Showing posts with label Video Games. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Video Games. Show all posts

Tuesday, June 23, 2015

Amiibo... The Destroyer of Worlds!

What are amiibo? Why do they exist? Why are people sending themselves bankrupt to buy the rarest ones from scalpers on eBay and other auction websites? These are the questions normal people are asking about the new generation of Beanie Babies and we all have fallen under the amiibo spell.


Amiibo for the uneducated, are plastic statues with a microchip installed into it's base. These microchips communicate with Nintendo Wii U and 3DS via NFC(Near Field Communication). It uses a similar technology to your Pay 'n' Wave/Pay Pass cards you use at the check out. Each amiibo has unique data written to it that reflect the character on it and work with selected games, most famously Super Smash Bros for Wii U/3DS.

Nintendo obviously created amiibo as a reaction to the Skylanders and Disney Infinity craze that has taken over the wallets of parents everywhere over the past few years. These toys unlike Skylanders and Disney Infinity have been released in short supply and in some countries cases... made exclusive to specific stores. This has caused a gold rush to occur where people are buying them up in bulk and selling them at extreme mark ups on internet auction websites. These scumbags have been profiteering from Nintendo's stupidity and making thousands reselling the rarest of amiibo at 500+% mark ups and even selling the common ones at double the retail price.

The main reason amiibo are huge at the moment from my perspective seems to be aging Nintendo diehards obsession with needing official Nintendo collectibles and kid's love of toys and technology. Yeah, that's why the rarest are selling so high on eBay. Scalpers on eBay are making the most of Nintendo diehards need to have all the amiibo(because we just need the whole set damn it!)  and some of us are so desperate to complete the set... we're willing to pay anything for it.

Worst of all is that most people buying amiibo... aren't buying amiibo for it's functionality, but because they are Nintendo officially licensed merchandise. Admittedly I've only opened 50% of my amiibo myself. I... I just can't find the use of most of them worth while at the moment and will open them as the use becomes worth while. See, collectors have this crazy mental condition where they usually buy things and never open them from the package to preserve the artifact to prevent it's degradation. Some will even buy 2 of each thing so the can also have a display/use set that they will open up and a set to gather dust in a storage locker or cupboard.

Amiibo are an interesting idea in theory, but what they are used for is kinda... terrible. See, amiibo don't really work like Skylanders or Disney Infinity toys... they work much differently. In Super Smash Bros they allow you to "train" a computer A.I character, Mario Party 10 uses them to unlock new boards and play as the figure used... and constantly rescan them, Splatoon uses them to unlock challenges, Mario Kart 8 uses them to unlock costumes. You get the picture yet? Amiibo are in essence... physical downloadable content! Now this isn't bad in theory, what's bad is that Nintendo just isn't manufacturing enough to fill demand, let alone enough to fill store shelves for the uninformed to blind buy. I admit that Nintendo is starting to produce more, but for a good number of us... the damage is already done!


So there you go. Amiibo are the new big thing and will probably be so for quite some time. DLC packed toys with lots of ugly practices shadowing them. They look good, they add extra content to Nintendo games and they are financing a community of scumbags retirement. Are amiibo worth the hassle? I... just don't know. I haven't gotten much use out of them but they are cool to look at. Look... if your kid wants one, buy it. Simple.

Dust settled on E3 thoughts & what happened to me all this time?

Hey guys! What happened to me? Well... I've been busy with this thing called LIFE! It happens, you people should know that right... right? Anyway I've been distracted with things in life you may not be interest in, but doing the geeky stuff that makes me me. Yeah I haven't done a game review in like... 6 months or any posts in that long, BUT I'm going to try and fix that. Remember guys, I don't get paid to do this, no one funds me and this is pretty much a hobby. Anyway... on to the E3 stuff.


E3 happened! The people more influential than myself have all said their pieces and I thought I'd get my 2 cents in now that they've all shut up. Before I continue, NO THIS IS NOT A FULL RUNDOWN OF E3! Just my thoughts on the presentations and lists of games I'm excited for. There's a bit to go through, so let's get this ball rolling.

Ok! So the press conferences were all interesting but I'm only going to focus on the big 3 and not all the other stuff... I.. I don't want to write forever. Need I remind you, I DON'T GET PAID TO DO THIS! Now there were some good and bad from each, but let's talk Nintendo first.

Nintendo has received the most flak from fans and journalist alike. I think Nintendo's Digital Event was fine... but what ruined it was that most of the games were already shown or announced prior and it just didn't feel as special or magical as Nintendo usually is with the Nintendo Directs. To make matters worse was the fact that they arguably didn't even bring any A grade games. There were plenty of games shown, but not many that the majority of fans would fawn over. You got to admit, the whole Muppet Iwata, Reggie and Shigeru was kinda cool! The games I'm most excited to play are,
-Starfox Zero
-Legend Of Zelda: Triforce Heroes
-Hyrule Warriors Legends
-Super Mario Maker
-Metroid Prime: Federation Force

Microsoft's presentation was... so boring! I know I know, they just don't know how to appeal to a person like me. I spent the majority of my time watching the Microsoft conference on my phone murmuring to myself "Show me something that's not modern garbage... please!". No, it's not my retro gaming nostalgia stopping me from enjoying what Microsoft is shelling out, it's just that it's always the same crap. Microsoft DID throw out a curve ball though... backward compatibility is being rolled out on Xbox One! Yeah it sucks that it only supports a small amount to start with, but they finally gave an excuse for normal people to consider the upgrade to Xbone. They did show a couple titles I was interested in... but the Xbone is still not too appealing to me... but it's getting there. As for games I'm excited to play,
-Rare Replay
-Recore
-Fallout 4(with mods)
-Xbox 360 games on Xbox One
-Cuphead

Sony unanimously "won" E3 this year. They threw out all the stops and showed us so many games this year that were new! Arguable the biggest moments was The Last Guardian, Shenmue III Kickstarter announcement and the Final Fantasy VII remake. There were lots of games that really impressed me and seeing a couple have a PS Vita tag on them too made me happy that it isn't quite dead yet. The games I'm most excited to play are,
-Horizon Zero Dawn
-World of Final Fantasy
-Shenmue III
-Final Fantasy VII remake
-Uncharted 4

VR seems to have been a big thing at E3. Obviously I wasn't there to try it out. VR is something that doesn't really appeal to me, but it's nice to see it advancing the way it has. Sony is trying to milk everyone out of their money with Morpheus, Microsoft is going for augmented reality with it's impressive Hololens and Occulus still exists and is arguably the better version of Morpheus. To me, VR is going to be like 3D. It'll sell to tech heads and magpies, but ultimately be a niche thing most people won't bother with. I honestly think Hololens has the strongest chance of surviving out of the lot.


So that's my E3 opinions. Overall... it wasn't exactly a stellar E3, but it wasn't terrible either. Let's face it, the video game landscape is changing and the industry doesn't know where to go right now. Some think VR, others think an end to consoles and a few think a new boom is just on the horizon. Regardless, we video game players have plenty of games coming for a variety of audiences and we'll still have fun playing them.

Wednesday, August 27, 2014

Love Mega Man? Then you NEED the comics!

I have to admit, I didn't start collecting these from day one. I actually started collecting these just a few months ago with the launch of the Dawn of X arc... yes, Mega Man X is what drew me in. Surprisingly, this is a great addition to any Mega Man fans collection. I for one, am glad I'm collecting these!

For those who don't know, Archie's Mega Man's comics follow the original series of games and expands the story from it's simple roots. So far they've tackled the first 3 games in the comics and introduces some of the Robot Masters from the more recent entries like Splash Woman and Oil Man. The story in these comics even use the Robot Master's weakness in the battles too, which I personally find pretty cool.

Interestingly, these comic books flesh out the world of Mega Man very well by giving each Robot Master their own unique personality and even make Rock himself deeper than just the jump 'n' shot man we know him as. Characterisation is probably the comics strong point since it really does an excellent job in both respecting the source material, while still adding their own flare to the series. I seriously thought the crossover with Sonic The Hedgehog was a great use of their creative freedom.

The art style in these comics is usually faithful to the original designs but each artist tried to add their own flare to mixed results. The artist rotation seems to happen with each new story arc and each story arc consists of 4 issues. Personally I prefer when the artist is more true to the original designs over adding their own style, not to berate the artists but don't stray too far from the first artists designs.

I really find the writing in this comic series extremely well done. Unlike most comics these days, Mega Man's writers have actually written these for all ages and isn't talking down to kids or treat older readers like children. I actually find these comics are better paced and written then comics from DC Comics... that speaks volumes, trust me! I found the story very engaging, so much so that I read the trade paper backs in 2 days! that's 6 main books and 3 crossover ones, each containing 4 issues!

As of the writing of this, there are 40 issues and most are in TPB form. They aren't too difficult to get your hands on if you're interested and I recommend getting all the issues in the Sonic The Hedgehog/Mega Man: When Worlds Collide crossover event. Best thing about these comics is that you and your kids (if you have them that is) can enjoy it together and it makes the original games even more enjoyable then they already are. Even if you're not a comic book fan, these are a must read.

