Inside the thoughts of an average gamer.
Posts tagged video games
It’s Funny Where Inspiration Can Come From
Nov 25th
Even if it’s from a commercial for an earlier game in the series nearly ten years ago.
Golden Sun: Dark Dawn is a game that I have been waiting for since it was announced at last year’s E3. Now out in Japan and hitting North American stores on Monday, I keep looking back to my preorder receipt, anticipating the game that it will get me on the day it arrives.
Earlier this week, I found an article on Destructoid where the developers seemed to draw inspiration from the commercial for the US release of Golden Sun back in 2001. For those that remember the style of GBA commercials around launch time, they usually took real life scenes and created them into something out of the game they’re advertising. The one for Golden Sun was quite bizarre:
Quite sure I’ve never gotten attacked by an opera house chandelier that turns into crystal dragon.
Now, as far as Golden Sun: Dark Dawn is concerned, Camelot seemed to have had a good memory, (especially for a commercial that didn’t even air in their country) and decided to make something of it.
And the rest is all history:
Gaming Podcasts
Oct 20th
Video games have changed the way we looked at entertainment. MP3 players changed the way we carried our music around with us. With the introduction of the MP3 players came podcasts; Regularly recorded shows, usually in just audio, that talk on various subjects.
I tend to load my iPod up with a ton of gaming podcasts that I’ve subscribed to. Usually I’ll take it with me to work and when things are slow or dull (or when opposing hockey players are chirping at each other between their penalty boxes) I’ll turn one on and relax while I watch pucks, press buttons, sometimes write and occasionally tell a few tense hockey players to shut the fuck up. I rarely ever listen to my podcasts at home; I almost always listen to them when I have nothing else to focus on, as I don’t wanna miss anything.
I have about four or five podcasts that I like to listen to regularly; These are my own recommendations. Hit the jump to find out who I’m listening to.
(All of the podcasts I’ve listed are available on iTunes.) More >
My PSP is Occupying Me Way Too Much
Sep 30th
You know, we all know that the PSP’s library is lackluster, but every once in a while a good game that’s worth playing comes out on it. Take it from a two-time PSP owner who originally sold his first PSP because of the game library, then came back to it because it had improved. The system does in fact have its ups and downs, but Sony hasn’t given up backing it, even to go so far to introduce a new ad campaign (that nobody likes) at E3 this year. Sure, the PSPgo fails, but now they know that physical media still prevails over digital distribution on the handheld market and will hopefully keep that in mind once the PSP2 arrives. (Which is all but confirmed since Sony denied its existence… we all know how that goes, right?)
Okay, so, Sony stereotypes aside, September was likely a good month if you’re both a PSP owner and RPG lover such as myself. For four weeks straight, a new PSP RPG released that was able to catch my attention for each of those weeks. (Though one came after a second opinion.) This, to me, is a rare occurence, and really had me stretching my wallet for all of them.
So… what were the games that had me investing so much in the PSP recently?
Immersive Technology: Motion Controls and 3D
Sep 25th
Earlier this year at E3, two very specific advances were being pushed by console manufacturers: motion controls and 3DTV. Both of these technologies are meant to push the gaming industry forward and give video games a more interactive experience, being able to control your actions onscreen with a wand or even your own hands and having visuals jump out at you.
It seems like it was only a few years ago we were talking about games going HD and starting to use wireless controller. Our favorite franchises (or at least those that weren’t a Nintendo franchise) were updated with even more glorious visuals and we no longer had to worry about our controllers ever getting tangled together, or ever wondering which controller is which due to the facts that these wireless controllers have light patterns. Even before that, when it came to our televisions we had been playing in the standard definition era from the Intellivision to the PS2. The move to HDTV was inevitable as the install base grew, but when it comes to today’s advances, do we really need these in our games? Are we ready for them?
Tales Of Fans Speak Out
Aug 2nd
As I write this, Namco is getting absolutely GRILLED by tons of American and European fans of the series, furious with the developer’s decisions not to localize any of the Tales Of games released in Japan since the beginning of 2009.
The outcry started on Friday, when Namco America announced on its Facebook page that they had no plans to localize recent games in the series, including Tales of Vesperia on the PS3, as well as Tales of Graces, along with its PS3 port Tales of Graces f. The comment was immediately met with upset fans and long-time supporters of the series and retro-game developer, so much to the fact that people started petitioning to have both Vesperia PS3 and Graces f released in the US on playstation.blog.share.
Then again, today, Tales Union reported that another comment similar to Friday’s wall post had gone up on Namco’s facebook page, this time not only mentioning that Namco is not looking at localizing Vesperia PS3 or Graces f, but for the rest of the series as well.
The new post, which has since been removed, has been met with great hostility by the Tales of fanbase, with angry fans spamming Namco’s page, with comments varying from people trying to encourage them that they do have a fanbase on this side of the Pacific, to mimicing how various other Tales characters would do the same, to just downright berating the company’s decision to leave them out in the cold. Namco’s has been trying to delete some of the more outrageous stuff but they have not been able to keep up.
