Massively Multiplayer: Gaming In The New Millennium

[RySenkari]

Guitar Hero: Meet The Band

Guitar Hero: Meet The Band is the fourth mainline game in the Guitar Hero series of rhythm games. Developed by Harmonix and published by Activision, it combines elements of both OTL's Guitar Hero: World Tour and Rock Band to create the series' first game in which four players can play a song together as a band, with a guitar, a bass guitar, a microphone, and a drum set. Gameplay is closer to OTL's Rock Band than OTL's World Tour, with the game's aesthetics being closer to OTL's World Tour. Like previous games in the series, Meet The Band features a graphical movie of a fictional rock band playing as players perform the song in time with notes that appear on the screen. As IOTL, songs have four different modes: Easy, Medium, Hard, and Expert, and band members performing in perfect rhythm will score more points and achieve a higher star rating, up to five stars total. The game features the return of "Star Power", with band members able to use their Star Power to score more points or to save other players who have failed and have dropped out of the song. The game features both local and online gameplay, with a "World Tour" mode similar to the one in OTL's Rock Band game. Of course, the biggest attraction of this game is its massive setlist, featuring songs from a wide variety of genres. OTL's Rock Band featured 58 songs out of the box, but TTL's Guitar Hero: Meet The Band features an astonishing 121 songs (except the Nintendo Wave version, which launches with 70). The songs include many from OTL's Rock Band and Guitar Hero: World Tour, including "Black Hole Sun" by Soundgarden, "Tom Sawyer" by Rush, "What I've Done" by Linkin Park, and "Spiderwebs" by No Doubt, but also include many songs original to TTL, both from established artists and from TTL artists. There's even some J-Pop and J-Rock included on the base disc, with even more Japanese and Korean popular music becoming available via DLC. Speaking of DLC, just as OTL, this game gets a MASSIVE amount, with weekly song packs, eventually giving the game a roster of 500+ songs after its first year of release.

Guitar Hero: Meet The Band is a major hit after its release on November 11, 2008 (for the Xbox 2, Sapphire, iTwin, and Wave), but it's not quite as quick of a seller as Guitar Hero III. A number of factors, including the recession and the price of the game's band set (at a cool $200), holds down the game's sales potential. Still, its excellent reviews and enormous setlist push many buyers to purchase the game regardless, and it becomes quite popular over the holiday season. The fact that it's the only band game on the market (with no Rock Band ITTL, there won't be a serious "band" game until 2009) also helps make sales strong, and it remains a consistent strong seller throughout 2009, despite the economic downturn.

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Rhythm games continue to be ultra-popular in Japan, which saw the original Dance Dance Revolution launch more than a decade ago. While that series remains hot, other popular titles have also staked their claim to being the hippest music games in the Land of the Rising Sun, and two of them have proven so popular that they've made their way to the West. The iTwin is seeing an ultra-popular rhythm game in Pop'n'Music Twinbeat, the latest console version of Konami's mega arcade hit and the first to make its way to Apple's iTwin. Featuring a variety of music from popular Japanese artists, the game was made exclusively for the iTwin, and features a classic controller accessory or the option to play with just the two iTwin controllers, hitting simulated buttons in the air by pressing the buttons on the controllers a certain way. The game launched in late 2007 in Japan and was an immediate hit, selling a million copies by the end of the year and prompting Konami to bring the game to American shores last month. While it hasn't caught on with American players like it has in Japan, Konami has been quoted as saying that the localization was "profitable" and that they hope to bring over future games in the series in the near future.

Then there's Rhythm Club, a DJ simulation title from Koei in which players match up turntable beats to popular funk and R+B music. What separates Rhythm Club from other games in the turntable genre is that it also incorporates dance moves into its gameplay, asking players to move their bodies inbetween rounds at the turntable. The game is best played locally with four players who must all keep up with the rhythm to score points, and can play both cooperatively and competitively. It was an arcade sensation earlier this year in Japan, and came to US consoles in August, scoring points with critics and fans alike, as the US version added twenty new songs, including popular music from bands like Outkast and Daft Punk. Rhythm Club is by far the more financially successful of the two major Japanese rhythm titles to come to the US this year, and it's already confirmed to be getting a sequel in 2009.

While Guitar Hero is tearing up the charts and making most of the headlines, it's important to remember that the original rhythm genre hits came from Japan, and the genre remains stronger there than ever before, proving that it's not just some passing fad.

-from an article in the December 2008 issue of OtakuUSA magazine

 

[RySenkari]

Battlefield: Bad Company

Battlefield: Bad Company is an FPS developed by DICE and published by Ubisoft for seventh-generation consoles. Like the OTL game (and the earlier Eastern Front), Bad Company focuses on a single player campaign, though it also has a multiplayer deathmatch mode. And, like OTL's game, it focuses on a company of slightly unhinged soldiers known as "Bad Company" who are given dangerous tasks on the battlefield because of their recklessness. The game's plot is also similar to OTL's, focusing on a fictional future war between Russia and the United States. However, the plot takes a significantly less humorous tone than OTL's game. Rather than searching for gold in an unauthorized mission, Bad Company is instead given a progressively more difficult series of suicide missions, and the protagonist must watch his comrades die one by one as they're picked off by increasingly overwhelming Russian forces. The gameplay is similar to recent Battlefield titles, taking a more realistic approach to a war-based video game, with both heroes and enemies only able to take a few bullet hits before they are killed, rather than being the bullet-spongey enemies of a typical FPS title. Combat is also based on realistic maneuvers and squad positions, rather than being a simple one-man army sort of game. This forces the player to think tactically and stick by their squadmates, lest they be picked off and killed by the surprisingly proficient enemy troops. The AI is improved from OTL's game, with the ability to lure a careless player into an ambush and snipe them from concealed positions, forcing the player to carefully utilize cover and lay down suppressive fire. The player's squadron is capable of making similar intelligent moves against an enemy, but it still requires the player themselves to be in a good position. The game's plot sees Bad Company tasked with penetrating deep into Eastern Europe and entering Russia in order to capture a particularly dangerous Russian official and potentially force the country's surrender. This requires them to go through occupied Eastern Europe itself, which has fallen deeply under the Russian yoke. Battles take place in heavily fortified cities, booby trapped forests, and across dangerous rivers, displaying some of the most varied environments seen in an FPS game, and giving the graphical engine the opportunity to shine. The game's graphics are excellent on all three systems it appears on, even the iTwin, and it really shines on the Sapphire, though the Xbox 2 version of the game proves to be the most popular thanks to the FPS genre's continued popularity on the console. In the end, Bad Company, reduced to just a few of its original members along with some new recruits picked up along the way, is able to capture the Russian official at his manor, but Russian troops surround the building, forcing Bad Company to fight its way out. In the end, the protagonist is the last member of Bad Company left standing, and kills the Russian official after a brief gunfight, before he dies in a hail of gunfire himself, followed by the manor and all the Russian troops inside being bombed by US/Allied forces. Bad Company is gone, but their mission has been accomplished, striking a crucial blow for the allies in the war.

Battlefield: Bad Company is released on November 11, 2008, a week before Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. Its reviews are excellent, and that helps it to have a strong first week of sales, but the game is completely overshadowed by Modern Warfare 2 a week later. With the original Modern Warfare not being the overwhelming hit that it was ITTL, Ubisoft thinks that its Battlefield series can outgun Call Of Duty, but it just isn't to be. However, Bad Company remains an excellent game with good sales and a strong reception from both critics and fans, keeping the series a success and still somewhat of a rival to Call Of Duty. DICE heads back to the drawing board for a game that can knock Modern Warfare off its perch, and would ultimately settle on beginning development on Battlefield 3.

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Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is the sequel to 2007's Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare. Unlike the OTL game, which had a two year gap between it and its predecessor, Activision decides to push Modern Warfare 2 for release in 2008, greatly expanding the team that worked on the original game. This would have the effect of making Modern Warfare 2 significantly different from the OTL title in terms of scope and gameplay, but with more focus on the multiplayer aspect of the game. The multiplayer focus was also somewhat of a response to the popularity of games like the Cyberwar series and the earlier Tom Clancy's Delta Force 2, which remained exceptionally popular. Activision set out to make a game that topped them both, putting a huge amount of effort into balancing the multiplayer gameplay for new players and veterans alike. This included slightly easier aiming for weapons and more forgiving killstreak bonuses, along with faster perk leveling and more noob-friendly perks. The single player game was also made slightly easier than OTL's game, which had the effect of making it significantly easier than games like Battlefield: Bad Company and easier than games like Cyberwar 3 as well. The base gameplay itself carried over from Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare, but with those noob-friendly enhancements and slightly less of a bias toward squad-based play. Instead, the game rewarded courageous players who took the initiative in combat to flank the enemy lines and also to complete objectives quickly. This carried over to the multiplayer mode somewhat, with special awards that rewarded players with more experience points for making "heroic" plays on the enemy. However, the importance of team-based play was also emphasized, as these bonuses would grow if the heroic play actually saved a player's teammates from harm or death. The campaign itself features 12 missions, less than the OTL game, and focuses on three playable characters: Rob Zalnasko and Fred Franklin, returning from the original game (with Dean Winters and Leonardo DiCaprio reprising their roles respectively), and a new character named Tony Bartoletti, a US army private who is tasked with a highly dangerous mission after international relations go downhill. Bartoletti is voiced by Milo Ventimiglia, and the player controls him in five missions, while controlling Zalnasko in four and Franklin in three. Like previous games in the series, Modern Warfare 2 features excellent graphics on the Sapphire, Xbox 2, and iTwin. The Wave version of the game, which has a slightly reduced mission count (to 10), has excellent graphics for that console, while the iPod Play and Supernova ports (also with 10 missions but featuring fairly identical gameplay to the console versions) have graphics comparable to if slightly worse than the Wave version. Modern Warfare 2 has a massive advertising campaign, with an original rap song by Tupac Shakur (who is a huge fan of the Call of Duty series and also appears in commercials for the game) used to promote it. Interestingly, Tupac voiced a character in EA's Fallout: The Boneyard, but didn't appear in promotional material for that game, so Activision wasn't averse to using him to promote Modern Warfare 2.

The game itself continues where the original Modern Warfare left off, with India and Pakistan in a state of all out war. Though Russia has declared a measure of neutrality in the conflict, China has jumped in on the side of Pakistan, hoping to gain an advantage over its growing economic rival India, and the United States and China are in a sort of cold war with each other while India and Pakistan engage in a nuclear proxy war. Numerous cities in both countries have already been destroyed, and American troops enter the conflict, hoping to defeat Pakistan and put an end to the war quickly. Pakistan has been taken over by an ultra-nationalist radical theocratic group who sees the war as a holy war, and Zalnasko's squad is tasked with finding the leaders of this group and taking them out with extreme prejudice. Bartoletti's mission starts out easy enough, as he is tasked with protecting the Indian border, but to his horror he eventually learns of a massive planned attack by the Red Army with the goal of crushing India. This is provoked by a North Korean spy who has infiltrated the Chinese high command and is issuing rogue orders with the hopes of drawing China and the West into a war, after which North Korea would rise and conquer both nations after they've destroyed each other in nuclear fire. Similarly to OTL's Modern Warfare 2, in which Russian planes attack the mainland United States, in TTL's game, it's China that attacks, bombing San Francisco and launching paratroopers, who Fred Francis' squad is tasked with defeating. Zalnasko's squad eventually finds and defeats the terrorist leaders in Pakistan before they are able to launch a strike with dozens of nuclear missiles on India and the United States, and the new rulers of Pakistan sue for peace, pulling Pakistan out of the conflict. Bartoletti's group eventually succeeds in helping to repel a Chinese invasion of India, but it's clear that while India and the West have won the first few battles, the war there is only beginning. Meanwhile, Francis' group eventually ends up fighting the Chinese Army in Los Angeles, in a brutal battle that sees Hollywood landmarks destroyed and bloody conflict in the streets of Beverly Hills. Francis is given the task of activating a revolutionary new anti-nuclear system known as ARRAY that is able to shoot incoming missiles out of the sky. The Chinese eventually launch a strike with multiple nuclear missiles aimed at numerous California cities. One of them manages to take out Sacramento, but the remaining missiles are shot down thanks to Francis' heroics. He stays behind to stop the last missile from destroying Los Angeles, before the ARRAY HQ in Death Valley is taken out with Francis still inside, the heroic soldier having sacrificed himself to save millions of lives. The ARRAY system is launched into space, but it's revealed that China has launched a similar system. World War III has started, and while the ARRAY system will prevent it from becoming a nuclear holocaust, it will still involve bloody conventional fighting all over the world, and the game leaves a cliffhanger where it's not clear whether the war will be won by China or the United States.

Modern Warfare 2 is released on November 18, 2008. It's praised heavily by critics, both for its single-player campaign and its addictive multiplayer, with high critical marks similar to those earned by OTL's game. There's no controversy on the level of "No Russian", but the game does get criticism for its somewhat jingoistic tone and its portrayal of both Pakistan and China, with China especially condemning the game. Despite these criticisms, the game sells EXTREMELY well. It's not on the same level as OTL's game, which sold almost five million copies in its first week of release, but it does sell around three million copies, making it the second fastest selling game of the year behind Grand Theft Auto II. It, not the original Modern Warfare, is the game that makes the Call Of Duty series the overwhelming phenomenon that it is IOTL, though it does have to share its spotlight somewhat with games like Cyberwar 3 and Tom Clancy's Delta Force 2. It would actually sell slightly better on the Nintendo Sapphire than on the Microsoft Xbox 2, thanks to better graphics on that console and heavy promotion by Nintendo and Sony, tying the game in with their surging online service. It wouldn't be the year's most influential game thanks to the existence of SimSociety, but it's damn close, and is probably the biggest game to date in the surging FPS genre. Whether it would be the peak of the genre or just the beginning of a long, long plateau had yet to be seen, but for the moment, the Call Of Duty series was one of the biggest franchises in all of gaming.

 

[RySenkari]

Gray Zone

Gray Zone is a third person stealth shooter published by Microsoft exclusively for the Xbox 2. It's developed by a studio headed by famed film director Michael Bay, who had a major hand in the game's creative direction. It features three playable protagonists: a CIA agent named Steven Rath (voiced by Chris Evans), a woman in MI6 named Kallista Berner (voiced by Kiera Knightley), and a hired mercenary named Christopher Lannit (voiced by Will Patton). The game takes place primarily in an unnamed Middle Eastern country based on Saudi Arabia, and focuses on a covert mission to destabilize a democratic uprising there in order to protect a regime friendly to the West that is supplying the United States with cheap oil. The uprising is led by a popular revolutionary leader who promises to bring freedom to his people, but one of his crucial allies is a known terrorist who several years prior executed an attack on an American high school that killed hundreds of students. After the mission goes south, a simple assassination mission has blown up into all out civil war, and Steven and his allies have to fight their way out of the country while still accomplishing their mission. From a gameplay perspective, Gray Zone seeks to revolutionize third person shooters on the Xbox, building upon the gameplay of titles like The Covenant by featuring the most intuitive shooting system ever that builds upon a player's strengths and weaknesses in order to allow them to organically grow and learn while playing the game. The game's shooting interface is fairly intuitive, with the ability to aim at enemies manually or to use auto-aim in certain situations, and there's also a stealth meter that signals to the player how quiet they're being and which enemies are onto them. Gray Zone utilizes stealth heavily, but gives the player a number of tools to help them sneak up on enemies and dispatch them or simply move past them without utilizing lethal tactics. It also provides opportunities to go in without stealth, playing an explosive style via the use of explosive weapons or by blowing up barrels or volatile chemicals near enemies. Michael Bay, no stranger to explosive film action, has provided plenty of the same in Gray Zone, with the opportunity for large explosions in pretty much every single mission. While the game's tone itself is ostensibly quite serious, Bay can't help himself from having some over the top moments reminiscent of films like The Rock, giving the game the feel of a summer action blockbuster. The three playable characters each bring their own skills to the table, with Steven specializing in melee, Kallista specializing in gunplay, and Christopher specializing in explosives and traps, but all three characters actually control fairly similarly and can use the same weapons that the others can. As is the case in games like Modern Warfare 2, players don't pick who they play as, but instead control an assigned character for each mission. The game does feature a series of co-op and competitive multiplayer modes, ranging from an OTL Uncharted-style deathmatch mode to a team capture the flag game to a co-op three player mode in which each player controls one of the three main characters. As one of the year's most hyped titles, Gray Zone had a massive budget, and so the game's graphics are among the best of the year on the Xbox 2. In addition to the celebrity voice actors for the main characters, the game's cast is riddled with celebrities, making it the most expensive voice cast in the history of the medium. All in all, Gray Zone's production budget was probably the biggest in video game history, with its promotional budget second only to Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. It's quite clear that Microsoft put an enormous investment of time and money into it, and the game's trailers and commercials looked truly spectacular, promising an unrivaled gaming experience.

The game's story sees Steven entering the city of Badour, the capital of the fictional Middle Eastern nation of Aswanta. Badour is in the midst of a tumultous democratic movement in which the royal family that has been ruling for the past 100 years is allowing truly free elections for the first time. Prince Wadim, of the royal family, is running against Heddan el-Haman, a democratic reformer. However, Steven and some CIA operatives are in the country to ensure that Wadim wins, in order to preserve the country as a Western ally. After the game's first mission, in which Steven intercepts a group of terrorists working in the service of Abu bin Zabr, an ally of el-Haman and the leader of a terrorist faction that committed a terrible massacre in America several years before, he rendezvous with Kallista, an MI6 agent assisting the Americans on their mission, who has infiltrated el-Haman's inner circle and who first found out that el-Haman is a childhood friend of Abu bin Zabr. The player will alternate a few missions between Steven and Kallista, before hooking up with Christopher, who has been bought in by Prince Wadim to ensure the Americans' success on their mission. The game seems to set up the idea that Christopher isn't to be trusted: his methods are fairly brutal, involving a lot of collateral damage. The game gives the player the idea that one of the three is a mole, and sets up that it could be any one of them. But in a shocking twist midway through the game, it's learned that Steven is the actual mole after he executes al-Haman on orders from bin Zabr, who uses al-Haman's murder to set him up as a martyr and to cause a violent uprising in the country, with bin Zabr at the head of it. Steven became a traitor several years before, after witnessing his military squad murder an entire village of civilians in bin Zabr's home country during a raid. When Kallista and Christopher question Steven's motives, since bin Zabr is a murderer of children as well, Steven doubles down, claiming that bin Zabr's methods are brutal but necessary, and he also badly injures Kallista, forcing the player to play as Christopher for the next few missions until Kallista recovers. Christopher heads up a group of mercenary soldiers determined to stop bin Zabr, and it's here that the game REALLY gets going as a Michael Bay action spectacular, with pretty much every mission featuring some sort of crazy plan, huge explosion, or both. Kallista recovers and her missions involve more delicate action, but even she gets into the swing of things with some otherworldly martial arts moves while also causing her fair share of explosions. bin Zabr is eventually defeated, but thanks to Kallista, she does manage to get one of el-Haman's other friends elevated to the leader of the democratic reform movement, and he manages to calm things down and end the violent conflict in the country. The game's ending leaves the results of the election ambiguous and the future of Aswanta uncertain, but Kallista and Christopher are hailed as heroes, and Christopher tries to get Kallista to join his mercenary group, which she respectfully declines.

Gray Zone is released on November 21, 2008 (three days after its initial planned release date, having moved due to the release of Modern Warfare 2 on the 18th). The game is given a massive marketing campaign that prevents it from being overshadowed by Modern Warfare 2 (in fact, the game actually dampens early sales of Modern Warfare 2 on the Xbox 2). First day sales are well over a million copies, making it one of the most successful Xbox 2 product launches of all time. However, reviews for the game are much less friendly than anticipated: in fact, the game is a borderline critical bust. The game is riddled with bugs, including a couple of game-breaking bugs, due to being rushed to market. Multiplayer is borderline unplayable at first, with lag galore. Rumor has it that Michael Bay begged Microsoft to delay the game to January 2009 to work out some of the bugs, but Microsoft wanted the game released during the holiday season to push sagging Xbox 2 sales (which were finally starting to come down from Cyberwar 3's release). Not that the bugs were the game's biggest problem: the shooting itself was borderline broken, either way too easy (thanks to the game's intuitive learning system which ended up being a glorified aimbot) or too hard. Stealth missions, of which numerous missions were instafail stealth, were spectacularly frustrating, even on easier difficulties. And the game itself, which promised to be a slick action title, went WAY overboard with explosions and silliness due to Bay's influence. Steven, who was initially seen as a likable, somewhat morally ambiguous protagonist, did a complete 180 midway through the game to become an unrepentant terrorist sympathizer who seemed to contradict his own motivations, Christopher became a "rah rah" hyper-patriotic caricature, and Kallista went from being a fairly intelligently written female character to being essentially T+A fanservice in the second half of the game (though even then, she was still considered by far the most likable of the three by most players). It was rumored that Bay left the first half of the game's writing up to his team and then took over the second half in the hopes of generating more sales for the game, essentially producing two things: a game whose trailers left out the worst parts of the game, deceiving pre-orderers, and two, a game that was essentially two games in one. Critics savaged Gray Zone, with the most positive reviews averaging in the mid to high 7s and calling the game "a slickly polished, fun stealth shooter that's somewhat disappointing" and the most negative reviews utterly trashing the game, with 2s, 3s, 4s, and 5s abounding. The game's average Metacritic score hovered somewhere in the low to mid 60s, and even that score seemed quite generous. Ultimately, Gray Zone is considered an overproduced mess, and after the initial first couple weeks of excellent sales, sales fall off a cliff, even during the holiday season. It's hard to justify a $59.99 Gray Zone purchase when games like Cyberwar 3 and even The Covenant 3, disappointing in its own right, are routinely on sale for $30 or $40, and of course Grand Theft Auto II can be found around the $40 mark in some places as well. The game is seen as one of the most disappointing games of all time and is a massive financial failure, perhaps the biggest flop in gaming history at a time when Microsoft could least afford to suffer such a flop.

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"And now we have a report that Microsoft could be cutting numerous jobs in its video game division, citing disappointing Xbox 2 sales and disappointing critical reception to its highly anticipated shooter title Gray Zone. Gray Zone, directed by Michael Bay and released to great fanfare, sold over a million copies in its first day and around two million in its first week, but industry analysts expect those sales to plummet after bad word of mouth about the game has spread amongst gamer communities on the internet and elsewhere. The company is also suffering the hurt from continued poor performance of Microsoft Vista and the ongoing economic recession."
-Morgan Webb, from the December 11, 2008 episode of G4's X-Play

 

[AestheticAcid]

pop'n music TwinBeat (JP, iTwin, 2007)

This effectively replaces OTL's games pop'n music portable and pop'n music (Wii). Much of its KONAMI Original songlist originates from the arcade game pop'n music 15 ADVENTURE, as with portable, but has the alternative 5-button "shake'n swing" mode from pop'n Wii. Additional are included from previous games in the series, as this was the series debut on the iTwin after producing console versions of pop'n 1-14 for other systems. The songlist additionally includes several anime and J-Pop songs.

Licensed songs include:
[GENRE] Title / Artist

[ALIPRO] 愛と誠 / ALI PROJECT *1
[AUDIO TAPE] Diamonds / (cover) *1 *2
[BEBOP] Tank! / (cover)
[DIGIMON] Butter-FLY / (cover) *3
[ELECTRICAL PARADE] BAROQUE HOEDOWN / (cover)
[EVA] 残酷な天使のテーゼ / (cover)
[GET WILD] GET WILD / NMR *1
[HEAVEN POP] 学園天国 / (cover) *1 *2
[HIGHSO] IN THE MOOD / (cover)
[HOKUTO] 愛をとりもどせ!! / (cover)
[J-REVIVAL] JAM / TAKA with Junpei&三上 *1 *2
[JOUKYOU RAP] 俺ら東京さ行ぐだ(I'LL GO TO TOKYO!) / ノーボトム! *1
[KARMA] カルマ / (cover)
[NANA] GLAMOROUS SKY / (cover) *1 *2
[ONE PIECE] ウィーアー! / (cover)
[POMPOKOLIN] 踊るポンポコリン / (cover) *1
[PRODUCE] CHOO CHOO TRAIN / (cover) *1 *2
[SHOUTEN] 笑点テーマ / (cover) *1
[SUPER EURO BEAT] NIGHT OF FIRE / NIKO *2
[TOUCH] タッチ / (cover)

KONAMI Original Music (default):

[ADVENTURE] ポップン大冒険メドレー / ポップン探検隊
[ANCIENT EURO] In The Ruins / good-cool feat.CHiCO
[BOYS R&B] Always / Shoichiro Hirata feat.RayZY
[CASTLEVANIA] 悪魔城ドラキュラメドレー ～ハイブリッド・ヴァージョン～ / 山根ミチル
[CONTINENTAL] 走り続けて / 秋桜
[DISCO REVOLUTION] SHAKE'N SWING'N POP'N MUSIC! / seiya-murai *4
[ELEKI] 純愛ロマンス --PART 2-- / ko-saku
[FUTURE FUSION] ∞space / m@sumi
[GARAGE HOUSE] together 4ever / Sota Fujimori feat.yoshiko
[GIRLHOOD] ロクブテ / 水玉フミッパーズ
[HAWAIAN PUNK] フリフリハワイワン！ / YUU&NAHO from Cawaii!
[HIP ROCK 4] 路男 / Des-ROW・組ユナイテッド
[HYPER CHINESE POP] 桃花恋情 / TËЯRA
[MARINE CRUISE] The Seven Ocean / Hajime
[NADESHIKO ROCK] 凛として咲く花の如く / 紅色リトマス
[NATSUYASUMI] / なつやすみのぼうけん / 5年3組アンサンブルクラブ
[Nu-SOUL] My Own Swan / Redshift
[ONLINE LOVE POP] 恋のミラクル☆ / るるるSYSTEM
[PERCUSSIVE 2] 西麻布水道曲 / サイモンマン
[PINKISH] つぼみ / パーキッツ
[SEISYUN ROCK] 儚きは我が決意 / 臨界点パニック
[SHY POP] ネガイゴト / 肥塚良彦
[SYMPHONIC TALE] 駕篭の鳥 / Naya~n交響楽団 with 坂本頼光
[URBAN MELLOW POP] Psychology / SENAX
[VENEZIANI] Canal Grande / Q-Mex
[WELLFARE] つばめ / あさき *5

*6

Returning Songs (default):
[ANIME HEROINE] 魔法の扉 (スペース@マコのテーマ) / a.s.a
[FANTASY] monde des songe / Bikke
[GRADIUS] GRADIUS -FULL SPEED- / Mr.T
[HIGH SPEED LOVE SONG] High School Love / DJ Yoshitaka feat.DWP
[HIP ROCK] 大見解 / Des-ROW・組
[J-TEKNO] Quick Master / act deft
[MEGANE ROCK] ポップミュージック論 / ギラギラメガネ団
[MELO CORE] H@ppy Choice / good-cool feat.すわひでお
[TWEE POP] 777 / EeL
[WINTER DANCE] White Eve / さな

Mimi and Nyami's Expedition

Earth Zone
[GRINDING ROCK] Maximal Edge / 千本松 仁 *7
[GROUND TECHNO] QUICK RESULT / AKIRA YAMAOKA
[NAMARA JAZZ] One Phrase Blues / 小野秀幸
[PROPOSE REMIX] ふたりのマニフェスト (Circle of the afternoon MIX) / DJ SIMON
[WORLD HOUSE] THE SAFARI / Lion MUSASHI *8
Boss Song
[UNDERGROUND EXPEDITION] スーパーモグー / ぶちパンダ

Water Zone
[CLIONE TECHNO] CLIO / co-ping
[CUTE LIGHT BOSSA] ワールド・オブ・バブル / Dormir *7
[EU-TECH] STEAM AND DREAM / V.C.O. *8
[NEJI ROCK] 螺子之人 / あさき
[ORBITALIC TECHNO] Flow / Scotty D. revisits U1 *9
[RUIN] 空言の海 / 音々
Boss Song
[ELE FLOOD WAVE] Aqua / Akino

Wind Zone
[A.I. KIDS] さんぽのうた / V.C.O.+ALT
[CELTIC WIND] Caring Dance / 猫叉Master
[CURE] 緑の風 / ナヤ〜ン
[LOVE POP] 大好きだよ / KUMIKO
[TRIP HOP] Summer Vacation (CU mix) / OutPhase *8
[WINDY DANCE] FU-FA / Sana+MIKI-CHANG+Shoichiro
Boss Song
[NEO EURO RAVE] King of TORNADO / NAOKI underground *7 *10

Fire Zone
[FORKLORE] アンデスの太陽 / Mutsuhiko Izumi
[GAMELAN TRANCE] Gamelan de Couple / TOMOSUKE
[HYPER HINDI BEAT] exotic ethnic / Reven-G *8
[LATIN REMIX] El pais del sol (GIVE ME MORE SALSA MIX) / Berimbau'66
[MELODIC EURO HOUSE] Burnin'Luv (Over The Beat Mix) / dj REMO-CON (Y&Co) *7
[SKA] ska a go go / THE BALD HEADS
Boss Song
[LOUD MIXTURE RAGGA] Soul on Fire / L.E.D.-G VS GUHROOVY fw NO+CHIN

After clearing all four above zones, the next two are available.

