Recently a friend asked me to create a trailer for his Let's Play Gaming Channel.
So I got the idea to create a wall of TVs where each screen shows a different game he is playing with the camera moving around from one screen to another... Even though I'm quite familiar with Sony Vegas, I haven't done something like that before. That's why the whole process was so interesting and the result so satisfying. That's how the final version looks like:
Not too bad, right? So let's go step by step explaining on how to make such a trailer. 1) Creating a TV wall
For doing that you either look for a fitting image online or create your own one. Make sure you can it has about as many screens as video clips you want to use. Once you've chosen a picture you put at the bottom of your project.
2) Put the clips on the screens
I downloaded like 12 videos of different games from my friend's channel. Then I started one by one, putting a video file above the TV wall template and minimized them by clicking on the icon at the edge of the clip in the timeline to open a window. Then you can accurately adapt the size of the clip and move it around to match on one of the TVs of your template.
That step you do with every clip until your TV wall is finished. That wall full of screen may looks like this.
3) Rendering the TV wall video Following that I rendered like a 30 second clip of that wall. This new file I copied into my project. 4) Let the "virtual camera" run
Now you work with your newly created TV wall clip in your project. Click again on the small icon at the bottom of your clip (see first screenshot in Step 1). At the bottom of that menu you see a timeline where you can set time markers. Now you can decide where to place the "F" window at each second.
You can zoom in, zoom out. Experiment a bit which works the best for you. In my case it worked best not to leave the gaps too big as moved the "F" window slowly from right to left to show the channel logo at the end. And that way you can create this kind of trailer video. For music I chose to use a fitting track in the YouTube Audio Library. I hope I could help or inspire you to create a nice channel trailer. Btw. I also made a tutorial video about it, if you wanna see a deeper explanation:
In the classic PS2 game Burnout Revenge reaction is quite crucial, be it to avoid other cars or making a proper start in the mode "Crash Party". However, when you record footage it may raises the difficulty level in an interesting way... As a friend and me have our Crash Party battle from time to time, we decided to now finally record it. Also, he started doing "Let's Plays" on Twitch and YouTube, so it would be appropriate footage for his channel. For doing that, I used my old Sony RDR HX 680 B DVD and HDD recorder. So I connected the PS2 with a SCART cable to the input slot of the recorder and another SCART cable for the output from the recorder to the TV.
After a recording test we started playing. A Crash Party with 9 rounds and two players. To quickly explain the starting procedure: You hit the X button once to start the engine, and as the RPM go higher (seen through a line of fire) you have to press X again (to avoid explosion). Then the line goes down again and you have to press X a third time. Depending on how accurately you press X the second and third time determines how good you start is going to be.
However, as the recording device was between the PS2 and the TV, the screen was probably a few milliseconds behind, causing us players being unable to hit X an the right moment, making the cars either explode and stalling the engine. As we were first surprised on what happened there, it took as a bit the figure out what's the issue. Ultimately we could adapt to the situation and I even got a score of around 10 million for like three times in a row (see video above). Quite interesting situation, right? Someone seen that before? I guess the issue is either the SCART cable, the device, or both... Unrelated, but worth to mention: How about getting the footage to a PC? There's no other way than burning it on a DVD and then convert the files from the DVD on your PC. I usually use HandBrake for that. The audio was recorded separately and later merged together with the video file.
As a casual player or even beginner there are certainly situations you face and you would prefer having a proper answer. On this page, I try to answer a few of these. Q: What happens if I each the limit of 300 Pokémon? A: Either you have to buy more spots or you get rid of Pokémon you may have more than once.
Q: How to remove Pokémon and what happens if I do it? A: If you have too many Pokémon you can send them away. Once a Pokémon is removed, you receive one BonBon of the Pokémon family you let go. Means, if you for example sent away a Bulbasaur, your Venusaur will benefit from it. Can be an efficient way to get BonBons.
Q: How long does it take to evolve to a stronger Pokémon? A: It depends on the Pokémon. You can see the necessary level to evolve. Usually it's at level 25, 50 or 100! Depending on which Pokémon it can go fast, but if similar Pokémon don't appear often it can take months.
