So, I was just following the Bioware / EA press conference announcement for this game, which was being live-blogged by 1up.com. The dudes that were talking about it were like "Yeah, this has been the worst kept secret in the industry". Ummm, no shit. It was mentioned way back at E3.
There weren't really any particular suprises that came out of the conference. All the MMORPG stalwarts such as Realm vs Realm, P v P etc were rolled out. There are two factions, naturally, being either the Republic or the Sith. Apparently playing on one side will give you a completely different experience, in terms of story and quests etc, than you would have if you played as part of the other faction. One thing that did interest me was the mention of "Companions", NPC characters who fight alongside you. The example they gave is "You can't have Han Solo without Chewbacca". I find this kind of exciting. It was stressed that companions aren't pets, and are actually characters that you can talk to. This fits in the the whole Star Wars feel, and definitely the KOTOR feel.
Story is being pushed massively by the developers. They kept reiterating this. This makes me happy. They mentioned that story has never been done successfully in an MMORPG before, which I disagree with. Lord Of The Rings Online has a fantastic story, which is very well integrated into the gameplay.
It sounds like combat should be interesting. The blogger mentioned that in some brief gameplay clips it appeared as if there was actual collision detection between lightsabers, which I really hope is the case. That's something that has always bothered me about MMORPGs, the fact that you can just swing away and your sword and your opponent's sword just pass right through each other. Someone asked if there was going to be collision detection, but they asked the art designer and it wasn't really his field of expertise so he didn't know. Fingers crossed.
In terms of quests, it was stressed that you won't be going through typical "Fetch me x number of these", or "Kill x number of these" type of quests, but I'll take that with a grain of salt. Every MMORPG over the last few years has promised something unique in terms of quests, and they haven't really delivered ( apart from Warhammer Online, with its Public Quests ).
Overall, nothing really mind blowing from the conference. It seems like a strange way to announce a game. It kind of feels like they should have waited another few months until they actually had some decent assets and gameplay footage to show to people.
Still, I'm optimistic about the game. I mean, It's Bioware! They're fucking geniuses when it comes to RPGs. Hopefully over the next few months they'll start releasing some screenshots and footage so I can start getting more excited.
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
Refused Classification
Since moving to Australia, I have had to come to terms with the rather archaic games rating system that this country has. The Australian Classification Board doesn't have an R18 rating for video games. Basically, what this means is that any game which would normally warrant an R18 rating, due to violence or sexual content or a number of other things, simply gets a 'RC', or Refused Classification. This means that it can't be released for sale in Australia. The highest possible rating before a game gets refused classification is MA15+.
Four games so far this year have been refused classification. One of the RC's, Dark Sector on the Xbox 360, didn't get too much coverage because it wasn't a high profile release. But even huge, high profile titles aren't immune. Notable titles such as Grand Theft Auto 4, Fallout 3, and only a few days ago Silent Hill: Homecoming, have all been refused classification. In the cases of GTA 4 and Fallout 3 the developers actually had to modify their games to get them released in Australia. Bethesda Softworks, the developer of Fallout 3, actually went so far as making changes to the worldwide release of the game instead of just the Australian release. The problem the Board had with the game was the depiction of drug use in the game, in particular using drugs such as morphine as a painkiller. The board saw this as an incentive to use drugs in the game, which is a big black cross in their books. The game now has fictional drugs in place of real ones, and also the realistic depiction of actually using the drugs has been replaced by simple icons to represent them.
Now, apart from the whole taking away our rights to choose what we want to play side of this equation, there is also a rather serious side-effect of having no R18 rating. Because the highest possible rating in Australia is only MA15+, this means that games which in other countries are rated R18 are available for sale to kids the age of 15 in Australia. Now, is it just me, or is that pretty fucked up? I mean, GTA 4 (which only had minor changes to be released in Australia ) can happily be played by 15 year olds here, when in every other country it is R18. That's just insane!
Now, my initial reaction to things like this happening is anger. But this is a knee jerk reaction, because there is more to this than just the Board being a bunch of old fuddy duddies and wanting to keep those naughty games away from all of us. It's a tricky situation. From a personal standpoint, I really think that there should be an R18 rating for games here, simply because I think it's ridiculous that an industry where the average age of the user is 28 years old doesn't have a product that matches their maturity level. However, there are obviously problems with this when it comes to children game players due to stupid retailers and equally stupid parents.
New Zealand, my home country, has an R18 rating for it's games. When I worked at Dick Smith Electronics back in NZ I was incredibly diligent about what games I would sell to people. I turned a lot of kids away who were trying to buy R18 games, and would always request to see ID if they even looked like they might not be 18. The reason I was so onto it was because both myself and my employer could be fined massive amounts of money if I sold an R rated game to a minor! From what I can see, there doesn't seem to be a law like this in Australia. This is a problem, because without punishment for the retailers then there is no deterrent to stop them from selling R rated games to minors. The solution to this? Put the laws in place! Put those massive fines in place for the retailers. Put that fear into them, and they'll think twice about selling Limb Lopper 4 to little Johnny.
In regards to the parents, unfortunately a lot of them really don't seem to have a clue when it comes to what their kids are playing. I recall a couple of occasions when I was working at DSE, and parents were purchasing GTA: San Andreas for their children. I advised one mother who was purchasing the game for her son ( who must have been about 13 years old ) that the game was rated R18, and contained extreme violence and language and sexual situations, but she honestly didn't seem to care. I got the impression that she thought that because it was just a game, it couldn't be that bad. But on the flip-side, there was one parent that I talked out of buying GTA for his son when I told him about it's content. So, there are some smart parents out there who listen to reason.
This is a complex situation to be sure, but the politicians involved in these decisions just need to use a bit of common sense. Educate the public about R rated games, let the parents know what their kids might be playing, and put laws in place so that there is a framework for R18 games to be safely sold in Australia.
