Ninja Gaiden is coming to the DS

Much has been said about the Nintendo DS, the little handheld that could. The latest tidbit that’s making my mouth water is a new game, and you’re not going to believe which one is hitting the dual screens.

If you’ve played Ninja Gaiden on the Xbox, then you’ll be surprised to see it on the DS. Of course you can’t compare the visuals, but the eye candy that you get on Ninty’s handheld is as good as it gets.

And you know what? It also seems to play like the Xbox version.

The next surprise is the combat system, which uses the stylus for majority (if not all) of the attacks. According to the developers, the buttons can only be used for Ryu’s blocks. Sword attacks are made through upward, downward, and horizontal strokes of the stylus.

Ninja Gaiden Dragon Sword (egad, another “DS” wordplay there) is coming to the U.S. this October–presumably near the “Q4 2007” release date for The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass.

It’s going to be a great year end, I tell you.

Will Halo 2’s crown tarnish with Vista?

The first time I ran Halo: Combat Evolved for the PC wasn’t a very pleasant experience. The game is terrific, but it didn’t perform that well in the hardware department. Yes, I had to tone down a lot of the eye candy to get a decent framerate despite being over the recommended specs.

Reading about the latest on Halo 2 didn’t come as a surprise. The system requirements are: A 2GHz processor, 1GB of RAM, and a fairly decent DirectX 9 video card. Microsoft is requiring you this kind of hardware to run a port originally released for the Xbox in 2004. Sure, it would have a higher resolution, but the game doesn’t even use DirectX 10.

I’m willing to bet that the game would stutter in current systems.

Halo 2 for the PC will have everything the Xbox version came with, including the single player and multiplayer content, and all the downloadable maps that were subsequently released. The belated sequel’s controls will be placed on keyboard and mouse, as how all shooters should be played. You can also plug in an Xbox 360 controller, but why would you want to make it harder for yourself?

The most intriguing feature of Halo 2’s PC version is the ability to play the game while it installs in the background—a feature that is said to be enabled by Windows Vista.

Microsoft is also merging the Xbox Live with the Games for Windows Live. That means if you have a Gold membership at Xbox Live, you don’t have to sign up for a separate service. It works the other way around as well. A GFW Live account lets you set up an Xbox Live account. This feature’s success is yet to be determined though, because PC users aren’t used to paying for multiplayer, unless it’s an MMORPG.

The only feature added in the PC version is the map editor, which lets you design new maps and share them over the service. Could this be an avenue for the world’s next Counter-Strike?

The biggest obstacle for Halo 2 is its required use of Vista. By the time more people start using the new OS, Halo 2 won’t look as purdy anymore. Not that its visuals are comparable with those jaw-dropping DirectX 10 graphics in Crysis.

M$ has some nice ideas going for Halo 2, but its PC version might not cause the same mania as its console cousin back in 2004.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. in eight days!

 

After years of wait (it’s beginning to feel like the Half-Life 2 vigil, actually), S.T.A.L.K.E.R. is going to hit store shelves in eight days. In fact, there was news earlier this month that the long-awaited first-person shooter/survival action game has been released to manufacturing.

In case you’ve been staying away from civilization, S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: The Shadow of Chernobyl took six years to develop, and has been generating a lot of buzz for its massive game world that’s set in an alternate reality. As the game’s story goes, a second nuclear disaster happened at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, and it caused a lot of grotesque mutations in the area.

You take on the role of a “Stalker” or illegal explorer, and it’s your job to scavenge through this zone for artifacts. Progress in the game is non-linear, so you’ll be able to roam about at your own pace. Interestingly, the game comes with role-playing and economic elements. The game’s X-ray Engine promises cutting-edge visuals and non-scripted AI, which is said to develop even when not in contact with the player.

If that were as good as advertised, then wow.

There were many promises that came out in a span of six years, and many times in between, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. has actually been considered as vaporware (**cough Duke Nukem Forever cough**). It’s just amazing to think what this game has gone through, and in eight days, we’ll find out if S.T.A.L.K.E.R. is worth the hype.

The last time I was this excited about an FPS for the PC was 2004 when Doom III and Half-Life 2 came out. I’m hoping that S.T.A.L.K.E.R. will fill those marquee shoes. Well, the gaming deities have smiled upon us, because S.T.A.L.K.E.R. will retail at a mere $39.99.

Now if only Gears of War would land on the PC, that would make my year complete.

Playing Oblivion really late

I recently got a half-decent gaming PC, and I’ve been putting in old favorites that I wasn’t able to play decently with a less-powerful rig. These include: Halo, Deus Ex: Invisible War, Far Cry, and Half-Life 2.

The truth then dawned on me: my new PC is capable of running Oblivion, the fourth Elder Scrolls game! The same game critics have been drooling about, whether they’re die-hard console fans or stauch PC supporters.

