『 Beautiful Katamari / ビューティフル塊魂 』

"Let's roll up some more stuff" the king of all cosmos said, and so yet another Katamari game was born, this time appearing on a non-Sony platform. I'm sure you all know the story of Beautiful Katamari's development. It was to appear on Sony's PlayStation 3 and on Nintendo's Wii, but when Microsoft couged up some cash, it became an exclusive to the, almost ignored in Japan, Xbox 360.


This game was given to me for my birthday and what a fine present it made. I didn't stop playing it untill I completed the game and uncovered some of the extras. I even took my time to collect some of the crazy cousins [you should know that the main character in the game is Prince, son to the King of all the Cosmos. The Prince has plenty of cousins scattered all over the game, and when you collect them, they become playable characters].


Before Beautiful Katamari came out, there were three other games released [not counting the DoCoMo P904i 塊魂モバイル Phone version which I discussed HERE] in the series. The first, Katamari Damacy, followed by the sequel We Love Katamari and a PSP title Me & My Katamari. As you can see, the series has so far been Sony exclusive.


Beautiful Katamari broke the Sony chain of releases and brought the game as an exclusive treat for Microsoft's Xbox 360. Japan wept and the rest of the world rejoyced. Aside from being the first non-Sony installment, Beautiful Katamari is also the first game in the series to feature full HD resolution support up to 1080p, downloadable content and online multiplayer in both cooperative and competitive modes via Xbox Live.


What about gameplay? Unfortunately, despite being a great game with tons of fun and humor packed into it, Beautiful Katamari seemed rather short. I have managed to complete it faster than any other Katamari game, and that includes the PSP version, again not counting the mobile phone one. Unlocking secrets, collecting various objects and cousins, aswell as beating your own high scores will keep you occupied, but the amount of core gameplay falls short of the previous titles. Luckily, there's the previously mentioned online mode, which makes the fun last longer, gtanted you're a Live subscriber.


Xbox 360 is a powerful gaming platform capable of pushing an impressive amount of polygons per second. How does that affect gameplay? For starters, if you own a LCD or Plasma screen, you'll be able to enjoy crispy crisp, high resolution graphics. This might not be the most important feature, since most objects in Katamari series are low poly, because the game is forced to manage hundreds of bric-a-brac you roll up. While playing in lower resolutions you won't be missing out on the details. Let's just say that the high resolution modes make the image easy on the eyes on quality screens.


More processing power and more video memory made it possible to remove the loading times when the scale is changed. In previous Katamari games, each time your katamari ball would grow and allow you to roll up larger objects, the game changed scale. The scale change came with a few seconds of loading time and a head of King reminding you how much you suck. This time you can just roll and roll and you won't be bothered by the gameplay stopping for a while.


Now, onto the soundtrack. The music throughout the series has been great and was always one of the major selling points. Large portion of Beautiful Katamaris audio content is or feels recycled and the original compositions aren't as catchy as the ones hears in previous titles. Still, the soundtrack is enjoyable, especially for those who haven't played Katamari before and are unfamiliar with its original sound.


So what can one complain about? The first thing would have to be the additional fees that we're forced to pay for the downloadable stages. This has been pointed out by many reviewers. The are exactly six downloadable levels in the european version of the game and none of them exceed 400kb in filesize. Yet, we're forced to pay 200 Microsoft Points for each one of them. This, after you bought the game and pay for your Xbox Live account, is a bit too much. If this wasn't enough, you won't be able to unlock the 1,500,000 km katamari achievement if you don't download the additional levels.


As usual, it's all about profit. The separate content you're forced to pay for would make the game a more complete katamari experience if it was present on the disc from the get go. However, I assure you that what you get on the disc is still worth your money and whether you're a katamari fan or are completly new to the series, I highly recommend this fun and weird game.

『 Goblins Quest 3 』

★ - A small update. Due to YouTube idiocy that caused the deletion of my account, videos posted in this entry no longer work. I was careless enough to delete the originals once the upload to YouTube was done, so there's no easy way of restoring these. I am planning on uploading these again, this time to Nico Nico Douga. Please, check back later if you're still interested.

