Rocket's adventures in MH3U Part 6: So tasty!

I finally found something I truly enjoy about this game and that's cooking well-done steak! It's kind of a mini-game where you're turning a spit and pressing a button at just the right moment. If you press too early you get rare steak and if you press too late you get burnt steak, neither of which are that good at raising stamina.

However, if you press at just the right time you get well-done steak along with a passionate lady's voice sample going "So tasty!". I love it. It's how I like my steak done in real life too. You get the biggest stamina boost from this.

So I'm standing at the top of some waterfall looking around with my binoculars. I hear these cat things with backpacks nearby minding their own business and man... it's just nice hanging out like this... and eating well-done steak.

My inventory's bursting with loads of seemingly useless junk but I grab it anyway because I just don't know if it's gonna be useful or not. It's probably not the best way of doing things and by now I have a gigantic hoard of.... whatever.

I like those cats though. Their relatives near the bay I thought were ok too but the minute they stole something from me... DEATH. I beat the nine lives out of them and got my useless stuff back. That'll show 'em!

After a while of not doing much but collecting and hanging out I get an opportunity to do missions in a new area, a desert! When you're going there, stock up on some refreshing drinks.

I picked the first mission of the area which pretty much said to just hang out in the area for as long as I liked. Is this game adjusting to my thinking? I explored the desert and came across these weird sand shark things which were pretty cool. There was also an old guy whom I kept asking to give me stuff until he told me to get lost.

I then got a mission to take on my first big monster! It was a bigger version of those little ankle bitey things that gang up on you and puff themselves out. They all look like that dinosaur that spat all over Newman in Jurassic Park.

It wasn't too difficult, just kept cool with cool drinks, kept healthy with megapotions and kept a high stamina with well-done steaks and a lot of attacking.

Rocket's adventures in MH3U Part 5: The big Tri server shutdown

Well today's the day. The original Tri version of the game on the Wii is having its online multiplayer support switched off. I didn't play that version of the game much but the crew here at NinTemple had one last big session of the game the other night and had a whale of a time.

This support lives on in the Wii U's Ultimate version of the game. Maybe I'll do that someday. For now though, I'm here with the local-only 3DS version, taking a break from the missions and playing it like it was Animal Crossing or something. I run around the woods, looking at everything with the binoculars I just bought from the gal with the goods.

(after reversing the Y axis of course)

Rocket's Adventures in MH3U Part 4: Collecting, collecting, collecting, RUNNING!

So after I got someway comfortable with the controls I set out to get rid of the exclamation marks above the villagers heads by fulfilling their unfulfilled needs. I get some raw meat, I pick some mushrooms and herbs, I learn how to mine. I try to go through this part of the game as quickly as possible... and in my impatience I forget about one very important thing...

I take on yet another seemingly mundane mission about gathering resources. After a little bit of research from the literature I buy from the gal with the goods, I follow my lead to the very same area where I fought the Plesioth in the demo. After that stressful battle it felt weird being here doing something so normal. I dive into the water and gather what's asked of me. I then find myself short so I continue further into the next watery area.

*DUN!* sounds a dramatic, yet familiar, sound effect.

I immediately get this frantic text message on my magical monhun mobile tutorial telephone, telling me to get out of there because this gigantic creature called Lagiacrus had noticed me and I wasn't at all ready to face it yet. I hurried back into the previous water area.

The creature followed me!

All of a sudden the music from the Plesioth battle started playing. I swam back to shore as fast as I could, spotting the last bit of resources along the way. I quickly gathered the last of what was required and hightailed it out of the water. The running animation on my avatar changed to look like something from Tom & Jerry. It was hysterical!

On fleeing back to camp and delivering my stuff into the red box, I realised that important thing I had forgotten earlier: I forgot to actually have fun with this game; I forgot to chill out and enjoy the world that was having me.

I returned to the village. I bought a pair of binoculars.

Rocket's adventures in MH3U Part 3: Teething stress & fatigue

My adventure begins by meeting the people of Moga Village. Having to talk to so many people and learning about the services they provide is tiring but I have to start somewhere I guess.

After all the introductions and yapping I head out into the woods. I then get all these mini text messages at the bottom of the screen telling me about the various controls and customisations. I navigate the labyrinth of menus to put the map, monster target and various other things on the bottom screen.

As soon as I move around I have to go back into the options menu to change the camera controls to "Flip X+Y". This is the type of camera I used during the N64 era and I'm too tired to focus on anything else right now.

Why are default camera controls in games nowadays completely backwards to the way they were during the N64 days?? The standard was set back then!

Now I'm grumpy as well as tired. Thank goodness the first couple of tasks only involve picking mushrooms and herbs.

