PkmnTrainerJ

Animal Crossing City Folk looked awesome and Wii Speak seems a good idea.

Fuck. Nintendo's press conference starts at 5PM GMT and I finish at 5.30 tomorrow. Sick day?

...

Are you serious?

No. I'm not that much of a Nintendo fanboy.

Fuck. Nintendo's press conference starts at 5PM GMT and I finish at 5.30 tomorrow. Sick day?

Torchic (Level 13)

Cascoon (Level 8)

Taillow (Level 7)

Nincada (Level 7)

Whismur (Level 6)

Marill (Level 6)

Get Marill to level 10 and it will learn Water Gun to destroy Roxanne. When Cascoon evolves at level 10, take it out of your party and leave a spare slot (only carry five Pokémon) and keep Nincada until level 20 and also keep a spare pokéball. Won't tell you why, it'll just be good. Also Taillow went it evolves becomes great so keep that.

Lips seems like it could be good too. Nothing else really sticks apart from how thrilled the guy was to announce everything. I swear all his sentences started with "I am thrilled to announce..."

OH! OH! BANJO KAZOOIE!

So Final Fantasy XIII on the 360 looked amazing. I now need a 360. In other news:

Dear Sony,

Please now only make PSP games and PSPs. Give up on the PS3

Done those Pokémon starter trades now, if anyone else wants any, you'll have to wait until next weekend now

When it was raining really heavily the other day, I had to put on "Feel Like Rain" by Motion City Soundtrack, "1,000 Words" by Koda Kumi (the one ripped from FFX-2 with the rain and thunder noises) and then "Cry Me A River" by lostprophets to keep up the raining thing.

Any music you use to suit the type of weather?

What are people doing in concerns for watching/reading E3 news? I'm using E3Expo at the moment to watch trailers and such and shall watch the conferences when they're live if I can.

So it seems pointless to start a new topic to post this:

Kingdom Hearts 2: Final Mix+ coming out in America?

Very very odd and surprising news. Do not take it as confirmed yet!. However, it has been going around the blogosphere that Kingdom Hearts: Re: Chain of Memories is indeed coming out for North America (without Kingdom Hearts 2: Final Mix?). The following statement was released on the website WithTheWill:

I've confirmed this with MULTIPLE people.

I don't know if it's the full Final Mix+, or just Re:COM...

But we are getting Re:Chains Of Memories in the USA.

I've even been told the character artwork they are showing is the generic 'CGI Pose' of the Organization members that are up at damn near EVERY Kingdom Hearts fansite.

Square (or Disney, not sure), have been auditioning TONS of people for the last few weeks for voices of Organization XIII members (Vexen, Lexaeus, Zexion, Marluxia, and Larxene) saying the game is 'Chains of Memories'.

The casting people/paperwork are/is specifically calling it 'Kingdom Hearts Chains of Memories' and are SPECIFICALLY casting the 5 Organization members that I named in the article, all of whom were in CoM and don't have cast English voice actors (outside of those 5 I don't know if anyone else is being cast in any fashion, although I THINK those were the only 5 characters who are in CoM who don't already have English actors from KH/KH2).

So while it is possible they are being cast for 358/2 Days, the 'name' being told to people in the auditions is specifically CoM, I've reconfirmed that specific fact with quite a few people who auditioned and it has been consistent between them all.

This was followed by a post from Neogaf Member: Aeana, known for her insider information, with: "This is not untrue."

For those that do not know, Kingdom Hearts: Re: Chain of Memories is a remake of Chain of Memories for the Playstation 2, included with Kingdom Hearts 2: Final Mix+.

Hopefully Europe sees a release too if this proves to be true, as the regular KHII apparently skipped a lot of scenes.

It has now been confirmed that AC: Wii will be unveiled at Nintendo's E3 conference.

The press conference will be held Tuesday, July 15th at 9 AM Pacific time (12 noon Eastern, 5 PM Great Britain, etc.)

It's gonna be a long week!

I'm glad about it, but no-one else probably cares, but oh well. I'm happy.

Get something high level with Mean Look and you can trap it.

