Female figure in new Zelda art a living sword?

There’s conjecture among Joystiq readers that the female figure in the Zelda art released earlier today. The folks at 4 color rebellion seem to think the same and offer this evidence.

To a Western audience, the thought of a living sword likely sounds a bit odd. But several Eastern myths tell stories of the spirits of warriors inhabiting legendary swords. (Chrono Trigger players will remember the Masamune, a legendary sword inhabited by the spirits of two powerful creatures with the ability to merge.) It’s less common to find a story where a female spirit inhabits a sword, but given the Zelda series’ affinity for androgynous characters, it’s not surprising.

With Nintendo revealing Metroid: Other M as a “new, edgier” take on the Metroid universe, it’s reasonable to think Nintendo may be ready to take a risk and give the world a more mature (though very unlikely M-rated) Zelda title.

Wii Homebrew Browser “Unable to initialize network” error solution

If you are receiving the “Unable to initialize network” error when launching the Homebrew Browser application from the Homebrew Channel, press the Home key to return to the Homebrew Channel, wait for the globe icon in the lower-right corner of the screen to stop blinking and remain solid, and launch the Homebrew Browser again.

The globe icon in the Homebrew Channel indicates the network connection status. If the icon is blinking, the Wii is still trying to establish a network connection. If the icon is lit and solid, the Wii has established a network connection.

If the globe icon continues blinking after 30 seconds or if it is grayed out, check your Wii’s network connection settings.

Japanese voice cast for Persona 3 FES

Main Character: Akira ISHIDA

Yukari Takeba: Megumi TOYOGUCHI

Junpei Iori: Kousuke TORIUMI

Mitsuru Kirijo: Rie TANAKA

Akihiko Sanada: Hikaru MIDORIKAWA

Aegis: Maaya SAKAMOTO

Ken Amada: Megumi OGATA

Shinjiro Aragaki: Kazuya NAKAI

Fuuka Yamagishi: Mamiko NOTO

Takaya Sakaki: Nobutoshi CANNA

Jin Shirato: Masaya ONOSAKA

Chidori Yoshino: Miyuki SAWASHIRO

Pharos: Akira ISHIDA

Shuji Ikutsuki: Hideyuki HORI

Igor: Isamu TANONAKA

Elizabeth: Miyuki SAWASHIRO

Kurosawa: Hirofumi TANAKA

Takeharu Kirijo: Kouji TOTANI

Eiichiro Takeba: Masashi HAMANO

Ryoji Mochizuki: Akira ISHIDA

Natsuki Moriyama: Yuka KOMATSU

Metis: Chiwa SAITO

Purchased video capture hardware

A friend of mine is selling some of his old hardware. Among the phat l00t available were two video capture devices: the Hauppauge WinTV-PVR-350 and the WinTV-PVR-USB2. Since both allow for recording from RCA inputs (read: video game consoles), I decided to purchase both.

After I pick up the items and install the WinTV-PVR-350 in my desktop computer, I plan to record videos of rare and import console games, including Puyo Puyo Box for the Playstation, Super Puzzle Fighter II X for the Dreamcast, undub versions of Persona 3 FES and Persona 4 for the Playstation 2, and Tatsunoko v. Capcom for the Wii. When I record the videos, I plan to upload them to my YouTube channel.

I don’t know when I’ll be traveling to pick up the items, but it will likely be around late May or early June. Watch this site for further updates.

Port forwarding configuration for Unreal Tournament 3 co-op campaign play

Unreal Tournament 3 shipped with a campaign mode that was pretty meh if played alone, but much more fun if played with friends. Unfortunately, configuring one’s router to allow hosting of online co-op campaign games can be frustratingly complex. Epic has provided no official documentation on the subject, so UT3 owners have been left to figure out which ports to forward for themselves.

There are already several great guides with instructions on discovering your computer’s IP address, changing your router’s configuration, and forwarding ports, so I won’t cover that in this article.

You could place your computer in your router’s DMZ, but that opens all ports on the computer to the Internet and presents a serious security risk.

