Jesus christ, what the hell Sega? I mean, Secret Rings had great buzz and all...but really....

At least I can say it hasn't completely jumped the shark - it's not like guns were ever introduced in any of the gam....oh wait.....

During my general chilling and surfing on the internet - I happened to stumble across the intro to Soul Calibur IV, which, of course, I checked out. Now, normally this is where I'd be telling you how awesome it was and how awesome Soul Calibur IV will be...but I can't. It's not that there's nothing remarkable about the intro (it's done with in-game graphics, which look great), but it's just...well, boring.

Take a gander for yourself - PS3 version

This got me thinking - normally Namco are great with their intro/attract sequences for games, so after a bit of searching, I stumbled upon this:

Soul Edge Intro

I was shocked. I have a copy of the game, but I had never watched the intro - and was stunned at how awesome it is, especially more than a decade on. I mean, it begins with the legendary quote "Transcending history and the world, a tale of swords and souls, eternally retold", and then it goes into the most awesome song for a fighter ever. I dare you to not get that stuck in your head - hard to do.

Later.

Welcome to Day 2 of Darthhomer's press conference watch. Twas a big day today - five conferences and I saw the Dark Knight, but more on that later. Anyway - conference time!

NINTENDO

By far the most secretive of the big companies. Then again though, that is Nintendo for you. We did know one thing - that a game for the 'core' (Hardcore) audience would be announced. It also didn't take much thinking to realize that we'd also know something on a new casual game for Nintendo's new audience. With that being said - it's amazing some of the reactions that people are making. I've heard cries for Matt Cassamasina's (the head of IGN Nintendo) head after he said that his much talked about Kid Icarus reboot wouldn't show at E3. Hell, I've also heard this press conference compared to Sony's 2006 one - if the GIFs of Nintendo's Cammie Dunaway and others circling the internets are any indication. Anyway.

The only thing that I found personally interesting was the annoucement of the much rumoured Animal Crossing: City Folk. It also featured with the annoucement of WiiSpeak - which is essentially a speakerphone for the Wii, allowing you to...wait for it....communicate with people using your voice! About bloody time Nintendo! Though for some reason...I have a feeling that it'll be watered down and limited - which wouldn't surprise me at the least. It have been cooler if it was also annouced that games like Brawl or Mario Kart would be patched later down the line to use the application...or will it already support it? Who knows.

MotionPlus was also shown off for the first time - the Wiimote add-on that gives proper 3D waggling (or proper movement, I think it was). Doesn't seem so bad...who knows what could come for it?

And then...there was Wii Music. We've known about it for a good couple of years now, and now that we know more about it...it makes me sad. The idea that you can win by not even playing the notes correctly? Sorry, that's not fun, that's dumbing down for the masses. Would've been better if we had an announcement of an English release date for the excellent DS Daigasso Bros games.

Otherwise...GTA China Town sounds ok. Though hearing that a GTA game for the DS is coming and not knowing much more than that is...saddening, to say the least. That's all for Nintendo...unless you want to count gloating about how they keep selling as a 'highlight'.

SONY

Loads of people seemed down on this press conference. I didn't think it was that bad...but it certainly was much more enjoyable than the Nintendo conference. There were some cool things announced - including the Playstation Video Store, which I expect we won't be getting any time soon. That's cool though, it's nice to have.

It's finally good to see that although there's always a wait, the PSN stuff is of some quality. I'm particularly interested in the new Ratchet game - which does look fascinating to see that it's a proper game that fits in with the series mytho's. And then there's the return of the 80GB - priced $50 more than an 360. Not too bad - no word on backwards compatibility though, which sucks.

The highlight of the show was twofold - seeing Sony finally acknowledge God of War 3 and Zippers (SOCOM devs) new IP - dubbed a 'Massively Action Game', a 256-player shooter. It'll be interesting if it comes to frutition and there's no compromises.

Definitely not as disappointing as people made it out to be...though would've been far better if Yoichi Wada (Square Enix head) came out to announce Kingdom Hearts III for the PS3 exclusively...or Fumito Ueda (Team ICO head) FINALLY annouce their new game.

CAPCOM

Twas all about the Lost Planet movie. Most news blogs seemed to care that David Hayter was writing it than it actually coming (in 2011). Lame. I hope the movie turns out good though.

