february 03, 2008 12:00am
Success
To give some perspective of how much game time I've had in the past few months, I finally finished Mario & Luigi: Super Star Saga that I received for my birthday in August. Granted I haven't been totally focused on that game since then, there was a lot of time playing WoW, among others, but I swear it's taken me the past 3 months just to finish the last 5 hours of M&L:SSS. One could also contend that I've spent roughly 5 hours on the toilet in the last 3 months as well :)
I don't think I'm going to write a review for M&L:SSS, though I will comment that if I would have bought it for myself, it would have been worth every penny. With an extra bonus going to the liberal use of save points. I find it difficult to classify as an RPG, though at root it really is one. The battles for instance have a huge discrepancy with other RPGs. In order to be successful you need to master the art of defense. Simply trading hits with your enemies will probably win you the battle but leave you very weak. You'll need to jump and use hammers in various feats of timing to dodge or counter the plethora of attacks thrown at you. Perhaps, action RPG would be more accurate. Surprisingly considering the content (Mario & Luigi) this game is quite teen/adult orientated in some of the references and in the difficulty level. I enjoyed it thoroughly.
Now maybe I can get on with Zelda: Phantom Hourglass.
february 02, 2008 01:31pm
Peek-a-boo
A lot of time has passed, a lot of things have changed.
Despite what this website shows, I have been playing video games and have been thinking about writing about them. Suffice to say that commenting about things has been low on the priority list. Seriously, if I wanted to look up video game reviews there are plenty of other sites that have more thorough reviews than this one. At one time I thought the gimmick of the dollar value rating scale might draw some people. Then after I became a parent I added the "M-Factor" sections to my reviews in hopes that they could supply some much needed extra information about games to parents. It appears I misjudged the internet populace that their need for information is eclipsed by their need for community. Of which, this site has none.
Someday....maybe someday.
april 24, 2007 04:00pm
Reviewing Reviewers
Anyone visiting this site could probably tell that I haven’t officially reviewed a game in a long time. I may be totally off base regarding the perception of video game reviewers and it doesn’t matter, because this is my opinion site. Seriously, back before the internet became the mainstay of information, yes way back to the cretaceous period when we had to wait for the latest issue of a magazine to get any information about games, the Game Reviewer had a powerful presence. Game reviews were the bulk of a magazine’s content and those people that got to play video games for a living were the pinnacle of my aspiration. Oh, to be one of those people.
One could imagine my excitement when I bought this domain name more than four years ago so I could start writing reviews, sharing my opinions, and building a legacy of followers. Perhaps one year into reviewing games my good friend nugacity won a writing contest for another website to become a video game reviewer. I was a little jealous of that, but humbled by the fact I really didn’t have the time to devote to a rigid deadline with a new baby in the house. Also the job was voluntary and he wasn’t getting paid. The reason I mention this, is because I eventually got a voluntary job with the same place reviewing games. I actually reviewed two for them, but only one was actually published. So, I continued to add reviews and other snippets of information to my site on my own.
Here’s where the internet simply exploded with “freelance” content. Within six months pretty much all of the major video game sites started publishing user reviews. Gamefaqs, 1up, Ign, heck even eBay, amazon, target, all have reviews for video games (as well as their other products). Suddenly the upper echelon of game reviewers are difficult to see among the teeming masses of dolts who can barely string sentences together. I just have no interest in reading game reviews anymore, they are stale, spoiler ridden, and follow a style that is all too formulaic between authors. Instead I’m more drawn to other websites, especially web comics that have more entertainment value. A simple web comic about any video game in particular can endorse (or crush) a game much more than a 9.5 or a 1.0 from anyone else.
march 21, 2007 09:07am
I'll even throw in a "blaow pump"!?
There is something that's been bothering me for way too long. In 1987 when I first saw the movie Robocop, my attention simply glazed over the situation. But in the subsequent 30+ viewings of the movie during my lifetime, and even many intentional playbacks of an incomprehensible line of dialog during the hostage negotiation scene, simply did NOT reveal what the heck a "blaow pump" was. The negotiator is offering a car in exchange and offers to throw in a "blaw plump" which only succeeds in irritating the gunman.
