by Ping33
These posts started as a project on the Comic Geek Speak forum. A bunch of people said they were going to read an issue of Grant Morrison's The Invisibles each week and discuss it. By issue 4 I found myself alone. As I write this: I am up through issue 10 and am really enjoying the project even while I feel like I'm missing the discussion I was so looking forward to. I suggested lifting my posts from the forum and posting them here to Geoff and he was kind enough to like the idea (with his love and scholarship of Morrison, I thought this might be something he was interested in. Due the informal nature of some of the earlier posts (especially up through issue 5 when I realized I was kind of alone.) I'm going to edit them a bit, combining multiple posts and bridging some ideas and formalizing the format a bit. From issue 11, I will be writing my new entries with the blog in mind. Not sure if I'll keep posting on the forum or not... I think it kind of depends on feedback from Geoff and anyone else who wants to read it in either place.
Now onto the good stuff:
Invisibles #1: Dead Beatles.
I have this whole series in the original issues. I was 16 when #1 came out, and I got it because I was reading more than half the Vertigo line and I still remember the silhouette of King Mob's mask from the promo material, which was mysterious and intriguing. In issue 1 we're introduced to Dane and King Mob. Dane is a troubled Liverpool teenager, King Mob is a globe trotting super-spy, looking for a new recurute. King Mob spends most of the issue talking to old friends. In the middle of the issue both characters have mystical expirences involving The Beatles, Dane sees John Lennon talking to Stuart Sutcliffe through a wrinkle in time, King Mob contacts Lennon's god head though a drug trip. Dane lights his school on fire, gets thrown in a reform school which steals souls and makes slaves of troubled teenagers and is broken out by King mob.
Upon looking at it now: The circular nature of the whole series evident in this one issue was the first thing which struck me. Actually, maybe the second, after the Natural Born Killers advert on the back cover which makes me think about just how much this book was a product of its times. Along with the title, we get an actual Dead Beetle at the beginning and at the end,
(Dead Beatle:) Stuart Sutcliffe's mention of his girlfriend Astrid followed in the story by the appearance of a Vauxhall Astra with a license plate which (if you ignore the J) is a visual palindrome: 215 pvq. We get Dane saying "It's sort of like I've seen it before, but I haven't" to the King Mob graffiti. Then there's the stuff we don't know yet: Mr. Six, Edith, (Mario reminds me that: 'The guards who get shot at Harmony House come back on their own story later on.') On top of all of this comes with a level of irony which I'm not sure is intentional in that you have an overall story about chaos which is so neatly ordered. King Mob may blow up Harmony House, but is there a greater harmony than the series as a whole, when taken from 10,000 feet? And So we Return and Begin Again... and so we do indeed.
One of the joys of having the single issues, is having the letter column: Invisible Ink. In this issue there are obviously no letters; instead what you get is a one-page note from Morrison. He begins:
"Destroy this Comic! That's my advice. When you've finished reading The Invisibles #1, tear it up, burn it, feed it to your lizards, lock it in the trunk of a stolen car and push it off a bridge. You'll feel good, believe me. It's only a comic after all. Do you really need more of these things cluttering up your life? Do you really need to be chained to a mountainous dead weight of paper? There'll be another one next month anyway, and chances are your memories of this comic will be much better than the real thing."
Well, I just switched to trades, mostly because they are far more manageable than the mountain of clutter which, in my case really is a mountain of clutter with nothing resembling order, care or organization... for the most part. I used to be better, at this collecting thing, I used to bag and board and alphabetize I'm glad I was still doing it throughout the Invisibles... because issue #1 was much better than I remembered. Far more magical than any story in the series was the fact that when I looked for my issues I found the complete run sitting all in order exactly in the first spot I looked. Truly, this was synchronicity, BARBELiTH at work!
Showing posts with label Ping33. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ping33. Show all posts
Monday, February 02, 2009
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
What I've been Playing
by Ping33
[A note from Geoff: I have been playing Star Wars Clone Wars Light Saber Duels and World of Goo for the Wii, but I do not have much to say about them, other than they are both pretty fun.]
