Review – Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories

For this review, I’m afraid I am going to resort to the greatest cop out in games journalism; you are either going to like Liberty City Stories, or you’re not. To some, it is a downgrade from the huge, deep world that was created for San Andreas, a graphically lesser romp through a city we’ve all seen before. Rockstar is just trying to milk their fanbase of even more money, and should be ashamed of themselves. To myself and others, LCS is a technical marvel, (being developed for the PSP), a full fledged GTA experience that combines GTA3’s world with Vice City’s upgrades, all for the cost of a budget game. In this light, Rockstar has given us a nice little gift.

And that’s really it from a review standpoint. Anyone familiar with the series will find no surprises here, save perhaps for seeing Tony Cipriani as a thin gunman rather than a fat restaurant owner. →  Read the rest

Weekly News We Care About Wrap Up – 10.13.06

Japanese consumers want the PS3
Famitsu surveyed people at the Tokyo Games Show and got some interesting if odd results. Although we are talking about Japan so odd is a relative term. About 56% of those surveyed felt the low end PS3 was pricey. Even considering that the TGS would be full of hardcore gamers, this number seems low. Compare this to the 13% who think the Wii costs too much and 25% who think the 360 is expensive.

When asked what system they most looked forward to, 58% said the PS3 and 34% said the Wii. Contrast this, though, to what people said about which system they plan to buy on launch. 11% said they’d get a PS3 at launch while 18% said they’d get a Wii. Further. 36% said they have no current plan for getting a PS3 and 33% said the same of the Wii. →  Read the rest

The Wii’s “horsepower”

While rummaging through the ol’ Interweb tonight, I somehow got onto Wii’s official site and came across a whole slew of new videos that were posted yesterday. Most of them show people trying out the Wii for the first time, and they actually look like they’re having fun. Never mind the fact that they get paid to play with something we’re all dying for.

But what really interested me were some new videos for the Wii Channels. I’ll detail a few of them here:

The Internet Channel was finally unveiled, and I have to say it’s looking pretty snazzy. They pulled up Google and searched in a couple shots, and the browser, which is based on Opera by the way, ran fairly smoothly. They were using a widescreen TV, but the browser was formatted to a 4:3 ratio. →  Read the rest

Life as a Game Tester: Episode 3

As of this writing, my time in the video game industry is dwindling. When I took this job, I was only guaranteed work until the end of October, which is rapidly approaching. That’s the life of a QA tester, I guess. If your company doesn’t have anything playable for you to test, there’s not much reason to go to work everyday. Already, my day consists of me playing my own games more than the game we’re making, which isn’t necessarily bad. I call it “research.”

Right now, we have the second game I’ve worked on being tested by NOA and NOE. You can check out what that entails by reading Episode 2.

Nintendo’s quality control is not infallible.

It’s great to get a game to submission, but in my experience, it’s been the worst thing that can happen to a game in development. →  Read the rest

Final Fantasy XII: First Impressions

Wow, Square|Enix really pulled a fast one on their fans. They released a Final Fantasy game for people who hate Final Fantasy. Or at least that’s what I thought after my three hours with the game.

Let’s start with the pros. The combat system just feels right. It is intuitive, well organized, and customizable to suit all tastes. If you are a control freak like yours truly, you can turn off the controversial Gambits (Character AI, look them up), and if you need time to carefully decide where to move your characters, and how to attack, then you can set the battles to pause whenever you are on a menu. The CG’s, as we have come to expect from Square|Enix, are top notch. I was skeptical after the first CG – I thought it seemed a bit… off — but every CG sequence after that blew me away. →  Read the rest

The Electronic Arts I remember

A long, long time ago, back when Electronic Arts went by the abbreviation ECA, the company was not clearly evil. It turns out that they screwed Chris Crawford in the 80’s and undoubtedly weren’t the pinnacle of business ethics, but they also published good games. Every now and then, usually after reading a review of some terrible EA published game or news that they bought and destroyed a small developer, I reminisce about the good old days when the ECA logo didn’t make me cringe, but was actually a sign of quality. What’s that, you ask? You’re a snobby gamer who dislikes EA, too, but you wonder why they were once a respectable publisher? Like all good questions, this one can be answered with a list.

Archon II: Adept — 1984
The first Archon is a bonafide classic, but I still prefer the sequel. →  Read the rest

Vista: Kodak Moment or Photoshopped?

