Owner: Classy Gamer URL:http://classygamer.blogspot.com/ Join Date: Fri, 15 Feb 2008 17:36:58 -0600 Rating:0 Site Description: In a world in wich good games with good plots and well developed chatacters are more and more dificult to find, as they're drowned by tons of trash, a decently mature gamer shares his very personal point of view. Site statistics:Click here
A Yakuza 3 to own them all... 2008-03-13 20:22:00 Yakuza 3 rules Japan Inserito originariamente da Abriael The Japanese software chart for last week just came out, and, for the second week in a row, some of us are in for a Surprise. But let's let the numbers speak first:01. Yakuza 3 Kenzan! (PS3) - 181,000 / NEW02. Super Smash Bros. Brawl (Wii) - 50,000 / 1,408,00003. Wii Fit (Wii) - 49,000 / 1,659,00004. Gundam Musou Special (PS2) - 39,000 / 189,00005. Metroid Prime 3: Corruption (Wii) - 32,000 / NEW06. Wii Sports (Wii) - 19,000 / 2,838,00007. Soma Bringer (DS) - 17,000 / 68,00008. Doraemon: Nobita to Midori no Kyojinden DS (DS) - 17,000 / NEW09. Musou Orochi (PSP) - 16,000 / 87,00010. Minna no Joushiki Ryoku TV (Wii) - 14,000 / NEWSee anything interesting? Right there at the top. Oops, for the second week in a row that's not som
A new character for Soul Calibur IV: Sherazade 2008-03-13 06:47:00 Sherazade Uploaded by Abriael A page of next week's Famitsu has been leaked and, surprise surprise, it shows-off info and pictures (including a quite cute character design sketch) about a new character that will be included in Soul Calibur IV.The lovely elven-like lady (she sports some quite visible pointy-ears) seems to be called Sherazade.The exact spelling of the name is, of course, still debatable, as usual with japanese names. The original Katakana reads Shierazado, which can be transliterated as Sherazade, but the Romanji writing reads Sheherazade. For now I will refer to her as Sherazade, since romanji transliterations on Japanese magazines are normally quite unreliable.After the inclusion of Yoda and Vader, I was quite persuaded that there weren't any new surprises in stor
Sony stays around the top of the environment-friendly companies 2008-03-19 12:37:00 Kratos, Mario and Master Chief together? Inserito originariamente da Abriael Greenpeace just released the new report for their Guide to greener electronics, that ranks the 18 top manufacturers of personal computers, mobile phones, TV's and games consoles according to their policies on toxic chemicals and recycling.It seems that Sonystays
around the top of the list, with a good (but not yet perfect) score of 7.3, expecially thanks to their recycling and takeback policies (the worst enviromental impact of gaming console is, in fact, due to their disposal). While Microsoft scores quite badly (4.3), Nintendo takes the absolute bottom of the list with an abysmal 0.3 (on their behalf it has to be noted that they both improved their position since the last report, even if the improvement
Gamers Unite for Breakthrough Breast Cancer! 2008-03-19 11:33:00 Real Life took it's toll this week, so I couldn't post in the last couple days. But I'm back, with some juicy news. The lovely girls at FragDolls UK will be attempting this saturday to break the record for "Longest Continuous Play of an FPS”, but the loveliest thing is that they're doing it to sponsor a noble cause: BreakthroughBreastCancer
.As it's always a nice thing to see gamers getting together to do something this good, I've been more than happy to contribute, and I encourage you to do the same. Every little eurocent, cent and penny can make a difference. Also, If you have your own blog, please give the story some visibility, so that the most gamers as possible will know about it.You can learn more about the story (alongside with the direct link to donate) on Jam's own blog at F Read more:Gamers
, Breast Cancer
Japanese super robots invade italian fashion event 2008-03-22 00:54:00 Pitti Immagine Uomo, Grendizer Statues Inserito originariamente da Abriael It's not exactly news, since it dates back to january, but this has been a slow day/night, so I'm taking my time to talk about something quite funny. One of the most important italian event
s dedicated to men's fashion is Pitti Immagine Uomo, held in Florence. What does this have with videogames? Pretty much nothing, but actually this year it DID have something pretty peculiar, related to Anime to be precise.As a premise, we have to say that, in Italy, the super robot anime series Grendizer (renamed Goldrake in Italy and some other countries) by Go Nagai used to be extremely popular. So popular that many men that now are adults (me included, even if I have to say I was more interested in other series, such as Read more:Japanese
, robots
Ace combat on the Wii? Almost: The Sky Crawlers 2008-03-21 00:00:00 Weekly Famitsu published a report on a new game incoming for the Nintendo Wii
