Take this debate to Private Message, please, you're crapping up the topic at hand. Also, the three of you, quit the name calling, it's getting tiring.

Well, I learned some valuable life lessons today. Thanks for the philosophy, everyone.

But Mittens, Nintendo DS is region free and it's available on Amazon UK...

Like Riku, I hope there's new games we know nothing about.

Because you started your sentence with "like" I couldn't help but read that as if a teenage girl was saying it.

Like, whatever .
http://i.imgur.com/0wIIx.jpg

It also features one of the best NG+ ever (different endgame scenario set in a tower with loads of bosses that you have to defeat as you make your way up the tower, with new boss and new ending that brings further closure to the storyline). Love the game's battle system, shame we never seen any other game utilising it or expanding on it.

^Segata post incoming!

Where I work, people frequently talk about getting wanting to get as absolutely drunk as possible, I feel sad for those people, since that's their very existence and that's literally all they talk about. I mean, I can understand wanting to go out for a drink to relax or just getting themselves drunk at a party of some kind, it happens, but to actively seek out a lifestyle that involves nothing but getting drunk? Pathetic existence. Like southcarmain and a couple of others on here, I don't drink, but when I do, it's normally a cider I'll go for. It tastes good and is still to this day, the only alcoholic drink I can safely say that about. When I was in college, I used to go out and get drunk all of the time, but realised it was a bit of a useless exercise that resulted in nothing but pain the next day and that was not enjoyable. And having seen the effects alcohol has had on people, it was enough to put me off. So yeah, I don't go out of my way to drink myself to oblivion like others where I am, do.

Looks like it's a victim of "focus testing", wouldn't surprise me if the initial concepts got thrown out in favour of the "cinematic experience". Still like the aesthetics of it, though.

Also, how bad is that dialogue/voice acting? And the corrupt cop missing that many shots in that attack chopper? Really?

EX Troopers not coming to the West.

http://www.nintendolife.com/news/2012/09/sorry_lost_planet_fans_ex_troopers_isnt_coming_to_the_west

The forum member's original question actually related to the thorny issue of the Mega Man series, and a recent comment by Svensson that he feels the franchise has too many 'sub series'. To counter this argument, the forum poster mentioned EX Troopers based on the fact that it's a sub series of Lost Planet, seemingly making the assumption that the game would be heading out of Japan.

Svensson's response was:

No because EX Troopers isn't part of the LP series officially (thus the difference in name) nor are there plans to bring it Westward at this time.

So there you have it - Capcom isn't looking to translate and publish EX Troopers outside of its native Japan, where it launches on November 22nd of this year.

The only Lost Planet game I give a damn about...and we're not getting it. It seems like anything to do with Mega Man is cursed now.

Capcom continue to vie for the prize of most disappointing publisher and developer this gen with Konami.

]Biohazard actually used to have an interesting story, yes. Pre-BH4. Too bad it went down with Raccoon City.

Well, yeah, you of all people would say that. But really, I think the series had a brilliant B-movie horror plotline with some fantastic scenarios and atmosphere. We'll have to see if they can bring it any of that back with RE6. People can complain about RE5 all they like, I thought the gameplay was really fricking fun, though. At least, I know the gameplay will be fun with RE6.

RE2 is still my favourite and Hideki Kamiya hasn't directed a better game in his career.

^That game looks really good.

I bought:

You know it is kind of hilarious, we've had both 3D and virtual reality in the past and they didn't catch on, chalk it up to the fact that the tech wasn't there, but now, I think we're getting there. I'm actually kind of excited to see VR in the future, even if it is yet again, only a fad. It's not like I think such tech will get in the way of usual gaming with controllers, but the possibilities with VR is kind of exciting to me, sorry. :dunno:

Labyrinth of Amala in SMT3: Nocturne,
Some of the marks in FFXII which just destroyed me (Trickster comes to mind)
Growlanser IV where it's you vs. monsters vs, the female angel it's just crazy hectic.
Golgorand Execution Site/Golgollada Gallows in Final Fantasy Tactics is the most difficult battle in the game for me (the first Wiegraf battle is easy once you know the trick to it).
Hospital stage in Siren: Blood Curse.
Final battle against the Tyrant (Mr. X) in RE2.
Devil Survivor 2 where you fight the boss battle against Ronaldo and then team up with him against the alien. Still haven't gotten past that (either Day 3 or Day 4).
The real (there's a few of them) final battle in Drakengard 1 is legendary hard.
The final boss in Vagrant Story. Throughout the game you are pretty much told to find the enemy's weakness, with this boss... he has none!
The tower in NG+ for Parasite Eve, dungeon crawling tower full of bosses and really hard enemies.
Final boss in Metal Gear AC!D 1.

