Last year, Arenanet announced Guild Wars 2 and there was a long hiatus between the announcement and more information surrounding the game. The last few months, however, A-Net has really been pushing more gameplay reveals and artwork.

Because of all the recent updates, and A-Net’s plans to show up at various game conferences this summer – Guild Wars 2 Forum has launched. If you’re excited about the upcoming release and want to discuss the game, and the original Guild Wars with other fans then come visit.

News, strategies, guild recruitment, and more will be available to discuss. So, come help usher in the monumental release of Guild Wars 2.

Join Free! Today.

He’s actually a lady, and lack of strong female presence

In video game’s stages of infancy, you never saw females in the lead role. Sure, there was Princess Peach who always found herself kidnapped by a lizard or Princess Zelda who needed to call in her boy-toy Link to save the day. But the roles of females were anything but heroic. It wouldn’t be until a certain space bounty hunter came along that females were taken seriously in the limelight.

Metroid released in 1986 and at the time the game had received a warm welcome. The open ended exploration, and puzzle solving nature of the game carved out a niche that hadn’t been used in gaming. Sure, there was alien blasting and platforming involved but this game had you using the old noggin for progressing forward. The mind games wouldn’t end there as the mega surprise was saved for the end — the character you had been using the whole time was actually a girl. GASP.

It might seem trivial now, but back in the mid 80′s it was a highly progressive move on Nintendo’s part. Although you didn’t technically know the sex of the avatar on screen, pre-disposed notions led many if not all to assume Samus was a dude. Once the power armor came off, Nintendo solidified it’s place in video game history as presenting the first female video game lead role. Who kicked serious ass to boot.

Unfortunately, it would be quite a while before the next heroine would come along to take over where Samus started. Until then gamers had the likes of Mega Man, bad ass dudes with guns in Contra, and more Mario saving the princess to keep them tided over.

Fighting Games – Allowing female characters to sneak in and kick ass

Just because it would be a long time after Metroid before a female had a “lead” role in a game, doesn’t mean that strong female roles were completely absent . This idea was readily apparent in the fighting  genre. In 1991, the now iconic Street Fighter II was released in arcades around the world. It was met with praise, while at the same time introducing a now popular female character by the name: Chun-Li.

Unfortunately for Chun-Li she was surrounded by a dude fest, as she was the only lady who could be selected in the original iteration of the game. I was never a personal fan of her fighting style, but that doesn’t detract from her status as one of the original women of gaming.

The idea of allowing one female per fighting game continued on, with the most prevalent title being Mortal Kombat. Unlike the father avenging Chun-Li, Mortal Kombat’s heroine  relied on her sexuality to combat opponents. Sonya Blade was still a bad ass (special forces commando, actually) but her special moves relied on her sexuality as well. One of her moves blew a fatal kiss at her opponent, thus making Sonya the first ‘femme fatale’ of gaming.

As the fighting genre grew so would the roster of ladies involved in duking it out. Along with Metroid, the fighting genre was a key component in the early days of gaming to allow for females characters to get in on the fray.

Ok ladies, you’re in…as long as you’re voluptuous and the lust of 13 year old boys everywhere

Samus carried the moniker of ‘tough ol’ broad’ going into the SNES generation, but another would step up and carry on the ideal: Lara Croft. While Samus was anything but sexy, the world of 3D modeling allowed for Lara to show off some goods while traversing through levels. Thus began the era of overly endowed heroines, and in many ways still carries on today.

The original Tomb Raider game released in 1996 on the PC. Looking back it’s hard to imagine how anyone saw Lara Croft as a sex symbol, in game at least:

The graphics are archaic by today’s standards, but the idea of Lara Croft’s perfect body proportions were still able to be shown. Then of course you have her tight shirt, and way short shorts. And she was packing heat none the less, so of course any heterosexual male pined over this heroine. To her credit, Lara was more than just T&A. Her games had an adventure setting to them, and puzzle solving was a heavy feature. So, there was brains to go with the looks.

Lara Croft became the first buxom babe in gaming, and unfortunately led to a massive saturation of overly endowed females in video games. Here is a gallery of my favorite T&A characters throughout the years:

The future is looking brighter, and still sexy

All of this history has now brought us to present day. There are still a high volume of voluptuous females out there, and we still love them. However, there has been a subtle shift in female presentation in gaming. It’s as though a lightbulb has gone off in developer’s heads — we can still have sexy ladies in games that aren’t completely about huge chests, and barely clothing.

A perfect example of this evolution can be found in one of my most favorite recent games – Dreamfall: The Longest Journey. The game follows the story of  two female leads: Zoe Castillo and April Ryan. Both characters are involved in a highly in-depth story that is based mostly on characterization and plot development.

Both Zoe and April aren’t eye sores to look at, but compare them to the pictures above and it’s obvious that they are proportioned more correctly. To the size that it wouldn’t be too improbable to find two women out in the real world who look like this:

Zoe and April represent a shift that can be seen in other games out there. For other examples, research: Faith (Mirror’s Edge), Alyx Vance (Half Life 2), Jade (Beyond Good & Evil).

I hope that those who read this don’t misinterpret me. I have a fond place in my heart for the titilating females of gaming, Bayonetta really looks to take us to a new level with a heroine who wears nothing but her hair. And as she pulls off moves in the game, more of her body is shown off. The point is that not every game needs to have our women sporting double D’s, and attire that has said double D’s popping out of their chest.

Looking back in the history of gaming, it’s amazing to see the evolution of characters in general. While today I wrote about ladies in gaming, guys are represented just as insane sometimes too. As we move forward I hope that our characters mature with us as well. And perhaps one day we’ll find the great medium of sexy and smart all rolled into one.

Unfortunately, super hero based video games have had a rather rocky history. Most of the time it’s because the games are based off a movie property which are usually rushed, and generally try to follow the movie too closely. Leaving a big stinker in fan’s consoles. The future is looking a bit brighter for super hero games though, as we’ve seen two quality games released this year with a hero theme. The first being: Batman Arkham Asylum.

I’ve played through and beat Batman: Arkham Asylum and I can say without a doubt it’s the best super hero video game I’ve ever played. Almost everything that you would want to do as Batman is included somewhere in the game. Except perhaps getting to drive the Batmobile. You can’t have everything, right?

Arkham Asylum’s greatest strength is how it captures the spirit of Batman and translates it to a game. It’s dark, dreary, and Batman faces insurmountable odds like almost any good dark knight tale. The spirit of Batman is greatly represented in the graphics, which are quite beautiful. The player models have a distinct look to them that seem other worldly, with almost a clay like structure to them. As if someone sculpted the characters and put them in the game.

Another aspect of the graphics that translated even better than the characters is the setting. All of your time will be spent on Arkham Asylum and man is it depressing. Don’t expect to see sunlight anytime during your stint with the game, and be prepared for highly detailed visuals. The Poison Ivy stage is a great benchmark for the game’s scenic beauty.

So the game looks beautiful, but do you get to play like ‘The Batman’? For the most part yes, with a couple of shortcomings that can drag. The heart of the gameplay is based on what is called freeflow combat. The system itself is simple, to a fault. There are two buttons that you’ll basically use when taking down badguys, attack and block. Depending on what is happening on screen you’ll combine button presses differently. In practice it’s simple but the way it’s shown on screen is breathtaking. The camera pans around a fight scene, zooms in and slows down. It’s really cinematic and makes a two button system seem much better than it is.

The second part of the gameplay which is performed much better than the combat is the stealth system. There will be playground type stages that allow for Batman to move about in the shadows and rely on height advantage to sneak about. You can glide down and knock out unassuming baddies, or sneak up from behind and take someone down with a headlock. I highly recommend this style of play when you come across gun toting bad guys. Batman really doesn’t like guns in this game.

If you’re a Batman fan then there’s no reason to pass up this game. Around 2.5 million units have shipped out, so if they all get purchased that’s one massive amount of people that agree with me.

——————————————————————————————————-

While Batman is a great game based on a property we all know and love, another game has really caught my attention – Champions Online. It’s a MMORPG that’s based on a pen-and-paper RPG that happens to feature super heroes for it’s lore. In this game you can create your own hero, and just about make anything your imagination can come up with.

