Media Create Sales (11th-17th Dec)

Hardware

1.) Nintendo DS Lite - 319,708
2.) Nintendo Wii - 108,237
3.) PlayStation 3 - 70,942
4.) PlayStation Portable - 48,962
5.) PlayStation 2 - 37,730
6.) Xbox 360 - 17,168
7.) Game Boy Advance SP - 1,867
8.) Game Boy micro - 1,491
9.) GameCube - 1,152
10.) Nintendo DS - 158
11.) Game Boy Advance - 42
12.) Xbox - 3

Software

1. (DS, Pokemon) Pokemon Diamond - 123,573 / 2,119,848
2. (DS, Pokemon) Pokemon Pearl - 97,409 / 1,766,776
3. (DS, Nintendo) Kirby Squeek Squad - 92,173 / 557,634
4. (DS, Sega) Fushigi no Dungeon: Furai no Shiren - 88,242
5. (DS, Nintendo) New Super Mario Brothers - 77,761 / 3,617,021
6. (DS, Sega) Love and Berry DS Collection - 72,841 / 608,545
7. (DS, Nintendo) Jump Ultimate Stars - 71,339 / 349,979
8. (PS2, SCE) Wild Arms 5 - 70,476
9. (Wii, Nintendo) Wii Sports - 69,923 / 318,473
10. (Wii, Pokemon) Pokemon Battle Revolution - 67,607

Comments: Its coming to the end of the year and the charts just says it all really, DS dominates, Wii and PS3 doing steady while X-360 still trying to find its feet despite late optimism about it. PSP is doing ok but not brilliant. PS2 sales are still stunning.
Software wise, well, Pokemon did a decent first week but does it have the legs as the handheld versions (very unlikely), DS software dominated the charts in every way possible whether it was brain training games, or traditional platformers, to massive anime hit games or just a bundle of RPGs, DS stole every headline in every conceivable way.

In other news, tomorrow is Christmas Day. So Merry Christmas :)

SOS Brigade is captured by Bandai Ent.

Well, not a real surprise per say due to their nice little viral site, but Bandai is an interesting choice, i associate them with merchanide.. lots of merchandise (just look at Gundam and those many figurines).. nice addition to the US anime rooster though im not a big fan of Haruhi.. so why am i talking about it? uhh.. hmm... maybe because Haruhi has become such a smash hit with viewers this year, came out of the blue, became an instant cult classic and with an upcoming sequel on the way, things are looking up for the SOS-dan.

In other news, i can use my Wii to surf the net. Hooray!!

The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya may be US licenced??!!

Title says it all really, AnimeOnDVD put it on their site and a teaser site is up as well.

December 22nd is to look out for.

http://asosbrigade.com/

Media Create sales (4th - 10th Dec)

Hardware

DSL 309,630
Wii 85,439
PS3 50,171
Xbox360 35,343
PS2 30,460
PSP 28,930
GBASP 1,896
GBM 1,555
GC 569
DS 167
GBA 17
Xbox 6

Software

1. (PS2, Bandai) Kidou Senshi Gundam SEED: Rengou vs. Z.A.F.T. II PLUS - 337,559 / NEW
2. (PS2, SEGA) Yakuza 2 - 274,822 / NEW
3. (NDS, Pokemon) Pocket Monsters Diamond - 98,859 / 1,996,275
4. (XB360, Mistwalker) BLUE DRAGON - 80,348 / NEW
5. (NDS, Pokemon) Pocket Monsters Pearl - 75,206 / 1,669,367
6. (WII, Nintendo) WiiSports - 72,382 / 248,549
7. (NDS, Nintendo) Hoshi no Kirby: Sanjou! Dorocche Dan - 66,421 / 465,462
8. (WII, Nintendo) WII PLAY - 62,863 / 237,160
9. (NDS, Nintendo) Jump! Ultimate Stars - 62,068 / 278,640
10. (NDS, Nintendo) Common Knowledge Training - 55,208 / 720,752

Comments: Wii takes a dive while X-360 sales rises. What a strange world we live in ;) One other mention goes to lack of Zelda in software charts.. oh dear.. has it really died off that fast in Japan already?

In any case, Nintendo still dominates charts, with very healthy DS sales indeed.

Dragon Quest IX coming for DS

http://www.famitsu.com/blog/express/2006/12/ixds.html
http://www.myspace.com/dragonquestix

Surprise announcement really,
1) For being on a handheld console
2) Downgraded graphics (overall)
3) Its an Action RPG (no turn based for us)
4) Wifi network (online?) capability to ensure co-op play

Overall, a very good announcement, DS has officially won Japan.

Me and my Wii!

Yeah, it was meant to be some kind of early christmas present for my bro and rest of the family but we got our Nintendo Wii and we enjoyed it a lot! For a not so bad £240, we got the console, Zelda and WiiPlay.

Wiisports that came with the conole is just fun, me, Faye and Tom played Tennis most of the time, while others like Baseball and Boxing were just fun. Bowling wasn't bad as well and Golf was surprisingly decent despite me hating the sport.

Zelda, im too early in the game to make a review of it, but basically the game is gorgeous! Wolf Link is good and plays surprisingly well, while the control system does take a while to get used to it, its still a great immersive experience.

Wiiplay, well, shooting targets is fun.. and thats about it.. it came with a 'free' Wiimote and that was the reason why i wanted it. Otherwise, not a good game.

Media Create (26th Nov - 3rd Dec) *Wii Special*

Hardware

Wii - 350,358
DS Lite - 176,901
PS3 - 31,436
PSP - 23,917
PS2 - 23,115
Xbox 360 - 4,053
GBA SP - 1,572
Gameboy Micro - 1,252
Gamecube - 821
Nintendo DS - 140
GBA - 22
Xbox - 11

Software

1. (PS2, Bandai-Namco) Tales of Destiny - 269756
2. (Wii, Nintendo) Wii Sports - 176167
3. (Wii, Nintendo) Wii Play - 174297
4. (Wii, Nintendo) Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess - 139011
5. (GBA, Square-Enix) Final Fantasy VI Advance - 137810
6. (PS2, Banpresto) Summon Night 4 - 115701
7. (DS, Nintendo) Pokemon Diamond - 70190
8. (DS, Nintendo) JUMP ULTIMATE STARS - 66269
9. (Wii, Nintendo) Wario Ware: Smooth Moves - 63954
10. (DS, Sega) Love and Berry DS Collection - 60041

Comments: From the disappointing PS3 launch which only had 2 low end top ten PS3 games, didn't even break a sweat on the DS triumph and shortages galore.. The Wii launched last week in Japan with quick success, lots of first party titles in the top ten with the hardware destroying the DS sales for the week. The most surprising thign to note is that Zelda only managed to get 3rd in total Wii software sales with Wiisports and Wii Play topping the epic game.

Been busy with work...

Argh! Got lab report to finish off!
Argh! Have to buy the Wii!
Argh! I Want to gout tonight!
Argh! Not watched that much anime lately

In any case.. I hear Blue Dragon (X-360) is coming along nicely, with lines and X-360 hardware flying off the shelves... should be a decent boost for Microsoft.

Japan Wii success

Not surprising really but early sales indicate that Wii has been successful with Media-Create and Famitsu data charts saying an almost 90% sellout rate (which is about 350,000 + sales) for the Wii console.
Maybe surprising is how well Zelda and the third party titles sold. WiiSports and Wiiplay sold a healthy ~150,000 each, while Zelda got 3rd place in Wii software sales selling under that number. The third party sales numbers on the other hand are pretty horrendous, with games liek Red Steel pulling in around 10,000 sold, elebits (almost must buy for me) having around 8,000 and shockingly Wing island acheiving only 800 sales. Really poor days for third party developers on the Wii.

Media Create Sales (20th-26th Nov)

Hardware

DSL 201,378
PS3 32,662
PSP 30,815
PS2 26,263
Xbox360 7,007
GBASP 1,264
GBM 1,235
GC 576
DS 212
GBA 27
Xbox 0

Software

1-(NDS/SEGA) Love and Berry DS 421,227
2 (NDS/Nintendo) Jump Ultimate Stars 150,303
3-(PS2/Konami) J-League Winning Eleven 10 + Europe League 06-07 103,365
4-(NDS/Nintendo) Common Knowledge Training 81813/611,642
5-(NDS/Nintendo) Pokemon Diamond 76183/ 1,827,226
6-(NDS/Nintendo) Pokemon Pearl 58158/ 1,539,775
7-(NDS/Nintendo) Hoshi no Kirby 55824/ 352,082
8-(Xbox360/Tecmo) Dead or Alive Xtreme 2 45536
9-(PSP/Sony) Jeanne D'Arc PSP 45387
10-(NDS/Nintendo) NSMB 35086 / 3,451,994

Comment: You know, its getting really (and i mean REALLY) hard to judge whether the PS3 is doing great or not, sure its selling out pretty 90+% of its shipments from these initial weeks but with the lower than expected shipments, shortages, high demand and stuff. Its hard to put my finger on whether PS3 has succeeded in capturing the gaming crowd. Of course, basing this off the Hardware chart, DSL dominates all and PS3 is selling 'heathily' despite the shortages, but then you look at the software charts and theres no PS3 software on it... hmm.. looking further back, the top 30 chart only housed 2 PS3 games at the bottom end of the top 30. Its too early to call it a flop or a success yet, but Wii sales 'should' come next week and it be very interesting then.