Few weeks ago, I have finally managed to track down a copy of Goblins Quest 3, and a CD version at that. I already own the disc version but if you have played both disc and CD versions of, let's say, Lucas Adventures' games, you know that the difference can be quite big. That is also the case with Goblins Quest 3.


The place I found this shiny gem was, of course, eBay. Believe it or not, I was the only one to bid on this item and I bought it for just $4.95. An incredibly low price, considering the fact that Goblins Quest 3 hardly ever shows up. You can always find the first game of the series, the second one is quite common aswell, but not the third. Oh well, my gain is everyone else's loss and I'm fine with that. Who wouldn't be?


While my Gobliins 2: The Prince Buffoon CD is an european release and was published by Coktel Vision themselves, Goblins Quest 3 CD that I purchased was published by Sierra. It was Sierra who decided about the name change, thus changing the title from the original Goblins 3 to Goblins Quest 3. If you spot a release with Goblins 3 written on the box, it's the one released by Coktel Vision, most likely european.


So what's the difference between the disc version and the floppy version? Actually the difference is quite big. The CD versions of previous games didn't add much besides the CD Audio track. Gobliins 2 for example, is still just 4.5 megabytes of data on a CD, plus four demo versions of other Coktel Vision games, including Inca and Ween. These take up to 7.5 megabytes. The rest is an audio track, without which the game will have no music, other than ocasional sound effects.


Gobliins 2, the CD version, was basically the floppy version plus an audio track. Goblins Quest 3 however differs from the floppy version alot. First of all, we have animation. When the game is started, an animated Coktel Vision logo will appear, followed by an introduction movie. After the intro sequence we see a start screen and we can begin our adventure. The floppy version doesn't have any of the animations and jumps directly from the start screen displaying credits, to the first location of the game.


Coktel Vision did try to make the gaming experience complete for the owners of each version. While the compact disc features both speech and a high quality CD soundtrack, the floppy version features synthesized music. Speech was however replaced by on screen messages. The addition of intro and other animations dramatically increased the overall size of the data contained on the CD. While the floppy version is about 7.5 megabytes, the data on the CD, not counting the audio track, comes down to about 113 megabytes.


Goblins 3 / Goblins Quest 3 is to this date my favorite game in the series. Packed with tons of humor it will entertain you aswell make you laugh and think. The gameplay in Goblins series is based on a concept that won't appeal to everyone. You simply have to think, combine things, think again and combine again. The puzzles are logical but it will take time before you crack this title. I always thought about it this way: If it's hard and you're still having fun, try to finish it and don't give up. Finishing a hard game is much more rewarding than speeding through an easy one, which you forget within a week from the day you've played it.


I have included two videos in this blog entry, so that you dear reader, could compare the CD version with the floppy release. The video at the top of this entry is a quick play-through of the first location and was made using the CD version of the game. The other video, just under these very words, shows the same quick run-through and was done using the floppy version. Both recordings are made from the moment the game executable boots.

『 King's Quest Collection 』

If you want to get to know me and my gaming habits, you should know that I love good adventure games. I'm not one of those who will go hardcore and play the oldest of them. I want the game to be good, look good and sound good. That's why I will be eternally greatful to LucasArts, because even though they suck sweaty balls right now, with their Star Wars crap, they used to make top notch adventure games. And so did Sierra.


I love reeditions. Despite not looking like much, they usually offer the latest and most compatible versions of the games fitted with some additional patches. When I saw King's Quest Collection in a bargain bin and read that it was Windows XP compatible, I just bought it without thinking twice. Any adventure game fan should own this, if only for the sake of King's Quest V and VI, which are my personal favorites, with emphasis on the sixth game.


Pleased with myself and with my new purchase, I headed home. I wanted to see what this collection is worth and what did Sierra do to make the older DOS games compatible with Windows XP. I installed it, and as it turns out, Sierra didn't go out of their way at all. Their compatibility with current operating systems is ensured by the cunning use of DOSbox. That's right. King's Quest I - VI boot through DOSbox. Version 0.68 at that.


But who am I to complain. After all I bought seven games for a price of one. Or even below the regular price of a single retail title, since I found it in a bargain bin. Maybe all this is just for the better. Original DOS games should work better and better with the constantly improved DOSbox. I even run my King's Quest VI through the DoSbox 0.72 which I have installed, instead of the solution Sierra have supplied.