Rocket's adventures in MH3U Part 2: Shibata's apology

After the demo got me hooked I looked forward to the full game's day of release. When it finally came I set off on an eventful real-life quest to find and purchase a physical copy. GameStop were out of stock and they didn't have the newly released Circle Pad Pro XL either. They had the 3DS XL and Wii U bundles, but they weren't what I was looking for at that stage.

I contacted several other branches of GameStop and none of them had it in stock either. I then came across these tweets from Satoru Shibata, the lovely gentleman who hosts the European Nintendo Direct broadcasts:

I guess I should've expected the high demand. After all, there was an entire sub-culture waiting patiently for physical copies of this game to come out so they could buy and own them.

My 6th 3DS Game Card purchase became Luigi's Mansion 2, which came out a week later, well stocked and well advertised. The other day I finally found a branch of GameStop that had Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate in stock and that became my 7th.

My adventure will truly begin soon. For now though, I'm hunting ghosts!

Rocket's adventures in MH3U Part 1: Playing the demo

I don't even like this game that much.

However, when the demo came out a few weeks ago on the 3DS eShop, I got addicted to it. That's a strange thing for me, not particuarly caring for a game but not wanting to stop playing, yet that was the effect this demo had on me!

There were two monsters to hunt in this demo: Lagombi for beginners and Plesioth for veterans.

I chose the Lagombi hunt and went straight for it. It was this weird overgrown koala thing and it seemed all cute and peaceful, but that was before it noticed me. It started throwing snowballs and sliding all over the place in such fast crazy patterns. My character couldn't move that fast! Before long I was knocked out and brought back to camp on a stretcher. I looked up the electronic manual for more of the controls. I learned about sheathing to run, blocking, using items, using the lock-on and so forth. I raced back up the mountain, hugely determined to take on the beast once more. Much more cautious this time, I did a lot of attacking and running like the way a wolf hunts its prey but then the beast just absconded out of the area. I then ran out of time.

I was seriously thinking about giving up at this stage, especially considering little annoyances like getting pushed into the previous area I was in. This game was so austere and so much like hard work that it was almost scary how much I wanted to go back and play some more.

I spent a good while thinking about a purchase of the full game and about what I was getting myself into... I then rationalised that if I couldn't beat the two monsters then I wouldn't buy the game.

I started another session of hunting the Lagombi. You've only 20 minutes in the demo so I went much quicker this time, always worrying about my HP and the clock. This time I beat it.

Yeah! Now onto the Plesioth. It looked like a cross between the eel from Super Mario 64 and various other nightmarish things.

They weren't kidding when they said it was for veterans.... I had swimming to deal with this time too, and this creature was even faster and just thrashed all over the place. I lost time and time again and it seemed futile, just hacking away desperately at its ankles on the beach or scrawling at its back in the water. I felt lost, weary and frustrated and my fingers ached with the cold and from holding that little brick of a handheld.

I then started to check out the community and I gotta say, it was great. Chatting with MonHun fans and checking out their YouTube videos, I started to learn so much! I hope to get to know them more as I play.

I followed some good advice and made some changes. I chose the gunlance set up and did some preparation like eating steak to increase max stamina and kept myself as well prepared as possible.

After a few more trials and failures I noticed the Plesioth starting to limp and groan with weariness. Time kept running out so I had to get more and more efficient at what I was doing. After a couple of weeks of trying on and off I finally beat the monster.

Now that I had beaten the demo entirely I was in a much better place to make a judgement call on the purchase. I decided to buy the game.

I still don't like it that much, but damn it do I want to play some more!

North American Nintendo Direct will be at 7:30am PST/10:30 am EST

Most likely will be shown is what was talked about at the Nintendo Direct Japan from a few days ago which was the New Super Mario Bros 2 DLC level packs.

I will be in the chat in the morning and see if I can find the livestream for it in the meantime and update this post with that link when I find it.

Most likely there isn't going to be a stream but Nintendo UK just uploaded this video.

 

Here is what happened at the NA Nintendo Direct.

 

New Monster Hunter 4 Trailer

Hey, NinTemplers.  Here's the latest trailer for Monster Hunter 4.  A vague Japanese release date of "2013" has been announced.  It still remains to be seen when us westerners will begin pouring our lives into the latest installment of white-knuckle loot collecting.

But, whenever it's coming, I can't wait!

NinSage's E3 Wrap-Up!

Here are my reactions to Nintendo's week of E3 events.  I never hit the panic button, I frequently pulled the awesome lever, but I also flipped the disappointment switch.





My reaction was a mix of joy and disappointment.
GP's Bulborb's reaction was hunger.
Nintendo Direct

• Wii U Pro Controller - I kid you not, I have always wanted the twin sticks on a traditional controller to be above the d-pad/buttons.  I can't wait to get my hands on one of these.  I will probably trade in my CCPro just like I did when I traded in my CC for the CCP.
• Miiverse - I am extremely looking forward to this more social, yet actually practical, experience.  I love Miis when they are used properly (Find Mii, Puzzle Swap).  So, I'm really looking forward to this.  Plus! I felt that note leaving from Dark Souls was one of the best game concepts to come out of the 7th console generation.

