TGH is fairly new altogether, starting mid-December last year by the guys behind That Gamer Podcast and That Podcast Network. I had been one of their forum moderators for the first couple of months while also writing a couple of community articles before I was given the offer to join the writing team a couple days ago.

What this likely means for AGM itself is probably nothing to begin with, as I don’t update very often. If I have anything that comes to mind in which I don’t think fits on a larger gaming site (which won’t be much, really) I will likely post it here. This blog will likely remain inactive otherwise as I reconsider the future of my ancientcave.com domain altogether.

My first “official” article should be going up soon. Until then I do encourage anyone who looks at this to check out That Gamer Hub. It’s currently a small but golden community with a bunch of crazy people working behind the scenes.

I’m not gonna lie, my laptop actually holds out pretty well in the gaming scene. With an AMD 64 2.0GHz dual core CPU, 4GB of RAM, and enough graphical power to be able to run most of today’s games on lower graphics settings and a laser mouse that tracks up to 3200 DPI (the Steelseries Ikari Laser) I’ve been pretty set except in one field: Audio.

This is how it’s gone for me as far as audio is concerned. My laptop’s onboard sound card is a Realtek HD audio card, which causes more issues with gaming than any other part of my system. Why? Because it actually causes stuttering in just about any game that any computer from the past five years can run. My solution to this was to only use USB headsets, which ran on its own set of drivers which eliminated the stuttering issue but had issues of its own. (Such as the ability to only be able to record from my microphone whenever I wanted to record video.) Not to mention most headsets I bought weren’t of the best for gaming quality.

Today I found something that I could only describe as awesome, especially if you’re in the same situation with me as far as your sound card goes, and I was really lucky to find it on sale, making this my “scrooge buy” for this Christmas season, the Steelseries Siberia V2 USB.

For those that don’t know, Steelseries was started up in 2001 in Denmark as a gaming prehipheral company, which they still are today. If you remember going to your local EB Games or Gamestop and seeing those odd looking ZBoards advertised to gamers back in those days, it was them who made it. I’m not sure if they were producing anything else at the time but I thought it was a bit weird, and honestly I don’t need a gaming keyboard nor do I have room for any keyboards other than the one on my laptop, but still. When I buy gaming prehipherals it’s either going to be from these guys, or Razer.

The thing is, there actually isn’t such thing as a Siberia V2 USB, but I’ll explain that in a second. The headset included, the Siberia V2, is a standard headset with standard audio jacks. It was designed with larger than normal noise cancelling earbuds designed to stay comfortable after wearing them for long periods of time, and a unidirectional microphone that is stored in the left earbud when not in use with the wire curling around it, which can just be pulled out when the time comes to use it.

The design of the headset in itself is lightweight but from what I’ve read it’s very durable. I guess with me it’s going to be put to the test, since I’m bound to drop it or it will eventually come off my head the wrong way or whatever. At the same time, though, it seems to fit very snug on my head, unlike my previous headset which tended to start to fall off my head whenever I looked down. (Usually as a result of a certain attention wanting cat.) The headset has a self adjusting band to accomplish this, meaning there’s no need to adjust the earbuds to put it on, and it stays on your head no matter what.

It’s been a while since I had a headset like this, and all I can say is that these things are POWERFUL. Be really careful if you value your ears. I literally have my volume set to 2% within Windows and everything seems much louder than my previous headset at 25%. I would be scared of blowing my eardrums out if it was any higher. My recommendation is to be really careful with your sound card volume settings. Even on minimum volume with the noise cancelling it gets pretty loud. If you need it quieter you can adjust it through the headset’s own volume control.

Speaking of sound cards, that’s where the USB part comes in. As I mentioned before, the Siberia V2 USB isn’t actually a USB headset. It’s actually the second device that comes in this bundle, the Siberia USB Soundcard, that has this functionality. Now, when I first saw this device, the only thing I could think of is, “there’s no way that this tiny thing, at the price I’m getting this at, is its own soundcard. It can’t be any more than a fancy audio-to-USB adapter.”

