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Archives for November 2007

There will be achievements, right?

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So every gaming site is buzzing with the news that one of the updates to Microsoft’s Xbox Live service will be the ability to download “Classic” Xbox 1 games such as Halo, Fable, and others. I say “Classic” completely irony-free.

I guess I’m not as excited as some people about the prospect of downloading games that are only 5-6 years old, especially if they’re going to cost 15 bucks (1200 Microsoft Points). Even more so if they’re gigantic game turds like Fable. Color me uninterested.

But color me slightly interested if they offer achievements in the classic games. Then, like the Pavlovian gamerscore whore that I am, I’ll salivate and pick up a couple of these titles. If I can score an achievement for punting a chicken 200 feet or farting in the presence of 25 women, then I’ll pick up Fable as soon as it’s available.

Deals of the Day

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Just a quick note that I’ve added a new widget that highlights the Amazon.com Deal of the Day from their Video Game Section. It’s not a great deal every day, but every so often the DotD is quite a steal. Not everyone remembers to check the deal everyday so hopefully this will help someone find what they’ve been looking for.

Plus, with the holidays just around the corner, you never know when inspiration will strike.

Candy is dandy…

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The Orange Box… but the cake is fake!

Leading up to the Orange Box’s release, people were stumbling over each other, pushing each other out of the way to declare how amazing Portal is, how funny it is and it just may be “THE GAME OF THE YEAR!” You probably heard about the clever song by Jonathan Coulton or the funny dialogue throughout the game. Well, they were right. It is an awesome game and they should want to tell everyone about it. I think I figured out why they were so anxious to tell everyone to play the game. It all makes sense now.

The game probably needs no introduction or description. It’s plain and simple — you have a portal gun. You shoot it at a wall, open one side of the portal. Shoot it again somewhere else and the pathway is complete. That’s the easy part. The challenge and the fun begins when you have to solve the increasingly complex puzzles using your brain, your portal shooter-outer and a few spare crates. Sounds simple. It is. Perfectly simple. Through 19 levels, simple becomes simply amazing. As you progress, the more fun you have. There were times when you couldn’t wipe the smile off my face. I was having fun

But I can’t shake the feeling that being fun just isn’t enough to elicit the response it got. The real reason I think everyone gushed so profusely about it? Solving Portal makes you feel smart. There’s this sensation of, “there’s NO WAY someone else figured this out. I’m definitely the first person to do that.” There’s a real sense of accomplishment when you complete a level in Portal. The levels are masterfully designed and there’s a rush when you finally figure it out. I’m sure there is more than one way to get from point A to B on each level, but the enjoyment of finding a really clever way is very fulfilling. And fun, of course. I finished a few levels with my kids watching and the sensation of flying out of a portal was not lost on them. They thought it was great. I felt intellectually superior.

There’s something to be said about resolving conflict in a manner that doesn’t include a crow bar (or rocket launcher).

So yes, forget about Brain Age, forget about Chess. Want to play something that will make you feel like a genius? Portal is your game.

Yeewouch!

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After a series of unfortunate events that involved my fist and a hard surface, I have to postpone gaming for the next few weeks. Hopefully I will be able to do some kind of gaming, maybe something easy on the DS, but my ascension up the Halo 3 ranks will have to wait a little while.

Broken!


Uggh. This is not the best thing that could have happened today. My Buckeyes lost a heart-breaker this afternoon and I had to spend time at the urgent care center this evening. I guess the bright side of all of this is that I’ll have more time for blogging. That’s something, right?

State of Sports Games

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A while ago, Bill Abner had a piece at the Escapist about the Stagnant State of Sports Games. I meant to link it back then because it was a good read, but never got around to it. So I’m linking it now.

I was reminded of Bill’s article because today I also came across this post from Zack Hiwiller (via a long list of places, originating with Troy) about the State of Sports Games:

How many people out there watch and enjoy football without having a Knute Rockney [sic] level of understanding? The answer is: more than the games industry is hitting right now.

Zack makes a lot of good points, go read the whole thing. This is coming from a game designer working on sports games, not a games journalist. Not sure if that fact makes me a little more optimistic about the future of sports games or not.

What we’re consuming

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Sure, we play video games (we mash buttons, after all) but we also consume other forms of entertainment. We’re built for consumption. Here’s what we’re chomping on:

Tony:
Books:
I had a pretty good thing going while I was working on my “reading list.” I finished Stranger in a Strange Land and moved on to Ender’s Game, which was superb. Then I got sidetracked: I was going to start Snow Crash when I decided to read I Am Legend to get ready for the movie. But before my name came up on the wait-list at the library for Legend, I started reading Getting Things Done. Funny (or ironic, depending on your point of view) thing is that I haven’t finished reading GTD yet. It is on one of my “lists.” I’m just about done with it and then I’ll be going back to the reading list.

TV:
My TV viewing has gone down quite a bit. There are still the old standbys of My Name is Earl, The Office, and 30 Rock. 30 Rock is probably my favorite of the three. The only two other shows I watch regularly are Prison Break and The Biggest Loser. Not much else holds my interest right now. Those and any sporting event involving an Ohio team.

Music:
I recently subscribed to last.fm‘s services and can now listen to anything that I’ve “scrobbled.” So I’ve taken to listening to my whole iTunes library to scrobble everything I have. I started with at the top of my library with Aaron Neville and have listened all the way through to Gwen Stefani (what?). Along the way, I’ve rediscovered some great tracks that I haven’t listened to in a long time, like Alice in Chains. Jar of Flies was one of my favorite albums, and it was great listening to it again, start to finish. That’s some great music.

Nat:
Books:
I’ve also been putting words into my brain. I’m currently reading Schulz and Peanuts: A Biography by David Michaelis. At only twenty some odd pages in I find it to be fascinating about the creator behind one of the funniest and most poignant comic strips ever. (For a review by Bill Watterson, the creator of Calvin & Hobbes, who almost does nothing publicly any more, check out the Wall Street Journal Online).

I’m also getting ready to start on Soon I Will Be Invincible by Austin Grossman. It’s a superhero book with an interesting twist: it’s told from the side of the villain and from the side of a new girl superhero who is getting ready to join a superhero group. If only Barnes & Noble would get the thing in. I have an Audible Gold Account so I’ve already downloaded the audio and I’m waiting for the book to come in to listen along to it while reading.

TV:
I’m actually looking forward to the writers strike halting TV for a while. The only thing I’ve been catching regularly (with the wife)
is Heroes. It’s just now starting to look up. I was worried they would tell the same story as season 1 there for a while. We’re also
catching Scrubs when we can. However, it’s not too much of a biggie. I know it’ll be on DVD eventually. We’ve been watching all the seasons on DVD from Netflix. I’ve never missed an episode, but it’s fun going over them again. My wife and I relate well to the zany characters in the show.

So that’s what we’re consuming. What about you?