Within 5 minutes of logging into the game you’ll come across it’s greatest strength, character creation. Almost every MMORPG features a create-a-character system but Champions Online puts every one I’ve seen to shame. I stated that you could make anything in your imagination, and the create-a-character is the reason. First, you must decide on what powers you want to have. You can either pick a powerset which has two pre-defined skills, or mix and match. There are 18 power sets in all, with around 12-14 skills in each set. So, the combination of skills at your disposal allows for some amazing customization.

Along with the powers, there’s a copious amount of options for creating your character’s aesthetic look. You can choose a pre-defined body type or dive deep into the slider system that is attached to nearly every single body part. Then afterwards you get to design your costume. The costume editor has too many options to list here. Let’s just put it this way, if you find a character in the game that looks completely like you I’ll be really surprised. The only kicker is that there are those who make characters based on established properties, i.e: a bunch of Deadpool knockoffs running around.

I haven’t gotten far enough into the game to provide a complete analysis of the gameplay. I can tell you that almost all of the powers have an amazing payoff that really make them fun. The animations are spot-on, and you do get a sense that your character is indeed a super hero.

Here’s a list of my Champions so far:

Sony, with its well-known venture partner Ericsson, is already a formidable player in the cell phone market. Noew number five on the world cell phone market, the company has made a big impact since Sony/Ericsson name appeared in October of 2001. With well-known phones such as the X1, TM506, XPERIA and Aino, Sony Ericsson is no stranger to mobile devices. Thus, for Sony to combine their mobile prowess with their gaming fame—it seems like a perfect match.

Already, plans are underway to begin preliminary work on the project. Project teams under formation this week will begin the brainstorming process that will bring such a rumor to fruition.

But what do you get when you cross a PSP with a cell phone? A gaming device on which you can accept calls? This is Sony’s conundrum, too. How can they make a gaming phone, yet keep the market alive for the PSP? So, while some may claim that Sony is on the way to developing “an iPhone killer,” others are skeptical. Perhaps would-be iPhone users are more lured by the prospect of playing “Rock Band” on their cell phone than they are by playing “Paper Toss.” But can you make ‘an iPhone killer’ just by adding a cell phone?

And there are other questions. Will such a device really fly? Will it sell? It all depends on the market: who’s buying? Who uses smartphones? Busy execs? Tech nerds? Will users like this be tempted to buy a game-heavy device that can, oh-by-the-way also be used as a cell phone? Who uses PSPs? Do game-savvy teens really need a smartphone? What about apps? Now that mobile users are so accustomed to a variety of apps—from a Whole Foods store finder to the Swine Flu Tracker—will the PSP-phone utilize apps? Does Sony have the platform, plan, or need to introduce their own variety of the app store?

It’s a question that will be left up to those brainstorming teams that meet this week. Rumors typically generate more questions than answers, and this is only the beginning of the questions that the rumor mills will start hurling toward Sony.

In a recent survey, NPD found that 63% of respondents had played a videogame, be it console-based or a social/casual online game, whereas just 53% had gone to see a movie at a theatre.

“Videogames account for one-third of the average monthly consumer spending in the US for core entertainment content, including music, video and games,” said Anita Frazier, video games industry analyst for NPD. “While a portion of that share stems from the premium price of console games, we’re also seeing an overall increase in the number of people participating in gaming year-over-year.”

The average gamer spends around $38 per month on games and related equipment, found NPD, but there is also a shift towards other methods of gaming such as online casual and social gaming.

The number of people that paid to download a game from the Internet rose from 2% last year to 5% this year and currently around 10% of consumers admit to having played games on social networks. In fact, two of Facebook’s largest games, Pet Society and TexasHoldEm Poker, command around 11 million and 12 million monthly active players, respectively.

“As with video and music, sales of physical gaming products still account for the bulk of consumer spending on video games, but digital downloads and other delivery and game-play formats are also rising in popularity,” said Russ Crupnick, entertainment industry analyst for NPD.

Gamers, take heed. Sony has a new device almost ready to roll out. In order to see it, you’ll need to attend the Electronic Entertainment Expo in June, which is when Sony plans to unveil the new device. The new device, long-awaited by PSP enthusiasts, comes with a lot of speculation as to new features and improvements. Gaming site 1up.com dispels or confirms some of these rumors. It will be called the PSP Go, and advances some new technology, keeps some old, and looks like it will be as cool as ever.

After the June unveiling at the E3 Conference, Sony will first introduce the PSP in Japan, probably in September. U.S. users will get their first taste of the device in October or November—just in time for the holiday season.

As to its design, the new PSP will feature the slide-open control panel, a space-saving technique that most users enjoy. A potential improvement, although still unconfirmed, is the introduction of a touch-screen interface in addition to the old-style controls. The new touch-screen would introduce a spate of new potential that leaves game developers contemplating how it could affect handheld gaming.

Initially, two versions of the PSP Go will be introduced—the only difference being an 8GB memory and a 16GB memory. Additional memory can still be added through the memory card expansion slot. What will not be available in the Go is the UMD disc drive, as mentioned, part of the phase-out of disc-based games.

The disappearance of the UMD is not going to cause an earthquake of any sorts among game developers. Rather, they will probably enjoy (and profit from) the download-only model. Already, 100 games are in queue to launch when the PSP Go rolls out this fall. 

Other hardware features include the directional pad and customary face buttons, not a big change from the current PSP configuration. The Go will have one analog stick, but not two as some had been hoping for. 

Gamers across the globe are holding their breath, waiting to see if online rumors that World of Warcraft is coming to the iPhone are true. Vollee, a company whose main purpose is to develop software to allow mobile 3G phones to play CPU intensive PC applications over the iPhone network, may have struck an agreement with Activision Blizzard to stream the MMO.

This isn’t the first time the possibility of World of Warcraft for the iPhone has been visited. In June last year, Vollee indicated they were in talks with Activision Blizzard.

While no official announcement has been made (and Vollee’s website is down at the time of writing), a video has emerged that appears to show the game fully functioning on an iPhone. Much of the online debate is about whether this video is real, or an elaborate hoax, with most concluding that it is genuine.

Vollee was responsible for bringing virtual world “Second Life” to the iPhone earlier this year. ‘What we have developed is a service which, for the first time, allows you to access a rich persistent virtual 3D world the way it is supposed to be experienced on your phone,’ said Martin Dunsby, CEO, Vollee. ‘This is a true ‘before and after moment’ in which mobile is living up to its potential in serving as an always on, connected platform.’

“No matter what the level of your ability, you have more potential than you can ever develop in a lifetime.” -James T Mccay

Although McCay was talking about human beings, I think the quote rings true for OnLive. Its performance will unlikely catch up to its full potential. Before we get too philosophic about things, I should probably explain what OnLive is.

Announced at GDC 2009 (Game Developer’s Conference), the OnLive service has really been turning heads in the gaming industry. OnLive is a cloud computing service, only it runs video games. So, at its core OnLive will allow people to play games through their systems on a browser plug-in. The idea of it is astounding. This basically makes hardware spec requirements obsolete; everything but a fast connection that is.

When OnLive launches this is how it will work. You’ll sign up for the OnLive service, which will undoubtedly have a monthly subscription attached to it. You’ll download the OnLive browser plug-in, and from there you’ll be able to stream games to your computer through their service. We’re not talking Flash games, or old console games but new release titles. The great thing is that none of it will require any of your machine’s power to run. Here’ a video from IGN, of Crysis running through the OnLive service…

Some other cool features with OnLive is that you’ll have the option of directly receiving the service on your TV. If you buy their micro-console, you can directly input the stream to your television set. Nothing else is required. Except a mouse-and-keyboard, or the OnLive controller. The other feature that will be available is something called Brag-Clips. They work like a DVR setup, you’ll be able to record 10-second videos of the game that you’re playing.

A large number of publishers have already signed on to have their games available through OnLive: EA, Take-Two, Ubisoft, Epic, Atari, Codemasters, Warner Bros., THQ and Eidos.

Ok, I stated in the beginning of the post that this service is unlikely to meet the potential it presents. Which is sad for me to say, because I’m beaming over it. The first problem is bandwidth, and connection issues. I know that most people reading this, and myself included have got killer broadband connections. Having a 5/Mps connection might not be something too advanced in our minds, but it’s the entire consumer base that matters. OnLive has stated that a 1.5/Mps connection will be required to run games in 480p, with 5/Mps required for a 720p signal. While broadband is making its way into more homes everyday, not everyone has it.

