The Haunted

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Fiona Belli, the heroine of Haunting Ground, performing one of her special moves- laying unconscious and helpless.

Capcom has given us a lot of survival-horror games, primarily through their flagship series, Resident Evil. Usually though, it’s not so much horror as it is monster-fighting action as you take the roles of various take-no-prisoners, kick-butt heroes who take on mutant beasties with both eyes open. And so it was with a bit of surprise and refreshment that Haunting Ground for the PS2 appeared.

Similar to the Clock Tower series, Haunting Ground puts you in the boots of 18-year old Fiona Belli, a lovely (if deathly pale) young lady who wakes up one dark night in a cage, dressed only in a bed sheet and surrounded by the sprawling expanse of a creepy castle. Soon afterwards, she finds herself being chased by a hulking man-monster named Debilitas, and encountering an eerily beautiful maid named Daniella. A mystery voice calls out from the walls, telling her that she will be his. Fiona doesn’t have a clue why she’s here, what this castle is all about and why this crew of freaky denizens are after her… all she wants is to get the hell out of Dodge.
Unfortunately, Fiona isn’t a veteran special forces agent, or even a member of the local martial arts club… she’s just an ordinary college student, home from university before a frightful event that caused her to get into this mess. She can’t really fight save for a weak kick and tackle- the best thing she can do is RUN… and hide, given that there are tons of places to huddle behind, under or against in the shadowy castle. But if things get really hot, her panic level gets bad and things go blurry and wild and then Fiona’s in real deep goo as she’s practically helpless.

But then, not all’s dead roses- assuming that Fiona survives her first hour or so in the castle, she’ll hook up with Hewie, an odd and intelligent albino dog that soon becomes Fiona’s best friend, guardian, constant companion and fellow escapee from this gothic madhouse. Only by befriending and building a relationship with Hewie and using his abilities to help her can Fiona have a chance of defeating her pursuers and unlocking the secret of the nightmare she’s in.

Now, a game where the heroine you play isn’t a deadly femme fatale who can do high kicks and kill with her thighs is different for me, but it’s actually cool. Haunting Ground especially strikes a pretty good tone as a survival horror game, with a refreshing new way of keeping tension and mystery.
First of all, the game is freaking gorgeous. Apart from the incredible CG cinemas, the real time graphics are simply exquisite, with the characters appearing and moving better than most other PS2 games you’ll ever see; Fiona herself is animated incredibly well, and will please fanboys as she’s as bouncy as the DOA girls.
The castle itself is a great gothic maze to explore for some scary fun. And the mechanic of the game being pretty much a deadly game of hide and seek- is pretty slick. Best of all, the cool relationship-building game between Fiona and Hewie, and how you can use the dog to fight back, is just awesome. Haunting Gorund gives back a bit of replay value with unlockable costumes, extra endings and surprises that make going through the adventure multiple times desirable.

Haunting Ground’s graphics and gameplay are simply superb- it’s a great contrast to most other Survival Horror games out, and I highly recommend this to gamers who want a mature adventure romp with suspense and quite a bit of fanservice on the side. Don’t be scared away by the Damsel in Distress scenario; this is a scream of a good time.

I AM STILL HERE!!!

Whew! The storm that was This Week is finally over. I can finally breathe a bit.

It was touch and go early this morning, as we fine-tuned the presentation and waited for the minutes to tick by. After the client meeting (and pretty much half the day) I was freeeeeee....

My first act of freedom was to hie off to the nearby Subway's and have myself a late lunch (at 4:30PM). Next was to start blogging a bit, seeing as how I've been neglecting the web community for a while.

On my plate.

To start reading the pile of DC Comics Vin recommended to me.

To get the new stocks of comics stuff for this week.

To grab a copy of Haunting Ground for the PS2 and any other new game that catches my eye.

To keep playing Darkwatch.

To watch some anime and dvds over the weekend, including the Kim Possible movie.

To start doing art and pages for Project Hero.


Darn... I'm just as busy in the break as I am at work! WAAAAHHH!!!

Dark Resurrection

Woooooh...

