I don't think anyone reading about gaming these days is ignorant of the "Red Ring of Death" plaguing Xbox 360s the world over. While most of the stories you hear about these instances involve a relatively older unit overheating and then suffering hardware failure, I have a far worse tale to tell. Read on, dear friend, and behold a sorrowful tale of misery and woe that bodes further ill for the console enthusiast...

I purchased a 360 Pro for myself as an Xmas gift, along with 5 games. (I was a good boy this year. ;)) Upon returning to my home, I eagerly rearranged my entertainment center to accomodate the final piece of this generation's consoletriumvirate. With everything hooked up andwireless controller in hand, I plopped down on the sofa, ready to log in several hours of Bioshock. I can't say how much I love being able to turn a console on and off with the controller, by the way.

But what's going on here? The little X is blinking, but no power...? Humph. Guess I gotta get up to turn it on the first time...I dunno. Hey...that's an odd sound the box is making. Now why is the ring on the front blinking red? One, two, three...not four! Ye gods in heaven! The console is faulty! Straight out of the box! I do not exaggerate, my friends. I had nary a chance to even power my 360 up before it failed. The Red Ring of Death struck my poor self with not an excuse in sight. No chance of overheating, no excessive wear and tear, nothing. Simple, abject, catastrophic hardware failure from the get-go.

Now it's almost acceptable for MS to admit their failure by making that retroactive warranty extension. It's at least a step in the right direction. Of course, many before have stated the obvious: the damn things shouldn't be breaking down at all. My experience, however, is a whole new ball game. If one spends $400+ on a piece of electronics, one assumes that it will function properly when using it for the first time. And this isn't a case of broken part or something; this is an issue that has caused thousands of problems in other users. Now it's brand-new consoles in addition to ones with mileage. Unreal.

I don't know if I'm alone here, but I sincerely hope so. This kind of hardware failure wasn't acceptable for early adopters, and now those that haven't even started their gaming need worry. I can only hope that you all reading this will spread the word and let everyone you know hear about this. If for no other reason than giving MS another kick in the ass to get their act together. There are already enough people who harbor unreasonable animosity towards the company and their products. This provides fuel for them, and reasonable ire for those of us with more level heads. MS, and the gaming community at large, needs neither.

I had really, really meant to finish Rogue Galaxy today and write up a review for it. Really, I meant to. Then I started playing Tony Hawk's Project 8. I didn't do anything else for about 6 hours. I am such a waste.

Also, I'd like to gripe a little more about the soapbox. Interestingly enough, it's the same person again. Soulreavercross made the soapbox again with nothing more than data. Again. I know that I'm risking sounding petty (did I say that last time?) but speaking objectively, it's not an editorial. It just isn't. So I'll ask my question again: Just who exactly are the editors that choose what goes on the soapbox? Anyone reading this that can answer, please do. I'm dying to find out.

These days it's practically a given that when you read your favorite gaming news sites or magazines, you're going to find at least one piece about some "expert" banging on about the horridly corrupting influence modern gaming is having on our youth and society at large. Recently, yet another unfair stab was taken at our entertainment of choice on (surprise, surprise) Fox television, as reported by GamePolitics.com. Using only the choice bits of a study, Dr. Bartell beats the drum of anti-gaming to the same rhythm we've been hearing for years. GamePolitics kindly provides a link the counter-argument in a response from the Harvard Crimson. You can read the report yourself here (PDF), but in a nutshell it only tells us that aggressive games can lead to an increase in aggressive behavior. So can playing football, but I digress...

There are plenty of other examples which I won't go into here. Rather, I'd like to point out the similarity between the current debate over video game violence and other "negative influences" in recent history. Since I can only personally relate to those from the 1980's onwards, I'm going to begin there, although I'm sure my argument can be followed backwards with other examples, probably to the beginnings of recorded history.

People of my generation can probably recall the emergence of heavy metal in the 1980's. Riding the forefront of this wave was Ozzy Osbourne. Then in 1984, the tragic suicide of John McCollum brought the fear-mongers down on Ozzy and the entire heavy metal scene. McCollum's parents (along with others in time, naming bands such as Slayer and Judas Priest) took Ozzy to court claiming that the lyrics in the songs intentionally provoked listeners to kill or commit suicide. In each case, not only were the artists' First Amendment right to free speech upheld, but the youth in question were overwhelmingly found to be emotionally disturbed and/or drug abusers.

As one might expect, this certainly didn't stop the self-righteous from going on their own crusade to tell you what entertainment you can consume. The McCollum suicide was among several events which gave rise to the PMRC, the group responsible for those Parental Advisory stickers you may have seen on your music. Although this was not censorship per se, immediately after the inception of these stickers, record stores across the United States began pulling albums and magazines from or containing artists that had been branded with the label.

In the '90's heavy metal passed out of the limelight, and would-be censors soon found a new target in hip-hop and gangster rap. Artists like Ice-T and N.W.A. wrote songs about gun violence, drug dealing, misogyny, and more under the auspices of portraying life in the inner city. Spearheading the charge was the PMRC and everyone's favorite lawyer, Jack Thompson. Perhaps the earliest sign of things to come was the case of 2 Live Crew's "Me So Horny," which was temporarily banned from sale in Florida and actually resulted in the arrest of three of the group's members. The Florida court's ruling was later overturned by the Supreme Court. Several other Senate hearings and studies were made trying to find a causative link to criminal activity; none was found.