Lost more than a few times on those...

NSFW:

To be fair though, the Wii had a lot of shovelware. Then again, so did the DS and that's one of the best gaming systems I've ever owned.

The gaming sub forums got about 5 topics a month at the most so it's just pointless having them separate. As for the junk forum the new mods and Yama have said that they are going to be more lenient on stuff going in General so as long as they stick to that I'm cool with it.

The junk forum was cool I had a quick look over the topics in there about a week ago. I won't miss the topics like 'What colour is your poop?' I hope we still get topics in general like when QWERTY took the piss out of Alimn meeting Yu with a story on how he met Brian Blessed.

The fact is it won't kill this place because a good amount of the people who post here don't even give a shit about the drama.

Me and Pete tried to save what we could. Some of the topics gave me a big laugh last weekend, like the Orange vs Dragnoix topic (classic), or when everybody was trolling Jokatech in his relationship topic, or the odd topic from QWERTY or Mittens that made me smile, it was a trip down nostalgia lane, for sure.

So yeah, game looks like a mixed bag. No Kaneko!

New Trailer:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXH5WRP36fA[/youtube]

^Pretty much. I'm honestly surprised that Orange thinks that looks like Kaneko, like at all . It doesn't. In the least. It's actually Masayuki Doi; the artist for the Trauma Centre series, definitely. And yeah, his art is fine there since he isn't trying to do an (frankly terrible) imitation of another artist in those games. I wouldn't mind the change in art style, as much, if Doi was employing a new style instead of imitation. I'm not a fan of the actual designs of them either...like Segata said, they're very modern anime-like.

I honestly think at this stage that Kaneko has either: A) left Atlus (you've got to be shitting me if you think Kaneko wouldn't work on a mainline SMT title). Or B) Atlus has other projects up there sleeve, such as a new Devil Summoner game, which Kaneko is heading the art on. I so hope it's the latter, since the thought of Doi simply replacing Kaneko just sucks. I'm all for giving the new guy a job, but shoving the lead artist of the series away like that to make room for the new guy, (Kaneko has been at the company since the beginning) is kind of nasty. Or maybe Kaneko flat out refused to help make the game, not liking what the team has in mind? Guess we'll never know. Either way, major blow to the series, to be sure.

As far the game goes, I like that they're trying to strive for the best of both worlds by combining both third person exploration and first person combat. I'd even go as far as to say that the environments look absolutely incredible. The music is also brilliant. A shame they're cutting corners with the certain factors when it comes to presentation; animations of the demons (static one moment then massive shaking, the next, guess I'll get used to it). I'm a bit worried about the storyline being really anime inspired at this stage. No offence to Persona, they're great too, but I like to draw the line between the mainline SMT and Persona, it would be the same if Persona suddenly changed dramatically. They're both great series, but ultimately different.

I'm sure I'll like the game, Atlus have never let me down, I really like the settings and music, but at this stage, it'll take a lot for me to love it .

I don't want to keep going on like a negative nancy, but those terrible anime artworks will be the cutscenes of the game. So it's not like it won't be a factor into the presentation of the game.

And I still don't see how Doi's art is anywhere near Kaneko's, not on quality (I actually think Doi is good; not when he's imitating Soejima or Kaneko, though) but in similarity. Doi isn't using the same techniques at all, he's just sort of trying to imitate (badly), whilst also trying to do his own style at the same time, and it is pretty jarring to me. Doi's art doesn't try to convey the same disturbed look on the character's faces (look at the "villain" of SMT4, he doesn't look disturbed or anything of the sort, he just looks plain evil), look at the Demi-Fiend and compare him to the main protagonist of SMT4; it's a stark difference. Night and day, really. I also miss Kaneko's vibrant colour palette vs. Doi's monotonous colours. The big close ups of the demons make them look ugly, too. Aesthetics of the series are part and parcel of why I like this series so much, if the artist is gone, it won't be long till I stop giving a shit about it.

