Hotel Dusk: Room 215 is one of my favourite games on the Nintendo DS, it’s up there with the entire Ace Attorney series by Capcom which I also hold in extremely high respect. However, unlike Capcom, Cing is a developer with very few games under its belt. A PS2 game, a few Japan-only mobile phone games, a few DS games and a couple of Wii games. Quality over quantity is the way Cing operates, and their recent games on the DS and Wii were all very well made, quality games.

Of course, even if the games are brilliant, it’s not necessarily going to ensure that a developer will find success. As gamers, we all know very well how there are some games that seem to catch on and others that, while excellent, seem to be swept under the rug by most. I feel that this has happened to practically every game Cing has ever released, but at the same time it’s not surprising at all.

Despite Nintendo’s on and off support over the last few years, Cing hasn’t really seen much exposure for their games. The first game I ever played from them was Another Code: Two Memories (known as Trace Memory in North America). Cing was one of the first developers to release anything significant on the DS with Another Code. Its use of the touch screen, built-in microphone and even (and brilliantly) the clam shell design of the Nintendo DS itself were used in the various puzzles found in the game. It may have been a very short game, but Another Code left a great impression with me with the level of ingenuity Cing used to make the game. It’s very lucky for Cing that Nintendo promoted Another Code at E3, otherwise I probably wouldn’t have been aware of the game at all.

When Hotel Dusk was announced, I immediately paid attention to it because of Another Code. I knew that it was something I shouldn’t ignore and when it was finally released, I bought it on day 1 and played it all the way through in one go, forsaking all other games I may have been playing at the time. As I said before, I love Hotel Dusk… and I made it my mission to tell people all about the game. I told anyone I knew who owned a DS about Hotel Dusk and even convinced a couple of people to buy the game even though they had heard nothing of it before I came along.

Nintendo always made sure to mention Cing’s games at various conferences, most prominently at E3 when showing off upcoming DS and Wii games. Another Code: R – A Journey into Lost Memories was another title that Nintendo had shown off as one of the key titles being released on Wii. Despite this show of support, Another Code: R was only released in Japan and Europe, with no release in North America, Australia or any other region… luckily for me though, it seems that UK games are actually playable on Australian Wii, so I’ve actually bought myself a copy of the game off of eBay which should be arriving this week. On the other hand, anyone in North America who was hoping to get their hands on the game will be sorely disappointed. I wrote an entry about this a few months back… it was one of the games that just wasn’t given a chance.

The sequel to Hotel Dusk, Last Window: Midnight Promise was recently released in Japan back in January and, at this point, is still set for a localisation and release in North America… I really hope that goes through because I know what Cing is capable of and from what I’ve heard and seen of the game in its Japanese form, it’s said to be just as well made as the first.

Cing is a very small developer and relies heavily on other companies to do all the big advertising. Unfortunately you don’t get much of that with their games. Most people out there don’t even know what Another Code, Hotel Dusk and Little King’s Story are or why they’re so damn good… hell, I don’t even know why Little King’s Story is good, but from what I’ve been hearing from people who have actually bought and played the game, it’s meant to be a gem that people aren’t taking notice of… kinda reminds me of how a lot of people ended up ignoring Zack & Wiki: Quest for Barbaros’ Treasure by Capcom… but then Capcom is a pretty big and powerful company that can afford to have a few of their games sell poorly. Cing on the other hand depends on every game sold.

Whatever caused their downfall, be it lack of advertising, lack of general interest, piracy or ninjas… I salute you Cing. I hope that somehow, you guys pull through this and are able to continue on making great games.

“Cho Jiku Yosai Macross: Scrambled Valkyrie” (aka “Super Dimension Fortress Macross: Scrambled Valkyrie”) is a sequel game based on the 1984 movie “Super Dimension Fortress Macross: Do You Remember Love?”… man I love these absurdly long titles lol. It was released on the Super Famicom in 1993 and is a classic side-scrolling shmup (shoot ‘em up) comparable to games such as Gradius and R-Type. Of course, Scrambled Valkyrie does add its share of unique Macross charm to the mix…

As you begin the game, you’re given the choice between playing one of three characters: Hikaru Ichijo, Maximilian Jenius and Milia Fallyna Jenius. Each character has their own set of weapons which can be upgraded with power-ups as you progress through the game. In addition to that, your Valkyrie can transform between three modes: Fighter, GERWALK and Battroid. Each mode has their own weapon set that can be upgraded and downgraded independently. For example, if you are in Battroid mode and gain a power-up, the Battroid mode weapons will be upgraded to level 2 however the Fighter and GERWALK mode weapons will remain at level 1. Your Valkyrie can take a bit of beating, the health bar in the top left will indicate how much damage you can take before being destroyed. Take enough damage, however and you are in risk of losing a power-up level for your current mode.