UBISOFT

More details on the new Prince of Persia game were revealed - specifically the co-op stuff with the Prince's new sidekick. Read it, it's interesting stuff. I pray it's a great game and sells this time around. I Am Alive (Jade Raymonds new game) also does sound like a great premise that most games seem to ignore (last man on earth) - in fact, there's an Activision game that's sounding nearly as the same game announced, so that's cool.

And yes, there was plenty of Imagine and Petz games announced. Take that for what you will.

ACTIVISION

For the only conference that took place outside of E3 and the ESA, it actually wasn't that bad. They didn't reveal too much that we already knew, instead relying on stuff that we knew exsisted and stuff we kinda expected to see happening.

There's some good (Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 finally officially announced, as well as Wolfenstein), some interesting (Singularity - the game that sounds similar to Ubi's I am Alive), the bad (X-Men Origins: Wolvering & Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen), the expected (Guitar Hero World Tour and Call of Duty: World at War). There was an extended segment on Spiderman: Web of Shadows that did seem promising...but I'll hold judgement until the game ships.

Otherwise, that was it. And Dark Knight? Good film. Granted, some of the plot elements regarding a few of the characters are messed around with, but in a good way. Expect everyone to love Ledger's performance. That is all.

Later.

MICROSOFT/SQUARE ENIX

Let me get this out of the way first. Nothing really took my fancy, but the news on a (near) worldwide release date for RE5 as well as online co-op made me delighted. Here's hoping that it's running on a new engine, so I won't have to do an install (then again 360 owners, if the news is correct, will also have that opportunity). And the new Portal game (which I pray has a PC release) sounds nice...as does ports of Banjo 1 and Duke Nukem. However, that's not what I want to talk about. I want to talk about what is perhaps one of the more shocking annoucements to come out of E3 in a while.

In case you haven't heard the news - FINAL FANTASY XIII IS COMING TO THE 360.

I'm still quite stunned about the whole thing. On one hand, it's good to see Square give more gamers the chance to experience the game. On the other is money hatting - take a good look at their comments during the Square presser, and they mention that the decision was recent. The Square of old would never do this. I mean, there's never been a Final Fantasy game, let alone a MAIN SERIES Final Fantasy game that has ever had a multiplat release at the same time.

What's worst is the entire release schedule for 13. According to Square-Enix, the 360 version is hitting in English-speaking territories only (at least they had some common sense), will be shipping on multiple discs and will be hitting at the same time as the PS3 version. HOWEVER, they plan to get the localization done after the development of the 360 version, and because of the different languages (their reasoning), their plan for a worldwide release for the game might not be happening. Though they do promise the European version will be out faster than in previous games. And then they have to actually develop the 360 GAME - which is scheduled to take place after the 360 version is done! Thanks Microsoft for AGAIN delaying FFXIII.

At least one of the Fabula Nova Crystalis (the big series of games that FFXIII is a part of) is still a PS3 exclusive (Final Fantasy Versus XIII).

I've never gotten why the 360 has become the RPG console of choice lately - much like the PS2 once was (and still kinda is). I could understand if it's easier to develop for the 360...or Microsoft has just been paying famed RPG developers to develop games to help sell the system in Japan (where, traditionally, the Xbox has never sold well). You would think that the PS3 would be perfect for this sort of thing? Guess not...

ELECTRONIC ARTS

Nothing really to comment on. Dead Space seems interesting (more so than I was expecting)...but I was shocked that there's nothing on SKate 2. Though it did surprise me to see that Rage was actually an EA game - previously Activision did all the publishing/distributing for id's games.

I guess all the community stuff that EA are prepping does seem neat...as well as Dragon Age finally being shown.

That's all for Day 1. Tune in tomorrow for the Nintendo/Sony/Ubisoft/Capcom/Activision conferences.

Later.

I try to give every game I play a fair shake - even if the game isn't the best in the world, I pray there's at least one thing in there that impresses me enough to have satifised my curiosity and worth the sacrifice of time. In the past, I've been surprised (Heavenly Sword certainly isn't the 6-7 that most would give it), but also utterly disappointed (Spiderman 3).

The same cannot be applied to Lair.

Now, when I rented it, I knew of three things - one of the infamous (now fixed) control scheme, that Factor 5 (who really are a talented studio) had made the game, as well as the general opinion of the game (not very good). However, I've been surprised at how critics can sometimes lambast a game where there's at least something redeemable about it , and I've generally been wanting to give the game a go myself. Thankfully it was only a rental.

