| Nicole "Sumire Kanzaki" Kirk's Impressions — A Blow by Blow Account — Page 1 | Page 2 |
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I guess I should cover the games first, since last year people complained to me about covering all the sex, alcohol, and scandal too much. Here's a list of what I played or got to watch for a good bit of time, and my impressions.
Sony Wild Arms 3: I've been playing the import of Wild Arms 3 a bit, and I already like the game a lot. Didn't really pay too much attention to the localization, since I was too busy with Dark Cloud 2. Hopefully it won't be another Grandia. Dark Cloud 2: I never even played the first Dark Cloud (I just got my PS2 this past Christmas, and figured there were much better games for the system than DC). Dark Cloud 2 is very cute, very colorful... and I was actually having quite a bit of fun with it. Getting to switch your characters in real time is also VERY nice. Bandai .hack: Definitely one of the most pleasant surprises of the show. The English dubbing kind of sucks, but I'm pretty anal about that stuff; but I love Bandai long time for putting both English and Japanese voice tracks on. One of my most anticipated games of 2002. Enix Grandia Xtreme: Not really sure what to make of this one. On one hand Grandia 2 was fun... on the other, Xtreme seems to suffer from a lot of the same problems Grandia 2 for PS2 did. Woo claims there's barely a story... Enix's product manager says different. Who to believe? RAD: DO NOT USE THE ANALOG CONTROL. It will make you nauseous. Other than that, RAD seemed pretty fun. Should appeal to mecha fans for sure. Star Ocean 3: There was just video running of the game, but it sure looks pretty. I hope it plays better than 2 (which I hated). Namco Xenosaga: Um... it was Xenosaga. Same trailer we've been watching for almost a year now. Whoop de doo... Namco didn't even want to talk about the game, it was just all about Dead to Rights. Yeah, DDR in a strip club. How novel. Square Kingdom Hearts: Last year I was so skeptical on KH... now I really can't wait to play it. I love action RPGs and it's not often companies even make them anymore. What little English voice acting I heard sounded good... Haley Joel Osment is awesome though. Final Fantasy XI: There are a lot of menus... all in Japanese still. Sony had requested the game from Square so they could demonstrate their online ability. I watched Stephen play this for a while. I didn't even bother to attempt. Sega Phantasy Star Online Episodes I & II and for Xbox: It's more PSO. More of what you love. House of the Dead 3: No light gun? No point. Panzer Dragoon Orta: Takes some getting used to, since you have to constantly switch perspectives. VERY nice game though. Shinobi: Oh. My. God. I want this now so bad. Atlus Unnamable Game — I got to see video of a mystery title... and you didn't! The video was kinda lame, though the game looked good. Atlus' product manager and I kept cracking jokes at it. Dual Hearts — Pretty fun action RPG... didn't get to play as much of it as I would've liked though. Sky Gunner — I have the import of this... very cute, fun shooter. If you liked Tail Concerto's art style, you'll dig Sky Gunner. Konami Suikoden III — The game looks nice, though I'm not a Suikoden fan in the least. I was too busy dodging the advances of one of Konami's product managers. Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance — Despite the oxymoron name, the game is a lot of fun. Just another game based off SotN. Still good though. But c'mon Konami, gives us this on the PS2! Ubi Soft Evolution Worlds — It's Evolution 1 and 2 all over again. I guess if you liked Evolution and want to play it all over again, go for it. Otherwise... Shadowbane — Quite possibly one of the most excruciating experiences for me at E3 was standing for 45 minutes, while some guy talked to Cameron about how great Shadowbane was. I just kept looking at the pretty trees on screen and praying to God he'd shut up and let us go. Nintendo I played absolutely nothing at Nintendo's booth this year because the wait time was ridiculous. Gravity Ragnarok Online — Still basically the same game, but damn it's fun to play as an uber character for once. Gravity gave away some of the most collectible swag too... everybody kept asking me where I got my figures from. Working Designs Growlanser II — I'd already played the import... I just remember it freezing up. A LOT. Capcom Devil May Cry 2 — The video is so brief, but I'm such a big DMC fan that I can't wait for it. Yeah, look at how much I get to play at E3 when I'm not running around doing work for the site! Favorite RPGs:
Favorite Others (in no particular order):
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