But now that I am back home I am just in time for Spore which seems to be getting a lot of mixed reviews from enthusiast press. Even more mixed is Stalker: Clear Sky which some of the press says “more of the same, but buggier“. I have no idea because I never played the first Stalker. And right behind it is the sequel of the king of render, Crysis: Warhead. This one I am looking forward to because I played the first one and it was great. Not too far behind IT is Warhammer Online which just looks like World Of Warcraft but “serious“. I haven’t even begin to find out about the Nintendo DS games and others coming out this month. And its only going to get worse.

Fall season for games makes my wallet ache.

Speaking of the PS3, its announcements was as easliy boring save for a Little Big Planet, Powerpoint like display of Sony accomplishments. Resitance & improvements to the PS3′s online offerings has also has seemed to save the day.

Third Party Developers are the winners here in this aspect. Many popular 3rd party games were displayed and announced. PC gaming is also getting a lot of attention, where once developers on console would have never thought of porting a game to the PC is now porting them en masse. I guess you can thank Microsoft for that or the fact that the PC has always been a big platform with many potential customers. If you haven’t yet noticed this trend, then you need to look no further than world renowned Capcom Entertainment. Many of its top sellng titles are being ported to PC including Devil May Cry and Street Fighter IV which fully take advantage of the power available.

The most disappointing of the 3rd Party fun was Konami. The Rockband competitor called Rock Revolution looked lack luster and disappointing to those who have experienced both Guitar Hero and Rockband. Also, the showing of a Wii Castlevania fighting game that looks worse than Soul Calibur II on the Gamecube. A saving grace maybe was a showing of the DS title Order of Ecclesia.

Overall, E3 atleast to me is circling the drain before it falls through it.

On another note, I came across a free game called TrackMania Nations Forever. TrackMania is a very good looking racing game that throws Mario Kart like tracks in the mix. The physics of the cars allows you to run through loops, half pipes, super jumps and multiple air tricks. The game also has editors for custom cars and tracks. ITs counterpart TrackMania United Forever is a retail game that unlocks several features. This game could easily be free across the board if the advertising placements were more robust. For now there seems to be only two types of banners in the game, one for Toyota and another for one other company. The TrackMania Forever games also has an online mode which lets you race against people via lan or the Nadeo servers. (Nadeo is the name of the developer.) I like the game for the most part but most of the one lap tracks leaves you wanting more.

Now that I got that comment out of the way, its really been fun playing the latest installment of Pokemon Diamond/Pearl. Yes, I am a closet pokemon fan(that really sounds weird) and I have been following the Pokemon franchise since Red & blue. For those who don’t know why people love Pokemon so much, lets just say that if you combine likable characters with a simple yet fun turn-based RPG battle system, then you’ve got a massive franchise train that barrels forward 10+ years and running.

Over the years, that system has progressively gotten a bit deeper over time. Over that same amount of time, the franchise has been in a slow decline. That was signaled even brighter when the WB Network canceled the Tv Cartoon Series of the same name after a very long and popular run. To save the series, Nintendo/Game Freak slowly moved the Cartoon Product away from 4Kids Productions to in house production that airs new shows on Cartoon Network. The final nail in the coffin for the 4Kids services happened last year when the contract with 4Kids ended and Nintendo/Game Freak opted not to renew. With that said, all of the long time voice actors were replaced for “cheaper models”. So the saying goes, “You get what you pay for” and the cartoon never sounded the same since which probably will further kill the series.

Redemption in the form of Dual Screens

Nintendo knew about the decline in the Pokemon franchise and hatched a plan to use “Recover” on the series. The redemption comes in the form of Diamond & Pearl on the DS. This game surprisingly has many uses for the touch screen, most of them very practical. For once, the 2nd screen can be used to select attacks, manage many screens and forward dialog. But that’s just part of it. The game is just packed full of features and almost all of them utilizes the touch screen in one form or another.

Some of those features are standard in a Pokemon game like the pokedex. Which also includes new features for example: rolodex like function via touch screen, a search feature, Pokemon cry sound manipulation and the time of day indicator to show when the Pokemon roams at certain times of the day. Others are relatively new, like the Poketech watch which sits on the second screen when not battling. Various characters throughout the game will give you various Poketech apps like a memo pad, hidden item detector, and a waypoint map.

The More things change, the more they stay the same

One thing that has changed a lot is the look of the game. Adventuring is no longer bound by pure 2D. Diamond & Pearl now has a totally cell shaded 3D environment which is bound to the specs of the 2D game, which is an overhead view of the characters-of which is still 2D. Some of the views change depending on the area like some Gyms. The new 3D environment also gave the advantage to make more detailed adventuring areas within the same space.

Ironically, the battling phase of the game unfortunately remains 2D. The characters and their Pokemon have gotten a fresh coat of 2D love, but still move the typical 3 to 4 frames. My guess is that they wanted to keep production costs down since there are now close to 500 Pokemon in the universe. The script animation has gotten better than the previous Pokemon installment and the battle effects have gotten much love. Some look absolutely amazing while others have remained much the same. The music has gotten many remixes. And of course, I really don’t have to explain the importance of full WiFi support, complete with voice chat.