Before I talk about what I've been playing, I want to start with what other people have been playing. There was a great story on the gaming blog Kotaku last week about a report from consumer research firm: NetworkedInsights wherein NI compared game sales in October (as determined by the data group NPD) to "Gamer Interactions" (as determined by message board posts, socal networking sites and user generated content sites like YouTube)
The data is most interesting as it shows some real discrepancies between what people are buying and what people are playing.
Four of the games on the "interaction" list represented games which were not in the top 10 in sales, and one (Little Big Planet, which I gushed about earlier) did far better on the Interaction list than it did in sales.
The value of NPD data has been much debated for some time, it only surveys Game Specialist outlets and doesn't include shops like Toys R' Us. Amazon.com and Wal-Mart. As such it skews to the elitist/hard-core market in much the same way as the New York Times Best seller list fails to include Romance Novels and other such "low-brow" "mass-market" books [and Watchmen, by the way] which invariably aren't included because they are primarily sold in Supermarkets and convenience shops. Similarly though, the 'interaction' aspect of NI's survey also skews to the 'hardcore' as it is by it's nature looking at a vocal minority of dedicated, connected people who take their interaction with games beyond the console and actively participate in Internet discussions about their hobby.
So, let's forget that the top 10 purchased list isn't real and that Littlest Pet Shop probably sold 10x more copies than Dead Space, and discuss what we have in front of us.
People LOVE Rock Band and Guitar Hero. I personally don't need my living room cluttered with gigantic plastic instruments but those that do sure seem to get a lot of use out of them. I think Wii Play is an interesting inclusion on the Interaction list as the game is essentially an extra Wii controller with a $5 game thrown in. With that and one other exception (Dead Space), the rest of the Inclusion list contains games with a huge depth of content. Fable II, Fallout 3, Far Cry 2, GTA 4 and Saint's Row 2 are all 'open world' games which can be played for 100s of hours while still providing new experiences. This divergence of sales to interaction and the seemingly high correlation between interaction and depth of content makes me wonder if making higher quality, deeper games isn't shooting the industry in the foot by providing so much quality content that it slows down purchases. I cancelled 2 games I had pre-ordered this fall due to the fact that I didn't think I would have time to play them. I still haven't had time to go back to Fallout 3 because LittleBigPlanet keeps me coming back with the promise of newer and ever more competent user created levels (the new 1.7 update makes it super easy to find the most popular user created levels and I spent several hours yesterday discovering new delights.) Widening out to PC gaming where the World of Warcraft juggernaut seems to be obliterating all comers due to its massive popularity and demands on the player's time we begin to see the future of the Hardcore gaming market. A subscription model where ongoing service charges or regular updates/add-ons subsidize the fact that a single purchase of Grand Theft Auto or World of Warcraft might provide so much entertainment that the consumer won't feel compelled to purchase Midnight Club or Call of Duity when they come out because they are still enjoying the earlier product. On the console side, added downloadable content also provides the benefit of causing gamers not to trade-in completed games as more content is just a few months and $10 away. This in turn keeps new consumers from buying used games and keeps profit rolling into the publishers rather than being sucked up by the retailer.
Of the 5 'deep content interactive' titles I mentioned above: 3 of them (Fable, Fallout and GTA) all have announced massive downloadable add-ins due in the 1st quarter of next year. The Lost and the Damned expansion for GTAIV will likely dwarf all proper game releases in the Month of February, and it too won't show up in the NPD numbers.
All of this relates to what I've been playing as that list primarily consists of LittleBigPlanet which has so much amaizing user generated content I even got sucked into their website viewing movies of all the cool levels I haven't played yet for 20 minutes while trying to write this blog entry.
Check out one of many Batman Levels, a superior Mario inspired one: or the fairy tale inspired Sack and the Beanstalk: simply amazing, and these three are some of the more straight-forward levels out there, as other span the gamut from artistic to inspired to just plain odd.
I'm also playing Chrono Trigger on Nintendo DS. A remake/reissue of a 13 year-old SNES RPG. Which holds up wonderfully, though does waste the touch-screen capability by providing lousy controls rather than using the more ingenious Map-making/note-taking functionality invented by The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass.
And WipEout HD which modernizes and revitalizes a 10-year old franchise with assets repurposed from the PSP WipEout games which are 4 and 2 years old respectively.
