It seems that the Unity engine is becoming quite popular. Unity Technologies, which is the company behind the development tools, has revealed that they have reached 750,000 registered developers and users. Last year, around this time, it was revealed that the user count was at 250,000 users. This is an increase of 500,000 users. A great increase in what seems to be a great game engine that is cost-effective (i.e. it is free for the basic model).
CEO David Helgason was ecstatic at the numbers in a statement he made,
“We’re amazed at how rapidly Unity continues to grow in popularity globallyThe continuing growth of the platform demonstrates that when provided with excellent tools, developers will embrace them in numbers that surpass anything anyone imagined.”
The Unity Web Player also saw an increase in installations. Last year, that number was 40 million. This year, it has doubled to more than 80 million. Unity is becoming a growing force in game technology and it seems that it is only going to get better for the company.
Chaos;Head Studio: Madhouse Studios Publisher: MADMAN / FUNimation Release Date: November 29, 2011 Price: $59.95 – Available Here
Overview:
Anime come from many different inspirations. There are those that were created originally, some that were adapted from a manga and even from visual novel games. Visual Novels are mostly only seen in Japan and focus on telling a story as the player reads through various conversations as if they were reading a book.
While most of these visual novels don’t see a whole lot of publicity outside of Japan, some accumulate quite a large following. One such visual novel is Chaos;Head which was developed by 5pb. and Nitroplus which was released originally in 2008 on the PC then was also adapted to the 360 console a year later. In-between those two years an anime was created for the visual novel and has now been brought over to North America courtesy of FUNimation. How does this visual novel translate to a twelve episode anime? Let’s find out.
Story:
The story of Chaos;Head follows a young man named Takumi Nishijo. He is a high school student at Suimei Academy, but there is something a bit odd about this man, and that is the fact that he resides in a shipping container on the roof of a building and barely ever leaves the container except for whenever he has to occasionally attend class. He is so much of a recluse that he actually created a chart of how many days he can miss and still pass.
To make things a bit more sad for Takumi, he has absolutely no interest in being involved with 3D women or even real life in general. Takumi does everything he can to avoid his younger sister Nanami and everyone at school except for one friend named Daisuke Misumi and spends nearly all his time playing PC games. This is only made worse by the fact that he has created an imaginary girl who is modeled after all of the anime figurines he has in his home/container. She can best be described as a cheerleader who constantly tries to perk him up and encourage him to keep up with his current hikikomori lifestyle.
However all of this changes quite quickly as he receives a strange message from someone named The General on the internet displaying a horrible murder scene of a man and a pink high school girl standing nearby. This murder is just another in a string of grotesque murders known as “New Generation Madness”, the only problem here is that the murder hasn’t happened yet. Trying to remain unfazed however, Takumi tries to go about his day normally closing himself off from the world. That is until he stumbles across that very murder scene the next day, seeing the same pink haired high school girl holding one of the murder weapons and staring at him.
After running away from the scene of the murder, Takumi goes to school the next day to discover that this pink haired girl is actually a member of his class who is also one of his longtime friends. The problem here is… he has absolutely no memory of who she is. As he tries to avoid the confusion around him, the police start to investigate the murders with him in their sights and a number of other female classmates who all seem to have quite unique personalities begin paying him a lot of attention. Can Tatumi discover the truth about the world around him while avoiding the police?
Well not really, because the story does an amazing job of being extremely confusing at times. The story can be very difficult to follow at times, because a lot of occurrences in the world of the anime aren’t visible to everyone, usually only to the girls themselves and Takumi and considering the way that Takumi already has been suffering from delusions before he even meets any of these strange girls. This makes it hard to tell whether he is actually seeing the secrets of the world that few know unfolding before him or if it is just one giant delusion his reclusive mind has created.
In fact the series jumps around so much that it would be difficult to even classify the genre that it would fall into. The first half of the series is more of a mystery thriller, while a massive information reveal halfway through the series marks the switching point of the series into one that is more about girls controlling Di-Swords and fighting against a conglomerate with bad intentions in mind for the world. To make things a bit more confusing, a number of plotholes are left wide open and not explained well enough to really make a lot of sense on their own. This can leave viewers with lots of questions after finishing the series, even if they watch the show multiple times trying to understand what was never explained.
