Tuesday, October 31, 2006

Peter Pumpkin Head XII

Hope you know your music to understand the title. Anyways, Happy Halloween and what better way to celebrate today (aside from going to the bar, like i will tonight :D) than watch some Cowboy Bebop Knockin' on Heaven's Door as well as playing some FFXII which I got this morning.



For hardcore FF fans, it was a no brainer to get the Collector's Edition since it houses the game and bonus DVD in a tin case. The case is beautiful as you can see as well as the inside art. Surprisingly the CE dropped in price today. Instead of being the original price of 69.99 CDN, it was dropped to 59.99 CDN (so 49.99 for the RE). So that was good news and made it more reasonable. There was also a Limited Edition Bradygames guide that contains an artbook and the strategy guide itself w/ 1 of 6 different covers. My EB didn't get the LE guide yet but had the regular guide (the fuck?), so i didn't get it. Now, i don't usually get strategy guides since i don't like using them (and you can get guides FREE @ gamefaqs). However, being the hardcore FF fan that i am, i WANT that artbook. Also, it's 20% off when you get the game and the guide is pretty thick (about 400 pages). So i'll probably be getting it tomorrow when it arrives since it seems somewhat worthy).

Oct. 31 1:20 PM edit: My EBgames just called me minutes after finishing this post. My LE strategy guide has arrived! However, i don't feel like driving out there AGAIN to pick it up today (though it's like a 5 min. drive :P...sue me...i'm lazee). I'll have shots up tomorrow along w/ Street Fighter Legends: Sakura issue 3, hopefully (as UDON is never on schedule w/ SF2 but they've been good w/ SFL:S).



For those who didn't ge the CE (you foo! jk ^^), here's what the bonus DVD (normal dvd not PS2 DVD, thus it'll run in any dvd player) contains:

The menu


Inside "Developer Interviews"


The History of FF is a 30 min. feature video detailing all the FFs from 1-11 (i wuv you VIII and VI)

Inside "Art Gallery" (so yeah, i probably don't need the artbook since it's all here, but no i want it on PRINT!)


here's some samples from the gallery


ouuu Ashe...looking hawt.


and you already know how much i love Fran from WAAAY back ;). Balthier/Balflear is DA MAN!


Promo Trailers menu



Since i'm lazy and have FFXII to occupy me for a bit. i'll refrain from posting many game news today aside from today's famitsu scores. IGN also made note of an update on FFXII Revenant Wings (DS) yesterday and posted 2 new Trauma Center Wii vids. There's much more news but i don't want to waste any more time.

Famitsu Scores, yeah baby PS3!:
Ridge Racer 7 (PS3, Bandai Namco): 9 / 9 / 9 / 9 - (36/40) - hawt
Genji: Kamui Souran (PS3, Sony): 7 / 7 / 7 / 8 - (29/40) - i knew this game would score meh, it looked to rush and didn't look like it would live up to the first game. So sad.
Resistance: Fall of Man (PS3, Sony): 9 / 8 / 8 / 8 - (33/40)
Sega Golfclub Featuring Miyazato Family (PS3, Sega): 7 / 7 / 7 / 7 - (28/40)
Mobile Suit Gundam: Target in Sight (PS3, Bandai Namco): 8 / 8 / 8 / 8 - (32/40)
Area 51 (PS2, Success): 7 / 7 / 6 / 7 - (27/40)
Mai-Kinoto Hime (PS2, Sunrise): 5 / 6 / 6 / 6 - (23/40) - another crap HiME game as i expected and foresaw. Still it won't stop me from enjoying on fan level but on my fighting game persona..."WTF is this CRAP?!"
I's Pure (PS2, Takara Tomy): 6 / 7 / 6 / 6 - (25/40)
Mezase! Shoujo Manga Ka! Chao Manga School (NDS, TDK): 5 / 6 / 6 / 5 - (22/40)
Black Jack: Hi no Tori Hen (NDS, Genki): 8 / 8 / 8 / 7 - (31/40)

So here's the gaming guru and HiME/ZHiME godfather signing off w/ some lovely ladies for my Halloween theme. Trick your Treats :P!