I was wrong. This is what Steelseries calls a “virtual soundcard,” and was made for PC gamers who either currently use a poor quality onboard sound card (like myself) or tend to play on more than one computer so that they can have consistent sound quality between computers. Even more hard to believe is the fact that this virtual soundcard is capable of 7.1 virtual surround sound, which nowadays tends to be a bonus when competing against other players nowadays. All you need to do is plug this sucker into your computer, install the drivers, plug your headset in, configure it to your liking and you’re good to go. The device will work just like any other sound card on the market today, and is completely configurable as well. What makes me even more happier is now I can properly record sound.

From what I’ve seen, Steelseries has created USB headsets since then that has this technology built into it, but if you’re a gamer with a budget, then this may be more to your liking. Normally this would go for about $120 CAD (probably just a bit less if you’re in the US) though I got this on sale for a pretty good price.

If you ever wanted to see a retro-inspired turn based JRPG done right in today’s age, you don’t have to look any further than Golden Sun and Golden Sun: The Lost Age on the GBA. Everything about both those games; The story, how it plays, how it used the hardware and how it add onto the barebones hack-and-slash formula made them masterpieces in my eyes. At that time, there wasn’t any other game like it that you could take with you wherever you go.

Camelot and Nintendo’s Golden Sun series garnered a respectable amount of followers. (Though this is nothing compared to another certain Nintendo RPG involving monsters being carried around in balls and fight at your command.) Back in those days, it was said that the series would be made into a trilogy. However The Lost Age ended up finishing the story and hopes of a third game were dashed after a couple of years.

A year and a half ago I thought this game was dead. Then, Nintendo dropped a bomb at their E3 2009 press conference by announcing that Golden Sun DS was coming out in the Spring of 2010.

I did things that I don’t think I’d go into detail here. Let’s just reference a certain satirical song by The Lonely Island and leave it that. In a nutshell, I just ate a grape.

Today, the golden sun rises again. The newest installment of this game is in my hands. Does it stack up to what the original two were like so far?

What is this game like?

Golden Sun: Dark Dawn is the third installment in the series, taking 30 years after the end of The Lost Age. In this game you play as Matthew, the son of Isaac from the first game, as he and his friends embark on adventure to save Weyard from impending doom. One thing you must know about this game first, is that the core game mechanics have not been changed at all compared to the first two. Dark Dawn plays exactly like its predecessors before it. Whether or not it’s a good thing or a bad thing is up to you, but to me it’s a good thing because for the type of game it is, it was perfect.

As with the other entries in the Golden Sun series, Dark Dawn uses the old-school JRPG template as its base, with turn-based combat and character-separated inventories. That’s as far as the game’s basic systems go, however. As most series vets know, djinn add a whole layer of complexity and customization to the game. Each djinni belongs to one of the four main elements (Mercury – Water, Venus – Earth, Jupiter – Wind, and Mars – Fire) and has its own in battle ability that can be used by the character its assigned to when it is set to them. Any standby djinn can be used to summon various entities into battle to deal massive damage to your opponents. Having certain djinn set to each character affects that character’s class and what psynergies they can use. There are 70+ djinn total that have to be split evenly between up to eight characters which adds up to numerous possibilities in how to set your party up.

Outside of battle, you will come across dungeons with various puzzles in which you will have to make use of your psynergy to clear obstacles. To solve some of these, you may have to move a giant post with your Move psynergy, burn up a root blocking your path with Fireball, or cause a flower to rise into the air using Whirlwind. Dark Dawn introduces a couple of new field psynergies, except at this point the only one I’ve found so far is Grip, which is a venus element psynergy that allows you to pull yourself to an object across a gap or grab a faraway item that you can’t just walk to.

For those that haven’t played Golden Sun or Golden Sun: The Lost Age, the start of the game makes a semi-brief recap of the story from the first two games so that you understand the story so far. I found this to be a much better touch, especially since back in 2003 I ended up playing The Lost Age first and ended up really confusing me, because it just threw me into the game immediately where the first game left off and giving me no background. (I did eventually go back and play the first one, though.)