Four games so far this year have been refused classification. One of the RC's, Dark Sector on the Xbox 360, didn't get too much coverage because it wasn't a high profile release. But even huge, high profile titles aren't immune. Notable titles such as Grand Theft Auto 4, Fallout 3, and only a few days ago Silent Hill: Homecoming, have all been refused classification. In the cases of GTA 4 and Fallout 3 the developers actually had to modify their games to get them released in Australia. Bethesda Softworks, the developer of Fallout 3, actually went so far as making changes to the worldwide release of the game instead of just the Australian release. The problem the Board had with the game was the depiction of drug use in the game, in particular using drugs such as morphine as a painkiller. The board saw this as an incentive to use drugs in the game, which is a big black cross in their books. The game now has fictional drugs in place of real ones, and also the realistic depiction of actually using the drugs has been replaced by simple icons to represent them.
Now, apart from the whole taking away our rights to choose what we want to play side of this equation, there is also a rather serious side-effect of having no R18 rating. Because the highest possible rating in Australia is only MA15+, this means that games which in other countries are rated R18 are available for sale to kids the age of 15 in Australia. Now, is it just me, or is that pretty fucked up? I mean, GTA 4 (which only had minor changes to be released in Australia ) can happily be played by 15 year olds here, when in every other country it is R18. That's just insane!
Now, my initial reaction to things like this happening is anger. But this is a knee jerk reaction, because there is more to this than just the Board being a bunch of old fuddy duddies and wanting to keep those naughty games away from all of us. It's a tricky situation. From a personal standpoint, I really think that there should be an R18 rating for games here, simply because I think it's ridiculous that an industry where the average age of the user is 28 years old doesn't have a product that matches their maturity level. However, there are obviously problems with this when it comes to children game players due to stupid retailers and equally stupid parents.
New Zealand, my home country, has an R18 rating for it's games. When I worked at Dick Smith Electronics back in NZ I was incredibly diligent about what games I would sell to people. I turned a lot of kids away who were trying to buy R18 games, and would always request to see ID if they even looked like they might not be 18. The reason I was so onto it was because both myself and my employer could be fined massive amounts of money if I sold an R rated game to a minor! From what I can see, there doesn't seem to be a law like this in Australia. This is a problem, because without punishment for the retailers then there is no deterrent to stop them from selling R rated games to minors. The solution to this? Put the laws in place! Put those massive fines in place for the retailers. Put that fear into them, and they'll think twice about selling Limb Lopper 4 to little Johnny.
In regards to the parents, unfortunately a lot of them really don't seem to have a clue when it comes to what their kids are playing. I recall a couple of occasions when I was working at DSE, and parents were purchasing GTA: San Andreas for their children. I advised one mother who was purchasing the game for her son ( who must have been about 13 years old ) that the game was rated R18, and contained extreme violence and language and sexual situations, but she honestly didn't seem to care. I got the impression that she thought that because it was just a game, it couldn't be that bad. But on the flip-side, there was one parent that I talked out of buying GTA for his son when I told him about it's content. So, there are some smart parents out there who listen to reason.
This is a complex situation to be sure, but the politicians involved in these decisions just need to use a bit of common sense. Educate the public about R rated games, let the parents know what their kids might be playing, and put laws in place so that there is a framework for R18 games to be safely sold in Australia.
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Bideo Geemus
Well, it's been about 500 years since my last update. What have I been playing since then?
- Trackmania Nations Forever
My initial feverish period of being incredibly addicted to this game wore off after a couple of weeks, but I still go back about once a week to have a few races. It really is a brilliant game.
- Mass Effect
As I don't have an Xbox 360, I eagerly awaited the release of this game on the PC. It was worth the wait. This is an amazing game. So engrossing, and incredibly well made. There is so much gameplay to be had here. The main quest is pretty massive just by itself, but there are also a huge range of side quests. Being the completist that I am, I had to do most of these quests, meaning that I eventually clocked up almost 40 hours game time before I finally clocked it. 40 hours well spent, in my opinion. I can't wait for the sequel.
- S.T.A.L.K.E.R: Clear Sky
I just started playing this about a week ago. The first S.T.A.L.K.E.R is pretty high on the list of my all-time favourite games, so I was definitely looking forward to this one. I pre-ordered it on Steam, and while I was waiting for it to be released I read some posts on the Steam forums about the game. It was supposed to be a real system killer, due to some fancy DirectX 10 bells and whistles. Well....I had some spare cash, so what better reason to go out and buy myself a new graphics card? So, on the day it was released, I bought myself a shiny new Asus GTX 260 Nvidia card. It's fucking huge! I actually had to get the pliers out and compact the innards of my case to make room for this beast. It was worth the effort, however, as my rig runs like a dream now. Not that it wasn't already pretty poweful before ( I previously had a 8800GTS installed ), but now it's ludicrously powerful!
Anyway, back to the game. I've played it for about 10 hours so far, and it's pretty damned good. I've read horror stories of some people encountering game breaking bugs while playing, but apart from some minor errors it seems to be running fine for me. I've got all the visual effects turned up, and it really is beautiful. The day/night cycle is the most impressive of any game ever made, period. I look forward to exploring The Zone further over the next couple of weeks.
Oh, and I also dabbled briefly in Vanguard: Saga of Heroes, but it was a bit crap. Didn't really hold my attention for more than a week or two. Next on my MMORPG list? Probably Age of Conan, but I think I'll wait for it to go on sale in a few months time.
- Trackmania Nations Forever
My initial feverish period of being incredibly addicted to this game wore off after a couple of weeks, but I still go back about once a week to have a few races. It really is a brilliant game.
