Assassin's Creed

Assassin's Creed is one of those games that seems to divide people. Some people hate it, some people like it. Personally, I enjoyed the game.

I've heard complaints about the combat, but honestly I thought the combat was quite good. Sure, it takes some getting used to, and it's not perfect. But I mostly held R1 and countered in battle, and it worked out nicely. Using the other techniques proved to be useful in the later stages of the game.

The story is well done, if not a bit contrived. The "big spoiler" about the true setting of the game isn't just revealed in the first five minutes, it's revealed in the game's own instruction manual. Ubisoft dodged discussing the "futuristic" elements of the game to the end, but they ended up giving it away in the manual, and even the opening scene. I'm disappointed by that, but I suppose it was for the best.

That isn't to say the game doesn't have twists and turns in its own right. Even in the "future world" segments, it pays to walk around and interact with whatever objects you can. The first few times you can't do much of anything, but soon enough you can talk to the female assistant, access the computers, and so forth. I won't say any more, as you have to play it yourself. Or read a guide. Whichever.

The most fun I had was running around on the rooftops. That was so much fun. It reminds me of Prince of Persia, which makes sense because it's the same company. But it was a lot of fun overall. Also, once you get to the View Points and can look over the city, the scope of the game really shows itself. If you can get to a really high view point, you can look over the city and see how much detail is in there. You can see every building, big and small, and marvel over the power of the current generation of hardware. Some of the views are simply breathtaking.

Which brings me to the graphics. Amazing stuff. However, I wasn't really wowed by the character models of the assassination targets. Yes, they are a step above the previous generation, but I get the feeling as if a lot more could be done. Maybe it was just the art design, but a few of the guys just looked ugly. I'm probably nitpicking, though.

The PS3 version of the game, which is what I played, was very well done. I didn't encounter a single glitch, except a strange "can't read disc" error that happened only once. The game prompted me to upgrade it to version 1.10 when I first started it, so maybe that fixed the bugs. I don't know how it compares to the other versions. I noticed very little slowdown, and it certainly didn't affect the game in any way.

All in all, I had an excellent experience, and a lot of fun playing Assassin's Creed. The end of the game definitely set up a sequel. Even though it was said that the game is part of a series when this was first announced, the ending basically shouted out, "Wait until the sequel to find out more!" If you wait until after the credits, you're granted more time to poke around with the computers and find out even more of the story details.

I'm ready for the sequel. I hope it doesn't take two years. But I'm not getting my hopes up. I do worry, though, what direction the game will take. Will Desmond be forced back into the Animus to relive the life of Altair once more? Or will the game shift to Desmond as the main character? If it is set in the future world that Desmond inhabits, I'm sure there will be a major shift in the gameplay itself, as it goes from sword-based combat into gun-based combat, and I don't see that as being an improvement in any way, shape, or form. I don't know how they could keep the game focused on both Altair and Desmond at this point, but we'll have to wait and see.

Unreal Tournament artificial intelligence rant

Artificial intelligence is a difficult thing to get right. I'll say right off the bat that I enjoy playing the Unreal Tournament games offline, with bots only. It's quite fun, once I find a nice difficulty where it's challenging without being overly frustrating. But I've noticed a couple quirks, mainly in Unreal Tournament 3, that bug me.

I should note that I was playing Unreal Tournament 3 on the PS3, not the PC. I doubt that makes any difference, but I figured I should make note of it anyway.

The first quirk that irritates me is the fact that the AI seems to know where you are at all times. It is impossible to sneak up on these bastards. Plus, the "feign death" function in UT3 is useless against bots. The AI somehow knows you're still alive, and will shoot you anyway. But anyway, they seem to know where you are, even if they haven't seen you. I could be hiding behind a column at my base for ten minutes, completely unseen by anyone, but the moment I peek out, I'll see a stream of projectiles coming toward me. For example, I was playing Vehicle Capture The Flag on Sandstorm, a new map in UT3. There is a large wall separating the two bases, and you're able to get on top of it. I got on top, and just peeked at the opposing base, when suddenly two guys and a vehicle were firing at my exact position at the same time. Despite none of my allies ever being up there that round, and the fact that none of them saw me go there, nor did any of them see me up there prior to me peeking out. They fired on me almost instantly, as if they knew I was up there the whole time, and knew exactly where I was situated.

This sort of clairvoyance makes playing the role of a sniper almost impossible, as a sniper is supposed to be stealthy, but it's impossible to be stealthy in a UT game. The AI always knows where you are, and if you pop out for an attempted kill, they'll blast your location with fire to the point where you'll be running around looking for the nearest health pick-up. And that really goes against what a sniper is supposed to do.

Which brings me to quirk number two: the AI seems to focus their attention on you. If they're able to shoot you, they will devote their entire existance to doing so. For this example, I'm going to reference the same round played on Sandstorm. There was an enemy running toward our flag. Two guys plus a Darkwalker were shooting him. I was simply watching, as a passive observer. Logic would dictate that the enemy should get to cover from the Darkwalker, and take care of the two guys trying to kill him. But he ended up firing rockets up toward my position, completely ignoring the three entities attempting to end his short, artificial life. It defies all logic that an AI character would ignore things that are trying to kill him, and only go after the player in some sort of kamikaze mission. Granted, it makes sure that the player is always part of the action, instead of passively observing, but I tend to like passive observation, and I can't really do that when being fired on, and I can't really enjoy it either when the AI seems to not care whether it lives or dies.

I've noticed this to an extent in UT2004, all the way to the Skilled difficulty. UT3 has this issue on Novice and Average, but I haven't tried the other difficulties yet. I would suspect, though, that the AI would more viciously target the player in the higher difficulties, anyway.

I suppose these issues can be forgiven. The games are still fun. Playing a sniper, while difficult, isn't entirely impossible. And I suppose the AI doesn't always exclusively target the player, though I must say that it chooses the most curious times to do so. They're more personal gripes than anything, and it does seem to help keep the game moving and challenging. So I guess it all works out in the end. Still, I wanted to point them out, anyway.

Portal

I've been wanting to play Portal, for two reasons. One, because it looked awesome from even the first video. Two, because everyone is going crazy over it.

I swear, just about everyone who has played this game has nothing but good to say about it. Even the most jaded reviewers on the internet. I read that people were making Weighted Companion Cube porn before the game even came out, and I've personally seen porn involving the gun turrets from the game just days after its release. I had to see what all the craze was about.

It's roughly 3:30 AM as I type this. It took me a little over three hours to finish the entire game, in one sitting. I don't know exactly how that ranks on the average play time scale, but I'm proud to say I didn't use a single walkthrough. I rented The Orange Box on the PS3, specifically to play Portal. I use Linux, and while Portal is said to work well with Wine, I don't have the money to buy The Orange Box for the PC, and I wasn't sure if $20 for Portal would be worth it, given that I can hardly afford even that.

While I'm sure that most everyone who cares about Portal has played it, and has done so weeks ago, I feel I should give it a more proper review.

First up is gameplay. It's a very unique concept. Only one game, to my knowledge, has featured gameplay like this, and that was Narbacular Drop, a class project done by DigiPen students who ended up being hired by Valve to turn their idea into a full-fledged game. So, you could say Narbacular Drop was a tech-demo for what would become Portal. I have to hand it to the developers, because Narbacular Drop has most of the physics-related fun you'll find in Portal, and for a class project, that's really impressive.

Anyway, once you get access to both portals, the game is basically about spacial recognition. Being able to look around your environment and figuring out exactly how to place your portals. Later puzzles involve figuring out angles and momentum. Some puzzles take some work to figure out, but there will be some where you figure out the answer quickly. However, on the later puzzles, while the solution may seem easy, the execution isn't. That's not a game flaw, it's the precision timing or placement needed.

The audio is really nice. There's not a whole lot to it for most of the game. GLaDOS is humorous at times. The way she says certain things with that monotone, robot voice is sure to make you laugh. It's more just a few moments than the entire game, of course. Also of note are the voices for the gun turrets. I read that the voices sound really cute, and I have to agree with that. The sweet and rather deceptive voice of the turrets is off-set by the fact that it can kill you quite easily.

Also, I only noticed the Weighted Companion Cube in one single "Test." The rest were Weighted Storage Cubes. (The Companion Cube has pink hearts on it, while the Storage Cubes have the Aperture logo.) Which makes me wonder why there is such a craze over this cube. I guess I'm just not getting it.

The story is almost non-existent. The player character has little or no back story, and GLaDOS doesn't start showing much personality until the last level. Still, this is a kind of game that doesn't really need a story. It's like adding a story to Tetris. Puzzle games don't need story, and Portal is a puzzle game.

Overall, I think Portal is amazing. It's quick, which is a shame, but it's a lot of fun. If you're into games that really make you think, Portal is a must have. I'm just hoping for a sequel or expansion pack of some kind.

Burnout Paradise

I downloaded the Burnout Paradise demo (PS3 version) yesterday. I must say it looks great, and plays well. My only complaint of the demo is the introduction sequence cannot be skipped. Also, there are times when the game pauses, and the announcer guy gives you tips on what to do, and these cannot be skipped, either. So, anytime you want to play the demo, it's probably three minutes of crap before you can get to the actual game, with shorter one minute or less breaks every so often.

That part is highly annoying.

Other than that, I think the demo is fun. Though, I avoided doing any missions until my second time through, and when I tried them, I wish I kept skipping them. To me, it's too confusing to try and catch a turn when I'm supposed to, because the only indication I get is a flashing street sign on the top of the screen. By that time, I'm going so fast that I'm concentrating more on the road and less on indicators. If there was a giant arrow, I'd probably be able to follow it better. Or maybe a path drawn on the mini-map.

