buttonmashing

Mashing buttons since 1984

Gaming

It’s quiet in here.

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There’s been a lack of content around these parts the past few days but I’ve got a legitimate excuse. Here at buttonmashing.com, we like to talk about video games. I come at the topic from different angles – how the media portrays them, how they are used and abused by politicians, and how much fun and enjoyment we gamers derive from them. The last point means I’m actually playing games. Unfortunately, my gaming time has been squeezed out by Real Life Duties (RLD®) lately so I’m at a loss to discuss any recent gaming sessions.

I also blog about sports and blogging in general, but since OSU football has ended and nothing earth-shattering has happened in the Sphere-o-Blogging, I ain’t got much there, either.

Nevertheless, I do have some ideas floating around in the draft-ether. Some will materialize. I’ve been thinking about Nintendo and the games they make (they’re fun!), various “handles” or gaming nicknames I’ve used (and what they say about me), music and video games (but not what you think!), and others.

Stay tuned!

It’s a wild world out there…

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So I’ve been playing Animal Crossing for a while now but haven’t mentioned it much past my friend code.

So what about it? Animal Crossing on the Gamecube was a game that I couldn’t explain why I liked. When you boil it down, it’s a game that has no purpose, no “ending” and nothing “manly” about it. The first time a buddy of mine saw me playing it he asked me how I could kill the residents of my town. The conversation went a little like this:

“What’cha playing?”

“Animal Crossing.”

“What’s that? Never heard of it.”

“Well, you’re this kid who moves into a new town populated by animals. You run errands for the animals and plant trees. You can go fishing if you want. Or you can do nothing. You do have a mortgage to pay, but you don’t have to pay that off, either. It’s pretty sweet.”

“Sweet? Sounds lame. Hey, can you shoot that cat?”

“Why would I want to do that? Mitzi (the cat’s name) is my friend. I just took her a shirt that Derwin (a duck in my town) just gave me to deliver to her. She hooked me up with this sweet wallpaper for my house. There’s no shooting, no punching, nothing like that.”

“What’s the point of playing if you can’t shoot anyone?”

“The point? I’ve got a house to pay for and I need to make some bells. I certainly can’t shoot anyone because then there wouldn’t be any one left to run errands for. I guess I could fish, but that’s not the best way to make money.”

“Right… Sounds fun. Wanna play some Turok?”

And so on. I don’t know why I played it so much. It was the first game my wife and I played together, so that had something to do with it. But I woke up early on Sundays so I could buy turnips from the turnip lady because that was the only time she came around. Was it my obsessive nature? What kind of game could get me out of bed? Explaining why it was fun was hard to do.

And so it is with Animal Crossing Wild World. It’s basically the Gamecube version with some added features and it’s still just as addicting. And I still can’t explain why. I’ll probably get to what I like and don’t like at a later time, but I will say that it’s a fun, pointless game.

Without any shooting.

Carnival #10

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The Carnival of Gamers #10 is up at Kill Ten Rats.

You can digg this here.

Slashdot linked to the Carnival, highlighting Jeffool’s entry, which I also think was great. From the comments, it looks like this Carnival was a little more well received than the original. Which is good to hear, since Slashdot will be hosting the next Carnival.

Update: Just a quick update. The Unbeliever, blogging at the delightfully unsavoury (his words, not mine) MMODIG, has graciously volunteered to host the April edition of the Carnival. You can find all the Carnival information, as always, at the Carnival HQ.