Saturday, July 5, 2014

Video games you want Vs Video games you want to play

Ok. This is something that keeps me up at night(when I drafted this it was about 1am) and I haven't really put much thought into it until last year when the PS4 and Xbox One were first shown. We all watch E3 and other major video game related things and get all hyped up for the new games being shown off like models at a Victoria Secrets runway extravaganza... but here's the thing, do we WANT these games or do we just want to PLAY these games?


You might be asking yourself, "What's the difference?" and I can understand. Simply put, a game we want is one that we'll replay time and time again throughout our life(like Super Mario Bros. 3 or Final Fantasy VII) and others are experiences that we want to play, but clog our shelves since we remind ourselves of how much we paid for them and how little they are worth now(like The Last of Us or Ashura's Wrath).There are also some subtypes to games we want to play which are games we play to make/play with friends and games we play to compete, but I talk about them later since this is more about single player games to start with.

I don't know about you but every time I look at my video game collection from the last two generations(PS2-PS3, Xbox-Xbox 360, Gamecube- Wii... well not so much the Nintendo stuff), I keep finding games I will never play again but are still on my shelf. I don't regret playing them, but I keep thinking to myself "If I could have rented these, would I have bought them?" and nowadays I realise I wouldn't have at all. For example, I have The Last of Us which is a great experience... but I can't see myself ever replaying it at all. Now you'll probably throw the multiplayer to my face but I'm not big on multiplayer in general and I'm not a fan of competition. Fact is The Last of Us hasn't got a lasting appeal for me and to make matters worse, it's only worth AU$8 trade in so it's practically worthless.

Now I know I probably just upset a few of you by saying I can't see myself replaying The Last of Us but at the same time, I'm sure there are a lot of games I love that you'd have the same opinion about. See I feel that a lot of games are actually designed in a disposable manner(hence even more emphasis on digital distribution) so that you'll play it, shelf it and move to the next one without batting an eye lid(also explains the tiny hard drives in the PS4 and Xbone am I right?). We live in a disposable society anyway where we upgrade our technology yearly, why not games? Some games are just meant to played once and that's it.

But what about the flip side? What about the games you want? What makes a games so great that you'll play it until you are a living walkthrough? Why am I asking so many rhetorical questions? For me, I'll use Resident Evil 2 as my example. I know this game back to front, every item location, every enemy placement, how to beat it without getting hit until the final fight with the Tyrant and yet... I can't remember the age of my friends and family! Why is this? Well it's because the game(at least for me), just appeals to everything I wanted from it. On top of that the game is fun, something a lot of popular games of today forgot how to be...at least for me.

Back to E3 and the other video game press stuff. They always know how to make us want to play their games. We all go preorder them, hoping they will be awesome or that the game is fun. This is marketing, it's designed to do that and we always fall for it! We never know the truth until we get the game ourselves and we all have differing opinions(sometimes) on them. Lets face it, most of the games we buy are because we want to play them to see how it is and not to revisit it time and time again.

You know what game I've replayed the most in my life? Super Mario Bros! You could chalk it up to it being so old but the next game but the next one in line to the throne is Resident Evil 2 and following that is Super Mario Bros 3, Resident Evil 4, Final Fantasy and the list just goes on! But what does this have to do with the topic at hand? These games are games that I want to play, again and again. These games found what it is I crave most and found a way to not only give me what I wanted, but did it in a way that has me coming back for more and seeking out similar games like it.

I honestly believe that this is what drives the independent scene's passion(when they aren't just after a quick buck). These guys are making games they themselves want to play! Krome's Space Captain Steve gave his comic book Blade Kitten a game like Strider because he loved the games so much. Sure it had it's issues like every game made on a shoe string budget does, but his team made a game that they wanted to play, unlike say... Call of Duty which is all for the money!

Call of Duty leads into the next points I have.Some games we play are not for ourselves, shocker right? These are the games we buy to compete and games we buy to make/play with friends. If you actually look at the top selling games each year, chances are these are the ones at the top of the leaderboards. Not hard to see why though. These types of games are the true social games... don't crucify me just yet folks! These are games we play for human interaction. Most people need a lot of it and some(like me) prefer as little as possible, but enough to sustain us. So whats so special about these types?

Well lets start with the games we make/play with friends. These are more commonly MMORPGs and any game that features online capabilities.We buy these more nowadays since arcades killed themselves by being to expensive and the internet killed them because people are lazy by nature. Usually we buy these games to talk with other like minded people to expand our list of friends or to play with your friends since they too are playing it and it may be hard to keep a proper social life with them outside the game. This is why World of Warcraft's creators are partying on a yacht somewhere on your subscription fees. These games usually are just to play with people, no so much you actually want. That's why I consider it a subtype of the "games we want to play" section.

As for games you want to compete... I'm so going to be drawn and quartered for this, I'm sure of it! This is actually due to an evolutionary trait that has never left our primal subconscious... I'm sure at least some of you have watched a nature documentary once in your life... right? What I'm referring to is pack leader status, the alpha, our urge to be the top of the food chain amongst our own species, or more commonly referred to by me... dick measuring! We don't buy these games because we want them, we buy them so we can figuratively hump(literally in First Person Shooters!) our lesser players to prove that we are the dominant one. Call of Duty, Street Fighter, Madden, Fifa, Mario Kart are all examples of these games. Yes some do fall into the games we play to make/play with friends as well, but they are primarily for satiating our latent desire to be the best. Hell, arcade games were that in a nutshell!


Now none of these types of games are bad as such, we all play games for different reasons and in a lot of case our collections reflect ourselves. I've just been thinking about this for a while but now just put pen to paper on the subject and it feels good to share it with the small group of people who actually read this. So what games do you find are games you wanted and games you just wanted to play?

Tuesday, June 17, 2014

What I thought about E3 2014

E3 is probably the biggest event in video games and we all come flocking to various internet outlets to watch press conferences, read up on all the news and watch as much gameplay footage as possible to know what's coming soon to our over priced wannabe computers. Chances are there's a game for you shown at E3 that you want but sometimes you wonder, why only one? That's the nature of E3 I suppose, but I'm here to give my thoughts on what happened at the show and what I personally am excited for... no this isn't a full recap, just my opinions so don't expect me to give you all the details on anything I personally don't care about like the Xbox One in general.


Microsoft this year claimed diversity and yet... it was more of the same. Sure Sunset Overdrive looked like fun, but it's not a system seller and Project Spark's reveal of Conker pissed of so many people that I'm surprised everyone who loves Conker's Bad Fur Day didn't do what JonTron did to his Xbox One in this video. For the most part, Microsoft sure seems to be focused on what seems to have been dubbed "Bro Gamers" and unless your into hyper masculine power fantasies... go somewhere else... and I will! I grade them a D- for their press conference since they did have some games that weren't just for the bro's and because they shut up about Kinect this year.

Sony on the other hand actually brought diversity to the show. Seriously, it seemed like they had a game for everyone... seemed being the operative word. Sony once again flexed it muscles on exclusives and games that weren't just for the bro's but that's not surprising since Sony actually seems to be listening to it's fans on social media. Honestly, it looks like 2015 is the year to finally drop money on a PS4 or September if you want a white one and Destiny. I'm kinda upset the PS Vita got shafted at E3 this year since it is such an awesome console, but outside of Japan it seems almost no one seems to own one. PS TV was kind of a surprise at first but we saw it last year as PS Vita TV and all it is is a region locked PS Vita that uses a Dualshock 3 controller and hooks up to a TV and is also picky on what games it'll play... so you're probably only going to buy it so you can play your PS4 on another TV in your house. I'd grade them a B+ because they forgot about PS Vita.

Nintendo... ah Nintendo, we can always count on you to bring primary colours to E3 can't we? Nintendo may not be as popular as the were when I was a boy or it's Wii fame period, but it seems like they don't care... but their share holders definitely do! Nintendo are the trend setters and the innovators and E3 keeps up their reputation for being the "kiddie console company"... by telling us Bayonetta 2 is out in October and comes with the first game! Ahem... yeah I may gush about Nintendo here, so you may want to drag further down for more of my E3 opinions. Nintendo has so many games that I personally wanted and man... I was shocked at the reveal of Splatoon! Oh so many games I just want to talk about like Super Smash Bros having Pac-Man and using figures called Amiibo and Xenoblade Chronicles X, but I want to try and keep this spot short...try. Nintendo had something for EVERYONE! Seriously now, if  Microsoft's press conference was "diverse" than Nintendo's was universal! I actually remember more about the games Nintendo showed than any other games at E3! Chalk it up to Nintendo fanboyism, but Nintendo didn't disappoint. I'd grade them a A- since the 3DS was overshadowed by the Wii U.