I don't mean to indicate that this lengthening shelf-life is a new phenomonon. Chrono Trigger was revolutionary when it was released by being having multiple endings which took a 20-25hr game into the 100s of hours with excessive replayability. In the last 2 generations we've seen the standard slip from 20-25hrs to 12-15 and then again to 8-12. This made sense with the aging demographic of gamers with more disposable income and fewer hours to play factored into the increased budgetary requirements of each successive generation. Now, with the current economic problems I wonder if the value/money ratio will be pushed in the other direction. 80 hours of GTA for $60 and then another $20 for 20 more hours 11 months later is roughly 10x more entertainment for the dollar than a single movie ticket, and just under 20x the value of a $3.99 Marvel comic which takes 10-minutes to read.
[A note from Geoff: I have been playing Star Wars Clone Wars Light Saber Duels and World of Goo for the Wii, but I do not have much to say about them, other than they are both pretty fun.]
Before I talk about what I've been playing, I want to start with what other people have been playing. There was a great story on the gaming blog Kotaku last week about a report from consumer research firm: NetworkedInsights wherein NI compared game sales in October (as determined by the data group NPD) to "Gamer Interactions" (as determined by message board posts, socal networking sites and user generated content sites like YouTube)
The data is most interesting as it shows some real discrepancies between what people are buying and what people are playing.
Four of the games on the "interaction" list represented games which were not in the top 10 in sales, and one (Little Big Planet, which I gushed about earlier) did far better on the Interaction list than it did in sales.
The value of NPD data has been much debated for some time, it only surveys Game Specialist outlets and doesn't include shops like Toys R' Us. Amazon.com and Wal-Mart. As such it skews to the elitist/hard-core market in much the same way as the New York Times Best seller list fails to include Romance Novels and other such "low-brow" "mass-market" books [and Watchmen, by the way] which invariably aren't included because they are primarily sold in Supermarkets and convenience shops. Similarly though, the 'interaction' aspect of NI's survey also skews to the 'hardcore' as it is by it's nature looking at a vocal minority of dedicated, connected people who take their interaction with games beyond the console and actively participate in Internet discussions about their hobby.
So, let's forget that the top 10 purchased list isn't real and that Littlest Pet Shop probably sold 10x more copies than Dead Space, and discuss what we have in front of us.
People LOVE Rock Band and Guitar Hero. I personally don't need my living room cluttered with gigantic plastic instruments but those that do sure seem to get a lot of use out of them. I think Wii Play is an interesting inclusion on the Interaction list as the game is essentially an extra Wii controller with a $5 game thrown in. With that and one other exception (Dead Space), the rest of the Inclusion list contains games with a huge depth of content. Fable II, Fallout 3, Far Cry 2, GTA 4 and Saint's Row 2 are all 'open world' games which can be played for 100s of hours while still providing new experiences. This divergence of sales to interaction and the seemingly high correlation between interaction and depth of content makes me wonder if making higher quality, deeper games isn't shooting the industry in the foot by providing so much quality content that it slows down purchases. I cancelled 2 games I had pre-ordered this fall due to the fact that I didn't think I would have time to play them. I still haven't had time to go back to Fallout 3 because LittleBigPlanet keeps me coming back with the promise of newer and ever more competent user created levels (the new 1.7 update makes it super easy to find the most popular user created levels and I spent several hours yesterday discovering new delights.) Widening out to PC gaming where the World of Warcraft juggernaut seems to be obliterating all comers due to its massive popularity and demands on the player's time we begin to see the future of the Hardcore gaming market. A subscription model where ongoing service charges or regular updates/add-ons subsidize the fact that a single purchase of Grand Theft Auto or World of Warcraft might provide so much entertainment that the consumer won't feel compelled to purchase Midnight Club or Call of Duity when they come out because they are still enjoying the earlier product. On the console side, added downloadable content also provides the benefit of causing gamers not to trade-in completed games as more content is just a few months and $10 away. This in turn keeps new consumers from buying used games and keeps profit rolling into the publishers rather than being sucked up by the retailer.
Of the 5 'deep content interactive' titles I mentioned above: 3 of them (Fable, Fallout and GTA) all have announced massive downloadable add-ins due in the 1st quarter of next year. The Lost and the Damned expansion for GTAIV will likely dwarf all proper game releases in the Month of February, and it too won't show up in the NPD numbers.
