Japan’s single women can now take advantage of a companion in bed that does not snore nor make demands. It is an ultimate sleeping partner that is said to be being offered to them.

It is a comfort and reassuring to hold on to.

It is what they call The Boyfriend’s Arm Pillow, fashioned like a man’s upper body, but only with one well-built arm.

The pillow, which started selling in Japan in December only, has already been acquired by 1,000 singles.

The unique pillow that comes in blue, pink and green colors is manufactured by Kameo and is sold for about 8,500 Yen (£40, $80).

A customer, Junko Suzuki, said : “It makes me relaxed… I can hold the arm and feel something warm at my side”.

“It keeps holding me all the way through. I think this is great because this does not betray me,” she added. Ms. Susuki is separated from her husband.

Clover studio esagera nello stile. Continuando un pò la storia, ci si ritrova ben presto a dover risanare le campagne Shinsu ed affrontare quindi il primo breve “dungeon” del gioco, ed è molto interessante vedere come la normale linearità di un qualsiasi gioco d’avventura ( o come dir si voglia ) sia spezzata, per forza di cose, da una quantità interessante di piccole cose da fare.

Premesso che al termine del citato dungeon avremo finalmente il potere celestiale di far rinascere e rifiorire la natura grazie al nostro pennello, ci ritroveremo a poter piantare alberi, esorcizzare piccoli appezzamenti di terra maledetti al posto dei quali potranno apparire degli animali da sfamare o addirittura delle piccole costruzioni o ancora potremmo decidere di far fiorire degli alberelli di ciliegio tristemente “oscurati” dal male e riceverne i frutti come ricompensa ( nel vero senso della parola ). Ma proprio mentre siamo presi a ridare vita a tutti gli alberelli osservando le magnifiche animazioni in cell shading della loro fioritura, ci accorgiamo che, inconsciamente, abbiamo rivitalizzato tutta la zona e che appare uno scrigno di ricompensa per darci un frammento, che altro non è che uno dei pezzi di cui abbiamo bisogno per completare una riserva di energia. Per intederci, è come se avessimo trovato un quarto di portacuore in Zelda… Ah ! Una gradita ricompensa, sicuramente, oltre che un chiaro segnale di come bisogna affrontare il gioco, niente è lasciato al caso e dovremmo interagire con più soggetti possibili per trovare i bonus.

Detto questo, volevo giusto sprecare una riga per convincervi di quanto le ambientazioni siano belle, raramente si può rimanere incantati e gironzolare solo perchè l’ambiente circostante è fatto *così* bene. Veramente, è impressionante. Senza poi contare che noi giocatori aiuteremo attivamente a scoprire nuove aree, in un continuo trasformarsi delle istanze, ed il tutto per mano nostra. Ed è veramente inutile dire che lo faremo al ritmo di una soundtrack speciale, che per gli appassionati come me per la cultura giapponese… beh, è veramente un capolavoro. A questo proposito consiglio di fare un giro su Youtube e digitare “okami soundtrack” troverete sicuramente qualcosa per rifarvi le orecchie.

Senza dilungarmi ancora molto ( anche perchè parlo più di quanto gioco ), volevo solo linkarvi due figate al volo, che ho registrato ieri notte mentre giocavo. La prima è la cutscene della fioritura della campagna Shinsu che è assolutamente fenomenale, vedere per credere, mentre la seconda è un’altro kameo che ho incontrato durante il gioco e che coinvolge il Sensei Onigiri ( il quale a sua volta cita Viewtiful Joe con le sue movenze ).

Colapso neuronal. Esta sería una de las mejores escusas que un tío podría inventar en un mundo donde el pensar poco está premiado y el hacer lo contrario perseguido. No, no es broma. La entrada de hoy serán simplemente palabras unas al lado de otras, solo por rellenar, solo por no defraudar a esas pequeñas mentes que buscan en este blog un poco de refugio para perder su preciado tiempo. Yo hoy necesito una cama, unas horas de descanso pero cierro los ojos y no puedo dormir. No sé, este planteamiento me lleva a pensar que quizás padezco algo de trastorno del sueño o que simplemente soy raro. ¿Drogas? Es una opción pero claro depende que cuales pueden causar el efecto contrario y mantenerte en vela toda la santa noche. Así que me decido a leer o buscar algo de entrenamiento digital para ver si llega ese, de momento, inalcanzable momento de somnolencia pre-estado fase REM. Enchufo mi consola y empiezo a buscar entre los juegos que me han llegado a entrar en estado de somnolencia miro y tengo pocos, me deshice del Kameo, también del Sega SuperStar Tennis y sólo sobrevive el Fable 2, y sobrevive por que pertenece a una Saga, que si no directo a la basura.

