Stelliferous

Asynchronous Play Was Invented By Sega

2008-02-21T22:08:00.003Z

Asynchronous play has been advertised as a totally new idea by Microsoft, allowing gamers to gain experience or money for use in a much larger console based game by playing a small, portable casual game, for example. Fantastic idea! If only you could do something similar in World of Warcraft, then maybe you could have something of a life as well. However, all of this starts to sound a little familiar, and if you're someone who ever owned the Dreamcast and Sonic Adventure or Power Stone, you'll know that the little Visual Memory Units (VMU) were used in exactly the same way. As if there were any more evidence needed to show Sega were way ahead of themselves with the Dreamcast.

In other news, I noticed a post on Kotaku by Brian Ashcraft about how foreigners react to other foreigners in Japan. His interpretation is right on the money and sounded freakishly like myself when I was living there! Even if you've never lived in a foreign country, it's an interesting insight into how a homogeneous society like Japan can affect your view of your surroundings.

Guided Tour Gaming

2008-02-19T22:10:00.003Z

I recently had a conversation with my fiancee while she was in Hawaii about the way Japanese people vacation. While she's more adventurous and would rather discover a place for herself, most Japanese travellers stick almost exclusively to packaged tours and guides.

Initially I only joked that Japanese people love tours, but I began to realise that it applies a lot to our older generations too. I then made the leap to roughly equating this with other guided forms of entertainment like books and film. Since Japanese people still love being guided through an experience, it may go some way to explaining the apparent linearity of the games being produced in the country even now. Sure there may be a moment in a JRPG where you'll be allowed to wonder around and do what you like, but no more so than when the tour bus stops at the next shopping mall, giving you a chance to "explore".

While our younger generations have taken more to freedom of exploration, the younger Japanese population seems to be mostly content with the guided entertainment their previous generations enjoyed. While there may be nothing wrong with this in some cases, it does feel a bit like that format has simply been transposed onto gaming without changing the underlying premise to any great extent.

This is not to say that books or movies are no longer interesting, because they still have their place in the world of entertainment ideas, but gaming offers us a new way to express creativity like never before. The odd story-driven gaming experience has been fantastic, however, and discounting it entirely would certainly not be the way to go.

Gaming commentators have been speculating the question of why Japanese gaming has fallen so far behind in recent years, and I think the reason really does lie behind this cultural stagnation more than anything else. They've found what they can sell in Japan and they'll continue doing it until the public gets bored of it, and Japanese people have the amazing ability to find entertainment over and over in the face of repetition.

GDC will see some discussion over telling a great story while maintaining interesting game design, and I really hope a few Japanese developers take away some ideas from this too.

Wii Voting Channel shows Japan is different, none surprised.

2008-01-20T10:48:00.000Z

The most interesting thing I find about the Everybody Votes Channel on the Nintendo Wii is the worldwide poll. Not least because when the results come in, it gives us a relatively clear picture on how the world is thinking, allowing the organisation of votes by percentage.

These results are the most interesting for me because Japan is almost always at one extreme or the other! For example, when the question "Are you better at using your brain or your brawn" came up, most countries were for brain, but Japan was more than 50% for brawn. Crazy I know, we all thought they were super-smart.

However, the most telling results were those of "Have you visited a foreign country" and similarly a few months later "Do you want to live in a foreign country?" In both cases European countries were fairly high on the list for Yes, but Japan was right down the bottom with most people giving No as their answer.

Could the seeming lack of desire to be internationally aware from Japanese Wii owners show that Japan is indeed the most isolated of modern countries? (Modern countries being defined as those who have a substantial Wii install base, and are participating in the voting channel).

Maybe not surprising, but still a little saddening.

Grenades

2007-12-11T17:23:00.000Z

Sometimes it takes great inspiration to come up with an innovative new gaming mechanic, but I think it takes just as much imagination to think about removing one.

Let's take the example of grenades in first-person-shooters. Sure, they've been included in every realistic shooter since the dawn of simulated parabolic physics, but they began working their way into non-realistic games as a mechanic for reasons that I can barely fathom.

Halo 3 doesn't need grenades, and all too often they lead to frantic throwing of said weapons when a player's in trouble, throwing randomly around corners when there's a blip on the radar, and generally getting in the way of the fun of the game. I'd like to highlight the random nature of both cases here, because that's precisely what they lead to in an unrealistic game like Halo 3 - randomness.

Everyone loves it when they manage to stick a plasma grenade, but that's not what usually happens and it's more or less by chance most of the time anyway. Grenades make the multiplayer aspect of the game far less enjoyable for me, but maybe because I'm a multiplayer FPS veteran, hailing from the days of Unreal Tournament, where it was all about the action, the dodging and the shooting. Imagine that, in an FPS. Perhaps there should be a new genre - First Person Grenade Throwing.

Hats off to the designers of Team Fortress 2, who actually realised this during their development process. Listen to the developer commentaries and you'll see what I mean. It truly does take some real thought about gameplay to make the difficult decision to remove popular mechanics in order to ensure things are fun again, so well done I say.

Well done.

Frag Dolls

2007-11-12T20:10:00.000Z

I just want to voice how annoyed and frustrated I am at how anybody can get a job involving nothing more than playing games, attending game events and generally being in the gaming media eye, simply because they are a girl and interested in games.

Ubisoft have a lot to answer for! I feel positively discriminated against, but I suppose like all things, the minority is always more valuable. Perhaps male fashion designers fall into this category, or male chefs - it's just the way things are, but damn is it annoying.

I'll be a member of your next PR gaming clan! Just thought I'd put the word out there...

Edit: Apologies for the frustration, but as soon as I heard that the Frag Dolls simply responded to an ad put out there by Ubisoft, I had to vent. Nothing against female gamers, but this is a clear attempt to appeal to even more male gamers if you ask me.