The problems don’t stop with the user’s connection. I don’t think very many of us realize how much bandwidth is required to send a gaming signal out. Even with an outstanding compression rate. The videos that have been showed off are incredible, but what happens when more than a thousand people are streaming games in? then millions? That’s a lot of strain to put on a network. Let alone the machines that have to physically run the game that’s being played.

Even with connection issues, the service could take off if the price is right. The keyword in that sentence is “if”. The largest challenge for OnLive will be fixing on a price point that appeals to consumers, while at the same time making sure they have enough money to keep the service running. That’s a tricky balance to consider. And one that I think is the make, or break point. These are figures that I came up with, none based on any fact but just to give you something to think about…

Cost of OnLive Service: $50
Cost of a full game: $35
Cost of Micro-Console option: $80

Ok, so let’s say you buy a single game a month. What would your first year costs look like? $1,100. That’s quite a large budget for just purchasing a single game a month. Maybe some months you don’t even buy a game at all. Of course, a rental service would be an adequate means of alleviating the financial burden.

I want to say this again though, this is all speculation and brain storming on my part. OnLive hasn’t announced anything about pricing structure yet.

The more I think about OnLive, the more I keep thinking of the Sega Channel service from back in the mid 90′s. To me, that was one of the most ‘ahead of its time’ ideas ever in video gaming. It was a service that transferred game data through a cable outlet to your Genesis. It provided gamers with close to 50 games a month, and every month more games appeared. It was amazing. Yet, the consumer base didn’t get into it. It was too advanced for its time.

I get that same feeling when I think about OnLive. Here’s hoping I’m wrong though.

The release of the movie has led to me thinking about the history of video-movie transitions, and how rocky the road has been. We’re talking ‘Colorado’ rocky (sorry, couldn’t resist). In a homage to Clint Eastwood’s classic western, I figured we’d look at today’s list with a little The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly.

The Good

Mortal Kombat

Unfortunately, the ‘Good’ list is going to be quite short today. Which is sad considering to make a good video game movie, all that is required is you stay true to the source material, and make it entertaining. Hell, you don’t even have to try to make it a “good” movie. Mortal Kombat is the greatest example of this.

If there had never been a Mortal Kombat game, and this movie came out then I’d say never give it the time of day. But as a representation of the game Mortal Kombat, the Paul W.S. Anderson flick is still what I consider what other filmmakers should look up to when making a video game based movie.

Why could a movie with such awful acting, and cheesy dialogue make for a good video game movie? Because Anderson knew to please the people who saw the movie, all he had to do was make the fan’s much beloved game come to life. Which means they wanted source material intact, and to watch some badass fight scenes. Which Anderson brought in spades.

Mortal Kombat did the greatest job of taking the virtual characters, and have them translated to film. When you watch the movie, all the characters are represented by closely resembled real life counterparts. Also, no one was left out from the original so no upset fanboys.

Something I believe that is overlooked in Mortal Kombat was the quality of its special effects. This movie came out in 1995; I watched it a couple of weeks ago and the effects still hold up well. They aren’t going to blow you away, but Anderson did a masterful job of taking elements of the game and putting them on screen. Also, the fight scenes in the movie are nothing to laugh at either. They are well choreographed, and are some of the best done fights you’ll see in a game based release.

Until something better comes out, I still say that Mortal Kombat is the greatest video game based movie to be released. The movie that follows second is….

Street Fighter: The Movie

Ok, it’s kind of a stretch to put Street Fighter: The Movie in the good section of this article. By god though, Street Fighter does deserve some accolades. For the time that this movie was released, along with how many characters that the film tries to demonstrate, it honestly couldn’t have gotten any better than what we got from the 1994 hokey cult classic (live action anyway).

Street Fighter is definitely a flawed movie. There’s enough things wrong with it, that it even makes Mortal Kombat look Academy Award winning. However, I truly believe that the filmmaker had his heart in the right place and in many ways did do the Street Fighter series (at the time) justice.

I’ve been playing Street Fighter games since 1992, when Street Fighter II was released in the US. After all this time, I believe it’s impossible to make a SF movie and not have it goofy. Have you seen the roster of characters in the game? You have a Japanese, and American who wear near matching gi outfits (one white, and one red) throwing fireballs from their hand. You have a green beast, with long spiky orange hair, and chest hair. And a hulk boxer, who never takes his boxing gloves off. Who in their right mind could believe that a good Street Fighter movie could ever be made?

Although you’ll be laughing through most of Street Fighter: The Movie, I think it actually stayed pretty close to the source material. The storyline was pretty close to the game, mostly because during the early days Street Fighter never had much of a narrative. It was pretty much M. Bison and his crew (Shadaloo) versus the stable of characters. The writer, Steven de Souza, didn’t stray too far from the path.

I think in terms of visuals, the film was well casted as well. None of the characters look a whole lot different than their game avatars. Again I digress, there’s no way you can style Street Fighter in real life. Jean-Claude Van Damme as Guile is one of the funniest casting choices ever in the history of movies. Someone with a foreign accent playing an over the top patriotic American is quite hilarious. Raul Julia, looks like M. Bison but the character like Guile is taken so over the top it’s funny to watch.

Street Fighter: The Movie is a film that if you put it in your DVD player, is like watching old episodes of Pee-Wee’s Playhouse. When you were younger the movie was absolute fun to watch, and is still fun but for a whole different sort of reason.

The Bad

Super Mario Bros.: The Movie

I know the light that shines from dollar signs can be very alluring. Just like the sun though, if you look too closely it blinds you. I’m pretty sure that whoever read the script, watched the first cut of Super Mario Bros.: The Movie, and still decided it should be released had to be blind. There’s no other logical explanation.

What really sucks about the movie is that it has a lot of people I like in it. Bob Hoskins has been in some movies I really liked (Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, Unleashed). Then of course there’s the timeless wonder, Dennis Hopper who has been in too many of my loved movies to even name here. So, why in all that is holy on the planet Earth did they decide to appear in this movie? The dollar signs shine brightly for everyone, not just Hollywood big wigs.

I’m not even sure where to start when talking about all the things that are wrong with this movie. There’s only one shining light in the picture, and it’s that the bomb-ombs look like their game counterpart. That only lasts for like 15 seconds of the movie, so that’s how much enjoyment you can expect to have if you watch it. Every other character that is portrayed in this movie is so far from the source material that they shouldn’t have even bothered. I really don’t want to get into all the descriptions, but all you need know is that Bowser is played by Dennis Hopper, who is human like with some scaly hair.

Here’s what Bowser looks like in-game:

I wish it ended with the characters, but unfortunately their designs make even more sense than the plot. To be fair, there’s never really a plot in Mario games. The princess is kidnapped, and it’s up to Mario to rescue her. Instead of keeping something simple like that, the writers went in a different direction. Here’s a description from IMDB; I really couldn’t explain it better myself:

“This is the story of two hard working Italian plumber brothers named Mario Mario and Luigi Mario, who befriends a young paleontologist named Daisy. She uncovers a massive find of mysterious new dinosaur bones. While exploring the tunnels where dinosaur fossils lay, saboteurs hired by the Mario Bros. rival businessman, Anthony Scapelli, to break some underground pipes. Meanwhile, in a hidden world called Dino-world, King Koopa’s land is running out of water and going through problems so he sends Spike and Iggy to kidnap Daisy! Now the Super Mario Bros. find themselves the only hope to save the Earth from invasion then challenge a diabolical lizard king and they must battle giant reptilian goombas, outwit misfit thugs and undermine sinister scheme by taking over the world!”

Alone in the Dark/Bloodrayne/Postal/In The Name Of The King/House of the Dead (a.ka – any Uwe Boll movie ever made)

Unlike the Super Mario Bros. movie, I can talk about the long list of Uwe Boll movies and still put a smile on my face. The reason being, is the man behind the movies himself; who is pictured above flicking you off. Uwe Boll is one of my personal heroes for the sheer fact that he really doesn’t care, he’s an enigma. I honestly don’t think he cares about the movies he has released. Yet he keeps doing it. Why? That right there is one complicated cat, and anyone that’s wrapped in mystery, wrapped in a riddle, wrapped in a vest like Uwe Boll deserves some some form of applause.

It’s really hard to single out one of his movies out, but my personal favorite to watch is Alone in the Dark. It really is the most ridiculous sci-fi movie ever created. It makes Sci-Fi Channel presentations look like something created by Ridley Scott. I would go into a long discussion about how it doesn’t follow source material, but I think there’s not such thing as source material in Uwe Boll’s world.