The amount of options and power-ups gained in Scrambled Valkyrie makes for some interesting gameplay when trying out the game with all three characters and switching between the three different modes when necessary. Oh, and another interesting factor about the three modes is that you will notice that there is a distinct speed and manoeuvrability difference to go along with the different weapon sets that add another level of tactical gameplay to the mix… in fact, I love how well thought out it really is and how interesting it makes things.

Oh, but there’s also another factor that’s added into the mix that makes this an even more interesting experience than you thought possible. Normally with these kinds of games you hold down the fire button and destroy everything on the screen, however if you let go of the fire button your Valkyrie starts to glow… this glow happens to be “song energy” (Yahk, deculture!) produced by your new type of Valkyrie which you can use to turn your enemies into your allies. Smaller enemies are easy enough to turn over, simply wait till your Valkyrie is glowing and then fly into them to make them switch to your side. Once this is done the enemy craft will have a yellowish glow and will fly around your Valkyrie, shooting at enemy craft if they have that ability. This sounds all good, but certain larger and more dangerous enemies need to be damaged enough before you can make them defect. Of course you can only have one ally at a time and if you get another enemy to defect the one you had previously will fly away. Again, skilled players will be able to use this to their advantage by managing to turn powerful enemy ships over to their side.

Gameplay is awesome, it’s also a very good looking game… though it has some horrendously bad Engrish that will make you go “Wait, what?”… as you can tell by the screenshot. The only way to play Scrambled Valkyrie these days is if you have a SNES emulator on your PC and can find the ROM for it… I do happen to have a ROM of the game in my possession… maybe I’ll let you have a copy…

• Download Super Dimension Fortress: Scrambled Valkyrie (For members only)

…everyone needs more Macross.

There’s nothing much going on under the sea, just a whole lot of salt water and a whole lot of sea life… and then there’s that underwater utopian society of Rapture, a haven for the working man to make his living, the artist to express himself and the Big Daddies to protect their Little Sisters. Too bad things went oh so terribly wrong…

When you think of a first person shooter, most people think of a game based around some kind of war where most of the gameplay is channelled into the multiplayer elements rather than the story. Few first person shooters bother to break away from that mould, but when they do I tend to take notice, which is why I have much praise for games like Half-Life and BioShock.

BioShock

Some people may find this strange, but what really got me into BioShock are the similarities I discovered between the mechanics of the game and the mechanics of Metroid Prime. There’s plenty of good back tracking thanks to its non-linear level design as well as areas only accessible once you get certain items or go through certain events. There are also logs to collect that will explain the background elements of the story in more detail. Hell, you can even “scan” enemies to learn of their weaknesses by taking pictures of them with a camera. It even has the feeling of isolation and a great atmosphere, with you against the rest of Rapture, even though there are plenty of supporting characters interacting with you every step of the way… I felt right at home.

As you progress through Rapture, you get a real sense of history to the place and it really does feel like it’s been lived in… Though to be honest, I kind of wonder if any of the pastries you eat to replenish health are actually safe to eat in the first place.

Unlike Metroid Prime, however, BioShock is a much more brutal game in many ways. A perfect example of this brutality can be expressed with your trust wrench. Large, heavy and covered in blood… perfectly suited to stalking down your prey from behind and… Damn, the sound it makes when it hits… *shudders* The way the Big Daddies operate is pretty similar and it’s a real treat to watch them in action. I remember moments in the game where I would try to get Splicers to accidentally attack a Big Daddy in the area when they were trying to attack me. I’d let Big Daddy lose his temper and watch as the blood splattered across the walls… great fun.

When the game came to its brilliant finish, I thought it would be a one off game of its own with no need for a sequel…

BioShock 2

A sequel may not have been needed, but a hell of a lot of people sure wanted it when it was announced. After playing through the first and then heading into the second, there’s not much that can really surprise you considering you’re familiar with the world you’re plunging into. You’re back and Rapture with the familiar sights and sounds, though some time has passed, the same pastries that were eaten in the first game can be eaten in the second… they surely must have rotted away by now, urk.

I haven’t really bothered to go through the multiplayer side of things with BioShock 2 since I’ve been too busy with other things, but a lot of gameplay improvements were made over the first game, though these were mostly relating to the ability to do more things at once with your plasmid powers and weapons being more accessible. The fact that you play as a Big Daddy also changed a few things but overall it’s still the same old BioShock you knew from the first game.

