I own NHL 09 on ps3 and 360. I own NHL 10 on the ps3 and 360. I do not own NHL 11, and probably won't for a while.
I do own Gran Turismo 2-5.
I think I've owned one basketball game in my life, and the last football game I owned was NFL Quarterback Club 98.
What's all this got to do with anything? Well, I was playing NHL 10 and comparing it to 09. For those in the know, 09 is way better than 10. And from what I've read way better than 11 as well.
The problem with the games is realism. I can have the same teams, with the same settings, on the same system....k? On NHL 10 the comp scores on me 4 or 5 times in a row, on 09? They don't even have a chance. So what's the difference? Realism. They make it harder to do things with 10, and even harder with 11 for the sake of realism. Looser puck controls, harder defense, more tricky checking.
Does this make a game better? Eh. When you're playing a hockey video game, or any sports game for that matter, you should be well aware that you actually aren't playing the sport. Take the best NBA2k gamer on the planet and put him against any basketball player, chances are you'll see video games are completely different from the actual sport. So why make a game more realistic if you know you're going to lose customers? (The NHL games have consistently gotten lower scores since 09).
Especially in such a niche market as a hockey video game. It's not that big of a seller, so why ruin what your customers want? Hardcore hockey fans want to play hockey games, not spend half their time setting up plays and team management.
Sorry, there's a reason NFL Head Coach and NFL Tour existed. The demand for a stronger sense of customization and management. There's also a reason those games hardly exist anymore, gamers don't want that. A realistic sports game is along the same lines as an RTS on a console. No one wants to sit down and team manage for 3 hours, and get 10 minutes of stick time, or floor time, or turf time.
At least make an arcade mode and a simulation mode.
You mean.... like the Gran Turismo series? Bingo.
They do it right. They know there are two types of people out there who play GT games. The hardcore car enthusiast who will spend more time in the customization shop, turning their car and working towards better parts. Then there are the people who just want to race a realistic racer and collect cars and money.
(I suppose there are 3 types of people, the third being people who want to just race, those kids have Burnout and Flatout to depend on).
If you just want to race a car, and you don't care about customization, you'll play GT's arcade mode. It gives you a select amount of cars and tracks, but it's still a solid racer. If you want more swag, you go into swagger mode- Simulation/ GT Mode.
There's a fairly obvious difference between the arcade mode and the simulation mode. The drivers, in arcade mode it feels like a computer, in simulation mode it feels like a person driving next to you.
Logitech makes a $300 steering wheel for Gran Turismo. I've seen pictures and video of multiple peoples "in house car" setups for GT5. 3 screens, a steering wheel, pedals and a shift knob, and a car seat. More than a few of these exist.
That's because the people who play GT are simulation gamers. They want what feels real. GT delivers a realistic feeling and has the globes to give you want you want, no matter your realism demands. Force feedback? Yep. Rumble and wheel pull? Yep. Pedals with varying resistance? Yessir. The game has features for all of that. It makes me feel kinda stupid for playing with a controller. Like I'm missing the bigger picture. Like Steel Battalion being played with only a keyboard.
Does NHL have that level of sophistication and swag? No. So why fatigue my guy realistically as he's sitting off the side of the bench if he's been checked too many times? Why add aggression levels to the players (THAT HASN'T WORKED SINCE NHL 99.) Sorry. It was the last great hockey game I played, you know, a decade ago. They had a feature where if your guy got into more fights, chances are he'd check more. Adaptive AI, it was sketchy and glitchy, but they tried it. The trick was, it was optional. You could turn it off.
I just want to play a sports game. Not manage a league. If that means bringing back NHL Hitz, I'd be all for it. The way I see it you're creating realism, but destroying gaming enjoyment. And with your sales numbers EA Sports, is that something you want to risk?
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
Thursday, December 16, 2010
Wha? Too Soon?
So, Elder Scrolls 5 and Mass Effect 3 were announced.
Here's my problem. Assassin's Creed Brotherhood was good (see below), and they took what we loved from AC2 and improved it.
So, I liked Mass Effect 2. Liked. I never said loved. It was a good story, good gameplay. The DLC's made it seem very "beaten-horse-esque", but it was a good experience. Had it only been a year since I last experienced Mass Effects ways, would I have said I liked it as much? Probably not.
That's to say that sometimes too much of a good thing is too much, and too much of an ok thing is horrible.
Now, Elder Scrolls 5? Of course it will be wonderful. It's been long enough that it deems another go around. Especially when the heavies are sayin they won't come out with a next-gen system for another 5 or 6 years.
It's time.
Below are a list of games that don't need a sequel just yet.
Army of Two
Bayonetta
Red Dead
Just Cause
Resident Evil
Lost Planet
Ok, so what's this? It's a list of games that I'm pretty sure at least one will be turned into a new game in the coming years. They're all games that existed in one form or another before the current title, but the most recent current title isn't making huge enough waves to warrant a sequel.
So what does this all mean?
Well, Mass Effect 3 will go over like Unleashed 2 or Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood. It'll be good, but it won't be earth shattering.
Should a gaming company make a new game every year? No. Should they wait a certain amount of time between titles before they release another one? Not necessarily.
You either rush and end up with Unleashed 2 and Fable 3, or you delay and you get Gothic 4 and Duke Nukem: Forever.
No, now that I think of it.
Fable 3
Gothic 4
Duke Nukem Forever
Medal of Honor
Dead Rising 2
Crackdown 2
Whats this? These are all games that may or may not have had enough time between titles, but still flopped. Yeah, flopped. DN:F will flop.
Should games be an epic release? Anticipated for years and planned for for months and months? No. That's annoying. Should they be released annually? Sure, if they're good.
But I have a stack of Madden 09 next to a stack of Madden 10 that would disagree. And if you don't like the sports analogy, I have the same size stack of Modern Warfare 1 and 2.
Go back, and play Mass Effect 2 again, enjoy it? Probably not. It's a one-time event, after you play each of the classes. Think in under a year you'll be ready to play through it again? Probably not.
But they don't care. It'll sell like crazy, I'll buy a copy.
Games like Batman, Bioshock and Dead Space, from companies who are openly admitting the things they didn't like about the original games? Those are sequels I'm excited for.
Improve the game, don't just expect I loved the first one so much that I'll buy up the next. Give me a reason to want to suffer through what I know the next game will contain. Mass Effects combat is something I see quite often, from the same company. Elder Scrolls is a time-tested combat system that's enjoyable and fresh each time you play.
For some games, it's hard to not think of them as the same song and dance, just a year later.
This ain't twilight, this is resource mining, and I'm already bored with it.
Here's my problem. Assassin's Creed Brotherhood was good (see below), and they took what we loved from AC2 and improved it.
So, I liked Mass Effect 2. Liked. I never said loved. It was a good story, good gameplay. The DLC's made it seem very "beaten-horse-esque", but it was a good experience. Had it only been a year since I last experienced Mass Effects ways, would I have said I liked it as much? Probably not.
That's to say that sometimes too much of a good thing is too much, and too much of an ok thing is horrible.
Now, Elder Scrolls 5? Of course it will be wonderful. It's been long enough that it deems another go around. Especially when the heavies are sayin they won't come out with a next-gen system for another 5 or 6 years.
It's time.
Below are a list of games that don't need a sequel just yet.
Army of Two
Bayonetta
Red Dead
Just Cause
Resident Evil
Lost Planet
Ok, so what's this? It's a list of games that I'm pretty sure at least one will be turned into a new game in the coming years. They're all games that existed in one form or another before the current title, but the most recent current title isn't making huge enough waves to warrant a sequel.
So what does this all mean?
Well, Mass Effect 3 will go over like Unleashed 2 or Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood. It'll be good, but it won't be earth shattering.
Should a gaming company make a new game every year? No. Should they wait a certain amount of time between titles before they release another one? Not necessarily.
You either rush and end up with Unleashed 2 and Fable 3, or you delay and you get Gothic 4 and Duke Nukem: Forever.
No, now that I think of it.
Fable 3
Gothic 4
Duke Nukem Forever
Medal of Honor
Dead Rising 2
Crackdown 2
Whats this? These are all games that may or may not have had enough time between titles, but still flopped. Yeah, flopped. DN:F will flop.
Should games be an epic release? Anticipated for years and planned for for months and months? No. That's annoying. Should they be released annually? Sure, if they're good.
But I have a stack of Madden 09 next to a stack of Madden 10 that would disagree. And if you don't like the sports analogy, I have the same size stack of Modern Warfare 1 and 2.
Go back, and play Mass Effect 2 again, enjoy it? Probably not. It's a one-time event, after you play each of the classes. Think in under a year you'll be ready to play through it again? Probably not.
But they don't care. It'll sell like crazy, I'll buy a copy.
Games like Batman, Bioshock and Dead Space, from companies who are openly admitting the things they didn't like about the original games? Those are sequels I'm excited for.
Improve the game, don't just expect I loved the first one so much that I'll buy up the next. Give me a reason to want to suffer through what I know the next game will contain. Mass Effects combat is something I see quite often, from the same company. Elder Scrolls is a time-tested combat system that's enjoyable and fresh each time you play.
For some games, it's hard to not think of them as the same song and dance, just a year later.
This ain't twilight, this is resource mining, and I'm already bored with it.
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
Xbox 360's Assassin's Creed Brotherhood
I... feel like I just played this game.
Ugh. Here we go again. Yeah yeah, recap the last game. Ahuh, I'm desmond.... yeah yeah, Templars.
Here's the long and short of Assassins' Creed as a game
But now take that..... and give it a year to grow and mature, and become GORGEOUS. They didn't mess with the core elements of what the Assassin's Creed games are known for, they simply added to it.
What have they added?
Larger maps
More backstory
More weapons
Different types of attacks/kills
Different types of enemies (never seen before)
Collectibles
3 Side-quest storylines
Tons of money to be made
More buildings/ cities to renovate
oh, and Multiplay.
Supe up the graphics, add multiplay, and about 5000 different customizable elements/ places, and you have Brotherhood.
Oh, probably the biggest part for all you non-online people. You hire other assassins and can send them out to do your dirtywork. Or have an organized strike on a building.
Here's the coolest part of the whole game. An entire building covered by your own assassins. You're standing on a corner of the building. Each assassin is assigned a guard on the roof to target. You drop your hand and the strike commences. It's a nice and interesting element that works. It doesn't require RTS-esque planning, just a few commands and you're on your way. I love seeing games try new things to modify what we already enjoy, and Brotherhood does it up nicely.
Rent or own? I'd honestly say own. It's the most complete Assassin's Creed so far, tons and tons of reasons to replay, and a good 50+ hours to do everything.
Go get your assassinate on.
Ugh. Here we go again. Yeah yeah, recap the last game. Ahuh, I'm desmond.... yeah yeah, Templars.
Here's the long and short of Assassins' Creed as a game
But now take that..... and give it a year to grow and mature, and become GORGEOUS. They didn't mess with the core elements of what the Assassin's Creed games are known for, they simply added to it.
What have they added?
Larger maps
More backstory
More weapons
Different types of attacks/kills
Different types of enemies (never seen before)
Collectibles
3 Side-quest storylines
Tons of money to be made
More buildings/ cities to renovate
oh, and Multiplay.
Supe up the graphics, add multiplay, and about 5000 different customizable elements/ places, and you have Brotherhood.
Oh, probably the biggest part for all you non-online people. You hire other assassins and can send them out to do your dirtywork. Or have an organized strike on a building.
Here's the coolest part of the whole game. An entire building covered by your own assassins. You're standing on a corner of the building. Each assassin is assigned a guard on the roof to target. You drop your hand and the strike commences. It's a nice and interesting element that works. It doesn't require RTS-esque planning, just a few commands and you're on your way. I love seeing games try new things to modify what we already enjoy, and Brotherhood does it up nicely.
Rent or own? I'd honestly say own. It's the most complete Assassin's Creed so far, tons and tons of reasons to replay, and a good 50+ hours to do everything.
Go get your assassinate on.
PS3- Folklore
So a pile of games has been stacking up, so I figure I better review them and send them on their way.
First up, Folklore. A rare sort of game that was released on the PS3 way back. You play as either a girl or boy, they're Irish but we won't hold it against them. The girl is searching for her mother after receiving a letter instructing her to travel to a mysterious island town of the dead.
The man, an editor for an occult magazine, receives a mysterious phone call also instructing him to travel to the same town. The two meet and the adventure begins, with A MURDER. They both come across a dead woman.
So here's the long and short, the town at night becomes a doorway to the netherworld, and you can travel back and forth between our world and the world of the dead. You can follow the story of the girl, or the boy, or play a bit of each one and watch the story interweave.
The character designs, musical elements and environment are top notch. Think fairy tale creatures, mixed with the dead, with a bit of Disgaea for good measure. Each character has a tour guide of such, helping you being the game. The girl is attempting to find her mother, and the reporter boy is trying to solve the murder and get a good story.
Come to think of it, it all feels very Disgaea inspired, but like combine that with "Where the wild things are" and Pan's Labyrinth. It's a neat storyline/atmosphere regardless.