I'm not really able to play a game where I'm driving at high speeds, and have to make split-second decisions. One reason I don't like street racing games. Although Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit on the PS1 was excellent, and it had enough of a "street" feel for me.

But, I found myself having much more fun just crashing into stuff. Trying to roll my car into a "Drive away" crash, and also going as fast as possible and going head-on into a wall. The damage models are well done, and it looks impressive, and ultimately satisfying, to see my car (and others) be totally destroyed.

So, basically I had more fun driving around like a lunatic than I did actually doing any missions. I think this is what Burnout is supposed to be, anyway. Just a giant city filled with potential destruction and insanity. Just forget the races and all that junk, and go destroy things. It's good, old fashioned, mindless fun.

2007 in review

(Small content note: I'm still debating whether or not I should continue the This Month in Gaming History series I've done. These posts don't have a lot of content, and the site I use as my main source has many inaccurate dates when cross-referenced with Wikipedia. I've often missed events because the month was listed incorrectly, or I couldn't confirm a date.)


2007 is almost over, and I thought I would take a look back at the events of the year.

As 2007 started off, the PlayStation 3 was difficult to find. However, Sony quickly got more units to shelves, and system sales have remained steady, but still behind the competition. The year also saw the dropping of the 20 Gig and 60 Gig units, in favor of the 80 Gig and 40 Gig units. Plus, the PS3 saw a couple price drops, though the first was rather temporary.

The XBox 360 saw steady sales, though it eventually fell to second place in the second half of the year. Major titles like Halo 3, Bioshock, Mass Effect, and others were released. The 360 Elite and Arcade models were also released.

As for the Wii, it has spent the entire year in a "shortage." I'm sure there are people who will claim that Nintendo is creating the shortage in order to boost demand for the system, and I won't argue with them. Whether Nintendo is purposefully creating a shortage or not, the system is in very high demand, and overtook the XBox 360 in less than a year, despite the 360 having a one year head-start.

2007 also saw the new and improved Electronic Entertainment Expo, as well as a few others trying to cash in on the downsized E3. Including E 4 All, which apparently had problems drawing a crowd.

In terms of games, Call of Duty 4 made an impact in the realm of first-person shooters. In terms of gameplay, the game didn't do a whole lot to revolutionize the genre. But the game looks incredible. The PS3 version, in particular, looks and runs as well as the XBox 360 version, and was released the same day as the other versions, which has been a rarity in multi-platform games this year. The story is well done, which is also unusual in FPS games. The multiplayer, while I've not tried it, is said to be excellent.

Also released this year was the PS3 version of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. While 360 and PC owners got to explore Cyrodil last year, PS3 owners were given the chance this year. While several months late, it was still great for those who missed out the first time around.

The Darkness came out to mixed reviews. Personally, I've enjoyed the game. I can't say it's the greatest, but it's at least fun.

Fire Pro Wrestling Returns, the latest entry in Japan's long running wrestling game series, came out in North America last month, marking the first time a console version (ie: not portable) of Fire Pro has been released outside of Japan. Fire Pro Returns was released in Japan in 2005, but even if it took two years, it was worth the wait. The game is incredible.

In terms of other news items throughout the year, there aren't many that I can remember, to be honest. Bungie separated from Microsoft. There was a Gamespot scandal involving the firing of Jeff Gerstman. And that's about all I can remember off the top of my head.

And that's my brief look back on 2007 in gaming. I hope you enjoyed it.

Call of Duty 4 revisited

Last time I talked about Call of Duty 4, I discussed the gameplay features I enjoyed. Since then, I finished the game, and then did so again three more times. So I felt compelled to expand on what I first wrote.

First, the game is intense. Even the earlier levels have intense moments. Really the only parts of the game that aren't intense are the parts where you're avoiding a helicopter or searching for a missing ally. There were a few moments in the lone stealth mission that had me on edge. But you'll often find yourself hiding behind cover, trying to pick off an enemy or two without being killed. I found some easier paths to take on some levels, but others leave you without a lot of room to maneuver.

The story presentation, in my opinion, is awesome. First-person shooters aren't known for having good stories. But I grew an attachment to the S.A.S. squad. The U.S.M.C. squad, not as much. I had to use the subtitles to make out who was talking when (I'm not very good at differentiating voices with accents), but I grew to love my S.A.S. squad. Gaz, Captain Price, and Griggs (from the U.S.M.C.) are my favorites. The game portrays them with such unique personalities, which doesn't come off as forced.

Some story bits are delivered during load times, which helps disguise loading. It works quite well, as playing the game the first time, I was more interested in how the story progressed from one level to the next, that I didn't mind waiting for it to load. On a second or even third play through, it serves to remind you what the situation is, but it does get a bit tiring.

The story itself is pretty good. I'm not expecting anything of epic proportions, but it does its job quite nicely. The switch to the modern era, and moving into a fictional war, really did wonders for the story. When you do a game based on a historical era, you usually are faced with the constraints of that time period, as well as keeping it historically accurate. But this fictional war in the modern era has no such restraints, and you'll actually find yourself coming face-to-face with the main antagonists on more than one occasion. It makes you feel like you actually mean something, as opposed to being a random soldier in a big battle during World War II.

Overall, this game excels on all levels. The gameplay, video, sound, and story are all incredible. If I were to nitpick, I'd complain that the player characters don't cast any shadows. In fact, in typical first-person-shooter style, you don't see the characters' legs, body, or head. But even though the world is beautifully lighted, and all the shadows are real-time with HDR rendering, you can move in front of a light and nothing will happen. No shadow, no disturbance, nothing. It's the only real annoyance I found in the game, outside of the "playing as a helicopter gunner" level.

A (partial) Mea Culpa

I hate the Wii. I've made no bones about that ever since I got it back in January. I feel that the machine is little more than a spruced up Gamecube with a novelty control scheme that appeals to the masses mostly based on nostalgia for Nintendo products and price. I saw virtually no games that justified its existence or its control scheme. Nor did I understand why people thought it was such a "revolution" when it was doing nothing more than updating twenty year old technology (did we all just decide to forget the Power Glove?) And once it became a haven for so called "shovel-ware", crappy titles hastily ported to it to make a buck, I was sure I was right.

Then I played Super Mario Galaxy.

I don't like platformers, I haven't liked Mario since he went 3D (no fault of his own, or Link's, I've just not liked those titles in 3D). But this game is good. Really good. Maybe not the best game of all time good, but still, awesome.

I think why I like it so much is that it does what so many games on the Wii before it have failed to do, make the controls feel necessary. The experience involved in SMG could not be duplicated on the other machines, it just couldn't. Specifically, the highly enjoyable multiplayer facet where one person controls the target to assist the other person with Star bits and enemies.

I don't have enough play time to really review the title or speak too deeply on it, but I have seen enough to know that I was, at least partially, wrong about the Wii. What it offers is unique enough to give experiences that you can't get elsewhere. However, one game does not a saving grace make. I expect this level of excellence from Nintendo in house development, they've been getting it done since I was still in diapers, I want to see the equivalent of a Mass Effect on Wii from a third party till I admit it has long term viability. In the meantime, I'll have some Star bits to snap up...

Good news, Bad news

Yep, I am back with some good news and some bad news. I'm gonna start with the bad news, as I like to end on a high note. So, here goes.


Bad News- I can't shake the WoW addiction. Lord knows I wish I could. I hate paying $15 a month for a game, even if the fee is perfectly understandable and I love the game. I spend wayyyyy too much time playing it and not nearly enough time doing other things I want to do. Not only that, it's sucked my wife in as well, pretty much eating my free time since March of this year. I am fairly sure my /played is up around 32 days. That's an unconsciousable 768 hours. That's one full month in six months. That means that, in the past six months, there was a 1 in 6 chance that at any given time, I was playing WoW.....

You get the point.

The saving grace of the whole thing is probably the fact that it isn't like my life is suffering because of the addiction. My wife plays as well, so it isn't like it is me sitting at a computer by myself like some social outcast. I finished up my Associates Degree and aced my first two classes when I transferred in that time as well. Plus, I work full time AND pay all my bills. I just spend all my free time playing WoW. Which is partly why this blog hasn't seen me writing a lot.

Simply put, I've not played a lot of the most recent, good stuff. Outside of Bioshock (which I loved) I've not played a new game in quite awhile. While this wouldn't normally be a bad thing for most people, for me, it's devestating, especially with the litany of great games that somehow got all their release dates this fall. And with my WoW guild raiding now, I am not sure how I am going to get time to do this. However....

Good News- I bit the bullet and restarted my Gamefly account. Look, I can't not play Mass Effect, Assassin's Creed, The Orange Box, Super Mario Galaxy, etc., etc. I just can't. That's not who I am. I got needs, and I am not ponying up the dough to buy all those games without playing them. So, I am going back to Gamefly, hat in hand.

I've got about ten games lined up, and the one I got right away was Super Mario Galaxy. So, xpect to hear something from me on it before I go away for the Thanksgiving holiday.

Hopefully, this will allow me to start talking and writing more, and maybe even break that addiction, though with the recent rrelease of 2.3, I doubt it.

I am weak...

Call of Duty 4

After hearing all the buzz about Call of Duty 4, I decided to rent it for my PS3. After completing a few missions in the single-player campaign, all I have to say is that the game is worth the hype.

