Gaming Bits

Went over to the gameshops after lunch. While other gamers were going ga-ga over Grann Turismo 4 or Doom 3, I got myself a copy of Rise of the Kasai, the sequel to the stylish stealth-action fantasy adventure, Mark of Kri. This hack-and-slasher puts you in control of the various Raku warriors- main man Rau, his vicious sister Tati, and their seniors Baumusu and Griz in a story that spans both past and future to save a hero's life and soul. The game, once touted to have an online component and/or two-player cooperative play, is not limited to a one-player experience, with players fighting alongside a CPU-controlled ally. This has it's share of hang-ups, mainly because of the A.I. partner's tendency to space out and act like a doofus when you least expect it.

Still, I'm pretty excited to play through Kasai mainly to see the intriguing story unfold through beautiful cinematics that have been described as 'oriental brush paintings come to life'. If only for that, I'll be happy.

In some other gaming news...

The next Xbox, or Xbox Next (Nextbox?) will probably have no shortage of cool fighting games, since a newly-released list of publishers for the upcoming platform includes fighting heavyweights like Capcom, Sega, Namco, Tecmo and Konami. Tekken is almost certainly a Sony exclusive, as much as Dead or Alive is sure to be a Microsoft Ace in the Hole. Virtua Fighter, Soul Calibur, Street Fighter... hopefully we'll see where these flagship fighters end up when more is revealed this coming E3 in May.

More and more Playstation Portables are appearing in local stores. But you won't be seeing me plunk down the 17K for a unit anytime soon, what with games having questionable quality AND a high price of about Php3,000+ a UMD. This plus all those rampart rumors of dead pixels and screen glitches. Nah... I probably won't get a PSP until the fourth or fifth generation of games. Time will tell.

Where IS the next Final Fantasy game, Final Fantasy XII? The game seems to have totally slipped every schedule or due date so far given, and we've seen nothing on the game or it's characters. I really didn't find the art or designs so far revealed to be that intriguing at all, so if the game's been sent back to the drawing boards, fine. Has the vein of gold that was FF finally run dry? Once again a waiting game. Sigh.

Can't wait for the weekend to try out some new Cheats with my new Action Replay disc. Nice stuff, like, all characters and costumes unlocked in the raunchy Rumble Roses. Or fiddling with character models in Tekken 5. This should be fun. Heh. For tonight though, I'll try to slip in a session or two with Tati and Rau. Chop-chop!