World of Light
[ALTERNATIVE ROCK] Prince on a Star / 日野友香
[ANTHEM TRANCE REMIX] Votum stellarum -forest #25 RMX- / iconoclasm
[J-EUROBEAT] 月光 / Tatsh feat.星野奏子 *8
[KALEIDO FUSION] 万華鏡 / Jimmy Weckl *8
[MYTHOTRONICA] Polis / Toshiji Kato
[SUPER LOVIN' SPEED] Light♡of♡my♡life / jun feat.TAHiRiH *7
Boss Song
[IDM] ZETA～素数の世界と超越者～ / Zektbach

World of Dark
[DARKNESS 3] Quiet / フレディ波多江とエレハモニカ
[DREAMGAZER] Little Prayer / 土岐麻子 *11
[ORATORIO] Apocalypse ~memento mori~ / Zektbach
[ROCOCO TEK] BRIGHTNESS DARKNESS / SPARKER *8
[TRANCE CORE] Lysander / DJ YOSHITAKA *7 *12
[VISUAL REMIX] WHITE BIRDS (Mirage Mix) / T-Bone
Boss Song
[KINDAI-ZECCHOU-ONGAKU] 天庭 / 閣下

After clearing the boss songs of World of Light and Dark, the final boss.

World of Nothing
[NIENTE] neu / 少年ラジオ

Notes
*1 This licensed song was cut and replaced for the Western release
*2 This licensed song has not appeared in any mainline pop'n music game OTL, but existed in another BEMANI game previously
*3 The cover of Butter-FLY was meant for pop'n 15 OTL, but delays meant it was put in pop'n 17. TTL it meets the deadline
*4 This song was made for pop'n music Wii OTL. Naturally, it gets brought forward
*5 OTL, this song was heavily reworked for Asaki's album many years later. TTL's version is much closer to the reworked version
*6 Mostly as OTL's arcade title. Two songs got dropped from the list: ギターケンドー is a victim of the butterflies, whereas THE MAN FROM FAR EAST is dropped because its game of origin (Mitsumete Knight) is basically unheard of TTL. ADVENTURE and CASTLEVANIA replace them
*7 Song is original to TTL
*8 Crossover that did not happen OTL
*9 This was in the Wind Zone OTL
*10 Instead of writing the song DOUBLE TORNARD for DDR Hottest Party, Naoki writes this. This also replaces Caring Dance as the "boss" of Wind Zone, which is just a regular song now
*11 This gets crossed over earlier than OTL
*12 DJ YOSHITAKA gets enlisted to bring his soon-to-develop beatmania IIDX / jubeat style to pop'n music earlier than OTL. Think a more basic version of his song Evans

 

[RySenkari]

Lunar: Dragonrise

Lunar: Dragonrise is a JRPG for the Nintendo Sapphire and Apple iTwin. It's the fourth game in the Lunar series of RPGs, and a prequel to the original trilogy, in the same way that OTL's Dragon Song for the DS was a prequel to the original game. However, that's where the similarities between the OTL and TTL games end. Dragonrise, while not quite as polished or as snazzy as a AAA RPG like Final Fantasy, is still a full fledged console game, with primarily cel-shaded graphics but with fully 3-D backgrounds and environments and fully voiced anime cutscenes. The game chronicles the adventures of the first Dragonmaster, a young man named Zeke, and his three companions (unlike the original games which had four playable characters, Dragonrise only has three). It also tells the story of how the first four dragons came to serve humanity and lend their power to the Dragonmaster. Unlike IOTL, in which Althena created the dragons in the series mythology, ITTL, the four dragons were originally members of a large tribe of dragons who opposed humanity because they believed humans to be an anomaly against nature. However, with Althena's help, Zeke and his friends convince the four dragons to lend their services to humankind to stop a terrible evil sorceress named Czarana. However, a faction of dragons led by the Pale Dragon, Vidagos, seeks to destroy humanity as revenge for encroaching upon nature, and the two main stories of the game revolve around Zeke's group of heroes and the dragons who first befriended humanity. Dragonrise features a traditional turn-based combat scheme similar to previous games in the series, but mixes things up a bit with action elements, as the player must move their heroes manually around the battlefield, and all attacks and defenses are timed in some way. There's even the opportunity to save up action points to interrupt an enemy's turn, while certain spells can also have the same effect. Dragonrise is also the first game in the series not to have an overworld map. Instead, areas are linked to other areas by forested or mountain paths, or areas that can be called dungeons in their own right. Some Althena statues can also be used to warp to other Althena statues, enabling the player to move quickly from place to place. Dragonrise features graphics that are somewhat middle of the road for the console they're featured on, and there's not too much difference in appearance between the Sapphire and iTwin versions. Game Arts, being a somewhat moderately sized company, didn't want to pour a huge amount of resources into the game's graphics, instead choosing to spend its money on music and animation. There's a ton of anime cutscenes in the game, around two full hours worth, along with plenty of voice acting. The game's English dub is performed by Los Angeles-area voice actors, and there are some fairly familiar names amongst anime fans, with the protagonist Zeke voiced by Tom Gibis, Zeke's companion/love interest Clarissa voiced by Julie Maddalena, Zeke's headstrong rival turned ally Destin voiced by Michael Reisz, and the brave beast girl Shanna voiced by Amanda Celine Miller (her first voice role ITTL).

Lunar: Dragonrise begins with Zeke in a bad situation that's rapidly getting worse: his village is attacked and destroyed by Czarana, leaving him orphaned and in search of a way to save the land. Desperate, he prays to the goddess Althena for mercy, and gets Clarissa instead, a young shrine maiden who is somewhat klutzy and whose magic is barely enough to start a campfire, let alone stop an evil sorceress. Zeke also meets Destin, who leads an army of soldiers in battle with Czarana's minions and defeats them, winning fame and fortune and showing up Zeke. Zeke does find a good friend in the young White Dragon Quark (who at the time is cute and cat-like in appearance, similar to Nall in The Silver Star), who teaches him some basic dragon magic. Zeke, Quark, and Clarissa are tasked with finding three other dragons by a vision sent from Althena, and this quest to find the dragons is the bulk of the first two thirds of the game. On the way, the group clashes with Destin (and actually fights him as a boss at one point after Zeke is framed for a crime). They also join up with Shanna, who is being kept as a maid by a cruel lord who has been granted power by Czarana. Shanna is the third party member to be permanently recruited, while Destin is the fourth after the party saves him from Czarana with the Blue Dragon's help. Eventually, Zeke secures the help of the Red and Blue Dragons, but must convince the Black Dragon, who is also the younger sister of Vidagos, to lend them her aid as well. Vidagos despises humans because they once hunted his kind, and in fact, humans killed Vidagos' older brother. Vidagos also believes all humans to be in league with Czarana due to the outrageous power she wields to control their minds. It is the Black Dragon's eventual rebellion against Vidagos as she finally joins the heroes that turns Vidagos truly against humanity and sets him on the course to being the game's main villain. Czarana is eventually defeated after Zeke activates the ritual to become a Dragonmaster, but Vidagos chooses that moment, when all of humanity is united in celebration, to launch a massive attack by a powerful dragon army. To make matters worse, Zeke's Dragonmaster powers are largely ineffectual against Vidagos because Vidagos is himself a dragon. Vidagos' dragons lay waste to much of the world, forcing humanity into hiding. It's during this, Zeke's darkest hour, that he turns to Czarana, who survived their climactic battle and claims to have a spell that can contain a dragon's power. Zeke does not wish to learn such a spell, but after Clarissa is taken prisoner by Vidagos (who hopes to take advantage of her psychic connection to Althena to fell the goddess herself, which would completely doom humanity), he allows Czarana to teach it to him. It's the same spell that Ghaleon used to trap Quark and the other dragons in the original Silver Star. During this time, Czarana becomes a guest party member in Clarissa's place, and we learn more of her backstory and why she became a dark sorceress. We learn that Althena is not the completely pure-hearted goddess she is claimed to be, and that she and Czarana were once very close friends and that Czarana was the closest human friend Althena had. However, after Czarana got too powerful, Althena became jealous and tried to weaken her. Czarana lashed out, admittedly a severe overreaction, rebelling against Althena's creation and seeking to exploit humanity's collective power and knowledge to become powerful enough to challenge Althena. It's clear that both Czarana and Althena have made mistakes, and though the game rightfully shows Czarana as being in the wrong, she, much like Ghaleon in the original game, is shown to have a compelling motivation for her actions. Zeke, Czarana, Destin, Shanna, and Quark go to find Vidagos, who has ascended Althena's Tower. They confront him and use the spell, and though its power does not keep Vidagos contained completely, it weakens him enough to allow Zeke to free Clarissa. Zeke, Clarissa, and Czarana forge a new weapon, a sword of light and darkness, that can take down Vidagos for good. They then ascend Vidagos' mountain to take him and his army down forever. After a long and ferocious battle, Vidagos is defeated, but the battle takes a heavy toll: most of dragonkind has been killed in the civil war, leaving the Four Dragons who serve the Dragonmaster as four of the few remaining members of the species. Also, the fate of Czarana, who once again tries to strike against Althena, is a sad one: Zeke sides with Althena, and uses the power of the Dragonmaster to literally banish Czarana from the light of Althena, forcing her and her followers to the Frontier to become the Vile Tribe. Ironically, it's implied that the descendant of Zeke and Clarissa is Ghaleon, who would be the one to bring the Vile Tribe back into the world Althena cast them out of.

Lunar: Dragonrise is released in North America on December 9, 2008, a few months after the game's Japanese release. Critical reviews are quite good, but not great, averaging in the high 7s/low 8s. The game is most highly praised for its excellently animated cutscenes and its storyline, which heavily advances and builds upon the Lunar mythology and has numerous callbacks to popular characters and elements in the series. The gameplay is seen as a bit "boring", playing it too safe compared to other recent Game Arts titles such as Shima: The Endless Traveler, which was rated significantly higher. The game's pacing is said to be somewhat clunky, and ultimately, Dragonrise plays it too "old school" to be considered a truly groundbreaking RPG, with some critics saying that it might have worked better as a handheld game. Still, it's generally financially successful, selling quite well in Japan and also proving itself decently popular in the States, especially on the Apple iTwin, where it sells about twice as many copies as the Sapphire version. The success of the iTwin version of the game in North America convinces Game Arts to localize the Lunar Trilogy, an iTwin-exclusive collection of remastered versions of the original three Lunar games. The trilogy was released in Japan in December 2008, and would come to the North American iTwin in late 2009, though it's a popular import target for North American and European iTwin owners who know Japanese. Of course, North American players have already gotten the Supernova port of the Wave launch title Lunar 3: Green Destiny, which comes to the Supernova as Lunar 3: Green Destiny Legends in nearly identical form to its Wave counterpart. That game was released in North America in November 2008, and sold around 100,000 copies in the territory. The success of their Lunar prequel convinces Game Arts to continue its flagship series, and a proper Lunar 4 would go into development for both the Sapphire and iTwin with an intended release window of 2011/2012.

-

Working Designs' move to its San Francisco studio in 2002 was seen as a massive opportunity for the company, and indeed, it helped them land numerous localization jobs in the years afterward, including Tsugunai: Atonement and Lufia: Bride Of Starlight. But the years following saw the jobs dry up, and with them, the company's revenues. Though Working Designs continued to localize numerous niche titles, most of them for the PC, the company saw its fortunes dwindle further. They were attracting more top-tier talent, including actors and programmers that they never could've gotten in Redding, but quality came at a price, and most of their work wasn't bringing in the sales in needed to to keep Working Designs in the black. The company began working on a number of anime localizations, but competition for those was even more fierce, with numerous Los Angeles-based companies and the Texas-based studio Funimation getting the bulk of the contracts on that front, leaving Working Designs out in the cold.

By 2007, the company was on the verge of bankruptcy. But then came an opportunity from the unlikeliest of places. Game Arts, who had achieved fame in the West in large part thanks to Working Designs' localizations, was offering the company several new jobs. None of them were related to Lunar, but the company wanted to take a chance with some of its niche projects that otherwise wouldn't see localization, and Victor Ireland, who had the choice between an old grudge and his company remaining fiscally solvent, chose the latter.

"You know, it was hard to forgive them for not coming to us with Lunar 3," said Ireland. "But we were on the verge of going under. Even I was ready to admit that. So when the opportunity from Game Arts came, I mean, it was impossible to turn them down."

Ireland himself admits that he had some growing up to do over the past few years, and credits some new friends for helping him get over some of his old bitterness.

"I have gotten to know a lot of good people here in San Francisco," said Ireland, "and I've learned a lot from them too, not just about the game business but about how to be a better leader, which I think has allowed me to refocus my energy on these new projects we've been taking on."

One of those 'friends' that Ireland most credits with helping to refocus him is Ken Strickland, who currently works as a developer for Ubisoft but who, for a time, had a job as an assistant director at Working Designs during the early San Francisco years.

"Ken's one of the best partners I've ever had, he knows what makes a game good and he knows how to run a team, so I really do credit him with helping to keep Working Designs afloat when we didn't have a lot of new jobs coming in," said Ireland. "Even now, the two of us still talk, we still give each other pointers. Actually, it was me that put the idea in his head to have Ubisoft localize Elvenfall. We weren't in a position to take that game on when it was originally available, we just didn't have the capital, so I suggested to Ken that he put a team together to take up that game and I think that game's going to do awesome."

Ireland has a Supernova RPG project of his own, the first truly major game that Game Arts has trusted Working Designs with since the two companies had their reconciliation. Called Tessera, the game actually plays quite similarly to Elvenfall, but has a heavy element of science fiction to it as well, with dimensional transport playing a major role in the game's plot. It's being localized entirely by Working Designs, and the company is poised to put a massive promotional effort into the game, complete with the company's familiar limited edition treatment.

"Oh yeah, it'll definitely come in a big box with lots of bonus stuff," said Ireland, almost salivating at the idea of releasing another one of the company's patented limited editions, which have been hugely influential on the gaming industry as other companies now look to release special editions of their own, with collectibles given out alongside the game. "We'll have a regular edition too, but what true RPG fan wants that? Come on!"

(...)

Ireland also opened up to us about the current state of the gaming industry, and what companies he'd like to support in the future.

"I love what Apple and Steve Jobs are doing," said Ireland, whose company has already released two titles for the iPod Play. "I despised Sega, but now that Apple owns them, they're all right with me. And Jobs knows how to promote a game machine, for sure. The iTwin is so fun and innovative, and it doesn't need to be as powerful as the other two systems as far as I'm concerned because the kinds of games I do can easily run on it."

Of course, Ireland still supports Nintendo, the company that helped him move his headquarters to San Francisco, but he did express some frustration at how they do business.

"Nintendo, I mean, they're giving up on niche style games in a lot of ways. If you're not Squaresoft or Enix, they won't put any effort into promoting your RPGs. Game Arts might be big enough now to get some promotion, but even then, they have to fight for Nintendo's attention. Nintendo and Square are pretty much joined at the hip."

Ireland had some advice for Squaresoft, who, even though the company is one of his main rivals, he still wants to see succeed to a certain extent.

"Come make games for Apple. Apple is so popular in Japan right now. The first Final Fantasy game that comes out on the iTwin is going to sell millions."

-from an article in the December 2008 issue of GameInformer

 

[RySenkari]

Psystriker

Psystriker is a beat-em-up/RPG developed by Sega's AM2 team for the Apple iTwin. Directed by Yu Suzuki, it's his second iTwin game after Virtua Fighter 6, though he had much more involvement in this game. The game plays somewhat like Virtua Quest, in that players control a single protagonist and battle enemies in a sort of Virtua Fighter-esque combat system. Battle transitions are seamless, there's no separate combat screen, so the game plays a lot more like an action RPG than Virtua Quest did. While the combat gameplay is reminiscent of a brawler, the game itself is reminiscent of Shenmue in its pacing: it's a largely open world title, taking place around a central hub, with new locations opening up on the perimeter as the player completes more of the story. Enemies level up with the player, so as you collect power-ups and gain experience, you'll naturally encounter more robust enemies with better AI. The protagonist is Mikata, a young man who has been gifted with telekinetic powers. Mikata is able to utilize both physical attacks and special "psy" attacks that require utilizing a special psy meter which builds up as he damages enemies. The psy attacks operate a lot like projectile attacks in a typical fighting game, though Mikata can also heal or buff himself or his companion. Mikata can have one companion in battle with him, with up to six to choose from. Mikata's companions are gradually recruited throughout the game, with five gained through the main story and one optional companion gained via a side quest later on. Like in Shenmue, Mikata can have jobs outside of the game's main storyline, and these jobs can earn the player experience, money, items, and sometimes even permanent power-ups. These jobs are somewhat more streamlined and less mundane than they were in Shenmue, designed not to take up so much of the player's time and designed to be both fun and rewarding. The game also has a "quick jump" system in which the player can warp between landmarks in the city, eliminating the need to travel quite so far and allowing for a quicker, less boring experience. Psystriker features good graphics for the iTwin, especially in the game's character models and combat animation, though the game won't exactly "wow" players compared to some of the other games on the console. The voice cast largely consists of unknowns, though the voice acting is generally regarded as acceptable, with a few silly lines here and there but nothing too terrible for the most part. In general, players consider the Japanese cast, which consists mostly of well-known seiyuu, to be far superior to the English dub, and there is an option for Japanese voices with English subtitles, which many of the game's most devoted fans utilize.

The plot sees Mikata start out as a delivery boy, and we can already see that he has some control over his psychic abilities as he lives his life in the city of Okutsoba, where much of the game takes place. He has a girlfriend, Shiko, who doesn't become a companion but who does play a major role in the game's storyline. Mikata is on a delivery route one day when he takes a job from a shady character named Toba, to deliver a shipment of boxes to a pier across town. Mikata delivers the shipment, but things go south after the intended recipient is ambushed and killed by a group of thugs who also seek to take out Mikata, forcing him to use his psychic powers to escape. This sets off a series of events in which nearly every criminal gang in the city is after Mikata, and he is forced to enlist the help of an old man who helps him to channel his powers. The old man, who is sort of a humorous character (like Master Roshi, he's a bit of a pervert, frequently attempting to catch the game's female characters in compromising situations and also keeping a stash of dirty magazines at hand), teaches Mikata numerous skills throughout the game, and calls Mikata the "Hammer Of Destiny", who is fated to wipe out crime and corruption in the city. Mikata teams up with various companions, including a reformed gangster wannabe, a mysterious ninja woman, and a talking dog possessed by the spirit of a dead World War II soldier, and together, they battle the gangs in the city. Some of the gangs turn out to have their own psychic warriors who have powers similar to Mikata's and who pose the biggest threat to him throughout the game. The game's primary antagonist is Jikan, the head of the Yakuza in Okutsoba, who has found a way to kill psychically-gifted individuals and take their powers. Jikan seeks to kill Mikata, whose powers are the most formidable of all, and if he does so, he'll be absolutely unstoppable, able to commit crimes in Japan with complete impunity. The game essentially builds up to Mikata's grand showdown with Jikan, with Jikan committing a number of truly dastardly deeds throughout the game in order to encourage the player to take him down. There's no huge twists, Jikan remains the primary villain throughout, and at the end of the main story, he and Mikata do indeed engage in a truly epic final boss fight in which both of them pull out all the stops to win. Mikata defeats Jikan and is successful in ridding the city of crime, and settles down for a nice vacation with Shiko.

Psystriker is much better received in Japan than in the States. In Japan, it achieves excellent reviews, including a 38/40 from Famitsu, and sales are outstanding as well, becoming one of the best selling iTwin games of 2008. It's much more moderately received in the States, with reviews from American critics averaging in the high 7s/low 8s. It also gets a lot less hype, translating into mediocre sales. Apple considered the game to be a tough sell in the West, despite Yu Suzuki's reputation and the success of Shenmue, and it wasn't really positioned as one of the big holiday games in the States (that honor went to Commander Keen: Billy's Brave Odyssey). Still, Psystriker did decently in the West, becoming one of the best selling new games of December 2008, and despite not being a Shenmue-level hit, Psystriker is still considered a success.

-

Yu Suzuki Reportedly "Disillusioned With Apple", Possibly Leaving?

An interview with Yu Suzuki in the latest issue of Famitsu magazine revealed that the legendary creator of the Virtua Fighter and Shenmue series is upset with how Sega's former developers are being treated by Apple leadership. Suzuki expressed disappointment that Apple's focus seems to be on "younger" developers, particularly developers based in the West, and that some of Sega's old guard are being "ignored". During the development of Psystriker, Suzuki claimed that resources were being focused on other projects, and that he didn't always have the help that he'd always gotten when Sega was in charge.

This potentially troublesome news comes on the heels of the release of Psystriker, a brand new beat 'em up game from Suzuki that was said to be "ignored" by Apple in the West, with more attention focused on the game's Japanese launch earlier this year. Psystriker was a chart topper in Japan, and it has yet to be seen how the game will perform here. Our recent review of Psystriker did criticize the game's less detailed environments, but also praised the game's fighting system and protagonist, awarding the game a 9/10 overall. We did note that the game didn't seem to be as highly budgeted as some of Suzuki's other projects, but that overall, it didn't detract from the gameplay. Still, Suzuki's criticisms of Apple's leadership have been shared by some of Sega's other Japanese staff in various interviews and comments over the past several years, with numerous former Sega employees voluntarily leaving the company for other companies such as Capcom and Squaresoft. Still, most of Sega's core development teams, particularly Sonic Team, remain intact, so Suzuki's criticisms, while troubling, aren't shared by all of his fellow developers in Japan. While Suzuki didn't state a desire to leave the company outright, rumors are swirling that he may indeed be preparing his exit, especially if rumors are true that Apple doesn't intend to bring back the Shenmue series on the iTwin. Suzuki's departure would be a major blow for the company's Japanese division, and would mean serious changes for the Virtua Fighter series, though Suzuki's involvement in that franchise has also diminished in recent years.

-from a December 1, 2008 article on Games Over Matter

 

[RySenkari]

Chrono Break

Chrono Break is a JRPG developed by Squaresoft for the Nintendo Sapphire. It's the third game in the extremely popular Chrono series that focuses on characters traveling through time and space to defeat cosmic entities of incredible power. Chrono Break has been in development by Squaresoft for the past three years, ever since the company received the first of the Nintendo Sapphire development kits back in 2005. The game brings back much of the original Chrono Trigger "Dream Team", including Yoshinori Kitase, Masato Kato, Yasunori Mitsuda, and Akira Toriyama. Indeed, Chrono Break features even more of the original team than Chrono Infinite did, and attempts to bring back memories for the player of the original game, though the plot itself focuses on traversal through alternate dimensions than it does on time travel. The game itself plays much like the previous two games, with a party of three (out of nine characters total, eight mandatory and one optional) traveling in an overworld area that connects dungeons, towns, and other landmarks. In some ways, the game can be compared visually to modern TTL games such as I Am Setsuna, with beautiful high definition environments and visuals. The game's combat is a turn-based/action hybrid that features automatic character movement in conjunction with real-time attacks. These attacks can be timed to create combination attacks, while the player can stop combat at any time to utilize techs or items. Combination attacks are no longer automatic, but depend on timing windows that occur during combat. This creates a battle system that looks in some ways like OTL's Final Fantasy XIII, with fast-paced combat that almost resembles an interactive cutscene. Characters are dynamic in their movement and frequently talk in battle, both to their allies and to their enemies, while enemies (at least those with the ability to speak) respond in kind. Chrono Break features environmental specific abilities unique to each character, that can enable certain perks, whether they be accessing secret areas, finding hidden treasure, or giving temporary statistical bonuses. The game's menus are somewhat of a throwback to the original Chrono Trigger, with similar icons and character portraits, though characters are now able to equip up to three accessories a piece, along with a weapon and a piece of armor. Character accessories play an important role in strategy, character composition, and even certain combo techs, and finding, refining, and building them is a very important part of the game's overall strategy. The accessory system is also quite similar to the one in OTL's Final Fantasy XIII (a lot of the people who worked on that game IOTL also work on Chrono Break ITTL, with the rest of them working on TTL's Final Fantasy XII).

Chrono Break has a total of nine playable characters. They are, in order of when they permanently join the party:

Shard: The game's primary protagonist, Shard is a young man from a beachside village somewhat similar to Termina in OTL's Chrono Cross. One day, Shard encounters a mysterious rift portal, through which he can briefly see thousands of time streams. He is pulled into the portal, beginning his adventure. Shard wields a thin sword and, like previous Chrono protagonists, does not speak in-game.
Ovo: A rotund, high-spirited dwarf, Ovo is the first hero Shard teams up with on his journey, and serves as somewhat of a mentor to Shard on his adventure. He wields a steam-powered mallet. He's voiced by Christopher Sabat.
Millennia: A mysterious, purple-haired woman, Millennia has the ability to travel through time all on her own, but she can't always control it. She's a fairly archetypical "tsundere" character, but this is largely to hide her own fear at losing control of her abilities. Millennia is voiced by Amanda Winn Lee.
Cade: Cade is a cocky spaceship pilot very similar to Han Solo. He wields a laser pistol in combat and gets extremely frustrated when technology isn't readily available to him. He's voiced by Matt Mercer.
Lisbeth: Shard's childhood friend, Lisbeth is a frail, somewhat sickly girl who witnesses Shard being pulled into the portal and tries to find a way to help him. Lisbeth ends up being the key to a lot of the different mysteries in Chrono Break, though her importance to repairing space and time isn't learned until a good portion of the way through the game. Lisbeth is voiced by Caroline Macey.
Zuriel: Zuriel is a mysterious being, an angel of pure light who transforms into an angel of darkness at certain occasions in the story. Said to be an Arbiter of Time, Zuriel is at times both friend and foe, and is connected to a godlike being said to be the cause of the game's events. Zuriel is voiced by Steven Yeun.
Gylla: Gylla is a woman who has the body of a fish, transformed by a mysterious curse similar to Frog's affliction from the original Chrono Trigger. Unlike Frog, she doesn't blame anyone but herself for her transformation, though over the course of the story, the party will come to learn why she was transformed. She's voiced by Veronica Taylor.
Atropos: Atropos is a cyborg woman and the only character related to a previous Chrono series character, the original Atropos from Chrono Trigger. However, unlike that Atropos, which was a pink robot similar to Robo, Chrono Break's Atropos is much more human-like in appearance, taking the appearance of a cyborg and almost able to pass for human. She also only vaguely mentions the events of the original game and is implied to only contain partial memories from the original Atropos while being her own independent being. She's voiced by Evetta Muradasilova.
Trest: Trest is an a cocky assassin character who starts out as an antagonist and remains a frequent thorn in the heroes' sides for about two thirds of the game. It's possible, but difficult, to recruit him, but if you do, he can combo very well with most of the heroes, and unlocks a couple of fun and informative sidequests. He's voiced by James Arnold Taylor.

Chrono Break deals in both time and space, and takes place in a series of heavily anachronistic environments that appear as if two or more time periods have been smashed together. This enables strange things such as steampunk cavemen and medieval space fortresses, and things only get stranger as the game progresses and the "break" referenced in the game's title becomes apparent. Chrono Break, along with Final Fantasy XII in 2009, are Squaresoft's two massive projects during the first part of the Sapphire's lifespan. As such, the game's production values are exceptional, with some of the best graphics yet seen on the console, better than any of the OTL Final Fantasy XIII games. Despite the graphical fidelity, the game's artistic aesthetic is more toward the fantastical, but the game blends realism and fantasy extremely well, giving it a highly realistic storybook look and giving it a warm, adventurous tone. The game's overall mood is positive but gradually drifting toward melancholy as the game works up toward its emotional ending. Yasunori Mitsuda was doing double duty at the time, as the primary composer for Chrono Break while also contributing toward Final Fantasy XII. As such, he attempted to differentiate the musical feel of both games, to where Chrono Break would have a more "intimate" feel while Final Fantasy XII would have a more "epic, sweeping" feel. While there are similarities between the soundtracks of both titles, he largely succeeded in giving each game its own unique signature feel. Chrono Break is easily Squaresoft's biggest project since their Wave Final Fantasy titles, and is widely seen as being a game that would set the tone for the rest of their titles on the Sapphire.

The game begins by introducing the player to Shard and his childhood friend Lisbeth, and the life they share together in the village of Nexus. Nexus is a quiet, seaside village, and not much happens there, but everything changes after a routine expedition to gather fish. Shard walks up to the cliff overlooking the village, and a rift opens in space and time, pulling him in. He winds up in a strange land of dinosaurs and cave people, but the cave people use steam power to hunt and carry out their daily lives, and they've constructed a great cliffside village. Shard is introduced to Ovo, and together the two venture off to hunt down a raptor. They're attacked by warriors from a rival tribe, but "saved" by the arrival of Millennia through a space portal. The three of them are captured by the rival tribe, much to Millennia's fury, but Ovo is able to save them by building a contraption that helps them escape. The three get separated for a while, and Shard travels alone with Millennia, and then with Ovo. Some early story beats are established here, such as the speculated reason for the existence of space portals (a rift in the time stream caused by angelic creatures known as the Arbiters), and Trest and Zuriel also make their first appearances. Eventually, Shard and Millennia encounter Cade, and Millennia and Cade despise each other at first (but eventually are established as a couple). Shard also is given the chance to revisit his village, which has been destroyed by the Arbiters, but Lisbeth is mysteriously found alive, and joins the party. She's extremely weak, but for a time, the party consists only of Shard, Ovo, and Lisbeth, as the three of them wander through a gothic-style castle laid waste to by the Arbiters. The castle is in the middle of a large, modern city, but the party is unable to reach the city, and no one in the city can see the party. Cade and Millennia are in the city itself, and find a way into the castle during a crucial boss fight in which Shard, Ovo, and Lisbeth are nearly killed by one of the Arbiters. When the castle is breached, a massive gate of destruction opens up above the city, causing havoc. Shard and his friends barely escape, and are pulled into a realm called the End of the Universe, a somewhat barren realm similar to Chrono Trigger's End Of Time. They are met by an elderly woman named Nora, who explains to them that spatial rifts are opening up everywhere and that dimensions are being fused together in an event known as the Chrono Break, a result of another multiverse being repaired and its dark energy leeching off into this one (it's implied that when the Darkness Beyond Time was destroyed in Chrono Infinite, that all the darkness from that dimension started leaking into the Chrono Break dimension). Nora states that in order to save the dimension, the Grand Arbiter must take all of the latent darkness into himself, but this would require self-sacrifice, and the Grand Arbiter believes that such a sacrifice would cause anarchy, and that it would be better to rule over a broken dimension than let chaos reign over an intact one. Shard and his friends are tasked with seeking out an Arbiter and attempting to get the Grand Arbiter to see reason. They seek out Zuriel, and after a brief mission, Zuriel is recruited to the team, having become disillusioned with the acts of his fellow Arbiters. This kicks off a story sequence in which three more broken dimensions are discovered and in which the heroes try to repair each one. Gylla is recruited in one of them, and all the while, the heroes have to deal with Trest, who claims that his own dimension is just fine and that the heroes need to stop what they're doing. In a climactic story event, Atropos appears, while it's revealed that the Arbiters are trying to repair the dimensional breaks, not cause them, and that the Grand Arbiter is incapable of making such a sacrifice to save the worlds, which is why the Arbiters are trying to repair the dimensions themselves.

