My New Gamepro Mag

Just thought I'd throw some of this out. (I'm just sitting around waiting for friends to wake up so we can LAN.) There are 2 previews that I wanted to point out and then an article on E3 (including my commentary on it. It's probably worth your time to read it. If you're uninterested in a particular title, skip over it. That's what I did )

Inside New Gamepro Mag:

Viewtiful Joe 2: GC, PS2
p. 40 of August, 2004 issue of Gamepro. That's all you need to know. (This is for you, Raz.)

Fullmetal Alchemist and the Broken Angel: PS2
p. 48. Thought I'd list this for all you Alchemist fans.



E3 2004 Showstoppers:

1) Nintendo DS/Sony PSP
--DS will be backwards compatable with GBA games (I'm also assuming GB Color and regular GB games as well.) PSP will introduce a new disc format (no backwards compatability--though it does have built-in wireless LAN, USB 2.0, and an IR reciever)

2) Resident Evil 4
--Not to excited, but it can't be bad. They asy it's pretty and... well, I didn't read the rest of it, so I don't know. GC

3) Final Fantasy XII (twelve)
--They changed the battle system. It's real-time, you position your characters at will, and all enemies are visible on the main "world" screen. Speaking of which, there are no battle screens. The fight takes place right where you encounter the enemy. Also, there will be no sphere system (thank God) but they will move to a new color-group system (???). Probably buying it. PS2

4) Halo 2
--Wasn't a fan of Halo 1. It was overrated (as I compared it to Half-Life/CS). What I saw of the single player wasn't nearly as compelling as Half Life was years beforehand. Multiplayer: Xbox--Needs mouse and keyboard. Computer--Needs LESS FUCKING LAG; FIX YOUR SHIT, MICROSOFT. Xbox

5) The Lord of the Rings: The Battle For Middle-Earth
--LOTR Warcraft... I played the demo or beta or something a while back. It wasn't too bad, but... why the fuck is this in front of Half-Life 2? PC

6) Half-Life 2
--Pwn. Nothing you don't already know except maybe that CS, DoD, and Team Fortress are all "being ported to Source, meaning you'll be able to play all your old faves in shiny new clothes the day the game ships. Whenever that is." Buying it. PC

7) The Movies
--Make your own movies... I can't really say how I feel about this game. It could be awesome, and it could blow. - PC

8) Killzone
--FPS; nothing special as far as I'm concerned. PS2

9) Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater
--I've never really played any of the previous MGS games. I'm sure I'm missing out. This should be fun, though. PS2

10) God of War
--This may be pretty sweet. "Greek mythology gets the bloody, gory treatment with this action/adventure title... Playing as ex-Spartan soldier, Kratos, your task is to find Pandora's Box--the only thing that can destroy the titular Ares...hazards and enemies that range from booby traps and puzzles to battles with minotaurs and stone-gazing Medusa (whose trophy head you an use to petrify enemies.)" Mythology needs more exposure in games. I'll probably rent this one. PS2

11) Metroid Prime 2: Echoes
--Metroid with some new gears. "With stunning visuals, dimensional travel, and new Light and Dark weapon mechanics, don't expect the standard hackneyed sequel." This one'll also have split-screen multiplayer consisting of deathmatch and coin-motivated-deathmatch. Rent or Buy: Undecided. GC

12) Doom 3
--"the game just sizzled." I'm buying it. (The magazine says Xbox... That's it... Why the fuck does it not say PC? Fuck them. I saw the leaked beta for the PC at a LAN. Gamepro's missing a dot.)

13) Pikmin 2
--Damnit. I meant to rent this game's predecessor, but I forgot. Doesn't seem very different from the first one except that there will be two-player competitive and co-op modes. GC

14) Call of Duty: Finest Hour
--All FPS games (other than Doom 3) can go straight to hell when HL2:CS comes out. PS2, Xbox

15) Mortal Kombat: Deception
--"with two Fatalities per character, multitiered fighting stages, melee weapons, and online play," the new Mortal Kombat is here. I never really liked the weapons... They just seemed out of place in a fighting game to me. Two Fatalities seems a bit low to me. I remember playing MK Trillogy for the N64 and looking up like... 2 Fatalities, an Anamality, a Babality, a Friendship, and a... um... one other finishing move which simply equated to a Beat-the-shit-out-of-the-guy-even-after-he-is-dead-ity. There will be new mini-games. Konquest: "lets you build up a character through training and exploration" (Sounds good to me.) Chess Kombat: This will fall through. Anybody remember Battle Chess? It was a fun chess game. It was fun, because it had good visuals... In MK Chess, however, pieces fight it out... The winner isn't predetermined. So, for you chess fans, pass on this mini game. For you MK fans, pass on this mini game and just PLAY THE REGULAR GAME. Puzzle Kombat: Eh... I'm tired of talking about MK. PS2, Xbox

16) Destroy All Humans
--Um... wow... This looks pretty sweet. Check it out for yourself. It's from Pandemic Studios. PS2, Xbox

17) Paper Mario 2
--"On the show floor, the game played great and looked absolutely stuning...Nintendo's got the markings of yet another classic." Not looking forward to this particularly. GC

18) Burnout 3
--This is a racing game that is not GT4. Therefore... we'll just move on. PS2, Xbox

19) Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell 3
--Innovative multiplayer, knife attacks, and... um... some other stuff, make this better than the previous Splinter Cell games. PC, GC, PS2, Xbox

20) 25 to Life
--"Imagine SOCOM with police and gangs in place of soldiers..." This may be a good game. It includes 16-player multiplayer. PS2, Xbox

So, there's 2 new handhelds. I'll probably end up getting Nintendo's product and telling Sony to fuck off. It'll all depend on the games. There's also one game for PS2, one game for PC, and one game listed for Xbox that is also coming out on PC that I am going to buy.