* Zubat at Lv.29

* Golbat at Lv.33

* Gastly at Lv.8

* Haunter at Lv.8

* Gengar at Lv.8

* Jynx at Lv.21

* Crobat at Lv.33

* Umbreon at Lv.57

* Murkrow at Lv.41

* Misdreavus at Lv.19

* Smoochum at Lv.21

* Sableye at Lv.57

* Duskull at Lv.38

* Dusclops at Lv.43

* Dusknoir at Lv.43

Try and get Umbreon as then Psychic won't damage you.

There's Block too I guess.

* Snorlax at Lv.36

* Sudowoodo at Lv.22

* Nosepass at Lv.19

* Bastiodon at Lv.30

* Bronzong at Lv.33

* Bonsly at Lv.22

* Tangrowth at Lv.57

* Probopass at Lv.19

Is Latias your running one?

It's like the Monster Rancher of Strat RPGs.

Don't mention it again! It's like Beetlejuice. If you speak it's a third name again, I'll have to play it tomorrow, which means digging out my PS1 Monster Ranch regular memory card.

Fuck you Matzat. Now I know where £3.99 of my pay this month is going. It's like Monster Rancher (where CDs became your monsters) but on an iPod and by Squenix and the Ring System in the battle is like Secret Of Mana's.

Dang it.

This is what I love about this show. ANYONE could come up with a sensible theory if they put their mind to it.

Unfortunately, there is the other side of that coin.

Jack getting ill because he's pregnant, due to Alex having time travelled back with The Orchid before she died, and gave Jack her womb, which has a baby form of Jacob in it!

That's officially the stupidest theory I've read. It was on Lostpedia on Alex's theory page

As I said before Animal Crossing Wii will make me happy

I don't know, maybe he killed himself in order to make Jack bring everyone back to The Island.

Erm, anyone who wanted starters from me this weekend, post again as I can't recall.

Interview with Chris Easton - http://play.tm/story/18599

I hope you're enjoying Ubidays. What is your involvement in the new Prince of Persia game at Ubisoft Montreal, Chris?

I'm basically the community developer for Prince of Persia, so my job is to create community related angles and assets, and support the community as much as possible with what they want from the game. So... if someone who's a fan of the series says "I'd like to see this" through online forums, its my job to communicate that to the development team.

Hopefully I can help the developers integrate community ideas into Prince of Persia, while also communicating any changes or progress on the game back to the community, through web forums, videos and more.

What's the most called-for feature so far?

Right now? Well, I suppose there's lots of Sands of Time fans, and obviously they're calling for an epic story and platforming. They're saying don't focus so much on The Two Thrones, look at The Sands of Time. We're looking at more platforming and puzzles. This is what we're doing with this version of The Prince of Persia; it is more focussed on open-world gameplay, its all about platforming, moving through the world, creating a flow of action. All through this beautful, almost fantasy world.

Has Assassin's Creed been influential in this respect, given that the game is based on the same engine?

Well, its a really really good engine. It lends itself well because the games share similar gameplay mechanics. The team have basically taken the Assassin's Creed engine and improved upon it, adding there own visual features and effects unique to Prince of Persia. You can see from the style here that there are certain things missing from Assassin's Creed, that have now been added.

So, has the free-flowing gameplay of Assassin's Creed influenced this new title?

Well, not really. Obviously both games are developed at Ubisoft Montreal, so ideas are shared between teams, people talk to each other, etc. But this Prince of Persia was started right after The Two Thrones was completed, and it was in development at the same time. So, there's a little influence there I guess, but really they've just tried to make this epic game, with really cool gameplay. You can literally flow through a level, hitting a rhythm. There's a section in this one level for example, where you want to run across a bridge, undertake a wall run, jump across to a pillar, grab another pillar, jump to a beam, spring of this, wall run across, and onwards. You're constantly thinking how can I create these actions. Timing and rhythm is key. It's not like Assassin's Creed where you walk up to a wall to climb; you have hit all the right spots.

It's a really fluid flow of action, and it works really nicely. This is what Prince of Persia is all about.

Can players control Elika (the game's appealing new heroine), or perhaps control her as a second co-op player?

She is purely an AI character. The whole thing for Elika is to improve the gameplay mechanics of Prince of Persia. Other games have had secondary characters, and they've used them okay. Sometimes these characters get lost, get stuck in scenery, attack the wrong enemies - generally cause chaos. With Elika we're hoping to create this secondary character who won't annoy you. She'll support you through specific gameplay dynamics, but you won't be frustrated by her.