Visuals:
Now seeing what studio worked on bringing Chaos;Head to anime fans everywhere, one would believe that the quality would be excellent throughout the entire series. However, it seems that Madhouse chose not to live up to their expectations and have delivered quite a few generic looking designs. Each of the characters in Chaos;Head are rather unique looking, but only from one another. In fact the various female characters all have the appearance of harem archetypes, with Takumi being the only one with noticeable differences from your standard main character.
To make matters worse, there are a number of times that the character design and the artwork as a whole take a dive in quality. While this may only happen every so often it is quite noticeable. There are a few redeeming elements however, for example the Di-Swords all look amazing, both when they are in non-boot form and are booted, this is especially true whenever they are used in combat which is unfortunately not very often. Another redeeming feature is that whenever Takumi has a delusion of his own the quality usually jumps up another level, though this is usually accompanied with some rather enjoyable fan service moments.
Audio:
For those eager to hear Chaos;Head in English you will be happy to know that FUNimation has provided a complete English dub for the series, but for those purists out there they have also retained the Japanese voice track for either comparison or for people to choose which one they want to listen to more. The voice actor who handles Ayase Kishimoto, Stephanie Sheh, has also done a great job with performing the inserted songs that the character performs. Out of the two I found the English voice cast better fitting with the characters, which is quite a surprise considering the fact, as a whole, Chaos;Head’s character archetypes fall heavily into harem-like characters but avoids it just barely with the amount of mystery and delusion involved.
Those who choose to listen to the Japanese language won’t find any issue with the subtitles either, as they are both easy to read and easy to understand. The opening song of the series is called “F.D.D.” and is performed by Kanako Itō which sounds well enough for an opening song but could be easily forgetabble. The ending song “Super Special” by Seira Kagami is actually quite a nice lighthearted tune and features mostly English lyrics with a few Japanese lines here and there, making it the superior between the OP and ED songs though some of the English lyrics sound a bit like Engrish.
Extras:
As is standard with a FUNimation release, Chaos;Head comes with both a clean version of the opening and ending songs. However as I mentioned earlier the ending song animation doesn’t benefit at all from having a clean version, in fact it is almost detrimental as the animation shrinks itself to the left of the screen to make way for where the credits should have been. Besides that there are also trailers for upcoming and past releases from FUNimation. Unfortunately there are no other on-disc bonuses which are a bit of a detriment to the release considering this is the complete series in one package with no extra bonuses whatsoever.
Overall:
While Chaos;Head may have quite a lineage behind itself, unfortunately the anime adaptation has quite a number of flaws that hold it back from being great. The quality of the animation as a whole dips too often for comfort despite high points whenever a Di-Sword is concerned and has quite a confusing storyline that jumps around too much and leaves multiple plot holes that can simply leave viewers wondering about multiple things.
If anything, the short number of episodes is a huge detriment to the title as it feels like most of the storyline was rushed and bunched together into an unfocused mess that doesn’t explore the potential that the series has with its plot. Still, FUNimation has done an amazing job with the dubwork and Chaos;Head is a unique enough anime it could warrant attention as there aren’t many series out there like it, if only things didn’t seem so rushed and underdeveloped.
It’s not every video game studio that can claim to have a new property with thousands of years of history penned by R.A. Salvatore, creatively helmed by former-Bethesda designer Ken Rolston, and visually created by the acclaimed artist Todd McFarlane. It’s also not every studio that can claim to truly create a deep RPG experience while maintaining an open world full of life and including a great, fluid combat system.
Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning has got some big names behind it, and from my short couple of hours with the game, I can safely say that it does also deliver in the design department. EA took a big chance in funding a new franchise among what seems like an endless stream of sequels, spinoffs, and remakes, and so far it seems that 38 Studios and Big Huge Games have more than converted the risk into reward.
At the outset of the game the player is quickly thrust into the world of Amalur via a cutscene which details the how a race of elves has spent the last decade converting from peaceful denizens of the universe, into an angry, mass-murdering mob under the leadership of a new king. The catch is, death doesn’t affect them, and though they’ve been held off for most of the past ten years, humans and friendly elves are losing numbers where the enemy seems to have infinite respawns.
Somewhere in that conflict, you die. Game over.
As your body is dragged to what is apparently a trash chute, you get to customize the race, appearance, and name of your dead character, and then it’s down the chute you go.