As for the games we definitely saw a lot of new IP's for once. I personally was drawn to Scalebound since the trailer gave it a Devil May Cry kinda style to it and Splatoon REALLY looks like fun. Assassin's Creed Unity has me excited since we're back to interesting setting instead of the last 2 games outings. Unfortunately a lot of DLC and downloadable games were brought to the show but with indie developers I understand... AAA companies on the other hand are abusing it! The PS4 & Wii U next year has so many games coming out on them that you'll want them both next year, if not sooner. I'm also surprised that Capcom wasn't a big presence there this year and Square-Enix decided to keep Final Fantasy XV and Kingdom Hearts 3 at home. I honestly think it's Nintendo who was the most surprising with a shooter for all ages called Splatoon.


As for my picks of E3... the majority of my choices are from Nintendo for the most part but here's my picks of the litter,
- Assassin Creed Unity(PS4, Xbone, PC)
- Sunset Overdrive(Xbone)
- Phoenix Wright Trilogy(3DS eShop only)
- Splatoon(Wii U)
- Scalebound(Xbone)
- Destiny(PS3, Xbox 360, Xbone, PS4, PC)
- Final Fantasy Explorer(3DS)
- Final Fantasy Type-0 HD(PS4, Xbone)
- Bayonetta 2(Wii U)
- Hyrule Warriors(Wii U)
- Pokemon Omega Ruby and Alpha Saphire(3DS)
- Rise of the Tomb Raider (Xbone, PS4)
- Super Smash Bros(Wii U, 3DS)
- Xenoblade Chronicles X(Wii U)
- Uncharted 4: A Theif's End(PS4)
- Zelda Wii U 2015(Wii U)
- Mirror's Edge 2(PS4, Xbone)
- Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain(PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbone)
- Mario Maker(Wii U)
- Mass Effect 4(PS4, Xbone)
- Kingdom Hearts 2.5 HD ReMix(PS3)
- Starfox Wii U(Wii U)
- Alphadia Genesis(Wii U)


Well E3 is done and dusted and as usual we are all excited for the next 12 months. Personally I see myself throwing money at Nintendo once again, but Sony has finally convinced me it's time to get a PS4 and Microsoft... yeah... still not sold on Xbone. I'm sure we all have that one game they're most excited for and for me, it's Hyrule Warriors. Well, let's hope that the other events that happen throughout the next 12 months also have games that will make us drool over our smartphones and keyboards. Regardless, our pockets will stay empty.

Wednesday, April 23, 2014

The Zen of Musou: Why I love Warriors games

A lot of reviewers hate Dynasty Warriors games in any form as well as a fair few gamers. Fact is, enough people love the games to keep the franchise alive in the west. The question is...why do people love these games? I... can't answer for everyone, but I sure can tell you why I love the series.

There have been many games and series in the franchise, some based on anime and some that aren't. Most people know it for it's core series Dynasty Warriors but some games aren't so easily identified. Believe it or not Fist of the North Star: Ken's Rage and One Piece: Pirate Warriors are part of the Warriors franchise... actually you may already know that.

Gameplay of the series is infamous for being repetitive, too simplistic, uninspired, never innovates, it's the same game each time, it's shallow, mindlessly boring, etc. I laugh because the same can be said for every popular video game, especially military shooters. While I can't argue being a mindless fan of many franchises, I can say we all have a habit of jumping on the hate bandwagon without playing the games in question(like all the people who hate JRPGs just for existing).

Before I go into why I personally love the Warriors series, I'll suggest you go watch the Jimquisition episode "Dynasty Warriors is the Citizen Kane of Gaming" first for a start and then finish reading this further. Jim Sterling's opinions on the series are also on par with my own but I feel I may have some different ones as well.

The Warriors series is one I've loved since I played Dynasty Warriors 3 way back when. I actually fell in love with the gameplay and was fascinated by the story from day one. I've found as I've grown older that the series can be both enjoyable and cathartic as well as spark an interest in their source material. Another thing I love is that the series doesn't demand you keep buying each new game, you can just jump in on the newest game without feeling like you missed out.

I've always found the gameplay relaxing. The games have such simple, pick up and play controls and having an hour or more to swat hundreds and thousands of drones can really help de-stress from a tough day or chill out if you need a break from reality. The A.I of the cannon fodder units is... dumb, but the kinda make up for that with shear numbers while the generals(mainly playable characters) are more aggressive and a lot more "intelligent". Now I've rarely found the enemies too challenging or stressful and that's part of the reason why I enjoy the game. It can also be cathartic killing thousands of soldiers and feel like a conqueror when you're feeling stressed or when you feel insignificant.

The stories of the games have peeked my interest(except Warriors Orochi games). The stories of the games seem to come from various source materials and each one has been interesting to research(although the anime ones were easier to indulge in). Personally I've found the non anime based games overall more interesting, but the anime ones have been more enjoyable with their cross media appeal. Admittedly most people won't care about the source material of the non anime games, but to each their own I suppose.

One of the things I enjoy the most is the multiplayer... couch multiplayer. Warriors games are a lot more fun with a friend or family member(which is why the portable ones don't last too long in my playing now pile). I mainly play them with my mother, but I have enjoyed them with my brother and my best mate too. Whether it's working together to clear the missions or competing to see who can KO 9999 enemies before the mission is over. Playing with others makes it a lot more fun doing the things you can do on your own. There's usually a VS mode in the games but I honestly don't care for it.

I really love the soundtrack of the games... for the most part. A lot of the music in the Warriors games are high energy rock and metal tracks that really get the adrenaline pumping. I've found that the core series(both Dynasty and Samurai Warriors) usually have the best music in the series. I do find it kinda sucky that the anime ones never feature music from the shows and they always seem to be screaming for it too! I'd love to see a Dynasty Warriors Gundam with those awesome TM Revolution tracks from Gundam Seed and Gundam Seed Destiny.

I kinda realise this is almost a general review for the series, but I'm just trying to express what I love about the Warriors games. I find them just so relaxing to play and I just lose myself to the gameplay. I can fall into a Zen like state playing these games where my mind empties and there's nothing but me and the rising KO count. Some people who play MMORPGs and JRPGs can relate when level grinding(believe it or not some of us don't find grinding completely boring) and the groove you can get into can be just as relaxing as swatting 5000 soldiers in Dynasty Warriors 8. So why not give a Warriors game a go(One Piece or Gundam may appeal to you more) and see if the Zen of Musou is for you.

Tuesday, July 24, 2012

The woes of the Australian Gamer

Found this picture on gamesradar.com
on the article that inspired this,
seemed appropriate.
You've heard some stories about how bad Australia gets it when it comes to video games. A lot of Americans still bitch about prices of games and Europe whinges about localization. Well I'm here to feed the world a hunk of humble pie!


First of all, let's talk about prices. I'll start by talking about console prices. The USA flipped it's lid when they found out about the PS3 launch price was US$599.99, well here in Australia we had to pay AU$999.95! Yes this is accurate! Now I can already hear you say "WTF?!" at that but let me clarify... the average income in Australia is roughly AU$750 per week give or take. Doesn't sound bad? Well let me go deeper. The average food budget for families is $200-$250 and $450 for bills per week. If you're keeping up that's $650-700 lost before you can even buy any luxury items like video games and keep in mind over 50% of houses are dual income down here so there's more to the equation. Now if we take travel expenses, school fees for kids, fuel for the family car/s, credit debts of various types(mortgage, credit cards, bank loans, etc.)...most families would be lucky to have $150 for non essential/luxury items and this is suppose to satisfy a family of 4 with varying taste and desires? As you can see just there it's not much, but arguments do mount here a lot.

Now as for the price of the games themselves. I'm sure some of you have seen the prices before but I'll go over them again. The US pays US$50-60, The UK pays £70-80 and Australia pays AU$100-120 for the latest AAA title on the PS3 and Xbox 360 at the moment... and even more for limited editions! Then there's the digital market where M$ Points cost AU$8.25 for 500 points and Resident Evil 4 HD costs AU$29.95 on the PlayStation Store. Hell Xbox live and PS+ cost AU$79.95 a year! Pretty much if the US pays US$15 for a digital game, we pay AU$20. Now you know the stakes here with the cost of living but prices are just a part of what's bring Australian gamers down.


Now on to censorship. Our rating system is not just restricting... it's broken and confusing! We have two ratings for teens technically for one! In Australia the ratings for games are G, PG, M15+ rating... and a MA15+ rating... WTF?! What's the difference? Well... even I have trouble understanding it myself, but I'll try my best. M15+ is in some ways like the ESRB T adolescent rating in the US or the PEGI 12 of Europe in terms of what it's suppose to cover, case in point Legend Of Zelda: Skyward Sword got a M15+ here and different overseas and in my opinion it should be our PG rating. Then there's the MA15+ rating... this is an annoying rating since it covers 90% of the adult content except the excessive amount of content, drug use and blatant sex scenes that border on pornography... I think. Pretty much the MA15+ rating is a limbo stick for adult games to be available to 15 year olds! It's ridiculous!