Site chat is going to be later today at 8pm EST

I am going to be busy here today and I am not sure when I will be in for the chat. I could be on time or I could be a little late but don't let that stop you from chatting it up tonight at 8pm EST.  I was informed of something last night and I wasn't given a definite answer on when it is going to be done today. So don't wait for me to show up.

I guess the big news in the past few days was that Nintendo announced that they will be having their E3 press conference on Tuesday June 5 from 9 a.m. to 10 a.m. PDT at the Nokia Theater in Los Angeles. There is also a Midnight Purple 3DS announced to be coming out on May 20th for $169.99.

So yeah see you in the chat most likely sooner or maybe later then usual when it happens at 8pm EST tonight.

Let's enter NWR's KIU tournament!

Nintendo World Report is hosting a Kid Icarus Uprising tournament in the coming weeks.  You can check the link below for details as well as info on the fabulous prizes!  But, the gist of it is that they'll be playing Light vs. Dark battles which means everyone who wants to enter needs to form a team of three.

Let's form a NinTemple team!!  What two brave centurions want to join me for the sake of fun and prizes??

Sign up in the comments here or in the forums.  Let's do this, gang!

NWR LINK: http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/contest/29878

Kid Icarus Uprising Events in the US

Well for those that want to try out the game or snatch up more AR cards Nintendo has set up more events around the country for you to do so.  Here is the link to the site.  Here it is 

The upcoming days are April 21st, April 28th and May 12th but only certain stores will be having the events on those dates so check the site for details.

First details on Capcom x Sega x Namco Bandai Strategy RPG surface

 First details for the strategy RPG from Capcom,Sega and Namco Bandai SRPG have come from Andriasang.

The 3 companies will have pairings with someone from the same company. Here are the pairings.

Capcom

Ryu & Ken (Street Fighter 0), X and Zero (Mega Man), Demitri and Dante (Darkstalkers and Devil May Cry), Chris and Jill (Resident Evil)

Sega

Shinguji Sakura and Ogami Ichiro (Sakura Wars), Pai and Akira (Virtua Fighter), Kurt and Riela (Valkyria Chronicles), Ulala and Touma (Space Channel 5 and Shining Force EXA)

Namco Bandai

Sanger Somvold (Super Robot Wars), Jin and Ling Xiaoyu (Tekken), Kos-Mos and T-elos (Xenosaga), Yurie and Estel (Tales of Vesperia), Kaito and Black Rose (.hack)

 

Also note that later in the month there will be a trailer of the game. 

 

Gameplay footage from PAX East 2012

Mario Tennis Open

Aliens:Colonials Marines

Bit Trip Runner 2

Heroes of Ruin interview.

Sonic 4 Episode 2

Why Netflix on 3DS is valuable.

"Netflix on 3DS? Pshaw... who cares? I know that service is on every device with a screen, but why would I want to watch things on that tiny little screen? And if I'm in the range of wifi, why don't I just watch on a laptop or a desktop attached to my TV?"

Here's why...

So, last week I was watching through the entire series of Gankutsuou: The Count of Monte Cristo on Netflix.  Ultimately, the show was very interesting, and really well done, except the conclusion was a bit unsatisfying.  Anyway, somewhere around episode 5, my laptop began to have trouble with Netflix's video player.  I had no trouble streaming video from youtube or gametrailers or any other site, just Netflix.  The audio would play fine but the video would start to become choppy and eventually start lagging (significantly) behind the audio.  Netflix still worked just fine on our desktop, but that did me no good since Gankutsuou had become my "sleepy time" media distraction (some folks read, I play video games or watch videos).

I tried different web browsers, I tried updating some software... nothing worked.  Then I thought, "hey! I've used my 3DS for Netflix at times when computers weren't available.  This seems like one of those times!"  So, I pulled the show up on my 3DS and away I went.  Over the rest of the week I watched the remaining 19 episodes on my 3DS.

Here are the advantages I found over my laptop and my desktop/TV setups:

1. Portable. duh.  The desktop/TV are not in my bedroom.  Moving on ...
2a. My laptop gets very hot, as many do.  Trying to use a hot laptop on top of bed blankets can be like pouring gasoline on a fire.  I have a tray for in-bed computing but to watch something means I would have to tilt my head at a 45* angle for hours at a time.  That is just plain uncomfortable.

2b. My laptop is a 17" beast.  I really do love it and its screen is ideal for displaying videos.  However, having a 17" laptop on your lap is kind of heavy and unwieldy.  Often times I balance the laptop on one, angled thigh (as I'm doing now) and that works well.  But it's not a hours-at-a-time solution.

