You know, as much as I’m enjoying the Fun Club thing, I regret to admit that it is making my blogging much more difficult. The things I would normally write about here are instead being detailed there. I suppose I could, inevitably, blog about non-gaming matters, but I’ve made the mistake in the past of not keeping my personal life private and I would really prefer not to go down that path. I could blog about work, but despite the common belief that working at a game website is a non-stop barrel of thrills and hilarity our office is actually pretty normal most of the time. Sure, occasionally someone from EGM will ride by in a motorized shopping cart with a radio playing “Lowrider,” but not as often as you’d hope. I don’t watch TV and don’t have as much time to read as I’d like, so nothing to talk about there. Movies are generally lousy. Politics are the worst idea ever, because the state of the nation makes me sad and everyone else angry.
So… I guess the point is that you should make the most of Fun Club. It’s where my brain dump happens. And we all love dumpy brains.
Reader-submitted content for the day: VsRobot follows through with his weekly DVD column, offering up a concise summary of why you should (or shouldn’t) give a crap about this week’s video releases. And the twin dynamos of reibeatall and Sarcasmorator kindly answered the call for someone to take a similar approach with the week’s game releases — and just in time for the fall rush to begin, too.
Yes, this week marks the beginning of sad time for the gamer’s wallet. Arriving tomorrow or Wednesday or whenever is an inexplicable glut of RPGs, which is both inconvenient and strange. I mean, it’s not like there are any big role-playing releases this fall that everyone needs to beat to the punch. Don’t even bother countering with Blue Dragon or Eternal Sonata, kids — they’re both mediocre PS1-era gameplay design wrapped up in Xbox 360 visuals, which is pretty much the antithesis of what people should be doing with all this fancy hardware.
Persona 3, on the other hand, doesn’t have jaw-dropping graphics, but the gameplay is by all accounts exceptional. Support quality! Especially since P3 will be next month’s Fun Club RPG selection.
And with that, this post has come full circle. I can die fulfilled.
Well I for one prefer the more interactive Jeremy of the boards, but that could just be me.
I can’t wait for persona. It looks awesome.
well see you in the fun club.
It’s soul-crushing to know that Blue Dragon is such a pariah of Next(current)-gen RPGs — please note the hyperbole. I’ve honestly been looking forward to this game ever since it’s unveiling, whenever that was, and am unhappy that it’s getting such a poor reception. Would that Gamefly had it on its rental list but because it has not just two, but three discs, the site will not ship it. Now, it seems, that I’ll have to actually own the f’ng thing to get a grasp of what you journalist fellows are talking about.
Is P3, in any way, a Rogue-Type? Or does it have an over-world, ala everything before Final Fantasy X? Sorry about the questions here on your blog, I suppose they should all go in their own threads… G’day.
Persona 3 isn’t roguelike, although it does have random dungeons. It’s somewhere between a dungeon crawl and… Bully. It’s almost entirely set in a high school (and you attend classes during the day) and the labyrinth beneath it.
Blue Dragon is a very by-the-numbers Dragon Quest knockoff. But where DQVIII managed to keep its pace brisk with overlapping battle animations, BD is of the FFVIII school of design where every single over-animated action stands alone, so you can appreciate them a few times and then grow interminably bored for the 40 hours after that.
I suppose I shouldn’t be too upset. It’s not like there aren’t stacks of new games coming out every week. Thanks for the info.
The Eternal Sonata demo was fun but I couldn’t see myself investing $60 when I could just crank up Tales of Symphonia for the GC which I never finished. Here’s hoping to Lost Oddessy fills the next-gen RPG gap this holiday season.
I don’t think Lost Odyssey will make it out this year… and it’s not really a next-gen game either, in terms of design and innovation. It’s actually the lost sequel to Final Fantasy X.
“…despite the common belief that working at a game website is a non-stop barrel of thrills and hilarity our office is actually pretty normal most of the time.”
You’ve ruined my man-childhood.
I’m probably not going to play Persona 3 – this is mostly because I live in “Europe”, mind, which is actually Australia, and despite getting games the same time as Europe is nowhere near it.
I am happy to play the lost sequel to FFX, as frankly I liked the mechanics of that game and would like to see a second iteration, but the story was a bit blah.
Speaking of games that nobody has heard of: Two Worlds? What the hell is up with that game? Any word, Jeremy? Has anyone at 1up seen this game running? It’s supposed to be out in a week, and the guide is available at the Gamestop near my house, but I haven’t heard much regarding its quality, or lack thereof.
I’m digging the new reader-created content, especially this weekly movie and game rundown. Any plans to include weekly lists/comments on new music or comics?
So, um… is the image in this post from Paprika, and does it have anything to do with anything? It’s not out on video yet, is it? I was still vainly hoping it would show in a theater somewhere near my house…
It’s a Persona 3 capture.
And I’m open to hosting as many release lists as people are willing to create. Music, comics, books, theatrical releases, whatever.
Although I’m not particularly interested in Blue Dragon as I disliked Dragon Quest VIII, I’m still interested in the beauty of Eternal Sonata though I’m waiting for some reviews to hit.
While I’ll wait until I hear some opinions on Persona 3, I just don’t have a lot of hope for it as I only ever managed to get a couple hours into Persona 1 and 2.
Having played through much of persona 3, i have to say that it’s a day 1 purchase. PSM wanted me to give them 300 words, and i gave over a thousand, because the game is so good.
I’ve pretty much been yearning for Persona 3 since February. I think that was the first tentative release date for the game. It seems so long ago. I leave for vacation on the 15th which would be unbearable except it just means I’ll be starting it at the same time as the Fun Club. I don’t have a 360 and I wasn’t expecting much out of Blue Dragon anyway but it’s a shame about Eternal Sonata. I watched a video of the demo a while back and it looked like the battle system could be really interesting provided the developers could keep it fresh and interesting for an entire game.
I’m buying Trusty Bell anyway because I liked Baten Kaitos (and I blame the parts I don’t like on Monolith because I’m like that) and because I figure I want all the Bamco rpg karma I can get.
Aw, I’ll pick up Eternal Sonata, too. But only after its inevitable price plummet, and without any illusions about it being anything more than a prettied-up knockoff of Grandia and Skies of Arcadia.