines. Don't believe me? It's on the internet, so it must be true. I think I may check it out this week. I'll either have the best time of my life, or I'll die. Perhaps both.
The drought of games may eventually lead to me falling back into the Dragon Quest trap. Nintendo and Square Enix really want my money on this one, and they're not going to stop until they get it. They even cleared the gaming forecast for weeks to try to coax me into buying. I will be resolute. You won't fool me again.
I usually hate replace gaming with physical fitness, but Rebounderz looks just to awesome to pass up. It's a room full of trampolines. Don't believe me? It's on the internet, so it must be true. I think I may check it out this week. I'll either have the best time of my life, or I'll die. Perhaps both.
Friday, July 16, 2010
The Summer Slump
Ryan's still a bit under the weather, so we're going to start up our film podcast next week with Inception. I can't think of a Chris Nolan film that I haven't loved (ok, maybe Insomnia), so I have high hopes for this one. He knows how to manipulate the structure of film and story resulting in the altered perceptions of the audience. Memento is a great example of this, but even The Prestige and The Dark Knight do it as well. It's a masterful technique of the art of film.
The summer slump is fully upon us, with only a few scattered games to amuse us along the way. September cannot come soon enough, but we'll manage. I've even tossed around the idea of picking up DQIX to break the tedium. I've made that mistake before and learned a valuable lesson. In a week and a half, I'll have a review up for Arc Rise Fantasia.
Without many games to talk about, Carlos and I are planning a retro podcast for the end of the month, focusing primarily on the Sega Genesis and Sega Dreamcast. The both of us truly thought of ourselves as Nintendo fanboys. However, in retrospect, our love of the Sega consoles was pretty vast as well. That's not to say that I would ever take a Genesis and it's entire library over a SNES and it's entire library. It's not a very difficult choice, but it is a win-win situation. Both offer a fantastic lineup of games.
Oh, and by the way, anyone who compares Wii graphics to N64 is a moron. Kotaku has the evidence here.
Wes and I are also working on a few articles to fill the void of content left by the summer. Keep your eyes open.
The summer slump is fully upon us, with only a few scattered games to amuse us along the way. September cannot come soon enough, but we'll manage. I've even tossed around the idea of picking up DQIX to break the tedium. I've made that mistake before and learned a valuable lesson. In a week and a half, I'll have a review up for Arc Rise Fantasia.
Without many games to talk about, Carlos and I are planning a retro podcast for the end of the month, focusing primarily on the Sega Genesis and Sega Dreamcast. The both of us truly thought of ourselves as Nintendo fanboys. However, in retrospect, our love of the Sega consoles was pretty vast as well. That's not to say that I would ever take a Genesis and it's entire library over a SNES and it's entire library. It's not a very difficult choice, but it is a win-win situation. Both offer a fantastic lineup of games.
Oh, and by the way, anyone who compares Wii graphics to N64 is a moron. Kotaku has the evidence here.
Wes and I are also working on a few articles to fill the void of content left by the summer. Keep your eyes open.
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Heads Up
Ryan and I will most likely be going to see Predator tonight. We're going to try to start up a new movie podcast, so keep an eye out for it. If we get a chance to head out, we'll probably end up recording it late tonight/early tomorrow morning. I'm pretty stoked for this one, hopefully it lives up to its predecessors.
Saturday, July 10, 2010
Aaaaaaaaw Yeaaaaaaaah
So, after our previous server went kaput, we had no place to post our show. But thanks to the services of PodBean, we now have a home again. They even provide an embedded player, so you can listen to the E3 show directly on the site!
If you have no idea how to publish a podcast but want to, PodBean makes it really easy. I highly recommend using them. I had on idea how to do any of this myself, and I was able to figure out how to post very large files (using Fetch for the FTP), submit the podcast to iTunes, and set up an embedded player on a Facebook page or website. If a lot of this sounds foreign to you, don't worry. It did to me too.
We're back, and we'll hopefully be bringing out more content soon. Oh, and you can now listen to the podcast here too.
If you have no idea how to publish a podcast but want to, PodBean makes it really easy. I highly recommend using them. I had on idea how to do any of this myself, and I was able to figure out how to post very large files (using Fetch for the FTP), submit the podcast to iTunes, and set up an embedded player on a Facebook page or website. If a lot of this sounds foreign to you, don't worry. It did to me too.
We're back, and we'll hopefully be bringing out more content soon. Oh, and you can now listen to the podcast here too.
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
Dragon Quest
Dragon Quest is a series that maybe I just don't understand. Nintendo and SquareEnix are making the big push to finally get North American gamers to latch onto the teat that Japanese gamers have been suckling for so long. I think that putting the game on the DS is a huge part of that push: get the game out to the largest possible audience. I wish them all the success in the world, but I won't be buying Dragon Quest IX.
I given Dragon Quest so many chances, and I actually really liked Dragon Warrior (Dragon Quest 1) on the NES way back in the day. But I've played DQ4 and DQ5 on the DS, and I just cannot connect with the game. Just a few days ago, I GameFly'd Dragon Quest VIII for the PS2, just to give the series one more chance to ensnare me and convince me of DQIX's merit. I was off to a pretty solid start: navigated my way through a little town, and was sent on a quest to a cave. I ran into a few random battles along the way, no problem dispatching the slimes and shit. Then I went inside the cave... and got my ass kicked.
And that's the major problem I have with Dragon Quest: the endless grinding. It was basically the first level in the game, and my party of 2 wasn't up to the task. Imagine if on World 1-1, Mario couldn't jump high enough to squash the first goomba until he stood and jumped a couple dozen times. Look, I don't mind grinding as games go on, in fact I often do it voluntarily. But having to grind from the very start: no no no. Sorry, SquareEnix, you may have lost me for good this time.
Oh well. My thirst for an RPG will hopefully be quenched by Arc Rise Fantasia later this month.
One last thing: the podcast will be up on PodBean tomorrow. We've had to switch servers, and I'm still getting the lay of the land on PodBean, but I'll get it worked out.
I given Dragon Quest so many chances, and I actually really liked Dragon Warrior (Dragon Quest 1) on the NES way back in the day. But I've played DQ4 and DQ5 on the DS, and I just cannot connect with the game. Just a few days ago, I GameFly'd Dragon Quest VIII for the PS2, just to give the series one more chance to ensnare me and convince me of DQIX's merit. I was off to a pretty solid start: navigated my way through a little town, and was sent on a quest to a cave. I ran into a few random battles along the way, no problem dispatching the slimes and shit. Then I went inside the cave... and got my ass kicked.
And that's the major problem I have with Dragon Quest: the endless grinding. It was basically the first level in the game, and my party of 2 wasn't up to the task. Imagine if on World 1-1, Mario couldn't jump high enough to squash the first goomba until he stood and jumped a couple dozen times. Look, I don't mind grinding as games go on, in fact I often do it voluntarily. But having to grind from the very start: no no no. Sorry, SquareEnix, you may have lost me for good this time.
Oh well. My thirst for an RPG will hopefully be quenched by Arc Rise Fantasia later this month.
One last thing: the podcast will be up on PodBean tomorrow. We've had to switch servers, and I'm still getting the lay of the land on PodBean, but I'll get it worked out.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)