The Future of Gaming looks bright!

E3 has already gone and past and still no word from Sega of when Phantasy Star Online 2 is coming out in NA.  It was reported on Kotaku today that they reached out to Sega and they replied back saying it's still delayed.  It's been nearly a year since it launched in Japan.  In fact, they have Episode 2 on its way!


It's time for me to fall back on Phantasy Star Universe and get through the story once and for all.  As mentioned last month, I had to start over because I lost my save file from the computer crash of early 2012.

Anyways, last week was a super busy week of following coverages of E3 and finding out all I could about the newest games coming out.  There were a LOT of interesting games showed this year.  It was actually overwhelming.  One particular game that's a new IP that stood out for my friends and I was Tom Clancy's The Division.


It looks like it has similar elements to games like DayZ where the player must find food and other sustenance to survive.  Players can group up with friends to take on missions together that seem to happen spontaneously in an open-world environment.  It has some RPG elements where players can upgrade skills and give buffs and heals to team members in the midst of a fire-fight.  Someone with a tablet/iPad can join in as a UAV and scout out enemies for team members and tag them into visibility.  At the end of the video it showed the group of players suddenly in contact with another group and engage in open-world PvP.  The only problem right now is that it's set out to release only on consoles, but many PC gamers are rallying for a petition to see it released for the PC as well.  I can go on and on about the rest of what I saw on E3, but it'll take too long.  I spent all 5 days last week covering it.

Last month, I mentioned that I bought Castlevania: Lords of Shadow - Mirror of Fate for the 3DS.  I went and played through Castlevania: Lords of Shadow and got through it.  All my complaints about it still stands and I enjoyed playing it despite being disappointed by it at the same time if that makes sense.  I started playing Mirror of Fate and it's just making me cringe as I get through the story and play the game because of how drastically different it is from the Castlevania I usually love and play.  It's fun in its own way, but like Lords of Shadow for the PS3, I have a lot of problems with it.  I'm trying to finish it up quickly so I get back to Etrian Odyssey IV and complete that game as well.  I still have Kid Icarus uprising to play and Project X Zone pre-order which will be out next week.

Speaking of next week, I didn't even realize how quickly my birthday is coming up.  I've been so busy playing catch-up with my work that the past 4 months just flew by like it was nothing.  I didn't really have anything planned and don't even know if my friends were available to hang out, but I had set this Saturday to go eat lunch, go back to my place to play some fighting games and eat dinner and end the night with Counter-Strike: Source.  I couldn't really think of anything big to do nor is it really important right now.  Being able to hang out with a few of my friends sounded good enough for me as I try to balance out my unorganized schedule.  I'm trying to do so many things at once with drawing, music, fixing up my portfolio, looking up new jobs, and working towards my own game developments as well as my more personal but unnecessary goals such as completing games to my crazy backlog.  I'm at 53 right now just from the 48 I reported last month.  Castlevania took up most of the time, but I think I'll be able to complete some more in the following weeks.  Also, I got a beta invite to Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn 5 days ago and didn't even realize it until I checked my email today.  I'm downloading the test client right now and getting ready for the next beta run this Friday.  I've been too tried and busy to try out betas for any game nowadays.  DotA 2 will finally be out of beta sometime this Summer and become an official game available on Steam as a free-to-play game.  It's strange to call it a beta considering that I've spent 170 hours on it already.  That's more than what I have on Team Fortress 2!

I really want to spend some focused time on beating some games such as Starcraft 2, so I'm probably going to spend July playing games.  But I feel that might be unproductive, so I'll probably be doing drawing and music in-between.  That just means I need to work extremely hard these next 3 weeks to finish up my portfolio and look at some potential jobs to apply for.  As tiring and busy as it was last week, getting to see all the new games that's in development really excited me and made me happy in a way.  I'm happy that so many interesting games will be out in the future, but the ones I really want to play I have to wait so long for.  I can't wait for Super Smash Bros.!

Blowing Steam & Castlevania- Order of Ecclesia Review

[Blowing off steam when I shouldn't be]

Yeah, I've been having a rough week.  It's not incredibly bad, but it has gotten me wiped out and really down.  Just last week, I injured my left hand after I got cut in my knuckle by a piece of metal sticking out of the tire we were hitting for Kendo.  I couldn't even grip anything the day after, but it's okay now (it just hurts a little).  In my Visual Culture class on Monday, I was being critiqued on my project and was told that I wasn't all the way there yet.