Pero hay otros juegos de juzgado de guardia, algunos son juegos mediocres, otros son juegos del montón y otros son perfectos ejemplos de somníferos informáticos. Y como no tengo muchas más ganas de escribir pues se me cierran los ojos he pensado ayudaros, gracias a metacrític podeís ver los juegos que pueden ser perfectos para echar una cabezadita.

http://www.metacritic.com/games/xbox360/scores/

http://www.metacritic.com/games/ps3/scores/

http://www.metacritic.com/games/wii/scores/

Sobretodo aquellos que están por debajo del 65 son geniales cerrar los ojos, y no de dolor, si no de agotamiento.

http://dholl.deviantart.com/art/We-Get-You-When-You-Sleep-68885712

Buenas noches, Laocoont.

]]> http://homevideogames.wordpress.com/2009/10/01/kameo-elements-of-power-xbox-360/ Thu, 01 Oct 2009 14:00:13 +0000 yolandaspooner http://homevideogames.wordpress.com/2009/10/01/kameo-elements-of-power-xbox-360/

Kameo: Elements of Power (Xbox 360) Review

I am playing this for the second time. The soundtrack, storyline, character development and art direction are all amazing. It also takes a long time to finish it so it’s good value for money.

Feature

Overview
Kameo: Elements of Power, a larger-than life journey full of intense combat, magnificent exploration, and innovative morph-into-monster action.
Specifications
In a nutshell:
Playing as shape-shifter Kameo, your special skill is that once you’ve vanquished an enemy you can assume their form and use their special attacks at any time. This offers an ever-increasing arsenal of wittily designed beasts with which to complete your quest, as well as expanding varieties of combo to take on the tougher bosses.

The lowdown: Expansive action adventure with a pleasantly Zelda-esque feel about it, which features the usual set of neat little touches from developer Rare, as well as their trademark easy-to-use control interface. Despite the gradually upgradeable complexities of your various shapes’ attack and defence mechanisms this promises to be a joy to control throughout. Most exciting moment: Switching forms in the heat of battle makes for some hilarious and very effective combinations of various creatures’ skills. They also look fabulous in a comedy-monster sort of way. Since you ask: Originally slated to appear on the venerable Nintendo 64, Kameo’s development allegedly shifted first to Game Cube, then to Xbox and is finally seeing the light of day on Xbox 360. The path to gaming love never did run smooth. The bottom line: Amongst Xbox 360’s raft of shooting and driving launch titles, this is a breath of sweet, fresh air. Nick Gillett

Newcastle city centre, Saturday, 11.20pm. A tree, yesterday. Lazer-wielding creature from hell not impressed by skipping Her mum was right, she would catch her death.

*** Product Information Oct 01, 2009 08:00:12

Despite astonished remarks at the mention of this purchase, my own copy of Unreal Tournament 3 arrived this afternoon. I have yet to find time to play it, but have experienced some multiplayer action while at a friend’s house. This should hopefully provide me some much-needed experience in the first-person shooter genre of gaming.

Despite this purchase, any time I have spent gaming today is on creeping slowly through Kameo: Elements of Power, and pushing to try and complete the first level of Sonic the Hedgehog in under 35 seconds to get the achievement…

It looks like these challenges may take some time…

Kirsty Louise Watkinson
klwatkinson@mail.com

Game: Kameo: Elements of Power
Console: Xbox 360
Developer: Rare

When I first picked up the box in one of Preston’s two local Game stores, I was expecting the storyline to begin with a small village, full of fluffy pixies and surrounded by green fields.

On inserting the disk, I was shocked to be plunged into a heated battle around an enemy castle, chased down by greasy soldiers and small flaming nuisances, tumbling around tunnels as a golem-esque ball, fleeing into a giant throne room with captive family members and a giant troll king, who smashes down upon my poor character, forcing her into darkness…

Where she awakens… in a small village, full of fluffy pixies and surrounded by green fields…

Certainly, Kameo wasn’t the game I expected it to be when I first picked it up. The graphics may not be quite as polished as many other games exclusive to the console, but the transition between forms during combat is well executed, and the surroundings are still the perfect setting for the game.

Despite first impressions, the storyline is quite engaging, with a little mystery and some quirky side plots to keep you hooked. The quick-paced combat is also broken up with a variety of puzzling dilemas which encourage you to explore the limits and abilities of the various forms you acquire throughout the adventure.

In most places the music fits well to the atmosphere, with a stirring battle soundtrack in some areas to refelect the warzone your character finds herself plunged into once she leaves the safety of her home.

This may not be a game at the forefront of the market, but it can offer hours of light enjoyment once you get into it.

Kirsty Louise Watkinson
klwatkinson@mail.com

Tras terminarme hoy dicho juego, voy a hacer un breve análisis del mismo, un juego que no pierde un ápice de la magia de Rare y que es la primera apuesta de este estudio en la llamada nextgen.