Enter the present decade, where the popularity of video gaming has increased exponentially, and with it detractors claiming it is destroying the youth of America. It seems that every time there's a tragedy in the country, be it Columbine, Virginia Tech, or Fayette, someone (read: Jack Thompson) is ready to pin the responsibility on video gaming. It wouldn't be so alarming were it not that the blame game is spreading to lawmakers from California and our presidential hopefuls. Thankfully for gamers and our First Amendment rights, these laws are repealed almost as rapidly as they can be proposed.

As we've seen in the past, the relationship between violent or vulgar material and criminal behavior has frequently been targeted, but never been proven causative. Being a very new contender in the entertainment industry, video gaming has less financial and political clout than music or film to protect it from self-serving crusaders. Thus it is far easier for these people to mount their lopsided attacks. As a case in point, the UK banning of Rockstar Games' Manhunt 2 (and the de facto ban resulting from an ESRB rating of AO in the US) eerily mirrors the 2 Live Crew case of 1990, and may very well prove to be yet more ammuntion for the haters.

I won't deny that the issue of media responsibility is legitimate, but the reactions elicited in response over the years have been far from the mark. In every case, the strongest argument that could be made was that media was one of many contributing factors, and then not even a major one. From my perspective, it's little more than a case of video games being the latest scapegoat of choice. The real shame is that regardless of how things go with gaming, there will surely be more scapegoats to come until society at large accepts that the roots of the problem lie elsewhere.

Last night as I was getting ready to nip off to bed, I was suddenly inundated by Halo. Sorry, I know everyone's been inundated by Halo for the past I-don't-know-how-long in the US, but here in Japan you might not even have noticed that the game exists at all. Anyway, I found myself reading no less than three articles about Halo, two of which came from the New York Times.

Two of them relate directly to Bungie's split from Microsoft, which is what I'd like to talk about. From the NYT here, and from 1Up here. Now I know that the talk from both camps is that it's a mutually beneficial move, they're still excited to work together, blah, blah, blah. But from where I'm sitting, it seems to me that Microsoft has basically gotten what they wanted out of Bungie and are now showing them the door.

I remember when Halo was Bungie's promising PC project, and I was all rarin' to play it. Then MS came along, bought the whole shebang and said it would be exclusive to their soon-to-be-released Xbox gaming console. (I still haven't bought either Xbox, and have only played Halo at a friend's.) Fast forward to now: Halo 3 draws the storyline to a close, MS is likely to make half a billion dollars off of it, and Bungie is getting its freedom back. Maybe I'm just being cynical, but it seems to be a little too convenient for my tastes. "Hey, thanks for making our console really successful, now get outta here."

I suppose we'll never really know what actually happened behind the scenes at either company. My gut tells me that MS got what it wanted, and was finally able to get rid of a studio that couldn't (or maybe wouldn't) be pushed to produce at the back-breaking pace that turns out their god-awful operating systems.

As anyone who's been reading my ramblings here knows, one of my goals is to make the user soapbox here on GameSpot. I'm not self-centered enough to say that any of my various postings have been worthy, and I do think that most of what appears there is. I don't always agree, though, and one of the more recent choices really leaves me wondering just who made this decision.

To a point, I'm talking about Soulreavercross's editorial on best-selling games. Click me! Sure, it's a nice little comparison of salesover time and all, but that's about it. Apart from some idle speculation about the future of whatever franchise/console, there's nothing there but raw data. While it is somewhat interesting (if you're into that sort of thing) it's not what I'd call insightful or incisive. I'd go so far as to say that it's not even editorial material at all.

So then am I missing something? Or am I justified in feeling that there wasn't a lot of consideration when this choice was made?

So yet another Tokyo Game Show has come and gone. This year marks the first time I went with the express intent of trying to produce a first-hand report, and what an experience it was. More on that at the end, though. For now, here and in no particular order, are my thoughts on the show.

The real stand-out feature of the show was the overwhelming number of games for the DS. Over 100 different titles in total! I guess it could also have helped that since DSs need relatively less space than its console counterparts, there were more of them working in the same space. Moreover, of all the vendors I had time to visit only a scant few had no DS titles on display. While Sony and Microsoft were obviously in that category, Capcom also had no DS titles, which was something of a surprise. Perhaps even more surprising was the disproportionate number of DS games shown by Square-Enix. More than 50%, in fact!

Speaking of S-E, the next thing that sticks in my head was how totally underwhelmed I was by their booth. I've already belabored my lack of interest in DS games, although there's more to it than just that. What really bugged me was the lack of any substantial footage for Final Fantasy XIII. No amount of fancy CG can make up for the simple fact that there wasn't even a glimmer of gameplay footage. I distinctly remember seeing the briefest glimpse of what appeared to be a game screen last year, so what gives? Even just getting a look at something innocuous, like an in-game dialogue, would have been leaps and bounds better than what we got. Let's face it, they could have shown just about anything and labeled it "FFXIII" and the end result would have been the same. This was only aggravated by the fact that in order to even see said CG, you had to get tickets for the show, which was held in a special closed theater and had limited admission. I could, if I tried, come up with some kind of logic for this move, but I'm not interested in playing devil's advocate here. The bottom line is that doing this only serves to keep people from getting a chance to see what the big deal is. As a result, I am in fact less excited about the game, simply out of sheer bitterness and disappointment.

