Kokoro Scan

It's a trailer for one of the "training" games for the DS in Japan. Make sure you watch the entire thing; it's very "WTF".

It is weird as hell, but I cannot stop watching it for the life of me. It's a compulsion. I wish strange stuff like this would show up in the U.S.

You've gotta love Japan.:D

***Just to let some of you know why I haven't commented on your blogs in a couple of days, I was out in Seattle, Washington for a few days. I travel a lot and will many times run into other plans with friends or family, so if I go a few days without showing up, that's what's up. ;)

If you look at the blog post below this one, you'll understand why this was such a silly move!

In other words, I bought a 360, sold a 360, then....bought a 360.

Well, all I will say is....I couldn't be happier!

...the Xbox ship, that is.That is because I am selling my Xbox 360, all my controllers/accessories, and games.

Most would think of this as a silly move in lieu of the holiday season approaching, but alas, I wll be replacing the white matte box with a shiny black one: PlayStation 3.

The PS3 price-drop comes at the perfect time. You see, I have realized that the PlayStation 3 is actually cheaper than the Xbox 360. Let me explain:For $400, you can buy an Xbox 360. Yet, for $100 more, you can get a PS3 with an extra 40GB of HDD space, free online play, free WiFi, and Blu-ray.Also, if you intend on having an Xbox Live Gold account on your 360 for two years, then that's already $100 in online costs ($50 per year). Add that $100 in online to the $400 cost of the system, and you've already reached the PS3's pricepoint. If you intend on owning an Xbox Live Gold account for more than 2 years (which most 360 owners do) then the cost of your Xbox 360 suddenly becomes more than that of the PlayStation 3. And that comes without the little extras (such as WiFi, Blu-ray, etc.) that I listed above.

Besides cost, another reason the PS3 has won me over is over the sheer amount of freedom allowed with their console. On Xbox 360, if I want a bigger HDD, I need to buy Microsoft's licensed HDD. If I want a new headset, I need to buy their licensed headset. If I want some additional minor content to a game, I need to pay to do so. With PS3, if I want a larger HDD, I can just buy a bigger one of my choice for cheap. If I want a new headset, I can order any Bluetooth headset I want. If I want to download some fun mods made on the PC, as is the case with Unreal Tournament 3, I can do so for free. It allows for much more freedom and flexibility for what I can do, which I love.

But, and you've heard it many times before, it always comes down to the games, and this is the part where I personally feel the PS3 wins. With games such as Rachet & Clank, Lair, Warhawk, and, my most anticipated of all, LittleBigPlanet coming, among others, PS3 for me wins hands-down. Sony has some of the most innovative and talented developers. Other than that, PS3 is the system I see still churning out great content 6,7,8 and more years down the line. Paying $500 for a 10-year console is an enormours value.

Now I need to hurry and pick up one of the Emotion Engine models. I'm still playing lots of PS2 games!

I finally got around to creating a banner for my blog, which I now I have displayed above. It is my first attempt at creating a banner, and for a first attempt, I am pretty happy with the result.

I used the banner to display one of my favorite game franchises: Metroid. The only thing about the banner that I am upset about is how the "uno" is hard to distinguish against the light background. I've experimented with other colors such as various shades of reds, but, while they are easier to distinguish, they don't match the rest of the banner well at all. Nevertheless, I think it looks fine.

What do you guys think? Any feedback at all is much appreciated and will go a long way in helping me create a new banner (or editing this one) in the future.:)

Note: I am a huge Nintendo fan. I made this post due to my great love and appreciation for Nintendo and the games they make.

This is something that's been on my mind for quite a while, and now seems to be an appropriate time to express these thoughts:

We've all seen what a great job Nintendo is doing of capturing the casual/non-gaming market with the DS and Wii. However, the newfound success Nintendo has had with this new market has some, including me, worried that Nintendo may be slowly giving up on the hardcore gamer.

And why shouldn't they? There's no doubt that the Zeldas and Metroids pull in a very good stream of profit for Nintendo, but Nintendo can also develop these casual games more quickly and cheaper, and sell it to a market many times larger than the established gamer market.

Nintendo is arguably doing a great job attracting the hardcore gamer to Wii this year with games such as Metroid Prime 3, Smash Bros. Brawl, Battalion Wars, Mario Galaxy, etc. But what about beyond that?

While there is certainly something to be said for how fun these casual games are, I personally think that Nintendo may start to lessen the first-party development of these more "hardcore" games. They obviously haven't let up yet on the hardcore gamer, as is apparent with this year's release schedule, but as Nintendo becomes more and more successful in the casual market, I think they may feel less of a need for the hardcore market, which frightens me greatly, seeing as how Nintendo has far and away made some of my favorite games of all time.

Some of this shift in movement can already be seen. Despite shipping with an awesome controller, Nintendo decided to underpower it's next generation console. Their online system is sacrificing robustness for ease of use. Advertising and development resources are being shifted at attracting soccer moms and senior citizens rather than already established gamers. Miyamoto no longer works so intensely on the next Zelda epic and instead is busy crafting the next Wii Sports or Nintendogs.

What about you, fellow GameSpot members? Do you think that Nintendo will slowly begin to cater less to the hardcore market as their success with the casual market increases? Does this prospect frighten you? I'm interested to hear your takes on this matter, so please share. :)

(Disclaimer: This is one of those tangent blogs where I go on about something completely unrelated to videogames. I'm not sure how long this will be, or what exactly I will write, but it is something I really want to get out and share.)