El juego nos propone una historia simple, basada en el archiconocido mundo de desaveniencias entre trolls y elfos, con la originalidad, hasta cierto punto, de los guerreros elementales. Es decir, cuando tengamos el poder de uno de estos guerreros, podremos, en cualquier momento, convertirnos en el mismo para usar sus habilidades, de las que no podremos abusar, ya que contamos con una barra de poder que se recarga cada cierto tiempo. Pasemos a describir brevemente aspectos mas concretos del juego.

Gráficos

En este campo no destaca especialmente, ya que fue uno de los primeros de la actual generacion de consolas. Aunque cabe resaltar los buenisimos efectos de agua y mojado de los personajes, algo que incluso hoy sigue impresionando, y que ya incorporaban otros titulos de Rare como Starfox Adventures para NGC.

Sonido

Este apartado no pasa de correcto, no hay nada que destaque especialmente y las músicas pueden resultar repetitivas por momentos, aunque ayudan a la inmersión en el mundo de fantasía creado para la ocasión. También hay muy poca variedad de voces, que se repiten en zonas concretas (entrada a menús, etc), aunque como punto a favor, diré que para la mayoría de los textos narrados y de personajes, existe una voz doblada al castellano, aunque el doblaje deja bastante que desear; pero al menos se han tomado la molestia de hacerlo.

Jugabilidad

Este es, sin duda, el punto fuerte del juego. Durante el juego iremos liberando guerreros elementales que nos darán nuevas habilidades y tendremos que explorar el escenario de nuevo para encontrar nuevos caminos a desbloquear con nuestro nuevo amigo. En cada situacion deberemos utilizar las habilidades que necesitemos de entre las que poseen nuestros guerreros, lo que da algo de libertad a la hora de afrontar situaciones y enemigos. Ademas, consiguiendo los extras del juego (que no son pocos) conseguiremos nuevas habilidades y movimientos para nuestros guerreos elementales, lo que le da un toque de rol al juego y aumenta mucho las posibilidades del mismo.

En cuanto a la dificultad, está bastante ajustada. En el modo normal no es algo dificil hasta el final, pero sigue siendo facil. En el modo dificil, ya se complica algo mas, aunque por lo general se podria decir que es un juego facilon para todos los publicos.

Multijugador

El modo multijugador se ha implementado de la mejor forma posible según mi parecer, esto es, un modo cooperativo online, aunque para ello es necesario descargar una actualizacion gratuita a traves de Xbox live. No lo he probado, asi que no lo puedo analizar con mas profundidad.

Duración

La historia principal es mas bien corta, aunque si queremos conseguir todos los extras, nos llevara bastante más tiempo, ya que son muchos. Recordemos que los extras nos permiten conseguir nuevas habilidades para nuestros guerreros elementales, habilidades generales, etc.

Conclusión

Estamos ante un juego muy grande, tanto en los pequeños detalles, como en ambientación, el numero de extras, la magia que respira todo el titulo, la “magia Rare”, que le llame antes. Sin duda un juego recomendable para todos los seguidores de Rare y plataformas que busquen algo de originalidad.

Nombre: Kameo: Elements of Power
Estudio de desarrollo: Rare
Plataformas: Xbox 360
Nota final: 8.0

No to nadszedł czas na publikacje drugiego tekstu. Teraz wykaże się Syriusz. Myślę, że jego tekst powinien się Wam spodobać, bo wielu starszych graczy uwielbia Rare. Ok, bez przydługich wstępów, zapraszam.

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Zaczynając na wstępie, żeby nie było jakichkolwiek wątpliwości: nie jestem typem gracza, który w szafie ma po jednej konsoli z każdej generacji. Całe moje growe dzieciństwo opierało się na wizytach u kolegów, którzy mieli lepsze maszynki do grania, niż mój wysłużony Pegasus. I taki stan rzeczy trwałby nadal, gdyby nie zakup Xboxa 360 – wtedy to osoba, która do tej pory w domu grała tylko na PC, poznała naprawdę, co to znaczy mieć konsolę. Swoją drogą teraz nie potrafię kompletnie grać na komputerach osobistych i nie chodzi oto, że sterowanie inne, tylko po prostu ochoty jakoś brak, co owocuje tym, że Bioshock do tej pory leży na półce ukończony w połowie, ale nie o tym chciałem pisać… Otóż tak się złożyło, że razem z maszynką od Microsoftu w zestawie znalazłem dwie gry od Rare – nazwa trochę znajoma, ale za bardzo się cieszyłem nowym zakupem, żeby rozmyślać skąd kojarzę ten team…