By the end of the game, which also ends brilliantly, it seemed pretty obvious that 2K Games was using BioShock as a springboard to launch an entire series of games. Expect to see a BioShock 3 and more… Rapture was just the beginning… and I don’t mind more BioShock, just as long as the sequels are as good as these two games are.

As many of you in the community already know, I recently bought myself a Sony Vaio P netbook… so, naturally, just like everyone else I installed all of the usual programs and set it up the way I like it and have my perty wallpaper and everything all there. Along with those other things, I came to a point where I eventually put ZSNES onto it. The main reason I did this, was so I could have a portable copy of Super Metroid.

But then I stopped for a moment and suddenly asked myself. I do own a copy of Super Metroid of Wii Virtual Console, but does that make it right for me to download a ROM version of it and put it on my Vaio P?

Personally, I like to buy everything and try to stay away from piracy as much as I can. After all, these games are made by some talented people and this industry, as flawed as it may be in certain areas, is an industry I want to support… but there can be some grey areas of morality we get into when it comes to the subject of piracy.

I DON’T own a copy of the original SNES version of Super Metroid, I DO own the Wii VC version, but am I in the wrong for having the ROM version in my possession and playing it on my Vaio P? I mean, it’s not like Nintendo has lost any money from me having the ROM on my PC… and funnily enough, this line of thinking can be used to actually justify piracy for a lot of people. If I call up some guy over at Nintendo and go “I own a copy of Super Metroid on Wii VC but I have a copy of the ROM on my PC, what do I do?!” he’ll just be like “Okay… I don’t care.” and hang up.

It’s a grey area, but for me, it’s okay to have this ROM copy of Super Metroid since I already have the Wii VC version… but then I ask myself… what about that ROM copy of Super Dimension Fortress Macross: Scrambled Valkyrie? I don’t own a physical SNES cart of that and it’s unavailable to download from Wii VC. In fact, it’s unavailable outside of Japan altogether, but thanks to the Internet, I was able to download it and experience its awesomeness.

Just because it’s not available in my country, does that mean I have free reign to just download it and play it without paying for it? It’s not like I can do much about it… My reasoning is that it’s a very old game that you can’t get anywhere any more, so having the ROM of it is no big deal. Of course, that takes me further down the rabbit hole in terms of justifying my actions.

I’m sure I could go even further if I followed the thought, so where would I stop? I stand firm on not pirating new games, and if there is a version of an older game that’s available on Wii VC, PlayStation Network or Xbox Live Arcade, I’d definitely go for those rather than pirating them. I’m fine with people modding their consoles as much as they want just as long as they don’t use it for the sake of piracy.

I guess it’s more of a case of personal morality than anything else… Anyway, you’ve heard my thoughts about this, so where does everyone else fall on this issue? Or is it really not that big a deal and I’m just over-thinking this? Let’s hear your thoughts.

Oh, and for those of you wondering where the whole “You wouldn’t download a car” thing came from… take a look.

That VERY annoying clip used to be at the very start of most DVDs sold down here in Australia. I was able to skip it on my DVD player back in the day, but there were some DVD players which wouldn’t let you so you either had to endure it or be smart enough to realise you could fast forward through it. Obviously it never says “You wouldn’t download a car” in the clip itself, that is just another one of the many Internet jokes out there for the lulz.

That clip in no longer added to newly released DVDs and they never appeared on BDs to begin with. Not sure what they have now but hopefully it’s not as annoying as that one.

This entire entry will be extremely spoilerific because I really HAVE to share with you just how ridiculous this game really is. It’s so bad that the President of Nintendo of America, Reginald “Reggie” Fils-Aimé, stated that this game would NEVER make it to North America… lucky for me, the wacky folks of Nintendo of Europe and Nintendo of Australia decided that “If the American’s don’t want it, we certainly must have it!”… So here it is… read about it, because you’re not going to want to play it.

The game follows Raymond Bryce, an International Rescue worker and apparently a former US Marine (to explain why Ray is such a weapons expert, I guess). During a volcanic eruption, Ray is doing his thing but ends up losing his friend, Steve, who is also a rescue worker. Ray can’t forgive himself for his friends loss since he feels the need to save everyone but ultimately doesn’t have the power to… deep, man… deep.

So anyway, during this part of the game you go through the usual tutorial stuff: Learn how to walk and run and how to jump, how to breathe, because that’s important, and also how to punch boulders and rocks. Yes, folks, punching boulders isn’t just for a steroid abused Chris Redfield. Not only that, I learned that you can also punch and kick barrels and wooden crates as well as mailboxes, trash bins and also cardboard boxes that happen to be laying around too.