Q: Why is augmented reality not working? A: Some devices are facing issues that if a new wild Pokémon appears, the camera for showing the real world cannot be used. In this case the following message appears: "We’re not detecting your phone’s orientation. Would you like to turn off AR Mode?” It means that your device may not have a gyroscope. Apparently an issue for many Huawei devices.
Q: What is the meaning of the blue aura around some Pokemon in the Pokedex?
A: It simply just means that the Pokémon was just caught recently and the blue aura is only highlighting it.
Q: Can I use the app in the train or bicycle?
A: Yes, you can, but you will get a warning message. Always a chance for a PokéStop at the next train station. Although I would recommend it anyway near traffic, it also works from bicycle if you don't ride too fast. Tested on empty streets on the countryside.
Q: Can I use train rides to get more km for my eggs? A: Usually quite quickly a warning message pops up not to use the app while driving. Also, the kilometer count for the eggs stops. However I had a few situations where I actually got some mileage, even if it was just for a few hundred meters.
Q: How to earn virtual money? A: Go to gyms, defeat all the Pokémon (even if it take several attempts to get their CP down to 0) and then place on of your own Pokémon there. The longer it stays the more you earn. Once it's defeated it will be sent back to you. I don't exactly how it's calculated, but a few hours bring around 30 PokéCoins.
Now in Japan, I feel like I find more Pokémon than ever before. And Generation 4 is coming!
Now leveled up to level 23 and many more Pokémon on my belt I'm currently running through Japan and I noticed that I can catch many more than before. Most likely because I'm mostly in a city and the chances are therefore higher. And through this high amount of Pokémon I was able to level up easier and could now finally evolve my pocket monsters. For example all three first Generation Eevee evolutions which seem to be really competitive - especially Jolteon (サンダース) with CP 2032.
According to my Pokédex I have seen 255 different Pokémon and caught 178 of them. With Generation 4 now being added I've got to catch monsters I've never seen before. And since I'm playing it in Japanese since I haven't played games including G4 Pokémon. Especially モウカザル already been one of my favorites.
I also got some more experiences with Gym battles. But it can be really annoying on bigger public places like train stations. Playing with Team Red after trying a few times I defeated the opponents Pokémon, but as I needed a few seconds to recharge my own defeated monsters, I couldn't place my own Pokémon there as another team already took over the gym. No chance, some areas are just to busy.
Generally, I have a better feeling for the game now. Using the friends option to exchange presents I also quite interesting. Let's see where I can go from here!
This weekend I went for the Tokyo Game Show for the first time and I got the chance to test a few of the new games which caught my interest.
Knowing there would be a long queue I still arrived a bit late which made me wait for almost 2 hours to get in.
But the wait was worth it. Many big halls and so many different stands. After running around for getting a general impression of the event I stopped at Bandai Namco, because one game got me really interested:
It's Jump Force. A game which puts several characters from JUMP magazine together, including Dragon Ball, One Piece, Naruto and more! The trailer itself gave me this "I wanna play" feeling with showing great stages like Namek, Himeji Castle or New York's Times Square. After a wait for around 30-40 minutes in the queue I got to play a 3 vs 3 battle. I selected Frieza, Luffy and Vegeta to fight on Namek. The demo was for two rounds until the first fighter was knocked out. The game is fun to play and the graphics are running stunning to see. I couldn't get deep into special moves or combos - at the end I just found out how to switch characters during the fight. It generally left a great impression and as there seems to be a story with a few from Akira Toriyama exclusively created characters makes the entire game even more interesting...
Following that I stopped by at the racing game area and some nostalgia put me into the line to test another game: V-Rally 4! Back in PS1 and PS2 days I liked the series. Especially I spent many years in the career of V-Rally 3 in the mid-2000s. I wasn't aware that finally a sequel is coming! The demo was one stage with a GoPro-sponsored car with a big rear wing. I clearly underestimated the cars reaction in the corners causing me a few crashes at the beginning. Plus: Manual shifting was activated! However at the end of the stage everything went more smoothly and I slowly got ready for more. It certainly brought back some nostalgia!
So... Since I was in the area - time for the next racing game: MotoGP 18! To be honest: I haven't played a lot of MotoGP games in the last decade, but there were times of the old MotoGP3 and 4 which I got to play a lot. Therefore, as expected it didn't take me long to get into the flow. Unfortunately the riding helps were activated and the difficulty quite easy. Meaning that despite a crash in lap 1 out of 3 and some general starting difficulties I was able to reach P10 at the end with Valentino Rossi! Was really fun to play again!
