TGS is this week (24th through 27th in Japan). Haven't had a chance to keep up with the lead up to the event, but it should be good. If I'm not mistaken, TGS will begin with a keynote by Kaz Hirai from Sony, which is supposed to start in about an hour I believe (~8:30pm central IIRC). I don't think Nintendo is at the event (they rarely are), but they're will probably be some notable announcements from 3rd parties. While MS doesn't normally have a large presence, they did mention that they would make some game announcements at TGS. So there should be some good stuff...and hopefully relevant to US gamers too (not just more Yakuza announcements ). Here's a NeoGAF thread with times, game lists, rumors/news, etc.: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=373772 Hmm...just found out SCEJ will have a separate conference 3 hours after Kaz's keynote...don't know if I'll stay awake for that though. A few random news pieces (not necessarily TGS related)... Some of you may have already seen this: http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=25361 http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=17695474&postcount=1 Go to the links to read it all, but it seems like Sega may have leaked some details about what Sony has planned for the future. PS2 BC, ability to download imported games, downloadable Dreamcast games, and more. Not really major news, but the God of War compilation that is coming out later in the year will include a God of War 3 demo. Guess that helps me make my decision. Lots of talk about a Wii price drop going on. I haven't had a chance to read all that articles, but I thought I saw somewhere that it leaked from a retailer. Maybe someone else knows more about this... I read something about MS interested in buying EA today, although none of it really makes sense to me. Actually sounds like rumors from previous years. One of the more TGS-related things I did read about was Square-Enix's plans for the game Nier. Or should I say games. If I'm not mistaken, they're actually releasing two versions, one exclusive to the 360 and one (maybe exclusive?) to the PS3. The 360 one focuses on a male character, with a bit more Western appeal I guess (surprise!). The PS3 one focuses on a "female" that isn't really wearing much. I say "female" because apparently she was possessed by a male demon, which caused her to grow male body parts...if I'm not mistaken. Good job Square-Enix. This will surely sell millions (and 2x what it should since they're releasing the same game twice!).
Wii going down to 200 this Sunday via best buy, target, TRU. The drop doesn't really excite me all that much tbh. I might snag it when it goes down to 150, or wait to see if their next one has bc, as their are a few wii rpgs in the works that I'm interested in. PS3 bc always interests me, since I will be getting another PS2 sooner or later(love my PS2 game collection). But doesn't sound like it's real bc(as in reading discs), just downloadable crap, which is useless for my purposes. Could still be cool though, I guess, depending on the pricing and the inclusion of games harder to get a hold of.
Yeah, I don't really like that idea either. But I guess it is better than no PS2 support. They might have to "port" PS2 games to the PS3, and this is there method of doing so. Guess we'll see... Anyway, 1UP has already started their live blog for the keynote (should start soon): http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3176155 Also: Saw this at NeoGAF and laughed. Of course, I think this guy has done this every year. Think I might have fallen for it back in 2006.
A few videos are hitting the Internet (FF13, Okamiden, The Last Guardian, The Crystal Bearers, Valkyria Chronicles 2). Think that IGN even has a demo for MGS Peace Walker. Might be some more later on, during/after Sony's conference maybe. I'll probably go to sleep before that though, so this will probably be my last post of the night. Hopefully they actually show something there, unlike Kaz's keynote. Only interesting thing about that was the 1M PS3s in 2-3 weeks comment IMO, although that's partly because I'm into sales. Oh, and I guess the Wii price cut is now official.
