Katamari Forever demo impressions

Originally, I had planned on writing this a few months ago after some hands on time with the Japanese demo, but felt I should wait. So here we are! The US demo has finally come out on the Playstation Network and the verdict? It's pretty much the same thing you grown to love or hate. While the gameplay changes are minor (using the six-axis to jump...sort of.) there's a bit more variety in the missions, not to mention you can change characters now, and it sounds like you might be able to unlock a few of them in game if you manage to roll them up. While in the previous games, the King of all Cosmos would sort of taunt you or maybe give you an backhanded compliment for doing a bad or great job, there's an actual grading system in place, giving you more replayability if you're the kind of person that's into getting and improving high scores. The controls aside from the jump are the exact same and work as great as they always have. The two most significant changes aside from the grading system and mission variety (one mission has you absorbing water then rolling over sand to expose the lush environment underneath) is the new art style. It's not exactly cel-shaded, but it does have a cartoon-like feel, which is appropriate when you think about how outlandish what you're doing is in these games anyway. The soundtrack is great as always, with the demo featuring two songs that I don't remember from any of the other versions, but still are a variation on the unforgettable Katamari theme. Lastly, I would like to say that this is the first version of the game that I've played where once you start exceeding your goals and become huge, there's no drop in the frame rate or graphical quality. Then again, the demo does only offer one scenario where you're getting bigger, and it takes place indoors so that might not be the case for outdoor environments. As a Katamari fan, I'm looking forward to playing the full version whenever it comes out, but if you've never liked the series before, it seems like this will do little to convert you.

Darkest of Days demo impressions

Darkest of Days is one of those games that I know is going to be overlooked by tons of people that probably would have enjoyed, yet won't experience due to negative feedback or the outlandish premise. Keep in mind that all of the following statements are based on the demo, so it's possible there's some even more crazy plot twist that ruins the game/gameplay later in, but if you're trying to play through this for the story, you're probably missing the point. From what I gathered from the demo, you start off as a soldier during Custer’s Last Stand, tasked with simply surviving against increasingly more and more Native Americans. Unfortunately, you get shot and end up firing into the masses on a CoD4 last stand mode, and when everyone around you finally dies, a time bubble pops open and out pops some futuristic looking soldier, telling you that they need you to come back with them. Enter Darkest of Days; Once you're teleported to the future, you're given a brief explanation of why you're going back through different periods in time, which is usually something along the lines of "THIS GUY IS IN THE WRONG SPOT! GO BACK AND FIND AND PROTECT THEM WHILE SHOOTING REVOLUTIONARY WAR SOLDIERS WITH A ROCKET LAUNCHER LOL" It's not in exactly those words, but I think you get the point. After a brief training session, you're warped back in time again, with more control over the outcome.



The gameplay itself is really reminiscent of things like Serious Sam or Painkiller, or possibly even Left 4 Dead since it's mostly you moving to an area, holding it, then moving on to another. To keep things a bit more fresh from just saving one guy while killing everyone else, there are random enemies that have a blue aura surrounding them, which means that you're supposed to score a non-lethal take down on them, which is easily done by shooting them a few times in the legs or arms. It's not much of a change from the formula, but it is a welcome addition. While everyone you're fighting is using weapons from the respective time period, it doesn't mean that you're necessarily going to be blowing through them. Judging from the demo, when you enter an area, you're given 2 weapons from that time, which in this case meant an old school rifle that you had to reload by packing gunpowder and dropping in ammunition and a faster semi-automatic rifle that's a bit weaker in terms of pure firepower, but later you‘re handed a weapon to turn the tides in your favor. While it's not exactly complicated, the well done engine, mechanics, and controls do provide a lot of mindless fun. It's nice to play newer games that don't try to have elaborate cover systems or RPG elements from time to time.

Graphically speaking, I'm a bit torn. On one hand, the game really does a great job of modeling the chaotic feeling of organized battles during that moment since firing a manual reload rifle leads to tons of smoke filling up the air, which clouds your field of vision, but those same effects are largely what cause the frame rate to drop down from 30-40 to somewhere in the teens for a few seconds. The character designs are pretty well done, and while their talking animations aren't that great, it still looks good enough to not break you out of the battle while getting shot at. The only real downside I've noticed is that the color palate seems to reflect what you have a mental image of what a battle would have looked like at that time period, and not an actual realistic environment.