As it was getting afternoon, there was one more game I had to try out! Back to the Bandai Namco area and this time in the One Piece World Seeker queue! The game trailers were already promising showing an game-exclusive storyline with many major characters like Aokiji, Fujitora or Lucci involved. Ahead of the demo you get a manual to memorize the important controls. Once you get started you are playing Luffy running up a hill punching some marines. You get used to the attacks, especially the Red Hawk is quite powerful. The whole graphic of the landscape is quite impressive! After a fight with Kuma you are confronted with Sakazuki alias Aka Inu. The fight is a bit more difficult than the previous one, but still no problem. But Sabo comes to help Luffy as the demo ends. At the end you also get some stickers from the characters of the game, nice!
As the time was running out I soon left the place. It was quite interesting how much is offered there to see and play! A fun and inspiring day came to an end. Of course there was so much more to see like many other franchises I'm not that involved in, but I'm sure everyone would have found something interesting! Until another time!
With a better phone and the ongoing summer I got myself going again on the hunt for Pokémon!
Next entry on my Pokémon GO diary - or better 'once in a while blog'.
With the current summer and a better phone I found the motivation to go on the hunt again and I heard from other players that they are still active. Plus, I still have so many Pokémon eggs from several places around the world such as Las Vegas, New Zealand or Canary Islands. So I decided to incubate all of them now by going for a walk or several runs by bicycle (I know, not really recommended, but it's in the countryside, so...^^). So by running around and catching various Pokémon from the Kanto, Johto and Hoenn region I could increase my level from 11 to 16. Still not much, but alright for a casual player. I won battles at the gym now a few times and also got some PokéDollars (I think that's how the currency is called), so let's see what I do with that. Looking at my PokéDex there's still a lot to find. Out of the currently available 375 Pokémon I only caught 92 and saw 136 of them! So the hunt will continue!
a new Dragon Ball game is out. This time for smartphones - and for free! So it's very to check it out.
Throughout the past couple of months I was aware that this game was in the making and about to be released in summer, but I somewhere missed the point that it was actually free to play.
A colleague at work got me into it since he was already playing for a while.
So, to the game itself: Story wise you follow Shallot, a new game-only Saiyan, who is gets in touch with for Z fighters for the Tournament of Time.
The battle system itself is quite easy to play: You get cards for sprint attacks, blasts or little power-ups (as seen on the screenshot). You can charge yourself by holding your finger on the touch screen and also do single punches or blasts without using the cards.
Your are in a team with up to three fighters with which you can switch during the battle. Each character needs to be leveled up, be it by single training, joining the story battle or playing against others. You can exchange a friends code and fight against friends.
Apart from that you are able for daily summons - means that you can get new characters - for example recently they added some movie characters like Freeza's brother Coola.
As it seems they are adding more and more content to the game like extra story arcs, characters... So I hope we should see more Dragon Ball Super characters soon.
Therefore, I can recommend the game, it's fun to play!
The latter played a part again yesterday: A friend of mine got an PS2 slim and I remembered about the possibility to play games from USB. So as the first thing I tested with my Memory Card, if the homebrew menu works with the silver PS2 slim. As I read somewhere there were issues with certain firmware version delivered with newer slim models. However, it was no problem: FMCB started with the extended boot menu. In the following I installed it also on the Memory Card of my friend. As there were issues with the file manager (ULaunchELF) of my Memory Card which was unable to open elf files properly, I copied the FMCB installer on the USB drive and added the elf in the boot menu via the FMCB configurator as a workaround. FMCB was successfully installed on the Memory Card and I added the OpenPS2Loader to the Memory Card and linked it to the main menu. Now, via the USBUtilGUI tool I selected a few games to test which were converted from ISO file to a certain format to be able to be booted via OpenPS2Loader 0.9. A 32GB USB flash drive was used and as the games were launched you could notice that it takes a bit longer than using a DVD. Of course the internal HDD drive is the quicker way, but only with the older bigger PS2.
Both tested games, the infamous fighting DBZ Budokai Tenkaichi 3 was still working quickly (you could only see that the in-game transformations were slower than usual) and the fast racing game Burnout Revenge was also running well.
