[REVIEW] 3D Dot Game Heroes

Nostalgia at it's finest. 3D Dot Game Heroes has to be one of the most pleasurable games I've played in a very long time, simply because it speaks to the Zelda nerd in me. Once I initially heard about this, I figured that Nintendo may reign down some sort of C&D letter upon Atlus, but, alas, they didn't and we are able to partake in such a wondrous entity that is 3D Dot Game Heroes.

From the logo to the title screen, the music to the action, the characters to the enemies, this game epitomizes what it is to be a Zelda clone. There are some faults in this game, and with that, I can safely say that, to many, 3DDGH is to The Legend of Zelda as Heavenly Sword is to God of War. Both entries pay their homage-dues to their respective fathers in many ways, and it's here that 3DDGH excels at having it's way with your emotions, as if you were 5 years old again playing through the first Zelda game, aimlessly wandering around an unfamiliar land without any sort of direction.

Well, I should back up a smidge. There is a sense of direction in this game, as it does give you a map, something Zelda didn't. It's not as flourished as one would expect, but venture into the areas enough times, and you will start to see the environment in it's 1/8th size. The gameplay is your classic top-down camera view, looking around, swinging your sword at anything with - and without - a pulse, mowing your way through the game. It's hard for me to paint a picture of this game, because, as many gamers, including myself, have said before, all you have to do is picture classic Zelda gameplay, replace the names and you've got it.

Turok: Evolution's Hot Sauce

Seen at the Try My Nuts store in Corolla, NC.

Check after the break for the FEAR-inspired concoction.

New Design...Again

Since Blogger updated overhauled their template and customization tools, I decided to take it a whirl, and I've been tweaking features in it around to see how I can get a good feel to the site, and I think I've gotten something that I'm most comfortable with. Gone are the huge post widths and a few sidebar gadgets, and I made these decisions to streamline the site and make it more navigable and easier on the eyes.

You'll notice that everything has flip-flopped, that all gadgets are now to the left, with those ads at the very bottom of the site. Sadly, I can't figure out how to edit HTML through the new customization tools, so the CC License and SiteMeter thingamajigs will have to wait. Also, with the lack of HTML customization, I can't add in the Disqus commenting system, so the old school system is here until then. [Going into 'Design' surpasses the HTML editing, so I had to do a bit of digging to get back to the OG layout to add in these features. Disqus comments are back online, SiteMeter and CC-License tags are up and functional again.] The post archive is now smaller, now archived by month solely, rather than each individual post; this helped with the sidebar width-constrictions in place by Blogger. You'll also notice the sectionalization of each gadget, and the posts are grouped by date in the main portion of the site.

There are still some customization things I'm still looking for, but for now, this is what you'll be seeing from now on. There will be a few tweaks here and there, but nothing drastic from what you see now.

Hope you enjoy.

[E3 2010] Truthiness in E3 Predictions : Multiplatform

You can check out my first-party predictions, as well as my third-party/multi-platform predictions to refresh your memory. To see my other Truthiness posts, check out the Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft posts to see how I fared. To do this, I'm color-coding each entry to correspond to my prediction: Green is spot-on, Orange is half-right, and Red is Fail.


Most Likely:

• The Music Force (Guitar Hero 6 and Rock Band 3) : Keytars and shitty story elements galore.
• Batman: Arkham Asylum 2 Unvealed (story prediction at Joystiq as a comment) : Nothing at all, but remember, it was delayed into 2011.
• The Force Unleashed II Full reveal : With it's wicked awesome gameplay
• Dead Space 2 Unvealed : At Microsoft's conference.
• LEGO Star Wars III: The Clone Wars Revealed :
• Red Faction: Armageddon Demoed :
• Call of Duty: Black Ops is the biggest thing on the show floor (if Halo Reach isn't there) : First thing at Microsoft's conference with a brand new trailer, and Mark Lamia gave a live demo of a jungle level, plus showing off the controllable Hind-D level; buddy flies, you shoot.
• LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1-4 gets hyped up for it's release in a few weeks : Yup
• FEAR 3 inexplicably shown off (with an explanation on the '3' in the middle of the title)
• Rage engine and game shown off : Oh yea, and it's gorgeous
• Rockstar Trifecta (Max Payne 3, LA Noire, Agent) : Guess I didn't catch the memo that they weren't even showing up.
• Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood makes it's debut, showing everything : Totally. At Ubisoft's conference (with Joel McHale, again), it was the second thing shown. Taking place in 1503, a few, short years after ACII's ending, you're back in Rome, the coup de grâce locale in ACII, starring as Ezio, and showing that he's not the only assassin in the luxurious Italian city (facts we already know). Launch date is November 16 (predicted!). Monteriggioni was attacked by Cesare Borgia, Rodrigo Borgia's son (the main antagonist from the previous game) in 1499, and the game starts you off escaping by word of Mario, your uncle (who, sadly, is killed by Cesare later on in the level, who is holding a Piece of Eden, too). There is more emphasis on horseback riding, as well as the ability to fire canons (this is shown during the defense of Monteriggioni). Sorry, but this seems to be more than just a simple "milk it for what it's worth" sequel, guys. Get used to it.