Flash forward a year and Ray is a public servant for Blue Ridge City, and for whatever reason he meets an FBI agent who tells him about some military group who has stolen nukes and is threatening the government and all that kinda jazz… sounds pretty familiar doesn’t it. Then for some reason this chick, who happens to be the sister of his friend, Steve, gets kidnapped by this group, and Ray who feels guilty about Steve’s death goes after her and this military group to save her… and that’s pretty much the entire plot right there. Ray feels guilty, chick gets kidnapped, Ray wants to save her but at the same time is told to stop this group from blowing up some random city and do all of this while facing a string of natural disasters…

So anyway, Ray is going to save this chick… AND THEN SUDDENLY AN EARTHQUAKE! Buildings are crumbling, people are FREAKING OUT, and for some reason I start getting into a gunfight with all these military dudes… then after I think I’m close to saving that chick, they escape with her and some other guy and I have to go after them.

Now, I’m in the city which is crumbling around me still, buildings falling over, and there are people who need help. Some of these people happen to call for your help, though only if it’s a plot element, others are people you have to find and save yourself… of course, if there’s no one around and you press the Z button to look for people, Ray will say “There’s no one who needs saving here” in an extremely disappointing tone, as if he wants people to be injured and in need of his help. Great guy, that Ray…

Oh, and also, I did mention the ability to punch and kick open stuff, but I didn’t mention the fact that when you do, you’ll find items! I know, you’re thinking “Well, what’s so different about that? That’s practically in every game.”… Well, yes and no. Here are a couple of examples… You see a mailbox, and you decide to punch it open, it explodes open after a few punches and then you find that it drops a big hunk of meat on the bone, cooked to perfection… Okay, so this seems a bit strange… who put that succulent oversized piece of cooked meat in the mailbox? Ray doesn’t care, because he’ll pick it up from the ground and eat it right then and there to regain his stamina.

Of course, all through this you’re still going after that military group to save that one chick… and for whatever reason that military group has a fuck tonne of guys who happen to be all gunning for you. I don’t know how many guys I’ve killed in this game, but I’ve taken out a small army as well as various kinds of vehicles including a couple of choppers… and something else I’ll get to at the end of this entry… anyway, I’m chasing after these guys and end up going through a pretty awesome car chase scene. Hands down the driving element of this game is its best feature, but is ruined by having to deal with all the disasters along the way… one of the disasters being, no, not a regular tornado, but a FIRE tornado!… yeah, I don’t get it either, but whatever man…

So, first came the earthquake and as a result there’s a tsunami heading towards the city… so naturally Ray and the military dudes decide to have a shoot out on the bridge as the tsunami is heading towards them. This guy has balls man, a tsunami doesn’t even scare him cause he feels he has time to be Rambo…

Anyway, after he kills everyone he decides that now is a good time to leave just as the tsunami is just about to hit. Ray gets in his car and drives away from certain death at full speed. The driving in this part is a bit different though, in previous driving areas you would drive the car in first person mode, but in this instance the camera is on the outside and is facing back at the tsunami with the car on screen. The bridge is falling apart as you escape and you’re struggling to stay ahead of it and onto solid ground. Then he goes into a subway system and ends up having to outrun a rush of water in there… and then ANOTHER TSUNAMI decides to come on down and Ray, as the bad ass he is decides he’ll outrun the tsunami ON FOOT. ON FOOT! *stares at you*… and he fails, lol. Ray gets swept away and the military dudes happen to escape too.

Stuff happens and Ray ends up following the military dudes to some mines near a Volcano, and surprise, surprise, the Volcano decides to erupt. Ray is dodging huge fiery boulders raining down from the sky, tries to save the chick again, fails and the military dudes escape. Ray then has to get the hell out of there and decides to drive out of there while the lava is flowing and the pyroclastic flow that is coming down the mountain is bearing down on him… of course, like before, Ray fails and gets caught in it… and survives. When he wakes up some little girl has saved him and then he decides to get the little girl to safety and they travel through the mountain to safety… oh, and you get to kill a bear.

Ray gets out of there with the little girl, and then he’s off to some other place that just happens to be flooded due to a hurricane that’s bearing down on it. He’s going after that military group cause he has to save that chick and he military group who is too stupid to realise that the only reason all of their guys are dying is because of their hostage… WHICH THEY DON’T EVEN NEED ANY MORE, is still holding her and taunting Ray as he shoots them all down.

Oh yeah, another thing about punching open stuff is that you have to be careful. Sometimes, instead of getting an item from the container, you suddenly get set on fire. There I was punching a trash bin open in a flooded area with some pretty heavy rain coming down, and suddenly I’m on fire, even though I’m knee deep in water and completely drenched. Well whatever, during this flooded level I happen to end up saving that chick, only to have her re-kidnapped again which is another kick in the nuts.

