Will the 360 finally start to break through in Japan?

It's hard to tell... watching the Microsoft conference at TGS was on the low-key side of things. But that is to be expected in a country where Nintendo reigns supreme. It's just difficult to see how Halo 3 can be marketed in Japan with the same enthusiasm as it is stateside, with all of the branding and ridiculous marketing going on. Not to mention the radioactive orange soda.

Yet it was good to see game announcements for the system into the holidays (post-Halo) and generating some enthusiasm for new titles not shown much (or at all) at E3. Lost Odyssey is very much Final Fantasy, which is great... although I can hear the detractors now saying how LO is not "innovative" or that it is "derivative." Whatever. This title is perhaps Microsoft's best means to improving their install base in Japan--with an epic JRPG built by the founders of FF themselves. I am looking forward to it, personally.

But not before Mass Effect.

Symphony of the Night was a great game to go back and play--I missed it the first time around (for whatever reason) but it was fun playing through it on Live Arcade. I did not go all point-crazy but I spent enough time with it to really discover what made it such a great game.

Bioshock is waiting...