Meh, I don't think there's much there that hasn't already been said here or in the net.

Stuff like that can still be a great read. Just think of Amir's recent article. It can be lots of fun to read a detailed overview from a certain point of view that might actually even offer small bits of information that you might have missed out on before.

Started playing "Dante's Inferno" on my PS3. It rips off God of War even worse than I expected - combat, camera angles, theme, gameplay, everything. China style. I'd feel ashamed for having developed or published it.
That said, it's still quite a lot of fun so far, which is exactly because it's so much like God of War, and I haven't played a God of War game since Ascension came out. The graphics are much less impressive and the gameplay is not as finely tuned as in the GoW series, but still - it was an attempt at cloning God of War and while they didn't totally succeed, as it lacks quality, it's still a pretty good effort. From what I can tell.

I lol'd at "You now have the power of Beatrice's holy cross. Press [circle] for Holy Blast."

^ They're remaking 2. They do it. No word on 3 yet (it's a little early for that, I guess), but if 2 sells well, who knows?

Oh well. Gravity Rush 2 looked fantastic. I also liked Wild, Detroit and Horizon. I don't really get how exactly Dreams works, but it sure looks interesting and has a great art style.

Yeah, very pleased. I think it looks gorgeous so far.

And I think it's rediculous how nitpicky some people are about it. It's an indy title with a relatively small budget, and it's a miracle we're getting it at all.

Yeah, I think there used to be a common issue with bitten and chewed on Shenmue II game discs on Ebay in the early 2000s. Rumour has it that most of these discs were previously owned by LanDC, who had only just started his modding career and didn't really know how to properly extract data from the discs yet, so he tried that way. Don't know how much of that is true though.

PSA: I helped proof read the article. Still agree with it pretty much from top to bottom though, and it's worth reading.

I'm sorry to point that out, but the article is riddled with typos. And while I like the point it's attempting to make, I don't think it's particularly well written to be honest. On the contrary.

I have edited the post and it's now typo free! Could you tell me exactly how it isn't well written? I could always use constructive criticism.

Hey! I didn't expect you to reply on here and having to stand up for my possibly somewhat harsh remarks. I'll try to be more fair this time and make some contructive suggestions. In general I didn't like the structuring of your sentences in a couple of places. Use of commas, wording, stuff like that. Mostly minor things, but I'm picky when reading. Please take everything I'm saying with a grain of salt though, I'm not a native speaker.

First off, you really seem to have fixed many of the typos, nice job. :) I'm sitting at work right now, reading through your article again. Still found some typo leftovers and other things that irritated me:

a previously 47 million budget for both games
This seemed kinda weird to me. Don't know.

that bogs down the games pace
the game's pace

I now recoil when I’m now forced to
'now' twice

An example for comma problems: For my taste there's a comma too much in here...
So while in Skyrim, you’re the leader of multiple guilds
...which could have been placed here, after 'scrub', instead.
every soldier in every city is going to treat you like a nobody scrub sarcastically asking about a sweet roll

Another example of a minor irritation would be stuff like
Nathan Drake has a kill count of a small country at this point.
I would have written "the kill count of a small country".. but I might become too nitpicky here.

Some more typos/errors/stuff I found questionable or didn't like:

Unfortunately, many player’s expectations is to kick ass first
players' and expectation or expectations are?

You could possibly see that lack of complete openness a deterrent from the open-world
'as a deterrent'?

that allows Shenmue and others games like it
other games

Shenmue also has a far larger focus on story than other games in the genre by far.
'far' twice

does his stuff, comes home by a set curfew, and repeat
Is 'repeat' supposed to be imperative form here? I guess so. Not sure about this one.

Ryo doesn’t would wake up and start hauling ass immediately after the opening cutscene.
misplaced 'would'

Shenmue’s world are affirmed more than anything else, by relatable human emotions
world is?

he’s still a good kid you could still trust
'still' twice

represents the open-world genre - and gaming’s - obsession with power
I'd write 'represents the open-world genre's - and gaming's - obession' instead

Shenmue III, as a sequel to Shenmue II has a lot of potential
Again, nitpickyness. But I would have put a comma after 'Shenmue II'.

while still allowing the player to feel like they’re actually in his shoes
Not sure about this one. 'players' instead of 'player' or 'he's' instead if 'they're'?

he wakes up every day near the crack of dawn to travel to the harbor and work that forklift, which you drive, and have a quota to meet from 9 to 5
'have a quota' seems odd to me. You have or Ryo has?

the games are deliberate in their attempt to replicating normal human life
'attempt to replicate' or 'attempt of replicating'?