One more Wiik

Next week is the launch of the new Nintendo Wii console, mine is already pre-ordered and im 6th in the queue, so no need for a midnight overnight party. Though there is one at new Street Gamestation, where there will be a party of sorts to celebrate the launch, and also a special Nintendo event in London, Oxford Street which is gonna host stars like Ian Wright and uhh.. Ricky from that boxing sport thing.. yeah...

Anyways, im currently being occupied by Jump Ultimate Stars which is an awesome game at the moment, so maybe a review of that next week or something.

Peace y'all

Hold on to your Wiimotes!!

Pretty old news but i have to put this site up: http://www.wiihaveaproblem.com/

The site is about recent problems with the Wii system that has launched in the US about 2 weeks ago, the main problem so far have been the Wiimote strap breaking off when people are playing an intense game of Tennis or bowling on Wiisports. I guess there are other reports being more important like Disc Read Errors and even the Wii system spitting out the discs, but the more than frequent problem is the cheap Wiimote strap.

Hopefully when it comes out in the Uk it gets fixed, but there's a good solution to this.. hold on to your Wiimote!!! If its like a racket, you wouldn't 'accidently' let go of the handle.. <_<

Media Create sales (13th-19th Nov)

Hardware

DSL 128,621
PS3 42,099
PSP 16,690
PS2 15,068
Xbox360 4,050
GBASP 1,199
GBM 1,037
GC 514
DS 182
GBA 30
Xbox 6

Software

1. (PS2, Koei) Sengoku Musou 2 Empires - 97,170
2. (DS, Nintendo) Common Knowledge Training - 78,722 / 529,828
3. (DS, Pokemon) Pokemon Diamond - 68,147 / 1,751,043
4. (DS, Pokemon) Pokemon Pearl - 57,627 / 1,481,617
5. (DS, Nintendo) Hoshi no Kirby Dorocche Dan - 52,177 / 296,258
6. (DS, Nintendo) Magic Taizen - 28,215
7. (DS, Nintendo) New Super Mario Brothers - 22,986 / 3,416,907
8. (PS2, Sega) Yakuza PS2 The Best - 21,154 / 86,292
9. (DS, Nintendo) More Brain Age - 19,349 / 3,431,357
10. (PS2, Bandai) NARUTO Kinoha Spirits - 19,277

Comments: uhh.. what happened to Ps3 software? Can't see anything in the software charts. :P Anyways, PS2 still doing well, PSp hardware falls, DS dominates.. next week? Jump Ultimate Stars!!!! oh.. and Love and Berry.. but thats nothing i want to talk about.

Film Review: Borat

can't be bothered to find the long ass title...

Anyways, first off i have to say that i was never a big fan of Cohen (actor who plays Borat), his jokes with the likes of Ali G have been a total hit and miss thing for me. After its disastrous Ali G film, Cohen managed to hit the right spot with Borat, the film is full of satire and it never gets tired of it.

The main draw of the show is to take the reactions and thoughts of the people around America, like how racist, anti-social, creepy and strange they are. Of course its nothing new and can be shocking sometimes but irs pure genius direction makes this worthwhile to watch. The comedy is great as well, 2 naked men wrestling each other in a Hotel before launching themselves into a conference room is the highlight for me, and totally portrays the show really well as a shockingly disgusting but extremely funny piece of art.

Other jokes like the shape-shifting Jews and trying to greet people on streets of New York are a great smash, its weird but i like it. I never thought of Borat as a LOL film but i got proved wrong, the film destroys the Ali G show and film and has totally raised my expectations of Cohen. The Story isn't much but that isn't the point, watching the reactions of American society is a laugh whether u live in the UK or even the US.

Overall: 8.5/10
Grade: A-

Game Review: Tales of the Abyss

Last week, i finished off Tales of the Abyss, the latest Tales game to hit the western shores.. and by western i mean US shores and forget about the EU. Still i imported it and below are my thoughts on it.

I like to say that i loved Tales of Symphonia on the Gamecube, the battle system was action-packed, fast-paced and brilliant, storyline though not the best was sound and flowed quite well and the characters are great (aside from Colette and Regal.. and maybe Lloyd).. but still ToS got into my top RPG of this generation.

Tales of the Abyss now, the battle system is similar to ToS's BUT more action-packed, by this i mean more special moves such as FOF changes, more special attacks, more Hi-Ougi's.. this greatly boosts its Battle aspects from ToS. Coupled with a nicely detailed FSC and C.Core menus, it enhances the strategy of the game as well. Though FSC is somewhat disappointing considering only specific moves can gain advantages and take s awhile to train these moves.. otherwise, great system.

Next, the characters, and just wow, there are some real good gems here, Jade, Anise and Tear are likable because of comedic value or their personality. The rest like Guy, Luke and Natalia aren't as likeable but at least the voice acting is tip top shape to provide the amazing personality of these characters. Its a shame that skit scenes aren't dubbed as well, cause the JPN version have them voice acted and its a real nice treat. Also i have to mention the God Generals who are the 'badasses' of the game, similar to the generals in ToS, their presence makes my body tingle :)

Storyline is unique as well, we.. unique compared with other Tales gaes, no mention of Summons or mana or the usual Tales stuff here, its a totally new storyline and i like it.. though it drags on way too long with the storyline forcing you to backtrack way too much (more so than ToS) and theres also the anti-climatic feel of some dungeons where the lack of a boss to 'reward' you of the hardwork of reaching the final bit of the stage. Otherwise, story is generally solid, it makes sense and the game really tries very hard to cover up so many plot outlines via books, skits, etc..

Difficulty, not difficult at all, aside from maybe 2 boss fights, it was as easy as any other Tales games i've played where alot of the time is spent move-spamming a boss to submission, which works 90% of the time. However, if you decide to do sub-quests like Nebilim or Tales of characters, then things get a lot more serious and strategy is required. And yes, i beat them both, Nebilim taking 2 goes, while Tales of character on my first go.

Replayability, with 40 hours at the end, TotA surpasses ToS by 4 hours on my first playthrough.. i liekd the game, very ddictive and New Game+ mode is always a good addition.. however, i won't be replaying this in a while.. why? Load times. Yes, i know such a minor gripe in many games but TotA makes load times a major gripe. In dungeons, load times between battles are fine, generally 2-3 seconds. On world maps however.. *sigh* a good 7-seconds before start of battle and possibly longer for after battle. Load times hurt TotA alot, and after playing the relatively non-loading ToS on the Gamecube it was really struggling for me to do battles on the world maps of TotA. Not just battles, some scenes load quite a bit and i thought the PS2 stopped for some reason.

Overall, 8/10
Grade: B

Its a great game, let down by constant back-tracking, lack of VA skits and horrendous load times.

It's sad when a rebel tries to act uhh.. rebelious

Yesterday was a hilarious time, it was 1am, after a hard slog at Call of Duty 2 multiplayer, i decided to a final check on GAF before sleeping.. and lo and behold a thread pops up. 'Gamespot Zelda: TP review' ooh!! This is going to be good, everyone expected 9.0+ at the very least considering how amazing the game looks and plays with highly positive impressions and previews as well as the pre-cursor of other sites/magazines giving out generous high scores.

The score? 8.8/10

Wow, did i read that right, no way was that ever gonna pass, the internet started exploding.. literally, GAF members were mad at the score initially, but when they started reading the review, 2 halves turned up, one which are understanding the review but still mad at the score and the other half was just plain mad. The reviewer Jeff main complaints about it were 'tacked on Wiimote controls' and 'nostalgic graphics and sound'.. now, the problems with those two points.

'Tacked on Wiimote controls' felt as though to me that he wanted to play traditional Zelda instead, which is totally fine by me, but the way he said it meant that he just didn't want to play with the Wiimote at all. Maybe when he had the game maybe he had to use the Wiimote and Nunchuk to play the game, and impressions so far have been high positive remarks about the Wiimote, nothing gimmicky about it, it just takes a while to get used to.

'nostalgic graphics and sound' for me sounds like another way of saying 'PS3/X-360 game graphics are better, Wii graphics suck ass' Jeff also pointed out that the game doesn't really evolve from previous games.. aside from the fact of Wolf changing, horse back riding, new items and stuff.. no, not a similar experience at all.. no siree. Really, does Jeff know what he is talking about.. nit picking reviews for the lose. Oh that also brings back the reviw from Gamedaily who gave the game 4.5/10 which is great with the biggest flaw 'Game doesn't look as good as PS3 game' <_<..