[E3 2010] Truthiness in E3 Predictions : First-Party

There was a lot that went down, so I'm separating Nintendo/Microsoft/Sony into three posts to help with ease-of-use, then giving the entire third-party post it's own. You can check out my first-party predictions, as well as my third-party/multi-platform predictions to refresh your memory. To see my other Truthiness posts, check out the Microsoft, Sony and Third-Party posts to see how I fared. To do this properly, I'm color-coding each entry to correspond to my prediction: Green is spot-on, Orange is half-right, and Red is fail.

I apologize for the horrible formatting, but Blogger seriously fucked up all of my prediction posts' formatting, so were you think there should be spaces, there are, but they're just not being rendered properly. And yes, the HTML code is right.

WILD CARD: Shigeru announces Ocarina of Time remake

Most Likely:

• The Legend of Zelda XVI Unveiled : Oh yea. Subtitled Skyward Sword, out next year.
• Golden Sun DS Unveiled : Subtitle is Dark Dawn, and comes out later this year.
• Retro's New Game : Yup. They're back, and guess with who? (go ahead, guess. wanna hint? look below)
• Donkey Kong is Back! (DKC4 or Jungle Beat 2) : DK's back, and he's rollin' with Retro. Yea. Retro. And it's of the Country variety.
• 3DS Unveiled : Definitely. And a TON of third-party support.

[WEBCOMIC] Penny Arcade on E3 2010

I'm not sure how Santa's handjobs would be, but if it's anything like Christmas, it must be magical.

[Originally seen on Penny Arcade]

Sony Conference Round-Up

The Sony media briefing took place on June 15, 2010, at 3:00 PM EST. Television broadcast was made available (and commercial-free, thank god) by G4, which I watched the entire hour-and-a-half thing (I'm starting to get used to this).  

Jack Tretton is up, and joked at Kinect and the ponchos. He said that bringing Kevin Butler on stage was a serious thought after everyone had suggested it, but, sadly, he won't be appearing today. Damn.

Killzone 3 is up, and what they're seeing is gameplay footage, and in 3D. Oh, and Move support, too.

A lot of games with 3D support (Ghost Recon, Shawn White Snowboarding, Mortal Kombat), and The Sly Collection announced in the spirit of the God of War Collection. One final 3D video: a giant sampling of various 3D supported titles. Motorstorm: Apocalypse, EyePet, MLB 10 The Show, The Fight, Killzone 3, Tumble, Crysis 2, Mortal Kombat, Gran Turismo 5 and The Sly Collection.

Now they're onto the Move. They're showing developers reactions to the controller.

Nintendo Conference Round-Up

The Nintendo media briefing took place on June 15, 2010, at 12:00 PM EST. Television broadcast was made available (and commercial-free, thank god) by G4, which I watched the entire hour-and-a-half thing (I'm starting to get used to this). 

Reggie's on stage. He doesn't sound like a robot like Don Mattrick or Joel McHale did yesterday. Simply put, I love listening to him talk.