Plus, I also tested the old bicycle racing game Downhill Domination which was quite nostalgic played it again after a long time! Therefore, still nice having these tools for the good old PS2!
It's quite a debate among fans about which of these two games is the better one. Recently TeamFourStar rated their own favorite Dragon Ball games and both Budokai 3 and Tenkaichi 3 were the favorites... For TeamFourStar Budokai 3 ended up at the first place with Tenkaichi 3 as a close second. Personally I would have put it the other way around, but I can understand their rating for that order. The general thing about Tenkaichi 3 which makes it my all-time favorite is, that you can fly easily through a big 3D arena and can fight against your opponent using several tactics. Plus we have 98 characters in 161 transformations making that DB game the one with the highest number of playable characters. It's a game which does not get boring, if you want to fight against a friend once in a while. Selecting five fighters each and go for it. Also one of the only DB fighting games which come close to the real Dragon Ball fights.
In comparison Budokai 3 has not these kind of 3D elements. Of course you can move in a certain way, but the handling is nowhere close to Tenkaichi 3. The Raging Blast games (which were released for the next generation of consoles like PS3) came also close to that way of fighting, but it's not the same. But still, there are elements in Budokai 3 I still favour: The story mode where you could fly around Earth and Namek (which was similar in Tenkaichi 2), the way you could unlock and add attacks and abilities.
Both games had iconic and awesome soundtrack I still love listened to today, although the ones from the Budokai series have its special flair (although some of the were reused the the first Tenkaichi game). Generally: Both games set its benchmarks and are despite being older than 10 years still loved by fans around the world. And successors would be highly appreciated as many fan modder adding new characters from the Super series into these classic games (especially Tenkaichi 3).
So whichever of both games you prefer, I can understand both sites.
My hunt for new Pokémon continues - this time around Christmas time in New Zealand.
Even Pokémon GO gives you a Christmas feeling if try to catch a Pikachu you see the most famous pocket monster with a Christmas hat.
Apart from that some of the Pokémon from the Hoenn region have been released and once you run around the city you get plenty of them: Treecko, Torchic, Seedot, Skitty, Meditite, Gulpin, Seviper, Poochyena,... This is actually the last generation I'm aware of the names since I played a lot with the trading cards back then. Following the Advanced Generation I did not keep up with it, but that may changes!
Maybe I should also mention that I was confronted by the bug that once a Pokémon was caught the ball appeared in the initial throwing position again and jumped around as it was a Pokémon. You could only stop the scenario by pressing the run button at the top left. At the end the Pokémon unfortunately was not counted as caught.
But generally I enjoy catching the monster from the third generations. I will drop some updates from time to time...
If you have ever played a PlayStation game in Japanese you may have noticed that the O and X buttons are used the other way around. But what is the reason behind it?
It's generally a cultural thing: As in western countries we are used to have an X to confirm something like marking the right answer in a quiz for example.
'X' means 'wrong' - not just at the Japanese PlayStation
In Japan they have a different association: The X is used for an incorrect answer in a test. It's meaning is ばつ (batsu) and has a general meaning for something negative like giving up and 'wrong'. So for in Japan it would be wrong to use it as a confirmation button. The circle on the other hand the circle with the meaning まる (maru) has the meaning of 'correct' since the correct answer in a test is marked in a circle. These can even be shown in gestures with arms or hands. Or in right-or-wrong games like 'batsumaru'.
This difference in terms of school tests corrections is actually a topic in the Detective Conan episodes 779 & 880 where a Japanese teacher who lived in America got it wrong after returning to Japan...
Looking at it from this perspective the different usage of the buttons makes totally sense.
I've been to Japan a few times now and it's every time really impressive how much support their own consoles get in comparison to US rivals from Microsoft... The numbers speak for themselves: More than 5 million sold PS4 in Japan and only around 80.000 XboxOne! I somewhere read a statistic that even more PS3 are sold than XboxOne's during one of the recent months. Old games and consoles from their own brands are also still popular and sold in Japan. You see so many stores with still lots of PS1 and PS2 games! Or even older Sega and Nintendo consoles + games. One example of a store in Akihabara in Tokyo is a great example of the situation: Just one shelf with Xbox360, XboxOne and Xbox games and multiple shelves just for old PS1 or PS2 games. The situation for Microsoft is tough in country of videogames and that shows really how tough it really is!