Media Create Sales (6th Nov - 12th Nov) *Playstation 3 special*

Hardware

DSL 148,174
PS3 81,639
PSP 19,123
PS2 16,157
Xbox360 3,864
GBASP 1,320
GBM 1,213
GC 496
DS 279
GBA 12
Xbox 3

Software

1. (DS) General Knowledge Training - Nintendo - 102,240 - 451,106
2. (DS) Pokemon Diamond - Pokemon - 78,744 - 1,682,896
3. (DS) Kirby: Squeak Squad - Nintendo - 77,949 - 244,081
4. (DS) Pokemon Pearl - Pokemon - 65,574 - 1,423,990
5. (DS) Kanji Brain - Rocket Company - 33,932 - NEW
6. (DS) New Super Mario Brothers - Nintendo - 27,361 - 3,393,921
7. (DS) More Brain Age - Nintendo - 24,166 - 3,412,008
8. (DS) Winning Eleven DS - Konami - 23,653 - 112,928
9. (PS3) Ridge Racer 7 - Bandai Namco - 21,655 - NEW
10. (PS3) Gundam: sales Target not in Sight - Bandai Namco - 21,310 - NEW

Comments: Amazing isn't it? How after a generally successful PS3 launch that had queues for as far as the eye can see, the occasional bust-ups and obligatory Yakuza/Triad dealings, the PS3 only manages to steal part of the spotlight from the DS, As can be seen, the PS3 sold a good 80,000+ units which is good but not enough to beat the strong legged DS sales which i have to say is almost 1 year on from the inital sellout in mid-holidays and its still selling out from this day.

Software side, RR7 and Gundamn reached the top ten.. just, with the DS taking the spots for the top 8. Surprised? Well, i am. With the hype surrounding the potential of the PS3 and stuff, i expected a bigger software sale for RR7 at least (and im sure Namco/Bandai wanted that as well).

Trivia: DSL hardware sales >>Combined total of everything else.. you just have to be impressed with it.

100th post, therefore, Wii playtest impressions

Came back from the Bullring Wii event, and im confident to say that the Wiimote is just amazing, its not too light, not too heavy, just the right size and shape and fits into my hand like a glove. Very satisfied with the remote. The console itself, now seeing it IRL, its very very titchy, damn, i knew it was small but when u see it in person, damn.
In Bullring they were showing off Wiisports, Zelda, Wii Play and Rayman. I only had time with Wii Play and Rayman (i want to play Zelda on my own). I had a good Duck Hunt session, shooting targets and discs etc was fun, very simple and the remote worked well, no need for exaggerated heavy wrist movements, basically, if you know how to handle a mouse, you be right at home with the remote. It was a bit sensitive for my liking but i got used to it and managed to get 1st place

As for Rayman, it was fun to play, seeing the Rabbits scream randomly was delightful, i played the Cow (Hammer)-throw game and managed to suck at it really really badly :S. Graphics are decent as well, not amazing but nothing to really complain about.

Overall, i be back tomorrow and Saturday to see if any new games are there, i really want to test out Red Steel and WiiSports, but so far, so good Nintendo.

Big Thumbs Up!!

Anime Review: Utawarerumono

Its strange this, Uta is a good anime but like alot of good animes i like, it always fails in one of its key aspects.

When i mean good, i meant that Uta started well with an intriging plot, a good cast of (D&D style) characters and a good setting with lots of action generally. The problem lies when it tries to execute many of the above aspects, its a hit or miss in many cases, for example. the characters, out of the many present, only a very select handful were chosen to be given any form of character development or enough screentime to like them, inarguably, Karura, the kick-ass screen-hogging ass kicker is the top draw, while others pale in comaprison in terms of screen time, development and even the action.
The biggest example of poor execution is the story, the plot is good, shrouded in mystery and tension, it fails to live up to its promise, what with lack of info on Hakuoro, its fantasy turned sci-fi plot is not detailed enough and it feels very very loose.

Its strange though, Uta never tries to acheive anything more than an almost bog-standard fantasy anime, what with the potential it has. The sci-fi style theme at the end is not hard to present as shown by one of my fave animes, Scrapped Princess, but somehow with the 26 episodes here, Uta tries too hard to fit everything in those short episodes and subsequently it never appears more than just 'adequate'.

What is there though is quite fine though, again, Karura rules the roost with her charming, kick-ass ways. Erruru and Arruru are instantly likable, Oboro jobs like hell but a fun character, Benawi is a great character but needed more of him and in general the whole cast really fit their role well. The action (though repeated sometimes) is decent to watch, nothing outstanding, nothing too special, but does the job decently and is not boring at all.
There's a good amount of entertainment aside form the action, with the comedy situations early on, and the drama like stories during the series adding quite alot.

But still, this anime just feels a bit wasted, its too short what with the material given, the story is overly confusing with the characters not given the chance to develop much, but what is still there is good to watch to an extent, sure its not amazing, but it could have been that good.

Overall: 7/10
Grade: B-

Media Create Sales (Oct 30th - Nov 5th)

Hardware

Nintendo DS Lite - 113,097
PSP - 23,725
PS2 - 20,982
Xbox 360 - 6,580
GBA SP - 1,443
Gameboy Micro - 1,299
Gamecube - 647
Nintendo DS - 373
Gameboy Advance - 20
Xbox - 0

Software

1. Kirby DS - 166,131 / NEW
2. Common Sense Training - 159,166 / 348,866
3. Pokemon Diamond - 105,943 / 1604152
4. Wining Eleven DS Konami - 89275 / NEW
5. Pokemon Pearl - 81604 / 1358416
6. New Super Mario Bros. - 31,307 / 3,366,560
7. Brain Age 2 - 27448 / 3387842
8. Kanji Kentei DS - 22,824 / 210,556
9. Animal Crossing: Wild World - 20,691 / 3,389,974
10. Ace Combat X - 17,961 / 78,545

Comment: 9/10 top ten software spots are taken by the DS, not surprising i suppose but still quite interesting though with games ranging from Animal Crossing to Common Sense Training, Nintendo DS really has pushed boundaries and expanded them.
Hardware wise, nothing special, next week, a PS3 special edition chart sales! Can the DSL beat PS3 sales? Find out next week..

PS3 launch tomorrow

In Japan.

Lots of queues. Police called in to get rid of the homeless. Triads/Yakuza threatening people. People camping. Only 80,000-100,000 unnits. A somewhat lack-lustre game lineup. People already have their PS3s. Expect eBay profit.

Photos here.

http://www.univch.net/cgi-bin/source/up0071.jpg
http://www.univch.net/cgi-bin/source/up0072.jpg
http://www.univch.net/cgi-bin/source/up0073.jpg
http://www.univch.net/cgi-bin/source/up0074.jpg
http://bm98.or.tp/up/src/up9576.jpg
http://www.univch.net/cgi-bin/source/up0075.jpg
http://www.univch.net/cgi-bin/source/up0076.jpg

Too busy..

..bah, its that part again in Uni, that time when fun and games slow down and workload cranks up mainly because the notes and revision you havent done before has now caught up with you and you're in deep faeces. Yeah, that time, you knwo what i mean.

In anyway possible, today i went work mad, finishing off an online quiz today, revising (for once) for economics, finishing up my covering letter and CV to hand to Intel by tomorrow and i just need to sort out tomorrow's more hectic day.

But this blog isn't about those, its about games and stuff like that, so today, i just do a quick summary on games i've played/currently playing/gonna play in the future. (note: some stuff i may have mentioned before totally forgot about them for months)

Played/Completed
- Dragon Quest VIII, yeah completed, 3rd best RPG this generation.
- Melty Blood Final Act, yeah, awesome game. Love Ciel
- Maple Story..still, yeah, pretty boring now but i still play it from time to time
- New Super Mario Bros, completed, easy, done and dusted. Decent game.
- 42 Clubhouse Games, so many games, only a select handful are worth playing, great price for this game.

Playing
- Maple Story, yeah...
- Tales of the Abyss, great entry to the series, not as good as Symphonia imho (loading times kind of ruin TotA experience abit)
- Battlefield 2142, need.. better.. PC.. i can play only one map ffs.. ok game
- back to Jump Superstars!, because me and my bro are training ourselves up for...

Future
- Jump Ultimate Stars, more characters, more HxH, more stuff, more HxH!!
- Elite Beat Agents, i loved Ouendan, this should be good for me, now with a western flavor to the music. PS: YMCA rules you!!
- Yoshi Island 2, because the original is in my top 10 games ever!!!!!!!!
- Wii + stuff, becuase its the WIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!!!!

Gears of War session

Today, me and my brother went down to the Bullring to try out the Gears of War game for the X-box 360. Concealed in a small box, we and like 6 other players had a multiplayer session, 4 vs 4, 1-life deathmatch.

Before this session, i've always protrayed Gears of a very standard action game but with pretty level designs and good graphics, and in some respects, even after playing the game for a good 30 minutes or so my thoguhts not changed that much. The game is how i pictured it before, tough, burly looking men fighting aliens with cool explosions, gore and nice weapons to use. Nothing special but also nothign boring, but theres something a bit weird, this game actually got my adrenaline running, playing this game was fun despite some flaws with it. Killing an alien with a chainsaw is somewhat satisfying but also kind of cheap and shallow as well. Shooting a whole clip into an alien without it dying is a bit annoying. And the whole 'if you're hurt, just move away and rest a bit' health bar is an increasingly annoying trend in games that make it unneccesarily easy.

Anyways, with the multiplayer sessions ,i managed to get top spot in 2 out 3 of them, the third session i came 2nd in overall points but still top of my team. The aiming was generally good but not really precise or highly accurate but nothing very outstanding. The movement of the player was mainly rolling about, a feature which i loved as i dodged everywhere, getting close enough to the player to launch an insta-kill chain saw attack, with this ability coupled with the not so accurate controls, i suspect a lot of kills online will be from close combat chainsawing.
Also, there seems to be some sort of slow-down/lag in the process, whether its the software itself or the networking we weren't sure but lag in a LAN session is very rare and does kinda hinder the pace of the game abit.