ZELDA!!! Great way to start off the show. New short teaser, artwork seems less gritty than Wind Waker, but it's still TP-esque Zelda. Showing Link on horseback in the clouds, then Majora's Mask, then Wind Waker Link in the King of Red Lions, but no Twilight Princess references (MM and WW are down the same timeline, so they are connected; perhaps this is a sequel to Majora's Mask) Titled The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword. Miyamoto is explaining, via video, how the design came about. English dubbed over his Japanese. I'd rather listen to Kojima again. MotionPlus support for sword mechanics, nunchuck is the shield, just like in Twilight Princess. Miyamoto is on stage now, complete with English. He explains that you actually have to hold the controller combination like a sword and shield. The sword really looks like 1:1 control. It looks like he's having trouble with controls. The Sword Beam is back! 1:1 sword play seems to play into enemies, as the Deku Baba needs to be killed by slicing it in the way it's mouth is opened, a door with an eye needs to be confused, as the eye is focused on the end of the sword; rotate it in a circle over and over and you can approach is safely and kill it. Shield Bash rocks back at Octoroks to kill them. Holy shit, you can dash now! Having Bill translate Miyamoto while he's still talking is confusing as shit. Miyamoto having some problems taking out some Skulltullas on a vine with the slingshot (you no longer point at the screen, just move the Wiimote). Different mechanics for the bombs; overhead and underhand tosses. Wii Remote is acting up, and they're asking to turn on their wireless devices (HA! Apple...), but there's still some issues using the Bow. They gave up, and moved on to a remote-controlled beetle. Skyward Sword will not come out this year, but next year (sadly, not making history by having the three flagship series, Zelda, Mario and Metroid, have new entries in the same year). They're off, but a gameplay trailer is up, showing many uses for the already shown items. Awesome.

Xbox 360 Slim Photos, Details Outed

Thanks to both Major Nelson's Flickr Photostream and Kotaku, we've got our first look at the new 360 Slim (not the official name; however, it's being called the New Xbox 360 (think along the lines of New Xbox Experience, "NXE," so I guess the new abbreviation will be NX360), spec sheets list it as Xbox 360 250GB still, but the original 360 is called just that, the Xbox 360 Original) as well as a brief, rough-n-dirty tech spec sheet that came with the free slims Microsoft handed out after the conference.

The photos don't do much, but they do show off the back of the unit, where there are some much welcomed additions. Built-in optical audio support, three USB ports on the back (two on the front behind a hide-away panel) and a port labeled "AUX," which, according to the spec sheet, is solely for the Kinect. Now, I won't have to keep my HD-DVD to be used as a USB-hub. Thanks, Microsoft!

I can only derive one thought: DO WANT.

UPDATE: It appears that the 360 Original won't be produced, and that once the available stock is gone, it's gone. The Arcade seems to be getting a refresh (probably white, smaller capacity HDD) and that should fill in the $199 void that the 360 Original is currently at. The exact date for the 360 Slim is this Friday at the earliest, and Sunday at the latest. The price changes for the 360 Original should take effect Tuesday (that's tomorrow!). [Via Engadget]

Check past the break for the spec sheet and the image gallery.

Microsoft Conference Round-Up

The Microsoft media briefing took place on June 14, 2010, at 1:30 PM EST. Television broadcast was made available (and commercial-free, thank god) by Spike, which I watched the entire hour-and-a-half thing (I'm starting to get used to this).

Don Mattrick unveils a multi-year agreement with Activision that all map packs for the next three years for Call of Duty will launch first on the 360. Damn.

Hideo Kojima showed up to unveil Metal Gear Solid: Rising, but passed the unveiling off to Rising's producer, because, let's be honest, Hideo's English isn't all that hot, so he would feel highly uncomfortable to keep talking in a language he isn't familiar with. It was mainly a gameplay trailer, and it looks to play just like Devil May Cry. Watermelon cutting never looked so cool.

Cliff Blezinski came on stage, and gave a demo of a 4-player co-op campaign story chapter from Gears of War 3. It showed off the new lambent-infused enemies. Dismemberment galore. New melee kills (bayonet on your Lancer? yes, please). Weapon swapping, omni-directional damage indicator, and those new lambent enemies are shown to be tough as shit (it took all 4 of them to take them down, so teamwork is a must). They even send out baddies; the bigger the tentacles, the bigger the enemies that spawn from them, Berserker included, and a nice little Hammer of Dawn kill at the end. A new mode was hinted at, called "Beast." Uh-oh.

Peter Molyneux was there for Fable III, which takes place 50 years after Fable II, and to be honest, I couldn't care less.

Microsoft Games Studio's new, exclusive partner, Crytek (really?), with the game, codenamed Kingdoms. Looks very medieval.

Here's were Halo Reach comes in, and Bungie's creative director, Marcus Lehto, with a campaign level reveal. Looks like Elites have Spartan tech (Armor Lock, specifically). Seems like Rockets can lock on again (judging by the targeting reticule).