So, cool environment, strange storyline, amazing music, interesting character development..... this has got to be a RPG, yes?
Oddly enough, no.
It's a... fighting/ collecting game?... like a.... Zelda crossed with
You collect souls from your fallen enemies and use them as weapons. So like Persona with Zelda.
Basically, you hit a button to use an attack, depending on how much power you have, or you use a different ability to kill your enemy to gain more souls to get the attack command back. Makes sense? Nah, I knew it wouldn't.
Screw it, it's an adventure game with attacks.
Honestly, I was somewhat hesitant to actually play the game until I got into the story. Then I figured I'd play through it even though it was an RPG simply because it was an amazingly crafted environment. Then when I found out it wasn't an RPG I knew I had stumbled onto something.
It's a good game, I'm currently finishing up the girls storyline. Should you get it? Sure
if you can find it. I opened up a shipment yesterday at work, and sitting on top was a copy. We haven't had a copy of this game come past our counters in months. The last one we did have was picked up the same day we put it out by a guy who talked about how amazing it was.
So if you can find it, give it a whirl. I picked mine up for like $17, and I'll be getting my moneys worth. Don't be swayed by the age of the game, or the reviews, or the cover-art. This is an enjoyable storyline and tons of fun to play and experience.
First up, Folklore. A rare sort of game that was released on the PS3 way back. You play as either a girl or boy, they're Irish but we won't hold it against them. The girl is searching for her mother after receiving a letter instructing her to travel to a mysterious island town of the dead.
The man, an editor for an occult magazine, receives a mysterious phone call also instructing him to travel to the same town. The two meet and the adventure begins, with A MURDER. They both come across a dead woman.
So here's the long and short, the town at night becomes a doorway to the netherworld, and you can travel back and forth between our world and the world of the dead. You can follow the story of the girl, or the boy, or play a bit of each one and watch the story interweave.
The character designs, musical elements and environment are top notch. Think fairy tale creatures, mixed with the dead, with a bit of Disgaea for good measure. Each character has a tour guide of such, helping you being the game. The girl is attempting to find her mother, and the reporter boy is trying to solve the murder and get a good story.
Come to think of it, it all feels very Disgaea inspired, but like combine that with "Where the wild things are" and Pan's Labyrinth. It's a neat storyline/atmosphere regardless.
So, cool environment, strange storyline, amazing music, interesting character development..... this has got to be a RPG, yes?
Oddly enough, no.
It's a... fighting/ collecting game?... like a.... Zelda crossed with
You collect souls from your fallen enemies and use them as weapons. So like Persona with Zelda.
Basically, you hit a button to use an attack, depending on how much power you have, or you use a different ability to kill your enemy to gain more souls to get the attack command back. Makes sense? Nah, I knew it wouldn't.
Screw it, it's an adventure game with attacks.
Honestly, I was somewhat hesitant to actually play the game until I got into the story. Then I figured I'd play through it even though it was an RPG simply because it was an amazingly crafted environment. Then when I found out it wasn't an RPG I knew I had stumbled onto something.
It's a good game, I'm currently finishing up the girls storyline. Should you get it? Sure
if you can find it. I opened up a shipment yesterday at work, and sitting on top was a copy. We haven't had a copy of this game come past our counters in months. The last one we did have was picked up the same day we put it out by a guy who talked about how amazing it was.
So if you can find it, give it a whirl. I picked mine up for like $17, and I'll be getting my moneys worth. Don't be swayed by the age of the game, or the reviews, or the cover-art. This is an enjoyable storyline and tons of fun to play and experience.
Saturday, December 11, 2010
Lots of bits I talk about... mostly things to avoid.
I have yet to post anything negatively about a game, and HERE I GO.
*all of the opinions hereafter are based on the demo/trial versions of the games mentioned. I tried the demos, and I didn't like what I saw.
Super Meat Boy - okay i get that it's supposed to be cute and everything, but I don't get it. So you are this hunk of meat with a face, and you're trying to save your girlfriend (who is shaped like a hunk of meat also but is actually made of... Band-aids?) because she got kidnapped by some kind of brain thing I think? Umm... why? As if any of this is actually funny or something? No real interesting dynamic in the gameplay, and the story is boring. 2D puzzle platformer? There are others of your kind that do it better. NEXT!
Bloody Good Time - um isn't this basically what that one game The Ship was supposed to be sort of? Run around some weird location and kill people in weird ways! IT'S WEIRD, GET IT? yeah. So, there's some sort of film director, who wants to make horror movies or something by getting "actors" (i.e. you) to kill eachother for real on film. Like slaughterfest style. I didn't like the ship back then very much, and I don't like this bastardized new version either. BOOOOO.
Faery: Legends of Avalon - What year is it? I feel like the first Gothic game had better graphics than this, or even Goldeneye (and their hands were triangles). So... you're some fairy (not going to spell it like they did because it doesn't deserve it) and you wake up from like a thousand years sleeping in a crystal or something, and then you fly around trying to learn about magic or something... I don't know! It was boring and not interesting or fun so don't waste your time, even if you love FAIRYS.
Unbound Saga - So you're a tough guy type character in a comic book. Think Wolverine except no blades, no regenerative properties, no adamantium skeleton, no crazy hair, basically that. Like a guy who Wolverine would beat up. And I guess... you go on some rampage to save someone? Through the comic book? To be honest I didn't pay much attention as the first ten minutes of the demo are all a cutscene. And then when you finally get to play, the gameplay is awful. It's set up like an old arcade fighting game where it's sort of in 2D but you can walk across the street as well as down it, only it's hard to actually hit people and fight. The most redeeming thing about that game is the girl that fights alongside you because she has a big rack. And if you want to see a big rack, there's plenty of other places to do that. CAPITALIZED WORD HERE.
The Deep Cave - this indie game falls extremely short in most aspects of what makes a game interesting. With it's 8-bit style graphics to help lure you in to a sense of nostalgia, you are rudely awoken by a game whose physics seem to run at hyperspeed for no real reason. You control this character who you make fall into a cave down 3 or 4 panels until he finally says, "oh no, i'm in a cave help me get out?" Um, sure I thought that was the point? And so now you have to navigate this cave, you 8-bit wonder who seems to jump up and fall faster than any reasonable semblance of gravity would allow. OH no there's bad guys down there! good luck avoiding them because they seem to move freakishly fast as well. I get the feeling there was something very wrong with this game. It played like the Xbox was too fast of a processor for itself. However, shame on the Devs if they made this deliberately fast. Basically the speed of a person jumping up and down was standardized over time. If everything moves faster than the first super mario brothers, you fucked up.
That's all for now, I have to hold a few close for next time!
p.s. Crazy Taxi just came out on the Xbox. Not as fun as I remember. Disappointing : (
Super Meat Boy - okay i get that it's supposed to be cute and everything, but I don't get it. So you are this hunk of meat with a face, and you're trying to save your girlfriend (who is shaped like a hunk of meat also but is actually made of... Band-aids?) because she got kidnapped by some kind of brain thing I think? Umm... why? As if any of this is actually funny or something? No real interesting dynamic in the gameplay, and the story is boring. 2D puzzle platformer? There are others of your kind that do it better. NEXT!
Bloody Good Time - um isn't this basically what that one game The Ship was supposed to be sort of? Run around some weird location and kill people in weird ways! IT'S WEIRD, GET IT? yeah. So, there's some sort of film director, who wants to make horror movies or something by getting "actors" (i.e. you) to kill eachother for real on film. Like slaughterfest style. I didn't like the ship back then very much, and I don't like this bastardized new version either. BOOOOO.
Faery: Legends of Avalon - What year is it? I feel like the first Gothic game had better graphics than this, or even Goldeneye (and their hands were triangles). So... you're some fairy (not going to spell it like they did because it doesn't deserve it) and you wake up from like a thousand years sleeping in a crystal or something, and then you fly around trying to learn about magic or something... I don't know! It was boring and not interesting or fun so don't waste your time, even if you love FAIRYS.
Unbound Saga - So you're a tough guy type character in a comic book. Think Wolverine except no blades, no regenerative properties, no adamantium skeleton, no crazy hair, basically that. Like a guy who Wolverine would beat up. And I guess... you go on some rampage to save someone? Through the comic book? To be honest I didn't pay much attention as the first ten minutes of the demo are all a cutscene. And then when you finally get to play, the gameplay is awful. It's set up like an old arcade fighting game where it's sort of in 2D but you can walk across the street as well as down it, only it's hard to actually hit people and fight. The most redeeming thing about that game is the girl that fights alongside you because she has a big rack. And if you want to see a big rack, there's plenty of other places to do that. CAPITALIZED WORD HERE.
The Deep Cave - this indie game falls extremely short in most aspects of what makes a game interesting. With it's 8-bit style graphics to help lure you in to a sense of nostalgia, you are rudely awoken by a game whose physics seem to run at hyperspeed for no real reason. You control this character who you make fall into a cave down 3 or 4 panels until he finally says, "oh no, i'm in a cave help me get out?" Um, sure I thought that was the point? And so now you have to navigate this cave, you 8-bit wonder who seems to jump up and fall faster than any reasonable semblance of gravity would allow. OH no there's bad guys down there! good luck avoiding them because they seem to move freakishly fast as well. I get the feeling there was something very wrong with this game. It played like the Xbox was too fast of a processor for itself. However, shame on the Devs if they made this deliberately fast. Basically the speed of a person jumping up and down was standardized over time. If everything moves faster than the first super mario brothers, you fucked up.
That's all for now, I have to hold a few close for next time!
p.s. Crazy Taxi just came out on the Xbox. Not as fun as I remember. Disappointing : (
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Sony done something right. Batteries.
So, recently I was informed that a lithium battery pack slowly dies over time from use, especially if you leave it plugged in constantly.
Hey, I'm human, there are things I don't know. You think you're so smart?
How many leagues in a furlong??? Exactly. You don't know nothin, about anything.
I went out and bought a new battery pack for my xbox, and a new charge cable. So as it stands now I have..
2 packs that take actual batteries
2 white battery packs
1 black battery pack
1 charge cable
1 dual charge stand deal (the white thing that charges two batteries at once)
All to play a damn game. Here's my problem: The Xbox controllers, when they are about half-full of charge, start to do that damn swirly light crap on the controller. Bugs the hell out of me. The two white battery packs I've had for about 4 years now do that after about an hour of play. Apparently it's rare to have batteries last that long. So I fought with them for a while, until my stupidity was pointed out.
The new battery pack is like night and day. Better rumble, faster response, and it's charge lasts longer, even longer than the packs I had with batteries.
Great, you sellin me batteries or something? No, but I'm just sayin, maybe it's time to upgrade.
Just remember, if you upgrade, be sure to buy new. Chances are if they are used, they've been used and you won't get the same life out of them. True stories.
So now I'm on this "upgrade the batteries" roll, I plan on getting new chargers and packs for the wii, and the DS will be charged only after it's died. Then I get to the ps3.
You bastards. You just went ahead and made a complicated decision for me. On the xbox, if the batteries start to go, I switch to the pack that requires legit batteries, and use that until the battery pack charges or I buy even more double A's.
But Sony... you just.... didn't even give us that option. Sure the battery inside will also have a shelf life like the xbox, but you require that cable in many trades, and if not those cables are a dime a dozen. Not like the xbox charge cables that are super specific and the cheapest ones will still swing you about a $10 spot. Those mini-usb cables? I have like 5. I throw some of them away, I don't even use them. I'm probably going to make a hammock out of them. What I'm getting at is they are plentiful.
Long and short of all this? Sony is easily the best at battery/ controller management. If your controller starts to die, charge it. No switching of packs and waiting for one to charge. No searching for a cable to charge it, chances are one is near.
I don't know if people even realize this.... I need to go make sandwich boards declaring it or something....
Hey, I'm human, there are things I don't know. You think you're so smart?
How many leagues in a furlong??? Exactly. You don't know nothin, about anything.
I went out and bought a new battery pack for my xbox, and a new charge cable. So as it stands now I have..
2 packs that take actual batteries
2 white battery packs
1 black battery pack
1 charge cable
1 dual charge stand deal (the white thing that charges two batteries at once)
All to play a damn game. Here's my problem: The Xbox controllers, when they are about half-full of charge, start to do that damn swirly light crap on the controller. Bugs the hell out of me. The two white battery packs I've had for about 4 years now do that after about an hour of play. Apparently it's rare to have batteries last that long. So I fought with them for a while, until my stupidity was pointed out.
The new battery pack is like night and day. Better rumble, faster response, and it's charge lasts longer, even longer than the packs I had with batteries.
Great, you sellin me batteries or something? No, but I'm just sayin, maybe it's time to upgrade.
Just remember, if you upgrade, be sure to buy new. Chances are if they are used, they've been used and you won't get the same life out of them. True stories.
So now I'm on this "upgrade the batteries" roll, I plan on getting new chargers and packs for the wii, and the DS will be charged only after it's died. Then I get to the ps3.
You bastards. You just went ahead and made a complicated decision for me. On the xbox, if the batteries start to go, I switch to the pack that requires legit batteries, and use that until the battery pack charges or I buy even more double A's.
