Japan In you're living room!

Boy has it been a few crazy months for SEGA and Yakuza 3, well silence has finally fell upon on the gaming crowd for a Yakuza 3 demo was finally released just a few days back provided with full english translation and subtitles, for those like me who just loved the ridiculous fighting styles while indulging themselves on a tasty meal of Miso or Ramen, the series of Yakuza was a real treat for people with a love of such things but when the news that Yakuza 3 was never planned to hit western shores, cries from across the USA and EU were all that could be seen and heard for months as endless forum threads and videos were created to underline such a mistake made by SEGA until they finally confirmed the existence of a project based on localising the game into several different languages. It was believed that such information was a lie or fault until eventually our solemn prayers were answered with a package left for us over the psn and in all honesty, the game has possessed more than I had imagined with it's massive mix of rpg/fighting gameplay along with its crazy yet subtle features of Karaoke and side shooters hidden throughout the streets of Tokyo. Although some of the dialogue was slow and uninteresting, most of this was made up for when small stabs of humor are injected into each individual conversation and cutscene although not always for the right reasons, but having seen myself replay this demo for a fourth turn I can officially say this game is ready to be welcomed into my gaming archive without any hesitation and as I have mentioned in forums myself, lets just hope that we can get the same deal with Yakuza 4 no matter how long it takes.

Size DOES matter.

Normally when you see a large blade the first thing to come to mind would be Cloud and the Buster Sword but "3D Dot Game Heroes" is far beyond that, as confirmed in the newest trailer, when going into the nearest blacksmith you can now be given the option to "upgrade" you're sword although in all honesty I get the feeling this isn't the idea but to up size the sword you possess. But with all this insanity occuring my decision to love this game is never going to waver and I will still probably find myself buying this on it's release and this is not just because it's published by the ever wonderful "ATLUS" but that could be reason, i'll leave that up to you lot to guess whether it is.

Has Silent Hill got lost in the fog?

It's been a long time since I last played an original Silent Hill game and I found my perfect chance when I found it in a second-hand store, so I bought the game with the last remaining pounds I had stuffed in my pockets and took the closest bus home. Now I bet you're wondering what this has to do with the title of this post?

Well, as I slipped the disc into my slowly aging ps2 and selected my way through the menu, I was hit with an intro scene of "James Sunderland" staring into a lake, I was hit with many memories as I had previously played this game before selling it many years ago. As the cutscene met it's end, I met the beginning of a long journey and every journey needs good music, and Silent Hill was perfect at providing such tone and sound to its games, this was mainly due to the sound artist, "Akira Yamaoka" who has been providing his expertise to Konami for almost every Silent Hill which has currently been released, but as you all know, he recently left Konami for something different and to someone like me, the eerie music of Silent Hill was one of it's main attractions to the public so where will the series go, if anymore are to be made? Is there really anyone who could exceed Akira? these questions are all that pop into my head as I replay Silent Hill 2, lets just hope they get someone good for the next game.

P.S. Is it me or are these posts getting later and later? hopefully I will be able to sort this out when I can persuade the rest of the team to post something and to post more myself.