An arcade upgrade to Tekken 5 has been announced for release in the next couple of months. It's called... of course, Tekken 5 Dark Resurrection and will feature some newly-rendered stages, customization items and, oh joy, two additional playable characters. But wait- don't expect anything earth-shattering... most probably one will be a playable Jinpachi Mishima, the hulking, demonic end boss with the screen-high fireballs and automatic-dizzy moves (which makes him totally cheap and unbalanced). As for the other, who knows? Rumors are of course flying around at who may be added to the roster- from female ninja Kunimitsu to Armor King (who is deceased so probably no go) to the Ogre from Tekken 3.
Anyway, it's not confirmed if Dark Resurrection will make it to home consoles- or even if it's worth getting for the home if all we get is a cheap playable boss and some spiffy new background effects. We'll just have to wait for the release for the truth.

You can't handle the truth!

Sprint

I'm still at the office. The fastbreak-nonstop rush of work that has been going on all month climaxes tonight and tomorrow. On the bright side though, I'm looking forward to a good rest over the weekend, to read some comics and enjoy a couple of new games. But I still have to get through tonight. Geh.

Passing

An officemate of mine, one of our graphic artists, passed away early today. It came as a shock to the department since he seemed to be doing fine the last anyone heard from him (through a text... yeah, in this day and age last words can come through text). I didn't particularly know him that well, but I work in the same area as him, and often I've hovered at his shoulder looking over copy for final artwork and rendering. Now that he's suddenly gone, it feels odd. I can't say I'm too affected, at least not as much as people who really knew him were. But then again, when death hits near you just can't NOT be totally unfazed. That's what makes us human and humane, I think.

I didn't know him that much, and anyone else reading here not at all. But I think he's worth mentioning here.

Paalam, Onat. It was nice working with you.

Grasping at the Future

Last night, after the gang's farewell dinner blowout from Jason at North Park, we all spent the night at UCC Coffee having our palms and fortunes read by Andrew.

My results? Well, I'll most probably be spending the rest of my working life in advertising, which is very likely (unless I someday give up on the Philippines entirely and move to the States and become a Star Comic Book Creator... Feh). I'll live to middle age, which is likely given that I don't eat much vegetables, love softdrinks and don't engage in regular exercise but at least don't smoke or drink. I've met one of the two GREAT LOVES of my life- which was probably not a real person (it's a matter of interpretation, fortune reading). We all seem to agree that the first great love of my life was Angel Ace, my own creation and first ever original printed comic book character... which is kinda sad since she's not real, and kinda nice since Angel's the perfect girl. Sigh.
Furthermore, I'll be having an eventful life, and while I'm be in a lot of confusion about relationships, apparently when I do find a person I love, I'll stick with them to the end (which will probably be middle age).

Eerie stuff, and pretty much dead on I think. Well, whatever. I don't think the future's set in stone (I hope), so things may change... a little. Maybe I can just start living a little healthier and maybe I can push my life to late middle age or early old age. Whatever. We play with the hands we're dealt.

Sight

Eyesight is perhaps the most valuable sense. Really. There are so many things you can appreciate with sight that taste, hearing, smell and touch just can't capture or appreciate. Perhaps it's because I'm nearsighted and astigmatic with eyes murkier than Manila canal water that I seem to keep awake as long as I have to, devouring eye candy like I have an eternally-itching eye-sweet tooth.

Well, I learned recently that my Mom, the light of the family, has some trouble with her eyesight. She's got cataracts in one of her eyes, and it's been steadily giving her trouble. Lately, her vision's been getting blurred in that eye, so that she's now practically blind in it at night. She had it checked today with my sister and we found out that it's not a problem that's going to go away. In fact, it can only get worse. If untreated, her eye could go totally blind in several months. After that, her other eye may be affected as well.
So she's getting an operation. I heard how much it will cost and I am flabbergasted. Fortunately though, the insurance of my sister and I will help a bit, at least. I think that we can all handle this thing no problem, no matter what. I just hope everything goes well and this will all pass shortly. I just can't see anything else happening other than that. I just can't.