This revelation causes Zuriel to turn on the party and the party to get separated, and Shard, Ovo, Millennia, and Atropos end up in Trest's dimension, which has become a massive factory plane, a mesh of construction facilities from different timelines, including an ancient stone forge, an Industrial Revolution-era factory, and a futuristic energy forging facility, amongst other more subtle elements. Atropos seems to know a great deal about the factory dimension, and it turns out that it's being run by a Mother Brain-like figure who controls pretty much everything. Trest, in fact, sees the being like his own mother, even though he knows it's an artificial program. Escaping is pretty much all the heroes can do, and after fighting a massive mechanical boss, they manage to get away. Shard wants to find Lisbeth, but before that can happen, the party winds up in a strange Roman casino dimension, sort of a riff on "Caesars Palace" but much darker, run by an insane Emperor. Gylla and Cade are trapped here in various bad circumstances, and the party has to find and help them, get information on Lisbeth, and defeat the Emperor, all the while dealing with Zuriel, who has made a deal with the Emperor of the dimension to find the heroes and stop them. After the heroes accomplish their goals there (The Emperor is defeated but Zuriel escapes), Shard learns that Lisbeth has been taken back to Trest's factory dimension and must make a daring raid on the facility HQ to save her. This mission is another massive story climax where Zuriel returns to the heroes for good, Trest is defeated (and possibly killed depending on whether or not the player enabled him to be able to join the party later) and a LOT of information is learned about Lisbeth and Atropos. Lisbeth, as it turns out, is the Anomaly, the cause of the dimensional rifts that the player has encountered throughout the game. The Arbiters were unaware of this, but Lisbeth's analysis by the factory HQ computer shows that she was in fact created in the death throes of the Darkness Beyond Time, a being of light to balance out the darkness, but because she was cast into a dimension that has never known such darkness, the darkness sought her out in an attempt to create that balance. Lisbeth is the one who must absorb the darkness into herself, but at the cost of her own life. Lisbeth has absorbed a massive amount of darkness already and is comatose, and the Arbiters wish to take her to the place where the darkness is gathering to finish the job. The party refuses to let anything happen to her, and returns to Nora for advice. Nora tells them that they must create another Chrono Trigger, clone Lisbeth, and use it to absorb the darkness instead. Atropos tells them of an area where that can be done, and the party visits a place very much like Death Peak from the original game, but combined with a number of environments from other timelines, creating a strange anachronistic mountain. The Lisbeth clone is created, and takes all the darkness into itself, closing all the dimensional rifts and saving the original Lisbeth. However, the darkness refuses to die, and after another cataclysmic event in which the Realm of the Arbiters is completely destroyed, the party is scattered once more. Shard and Lisbeth wake up back in their intact village. Everyone has been brought back to life, but the village itself is isolated in the universe, an island drifting on the sea of space and time. At this point, there's about one fourth of the game remaining, and Shard must once again reunite the party: first, Ovo and Gylla, then Atropos and Zuriel, and finally, Millennia and Cade. During these missions, the increasingly sad fate of the game's realms is made apparent. Severed from the time stream, with only a few ways to bridge the dimensional gaps, the various realms have been totally cut off from one another, and darkness and despair are seeping into the minds of the people. Once the party is reunited, they learn that the only way to bring the dimensions together is by entering the hole in space and time that was once the Arbiters' Realm and is now a growing vortex of darkness, said to be the new Darkness Beyond Time.

It's important to mention that during this phase of the game, its primary antagonist has made his presence known. During her first encounter with the heroes, Nora mentioned her old mentor, a scholar named Remus, who is said to have been a frail but brilliant student of dimensional travel. Remus, in fact, is said to have studied under the original Three Gurus from Chrono Trigger, Malchior, Gaspar, and Balthasar, and somehow found a way to travel to this dimension. A few faint signs of Remus' presence are seen across the dimensions throughout the game. However, upon learning of Lavos' powers, Remus became power hungry, much in the same way that Queen Zeal did. Convinced by his hubris that he could control Lavos, he traveled through the dimensional breach created by the collapse of the Darkness Beyond Time, unwittingly allowing a small piece of the darkness to slip through with him. He took on Nora as a pupil, using her gifts to augment his own power. He also came in contact with the Arbiters, and subtly manipulated them as well. He's the one who caused Lisbeth to be born, and it was the darkness Remus brought through the portal that necessitated her very existence. It's Remus who causes the fall of the Realm of the Arbiters, and he's the one who personally strikes down their leader (who was originally teased to be the final boss of the game but is killed about 3/4ths of the way through). As Shard and Lisbeth begin their quest to reunite the heroes, Remus finally makes a few physical appearances, at first trying to manipulate the heroes to cease their quest, but then finally creating creatures to attack them. Nora is torn between helping the heroes and remaining loyal to her mentor, but she at last helps to strike down Remus at the cost of her own life in a cinematic sequence late in the final dungeon. Finally, it's revealed that the Lisbeth who's been with Shard ever since their trip to Death Peak isn't the original Lisbeth, but is instead the clone: the original Lisbeth sacrificed herself, realizing that the clone couldn't absorb the darkness on its own. The clone itself has a finite life force, and has only survived because of the lingering emotions experience toward Lisbeth from her companions and friends. Though heartbroken, the party vows to press on. They engage in a final showdown with Remus, only for Remus to be interrupted by the arrival of Lavos, reborn through the coalescence of so much darkness. While it appears that Remus will be overwhelmed by Lavos, the party realizes to their horror that Remus has discovered a way to control the cosmic horror, and sets it against the heroes. They defeat it, but only just barely, and Remus reveals to them that he has gained true dominion over time and space. He tears another dimensional hole, revealing the peaceful dimension seen in Chrono Trigger and Chrono Infinite, and threatens to destroy it as well. However, the Lisbeth clone, despite horrific pain, is able to throw herself into the portal, using her own energy to seal it for good and cutting off Remus' power to manipulate dimensional tears. Remus, now trapped in this dimension, vows to transform it into an eternal hellscape. Lisbeth tearfully asks him why, and he just smirks and says "because I can." Remus reveals himself to be omniscient, and claims that all living creatures are pathetic beings and that he has seen their pasts and futures and that knowing everything has made him realize the futility of existence. His omniscience also prevents the party from damaging him, and it appears hopeless until Millennia realizes that her own time manipulation powers lie outside of Remus' own. In fact, her powers were a failsafe granted to her by Nora, who had been secretly mentored by Balthasar who knew that Remus was about to turn. Nora wasn't able to complete her work, but through the encouragement of her friends, Millennia has been able to master her powers on her own. While she can't destroy Remus' omniscience completely, she can make him unable to see a small window into the immediate future, which allows the party to attack him. This begins the next phase of the final boss battle, in which the party must battle Remus. Killing Remus, however, unleashes the darkness itself, which coalesces into a being of incredible power, the Eternity Devourer. After the Eternity Devourer is defeated, the darkness is weakened, but not destroyed. The Lisbeth clone must, in its final act, absorb this last bit of darkness into herself. The Lisbeth clone then asks the party to let her rest, and Shard and Millennia cast one final spell together, enabling the Lisbeth clone to sleep beyond the flow of time. The dimensional rifts begin to repair themselves, and the party must return to their own dimensions, becoming separated from one another. The ending shows the party members and their surviving allies in their own repaired time streams, moving on with their lives. It's a mostly happy ending with a bittersweet tone, but the after-credits scene does show one hopeful moment: Millennia retains her time warping powers, and the first person she visits is Cade, but it's implied that the two of them will find a way to reunite the others as well.

Chrono Break is one of the Sapphire's most hyped games of 2008. It's released in Japan in September 2008, and in North America on November 11, 2008, with a European release on November 14th. It's a massive hit in all three territories, selling more than 500,000 copies in its first week of release in Japan and more than 300,000 copies in its first week in North America. Though it's not a Final Fantasy-level blockbuster, it definitely meets sales expectations and is considered one of Squaresoft's most successful launches ever. Reviews are quite kind to the game, averaging in the low 9s in North America and somewhat higher in Japan, with a 38/40 in Famitsu. Curiously, it's the lowest rated amongst the three Chrono games, which shows just how critically and popularly beloved the series is. Most of the praise for the game centers around its sprawling quest, epic storyline, and incredible graphics and music, while slightly criticizing the characters themselves for not being as memorable as the ones in the first two Chrono games. Though Chrono Break isn't the best RPG of all time, it's definitely a contender for one of the best RPGs of the year.

 

[RySenkari]

Three Mile Island

Three Mile Island is a psychological horror game for the Apple iTwin, and the third game in the popular Three Mile Island series of horror games, which had two of the Sega Katana's best selling games, making it Apple's pre-eminent exclusive horror series. It continues where the previous two games left off, taking place 17 years after the events of 2006's Return To Three Mile Island, and featuring Violet "Vi" Alvarez, who was introduced in that game, as the primary protagonist. Like the previous two titles, Three Mile Island focuses mostly on psychological horror, and doesn't feature much in the way of combat. This is especially true for the third game, which features no permanent equippable weapons and relies entirely on context-based attacks to defend one's self from threats. The game features a great deal of stealth and exploration, while attempting to scare the player through subtle tension and horrific sights. This is an approach taken by 2006's critically acclaimed The Lobotomized, which Three Mile Island's producers admit taking a lot of influence from. Three Mile Island features a traditional control scheme, but makes heavy use of optional motion controls for all sorts of context-based movements, and the controllers will shake as the player moves from room to room. The controllers also utilize a special optional attachment that can detect the player's heartbeat, and will ramp up tension accordingly when the player's heart rate goes up. This special mode, called "Heartbeat" mode, is one of the most heavily promoted aspects of the game, and a version of the game is sold with the pulse measuring controller attachments for an extra $20. The player has both a health meter and a radiation meter: absorb too much radiation, and Violet will suffer ill effects, similar to the radiation effects in the Fallout series. The controller can simulate a "pins and needles" radiation feeling by buzzing in high radiation areas, adding another aspect of realism and fear to the game. Radiation plays a heavier role in this game than it does in previous games in the series: Violet's access to certain areas will be prevented by too much radiation, and she'll either have to find protection, find a way to rid the area of radiation, or plow through it and risk damaging her health in order to proceed forward. Unlike in previous games in which there were multiple protagonists traveling together, in Three Mile Island Violet spends much of her time alone, and the feeling of solitude is palpable, though she'll talk to herself at times during certain sequences, especially when the player's heart rate goes up (another reason to use the heartbeat controller attachments, for the optional extra dialogue). Often during the game, the player will be given a complex series of actions to perform while something is happening, either something having to do with the radiation levels or something having to do with a nearby enemy, and these moments, carefully utilized throughout, also help to ramp up the tension of the game. Despite these context based moments, there are no real QTE moments in the game, as the producers felt that those types of moments would reduce the slow building tension. Three Mile Island features some of the most detailed and realistic graphics of any iTwin game to date, and a cast filled with talented voice actors. Though most of them are fairly unknown, there are a few famous voices, most notably Carla Gugino as the voice of Violet (the actress who played her in Return To Three Mile Island was not cast this time around). Three Mile Island was actually changed somewhat from the producers' original vision: originally, the game was not set to take place near the Three Mile Island facility at all, and instead was to take place in an unnamed government nuclear waste dumping site. However, after the release and success of The Lobotomized, the developers were inspired to revisit Three Mile Island one last time to complete Violet's story.

The game takes place in an alternate reality where the Three Mile Island incident in 1979 was the worst nuclear disaster ever, irradiating most of Pennsylvania and creating a mutated radioactive wasteland in the area around the facility. By 2008, most of the area has been cleaned up, but the original facility remained sealed up by the government after a number of incidents there. Violet Alvarez, who was a teenage hacker in Return To Three Mile Island, which takes place in 1991, is now a college professor in her early 30s, teaching computer engineering. She is a very "fun" professor and dearly loves her students, and she helps pay for a group of her favorite students to take a vacation. However, the group of students has mysteriously disappeared. One day, Violet gets a phone call from a creepy stranger who claims to have kidnapped them, and demands that Violet return to the Three Mile Island facility if she wants to see them alive again. Violet doesn't go to the police, but does contact one old friend (who is implied to be Eamon Ruddels from Return To Three Mile Island, as Eric and Carly disappeared ten years before). Violet then goes to the facility, which is still surrounded with a massive containment dome, but the hidden doors, which are supposed to only able to be opened by the president, are all opened for her. She makes her way in and discovers mutated creatures everywhere she turns. She has no way to fight the creatures, and must navigate via a series of instructions given to her by the kidnapper. As Violet goes through the facility, avoiding death at every turn, we get short flashbacks of Violet with her students, introducing us to each of them (there are six in all, three men and three women). Eventually, we learn that Violet's students are being experimented on at the facility with all sorts of radioactive equipment, and Violet has to try and free them. She fails to save the first two she comes across, but she's able to save the third, a girl named Shelby, and escorts her through the facility, trying to find the other three. It's at this point that Violet comes face to face with the kidnapper, and to her horror, it's Eric, the protagonist of the first two games. Eric has gone insane after the death of his wife Carly due to a mysterious ailment caused by her exposure to radiation. Eric hopes to bring Carly back by using radiation to stimulate her brain in such a way that she can be revived, and has her frozen corpse in the deepest part of the facility. Violet pleads with Eric to cease all of this, but he instead tries to capture Violet, needing her hacking expertise to break one last lock in the facility. Eric sets another of Violet's kidnapped students, who has been brainwashed with radiation, on Violet and Shelby. Violet eventually allows herself to be captured so that Shelby can get away. Violet is forced to watch as the last two students are subjected to a horrific radiation experiment, which Eric promises will only get worse if she doesn't help him with the final facility lock. Violet manages to break free and she saves one of the students, a boy named Brad, but the other student is killed. Violet is badly injured in her escape attempt, while Brad and the brainwashed student fight each other and fall into another room. Violet is forced to crawl out of the room and she tries to find somewhere safe, but is pursued by another creature, and screams as it seems to have her trapped in a room. Meanwhile, the player's perspective switches to Shelby, who stumbles through the facility in the dark, fleeing other creatures before finally bumping into Ruddels, who has come to help Violet out. Ruddels then helps Brad by killing the brainwashed student, and Ruddels tells Shelby and Brad to leave, showing them a path out before coming after Violet. The player's perspective then returns to Violet, who has somehow killed the creature that had her trapped, and then must fix her own wounds before staggering to safety, taunted by Eric over the intercom. She finds Ruddels, and the two make their way to Carly's frozen corpse. Ruddels wants to destroy the corpse to possibly snap Eric out of his delusions, but Violet can't bring herself to do so, having cared about Carly like a mother. Ruddles insists on destroying the corpse, and Violet attacks him, nearly killing him before realizing that she's going insane as well, and that her insanity and Eric's are similar. Violet realizes what has to be done, and she tries to get Ruddels to leave the facility, but he refuses. Fortunately, Shelby and Brad never left: they went back to save Violet, and Violet instead tells them to get Ruddels out of the facility and then lock her and Eric inside. They do so, very reluctantly, and Violet begins looking for Eric, but first she unlocks the door in the facility. She realizes that inside the deepest parts of the facility is a way to use radiation to stimulate a dead human brain, bringing a corpse back from the dead. Violet is astonished that Eric was right about everything, but also realizes that he's still gone completely insane and that she has to stop him. Violet plays a cat and mouse game with Eric, finally cornering him in the room with Carly's corpse. She seals the two of them in the room as creatures bang on the door outside. Violet will help Eric use the procedure to bring back Carly, but the three of them will never leave that room. They use the procedure, and Carly is brought back, much to her horror. She reveals that she used the procedure to bring back Eric before and he went insane, so she killed herself out of grief. The two ask Violet to kill them, but before she can, they both mutate into hideous radioactive creatures and attack, forcing Violet to kill them both using only the objects she can find in the room. It's a very brief, harrowing, and intense "final boss" fight, and by the time Violet is finished, she's badly hurt again and consumed with grief while the creatures continue to bang on the door. They burst in, but then Ruddels, heavily armed with a machine gun, bursts in through the back wall and kills all the creatures surging into the room. Violet passes out and Ruddels grabs her and rushes her to safety, just before the military bombs the facility into oblivion. Violet awakens in the hospital with Ruddels, Shelby, and Brad at her side. She's suffering from intense radiation poisoning and dozens of wounds, but the doctors say she'll pull through. She tells Ruddels that she wishes he'd just left her back there, as she fears she'll go insane like Eric and Carly did, but a government scientist assures her that because she wasn't brought back to life, the insanity she felt was only temporary, not permanent, and that it'll be safe for her to interact with others after a short period of observation. After Violet seems to calm down, there's a scene of Ruddels and the scientist talking about Violet and how she was brought back to life by the procedure, but because she wasn't dead for more than an hour, she shouldn't suffer from the insanity, and Ruddels promises the scientist that if Violet ever does go insane, he'll put her down himself. The camera pans one last time over the bombed out Three Mile Island facility, and then the credits roll.

Three Mile Island is released on December 2, 2008 for the Apple iTwin. The game's critical reception is quite good, with critics praising the game's graphical presentation, though the game's challenge level is a problem for some reviewers. It's largely seen as living up to the considerable hype, and it becomes the top selling new game of December 2008, proving to be a mature holiday hit for the iTwin and another game for mature players that raises the system's profile considerably against its competition. It's considered along with Resident Evil 5 to be one of the top horror games of the year, and its optional motion controls and heartbeat-based gameplay set a new standard for immersion. While not a Game of the Year contender, even just among iTwin titles (Panzer Dragoon Zeta and Billy's Brave Odyssey are the top two games in that regard), it's one of the most popular games to date for the iTwin, and sends the trilogy off on a good note. This time, the series' developers will send off the Three Mile Island setting for good, and would instead begin a spiritual successor series to the original, that would feature the series' beloved gameplay and carry over some plot threads while establishing a new setting and brand new characters.

 

[RySenkari]

Apple's successful first party library had helped elevate its market share to its highest level since purchasing Sega's gaming division back in 2003, but the company likely wouldn't have succeeded to the degree that it did without developing and supporting a reliable stable of independent game studios who inked a number of key exclusivity deals with Apple throughout the late 2000s and early 2010s. Apple began laying the groundwork for its indie revolution since even before the release of the iTwin and iPhone, and once those revolutionary devices were released, the seeds that Apple planted began to take root.

The first really successful studio that Apple supported in this era was PopCap Games. PopCap Games was a small company that primarily made puzzle titles for PC and Macintosh, and it was while creating games for the Macintosh that their studio caught the eye of Steve Jobs. In 2006, Jobs inked a deal with the company to make Peggle a timed exclusive for the iPod Play, preventing it from appearing on Nintendo's popular Game Boy Supernova, and establishing Apple's handhelds as the go-to place for addictive puzzlers. But it wouldn't be until 2008 that Apple's efforts to back PopCap would really pay off. Plants vs. Zombies was one of the most popular new indie titles of 2008. A "tower defense" game, in which players construct an army of plants to battle increasingly numerous waves of zombies, the game was instantly addictive and incredibly fun, with its marketable mascot characters and easy to learn gameplay. It first debuted on PC and Macintosh in the summer of 2008, but its console port was highly anticipated, and many players looked forward to playing it on the Supernova or the Xbox 2. However, it was Apple that swooped in and secured the game's exclusive console rights for the Apple brand. It would appear on the iPod Play and iPhone first, in late 2008, and would later show up in HD form on the Apple iTwin, but wouldn't appear on rival companies' machines until 2012. Plants vs. Zombies proved to be amongst the most popular iPod Play titles of the year, and even outsold the iPhone version for a time, though the convenience of being able to play the game on one's phone eventually propelled it toward becoming one of the most popular iPhone digital downloads ever. The game would even see a platforming sequel released on the iTwin in 2011, while PopCap would continue to create fun and addictive games for the iTwin and the iPhone, becoming a key second party to Apple during the iTwin years.

Then there was World Of Goo, another addictive indie game created by 2D Boy. A physics-based game, it asked players to construct bridges between various landmarks in order to transport balls of goo to the goal. This was another game that was very simply to learn, but also extremely hard to master, and was perfect for the simplistic control scheme that the iTwin could allow. It went on sale for $14.99 in the iTunes Store as an iTwin exclusive digital title in December 2008, but a version was also made available for the iPhone in 2009. World Of Goo became one of Apple's most popular digital offerings, and raised the profile of Apple's online store. The game featured a critically acclaimed soundtrack, and anyone who purchased the game for the iTwin also got a free iTunes album of the soundtrack that they could download and listen to on any deivce they so chose. These tie-ins between the iTunes game and music stores would continue, with Apple offering either free or discounted soundtracks for digital games with the purchase of said games. This drove composers in droves to Apple-affiliated game companies, knowing that their work would get plenty of exposure on the iTunes store. Not only did these composers create excellent game soundtracks, but a few of them would achieve fame as musical artists in their own right, creating techno and symphonic albums that would be promoted alongside the games that they worked on, with still others collaborating with established acts, such as the well-known collaborations between digital music creator Toby Fox and hip hop artist Pharrell Williams that became popular in 2015 and remain popular today.

The indie influences at Apple didn't stop with indie games. Apple themselves began asking indie developers to collaborate with their own established game studios. One of the most notorious and beloved such collaborations would be that of Edmund McMillen, best known for blisteringly difficult platformers such as Super Leek Boy, and Sonic Team, to create the renowned digital title Sonic's Ultimate Challenge. Combining the gameplay of classic Sonic with the amazingly tricky platforming that McMillen is known for, Sonic's Ultimate Challenge consisted of 150 levels ranging from extremely hard to groin-grabbingly impossible, packaged together at a budget price of $19.99. The game went on sale in 2011, and while it's not an official entry to Sonic canon, it remains one of the most critically acclaimed titles in the series, though it's somewhat polarizing to long-time series fans. There would be other collaborations, such as the aforementioned Toby Fox composing the score for a retro-styled Phantasy Star gaiden game. Apple was the first of the three major gaming companies of the time to truly embrace the importance of indie developers in the modern era of gaming. Just as they were the first to really push a digital storefront for games, Apple became an innovator in the industry, rolling with the tide rather than being swept away by it. Apple would be the first, but, as we all know, they wouldn't be the last, and the strength of independent game studios would help another hardware developer rise to prominence in the face of enormous competition.

-from an article on Games Over Matter, published on October 26, 2018

 

[Andrew Boyd: Duke of Dank]

Norfolk Southern 21st Century Steam: An Overview

Three years before 2008 in 2005, the Norfolk Southern Railroad had recieved a new chairman, Charles "Wick" Moorman.

A long-time railfan, Moorman was going to give the railroad a renewed interest in its history and heritage. This began in 2007 when the company unveiled a fleet of restored F units to power its business train. These locomotives wore a beautiful livery inspired from the old Southern Railroad's Green scheme. During the summer of 2008 the railroad officially announced its intentions on June 30th that through a partnership with the Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum (TVRM) it would launch the all-new "21st Century Steam Program." At that time the designated locomotives to operate included Southern #630, Southern #4501, and Tennessee Valley Railroad 2-8-0 #610.

During the Labor Day weekend in 2008 #630 pulled the first excursions near the TVRM to celebrate the organization's 50th anniversary and officially kick off the steam program. This was followed by additional excursions over the next few months across Tennessee. A repeat of this event, along with employee appreciation excursions hosted by #630 helped mark Norfolk Southern's 30th anniversary in 2010. The year also witnessed the 4501 return to service after an extensive overhaul, which was followed by a doubleheader with the 4501 and 630 from Chattanooga to Atlanta. Additionally, Norfolk & Western 4-8-4 #611 was confirmed to be restored for the program that Summer.

611 was completed by May 2011, and her maiden run was from Spencer, NC to Washington DC. The Queen of Roanoke's return was lauded by the press, and plans to restore 2-6-6-4 1218 were made soon after. 1218 was going to be a tougher task as it didn't have many parts put back in after its aborted overhaul. However, the NCTM in Spencer, NC was able to have many part re-fabricated. The 1218 was ready to run again by July 2013, and ran a few fall foliage trips around Roanoke, Virginia that year before running a longer excursion to Atlanta via Lynchburg and the Carolinas.

In the Midwest, two more stars joined in on the fray, both former Nickel Plate Road engines. 2-8-4 765 lived at the Ft. Wayne Railroad Historical Society, and was ready to run for the program, starting with a trip on the former Wabash to Lafayette in 2012. 587 however was not as readily available, her owner the Indiana Transportation Museum had been moving from Noblesville to Logansport after an argument with the former city. But the FWRHS agreed to house the 587 for a restoration that was finished for 2014.

765's most notable trip included a series of trips over Pennsylvania's fabled Horseshoe Curve near Altoona where the big Berk ran wide-open with heritage Nickel Plate diesel #8100 and Mr. Moorman made headlines for being in the cab during some of these runs. The 765 also made numerous excursions over the former New York Central's Water Level Route from Cleveland to Chicago and numerous visits to the Northeast. Meanwhile, 587 mostly stayed in Indiana pulling excursions from her home-base in Logansport to either Fort Wayne in the east or Lafayette in the west.

The program has seen numerous major events. But the most iconic was in August 2014, when 611 ran from Roanoke to Chattanooga. From there it tripleheaded with 630 and 4501 to New Orleans then back to Roanoke over the route of the Southern mainline. Another major tripleheader was the re-enactment of the 587, 611, and 1218 tripleheader from June 1989. Only this time from Roanoke over the former Pennsylvania Railroad to Harrisburg.

As of 2018, Norfolk Southern and the steamer's owners have made plans for all the stara to meet for an event in either Cincinnati or Lynchburg. So far, the closest thing was in July 2017, when 765 and 1218 double headed from Cincy to Chattanooga to meet 4501 and 630.

 

[RySenkari]

(Authors' Note: The summary and concept of Selene were given to us by the reader jolou, I've made some adjustments and additions to what he sent us but for the most part this is his work apart from the summary of the game's commercial and critical performance.)

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Selene

Selene is an adventure/RPG exclusive to the Nintendo Sapphire. Created by Arkane Studios and published by Valve, Selene plays somewhat similarly to the OTL Mass Effect games, with a bit of Fable 3 thrown in. It's a third person shooter, but with lots of RPG elements and open world gameplay, drawing some comparisons to Fallout: The Boneyard (though with a bit less customization/interactivity). Selene takes place in the year 2107, 38 years after a massive worldship named Selene departed from Earth. It had been sent to a new solar system with 20,000 colonists on board, representing many different races and ethnicities. The game's plot begins when a member of the Selene Appeasement Force, the ship's security forces, discovers during a typical crime investigation that the government who launched the ship has been engaged in deception and that the entire Selene Project may have had a much darker motivation. The ship is divided into several segments, including a European district similar to an old European city (mostly Paris), an American district with a strong Latin American influence that looks like a typical American suburb, a Chinatown-like district with some Japanese elements, a general residential district which houses citizens of other ethnicities (and is less well taken care of than the other districts, showing that the people who run the ship are biased against certain groups of people), a massive agricultural district, and then the Presidium, where the ship's government resides.

The game's main characters include...

Mathew Fullington (PC / European Union) : Son of Alexander Fullington, former chief scientist of the Selene Project . A 32 yearsold lieutenant in the SAF, he has never seen Earth and only had pictures to imagine how a world like that could exist. Curious, intelligent and charismatic he is also somewhat choleric and impulsive when he doesn’t get what he wants. He can thus have either a "good" or an "evil" personality, depending on the player's actions (like Renegade or Paragon in OTL Mass Effect).

Alexander Fullington (PC / European Union) : Father of Mathew Fullington . A renowned scientist on earth (and on the ship), he was the lead scientist during the creation of the Selene. Sometimes arrogant (when he explains something about science) but he is generally a very kind man and loving father who decides to take his retirement after his wife dies in an accident.

Elis Norell (Norway) : Secretary General . Sensible, Helpful, wanting to please , he is at first a beloved Secretary General who just got reelected for a second term in office, but after a particular event, he becomes more obsessive and perfectionist. He also becomes more cynical as the game goes on. He is the one who slowly transforms the society of the ship into a tyrannical technocracy but he still has a good side, and is only doing what he does for humanity's survival.

Rana Stora ( Egypt ) : Captain of the Ship . She is the reverse of Elis, if she appears cold to the players at first, she becomes more open, more sympathetic as the game advances and Elis starts to become a dictator. She doesn't lust for power, she truly wants a democracy and for humanity to decide it's own fate.

Chan Xeng (China) : Commissar . She will become one of Elis' closest allies, his second in command. A very cold women, very professional , who believes in a greater goal (Humanity above everything else and survival by any means).

Joe Clinton (USA) : Partner of Mathew Fullington and his close friend.

Indira Loke (India ) : Merchant and later head of the Resistance and a key love interest to Mathew. She loves the VR Simulation because she is an explorer at heart, and when she is locked out of it, she becomes heartbroker. Another part of her personality is that she wants to help a lot of people, it could be small tasks or more important things. This explains why she became the head of the resistance as she believed that she could help more people by putting a more democratic government at the head of the ship.

