SDCC: God of War III Hands-On (PS3)

You would think Kratos has had enough slaughtering underworld henchmen, playing with nude women, and killing large demigods, but he hasn't. Not at all. He makes his return in God of War III on PS3 with a vengeance, following the end of the second game in the trilogy.

From what I gathered in the five minute demo at Comic-Con is that developer Ready at Dawn wants to make sure fans of the series are not disappointed by this PS3 installment. The gameplay mechanics stay true to the series, with encouragement for button mashing and insane combos, along with the famous quick time events (QTE's) to finish off the larger foes. One part of the level had Kratos facing a mob of sword carrying undead skeleton enemies along with a fairly large centaur. Once you got the centaur's health down enough, you initiate a QTE that ends with the centaur on the ground with his guts spilling out onto the floor. Yes, guts spilling out. Some people in line were about to hurl, no joke. It is that brutal.

The brutality is intensified by the smooth 30 FPS and spectacular 1080p graphics. The detail in this game is astounding, especially for it being a demo of a game set to release next year. The lighting is beautiful, smoke looks smokey, and Kratos' muscles never looked more intense. Ready at Dawn has spared no expense at making this game a visual masterpiece. The music is equally epic with appropriate scores chiming in for different scenarios and battles. Good stuff.

I walked away from the demo with a poster, a cool lanyard, and the urge to play more...so much more. Too bad I'll have to wait until March of 2010 for the final version of the game.

SDCC: Tatsunoko Vs. Capcom Ultimate All-Stars Hands-On (Wii)

If you're wondering "What the hell is Tatsunoko?", It's okay, I thought the same thing the first time I heard of the game too. All you really need to know is that it is an incredibly fun entry into Capcom's Vs. series for the Wii, and I enjoyed kicking a little kid's butt using those fancy fight sticks you see in that picture up there.

As you may have guessed, Tatsunoko is a Japanese umbrella for several anime characters that are popular in Japan (to find out more, click here). The core gameplay itself is actually a bit simpler than most of Capcom's other offerings. There are three attack types: Weak, Medium and Strong that relate to the effectiveness of each character's actions. Comparing it to Marvel Vs. Capcom, Ultimate All-Stars has a two character per team maximum, and some extra large characters have to play solo. So fatty lovers, beware, you won't have any help carrying around that extra weight.

The graphics are absolutely stunning for a Wii game, and carry a crispness and unique art direction that you would expect from a Capcom fighter. No matter what anyone says, Street Fighter 4 could so work on the Wii after seeing Ultimate All-Stars in action. The fighting, despite being fairly straight-forward, is still fairly deep and many of the characters are pretty well balanced.

Other notable inclusions in the American version of the game is an online mode, a few extra unannounced fighters, and various bug and balancing fixes found in the Japanese version. I am highly anticipating Tatsunoko Vs. Capcom Ultimate All-Stars' tentative Winter 2009/2010 release.

SDCC: Star Wars The Clone Wars: Republic Heroes Hands-On (Wii)

After viewing a video or two of the game online for the Wii, I did not expect too much from this Clone Wars game. And I was so right to be skeptical. LucasArts continues to their cash-in on the kid friendly TV series with Republic Heroes.

Mind you, this is just a demo (and an E3 one at that), but I could tell just by looking at the menu screen that there was little work put into this Wii game. I glanced over to look at the 360 version and it looked vibrant and polished...what happened here LucasArts? Now, to the actual game itself.

Immediately, I noticed a bland palette of colors as my Clone Trooper blasted through an area filled with Separatist droids. You use the Wii Remote to aim your rifle at the respective targets, but the aiming was so slow and wonky I just ended up spraying bullets all over the place. Either this demo was poorly done, the Wii Remote was on crack, or this is going to end being one terrible licensed game. Unforunately, I wasn't able to sample any Jedi levels, but maybe it was good that I didn't.

Expect to see this game on store shelves for the Wii, Xbox 360, PS3, PS2. PSP, Nintendo DS, and the PC on October 6th, 2009. And bargain bins soon after.

SDCC: Star Wars: The Old Republic Developer Panel

Comic-Con and Star Wars go hand in hand, so it is no surprise that BioWare and LucasArts were hyping up their newest Star Wars installment: The Old Republic with all sorts of freebies, t-shirt hand-outs and a ginormous (as in a 100+ foot projector screen with amazing bass) viewing of the now famous E3 trailer of the game.

