Otogi impressed me a good deal at E3, but after the demo on Official Xbox magazine I had resolved not to get it. I'm told now that the demo section was basically a lobotomized version of a level later in the game, and it didn't help that the disc that comes with that magazine never quite seems to agree with my machine. In any case, readers gave me their guarantee that we would not be disappointed - and you won't be either, if you are enthused about straight-ahead, balls-out action games. The game is largely characterized by its diverse weapon selection, destructible environments, its lavish presentation and just a hint of basil.

I played it a good deal yesterday over at Gabe's while he drew the comic, and when we stopped off at the store later I had every intention of purchasing it. Software, Etc. had no intention of holding up their end of the bargain, the Selling Videogames end, as they had only received two copies of it and chastised me for not having reserved it. I tried to get Bombastic and Republic too, at the store, where one buys games, but they have apparently forgotten how our relationship functions. The reason this store did not stock these games is because they had not received enough pre-orders for them. I buy maybe six games a month, most months - shit, in the story I just related, I was about to buy three - and I almost never reserve games. That's just not how I indicate my interest in a title. I pre-order a game every once in a blue moon - in cases like Final Fantasies where I fully expect to be trampled to death getting a copy. I certainly don't pre-order puzzle games where devils - no more than a half-inch tall - run around on dice, or highly involved political strategy games. And now, they don't stock them, either. None get ordered because they're sort of obscure, and I dont pre-order for that a host of other reasons. Awesome system!

Bombastic and Republic are a couple of the "pet games" that I have watched with some interest, many of which all decided to come out at or about the same time. Etherlords II, the card battle/RPG title from Nival Interactive just went gold, and a demo for it hit just yesterday. I tried to download the 200 meg file several times, and was only able to get a clean copy via the BitTorrent client - that was about one in the morning, so I haven't had a chance to play it yet. Readers keep me abreast of gaming's hidden places, I think of them as a black cloud of ravens from which there is no evasion. In this case, they have served admirably: X2: The Threat. They initially drew my attention to the first one, which I had heard about but never played, and the sequel is silly with beauty and charm. It's hard for me to zero in on exactly what kind of game it is, but it's clear that at it's base it is a space-sim with many, many other genre elements incorporated. Download the rolling demo and see how it'll run on your machine with everything on. I think they're planning on a November US release, which is cool, because that will give me time to buy a new video card.

Hegemonia is also one of my favorite games, and though I don't see a US publisher yet for the Solon Heritage expansion it stirs my heart to know that one is even in production. I figured that game would be the sort of thing I would like and nobody else would, as sometimes happens - I thought we might be talking about some Salad Master type shit. I'm very glad to be wrong.

(CW)TB out.

beyond reach of the sonar

Otogi is like Shinobi only with better graphics, better music, better level design, a more robust combat system including the ability to purchase new weapons and magic that will alter your characters stats and combos, tighter controls and a camera that actually works. The fact that most stores are only ordering half of a copy though means it might be difficult to get your hands on one. Once again the Pre-ordering system fucks the average gamer in the ass. It's the same thing that happened with REZ, ICO and APEX. They don't get many pre-orders so they only get in a few copies. Then everyone realizes what an awesome game it is and you can't fucking buy it anywhere.

I don't understand why I can't just walk into a game store and buy a videogame. I don't have to talk to some jackass over at Safeway three months before I wanna buy some milk. "Yeah bob listen, I'm gonna want to get my hands on some frozen yogurt come next December. How about I leave you a ten spot and you call me when my shit comes in." The entire Pre-ordering system helps no one except EB, Gamestop and the dozen or so other game stores that are all really just the same store but they call them a different name so that you don't feel like one giant mega-company is taking all your money even though that's totally the fucking case.

Maybe we should do something about this. I'm not sure just what yet but I think that if we all decided that we wanted this to change we could probably do that. Let's all put our thinking caps on and see what we can come up with. The sooner I don't have to hear "I'm sorry, did you have a pre-order?" the fucking better.

