I do buy downloadable games. Not a ton of them but there have just been some gems coming through the works in this past year that I can't pass up. Right now the main one being Fat Princess. I used to be a TF2 junky and am currently reliving that with FP.

After going into work the other day and seeing the Sony Rep change the demo disc in the PS3 I decided to check out what was on it. Pleasantly surprised to find that there was a demo for Arkham Asylum on there I leapt in immediately. There are two playable sections in the demo. To be fair I have only played the first of the two which is solely focused on the combat in the game. To be honest, it's not so great in my opinion.

The combat relies around using the square button to perform combos, triangle to counter, circle to swing your cape and "stun" enemies, and you can also use L1+R1 to throw the battarang (never really came into use in the demo). The level is just a square room where the Joker sends inmates at you in waves to defeat, so pretty standard stuff. What I noticed though is the cape move to "stun" your enemies doesn't really do much since they are back to normal by the time your animation ends. Also when an enemy is prepping to attack they glow blue for a brief period. That is your cue to use the counter button. Just push the analog toward the glowing enemy and hit the butt. That's all. The problem with this is that it then delves into Assassin's Creed-like territory of just waiting for an attack and countering. Enemies only attack one at a time and in succession you can just keep countering from one enemy to another until they are all down. If that's as deep as the combat gets then I'll spend even less time on this game than I did on AC (stopped at the 2nd city for lack of anything new to keep me going).

Again to be fair though, I haven't played the second part of the demo yet. Hopefully it is about movement and exploration and if that is done well then maybe it'll counteract the repetition of the fight system that I've experienced thus far. Here's to hoping.

Hmm, seeing as to how I haven't done much but comment on videos since last duing the Kazuma Kaneko page, I figured I'd just put this out there.

The last few weeks have given me good news and still a lack of any news. First off is my continued irritation at the lack of any US release of Fatal Frame 4 for the Wii. It's been out in Japan for about 3/4 of a year and is releasing in EU relatively soon. Yet neither Nintendo nor Tecmo is willing to say anything regarding a US date and have been pointing to the other for anyone who asks. What's even more idiotic about it is that Reggie flat out said in response to a question to check with the publisher.... news flash bub, the Japanese publisher was NINTENDO! Seriously, someone pull your head out of your ass and make this happen. The Wii needs a game to satiate the masses and Fatal Frame has a following that has been demanding it for a long time now.

After I was done tearing my hair out I caught wind of a new Devil Summoner game. Based off of the trailer Atlus published on youtube, it looks to be directly following the events of Devil Summoner: Kuzunoha Raidou vs The Soulless Army. I wish the game were upgraded to the PS3, but I'm happy with any Shin Megami Tensei spin-off games regardless anymore.

...Now if only the stupid UPS guy would finally drop off Street Fighter 4 at work so I can buy it already....

While watching my weekly dose of Ghost Hunters on Sci-Fi I happened to see a commercial for one of their new original reality shows called CHA$E. From the commercial it looks as though the basic premise is to set a free runner loose in an urban environment with people trying to catch them. Presumably this means escape and win the money. What really caught my eye though were two things.

First is a line spoken by the announcer along the lines of "turning game into reality". While Mirror's Edge was never mentioned as having anything to do with the production in any way, it is almost as though the implication were there. The second and perhaps more interesting thing is the fact that the runners are equipped with cameras. Obviously they cannot carry them but it looks as though they are either clipped to their collars or maybe just wear a collar of sorts. There isn't a good pic of the runner to tell what the case is, but they do show first person free running in motion. It looks a lot like trailer footage from Mirror's Edge in the fact of the hands coming in and out of view as the person runs and climbs.

At the very least, whether or not EA and Mirror's Edge are in anyway involved with the show, perhaps this lends some credence to the stylistic liberties that the DICE team said they made in creating the visuals for the game. If nothing else it proves just how well they got the style and feel. Curious to see how the show pans out and whether or not EA will at least get some advertising dollars in. Seems like the obvious fit to me anyway.

Info on the show: http://www.scifi.com/chase/about/

Reading the info page leads me to think that it's possible that the commercial was just done with free runners to make it appear more exciting (screen on about page is a still from the commercial) but to what degree that part is a marketing ploy is yet to be seen. I'd like to update this later seeing as to how the commercial is not on youtube or scifi.com to this point.

In a new post over at cameraslens.com more information about the situation regarding the US release of Fatal Frame 4 for the Wii has somewhat been revealed. Reggie Fils-Aime has been quoted with a couple mixed messages from a "We'll see" type response to "We have to talk to the publisher". Ironically in Japan the game was published by Nintendo Japan meaning they must talk to themselves essentially. At the very least if nothing else, there are at least thoughts on the issue coming to the surface and hopefully we'll be able to get clear concise information in the coming months. Otherwise start trying to get the region breakers and importing funds set aside... shipping prices from Japan can be a pain.