I have really been getting into Albatross18, because I think the idea is too crazy not to love. It’s the English version of PangYa, a Korean fantasy MMO golf game. Fantasy + golf is crazy enough. Add Korean in there, and you get awesome anime design and awesome hats and stuff. Add MMO, and it’s officially something to check out.

Which is weird. I don’t even like golf. And I love this.

Also, of course, if you’re within a 10-foot radius of me at any given time, you can hear me rant about how much I don’t like online games. Albatross has the “pick up and play” quality that makes me like it. You play against others in groups of 2-4, but you can play as little as 3 holes, or the whole 18. I’ve yet to play a whole 18, but I really look forward to having the opportunity to. It seems like something that you could play a little bit of when you have the time. Most MMO games don’t make me feel that way, instead they make me feel guilty about not playing.

The game plays like a normal golf game, I’d imagine. (note: I haven’t played a golf game since… err… Turf Masters on NGPC?) You choose clubs, tweak direction, there’s a power meter, timing is everything on the swing, pretty normal stuff. It works really well. Plus, there’s crazy special moves, and a stat system that affects things like power and accuracy. A perfectly-timed swing will get you a “PANGYA!”, which is really satisfying with its sparkly ball effect and camera angle.

It also seems to have a lot of depth. I haven’t gotten into it all yet, but there is a way to hit the ball in a specific place, imparting spin and curves and roll to the ball. There’s also the specials, which are tough but not impossible to pull off, and character customizations.

It’s in beta now, so I dunno what will be in the final game. I think there’s too little character variety at this point, but I can’t imagine that it’ll stay that way. For a game with so much character, it’d be wrong to have everyone using the same avatars with different hair colors.

So! My name is obviously Tanukisan in game (capital T, like i’m trying to look professional XD), and if ever anyone wants to arrange a game, post ‘er here and we’ll get together. It’d be great if I got a few people got into this, and we had a little 4CR club or something. I don’t get in touch with those people enough nowadays.

…GET!!

Info on it: I used to be a Ragnarok Online player. That’s my battle-forge blacksmith, Quincy. He’s awesome.

Usually decked out in a kitty band, he’s seen here relaxed in sunglasses. In fact, he’s probably sleeping.

I miss the game, though I really wouldn’t go back to it. I’ve found that MMORPGs are shallow and meaningless. That dosen’t stop me from loving the style and the atmosphere of the game. This banner is therapy for an old ragnaholic. Next one will be less self-serving, I promise.

Oh, and we got nothing more than interesting clouds and 65 drops of rain from Rita. I counted them.

Rita update. Looks like the storm isn’t going to do much to my area other than a good bit of rain. (yes!)

I shouldn’t start linking to insert credit threads, because if I were to start, I might never stop. But this idea not only knocked my socks off, but proceeded to roast my socks and eat them. The gist: In light of Xenosaga I+II for DS, FFVII should be down-ported to Chrono Trigger/FFVI-style 2-D for the DS/GBA, which would allow it to shine more as a game than it can in its current PS form. (Alleged next-gen port notwithstanding.) There’s some good arguments, if you share tim’s point of view. And I do, so they are.

Rantiness follows.
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Whoa. I’m in a hurricane’s path. This is the first time I’ve ever been, as far as I know. Is it odd that my first reaction is like “Yay, we’ll get some rain maybe!”? I am… sort of a rain fanatic, and it’s been really dry here despite what’s been going on to the east.

People seem to be cautiously calm, they aren’t buying up supplies like crazy yet, but I have a feeling that they will today or tomorrow. Arlington is 99% hurricane-free, so who knows what’ll transpire.

Ten to one, nothing happens, it misses us completely or fizzles before it gets here. Which would be disappointing, I want some rain. Just not too much. I’ll keep das writenblog updated.

I am full of righteous fanboy anger over Lunar being pushed back a week! Oh wait, no, I’m just a little irked. I’m a drooling Lunar fan, however. The series represents what was so good about 16-bit RPGs, while at the same time still reminds why they were not so good. Ignoring the latter and embracing the former works for me. I’m hoping that this DS update will streamline the gameplay and make it less chore-like than the PS remakes.

This week though, I’ve got magazines! I used to buy magazines off the rack from the local grocery store at five bucks an issue, back just before the demise of the 16-bit era. I think I was between 13 and 15 and I read GameFan religiously, nothing else would do. Hardcore Gamer, the magazine’s spiritual successor, is one of my favorites now. Unfortunately, being a magazine in this Internet age means that you get to publish stuff that happened months ago and that everyone already knows about. They go above and beyond though. For instance, this month, they have features on Treasure and Katamari. Nice ones, but I think that the Treasure article missed a few games. No Mischief Makers, no Advance Guardian Heroes? Piffle. I just got into AGH for earnest, and I was hoping for a mention of it.