: the title is "The Sky Crawlers" and it's scheduled for this summer (in Japan of course). The game, developed by the same Namco team as the Ace Combat series, is based on the novel series with the same title by Hiroshi Mori (illustrated by the mangaka Kenji Tsuruta). The story, centered around the aerial adventures of a squadron of young fighter pilots (flying on what definately looks like the Japanese World War 2 prototype fighter Kawanishi N1K Shiden) involved in a fictional world war that closely resembles World War 2, looks like a very deep and complex one. This is, indeed, the perfect kind of classy game that, after some great but excessively rare attempts as No More Heroes and Fire Emblem, the Nintendo Wii Read more:combat
, Almost
Sega releases three new Valkyria Chronicles movies 2008-03-23 09:43:00 Valkyria Chronicles Inserito originariamente da Abriael Just one month is left before the release in Japan of Valkyria Chronicles, and i'm every day more excited about this game. Considering that I'll have to wait until fall to play it in a game I can understand decently, I'm in for a few months of sweet torture. Anyway Sega released three new videos for the new probable masterpiece by Toshihiro Nagoshi. The first one is a really interesting promo that shows quite a lot about the gameplay, letting us see that the game will have what seems to be quite a lot of depth even between missions. You see it below.In addition to this they pleased us with two new character-specific videos, the first on the big oaf of the platoon: Largo Potter, the second on the tank commander and lead male c Read more:movies
The storm of Souls has ceased... 2008-03-23 01:08:00 Black Consuls Assault! Inserito originariamente da Abriael First of all, happy Easter to everyone that's reading. Secondarily, Tonight i finally won Souls
torm's single player campaign. It was just a matter of time, since none can withstand the righteous power of the might Blood Ravens space marines (even if my allegiance normally stays with another chapter, the Black Consuls, whom I play in the tabletop games since before than i can remember)My feelings about the game (or better, the expansion) are definately mixed. The gameplay itself is absolutely astounding, and leaves me with good hopes about Dawn of War 2. Given my absolute and utter hate for Blizzard and their lack of creativity (it's easily noticeable that the Warcraft IP was openly copied from Warhammer, while Starcraft was
US Square Enix Members opens 2008-03-24 20:12:00 Square
Enix Members
Inserito originariamente da Abriael Today, as announced, the american Square-Enix Members website opened. Registered users will have access to special giveaways, a S-E blog, and exclusive interviews, news and media content. The beginning line-up isn't bad at all, with an interview to the creators of The World Ends with You and another to the director of Final Fantasy VII Crisis Core. In addition to that you'll find a giveaway for ten autographed soundtrack CD's of Crisis Core itself, a lil signature generator that will grant you your own Shin-Ra id card (as displayed below) and a nice little flash game that you can test on the right bar (under my profile) to unlock a special wallpaper download.Let's hope to see a similar service open soon for Europe as well (did
WAR Is coming... soon! 2008-03-26 14:59:00 Warhammer Online Collector's Edition Inserito originariamente da Abriael It was in the air and now it's confirmed: Warhammer Online has been delayed to fall 2008. As many see delays as something worse than a knife playing under their nails, I got to learn, in many years of gaming, that delays are a normal thing in the gaming industry, where so many things can go different than expected, much more than in other markets. In the end it's not like the gaming scene has absolutely nothing else to do 'till this fall. The good news is that EA seems to have, at least with some key developers, abandoned it's policy of pushing games into the fray no matter if they're ready or not. And this definately works for me. I'm not the kind of gamer that needs to have games as soon as possible, as long
The Byron rubbish... ahem, report. 2008-03-30 03:02:00 A drawing from the Byron
Report Inserito originariamente da Abriael Tanya Byron says that the standpoint of her report
(the infamous Byron report) isn't hostile to gaming. Sure. Just look at this drawing she publishes on her report (among other just as shameful things) available here: "Violent games are very likely to make the players violent!!" and "And also Anti-social behaviour!""Very likely"? "Anti Social Behaviour"? With this kind of totally unproven and derogatory statements (passed underhandedly as a kid's drawing by the way, to make things even worse) how can the Byron review deemed more than total sensationalistic rubbish
?When i heard about the review i was actually kind of intrigued by it (I know, big error, I should have known better), hoping that it could bring more kno
Metal Gear gotta catch em all?! 2008-04-02 11:11:00 MGS Portable Ops Inserito originariamente da Abriael In preparation for Metal
Gear Solid 4, I'm currently playing Metal Gear