Queue you vigorously shaking off a pile of dead bodies and stepping onto the stone floor of an underground cavern. Turns out the trash chute was part of the Well of Souls, a machine that can bring back the dead, but you’re the only experiment that has succeeded thus far.
Now you may have noticed that it’s the beginning of an RPG and I wasn’t asked to choose a class. Rather, I played through an extended tutorial that led me through a siege on the Well of Souls. Throughout this experience, the game showcases stealth combat, magic, shields, and swords. You can sneak behind enemies with daggers, for instant stealth kills, or blast through them with fire and lightning, or simply run into a room, slashing at everything in sight, knowing your armour will protect you from the brunt of enemy attacks. You can map two weapons to your character, and you can easily switch between them mid-combat in order to wreak havoc in different ways, and your character’s magic abilities are mapped to the face buttons. This is no Dragon Age. There’s no pausing and selecting abilities, it’s quick and frantic, built around strategy and a fair bit of button mashing.
Being the cheeky person I am, I opted to go for a mix of all three play possibilities, as many games punish players who take the middle road. So upon exiting the tutorial, out stepped a stealthy elf daggers on his side, fire-staff ready to go, and all dressed in heavy armor, and, believe it or not, this strange hybrid worked exactly as I’d wanted. This was helped by the destinies system, which you are introduced to as you escape the Well of Souls.
The system essentially allows you to create your own class. You can put points into Finesse, Might, or Magic and each will unlock different bonuses. You can then unlock different fate cards which will also skew to one of those playstyles. However, you can mix and match as you please, and the fate-cards available to change depending on your Destiny selection. So if you like playing your way, the game’s completely supportive of that. And if you’re not happy, you can always visit a Fateweaver, who will refund your destinies for a bit of gold.
Now I’ve barely scratched the surface here. Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning is an open-world game, and playing it for a couple of hours is no way to do such a game justice. Aside from the main storyline, there are side-quests everywhere. It seems everyone in Amalur has got a problem, and most of the time, they’re fun problems to solve. On top of that, simply setting out and exploring can lead you to treasure troves in the wilds, as well as dungeons full of enemies and loot. The combat was fluid, and as my strangely equipped character flung electricity through the air, infiltrated bandit-ridden caverns, and became quite a smooth, persuasive talker, I felt like Amalur was really a world that I could see myself spending hours upon hours in.
This is complimented by an art-style which is almost a blend between realism and cartoon. Everything in the world buzzes with life, whether it’s fireflies flying up from grass, a plant shriveling as you harvest it, or the light streaming in from over a cliff. As I managed to get my hands on to both the PC and Xbox 360 versions of the game, I can absolutely confirm that the game looks markedly better on PC. Where the Xbox relies of the atmosphere created by the art-style to cover up some of its hitches, I couldn’t help but notice murky textures in quite a few of the locations. Such issues were non-existent on PC, but what was impressive were the fluid character animations which both versions maintained. If the game were to be judged on animation alone, it could pass off as God of War or Darksiders.
There was another cross-platform issue, though this time the problem was with the PC. The controls just feel so much better on Xbox, and though PC gamers can adjust keys as usual, there’s still something left to be desired from the mouse and keyboard.
So the verdict on which platform was best? Much like my hybrid character, I’d go for the mix: a high-end PC with an Xbox 360 controller plugged in was definitely the optimal experience.
Whichever way you play it, Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning is shaping up to be a massive RPG, complemented by a great art style and exciting combat mechanics. We’ll all have to wait for February 9th, 2012 to get our hands on the game, but I, for one, can’t wait to see more.
“I do not believe in forcing anyone to buy our game. If they do not want it and they pirated it, it means we did not have the right offer for them – maybe the price was too high and they will buy it later on a year or two after the release when it will be more affordable.” – CD Projekt CEO and Co-founder Marcin Iwinski (known for The Witcher 2 amongst many many others). I found this first a bit suprising that anyone so well known in the industry would utter these words despite the undeniable truth behind them, and secondly I think it raised an interesting and highly debatable topic regarding the differing retail price of video games across their various platforms and modes of sale. Speaking to PC Gamer recently, Iwinski shared his uber intelligent views (and no im not being sarcastic), regarding the use of DRM as an anti-piracy measure. More importantly though is that he seems to understand the very simple notion that 1 million pirated copies does not equal 1 million lost sales, something everyone else seems to forget.