The Problem with Podcasts

2007-09-23T20:01:00.000Z

About a year ago I started listening to the Gamespot.com podcast - The Hotspot - to keep informed on the changing industry as the launch of the Wii and PS3 drew ever closer. As I was still living in Japan at the time, I found it interesting to see how things unfolded from a totally different perspective. Being British, I had gotten used to hearing about new consoles a long time before I ever got to see one in stores. This time however, I was in the region where it all happens. I witnessed first-hand the sell-out of the PS3 in its first weeks contrasted against its marked availability thereafter. I saw the shortage of the Nintendo Wii and the mad-rushes it spawned whenever a word was spoken of stock availability.

I wasn't able to partake wholly of the gaming industry (though I did buy a Japanese Wii), so I enjoyed listening to the slick, yet still humble offerings of the Gamespot crew to keep me abreast of recent developments in this fast-paced arena.

Since I had been listening to one gaming podcast for about a year, I decided to branch out to others to get a feel for different approaches and opinions. For some reason I expected the same level of quality from other major gaming media outlets - how wrong I was.

While I shan't name the particular podcast here, I do have a few general observations about what makes a bad podcast: Firstly, talking the way you do when you're not being recorded doesn't work well in recordings. This includes arguing, interrupting and talking at the same time. What's more, crass language a "mature" podcast does not make. Why must it be so that mature equals swearing? In my opinion, a mature podcast is one that is well structured, allows everyone their time to speak and give their opinion with respect, and uses a vocabulary conducive to discussion, not argument. Secondly, assuming everyone knows what you're talking about causes the loss of your audience to the point they can no longer follow and become disinterested. Particularly, talking in acronyms for titles and concepts makes the general conversation hard to follow - made worse by immature bickering. Acronyms are used in typing because the time taken in typing a full name is proportionately much longer than it takes to simply say it. Acronyms are also not specific and rely mainly on the context, which again is hampered by the already difficult-to-follow conversation. Humour is another issue, but one that is largely based on opinion. I for one appreciate the irony that the Gamespot crew observes so well in their podcasts.

While The Hotspot is a kid-friendly podcast and has a listener base to reflect that in some ways, the discussion is never dumbed-down and there's a great deal for a truly mature audience to appreciate.

Arithmetic

2007-07-06T21:48:00.000Z

I've mentioned before that Japan has a very cash-driven society, which while being somewhat inconvenient at times, has the added effect of improving the overall level of arithmetic ability. Often shop staff will not even need to refer to the cash register in order to calculate how much change should be given to you, making the whole process extremely swift. It was a very common practice to purposefully overspend a certain amount to ensure you'd get the desired change, improving customer arithmetic too!

However, having come back to the UK, I've noticed that the level of mental arithmetic ability is severely lacking. At the train station for example, the ticket I usually bought is £18.60, for which I can assume people usually pay £20 and end up with a pile of change, but I decided to try and engineer a return of a £5 note. Upon paying £23.60, I had been met with perplexed gazes on no less than 3 separate occasions. Staring at the amount they had been given, they would repeat the price to me - as if I had misheard - to which I would reply "Well that's £5 change, isn't it?"

It's often mentioned how the level of English ability is steadily decreasing amongst our population, but if staff dealing with money all day cannot handle this level of simple mathematics, I fear the level of all basic and core subject may be slipping. What's more, it seems valuable school time is now going to be spent teaching children how to be respectful, polite, and deal with anger - something that absolutely should have been taught by parents in the first place.

Credit Cards, Restaurants, Courtesy

2007-07-01T10:20:00.000Z

Japan has a very cash-driven society. We've gotten so used to using credit cards for everything, that I was surprised to find that you could go to a restaurant and only be able to pay in cash. However, I do prefer the way the Japanese handle paying at restaurants - rather than leave your cash or credit card to be taken away by a waiter, you would go up to a cash register near the front of the restaurant. This has multiple benefits.

First of all, you don't have to sit around waiting for a bill to arrive before you can go and pay, putting control in the customer's hands.
You don't have to entrust your credit card with someone you shouldn't trust - a great deal of credit card duplication crimes occur because of the way we handle paying at a restaurant.
There's also less legwork for service staff to do, meaning better service overall.

Our way of dealing with payment at a restaurant hadn't changed with the times, it was based on the use of cash, whereby the customer would be able to see the change they received, and instantly know whether they were being cheated. Credit cards do not offer that kind of immediate feedback and require a different approach, but it seems we can never change that easily. That's why it strikes me as odd how in a cash-driven society such as Japan's, they can still implement good ideas, even for the relatively unpopular credit card, so much faster than we can.

In all honesty, the crime aspect is not such a problem in Japan anyway, but the only time we've ever had problems with credit card duplication is in restaurants in Europe, where you are (socially) unable to watch over what is being done with your card.

This also reminds me of the way things are done in coffee shops over in Japan. Once you had finished with your drinks, snacks and anything else, you'd take your own tray to a clean-up area, rather than leaving it rather selfishly for shop staff to clean up for you. It's no wonder shop staff in Japan manage to remain so polite when they are offered such courtesies. This is just another example of how a little extra courtesy from everyone can make life better in the end.

B-People

2007-06-16T08:45:00.000Z

At long last, one country is taking a stand and beginning to recognise that not being a morning person is something you're born with, something that's written into your DNA. Of course, I've known it all my life. If you operate better later in the day, that's who you are and you can't change it, just the same as you can't change a person's race or gender. In Denmark, the B-Society promotes the acknowledgement that this is a genetic difference and should be recognised by companies.

Beyond allowing employees to work when they are actually able to do so, the act of having flexible starting times for any given type of work has added socio-economic gains. For example, there would be less congestion on our roads and trains, eliminating the rush-hour and spreading it throughout sensible times of the day.