Solid Portable Ops on my PSP. It's an awesome game, with a beautiful and complex story no doubt about it, but the extremely nice thing is that it truly embodies what a portable game should be: even if the european version lost the awesome GPS function present in the japanese one, it still retain the Wi-Fi recruitment system. For the ones that aren't familiar with it, when the player gets in range of a Wi-Fi hotspot, the game will detect it, and will allow to use it to recruit a new soldier for the squad. This means that if a player wants some new soldiers for his squad, he'll just have to explore his real physical city for Wi-Fi hotspots, finding new soldiers
PC Gamer editor cries for no dancing in Warhammer Online 2008-04-01 12:53:00 There's no dancing in WAR Inserito originariamente da Abriael Tim Edwards of PC Gamer
(seemingly a pretty uninformed WoW fanboy) posted a quite colorful whine about the fact (that he passed as breaking news, while it's been known almost since the beginning of WAR's development) that there will be no dancing in Warhammer
Online. Well, Sorry Tim. Warhammer online is about war. A meaningful war. It's not about silly looking night evles with lightbulbs in their eyes dancing the macarena. It's been a known fact since before the age of Adam and Eve, and guess what. Most of the Warhammer fans wholeheartedly approve. If you were looking for the next WoW in Warhammer Online
, then you might as well look elsewhere. Next whiner please!
Rapture screens. Legit or April fool? 2008-04-01 12:27:00 Rapture
or April
Fool? Inserito originariamente da Abriael Yesterday Allakhazam.com published some screens, claiming that they could be a sneak preview from the new Square-Enix MMORPG codenamed Rapture. The screenshots feature some quite blurry environment and a Viera and a black mage moogle, alnogside with a couple of chocobos. While some of the assets look definately similar to Final Fantasy XI (exoecially the textures and the chocobos), some seem quite different from what we've already seen. You can see the whole set here.While the period in which such pictures have been published (march the 31st) is definately fishy, we can't, at the moment, mark it as a surefire April Fool. Looks like we'll just have to wait and see until some official notice comes. If you want to read the di
Best april fool EVER 2008-04-01 11:40:00 Looks like someone has a lot of free time on their hands. Above you can see a movie that has been unleashed on the net today, featuring Solid Snake dressed up as Assassin's Creed's Altair in an absolutely AWESOME looking battle. All jokes aside, if this movie is any indication on how battles in Metal Gear Solid 4 will look, then the game is going to totally rock: chaos, lead flying everywhere, people screaming in a wortex of awesomeness. I dig it. Totally.
The Blood Ravens are assembling for a new battle 2008-04-04 23:38:00 Dawn of War II Inserito originariamente da Abriael It finally happened: the official website for Dawn of War II is finally open. Even if doesn't provide much information on the game yet, it shows us three very joucy screenshots and a teaser trailer, all of which featuring the BloodRavens
space marines and the Orks. The graphics in them looks definately stunning and very detailed, with awesome lighting effects.Also, reading the short text provided, we can single out a few elements: there will be campaigns for multiple races, and they will be described as "Epic", so they will probably be more story-driven than the dynamic ones that Dark Crusade and Soulstorm got us used to (they were fun, but quite a bit lacking story-wise).Also there seems to be hints about an advancement systems f
It’s here! Oh yeah, it’s here! 2008-04-03 23:53:00 Final Fantasy VII Crisis Core Inserito originariamente da Abriael Today I finally got my paws on an import copy (from the US) of Final Fantasy VII Crisis Core. Since here in europe we always get everything later (despite Square-Enix going on to give speeches about striving for worldwide same-time releases), i had to deal with the trouble of importing the game.Was it worth it? Oh YEAH. It was. I didn't have the time to play it extensivley yet, but Final Fantasy VII Crisis Core oozes coolness in immense quantities. It looks, tastes, feels and smells like the most classical of the Final Fantasy games, while introducing quite a lot of innovation. Add to it an absolutely groundbreaking story and a masterful voice acting (both the japanese one and the english one) and you have all the in
GamePro.com get their paws on Metal Gear Solid 4 2008-04-06 17:16:00 Metal
Gear Solid
4 Inserito originariamente da Abriael Looks like the chaps at GamePro.com managed to try an almost finished version of Metal Gear
Solid 4. You can read the report here.Did they like it? Oh yeah they did. Here's just a quick quote:"Playing a nearly complete build of Metal Gear Solid
4 running on the PlayStation 3 was a revelatory experience. The graphics looked sensational, the sound effects and music sounded magnificently epic, and the interface felt sleek and simple. In short, it's becoming increasingly clear that Metal Gear Solid 4 will be the rare game to live up to its own massive hype. "Live up to it's hype? That's indeed something you rarely hear in the gaming industry.Everything you can find in the GamePro report sounds awesome, expecially the weapon customi
