Insert another credit, because it’s time for your weekly video game news and you’ve just hit the Game Overview screen.
I’ve talked about how dedicated Capcom is to the old-school aesthetic of Mega Man 9, but just how dedicated are they? Below is the “boxart” for the DLC game:
If you remember back to my 8-Bit All-Stars post, you might remember me talking about the Mega Man 2 boxart as being nonsensical for the anime-cutesy style of the game. This is such a return to the old school that it makes me kind of pumped for this game.
I know I said I’d have E3 updates as exciting things happened, but I’ve failed to see much that excited me in this show. That being said, I will close off with a particular trailer that does pique my interest:
Yoshinori Kitase has huge shoes to fill. As the producer of Final Fantasy XIII he’s looking at doing a job last held by Horonobu Sakaguchi in Final Fantasy X. Ok, Sakachuchi was technically the executive producer of that game, but with no other producers announced for XIII, I’m gonna come out and call him the EP.
Kitase had this to say (in this IGN article) about the new game and directions they’re taking:
Kitase spoke about carrying the Final Fantasy torch and commented on how this game will be unique, yet familiar. “In the grand scheme of things, Final Fantasy XIII is probably very different and new from anything you’ve seen in the series before. But, everybody on the team has played XII and the previous titles and there is an unseen connection there among the series.” He then went on to tell a story about a conversation with Hironobu Sakaguchi, creator of the Final Fantasy series. In it he asked Sakaguchi about what makes a Final Fantasy game a Final Fantasy game. Jokingly, Sakaguchi told him that as long as you have white text on a blue background, you should be fine. Final Fantasy XIII doesn’t have that, but Kitase says it’s still a continuation.
As funny as it is to mention the blue background thing, I think that a new direction is not a bad idea. FF games have, quite frankly, been getting a little stale for me of late. I worry a bit about XIII since its director is the same one from X-2 (Motomu Toriyama), but I’d like to see them stray.
One of the other cool things about the game was the mention of a different cast take with the character code-named Lightning. She supposedly is going to resist forming a party and try to be a loner. Hopefully she’s not a female version of one of those emo Squeenix protagonists, but it’s good to see that they won’t be partying from the get-go.
There’s one huge fact about the Xbox 360 avatar system that makes me want to tell Microsoft to shove it: having to pay for stuff to outfit your avatar. Not content with milking money from users in every other way, Microsoft has decided that avatar customization will not be a free affair. What utter crap.
E3 started yesterday and the amazing Rock Band 2 tracklist was announced in a press conference. I could gush about a ton of these songs in massive detail, but instead I’ll just post the list and let the tracks speak for themselves (list borrowed from this IGN article):
# Artists Song Title Decade
1. AC/DC Let There Be Rock 1970s
2. AFI Girl’s Gone Grey 2000s
3. Alanis Morissette You Oughta Know 1990s
4. Alice in Chains Man in the Box 1990s
5. Allman Brothers Ramblin’ Man 1970s
6. Avenged Sevenfold Almost Easy 2000s
7. Bad Company Shooting Star 1970s
8. Beastie Boys So Whatcha Want 1990s
9. Beck E-Pro 2000s
10. Bikini Kill Rebel Girl 1990s
11. Billy Idol White Wedding Pt. I 1980s
12. Blondie One Way or Another 1970s
13. Bob Dylan Tangled Up in Blue 1970s
14. Bon Jovi Livin’ on a Prayer 1980s
15. Cheap Trick Hello There 1970s
16. Devo Uncontrollable Urge 1980s
17. Dinosaur Jr. Feel the Pain 1990s
18. Disturbed Down with the Sickness 2000s
19. Dream Theater Panic Attack 2000s
20. Duran Duran Hungry Like the Wolf 1980s
21. Elvis Costello Pump It Up 1970s
22. Fleetwood Mac Go Your Own Way 1970s
23. Foo Fighters Everlong 1990s
24. Guns N’ Roses Shackler’s Revenge 2000s
25. Interpol PDA 2000s
26. Jane’s Addiction Mountain Song 1980s
27. Jethro Tull Aqualung 1970s
28. Jimmy Eat World The Middle 2000s
29. Joan Jett Bad Reputation 1980s
30. Journey Anyway You Want It 1970s
31. Judas Priest Painkiller 1990s
32. Kansas Carry On Wayward Son 1970s
33. L7 Pretend We’re Dead 1990s
34. Lacuna Coil Our Truth 2000s
35. Linkin Park One Step Closer 2000s
36. Lit My Own Worst Enemy 1990s
37. Lush De-Luxe 1990s
38. Mastodon Colony of Birchmen 2000s
39. Megadeth Peace Sells 1980s
40. Metallica Battery 1980s