The faster world governments and companies can realise this, the better. As this BBC article explains, it is even possible to work to a 25-hour clock, which sounds like a fantastic idea! "If he is in at 10 today, it will be 11 tomorrow, then 12 - you can get the general idea."

I've always said that my natural body clock defaults to a longer day, and this could very well be the solution to that problem. You can also watch a video of this BBC article.

Needless to say, I will be joining the B-Society.

New Host, New Name

2007-06-06T15:16:00.000Z

Welcome to Stelliferous, formerly known as Fervenepherous!

I've been thinking for a while now that a name change is in order, especially since we have had to move hosts. Don't worry though, you'll still get the same wacky anecdotes on games, Japan and life (though not necessarily in that order). In fact, the only thing you really need to worry about is our new address:

www.stelliferous.net

Everything else will be just the way you remember it! So please update your links and bookmarks so you're not caught short when the old host expires!

Branding Odity

2007-05-28T23:10:00.000Z

It might seem like an odd point to think about, but there's something strangely different with the way Japanese brand their products compared to the way it's done in the west. I hadn't fully realised it until I came back to England, but now it's blatantly clear and points out a cultural difference I'd never thought about before. Look at the products in any pharmacy, haircare aisle, or even the back of a cereal box, and they're often plastered with photos of people sporting the hair colour or enjoying the cereal in question. We're not supposed to know these people, but for some reason we're supposed to identify with them. "They seem to be enjoying this cereal, maybe I will too!"

Conversely, photos of actual people are rarely used on such products in Japan. Instead, characterisations are used either as some anime-style person or simple representation. Looking at the various medicines available at the pharmacy and you'll often see cute little characters transitioning from looking ill or run down to feeling all better again! Even the hair products sport character representations with the appropriate hair colour/effect, rather than photos. This might seem weird for those who have gotten used to our form of branding, but here are a few points worth considering:

I really don't want to have to stare at often ugly people on the back of my cereal box every morning, or on any product I have to keep around the house for that matter.
Characters can be made to look exactly how the creator intends and so they will always suit the situation.
What's more, they'll never be ugly, unless that's the intention.
Anime looks cool.

Anime characters may represent human figures, but they're different enough that we can accept the abstraction between them and ourselves, while maintaining an amount of identification. I suspect there is a deeper cultural reason as to why the Japanese prefer cute characters over real people, but I wasn't raised in Japan and I have to say that after coming back to England, I prefer the characters.

Landmarks

2007-05-21T18:05:00.000Z

I had to clear out some things today and among them were a couple of consoles that have been made more or less obsolete by newer versions. However, I can't bring myself to get rid of them. I still have the boxes in which they originally came delivered to me and have packed them away in almost the same condition as I received them.

"But why care so much about old consoles?" I hear you ask. Well, for me they're not just old consoles, they're landmarks of time. They carry with them the experience and significance of every stage in my life. High school, sixth form and university are all represented in their own time frames by the consoles I enjoyed at that time. What's more, the contemplation during the deepest of gaming sessions, while something very few appreciate, means that time spent was not wasted as I'm sure many think it was. I'm not willing to cast that aside so easily.

Consoles map a certain technological and ontological path that is understood by few, but enjoyed by many. I certainly hope this medium and its history one day gains the respect it deserves. It's come a long way and still has a long way to go, but I'll always be there, experiencing, enjoying and never forgetting those landmarks.

Fixed IE

2007-04-08T21:15:00.000Z

Just a quick update to say that the IE bug has been fixed by essentially putting the iFrame in another div, restricting its ability to break the layout. I've therefore enabled fluid layout for IE again.

Strangely, the fluid layout did work in IE, but only if you tried to resize the window and not when the page loaded. After messing about with CSS and even Javascript, it turns out the simplest solution worked the best. It seems that IE wasn't properly treating the iFrame as a block element and rendering with all dimensions taken into account when the page was first loaded, so the div does all that in place of the iFrame.

Code is bloated, but that's what happens when you try to make it work in as many browsers as possible (at least the top two).

Broken IE

2007-04-08T09:14:00.000Z

I thought I had fixed this before, but as I was checking my site in Internet Explorer 6 yesterday, to my horror I realised that the fluid design is largely broken in that browser. I frantically put together some browser fixes in the CSS, but it looks like IE cannot handle a fluid design with iFrames, which I have to use for Blogger to display correctly in my page. So until I get some PHP hosting, IE users will see the page as mostly static.

This once again demonstrates the awkward non-standardisation of IE and the lengths a designer must go to ensure a working page in all browsers. Simple and standard code is nice, but you can't help but make it bloated when you have to include so many fixes just because browsers display things differently. There really isn't a way around it without having pages that appear broken in other browsers.

I think this website says it all...

HD Recovery

2007-03-20T12:55:00.000Z

Having just recovered my desktop PC from a major hard disk failure, I had to report on my findings in the hopes that others will not have to go through the same painstaking process as I did. First of all, the problem began when windows would simply not boot, stating errors such as "NTLDR is missing" and Windows set-up not even recognising that Windows was installed on this hard disk, giving [Unknown] as the file system. I thought the recovery console might be able to help, but either I couldn't remember the administrator password, or windows simply couldn't read the account properly. Either way, I couldn't even access the recovery console to try anything there.

All seemed lost at this point with thoughts of rebuilding the drive going through my mind, but before I gave up on it completely, I discovered a fantastic little set of tools called TestDisk. Using a DOS boot CD downloaded from freepctech.com combined with a CD containing the DOS TestDisk application, I was able to discover the hidden partition structure of the disk, reset it to NTFS and rebuild the boot sector! After hours of research and allowing the application to scan my hard disks, I was finally able to start Windows XP, as if nothing had changed!

