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Journey is the latest title from the makers of Flower and Flow, ThatGameCompany, published by Sony for the PS3. It’s hard to review Journey without going into spoilers, but I’ll try. I won’t go on detail about the gameplay, the story or even the traditional review points that game reviews usually feature. I won’t tell you my experience here either, but if you played Journey before, I’m glad to share it with you, just mail me and tell me your experience as well.

Journey is not a game. Journey is a metaphor, an emotional subjective art piece and an exercise in minimalism, all wrapped in a beautiful package with one of the best soundtracks I’ve ever had the pleasure to listen.

Journey is about many things and nothing at the same time, it’s about life, death, friendship, civilization, science, evolution, spirituality and faith. Some will say it’s about religion, but I don’t think so, spirituality yes, but not religion. It’s all of this together bond with your emotional baggage. That’s right, you’ll find that Journey will move you, even more if you are an emotional person.

You’ll finish it several times, mainly because Journey is not a long game, it will take you about an hour or less the first time you play it. The second time, you’ll finish it just to see if it moves you the same way it did the first time, and the third and later times because you’ll want to explore even more, earn the entire trophy collection and the white robe 😉 or just to help some fellow red robes.

In Journey you’ll feel peace, you’ll feel fear and happiness, you might even find friendship in a stranger as he/she becomes a journey long companion. You’ll be surprised, but above all else, as I said before, you’ll be moved by this experience.

Do yourself a favor, buy this game, buy the amazing soundtrack, and enjoy your first time, your first Journey, because that will be the purest of them all.

I don’t write about Video Games for some time now, but the latest news from E3 kinda triggered this post. So, with no further a do, my rants 😀

Nintendo 3DS

As usual, Nintendo invest more into their portables than the home consoles and this is obvious because the portable consoles have always saved Nintendo from being defeated by the competition. From what I’ve seen so far, the 3DS seems impressive.

The 3D screen is a huge sales factor, but the true value of this console it’s in the kick it delivers. The demos shown on E3 make me think that the 3DS graphics engine is way more powerful than a GameCube and a PSP and until Sony releases the PSP 2, which they should have announced on E3 instead of milking the fail that is the PSP Go, the 3DS will sucker-punch the competition out of the map.

Third party support has never been so strong for a portable that is yet to be released, but still, I can see the 3DS being plagued by ports of old games, like it happened to the PSP when it was launched.

It’s been rumored a few changes to the DS Ware shop, which I hope they do because compared to other console marketplaces it sucks. Another rumor is that the 3DS will feature even more social and network capabilities, which is always good. I really hope they include a faster and more friendly version of their Opera browser and deliver a working Internet experience and not just a gimmick like we have on the DSI.

The future will tell, but I’m betting that this will probably be the best portable Nintendo has ever made. Don’t screw this one up Nintendo!!

What I’ve been Playing

As a BIG Mario fan, of course I bought the new Super Mario Galaxy 2. At first it may look as “more of the same” but Nintendo really managed to improve the game mechanics by including new power-ups and 2.5D levels.

Sometimes it feels you’re playing New Super Mario Bros Wii but suddenly the entire level transforms and you’re back to the full Super Mario Galaxy 3D experience . The basics are still the same and there are common elements between the games, but the new stuff is really fun and has a big addiction level, not to mention that this time you have Yoshi 😀

What amazes me (in a mixed way) is that Nintendo continues to provide tutorials and in-game help for new players. Super Mario Galaxy 2 even comes with a DVD explaining how to play the game as well as the Superguide that plays some stages for you (if you want) when you die more than 10 times in a level… I understand that this is way to get more inexperienced gamers to buy and play the game, but isn’t it part of the fun to find out how to finish a stage???

Old school baby… those were the times 😉

Besides SMG2, I went back to finish Metroid Prime 3 Corruption. Sadly, I remembered that I didn’t finished Prime and Prime 2 Echoes… although I have the games for the Gamecube, I managed to get my hands on a Metroid Trilogy copy and I’m going back to the start!

The Metroid Prime Trilogy games are still 3 of the best games ever made for Nintendo consoles, and the collector’s edition for the Wii allows you to play the 2 first games as the 3rd one, with the wii mote pointing at the screen, and believe me, it’s a all new experience to play Prime and Echoes that way.

And that’s all… there’s not much time to play games nowadays but I’ll have more time next month when I’m on vacations 😀

This is what happens if you translate Nintendo Wii from English to Portuguese in Google Translate… I smell a conspiracy coming up 😉

[tags]Google, Nintendo Wii, Sony Playstation[/tags]