Without giving it much thought, I decided to whip out my trusty ATM card and get enough cash to purchase the standard Oblivion box, which still isn’t on sale despite getting it a year later. But I’m not bitter.

When I got home, it was a blur to me. Open box, tweak PC, install game, run Oblivion, tweak PC some more, play till I drop in exhaustion.

It’s been a few days now, and I’ve been loving it. I’ve recently brought back Martin Septim, the son of Uriel Septim VII, to the convent (after rescuing him from Kvatch). I’ve cleared the place from assassins and am about to begin the quest to bring the illegitimate heir to a safer place.

Games like Oblivion make you hate your job–unless your job is about playing video games. It seems this fourth installment is eating into my City of Heroes playing time and my strategy-guide writing.

Final Fantasy is overrated

Flame bait? Not at all. Am I trying to be cool? Whatever for? I’m a journalist, and I’m self-assured. If I let every comment about what I say get to me, then I shouldn’t be in this line of work.

People say it has become “cool” to hate Final Fantasy in the Internet, and you might think I’m just jumping at the bandwagon.

Let me ask you this: could it be possible that we’re just viewing Final Fantasy with rose-colored glasses? Could it be possible that we’ve glossed over the experience and just remember the good memories?

I remember first playing Final Fantasy in the NES during the 90s, at the time blackouts were widespread in our country. There were actually daily schedules for the power outages, so we had to fully enjoy the electricity while it was available. I had to play the game for long stretches because of this.

I vividly recall FFVII, and that it almost made me cry. It was the first time I played a Final Fantasy game in 3D, and my jaw was glued to the floor whenever I saw the awesome cinematics.

Sigh. Those were the days.

When I recently played a succession of Final Fantasy games (VII, VIII, X, X-2), it all came back to me.

How could a game that frustrated you with a random battle for every few steps be terrific? I also recall paper-thin gameplay, stereotypical characters, and restrictive paths. To talk with people, attack monsters, cast spells, select dialogue options, and pretty much do any other activity, you press one button. Of course, you do that in tandem with the directional pad, so don’t get smart.

It wasn’t so terrific after all.

Granted, Final Fantasy games are good (I actually consider Tactics as “great”). Remember though, that “overrated” does not mean it’s terrible. It’s just not in the same level as say, Zelda.

When I hear about Final Fantasy news like its current craze in Japan, I felt that I just had to put in my $0.02. Then again, a lot of weird stuff happens there.

I’m not closing my doors to Final Fantasy, though. I look forward to part XII, which will be arriving later this year. The installment looks promising because it uses a different battle system, and random battles might be a thing of the past.

Here’s to change.

EA acquires SpellForce maker

GameSpot reported that Electronic Arts has acquired Phenomic, the German developer of the SpellForce, its expansions, and sequel. For those who’ve never heard of the game or developer (if you’ve a gamer, and you’ve never heard of EA, you’re hopeless), SpellForce is a PC game that mixes RTS and RPG elements, and delivers a fun combination.

According to GameSpot, EA will keep Phenomic’s management in place, and the developer will continue operating in Germany. The newly-acquired company will be named EA Phenomic.

EA is tight-lipped on the details of the acquisition, said the report.

This purchase will surely be good for Phenomic. Aspyr Media and JoWood Productions, the previous publishers of SpellForce, never really generated that much of a buzz for the titles.

Given the marketing muscle of EA, future SpellForce games could very well hit mainstream consciousness. After all, no matter how good a game is, if its publicity isn’t at an acceptable level, it won’t be selling much.

I just hope the acquisition would give EA Phenomic a better pool of voice actors because the voice work in SpellForce is atrocious.

Jane Jensen returns to adventure games

I’m a Gabriel Knight fan. I finished the trilogy, and am continually fascinated by everything that it touched. I dreamed of roaming the streets of New Orleans (pre Katrina, of course) under a pale moon, visiting Jackson Square while mimes follow me around, and perhaps walking in the bayou during St. John’s Eve, no matter how creepy it may be.

The news that Jane Jensen is returning to the genre electrified me because I needed closure that GK3 didn’t give, and I wanted to know more about her new game. What’s that again? Gray Matter? Strangely, it won’t be published by Sierra.

It’s unfortunate that despite efforts to petition a fourth installment for Gabriel Knight, Sierra and Jane Jensen remain unmoved.

While Blood of the Sacred, Blood of the Damned wasn’t as good as its 2D predecessors (remember the maple syrup puzzle?), it was still a game about Gabriel, the Schattenjäger.

Nothing else is said about Gray Matter, Jensen’s new game, other than it’s being published by dtp entertainment (yes, it’s in lower case), it will be unveiled in the Leipzig games convention this month, and it’s coming out worldwide Q4 2007.

Will Gray Matter showcase vintage Jensen? We don’t know yet. I just hope she does away with the huge leaps of logic found in GK3 puzzles.

Perhaps a Schattenjäger cameo? Maybe I’m asking too much.