Overall though, im quite impressed with Gears, its very actiony, not generic in some respects but also not too special that i want to go shell out £300 for an X-box 360. Its good, and i expect good reviews from it, but hopefully the full game turns this out more than a mindless shooter fest. The game comes out this month, November 17th, and early previews says its great.

Media Create sales (23 - 29 Oct)

Hardware

DSL 158,681
PSP 25,908
PS2 21,832
GBASP 1,858
Xbox360 1,565
GBM 1,351
GC 644
DS 114
GBA 15
Xbox 7

Software

1. (DS, Nintendo) General Knowledge Training DS - 189,700
2. (DS, Pokemon) Pokemon Diamond - 127,011 / 1,498,210
3. (DS, Namco) Tales of the Tempest - 88,137
4. (DS, Pokemon) Pokemon Pearl - 85,530 / 1,276,812
5. (PS2, Aquaplus) Utawareru Mono Chiriyuku Mono e-no Komori Uta - 82,343
6. (PSP, Bandai Namco) ACE COMBAT X Skies of Deception - 60,584
7. (PS2, Bandai Namco) Jojo no Kimyou na Bouken: Phantom Blood - 34,070
8. (DS, Rocket Company) JLAA Official Kanji Kentei DS - 31,108 / 187,732
9. (DS, Nintendo) New Super Mario Brothers - 30,885 / 3,335,253
10. (PS2, Sega) Yakuza PS2 The Best - 29,854

Comments: Pokemon got knocked off the top spot by a training game, OMG! Oh Noes! But still, strong legs from Pokemon at the moment. Tales of the Tempest also made its debut with 30-40% shipment sold so not too bad but i heard this game is the worse in the series.. ooh err...
Hardware is nothing special.. only a few weeks now until PS3 megaton of death.

People fainting over Saw 3...

I know Saw 3 was gory, but i didn't expect it to cause people to fall ill over it.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/6101704.stm

Staff at a UK cinema have had to call emergency services three times in one night because of a spate of people passing out during horror film Saw III.

One woman was taken to hospital and two other adults were treated by medics after fainting in Stevenage, Herts.

And in a separate case, a man collapsed at a cinema in Peterborough, Cambs, "due to the film's content".

"If you know you're squeamish, don't go," warned a spokesman for the East of England Ambulance Service.

"This is obviously a blood-thirsty film. Some of the scenes are fairly horrific," Matthew Ware told the BBC News website.

All the incidents took place on Friday evening, one of the busiest nights of the week for emergency crews, he added.

Discharged

"Taking three ambulances out of the system on a Friday could potentially be a problem", said Mr Ware.

A woman in her 20s was discharged from the Lister Hospital in Stevenage after being treated.

And the two other cinemagoers - who had been at the town's Cineworld complex - were left "in the care of friends and relatives" without needing to be taken to hospital.

A man aged 34 fainted at the Showcase in Peterborough, Mr Ware said.

There was also a case of a 22-year-old woman passing out at Cineworld in Cambridge on Friday, but it had not been confirmed that she was watching Saw III, he added.

The slasher movie is currently number one in both the UK and North American box office charts.

A spokeswoman for the Cineworld chain said they did not wish to comment.

Film Review: Saw 3 *Spoilers*

hmmm.. what can i say? Saw is one of my fave Horror movies of recent times, not just for its relentless torture and pain it can dish out but also for its 'generally' well thought out storyline and messages it portrays, but for some reason this movie fails to hit the mark.

First off, i have to say that Saw 3 really went all out in the gore stakes, from the get go with the foot breaking, to the chain pulling and the head popping, this is definetely not for the squeamish, more gorier than the first two movies combined, the gore factor hits top marks with a brain operation mid way through the movie. This is good, i love Saw for its torture for some reason, its part of its unique selling point.

The next unique selling point is the messages the traps that play out, for instance, The rack trap was perfect, the guy didn't feel he was punished enough, therefore nailed to a cross and well, bone start to break. Pretty much all the traps that Jigsaw sets out in his movies suppsoe to represent something to the person being tested or not, and Saw 3 doesn't disappoint too much, yet, it almost feels a bit shallow after watching the 3rd movie of this trilogy.

And finally, the twist, ook, there are basically two twists in this, Amanda was taking the test and not Lynn, not a big surprise really, i sort of figured something like that happened after the first 20-30 mintues when the first two traps were unwinnable. The next twist was that Jeff (the guy going through the different traps) was Lynn's husband.. err.. ok, i suppose, i wasn't shocked, surprised or anything like that, just a shrug. Two non-big twists which is disappointing comapred with the first two movies big twists of course.

The problem with this mvoie was that it 'unnecessarily' breaks the illusion of the first movie, that Amanda came and helped Jigsaw out. Though the flashbacks DO answer it without any faults and it fits in well enough, that magic with the first movie, with all of the audience thinking that Jigsaw did it all himself, is lost, a somewhat disheartening feel but im not glad that some questions were answered... and strangely enough, the third movie leads to more questions, like Jeff's captured daughter, Matthews (and Gordon's) disappearances, the letter in the envelope, the tape covered in wax, Saw 3 manages to create more questions, which could lead to a Saw 4 (that has been planned apparently) sorting out what is missing because for me, Saw 3 manages to be a shadow of the first two movies, it still has that charm but its attempt at trying to be as clever as the first two is lost and thus, being not as good as the first two and not being a good movie in general unfortunately.

Overall, impressive gore status, coupled with similar settings plus answering questions while asking more of its own doesn't make this Saw 3 worthy as a Saw movie, it loses out on cleverness, unpredictability or even excitement (dragged on too long). Sorry, Saw trilogy

5/10
grade: D+

Media Create Sales (16th-22nd October)

Hardware

DSL 116,941
PS2 22,380
PSP 20,271
GBASP 2,421
GBM 1,660
Xbox360 1,287
GC 638
DS 130
GBA 12
Xbox 6

Software

1 NDS Pokemon Diamond - 138,000 / 1,371,000
2 NDS Pokemon Pearl - 94,000 / 1,191,000
3 PS2 Captain Tsubasa - 42,000 / NEW
4 NDS Kanken DS - 36,000 / 157,000
5 NDS Gekitou! Custom Robo - 34,000 / NEW
6 GBA Final Fantasy V Advance - 32,000 / 157,000
7 NDS New SMB - 30,000 / 3,304,000
8 PS2 Dragon Ball Z Sparking Neo - 28,000 / 360,000
9 NDS More Brain Age - 22,000 / 3,336,000
10 NDS Animal Crossing Wild World - 20,000 / 3,349,000

Comment: Looks like FFIII legs are finally done for, as it still retained the 11th spot from last week. Nothing really stand out worthy here really, Animal Crossing is still going strong even after a year of its release and looks set to carry for a while.

Anime Review: Jubei-chan 2

After the mildly successful first series, Jubei Chan 2 improves on it with the quantity and quality of action scenes but is also bogged down by the repetitive message it portrayed in the first series.

Jubei Chan 2 is as I said much more action-packed, where in the first series had a fair few scenes of action, most of these are either repeated scenes or very quick one slash wins. The second series on the other hand have fewer badguys to face but more action in terms of quality and less repeated scenes and much more intense atmosphere involved. This was a bother with the first series when the action was missing in this action series, but the first season was priased well for its family-message which was portrayed well and quite touching. This series however, it went a bit overboard, the same message is there, the father-daughter thing is still present and strong but oh so melodramatic and many times un-needed, especially after we had our dose in the first series. This isn't to say its not bad, just felt very tacked on in some places, and the message wasn't really special or as touching as I had hoped.

One mention to go to the comedy part of the series, its far less chaotic and far less random but it still isn't funny. And again, very un-needed, the monkey boy trio and whatever are wasteful extras and pathetic.
Character-wise Jiyu is still the same old girl, which plays almost exactly the same as before (i.e. don't want eye-patch, but finally realises she has to use it), while Freasha is a fun loving girl with an almost stereotypical background. Kita is an unfortunate character, he was cool and felt that more screentime was needed for him.

Overall, this and the first series are opposites, one was action-packed while the other had a better story. Basically, they're two sides of the same coin, combine both together, and you get a great little action series, which is worth your time.

Overall: 8/10
Grade: B+

Death of Lik-Sang ;_;

http://www.lik-sang.com/news.php?artc=3901


Hong Kong, October 24th of 2006 - Lik-Sang.com, the popular gaming retailer from Hong Kong, has today announced that it is forced to close down due to multiple legal actions brought against it by Sony Computer Entertainment Europe Limited and Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. Sony claimed that Lik-Sang infringed its trade marks, copyright and registered design rights by selling Sony PSP consoles from Asia to European customers, and have recently obtained a judgment in the High Court of London (England) rendering Lik-Sang's sales of PSP consoles unlawful.

