You’re playing it right – Rune Factory: Frontier

After 2 slow years – more than 220 hours of inconsistent on-off indulgent gameplay – I had gotten to a desired level of satisfaction in Rune Factory: Frontier.  Can’t quite say that I wasted lots of time, since I savored so much of it. Full of repetitive (but profitable) tasks, blushing faces, sexy voicework, and adorable chitchat, I consider this to be my “Animal Crossing”; a relaxed, low-intensity enjoyment of cleverly interconnected content that doesn’t get tossed out after the first-month’s internet hype has already died and found something new to whine about. My Game of the Years, indeed.

In one (real time) week of play (last month) did all the crazy stuff come crashing at the end of the game’s calendar year: got MARRIED on FISTMAS EVE, beat the MAIN QUEST, started another SPRING SEASON, skipped thru SPRING SEASON, and entered a world of brand new CUTE BATHING SUITS.  While the timing was incredible, I didn’t exactly plan it this way (the bikinis had been the Top-Priority! above all else)(and I didn’t cheat my way out of Runey management, BILL).  The rapid chain of rewards/events simply served to amplify the sense of accomplishment. So much hawtness in such a short time.

Below, I share my joy. (JUICY SUMMER TIME IMAGERY, AHOY)

Continue reading “You’re playing it right – Rune Factory: Frontier” →

Confirmed fact: Wii U can’t play anything

Pietriots can today exclusively reveal that not only will Wii U not support DVD movie playback, but it won’t support VHS video playback either.

You will no longer be able to watch that video of Mary Poppins you taped off the TV in 1994.

This news has delivered a devastating, possibly fatal blow to the Wii U’s hopes of mainstream appeal. Already the list of confirmed media not supported by the device includes 7″ vinyl, cassette tapes, HD DVD and Sony’s popular UMD format. Crucially, laserdisc support has not been ruled out yet and I would speculate that Nintendo are courting third parties to release a USB floppy disk drive for the much maligned machine.

Fred Dutton is AT IT AGAIN

Man I hate this guy!
Can you spot the error?

Well my old friend Fred Dutton, best known for making alarmist news reports about the supposed existence of a Zelda Online RPG that was actually a decade old flash game, can’t get anything right. The news story is simple; Luigi’s Mansion 2 is being developed by Next Level Games. But even Fred manages to stuff that up by insinuating that Pilotwing’s developer Monster Games is behind the title. This isn’t even a typo down the page, it’s in the bloody headline.

It’s hard to believe Fred Dutton gets paid and I don’t.

Update!
So I was being challenged by sycophants in the Eurogamer comments who find it perfectly acceptable for journalists to misreport the news and attribute work to the wrong people. GameAsylum, in their summary of Nintendo’s conference, followed Eurogamer and credited Pilotwings to Next Level Games too. Unlike Eurogamer though, they’ve quickly edited and rectified their article.

Update 2!
Eurogamer have rectified their mistake. I have not received a thank you card in the mail yet but I’ll keep checking.

Nintendo E3 2011 Press Conference Premonition

People will call me a hippy when I say this but I’ve always felt a resonance with Nintendo consoles. They speak to me through channels I can’t describe. This isn’t some delusional fanboy shit – this is real hippy waves of energy that you just gotta feel, man. When Project Dolphin was announced I was living on a tropical island in the Pacific; when Project Revolution was announced I was a political activist; and for the past year or so I’ve worked as a barista.
Project Café.

Today I was working and thinking a lot about E3 and how it was going to change my life and give me new meaning and direction, man. I looked down at the latte I was making and there I saw it: everything I needed to know about Project Cafe. I was just like Agent Morgan from Deadly Premonition, ciphering messages from the milk and coffee. I stared at it in a trance and it all came to me. This is how it will take place at E3…

Agent Morgan
F.K in the coffee. it never fails.

Continue reading “Nintendo E3 2011 Press Conference Premonition” →

Publishers “underestimated” huge 3DS demand

Wondering why you can’t find Samurai Warriors Chronicles anywhere in Europe or Australia? That’s because it’s sold out, completely. It’s sold out in retail stores, sold out at every online store, and it’s even absent on ebay. Such demand is unprecedented, but 3DS has been breaking records since the day it launched.

Continue reading “Publishers “underestimated” huge 3DS demand” →

Mortal Kombat

After decades of a romantic courtship, the relationship between shock fighter Mortal Kombat and the censorship prone Australian Classification board ended in a messy breakup earlier this year, resulting in the refusal to classify the game, effectively banning it. While rumours were abound that customs would seize any copies imported from overseas, my housemate James courageously decided that he was going to import the game. While I suspect he had little to no interest in the game before it was banned he is the kind of person who thought that Mortal Kombat Annhilation was a good movie. Anyway I’ve taken to recording James’ comments while he plays the game because I think he has a lot of good stuff to share. Continue reading “Mortal Kombat” →