I won't get Nintendo's handheld because they make to fucking many of them and I want to spite them... or something... Besides, I love Playstation and all things surrounding it.

oh thats cool that they decided to make ff12 realtime battlesystem, I didnt really like the other parts because of the turn based fighting but the enviroment and general mood of the games sorta made up for that

I will warn you that the DS may only be backward compatible with GBA. The GBA actually contains GBC components so that it can run GBC and GB games (because the GBA has a newer, more powerfull proccesor than the one GB and GBC used). From what I've seen, the DS is another proccessing evolution. While it is possible that it is powerfull enough to run both GBA and GBC in color, it is possible that it is not, or Nintendo finds problems running some games in emulation and decides to put GBA components in the DS to run GBA games and drops GBC compatability.

Well, RE 4, Final Fantasy XII, and Mortal Kombat Deception has me excited I know Baraka and Noob Saibot make a return on MKD >: D

Viewtiful Joe 2: GC, PS2 p. 40 of August, 2004 issue of Gamepro. That's all you need to know. (This is for you, Raz.)

Can't wait for it.

1) Nintendo DS/Sony PSP --DS will be backwards compatable with GBA games (I'm also assuming GB Color and regular GB games as well.)

Nintendo's stated that it's backwards compatible with GBA games, but I don't think it will play GBC or GB games. It's also got two processors, wireless LAN and online capabilities, a microphone, touch-sensitive lower screen, 3D graphics processing and a bunch of other cool shit I can't remember off the top of my head.

2) Resident Evil 4 --Not to excited, but it can't be bad. They asy it's pretty and... well, I didn't read the rest of it, so I don't know. GC

Go to IGN and read their coverage of the game. Aside from Metroid Prime 2, this is my most anticipated game of the year.

9) Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater --I've never really played any of the previous MGS games. I'm sure I'm missing out. This should be fun, though. PS2

I still need to play the second game, but I'm definitely stoked for this one.

11) Metroid Prime 2: Echoes --Metroid with some new gears. "With stunning visuals, dimensional travel, and new Light and Dark weapon mechanics, don't expect the standard hackneyed sequel." This one'll also have split-screen multiplayer consisting of deathmatch and coin-motivated-deathmatch. Rent or Buy: Undecided. GC

This will be better than the first MP game in every possible way. Samus will be able to use the Screw attack again (if you haven't seen the videos, I truly feel sorry for you), she'll recieve two new visor modes, one of which is the Echo visor which sees pure sound, and she'll also be recieving two new beam types, thew Dark Beam and the Light Beam. The whole game focuses on a Light World/Dark World theme and requires you to shift from one to the other in order to advance. There's so much cool shit about this game, I don't know why you're still undecided.

13) Pikmin 2 --Damnit. I meant to rent this game's predecessor, but I forgot. Doesn't seem very different from the first one except that there will be two-player competitive and co-op modes. GC

Well, there's also no time limit like there was in the first one, and there are two new types of Pikmin: Purple and White. The purple guys are huge and can lift something like five times as much as the smaller guys can, but they move really slowly and you can't toss them very far. The white guys are awesome, because they're toxic and intentionally feeding one to an enemy can kill him pretty quickly. The downside is that they are apparently harmful if handled too frequently.

17) Paper Mario 2 --"On the show floor, the game played great and looked absolutely stuning...Nintendo's got the markings of yet another classic." Not looking forward to this particularly. GC

It's another Mario RPG. How can you not be excited?!

No, it's another Paper Mario. Mario RPG was Mario RPG.

No, that was Super Mario RPG. I just used the term "Mario RPG" to indicate that it was another Role-Playing Game starring Mario.

By the way, if you own a GBA and you haven't played Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga, you need immediate psychological counseling. Buy it and you'll be excited for Paper Mario 2, I guarantee it.

By the way, if you own a GBA and you haven't played Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga, you need immediate psychological counseling.

dunno why, but that made me roffle.

Can't wait for the PSP, wanna know all the specs and games that would be coming out for it.

MGS: Snake Eater, if you have not seen the trailers for this, kill urself NOW!
It is gonna blow the other two games away(MGS 1 for PS1 I think was a bit better than Sons of Liberty in a lot of ways) It is gaming revolution.

FFXII: Need I say more?...GET IT! It also appears to improve on the series a lot more.

Destroy All Humans: Sounds pretty cool, gonna check it out when it is released.

Thats all im lookin forward to outa that list.

Instead of killing yourself over the MGS trailer, why not... well, I dunno... go watch it?

It was just an expression.....maaaan, just go watch it over and over again.