I went to the Machinima Filmfest 2008 award ceremony last weekend and my mind was blown. For those who don't know what Machinima is and ignored the wikipedia link, Machinima is essentially video game movies. Not like the awesome awesome (that's not a typo, it deserves two awesomes) Super Mario Brothers movie with Bob Hoskins and Dennis Hopper. Machinima takes in-game video game characters and sprites and reapproiates them to make video game movies. Some of the movies stay within the world of the game, others take the characters and make a whole new storyline unrelated to that game's universe. Needless to say, Machinima appeals to gamers and off-center film directors.
Why use Machinima for animation? ILL clan animation studios puts it best: "Simply put? Machinima Animation can provide you with high-quality animation produced three times faster than traditional 3D CGI animation at 20% of the cost."
Before the awards ceremony, there were a series of panels that talked about machinima. One panel discussion featured young high-school students who used environments they created in Second Life to raise some global issue. By using the game's mechinics, they made a successful film that asked questions and discussed problems within Second Life.
Another panel talked about copyright issues with machinima and the business behind it. One machinima filmmaker got his film on HBO and was able to retain all of the rights to the characters within his film because the avatar he used was created by himself in Second Life, making it intellectual property. However, since he was making revenue off this film, random avatars that came into his set while filming might have needed contracts in order to be recorded. Considering very few films have been made and marketed in virtual worlds, copyright issues are fuzzy.
The most exciting part of the day though, was clearly seeing all of the movies. In one room, they had a huge projector which just streamed the films all day long until the awards ceremony came up.
Instead of going through and talking about each film, I'll just put a whole bunch of them up in this post that I really liked. You can make your own distinctions and conclusions about the films.
"So in Fable 2, the story lasts thirteen to fourteen hours and by the end of that story what you are like, what you look like and how the world treats you is completely up to you."
Really? Thirteen to fourteen hours? For an RPG? That's almost as bad as most campaigns for fisrst person shooters. If Fable II is touting itself as an RPG, the character development must be important to the game, hence the the distinction of role-playing. Choosing between good and evil in the first Fable was not a good example of character development and a thirteen to fourteen hour story is really depressing. If this is Peter Molyneux's views on gaming, then I will never buy a game from him, even if he does eventually develop for systems that I own. Here's some more crap from him:
"Now for me, as a designer, if I hear 'sixty or seventy hours', then in my mind that is the equivalent of giving me a book that is twenty thousand pages long. And if I said to you, here's a fantastic book, go and read that... Are you likely to finish a twenty thousand page book? No."
Personally, I love sixty to seventy hour adventures; it's not even close to a twenty thousand page book. That gives time for the story to go places, for the characters to truly grow and the length alone make the game worth purchasing, especially with games as expensive as they are now.
Also, I can't even remember the last time I heard a gamer complain that a game was too long. The only "long" reference I can think of in regards to video games is people complaining that, in World of Warcraft or Final Fantasy XI, it took too long to get anything done. Long in that sense, is complaining about the needless repetition and grinding. As long as the game's story is advancing and pushing itself, I can't imagine a gamer complaining that a game is too long. Sure, less people will finish it, but just because someone doesn't finish a game doesn't mean that the gamer didn't like it. Maybe something else came up, but they still cherish the experience they had with that game. (An example for me would be Okami).
"Its a 13 hr rpg that you will play through several times. I prefer this format better, specially if what he says is true and each play through will be different according to what decisions you make. " -Sweetsauce
It's a fair point but, thirteen hours feels rushed to me, no matter which forking storyline you take. Regardless, though your taking a different path, the world, environments and game engine will all be the same, so there will be a lot of unnecessary repetition. Why not make a 40-hour RPG with the same forking path choices? Is that really difficult? And why not have more than just good and evil? Hasn't that become a cliche already?
And please, don't give me the argument that the Zelda series is an action RPG and that it's just as long as Fable. There are two distinct differences between games like Zelda and games like Fable. Fable is focusing on character development. Zelda does not. Zelda is essentially an action-adventure game that has a lot less dialogue than a RPG and hence doesn't need the sixty to seventy hour time frame. Besides, Zelda games have never disappointed me in quality gameplay. So, thirteen hours is at least reasonable since I know those hours are going to be quality hours. The first Fable did not earn that trust, at least from me, so thirteen hours is more of an insult to gamers' wallets.
Tell me though, guys (and gals). Do you think a 13 hour RPG is okay? I think games under that format will slowly kill the entire genre.
First off, kudos to Will for finding and then giving me a Little Big Planet Beta code. I have been playing this game like mad since I got the code and all I can say is... wow.
The beta opens up with a knitted up character named Sackboy appearing out of a chamber. As you move to the right of the screen, you begin to see pictures of the various Little Big Planet developers pop up everywhere. It's cute seeing all of the people who worked on the game as you are running through this very basic jumping platformer level.
The first thing I did was play the Garden level included with the beta. The in-game tutorial within the Garden shows you how to jump, run, grab things and even kill yourself if you get stuck. The controls are all very simple and the menu interface is very easy to navigate. Square opens up a tiny menu where you can customize your Sackboy, put stickers on objects, etc.
There was only a small selection of objects to use for customization when you start; there were a few hats, shirts, and pants to choose from. Throughout the course of the game, you obtain more. I gave my Sackboy a hat with a feather in it, a big mustache and no pants. I dislike pants.
After playing around with the customization tool, my girlfriend woke up from her slumber and decided to play along with me. She grabbed another controller and upon activating the controller, a new Sackboy appeared at the next checkpoint. We immediately learned how to control our facial expressions and our arms, which happens to be one of the highlights of the game.
By holding L2 and R2, the corresponding control sticks then control your arms. You can make your Sackboy do Saturday Night Fever moves if you want but, clearly the most exciting thing was slapping my girlfriend's Sackboy. Actually, she slapped me first, but that's besides the point. The sound of a slap is satisfying and it causes the Sackboy who received the slap to go spiraling into the ground. It's fun; especially when you're waiting for a moving platform or something.
