Vane Vane Panic

Mon, 07 Nov 2011 21:53:06 GMT

Honestly not sure why I haven't posted much lately.

Actually, scratch that, I know exactly why: because these last few months have been FUCKING INSANE.

And I don't think it's gonna let up until we hit December. But hey, I'm ACCOMPLISHING THINGS!

Posted without comment

Tue, 23 Aug 2011 18:01:10 GMT

Globetrottin'

Sun, 14 Aug 2011 21:24:57 GMT

PAX trip: booked. TGS trip: booked. Man, I am going to be all over the damn place these next couple months!

Not too much to report otherwise, besides El Shaddai = FUCKING AWESOME. Look for that review soon!

Tue, 26 Jul 2011 05:10:46 GMT

I should just admit defeat when I claim I want to write about things, because I will always get distracted.

SO HEY GUYS, HOW ABOUT THAT GAME INDUSTRY, SURE IS SOME CRAZY SHIT GOING DOWN HUH?!

Really, it's just that this has been one fucking weird as hell summer so far. A pretty awesome one, mind you, but weird nonetheless. Had a few setbacks, but also had a few potentially incredibly awesome opportunities crop up.

I'm in a lull in review stuff - I'm currently only playing Bleach PS3 for Otaku USA and Otomedius - so I'm indulging in more "for funsies" games at the moment. (Not that I mind, I much prefer writing features to reviews anyhow.) I have a ton of stuff I want to get through right now, and I'm sort of eating little bits of whatever when I feel like it - Ms. Splosion Man, Bastion, Donkey Kong '94, OoT 3D, Kirby's Epic Yarn, Yakuza 4 screwing around, and random iOS games. Catherine is out this week, and while I dig the aesthetic and thematics I'm not sure I'm up for that sort of puzzle game right now - it's definitely on the "will buy" list, though.

I kind of wish I could just take about 6 months off from reviews in general and just subsist on features so I could play whatever I damn well please, but that isn't bloody likely, is it?

I welcome the non-excitement

Fri, 15 Jul 2011 04:17:32 GMT

E3 is over, AX is over, and the family has returned from whence they came. This week's agenda: SO MUCH SLEEP SERIOUSLY.

I'll do a quick post wrapping up the events over the weekend (I hope), along with links to a handful of recent reviews.

Still alive...

Mon, 27 Jun 2011 04:47:52 GMT

...just exhausted. And busy. Real entries forthcoming, including some work links, E3 thoughts, and other random blather.

E3 post number one

Mon, 06 Jun 2011 20:56:14 GMT

Well, that sure was... a press conference.

Fanime update

Fri, 27 May 2011 08:00:12 GMT

500 bucks worth of stuff sold at the swap meet and 50 streetpasses, hell yeah!

Posted via LiveJournal app for iPhone.

filled with excitement

Mon, 23 May 2011 07:11:04 GMT

Fanime -> Moving -> E3. These next three weeks are gonna be NUTS. Why are there only 24 hours in these "day" things?

Oh, and I forgot Anime Expo in early July. I wonder when I'm going to get an answer regarding the Miku concert tickets...

Steel Diver's manual is like that of an Ubisoft game

Fri, 13 May 2011 05:17:59 GMT

Sorry I've been quiet... again! I haven't been doing much on tumblr either. I'm currently in the midst of house-hunting, since the master tenant isn't renewing the lease here, and it's a very time-consuming (not to mention soul-crushing) process. I'll compile a bunch of current reviews and such next post.

For now, however... I finally got my 3DS! My friend code is 0087-2373-6289, so go ahead and add me! There's not much to do with it just yet, but it'll be nice to have in the future, right?!

FF Debatathon

Wed, 04 May 2011 21:58:43 GMT

My newest GamesRadar feature is LIVE!

It’s that massive Final Fantasy thing I’ve been hinting at for a while, and it turned out AWESOME. Special thanks to Gerald from Anime World Order for the inspiration, Brett Elston at GR for the editing, AND YOU!!!

PSN follies

Tue, 26 Apr 2011 05:26:02 GMT

As of this writing, PSN has been dark for almost a week now! The majority of friends I know own a 360 but not a PS3, instead of the other way around, so the PSN outage outrage might be last on them. And it's not a paid service like XBLA is, so how much right do we have to complain about it?

Well, taking into consideration a lot of things, this mess is still pretty damn inexcusable, and here's a laundry list of why:

- No warning: you can usually expect XBLA to be semi-spotty after major multiplayer game releases, though this was a lot more common in the early years of the console's life - it's extremely robust now, and any downtime is usually mentioned well in advance. The PSN stuff literally came out of nowhere - and at the worst possible time.