Selene features above average graphics for its time. Because of the scale of the game, graphical detail isn't quite top notch, though the segments on the ship in particular are very beautiful. The game's English voice cast consists mostly of American voice actors working in France (much of the same group that Ubisoft used to employ), though the company made an effort to get a multi-cultural cast to voice the game. The most well known actor working on the game is probably Aysha Selim, who voices Rana Stora (she voiced Ana in OTL's Overwatch).

The game starts in 2069, before the ship's departure from Earth. We are playing Alexander Fullington as he take a final training for combat on earth and that he is finalizing details about the ship. Then, he takes a shuttle, and similar to OTL Mass Effect: Andromeda's first scene, we see the Selene on the Spaceport, ready to leave. Then the flashback ends, and it’s revealed it was only Alexander speaking to an assembly celebrating the 38th anniversary of the departure . After this, we meet the Secretary General Elis Norell and we sympathize quickly with him, contrary to Rana Stora who comes off as very angry at first, as she disapproves of the speech. After that, we return home by traversing all the most important part of the ship, serving as the game's tutorial Alexander and Mathew both have a house in the European part of the ship. The tutorial ends with our first decision, showing the game's morality system. Mathew can choose to help an old man who take drugs by taking him to his house, or can turn him in to the SAF . The neutral option is that we just leave him here hoping that someone will take care of him. After this prologue segment, the game truly begins. The first part introduces the game's world properly, with Mathew going about his work as an investigator. There's a spectacular spacewalk segment as well, Mathew meets some of the other major characters while we also get the first hints that Elis isn't entirely as good as he seems. The game's first 20 percent or so is fairly normal, showing life on the ship before the rebellion, where the most dastardly villains we face are basic criminals. The game's second major segment sees the beginning of strikes and revolts, and the SAF getting more tyrannical. A curfew is imposed. Mathew is given the task of investigating one of the rebel leaders, though he learns that the rebel is only contacting civilians and making small plans, but no terrorist attacks or armed resistance. Still, Mathew is ordered to arrest him, and this provokes riots and a harsher curfew. Censorship of the press begins to take place, and in a major event, Alexander Fullington, the protagonist's father, is killed. Mathew is forced to make a major choice that will determine much of the rest of the game: take the SAF's side and act on the official report, or side with the rebellion and investigate further. However, there is one final chance for the player to rejoin the SAF, after Rana tries to arrest Elis but is arrested herself. Mathew is given a mission to infiltrate the resistance, and can choose whether to report back to the SAF or join them for good. This second choice is irreversible.

The third chapter of the game will start Mathew off with either a mission to rescue Rana (if a part of the resistance) or a mission to attack the rebel base (if rejoining the SAF). On the resistance route, the player can either infiltrate the prison quietly or by force, depending on earlier missions completed. After the rescue, the resistance launches a major revolt, and Mathew fights alongside Rana and their allies to take Elis down. Elis, however, surrenders without a fight once the player reaches his inner sanctum. He explains why he had to be so harsh, and reveals that he got a message revealing that Earth got invaded by an Aliens Race and that several governments of the Earth knew it in advance. It is the reason the ship was launched. He wanted to be sure that as many humans as possible could survive and also to prepare for the inevitable alien attack. A signal was received, indicating the presence of an alien ship, and Elis has been preparing for his defense, revealing a secret weapon to defend it: a small army of robots and massive laser turrents. If Mathew remains with the SAF, he leads the raid on the rebel headquarters to take down the leader, Indira Loke. If Mathew was dating her before his decision to rejoin the SAF, she will give a tearful speech about how he is aiding tyranny before flinging herself to her death, but if he wasn't, then she'll go into custody quietly. Either way, once Mathew returns after completing the mission, Elis will give him the same speech about the alien threat. Then, the next segment begins: Mathew is the second in command of the ship, under Elis (SAF path) or Rana (resistance path). If following the SAF path, Mathew's stats will increase if he continues along that path, following choices consistent with the Technocracy options (regardless of if they're "good" or "evil"). If following the resistance path, Mathew's stats will increase in line with that path. However, whichever path the player chooses, their stats and character relationships are damaged if he makes choices that oppose that path, forcing him to remain somewhat consistent or suffer difficulties along the way. The fourth chapter begins with Mathew searching a resident's room and realizing that the citizen might have been collaborating with the alien invaders, either by choice or by brainwashing. If Mathew completed a mission beforehand associated with that resident, the player will have more time to prepare for the alien invasion (more side quests can be completed to earn more power ups, loot, and recruits). Regardless of the result of the mission, Mathew will send what he learned to the scientists, who determine when the aliens will arrive. Mathew can then choose to either rebuild the destroyed segments of the ship (from the civil war earlier), or abandon those sections and fortify the rest. Rebuilding the ship improves Mathew's reputation with the citizens, but it also means that more of the will die in the upcoming battles. Mathew can make other choices during this time: teach all civilians to use arms, or concentrate training on those who are already soldiers? Devote more funds to the ship's farms, or to the research facilities? All of these choices will result in different civilians living or dying, and the player can get to know pretty much every single person on the ship, so it's up to the player to decide to save as many as possible (resulting in a more difficult final battle), or deem some as expendable. After enough time passes, the alien attack on the ship begins with a massive cutscene. The final battle itself takes several phases and consists of the defense of the ship's various sections, in which Mathew personally participates in the battle alongside whatever comrades you've picked up along the way. The first part of the final battle is the section by section defense of the Selene itself, and the second part of the battle, after the aliens are totally cleared from the ship, is launching a shuttle to attack the aliens' ship. The attack on the aliens' ship has the feel of a suicide mission, with waves and waves of soldiers dying. If you've upgraded the robot soldiers enough, they'll suffer most (but not all) of the casualties. The battle ends with the humans planting a nuke on the alien ship, and escaping via the use of an alien shuttle. The nuke doesn't destroy the alien ship, but leaves it severely crippled, and ends the alien threat at least for now. The game ends with Elis or Rana talking to Mathew and thanking them for saving the last bastion of humanity, then leaving Mathew alone to contemplate the stars that humanity still strives to reach.

Selene is considered one of the Sapphire's most hyped 2008 titles by the gaming media, but not quite so much by mainstream gamers, who consider it to be a bit too artistic compared to a lot of other Sapphire launch window titles. It's released on October 21, 2008, to excellent reviews from the gaming press, averaging in the mid to high 8s. Critics praise the combat system and the degree of player choice, along with the large amount of well written NPCs, but criticize the voice acting (though some performances like Selim's stand out) and the somewhat anticlimactic alien battle (with some critics comparing the game to Full Metal Jacket, saying that the first half of the game is amazing but the second half not so much). Thanks to a smart advertising campaign and the positive press, the game sells well at launch, becoming one of October 2008's top selling new games, and remains a strong seller throughout the holiday season, becoming an early hit for the Sapphire and launching Arkane back into prominence. Though the game isn't quite in 2008's top tier of games either critically or commercially, it's very fondly remembered and cultivates a moderately sized and very devoted fanbase, who begin to hype up the game's sequel before it's even announced.

 

[RySenkari]

The Top 25 Highest Grossing Films Of 2008 (North American domestic gross only):
(Authors' Note: The superhero films listed in this top 25 were given to us by the reader Pyro, based on his planned DC/Marvel film list.)

1. King Arthur: The Battle Of Camlann ($510.8 million) (Note: The epic conclusion to Terry Gilliam's King Arthur trilogy is one of the most anticipated films of all time. Unlike many other “third installments” which saw a decline in critical and commercial performance from the second, King Arthur's third installment is critically acclaimed, and the film, Gilliam, and star Heath Ledger would all be nominated for Oscars. It would set the opening weekend record for its day with $190 million in its first three days and would be the first film ITTL to make $500 million in North America alone.)

2. North Pole ($360.5 million) (Note: This holiday film tells the story of Santa Claus and his elves in magical steampunk fashion. It's Pixar's first musical and features Zooey Deschanel as the voice of an elf girl named Mystery. This film isn't actually about “saving Christmas”, it's more of a personal journey for Mystery to find her place in the world. It's a massive holiday hit, Pixar's highest grossing film to date, and one of their best received films critically.)

3. Transformers ($312.8 million)

4. Eldest ($280.7 million) (Note: The Eragon films continue to do very well ITTL, and this sequel is a massive hit.)

5. Legion Of Super-Heroes ($266.4 million)

6. X-Men: Wolverine ($245.2 million)

7. Pass The Star 2 ($237.4 million) (Note: The sequel to 2006's surprising hit about roller derby, this film continues the story from the previous one in a bigger and better way. It scores great critical reviews and comes at the beginning of what is essentially a multi-year plateau for the roller derby craze in the West.)

8. Moon Over Midnight ($208.1 million) (Note: This film is an adaptation of a Nicholas Sparks novel original to ITTL, essentially a tragic romance with some thriller elements, making it appeal to both male and female audiences. It sees a domestic box office performance in line with OTL's Da Vinci Code and Twilight films, though reviews are only average.)

9. The Studio ($193.8 million) (Note: A vehicle for actress/singer Genesis Rodriguez, who also launches a massive hit album. This film, a romantic comedy about a young Manhattan woman who starts a music studio in her studio apartment, is one of the year's biggest hits amongst women, and launches Rodriguez into mega-stardom, making her one of the big names of the rapidly building “girl pop” movement.)

10. The Mighty Thor ($191.2 million)

11. Oh, The Places You'll Go! ($181.7 million) (Note: An adaptation of Dr. Seuss' last book, this is a CGI animated film by Warner Bros., and features a young boy and girl as the protagonists on an epic dream journey. Critically acclaimed, it's up there with North Pole as one of the year's best reviewed animated films, and though it's not quite as successful, it's still considered a major hit.)

12. Rapunzel Unbraided ($178.4 million) (Note: TTL's version of Tangled, this film stars Kristin Chenoweth as Rapunzel and Idina Menzel as Gothel, and is a bit more comedic even than the OTL film was, with a bit snarkier and world-weary Rapunzel. It's a hit, but not quite as big as OTL's film.)

13. The Forge ($177.4 million) (Note: A sci-fi/action film about a worker at a weapons factory who revolts against the tyrannical masters, this is an explosive thriller and actually gets quite good reviews. It starts Vin Diesel and Chris Pine, and features some of the year's best special effects, becoming one of the top action films of the year.)

14. Sex And The City ($168.9 million)

15. Scuzzy Returns ($158.7 million) (Note: One of the year's animated sequels, Scuzzy Returns builds off the success of the original but isn't quite as big a hit as some of the year's other major animated hits.)

16. Slumdog Millionaire ($152.3 million)

17. We Rise ($149.0 million) (Note: A film about a group of African-American girls in the 1970s who defy bigotry and others' low expectations of them to become the highest performing students at their suburban school which had once been segregated, this film performs exceedingly well amongst black audiences and also gets several Oscar nominations, including Best Picture. It gets a lot of hype thanks to being frequently featured on the Oprah Winfrey Show in the weeks leading to its release and also due to a number of high profile stars.)

18. The Mummy vs. Van Helsing ($144.7 million) (Note: The third Mummy film sees Imhotep return yet again to do battle with the legendary vampire hunter Van Helsing, who hasn't yet had a film ITTL. Rick and Evelyn also return, and this film, while action packed and spectacular, is a bit of a mess that only turns a profit because of overseas ticket sales.)

19. The Last Colony: Reclamation ($142.0 million) (Note: The third film in Michael Bay's space trilogy, though he was also working on Gray Zone at the same time and it really shows, this film is worse even than the second and is mostly a financial failure.

20. Unit 6: The Infiltration ($138.8 million) (Note: A star-studded action thriller, this movie gets compared somewhat to the Bourne series but is significantly less well received by critics. It's still popular enough amongst moviegoers to make its budget back and then some.)

21. Netheads 2 ($133.8 million) (Note: Another animated sequel, this one is by Dreamworks and is a bit of a disappointment box-office wise.)

22. Kabuki ($124.0 million) (Note: An action/martial arts film starring a badass female warrior with a katana, this film is seen as somewhat of a spiritual successor to the Kill Bill films and is actually produced by Quentin Tarantino, though it's directed by a Japanese director. It stars Keiko Kitagawa, launching her as somewhat of a star in the West.)

23. Eagle Eye ($121.3 million) (Note: This film about ubiquitous government surveillance gets made ITTL, but it has a female protagonist, played by Ellen Page, rather than a male one. Page's character, like Shia LaBeouf's IOTL, gets framed for murder and must clear her name while outrunning the feds and the people who set her up. This film co-stars Samuel L. Jackson, and the acting of both really carries the film, which is slightly more successful than IOTL's.)

24. Towel Off ($116.4 million) (Note: This raunchy comedy about a bunch of losers who get revenge on their strict high school gym teacher proves to be one of the surprise hits of the year, thanks to the acting of the stars involved. It's a decent September comedy and it does decently well into October.)

25. The Punisher ($113.7 million)

 

[RySenkari]

(Here are the rest of the notable North American game releases between October 2008 and December 2008!)

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Nintendo Sapphire:

Mirror's Edge

Mirror's Edge is an action/adventure game released exclusively for the Nintendo Sapphire in October 2008. Published by Electronic Arts, the game is very similar to OTL's game, including its main character Faith and its high flying action that incorporates fast paced combat and parkour. The game is a first person title, with an emphasis on hand to hand combat rather than gunplay (though guns are available). The game's plot is also very close to that of OTL's game, featuring a totalitarian “utopian” society and a rebellion in which Faith works as a courier to deliver messages and other contraband back and forth. The OTL game took inspiration from Firefly, and so does the TTL game, and perhaps even moreso due to the fact that Firefly lasted several seasons ITTL, giving the producers and developers even more plot threads to work into the show. The game also took inspiration from titles such as Beyond Good And Evil, while games such as Encounter (which a lot of Mirror's Edge developers worked on) also served as sources for the programmers and writers to draw from. Mirror's Edge serves as a graphical showcase for the Sapphire, which enables the game to show a massive open world cityscape, even bigger than that of OTL's game, with beautifully detailed characters and buildings. The game's plot, as IOTL, revolves heavily around Faith, her sister Kate, and the two of them being framed for a murder, but unlike OTL's game, which had somewhat of an open ending, TTL's game actually resolves the storyline, with Faith and Kate ultimately being vindicated for their actions when the rebellion is successful. The reason for the plot having a closed resolution is that EA expects that sequels will feature different protagonists, and perhaps different settings or a different perspective on the same setting. As IOTL, Mirror's Edge receives generally good reviews, perhaps slightly better than OTL's reviews, but it's also somewhat overlooked due to being released in close proximity to other major Sapphire games. The game isn't a financial loss, but it is somewhat of a disappointment. Apple expresses interest in the IP, and a port would ultimately come to the iTwin in 2010, with a possible Apple-funded sequel coming later on.

Star Siren: The Fateful Yandere

Star Siren: The Fateful Yandere is a side-scrolling/3-D platform beat 'em up hybrid game for the Nintendo Sapphire (though it would later be ported to the iTwin in 2009). It continues the story and gameplay of previous games in the series, which itself is similar to OTL's Viewtiful Joe. The game has a cel-shaded look and is essentially a tribute to shoujo anime such as Sailor Moon, with five transforming heroines led by Saiyuki, AKA Star Siren, who utilizes powerful magical attacks on enemies that the player charges up as they deal and take damage. The Fateful Yandere introduces 3-D gameplay for the first time, though it's only featured in certain segments of the game, particularly boss fights and open exploration segments. The rest of the game takes the form of a classic beat 'em up title and is divided into 21 levels that the player must go through, interspersed with animated cutscenes throughout. The plot sees the introduction of a new character, Mimimora (voiced by Kari Wahlgren), who introduces herself as Anthony's girlfriend (Anthony was the love interest of Saiyuki, introduced in Star Siren: Love Story). Anthony and Saiyuki had agreed not to date each other and to just remain friends, but Saiyuki finds herself jealous and suspicious of Mimimora. Meanwhile, the Dark Frog Prince Kerokero has launched an invasion of Earth and has sent his amphibious minions forth to cause trouble. However, it's Mimimora who is the more menacing threat: true to Saiyuki's suspicions, she's prone to wild mood swings and violent outbursts when Anthony doesn't make her happy, and Saiyuki finds herself having to rescue her ex-boyfriend from this crazy new girl! But there's more to Mimimora than meets the eye, and when her magical powers turn out to be key to saving the world, Saiyuki and friends have to try their best to pacify her while keeping Anthony safe. In the end, Mimimora and the Star Souls team up to take down Kerokero, and Mimimora agrees to leave Anthony alone (while Anthony begins dating Saiyuki again). Mimimora remains Saiyuki's friend, but she's still quite volatile and dangerous, and will definitely make more trouble as the series continues!

Star Siren: The Fateful Yandere saw slightly reduced critical and commercial success from its predecessors, averaging in the high 7s/low 8s with critics. Its combat was seen as being a bit repetitive, even with the addition of 3-D gameplay, and the graphics were also seen as being underwhelming for the Sapphire. However, critics did like Mimimora and the game's general sense of humor. Sales in Japan were outstanding, among the best of 2008 on the Sapphire, but North American sales dipped significantly from that of Star Siren Nakama. The Fateful Yandere would be the last game in the series to be released first exclusively on a Nintendo system, as Apple and Capcom's relationship continued to draw closer.

Guided By Moonlight

A Level-5 developed action RPG with a cel shaded visual motif and a large world to explore, this game casts kid adventurers in a grand adventure across a land where the light of twin moons governs all. The game plays much like OTL's Rogue Galaxy, but has a somewhat lighter mood, akin to that of a Yokai Watch or Inazuma Eleven type game, with lots of humor (it does get more serious toward the end though). It's an epic quest and is quite well received critically, though it doesn't get as much love as Chrono Break does and becomes more of a cult classic in the West than a major hit. It does achieve more of a hit status in Japan.

Killzone: Man's Inhumanity

The third main series game in the Killzone franchise, Man's Inhumanity is an FPS that continues the story from the previous two games, bringing back the cruel Rippers to be the game's main antagonistic force. The title refers to the fact that the human armies fighting the Rippers are forced to genetically modify themselves into mutated creatures in order to battle this dangerous foe, and so combat combines traditional FPS weaponry with melee attacks and special powers. The game has a new protagonist, a soldier who was one of the first to receive modifications, and he continues to receive new powers as the game progresses. Man's Inhumanity was hyped as one of the Sapphire's first major FPS titles, and is pushed as a big multiplayer game, but critical reviews are disappointing. The combat is seen as repetitive and clunky and the main character is fairly unlikeable, with the game being criticized for being a rushed affair, similar to Killzone 2. It's not a Gray Zone level disappointment, but Modern Warfare 2 is received MUCH better on the Sapphire, and ultimately this game ends up being a bit of a bust, putting the franchise in a bit of jeopardy.

Big Bad Hero 2

(Authors' Note: The reader PunMaster, creator of this series, is still compiling the plot and gameplay details for this game, so we'll just detail the commercial and critical performance here in lieu of a full game description to be posted later on.)

The sequel to 2004's first party debut hit for Nintendo, Big Bad Hero 2 continues the story of Nero and friends as they come up against a dangerous new foe. This was the most hyped first party game of the holiday season for Nintendo, and it scores majorly well in both reviews and sales, becoming one of the season's biggest hits and exceeding the original game's sales performance. It's not quite a Game of the Year contender, though it is mentioned in a few of the award ceremonies.

Apple iTwin:

Strider

Strider is a modern reboot of the classic action series that first appeared back in arcades in 1989 and got a popular Genesis port. Though the series has appeared on numerous consoles in numerous forms over the years, this is the first game to be made with the iTwin in mind, and takes the series back to its roots: it's a side scrolling beat 'em up with fairly simplistic controls, utilizing either a traditional control scheme or the iTwin's dual control mode to allow for up to four player co-op. The plot is simple: the ninja Strider Hiryu must battle his way through more than a dozen levels to take down his master, who has betrayed the side of good and has formed an evil criminal syndicate. Strider must sneak and carve his way through hundreds of baddies to reach his master's lair and take him down. The game gets a number of comparisons to titles like Star Siren: The Fateful Yandere and Ninja Gaiden Blood, but is significantly more simple to control (though it's a lot harder than Star Siren). It's also sold for a budget price: $39.99 at launch. This helps it to get a decent amount of sales, and reviews are solid as well, averaging right around the 8/10 mark.

Trauma Center

This Atlus-made game is an enhanced console remake of a somewhat successful iPhone game developed in 2007 (which was similar to the original Nintendo DS game from OTL). It uses the iTwin's motion controls or the traditional iTwin controls to combine visual novel-style gameplay with precision surgery gameplay, and while some of the characters and situations are quite similar to OTL's game, it's very recognizable in terms of gameplay and subject matter. It's seen as a bit of a niche title but is a very unique iTwin entry and there's nothing like it on the Xbox 2 or the Sapphire.

Dead Rising 2

A sequel to Capcom's 2006 Nintendo Wave title, Dead Rising 2 continues the story of Frank West, who finds himself forced to participate in another series of zombie-related reality show challenges after his love interest Isabella (from the previous game) becomes infected. He needs the prize money to buy Zombrex, a medication that might reverse Isabella's symptoms (similar to the storyline from OTL's Dead Rising 2, in which new protagonist Chuck needed the Zombrex for his daughter). Frank is dropped into a city overrun with zombies and forced to compete with 15 other contestants for survival.. One of those contestants is a single mother named Alexis, who needs the Zombrex for her young daughter. Alexis ends up becoming Frank's rival and his new love interest, though Isabella is also involved later on in the game. As for the gameplay, it's somewhat similar to the original, though it's enhanced by the iTwin's controls and by the ability for Capcom's developers to create a larger open world. The graphical detail has been sacrificed a bit for the sake of environmental scope, but this just makes the game better overall, with review scores topping those for the first game. This game's reception and sales are quite comparable to that of No More Heroes and superior to those of MadWorld, making it one of the more popular “mature” iTwin titles of the year and one of the most popular survival horror games on the console as well, a more tongue-in-cheek alternative to the deadly serious Three Mile Island.

Skunked!

Apple's first major mascot platformer since Endotherm, this game is about an anthropomorphic skunk named Stinker who can shoot his spray at people and objects. Somewhat gross but also surprisingly hilarious, this is a fairly big hit amongst younger players and really isn't all that bad of a game, averaging in the mid to high 7s amongst reviewers. Though some families choose to hold out for the February 2009 release of Endotherm 2, others decide to go ahead and purchase Skunked!, and the game becomes a holiday hit for Apple, selling well throughout November and December.

Virtue And Vice 2

Kabukisoft's sequel to their surprise 2006 2-D fighting hit, Virtue And Vice 2 delivers improved graphics and more characters, enhancing the original game which was already quite well received. Characters remain fairly gimmicky, based on either virtues or vices, with some characters becoming truly over the top. It's a niche title in North America, but it's a hit in Japan, and critics love it, with most of them declaring the game to be even better than Virtua Fighter 6. The sales don't reflect it, but this series is definitely here to stay.

Chaos Conductor

A rhythm/platformer/puzzle game where the player is a kid who can conduct enemies and obstacles like an orchestra. Another game that uses the motion controls, it also has a good non-motion control scheme, and is considered a very fun game that has strong sales (though not initially, the strong sales come later on as word of mouth spreads and the price drops).

Crazy Taxi

The first iTwin installment in this classic Sega series, Crazy Taxi for the iTwin brings HD graphics and mixes up the series' formula somewhat, with passengers who have their own unique temperaments and the introduction of rival cab companies who will attack you (or who you can go to work for). Apart from the enhancements, it's still the same old Crazy Taxi, and though the game gets some buzz, most critics consider it a bit of a rehash, denying the game high scores and forcing it to settle for some fairly mediocre ratings (it also doesn't help that the game's a bit short, the developers decided to take an opposite approach from Capcom's Dead Rising 2, sacrificing scope for pretty graphics). Sales are good (it's Crazy Taxi), but it's not a megahit like the original.

Microsoft Xbox 2:

The Pact 2

The sequel to 2005's disappointing and controversial FPS, The Pact 2 is co-developed by EA and Microsoft, and tries to fix some of the problems that plagued the original (which sold well but was a major critical disappointment). Though the gameplay features of the original largely remain, allowing the player a great deal of discretion in how to carry out a mission and emphasizing interaction with NPCs, the game goes out of its way to make the protagonist not able to do anything truly monstrous or controversial. This does limit the player's freedom somewhat, but also gives them more subtle choices in their interactions, and still enables them to be shady, just not truly bad. The aiming and stealth have seen significant improvements from the previous game, and the graphics are fairly good for an HD console, though EA and Microsoft didn't put a huge amount of money into the game, so the graphics aren't up to the same level as games like Encounter: Time Wars or Cyberwar 3. The plot features a soldier named Desmond Clark (voiced by Ice Cube) who is forced to go AWOL after his entire unit is captured by the enemy. Clark must hunt down his fellow soldiers and rescue them, while getting to the bottom of the events that led to their capture. Clark is a significantly stronger character from a moral standpoint than Scott from the previous game, refusing to kill civilians and drawing a harsh line against torture. The player's actions determine how many of their fellow soldiers they can rescue, and what Clark's ultimate fate will be. While The Pact 2 doesn't receive the same level of harsh criticism as its predecessor, it's still seen largely as a paint-by-numbers FPS that doesn't do much to innovate the genre, particularly from a multiplayer perspective. Its initial sales are also lower than those of the original game, and Microsoft doesn't do a great job hyping it compared to its other games. While The Pact 2 is seen as a somewhat pleasant surprise by most critics, sales barely cover the production cost of the game, and the franchise is quietly laid to rest.

Wilde

An irreverent, cel-shaded adventure game created by Ralph Bakshi, it stars a man named Wilde who gets caught up in a fantastical adventure after meeting a sexy princess named Maria. The game is somewhat of a parody of Dragon's Lair, though it plays more like a Zelda game than a straight up action title. The puzzles and dungeon's aren't particularly fun to traverse, but the game makes up for it with its sense of humor and great voice acting (led by Brendan Fraser as Wilde and Candi Milo as Maria). One of the most unique and strangely funny games of 2008, it's mildly hyped but sells poorly despite good reviews.

Wipeout: Run And Gun

The latest in the hit Wipeout series by Psygnosis, this game introduces weaponry to the series for the first time, with races characterized by incredible futuristic speed combined with Twisted Metal-style vehicular combat. This is no Mario Kart: weaponry isn't randomized for the most part, and there are no automatic homing weapons either. Skillful aiming and positioning becomes incredibly important, and races are almost always won by the most skillful racer and weapon user. The use of weaponry puts a spin on the genre that even F-Zero doesn't have, and that's the game that this one gets compared to the most. Overall, the Sapphire's F-Zero is favored by critics, but there are definitely some who prefer the simpler racing and wild combat of Wipeout over the Sapphire's hit. Wipeout: Run And Gun achieves great reviews and solid sales, and would be one of the most popular Xbox Live titles in the months following its release.

Orphan 2: No Gods, No Masters

The sequel to the hit 2006 PC RPG Orphan: Face Your Destiny, Orphan 2 sees release on the Xbox 2 and PC, and plays much like the original game. A quick primer: in Orphan: Face Your Destiny, your character was the only survivor of a brutal rebellion in which their entire family was slaughtered. As it turns out, your character's family was killed because they were the last of an ancient race with incredible magical powers, and the killing was orchestrated by an evil wizard who could only be killed by those powers. In Orphan 2, your character is now a fully grown adult and must decide whether to lead a war of conquest or whether to turn inward and start a magical order. The game has similarities to Rise A Knight III, but is a bit more simplistic and much more fantastical, utilizing magic and fantasy elements as opposed to Rise A Knight's realism. Ultimately, this game is one of the year's more high-profile disappointments: the reception to the sequel isn't nearly as good as that of the original, and the Xbox 2 version is seen as being even worse since its graphics aren't quite up to snuff and it doesn't have the mods that the PC version has. Ultimately, this game sees poor sales on the Xbox 2, and Nintendo is glad that it passed up a chance to get a port of the game as well.

Shadowrun: Awakening

Rather than being a full-fledged sequel to the 2003 Xbox game, Shadowrun: Awakening is a digital exclusive spinoff, about 50 percent the size of the 2003 Xbox title (but obviously better looking from a graphical perspective). It's released at a budget price ($29.99), and features a new storyline, with the player able to select one of six shadowrunners who are waking up after suffering from a coma-like illness, emerging into a new world that's radically changed from what they know, and each given the same mission and different ways to undertake it. It's actually quite complex and good for a digital title, and is somewhat of a bright spot for the Xbox 2, becoming one of the most downloaded Xbox Live titles of 2008. It also receives some free DLC down the road that enhances the game and the story, giving players major bang for their buck.

Too Human

Just as IOTL, Silicon Knights' action RPG based on the ancient Norse Gods was delayed for quite some time. Originally intended as an Ultra Nintendo title, it got caught up in the turmoil that surrounded the company for a decade and would ultimately wind up on the Xbox 2. It's a fairly similar game to OTL, but is a bit influenced by Divine Wrath, featuring more gods because of this, though its main storyline, about a god who is less cybernetically enhanced than his fellow gods, giving the game its title, is still quite intact and similar to OTL. The game actually turns out better than OTL, with improved combat and characters, and reviews generally average in the low 8s, making it somewhat of a hit and another Xbox 2 bright spot.

Crackdown 2

The sequel to 2006's Xbox game, which was widely known as the last significant title for the original Xbox, Crackdown 2 continues from the plot of the original. It takes place in a VASTLY expanded Pacific City, making it one of the biggest open world console games ever released. It once again features the player as a member of the Agency, tasked with stopping a rogue gang leader known as the Magician, who has cultivated technology and is using it to spread chaos throughout the city. The Magician has a reason for his madness, however, and the player must ultimately decide whether to side with the Agency or with the Magician. Ultimately, despite the vastly larger open world of Crackdown 2, there's not a lot to do there, which is one of the game's biggest criticisms. Despite being highly anticipated after the strong sales and critical performance of the original Crackdown, the sequel is seen as a major disappointment, especially from a sales perspective, and the series dies a quiet death as the Xbox 2's sales continue to decline.

