Well, it finally happened. Just when pretty much everyone (including myself) had given up on the game, P4A FINALLY got a UK release!! Also, Microsoft announced their next generation Xbox, called the Xbox One. I can sum that up in one sentence. If I was a white, jock, suburban american male, who loves his [...]]]>

Well, it finally happened. Just when pretty much everyone (including myself) had given up on the game, P4A FINALLY got a UK release!! Also, Microsoft announced their next generation Xbox, called the Xbox One. I can sum that up in one sentence. If I was a white, jock, suburban american male, who loves his american sports and doesn’t actually play games, then it was great!! Otherwise, it was pretty crap! Microsoft seems to be digging the hole even deeper by confusing everyone with their stance on pre-owned games and the “always-on” internet checks. They have to pull out an absolutely incredible E3 to pull gamers back in, but to be honest, I don’t think they care. And neither do I.

Anyway, back to Persona 4 Arena, a game which has been delayed for almost a YEAR since its initial release in other territories. It was like we went back to the 90s in terms of Euro game releases. Sadly, the scene is barely recovering from the snub and people are still picking up the game but any enthusiasm for the game has been long gone. In fact, I had cancelled my Pre-order for the game which I put on amazon a long time ago, but I seemed to have also put one on shopto. Not sure what insanity got me to do that, but I forgot about that pre-order and so I ended up with a copy of the game on release.

In the interest of completeness (cos everyone knows what this game is about), P4A is a fighting game from arc system works (makers of Guilty Gear and Blazblue) using characters from Persona 3 and 4. It features an original story, set about a year after P4 and works the ideas from both P3 and P4 to set up some sort of sequel in the future which could involve characters from both games. So, how is the game?

GOOD

• Low execution barrier – the moves in the game aren’t very complicated and the gameplay itself feels simpler than the likes of Blazblue but it still shows a considerable amount of depth
• Online Play – the game is by arc system works so just like BB, there’s some voodoo magic going on under the hood to make the online matches incredibly pleasant. There is still lag, but not enough to throw most peoples games off.
• It’s a fighting game but still distinctly Persona!! – everything from the characters to the moves and the music are all from the previous persona games so even though there’s a massive shift in the game type, it still feels like part of the series.

BAD

• Story mode – Basically, you start off with 4 characters and playing through some will unlock other characters. Unfortunately, initially, you will only be able to get to a certain point in the characters story before you get hit with a “to be continued” screen. You have to complete Labrys story mode to get the full endings for the characters, but it doesn’t stop there! Each character basically has an independent story which doesn’t link up with the others but follows the exact same pattern, so you’re basically playing the same story with some slight differences 8 or so times! Some of the other characters add a little insight to the bits before the game picks up (the P3 characters, basically) but it’s just a laborious visual novel with no options to choose from and needs to be played multiple times to finish…
• Execution barrier is a bit too low… – Basically, every character has a special preset combo which can be performed by pressing the light attack button several times. It’s a nice trick to get players performing high level stuff pretty quickly but it’s far too easy to take the combo too far and, since most of them end with a super move which takes up 50% of your bar, it can leave you in a vulnerable situation.

Ultimately, the game is a very solid fighter, but it remains to be seen if it will have the ability to last. I doubt Arc System Works will update it as regularly or thoroughly as Blazblue so it may have its time in the sun and then fade as other, more traditional Persona games get released. And that’s part of the problem. The time in the sun is now, but europe is only getting to grips with the game RIGHT NOW! By the time we are up to speed, the game might very well be brushed aside for the next major title. Blazblue Chrono Phantasma is waiting for its home console release (Wonder how long a delay we’ll need to put up with this time?) and arc just announced a brand new Guilty Gear!! With all this, I don’t see persona 4 arena sticking around in the minds of the FGC for long. And then there’s the matter of price. PQube is selling the game as a full priced title, which is too much, given the delay.

The bottom line is that P4A is a good fighting game. Just not good enough to justify its current price tag and massive delay…

I asked some groups online as to which kit I should build next out of the [...]]]> Time to get back into the throes of painting more garage kits! Recently acquired another to the “to do” pile in the shape of the Charagumin Shinguji Sakura from Volks so I can’t let the pile get any bigger!