In an nutshell, the use of DRM as an anti-piracy measure has proved time and time again to be absolutely useless when it comes to stopping pirates playing your game illegally, and also inconveniences, and in many cases reduces the functionality for legitimate users who purchased your game. Iwinski admits that pirates have always been his main competition, and rather than try and fight a losing battle, decided the best plan of action was to offer loyal customers something the pirates can’t; tangible extra content, a plan that has been met with much success. Soundtracks and walkthrough guides, making of DVD’s, stickers and figurines to name a few have all been used to boost the appeal of legally bought versions. As a rough estimate, Iwinski believes The Witcher 2 has been hit by at least 5 million pirates, but is careful not to relate this to lost sales. His calculations were suprisingly leniant and highly accurate, and even with such punishing figures still believes in putting money and time into finding ways to reward legal customers rather than wasting their time trying to punish pirates, which has little success. When asked about other forms of protection such as that used by Bohemia in Take on Helicopters, where pirated copies of the game slowly degraded, Iwinski, although positive was also realistic, stating “Ultimately it will (also) be cracked”.
When looking at piracy, Iwinski firmly believes that you can “convince almost any gamer to buy legal games if only you have the right offer for him/her. Piracy must be looked at on a cultural level, something Iwinski and his team have definiely not overlooked, carefully taking into consideration variables such as disposable income, and how games are traditonally consumed in that country or community. Using the Witcher 1 enhanced edition as an example, it shows that even a year after its initial release, by offering customers something else of value (most sold at around $40) and looking after them, they will support you. He goes so far as to say he is happy that so many pirates enjoyed the game so much that when they could afford it they decided to purchase a legal copy. Simply a mature approach to the issue of piracy, and one that most importantly will not inconvenience or exclude any loyal customers wishing to get the full experience from your games. There is however no real way of knowing how many people who actually had pirated it went on to purchase it legally.
This brings me onto my next topic of debate which is the enormously varying prices of retail games within bricks and mortar stores as well as online, and how much gamers really think they should be paying for those AAA titles. Marketers have always been using expensive price points to give the perception of quality, and I think its come the time when the majority of gamers can see through this thin veil of empty promises. As out wallets become as thin as some of the storylines and gameplay in many of todays popular franchises, many gamers are quite obviously seeking alternatives judging from recent studies into piracy through torrents. Many are turning to online stores, especially ebay where new releases can be found for up to half the price even on the day of release. Others still are delving into piracy, tired of paying premium dollar to help fund useless anti-piracy measures that usually detract from their own experience.
I understand the enormous amount of hard work and money that goes into bringing to market the games we spend so much of our time enjoying. The talents of the developers and everyone behind the scenes is uncomprhensible, yet I still cant justify the $100+ price tags asked of us gamers for a new AAA title. So I ask you all, what are your games worth to you, taking into account the amount of pleasure they give you in relation to the cost of your other forms of entertainment? Maybe I’m wrong and you all feel these prices are in line with what is on offer, but I honestly believe there is a price point way below the current being asked that would increase profits and reduce piracy. There are so many things that could be done but in reality any money you get for it from a pirate is money you otherewise wouldnt have ever seen.
I want to leave you all with a note on pirates and the categories they fall, from wealthy professionals with families to schoolkids with too much time and not enough money on their hands. I’ve been involved with gaming before the release of any consoles and I’ve seen companies fighting piracy with NO success for over 25 years. I’ve grown up with gamers that to this day have owned illegally pretty much everything ever released, yet also spend twice the amount of money on consoles, games and accessories than the average avid gamer. Any game they played through and enjoyed are purchased and left sealed, a tribute to the quality of the game and the development team alike. Any games they decide are not for them are deleted for no other reason then they have no further use, and nothing is lost or gained by either party involved. Yes you can hire games and check them out but thats still $10 lost on something you might not want. If you do decide you enjoy it and decide to purchase it, I cant remember a service that puts that $10 towards the game. What I guess I’m trying to say is there is no typical defintion of a pirate, they come from all walks of life and would encomplass many within your circle of family and friends to one extent or another.