Ok, it's not a game: Macross Frontier 2008-04-08 09:56:00 Macross Frontier
Inserito originariamente da Abriael The time has finally come. After having seen the first episode of the new Macross Series during the 25th anniversary special this chrismas, it's finally time to see the whole series.Why am I writing about an anime series that's not a videogame (yet)?Because Macross has been a milestone for the growth of many of us old time gamers, so it's always a pleasure to see that storyline expanded.In particular, the new series looks groundbreakingly awesome. Seriously. Even if we didn't see much action during the first episode, what we've seen was top quality. The characters look very interesting, and the plot looks like it will reserve us quite a lot of surprises and fun. I really can't wait for next week to finally see episode 2, as we wa
New contents available on the Euro Gran Turismo TV 2008-04-07 19:40:00 Lancer Evolution X Inserito originariamente da Abriael A quick update: I just noticed that three movies are now available
on the european versionn of the GT TV. The first is a very interesting documentary on the Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X, that shows how the producer of the game tested the car, and his pretty serious car otaku attitude, which I found absolutely fitting with the maniacal attention to detail in GT5P. The other two movies are dedicated to the Nissan GTR and are equally interesting and fitting to the game.Actually the GT TV is an extremely interesting feature, more or less like the bonus contents in a DVD. I hope the european one will be on par with the Japanese one (wich sports content from the awesome Super GT racing series).It's definately an element that shows Read more:Turismo
, Gran Turismo
Gran Turismo 5 Prologue: masterpiece or glorified demo? 2008-04-07 18:45:00 GT5 Prologue
Inserito originariamente da Abriael Before the release of Gran Turismo
5 Prologue I wasn't planning to buy it. Why? Because I never liked the idea of the "prologue", that many consider little more than a glorified demo. Then, when I saw it on the shelf of my favourite shop i couldn't really resist, and i got it. So, was it really a glorified demo?It sure has less content than the usual driving game, but there's something that places it aside from the idea of a demo: the content that we have makes for what's probably the most immersive driving experience on an electronic platform (PC or Console) since the old dear times of the Nascar Racing series from Papyrus. The ones that followed this blog since it's inception probably know how much i loved other driving games like Read more:Gran Turismo
THQ unveils some info about the upcoming Warhammer 40000 MMORPG 2008-04-09 06:02:00 Old Style Ultramarines Inserito originariamente da Abriael THQ unveiled a few details on their upcoming (actually more than a couple years away) Warhammer
40000 MMORPG
. First of all it seems it'll be a proper MMORPG and not an MMOFPS as many argued (and hoped), but action elements like cover and positioning will be important none-the-less. They also said that fights will be on a larger scale than the ones planned by EA Mythic in Warhammer online (I honestly doubt it, since Warhammer online has some really massive environments, it's probable that the guys at THQ just considered the instanced scenarios, and didn't take in account that WAR also has open world RVR in some quite big battlefields. If they really do bigger than that, I can only wonder how big, gigabyte-wise, the game coul
Karl Lagerfeld to make an appearence in Grand Theft Auto IV 2008-04-09 04:24:00 Karl Lagerfeld
on GTA IV Inserito originariamente da Abriael the "Kaiser", Karl Lagerfeld, one of the most influential designers of modern fashion is about to take a step into the videogame world. The interesting thing that he's doing it in the most politically incorrect way possible. His virtual alter-ego will be, in fact, the DJ of K109 radio in the upcoming controversial game Grand
Theft Auto IV. Quoting what he himself said: "They had written a politically incorrect dialogue," the designer said. "I loved it, [particularly] in a time when everybody wants to be so politically correct when they talk." and "I would love to be a very nasty, politically incorrect character."It's indeed refreshing, in a period in wich everyone strives to be as politically correct as possible, to see Read more:Grand Theft
, Grand Theft Auto
It’s coming! Final Fantasy IV DS US release date announced 2008-04-10 20:22:00 Final
Fantasy IV DS Inserito originariamente da Abriael Oh yeah! I'm so happy I could cry. Square-Enix finally announced the release date for the US version of Final Fantasy
IV DS (June the 22nd) and even opened a dedicated website.I swear that when I clicked on the link and heard the Final Fantasy IV theme music playing I had tears rolling down my cheeks.Thank goodness for the DS being region free, so even european players like me will be able to play it (since no European release date has been announced, as usual...). Final Fantasy IV is still the best Final Fantasy game in my heart, so you can understand why i'm so happy. I've been crying for a release in a language i can understand since the announcement of the remake for Japan, and now the dream comes true. The game in itself