- Mass Effect
As I don't have an Xbox 360, I eagerly awaited the release of this game on the PC. It was worth the wait. This is an amazing game. So engrossing, and incredibly well made. There is so much gameplay to be had here. The main quest is pretty massive just by itself, but there are also a huge range of side quests. Being the completist that I am, I had to do most of these quests, meaning that I eventually clocked up almost 40 hours game time before I finally clocked it. 40 hours well spent, in my opinion. I can't wait for the sequel.
- S.T.A.L.K.E.R: Clear Sky
I just started playing this about a week ago. The first S.T.A.L.K.E.R is pretty high on the list of my all-time favourite games, so I was definitely looking forward to this one. I pre-ordered it on Steam, and while I was waiting for it to be released I read some posts on the Steam forums about the game. It was supposed to be a real system killer, due to some fancy DirectX 10 bells and whistles. Well....I had some spare cash, so what better reason to go out and buy myself a new graphics card? So, on the day it was released, I bought myself a shiny new Asus GTX 260 Nvidia card. It's fucking huge! I actually had to get the pliers out and compact the innards of my case to make room for this beast. It was worth the effort, however, as my rig runs like a dream now. Not that it wasn't already pretty poweful before ( I previously had a 8800GTS installed ), but now it's ludicrously powerful!
Anyway, back to the game. I've played it for about 10 hours so far, and it's pretty damned good. I've read horror stories of some people encountering game breaking bugs while playing, but apart from some minor errors it seems to be running fine for me. I've got all the visual effects turned up, and it really is beautiful. The day/night cycle is the most impressive of any game ever made, period. I look forward to exploring The Zone further over the next couple of weeks.
Oh, and I also dabbled briefly in Vanguard: Saga of Heroes, but it was a bit crap. Didn't really hold my attention for more than a week or two. Next on my MMORPG list? Probably Age of Conan, but I think I'll wait for it to go on sale in a few months time.
Saturday, August 2, 2008
TrackMania Nations
Download this game! TrackMania Nations.
It's totally free, and incredibly addictive and fun. It's kind of like the spiritual successor to the classic game Stunt Car Racer from the late 80s, which I spent many hours playing as a child on my friend Phillip's Atari ST.
The "just one more go" factor in this game is amazing. Every time you score a medal ( Gold, Silver, or Bronze, and the elusive and incredibly difficult "Nadeo" medal ) on any of the dozens of tracks you score points which are then tallied up against every other player in the world and also in your region, so you can see how you compare to everyone else. This is a huge incentive to give a difficult track another try, because obviously someone else in the world has managed to get that Gold medal.
The game comes with a track editor, so you can create your own totally over the top gravity defying courses, and you can also edit the appearance of your car! The graphics are fantastic, and can easily be scaled up or down depending on your system. On my reasonably high end rig with all the bells and whistles turned on they look brilliant. The music also is very catchy. The menu music is awesome, and quite often I'll just sit there for a moment and listen to it before loading up a track.
Keep in mind, this game is free! It's far and away the greatest free game you will ever play. There are hours and hours of entertainment to be had.
Yes, there is in-game advertising, but it's kept solely to the tracks themselves ( for example, a billboard advertising the movie Wanted springs to mind ). These are easily ignorable, and in fact everything is moving so fast you hardly even notice them.
To reiterate, DOWNLOAD THIS GAME!
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
E3
Ahhh, E3. Despite its fall from grace in the eyes of a lot of critics last year when it got re-booted and became invitation only, it's still one of most important gaming conventions in the world. This year's E3 is on at the moment, and here are some of my favourite picks from what I've read and seen on the net...
- Mirror's Edge
This game excites me. There are a couple of things that kind of bother me, like maybe the red objects making things a bit too easy, but overall what I've seen so far looks kickass. I'm probably looking forward to this game more than any other.
- Resident Evil 5
Dodgy dialogue? Check. Monsters? Check. Natural evolution from the new gameplay style of Resident Evil 4? Check. This one should be a terrifying blast. Also, online Co-op should be fun.
- Fallout 3
Hmmm, I'm a bit divided over this one. Bethesda Softworks has always seemed like an amazing "ideas" developer, but their execution often feels a bit clunky. I kind of get the feeling from watching this, admittedly awesome, trailer that the problems of Oblivion might not have been ironed out. In particular, the stilted animation of the human characters is a glaring eyesore. Still, if even half of their ideas are executed well then it should still be an amazing game.
- Rage
This trailer brings out the graphics-whore in me. It looks like Carmack and the team at id are going to once again raise the graphics bar, and take back their crown from those pesky Germans at Crytek. Oh, and hopefully the gameplay will stand up alongside those graphics......mmmmm, shiny graphics.
Note that none of the above are new announcements at E3, which is kind of sad. There haven't really been any surprise announcements so far. Still, the remainder of 2008 and early 2009 looks like a good time for gaming.
- Mirror's Edge
This game excites me. There are a couple of things that kind of bother me, like maybe the red objects making things a bit too easy, but overall what I've seen so far looks kickass. I'm probably looking forward to this game more than any other.
- Resident Evil 5
Dodgy dialogue? Check. Monsters? Check. Natural evolution from the new gameplay style of Resident Evil 4? Check. This one should be a terrifying blast. Also, online Co-op should be fun.
- Fallout 3
Hmmm, I'm a bit divided over this one. Bethesda Softworks has always seemed like an amazing "ideas" developer, but their execution often feels a bit clunky. I kind of get the feeling from watching this, admittedly awesome, trailer that the problems of Oblivion might not have been ironed out. In particular, the stilted animation of the human characters is a glaring eyesore. Still, if even half of their ideas are executed well then it should still be an amazing game.
- Rage
This trailer brings out the graphics-whore in me. It looks like Carmack and the team at id are going to once again raise the graphics bar, and take back their crown from those pesky Germans at Crytek. Oh, and hopefully the gameplay will stand up alongside those graphics......mmmmm, shiny graphics.
Note that none of the above are new announcements at E3, which is kind of sad. There haven't really been any surprise announcements so far. Still, the remainder of 2008 and early 2009 looks like a good time for gaming.