There seems to be a massive cultural shift towards a very nonchalant attitude regarding online piracy, in unregulated markets such as Russia as well as in highly regulated Western countries. Those who arent able or willing to download material themselves are still ethically and morally fine with either purchasing it or receiving it from friends. Many of my friends have recently told me of these buses that turn up to their worksites but instead of selling food they are packed to the roof with pirated material at 70% of the price of the retailers. Saying that I also know that people download games as they simply dont have the money to buy them or dont want to, so really, there was no chance of your studio ever seeing any money from them regardless of how cheap the game is or whether they download it or not. This I would imagine is a very small group and as Irwinski notes not worth worrying about.
Piracy and those involved in reverse enginerring, circumventing and such related activities have and will always be a huge part of the gaming phenomena. For every $1 you put into fighting piracy, the commuinities behind these guys will produce $2. For every hour of manpower you put into developing a new security system they will find 2, even if it means hacking a 25 hour day somehow. Sony learnt this in two ways, firstly in their court case against Geohot whose entire bill was footed through donations from various groups and individuals worldwide, and secondly in the continued relentless attempts which seem to have gained more vigour as of late, to break the PS3 security yet again. Microsoft also have had a thorn in their side from day one, in the form of the infamous and exceptionally respected coder C4Eva, who to this day continues to find ways to remove any and all security settings Microsoft can implement on the 360 consoles and games. If you were a business that was consistently throwing money into a project that never gave results wouldnt you surely after over 20 years abandon it or get it right. Anyway, thats it, enough of a rant, but thumbs up to Marcin Iwinski for boldly going where no man has gone before, let the pirates do as they please, and spend the money rather on giving those who respect what you’ve made a little something more.
The famed wandering samurai Himura Kenshin is heading to the big screen in Japan. Instead of being an animation, it is going to be a live action film. The film is based on the manga created by the famed Nobuhiro Watsuki. However, which chapter or arc the movie is going to be based on is currently unknown.
The movie now has its first image. It shows actor Takeru Sato dressed as Himura Kenshin. He actually looks the part. He’s got the cold stare of the assassin Kenshin, although whether he will pull off the more positive Kenshin is yet to be seen. For the picture, it is at the bottom of the article.
Kenshin is not the only role that has been cast. JEFusion notes that other prominent roles have been given. Here is a list of those below, with the actor/actress on the left and the character on the right:
The film is currently in production and is being taken care of by Warner Bros. Japan, who also did the Death Note live action films. It is slated for a release on August 25, 2012.
So Mega Man Legends 3 got cancelled earlier this year, but Capcom have at least been busy in one form or another. Today it was announced that the famed company would be developing the first ever game based on the Sour Patch Kids, now known as “World Gone Sour”. Yes, you read that right. A full video game based on the candy that goes sweet after it’s sour is headed our way.
This platformer will put players in the role of a little jelly creature as he tries to find his way home by trekking throughout movie theaters, streets, and houses. If you thought this news couldn’t get anymore bizarre, Method Man has released a music video that apparently will be in some way affiliated with the game, featuring a small teaser of what’s to come. World Gone Sour is slated for the XBLA, PSN, and PC for $4.99 or 400 points.
Check out the music video for yourself below, and get ready to hear Mega Man fans let out yet another sigh.
The 1980’s classic Choplifter is finally coming back and in HD. Konami and inXile Entertainment are re-creating the game and making it available exclusively over Xbox Live Arcade. inXile Entertainment will also deliver Choplifter for the Playstation Network and PC.
Choplifter HD will offer a variety of experiences to the player. Over 30 missions are available to play through having realistic as well as fantasy features. From rescuing hostages in a military base to fending off a zombie infestation, Choplifter HD offers quite an interesting mix objectives.
Brian Fargo, president of inXile Entertainment, offers the following message:
Choplifter HD takes everything we loved about the classic Choplifter game and amps it up with more choppers, more weapons, more rescues, lots of zombies and more over-the-top explosions to appeal to today’s action-thirsty gamer.
Do you have what it takes to scream, “GET TO THE CHOPPA!”? Dare to risk your life for the sake of others? Take a gut check and watch the game trailer below.
