NeoGeo Battle Coliseum and Kof XI heading to America = Quick gip for Aussies?
September 30th, 2007
This article almost took me by surprise when I first read the headline. Being an Australian I have been playing these games for a few months now and I had forgotten about the Americans(its usually the opposite way around eh?)
What really grabbed my attention about this announcement is that it explains why SNK only released so few copies of these games in Australia. That is in order to prepare for the American release.
If you’ve been following the blog for a while then you might remember that I had ordered NeoGeo Battle Coliseum through EzyGames. I placed the order 6 months since the game was released and EzyGames weren’t able to find any PAL copies of the game for me.
So, in only 5 months the game was already discontinued. I don’t know much about SNK’s Australian distibution but these two games are already harder to find than the plentiful amounts of King of Fighters 2003 and Metal Slug games that are gracing bargain bins Australia wide. I guess this would be pretty standard really since their titles are fairly low key but it still bugs me that I haven’t seen anymore copies of these two games for the last few months. Especially KoF as that title only came out last July.
Have any other Aussies reading this seen many/any of these games on store shelves?
Although its not much of a big deal, it kinda makes you wonder why SNK would go to the effort of bringing this title out early in Australia just to ship out a few copies and then leave. It’s not as though our market for their games is larger than the American market, our market is small in comparison. In anycase its just something to ponder.
Are Nintendo Against Blogging?
September 29th, 2007
Probably not but in anycase I found an interesting news article on that topic that is definitely worth sharing.
Recently Nintendo of America has fired a contracted employee from their division for a blog that they have been running. Their personal blog contains various posts that aren’t very encouraging from an employers perspective(the usual over opinionated offensive rant from your typical trashy MySpace blog). Infact one of their posts distastefully describes their opinion of their former boss.
The interesting part here is that the writer goes by an alias and not by their real name. Although the site does contain photos of he person in question. She also never mentions anything about her work life at all. So from where I see it, I reckon that the comments on her boss would have been the key issue at hand.
Perrin Kaplin commented on the incident stating that:
“we generally don’t encourage them. However [Zenner] was expressly discouraged from doing what she did. I’ve seen everything that she’s written and it’s really not work appropriate.”
So do you think that Nintendo are justified here? The blog itself had no relevance to her work life, despite being rather distasteful. I think that its just a case of revenge from her boss because of the comments that she posted on her blog. Have Nintendo gone too far here? Is there no such thing as freedom of speech? Tell me what you think.
Halo 3, The Not so Nice Take
September 28th, 2007
Hey guys, I’ve been a bit out of the loop lately with my posting habbits. I’ve intentionally done this now so that it will be smoother sailing from here on in. Thanks for bearing with me. On with the show!
Over the last few days there has been quite a commotion about the release of Halo 3 and for all good reasons. The game has successfully concluded the popular franchise and the overall majority of gamers seem to be happy with what the latest installment brings to the table.
Now despite this postive energy surrounding the game, I myself actually dislike the series. Its not that I can’t apreciate a quality game, its just something about the game makes me dislike it. Maybe its the culture surrounding the game, the comparisons with Metroid Prime…as of now I am not sure. But if there is one thing I know, Halo bothers me(don’t worry I will write more about this in the near future).
So to fulfill my (perhaps) senseless disliking towards this title. I want to discus the downsides to this title. Here goes:
Halo 3 = Halo 2.5
Most of the reviews on Halo 3 have at one part or another hinted at this aspect. That is, when it comes down to the crunch Halo 3 is just a more refined version of the original Halo, more modes, features and weapons have been included but when it comes to major gameplay changes Halo really is a safe bet.
Obviously the map creator and video editor are excellent additions to the game. But they don’t change the core gameplay mechanics. Of course this definelty isn’t a bad thing. But this ‘ain’t broke, don’t fix it’ idea that Bungie have taken doesn’t really help evolve the franchise beyond its foundations.
“the gameplay doesn’t stray too far from Halo 2, which, in turn, didn’t exactly reinvent the original Halo”
GameSpot Review
“You get all the staples of the series but there’s nothing trail blazing, like the rebounding health meter”
GT Review
“but nothing could’ve prepared us for our slight feeling of disappointment. The game’s far too reliant on old gameplay tricks and recycled levels, and it really lost its narrative power “
Daily Game Review
Still a Lacking Single Player Campaign
Much like a few other good FPS games Halo suffers from a multiplayer mode that far overshadows the single player experience. This gap widened with the phenominal multiplayer seen in Halo 2 and has since expanded.
Once again the single player experience is fairly short lived. A friend of mine said that he finished the game in 6hrs, most reviewers are saying about 8-12 hrs in length depending on skill.
Lacking the Spark
Another point that popped up numerous times was that Halo 3 single player campign lacked the spark of the original title. Considering that this is meant to be the exciting conclusion to one of the greatest franchises of all time a bit more focus on this aspect probably should have been taken.
“The campaign, which is very good, is Halo 3’s weakest point. It doesn’t capture the cavalier spirit of the original Halo”
IGN Review
Weaker Graphics
A few reviews did seem a little disappointed about the graphical prowess of the game. Despite fantastic design and a good use of effects the game does seem to be slightly lacking here.
“That said, compared with a game like Gears of War or Lair, it doesn’t particularly scream ‘next-gen'”
Slash Dot Review
“Some aspects, such as some of the character models, texture work and animations seem to have needed more work or have been ported over from the Xbox. That said, while we can understand that Halo 3 isn’t a graphical revelation, at least it manages to remain consistent with the rest of the series”
PALGN Review
Did you Notice these Points?
Two points that most people would have overlooked about the titles release. Firstly, check out the Halo 3 love that went on over at GameTrailers.com, this was the day after the video review came out:
What isn’t shown in that picture is the countdown to GT’s video review of the title. This was taken of once the review was up. So with all of this splish splash going on, you’d assume that the video review would have easily been the most downloaded video for that day. Well think again:
Thats right, both the Halo 3 video review and HD review were out down by the brief video stream of Oboro Muramasa for the Wii.
The second point that I want to mention is the new poll put up on IGN Stars. Its one of those Master Chief Vs Samus polls. So lets check the results:
Woah, what a landslide! Even I wasn’t expecting this.
Conclusion
Please don’t take this as an attack on a fantastic franchise, the Halo games are awesomeness. I just wanted to talk about Halo 3 from the other angle. I reccomend checking out the latest PALGN podcast as they give a genuine take on the series.
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