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• Question of the Day: Why Can’t I Play Online?

  It’s getting bad. Ugly even. A friend walks up to me and asks the simple question, “Hey, John, what are you playing right now?” Then I think of the backlog. It’s a pile of games sitting by the consoles, a gargantuan mass of briefly played games, none of them seen to completion. I started Persona 4 in December! MadWorld? Yeah that first stage was a hell of a good time, for sure. My plan to beat Vagrant Story by March? Didn’t work out so much. What’s worse than the line up of single player games sitting by the boxes is the pile of those other games. Some of them I’ve even “finished”. You know the ones I’m talking about. The games that you’re supposed to play with other real live human beings over the internet. Resident Evil 5 without pushing around an artificial intelligence. Left4Dead with more than two people in split-screen. Racing in Burnout Paradise against, you know, drivers. Those games. The ones that keep slipping to the bottom of the backlog. Read More... Posted Apr 07 2009, 09:00 PM by John Constantine with | with 4 comment(s) Filed under: john constantine, boom blox, resident evil, madworld, halo 3, question of the day, resident evil 5, burnout paradise, left4dead, persona 4, vagrant story, jenga

• Question of the Day: Valkyrie Profile and the Need for Voiced Dialogue

  My backlog is becoming untenable. There are games, games that I started months ago, sitting in a pile that appears to be growing of its own volition. Where the hell did that copy of Pro Evolution Soccer even come from and why is it sitting in the “to play” pile? No one in my home even likes soccer! The worst of the lot is Persona 4. Rather than hide myself away like some horrid realization of gamer stereotype, refusing to venture into the sun until the game is complete, I’ve been working through Persona since early December, taking it a bit at a time. It’s starting to drive me crazy. A few days ago, I fired it up for the first time since mid-February and was treated to one of its scarce animated cutscenes. Turns out that bear suit made a dude! Yeah, not a dude wearing a bear suit. The bear suit formed a dude inside of it. More startling than spontaneous dude generation was hearing the characters’ voices. I had forgotten they could talk you see. This is because, with very rare exceptions, I always turn off the voice acting in RPGs. Why? Because the voice acting is almost always terrible. Dragon Quest VIII’s British cast and Final Fantasy XII’s gang of breathy stoics are exceptions to the rule. Most of the time, you have to deal with screeching whiners who insist on naming every single thing they do and I’ll have none of it. Honestly though, I wonder why voice is considered a necessity in modern design. Read More... Posted Mar 19 2009, 07:00 PM by John Constantine with | with 3 comment(s) Filed under: legend of zelda, twilight princess, square-enix, dragon quest, persona, atlus, final fantasy xii, question of the day, persona 4, dragon quest viii, valkyrie profile, eiji aonumal john Constantine, covenant of the plume

• Deal of the Day: Persona 4 Only $25 on Amazon.com

  Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in. Longtime 61FPS readers may remember my personal Persona 4 problem I wrote about way back in December when the game was released; as much as I wanted to play the game, the 100-plus hours I spent with Persona 3: FES told me that P4 had the potential to ruin my life. So, I decided to live a normal, Persona-less life, all while ignoring the existence of a certain game with the number 4 at the end of its title. But, as with all ticking time bombs, this one was bound to explode sooner or later. While doing my normal morning routine of browsing the Something Awful Forums, a thread title nearly made my heart stop: "Persona 4: $25 bucks new, today only." And as much as I didn't want to believe it, checking the Amazon.com link for the game proved both the existence of the sale, and what could be the end of my life as we know it. Let's hope I remember to feed and bathe myself in the upcoming months. Thanks to E Honda Civic of the SA Forums for destroying me utterly as human being. Related Links: Whatcha Not Playing: Persona 4 Persona 4: Harrowing, True Pre-Order Tales! With Prizes, Prizes, Priz-izes! Why Do You Keep Doing This to Me, Atlus: Persona Comes to PSP Read More... Posted Feb 23 2009, 01:00 PM by Bob Mackey with | with no comments Filed under: persona 3 fes, persona, bob mackey, sales, persona 4, deals, amazon

• Games I Probably Should Have Played in 2008

  Since we've reached the point in January where last-year retrospectives have become completely lazy and tiresome, I figured I'd squeeze at least one more out because, hey, I've still got some 2008 baggage left. It was a super-busy year for me, full of new assignments, responsibilities, and that maelstrom of neverending crap known to most of you as "fall."  Since my free time was so limited, I had to make some serious decisions about what to play; and some choices, like spending over 60 hours on Grand Theft Auto IV, were clearly wrong. This poor planning left many games I wanted to play untouched and unloved in a GameFly distribution center as they sat in their paper sleeves and desperately waited for me to add them to my queue. Why must inanimate objects make me feel so guilty? Maybe you can tell me if I made the right decisions by looking at--and judging me by--the games I had no time to play. It's the only way I'll learn. Read More... Posted Jan 15 2009, 04:30 PM by Bob Mackey with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: fallout 3, tales of vesperia, bob mackey, mirror’s edge, persona 4, 2008, tomb raider underworld