As far as Kaneko goes, the guy's gone from Atlus, no doubt about it. It's an end of an era, but it's no use crying over spilt milk, the damage is done and I've got to live with it. Oh well.

It's to me, like the soul of Shin Megami Tensei is gone now. It'll more than likely be a great fun game to play, but the themes will probably be shallow (by the looks of the anime inspired storyline and cliche characters; time travelling, oooh, that isn't overdone in JRPGs, or anything; the only positive will be the variety of beautiful environments we'll get) and the art mediocre.

Angelus from Drakengard. She was a complete juggernaut of death and destruction.



I also liked Epona from Zelda, the hog from Nier and the dragons from Panzer Dragoon series.

Game Republic founder/director Yoshiki Okamoto comes out of hiding to reveal he has retired from the game industry and is now "making mobile phone games".

Video game creator Yoshiki Okamoto, the man behind Time Pilot, 1942, Final Fight, and Street Fighter 2, says he's retired from the business of making console video games.

Following the closure of his studio Game Republic, where he developed moderate successes like Folklore and two Genji titles for Sony, the famed game designer and producer tells Polygon he's now working on mobile games. His first mobile title, a "secret" game, he says, will be released in the near future, he says.

"I have retired," Okamoto said during an interview in Tokyo this week. "That's what I'm told to say [by my boss]."

Okamoto won't actually say who he's working for. But he believes that mobile games, not traditional, increasingly risky console games, are the path to his future success.
Quote:
Okamoto got out of the business of making video games for consoles when his studio, Game Republic, closed its offices last year. The company still exists, he says, but Okamoto is its only employee.

"Game Republic has not gone away, but we ran out of money," he explained. "So I had to let go of everybody."

At its peak, Game Republic employed about 300 people. The company was hit hard financially after the closure of publisher Brash Entertainment. The studio was developing a video game adaptation of Clash of the Titans for Brash and when the publisher folded in 2008, Game Republic lost "a large amount of money."

"But of course we had made the decision to go with Brash Entertainment," Okamoto says, shouldering some of the blame. Okamoto also pointed to the weakened global economy at the time, adding "It wasn't totally their fault."

"There were a lot of things I wanted to accomplish [at Game Republic]," Okamoto says, including a sequel to PlayStation 3 game Folklore, "But I need a sponsor to create those games." Even mobile titles, Okamoto says, require an investment of more than $600,000 to have a chance at success.

http://www.theverge.com/gaming/2012/9/18/3349570/game-republic-yoshiki-okamoto-retired-console-games-mobile

MGS3: Snake Eater

US box art:

http://i.imgur.com/TFKEW.jpg

Japan box art:

http://i.imgur.com/cnFwJ.jpg

EU box art:

http://i.imgur.com/yhMhs.jpg

Personally, I really like art we got, they're all pretty good though.

Beat Down: Fists of Vengeance (PS2)

US box art:

http://i.imgur.com/XuXzV.jpg

Japan box art:

http://i.imgur.com/4oaOB.jpg

EU box art:

http://i.imgur.com/pzxiw.jpg

Again, I really like our box art as opposed to the ones for Japan and the US; the blood on the main character's knuckles are subtle rather than the US ugly box art with a weird colour palette.

Castlevania: Lament of Innocence (PS2)

Japan box art:

http://i.imgur.com/SFRRv.jpg

US box art:

http://i.imgur.com/a3Zp8.jpg

EU box art:

http://i.imgur.com/E2oLU.jpg

This, on the other hand...ugh. It's not even close; Ayami Kojima's artwork >>> badly composed CG art placed awkwardly on to box art "tearing off the page" with the use of the whip.

Kaneko back on Persona? That would be weird and Soejima fans would throw a hissy fit. In that case, maybe Soejima is doing art for the next Trauma Team game just to complete the mindfuckery that Atlus are doing here. lol

A new IP with Kaneko on art and Meguro doing the music has me pretty excited...the last time that happened we got Maken X! That was 13 years ago!