Prayers and well wishes will be appreciated.

GGRRRAAAAAAAHHH!!!

I've been frickin' busy all week. All MONTH seems like. Haven't been able to go to Mega and chill at all this whole time. And it looks like the darn load will spill into the weekend and not let up until mid-week next week.

Yikes. On the bright side though, things, while hard, seem to be proceeding smoothly. Gotta just keep things under control, keep all the bases covered and not let anything sneak up on me. Sheesh.

Have to start work on Project Hero stuff soon. Gotta read that pile of DC Infinite Crisis stuff Vin made me buy. Gotta relax and play. Gotta rest.

Soon. Soon. SOON. I hope.

Appetizers

Recently, I discovered a cool little program for the PC called PSXVideo that lets you view (and convert to AVI format) CG movies and FMV in various Playstation 1 games. Now I don't have to play through games like, oh, Parasite Eve (which I played years ago) just to see the pretty CG. Speaking of pretty, it's funny to watch the videos of intros and endings of classic PS games and see how nicely (or badly) they've aged. These days, CG intros to games are about as complex, detailed and epic as full-blown movie trailers (check out the Tekken 5 and DOA Ultimate intro movies)... but there are still classic intros that still stand up to the test of time and make me want to dust off the old PS1 discs for a re-play.

Soul Edge


The Soul Edge intro. Still as sharp as ever after all these years.


The best scene: Siegfried escaping a crushing fate.


Sophitia's nudity was censored in the US version.


Taki kicks demon butt while showing off hers.

The opening CG movie of the original Namco weapons fighter is, in my book, perhaps the greatest intro movie of the PS era. No other PS1 game can equal the rocking opening movie- a series of various scenes showing the game's cast of warriors, assassins and weirdos engaged in battle or in bathing (as in the case of Sophitia). Set to a rocking, fast-paced song, the video just gets your heart racing and your hands aching for the controller. Too bad the game's sequels (Soul Calibur 1 and 2) ditched CG intros for realtime demos... Oh well. This is a great vid to just watch every now and then.

Tekken


Law being assaulted by fireflies, looks like.


The original Nina Williams in action.

Yeah, these days the Tekken series is known for great CG. The series' intros and endings from Tekken 3 onwards pretty much solidified Namco's claim to fame as masters of the videogame movie. However, they weren't always like that... The original Tekken intro really looks first-generation CG. But hey, to get to where they are now, artists and videogame creators had to pass by these stages, right? For me though, the original Tekken intro has a cool nostalgia factor which I love even to this day. Really.

Suikoden II



No fancy CG here, except for some simple scenes... most of the intro to arguably the best chapter of this beloved RPG series is made up of various character art. But still, the direction of the scenes and the GREAT music just makes for a rousing opening for an epic quest. This is one of my favorite intros, and the game itself is one of my favorite RPGs of all time. Recognize.

Ehrgeiz
We took fighting game intros for granted a lot during the days of the PS1, since there were so many of them. Still, not every game is a Tekken or a DOA, and some of the less-known brawlers had cool CG. One of the better ones was the intro for Ehrgeiz, a free-moving fighter from Squaresoft (Makers of Final Fantasy). Showing off the various fighters in cool situations made for an awesome introduction to a pretty cool game overall.

Final Fantasy 8
While I still believe that Final Fantasy VII is the best FF ever, and that the sequel FF8 is a piece of trying-hard, unadulterated pap trying to capitalize on the previous chapter's thunder, I have to admit that the CG movies in the 8th Final Fantasy game are pretty incredible. The battle between Seifer and Squall, the lovely Rinoa Heartilly, and the promise of an epic story of love, magic and adventure was excellently set by the intro movie... unfortunately the game turned out to be more teenybopper than epic, and the story incomprehensible. Aaaah, what the heck. The intro was awesome. Moving on.

There are tons more cool PS intro and CG movies worth mentioning... the cinematics of Final Fantasy VII, the great creepy videos of Silent Hill... ah, those were the days when it was like Christmas every week and coolness resided in every CD. They don't make 'em like they used to anymore.