All this and I haven't even talked about the gameplay yet. The Garden levels I mentioned before are pretty simple; by jumping over a series of pits and grabbing onto semi-controllable pendulum objects floating in the sky, you can make your way across the levels.
The graphics look and feel as though you're walking across a scrapbook; different pieces of what seems to be cel-shaded fabric comprise the entire environment of Little Big Planet. The graphics themselves are not cel-shaded, as you can tell by seeing the detail of the stitching in Sackboy but, the same kid-friendly emotions comes through with this game's style.
The Garden levels were simple, but the game really shined when I started playing the user-created levels with my roommate Garrett and my buddy Chris. One of the best levels I can remember was a God of War inspired level where we had to hop over spikes avoid flaming logs and transport a demon skull to a sacrificial chamber. We had to carefully jump and stop on a dime just to make it through all the obstacles.
I then remembered that this level was made by a gamer, not a developer. Every wall, objects and timing of the rolling logs was created by a player. Though it's a cheap to use God of War as a muse, it does take quite creativity to mimic the God of War style and create a challenging level to entertain the player.
Surprisingly, most of the user-created levels were fun to play and it was especially easy to tell which ones were the good levels since you could "heart" the ones you liked and see how many people played on a certain level. I never had to randomly pick and hope that the level was good. In addition, load times were minimal, even though the levels were downloading from the internet.
Not all the levels were platformer based either. I found the famous working "calculator" (shown below) and Garrett and I found a drum machine where you can jump on switches to make the sounds of cymbals, snares, etc. The best one though, was when Garrett and I found a level that just has two rocket-powered cars going full speed on a straightaway, right into a wall. The angle causes you to flip out of the car and into the finish line. At least, that's what happened to Garrett's Sackboy. Mine got crushed between the car and the wall.
A general problem I had with the user-created levels is that during multiplayer, if characters spread too far apart, one of the Sackboys would only have five seconds to get back on camera, or else you die. This is annoying when one of you has made it past a pit and needs to go back just to prevent your partner from dying. I guess on multiplayer you really need to work together to survive, but sometimes, the camera follows the person who is not ahead, making it difficult to figure out what the camera is going to focus on when you do eventually separate.
I did try to make my own levels, but I simply did not have the time to make a long, complete one. The object creator looks like it can really diverse; there's seems to be no limit on what I could create. The nice thing I noticed however is that if you make an object, you can put an item version of that object in your level. This means that if you pick up that item, the game would save that object and you could use that in your own level designs. Some people are already really good at using the editor.
The only problem I had with the level creator is that I did not have complete control over the camera, so it was hard to tell, at points, how wide or thick my objects were. This was only a minor frustration, but I'm sure if I played with the level editor more, I might find a way to work around it.
There's plenty more I could say about this game, but I rather stop here and do a more formal and complete review once the game comes out. After playing the beta however, I am sold on the awesomeness (and potential) of Little Big Planet, and I eagerly wait its release.
There are a ton of games coming out this month as people prepare for the holiday season. I don't think there is any question though, that the biggest game coming out this October is Little Big Planet for the PS3 on 10/21.
LBP is more than just a game, it looks to be the greatest level editor ever conceived. Here's a great description of what the game is all about from the Little Big Planet forum at GameFaqs:
"The LittleBigPlanet experience starts with players learning about their character’s powers to interact physically with the environment. There are obstacles to explore, bits and pieces to collect and puzzles to solve – requiring a combination of brains and collaborative teamwork.
As players begin to explore, their creative skills will grow and they will be ready to start creating and modifying their surroundings – the first step to sharing them with the whole community.
Creativity is part of the gameplay experience and playing is part of the creative experience. Players can make their world as open or as secretive to explore as they like. When it's ready, they can invite anyone within the LittleBigPlanet community to come and explore their patch -- or can go and explore everybody else's.
This genre-busting PS3 offering is turning with its quirky ragdoll, unique patchwork visual style, and revolutionary approach to level design. While you and three friends can simply tussle and hop through premade 2D stages, the game's true appeal lies in the ability to design and share your own levels.
The goal with the game is to have users creating tons of new content that will continue to keep the game active long after release. Sony has confirmed that there will be a group of set levels ready to play out of the box -- and even a single-player offline mode for those who don't want to experiment with the community ideas and simply want to play it like they would a traditional platformer." -Balloon_Popper
Creativity is the key to the game. If don't have the mindset of a level designer, you probably won't enjoy this game as much as other people. I've just started to work with level design in programs like Maya and Virtools, so I'm really excited to see how I can use the tools I've learned in class and apply it to the LBP world.
"I don't think of it as a videogame -- even though it is, I look at it as a different form of creativity."
Since the beta came out last week, a few thousand lucky gamers have had the chance to mess around with Little Big Planet pre-release. Here are a couple of videos of some of the levels people have created and shared. Keep in mind this are completely user made so you could make levels like these with this game:
Lolz at the last video. Some people are just fixated/obsessed over one thing. Seriously though, this game looks amazing. I can't wait to play it and make some cool levels. Maybe I can make a version of my Lego Labyrinth in LBP. Hm....
I'll try to do lookout segments every month, highlighting one game of the month that I'm really excited about. Below are other big titles that are releasing this month. The links jump to the trailers for each of the respective games.
Gameboy had three'ish[1] generations: Original (The Brick), Pocket, and Color. Gameboy Advance had three generations: Original (DS Phat), SP, and Micro. The DS has two generations: Original, and Lite.
What's missing in the above trends? A 3rd DS! Nintendo realized this problem, and solved it by announcing the DSi. If you read Japanese, you can look at their announcement page directly, otherwise, you can read about it on DS Fanboy. Kotaku has a nice comparison of the DSi/DS Lite. Here are its new features, and why they are mostly pointless.