Raiden:

http://www.konami.jp/mgr/jp/images/chara01.png

Enemies:

http://www.konami.jp/mgr/jp/images/chara02.png

http://www.konami.jp/mgr/jp/images/chara03.png

http://www.konami.jp/mgr/jp/images/chara04.png

http://www.konami.jp/mgr/jp/images/chara05.png

http://www.konami.jp/mgr/jp/images/chara06.png

Gifs:

http://www.abload.de/img/ai2kog.gif

http://www.abload.de/img/a0gkl5.gif

http://i.minus.com/ibxwgAn1Y7DjdS.gif

http://i.minus.com/im7HbDrUvVE54.gif

http://www.abload.de/img/risingrunkmsmp.gif

http://www.abload.de/img/a6aqyl.gif

Codec team revealed (5 of them! Definitely better than MGS4):

http://www.abload.de/img/cut-what-you-will-metsjq3z.jpg

Cool your jets, Ryudo. Otherwise take a vacation.

Let's not rag on Yu too much guys, eh? He doesn't want to start getting our hopes up, for them to just fall if something doesn't work. Cmon we've all been through that rollercoaster of Shenmue hype.

But he sorta did falsely get people's hopes up...like last year - on Shenmue 3: "I think SEGA will let me make it". :roll:

Yeeeeaaaaaaahhh, yet another import to invest in.
The UK has never been as useful to me as it has in this generation of gaming.

Same for you guys, but in reverse. I've been importing from the US, like mad, this generation. Don't forget we're also getting Way of the Samurai 4 physical, too! :twisted:

Mostly my favourites like:

Shenmue I & II
MGS 1-3
Silent Hill 2
SMT3: Nocturne (which I am currently)
Final Fantasy Tactics - such an addictive game
Vagrant Story
Parasite Eve
Snatcher
Metal Gear AC!D 1 & 2
The Ys games
Final Fantasy XII (most addictive game, ever)
God Hand
Resi Evil 1, 2 & 3 (like crack; love seeing those glorious pre-rendered backgrounds, listen to the atmospheric music and the classic scenarios)
Nier
Front Mission 3
Breakdown (Xbox)
Call of Cthulhu
Treasure games: Sin & Punishment, Gunstar Heroes, Guardian Heroes, Mischief Makers etc.

A lotta games, really. I play them all whenever the mood is right. It's sorta what gets in the way of me playing new games; I'll play a new game and sometimes think like "well, this new game isn't that great, it's okay, but I'd rather be playing [insert game I love here] instead".

Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex. Not watched an anime in years, found this box set lying around, so it was about time I watched, really. Tis good. Love me some cyberpunk.

Kojima wants to remake Snatcher & Policenauts and the president of Konami has asked Kojima to handle the Silent Hill series...

Hideo Kojima is open to reviving Policenauts, Snatcher as well as lending a hand to a new Silent Hill game - though it's unlikely he'd be able to take a direct role in any of the projects himself.

"Personally I love adventure games," Kojima said during today's Eurogamer Expo developer session, "and I'd love to see other chapters in the Snatcher or Policenaut series. But from a business perspective it's pretty hard to make that work. I think it's my job to push forward, so I don't think I could make it.

"I do think there's a possibility that I'd make an adventure game in collaboration with someone else who's great at making adventure games - maybe there's a possibility. As far as making a remake of Snatcher, that's something I'd like to attempt. We couldn't do it internally, but maybe we could partner with someone."

Snatcher has been treated to a prequel of sorts in the shape of the catchily titled SDATCHER, a seven episode radio play that aired last year and that was created in collaboration with Suda51.

Kojima also spoke about potentially getting involved with the Silent Hill series - a subject he expressed interest in via Twitter earlier this year.

"In the past I've mentioned Silent Hill in interviews, and as a result of that the president of Konami rung me up and said he'd like me to make the next Silent Hill," Kojima revealed today.

"Honestly, I'm kind of a scaredy-cat when it comes to horror movies, so I'm not confident I can do it. At the same time, there's a certain type of horror that only people who are scared of can create, so maybe it's something I can do.

"That said, I think Silent Hill has a certain atmosphere. I think it has to continue, and I'd love to help it continue, and if I can help by supervising or lending the technology of the Fox Engine, then I'd love to participate in that respect."

Most of the questions sent Kojima's way were, understandably, centred around the Metal Gear series, and he revealed many of his favourite moments from its 25 year history.

"If we're to talk boss characters, then I have one answer," he said. "I've done a lot of boss battles in a lot of games, and one thing I try to accomplish is make something no one has ever seen before. From that perspective, two bosses I'm a fan of are Psycho Mantis from Metal Gear Solid and The Sorrow from Metal Gear Solid 3."