- Last week saw 2 major online-enabled releases: Mortal Kombat and Portal 2. The Portal 2 situation is particularly frustrating, as Valve and Sony made a big deal about the ability to link the game with Steam and play cross-platform with PC users in the co-op mode on PC. One day after the game hits stores, PSN goes kaput. How many of those customers who bought the PS3 version managed to finish the co-op campaign before that, I wonder...?

- If you want any new games for PS3 and PSP from PSN, you're screwed. If you had something happen and you need to re-download your PSN games to your HDD or memory stick, you're screwed. If you're a PSP Go owner trying to get new games, you're doubly screwed. (I mean, seriously, you bought a PSP Go?!) If you paid for PS Plus, you're not getting your money's worth AND you can't access that lovely cloud-save system you might have uploaded all of your files into. And if you're a publisher selling stuff on PSN, every day the service isn't up is a day you're losing hype and revenue. Arcana Heart 3 was already struggling for attention against the heavily advertised and hyped MK as a PSN-exclusive release, and by the time PSN comes back up it'll be even less visible in the customers' minds.

- Sony still hasn't told us what the fuck is going on. It's been mentioned that PSN security has been breached, and popular theory has it that the network was taken down to circumvent a firmware hack that makes a retail PS3 behave like a debug unit (i.e. free PSN downloads). But what does that mean, exactly? Are the credit card numbers and personal details of millions of PSN accounts compromised? That's class action lawsuit material there, and we as consumers have a right to know if our privacy has been compromised ASAP so we can take appropriate actions to remedy things as soon as possible.

So yeah, as big a clusterfuck as the ApocalyPS3 was last year, this is already exponentially worse. At least we can still play our games, but we're not getting the full functionality from them, publishers are losing money, and millions of our credit cards might be in the hands of some unknown jerks. I think I'd rather have a single day when my games don't play, all things considered...

workin hard for the money

Sat, 16 Apr 2011 04:10:40 GMT

It's been surprisingly busy around here - I haven't been doing really intensive reviews, but have been working on crafting some fairly intensive features (hence my poll in the last entry - you'll be seeing the fruits of that soon enough. Thanks again, guys!). The first went up today: a look at the JP games industry in the wake of the great Touhoku quake. The second will be up next week, and the third... will be appearing in French and Russian. At first, at least. And then: kinda-secret E3 assignments! The fun doesn't stop!

Other than that, a few odd reviews have been cropping up here and there, including my first pieces over at Gamespot! Hot damn, I'm hittin' the big time!

Monster Tale (buy this!)
Stardrone (oh god I hate the Move so much)
Final Fantasy III iOS
TITS

Also got assigned Yar's Revenge on XBLA, which I've played a bit and is... weird as all hell. In both good and bad ways. Soon after: Arcana Heart 3! oh jeez

And, in light of some not-so-pleasant current events in the manga biz, a repost from my Tumblr:

I’m not going to discuss debates over Tokyopop’s release quality or market saturation issues or really shitty OEL artist contracts because you can read about those anywhere. I just kind of want to say that Stu Levy has always really struck me as a total sleaze, a very smooth talker who can convince you that his “brilliant” ideas are fantastic and awesome and not totally ego-driven and self-serving at all. He kinda proved that now by leaving all of his employees and freelancers in the lurch (oh hey, did I mention Tokyopop is responsible for driving down the pay rates and quality standards for manga translation freelancers) and essentially jumping off the sinking ship with bags of cash in hand to engage in DJ MILKY’S MIDLIFE CRISIS 2.0: DAI NIPPONIA IS SUGOI DESU YO!

If you want to see the painful depths of Levy’s pandering and delusional marketing, be sure to check out America’s Greatest Otaku. It’s not even funny painful, it just hurts to watch and makes you angry.

Also, about the only thing out of TP’s recent batch of manga I see getting license-rescued is Hetalia.

FAINARU

Tue, 12 Apr 2011 21:57:09 GMT

Oh hey, did LJ finally stop messing itself? Well that's good! I can finally post here again!

Anyhow! I’m working on a feature right now, and I’m doing a bit of an informal survey in the process.

So here’s what I want to ask: What are your 3 favorite numbered Final Fantasy games, and what are your 3 least favorite Final Fantasy games, and why? (Please, no spinoffs or X-2s or anything like that - just straight numbered series!)

You shall see why I'm asking this very, very soon.

HE'S SINGLE, LADIES

Sat, 02 Apr 2011 08:11:36 GMT

Work links!

