Bioshock 2 (trailer) exclusive to PS3 (port of Bioshock)!

Kotaku shows doubt, but i see little reason to believe this is faked. Sea of Dreams, eh? Haven’t played through the first one, but given the game’s rep, that title makes it sound like the most un-Bioshocky, most run-of-the-mill sequel. Who knows, it might just suffer from the negative perceptions every other sequel in existence has institutionalized me with. But, if i may be so bold, how about drowning that big “2” in the Sea of Dreams and just leave the subtitle?

We’ve been had by the Japanese

Man, and here i (and everyone else) was thinking that Bayonetta was cool and original for having a girl with guns for high heels. The other night at the Sunshine Theater (which was right next to my old high school, no less), after watching Man On Wire (very good), the woman took to the bathroom, and as i wait outside, i see this. Damn you Japanese creative people with your regurgitated Western influences, preying on unsuspecting folk like me who are not quite up on their indie/underground classics.

Spain counts as Western, right?

Musings on the state of digital football

Ronaldinho actually looks like Ronaldinho. That's a start!

If you’re in the States of A, you probably got the Bioshock demo yesterday and the FIFA 09 demo last week. You might’ve liked Bioshock, was a tad scary for me though. But say you’re itching for some football (soccer) that doesn’t feel like ass when you play it. Well, brotha i gotchu. Sign into the PSN with your alternate EU account, access their PS Store and DL the PES 09 demo they received yesterday. I haven’t tried it yet myself, but i tried FIFA last week, almost falling for all this “FIFA’s finally better than PES!” crap and came away as disappointed as ever.

EA makes soccer games like they make their Madden — big, heavy, lumbering brutes running across a field, waiting for the occassional juke or high-step to look cool. Futbol isn’t supposed to play like football. Futbol is pretty, balletic; players moving around with finesse. In football, players are constantly attacking with their bodies, slamming each other to the ground. FIFA, the two most recent years at least, is feeling too much like they’ve adopted the Madden engine. Maybe that’s how the MLS plays, but sorry, no. Futbol (at least everywhere else in the world) is a sport of carefully crafted beauty executed at just the right moment. It’s like tennis, but with a lot more guys and only one changeover.

Despite the framerate issues of last year’s Winning Eleven, which seem to have been addressed this year, FIFA is still far from the top. You can talk about features and online leagues and whatnot, but it’s the gameplay, stupids.

I don’t mean to harp too much on the “America is dumb for not liking soccer enough” meme, it’s just a question of the games displaying their real-world counterparts well. I’m gonna feel like an ass if the PES demo sucks.

Leipzig diary – far from Home

I may have been far from New York last week at the Games Convention (i’m still in Germany, too), but for the first time i was very close to PlayStation’s Home.

It was my first stab at actual videogame journalism. The first thing i did when my girl and i arrived was look for the Hall that had the Sony stuff. I’ve been PS-fiendin’ since last summer, and Nintendo, at Intendo’s expense, could not reignite my Ninterest. Sony’s presence at Leipzig was felt in the earth, while Nintendo chose to cut class. Sorry Intendo, but it had to be done. This was my chance to rub elbows with industry people i actually wanted to rub elbows with.

The first hall, the Glasshalle, had SCE’s Deustchland subdivision listed in the day planner and we were already there. It consisted of a Gran Turismo car; we kept walking. Eventually we made it to the primary hall, Halle 3, which had EA, some others i forget, and a massive section all for Sony. It was themed like the event squares in Home, which was a nice, conscious touch. Each pillar of the PS3’s future had its own dedicated little island (aka booth), with three primary islands. Of those, one was showcasing the best of the PSN.

I hate both Germany AND iPhone apps (Leipzig diary – day three)

I finally get a working wifi signal and the WordPress app starts giving me shit. This turned out to be a disappointing blog-reporting experience mainly for the lack of free and functional internet. I’m so cranky and frustrated. Look at my face. I might get to a net cafe later on and get a hold of a computer, but I don’t have my white cable to get these photos with. And Leipzig is cold as duck right now. No iPhone, I MEANT fuck.

Fuck the GC man, 2 days was more than enough. I don’t even know what they announced at the conferences. All I know is there’s a 160 gb PS3 in the works, and the only way I discovered that was from overhearing a Sony guy telling other Sony guys of their “biggest surprise.” Weeell…

Here’re some pics to stare at if you still don’t believe that I’m here.

PlayStation Thumb is a whole lot different from Nintendo thumb

Talk about ambidextrous.