Next month, I'll be attending at the Gamescom in Cologne, Germany. This is the successor of the Leipzig Games Convention and comparable to the American E3 or Japanese Tokyo Game Show - so it'll be pretty interesting and crowded, on top of that. I'm pretty much up to date with all upcoming games these days, but I was wondering if you guys are looking forward to that specific game I really should play. Afterwards, I'll report my thoughts here (specially for you - everything else I'll write will be in Dutch). As a gamecritic, I don't hope I'll be too honest and ruin your anticipation towards that very game. =)
Also, are there perhaps other NSM-members who are attending?
Interesting. I wonder why I haven't heard of this? Anyway, I look forward to your report, the one you did last year was great!
Check out Scribblenauts to see if it's really the greatest thing ever.
People appear to be very enthusiastic about it. I'll check it out for sure. By the way, a friend of mine was asked by Nintendo Benelux to translate the game into Dutch. And well yeah, the vocabulary contains about 10.000 words. Poor him. =p
For now, I've only got an appointment with SEGA. An exclusive session with Bayonetta - the only SEGA-game I'm interested in.
I got this list so far, based on my specialities:
Square Enix:
- Dissidia Final Fantasy (PSP)
- Final Fantasy XIII (PS3, Xbox 360)
- Final Fantasy XIV (PS3)
- Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days (DS)
- Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Crystal Bearers (Wii)
Sony:
- LittleBigPlanet (PSP)
- White Knight Chronicles (PS3)
Konami:
- Castlevania: Lords of Shadows (PS3, Xbox 360)
- Silent Hill: Shattered Memories (Wii)
Bandai Namco:
- Katamari Forever (PS3)
- Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World (Wii)
SEGA:
- Bayonetta (PS3, Xbox 360) - exclusive session
Warner Bros:
- Scribblenauts (DS) - exclusive session, including interview with 5TH Cell
I have already playing everything Nintendo's coming with.
Ooh, can't wait to hear what you think of Lord of Shadow. I'm also interested in your opinion of Dissida. I loved the Japanese version, but noticed that they basically ruined the voices in the English version. Perhaps you'll have a different language to play with? Oh, and LBP PSP should be interesting as well.
I'm afraid I don't hear much of the voices in the crowded halls. Last time I secretly tried to record the music from Castlevania: Dracula X Chronicles, but some guy from Konami noticed it and added a irremovable plug.
Oh man, the organisation of the gamescom is making such a fuss about my entry. Since May, I'm writing for the highest division of national game journalism in the Netherlands, but still they need some proof one way or another. Is my name listed on that page not enough? And my editor-in-chief is, like, really busy (i.e. he received a PSP Go yesterday), so hopefully he can write me a letter.
Haha that's great. Well hopefully that won't make you miss any of your appointments and such.
Hehe, me too. I got the letter by the way, so it should be fine. If the people are making a fuss about it when I'm finally there, I'll show them how good I am at German. Excuse me, scolding in German at Germans in Germany, that is.
Oh, cool, you're checking out Katamari Forever. I was just listening to the main theme. Also excited that you're going to see Crystal Bearers. You seem to have a lot of the good stuff covered.
Yeah, there appears to be way more games on my to-do list. What I posted before is merely the first part of it. Oh well. If I encounter some video game music composers, I'll try to get their businesscards. I got Michiru Yamane's already, but there's so much more I want.
I'll be on my way then. Catch you guys in a week again!
Back. I had more appointments than I thought at first, so I haven't been able to play all the games (wouldn't even want to). Finally met Yusuke Hashimoto, who produced Resident Evil 4 and Devil May Cry. He was a bit tense, but finally smiled when I started to talk Japanese (that was the moment I was getting tense).
Is there any game you really ought to know something about? Pick one from the list (http://guanvanzoggel.blogspot.com/), and I will translate it.
I'd like to hear about Bayonetta and the Crystal Bearers, please. ;D
Tatsunoku vs Capcom, Blur, and Dissidia please!
Oh yeah I forgot about Dissidia.
- Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: The Crystal Bearers (Wii): bad demo. Many cutscenes, which aren't skippable. The demo contained various aspects: shooting in the air with the main character (aiming and shooting, nothing new); walking around town while doing some missions; controlling an airship (which didn't work too well); and shoot enemies while being chased. Except for the town, all those events were too long and added next to none to the game. The style is pretty cool, the characters are designed well, but the textures of the environment sometimes completely suck (Nintendo 64-era). It was ok.
- Final Fantasy Dissidia (PSP): Not only fanservice, but also a decent game. The construction where the PSP was inserted in made playing more difficult. Technically well made, graphically above average and the gameplay is pretty fun. I sucked with Terra, but kicked everyone's ass with Cloud.
Just this for now. Got to leave, so I'll continue later on.
Alright cool, thanks.
I'm pretty sure they intentionally made Cloud easy to play, cause I was good with him right away yet other characters were more difficult.
Well, Dissidia sounds pretty much like I expected, but I was hoping for a bit more from the Crystal Bearers. Kinda a bummer, but I suppose hoping for a good Crystal Chronicles game is asking for a bit much now. :-\
Thanks for the info, G-Han.
Yeah, it definitely didn't live up to my expectations.
Tatsunoko vs. Capcom - Can't say too much about it, but it really is a worthy fighter voor the Wii. A substitute for the lack of Street Fighter IV. It also includes a Fighting Stick Wii Controller, so that gives back the feeling of ol' arcade halls.
Blur - It felt like some hybrid between the overall look of Need for Speed, the engine of Project Gotham Racing and the power-ups from Mario Kart. Short note: I liked Blur way better than Mario Kart Wii.
Yeah, I played the Japanese version of Tatsunoku vs. Capcom (my friend imported it), and it's definitely a fun fighter.
It's cool to know that there's another Mario Kart-esque racing game coming out, I love those.
Well someone has to ask about Modern Warfare 2.
Oh and monster hunter 3?
Modern Warfare 2 was damn exclusive. I was actually pretty lucky to be at the demonstration, but unfortunately I couldn't play the game myself (no one could, except for the Infinity Ward-dude). It looks incredible, the music was awesome, but I wondered one thing: to what extent does the game feature innovations?
And to be honest: I didn't like Monster Hunter 3 at all. Sure, I'm studying Japanese cultures so I hoped I would might understand the hype, but I don't. The gameplay is slow and repetitive, but both the world and monsters are incredibly huge. So I'm not saying it's a bad game (far from it: online with friends would totally rock), but I seriously have my wits about it. Famitsu rated the game 40/40, which is FAR too high in my opinion.
Famitsu also rated Brawl 40/40, they're no longer a legitimate review source. They just get paid by the publishers.