The presentation, both visibly and audibly, hasn’t changed very much from its GBA predecessors aside from the obvious upgrades. Dark Dawn chooses not to mess with a good formula and keeps the ambiance alive from the first two with lush environments and very suiting music, the most notable being the traditionally fast-paced battle music which is something that I really enjoyed before.

This game, however, has one seemingly glaring flaw, and that is the lack of backtracking. Golden Sun: Dark Dawn has multiple points in the story that act as a “point of no return,” cutting you off from the world you passed before and leaving you no chance to backtrack and collect any djinn or summon tablets that you missed. It’s possible to miss over half of the djinn because of this, and not all of them are apparent so I really suggest keeping a guide handy and knowing where these cutoff points are. In generally it’s really an annoyance; In most RPGs the game world expands as you advance further, but Dark Dawn closes it off as you finish with it.

Pros
Doesn’t change a formula that was perfect the first time around.
Able to effective take an old system and teach it new tricks for a great game.
Deep storyline

Cons
Lots of dialog, something that Camelot seems to do. Kraden still being alive doesn’t help with that.
World is cut off as you advance, can miss a LOT if you don’t know where things are.
“Onward!” after every cutscene is unnecessary.

Final Thoughts:
This game was a long time coming. It was said back in the days that Golden Sun was meant to be a trilogy and Dark Dawn opens the way for it to move onwards with this. I was really excited for this game, and I am thrilled to see it live up to my expectations and be just as enjoyable and amazing as the first two. Does the golden sun rise again? Definitely. I can’t wait to continue with this adventure. I just hope that these opinions remain the same as I complete the game.

Golden Sun: Dark Dawn is a game that I have been waiting for since it was announced at last year’s E3. Now out in Japan and hitting North American stores on Monday, I keep looking back to my preorder receipt, anticipating the game that it will get me on the day it arrives.

Earlier this week, I found an article on Destructoid where the developers seemed to draw inspiration from the commercial for the US release of Golden Sun back in 2001. For those that remember the style of GBA commercials around launch time, they usually took real life scenes and created them into something out of the game they’re advertising. The one for Golden Sun was quite bizarre:

Quite sure I’ve never gotten attacked by an opera house chandelier that turns into crystal dragon.

Now, as far as Golden Sun: Dark Dawn is concerned, Camelot seemed to have had a good memory, (especially for a commercial that didn’t even air in their country) and decided to make something of it.

And the rest is all history:

I tend to load my iPod up with a ton of gaming podcasts that I’ve subscribed to. Usually I’ll take it with me to work and when things are slow or dull (or when opposing hockey players are chirping at each other between their penalty boxes) I’ll turn one on and relax while I watch pucks, press buttons, sometimes write and occasionally tell a few tense hockey players to shut the fuck up. I rarely ever listen to my podcasts at home; I almost always listen to them when I have nothing else to focus on, as I don’t wanna miss anything.

I have about four or five podcasts that I like to listen to regularly; These are my own recommendations. Hit the jump to find out who I’m listening to.

(All of the podcasts I’ve listed are available on iTunes.)

Sidescrollers
Probably the first “video” site I came across that was centered around gaming was Screwattack. At first I only really stuck with their featured videos on Gametrailers, but I occasionally went to the site and that’s how I eventually started listening to Sidescrollers. Stuttering Craig usually likes to keep each episode short and they feature one thing each week, along with a quirky segment or two and always followed up with listener questions. (Something that pretty much every podcast I listen to does.) The Screwattack guys have always done a great job with this podcast and although I don’t listen to it much, anymore, it’s always good to come back to.
iTunes

The Electric Hydra
After the end of Podtoid, a couple of current and former Destructoid editors came together to make this podcast, taking from their old podcast’s older format. Hosted by Brad Nicholson, the Electric Hydra’s hosts will usually talk about their gaming experiences in the past week, touch on a few news stories, and sidetrack onto other topics that tend to get cheeky or even influence future podcasts. (B-B-B-Balls!) This can be a fun podcast to listen to sometimes, especially if Jim Sterling has played a fairly mediocre game in the past week. Depending on availability, the Electric Hydra sometimes records twice a week, with an abridged midweek version dubbed “The Early-Ass Morning Show in the Morning” which is pretty much the same deal with different people.
iTunes

