The gaming industry is alive and well, as those of us who eagerly away the next installment of our favorite games know. It’s thriving, prosperous, and quite the money-maker. Sure it has its issues—game publishers that fail to fully compensate their developers and plunge beloved game franchises to their doom, zealous parents who say we’re bringing up a violent generation, flaming trolls you have to put on ignore or mute to enjoy a game.
But, I love it as a whole. I’m sure I’m not the only one who dropped an extra $40 for the Starcraft II collector’s edition—money that I could have spent on a new pair of jeans or a used game (even if that would have unleashed the anti-piracy wrath of Jerry Holkins on me).
Like every form of entertainment, our pastime of choice has its quirks. Gamers and industry professionals alike take their stand on certain issues—a sign of a healthy industry if you ask me. But just how well is the video and computer game industry doing? As usual, I turned to the ESA to find out. Curious to see what I learned? Join me past the break for more.
Read the rest of this entry
Late To The Party is a series where we take a look at a game we’ve just completed, perhaps a bit late, that you probably completed ages ago. It’s a chance for those who have finished it to reflect and discuss. Be warned though: FULL SPOILERS are discussed in the full post.
In psyching myself up to play Metroid: Other M, I came to the realization that my entire youth was a sham. It was a misspent haze of Mario, badminton, Gushers, Saved By The Bell, and Home Alone-inspired maps of ingenious ways to foil would-be intruders. There are some who would say I accomplished much. I blazed trails through the woods as secret pathways for discreet neighborhood travel. I penned a Broadway caliber play on the ins and outs of catching a Leprechaun. I toiled day and night through bloody fingertips to construct the K’Nex Big Ball Factory. I invented snowcream, and later discovered that almost the entire world had stolen my idea.
But it was all for naught. I never played a Metroid game.
Read the rest of this entry
Why is it that I embrace the advent of Mac gaming, and smile when people tell me “I’m a Mac?” The answer is simple. I’m not a slave.
Throughout my life I’ve been a die-hard PC user. My father introduced computers to our home when floppy-boot IBMs set you back $3,000 — Treasure Mountain!, Captain Comic, and Hero’s Quest were staples of my childhood. Since college, I’ve even been a PC evangelist, suggesting to friends and family that PCs offer great value compared to alternatives. Naturally, I’ve been tied intimately to the PC “ecosystem” as an avid PC gamer. I’ve custom built my last three PCs from individual components after feverish research. I’ve used Macs in the past, I’ve briefly owned an iPod, and in recent years I tend to avoid Apple products like the plague. I long ago abandoned iTunes for Winamp and Zune. Xbox 360 tends to be the preferred console of my free time. I loved Windows Vista. To any outsider I would appear to be the biggest Microsoft fanboy that ever lived (except, of course, for this guy). So why is it that I embrace the advent of Mac gaming, and smile when people tell me “I’m a Mac?” The answer is simple.
I’m not a slave.
Read the rest of this entry
Indie Quest is a column from a man on a mission. That mission? To locate, explore, and reveal the hidden gems of the gaming world: Independent games. Games without “suits.” Games with swelling hearts and fists full of swagger. Games evolving and innovating faster than you can say “Triple-A.” Join us as he descends into the gaming underground with nothing more than a notepad and his wits.
I can’t beat it.
213 deaths, now, and I still can’t beat it. You know how some people blaze through a game once and never play it again? That’s me. Guilty. With so many wonderful indie games to cover, I don’t have much time for sticking around for a second play-through.
Spelunky, accordingly, is not my kind of game. You die often. You die easily. You die so many times that the big, stupid death count ceases being a number, eventually, and transforms into a grim reminder of one simple fact: you suck at this. I like to picture my two-hundred corpses stacked high to the sky in an angry middle-finger of death from developer Derek Yu.
But I’m still playing. Here’s why: Spelunky is awesome.
Read the rest of this entry
To say I’m a big MMO fan would be a fair assumption and the Guild Wars 2 “Manifesto” trailer released earlier this month got me as excited as a teenage girl queuing up to see the latest Eclipse movie (make sure you check out the GW2 trailer here). Info for Guild Wars 2 has been trickling out in recent months, teasing me at an increasing rate. Among the juicy bits are details about Guild Wars 2’s player professions (conventionally referred to as “classes” in other MMOs). Like any MMO, Guild Wars 2 will boast a wide selection of professions, and ArenaNet recently dropped full details on the fourth playable profession: the Necromancer.
Being the dedicated MMO player-come-blogger I am, I thought it would be nice to give our readers a round up on the professions announced thus far. Hit up the break and take a peek at what to expect from the upcoming Guild Wars 2.
Read the rest of this entry
Welcome to Nintendo Downlibs, where we take one prize entry from each week’s Nintendo Download offering and give YOU the power to make it into something magical. Just copy and paste the included game description into the comments section, replacing everything in red with your own word substitutions. The best entry each week wins 100 Gm3r Points!* Click here to see this week’s full Nintendo Download releases.