Now as for the R18+ rating coming soon for games(finally!)... I actually don't know much about it, but it may take some of the height away from the MA15+ limbo stick and/or just cover what the current MA15+ doesn't cover... no one knows at this stage. When a movie gets a R18+ rating it's usually for the excessive amount of stuff, drug use and sex scenes. Not many movies or TV shows get a R18+ rating in Australia, but video games in Australia as of 2013 may be a different story. I personally hope the MA15+ limbo stick gets lower enough to force games like Call Of Duty that have realistic depictions of violence or gratuitously violent games like Gears Of War are given a R18+ they should have! As for the banned games issue, only a few titles a year get banned. Most games that are refused classification after a couple of months of being refused will just get edited, resubmitted and get released. The currently banned games will get a chance after two years of being refused classification to be resubmitted once the R18+ is implemented. Banning games was never an issue, a 13 year old playing Gears of War and/or God Of War is!


Now onto my personal hate as an Australian gamer... localization and region locking!!! Let me tell you something... when you have to import a whole genre of games, it's pretty screwed up! I like Japanese RPGs and a lot of Japanese made games in general(I am a golden age gamer after all!) and in Australia we actually get less of them then Europe and we are both in the PAL region! We missed out on so much just being in the PAL region but to get less then our monarch country and Europe? That's wrong!

See even though localization is a problem even in America, here it's a whole other kettle of fish. See we have to wait for the USA to localize games, then Europe chooses what they want that the USA localized and then converts the game to PAL 50Hz and does multi-lingual dubbing and text, the our very few publishers here choose what they want to risk releasing out of what was converted to PAL format. Japanese games are published in Australia mainly by Ubisoft, Namco Bandai and Atari and on the extremely rare occasion the console companies here if it isn't a first party title. This in turn also fueled the PS One and PS2 piracy ring and piracy in general in Australia, which the PS3 has managed to avoid. Hell I got my PS One and PS2's region codes unlocked just so I can buy import games. Yes game companies, people will unlock the region in there console just to buy imports, so don't lock them! Again, the PS3 managed to avoid a lot of piracy in Australia with it being region free for games and the import download section of the PS Store. Obviously Sony aren't complete morons.


Another big issue, especially with modern gaming is the online connection here. See here in Australia, we don't have very fast internet. At the time of writing this I only average 4MB/s download and 1.5MB/s upload on an ADSL+2 connection. My average ping in 260-300 to a US website on a good day. In Australia we have ADSL, 3G, Cable and Satellite internet and only now Slowly starting to get fibre optic installed in some areas with an average of a 3 year wait in central hubs of cities. I'm not kidding! Where I live, I won't see it for about 5 or more years and I'm not even in a rural area! Once the National Broadband Network(NBN for short) rolls out we will have up to 100MB/s internet speeds but it's taking way to long to be available and it isn't going to be cheap either! Hell, we only just started getting a free internet offer of 50GB a month... with a mobile or home phone contract and only through one company... who are crap at their job!


So yeah, next time you want to bitch about your gaming situation and you live outside of Australia, you should give a thought to us down under and remember that we get screwed the most and complain the least! Sure I bitch a lot but my life revolves around gaming because of various reasons. Regardless, I hope you learned something and will spread the word amongst the greater gaming community.

Thursday, July 5, 2012

Is an all digital future really inevitable? What about cartridges?

As you may know(probably don't since only a couple people read my blog... most I personally know) I am against the cloud and hate digital distribution. Thing is what I hate is the practices not the actual things in question. I like the idea of buying digital games and retro releases on XBLA and PSN but I don't like the download limits or the fact that it could be unavailable when I'm ready to purchase and I think the cloud could make reformatting a PC an easier task. Well it seems we're headed there regardless of the few intelligent people like me kicking and screaming and I'm here to say we don't need to go there despite what EA thinks.

You see back in my day during the golden age of gaming, we had this thing called a cartridge which evolved over time. It evolved into the memory card we used for save data when discs had the superior storage and what has it evolved into today? Well you see that thing sticking out of your PC that you plug in to save your resume? That USB drive is a cartridge! Yes, it is? Do you like that thing? I do! See that should be our future long before the cloud and work with digital distribution.

See MovieBob aka The Game Overthinker in one of my favourite episodes Putting The Cart Before The Cloud gives a fair few good reasons for it and I may repeat a few myself but it shows you that Bob's a smart cookie. He goes into the history of the cartridge and a few good points on how it could be tackled.

See I feel like a return to cartridges and even cartridge based consoles that aren't portable are a fantastic idea! The new console would be cheaper to make and the cartridge can store the game data, save data and DLC when available as well as lazy patching because game developers are now too lazy to finish and test there games before release. Well since you can get SD cards and flash drives in up to 32GB of storage and the average games is 8-10GB it's plausible to do so and Nintendo would love to have the control of chips once again.

Why should games return to cartridges? Well for one is loading times! HDD saved games take a while and disc games take a while to find the data and rarely load in the background. Then there's durability, my nephew has demolished EVERY Wii game he owns and they only work thanks to all the dirt and saliva stuck to the disc and it breaks my heart. Then there's the fact of storage space... on the shelf or in draws, I like being able to store a lot more games on a shelf and be able to find them without sifting through 100's of disc boxes double backed and stacked on their sides. Then there's the obvious... anti piracy! Seriously it will take more effort to pirate a proprietary cartridge then to rip a disc and toy with the files.

Now as for the design for the cartridges the game companies aren't strangers since they've all made memory cards so it shouldn't be a problem to make proprietary carts and they can make then as small as they want. The console they use it on, hell they can do it with what we've already. All the current console support USB drives and/or SD card slots and hell why not allow us to download directly to the USB drives and run it from there instead of the HDD in the console? Sure they can up to a point but not in the way that would actually benefit the user.

Could you imagine what a console made just for carts in the modern era would look like? I'd guess like Wii's with different logos or maybe Gamecube's since they need room for CPUs and graphics processors and what not. I just like the idea of them being affordable... and there's the problem right there! The companies don't like you saving money.

Look, I admit I want the carts back due to usability and to not have a heart attack when I buy a game and it's scratched before money changes hands(Since GAME Australia is dead and was the only game retailer that sold new games in shrink wrap even if you didn't preorder it). I think the return to carts before the Cloud comes and swallows up all ownership and the idiot masses embrace it is the best solution.

Thursday, June 14, 2012

Growing up Mario aka My digital best friend, Mario

I'm sure as most people born in the 80's you grew up on the NES and it's games, particularly Mario games. My first game I ever played was Super Mario Bros on the NES and it got me thinking, why not take a retrospective look at my life growing up with Mario as a kid and adult.

As a kid in the 90's going to school was scary! I was picked on as early as my first day in kindergarten, being picked on, beaten up and only one friend who is still my best friend to this day. My home life sucked because of my scumbag father who was a selfish, violent and adulterous man but at Christmas of 1990 my life changed for the better. Yes Christmas 1990 brought a Nintendo Entertainment System bundle with Duck Hunt/Super Mario Bros. into my home thanks to my mother.

I spent the entire Christmas/summer holidays playing that game, from dusk til dawn. Even finished it both with and without warping. Super Mario Bros gave me two things that summer holidays period... a game to talk about with the kids when I got back to school and a happy place to go to when things got bad. Upon returning to school everyone was talking Sega Megadrive and Super Nintendo... once again I was picked on, this time they added owning a NES and being poor. Kids are so damn cruel! I hate kids because of those years! Yes I was poor, but my dad wasn't.

In 1993 my house would eventually be blessed with a SNES and Super Mario All-Stars. After 3 years playing NES games and most of them were garbage (though I didn't know it then), the SNES gave me the Super Mario Bros games my dad never bought me because he said video games were a was of time and money... yet his car, drum kit and mistresses weren't! Super Mario All-Stars gave me more emotional stability and comfort throughout most of the 90's with the occasional rental of both Super Mario World and Yoshi's Island until eventually getting my own copy of Super Mario World. Mario became my digital best friend during the hard times of my life then, including the fallout and divorce of my parents.

In the late 90's we got a Nintendo 64(mainly because with my dad gone we had a little extra money to save.) in the house and one of the first games I got for it was Super Mario 64. The 90's and early 00's were the most miserable years of my life... but at least Mario was there, especially during the suicidal teen years. Yes, Mario kept me from killing myself. What was worse was the robbery that happened the year we moved houses. Almost all our N64 and PS1 games were stolen except what was in the consoles... even my beloved Super Mario 64 was gone! Dark times for sure, even when I got a new copy of Super Mario 64 it didn't feel the same to me. I know that sounds strange but that's how I felt. I eventually loved it more because my mum searched high and low for it and this was before eBay!

When the Gamecube came out in 2002, I was at the age to receive money and I bought my first game at 16 with my own money. Super Mario Sunshine was my first Mario game I ever bought myself with my own money. Still emotionally scared and turned paranoid of both leaving the house unattended and being a teen, the return of a bright, colourful Mario game(with a water soluble Yoshi LOL!) broke my funk and my teen years became less grim. Even during the dark times, Mario was always there to make my life worth living again.