I'm remaining cautiously optimistic, but so far everything is in tact. If you don't have a second PC to work from, I recommend you have this application on a bootable CD, because it just might save you from having to format your hard disk one day.

Voltage

2007-03-16T23:56:00.000Z

Having come back from Japan, I brought a lot of electronic devices with me, as you'd imagine. While you may be aware that the power sockets are different in Japan, you may not know that the voltages are different too. This means that - unlike when visiting other European countries - a simple socket adapter will not be sufficient as you will likely overload the equipment (or socket, in the case of using European equipment there). This is because in the UK we use 240v power sockets, while in Japan and the US they use 110v. I overcame this in Japan by using a transformer that could step up or down to meet the voltage requirements, but because of changing baggage allowances, I couldn't bring the transformer back with me - it was just about the heaviest thing I had.

Fortunately for us travellers, some AC adapters are already rated to work with voltages from all over the world, just look for the tiny writing that says Input: 110v-240v and you know you can use it anywhere without fear of overloading. However, there doesn't seem to be much consistency with what kinds of devices are supplied with a universal voltage AC adapter. While my Keitai (cell phone) adapter could be used with any voltage, as you'd expect, other portable devices like the Nintendo DS are supplied with chargers that only work in Japan. Conversely, the Xbox 360 Wireless Headset has a universally rated charger. Now how many people do you know who take their Xbox 360 wireless headsets on holiday with them? Unless you take your Xbox 360 with you too, you can't even use it! Furthermore, even if you did, the Xbox 360 is not rated to work with other voltages!

It makes me wonder how much extra cost and effort it takes to make AC adapters that work across all voltages and why the chargers for such obvious travel devices such as the Nintendo DS aren't rated to work around the world.

60Hz

2007-03-14T11:12:00.000Z

I finally started using my UK Wii console yesterday and had a chance to see what was different to the Japanese version. Despite obvious language differences, the most glaring was the weather channel, which has been super-scaled-down from the Japanese version. The home page of it is sparse beyond belief and the symbols are just boring by comparison. You don't see today's high and low temperatures, you don't see precipitation percentage at a glance, you don't get a short description of the day's weather, just the icon and current temperature. Of course you can still click on the icon for a breakdown of the day's weather, but that was present in the Japanese version anyway.

Beyond the system software, as I jumped into Wii Sports I was horrified to see the flybys on Golf being incredibly jittery and not moving smoothly like they did before. If you live in Japan or America, you've probably never even heard of this problem, but the PAL TV standard here in the UK runs at 50Hz, while the NTSC TV format used in Japan and America runs at 60Hz. This being the case, games and console hardware are often designed to work at 60Hz so in order to keep the 50Hz TVs up to the same speed, frames have to be dropped. This is what gives the horrible jittery appearance, and in the days of previous generations, actually made games run slower. European fans of Final Fantasy VII may remember how the sound in summons such as Knights of the Round can become hugely out-of-sync with the images.

Thankfully though, the Wii has a built-in 60Hz option on the hardware for European machines. As mentioned though, this wasn't always the case, but the first console to stand up and make a difference in this area was the Sega Dreamcast. The 60Hz option had to be included in the game itself and was not a hardware option, but it was the first console to have games allowing this choice. The PS2 even now hardly ever includes this option. The only PS2 game I've ever seen with a 60Hz option is Rez, and that's published by Sega. Even some of the most recent games like Final Fantasy XII still do not include this vital option and it's only Sony that hasn't pushed this standard.

After the Dreamcast paved the way, others followed, with the Xbox being the first to include it as a hardware feature. Since then we have come to expect this option in European hardware and it's good to see that 50Hz is becoming less of an issue. Just remember how much us European gamers owe to Sega and their ill fated Dreamcast.

Second Sony Home

2007-03-08T15:37:00.000Z

With the revealing of Sony's new Home system at the GDC, there have been many people quick to point out the similarities it bares with Xbox Live and the Wii's Mii. However, when I saw the introduction videos, the first thing it made me think of was Second Life. Sure enough as the video went on, there's no mistaking how much Home resembles an ostensibly working (and much prettier) version of Second Life.

Factor in the ability to download new items for your private house area and invite people over, you've pretty much got the same basic idea. Despite this obvious move to fill all the holes in the PS3 on-line system, it does look like something that could genuinely attract a few people, though Second Life is free to download, and the entrance fee for Home is at least $400.

Nintendo Nostalgia

2007-02-23T03:29:00.000Z

For anyone who has the Wii, they probably already know about the Everybody Votes channel. The same channel is also available here in Japan, but the questions presented seem to be quite different from those on the English language Wii consoles.

First of all, there was no Dogs Vs. Cats debate. This had been reduced to simply "Do you have a pet," which as I guessed, most Japanese people do not - you're not allowed to keep pets in an apartment. Other questions have included very Japan-specific questions like "For breakfast, do you eat Rice or Bread?" Can I say cereal and milk? They're both from cereal grains, so it presents an interesting choice.

Other results that have come back include "10 minutes after leaving home, you forget if you locked the door," with answers being "Go back and check" and "Maybe it'll be OK." Every region voted for going back, but interestingly the city regions come up in a darker colour, meaning more of them voted for this option. Goes to show how much more paranoid city folks are.

The final and most surprising thing of the day occurred when I checked the Wii Weather channel (no, really). It's a little rainy today and so the Weather channel depicted this with a light shower sound in the background and the usual icon. However, I also noticed that the music is different when it's raining. At this point, Nintendo nostalgia hit me like a Megaton Hammer. The music playing was a version of the Kakariko Village theme song from Zelda: A Link to the Past!

As far as I know, this is completely undocumented on the web. I love discovering a new Nintendo cameo in their games and hardware.