Rare to ekipa z Wielkiej Brytanii, której pierwsza gra ukazała się w 1983 roku, czyli dość dawno.  W 2002 roku Microsoft wykupił zdolnego developera za sporą sumkę. Od tego momentu powstało wiele tytułów, które kojarzy się do dzisiaj i które doczekały się kontynuacji na białym pudełku giganta z Redmond. Mam na myśli chociażby Perfect Dark, Banjo-Kazooie, czy GoldenEye 007 o którym było głośno przy okazji portu na Xbox Live Arcade, który, gwoli ścisłości, nie ukazał się do dnia dzisiejszego i nic z tego raczej nie wyjdzie, chociaż wiele osób by tego chciało. O jednym z wymienionych przed chwilą tytułów będzie trochę niżej, a na razie wróćmy do moich małych wspomnień z zakupu konsoli: otóż, po podłączeniu tego wszystkiego do telewizora, logiczne jest to, że nikogo nie dopuściłem do późnych godzin nocnych, nawet „Fakty” nie miały szans, a w co się tak zagrywałem? Kolorowy świat, bohaterka, która potrafi sterować (tak na dobrą sprawę to się w nie zamieniała) wojownikami żywiołów, każdy miał inne moce – ktoś kojarzy? Mówię o Kameo: Elements of Power, które na samym początku tworzone było z myślą o małej kostce Nintendo, czyli GameCube. Gra była tytułem startowym dla Xboxa 360 i muszę przyznać, że coś w sobie miała. Drugą grę zlekceważyłem, bo widząc okładkę i znaczek „3+” stwierdziłem, że tytuł dla małych dzieci sprawdzę później i jaki to był ogromny błąd! Kolorowe stworzenia, z których wysypywały się cukierki, własny ogródek, nasionka, które trzeba podlewać – Viva Pinata to zdecydowanie tytuł podobny do The Sims, bo wszyscy je lubią, ale np. mężczyźni już tak chętnie do tego faktu się nie przyznają. Sam byłem zdziwiony, jak to może być takie dobre i wtedy wiedziałem już, że muszę sobie przypomnieć skąd znam Rare…

Odpowiedź była dość prosta – Banjo i Kazooie! Powoli coś w mojej głowie świtało, kiedyś widziałem to u znajomego, ale niestety nie było „dłuższego spotkania” z Misialem i jego przyjaciółką, więc gdy tylko nadarzyła się okazja do zagrania w najnowszą część: Banjo-Kazooie Nuts & Bolts od razu zgłosiłem się bez chwili zastanowienia. I tutaj dotarliśmy do sedna sprawy i kwestii, jaką chciałem poruszyć, gdy zaczynałem pisać ten tekst. W grze trochę się zmieniło, Rare postawiło na pojazdy i wielu fanów serii, lub ludzi, którzy w niejeden tytuł od tej ekipy grali, rzuciło hasłami: „to już nie to samo Rare, co kiedyś”, „ich gry obecnie są gorsze, niż dawniej” i w moich kilku słowach o Rare, mam zamiar stanąć po drugiej stronie barykady – nie jest gorzej, co więcej! Jest to jeden z lepszych teamów w obecnej generacji! Na samym początku warto zaznaczyć, że ich gry nie schodzą poniżej pewnego poziomu i nie przypominam sobie, żeby któryś ich tytuł miał średnią ocen niższą niż 70/100. Ktoś powie, że Bioshock graficznie miażdży i trudno się z tym nie zgodzić, ale wystarczy popatrzeć na wyróżnione pogrubioną czcionką tytuły i szybko wychodzi fakt, że ekipa z UK zawsze robi śliczne tytuły. Słyszałem głosy, że Kameo wcale takie ładne nie jest, ale chyba każdy przyzna, że gra ma swój urok, Viva Pinata jest tytułem ślicznym i nikt mi nie wmówi, że nie jest, zresztą podobnie sprawa ma się z Nuts & Bolts, które ogląda się z przyjemnością. Kolejnym argumentem „za” Rare jest to, że nie boją się nowych pomysłów,  przy okazji nie zapominają też o fanach. W obecnej generacji ryzyko to coś, czego twórcy unikają, jak ognia, a w najnowszym Banjo dostajemy pojazdy, które praktycznie są w każdym zadaniu i zajmują 80% gry. Dla tych, którym się taka formuła nie podoba ekipa wydała ponownie pierwszą część gry na Xbox Live Arcade, więc można by rzecz: „do wyboru, do koloru”.

I jako ostatni argument podam coś, co trochę nawiązuje do poprzedniego punktu i nowych pomysłów – mianowicie zmierzam do tego, że ekipa ta nie ma problemów z wykorzystaniem możliwości sprzętu, na którym pracuje. Developer ma do dyspozycji narzędzia związane z kamerką Live Vision i w drugiej części Pinat można odblokować bonusy za pomocą kart z kodem, a gdy Cliff i spółka dopiero w drugiej części Gears of War dało radę dorzucić opcję robienia fotek podczas gry, to Rare w Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts zrobili to od razu z możliwością nagrywania filmików, które można pokazać przyjacielowi z Xbox Live. Tak, screeny które dorzuciłem do tekstu są mojego autorstwa i jest to niebywale przydatna opcja, która moim zdaniem powinna być dostępna w każdej grze – i na tym koniec tego tekstu .

syriusz.b

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Blog Syriusza, do którego odwiedzenia serdecznie zapraszamy, znajdziecie tutaj.