This new One Piece game is planned to be released in 2018. But if you are in Tokyo and go to the Tokyo Tower you can already play a trial version... In the Tokyo Tower are a few floors dedicated to One Piece which is why this theme park is called 'Tokyo One Piece Tower'. It has so many attractions related to the anime and it's a must for every fan. Interestingly they also offer visitors to play a trial of the new PS4 Virtual Reality game 'Grand Cruise'. Once you got the VR glasses and the controller you are told only to use one certain button which is enough to go through the trial. Other players doing the same with you as several seats were prepared. I think there were always eight players at once.
At the beginning you sit on the Thousand Sunny a DenDen Mushi is talking to you before Luffy appears just in front of you. It felt so real. Then you can select to go in either the kitchen where Chopper and Sanji were or.... in the bed room of Nami and Nico Robin. For some reason Nami approaches you way too close.. ;)
Following that the crew gets attacked by a marine ship. It's yours and the other players job to shoot down all the canons coming from the other ship. You aim with your controller and push the button to shoot - at best early enough.
Luffy and Sanji also show their attacks to block the canons from the opponents easily afterwards. There was also a competition among the players which were divided in teams to check how scored the most. It was really fun - I actually went there actually twice. Could be an interesting game next year once its full version is released. But anyway, if you are in Tokyo the next time, you should check it out, not only because of the VR, also for the whole theme park itself.
Around one year ago I played Pokémon GO the last time - apparently in September my account was banned - and could not play again. And now it works again - with the same account!
Today I gave it another shot: Downloaded the current version 0.69.1 via Google PlayStore, installed the game, agreed to login with my Google Account and suddenly I could see the loading screen seeing the Pokémon Tyranitar from the second generation Johto! And the game opened with my old account. I can still see the history!
After catching my first Pokémon after one year and collecting some items my history looks a bit weird (see above). I am not too much
aware what happened during that year. I know they added the second generation of Pokémon and extending the possibility to catch more different Pokémon and being able to actually have battles which seemed not so easily possible at the beginning.
Therefore for me it´s now rediscovering the game again and increasing my Pokédex. Let's see how it's going to turn out the next few days. I'm currently in Spain and I don't know if there are any rare Pokémon here. Anyway, I could already level up from 5 to 6 which is nothing, but not surprising since I haven't played a lot.
Feel free to comment on your experiences and what happened during that year! I'm now outside checking out the area.. ;)
There were times where computer games were much simpler and still very fun to play. At these times you had MSDOS or the Windows versions 95 or 98. Let's take a look back at which games I played back then...
5. Cawado It's a fun German game where you give your character text commands to get him or her through the day. From waking up, preparing for school, an after-school job at a gas station and ending the evening in a bar. You can get extra points for appropriate behavior. In general it's kind of fun to have such a game where you can control your character like this.
4. GO310 That game is kind of easy to explain: You have to fill a space with boxes and gain more than 56% while a weird object is flying around. Each time you hit that object you lose a live - so you are game over as soon as you go from 0 to -1. If you the fill the space enough you get to the next level, the object is getting faster each time and afterwards there are even more - plus you will have some mines you need to avoid. Caution: You can get addicted ;)
3. Riptide A quite fun submarine game which full name was 'In Search of Dr. Riptide'. In the game you take control of the agent Nick who is in control of one bigger and a small submarine. You need to avoid getting damaged by weapons and sea animals, open gates to get to another level. You need to figure out how to open door which are locked by a key or by a button you should find somewhere around... 2. Heroes Heroes (or it's full name: Heroes 1/4: The Tantalizing Trio) is a fun Jump'n'Run game where you are in control of three characters which have different abilities. It includes multiple level and you need to be cautious about the health of the characters. Once one of the 'heroes' is defeated he ends up in a bubble and can be collected by the next character in order to be saved to get to the next level.
1. GPCGA That was the first Formula One game I have ever played! It covered the 1988 season with eight tracks and three cars to select (Ferrari, Williams, McLaren). As it was back in these days the track looked more or less the same, just the layouts were different. Even Monaco had no guardrails, but interestingly a tunnel where you could crash into. The background also changed a bit from track to track. In Suzuka they even included the Fujiyama! As nowadays there were different difficulty settings - even with shifting included where you could blow your engine up if you forget it! Else a quite easy game which I played quite often back then, but now - oh dear!
