LANCOZA Blog

It seems that a few retailers can't keep to release dates. First there was the rumour about CNA breaking the Gears 2 release date. In addtion they want to charge R700 for it.

But they are not alone in ignoring release dates. Tycho over at Penny Arcade managed to snag his copies on Wednesday from his trusty 7 Eleven.

 You can read his blog for the details.

 All that really matters is that it's one more sleep until Gears 2 and I can't wait. I promised Zak that I would not break the seal on Gears until we play it on Saturday, a promise that I am finding very hard to keep.

It's going to be a Gears 2 weekend and I am going to play until my eyes bleed.  I even postponed my daughters vaccination, so I would feel really bad if she contracted a rare tropical disease over the weekend.

Tycho over at Penny Arcade has a knack for hitting the nail on the head.

I completely agree with his thoughts on the holiday season releases. You have to make a choice of your titles based on some vague mix of media hype and pre-release trailers.

Added to the mix is the fact that very few gamers have the budget to buy all the games that they would like to try out on release day.

In my uber short list of must have titles is Gears of War 2, followed closely by Call of Duty World at War. Call of Duty was really a complete outsider for me but with the news of co-op combined with the Zombie mode, it is looking much more attractive, despite the fact that Treyarch abused the franchise badly with Call of Duty 3.

Other games that look really promising are Dead Space as well as Mirror's Edge.

You may have heard about the controversy surrounding a song in Little Big Planet. The guys at Penny Arcade have weighed-in on the discussion in their unique style.

As with so many game-related 'controversies' the truth is far more boring than the media sensation.

The artist behind that song is a muslim who said that 'It's quite normal to play music and be inspired by the words of the Prophet Mohammed. It's my way to attract and inspire people towards Islam.'

Perhaps Sony should have gotten hold of all the facts before delaying the game.

When the marketing machine goes mad there really is only one response .

The release deluge is gearing up for the holiday season and though I agree with the sentiment I can't say that I'm a fan of the genre choice .

I have avoided delving too deeply into Dead Space. My first impression is that it may be like Doom 3 which would be a pity. I hope it's more like Event Horizon rather than anything else.

In giant robot news, there is a new Macross game for the PSP. And it's true that most Macross games have been dreadful, I still can't resist hoping that this one is different. The PSP controls do not lend themselves to quick response action games but then again they did a decent job with God of War, so maybe there is hope. The catch of course is that it's only available in Japan.

 

Penny Arcade has a few guest writers weighing in on the Digital Rights Management debate. As with so many debates that rage on the Internet, anonymity combined with a public forum leads to a mild form of psychosis. These writers bring some much needed sanity to the debate.

Bonus points to anyone who remembers which Star Wars game made use of the code wheel .

I played all the Ninja Gaidens that have been released. Starting with the Arcade version. I played it on the Xbox 1 and I have now played the latest installment on the Xbox 360. All the versions have one thing in common, they are damned hard .

The arcade version consumed my pocket money at an alarming rate and I soon learned to steer well clear of it. When I played the Xbox 1 version, I was less concerned about reaching the end of level bosses than I was with surviving the ordinary ninjas. This was no run of the mill hack and slash. If you did not plan your defense and attacks carefully you would soon be in Ninja heaven.

The end of level bosses were more punishment than enjoyment and I did not make it much past the first one, and not from lack of trying. My wife eventually banned me from playing because of the number of times I almost threw my controller at the screen.

Ninja Gaiden Black was released after Ninja Gaiden and was intended to relieve some of the punishment, with an easier difficulty level but I could never really get myself to select the Dog Ninja difficulty.

Being a Ninja fan, I was ever hopeful that Ninja Gaiden 2 would be different, and it is. You can save more frequently and receive a health top up at the same time. The health and weapon upgrades are available earlier in the game and the shuriken are more effective. Your charged weapon attacks are more devastating but one thing has not changed - the end of level bosses are insane.

Ninja Gaiden 2 is incrementally better than the previous versions, it is essentially the game that the earlier versions should have been. The changes are effective and the game play between bosses is great but they should have made the boss battles more sensible. Regardless of how well you play at some point you will have to revert to a wak through or risk breaking your console out of frustration.

Making it 2 player co-op a la the Arcade version would have helped. Ninja Gaiden 2 is better than it's predecessors but does not break any new ground.The end of level bosses are more migraine inducing frustration and this should have been changed.

A Blowbo what the hell...

The Penny Arcade news post also chats about Star Wars Force Unleashed. If you are a hardcore Star Wars fan it probably won't change your mind about the game.

The gist of the post is that Tycho seems quite ambivalent about the game. It has a great story but also has bugs and areas of weak game play.

I had a look at a few trailers recently and I was underwhelmed. I am a huge fan of the first Star Wars movie trilogy and was looking forward to this game, but now I am not so sure.

I need to find something to pass the time before Gears 2 lands.