I've since moved out of the obsessive movie watching phase of my life, meaning that I haven't thought about it much in the last 8 years. But on a recent trip to the electronics store, I was milling around waiting for someone to find the parts I requested and there staring me in the face was an entire wall of speakers in bright blue boxes with the name emblazoned on them...."Blaupunkt". I simply stood there with a gaping sense of relief and disbelief that it could have been so simple all along. Obviously I knew/know NOTHING about car audio.
Now just to figure out what the that security guard says at the end of Running Man.
march 16, 2007 06:43am
What to do?
If I wanted an Xbox today, I could conceivable go pick one up for less than $100 with a couple of pretty good games. That would be a hundred bucks to round out my system collection from the previous generation. Lets just say for grins that I actually bought the faithful PS2 on my shelf when it came out for $300, and my total expenses on hardware would be about $450. If I wanted the trifecta of next gen systems today I would wind up forking out $1250, with only Wii sports to play. Inflation has not been kind. And it the likely result that I will only be able to put any amount of money toward a single system.
Each system so far contains mererly one or two games that I would even want to play. Determining the future success of any of these systems is what gives me pause. The Wii will have two games that I must play (Zelda and Metroid Prime 3), sure there are probably some other games out there that would occupy me, but is the limited library and gimmicky controller worth it? Looking back on my reviews, I really only played 7 games for the GameCube. Quality over quantity is certain in the Nintendo camp.
I could say the same about the 360, that there are only a few games I would really want to play, but it does have Live to it's credit. I could also justify the subscription fees to being able to play Street Fighter II online, instead of dumping quarters in an arcade machine only to find that half the buttons don't work.
Finally the juggernaut PS3, Ugh! $600. There is quite literally (currently) no game that I actually want to play over the existing stock of PS2 games awaiting my attention. Yet the future for the PS3 looks brightest to me. Metal Gear Solid 4, Devil May Cry 4, Resident Evil 5, Final Fantasy XIII, etc. A whole lot of awesome potential...yet I still felt a little detached and un-inspired enough to actually say "That's the system I'm going to focus on".
Until last week, when I my salivary glands got a workout as I viewed the gameplay/demonstration video of LittleBigPlanet. The idea of being able to play a cooperative platformer with up to three buddies at the same time, purely awesome. Add in the level editor and the "must have" hormones in my brain kick into overdrive.
Crap! Why did I have to pick the expensive one!?
march 09, 2007 10:18am
Oblivious
I'm either very distracted and not paying much attention, or just have no clue what's going on. A few things can be blamed for my glaring ignorance.
I recently *gasp* canceled my subscription to EGM */gasp* after reading it for the last 15 years. (I have every issue from #29 to #210). I haven't been talking to anyone or reading anything online about games lately. I seriously went to Penny Arcade and had to peruse about 12 pages until I found something I recognized. I've simply been in my own little world. Even when a friend told me about how awesom the demo for God of War II was, I almoste immediately dismissed it as something I won't be playing for years and years.
Such is the curse of being oblivious....or is it a curse. In this case it might be more of a blessing. I haven't had to think about how awesome GoWII is going to be, haven't seen any teasers about it, and for some reason I still think it's coming out for the PS3. So when I finally had a moment of clarity that reminded me about it, I checked gamestop.com and much to my surprise it's going to be released in 4 days AND I actually have enough extra cash to buy it outright on day 1.
Yet the cost of a day 1 purchase is more than $50. An intangable cost could also be the 60 hours of time I've put into Final Fantasy XII, because in the weeks (who am I kidding, month) it takes to get through GoWII I will have forgotten how to play FFXII and have to start over or do a lot of catch up reading to pick up where I left off. In that case the cost is simply too high when I'm this close to completing a game. Though it might give me some incentive to quit messing around and actually finish FFXII soon.
