This here's a companion music video I made for the song that s-kill featured on the main Capcom Unity blog a few days back.  Hey Keiji Dragon, you know you got skillz when you're getting me up off my ass.  Enjoy. :D

And yes, the intro sequence is from the Spanish version of the game. *Laughs* 
 
  

  

Those of you who know me for any amount of time may know that I'm not white. My parents come from small Caribbean country called Cuba, and most of us from this country tend to speak a language called Spanish*.

(*:Just so we're sure, this is sarcasm)

Now, many Spanish-speaking people from places like Cuba, Mexico and South America also play video games. I quite enjoy them, myself. However, the increased trend toward multi-lingual games - a necessity for bringing games outside of pathetic mini-game compilations to people who don't necessarily speak English very well.

Now why am I talking about this? Very simple. For some reason, I've noticed that there are several games of varying profile that are still without multilingual features. The most egregious of these is Call of Duty. Now, I understand that Activision is an evil company who probably laughs at people in the Americas who might want to play a game in another language and probably wouldn't even dub their games for European audiences if there was any way they could get away with it, but is it really that hard to put in some extra dialogue options in games that everyone knows aren't using the full disc (this isn't exactly Final Fantasy XIII we're talking about here). 

However, the problem isn't magically excused by lack of disc space. There have been separate discs with separate languages for games released on this continent before. The most obvious example is the Halo series, which only has audio for the country the game is being sold in (though they at least have multiple sub tracks). Is there any reason for these Spanish versions not to be released in communities where they would be welcomed (IE, Florida, Texas, California, et al)? And while we're at it, why not French versions for Canada? I'm sure there's lots of folks north of the border who'd like to play more of their games in French.

However, the worst of it is when we get to digital content. Is there any reason I have to have a Spaniard account and import Spaniard PSN cards to play Final Fantasy VII in Spanish, othat than perhaps a prevailing, poisonous attitude that "if they come here, they should learn English"? Come to think of it, why the hell does the PS3 version of Megaman 9 not have Spanish while the Xbox 360 version does? There's absolutely no excuse for any digital release not to be multilingual.

Gaming has come a long way since the days of the NES, and has become the staple of men (and women) all around the world. It's high time that game companies started catering to the more diverse pockets of society, especially here in the US. "Dumb it down" shouldn't be the only way to make a game accessible.    

 

While I wait for the PlayStation 3 release of Marvel VS Capcom 2 (great job discriminating against those of us who'd like our game to be playable while we look for a joystick, Capcom. Perfect), I must admit to a problem. For some reason, the Xbox 360 arcade-style SFIV joysticks (both HORI and Mad Catz) have been relatively plentiful, as far as arcade joysticks go, the PlayStation 3 sticks have had a rarity about equal to that of the True Cross. Here at my local Gamestop, there have been several arcade sticks shipped, all for 360, while the one for PlayStation 3 had one shipped at launch, which was picked up by a guy in another county, has not been shipped again since. Now I get that Capcom can't control another shop's inventory, but can't they make a suggestion, especially as PS3 sales edged out 360 sales for the damned game?

Well, maybe I'll try the Capcom shop after this. I just hope they still have PS3 sticks when I have some money. Rare items seem to be like that. Barring that, I could buy another HORI stick, I suppose. When does Tekken 6 come out, again?

The recent release of Ghostbusters for the major platforms has the nerd community, myself included, quite happy. However, it also brings to light the disproportionate effort that one needs to put forth on the Wii in order to make a good product and the, unfortunately, stunted rewards you'll get regardless of effort.

Now, in the interests of foreclosure, the game's not selling stupendously regardless of platform. According to VGChartz, the sales breakdown is as follows:

360: 0.22m
Wii: 0.11m
PS3:0.26m
PS2:0.06m

That the 360 and PS3 sales are the best of the bunch is not surprising. That seems to be the case almost all the time. However, what's disappointing is how much work went into the Wii version. Ars Technica has a fascinating article on the effort Red Fly Entertainment put into making Ghostbusters for Wii truly shine. From reworking the graphics into something that would look pleasing on the platform, the the fine tuning of the controls based on countless play-test hours and brainstorm sessions. Their reward? Only marginally higher sales than the PS2 version, which is itself a down-port of the Wii, and people wondering why they should bother.

