You know, Onimusha was pretty cool at E3, but it really didn’t impress upon me as being anything other than another survival horror game, despite Capcom’s claims to the contrary. I say, if it looks like Resident Evil and plays like Resident Evil, it’s survival horror. Maybe Capcom wants to rework the game in order to make it less Resident Evil and more, uh… whatever an "action-epic" is, I guess.

You’d better believe this is going to happen. That’s the one huge advantage that the PC has over all of the current console systems – modifications to existing games. PC gamers get expansion packs, user-created mods, and extra add-on levels all the time. Just because the DC version of Half-Life will include a never before seen new mission, called Blue Shift, doesn’t mean it will stay exclusive… in fact, if the programmers don’t port it over to PC I’m willing to bet that some tech-savvy gamers will do it for them.

I was listening to NPR in the car today, and the subject was violence in movies and video games. One of their guests (I didn’t get his name because I was only in the car for about ten minutes) kept citing the movie Rambo as an example of violence in cinema. Rambo! Even better, he talked about the fancy "techno-graphics" that are being used in movies today! Class, can you say "out of touch?" I knew you could.

Keiji Okayasu, the director of the multi-chapter DC epic Shenmue left his job at Sega’s famed AM2 department. Does this mean the future of Shenmue is in jeopardy? Of course not, people! AM2 is full of talented individuals and there’s no reason to believe that Sega won’t be able to finish the Shenmue project as scheduled.

It seems like Nintendo is finally getting the idea, readying a new Zelda and Metroid for first generation GameCube release. There’ll no doubt be a new Mario title in that wave as well. Nintendo has much to make up for in the eyes of many gamers, this one included. Aside from the first party (and Rare) games, there’s been a steady onslaught of poor quality titles for the N64 from day one. If not for Rare’s Goldeneye and Perfect Dark, most adult gamers would have abandoned the system years ago, and the only thing that keeps it viable for the younger generations is the still-steady success of Pokemon. Hopefully Nintendo has learned its lesson and will concentrate on unleashing killer title after killer title for their new baby.

It’s kind of a silly name, but the system does look promising. A 16-bit portable with lots of new games… and the new Mario Kart title is looking really good. The system specs will insure loads of 2D gaming goodness, for those of us "old-schoolers" who still believe that 2D will always rule over 3D the platform and fighting genres. That Mega Man game looks sort of odd, though…

Now I am a big Capcom fan, but limiting the DC title Vampire Chronicles to a mere 8000 copies in Japan is practically criminal! It’s still not clear whether or not this 2D fighter featuring all of the characters from all of the Darkstalker games will be making the trek to the states any time soon, but Japanese gamers were treated to the aforementioned limited release. This means that the big importers can’t get copies and the game is already fetching hundreds on eBay! Also, what’s the deal with SNK vs. Capcom not having real-time tag team like all of the other Vs. Series titles?!? I know they want to get some of the SNK (read: inferior) feel to the games, but to take out one of the best features of the Series because SNK games don’t allow for it is silly. Besides, SNK is dead! Capcom should have bought the sole rights to this game and had their way with it.