The first thing I love about this game is the health system. This system has become increasingly common amongst shooters, and even moving into other genres (Uncharted: Drake's Fortune uses this system, as well). The system I speak of is where there is no health bar, and no health pick-ups. You can only take a few hits before dying (depending on the difficulty setting), but you recover health by keeping out of the line of fire. So, it's somewhat like infinite health, as long as you're able to get behind cover and heal up. For an intense shooter like this, that kind of system is a must, and it works wonderfully. But I still found myself dying a lot.

The game controls well, it looks amazing, and the sound is fantastic. It can be difficult to make out what your allies are saying at times, but that's to be expected when grenades and other stuff are exploding all around you.

My one complaint so far have been the vehicle portions. One part had me manning three separate weapons on a helicopter to give air support for allies (who I had just been playing as on the ground) as they got to the landing zone for evac. I was forced to use infra-red vision, and the guys on the radio gave vague orders. They told me not to hit the church, but I couldn't tell which building was the church. It was rather disorienting. The latter part was me manning a grenade launcher on the side of a helicopter. That part was okay, but trying to accurately hit targets while flying around was a bit of a chore.

Otherwise, the game is great. It's fantastic. Probably the best PS3 game yet.

November in Gaming History

NOVEMBER

4th --
2000 – Donkey Kong Country is released on the Game Boy Color

5th --
2002 – Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance is released on the Xbox.

7th --
2006 – Gears of War is released on the Xbox 360.

9th --
2004 – Halo 2 is released on Xbox.

13th --
2002 – Sonic Mega Collection is released on the Game Cube.

14th --
2000 – Final Fantasy IX is released on the PlayStation.
2001 – Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty is released on the PlayStation 2.
2003 – Mario Kart: Double Dash is released on the Game Cube.
2005 – Mario Kart DS is released for the Nintendo DS.

15th --
1996 – Tomb Raider is released on the PlayStation, Saturn, and PC (MS-DOS and Mac).
2001 – Microsoft launches the Xbox video game console. Launch titles include Halo, Oddworld: Munch's Oddyssee, Dead or Alive 3, Project Gotham Racing, and more.
2002 – Metroid Prime is released on the Game Cube.
2002 – Metroid Fusion is released on the Game Boy Advance.
2005 – Sonic Rush is released on the Nintendo DS.

17th --
1992 – Sonic the Hedgehog 2 is released for the Sega Master System and Sega Game Gear. This game is completely different from the Genesis game of the same name.
2004 – Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater is released on the PlayStation 2.
2006 – Sony launches the PlayStation 3. Launch titles include Resistance: Fall of Man, Call of Duty 3, Ridge Racer 7, Tony Hawk's Project 8, and more.

19th --
1993 – Sonic the Hedgehog CD is released for the Sega CD
2006 – Nintendo launches the Wii. Wii Sports is bundled with the system. Launch titles include Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, Rayman Raving Rabbids, Excite Truck, Red Steel, and more.

21st --
2004 – Nintendo launches the Nintendo DS handheld system. Launch titles include Super Mario 64 DS, Feel The Magic: XY/XX, and more.

23rd --
1998 – The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time is released on the Nintendo 64.

24th --
1992 – Sonic the Hedgehog 2 is released for the Genesis.

25th --
1994 – Donkey Kong Country is released on the SNES.

29th --
1972 – The coin-op version of Pong is released.

Pushing the envelope: How far is too far?

My "This month in gaming history" entry for November may be delayed a day or two. I really need to get these ready ahead of time.

Anyway, Manhunt 2 was released recently. So I thought I'd make an entry about games pushing the envelope in terms of violence, and general "adult content."

Now, I think we all know that video games have had the attention of politicians for years. Since the release of Mortal Kombat in the early-90s, the eyes of lawyers and lawmakers have been cast upon the industry. Since the initial outcry, there haven't been many controversies. But there have been enough.

In the late-90s, there was a game called Thrill Kill. This game didn't really catch the eye of any politician, and with good reason. It was never released. The first console game, to my knowledge, to get the Adult-Only rating from the ESRB, the game was more or less complete when Electronic Arts bought the developer. (Or otherwise obtained the game.) They deemed the game unfit for the general public, and canceled it. A near final version of the game was leaked to the internet, where people found out that the game wasn't very good. The game was controversial due to the amount of violence and sexual overtones included in the game.

Another controversy came from the remake of NARC. It wasn't much, but the concept of using illegal narcotics as power-ups, and the fact that you play as a cop while doing these drugs, caused a minor stir. Of course, gamers and gaming media said the game wasn't very good, it didn't sell well, and it blew over.

There's also the Grand Theft Auto controversies. I'm going to skip the Hot Coffee thing, as we all know about that. As for the violence, I think GTA hasn't been too realistic to make that an issue. Something I worry about in regards to GTA4.

But the games that really overdo stuff are the Manhunt games. Now, the first Manhunt didn't get good reviews. I played it, and the game isn't really fun. And from what I hear, it's the same thing with Manhunt 2. To me, it just seems like Rockstar is going for shock value here. Instead of making the game good, they make the game as violent as possible, and throw in a bunch of sexual innuendo to go along with it. Make it the most vulgar and shocking game possible.

It worked. They got media attention. Or at least until people found out it wasn't very good. Manhunt 2 ended up getting an AO rating from the ESRB, and was banned outright in the UK, and I believe Australia as well. They did some modifications (though a hack for the PSP version uncensors the game) and got it rated M. But I think the bans in the UK and Australia still stand. Regardless, this may be a sign that Rockstar has finally found the border of how far they can take things. But I'm sure they'll try to push it farther in the future.

The thing that's getting the most attention are the Wii-specific controls for Manhunt 2. You have to act out the killing motions with the Wii-mote, which is a much more interactive way of killing than ever before in a video game. That, in of itself, disturbs me.

Video games don't need violence or sex to be fun. And I think Rockstar tries too hard to portray the opposite image. You rarely hear about more family-friendly games in the media. You only hear about the violent games. And the more violent the game, the more the media will talk. And the more the media talks, the worse an image the industry gets.

I hope that Rockstar cools it a bit. GTA: San Andreas was okay, but Manhunt is overkill.

Three Thumbs Up!

That's right, three. One, two, three. Uno, doce, tres......however you count to three in some other language. Why three you ask? Because there are three big things I am happy for this week.

First of all, Mass Effect has gone gold, meaning it will see it's November 20th release date. In other words, Bioware just made Thanksgiving plans for me. This is the game I've been waiting for from them since the original Knights of the Old Republic. A truly epic IP of their own invention. If you've not seen the trailers then you are doing yourself a big disservice. This game is going to be awesome.

Secondly, and in the same vein, Assassin's Creed has also gone gold and is scheduled for release the week before, November 13th. While I am, indeed, really looking forward to this (the trailer with the song Lonely Soul clinched it for me) I am also a bit hesitant. I am not sure if I mentioned it before or not, and I am too lazt to check, but I am a student of history in college. In my studies, there are two ears I have focused the most on, one of them being the Crusades. As such, I am really concerned that that part of my brain will refuse to allow me to enjoy the game. I'll watch aspects like the ever growing obviousness of some or of "Templar plot" and yank my hair out at the resumption of fairy tale crap that Dan Brown invented. Or I'll see things like how Altair (the main character) had a "Christian mother and a Muslim father" (a practical impossibility at the time) or how he is "more spitirual than religious" (a definite impossibility for a member of the ultra fanatical Hashashin Muslim sect) and feel the need to toss the controller across the room. Not saying this is their fault, per se, but I am sure I will be unable to set aside the historian in me enough to let myself enjoy them.

Last, but not least.....my WoW guild has started raiding! And I raid Karazhan Saturday night! I couldn't be more excited about that prospect. I've been waiting for this for the last few months, since I hat 70 really, and now it is time. Pray for phat epic lootz for me.

My most anticipated games

I thought I'd do something different, and give a list of games that I'm greatly anticipating, in the next six months. (Which would take us to April 2008.) These are in no particular order.

Assassin's Creed - This was first shown at X05 as Project Assassin. It later went on to be given a name, and branded a PlayStation 3 Exclusive. (Despite debuting at Microsoft's then-annual XBox-themed event.) "Officially" multi-platform since early-2006, Assassin's Creed has looked incredible. Though I'm still waiting for a pre-release demo of the game (which they promised about a year ago), I can honestly say that I cannot wait to play this game. The graphics look awesome, and the gameplay looks promising. It looks like it gets some of its inspiration from the Prince Of Persia: Sands of Time trilogy, and that's a good thing.

Unreal Tournament 3 - I've played the recent beta demo, though I'm still eagerly waiting a Linux demo. Anyway, the demo looks promising. There are some issues that I've read about on the official Epic forums, but I'm hoping they get resolved. Either way, I love UT2004, and I'm enjoying UT3. While it may be coming out on the PS3, I think I'm sticking with the PC version. Though, I think it's ridiculous that one single man is working on making the Linux version of UT3. I mean, that's just not right. One man porting the Windows binaries to Linux? I'm glad it's being made, but I hope the guy is getting paid well. I don't know how many people are working on the Mac version. The Windows and Mac versions will have their own separate boxed versions, while Linux users will have to buy the Windows version, and download a Linux installer from Epic's website. I guess it's better than nothing.

WWE Smackdown Vs. Raw 2008 - What can I say? I'm a whore for the WWE Smackdown series of games. I've bought every single version since the first. Every year I get the new one. This year is no different. There's not much other reason I'm looking forward to this, other than I'm a whore for the series. Though I am annoyed that the XBox 360 version gets custom entrance music and the PS3 version doesn't. How is that different from the Custom Soundtracks I mentioned in an earlier post? To me, a "Custom Soundtrack" is a playlist that overrides the default music that the game is shipped with. But being able to import your own music, only for the sake of using it as an entrance theme in a wrestling game, is something completely different in my book. I want to be able to give my custom wrestler his own music. Not some lame ass "butt rock" music THQ signed for the game soundtrack, or leeching off some other wrestler's theme.