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Snippet
Playing through Streets Of Rage 2 on my Megadrive emulator just now, I noticed some great Engrish in the background of one of the stages:
"Do Base Ball!" enthuses a sign hanging on a fence.
"It's like Boo!" says another.
Ah, good times.
"Do Base Ball!" enthuses a sign hanging on a fence.
"It's like Boo!" says another.
Ah, good times.
Thursday, June 12, 2008
Mega Drive vs Super Nintendo....FIGHT!
Back in the early nineties, I was a total Sega fanboy. This devotion was based on little more than the fact that I was the proud owner of a Sega Mega Drive. This 16bit black beast was the envy of the gaming world at the time, and owning one made me the coolest kid in school...well, okay, maybe the coolest kid on my street.
When the Super Nintendo was released, I remember feeling very defensive and threatened in my own childish fashion. I read all about its amazing specs, and this new fangled "Mode 7" gimmick, and about how its graphics could choose from an amazing array 32,768 colours ( compared to the Mega Drive's paltry 512 ). And then Super Mario World came out, and despite the fact that it was one of the first games to be released on the SNES it looked better than anything that had come out on Mega Drive, which by this point had been out for a couple of years.
How did I react to this attack on my beloved console? Well, I did what any self respecting immature boy of 12 years old would do...I denied the obvious. I staunchly defended my console, and totally bought into Sega's marketing spin about the Mega Drive's hidden technical power which meant that it could still slug it out against the newer SNES. All this despite the fact that only a few years earlier I had been the proud owner of Nintendo's first generation machine, the Nintendo Entertainment System.
Whenever a game was released on both the Mega Drive and SNES, for example Street Fighter 2, I would pore over my favourite games magazines for who came out on top in terms of graphics ( it all came down to graphics for me back then ). Invariably it was the SNES
I actually hired a SNES out from a video store back in the day. If memory serves me correctly, the game I got with it was Super Mario World. Despite its obvious greatness, I managed to convince myself that it wasn't any great shakes. By this point, I was the proud owner of Sonic the Hedgehog 2 on my Mega Drive so I actually had a definite high water mark to compare Mario to.
In the Mega Drive's later years it had a few last hurrahs. Particularly impressive technically was Gunstar Heroes. The ending had already been written however, and the ol' black box was discontinued in 1997. This meant little to me by that point, however, as I had already moved on to the Sony Playstation. Ah, the fickle nature of the fanboy-ism.
Due to the wonders of emulation, I have since had the opportunity to experience the Super Nintendo with a more level headed attitude. My verdict? Super Nintendo, FUCK YEAH! There are so many great games to play on this machine. SNES owners certainly seemed to be spoiled for choice when it came to RPGs, in particular. At the moment, I'm rather addicted to Chrono Trigger. This game is brilliant. Can somebody please tell me why every RPG since this game hasn't done away with random battles? The only RPG I can think of recently that followed this early ancestor's advice is Final Fantasy XII. I'm sure there's been others, but that's the only one that I've played anyway.
In the end, the war between the Mega Drive and Super Nintendo wasn't really won or lost based on who had the better machine. It was won due to the quality of the games. And now that I'm older and wiser, I can honestly admit that overall the Super Nintendo simply had better games...but the Mega Drive was still cooler.
When the Super Nintendo was released, I remember feeling very defensive and threatened in my own childish fashion. I read all about its amazing specs, and this new fangled "Mode 7" gimmick, and about how its graphics could choose from an amazing array 32,768 colours ( compared to the Mega Drive's paltry 512 ). And then Super Mario World came out, and despite the fact that it was one of the first games to be released on the SNES it looked better than anything that had come out on Mega Drive, which by this point had been out for a couple of years.
How did I react to this attack on my beloved console? Well, I did what any self respecting immature boy of 12 years old would do...I denied the obvious. I staunchly defended my console, and totally bought into Sega's marketing spin about the Mega Drive's hidden technical power which meant that it could still slug it out against the newer SNES. All this despite the fact that only a few years earlier I had been the proud owner of Nintendo's first generation machine, the Nintendo Entertainment System.
Whenever a game was released on both the Mega Drive and SNES, for example Street Fighter 2, I would pore over my favourite games magazines for who came out on top in terms of graphics ( it all came down to graphics for me back then ). Invariably it was the SNES
I actually hired a SNES out from a video store back in the day. If memory serves me correctly, the game I got with it was Super Mario World. Despite its obvious greatness, I managed to convince myself that it wasn't any great shakes. By this point, I was the proud owner of Sonic the Hedgehog 2 on my Mega Drive so I actually had a definite high water mark to compare Mario to.
In the Mega Drive's later years it had a few last hurrahs. Particularly impressive technically was Gunstar Heroes. The ending had already been written however, and the ol' black box was discontinued in 1997. This meant little to me by that point, however, as I had already moved on to the Sony Playstation. Ah, the fickle nature of the fanboy-ism.
Due to the wonders of emulation, I have since had the opportunity to experience the Super Nintendo with a more level headed attitude. My verdict? Super Nintendo, FUCK YEAH! There are so many great games to play on this machine. SNES owners certainly seemed to be spoiled for choice when it came to RPGs, in particular. At the moment, I'm rather addicted to Chrono Trigger. This game is brilliant. Can somebody please tell me why every RPG since this game hasn't done away with random battles? The only RPG I can think of recently that followed this early ancestor's advice is Final Fantasy XII. I'm sure there's been others, but that's the only one that I've played anyway.
In the end, the war between the Mega Drive and Super Nintendo wasn't really won or lost based on who had the better machine. It was won due to the quality of the games. And now that I'm older and wiser, I can honestly admit that overall the Super Nintendo simply had better games...but the Mega Drive was still cooler.