But Sony... you just.... didn't even give us that option. Sure the battery inside will also have a shelf life like the xbox, but you require that cable in many trades, and if not those cables are a dime a dozen. Not like the xbox charge cables that are super specific and the cheapest ones will still swing you about a $10 spot. Those mini-usb cables? I have like 5. I throw some of them away, I don't even use them. I'm probably going to make a hammock out of them. What I'm getting at is they are plentiful.
Long and short of all this? Sony is easily the best at battery/ controller management. If your controller starts to die, charge it. No switching of packs and waiting for one to charge. No searching for a cable to charge it, chances are one is near.
I don't know if people even realize this.... I need to go make sandwich boards declaring it or something....
Sunday, November 14, 2010
Black Ops: Multiplayer- Short Story, It's Worth the Hype
Alright, the last post was strictly Call of Duty: Black Ops campaign. Onto the multiplayer! I actually got this tactic from the Escapist Magazine, which also had things to say about bth the Campaign and Multiplayer. Remember how a month ago I hated the Multiplayer of Medal of Honor, but LOVED the Campaign? It’s a 180 for this game. I feel the game does such a freakin’ polar opposite from one mode to the other that I had to make two separate posts. Let’s get right to it. The Black Ops Multiplayer mode (BOM) is really, really balanced weapon wise. The MPk5 you start with is one of my favorite weapons, and even seasoned players at level 20+ were still using it. All face to face conflicts are resolved in a matter of 1-2 seconds instead of 15-20 (Looking at YOU Halo!), unlike over FPS, sniping isn’t the game winning strategy anymore. If I do say so myself, the maps in this game are very sniper unfriendly, which is something I can totally get behind. The perk system and the weapon unlock system is still here, but now you have to earn currency by playing the game to buy these weapons. The beauty to that is your player doesn’t just get to level 20 and they have a healthy plethora of weapons. Actually, I got to level 10 using only the starting SMG with a scope on it. It’s not even like it’s a bad weapon, but the game encourages you to find a weapon you like, mod it out anyway you like, and carry on. Coincidentally, the game also has a challenge system, which rewards you more money for trying out new weapons. Then there’s the killstreak system, which you also have to purchase to unlock. Does this mean you will be perpetually broke? Maybe, but not really, or at least not for very long. Due to the way the game rewards you for playing matches, such as usually giving 700-1000 credits just for winning a Domination match and 50-100 credits per kill, and the most expensive thing in the game I have seen is the Attack Dogs Killstreak, which is like 6000 credits, you are never too far away from getting that thing you want. Ah, and the items…there is a huge load of customization options to give your weapons, from color scheme, to skull reticules in the scope, to attaching a flame thrower, etc.
Basically, from what I have played (I made it to level 12 in 2 hours) it is really hard for me to hate this game. I do have complaints, though…What did you expect? It’s not a Stan post unless I bitched about something. So, the spawn system in this game is…. terrible. I thought MoH had it all wrong, but this game has spawned me in more reticules than I want to think about causing quick deaths without me moving more than a couple INCHES from my spawn point. The Attack Chopper, BTW, is overpowered on small to medium maps. Granted, you start the BOM career with the means to shoot this thing down, but good luck with that since it can shoot in the general spawn direction and kill you. Now, I get it that an 11-10 killstreak is hard to get and the player should be rewarded with the ability to fu** some people up, BUT COME ON! I have seen matches pretty match end once a player racks up an 10 killstreak with Hardline Pro on, then finish it off with an Attack Chopper, while playing the Nuketown map (it’s a REALLY small map).
Remember what I said about customization moments ago? Remember what I said about the single player one post ago, about how it drops the F-Bombs like it’s overstocked on them? Well, WHY CAN’T I CUSTOMIZE MY CLASS NAME TO ASSAULT! Yes, I just waned to change the name of one of my custom created classes to Assault, as in “This class has my custom Assault rifle in it, use it for Meduim to Long range engagements”. Well, apparently, Assault contains the word ASS in it, so Treyarch, in their INFINITE DAMN WISDOM, has decided that and FREAKING “M” RATED GAME shouldn’t have even that containment of curse words in the custom weapon names. Lemme make sure I got this right…I CAN’T CALL MY WEAPON LOADOUT ASSAULT BECAUSE IT HAS THE WORD “ASS”, AND YOU STORYLINE DROPS THE F-BOMB MORE TIMES THAN I RELOADED MY M-16!
I know it seems like a meaningless complaint, but I absolutely HATE having my free speech taken away from me in a video game, especially for something as dumb as this. Leaving on a high note, the game is actually great, multiplayer wise. I have friends that never even touched the campaign and just jumped right into BOM. To them I say, good move.
Basically, from what I have played (I made it to level 12 in 2 hours) it is really hard for me to hate this game. I do have complaints, though…What did you expect? It’s not a Stan post unless I bitched about something. So, the spawn system in this game is…. terrible. I thought MoH had it all wrong, but this game has spawned me in more reticules than I want to think about causing quick deaths without me moving more than a couple INCHES from my spawn point. The Attack Chopper, BTW, is overpowered on small to medium maps. Granted, you start the BOM career with the means to shoot this thing down, but good luck with that since it can shoot in the general spawn direction and kill you. Now, I get it that an 11-10 killstreak is hard to get and the player should be rewarded with the ability to fu** some people up, BUT COME ON! I have seen matches pretty match end once a player racks up an 10 killstreak with Hardline Pro on, then finish it off with an Attack Chopper, while playing the Nuketown map (it’s a REALLY small map).
Remember what I said about customization moments ago? Remember what I said about the single player one post ago, about how it drops the F-Bombs like it’s overstocked on them? Well, WHY CAN’T I CUSTOMIZE MY CLASS NAME TO ASSAULT! Yes, I just waned to change the name of one of my custom created classes to Assault, as in “This class has my custom Assault rifle in it, use it for Meduim to Long range engagements”. Well, apparently, Assault contains the word ASS in it, so Treyarch, in their INFINITE DAMN WISDOM, has decided that and FREAKING “M” RATED GAME shouldn’t have even that containment of curse words in the custom weapon names. Lemme make sure I got this right…I CAN’T CALL MY WEAPON LOADOUT ASSAULT BECAUSE IT HAS THE WORD “ASS”, AND YOU STORYLINE DROPS THE F-BOMB MORE TIMES THAN I RELOADED MY M-16!
I know it seems like a meaningless complaint, but I absolutely HATE having my free speech taken away from me in a video game, especially for something as dumb as this. Leaving on a high note, the game is actually great, multiplayer wise. I have friends that never even touched the campaign and just jumped right into BOM. To them I say, good move.
Black Ops: Campaign- Short Story, it sucks.
Yes, yes, we all knew it was coming. I am going to talk about Call Of Duty: Black Ops. As I am sure you are going to guess, I like this game. This is a fine first person shooter…multiplayer wise at least. Single player-wise, it’s a different story. Let me explain, whenever, and I do mean whenever, I get a shiny new FPS game, I play through the Campaign mode first on Normal Difficulty. Why Normal you ask? Because I hate begin frustrated and modes above NORMAL are meant to be frustrating, and sure you could argue that they are meant to “test your skills”, but really all modes above NORMAL are just enemies with ludicrous health, your health being severely reduced in the process, and the AI have super-human accuracy with any and all weapons. Besides, we all know everybody bought this game for the Multiplayer anyways, so I figured why suffer any more through the Campaign than I have to?
The key word to that last statement is “suffer”, and gives away how I think of the Campaign. It was, in many ways, kind of painful to play. Here you have a tied down Special Ops guy named Mason getting interrogated and you have no idea why. So, the game starts flashing at you and hitting you with random memory events here Mason goes into a violent linguistically rage dropping F-Bombs like he is overstocked with them (please make a note of this). The game starts telling you the story of why Mason is tied down, except it doesn’t. One moment you are in Cuba, the next you are in Russia, then, Vietnam, Then you’re playing as a different person in a different time frame, then Russia, then Nam’…you get to briefly make commands in an SR-71 Blackbird…very, very briefly, almost forgettable briefly…. And all this time you, the player, are still trying to figure out why Mason is being interrogated and why numbers keep flashing in his head. The story actually makes little to no sense. I was trying to stay with the story until at the very LAST MISSION, when it all, and I mean ALL, just gets explained and falls apart. By falls apart, I mean Treyarch (the developer, they also did World At War and some Spiderman games) obviously has a “hard on” for the convoluted storylines of the Metal Gear Solid series, because it becomes just as ridiculous.
You know, Doug will probably ridicule me for this, but at least the Modern Warfare stories made some DAMN SENSE! You are soldier; go kill third-world terrorists and their collaborators armed with WMDs to save to world, credits.
This game has a similar, and yet oh so difficult to explain version of this terrorist killing story. Its contrived and over-done, and sometimes I can get behind it because there is a definite enemy and I don’t mind killing the lot of them. Speaking of lot’s of them, the campaign does something I had hoped modern FPS games had sworn off, and it’s that this game has a TON of enemy spawn gates, you know the ones, the ones were you will be overwhelmed by enemies until you cross an invisible scripted barrier. Not only does Black Ops bring those back, it abuses the HELL out of them. Three-quarters of the campaign is built around scripted events, and after the third level I was basically playing the game just to beat it, aka, was not having fun anymore. This is not something to brag about, Treyarch. Lay off the scripted events a little, it is not as innovative as you may have believe, since EVERY CALL OF DUTY DOES THEM. There is a fine line between handholding a player through the game, and just letting them play the game. This game holds your hand, calmly hiding the story from you as you go. Then it’s over.
Please don’t buy this game for the Campaign (who really did?).
I mean, if you want an action-paced shooter, buy Vanquish. If you want an awesome story, play Fallout 3 or Half-Life, maybe even rent MOH just for its Campaign. This Campaign, though, feels like it was tacked on to it’s robust multiplayer.
The key word to that last statement is “suffer”, and gives away how I think of the Campaign. It was, in many ways, kind of painful to play. Here you have a tied down Special Ops guy named Mason getting interrogated and you have no idea why. So, the game starts flashing at you and hitting you with random memory events here Mason goes into a violent linguistically rage dropping F-Bombs like he is overstocked with them (please make a note of this). The game starts telling you the story of why Mason is tied down, except it doesn’t. One moment you are in Cuba, the next you are in Russia, then, Vietnam, Then you’re playing as a different person in a different time frame, then Russia, then Nam’…you get to briefly make commands in an SR-71 Blackbird…very, very briefly, almost forgettable briefly…. And all this time you, the player, are still trying to figure out why Mason is being interrogated and why numbers keep flashing in his head. The story actually makes little to no sense. I was trying to stay with the story until at the very LAST MISSION, when it all, and I mean ALL, just gets explained and falls apart. By falls apart, I mean Treyarch (the developer, they also did World At War and some Spiderman games) obviously has a “hard on” for the convoluted storylines of the Metal Gear Solid series, because it becomes just as ridiculous.
You know, Doug will probably ridicule me for this, but at least the Modern Warfare stories made some DAMN SENSE! You are soldier; go kill third-world terrorists and their collaborators armed with WMDs to save to world, credits.
This game has a similar, and yet oh so difficult to explain version of this terrorist killing story. Its contrived and over-done, and sometimes I can get behind it because there is a definite enemy and I don’t mind killing the lot of them. Speaking of lot’s of them, the campaign does something I had hoped modern FPS games had sworn off, and it’s that this game has a TON of enemy spawn gates, you know the ones, the ones were you will be overwhelmed by enemies until you cross an invisible scripted barrier. Not only does Black Ops bring those back, it abuses the HELL out of them. Three-quarters of the campaign is built around scripted events, and after the third level I was basically playing the game just to beat it, aka, was not having fun anymore. This is not something to brag about, Treyarch. Lay off the scripted events a little, it is not as innovative as you may have believe, since EVERY CALL OF DUTY DOES THEM. There is a fine line between handholding a player through the game, and just letting them play the game. This game holds your hand, calmly hiding the story from you as you go. Then it’s over.
Please don’t buy this game for the Campaign (who really did?).
I mean, if you want an action-paced shooter, buy Vanquish. If you want an awesome story, play Fallout 3 or Half-Life, maybe even rent MOH just for its Campaign. This Campaign, though, feels like it was tacked on to it’s robust multiplayer.
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
Costume Quest - how did we miss this one? Double fine whaa?
Okay so I was really annoyed when three days after Halloween I see this game Costume Quest on the XBla marketplace. I think the cover art looks cute, so I read the description and see that it's a game developed by none other than Double Fine studios. Double Fine put out a game and there wasn't a bigger hubub about it? Well here's the hubub I'm making because I'm annoyed I didn't find out about this sooner!
What a freaking fun and cute game to get you in the spirit of Halloween (a few days too late but still)! You start the game watching a scene with two fraternal siblings Reynold and Wren, bickering about trick or treating. At this point you are momentarily placed in the body of their Mom, whom you use to place one of the siblings in charge for the night, which is how you choose your character. The other sibling then is placed in a lame Halloween costume as a piece of candy corn, you adorn your Robot costume, and you're on your way. Shortly thereafter, a monster who mistakes your sibling as a tasty treat, and hauls them away. So, since you were placed in charge of them, you make it your mission to get them back (mostly so your parents don't kill you and ruin Halloween!)
