It’s a good sign that you are hopelessly obsessed with a game when you find yourself buying accessories to said game that you can’t even really use. This just got in:

It’s the official Monster Hunter Tri Guide … in Japanese o_O

I have the habit to buy game guides to games I invested a lot of time it. I buy them not so much to help me get trough the game. I rather buy them to have a tangible memento of the world I spend so much time in. I love to simply browse trough the pages like trough some sort of a photo album. And sometimes the guides do deliver some additional goodies like concept art or cool info graphics.

The Japanese Monster Hunter Tri Guide may be the best game guide I have ever seen. It’s a huge, beautiful and incredibly detailed compendium on the Monster Hunter Tri universe. Let me give you a short tour.

The print and paper quality is amazing. For example, the jacket cover is embossed with a leathery texture reminiscent of the skin of an animal – an awesome touch. The format is pretty sweet, too. From Piggyback or Bradygames, I’m used to unwieldy A4 books. But this one is a cute A5 book.

The cover is made of real dinosaur skin… grr

But it’s not just flashy decoration. The guide has over 700 pages and they certainly aren’t filler. Each page is designed with care and great attention to detail covering pretty much every aspect of the game quite thoroughly. For example, here is a beautiful diagram showing the different moves of a certain weapon type. The diagram visualizes how moves can be linked into a combo. This is not an exception, there is such a diagram for every weapon type.

A typical page from the book: a combo map for the lance.

Of course, one major subject of the book are the monsters themselves. There are several pages dedicated to describe the stats and behavior of each monster. Here is the first double-spread on Rathalos. It includes general stats, dropped items (along with probability and how different factors modify the odds) and even a breakdown of different hit zones along with their vulnerability to different types of attacks. I love the little screenshots at the lower right. In Monster Hunter Tri each monster can be wounded in a special way. The special wounds result in different item drops. For example, you can only get a tail of you really manage to cut off the tail. The book not only lists different types of wounds. It also shows before / after screenshots so you can tell if you have been successful – something I have been struggling with at times.

After this briefing, my current arch-enemy, the Rathalos, is soon going to be monster chicken nuggets.

Simpyl brwsing trough the books is amazing. It is full of beautiful infographics and diagrams. I have no clue what most of the stuff is but it is evident that some talented people invested a lot of time to make sure even the most minute aspects are conveyed.

I have no idea what this is but it looks gorgeous… and it makes me want to find out even more!

As I said, the print quality is outstanding. All graphics are designed in different shades of beautiful pastel colors. Clearly hey have been done by people with a good understanding of how ink works on paper. Due to the small format, all graphics use the high resolution of print very well. The density of information is quite astonishing. Take a look at this close-up the decoration on one of the info graphics from above.

Print porn!

It just pains me that the language barrier prevents me from digging into this wealth of knowledge. I have been learning Katakana for a few weeks now and I can read almost all of those characters. However, this book depends a lot on “real” Kanji.

I got a free Japanese dictionary for the iPod and started to translate some of the stuff. This was my first exposure to Kanji and the difficulties are daunting. It took me well over 20 minutes to get those first few words down.

My attempt at first translations. I’m sure it’s not literal but I hope I got the gist of it?

Most of the time, the problem lies simply in finding a character from the book in the dictionary. With over 1000 basic Kanji, it’s not like you can just browse through a list. There seem to be different systems of breaking down Kanji into elements and categorizing them. Just wrapping my head around them took some time. Some of the Kanji are just crazy and almost illegible at the small character size of the book. For example this Kanji is used in the word “verge of death” in the photo above. At this font size the Kanji is a clusterfuck of tiny dots!

But I was able to figure it out after all and I’m beginning to get the hang of it. I will probably never be able to read such a book fluently but I might be able to dig into some of the infographics and tables quite soon. I will keep you posed on my breakthroughs.

I got the book from PlayAsia. If you love Monster Hunter Tri, quality print and information design like I do, it is quite a treat – especially if you can read Japanese.