A history of Nintendo handhelds
Ar tonelico Qoga review
Yakuza 4 review
The 3rd Birthday review
Jikandia review

In the gaming media, like in any business, there will always be people in your field who you have a distaste for. Out of curiosity (along the lines of "how does this guy keep on getting work"), I looked up one person whose writing I have found consistently terrible. Usually terrible writers are terrible people, and surprise, surprise: first hit is the guy's blog, and the first post consists of "I'm totally going through online dating sites and frustrated at the lack of women meeting my lofty standards. NOW GIRLS, PLEASE LET ME MANSPLAIN TO YOU HOW YOU'RE ALL UGLY BITCHES (BECAUSE SINCE I AM LOOKING FOR LOVE ON ONLINE DATING SITES I AM CLEARLY A CHARISMATIC, ATTRACTIVE MAN WHO IS JUST DROWNING IN PUSSY AND THUS AM IN A POSITION TO PASS QUICK JUDGEMENT AS TO WHO IS WORTH BONING). Take my advice and MAYBE, just MAYBE I might deem you worthy of taking my exalted dong within your lips! (Said advice includes murdering your cats.)"

Class act, that one.

I also did a surprise guest stint on WAHP, a podcast devoted to Japanese video games. ferricide and magweaselfeed were my co-hosts, and I think it turned out awesome. It's pretty long, though, and we do get off onto some really bizarre tangents... but yeah, if I'm able to do that again, I definitely will.

It's time to cease and d-d-d-desist

Wed, 30 Mar 2011 02:31:15 GMT

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr-esq/yu-gi-creator-terminates-us-172273

Huh. Well, this is interesting news. Looks like 4kids has been hiding some business deals regarding the Yu-Gi-Oh anime away from its Japanese producers, and now they’ve rescinded the rights to the franchise from them completely. 4kids has always been a contentious company among Western anime fans (and, I should note, a company that everybody’s favorite gaming CEO Bobby Kotick had a major stake in), and it seems like they’re finally getting a bit of comeuppance - but, if these reports are any indication, there might have been some misdeeds on the part of the dearly beloved Funimation as well:

“4Kids is said to have made an agreement with Funimation Productions, giving it the right to exploit the YGO series on home video. “4Kids conspired with Funimation to fraudulently hide from Plaintiffs more than 45% of the total income Funimation paid to 4Kids from the sale of the home videos,” the complaint states.

Allegedly, 4Kids not only licensed YGO, but also several other Japanese animation series it didn’t own. Under the terms of this supposedly secret deal, which allegedly included a strict confidentiality clause, 4Kids didn’t have to do much besides perform certain marketing services. It was Funimation’s job to produce and distribute the series, and for this right, Funimation paid a $1.3 million advance and gave over nearly $4 million in a service fee, which was allegedly then hidden from the plaintiffs.”

Interesting indeed. I’d love to hear some sort of statement from Funimation about this.

Meanwhile, it seems like licensing deals with other companies like Konami (for cards and video games) and Viz (for the manga) are still intact, but without a cartoon to back them up, I’m sure sales are going to take a hit. This is definitely a developing situation to watch not just for YGO or anime fans, but for people interested in any and all Japanese IPs marketed abroad.

Play for Japan

Thu, 24 Mar 2011 19:54:57 GMT

I'm currently going through my stuff right now to see what I can give to the Play for Japan auction charity effort. I've got a copy of Resistance 2 signed by a good chunk of the Insomnia staff as well as a Street Fighter IV Blanka shirt graced with Yoshinoro Ono's Hancock so far. I can think of a few things back at the parents' place, as well, so I might give them a call tonight and see what they can round up.

Meanwhile, GSC is re-releasing the Nendoroid Hatsune Miku in a special charity-support edition next month with all the standard parts plus extras. I'll definitely be picking this up, so I'll put up my old first edition Miku for Play for Japan as well. The original version goes for, what, 6000 yen secondhand now or something crazy like that? I got her on release for less than half that. I bet she'll fetch a good price.

Sat, 19 Mar 2011 06:34:49 GMT

I don't think it's even necessary to post about the Sendai earthquake at this point, save to extol you to give to the many worthwhile charities helping out Japan. Carl over at Ogiue Maniax has a great rundown of ways to give.

There's a ton of places having earthquake-benefit sales, too: PopCap is selling a ton of their games on iOS for dirt cheap and all of the proceeds support charity, so go and pick up Peggle and Plants vs. Zombies if you haven't already. Aksys Games is also having a sale - a lot of the stuff is mediocre, but if anything you can pick up BBCS with soundtrack and Deathsmiles for a great price. I really like these charity sales, because not only do you get awesome stuff, but you help people out, so everyone wins!

If you folks have any other charity links, go ahead and post 'em in the comments! I'd love to see what others have found.

ETA: nunuu posted some links in the comments, and I discovered that Mangagamer is selling several of its translated PC eroge at a discount with all proceeds going to the Red Cross. (Now you can wank... for charity!)

I love Pokemon, Pokemon, Pokemon...

Thu, 10 Mar 2011 01:14:10 GMT

GDC, you guys. Good lord.