Sega Addicts
Recording on Fridays, this podcast as you might guess from the name is mainly all-Sega. Now, I’ve grown up as a Nintendo boy in my childhood so I don’t always know what they’re talking about, but the obvious things such as Sonic, Phantasy Star, and some other recent Sega talk I can catch onto. Always a fun one to listen to, though the podcast becomes subject to some injokes, (MALE THONG!) but they manage to keep things entertaining. I actually enjoyed listening them recap the history of both Sonic and Phantasy Star a few months ago.
iTunes

Sarcastic Gamer (The Red Show)
SG is actually a series of multiple podcasts, though the only one I listen to right now is the main podcast, otherwise known as the Red Show hosted by the ever funny trio only known as Doc, Dave and Lono. This is a more low-key podcast that focuses less on current events and more on their thoughts with some comedy mixed into it. This usually allows for 30-45 minutes of satisfying, funny game talk and is not easy to forget to listen to. As well, they also have their own iPhone app with extra content. (I’ll admit, I don’t usually approve of hiding extra content behind money, but these guys are too golden to resist it.)
iTunes

All Gen Gamers
This one, which was initially drawn to this show through HappyConsoleGamer, (whom I’ve met once at a meetup at Gamedeals a couple months ago) this podcast is produced by a few guys with some well-known game-related Youtube channels such as gamester81, theEMUreview and PeteDorr. Probably the longest of all the podcasts that I regularly listen to, the hosts will generally spend the time talking on a single subject for an hour or two, which actually becomes very interesting regardless of if you fully understand what they’re talking about or not, while wrapping up with their gaming experiences in their past week. It’s common for them to bring on a guest on the show, usually another big Youtube channel or even Stuttering Craig from Screwattack, and a lot of the time it’s a really interesting to listen to as they tend to cover a lot of the not-so-prevalent areas of retro gaming (such as the Neo Geo consoles) that not a lot of people remember.
iTunes

Those are my recommendations as to what podcasts really stand out in there, with an honorable mention to Gaming Union‘s podcasts, which I will usually listen to when a MiniGUP comes around. Of course, if you’re just into this for news you’ll find it faster by reading blogs, though listening to podcasts always tends to be more immersive.

Okay, so, Sony stereotypes aside, September was likely a good month if you’re both a PSP owner and RPG lover such as myself. For four weeks straight, a new PSP RPG released that was able to catch my attention for each of those weeks. (Though one came after a second opinion.) This, to me, is a rare occurence, and really had me stretching my wallet for all of them.

So… what were the games that had me investing so much in the PSP recently?

Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep
For some, this would probably be “how typical.” For me, “how surprising.” I can humbly say that this is in fact the first time I had ever picked up a Kingdom Hearts game ever. (Except when I demoed Kingdom Hearts 2 very briefly at Disneyworld some four years ago now.) For a second, I have to forget about all of the rabid fanboys that this series produces and actually play a game. Since Birth By Sleep is a prequel to the entire series, I thought that it would be a good time to get into it. The game was already coming off of high player and editor reviews alike, and within an hour or so I could see why. The game, although not exactly like the other games in the series as I’ve been told, plays very well, has an interesting story, and looks pretty good for a PSP game. BBS has succeeded in making me want to try other games in the series… well… after hearing that 358/2 days was subpar, I will probably wait for the next Kingdom Hearts to hit on the 3DS

Phantasy Star Portable 2
Sharing the same abbreviation as the system is on, PSP2 could be overlooked if not just by the other games released before it, then also by the fact that Sega announced Phantasy Star Online 2 at TGS this year. That obviously didn’t stop me from picking it up. My friend had gotten me into the Phantasy Star series, starting with Online. Since then I had gone back and played the original turn-based games on the Master System and Genesis, but the Phantasy Star Universe games caught my eye, although it didn’t with some. Portable 2 expanded on a lot of the things that came out of Portable 1, all for the better. The game features online play, which seems like a rarity for PSP games nowadays, as well as bringing in some Universe traits as having a room you can customise and decorate. Also to the positive is the ability to block (if you have a shield) and having a single PP meter that regenerates, instead of having to manage PP for every weapon you’re using. It’s just fun all around.