What sounds like a Japanese game title is actually what really happened recently. Space geekout time! The Japanese space probe Hayabusa returned to Earth. And by returned to Earth I mean it burned up in the atmosphere over Australia.

But wait! I wouldn’t mention such thing if they wasn’t a hook. Hayabusa brought something back! A small re-entry capsule was released from the probe and it survived the descent. It has been recovered and is currently being investigated. The capsule might carry samples from AN ASTEROID!

Actually Hayabusa was quite an ambitious mission. The idea was to get to a small asteroid (500m length). The probe was equipped with a modern hi-tech ion drive and it carried a small lander that was supposed to land on the asteroid and even hop around on it.

But it all went terribly wrong. A series of malfunctions resulted in Hayabusa losing the small lander when it was deployed. But the probe had still a mission to do. The actual probe itself landed on the asteroid to take a couple of samples.

Self Portrait: Hayabusa takes a photo of its own shadow hovering above the surface of an asteroid.

Unfortunately, that landing didn’t go perfect either and it is not entirely clear if samples have been collected or not. Nevertheless, Hayabusa successfully managed to return back to earth and we can finally find out if was able to gather some asteroid goodies in spite of all the difficulties.

Make no mistakes. The story of the mission may sound a bit disappointing but it is actually the most ambitious sample return mission humanity has yet attempted. The fact that the sample container made it all the way to an asteroid and back is quite an achievement. There are quite good chances that there are samples of the asteroid in the capsule to be found. So there is plenty of reasons to get excited! I’m certainly am. Here is a final image for today, a Manga re-imagination of the probe returning with the sample. Cute and weird at the same time, isn’t it?

With E3 underway most of the games presented in the press conferences can be put into two categories: boring 3D shooters and Microsoft Kinect (with the notable exceptions like the new Rayman game). Here are some quick random thoughts on the new Microsoft input device.

• The Name: Is bad. “Kinect” as in Kinetic and Connect? It is difficult to pronounce and difficult to remember. Every time I type it I need to re-construct the word in my head. The “Wii” is silly but at least it is memorable and easy to pronounce.
• “Me Too”: As expected, the system comes with an arsenal of copies of Wii games. This is most unfortunate since we have all played those games 4 fucking years ago. Microsoft failed to show anything notable that would distinguish their product from the Wii or showcase a game idea that wouldn’t be possible with the Wii… apart from maybe Dance Central but that just doesn’t look appealing to me. It’s difficult for me to imagine this system to be successful in this circumstances. Who is this marketed at? Families? Why would a family buy this over a Wii?
• Precision: Of course, as a game developer I am interested in what the system can and cannot do. So I really enjoyed the Ubisoft Your Shape demo. It was shown at the Microsoft and at the Ubisoft press conference by the same person. The system recognized a different height every time. This suggests that there are some precision issues. On the other hand, the live 3D preview in that game looked astonishingly solid.

• Standing: All E3 demos of Kinect so far have shown people STANDING in front of the TV. I wonder if this is a requirement of the system. A standing game is most likely a short funny action game – a party game. Party games are fine but my demand on party games is quite limited and easily satisfied with what is available now. Is there REALLY enough room in the party game market to rationalize Kinect? I would have been interested in at least one title that can be played sitting so I know there is potential for other game ideas.

• Voice Recognition: To be honest I’m quite surprised by the fidelity of the voice recognition. While not a system seller, controlling movies with voice seems like an idea I could get used to. I would really like to get rid of at least some remote controls. On the other hand, I suspect there was some trickery going on behind the scenes to ensure there would be no mishaps during the stage demos.
• Lack of Substance: Generally, none of the games shown looked like something that was made to spend some time on. Kinect Adventures looked cool but how long would I play it? Maybe three hours? You see, that’s where the Wii has an advantage. Wii was already at this point 4 years ago. They learned a lot since then. They have a lot of short party/fitness titles but also a lot of games that use motion control for more ambitious gaming. Microsoft seems to have to go through that entire process all over again.
• Children of Eden: … but there is light at the end of the tunnel. Children of Eden blew me away. I was considering on buying the system simply to experience it by myself. But Children of Eden made me REALLY look forward to it. I just hope for Microsoft that they will be able to come up with more titles of this magnitude.