The game is an RPG in one of it's purest forms. When you square off against the monsters, you turn into this imagination driven larger than life version of the costume you are wearing. The robot costume you start with is rather unassuming (cardboard box, dials, etc...) but in battle you look more like something out of the Gundam universe with flying and rockets and oh man cool. The battles are something a bit new to me, as your ability to do and take damage has less to do with your level as it does your actual reaction time. All the fights are build on a quick-time event system, where you hit an input button (ABXY) at a precise moment to block more damage or deal more damage. I get the feeling the novelty of this may wear off at some point, but I played the thing for like 6 hours so far and I think the animations keep it from getting too stale.
This game makes you feel like a kid in the best sense of the term. And look, I keep feeling silly for doing these reviews of games like this that have a demo that YOU CAN GO AND PLAY YOURSELF, I KNOW! But still, I didn't hear anything as far as buzz about this game, and I feel as though it is a disservice, since the game is fun, made by a studio reputable for making great games; let's face it, who doesn't love Halloween? Maybe that sentence doesn't make sense, but I don't care! Buy the game and love it! BOOSH!
p.s. I know it's also weird that I never write about games that are bad, and that's because I constantly play demos of these games to decide which to buy, because I'm frugal and don't want to have a plethora of XBla games that I don't like. Perhaps I will make a list of games to just skip over and don't even waste your time playing, but I'll save it for another post...
What a freaking fun and cute game to get you in the spirit of Halloween (a few days too late but still)! You start the game watching a scene with two fraternal siblings Reynold and Wren, bickering about trick or treating. At this point you are momentarily placed in the body of their Mom, whom you use to place one of the siblings in charge for the night, which is how you choose your character. The other sibling then is placed in a lame Halloween costume as a piece of candy corn, you adorn your Robot costume, and you're on your way. Shortly thereafter, a monster who mistakes your sibling as a tasty treat, and hauls them away. So, since you were placed in charge of them, you make it your mission to get them back (mostly so your parents don't kill you and ruin Halloween!)
The game is an RPG in one of it's purest forms. When you square off against the monsters, you turn into this imagination driven larger than life version of the costume you are wearing. The robot costume you start with is rather unassuming (cardboard box, dials, etc...) but in battle you look more like something out of the Gundam universe with flying and rockets and oh man cool. The battles are something a bit new to me, as your ability to do and take damage has less to do with your level as it does your actual reaction time. All the fights are build on a quick-time event system, where you hit an input button (ABXY) at a precise moment to block more damage or deal more damage. I get the feeling the novelty of this may wear off at some point, but I played the thing for like 6 hours so far and I think the animations keep it from getting too stale.
This game makes you feel like a kid in the best sense of the term. And look, I keep feeling silly for doing these reviews of games like this that have a demo that YOU CAN GO AND PLAY YOURSELF, I KNOW! But still, I didn't hear anything as far as buzz about this game, and I feel as though it is a disservice, since the game is fun, made by a studio reputable for making great games; let's face it, who doesn't love Halloween? Maybe that sentence doesn't make sense, but I don't care! Buy the game and love it! BOOSH!
p.s. I know it's also weird that I never write about games that are bad, and that's because I constantly play demos of these games to decide which to buy, because I'm frugal and don't want to have a plethora of XBla games that I don't like. Perhaps I will make a list of games to just skip over and don't even waste your time playing, but I'll save it for another post...
Bond, Blood Stone and Brightness
A week goes by, and all I did was game.
The new Xbox dashboard sucks, thanks a lot Kinect adaptability.
Know what doesn't suck? The new Bond game. Yeah, you heard me right, the new James Bond game.
Let's review what other Bond games have been released recently (I'm not counting Goldeneye Wii since it also just came out). Quantum of Solace and Casino Royale. Both obvious movie tie-ins, both were released to mixed reviews. Everything or Nothing, a poor attempt at a combination of games with an original Bond storyline. Of course this game came out around the time the Gamecube was ruling the world and not much made sense. From Russia With Love? A decent, albeit aged ps2 game.
There's a fine line that anyone attempting to make a 007 game has to straddle. On the one hand Goldeneye made it that much harder to make a successful 007 game. They came out with Tomorrow Never Dies which was your standard 3rd person action/shooter. Don't remember it? Most people don't.
Then they came out with The World is Not Enough for the N64. It went back to the shooter days, and felt like Goldeneye in some ways, in others it just felt too linear. Was Goldeneye the first 007 game? Oh my no. There were quite a few released on the older systems as well.
The Wikipedia Link of James Bond Games
History lessons aside, most Bond games released were movie tie-ins. (I still actually own the James Bond 007 gameboy game, it's strange but really fun, almost MGS-like)
The games that weren't movie tie-ins were usually huge flops, well hell, for that matter the movie games were flops too. People tend to forget all of this when they simply think of Goldeneye.
The original storyline games were inventive to say the least, Agent Under Fire and Nightfire (both original stories), were strong on gameplay, had an amazingly diverse set of equipment and gadgets, strong shooter elements, and a decent story. Blood Stone, the most recent original 007 game, stays true to this concept. Original Story- Check. Strong Shooter Elements- Check. Gadgets- Check.
It plays somewhat like Gears of War mixed with Mafia and Splinter Cell: Conviction. The focus aim element of Blood Stone is an exact rip from Conviction, but I doubt anyone will mind. Shoot from cover, press A to move from cover, slide to cover: it's all gravy baby.
Is anyone even listening? Nah. Will anyone play this game? Probably not. With Fallout and Fable already out, and Black-ops soon to come, this game will just slide under the radar. Fine by me. It's games like this that make me a gamer. Mafia 2 is another example. Will these games stay on my shelf forever? Ok probably, but will they stay on the shelf of the average gamer forever? Doubtful. But, for the time it's there it will be extremely enjoyable. They don't do anything too flashy, or too strange. There are driving elements, but good thing the people who made the game have heavy experience in making racing games, so it never feels strange ("From Russia With Love", I'm looking at you....). A good solid game that is worth a rental at least.
So that's it? A huge gamer fan and a huge 007 fan has that much to say about the newest game? Well, yes and no. You see, as I was playing my only complaint (yes, my ONLY complaint, I complain often, but this game was just so enjoyable and simple that I didn't have any real problems with it except...) the screen was so damn dark.
Am I the only gamer who instantly turns up the brightness on a game? Am I just getting old? I know in todays games they show you a little picture and have you turn up the brightness to match it, but then I turn the thing up like 3 more places. I mean, I understand wanting the game to have a creepiness to it, but I felt the same thing when I was playing Fallout:New Vegas. It's dark for the ambience, but almost too dark when you're faced with someone. I guess this would be the line between realism in a game and a game. Still, I dunno. I like being able to see. Sure it washes out some of the game textures, but it makes the damn thing easier to play.
And what's all this about the internet nowadays? Haha. I'm gonna go back to being screamed at by 12yr olds. I mean playing Black Ops. Same diff.
The new Xbox dashboard sucks, thanks a lot Kinect adaptability.
Know what doesn't suck? The new Bond game. Yeah, you heard me right, the new James Bond game.
Let's review what other Bond games have been released recently (I'm not counting Goldeneye Wii since it also just came out). Quantum of Solace and Casino Royale. Both obvious movie tie-ins, both were released to mixed reviews. Everything or Nothing, a poor attempt at a combination of games with an original Bond storyline. Of course this game came out around the time the Gamecube was ruling the world and not much made sense. From Russia With Love? A decent, albeit aged ps2 game.
There's a fine line that anyone attempting to make a 007 game has to straddle. On the one hand Goldeneye made it that much harder to make a successful 007 game. They came out with Tomorrow Never Dies which was your standard 3rd person action/shooter. Don't remember it? Most people don't.
Then they came out with The World is Not Enough for the N64. It went back to the shooter days, and felt like Goldeneye in some ways, in others it just felt too linear. Was Goldeneye the first 007 game? Oh my no. There were quite a few released on the older systems as well.
The Wikipedia Link of James Bond Games
History lessons aside, most Bond games released were movie tie-ins. (I still actually own the James Bond 007 gameboy game, it's strange but really fun, almost MGS-like)
The games that weren't movie tie-ins were usually huge flops, well hell, for that matter the movie games were flops too. People tend to forget all of this when they simply think of Goldeneye.
The original storyline games were inventive to say the least, Agent Under Fire and Nightfire (both original stories), were strong on gameplay, had an amazingly diverse set of equipment and gadgets, strong shooter elements, and a decent story. Blood Stone, the most recent original 007 game, stays true to this concept. Original Story- Check. Strong Shooter Elements- Check. Gadgets- Check.
It plays somewhat like Gears of War mixed with Mafia and Splinter Cell: Conviction. The focus aim element of Blood Stone is an exact rip from Conviction, but I doubt anyone will mind. Shoot from cover, press A to move from cover, slide to cover: it's all gravy baby.
Is anyone even listening? Nah. Will anyone play this game? Probably not. With Fallout and Fable already out, and Black-ops soon to come, this game will just slide under the radar. Fine by me. It's games like this that make me a gamer. Mafia 2 is another example. Will these games stay on my shelf forever? Ok probably, but will they stay on the shelf of the average gamer forever? Doubtful. But, for the time it's there it will be extremely enjoyable. They don't do anything too flashy, or too strange. There are driving elements, but good thing the people who made the game have heavy experience in making racing games, so it never feels strange ("From Russia With Love", I'm looking at you....). A good solid game that is worth a rental at least.
So that's it? A huge gamer fan and a huge 007 fan has that much to say about the newest game? Well, yes and no. You see, as I was playing my only complaint (yes, my ONLY complaint, I complain often, but this game was just so enjoyable and simple that I didn't have any real problems with it except...) the screen was so damn dark.
Am I the only gamer who instantly turns up the brightness on a game? Am I just getting old? I know in todays games they show you a little picture and have you turn up the brightness to match it, but then I turn the thing up like 3 more places. I mean, I understand wanting the game to have a creepiness to it, but I felt the same thing when I was playing Fallout:New Vegas. It's dark for the ambience, but almost too dark when you're faced with someone. I guess this would be the line between realism in a game and a game. Still, I dunno. I like being able to see. Sure it washes out some of the game textures, but it makes the damn thing easier to play.
And what's all this about the internet nowadays? Haha. I'm gonna go back to being screamed at by 12yr olds. I mean playing Black Ops. Same diff.
Monday, October 25, 2010
Why it feels great when you wait...
for video games. pervert.
I am in a pickle.
This week alone Fable 3, WWE 2011, AND Force Unleashed 2 come out. Next week it's the two new James Bond games. Hundreds of dollars will be spent.
But that's me. and considering where I work and what I do with my life, it's a necessary evil.
You should not do the same. Now, I don't want this to become an anti-pre-order blog. I'm... on the fence about pre-ordering. There will probably be a podcast on pre-ordering pros and cons one day. Suffice it to say, I preorder games to make use of the layaway system more than anything. Paying progressively when I have the cash, and having the games paid off when I come to pick them up. But more and more, that's becoming a rare thing. Here's the dealie-o.... people are selling back games the week after they are released.
On average, when a game comes out it's $63 with sales tax. Ok, when the game is sold used, it's only $56 ish. Give it another month or so, it'll drop another $10.
So pre-order "benefits" aside (if you can even call them that) what causes people to have to have the game in-hand when it's released? Well, that's not that simple. There's a stigma that's quickly fading about being the "very first" person to play a game. Nowadays, people are realizing that it doesn't mean much, people are playing the games first in different timezones and the such. The idea still stands, but midnight launches are sorta losing their luster, the excitement of being one of the first to play the game fades when you're well aware you're not even close to numero uno.
Multiplayer? Aha! There we are. Being one of the first to play the game online allows you more time to get better at the game, allows you to rank up faster and get more practice and field time.
Seriously? Seriously. I've asked at every FPS midnight launch for the last 2 years, and it's always the same answer time and time again. What about when Black-ops is released? What happens to the ranks of MW2 that you worked so hard for? Look, I'm strongly opposed to multiplay shooters. Stan is the big fps buff here, not me. I think they detract from actual gaming and I could go on and one. That's not the point of the blog here.
Do you honestly need the game first? No. Even if you preorder it, the money will still be there later on. No need to rush out at midnight, or that next morning. Especially considering some lucky bastard will save $10 just by waiting a week. That week that you were unable to wait for some reason.
This ties right back into my PS3 rants. I'm going back and playing the older games I missed. I haven't even considered the newer games coming out. I'll do that when I finish the backlog, which is never ending since new games come out constantly, so I'll never catch up. But I'm fine with that. I'm much happier spending $9 for Metal Gear Solid 4 (that's right, $9.) as opposed to the $63 it cost when it was released.