Cameras: We have enough cameras in our lives already! We have digital cameras, and our cell phones have cameras. On top of this, we've already had this before; remember the Game Boy Camera?
In case you don't remember it, it took crappy black/white pictures, and you could half-ass'ly edit them with such great tools as stamps and frames. What else could you do? You could print them with the Game Boy Printer
How will this be improved upon? It will take crappy color pictures, and you'll be able to edit them with your stylus. Improved? Yes. Still pointless and will get old real fast? Yes. But wait, there's two cameras! Sigh... Sure, games will try and implement this in some gimmicky fashion.
Implementing a DS feature in a gimmicky fashion? That sounds a lot like the microphone... Example uses: blowing out a candle in Phantom Hourglass, unsuccessfully screaming blue in Brain Age, objecting in Phoenix Wright, and making a fool out of yourself while playing games on the subway.
Music Playback/Storage: We have enough music players in our lives already! We have MP3 players, portable CD players, and our cell phones have them too.
Do we need SD storage? Not really, especially if they're also announcing that there will be internal storage. As long as we are still using cartridges, and not discs, there's no need. Sure, we need to store our music and pictures, but we don't need those at all. Sure, people use their PSPs as media players, but that's because they're also being used as video players, and can browse the internet. This leads us into...
Internet: The DS Lite had a version of Opera you could buy, and it wasn't good. The trend with computer screens is higher and higher resolutions, and websites follow suit. The DS just doesn't have a high enough resolution to do this effectively. This works somewhat on the PSP because of the higher resolution, but still not that well.
People (including myself) use the internet on their phones, so maybe this will be useful after all, but I'm remaining very skeptical.
DSWare: My ranting ends here, this is a feature I fully support. I love XBLA, and although I don't actually use the WiiWare, I do like the idea of it. The VC... it's okay I guess. Will this be like the VC and just be Nintendo regurgitating a bunch of old games for more money? Yes, of course. If they do this like Wiiware/XBLA, and they do it well, this could be really great.
The Rest in Brief: Smaller system: A smaller system and a brighter screen are my reasons for buying a DS Lite (note: not an upgrade from the DS Phat, it was my first purchase), and if they're going to make an upgrade, they have to do this, it's the way of technology. Thankfully they didn't take this as far as they did with the Micro, which became so small it was uncomfortable to hold. Bigger screens: I approve. Matte colors: Goodbye fingerprints. Not a big deal to me one way or the other. Shorter battery life: Ouch; stupid decision. Goodbye GBA support: I never play GBA games, but still seems like a bad call.
What it should look like.
I'm probably being a bit harsh here; it's not a new system, it's just an improvement, like all of the later systems in a series. It's hard to explain, but it feels as if Nintendo is just trying too hard, and throwing useless gimmicks at us. I would have rather had them just decrease the system size, increase the screen size, maybe increase the battery life, and drop the price instead of spending the extra money on worthless features.
[1]: You could argue that the Game Boy Color wasn't really in the same generation, since it sort of had its own games, but I don't like this argument, and refuse to count it as its own system.
Now this is an odd cookie. A new web series came out yesterday that takes a dark look at the events leading up to Super Smash Bros. Brawl. The series is completely serious despite the funny nature of Nintendo's characters. The editing, acting and script are all surprising good, despite the weirdness of the characters' looks. I'm not sure how I feel about this one though; it feels so foreign and tries to be everything that Nintendo isn't: hardcore.
This episode is pretty long (12 minutes). So, only watch it when you have the time to spare. Give it a chance though, you'll be surprised at the level of quality. Please note however that the video is only made for people over 17. Yeah, seriously, no joke.
The cameo at the end is pretty awesome. What an interesting spin on a loveable character. Is this web series a good idea? Or am I just crazy enough of a Nintendo fan to think this is interesting?
If you've ever played Final Fantasy XI you are aware of its relentless difficulty and how unforgiving the game is when you happen to die (you lose exp). Sometimes the game is just unfair. That was the main draw of the game however; there's no doubt that it is hardcore.
Sometimes though, the bosses in the game are a little too ridiculous. Kotaku reported of a group of players that tried to take down one of the hardest bosses of the game, Pandemonium Warden, and failed after 18 hours. Yes, that's right, they played for 18 hours and could not beat him. Worried about their health, the group called it quits.
Square Enix got aTONofbadpress for this, so they nerfed all of their bosses, imposing a time limit of two hours to beat them and lowering the bosses' stats. After this change, the same guild took on another epic hard boss named Absolute Virtue that also has taken player's into marathon gaming. The result? Well, see for yourself.
Yeah, it now only takes one minute to beat with the right equipment and classes. I have to give credit to this guild though, BeyondTheLimitation (ironic name for this story), because they put in a lot of prep for this battle. Almost everyone in their group are max level Dark Knights with Kraken Clubs. Dark Knights have an ability that takes 10% of their HP and converts it into damage for 45 seconds. Then, they stacked that ability with their special 2-hour cooldown ability that drains and absorbs HP per hit for 30 seconds. So you have a system where on every hit, you're taking HP away from yourself and turning into damage and then absorbing it back from the enemy.
On top of that, the Kraken Club is a super rare weapon that can hit up to 8 times in a single round. Then, you have every Dark Knight with two hastes on them, which increases their attack speed. It was a well-thought out rush.
These guys got lucky though. Had the battle gone on any further, all of their special abilities would have run dry and then they would have to rely more on mages, which would be difficult since most of them were Dark Knights. Still, they had an excellent strategy, and it thankfully worked. Bravo.