 

It's easy to get distracted in today's world, with busy schedules, work, schooling, new gadgets, games, etc. It affects us all. However, it's important that when we become too distracted, we take a step back and re-center ourselves. Such a thing happened to me the other day.

 

Weather in Alaska is improving greatly as we return from our winter slum. Everyone has been getting out and enjoying the 60 degree weather, which will only get warmer in the weeks ahead. As such, I was enjoying the weather and have decided to take up running. Nothing competitive, but just something to do to get some exercise and have fun. As I am running alone along a well-known trail in my city, which takes runners and bikers away from the city and into the woods and mountains, I look around at my surroundings. It is a sight that is nothing short of pure beauty. A sharp blue hue blankets the sky above without a single cloud in sight. Looking up, I see massive mountains towering over me on either side, with sharp cliffs and long-running waterfalls draining the season's snow. Their sheer size dwarfs me and gives me a real sense of how humans, no matter how powerful, can never compete with Mother Nature. I then observe two bald eagles perched on a treetop above a river. All of this I take in to create a perfect setting.

 

It's weird: I've lived here for many years, yet every time I go out and explore places like this, I always take in something new. It was a great experience. Today, we are not always easily impressed. Yet, by taking a step back to observe and appreciate the simple beauties and pleasures of life, we can change that mindset, and it can make all the difference.

I have owned and enjoyed my Xbox 360 since I first got it in September 2006. I currently have six games for the system (along with several Live Arcade games) and I've escaped these last seven months with relative ease.

Yet still, I can't seem to shake the notion that my Xbox 360 is something of a time-bomb; a failure waiting to happen. With the numerous reports of hardware failures, it's been a bit difficult to come by a 360 owner who isn't on their 2nd, 3rd, or even 4th system. My system has worked farily well (minus the occasional freeze-up) since I first got it, but all of these reports of hardware failures have me at unease. I feel like my 360 will inevitably show me the "3 red lights of death", and it's just a matter of when. Because of this fear in my system's failure, I have become reluctant to spend any time/money on the system. I don't want to waste either time or money on a system that will end up failing me.

So here I am, paranoid and frightened at what may become of my $400+Assessories+Games investment. Against such looming odds, I'm finding it harder and harder to spend time with my 360.

Oh, and before anyone recommends getting an extended warrenty, I've been there and done that ;). I have had the worst luck with warrenties in the past, and after hearing of all the horror stories about Microsoft's customer support, I'd much rather just own a console that will last me forever without much trouble.

Are any of you in the same boat as me, or am I just paranoid?:lol:

Despite the miniscule-to-none graphical differences we have seen in PlayStation 3 games versus Xbox 360 games thus far, it is a widely accepted fact that the PlayStation 3 is in general a more powerful system (although how much more powerful is up to debate). The general concencus seems to be that the 360 is easier to develop for than the PS3, but once you learn how to develop for the PS3, you can get more out of the machine.

Obviously, if the PlayStation 3 is more powerful than the Xbox 360, then developers will take the time to make their cross-platform games look better on the PS3, right? Well, not necessarily, and it's an issue that could factor into Sony's dominance of the console market in the long run.

But look at it from the developers' point of view: Why should the developer spend the extra time and cash making the PS3 version of a game look better and take better advantage of the hardware, when the developer can just port over the 360 build? Now sure, they'll probably make minor tweaks here and there to make the PS3 version have a more "polished" look to it, but when development costs are reaching the tens of millions of dollars, it really doesn't pay off for the developer to make the PS3 version of a game look better than its 360 counterpart, especially when the PS3 has only a fraction of the install base of the 360 (although the install base of the PS3 versus the 360 may change over time).

Keep in mind I am only talking about cross-platform games here; obviously PS3 exclusives and first-party titles will be sure to take full advantage of the system, as can be seen in games such as Motorstorm and Metal Gear Solid 4. But for third-party's, does it really pay off for them to make the PS3 version stand-out graphics-wise or content-wise? I guess we will have to wait and see in the coming months and years ahead.

Hey everyone,

So I've had an utter lack of updates to my blog in the last few weeks. While school and travel (and the occasional game :)) have been occupying the majority of my time, the good news is that the busy time of year (i.e. School Finals, Projects) has come to an end. A violent and ruthless end not unlike the way Kratos would rip apart a Spartan, resulting in a slew of good grades.

Which segues into my newest videogame love: God of War. I picked this, title up a few weeks ago, but I never really started it until a couple of nights ago. I've played the game for a couple of hours, and I simply cannot get enough of it! How did I miss out on this lil' gem for so long? Good news is that when I finish the game, I have God of War II to look forward to. Heck, if David Jaffe and his team can push this much power out of the PlayStation 2, I can only imagine what they will be able to do on the PlayStation 3 in the inevitable God of War III.

That's it for me. I'm going to be adding a banner to the top of my blog, but I'm not sure what it will look like yet. Any artists out there have any tips?

Well, thanks for reading this. I've been absent for a while, but I've got a ton of topics in my head that I can't wait to write about! :)

Hey guys,

I took what may have been a much needed break from the site and my blog. No worries though; everything is fine now, and I'm excited to do more regular updates to my blog!

I've just accepted that not all reviews and opinions on this (or any other) site will match mine. That's why it is important to look at multiple review sites when looking at a game's review.

I'm sorry to anyone who felt I came off as a bit of a jackass in my last post (which I've deleted). I realize that my post may have come off that way, and to be honest I'm a little embarrassed now! It happens to everyone, right?

Anyways, I cetainly never put you guys off when I left for a couple of weeks. I read all of your blogs, and all of you have been great talking too.

I'm looking forward to gaming with you all this upcoming year! :)