Sunday, June 8, 2008
Old timer
After making the post about the Commodore 64 earlier this week, I've been thinking about all those old time games. Oh, and buying the latest issue of Retro Gamer didn't help, either.
So, this morning I decided to download some emulators of old home computers. The Amiga 500 emulator I downloaded, WinUae, was really rather tricky to set up, but I got there in the end. Unfortunately, a lot of the roms I downloaded turned out to be corrupted...or maybe it's just not that compatible with Vista.
Frustrated, I decided to go even older and download a Commodore 64 emulator, CSS64. This was a dream to set up, and before I even had time to say "Old School!", I was happily playing the classic game Barbarian, and lopping my opponent's head off with impunity.
I then decided to face my childhood demons, and play Archon. As you will have read in my C64 post earlier, I have a rather traumatic memory relating to this game from when I was a child. I bravely forged ahead, however, and I'm so glad I did. Playing this game again was a truly nostalgic experience. The title screen music, which I thought I had totally forgotten, came back to me strongly as it played. I also found that as I was playing the game, each character's attack animations suddenly flashed into my head just before I performed them. This was noticed most strongly with the Phoenix ( who kicks just as much ass as I remember ). Its burst of flame as it vanquished its foes brought back so many memories.
Unfortunately, I got my ass well and truly kicked. Oh well, it was still a great trip down memory lane.
So, this morning I decided to download some emulators of old home computers. The Amiga 500 emulator I downloaded, WinUae, was really rather tricky to set up, but I got there in the end. Unfortunately, a lot of the roms I downloaded turned out to be corrupted...or maybe it's just not that compatible with Vista.
Frustrated, I decided to go even older and download a Commodore 64 emulator, CSS64. This was a dream to set up, and before I even had time to say "Old School!", I was happily playing the classic game Barbarian, and lopping my opponent's head off with impunity.
I then decided to face my childhood demons, and play Archon. As you will have read in my C64 post earlier, I have a rather traumatic memory relating to this game from when I was a child. I bravely forged ahead, however, and I'm so glad I did. Playing this game again was a truly nostalgic experience. The title screen music, which I thought I had totally forgotten, came back to me strongly as it played. I also found that as I was playing the game, each character's attack animations suddenly flashed into my head just before I performed them. This was noticed most strongly with the Phoenix ( who kicks just as much ass as I remember ). Its burst of flame as it vanquished its foes brought back so many memories.
Unfortunately, I got my ass well and truly kicked. Oh well, it was still a great trip down memory lane.
Saturday, June 7, 2008
Video games are addictive?!
So, I just read this article about video game addiction in which it's mentioned that the American Medical Association (AMA) is going to formally recognise video game addiction as a mental disorder in 2012.
How do I feel about being told, basically, that I have a mental disorder? It's teh awesomes, I'm mental! Seriously, though, I just hope that findings such as this don't further fuel the anti-video game stance that a lot of politicians seem to take. We've got enough problems with them getting all up in our grill about violence in games.
Honestly, I can't believe it's taken this long for video game addiction to be recognised ( or even that it's still not going to be formally recognised until 2012 ). I could have told them all about video game addiction back when I played EverQuest for three plus hours a day ( sometimes doing an all-nighter for twelve hours or more ) for almost three years straight, 2000 - 2003.
As is mentioned in the article, those who are most at risk of falling prey to video game addiction are those who play MMORPGs, and I can totally see the truth in this. Online RPGs are tailor made to keep you playing...and playing...and playing. Quite often the grind of levelling isn't even actually any fun, but the hook of just wanting to reach that next level or get that next bit of loot is impossible to resist. I look back on my time playing EverQuest and can clearly see how unhealthy it was to play that game, or any game for that matter, as much as I did. I remember quite a few times when I would actually forgo social occasions with friends just so I could stay home and play EQ, which is really pretty sad. In the end, that's actually one of the reasons that I stopped playing. When I looked at the amount of time I'd been playing my main character ( Smoove Grooves, the kick-ass bard ) and saw that it was over 40 days real time, that's more than 40 x 24 hour periods of me sitting on my ass in front of a computer screen, I realised enough was enough.
The other big reason that I quit? Because I was spending so much time playing EQ, I felt like I was missing out on playing other games! Yes, I was so addicted to one game that I felt like I was ignoring other games and needed to spread my addiction around.
I don't play games as much as I used to, that's for sure. So would I still consider myself addicted? At certain times, yes. It depends on the game. Most recently, it was S.T.A.L.K.E.R: Shadow of Chernobyl. Considering this is a 30+ hour game to finish, and I clocked it in a couple of weeks, you could definitely say that I was well and truly hooked.
In regards to MMORPGs, even though I freely admit to being totally addicted to EQ and that I wasted far too much time on the game, I honestly don't regret it. I have so many great memories from that game, in fact one in particular is probably my greatest gaming memory ever ( I imagine I'll make a post about it soon, now that I think about it ). Since EQ, I have played a number of other MMORPGs: Saga Of Ryzom, EverQuest 2, Guild Wars, World Of Warcraft, and most recently Lord Of The Rings Online. With all of these games I have managed to keep my addiction in check, never reverting to the heights of my EQ addiction. In fact, normally around the one or two month mark I tend to stop playing altogether. I think my brain has this built-in failsafe now where it says "You know Pete, I think you're spending a bit too much time playing this game. Maybe you should stop now, and go outside and enjoy the sunshine...or maybe just play a different game. Actually, that copy of Final Fantasy XII is feeling a bit ignored. How about popping it into the PS2 for a spin?".....or something else along those lines.
At the moment I'm going through a bit of downtime with video games. Since I finished S.T.A.L.K.E.R I haven't actually played any other games on my PC. The only game that I've been playing recently is Super Mario Galaxy, and despite how awesome it is I'm definitely not addicted to it.
What's the next game that I think will get me addicted? Once I get around to trying it out, probably Age Of Conan: Hyborian Adventures. Well, at least for a couple of months until my failsafe device kicks in.