Generally I think Microsoft did a lot of mistakes with the Kinect. I don’t think it will be able to match the success of the Wii. On the other hand it is a quite interesting piece of technology and I’m expecting it to inspire a few hidden gems of genuine innovation during it’s lifetime. What do you think? Will you buy it when it comes out?

As I’m writing this the birds are chirping outside and I have to get up to go to work in just a few hours. What started out as a relaxing evening with Monster Hunter Tri ended up being a incredibly frustrating setback. And it all has to do with my new biggest enemy in the game – the Rathalos.

I’m going to get you! You just watch.

I realized that I have been playing this game for over 70 hours now. I spent most of the time recently collecting various pieces of armor. I did this to prepare to face the next three new monsters: the Barioth, the Rathalos and the Diablos. In the process I got familiar with a new type of weapon. Using my favorite – the lance – I just wasn’t able to cut off the tail of a Barroth. So I used the great sword instead and it worked like a charm. I was able to complete the Barroth armor. So today I finished the last errands and went on to do the remaining quests.

First up I had to capture the fearsome Lagiacrus alive. I did at my first time and it was quite exciting. I used my very last stun bomb to deal the final blow. Happy with my progress I continued to my first fight against the Rathalos. I was expecting this to go quick. I already fought the Rathian and found him to be quite easy. I thought this would go similar. After all, they look almost the same. It was the monster after Rathalos – the Barioth – which was my concern. I heard mean things about that one on the Internet.

But I would never meet the Barioth on this evening. I tried 5 times fighting the Rathalos. I failed all of them. The last 3 were because I ran out of time. The time limit it 50 minutes. I’ve spent over 3 hours fighting the same monster and failed. I can’t remember the last time when I had a similarly frustrating experience in a video game.

I changed my strategy too. I switched from the lance to a great sword. I managed even to cut off Rathalos tail 3 times using the great sword. I’m not necessarily getting smashed either, after all I can survive for 50 minutes. And by the end the monster always looked quite exhausted. However, it always managed to slip by me in the end.

But after investing so much time in this one monster, I’m taking this personal. I’m going to take this beast down. I need some better gear. Word on the street is that the Rathalos is weak to lighting damage. I realized I was so busy collecting armor that I ended up with only a very narrow selection of weapons. So I went back to the drawing board and started gathering resources for a lance and a great sword that deal lightning damage. Guess what monster I need to grind to get the parts? Well yes, it’s the fearsome Lagiacrus. But I’m determined to get properly equipped to hunt Rathalos down, even if it means fighting Lagiacrus over and over again. Grr.

By the way, if you have any hints and advices on how to best deal with Rathalos, please let me know. I would greatly appreciate your support.

Today I went downtown to check out some hardware / software. There are 3 big technology store chains downtown (Saturn, Media Markt, ProMarkt). I used to enjoy simply browsing through their stuff. Recently, I realized that they grow more and more redundant up to the point where I don’t see a reason to go there anymore.

I was interested in good deals on a TV Displays for CGL. I also wanted to see a 27″ Dell display in action. I accomplished neither. None of the stores had any kind of 27″ computer display. As for the TVs – yes there were many. But every time I typed a “special deal” model name in my iPhone, I found them considerably cheaper on-line. And I wasn’t even looking! They were even cheaper right there on Amazon!

It’s getting even worse with games. I still check out the shelves, going through the motions. But in the end, it’s completely irrational. I will hardly ever purchase any of the games. They are more expensive than on-line. They are often cut due to German regulations. But the worst is that most of them are translated into German. I recently popped in Mass Effect 2 to see how it looks. It is completely re-dubbed in German language and you can’t switch. Both delivery and translation are unbearable. Even the audio quality is bad with volume being poorly adjusted to sound effects. I was struggling to get trough the tutorial.

When I was in San Francisco I was surprised how there were no large tech stores downtown anymore. But I figure it is a logical evolution of the market.