This was the first time my professor wasn't entirely happy with my project, so I feel like I have failed or came short in my work.  What made it harder for me to be in that class is throughout this week, we were going through everyone's work and giving feedback.  Although it's better than last quarter, a lot of people still don't talk in the discussion.  So when I try to get everyone to speak and say something, I get something along the lines of "no, you're wrong...."  Same thing on my TTh classes for Game Studies.  It's not all about videogames in there as we have discussions on theories, interactions and in depth ideas about art, media, and culture.  No one talks in there, and when I get something right when I talk, it's boring because no one joins the discussion.  When I get something wrong, it makes everyone even more quiet.  IT FREAKING PISSES ME OFF!!!!!  I've been just reminded over and over this week how little we critically think and how little I know or am thinking.  I got so annoyed and irritated that I ended up not talking for the rest of the class on Wednesday.  Then we had that poorly constructed mid-term for Visiting Artists where a lot of the questions were grey-lined, can be argued, long and wordy,  and had misspellings all over.  What infuriated me even more was when the professor asked if there were any questions and 7 hands in front of him raised up (including mines, but I was behind him) and he said "okay, let's get started".  When I tried to ask the TAs for help, they were even MORE oblivious "hey, what do I put on the subject and period lines?"  TA: "Yeah, fill everything out" *walks away*.  I have no idea how I did on the test, but I was quite upset, and so went to the piano labs to blow off some steam.  I went around 3 pianos and they all sucked!  Broken sustain pedal, non-working keys, horrible quality (all 3 of them were Steinway & Sons, stay away from that company for pianos).  It was after going to the piano lab that I went to my Visual Culture class, which I already explained why I was so aggravated.  All this happened while my left hand hurt the whole week, and then yesturday morning, my toe was in great pain (it was like the first thing on my mind when I woke up).  I looked at it and it was all red.  I had to walk on the side of my feet to avoid pressure on the big toe, and so now my toe is okay but my ankle hurts from walking awkwardly.  God what it a week, and it's not even over yet.  I still have 4 homework assignments and a mid-term on monday which I SHOULD be studying for right now (which is the reason why I shouldn't be blowing off steam right now and working).

Don't get me wrong though, I have high regards and respect for my teachers and peers (maybe except my Visiting Artist's professor, his position is questionable).  I just had a hard time dealing with the situations presented to me this week.  I also had my fair share of happiness.  Monday- VGDC I went to eat dinner with my club again and played at the arcade as usual as part of our tradition.  Tuesday-LXP I went to eat dinner with my club at Steelheads and hung-out playing scrabble.  And then Thursday-Tomo no Kai we went laser tagging with 50 people and then went to Sonics to eat dinner (first time going to Sonics, their stuff are good, but soooooooooooo bad for you *very oily*).  But I think what made me feel sick thinking about it all is that I only see all these friends once a week, which makes me question who truly considers me their friend here at UCI.  I've also been very down and hard on myself thinking about how much of my life I'm wasting doing all these non-productive classes and work when it doesn't even relate to the videogame industry (even the Game Studies class, because we talk more about culture, art, and theories).  I'm very confused and fatigued from this quarter.  It finally got me wanting to play videogames (which helps in many ways for me *over coming a problem in a game to feel a sense of achievement*).  So Wednesday night, I played Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia and realized I was at the final boss (Count Dracula himself).

The game was pissing me off too (remember, I'm trying to relax from the crazy week I had) because I kept dying from dracula's stupid bat summonings (which does like 300-700 damage per second).  I didn't want to give up, and so I kept trying over and over to find out his fighting pattern (which is how most gamers beat bosses in games).  It took me nearly an hour to figure it out, and sadly, the battle was pretty easy afterwards (it was more exciting and heart pumping when it was so difficult before).  Nonetheless, that was one of the best Dracula battles I've had in a Castlevania game in a while.

[SPOILER ALERT - CASTLEVANIA: ORDER OF ECCLESIA ENDING at end of post]

And so now, I'll do a review for the game.

[Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia - Nintendo DS]

Story: The base of the story was quite simple.  The Ecclesia was established to fight off Dracula in part of the Belmonts no longer prominently existing to vanquish him.  It builds off of that and starts out one way and turns into another.  What do I mean?  Plot twist, and though I saw it coming, I liked it.  The ending could have been dramatized a little better, but it was able to make me cry on the inside.  Though there wasn't a strong storyline, it kept the game progressing and the action on.  Story: 8/10

Graphics: The first time the screenshots were released, I was horrified at the quality of the sprites.  Good thing they had a better outcome.  Very detailed enviornments, clean enemey sprites, and decent character designs (though it was very awkward for me when I first saw the NPCs).  The over all atmosphere was darker than usual, but it also reflected the challenge and seriousness in the game.  Graphics: 9/10