How did we get here though? Going back to VGChartz, here's their stats for the three major consoles worldwide:

Wii: 51.20m
360:31.34m
PS3:22.54m

The complete and utter lack of parity in console sales is spectacular. The Wii is doing remarkably well, so why is Ghostbusters doing so much more poorly on the Wii than on the other two systems? Now, in the interests of foreclosure, the Wii's hard region lock does bar 19.14m Wii owners from playing it, as the game is PlayStation 3 exclusive in Europe (the 360 version is region free, thus allowing Europeans to import it). So that leaves us with 32.06m Wii owners with access to the game (I think, at least – has the game even been released in Japan yet? Hell, is Ghostbusters even popular in Japan?). You still have a stupidly large consumer base, and with a broader consumer demographic than the PS3 or 360, at least in theory. However, a funny thing happens with the Wii. Yes, the more casual leaning of its market is there, but the bigger culprit might just be consumer overlap.

Now I don't need to tell anyone here, but not everyone has only one console. In fact, given just how different the Wii is from the other two consoles, I'm willing to bet that there's a huge number of Wii owners who also own a PS3 and/or a 360. In fact, for all the lip service given to kids, geriatrics and casuals, the Wii could very well be #1 by virtue of being everyone else's #2, as it's far more likely for a 360 or PS3 owner to get a Wii than the other of the two major consoles. So what you have is a situation where most people are going to have to make a choice as to which version they should get. I can't speak for everyone else, but for this multi-console owner, online multi-player is more important than waggle control and cutesy graphics. Not that these are bad things, but every gamer has to look at him/herself and ask what they want in a game. This, my friends, is a classic example of why you shouldn't cross the streams. Wii exclusives may not do spectacularly, but they're more likely to do better than a port.

With Wii Fit having officially outsold Halo 3, the usual panic across the comments section of the cesspool that is Kotaku, heralding the death of gaming.  The (incredibly flawed) logic goes as follows: Since Wii Fit and the Wii are doing so well, all companies will abandon "hardcore" gaming in favor of cheap cash-in titles.

I would like to think that the Giant Bomb audience is a bit smarter than that.  Hopefully we should all realize that gaming is not going anywhere.  In the two years that have passed since the Wii's launch, the 360 and PS3 have had a barrage of wonderful and successful games.  Indeed, 2007 and 2008 are among the best years gaming has had in a good long time.  2009 looks to be a pretty damn nice year too, with the release of sweet games like Killzone 2, Street Fighter 4, and Resident Evil 5, with more coming up, including Uncharted 2, Rock Band PSP (AKA Amplitude 2), Halo 3: ODST, and many others.  The continued profitability of 3rd party gmaes, as well as the continued successes Microsoft have had with the Xbox 360, prove that Nintendo's success has not damaged gaming one iota.

Also worth noting is the toning down of the "wii-ification" talk that surrounded the other consoles some time back.  I remember a year and a half ago the prevailing rumor around the gaming industry was that MS was going to put out a wand-like peripheral for the Xbox 360.  Those rumors are nowhere to be found now, and this without solid denial from Microsoft.  Also, remember when the PS3 first came out, and every game was trying to shoe-horn in the Sixaxis motion controls?  There were several games I bought on 360 to avoid that nonsense where it couldn't be turned off.  That practice is also gone, with Killzone 2 being the first game in a long time to require motion controls.

The fact is that both Sony and Microsoft have figured out that the Wii is a different demographic entirely, one that has proven to gravitate toward a far smaller offering of titles, usually 1st party and usually not games.  The reason many of us have been dissapointed with the Wii is that it wasn't designed with gaming in mind.  Nintendo's aims are removed from our desires, and you know what?  That's fine.  There are probably more workout DVDs sold in any one year than even the biggest of Hollywood movies, but we still get great movies.  The two markets are mutually exclusive, with perhaps some overlap, but not enough to make a huge shift.  Games are the same way.  Just because Nintendo's making money by moving out of the game industry doesn't mean that the game industry will collapse on itself or anything stupid like that.  Gaming isn't going anywhere.  Take off the tin foil hats, pick up the game pads, and enjoy.