First off, congratulations to last week’s Nintendo Downlibs champion, Zoe! You can see her winning tomfoolery here. Zoe, don’t spend your 100 Gm3r points all in one place, but if you must, GameStop is offering a 20% trade in bonus.
myNotebook: Pearl
Publisher: Nnooo
Players: 1
Price: 500 Nintendo DSi Points
Description: myNotebook allows you to take (plural noun) wherever you (verb). Just (verb) open your Nintendo DSi system and (verb) down your (plural noun). Make a (noun) and cross it off, or play your favorite (writing apparatus)-and-(writing surface) games (games not (verb – past tense)). You can even personalize your notebook by (verb ending in ing) on the cover and changing the (noun) type with 24 different (adjective) paper (plural noun). Use the pen or pencil to (activity better served by paper) and then erase the (plural noun) you don’t (verb to describe how you feel about a potential mate). With (laughably small number) ink colors, you’ll (adverb) be able to make your notes and doodles look (adjective used during Fashion Week). myNotebook also includes 128 pages to write on and the (noun that is a positive character trait) to (verb) your (plural noun) to your (handheld console) Photo Album.
*While Gm3r points may hold no value on Earth, they are considered legal tender on Zebes.
Okay, I don’t think I’m the only one who has dreams of going to the next Evolution Championship Series and taking down Daigo or Justin Wong to claim the number one title as my own. Fighting games have been compared to fast paced chess games with the amount of strategy required to become victorious. Ever since the golden days of arcade fighting, where Alex Valle and Mike Ross ruled the Street Fighter II scene with their impeccable skills, people have been developing new strategies to improve their game.
I’ve been playing fighting games or, to be more specific , Street Fighter games since the age of 3, where I had to stand on an overturned milk crate to reach the controls of the SF2 arcade cabinet at a local video rental store. More recently, however, interest in the genre has been revitalized with the release of Capcom’s Street Fighter 4 and Tatsunoko vs. Capcom.
Check after the break for some tips on how to improve your game.
Read the rest of this entry
Late To The Party is a series where we take a look at a game we’ve just completed, perhaps a bit late, that you probably completed ages ago. It’s a chance for those who have finished it to reflect and discuss. Be warned though: FULL SPOILERS are discussed in the full post.
Red Dead Redemption is a game that frightened me before I ever bought it. I’m not a person that typically has a lot of time on his hands, and I had just come off the unfathomably long Final Fantasy XIII. I was not ready for a lengthy game. I needed a Darksiders or an Alan Wake to cleanse my palette. But those games would have to wait.
Gamestop, in a bid to destroy all of my meaningful relationships, had a frantic one-hour online sale of Red Dead Redemption for something like twenty-five dollars. How could I not bite? (How about the servers crashing immediately?) I managed to score my copy and almost forgot about it until it arrived in the mail.
You see, I am not a huge fan of the Grand Theft Auto games. I played about half of Vice City and even less of San Andreas, and found that I just got bored too easily. I understand this is a strange reaction to have, given that many people find them overwhelming with all the stuff that can be done. I was afraid that Red Dead would be essentially the same experience. Fortunately my premature doubts were trampled almost immediately. Read on to find out why.
Read the rest of this entry
Indie Quest is a column from a man on a mission. That mission? To locate, explore, and reveal the hidden gems of the gaming world: Independent games. Games without “suits.” Games with swelling hearts and fists full of swagger. Games evolving and innovating faster than you can say “Triple-A.” Join us as he descends into the gaming underground with nothing more than a notepad and his wits.
Nit. Nit. That’s how you say it.
Word on the street says it translates to “tiny creature” in Swedish, which might just make it the most perfect name for a game that I’ve ever seen. This is a small game. It’s a small platformer, to be precise, about a small creature running and jumping through a strange alien world.
I downloaded it on a whim, thinking that tiny little creature on the screen looked just a tiny bit cute. Look how it runs! But when I played it again recently and had a good deep think afterwards, I realized something remarkable: for such a small game, it’s had a huge impact on my perception of indie games ever since.
Hit the jump to find out why Knytt might just be one of my favorite games of all time.
Read the rest of this entry
For online gamers, net neutrality—the principle that keeps internet service providers (ISPs) and carriers from filtering our online access based on content—is an integral concept when it comes to enjoying the games we love.
Would these provisions make it possible for ISPs to force online gaming services to a more expensive, private network because they take up too much bandwidth on the regular internet?
As you may have heard, earlier this month Google and Verizon proposed a policy to the FCC to enforce net neutrality and maintain an open internet, which would protect consumers like us from falling prey to ISPs seeking to charge customers for more bandwidth usage.
While this may seem like a step toward net neutrality in the U.S., a closer look at the policy reveals some troubling suggestions causing consumers and the FCC alike to take pause.
You know the drill. To learn more about this proposal and what it could mean for us, start clicking.
Read the rest of this entry