Cladun: This is an RPG
What is Nippon Ichi without niche titles? Cladun is a 16-bit dungeon crawler-like game… with a twist. Aside from having your story character, you have the ability to create your own characters, right down to the pixel. Yes, you can create any character you like and even define the end boss. The game also features an very interesting powerup system, using the other characters you make to act as “shields” and power the main character up. This game can tend to be difficult at times, and can time some time getting used to, but all in all this game becomes an effective time waster.

Valkyria Chronicles II
How does the earliest game end up as my last game? I tried this out when the demo was first put up on PSN, hastily played it and couldn’t make any sense of anything. However, after reading about it quite a bit I decided to try it again, play it properly, and I ended up liking enough to buy it. Ever since then, I haven’t been able to put it down. Thing is, I’m not even that much into SRPGs, but Valkyria II just has so much going for it. It’s got warfare strategy. It’s got quirky characters that you’ll all get to know over time. It’s got… guns. (Okay, so guns doesn’t really mean much.) But really. It’s hard not to fall in love with the students that make up class G, and never have I played a game in where “grinding” (by repeating old missions) actually felt like I was doing something. You find ways to refine strategies, try different classes, see if you can try to beat each mission faster… It’s a rush. Although the story goes by month to month, you aren’t pressed for time, so it gives me all the reason to level up a bit, dive into each character’s story, and just keep me hooked. I think I might need help.

Probably the hardest thing out of all of these is balancing each of these titles. I don’t really put much time into my PSP at all, although Valkyria Chronicles II has changed that over the last couple of days, but a lot of the time I find myself wanting to play Birth By Sleep yet I know I’ve been neglecting Phantasy Star Portable 2. Always a problem when you’re a backlogger, I guess.

But who knows? Maybe I’ll end up getting through them all… some day.

However, the one piece that everyone was waiting to hear was a bit unexpected. Nintendo officially announced that the 3DS will launch in Japan on February 26th, 2011 at a price of 25,000 yen. ($297 USD, $306 CAD)  Although it was disappointing to hear that we were still a good half away from getting our hands on the glasses-less 3D handheld, many agree that such a move could ensure that Nintendo’s supply meets demand, as they had predicted that they will sell 4 million units in its first month. (Which is probably more than the number of Wiis they manufactured in the first year.) This will also allow poor men like me to save a bit up before diving into a preorder.

Aside from the launch date and price, Nintendo also revealed some of the features that the 3DS will have:

Miis
Yes, the miis are invading your handhelds. Mii creation has also been enhanced by being able to take a photo of your face and creating a unique mii face out of it.

Communication
The 3DS has a tag mode which will always be active while the 3DS is sleeping. The device will pick up other systems and exchange mii and game data with them.

Multitasking
As an example, if you ever got stuck on a game and are connected to the Internet, you can press the home button to return to the home screen, start up your browser, go to GameFAQs or whatever, look it up, then go back to whatever game you were playing. Multitasking definitely isn’t a new feature, but seeing as the only the iPhone does it on the portable front right now, it’s definitely a step forward. It’s also a reason to be lazy, as if I’m playing a game in bed and get stuck, I don’t have to get up and go to my computer to check a FAQ.

Handheld Virtual Console
Words cannot describe this one for me, so I’ll let The Lonely Island express how I feel here. [NSFW]

My only worry about this is what will happen when the inevitable 3DSWare comes out, if VC will take a backseat like it has on the Wii.

A load of games were announced as well, although most of them skip my mind aside from previously announced titles such as Kid Icarus Uprising and Nintendogs + Cats, but I do know one title that was announced was Capcom’s Megaman Legends 3. (The fact that Capcom Unity was talking about it makes me think they plan on bringing this one over here, unlike Rockman Dash 2.)