Kojima also spoke of his personal relationship with Snake, and how he's grown with the character that he created. "What I can say is that I've aged alongside Snake, and I've matured along with him," Kojima said. "As long as there's a Snake in Metal Gear Solid, that Snake will always be a part of me, so I don't think I could ever do a Snake that's much younger than myself.

"For example, if at some point if we decided to bring out a JRPG with Snake in his teens, I don't think that's something I could do. I'd have to leave that with the younger staff. As you've seen, Ground Zeroes will feature a slightly older Snake."

They'd fuck up a remake of Snatcher, half of the greatness to it is the fact that it's a pixelated graphic adventure that's all nostalgic to me. I betcha they'd turn it into a half assed First Person Shooter from some mediocre company like Double Helix.

Kojima handling Silent Hill, though? Well, Kojima Productions actually has a few former members of Team Silent, so that might not be as bad as it sounds (Kojima directing a psychological horror game though? I'll have to wait and see on that).

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-09-27-policenauts-silent-hill-and-a-metal-gear-jrpg-an-audience-with-kojima

Just a lurker really.

Don't like the new Splinter Cell? Its because you are simply uninformed :roll:

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-09-28-fan-response-to-splinter-cell-blacklist-is-a-kneejerk-reaction-and-uninformed

Ugh. Yeah, not a big fan of how the new Splinter Cell is looking, at all (and this is coming from somebody who liked Conviction). I'm so sick and tired of those desert Middle Eastern settings in games.

^I'm really happy to hear that you love the PSP that much.

Just wanted to log in to say thanks for all the kind words, it really means a lot. I won't be coming back for the foreseeable future, but all the well wishes definitely encourage me to do so, in time. And it's okay that people know what happened, my apologies for disappearing like that.. I did realise I would be letting down some people on here, since I promised to do certain things for them (Dorian, Mittens, Ryudo, my apologies, I'll pay you guys back one day, bet on it). Also apologies to my fellow staff members (and Dojo forum members) for bailing out like I have, if I could turn back the clock, I would have contacted you guys and the Dojo with what was going on, I feel bad about it.

I also hope ThyDarkAngel is doing fine himself, he's going through with difficulties himself also. If you're reading this, take care of yourself and all the best. Same goes for any of you going through hard times right now. I wish all the best to all of the members on here [for example: Orange (hope you have the best damn wedding there ever is and ever will be) and Kenny (keep on living the dream)] in the future.

Don't want to make a big deal out of my absence, but seeing all of the posts in here, I felt I had to.

I vote Crimson Ryan or Kenny for mod!

I'll always be on PSN or my Hotmail if any of you guys fancy a chat. Sorry if this comes off as pretentious, I was just rather touched by all the nice messages.
You guys and gals are the best there is. See you around (and maybe again, in the future).
Be well.
Henry out.

Just wanted to chime in and say I am fifty hours into this game myself, currently up to Anor Londo and Smough and Ornstein is the hardest boss encounter I've come across in both games yet (and I am playing Demon's Souls & Dark Souls for the first time alongside one another). Incredibly challenging (especially when you beat one of them and the other inhabits the abilities of the other AND your Estus Flasks aren't useable).

@OL: The Hydra is surprisingly easy once you have leveled up your Defenses enough, all you have to do is go through Darkroot Basin and run up to the Hydra, block, wait for it to hit you with all of the heads, then dash to one of the heads, strike it, rinse and repeat until all of the heads are gone and the beast is dead. Well done on beating the Capra Demon though, that bastard is tough! (I was actually lucky enough to beat him on the first try, I kept using the stairs trick, didn't look it up online or anything, I just let him fall down after me and hit him once or twice then legged it to the top of the stairs and repeated that process over and over). And yup, the fanbase can be really pretentious, but I've luckily come across some nice other players when I've played it online who have helped me along the way (especially in the sewers, damn that area is tough).

Definitely going to play through From Software's back catalogue when I am through the Souls games. They seem to be the masters of atmosphere. I suppose people have heard that Dark Souls II is going to make the game "more accessible", the original creator of the Souls series (Miyazaki) isn't directing it and is instead directing a new game of some sort (new King's Field? New IP?) I'm not too worried, I trust From Software enough.