Is this collection worth buying then? Of course it is, and you should grab it while you still can. And while you're at it, make sure you grab the rest of them aswell - Larry, Space Quest and Police Quest. Sierra didn't overdo it and chose the easy way out by using a third party emulator. Despite this fact, everything works well, and that's what's important. This collection is worth its price for King's Quest V - VII alone. I never really liked the fourth game and first three had been re-made by fans and these versions not only look and sound so much better but use the point and click interface rather than text input, and that can only be viewed as something positive.

If you want to be able to play the remakes and still be okay by law, get this collection. If you want to experience the great King's Quest V and VI, get this collection. If you're a fan of point and click adventure games and you still haven't played King's Quest, get this collection. It even comes with a grainy video showing how King's Quest VI was made. Now that's what I call getting your moneys worth.


To wrap this nice blog entry up, I've decided to make a video comparing the original version of King's Quest III to its homebrew remake based on the AGS engine. As you can see, back in 1987 such exotic things as soundtrack, sound effects or a user friendly interface were unheard of. That's why I would choose the remake over the original any day, even though it's still amusing how limited the text input is in understanding what you, the player, are trying to do.






The banners above will take you to the re-made versions of the first three King's Quest games. King's Quest I and II+ were developed by AGDInteractive, while the third game was handled by Infamous Adventures. I highly recommend these versions, both for those who have played these games before and those who haven't had the chance. I know there are those who prefer "the real deal" but come on, at its core, it's the same game. Enjoy and support Sierra by buying their collections.

『 Sam & Max: Surfin' the Highway 』

Finally, it arrived! It's been ages since Sam & Max: Surfin' the Highway was first published and since then, it became a holy grail for Sam & Max fans all over the world. This rare gem could be obtained only through eBay, at a mindblowing price of $100+, depending on the overall book condition.


Telltale Games, the company responsible for reviving the Sam & Max game series, aswell as bringing a ton of related merchandise, had decided it was about time to give Surfin' the Highway a new run. The work on the new edition began some time ago and after some significant delays it's finally out.


There are two versions of Surfin' the Highway avalable. A regular paperback and the limited hardcover. The hardcover edition had a limited run of 2500 copies [Or 2502 to be exact - The 2501st copy went to Steve Purcell and the 2502nd went to Telltale Games office], all numbered and autographed by the Sam & Max creator himself.


When I finally picked up the package I thought it was quite heavy. The box containing the book and some packaging paper weighed a ton. Main reason for that is the hard cover and the thick high quality paper the book is printed on. This is how a good comic book should look like. The quality of this edition is just superb.


What about the material? All of you who know and love Sam & Max will get more than a few laughs out of Sufrin' the Highway, but what about those who never read the comic? Luckily, Steve Purcell's humor works just as well today, as it did in '95, when the compilation first saw the light of day.


If you're not sure whether or not to buy the book, you can always choose the cheaper paperback, but then you won't be getting an autograph! If you decide to get a hardcover though, there's a fair chance of scoring a high number on the edition, since Telltale's warehouse are a bunch of idiots and they send out books by random.


The warehouse mess resulted in me getting a book No.1225, even though I was one of the first people to order it. Warehouse nimrods also thought it would be amusing to label the package with "Software made in U.S.", even though the package contained a book. This may result in high customs fees if you live outside the U.S. Just because Telltale's warehouse people are a bunch of morons, I got slapped with a fee that equalled one third of the initial book price.


But hey, it's a numbered edition, no matter how you look at it. There's only one person in the world that owns Sam & Max: Surfin' the Highway number 1225, and that person is me. 2500 books is still a pretty limited run and I'm sure that if you don't score one of these now, you're looking at eBay and really high prices.


So, are you in the mood for some crazy and uncensored Sam & Max action? Go for it! Get this book and you will be pleased with yourself. It has love, lust, girls, guns and granades. It has kidnapped manatees, pirates, plastic dinosaurs, and who knows, if you read carefully you might just find the meaning of life somewhere between the lines.


Those of you who have played Sam & Max: Hit the Road and the Telltale episodes and seen the TV series [also sold by Telltale] might find the material a bit too familiar but it was this book that started it all and if you miss out on it, you're going to regret it big time.