Rogue's Story: Master Of Beasts

A spinoff game in the popular Rogue's Story RPG series, Master Of Beasts once again allows the player to fully customize their protagonist, and introduces a monster capture feature, allowing the player to go out into the world and tame beasts, which they can then use for a variety of purposes, most notably battling other beasts. Most of the game revolves around the capturing and taming of beasts, giving the game elements of the OTL Monster Hunter titles and Pokemon. It's a fairly light-hearted game as well, even moreso than previous titles, and the whole game has a really friendly atmosphere to it, making it popular amongst families. The monsters themselves can't be controlled, but the player can issue lots of commands, and the better trained a monster is, the more likely it is to obey. Master Of Beasts gets solid reviews, and sales are quite good for the game as well, though not to the same extent as Rogue's Story III.

Game Boy Supernova:

Castlevania: Dracula's Reign

Castlevania: Dracula's Reign is a 3-D adventure game set in the future, similar to OTL's Aria Of Sorrow. The gameplay itself resembles that of OTL's Lament Of Innocence or other hack and slash titles, and features the vampire hunter Jory Belmont, said to be the last of his clan after Dracula ordered the extermination of all the other Belmonts. Dracula rules the world in this game's timeline, and Jory and a small group of rebel vampire hunters are the last thing that stand between Dracula and complete and eternal domination of humanity. The gameplay is fairly simple: Jory uses a variety of weapons, items, and magic spells, along with the classic whip, to battle enemies in a series of explorable 3-D areas, culminating in a raid on Dracula's castle itself. Though the game takes place in the future, there's very little in the way of futuristic elements, with much of the environments still in the typical classic medieval-type style. The game is fully voice acted, and the graphics look quite good for the Supernova, resembling a later Wave game in terms of quality. Ultimately, Dracula's Reign receives strong reviews and decent sales, with sales similar to those of Second Symphony. The Castlevania series remains a fairly strong one, and Konami will continue to make new titles in the series if it can keep up this level of performance.

Jewels Of The Realm: Eternal Fantasy

A sort of spinoff of the console Jewels Of The Realm reboot released earlier in the year, Eternal Fantasy keeps the 2-D gameplay/3-D graphics format intact, though it takes its main characters through a series of settings inspired by classic storybooks as they hunt for a special set of jewels, each with their own unique powers. It's fairly similar to its console counterpart, though it's somewhat shorter. A decent enough action platformer for the Supernova, it's popular amongst younger players and the critics give it decent scores.

Puzzle Peace

An unusual hybrid of a military simulation game and a mobile-style puzzler, Puzzle Peace is a game where the player has to settle military battles by playing a fast-paced puzzle game. It's weird and doesn't sell too well on the Supernova, though it does do better once it makes its way to the mobile devices in the early 2010s.

Apple iPod Play:

Satellite Effect

A multiplayer strategy game in which players build satellites to target each other's bases and satellites. Fun and strategic, it's not a huge seller but does become one of the more popular iPod Play online titles of the year. Curiously, it wouldn't get an enhanced version for the iPhone, though it's obviously still playable on the iPhone. This means that it doesn't get touch controls that many players say would be perfect for the game, preventing it from reaching its true potential.

Garnet Chronicle

This game was localized IOTL as Crimson Gem Saga, but keeps its original name when localized ITTL. It's similar to OTL in terms of plot and gameplay, though it ditches a few of its more traditional RPG features in order to make combat move more quickly and smoothly. This game does get a touch enhanced version for the iPhone, and that game sort of becomes TTL's The World Ends With You in that it's an RPG that utilizes touch controls in combat to great effect (though the plot isn't nearly as bittersweet or complex). Overall, this is a decently performing JRPG for the iPod Play, especially in Japan, and the iPhone version does even better.

Merciless 2

The sequel to the hit iPod Play FPS of 2006, this game is developed with the iPod Play in mind and not the iPhone, showing that the dedicated handheld still has a lot of life. While maintaining its heavy multiplayer focus, the game also features an expanded and more realistic plot, depicting rookie members of the “Clean Up Crew” and showing how conflicted they are about their missions, which often times force them to execute people who aren't all that dangerous. They come up against some truly ferocious gangs later on, and must band together to defeat them while also figuring out who, if anyone, they can trust. This game gets mostly high marks from reviewers, while the expanded multiplayer gameplay is also highly praised. This becomes one of the best selling iPod Play titles of the year, coming in fairly close behind Sonic: The Time Emeralds, and is one of two major hits for the console during the 2008 holiday season, giving it a fighting chance to stay within striking distance of the Supernova even as Apple works on the device's successor.

Mixolydia 2

Mixolydia 2, the sequel to the iPod Play's acclaimed 2006 music/adventure game, was made for two primary reasons: the first was of course to cash in on the original game's success, and the second was to create a game more suitable to the iPhone. While the game will play on both, Apple's enhanced iPhone version of the game allows a lot more functionality, and most of the innovative new features introduced in Mixolydia 2 work much better on an iPhone. The game itself sees Mix return once again, this time trapped in an unfamiliar city. Unlike in the last game, in which Mix woke up in a world without music, here, Mix is surrounded by music, but the music has strange effects on people and things, and it renders him unable to think about his girlfriend Lydia for too long before he starts losing his memories of her, and he has to find the right songs to bring his memories back. Meanwhile, Lydia finds herself trapped in a nightclub, performing music for the wicked old Madame Allegro, who is using Lydia's voice to power a machine that can control people's minds. The plot is fairly strange, but it all starts making sense once the notes start flying. The game uses the same mechanics as the previous title: music heard by the player's iPod or iPhone will create platforms in the game and will also grant special powers to Mix. These powers can range from subtle, slow powers (from music like soft rock or smooth jazz), to fast and furious powers (from music like hard rock). The game can recognize almost all the songs from the previous game and hundreds more, enabling the player to unlock special events if they listen to the right music. Combat is greatly enhanced in the game, with Mix gaining a massive new repertoire of powers, and with the iPhone's touchscreen, the player can actually block off certain sounds from reaching Mix, allowing them to mix and match what kinds of hazards Mix faces and the powers he unlocks. This can also be done on the iPod Play's traditional controls, but it's more cumbersome, and thus less useful. Mixolydia 2 is essentially the original game but with a larger world and more songs, and so it doesn't quite get the rave reviews from critics that the original game got. Still, it's extremely well liked, and one of the most highly anticipated iPod Play games of the year. It, along with Merciless 2, forms a strong core of solid holiday releases that keeps the iPod Play going strong while also pushing the iPhone fairly heavily (especially Mixolydia 2, which is considered an iPhone game moreso than an iPod Play game).

Multiplatform:

Absorption

Absorption is an action/adventure title about a magical woman gifted with the ability to float in the air. She can absorb enemy attacks and redirect them, sometimes holding onto multiple attacks at once in order to combine them into unique attacks. It's a surprisingly deep game, with lots of strategy and collectables that actually mean something but also a regrettably short game, with only eight chapters. It isn't terribly popular, but does gain a bit of a cult following. The game is released on the Sapphire and the iTwin, and while it's overshadowed on the former, its sales are somewhat decent on the latter.

Gestation

Gestation is a horror/first person shooter title about a crew of government soldiers who enter a city after an alien invasion to find eggs and hatchlings everywhere. The protagonist must go with a small squad to hunt down the hatchlings one by one and rescue those few straggling survivors who have been left behind. The game frequently sends players into dark, cramped areas, and has been designed to give the player a sense of claustrophobia and imminent doom. However, many critics say that the game is overly reliant on jump scares, and because there are only realistic weapons and no futuristic/energy guns, that some enemies, even relatively easy ones, tend to be bullet sponges. Gestation was actually one of the more hyped games of 2008, and was expected to contend with Modern Warfare 2 for the title of 2008's best shooter. However, the game's flaws led to reviewers being somewhat down on it, and it also had a fairly lackluster multiplayer mode. Many reviewers compared it unfavorably to Alien: Xenowar, which did action and horror significantly better. Ultimately, Gestation is a solid game but is seen as one of the year's biggest disappointments. The game is released on all three major consoles and sells well initially, especially on the Xbox 2, but those sales fall off quickly.

Invisible Empire 2

(NOTE: The idea for the original Invisible Empire was given to us by the reader Goldwind!)

The sequel to 2006's surprise late Katana hit Invisible Empire, Invisible Empire 2 is released on the iTwin and iPod Play. The game is a JRPG that continues the story of the previous game and sees the heroes of the original title, Klyde and Ana (the girl who fell from the sky), team up with members of the three formerly warring factions to take down a powerful new evil that threatens their world (essentially a gigantic dragon god being controlled by an ancient knight resurrected after the turmoil of the previous game). The game's main theme is how people with differences must learn to put those differences aside and work together, and thanks to some strong characters and solid gameplay enhancements, Invisible Empire 2 scores decent reviews. It's not quite up there with Panzer Dragoon Zeta and Chrono Break, but it is one of the year's more popular JRPGs in the West, and the iPod Play port, which barely looks worse than the iTwin version, is considered a major technical achievement for handhelds. While the game isn't quite the surprise hit that the previous one was, sales are still good, keeping this game amongst Apple's stronger exclusive RPG franchises.

Islands Of Awesome

An extreme sports/adventure title taking place between several islands and featuring various water-based extreme sports. It's another Thrillseekers ripoff, but unlike a lot of other games in this genre, it does innovate the formula somewhat. It features a mostly male main cast, though it does have a girl character named Violetta who ends up being fairly popular. It's also geared a bit more toward younger kids than the teen-skewing Thrillseekers was. It doesn't launch a franchise, but it does fairly well for itself on the three main consoles, with the Sapphire and iTwin versions being the most successful.

Maxima: La Vie En Rose

The third game in the Maxima FPS series and the first to be geared fully toward seventh generation consoles, Maxima: La Vie En Rose introduces a brand new protagonist (a French special agent named Rose with fierce acrobatic moves and who is absolutely deadly with a pistol) who works alongside the game's other main protagonist, a somewhat older French agent who is based on the appearance and mannerisms of actor Jean Reno (but is voiced by someone else, since they couldn't get Reno to do a voice for the game). Electronic Arts handed off the development of the game to a newer studio since DICE was otherwise occupied, and it shows: the game plays quite different from the original two titles, with more of an emphasis on melee and a more fast and furious gunplay style that stands in contrast to that of the original games. The player can still slow down time, but the guns have gotten a lot less powerful, and aim is somewhat more important despite the faster movement. The emphasis on melee makes things a bit awkward since the game is still an FPS, but the camera actually pans back during combination attacks, giving the game almost a Ballistic Limit feel to it. There's also multiplayer, which actually takes on a more traditional shooter format. This mix of gameplay styles, along with the shift to new protagonists, alienates some longtime fans of the series. Reviews are still good, with some reviewers even calling the game the best to date in the series, and ultimately reviews average in the high 7s, but sales are a bit lower than expected, with a lot of hardcore fans leaving and only a few new ones jumping on board. Though Maxima hasn't become the next big thing in FPS it was once expected to be, it still retains a solid following.

Universalizer

A bullet hell shooter for the iTwin and Sapphire, Universalizer returns in full HD, but with the same blisteringly difficult gameplay. Very few compromises have been made: in many ways, this is still a retro throwback to old school space shooters, but with amazing graphics and music, the game has definitely been given a facelift from what it once was. You're still a ship pilot traversing the universe through hyperspace gates, and the plot is fairly bare-bones, with little narrative or character development. Though it's an excellent game, some critics do lament that this isn't a budget digital title rather than a full fledged retail game (one critic who gave it a 9/10 stated “why does something like this have to be $59.99?”) Indeed, that price had a major effect on sales, but then again, Universalizer has never been a game that's sold all that well, and has always been more of a niche title. It would come down to $19.99 fairly quickly, and its price would be frequently tracked on emerging video game deal sites such as Frugal Gamer, with a majority of sales coming after the game dropped below 30 dollars.

Zone Of The Enders 3

Five years after the release of Zone Of The Enders 2 (as a Wave launch title no less), Konami releases the third game in the series. Hideo Kojima, who has been busy working on the most recent Metal Gear games, handed off much of the work for this one to Shoyo Murata. The game plays quite similarly to previous titles in the series, putting the player behind the controls of a giant mech that fights with melee and ranged weaponry on battlefields against other mechs. The new protagonist is a young woman named Meteora, who has hijacked the Orbital Frame Genesis and is using it for her single-minded revenge quest against Aster, the villain who escaped at the end of Zone Of The Enders 2. She gains a rival in Harte, a female captain of the squadron who was blamed for Meteora's theft. Dingo Egret, the hero of the previous game, returns but in a more minor role, and another Orbital Frame pilot, Mercurius, serves as an ally to Meteora but is also working in his own interests. This tangled web of relationships and obligations forms the backbone of the game's story, which isn't a story of heroes out to save the universe, but concerns much more personal matters on a smaller scale (despite battles being fought across the galaxy). Zone Of The Enders 3 is fairly simplistic and somewhat short, but also considered a beautiful game, and considered to be a step above the previous one. It would be released for both the Sapphire and the iTwin, with the Sapphire version selling better but the iTwin version doing almost as well in the States, mostly due to its optional motion control scheme which allows for smoother and more realistic combat. The game isn't a major hit, but is slightly above a niche title, and reviews average in the mid 8s.

ARMA

Similar to OTL's tactical shooter game ARMA: Armed Assault, TTL sees the PC game (which, as IOTL, was released in 2006) ported to the Sapphire and the Xbox 2. Some graphical elements are reduced from the PC original, including the graphical fidelity and the original game's high draw distance, but for the most part the game is intact and looks comparable to the PC version in certain aspects, especially on the Sapphire (which is considered to be the superior version of the game). The console version allows for up to 32 player multiplayer battles, considered fairly novel for a console game at the time, with massive 16 v. 16 engagements possible. There's also a single player campaign, and the console port contains a number of brand new levels that only appeared in download packs on the PC version. For the most part, the console port of ARMA is somewhat of a curiosity, a niche title compared to hits like Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, but it carves out a decent enough niche.

Dead Or Alive

Tecmo brings its legendary fighting game franchise to the seventh generation, and this time it's released on all three main consoles in glorious HD. All the old favorite characters return and there are also eight new characters, with seven of them being female. The game really leans into its fanservice fairly hard, which does take away from the fighting somewhat (the consensus is that Virtua Fighter 6 is a superior playing game). Still, the fighting gameplay is solid and the game looks absolutely gorgeous, especially on the Sapphire. It's not the best selling fighting game of the year but it does perform decently during the holidays and even better when it comes down in price.

Gen 13: The Game

A cel-shaded 3D beat 'em up based on the Image comic book series, Gen 13 brings in most of the classic heroes from the comic, including Caitlin Fairchild, Freefall, Burnout, Grunge, and Rainmaker, and the player can jump into any of their shoes as they battle against a succession of increasingly powerful villains. Rather than being some sprawling epic like the OTL Batman or Spiderman games, this title doesn't take itself too seriously, and features plenty of humor and a stylish comic book motif. It IS a bit overpriced due to its length and its repetitiveness, but it's still a fun game and considered more than worth it once the price comes down. It's released on the iTwin and the Sapphire, and though it's not really a great seller on either, it finds a bit more of a foothold on the iTwin, where it's compared to Commander Keen by players who enjoyed both.

Powers

Another adaptation from a source of media, this is a game based on the hit M. Night Shyamalan/Vince Gilligan TV show. A bit of a quickie adaptation, this is an action title that has the player create their own character, pick from one of eight power sets, and join a mysterious agency that plays a big role in Season 3 of the show. It's highly anticipated by fans of the show, but gets only mediocre reviews and is seen by most as just a cash-in game. Still, it does introduce some interesting story beats, and the voice acting, which includes appearances by some of the show's real actors, is solid.

Project Eden 2

The sequel to a fairly niche Eidos action game (that also appeared IOTL but never got a sequel), Project Eden 2 appears on the Sapphire and Xbox 2, and continues the story of the previous game, revolving around a mysterious android woman who turns out to be Lucy, the character who supposedly died in the original title. The protagonist is a member of the Urban Protection Agency who is tasked with tracking down a criminal when he encounters Lucy instead, and the plot revolves around the protagonist and Lucy figuring out their roles in a world where genetic enhancements have made life increasingly dangerous and unstable. The plot takes some beats from Deus Ex, but the gameplay is pretty much just your typical general third person shooter with special powers. Eidos was hoping the game could become a major hit in the latter part of the year, but even they seemed to realize that other games were emerging and becoming much more popular, and they somewhat buried this game's release. Sales are quite poor, despite reviews that are actually fairly strong, and though this game ends on somewhat of a cliffhanger, it wouldn't get a third title.

Saints Row 2

An open world crime game released for all three major consoles, Saints Row 2, as IOTL, was made in somewhat of a contrast to Grand Theft Auto II, and would take on more comedic elements. It casts the player as the leader of a gang called the Saints, and has them rising to the top of the criminal ladder in the city of Grimsville (a much more industrial based city than OTL's Stillwater). The player must commit a series of high profile assassinations and deals to rise to the top, making a bunch of wacky, over the top enemies along the way. Saints Row 2 features much of the same ludicrous and insane action that made OTL's title such a hit, but unlike OTL's game, it gets lost in the fold a bit in an extremely crowded November. Reviewers also aren't quite so kind to it, as it's not quite as fun or exciting as OTL's game. Still, the game suffers only a small hit to sales and reviews compared to OTL, and though it wouldn't sell quite as well initially, it's another game that would see a bit of a revival as the price for it comes down. It would get a sequel, but possibly not as quickly as it did IOTL.

Shards Of The Past 2

Developed by Rimeworks and once again published by Activision, Shards Of The Past 2 is a sequel to 2005's surprise hit Western-published JRPG most notable for splitting its storyline between the three different versions of the game (for Xbox, Katana, and the Wave). Shards of The Past 2 is an action-RPG, with a control scheme similar to Secret Of Mana, featuring three playable characters who traverse a vast land in search of a professor who has gotten lost in time. Like the original title, the game features a different story segment exclusive to each version of the game, but does not have any exclusive characters. In addition, the other two story segments can be purchased as DLC for $4.99 each, so it is possible to see the whole game even if purchased on only one console. Since the game's MSRP is $49.99, this can SOMEWHAT be justified since the average game of the day is $59.99, but it still leaves a bad taste in a lot of players' mouths, and the fact that the game isn't even all that good leaves an even worse taste. The combat is clunky, the voice acting is fairly bad, and the game's plot isn't nearly as compelling as that of the original (and definitely doesn't justify paying extra for the missing pieces). This game would come in as a fairly bad fail, ESPECIALLY on the Xbox 2, where it barely sells 20,000 copies worldwide. Many critics point to the failure of Shards Of The Past 2 as evidence of the decline of the JRPG genre, though it reality it fails because of Activision's shenanigans and because it's just not that good of a game.

Homeworld: The Space Beyond

A console-exclusive spinoff in the PC Homeworld series, Homeworld: The Space Beyond is an FPS set in that universe, with elements of RTS as well. The player is a captain of a fleet of starships, and is tasked with exploring the galaxy (somewhat similar to the premise of Star Trek). In all this exploration, the player runs afoul of a hostile alien empire, and must continue their mission of exploration while defending themselves against the aliens. The player's fleet moves through open space in RTS fashion, gathering resources and engaging in ship battles en route to landings on either planets, moons, space stations, or large vessels, at which point the game turns into an FPS as the player explores or engages the enemy. It's a fairly unique formula, tuned to the strengths and weaknesses of consoles, and the game gets some decent critical reviews. It's released on all three consoles, and though sales are decent, the game isn't remembered nearly as fondly as the original.

Opacity 2

The sequel to 2006's minor hit, which was born from an idea on the hit G4 TV show The Pitch, Opacity 2 is a digital exclusive dungeon crawler/adventure game released on the Nintendo Sapphire, iTwin, and Xbox 2 digital stores. It brings back the original four heroes and adds two more: a robot named Giga and a little girl named Shashi. The game ditches the Soul Blazer-esque long dungeon format of the original for an experience with more brevity, throwing players into forty mini-dungeons that rely more on action than on puzzles, and allow up to four players to compete against one another to solve the dungeons the fastest. While the game is somewhat fun, and is unique in that it allows a sort of “bite sized Zelda” type gameplay, fans do miss the deeper story of the original game, and question whether or not this game should call itself a sequel at all. Still, reviews are quite good and the game would be a very popular digital download title at a budget price of $14.99 (and even less with sales).

Prince Of Persia: Ghosts Of The Desert

Prince Of Persia: Ghosts Of The Desert is the third mainline game in Activision's reboot series and the first to be released for the seventh generation consoles. It keeps the gameplay of the previous two titles intact, featuring an agile main character, plenty of puzzles, and expansive dungeons, but also introduces an open world element, as the protagonist, the Prince, awakening at the start of the game lost in the middle of the Arabian Desert with no sign of his queen Shana in sight. He must seek her out even though he is strongly led to believe from near the beginning of the game that she has perished after he sees her ghost wandering the sands. The Prince must follow in the ghostly footsteps of others who have died, finding tombs and dungeons to explore, and also learning of a mysterious new villain called the Spirit-Stealer, who keeps a jar with him at all times in which he traps the spirits of the dead, occasionally unleashing their powers to perform dark deeds. This game, moreso than any previous game in the reboot series, has a heavy emphasis on puzzles, with the player also forced to solve mysteries to proceed in the dungeons and within the story. The player must carefully piece together the words of the ghosts who frequently appear, and occasionally must find a way to bring the ghosts to a physical body, occasionally becoming possessed himself. The Prince eventually gains the power to take ghosts into his own body willingly, gaining their powers and gaining access to new areas of the game. Eventually, the Prince learns that Shana's spirit has become separated from her body because she took a spell meant for the Prince. He learns that if Shana's spirit is returned to her body in time, she can be brought back to life. The Prince finds Shana's spirit and briefly allows her to possess him, but he is attacked by the Spirit-Stealer and she once again sacrifices herself to protect her love. The Prince defeats the Spirit-Stealer and gets Shana's soul back, but Shana's body is seemingly destroyed in the process. The Prince offers to allow Shana to possess him permanently, so that they can become two souls in one body, but Shana knows that such a thing cannot be sustained forever, and she would rather the Prince live a full life than be with him for only a short while. However, just when it seems that hope is lost, the Prince discovers Shana's intact body, and performs the ritual to restore her soul to it just in time. Shana and the Prince are reunited, and return home at last.

Ghosts Of The Desert is released on all three major consoles, and though Activision doesn't devote as much hype to it as they did to Modern Warfare 2, it IS pushed as the company's big all ages game of the holiday season. It sells especially well on the Sapphire, though the iTwin version is also successful. The Xbox 2 version underperforms, another sign that that particular console might be in trouble.

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Top Selling New Console Games In North America (in terms of sales over the first four weeks of release):

October 2008:

1. Resident Evil 5 (Nintendo Sapphire)
2. Resident Evil 5 (Apple iTwin)
3. Gestation (Microsoft Xbox 2)
4. Resident Evil 5 (Microsoft Xbox 2)
5. Selene (Nintendo Sapphire)

November 2008:

1. Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (Nintendo Sapphire)
2. Gray Zone (Microsoft Xbox 2)
3. Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (Microsoft Xbox 2)
4. Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (Apple iTwin)
5. Big Bad Hero 2 (Nintendo Sapphire)

December 2008:

1. Three Mile Island (Apple iTwin)
2. Prince Of Persia: Ghosts Of The Desert (Nintendo Sapphire)
3. Prince Of Persia: Ghosts Of The Desert (Apple iTwin)
4. Killzone: Man's Inhumanity (Nintendo Sapphire)
5. Mixolydia 2 (iPod Play)

 

[RySenkari]

Overall Game Sales Down, But Strong Holiday Finish For Nintendo And Apple

The ongoing economic recession was predicted to put somewhat of a damper on sales of gaming hardware and software this year, and indeed, sales in North America came in about 9 percent below expectations at the beginning of the year. However, both the Nintendo Sapphire and Apple iTwin consoles still saw multi-million unit sales over the holiday season, with numerous games for each system selling robustly in the months of November and December. The consoles, which continue to sell for $399 MSRP (though the iTwin did have a $299 special on Black Friday, and could be found at some retailers for $349 throughout the month of December), saw sales rise from October to November and from November to December, and games such as Super Mario Flip, Commander Keen: Billy's Brave Odyssey, Big Bad Hero 2, and Sonic Duo all sold well, with Commander Keen edging out Super Mario Flip as the biggest family game of the holiday season.

The iTwin and Sapphire continue to be in a photo finish from month-to-month, with the Sapphire selling around 3 million units worldwide during the months of November and December, and the iTwin coming in just behind with around 2.8 million units sold. While the iTwin is slightly ahead in North America, the Sapphire tops charts in Japan. Overall, the iTwin has sold the most units during this current console generation, with over 28 million sold worldwide since its launch in the spring of 2007. The Xbox 2, which saw sales sharply decline in the latter part of the year, had its worst holiday to date, declining around 50 percent in terms of sales from 2007 to 2008. Though the Xbox 2 had a major summer spike in sales thanks to the success of Cyberwar 3, system sales actually went down over the holidays, an extremely rare occurrence for big ticket items such as game consoles. The Xbox 2 was offered at $299 throughout the holiday season, bundled with games like The Covenant 3, but the recession seems to have had a big impact on Xbox 2 sales, and the decline can be attributed to the failure of anticipated titles such as Gray Zone. While Cyberwar 3 continues to move units, its sales too declined during the holiday months, as many Xbox 2 owners have already purchased their copies of the game.

Reggie Fils-Aime, head of Apple's video game division, boldly predicted that 2009 would be the strongest year ever for Apple, with numerous hit games due to be released for the iTwin, iPhone, and iPod Play. Similarly, Nintendo's Satoru Iwata predicted increased success for Nintendo in 2009 as well during a December 2008 shareholder meeting. Microsoft's shares, meanwhile, have been in steep decline over the past several months.

-from a Gamespot.com article, posted on January 23, 2009

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Top 25 Best Selling Games Of The Year:
(Note: Multiplatform sales are combined. Only console games are included. Includes pack-in and bundle sales. Includes all North American software sales between January 1, 2008 and December 31, 2008.)

1. Grand Theft Auto II
2. Pixelworld
3. Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
4. Cyberwar 3
5. Madden NFL 09
6. Pokemon Silver
7. Super Mario Flip
8. Pokemon Black And White
9. Rise A Knight III: The Sacred Oath
10. Sonic Duo
11. Blackheart Villainous
12. Commander Keen: Billy's Brave Odyssey
13. Mario Kart: Road Trip!
14. Mystic
15. Super Mario Dimensions 2
16. Encounter: Time Wars
17. Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare
18. Metal Gear Peace
19. The Covenant 3
20. Star Wars: The Clone Wars
21. Guitar Hero III
22. Gray Zone
23. Pocket Wars 2
24. Resident Evil 5
25. Mario Kart: Crash Course

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(The following interview segment was given to us by our reader rick007!)

Chloe Maritzen: With a release date in April, we're getting closer and closer to the release of Rockstar's Crime Stories: Literary Ghosts, a beautiful new cinematic game created by the winners of G4's The Pitch back in 2007! As part of our ongoing coverage of the game, I got to sit down for an interview with the Pitch winner, Andrew Richards, to briefly discuss some aspects of what's looking to be one of the best upcoming games of 2009.

(…)

Maritzen: Now, what gave you the idea for the original pitch?

Richards: Oh, I was inspired by various novels and stories that I read.

Maritzen: Such as?

Richards: When I was a kid, recovering from a bout of Guillian-Barre Syndrome in hospital, The Boxcar Children, Nancy Drew and The Hardy Boys. But as I grew older, I expanded slightly....Sherlock Holmes, Poirot, Miss Marple, novels by James Ellroy, Maureen Jennings and Michael Slade.

Maritzen: Oh, I don't recognize the last two.

Richards: They're a pair of Canadian authors that I came across when I was fourteen. They're really good and I took most of my inspiration from them.

Maritzen: Were you inspired by any games?

Richards: Well, Carmen Sandiego is one of my favorites from when I was younger. I still have a computer from that time that lets me run those games. Them as well as Shivers and Shivers 2: Harvest of Souls were good. I love puzzle and adventure games. I managed to get my hands on a copy of Snatcher a few years ago, that was fun. And I played Dick, too. Those games had some influence, though not as much as the books that I read.

Maritzen: So why did you make some of the characters in the game have disabilities of some sort?

Richards: I'm in a wheelchair. And I've noticed that a lot of media doesn't have that many characters with disabilities. So I decided pretty early on to have some characters have disabilities, including the lead male character, Jack Wood, who lost the use of his left arm, stemming from war injuries.

Maritzen: This stems from the World War I backdrop?

Richards: Mostly, yes. Though Colonel Howell, Christopher Plummer's character, lost his legs in the Boer War.

Maritzen: I imagine it would make the action segments more difficult.

Richards: Well yes and no. Most of the action set pieces take the form of flashbacks to the front. There are some segments that take place in the main story of the game that will require the use of a gun. In either case, you have to place your shots well as you use a revolver for the whole game.

Maritzen: What about the female lead? What can you tell use about her?

Richards: Svetlana Petrova is a doctor and an assistant coroner. She just graduated from medical school in Toronto and this is her first job. Unfortunately, she has to deal with a lot of sexism and Anti-Semitism in the workforce. Jack is one of the few people she works with who treats her with any kind of respect.

Maritzen: And she's played by a new voice actress, correct?

Richards: (smiles) Yes her and Agatha Esrom are both played by women who are new to the industry: Anya Garnis for Svetlana and Sabra Johnson for Agatha.

