http://www.n-philes.com/ Putting the N back in Entertainment en-us Tue, 09 Feb 2010 01:12:42 PST Copyright N-Philes 2001-2005 N-Philes http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Nintendo http://www.n-philes.com/rss/rsslogo.png http://www.n-philes.com/ webmaster@n-philes.com (Gareth Trinkwon) desire.garcia@n-philes.com (Desire Garcia) Tue, 09 Feb 2010 01:12:42 PST http://www.n-philes.com/news.php?id=5556 That's right. Sega's new Sonic title, previously known as "Project Needlemouse," has finally been outed as Sonic the Hedgehog 4, a downloadable game coming in parts, the first being Episode 1. The game aims to take the series back to its roots, with new 3D graphics on a 2D plane, but in the same locations and the same gameplay Genesis fans know and love. Check the trailer in the rest of the post. Thu, 04 Feb 2010 08:47:03 PST Will Davey News http://www.n-philes.com/news.php?id=5556#comments nphiles-1265302023-5556 http://www.n-philes.com/news.php?id=5553 Survival horror games, by and large, have been an equal blend of shooter and scarefest. Lately, though, the Wii has seen a few deviations in the genre with the release of Silent Hill: Shattered Memories and the upcoming Calling. These types of games retain an investigative element but have you react to conflict by running away rather than trying to put a shotgun blast through it. I recently had a chance to play a demo build of the game that, while needing some polish, definitely had me curious to see where the story would go and the means by which the developers would attempt to creep me out. Thu, 04 Feb 2010 00:06:19 PST Brandon Schmidt Feature http://www.n-philes.com/news.php?id=5553#comments nphiles-1265270779-5553 http://www.n-philes.com/news.php?id=5552 Survival horror games, by and large, have been an equal blend of shooter and scarefest. Lately, though, the Wii has seen a few deviations in the genre with the release of Silent Hill: Shattered Memories and the upcoming Calling. These types of games retain an investigative element but have you react to conflict by running away rather than trying to put a shotgun blast through it. I recently had a chance to play a demo build of the game that, while needing some polish, definitely had me curious to see where the story would go and the means by which the developers would attempt to creep me out. Thu, 04 Feb 2010 00:01:56 PST Brandon Schmidt News http://www.n-philes.com/news.php?id=5552#comments nphiles-1265270516-5552 http://www.n-philes.com/news.php?id=5551 Most comics blow. Without any kind of guidance, even thinking about finding a comic to read that doesn't suck is a little overwhelming. Lucky for you I'm here to make the process easier! Every so often I pop in these parts and point out some books that are easy to find and accessible to even the most casual comic book reader. And most importantly, you have my personal guarantee that these comics don't suck. Tue, 02 Feb 2010 22:54:36 PST Adam Glasgow Feature http://www.n-philes.com/news.php?id=5551#comments nphiles-1265180076-5551 http://www.n-philes.com/news.php?id=5550 Bill Watterson Finally Talks About 'Calvin & Hobbes' Tue, 02 Feb 2010 16:19:39 PST Jared Thomas News http://www.n-philes.com/news.php?id=5550#comments nphiles-1265156379-5550 http://www.n-philes.com/news.php?id=5549 I clocked over 200 hours playing Phantasy Star Online for the GameCube. Despite never actually going online due to the need for a monetary subscription and the lack of a GCN Modem, I spent plenty of time plumbing the mysteries of Ragol with my friends and family. So when Sega announced (or Zero, depending on how willing you are to open up Character Map) with the promise of portability and free online play through Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection, I hyped myself up for the game immediately. Were my expectations met? Only partially. Sun, 31 Jan 2010 16:33:01 PST Oliver Chen Review http://www.n-philes.com/news.php?id=5549#comments nphiles-1264984381-5549 http://www.n-philes.com/news.php?id=5548 I really hate reality television and generally refuse to watch it, but for whatever reason, reality shows involving cakes intrigue me. Whether it's Ace of Cakes or those Food Network cake baking challenge-deals, I'm always happy to waste a few hours of my life glued to the couch excitedly watching to see what these strange, obsessive people will do withfondant (for those not in the know, fondant is a special kind of frosting that's used mostly on fancy or wacky looking cakes). I blame this cake fixation formy initial interest in Fairytale Fights. The game's cartoony landscape looks intriguingly like a delicious frosted good. Despite its generally poor reception, I decided to give in and try it out. Unfortunately my cake fetish has, for the first time in my life, betrayed me. Sat, 30 Jan 2010 13:02:24 PST Adam Glasgow Review http://www.n-philes.com/news.php?id=5548#comments nphiles-1264885344-5548 http://www.n-philes.com/news.php?id=5547 The Last Story, New JRPG From Nintendo and Mistwalker Fri, 29 Jan 2010 08:36:13 PST kino News http://www.n-philes.com/news.php?id=5547#comments nphiles-1264782973-5547 http://www.n-philes.com/news.php?id=5546 When I was just a little tyke, walking around aimlessly in an arcade looking for something worth spending