Now, it seems that one of my top sites to import games (games list includes, Bleach DS, Soul Calibur 2(JP) and Pac and Roll) is going to close down, they say its mainly down to Sony, and to some extent its true. Just look at the recent news with Sony clamping down on import sites (and specifically naming Lik-sang) for trying to import Sony PS3 consoles to Europe or other areas.. ridiculous i say. PS3 is region-free and thoguh the sale doesn't count in the territory its sold in, at the end of the day, Sony gets a portion of the profits made (though, selling a console in the EU will undoubtedly yield more profit for Sony than any other country). The overall picture is that whether its the PSP/PS3, Sony's very unlawful lawsuit against Lik-sang and them getting sued is not a big help at all. Lik-sang has provided many gamers games they can't get in their terroritories like Tales of the Abyss (which i ordered from Lik-sang last week and still waiting for arrival), Lik-sang provides excellent service and Sony is tripping them up in helping them win the console race (which many of you are sure they will win.. and they have a great chance), but then again, it really can't be Sony's fault overall. I remember the times when Sega went and stopped importers, rentable game stores and even second-hand game stores and we know what happened to them, its likely that another company has sued Lik-sang over this very fruitless matter, but like all good people, Lik-sang likes to take a stab at the big cheese. And once again, its Sony in the bad spotlight.

Well done Sony, just well done.

Media Create Sales (9th - 15th Oct )

Hardware

DSL 104,487
PS2 24,727
PSP 21,603
GBASP 2,299
Xbox360 1,743
GBM 1,714
GC 653
DS 273
GBA 37
Xbox 3

Software

1. (NDS, Nintendo) Pocket Monsters Diamond - 159,000 / 1,234,000
2. (GBA, Square Enix) Final Fantasy V Advance - 125,000 / NEW
3. (DS, Pokemon) Pokemon Pearl - 116,000 / 1,097,000
4. (PS2, Bandai) Dragon Ball Z: Sparking NEO - 68,000 / 332,000
5. (NDS, Nintendo) New Super Mario Bros. - 41,000 / 3,274,000
6. (DS, Rocket Co.) Zaidan Houjin Nihon Kanji Nouryoku Kentei Kyoukai Kounin Kanken DS - 37,000 / 120,000
7. (NDS, Nintendo) Brain Training 2 - 26,000 / 3,314,000
8. (PS2, SCE) Bleach Blade Battles - 25,000 / NEW
9. (DS, Nintendo) Animal Crossing: Wild World - 24,000 / 3,329,000
10. (PS2, SCE) Minna no Tennis - 23,000 / 439,000

Comments: The only real talking point this week is the lack of a certain FFIII game in the top ten software charts, it got around 20,000 sales this week though and its currently in the 11th spt with a LTD of about 800,000, so not too far from the million milestone.

Otherwise, a standard week, all consoels dropped down in sales, especially the DSL :S

Anime Review: Higurashi no Naku Koro ni

Wickedly unique, wickedly scary and importantly, wickedly entertaining. Higurashi delivers alot for most anime viewers will enjoy.

To start things off, Higurashi is about a town who is under the influence of a demonic god and a curse, but all is not as it seems. The anime follows the paths of the 5 main characters, Keichi, Mion/Shion, Rena, Satoko and Rika. An almost harem group but again, like i said, all isn't as it seems.
Higurashi is all about the violence, scare tactics, torture, brutality, paranoia, curses etc. This anime is impressive in the way that outside its all cute and pretty, but inside its all doom and gloom.

The story is made up of several arcs, the first half are 'question' arcs, stories that don't make much sense until the 'answer' arcs in the second half come along. But yet, this unique direction in story-telling isn't strong, the sense of deja-vu and confusion are this anime's main flaws unfortunately, despite alot of the questions making sense, theres oh so much more, and the stories overlapping each other with the curse does get annoying and almost forgettable towards the end.

However, despite the somewhat less-than-polished storyplot, the stories are huge fun to watch, lots of atmosphere and tension as well as the obligatory shock value. The shock value is one talking point in the anime, there's something discerning about playing 'russion-roulette' (:P) with a knife by yourself, or cutting your whole fingernails off, or even the occasional child abuse, but all of this is for entertainment value and it delivers effectively and with honour. Too brutal? Maybe, but its stuff like this which makes animes like Elfen Lied and Akira such stand-out animes from the rest, if shock value is one way to make these animes more special, im backing them 100%.

Overall, a shocking anime that delivers alot, but fails to live up to the storyplot.

Overall: 8.5/10
Grade: A-

Prepared for the next generation of gaming yet? (X-box 360 owners need not apply... possibly)

So, its almost here, about a month away, the PS3 and Wii will arrive at the US shores, ready to do battle in what seems to be the most interesting console war since Sony set foot in the market with their 'surprise' gaming machine Playstation. Ever since then, Sega had died(hardware wise), Sony created the successor of the biggest brand in gaming, Microsoft joined the race (for apparent electronic domination) , Nintendo finally turned from cartidges to using optical based technology and The Phantom never came about. But, now next gen is almost upon us, and are we prepared?

I know some people have 'experienced' the next generation with the X-box 360, but do you really feel next generation-ified? (Yes i know i made that word up), what games out there have really made you quiver in the awesomeness of the next gen experience? Not many is my guess, the launch games were sub-par with games like Perfect Dark Zero, Kameo and Call of Duty 3 really fialing to hit the spot, all got decent reviews but in truth, those games didn't really feel drastically amazing, especially with the hype of next-gen. Currently, games like Dead Rising, Lost Planet and Trusty Bell continue to impress me, aside from DR, Lost Planet and Oblivion (of sorts) though, i don't feel enthusiastic about the the next gen hype at all.. im different from most casuals who are excited about playing the X-box 360 game demos in the shop floors but when they play it back at home, they find that their TV isn't HD at all so it disappoints them compared with their first X-box 360 experience(yes i have a few friends that felt experience). I know my game stuff fairly well i say, and it was pretty 'pointless' buying a HD console until i actually own a HDTV (which shouldn't be too long i suppose)

Which brings me to the point of the PS3 situation, Sony hopes that by 2011, at least 50% of the America will own a HDTV of some sort, bold words im sure, and of course, like either HD-DVD or Blu-Ray, HDTV will bound to be standard, but im a bit suspect whether Sony's PS3 + 1080p HDTV emphasis is far too early for everyone to bear. I mean, take a look back at the Dreamcast, its technology was a bit too much for the public to comprehend, what with its internet gaming, VMU capability, DVD playback..ish etc, this was back in the year 2000. That was one reason why the Dreamcast failed aside from aggressive Sony marketing, poor Sega marketing and Pirating. Now, Sony PS3 comes along, and i will bet quite a lot of money that casuals who pick it up won't know diddily squat on what to do with it aside from either playing games and playing a blu ray movie, they won't make the best use of the PS3, they just know they purchased a Playstation-branded machine and it plays movies/games. Thats it. A good £425+ on a machine with next to no knowledge on how to make great use of it. Similar to the PSp situation where people who knows a bit about gaming/hacking will know about Devhook, emulation, video/image conversion, firmware upgrading and other stuff that makes the best use of the PSP.

Next up, Nintendo, their strategy of a high-risk but high-reward plan will be a bit strange, but no so dis-similar with the DS. The DS is a simple not threatening device, unlike the PSP, casuals who pick it up would know how to make great use of it because its already there, a very simple pick up and play device that anybody can love.
But here comes the problem with the Wii and its channels, in the UK, despite the Internet becoming a rapidly growing product in most households, not that many have wireless connections, which is important for Nintendo's Internet service, which will have lots of channels like weather forecast, its Virtual console and news etc that require the internet. Of course, the ethernet cable is a viable option so wired internet users can have that choice, but still, im sure there's a lot of tech-savvy gamers out there in the Uk right? Not really, people wouldn't have the faintest idea on how to set it up, Nintendo's online service could be its downfall as its step up from last generation to the next is a harrowing one.
Importantly, one prepartion for next gen is the ability to move one's arm to justify an action in the game, WiiSports, ExciteTruck, Warioware etc, games that require motions of the arms of some sort, Some gamers don't like them.. why? Have they played in the arcades recently? DDR, Time Crisis, Sega Rally, that punchbag game and that Air Hockey table, they're games that require more than just a simple press of a button or two and these games are fun. But i guess, those lazy people that think that Nintendo is alienating them into thinking motion-sensing is the next-gen thing are fools themselves, especially with the PS3's SixAxis. they need to be prepared for next gen, and pronto...

And finally, one last thought, remember the days of Snes, Mega Drive, Master System and even Atari? Those were simpler days, we used to rank everything by bits (i.e. 8 bit, 16 bit), we didn't need to know the specs to enjoy the console, we didn't need to feel threatened by any unneccassary extras and that the console and TV will do fine. I miss those days and its really this generation and the next that have made me wish for something simple in gaming. And then i look at my DS and it warms my heart up a bit.

