Moshi-moshi*

I do wish I could be saying that live from Japan, but unfortunately prior engagements (homework, job, hit-and-runs) have kept us from attending the Tokyo Game Show once again this year. One day, we will make it *shakes fist*.

Anyway, it’s been a good few days game-news wise, although nowhere near as good as E3 or Leipzig from a Sony point-of-view. The loss of Tekken as an exclusive is a downer (but not particularly a relevant point for me as I don’t really play fighters), and the non-presence of Kingdom Hearts III (whether it is a Wii- or PS3-exclusive) and the next big thing from Team ICO.

And that really leads onto the main point I have about TGS: It’s completely at the wrong time. Hardware announcements? No – too close to Christmas, making old product irrelevant just before the biggest shopping season of the year, and an inability to distribute whatever is announced console-wise in time for Xmas means that many will hold out until next year for their buys, which means less monays for everyone in game development. Software announcements? Aside from teasers or more general announcements (“It’s coming” – looking at you Tekken and FFXIII), it’s not really the right timing. We’ve just had E3, the largest stage for developers and publishers to show what they’ve been working on, and for those projects that just didn’t make a playable state in time, there’s also recently been the Leipzig Game Conference. Also, those studios with fall/Christmas releases are winding down (or have wound down) development now and so are either taking some time out or working on ridiculously early (read: unshowable) versions of their next projects.

What all this amounts to is a strange mish-mash of hands-on sessions for imminent releases (LittleBigPlanet, Fallout 3, Far Cry 2, Dead Space and so on), early showings for the few Xmas 09 games we know about (See Nobi Nobi Boy), and the only games with great presentations (Spring’s Resident Evil 5 and inFamous) are dwarfed by those out this side of new year. not that I have a better solution as to where a games show should go between Leipzig and GDC in the new year. Anyways, enough ranting; on to the games, which I shall discuss in a brief bullet form!

• LPB: OMGIHEARTYOUCOMEOUTFASTER.
• Dead Space: More and more interested.
• Fallout 3: What happened to colour in games.
• Far Cry 2: Anything with a level editor is win.
• Nobi Nobi Boy: WTFWANTMOREINFO.
• Resident Evil 5: Tempting.
• inFamous: Looking lush.
• FFXIII: Show me some hands-ons.
• FFXIII Versus: Ditto.
• LocoRoco 2: Deep and adorable? HEARTYOUTOO.
• Patapon 2: Anything new here?
• Mirror’s Edge: Seriously intrigued by new level vids.
• Resistance: Retribution: Hmmmm… *undecided*.

And yeah, I know I’ve missed many games here, but these are they ones I’ve been checking up on. In other news: R2 and Retribution is nifty, very similar to how the SOCOM PS2 and PSP games linked up – love it. Intrigued to find out more about how exactly ‘Infected’ mode affects RR gameplay. PlayStation Store for PSP? FINALLY. I’m looking at getting a 3000 to replace my smashed 2000, and plan to invest in a 16GB Memory Stick and download games instead of buying the UMD versions. I meant legally, I’m not the Wanderer. Oh and here’s some pure beauty. Home coming soon? When I have it on my own PS3, I’ll believe it’s real. No Team ICO makes me cry.

The Wanderer’s still on a break, but you should hear from me on a daily basis this week providing I manage the time to get a post up.

See you soon!

FO

PS: To those of you here from the PlayStation Forums, hello!

*by the way, this is ‘hello’ in Japanese, but only in the context of answering the phone. It’s also quite casual. Japanese is so complicated. I only used it ‘cos it sounded like something from LocoRoco.