Maritzen: They're not trained actresses from what we hear.

Richards: (chuckles) No, they only started acting a few months ago. In fact, they were, and are, dancers. Anya is Ballroom and Sabra is Contemporary. But they were both so good that we had to hire them.

Maritzen: There is a rumor that you and Anya started dating around then and that was the only reason that she was hired.

Richards: While it is true that we started dating when recording started, it started significantly after she was hired. And that is the only thing I will say about that.

(…)

Maritzen: Literary Ghosts is really shaping up to be an amazing game. We'll be starting a brand new season of The Pitch in March, and hopefully an idea will emerge that can be the next Opacity or Literary Ghosts! I'm so excited!

-from a segment on G4's Blister, which aired on January 28, 2009

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MTV Video Game Awards 2008:

Game Of The Year:

Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
Commander Keen: Billy's Brave Odyssey
Cyberwar 3
Grand Theft Auto II
SimSociety

Handheld/Mobile Game Of The Year:

Battletoads vs. TMNT
Energy Core
Justicar
Metal Gear Cipher
Plants vs. Zombies

Indie Game Of The Year:

Applezam
Plants vs. Zombies
Sins Of A Solar Empire
That Nameless, Faceless Thing
World Of Goo

Action/Adventure Game Of The Year:

Amok: Trail Of Devastation
Commander Keen: Billy's Brave Odyssey
Grand Theft Auto II
Metal Gear Peace
Mystic

Epic Game Of The Year:

Aster
Chrono Break
Fallout: The Boneyard
Panzer Dragoon Zeta
Rise A Knight III: The Sacred Oath

Sports Game Of The Year:

Big Air 2
Madden NFL 2009
NBA 2K9
NHL 2009
Olympic Summer Games 2008

Music Game Of The Year:

Gitaroo Man 2
Guitar Hero: Meet The Band
Pop'n Music Twinbeat
Rhythm Club
Wavelength

Shooter Of The Year:

Battlefield: Bad Company
Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
Cold War: Enlisted Man
Cyberwar 3
Deep Black 4

Best Graphics:

Aster
Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
Cold War: Enlisted Man
Metal Gear Peace
Mystic

Best Soundtrack:

Cyberwar 3
Grand Theft Auto II
Guitar Hero: Meet The Band
Panzer Dragoon Zeta
Star Wars: The Clone Wars

Best Storyline:

Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
Grand Theft Auto II
Panzer Dragoon Zeta
Selene
Star Wars: The Clone Wars

Best Original Game

Aster
Mystic
Parcels
Plants vs. Zombies
Selene

Best Licensed Game

Alien: Xenowar
Battletoads vs. TMNT
The Matrix Rebirth
Rambo: The Game
Star Wars: The Clone Wars

Best Online Game

Aster
Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
Empire: Total War
SimSociety
Twisted Metal Chaos

Best New Character:

Ahsoka Tano (Star Wars: The Clone Wars)
Brigid (Big Bad Hero 2)
Cipher (Metal Gear Peace/Cipher)
Patrick McReary (Grand Theft Auto II)
Reynaud (Commander Keen: Billy's Brave Odyssey)

Best Gaming Moment:

A Monster Revealed (Three Mile Island)
Flipping The Script (Super Mario Flip)
Francis' Sacrifice (Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2)
Playable Reynaud (Commander Keen: Billy's Brave Odyssey)
Six Star Wanted Level (Grand Theft Auto II)

Best Voice Performance:

Alyssa Milano in Fallout: The Boneyard
Carla Gugino in Three Mile Island
Milo Ventimiglia in Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
Ryan Johnston in Grand Theft Auto II
Zachary Quinto in Cyberwar 3

Best Personality In Gaming:

Hideo Kojima
IcedCoffee
Reggie Fils-Aime
Super Nonsense Bros.
Will Wright

Game Company Of The Year:

Apple
Electronic Arts
Konami
Nintendo
Rockstar

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Games Over Matter Awards 2008:

Game Of The Year:

1. SimSociety
2. Grand Theft Auto II
3. F-Zero
4. Panzer Dragoon Zeta
5. Super Mario Flip

Best Graphics:

1. Aster
2. Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
3. Cold War: Enlisted Man
4. Mystic
5. Metal Gear Cipher

Best Sound:

1. Grand Theft Auto II
2. Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
3. Rhythm Club
4. Panzer Dragoon Zeta
5. Cyberwar 3

Best Gameplay:

1. SimSociety
2. Grand Theft Auto II
3. F-Zero
4. Plants vs. Zombies
5. Super Mario Flip

Best Thematics:

1. Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
2. Mystic
3. Selene
4. Metal Gear Peace
5. Alien: Xenowar

Most Innovative:

1. SimSociety
2. Rhythm Club
3. Parcels
4. Plants vs. Zombies
5. World Of Goo

Best Multiplayer:

1. SimSociety
2. Guitar Hero: Meet The Band
3. F-Zero
4. Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
5. Commander Keen: Billy's Brave Odyssey

Best New Character:

1. Reynaud (Commander Keen: Billy's Brave Odyssey)
2. Patrick McReary (Grand Theft Auto II)
3. Rana Stora (Selene)
4. Paz Ortega (Metal Gear Peace)
5. Count Bleck (Super Mario Flip)

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They're four of 2009's most anticipated titles: Final Fantasy XII, Thrillseekers 2, Beyond Good And Evil 3, and Metroid: Starfall. What do they have in common?

They're all games with iconic female protagonists at the helm. From the godslaying sword-wielding heroine Lilith to the intrepid reporter/alien fighter Jade to the bounty hunting badass Samus Aran to the fierce extreme sports junkies of Thrillseekers, 2009's heroines are women on a mission, and they're headlining what could be some of the best selling, best reviewed games of all time.

How did we go from heroes such as Mario and Link who are best known for rescuing helpless damsels in distress to take-charge women known for fixing their own problems and rebelling against anyone who stands in their way? It's the result of a massive influx of women not only behind the controller but taking top level positions in the game industry. Thrillseekers 2 is headed by a team of women writers who have been given authority to overrule even the game's production staff if a particular story beat or character moment is deemed important to the story, while Ubisoft has placed women at the forefront of its production and writing staff. Even Final Fantasy XII and Metroid: Starfall, created by Japanese companies that have excluded women from production roles, have placed them in key positions on writing and animation teams, with Yoko Shimamura, one of the most famous music composers in gaming today, asked to contribute numerous tracks to the score of Final Fantasy XII.

This isn't to say that the game industry doesn't still have a long way to go. It does, with a vast majority of production, programming, and writing roles in gaming still filled by men. However, 2009's crop of female-driven games could represent a turning point in the industry if they sell well (and all four are expected to be multi-million sellers). Thrillseekers in particular is the most successful gaming franchise with a majority of players (55 percent) identifying as female. If Pokemon (currently 48 percent female) enjoyed a slightly higher proportion of female players, it would dethrone Thrillseekers from the top of the list.

It's also telling what kinds of women will be driving the action of these games. Lilith from Final Fantasy XII wields a huge sword and is openly defiant of the rulers of her society, even threatening to bring down God himself in revenge for the apparent execution of her best friend. Lilith's boldness is a key part of the promotion of the game, placing her in roles that would normally be filled by a male character. Contrast Lilith with Terra from Final Fantasy VI, who begins the game brainwashed by Kefka, or even Celes, who despite her ferocity and courage begins her story in chains. Lilith's mighty sword is the iconic symbol of the game, and promotional footage shows her cutting down skyscraper-sized monsters and armies of guards, while serving as the clear leader for her team. Lilith subverts so many traditional gender roles that her very existence seems to be an act of rebellion against an industry that for many years has placed women in positions of weakness. The game's format seems to give the player more freedom than ever before, with Lilith herself choosing where her story goes next. Thrillseekers 2 stars the rebellious Alex, who is repeatedly shown refusing to obey society's conventions and openly defying authority figures, while also being a fiercely loyal and kind friend and refusing to participate in the infighting that has characterized so many groups of women in media portrayals, even those that espouse a feminist message. The central message of Thrillseekers has always been “girls supporting girls”, and never has that been more evident than in the promotional material for the upcoming Thrillseekers 2, which shows the main characters participating in a worldwide competition and supporting each other more than ever before. With over 100 of the game's 150 or so playable characters being women, the game may in fact have more playable female characters than half of all other games in the industry in a typical year combined, and each of them has their own fleshed out and complex personality. Even the character Emma, who is shaping up to be the game's antagonist, looks to have a deep backstory and more than just one dimension. Thrillseekers 2 could well be 2009's iconic girl-power game, and the fact that it's being published by the same company that publishes the Call Of Duty games shows that Activision is one of the most diverse companies in the game industry today.

Little has been released about Beyond Good And Evil 3 and it's rumored the game will be delayed until 2010, but Ubisoft has repeatedly stated that they're aiming for a 2009 release date and that the game will conclude Jade's story. The game will feature Jade in a post-apocalyptic world that appears to be our own, and will show the story of just how she plans to get back and save her universe. It will also heavily feature Princess Lorima, Jade's biological sister and the only other person who knows Jade still exists. Lorima, introduced in Beyond Good And Evil 2, has proved to be an exceptionally popular character and a foil and companion for Jade. And then there's Metroid: Starfall, which promises to reboot Samus Aran's incredible story, telling a tale from her past and introducing her as the leader of a squad of galaxy defending soldiers. Samus is perhaps the most well known female video game character ever, and has been a feminist gaming icon for more than a decade. In a year full of female-driven video games, it seems mandatory that the Metroid saga will continue Samus' epic story, and though Starfall actually finds itself slightly less hyped than the last three games discussed in this article, there's no doubt that it could rank amongst the year's best games.

2009 looks to be chock-full of some truly amazing games, and in what could be the best year for video gaming ever, having it be known as the Year of the Woman might truly be the beginning of a new era for the industry: a year when it became glaringly obvious to every game company that female-driven games not only can sell, but can rise to the very pinnacle of the mountain as some of the best games ever.

-from an article written by Lizzy Mellner for Cressida Lane on January 1, 2009

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“There's no denying that the kickass sport of roller derby has reached a fever pitch. It's pretty much everywhere, from movies like Pass The Star 2 (which has made almost a quarter of a billion dollars in North America alone) to video games like the just announced Thrillseekers: Roller Derby, scheduled to be released in 2010. And now, Videocean's new TV network is pushing roller derby as part of their exclusive sports package. The brand new National Roller Derby Association will be airing most of its matches on Videocean TV starting in the spring. It's quite possibly the new network's #1 attraction, appearing in nearly all the promotional reels for the upcoming digital cable network. While we're happy to see roller derby used to push a new digital cable network, where's ESPN? Or ESPN 2? Hopefully, the NRDA's success will attract a slightly bigger network to shell out big bucks to acquire the rights to the league. Or, at the very least, the NRDA will make Videocean TV such a big hit that it'll start popping up on basic cable packages, because I shouldn't have to pay $140 a month to see my favorite roller derby stars on the biggest stage the sport has ever seen.”

-from a January 14, 2009 article on Jezebel

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Other Awards:

IGN (Editor Top 10):

1. SimSociety
2. F-Zero
3. Aster
4. Panzer Dragoon Zeta
5. Grand Theft Auto II
6. Cyberwar 3
7. Justicar
8. Empire: Total War
9. Metal Gear Peace
10. Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2

Joystiq (Editor Top 10):

1. SimSociety
2. Grand Theft Auto II
3. Cyberwar 3
4. Commander Keen: Billy's Brave Odyssey
5. Super Mario Flip
6. Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
7. Metal Gear Peace
8. Panzer Dragoon Zeta
9. Blackheart Villainous
10. Big Bad Hero 2

Kotaku:

Game Of The Year: SimSociety
Runner-Up: Grand Theft Auto II
Finalists: Super Mario Flip, Metal Gear Peace, Cyberwar 3, Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, Panzer Dragoon Zeta, Commander Keen: Billy's Brave Odyssey, Skulls, Mystic, F-Zero, Big Bad Hero 2, Selene, Guitar Hero: Meet The Band, Parcels, No One Lives 4Ever, Aster, Chu Chu Rockets, Blackheart Villainous, Three Mile Island, Zone Of The Enders 3
Worst Game Of The Year: Gray Zone

Gamespot

Game Of The Year: SimSociety
Action Game Of The Year: Grand Theft Auto II
Adventure Game Of The Year: Mystic
Shooter Of The Year: Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
Sports Game Of The Year: NBA 2K9
RPG Of The Year: Rise A Knight III: The Sacred Oath

Gaming Age

Game Of The Year: Mystic
Runner-Up: SimSociety
Nintendo Sapphire Game Of The Year: Mystic
iTwin Game Of The Year: Commander Keen: Billy's Brave Odyssey
Xbox 2 Game Of The Year: Alien: Xenowar
iPod Play Game Of The Year: Into The Lost 2
Game Boy Supernova Game Of The Year: Elvenfall
PC Game Of The Year: SimSociety
Mobile Game Of The Year: Plants vs. Zombies

GameInformer

Game Of The Year: Grand Theft Auto II
Finalists: SimSociety, Rise A Knight III: The Sacred Oath, Metal Gear Peace, Cyberwar 3

Blargo

Game Of The Year: SimSociety
Runners Up: Grand Theft Auto II, Chrono Break
Most Unexpectedly Good Game: Twisted Metal Chaos

RPGamer

Game Of The Year: Chrono Break
Runners Up: Elvenfall, Panzer Dragoon Zeta, Tactics Lotherian
WRPG Of The Year: Rise A Knight III: The Sacred Oath

GameBlast

Game Of The Year: SimSociety
Action Game Of The Year: Grand Theft Auto II
Adventure Game Of The Year: Selene
Fighting Game Of The Year: Virtua Fighter 6
Platformer Of The Year: Sonic: The Time Emeralds
RPG Of The Year: Rise A Knight III: The Sacred Oath
Sports Game Of The Year: Madden NFL 2009

Gamers' Blog Alliance

Game Of The Year (70 blogs polled):

SimSociety: 31
Grand Theft Auto II: 17
Rise A Knight III: The Sacred Oath: 6
Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2: 4
Guitar Hero: Meet The Band: 2
Metal Gear Peace: 2
Super Mario Flip: 1
Justicar: 1
Aster: 1
Commander Keen: Billy's Brave Odyssey: 1
Cyberwar 3: 1
Panzer Dragoon Zeta: 1
Big Bad Hero 2: 1
Oregon Trail Anniversary: 1

Australian Gamer (Editor Top 10)

Game Of The Year

1. Grand Theft Auto II
2. Sega Rally
3. SimSociety
4. Aster
5. No More Heroes
6. No One Lives 4Ever
7. Blackheart Villainous
8. Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
9. Total Shutdown
10. Alien: Xenowar

ScrewAttack (Top 10 Games Of 2008):

1. SimSociety
2. Cyberwar 3
3. Panzer Dragoon Zeta
4. Grand Theft Auto II
5. Super Mario Flip
6. Commander Keen: Billy's Brave Odyssey
7. Selene
8. Into The Lost 2
9. Plants vs. Zombies
10. Aster

Edge (Game Of The Year- Editors' Choice):

SimSociety

Famitsu (Game Of The Year- Readers' Choice):

Winner: Panzer Dragoon Zeta
Runner-up: SimSociety

X-Play (Editors' Choice):

Grand Theft Auto II

Sylph (Editors' Choice Top 5 Games Of 2008):

1. SimSociety
2. Big Bad Hero 2
3. Selene
4. Mystic
5. Panzer Dragoon Zeta

1up.com/EGM:

Game Of The Year: SimSociety
Runners Up: Grand Theft Auto II, Metal Gear Peace
Most Innovative Game: World Of Goo
Worst Game Of The Year: Jackass: The Game

Destructoid (Top 10 Games Of 2008):

1. Grand Theft Auto II
2. Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
3. Commander Keen: Billy's Brave Odyssey
4. Aster
5. Metal Gear Peace
6. Plants vs. Zombies
7. SimSociety
8. Parcels
9. Sonic: The Time Emeralds
10. Amneth

KidGamers (Game Of The Year 2008):

Super Mario Flip

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G4 Wins Peabody Award For “The Crunch”

Everyone here at the G4 Network would like to congratulate producers Charles Hirschhorn, Ted Crosley, and Alex Gibney for their recent Peabody Award, given for the most recent season of the documentary The Crunch, which followed a group of developers at Electronic Arts through the production of the video game Madden NFL 2009. The 13 episode series took an in-depth look at the production of the game and the working conditions for Electronic Arts employees, particularly during the frantic time near the end of the game's development known as “crunch”. The series raised a number of important issues, including the work-life balance of game programmers and the issue of unionization in the game industry. This season, which proved to be the most controversial to date, led to a number of mainstream news sources such as CBS News, NBC News, and CNN covering the issue of crunch in the game industry and generated a debate about unionization in the industry that continues to rage into the new year. This is the first Peabody Award for the G4 Network, and comes as a tremendous honor. We at G4 will continue to produce the most entertaining and informative content about video games, and continue to be a network for gamers, by gamers. We would like to thank Mr. Hirschhorn, Mr. Crosley, and Mr. Gibney for their contributions to the network and the industry, and look forward to the next season of The Crunch, coming later this year.

-from a press release on the G4 website, posted on February 22, 2009

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Anderson Cooper: How big of an issue is this?

Ted Crosley: It is one of the most quintessential issues facing the game industry today. We have to understand that game programmers are working under incredibly stressful conditions to produce increasingly technically complex video games, and we also have to realize that we as players are partially to blame.

Cooper: Is this bigger than the issue of video game violence?

Crosley: Anderson, there have been far more lives lost to suicide due to job-related stress in the game industry than there have ever been because of someone who murdered people because they were inspired by games. And I'm not even mentioning the physical diseases caused by stress: the high blood pressure, the strokes, the heart conditions.

Cooper: Let me ask you this: if the price of a video game went up by, let's say 20 dollars a game, if that meant that the necessary changes to minimize stress on programmers would be implemented, would you say yes to that?

Crosley: I would absolutely say yes.

Cooper: Of course, somebody like you, I presume you make a lot of money, critics would say, “well, Ted Crosley might be able to afford 80 bucks for a game, but me, I work for minimum wage, I wouldn't be able to afford games if that happened.”

Crosley: Buy it a year after it comes out, when the price comes down. Wouldn't you want someone, if you work at McDonald's or at Walmart, wouldn't you want someone to be equally considerate of you when they come in? Anderson, the game industry needs to be unionized. And it needs to happen now. I'm worried that it might not happen because of Huntsman, he's already taking so many anti-union positions that it's getting to be a real pipe dream in the game industry, but it still has to happen because this issue of crunch is so serious.

Cooper: Do you feel like it's getting better because of your show?

Crosley: I think it was getting better. I'm not so sure now.

-from the March 6, 2009 episode of ABC's 20/20

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Interactive Entertainment Awards 2008:

Game Of The Year: SimSociety
Console Game Of The Year: Grand Theft Auto II
Computer Game Of The Year: SimSociety
Action/Adventure Game Of The Year: Grand Theft Auto II
Family Game Of The Year: Guitar Hero: Meet The Band
Massively Multiplayer Game Of The Year: SimSociety
Handheld Game Of The Year: Metal Gear Cipher
Racing Game Of The Year: F-Zero
Role Playing Game Of The Year: Rise A Knight III: The Sacred Oath
Shooter Game Of The Year: Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
Strategy/Simulation Game Of The Year: SimSociety
Sports Game Of The Year: Madden NFL 2009
Fighting Game Of The Year: Virtue And Vice 2
Outstanding Art Direction: Rise A Knight III: The Sacred Oath
Outstanding Vocal Performance: David Hayter as Solid Snake in Metal Gear Peace (Male), Jessica DiCicco as Lenexa in Panzer Dragoon Zeta (Female)
Outstanding Animation: Commander Keen: Billy's Brave Odyssey
Outstanding Game Design: SimSociety
Outstanding Gameplay Engineering: SimSociety
Outstanding Innovation: SimSociety
Outstanding Online Gameplay: SimSociety
Outstanding Original Music: Rise A Knight III: The Sacred Oath
Outstanding Sound Design: Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
Outstanding Story: Rise A Knight III: The Sacred Oath
Outstanding Visual Engineering: Aster

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GameFAQs Best Of 2008 Polls:

Best Of 2008: Best Sapphire Game

Chrono Break: 27.21%
Metal Gear Peace: 22.23%
Super Mario Flip: 20.63%
Mystic: 9.13%
Big Bad Hero 2: 6.31%
F-Zero: 4.55%
Twisted Metal Chaos: 3.81%
Selene: 2.46%
Parcels: 2.15%
Star Fox: Mission Cosmic: 1.52%

Best Of 2008: Best Supernova Game

Pokemon Silver: 31.88%
Metal Gear Cipher: 14.70%
Justicar: 13.55%
Battletoads vs. TMNT: 12.42%
Front Mission Maximum: 7.36%
Fire Emblem: Dark Sojourn: 6.76%
Mario vs. Donkey Kong 2: 6.05%
Snatcher: 3.39%
Beyond Good And Evil: Operation Pey'j: 2.81%
Valor: Discretion: 1.08%

Best Of 2008: Best Nintendo Wave Game

Lash Out 2: 45.61%
Captain Wario: 23.81%
Disgaea 3: 20.57%
Wavelength: 5.82%
1080 World Tournament: 4.19%

Best Of 2008: Best PC Game

SimSociety: 49.72%
Aster: 21.83%
Empire: Total War: 9.56%
Cold War: Enlisted Man: 6.12%
Planescape: Nightmare: 4.53%
Sins Of A Solar Empire: 3.70%
The Blistering Horde: 2.66%
Screwtype: 1.88%

Best Of 2008: Best iPod Play Game

Into The Lost 2: 21.18%
Resident Evil: Desertion 2: 20.64%
Sonic: The Time Emeralds: 19.84%
Commander Keen: Awesome Arena: 18.39%
Party Karts: 13.77%
Ys Revolution: 3.36%
Mixolydia 2: 1.93%
The Raid 3: 0.89%

Best Of 2008: Best iTwin Game

Panzer Dragoon Zeta: 29.37%
Commander Keen: Billy's Brave Oddysey: 27.15%
Three Mile Island: 10.88%
Virtua Fighter 6: 8.76%
No One Lives 4Ever: 6.01%
Mega Man: Twin Legends: 5.86%
Sega Rally: 4.75%
No More Heroes: 3.39%
Chu Chu Rockets: 2.61%
The Conduit: 1.22%

Best Of 2008: Best Xbox 2 Game

Cyberwar 3: 28.05%
Alien: Xenowar: 14.69%
Amok: Trail Of Devastation: 13.22%
Fated To Fall: 12.18%
Halloween: 7.71%
Star Wars: Knights Of The Old Republic II: 7.25%
Deep Black 4: 6.16%
Gray Zone: 4.88%
Ninja Gaiden Blood: 3.16%
U.S. Army Rangers: Confrontation: 2.70%

Best Of 2008: Best Mobile Game

Oregon Trail Anniversary: 33.50%
Energy Core: 32.16%
Plants vs. Zombies: 17.24%
Ecco Traveler: 13.19%
Jackhammer: 3.91%

Best Of 2008: Best Multiplatform Game

Grand Theft Auto II: 40.99%
Rise A Knight III: The Sacred Oath: 15.17%
Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2: 15.05%
Blackheart Villainous: 11.62%
Fallout: The Boneyard: 5.74%
Encounter: Time Wars: 4.16%
Guitar Hero: Meet The Band: 2.72%
Zone Of The Enders 3: 2.18%
Battlefield: Bad Company: 1.39%
Madden NFL 2009: 0.98%

Best Of 2008: Game Of The Year:

Grand Theft Auto II: 22.18%
SimSociety: 18.79%
Chrono Break: 13.54%
Oregon Trail Anniversary: 13.49%
Pokemon Silver: 12.33%
Panzer Dragoon Zeta: 8.80%
Cyberwar 3: 7.36%
Lash Out 2: 2.17%
Into The Lost 2: 1.34%

Best Of 2008: Game Of The Year (Final):

Grand Theft Auto II: 42.79%
Chrono Break: 30.18%
SimSociety: 27.03%

GameRankings Top 25 Games Of 2008

1. SimSociety: 99.03%
2. Grand Theft Auto II: 97.61%
3. Aster: 95.78%
4. Rise A Knight III: The Sacred Oath: 95.40%
5. Metal Gear Peace: 94.50%
6. Panzer Dragoon Zeta: 94.22%
7. Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2: 94.04%
8. Mystic: 93.88%
9. Skulls: 93.14%
10. Commander Keen: Billy's Brave Odyssey: 93.08%
11. Into The Lost 2: 92.97%
12. Metal Gear Cipher: 92.93%
13. Cyberwar 3: 92.71%
14. No One Lives 4Ever: 92.56%
15. Empire: Total War: 92.14%
16. Super Mario Flip: 92.11%
17. Fallout: The Boneyard: 91.91%
18. F-Zero: 91.72%
19. Alien: Xenowar: 91.71%
20. Wavelength: 91.41%
21. Fumarole: 91.37%
22. Fated To Fall: 91.36%
22. Chrono Break: 91.36%
24. Sega Rally: 90.98%
25. Justicar: 90.64%

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Jobs Teases Next Generation iPod Play At MacWorld

MacWorld 2009 saw the announcement of numerous new Apple products, including a new model iPhone and improvements to the iMac line of computers, but perhaps no device was as highly anticipated as the successor to the iPod Play, which is expected to be released either this year or next. While not officially announcing the new device, Steve Jobs did mention the iPod Play in his keynote speech, and stated that a next-generation iPod Play was indeed coming and that it would incorporate some of the most popular gaming features from Apple's iPhone, including a touch screen and the ability to download popular mobile games. Jobs stated that he wanted the iPod gaming line to remain distinct from the iPhone, stating that he understood that some gamers didn't need the phone functionality of the iPhone and just wanted to play games. Jobs promised that the device would be the most powerful gaming handheld ever created, more powerful than the iPhone with gaming specifically in mind and all the device's power and memory devoted to it. One of the most memorable lines of the show came from Jobs when discussing the device, as he said: “Imagine... a device twice as powerful as the iPhone, with all its attention focused on a new generation of console quality games you can take anywhere. Imagine not having to connect to the internet to play the newest generation of games on the go, but being able to play them on a dedicated device without wi-fi or mobile networks. That dream is about to become a reality, but we need just a little more time for the technology to catch up with that vision.” Jobs seemed to imply that the next-generation Apple handheld gaming device would rival the Sapphire or iTwin in terms of power, something that definitely seems like it won't be possible until 2010 or even 2011. It's also possible that Apple might want to wait for Nintendo to show its hand, though a Supernova successor seems even father off.

The iPod Play has seen its sales drop precipitously since the iPhone's release in 2007, but has remained popular, selling about half as many units as the Game Boy Supernova during last year's holiday season. It's continued to see quality releases such as Merciless 2 and Mixolydia 2, and a number of games, including the highly anticipated Panzer Dragoon Metamoria and Sega vs. Capcom, along with an exclusive Lord Of The Rings title, are on the schedule for 2009.

-from an article on Games Over Matter, posted on January 7, 2009

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2008 was all about the games, and in a year where Nintendo and Sony launched yet another successful system that pushed the limits of gaming hardware, that truly says something. Simply put, 2008 saw some of the greatest games of all time make their debut, and towering above all of them was SimSociety, Will Wright's magnum opus. Part social network, part world builder, the game allows players to create their own realistic fictional nation or jump into somebody else's to live out their fantasies or simply hang out with friends. SimSociety remains to this day one of the most popular social networks on the internet, and four years after its release, it's sold over 200 million copies, has an active user base of over 50 million, and maintains the highest rating ever achieved on both Metacritic and GameRankings. It would be hard for any game to top that, but Grand Theft Auto II, Rockstar's brilliant open-world crime epic, certainly tried. Generating controversy and a ton of sales, it too remains one of the most popular titles out there, and would have been Game of the Year in any other year but 2008. Regardless, settling for a strong second was just fine with Rockstar, who immediately launched into work on the next game in the series.

Other contenders for SimSociety's untouchable throne included fellow PC epic Aster, a beautiful open world RPG that set new standards for graphical prowess, supplying plenty of wonder for what it lacked somewhat in story depth. Rise A Knight III: The Sacred Oath established THQ's franchise as perhaps the best WRPG out there at a time when WRPGs were taking over for Japanese RPGs as the top dog in the genre. But on the JRPG front, Chrono Break continued Squaresoft's streak of role playing quality, a streak they hoped to continue in 2009. Games like Super Mario Flip, Metal Gear Peace, Commander Keen: Billy's Brave Odyssey, and Panzer Dragoon Zeta showed the strength of their respected consoles, as Nintendo's new Sapphire and Apple's iTwin found themselves neck and neck by the end of the year. Apple's iTwin had maintained its strength even in the face of Nintendo's HD juggernaut, and now a console war not seen since the epic two-stage 16-bit battles was clearly raging.

But what of Microsoft, whose Xbox 2 had started off strong out of the gate? The company needed a strong 2008 to keep their momentum in the face of massive competition, and after Cyberwar 3 proved a hit, it seemed that they would get it... but the rest of the year saw the company fail to launch a compelling exclusive, and even Cyberwar 3 couldn't sustain them forever. The end of 2008 was a perfect storm for Microsoft: the failure of its OS, Windows Vista, combined with an economic recession that crippled its once successful X-Zone arcade franchise and left the Xbox 2 as the odd man out in the HD console wars sent the company reeling, and Microsoft entered 2009 in need of a serious reversal of fortune. A company that entered 2008 with optimism in the face of a few small speed bumps now seemed to be careening out of control, and if something didn't change soon, the future of the Xbox itself could be in serious danger.

