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• Screen Test: Dissidia – Final Fantasy

  Soulcalibur IV is hilarious. It isn’t just the character-creation tool's astounding capacity for spreading mirth or the fact that you can watch a bi-pedal lizard beat a gimp unconscious with an enormous leg of lam. It’s the detailed story behind every character in the game that’s so funny. Darth Vader, in a feat of fan-fictioneering to make even the most base deviantART dweller blush, has a discernable reason for lightsabering folks in the 16th century. You can’t help but laugh. This is why the existence of Dissidia: Final Fantasy concerns me. We have, given recent events, been discussing how Final Fantasy affects gamers’ minds at length here at 61FPS. If the discussion has proven anything, it’s that folks take their Final Fantasy very, very seriously. Since Dissidia’s narrative leaps of logic have the potential to be even more comical than Soulcalibur’s, what is going to happen in the aftermath of its release? The answer is internet riots. Trashcans will be thrown through digital windows. Funny pictures of cars will be turned over in the streets. Forum moderators will distribute ban-beatings across the land. Now that DKS3713 has come and gone, people have finally gotten to play Dissidia and it sounds, well, strange. An odd mix of Power Stone and Star Ocean in play, wanton Nomura-fetishism in presentation. These fresh screens, from Gamespot Japan, show that, yes, Dissidia is a good looking PSP title but, at the same time, Square-Enix has managed to make its characters look even more ridiculous. Read More... Posted Aug 06 2008, 01:00 PM by John Constantine with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: john constantine, final fantasy, screen test, square-enix, star ocean, soulcalibur, power stone

• Screen Test: Fragile

  I’m as bad as every other slavering fanboy on the internet when it comes to Wii software, ranting about the garbage publishers have vomited onto the system, games that would have been visual embarrassments on the Dreamcast with gameplay that makes Tamagotchis seem like the most sophisticated machines on earth. Instead of a new 2D adventure, Konami makes a Castlevania fighting game. Instead of a brand new Rygar game, Tecmo ports over a six year-old PS2 title. Instead of a fresh Resident Evil, Capcom makes a glorified light gun game. The worst part is that some people are making very promising titles for the Wii, yet no one knows about them. Case in point: Namco’s Fragile. Read More... Posted Jul 22 2008, 02:00 PM by John Constantine with | with no comments Filed under: john constantine, nintendo, wii, capcom, screen test, konami, castlevania, resident evil 2, tri-crescendo, fragile, tecmo, namco

• Screen Test: Fallout 3

  When the Ink Spots' "Maybe" was used as the opening theme to Fallout, players knew they in for something interesting (Pro Tip: They had originally wanted to use "I Don't Want to Set the World on Fire", but couldn't due to copyright issues). There are lots of things to like about Fallout, but my personal go-to accolade is its sense of place. From the moment we load the game, Fallout's post-apocalyptic world greets us a totally unexpected soundtrack, insane characters, all leadened with a peculiar deadness. Sure, there were post-apocalypic touchstones before, but Fallout stood (and stands) above the rest due to its retro-futurist aesthetic and gallows humor. Those who think Bioshock did it first better recognize. More after the jump. Read More... Posted Jun 26 2008, 12:00 PM by Cole Stryker with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: screen test, fallout 3, cole stryker, bethesda, oblivion

• Screen Test: Final Fantasy Versus XIII

  Fine, Square-Enix. Your CG cinemas are gorgeous. After eleven years, I think you’ve proved your point. High-five. And you, Tetsuya Nomura, I get that you like zippers. I also get that you like Sigue Sigue Sputnik’s style. But both of you need to stop showing off images of games that may or may not even exist. Final Fantasy Versus XIII, one of the three games that Nomura says “are all XIII”, was announced over two years ago now and no one even knows how it plays. In fact, no trailer has even officially been shown to the public, only leaks. These screens? They’re gorgeous images made using a computer. But why show us these at all? The game isn’t even going to come out for another two or three years! Square-Enix, Mr. Nomura, you guys are jerks. Gigantic jerks. Read More... Posted Jun 19 2008, 05:30 PM by John Constantine with | with no comments Filed under: john constantine, screen test, square-enix, tetsuya nomura, final fantast XIII

• Screen Test: Star Wars – The Force Unleashed

  I’m not sure if you’ve realized this, but the entire crew here at 61 Frames Per Second are gigantic nerds. We’re geeks. Dweebs. Dorkwads, if you will. Yes, we’re the coolest nerds around, but that doesn’t change the facts. I might be worse than the rest of the team though. At risk of remaining a bachelor for the rest of my twenties, I’ll let you in on a little secret, dear reader. There are Star Wars dolls in my living room. That’s right. DOLLS. That might imply some kind of bias towards media related to Star Wars, but I’ll tell you right now, I can be objective about Star Wars. Indeed, I’m downright distrustful of anything bearing the name. Six years of god awful movies will do that to a person. That’s why I’m hesitant to say that Star Wars: The Force Unleashed is looking downright fantastic. But just look at these screens. Somehow, LucasArts’ designers have taken the garish neon worlds of George Lucas’ prequels and made them beautiful, capturing a legitimate otherworldliness that’s appealing instead of repulsive. Who knows? Maybe Star Wars will be cool again. Nah. More screens after the jump. Read More... Posted Jun 10 2008, 10:00 AM by John Constantine with | with 3 comment(s) Filed under: john constantine, star wars, screen test, george lucas

• Screen Test: Alone in the Dark

  As a youth, conceptual horror was enough to scare me into insomnia. Violence was one thing - I could process that as fantasy - but lurking terror was too much. If someone said that they were going to watch a horror movie or tell a scary story, I would freak out. It was right around pubescence, when my capacity for abstraction was growing exponentially, that I developed a taste for fear. Like any other extreme emotion, fear can be delightfully narcotic. After watching It (yes, it scared me. You look at Tim Curry in a clown suit without shitting yourself, I dare you,) I was finally clued into what everyone else seemed to know: being scared is fun. It wasn’t until the late ‘90s, with early Resident Evil and Silent Hill entries, that I started getting my fix from videogames. So those games’ shared ancestor, Alone in the Dark, is an unknown quantity for me outside of reputation. The new Alone in the Dark from Atari, after a couple of years of development purgatory (not quite hell), is looking like it will live up to that reputation. Read More... Posted May 29 2008, 10:00 AM by John Constantine with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: john constantine, resident evil, silent hill, screen test, atari, alone in the dark

• Screen Test: Silent Hill Homecoming

  The recent announcement of a Richard Kelly-less Donnie Darko sequel reminded me of a universal truth: just because something’s good, just because that something’s profitable, does not mean there should be more of it. The original Donnie Darko was a deeply personal work and it was that creator’s touch that made it such a wonderful artifact. S. Darko may be end up being a fine film but what’s the point without Kelly’s voice? Silent Hill without Team Silent has already proven to be just as questionable a proposition. Read More... Posted May 15 2008, 02:00 PM by John Constantine with | with no comments Filed under: john constantine, neogaf, silent hill, silent hill homecoming, screen test, jeux-france, donnie darko, climax group, konami, richard kelly, double helix, silent hill origins