Fire Pro Wrestling Returns - Finally, a console version of Fire Pro. I own both the GBA versions that came out in the US. I've played Fire Pro G, and Fire Pro D through nefarious means. And I must say, I absolutely love Fire Pro. I'm so excited to play a PS2 version of Fire Pro in full English, and without the need of a mod-chip.

Twisted Metal: Head-On (PS2) - David Jaffe's new studio, Eat, Sleep, Play is working on the PS2 port of Twisted Metal: Head-On. But it's not just a straight port from the PSP. The PS2 version will have higher resolution and higher polygon graphics. Plus, the PS2 version will include Twisted Metal: Lost, a mode that features five or six tracks from the canceled Twisted Metal Black 2. Along with all that, the PS2 version will come with a Twisted Metal documentary, and other bonus features. It's shaping up to be a must-have for any Twisted Metal fan. I own Twisted Metal 2, 3, 4, and Black, and I cannot wait to get this.

Metal Gear Solid 4 - I'm looking forward to this game, as a Metal Gear Solid fan. I've followed the story, and since this is supposed to be the absolute end of the series, I just want to see how it ends. Add to that Metal Gear Online, which looks like an interesting online component, and the package can't be missed. My only concern is that there will be a second edition of MGS4, in the vain of MGS2 Substance and MGS3 Subsistence.

LittleBigPlanet - Sony's unique game has me quite intrigued. The concept is basically enabling the player to make whatever they want (within reason), and allow them to upload and share this content with other people. Create full levels, new objects, outfits for Sackman, and more. The fact that it's so focused on user creativity makes the game something to look for.

Super Smash Bros. Brawl - The lone Wii game on my list is hardly a slouch. I love the Smash Bros. series of games. I just love them. I really want this for two reasons: Solid Snake and Sonic. How long have gamers waited for Mario and Sonic to go at it? I'd rather ignore the Olympic-themed crossover (the games are totally fixed, as evidenced by the fact that Mario can keep up with Sonic in the 400 Meter Dash). I would like to see Tails included, but Sonic is fine, I suppose. This game has become a three-company crossover, with Konami and Sega throwing down with Nintendo. Classic Smash Bros. gameplay, mixed with fresh characters, new elements, and the excitement of having Sonic beat the snot out of Mario makes me desperately want a Wii.

Warhawk - 48 days later

It's been about 48 days since Warhawk was released on the PS3. While not quite two months, I wanted to go back and revisit the game now that it's been out a while.

I haven't actually played Warhawk in a few weeks. That's mainly because I'm so used to the four maps available on Sony's official CTF Large servers. Yes, there are five maps in the game, but somewhere around the time the first bug fix was rolled out, the Destroyed Capitol map was removed from the map rotation on the official CTF servers.

Anyway, I like playing CTF. And I like playing defense. So it's the same thing every time I play. Sure, I can go on offense, but I usually end up on a single-man suicide mission, and that does my team no good. Zones is an okay mode, and I'm not very fond of Deathmatch.

Also, I absolutely suck at aerial combat. The moment I jump into a Warhawk or Nemesis, I'm considered dead. A few seconds after I start flying, I get a Missile Lock-On warning, and I don't have enough time to react before I'm a fireball streaking across the sky.

One other problem with the game so far is that there are still bugs in the Ranking system. I'm ranked 2nd Lieutenant, but I'm not qualified for anything above Chief Sergeant. This, among other minor bugs, haven't been fixed yet. Granted, the game is playable. It's hardly broken. Just a few minor things are. I can't complain much, as the only real bonus to gaining a rank is more customizations, and I love to customize.

The maps have multiple layouts, but you only ever see other layouts on the official servers, when you play on a different sized server. I like playing on the Large servers. But I'd have to play on a Medium or Small server to get a different map layout. And I don't want a smaller map with fewer people. I like big maps, and lots of players.

All in all, I want more maps. There has been no official word on any future content, other than they confirmed there would be more maps and stuff back before the game came out. It's been almost two months. Sure, bug fixes are a priority, but it would still be nice to have some more maps to play with. My only concern is that, when new maps are made available, that the official servers won't include them.

Overall, the game is still good. It's not the gameplay that has dulled. It's the lack of maps. Lack of variety. It'd be nice to have some extra gameplay modes, as well. But the game hasn't held up for me. That's just my opinion. But I need more maps.

Bi-weekly, stupidly late post FTW!!

So,here we go, it's Firday, and it's time for me to get off my lazy ass and post. Or on my lazy ass and post. Whatever. Here's what I've been up to and read about this past week.

- Been playing a lot of Jeanne d'Arc on my PSP. It's very cool. I guess. I mean, the whole SRPG thing is all about Shining Force for old school Sega nerds like me. I enjoy Jeanne d'Arc plenty, to be sure, but I can't shake that longing for a real Shining Force game from Sega *sigh*. Also, it's kinda funny how one of the main characters in the game was, in real life, a child murderer. Kinda disturbing.

- Also been playing Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin a lot. Again. I bought the damn thing earlier this year and haven't finished it yet, mostly because it is so damned complicated. With that "Metroidvania" style, you put the game down for any significant amount of time and you totally forget where you are and what you were doing, tottaly frustrating.

- I want the Orange Box so bad I can taste it. I mean, that is value that you can't just sdeny. 5 games for that price? Not only that but 5 of probably the best games ever made? Sheesh. That is the video game equivalent of selling smack on the corner for a nickle. It's so good it should be illegal.

- So, EA bought Pandemic and Bioware. Ugh. I don't hate EA as much as most, simply because I respect the fact they actually act like a company at a time when so many video game companies piss and moan about the "artistic" qualities of the medium, but I can't pretend this is a good thing. It's obvious that EA is upset about losing their top developer spot to Activision and this is there response to that, but, Bioware? Why them? Why did it have to be them? And what does this mean to the future of the proposed Mass Effect trilogy? I wouldn't bet against their future installments being multi-platform, but is that really for the best? And does EA care? Ugh.

- Sonic was officially announced for Super Smash Bros Brawl....whatever. I didn't like the first game, I won't like this one. I never saw the appeal.

- The Wii won't see a price drop this holiday. Well, du. Who really thought they would?

- Puzzle Quest for the Xbox 360......I need to go download this immediately.....

With that, I am done. I hope to finish up Jeanne d'Arc over the weekend and do my first "Alex Gore's Super Duper Review!!" to mix thngs up, but I make no promises. I am hitting the home stretch on a few courses and that takes precedence.

The Simpsons Game demo

I played the demo of The Simpsons Game on the PS3. And I'd say the game is a disappointment.

The demo consists of Homer and Bart trying to defeat Doughnut Lad. First annoyance is the running commentary by Kent Brockman. The stage is set up as a news broadcast by Kent, but he's quiet about half the time, and only chimes in for the very obvious, or to let you know that the character you are not controlling has been knocked out.

The demo doesn't tell you at the start, but you're getting graded. You're also being timed. The goal is four minutes. I finished the boss in almost twenty-five minutes. You're also graded on how many of a specific object you smashed, and how many cliches you uncovered.

The cliches are, in my opinion, what is either going to make or break this game. Making fun of video game cliches is fun and all, but I think I'll reference A Bard's Tale (PC, PS2, and XBox). A Bard's Tale is a top-down RPG/Dungeon Crawler like Diablo or Baldur's Gate. The main character complains, mocks, and otherwise makes fun of various cliches of both Dungeon Crawlers and RPGs in general. The problem is that the game itself contains those cliches. The main character sees these cliches in use, and then proceeds to mock them.

In another game, the title of which I forget, has the main character tasked with various fetch quests. Said main character then complains about fetch quests (actually calling them "fetch quests") and talks about how stupid and redundant they are. Yet the game still makes you do them.

It may seem funny, but when the game is telling you "This is stupid," and then proceeds to make you do it anyway, is that really fun? When the game tells you about the inherent flaws in the design of its own being, it makes me wonder why it's there to begin with.

Back to the Simpsons Game. The first cliche I ran into was the "Obvious weak point." Which is the very obvious weak point on Doughnut Lad's backside. The second cliche is "You can't swim." Which makes reference to the fact that you have to "wait for the sequel" to be able to perform that action. I didn't find that last one, but I'd expect it to be stupid.

It's been stated that the Simpsons Game will "make fun of" various video game genres. But the cliche thing makes me think the humor will be too forced. When you take a cliche concept that's either overdone, annoying, or makes gamers pull their hair out, don't put it in your game and then tell us how stupid it is. If you think it's dumb that characters can't swim, then don't make it so your characters can't swim! If you think it's silly to have bosses with obvious weak points, then don't give him obvious weak points.

Don't give us something dumb, just so you can tell us that it's dumb. At least that's my opinion on the topic.

October in gaming history

OCTOBER

1st --
1979 – Former Atari programmers David Crane, Alan Miller, Jim Levy, Bob Whitehead, and Larry Kapland form Activision, the industry's first third-party developer. They start making games for the Atari 2600, and later move on to other platforms.

4th --
1995 – Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island is released for the SNES.
1997 – Gunpei Yokoi is killed in a car accident. Yokoi worked at Nintendo where he created various toys, before creating the Game & Watch series of LCD handheld games. He was assigned as General Manager of Research & Development 1, where he helped create the Game Boy, Game Boy Color, and Virtual Boy. He was also the producer of the Metroid games. After the failure of the Virtual Boy, he left Nintendo and started Koto Laboratory, where he started development on the WonderSwan. He died before the final product was released.