Kameo: Elements of Power was one of the first Xbox 360 games to be released onto the console. It starts off with you as a fairy (Kameo) and you unlock elementals (who are sort of the sub characters – you gain more the further you go in the game) and what the game’s main objective is to save Kameo’s family who have been captured by an evil fairy. It has very good graphics, however, the story mode is sometimes frustrating, and the multiplayer is not very thrilling. If you want to buy this for just you, get it. For multiplayer, I’d avoid it.

It never really struck me as something I had to do before. Making a blog, that is. I suppose I just never grasped the concept of ‘blogging’ your happenings to the rest of the internet – it never made a whole lot of sense. I had used blog features on other sites occasionally to post certain things, like opinions on current events or perhaps a few of the traditional ‘here is a load of crap that happened to me recently’ blogs, but I was never really religious about it.

So here’s a start. I’m not really expecting many people to ‘follow’ this thing, I guess; certainly not in the same way subscribers may work on youtube or anything like that. I think my main reason for this right now is just so I have something I can look back on in however-many-months’ time. We’ll see if that changes as this goes on.

So, what to actually write about, then? Well, I suppose there’s a few things I can write up now, then I may update next week. Or tomorrow. Or an hour after I post this. Who knows?

I’ve been playing quite a few games recently. Just finished my third school break of the year, Spring Break as all you yanks out there may call it. Being the Rareware fanatic I am, I bought Kameo for the Xbox 360, as well as Grabbed by the Ghoulies. Now, Kameo is a pretty damn cool game, but I haven’t been able to get into it that much yet because of the sheer awesomeness that is Ghoulies. There’s a huge number of references to previous Rare titles within the game, as well as a hearty amount of traditional Rare humour, if you know what I mean. Little details that the little ones may not catch onto, like the character Fiddlesworth. Halfway through one of the chapters I find that the bloke has taken his nephew (named ‘Little Willy’, funnily enough) to the hospital for an ‘eye infection’. It’s stuff like this that makes me love Rare.

What else? I went on a shopping spree for a couple of old gamecube games. That’s one thing about me and games, that it’s very rare for me to actually get a game the year it is released. I often end up renting games and thinking highly of them, but never buying them. Or, buying them several years down the track. Anyway, this time, the two games on my list were Luigi’s Mansion and Zelda: Wind Waker. Luigi’s Mansion was a game, despite its extremely short length, which I have always wanted to finish but haven’t gotten around to doing. It’s finally in my collection, though… so I’m glad about that. Wind Waker was more or less something for my sister, who is a much larger Zelda fan than myself by the looks of it. I haven’t played it through too much yet, but she’s gotten roughly halfway in a couple of days, motivated to complete it since she had beaten Zelda: Phantom Hourglass beforehand. Funnily enough, Phantom Hourglass was actually a birthday present I received but I got bored of one particular temple you have to visit several times in the game. So I never finished it, but my sister did. And that’s saying something since the only other game she’s ever beaten was something with Hamtaro in the title.

Last thing I’ve been playing is the original Megaman. At the moment I’m playing on my PC since I don’t have a NES, but I’m trying to only use savestates on the menu screen to keep the authenticity of it all, I suppose. Don’t want to have to resort to cheating, no matter how tough it may get. And believe me, it’s getting tough. I got into games in the SNES era, so NES platformer difficulty is all something quite new to me. Megaman is one of the very few games I’ve actually enjoyed on the NES, aside from Super Mario Bros. Metroid and Zelda are just overshadowed by the way they’ve been perfected on the SNES. Anyway, I only got into Megaman after watching some videos of Megaman 9 on youtube. I loved the concept of going back to NES style design, but at the same time I had to wonder what I was missing out on. How can a game be at the top of everyone’s charts, and yet I haven’t even played it (let alone, beaten it) before? So I began. So far I’ve defeated three of the six bosses, and I haven’t spoiled Dr Wily’s hideout for myself yet so I’m not sure what to expect. But I’ll be sure to update when I finish, that’s for sure.

Oops, I believe I’ve posted a novel. Take this cookie if you’ve managed to read all of that – I know that future-me will definitely be struggling.

~Kowz

I should really make this a weekly column.  Material is so easy to come by.

Today, while reading Kotaku, I came across a post entitled “Rare: Shut Up, Kameo And PDZ Sold A Ton.”  Kotaku reference’s an interview posted on Videogamer.com in which Senior Software Engineer Nick Burton at Rare ironically expresses an issue with the game media and their perception and definition of hit games.  He says:

“One of the things that I always find funny is when people always quote Kameo and Perfect Dark Zero as being flops at the launch of the 360. In the industry if you break even you’re lucky, you’re in the minority. If you make a decent amount of money you’re really in the minority. You’re in the top percentile. Those two games made a lot of money. For the install base they sold phenomenally well. Kameo is still selling now.”