I asked some groups online as to which kit I should build next out of the Try-GK Yoko and Dead Master and it was actually a tie. But in the end, I chose DM because I have a stupidly large number of kits which are predominantly black and doing them in a row will be trying so I’m going to try and space things out. Off the top of my head, the black colour scheme characters are Laila, Akane, Bayonetta and Fate (True sonic form). Definitely going to need more black paint for all of them. Heck, Bayonetta is 1/4 scale!! But for now, it’s all Dead Master

I wrote a better preview post on dead master a while back (back in 2010) when I first got her so it may be better to have a look there for more complete pics and whatnot. but things haven’t changed since then. It just took me this long to get to her (and I still have the World is Mine Miku to do as well, and she’s even older!).

I still don’t like BRS or any of the characters involved but the high quality of kiking kits and the sheer rarity of the kit pushed me into buying her, despite the massive hurdles it presented. In any case, this will be the first kiking kit I will be making (of 2) and she should be a lof of fun! I mean, look at the sheer detail of her scythe!!

Just hope I can do the kit justice. One thing which bugs me though… why does the body piece of this kit have a huge hole in it?

Any suggestions?

OK, this one has been a long time coming. As soon as I received my copy, I went away for a couple of weeks and didn’t get a chance to play it until recently so everyone has probably already finished the game long before me but I would be amiss to not give this [...]]]>

OK, this one has been a long time coming. As soon as I received my copy, I went away for a couple of weeks and didn’t get a chance to play it until recently so everyone has probably already finished the game long before me but I would be amiss to not give this great game a post on its own. I should have really done one for Metal Gear Rising too. Those 2 games are easily my fave games of this year and I predict they will still be near the top come the years end!

At the very least, I don’t think I need to do much explaining about this game. Infinite is the next game from the people who brought us the amazing Bioshock back in 2007 and, while another team gave us a direct sequel to bioshock which was set in the same world, infinite is considered by many to be the “true” sequel to the underwater adventure game.

In Bioshock Infinite, you play as Booker DeWitt, a guy with a rather shady past and an even shadier present. Seems he’s gotten himself into some trouble and has been hired by some people to find a girl named Elizabeth and take her to New York. If he does so, his debts will be cleared.  The game starts off very much like Bioshock in that you find yourself at a lighthouse and, once you reach the device inside, you’re transported to another world. But in this case, instead of  going underwater, you’re shot up into the sky and find a city up there called Columbia. Columbia is basically an american history lesson as it’s modelled after the country at the turn of the 20th century. The rich/poor divide is huge, racial segregation is the norm, work laws are practically non-existent… Basically it’s paradise if you’re a rich white man and, well, not if you’re anyone else. It is kinda interesting when you remember that, unlike Rapture, which was more of an experiment and a look into the nature of human beings in general, Columbia is full of things which happened! You can look into your history books and see all of it. And it’s not just stuff like wounded knee or the boxer rebellion (incidentally, at the risk of sounding racist, the Chinese at the turn of the 20th Century were basically screwed over multiple times. Blacks may call back on injustices and whatnot but the chinese had it just as bad, if not worse. They may not have been taken from their homes and used as cheap labour, but their homes were simply taken too and the people were treated as 2nd rate citizens in their own country. Heck, the British made a huge chunk of southern china into drug addicts to get them to work on their opium farms! It’s no wonder that the current China is so cold and near hostile to pretty much every other country out there!) but the whole culture of Columbia.

Anyway, the game has you running around, finding Elizabeth while avoiding the police as you’ve been outed as an outsider and dangerous element and once you find Elizabeth, you gotta find a way out of columbia! While trying to avoid spoilers, that’s pretty much the game in a nutshell. You get the regular assortment of weapons and also “vigors” which work in the same manner as plasmids from Bioshock. One new addition is the skyhook, a special device which allows you to perform incredibly violent and graphic executions on enemies as well as ride Tram lines around Columbia to reach higher areas. One other change is the addition of Elizabeth. Once you find her, she becomes a persistant character who helps you out in situations and never gets in your way. She’s also central to the plot in more ways than you first think!

So, how was the game?