Since as game player’s, we’re used to game structure
players

taking certain levels of power out of player’s hands
'the player's' or players'

A genre now famous for holding player’s hands
same as above

they can’t release a game without telling player’s what to do
players

In contrast with the Sega’s epic, if there’s a door in the Shenmue franchise, it’s likely you can go inside
In contrast with Sega's epic

Some of Shenmue’s critics use this as a talking point that it’s boring and not very fun to play.
I don't like "use this as a talking point that", but maybe that's just me. I think I'd write "use as a talking point".

it’s something that grows on you and appreciate the more spend time with it.
Seems weird to me.

you have to go to class, meet deadlines, and like Shenmue, have a specific limitation
like in Shenmue?

Also like Shenmue, it was rated very highly. It’s also clearly inspired by some of the more minute element of Shenmue.
Here I would restructure everything, to evade using "also" twice and just to formulate that whole "was rated very highly" thing differently.

There’s an equally a valid approach to smaller
equally valid?

more densely detail open worlds
densely detailed?

Shenmue III’s developers fully understand the limitations that they placed on previous game gave it its signature panache
previous games

We need more games like it. Sometimes, maybe bigger really doesn’t necessarily mean better.
I found this to be a weak conclusion or final statement. It's the final sentence, it needs to have more punch, or more cleverness. Somehow. Sorry. :p

As I said, I'm not a native speaker, so some of my corrections might be bullshit. Everything else I'd criticize would probably be a matter of personal taste in writing styles, but I think some sentences or even whole parts would have to be rewritten to a degree before your article could be published as an opinion piece on some bigger site.

Please note: Neither am I in any way trying to discourage you, nor do I totally dislike what you've written. You're making very good points, both about Shenmue and open-world games in general. I remember feeling that dissonance while playing GTA IV and GTA IV: The Lost and Damned and totally agree with your point about tiring "checklist gaming". All in all it's a good effort, it's a nice text, just with some hickups. Maybe you can build on it, iron some stuff out, add some polish, you know?

IGN occasionally has "community blogs" or whatever they call it, where articles like yours are featured on the main page.. I don't know how that works, but maybe you could look into it.

Edit: That would be for the videogame fans mostly of course.

Oh. Slight bummer. So that's why "Chronicles" is missing in the title. Still excited for the Remaster though, haven't played the original yet and would really love to. Please come to the West!

SEGA just officially announced "Valkyria: Azure Revolution" and "Valkyria Chronicles Remaster" for PS4 via the latest issue of Famitsu magazine. No real details yet, release date TBA. Source: http://www.gamefront.de

http://gematsu.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/Valkyria-Azure-Rev-Ann_001.jpg

Yeah, no, I get it, too. It was time to move on at least one post ago, so let's just do that now.

Well, I like your optimism, guys. We'll see. I'd love for you to be right with those predictions.

^ I'm totally with everything you said, except that I like what we've seen from Suicide Squad so far. I also grew up as a DC kid and always preferred that universe to most Marvel stuff. The Marvel movies are still solid and entertaining, but I can't get hyped for them. I'm extremely hyped for that DC universe coming to life though. Snyder is the best man they could hire in order to get the visuals right.. let's just hope they won't let him do too much writing. And yes, I also believe that Affleck will be the best live action Batman we've had so far. I loved that casting decision from the beginning. Heath Ledger. Anne Hathaway. Ben Affleck. Seems like the internet will never learn to just shut the hell up when it doesn't know what it's talking about.
I love that we're getting this darker tone, which is much more true to the source material than the disneyfication Marvel has been and still is doing (not trying to talk Marvel movies down, I really enjoy those as well).
Man, the thought that we're getting a Snyder directed Justice League movie in 2017, with this cast, this tone, these visuals, is blowing my mind.