So we’re coming near the end of it, I’m chasing these guys in my car for the last time through a full force hurricane and they get on a ferry to… I have no idea. Anyway, I’m on a ferry now and it’s the last part of the game. I’ve been through an earthquake, a fire tornado, a couple of tsunami as well as two volcanos, then a flood and a hurricane… so now what?

Now we have the final boss fight, of course! For some reason as Ray is talking to the last guy, it reminds me of the final boss fight on the deck of the ship in Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune… but then all of a sudden the bad guy is standing next to something that’s covered…Now I’m thinking this guy is going to come after me on the deck of this ferry with a freaking TANK. But no, that’s not what he had in mind… instead…

METAL GEAR?!!!!!!?!!??!?!!!!?!?!?1//1?#2131342pir5thy34eoftaguhlokdhg!!!!!!!1

I kid you not, this guy was in a poor man’s Metal Gear Rex. It was Rex vs Ray! And it didn’t stop there! After defeating pseudo-Rex, I fought the boss one on one, man to man… in a quick time fight scene that reminded me of a poor man’s version of the knife fight in Resident Evil 4… though most of the fight didn’t feature any knives… oh and then I got to disarm a nuke which was fun and lived happily ever after…. OR DID THEY?

At the end of the game you get to view an alternate ending. All of those Disasters that Ray has faced during that 24 hour period is nothing compared to what’s about to hit the planet…. AN ASTEROID!

AN ASTEROID IS HEADING TOWARDS THE PLANET! ARE YOU A BAD ENOUGH DUDE TO PUNCH AND KICK IT INTO A SAFE TRAJECTORY?

I loled.

Okay so that was a pretty huge entry for a game that doesn’t matter… so if you couldn’t be bothered reading all of that, at least watch this… it pretty much sums it all up.

…Epic, truly epic. I’m so glad I bought this game and played it all the way through, just so I could tell everyone else about it. As I said at the start… it’s so bad that it’s good.

I like “special” edition versions of games as much as the next guy. After all, when a game I like comes out that comes in a really nice case with exclusive art comes out, I think it’s a pretty cool thing to get since it’s relevant to my interests. After all, greed isn’t such a bad thing if you have the means to pursue what you want… even if a lot of what you get in the Special Edition packs is pretty useless or will be thrown into some dark corner a week after you get it.

Some are great, others start getting ridiculous and then there are those that go beyond ridiculous with multiple tiered versions of their special editions, each more special than the last.

In the past I found it easy to choose from with these kinds of things. You either got the regular version for a standard price, or you paid a little bit more and got a nice steel book case with some nice exclusive art and maybe even an extra disc with a “making of” video on it.

Nowadays, it’s an entirely different business with many different kinds of versions of the same thing except different… kind of like how there seems to be many different versions of the same console released over a period of time with different price points to confuse and infuriate people who have an older inferior version to the superior release that they just happened to come up with…. *chokes and almost passes out as he tries to take a breath*…

There are a lot of games that do it, but I think the two most recent that come to mind is Assassin’s Creed II and Modern Warfare 2. Black, White, Hardened, Prestige… it is ridiculous, but out of the two, I think AC2 is worse because of its exclusive in-game content that people who buy the regular edition will probably never see… unless they’re released as DLC later on.

In-game exclusives piss me off, and it doesn’t matter if they come from special editions or because it’s some console exclusive. I don’t particularly like the fact that Grand Theft Auto IV has all of the DLC on the 360… Hell, even the Episodes from Liberty City version is 360 only.

I worry about what else they’re going to do to segregate people into different classes depending on how much they choose to spend on buying what should be the exact same game…

Ubisoft knew that they had something special brewing with Assassin’s Creed, and anyone who has played the game will know first hand that they have set it up to be a trilogy or possibly a long running series. But not even Ubisoft themselves were prepared for the high sales that the first game saw. Their efforts had struck an extremely good nerve with gamers, and their surprise is very understandable too since the first game of a new IP never does anywhere near as well as Assassin’s Creed did.

Even better than that, Assassin’s Creed II blew everyone away, from reviewers to the gamers themselves. I know I was blown away by the improvements they made and… some other things…

I had played a few hours of Assassin’s Creed when it was first released and liked what I played, but I hadn’t actually finished the first game until very recently. In fact, I got to experience both games in a very interesting way. Over the Christmas weekend, I happened to play Assassin’s Creed and Assassin’s Creed II back to back in one big epic marathon run. I finished the first game for the first time and got to start the second then and there… those who have started the second game know how PERFECT that situation is, though the transition from the first game to the second was a pretty big hit in terms of the visuals.

