You’ve come to a moral crossroad, one leads to the path of virtuous, self-righteous glory, the other, a dismal path of thievery, death and destruction. Only one may be chosen, which do you follow? A superb concept for nearly any genre of video game. A concept, however, that has never truly been accomplished. Morality is not as simple as good or evil, an aspect that seems to have been lost over the past 10 years since the release of BioWare masterpiece, the original Baldur’s Gate (and subsequent sequels). Even though there were more specifics tied to your choices in BG, a true “moral compass” feature has yet to be done correctly.
When I had heard Peter Molyneux flaunt his original visions for Fable, I couldn’t help but get excited. An entire game where the moral decisions you make will completely impact how your journey unfolds? Sign me the **** up! Yet, false promises and hyped game mechanics have slowly been becoming almost somewhat of a norm, whether the game “lacks” certain content and then makes you pay for it (ahem…Resident Evil) or it just simply doesn’t live up to its name. Yet, these heartbreaks are flagrant among games that focus around one’s decisions and moral capacities. And its about damn time we get a game that can keep ALL its promises, not just some (or one).
As cliche as it seems to have become to nitpick Fable’s shortcomings, it still stands as the prime example of both morality driven gaming and failure to meet expectations. As much as I’d like to bash both Molyneux and his company’s inability to follow through with ideas, I’m more concerned with playing a game where my choices aren’t simply seen as good or as evil. In the first Fable, your decisions were very simple, kill the thieves and protect the innocent, you gain points for your “good side.” Murder the helpless and steal from the poor, tally some points on that “evil side.” Furthermore, your appearances affected your moral compass as well, for if you adorn certain clothing you’ll be perceived as noble or scary, keeping that good and evil, black and white comparison continuous. Fable II generally did much of the same, tweaking certain aspects and adding the concepts of Purity and Corruption. Admittedly, Lionhead Studios did make slight progress in veering away from such stark contrasts, as one could be evil yet still be pure, and vice versa.
I was taking a little stroll through the internet today, and when I’m poking around aimlessly, I generally don’t find anything of much interest. But today felt different. First came the most amazingly awesome thing I’ve seen in a long time. This has got to be the bestMetroid cosplay ever, if not the best cosplay of all time. Not to mention she’s pretty smokin’. But continuing with this Metroid theme, I became curious to when we could expect another to be released. And wouldn’t you know it? The official Japanese Metroid site has a banner at the bottom of the screen, after the flash intro, that simply states “Another Side Story - Coming Soon” with a picture of a space pirate next to it. Yes, I know this has been posted for about a month now, but I still needs my Metroid.
I just hope that this “side story” doesn’t mean another first person experience (and that its not on the Wii). We need a return to the series roots; a side-scrolling, exploratory adventure to continue where Metroid Fusion left off. I don’t want much. Just a nice, old-school feel with some new features, maybe a new type of beam weapon? Shit, I’ll even take a spin-off that focuses around the space pirates, just give me a classic Metroid game. The Castlevania series continues to garner much success using this formula, one that was created by the original Metroid team.Yet, we haven’t seen a seen a 2D installment for about five years now, and its about damn time for one.
Why not take the graphical success of Street Fighter IV, that 3D look on a 2D plane, and mesh it with the exploratory nature of the Metroid series? The game would look fantastic, and with the right development team, could bring the series back to its Super Metroid glory days. Hopefully some news will surface sooner rather than later; all we have is a dinky little banner that possibly points to the same Metroid Dread that was mentioned in Metroid Prime 3: Corruption.
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.
Ytmnd.com has got to be one of the internet’s most fascinating social phenomena. Originally started with a single page, “You’re the man now, dog!” quickly became a popular internet meme that was ultimately expanded into a website allowing users to submit their own content in the same format as the original site. Through the simple combination of static images or animated gifs with looping sound bytes, literally millions of new ytmnd’s have been created.
YTMND, an acronym for “You’re The Man Now, Dog!”, is a website community that centers around the creation of YTMNDs, which are pages featuring a juxtaposition of a single image, optionally animated or tiled, along with large zooming text and a looping sound file. YTMND is also the general term used to describe any such site.
As would be expected from any social media website, most of the content on the site focuses on topical and geek humor, and a large portion of the content borrows from or makes reference to the most beloved and canonized video games. Having been an active member of the community for a number of years, I have downvoted countless pieces of crap submitted by site users; however, every now and then there is a diamond in the rough to be found.
Below you can find some of the most classic, unique, and intelligent game-inspired YTMND’s made to date: Read the rest of this entry »
Well, no one, I guess. But if they did, this would prove them wrong.
French funnyman Rémi Gaillard takes his high-speed go-kart on the streets of Montpellier for a real life simulation of the most popular racing game of all time. Watch as he tosses banana peels at passing vehicles and weaves in and out of traffic, all with the confident sense of self satisfaction that can only come by dressing up like an Italian plumber.
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.
Last week, news outlets discovered that NASA has been quietly working on a secret new project aimed not at conquering outer space, but the gaming industry. The government agency is reportedly working on a new MMO with developer Virtual Heroes, the same company behind America’s Army, a squad-based third-person shooter funded by the US army as part of a public relations campaign to show just how extremely awesome killing terrorists can be. After the recent and shocking discovery that James Carville is an alien lifeform, it is presumed that the goal of NASA’s game, Astronaut: Moon, Mars & Beyond, is to increase recruitment for the impending interplanetary crusade Operation Xenoform Freedom. Democracy: it’s not just for Earthlings anymore.
With a demo scheduled for later this year, NASA has released some early screens and video of one of Astronaut’s internally tested alpha builds exclusively to Counterfeitculture.com
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.
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.)
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.
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.
UK sales charts report that Nintendo's new DSi portable device is now the 4th fastest selling console in history, behind the PSP, PS3, & Wii 2009-04-07
I love seeing grown men and women playing video games on the train. Not cell phone fodder, but real games. Like Mario Kart. How far we'v ... 2009-03-03
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.
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