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| by Timmy Walnuts | March 10th, 2009 - 6:16 pm
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Guitar Hero has been THE staple for music games ever since its introduction into the gaming world back nearly four years ago in November of 2005. Developed by Harmonix and published by RedOctane, it was deemed innovative, groundbreaking, or in one simple word: awesome. Gamers and non-gamers alike flocked to the virtual guitar as if free handjobs were included with every purchase. Everyone and their sister has either owned or at least played some incarnation of the game. And as Activision got their grubby, greedy little hands on the franchise in 2006, an explosion of music-oriented games was just around the bend.
When RedOctane was bought out by Activision, a $100 million expenditure simply for the Guitar Hero name mind you, Harmonix went they’re own way and were eventually gobbled up by MTV Networks within the same year. The final collaboration between the two companies originally behind the Guitar Hero series turned out to be one of the least critically acclaimed titles, with GH: Rocks The 80’s receiving lukewarm reviews at best because of its high price-tag and meager track list. With the two original companies going their separate ways, the music-game genre was ready to explode with the highly anticipated sequel to GH2 and the arrival of innovation delivered by then “newcomer,” Rock Band.
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| by Danny Internets | March 9th, 2009 - 12:43 pm
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The Blame Game
Since the dawn of civilization mankind has both relied on nature’s bounty for subsistence and struggled with for survival. Our relationship with the environment has forever been wrought with conflict, yet humans have thus far established a tenuous equilibrium with our world, and a shaky piece with its iron-fisted monarch, Mother Nature.
That is, until now.
The truce was boldly tested last year with the widely publicized death of avid 15-year-old Canadian gamer Brandon Crisp. During Thankgiving weekend of 2008, Brandon’s parents, Steve and Angelika, confiscated their son’s Xbox 360 after it has been discovered that Brandon had been skipping school to play Call of Duty 4. The boy’s response was to run away from home. Three weeks later his body was found, the cause of death due to fatal fall from a tree which he’d climbed. Hundreds of volunteers had turned out to search for the Ontario boy before the story came to its tragic conclusion.
Because of Brandon’s passion for gaming and the circumstances surrounding his death, it was only a matter of time before the media would point a finger at gamer culture in an effort to assign blame. Crisp had reportedly been playing Call of Duty 4 competitively for 6-8 hours daily in an attempt to increase his standing on the Major League Gaming (MLG) ladder. Following the confiscation of his Xbox 360, the teen informs his parents that he plans to run away. Dismissing the statement as an idle threat, his parents jokingly tell him to dress warmly. Three weeks later he is found dead.
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| by Danny Internets | March 6th, 2009 - 3:07 pm
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In yet another example of its dedicated support for Team Fortress 2, Valve released yet another update for the multiplayer game yesterday. Highlights of the patch include the elimination of “duck spamming” (a tactic used to by ducktards to deny snipers headshots), more accurate hitboxes, and, most notably, the re-introduction of spy side-stabbing (removed in the recent Scout class update).
March 5, 2009, 3:34 pm - Valve - Product Update
Gameplay changes
- Added a duck timer that prevents duck spamming while running around on-ground
- In-air, players are only allowed to duck once before they touch ground again
- Fixed several bounding box issues with jumping, falling, and rocket jump air-walking. Bounding box should be much more accurate there now
- Increased backstab check so that Spies can side-stab again
- When disguising, Spies now always start showing the primary weapon in their disguise, and can then switch it with the last-disguise key
Source
Yesterday’s TF2 update is the 12th patch the game has received since November of last year, which should be enough to convince any sane person of Team Fortress 2’s excellent developer support. In fact, the game has received 7 updates in the past month alone, including new weapons and maps added in the Scout Update, released 2/23/09. Further patches were issued within days of the initial release to fix newly discovered exploits and other bugs.