Elite Beat Agent tracklist

According to http://blog.wired.com/games/2006/10/exclusive_elite.html , the final Elite Beat Agents tracklist is as follows:

1. Walkie Talkie Man - Steriogram
2. ABC - Jackson Five
3. Sk8er Boi - Avril Lavigne
4. I Was Born to Love You - Queen
5. Rock This Town - Stray Cats
6. Highway Star - Deep Purple
7. Y.M.C.A. - Village People
8. September - Earth, Wind and Fire
9. Canned Heat - Jamiroquai
10. Material Girl - Madonna
11. La La - Ashlee Simpson
12. You're the Inspiration - Chicago
13. Survivor - Destiny's Child
14. Without a Fight - Hoobastank
15. Believe - Cher
16. Let's Dance - David Bowie
17. Jumpin Jack Flash - Rolling Stones
18. Makes No Difference - Sum 41
19. The Anthem - Good Charlotte

Good list? Well, the tracks of note-worthiness for me are Sk8ter Boi, ABC, YMCA and Believe (if only to laugh at Cher). If you don't know Elite Beat Agents is the 'semi-sequel' to one of the best DS games, Ouendan! where it can various J-pop songs instead of the above western songs. Songs include stuff like Morning Musume, L'Arc de Ciel and Orange Range.

Media Create Sales Oct 2nd - 8th

Hardware:

DSL 124,137
PS2 28,264
PSP 21,050
Xbox360 2,101
GBASP 1,532
GBM 1,273
GC 488
DS 260
GBA 12
Xbox 8

Software:

1. (PS2) Dragon Ball Z Sparking! NEO - 263897 / NEW
2. (NDS) Pocket Monsters Diamond - 254080 / 1074127
3. (NDS) Pocket Monsters Pearl - 212193 / 980881
4. (PSP) Gundam Battle Royale - 64986 / NEW
5. (NDS) New Super Mario Bros. - 40114 / 3233793
6. (NDS) Kanji Quiz DS - 38799 / 84091
7. (PS2) Everybody's Tennis - 32962 / 416507
8. (NDS) Final Fantasy III - 30418 / 781713
9. (NDS) Motto Nou o Kitaeru Otona DS Training - 26600 / 3288248
10. (NDS) Oide yo Doubutsu no Mori - 22787 / 3305244

Comment: Almost back to normality this week, a standard anime game reaches top spot, while Pokemon D/P gets over 2 million sales in 10 days (fastest selling pokemon game ever), while PSP's Gundam Battle Royale manages to get into the top ten, despite the liklihood it will fall off the chart next week. Hardware wise, its back to normal, a shame when Nintendo should have had more stock for their DSL.

Interesting site.. Free Sex in Japan .. if you're white, under 35 and male

http://www.keikos-homepage.jp/funtime.htm

Uhhhh... i guess, Me, JD, Gem, Louis, Peter, Sit etc can sort something out for this sweet Japanese girl.. i know for sure that Jasdev will be front in line.. LOL!

Too bad she's over there in Tokyo Uni, but that won't stop JD and me :P

A bunch of Nintendo-related info

First off, Red Steel.

Recently there was a Paris-event concerning Ubisoft and Red Steel in general, in all, a whole host of videos and impressions have beenposted on several internet sites, overall, the general consensus have been high. Good controls, improved graphics and animation, much less generic than before and Ubisoft really pulled a stunner from their last major public showing in Los Angeles.

One interesting note comes from CVG, with first multiplayer details. http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=147472

Basically, Deathmatch and team deathmatch, with a new mode called Mission mode.

"As the game fires up, your Wii Remote will ring like a phone. You'll then press the 1 button and answer it - yep, just like a phone. A voice will then tell you your objective, which must be completed before your rivals in order to win the round or game.

These objectives include one of the three or four deathmatches (it wouldn't really work with just two) being a 'mystery' player that must be hunted down by the others. The mystery player's goal is to survive the time limit while the other players must seek him out and make a kill for the victory.

So how do you seek out the mystery spy or object? Well it's all down to some fancy uses of the Remote's speaker. It'll bleep faster the closer you get to your objective (think weapon or person), which is a bit like when we used to play that 'hot and cold' game as kids, or just how Andy plays it at home today.

The closer you get the hotter you are, (and the faster the bleeps) or the colder you get the further away you are, (and the slower the bleeps)."

Sounds good so far.

Next up, Nitnendo had a conference yesterday in Japan, and new details on random Wii/DS stuff came up, i just copy and paste the list from GAF.

News so far...

● Miyamoto has just announced "Health Pack" (code name) for Wii (related to Family Health Check)
● A new cooking guide titled "DS Menu Collection" (similar to cooking Navi) for DS announced, and will have 1000 built-in recipes The new cooking game has a magnet stand so you can put your DS on your fridge while you cook. Magnet stand costs 1200yen. It's also Wi-Fi compatible. No idea what for yet. (Thanks to Jonnyram, Click)
● Wii-Experience videos. Also known as 'more watch people be ridiculous with wiimote' videos (Click)
● From Next Spring, "Wii Compact Software" will be sold... presumably, these are downloadable games (i.e., no disc or manual). (Thanks to Jonnyram)
● 18 Wii games for Japan in 2006 (thanks to neo)
● The plan is similar to DS strategy (thanks to neo)
● Big Brain Academy for 2007 Spring (thanks to neo)
● Around 60 Virtual Console games before the end of 2006, including PCE and MD. (thanks to neo)
● Zelda: Twilight Princess for Gamecube will be sold online only in Japan.

● Wii points Prepaid card
● Wii points Prepaid card 1000 (1000 yen) - 1000 Wii points
● Wii points Prepaid card 3000 (3000 yen) - 3000 Wii points
● Wii points Prepaid card 5000 (5000 yen) - 5000 Wii points (?) + classic Controller
● Power brick 3,000 Yen
●Composite 1,000 Yen
● S-Video 2,500 Yen
● D terminal 2,500 Yen
● Component 2,500 Yen
● 512MB SD 3,800 Yen
● Wired LAN Adapter 2,800 Yen

Thats all folks.

World of Warcr..South Park?

If you havent seen it already, Season 10part2 have started, and it starts off with a bang, in the direction of a game-related parody, featuring World of Warcraft, the uber-popular MMORPG that has .. well.. far too many people and accounts for about 60-70% of all MMORPG revenue.. impressive

Havent seen t he episode yet, youtube to the rescue

Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0mgIQLroQKM
Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_Q36GCLKUI&mode=related&search=
Part 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=byGORePbAbs&mode=related&search=

Im sure Peter and Carl have seen and loved this episode.

Anime Review: Soul Link

When watching this anime,I asked lots of questions to myself, but the one that came up the most was, 'Why am I watching this?'

A cynical question, in which, I HAVE to watch the anime because I need to compelte it for some strang unknown behavioural reason but Soul Link is just one of those animes which screams out to me 'Why are you watching me? Im not good, im not special, theres much better anime out there, go spend your time with them and not me!'.. and im not joking, its true, Soul Link is devoid of flow, story, memorable moments or characters, pacing, action and comedy.

There really is nothing more that I should say, Soul Link is just another 'one of those animes', strange though it received quite well from its h-game, that the animated form fails utterly in trying to emulate it. It's weird as well that Navel's other project, Shuffle!, is much better and well received as well so that alot of people expected the same to happen for this title.

In any case, Soul Link is an un-memorable piece of anime standard garbage, you may find some scenes of ups, but you will find mostly downs in this trash.. though as cynical I am, this anime would have worked better as a hentai title instead. OH SNAP!

Overall: 4/10
Grade: D-

Media Create Sales (Sept 25th - Oct 1st)

Hardware

Nintendo DS Lite - 274,389
PS2 - 31,992
PSP - 25,319
Xbox 360 - 2,195
GBA SP - 1,811
Gameboy Micro - 1,103
Gamecube - 523
Nintendo DS - 253
Gameboy Advance - 10
Xbox - 3

Software

1. DS Pokemon Diamond - 820,047
2. DS Pokemon Pearl - 768,687
3. PS2 .hack//G.U. Vol.2 - 122,800
4. PS2 Minna no Tennis - 68,755 / 383,545
5. DS New Super Mario Brothers - 57,508 / 3,193,679
6. DS Zaidan Houjin Nihon Kanji Nouryoku Kentei Kyoukai Kounin Kanken DS - 45,292
7. DS More Brain Age - 39,897 / 3,261,647
8. DS Final Fantasy III - 39,165 / 751,294
9. PS2 Sangokushi 11 - 29,304
10. DS Animal Crossing Wild World - 26,287 / 3,282,457

Comment: Lalala~~, Pokemon wins this week unsurprisingly, with an accumalation of just under 1.6 million copies, a fair bit away from the rumoured 2 million sales but very impressive sales considering how each generation of pokemon has actually decreased, this version looks to beat that trend and be one of the better pokemon games out there.
A standard mix of DS/PS2 games make up the rest of the software.

The hardware chart on the othe rhand, a predictable increase in DS Lite sales happened, but also importantly, X-box 360 sales have actually gained momentum due to Microsoft's generally good showing in the recent TGS06 (and possibly X06), over 2000 units is good for Microsoft in Japan (emphazising the importance of that statement).

Eyes of Death Perception? What sorta name is that?

Ok, i meant to do this a while back but didn't, but now since i have a bit of freetime, i might as well explain the name.

Eyes of Death Perception is a special power from a boy called Shiki in the anime/game/manga Lunar Legends: Tsukihime, made from Type-Moon, a fan-made doujin group which has turned 'pro' due to success of Tsukihime, its last project was Fate/Stay Night anime and Fate/Hollow Ataraxia. (Different games and characters from Tsukihime but all in the same universe).