Edit: That means Justice League, Star Wars: Episode VIII and Shenmue III in the same year. Amongst other awesome stuff. Holy shit.

http://oi63.tinypic.com/nnte8m.jpg


That was such a b-list Justice League back then :lol:

It's a dream sequence, or some kind of "worst case scenario" thing going on in Batman's head. It's imaginary. That's why it looks all post-apocalyptic, and Superman has soldiers bowing down to him; this is what Batman thinks Superman could eventually bring about.

That's what I'm thinking, too. I suppose that's gonna be pretty early in the movie, maybe it'll even start with a shot of that wasteland, Batman fighting a horde of infinitely spawning Superman minions, then being overwhelmed and captured. Especially the scared look on his face while Supes is walking towards him makes me think it's a dream. Not that it's not reasonable to be scared of Superman, it just doesn't really suit Batman to show it like that. And in your dreams anything can evoke a deep fear within you.
The reason for this scene is probably to make viewers relate to and connect with Bruce's emotions and fears concerning Superman, to show that he's not simply being a jerk towards Supes, but that he's actually being haunted by the thought of the almighty alien doing great harm to humanity, which he's been trying to protect ever since his parents were killed.

Ethan Hawke

I think the Dreamcast did poorly mostly because of Utopia and CD Burning. I don't have any statistics to back that up and am going purely on anecdotal evidence here when I say this but everyone I knew who had owned a dreamcast did this.

I don't think piracy has ever hurt hardware sales. On the contrary, it helped the first PlayStation to become as huge as it did. Being able to get the games for free wouldn't really be something that speaks against buying a console, would it? It might have hurt software sales and SEGA as a whole though, to whatever extent.

Very bad marketing, bad business decisions, no EA Sports games, not much mainstream appeal, great alternatives (PlayStation 2) on the horizon, bad timing, bad luck - there are many reasons why the Dreamcast failed. There simply weren't enough people who gave a damn about it, despite it being a damn fine console.

Good point.. oh man, that canon issue. In my opinion it's nonsense to consider anything other than the movies canon anyway. Especially games, or at least Bioware style games with all their decisions and different paths, can never really be canon, can they? Kotor is also set a couple thousand years before the movies, so maybe there's hope for that reason?

If not, oh well. Just another Star Wars RPG by Bioware with a new story and setting would be fine, too. :)

I have to add ABZU to my list.


Oh, and this. I'm sure OL is gonna be with me there, it looks gorgeous:

I should clarify that it's not even just the lack of an engaging story that kills it for me. The gameplay mechanics might be excellent (I absolutely will not argue against that point), but they just aren't applied to anything memorable for me, outside of the odd instance here or there (like the initial boss fight against Quiet).
Very basically , I remember infiltrating bases, extracting guys, developing items, running for ridiculous distances and stretches of time... but it all totally blurs together after awhile. It's kind of like going to work every day; it might not be so off-putting if new, unique, and exciting things were constantly happening, but in most jobs every day is just a samey grind that, over time, blends together and becomes a total haze. That's the majority of MGSV for me.
And it's different from the activities you mention; going to amusement parks, eating good food, or bumping uglies with a fine lady might not require a good story or anything, but at least they leave you with some great memories to warm your soul. Outside of a small few instances, I really just don't have any great memories of MGSV.
I might not speak so harshly about it if the game were limited to, I dunno... maybe a twenty- or thirty-hour runtime? That would be totally reasonable for what the game actually offers. But being that the game can easily run for over five times that amount, with practically no standout memories left on the player (that would be me; not speaking for anyone else)... I just look back at it as a bit of a waste. I remember enjoying myself well enough, but in hindsight it didn't leave me with anything.

So for someone like Kenny, who doesn't seem to think much of the story and doesn't even particularly enjoy the gameplay... yeah, I'd really just recommend putting it up and playing something else.