Don’t look back in anger

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I’m making necessary preparations to upgrade to WordPress 2.0, so I took the opportunity to take a look back at the past year of buttonmashing.com. Here are a few highlights:

  • Resident Evil 4 took control of my gaming in early January. I was so impressed with the authentic Spanish phrases that I started keeping track of them, with their English translations. This ended up being one of the most popular posts I made this year. It was popular when the Gamecube version was hitting its stride and then had new found popularity when the PS2 version came out. It’s been linked in numerous forums and the like. I’ve tried to keep it updated and I’m pretty proud of it.
  • The greatest moment of 2005 was, hands down, the birth of my son Mason. He’s now almost 10 months old and is starting to like playing with the controller when dad is playing games. He’s another button masher in the works!
  • Of course, the best blogging moment of 2005 for me was the birth of the Carnival of Gamers. It started with a simple proposal, resulting in some interest. The first Carnival rolled through these parts in May (with a little controversy thrown in) and has continued on ever since. I’d like to thank all of the people who have been involved with the Carnival, whether it be participating or hosting or simply taking the time to enjoy the blogging, it’s been wild ride. I’m looking forward to many more Carnivals!
  • Discussing 2005 wouldn’t be complete without a nod to the Hot Coffee mess. I had some thoughts about it and posted them, as usual. I was actually playing GTA:SA at the time, how convenient. In the end, it wasn’t about the game, it was about everything but the game. Hopefully everyone learned their lessons in that case.
  • Mentioning Hot Coffee and not mentioning Jack Thompson is, like, a crime or something.
  • The Xbox 360 was released to the gaming public, making me instantly jealous of anyone who had one.

Phew, what a year it was. And what of 2006? A few predictions:

  • I’m not going out on a limb saying this, but the Nintendo Revolution is going to follow in the DS’s footprints — its initial reception will be lukewarm but once Nintendo starts releasing killer apps, it will explode. I’m talking BIG TIME. People will be praising it the way the DS is getting praised now.
  • Nintendo will learn from its initial mistakes with the Nintendo WiFi Connection and improve its online functionality for the Revolution, giving Xbox Live a run for its money.
  • The PS3 will suffer greatly in the US as backlash from all the Sony troubles and debacles (Rootkits on their music CDs, graffiti “ads” for the PSP, constantly crippling the PSP with updated firmware) of the past year. It will still sell like hotcakes in Japan but will not have the same success the PS2 did here in the states.
  • PC gaming will be declared dead no less than three times, only to be revived with releases like Neverwinter Nights 2, Spore, and the WoW and Guild Wars expansions.
  • I will still have a pile of games to play this time next year, resolving to get to them “sometime.”

Time will tell on most of those, but that last one is pretty much a forgone conclusion.

Best of 2005

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I know it’s a day late, but I present to you the buttonmashing.com “Best of 2005” Awards. This year I decided to go with a straightforward set of awards, nothing fancy or witty like others. Just the games I liked and played this year. On with the awards:

2005 PC Game of the Year

I didn’t play a lot of the big releases on the PC this year, but the one that sucked most of my time this year was, by far, Guild Wars. In a crowded MMORPG landscape, Guild Wars really rose above the rest with its accesible gameplay, deep PvE and PvP, and of course the absence of a monthly fee. I played the heck out Guild Wars this year and think it is most deserving of the PC Game of the Year. The Guild Wars team has done a great job adding free content (the holiday bits were wonderful) and of balancing the gameplay. There is a wonderful balance of skill and teamwork. Aside from it’s beauty and music, Guild Wars is simply a great game and I look forward to continuing my time in Ascalon.

PC Runner-up: Fate. This Diablo-esque hack and slash was refreshing and a blast to play. Unfortunately with gaming time at a premium, I didn’t get to play Fate as much as I would have liked.

2005 Xbox Game of the Year

My Xbox choice came down to the last minute. There were a handful of games released this year I really wanted to play but up until now I hadn’t. One of those was Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction. There are some games that are able to move the player emotionally or otherwise. There are others where it’s just fun to run around and mindlessly blow stuff up. Mercenaries is one of those kind of games. Mercenaries is a fun game, plan and simple. The open-ended gameplay is such a riot. Taking money from the Chinese to knock off some Russian mafia-types and then driving to the Russian Mafia HQ (while running over some North Korean soldiers) to “make-up” with a little cash is just classic. Mecenaries gets the nod over a handful of great Xbox games.