One aspect of the gaming industry that had never looked better: the mobile gaming industry. Thanks to the success of the iPhone and the launch of the Android ecosystem, games were popping up on mobile phones everywhere. While many were simple distractions in the vein of Bejeweled, others were full-fledged console experiences, spurned on by Steve Jobs' desire to make gaming on the iPhone as rich and fun as it was on the iPod Play and iTwin. The rise of mobile was inevitable, but what form it would take would be decided by the players, and as the end of the decade loomed, start-up companies by the thousands were looking to make it big in one of the few major growth industries of the economic recession.

The recession had indeed taken its toll, and would continue to do so. With gamers' budgets sqeezed considerably, only the best games could emerge as success stories in the challenging new economy. 2009 looked like it had a lineup that could surpass even the amazing 2008, but which games would rise to the top, and whether or not Microsoft's Xbox 2 would live to see another year, would again be determined by the players, who held all the cards and all the controllers.

-”The History Of Console Gaming: Year-By-Year (Part 9)”, Wired.com, posted on July 17, 2012

 

[RySenkari]

The 2008-09 season was, in a lot of ways, a bounce back year for the NFL. With the fallout from the Michael Vick scandal finally settling, fans could feel good about watching football again, and with the economy in recession, people needed an escape. A crop of rising young superstars and highly competitive teams would give that to them, with some of the most exciting football of all time being played in 2008's regular season. The move to flex scheduling for the NFL's primetime games, ensuring that only the top teams would be seen on primetime in the latter half of the season, treated nationwide audiences to a succession of instant classics as teams raced for top playoff spots.

The biggest story in the AFC, and perhaps in the entire league, was a Cincinnati Bengals team that was really, really good. Led by rookie sensation Matt Ryan and the amazing Calvin “Megatron” Johnson, they went from worst to first in the conference, compiling a 12-4 record. However, they'd have to earn that #1 seed, and indeed, were in the midst of a tiebreaker with three other teams: the defending champion Patriots, the Indianapolis Colts, and the Pittsburgh Steelers all won 12 games in an ultra-competitive conference. The Bengals and Steelers played both their head-to-head matchups in the latter half of the year, with one airing on Monday night and the other airing on Sunday night. In fact, the Bengals, Patriots, Colts, and Steelers would have all of their head to head matchups aired either in the late afternoon or in primetime to a nationwide audience as they battled it out for the top AFC playoff spot. Lost in the shuffle was a battle between the Broncos and the Raiders for the AFC West title that was also settled on the last week of the season.

In the NFC, the usual suspects continued to dominate. The Bears, Cowboys, and Saints had been the class of the conference for the last several years, and were at the top of their game in 2008, going 13-3, 12-4, and 11-5 respectively. Meanwhile, Tim Couch managed to lead his Eagles back to the playoffs after a rough couple of years. The Arizona Cardinals hoped to build on the previous year, when they made it to the NFC Championship game, but they found themselves struggling with injuries and ultimately they limped to a 10-6 record, tied with a resurgent Rams team for the division title, but losing out on tiebreaks. The Detroit Lions crawled out of the toilet somewhat, finishing with a 6-10 record thanks to a strong offensive line that gave JaMarcus Russell plenty of time to throw the football. He wasn't very accurate with his passes, but showed some flashes of promise toward the end of the season.

NFL Playoffs 2007-08:

Wild Card Round

(3) Indianapolis Colts: 20, (6) Oakland Raiders: 0

The Colts' strong defense was the MVP of this game, as Tom Brady struggled to make anything happen but still managed to throw for 300 yards and a couple of touchdowns, mostly in the second half. The Raiders made it to the playoffs thanks to a stiff defensive unit, but their mediocre offense did them no favors. This was one of the least entertaining playoff games in recent memory.

(5) Pittsburgh Steelers: 58, (4) Denver Broncos: 28

The Steelers and their brilliant quarterback Aaron Rodgers absolutely annihilated the Broncos in a game that saw the Steelers not punt the ball even once. Rodgers threw for six touchdowns and 471 yards, and while the Broncos got plenty of offense as well, they still ended up getting smashed at home.

(6) Arizona Cardinals: 27, (3) New Orleans Saints: 20

Once again, Peyton Manning was frustrated as he just couldn't figure out the Arizona Cardinals. He had a bit of success and guided the Saints to a 13 to 6 lead at halftime, but the Cardinals got it going in the second half behind Matt Leinart, while their staunch defense, led by Pro Bowler Sean Taylor (acquired in a trade with the Cleveland Browns that finally got the Browns some first round draft picks in 2009 and 2010), stuffed and sacked Manning and won the day for the underdog Cards.

(5) Philadelphia Eagles: 24, (4) St. Louis Rams: 21 (OT)

This exciting game saw Tim Couch lead the Eagles back from a 14 to 0 deficit against the Rams, who had a strong team and were one of the more surprising stories in the NFL in 2008. The Rams looked like one of the most balanced and complete teams in the league, but the Eagles just made more plays, and marched down the field on the first overtime drive to kick the game winning field goal. This would ultimately lead to a rule change for overtime that would require the first drive to end on a touchdown for the game to end.

Divisional Round:

(5) Pittsburgh Steelers: 44, (1) Cincinnati Bengals: 35

Another offensive shootout saw the Bengals fighting from behind all day long. The Steelers were up 24 to 7 midway through the second quarter, and while the Bengals fought back valiantly, most of their scoring was in garbage time. Rodgers had another stellar game, but it was the Steelers defense that made a key play early in the fourth quarter with the Bengals threatening to score when it was 34-28. A pick-six interception gave the Steelers a 41-28 lead and seemed to crush the Bengals' spirit, even after they made a touchdown to draw within six again. The Steelers would once again move on to the conference finals.

(2) New England Patriots: 20, (3) Indianapolis Colts: 17

This was another close, classic struggle between two talented teams. In the end, the Patriots made more clutch plays and would go ahead midway through the fourth quarter after a field goal. The Colts failed to respond, and the Patriots would run out the clock on the next drive. The Patriots and Steelers rivalry would continue in the AFC Championship for the second straight year.

(6) Arizona Cardinals: 37, (1) Chicago Bears: 21

The Cardinals would have their revenge at Soldier Field, and the Bears would become the latest victim of an upset-ridden divisional weekend. Big Ben, try as he might, wound up like Peyton Manning did: sacked and stuffed and forced into bad passes and interceptions, with three of them, plus a fumble. The Cardinals would capitalize with 20 points on turnovers, which ended up being the difference in the game.

(5) Philadelphia Eagles: 15, (2) Dallas Cowboys: 13 (2OT)

One of the NFL's most bitter rivalries would manifest in a grinding, brutal war of a game. A total of seven injuries would occur during this one, including one player from each team carted off on a stretcher: an Eagles linebacker would go out in the second quarter with a stinger that briefly resembled a much worse paralyzing injury, while in the first overtime, the Cowboys' running back Chris Johnson would wind up breaking his leg in gruesome, Joe Theismann-esque fashion. There were multiple fights and ejections, and by the end, it had turned into a defensive struggle that saw both teams struggling simply to gain a yard. In the end, with 3:57 left in the second overtime period, the Cowboys would end up taking a safety, and the Eagles won to a massive chorus of boos and thrown objects from Cowboys fans. The Eagles had to be happy that they simply survived such a game.

Conference Championships:

(2) New England Patriots: 62, (5) Pittsburgh Steelers: 56 (OT)

Simply put, the 2009 AFC Championship was one of the greatest games in NFL history. It was the highest scoring game in NFL history and would see Aaron Rodgers scoring eight touchdowns and throwing for an astonishing 607 yards in a losing effort. A spectacular game that only saw one punt for each team, the Patriots would jump out early to a 35-14 lead in the middle of the second quarter, only for the Steelers to score two touchdowns, including an incredible Hail Mary pass from the Steelers' own 41 yard line to close out the first half. The second half would see more acrobatics and amazing plays, including two special teams touchdowns for the Patriots. The teams would end regulation tied at 56 a piece, and the Steelers had a chance to win on a 49 yard field goal in overtime, but missed it off the upright. The Patriots would respond by driving 80 yards in seven minutes for a touchdown to return to the Super Bowl.

(6) Arizona Cardinals: 28, (5) Philadelphia Eagles: 7

The Eagles were a broken and beaten team by the time the Cardinals came to Philly to play them in the conference championship, and though they tried to muster up an effort for the hometown crowd, the Cardinals were in much better shape and itching to head to the Super Bowl. Leinart made the big plays, while an exhausted Tim Couch found himself running out of the pocket most of the time. He took four sacks and threw four picks, and the Cardinals found themselves in the Super Bowl, where they would be monumental underdogs.

Super Bowl XLIII:

New England Patriots: 37, Arizona Cardinals: 17

Super Bowl XLIII took place in Houston, a city that had fully recovered from Hurricane Harvey and was eager to show itself off on a worldwide stage. Selena, who had performed the national anthem at Super Bowl XXXIV nine years earlier, returned with another beautiful performance, and then the game began. Arizona marched down the field and scored a field goal, but that would be their only lead of the game: the Patriots immediately responded with a touchdown, and then another one before the end of the quarter, and that was pretty much it: the Cardinals struggled to move the ball while the Patriots, led by Donovan McNabb, had little trouble: when the Cards stiffened against the pass, McNabb ran the ball himself, and exposed the Cardinals' weakness against the run. Alicia Keys' halftime performance alongside Usher and Aggro was probably the most exciting part of the night, as the second half saw more of the same. The Patriots would win their second straight Super Bowl, and McNabb would get his MVP trophy.

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2009 NFL Draft

After sophomore sensation Sam Bradford led the Oklahoma Sooners to an undefeated season and the national championship, he decided to come to the NFL (having redshirted his first season, he was eligible to come out). This gave the New York Jets and San Francisco 49ers, who held the first and second picks respectively, a decision to make: Matthew Stafford, or Sam Bradford? Both teams were terrible and badly in need of a QB, and the Jets were on the clock. The Jets decided to go with the more mature and experienced Stafford, while letting Bradford fall to the Niners. The Niners briefly entertained trade offers, including one that would have given them a slew of extra picks while also being able to take Mark Sanchez, widely believed to be the third best QB in the draft, but they stuck by their guns and took Bradford. Sanchez would fall from his expected position as a number of teams passed on him... and he would ultimately fall to the Cleveland Browns, who held the Cardinals' #19 pick. The Browns now had a new quarterback, but were still the NFL's worst team and still had a long, long way to go.

 

[RySenkari]

2009 Grammy Nominees: (winners in bold)

Best New Artist-

BoA
Lady Antebellum
Ray Ray
The Skinflynts
Taylor Swift

(Note: With no Adele (she hasn't been discovered yet and as of 2009 ITTL is training to be a stage actress), who won IOTL, this is a fairly wide open category. BoA has a lot of hype going in, but also a lot of controversy. She'd been big in Korea for many years, but due to the current Grammy rules, she's still eligible for Best New Artist based on her relative obscurity in North America. Hip hop artist Ray Ray seemed to be neck and neck with Taylor Swift for most popular choice, and then there was a band that people thought might be a critical favorite, a country/rock band known as The Skinflynts who had released a highly acclaimed album. In the end, it was the other country act, Lady Antebellum, that took the award in a bit of an upset, as they were probably the second least well known act going into the ceremony. Taylor Swift wasn't too upset about losing, and neither was BoA: they'd be by far the most popular acts going forward from this year's Grammys.)

Song Of The Year-

“Come Closer” by Jezzebelle Scots
“Computer” by Hikaru Utada ft. T-Pain
“Love Song” by Sara Bareilles
“See Me Freakin'” by Ray Ray
“Viva La Vida” by Coldplay

(Note: Just as IOTL, Coldplay's ode to Napoleon took the award here fairly easily. It was thought that "Computer" might have a shot, coming from two hot rising acts of their time, but in the end, critical darlings Coldplay won the award in a fairly boring and obvious choice.)

Record Of The Year-

“The Chase” by Eric Clapton ft. Jeff Buckley
“Computer” by Hikaru Utada ft. T-Pain
“Freeze” by Usher ft. Genesis Rodriguez
“Paper Planes” by M.I.A.
“Viva La Vida” by Coldplay

(Note: "Freeze" seemed to be the overwhelming fan favorite to take the award: it had been the most popular song of 2008, it had done the best commercially, and it featured two of the hottest acts of the day: hip hop superstar Usher and rapidly rising entertainment star Genesis Rodriguez. However, M.I.A.'s catchy and controversial "Paper Planes" did something it failed to do IOTL: it won this award in a massive upset, maybe the biggest upset of the night. Though the voting was never revealed publicly, it was extremely close between "Freeze" and "Paper Planes" for the Grammy. M.I.A. gave a fairly controversial and highly politically charged acceptance speech that drew boos from the crowd but was one of the most memorable moments of the night.)

Album Of The Year-

In Rainbows by Radiohead
STFU by Rihanna
The Studio: Music From The Motion Picture by Various Artists
Take One by Taylor Swift
Viva La Vida by Coldplay

(Note: This was another extremely competitive award that any of these films could have won. Take One was Taylor Swift's extremely popular debut album that had been burning up the charts, while STFU was Rihanna's fiercest album to date, controversial but critically brilliant and full of catchy and popular songs. Meanwhile, Coldplay and Radiohead both had highly reviewed albums of their own, and both were predicted to win at various points by the different critical forecasts. It's likely that Taylor/Rihanna and Coldplay/Radiohead may have split some votes, allowing the soundtrack album from the film The Studio to sweep to victory. Full of pop and hip hop songs from some of the most popular artists of the day, it was one of the most successful soundtrack albums of the last decade, and capped off an amazing reception for the movie in general.)

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2009 Oscar Nominees: (winners in bold)

Best Picture-


El Camino
Frost/Nixon
King Arthur: The Battle Of Camlann
Slumdog Millionaire
We Rise

(Note: There wasn't the same level of controversy ITTL as there was IOTL, since the highly popular action film managed to get a Best Picture nomination this time around. King Arthur's third outing got the nomination that OTL's The Dark Knight didn't, and while there were some who also thought North Pole deserved a nod too, the controversy didn't rise to the level of OTL's Wall-E snub. Slumdog Millionaire was about as popular ITTL as it was IOTL, but El Camino, a film about a middle aged man who becomes crippled after an industrial accident and can no longer work on his beloved car, proved to be the critics' choice for best film of the year. Addressing the generation gap, racism, and physical disability, the film was both a heartwarmer and a tear-jerker, and though it only made around $60 million at the box office, it took Best Picture.)

Best Director-


Danny Boyle for Slumdog Millionaire
Guillermo del Toro for El Camino
Richard Linklater for Beaver
Ron Howard for Frost/Nixon
Terry Gilliam for King Arthur: The Battle Of Camlann

(Note: Danny Boyle takes this award, the only award from ITTL that went the same as IOTL. Boyle's victory for Slumdog Millionaire was a close one, many thought Guillermo del Toro might take it, and Terry Gilliam was somewhat of a sentimental favorite. However, Slumdog Millionaire, just as IOTL, took home the most awards on 2009's Oscar night, and took home this big one.)

Best Actor-

Frank Langella for Frost/Nixon
Heath Ledger for King Arthur: The Battle Of Camlann
Mickey Rourke for The Wrestler
Michael Madsen for El Camino
William Fichtner for Kill Or Be Killed

(Note: Langella wins the award that Sean Penn won IOTL for Milk (ITTL, the Harvey Milk biopic film still hasn't been made) with his incredible performance as Richard Nixon in this film about the famous interview. While Michael Madsen also looked to be a frontrunner for this award, and Fichtner was a popular dark horse for his performance as an retired CIA agent trying to escape from an assassin, Langella's performance was too good for the Academy to overlook this time around, and he went home with the Oscar.)

Best Actress-

Amy Adams for Beaver
Donna Murphy for Changeling
Julia Roberts for All The Way Down
Meryl Streep for Doubt
Sanaa Lathan for We Rise

(Note: Amy Adams turned down Doubt ITTL to appear in Richard Linklater's dramedy about a woman trying to get over her loser ex-husband. While the film didn't quite impress critics enough to get a Best Picture nomination, the acting performances absolutely wowed critics, with Amy Adams' performance winding up on top of the heap. Sanaa Lathan's performance as a teacher who becomes a victim of discrimination in We Rise was powerful and intense, and Meryl Streep was, well, Meryl Streep, but Amy Adams won out.)

Best Supporting Actor-

Gabriel Luna for El Camino
Jake Busey for Beaver
Josh Brolin for Across From Forever
Mathieu Amalric for Subversion
Maximilian Schell for All The Way Down

(Note: Jake Busey becomes the most unlikely Oscar winner perhaps ever, with a pitch perfect performance as the struggling ex-husband to Amy Adams' character in Beaver. His performance evoked both laughs and tears from audiences, and though he had some fierce competition, including Gabriel Luna in El Camino and Maximilian Schell's performance as an unorthodox psychiatrist in All The Way Down, he came out on top. He even managed to give one of the best Oscar speeches of the past decade, thanking his director for believing in him and thanking Amy Adams for "not making me look like a complete asshole".)

Best Supporting Actress-

Alyssa Diaz for El Camino
Malin Akerman for Across From Forever
Paige Hurd for We Rise
Penelope Cruz for Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Viola Davis for Doubt

(Note: Another extremely memorable moment went to Alyssa Diaz, whose Oscar speech started with "holy freaking crap!" A complete unknown before her role in El Camino, Diaz played the girlfriend of Gabriel Luna's character and mostly won the Oscar on the strength of her character's incredible speech where she completely dresses down Michael Madsen's character in a profanity-laced, physically aggressive rant that not only gets his character to stop being so bigoted, but also lights a fire under him and encourages him not to commit suicide. Diaz beat out Penelope Cruz, who won the Oscar IOTL, AND Viola Davis, who was no less powerful in her Doubt role ITTL as she was IOTL, making this a major upset, with a lot of critics thinking that Davis got robbed. Malin Akerman and Paige Hurd were never really in contention, though Akerman's role as an alien visitor in the strange sci-fi film Across From Forever does lead to her getting bigger roles down the road.)

 

[RySenkari]

Endotherm 2

Endotherm 2 is the sequel to the 2005 Katana hit and franchise starter Endotherm, the first new major Sega gaming franchise to be conceived entirely by Apple. Like its predecessor, Endotherm 2 is a platforming adventure title in which you play a shapeshifting creature named Endotherm who can transform into a massive variety of shapes and sizes in order to travel between different themed segments of a massive world. The game features a lot of puzzle solving, in which the player must decide exactly how to transform Endotherm in order to complete a challenge or reach a new section of the same level. Revamped for the Apple iTwin, Endotherm 2 not only features massive graphical improvements, but overhauled gameplay geared toward the iTwin's motion controls. The player is now able to stretch and transform parts of Endotherm without changing his basic form. While the dual motion controllers make this a lot more intuitive, the traditional controller can also utilize this feature with the control sticks. Combined with the 150+ different basic forms Endotherm can take, this creates an almost limitless set of possibilities available to the player, who can move and transform Endotherm as they please to fit almost any given situation. In reality, this does make Endotherm a bit awkward to control in certain forms, and it takes real skill to master some of Endotherm's transformations. The player will likely want to stick to one or two preferred configurations, making the other transformations more situational in nature. There's also a somewhat more rigid structure to the game's "biomes", of which there are now 10 instead of 12. It's more difficult to access them, and they can no longer be traversed in any order. However, there's a lot more freedom to move around individual biomes, and there are also sub-biomes, enclaves of different environments within the same general area. These sub-biomes can be used to access other biomes in a kind of shortcut/sequence break type of manner, though they can't be used to fully explore the other biomes, so the player is still generally restricted to the biome they're in until a certain amount of challenges are cleared. There are more "mixed" biomes, in which parts of two biomes blend together. The last game had 28 of these areas, whereas Endotherm 2 had 36, and they blend together just as seamlessly as they do in the original game. Endotherm 2 also features more populated areas, with humans and robots for Endotherm to interact with. The creature himself can't talk, but he can gesture and interact playfully with other sentient creatures, and sometimes his friend Annalee can talk for him. Endotherm can also use his transforming body to interact with machines in different ways, whether equipping robot parts or melding with machines or going inside large machines to explore them. This machine melding mechanic isn't used extremely often, but when it is it can have fun results. Endotherm 2 is a vastly better looking game than its predecessor, which was one of the best looking games on the Katana. While Endotherm 2 doesn't quite push the iTwin to its limits, it is one of the better looking games on the system so far, and there are some really beautiful moments that show the scope of the game, with the animation being one of the game's strongest points, in the way that Endotherm moves around and interacts with his environment. Apple put a lot of time, work, and money into the game, and in many ways, it really shows.

Endotherm 2 sees the creature roaming the world with his best friend Annalee, who is several years older than she was in the previous game, now a young adult in her early 20s. She wants to use Endotherm to help the people she meets along their travels, to show her grandfather Dr. Wertle (who plays an advisory role in the game) that Endotherm is not only a successful experiment, but the greatest experiment ever. Endotherm begins to pick up strange signals from what Annalee deduces is an ancient computer. However, she is unable to determine exactly where the signals are coming from, only that this computer is causing mysterious and bad things to happen within a massive radius around it. The two decide to make their way into a new land to find the computer and either shut it down or reason with it before it can cause any more trouble. As Endotherm explores this new world, he and Annalee start to learn vague information about the computer, which seems to speak through its robot lackeys who call themselves the Scraps. The Scraps refuse to divulge any information about the computer, only that it wants everyone to obey it and then everything will be fine. The benevolent robots that Endotherm meets along the way are more forthcoming with information, gradually revealing that the computer used to be part of an ancient ship that crashed somewhere in this land. The computer was tasked with protecting its people, but when the ship crashed, everybody died, and the computer blames the inhabitants of this land for causing the ship to crash. Annalee thinks that if she can get Endotherm into the ship, it can shut down the computer. Gradually, they make their way closer to the ship, crossing more dangerous and desolate lands as they do. Finally, Endotherm reaches the ship, but the computer has a hostile reaction and captures and imprisons Annalee. Endotherm manages to enter the ship's circuitry, and begins to travel through a sort of living "Captain's Log" of what happened to the ship. The ship was brought down, but not by the people of this world: instead, the computer glitched, and failed, and Endotherm learns that it blames itself for its inhabitants dying, but that blaming itself caused a logical error and that it was forced to blame the first people it saw once it reactivated, which were the living inhabitants of the planet. While Annalee is imprisoned, she interacts with the last remaining robot on the ship, a sort of robot butler who serves as a tender to the ship's computer, fixing its circuits and the like. Annalee and Endotherm work together to bring the computer to its senses, but the robot butler turns on them and attacks, and ends up being the final boss of the game, taking over the ship itself in its final form. After the robot butler is defeated, the computer is able to realize that the people inhabiting the planet are the descendants of the people on the ship, who survived the crash landing and started a new world. Annalee builds a robot body for the ship's computer so that it can live the ship and live with its people, and she and Endotherm return to Dr. Wertle to tell him everything that transpired.

Endotherm 2 is released on February 3, 2009. The game is hyped majorly prior to its release, with Apple expecting it to be every bit as big, if not bigger, than Sonic Duo was. However, that doesn't end up being the case. Reviews for the game are good, but not nearly as good as the original game got. In the years since the release of the original Endotherm, 3-D platforming has continued to see its popularity wane, and while Endotherm 2 made a number of praised innovations, it also remained, at its core, a fairly basic platformer with less freedom than the original game. In addition, the control scheme was tricky for many players, even seasoned veterans, to learn. Combined with the complete lack of multiplayer, a feature which Sonic Duo utilized to perfection, and ultimately, reviewers just didn't see Endotherm 2 as the genre-defining, franchise elevating sequel that Apple intended it to be. Reviews averaged in the high 7s/low 8s, with a few prominent reviewers scoring it in the 5-6 range. There was no arguing that Endotherm 2 was a beautiful game that had a lot of work put into it, but it just wasn't the kind of game that showed off what the iTwin could truly be. One reviewer said that it seemed less like an iTwin game than it did a "really polished and pretty Katana game". The slightly disappointing reviews didn't hurt sales, at least at first: Initial sales were huge, first week sales were a million copies in North America alone. However, the game failed to show the staying power that Sonic Duo, or even the original Endotherm, did. And ultimately, it wasn't the iTwin game that most of the gaming media was buzzing about in February 2009.

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Eclectic

Eclectic is a digital download title exclusive to the Apple iTwin, though it would later find its way to newer iPhone models. It's a puzzle platforming title created by Jonathan Blow, and has some similarity to the OTL game Braid, though its plot and premise and most of its gameplay are original TTL. ITTL, Jonathan Blow still worked with Ion Storm, and actually contributed to a couple of the 2000s Commander Keen games, though he would leave the company to pursue his own independent game. His own game, which would have been very similar to OTL's Braid, was noticed by Steve Jobs in 2005 when he was recruiting game developers to work on iTwin titles. Jobs agreed to fund Blow's project and give him complete creative freedom in exchange for making his game an iTwin exclusive. Blow agreed, and with the money contributed by Apple, redesigned his game, keeping it a subversion of current gaming trends but giving it a new concept that would ultimately develop into TTL's Eclectic. While Eclectic is at its heart a puzzle platforming title, it borrows and subverts a number of different gaming genres, most notably the mascot platformer. Eclectic actually starts the player out as a mascot platformer character, a dog named Gomez who must traverse some short platforming sequences, jumping on enemies and dodging obstacles all along the way. However, just as it seems like the world is about to open up for Gomez, he encounters a witch named Marseline who transforms him into a human, and claims that he was always human, and now that he's no longer a dog, he no longer has any reason to explore or fight enemies. He can go home. Gomez doesn't know where "home" is, and Marseline offers to show him. Gomez can't jump high anymore, so platforming is out of the question. Instead, he has to solve a series of puzzles, which bar his way. The player eventually encounters an "impossible" puzzle, and takes control of Marseline, using her powers to easily blast the puzzle to ribbons and clear Gomez a path. The player now controls Marseline, and enters a sequence similar to the Commander Keen games in gameplay, assuming more of an action-puzzler type game for a short time. However, Marseline too hits a road block, and must be helped out by Gomez, whose mundane puzzle solving skills enable Marseline to defeat a tough "boss" monster. Now Marseline is lost, and she and Gomez both must find their way home. Along the way, they're joined by two more playable characters, each with their own quirks, but none of them able to succeed on their own. The game remains primarily a puzzle platformer, but continues to throw in sudden genre swerves, with each segment short, to the point, and intended to both invoke and subvert the spirit of that genre in a fun way. Eclectic can be considered an "easy" game, though with a few challenging puzzles here and there, and like OTL's Braid, uses its gameplay segments to advance its story. Eventually, Marseline is taken away by a evil creature who is set up as being the "boss" creature of the game. Gomez must rescue her, but his skills, or rather, his lack thereof, do not allow him to do so. The enemy is up high, but Gomez can't jump. The enemy requires Gomez to attack it, but Gomez can't attack. The enemy requires Gomez to solve puzzles, but solving the puzzles, as it turns out, does absolutely nothing to the enemy, who taunts him after he finishes solving them all. Then, Gomez realizes that everything he did cleared his path back home. He still wants to help Marseline, but he also wants to go back home. Gomez returns back home, only to realize that his home is a dog house. As it turns out, Gomez is a dog and Marseline is his owner, and she turned him into a human so that he could get more exercise than just being at home. Meanwhile, the evil creature who took Marseline away turns out to be Marseline's last pet, who didn't get enough exercise and turned feral. Gomez returns and helps Marseline tame the creature, and then Marseline turns Gomez back into a dog and goes back home to live with him (and the feral creature, who is still huge and scary but now tame again).

While Endotherm 2 gets a considerable amount of hype for its physical release, Eclectic isn't exactly an afterthought. It's promoted fairly heavily by Apple as part of its new digital storefront initiative to promote the work of its stable of indie game creators. The game is released on the iTunes Store on February 17, 2009, at a price of $19.99. It's expected to sell well, but it actually becomes the top selling game on iTunes for several weeks, even outpacing digital sales of Endotherm 2 during the same time period. Reviews are stellar, calling the game a cross-genre revelation, a brilliant subversion of the typical platformer, and featuring a highly creative and original narrative, ultimately garnering even higher praise than Braid got IOTL. The game is also praised for its use of the iTwin's motion controls, which make the puzzle gameplay a lot more intuitive. While the game can absolutely be played quite well with the original controller, Blow designed a motion control scheme that is described by reviewers as "perfect", giving the player an almost conductor-like feel as they move through the game's puzzle segments. The game would not only be considered one of the best digital download titles of all time, it's seen by many as a possible Game of the Year contender in what's expected to be a highly stacked year. The overshadowing of Endotherm 2 by Eclectic is something no one expected going into February of 2009, but in the eyes of many, it signals the start of a new era in gaming, where indie developers have the potential to create titles that outperform the big studio games on a major level. It's a trend we also saw IOTL, but ITTL, Apple looks to be at the epicenter of that trend.

 

[RySenkari]

Jon Huntsman, Jr., the 44th President of the United States, was sworn into office at noon on January 20, 2009. He was immediately confronted with one of the worst economic crises the country had faced in over a century, and it was now his job, and the job of the overwhelming Republican majority Congress, to right the ship. Huntsman, of course, wouldn't be doing things alone. His vice president, former entertainer and California congressman Sonny Bono, agreed with Huntsman on a number of key issues, and would be an important partner to him over the next four years. Huntsman would begin appointing his cabinet as soon as he took office, and wouldn't have trouble getting his choices confirmed. Colin Powell, a former four star general, would be picked as Huntsman's Secretary of State, while Rob Portman of Ohio would serve as Huntsman's Treasury Secretary. Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney would be tapped to head the Department of Commerce, while New Hampshire's Kelly Ayotte would be picked to serve as the new Attorney General. Perhaps Huntsman's most popular pick would be his choice for Secretary of Defense: former presidential candidate John McCain, who remained one of the most beloved members of the Senate. While his sometimes hawkish views might have seemed out of place for a non-interventionist like Huntsman, Huntsman and McCain were both strongly against the use of torture on terrorism suspects, and Huntsman said that he needed a fighter like McCain to counter his more passive personality. The Democratic response to Huntsman's election was more quiet resignation than anger: clearly, the country wasn't very excited about Democrats at the moment, and Gore's failure to correct the economic problems facing America had depressed turnout on the left. While many Democrats promised to oppose Huntsman's agenda in any way that they could, a sizable number of them were resigned to the fact that Huntsman would be able to carry out his agenda pretty much unopposed, save for the Democrats' filibuster power in the Senate, which too would be limited by the fact that Penn Jillette was the swing vote on a number of issues. Democrats did have a flicker of hope due to Huntsman appointing a number of Republican senators to his Cabinet, and would be rallying themselves as best they could to support Democratic candidates in the special elections that would be taking place over the next couple of years.