For me the total cost of this book came down to about $83. This includes the book, shipping and the customs tax fees. It's alot of money for a comic book, but you're getting an exceptionally entertaining compilation of all Sam & Max comics out there, you get it on a top notch quality paper with a hard cover, an autograph by Steve Purcell and guess what. It even has a red bookmark ribbon. The only thing I thought was missing was the dust jacket, but you can make your own, right?

『 Outlaws / アウトロー 』

Raise your hand if you remember or have played Outlaws, the awsome and oh so wonderfully wild wild western game. If you have played it, you know that it's one of the best designed first person shooting games out there and it's by far the best wild west themed one [or maybe the very next best, right after the amazing Silverload].


Nowdays we don't expect much from LucasArts. They have their Star Wars and Indiana Jones Lego games. And let's not forget the Star Wars Lego to make the Lego experience complete. Lately LucasArts sacked hundreds of people just because the company can't be bothered to make decent games and to make crappy ones you need only so many employees.


Back to the point. In the good old days when adventure games still rocked the PC world side by side with first person shooters, someone at LucasArts [Daron Stinnett, along with Stephen R. Shaw and Adam Schnitzerhad to be exact] had the idea of creating a wild west themed game. Based on the Jedi engine, previously used in Star Wars: Dark Forces, Outlaws offered an impressive set of massive 3D levels to explore, complete with an amazing western soundtrack stored on CD as audio tracks.


Despite its greatness, perfect feel and spot on design, the game didn't achieve any higher status. The reviews were quite enthusiastic, as were the opinions of gamers, but the glory of Outlaws has since the day of its premiere faded, almost into nothingness.


The decreased popularity might be caused by some massive compatibility issues the game has suffered. Originally released for Windows 95, it had some compatibility issues already on Windows 98 and things didn't get any better when Windows XP finally came along. LucasArts did release some patches, but they were quite dodgy and the game still suffers from a few issues, mainly from animated textures ocasionally going white in hardware accelerated mode.


Outlaws also got a mission pack, which became a part of the main package in later editions. "Historical Missions" were a set of five quest levels giving the player some back story on the game's main protagonist and him achieving the rank of a U.S. Marshal. To complete the experience, Outlaws got equipped with a multiplayer mode which became quite popular thanks to, now mostly dead, Kali. Many clans formed and tons of multiplayer maps got created. These can still be found on the internet, even though it's hard to find someone to play the game with.


I recently got this 2007 edition of Outlaws, a part of LucasArts Classic collection, just because of it's alleged compatibility with Windows XP. My old '97 edition refused to load levels from the disc in between CDs. This basically means I couldn't load the first level off the second disc. That, plus the game being a crash waiting to happend, even after patching, made me buy this little package.


Nowdays we usually pick up another Half Life 2 episode, or one of the next gen smash hits like Gears of War or Bioshock. Ocasionally a game like Portal comes along to show us what "simple" fun is all about. Outlaws is fun for me. Maybe I'm a bit nostalgic or maybe the game is just so good, but there is something about LucasArts' design and the wild west feel. If you haven't played it, I'm not even sure if it's right for me to recommend it. Let me put it this way. If you still enjoy Doom while playing it, you should enjoy Outlaws. It's one of the first full 3D games with small surprises like the first ever scope rifle in an fpp. If you like the oldies, get it. If you played it and liked it but you don't own it, get it. Run it in the accelerated mode, turn off the smooth textures and enjoy the adventure in all of it's pixly glory. It will be worth it.


Lastly, I would like to direct some words to LucasArts: If you can't the upgrading of your own software, release the source code for Jedi engine and I'm sure that homebrew scene will take care of the problem for you. Unless you really did reverse engineer the Doom engine [which I highly doubt] and you don't want that to come out in the process.

Sadly, LucasArts is not planning on making a sequel to this great game. I guess we're all stuck with the half assed patches and the '98 build of the game. That's right. When you install the newest 2007 edition of Outlaws, the game is still the same build with some of the patches, the latest one dated to 2001. LucasArts didn't listen to thousands of people petitioning for a Sam & Max sequel, so I don't think they will listen to anyone who wants a fix or a sequel to Outlaws. They just don't give a shit.