How do I feel about being told, basically, that I have a mental disorder? It's teh awesomes, I'm mental! Seriously, though, I just hope that findings such as this don't further fuel the anti-video game stance that a lot of politicians seem to take. We've got enough problems with them getting all up in our grill about violence in games.
Honestly, I can't believe it's taken this long for video game addiction to be recognised ( or even that it's still not going to be formally recognised until 2012 ). I could have told them all about video game addiction back when I played EverQuest for three plus hours a day ( sometimes doing an all-nighter for twelve hours or more ) for almost three years straight, 2000 - 2003.
As is mentioned in the article, those who are most at risk of falling prey to video game addiction are those who play MMORPGs, and I can totally see the truth in this. Online RPGs are tailor made to keep you playing...and playing...and playing. Quite often the grind of levelling isn't even actually any fun, but the hook of just wanting to reach that next level or get that next bit of loot is impossible to resist. I look back on my time playing EverQuest and can clearly see how unhealthy it was to play that game, or any game for that matter, as much as I did. I remember quite a few times when I would actually forgo social occasions with friends just so I could stay home and play EQ, which is really pretty sad. In the end, that's actually one of the reasons that I stopped playing. When I looked at the amount of time I'd been playing my main character ( Smoove Grooves, the kick-ass bard ) and saw that it was over 40 days real time, that's more than 40 x 24 hour periods of me sitting on my ass in front of a computer screen, I realised enough was enough.
The other big reason that I quit? Because I was spending so much time playing EQ, I felt like I was missing out on playing other games! Yes, I was so addicted to one game that I felt like I was ignoring other games and needed to spread my addiction around.
I don't play games as much as I used to, that's for sure. So would I still consider myself addicted? At certain times, yes. It depends on the game. Most recently, it was S.T.A.L.K.E.R: Shadow of Chernobyl. Considering this is a 30+ hour game to finish, and I clocked it in a couple of weeks, you could definitely say that I was well and truly hooked.
In regards to MMORPGs, even though I freely admit to being totally addicted to EQ and that I wasted far too much time on the game, I honestly don't regret it. I have so many great memories from that game, in fact one in particular is probably my greatest gaming memory ever ( I imagine I'll make a post about it soon, now that I think about it ). Since EQ, I have played a number of other MMORPGs: Saga Of Ryzom, EverQuest 2, Guild Wars, World Of Warcraft, and most recently Lord Of The Rings Online. With all of these games I have managed to keep my addiction in check, never reverting to the heights of my EQ addiction. In fact, normally around the one or two month mark I tend to stop playing altogether. I think my brain has this built-in failsafe now where it says "You know Pete, I think you're spending a bit too much time playing this game. Maybe you should stop now, and go outside and enjoy the sunshine...or maybe just play a different game. Actually, that copy of Final Fantasy XII is feeling a bit ignored. How about popping it into the PS2 for a spin?".....or something else along those lines.
At the moment I'm going through a bit of downtime with video games. Since I finished S.T.A.L.K.E.R I haven't actually played any other games on my PC. The only game that I've been playing recently is Super Mario Galaxy, and despite how awesome it is I'm definitely not addicted to it.
What's the next game that I think will get me addicted? Once I get around to trying it out, probably Age Of Conan: Hyborian Adventures. Well, at least for a couple of months until my failsafe device kicks in.
Thursday, June 5, 2008
Commodore 64: My Early Days of Gaming
Ahhh, the Commodore 64. Anybody over the age of about 25 should hopefully remember that name with fondness. When I was about five or six years old this was the computer which first introduced me to the wonders of technology, and how far we'd advanced since the early days of hitting rocks against other rocks to make sparks for our entertainment. Utilising the awesome power of an 8 Bit processor, 64k of Ram, able to display 16 colors, and containing the first sound synthesizer chip to be built into a personal computer, the C64 was an absolute beast.
My older brother, Bruce, was the person in our family who originally had a C64. I was incredibly envious, and used to eagerly watch the screen from beside him as he played. He was very generous, however ( or he simply got sick of my gawking ), and let me play games on it regularly. He'd always have to boot it up though, because I was only little and didn't have a clue how to input the DOS commands to get games to load...I still don't, actually. Ohhhhhh, and what games they were! The C64 had an absolute plethora of fun, deceptively simple games to play. Literally thousands of games. Sure, a lot of them were total shovelware, but there were so many diamonds amongst all the crap. Being the cool guy that my brother is, he and his friends would get all their games pirated and share them around amongst one another. You have to remember that this was in the mid 80s when pirating was running rampant like some sort of demented....pirate.
I have such clear, fond memories of playing games on the C64. Sure, by todays standards the games look like something a chimp programmed using a stick and a calculator, but it was the substance and fun of the games that counted. We also have to remember that this really was one of the most powerful machines of its time, and the games that came out on it were, for a brief period at least, at the cutting edge of game design. Most of these games were pure joy. I'll now do an overview of a few of my faves:
World Games
Probably my all time favourite game on the C64. Containing such fun events as bull riding, cliff diving, sumo wrestling and other strange things, this game was challenging and fun. Alot of the events involved insane button bashing and joy stick waggling, which i'm good at because I have a bizarre shaking ability that i've had since I was a baby. I've looked into it on the net, and I think it's called "Essential Tremors". As long as it never gets any worse, and allows me to kick ass on games such as this, then it's all good!
Gremlins
A straightforward text adventure at heart, this game also contained some very evocative and spooky graphics. Based upon the movie of the same name, of course, this game was very challenging. Whether it was challenging by purpose or design flaw, I can't actually remember. I'll always have a place in my heart for text adventures and this one ranks right up there. I remember there was one spot I could never get past. I can't remember exactly where I got stuck, but I think I eventually gave up on the game. Hmmm, strange that I remember it so fondly.