Tara Reid plays an anthropologist, who stars opposite of Christian Slater as a paranormal detective. They are both studying the Abkani, an ancient dead civilization. All of this takes place on, wait for it…Shadow Island…..ohhh spooky!

What you see in Alone in the Dark, is basically what you get with an Uwe Boll movie. The characters don’t make sense, the plot doesn’t make sense, and it generally has nothing to do with the game it’s based on. But Uwe Boll is still hilarious.

The Ugly

Resident Evil Series

The ugly category is a bit different than the bad. The reason being, is that these movies are watchable. But, in terms of being a video game movie, and doing the games justice they come up short. Resident Evil is a perfect example of ‘the ugly’.

I have very mixed feelings about the Resident Evil series. I won’t deny that they’re fun, action packed, and full of zombies. Yet, it feels like they could have been so much more. The Resident Evil series are games that have a movie like presentation. There’s wonderful cut scenes, scary settings, with a character roster that is beloved by fans. The original Resident Evil especially, is scary because of its setting and sense of dread.

The Resident Evil movie however plays out more of an action flick than a horror movie. The simple nature of being secluded in a mansion is turned into a guns blazing, ass kicking Milla Jovovich filled romp. While a movie like this would have been sweet if it were something else, it just isn’t ‘Resident Evil’.

The character representation is a mixed bag for the most part. The main character in the movies, Alice, isn’t even in the games. But mainstays like, Chris Redfield, Wesker, Jill Valentine, Claire Redfield all show up in some form during the movies. Just don’t expect them to be much like their video game characters. Paul W.S Anderson, the same guy from Mortal Kombat really dropped the ball here. He did such a good job keeping the spirit of the Mortal Kombat characters, he could have done the same for Resident Evil.

The plot loosely follows the game. The setting takes place in a mansion, like the game but it’s mostly set in ‘The Hive’, a secret facility underneath the mansion. The whole story behind Umbrella, and the T-Virus, are all shown, which I give Anderson credit for.

If only Anderson realized he could have done so much more with what he had. You can’t forgive the fact that the entire tone of the movie is almost polar opposite from the game. Which is why the Resident Evil series is ‘ugly’, not ‘good’.

Silent Hill

Silent Hill, like Resident Evil isn’t a bad movie. In fact I think Silent Hill was a good half a movie. The first half of Silent is actually the best video game based movie I’ve ever seen. The only problem is that there’s a second half. An evil side, and not the good kind of evil. I’m talking, rushed, we need some action kind of evil.

It’s kind of funny that Silent Hill is in the ugly category along side Resident Evil. They’re both survival horror classics, which have dedicated fan bases. Silent Hill is probably the most disappointing movie on this list. Just for the fact the beginning of the movie teases you into thinking that a filmmaker finally got it right.

The plot of the movie, vaguely follows the storyline of the game. Silent Hill takes places in a coal town, there’s an evil girl at the center of the story, and there’s a loving parent trying to save the day. Although most of the huge plot developments are right, some of the details are different. First, the hero in the game is Harry Mason, while in the movie there is a heroine, Rose Da Silva. The movie’s true beginning also starts a bit different, but after about ten minutes or so it catches up to the game. So, barring the gender swapping nothing too horrendous to point out.

The movie starts out very dreadful, and does a masterful job of displaying that sense of seclusion. Radha Mitchell does a great job as she tries to make her way through Silent Hill in search of her daughter. There’s some very gruesome moments, that capture the spirit of the game. Unfortunately there’s a point in the movie when things start to go downhill very quick.

*SPOILER*

When Rose ends up finding out what’s going on in Silent Hill, the movie changes its pace. The eerie dread of Silent Hill is traded in for crazy CGI effects, and melodramatic Silent Hill citizens. The climax of the movie is so over the top, that it really comes off cheesy when the rest of the movie felt so right. The ending is hokey, and really doesn’t do much in terms of wrapping things up. It’s just there.

Again, Silent Hill isn’t a bad movie, it’s just a film that had so much wasted potential. Why couldn’t the filmmaker extend the first half, and make the second like it? Unfortunately, we’ll never know.

—————-

As video game fans, it’s crazy to assume that most of the franchises we love could ever make it to film. Video games just have a certain way of being, that for the most part don’t translate to live action. The narrative pieces in games are definitely getting better, so the transition could improve.

Unfortunately, much of Hollywood is driven by money and releasing these movies brings in droves. I just wish that filmmakers would do more to respect the games they’re butchering. There’s so much wasted potential out there. We can only hope that Hollywood stops what it’s doing, or gets their act into shape. I wouldn’t hold my breath though.

I left some movies off the list, so let me hear back from some video game movies you think are good, bad or ugly.

If you’ve kept up with the history of video games, and Star Wars then you’d know that its mostly been a pleasurable journey. From flight sims, to FPS’s, to even capturing the strategy behind Star Wars. This is a tribute to the greatness of Star Wars video games through out the years. I hope you enjoy it.

Star Wars Tie Fighter — X-Wing — X-wing vs. TIE Fighter — X-Wing Alliance

You could take your pick of any of the games featured above, and you’d be playing one of the greatest flight sim games of all time. When LucasArts first released X-Wing (1993), they could have easily just rested on the laurels of letting gamers man the cockpit of a Rebel Alliance starfighter. Instead, they came out guns blazing and provided an experience that when you first played; you couldn’t believe it. The game started just before the events in ‘A New Hope’ and had you on a mission for delivering the Death Star plans to Princess Leia. Later, the game would act as a parallel to the events that occured in A New Hope. This pseudo-side story really immersed Star Wars fan further into the struggle found in the movies.

The gameplay was pretty advanced, and even with a flight stick there were plenty of buttons you had to remember. It wasn’t just about ship battles. You had escort missions, scanning missions. The game truly offered a varied experience, all the while with smooth and accurate controls.

A year later, Tie Fighter would be released and is the game that a majority of gamers believe is the best of the Star Wars flight sim games. Instead of directly following the original trilogy storyline, the game offered a more independent mythos. It started just after the Battle of Hoth, and ended just before the Battle of Endor. The game had you interacting mainly with Grand Admiral Thrawn, a fan boy favorite. But there were options for side missions with the Emperor, Darth Vader, and even a shady conspirator.

X-Wing vs. Tie Fighter would take the spirit of the first two, and bring it to the multi-player arena. It was one of the first games to ever offer 8-player online co-op , with the Balance of Power expansion pack. If you didn’t have the Balance of Power expansion, all you really had was a multi-player fest.

X-Wing Alliance would be the culmination of pretty much everything that was great about the three games prior to it. It had the same engaging gameplay. Only this time you piloted the Millenium Falcon. The largest addition of Alliance, was the ability to create custom battle scenarios. The game allowed for the inclusion of a numerous amount of starships.

Dark Forces — Star Wars Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II — Star Wars Jedi Knight: Mysteries Of The Sith — Star Wars Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast — Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy

Since the original Star Wars trilogy, there have been very few Star Wars stories worth telling on the big screen. Yes, I’m including Episodes 1, 2, and half of 3. One storyline that does the Star Wars universe justice is the Dark Forces series. In fact, I’d go so far as to say that the Dark Forces series is the best Star Wars story told besides the original trilogy.

The gameplay behind the Dark Forces series has evolved, and has really changed from the original all the way through Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy. In the original Dark Forces, gamers were subject to a standard FPS. The game didn’t come out much later than Doom, and in many ways evolved the FPS genre. This game implemented the ability to have full viewing available to the gamer. You could run, jump, swim, and look around fully which might simple but was revolutionary at the time.

After the original Dark Forces game, we received Dark Forces II: Jedi Knight. This is the game in the series that really set it off, and became a classic in the eyes of most PC gamers. It expanded upon the original Dark Forces, by including well put together FMV sequences. A much updated graphics engine, and most importantly brought us lightsaber combat. Kyle Kataran’s story really fleshed out and brought story telling elements to the FPS genre that really weren’t seen before it. The expansion pack “Mysteries of the Sith” brought a character that has gone down in legend as a cult classic, Mara Jade. This feisty saber wielding vixen was a lot to handle, and really deserved her own spin off series.