Perhaps these days we're all a bit harder to please, or maybe we've seen it all. It takes a lot more to please us these days, but whatever happens, the gamer in me will always love and enjoy a good intro. Whether or not the game after it is worth the bucks we paid for them. Heh.

Advent Figure


FFVII AC's Tifa action figure.

Over the weekend me and my college friend Pot went off on our occasional Sunday jaunt to Greenhills, and our general agenda was looking over the various model and hobby shops. In one of the places we went to I saw the new Tifa Lockheart action figure as she looks in the upcoming Final Fantasy VII Advent Children movie. You know what? I really like the characeter but come on... why did they have to change her duds? I mean, lots more skin shown in her old outfit aside, Tifa is the only character apparently who had to change her look... everyone else looks the same, from Cloud to Yuffie to Cid to Barret and Vincent. And why the frumpy overalls? In fact, her present look just makes Tifa look too similar to Rinoa Heartilly from FF8. My secret hope is that when Advent Children actually hits, Square changes Tifa's duds back to her REAL costume. Oh well. We can dream. Or play FFVII or Ehrgeiz to see the real Lockheart look in action. Heh.

Darkwatch

Picked up a game over the weekend- the brand new first-person shooter Darkwatch. This supernatural, western-themed action game puts players into the boots of outlaw Jericho Cross, train robber extraordinaire who gets in waaaaay over his ten-gallon hat-topped head when he jumps on board a strange train for his last score. For inside the armored boxcars isn't a load of gold... it's a force of ultimate evil known as Lazarus. Thrown together with a young lady named Cassidy, Jericho soon finds himself afflicted with vampirism, in danger of losing his soul and hot on the trail of a devil on earth. It's gonna take tons of bullets, dynamite and lots of killing undead hordes before Jericho somehow saves or damns his soul... which will it be?
I'm not really one for shooters, but this is actually a pretty good game. Thankfully, it has a 'greenhorn' difficulty level which lets a total FPS spacecase like me to wade through enemies and continue when I die (a lot). The story seems pretty cool and it's getting me to keep going on even though the odds seem insurmountable. And I am finding it pretty fun to engage skeletal bandidos in gunfights... though often I just wade in and take their heads off with a well-placed rifle butt. The controls are pretty slick, though there are some irritating jumping segments that are maddening to navigate- good thing there aren't any one-hit deaths... so far.

This is a pretty cool game, although a bit on the mature side. Want some gunslinging action with a supernatural twist? Join the Darkwatch and see if you've got what it takes to take on your dark side.

Pocket Arcade


This is how dates work in the Fatal Fury world.

PS games now installed on my PPC Phone: Dead or Alive, Tekken, Star Gladiators, Ehrgeiz, Real Bout Fatal Fury, Time Crisis: Project Titan, Tactics Ogre, Suikoden II.
It’s no Street Fighter III, but Fatal Fury Real Bout is a darn pretty 2-D fighter, and I love the characters and the action. The fact that you can assign special moves to single buttons makes this totally playable.

YES, Suikoden II. Is it actually playable? You’d be surprised. Will I actually play it on the dinky little screen? Not for long (eyestrain will kill me and battery power is limited), but you can’t beat an addictive RPG for time killing if you’re not in the mood for mindless fighting games. The best thing is, I’ve installed it with a save from the original Suikoden, so NOW I can probably try to unlock a certain sidequest that I wasn’t able to do before. Hoho!

Want MORE PS games to rip… more… gotta catch them all…

Rainy Weekend

It’s been raining and raining and raining and raining all week. All I want to do is just lie in the dark and the cold and just snuggle in and sleep. It’s the expectation of having this desire fulfilled that I look forward to the weekend. Most of the gang will be heading off to windy Tagaytay for a break, but I’ve elected to stay for now. Just want to rest and vege out. Maybe do some drawing. I’ll probably post more art for Samurai Sis very soon, and some other odds and ends. We’ll see. If I can tear myself from the bed, that is. Heh.

Seven Swords


Epic.