Xbox Runners-up: Farcry: Instincts and Forza Motorsports. Farcry was a breath of fresh air to the FPS scene. Setting traps and watch people fly around as they set them off is sublime. While I love my racing games fast and frenetic (Burnout-style), I was really taken by Forza. It took a while to get used to controlling a car with real-world physics but it ended up very satisfying.

Xbox Disappointment of the Year: Jade Empire. How IGN, in good faith, could give this game a 9.9 is beyond human logic. Jade Empire was hyped to the moon and back but it failed to even come close to living up to it. It was linear, the combat was a joke and it was way too easy. 9.9 my patootie.

2005 Nintendo DS Game of the Year

Man, another tough choice in a sea of great games. In the end, I had to pick Animal Crossing Wild World over the rest of the DS games this year. Animal Crossing Wild World takes the friendly and addictive Gamecube title and makes it better. There’s no drastic changes here, the original formula isn’t scrapped, it’s enhanced and improved in every way. The addition of the Nintendo WiFi connection makes it an excellent multiplayer game. I know a lot of people are put off by the initial clunkiness of the WiFi interface but being able to control who you game with is a huge deal to me. Keeping the riff-raff out of my town has made Animal Crossing online great. Nintendo has a real winner with Animal Crossing WW and I can see this one being played well into 2006.

Nintendo DS Runners-up: There were so many games released this year for the DS that it is really hard to single out any one game as a “runner up” to Animal Crossing. Mario Kart, Advance Wars DS, Metroid Prime Pinball, all of them were great. There were more I still haven’t played yet – Trauma Center, Phoenix Wright, Castelvania. The mind boggles.

2005 Gamecube Game of the Year

This one was, of course, a no-brainer. Released almost a year ago, Resident Evil 4 is my pick for Gamecube GotY. I was a casual fan of the Resident Evil series before this one but I feel compelled to play the others to understand the history of the game and see what I’ve missed. I played RE4 start-to-finish without stopping for other games. That doesn’t happen very often. From the beautifully haunting Spanish Pueblos to the dark, mysterious island, RE4 was visual perfection. The time and effort put into the production of RE4 was obvious. Little details like the weapon reload animations and the authentic Spanish phrases really sealed the deal for me. RE4 was a fantastic game, top to bottom.

Gamecube Runners-up: While this year wasn’t rife with great titles not called Resident Evil, there were still a few great games to be played this year on the little black Cube. Fire Emblem and Super Mario Strikers are two games that I am currently enjoying and deserve some attention. Fire Emblem was great on the Gameboy Advance and it’s made a great transition to the Cube and Super Mario Strikers is another great Mario Sports game.

2005 Game of the Year

Once again – this was easy. Resident Evil 4 took control of my gaming soul and never let go until I had conquered it. It was tense, engrossing, exciting, everything an video game should be. A masterpiece. I place it in the Top 5 titles of this generation, arguably the best game of this generation. RE4 is the buttonmashing.com 2005 Game of the Year.

2005 has been a solid year for Video Gaming. There have been some fantastic games this year, a new console release, controversy out the wazoo, and video game blogging coming into its own. It’s been fun sharing this year with you, my fellow readers. Thanks for taking a few minutes of your time and giving it to me. I hope it’s worth it.

2006 is also shaping up to be a great year. We finally get Zelda (which is more and more looking like a Revolution title), the Nintendo Revolution and the PS3 and all the gaming we can handle. I can’t wait.

2005 Awards

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All the gaming sites have their “Best Of” awards each, as do many blogs. Here I’ll be aggregating the various best-of lists I find in the gaming-sphere. I’m also planning the Buttonmashing awards up after Christmas (you can read my 2004 picks here). Until then, here’s what others think:

Uberblog Guardian Unlimited Gamesblog has listed their Best Games of 2005 here.

Troy has posted takes a look back at 2005’s strategy games and doles out the awards here.