Jedi Outcast, which is my favorite game in the entire series took the ideas in Jedi Knight and heavily enhanced upon them. The graphics made a huge leap, and the effects given off by the saber were stunning to say the least. The animations, and move set that Kyle Katarn was given really took Jedi combat to the next level. There were three different stances for saber combat, each with different moves that really added a depth of strategy to saber duels. The online aspect of the game is what really set it off, as you’ll find your most dedicated gamers lurking in the still running Jedi Outcast servers. Jedi Academy was kind of an off-shoot of Jedi Outcast, in that the game no longer followed Kyle Katarn but a jedi apprentice. This game featured Luke Skywalker, Kyle Katarn, Lando Calrissian, and Chewbacca. Billy Dee Willaims, and Mark Hammill both provided voices for their characters. Jedi Academy was pretty weak on the story side, as the game felt very divided in terms of how the levels were laid out. Very little continuity. It more than made up with this by offering a very robust multiplayer experience. On top of the three standard light saber stances, the jedi staff, and dual wield sabers were added. Of course, any JA vet will tell you that the trust single saber is the way to go.

Super Star Wars — Super Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back — Super Star Wars: Return of the Jedi

Before the Dark Forces series, and the flight sims, there was the “Super” Star Wars series on the SNES. This line of games has a special place in my heart, and was an important part of my gaming history in the early 90′s. More important than that though, is that this series of games is the only other representation of the original trilogy other than the movies. What’s funny is that the games actually do the source material justice, which was possible during the 16-bit era. Which makes you wonder why they can’t get it right now.

The ‘Super’ series at its core was nothing more than a side-scrolling platformer. What it lacked in graphical prowess it made up with solid gameplay, and a certain charm. All three games allowed you to play through as multiple characters. The original Super Star Wars allowed you to play as Luke, Han Solo, and Chewbacca. And they returned as the cast for Empire Strikes Back, which would allow for the first use of force powers in a Star Wars game. Super Star Wars: Return of the Jedi expanded upon the roster by allowing you to play as Princess Leia, and Wicket the Ewok.

I really can’t say a whole lot about the series other than it’s a very worthy side scrolling platform. Its most impressive feat was staying so close to the original stories of the trilogy even when the limited technology of the SNES might have detracted from it. If you have a SNES, and happen to live near a vintage game shop, then do yourself a favor and try to find these games.

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (KOTOR) — Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: Sith Lords

I should preface this by saying that I’m a huge Bioware fanboy. I’m really not a fanboy of any other entertainment entity other than Bioware. Of course as they’ve only released quality games throughout the years, it’s kind of hard not to be. Anyway, this leads up to what could be considered an even greater story than the Dark Forces series.

When the news hit that KOTOR would be coming to the PC, and Xbox I was skeptical. I really didn’t think that the Star Wars universe was a right fit for a RPG. The reason is that most of the combat is based on moving, and covering from blaster fire, and the kinetic light saber duels. Then I heard that Bioware would be the dev studio behind the game. I couldn’t believe it, because up until then they only dealt with D&D properties. My skepticism turned to optimism, and I couldn’t wait to get my hands on the game.

I received the game as a Christmas present, and I played it the entire week of my break. I couldn’t stop. The story, combat, and immersive world were utterly addictive. I believe it took me about four days to beat the game, and that was with me exploring all of the side content I could get my hands on.

The story takes place 4,000 years before the original trilogy. When the Jedi, and Sith were plentiful and locked in a grueling battle for control of the force. The game follows an unnamed character, who is linked to a strong sith lord named, Darth Malak. The game progresses as you find out more about this character, because in the beginning he/she starts out with memory loss. I can’t really go into much more for fear of giving away too many spoilers.

The gameplay of KOTOR should be familiar if you’ve played a Bioware RPG before. They adopted the D20 style combat, and brought it to the Star Wars universe. For the most part it worked, and it added a strategy to combat not seen in any Star Wars game before. My only gripe is that like any RPG, the gameplay feels slower compared to the Star Wars action titles.

If you’re a fan of RPGs, and Star Wars then you need to do yourself a favor and pick up the KOTOR series. With an epic storyline, wonderfully detailed world, and some open-ended strategic gameplay, there’s a whole lot to get involved with.

Honorable Mentions

This is a list of the games that while of good quality aren’t quite as recommended as the ones above. Therefore, not as worthy of a write-up, but if you come across them you might want to try them out.

Conclusion

It’s quite amazing how the quality of Star Wars games has kept up throughout the years. Sure there have been a few clunkers here and there, but for the most part its been a wonderful ride. Even some of the honorable mentions I listed still hold special place in my heart.

If you’ve never played any of the Star Wars games I’ve mentioned then do yourself a favor and check them out. Even if you don’t like Star Wars, these games are worthy to play because they’re fun and of real high quality.

As information becomes available faster, and faster over the internet most video game magazines have  been made obsolete. The ones that are still around are mere skeletons of the behemoth volumes that they used to be. It’s sad in a nostalgic sort of way. As I was making the header image for the post, I viewed numerous EGM covers from years past. I think there’s needs to be some kind of museum set up, as there’s so much history to be found on those hallowed covers.

In case you haven’t heard already, EGM and its online affiliate 1UP has been sold. Previously owned by Ziff Davis, the magazine was sold to UGO Entertainment Division who has decided to dump the 20 year old gaming magazine.

I don’t want to talk too much about the news, but I would like to look back at some of the issues and how they represent the history of gaming and how far we’ve come.

I found one image, from an issue that I remember way back in 1995. I remember it because it was the first time I’d seen anything about the Virtual Boy. Ha, I can remember getting so excited as it would be the first system to present a 3D image. Too bad they didn’t have anything in the issue about it burning your eye sockets out.

Let’s fast forward to November 2000, when the PS2 was unleashed onto the world for the first time. Doubling as a DVD player, it was one of the most groundbreaking ideas for its time. Combining a  video game system as a media player  might seem like standard fare today, but in 2000 it’s easily what made the PS2 so dominant.

R.I.P EGM- -

although we won’t be able to flip through pages anymore, you’ll never be forgotten. From the preview demo discs, to what I consider the pioneers of the video game review you’ll always be in our hearts.

I enjoyed many different franchises from the mid-late 80′s, but there was one that trumped them all. Ghostbusters. I had a tape of Ghostbusters that I honestly watched about 100-200 times. Just ask my parents if you don’t believe me. They can quote every line from the movie, just from being around while I was mesmerized by Stay-Puft.

My inner 6 year old fanboy (who sounds like a giddy school girl) started to go into Defcon 1, when this latest Ghostbusters trailer was released. I’ve probably watched the trailer about 20 times since its been out, and I haven’t gotten tired of it yet.

Every character that was present from the original movies will be back, save for Dana Barrett and Louis Tully. Each of these characters will be voiced by their original actors, which include Bill Murray, Dan Ackroyd, Ernie Hudson, and Harold Ramis. Even Walter Pecker, excuse me Peck from the first Ghostbusters makes an appearance.

Unlike other video games based on movie franchises, this is a complete stand alone product. Therefore, the developers can take their sweet time in perfecting it before release. This is a definite must, as most movie based games are always rushed to coincide with the release of the motion picture.

As of now the game is slated to come out June 2009. It was supposed to come out this year. Activision bought out the original publisher of the game and decided to scrap it from its product list. BIG MISTAKE. It was then in publisher limbo, before Atari scooped it up. To me this is just a blessing in disguise, as Terminal Reality will have extra development time to give the game better polish.

Here is another video, which shows off some of the actual gameplay from Ghostbusters: The Video Game -

World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King sold 2.8 million copies in its first 24 hours of release. Although all the markets are looking down because of the economy, video games, WoW in particular are looking like everything is gravy. The main reason being is that during turbulent economic times people still want to be entertained. Even more so than when times are good.

The Lich King Is Laughing Maniacally At All The Gold

So, just how much money has Blizzard, now Blizzard-Activision made off the WoW franchise? Well, it’s estimated that around 11 million subscribers play WoW. Most of those people have upgrade to the Burning Crusade, the expansion that came out prior to Wrath of the Lich King. Then tally up those software totals, with the $15/month that WoW players must pay in order to play their game everymonth. Financially it estimates to about a $1 billion/year industry.

Just think of how much money you’d have right now if you had invested in Blizzard back when their big release was Lost Vikings on the SNES.

They are kind of pretty and shiny in a hard bitten, vaporware sort of way.  But wait, could this be the proof that we’re all waiting for?  Will DNF be an actual product in our lifetime?  I’ll let you decide that while you gaze lovingly at the once familiar mug of our long lost protagonist.  Let’s hope that if it is real, it makes a better impression than Spore.