He makes a very good point.  This happens with the Wii all the time, but it’s not exclusive to Nintendo.  Remember the articles like Boom Blox a Bust at Retail?, which were based on first week sales of the game?  Six weeks later, it had sold 450,000 copies, to the gaming media’s complete and utter shock.  And you have games like Carnival Games whose weekly sales actually increased over time.

But the thing that really set me off was Kotaku’s response to the quote.  Rather than learn something from it, like maybe every game doesn’t have to sell 3.8 million copies the first week like Halo 3to be successful, Kotaku decides to make a snarky comment about the last sentence, about how Kameo still selling now.  Their pearl of gaming wisdom?

“Who the hellis still buying Kameo?”

Seriously, it’s comments like this that really make me wonder from what grade school they dug up some of these “gaming journalists.”  Who the hell bought Kameo nearly two years after launch?  Maybe it was some the 220,000 people that only just bought an Xbox 360 last month!  Not everyone bought a console at launch.  Not everybody wants to spend $50-$60 on a new title.  Kameo got a 79 metacritic score!  Is that bad?

The gaming press treat game quality as if how good a game is deteriorates over time.  I played through Resistance: Fall of Man last week for the first time, after the game became a Greatest Hits title on the PS3.  Was it supposed to not be a quality title anymore, because it was originally released at the end of 2006?  Did the 86 metacritic score it got in 2006 drop to a 35 now that it’s summer of 2008?

I’m sure that the intent of the comment, other than to be snarky and too cool, is to say that there are other better titles out now than when Kameo came out at launch.  Well not everyone gets review copies of games before they hit the store shelves.  Not everybody has the budget to buy the 6-8 good software titles that come out on average each month.  The gaming media has such a “this is nice, but what comes out next?” mentality.  Game companies don’t.  Greatest Hits programs wouldn’t exist if they did.  The gaming press thinks “Who would buy that old junk?”  Apparently, it’s the public at large.  There are even whole communities like Cheap Ass Gamer dedicated to finding good prices on all games, new and old.

Until gaming journalists start thinking like John Q Public, they will continue down the path of irrelevancy, even as the market trends towards the mainstream.

Najaaa… Nicht wirklich, eigentlich wollte ich euch nur auch darauf aufmerksam machen, dass ich gerade in diesem Moment einige DVDs und Games zu SPOTTPREISEN auf Ricardo verscherble. Wer also lust hat, und sich vielleicht irgendwas kaufen will, der schaut mal hier, auf meinem Profil vorbei.

… Und wer mir trotzdem einfach so irgendetwas spenden will, der darf gerne auf diesen Link hier klicken.

greeez vom Lappenlosen Pfoff

I got back Kameo from my friend on the sacrifice on falling on the bus possibly hurting my knee or ankle on the left leg x_x;.
Kameo suprised me again on how bright it is, but where it really suprised me is how easy it is to collect everything, and actually kind of fun. I especially like collecting is only for the calmer overworld stages and the action stages are just action no need to stop to search for random object #57.

I also love the point payout, I beat a boss get 100 points and in that same cutscene get another 20 points. I’m aiming for the strange 1000 points without completing the game, since a lot of the 0 pointers are….yeesh.

I did earn one 0 point achievement though and that was downloading the designs which actually was worth it. Changing the venus fly trap looking Pummel Weed boxing monster into Mumbo from Banjo Kazooie was the best suprise I could have asked for.

So for my three elemental monsters:Pummel Weed is a boxer who is my main fighter, Rubble reminds me of Rayman as hes a pile of rocks that throws himself everywhere, and Ash is some puff the magic angry dragon thingy. Also big props to Rare on the tree boss, easy as hell but had that massive Rareware feel from Donkey Kong 64.

Moving onto GTAIV, I’m 3 hours in with 7 missions done. I lost time yesterday dating michelle and going out with Roman. I suck badly at bowling, I’m decent at Qubed and could get that achievement today, great at pool and thanks to Lawl Pwned I own at Darts.
What I really suck at is strip clubs when I took Roman I accidently knifed a stripper, we then ran like hell from the place stole a car and were chased across the small toll bridge (the design on that bridge is so realistic and soooo awesome). We then had the car on fire, I jumped out got hit by a cab was flying through the air as the car blew up and shot me through the air like a rocket. Yea gotta work on that…

Also I can’t understand the Jamaican dude at all EVEN WITH SUBTITLES!

Moving onto Ms Pacman this game’s Round 21 achievement got me 3rd in the 30 day challenge I was in and just maybe have secured me the HTTK badge *crosses fingers*

Oh and is anyone else missing their motto badge despite the calculator saying you’ve had it for days?