Singe has posted his awards here and here. You can get at them from his Awards Category, too.

Vanhemlock, connoisseur of all things MMO, breaks down 2005 here, month by month, concluding with a report on all his characters.

Jared Rea (a member of the 1Up staff) has a blog at 1Up which I found via GameSetWatch and he also has a couple 2005 lists, the regular awards and the not-so-regular ones.

Mike mentioned in the comments he’d be posting his Top 5 of ’05 lists and he just posted his Top 5 Games. Additionally, you can see his Top 5 for Music, television, movies, and Events. Mike’s got good taste!

Joystiq’s staff has posted their 2005 picks here.

The ever hilarious Geek on Stun has some great picks for 2005, including the Game From 2005 That We Haven’t Gotten Around To Quite Yet, But Will Definitely Make An Effort To Soon. I’ll have to give that one a try, too.

Not to toot my own horn, but you can find my list here.

GameSetWatch has a few links to their 2005 picks. You can find them all here.

MattG from Press the Buttons lists his picks here. Interesting to see that RE4 only made it to #3 in his list.

Mike Nowak’s Top 5 list of games does not include RE4 (gasp!) but is another great list.

Game Girl Advance has the Top 5 Trends of 2005. Another great read. #2 is wireless online gaming, something I’m also a big proponent of.

But sometimes it’s nice to have a system which I can just pull out while on my lunch break and play a quick online match. The portable systems have provided that and blazed a very profitable trail.

And you thought we were done updating this thread. Never! Here are a few more.

Broken Toys has his Top Ten list.

Bill at Dubious Quality hooks us up with his list of the games he enjoyed the most.

Tom at G-pinions gives us the top 2004 games he didn’t play until 2005. I think I’m gonna give Ribbit King a try!

Update: I changed the time stamp so this would rise back to the top as more people’s list are surfacing. My own list is almost finished done.

Update (1/6/06): Added a few more lists to the list.

Parenting is good!

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I should start a running tally of bad vs. good portrayals of gaming in the media. Sure, the ratio would be 20 to 1 but it sure seems like the good ones are really good ones. The latest to go on the “Good Pile” is from the Washington Post, by Sebastian Mallaby, titled, “My son and I, Game to Learn.” (hat tip to BM reader Bobster).

The article starts off with everything we’ve heard before – studies can’t prove a link between violence and video games (even though they’re trying their darndest!) and all the benefits of playing games – better problem solving, you know the drill. But there’s more to it than that. It gets good when he starts talking about his son’s passion for RuneScape. I’ve never played RuneScape, but after reading this article, I’m intrigued. A little clip:

But the game’s main attraction lies in its business challenge. My son has been buying logs, making longbows and selling them at a profit; he says the margins in the bow business fluctuate around 10 percent. Lately he’s moved into buying magic herbs in bulk and retailing them individually. This is a dicier business, but the risk is balanced by reward. Herb-trading margins can be 100 percent or fatter.

Sounds fun. As a big fan of crafting, this sounds right up my alley. But the article is more than just the fluctuating markets of RuneScape. It’s about history and Age of Empires 3 and medicine and America’s Army.

All this coming from a confessed non-gamer. Keep the good publicity rolling!

Update: Joystiq has linked buttonmashing.com with this story. Thanks! Even with the wonky feed issue, I still dig the Joystiq crew.

Quick update

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I’m still looking for nominations for the Best Gaming Blog. You can nominate your favorite blog here.

Don’t forget the next Carnival stop, at Kill Ten Rats, is fast approaching. Get your submissions in to Ethic soon.

Santa was unable to procure me an Xbox 360, but that’s okay because I’ve got a bunch of other games to play anyway. My DS will keep me busy. I did get a copy of Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance for the Gamecube and both Mr Driller and Trauma Center: Under the Knife for the DS. Santa also brought me The Complete Calvin and Hobbes, which is absolutely amazing. I love Calvin and Hobbes and I had to have this most excellent collection.