Digital Distribution

2007-02-09T14:45:00.000Z

I've often been somewhat annoyed by PC games always requiring players to have the CD or DVD present in the drive before allowing the game to be started. This is completely farcical and game companies can only get away with it because we've been conditioned through using consoles, where everything is read from the disc almost all the time. However, in PC games these days, the entire game is copied to the hard disk for faster access, so the game disc is not necessary. Being on the move, getting a game like Battlefield 2 started was a chore, because the disc always had to be located and inserted into the drive before the game would even run. This is ridiculous when considering that the game is mostly played on-line, meaning that the key can be checked for validity as much as EA wants.

Thankfully there seems to be a trend towards expelling this weak form of copy protection, especially with the growing popularity of digital distribution. If you have a valid and registered key, that's all you need, right? So the actual software itself should be readily available to you even if you don't have the disc to hand. Software registration is commonplace amongst other kinds of applications, because companies wouldn't expect users to have to insert a CD every time they wanted to use Photoshop for example. So it's nice to see games like Company of Heroes take this same approach and allow players to register the game and just play it without the need for the disc to constantly be in the drive.

With digital distribution coming to the forefront of game purchases, the requirement for physical discs is diminishing. As a good example, I recently purchased World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade and had it sent to my family in the UK. When it arrived, I was able to simply have the serial key sent via e-mail to me here in Japan, allowing me to register as having bought a copy on the World of Warcraft website and begin downloading the Burning Crusade client. Essentially, all I had really bought was the serial key and therefore the right to have the software on my PC, which is what it's really all about in the end.

In my particular case, digital downloads save a great deal of hassle, but of course it's not for everyone. One of the biggest drawbacks is in clients that require your PC to always be on-line and logged in to the distribution service, like Valve's Steam. For single-player games and people who are always on the move and like to play a few games on their laptop, this situation is not ideal. Furthermore, actually buying Burning Crusade from the website advertising the game as a download is far more expensive than buying a retail boxed copy - twice as much in fact.

Digital distribution needs to be made more friendly and a lot cheaper, but I'm looking forward to how this new technology will change the face of the industry in the years to come.

Wii Opinions

2007-01-11T11:37:00.000Z

Having had some time with the Wii now I can offer some educated opinions on the hardware and functionality of the system. One of the things that struck me the most was how accurate the pointing can be. I had often seen videos of the Wii being used before, and for one reason or another, the pointer on screen was very shaky. However, after using it myself, I can safely say that you can really make it as accurate as you want - or at least, as accurate as you can hold the controller. Tilting the controller works flawlessly and never interferes with gameplay. Use of vast swinging motions, which one would expect when swinging a bat for example, don't really do much for accuracy and in actual fact, games are often played better with smaller motions. The only times I have had troubles is with bowling in Wii Sports and a couple of micro-games in Wario Ware, but I will concede that it is probably because I didn't know the timing or simply how to play those games respectively. Also, any game that requires the remote to be pushed towards the screen should be programed with a good deal of margin for error, since it is difficult to do with any degree of accuracy. Apart from those tiny issues, the controller works very much like you would expect it to, almost scarily so in some cases.

As for the games, Wii Sports is great for introducing people to the Wii. Including it as a pack-in with the console for North America and Europe was really the best thing Nintendo could have done and I wonder why they didn't just include it in the Japanese launch. The games in Wii Sports are obviously familiar and people who have never even played a game before can just pick up the remote and know how to play. The actions involved are what you'd expect them to be and nothing feels too odd or abstracted.

Wario Ware on the other hand relies almost entirely on abstraction and so non-gamers seem to shy away from it. I, however, prefer this game simply because the range of actions and tasks that it will give you are far more interesting. Combine this with bouts of Nintendo nostalgia and you've got a package perfect for long-time-gamers. This game is extremely Japanese though, even more so than usual, with Edo period-style writings and music backing up the different Wii-remote position explanations, I wonder just how they will change all of that for a western launch and if the atmosphere it creates will suffer as a result. Regardless, Wario Ware demonstrates a plethora of interesting ways in which to use the Wii-remote in a collection of games that are just fun to play.

In conclusion, I'm very pleased with what I've seen so far and can't wait to see how developers will use all the features available to them in the future. Less ports with tacked-on controls and more innovation, please!

Wii at Last

2007-01-02T11:54:00.000Z

I had previously heard that a nearby Toys 'R' Us would be getting a shipment of just over 200 Wii consoles on the first day of the new year. Despite having stayed out late into the night for the New Year festivities, I decided to make a concerted effort to wake up early and join the line for the hard-to-find console.

This was the plan, though even the best laid plans fall apart at the hands of oversleeping. By the time I had woken up, the store had been open an hour already and things were looking bleak. However, I decided to give the store a call anyway in some small hope that some may be left over. Sure enough, there were a mere 30 consoles left, with a warning from the shop assistant that they were going fast. Without hesitation, or even a proper shower, I ran out to that very store, on the way calculating approximately how much time I had left - 25 minutes.

Upon entering the store, I saw the stand for the Wii with all the little slips they use for various items. I quickly scanned all the prices - quicker than trying to read what they are - and found that golden number: 24,999yen. I looked closer at the slip of paper, and noticed it was the last one left. I wasted no time in snapping it up and heading for the check-out counter, confirming with the staff that it really was for the Wii Console. I proceeded to the pick-up counter where the staff obligingly handed over the console, proclaiming almost ceremoniously "Hai, Wii hontai desu".

I didn't buy Zelda because I want to be able to fully understand everything that's going on in that game, so instead I bought Wii Sports and Wario Ware.

Whether this was really the last Wii or not, I'll never know, but the journey getting there was epic all the same.

Spirit

2006-12-27T11:15:00.000Z

Christmas may not be an official holiday here in Japan, but the Japanese certainly get into the commercial spirit of it all.

In this example, the office lights of this building have been left on in the shape of a Christmas tree! The star on top leads me to believe that this was intentional and not a happy coincidence (though that would be cool), but nevertheless it's a nice effect.