Monty On The Run
A colourful, and rather deviously hard platformer. Monty mole had a couple of games on the C64, this one being his second I think. Basically he was a mole who got in trouble alot, and thus had to run. So you get 'Monty On The Run'. The clearest memories I have of this game are the bright graphics and the catchy music.
Archon
Basically Chess, but with mythological characters and wizards and the like, this game was brilliant. Whenever you attempted to take a piece the screen would change to a one on one battle, an example of which you'll see in the picture above where a phoenix is battling a goblin. The phoenix was the best character, hands down. In fact, I was so attached to the phoenix that I distinctly remember one occasion where my sister made me cry when she defeated my phoenix. Screw Aerith dying, my mighty phoenix being taken down was by far the most traumatic experience I think I've had in gaming.
Eventually my brother got rid of his C64 and upgraded to an Amiga 500. While this was a very cool machine, it could never really replace the good ol' grey box C64. But all was not lost. A few years after this, my sister bought a C64 with some birthday money she had recieved. This was the best thing she'd ever decided to do, in my opinion. We still had the hundreds of games that my brother had for his C64, so we had a ready made back catalogue of favourites for us to play. Although something I didn't take into account was that, because it was my sister's computer, I might not be able to play it as much as I'd like to. Sadly, this turned out to be the case. She kept it in her room, and understandably enough she didn't want her whiny little brother in there all the time playing games. But she was magnanimous enough to let me play it occasionally, and this gave me my C64 fix. But was this enough? The answer: Yes. And by yes, I mean no.
A couple of years after this, I bought my first home games console in the form of the 8-Bit Nintendo Entertainment System. Sadly, this spelled the end of my love affair with the Commodore 64. I still find myself thinking about it fondly, however, and was very excited when I read that Commodore have resurrected themselves ( kind of like my beloved Phoenix...*sob* ) and are now making high-end enthusiast gaming computers.
It is now my sole purpose in life to own one of these machines...
Wednesday, June 4, 2008
Nintendo Wii and various other stories
My girlfriend and I bought a Wii a couple of months ago, after planning to for ages. She was just as keen on the idea as I was. In fact, I think that she may have actually been the one to originally suggest it long before we even moved to Melbourne. This in itself shows just how brilliantly Nintendo has designed and marketed the Wii. My girlfriend has little to no interest in either the Xbox 360 or the PS3, but she was genuinely excited about getting a hold of a Wii since she first tried Wii Sports at Harvey Norman while working there back in New Zealand. Best. Girlfriend. Ever. Oh, and nice one, Nintendo! :)
Up until actually trying to buy a Wii console, I thought all the talk of Nintendo not being able to manufacture enough consoles to keep up with demand was just marketing spin. However, after about three weeks of casually looking through sold out stores, I realised the truth. Sure, I could have put one on back-order, but for some reason I have a strange reluctance to put my name down for anything. I always have. I'm actually sitting here trying to figure out just why I have this strange aversion to placing back-orders on things, and I honestly don't know why...hmmmm.
Anyway, so we eventually lucked out and wandered into an EB Games just after they'd received a shipment of about 40 Wii consoles. We snapped one up immediately. Rather than buying a game at the time of purchase we figured that the bundled Wii Sports, and the Wii Play that came with our extra Wii Remote, would satiate our initial hunger for hot Wii action.
After I quickly set the console up back home ( while my girlfriend set up a nice duvet that we also bought on our shopping expedition ) I went through the easy process of creating a Mii that looked just like...well, me. At least, I think it does. My girlfriend says it looks more like my friend Mark back in New Zealand.
Now that I had my cute, smiling little avatar, I loaded up Wii Sports and got my first taste of playing an actual Wii game. That's right. Up until that point, I had never actually played on a Wii console. This is pretty shocking, really, considering that it's been out for about a year and a half now. There were always plans back in New Zealand to have Wii parties at a friend's place but they never panned out. I could have hired one, but apart from a couple of occasions as a child when I hired out a Mega CD and 32X for my Mega Drive from the now defunct Allstar Video in Sydenham, I've never really been one for the renting out of consoles. This is mainly due to the fact that they're really fucking expensive to hire, and the video stores tend to make you put a big-ass bond down in case you accidentally spill Fanta all over the console. When all is said and done, however, I suppose I was content enough with my PS2 and my beloved gaming PC to really worry too much about giving the Wii a shot, even though I had read and heard all about how great it was.
But now...now I was finally trying it out. And I've gotta say, it was quite a revelation just how intuitive and user friendly it is. It's one thing to hear about motion sensing controls, and quite another to actually use them. The first game I tried was Bowling, and it picked up every little flick of my wrist, allowing me to put some wicked spin on the ball. Gina and I went through every game, and apart from Boxing ( which devolves into frantically thrusting the Wii Remote and attached Nunchuk back and forth ), they all have a lot of fun to offer. We then gave Wii Play a go. A lot of the mini games on offer really didn't interest me beyond the initial playthrough, but the Laser Hockey game has become a firm favourite in our apartment.
Gina and I have had some very heated Laser Hockey battles. In fact, this simple little game has provided me with some of the most enjoyable gaming experiences I've had for a long time. A lot of this has to do with Gina, I think. She gets so incredibly involved in the game, and her massive reactions to every goal consistently crack me up. She even headbutted me in the chest once after she very narrowly lost a game.
And this, I think, touches upon what I really love about the Wii: The fact that both myself and my girlfriend can play on the console, and both get just as much out of it as the other. This is a huge thing for me. Gaming is a very large part of my life, and I honestly think the gaming experiences I've had, since I first picked up a joystick to play on my brother's Commodore 64 at the age of five or six, have had a major contribution towards making me into the person I am today. To share this wonderful obsession with my partner Gina, the love of my life, is something truly amazing. Any previous attempts to combine gaming with relationships have ended in failure. I have a couple of embarassing gaming memories, as they relate to ex-girlfriends. I distinctly remember buying a PS2 back in the day, along with a copy of Metal Gear Solid 2, and when my then-girlfriend came over to hang out one day I excitedly loaded it up to try and impress her with the lengthy opening cinematic.