Another surprise was Microsoft's showing this year. Not because of anything particularly outstanding, but rather the lack of hype over Halo 3. Now I understand that neither Microsoft nor Halo is the same kind of phenomenon in Japan as in America. I would expect more, however, than its subdued presence this weekend. Around ten 360s were running the game, and apart from the name card on top of the display, no other instances of the Master Chief popped up anywhere. For better or worse, Microsoft seems to have saved practically all of their marketing insanity for North America. I will say that the general 360 presence at the show at large was impressive. It seems that the Japanese developers are beginning to embrace it in earnest, as it certainly felt like there were more 360s running demos than PS3s.

This apparent dearth of PS3s was a definite shock. No one can deny that in the Land of the Rising Sun, local companies rule the roost. So why did I feel like the white consoles outnumbered the black ones? Well, let's take a look at the numbers taken from the official TGS 2007 guide book: 360 titles: 32, PS3 titles: 39. Hmm...not doing much for me there, but wait! Subtract out the titles appearing at their home booths and we get a very different number; 27 and 24 respectively. Go a step further and look at which games were playable, and now we get 20 to 15, again ignoring the MS and Sony booths. With these factors in mind, it looks like MS had more boots on the ground, so to speak. I realize that there are several factors which will further alter these numbers both ways, such as the number of actual consoles running any given game, or games not listed in the guide; many PS3 games developed by Activision, for example. From where I was standing, there were 360s at every turn, while PS3s were somewhat scarce.

In direct contrast to this disparity, Sony's booth was far more impressive than in years past. Though it wasn't the largest booth on the floor, being rivaled closely by S-E, Sega and Konami, something about the design made it feel like a true behemoth amidst mere giants. It could have been the massive scrolling marquee proclaiming the playable titles, which was visible from clear across the hall. Or perhaps it was that most of the A-list titles were running on huge 42-inch Bravia screens. It could have been that there were around 50 playable titles, many on multiple screens. Maybe it was the choice of a foreboding black and red color scheme among more colorful neighbors that set it apart. Whatever the case, I was really awed by the scope of the Sony spectacle, and it gave me hope for the vitality of the console and the company in the face of less-than-spectacular sales figures.

In a more global sense, the games themselves are inspiring. When I think about what I was playing as recently as last year, I never would have imagined just how much better they'd look by now. In a mere year, we've seen a breathtaking improvement not only in visuals, but sound, style, interface, and most importantly gameplay. Even the most jaded gamer has to take pause when thinking about the incredible leaps being made in the industry. Here's to hoping that next year's TGS is just as moving.

On a somewhat unrelated note, I'd like to finish with a little about my own experience making this one-man tour happen. For reference's sake, I went to the show on both days open to the public, and stayed from open to close. I can say with authority that this was more like an endurance test than anything else. Setting even the travel aside, the show was taxing on mind and body, not to mention the eardrums. Between standing on line waiting to get hands on a game, trying to take notes on everything, and desperately attempting to pack in as much as possible within the time limit, it certainly felt longer than it was. I know that the pros have more focused agendas and their own days to do the same, but I certainly wouldn't say that they have it easier. So hats off to the men and women of gaming journalism, for they do this a hell of a lot more often than once a year, and they do it well.

GH3 was sitting right next to Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, so naturally I stepped over two feet and got on line for that bad boy. Man, oh man, is this game sharp looking. The demo stage had my squad being airlifted onto a cargo ship in the middle of a rainstorm to take out some terrorists on board. The weather effects stand out in a big way, adding a lot of atmosphere to the action. I got dropped in armed with an MP5 and grenades, but there was the option to pick up a fallen targets' weapon to replace it, and there were at least two other guns to grab; a mini-Uzi, and an AK-47. The controls are silky smooth, and react quickly and accurately to every movement. Perhaps it's still a far cry from the keyboard and mouse combo, but until that kind of support makes its way to PS3, this will certainly do. Your squadmates are definitely more useful in this game than any of the other FPS games I've played, as I was shot full of holes rather quickly after foolishly ignoring them and rushing headlong into a firefight. Towards the end of the demo level, a massive explosion rocks the ship, and you're forced to race through the sinking hulk to make your escape. This bit really emphasizes the lighting and smoke effects. Things are flying around and exploding very convincingly as you scramble to get to your chopper. This game is definitely shaping up to be as exhilarating as the hype surrounding it.

As luck would have it, I got off COD4 with just enough time to head back into the first hall to make it to Square-Enix for the Closed Mega Theater show. Things started with perhaps the most hotly anticipated title on the roster; Final Fantasy XIII. Apparently the story this time around is that everyone lives in a super-advanced floating city. The city is sealed off from the outside world by the power of a crystal, and anyone found to have contact with the outside world is exiled. On a side note, does anyone remember the Paranoia pen and paper RPG? Sounds a lot like that to me... Anyway, apparently the protagonist, a girl by the name of Lightning, has been outside and back and thusly comes our conflict. My guess is that she's going to upset the status quo in this happy little burg. We were treated to some lovely CG of Lightning and friends raising hell on what I assume to be the local law enforcement. Her buddy with the skully pulls off some nifty tricks with some kind of ice power, then rides his motorcycle all over the place while blasting cops. At the very end, we see one more female character actually outside the city, standing on a cliff looking over a huge field with dinosaur-looking creatures running across it. Now everything was certainly beautiful, but personally I'm sorely disappointed by the marked lack of any kind of gameplay footage. I can see CG anywhere. I want to know what this game is actually going to look like. Well, I guess I'll have to wait.