I think it's great that Square Enix imposed a time limit, but two hours is too little and the bosses have been nerf a little too much. FFXI prides itself on being hardcore. Players with the best equipment in the game should be able to take down epic hard bosses efficiently but, one minute? That's a little too easy. I'm not sure how long the time limit should be, maybe 5 hours? Even that's ridiculous in video game standards, but MMORPG end-game bosses should be for the people who have no lives. Sometimes, it's not that bad to appeal to the insane.
I woke up on Saturday covered in little bites all over body, all itching like mad. NYU is supposedly working on getting an exterminator but they are doing a very crappy job, as usual. Needless to say, I am pissed off.
But, I did find a way to relate this story to Table Salt Games. In honor of my bed bugs, I'll share with you some of the coolest bugs/glitches that have appeared in video games.
1. Mega Man Multi-hit Start Trick
This only works in the first Mega Man game for the the NES. You can do this with most weapons, but the weapon it works best with is Elec Man's weapon. To do this trick, fire the weapon as normal. Then, the moment you see the weapon hit the enemy, pause the game. Don't bring up the weapon menu, just do a normal pause. From there, keep pausing and un-pausing the game and suddenly the enemy with with start taking multiple hits from the same attack! Using this technique, you can take out any boss with one shot.
This makes the Rock Monster (pictured above) actually possible to beat in Wily's stage 1.
2. Corrupted Blood
This was a HUGE bug in World of Warcraft that affected as much as half the the population on certain servers. The bug appeared in Sept. 2005 when Blizzard introduced a new dungeon called Zul'Gurub. A boss in the dungeon named Hakkar the Soulflayer, casted a spell that would do somewhere between 263-337 points of damage every two seconds. That alone is pretty bad, but what caused the bug is that this spell would be passed to anyone who was nearby the affected player. The spell lasted for quite awhile, and upon receiving the affect from another player the timer would be reset to the maximum.
The spell was only intended for the boss fight, as it would require the players fighting to use some extra strategy. Players would need to avoid the teammate affected while still trying to damage to the boss. However, this spell was bugged because it could also affect players' pets which could be called back and retain the spell's affect. People could then release the pet in a big town and have the entire city affected. Low level people would die immediately and mid-level players with no capability to heal would also die out.
Don't worry, the blog didn't die out. I've just been very sick recently and completely bed-ridden. Thankfully I have enough strength to move today, so I will be writing like mad. I will be posting the next installment in the Top 52 today, since I missed it on Tuesday. I also will be posting on Will and Beyond today, just like I do every Friday. And, I will be posting a Flashy Friday post as today is Friday.
One more bit of news however. Starting with the end of July, I have been posting Easter Eggs in some of my posts. Two of my avid readers, Shawn and Lima have caught onto this trend. Most of the easter eggs are just awesome videos relating to my post. Don't bother looking in this post for an Easter Egg though, there isn't one. >.> <.<
Politicians have always been looking for ways to convince the 18-25 age demographic to vote and this is by far the best idea I’ve ever seen. Gamers across the country who own an Xbox 360 will not even have to leave their couches on voting day.
There’s a little more to this story also. On LIVE, users will be able discuss political issues in an exclusive forum, take part in political polls and download public service announcements from the Rock the Vote. With these features, Xbox Live has become a legitimate political source. Gamers now have a central location in which they can discuss politics and a exclusive forum to express their voices.
This is a great idea; it just needs one fix. Why stop with only Xbox 360 gamers? I hope Rock the Vote is at least talking to Sony and Nintendo to get this on their consoles. All gamers, regardless of what system they prefer, should be able to get this service for free.
UPDATE/CORRECTION: You can't vote for the President through your Xbox 360. You CAN register to vote though. Sorry for the mix up. Thanks Will!
MMOs have somehow become immensely popular despite being money drainers, time drainers and notoriously slow-moving. The gameplay for MMOs like World of Warcraft and Final Fantasy XI are numbingly repetitive as most of the quests involve you going to one place, killing some enemies, picking up an item and then bringing it back. Even combat is repetitive because with macros, you can have your entire battle plan set up with a click key stroke. I’ve played both World of Warcraft and Final Fantasy XI, and I’ve given up on both as a result of these flaws.
Yet, I’m talking about them in this post because I discovered something on 1UP that just made me furious. Square Enix is selling a $40 real-life silver pendant that will give you a code which will allow you to transport from certain cities instantaneously. The pendent itself looks pretty nice, but I personally would not spend more than $20 on it. I don’t have a problem with the pendant itself. Making real-life game gear sometimes looks really awesome.
What I have a problem with is the transporting “bonus” Square Enix is handing out.
For starters, the places you can travel to are easily available once you have a black mage at level 18 who can cast Warp. You can only travel to your set home point with that spell but there’s more ways to travel also. You can get fast-moving chocobos around level 20 and once you reach Rank 5, you can also get airships that go to all of these towns. There is even a free ship in-game that takes you from Selbina to Mhaura.
However, despite all those available options, travel still moves at a snail’s pace. When traveling from the Jeuno to Bastok, if you just miss the scheduled airship, you’ll need to wait twelve real-time minutes for another one to arrive, and then travel for 5 to 6 minutes. If you want to leave and do something else, you just wasted the gil you spent to get into the dock, when gil is already hard enough to come by. Therefore, the bonus via $40 necklace seems nice.
I say that’s crap.
Square Enix should have already made traveling as easy as the transporter. Waiting twenty minutes to get to another town just isn’t fun. Then, if you’re meeting up with people in a dungeon, it will probably take another ten to fifteen minutes to get where they are camping out. Seriously, why would developers do this to paying customers?
The answer seems simple to me really. Square Enix makes a crappy, slow-moving MMO with the franchise name “Final Fantasy.” Then they have people pay $40 to make things move slightly faster. Final Fantasy has become such a big name that no matter what they put out, people will buy it. This includes $40 necklaces that will help you (kinda) in a virtual world.