Makes me wonder if they were left that way or if everyone moved to the centre of the building to work...

Supply

2006-12-23T16:34:00.000Z

As Christmas draws near, it seems supply is finally meeting demand for the PlayStation 3. I was actually able to walk into a few stores around Kobe today and see both versions of the console ready to be picked up. However, that seems to be where they end their journeys, because of all the busy shoppers, most were asking about the Wii. This slowdown in the uptake of the PS3 could be due to the general lack of quality Japanese titles, with Ridge Racer 7 and Gundam: Crossfire being the two top selling games on the console here, while Resistance: Fall of Man has gotten the best reviews and most attention in the West.

The Wii is still in short supply here and there is not a single store that knows when they'll be getting another shipment. The US seems to be getting a steady supply of the console while Japan remains largely left-out. Christmas might not be an official holiday here, but wouldn't it be possible for Nintendo to spread the cheer just a little bit?

Wii Hunt

2006-12-18T14:20:00.000Z

In my efforts to find a Wii, it seems that everything Wii-related is available in abundance here in Japan - except the Wii itself. I did stumble across this amusing little notice in the Kobe Toys 'R' Us regarding the "defective" Wii remote straps. The notice points out that new model straps are available that are much stronger than the original, boasting a 1mm thickness instead of the flimsy 0.6mm - a whole 0.4mm improvement!

Needless to say this is one of the most pointless recalls in history. If the remote is flying out of your hand, you're doing it wrong. Who's willing to bet that one day those 0.6mm straps will fetch a nice price on eBay as collector's items?

It has been said that certain accessories are becoming hard to find in the US, especially the Nunchuk attachment. In many cases these are harder to come by than the Wii consoles themselves, with many gamers asking "Where are all the Nunchuks?" We have the answer - they are sitting here in Japan in their hundreds at the lowly Sofmap of Kobe! Just look at all those unused Nunchuks, and half the price of UK retail too. Below them you will also see the Classic Controllers sporting 5000 Wii points as a pack-in. Perhaps this is to make up for the lack of Wii Sports as an inclusive item with the Wii console in Japan.

In the end I still couldn't find a Wii, but I bought one of those sought after Nunchuks and a Wii Remote to tide me over. Now I can pretend to pretend to bowl!

Shop

2006-12-15T15:58:00.000Z

A new site-shop has been added allowing you to buy all your game related merchandise through us! This feature comes courtesy of Amazon.co.uk, so expect a wide selection from the get-go.

You can reach the shop either through the new links to the left and on the navigation bar at the top or by clicking here.

There are only a few days left for Christmas delivery so better hurry!

Happy Shopping!

Fluid

2006-12-14T15:43:00.000Z

Marvel at the fluidity of this design! Now you can take full advantage of all your screen space, which is especially useful if you have a wide-screen monitor. There is a minimum width for the main content though, so you still won't be able to read it like ticker-tape.

Elite Beat Agents

2006-11-29T16:26:00.000Z

Last year a little game called Osu! Tatakae! Oendan! hit the DS in Japan and became an instant classic. The game provided a rhythm action style of gameplay utilising the touch screen and was wrapped in an over-the-top manga presentation. The stars were 3 male cheerleaders (Oendan) who solve the world's problems by dancing perfectly to various J-pop tunes. While this game gained worldwide fame, it had never been officially released in the west or translated into English. Enter Elite Beat Agents, the spiritual successor to Oendan, with distinctly more American themes, but the same great gameplay.

Gameplay itself remains the same; touch coloured circles in time with the music that plays in order to fill up your “elite-o-meter”. Every so often you'll need to follow a ball across the screen too, which synchronises with various waves performed by the agents. Both of these elements combine well with each musical track, but there's also a “spin the wheel” mechanic which doesn't involve any musical synchronisation and feels a little tacked on, like the developers thought the tapping and sliding wouldn't be enough to hold gamer's interest.

The music selection in the game covers a wide spectrum and is sure to contain something that everyone will recognise. From “Jumpin' Jack Flash” and “YMCA” to “Material Girl”, the music is used well with each scenario. Only a couple of the newer tracks seems a little out of place, but besides that each stage offers some cohesive use of tunes. The stages themselves will see the Agents helping an array of people from a babysitter who wants to ask her beau to “go steady”, to the dubious blonde heiresses with more money than sense who find themselves trapped on a deserted island (to the tune of “Material Girl” no less).

Elite Beat Agents carries on the tradition of extreme manga presentation, so be thankful that isn't lost in the westernisation, because it really is something that makes this game so appealing. Every scenario is introduced and intersected with comic-like illustrations that come to life with the extravagance of their presentation and animation. The game's exaggerated sense of crazy humour permeates throughout and makes each stage an even more enjoyable experience. One particular scenario, however, played to “You're My Inspiration”, shows that even relatively serious subjects can be broached by the Agents and will leave even the most stalwart gamer with a lump in their throat. Furthermore, once you've cleared a stage, you can save a replay of your performance, and since there's so much going on in the background and on the top screen while you're playing that you would otherwise miss, this is an excellent feature.

One thing that must be said about Elite Beat Agents is that it is sometimes unfairly tough, especially in the later stages, and requires an intimate knowledge of the timings and rhythms of each song. Even on the default difficulty level, you will find yourself needing to repeat some chapters several times before clearing them. This can get frustrating at times, but you'll never feel cheated, as the solution always lies in knowing the rhythm of the song and the pattern of circles that appear.

Beyond the single player game there are unlockable stages and multiplayer modes, allowing you to compete or cooperate with your Agent buddies. Cooperative mode allows players to take on different parts of the music while others wait for their turn. Competitive modes see 2 teams of players playing the same song and striving to give the best performance. Unfortunately only the Vs. mode is available over single-cart play and it can take a while to upload a song to someone else's DS. These modes are enjoyable, but only a few songs are available and some small amount of lag did occur.