Next up was the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII, or as I like to call it, The Game That Does Not Die. Seriously, do you think that S-E will ever stop milking this franchise? In any case, there were teasers/ads for Crisis Core for PSP, Before Crisis, FFVII Snowboarding(?!), and Dirge of Cerberus for mobile phones, and (big surprise) the release of Advent Children Complete on Blu-ray. I'm sure Sony's happy about that little decision. There are plenty of fanboys who will probably pick up a PS3 for that one.

Following up is more Final Fantasy, this time Dissidia for PSP. Again, CG only. There appears to be major characters from all the PS FF games mixing it up in this one. Squall Lionheart squares off with Sephiroth in the opening sequence, and later on Zidane from FFIX makes an appearance.

A short trailer for a new game called Third Birthday rolled out next, and certainly looked intriguing. A woman in a bride's dress walks the aisle alone while some kind of exposition is given via voice-over. I apologize that my Japanese isn't good enough to decipher it. What I did understand is that a shadowy figure appears in the doorway to the chapel and opens up on the place with a machine gun. Ms. Bride turns and pulls a pistol, firing a bullet past the wedding ring falling in the foreground. Instead of falling, however, Mr. Shooter is seen with another body in his arms. Finally, we see the wedding ring lying on the ground, slowly being surrounded by the spreading pool of blood. I've got no idea what was actually going, but this little teaser has me interested to say the least.

The next 10 minutes or so had me itching to go, as it was mobile game after mobile game, followed by an interminable length of Kingdom Hearts trailers. Many, many people love the Kingdom Hearts games. I'm not one of them.

It's good that I didn't split early, since S-E saved one last big bomb for the end, going by the name of Final Fantasy versus XIII, a PS3 exclusive. We see a young man riding in a car through a futuristic city decorated in a gothic style reminiscent of the Gotham City from Tim Burton's Batman film. Cut to a truly cool sequence wherein a young spiky-haired man (is there only one haircut in the protagonist repertoire?) walks nonchalantly down a flight of steps as soldiers open up with rifle fire. He's not worried, because he has the ability to summon translucent swords to block all the bullets. He then proceeds to summon a very solid sword with a crazy engine-looking attachment at the hilt to make short work of the troops. Another cut leads into several high-speed sword fights, and Mr. Sword running down the side of a building taking out more of those soldiers. What they're doing on the side of a building is beyond me, but interestingly enough we do get to see Mr. Sword run one soldier straight through, blood and all. That's something new for Final Fantasy, isn't it?

A co-worker wanted me to look up his friend at the Hudson booth, so I made my way over there next. No dice on the connection, but I did take the opportunity to check out Decasports, the major title for Wii that they're working on. It'll feature 10 different sports, featuring some unusual choices like curling and badminton. The latter was one of the three playable at the demo, and it was easy and fun. Much like Wii Sports tennis, you only need swing your racket with the Wiimote to bat the birdie back and forth. Also playable were archery and snowboardcross. Controls were very easy to use, and the graphics were clean and simple, although not so simple as Wii Sports by comparison. I'd say it's shaping up to be a fun little title, but I do worry about the depth of the content.

So by this point it was just about closing time. I had hoped to get some play time on one of the games Konami had on display, but it was simply not in the cards. To be honest, I was so disillusioned by the horrific line for MGS4 that I was almost beyond caring. It would have been nice to see what Silent Hill Zero looked like, I must say. I did get a good look at Metal Gear Online, though, and it's looking pretty fine indeed. There was a 6-on-6 team deathmatch going on, and it was running full tilt without a hitch. The characters sported a very high level of detail and animated very smoothly. The battle was taking place in a bombed out city, and there was plenty of eye candy to make the whole thing very immersive. It looks like the whole gamut of Metal Gear hardware is available, along with hand to hand combat and some kind of skill system as well. As I've stated in previous posts, I'm not one much for online gaming, but this one does look really great.

Finally, I stood around for 15 minutes or so watching the MGS4 trailers. This only made me even more disappointed that I couldn't play it. Looks like a ton of the characters from the previous games are making their final appearances, and looking damn fine doing it. Sigh.

Well then, that wraps up this year's Tokyo Game Show. Today's Big Winner was tough to choose, as Sony's impressive scale of playables impressed me, but Namco Bandai really won me over with Ace Combat 6. Special honorable mention goes out to Tecmo for getting me interested in a DS, and more importantly for their totally kick-ass dance shows. Haha! Today's Big Loser was Square-Enix, since the only thing I really wanted to see was some gameplay footage, and that's exactly what I didn't get, and not just FFXIII. I really want to complain about Konami as well, but it's really not fair to blame them for the insane popularity of the MGS4 demo. Doesn't make me any less upset about it, though.

In closing, I'd like to express my newfound (and very profound) respect for the professional gaming journalists who cover events like this. After two full days walking around, waiting, and writing, I'm thoroughly tired from head to toe. Still, it was a good, fun experience, and I thank you for taking the time to read my take on it. Man, this is long. I'll post a more personal perspective on the whole show later this week. Hope you'll check it out!