LOVED

• Elizabeth – Like it or not, she is the single largest “make-or-break” element of the game. How you view her as a part of the game will have a huge sway on whether or not you enjoy it! Luckily for me, I found her to be brilliantly done. A persistent NPC who feels almost alive and never gets in your way. We’ve come a long way since Goldeneye on the N64 and Nataliya… She also saved my ass more than a few times with a conveniently timed health item. Eurogamer tried to convince us that Eleanor from Bioshock 2 was actually a better character than Elizabeth but there’s a major caveat: Eleanor only appeared near the end of the game while Elizabeth was your constant companion. It’s easy to appear more interesting when you’re not around for us to see what you can do!
• SkyHook – It’s way too much fun flying around on the beams spraying death to the enemy units below.
• The plot – Overall, most of the plot was very cleverly written and the game did a good job showing the dark nature of human beings, particularly with Fitzroy who, at the start, when she and her allies were being oppressed and fighting a losing battle, seemed just and in the right actually turns out to be no better than the people she was fighting against once she gained the means to fight back. In fact, she may have been worse. Having said that…

HATED

• The Plot – Ultimately, when you have a plot which runs on the idea of multiple dimensions, time travel and whatnot, the level of paradoxes can become unbearable. By the end of the game, my head hurt more than when I watched the movie “Looper” and trust me, my head hurt plenty when trying to make sense of the time travel in that film!
• Vigors – Unlike in Bioshock, the vigors in infinite are effectively weapons unto themselves. There are far fewer opportunities to use them with the environment to increase their effectiveness, though they can be combined together to do so. But I miss the fun times you could electrocute many enemies by luring them into a puddle and then firing lightning at the water! There are puddles in Infinite, but the tactic is much less effective this time around.
• Songbird – Songbird was hailed as the “big bad” you need to watch out for in the game, a boogie man similar to the big sister in Bioshock 2 but it hardly had an appearance in the game at all! And when it does appear, it’s impact was just to push the plot forward, though you are able to control it to a degree in the later stages of the game. But, aside from one recording which hinted that he may be based off the big daddy in Bioshock, there’s little to no info about it or how it was created or how it functions! It’s just there!

Ultimately though, I really enjoyed Bioshock Infinite. But overall, it doesn’t hold up to the original. While Bioshock was the story of Rapture and how it was built, maintained and then ruined by peoples ambitions and greed was a really interesting story for me and Infinite doesn’t match it. Afterall, it’s not so much a story of Columbia but one of Elizabeth, and it doesn’t kick in until around halfway! The first main antagonist, Comstock, also comes off more as a raving religious fanatic, closer to Sofia Lamb than Andrew Ryan and far less memorable had it not been for the obligatory twist in the plot. But this was also something weaker in Infinite. Afterall, I saw this one coming! “Would you kindly” still sticks in my mind as one of the few times in my memory where I was truly sucker punched by a twist I never saw coming. I knew things weren’t right, I knew that certain characters were not to be trusted but I never saw that!!

As a standalone game, Infinite is great but it doesn’t quite match up to its predecessor. Still, I’d take it over Bioshock 2 any day!

Lets face it, the arcade scene is either dying or dead. There are a few places [...]]]> First of all, I should warn readers that this post pretty is pretty much of no interest for anyone outside the UK and those outside London may find it a bit of a stretch, but it’s still worth noting!

Lets face it, the arcade scene is either dying or dead. There are a few places still holding out in the far east but as far as Europe and the US are concerned, it’s pretty much dead. In Central London, we have long lost the multi-floored funland in trocadero and one of the oldest places, Casino on Goodge Street, closed its doors a few months ago. And with that, there was no place for arcade players to congregate. Admittedly, this was mostly the fighting game community since the DDR lot just disappeared.

But last weekend was the opening of possibly now, the only place to cater for the hardcore gamers (mostly the FGC). And the place is called the Heart Of Gaming!

It’s a pretty adventurous venture. A converted building housing some classic arcade games and a dedicated area for console game setups! With all the usual locations now closed up, the HoG is well positioned to become the go-to place for various meetups and tournaments. In fact, one of the major London tournaments has already booked the place for the next event!

When you first enter, you’re met with a row of fighting game arcades. Currently, the setup consists of 2 SFIII 3rd Strike machines, KoF98, SSFII Turbo and SF Alpha. There are also some arcade shmups as well, with an arcade Ikaruga! It was the first time I’ve seen one. I’ve only seen home console versions running before!