Oh hey, work links!

Pokemon's crazy-ass spinoff history
Ys I and II review
Hyperdimension Neptunia review
6th Planet review
Double Dragon iOS review
Skullgirls - game's seriously rad, guys
Takashi Tokita interview - sadly a good part of this had to be cut

I WANT TO BE YOUR POKEMON BLACK BUDDY! My friend code is 5286　0699　4422. Trainer name is Vanetha. God damn it I need a Pansear so bad.

I'm also keen on playing Hard Corps Uprising and Dissidia 012 with people. The latter will undoubtedly require some Adhoc Party shenanigans, and I'm not sure if the US and JP versions are compatible. HCU is awesome, though, and especially rad with two people. Hit me up and maybe we can set some time up for multi-play. I'm strongly considering taking some time off from console reviewing for April and just playing stuff while working on lengthier features and short iOS reviews instead.

So yeah! Let's be GAMING BUDDIES :D

IPod touch get

Mon, 07 Mar 2011 03:39:58 GMT

Time to test this LJ app. Yeesh, how sad is it that I am too busy to post anytime except to try out my new gizmo?

Posted via LiveJournal app for iPhone.

blurp

Thu, 17 Feb 2011 06:03:48 GMT

SO MUCH WRITAN. Barely was able to leave the house last week thanks to my workload.

Tactics Ogre PSP
IS MAHVEL BABY
Get this with the above
Interview with Okamiden producer Motohide Eishiro

Now playing: Hyperdimension Neptunia. Thus far: pretty aggressively mediocre, and the attempts at parody are downright painful. I think I can sum it up so far in two words: IDEA FACTORY

Hey, is anybody out there still playing Castlevania HD? Our newly reformed team is still in need of a recruit or two!

keibu-kei

Wed, 09 Feb 2011 07:28:17 GMT

One thing worth mentioning about the Japan trip, besides Comike and the awesome meetups/travels with people like gwyllgi, kylandra, and ninjaconsultant, (besides the fact that I'm really late in talking about it, of course) is that I got to do some really, really cool interviews while I was there with some not-so-visible developers I really admire. I spoke with Isuke/Koichi Yotsui, who is probably best known for Strider but has done a bunch of other weird/awesome stuff as well - this one's going to be published in the very near future somewhere likely very accessible to you! Super duper thanks to Sam from the LSC Mainframe for helping me set this up.

I also crossed one off my "career goals" list - IKD, aka Tsuneki Ikeda from Cave, my favorite pew-pew laser game developer! I was hoping to obtain the ESPrade poster from the recent Cave Matsuri and get him to sign it, but the scroll proved unobtainable. Alas.

However, I think what I did manage to get is just as cool, if not better:

Now to just get some of the doujin Junya Inoue released years ago. (Man, I can't believe I forgot to pick up BTOOOM! volumes while I was there...)

Also, if you would have told me 15 years ago that I'd meet Nick Rox in Osaka, we'd raid game shops, eat at an American bar with pole dancers, and have deep and meaningful discussions about Jojo's Bizarre Adventure, I would have laughed my ass off. Funny how things work, eh?

Today's substantial LJ post

Fri, 04 Feb 2011 22:27:36 GMT

postman's oath

Tue, 01 Feb 2011 06:05:13 GMT

Quick work link: Mario Sports Mix preview! There's a good chance I will turn up on the Nintendo Week bit for this game as well, whenever that goes up.

I haven't had much work to post - that's because most of what I've been writing and playing this month isn't going to start appearing anywhere until next month. I have a LOT of review work due on the 14th - when did Valentine's week become launch central for all these interesting games?! Jeeeeeeeezus, do I have a LOT to play right now. At least I know I'm making a good chunk of change come next month.

By the by, is anyone interested in my copy of 999 for DS? I love the game, but my deal with adventure games is that I rarely replay them once I've seen everything - until many, many years later when I've forgotten all the details and the experience will be fresh again. Hence, I, uh, don't really need the game right now, and it's an awesome title, so I'd rather someone who DOES want it gets a chance to play it (it's a bit tough to find in some places). Lemme know if you're keen on it!

Also: Fuck USPS. Seriously - they completely botched the mail forwarding I was supposed to have on my Japan trip, and my mail for AT LEAST a week - probably more - has been bouncing back to sender as a result, including several parcels. What a fucking mess...

five hundred and ninety nine u s dollahs

Thu, 27 Jan 2011 07:56:30 GMT

It's weird to say that the highlight of tonight's Sony announcements was this tweet in reference to Sega's showing.

I hate to admit I was secretly hoping for a VF5 Final Showdown announcement on the NGP, if only because it would have been quite possibly the most epic troll move ever.

I'm still obliged to do my Japan trip summary and 2010 look-back posts, aren't I? argh.