Anyways, back onto the subject on hand, Shiki, has this power due to a freak accident, he wakes up to find everything he sees has lines all over it, these lines were covered everywhere, the bed, floor, tables, chairs and even humans. Confused about this, he went to check these lines out and found that he could break these lines, he first tried it out on his bed using a fruit knife. He manages to 'cut' the bed smoothly in these lines (i.e. cutting them like paper), and the bed falls apart with ease.

In any case, these lines are called 'Lines of Death', because of Shiki's ability, whenever he breaks these lines, no matter how strong the object is, the object 'dies', i.e. gets dismembered...

But thats not all, the Eyes of Death Perception are able to see the 'Dots of Existence', aside from the usual lines he sees, there are dots in the objects as well. If Shiki is able to break this dot, the object will cease to exist. Shiki first sees the dots in his battle against the Dead Apostle, Chaos Nero, who is very very strong with the ability to create 666 beasts (which are subsequently his lives as well). Shiki was able to kill Nero with the Eyes of Death Perception, unfortunately for Nero who was a pretty cool bad guy.

and thats it i guess.. but, u ask, theres many more stuff i didn't address to, like how Shiki deals with these lines if he doesn't like it? How does he get the power? Who can stop him?! etc.. unfortunately im out of time and im tired, my recommendation is to either watch the anime, read the manga, then play the game. IN THAT ORDER!

Oh, and why am i so into this? Mainly because Type-Moon's world (i.e. stuff about the church, dead apostles, Holy Grail and stuff) is much more vivd in detail and specialness, that i like it for being so different.

Cheerio.

Anime Reviews: School Rumble Second Term & Honey and Clover 2

School Rumble Second Term

After the 'nearly-got-10/10-from-me' first season, in comes School Rumble 2 to try and muster enough stuff to get my elusive marks. And in some respects, it manages to do things right but also manages to hiccup in some areas.

First off, Anyone who loved the first season would find somethign loveable about the second season, whether its the confused relationship between HarimaxEri/Yakumo or the random displays of comedy by the various characters. Or even the drama played out nicely in some parts of this anime, there is something for everyone here.
Last season, i complained that the lack lustre ending episodes and inconclusiveness of the main relationship between HarimaxTenma, which prevented it from getting a great 10/10. Now this season, the ending is much better to a degree (yet still fails to meet high expectations) and the relationship is now less ocnfusing and futile than before. Its really about the relationship between the characters which gets the highest marks for me, coupled with the obscene comedy and sketches the anime plays out. HarimaxEri/Yakumo are always a joy to watch because of the somewhat awkardness they both display, still the same attitude as the first season but worth watching again in the second season.

What pays off nicely in the romance and comedy department, where the only repetitive joke is Lala and Imadori, the anime suffers with far too many characters and not enough screentime to know them. The people in the basketball team and class 2-C are rarely shown aside form the odd arc and more were needed from them considering they were needed to a degree in this anime where seeing the same old characters is a big hit and miss for me.
Considering what i said about the relationship, the story goes .. uhh.. nowhere, i suppose, it does develop undoubtedly but ultimately it never feels concluded and thankfully, a third term is upon us and that will be the time to show to me that School Rumble can finally acheive my highest mark of 10/10. But for now, this season is just as good as the first season, its wacky, randomness is a blessing in diguise, its great characters make the show, and the comedy is one of the finest ever shown on anime form. School Rumble for the win!

Overall: 9/10
Grade: A

-----




Honey and Clover 2

From last year's anime which received 10/10 from me, it was going to be tough to make a sequel and match it in terms of visuals/audio/story-telling/character development/entertainment etc.. and in many respects, Honey and Clover 2 (HnC2) matches the first series just as well.

Granted, this short 13 episode TV series is just a mini-season compared with the uber greatness of the first season, im that, the exact same style and compposure are used, what with the characters ongoing development that is more true to life than most anime shows, and with the same art style and similar OST which gets the series moving along in a swift pace. This is a mini-me of the first season in self-respects..

.. Which is not a bad thing since i loved the first season so much because of reasons i explained i above. But, its hard to say this but this season's flaws are really on the (necessary) flashback episode at the beginning, the somewhat decidely short length of the series and theres that hunger of wanting more despite a decent closure to the end of the anime.

Did i just say closure? Despite the first season's open-endedness of the story, the second season decidely have gone more progressive on the relationships and stuff and it acheives that with a fanfare, and STILL, these closed stories still leads to questions on whether its either right or wrong, how your actions affect other people, etc.. this is still a life-symbolic anime with a lot to love and a lot to think about.

HnC2 is a great show, both series, if you want to learn more about philosophy and more about different challenges in life. HnC2 can shed some light in the whole subject and also makes you think about it yourself. Intellectual and entertaining, HnC2 is definetely one of the best anime seires you will ever see!

Overall: 9.5/10
Grade: A+

Reference: HnC got 10/10 from me, i just had to give this one a lower mark.. slightly.

Quote: Because something that will disappear isn't the same as something that never existed...

Media Create Sales (Sept 18th-25th)

Hardware

DSL 139,835
PS2 32,673
PSP 23,118
GBASP 2,145
GBM 1,186
Xbox360 1,109
GC 763
DS 316
GBA 20
Xbox 8

Software

1. PS2 Minna no Tennis 87814 / 314790
2. NDS Final Fantasy III 56596 / 712129
3. NDS New Super Mario Bros. 56045 / 3136171
4. NDS Gintama DS: Banji Ousoudou! 39737 / NEW
5. NDS Brain Training 2 34879 / 3221750
6. NDS Animal Crossing: Wild World 25617 / 3256171
7. PS2 Rurouni Kenshin: Enjou! Kyoto Rinne 24712 / 99720
8. NDS Tingle RPG 23168 / 114208
9. NDS Cooking Navi 22504 / 488462
10. PS2 Harukanaru Toki no Naka De Maihitoyo (maybe?) 22100 / NEW

Comments: Even more calm before the storm, its guaranteed that Pokemon D/P are gonna take top spots so, no need to take bets. But next week should be interesting in the DS hardware section with about half a million units rumoured to be sold already. Hmm.. we see when that happens.

Its Pogeyman!! POOOGEYMAN!!

Yesterday was the release of Pokemon Diamond and Pearl for the Nintendo DS in Japan, and unsurpirsingly, it sold well.. too well in fact. First off, lines, massive lines that stretched for 100s of metres. Secondly, no stock left.. apparently, 2million sales (combined) and half a million DS's were sold, which makes it one of the fastest, if not, the fastest selling game in Japan, beating the previous owner, Dragon Quest VIII which managed 3 million sales in 3 weeks, and Pokemon looks dead set to beat that and set a bigger milestone.

Check here for more Pokemon goodness: http://www.famitsu.com/game/news/2006/09/28/103,1159417717,60944,0,0.html

Film Review: Children of Men

One word to describe this movie? WOW!

Heres lot of other words, Children of Men (CoM) is one of the best films you will ever see this year, this is probably down to the fact that recently in Hollywood theres a lack of original titles worth watching, but this year, if you have to watch one film, it be this. Bold words i might say but this is the truth, set in an almost post-apocalyptic future where women are infertile and the British government (and likely other government) try to reduce population iin their country and reducing terrorism by killing ethnic minorities and also deporting them into lands of terror and decay. A racist government im sure, but too far fetched? No way, in fact, this film shows one of the best true to life i nthe future movies that you will ever see. Things that are mentioned here like infertility, terrorism, racial discrimination, constant wars etc are likely to happen in the future, its a scary thought yes and somewhat this movie can tell us how to prevent it from happening.. sort of.

The film acts like an anti-war, pro-humanity film and it works in so many ways. The direction and editing of the film is superb, many scenes are done in one long take, from the cafe bombing, to the assault on the building, theres rarely a scene change within these crucial scenes, and with that, it makes this film even more better to watch. The birth of the baby in one scene is so amazingly done, so life-like, it felt hypnotic when watching it, like a miracle in their world, its something that can't be missed and very emotional to an extent.

Now, unfortunately CoM has its problems, the story was a bit too fragmented for my liking, the plot is there but the overall flow of the story wasn't constructed well. By the end, the story was kind of rushed and didn't feel concluded, one scene in particular made me unhappy was the end of the building assault where everyone stopped. Despite the presence of the baby, no one helped for some reason at all. Unrealistic and uncalled for. Also, despite its anti-war theme, it didn't make me cry, its definetely an emotional film, but not a tear-jerker (which in times, tries to be).

Overall, CoM, is an amazing piece of art and entertainment, its futuristic world is not too far off from reality yet its underlying message needs to be taken hold off early on the movie to fully enjoy it. Best movie this year? I say so.

8.5/10
Grade: A-

Book Review: J-Pod

Late review but at least better than none

J-pod is quite an engrossing read, yet.. unique to the point it goes goes to a random tangent sometimes. The book is about the 'daily' life of Ethan, a J-podder, part of a group of computer game designers in a bigger games company (I dont recall the name of company now). Ethan as well as 5 other J-podders lead out their daily lives told in this Douglas Coupland book. Sounds boring right? Well, actually it does until until you get to see the antics Ethan and the crew get into, like trying to saboutage an adventure game by creating a 'fictional' violent and crazy Ronald McDonald character into the game, or Ethan trying to cover up his mom's 'accidental' murder, or even trying to feed ans shelter chinese immigrant in his flat. This book is fun, though out of the ordinary. Maybe the inclusion of anime/game references in the book made me enjoy it a bit more, stuff like Metroid, Chrono Trigger, Manhunt etc are mentioned.