Hmm, yeah. Gotcha. Good point about the fuzzy memories. :) I guess it's mostly me knowing how much fun I had that still let's me think so highly of it. When it comes to actual memories a blur really describes it quite well. About all that running around though - maybe you could have made more use of the vehicles? I took a jeep with me for most missions. Still had a lot of running to do of course and didn't always feel like backtracking to the car instead of just continuing on foot. But you could always order a new one to be dropped right next to you (I didn't make much use of that option though).

And agreed about Kenny - maybe you should just stop doing that to yourself..? :lol: :)

Holy fuck. Trailer for 6.

New 8 minute japanese trailer for Yakuza Kiwami:

Guys, this is still donating. It's not pre-ordering, it's not buying. It's not investing either. You're donating money to a project. Neither the release of Shenmue III nor the sending out of any of the rewards can be guaranteed. If you weren't aware of that, you're the only one to blame.

(This is not directed at you, Hyo. Just saying.)

The slacker backer campaign was never meant to bring in another $6.000.000, now was it? A few very loud people in the Kickstarter comments and on message boards/Youtube/Facebook were desperately screaming at the top of their lungs for the option to give money via Paypal, and they got that option. And that's all it was and is, another payment option for everyone being late to the party. The vast majority of people willing to give money to this did so during the 30 days of the Kickstarter campaign. It's really no big deal. Yu was willing to make the game with $2.000.000 from the crowd. Now he's doing it with almost $6.500.000. I don't get why people are shitting their pants over this.

Generally speaking I don't get why 90% of you guys are shitting their pants over pretty much everything that's happening or not happening. You keep worrying so much and asking for so much more than is reasonable to ask for, instead of simply being pleased for once. We have so much reason to be pleased, yet you somehow manage to see the worst in everything, again and again. Isn't that exhausting?

Maybe I'm just stalking you to disagree with stuff you say every now and then. :P

That's just how it is with taste. But I just had a look at your top ten list in the other topic:

10. Jet Set Radio
9. Virtua Tennis
8. Metal Gear Solid 3
7. Resident Evil REmake
6. Halo 2
5. The Last of Us
4. Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic
3. Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars
2. Shemmue 1
1. Shenmue 2

Which is a totally valid one to me. I don't care much about Virtua Tennis, but other than that I like all of those games a lot. Didn't play that specific Mario PRG title, but like the games in general. So it's not like our tastes are a total contrast or something like that at all.

^ You can also hear the voices of Yoda and Luke in that sequence though.

^ That can't be the real Yu, look at his shirt.

Can't believe this topic led to you guys arguing about Terminator Genisys and personal opinions.. :lol:

I'd also like to thank Switch for his contributions, that's great work. And despite it being really short, I somehow liked this little interview better than most other stuff we got to read in the past months. It has some interesting bits, and like Giorgio said, that last part is heartwarming and exciting.

Kids these days don't have anything to rebel against.

And it's kinda sad.

You probably mean it's sad that they don't see the stuff to rebel against? Humans and animals are being mistreated, taken advantage of and slaughtered for profit left and right. Most of us simple don't care. There's way more than enough to eat and to buy and they're making another Star Wars, so why complain.

I don't really get all the hate for AJ. Sure, they're a bunch of tools in general, but here, in this specific situation?

No.

Those Kickstarter rewards were introduced as exclusive stuff, and that's what made a lot of people decide to support the campaign in the first place. "Give money, get exclusive stuff in return". That's a promise, it's a deal YS Net made with Shenmue fans. They can't just go "thanks for the money, but what we promised in return is now something else, it's no longer exclusive. Because 6000 people don't care". I think 4000 out of 15000 people being against the rewards going to Paypal backers is more than enough to not do it. It doesn't really matter if another 10000 people don't care or if those 4000 people are assholes or not - AJ's decision to not screw these guys over is legit.

The 10000 who voted "yes" or "don't care" are in no way screwed by this decision, while 4000 "no"-voters would have been screwed the other way round.

I don't really get all the hate for AJ. Sure, they're a bunch of tools in general, but here, in this specific situation?
No.
Those Kickstarter rewards were introduced as exclusive stuff, and that's what made a lot of people decide to support the campaign in the first place. "Give money, get exclusive stuff in return". That's a promise, it's a deal YS Net made with Shenmue fans. They can't just go "thanks for the money, but what we promised in return is now something else, it's no longer exclusive. Because 6000 people don't care". I think 4000 out of 15000 people being against the rewards going to Paypal backers is more than enough to not do it. It doesn't really matter if another 10000 people don't care or if those 4000 people are assholes or not - AJ's decision to not screw these guys over is legit.