In December a new updated version of DBZ Budokai Tenkaichi 3 Latino Edition came out and with its new characters the game became even more awesome! How great it is I'd like to share with a few 5 vs. 5 battle I played against a friend.
'Tenkaichi 3' is despite being almost 10 years old still a fan-favourite - as I explained in another article. You can see that going on YouTube finding lots of battles with modded characters from the currently running new TV series Dragon Ball Super or even additional old ones who never made it to the official games. I tested the recent Latino Edition, where are lots of new characters included. Here's a short overview of the character selection:
Goku Black, Zamasu, their fusion, Hit, Cabba, SSJ Blue Vegetto, Future Trunks from Dragon Ball Super... it's all in it. Of course less important characters were replaced with new ones, but maybe they'll find a way to extent the amount of characters in the future.
Me and a friend are always enjoying the 5 versus 5 battles. Last time we did seven of these battles with new and old characters mixed up! Here's the result (Spoiler: I won the most of them :D).
Battle 01
Goku Black vs. Hit
Goku Black vs. Piccolo
Kid Buu vs. Piccolo
Kid Buu vs. SSJ4 Nappa
Super 17 vs. SSJ4 Nappa
Super 17 vs. Zaiko
Super 17 vs. SSJ Blue Vegeta
Freeza vs. SSJ Blue Vegeta
Vegeta (Buu Saga) vs SSJ Blue Vegeta
Battle 02
Vegeta (Buu Saga) vs. Whis
Broly vs. Whis
Freeza vs. Whis
Freeza vs. SSJ Blue Vegeta
Goku Black SSJ Rose vs. SSJ Blue Vegeta
Goku Black SSJ Rose vs. SSJ Blue Vegetto
Goku Black SSJ Rose vs. Piccolo
Goku Black SSJ Rose vs. Gine
Zamasu vs. Gine
Battle 03
SSJ2 Vegeta vs. Beerus
Kid Trunks vs. Beerus
SSJ Gotenks vs. Beerus
SSJ Gotenks vs. SSJ Blue Vegeta
SSJ3 Gotenks vs. Golden Cell
Frieza vs. Golden Cell
Frieza vs. SSJ Cabba
Goku Black vs. SSJ Cabba
Goku Black vs. SSJ Future Trunks (Super)
Battle 04
Goku Black vs. SSJ4 Vegeta
Goku Black vs. SSJ Goten GT
Baby vs. SSJ Goten GT
Baby vs. Piccolo
Nova Shenron vs. Piccolo
Frieza vs. Piccolo
Frieza vs. SSJ Future Trunks (Super)
Frieza vs. SSJ4 Goku
Super 17 vs. SSJ4 Goku
Battle 05
Goku Black vs. SSJ4 Vegeta
Frieza Final Form 100% vs. SSJ4 Vegeta
Frieza Final Form 100% vs. SSJ Blue Vegeta
Frieza Final Form vs. SSJ Blue Vegeta
SSJ2 Teen Gohan vs. SSJ Blue Vegeta
SSJ Blue Bardock vs. SSJ Blue Vegeta
SSJ Blue Bardock vs. SSJ Future Trunks (Super)
SSJ Blue Bardock vs. Piccolo
SSJ Blue Bardock vs. SSJ4 Goku
Battle 06
Goku Black vs. SSJ4 Pan
Goku Black vs. SSJ3 Kid Goku GT
LSSJ Broly vs. SSJ3 Kid Goku GT
SSJ4 Broly vs. SSJ Blue Vegeta
Kid Buu vs. SSJ Blue Vegeta
SSJ Blue Bardock vs. SSJ Blue Vegeta
SSJ Blue Bardock vs. Piccolo
SSJ Blue Bardock vs. Omega Shenron
Frieza Final Form 100% vs. Omega Shenron
Battle 07
Frieza vs. SSJ Blue Vegeta
Frieza vs. Piccolo
Majin Vegeta vs. Piccolo
Goku Black vs. Piccolo
Goku Black vs. SSJ4 Goku
Kid Buu vs. SSJ4 Goku
Kid Buu vs. SSJ Future Trunks Z
SSJ Blue Bardock vs. SSJ Future Trunks Z
SSJ Blue Bardock vs. Gine
These were my final battles of 2016 with the most recent mods at that time. Maybe this year I'll create my own mods after having made a bit experiences on how a few things on modding Tenkaichi 3 work - like exchanging music or downloaded characters. Let's see what 2017 brings - maybe even a new official Tenkaichi game? Better not giving up the hope and if not, there'll still be more mods!