Becoming an adult became miserable too. Doctors gave me a whole list of medical problems that turned my life upside down. Diabetes, Sleep Apnea, Asperges, Obesity, insomnia and lingering depression... and the list goes on. Once again the world seemed blocked off to me. All my problem prevented me from getting a job and life felt like it wasn't worth living again. Once again, my digital best friend Mario came back and this time on the DS with New Super Mario Bros. and life once again didn't feel like a waste of time.

About five years ago I became an uncle, which came with new responsibilities I wasn't ready for and one that scared me most was teaching him important things. Fear took over and I didn't know what to do! In 2008 my friend Mario came back with the perfect tool to help... New Super Mario Bros. Wii! Yes the new Mario game came out and gave me just what I needed. Through this game I could teach him what Mario helped me with.

Now that I've bored you, let me tell you what Mario taught me and what I'm teaching my nephew and soon will teach my other nephew and niece when they're older.
-Even when everyone is against you, you can always fight through them
-Every problem has a solution
-Even if you fail, you can try again and again because you can always continue
-When the world gets gloomy, there is always a colourful world to escape to
-A true friend is always there when you need them, even if he's a mustachioed plumber from Brooklyn!

Yes if it wasn't obvious, Mario was also my inspiration to start my blog and become an amateur video game reviewer. I still have a dream of becoming a professional video game journalist and play video games for a living, sure it wasn't my first choice but it's the best choice. Mario got me through the worst times in my life and I hope he or someone else will help everyone in their lives too.

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Time for online multiplayer to become a DLC option

You're probably thinking "Are you mad?" as well as "I buy the game for it's online multiplayer!" Well here's the thing, I don't like online multiplayer for the most part but I do recognise it's significance to the larger gaming community.

I bring this up this idea for 3 main reasons,
- I'm sick of single player games being diluted by the addition of multiplayer and single player campaigns being a second thought in games like Call of Duty(let's shoot people who aren't from the USA) and Battlefield(let's be like Call of Duty but more realistic)... and yes I hate those games!
- Every game with multiplayer has online achievements and stop you from getting all the achievements/trophies in a game
- Battlefield 3 released it's multiplayer on a separate disc for the Xbox 360!

Ok, when it comes to my idea I've actually thought about this for a while now. Now to let you know I actually do enjoy online multiplayer in Halo Reach but that's the only game I enjoy it in. Why do I hate online multiplayer for the most part? Well see I'm a Generation NES guy, my first gaming console was a NES and whenever I wanted to play a game with someone I'd either play with a sibling or go over a friends place and as a 26 year old adult I still do the same thing but I have to visit siblings now. I've played online multiplayer on a variety of games and I just don't like it, the only reason I still play Halo Reach's online multiplayer is because of Invasion and Firefight modes.

Now as for my idea, I purchase a lot of videogames per year and the hobby is expensive, especially if you live in Austalia where we pay double what the USA pays for the same game. Now considering that there are gamers like me who hate online multiplayer, we pay more then we should since we don't play half the game in the case of say... Call of Duty. I propose to lower the cost of games with online multiplayer and especially multiplayer focused games I believe we have come to a point where it should be a downloadable option instead of clogging up disc space and Battlefield 3 is proof of that.

My idea is to kill the online pass by making the key selling feature of modern games as a stand alone downloadble game essentially. In other words Call of Duty(the next enemy... maybe England or Australia?) would sell the single player on shelves and sell the online multiplayer as both an expansion dlc and a game on it's own for US$10-30 depending on the greed of the developer.

You're now probably thinking "You're an idiot! That's a stupid idea!" and you're wrong. Considering a lot of people will just play the single player for achievements or when the server is down it makes perfect sense in our modern gaming world. It will also make both sides of the fence happier since single player and local multiplayer gamers have what they want at a cheaper price and online multiplayer fans get what they want at an even cheaper price and we all win with the demise of the online pass. The only people who don't win are people who like both but unfortunately no war is won without casualties.

Now there are a lot of advantages to my idea, for both gamers and developers. Gamers will benefit from the fact that games can be cheaper and the achievements can be reduced to what you're playing and developers can make more money since downloadable multiplayer can't get traded in. These are just the immediate effects of this idea, there are also long term effects too but mainly for the developers.

The long term benefits that I can see are like I said mainly for the developers but remember that if they benefit, we may benefit too. The idea of online multiplayer DLC will allow developers to split their teams to work on single player and online multiplayer as separate entities instead of tripping all over each other to make street date. It will also give them a more steady revenue to work with since they will no longer need to bitch about the second hand market as much. We may actually see games coming more frequently too but whether that's good or bad is subjective. I'm sure there's more benefits for developers but that's all that comes to mind.

As for long term benefits for game, we can see our gaming community being better catered for with games more focused towards each gaming group. Reviewers admittedly will get twice the work but at least they can review the games on it's merits better. As mentioned it will mean cheaper games but it will also show developers what hey should focus on when developing a game for a specific audience since second hand sale will show them if the single player is rubbish in their games. There may be more benefits then this but again I can't think of anymore off the top of my head. Maybe if a game journalist decides to read and expand on this you'll get more.

Will developers take up my idea? Probably not right now but maybe in the near future. I believe that online multiplayer as a dlc expansion and stand alone game in one is a great idea and has more good then bad in it. If it does happen and we get screwed further then I will admit it was a bad idea.

Friday, October 28, 2011

The FPS genre may be dying... YAY!

WTF am I saying? Well let's look at all the high selling war FPS on the market right now, The single player campaigns are getting shorter while the multiplayer is heavily focused on 1:1 tea bagging and racism both on the games and gamers parts.


Let me get this straight, I don't completely hate the FPS genre. I love games like Halo, Duke Nukem, Fallout 3, Rage(don't own but love playing my friends PC version) Portal(technically a First Person Puzzle game) Half life, Bioshock, Resistance and Metroid Prime... notice a trend? I just personally hate the games that are most popular in the genre, the gun wank war FPS games.


As for the genre dying, well if you've played them you may have noticed that the campaigns barely last 5 hours in some and rarely break 8 hours. Also the stories in them are like grease proof paper that's been dipped in grease... barely there! On top of that these games are unintentionally racist, you heard me! Plus all the money goes into multiplayer and I know people who don't have Internet connections and/or don't care about online multiplayer and they feel ripped off when they buy these games. Now to go into more details about what I mentioned here.


The single player campaigns in these games can pretty much be summarised in a paragraph since their stories are like what... 2 pages long. I've played Battlefield Bad Company 2, Modern Warfare's 1 and 2, Medal Of Honor and all of their stories never stuck with me. The only thing I remember out of those games are realistic guns and that nuke scene from MW1... that's it!

The single player has become nothing more then a training tool for online multiplayer so noinks( it's from Blade Kitten and means No idea noob Kid.) can slightly stand a chance in an online murderfest. On top of that the single player campaign can be cleared in an afternoon. Seriously I used to own MW1 and I finished it the day I bought it before dinner that night and I refuse to play games on a difficulty higher then normal unless it's worth replaying and it wasn't, took it back and swapped it for Uncharted the next day.


As for racism in these war FPS you notice this more when you live in a multicultural country like Australia or are of the ethnicity being killed in the game. In every bloody war FPS you play as a white soldier(either a Yankee or Pommy/Limey[American or British]) and you are always shooting Germans, Russians, Japanese, Vietnamese, Koreans, Middle Eastern or in the rare extent Negros( is that acceptable to use?) and yes I'm aware MW3 has other white people to use but here's the thing... there ALWAYS white!

Now I am a white man myself(whiter then most whites since I almost never go into sunlight since I'm a red head... also a minority) and it pisses me of that I can never play these games as anyone other then a white guy. Why you ask? Well I feel like a racist playing these games because I can't play as any one of those ethnicity's and I'm never teamed with them either. It also makes me wonder if the U.S Army even has ethnics in the army and that's sad. I'm sure the U.S army has all the mentioned ethnicity's in there army and it pisses me off that they are never represented in these games. I'm sure the racism in war games is mostly unintentional, but I can't help but feel these games also promote racism by only killing non Americans/British people and never playing as those ethnicity's in the main campaign. I get it Russia never waged war on the U.S, Vietnam wasn't a "true" victory, World War 2 sucked and was the only war you won, Koreans are a "threat" to you and 9/11 sucked but get the hell over it!


Now that I've really pissed the major majority of you who may be reading this it's time for my favourite punching bag in this... online multiplayer! Yes I HATE online multiplayer... except for some exceptions like Uncharted 2, Halo and the occasional MMORPG. Why you may ask? Well in short it's because of douche bags who take all the fun away in the game by cheap sniping and tea bagging you at every turn who call you a hacker for actually killing them and throwing racial and homophobic slurs around like confetti at a parade that's why! As well as crappy connections due to a lack of dedicated regional servers for Australia. I've played a ton of games online and I can't stand the players at all! The majority are arseholes! Halo is the only FPS I've played online where I've met people who weren't complete idiots and actually wanted to have fun playing.

