Tokyo Game Show 2012 - Day One - GameOPS | Philippines Gaming, Tech, and Pop Culture

Well, it's that time of the year again, when video game companies come together to show off their latest products at the Tokyo Game Show, which as you probably know isn't actually in Tokyo (see TGS 2012 press release).

The 2012 Tokyo Game Show's slogan is “Spreading smiles through Games” as very clearly games do make us smile, much like we do when we perform God of War's sexual quick-time events.

Accompanying me to the trade show is a man who is referred to as Mr. Size, a sort of former rockstar, and a person who may very well become a sort of rockstar again in the future.

Quite similarly to 2011's TGS, about half of the booths, if not more, are focused on social and mobile games. That seems to be the trend these days after all. But rest assured that that is by no means any sign that our wonderful console counterparts are lagging behind the times as some awesome home and portable console games were on display today.

And this is a bear. I don't know what he was promoting, but he was there.

Some of the games I played, and I wish this were in an order paid for by corporations, were:

DmC: Devil May Cry (Xbox 360)

Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance (PS3)

Medal of Honor: Warfighter (PS3)

Monster Hunter 4 (3DS)

Need for Speed: Most Wanted (PS3)

Dead or Alive 5 (PS3)

Ryu ga Gotoku 1 & 2 HD (PS3) (This is known in English as Yakuza)

Lost Planet 3 (Xbox 360)

I think that's it. And now for some impressions:

DmC: Devil May Cry – Should we call the next Street Fighter, “SF: Street Fighter”, or the next Legend of Zelda, “LoZ: Legend of Zelda?”

The omission of a number on the title represents a departure from the old. This game occurs in a parallel universe where Dante is a young 20 year old man, which means he cannot drink beer in the United States.

To tell you the truth, I don't really know much about Devil May Cry. I once played a version of it on the PS2 and gave up when I couldn't beat the giant crab boss of level 1. You still use a gun and a blade, so that much I can tell hasn't changed.

Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance – It's MGS with a sword, and all moves appear to kill rather than having some moves that only temporarily disable. It is still has stealth elements, but the tutorial focused on chopping stuff up with your sword, so I ended up playing it like an action game. This I soon figured out wasn't the way to play the Revengeance. Fighting multiple targets at the same time was difficult, and I died a couple times.

The cutting mechanic I thought was amazing. You can hold on the L1 button to slow time down and use the Right Analog Stick to make a cut with your sword, which can be directed depending on the angle at which you move the stick. This allows you to make precision cuts, good for taking enemies down who are holding hostages. It seems you can also cut through most things. I cut down the supports of a bridge at the beginning of the mission, and this made the bridge collapse.

By the way, Hideo Kojima was there! Want to touch.

Medal of Honor: Warfighter – Set in Isabela, Basilan, the bad guys, who are, I guess, supposed to be ASG, are speaking in Tagalog. “Mamamatay kayo!” cried one bandit as he threw a grenade my way. Luckily my character was an American soldier, who as we all know have regenerative health.

I don't think they speak Tagalog in Basilan, do they?

Great controls, good graphics, destructible environments. Can't say how multiplayer is going to be, but at least the single player mission looks okay.

Monster Hunter 4 – In all my time in Japan I had not once played what is one of the best selling game franchises in the country. Sitting down with the 3DS in my hand, I teamed up with Mr. Size and 2 random Japanese members of the press. The lady in our booth asked us if we have ever played MonHan before. And of course, I was the only person in the group who said “no”, to which I felt some cold stares from the Nihonjins in our team, and produced a somewhat shocked look from the MonHan lady. This is clearly a transgression on my part as a gamer in Japan, but was quickly rectified today.

It was good. And I managed not to get killed.

At the end of the demo, the booth lady guiding us complimented me for being such a quick learner and for not dying in the game. I smiled and responded with modesty, but little did she know that half the time I was actually running away from the monster, drinking potions, and getting lost.

Need For Speed: Most Wanted – A game with the same name as the NFS installment released in 2005, this and DmC leads me to think that game companies are running out of good ideas for game titles. It was, however, a fun and well-crafted racer, with elements of Burnout Paradise. This shouldn't be a surprise though, since it is being developed by Burnout Paradise developer Criterion.