There's a button on the controller, called the 'Elika button' at present, and whenever you want her to help you, or you want her information or assistance, she'll leap in - play her role - and leap out. She's a key part of the story, and of the gameplay, but she'll only be there when you need her, and she'll never hinder you. She's there just when you want her.

The game is called Prince of Persia, but at the game's outset he's not a Prince. He's a wanderer, a drifter, moving from A to B, finding gold, blowing it on wine, etc. One day, however, he gets caught in a sandstorm, and here he meets this girl. Who's beautiful. She's called Elika, and she asks for his help.

Being a red-blooded male, he agrees to assist her, and they then start to travel - and witness the destruction of the 'tree of life'. Basically, there are two gods, the god of darkness and the god of light. The god of darkness was locked in the tree after being defeated by the god of light, and there he remained, the local population charged with keeping him locked inside.

The god of darkness breaks free of course, unleashing corruption across the landscape - a black goo which begins spreading; destroying everything. The Prince and Elika must stop the god of darkness from taking over the world by fighting this 'corruption', make the land a beautiful place again.

The new aesthetics are particularly interesting. What was the motivation behind this?

In the development of previous Prince of Persia games, well, in any game actually, you need lots of concept art. Characters, landscapes, 3D models, etc. When we finished The Two Thrones, the art director basically said 'we've got probably the best concept artists and illustrators in the industry, creating amazing pictures, and we're taking these images and making them 3D'. Its close the original vision but its not exactly the same. He said, 'why not take these pictures, zoom in, and bring them alive'. An interactive painting. We have beautiful paintings, and now we're entering and interacting with this world.

We call it an illustrative style, and this is where it comes from.

Which platforms will the game launch on?

It's Xbox 360, PS3, PC and there's a complimentary DS title too.

No Wii title?

We have yet to announce any Wii plans at this stage.

What work is being done to ensure the third-person camera doesn't frustrate players?

We've got a team in Ubisoft dedicated to camera work. Their sole job is to make sure the cinematics work with the normal gameplay. Angles and the like, creating best the motion, the best shots. This helps with atmosphere, immersion. We're hoping that with Prince of Persia and other future releases there won't be times when the camera goes nuts and leaves you looking at a wall, or the floor! Or anything like that.

Freedom sounds like an important element. Is this an 'open-world' game?

Hmm. It's... not open-world in the GTA sense. This isn't one big city. Its open-world in the sense that there are levels through the game, which offer you choices on how you progress. It's hard to explain... the levels are designed to give you multiple routes, but these aren't of the A, B, C variety. Rather you define your own route as you play, leaping between all as you move along.

Is Assassin's Creed a good comparison?

It's potentially a good comparison. It's a bit like the kingdom part of that game. The way in which there are multiple ways to navigate through this area. There are areas you will return to, and you can choose your path - for example if you want an easy life you might be able to navigate via a corruption-free area, or if you want some action you can go through a 'corrupted' region. You have lots of choice, although its hard to explain without a picture!

Will Elika be a love interest for the Prince?

I don't think so... no. Not... that I'm aware. He's a guy. She's really hot. If they get on well, we'll see what happens, but if they don't... well, we'll see.

Will Elika be a part of future games in the Prince of Persia series?

She is essential to the story of this game, so yes, she could play a part.

Is this the start of a new trilogy?

Right now we only have official plans for this game.

How has the game been received so far?

Very positively so far! The creative direction is new, and everyone has been wowed. They think it's beautiful. I'm really happy about this, because the art direction is all about bringing illustrations to life. It's sort of like 'yay', we did something right!

Is the focus on puzzling, platforming, or combat?

There are puzzles, but there's a lot of platforming and a lot of combat as well.

When is it out? Is this the full name?

Holiday 2008 - Q3 if you prefer. Just Prince of Persia! Not Heir Apparent, or Prodigy, or whatever else you might have read online. Just Prince of Persia!

It's because they change from the "real" colour of brown and change to blue on a whim

Yeah, if Sims get too hot in Seasons they can start to spontaneously combust

I'd assume it's the same as it is in most shops for alcohol etc. You can be employed from 16, but will need a person over 18 to approve any sales of 18 games (or alcohol/fags in my case).

The mirror bit of Sands Of Time can go right ahead and kill itself.