Ok now to get to the topic at hand. The online mutiplayer of these games just aren't fun, mainly due to 2 things, realism and the players. Halo has you using outrageous weapons and aliens to skew the realism and focus on head stickies and hammer clubbing fun, while war shooter are just about killing each other in the cheapest and realistic way possible.

Then there's the DLC... I hate DLC, even in Halo! This is an aggravating thing because by the time all the DLC is released, you've bought the game twice and for what? 4 to 8 extra online murder coliseums? What's worse is that you'll get locked out from other players just because you didn't feel like wasting all that money on maps that aren't much different to the ones packaged in the game. Now if the DLC allowed you to play as an ape with a banana bazooka, then I'd be willing to part with 500M$ points. Also DLC is way to expensive! I mean AU$15 for a 2 map DLC? Piss Off!


Pretty much the FPS genre has started sucking it's own dick and has also become stagnant... more stagnant then JRPGs ever have, but more people notice JRPGs stagnating then FPSs. Soon the genre will have no single player and every game will be like MAG(played it, hated it, boring!) only slightly better. Enjoy the shallowness of the genre majority while I play the crap out of quality games like Legend Of Zelda, Mario, Blade Kitten, Assassin's Creed, Bioshock, JRPGs and other games with more depth then a flattened teaspoon!

Thursday, August 25, 2011

People aren't finishing video games? DUH!

I don't know about you but this is such a dumb and obvious thing. I read a couple of articles on some gaming sites that were talking about a study that said most people don't finish games. My answer is DUH! Of course most people don't finish games! Why? because too many games get released at the same time period among other reasons. Let me explain.

You see most video games publishers have certain periods where they release a ton of games within a week of each other, mainly during the pre and post holiday period. Look at this year alone, there's at least 8 must have games released in November alone and what are the odd people are going to finish them all before the next big must owns come out in January?. I am also guilty of not finishing games myself. My JRPG collection is mostly unfinished because new games come along and draw me away from them and they just sit there waiting for me to have the time to play them once again.

Then there's the fact that most modern gamers have a life outside of video games. These people just don't have as much free time to play as a guy like me who does nothing but play video games and my best mate is one of those kinds of people. He works 12 hours a day, 5 days a week and only has the weekends to himself and you know what he does? Sleeps most of it and spends time with friends and family. He has 34 games on PS3 and has only finished 7 of them... since he bought the PS3 on release!

Plus 2 out of every 10 gamers rent games and they usually don't re-rent them after that weekend they rented it for because they don't have the money or one of the previous 2 factors. Also don't forget the people who make the most of game retailers 7 days to return policy where you buy it and can bring it back within 7 days for a full refund or store credit(EB Games loves only giving you credit instead of cash).

When it comes to my game collection personally the only games I haven't finished are some JRPGs, some NES games, Mass Effect 2 and Dead Space 2. I'd say about 92% of my game collection has been finished so it's not too big a ratio for me but I'm sure we all have a pile of shame we're still working on during each video games drought. We'd probably be done now with our piles of shame if developers would stop repackaging games every year with a bigger number(*cough* MW3 *cough* Battlefield 3 *cough* sports games period *cough!*) or at least give their franchise a break for 2 or 3 years(looking at you Ubisoft and Assassin's Creed)!

Sunday, July 31, 2011

Not enough REAL women in video games.

Allo allo allo, what's this all about then? Why is I talking about this then? Ok serious time now. I was thinking about all the games both in my video game collection and what's coming and and came to a realisation, there are too many men in video games (Also all these men are mainly grizzled 30 something year old men) and not enough women and on top of it there aren't many women in games who are actual women. What do I mean? Well since you asked.

First let me link you to a video that helps me with my case to start with. Have you ever heard of a show call Extra Credits on The Escapist before? They did a video on the subject I'm talking about... kinda. Here's the link http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/extra-credits/2868-True-Female-Characters

Well that video does cover the majority but I'd feel really lazy if I didn't explain why I'm bringing this up. Well let me start with the visual depiction of women, mainly clothing. Sure I could bag out the giant breast and impossible to attain figures they have but that just goes without saying. You see the current looks most women have in games are highly sexualised. Now my gripe about this is the fact that most gamers are apparently between 25 and 30, which means men and women. The current designs of women are appealing to 2 main groups, teens and the sexually deprived.

The outfits of women in video games are very strangely designed. Look at a game in a fantasy setting, the female characters are usually running around in something that could best be described as a leather bikini. How about fighting games, especially Dead Or Alive? The "women" in the game are wearing outfits that flash cleavage and upskirt shots. Basically they are designed to "look" appealing but to a person like me who's a 25 year old male they are silly. Why you may ask? Well I've grown up and even though I'm single, I just find real women more visually appealing and REAL. Thing is I don't want these styles of video game women to go, just become less frequent.

Then there's the personality. MovieBob in in his video "I Heart Bayonetta" kinda nailed the basic types of "Ice Queens" and "Girls". You hardly ever see women characterised in a way that makes them feel like an actual women. I honest have trouble thinking of women in games that actually manage to be close to a real women. Most women in games are usually either soft and mousy or well... stereotypical butch lesbians (No offense to actual lesbians is implied). I'd give examples of the types but it's easier to ask you to tell me which women in gaming don't fall in these areas that aren't silent. I'd really like to see more female characters who could actually pass as a real woman in personality.

Now then there's a story to suit a female character. The only games I've seen women in are action and fighting games to show of their physique and jiggle physics. Now this isn't so much a problem as the fact that the stories in them are usually focused on giving them a slim reason for them to be there. I'd like to see games with women that tackle real issues women go through that would actually take the call to action outside of employment and the "we need girls in this game" idea. I like the ideas the Extra Credits crew came up with to be honest.

Pretty much in short I'd like less of the usual women in gaming and more non sexualised, naturally endowed women with a realistic female personality. I'd also like to see those types of women in games that suit those women and women in general. I'd like to invite you to leave comments of examples of the REAL types of women in video games. I know of a couple but I'd like to see how many there are.

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Blade Kitten, The game you didn't play

Ok this is going to be one of THOSE kind of blog posts, you know the ones where a person bangs on about a game nobody bothered to play and the author rags on people for not buying it. Ok I hope it doesn't turn out like that but I thought I'd give a warning to be on the safe side.

Let me tell you about Blade Kitten. It original started off as a game idea from Australia based Krome Studios' Steve Stamatiadis who also created Ty the Tasmanian Tiger and worked on the PSP, Wii and PS2 Star Wars forced unleashed games. Because of those projects getting in the way he decided to make it into a online comic series. The comics can be purchased by the way so if you are interested in Blade Kitten after reading this go to the official site at http://bladekitten.com/.

The comic series has a small amount of fame and is an independent comic series. The story is also based after the game. The comics are also ongoing so it's still telling it's story. The game on the other hand isn't a full game. Why you may ask? Well it's an episodic game that's in 2 parts and Atari has only released 1 of the episodes. Atari hasn't released episode 2 because not many people bought episode 1.

The game itself is a cel shaded 2.5D action platformer inspired by classic Castlevania games. The game focuses on exploration over combat. The controls are simple enough for kids to play and the story is enjoyable but you can tell that there is suppose to be more to it when you finish it. The games short for it's price tag but it's length will depend on what you do. If you rush through the stages it can be don't in a little over an hour but if you focus on finding all the treasure chest and skiffs it can take about 4 or more hours depending on the player. Admittedly the replay value is limited to just grinding for Hex and finding what you missed so you can unlock costumes, buy all the weapons and max out Kit Ballard's health and stamina. Episode 2 has improvements but we may never see it because it's release will be determined by sales.

The game is fun in my opinion but if you've read the reviews of the big boy reviewers they all pretty much said it's meh except Eurogamer who liked it. I have a review here on my blog so you can read it if you want my full opinion and a little more info on the game. What was the biggest complaint of the top of my head was the fact that enemies were too easy to kill. Now this didn't bug me but they are easy to kill. Again I remind you that the game is inspired by classic Castlevania games where the enemies where killed with a strike or 2 from your whip. The story is also complained about but I remind you it's only half a game.

I'm not asking people to buy the game, I'm asking you download the trial and then decide if you want to buy it. Even give the comics a read, they're pretty good. I admit I'm a bit bias towards Blade Kitten and patriotic towards it too since it's Australian made but it's worth a try. Unfortunately you can't download the PS3 version for obvious reasons but it's the same quality on all of them and it's probably dropped in price too. Also don't let that T rating in America fool you, this game is appropriate for kids and they will most likely enjoy the colorful visuals and cartoon like appearance.

If you do enjoy the game tell Atari you like it and want the second episode DLC to be released via email or Twitter. If enough people ask for it we may be able to pressure them to release it. I've been hounding them since November whenever I can and I can't do it alone.