Minor spoilers ahead…

The very first second of Assassin’s Creed II takes place the very second after the credits roll for the first game. It was a bit of a shock to the system when the room you were looking at in the first game and the characters suddenly look so different because of the upgraded visuals and effects… even more so when you have just finished the first game and immediately started the second. It would’ve been nice if Ubisoft had have kept the visual style of the first game exactly the same way how it was for the first game in that one area you were familiar with, then did a cowboy switch when you escape from the building and are in those darker corridors… but that’s just me.

/ End spoilers.

Anyway, let’s have a look at the two games separately…

Assassin’s Creed

When you start Assassin’s Creed, you don’t really know where it will lead you. Despite what many people saw in the promotional material and trailers of a medieval environment, you find yourself in a near present day setting playing as Desmond Miles, a seemingly average guy who has been abducted by members of a global corporation. The events that you see in those trailers are experienced by Desmond using the Animus, a device that essentially allows a user to go back in time and experience moments of their own ancestor’s life through memories recorded in their own genes.

Desmond finds himself in the memories of Altaïr, a member of the Order of Assassins at around 1191AD. The events of his ancestor’s life are slowly revealed to him as well as the realisation of who his abductors are and what they are searching for.

An intriguing concept… it certainly made me want to find out where it was all going to lead…

Once you master it, the gameplay for Assassin’s Creed is a pleasure everyone must experience. When you first play you’ll be unsure of yourself and attempt to over compensate for many of the actions you’re trying to perform. The key is to let yourself go and trust that you’ll be able to do all of the amazing things you’re seeing happening on screen. Once you do, you’ll find that you’ll be running across rooftops at great speed, outwitting guards and climbing towers with great ease.

The environments and general presentation is well done and there’s much to do in the game with plenty of exploration. The game itself is set in a way that allows you to do as much as you want or as little as you want depending on how much you enjoy collection-fests or not. I personally loved climbing up every building I could find and finding the highest places in each area… though, personally I couldn’t care less about collecting all of those various different flags. But don’t worry, collecting stuff isn’t really that important to the main story of the game, it’s just really there for those who like to explore game environments in their own time.

Most players will happily stick with the main story as I did, which is fine, even if the game gets you to do practically the same thing over and over, if you’re clever you can figure out ways of doing things differently. I think that’s really the key to the game, it’s easy just to pull out a sword and start carving up your enemies, but it’s more fun to act as a true assassin, stalk your target and kill them without anyone realising you were even there… those moments are made of pure awesomeness if you’re prepared to go through the work to pull them off.

Ubisoft has put together a nicely polished game, though it does suffer from some very obvious and sometimes frequent AI glitches. I’m sure if you searched through YouTube, you’d be able to find plenty of videos of some of the funnier/stupid AI glitches that occur during the game.

One of my own experiences in the game was when the guards protecting the target I was meant to assassinate suddenly decided that they would try to kill the target themselves for absolutely no reason. Of course, what followed was just a confusing mess. My target would jump from place to place trying to avoid the strikes of the guards and the guards would follow him, jumping around the room… this occurred for awhile until I realised that no one would catch up with each other and it would just keep on going endlessly… so I attacked a guard and they all turned their attention on me… finally.

Despite that, the game is a must play… and if you’ve played the first, you MUST play the second…

Assassin’s Creed II

After their success with the first game, Ubisoft had a lot to prove with Assassin’s Creed II. The first one took people by surprise at the amount of quality this new IP had, the second one had better follow suit or heads would roll. From what I’ve been hearing on the net, people are very pleased with the second game and the review scores seem to favour it above the first.

The second game continues on directly where the first left off and without going into too much detail and spoiling things, Desmond is going to find that he’s going to end up playing a much bigger role in the events to shape the future. To that end, he needs to be trained as a true assassin. To achieve this he will learn from the beginning as his Italian ancestor, Ezio, had learned.

Of course, just like the first game, there’s more to it than just that, and you’ll get to find out just how deep the rabbit hole goes the further along in the story you get.

Gameplay has certainly been improved in this second coming of Assassin’s Creed. I particularly like how streamlined things have gotten and that all of the good aspects are still intact. Free-running and climbing have been greatly improved, even though they were pretty slick in the first game to begin with. I didn’t notice any really stupid AI glitches plaguing this game like I did with the first which is a big plus. One of the best additions I love though is the ability to hide among the regular people as just another face in the crowd… even though you’re wearing flowing robes and some pretty decorative armour lol. Oh, and the chicks are great *winks*…

The different weapons and the ability to buy and upgrade and also to use your enemies weapons is a nice feature, though doesn’t seem to have that big an effect on overall gameplay to make things seem strategic. Either way, I like the effort that has been put into the customisation options for Ezio. Though, when it comes right down to it, once you get that special someone’s armour, there’s no looking back.