Technorati Tags: dfn, duke nukem forever, pics, screenshot, kick ass and chew bubblegum, video games, vaporware

Let’s start with some of the problems of modern gaming – issues that I have at least, maybe you’ll agree with some of them.  First of before anything else is the state of the software.  Buggy releases which feel like nothing more than late beta stage games, crippled with DRM and support that consists of the user doing all of the footwork.

Then you have the blammo, rinse, repeat of modern gaming.  Everything is turning to RTS or FPS.  That apparently is all the choice you get from most major publishers.  Shoot, reload, repeat.  Spore attempted to break free of that model and turned into a miniature version of all of the above.  It’s either a non-fulfilling RTS or a non-fulfiling FPS (First Person Eater?).  When you do finally get to space. . . well lets just say it’s not as open ended as I would like.  It’s a great toy, it’s kinda a lousy game.

It’s also a $50 toy.  Paying $50 for something you can’t return, that may not work as advertised and that you can only install 3 times without a hassle?  Ouch.  Sadly, that’s quickly becoming the norm in the industry of big game publishers (or as I like to call it, EA).

Lastly, we have the system requirements hurdle.  I like upgrading my PC as much as the next guy but it takes time, patience and most importantly, money.  I quickly run out of all three.  Which means within a year of getting a near-uber system, I’m faced with games that I can’t crank up to max.  It’s not the biggest problem but it can be frustrating – perhaps I should just grow and learn to accept it but the part of me that looks at the price tag has a hard time doing that.

Not all of these problems come with all of the modern games – there are good games out there but they seem to be few and far between.

Just as all of this is starting to eat away at me (again) enter. . . Good Old Games.  Simply put, this is a portal from which you or I can purchase older, highly rated games with XP and Vista installers and no DRM for $6 to $10.

With only two publishers on board for the beta (Interplay and CodeMasters), GOG is already a fantastic place to visit.  Fallout, Fallout2, MDK, and a bunch of other games.  I’m already nodding along and smiling as I walk down memory lane and look at games I couldn’t even get to run on Vista.  Except now, I can.  GOG packages their games with installers for XP and Vista and I believe they even had a custom version of Dosbox for very old games.

When games have expansions or updates, often GOG will package these right along with the game.  Nice! I know that my gaming rig will run them as well.  Hell, my wife’s 6 year old laptop will cruise right along with all of these games.

At the two price points of $5.99 or $9.99 this isn’t an investment in a game, it’s an impulse buy.  Not only that, it’s an impulse buy I’m pretty sure I’ll enjoy, already having fond memories of the game in question.  Or, I can try a game I’ve always wanted to but didn’t have the wherewithall to play previously.  If it stinks, I’m out six bucks, not sixty.

And the best for last – it’s all completely 100% DRM free.  That means that if I blow away my computer four times a year and reinstall the OS, I can reinstall ALL of my GOG.com purchased games again.  As many times as I want.  Without complications.  Yay!

You can still ask for a beta invite at Good Old Games if you’re interested in checking them out.  I’d highly recommend it!

Technorati Tags: good old games, gog, video games, computer games, fallout, mdk, freespace, drm-free, drm

Here’s what it does, and the official site.

Features

* New Cheat: “evoadvantage”. Enter this cheat when are starting a new Creature game to choose any creature from the Sporepedia. Start a new game with one of your more evolved creatures!
* Display part statistics when you are in Build mode. Rollover any part and hold down the ‘i’ key.
* New Cheat: “blocksmode”. Turns creatures into their blocky representations.
* More style filters. Open the cheat window and type: “stylefilter -microscope” or “stylefilter -norainbows” or “stylefilter -nextgen” to see the new styles
* Added 70 new planet scripts with a low terraform score, especially of the “hot and high atmosphere” type

Graphics/Aesthetics

* Animation improvements
* Improved the planets fogging, blooming and lighting
* Fixed animation issues with tool handling, hand walking and some of the more oddly shaped creatures

Tuning

* Creature phase: Improved the pacing towards the end of the game, and increased the challenge in Normal and Hard modes.
* Tribe phase: Increased the challenge in Normal and Hard difficulty modes.
* Civilization phase: Increased the challenge in Normal and Hard difficulty modes.
* Space phase: Made Empires in Easy and Normal modes demand reasonable amounts of money in exchange for peace and adjust the level of punishment if the player doesn’t pay
* Space phase: Made disasters less likely to occur in Easy and Normal modes and increased the time between each attack from the enemy empire when the player is at war.

Miscellaneous

* Creature phase: Improved the way posse members behave during threatening situations and fights.
* Space phase: Made finding your home world and colonies easier in the Galactic view.
* Tribe phase: Made it so that tribe members can travel on steep hills if they need to do so now, but their speed will be reduced a lot.
* Fixed an issue with attacks not working on some bigger animals and larger animals not dying correctly
* Fixed collect mission not completing correctly when all parts have been collected
* Fixed problems with the “Rolling Thunder” and “Déjà Vu” achievements not being awarded as they should
* Fixed floating parts not being deducted from the budget when loaded into creator
* Fixed an issue with the rotation rings not resizing correctly when a part was resized and improved their look
* Fixed an issue where the terraforming score of planet could differ when revisiting a solar system
* Fixed the keyboard controls for zoom & pitch in the Colony Planner not working properly
* Fixed a crash that could occur when watching an epic creature attack a city
* Fixed some issues where the game would freeze when using the Creature Tweaker tool or when capturing a planet in solar view
* Fixed an issue where not all tribe members would obey the raid order when a large group was ordered to raid
* Fixed an issue where banning a creation from one of your other saved games would black out the main menu

Technorati Tags: spore, ea, drm, patch, games, video games, computer games, geek creationists

Gabriel tells of a relationship that starts early in his childhood with an Atari 2600 and plays out much like the story of every adult gamer’s life. During his teenage years, he discovers two overriding passions: freestyle club dancing and Blizzard’s classic RTS Starcraft. I can’t personally sympathize with the former; the club scene has never been anything for me except a mindless churning of intoxicated bodies, a dead-end excersise who’s only real virtue is the physical discipline it requires. Too many people I knew in high school went down that bottomless spiral of meaningless social mingling, destructive relationships, and drug and alcohol addiction and found themselves in their late 20s with no skills, no family, a dead-end job and few true, reliable friends.

You might then imagine my confusion when Gabriel characterizes his relationship with dance clubs as a constructive force in his life and his personal obsession with video games as a youth-stealing, mind-rotting, addictive plague on modern society. You see, in my case, video games defined my life, my career, and my passions in a positive way that led me to a successful career, a happy marriage, and a great group of friends who share my interests. Like Gabriel, I started off with the Atari, worked my way up through the Nintendo, the Super Nintendo (still my all time favorite console), the Playstation, and then the plethora of online PC games that grew in popularity during my teenage years. As dedicated gamers, my friends and I became heavily involved in PC modding and tuning, always trying to squeeze out that extra frame per second. It built our technical skills and provided the foundation I needed to to eventually get a job as a PC technician, after years of dead-end work in civil service I’m still trying to forget.

That experience also led directly to my eventual career choice as a web software developer and web designer. As the geekiest and most technically inclined of my group, I assumed the responsibility of building guild websites, handling server administration, and a brief stint of game programming when we spent some time off from Command and Conquer and Quake to build a MUD – a Multi-User Dungeon, a prototypical MMO with an all-text interface, for those of you who came along after Ultima Online and Everquest. The skills and social connections I developed while pursuing my gaming hobbies are more valuable to me than any other character-building experience in my life.

Without video games, I can’t predict exactly where my life would have ended up, but they provided me the focus that helped me develop my own personal talents into a successful career much the way Gabriel developed his based on his passion for dance. The similarity and contrast between our lives leads me to wonder, once again, at the impact articles like his will have both on gaming culture and on clinical and popular psychology – by further diluting the meaning of addiction and confusing cause and effect in the case of obsessive behavior, involving video games or anything else. The plight of real addicts with debilitating chemical addictions is mocked every time someone characterises an obsession as an addiction, and likewise people with unhealthy obsessions may be suffering from a fundamental misunderstanding of the cause and consequence of their problems which prevents them from seeking and finding the help they need.