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Cool post Halloween post R8.I just got back from picking up my copy of FFXII with the LE guide. I have yet to open either one..because I know if I do I'm calling in sick @ work 2nite.lol

Anonymous said...

It's been a while since I last played a Final Fantasy game. I'm not sure about this new MMORPG-like battle system and I don't like the character designs that much. I might get it later because of the good reviews.

Anonymous said...

Bah, I kind of wish I was in the US so I could get the FFXII LE from EB. I'll have to make do with the regular edition (which, at least, got to me here in the UK today) I guess.

Not reallly suprising about the ZHiME games score, but no matter how bad it is it can't be worse than the PSP HiME games....can it?

R8 said...

@ pb19: heh, i spent 2 hours w/ it. thoroughly enjoying it. i also got off my lazy ass and picked up my LE strategy guide but haven't opened it yet. not gonna play anymore tonight as i'm going out to a party and bar 2nite ^^ "glug glug".

@ somber: the ADB system isn't that bad. While it's not my fave (since i don't play MMORPG or any online PC games for that matter), it is getting pretty fun as i was disappointed w/ the bare bones demo's system. I like yoshida's design as it's certainly nice to take a break from the same old Nomura style, whom i personall find a pretty amateur chara designer. Yoshida's design were awesome in Vagrant Story and i wished there was more official promo art featuring his drawings than just the 3D promo art.

@ digi: yeah the CE is definitely worth it. too bad EB/GS doesn't ship outside the continent (not that i know of anyways). Cuz i guess the only way is ebay for ppl outside of NA.
yeah, i was surprised about the score. I really hope it isn't as bad as the PSP games cuz iirc the first one got the highest score of the 3. Whatever, i'm sure they're just comparing it to other PS2 anime fighting games which may give reason for the shite score. i'm expecting it to be slightly better than the PSP games due to graphics (slightly better), new animation from the show (OP & transformations), more modes (i'm not sure on this one) and sweet bonuses for the LE.

Fisherman Horizon said...

I think EBgames does ship internationally, just expensive. SHipping to Canada is US$15, imagine to Australia for me...

Thanks for sharing the info 7 photo, R8.

R8 said...

@ fh: yeah, i knew they shipped to Canada (since we're neighbours) but i wasn't sure about outside of NA/continent as i specifically mentioned. Apparently they do, the skinny on their international rates can be read here. However, i also saw the bonus dvd file on torrent sites floating about already. it's about 5.5 gigs.

Anonymous said...

damn u, R8. damn u -_-

picked up FFXII regular edition yesterday after work. checked your blog last nite, now am going to EB again today to pick up CE -_-

the tin is so nice! i had no idea it had artwork inside, i thought it was just a boring tin!!!

damn, blogs with pics should be banned, they make poor kids like me spend more XD

R8 said...

@ zanza: heh, i'm doing you a favour of tempting and getting you to purchase the CE. Cuz in the end, you won't be sorry. U picking up the guide? it's not worth it really, especially if you're getting the CE. i'll have a shot or two on the guide tonight as well as details on it.

Anonymous said...

Cool to see Ridge Racer 7 get a great score. Course, I'd be buying it regardless but this looks like being the best yet (if it's better than Type 4 I'll be in heaven!).

Oh yeah, can't remember if I've posted this before but I finally got round to starting Bleach Blade Battles the other day. I'm actually really enjoying it. Even moreso than any of the HtS games on the PSP.
The story mode is just awesome too - as I said on AoD, the voice acting (mianly Ichigo and Renji) seems far better than the usual stuff and even the anime too at times. Loads of energy and stuff.
But yeah, best Bleach game yet IMO (well aside from the DS game) although I haven't played the GC one...

R8 said...

i made my opinions in my 'naughty ninjas' post. i personally still like hts 3 better since i like 1 on 1 fighting games more and bleach's fights in general are more 1 on 1. thus i don't like the power stone aspect of the game (though 4 player IS sorta fun). and 1 on 1 isn't fun in BB as the game is too simple. the character selection is too small. the game is too short. i also want to mention once again that i hate some of the environments. all in all, the DS one is still the best. i played a bit of the GC. it's pretty simplistic like HTS. Graphics are so so IMO. it had some nice cutscenes for the moves. The Wii will play essentially 'like' it.