• Star Ocean and the HD-JRPG Conundrum

  After literal years of anticipation on the part of geeks across the world, Square-Enix will finally release Star Ocean 4: The Last Hope for the Xbox 360 on February 24th, 2009. It’s a momentous occasion for the genre. Star Ocean is the first A-list JRPG franchise to make the leap to HD consoles. You can argue that Tales of Vesperia earned the honor first, but Namco’s Tales franchise is more a brand/masthead than a bonafide franchise, one even more diluted than the Final Fantasy heading. I’ve never cared for the Star Ocean series’ battle system – Penny Arcade said it best when they described Star Ocean’s battles as “deciding which character gets molested by lizard men” – and its science-fiction narrative has always been more interesting in concept than in execution. I want to be excited about Star Ocean 4, but not because I feel like I’m missing out on a series that so many other gamers seem to love. I just want to be excited about an HD-JRPG. JRPGs have been enjoying a renaissance on the DS, not unlike the one they had on the PS1 some twelve years back, but the genre has been woefully underserved on the 360 and PS3. Read More... Posted Jan 14 2009, 06:00 PM by John Constantine with | with no comments Filed under: john constantine, little big planet, playstation 3, nintendo ds, xbox 360, final fantasy, lost odyssey, hironobu sakaguchi, infinite undiscovery, tales of vesperia, call of duty 4, persona 4, persona 3, Playstation 1, The last remnant, star ocean 4, blue dragon

• Whatcha Playing: Persona, Fallout, and the Trans-Pacific RPG Ideal

  Somewhere, probably not too far from Hawaii, the perfect role-playing game is waiting to be discovered. A volatile, volcanic outcropping boiling over with an expert blend of relatable, colorful characters, deep, directed narrative, and open, exploration-rich adventuring, alongside intimidatingly deep avatar customization. Its game world is both fantastic and hyper-real, vast yet structured enough to inexplicitly guide the player along scaling challenges. Alright, I’m kidding. I know this game isn’t real. Of course it isn’t. But after the past couple of weeks, I sincerely wish it was. Read More... Posted Jan 05 2009, 07:00 PM by John Constantine with | with 3 comment(s) Filed under: john constantine, whatcha playing, star wars, fallout 3, bioware, peter molyneux, mass effect, fable, jrpg, quest for glory ii, persona 4, wrpg, knights of the old republic, fable ii, quest for glory III

• My Top 10 of 2008 in No Particular Order: Persona 3: FES

  It's the end of another year, and that can only mean one thing: it's list season. Inevitably, you're going to see top ten lists by the thousands; and, as an official member of the enthusiast press, I'm afraid I can't violate my directive. But, to make things a little more interesting, I've decided to assemble my 10 favorite games of this year in non-hierarchical form because--let's face facts--it's hard to pick a favorite. And unlike other top 10 lists, this one will be doled out to you in piecemeal over the next several excruciating days! Please enjoy. I really didn't know what to expect when I picked up Persona 3: FES; I was initially drawn to the game by its budget price of 30 bucks, and the fact that I was about to have a lot of free time on my hands.  My brief flirtations with the Shin Megami Tensei series usually ended in frustration--chalk that up to the fact that I only started messing around with the franchise with SMT: Nocturne, which was notoriously difficult.  But Persona 3 was a pleasant surprise, aside from its typically slow JRPG start where you're not actually allowed to do anything for several hours.  I wasted over 100 hours of my late spring/early summer 2008 time on this game, but that's really nothing to be ashamed of; Persona is a pretty good way to waste your life. Read More... Posted Dec 17 2008, 11:00 PM by Bob Mackey with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: atlus, bob mackey, persona 4, persona 3, top 10, top 10 of 2008

• Persona 4: Harrowing, True Pre-Order Tales! With Prizes, Prizes, Priz-izes!