In contrast, Left 4 Dead, released November 21, 2008, has only received 6 game updates the same amount of time, which Read the rest of this entry »
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| by Danny Internets | March 4th, 2009 - 3:52 pm
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Since the debut of the Atari 2600 in 1977, gaming has secured a unique niche in popular culture. Like those from our childhood stories, books, movies, and television programs, characters from video games can evoke powerful feelings of nostalgia as we think back on simpler times. I’ll bet most of us can still remember that Christmas morning when we unwrapped our first NES–I know I can.
Given the lengthy history of gaming and how it has blossomed into a multi-billion dollar industry, it should come as no surprise that video games have blended with a number of facets of everyday life. And with those who grew up on the 2600 and NES now in their mid-20’s and 30’s, gaming isn’t just for kids anymore. From Halloween costumes to military training exercises to physical fitness, gaming is an ever-present part of our culture.
There are many out there who take their gaming seriously and insist that video games an artistic form of expression equal to any other visual or story-telling medium. With gamer art gathering steam as a successful underground phenomenon, it’s hard to argue otherwise. Every summer, hundreds of people flock to the annual mixed media I Am 8-bit exhibit hosted in Hollywood, California. The exhibit features artists from around the world who have demonstrated a love of old school gaming through their choice of subject matter. While the I Am 8-bit exhibit gives the public a glimpse at some exceptionally geeky eye-candy, there are of course untold thousands of other talented artists out there who have not had the fortune of having their work put on display.
Below you can find some incredibly cool examples of some lesser known artists, most of which have not yet been featured in I Am 8-bit. And if you haven’t already seen the exhibit pieces from the past few years, you can check them out here (2006), here (2007), and here (2008).
On to the gallery… Read the rest of this entry »
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| by Timmy Walnuts | March 2nd, 2009 - 9:04 am
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For anybody familiar with any sense of my work, you’ll notice that I’m a traditionalist when it comes to gaming, a quality that some may find redundant and questionable. Video games, as a concept, embody innovation, and for some, sticking to a formula that has been tried and tried again doesn’t quite cut it for their entertainment (or addiction. tomatoe - tomato). As much as I agree with this ideology, I find myself always looking for game that will satisfy my ongoing struggle for that experience that not only meets my desired level of innovation, but almost transcends time and brings upon a reversion to my preteen (or, God forbid, tween) self.
For I believe my views as a traditionalist simply break down to that: discovering mechanisms of feeling like I’m 10 or 11 again, where I quite possibly spent more time gaming than I did sleeping, as memories of burning out disc motors in not two, but THREE different PlayStations come creeping their way back into my head. These motors could only be broken by the very best that Sony PlayStation had to offer. Marathon nights of gaming rapidly transitioned into marathon mornings while I shat my pants because of the sheer horror that Resident Evil provided or getting virtually lost because of the countless amount of backtracking in Castlevania: Symphony of The Night’s reversed castle. As I enjoyed these titles, nothing compares to, in my opinion, the greatest PlayStation game of call time. I sent two PlayStations to the graveyard playing the almighty Chrono Cross (CC), and motherf**ker, I’m ready to end some more technological lives.
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| by Danny Internets | February 26th, 2009 - 12:10 pm
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50 Cent: Blood on the Sand
Oh, Fiddy. I’ve idly stood by as you polluted my radio and television over the years, but tainting my consoles is where I draw the line. You know, not long ago an artist would have been called a sell-out for whoring their image, but now we refer to this practice as being “entrepreneurial.” Either way, you still suck, and so does your game.
In a nutshell, Blood on the Sand is 50 Cent’s attempt at vicariously living every violent fantasy he’s ever dreamed of fulfilling. The game is ridiculous from start to finish, from its premise of 50 and his posse trying to reclaim a jewel-encrusted skull from Middle Eastern terrorist crime lords to being able to purchase rocket launchers in telephone booths to the invokable “Gangster Fire” mode that stops time around the protagonist. Yeah, he’s also a super hero.