If there's a game you've been dying to get, and you have the cash, buy it the day it comes out. Just remember, waiting for a used game 10 different times gives you enough extra scratch to buy another game. The gaming companies know you can't wait, and the stores enjoy it. So they'll charge a little more just because you're impatient. Now, I have Fable 3 paid off, as well as Smackdown and the 007 games. Force Unleashed? It'll wait until I see it used. You can't play more than one game at a time, and even then, do you honestly have enough time in your day to justify spending $10 more to get it sooner?
Undoubtedly there will be a line this Tuesday morning, and I'll see my regulars come in and pick up there games. I'll also see the crowd that comes in to buy the new game that morning, in a rush because they have to go to work. I've put about 8 hours into Fallout:NV, even though I got it the day it came out. I've easily put twice that into Killzone 2 and Mafia 2 since Fallout has been released.
One game at a time, just keep repeating it, one game at a time.
*HINT ALERT*
What the gaming stores also don't want you to know is if you trade in your old games for a new game you get bonus credit. So if a new game is coming out that you want, trade in some of your old stuff for it. Buy the new game and sit on it until a store has a used copy of the new game (literally it'll only take about 3 days). Return the new game (unwrapped) and use that credit to buy the "new" game, only the used copy, and you save some extra money. I've done this before to realize that I wasn't as excited to get the new game as I thought I was, so I just got the store credit and sat on it until something good came around.
Waiting for a used copy, or the price to drop, just makes sense. You'll get to hear more about the game, see actual gameplay footage to see if it's for you, it gives you time to try it in a store or rent it maybe, and saves you some money. Gaming doesn't have to be expensive if you can keep from getting caught in the hype.
This week alone Fable 3, WWE 2011, AND Force Unleashed 2 come out. Next week it's the two new James Bond games. Hundreds of dollars will be spent.
But that's me. and considering where I work and what I do with my life, it's a necessary evil.
You should not do the same. Now, I don't want this to become an anti-pre-order blog. I'm... on the fence about pre-ordering. There will probably be a podcast on pre-ordering pros and cons one day. Suffice it to say, I preorder games to make use of the layaway system more than anything. Paying progressively when I have the cash, and having the games paid off when I come to pick them up. But more and more, that's becoming a rare thing. Here's the dealie-o.... people are selling back games the week after they are released.
On average, when a game comes out it's $63 with sales tax. Ok, when the game is sold used, it's only $56 ish. Give it another month or so, it'll drop another $10.
So pre-order "benefits" aside (if you can even call them that) what causes people to have to have the game in-hand when it's released? Well, that's not that simple. There's a stigma that's quickly fading about being the "very first" person to play a game. Nowadays, people are realizing that it doesn't mean much, people are playing the games first in different timezones and the such. The idea still stands, but midnight launches are sorta losing their luster, the excitement of being one of the first to play the game fades when you're well aware you're not even close to numero uno.
Multiplayer? Aha! There we are. Being one of the first to play the game online allows you more time to get better at the game, allows you to rank up faster and get more practice and field time.
Seriously? Seriously. I've asked at every FPS midnight launch for the last 2 years, and it's always the same answer time and time again. What about when Black-ops is released? What happens to the ranks of MW2 that you worked so hard for? Look, I'm strongly opposed to multiplay shooters. Stan is the big fps buff here, not me. I think they detract from actual gaming and I could go on and one. That's not the point of the blog here.
Do you honestly need the game first? No. Even if you preorder it, the money will still be there later on. No need to rush out at midnight, or that next morning. Especially considering some lucky bastard will save $10 just by waiting a week. That week that you were unable to wait for some reason.
This ties right back into my PS3 rants. I'm going back and playing the older games I missed. I haven't even considered the newer games coming out. I'll do that when I finish the backlog, which is never ending since new games come out constantly, so I'll never catch up. But I'm fine with that. I'm much happier spending $9 for Metal Gear Solid 4 (that's right, $9.) as opposed to the $63 it cost when it was released.
If there's a game you've been dying to get, and you have the cash, buy it the day it comes out. Just remember, waiting for a used game 10 different times gives you enough extra scratch to buy another game. The gaming companies know you can't wait, and the stores enjoy it. So they'll charge a little more just because you're impatient. Now, I have Fable 3 paid off, as well as Smackdown and the 007 games. Force Unleashed? It'll wait until I see it used. You can't play more than one game at a time, and even then, do you honestly have enough time in your day to justify spending $10 more to get it sooner?
Undoubtedly there will be a line this Tuesday morning, and I'll see my regulars come in and pick up there games. I'll also see the crowd that comes in to buy the new game that morning, in a rush because they have to go to work. I've put about 8 hours into Fallout:NV, even though I got it the day it came out. I've easily put twice that into Killzone 2 and Mafia 2 since Fallout has been released.
One game at a time, just keep repeating it, one game at a time.
*HINT ALERT*
What the gaming stores also don't want you to know is if you trade in your old games for a new game you get bonus credit. So if a new game is coming out that you want, trade in some of your old stuff for it. Buy the new game and sit on it until a store has a used copy of the new game (literally it'll only take about 3 days). Return the new game (unwrapped) and use that credit to buy the "new" game, only the used copy, and you save some extra money. I've done this before to realize that I wasn't as excited to get the new game as I thought I was, so I just got the store credit and sat on it until something good came around.
Waiting for a used copy, or the price to drop, just makes sense. You'll get to hear more about the game, see actual gameplay footage to see if it's for you, it gives you time to try it in a store or rent it maybe, and saves you some money. Gaming doesn't have to be expensive if you can keep from getting caught in the hype.
Saturday, October 23, 2010
A new TV solution
I am seriously considering cancelling my satellite service, forever. There, lemme just get that out of the way. Dish Network, if you have retention reading my blogs you better call me with the quickness, because every single day I find just sexier alternatives. Am I talking about cable? Hell no. I am an elitist when it comes to price/quality and most cable providers give crap for service. I mean, they say it’s 720 HD quality, but it’s in analog as opposed to digital, so it looks like trash on a properly hooked up HDTV.
Let me lay out the skinny, I pay exactly $51.85 every single month for the most basic HD package on Dish Network. I work over 45 hours a week, go to school full-time, and of course have to work out and maintain a clean home. My wife is in the exact same boat, so we talked the other day and realized how little we actually turn the TV on, little alone watch specific programs. So we started an experiment to see how long we can go without turning the Dish box on. So far, it’s been two weeks. I feel we have proven that we don’t need you Dish. Now, we do turn on the TV to view other content, we play games, we watch Netflix, and we use RedBox (Blu-Rays, only $1.50 a night…best deal ever).
The point of this ramble is kind of an addendum to Doug’s recent post about Netflix. Netflix’s instant streaming service is something that’s so beautiful, it literally KILLED Blockbuster (they filed Chapter 11 not too long ago). RedBox is cheap, it’s and easy, Doug covered quite a bit. The main point is that I pay $624 a year for something I rarely use, but if I went with Netflix (9 bucks a month), RedBox ($1 to $1.50 whenever I get an itch for a movie) and maybe even Play-On ($80 for the LIFETIME of the service…let me say that again, THE LIFETIME! $80), I would save myself literally hundreds of dollars a year for content I would actually use.
Here’s the funny part: cable and satellite companies KNOW that the age of major subscription content are numbered, and they have doing target advertising and cutting deals with movie companies to get movies and TV series available on their On-Demand services about a month before Netflix or RedBox gets it. The theater industry knows that Internet content is taking a large piece of their financial pie, thus why I only go to the theaters for a good movie, and not crap. I 2008, when I took my then fiancée to a movie, it was $8 a ticket. Now, when my and my wife wants to see a movie, it’s $12 a ticket. This is a freakin’ 50% price increase in only a span of 2 years? Yeah, the movie industry doesn’t like Netflix, which is why not every movie made is available for streaming, only the the mediocre ones are and sometimes you will find a gem or two in there, but the quality will be just terrible. I, of course, am not saying it’s Netflix’s fault for streaming movies in bad quality, they actually stream the content provided to them and a lot of times that content is purposely in bad quality so you either have to get the DVD from Netflix or buy said DVD or Blu-Ray.
Well, thanks to Netflix, I haven’t set foot into a movie rental store in over 2 years, and don’t plan to ever again really. Thanks to Netflix I haven’t bought a DVD or Blu-ray in over 2 years either. I mean, Netflix and Redbox are like the perfect solutions against pirating movie on the internet (Oh, Doug, how could you). It really does say to consumers,” Here, if you pay less than $10 per month, we will give you all the movies, TV shows, anime, and documentaries you can possible ever want! All you need is a Netflix ready device or TV (example: Any video game system of this gen or 90% of Blu-Ray players or 99% of home theater systems), and a broadband Internet connection. Honestly, that’s it!”
To make this short and sweet, Cable and Satellite, I don’t watch sports, so I really don’t think I need you anymore…..
Let me lay out the skinny, I pay exactly $51.85 every single month for the most basic HD package on Dish Network. I work over 45 hours a week, go to school full-time, and of course have to work out and maintain a clean home. My wife is in the exact same boat, so we talked the other day and realized how little we actually turn the TV on, little alone watch specific programs. So we started an experiment to see how long we can go without turning the Dish box on. So far, it’s been two weeks. I feel we have proven that we don’t need you Dish. Now, we do turn on the TV to view other content, we play games, we watch Netflix, and we use RedBox (Blu-Rays, only $1.50 a night…best deal ever).
The point of this ramble is kind of an addendum to Doug’s recent post about Netflix. Netflix’s instant streaming service is something that’s so beautiful, it literally KILLED Blockbuster (they filed Chapter 11 not too long ago). RedBox is cheap, it’s and easy, Doug covered quite a bit. The main point is that I pay $624 a year for something I rarely use, but if I went with Netflix (9 bucks a month), RedBox ($1 to $1.50 whenever I get an itch for a movie) and maybe even Play-On ($80 for the LIFETIME of the service…let me say that again, THE LIFETIME! $80), I would save myself literally hundreds of dollars a year for content I would actually use.
Here’s the funny part: cable and satellite companies KNOW that the age of major subscription content are numbered, and they have doing target advertising and cutting deals with movie companies to get movies and TV series available on their On-Demand services about a month before Netflix or RedBox gets it. The theater industry knows that Internet content is taking a large piece of their financial pie, thus why I only go to the theaters for a good movie, and not crap. I 2008, when I took my then fiancée to a movie, it was $8 a ticket. Now, when my and my wife wants to see a movie, it’s $12 a ticket. This is a freakin’ 50% price increase in only a span of 2 years? Yeah, the movie industry doesn’t like Netflix, which is why not every movie made is available for streaming, only the the mediocre ones are and sometimes you will find a gem or two in there, but the quality will be just terrible. I, of course, am not saying it’s Netflix’s fault for streaming movies in bad quality, they actually stream the content provided to them and a lot of times that content is purposely in bad quality so you either have to get the DVD from Netflix or buy said DVD or Blu-Ray.
Well, thanks to Netflix, I haven’t set foot into a movie rental store in over 2 years, and don’t plan to ever again really. Thanks to Netflix I haven’t bought a DVD or Blu-ray in over 2 years either. I mean, Netflix and Redbox are like the perfect solutions against pirating movie on the internet (Oh, Doug, how could you). It really does say to consumers,” Here, if you pay less than $10 per month, we will give you all the movies, TV shows, anime, and documentaries you can possible ever want! All you need is a Netflix ready device or TV (example: Any video game system of this gen or 90% of Blu-Ray players or 99% of home theater systems), and a broadband Internet connection. Honestly, that’s it!”
To make this short and sweet, Cable and Satellite, I don’t watch sports, so I really don’t think I need you anymore…..
Friday, October 22, 2010
Comic Jumper - Twisted Pixel Games gets META
Wow I am the worst blogger on here. Every post I write is short, probably because I don't like writing all that much. And when I do get around to writing, I like to keep it pithy.
So Comic Jumper is the most recent XBLA game to be put out by the much celebrated developer Twisted Pixel. They are the ones who made The Maw, a game where you control a strange alien who eats everything, and 'Splosion Man, a brilliant yet difficult 2d platformer where your only real ability is to make yourself "splode."
The premise of Comic Jumper is that you are Captain Smiley, a comic book hero who, until very recently, is the star of his own comic series. However, when the plot lines start to slide, the comic gets cancelled, leaving you out of work off to fend for yourself. You then (with the help of the game devs at Twisted Pixel) learn that you can possibly jump to guest star in other comics and earn some scratch for doing it, thereby being able to restart your own comic series.
There's good, bad, and so-so in this game, to be sure. The Bad is that the game seems just so damn hard! Like you die all the freaking time. Theres a lot of dual stick type shooting in this game, which is frustratingly difficult. They even added an aim assist to the game to make it easier which resulted in me dying like 2 less times on the FIRST LEVEL. Maybe it's just me, but I found myself playing some of the challenge type rounds that are more "kill all the bad guys as fast as possible" just to get some practice! I mean, shit.