my hard earned quarters on, I came across a machine that would be the gold standard against which I would compare every other fighter. I was 10, and the game was X-Men vs. Street Fighter. This crossover brawler brought us, for the first time, a tag-team based fighter that would inspire so many other such outing for years to come. Capcom would go on to create the SNK vs. Capcom series due in large to the success of its Marvel vs. Capcom titles. These games were huge hits in arcades and on home consoles alike, and with their huge rosters and trademark Capcom polish, were the cream of the crop for 2D fighters. It was only a matter of time before Capcom found another IP to milk for another crossover game: this time it's the 1960s Japanese Animation company, Tatsunoko. Tue, 26 Jan 2010 17:22:42 PST Frankie Aguilar Review http://www.n-philes.com/news.php?id=5546#comments nphiles-1264555362-5546 http://www.n-philes.com/news.php?id=5545 Darksiders is a game that is, for the most part, made up of ideas from other games. This action-adventure title's overall structure is scarily similar to that of The Legend of Zelda series, and you'll see plenty of similarites to the Devil May Cry series in the combat system. However, rather than flat-out copying them, Darksiders simply embraces these mechanics and places them in an environment and setting that you've never see them in before. It's for that reason that playing something that you already have in another game isn't a bad thing, but rather a modern take on a classic idea. Mon, 25 Jan 2010 16:13:00 PST Will Davey Review http://www.n-philes.com/news.php?id=5545#comments nphiles-1264464780-5545 http://www.n-philes.com/news.php?id=5544 Darksiders is a game that is, for the most part, made up of ideas from other games. This action-adventure title's overall structure is scarily similar to that of The Legend of Zelda series, and you'll see plenty of similarites to the Devil May Cry series in the combat system. However, rather than flat-out copying them, Darksiders simply embraces these mechanics and places them in an environment and setting that you've never see them in before. It's for that reason that playing something that you already have in another game isn't a bad thing, but rather as a modern take on a classic idea.The story for Darksiders is actually unique, so it's a shame that it can be hard to follow during certain sections of the game. You take on the role of War, one of the four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, and your job is to pick up the pieces of a catastrophe that wiped out the human race. The major problem here is that you've been framed for the whole thing, and the forces of both Heaven and Hell are out to get you for it. It's a great revenge story as War has to try and, not only clear his own name, but destroy whoever put him through all of it. Several scenes do explain a lot of the story, but it's the sections before and after those that don't really explain a lot, and it's these moments that made the story seem quite underwhelming.After starting this post-apocalyptic adventure, you'll find out that you have to collect several items to progress further on into the game. To do this, you'll be sent across various different locations and into several different dungeons. It's in these dungeons where you'll find the references to other franchises, particularly the Zelda franchise, much less subtle than you think. The enjoyable mix of combat and puzzle-solving make these dungeons very enjoyable to play through, and although the puzzles start out easy, they do get more difficult later on in the game. Still, throughout these clever, puzzle-filled sections, you'll end up finding a new key item that'll help you through the rest of the area, and not only that, but will also be key to defeating the boss at the end of the dungeon. Once you're done, you teleport out, and you're onto your next task. Sound familiar?Luckily the combat is good fun, which is a plus, as that's what you'll spend the majority of your time doing playing Darksiders. With the souls that you collect from killing enemies, you can purchase upgrades and combos for your weapons, and each of these will add to your arsenal of attacks to unleash on the various demons that are painted all over the landscape. You can block, counter and dodge attacks as well, but when swarmed with enemies, I found it much easier to just dash out of the way and set up more combos. Counter attacks are powerful, but I found that I had to go out of my way and focus on one enemy to set one up, and in that time I could be killing them all at once instead. The combat is also helped, in part, by the great animations to each of the moves. The end of a brutal combo can send enemies flying, and the harsh animations and one-button insta-kills really make the combat incredibly satisfying. Some of the moves and combos in Darksiders are actually very similar to some specific moves in the Devil May Cry series, so if you've played those games before, you may find yourself more at home with the combat than you first thought.It's not just the combat that looks great though. The environments and facial animations of the main characters are very well done, and all of these things help to draw you in as a player. The