7th --
2003 – Nokia releases the N-Gage, a cellphone capable of playing cartridge-based games.

10th --
1980 – Pac-Man is released in arcades in North America. It goes on to become the most successful coin-operated game ever.

11th --
1994 – Final Fantasy VI is released in North America as Final Fantasy III, for the SNES.

18th --
1985 – The Nintendo Entertainment System is released in select markets in North America. Super Mario Bros. is among the launch titles, along with 10-Yard Fight, Baseball, Clu Clu Land, Donkey Kong Jr. Math, Duck Hunt, Excitebike, Golf, Gyromite, Hogan's Alley, Ice Climber, Kung Fu, Mach Rider, Pinball, Stack-Up, Tennis, Wild Gunman, and Wrecking Crew. Two configurations of the NES were available at launch. The Control Deck ($199.99) had the NES, two controllers, and Super Mario Bros. The Deluxe Set (249.99) had the NES, R.O.B., a Zapper, Duck Hunt, and Gyromite. Nintendo would release several more bundle pack configurations in the lifespan of the NES.
1994 – Sonic & Knuckles is released for the Sega Genesis (aka Sega Mega Drive).

26th --
2000 – Sony releases the PlayStation 2 in North America.

Clive Barker's Jericho

When I downloaded the Jericho demo off of the PlayStation Store, I expected a survival-horror style First Person Shooter. (And I HATE survival horror. I scare easily.) But, it has a decent amount of hype behind it, and I wanted to at least give it a shot.

The demo didn't have as much survival horror elements as I expected. There was a timed-button-press sequence near the end which requires quick reflexes. I expected the action would slow down a bit, like in God of War, but it kept going at regular speed. Luckily, the buttons show up in a section of the screen that corresponds with that button's placement on the controller. So that makes it a bit easier to know which button to hit.

The rest of the demo was good. It's apparently set about halfway in the game, where the Jericho team is split. You only have control over three teammates. Which is good for demo purposes, I suppose. The supernatural powers that the team has at their disposal are well done and integrated into gameplay. You'll likely spend most of the demo as Black, and her psychic sniper move is damn cool. She uses her psychic abilities to control her sniper shot, and it can hit up to three enemies. You could get a triple head-shot, if you're good enough.

The last part of the demo is a solo part with Church. She has a decent gun, an awesome sword, and she deals with blood magic. She's also the one with the button sequence mentioned above.

The final part of the team is Delgado. He has a chaingun, and has the ability to call upon fire spirits, and otherwise bend fire to his will. I didn't use him much.

I'm not big on first person shooters. But this game seems okay. It's not a typical shooter, but not many are these days. Old-fashioned run-and-gun doesn't cut it anymore. You need a gimmick. This game's gimmick works pretty well, I think. It's probably not going to go down as the best FPS, but it seems like a good one to check out. You can certainly do a lot worse than this. And who knows, maybe you'll end up really enjoying yourself.

Imanerdkthxbye

Sorry for the lack of posting last week. Got ill because of a mishap with some gasoline (don't ask). Anyway, wanted to drop my weekly "It's Friday, let me recap what I am up to" post. You can probably come to expect this from me, a weekly post on Friday that sorta recaps what I've been doing and been following over the past week, only in Awesome Bullet Point Form! Here we go:

* Big news this week is, of course, Halo 3, and being a big Xbox 360 fan.... I haven't played it yet. Honestly, I just can't muster the energy to play it. I like Halo just fine, it's a fun game, it's single player story is interesting, and it's multiplayer is fun when you can avoid the idiot kiddies, but there is about a hundred games I'd rather play before it. I managed to fight off the temptation to buy it Tuesday and am glad I did so, cause really, I don't need Halo in my life right now. However, I am sure to get it at some point in the future, just like I did with Halo's 1 & 2 before it. I mean, have you seen the reviews? The game is clearly well put together and fun, you'd have to be nuts to pass over at least trying it.

* Blizzard dropped WoW 2.2 on us Tuesday as well. The only really big news out of it was voice chat being added finally. I suppose this is a good thing, but having weened myself on online play from Xbox Live, I was already kinda used to it anyway. My server doesn't have it at the moment, but I doubt I will be using it much since my guild is on the verge of disintegration (though maybe that means I'll end up using it a lot in my new guild?)

* Speaking of WoW, I did what I think is perhaps the most awesome singular accomplishment I've yet done this past weekend: solo farming the first three bosses of (well, two bosses and one rare elite) in the Stratholme instance for Large Brilliant Shards. As a mage, I think this is highly amazing that I pulled it off (cause I suck).

* So they announced three new Kingdom Hearts games at TGS last week. Bleh. Those clearly aren't for me anyway. as my wife is the one who plays those, but I am moderately interested in the series, at least from a cultural standpoint. However, per usual, Huggy Bear (a.k.a Squeenix, a.k.a. Square-Enix) has pimped out and diluted the franchise with a bevy of spinoff's that only the die hards will play. Sure, these may be just handheld spinoffs, and the core series may yet appear next year on the new gen consoles (I wouldn't hold my breath), but I can't help but wonder why they are wasting their time with these. The series is more popular in America than Japan, and I don't think the American market will eat up these spinoffs the way the Japanese market will. Here's to hoping this blows up in their face.

* Speaking of handhelds. I continue to enjoy my PSP much better than my DS. The long and the short of it, I just feel like it is a much better machine. It can do more, is more functional, and feels a lot better in my hands than the tiny DS (which I can't hold and play for more than 30 minutes without my hands starting to hurt). Now if only they could get more great software for it, I'd be all set.

That's all from me this week, still working on some WoW stuff, about to play through some more PSP stuff, and I hope to have played and have something to say about Halo 3 next week.

Yearly games

With all my negative rantings, you may wonder if I have anything nice to say. Well, I do. Just not today.

Today's rant of mine focuses on the concept of yearly games. That being, game series that have a new edition every year. This is most commonly used in sports games, where they can slap on an updated roster, add leftover ideas from the previous game, and sell it at full price.

I'm not saying the developers are lazy. Obviously, one year to make a game isn't that long of a time. But, they do often start work on next year's game before the this year's game comes out. It takes a shorter amount of time, because they basically use the same game engine and assets from the previous version, with some enhancements, no matter how minor.

Many times, these types of games are criticized for not changing enough year by year. Some EA Sports franchises have been the focus of these criticisms. But they aren't the only ones.

The Tony Hawk series, for example, has reached it's ninth game. Fans of the series say they got the mechanics right in Tony Hawk Pro Skater 4. So what did they do after that? They added a story mode and other gimmicks to try and "enhance" the experience. They had the gameplay perfected, and the competition had called it quits. Being the only skateboard game in town for years, and with the story modes considered lackluster, the series sort of rode its success as much as it could. This year, we have Skate, which is the first alternative to Tony Hawk we've had in years, and several reviews say it's better than Tony Hawk. So we'll have to see what will happen for the tenth Tony Hawk game, likely due out next year.

Another series is the WWE Smackdown series. This series has had a lot of fan criticism. Some move animations remain unchanged since the first game, over seven years ago. The game engine has more or less remained the same throughout the series, with various enhancements made when changing between platforms. Some major gameplay tweaks have been made over the years, but there still remain parts that are identical to the earlier versions. I, for one, absolutely hate the animation of falling through the trap door in the Hell In A Cell match. Absolutely ridiculous, and I hate that it's still there in this year's version. Much like Tony Hawk, the Smackdown series has been without competition for years. The only competition it's had are the craptastic Legends of Wrestling games, the wacky Ultimate Muscle games, the not-really-wrestling Def Jam series (mainly the first game), and other WWE games (which shouldn't even be considered competition). In the next year, however, we'll see Fire Pro Wrestling Returns, marking the first time a console version of the Fire Pro series has made it to the United States. As well as the TNA Impact game, the first game for the upstart wrestling promotion. Finally giving wrestling fans an alternative wrestling experience.

I think it would be best if all yearly games would occasionally take a year off, so the developers can spend that time truly enhancing the gaming experience, instead of only giving a handful of new features, while leaving the gameplay almost exactly the same.

Achievements and Side-quests

I was playing The Darkness on my PS3 earlier, and I was looking at my achievements. Now, The Darkness has an in-game achievements system on the PS3. It's the same as the XBox 360 version, but without any of the fancy "XBL Achievements" features. And it got me thinking about the Achievements system on the XBox 360. So, I just want to know, what is the point?

I want to know what the big deal is. Some XBox 360 owners swear by Achievements, and some PS3 owners wish Sony would copy it (and not just with the trophy room in Home). But I don't get it. To me, it seems like a way to artificially lengthen the gaming experience. And when I see the gaming experienced lengthened in such a way, it tells me that the game itself is lacking. That's not always the case, but it bugs me that developers would rather plug in extra stuff you can do instead of make the main story experience longer.

Why do I make such a comparison? Think about it. To get all the achievements for a game, you often have to play the game multiple times. Now, I'm all for replaying a game, but I want something to make the experience different. Not just so I can get some extra junk.

It would be nice if Achievements got you anything in the game, but unless the game has its own unlockables tied with achievements, you don't get anything. Oh, you get points added to your gamerscore, and a little badge or icon on your XBox Live profile. But that's it. All it does is show how much of a "hardcore gamer" you are for doing all that stuff. Other than bragging rights, they're worthless.