  True story the first: way back during the summer of 1999, shortly after graduating from high school, I took the cash moneys I’d been given by my loving family (money intended for college), pooled it in with a dash of my savings account, and marched to my local Electronics Boutique. “Ho, Game Jockey!” I said, full of mirth and good will, “Take these funds and place my name inside your hallowed ledger. I am pre-ordering a Dreamcast in full!” It was going to be awesome. I paid for the system, Sonic Adventure, and a VMU. They gave me a t-shirt and a receipt. I then waited for that sacred day of 9/9/99 to roll around when all that is good would be delivered to me. Turned out Electronics Boutique were filthy liars, in more way than one. First, the midnight sale didn’t start until 1:30am. I am sure there was a perfectly reasonable explanation for this fact, though none of the shifty nerds in line were let in on it. I was nonplussed but hardly enraged. But then I got to the counter, handed them my receipt, and was handed a bag with a Dreamcast in it. But no VMU. No Sonic Adventure. I then calmly asked the cashier when these items would be forthcoming and he replied, “That is all that’s paid for on this receipt.” Then I murdered him. Not really, but it was another half an hour before they finally handed over the goods. It was a long night. True story the second: back in October, I pre-ordered the Persona 4 Social Link Expansion Pack from Amazon.com believing I was getting quite the deal: Persona 4 plus an extra “B-sides” soundtrack, a nifty t-shirt, a Persona calendar, and a stuffed animal of the game’s bizarre anthropomorphic character, Teddy, all for thirty bucks. That is a steal. When a giant box arrived at my work place yesterday, I was pumped and ready for some role-playing. Then I opened it and discovered that I can’t read. You see, this wasn’t an awesome pre-order deal. This was a bunch of stuff you pay for BESIDES the game. Amazon cleverly notes this in the product features section: Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4 game sold separately. I am not smart. Pre-ordering is a dangerous business. But my lack of attention is your good fortune! Read More... Posted Dec 12 2008, 05:00 PM by John Constantine with | with no comments Filed under: john constantine, dreamcast, atlus, persona 4, sonic adventure, vmu

• Whatcha Not Playing: Persona 4

  Persona 4 may not actually be out, but I'm still making an effort to actively avoid it.  This is more than a little depressing, because I'm sure it's a fantastic RPG, and, quite possibly, the last good Playstation 2 release--unless the series decides to stay on Sony's eight year-old console.  I'm not one to have a restraining order on good JRPGs, as they are kind of rare these days, but playing Persona 4 could be very hazardous to my health.  It's not all of the demons and Satanic imagery that's got me scared; it's the fact that this game could very well take over my upcoming (and desperately-needed) break from work, school, and life. Typically, it's extremely rare for me to play a game for me than 100 hours--and hell, most games don't have that much content to spread around. But the last Persona game, Persona 3: FES, can be found in the handful of games where I've actually spent hours in the triple digits.  Before you think that I'm a loser with too much time on my hands, please let me explain: Persona 3: FES was released at a time that I could take advantage of the most: the end of a long, tortuous semester, with 12 weeks of absolute freedom in front of me.  Grad school doesn't give you much to do in the way of jobs or work during the summer. Essentially, I had a Summer of George. And Persona 3 was the catalyst that kicked it off. Read More... Posted Dec 04 2008, 12:00 PM by Bob Mackey with | with 2 comment(s) Filed under: persona 3 fes, atlus, jrpg, bob mackey, gaming habits, persona 4

• And Now Back to Our Regularly Scheduled Love: Atlus Reprints Persona 2

  I’ve said it before, but it bears repeating: I’ve got issues with Japanese role-playing games. I tend to, well, disappear into them. And as much as they make our own Bob Mackey OCD within the confines of their battle systems, item management, and quaint townships, they tend to make me OCD in my waking life. When I start one that really gets its hooks into me, I don’t do much else with life until it’s done. Much like the troubles I had with Dragon Quest VIII back in 2005, Persona 3 ruined me for September 2007. Eighty-nine hours of level grinding, managing completely fictional friendships (whilst ignoring real ones,) and bouncing J-pop that nearly drove my roommates to murder me. It was my first time with the Shin Megami Tensei franchise and I couldn’t have been more impressed, or obsessed, with it. Needless to say, I’ve been dreading Persona 4. Not because I think it won’t live up to Persona 3. No, I’m afraid of what it’s going to do my brain. And now, for seemingly no other reason than they are awesome, Atlus is making everything worse. The publisher sent out an email today announcing that they are reprinting Persona 2: Eternal Punishment, a Playstation 1 game, “to commemorate the upcoming release of Persona 4 and to thank you for your interest, dedication, and support of the SMT series.” Who does that?! Who reprints an eight year-old game for a long-dead console? Someone who loves you, that’s who. Read More... Posted Nov 13 2008, 07:15 PM by John Constantine with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: john constantine, shin megami tensei, love, dragon quest, persona, atlus, persona 2 eternal punishment, persona 4, persona 3, dragon quest viii