41. Mighty Mighty Bosstones Where’d You Go 1990s
42. Modest Mouse Float On 2000s
43. Motorhead Ace of Spades 1980s
44. Nirvana Drain You 1990s
45. Norman Greenbaum Spirit in the Sky 1960s
46. Panic at the Disco Nine in the Afternoon 2000s
47. Paramore That’s What You Get 2000s
48. Pearl Jam Alive 1990s
49. Presidents of the USA Lump 1990s
50. Rage Against the Machine Testify 1990s
51. Ratt Round & Round 1980s
52. Red Hot Chili Peppers Give it Away 1990s
53. Rise Against Give it All 2000s
54. Rush The Trees 1970s
55. Silversun Pickups Lazy Eye 2000s
56. Smashing Pumpkins Today 1990s
57. Social Distortion I Was Wrong 1990s
58. Sonic Youth Teenage Riot 1980s
59. Soundgarden Spoonman 1990s
60. Squeeze Cool for Cats 1970s
61. Steely Dan Bodhitsattya 1970s
62. Steve Miller Band Rock’n Me 1970s
63. Survivor Eye of the Tiger 1980s
64. System of a Down Chop Suey 2000s
65. Talking Heads Psycho Killer 1970s
66. Tenacious D Master Exploder 2000s
67. Testament Souls of Black 1990s
68. The Donnas New Kid in School 2000s
69. The Go-Go’s We Got the Beat 1980s
70. The Grateful Dead Alabama Getaway 1980s
71. The Guess Who American Woman 1970s
72. The Muffs Kids in America 1990s
73. The Offspring Come Out & Play (Keep ‘em Separated) 1990s
74. The Replacements Alex Chilton 1980s
75. The Who Pinball Wizard 1960s
Bonus Tracks
76. Abnormality Visions 2000s
77. Anarchy Club Get Clean 2000s
78. Bang Camaro Night Lies 2000s
79. Breaking Wheel Shoulder to the Plow 2000s
80. The Libyans Neighborhood 2000s
81. The Main Drag A Jagged Gorgeous Winter 2000s
82. Speck Conventional Lover 2000s
83. The Sterns Supreme Girl 2000s
84. That Handsome Devil Rob the Prez-O-Dent 2000s
I think I know at least one Jimmy Eat World fan who will be pumped about “The Middle” being on this list. One perplexing choice: Why pick “Where’d You Go?” by the Bosstones instead of “The Impression That I Get”? My guess, just trying to not be super mainstream, but if that’s the case, I hope this choice is much better. I can’t wait to FINALLY play some ska punk in a rhythm-music game.
Also cool in this announcement is that you’ll be able to export all of the Rock Band tracks to Rock Band 2 along with the cross-compatible DLC. The most megaton of the announcement is that Harmonix intended to have over 100 tracks in-game, but couldn’t finish in time. Players can expect a whopping twenty tracks as DLC for FREE soon after launch. Another great announcement is that the guitars will have a special photo sensor that will allow for automatic lag calibration for your TV, which is awesome. No more annoying calibration that doesn’t quite feel right. What a game this will be come September!
Stay tuned for more E3 announcements that I find interesting to be posted on this blog. I won’t necessarily be keeping to a one-a-day format for the duration of the show.
Insert another credit, because it’s time for your weekly video game news and you’ve just hit the Game Overview screen.
It’s that time of year again, E3 season. Come next week the nonsense will begin yet again in California, but in the same diminished capacity it showed up in last year. The relevance of the show was really tested last year with the new format which eschewed the old convention hall, complete with flashy lights, long lines, and booth babes in favor of smaller company-run events in separate hotels.
As you might have guessed, part of the problem with this new format is the lack of a centralized show floor. As crowded and hectic as the convention center was, it seems to be preferred to a much greater extent than driving around all over L.A. to make it to the various hotels and showrooms where each developer was showcasing their wares. Sure, you no longer were forced to wait an hour in line just to see a game, but now you had to wait in a car as you drove around to each show for an hour.
Another huge problem for the ESA and the continued existence of E3 has to do with all of the game companies dropping out of the association. Top among the companies no longer a part of the ESA is Activision Blizzard. It gets pretty tough to argue for the continued existence of a show that doesn’t include the largest publisher of video games in the world.
I’ve never actually been to an E3 show, despite wishing I could since I first learned about them. Even though the show has become far less important and the journalists are less interested in going, I still would like to see the show continue. I hope that this year is not as big a bust as last year’s show, because if it is, it could be the end of E3.
See More Mega Man 9 Box Art at IGN.com