thirdworldgamer

A few weeks ago Sony has unveiled the PS3, or majority of what it is supposed to be, coupled with their online service offerings that a few months ago they had downplayed as unnecessary. At the Game Development Conference (GDC), Sony once again echoed the same news that Ken Kutaragi trumpeted in the Playstation Business Conference, this time under the guise of Phil Harrison coupled with a couple of more tech demos (hard to tell what they are anymore if its coming from Sony). Of course with the style of Sony Marketing, the sizzle always sells much more than the steak…and it works! Microsoft and Nintendo were also present at the GDC but compared to Sony’s sizzle these two guys are once again left out in the blue. Ken Kutaragi's motto: "Sell the Sizzle and not the Steak!" To its credit, Microsoft didn’t really want to create too much buzz around the XBOX 360, perhaps they want to save all the news they have for E3 2006. Instead they went to the GDC to peddle thei...

The media is indeed very powerful in controlling public perception. I know i've posted this earlier, but later on I will provide something that's worth thinking about. Note in the following comparisons how differently two media avenues cover the PS3. WARHAWK IGN says... In the demo, the game was shown with a full HUD of the new futuristic Warhawk ship. Across a massive battlefield, [b]you could see ambient warfare everywhere, with background battles raging far away from you. Our editors report great lighting, volumetric cloud effects, and incredibly fast motion. One of the coolest events involved burning pieces of capital ships raining down and falling into the gorgeous ocean below. Gaming Age says... Warhawk, while looking great, was essentially a barren section of ocean with a lot of fighter ships (they were aiming for a hundred for the final game) going around destroying larger vessels and some nice looking water (wave simulation with procedural animation) and clouds (volume...

I'll be honest. For the longest time I have stuck around the XBOX forums hoping that more fans will accept a more diverse XBOX game lineup, even if they may not be the epitome of amazing graphical wonder. I have defended, Japanese games primarily, from the default assault that come from the XBOX graphic whores. But as of late, I have come to realize one thing. That even if the XBOX 360 will produce the best games in Japan , the Japanese will never buy it. Even if Hironobu Sakaguchi will make the best RPG that we have ever seen, the Japanese will never buy the XBOX 360. Why? Because the XBOX 360 will never have the sheer quantity of Japan centric games when compared to Sony or Nintendo. The XBOX 360 will not have 50 default mediocre RPGs but instead will just have a handful really good ones. To the Japanese, its quite simple and practical...quantity is greater than quality and the top 100 Famitsu game list proves that. And that's the sad part. I saw the top 100 game list of the...

After many months of waiting and anticipation for the PS3, finally, today some real PS3 in-game screenshots were UNLEASHED upon the World Wide Web. Behold, the screenshots which shall signal the opening salvo of the REAL next generation! I give you.... UNTOLD LEGENDS: DARK KINGDOM By Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) (Real Time, IN GAME PS3 SCREENSHOTS!) Look upon this game and cry TEARS OF JOY... ...what the. ******************* Oddly enough, today I was in Greenhills at EYO's new shop in Virra Mall. I was with a friend and we were commenting on the accessories for the 360 that were on display. As I was speaking with my friend, there was this guy behind me, talking REALLY loud about the Playstation 3. Essentially he said something to this effect (not exact words) "Lalampasuhin ng Playstation3 yung 360 na yan." ("The Playstation 3 will destroy the Xbox 360") He was talking with some other person. It was really annoying. From the tone of his voice it was obvious th...

Just a heads up to any gamers with a Japanese console but would want to play this awesome game: The US version is region free! Go get a copy today! Check this thread for more info.

Recently I heard that FULL AUTO is region free and works for the Japanese 360. Also, I added a list of the ASIAN XBOX 360 games that will be out on March 16. Check out the post here: Japanese Xbox 360 Games with English Text/Voice/Menus, and Compatible Xbox1 Titles

The truth is out. Tetsuhiko Yasuda, managing director of Sony Computer Entertainment Asia, told reporters at the Taipei Game Show that the company is not yet ready to begin marketing its PlayStation 3 computer entertainment system. "We want to be completely prepared when we bring PlayStation 3 to the marketplace," Yasuda said. "Our No. 1 competition is not other companies but counterfeiters. We want to work with governments to stop this."