There was also a surprise in the shape of gauntlet legends! Personally, I’d rather see a simpsons arcade or TMNT arcade running the same setup, but still…

Not all the machines were in use either, though it’s unknown whether or not these ones will be functional again anytime soon. But most of the action was held in the next room!

The second room in the HoG housed around 7 PS3s and 10 Xbox 360s for players to get on with whatever their poison was but since the opening night was filled with FGC members, you can guess what kind of games were being played. The XBox setups were filled with SSFIV and UMvC3 setups, though there were a couple of KoFXIII games going as well. The PS3s had a more interesting mix with skullgirls, Arcana Heart 3, Blazblue SC2E and Persona 4 Arena (which is STILL waiting for an official release in the UK!) games going. Of course, you’re free to bring whatever games you may wish to play. Just get a free system and away you go!

The organisers have recently put up pricings for the venue and there’s even an option for overnight gaming sessions, if numbers allow! you can check it out on their facebook page! A full website should be incoming!

All in all, it’s pretty interesting. The place, although officially open, is clearly not 100% finished as some areas need a little more work and a lick of paint here and there but it’s all functional! The only caveat is that it’s based in west london and, while transport is fairly decent, it’s not the most central or easiest place to get to. Still, I only hope for the best for the venue and its owners. Should be great to have a single place to meet up for large gaming sessions

But as the famous catchphrase [...]]]> If I ever get a “smart” idea like this again, you have permission to slap me with a set fish!! This has been way harder than I had anticipated but I’ve pretty much reached the limits of my abilities, and collection so I really need assistance with the final push.

But as the famous catchphrase from the TV show Mastermind goes; “I’ve started so I’ll finish…” Or at least I’ll try.

On the plus side, I’ve managed to publish what I’ve collected on my own on Vimeo! Just warning you now, the video is 2 hrs long and had to be compressed quite considerably to fit into the limits of the service, so please excuse the quality.

https://vimeo.com/63050237

I’m posting the video for people to see what’s been done so far and, hopefully, that may convince a few to help lead me to the missing few shows. I’d like to replace the subbed ones if possible but it’s not a priority right now. And for those wondering, the video was around 8GB at the start but I compressed it to 1.5Gb before I had to go even further to fit it onto vimeo. Here’s a list of the remaining shows.

Zoids Guardian force
Zoids New Century
Zone of the Enders Dolores
Transformers Micron Legend (armada)
Zoids Fuzors
Misaki Chronicles: Divergence Eve
Jinki: Extend
Bokurano
Kyoshiro to Towa No sora
Gad Guard
Tetsujin-28 Go

shows in the video which have fansubs in them are

Shin Seki den Mars
Innocent Venus
Panda-Z
Lime-iro Ryukitan X
Giniro no Olynsis
Reideen
Platinumhugen Ordian
Gundam 00 S2

After some thinking, I decided to remove Bounen no X’amd as there’s no mecha stuff in it. I’m also debating the inclusion of Stellvia as well as the 2 Lime-iro series. Those 2 are basically rip-offs of sakura wars in an eroge but I’m not sure I’d count their armours as mecha…

In any case, just a little more to go!! 頑張れ、俺！！

Currently, the parts have been cleaned (mostly) and [...]]]> Not too much of an update this time. Heck, I’m a little surprised that there’s an update at all! My “little” mecha anime ops project is harder than I thought and Bioshock Infinite just came out so don’t be shocked if the project stalls for a while!

Currently, the parts have been cleaned (mostly) and the biggest gaps have been filled with putty. The hair is turning out to be quite the annoyance though as it’s very hard to get in between the individual clumps. The hands are also proving awkward for the same reason. They also lack any detail so I have to determine the overall look of the fingers myself to ensure they don’t look like stumps.

Still, there some ways to go but she’s taken shape quite well. Once I’m satisfied with the hair, I can go straight into the priming!

On the other side of things, the anime project has had its advantages. I ended up re-watching gundam seed and it’s stood the test of time pretty well. I was never a huge fan of the show but I thought it was pretty strong and infinitely better than its sequel, which I still need to pick an OP to use… I also skimmed through gundam 00. My god, season 2 was a pile of poo and some of the characters in it were insufferable!! It was like watching guilty crown again!!