Filed under: Player Inventory | Tags: licensed video games, Player Inventory
Goldeneye 007
Looking at the upcoming release schedule for 2009 we’re seeing a lot of promising licensed games. Batman: Arkham Asylum, X Men Origins: Wolverine, Ghostbusters and oddly a Chronicles of Riddick Sequel. Licensed games often carry a combination of entertainment baggage and slapped together production schedules to match movie release dates and you usually have a recipe for disaster. However once in a while a company gets it right, getting the feel of the source material while still making a solid game that defies the usually logic that a licensed game has to suck.
It’d be pretty much impossible to have this article without mentioning probably the king of all licensed games Goldeneye 007. Strangely able to hold up to today’s modern FPS games Goldeneye has the style, awesome level design and pacing that to this day hasn’t been emulated by other shooters. It’s action packed, yet methodical and the customizable multiplayer with the absolutely great level design just gives this game legs.
Filed under: Rock Band DLC Tuesdays | Tags: lenny kravitz, pat benatar, Rock Band DLC Tuesdays, the fratellis
So Rock Band DLC Tuesdays are back! NO I didn’t stop because the article is wildly unpopular because this blog is wildly unpopular! No it’s because about 3 weeks ago my Xbox finally went KAPUT. RROD’d my friends and I was none to happy. However I have to hand it to Microsoft, I got my system back in 2 weeks and it’s a brand new one with another warranty, so I’m covered for ANOTHER 3 years of RROD madness!
The bad: I had both Prince of Persia and Fable 2 on tap to complete prior to the releases of Lost and the Damned and Resident Evil 5. Ooops! I’m pushing Fable now as a “summer project” and am working my way through PoP collecting fucking light seeds all the time (seriously Ubisoft, WORSE IDEA EVER. NO I DON’T LIKE GOING THROUGH LEVELS AGAIN AFTER I’VE COMPLETED THEM.) I heard PoP is short AND I have a long weekend up coming up, so I’m trying to get through it as fast as I can.
Sorry there my friends, ok, lets get onto some DLC I missed over the last few weeks. Admittedly the Rock Band DLC was one of the good things about losing my Xbox 360 because well, nothing really big (for me) came out during that time. Admittedly I know a lot of people out there are championing both the Thin Lizzy and Steve Miller Band packs and good for you, these are two classic rock bands that are very talented. However I’ve never been a fan sadly. I might pick up Boys are Back In Town some day though.
Lenny Kravitz – Are You Gonna Go My Way
I’m not really a huge Kravitz but this is just such an infectious song and I just had to download it. This song is farily pedestrian when it comes to the drums and rhythm section and vocals wise, yeah it’s Lenny mugging the mic. However this is one of the best guitar songs to get if you ask me. It’s not the MOST difficult but it gives you a bit of practice at thing you’ll see a lot of in harder songs. If you’re trying to master expert guitar definitely pick up this song and use it as a warm up.
Pat Benatar – Hit Me With Your Best Shot
I like this song because it’s a definite “crowd pleaser” in the vein of My Sharona and Tempted. Drums is shockingly tricky, with some good bass pedal work and a few unexpected. Guitar wise it’s a little bit of a snoozer, that is until you hit that hellacious solo. Seriously once the solo come’s it’s HOPO city for you! Vocals isn’t too bad and as usual if you have a good female vocalist in your crew it’s always great to hear them try and tackle this song.
The Fratellis – Flathead
Slight rant; why the Fratellis? There are so many good “indie” british bands yet to be tapped (hello, Arctic Monkeys? Franz Ferdinand?) seems weird to go for a bunch of guys whose highlight was an iPod ad. That said, we did see a LOCKSLEY pack after all. Now while I wish we got Chelsea Dagger Flathead is quite a good song that strangely works very well for Rock Band. Bass is suprisngly a good challenge for once in a song and Guitar avoids being just a series of chords with a few differences tossed in once in a while to keep you on your toes. The “ba da da da da da daaaaaa” section is also fun for group sing alongs. A highly recommended download, it’s tough without being too challenging and the song has great energy to it.
Filed under: The Cult of the Game | Tags: another world, out of this world, The Cult of the Game
Modern day gaming owes a lot to the simple polygon, the geometric shaped used to put over 3d mesh wiring that allow objects to exist in 3D. It seems odd how far we’ve come to believe that a living breathing character like Marcus Phoenix for all his detail is nothing more than triangles with a fine coat of paint over them. 3D Gaming has done a lot for the industry though, allowing for more complex games to exist and assisting developers to push the boundaries beyond 2D limitations.