Giving in-game goods for buying real things is a neat idea, but the price has to match up with what they are giving. $40 should unlock something massive, like a boss battle arena that gives you the some of the best weapons in the game. $1 should get you a transporter if it wasn’t in the game to begin with.
If they just want to sell a necklace, fine, sell it for something reasonable. But to sell the necklace and give a useless in-game add-on that should have been there in the first place? Please, don’t patronize your paying customers Square Enix. You’ve already lost paying consumers like myself for being unnecessarily time-wasting.
I love watching the Olympics as I get to watch sports that I would never find anyplace else. Right now, as I write, I’m checking out the USA-China water polo game. This morning, I also caught the USA-China basketball game, where the USA’s so-called “Redeem Team” crushed China 101-70.
Seeing that score, you would think that the USA team dominated the game on every level. That could not be farther from the truth however. China, especially early on in the game, was raining down three’s. The USA’s perimeter defense was just awful. It felt as though everyone on the Chinese starting five was consistently hitting from outside the arc (even Yao Ming dropped one) in the first half and nearing the close of the second half, the game was tied.
However, clearly the saving grace of the USA team was Lebron James. He had three huge blocks in the game, one including when he grabbed Liu Wei’s lay-up attempt in mid-air. Lebron James was simply a defensive mastermind in this game as the man he was holding, Yi Jianlian, went four-for-thirteen shooting.
Offensively, Dwayne Wade was the star, as he did not miss a shot the entire game. He was 7-for-7 shooting and perfect from the free throw line. However, his teammates did not follow in his example in regards to foul shooting. The USA team went 18-for-25 from the free throw line, which in this Olympics, is just unacceptable. The USA team also could not hit their three’s, going 7-for-24 in the game. China is not the biggest test for the USA team either, and had they played this sloppyagainst Spain or Greece, the result might be different.
I can’t have a post about the Olympics without talking about what swimmer Michael Phelps did last night. Phelps is going for a mind-boggling eight gold medals, and he got the first one last night in the 400m Individual Medley. He didn’t just get the gold medal in this event; he also broke another world record, posting a time of 4 minutes 3.84 seconds. The previous record was 4 minutes 5.24 seconds, also set by Michael Phelps.
Seriously, this guy is just insane. Every stroke he has looks perfect; he never breathes at the wrong time and his entries into the water are just flawless. The NBC announcer said that his weak point may be the breaststroke, and that might be when other swimmers could catch up to him. Upon watching the competition however, he was gaining more ground on the competitors during that leg of the race. He simply looked unstoppable.
I don’t know if he has the stamina to get eight gold medals but no one in the Olympics has shown that they are even close to his swimming ability. Watch for Phelps on Wednesday though, as he has to do three events in one day, one of which includes the 4 x 200 freestyle relay, which will test the USA swim team altogether.
Two feminists (kinda) are speaking out against the obese portrayal of women in the upcoming PSN game, Fat Princess. In general the problem they have with the game is that part of the game mechanic is to stuff the princess you captured with cake, making her bigger and harder to bring back her original base. Fat Princess is essentially a game of capture the flag, with a fat princess being the flag.
It doesn’t stop there though. Feminist Gamers’ Mighty Ponygirl writes: “Instead of running out into the forest to find cake to fatten up the princess with, why not go out and find gold (which is a lot heavier than cake) to stuff into a treasure chest. The more gold in the chest, the heavier it would be, and the harder it would be to carry. Oh, but that’s not as “cute” as cake and fat chicks. Right.”
Really? Why are these two people picking a fight over this game? I didn’t know that having a fat character in a video game will actually change people’s perceptions about how fat people act. Fat princess isn’t a cute game because the princess is fat. The game is cute because of the character design and because of how over the top it is. Sure, you could have gold coins go into a treasure chest and take the treasure chest, but that isn’t as crazy of an idea as stuffing a princess with cake. It’s a neat, harmless idea that shouldn’t affect anybody. Gamers won’t look down on the princess because she is fat and then look down at people in real life who are obese. It’s a game. It is over the top and the “plot” should not be taken seriously.
I highly doubt that these two writers are steadfast feminists. Good feminists fight for more righteous things like equal pay for men and women, women’s health issues and representation in governments. Good feminists know that this isn’t news. I understand that the portrayal of women as equals to men is important, but Fat Princess does not hurt perceptions. Honestly, it’s a non-issue. Everybody knows that overweight men and women exist and reasonable people know that obesity is a growing problem, especially in the United States.
In my opinion, these writers show a subtle fear of showing obese women on a television screen. The problem here is not that a game is showing a fat woman but that some people are actually upset about what a fat woman can do to the minds of the masses if seen on television. Yes, as a culture, we casually stereotype obese people as lazy and ugly. It isn’t fair or justified but we do have obesity in our culture; why should we hide it and have every video game character (male or female) be perfectly fit? The first step is not to get rid of this fat princess character but for us, as a collective populous, to be able to look at any fat person and not feel shame or pity. Don’t count on Fat Princess to be a muse for this paradigm shift in our psyches though; this game is not trying to make a political statement nor were they trying to offend anybody.
For the developers of Fat Princess; these pseudo-feminists (I hesitate putting them in the same group of women who have actually made a difference) have given the Fat Princess game more press then they could have expected. The overwhelming reaction to these bloggers’ responses to this game has been that the bloggers are taking this too far. People are defending this game and they haven’t even played it yet. For every time a writer knocks down these two female writers, they mention how cool the capture the flag style game will be.
This was probably an accident, but the developers of Fat Princess have made a game that was just controversial enough to offend some radical people, which caused people to disagree with those radical people and talk about how good Fat Princess is. Gamers, for the most part, have discredited the controversy, putting the game in the positive spotlight gaining a ton of press. I couldn’t think of a better marketing strategy myself.
