That's not generally bad news, Nintendo DS games are not region locked so you only need to order from say the UK Amazon and get it shipped over.

How do you think us British gaming fans keep up. Amazon US and Japan are my friends.

fallenwiccan | August 23, 09:26 CET

It all sounds good until the FPS parts, which I'm not sure how that'll work out. I know there's the crossbow and funny squirt gun weapons in other Buffy games, but Buffy has never really been about shooting stuff. As long as it's fun and Buffy's not shooting a machine gun, it's all good by me.

archon | August 23, 10:21 CET

fallenwiccan: I've looked at Amazon.com for DS games before and most of the time the site says " Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S. and to APO/FPO addresses."

Simon | August 23, 10:34 CET

Simon: They've recently changed the rules but there are other places to get US games in the UK I know my local independant game shop imports them and sells them cheaper than UK games.

fallenwiccan | August 23, 13:33 CET

I'm in Australia and have gotten heaps of DS games off ebay for my nephew. Not only has he generally had them earlier than his friends, but I usually pay less than half of what they cost here!

missb | August 23, 18:37 CET

All text and no voice over? That kinda sucks.

Jossfan_21 | August 23, 20:37 CET

I like that the first comment over there makes no sense.

The One True b!X | August 23, 20:44 CET

With a little imagination and a quality developer, I think you could make a great genre-blending Buffy game. I've kind of had my own thoughts on what a "perfect" Buffy game would be for me. Sadly this doesn't sound that promising. First person shooting? Really? Resident Evil Style? Ugh!

rabid | August 23, 21:39 CET

"All text and no voice over? That kinda sucks. "

Voice acting sucks so often in video games (yes, still), or is exceedingly mediocre, that sometimes text-only is a blessing. Also, Nintendo was the slowest at switching over to all-voiced or partial-voiced games, so it's no surprise a DS game is text-only. And regardless of system, some text-heavy games (RPGs and anything with a lengthy amount of dialogue) are still mostly text-only. Which makes sense, voice actors tackling an entire script would probably get pricey.

Dunno if they'd be able to assemble enough Buffyverse actors for a Buffy game these days to make vocals worthwhile. I don't know enough about the DS's cartridges, how much storage capacity they have, if extensive vocals might take up too much room.

[ edited by Kris on 2008-08-23 22:17 ]

Kris | August 23, 22:12 CET

Really? I would say that the characters and writing is what lifts Buffy from the fold and that would be pretty hard to get in a game, unless you do a story driven, closed-ended game which is written by Joss (and I'd imagine the transition from writing comic/television/movie scripts to video game scripts would be huge). And even then you'd have a huge difference between the parent source and the new format.

In fact, I'd say that's the problem with most tie-in games. The things they're based on are passive entertainment, not meant to be walk-in, active environments. One of the few games that actually accomplishes to feel like the parent source - imho - is the Star Wars 'Knights of the Old Republic' game. But there you have something removed from the original story and characters, almost a new world, if you will, which helps to accept the new characters as living in that new world. And that is something that probably won't come up very soon in a Buffy tie-in game, as the Buffyverse - much more than the Star Wars universe - is very much about the main characters and their journey and much less about the world itself.

ETA:

Yeah, it's almost like someone inserted random Joss related words into a mixer, and this is what rolled out.

[ edited by GVH on 2008-08-24 01:27 ]

GVH | August 24, 01:17 CET

I agree with you GVH that a major problem with most licensed games. I don't honestly believe that a Buffy game could capture everything that I love about the series.

When I think of what I personally would want in a Buffy game, I don't neccesairly see an entirely closed story driven experience. I would really love to see a game that really is all about making you into the Slayer. Give us an open-world Sunnydale, with the school, graveyards and main street intact. Have a focused mission oriented game structure that starts you off dealing with demons and vampires around Sunnydale, and then eventually ties it's narrative threads into a cohesive "season arc" style gameplay experience. Have the characters all show up in cutscenes and "help" you in gameplay, through AI partners with scripted dialogue. Give it a fluid, environmentally based mellee fighting system.

I can even kind of see RPG elements if it's handled correctly. Wouldn't it be kind of cool if after killing vamps and demons you can use the experience you receive to learn how new combat abilities, or simply faster or stronger attacks, from Giles in the library. Or how about throwing a little bit of "Bully" in there, and have to balance the fact that you have to end up in a class between your adventures.

I know it's derivative of way too many things to mention, and that frankly no one would make a game like that based on a licensed property that doesn't promise big money, but if I ever saw that I would be giddy.

rabid | August 24, 03:02 CET

Doesn't anybody else think that a massive Buffy/Angel crossover RPG would be a great idea? You could start out switching back and forth between Sunnydale and LA, selecting a party of characters from each show, and as the separate plots progressed the two groups would come together, allowing you to pick characters from both shows and create a mix-and-match party. It would be awesome!

Baalek | August 24, 03:37 CET

rabid, while I'm sure that would be a great game in itself and while the license would then be used better than in most games, I still don't think it would add that much or come close to what Buffy-the-show-and-now-comic means to us as a narrative.



Nah. I'd much rather have a Buffy/Angel crossover movie or read a Buffy/Angel crossover comic and then play a completely seperate well-scripted, high quality RPG.

GVH | August 24, 12:39 CET

Is this coming to the PS3?

willbueche | August 24, 18:54 CET

Two words: Rocket... Launcher. I don't think you should be able to use it all the way through the game, but I wished I had had it with the last fight against the Master in the first Buffy game. He kept knocking me off of the stage if I recall correctly. Also I think an open ended "Grand Theft Auto" style open world game would be a lot of fun in the Buffyverse. Maybe set during season seven's finale, but in Cleveland and you play as a newly awakened slayer and you things get all hellmouthy. I don't know just a thought.

montresor | August 24, 19:19 CET

The only Buffy game I want to play?

Buffy: A World without Shrimp

I think the title says it all- alternate hell-dimension, different outcomes, different lives, Tara & Anya commenting on the lack of shrimp in the world...

In fact, I think those 2 should be your choices of character- Anya or Tara- one's an/a ex/vengenance demon (your choice) who's pretty mean with a baseball bat... the other is a natural Wicca who can cook up a pretty mean spell.

Of course, our other peeps would be there, and they'd be interacting, big bads to fight and all (possibly a big bad shrimp?), but I've always wanted to see this world and their take on it.

No need for voices (but 2 is easier than 20), and how much fun (silly, Viking silly) would it be to hang out in this world?

And, since it's an alternate dimension, we're able to play with the characters and visit the ones who've died (totally dead) without complicating the full story that we love.

korkster | August 26, 00:26 CET