I have finally broken the 10,000 gamerscore barrier that took a good 5 months! My brief opinion on Kameo is its beautiful, pretty hard, stages are really long and having an expansion for 0 point achievements is a big LOL. So I got all the achievements in Avatar but I didn’t finish it, I got through the first two stages though and I have a bit to say.

Avatar really suprised me in that it isn’t truly horrible at all (See Yaris). People rag on this game for its handout of 1000 points but in reality the answer is its a ps2 game that was forced to go 360, and the developers had a very short deadline so they didn’t go through coding in an entire game of achievements they simply made it simple to be done quickly to get the port out.

It plays like a platformer version of Devil May Cry for kids, it has some humor in its story, and the controls aren’t bad at all. Most people just wrote this off as the worst game ever that delivers 1000 points to you for popping it in. In reality it still sucks but its like a 60% game not a 0%. And no I’ve never even heard of this cartoon series so I’m not a fan.

#807 Aegis Wing [XBLA]
12th XBLA game finished
39th game finished in 2008

I’ve beaten normal countless times and insane twice now, even though I don’t have all 12 achievements I’m chalking this one up as beaten but just not 100%. Aegis Wing probably earns a lot of points being free, because it just wouldn’t be as good nor as populated if it were pay. The fact you can always find a game is a big plus in the fun factor. Other than that its sidescrolling space shmup hell…

#808 Bully:Scholarship Edition
8th 360 game finished
40th game finished in 2008
1000/1000 Achievement Points

WOW, I’m literally stunned that I got 100%. I can’t speak for what it was on release day but as it stands it only has a few minor graphical glitches that only horrible fanboys complain about. I never experienced slow down, or crashes. I did have occasions where saving took a while but thats it.
The game remains a Rockstar classic still ignored by most gamers, and porting an upgrade the same year as GTA4 did not help this title at all (nor did its supposed glitchy release I can’t speak for). Bully still earns a 95% from me.

Some tips for those wanting all 1000 achievement points
1.Save before you goto any class there is a save point in the principals lobby on the second floor. Waiting a whole week for some classes to come around again is a pain in the ass.

2.WALK until you get the marathon achievement (walk 100Km), then do skateboarding and then biking. You’ll be much happier

3.To get Over the Rainbow find the blonde bully in the parking lot

4.You get the lawn mowing achievement before you complete all the missions, so do the house mowing when that becomes available in chapter 4

5.Most guides ignore a clothing item you need for 100%, the prison suit where you must serve all 9 detentions (snow shoveling doesn’t count)

===
Its also time to stop trying for a high gamer % I think, Its currently gone up two percent to 54% but as soon as I earn an achievement in 3 games I have at 0 it’ll fall. Back to achievement hunting and gamerscore climbing for me.

Some comments on new games
New Rally X:Lord is this…not that awful and kind of fun and super easy
Ms Pac Man:I am struggling to eat 4 ghosts in 4 super pellets in a row.
Cloning Clyde:Seems easy, no points yet
Naruto Rise of a Ninja:Does anybody have any tips for the forest of death? These people are murderously good and it can’t be boosted like most multiplayer games
Avatar:Screw it, I’m getting my 1000 and sending it back
Kameo:Haven’t tried this yet

Igår och i förgår så handlade jag på en del, sådant som 360 spel, ny router, ny dator, nya minen, handkontroller, ny mus m.m.

Så vad var det jag köpte? Kan ta och börja med datorn:

En Acer Aspire 2920Z 12,1″ som har Windows Vista, tog och uppgradera minnet till 3gb (passa på nu när minen är så billiga). Vista ser än så länge riktigt lovande ut. Till datorn köpte jag en ny mus, fick bli en MX 518, och så köpte jag en extern hdd på 750gb med. Routern blev en D-Link DIR-635 Rangebooster Router.

När det gäller spel till min 360, så blev det:

• NHL 2k8
• Kameo
• Fight Night
• Perfect Dark
• Saint Row

och så blev det ett guld kort 12 månaders + 1 månad på köpet. Och till sist så var det och två handkontroller, en blå och en rosa som kostade 499kr tillsammans.

Just det, var med Danny och Jacko idag med som varje lördag … kanske borde skriva igår då jag är lite sen med bloggandet, men blev lite för mycket Fight Night efter att de stack. Lägger nog upp en bild på allt skit jag köpte i fredags sen när jag orkar.

With almost every new release, gamers far and wide are whining about game length. These people sulk and bitch that their games are becoming too short. Great gameplay – awesome presentation – memorable story – who cares, the whole thing friggin ends in 6 hours and 48 minutes! For the record, I urge our overanxious colleagues to look past this “problem.”

The way I see it, developers are charged with the task of hitting the consumer with an engaging concept, holding their attention for some time, an praying that the final product was enjoyable enough to do it all again. Games are supposed to be temporary escapes from reality – not everlasting grinds to satisfy some players’ OCD. I get the feeling that some kids game today with one eye on the screen, and the other on the clock.