In the past few years the split-screen options in video games began gradually to disappear. And now it went that far that even racing games do no longer have an offline 2P mode. Let's start with an example: The F1 racing games which are released by Codemasters every year. In F1 2011you could even do a whole season with 2 local players against each other. In the 2012 version split-screen was still possible, but just single races - same as in 2014. But in F1 2015 and in the current 2016 version the split-screen disappeared completely.
So just multiplayer online racing? Or bringing your own console to a friend and at best with your own TV? That makes it even more complicated. Especially at times where the TV screens are getting bigger which would make 2P racing even more exciting. Are the gaming companies expecting that with faster Internet connection the people don't meet anymore? It rather forces the people to stay at home playing with friends also being at home. Of course adding a split-screen needs extra resources and so on. Ok. But for me F1 2015 was a wake-up call in terms the direction they're going. I already know a few people who didn't buy it - same as F1 2016 - because they found it that there's no split-screen.
As far as I know with Nintendo they're still doing it right. Imagine they would remove the split-screen from Mario Kart. Can't think of that. At Nintendo they know that people still meet and play against each other. It's part of their concept and their success. Are the Xbox One or PS4 players rather the ones who prefer to play at home alone? Of course there are many games which are made to play as a single player. But still, at the point where a Formula One racing game no longer has a split-screen, something goes really wrong. Obviously the protests are not big enough, the producers are getting through with it. It's still sold, but it could be sold more often. But maybe not copies enough to compensate the effort adding a split-screen? I can't repeat myself often enough: It's going in the wrong direction. It has a bad impact on the peoples social lifes. More isolation. And so on. You can find petitions against it, but are they working? Surely not enough. But you still find lots of people being frustrated about it like me. Or is it just the older generation growing up with split-screen video games now missing it? And the younger generation won't care? I do really hope there's a change in the future, hopefully already for games like F1 2017, but I doubt it.
It was also possible for them to add some characters - not just changing them. Some stages were also changed like Kamis Lookout now has a dark sky. There's also a stage were you solely fight in the Earths stratosphere. In terms of characters you can clearly say that Merged Zamasu is quite superior to others. Especially one long combination attack. And attention concerning using other costumes: The games freezes after you chose the 3rd or 4th costume of certain characters - Whis for example. Better checkout the video above to see what's possible. Anyway, I'd suggest to test it yourself, it's truly fun and interesting. And if you don't want to listen to Spanish voices instead of English, you can always select Japanese.
It was THE Dragon Ball Z fighting game for the PlayStation 2. 161 characters and the way of fighting came really close to how it would be in the TV series. Despite many new games have been released since then - many fans want that game from 2007 back. The currently quite popular Dragon Ball games are Xenoverse and its recently released successor Xenoverse 2. These games are in terms of story with the Time Patrols quite interesting and playing it online is also quite cool. But - in my view - the fighting system or the handling itself is not as fun as in the final part of the Budokai Tenkaichi series. I admit, nostalgia is also playing a part, but playing a Dragon Ball game having been released since then is mostly disappointing, if you know Tenkaichi 3 from 2007. Of course, the story in Tenkaichi 3 was quite short and easy to get through, but it's always awesome for having a fast 5 vs. 5 match against a friend. The controls are easy, the battles are fast and really fun - and that after almost 10 years.
Modded Tenkaichi 3 games on YouTube
An update on the current console generation like PS4 would have much potential. Especially now, where the Dragon Ball universe has expanded with new characters and the story of Dragon Ball Super. And people are still loving Tenkaichi 3 - just go to YouTube and look for videos of modded Tenkaichi 3 like grognougnou's channel. You'll find videos of fusions with SSJ Blue mods with millions of clicks. I also couldn't help and modded my Tenkaichi 3 game with instructions and downloads being published on another website. So Namco Bandai would surely sell enough copies if they would release an updated version of Tenkaichi 3 for the PS4 or other consoles. And how often you read comments like 'best DBZ game ever made'?