In case you didn't notice, the previous post was made by Will, a friend of mine that I met at NYU. He has his own blog at Will and Beyond. His blog pretty much talks about everything from food, his everyday life, movies, news and games. It's really a lot of fun to read (and it has been around for years!), so check it out if you have the time.
We will be trading posts on each other's blog about once a week, which will hopefully expand both of our readerships. I made a post on Will's blog earlier today, "For Puzzles, the Bell Tolls"so take a look at it.
It is really nice to have a different voice on this site every now and then; it creates more content for the site and you have information shooting from different angles as a result. That being said, if you want to talk about games and publish it on Table Salt Games, leave me a message, an e-mail (rpr236@nyu.edu) or a comment. I say "game" very loosely since I'm cool with people writing about video games, board games or even sporting events. If you can call it game in some sense, then it fits for this blog.
In addition, if you have a blog of your own, I'm down for doing the same deal I have with Will where we trade posts to each other's blog every week. I write primarily about games but I can write about other things if that doesn't fit the scope of your blog. Just drop me a line and we can work things out.
Hi, Table Salt Games readers. I'm Will of Will and Beyond fame, and I'll be contributing a post approximately once a week to the site here.
In case you haven't heard of Scrabulous, it was a Facebook application where people can play Scrabble online with each other. Scrabulous was great because you could have so many games going at once with different people, and you didn't have to be online at the same time. Sometimes a game would take a few days to finish, other times it would take a couple months. It kept track of your ranking, and all the bingos you ever played.
Why was that paragraph written in the past tense? Because, as of recently, the Scrabulous application has been shutdown by Facebook/Hasbro. Scrabulous was being put under a lot of legal pressure by Hasbro (who owns the US rights to Scrabble), since it was essentially a clone of Scrabble. It had been taken done one or two times here and there for a day or so, but never permanently, but this seems like it's for good.
The creators (two guys from India) have quickly put up an alternative game called WordScraper. They obviously anticipated the day when Scrabulous would get shut down, so they probably had this on the backburner just waiting for their d-day. From what I can tell, Scrabulous had ~600,000 daily users. For some reason, I can't imagine WordScraper reaching that status, but time will tell.
It's also worth noting, that Scrabulous is only shut down in the US and Canada, because Hasbro only owns the rights to Scrabble there; so you can still use it in other countries. Would it be worth setting up a proxy to make it look like I'm viewing Scrabulous from out of the country? No, because odds are very low that anybody else would.
I've mentioned on Will and Beyond before about how I love Scrabulous. Not just Scrabulous, but anything Scrabble-related. I'll still take a traditional game of Scrabble over anything else, but that's not always feasible. Some other great variations are Crapple, Anagram, Speed Scrabble, and Science Scrabble. Richard's already covered Speed Scrabble, and maybe I'll go into some of the others at a later time.
I am so glad that I am not a hardcore Sonic fan, because this would make me really upset.
I adore the Sonic games for the Genesis and I really enjoyed the two Sonic Adventure games for the Dreamcast. Sonic was awesome because it required you to think real fast and react quickly while blazing through some really cool looking levels. Maybe other people enjoy, excuse me, enjoyed Sonic for different reasons, but that was it for me.
I hold judgment on this game though because if the Sonic Team can somehow maintain the speed of Sonic and add swordplay, that would be amazing. I find it highly doubtful though. Or, if they announce that this is a Sonic RPG I'd be okay with that. I think Sonic in an RPG is a bad idea but hey, I guess it can't hurt. But if this is like some other recent Sonic games, I think I may cry a little.
Maybe this game isn't real though; maybe someone has awesome photoshop skills. I found this photo on Kotaku though, so my guess is that it's real.
With E3 over, I took a step back and asked myself, what game am I most excited about right now? Immediately I must say that Mega Man 9 has stolen my gamer heart this year.
I am a HUGE fan of the Mega Man series; sometimes nothing gives me more glee than to play through the old NES Mega Man games. Upon seeing the trailer for Mega Man 9, I nearly jumped out of my seat. The levels look so blocky and so retro and so relentlessly difficult. Upon searching for more Mega Man 9 news, EVERY preview I see from people who got to play the demo say that they loved it. 1up, IGN, Destructoid, ShackNews; everyone is raving about this game. I can't even find a negative preview of Mega Man 9.
The only universal concern that these writers have is that younger players may not enjoy the retro style or how the game is geared towards hardcore players. Personally, I doubt this will be an issue. Tons of newer gamers have played games from the 1980’s and even though they are graphically inadequate, their sheer simplicity and ingenious level design makes them so much fun to play. Graphics don’t matter when you’re having fun. There are reasons why video game companies keep making “anniversary collections” or have services like the Wii Shop Channel; the games sell like hotcakes.
Various writers have also said that the difficulty is intense, even harder than the classic NES titles. This may be off-putting to some gamers but, if you read all of the writer’s previews, most of them feel compelled to continue on and try again. Mega Man games always had the insidious quality of looking simple but being insanely hard which, I think, keeps us playing.
The music in all of the Mega Man games are also some the best examples of MIDI being used to its full potential. The songs are composed extraordinarily well, give the game a unique style and are insanely catchy. The songs are always upbeat, usually with sick bass lines and they usually have very progressive melodies. The trailer music for Mega Man 9 sounds as though it retains those qualities, and there are some quick-ass riffs thrown in there. Personally, I love this song from Mega Man II: Dr. Wily Stage 1 & 2.
For sure, I am feeling a bit of nostalgia. That feeling takes nothing away from Mega Man 9 though, as the previews looks amazing and the trailer looks like the game is so much fun. I love difficult games and Mega Man 9 is sure to deliver in that department.
Capcom has been laying on the fan service with this game, finally listening to their fans’ cries. The Mega Man 9 box art is truly hysterical; just look at the artist’s old-school horrific rendering of Mega Man. The ray gun is priceless too, especially since he has a buster arm to fire with. Even funnier, there will be no box for the game as Mega Man 9 is being released via Wiiware, PSN and XBLA. Great stuff.