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

What Nintendo can do with their new console.

Ok as you know Nintendo has announced a new console to be released in 2012 and they've told us... nothing... leaving many to speculate. I would love to play the speculate game as well but instead I'm going to talk about what Nintendo can do to make their new console really good and innovative.

Well let's start with the obvious. They need to make it HD and possibly 3D. They also need to put in a 320GB HDD minimum if they have install data or 120GB for just save data. They need to keep Wii reverse compatibility for Wii games and controllers. They need to make it so you can transfer your data from Wii to whatever they name the new console. They need to make it with an ethernet port for wired internet. They need disc storage over 10GB for the games for their potential HD optical discs. They also need to make their online friend system and multiplayer better for those who actually care about playing online. I think that covers the obvious but now let's go to the less obvious.

Nintendo like to make games for all so they should consider allowing games like Angry Bird, Plants Vs Zombies and other small games like that be released on it with exclusive controls that use either the Wiimotes or their new motion controller. This is because these smaller games are very popular today and will encourage people to make the move to consoles for these games.

They should also drop the currency point system and use real world money so people don't have left over points they can't use for an extremely long period of time. I have Wii points I can't use because Nintendo hardly updates the PAL Wii Shop. Seriously we don't even have Contra!

Another thing they should do which some people may not agree with is that it should have Gamecube reverse compatibility. 3 reasons, 1) It will most likely use optical discs like the Gamecube 2) Gamecube games are about 1.2GB per discs and will take up a lot of space on a HDD 3) Some of us still have a large collection of Gamecube games we still play on the Wii. Also they need to have the home menu work while playing a Gamecube game and use whatever new controller or the Classic controller to play them.

This one is the most important in my opinion. They should allow the 3DS to be used as a controller for some of the games. Seriously this is something they should have done when they first connected the Gameboy Advance to the Gamecube. This is an important thing because being able to combine the 2 for some games will make the games more interactive and is the true innovative path the company should follow this time around, handheld and home console connectivity. Can you imaging a HD Zelda game that uses the 3DS as a controller freeing up the screen from clutter with all the stuff on the 3DS like the inventory and mini map, using the 3DS gyroscope for interscreen aiming of the bow, scanning enemies on screen by moving the 3DS over the enemy, puzzles that can be solved using the 3DS, using the 3DS to find secret holes and treasure chests and the list can keep going depending on the imagination. Also Nintendo, you're welcome for the idea for a new Zelda.

Rechargeable controllers or battery pack should also be considered by Nintendo since they are cheaper then batteries and Nintendo will get some serious appreciation for it's customers for doing this.

A new controller design for playing games without motion controls should be made and designed like the classic controller but wireless and move the left thumbstick up to the same level as the buttons.

They need to make the Mii's as your profile image and use it as the means of adding friends to your friends list through the Nintendo online service. This way your Mii plaza has your Mii and the Mii's of all your friends and if they aren't online they can sleep on screen and have a different Mii plaza for each Mii profile on the new Nintendo consoles.

I suppose they can make an achievement system but here's my twist to it. Link the achievement system to peoples Nintendo Club accounts so instead of earning achievements for bragging rights, you're doing them for Nintendo Club stars! This way you can actually gain achievements for exclusive Nintendo Club swag! This is a great idea and they aren't for nothing like the Trophies of PlayStation 3 or the achievements of the Xbox 360. Again Nintendo you're welcome.

Also make the console REGION FREE! Seriously region locking encourages piracy and if all the content is region free for both digital and disc games then no one will want to pirate except the undesirables. This will also make it easier to find pirated software too.

I think that covers everything I can think of. How much of the things Nintendo uses is questionable but I'm sure anyone reading this will agree with everything or most of what I've come up with. Regardless I'm sure Nintendo will make a great console that targets everyone instead of some. We'll see at E3.

Saturday, March 19, 2011

Casual gamers are not destroying gaming, they're helping gaming!

I am so sick off the "Hardcore Gamers" complaining about Facebook games and motion control games and every game in the "Casual Games" genre. Well as a Golden Age Gamer I thought I'd shed some light on the subject while staring at my display case filled with retro consoles and reminisce on some of the things I'm bringing up.

Let me take you on a trip back through time to the time of the PlayStation. Golden Age Gamers like me hated the new gamers it was bring into gaming and all the new genres being brought in, but we were content since we were still getting the games we loved. Fast forward to the dawn of what some of the Golden Age Gamers called the "SIN BOX" aka Xbox where gaming started on it's dark path toward creating most of you today, the "Hardcore Gamers" and the dawn of realism in games. We were outraged by the arrival of the jocks and average people coming into the nerd mecca that was gaming. Gaming was losing it's touch and more games targeting the new "Hardcore" audience were flooding the market and games about anything were disappearing for more realistic "Hardcore" games, and we were pissed at first but as time progressed we learned to live with them for one reason and one reason alone... the games targeted at us became even greater then we thought they could be.

Yes thanks to you "Hardcore Gamers" games targeted at "Golden Age Gamers" became fantastic and kept getting better. Let's look at Final Fantasy for a minute and also SHUT UP I know you hate it for do decent reason. Final Fantasy's visuals have gotten so much better thanks to your money buying games increasing the amount of money coming into the industry. Thanks to YOUR MONEY Final Fantasy XIII looks as magnificent as it does(even though everything else in the game is sub par but that's another post to write). You've obviously seen the first party Nintendo games quality haven't you? That again is YOUR MONEY making the games look as good and fun as they are.

My point is YOUR MONEY helped the games industry and helped make our games great. Now see what us "Golden Age Gamers" have done? Sure we still complain about the "Hardcore's" being the main focus of game companies today but when we get our games we remember what you guys did for us. Now you guys are the ones whinging about the "Casual Gamers" ruining gaming like we did when you first came into gaming. Their money will do to your games what your money did to our games. Also they are spending more money then us on their games thanks to micro transaction so more money for the industry is coming from them now, *psst* don't tell them!

Also I only found out about Golden Age Gamers a short while ago and I'm shocked I never knew about it. So the groups are Golden Age, Hardcore and Casual if you like the segregation.

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Nintendo 3DS Hands On Impressions

If you follow my Twitter I mentioned I tried out the 3DS at GAME and I'm going to tell you what I think and what I learned from the Nintendo reps who were there. Let me tell you the about the stuff I found out before I tell you about the experience I had with the device.

Well I grilled the Nintendo Reps about everything I thought was important and here's what I learned.
-The 3D can effect the frame rate on some games like Super Street Fighter IV and drain the battery within 3-5 hours and if turned off it will last 5-8 hours.
-You can lock it to 2D in the parental control settings for children if you are afraid of eye damage or for yourself if you don't want to screw with the dial.
-The Spot Pass feature requires your 3DS to be in standby mode.
-It comes with a 2GB SD card and can support the 32GB ones as well.
-It will have a proper charger cable so you don't have to dock it to charge.
-You can buy an extra battery and replace it if you're into carrying an extra one for long trips.
-Yes it is region locked to the region you buy it in so the regions are Japan, USA and PAL territories and you will not be able to play any NTSC DS games on it either if you own any.
-They aren't sure if 3D glasses can work on it since it uses a different 3D to the movies and TVs so if you can find 3D glasses that work with it it's new to them.
-They have no idea if there will be any compatibility with the Wii at this stage.

Now on to the actual experience I had with it. Well... I'm not sold on 3D still outside of the theatre. Don't get me wrong it was impressive to see it without the need for glasses... for about a second before pressing a button. The 3D only has a small sweet spot to actually see the 3D but it's so easy to lose it that I wish I had the glasses for it instead(which lead me to ask them about it). The 3DS felt a lot like the DS lite in my hands and the 3 buttons under the touch screen are similar to the iPhone button in the sense that if you don't press it in the centre, you will break it easily. The depth slider really is sensitive for choosing the depth but seems a little pointless in my opinion because it should have just been a switch.

The demos I got to try out were an AR card game, Legend Of Zelda: Ocarina Of Time 3D, Super Street Fighter IV and Nintendogs + Cats. The AR card game really shows off how all the tech works and to my surprise it was a great example of the 3D being worth a look. Zelda on the other hand with the 3D didn't wow me at all except with the FPV for the sling shot and view mode and even then it was just seeing the depth between the object on screen. Super Street Fighter IV was lack luster to me because of the slow frame rate in 3D and it's new view to show the 3D is unimpressive and disorienting when you're used to the normal view. Nintendogs + Cats is pretty much the same game as the DS versions with cats and better graphics, the 3D on it is ok but it isn't as good as we've been told.