Sound: What got me so sucked into buying the game was the trailer for the game (which was the opening scene).  "An Empty Tome" is such a powerful and catchy song (though I didn't give much notice the first time I watched it) that I think I watched the trailer over 50 times....oh wait that was when I was watching the opening for Castlevania Judgment (which also had an awesome theme song).  Despite all that, I don't think the soundtracks were all incredible comparing some of Michiru Yamane's previous works.  I did like them though, there were some that took a few times for me to listen to appreciate them.  I do have to praise the voice actors for both English and Japanese for doing an outstanding job (just like they did for Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin).  Sound: 9/10

Control/Gameplay: Very nice control as usual, and it was a nice addition in having two weapons equipped.  A lot of new game mechanics were introduced for the game, and I believe the all worked well.  The diminishing mp bar used for weapons made it challenging, but it also made the player smarter in timing, usage, and play style.  The glove that allowed 3 sets of weapons to be switched really confused me on dire times and gets me killed, but I know it's a good addition to the game (even though I get too nervous and go to the wrong weapon set sometimes).  There were some stickiness in fighting sometimes, but nothing like it was back in the 8-bit and 16-bit days.  Control/Gameplay: 9/10

Replay Value: After you beat the game, you get awarded with several new additional contents, a hard mode, and *gasp* a Albus mode where you get to play as Albus (it's not a spoiler, it should have been pretty obvious to most Castlevania players).  I think there's a Hell mode after Hard mode too, but I have yet to confirm that.  But yeah, lots of stuff you could do.  Replay Value: 8/10

Overall: 9/10

A enjoyable game as long as you're up to the challenge.  I wasn't sure what to expect when I heard a lot of people kept dying a lot.  I died a lot, but mostly on Boss Battles (programmers did a good job on the AI system).  It may turn off some beginner players, but for those who seek challenge, it's a really nice treat.

[SPOILER STARTS HERE]

So about the ending of the game.  It was very bittersweet as Shanoa selflessly sacrafices herself in order to destroy Dracula.  As she drifts off to death, she feels tears flowing down her cheeks (she lost her emotions in the beginning of the game) and thinks that she's dreaming.  Then suddenly, Albus' projection shows up and tells Shanoa that it's over, and that she's going to be alright along with having her emotions back.

She was prepared to die for the use of Dominus (the ability that killed Dracula), but then Albus tells her that he's going to take her place.  She didn't want Albus to take every responsibility and wishes to help him, and he asks her to give him a smile before he fades away.  The player then gets a picture of Shanoa smiling with tears flowing down (and then it was at this point I started crying in the inside, so touching).  And then Albus disappears.  Shanoa was then free to do what she wanted in her life given the chance to live, and her emotions back.  It was satifying~

Twilight - The Movie

Have you guys heard about Twilight?  I probably wouldn't have heard about this movie if it weren't for my sister.  She was reading the books over the summer and told me to read it.   I'm not much of a reader, and I never did get around to reading them; however, I was interested when she told me that the story was about vampires.  Anyone else besides me like vampires?  But yeah, she warned me that it was a romance novel.  For me, I don't mind romance as long as it's a good story.  I like a good story (seriously, it's the RPG gamer in me 0.0).

Anyways, the beginning can be a bit slow when it introduces the characters and revealing the main story about "vampires".  There was only one action scene in the movie, and I won't say where so it won't spoil anything for anyone.  The story was interesting and keeps you on edge with the main actor's role of a vampire who goes crazy each time he's near the main actress's role of a teenage girl who left Arizona to live with her father.  What kept me on edge was the fact that anytime throughout the whole movie, the vampire (Edward) would feast upon the girl's (Isabella) blood.  The movie was pretty funny all the way through, and that's not entirely a bad thing.  It's also due partly because some scenes were cheesy, full of one-liners, and filmed really awkwardly.  There were a lot of marketing implications all over the movie too, but a lot of media is like that nowadays eh? (buy this 'cause this character eats it! buy that 'cause this character uses it!)  So to narrow it all down, it was a movie filmed poorly (looks low budget, almost feels like I was watching Gilmore Girls on WB) based off a good story from a written novel.  Why do I say this?  It's because Harry Potter was also a movie based off a novel, and Harry Potter was great.  The acting in Twilight was very awkward in a lot of scenes, and the way the silent parts were filmed and edited seemed almost rushed or even amature.  Despite all that, I think it's worth watching at least once as long as you don't mind romance stories.

Speaking of vampires, I finally bought myself a copy of Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia.  I'm probably gonna open it and play it right after I publish this post.  Other than that, I saw a LOT of good games that came out for all systems in the Gamestop store before I went to watch Twilight.  I'm most likely will buy Castlevania Judgement when I go back home to Elk Grove.  I think I already said that in my last post, but I'm pretty excited with all the new games that has been released.  My roommate started getting scared by the way I acted in the game store and how I was getting so excited.