It’s really disgusting to be honest; I can’t blame the fans. Yes, sales of the series over here haven’t been great, but Namco Bandai really tried to bring up the community over here after Tales of Symphonia, which is probably my favorite RPG of all time. Seeing games like Tales of Legendia, Tales of the Abyss, and even going to Tales of the World: Radiant Mythology. After Vesperia’s release, the only game they have localized in North America and Europe would be Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World back in November 2008. The other games released since then: Innocence, Hearts, Radiant Mythology 2, Vs., Graces, and new or in-developemtn games Narikiri Dungeon X, Vesperia PS3, Graces f, and a new PS3 game that was just announced today, have not even been considered for localization out of Japan.
It’s really unfortunate that it just had to come down to this. Will Namco see what they are doing and be swayed by this? Probably not. Will it leave a sting? I think so. Boycotting them obviously won’t do anything, but it’s always been on my mind from the time that I realized that we were probably not getting Graces.
I know the community isn’t taking this lightly, and neither will I.
Update: (Aug. 3, noon PDT) This grilling is still going on. No comment from Namco on the situation. People are starting to ask fans of the series to add a #talesfanunite hashtag onto their tweet when talking about the Tales Of series.
Local Multiplayer Accomplishes Things That Can’t Be Done Online
Jul 31st
Captain Obvious title, mirite?
In this day and age, the Internet is bringing everyone together in new ways. From the days of usenet, to AOL chatrooms and IRC, followed by BBSes (now forums) we are now in an age where social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook are commonplace.
For most of the past fifteen years, PC gaming has had its place online in one way or another. At the turn of the century, that started to spread to consoles, starting with the Dreamcast and XBOX. Today, every current-gen console and handheld is online and part of its own distinct service; XBOX Live for the 360, Playstation Network for the PS3 and PSP, and Nintendo WFC for the Wii and DS. Nowadays, many console games ship with multiplayer modes that are strictly online, where in the past we would have split screen. As time wore on, the Internet has reshaped the way we play games with other people.
However, this does not mean that the days of local multiplayer are gone forever.
Ten F2P MMORPG Gripes
Jul 15th
The massively multiplayer online RPG: Some swear by it, and some call it a detriment to society, breeding a world of hermits. When you think MMORPG nowadays, you’re likely thinking about games like World of Warcraft, Everquest, City of Heroes/Villans, and so on. All of these have one thing in common, you must pay some sort of fee, whether it be buying the game itself, paying for a subscription to continue playing it, or a lot of the times both. However, not all are like this:
There are probably as many MMOs out there that are “free to download, free to play” as there are ones that require you to pony up, if not more. Many times, this ends up making the game more accessible to all, however these games have their own set of challenges, all which contribute into how “Free-to-play” MMOs are run and the community that plays them.
That being said, I’ve been playing various MMOs for close to five years now, and I have my share of good and bad experiences. This list covers some of the more apparent bad experiences that you’re likely to come across. Hit the jump to find out what they are:
Microsoft’s E3 Press Conference
Jun 14th
…was a pile of crap.
That’s all. That’s literally all I have to say about it. Microsoft had a great E3 presser last year and it seriously went down to this.
Microsoft’s press conference was pretty much all about Kinect (the official name for Natal) and some of the games it can do, and although you may have been satisfied if you were a more casual gamer, for a more hardcore gamer like myself it was an absolute disappointment.
What I’m sad about is that I almost feel tempted to pick up the redesigned 360 they introduced at the end, which will include a 250GB HD and built-in N-mode WiFi for the same price as the current 360. (The redesigned 360 was also shipped today and will be available by the end of the week.)
Sony Jumps on the “Online Pass” Bandwagon with Modnation Racers PSP
May 27th
It’s barely been around a month since EA first announced their “online initiative” that requires people to buy a pass to play a used game online and already other companies are looking to cash in: THQ has already done the same thing with UFC Undisputed 2010 and now it looks like Sony is looking to take advantage of this as well.
I hopped on the Playstation store to buy Modnation Racers PSP the other day and I clicked the first logo I could find, thinking that it would be the game. Oh boy was I wrong, because what I actually clicked was an add-on titled “Modnation Racers PSP Online Entitlement.” This is what it says:
The Online Entitlement is used to activate the Online and Infrastructure features of the ModNation Racers game for the PSP system. For those purchasing the game second-hand, the entitlement will also need to be purchased and entered into a PSN account prior to activating the Infrastructure
So, another publisher joins the fold.
Is this something that’s been going on behind the scenes now? I know that publishers were looking for a way to discourage used game sales; Have they found it? Should they really be getting all butthurt about used games?
This is still a neutral subject for me; I don’t mind publishers looking for a way to get some money off of used games. Really, it’s still their game, but at the same time I don’t agree they should be making money off a game that they’ve already sold. All in all it’s been mentioned many times on various gaming blogs that this pretty much makes buying used games pointless unless it’s a strictly offline affair. Destructoid’s latest Bit Transmission podcast put this nicely, if you’re buying a used game for 10 dollars less than the price of a new one, and you have to pay 10 bucks for a code to play it online, it doesn’t make it worth buying used unless you’re playing it strictly offline.
It might not have been long since EA announced their online initiative, but this is quickly becoming the norm.
The online entitlement seems to be only in place for the PSP version of the game; From what I’ve heard it’s not the same thing for the PS3 version. Of course, if you buy the game new or off of PSN then you don’t have to worry about buying the entitlement, as it will be tied to your PSN account.