Off the top of my head, here’s a quick list of recent “short” games that are every bit worth a player’s time an attention:

1) Kameo: Elements of Power – beautiful artistic design, simple but fun puzzles and clever boss battles make Kameo a great 8-10 hour romp.

2) God of War 1 and 2 – in my opinion, action-combat games should be *limited* to eight hours! SCEA serves up a pair of great button-mashers that will satisfy casual hack n slash (is this even a genre anymore?) fans.

3) Condemned: Criminal Origins – my brother and I blew through the majority of this game in a single day, screaming like little girls the whole way. Awesome first-person adventure that will really rattle your nerves.

On the other hand, here’s a quick list of games that actually suffer from being too long.

1) Assassin’s Creed – play it for 4 to 6 hours and you’ll swear its everything it was supposed to be when first introduced at E3 – but after the 12-hour mark, you may start to wish the story would just wrap up. (full review to follow)

2) The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess – I’m on the game’s second temple and logged 15 hours already – hey, its Zelda and I’m a big fan of Nintendo’s holy trinity, but 50 hours seems way too long for an action-adventure game.

3) Metroid Prime 2: Echoes – holy crap – just when you think its over, Samus is sent on a grueling key hunt! Artificial game lengthening is something you wouldn’t think Retro would do considering its groundbreaking 2001 Metroid entry.

I understand that people want to get the “most” for their money, but it seems like some gamers would rather sink $60 in a 25-hour grinding fetch-quest fest than a 9-hour action-packed adventure just because the former’s single player campaign might last a little longer. The whole “value” argument really doesn’t fly in any event. When I was growing up, I distinctly remember shelling out $75 in ones and fives for “Strider” on the Genesis. What was that game, like 2 hours? Don’t even get me started on Sonic and Streets of Rage, two classics that can be beaten in under an hour (if you’re good). Just have fun with your games, play what you think you will enjoy, and if you think it ends too quickly…play it again!

I did not realize that it was going to become a horrifyingly widespread problem at the time, but when I first saw that the snow in Perfect Dark Zero, along with pretty much every other surface imaginable, was as shiny as polished aluminum I knew something wasn’t quite right with this whole next-gen thing.

Oh well, it’s surely bound to get better, I thought. Pesky untrustworthy launch software and all that, you know.

Wrong.

Somehow, in the transition to this particular more powerful batch of gaming hardware, it seems artists have forgotten how to differentiate surface textures from one another.

Some of the best looking and best laying games yet released still suffer from this problem. Gears of War was drop-dead gorgeous, but that doesn’t change the fact that the entire world and everything in it looks like it was molded from particularly shiny plastic.

I’m certainly not going to argue that it’s an improvement over Perfect Dark Zero, but the problem is definitely still there, especially considering the game is supposed to look so broken and rusted and busted. Rusted and busted are not shiny.

Games like Bioshock do provide some hope for the future, as most surfaces in Rapture look relatively non-ridiculous. Many early screens of games coming in the future also look promising, but there are still plenty of offenders floating around out there. For every newer title that looks like it might get it right, there’s a ghost of Kameo reborn lurking in the shadows with a giant tub of all-purpose polishing cream dreaming of nothing more than turning a realistic situation into an action figure battle royal ripped straight from the pages of your shut-in childhood.

Halo 3 is another prominent offender in the “why the hell is everything in this game so shiny?” department. With Halo 3, however, you could admittedly almost get away with calling the decision an artistic design choice.

Almost.

The series has always kind of looked that way, though, even before the “next-gen” phenomenon kicked in. It’s a tough call, but in the end, it’s pretty much completely irrelevant because everything that isn’t supposed to be shiny still looks really stupid, intentional design choice or not.

I just can’t figure out who thinks this unnecessary layer of shine over everything actually looks good. Some things in the world are just meant to be dull, you know?

Like new installments in the Crash Bandicoot franchise. Yeah, it’s still going. I was amazed too.

Maybe someone smarter than me would know whether there’s a particular new graphical process or special effect that is causing things to look this way, but if there is that would just make things worse. Using a fancy new technical process in place of actually making your game look believable is not exactly what I’d call a sign of artistic greatness, so even if that is that case it wouldn’t improve the situation much.

I just don’t want to be able to see my reflection in the virtual snow anymore, is that so much to ask?

TormentX Loves his Kameo…

Time to dust off ‘Kameo‘ because the Powepack is now available on Marketplace for 400 points in all Xbox Live regions. You can get complete details on the Kameo Power Pack over at the official site. - From: MajorNelson.com

It is nice to have another reason to pull out this classic 360 launch title.  Expert mode, Rune Battle Vs. Mode, Time-Attack Co-op, and 15 new Achievments will most definatly put more hours of gameplay on your plate.  And if you do not already own this game, you can often find that it offered for discount prices at major retailers, so let there be no more excuses, pick up Kameo today!  Look at Torment’s face, that is the excited look you get when you play Kameo!