I arrived at 9:30am in the hopes of beating the crowds to score a ticket for Square-Enix's Closed Mega Theater show. No such luck, insofar as the former is concerned; the crowds were already massive. Once again, Japanese efficiency came through and we were ushered quickly into the hall for more gaming madness.

I immediately made a bee-line for S-E's booth, only to find what appeared to be the entire crowd outside crammed together looking for those same golden tickets. How did these people get there so fast? Anyway, I had heard and read about the scenes around the launch of the DS and PS3, and this was something akin to those events. In my five years in this country, this is the first I've witnessed that legendary Japanese placidity break down. There was pushing, shoving, screaming, elbowing, and at least one near-fistfight. Being the sneaky bastard I am, I used this distraction to weasel my way further up the line. Thusly was I able to score my place in that mysterious cylindrical citadel where they keep the Final Fantasy XIII.

After this small victory, I headed straight for Konami. I figured the same gods that led me on earlier would see me through to the mecca that is Metal Gear Solid 4. Fat. Chance. It took my brain a moment to register what the sign at the line said: "240 minutes from this point." 240 minutes. In case your math sucks, that's four full hours. This was barely 15 minutes after the doors to the show opened. Amazing. As it turns out, they quickly stopped letting people on line completely, and thus my hopes of getting hands on Snake's latest and last adventure were ground to dust. Woe is me.

Thankfully Namco Bandai was right across from Konami, and the prospect of their big name titles pulled me from my misery. The first thing I noticed was like many other developers displaying their wares, NB had a host of DS titles leading the charge. The only thing that jostled my general disinterest was the creepy-looking girly date sim called Duel Love. Not jostled in a good way, but in that "Am I watching a girl use the stylus to rub some video game dude's belly? Ye gods, I am!" kind of way. Needless to say I beat a hasty retreat to the other side where the console goodness lay.

I needed only wait five minutes to get my hands on Beautiful Katamari for Xbox 360, which could be the most aptly titled game of the show. I'm a Katamari Damacy fan, and the latest entry to the series really got me pining for more. Everything you love about Katamari is there, covered with sharp detail and crisp, colorful environments. Perhaps it was the level, or how long it'd been since I played Katamari, but the controls felt more responsive in this one. It looks like there's a bunch of new things to roll up, too.

After this, the traditional waiting began in earnest, although I only stood for 30 minutes to get on Ace Combat 6. Talk about clarity. Maybe it's because this was the first game that I'm genuinely excited about, but the graphics really struck me. The entire game has made a significant jump in visuals, not just the planes themselves. Other planes show off a lot more detail at range, and your target now shows up in a video window instead of just the name. Chatter from your wingmates also pop up in little video windows as well, although they aren't lip-synced at this point in time. The lighting effects are really outstanding, smoke and explosions are convincing, and there are tons of on-screen targets simultaneously. One odd point is that while ground objects look much better from a distance, should you close in (or crash, as many people did today) everything still looks flat and fake. Control is tight as can be, perhaps even too much so, as the playable craft was extremely responsive.

But by now my time had elapsed, so I turned around and had a 45 minute wait to get on Time Crisis 4 and the new GunCon controller. Lefties beware: it looks like the latest GunCon is a righty-only device. This could have impacted my gameplay experience significantly, as the one I used was grossly inaccurate. So much so that I couldn't even fire at enemies on the right side of the screen. I can only assume that it was either my lefty-ness, or better yet (for Namco Bandai) that the floor model had suffered too much wear and tear. New for the PS3 version on display this weekend was an FPS mode which used the pseudo-controller attached to the left side of the GunCon. You use the stick attached to the pseudo-controller to move around, and the one on the back of the gun itself to look while making your way through all-new stages in first person. It's an interesting addition, but definitely loses the cinematic duck-and-cover gameplay that makes Time Crisis what it is. The game itself looks about the same as the arcade version that has been out for some time now. Character models are pretty nicely modeled and move about convincingly. The environments don't hold up so well, becoming very pixelated and flat-looking up close. This is rather apparent in FPS mode, where you have a chance to look at things carefully. Another complaint I had was the firing rate for the standard pistol is much slower than in the arcades.

I sauntered over to the neighboring Tecmo booth afterwards, where the lineup of sexy girls doing a cabaret number certainly got my attention. It was hard to tear myself from the spectacle, but the line for Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword for DS (get it? Dragon Sword?) was moving along very quickly and before I knew it I was planted in front of one. This game uses the stylus exclusively for control, and much to my surprise it was not only intuitive, but also responsive and most importantly fun. Slide the stylus around and you move, draw lines across your enemies to slash them to ribbons or tap them rapidly to pepper them with shuriken. The coolest bit was using the ninpo magic attacks, which brought up a Sanskrit character you had to trace to unleash the sorcery. The major drawback was that while the character models looked and moved nicely, they highlighted the limited power of the DS. The big dragon boss character in the demo definitely looked rough around the edges. Still, although I'm really not interested in DS games in general, this one really got my attention. I should mention here that there was no Ninja Gaiden 2 on display, except for a short video which I only heard about. Shame, really.

I did, however, get a chance to hit the links again with Swing Away Golf 2. Things look and feel identical to the original game, but don't mistake this for a bad thing. Since we were only allowed to play one hole I can only assume there are all-new courses to play. Oh, I also noticed that as I was waiting on line for golf, there was yet another dance number going on on the main stage, but this time it was some kind of mass bikini madness. Tecmo rocks.

