Well, I must thank Will Rodriguez for uploading Thursday's comic, and seeing to the manifestation of the Saturday instalment. Yes, instalment. I use British English. Will's honest-to-God a funnier man than I, and while that might sound self-deprecating (and it is), it's the truth. I'm not a good comedian as anyone in IRC can attest to (king of bad jokes, right here). Still, I am trying my best with A 1000 Days Like This. Speaking of which, it's time for a poll. Now then, on to the E3 update.
The new Legend of Zelda for the GCN that was previewed at Nintendo's press conference looks absolutely awesome. No cel-shading, full 3D, and featuring adult link. It's everything the fans wanted in Wind Waker, and while that game was good, this game is the crowd-pleaser. The Nintendo DS also looks amazing. I got to play with it a little and I can say this; The possibilities are tantalising. For one, it has six buttons instead of four, two on the shoulders and four on the face. It also has two screens, one is a touch screen, the other a regular screen. On top of that, it has wireless abilities built in, and it's still small enough to fit in your pocket. Plus it seems to support 3D, which I find rather interesting. There's also the wireless adapter for the GBA which allows gamers to play from across the room. There's another big hooray with some awesome on top. I really hate cords.
In the handhelds corner, Sony's PSP was shown, but not really. What I mean is that Sony showed the console's face and buttons, but the system was running off an emulator and not the actual hardware. I can't really say much about the console since it didn't honestly impress me that much and it can't possibly fit in my pocket, but hey, I'm sure Sony'll find a market for it. Be sure to check out Death Jr. when it comes out for the PSP.
Atlus is a wonderful company, I must say. In addition to Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne, they're bringing us Nippon Ichi's Phantom Brave, and a special treat; Digital Devil Saga. DDS was a game no one thought would make it here, but lo and behold, Atlus will be releasing it in North America this coming Winter. The release date alone is a miracle, on top of how sexy the game looks. They've done some fine work for the game's graphics, and I'm sure the gameplay will be top-shelf as well. Atlus is usually a trustworthy company, and I don't think this'll be an exception to their steady track record. Phantom Brave also looks sexy, especially being that it's from the makers of Disgaea: Hour of Darkness and La Pucelle: Tactics. I can't wait to gobble this tasty snack up.
Other notables include NCSoft's Tabula Rasa, which looks like my next big online addiction; Guild Wars from NCSoft which is essentially a giant battlefield for players to whomp on each other; and of all things, EasyFun Software's Beast Deity. Beast Deity deals with some Chinese pantheon regarding Fu-shi and Nu-wa (Fuxi and Nuwa for you commies). It's a cel-shaded MMORPG with some really spiffy graphics and a nice interface, all Engrish aside (EasyFun is a Taiwanese company). What's ultimately surprising though, is that it's running on a Pentium3 400MHz, and a TNT2 card, which by today's standards is archaic hardware. That's wonderful news in itself seeing how good the game looks. There's not much to the controls seeing as things are click and point, but I can't detect any major problems right now. Well, aside from the Engrish.
Moving right along, Wish looked like a mule's tushie but sounds spiffy in concept; Dark and Light was rife with Engrish but is graphically amazing (12,000 square miles of land? Deforming environments? Dragons as a method of aerial transport? Actual weather patterns in the game? No zoning? A single server with the promise of low latency? Hi-yo! I want to see this one pulled off!); Paper Mario 2 was a tidy little funfest, Baten Kaitos was nummy, Star Ocean 3's battle system was crafted by the divine hand of God, and the new Mortal Kombat title actually made me happy (a rare thing for Midway titles). Overall, it was an exciting show.
I'll write some more when the show impressions are due at RPGFan, so keep an eye out for the feature over there. Anime North is this weekend which means it's highly unlikely I'll get to finish any comics this week. Never fear though, I'll be sure to have something special come the week next.
Sunday, May 16, 2004
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