J-pod is unique thoguh because of how the book is laid out, generally theres something different going on in the text, from the likes of including many many pages of pi up to 100,000 digits, or random quotes from random stuff.. they break the flow of the book and though its generally not a readable extra, its certainly different. Padding out the pages of the book? Likely, but didn't need to be done in most cases.

J-pod is a good read until the 3rd chapter.. or about to hit the chapter, this was when it dipped. Ethan went to China to find a friend, but it felt pointless and, again, out of the blue, and felt really forced and pointless in my experience. By Chapter 3, I can see Douglas trying to finish the book as quick as possible, with pointless banter, lack of story and also more self-references. (Yes, Douglas happens to occur in different parts in Ethan's life for some reason)
And with that, it really spoilt the illusion that i liked about J-pod, however, J-pod randomness and unqiue feel ot it will attract some followers.

8/10
Grade: B+

Media Create Sales (Sept 11th-17th)

Hardware

DS Lite - 134,885
PS2 - 34,189
PSP - 26,995
GBA SP - 2,330
Gameboy Micro - 1,244
Xbox 360 - 928
Gamecube - 630
Nintendo DS - 478
GBA - 27
Xbox - 7

Software

1. (PS2, SCE) Minna no Tennis - 226,976
2. (PS2, Banpresto) Rurouni Kenshin: Enjou! Kyoto Rinne - 75,007
3. (DS, Square Enix) Final Fantasy III - 57,057 / 655,533
4. (DS, Nintendo) New Super Mario Brothers - 53,089 / 3,080,126
5. (PS2, Capcom) GOD HAND - 48,280
6. (DS, Nintendo) More Brain Age - 34,959 / 3,186,871
7. (PSP, Bandai Namco) Ridge Racers 2 - 28,232
8. (DS, Sega) Atama Scan - 27,890
9. (DS, Nintendo) Animal Crossing Wild World - 24,792 / 3,230,554
10. (DS, Nintendo) Cooking Navigator - 20,766 / 465,958

Comment: The calm before the Pokemon storm, fair sales all round and DS still keeping most of the top ten spots despite fierce new releases in the form of a Tennis game and a Kenshin anime game.

PS3 20GB version gets a price cut and HDMI port!

From 59800 yen -> 49980 yen
From no HDMI port to HDMI port

Sony's TGS presence made itself known with a double whammy of goodness (omg, impossible) from the comapny, first off the price of the system has gone down, to combat the Wii price just mentioned last week? Maybe, but a smart move from Sony nonetheless, it now costs a respectable 49980 yen (about £230) , which is a great deal considering now the only real difference between the two packs are wireless out of the box and a bigger HDD. 20GB is now a worthwhile purchase (not even confirmed whether price cut will be in western areas) and one that everyone should get instead of the premium pack.

HOWEVER, as reports stated awhile back, Sony have started production in a ratio of 80/20 for 60GB/20GB packs, thus meaning, people that want the 20GB may be in a shocker that there won't be enough to go around.. thus those people that really want a PS3 on first day or so, may have to by the much more expensive 60GB version.

The price cut does make the comapny lose more money than it already had per console sold, so Sony has to bank on this to be a long-term investment, its definetely a worthwhile future-proof machine, but so is the X-box 360 which has gathered a bit of momentum in TGS with nice showings of Trusty Bell, Blue Dragon and Lost Odyssey that stole some Japanese gamer's hearts.

Anime Review: Black Cat

Black Cat is somewhat strange, it tries to do a mix of several situations from other animes in one show but it fails to impress with what it tries to acheive.

Case in point, the show is a mixture of Getbackers, Cowboy Bebop and Trigun. What with the unique powers of different characters, the 2-buddy cop system, and the 'i dont want to kill attitude because a girl convinced me' kind of character that Train shows. From this, Black Cat still manages to create a show for itself despite being a 'copy cat' on other action shows. From this, i mean the villain, Creed, who just oozes of badass evilness , one which i havent seen before since i watched Shaman King last year, aside from being somewhat truly evil (til the very end), he is also gay for Train, which makes the show even more entertaining as the show goes onto a somewhat wacky trip on making Creed and Train love each other... sort of.. :P

Anyways, connected the characters, the main characters like Train and Sven are almost too generic to take into consideration, Eve on the other hand is a beauty with a nice nanotech ability which makes her a killer weapon and shows great usage in her battle against Leon, who is part of a super band of special-move elitists.. and with this group, in comes failure, their unique abilities aren't superb or totally unique but at least fun to watch and a few of the characters are suppose to have developed backgrounds (Leon, Echidna, Charden etc) but were never given any.

I guess far too many characters and not enough episodes, with only 23 episodes, is this show's achile's heel, this show is very fast-paced.. and when i meant fast.. i mean really fast. At the last twist towards the end, the anime had only 2 episodes to tie it all together, compared with say the many episodes required for the main story of the anime. Not enough budget? Maybe, but the point still stands. The anime moves at tremendous pace, which kind of suits the character abit but totally leaves the viewer wanting more and expecting alot more... especially with 23 episodes.

Despite the negativity i've just given, there's no doubt that Black Cat is a very interesting show, the cliches of 'Peace-loving, criminal-catching' symbolisms and attitudes are not new but definetely not something to turn a blind eye away from. Black Cat has a fair show of action scenes, sometimes well directed, very fast and furious but also happens (in one part) to be too confusing. The special powers of each character makes this an interesting show despite showing powers you havent seen before, the whole premise of the show is well suited for action and it delivers to an extent, and with that, alot of my reasons for giving it a good mark is based on its entertainment and action value.

Overall, Black Cat is a good show which happens to fail because of its length, far too many characters and bad story direction.

7.5/10
Grade: B

OMG! Another X-box 360 game i want...

Here's the apocalypse, I actually now have 3 games on my mind that i want for the X-box 360.. if i had. The first two are from Capcom, Dead Rising and Lost Planet, which are pretty much standard shoot em up fests designed to while away the hours just killing the same old badguys all the way to the last stage, but with that special Capcom magic which actually makes these games fun (either, novelty items, or online co-op play etc)

The third game is from another Japanese developer with a huge name behind them, Namco/Bandai, with their game, Trusty Bell. Recently i checked out the trailer here: http://www.xboxyde.com/stream_3030_en.html . The game looks gorgeous, battle system looks abit like grandia's/Skies of Arcadia battle system which is not a bad thing at all and the music is so far delicate to listen to.

Now, whats this? Me, loving the X-box 360 more? Its shocking to say it but its true, maybe its partly Sony's fault and mainly because some games on it look amazing, but may i get converted to the Wii60 cult? (If you dont know, its a group designed after the E3 conference to make the Wii and X-box 360 combination the better option than just a PS3). In my heart, i want a PS3, with games like FFXIII, MGS4 and Heavenly Sword also looking amazingly good, in my mind, it wants a X-box 360.

This is a strange phenomenon and the only cure for it is to sit it out and wait for the future to happen, hey, it may occur to Capcom and Namco/Bandai that porting the X-box 360 games to the PS3 may be profitable for them in the Japanese market (They hate the system over there). This is a battle with two consoles that are too similar to one another, and only the exclusive games and titles may make or break it for them.

On the other hand, the Wii is there and ready to be taken what with its lower-powered but unique and fun philosophy, it really feels that the X-box 360/PS3 is the second console for the main console, Wii.

Media Create Sales (Sept 4th - 10th)

Hardware

1. DSL - 113,831 (4,310,657)
2. PSP - 29,141 (1,285,484)
3. PS2 - 19,882
4. GBASP - 2,104
5. GBM - 1,801
6. 360 - 1,094
7. NDS - 1,058
8. NGC - 696
9. GBA - 13
10. XBX - 5

Software

1. PSP - Tales of Phantasia Full Voice Edition - Bandai Namco - 66,263 - NEW
2. NDS - New Super Mario Bros. - Nintendo - 53,011 (3,027,038) - 16th week
3. NDS - Final Fantasy III - Square Enix - 49,475 (598,476) - 3rd week
4. NDS - Tingle RPG - Nintendo - 32,792 (78,288) - 2nd week
5. NDS - Brain Training 2 - Nintendo - 32,054 (3,151,912) - 38th week
6. NDS - Cooking Navi - Nintendo - 25,458 (445,191) - 8th week
7. GBA - Rhythm Tengoku - Nintendo - 24,676 (148,108) - 6th week
8. NDS - Animal Crossing: Wild World - Nintendo - 24,027 (3,205,762) - 43rd week
9. PS2 - Phantasy Star Universe - Sega - 20,431 (140,633) - 2nd week
10. NDS - Mario Hoops 3 on 3 - Square Enix - 20,372 (288,136) - 7th week

Better late than never i supppose, only one announcement and thats Tales of Phantasia remake for the PSP getting the top spot, a somewhat surprise though with only 66k sales, i expected some of the DS games to beat it, but this month is a slow games month around the world, so its kind fo expecting with low sales all round.