Instead, here’s a list of UDP ports (not TCP) you’ll need to forward to get online co-op campaign play working:

  • 6500
  • 7777
  • 8767
  • 9989
  • 13000
  • 49152-65535

I need to conduct further tests to determine whether all ports listed need to be forwarded to allow for online co-op campaign play, but I have personally tested these settings and they work for me when no other configurations I found during my long search worked.

Games appear overly bright, washed out on Dell Studio notebook computer

If you recently purchased a Dell Studio notebook, you may have noticed that games like Team Fortress 2, Left 4 Dead, Unreal Tournament 3, and other graphics-intensive games appear overly bright, faded, and washed out on default brightness settings.

DON’T PANIC!

There are steps you can take to alleviate, if not entirely eliminate, poor in-game image quality issues produced by the Studio’s default settings:

  1. Turn down in-game brightness settings. Brightness controls differ for each game, but are usually located under an Options or Settings menu.
  2. Set your monitor’s brightness to two-thirds power (10 steps up from the lowest brightness settings). Use the Fn+Up and Fn+Down key combinations to adjust your brightness.
  3. If your computer features an ATI video card:
  • Download the latest drivers for the desktop equivalent of your card directly from the ATI web site. For example, if your notebook features an ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3650, download the drivers for the ATI Radeon HD 3650.
  • Download and run the Mobility Modder tool from DriverHeaven on the downloaded drivers.
  • Install the modified drivers.

I hope these steps help alleviate confusion for new Dell Studio owners. Dell provides no documentation on image quality issues, ships Studio notebooks with screens set to full brightness, and hosts outdated drivers for video cards on their support web site.

Thanks to my friends who recommended Mobility Modder.

No thanks to Dell, who last updated their drivers for the ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3650 on Jan. 14, 2009. ATI released version 9.3 of their Catalyst Suite, which includes drivers for many ATI video cards, on March 18, 2009. Upgrading from stock drivers provided by Dell to drivers modified using Mobility Modder made a visibly significant difference in game image quality.

House of the Dead Overkill and Madworld developers miss the point

When Wii owners 17 and over say they want “mature” titles for the Wii, our request has less to do with the blood, gore, and profanity that earns an M rating and more to do with the depth and complexity of titles.

Headstrong Games (developer of House of the Dead Overkill), Platinum Games (developer of Madworld), and Sega (publisher of both games) gave Wii owners 17 and over games packed to the brim with violence, profanity, and the sensibility of a 13-year old boy mimicking an Andrew Dice Clay (whose Wikipedia included such course language that I decided not to link it) stand-up routine. In the process of packing as many f-bombs as possible into their games, they completely missed the point–and alienated many potential customers.

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House of the Dead Overkill goes overkill with profanity and crude humor

I understand that House of the Dead Overkill developers Headstrong Games were going for that “grindhouse” feel when creating their new on-rails zombie shooter.

I understand the exploitation films that served as reference materials for the developers often, if not always, contained copious amounts of gratuitous profanity and adult themes.

I can appreciate a development team choosing a theme and using that theme to tie the game together. (Valve did the same with excellent results in Team Fortress 2.) The adult themes are part of the game; I get that.

But knowing all that, I still can’t stand House of the Dead Overkill. I stopped playing the game after the first level and won’t pick it back up. I can not, in good conscience, recommend this game to anyone.

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Persona 4: Mission Accomplished

Wow.

I finished Persona 4 earlier today with 85 hours and 55 minutes logged on my new cycle save data. (The “new cycle” mechanism allows players to carry over the main character’s stats, money, Persona Compendium, and items from maxed Social Links for a second play through.)

I doubt I’ll return for a second play through any time soon, though. Persona 4, which boasts a score of 92 on Metacritic, is easily one of the best RPGs I’ve ever played, but now it’s time to go back and finish Zelda: Ocarina of Time and Okami.

Having now played all the way through Persona 4, I regret not buying the Persona 4: Amazon.com Exclusive Social Link Expansion Pack when I had the chance. I should have known Persona 4 would live up to and exceed my expectations, just as Persona 3 did.