I love how the game is littered with Berserk references throughout too.

I'm currently playing Matsuno's new game on 3DS - Crimson Shroud (it's out on the eShop in both US and Europe now) and once again, it's very well written RPG with unique game mechanics. Incredibly atmospheric too. Fans of Vagrant Story and the Ogre saga look no further. Music is fantastic too.

The story pulls you in, it's very much a dungeon crawler with character (complete with a dungeon master narrating, ala tabletop RPG style).

I also played through Growlanser: Wayfarer of Time on the PSP this year and it's the biggest surprise of the year for me, really reminded me of the PSX RPGs that you just don't get anymore (complete with the convoluted mindfuck storyline).

I'll also agree with the posts about Deadly Premonition, the ending is mind-blowingly good.

I'd also add Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines on the list for immersive setting/well written characters.

It's funny because on one side you have the LOTR film fans bitching that it's too comical/songs feel out of place despite being straight from the book and on the other side you have the book fans bitching that it's got too many new changes (Azan; leader of the Orcs being the main antagonist, The Necromancer stuff being WAY extended with stuff straight from Unfinished Tales, new battle scenes, Radagast the Forest Wizard being in it despite never appearing in the novel, other scenes that weren't in the book like Galadriel, Elrond & Saruman meeting with Gandalf etc). To some extent, they're both right I guess, but being so anal about such a well made movie is secondary to me.

Poor Peter Jackson probably knew he was never going to please both, so settled for somewhere in the middle. Unfortunately, the reception has been very mixed. Even with all of its faults, it was a hugely enjoyable movie, to me.

And thanks, nice to see you too.

Darksiders, Its okay but so far nothing special.

Yeah, that's how I felt about it too. I got it free from being a PS+ subscriber and didn't think much of it.

I finally finished SMT3: Nocturne last night after so long (kept dying against a boss, left it in the backlog for a while). Really wonderful game, one of the best RPG games I've ever played, no doubt. Final play time was 78:47

Started playing Persona 3 Portable three days ago and it is incredibly good. Atlus games are so good man, damn.

First one is actually Gorky 17 AKA Odium (as it was released in NA) which is a tactical turn-based game for PC.

Info from the dev:
Gorky 17 is a mix of adventure and strategy-RPG. Remember "Final Fantasy Tactics" and "Vandal Hearts"? In those console hits the main focus was on the battles, with the plot shown non-interactively in-between. Now add fantasy-full adventures and plot-twists, explorations and much, much more! That's Gorky 17! For all you PC fanatics out there, here's the description in a nutshell: it's similar to "XCOM", but with a much simpler user interface (doing for strategy what "Diablo" did for RPGs), plus implemented adventures (so it's not only a matter of having the right strategy, but also using the right objects, getting information through conversations, interacting with other characters, etc.). In short, this is state of the art graphics with 3D characters and a "living" environment.

Other factors also play a major part in making Gorky 17 a great game experience. For example, we threw out the old-school "European/US" approach to RPG (pseudo non-linearity, a lot of stats, random and repetitive monster encounters) and implemented the more varied and interesting Japanese approach (partial linearity, simplified stats and user interface, with a lot of nice touches and small details, graphical excellence, accent on movie-like plot, and better use of fantasy/s-f settings - not just stereotyped skeletons and demons, or radioactive mutants). Of course this doesn't mean that Gorky 17 is a manga game. It's based solely on Western culture, with realistic characters and settings, horror/s-f story and some game-play mechanisms which are to be the best.

In short, we try to do the same for strategy RPGs what Diablo did for action RPGs. We took the best part from each genre. From adventure games, we took exploration and interaction with characters and environment, which not only puts the player into an active, role-playing part, but also enables him/her to actually influence story events. From RPGs we used the character development factor, and simplified the player's statistics, making every bit of data really vital and the data values (eg. the value of Accuracy) easily understandable and clearly visible during play. From the strategy aspect, we implemented battles which really make the player use his thinking cap just to stay alive and make progress. Then we added dozens of 3D characters and monsters with a high polygon count, detailed textures and skeletal animation system, plus state of the art rendered graphics and cut-scenes, real-time 3D special effects, many small touches and "secrets", and of course, a soundtrack that lends the perfect musical atmosphere to scene by scene events.

