A Look At The Tokyo Game Show

That's right folks. Mav here to give you all his own take on the events of the TGS so far. Now of course, I don't speak Japanese, so I can only go by what I'm reading about the net, but I'll try to get down my highlights, and hopefully, We'll get a few nice videos to embed.

First off the bat, we have the ever loved, Metal Gear Solid franchise. That's right kiddies, we got us a whole new eyeful of Snake goodness to chow down on... Needless to say, I was somewhat excited by this news. It seems that no gaming expo is complete without a new thrilling instillation to our MGS4 library, cropping up in the form of a 6 minute video demonstration of some of the new gameplay elements for Snake's new mission. No vague hints towards a confusing plot this time. No... It's all about our elderly friend evading the various enemy's upon the battlefield, and occasionally blowing a few of them away. It also provides us with a few somber themes to think on as we watch the trailer.

"No beginning, no end. No time, no future. No virtue, no vice. No place for heroes. No time for heroes. No place in time. No time to die. No war for Snake."

I won't say much further on the subject, but rather, just give you all the chance to check it out for yourselves. I will say however, that you can expect an interesting little Kojima style twist at the end of the clip.



Interesting indeed... Unfortunately, it appears that the game shall not be shipping until sometime next year. So anyone who was hoping for a launch title declaration will be sadly denied.

Another point of interest at the TGS, was a playable demo of the 4th game in the Devil May Cry series. Of which, the first notable thing about the game was it's overwhelming similarities to DMC3. Next to that, was the fact that the controllable character, as has been hinted, was not Dante, but rather a new character by the name of Nero. However, the similarities between the looks and control's for the two characters are so near identical, you should hardly notice.

Nero's arsenal stays within DMC's usual facet of the explosive mixture of guns and swords, but this time round, there are small differences. For one, Nero only sports the one hand gun. I'm not sure how this will effect gameplay (not having actually had the pleasure to play the demo myself), but hopefully it won't diminish our ability to hover and generally kick ass. The other notable difference, is that Nero is sporting a gauntlet type thing on his arm called the Demon Fist, used with the circle button. This addition appears to make Nero's melee ability's mirror those of Dante with both his sword and the Beowulf weapon.

The demo showed no use of any Devil Trigger, extra weapons or style switching. But this may well be due to the seeming early stage of the game that the demo was set in. This leaves us to wonder just whether or not the game will incorporate these systems later, or something new entirely.

The graphics are certainly better than the last game. But certainly nothing spectacular. In short, the game looks to cater to it's already existing fan base. But suffice it to say... So far, there seems little that will draw any new comers, or convert anyone who disliked previous installments... In the mean time, here's a short teaser clip for the fan boy's to salvitate over. (Not from TGS)



The next thing on my list is something I really hope will live up to it's brand name. The innocently Blue Dragon. Now, you may be asking about now... "Mav... What's so special about a random Japanese game called Blue Dragon?". Well, allow me to drop a 2 bit's of info that are keeping my interest in the game. Firstly, it is a new Japanese RPG from a new franchise, which is something I was afraid we would not see again in my lifetime. Secondly, and probably far more importantly... It is being created by one Hironobu Sakaguchi. Mastermind behind both the Final Fantasy series, AND the damn near perfect, Chrono Trigger.

With these things in mind, Blue Dragon has the potential to be brilliant. Unfortunately, we all know that potential is not everything it's cracked up to be. But from what I've seen of the childish looking 360 game, I have to admit, it's looking hopeful.

I haven't got a whole lot to say about this game, but I do have a few videos for you to enjoy.





There's plenty more to see from the show, but I think this is as good a place as any to end my own coverage of it. If you poke around GameSpot, you should be able to find the rest. But for now, this is me, signing off to go fight an intergalactic war for the human race, right under your noses.

CYOTFS
- Mav