Filly's Weekly Highlights: June 17 - 23

Well, I decided I'd do this thing where I give a rundown of my personal highlights every week, and offer my humble two cents.

New Releases:  Pokémon Conquest; Quantum Conundrum (PC)

Why I Can't Sell SoulCalibur V Yet

Custom.  Freakin'.  Characters.  I love SCV's Character Creator much more than the game itself, and could spend hours creating fighter after fighter.  I also feel obligated to hold onto the game forever even if I only ever use it for the Character Creator, so that I never lose my "babies."  Damn you, Namco.

Since a picture is worth a thousand words, I've finally borrowed my wonderful boyfriend's capture card to show off my favorite creations.  Check them out after the break!

My 2012 Localization Checklist

Another post, another few months gone by.  Sorry for the delay!

The woes of being a lover of Japanese games in this day and age are often staggering.  With less and less of interest to me coming out of Western companies, these are the games I'm counting on to fill the void.  Sadly, rather than responding accordingly to the emergence of a global economy and Information Age, Japanese developers seem to be losing touch with their Western fans via an unwillingness to even localize some of their most fascinating and unique games.  Recently, we've seen the effects with social networking movements such as Operation Rainfall, the Gallian Liberation Front, and a handful of fan pages devoted to various Tales games.

The situation isn't entirely bleak.  Japanese developers have many interesting things to offer Western fans this year so far*.  These include Xenoblade Chronicles, The Last Story, Tales of Graces f, Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward, Spirit Camera: The Cursed Memoir, Pokémon Conquest, and Ni No Kuni:  Wrath of the White Witch.  With all that on its way, it may be hard to see what J-game lovers still have to complain about.  So without further ado, here are the rest of the games I'd love to see localized in 2012.

Filly's Psycho Summer - Alice 2 Edition

While seemingly every other gamer this side of the internet is enjoying their L.A. Noire, inFamous 2, and Ocarina of Time 3D, I've been taking a walk on the wilder side of things when it comes to gaming.  This Summer is packed with quirky titles, from the creepy to the ethereal to the delightfully weird.  By my own measured diagnosis, they simply aren't getting the attention they deserve, so I've taken it upon myself to share my thoughts on each game as I play through it.

Up first, fittingly, is a game that fully embraces its twisted tendencies—Alice: Madness Returns.