This is not a slight on 2D gaming at all because really todays game is a “2D” game. However the idea of modeling graphics in 3D has lead to some large innovations. Imagine if we’re still forced to make FPS’s like Doom (which, oddly, are actually 2D games made to look 3D.) We’d lose a lot of the design elements, such as simple rooms over rooms, physics, and lighting effects etc. that make 3D shooters so great. Translate that to the new Street Fighter IV, a very 2D game but is enhanced by its cinematic 3D presentation and we greatly see the benefits 3D graphics have offered us.
However what were the early efforts into the 3D like, not just for games mind you but for graphic design in general. Like a lot of things mostly crude, maybe not fully realizing the potential of what those things can achieve. However, they also tend to be visionary, victims of limitations that are not the creators fault. Through the history of 3D graphics we’ve often seen examples such as Dire Straits video for “Money for Nothing” or Pixar’s early efforts like Tin Toy to see there was never a lack of imagination.
There are numerous early efforts that are worth mentioning. Nintendo and it’s Super FX chip got the ball rolling with the incredible on rails shooter. Sega would counter with the Virtua series of games most notably at first Virtua Racing. On the PC front we can go even earlier with games like Elite and Starglider 2. However one of the most successful uses of polygons wasn’t even in a 3D game at all, or at least a traditional 3D game as we think of them today.
Delphine Software’s Another World (released in North America as Out of this World) is a visionary piece of gaming in many aspects. Graphically the game is an early feat of art meeting design. The game uses polygons to build its alien world. Back then complex texturing was not feasible as it is today. Characters and back grounds were made with polygons that were flatly shaded. While this hampered many of the early 3D efforts by making the environments seem a little drab and life less Another World used this to its advantage. The stark muted colour palette but incredible angular detail gave life to the alien world Lester Knight explores.
So you’ve decided to not be totally disgusted by my promotion of holier than thou attitudes to silly and fun hobbies. Good for you! Throwing the shackles of decency and respect is the first step to being a video game snob. You’re now on your way to pop culture enlightenment beyond your wildest imagination and an opportunity to impress people, make your self worth rise and possibly get a job at a University in the year 2020 when video game culture studies will become part of the curriculum. Better dust off that blazer with the elbow patches!
Now however we’ll need to go into classification. For you see a video game snob isn’t your typical video game “nerd” so to speak. Are video games a great concern to the video game snob? Absolutely, much like how any snob’s forte is important to them. But it’s less about obsession and more about the pursuit of knowledge, the unwavering need to be able to learn, tries and experience as much of the medium as humanly possible however the video game snob is concerned with a broad worldly view of the medium than his brethren. There will probably be a lot of confusion at to what your goal is to be on your journey so we’ll set up a few guidelines on what a video game snob is.
Super Mario Bros. 2 and Zelda II: The Adventures of Link
The decisions game developers make often seem odd to us at times. Why remove a beloved character, such as Solid Snake, from the sequel to the game that made him huge, is one such example (sorry spoilers.) These decisions are never made lightly, proof positive is the fact that Nintendo rolled the dice and changed up their two biggest sellers on their fledgling console.
The story of Super Mario Bros. 2 is classic video game lore. Originally released as Doki Doki Panic in Japan it was a game that had nothing to do with Mario at all. However the real Super Mario Bros 2 (later redubbed as the Lost Levels here in the US) was deemed too difficult and rightfully so. Between poison mushrooms, insane jumps and wind that effects your movement Lost Levels has often been derided by Shigeru Miyamoto as having too many random elements to make gameplay enjoyable. Since he was a producer on Doki Doki Panic it could be argued that it is truer to a Miyamoto game (Miyamoto had no input in the Lost Levels) however between all new enemies, throwing turnips and character selection it’s fair to say that Super Mario Bros. 2 has little in common with its predecessor or its successors.
Zelda II is probably even more baffling a switch. Players loved the dungeon crawler and it proved that deeper games that can only be developed on consoles than arcade cabinets were what American audiences looking for. However jammed calls from tip lines probably prompted them to switch gears with Zelda, turning it into a more action oriented side stroller with some adventure elements. Neither Zelda II nor Super Mario Bros. 2 are bad game by any stretch of the means, but they’re so different and in some ways disappointing that they’ll always be seen as each series black sheep.
Filed under: The Cult of the Game | Tags: ace attorney, nintendo ds, phoenix wright, The Cult of the Game
I admit, I thought the Nintendo DS was going to fail when it was first announced. Forgoing power for a touch screen “gimmick” screamed failure to me, especially put side by side with the PSP and its amazing graphical prowess and technical superiority in everyway imaginable. It’s now a little over four years since both launched and while the PSP is only know settling into its groove the Nintendo DS has dominated the hand held market.
While a lot of the DS’s library is admittedly fluff ware shoveled out to try and tap into the large user base a lot of it is quite innovative and makes great use of the controls. Games like Wario Ware, Trauma Center and Metroid have all done their part to show that the touch screen on the DS is more than a gimmick but a great way to design new game concept around.