The sound effects are ...not the greatest strength of the game, but they aren't really terrible either. Considering the game is coming from a smaller studio, it's not that bad, but I almost get the feeling that the voice actors in particular are trying to feed on stereotypes to help you identify where they're coming from. I would like to point out how bizarre it is that no one at all ever mentions how you're using an incredibly overpowered weapons, but hey, what can you do?

Overall, I'm really impressed with the simple fun that's here, but I’d have a hard time recommending it to anyone that’s not a fan of more arcade style shooters. While there isn't a point mechanic or anything that I'm aware of, it's not exactly the deepest game out there. Then again, you've got tons of those coming out between Halo: ODST, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 and several other shooters coming out from this year or in early 2010. Why not give this one at least a chance as a demo or if you see it for a lower price. Unfortunately, I've heard some bad things about the console version, so if possible, go for the PC one (29.99 on Steam), provided you can run it. While I have your attention, I've got to say that this feels like the perfect engine to mod on since you've got all these weapons already demonstrated in game.

Dreamcast 10th anniversary spectacular!

I know this is a bit late, but it's still the 9th, so happy 10th anniversary, Dreamcast! This list is just a list of ten things that I feel made the Dreamcast special. It's not the ONLY things, but these were the first ten that popped into my mind. If you have anything to add, feel free to leave a comment!

1. The 128 bit Graphics.



I still have that scene of Sonic racing down a dock as a killer whale crashes through behind you against the blue sky and crashing waves in Sonic Adventure 1. While the N64 had been a 64 bit system, most of the games didn't feel like nearly as big of a leap as what happened with the launch of the Dreamcast. While Sonic Adventure 1's dolphin scene and maybe the commercial for Ready 2 Rumble are two of the most memorable launch experiences, who can possibly forget the first time you saw Soul Calibur? Say what you will about the franchise, SC1 on DC had some amazing effects. Then you've got Jet Grind Radio, the amazing 2d art in Street Fighter 3: 3rd Strike, completely trippy visuals like Rez, and countless other games that showed you that, at least for a while, Sega did what Sony and Nintendon't.

2. Peripherals



While there weren't actually too many peripherals for DC, the ones that were actually helped out people a lot. You've got the infamous Rez vibration controller, but there's also great things like the light guns, and arcade stick for creating an authentic arcade experience at home. If you were a fan of pc games, specifically Quake 3, you could grab the keyboard and mouse for the dreamcast, allowing you to play a console FPS exactly how you always wanted to, which was great for online matches against other PC players (cross platform play ftw!). The keyboard attachment was also later used to help players all over the world talk to each other in PSO and was infinitely more useful than the on screen keyboard or quick commands, along with later being used in Typing of the Dead. A microphone had been released later to use with Seaman, which was useful, but never really managed to make it beyond gimmick status. Either way, you've still got stuff like the Samba De Amigo maracas and that definitely gave plenty of people a lot of enjoyment.

3. Cel Shading and Jet Grind Radio.



What probably would have been overlooked as just another extreme sports game, the art style really made this game stand out amongst the Tony Hawks and Dave Mirras, which allowed people to realize that this was actually about graffiti, helping to spread word of your crew while surviving against the oppressive military and other gangs. If I ever see anyone take down a helicopter in real life with a can of spray paint...I think I'll have finally seen everything.

4. PSO/Online Play



Managing to waste entire weekends playing Phantasy Star Online for free through Sega's 56k modem is simply unforgetable. I'm STILL not completely sure how they managed to keep everything running so smooth while everyone was using telephone lines to dial in, but WOW, what an amazing experience! I'm not certain that Phantasy Star Online Blue Burst is still online for the pc, but if you haven't played this game yet and are a fan of Diablo style hack and slash adventures, do yourself a favor and grab it on pc, xbox, dc, or whatever else you can.

5. All of the amazing arcade ports.



From Shmups to Light Gun games, whatever your favorite games were in the arcade in the late 90's, if you wanted to see a 100% faithful port, Dreamcast was the way to go. While this tradition was sort of started with the Saturn, the faster loading times, great dpad, and hardware specs made this an arcade fans dream. When it was finally announced that the Dreamcast was no longer going to be produced, it left everyone a bit uncertain since this also happened during the decline of arcades. Luckily, the torch was passed on to the PS2, but if you're trying to find that perfect port of Marvel Vs Capcom 2 or want to go back and experience the way Ikaruga was meant to be, look no further than the DC.