As it came to an end and Snake stood up on the deck of the rain soaked tanker, Harry Gregson-Williams' epic orchestral score swelling in the background, I glanced over to see a look of what can only be described as pity on her face as she regarded me. Needless to say, I never again tried to involve her in my gaming habits.
I also got into an argument with a different ex-girlfriend over my Nintendo Gamecube. I had purchased it, along with a copy of Resident Evil, while heading over to her place to hang out. I went through the motions of paying attention to her, but the entire time I was thinking about that cute little purple console. After about an hour, I told her I was heading home to set it up. She was less than impressed. I tried explaining the situation to her, but she simply didn't understand my excitement at having a new console. I was determined, however, and headed off home. But the withering look she gave me as I walked down her driveway stays with me to this day...
So, to have finally found this combination of the perfect girl and the console that we both love is truly something special. I suppose it says a lot about how awesome my girlfriend is, but it also says something about the Wii. Thank you, Nintendo, for finally allowing me to bring my two great loves together.
Up until actually trying to buy a Wii console, I thought all the talk of Nintendo not being able to manufacture enough consoles to keep up with demand was just marketing spin. However, after about three weeks of casually looking through sold out stores, I realised the truth. Sure, I could have put one on back-order, but for some reason I have a strange reluctance to put my name down for anything. I always have. I'm actually sitting here trying to figure out just why I have this strange aversion to placing back-orders on things, and I honestly don't know why...hmmmm.
Anyway, so we eventually lucked out and wandered into an EB Games just after they'd received a shipment of about 40 Wii consoles. We snapped one up immediately. Rather than buying a game at the time of purchase we figured that the bundled Wii Sports, and the Wii Play that came with our extra Wii Remote, would satiate our initial hunger for hot Wii action.
After I quickly set the console up back home ( while my girlfriend set up a nice duvet that we also bought on our shopping expedition ) I went through the easy process of creating a Mii that looked just like...well, me. At least, I think it does. My girlfriend says it looks more like my friend Mark back in New Zealand.
Now that I had my cute, smiling little avatar, I loaded up Wii Sports and got my first taste of playing an actual Wii game. That's right. Up until that point, I had never actually played on a Wii console. This is pretty shocking, really, considering that it's been out for about a year and a half now. There were always plans back in New Zealand to have Wii parties at a friend's place but they never panned out. I could have hired one, but apart from a couple of occasions as a child when I hired out a Mega CD and 32X for my Mega Drive from the now defunct Allstar Video in Sydenham, I've never really been one for the renting out of consoles. This is mainly due to the fact that they're really fucking expensive to hire, and the video stores tend to make you put a big-ass bond down in case you accidentally spill Fanta all over the console. When all is said and done, however, I suppose I was content enough with my PS2 and my beloved gaming PC to really worry too much about giving the Wii a shot, even though I had read and heard all about how great it was.
But now...now I was finally trying it out. And I've gotta say, it was quite a revelation just how intuitive and user friendly it is. It's one thing to hear about motion sensing controls, and quite another to actually use them. The first game I tried was Bowling, and it picked up every little flick of my wrist, allowing me to put some wicked spin on the ball. Gina and I went through every game, and apart from Boxing ( which devolves into frantically thrusting the Wii Remote and attached Nunchuk back and forth ), they all have a lot of fun to offer. We then gave Wii Play a go. A lot of the mini games on offer really didn't interest me beyond the initial playthrough, but the Laser Hockey game has become a firm favourite in our apartment.
Gina and I have had some very heated Laser Hockey battles. In fact, this simple little game has provided me with some of the most enjoyable gaming experiences I've had for a long time. A lot of this has to do with Gina, I think. She gets so incredibly involved in the game, and her massive reactions to every goal consistently crack me up. She even headbutted me in the chest once after she very narrowly lost a game.
And this, I think, touches upon what I really love about the Wii: The fact that both myself and my girlfriend can play on the console, and both get just as much out of it as the other. This is a huge thing for me. Gaming is a very large part of my life, and I honestly think the gaming experiences I've had, since I first picked up a joystick to play on my brother's Commodore 64 at the age of five or six, have had a major contribution towards making me into the person I am today. To share this wonderful obsession with my partner Gina, the love of my life, is something truly amazing. Any previous attempts to combine gaming with relationships have ended in failure. I have a couple of embarassing gaming memories, as they relate to ex-girlfriends. I distinctly remember buying a PS2 back in the day, along with a copy of Metal Gear Solid 2, and when my then-girlfriend came over to hang out one day I excitedly loaded it up to try and impress her with the lengthy opening cinematic.
As it came to an end and Snake stood up on the deck of the rain soaked tanker, Harry Gregson-Williams' epic orchestral score swelling in the background, I glanced over to see a look of what can only be described as pity on her face as she regarded me. Needless to say, I never again tried to involve her in my gaming habits.
I also got into an argument with a different ex-girlfriend over my Nintendo Gamecube. I had purchased it, along with a copy of Resident Evil, while heading over to her place to hang out. I went through the motions of paying attention to her, but the entire time I was thinking about that cute little purple console. After about an hour, I told her I was heading home to set it up. She was less than impressed. I tried explaining the situation to her, but she simply didn't understand my excitement at having a new console. I was determined, however, and headed off home. But the withering look she gave me as I walked down her driveway stays with me to this day...
So, to have finally found this combination of the perfect girl and the console that we both love is truly something special. I suppose it says a lot about how awesome my girlfriend is, but it also says something about the Wii. Thank you, Nintendo, for finally allowing me to bring my two great loves together.
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