However one thing I was really hoping for when the DS was released was the return of an old genre long since killed by 3D accelerator cards and online gaming. The classic point and click adventure game, long since deemed “unfeasible” on consoles due to the use of controllers as the main interface device, could work great with the DS’s touch screen and stylus.
Sadly this point-and-click renaissance hasn’t come and seems unlikely to with people wanting more Nintendogs than Maniac Mansions. It’s not like great efforts haven’t been made which include games such as Hotel Dusk and Trace Memory but when one things of point-and-click adventures the modern cult classic Phoenix Wright quickly comes to mind.
Filed under: The Cult of the Game | Tags: cult of the game, dreamcast, shenmue
What happens when your eyes are too big for the world around you? We are often told to reach for the stars and never hold back, but sometimes when you reach too high disaster strikes. In the entertainment industry these are affectionately known as “flops,” endeavors that fail far below the expectations made by their creators. Such notable flops like the film Heaven’s Gate had destroyed their studios while others like Mariah Carrey’s Glitter left artists in holes they would need to claw their way out of.
The video game industry has had its share of flops. And while some are understandable others are tragic. It’s sad to see genres, platforms and games despite all their good intentions and best efforts fail and possibly crush portions of the industry. The fan base is fickle and hard to predict and often their cruelty, by withholding the dollars that keeps the industry alive, can be costly and stifle the notion of building interesting games in favor of “safe dollars.”
This brings us to a man and his magnum opus. Yu Suzuki is often regarded as one of the best game designers of all time. He was Sega’s answer to Shigeru Miyamoto, was the man behind some of Sega’s early coin-op hits like Space Harrier and Hang-On and brought the idea of 3D gaming to the forefront with the Virtua Racing, Virtua Fighter and Virtua Cop series. In the dying days of the Saturn Yu Suzki would embark on his “Project Berkley”, a massive undertaking of a game that would prove to be one of the death nails into the Dreamcast coffin but would influence and inspire gamers from that point on. The game cost millions and while it sold well there was no way for Sega to recoup its cost unless it became a mega hit.
Project Berkley ended up being Shenmue and while Yu Suzuki would use lots of buzz acronyms to describe it gameplay (he would often refer to the game as a FREE game, which stood for Full Reactive Eyes Entertainment) it was, if nothing else a daunting undertaking of trying to revamp, remake and pull the adventure game genre into the twenty first century.
Filed under: Primer
In case you didn’t know this upcoming weekend is the NHL’s All Star weekend celebrating 100 years of my favorite team and one of the greatest franchises in the history of sports, The Montreal Canadiens. Hockey is an odd bird among the major sports, wildly popular in Canada, practically unknown in the states and yet still among the communities who do support their teams there’s a lot of loyalty and passion for the game.
I’ve always assumed that it was this loyalty that has caused EA and 2K sports to not abandon hockey video games entirely. Sure one could argue that EA’s NHL series is a big hit in other territories but those are to be honest small potatoes (namely Canada and Scandanavia.) Even I, staunch Canadian hockey fan, owe it to American Hockey fans for keeping this series alive.
Another thing mind you that keeps the EA series going is gamers. While few sports can match Football for how well it accurately portrays the game its based on Hockey comes really close. Basketball, soccer, golf, while fun, often have hang ups and issues that stem from it being a video game that ruin the experience. Video game hockey however can be as smash mouth or as finesse as the real thing and its combination of skill and violence make it a great gaming experience no matter if you’re a fan or not.
Hockey has always appeared on game consoles for better or for worse and has always been a reoccurring franchise for all systems. We’ll look at the history of hockey video games and set you on right to exploring the world of the hockey video game and its many incarnations.
Mega Man 1 (North America), Mega Man 2 (Europe) and Mega Man 9
They say you can’t judge a book by its cover but damn if it doesn’t influence people buying video games. I once watched a woman in an EB pick up a copy of American McGee’s Alice for her daughter because she “liked the box art.”
So Continuous Fire is doing one of THESE, I’m certain this sort of article has been done to death but we’re going to try and avoid your Phalanxes, Cosmic Fantasy 2’s and Suikodens.
That said I don’t think any list can exist without at least MENTIONING Mega Man 1. It’s a notorious example of how a terrible piece of box art can affect game sales, as Mega Man failed to garner a good audience until after Mega Man 2 sold well and people were thinking “eh? There was a number 1?”
However few ever bring up the absolutely dreadful Mega Man 2 Europe box art, with Mega Man sporting the best long sleeve blue tees under his armour! And while the Mega Man 9 cover is INTENTIONALLY bad (Ninja Wily! Buzz Saw Robot! TWO GUNS!) we here at the Player Inventory don’t deal in irony, so on it goes too.
Karnaaj Rally
