• 30Apr 13

  When Dreams become a Reality (Operation Rainfall)

  Over a year ago, I was one of the many people who remember hearing about and seeing gameplay footage of Xenoblade Chronicles and thinking, "holy crap, this game needs to be brought to North America!" I hung on every bit of info having to do with Xenoblade Chronicles, during which I found a movement that seemed to want this game brought to North America just as bad as I did, and that was the folks at Operation Rainfall. Beyond filling me in on the latest localization news regarding Xenoblade, they also opened my eyes to two other fantastic looking games that were being released, The Last Story and Pandaora's Tower. Combined with Xenoblade, these games made up the original Operation Rainfall mission of having the three games localized in the United States and Canada. 

  

  I remember many ups and downs leading up to the localization announcement of each game, particularly Xenoblade since it was the title out of the original three games that I wanted the most. After various false starts and announcements from Nintendo that there was no interest in this game, as well as the other two games in North America, Xenoblade and soon after that, The Last Story were announced for release in the NTSC region. I was estatic and bought my copies of Xenoblade and The Last Story the day they came out. However, there was one very important piece missing; of course, I am referring to Pandora's Tower.

  

  Similar to my anticipation, doubts of it ever being localized, and severe desire to play Xenoblade and The Last Story, I wanted nothing more than to have Panora's Tower sitting next to the other two games that Operation Rainfall brought to North America through their commitment and efforts. Myself and everyone else who felt this way, finally got their wish last Tuesday with the official North American release of Pandora's Tower on the Wii. Unlike Xenoblade and The Last Story, I was unable to pick up Pandora's Tower on day one, but tonight my dreams became a reality when I finally bought the last of the original three games that Project Rainfall worked so hard to have localized. I purchased Pandora's Tower from a local video game store tonight (along with some Sega Genesis shmups) and could not wait to bring it home. As soon as I did, I grabbed my copy of Xenoblade Chronicles and The Last Story and placed them right next to Pandora's Tower, together in North American region for the first time. Staring at them together brought me great joy and it made me think how long waited for this moment, thinking about how awesome it would be. Well, the reality is better than the dream and now the only thing left to do is to pop Pandora's Tower in the ol'Wii and play this phenominal vidoe game

  • Posted Apr 30, 2013 7:34 pm GMT
  • Category: Games
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• 23Apr 13

  You can never have enough Resident Evil 2

  Like any obsessive video game collector would, I decided to go game hunting on my lunch break at work and hope to get lucky in my searches. I hit up a local "hotspot" of video game deals that I have been going to for about two-years now; among my many exploits from this place include $2 Ogre Battle 64, $5 Conker's Bad Fur Day, and $5 Fire Emblem Path of Radiance. If you are aware of what these games typically sell for, you are now completely aware why this place is so desirable for video game hunting. But anyhow, I was blessed with extreme fortune today when I stumbled upon a bunch of recently acquired Gamecube games, of them was the fairly uncommon Resident Evil 2 port for the system. 

  

  My eyes shot wide open and I snatched the copy up on almost pure instinct. Even compared to the probably more rare Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine for the N64 that I found on that same trip, the Gamecube RE2 seemed way more special and I was far more excited about it. When my brain started easing off giddy mode I remembered that while I was holding a version of RE2 I didn't own, I did in fact already own the game, three other versions of it to be exact. Yes, I already owned the PS1, N64 and Dreamcast releases of RE2, and having played all of these ports at least once I have come to the conclusion that RE2 kicks complete and total ass! 

  

  The Gamecube version's value and rarity aside, I debated a little as to whether I needed a fourth port of RE2, a game essentially the same as the other three versions I already had. However paying $5 on an otherwise $30 game I essentially couldn't go wrong. I bought RE2 along with the Indiana Jones game and a very cheap copy of Metroid Prime 3 on the Wii, and once I returned home that evening I popped my newly acquired gem of survival horror into my Gamecube and could not stop playing. I was instantly reminded why I got so excited when I saw RE2 stuffed in with those other Gamecube games and why I didn't mind buying a fourth copy of the game; RE2 is one of those timeless masterpieces of video game achievement that cannot be enjoyed enough. I am proud to own four different versions of RE2, and while I won't be hunting down the PC or games.com ports anytime soon or . . . ever (not saying the PC port is bad, PC gaming just hasn't been my thing since about 2001, but yeah, the games.com port is just awful) I am very happy and very content with having my four different ports of RE2

  • Posted Apr 23, 2013 10:42 pm GMT
  • Category: Games
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• 29Jan 13

  Are you F***ING kidding me!?!?!

  Today I received my Ni No Kuni player's guide off Amazon which I was very happy about. My girlfriend has already started the game and is probably 20-hours in already. With the guide came a free DLC code for the Gold Hurly familiar. While Gold Hurly is pretty cool, I thought I'd much rather see how much the DLC codes for him are selling on Ebay, possibly sell the code, and redeem the money I make for a DLC familiar I want more, Griffy.

  

  I first started by seeing how much people were selling the Gold Hurly code for and to my utter surprise, people were actually selling it, a DLC code for ONE familair, for $15 to $20! I was like, "Good God, what is wrong with people?!" Despite my objections to paying for DLC all together, I could somewhat understand a pack of 5+ familiars selling for that much, but just one. People in this world have truly lost their minds. However, I had absolutely no clue how insane people have become until I looked up how much the Griffy DLC code was going for.

  

  I typed in "Ni No Kuni Griffy" into the Ebay search bar, clicked on the completed listings button and HOLY F#$&ING SH!T, the f***ing code is selling for around $50 consistently; $50. . . FVCKING. . .DOLLARS . . . for one, just one, DLC character. This is digital insanity at its worst and just shows that people can be outragiously stupid when swept up in the hype of a new popular game. Whether it was going for $5 or $50, DLC and any form of digital distribution is legal theft on the devs part seeing how you are paying them real money and getting nothing of value in return, however just the shear insanity of how much people are willing to waste for a single character absolutely astounds me beyond belief. I've just decided to keep my Gold Hurly DLC code, I'm not going to contribute to this utter BS on Ebay.

  • Posted Jan 29, 2013 5:44 pm GMT
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