Answers from Bandai Namco
Such a re-release happened in 2012 with Budokai and Budokai 3 being released as 'Dragon Ball Z Budokai HD Collection'. So what's the situation with a new Budokai Tenkaichi 3 release?
The guys from the YouTube channel Rhymestyle actually talked to a guy from Bandai Namco about this topic in January 2015 (see video above), the man seemed interested, but they never heard of him again. And if you the Internet about that topic most reports are from the first half of 2015 - but apparently no recent information. It seems that it was considered, news of that possibility were spread, but that was it. There were also several petitions, but all I could see was that they were closed by now never reaching 6,000 signatures. Interestingly, Treevax (the guy who is working on game concepts for a possible Raging Blast 3) also got some answers from Bandai staff concerning Tenkaichi 3 - but this is from February 2013:
Will there ever be a Tenkaichi HD Collection?First, you must know that making the Budokai HD Collection has been a real copyright maze. This is one of the reasons why we didn’t have Budokai 2 in the collection. Though, they succeeded into obtaining the rights, and made the game.I’ve been told that making Tenkaichi HD Collection would be even more complicated. Thus, it might never been made, because of copyright issues (game content, BGM…).
So, copyright issues... I'm aware within the Budokai series there were tracks produced by Kenji Yamamoto, but facing some plagiarism issues around 2011 the composer didn't produce any more Dragon Ball music. About Tenkaichi 3 I just know that the theme song 'Super Survivor' was produced by Yamamoto. So there's more behind it. To sum this up: Many fans want it, but there are apparently issues with the rights making this even more difficult. I don't know if they're working on it or not - we may just have to be more patient...
Maybe you have already seen several Tenkaichi 3 gameplay videos on YouTube showing new characters like Beerus, Whis or the Super Saiyan Blue in the old PS2 game. This tutorial will show you how it's done. Just to be clear: I'm not able to create my own characters, but thanks to guys like Kinnikuchi (check out his blog) you can download new characters and stages to modify your own game. Note: Your PS2 has to be able to run copied games - either with having an integrated chip, using ESR or running the game from the local or external hard disk drive - or via LAN if you like it that way. For testing this whole scenario I would recommend you to have an emulator, but more on that later. 1) Copy the disk to your PC The first procedure is the same as you would change the background music of the game: Extract your DVD to a local folder in order to apply the patches. 2) Download the patches! Go to the blog of Kinnikuchi and download the characters or stages available on the download page. And to be clear: These patches don't extent the amount of playable characters - certain characters (mostly weak ones from the first Dragon Ball series) are replaced with the newer characters. Sometimes characters are added by replacing a costume, or some characters do even have new costumes for themselves. Also the new stages are replacing other stages. 3) Prepare the extracted folder Within the tutorial download from Kinnikuchi you'll get the AFS Explorer and an *.afl file. Before applying the patches, start this explorer tool and select 'File', 'Import AFS file'. Choose the PZS3US1.afs (from your extracted directory). Now import the file name list (´Advanced', 'Import file name list') by selecting the downloaded afl file in order to prepare your game for the new patches and changes within the game. Finish the process by clicking 'File', 'Update'. The game folder is now ready to be patched. 4) Apply the patches
Each download contains a folder with (mostly) a picture of the character/stage, a Readme file (where you can find out what will be changed with this new character/stage) and a dkz file which is the patch. Open the patch with the DKZ Studio and select 'Patch', 'Apply patch in folder', where you select your extracted folder. This can take a few moments to finish. Now you can apply any of these downloaded patches in the same way. Just read the description in order to make sure that you don't override some characters you may want to keep. 5) Burn it and test it!
In the final step I'd recommend to burn the complete game folders with IMGBurn. In order to test it properly it would be helpful to have a savegame with all characters unlocked. These are available in the Internet, you may just have to convert them for your PS2. But to make sure if everything worked out, you should better do that with an emulator like PCSX2. And if every change is fine, try it on your PS2 - either burned on a disk or installed on your HDD. Have fun with these new characters and enjoy immersing into the world of Dragon Ball Super in an old familiar game!