Lunch time found me running into a co-worker of mine, so I went on up to the second floor to meet his family. Why is this worth mentioning, you might ask? Well, my buddy's father-in-law happens to be Nobutaka Osada, chairman of Tecmo Wave. Yeah, chairman. Here's a picture, because I just have to tell everyone about this. Now to my understanding Tecmo Wave focuses mostly on the "amusement" side of their business, meaning game centers and arcade machines. Mr. Osada is still very much involved in everything Tecmo does, since he did co-found the company. Yeah, founded Tecmo. Anyway, I didn't want to grill the man too much, and he wasn't able to talk about much of what they have planned. He did however say that Tecmo has several new projects in addition to Ninja Gaiden 2 in the works, and that 2008 promises to be a big year.

After this exciting little encounter, it was time to head back down to the floor and get to Sony's enormous setup. Sadly yet unsurprisingly, the line for MGS4 was also cut off here. I did get some hands-on time with Little Big Planet after an hour wait, though. The demo level was the same one you may have seen if you downloaded it from the PlayStation store, so no surprises in store today, nor any chance to play around with the editor. That's not to say that actually getting my hands on one of these crazy little guys wasn't a fun time. My pants were charmed right off. Getting up close to see the game in action is a treat, as the detail in the textures is wonderful. More's the pity that it wasn't anything new. Oh well.

While I was waiting, I had a good close look at the Gran Turismo 5 display right behind me, and I must say that it looks unbelievable. Most people getting play time on it chose the driver's seat view, and with good reason. There's a staggering amount of detail in there, and especially noteworthy are the driver's hands. Although the driver still doesn't move to shift gears, they did react precisely to every input on the analog sticks, even flexing realistically while gripping the wheel.

So after Little Big Planet, I popped out standing in front of Guitar Hero 3: Legends of Rock, so naturally I had to get on that. Naturally the most important part of this game is the music, and the demo tunes didn't disappoint. Among the 15-odd available were Kiss' "Rock n' Roll All Nite," Living Colour's "Cult of Personality," The Rolling Stones' "Paint It Black," Foghat's "Slow Ride," and my choice for the day, Smashing Pumpkins' "Cherub Rock." I was disappointed to see Tenacious D on the playlist, since not only do I think that band is completely stupid, but they hardly qualify as "legends" by any standards. The new Les Paul controller feels nice, although I question the choice to only outline the fret buttons in color. Honestly, I think it only draws more attention to them. At any rate, the gameplay is the same goodness you're used to, with the more forgiving timing for hammer-ons and pull-offs from GH2. Standing in line, I had a chance to enjoy the upgrades to the rest of the game screen. The crowd looks a lot more lifelike now, as do the supporting band members. The drummer still looks too stiff for my tastes, but I suppose in the grand scheme of things, it's just a detail.

GH3 was sitting right next to Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, so naturally I stepped over two feet and got on line for that bad boy. Man, oh man, is this game sharp looking. The demo stage had my squad being airlifted onto a cargo ship in the middle of a rainstorm to take out some terrorists on board. The weather effects stand out in a big way, adding a lot of atmosphere to the action. I got dropped in armed with an MP5 and grenades, but there was the option to pick up a fallen targets' weapon to replace it, and there were at least two other guns to grab; a mini-Uzi, and an AK-47. The controls are silky smooth, and react quickly and accurately to every movement. Perhaps it's still a far cry from the keyboard and mouse combo, but until that kind of support makes its way to PS3, this will certainly do. Your squadmates are definitely more useful in this game than any of the other FPS games I've played, as I was shot full of holes rather quickly after foolishly ignoring them and rushing headlong into a firefight. Towards the end of the demo level, a massive explosion rocks the ship, and you're forced to race through the sinking hulk to make your escape. This bit really emphasizes the lighting and smoke effects. Things are flying around and exploding very convincingly as you scramble to get to your chopper. This game is definitely shaping up to be as exhilarating as the hype surrounding it.

Let me start by giving myself a little bit of congratulation, since today marks my third anniversary with my wonderful girlfriend. What I was doing at the Tokyo Game Show all day is irrelevant. I swear my girlfriend isn't angry about it. Anyway...

Yours truly braved the unreasonable heat of late September yet again, this time with an eye to sharing my take on the activity. This year, one day will definitely not suffice, so I'm making the long trek twice. This installment will cover the first hall, tomorrow the second. The third hall is really just food stalls and merchandise vendors, and I don't think anyone is terribly interested in that. I wrote this after being on my feet all day, so I beg you forgive me if I rant a bit here and there. It's long, but hey, the show's big! On to it, then!

There wasn't a cloud in the sky over Chiba (which of course is where most things called "Tokyo [something]" actually are) so the overweight sweaty hordes became even sweatier. On the upside, my generally sweaty self blended right in. It's times like these you can really appreciate Japanese efficiency, since the throng was rapidly sorted into columns that were quickly ushered into the blessedly air-conditioned hall. Giant purple gates beckoned the masses into the cavernous recesses of Makuhari Messe convention hall, proclaiming to the general public that the 2007 Tokyo Game Show was finally open to the public. Of course, it wasn't just sweaty geeks filling the hall; the usual complement of cosplayers (good and bad), scantily clad booth babes, and perverted cameramen with over-elaborate lighting rigs were everywhere as well. Those camera perverts really make me laugh. Do people like that show up at US and European conventions, too?