I did find that there was a bit of a down side with fetch quests integrated directly into the main story. It gets a little annoying having to carry stuff back and forth and act as a courier… but overall, this isn’t a big deal unless you’re just impatient and want to kill things right away.

Minor spoilers ahead…

I did mention that the first game had some pretty interesting things in it, but Assassin’s Creed II takes the cake when it comes to complete mindfucks… for this series and probably for 99% of other games out there. I mean, going into the series, you know it’s not going to be your average stab and slaughter your enemies type thing. Ubi decided they’d try and screw with your head too… which is always fun.

/ End of spoilers.

I do have one problem with the release of this game though… I hate how they release different versions of the damn thing. What I hate even more is that people who don’t buy those extra special versions end up missing out on some extra stuff, as unimportant as they may be, it’s the principle of the matter.

Either way, I can’t wait for the next instalment of this trilogy or series depending on how far they want to take it. Anyone who has played it knows it’s got the potential to go into some pretty wild and out there places…

2009 has been an awesome year for me. Back in 2008 I managed to get a PS3 for free and also bought a 360 elite during end of 2008. This meant that going into 2009 I had access to a DS, PS3, Wii and Xbox 360 (if you only count the current generation line-up). This meant that I had a lot of opportunity to play a hell of a lot of different kinds of video games.

From the very beginning of the year I was enjoying the last game in the Phoenix Wright arc of the Ace Attorney series and was also getting ready for some co-op action on Resident Evil 5 with Jeff. I also had a hell of a lot of fun with my Wii this year despite the fact that it has been a pretty quiet year for the console. Most people are pretty disappointed with Wii in 2009, which is pretty understandable considering some of the games released for the console this year… but there were a couple of gems in there that people should never have ignored or overlooked as they did.

A prime example of that would be House of the Dead: Overkill. For shame to anyone who hasn’t bought that game because it’s hilariously disturbing/funny. Also, even more shame on the people who didn’t buy Metroid Prime Trilogy. I bought TWO copies of that game. The Australian version and the US version. Why would I do such a thing? Just so I could get that awesome steel book case which only the folks in the US got… yes, I’m THAT much of a fan to go that far.

Lastly, I don’t need to even mention New Super Mario Bros. here considering that if you have a Wii and don’t own that game then you may as well stamp an “Idiot” print on your forehead.

Wii had its moments, but the hands down winner this year for me was the Xbox 360. I spent a lot of my time catching up on games released in previous years that I hadn’t owned before, but there are also a lot of games for the console released in 2009 that are just made of pure awesome. Where do I begin? RE5 was a lot of fun, even though it’s nowhere near as good as RE4, Jeff and I played the hell out of the game over the year. Jeff and I also played through Halo 3 ODST together as well… not really a big fan of Halo to begin with, but I honestly do think that ODST is a much better game than the previous Halo titles, though I’m sure most fans would disagree with me.

I had bought Assassin’s Creed quite some time ago and only played a little bit of it. Despite that, I ended up buying the second game and they sat there on my media rack for a long time until Christmas long weekend when I ended up playing the entirety of Assassin’s Creed from start to finish and also 98% of Assassin’s Creed II. Right now I’m up to the very last part of the second game and will end up finishing it probably on New Year’s days.

Another great game of 2009 has to be Batman: Arkham Asylum. When I heard about it, I was sceptical and didn’t think it would be any good at all. Having actually played the game, it really is surprising how damn good the game really is. I’m also really glad they’ve announced a sequel this soon because I really can’t get enough of how awesome Arkham Asylum is. If I had to name the biggest surprise of 2009 for me, this game would be it. It’s just brilliant.

A lot of time was spent playing on my Wii and 360, not as much on my PS3, though I still value it for Uncharted 2: Among Thieves by itself… that and the tonne of Blu-ray movies I ended up getting this year… most of which were bought in December lol. I think I bought around 38 Blu-rays in December alone. The only other PS3 game I’ve bought this year is LittleBIGPlanet, though I’ve spent rarely any time on that… when I go down to the store to try to get myself to buy some more PS3 games, I find it hard to justify spending my money on them. To be honest, a lot of them don’t really excite me that much… there are a few I’d buy if they were cheaper.

I also feel really bad about neglecting my DS for most of this year. I’ve bought quite a few DS games over the last 12 months but I still feel like I should’ve paid more attention to it and I’ve probably ignored some of the more obscure DS titles I should be focusing more on. That’s okay though, I can catch up on those titles in 2010 or get them later on when they’re ridiculously cheap like the PS2 games I’ve been buying recently lol.