Huntsman's plan to turn around the economy was, at first, to continue his promised policy of non-intervention: let failing companies fail and let the economy correct itself. Huntsman made his case to the American people that 16 years of Democratic control of the White House had created too many regulations, too much taxation, and too many obstacle for business owners to overcome. He planned to lower taxes and cut regulations and encourage hiring and investment, which would restore consumer confidence and bring back the lost jobs. At first, Huntsman's election did stimulate the markets, with the Dow Jones increasing by 15% in the weeks after his election. Wall Street was excited: with Huntsman in office, many investors expected corporate and capital gains taxes to be slashed dramatically, putting more money in their portfolios and encouraging more investment in general. However, as the holiday season saw a major downturn in consumer spending, more companies went bankrupt, and more people lost their jobs, the stock indices underwent a correction, and much of that 15% gain was lost. The Dow Jones was hovering around 7,500 when Huntsman took the oath of office, and over the next few weeks, it went up and down fairly wildly, but trended downward. GM and Chrysler both announced bankruptcies, and Ford was on the brink of doing so, threatening millions of American blue collar jobs. Even companies like Amazon and Walmart saw their stock prices drop, though their companies would clearly weather the storm. Still, Huntsman's first month in office saw little confidence restored in the economy, and the country seemed on the verge of panic.

Lost in the shuffle of the economic turmoil were the other components of the Huntsman agenda. Jon Huntsman knew that illegal immigration was a subject of increasing concern. Under the Gore administration, deportations had increased, though this was less a product of Gore's own personal political philosophy and more a symbol of the post-9/11 world and the birth of the Department of Homeland Security. Gore himself had supported a path to citizenship for those immigrants who had come to the United States illegally but who had made reasonable contributions to the country during their time there, though he also supported increased scrutiny for undocumented immigrants and more deportation sweeps, particularly targeting those who had overstayed their visas (which some of the 9/11 hijackers had done). In general, illegal immigration levels remained steady throughout the 90s and 2000s, and had actually tapered off a bit during the previous two years, likely due to America's growing economic instability. As for Huntsman, while he promised to increase immigration enforcement (a promise he had made numerous times to his Republican base during the campaign), he also had a grand vision for an America that would be far more accepting of immigrants in general. He began to draft, with the help of some of his political advisers, a sweeping immigration reform bill that would ramp up immigration enforcement and deportations but would also gradually but significantly increase the number of immigrants the United States would be willing to accept, including so-called “low skilled” immigrants. However, Huntsman also recognized that the ongoing economic turmoil would make working class voters reluctant to support any bill that would increase the number of immigrants coming into the country, and put his plan on the backburner until he could get the economic situation under control.

In general, despite the ongoing economic situation, Huntsman remained quite popular during his first 30 days in office. In fact, his approval ratings increased a few percentage points during that time, as a sign of the continued optimism that Americans had toward Huntsman during his initial “honeymoon” period.

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Katie Couric: Now onto a topic from international news, and this is something that many people have wondered for a long time: what if there were a bridge between Spain and Morocco? The so-called “Gibraltar Bridge” project has long remained a subject of fiction, but now, despite a worldwide economic downturn, the two countries are having the first truly serious talks about such a crossing, though it may not take the form of a bridge, but instead a tunnel, like the Channel Tunnel connecting France with Great Britain. Our Lester Holt reports from Spain tonight with some of the details, possibly coming to a strait near you.

*A video is shown of the Strait of Gibraltar.*

Lester Holt (narration): It's barely nine miles across, so narrow you can easily stand at the end of one continent...

*Holt is shown now in Gibraltar, looking across the strait toward Morocco.*

Holt: And see another. And that tantalizing view has led visionaries and dreamers alike to consider the idea of a way to bridge the two continents together. Now, officials from Spain and Morocco are having discussions about the idea, and, if they agree, a span across the continents could become a reality as early as 2021.

*Holt is seen walking with a Spanish government official in Madrid, discussing the Gibraltar crossing.*

Holt (narration): Edgardo Galvez is a member of the Cortes Generales, who says that a Gibraltar tunnel similar to the one spanning the English Channel is not only possible, it would be beneficial to both Spain and Morocco.

Galvez: The traffic that could be brought across the bridge, the freight, the commerce, it would be a major economic benefit to Spain.

Holt: And one that you think would overcome the billions of dollars in potential costs?

Galvez: It would pay for itself in due time, I think.

Holt: Right now, it's just in the discussion phase. No deals have been made, but plans have been drawn up, and you're exploring engineering possibilities as we speak?

Galvez: That is correct.

Holt: And you're in direct contact with officials from the Moroccan government?

Galvez: At this point, we meet to discuss this at least once a week. We are in the serious discussion phase at this point.

Holt (narration): The idea of a Gibraltar crossing has been the subject of centuries of discussion. Philosophers, authors, and government leaders for generations have mused about the idea of a great bridge spanning the two continents. Recently, the construction of the Chunnel in Europe stimulated brief discussion concerning a similar tunnel crossing the Gibraltar, but talks largely stalled until 2004, when the new majority party of Spain began to seriously consider the idea again. When Moroccan officials seemed receptive as well, the talks gradually became more serious, until in late 2007, a series of concepts for both a bridge and a tunnel were released to the public as part of Spain's “21st Century Development Initiative”. Despite the worldwide economic downturn, many in Spain remained supportive of the plan, and now talks appear to be entering a more serious phase.

Galvez: It is possible that we could see a concrete agreement by the end of the year.

Holt: And in that case, construction might begin as early as 2010?

Galvez: It's important, of course, not to get ahead of ourselves. There are many here in Spain who want to see this tunnel built. But there are many who do not, and there is the economic situation to consider. Right now, it's still in the discussion phase. But it's probably closer now to being a reality than it's ever been.

-from the February 12, 2009 episode of the NBC Nightly News

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As economic conditions worsened, numerous Republican legislators and even some of Huntsman's own advisors began to subtly encourage the president to agree to sign a bailout bill. Huntsman was initially staunchly against such a bill, but as the Dow Jones began another steady lowering trend, and began to dip closer to 6,000, even he realized that a policy of complete non-intervention would cause a major problem. Numerous banks and industries needed to be kept afloat, in order to preserve middle and working class jobs and the general purchasing power of the average American. Huntsman even started to consider the idea of a consumer stimulus, which would result in an increased tax refund in 2009. Republicans and Democrats in Congress started to work together on an omnibus bill that would be pushed to the president's desk sometime in March. Congressional Democrats found themselves wielding a bit more power than would be expected considering they comprised only a third of the House and two-fifths of the Senate, since they ended up largely being the “swing vote” between pro and anti-bailout Republicans. Democrats were the ones largely pushing for the consumer bailout, and while pro-bailout Republicans were initially against it, wanting to limit the bailout only to businesses and banks, they realized that they wouldn't have enough votes to pass the bill without limited Democratic support. Meanwhile, in the Senate, Penn Jillette started to wield his political muscle, coming out strongly against any bailout and threatening to filibuster if a bill were proposed. Huntsman, who was also against the bailout but also didn't want to antagonize half of his own party, called Jillette in for a private meeting and told him that Republicans were planning on labeling him as “the man who killed the American auto industry” if he filibustered the bailout. Jillette eventually relented, agreeing not to filibuster (but still coming out publicly against the bill) and Congress would end up passing a $500 billion bailout bill targeted at numerous businesses and banks, including the big three American auto companies and floundering banks such as Wells Fargo which were hanging on by a thread. The bill also included a tax refund stimulus component that would add a few hundred extra dollars into the tax refunds of most working Americans. The passing of the bill led to the then-largest single-day gain in the Dow Jones Industrial Average, nearly a thousand points, and would, at least for a time, bring a bit of relief to the struggling economy. Though Huntsman had initially opposed the bill, he would get most of the credit for its passing, and his approval numbers would continue to rise, topping 70 percent by April. Democrats would criticize Huntsman sharply for this, with one Democratic senator comparing Huntsman to “a magician who chains up his assistant and dangles her in a tank full of sharks until the very last moment, when suddenly he waves his magic wand and sets her free and the audience claps for him, forgetting that he's the one who put her in the shark tank to begin with!” Penn Jillette would take offense to the comparison, saying in an interview that Huntsman would be a “shitty magician”, and though it would be taken mostly in jest, with most of the controversy stemming from Jillette's language rather than the actual insult, it would be the first sign of a growing rift between the two.

Another major item on Huntsman's agenda around this time was his plan for health care, which he discussed during the campaign. He had promised to make health care cheaper and more affordable for all Americans, and now that he was in office, he planned to make good on that promise. The plan had two major components. First, Huntsman would push to allow people to purchase health insurance across state lines, which he said would “eliminate the monopolies that allow insurance companies to artificially raise prices and limit their competition”. The second component would be a mandate for all Americans to purchase health insurance or pay a fine. This plan, which had been implemented in Massachusetts by Mitt Romney, had been proposed to Huntsman by Romney during Romney's initial discussions to join Huntsman's cabinet. Huntsman was opposed at first to the idea of forcing Americans to purchase health insurance, but Romney persuaded him to adopt the plan, stating that it would ensure that all Americans “had skin in the game”, and would reduce the so-called free rider problem of healthy people opting out of health insurance and driving up prices for sick or older people. Huntsman eventually agreed to the plan, which would include a mandate for all insurance companies to offer high risk pools to people with pre-existing conditions. Huntsman knew that the idea of forcing certain people into high risk pools would be unpopular (and that many of them would simply pay the fine, which would be far less than the cost of their insurance), so he proposed a plan to expand Medicare to pay the difference between the high risk pool and the cost of a normal health insurance plan. This Medicare expansion, Huntsman said, would be paid for by shrinking other government programs to cover the cost. Huntsman and Congressional Republicans began to release the details of this health care proposal in late March, and while most Republicans would support the plan, many Democrats would oppose it, including Senator Barack Obama, who would state in the Senate that “forcing people to buy health insurance wouldn't help people save money on health care, it would just be a major handout to the already bloated health insurance industry”. The plan's detractors would start to call the plan “Romneycare”, after the man they knew to be its architect, Secretary of Commerce Mitt Romney (they would've called it “Huntsmancare”, but “Romneycare” rolled off the tongue better, and Romney was somewhat more unpopular than Huntsman). The fight over health care would begin in earnest in the spring, and would last throughout 2009.

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@kurtcobain: Oh shit no

-a tweet posted by Kurt Cobain on his feed at 9:15 AM on February 27, 2009

@kurtcobain: Billie Joe, you will be missed, buddy. You were too damn young to die. 1972-2009 RIP

-a tweet posted by Kurt Cobain on his feed at 9:17 AM on February 27, 2009

@kurtcobain: Also if any of you guys following me want to judge him because he used, then unfollow me because you don't know what the fuck you're talking about

-a tweet posted by Kurt Cobain on his feed at 9:18 AM on February 27, 2009

Green Day Frontman Billie Joe Armstrong Found Dead In His Home

Billie Joe Armstrong, lead singer for the band Green Day, was found dead this morning at his Los Angeles home. He was discovered by his bandmate Tre Cool at 7:59 AM local time, and though paramedics were called, he had been dead for several hours by the time they arrived. Police believed that Armstrong died from a combination of alcohol and prescription drugs, and that the overdose was likely unintentional, though a toxicology report to confirm the cause of death will be performed in the next few days. Green Day had seen success in the 1990s due to the success of albums such as Dookie and Nimrod, creating a major splash in the growing alternative rock scene. However, the band struggled to replicate their success in the 2000s, and numerous rehab stints for Armstrong contributed to the band's failure to produce any new studio albums. A few new songs were produced since 2003, and production on a new studio album was underway at the time of Armstrong's death.

Armstrong's death has already generated an outpouring of grief from fellow musicians and entertainers. Nirvana's Kurt Cobain was one of the first to comment publicly on Armstrong's death following the announcement, and expressed his grief in a series of tweets, while also decrying those who criticized Armstrong due to his history of drug abuse. Former Nirvana members and Foo Fighters founders Dave Grohl and Krist Novoselic also expressed their grief over Armstrong's death, and other modern rock luminaries such as Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder gave their well wishes to Armstrong's friends and family. Even musicians from outside the rock genre, such as Latin pop superstar Selena, expressed their own sympathy toward Armstrong and his loved ones. Selena stated in a post on her official Friendster account that: “Billie Joe Armstrong was a beautiful, sensitive soul and an innovator in modern rock music. My husband and I both enjoyed listening to him perform, and we would like to express our deepest sympathies to his loved ones during this time of immense heartbreak.”

-from a Yahoo! News article posted on February 27, 2009

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Colombia, Venezuela Agree To Ceasefire Before Upcoming Meeting With President Huntsman

Leaders of Colombia and Venezuela have agreed to a ceasefire in their ongoing conflict as they enter into tentative peace talks moderated by American Secretary of State Colin Powell and President Jon Huntsman. Huntsman and Powell have orchestrated the summit amidst continued border skirmishing between the two countries that has so far led to more than a thousand military deaths on both sides. Though no aerial bombing has taken place, and so far no civilians have been targeted, the war between the two Latin American countries has grown increasingly violent in the past few months, with pitched battles on both sides of the border. The conflict has also caused significant economic turmoil due to the disruption of Venezuelan oil exports to Western countries. Huntsman began negotiations with both countries in February, and despite initial sharp rhetoric directed at Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez, his tone toward the leader has softened in recent days. Chavez, who previously publicly referred to the American president as a “capitalist pig” and “imperial warlord” in public statements, has also softened his tone considerably, recently referring to Huntsman as a “potential partner in the peace process with whom I disagree considerably on economic matters but who I see as someone who shares my desire for peace in the region”. Huntsman has also expressed his disagreement with Chavez on economic philosophy but has referred to him in recent days as “reasonable” and “a potential future friend to the United States”. The peace talks will take place next month in Miami, Florida, and until then, both countries have agreed to a complete ceasefire, withdrawing their troops from each other's borders and releasing all captured prisoners. It's a major step toward peace, but forging an agreement between the two nations will still be tricky, with bad blood still boiling on both sides. If Huntsman can successfully forge a peace agreement, it will be the first major foreign policy victory of his presidency and will likely lead to further progress at solving the current economic crisis, which has been driven in part by high consumer prices caused by steep oil prices.

-from a Yahoo! News article posted on March 14, 2009

 

[RySenkari]

Dasho: A Young Man's Story

Dasho: A Young Man's Story is an open world brawler game exclusive to the Apple iTwin. Developed by a small Japanese studio and published by Apple, the game is similar in some ways to games like Final Fight, Shenmue, and the Yakuza series. It takes place entirely within a single large Japanese city, and its protagonist, Dasho, is able to perform a number of tasks within that city as he attempts to solve the mystery of his kidnapped girlfriend. The city's time structure is much more flexible than Shenmue, and overall, the game's events progress at a faster pace. There's not so much emphasis on everyday life, but instead, there's a heavy focus on fighting, brawling, and combat. In fact, Dasho's most distinct element is its fighting system, which incorporates a number of fighting styles and martial arts disciplines, and has hundreds of combos that the player can learn and use. There's also a wide variety of enemies, many of whom also have their own distinct fighting styles. During fights, a life bar will appear in the upper left corner of the screen, while the life bars of any enemies Dasho is fighting will appear on the upper right, with combat very much like that of a modern 3-D fighting game. The player can level up a number of Dasho's attributes, including his overall health and his punching, kicking, and throwing strength. This will allow Dasho to engage more and stronger enemies and take on more difficult missions. Experience points are literally earned with every blow Dasho takes and every blow that he blocks or dodges, meaning that every fight can potentially lead to level gains. Dasho can also equip up to four accessories on his person. These accessories, and the outfits he wears, can be used to change his appearance. Dasho's appearance can effect where he is able to go and how people treat him, and the ability to equip a disguise on Dasho is very important to certain missions in the game. As mentioned before, the "virtual life" aspect of the game isn't as important as it is in games like Shenmue, but the player is able to give Dasho a sort of normal home outside of his underground activities and fighting: it's possible to adopt a dog in-game, and players can buy furniture and other amenities to decorate Dasho's apartment (or house, which can be purchased later on), making the player feel more involved in Dasho's story. The iTwin's motion controls aren't used to great effect, but the player can use the controllers to execute punches, kicks, and combos, and it can be fun to play the game with them, though most players prefer a traditional control scheme. The game's graphics are fairly typical for an iTwin game: nothing that really pushes the system, with good character details and decent looking buildings and backgrounds. The game's soundtrack is an interesting mix of original instrumentals and contemporary Japanese pop and rock music that can be heard on the in-game radios (though Dasho doesn't drive very often unless the player really feels like doing so, there are plenty of stand-alone radios lying around). The game was given somewhat of a strong localization, with a number of well known contemporary voice actors. Johnny Yong Bosch was hired on to play the voice of Dasho, and Jennifer Tung plays the voice of Asumi, Dasho's love interest, in the only major video game voice role she'll be known for outside of Marina in Thrillseekers. George Takei voices the game's main villain, an elderly gang leader named Boss Kandagawa, and his voice performance is the most widely praised by critics.

Dasho Honura is a 20-year-old delivery boy who aspires to be a salaryman. He has become an expert in many forms of martial arts largely as a hobby and in order to stay in shape, as he's been working deliveries since he was very young and he needs the stamina to travel quickly around the city. He's in love with his girlfriend Asumi, a college student and aspiring veterinarian, who Dasho plans to propose to. However, his delivery routes have brought him into contact with some shady characters, and after Dasho inadvertently offends a high-ranking gang member, he is targeted for revenge. They are unable to get to Dasho, but they grab Asumi as she is going to the restaurant where Dasho was going to propose to her, then they send Dasho a message that he will not be touched but that he will never see Asumi again. Dasho resolves to find Asumi, and soon becomes involved in a gang himself, whose leader, a fierce but honorable man named Tatsu (voiced by Harry Shum Jr.) promises that he can help Dasho find out what happened to Asumi if Dasho agrees to intimidate some people who owe him money. Gradually, Dasho becomes more and more involved in the criminal underworld, and learns what has happened to Asumi: she has been sold into prostitution, working in an organization that answers to the powerful Boss Kandagawa. After Dasho learns of Asumi's fate, we begin to see occasional cutscenes showing what Asumi is up to. Asumi is subject to some very brutal treatment, but she doesn't take it lying down. She knows that Dasho is probably not coming to save her (not that she doesn't believe he would, but that the Dasho she knows probably won't ever be able to find her), and so she begins to formulate her own plans to escape. As Asumi tries her best to survive, Dasho rises further and further up the ranks, with his first target being Asumi's kidnappers, and after that, the man who ordered her taken, a hedonistic young ganglord named Okaburo (voiced by Gaku Space). Dasho's climactic battle with Okaburo comes about halfway through the main story, and it leaves Dasho with few answers and a great deal of angst. Dasho's defeat of Okaburo attracts the attention of Boss Kandagawa, and a short time later, Dasho is able to find and raid the place where Asumi is being kept prisoner, only to learn that Asumi escaped, having killed a guard and a fellow captive who threatened to tell the boss she was escaping. Dasho tries to fight his way out, but is captured, at the same time that Asumi finds herself recaptured. Boss Kandagawa shows up, and Asumi is brought before Dasho, who has been severely beaten. Kandagawa is about to kill Asumi before he learns that she is the most lucrative girl in his possession. He instead brutally scars Asumi in front of Dasho, and then orders Dasho to be killed as Asumi is dragged away. Dasho is saved by Tatsu, who owed him a favor (and who always repays his favors). Dasho resolves to kill Kandagawa and find Asumi. Soon after these events, Tatsu is killed saving Dasho's life yet again (Tatsu at least gives Dasho a smile in his final words and tells him that now he owes him one). The remainder of the game consists of Dasho committing more and more violent acts just to get to Asumi, staining his hands deep with blood, while Asumi continues to suffer horrors in Kandagawa's captivity. She finally resolves to escape even if she dies in the process, but is captured yet again by Kandagawa, who decides to personally have his way with her before killing her. Only Dasho's timely arrival saves her from this, distracting Kandagawa long enough for Asumi to get his knife and stab him in the stomach. Despite being stabbed, Kandagawa is still able to knock Asumi unconscious before grabbing a samurai sword and attacking Dasho. This final boss fight is brutal: Dasho clearly outmatches the injured and elderly gang leader, but Kandagawa has a sword and knows how to use it, and if the player isn't careful, Kandagawa can cut them for massive damage. Eventually, Dasho prevails, and goes to Asumi's side. However, even though he loves Asumi, he can't bear to even speak to her because of all the horrible things he's done. Asumi, who has both done and endured horrible things in her captivity, tells Dasho that both of them are broken now, and that she just wants to be with him. However, as Dasho is holding Asumi in his arms, Kandagawa's surviving men rush into the room and shoot Dasho. Dasho throws himself into them, knocking a gun loose from one of their hands, but they continue to shoot him and he collapses to the floor. Asumi picks up the discarded gun and kills the three attackers, before collapsing atop the wounded Dasho as he chokes out his last words to her. She sobs and cradles him in her arms as police sirens sound. The next we see of Asumi, she's in a police station, giving testimony to the police about the remaining members of Kandagawa's gang. She walks out of the police station dressed all in black, and goes to the place where she and Dasho were to meet the night she was taken. She lays flowers in front of the restaurant while speaking in narration about how brave Dasho was and that while he died before he could forgive himself, she wants him to know that there was never anything to forgive.

Dasho: A Young Man's Story is released in March 2009, to excellent critical reviews. The reviews praise the game's combat system, its localization, and its dark, uncompromising story, which many compare to 2007's The Life And Death Of A Renegade. A few reviewers and players do take issue with Dasho's fate and the game's overall dark tone, noting that most games in the beat 'em up genre don't have such tragic storylines. However, the game's praise largely stems from the fact that it appears as an exclusive for a system which is still seen as being slightly skewed toward younger players. While Dasho doesn't silence those criticisms entirely, it does give older iTwin players yet another game to enjoy. Sales are solid, not stellar, but still enough for the game to be considered a success and one of the iTwin's most commercially successful titles of the first quarter of 2009, and one of its most popular in general of the entire year. The game also has the effect of silencing some of the criticisms toward Apple at the time that accuse the company of neglecting its Japanese software developers. Indeed, Dasho was created by a Japanese studio that Apple had scouted and funded, and was explicitly created as an attempt to bring more Japanese fans and Japanese gamemakers into the fold. While a majority of the new developers that Apple has hired and supported to make iTwin games are still Americans, the company has been aggressively pursuing young Japanese talent as well. Still, the company continues to receive some criticism for ignoring its old Japanese guard, most notably Yu Suzuki. The success of Dasho does briefly mask those criticisms, but doesn't eliminate them entirely, and it would continue to be a topic of hot conversation in the gaming media throughout the remainder of the year.

 

[RySenkari]

Silent Hill

Silent Hill is a handheld title for the Game Boy Supernova and iPod Play. Like previous games in the series, it's a survivor horror game that focuses heavily on psychological horror and takes place in and around the mysterious town of Silent Hill. The game represents Konami's attempt to bring a console-like Silent Hill experience to modern handhelds, and features almost identical gameplay to 2007's Silent Hill: Decay. Its storyline can be somewhat compared to OTL's Silent Hill: Origins, as it takes place before the events of the original game and features a protagonist (named Len Alpers) in search of a young missing girl. Its gameplay centers around puzzles and exploration, with the occasional spot of combat in which Len must use a melee weapon or firearm to kill something. The game features a number of cameos from OTL's original Silent Hill game, with Cybil and Alessa making guest appearances and Cybil playing a major role toward the end of the game. About halfway through, Len discovers that he has strange psychic powers that he can use to manipulate objects or to harm apparitions, and the player will be using these powers a number of times throughout the game. The manifestations of these powers change as the game goes on, forcing the player to adapt to whatever situation the game puts them in. The town of Silent Hill is intact and functional in this game, and much of the town is a fairly pleasant place, though this makes it only more jarring when the supernatural manifestations of the Other World present themselves to Len, sometimes in plain sight. The game's graphics are definitely comparable to Silent Hill: Decay, especially the Wave version, whose engine was used as the basis for this game. Like other iPod Play games of the time, the iPhone version has advanced touch features and enhanced graphics that make the game look even better than the Supernova version, though the game is perfectly playable on the iPod Play without any of those extra features, and the graphics look just fine on the iPod Play as well, fairly identical to the Supernova version of the game. The plot begins when Len encounters Alessa and notices that her parents aren't around, making him think back to his own parents who he believes abandoned him as a young boy. While trying to help Alessa find her parents, Len leaves her for just a moment and hears her scream, then when he returns, she's gone. This sets him on his quest to find and rescue her, with Cybil being the only police officer who believes his story. As Len journeys through the town, he begins to see strange supernatural events, most of them very traumatic. He gets visions and illusions of his parents, similar to those Travis had in OTL's Origins, and though Cybil doesn't notice any of the supernatural events, she continues to believe him and she's actually the one who discovers Alessa, who is about to be killed in a strange occult ritual. Cybil kills one of the cultists and saves Alessa, but the rest of them escape, forcing Len to give pursuit while Cybil takes care of Alessa. Len's pursuit of the cultists eventually leads him into the forest, where he is forced to confront the circumstances that led to his parents abandoning him, battle the cult leader, and deal with the knowledge of what Alessa is to become someday. Meanwhile, the seeds are planted for Cybil's manipulation by Alessa in the original Silent Hill, as Alessa's strange powers begin to take shape. As it turns out, Alessa gave Len a piece of her powers inadvertently, and this gave him the mysterious abilities and the visions he experienced throughout the game. Len finishes off the cultists, but even though he knows the truth about Alessa, he can't bring himself to harm her (it's implied that Alessa manipulates him into "forgetting" what she really is). Now that Alessa is safe, Len leaves the town, with Alessa having taken back the power she gave him (except, it's implied, for one small piece that lays dormant within him). The game also features three other endings, including a bad ending in which Len is killed, a "time paradox" ending in which Len and Cybil kill Alessa, and a joke ending involving the traditional Silent Hill UFO.

Silent Hill is regarded as one of the better handheld horror games of its generation, and an excellent follow-up to Decay. It explains a number of events that took place in the original game, while returning to the classic Silent Hill horror tropes that fans know and love. It's probably the best reviewed game in the series since Silent Hill 2, and it sets things up nicely for the upcoming console game by planting a few storyline seeds for it. Fans are enthusiastic that after several years of radio silence on the series, it's gotten two quality games and things are looking quite nice for a third in this generation.

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"So when we came back to make Decay," said Toyama through a translator, "we were put on a fairly tight leash, which was a bit disheartening. That game had gone through a lot of re-writes and re-imaginings since being moved from last generation consoles to the newer consoles, and so Konami didn't want to devote a huge amount of time and resources to a game that might not have been a success. But with End Times, we've got considerably more freedom to really push the consoles and push ourselves creatively."

Team Silent has been working practically non-stop on Silent Hill: End Times since production ended on the handheld game. The attention to detail truly shows in how lovingly the town has been re-created, and the graphical quality far exceeds that in Decay, even though the two games were largely designed for the same consoles.

"We had to make Decay in such a way that it would look almost as good on the Nintendo Wave, but with End Times, it's exclusively a next generation game. So we are really going to try and push those consoles hard."

Silent Hill: End Times has already been announced for the Nintendo Sapphire and Apple iTwin. An Xbox 2 port hasn't yet been announced, and Team Silent told us that they have no idea if there will be one. Keiichiro Toyoma has been quite impressed with Nintendo's new system, both from a graphical power standpoint and a programming standpoint. He told us that while the iTwin is a good system and End Times will play quite well on it, if it were up to him, he might want the game to be exclusive to the Sapphire.

"Nothing against Apple, but the Sapphire is more capable of producing the type of game we want End Times to be."

And the type of game that Silent Hill: End Times is going to be is different from any game that's been released in the series before. There will be no combat in the game. Its protagonist will need to use her wits and her speed alone to escape from anything that might try to kill her, because she won't be able to fight back.

"We feel it's a lot scarier when you can't fight back against what's attacking you," said Toyoma. "And probably a lot more realistic too! Most things in life that can kill you, you can't fight them. So it only makes sense that that's the case here."

Toyama admits inspiration from recent games like The Lobotomized, which really, in his words, "changed the formula for horror games in a way that can't be undone". The influence of that game influenced the open-world style of End Times, in which Marie can explore most of the town right from the get-go. The no combat aspect of the game also helped with the decision, as it means that the player won't be expected to "level up" or acquire more items.

"Anything can kill you in this game, so it makes no sense to gate the player."

Instead, End Times will trap Marie in certain areas once she's entered a situation in which she's in danger. This, which Toyoma hopes will give the player a realization of the danger they're in, is another element that Team Silent plans to use to ramp up tension in their game.

"One moment you're exploring freely, and the next, oh no, you're trapped. Now you have to figure out a way out. Maybe there's no way out, hmm?"

Toyoma laughed after saying those words, a very long and somewhat sinister laugh. We laughed with him, a bit nervously, and realized just how terrifying Team Silent hopes their new game will be.

-from March 2009's GameInformer cover article, revealing Silent Hill: End Times