Surprising me in the mail last week was the DVD Install Kit for Microsoft’s Windows Vista RC1 Client. I signed up for their beta releases a few months ago, but I wasn’t aware that they keep sending you the subsequent releases. Needless to say I’m not that upset about it.

After testing RC1 out for a few days, I can easily say it’s much better than the Beta 2 release. It has way better driver support, and has much more functionality. I was on the fence about upgrading to something that looked only marginally better than XP, but after messing around with Vista, I’m eager to cross over to the “next-generation” of Windows.

The real gem in Vista is its Aero functionality. DirectX is now continually running in the background. The main thing you will notice is that each window actually blurs the picture that’s behind it, be it the desktop background or an image you’re viewing. →  Read the rest

Best Game Ever – Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne

Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne is my favorite game of all time. With the many hours of enjoyment I have gained from this title, I owe it to you all to spread the good word.
Let me tell you why:

First of all, this intriguing subtitle brings to mind many important questions for the common gamer. Among these questions are:

1. What throne?
2. Why is it frozen?

But frozen seats of royalty aside, the storyline in an RTS is superfluous. What makes WCII: TFT great is the well-implemented and innovative hero system, the tight control over units that makes über micro possible, and the well-balanced, well-designed variety of races.

Warcraft is a popular game, with fan-created artwork, a lively multiplayer community, board games, hugely successful MMO adaptation, and mangas.

If my memory serves me, this book tells the tragic tale of the forbidden romance of Draakthazaar, the proud frost dragon from the north and the free-spirited young maiden, Ara, shunned by her people for daring to love the monster they so feared, yet she tamed with her tender touch. →  Read the rest

Guitar Hero 2 Demo

Damn you Harmonix, damn you to hell. The Guitar Hero 2 demo is only four songs large, and I haven’t been able to play anything else all day. Curse you and your innate ability to create unbridled gaming fun!

Yes folks, if you haven’t heard already the new issue of OPM has nice little demo of GH2. Jay and I have it. Now let’s talk about it:

Songs: I’m hearing some recent dissent about the Guitar Hero 2 soundtrack. Whereas the original had a wide variety of rock, the sequel seems to have a heavy focus on classic metal and hair bands, as well as prog. rock. I understand that everyone has different musical tastes, but for a game called “Guitar Hero”, the tracks seem to be appropriate. The four included here are Strutter, Shout at the Devil, You Really Got Me, and the infamous YYZ of Rush fame. →  Read the rest

Review – Golden Sun

For the most part, the library of video games consists largely of clones of previously successful games. Games such as Grand Theft Auto III have spawned so many sorry attempts at duplication that a whole new sub-genre was born. There was a time when there was only Grand Theft Auto, and the imitators were yet to join the party. So revolutionary titles do happen. They do not happen frequently, and there are plenty of examples of games that tried to establish something new and failed. I think ChoroQ is an example of this. In trying to create an RPG complete with plot, towns, and dungeon exploration within the context of a racing game (or vice versa) the series (which apparently has several iterations on various systems around the world) tried something unique but ended up making a below average game. →  Read the rest

Weekly News We Care About Wrap Up – 10.6.06

Uwe Boll in talks for a second BloodRayne movie
If you missed the first BloodRayne movie, you owe it to Ed Wood to go see it. It’s not as terribly good as House of the Dead, but its crappiness is better than the mostly just bad Alone in the Dark. I will also be going to see Dungeon Siege on opening knight (hahahahaha, get it?) if anyone wants to join me.

For some odd reason a lot of people hate Boll and want him to have a massive heart attack and die, or at least stop directing movies. I come from the Leprechaun school of horror films (Leprechaun in the Hood is overrated, I recommend Leprechaun in Space) so Boll’s schlock is something I really look forward to. Some argue that movies like BloodRayne keep games from being taken serious. →  Read the rest

The Tekken arcade stick praised; the Tekken games condemned

A few weeks ago, while browsing my favorite gaming forum, one of the posters reported an unconfirmed clearance sale at Gamestop/EB. The item? The Tekken 5 anniversary box. The price? $30, down from its previous $60 price, which was down from the original $100 MSRP. The package of course includes Tekken 5, as well as a very nice DVD box for storing all 6 Tekken games. The crown jewel of the set however is a limited edition arcade stick.

