Yeah, yeah, that’s all good and well. Very clever, Mr. Joel Guelzo. But what I’m really looking for is more Sunset Sarsaparilla. Do you know how much of that junk I’ve drunk looking for the star bottle caps?
The day of the big date comes and…OH SHIT SON are you wearing a dog collar outside the collar of your frilly lavender shirt? Really?
[Ed note: Angie Gallant is doing the unthinkable in this thread, in which she plays through and thoroughly deconstructs something called Tokimeki Memorial Girl’s Side 1st Kiss. I cannot recommend the thread highly enough.]
So, the Tokimeki series is a huge series of dating games…The Girl’s Side games have you playing a girl through 3 years of high school. This is not a visual novel where you read/listen to lots of dialog and then choose from a couple of options to navigate the story. This is a life sim where you need to choose your classes, afterschool activities, clothes, and friends, go on dates and attend special functions, have a job, compete in mini-games
This isn’t just a game about wooing high school boys. This is a game about touching high school boys. You are periodically given opportunities to use the DS stylus to stroke your 2D boyfriend and watch him blush and object while hearts fly out of him. It’s possible to touch him too inappropriately and make him mad, so you have to really think about the ways in which you are going to molest each high school boy.
Part two of my DC Universe Online field report for Gamepro covers customization, character builds, game balance, and the age-old question of whether to PvP or not to PvP. On this last subject, I’ve had a powerful change of heart since I started playing the game.
DC Universe is only putatively an MMO. More accurately, it is a multiplayer open-world action game in which villains and heroes fight it out in a besieged city.
In other words, you’re not playing DC Universe Online unless you’re playing PvP.
By the way, that picture up there is me taking a flamethrower to Nightwing, who tricked me into playing as Robin.
The two big releases this week are actually little! First up is Atom Zombie Smasher, a $15 strategy game about zombie apocalypses. I’ll be reviewing it later, but here’s an example of how it plays.
The other great release this week is the PC version of Monday Night Combat, which has been available as a beta for a while, and on the Xbox 360 for an even longer while. Now it’s on the PC for real and for only $15. It’s like Team Fortress 2 met Demigod and had a baby. A smart, funny, in-depth, accessible, team-based shooter/RTS baby.
If bigger budget releases are more your thing, I expect lots of elaborately rendered stuff will jump out at you in Dead Space 2. Two Worlds II is a big RPG from the developers of Two Worlds, who insist they know Two Worlds I was bad and they’ve fixed whatever was screwed up. Finally, Lord of Arcana isn’t just the most generically named game in all of history. It’s also a Square/Enix Monster Hunter sort of game for the PSP.
Finally a movie we don’t agree on. It’s a 2 vs. 1 split on Peter Weir’s out-of-Siberia odyssey. If you’re worried about spoilers, jump to the 53-minute mark for our 3×3 of great character introductions.
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