UPDATE 9/8/2009: Aion open beta keys are now available to all North American Fileplanet users, including those with free accounts.

NCSoft’s misleadingly-titled “open beta” for Aion is not open at all. It requires either a pre-order (which costs money), a Fileplanet subscription (which costs money), or a closed beta key (and if you already have a closed beta key, this article isn’t relevant to your interests).

I discovered this only after downloading the 9+GB (gigabyte) “open” beta client via BitTorrent and installing the client on my computer. Learn from my mistake: Do not download the Aion open beta unless you already have an open beta key. Avoid wasting bandwidth on NCSoft’s false advertisement/bait and switch, skip this beta, and wait for a trial. Better yet, play an online role-playing game by a company with scruples.

I encountered the following glitch while playing Okami earlier today:

I just defeated 99 enemies during the 10 rounds of the Ryoshima Coast Devil Gate and now the final Black Imp will not take any damage or attack me.

I have used several different types of attacks, including different equipment, Celestial Brush attacks, and damage scrolls. Nothing inflicts any damage on the enemy.

This is a pretty serious and annoying glitch as I just spent the last 15-20 minutes fighting enemies with the purpose of clearing this Devil Gate Trial. What’s even more frustrating is that I didn’t save immediately before the Trial. (I couldn’t imagine encountering a glitch like this.)

Source: Ryoshima Coast Devil Gate Trial glitch: Final Black Imp invulnerable in round 10

Click past the break for video footage of the glitch.

I don’t usually post about game sales on Brainstorm Warning, but I’ve had a special fondness for Rhythm Heaven (known as Rhythm Tengoku Gold in Japan) ever since playing the Japanese version back in 2008. One of Amazon’s Gold Box Deals for today (Monday, July 27) is 56% off Rhythm Heaven, bringing the price down to $12.98 USD.

If you’re interested in purchasing the game, hurry and click here! The sale ends in two hours (at 4 p.m. Central) and 55% of the discounts are already claimed at this time.

I don’t have any gameplay footage of Rhythm Heaven on hand (and I’d rather post this quickly than take the time to record and upload a video since the sale ends in two hours), so click past the break for commercials for the Japanese version of the game (same gameplay, different language).

I had the opportunity to play Thunder Force VI a few months ago and was pleasantly surprised by the game’s smooth controls and design. The game’s graphics are impressive for a Playstation 2 title and the weapons system allows for varied gameplay. Today, on my third playthrough of the game, I recorded footage of the introduction video and Jungle Stage to share with Brainstorm Warning readers.

Thunder Force VI was only released in Japan, but the game’s menus are in English, making the title import-friendly. Thunder Force VI is immediately accessible to shmup (shoot-em-up) novices and experts alike and isn’t as ruthlessly difficult as many other recent shmup releases. For more information on Thunder Force VI, for customer reviews, and to purchase the game, click here.

Click past the break for the gameplay video.

Before the advent of the Internet, there was the Excalibur BBS (bulletin board system). I discovered several boards based on Excalibur software after my family bought our first home computer. With our trusty dial-up modem squeaking and squawking along, I downloaded every shareware game that caught my eye.

One of my favorite titles from that era is Epic Pinball. These days, Epic Games is best known for the Unreal Engine and games like Unreal Tournament 3 and Gears of Wars 2. In the early 1990s, they built a reputation for developing excellent PC games like Jazz Jackrabbit, One Must Fall: 2097, and Epic Pinball.

Thanks to DOSBox, I can indulge in nostalgia and re-play my favorite PC games of the early 90s in Windows. After discovering earlier today that DOSBox allows users to record video of DOS games and applications, I recorded a video of the “Enigma” table from Epic Pinball.

Click past the break for the video.

In 1994, just a few months before changing their company name to 3D Realms, Apogee published a shoot-em-up for DOS developed by Cygnus Studios (now Mountain King Studios) and titled Raptor: Call of the Shadows. I downloaded the shareware version of the game from a local bulletin board system (BBS) and played it for hours on end.

I was impressed with the game’s cutting edge (for 1994) graphics, excellent sound effects, and fluid controls. I had played several shmups prior to trying Raptor, but the precision of the mouse-based control scheme was, in my eyes, far superior to controls for console-based shmups of the Super Nintendo/Genesis era.

I recently downloaded the shareware version again, loaded it using DOSBox, and recorded a video of my playing the first level with a trackball. Click past the break for the video.

Click past the break for a video of the character creation process in Dragon Quest IX: Hoshizora no Mamoribito.

I’ve recorded and uploaded footage of the first three levels of Lost Vikings II for the Super Nintendo to my YouTube channel.

Click past the break for the embedded video.

My wife and I played a few rounds of Puyo Puyo 15th Anniversary on our Playstation 2 today. Click past the break to watch the video.