On a completely unrelated note I would like to continue my "helping people out" streak that I started with my plug for Red Eye PC yesterday. Only this time I'd like to plug my own wife. Hmmm…that didn't come out quite right. In any case Kara is in school right now learning how to manipulate hair in new and exciting ways. Now she is actually out on the floor cutting and styling the hair of real human beings which is a comfort to me as I no longer find terrifying mannequin heads all over the house. So if you're in need of some kind of hair maintenance she would very much appreciate your patronage. Keep in mind this is a school and she is a student but I can vouch for her skills. She's taken her shears to me on numerous occasions and I've come through with hardly a scratch on me. It also means that you get a good deal on your hair cut. Gene Juarez is a super shmancy salon but at the school a haircut is only like ten bucks. If you are in the Seattle area just call the Gene Juarez academy at 206-365-6900 and tell them you want to schedule an appointment with Danica. Yeah, I know her name is Kara but they have a bunch of girls at the school with similar names so she had to pick a new one. I like to think of it as her handle, in fact I told her she should have chosen LORD_H3LLHAMM3R666 and then gotten an AIM account.

-Gabe out

Here is an excerpt from a letter I got from a game store employee. I chose this letter because it covers many of the same issues I got from other employees.

...The store manager is the only one who cares about you reserving games. If the other employees care, it's only because the manager found some way to make them care. Otherwise we really don't give a crap. But managers often care a LOT, because almost their entire performance reviews by the district managers are based on their reservation percentage and their subscription percentage (that Game Informer 10% off card I'm sure you're bombarded with if you ever buy a used game from GameStop). I've seen several managers get fired because their numbers were too low, since their numbers reflect the numbers of the district manager, who's in charge of hiring and firing store managers.

Since reservation numbers are based on the percentage of sales, the store manager probably does not even WANT you to buy a game if you haven't reserved it. It gets worse. Sometimes managers will instruct their employees not to sell a game that the person didn't reserve in order to "teach the customer a lesson" about reserving games. What I'm saying here is that it's very possible that there was a small stack of Otogi copies behind the counter that no one would sell you because they want you to reserve your games in the future. I've personally witnessed this happen numerous times with two different managers. They don't care that the company misses a $50 sale, they only care about getting their customers to reserve games in order to make their own numbers look good. This is very common policy.

Another problem is that sometimes NO extra copies are ordered beyond those that were reserved. At my store, four people reserved Disgaea, and we got four copies in. Apparently the company doesn't realize that when four people reserve something, at least ten more are going to ask for it the day it's out without having reserved it, and that's exactly what happened.

Managers absolutely hate it when we get in enough copies for everyone beyond those who reserved it. My manager was literally cringing when we got about 60 extra copies of Soul Calibur 2 after the reserved copies were held. I, along with the other employees, were instructed to tell people that if they didn't reserve it, we MIGHT have one or two copies left, and that they had lucked out this time, so they'd better reserve games in the future. Imagine my embarrassment when I had to say this after quite visibly going through a stack of 20 extra games.

I got tons of mail regarding pre-orders, lots of it from game store employees. One thing they almost all told me is that nine times out of ten they actually have the game you want but if you didn’t pre order it they are told not to sell it to you. Lots of them even used the same terminology, that is to say “teaching the customer a lesson”. Which makes me think this is an extremely common practice.

I worked at circuit shitty long enough to understand the various relationships between employees, store managers and district managers. That is why I have no animosity towards the clerks or even the managers at these stores. I know they are just doing what they are told to do. I had to do some pretty messed up shit to people at circuit city in order to sell them extended service plans. I remember one old man who told a friend of mine that he didn’t need the extended service plan because he wouldn’t live that much longer. Whenever you couldn’t get an extended service plan yourself you were often told to call a “closer”, usually a manager who would come over and make an ass of themselves. In this particular case the “closer” was the store manager and when the old man repeated that he would in fact not live long enough to use the extended warranty the manager said “Ahh, but that is the beauty of the circuit city extended service plan, it stays with the product. So after you pass away whoever you leave your TV with will still be able to benefit from it.” It’s hard to believe that one human being could say that to another human being but I swear it’s true. That’s why I don’t blame these guys that work in these stores. I know the kind of inhuman fucking monsters they work for.

-Gabe out