Operation Darkness: will it ever see release in Europe? 2008-04-10 19:43:00 OperationDarkness
Inserito originariamente da Abriael Operation Darkness is a tactical RPG by Atlus released last year in japan on Xbox 360 and slated for release in the US in June.The game isn't groundbreaking graphics-wise, but the pairing between the World War 2 setting and classical fantasy/horror cliches make it an interesting title, expecially due to the the solid story, that revolves around the assassination attempt of Adolf Hitler. The characters are quite interesting too, even if in the US website many haven't been introduced yet, it's quite noticeable that the heroes are a sort of "legacy of extraordinary men", sporting, between the others, Jack the Ripper, Van Helsing (in female form, actually) and Herbert West (coming straight from an H.P. Lovercraft novel).But the tru Read more:Europe
Epic and complex stories, are they important for games? 2008-04-12 13:32:00 Armageddon Snake Inserito originariamente da Abriael I've always been planning to write this post, but i have been waiting for the proper inspiration. If you gave a look to the "currently playing" window on the right you probably noticed that I've been replaying Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty. That has been my inspiration. Back in the day, amongs the general enthusiastic comments, some journalists wrote some absolutely appalling criticism.They went on talking about "philosophically burdensome story" or the plot being "incomprehensible and overly heavy for an action game".I can't do anything else than define such remarks as absolutely idiotic, with all due respect. Metal Gear Solid 2 has one of the most beautiful and deep stories of the whole videogaming history, a story that
Preowned games, the treasure chest of videogaming 2008-04-14 18:04:00 A preowned Metal Gear Solid 2 Inserito originariamente da Abriael Lately more and more gaming shops, both offline and offline, are buying and offering preowned games. While it's obvious that it's definately no charity operation, and the margins such shops apply to preowned games are huge, that's not what i want to talk about today. After all they're businesses. Every business will look for a profit and that's a given.On the other hand, i'm about to talk about the pleasures of preowned games. The fact that they're cheaper than new one is so obvious that it doesn't even need to be elaborated. The best thing is, actually, the pleasure of the search and the discovery: with my job I often find myself with an hour or so of free time between meetings with client, and I love to spend such
Back in action! 2008-04-20 08:43:00 My new Eee PC Inserito originariamente da Abriael You might have noticed that I didn't post on my blog in the last few days. Unfortunately, as I'm switching to a faster DSL that should gift me with lag-free online game on all platforms, my ISP had the great idea to deactivate my older one BEFORE my new one was active, and, to add insult to injury, to delay the activation of the new one to the 23rd due to "technical problems". So, yesterday, I finally got an HDSPA modem to use as a replacement until my DSL will be online. It even came bundled with a little cute Asus Eee PC, that's definately not gameworthy, but still a nice toy, expecially if you're ready to go trough quite a bit of work to turn the newbie-friendly operating system in a real one. Takes a bit of tweaking, but it's do
Metal Gear Solid Online beta starts: lenghty download detected! 2008-04-20 11:47:00 Metal
Gear Solid
Online Download... Inserito originariamente da Abriael The Metal Gear
Solid Online premiere beta starts tonight, at midnight (european time) and i'm definately excited. I bet many of you are excited as much as I am, at least the ones that got a beta code (in the US) or managed to sign up for a Konami ID despite the extra busy website (in Europe).You better be careful though, because Konami already updated the game, tthere's a further download to do (in addition to the PSN one) and it's a quite big one. You can access it directly from the game, but don't even try with the HTML download option. Traffic is so high that it's nearly impossible. Luckily they decided to add a Peer to Peer Torrent download, which works at a decent speed (around 25k/sec for me). After a co Read more:Metal Gear Solid
New Classy Gamer Widgets (and Facebook apps) available 2008-04-22 22:23:00 CG Widget Inserito originariamente da Abriael Two new widgets are now available
to show the ClassyGamer
feed on your own website or blog. One is a small version, good for sidebars, the other is a wider version. Both of them are also available as Facebook
Applications. If you want to add them you just need to click on the big blue button on the right sidebar and follow the instructions. Home delivery :D
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