OK, maybe not. I might have missed a few good things, but just seems like new videos of games we've already seen. I did like the Last Guardian trailer (and behind the scenes video), but wasn't a lot shown. Some crappy FF13 videos on Youtube...although I'm pretty much bored of FF13 media at this point anyway. I did see that they actually showed gameplay from Versus, but it seems to be really early...not to mention that I don't think that stuff actually made it to the Internet. Capcom re-releasing RE5 with the PS3 wand (is that necessary?). White Knight Stories 2 announced, but we don't even have the first one in NA yet (and it will probably be ignored due to FF13, and all the other good games releasing early next year). Better than Yakuza I guess... Oh yeah, and GT5 in March....and not this year. Not that I cared that much about GT5, but I thought they were hinting at it being a 2009 game. In related news, Forza 3 demo is out I think. Maybe it would help if I cared more about handheld games. Okamiden does look nice, as does Valkyria Chronicles 2. Hmm...speaking of which, I didn't realize it already had a NA release (2010 Summer apparently).
The 250GB PS3 bundles also look like they'll sell. And oh, the FF13 special edition PS3s! PSP-3000 price cut too, not announced yet for NA though AFAIK. Things are really looking up for Sony. Great games coming, not to mention the new PS3s are really selling well. Let's see if they can keep it up.
Don't you have a PSP? I seem to remember you being gung-ho about it a while back. I've seen some pretty good deals on em, but I don't really see a great game library to get excited about. I take it you feel the same way? If I got one it'd probly be mostly to emulate PS1 games on the go ... as the PS1 games >>>> the vast majority of the PSP lineup, imo.
Doubt it will really make that much of a difference, at least from a sales perspective. Nice value if you're into that kind of stuff I guess. Now that might sell well. Of course, Japan seems to like any kind of special edition item. Hmm...I'm sure there are some people that are going to have like 5 PS3s. Regular PS3, FF7:AC PS3, FF13 PS3, FF Versus PS3, FF14 PS3, etc. Not to mention FF7:CC PSP, Dissidia PSP, Agito PSP, etc. No, nothing like that. I've really enjoyed the PSP games I've played. But I think I'm just not into the whole handheld experience, especially recently. When I got my PSP, I pictured myself transitioning to more of a handheld gamer. It made a little bit of sense when I was in college (although it didn't really happen), but nowadays, I'm usually around my PC and HDTV whenever I want to play games. I'd just rather play a great PC/console game than a great handheld game. And given that I still have Okami, SOTC, Baldur's Gate, Fallout 1+2, etc., to finish, don't think I'll be running out of great games to play before I need to look to a handheld game. I still try to play them occasionally (played and enjoyed FF7:CC earlier in the year), but just not that interested in them at the moment. If you're actually into handheld games, I think there would be plenty of games to enjoy. Although playing PS1 games is definitely awesome too. edit: Guess I could get a new PSP so I could play them on my HDTV. But I don't really want to get a new one. Nor would that allow me to want to play DS games (unless there's a similar solution I'm unaware of).
Oh wow...um...so Heavy Rain lets you perform a striptease. Guessing this will be censored, at least in the US. Maybe they should do it anyway just to avoid the "Uncanny Valley" effect, which seems pretty strong in a striptease scene.
I got a PSP three years ago and honestly have played it for about 2 months, combined. I haven't touched it once this summer, even though I got it modded and can get any game I want. Most of the games just didn't interest, even though I liked playing Lumines and MLB The Show on it. However, with the new wave of AAA titles coming (Gran Turismo, Fat Princess, Motorstorm, LBP), I might dig it out and play it.
Wow again... Why was I not aware that this was the FF13 boxart? That's some interesting design decisions Square-Enix. Although I guess my opinion doesn't really matter, especially since the NA version will probably look different.
Not directly TGS related, but Square-Enix released a new ~7 minute trailer for FFXIII. Guess maybe the last (major?) one before its release: http://www.square-enix.co.jp/fabula/ff13/ (go to trailers and select the 3rd one) or http://gdl.square-enix.com/fabula/ff13/FF13_Trailer_ct-a_3m.f4v (direct download I think) JP PSN also has it I believe (1080p ~800MB file) I guess it would be a bit of an understatement to say that it looks beautiful.
Yes, finally. *Looks at the ~9 month gap between the Japanese release of Dissidia and the NA release.*