Whether it was by luck, bribe, or good planning, SNK is the first booth visible after entering, so I started my trek from there. 90% of their setup was devoted to retro-games like Samurai Spirits, King of Fighters '98, and World Heroes. The shirts reading "I [heart] Retro" didn't hurt, either. Now I haven't been much a fan of fighters apart from Tekken and Mortal Kombat, so ports and Wii Virtual Console downloads of fighters I haven't even played hardly entertained me. Heck, did anyone even play World Heroes? It begs the question whether there's even a market for Street Fighter 2 clones from the '90s. Apparently SNK thinks so. The only current gen game on display was the unreasonably long-titled King of Fighters: Maximum Impact Regulation A, running on PS2 and Xbox 360. There was an impressive number of playable characters on the roster, although I certainly didn't know any of them. Everything looked really sharp in the 360 version, although the colors on the actual character models looked kind of flat, and the animations seemed rather stilted. The PS2 version actually seemed to move more fluidly.

Sitting right next to SNK is Koei, sporting an enormous light display and TV screen showing videos from their lineup. Koei seems to have a thing for games with tons of on-screen characters, and I guess they know how to do it right. Shin Sangoku Musou 5 (Dynasty Warriors, for the US) was the big deal, followed closely by SSM: Katana, the Wii incarnation, both playable. If you're into Dynasty Warriors, then the latest will probably tickle your fancy. Kudos to Koei (ooh, an alliteration!) for putting as much detail into the figures as they did without any slowdown whatsoever. Everything looks really sharp, to boot, and it seems that you'll get a hefty assortment of characters and weapons like you're used to. I didn't wait the required 60 minutes to get my hands on it, though. Another mass-scale combat game called Bladestorm was also on display, looking very much like a medieval version of Dynasty Warriors. The only difference apart from cosmetics I could tell was in Bladestorm, you have the ability to command groups of your soldiers. Same stupid AI in both games, though. Somehow the idea of enemy soldiers milling about aimlessly while you charge your horse straight through their formation doesn't seem believable to me.

As I was wandering over to the Microsoft booth, a kooky FPS caught my eye at the Cykan booth, and I stopped to watch for a minute. Before I knew it, one of their clever staff members had roped me in to sitting down and playing it, and I must admit, it was a nice distraction. It's called Paperman, and it's an unusual style for this type of game, in that all the characters are 2D figures. Picture Parappa the Rapper and his pals running around with assault rifles and you get the gist of it. I took part in an 8-on-8 team deathmatch, and it was good fun. Pretty simple graphics, but I guess that's the point. In case you're looking for something off the beaten FPS path, this could be one to watch. It's also important to note that Cykan's booth babes were the hottest in the hall in their camouflage crop tops and hot pants. Yowza. Not only did one of said lovelies sit next to me and explain the controls, she also bequeathed me with a very nice Cykan neckstrap. All this and swag too!

Well then, the elaborate and surprisngly large Microsoft display beckoned, and I got in line to wait the 60 minutes for a chance at Halo 3. In the interim, I got by watching the promo video on the big screen. Mostly the same videos being shown by the respective studios (like Square-Enix's Last Remnant, or NamcoBandai's Ace Combat 6), but there were bits for Project Gotham Racing 4 and Viva Pinata Let's Party. The weather effects really stood out in PGR4, and I liked the motorcycles racing side-by-side with the cars. Also, I have no clue what Viva Pinata is about, but after seeing the insanity in the trailer, I want to check it out just to satisfy my curiosity. Anyway, before I knew it 60 minutes had elapsed, and almost to the minute was a 360 controller in my hands. Halo 3. They had 10 players linked up for deathmatch, and we got 10 minutes to blast each other apart. Let me just note that Halo launched back when I was still in the quasi-fanboy mentality, so my opinion of the series to this day remains skewed. The controls were very tight, the environments lush and colorful, the weapons easy to use. The map we were on was big enough without being too big, with varied terrain, and even affording enough space to run around with a couple of vehicles. Strangely enough, the thing that caught my attention most was how easy to read the HUD is. It's probably that remnant of bygone days that makes me wonder what the fuss is all about, though. I'm sure Halo 3 will sell a million copies, but frankly I was more impressed playing Gears of War back at my buddy's place in Jersey. Oh, I also want to mention that the Halo-themed 360 isn't nearly as ugly as it looks in pictures, but I'd still rather have a white one.

At this point I had started to overload on green and white, so I had to get away from Microsoft. Nearby was Marvelous Entertainment, home to No More Heroes for Wii, the next project from Suda 51, creator of Killer 7. Like Killer 7, No More Heroes positively reeks of style, this time around coming out looking like the bastard child of God Hand and Samurai Champloo. In the five-minute trailer video we see the protagonist, Travis Touchdown, use his lightsaber-looking sword to slash up innumerable enemies with over-the-top panache. The range of enemies shown was pretty wild, from generic thugs to ninja girls to laser-firing wrestlers. I caught some snippets of the dialogue over the general din, and it was pretty humorous stuff. Watching Travis drop a deuce before hitting the streets needed no audio, however. Obviously not the same dark experience we got from Killer 7. It doesn't look like the Wiimote is used to directly swing the sword around like you'd expect, but there is plenty of motion-sensing going on. I didn't spend nearly enough time here, so I hope to get a chance to play this game tomorrow.