Overall, Elite Beat Agents is a faithful successor to one of the most enjoyable games to have never made it to the west. While the main game can be difficult and even frustrating at times, the presentation and addictive gameplay are enough to keep you coming back for one more try.

Final Verdict: 9.0

Next Gen Experience

2006-11-23T15:47:00.000Z

I recently had the opportunity to play on a Playstation 3 at the Kobe, Sannomiya branch of Tsutaya. A few demos were on offer which could be switched between when the console reset after a period of time - presumably a feature of the demo unit and not of the retail console. Of notable mention were Ridge Racer 7 and Devil May Cry 4 as well as Gran Turismo HD. The demos currently have no way of allowing the player to try out the sixaxis controls since all setup menus are disabled, which is a shame given that Ridge Racer 7 supports sixaxis controls in its retail version.

These were decent demos in their own right, but one gets the feeling that the Xbox 360 is easily capable of the same level of graphics. What's more, the demos were insultingly easy for an avid gamer - Sony's ostensible target for the next generation.

In addition to the PS3 on display, there was a single encased Nintendo Wii console with Wiimote and Nunchuck alongside, safely out of reach of sticky fingers. The Wii had pride of place even though the console has not even been released yet, with a large flat screen TV showing off the console and control method. The display easily caught the attention of bystanders with girls shouting the typical "Sugoi! Nani sore?" (Wow! What's that?) before adding "Tanoshisou ne." (Looks fun, doesn't it?) It's nice to see that the Wii is living up to its promise of attracting more users than the typical high-school guys that crowded around the PS3.

Metacritic

2006-11-22T14:21:00.000Z

Reading reviews for games is all well and good, but you really have to trust the source you read from to have similar tastes to your own. It is therefore often a good idea with titles that you're not sure about, to traverse multiple websites or read other magazines and newspapers in order to get a wider perspective on the general opinion of critics out there.

This can often be a lengthy process, but I recently discovered a website that does all the legwork for you: metacritic.com. This site provides a weighted average among many publications in order to give a fuller scope of opinion. However, because the averages are weighted, it's likely that some longer standing websites such as GameSpot.com - who gave The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess the lowest score of all currently accounted for publications - have a bigger say in the final rating. Despite this fact, I still think this is a great idea and I will certainly be using it in the future.

metacritic.com

A New Hope

2006-11-19T12:01:00.000Z

This is the beginning of a new blog that should make updating easier for me, therefore allowing more frequent updates.

Sony sues Lik-Sang.com

2006-10-25T16:58:00.000Z

Sony Europe recently opened a lawsuit against Lik-Sang.com for their sales of Asian PSPs to Europeans. Sony have stated that this is to protect consumers from products that do not conform to the European safety regulations. However, all PSPs are made equal and the only difference will be in the power adapter. Lik-Sang have consequently closed their operations with a statement on their web page.

We can only hope that this is not the future of things to come. Enthusiastic European gamers rely on these import services to receive products within a reasonable space of time, not 6 months after Japan and the US. Interestingly enough this follows news that Sony are delaying the PS3 in Europe even further - could this be related? Sony are unable to meet world demand so they stamp out those who can satisfy it. If anything seems like "sour grapes", I'd say that's it.

Lik-Sang.com closing statement

Gamespot article

Petition to save Lik-Sang

Sort of

2006-10-08T17:51:00.000Z

The Japanese are known for being humble, but I was particularly surprised by this example. Despite the fact that the buffet had every conceivable food type known to man, they still didn't deign to call it a full selection. No, in their scrutinous eyes, it is still only a sort of selection.

Hot Communication

2006-10-08T12:14:00.000Z

This one can be seen on the elevator doors of a bowling complex in Kobe. Indeed they are correct in saying that enjoying is the most important matter, but whatever hot communication is, I want it... now.

Rushing

2006-09-26T12:17:00.000Z

Damn, if only I'd known not to rush before I got on the train! A perfect translation to English in terms of accuracy, but still somehow doesn't make sense since you can only see this particular gem after you have in fact entered the train... useful.

Deeppresso

2006-09-22T12:21:00.000Z

As far as canned coffee naming goes, this one ranks pretty highly among the most amusing. Surprisingly enough, the drink itself was not as disappointing as the name might suggest. One could also be forgiven for thinking that the geniuses behind its naming wanted to use as many double-letters as they could cram into one word.

Wii Launch Announced

2006-09-16T12:28:00.000Z

A release date and price point has finally been announced for the Wii, Nintendo's unique step into the next generation. It seems the US is going to get the console first on November 19, followed by Japan on December 2. Europe will not be far behind with a December 8 launch date.

The price points are set with Japan having the console for 25,000 yen ($213), the US at $250 and the UK at £179 ($337). I've converted everything to US$ so you can see just how stupid the UK price is. Nintendo tell us that this is because of individual country's import taxes, and they're probably right. Being in the Nintendo homeland, we're getting the best price here in Japan, but we also feel a little let-down by the fact that the console is going to be released in the US first. Nintendo are very clever though and have obviously realised that this is where the money's at, as they learnt from the original DS launch.

English

2006-09-10T12:30:00.000Z

Living in Japan and not knowing much Japanese, I'm always pleased to see some information being given in English. However, I get the feeling that some people have simply used some kind of online translator without ever having the sentences checked by someone who knows how to write English. The latest example is one I found in an Internet Cafe in Kobe, the photo speaks for itself and if you're the person who is not possession of good monitor though apologizes very much by the picture quality not being great.

Speed!