So I'll see you guys later and feel free to leave a comment on what you thought about the Twilight Movie.

Castlevania Judgement

I should either be playing videogames or sleeping right now, because I haven't had a rest time in a long while since I've been working on projects and essays.  Anyways, I was at my Videogame Development Club yesturday with my RPG group planning out our second Island for the game.  I was pretty much done with what I had to do, so I was watching some trailers and looking at IGN when I came across some new videos for Castlevania Judgement while they were discussing the next step.  I saw a lot of interesting gameplay in its development, and then I saw the newest trailer for the US version of Castlevania Judgement.  The Japanese trailer is totally different after the beginning:

I never noticed how GODLY the song for the game was until I saw this trailer.  It was probably because the past trailers had a lot of background noise and they muffled the music.  But WOW, the game really got my attention with this trailer revealing 10 new characters not mentioned before.  Characters from Castlevania 3: Dracula's Curse up to current day Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia all mashed up into one fighting game.  A lot of negative feedback from those who tried the demos at conventions have been spread all over the internet, but I personally am expecting it to be a refreshing and intuitive game.   I remember hearing about it in July when I bought a copy of Nintendo Power to find out about the "new" Castlevania on the Wii.  I was going "nooooo, Koji Igarashi, what are you thinking?"  When I got home from Irvine during my orientation in July, I saw some trailers for the game, and  then I was more relieved when I saw that it was free roaming movement.  I didn't want a Soul Calibur rip off for a Castlevania game, so I had some hope for the game.  Then when I saw this latest trailer, I got so excited for all the characters (except I have to complain about how Takeshi Obata drew Shonoa like an ugly nun.  He blocked off all of Shanoa's beautiful hair!!! ; .;).  The only thing that'll make me love this game even more is more interesting modes, more characters, and good multiplayer concepts.  Came out today November 18, 2008 (well, it's Nov. 19 now since it's past 12) so go buy a copy today!!!

LOL, this just in.  Right before I was going to click Publish Post, I got some reviews from three sources.  Here are the scores:

Nintendo Power: 7/10

IGN: 7.5/10

1UP.com: D-

I'm not sure of Richard Li even played the game extensively or what.  A "D-"???  That's pretty harsh right there.  But yeah, a lot of other gamers on the board are complaining.  Most of them are complaining about Takeshi Obata's art ruining the game (which I find only true to Shanoa, he did a wonderful job for everyone else in my opinion) and of the mechanics of the game being horrible as a fighter.  Oh well, it's everyone's opinion.  As a Castlevania fan, I am most likely going to buy this game when I get back home to Elk Grove.  You guys can come over to try it and decided for yourself what you think during winter break.  ^_^

Videogame Development Club

I decided to join the first meeting to see what the club was about.  I was under the impression that we would be going in there and playing some Rock Band 2 and having game developers come in and talk to us.  Oh man, such an awakening to me when the president of club went around in a circle (starting with me! o.0) asking for each person's name, e-mail, and "position".  I was shocked and started to wig out until I realized that were actually going to MAKE a game in that club.  These clubs are totally different from ones I've been in before from high school, this was serious and hard core.  I volunteered to do Animation, concept art, and Audio (such as sound effects and music).  By this point, I was thinking "what have I gotten myself into?"  Even more, my room mate joined me yesturday for the club and didn't know what we were doing, and he agreed to join!  LOL, but that's cool, we needed more people in that club.  There's only one girl in the club, so It's sad to see that not a lot of girls seem to interested in the Interactive Entertainment business.  Besides making a game, we'll be working with possibly mods using the Unreal Tournament engine, Marrow Wind, and even the Warcraft III map maker to mod games.  Other than that, we can LAN our games and "test them out" lol.  So after a while, I got really interested and realized the oppertunity I've been given.  I came to UCI hoping to be working with things relating to my future career, and here I am about to start!  (This is considering how boring my classes are too...).  Further more, there's a possibility that my club can sell our game commercially if it is completed.  That is awesome.

Anyways, diverting from making games, I checked up this morning on what games have the updates on them.  Appearently, Sonic Chronicles is out.  It's very different from its past games as it is a RPG game on the NDS instead of its traditional, fast-paced, 2d-platformer games.  I'll get around to playing that later in the future since I'm kinda busy with so many other things (such as other games I have yet to beat yet).

But more than anything, I got excited with the new trailer for Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia.  Michiru Yamane is yet again the mastermind for the soundtracks in the game, and the main theme is just awesome.