Sure, I don't own a 360. So I'm basing this off of second-hand information. But something tells me I'm not too far off. I remember there was a magazine or website editor that did a retrospective on Donkey Kong Country (for the SNES), and mentioned that the game isn't as good as everyone thought it was, because you had to go around collecting items to get 100%, and that the item collecting artificially lengthened the game experience by making you play multiple times. I think about that, and I wonder if that same editor is praising XBox Live Achievements, despite the fact that they make you do the same thing.

Which brings me to my next rant, which was partially sprinkled in that last part. Side-quests. Games like Grand Theft Auto and others (including some RPGs) have a lot of side-quests. Now, I'm fine with side-quests if they give me a really powerful item or weapon or something. If they don't, then I don't bother with them.

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, and the earlier games in the series (like Morrowind), use side-quests in a neat way. The side-quests help mold your character, along with giving you gold and/or useful items, weapons, spells, and so forth.

But games like GTA use them in ways that annoy me. In order to get 100%, you must complete all side-quests, all collectibles, everything. Plus, you don't really get anything for getting 100%, and you usually don't get anything of worth for your trouble.

A lot of times, I'm left wishing that more time was spent on extending the story, instead of other junk. I'm a big fan of stories in games. I like a deep, intriguing story. And I like for it to be a good length. So, if the game has a story of decent length, I can forgive side-quests. But if the side-quests are almost half the game, then I start to get annoyed. I get even more annoyed when I must get 100% to get the "real" ending. Why make them "optional" side-quests if you're required to complete them for the ending? Why not put them in the story? Give me a reason to do it, other than Person X wants me to do it for them?

So those are just a couple gaming annoyances. Thank you for reading.

Of WoW and blogging

As usual, I have been very quiet on this space as of late. That is kinda ironic, I know, but bear with me, because the funniest part is, I couldn't possibly tell you why.

It's not like there hasn't been things to talk about. Both Lair and Heavenly Sword came out recently, to rather ho hum reviews. I could have used those as another means to bash Sony for releasing the PS3 before developers, even their own, were ready with software for it's release. Warhawk came out as well, but without a demo, there is no way I am picking up an online only game. Blue Dragon, the JRPG I have been pining for for almost 9 months, finally saw release....and I totally ignored it, instead choosing to wait for Lost Odyssey to come out. (The Blue Dragon demo was atrocious). The Eternal Sonata demo came out, and it was fantastic. So much so that I was forced to pre-order for my wife for her birthday. Not to mention the other day Microsoft a rather surprising deal with Tri-Ace/Squeenix to bring a JRPG to the Xbox 360 strangely called Infinite Undiscovery. So, with all this happening, what have I been doing?

Playing WoW, of course. And going to class.

This whole thing puzzled me greatly. Not a story goes by in the video game industry that I don't have some sort of opinion on that I bet I could offer an intersting opinion on for you, the reader. Yet none of these big announcements/releases/stories tickled me enough to get my fingers dancing and away from a game whose greatness I am not even sure I could properly explain. I've spent nearly a solid month of actual playtime in this game, and I am sure I've got another full month in me. But that doesn't make for good blog grist, does it?

Or does it?

See, if you were to ask me which blog is my favorite, out of all the blogs I read on a regular basis, my answer would be simple, WoW Insider. It is the blog I read that is the most consistently entertaining, informative, and well put together out of any blog I read. I think the reason is because it's topic is so focused. I've found that in blogs that speak about something in a general sense (see blogs about "sports" in general) there tends to be this kind of drifting between topics that makes the blog almost unreadable, or confusing. Something like WoW Insider has a defined topic that is large enough to contain the necessities of constant postings without being so generalized that you feel like your are only touching things on a skinned surface.

What does this have to do with me and my not writing anything? A lot, actually. I am thinking that I was kinda overwhelmed at the concept of writing a "video game blog" instead of focusing on what it should have been about, mainly, what I am doing right now in the video game world. I shouldn't worry about missing topics that I think I should be talking about and instead write about what I am doing. Even if that means twenty straight WoW posts.

That, or just write more in general.

September in Gaming History

Sorry for the delay this month. I'd love to blame Warhawk, but the first of the month really snuck up on me, I swear. So, I hereby present the month of September in Gaming History.

SEPTEMBER

1^st --
1992 – Super Mario Kart is released on the SNES.

4^th --
1989 – The first episode of The Super Mario Bros. Super Show airs. The show includes live-action sequences, along with cartoon shorts. In the live-action segments, Mario is played by “Captain” Lou Albano, while Luigi is played by Danny Wells.

7^th --
1983 – AT&T announces a joint venture with Coleco to develop a service that would deliver games over phone lines. A similar product was made available for the Atari 2600, by another company, in 1983. That product was called Gameline, which may very well be the first attempt at what we know now as digital distribution.
1997 – Final Fantasy VII is released on the PlayStation in North America. The game still remains the most popular of the series.
1999 – Final Fantasy VIII is released on the PlayStation in North America.

9^th --
1989 – Captain N: The Game Master airs its first episode. The cartoon features a teenager named Kevin, who is sucked into a vortex and taken to Videoland. He travels alongside Simon Belmont, Mega Man, and Pit, as they go through various NES games, fighting monsters and villains, in an attempt to stop Mother Brain and rescue Princess Lana.
1995 – The Sony PlayStation is released in North America. Launch titles include Battle Arena Toshindin, Ridge Racer, Twisted Metal, and Warhawk.
1999 – The Sega Dreamcast is released in North America. Launch titles include Sonic Adventure, Soul Calibur, and NFL 2K.
2004 – Pokemon FireRed and LeafGreen are released on the Game Boy Advance in North America.

10^th --
2000 – Sega launches SegaNet, the online gaming service for the Dreamcast.

13^th --
1993 – On the day that Acclaim dubbed “Mortal Monday,” the company released Mortal Kombat on the SNES, Genesis, Game Boy, Game Gear, Amiga, Sega CD, IBM PC, and Sega Master System.

14^th --
2004 – Fable is released on the Xbox.

19^th --
2005 – The Game Boy Micro is released in North America.
2006 – Okami is released on the PlayStation 2.

20^th --
2002 – Microsoft buys Rare, a British development company. Nintendo had previously owned 49% of Rare, but once Microsoft bought the remaining 51% from the Stamper brothers, Nintendo sold their stake, as well.

27^th --
1983 – Atari sends 14 truckloads of computer equipment and game cartridges to a landfill in Alamogordo, New Mexico. Six million E.T. cartridges are included in the load.

29^th --
1996 – The Nintendo 64 is released in North America. Launch games included Super Mario 64 and Pilotwings 64.

30^th --
1998 – Pokemon Red and Blue are released for the Game Boy in North America.
2001 – Ico is released on the PlayStation 2. The game sells poorly, but is a critical success. Garnering praise from most gaming media sources, as well as three GDC awards, and five Interactive Achievement Awards.

Warhawk

Usually I like to put a couple days between my blog posts and Alex's. But, I bought Warhawk today, and I really want to post something about it. I just want to make note that Alex wrote a blog post earlier about World of Warcraft.

Now, on to my review of Warhawk.

I don't play very many online games. I have strong social anxieties, which include online communication, to an extent. So it makes me nervous to play with other people, and I avoid voice chat like the plague.

When the release of Warhawk came closer, I was torn. On one hand, it looked like an awesome game. On the other hand, it's online only, and I don't know if I'd like it enough. I ended up giving into the hype, and earlier this morning I bought the game via the PlayStation Store.

Unfortunately, shortly after I installed it on my PS3, I found out that the servers were down for maintenance. By the time I found out, the servers were only down for another hour or so. Thus I've had plenty of time to play the game. And once I got over my initial fear, I found myself becoming addicted to the game.

Overall, I think the game is really good. The visuals are excellent. The vehicles look great, the environment looks awesome, and the actual player characters, while having a bit of a cartoony look to them, look pretty good.

There are only five maps, currently. The developers have said that downloadable content is definitely coming. Also mentioned is that some content will be free, while others will have a fee (a small fee, I'm sure). So you can bet on the number of maps increasing in the next several months.

The controls are nice. There are options for inverting Up and Down, as well as inverting Left and Right. These options are available for your Character, Ground Vehicles, Aircraft (Hover Mode), and Aircraft (Flight Mode). You can also adjust sensitivity, and turn on the Sixaxis motion controls. It's all a matter of personal preference.

The game modes include Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, Capture The Flag, and Zones. The first three should be familiar to anyone who has played a multiplayer shooter before. Zones is pretty interesting. The major gaming outlets can describe it better than I. But basically you have to capture command points, and expand your control over that zone. You can link zones together for faster point gain. You gain points for each zone, and how big it is. The game ends when the point total is reached.

All in all, the game is great. The sound effects are really cool, too. The explosions and planes flying around can make you a bit jumpy. But it all sounds amazing. The rest of the game comes together so well, too.

If you have a PS3, and a broadband connection, I recommend you get this game. It's a lot of fun.

Is Arthas gunna have to choke a bitch?

Yeah, I know, such profanity in a title, but, whatever, it is a contextually useful phrase. Besides, it's funny.

Those who recognize the name in the title will know I am about to wax philosophical on World of Warcraft and probably the new expansion as well. These people are quite correct. Despite the fact that I recently purchased a PS3 and despite my stance on it, the only thing I find myself constantly interested in lately is, still, WoW. (The most likely reason for this is because the summer time is always boring for video games, and the two best games for my new PS3 are called "Jack" and "Squat", respectively, with "Bupkiss" due out later this month).