Let me begin with the biggest issue most people had with the game - the controls. In no way had I wanted to give the SIXAXIS controls a go, so I gladly downloaded the 147MB (whatever happened to 10MB patches?) update - knowing this would fix the issue. It does...but there's still some SIXAXIS control left in there (for example, you can manouver the dragon using the left stick - but to dodge, you'll need to push the controller to the left or right). However, the SIXAXIS stuff still doesn't work as well as it should. For instance, to do a 180, you'll need to shake the SIXAXIS up - and it doesn't work instantly. I've had to do it a good couple of times for it to register correctly. The worst instance was when I was moving the controller to the left and have it move to the right instead. I'm not making that up.

The best way to describe just how much you'll like the gameplay of Lair is how much you liked Factor 5's Rogue Squadron games. The original in particular (and the one that I'm more familar with) was a great game, but suffered from the fact that there were too many missions (like, 95% of the game) were focused on protecting specific objects or mainly not blowing the crap out of everything. I'm bringing this up because Lair's gameplay? It's practically the same damned game as Rogue Squadron. In fact, you'd be forgiven for asking why you can't unlock an X-Wing skin for your dragon!

There's still too much emphasis on protecting stuff - and you'll have to do most of the work. Again, not a problem - most games have idiotic AI that basically forces you to do all the work. That's fine, I can deal with that. What I refuse to put up with though is some of the most absurd things that I've encountered in a game. For instance - one level has you fighting over a bridge. During this one mission, aside from fighting off the basic enemy dragon (as well as some more powerful ones), you'll be fighting off enemies that'll make you scream, from bull-like creatures on the bridge itself, to more powerful dragons that require a different way of being taken down, to back on the bridge to take out RHINOS. I It's like that montage in 300 where you see the Spartans fight off progressivlely more absurd enemies - from rhinos to Ninjas to ELEPHANTS and what not.

Getting up close with enemy dragons is just a nightmare. If you haven't engaged in a fight with them, then your best bet is to just snipe them. Lining up alongside them is just a PAIN. And if you do get into a fight...actually, that part's not so bad. Though the absolute best part of controlling your dragon comes when he's not flying. Destroying legions of soldiers in seconds is very satisfying - even if it's stomping through them, eating them or setting them on fire. Though personally, it's annoying how collisions into enemies doesn't result in them getting damaged in some way.

Continuing on from that, there is still some good stuff in Lair. The scope of battles is insane, and there's defintely some decent visual and aural effects that do showcase what the PS3 is capable of. There's a host of extras, including a full making of doco, which is nice. Hell, you can even unlock an audio commentary (which is always nice). Shame it's impossible to care about the storyline.

I want to like Lair. I really do. But for every one thing good about the game, there's at least another five things that I make me hate the game. Maybe next time Factor 5?

That's all for now. Expect some stuff in regards to E3 this week. I'm thinking of either writing about all three press conferences...or whatever takes my fancy.

Later.

No doubt you've heard the news?

Turns out the main reason why Australian's can't get the game is because of drugs - or chems as the game calls them, is because it simulates realistic drug use, or so the OFLC report says. Didn't get a chance to read it? Here you are:

"These chems have postive and some negative effects (lowering of intelligence, or the character may become addicted to the chem). The positive effects include increase in strength, stamina, resistance to damage, agility, and hit points. Corresponding with the list of various chems are small visual representations of the drugs; these include syringes, tablets, pill bottles, a crack-type pipe, and blister packs. In the Board's view, these realistic visual representation of drugs and their delivery method bring the 'science-fiction' drugs in line with 'real-world' drugs"

Yes, I'm sure that MOST PEOPLE USE GAMES TO LEARN HOW TO USE DRUGS. Jesus christ, I'm honestly stupefied that the sole reason the game is banned is because the OFLC don't want kids to learn how to use drugs in their videogames. Bollocks.

What's more annoying is that the previous Fallout games had such feautres - and can be legally sold here. Hell, you can buy copies of both games at EB/GAME - rated M. No content was removed at all from both games for the European/Australian game (as far as I know). Hell, the drug angle is basically the same - you can take a variety of drugs that can boost your stats, but they can also affect you negatively. The first health recovery item you get in the game heals you at the cost of some stats (I think speed and perception are altered).

Chalk this one up to changes in standards and practicses over 10 years or so. Does it suck? Oh yes it does. I was REALLY looking forward to the game. If it does get released here - then it gives me more incentive to get the PC version (so I can mod all that stuff back in).

Back to our regularly scheduled "TO PLAY ASIA" or what not....