I also worry that it provides a skewed view to the already misinformed older generation, as well as the members of our generation who never quite got on the boat, who are still playing the politics of fear we gamers are oh-so-familiar with. Every generation in the past century has been the first to embrace some amazing new technological or cultural advancement and each has had to deal with ignorance and fearmongering that big changes like these bring about. It’d be nice if we could look past generational lines and find the common ground we share as the children of a rapidly progressing society. Certainly Gabriel is welcome to tell his story. I hope that he, and others like him who have allowed a single facet of their life to become an overriding destructive obsession, will someday have the maturity to admit that the problem is theirs, and accept responsibility for their actions and their lives instead of placing blame on the object of their obsession.

(thanks to QJ.net for the image, used without permission, sorry!)

Technorati Tags: video, game, obsession, addiction, addict, obsessive, personality, bohemian, gabriel fransisco

Two of us here at ArsGeek have the game and so far we’re split 50/50 between issues and enjoyment.

I’ve had the game since release and have so far experienced no issues with it. This is the kind of game I enjoy, with a lot for the casual gamer and a lot for the hardcore gamer (space phase).

Cavtroop got the game at the same time, and ran in to the nasty DasmX86Dll.dll issue.  What’s that?  Well it looks like DasmX86Dll.dll is a part of Dasm32 – a debugger/disassembler.  Basically this is a tool used to debug software.  You can get it for free here if you want to check it out.  What happens is, at some point the game crashes to the desktop with an error on that DLL.  Why?  It looks like EA/Maxis was a bit sloppy and left a reference to the debugger in their production code, which should not be in there.  Thus, when the game wants to go into debug mode it crashes to the desktop.

Don’t think that installing Dasm32 will help though, it won’t.  EA and Maxis need to release a patch for this.  Until then, the only real work around seems to be. . . well, the one that we shouldn’t have to use.  Others report that the pirated .exe works fine.  It’s a pretty big problem when the pirated exe works better than the one shipped from EA.  It’s not clear to me if this debug call is a SecuRom call, or one built into Spore itself.  At a guess, it’s a SecuRom thing – once you remove SecuRom from the picture, no crash.

While I don’t advocate pirating anything, I just don’t have a moral issue with finding a cracked .exe for a game that I’ve already purchased, just to get the game to work.  And not only do you have to do that for the game to work, but your running it at a reduced capacity – no online content for you!

There’s been talk of how hard it is to remove SecuRom in and of itself.  I’ve found official instructions for doing this online at several sources, and I’ll reproduce them here in a cleaned up version so you know what to do.  Obviously this will stop Spore from functioning properly for you.  But if you have had SecuRom infected games installed on your PC and you no longer want to play them, here’s how to remove this software.

To remove all SecuROM related files (except the license data stored beneath the registry keys) please follow the uninstall instructions below.

Before you start the uninstall process, close all programs which are running in the background, especially be sure that no instance of the Windows Explorer is running.

Open the Windows command prompt.
type in the path of the infected executable:

“C:\Program Files\EA GAMES\[Your game] (for example: The Sims 2 Bon Voyage)\TSBin\[Sims 2 .exe file] (for example: Sims2EP6.exe or Sims2SP5.exe)”

And append /uninstall to it.

So for Sims2EP6.exe, you would type C:\Program Files\EA GAMES\Sims 2\TSBin\Sims2EP6.exe /uninstall

A dialog box should then appear to start the SecuRom uninstall process.

The registry keys described above are not removed by the above uninstall process; otherwise, the copy protection function of SecuROM would be completely undermined. The registry keys, which contain license data, remain on your PC and do not affect any of your PC’s functions. This is no different than other commercially available software programs that employ a similar use of registry keys.

Note: These instructions will work only for applications protected with SecuROM version 7.24 or higher (The Sims 2 Bon Voyage uses version 7.33 of SecuROM, so the instructions do apply). If you have an earlier version of SecuROM, please contact support@securom.com for different instructions.

Speaking of SecuRom – I’m not quite sure why software companies continue to insist that DRM of this type (or any type) is worth it.  I wonder how much money EA stuck into this?  The game was available on the torrents before it’s official launch and yet here’s EA and far to many other companies shoveling money down the DRM hole.

And it’s doubly a problem because of their refusal to see this as an issue.  If the game sells well, EA says “See! DRM isn’t that big a deal, people don’t care and we’re still selling games.”  If the game’s sales are hurt by DRM they fall back on “Pirates are killing our bottom line!”  Seriously?  Games will get pirated, sure.  But you’re much more likely to sell copies if they’re not crippled in the first place by software that does nothing to stop the pirates and everything to annoy legitimate users.

Think EA!  How many more games would you sell to people if your Amazon ratings were 4 or 5 stars?  How manyon the fence gamers wondering if they should plonk down $50 of their hard earned money are going to turn away from this?  I like this game, I really do, but I had to give it a 1 star rating on Amazon as well because of the way legit users are treated like criminals and the folks who do steal the game get to play it whenever and wherever they want.

So what to do?  Well obviously you can decide to not spend your money on this game.  Even more important though, rather than pirate it which is still illegal, why not give your money to publishers who refuse to treat their customers as criminals in the first place?  If PC gaming is a dying past time, it’s because of publishers who use DRM.  If someone’s going to save it, it’s the folks below.

My favorite game company of all time, Stardock, has a number of good to great games out there right now, Sins of a Solar Empire being my current favorite video game period.  They make good games, and their currently in the spotlight for refusing to use DRM, a commitement to ship a finished product and their gamers bill of rights. Impulse is also a neat client and is shaping up to be a real Steam competitor.

I’m glad to give them my money for a product that works, is fun and is DRM free.

The folks at Software, Technology and More have also gone through the trouble of compiling a great list of DRM free, indie games.  Their top pick, Mount and Blade is a fantastic game and the rest, though I don’t have much experience with them, I’ll be checking out.

The bottom line – DRM sucks. It punishes the people doing the right thing by paying developers to develop, causing a lot of unecessary headaches among users and basically making us all feel like we’re just renting a game, not purchasing it. I hope that the mob of low ratings on Amazon sends EA and other publishers a message but I’m doubtful they’re even listening.

Technorati Tags: drm, spore, securom, video games, remove drm, ea, maxis, stardock, indie, games, geek, technology, computers

I’ve been busy making things though.  You can check them out to the right —-> down there somewhere or look right here.

If you read AG and are also playing and enjoying Spore (DRM unloved as it is) feel free to comment with your spore profile or sporecast as well as I’d love to check it out.

Technorati Tags: spore, sporepedia, drm, amazon review, ea, sporecast

See, it used to be that you requested access to a beta release, you helped play test the game, the devs took in all of the beta tester’s suggestions and bug finds and then released a better, less bugy, more complete game.

Now it seems that not only have we entered the world of the patch, where games are released sort of almost kinda done, with a few little itsy bitsy problems that will be worked out by the second or third 300MB patch.  But, you now have to pre-order a game – pay actual money – just for the privilage of being included in a beta.

What if you hit the beta program and find out the game sucks?  Or that the devs just can’t be bothered to fix the deal-breaking (for you anyway) bug?  Hey, guess what, after the hours you put in helping them test their product, which you’ve determined isn’t for you, you get to buy it anyway!

Maybe the devs and publishers could ask gamers to invest 10% of the total cost of a game at the start of the development cycle!  Then, if the game doesn’t sell well or is a complete waste of 1′s and 0′s, they can blame the investment pool of players for not raising enough money.

Maybe I’m just grouchy today, but between this and flash on Linux, I think I’m going to go home, unplug and read a book.

Technorati Tags: beta, cod, world at war, call of duty, pay to play a pre-release, horsefeathers, video games, pc, computers, technology, angry geeks

Technorati Tags: video, spore, pet, creature creator, giant time sink

w00t!

Technorati Tags: ea, spore, woot, video games

Feel free to check them out here.  Nothing too fancy as I’m still getting the hang of it.  I can tell you that so far this is right up my ally.  Customization, tools, toys, and from the sounds of it, interesting game play.  Launch day should be a busy day for me.  I’m very much trying not to let all the hype build this up into an impossible game – reality in place, I still think I’ll like it.  Time will tell though.

Technorati Tags: ea, electronic arts, spore, video games, creature creator, hooked on a feeling

Looking at Spore, a game I’ve been excited about for a while now, it looks like there will finally be a change from the grind of rapid build up and nuke, or hide behind the pretty foliage from alien’s shooting beams at you paradigms that have been so prevalent lately.  I’m even getting sick of my new old standby – COD4.  Level 55 on a PC and. . . wow.  A gold gun, more shots down the line and more infantile chatter over which levels are ‘teh suck’.  They’ve even launched a whole ad series in a bunch of major urban public transportation stations.  How cool is it to see a video game, any video game, advertised in a place like that?