What is it with the number seven? Apart from the number five, there's no other number for a group of heroes as heroic as seven. It all started with Akira Kurosawa's Seven Samurai, which probably was the template for every other seven-man army film since; from cowboys (The Magnificent Seven) to space warriors (Battle Beyond the Stars), the group of seven has been seen in epic struggles of the few and courageous good versus far greater numbers of evil.

Well, yet another epic film of seven heroes comes to the screen, via Tsui Hark's Seven Swords. The film is an adaptation of the first part of a series of Chinese novels, so we can expect more to come if Mr. Hark has his way. Anyway, Seven Swords is the director's answer to the past wave of Wuxia films, which includes Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Hero and House of Flying Daggers (each of which have varying levels of goodness for me...).

Seven Swords' premise is classic- in ancient China, the emperor has decreed that martial arts will be banned to preserve the peace. To enforce his edict, armies of mercenaries have been empowered with the freedom to kill and pillage as they please, to bring the heads of any known martial artists (bodies not necessary) to the emperor. Of course, this is not something that can just go about without getting people rightly angry, so seven heroes soon come together to protect a village being threatened by a madman and his army of bloodthirsty killers. Each of the heroes wields a weapon of power- a sword, each with a name like 'Celestial', or 'Dragon'. As you can imagine, these swords can kick butt and they will see a lot of evildoers sliced to ribbons before this epic first chapter of the series is over. Given that Tsui Hark has directed stuff like Once Upon a Time in China and other martial arts classics before, Seven Swords should be something to see.

The film hasn't been released stateside yet, but with the recent successes of Asian films, it's sure to make it over here soon. Look for this in the DVD bins... this looks pretty cool.

Winners

Congratulations to my good friends Dean and Nikki Alfar for winning in the 2005 Palanca Awards! Dean won the Grand Prize in the Novel category, for his work Salamanca, something he wrote in 30 days last November as part of the NaNoWriMo. Nikki, on the other hand, won the 3rd prize in the Short Story for Children in English category for her short story Menggay's Magical Chicken.

And to think I meet these people usually every week and just goof around with them. Heh. Congratulations again, Alfars!

Stylus Shooting


Time Crisis on my Mini (actual screenshot).

Recently I finally got myself a working copy of Time Crisis (or to be more exact, Time Crisis: Project Titan, the PS-only sequel to the original TC) and then ripped and converted it to the ISO format for my mobile phone. And what do you know? It works like a charm. Years ago, I struggled to play Time Crisis on my PS using only the standard controller (I was too scrimpy to shell out for a Guncon), and ultimately failed. Now, I can get back at Time Crisis' pixel perps with my deadly stylus (or just with my finger if I'm too lazy). The game's excellent to play, and despite this seeming to be ultra-easy given that all you have to do is touch the screen to shoot, there's actually a challenge due to the need to be accurate and quick. So far I haven't actually progressed that far yet, but I look forward to those little downtimes when I can step into the shoes of Richard Miller, the Time Crisis hero and kick butt with my pistolus. Well, perhaps after I finish unlocking everything in Dead or Alive I'll have more time. Heh.


There's nothing quite like blowing away shady terrorists with your finger.

TV Viewing

These days I find myself 'jacking off' to Jack TV's lineup of raunchy shows and wrestling programs. It's irritating to watch re-runs every so often, but I also find myself pretty fond of Mad TV, but alienated by the more 'American' comedy shows/stand-up comics. I love Drawn Together and Stripperella (though these short series are soon exhausted), and watch an episode of South Park every now and then. I'm still mystified that they're actually showing some of these shows- some of them are pretty raunchy.
ETC provides more 'classy' fare; The Tonight Show and Late Night with Conan O'Brien are now my nightly stapes- I only wish that Entertainment Tonight had more stuff about movies and showbiz than tabloid-style bits, but hey... learning about so-and-so star's new cancer makes for gripping TV, I guess.
Animax continues to mix some gems with their schedule. I should really like Samurai 7 but for some reason I find it slow and would rather think about it and feel that it's nice instead of actually watching the show. That's also the exact same way I feel about Lost- I know in my heart it's a great show, but I can't actually bring myself to watch it for some reason. Oh well.
Discovery Channel and National Geographic have had a bit of a tussle recently- on Tuesdays Discovery showed True Horror with Anthony Stuart Head (cool while it lasted) and later NG countered with a series on The Mafia. Hmmm. Monsters vs the Mob... tough call. The Mythbusters are still a favorite when they appear, and the ever-reliable New Detectives and a default watch on weekends.