environments aren't perfect, and one or two places could probably have done with a bit more subtle detail, but they're still visually impressive, especially since the most of the game is accessible with no loading screens. A great soundtrack and excellent voice acting really add to the overall presentation of the game, so when you add up all of these positives, the negatives in technical issues don't seem as important. Sadly though, the Xbox 360 version does suffer from occasional slowdown and very frequent screen tearing issues. It's a shame, because although it's not a game-breaking issue, it's very noticeable. Not only that, but I also had the game crash on me twice during Serpent Hole sequences, which is this game's take on teleportation. Luckily the game does autosave (though you can manually save at any time) so I didn't lose any progress. A patch is currently in the works to fix the screen tearing, which is great, but I can't say whether the game crashing is as widespread as the screen tearing is.As far as re-playability goes, I finished my first playthrough of Darksiders on Normal difficulty in roughly 13 hours. Following that, I jumped back in to satisfy my need for completion in the form of finding chests I'd missed, and ticking off the achievements. After a total of 20 hours, I'd done all that could be done on that save file, so I ran through the game again on Apocalyptic difficulty, and I finished that playthrough in under eight hours. Roughly 30 hours for an action-adventure game is pretty impressive, and although that was spread across two playthroughs, I don't regret playing through the game twice at all.Darksiders is the first game that I've played in a while that not only satisfies my need for hack'n'slash craziness, but also my need for exploration and puzzle solving. Sure, the game is a bit linear, but that only serves as a way to keep the game moving forward without having to re-tread too much old ground. Whether you're looking for a Zelda-style adventure or a Devil May Cry slash-fest, you won't be disappointed. Mon, 25 Jan 2010 15:56:45 PST Jared Thomas News http://www.n-philes.com/news.php?id=5544#comments nphiles-1264463805-5544 http://www.n-philes.com/news.php?id=5543 With 2010 well upon us and our thoughts turned to what the year will bring, it's a good time to look back and reflect on the year that was. While the releases of a number of highly-anticipated titles being pushed back was a recurring theme, 2009 still brought us a lot of strong efforts from both big developers and small.The N-Philes crew with all our quirks, likes, and personal biases would like to present to you our top three individual choices for game of the year of 2009. As varied as both our staff and all of you fans are, there's sure to be something in here we can all agree on, right? ....Right? Sun, 24 Jan 2010 00:47:13 PST Brandon Schmidt Feature http://www.n-philes.com/news.php?id=5543#comments nphiles-1264322833-5543 http://www.n-philes.com/news.php?id=5542 With 2010 well upon us and our thoughts turned to what the year will bring, it's a good time to look back and reflect on the year that was. While the releases of a number of highly-anticipated titles being pushed back was a recurring theme, 2009 still brought us a lot of strong efforts from both big developers and small.The N-Philes crew with all our quirks, likes, and personal biases would like to present to you our top three individual choices for game of the year of 2009. As varied as both our staff and all of you fans are, there's sure to be something in here we can all agree on, right? ....Right? Sun, 24 Jan 2010 00:40:18 PST Brandon Schmidt News http://www.n-philes.com/news.php?id=5542#comments nphiles-1264322418-5542 http://www.n-philes.com/news.php?id=5541 With 2010 well upon us and our thoughts turned to what the year will bring, it's a good time to look back and reflect on the year that was. While the releases of a number of highly-anticipated titles being pushed back was a recurring theme, 2009 still brought us a lot of strong efforts from both big developers and small.The N-Philes crew with all our quirks, likes, and personal biases would like to present to you our top three individual choices for game of the year of 2009. As varied as both our staff and all of you fans are, there's sure to be something in here we can all agree on, right? ....Right? Sun, 24 Jan 2010 00:30:56 PST Brandon Schmidt Feature http://www.n-philes.com/news.php?id=5541#comments nphiles-1264321856-5541 http://www.n-philes.com/news.php?id=5540 With 2010 well upon us and our thoughts turned to what the year will bring, it's a good time to look back and reflect on the year that was. While the releases of a number of highly-anticipated titles being pushed back was a recurring theme, 2009 still brought us a lot of strong efforts from both big developers and small.The N-Philes crew with all our quirks, likes, and personal biases would like to present to you our top three individual choices for game of the year of 2009. As varied as both our staff and all of you fans are, there's sure to be something in here we can all agree on, right? ....Right? Sun, 24 Jan 2010 00:12:40 PST Brandon Schmidt Feature http://www.n-philes.com/news.php?id=5540#comments nphiles-1264320760-5540