Pretty much I came in not expecting much and came out no more impressed then expected. The 3DS aka middle finger to Sony's 3D isn't as great as Nintendo would like us to think and I think that most people will be impressed by the 3D but Sony doesn't have to worry about it's 3D making theirs look like crap. The "sweet spot" 3D will be a big issue to people who fidget a lot like me when playing a game and the short battery life in 3D will force many gamers to hang by their charger cable. I'm going to say that if you're buying it for the 3D gaming, then you're not very smart. I'm sure it will be as popular as the DS when it drops in price but on release it will only really sell to hardcore Nintendo fans, tech enthusiast and maybe some casual gamers. I'm not going to buy it on release because the launch line up isn't that good. If you really want one I suggest wait until Summer/Winter depending on which hemisphere you're in to buy it since that's when a game worth owning it for should be available.

Saturday, February 12, 2011

Types of Gamers

Ok this is inspired but an episode of "The Game Overthinker"(google it, watch the series) and let me just say that MovieBob is definitely an intelligent and entertaining guy on all of his shows(He also does "Escape to the movies" and "The Big Picture" on The Escapist) and people should go check out his stuff.

Let's look at the types of gamers we know and then I'll get to the main point of this blog post. Let's start with the "Casual Gamers"

What is a "Casual Gamer"? Well as far as people seem to be concerned, it's a person who plays small, pointless games that have no depth, storyline, small amount of mapped buttons and is played by women mainly. Ok I admit even I'm not really completely sure what constitutes a "Casual Gamer" 100% but this seems to be the basics that gets reiterated online. These gamers usually play games like Bejewelled, Tetris, Farmvile, Brain Training, The Sims and the list goes on. It seems if you play games that actually help improve mental activity, your a "Casual Gamer". Well I hate to admit this to the "Hardcore Gamers" but I play these games every once in a while... except Farmville.

Now as for the "Hardcore Gamers", what is a "Hardcore Gamer"? In a nut shell you can just say people who own Xbox 360's but that's incorrect as wells as being accurate. "Hardcore Gamers" are people who play video games that are usually violent and contain adult content and play online frequently with other people in competitive matches. These gamers are mainly newer generation or reformed jocks who have only been playing games since the late 90's. The games they usually play are Call Of Duty, Halo, Mass Effect, Gears Of War, Killzone and the list goes on for eternity. I don't really play these types of games very often and pretty much don't like them very much either.

Then there's the "Fanboys" who only own one companies consoles or just one console of each generation or like a specific genre of games. These people only play the games on the console of choice and usually own the majority of the exclusive titles on it or own every console just to be able to play a specific genre of games. "Fanboy" has also become an insulting term for a person who's passionate about their choice or defend their choice.

Now here's the question? what about those gamers who enjoy games like Ratchet and Clank, Super Mario bros, Final Fantasy and all the other games not synonymous with the "Hardcore" or "Casual gamer? Well there isn't one. And what about the gamer who owns every console and plays any type of game? There isn't one.

Does this mean they need titles? Yes and no. Yes to make those who need labels happy and no because the labels are pointless. If they must get names how about for those who like games that don't fit in the current types of gamers "Enjoyment Gamers" who put the enjoyment of the game over things like blood and guts or puzzles and problem solving and for those who own everything and play any type of games "Devoted Gamers"(Which I pretty much am) who love games so much it doesn't matter what console a game is on and which audience it's meant for, it's about playing games and having fun. These are only suggestion for labels but I'd rather not bother with labels. Hell even the label gamer isn't really needed either. Also speaking of the label "Gamer" you should watch the "Gamer" episode of Extra Creditz on The Escapist, trust me all the episode are good but this is an eye opener.

The world is full of people who enjoy video games so why do we need more prejudice as well? Seriously between racism, religious intolerance and social classes do we need the same thing among people who play video games? Sure I like the term "Gamer" but now that there are more people who play games now in comparison to when it was first introduce it's become a pointless term for the most part. I'm still going to use it though.

I don't see the labels in video games ending anytime soon but there are really only 2 types of gamers. Those who play games a lot like me and those who play for short periods of times... in other words casually play games. Look at it this way, if you play less then 4 hours a day your a casual gamer. If you play more then that you are an obsessive gamer like me. These are not labels, just truths about the habit.

I'm sure this will probably bait trolls but hey, trolls are one of the worst things in the world and are great to defeat in video games in fantasy settings.

Sunday, January 9, 2011

What is the JRPG genre? A basic guide for the uninformed.

Ok this is more of a soap box rant driven by Hyperdimension Neptunia not given an Australian release date but it also sparked an inspiration, write an informative guide on the JRPG genre so those who only reference it to Square-Enix and Final Fantasy or don't know about it can finally learn what the genre really is and all the different styles of gameplay in each.

First I'll start with the basic info that most should know and then I'll go in depth a little later. A JRPG is a video game genre made in Japan where you take the role of a predetermine character or characters in a heavily story driven experience. The JRPG genre is also known for it's similarity to the tabletop board game "Dungeons and Dragons" in terms of it's RPG influence through character development(leveling up), basic structure of narrative flow and occasionally combat.

Now to get into the in depth part. Like I said a lot of people think Final Fantasy and Square-Enix when they hear JRPG and stereo type it on that alone. This isn't true though. There have been various things done to the JRPG combat system over they years and the classic Dungeons and Dragons style was used when the genre started due to data limitations on the Famicom/NES cartridges. Sure there are a fair few JRPGs that use the classic turn based combat but that is due to what is easier to develop and appeasing fans but there are a lot of examples of JRPGs that have various tweaks to the system or are different.

I'll start with examples of the turn based combat being tweek and then go into the ones that are different. Some examples of variations/tweaks to the norm are Fire Emblem where the combat is strategic turn based where the teams take turns to fight and Valkyria Chronicles takes that up a notch by having stuff happen while moving your characters and using the environment to you advantage a lot better then other games in this sub genre. Shadow Hearts also tweaks the turn based combat system by using a thing called the judgement ring which has you performing a quick time event essentially to perform attacks and skills. The Judgement ring has multiple segments that you have to hit in order to perform the command and it has to sections in each segment, a orange section which will make the command work and a red section with is small and will improve the effectiveness of the command. You need to hit all the segments to get the command to work. Baten Kaitos tweaks the system with cards for your commands with varying values to shake up combat. Resonance Of Fate which made some serious changes to the system like using a special gauge to perform a running attack that you can attack as many times as you like until the time gauge runs out and giving you 2 different types of attacks depending on the weapon used and a variety of weapon types to use. Eternal Sonata is a hybrid turn based combat game that incorporates action combat during the turn of each character. There are tons more but these are just some great examples of variations of the turn based combat system.

Now on to the different type of combat system, the action combat system. There are a whole bunch of these that have come out in years and most of you can probably name more of these then turn based combat JRPGs. Kingdom Hearts is one a lot of people will know straight away but there are others. Star Ocean and the 'Tales of' series are 2 other examples of action JRPGs that have a cult following. The combat in these games is relatively the same but the thing is that some of the people who worked on Star Ocean worked on Tales of Phantasia. The combat systems of 'Tales of' games are arena based and you uses skills by pressing the skills button and a direction and Star Oceans combat system started the same but changed to using 2 different attack button and the skills with 1 button but a different one depending on distance with Star Ocean: Til The End Of Time and in Star Ocean: The Last Hope the skills with 2 different buttons. Secret of Mana had an action combat system that was similar to the Legend Of Zelda series. Blue Dragon: Awakened Shadows uses a touch screen interface for using spells in a action combat setting and works well on the DS. Key of Heaven aka Kingdom of Paradise had an action combat system that was heavily customisable.

Now the final part the stories. Some of you have it in your head that all JRPGs follow the same cliche story of angsty teens saving the world from evil but that's not true of all JRPGs. None of the 'Tales Of' series is like that and none of the Atelier series is either. I could name a boat load of them that don't have angsty teen saving the world but I've already got 2 walls of text and don't really want another. Believe it or not it's easier to name the ones that do contain the angsty teens saving the world. Also in JRPGs there is this thing called character development where the characters overcome their flaws for the greater good but this isn't always emo angst like in Final Fantasy VII and XIII.

Some people will argue that JRPGs aren't RPGs at all and they are half right. The role playing experience of true role playing games like Dungeons and Dragons or Fallout isn't their but it's mechanics of leveling up, magic and large worlds are there. You can also argue that all video games are RPGs because your always taking on the role of a character but that's a whole other thing altogether.

Well this is as much as I'll give you since I could spend forever and a day talking about it but I have to stop at some point. Don't label the genre on Final Fantasy alone and give some JRPGs a go. I recommend Resonance Of Fate, Tales Of Vesperia, Lost Odyssey, Star Ocean: The Last Hope, Eternal Sonata, Lunar: Silver Star Harmony, Chrono Trigger, Kingdom Hearts, Golden Sun: Dark Dawn and Persona 4 as must play JRPGs that you should be able to buy still but there are tons of classics if your willing to hunt them down. The JRPG genre isn't as bad as you think, I hate FPS and shooters period but there are some that have stood out that I'm glad I tried. If I'm willing to play some games in the genre I hate, then you should at least give half these recommended games a go.

Also JRPGs are more about the story so if you like a strong story then JRPGs are great for that.