Well i think there is such a thing as regionnal marketing, and thats a reason alot of Japanese games dont make it here in North America, in the first place.
Because they would not sell as good, since they are marketed for a different market. There's also localisation costs, but thats not relevant here.

That being said i do love me some japanese games, but there are those i hate as well. For example i could never get into the Persona games, but i loved Final Fantasy up to FFX. Heck i even bought FFX-2 and played it...
Dead Rising is another japanese game i loved, from the present generation.
Demon's Soul as well.

Oh and gaming is serious business, even discounting all the money the industry rolls around in, the money we put in, i would find it hard not to qualify it as serious for all the time i spend into it. But that does not relate only to adrenaline fist pumping action or whatever, as to me gaming encompass a great spectrum of genres.
Wether i am racing down a slope in Ssx Tricky, evolving in Flow or grinding out the next level in Diablo2 LOD, its all gaming, and its all serious.

Anyways i take it seriously, as its a serious form of entertainment.

Back to Metroid, time will tell, as right now we can only speculate, and thats what i was doing. The game has some hype going, and people wanna talk about it, but with little information, we try to guess....

edit : my psn is shiram

I think it kind of has to do with the whole different cultures, different tastes. It's pretty common the world over.

[EphelDuath666]

as always Metacritic is a good place to look at
http://www.metacritic.com/game/wii/metroid-other-m

It does not bother me that the game is japanese and I don't think it's any less western or more japanese than any other Metroid game. But the lack of exploration is what makes me a bit cautious. I definitely want to play it though.

I think the whole Japanese game can be summed up pretty well with this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afrika_%28video_game%29

I've never even seen this game here in America, even though that wiki page claims it was released here(cant always trust wiki)

Needless to say, a game like that just wouldn't fare well here in America. Japanese RPG's and such do, look at the Final Fantasy series.

All in all, can we get off the topic of "Japanization" of video games? Before this console generation, most of the best games were made by the Japanese.

[Octillus]

All in all, can we get off the topic of "Japanization" of video games? Before this console generation, most of the best games were made by the Japanese.

Amen. They're may be a lil behind right now, but they definitely do plenty right overall.


The metacritic has me cautiously optimistic. Going into the game knowing its faults, I think I can enjoy it just fine.

[Octillus]

"As for whether or not it's Metroid ... I finished the game with a 45-percent completion rate, and I'm currently going back through the map looking for hidden Energy and Missile Tanks. You tell me."

http://www.joystiq.com/2010/08/27/metro ... -m-review/

All is well with the force.

[EphelDuath666]

I own all Metroid games so if Other M is good then I certainly won't mind!

[EphelDuath666]

picked up my pre-ordered collector's edition of Mafia 2 yesterday and played the game for a bit today and I gotta say I dig it. Love the style of the game. I don't mind that it's linear, the story seems pretty cool and the characters are pretty cool too and the game itself looks pretty sweet. Even if it's not a huge open world game with a ton of side missions I can still see myself liking this one better than GTA4 as well.

[Octillus]

Phew.

http://www.gametrailers.com/video/revie ... her/703717

All of the reviewers I follow have assured me that mostly only the story is kinda lame, and everything else is fine.

Yup.
That gametrailers review really dispelled any doubts i had about the game.

I'm not much of a gamer but I'd love to try the Scott Pilgrim videogame. Anyone here own a copy? Is it worth buying?

[Octillus]

I'm not much of a gamer but I'd love to try the Scott Pilgrim videogame. Anyone here own a copy? Is it worth buying?

It's fucking awesome. There's no online multiplayer, so make sure you have at least two controllers, but it has the heart of an old school beat em up with a fair amount of depth and a lot of humor. Worth every penny in the ten dollars.

[swervedriver]

Came across a video of GTA 4 in first person, using some kind of PC-mod. Makes me wonder why there's not at least a first person option in the game, because it looks good.

[youtube]R1Hm4K5_Pr0[/youtube]

[EphelDuath666]

that does look pretty cool actually. GTA4 is another game I need to finally finish oneday.

what's your opinion on Mafia II? I dig it but not without exceptions. Maybe it's just me but the gameplay in general feels a bit odd. Driving a car works mostly OK but I can't see how car chases would work that well. You lose control pretty easily. And also shooting feels pretty awkward. I have played many 3rd person shooters so I can tell that this one does not feel like it should. Shooting someone does not appear to be an easy task due to the controls which is odd considering that the character you control is a war veteran. Dunno....it just all feels a little awkward. The game is fun anyways though. I love the crazy humor in it and I love the characters. What I don't like is 2K's DLC BS. There's no sidequests in the game and now some hackers found out that they used to be in the game but were eventually taken out, same goes for the free roaming mode...yes, there's not even a free roaming mode...so I guess 2K want to release all that as DLC to make an extra buck or two. That very much sucks. We basically paid the full price for half the game. Of course there's DLC for most games nowadays but 2K really is known now for releasing content that was meant to be in the game in the first place afterwards as DLC. They did the same thing with Bioshock 2.

To be fair, the reason a lot of DLC that would otherwise be part of the game gets cut, isn't to make extra cash, it's just because there was insufficient time to maintain and test it, and still make it through certification. A lot of content that gets cut can be pretty close to release quality.

Cutting features from the game before release is a standard thing, and always has been, even before DLC. Before DLC, those features generally wouldn't see the light of day until a sequel. (Unless it was a PC title, and the publisher had budgeted to fund development of a couple of post-release patches)

That said, there are some companies that will just gouge the consumer that way.