Anyway, that’s it for me at the moment, how has 2009 been for the rest of you?

Senator Conroy says some internet content is simply not suitable in a civilised society.

The Australian government has put out a media release today announcing that they’re pushing forward with their efforts to censor the Internet. The release titled as “Measures to improve safety of the internet for families” basically states that whatever content that falls under the “Refused Classification” listing in this country will be blocked nationally through every ISP in this country.

To put it in simpler terms: If I load videos of the new Aliens vs Predator game onto this site (whether it be hosted locally on this server or from YouTube), then this web site, or at least that specific page would end up being put on the filter list. The reason for this is because the game has recently been refused classification in this country due to another related issue that I have talked about on Twilight Lynk for quite some time now.

(UPDATE: Aliens vs Predator has since been re-rated to MA15+ in its complete and uncut form.)

Is this web site suitable for civilised society? Whether it is or is not is not the issue, what is the issue and what I absolutely HATE is that the determination, if the government has its way, will no longer be left to free thinking adults themselves. “Australians all let us rejoice, for we are young and free” my ass… in this respect we’ll become no different to China, Iran and Saudi Arabia.

Those mother fucking white withered and dry cunts, who have been elected into power (by a lot of people who are now regretting it over many different issues), need to be anally raped repeatedly with a cactus.

Yes, I object to Internet censorship, as you may or may not have gathered. I feel my rights as an Australian are slowly being chipped away. The justification for these measures is that it’s to help protect our children. As far as I know, children in this country don’t actively seek out child pornography, bestiality, depictions of rape, etc… those who do are 99.9% of the time adults who most likely happen to know various ways around the filter to begin with.

I love how our government knows that there are uneducated masses it can manipulate with fear mongering. I can feel safe knowing that the Australian government is protecting me from those Aliens… and especially those Predators… the chains are slowly being bound one at a time and the people in this country are letting it happen.

Protect your children. They should be allowed to grow up as free thinking citizens who are able to make their own choices, whatever they may be… even if it means that they’re exposed to some of the more disturbing elements of society.

Merry Christmas, and a happy New Year you bastards. I leave you with this to think upon.

So what exactly IS the Super Guide and why should you care or not care? In short, the Super Guide is a feature that when activated will play the game for you… and this kind of description is what has put a lot of people up in arms and have condemned the feature outright without them even looking into what it really is.

Put your rage and your conclusions aside and let’s continue on and see what this is really all about…

The Super Guide really isn’t just some magic button that let’s the game play itself. What it is is a tool to allow a game to be accessible to those who may not be the best at video games and may not be self proclaimed pro-gamers that we all seem to believe we are. New Super Mario Bros. Wii is not an easy game and although it’s not anywhere near the hardest game either, the idea of adding the Super Guide is to try to level the playing field so that people who aren’t experienced gamers won’t give up in frustration in later levels.

Let’s go through the features of the Super Guide:

• The Super Guide is not accessible right away during the game. The green Super Guide block only appears in a level if you have died 8 times in a row during the level and will disappear once you have completed that particular level.
• The feature only works in single player mode, the Super Guide block will not appear if you’re playing with two or more players.
• If you do choose to hit the green Super Guide block, you are told what the feature is about and are given an option to activate it or decline. Once activated, Luigi will take control of the game in place of Mario. With Luigi in control, at any time through the level, you can deactivate the feature and take back control of the game to finish the level yourself.
• Using the Super Guide feature will not automatically score you all of the Star Coins, it will not help you find all of the secrets or have you performing super cool moves or have Luigi run all the way to the finish. It’s a very slow, safe and boring pace and not something you’ll want to sit through time and time again.
• The game will record the fact that you’ve used the feature and will show people that fact on your save file. (Oh, the shame of it all!)
• This feature is completely optional and to add to that, you may NEVER even see that green Super Guide block appear at all. To have it appear you must first truly SUCK at the game and be desperate enough to use it.

Now that you’ve had a bit of an explanation, let’s see the Super Guide in action so you can see for yourself exactly what it’s all about.

I personally haven’t seen the feature at all through my play through of New Super Mario Bros. Wii. At the moment this entry is being written I’m currently up to 8-1 which is almost at the end of the game. The difficulty level may not be up there with Ninja Gaiden, but New Super Mario Bros. Wii does get challenging enough during certain levels that will frustrate some and ultimately have them put down the controller and move onto something that isn’t.

I almost feel as if Nintendo purposefully made the game harder because the Super Guide feature was added on. If that really is the case, then hell yes, I want this feature in more games because even though I’ll never use it and will never see the option appear to use it in the first place, it will give Nintendo an excuse to make the overall game more challenging.

…isn’t that what we all really want?