Finally, let us repeat again... Gorky 17 has the best of three genres: exploration and interaction with environment (adventure), character building (RPG) and absorbing battles with various enemies (strategy). We hope you'll like it.

More designs from the game:
http://rpgvaultarchive.ign.com/screens/gorky17/grandma.JPG
http://rpgvaultarchive.ign.com/screens/gorky17/Fang.JPG

This is the artist's webpage, some really good designs on there:

http://mutsaev.com/gallery.html

Third one, I think, is Coded Soul for PSP. But I could be wrong, sorry.

It's funny how the SNES version of Front Mission had a better translation than the dry, direct one we got for the DS version, but the inclusion of the 1st Mission (PSX game originally) with it, so it's like two games in one, was a really nice surprise for me. A shame the other DS Front Mission games never made it across to the West...

On the 3DS side of things, Ocarina is great, still to this day my favourite Zelda and the new Fire Emblem is definitely something to look forward to (the more I hear about it, the better it sounds). Speaking of ninja action titles, Shinobi for 3DS is also similarly great, if you want a ninja action game. It's pretty ugly, but man, the gameplay more than makes up for it, it's got that classic Shinobi design, the developers were Western, but it's pretty obvious they got what Shinobi was all about and that's what is important. The game is a celebration of the whole series.

I just got Virtue's Last Reward for Christmas and it's definitely a game you should play after 9 Hours, 9 Persons, 9 Doors otherwise the story may be a bit spoil for you. It's incredibly good so far though, plenty of mysteries and twists.

I can definitely see a game like The World Ends With You appealing to somebody like Axm though, it's right up his alley (since he appears to be a fan of Japanese games that fit into that style, very stylish).

Even though I proclaim myself to be a big fan of the DS, it still amazes me how much there is still to play for it (I actually have a few of the games, just not gotten around to playing them yet), the library for it is nothing short of mindblowing.

Don't worry about it, I've done things like that loads of times in games myself before, I know the feeling well. (But in that case, it isn't your fault, it really doesn't make sense that it's the red carpet as opposed to the Triforce symbol)

Playing Virtue's Last Reward, they've ramped up the amount of endings something fierce (instead of there being six endings, this time there is over 20...)

Some of the game overs are very interesting and add extra layers to the mystery. It's still gotten that old school point and click adventure feel that made the first game so great too. The puzzles are well varied. Reminds me how great the adventure genre is again.

Also, the music is fantastic , especially if you're like me and love electronic ambient music. So damn atmospheric, a couple of the tracks sent shivers down my spine. Like this one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ooK86eSZFCo

Also, there's a good portion of the storyline that reminds me of a part of Snatcher too, wouldn't surprise me since the writer/director is a fan of that game! Overall, really impressed, it's great coming into the game even with my high expectations. Expectations I couldn't help myself from having since 999 really is one of the best adventure games I've ever played. Just got to see how they're going to tie up so many loose ends before the game ends (and I can't stress enough how many there are).

^Read Berserk. Thank me later.

Rondo of Swords and Virtue's Last Reward both kept me up till 3AM last night. I'm losing sleep over these games. Me last night: *Just one more battle/puzzle, okay...* then the engrossing storyline captures me and won't let go.

I've gotten 8 of the character endings for Virtue's Last Reward now (and around ten "game overs") and can safely say the game is a masterpiece. The story is just...phenomenal. So crazy, but oh so good. It's a different beast from 999, which is great for me, but I can see how some people preferred 999; the characters in VLR are so cold and mysterious, whereas, I felt there was some trust and camaraderie in 999, people stab each other in the back in VLR frequently. Which makes the atmosphere also more tense and colder. And people die a lot too. Still think "Good People Die" is a waaaay better title than VLR, especially having played pretty far into the game (two endings to go). The more answers you get, the darker/more grim the game gets.

The game is really lengthy too, got it for Christmas and even with obsessively playing it pretty much every day since then and still not finished it yet. Still, as far as adventure games go, this one is essential. The only complaints I can lobby against it are the questionable character designs, the slow start (far slower start than with 999, which puts you right into the action) and the repeating character animations (I found it far more noticeable this time around since they opted for 3D instead of the 2D art). Also, there's save corrupting bugs for the 3DS version which can pretty much kill your game, 30 hours into *poof* your save is gone! That's pretty damn bad...(this only happens if you save in a puzzle room though, just glad I was well informed before playing this).