Also, my free three-month ’scription to Nintendo Power started coming. It’s… full of Pokemon references. That’s okay though. The blantant enjoyment of Nintendo drips from each page. I like NP better than the generic game magazine (let’s say Game Informer. can’t get more generic than that. XD), because of the extra stuff they’ll throw in, like strategies and character guides and maps. The extra features mean that you get more than the standard screenshots and review that everyone else does, whetting your appetite for a game just a little more. They did it to me on Trace Memory and Fire Emblem, the bastards. I approve of it as a piece of fanboy propaganda, because I need that every once in a while, despite not really being able to call myself a Nintendo fanboy. Gotta feed that side of myself every now and then.

Aaaaaaand, saving the best for last, the new Gamer’s Quarter is out at newsstands nowhere! It has an awesome Makai Kingdom/Phantom Brave/Disgaea/Nippon Ichi theme. I cracked into “Life, non-warp,” a huge (read: tim rogers) article on SMB3, and the Nippon Ichi articles before I realized I’d been reading text from a computer screen for an hour. There’s a reason this thing only comes out every quarter, and it’s not just to be clever with the title. It’s huge, full of text with only minimal illustrations. I’m going to make myself a print version sometime, because I really can’t read something of that magnitude from a screen without my eyes trying to explode. Trying not to sound pretentious, it’s hard to describe the whole thing. It’s also hard to tell someone to go read it without sounding pretentious, because you might say something like, “Go and read it, except you’ll probably get bored because it’s really long and you have a tiny attention span.” Whatever, go read it.

Okay, I’ve had some free time to ponder this thing, the Revolution controller, and I am now blown away. I wasn’t last night, I was a little bit this morning, but the promotional video has me hooked. You know, this one. Of course, it’s designed to hook me, but whatever. I am officially frothing.

Also, there’s an X and Y on the controller toward the end. WTXY!?

More after teh cut.
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As I left from work last night, I was anticipating two things:

1. Actually playing Crystal Chronicles with a friend, and

2. The Revolution’s controller.

Crystal Chronicles was actually very enjoyable. I miss co-op gaming a lot. The GBA requirement is lame, yes, it all could’ve been done onscreen; however, I’m not here to fix things, I just take them as they come and try to enjoy them.

We gave 4CR and IGN a query before we started though, and there it was, like a big white enigma. I read off the features. They seemed… interesting, at least. Sounded like the Power Glove actually. However, the PG was a nerdy (awesomely nerdy though) looking fashion statement that I could never ever get the hang of back in the day, and I don’t think about it much anymore.

My knee-jerk reaction was: meh. Weird. I had a problem with the fact that it looked like a remote control. I know that there’s more to it than I was seeing at the time, and I have yet to see it in action. Nintendo is obviously not afraid to experiment though, and it sometimes pays off. Sceptical? Yes, I can be. The games though, the games are what it’s all about. I’m not going to say anything until I really know how this will be used.

My second reaction was: how the heck does this support the backwards compatibility!? I really can’t imagine playing an N64 game without its controller. I want the 4-button configuration of the SNES. I think though, that this will be taken care of somehow. Adaptors for the port on the bottom that connect to older Nintendo controllers would be just about perfect.

I sat down to enjoy FFCC, a fruit of one of Nintendo’s experiments.

So, two strikes for me last night. Now, it is the next morning. I’m taking another look and feeling much more inspired by it. I have lots of suggestions/hopes that I really want, because the expandability really makes me imagine great things. I’m also liking the fact that it can be use one-handed (vertically) or old-school two-handed (horizontally).

Here are my button-by-button thoughts. Seeing as how this isn’t even the revolutionary part, it might seem a little odd to tear into just the button design. This is just one aspect of a controller and a system (and a company) with many facets, but it’s the part I’m most familiar with. And I think I’m going to love it.

THE BUTTON-BY-BUTTON:
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Okay, normally I wouldn’t buy a $OMG system to play a single game. But this is very very convincing.

http://www.climax.co.jp/landstalker/

Seriously, if I could be convinced to buy a system with a single game, this would be it. Climax has me locked in their crosshairs. Quickly, someone come out with a Genesis emulator for the DS so I won’t buy a PSP! XD

CIMA is pretty hard for a GBA game. It suffers from two main problems, and every time I have to wait through the Game Over screen, I lose more will to keep going. But it’s not hard to keep going.

It’s very rewarding. I’m laughably nowhere in the game (Gate World, just beat boss #2; gimme a break, I’ve been busy playing Ikaruga and Rez in honor of 9.9.05), but the area I’ve just entered gave me hope for the rest of the game.

Lemme back up. CIMA is an action-based RPG with an isometric point of view and the ability to collect the frequent monster drops and make potions and powerups. The main mechanic involves leading a small group of civilians around who have minimal (but not nonexistent!) fighting skills. If any member of your entourage dies, it’s over. Get them to the exit, and your job’s done.
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I’m trying to write an impression of CIMA: The Enemy. Also, I’m working on a piece about Cave Story, so I can finally let everyone know why I think it is the most perfect game ever crafted. Some issues have come to my mind though.

Games journalism is terribly annoying, and often ineffective. Why is it, and what can we do to stop it?

Also, why even read a review? If you know what you like, you can find everything you need from the game’s score and it’s genre label. Is anything beyond this even necessary?

I don’t really answer any questions (but I think they could lead to interesting places), and much of the first part is ranty.

Article after cut.
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