It seems that Sony is quite confident in the Playstation Vita. Actually, confidence seems to be at a all-time high as Sony Europe boss Jim Ryan porclaiming that “We will beat that with Vita.” So what is “that?” Surprisingly enough, “that” happens to be the record of the biggest video game hardware launch in the United Kingdom. That record is held by the Playstation Portable and it stands at 185,000 units.
Speaking with Eurogamer, Ryan said, “We’re planning for a condition of success. Launch quantities will sell out – I think that’s looking pretty certain.” He also commented on the lackluster launch of the Nintendo 3DS, which was expected to beat the PSP numbers, but fell short, only selling 113,000 at launch. He specifically talks about the launch lineup,
“Looking at the competition, perhaps the launch line-up was not as strong as they’d have liked it to be. We have always had in our minds that we needed to have a great line-up at launch and we’re very pleased with how that’s panning out. I think it’s comfortably the strongest line-up we’ve had for any platform launch and I’ve been around since the year dot.”
How about that killer game at launch? Every launch lineup needs one. Ryan believes that there is one within the ranks and he identifies Uncharted: Golden Abyss as “looking very much in that category”. I tend to agree with him, but that shouldn’t take away the other first-party and third-party titles which will launch alongside the Playstation Vita on February 22 or February 23 if you live in Australia and New Zealand.
In 1997 Bandai released the popular Digimon Virtual Pet that spawned the anime Digimon: Digital Monsters. The series’ most popular season is arguably the first one and now it’s finally been given an English release on DVD splitting into two halves. The first half concluded at episode 27, with the evil Myotismon crossing the threshold from the digital world into the real world as he begins his assault on Earth. Now with a swifter, more action-packed start and a stronger focus on character development, it is clear that this really is the better half of the season. However many of the same flaws are still to be found, but if you were able to look past them and enjoyed Collection 1 then your simply going to fall in love with this second collection.
Ok so first up if you missed out on the first collection or are completely unaware of the Digimon plot, the tale is basically seven kids who get transported into a digital world, get their own talking digital monsters and have to fight a bunch of digital bad guys. Pretty straight forward stuff right? What works so well in this series is the dramatic focus on the emotional journey as well as the physical one, touching and various deep and meaningful issues that can is really impressive for a show aimed at such a young audience. These creatures that hang with the group (A.K.A Digidestined, try and keep up you digimoron!) can transform into bigger and badder digimon by digivolving as well. Basically, if you love the word digi, your going to love watching Digimon!
When we last left our heroes, the evil Myotismon and his army had begun their assault on Earth from the digital realm. With an faster paced start in a situation that seems almost hopeless, Collection 2 has a much more engaging and faster start than Collection 1. Furthermore, the very predictable ‘monster of the week’ pattern isn’t repeated as often, and when it does it’s a lot less obvious. To mix things up a little, an eighth digidestined is also introduced as well as a bunch of new enemies like The Dark Masters who are a lot more threatening as well. It is revealed that previous threats Devimon and Myotismon have been simply tests for the real digital threat, The Dark Masters of which the Digidestined have no chance against, and the only way they can hope to defeat the enemy is by searching within themselves and finding how to embrace their crests and digimon. This works as a very effective tool in giving the season a lot of surprisingly deep character development and really helps you appreciate the characters. The Collection continues to keep things exciting throughout however before kicking it off with an epic finale.
Collection 2 starts off strong and action-packed episodes filled with adrenaline, especially through episodes 35-39, and episode 40 ‘Enter The Dark Masters‘ providing a nice change of pace compared to the rest of the season. From there onwards, the show takes an interesting turn and begins to focus more so on more heart-felt episodes that are equally if not more engaging such as ‘Trash Day‘,’My Sister’s Keeper‘ and most importantly ‘The Crest of Friendship‘. Where Digimon does fall weak however is with episodes such as ‘The Ultimate Clash‘ and ‘The Fate of Two Worlds‘ where the writers try and explain the history of the digital world. As an audience member you can appreciate what the show is trying to do by giving it some depth, but it never really comes across as being as well-told as other aspects of the show.