Mega Man 9 is dated for Japan in September on this year. The US release shouldn’t be too far off from that since usually the time discrepancy is because of translation and localization, and there isn’t much text in Mega Man 9. My friend Chris and I plan on trying to beat this game in one night together, though we may throw something from the insane difficulty. I couldn’t imagine a better feeling than that.
So apparently Apogee is working on three portable Duke Nukem games for the DS and PSP, while we still hear absolutely nothing about Duke Nukem Forever, which should be coming out for these generation consoles. How can George Broussard (the supposed creator and director of previous Duke Nukem games), actually expect to come out with a trilogy of games when he can’t even put out one good one? Well, fear not, because George Brussard is not in charge anymore.
Acoording to a Shacknews.com article, "This week's revival of the Apogee Software brand represents a second Apogee Software--Apogee Software LLC--which is dedicated to mobile games. And while formed with the assistance of 3D Realms' Scott Miller and George Broussard, both are totally removed from any Apogee Software LLC-related management decisions. 'This is a true rebirth of the Apogee name,' commented Nagy."
Duke Nukem Forever has been in “development” since 1997 and we still do not have a set release date. So can we expect this trilogy (or maybe part of it) to come out in 2019? Seems like a good estimate to me unless Apogee starts moving the chains on the development cycle.
Don’t know about this discombobulated history of Duke Nukem Forever? Check out this awesome Wikipedia article to see how many times 3D realms changed gameplay engines, story ideas and the conflict they had with their publisher, Take-Two. I loved Duke Nukem 64 but, I can only wait so long.
I would love to tell you more about the Duke Nukem trilogy idea but just look at the trailer they put out at E3 (posted above). Apogee/3D Realms has given us nothing to go on and though they apparently have plans for what they are going to do, why should I bother talking about them? They will only get changed by the beginning of 2009.
Seriously, the developers of the Duke Nukem series needs to get their acts together; this is just beyond ridiculous; it’s redonkulous.
As a college student who doesn't have a ton of money (and space in my dorm), this news makes me eccstatic. According to Game Life, Activision announced at their E3 conference that your Rock Band 1 instruments will work with the new Guitar Hero: World Tour.Please note that this announcement was only made for the Xbox360 so, as a PS3 owner, I hope they will announce this for Sony as well. I see no reason why they would not do this, but hey, you never know, I've seendumber video game decisions.
But wait, doesn't the new GH:WT instruments have five drum pads? Yes, the new drum pads from Activision has 5 inputs instead of Rock Band's 4. However, the game will accommodate the change by having the on-screen gameplay only have four colors.
However, there is incentive (though not much for my budget) to get the new drum set from Activision. Their drum set has a MIDI jack that will allow a user to use his or her own electronic drum kit, if you have one. You'll also be able to put in a second bass pedal and be able to use it in the game.
Last but not least, Sony has the final conference of the big three. One last diary for their conference will conclude the Big three's showings. Look at the end of this entry for a short analysis and recap of all three as well. Enjoy! ------
2:30- G4 has a countdown to the press conference timer that just went to zero, and nothing happened. The Girlfriend (GF) screams profanities at the screen at a result. Now she begs for them to stop talking.
2:35- G4 is fishing for something to talk about now, just commenting on EA’s titles. Sony is late. GF remarks that it has been five minutes since the countdown ended.
2:36- Triangles, Circles, Squares and X’s fill the screen, Sony is up and they are showing quick fixes of tons of games both out and upcoming. Some PSP games also, but does anyone care?
2:42- GF drops a separated Oreo cookie. It lands cream-side down. Lolz. Oh, the conference? They are giving a history lesson.
2:44- IBM is using the Sony’s processor that appears in the PS3 as IBM’s supercomputer.
2:46- Ten minutes in, no new games being shown. All stuff from past year and hardware wanking.
2:47- GF concurs with my sentiments.
2:48- Resistance 2. Finally. I love their multiple TV screen set-up. Wow, I’ve never seen a bad guy that big in an FPS. These graphics are just so incredibly sharp. Makes the big building size undead thing look that much uglier. Okay, the big guy just threw the main character through a glass bridge.
2:53- Hm, Resistance 2 developer is the first to really give any story background for any game this E3. Did I just hear 8-player online co-op? That’s huge.
2:54- More Resistance 2 footage. The grandeur of the cities and the battleships is just outstanding.
2:56- Little Big Planet. I am super-excited about this one. Create your own levels and puzzles and have other people try and complete it online. The sackboy just cheered after putting on a Celtics jersey. How quaint.
2:59- Fantastic. They are going through the fiscal stats on a Little Big Planet level. Someone actually made the economic stuff enjoyable. The level design for Little Big Planet is very unique and so adorable. Looks as though Little Big Planet could end up being very challenging if you are good enough at making levels. Little Big Planet announced for October.
3:04- PS2 news. Quick highlights. NCAA Football 09. Tiger Woods PGA tour 2008. Star Force Unleashed. Warroirs orochi 2. Singstar pop 2. Yakuza 2. Madden XX Years. Mercenaries 2.
3:07- Buzz quiz game coming in September.
3:08- Lego Batman bundle with PS2 for $149. Nice to see that they still are putting out games for the PS2. 130 PS2 games announced.
3:09- Playstation Network. Your ID will have more info attached to it even on your PC coming this fall. Nothing about Playstation Home…yet.
3:11- Ratchet & Clank Future: Quest for Booty on PSN- More platforming elements, it looks like. New abilities that add puzzle elements. $14.99 too on PSN, very nice.
3:14- Ratchet & Clank Future: Quest for Booty, Crash Commando, Fat Princess, Pixel Junk Monsters, Pain Amusement Park, Flower, Siren Blood Curse, Ragdoll Kung Fu: Fists of Plastic.