Okay now the good thing in the game is the dialogue. Oh man, it's like playing one of those old 2d Sam and Max games all over again. Lots of inappropriate innuendo, and bickering to boot! Captain Smiley has an anthropomorphic star on his chest named "Star" which i feel like they added in just to make that kind of dialogue happen! At one point in the early game, Smiley comments about how great his boots are, to which Star goes into a frenzy until he realizes that Smiley said "boots" not "boobs". Sounds lame when I type it, but trust me.
The gameplay is rough around the edges. Like I said, a lot of awkward shooting around, I feel like Smiley runs really slowly for how fast his legs move, and now that I'm moving forward in the game, I'm getting worried that it's not going to get any easier. I actually went ahead and bought the game in the hopes that it was a stylistic choice to make the gameplay clunky and hard in the beginning and then have it get easier as the game goes. I thought that'd be a bold and brilliant choice to make you feel the same as the disappointed Captain Smiley readers in your dislike of the character. This may still turn out to be the case, but I have yet to finish the game. Perhaps in the next day or two I'll finish and give an update.
Check out the demo for the art style and the amazing banter, but the jury is still out on whether the game lives up to being a fun time.
P.S. I just went out to see Paranormal Activity 2 and I laughed a whole lot. The people yelling out stuff in the theater was about the best thing ever. Not scary BTW.
UPDATE: I finished Comic Jumper, and a bit to my dismay, the game got a little easier. The reason this is to my dismay is because I think it got easier because I got BETTER at it, and not by design. Still, the game was very fun, though the ending was underwhelming. However, what makes up for the ending being lame is the Manga level Cutie Cutie Kid Cupids is really super amazingly great. Now that I've reflected a bit on the game, I'd say buy it!
So Comic Jumper is the most recent XBLA game to be put out by the much celebrated developer Twisted Pixel. They are the ones who made The Maw, a game where you control a strange alien who eats everything, and 'Splosion Man, a brilliant yet difficult 2d platformer where your only real ability is to make yourself "splode."
The premise of Comic Jumper is that you are Captain Smiley, a comic book hero who, until very recently, is the star of his own comic series. However, when the plot lines start to slide, the comic gets cancelled, leaving you out of work off to fend for yourself. You then (with the help of the game devs at Twisted Pixel) learn that you can possibly jump to guest star in other comics and earn some scratch for doing it, thereby being able to restart your own comic series.
There's good, bad, and so-so in this game, to be sure. The Bad is that the game seems just so damn hard! Like you die all the freaking time. Theres a lot of dual stick type shooting in this game, which is frustratingly difficult. They even added an aim assist to the game to make it easier which resulted in me dying like 2 less times on the FIRST LEVEL. Maybe it's just me, but I found myself playing some of the challenge type rounds that are more "kill all the bad guys as fast as possible" just to get some practice! I mean, shit.
Okay now the good thing in the game is the dialogue. Oh man, it's like playing one of those old 2d Sam and Max games all over again. Lots of inappropriate innuendo, and bickering to boot! Captain Smiley has an anthropomorphic star on his chest named "Star" which i feel like they added in just to make that kind of dialogue happen! At one point in the early game, Smiley comments about how great his boots are, to which Star goes into a frenzy until he realizes that Smiley said "boots" not "boobs". Sounds lame when I type it, but trust me.
The gameplay is rough around the edges. Like I said, a lot of awkward shooting around, I feel like Smiley runs really slowly for how fast his legs move, and now that I'm moving forward in the game, I'm getting worried that it's not going to get any easier. I actually went ahead and bought the game in the hopes that it was a stylistic choice to make the gameplay clunky and hard in the beginning and then have it get easier as the game goes. I thought that'd be a bold and brilliant choice to make you feel the same as the disappointed Captain Smiley readers in your dislike of the character. This may still turn out to be the case, but I have yet to finish the game. Perhaps in the next day or two I'll finish and give an update.
Check out the demo for the art style and the amazing banter, but the jury is still out on whether the game lives up to being a fun time.
P.S. I just went out to see Paranormal Activity 2 and I laughed a whole lot. The people yelling out stuff in the theater was about the best thing ever. Not scary BTW.
UPDATE: I finished Comic Jumper, and a bit to my dismay, the game got a little easier. The reason this is to my dismay is because I think it got easier because I got BETTER at it, and not by design. Still, the game was very fun, though the ending was underwhelming. However, what makes up for the ending being lame is the Manga level Cutie Cutie Kid Cupids is really super amazingly great. Now that I've reflected a bit on the game, I'd say buy it!
Box movies, internet streaming and me without my pirating.
I've apparently gone back to the redbox 5 times this week. Email tells me so.
So when the consoles got ahold of netflix I was intrigued, but I mean come on.... I'm an internet pirate. I don't need no stinkin' legitimate discs.
Then a terrible tragedy befell my little town of Dougopia, population this guy.
My 2tb hard drive, she died.
At last count she was about 3/4 full, of movies. That was, needless to say, a ton of movies. I had tv shows, entire series of shows, all sorts of movies, bluray movies...I just.... there were a lot.
I went into denial for a few weeks, saying I could fix it. (For those computer geeks out there, the arm ripped the disc internally, for those non-computer geeks- bad news bears) Couldn't be saved. So I decided to cut my losses and move on with my life.
Begrudgingly I went to a redbox. Now lemme stop ya right there, I'm not promoting Redbox specifically, nor did they pay me (ALTHOUGH THEY TOTALLY COULD IF THEY WANTED TO). Conversely, both my theatre and my movie rental place are owned by a certain corporation.... strange....
To the point. I'm not promoting them, I've tried the Blockbuster one as well, and well, Redbox has it down better. $1 movies. Even if I go 30 times in a single month I'm only out $30. Not terrible. So I'll rent a few movies until I've watched basically everything they have to offer and I'll be done for the week. (Renting at least what I haven't seen). I should also mention I love renting a movie from one part of the county or state, and returning it to another. I imagine somewhere it confuses the hell out of some customer service person somewhere.
So maybe like 3 movies a week, and I'm done with you redbox. until next week.
(I watch like a movie a day, get off my back, it's not that I have a ton of time, it's that I enjoy watching a movie before bed. Look, don't make this into something, we all do weird things before we go to bed, or when we're in the bathroom or something. LOOK STOP JUDGING ME, I THOUGHT WE WUZ PALS)
ahem.
So. ps3 and me have been together a lot these last few days, so when it said "hey we have netflix, wanna try for free? I said. Alright new beginnings, since my.... hardriv... *sniffle*...
Now this ain't going into some big to-do about Netflix. If you use a computer, and you're not an internet pirate, and you're a decent person you probably know the general concept, great. I really like it. I think. I dunno, it's a lot to take in. At last count I owned about 500+ dvds, so.... netflix is a different beast altogether (nextflix is a different beast).
I think, and this might be a broad generalization here but that's what we're good for...
NINTENDO PUTTING NETFLIX ON THE Wii-
THE SMARTEST CHOICE A GAMING COMPANY HAS EVER MADE.
Ever.
You take a wildly successful product like the wii, you attempt to get people to centralize their home entertainment around that system, and you throw them netflix? You're going about it exactly how you should.
Will there be dvd support for the Wii? There already is.... sorta, but just give it time for it to become popular. Any gaming company putting Netflix on their console is just solidifying it's place as the central unit for any household. Put a Mac link on a Wii, or make it able to check Gmail and you're on your way to ruling the world. Apple Tv? Google Tv? Sure, but you have to buy new things.
Streaming movies onto something you already have? That's the way to go. Turn the Wii or PS3 or 360 into a DVR, and whichever one does that first will make an even bigger leap forward. Motion controls are fine and good, but really look at what's selling, and what made a huge reception when it was released? Streaming movies. Gaming companies, listen up- Figure out how to make peoples lives easier by using your console in new and different ways, figure out how to allow people to focus their entertainment center around your console (integrated multi-speaker digital audio systems on consoles?), and you'll quickly see your gaming console become an entertainment console for the whole family.
Then from there you release the nano-machines and propaganda and start controlling our brains! Or just allow me to stream the office onto my ps3, meh, whichever.
So when the consoles got ahold of netflix I was intrigued, but I mean come on.... I'm an internet pirate. I don't need no stinkin' legitimate discs.
Then a terrible tragedy befell my little town of Dougopia, population this guy.
My 2tb hard drive, she died.
At last count she was about 3/4 full, of movies. That was, needless to say, a ton of movies. I had tv shows, entire series of shows, all sorts of movies, bluray movies...I just.... there were a lot.
I went into denial for a few weeks, saying I could fix it. (For those computer geeks out there, the arm ripped the disc internally, for those non-computer geeks- bad news bears) Couldn't be saved. So I decided to cut my losses and move on with my life.
Begrudgingly I went to a redbox. Now lemme stop ya right there, I'm not promoting Redbox specifically, nor did they pay me (ALTHOUGH THEY TOTALLY COULD IF THEY WANTED TO). Conversely, both my theatre and my movie rental place are owned by a certain corporation.... strange....
To the point. I'm not promoting them, I've tried the Blockbuster one as well, and well, Redbox has it down better. $1 movies. Even if I go 30 times in a single month I'm only out $30. Not terrible. So I'll rent a few movies until I've watched basically everything they have to offer and I'll be done for the week. (Renting at least what I haven't seen). I should also mention I love renting a movie from one part of the county or state, and returning it to another. I imagine somewhere it confuses the hell out of some customer service person somewhere.
So maybe like 3 movies a week, and I'm done with you redbox. until next week.
(I watch like a movie a day, get off my back, it's not that I have a ton of time, it's that I enjoy watching a movie before bed. Look, don't make this into something, we all do weird things before we go to bed, or when we're in the bathroom or something. LOOK STOP JUDGING ME, I THOUGHT WE WUZ PALS)
ahem.
So. ps3 and me have been together a lot these last few days, so when it said "hey we have netflix, wanna try for free? I said. Alright new beginnings, since my.... hardriv... *sniffle*...
Now this ain't going into some big to-do about Netflix. If you use a computer, and you're not an internet pirate, and you're a decent person you probably know the general concept, great. I really like it. I think. I dunno, it's a lot to take in. At last count I owned about 500+ dvds, so.... netflix is a different beast altogether (nextflix is a different beast).
I think, and this might be a broad generalization here but that's what we're good for...
NINTENDO PUTTING NETFLIX ON THE Wii-
THE SMARTEST CHOICE A GAMING COMPANY HAS EVER MADE.
Ever.
You take a wildly successful product like the wii, you attempt to get people to centralize their home entertainment around that system, and you throw them netflix? You're going about it exactly how you should.
Will there be dvd support for the Wii? There already is.... sorta, but just give it time for it to become popular. Any gaming company putting Netflix on their console is just solidifying it's place as the central unit for any household. Put a Mac link on a Wii, or make it able to check Gmail and you're on your way to ruling the world. Apple Tv? Google Tv? Sure, but you have to buy new things.
Streaming movies onto something you already have? That's the way to go. Turn the Wii or PS3 or 360 into a DVR, and whichever one does that first will make an even bigger leap forward. Motion controls are fine and good, but really look at what's selling, and what made a huge reception when it was released? Streaming movies. Gaming companies, listen up- Figure out how to make peoples lives easier by using your console in new and different ways, figure out how to allow people to focus their entertainment center around your console (integrated multi-speaker digital audio systems on consoles?), and you'll quickly see your gaming console become an entertainment console for the whole family.
Then from there you release the nano-machines and propaganda and start controlling our brains! Or just allow me to stream the office onto my ps3, meh, whichever.
Thursday, October 21, 2010
Most Bloggers are Elitists anyways.....
“Stan, you never have anything nice to say about any game you have ever played.”
This was said to me not too long ago while at work after I told a co-worker that I didn’t like Medal of Honor that much and I described to him why I hated the multiplayer. He then said the above remark and I thought about it for a minute, and he is only mostly right, because most games I play (especially lately) I find several things wrong with and nit pick. Here’s the reason why: IT’S MY JOB. Not in the sense I get paid for it nor do it professionally, though that would be the dream come true, but my bachelor’s degree is Game Design, so if I come off as a bit of a game elitist, it’s because I feel it’s indicative of my future career path to judge games and find out what not to do. You see, I have, like many gamers, played “perfect games”. What’s a perfect game you ask? It’s a game where, there is no fault with it. From the graphics to the sound, from the story to the art direction, I have played games that are quite literally perfect in every way. These games are benchmarks that the developers strive to hope to be one day. The funny thing of it is, most gamers have played these games and said, “This feels a lot like blank.”
Let me tell all of you this, I nit pick because I have seen the Elysium Fields of video games, and I know gaming companies can do better, so then they fall just epically flat on their face and I find myself out money because of it, I feel I am allowed to be angry enough to spread my rage to others so they may never play this game and thus give a developer money for a game that didn’t earn it. Here, if you want my personal opinion on which are some of the best games in their field (genre) then read on and I will provide explanations as to why:
RPG
-Final Fantasy 1
If it weren’t for this game, RPGs would not be the way they are. I mean, picking your four character classes and going off to save the world, this is what all RPGs are based off of, and this game just gets it right in every way. As a matter of fact, you’re not a true RPG fan unless you have played this one. It’s for NES, PSOne, GBA, DS, DS Lite, and PSP, so you have no real reason to not play this title.