The 10000 who voted "yes" or "don't care" are in no way screwed by this decision, while 4000 "no"-voters would have been screwed the other way round.

I fail to see how the KK backers will be screwed if the exclusive rewards goes to the paypal backers too. the kickstarer backers are still getting what they were promised, its not like they are loosing their rewards , and the rewards would have remained exclusive to the backers (PP and KK backers) , in my opinion the ones getting screwed are the paypal backers , because for the same amount of money they are getting less rewards. I would have said the same if the situation was the other way around (exclusive paypal rewards). We all have been waiting for 15 years , we all supported the shenmue 3 idea all those years , we all should get the same rewards. It does not matter if we choose paypal or KK to back the game. The paypal backers are still backers. They are not buying the game in a store in 2018, they are giving their money 2 years in advance just as the KK backers did.

You wouldn't feel screwed, and neither would I. But 4000 people would. Like I said:

Those Kickstarter rewards were introduced as exclusive stuff, and that's what made a lot of people decide to support the campaign in the first place. "Give money, get exclusive stuff in return". That's a promise, it's a deal YS Net made with Shenmue fans.

It was KS exclusive. Not backer exclusive. That was the deal. It's a matter of how things were worded and a matter of standing by those words. Those 4000 people might feel totally different about an item that could be aquired during the 30 day KS campaign (which is the item they gave money for) and stuff that could be bought via Paypal for months (and possibly months to come). They might have put hundreds of dollars into the game, and they might have justified that to themselves by thinking of those exclusive rewards. They probably would have felt cheated by the changed conditions. As a fan who mostly cares about the game itself I don't like how so many people voted "no" either. It's not really helping, it kinda sucks. But it's only fair that they were given the opportunity to do so, and that their opinion is being treated with respect.

And lastly, Strike 4 was the whole kickstarter controversy, the game not being released on Xbox One, and Yu Suzuki being greedy, the fans being greedy and selfish and pretty much ruining any chance of new fans being introduced to the series, and Sony not giving a single fuck to support this game.

Pretty much most of your post is bullshit, but especially this part reeks so hard of uninformed and utter stupidity and Xbox fanboism that it's not even funny anymore. Just make this community a tiny bit better by getting lost already.

I do have my facts right.
Yu Suzuki keeps saying if we don't donate more, the game will have less characters, less levels, less items, no fourth game.


I was going to reply to some of the made up, dreamt up or whatever nonsense you threw up onto your keyboard, but I fear my self-respect would take serious damage from continuing to respond to a dimwitted 14-year-old on a message board. Besides, you might actually be a trolling genius out to waste people's time. I seriously can't tell. I've seen some shit, but I'm having a hard time believing that someone can really be, think, feel, talk like that and be serious about it. Anyway, talking to you is not the smartest thing to do in any case, so yeah. Have fun.

Edit: If you're a troll, hats off, I'm impressed. Seriously, positively. Stuff like this is annoying, but it's definitely an art form, at least when it's executed in a perfect manner like here.

The title says it all. It's 2016. Does the Dojo need any more money to stay online? Can we buy us new fancy colours for our names? The 2015 one is kind of "eh" if you ask me.

I would have asked in the "donors please read" topic, but nobody seems to check that. I saw Kiske asking there if his donation had worked, months ago, but no reply. And Kiske's name still appears in the standart colour. Don't know if that has been cleared up via private messaging by now. If not, weird.

Anyway. How about yellow or something? Or something blueish? :D

^ And Riku Rose might be about to lose his benefits. Shit is fucked up.

Yokosuka wrote:

Hell yeah.