I am not the first to find themselves in the throes of Azeroth addiction nor am I the first to write it up on a blog, but, I can't help myself. This game is truly amazing. Look, even the most jaded cynic would likely admit Blizzard makes great games (whether or not they particularly like them) but WoW is something else entirely. It's more like a cultural turning point. Much like how Nirvana wasn't the first grunge band, but they became a defining point in music in the 90's, World of Warcraft (or WoW to you) has become a sort of cultural focal point for the video game world. Everyone knows about it, pretty much everyone who has ever played PC game has at least played it to some degree, there have been TV Episodes about it, and also a movie in production, but these things alone don't really do enough to explain its transcendence. I mean, other games have had similiar treatment, but WoW has really ecplised so many of them. I may even go so far as to say that it is surpassed only by the Mario series in terms of notability when it comes to name recognition. The question is, does this equate to it being a good/great game?

The answer is, of course, no. Notability and greatness of product do not translate into making a great game, what makes a great game is a great game. And make no mistake, WoW is great. It plays remarkably easily yet contains a bevy of features that allows for a lot of depth and complex gameplay for an adavanced user. Basically, it is like every Blizzard game that has come before it. Which is probably why I love it so much.

And make no mistake, I love this game. Sure, I wanted to write a BioShock review today, but that didn't happen because, though I just finished and loved that game, I am more interested in talking about WoW since I picked it up again this past week after finishing BioShock (but there WILL be a BioShock review coming soon).

The weirdest thing about writing about WoW is finding something in particular to talk about. I mean, speaking about it in general is virtually impossible, it is too large a game (like most MMO's) to speak about in a general sense and have it make sense. It's just not possible. So really, I won't try to speak about the game here like that, instead, I will save posts for it for specific concepts. In one case, which will hopefully be done this weekend, I plan on live blogging my wife playing the game (this should be a comedic gold mine....or a haphazard and stupid thing, we'll soon find out).

But, best of all, I can talk about WoW and have it be fairly timely, since the announcement of it's long rumored second expansion took place earlier this month at BlizzCon. So, if I start writing WoW posts, and you, the reader, are getting annoyed, just remember to send those angry emails to Blizzard, it's their fault.

Folklore demo

The Folklore demo was put up on the PS Store this week, so I figured I'd give it a shot.

I've not read much about Folklore, so I went into the demo a bit blind, so to speak. But, it's pretty darn good. It's a good length demo, too. It's not cut ultra-short like the Heavenly Sword demo (despite being only a little larger).

First, the bad parts. No voice overs at all. It's all text. Also, the red text they use to highlight certain words can be difficult to see, especially against some of the backgrounds they use. And while there is some form of tutorial, it doesn't cover everything. Like the objects that appear as yellow dots on your mini-map. There is no mention of them, but I found you can destroy them to get items or health.

The good part? Well, the game plays well. The camera is a bit iffy, but otherwise it's a good game. It seems like a traditional Japanese Action-RPG, with a Pokemon twist. You start with three Folks. Once you're outside of a village area, you can use the face buttons to "summon" these folks for a single attack. They each have their own, obviously. And they each have a set of things you have to do in order to unlock their Karma, which are enhancements to their performance. It can be stronger attack, less MC energy used to summon them, or other things.

The areas aren't too large. It's basically linear, with a few branching paths that were blocked off when I found them. It doesn't sound very interesting, but it is at least worth playing.

Folklore uses the Sixaxis motion controls well, I think. When an enemy Folk is weakened, you'll see a red (or sometimes green) spirit, of sorts, above it. At that point, you hold R1, and flick the controller upward to capture the Folk. For stronger Folk, their spirit thing will be green. Then you have to hold R1, and wait until the spirit thing turns red, then flick the controller upward. You have to do that a few times before you can fully capture it. The motion control actually makes sense, and isn't tagged on as a gimmick, a technical demonstration, or a useless extra control option. It feels like an essential part of the game, as it should be.

I didn't play to the end of the demo (all the blocked paths started getting frustrating), and I only played as one character (the demo gives you the option of two characters), but I still played for at least 15 minutes, I think. But, of course, being an Action RPG, it falls prey to one of my least favorite things (which is why I refused to play Kingdom Hearts after the first twenty minutes). That being, enemies that respawn in the same locations once you re-enter an area, no matter how many times you beat them. Even the boss-like Folk respawn. That's just not fair.

Overall, it's pretty good. I'd like to see how the full version turns out.

Retro gaming

As has been said before, I own a PlayStation 3. It isn't the only system I own, but it's the only one of this generation in my possession. Still, I find myself playing games like Jet Moto 2 and Twisted Metal 2, which both came out roughly ten years ago. It isn't because the PS3 is lacking games that I enjoy. I think it's a few different factors.

Which brings me to my topic for today. Retro gaming. First, how old does a game have to be before it's "retro"? Personally, I have a difficult time calling anything from the PS/N64 era and later by that term. I usually reserve it for the SNES/Genesis era and everything before that. Of course, an argument can be made for anything two or more generations old.

My ultimate point, however, is that retro gaming seems to be a popular craze right now. A lot of companies are getting into it. On XBox Live Arcade and the PlayStation Store, you can find old 1980's arcade games. GameTap, a subscription-based game download service for the PC, has a large library of classic arcade games, along with games from the pre-NES era (2600, Intellevision, Colecovision), all Sega consoles (including Game Gear, SG-1000, Dreamcast, and Saturn, but not Sega CD, last I checked), DOS, Windows, and more. Nintendo has their Virtual Console, which includes all their consoles prior to the Game Cube, along with the TurboGrafx-16 and a few Sega consoles.

Why are these so popular? One reason could be nostalgia. Gamers who grew up with these games may be reminded of their childhood when playing these games. Maybe they are old favorites they haven't quite let go of. Or maybe they just want to see if they are still as good as they used to be.

A second reason could be that younger gamers (as in, children) want a taste of what gaming was like before they came around. They may give it a try, and they may like it, or hate it. But they want to see what older gamers, like myself, are talking about. Why we sing the praises of the classics, and complain about these young'uns who wouldn't know a good game if it bit them in the buttocks. Much like the proverbial old man yelling at kids to stay off his lawn.

One more reason, which is the reason I, personally, still play older games, is the simple fact that they are just plain fun. A lot of these classic games hearken back to the days where you didn't need 40+ hours of gameplay. Where you could understand the plot with a handful of text screens, instead of 20-minute non-interactive cinemas. Where you could pick it up, play for as long as you want, and put it down without having to worry about whether or not you saved your progress.

Sure, the games are simple, but with today's gamer so conditioned to long games and convoluted stories, if you were to release a "simple" game like Super Mario Bros. at full price, no one would buy it. The game would get horrible reviews for being "too simple" and "too short." On the plus side, there are now digital distribution methods for home consoles, where these simple games can be bought for $10 or less. Proving that a game doesn't need to be complex, in order to be fun.

This isn't to say that the modern way of making games isn't fun. A lot of games can be entertaining. They can draw people in. Make people feel. Make them cry. Make them care about the characters. Games these days can create more of an emotional and psychological attachment to gamers than the classic games could. The only problem is that these games demand more of a gamer's time, energy, and attention than ever before.

Sometimes, it's nice to play a quick game that you loved in the past, in between sessions of that new game that has you on the edge of your seat. But, classic games should not be forgotten. Just because there is something new and shiny, doesn't mean the old guard has exhausted it's potential.

Bioshock Demo

So, I downloaded and played the Bioshock demo the last two days.

Oh....my....God.....

Those are the first words that come to mind when talking about this demo. From it's graphics, to it's moody atmosphere, to it's surprisingly clever voicework, to it's streamlined gameplay, this game just screams "Breakthrough Hit".

I know that last paragraph made me sound like I am on IGN or Gamespot's payroll, but I can't help it, that is exactly how I feel. As my good buddy Brandon can attest to, I have been singing Bioshock's praises for quite awhile now (Brandon is a PS3 man, I am an Xbox 360 guy myself, though I do own a PS3 now, which is a story for another day), but to have the game in my hands (proverbialy speaking, it is on my hard drive) only solidifies those hopes/dreams/belief's I had for the game. Let's do this as a brief rundown of the demo.

Right off the bat, it get's odd (which is another adjective that will be used often for this game, but in a good way) where there is a brief voice over by the protaganist (who is unseen and unnamed thus far) explaining how his parents always said he would do great things, and they were right. It isn't altogether clear at first, but it seems you are on a plane, as you suddenly crash into the ocean, grasping for air, various debris floating around you, you eventually pop up to the surface and gain control of the character for the first time. The scene then becomes very remeniscent of Castaway with the burning plane wreckage, the tail of the ship sinking, and you all alone on the darkened sea (by the way, this is a real fear of mine, in that, I have an acute case of potamophobia, fear of rivers and running water, in my case, any water with living things in it). You quickly make your way to the only place you can go, this bizarre, lighthouse like structure jutting out of the water.

Normally, this is the part where one would ask themselves "Where in the hell did that come from?!" and believe me, I did. I am just not sure the "normal" will end up applying to this game. The opening narrative explicity shows that this happens "In the 1960's" and there are overt references to both America and the Soviet Union. The art design of the structures, clothing, advertisements (for the Plasmids, more on that later) and various other scenery objects scream 1950's art deco. And to top it off, there is a very real, very obvious, and very intentional "Ayn-Rand-meets-George-Orwell" feel to the dialogue and story. That's not to mention all the various science ficition elements that will come into play shortly. In that kind of cocktail, where does "normal" fit in? I am hoping, however, that there is something that will have this whole "Plane crashed, guy decides to go ahead and head down to the underwater in a bathysphere from a strange out of nowhere structure" scenario make sense, but it will be tough to do that.

