Julien’s Indie World

Alright so it’s been AGES since my last update and most of you probably thought I was dead. Well it’s almost true, I was creatively dead. However, I suddenly have some mojo going back in me and I randomly bought a USB Midi controller and started playing around with music. I am also starting a Dungeon and Dragons game as a DM as well as preparing myself for my firt mini-game hopefully Designed and soundtracked by me, the game will probably feature squares fighting circles or something.. I can’t draw…

Today in gaming : SouthPeak interactive buys out Gamecock! Two forces of indie gaming publishing unite to give more opportunities to the indie dev’s around the globe! 

This is very good news, I’ll make sure to contact them if I ever come out with a kickass indie game

DinoRun : It’s fun, cute, addicting and it just might change your life.

Last week nintendo had a big event where they unveiled some interesting and some less interesting things. For one thing they unveiled the Nintendo DSi which is supposed to be awesome but it’s kinda meh (Note that I’ll probably get one anyways ORZ).

This post however isn’t about the DSi but about Tsumi to Batsu 2. Tsumi to Batsu is one of my favorite games on N64, I played it in an emulator after hearing how good it was from various places on the interwebs and I immediatly fell in love with it. It is developed by Treasure, a company I hold dear in my heart for such games as Guardian Heroes, Mischief Makers or Ikaruga. 

Tsumi to Batsu was never released on the N64 in North America, however, it was released for Wii on the Virtual Console with menus translated in English. The dialogue in the game was already in english so they didn’t have much work to do on the rom. If you like shoot em ups, I suggest you go on the virtual console right now and try it, it’s frikkin great!

Anyways, at Nintendo’s event last week they showed a demo reel of upcoming games for the Wii and included in there was footage from Tsumi to Batsu 2 and it was totally unexpected. When I saw the footage I jumped off my chair and went “OMG OMG OMG”. I did expect it to come one day but I really wasn’t expecting to see it there in the middle of a upcoming games reel.

The game looks amazing, true to the first one and I can’t wait to get it. I just hope it’s coming out in North America!

I was about to begin writing this article and suddenly the song “Blame Canada” from the first (the only?) South Park movie came to mind. I’m pissed that videogame distributors are doing a half-assed job when it comes to Canada. The games always arrive here 1 or 2 days after the North American release date and that is not right, North America isn’t the United States.

To this alot of people are going to say “Well you know, you need to have booklets and back covers in french for them to cross borders” but that’s BS. The games arrive 1 or 2 days later and do have all the french requirements so don’t tell me they weren’t ready. Okay, I do admit the situation is ALOT better than it was a few years ago, a few years ago I didn’t even bother going to the store on the release date, nowadays many games DO make it, thank goodness.

Anyways, Silent hill 5 wasn’t in stores yesterday so I was hoping the PC version which is supposed to be steam only to come out, it didn’t. People on the steam forums were ranting (I was part of it of course) and some people called Konami US as well as Valve and both parties had nothing to say. The official website for Silent Hill 5 has the PC version listed and when you click on “Buy Now” you are directed to Steam’s main page where Silent Hill is NOT. Another problem is, Silent Hill is not in the “coming soon” section of steam’s website and a game this fucking big should be there.

So WTF Konami? If you are planning to release the PC version at a later date please say so! There’s something incredibly wrong with videogame publishing, I hope this settles in the years to come.

I am writing this article during my lunch break so it will be short and sweet. If you don’t get the title it doesn’t matter. By the way I am eating general tao and it’s very crunchy, not that this has anything to do with the article of course.

Tomorrow the fifth installment of the “Little bump of terrain where no sounds come from” otherwise known as “Silent Hill” is coming out stateside. In fact, there’s no date for Japan just yet. Konami decided that this time the game would be designed in the US so they sent Akira Yamaoka the series director and music composer to US and asked him to make a great game.

It’s too soon to say if they succeeded or not (I will probably be able to tell you guys that soon enough) but I have to say it’s a daring move. Akira Yamaoka said  ”Japan is falling behind” when he saw the tools we have to create games in the west side of the world. I hope the rest of Japan realizes that they need to exchange information with the rest of the gaming community if they want to continue making AAA titles…

More on this later, probably. BTW IM PSYCHED, I love Silent Hill… ya!

Damn. I have never been a fan of courier bags. Okay, I admit I have never tried them but I have never wanted to wear one, until now.

Not only do I dig Mirror’s Edge but you have to admit the bag is really really sexy… In fact, the only reason I don’t have it ordered already is the hefty price tag : 130$.

If you are like me and probably want one of those babies, head on over to the Ea Store and pre-order Mirror’s Edge collector’s edition. If you are interested by courier bags, you should probably visit Timbuk2 they make this bag and many other awesome ones!