That’s really all I have about the 3DS. Hopefully Nintendo of America will announce a more concrete launch date and price for over here within the coming months. Until then, it’s time to save up!

The big news that will be coming out of this conference will, of course, be the launch date and price of the 3DS. Whether or not any launch info will pertain to areas outside of Japan, I don’t know. However, it’s no secret that there have been rumors of leaks abound.

• A Japanese company manufacturing 3DS accessories had revealed that they will be releasing said accessories on November 20th, 2010 in a tweet that has since been deleted. Source
• A german tabloid had stated that the 3DS is scheduled for launch in Spring 2010 at a price of 200 euros. However, this can prove to be false as this would fall under Nintendo’s launch window, being after the end of the 2010 fiscal year. Image
• There are also rumors that a Gamestop employee leaked info from the company’s database that the handheld will launch in the US on November 22nd. Even moreso it was leaked that Dragon Ball 3DS would have a November 11th release, which adds more fuel to the fire and adding that the date could be even earlier than that. That being said, 3DS preorders may start taking place tomorrow as well. Source

We only have a few hours until we know the truth for sure.

Until then, this is what I’ve predicted:

Release: November 20th (JP), November 28th (NA), Q1 2011 (EU) (I had to spite all the people saing Nov. 22nd)
Price: 249,000 yen/$269.99 ($299.99 CAD), 200 euros – (NA preorders to start either tomorrow or Thursday)
I’m predicting that the design of the 3DS won’t change all that much, but am hoping that the start/select/home buttons along the bottom of the touch screen will be moved.

It seems like it was only a few years ago we were talking about games going HD and starting to use wireless controller. Our favorite franchises (or at least those that weren’t a Nintendo franchise) were updated with even more glorious visuals and we no longer had to worry about our controllers ever getting tangled together, or ever wondering which controller is which due to the facts that these wireless controllers have light patterns.  Even before that, when it came to our televisions we had been playing in the standard definition era from the Intellivision to the PS2. The move to HDTV was inevitable as the install base grew, but when it comes to today’s advances, do we really need these in our games? Are we ready for them?

Motion controls are something that we’ve all experienced firsthand using the Wii. When you look at it a certain way, some people might think “it’s about time Microsoft the Sony finally stepped up.” Meanwhile, others moan and groan as to what this means for our PS3s and 360s. This might promote more people to go out and buy consoles, along with Kinect or Playstation Move, but as for the core gamers that have been playing these consoles for the past four years, does it worry us that this could possibly bring in a new era of shovelware? I’m sure there are a few skeptics out there already that are predicting a new video game market crash, much like the one of 1984, purely on motion controls and their knack for making developers create games that are no more than just mediocre minigame compilations that will not hold the interest of someone “seriously into gaming” as developers start to shift their focus to soccer moms or families wanting to waggle, as we’ve seen many times during the Wii’s lifespan. This is even more apparent when you look at Microsoft’s debacle of an E3 press conference this year. Are we doomed to a gaming future of driving with an invisible steering wheel, or petting animals?

Now, really, obviously we aren’t looking at a potential market crash (unless you look at today’s economy as a whole) but you have to wonder with all of these garbage motion control games coming out, how much longer until we see the equivalent of E.T. on the 2600?

Motion controls sometimes don’t even work in some environments. Believe me, I’ve had two rooms that did not have an ideal setup for motion controls with my Wii. The first involved a TV sitting on a stand hanging over my bed. The other one has the TV sitting on an unstable shelf with the top of the TV just below my chin when I’m sitting down. It isn’t noticeable so much if I just have to point the remote at the TV, but if I have to switch between a sideways remote and a pointer like you have to do in Super Paper Mario or Metroid: Other M, more often than not it doesn’t work. What’s to say that Kinect and Move won’t have the same issues on a “poor man’s gaming setup?”

This doesn’t take away from the fact that, if you look at the Wii’s gaming library, most of the games that use motion controls to begin with are shit, and there aren’t enough games that utilize Wii Motion Plus, technology that’s built-in with Move and Kinect.