Like Ann Rice novels and movies by Michael Bay, Blood on the Sand contains lots of eye candy, action, and explosions, but you walk away from the experience feeling sadly empty and stinking of shame. Is it fun? Maybe, but so is using a stick to push a hoop down a dirt road. Let’s raise the bar a bit.
Wheelman
In the latest creative abortion featuring Vinn Diesel driving fast cars, players get to experience the thrills, chills, lacerations, and dislocated vertebrae associated with high-speed automobile chases and collisions. Originally based on IP owned by Midway, Wheelman was sold off for publication by Ubisoft a few weeks ago when the company filed for bankruptcy. Perhaps if Midway had spent a little more time developing a new title (their last successful franchise was, what, NBA Jam?) and a little less time putting out uninspired games loosely based on cinematic sewage like The Fast and the Furious they might have been able to stay out of the red.
I can’t get over the fact that, at some point, important, presumably intelligent people got together and collectively decided that making this game was a good idea. When I first heard about this game I had hoped it was some kind of Mega Man villain spin-off. I still do.
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| by Timmy Walnuts | February 24th, 2009 - 4:58 pm
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Sony Computer Entertainment announced today that the PS3’s quirky, do-it-yourself smash hit LittleBigPlanet will be receiving a second installment, set for release on the PlayStation Portable sometime later in 2009. Sony has been spending ample amounts of time creating a larger buzz around their handheld system, releasing news of a complete aesthetic overhaul in the upcoming PSP-4000 model. It comes as no surprise that Sony, in an effort to lure more gamers to the “dark side” of the handheld market, has other PlayStation 3 franchises making their way to the small screen, with Resistance: Retribution hitting stores March 17th, as well as off-road racer MotorStorm slated for release also in 2009.
I’m all for further installments for popular PS3 franchises - as long as they are not rushed and are designed well enough around the PSP’s limitations. The current PSPs (1000, 2000, or 3000) all lack a second analog stick, which will hinder many gameplay mechanics for any of the PlayStation 3 titles that hope to mimic their success with future releases within their respective series. However, mock-up pictures of the new PSP-4000 model does portray the much needed dual analog sticks, allowing for vast amounts of titles to start making their way to the PSP.
First, I can only hope that if these PSP installments make their way onto the current hardware, that they are designed well enough to manage the system’s physical limitations. I can’t tell you how many times I wanted to maim the Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops development team for such a foolhardy camera system. Not only was it annoying, but completely necessary to Snake’s survival. Second, I really hope that the aesthetic overhaul that will be the PSP-4000 will see the light of day before titles like LittleBigPlanet hit the shelves. If these popular titles are forced to cripple themselves just so they may achieve portability, I don’t want ‘em. But with dual analog capability, future installments of PS3 franchises will be welcomed with open arms, and I’m sure Sony will appease; the dark side is strong in that one.
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| by Danny Internets | February 24th, 2009 - 10:24 am
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Blizzard dumped World of Warcraft patch 3.1.0 on to the Player Test Realm (PTR) downloader early this morning, which was greeted with the usual full spectrum of forum fanfare: threats of canceling subscriptions, rapid fanboyism, skillful trolls, and a few lost souls who still haven’t caught on that World of Warcraft comes down for 4+ hours every Tuesday.
Also typical of Blizzard’s patch releases, most of the changes seem to have been made without any grounding in the current state of the game and its community. While I do not maintain an active subscription with WoW anymore, I still frequent a number of blogs and unofficial news outlets from the community in an attempt to stay informed of new developments. The nearly unanimous sentiment is that Hunter dominance is ruining competitive PvP. So what does Blizzard do to address this?
Why, buff Hunters, of course!
World of Warcraft PTR Patch 3.1.0
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| by Timmy Walnuts | February 22nd, 2009 - 8:58 pm
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Being that the trailer has been out for a couple days now, the gaming world has had enough time to bask in the Mass Effect 2 teaser’s glory. After the news that ME2 will offer substantial connections with its prequel (see: BioWare Explores New Frontiers in Open-Ended Gaming), meaning that you’d best play the first one before the sequel comes out, BioWare’s release of such a tantalizing teaser continues to ready the gaming community for another all-encompassing journey into the deepest reaches of space, without uttering the words “Jedi” or “Klingon.” (Which is not to say they aren’t concurrently working on another massively ambitious Star Wars project.)
