So it seems the 3DS will have ONE friend code across all games. About time! It's a solid step and a good foundation to build on for catching up to XBox Live, but there's still a long way to go.
Also, some sort of auto discovery is in there. That's nice.
Wow... Wow.... That's... expensive. Really, $250? That's most certainly the most expensive system Nintendo's ever sold, and it's a portable. Granted, it appears this is a very powerful system, but it's in the range of the Wii, not the 360, so it's a little shocking. The 3D screen could also play a part there, as would miniaturization, but still, that's a lot. Considering the battery power is the lowest of any of Nintendo's portables (about 2-5 hours), what I'm getting from this is a total reversal of Nintendo's own long-standing policies for portable systems (that is, they should be cheap, and energy efficient). It's coming out in a few months anyway. They've already "run through" the current production of DS-i systems, and don't intend to make any more (that thing really did just end up being a stop-gap system).
I can only understand this as a result of Nintendo further copying Apple's strategy, that is the part I hoped they wouldn't notice, that Apple can "get away" with charging insane amounts for it's own portable devices and people fork it over by the handful. They also copied the "simple and intuitive" interface, but unfortunately fail at function people expect from modern systems.
I'm wondering if I shouldn't hold off here until they either lower the price or release the "new and improved" version with far superior battery life, but missing something else like the power switch or something (it's a Nintendo product, they always must taketh away something whenever they upgrade a product). Really though, the only other portables I can think of that got away with a price this high... all failed. I mean, this one WON'T because it's Nintendo's, but still... Let's see... Sega Nomad... That 32 bit Lynx thing... PSPGo (:D, seriously, Sony were morons thinking a stripped down PSP could sell for more than a proper one).
First, the 3DS will indeed be region locked, just like the DSi -- US, Japan, Europe/Australia, and Korea are the known regions.
Second, currently there are "no plans" to release The Last Story in the West, just like how Nintendo apparently plans to sit on Xenoblade forever. Whatever those idiots that thing Westerners don't want RPGs are thinking I don't know, but it's stupid. I know it's not the best selling genre here, but there's certainly enough of a market to sell good games like those.
Madoka Magica 01 - Yeah, that was pretty interesting. I like the near-future setting, all that glass-walled architecture is unique stuff for anime. They put some effort into the architecture of this series, for sure. I'm not so sure I like the odd character faces (they're so ... square or something), but the backgrounds make up for that.
The first couple of minutes reminded me of .hack//Sign crossed with Black Rock Shooter, stylistically, or something like that... pretty cool stuff. Then came the glass-walled architecture, and then the full-blown unexpected-even-though-people-had-said-it-was-unique awesomeness of the last part. That was so crazy, visually, awesome stuff. :lol This has got to be one of the most visually unique magical girl shows ever...
As for the story, it was okay. Not amazing, but enough to make me want to keep watching, which is good enough I think. Characters seem decent as well, if not exactly original.
(looks up Yuki Kajiura)... Huh, so the music's by the same composer as .hack//Sign, as well? Maybe that's part of why I was reminded of it at the beginning. :) That and the visual style of focusing attention with shots of interesting and unique environments, hack sign did a lot of that and I saw some of it in Madoka Magica too.
Gosick 01 - And again I agree with what most people are saying about this, this was boring. It wasn't bad, really, just dull, predictable, and generic. I know someone mentioned this, but really, it's the kind of thing that bothers me so, so much... why is this "European" school so Japanese? Everything about this school is Japanese, and just about nothing is Western. Come on, put at least a LITTLE bit of effort into your setting... no, I won't just accept that anime only very, very rarely does any of that, it always bothers me. :( Also, this is set in the 1920s, right? The 1920s were the flapper era, not the goth loli era.
1. The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya
2. Tron: Legacy
3. Toy Story 3
4. Inception
5. Tangled
6. Trigun: Badlands Rumble
7. The Expendables
8. How to Train Your Dragon
9. Shutter Island
10. Loups=Garous
Still want to see Black Swan, True Grit, and The Social Network.