Call me nostalgic or an old fart but I miss the days of turn based RPGs and strategy games that really made you think.  Civ, Baldur’s Gate, Total War, MOO2. . . these are games I spent days on, working out my strategies, leveling my party, conquering worlds and taking real pride in my accomplishments.  No twitching involved.  All of these games had their shortcomings and limitations based on the systems and resources available – but they also all had that golden sheen of near endless replayability, go at your own pace game play and customization.

Guess what Spore is offering?  Pretty much all of the above.  While game play isn’t strictly turn based, it does look to be paced at a rate I want it at – not at the fastest click or quickest button push.  You start with your creatures at a cellular level and bring them all the way through to interstellar conquest.  Yowza!  It’s got vast scope, incredible customization, the ability to be not just a game but a social network without the grind of MMORPG camping.  I can’t wait to get my hands on this game and tool around with it.  Single player with creature sharing – so I can choose my level of interaction with other people online and I’m not forced into reading inane comments by school kids learning they can swear on the ‘net or grouping with a bunch of strangers.

There will of course be some limitations and downsides to this game – there is no gaming nirvana, at least not yet and probably won’t be until we get a Holodeck or its equivalent.  There will be limitations to the game but worst of all, there will be DRM.  Good old SecureRom, in it’s scaled back form.  At least there’s no 10 day activation anymore, EA has backed off of that, you can even play the game offline.  You will however need to authenticate when you install, and every time you update.  Here’s the official word:

We authenticate your game online when you install and launch it the first time.

We’ll re-authenticate when a player uses online features, downloads new content or a patch for their game.

The new system means you don’t have to play with the disc in your computer. And if you are like me, always losing discs, this will be a huge benefit.

You’ll still be able to install and play on multiple computers.

You can play offline.

Better than the original 3 installs and 10 day activation period but still DRM.  Why couldn’t the folks at Stardock have developed this with Will Wright?

You can pre-order Spore right from EA and they’ll do a ‘pre-load’ which essentially downloads a huge, encrypted install file onto your machine (PC only, no Mac right now) which you can install at 12:00:01 on the 7th I’m assuming.  This saves you the hassle of having to go out and buy the game somewhere physical or wait for Amazon to deliver it to your door, but does mean you get no physical copy, at least at first.  I can’t tell whether a pre-load and pre-order also entitles you to a shipped product.  You’ll also have to download, install and trust EA’s Download Manager, yet another piece of software to manage your stuff for you.

So yes, Spore has it’s faults, and I’m sure there will be game play issues like there are in all games where not everything is perfect for everyone – an impossible goal but I’m still looking forward to it.  I can even forgive the cartoony graphics if the game gives me an absorbing experience that I’ll look forward to playing again and again.  Here’s hoping.

EDIT: I broke down and got the pre-install and the creature creator.  Check out the few things I’ve cobbled together here.

Technorati Tags: ea, spore, games, video game, creature creator, securerom, downloads, pre-load, micro to macro, lets hope its as good as the build up

The remake, Bionic Commando: Rearmed (Rearmed! Get it?!), features the same story and gameplay as the the original, but enhanced with modern graphics and sound effects. Fans of the original will recognize levels and bosses throughout the game, as well as some nostalgia-heavy cutscenes. The remake is still a 2D scroller, and you still can’t jump (forcing you to rely on your bionic arm swinging abilities).

First, the positives. This game is absolutely beautiful. Everything from the stellar 3D characters with full ragdoll effects to the campy back and forth dialogue to the modernized 8-bit soundtrack are incredibly gratifying. It’s so much fun to combine the nostalgia of playing a side-scrolling shooter with the graphics of modern gaming machines. The visuals of this remake are at times better than those of modern original titles.

BCR also features split-screen multiplayer campaign as well as up to 4-player versus modes. The campaign can be a lot of fun, since the opponent AI alters itself to require teamwork. However the versus modes are only fun for a short while and quickly become repetitive and boring.

Where BCR suffers is in gameplay. The original Bionic Commando is known for being somewhat difficult to master, and I found the remake to hold true to that assessment as well. It took me a long time to master the swinging technique needed to traverse even the earliest levels, and many of the areas you encounter feature spiked floors or lava that will kill you almost immediately. After struggling to get through the first few levels, I went back and lowered the difficulty level to the easiest setting. This blocked off the traps on the floor and made enemies easier to defeat, thus refocusing gameplay on navigating using the bionic arm, which is where this game really shines.

For a remake, Bionic Commando: Rearmed is a stunning success. Original gameplay is left mostly untouched, with stellar graphics and soundtracks added and enhanced to really make this one of the best $10 video games out there. I definitely suggest this game for any fans of the original Bionic Commando, or for fans of retro gaming in general.

Technorati Tags: Bionic Commando, Bionic Commando: Rearmed, Grin, Capcom, XBox Live Arcade, Playstation Network, PC Games, Nintendo, NES, video games, video game reviews

If you’re willing to pay an additional $5.98 in shipping, all this an dmore can be yours.  Here’s the release from the big A itself.

Gamers have been asking for it and Amazon has answered the call. Amazon.com Inc. today announced that it will offer release-date delivery for “Tiger Woods PGA Tour 09,” “Star Wars: The Force Unleashed,” “Fable 2” and “Gears of War 2.” For $5.98, Amazon customers can upgrade their shipping option for guaranteed delivery of these titles on the first day of availability to all addresses within the continental United States. Additionally, Amazon Prime customers will receive release-date delivery for free.

“We are excited to delight Amazon customers by offering guaranteed release-date delivery of these new video game titles so that the games can arrive at their doors the first day they’re available,” said Greg Hart, vice president of video games and software at Amazon.com. “This means that thousands of gamers across the country can start playing the games they love on the day they’re released without having to stand in long lines or stay up all night to do it.”

Technorati Tags: video games, shipping, amazon.com, tiger woods, force unleashed, fable 2, gears of war 2

While I don’t have any details, generally Gold Box deals are pretty sweet so this will probably be worth looking into.  Here’s how they’re going to work it:

1. At 12:01 AM PST the first deal will be the Gold Box Deal of the Day. Its special discounted price will be available all day only on Wednesday, August 27 (or until we run out.)
2. Starting at 6:00 AM PST, the second deal will be featured as a Lightning Deal.
3. Each of the remaining deals will also be Lightning Deals that follow at 10:00 AM, 12:00 PM, 2:00 PM, 4:00 PM, and 6:00 PM PST.
4. Discounts on each deal will be available only while supplies last.

Don’t say I didn’t warn you!

Technorati Tags: deals, video games, ps3, gold box, amazon.com

Fantastic Contraption is a flash-based physics game in which the player is given a variety of tools to use in order to construct a device capable of moving a red ball into a goal.  Devices can be as simple as a single wheel pulling the ball, or as complex as a catapult used to hurl the ball over a barrier.

The levels get progressively more and more difficult, but they are never impossibly hard.  After you have completed a level, you can look at solutions that other players have used.  This often gave me ideas to use in later levels (Oh, I can string together a whole bunch of little sticks to make a chain…)

Fantastic Contraption consists of 20 levels that you can play for free.  For $10, you gain access to a level editor and player-created levels.

Technorati Tags: Flash games, Fantastic Contraption, games, video games, pc games, free games, physics games, game reviews

A while back I remember hearing rumors that BB was coming to a computer and/or console near you.  Now it looks like it’s a lot closer!  Check out this teaser trailer and the screenshots below.

You can hit up the official site here, where there’s a forum that’s becoming more and more active as the potential release date draws near.

Technorati Tags: bloodbowl, video game, gdw, elfs, orcs, football, bloody, booyah

Frotz is a Z-machine interpreter which is needed to run Zork and other Zork like games, made popular waaaay back in the day by this little company called Infocom.

It’s a free app from the store, which comes with a bunch of games pre-loaded, and the ability to natively browse the IFDB (Interactive Fiction DataBase) for new stuff to download and play.

Game play is a little slow thanks to the iPhone keyboard but it’s still pretty much the same experience as it was back in the 80s.

Technorati Tags: frotz, iphone, apps, app store, zork, infocom, ifdc