The 3DS does not suffer from problems 2a or 2b because it barely heats up at all, and it can rest comfortably on my stomach or chest while I watch.  Moving the screen closer to my face means the difference in screen size isn't that big a deal and since I've never been a resolution junky, I don't really notice the loss in detail.

3. The 3DS has a faster start up/shut down time than any computer I know of.  Making it perfect for when you want to just "check out an episode" at a moment's notice.

Since last week, I've watched a few more items on my 3DS via Netflix.  In fact, I've enjoyed it so much I was looking for a way to play downloaded video files on my 3DS.  No such luck, but I would do it if I could!

So, hey ... thanks, 3DS.  And if any of you find yourselves with similar problems/needs, don't overlook your mighty little handheld!

News: Capcom Announces Monster Hunter 3G's No Online Play

Source: GamePro

In an announcement that would be great as an April fools joke, Capcom has announced that the latest Monster Hunter adventure, Monster Hunter 3G, will not, (and I strongly emphasize the "not" part of this report) have online co-op capabilities. Sadly however we are not in April, and Capcom doesn't appear to be joking.

Yes it is indeed true. But as far having no online whatsoever, that's a different story. Capcom has confirmed that there will be content to download via the 3DS's online functionality. Of course that seems like a given nowadays for 3DS games, with developers making use of its SpotPass support.

Monster Hunter 3G is currently a Japan exclusive, but with this announcement of no online play, it is very possible that the chances of this selling or even releasing outside Japan have become extremely low. From someone who hasn't really played the series myself, I can't really determine how this decision by Capcom will effect the games overall quality. I do know however, thanks to my friends on this website, that part of  this series's appeal is the ability to play along and complete quests with friends. So with no online play, I find that particular enjoyment may be tampered with.

Monster Hunter 3G will be available in Japan come December, and will support the Nintendo Slide-Pad add-on.

3DS event times

Well for most of North America the 3DS event is going to be today. Here is a run down of times for the event from around the world.

North America
Monday,11PM,Eastern standard time.
Monday,10pm,Central standard time.
Monday,9pm,Mountain standard time.
Monday,8pm,Pacific standard time.
Monday,7PM,Alaska standard time.
Monday,5PM,Hawaii-Aluetian standard time.

Europe
Tuesday,4AM,British Summer time.
Tuesday,5AM, Central Eastern European Summer Time.
Tuesday,6AM, Eastern European Summer Time.

Australia/New Zealand
Tuesday,3PM,New Zealand Standard time.
Tuesday,1 PM,Australian Eastern standard time.
Tuesday,12:30 PM, Australian Central standard time.
Tuesday,11 AM,Australian Western standard time.

I'll probably be in the chat when it starts for me. I'm Pacific time. Oh also here is the link to the stream.

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/nintendo3dsconference2011
and http://live.nicovideo.jp/gate/lv62254222

The first one doesn't require a log in but the second one does.I'll be watching the first one when the time comes.

Site chat today at 6pm EST.

Well I'm sure most everyone knows what today is. It is 9/11/2011 so we may talk a little about what happened 10 years ago on this day. Other then that we can talk about the 3DS event that happens on the 13th of September as well as the new 3DS games rumored recently.Such as A new Yoshi Platformer,Ace Attorney 5,Baten Kaitos 3.The developers behind the Wario Ware series also has a new game in the works. A new Etrain Odyssey game is in the works according to these rumors. There is also rumors that there will be demos on the e-shop of retail games.A new God Eater game will likely be announced at the 3DS event. The Silver Case will be moved from the DS to 3DS according to these rumors. Finally Mach Rider:Unchained is supposedly going to be announced at the 3DS event on the 13th.

Site chat at 8pm EST

Well today is Gamescom over in Germany. Few things have been confirmed for the Wii and 3DS so far and I will edit this later as more come in but here is what we have right now. Maybe we can chat about things revealed in the chat at 8pm EST.

The Legend of Zelda:Skyward Sword has a November 20th release date for the North American Market.Europe has a November 18th release date.

Last Story and Pandora's Tower has been given a 2012 release for Europe.

Europe will be given a Wii hardware revision which will be without Gamecube compatability.The revison will include Wii Sports and Wii Party and the Wii Remote Plus and a Nunchuk. No plans for the North American market for this revision.

Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins, Metroid II: Return of Samus and Bionic Commando will arrive on the 3DS Virtual Console during the fourth quarter in Europe.

Kirby Returns to Dreamland will be able to have 4 Kirby's playing as well as Meta Knight, King DeDeDe and Waddle Dee. So at any time they can swap out different characters depending on the players choice.

Site chat at 6pm EST

Well it is Sunday again and we have a site chat at 6pm EST. I guess we can talk about the 3DS and if you guys think it is doing well for itself at this point in it life.

Anything else is fair game if you want to bring it up in the chat. See everyone at 6pm EST.