Having recently finished Yakuza 5, there's nothing left to see for me, so I am putting my PS3 on Ebay today. Like I did with my Dreamcast, Gamecube and Xbox ages ago. Feels weird after all these years, but life's about letting go I guess. And I got my PS4. So fare thee well, dear PS3.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7M8m4LyFSkE

^ I watched Orphan about a week ago, didn't like it at all. Someone spoiled the twist (which I think is a great and creepy idea) to me a while ago, and I think without knowing it the movie would have been even worse to me. No tension, no being creeped out. Just a few cheap jumpscares, a little gore and another generic creepy kid in a horror movie.
On the other hand knowing the twist beforehand might have ruined it for me. I can't really tell for sure if that's what took away the tension, but I don't think so.

Now after this you probably won't trust me when it comes to horror, but please, for the sake of Joby the Raiser of Hells, watch "It Follows" and "The Babadook". At least do a little research and then decide. Avoid trailers if possible.

HOLY SHIT. Looks like wayyyyyyy way too much fun..!

Yup, reboot. But to me that's okay. That and the apparently (not watching the trailers) newly added screaming at each other and general drama. It's the price we have to pay for this game to even exist. The first one didn't take off financially, so they're trying to turn it into a hit this time, by selling it as a spectacular story. Can't really blame them of you ask me.

That doesn't sound too great. Hope you get well soon, Thief!
And I hope you'll be able to get rid of at least one of those annoyances soon, Henry.

Holy mother of god. That fight scene at the beginning. And everything else.

I'm sitting here, i'm trying to play Yakuza 2. I can't get into it... I just don't give a FUCK. I've been stuck in the past for so god damn long. I'm sick of retro video-games, I'm sick of playing anything that doesn't either keep me going forward in life or bring me together in some sort of community. I don't want to play lame-ass old shitty b-movie-esque video games in my GOD DAMN ROOM anymore.

I'm selling everything I own. I'm even selling my old Shenmue shit. Shenmue was great, as was a lot of games I played, but they were great to me when I played them, not forever in my fucking closet. I'll play Shenmue 3, i'll have a great experience, and then I'll MOVE ON WITH MY LIFE. No more collecting, none of this nonsense bullshit. I'm only keeping things I actively use. I will have a Super Nintendo (for competitive Super Metroid) and a Playstation 4 (for new games and fighting games).

I don't know why I'm so angry with this post -- probably because I'm a little bit drunk.. but fuck retro videogames. Fuck 'em once and for fucking all.

Totally feeling you. But I could imagine it's only a phase in your life and you'll come back to loving the stuff again. But who knows, maybe not. I've had a similar thing twice in recent years, where I completely stopped playing games for a couple of months. Couldn't enjoy them anymore, felt I was wasting time. But it then came back after a while each time. Right now I'm once again approaching a point of drastically changing my gaming habits, because I feel I'm overdoing it to a pretty extreme level. I mean I do have a social life, I do go out, enjoy parties, people (all in the right doses though, can't stand too much of that stuff), I can't complain about my sex life or anything, and I do study and I do go to work to finance that studying, but man. Still. I'm just constantly playing something. I'm finishing a game, then the next one is already waiting, installed on my PS4 and ready to make me sink hours upon hours of my life into it. I'm constantly keeping track of which games could be of interest to me. I have like ten or so games on my PS4 that I haven't played yet. (They used to be more, I've stopped buying them with the occasional exception) What the fuck for? I can't play more than one or two at the same time anyway. It's just getting to much. If I continue to play everything that I think is worth being played then I'll never be able to leave that cycle of constantly trying to catch up.

So anyway, I too feel stuck. Fuck being stuck. I need a reboot, and am about to finally get it done. It's not only gaming habits, it's more stuff in my life I'm about to tackle and change and readjust. Wish me luck! :p

And good luck to you!

- Tekken X Street Fighter (announced in 2010, 6 years, still waiting)
- Beyond Good & Evil 2 (announced in 2008, 8 years, still waiting)
- Carmageddon: Reincarnation (first appeared as Carmageddon 4 in some financial report in 2003 (!), put on hold in 2005, reintroduced as Carmageddon: Reincarnation in 2011, released for PC after 12 years in 2015, still waiting for the PS4 version that's supposed to come out one day)

I guess Psychonauts 2 doesn't really count, since I've hoped for that game for ages, but it didn't really exist then, it wasn't in development.