In a round about way, it’s those very posts that brought about this one. You see, on my stat plugin’s list of ‘things people searched for’, above searches for “Roguelike News”, “Sims 3″ and “Persona 4″ was the entry – “George Hamilton“. I know why too. It’s all thanks to my old site and one of the posts I made on it about email spam. I was marvelling at the type of spam I was getting, which was basically a mix of mail pimpin’ fake gold watches and medical remedies for erectile dysfunction (see, this is how I get suggested for the wrong types of searches!). I mused that perhaps the spammers saw me as some sort of gaudy, aged lothario. A ‘George Hamilton‘ type, if you will.

Ever since that post, I used to get the George Hamilton traffic. And still do, apparently. I’ve nothing against the man. He’s a star in my book. His self-deprecating ability to parody the persona he’s developed is genius, if you ask me. And he carries off orange with a straight face. Very few can.

But no, I’m sorry visitor, if you came here looking for your George Hamilton fix (or remedies for erectile dysfunction, for that matter), I’m afraid you’ll find no joy (or George Hamilton), here.

Persona 3 was a great role-playing game for the Playstation 2. It’s the perfect blend of barmy (progression through social networking and dealing with the pressures of high-school life) and dark (John Q. Public transforms into coffins every night at the stroke of midnight and saving the world through placing a ‘gun’ to your temple). Featuring wonderfully stylised graphics and a top notch soundtrack, Persona 3 also wove a compelling storyline with a great cast of misfits.

Anyone who knows me knows I’ve always had a soft spot for Japanese RPGs but Persona 3 was a bit of a double whammy in that it also featured one of my other loves – Roguelike elements. If I was still running my old ‘Roguelike News’ website, I probably would have been raving about Persona 3 back when it came out. Ah, the joy of repeatedly revisiting the same randomly generated level countless times just to spawn that one creature you need… *bliss*

So what does Persona 4 have in store for us? Well, happily, more of the same it sounds like. Bigger, better, a murder/mystery theme in a rural setting where fog spells bad news for someone. Best of all, it’s still on the Playstation 2. Despite Microsoft’s mad-dash to get to the next generation of consoles after they failed set the world alight with the original Xbox, it seems Atlus were quite happy to stick to knocking out classics of the old PS2. Great news for the light-of-wallet among us, with a PS2 sat sulking in the corner.

Persona 4 is due for release in Japan on July 10th. No word on a US or EU release but they’d be mad not to. Fingers crossed and all that.

UPDATE : As some people are hitting my site through this article, apparently looking for Persona 4 reviews, I just wanted to point you towards two newer posts I’ve made that link to a series of reviews. They are…

• Persona 4 reviews-a-go-go!
• Even more Persona 4 reviews