The multiplayer mode consisted of what seemed to be about 4 modes all played on the same city one after the other seamlessly without pausing for loading screens. If you can imagine the multiple multiplayer modes of Killzone 2 and 3 that occur in one gaming session, it's pretty much the same concept.

The first mode had us speed through some point on the road. The faster your speed was when you pass that point, the more points you get. The next one had each racer ram into each other. Then the next was a simple race from point A to B. Finally the game had us attempt a long jump off a ramp. Getting farther jumps racks you more points.

EA had a nice little promo of giving the the best player out of 8 a free T-shirt. Unfortunately I landed in 2^nd place with a score of 1725 points. The top guy had 1800.

Dead or Alive 5 – Likely the most fun game I played in the show so far. Mr. Size and I had no idea how to do any of the special moves, but just being able to dress up the female characters in bikinis and have them beat the hell out of each other was pure joy. We must have looked like the biggest pervs in the convention center.

Ryu ga Gotoku 1 & 2 HD – I actually wanted to play Biohazard 6 instead, but quite literally as I stepped up to take my game stub to play the demo, they had stopped letting people line up for it. So, on the spot I had to make a decision, and Yakuza it was.

This was good old Ryu ga Gotoku but with new HD visuals. Of course everything still looks very much like chunks of polygons, but the textures have been reworked. The same controls that are now a standard in the series is still there, so I found myself quickly bashing gangster heads like it was 2005 all over again. After all these years, brutally jamming your heel into the head of a man lying helplessly on the ground hasn't grown old. Definitely a must-have for fans of the series.

Lost Planet 3 – Played multiplayer with Mr. Size. Basically it was like Killzone plus Gears of War cover system. The voice acting even reminded me of the Helghast.

That's all I'm going to say about it.

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Tomorrow I plan to hit Biohazard 6, Assassin's Creed III, Zone of Enders HD, and Ryu ga Gotoku 5. I also want to get my hands on the Wii U. There is a demo of Tekken Wii U running on Nintendo's next generation system. Very exciting indeed!

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And now for the TGS 2012 Awards - Day One!

BEST MOST MYSTERIOUS YET LIKELY TO FAIL PERIPHERAL

This award goes to Sony for the HMZ. I don't know what it is and I am too lazy to Google it. Is it a virtual reality TV thing? I hope to find out tomorrow if/when I try this peripheral out. Looks interesting though, don't ya think?

WORST PICTURE WITH MODEL

Doesn't he look like he's jabbing his gun in my face?

MOST SLIGHTLY ODD LIFE-SIZE FIGURE OF A GAME CHARACTER

I'm sorry to have to make you do this, but please take a gander at Snake's crotch. It seems as if something is coming out of his pants, or some kind of rock formation is stuck on his genital area.

BIGGEST DISAPPOINTMENT

They changed the Chicken Basket at the food court. Previously it had been real, juicy fried chicken, bones and all, with fries. It was the cheapest, most satisfying meal available at the show. Today I noticed that the chicken was replaced with some kind of boneless chicken chunks, and all together the chicken was mostly batter.

SADDEST BOOTH

This one goes to the Iran National Foundation of Computer Game. Their booth had close to nothing in it. There was one table and one chair, and two guys talking to each other. No consoles, no computers, no games.

Oh, and there were some documents on the table.

I was kind of hoping to see an FPS where the Americans were the bad guys, or something like that. I'll try to have chat with them tomorrow to see what's up.

BEST BOOTH

Sony, hands down, had the best booth. There were a TON of games being demoed for PS3, PS Vita, and the PSP. They even had several HMZ units for use. Their booth was clearly made for the public days... people will go there because they want to play games, and Sony has prepared for this having what must be over 100 systems ready for players.

SMARTEST NO SHOW

This last award goes to Microsoft. I think they understand it now. Microsoft will not seize Nintendo or Sony's grasp of the console market in Japan. Ever. Therefore there is just no point to showing up at TGS. Good job, MS.

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That's it for now. I leave you with random pictures. Mostly of girls. And sorry for the layout, I can't seem to fix it properly.