Fighting
-Capcom Vs. SNK 2 (Dreamcast, Arcade, or PS2 version)
Yes, Street Fighter 2 is of course the classic to refer to for absolute purity in fighting games, but CvS2 just got everything about this formula so perfect. A large character roster, the most well-balanced fighting engine I have ever seen…and the Groove system…a stroke of design genius for balance in a fighting game. Bonus, it wasn’t too difficult so that a newb could never play it (looking at you Virtua Fighter), but not so easy that the hardcore would be turned off to it (Super Smash Bros…you’re guilty).
First-Person Shooter (single player)
- Half-Life 2. You can take your Halo’s and shove them, because Half-Life 2 (episodes included) does everything Halo wants so desperately to do. FPS’ have rag doll physics…oh, that’s nice…can you use those physics to grab your enemy and turn THEM into a bullet? Can you set traps with turrets, mines, explosive barrels, and grenades? And can you do all this while telling a good, coherent, stick to the true sci-fi setting story with excellent voice acting. I mean, I played and beat this game about a week ago, and it’s even aged well being six years old! Plus, great multiplayer games like Counter-Strike Source, Day of Defeat, etc. have spawned from this game. What games have you spawned Halo? Oh, right…..Halo Wars…..nice, I suppose…(NOTE: I like Halo, it’s just no where near the best).
First-Person Shooter (Multiplayer)
- I gave quite a bit of thought to this, and I am going to say…. Counter Strike Source. I gave this game the award because it’s easy to pick up, it’s fun beyond words, and there are plenty of active servers with a good ping so you don’t get disconnects. Should it have gone to Team Fortress or Quake or any Unreal Tournament game? Nope. CS: Source has the balance and realism that many military shooters strive for. Don’t get me wrong, Team Fortress 2 is pretty nice, but really you can just pick a heavy class and aim at the choke points and you will rack up the kills. CS: Source takes skill, aim, and a might bit of dumb luck to enjoy this fantastic shooter. It’s on of the few games that, ever since it’s inception, the game is still active online.
Action
Super Metroid. Quite possibly one of the best games ever. Did you ever wonder why Castlevania changed its formula to one of non-linear adventure? This is the reason why. It’s the crown jewel in the Metroid series, and all action-adventure games (especially 2-D ones) beg to be as epic as this one. Download it off WiiWare and find out why it is one of the best game eva.
Adventure
-The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. I was the first person to buy this game at my local Best Buy the day it was released for the Wii. No regrets. I played this game like it was going out of style. This game is the spiritual sequel to the equally perfect game Zelda: Ocarina of Time, and the only reason this one wins the perfect game is because it’s bigger. That’s really the only reason. Both are perfect, this one just lasts longer and this it is slightly more perfect, because you can never have enough Zelda.
Puzzle
Portal.
Just take that in for a minute. Portal. A game that takes, on average, 4 hours to beat, no multiplayer, no large array of weapons or classes, no fire levels nor random traveling to different worlds, etc. It just about a test subject that gets an item that creates a two-way portal on flat surfaces. Insert puzzle rooms…and you have perfection. Once you beat this game, it has a stunning, hilarious, and quizzical ending. And that’s it. It’s perfect.
And Finally…..The Perfect Video Game. This is the game where, in all honesty, there is nothing wrong with this video game. If any one hates this game, it’s because they hate video games, and that’s ok. I mean, to each their own, but you’re not allowed to say you like video games if you hate this game. It is perfect. It is innovative. The sound score is repetitive, but it's meant to be this way and it becomes a strength and not a fault.
This game is………..
Tetris.
What moe needs to be said? It's Tetris. No game ever made has the same feeling of stress relief and stress build up as Tetris. No puzzle game for hat matter comes close to the simplicity and yet the depth this game has. Am I really harping that much on Tetris? YES! Because it does every thing right! My own Grandmother can play Tetris! My Grandmother-In Law bought a PS2 THE DAY IT WAS RELEASED JUST TO PLAY TETRIS! If you don't know how to play Tetris, then I apologize, you have either need had the chance to or you are clinically retarded and that is sad. My wife didn't know who Michael Jackson was before he died, but even she has played Tetris several times. It's for the newbs, it's for the hardcore, it's....it's...the most perfect game ever created.
Saying you hate Tetris is like saying you hate all forms of art. Translation: You just hate most mediums of entertainment and escape. It’s like saying "The Godfather" is an awful movie. Whether you LIKE it or not, for a movie that does literally everything right, so kick back with some popcorn and appreciate it.
So am I an elitist? Yes. I have to be. We all should be. If we do not judge games for what they are, then developers big and small will continue to release bad games or half-baked games and the industry will have to trudge it’s way up the mountain of art to be taken seriously. Games are art. Judge them as such, please.
New Vegas, PC Gaming, and the smell of Maureen.
Dear Sir,
Although I am grateful that you chose my store to shop in, I do apologize that I wasn't able to assist you in the way you required. You see sir, PC gaming is on it's way out. It's not your system, it's not how much money you spent on your newest rig, honestly, it has nothing to do with you. PC Gaming is going the way of the PSP. It's dying, but no one wants to admit it. Look, sir, I understand that you're a "pc gamer from way back in the day". I get that. I am also that sort. However, I quickly realized that PC gaming was becoming more and more difficult with the passing time. I am throughly impressed that you spend $1200 on your desktop, and will refrain from mentioning that my laptop cost considerably more, and it's portable, and has internet. To simply answer your question, yes you will need internet if you want to use a PC to game.
Kisses,
Doug
bless his heart. The guy came in and wanted New Vegas for the PC. Alright. I asked him if his system specs matched what the game required, as Fallout (and most modern pc games) require a hefty rig. He said "probably". He went on to inform me that he didn't have the internet and he's getting tired of games that require online verification.
Well sir, them's the breaks. You see, PC gaming has become such a bastardized form of gaming that the companies have done everything possible to prevent pirating, to no avail. So, they went a bit overboard and forced gamers to plunder their games and hoist their flag proving the bounty was theirs. (I deeply apologize for every bit of that). Gaming companies basically said "alright, if you want to play a pc game, prove you have it. Use steam or another online verification system to prove that every single time you play the game, it's actually you playing it, and you actually have the disk".
Well this solved and problem and created another. The great part about it is now people don't need the disk to play the game....sometimes. Only if they buy the game online. However, it requires internet. Basically when Steam came on the scene, yours truly stepped out of the scene. I'm not much of a gaming pirate, since I know how much work goes into it, and it's not like a movie where some asshat is getting a half a milli for a role. (zing). So I never really pirated games, but I also never really liked online verification, and how steam had to run to play the game. Look, this isn't about anything other than PC gaming is dying.
So then the guy asks me if New Vegas is any good. Well, it's been out for a few days, I've gotten into it, and I gotta tell ya.... I'm on the fence.
As I've told numerous people by now, I put 250 hours into Fallout 3.
Yeah yeah, we get it. You're a champion. Not so, it's not me bragging, it's me proclaiming my love for that game. 250 hours, that's a ton. All into one single thing. For that time, it was my passion. My character lovingly crafted from start to finish. The storyline was embracing, the characters all individual and great in their own aspects. My first playthrough I could care less about the locals, I simply wanted to find my dad. It drove my character and my gaming. The 2nd time I wanted to explore the world, and learn all that I could about the town, and become their savior.
I put hours upon hours into that game. The experience was what drove me. This new world, the small groups of people simply trying to survive. It was a great design.
But this latest idea of yours....
Here's what I don't like about Fallout: New Vegas. The town and world are pretty much established. Ok, so take away the post apocalyptic aspects out. The whole world was exploration, now everyone pretty much knows everything in New Vegas. Ugh. Alright.
Basically, New Vegas is like War and Peace 2, Dr. Strangelove 2, Return to House on Haunted Hill, it's a sequel to something that didn't really need it.
The original work was in and of it's self, a masterpiece. I feel no obligation to New Vegas. No desire to give it copious amounts of my life. It's become a standard 20 hour shooter in my mind. It's a sad thing to see, but that's what happens nowadays. Art games become a product more than a piece.
Should you buy this game? Only if-
1. If you've never played Fallout 3
2. You played a little of Fallout 3 and liked the idea but weren't obsessed.
3. You like shooters, fast paced and very diverse.
Here's the thing, no matter what, you'll sell back this game. Do gamers look too often for the next game to become obsessed with? I'd say some do. I, for one, constantly look for the next game that will define a genre, or define a gaming culture. So standing listening to this guy ramble on about Fallout and his pc, I remembered the days of PC gaming when every title was prolific, every title was HUGE.
And I though, of what was easily one of my two favorite PC games ever. Two of the greatest games created by the same company.
Full Throttle and Grim Fandango
LucasArts and Tim Schafer. Amazing. Wikipedia quote!
"Schafer is best known as the designer of critically acclaimed games Full Throttle, Grim Fandango, Psychonauts, and Brütal Legend, and co-designer of the early classics The Secret of Monkey Island, Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge and Day of the Tentacle. He is known in the video game industry for his story-telling and comedy-writing abilities."
(if you click the colored titled, you get the wikis of the game, WIN)
It was unfortunate to look back at what PC gaming was, and how many epic games were released on it, to see that it's now become a haven of Farmville and run of the mill MMOs.
SO. To cheer myself up, I found a link. It walks you through Full Throttle, in a different format.
ENJOY!
Click Here For Full Throttle!
Although I am grateful that you chose my store to shop in, I do apologize that I wasn't able to assist you in the way you required. You see sir, PC gaming is on it's way out. It's not your system, it's not how much money you spent on your newest rig, honestly, it has nothing to do with you. PC Gaming is going the way of the PSP. It's dying, but no one wants to admit it. Look, sir, I understand that you're a "pc gamer from way back in the day". I get that. I am also that sort. However, I quickly realized that PC gaming was becoming more and more difficult with the passing time. I am throughly impressed that you spend $1200 on your desktop, and will refrain from mentioning that my laptop cost considerably more, and it's portable, and has internet. To simply answer your question, yes you will need internet if you want to use a PC to game.
Kisses,
Doug
bless his heart. The guy came in and wanted New Vegas for the PC. Alright. I asked him if his system specs matched what the game required, as Fallout (and most modern pc games) require a hefty rig. He said "probably". He went on to inform me that he didn't have the internet and he's getting tired of games that require online verification.
Well sir, them's the breaks. You see, PC gaming has become such a bastardized form of gaming that the companies have done everything possible to prevent pirating, to no avail. So, they went a bit overboard and forced gamers to plunder their games and hoist their flag proving the bounty was theirs. (I deeply apologize for every bit of that). Gaming companies basically said "alright, if you want to play a pc game, prove you have it. Use steam or another online verification system to prove that every single time you play the game, it's actually you playing it, and you actually have the disk".
Well this solved and problem and created another. The great part about it is now people don't need the disk to play the game....sometimes. Only if they buy the game online. However, it requires internet. Basically when Steam came on the scene, yours truly stepped out of the scene. I'm not much of a gaming pirate, since I know how much work goes into it, and it's not like a movie where some asshat is getting a half a milli for a role. (zing). So I never really pirated games, but I also never really liked online verification, and how steam had to run to play the game. Look, this isn't about anything other than PC gaming is dying.
So then the guy asks me if New Vegas is any good. Well, it's been out for a few days, I've gotten into it, and I gotta tell ya.... I'm on the fence.
As I've told numerous people by now, I put 250 hours into Fallout 3.
Yeah yeah, we get it. You're a champion. Not so, it's not me bragging, it's me proclaiming my love for that game. 250 hours, that's a ton. All into one single thing. For that time, it was my passion. My character lovingly crafted from start to finish. The storyline was embracing, the characters all individual and great in their own aspects. My first playthrough I could care less about the locals, I simply wanted to find my dad. It drove my character and my gaming. The 2nd time I wanted to explore the world, and learn all that I could about the town, and become their savior.
I put hours upon hours into that game. The experience was what drove me. This new world, the small groups of people simply trying to survive. It was a great design.
But this latest idea of yours....
Here's what I don't like about Fallout: New Vegas. The town and world are pretty much established. Ok, so take away the post apocalyptic aspects out. The whole world was exploration, now everyone pretty much knows everything in New Vegas. Ugh. Alright.
Basically, New Vegas is like War and Peace 2, Dr. Strangelove 2, Return to House on Haunted Hill, it's a sequel to something that didn't really need it.
The original work was in and of it's self, a masterpiece. I feel no obligation to New Vegas. No desire to give it copious amounts of my life. It's become a standard 20 hour shooter in my mind. It's a sad thing to see, but that's what happens nowadays. Art games become a product more than a piece.
Should you buy this game? Only if-
1. If you've never played Fallout 3
2. You played a little of Fallout 3 and liked the idea but weren't obsessed.
3. You like shooters, fast paced and very diverse.
Here's the thing, no matter what, you'll sell back this game. Do gamers look too often for the next game to become obsessed with? I'd say some do. I, for one, constantly look for the next game that will define a genre, or define a gaming culture. So standing listening to this guy ramble on about Fallout and his pc, I remembered the days of PC gaming when every title was prolific, every title was HUGE.