Normally this isn’t a big deal; you can buy arcades sticks everywhere some for as low as ten dollars. Not to mention that other game-branded sticks have shown to be of rather horrid quality (such as the Street Fighter Anniversary stick from Nubytech). What makes this Tekken stick so special is that it is made with real Hori parts, the same Hori that makes the best arcade sticks for Japanese home consoles. →  Read the rest

Concern that FFXII may suck

Put in the FFXII demo and try something. Get into a battle and then put the controller down. You’ll win. The gambit system sets up the AI in your party so you don’t actually have to play. I did this experiment months ago and was slightly concerned but figured that it was just a demo; Square would no doubt make some changes that encouraged the player to participate.

The new EGM has a review of the game, though, and one of the reviewers describes playing exactly how I did. He put the controller down during random encounters and had no trouble at all. Boss fights still may require human intervention.

The reviewer gave FFXII game an 8.5. I’m not sure what’s stranger, Square making an automated battle system or reviewers not caring that Square made an automated battle system. →  Read the rest

Review – Mount&Blade

Sometimes games that are incredibly good have no advertising whatsoever. These games are usually made popular by word-of-mouth, if anything (Katamari Damacy for example). Developed by a husband-and-wife team, Mount & Blade is one such game.

I am often distracted while defending my castle by the natural beauty of the setting sun.

I first heard about Mount & Blade half a year ago on a forum. I didn’t try it out at the time, mostly because the authors of the posts were comparing it to Morrowind (which I found incredibly boring). A few months ago, though, I saw it again at a gaming site, this time with a formal, in-depth review that made it sound more interesting. I decided to give it a try and downloaded it.

Mount & Blade isn’t freeware, but it is open-ended shareware. →  Read the rest

Why the PSP is a success

Many online sources have declared the PSP a failure. Others, including print magazines, haven’t gone that far but have acknowledged the PSP may currently be failing. The difference being the tense of the verb to fail. Here are some declarations that the PSP is dead or dying:

Should we consider the PSP dead?

RIP PSP

PSP: Just Die Already

Developers: The PSP has “failed”

But common wisdom is wrong: the PSP is not a failure; it has actually been quite successful. Sony took on a company that had around 95% of the handheld market. As of July, Sony has shipped 20 million units compared to Nintendo’s 21 million DS’s sold. There is a difference between units shipped and units sold, though how much is up for debate. Let’s take an extreme stance and assume that Sony only sold half of the units they shipped. →  Read the rest

They hate my baby… and Tom Chick is an asshat

Read this. Also read Tom Chick’s original response post, and if you really care, his review (Chick’s response is at the bottom of the above article, and his 1up article is linked in his response).

I want to give hats off to Tom Chick, for masterfully pulling off this bit of PR. Because that’s all this is kids, it’s a “look at Tom Chick, he’s so abused!” play. And, it makes him more of a name brand, because I even read the Galactic Civilization 2 manual and have no idea who he is. So I guess he needed it. Or maybe I’m outside of his target demographic.

Ok, let me make my rambling into something cohesive. Tom Chick wrote the Gal Civ 2 manual. He did so for money (or, as some call it, phat l00tz). →  Read the rest

A shocking revelation

Today I spent hours playing Ghosts and Goblins on the Capcom Classics Collection. The game is an absolute classic and it is also nearly impossible. It took me about a thousand lives, but I finished the game…only to be told that it was all a dream and I’d have to do it again. So I did.

Sometime during the second playthrough it struck me — this game sucks. I know it sounds like blasphemy to a lot of people, and it sort of disturbs me to say it, but it’s true. This game may have a cult following but it’s a piece of crap.

The game is not hard because it is well designed. It is hard because its controls are horrendous. Jumping doesn’t always work and it is nearly impossible to climb up ladders. →  Read the rest

Graphics over gameplay: is it really all that bad?

Whether or not graphics really add all that much to video games has been heavily debated in the last few years. And once the Wii and PS3 come out to steal the 360’s spotlight, we’ll surely hear about it all over again.

Though it may not seem like it due to the clever use of lighting and camera angles, the colossus is actually only an inch taller than you.

But, if we think about it logically, is there really a difference between the two? Some would say, “Of course there is! What are you, high? You can’t play with pictures!” And yes, they’d be perfectly correct. But what people don’t think about is the complementary effect that graphics can have on gameplay.

Take, for example, Shadow of the Colossus. Not exactly the prettiest title in some respects, but one cannot say it isn’t graphically intensive. →  Read the rest