Ah, the idiot box these days is pretty interesting. Which is just as well since I don't have any big game right now to keep myself off the channels, nor do I find myself going out of my way to get any new DVDs lately. Still, it could all be better... if only Sky Cable got Discover Travel and Leisure back, I'd be happy as a clam again with Globe Trekker and A Chef's Journey. Sigh.

Samurai Sis


Samuraisis is a lover and a fighter.

Here are the first character designs for my new title, Samurai Sis, which will be coming out in our group's upcoming comic project. It's been awhile since I've drawn stuff, so I hope I still have it... Feh. Whatever. Anyway, Samuraisis, or 'Samurai Sis' as she will be known more, combines the classic 'Isis' look (from the old TV series and the new comic adaptation) with elements of a Japanese ronin, or shugenja (warrior monk). She's not only packing martial arts skills but demi-goddess-ish powers over the elements. That and she packs several magical weapons- her katanankh (shown held) and her longer naginatankh (not shown). She's a tough cookie, but of course deep inside she's just a teen who is struggling to keep it together even with problems like missing parents, high school angst, a bratty kid brother and a noodle-wrapped undead warlord trying to take over the world.


Ramen Hotep. A villain who can really use his noodle.


Part shadow, part ninja, part snake, part paper... all EVIL.

Look for our new heroes and heroines later this year. Heh.

Anticipation

It's August, and that means we're a lot nearer to the release of Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, the long-awaited, much-drooled over CG movie that will hopefully fulfill the dreams of countless fans and wipe away the smudge that was the Spirits Within movie. Recently, several new trailers were supposedly premiered at some of Square-Enix's events promoting their upcoming games and products.

Aside from FFVII AC, there's a lot more adventure in Midgar to be had with Dirge of Cerebus, the shooter/action-adventure starring mysterious Vincent Valentine. The latest news on Dirge's front is that there will be many cameos and appearances from other characters in the FFVII world, such as Barret, Cid and Yuffie the ninja. Also appearing is Caet Sith, the mascot-type character who was originally controlled in FFVII by Shinra exec Reeve. Just what Sith's role in DC is remains a mystery, deepened even more so by Reeve's apparent death (or at least, being gunned down) in the latest trailer.
Also figuring prominently is FFVII Crisis Core, which will feature anime cut scenes including some never-before-seen visualizations of some of FFVII's most dramatic scenes- such as the first meeting of arch-villain Sephiroth and his alien mother Jenovah, and the battle between Seph and Zack, Cloud Strife's mentor.

Advent Children has already been confirmed for a September 8 theatrical release in Japan, and even now I can imagine the screams and gasps of countless otaku at seeing this fantasy epic come to life finally in complete form on the BIG screen. I hope that anime shops here will have the Advent Children DVD as soon as they can... if only AC would be shown here in Manila in theaters as well. Fat chance of that happening, but DAMN that would be cool. No, that would be AWESOME.

One more month to go...

Pocket Playstation

An addendum to the earlier post... I finally discovered how to get the sizes of the files down with another freeware app. Now I don't have to compromise space and having my PS fighters along for the ride. My favorite Dead or Alive is now at an itty-bitty 42.1 mb size, making it no longer a bother to put in my card (previously, it was a humongous 422mb, which is almost half of my 1 gig storage space). Also, I was able to rip the original PS Tekken and now the Iron Fist fighters are sitting alongside the DOA girls in my SD card (the Tekken rip came to about 101 mb). Still trying to find copies of PS games to convert, a priority being Time Crisis which should be a riot to play with a stylus. Heh.