The real highlight of the hype was a panel about the development process and the work that went into and continues to go into this ambitious MMO project. It began with another viewing of the awesome E3 trailer (if you have not seen it, click here), and then the orator quickly began throwing questions at the four developers that were on-hand.

Their first response was in relation to the sheer size of the game, and the amount of voice work being done for it (another interesting video relating to the VO below). One of the developers was a highly experienced MMO producer that was brought on the team to over see the production of the project, and he began admitting to the audience that he thought what BioWare was doing was absolutely nuts. Full voice over? No way. Branching story arches? That is crazy. What actually convinced him into believing in the project was "about two weeks after being on the team, I played a demo for the smuggler class, and after experiencing that I was a believer".





What was astonishing to hear is that all the game's classes have congruent stories that, even though they can be very different and unique, will connect and overlap as each player progresses through the game. One developer noted that playing one class is like playing a full Knights of the Old Republic game, but with even more content and story. They approximate that to fully "max out" and complete a class' story, you will have had to put in something like forty hours of gameplay. Incredible, I know. It doesn't stop there, though. Even if you play entirely through the game as one class Light Side, and then go back and play it again Light Side, chances are you are still going to see some different things happen. This game is going to be incredibly dynamic.

Of course, what would be a KotOR based game without choices? The Old Republic features a real time player decision system similar to the original KotOR games, but this time around you can't reload the game. No do overs. They also confirmed group decisions, so if you happen to be grouped with a few of your buddies, you all must vote on a response together.

Other things like the ability to play the game "grey", a bit dark side and a bit light side, will be a possibility. And so far, BioWare will not confirm anymore playable races, but from what they hinted at, expect to see a solid variety of them available to choose from (see Star Wars Galaxies). All the standard MMO attributes will be in place like trading systems, crafting, guilds and other things of that nature. End game content was also confirmed, with an emphasis on PvP and miscellaneous side-stories.

Unfortunately, I couldn't take any snapshots of any of the cool art they were showing off, but seeing and hearing these guys spill their guts on the game has reassured me that BioWare is not kidding around with The Old Republic.

SDCC: Tekken 6 Hands-On (PS3)

My time with Tekken 6 on the PS3 was fairly short. In the hectic atmosphere that is San Diego's Comic-Con, it's usually pretty tough to get in some solid time with anything game related.

From what I gathered after playing six rounds or so, is that it is the same fast-paced strategic 3D fighter that fans have enjoyed over the last few editions. At its core, Tekken 6 is simply Tekken 5 but with shinier graphics, cleaner models, and a bit more fluid animations. The framerate is at a steady 60 frames per second, and everything is crisp and clean.

In terms of new content over the 5th edition of Tekken, 6 has new destructible environments akin to those found in other fighting games like Soul Calibur 4 that reveal new fighting areas. However, since this was a multiplayer only demo, there wasn't much else I could investigate. The only other thing I can confirm is that the character roster is going to be a good amount larger than Tekken 5, which will make it the most expansive roster in Tekken history.

Overall it is another solid entry into the series. Look for it on PS3 and Xbox 360 on October 27th, 2009. The PSP version will hit a month later on November 24th.

A Little About Me

Hopefully you can tell who I am...

It's a bit awkward doing an about me section, because listing the things that make me...me is just strange. That's besides the point of course, the point of this post is to allow you, the reader (guild member, random person, etc), to get to know the man behind the posts.

To start off, my name is Ryan Simon, a nineteen year old University of California, Riverside college student. I grew up in the small town/city of Murrieta, California and still live here...surprisingly enough. For a long time my dream was to become a pro basketball player, but my other interests quickly outgrew that dream.

Thanks to several influences (coaches, teachers, peers, friends, enemies, small puppies and kittens) I am the man who writes here today. My hobbies and general interests are so large that I decided to confine my list to just a few, and so here they are in no particular order: basketball, snowboarding, video games, writing, reading, Star Wars, technology, web design, graphics design...etc. The list goes on, but I don't want to bore you any further.

Today, I am currently attending UCR as a second year, I write for the Highlander UCR newspaper, I design graphics for various things, I am the clan leader/guild leader of the Valiant Knights gaming community, I am a rabid basketball fan/player, I am a programmer, I am owning people in Call of Duty 4, I am attending Comic-Con 2009, and finally...I am a computer technician for my own company called Tech AceZ. Yeah, I know I am crazy.

Well, that's me! In a proverbial nutshell, at least. I hope everyone looks forward to future posts here, both personal editorials and views and gaming news. Enjoy!