Archive for the 'Video games' category
Metal Gear Solid 4 PREMIUM PACK

Seems like the Metal Gear Solid 4 PREMIUM PACK with the -HAGANE- PS3 unit isn’t all that rare, afterall. Can be readily picked up at local game stores.
Was super tempted to get one but managed to fight off the lust.
1 commentWow, what a bargain

… for a 40GB PS3 at Tsutaya in Shibuya. The price sign says:
Recommended retail price: ¥39,980
Our price: ¥39,979
That’s a saving of ¥1 which is equivalent to US$ ‘1 cent’ and UK£ ‘.5 pence’. How awesome is that?!
4 commentsMetal Gear Solid 4 limited edition PS3
Street Fighter IV

OMG! How on earth did this slip by me?! Street Fighter 4 arcade! Just look at the graphics - it’s unreal! 3D graphics rendered to look like 2D - this combination is not new but the detail, styling and technique employed here is unlike anything before it. The artists at Capcom have really pushed the envelope here. The graphics are drop-dead gorgeous!
10 commentsTokyo Game Show 2007

As with every year, I’ll briefly be there…
Tokyo Game Show 2007 - Link up, Reach out, To the world.
Makuhari Messe International Convention Complex
Free Sony TVs with PS3
Yes, thats frikkin’ right! For a lot of gamers in London who splashed out £425 (¥98,500) for a PS3 at the midnight launch in Virgin Megastore, were given a ‘free‘ £2,500 (¥579,000) hi-def Sony Bravia TV! For that price, I suspect the TV is probably 47-inches! The TV give-away supposedly cost Sony £250,000 (not sure if manufacture or retail price) which means they gave away well over 100 of them!
And if the free TV wasn’t enough, Sony also made sure that every gamer got a ‘free’ taxi ride home to avoid getting mugged! Man, I could have flown back to UK, got a PS3 and free TV, sell-off just the TV to cover my trip and I’d still be left with over a grand! Insane!
Get the full story here.
No commentsWii launches soon
Well, as you all know, Japan will see the launch of the Nintendo Wii on 12.2, which happens to be today (considering it’s 1am now). I have no idea as to why the Wii was launched in the US 2 weeks before it’s homeland. But anyway…
I was just watching news on TV which was reporting live from outside Bic Camera in Yurakucho. It said that there are currently 600 people camping outside the store in anticipation for the launch of the Nintendo Wii, which happens in approx. 6 hours time (7am when they go on sale). Basically, the cameraman and presenter were filming the geeks out in the cold when all of a sudden, I see this white thing lurking around in the background. And it happens to be a friend, Danny, appearing in his Stormtrooper armour! Hahahahaha! And he gets briefly interviewed too!
2 commentsPlayStation 3 unleashed!
Yep, the mutha of all consoles was finally launched today and a few friends, Danny, Roy and Brad, have got themselves one and they seem more than happy with their new purchase. Congrats on that!
Although I had stated my reasons for not wanting one, I did have this bad impulsive urge to get one after I spoke to Roy. I spoke to Roy at 3am this morning while he was lining up and he told me, “there’s probably 400 people lining up now. The shop staff said they have more enough units for everyone here. You know, if you come down now, you can get one”. Damn, can you imagine what was going through my head after I heard that? Yes, I really wanted to get my butt into a taxi and burn down there to join him in the queue for a brand-spanking new PS3! But I couldn’t because I had a deadline (for something I’m working on) for 5am EST time which happens to be 7am here - the time the PS3 starts rolling into the hands of consumers. I spoke to Roy again at about 6am and he told me it got rather chaotic with over a thousand people pushing and shoving - something I can’t deal with!
Anyway, so yeah, because of my deadline, I couldn’t go get a PS3. So, is that lucky or unlucky?
4 commentsPlayStation 3 now playable
Hardly surprising since the Japanese launch of the Playstation 3 is only 6 days away (November 11). Here, there are three Playstation 3 displays (each hooked up to a Sony Bravia TV): one was looping game trailers, one was running a tennis game, and the last one running Ridge Racer 7. To be honest, both the tennis game and Ridge Racer didn’t look impressive in real-time. Ridge Racer actually looked a little jaggy… hmmmmmm…
Anyway, after thinking about it, I have decided that I will not buy a PS3 on launch day (if ever). Reasons being:
- I am not a hardcore gamer
- there are no killer launch games
- I don’t see the appeal of Blu-Ray just yet
- JP¥70,000 is too steep for me
- these are revision A units and I ain’t no guinea pig for Sony
- the thought of having to camp outside a reseller for a night or two with a few hundred geeks… doesn’t exactly turn me on. And to make this worse, the originally promised 100,000 units for launch (nationwide) has been dropped to 80,000 units.