While Digimon Collection 2 is filled with positives and improvements over the first collection, it isn’t flawless. Just like the first collection, many of the show’s flaws are simply because it was dubbed so poorly, and therefore is completely filled with plot holes that can really take away from the experience. In collection 1, characters Matt and T.K were established as half-brothers, but in this half of the season they are brothers by blood with the same parents. Furthermore, about half way through the show gets a narrator when it didn’t have a narrator previously before. There’s no explanation, nothing. While these are two major inconsistencies, tiny little jokes are thrown in for western audiences are throw in that are simply wrong by the show’s logic. For example, in one particular episode a whale-like Digimon, Whamon is subject of a punchline where Izzy corrects Tai in saying that a Whamon being a whale is a mammal not a fish. While this may of been thrown in for comedic or educational purposes, it’s not true-Whamon is a intelligent, talking, fighting digimon, not a whale. It seems all the major plot points that can disengage the audience are results of the dub aiming to be more americanised. While the intension of such may be to help draw the audience in, the inconsistency of the approach actually does the opposite and harms the show overall. While these are just minor flaws of the show, they do build up and there are a lot of them. That being said however, if you ignore the relationship of Matt and T.K being randomly changed and the odd inclusion of a narrator being added in mid-season randomly, there are a lot less plot holes in Collection 2, but that’s not saying much.
Visuals
Much what can be said about the graphics and audio of the first collection can be said here as well. The character designs are equally as impressive and filled with creativity. There still is a sense of inconsistency with Agumon and Garurumon being the only Digimon in the season to receive 3D animated transformations while the rest are stuck with 2D ones although this is easily overlooked. Unfortunately while in Collection 1 the constant re-use of stock footage of each Digimon’s primary attack and transformation. With now an eighth main Digimon in the main ensemble cast, this repeated stock footage gets really boring and repetitive very quickly, as even more digivolving and combat is involved in this season. While this all still looks great, it get’s really annoying that a good 15-25% of each episode is usually re-used stock footage and after 54 episodes it really easy to get sick of it.
Audio
Again, little has changed in terms of audio. Digimon: Digital Monsters still includes it’s kick-ass opening theme. The song Hey Digimon still sucks, feels out of place and is played at very inappropriate times as it is often played at high-adrelanline action/combat scenes and sounds like it’s played by The Wiggles. Needless to say it always ruins the mood of every scene it appears in, which happens in almost every episode. There is still an issue of some Digimon speaking without properlly moving voices, and some Digimon have bizarre voices that don’t suit them, such as MetalSeadramon. The worst offender is a hugely important one; half way through a narrator randomly starts narrating the story. Yeah that’s right-after spending about 30+ episodes with a narrator randomly there is one. It’s a major issue of inconsistency and it makes no sense at all. While this doesn’t take away from the experience, it’s still really, really stupid. Again, no Japanese dub is included, and only the English dub is available, but this time around Japanese openings and closings are included under special features, so that’s nice to be included.
Overall
Digimon Collection 2 is easily the better half of the first Digimon season thanks to a less predictable and repeated storyline with faster pacing, as well as including many more exciting plot points. That being said however, there is much more use of stock footage that is constantly being reused which can get frustrating to watch, and there are odd inconsistencies with the story such as Matt and T.K’s relationship and the switch in narration style mid-season. Regardless, if your a true Digimon fan this will not bother you one bit, and fans of the franchise will truly love it. If your not a fan but would like to check out Digimon, Collection 2 may arguably be the best DVD available along side the original movie and definitely worth checking out. Just try and overlook some minor issues to enjoy the anime to it’s fullest.
With Sony revealing the UMD Passport last month, which particular games that would be supported was on the minds of PSP owners everywhere. Sony revealed that 262 games would be supported at the launch of the program, which will be a couple of weeks before the launch of the Playstation Vita.
So, any particular games on that list that would interest anyone? Well, Sony’s first party titles, such as Patapon, Locoroco and God of War have made the list. The Persona games will also be supported from the get-go, alongside Disgaea, Harvest Moon, Dynasty Warriors and even Metal Slug XX. However, the Playstation Store in Japan boasts 606 PSP games, so it isn’t exactly half the store.
Also noticeable are games from the bigger publishers. Although Sony did reveal that these company did support the program, Square Enix, Namco Bandai, Konami and Capcom do not have any games on the list. It does not mean they won’t support it, but don’t expect Monster Hunter, Metal Gear Solid and Dissidia on the list when the service launches on December 7. There is no word on whether this program will be launched in the West.
For the full list, click on the following links: 1-100, 101-200, 201-262. Pages have been translated into English.
