Lumines Supernova At TGS Is Like Lumines Everywhere Else [Tokyo Game Show 2008]

With something like a billion versions of Q Entertainment's Lumines published on various platforms, we won't fault you for having but a single grain of enthusiasm for the PlayStation 3 version. We dredged up enough on your behalf, waiting a full thirty seconds in line to go hands on with Lumines Supernova. Unfortunately, the things that make Supernova stand out from the Lumines pack were nowhere to be seen.

No access to the new "Dig Down" mode, no access to the enhanced Synthesizer features, and too little time to survey new skins make for a very 2005 experience. The fact sheet notes that Lumines Supernova has offline only play and no Trophy support, so we're thinking what we've played at TGS will be what we'll have played forever.

  Tokyo Game Show: The Teardown [Lets Tgs]

As the clock struck 5pm on Sunday evening, the 2008 Tokyo Game Show drew to a close. But as the public streamed out of the place, booth companions kicked off their heels and PR types breathed a long, deep sigh of relief, the worker bees got to work. Why? Because a trade show never ends. Someone has to end it. Click below if you want to see how it's done.

  Getting My Arse Kicked At Pro Evo 2009 [Tokyo Game Show 2008]

I know, a demo's already out, but I hadn't had a chance to download it, so one of the first games I ran for this TGS was pro Evo 2009. Why the running? Because I'm torn on the Pro Evo franchise. Once was a time football purists would buy Pro Evo for the simulation, and everyone else would buy FIFA because it had all the major league licenses. But the last few years? Konami have gotten sloppy. Current-gen Pro Evos looked like last-gen Pro Evos with the cracks painted over, while FIFA has come on strong with a new engine and improved gameplay. In fact, FIFA's come on so strong that many people have already declared it the winner in this year's tussle. Me, I'm going to give the old bird one last chance to impress before doing anything drastic.

Before we begin, know a few things: I was playing the game on the PS3. Against some Japanese kid. He beat me 4-0. My flimsy defence being that I've never actually played the game using a PS controller (Ive only ever used Xbox/360 pads), but hey, it could just as easily have been my flimsy defence.

First thing I noticed? My goodness, Konami have actually changed some things. Important things. While it's not a completely new engine, the player animations both look, and feel, different. This is not a cheap reskin of Pro Evo 5, as 6 and 2008 were. Your players move with a great deal more fluidity, and the ball is even more of a separate entity from the player's feet, adding a surprising level of realism to play when moving through crowded spaces.

Players also seem slower, but in a good way. Because they're more fluid, and there's more animation (players now move in more directions than the old eight-way turns), the game takes on a more deliberate pace, as old tactics of putting your head down and running through defenders didn't work anywhere near as well as they did in 2008.

One totally new thing I noticed was that players would extend their legs to reach for the ball. This was for defenders making tackles, but also midfielders who were clashing over an unpossessed ball. So instead of having to crash your entire player into the other to initiate a challenge for possession - or to gain possession - they'll flick a leg out in front of them, getting the job done quicker.

As for the licensing, I opted for Liverpool (sadly, Villa didn't make the cut for the demo), and my opponent went for Barcelona. Player likenesses looked better than last year's, particularly on the more high profile guys like Messi and Torres, while the kits look a great deal more detailed. The Champion's League license was also being rammed down our throats, with the competition's logo and theme song used at every possible opportunity. Feels a bit strange, to be honest, as that level of licensing is something you'd expect from EA's FIFA, not Konami's offering.

And...that's all I could get out of a 20-minute match. Oh, that and the realisation anyone thinking this year's FIFA v Pro Evo matchup already over is being more than a little premature.

  Why Home Should Not Be Shown At Game Shows [Tokyo Game Show]

Home should not be shown at trade shows. Absolutely not. Not under any circumstances. Why? Because it is boring. Home is not a game. It's not even a user interface. It's a...thing. Once Sony get around to deciding what that actually is will probably be the time they decide to release it, but until then - and especially in the state it was in for my TGS demonstration - it should be kept as far from prying eyes (and hands) as possible.

TGS is a games show. It's for games. Loud, exciting, playable things. But Home? So not a game. The build I was treated to yesterday went a little like this: I log on as "Ricky". Who was a girl, but hey, who am I to question someone else's naming conventions. Then I move around a bit. And I find, about three seconds into the experience, that I'm running around a near-perfect recreation of Sony's TGS booth.

Great! I think. Yeah, I'm already at TGS, and can play all these demos, but wouldn't it be awesome if people at home could be doing this, and seeing the trailers I'm seeing, and playing the demos I'm playing? It would. But in this build? No way. Not a single demo pod was active. Not a single booth was running a trailer. The main Sony theater screen (the in-Home one) was showing a short, looped trailer, but it wasn't the same stuff I could see with my real eyes not 10 feet away.

So if Home wasn't going to be a multimedia extravaganza for me on the day, what was it going to be? A chat room? Nope. There were eight other people in the room. All eight of them were Sony employees. None of them spoke English. That was the end of that.

And if not a chat room, could I...well, what could I do, exactly? Could I explore Home? Nope. I wasn't allowed outside the virtual Sony booth, so the service's plazas and apartments were off limits. There were no games available to play. There was, literally, nothing to do.

Oh, wait! There was one thing. Some booths allowed you to sit down at them. And a few even let you access the web page of the game you were looking at for more information. But that was it. It was, I think, one of the most empty and pointless titles on the showroom floor.

Which isn't to say that Home is either empty or pointless. The final product, whenever it ships, could yet be the best thing to happen to the PS3. It could be a revolutionary new UI. it could be a great communications tool. It could be a games portal, it could be a media hub, it could be all of those things, it could be none of them.

But until Sony sort that question out, they'd do well to keep the game off showroom floors, and away from members of the public who may walk away wondering why they'd just wasted 15 minutes wandering around an empty virtual PS3 booth when they could have been wandering around the real PS3 booth doing stuff.

  TGS Booth Babe March, Brought to you By Microsoft [Clips]

Every night as the 5 p.m. hour winds around and the show begins to wrap up, the speakers begin to pump out an orchestral version of Auld Lang Syne. Each booth gathers its companions to parade them around their booth for a final goodbye to the show's attendees. Some marches feature mascots, some feature bows, but all of them feature oodles of companions.