6. VMUs.



While card based storage would later be phased out with the dawn of the Xbox, both Sony and Sega tried their hand at creating portable memory cards with screens. Unfortunately for Sony, their attempt never caught on and (if I remember correctly) was never officially released in the US. Dreamcast, on the other hand, was launched with their Virtual Memory Unit, a memory card that had a dpad, 2 buttons, ran on one of those...LR3 batteries or whatever, and had a (terrible) speaker built into it. While many games just used the feature to show the name of their game on the screen as you played, there were plenty that actually took advantage of it and several sites that had downloadable games specifically designed for the VMU. To think, it took Logitech until 2005/2006 to produce their G15 keyboard that had a screen with more or less the same functionality!

7. The controller.



I'm not going to lie. The Dreamcast controller, aesthetically speaking, looks pretty frickin' unwieldy. First, you have the 4 candy colored buttons on the right side, two triggers, a big wide space in the middle with a start button at the bottom center and a gap in the face to view the VMU, then a dpad and analog stick. It even sounds awkward describing it. Amazingly, when you put that thing in your hands, it feels perfect, largely thanks to the grips the triggers provided so you could comfortably rest your extra fingers behind it. While issues arose with first person shooters (dual analogs hadn't really been around yet), those hadn't really caught on too well with the console market, so this controller is still perfectly suited for the games available on the console.

8. Sega Sports.



While I'm not a big sports gamer, I really do admire how much the 2k sports games forced EA to actually get better, to this day. Before NFL 2K had come out, it was already accepted that football fans were going to get the new Madden whenever it came out, and maybe give a game like NFL Blitz or NFL Xtreme a shot, but nothing had come close if you were looking for a realistic sports game. Then here comes Sega's first real sports game in ages, NFL 2k, which blew Madden out of the water, while the NBA 2K games slowly gained dominance of EAs NBA Live. With its 128 bit graphics, completely unique play selection screen, and the sheer amount of detail that went into every aspect, it was evident a new and formidable competitor had finally stepped into the ring.

9. That Ready 2 Rumble ad.



THIS LONE AD was what made SO MANY people think games had finally started to really look realistic. While biting fro's was not an actual attack in-game, it was still managed to be a lot of fun to play. Now that I think about it, R2R was the first time I'd had a great time with a boxing game since Super Punch Out. While the gameplay itself was great, the graphics, characters, and commentary by Michael Buffer really helped keep this in the heart of countless Dreamcast fans.

10. The arrival of Shenmue.



Talk about ambitious! Shenmue was originally planned to be a 16 part game that followed Ryo's quest to avenge his father. The first game in the series was one of the most hyped Dreamcast games I can remember. Putting the game in for the first time, you were treated with an epic (for the time) intro that lasted at least 10 minutes. The game took place in Yokosuka, Japan and one of the cool features of the game was that as you hunted down clues to the man that killed your father, there was a day-night cycle with randomly generated weather that was respective of the season in addition to using some of the real weather patterns from that area in real life during that time. While looking back at it now, many people scoff at how "hunting down" a killer boiled down to asking sailors what they knew about "THE THREE BLAAAAADES?!?!", and then repeating the question to the person only to find out they know nothing, there's an actual feel of tension of trying to finish all of these tasks within the hours you have awake. For those that just wanted to enjoy the world, you were free to roam the streets and talk to the many npc's, or maybe hop in the local arcade to play a few games of Space Harrier or Hang On while wasting the rest of your money on the countless toy dispensing machines in your attempt to collect every action figure known to mankind. The only downside to this game was that this is the game most people directly blame for QTE's catching on. Finally, the series was cut short, and even though it had been critically praised, terrible sales prevented Shenmue II from ever making it overseas on the Dreamcast, doomed to stay forever in Europe and Asia, yet somehow managing to get a US Xbox port many years later. It seems like every year, people hold out hope for a Shenmue 3 or something to continue the adventures, but until that day comes, keep crossing your fingers.