Next stop, the Devil May Cry 4 booth. Oh sorry, it's the Capcom booth, but you wouldn't know that unless you walked halfway around the entire thing. Guess which title Capcom wants us to pay attention to? I hate DMC, so that's the end of that. What did really get me excited was We Love Golf! for Wii, which was playable, and I took the time to hit a few holes. We Love Golf! promises a realistic swing system, and it works pretty well. It works kind of like this: You wind up your shot like normal, and a ghost club marker shows you how much power you'll deliver from there. As you do so, the actual club follows along and when it meets your marker, begins the swing. Your job then is to swing when the club gets to the strike zone. Early or late swings result in hook or slice. I love golf games, so this take on the motion-sensing clicked with me. For power, more reliable than Wii Sports without being as easy as Swing Away Golf. Twisting your wrists will affect the ball as well, although it's harder to hit the ball square than it is to keep your wrists straight. At any rate, Capcom is producing this one with Camelot, whom golf fans will recall as being responsible for the other Mario Golf games on Nintendo's earlier consoles. The influence shows in the art style of the courses, which resemble some of those previous endeavors quite closely. So what about that other Capcom franchise? You know the one with the zombies and all? Yeah, I'd like to know as well. They had Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles up for play, but RE5 was nowhere to be found. Me sad. Double bad was the fact that they stopped admitting people to try the game out pretty early on, so I was forced to be a bystander. RE:UC looks really nice though, which goes to show that the Wii has some muscle in it. It's about on par with the RE1 remake or RE0. Personally, I think those games looked brilliant, and still hold up. Looks like there's gonna be shooting action closer to RE4 than the other entries, which I do like. Lots of interesting locales as well, as it seems you'll not only be back in the original mansion once again, but also the train which appeared in RE0 among other places. I could be wrong, but I think this one is on rails. Not much wrong with that though. Anyone who's enjoyed House of the Dead or Time Crisis will agree.

As the day started to grow late, I managed to find my way over to a little company called Square-Enix. You might have heard of them. This year, S-E rolled out not one, but two massive theaters to showcase their lineup. The Closed Mega Theater was just that; a completely enclosed mini-auditorium where I assume they showed off the real heavy hitting titles like Final Fantasy XIII. I say "assume" because you needed a ticket to get in there, and said tickets were long gone before I made it there. I also say that because FFXIII was not one of the many, many games previewed in the Open Mega Theater. I think the entire loop on the Open Mega Theater was about 30 minutes long, and somewhere in the neighborhood of 20 games were shown. S-E seems to have a lot of stake in DS titles, not only because of the number shown in the video, but also because about 60-70% of the booth was devoted to DS titles. I'm not a DS owner, hence S-E was a letdown. Not to say that the video was a total bust. The trailer for The Last Remnant looked exciting. The story looks to be pretty standard. Strange assailants fall down from sky and kidnap hero's sister. Hero unlocks mysterious power to combat invaders with ridiculously huge sword. I love S-E games, but these people desperately need to hire some new writers, at least for their global plotlines. The brief glimpses of gameplay footage showed big, detailed characters involved in massive brawls with some very cinematic camera action going on, and all in real-time. So I'm hoping that the action will make up for what is shaping up to be a very stale plotline. Several Dragon Quest and Star Ocean entries rounded out the major titles in the video, although only DQ9 for DS showed any gameplay footage at all. The video finished off with a short trailer for Infinite Undiscovery, a 360 title which looks to take a cue from the gameplay of FFXII. Where do they come up with some of these names? At any rate, I must get tickets for that closed theater tomorrow...stay tuned for that.

So after 8 hours at TGS exploring one hall, what's my take? First off, I spent way too much time at SNK and Koei looking at stuff I don't really care about. I need to parcel my time better. As for the games themselves, Microsoft is really putting the pressure on to boost sales in Japan. Whether it works or not is anyone's guess, but from what they've shown, there's a lot for them to work with. Capcom gets my Big Loser award for the no-show on RE5. S-E comes a close second for not having any playable big name games, and for making the footage of said games really hard to get to. Big Winner of the day goes to Marvelous Entertainment. Even though I didn't get my hands on No More Heroes, what I saw was more than slick enough to get me worked up about this title. I hope I find the time to get back to that booth tomorrow to play that bad boy.

Tomorrow promises to be a packed day, though. I've still got the massive Sony booth to wade through, along with other heavies like Konami and Tecmo. You'd better belive I'm not leaving without playing MGS4! On a final note, the last 30 minutes of the day are always amusing, as the booth babes line up in front of their respective displays, and the perverts snap away fiendishly. The strobing of flashes rivals the Academy Awards. It's amazing. Amazingly funny or amazingly sad, I don't know. But those booth babes sure are hot. Until tomorrow!

So it's only another week until TGS, and I'll be attending it for two days this year. Anyone interested in what Joe Average thinks of the show, keep an eye on my weblog here for my take on things. It oughta be a good one. With luck I'll beat some of the lines for the more high-profile demos.

Also, I just posted my review for Ace Combat X: Skies of Deception for PSP. It's interesting to see how sharply my opinion differed from the GameSpot review at points. Several things I thought were really weak were highlighted in the GS review. Just goes to show how different any given person will react to a game. For the record, I am a big fan of the Ace Combat series.