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The trailer begins with a nice expansive view of some planet within the game’s solar system, with what seems to be a log from the Normandy, Shepard’s ship from the first game. The log notes Shepard’s credentials, as well as listing companions from the prequel. It then transitions to the first human Spectre’s status, which is stated simply as “Killed In Action,” with an unknown extraterrestrial revealing itself right before the end of the video.
Now obviously, Commander Shepard can’t possibly be dead, for he is once again the game’s protagonist, as well as the known connectivity with the series’ first installment. This does allow for very deep story progressing, offering vast amount of plot possibilities. Is the final shot of the teaser somehow connected to the reapers? Or is it a new threat to the Council (or the Systems Alliance, depending on how you ended the first game)? Will there be more lesbian sex? Will Seth Green be back? Too bad we’re not going to find out until probably the 2010 holiday rush, considering that BioWare has Dragon Age: Origins set for release sometime during the second half of 2009.
But they’ve done well with this teaser; gamers around the world have been left with significant blue-ballage. I know I’m sweatin’ for more Mass Effect greatness, and I think I may just give the ol’ girl another go.
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| by Timmy Walnuts | February 20th, 2009 - 5:34 pm
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Have you misplaced a part of your youth? A convoluted, engrossing story? Individualized, quirky characters? A grossly overpowered, unusually stylish protagonist? Looking for that four person party? That menu driven combat? The countless amount of grinding? The four to six stage final boss? If you’ve answered yes to one or all of these questions, then you, like me, are itching for a traditional, console-style RPG.
I, more than most, am an RPG whore, and will play most anything that receives a decent amount of buzz. I’ve tackled everything, within the last few years, from Fallout 3 to Eternal Sonata to Rise of the Argonauts to Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core, with most titles offering an engrossing experience that I can thoroughly explore and enjoy a fulfilling journey. But most action RPGs (and similar variations), unless new aspects are added along the course of the game, get boring and repetitive. I don’t know how many times I had to put down FFVII:Crisis Core in disgust because I just couldn’t take the monotonous combination of mission-driven sidequests and mindless repetition of the “x” button. Or how I maxed out my level in Mass Effect before I could finish masturbating to the alien lesbian sex romp. Yet, I cannot dispel (you see that I did there?) my anger onto this sect of role playing games. I enjoy the adventure they produce, while also finding myself becoming completely engulfed by their respective worlds. And it is this fascination that has spread over the consumer faster than a chimpanzee can destroy a woman’s face (what, to soon?). The industry is driven by the consumer, and today, the largest group of people within the video gaming world is your 18-to-25-year-old male who’s looking for everything to be on a fast-paced track to EXTREME.
With the fast-paced, action obsessed youth being popped out of the uteri around the globe, it’s no surprise games like Mass Effect, Fable, The Elder Scrolls series, Tales of Vesperia, Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core, and Valkyria Chronicles have become the norm for RPGs on this 7th generation of console gaming. Yes, there have been some solitary, traditional releases over the three year span of this generation, but Lost Odyssey and Blue Dragon, as much fun as I had playing them, haven’t exactly satisfied this ongoing hunger that previous generations never failed to conquer. I have also enjoyed the re-releases of past classics; both Star Oceans and Chrono Trigger provided a great deal of fun, not to mention the resurgence of my youth. But on such a small screen and all three being games that I’ve beaten before, my role playing desires haven’t exactly been met. Planned RPG releases for either the 360 or the PS3 are somewhat numerous, albeit far between, but are either action or PC styled, with no satisfaction in sight. The traditional, console-style RPG, or sometimes “jRPG,” is a dying breed. A genre being slowly murdered by the consumer.
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