Unbelievable, I just broke the 3:51:250 barrier on Rave City Riverfront R with the Himmel EO, the slowest car in the game. From rank 7 I've bumped back up to five, and I'm in striking distance of the number one spot in Ridge Racer 6 Global Time Attack. I think I already know how to beat the number one guy...his time is 3:49:911 (something like that.) I only need two more seconds! If I make it, I'll be the first Himmel EO driver to reach the number one spot on the leaderboard....if not, well, this will be a funny post to look back on, one day.

Recently I commented on Xboxyde on a worrying trend in the Xbox Community. Blimblim recently gave these comments for a Rumble Roses XX trailer: "Konami released yet another Rumble Roses XX trailer. As always it moves very well until they show some actual gameplay. Someone should really tell the developers that this game should not use the moon's gravity." And this is what I said: It is disheartening that the only standard that some xbox fans seem to have is realism. If a game isn't realistic, it sucks. That seems to be the only motivating factor for most xbox fans to like or hate a game, and that's so unfortunate. It's a fighting game, there are bound to be some things that won't be 'like real life'. Xbox fans complain that developers aren't making innovative games for the system, when actually developers have tried to make those kinds of games for the platform, but the fans themselves don't support the more creative titles (Jet Set Radio, ...

For the past few months that I've been playing Ridge Racer 6 online, I've noticed that there is quite a difference between playing against Western (US, UK, France) gamers and playing against Eastern gamers (Chinese, Japanese). In almost every game that I play against Westerners, the players are more aggressive, resorting to dirty tactics like hard bumps and causing you to crash into walls. At the starting grid, the first thing that happens after the announcer says GO, is that the cars start hitting each other, as if the game was Burnout: Takedown. Later on, if you try to overtake another player, western gamers do more than just hit you. They actually try to take you out of the race. They hit you furiously just to get you to crash into the wall or slow you down. The funny thing is, Ridge Racer 6 doesn't really penalize you that much when you get hit. Unlike Project Gotham Racing 3, where getting hit can cause you to spin out and essentially be out of the race, in Ridge Racer...

Only a few more months until Sony unleashes the PS3 to the gaming populace. While they have not officially announced anything, its pretty safe to assume that Sony HAS to release soon in order to keep up with the XBOX 360 and the pending Nintendo Revolution. Back at E3 2005, Sony has shown nothing but tech demos and CGI movies of their upcoming PS3 games. Actual gameplay shots and footages have been rare despite the fact that nearly a year has passed since the announcement of the console. But what bothers me, as a gamer, was what Sony has been trying to push for the last year with regard to the PS3. And they haven’t pushed gaming that much at all. Instead we get a hefty news about Blu-Ray, the Cell Processor and other what not. I’m not going to go into detail about Blu-Ray or the Cell but the only thing I can say about it is that they’re both relatively new hardware. Blu-Ray is meant to be the next-generation movie disk format. While the Cell is a chip built to be ab...

Check it out! Great for driving, virtual or otherwise: Chasing All My Dreams (Ridge Racer 6 End Theme) Other tracks from Ridge Racer 6: Nitro Mantra Galactic Life

Wonder what it's like to race online in Ridge Racer 6? Here are some videos of online racing in the game: (more to follow a bit later) Airport Lap, Online Race Island Circle, Online Race Rave City Riverfront R, Online Race 1 Rave City Riverfront R, Online Race 2 Surfside Resort, Online Race

NooooOOOoooOOOoooo! Boy, that was short lived. Time to get it back...

A few days ago I was able to accomplish what I previously thought impossible: GLOBAL TIME ATTACK RANK: 4 CLASS: 4 TRACK: RAVE CITY RIVERFRONT R CAR: HIMMEL ARKBIRD EO TIME: 3:53:415 Bisontes, EAT MY DUST! LOL I should have posted this here when I got that achievement, so I could determine how long it would take before someone would beat my record. But right now, I'm happy that I've set a hell of a record time using what many consider as the SLOWEST CAR in Ridge Racer 6! Personally, the fact that I've accomplished THAT with the slowest car is the proof of the DEPTH that Namco has put into the gameplay of that racing game!