In plain sight…

Beyond the typical Pokemon game, this installment has a lot of small details that you wouldn’t expect from a typical DS game. For once the Day/Night system actually simulates real time which means that if you play at night, it will be night time in game. If playing in the late afternoon, the game’s environments will gradually transition complete with sunset. There are also other small enhancements that you will notice when traveling beyond the typical PokeTv reporter which this time gets much more aggressive for an interview with the hottest trainer on the block.

Beyond the traditional gameplay continues the PokeContests which has become a LOT more extensive as far as I know. I haven’t tried much of the PokeContests part of the game, since it is technically a giant mini game with… mini games. But it does extend the replay value after you have conquered all trainers and caught every Pokemon in the Dex. Bedsides, your girlfriend might like that aspect of the game instead.

I have to admit, if you haven’t tried a Pokemon game EVER(which would probably be unlikely) then pick up a copy of Diamond or Pearl. Hell, if you have tried Pokemon before then chances are you will love this installment.

There isn’t much to say about this game other than the story is a little weak for a game that spans more than 2 centuries of plots. The difficulty is the same old thing that you would expect from the Mega Man Zero creators, Unbalanced and completely uncalled for at times. One nice thing I thought about the game was its replayability. Easy is easy enough but Normal can be aggravating and I just don’t want to deal with Hard. But its more enough to keep some occupied with it. The game also has time waster missions that can sometimes earn you different items. So that will throw you off if you are the kind of person that liked just stumbling across a secret. There are a couple of nice nuggets ripped from the first Mega Man X and the Zero series but not much else. The graphics are a little better than the previous Zero games but they struggled to use the touch screen for some of the features. Don’t get me wrong, I like the game for what its worth. I just think that they could have done much more.

The only problem I personally have with the game is that bosses are uneventful. Its the same bosses over and over again, only with minor tweaks to their fighting style. You can count the other hunters as bosses too if you want, but they are just as cheesy. Equipment enhancements are also in weird places which makes you wish that you had [insert enhancement here].

On another note, there are 2 hidden areas. Both of which are NOT required to finish the game, which was…um…well a bummer. Getting a separate ending for unlocking both areas would have been nice but whatever. This game gets a permanent spot in my game book.

Let’s cut to the chase.

You continue the story started in the previous GBA game Aria Of Sorrow, which was a breeze to plow through. This time however, Konami didn’t make it as easy as the first. There were many changes to the way things are played. New abilities are abound including the super strike ability that costs about a quarter of your magic bar to perform. At the beginning of the new multiplex castle/lab, you meet up with Julius Belmont and his girlfriend who later becomes your weapons upgrader. All of the usual characters and monsters make a return. Though you will notice immediately the quality of the new sprites and some changed attack patterns for old favorites like Quatzacoatl. Some new weapons are also accessable like Axes, Mace, and some new sword variations. The first bost that you fight(image above) will be ultra easy to get through if you played even 0.1% of the GBA game. BUT after you will soon realize that this game is NOT to be taken lightly since the monster get more vicious the further you get into the complex.

…Yes, it even uses the Touch Screen.

Immediately you will be taught the significance of Magic Seals. These magical items are the things that seal up monsters that are infused with the magic given to it by the crazy cult leader. And YES you will HAVE to seal them by initiating the seal using–THAT’S RIGHT, the touch screen. (People who fail to realize that the touch screen is more than just a simple gimmick by now, should be shot in the foot.) You have to trace the points in the symbol to the correct “rune” in a certain amount of time. If not, then the magic infused into the boss WILL revive it and you will have to fight all over again. What makes it even more challenging later on is that the “runes” become even more harder to initiate as the patterns become more complex. I haven’t gotten that far into the game yet(about 34% as of 10-07-05) but there are a number of things to do in this game while trying to progress the storyline. Like actually having to FIND the seals and souls inorder to keep moving forward.

Even in 2D, this game is in a league of its own. 3D fanatics might even like this since the animation is really fluid, not to mention being able to interact with certain objects in the background. This is a MUST BUY for anyone with a DS in their pocket.

GAMES!

Ok…um well, just one game. It was a hard decision to pick a game for the DS. So I looked for answers in the forums like usual, getting well thought opinions on different games. Eventually I set on buying Kirby: Canvas Curse with my DS.
I picked the game because I still had pleasant memories about Kirby: Superstar for the SNES. Let’s say that Canvas Curse has not let me down in this respect. I know that the “3D” Kirby games has NOT been too good. But that is the same with just about any 2D character/game that was force raped into 3D. The game is challenging, and fun with a few suprises like classic music and different styles of ink used to propel your character.

Hidden Extras?

One thing that suprised me is that the DS has some options that I didn’t read about in the inital reviews of the handheld. The DS has an option to “share” games wirelessly. Not only can you and someone else play the same game against eachother, but they usually only NEED ONE CART. I did notice that some games didn’t support it, but many of the multiplayer capable games have this option like Advance Wars DS.

All in all, I am glad that I chose to buy one. IT barely leaves my side now. The only thing now is to build up a library of new and usually “used” games. I think that my next purchase might either be Advance Wars DS or Meteos, depending on if Fire Emblem(DS) makes it out later on.