And I though, of what was easily one of my two favorite PC games ever. Two of the greatest games created by the same company.
Full Throttle and Grim Fandango
LucasArts and Tim Schafer. Amazing. Wikipedia quote!
"Schafer is best known as the designer of critically acclaimed games Full Throttle, Grim Fandango, Psychonauts, and Brütal Legend, and co-designer of the early classics The Secret of Monkey Island, Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge and Day of the Tentacle. He is known in the video game industry for his story-telling and comedy-writing abilities."
(if you click the colored titled, you get the wikis of the game, WIN)
It was unfortunate to look back at what PC gaming was, and how many epic games were released on it, to see that it's now become a haven of Farmville and run of the mill MMOs.
SO. To cheer myself up, I found a link. It walks you through Full Throttle, in a different format.
ENJOY!
Click Here For Full Throttle!
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Why I bought at PS3. And why you shouldn't?
I bought a PS3.
Now I know what you're thinking. "Didn't you already own one?" Yeah, that was a long time ago, when I had tons of cash and nothing better to do. Back when I was a cop and had hair, look that's not the point.
Of course that one was sold years ago to buy more video games or some such. Why did I buy another? The local used game store had a 80 gb Backwards Compatible PS3, in mint condition. Whoever owned this thing either didn't realize what they had, or kept it clean and didn't realize what it was worth. At any rate, I picked it up for $190. A steal considering they sell for upwards of $300ish nowadays.
But no really, why did I buy another? I'm not entirely sure. There's a fairly lengthy list of games I always wanted to play on PS3, not really to own. I never really heard of a title I wanted to own, just wanted to try. I always felt like I was missing out. In all actuality had I been? No of course not. Here's the short list.
MGS4
God Of War 3
Uncharted Series
Infamous
Heavy Rain
Killzone 2
Nothin big right? Well... Sony. Those punks. They're re-releasing the Sly Cooper series, AND Shadows of Colossus for the ps3, which fancy new graphics. $40 bucks each. I.... you.... the...
Sony has apparently gotten smarter while I've been away from them. They understood that there were a core of gamers who were so devoted to their ps2 titles that they are slowly but surely rereleasing those games on ps3 discs. Persona series take note (yeah, you're the reason I have a psp and a ps2, let's change that)
Think of a PS2 title that you couldn't live without. For me one of those was Shadows, another was Sly, Persona 4 is on that list, as well as Bully. (I'm literally leafing through my ps2 games while I make this list). There are a few older ones like Okage, Escape from Monkey Island, and MSG 2 &; 3. Let's not forget FFX. So is Sony going to re-release all the PS2 games kids love. Smart move.
DOES THIS MEAN YOU SHOULD BUY A PS3?
Still no.
It has a blueray player!
Great. Enjoy rebuying all of your movies jerk-hat. Then again when they're in 3d.
So what is it about the ps3 that made me buy it? Their promises I suppose. That and how a few titles have the spit and polish rarely seen in a game nowadays. Killzone 2 is an example. That game is slick, classy, well made. It's like what Halo is with an actual game behind it. *zing*
Metal Gear Solid 4 is a deep game, lots of hidden crap I'll never take the time to not care about after I find it. God of War 3 is a huge game worthy of a single playthrrough to watch the movie of it and call it a night.
Dare I say it? The PS3 makes epic games better.
There. Said. And I think it's fairly true. MGS4, Uncharted, God Of War, Heavy Rain. All of these are games that blur the line between art film and game. Annoying as hell to play usually, but brilliant to watch if you've been following along with the story.
Recently I've been working on a backlog of 360 games, playing those games that I'd been meaning to play but never got around to it. *cough*deadly premonition, blood bowl, fear 2 *cough*. When I finally accepted that playing a game just to play it is a lot like typing a blog on a mac in a starbucks. You're simply doing it to be seen doing it, and so if someone asks, you can say you did it.
I uh.. ahem.
So I buy a ps3 to play the epic games? Sounds about right.
Will I admit that the biggest reason is me finding out that a $3 hdmi to dvi cable makes a ps3 playable on a computer monitor? in HD? No. Of course I won't admit that. Now where's that damn barista? I needs another venti latte. I... shut up.
(If ya'll curious about Stan's comment about my blog concerning gaming magazines, well here's the short and skinny: I had a lengthy blog/complaint about a certain gaming magazine. Then I remembered that I work for said magazine/ gaming store. It was my reason for my hesitation in posting in, you know, kids losing their jobs because of blogs and the what what. So instead I revamped my blog into a letter, and sent that to my boss-men. Nothing changed.... at first..... This newest issue of said gaming magazine? They reviewed games that came out that month, AND games yet to be released. Big enough change? I suppose, will it stick? Who knows? Did I make this change? Of course not, but I imagine enough people complained about the recent downfall for them to reconsider their ways. Gamers do in fact have some sway. For we run the internets. We are anon. *winks*)
Now I know what you're thinking. "Didn't you already own one?" Yeah, that was a long time ago, when I had tons of cash and nothing better to do. Back when I was a cop and had hair, look that's not the point.
Of course that one was sold years ago to buy more video games or some such. Why did I buy another? The local used game store had a 80 gb Backwards Compatible PS3, in mint condition. Whoever owned this thing either didn't realize what they had, or kept it clean and didn't realize what it was worth. At any rate, I picked it up for $190. A steal considering they sell for upwards of $300ish nowadays.
But no really, why did I buy another? I'm not entirely sure. There's a fairly lengthy list of games I always wanted to play on PS3, not really to own. I never really heard of a title I wanted to own, just wanted to try. I always felt like I was missing out. In all actuality had I been? No of course not. Here's the short list.
MGS4
God Of War 3
Uncharted Series
Infamous
Heavy Rain
Killzone 2
Nothin big right? Well... Sony. Those punks. They're re-releasing the Sly Cooper series, AND Shadows of Colossus for the ps3, which fancy new graphics. $40 bucks each. I.... you.... the...
Sony has apparently gotten smarter while I've been away from them. They understood that there were a core of gamers who were so devoted to their ps2 titles that they are slowly but surely rereleasing those games on ps3 discs. Persona series take note (yeah, you're the reason I have a psp and a ps2, let's change that)
Think of a PS2 title that you couldn't live without. For me one of those was Shadows, another was Sly, Persona 4 is on that list, as well as Bully. (I'm literally leafing through my ps2 games while I make this list). There are a few older ones like Okage, Escape from Monkey Island, and MSG 2 &; 3. Let's not forget FFX. So is Sony going to re-release all the PS2 games kids love. Smart move.
DOES THIS MEAN YOU SHOULD BUY A PS3?
Still no.
It has a blueray player!
Great. Enjoy rebuying all of your movies jerk-hat. Then again when they're in 3d.
So what is it about the ps3 that made me buy it? Their promises I suppose. That and how a few titles have the spit and polish rarely seen in a game nowadays. Killzone 2 is an example. That game is slick, classy, well made. It's like what Halo is with an actual game behind it. *zing*
Metal Gear Solid 4 is a deep game, lots of hidden crap I'll never take the time to not care about after I find it. God of War 3 is a huge game worthy of a single playthrrough to watch the movie of it and call it a night.
Dare I say it? The PS3 makes epic games better.
There. Said. And I think it's fairly true. MGS4, Uncharted, God Of War, Heavy Rain. All of these are games that blur the line between art film and game. Annoying as hell to play usually, but brilliant to watch if you've been following along with the story.
Recently I've been working on a backlog of 360 games, playing those games that I'd been meaning to play but never got around to it. *cough*deadly premonition, blood bowl, fear 2 *cough*. When I finally accepted that playing a game just to play it is a lot like typing a blog on a mac in a starbucks. You're simply doing it to be seen doing it, and so if someone asks, you can say you did it.
I uh.. ahem.
So I buy a ps3 to play the epic games? Sounds about right.
Will I admit that the biggest reason is me finding out that a $3 hdmi to dvi cable makes a ps3 playable on a computer monitor? in HD? No. Of course I won't admit that. Now where's that damn barista? I needs another venti latte. I... shut up.
(If ya'll curious about Stan's comment about my blog concerning gaming magazines, well here's the short and skinny: I had a lengthy blog/complaint about a certain gaming magazine. Then I remembered that I work for said magazine/ gaming store. It was my reason for my hesitation in posting in, you know, kids losing their jobs because of blogs and the what what. So instead I revamped my blog into a letter, and sent that to my boss-men. Nothing changed.... at first..... This newest issue of said gaming magazine? They reviewed games that came out that month, AND games yet to be released. Big enough change? I suppose, will it stick? Who knows? Did I make this change? Of course not, but I imagine enough people complained about the recent downfall for them to reconsider their ways. Gamers do in fact have some sway. For we run the internets. We are anon. *winks*)
Insurance and Pizza
All right, serious time. We don’t just review games here; we actually talk about over things, like sound for video games and apparently game magazines (it’s an unpublished post Doug never got around to, but I read it and Doug, I say post it up if you want). Right now, I’m going to educate the masses on some things to truly take into consideration. First of all would be insurance. I know, I know, boring f’ing subject and I am sure you don’t need me as well as the law telling you to have it, but here me out….
Look around yourself right now. Not really at your cats/dogs or anyone else, but at your stuff. How many game systems do you own? If you are reading this on a computer, how much is it worth? How much would all the electronics you own in your home be worth? Is it a high number? For me, short couple months ago, my electronics were worth well over $10,000. That’s including software loaded on computers and everything. How do I know this, because readers, about a month or so ago, my home was broken into and just about every electronic device I owned besides my TV was stolen from me. BUT, there is no need for tears or remorse, because I had insurance. I rent my apartment, so renter’s insurance seemed like a smart idea at the time. It ended up being the smartest idea I had had in a long time. Within a two weeks, I got reimburse for my lost stuff and just re-purchased it.
Sob story aside, this is an important topic for all serious gamers. We, gamers as a whole, dump billions of dollars into this industry with software and hardware purchases. Heck, the DLC alone is a constant moneymaker for the industry. All of have probably, at minimum, about $1300 worth of electronic equipment we can play games on in our home. My renter’s insurance is $22 a month and covers about $10,000 JUST in computer equipment. Is there a gamer out there that can’t afford $22 a month? If you can buy a new game a month, you can cover yourself for $22 a month. Am I selling you all out there insurance? No. I haven’t even mentioned a company or agent, nor will I. This is just something to make you all think, that what if right NOW, or when you were out at work like I was, somebody robbed you blind of everything you hold near and dear…. Would you be able to re-coup those costs immediately, or just take it as a loss? If you happen to ever be a victim of a crime like theft, at least have your “rainy day” affairs in order and sleep with some damn peace of mind.
On to more entertaining things, like pizza. I love pizza; it’s my favorite food. I would eat it every single day so long as I could switch up the toppings.All gamers love pizza, we thrive on it!. I am actually surprised more marketing isn’t done to us through pizza boxes, as I think it would be highly effective.. I also love this digital age we live in. I love being able to pay every single bill I get in the mail online before I go to work without writing a single check nor buying a single postage stamp. What I don’t love is the digital age combined with pizza, at least, not as it stands right now.
Have you ever ordered pizza from any pizza related website? Don’t do it, but try to fake order a pizza from any famous pizza establishment. I don’t care what site you went to, because they will ALL ask for your email address, and you have to give them your email to complete the online order. Does this seem odd? No. Here is a little homework though…. This excerpt is from the PRIVACY POLICY (or there lack of) from Pizza Hut’s website:
Company may use your Personal Information for any of the following purposes: (1) to understand the use of the Site and make improvements; (2) to fulfill prizes; (3) to register visitors for online activities such as: online ordering, sweepstakes, contests, surveys, employment applications, comment forms, or any other online interactive activities; (4) to respond to specific requests from visitors; (5) to obtain parental consent from visitors under 18 years of age, when necessary; (6) to provide any necessary notices to visitors or their parent or legal guardians if situations prompt such notification; (7) to protect the security or integrity of the Site if necessary; (8) to send notices of special promotions, offers or solicitations through your selected opt-in methods; and (9) in general, to promote and market Company's business and various products.
In addition, from time to time, We may market certain third-party services through Our Site. Should you choose to accept an offer from a third party, We will pass your relevant Personal Information, which may include your name, address, and credit/debit card number, to that third party.
Read the bold caps. Pizza Hut being the worst offender, with Papa Johns being the best case scenario, all pizza websites guarantee that they will basically spam the living fu** out of your inbox should you order pizza from then once. I ordered pizza online from Dominos years ago, and now my Yahoo! Mailbox completely unusable. No, literally, I haven’t been there in over a year now because the amount of spam Dominos and their affiliates sent me was overwhelming. I think the most infuriating thing is that ALL pizza companies do this. Are they hard up for cash or something? Is this their way of marketing to us, to slam us with junk mail, forcing us to unsubscribe from one, only to have two others join in their place?
End point, Love pizza, enjoy pizza, just use your phone to order it.
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