And as far as 3D goes… did we really need it?  Heck, barely half of gamers have an HDTV to begin with. The rest of us are all sitting close to our TVs and squinting so we can read what’s on screen. (At least if you’re playing a game by EA, you are. Even with the 3DS, what does 3D really mean to me? More headaches. I’m not attracted to the 3DS by its ability to project a 3D image without the need for glasses. I’m attracted to it because of its projected game library and the fact that I’ve always been a fan of Nintendo handhelds. Chances are, I’m going to be playing with 3D either low or off most of the time because I tend to get very headache-prone. I don’t need the frequency of my migranes going up.

To be completely fair, 3D right now is completely optional. Playing a 3D-enabled game on an HDTV isn’t going to give people playing on a 3DTV any more of an advantage, and heck; Maybe they’re not playing with 3D on either. I still think it’s ludicrous that HDTVs have only been commonplace for a couple of years now and now everything is transitioning to 3D. It’s like computers in the late 90s and early 2000s; Nowadays you can’t have a TV for a month without it becoming obsolete. I think I’ll skip 3DTVs altogether and wait until we have holograms.

Look at it this way. If you’re limited on space, why go out and buy a 3DTV for thousands of dollars plus the cost of glasses, when you can get a moderately sized HDTV for $250?

That’s really my take on this. From what I’ve gathered most core gamers would rather push buttons than waggle. Only a slim majority of them are on HDTVs. As far as motion controls are concerned, maybe the devs are noticing these trends and therefore making mainly casual motion games because of it? Who knows? The worry for me there is that more focus will be put into these new systems, alienating the core market just like what we’ve seen with the Wii. 3D isn’t a concern for me yet, but I still think it’s early to try to push it as mainstream where we still live in the age of HD. It’s a luxury, but not a necessity.

The outcry started on Friday, when Namco America announced on its Facebook page that they had no plans to localize recent games in the series, including Tales of Vesperia on the PS3, as well as Tales of Graces, along with its PS3 port Tales of Graces f. The comment was immediately met with upset fans and long-time supporters of the series and retro-game developer, so much to the fact that people started petitioning to have both Vesperia PS3 and Graces f released in the US on playstation.blog.share.

Then again, today, Tales Union reported that another comment similar to Friday’s wall post had gone up on Namco’s facebook page, this time not only mentioning that Namco is not looking at localizing Vesperia PS3 or Graces f, but for the rest of the series as well.

The new post, which has since been removed, has been met with great hostility by the Tales of fanbase, with angry fans spamming Namco’s page, with comments varying from people trying to encourage them that they do have a fanbase on this side of the Pacific, to mimicing how various other Tales characters would do the same, to just downright berating the company’s decision to leave them out in the cold. Namco’s has been trying to delete some of the more outrageous stuff but they have not been able to keep up.

It’s really disgusting to be honest; I can’t blame the fans. Yes, sales of the series over here haven’t been great, but Namco Bandai really tried to bring up the community over here after Tales of Symphonia, which is probably my favorite RPG of all time. Seeing games like Tales of Legendia, Tales of the Abyss, and even going to Tales of the World: Radiant Mythology. After Vesperia’s release, the only game they have localized in North America and Europe would be Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World back in November 2008. The other games released since then: Innocence, Hearts, Radiant Mythology 2, Vs., Graces, and new or in-developemtn games Narikiri Dungeon X, Vesperia PS3, Graces f, and a new PS3 game that was just announced today, have not even been considered for localization out of Japan.

It’s really unfortunate that it just had to come down to this. Will Namco see what they are doing and be swayed by this? Probably not. Will it leave a sting? I think so. Boycotting them obviously won’t do anything, but it’s always been on my mind from the time that I realized that we were probably not getting Graces.

I know the community isn’t taking this lightly, and neither will I.

Update: (Aug. 3, noon PDT) This grilling is still going on. No comment from Namco on the situation. People are starting to ask fans of the series to add a #talesfanunite hashtag onto their tweet when talking about the Tales Of series.