The game moves quickly into the surreal from there. You enter the lighthouse, where automatic lights and the song "Beyond the Sea" start up, you walk down the corridor to the aforementioned bathysphere and begin to descend into the ocean. As you do, you get your first appearance of "Andrew Ryan" who is the founder of the undersea city you are heading to, called Rapture. In a brief movie (literally a movie projected on the front wall of the bathysphere) Ryan talks about how America, the Soviet Union, and even the "Church" all are trying to take the "sweat from your brow" and how here, in Rapture, you can keep it for yourself. I am not ashamed to admit I lapped this up like a puppy. Being a social studies student, I am unabashedly pleased to see a game take such an obvious route to political discourse and mash it into a game. Ryan's bits of socio-political babble that you hear in the early parts of the game sound like a mish mosh of Big Brother and Nietzsche. He has this kind of omnipresent presence coupled with a highly individualistic approach to moral asthestics. It's rather fascinating that this has become the main concept of the game, because it is certainly both rare and obtuse. I find it hard to believe that many will ever try to delve into the more philosophical concepts involved, and I fear that Ryan will eventually become a caricature of madness that most of the characters in games tend to be, but at the present, it is a breath of fresh air (under the water!).

Once the bathysphere arrives, you get your first taste of the survival horror atmosphere that should be easily recognizeable for any fan of the genre. You are trapped in the bathysphere as....something....tears apart a man in front of you. The best part of this is the way the lighting never allows you to fully see the thing, except for the hook that is it's arm, which it uses to kill the man. Once it attempts to break through the vehichle and can't, it leaves and you are informed via a radio in the bathysphere about what to do next, thanks to a man named Atlas (obvious choice). You leave the vehicle and can start exploring.

This is when the power of the Unreal 3 Engine truly shines. Walking around the ruined room you can immediately glimpse all the clever nuances that only HD graphics can give you. Small pockmarks in the walls, noticeable blood stains and pools, the dimmed lighting that accents the room, the placards from now gone protestors, saying they want to leave Rapture and that Rapture is dead, and of course, the window that displays the vast underwater city. I could go on and on all day describing it, and it wouldn't even begin to do it justice. It those little nuances that really bring the flavor of a game out, and the ability to actually see them is key. The suffocating atmosphere is almost palatable thanks to it.

After you walk around a bit, you watch a type of drone with automatic weapons fight off the thing that was after you and Atlas gives you a very brief description of where you are. You make your way to a type of a lobby where you are forced to quickly subdue what appears to be a crazy person who was searching a body. Upon defeating the man you can actually search his body for med-packs and other items. My guess is this is where those "RPG elements" people are talking about come into play. The ability to search bodies and other items (you can look through things like trash cans, boxes, and discarded bags) for usable items. Indeed, it gives the game (coupled with its clearly FPS style control) a feel of "Oblivion under water" at this point, even though the games aren't really all that alike.

Once you are finished there, you move upstairs and see this vending machine type thing that clearly has an item for you. It's a syringe with a red liquid in it that you immediately stab into your arm (yeah, I don't know about you, but I always stab strange syringes lying around right into my arm). You then have this electrical shock pass through you as you scream and Atlas explains that your DNA is being resequenced and it will pass. Unable to handle the stress of what is going on, you actually fall from the overlook of the stairs to the floor below. As you fade in and out of consciousness, you notice two more of these crazed people searching you for something they call "ADAM" (a substance that will come into play later) and as they are doing so you notice that they have these weird fish faces (which turn out to be masks later on). Soon, however, the hear a noise and they tell you you would be better off with them than the "Big Daddy" and they flee. That leads to your first encounter with the already iconic Little Sisters and Big Daddies (the big dude with the drill arm) where the little girl creepily talks about light from your belly and how you'll soon be an angel. They leave, as you are not dead yet, and you regain control.

Here is where the wrinkle in the game play comes in, as you now have use of "Plasmids", basically, magic. You use the left bumper and left trigger to cycle through them and use them, respectively. While the right bumber and right trigger are used to cycle through and use your weapons, respectively. This leads to a kind of dual-wielding with them, whereby you use the left trigger to hit a Plasmid and the right to shoot your weapon. The first Plasmid you get is a kind of electrical shock that allows you to stun enemies to hit them easier with your wrench (the only weapon you have at first). They also show in a video at the end of the demo using things like ice, to freeze your enemies in place, and telekenisis to move objects to do things. Very interesting.

From here, Atlas asks you to go find his family, and as you do, you watch as a Little Sister, harvesting "ADAM" from a dead body, is attacked by one of the "Splicers" (the crazy guys). This leads to a sequence whereby the Big Daddy kicks the crap out of the guy and saves the girl. Clearly this is a combo not to be trifled with. You end up getting another Plasmid, this fire ability to burn your enemies, and setting off a trigger alarm which forces you to fight off a bunch of Splicers at once with a tommy gun (which is as cool as it sounds). They also show off some of those "interactive environment" concepts they have been talking about, like allowing you to hack into the flying drones to control them, or choosing to shut down the alarm before triggering it (by hacking it) or shooting your electricity Plasmid into the water that the Splicers are standing in, and shocking both of them at the same time.

You eventually get trapped in a room next to where Atlas's family is, and you apparently hear them get killed as Ryan appears in all his Big Brotherness on a screen in front of you, asking you who sent you, the KGB or CIA (I am guessing about the CIA, I couldn't make it out fully over the screens) and saying that Ryan is not another oligarch to be pushed around, as splicers start to breakdown the plexiglass shielding you from them.

Thus the demo ends.....

It would be remiss of me to not mention this strange hallucination you have at one point when you enter a bathroom, where you apparently shift into some sort of haze and see weird spirits or something. I am guessing this is going to play into something from story perspective, but I don't know what else to say about it at the moment, so I will skip any speculation at this point.

Really, the only thing I can think about is what I said at the beginning. Oh my God. This game is utterly fantastic already. I am worried about how much of a replayability it will have, given it's nature, and I am concerned that it will eventually devolve into your typical "creepy shooter" faire by making Ryan a caricature and not adding enough variety to the game play methods, but, you know what, it may not matter. Games this finely crafted just don't come out everyday and you would be doing yourself a disservice to not check it out on the Xbox 360 or PC.

GRAW2 PS3 demo

This past week, the PlayStation Store got a demo of Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2. I downloaded it and gave it a shot. I have to say, it's pretty darn good.

I know PC and XBox 360 gamers have had this game for a few months now. And soon, PS3 gamers will get a shot at it.

As far as shooters go, while there are some run-and-gun style games I enjoy, such as Unreal Tournament 2004, I do enjoy a slower, more tactical pace to my shooters. I like the Rainbow Six series, and Splinter Cell is a lot of fun. I also like the Metal Gear Solid series, for the same reasons. A slow, methodical pace that makes you think more than shoot blindly.

The start of the GRAW2 demo was a lot like that. I'm sure many of you reading have played this game, or at the very least, a game like this. Starting the demo as a single soldier, with nothing else but a Cypher drone for aerial recon, is quite interesting. Having to locate your enemies and attempt to engage them without being overwhelmed makes for a fun start to the game.

I find a lot of this stuff a bit nerve-wracking. The slow, creeping movement, trying to stay hidden, can be a bit intense. But that's all part of the experience. After the first area is cleared out, I got access to the MULE. Which I found to be little help, really.

I still have yet to figure out how to heal myself, or my allies, once I get far enough. And getting through the area immediately after you get your group together is giving me a lot of trouble. I know that there's probably something I'm not understanding, or that I'm not figuring out. But, overall, the demo is a lot of fun.

If you haven't yet, I say go check out Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2 on your respective platforms. At least rent it. Or get a demo or something. I can't say the game is perfect, but I enjoyed the demo.

August in Gaming History

AUGUST

(Unknown Date) --
1989 – Nintendo releases the Game Boy in North America. Tetris is packed in with the system.

1^st --
1992 – Nintendo releases Mario Paint for the SNES. The game includes a mouse controller and a plastic mouse pad. The game itself is a multi-activity game, including various styles of art and music, and even a couple mini-games.
1992 – Kirby's Dream Land is released on the Game Boy.
1993 – Super Mario All-Stars released on the SNES.

9^th --
2006 – Dead Rising is released for the Xbox 360.

13^th --
1991 – Nintendo releases the Super Nintendo Entertainment System in North America. Super Mario World is packed in with the system at launch. Other launch games included F-Zero, Pilotwings, SimCity, and Gradius III.

14^th --
2003 – 3DO sells off its various video game assets.

15^th --
1986 – Metroid is released for the NES.
2000 – Chrono Cross is released on the PlayStation

17^th --
1999 – Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver released on PlayStation and PC.

18^th --
1982 – Atari announces that they got the exclusive rights to a game based on the movie E.T.

22^nd --
1995 – Chrono Trigger is released on the SNES.
2005 – Nintendogs is released on the Nintendo DS.

23^rd --
1993 – Nintendo and Silicon Graphics announce Project Reality. This project, which uses a 64-bit processor, would eventually become the Nintendo 64.

25^th --
1983 – Bally Manufacturing agrees to buy the American coin-op assets of Sega Enterprises.
1997 – GoldenEye 007 is released on the Nintendo 64.

26^th --
2002 – Super Mario Sunshine is released on the Game Cube.

27^th --
1997 – Sony releases the Dual Analog controller for the PlayStation.
2002 – Sony releases the Network Adapter for the PlayStation 2.
2003 – Soul Calibur II released on PlayStation 2, Game Cube, and Xbox. Each version has its own unique character. The PS2 version has Heihachi (from Tekken). The Game Cube version has Link (from Legend of Zelda). The Xbox version has Spawn (from the series of comic books and movies).