2006-09-06T12:33:00.000Z

It has often been said that the Internet speed in Japan is the fastest in the world - and with speeds of up to 100Mbps (Mega bits per second) available, they're probably right. However, I've not really had the chance to fully test my Internet connection here - until now that is. Just yesterday I commenced download of a 1GB file from a Japanese server and saw some surprising figures in the dialogue that followed. Starting at a transfer rate of just over 1MBps (Mega Bytes per second), the connection eventually settled to about 332KBps (Kilo Bytes per second) at 30MB in. Bare in mind that this is on a cheap cable package deal connection, but it still blows away the speeds I used to get in the UK. Needless to say, the rest of the world has some catching up to do.

Graffiti

2006-08-19T12:36:00.000Z

As far as graffiti goes, this has to be the most innocent I've ever seen. Nothing like "Call this number for hot sex" or crude depictions of various human anatomies, no, this one simply asks the question "Do you like Kobe?"

Japanese consideration for others wins over again, even conquering common graffiti scratchings. This has to be a good thing.

Classic Mario and New Metroid

2006-06-26T12:38:00.000Z

I've recently purchased both New Super Mario Bros. and Metroid Prime: Hunters for the DS, both from Play-Asia.com using the coupon from an earlier purchase of Animal Crossing: Wild World. I was surprised to find that shipping is free to Japan from the Hong Kong based online retailer, so the final cost came out much cheaper than expected.

As for the games, Animal Crossing has kept me going for a couple of months now and I've actually been playing for a little bit every day - like the game intends. It's compelling just to find out what's new each day - is there a new visitor or did the local store get that rare set-piece you've been waiting for - there's something new every time. The Wi-Fi element also opens up a whole other side to the game, giving a greater possibility for experiencing more of the game by visiting your friend's towns.

New Super Mario Bros. is a game that takes all the great ideas from previous mario titles, mixes them up, and then adds a whole bunch of new ones. Despite being a 2D platformer, it manages to remain fresh and new, with the familiarity you'd expect. There are even multiple ways to finish several stages, so even after finishing the game, there's more to go back to and collect.

Metroid Prime: Hunters delivers near-keyboard-and-mouse controls in the space of a tiny DS. The touch screen offers a freedom of movement that has yet to be achieved on any other console FPS. Those that have not played any PC FPS games before may find the new control style daunting over the usual lock-on style, but after a few minutes of play it becomes second nature. The Hunters Wi-Fi mode extends the game even further, even though you can only play a deathmatch if you select to play against random people. If you have some friend codes registered, there are several other multiplayer modes to choose from ranging from defense to node capturing and even bounty hunting.

With these new games and the release of the DS Lite, it seems that Nintendo can do no wrong at the moment. However, the next generation of home consoles has begun, and the battle between Sony and Nintendo will begin this November. With the whole console naming fiasco out of the way, we can now focus on how the new consoles will measure up against each other and the existing Xbox 360.

Noob

2006-06-02T12:40:00.000Z

Just yesterday I was reading a gaming publication from the UK and noticed an obvious usage of the word "noob". I believe that means my work there is complete. Now on to Japan...

Into the Lite

2006-05-04T12:41:00.000Z

At last, I finally lay my hands on the elusive DS Lite! Thanks to an insider tip-off on shipping and one-console-per-person rationing at the Kobe branch of Toys 'R' Us, Nintendo DS Lite goodness is finally mine. When I opened the package and was able to play Mario Kart DS, I was surprised at how much difference the new screens make. The DS Lite is truly much more than an aesthetic improvement - games actually look fresh and new on the improved screens. We all knew that the screens would be brighter (there are several levels of brightness available), but I was certainly not expecting such an overall improvement of visual quality. The colours in each game just appear more vibrant and the visuals are sharper. The new stylus is also a great improvement - being slightly wider it offers more comfort to the player.

So it would seem the DS Lite is an overall improvement in many areas. There only appears to be one drawback though: It would seem that the speakers are slightly smaller and don't sound quite as nice as the original DS versions. However, if you play with headphones or even external speakers, the problem is soon solved.

I've posted a picture here taken against tatami flooring for added Japanese authenticity...

DS Train-ing

2006-04-10T12:45:00.000Z

Today I noticed two people sitting side-by-side on the train - both probably students - with DS in-hand playing Animal Crossing and thinking nothing of how strange they may look to others. Both the girl and the guy were laughing and generally enjoying themselves. That's because only in Japan can you regularly witness people using their Nintendo DS Consoles or PSPs on the train without anyone else giving so much as a derogatory glance. Sure enough in the west you'll sometimes see them out in public, but those wielding the consoles are most often children. This speaks poetically of our child-like state when it comes to the public acceptance of new entertainment media. Surely if a group of businessmen can be spotted buying the latest brain-training games for their Nintendo DSs, why should it be such a stretch over in the west?

DS Lite

2006-04-01T12:47:00.000Z

Now being able to report live from Japan, I can tell you that with the arrival of the DS Lite and various training games, the console has sold out country-wide. I've been to no less than 5 different stores, all saying that they are out of stock and do not know when they'll be able to meet all of the demand. That's without including my expedition through the Amazon.co.jp web site, which was a learning experience of its own! Needless to say, things have been going well over here for the console, despite the recent release of top competing titles such as Final Fantasy XII.

In other news, the mobile telecommunications business is booming over here. The latest technological innovations add even more to the already multi-functional cell phones - GPS. That's right, the know-where-you-are-and-where-you're-going system has broken out of the flashy businessman's car and landed straight in the palm of your hand. You can plan a walk you're going to take through the city so you take the least stairs - if you happen to be so traversally inclined - or even a route that goes under as much cover as possible, for when the heavens open and you forgot your umbrella. When cell phones can be your watch, alarm, calendar, diary, camera, mp3 player and of course, phone, what's next for this catalyst for micro-technology advancement? One can only speculate at this point, but stay tuned, because things can only get better from here.