April: All Quiet On The Gaming Front

Three of our staff, including our Editor In Chief, have a look at the month that passed in gaming and at OXCGN.

by AXIS of Reality

© 2009 Alex Baldwin

April’s seen little in the way of major releases, simply bridging the gap between the key game release months of February and June. Not that it’s been a problem – recently I’ve been revisiting old favourites as well as checking out some of the more unusual titles that hide on the back shelves of EB, usually behind a random EA Sports title or blocked from view by such ‘quality’ games as Imagine: Babies.

After store searching all over Brisbane I finally managed to track down a copy of one of my favourite games of the last generation: Jet Set Radio Future on Xbox. Despite replaying it 7 years later it has lost none of its charm and innovation, feeling more ‘next-gen’ than half the games being released right now. If anyone hasn’t experienced the amazing gameplay perfection of JSRF (or the original on Dreamcast, Jet Set Radio or Jet Grind Radio depending on where you live) you can find it cheap and it’s definitely worth it.

I also had a look through some of the previous nominees of the Independant Games Festival (some of which are now appearing on Live Arcade such as The Maw), with a particular favourite being Dyson. It shows simplicity can sometimes be more engrossing than the deepest game world or characters.

The usual suspects of Bioshock, Fable 2 and Killzone 2 graced my TV regularly as I replayed them all. I also discovered the surprisingly addictive Trauma Centre 2 on DS and Geodefense on iPhone to remind me that handheld gaming should never be ignored.

by Shadow Wave

© 2009 Ben Cadwallader

Most of my time this month has been playing some classic older titles. I have played through Resident Evil 0 – 2, and I am currently about 3 quarters through Resident Evil 3. I find these classic RE titles so much more exciting and engaging than the Resident Evil 4 and Resident Evil 5. I hope Capcom resurrects the classic puzzle solving features in their next title and tries to recapture some of the other classic features again.

I also finally managed to complete Lost Odyssey, a game I bought at launch and only just finished… I got really lazy with that game. I just found the battle system horrible; too slow and clunky. I love the story, though, and I will totally play through it again sometime.

I still haven’t beaten Chrono Trigger on the DSi yet.  I’m at the point where I have the option to beat the final boss, or do all the side quests and truly beat the game. But I think most RPG’s always lose their momentum right around this time. So I’m just slowly playing through a little day by day. But I hope to beat it soon.

And let’s not forget Banjo Tooie and Riddick out at the end of the month! How Exciting!

My April was spent more or less in the shadows of the gaming scene, watching from afar, and not paying much attention to it. I was more busy with settling into a new job, and working on some new updates on my car and playing some old classic games during the spare time.

The highlight of the gaming news for me though, was seeing some amazing footage from Bioshock 2, it seems it’s going to be as unique and twisted as ever, although I’m still not a fan of playing as a Big Daddy.

As well as the fact that Japan got Final Fantasy 7 for download on the Playstation Network. It brings hope that perhaps one day soon FF7 might be on our local PSN.

To finally finish off my month of April I will very shortly be getting my hands on a copy of the Final Fantasy 13 demo, and that’s sure to be a great hour or 2. Here’s a Final Fantasy 13 impressions write up here on OXCGN from one of the staff.

by XboxOZ360

© 2009 Grant Smythe

OXCGN is moving ahead nicely and here are some of the highlights of what took place in April.  OXCGN has some new blood;  some in minor contributor roles, and some as fully fledged contributors. Beth Sasagi and Bradley Whit are two of those people. We hope you enjoy what they bring to the site.

If any of you want to contribute, let us know as we are always on the look out for new writers.  Your work will be run by David, one of our editors, and will need to meet certain standards: but go ahead, write an article up with an interesting perspective on a game-related topic in good English and send it to us (contact button at top right of site). We are all volunteers and do it out of our love of gaming.

Though the month was slow as far as game releases, our site has been attracting more and more attention, and we would like to thank you for returning to visit us more often. We are one of the fastest growing Xbox-focused sites in Australia, thanks to our volunteer writers and you.

We’ve had a variety of articles this month, from a look at what makes zombies attack, to the exclusive discovery of San Gimignano as one of the probable locations for Assassin’s Creed 2 based on an art shot. We’ve debated the Six Days In Fallujah game (now dropped by Konami due to the controversy), shown we like other consoles with a look at the Nintendo DSi, and looked at Xbox Live matchmaking issues.  Be sure to look down the left column of the site for our Archives.  You’ll find plenty to think about in past months’ articles too.  As always, feel free to comment after any of the articles.

We’ve had more successful Communty Playdates, and will have our fourth on 22 May, so join us online for Street Fighter IV at 8PM AEST.

We are currently gearing up for a big E3, so keep coming back to check our site for updates!

Please share us around