3:17- Gran Turismo TV news on GT5: Prologue. Can download videos of different sports cars and races in HD. Sounds cool, not for me, but looks smooth. Sounds interesting if you like that stuff. Release Date on PSN: August 1.
3:20- Trophy news and Playstation Home news. Playstation Home footage. Looks like Second Life Avatars to me. Different game spaces for different games and you can jump on with people for games. Even GF admits that it looks cool.
3:23- TV episodes for $1.99. Movie rentals from $2.99 to $5.99. Movie purchases more expensive. Can move downloaded content to PSP. Disney, Sony, Fox, Lionsgate, Warner, MGM, just to name a few of the video partners. Can look at previews of movies you may want to purchase via the Playstation Store. Can download to PSP via PSN on your PC as well. That’s a lot of P’s. All of this available tonight. Sick. New titles added each week.
3:31- PSP news. New entertainment pack (bundle). Ratchet and clank limited edition.
3:33- New Resistance game for PSP. Resistance Retribution. I’m still impressed by how smooth PSP graphics are.
3:35- PSP news. Quick footage again. Star Wars the force unleashed, Madden 09, Loco Roco 2, NBA 09: The Inside, Super Stardust Portable, Lego Batman the video game, Patapon 2, Buzz! Master Quiz, Valkyria Chronicles.
3:39- Back to PS3. You can move game videos you make to YouTube. I didn’t know this.
3:41- Sony Online games. DC universe online. Jim Lee speaks. He was the first to get some cool sword in Everquest on his server. Lolz.
3:44- DC online footage. Looks like a standard MMORPG, but with all the DC characters. I hold judgment on this one; I need more information.
3:49- Call of Duty: World at War, Madden ’09, Far Cry 2, Fallout 3, Prince of Persia. Developers rave about hardware capability, and storage capability. Tons of untapped potential on PS3.
3:53- Highlights of tons of PS3 games, mostly exclusives. Little Big Planet. Motor Storm, Pacific Rift, MGS4, Quantum of Solace, SOCOM: Confrontation, Ghostbusters, Soul Caliber IV, Resistance 2, The Agency, Naruto Ultimate Ninja Storm, Mirrors Edge, RE5, SingStar, GH: WT, NBA ’09 The Inside, Buzz Quiz TV, Killzone 2 (surprising that their wasn’t more on this game).
3:58- Infamous. Awesome comic style art integrated with high-def graphics. Open-ended action-adventure. Glad to see new title without a number at the end of it.
4:00- “This is a workout even for the PS3 architecture.” What could this be? A SOCOM Massive Action Game (MAG). 256 player battlefield. WTF!?! Squads of 8 led by players who have proven themselves. Character Growth and on-going campaigns.
4:02- MAG. Holy crap, a huge multiplayer shooter/strategy game of epic proportions. I have no words; I’ve never seen something like this before on a console.
Sony did what they absolutely needed to do with this press conference. They showed a ton of games that they have right now and that will be coming out. Yes, they lost FFXIII as an exclusive but, they honestly have some other great exclusives in Resistance 2, DC Universe Online, Infamous, Little Big Planet, God of War III and this new SOCOM MAG game. Let’s also not forget about Metal Gear Solid 4. What I’m most happy about is that Sony is taking chances; they aren’t just having all of their games being sequels. They have future installments in their franchises but keeping it fresh with Little Big Planet and Infamous. Despite the FFXIII hit, Sony will be fine. In my opinion, they played this E3 correctly. ----------
So who “won” E3? Everybody will say Microsoft because they clearly had the biggest story: FFXIII. And those people are right; FFXIII is the biggest story as they steal it away from Sony. However, with the exception of some third-party games like Infinite Undiscovery, all of Microsoft’s exciting games are just continuations in their series. Yes, Gears of War 2 will rock, no doubt. However, as a gamer, I appreciate franchises but, you have to balance it out with taking some big chances. “You’re in the movies” isn’t going to cut it in my opinion.
Sony didn’t really “win” E3 either. I needed to see more of God of War III and I saw virtually nothing on Killzone 2, another supposedly big exclusive. Sony was clearly the most balanced of the consoles doing the best job of showing the most varied games from Little Big Planet to Ratchet and Clank, to Resistance 2. Sony also showed a wide array of products for the PS3 hardware, PSP and surprisingly, the PS2. Sony did the most with their time on stage. Just look at the names in this blog entry dialogue. They clearly showed the most titles.
One thing is for certain though. Nintendo did not “win” E3, by any means. The “hardcore” gamer was left unsatisfied, as most of the games were casual. This isn’t bad per say, but we all wanted to hear about Kid Icarus Wii or some big announcement about a famous Nintendo series. Shaun White Snowboarding looks awesome, Wii Sports Resorts coupled with the Wii Motion Plus should be great too, but nothing made me go crazy.
Final judgment? Nintendo finished in dead last. Sony and Microsoft is a push. Microsoft has the big announcement but Sony showed me more overall. Every major company is sitting pretty though, as they all have their core audiences and excellent exclusives. It’s a good time to be a gamer.
The answer seems simple to me really. Square Enix makes a crappy, slow-moving MMO with the franchise name “Final Fantasy.” Then they have people pay $40 to make things move slightly faster. Final Fantasy has become such a big name that no matter what they put out, people will buy it. This includes $40 necklaces that will help you (kinda) in a virtual world.
Mega Man 9 is dated for Japan in September on this year. The US release shouldn’t be too far off from that since usually the time discrepancy is because of translation and localization, and there isn’t much text in Mega Man 9. My friend Chris and I plan on trying to beat this game in one night together, though we may throw something from the insane difficulty. I couldn’t imagine a better feeling than that.
![[2]](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:WoW_Corrupted_Blood_Plague.jpg){kind=link}