Ridge Racer 6 is the best arcade racing game I’ve ever played. It’s very accessible and easy to learn, and once you figure out how to drive in the game, finding out the nuances of the gameplay (the little details that will determine whether or not you will win or lose) is actually quite a challenge. Masked underneath the simplicity of the gameplay (wherein you hardly even use the brakes!) lies a layer of depth that can only be found by people who really spend time with the game. The depth lies in the drifting and nitrous system that Namco implemented in the gameplay. Ridge Racer 6 should probably be called ‘drift racing’ somewhere in the title, because drifting is a huge part of what you’ll be doing when you’re playing this game. Forget the need for perfect braking accuracy and racing lines, like in Forza Motorsport or in Gran Turismo. The drift is the beginning and the end of everything in this game. Easy to learn, hard to master—that must have been the motivating factor behind the ga...

Just recently I've finished the Special route on Ridge Racer 6. Afterwards, i went on to check my in-game stats. Apparently, I've been playing this ONE game for over 68 hours and counting. And I still haven't beaten the game. Unbelievable. Playing RR6 so extensively for the past month or so made me realize how different Japanese game developers approach game design, as opposed to the western game developers. Western game developers seem to be so obssessed with cramming every bit of detail into their game's graphics, while Japanese developers opt for simpler graphical effects and less detailed textures. The reason for this seems to be that Japanese developers want to leave enough computational power and memory space for other elements in the game, such as A.I. and gameplay quality. In RR6 it looked like they opted for simpler effects and textures simply to keep the framerate at a constant 60 FPS even when so many cars are on track at one time. The constant framerate real...

UPDATED MAY 25, 2006 ^_^ INFORMATION ON ASIAN RELEASES NOW INCLUDED BELOW! This is a list of Xbox 360 games whose Japanese version has english text/voice support. Below is also a list of region-free xbox1 games. This not only includes the known games but also the newer ones. This blog post will be constantly updated as new information arrives. These japanese games will have english text/voice when you set your XBOX360 language setting to ENGLISH. (Note: "Confirmed" means that the game is already out in the market and already proven to have english text/voice) Here's the list: Perfect Dark Zero JP *confirmed* Ridge Racer 6 JP *confirmed* Project Gotham Racing 3 JP *confirmed* Dead or Alive 4 JP *confirmed* King Kong JP *confirmed* Kameo JP *confirmed* Over G Fighters Chromehounds *confirmed* For more information/confirmations, this thread at lik-sang is constantly updated about the same topic. **************** XBOX 360 ASIAN VERSION GAMES ARE FULLY COMPATIBLE WITH ...

If you guys are Scytherage and I, who own a Japanese XBOX 360, and would like to learn more about the NTSC/J games coming out from Japan or would like to communicate with the Japanese through BBS (forums) but don't know how, do not fret! Below are some interesting websites desgined to help translate Japanese to English and vice versa. Babelfish : This is perhaps the most popular translation site in the net. It works fine but you have to read between the lines to get the real meaning of what you are translating. The translations are quite loose at times. Rikai.Com : This doesn't offer a direct translation. Instead you have to highligh certain 'words' in Japanese and a dictionary translation pops up below. Consider it your Kana/Kanji dictionary for the web. You will still need to know basic Japanese grammar in order to make sense of the whole thing. Jim Breen's WWWJDIC Japanese-English Dictionary Server If you're already good at J...

I just had. The. Greatest. Online. Ridge Racer 6. Race. Ever. ...Ever. Rave City Riverfront R, class 4. I'm driving a meltfire in 10th place at the starting grid. I was the last car so I thought I had no chance in hell of winning. Three laps into it, I manage to get to sixth place. I apparently saved up enough nitrous for a triple down the final stretch. In the distance can be seen five cars, all switching positions rapidly and boosting for the finish line. Little did I know that a car behind me launches a triple nitrous in an attempt to improve his position. Unfortunately for him, he hits my car as it goes down the final tunnel. The impact causes my car to nearly spin out; I struggled to maintain control of the car and ensure that it does not scrape into the wall. In the distance, the race looks decided. One car emerges from the pack and can be seen to have taken a commanding lead over the other four, who are still bumping and scraping for second place. I thought the race was over...