All of this relates to what I've been playing as that list primarily consists of LittleBigPlanet which has so much amaizing user generated content I even got sucked into their website viewing movies of all the cool levels I haven't played yet for 20 minutes while trying to write this blog entry.
Check out one of many Batman Levels, a superior Mario inspired one: or the fairy tale inspired Sack and the Beanstalk: simply amazing, and these three are some of the more straight-forward levels out there, as other span the gamut from artistic to inspired to just plain odd.
I'm also playing Chrono Trigger on Nintendo DS. A remake/reissue of a 13 year-old SNES RPG. Which holds up wonderfully, though does waste the touch-screen capability by providing lousy controls rather than using the more ingenious Map-making/note-taking functionality invented by The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass.
And WipEout HD which modernizes and revitalizes a 10-year old franchise with assets repurposed from the PSP WipEout games which are 4 and 2 years old respectively.
I don't mean to indicate that this lengthening shelf-life is a new phenomonon. Chrono Trigger was revolutionary when it was released by being having multiple endings which took a 20-25hr game into the 100s of hours with excessive replayability. In the last 2 generations we've seen the standard slip from 20-25hrs to 12-15 and then again to 8-12. This made sense with the aging demographic of gamers with more disposable income and fewer hours to play factored into the increased budgetary requirements of each successive generation. Now, with the current economic problems I wonder if the value/money ratio will be pushed in the other direction. 80 hours of GTA for $60 and then another $20 for 20 more hours 11 months later is roughly 10x more entertainment for the dollar than a single movie ticket, and just under 20x the value of a $3.99 Marvel comic which takes 10-minutes to read.
Thursday, December 04, 2008
What I've Been Playing
by Ping33
Hello all,
I'm back sooner than I expected... more than a year ago I posted my 'top 10 games of all time'
Every year there seems to be a debate as to if the current year is the best one in gaming history, this makes sense as technology is constantly improving. In films, it's not often true that the sequel is better than the original, there are exceptions (Star Wars, maybe The Godfather...) but these are vastly outweighed by those which aren't (Indiana Jones, Matrix, Lord of the Rings, every horror movie ever... Weekend at Bernies) In games this ratio seems to be reversed, I can think of few games where part 2 isn't better than part 1 (Big ones being Devil May Cry and Halo.)
I acknowledged this in my list where I had the 10th spot as 'reserved for the now'
I think it's interesting how much my list can change in 15 short months so I would like to take this chance to update with annotations about the additions and subtractions.
Legend of Zelda: The Phantom Hourglass (Nintendo DS) - (replacing Zelda: Wind Waker) Phantom Hourglass is the direct sequel to WW which is quite rare in the Zelda series, as virtually all of them tend to recreate the story rather than update it. PH is also the most different Zelda game since Zelda II. I loved Wind Waker because I thought it's graphics held up better than the aging Zelda Ocarina of Time and because it was just plain fun. PH updates the formula via the sole reliance on touch-screen controls. That plus the ability to take notes and make marks on the map are genius applications of Nintendo's technology and fit in perfectly with the Zelda series (far more perfectly than the clumsily implemented waggle controls of Zelda: Twilight Princess for Wii)
Joust (just about every videogame system since 1981) - (Returning Champ) I loved and still love the feeling of weight you get while flying, this was the first game which caused me to use Body English to vainly keep my Jouster out of the morgue.
Jet Set Radio Future (Xbox) - (Returning Champ) Man, I love this game. I also just got a used copy of the Gameboy Advance remake of Jet Grind Radio, the Dreamcast original the name was changed from 'Jet Set' to 'Jet Grind' in the west because Rare had a game called Jet Set Gemini for the n64 and threatened to sue Sega if they didn't change it, I guess that wasn't an issue by the time JSRF came out for Xbox, not sure why they didn't revert to 'Set' with the GBA game. In anycase, I'm not a fan of the isometric controls on the GBA version but the music and aesthetics are still strong. As for JSRF, it is perfection... the speed, music, everything. JSRF is a under-appreciated masterwork which never garnered the audience it deserved. Cross genera games have a tendency to do poorly commercially and this Platforming/Skating mash-up is no exception. But it is playable on Xbox 360 if your 360 has had a system update since April 19th 2007 stop reading this and go to ebay and drop $10 on this immediately!
Bioshock (PC,PS3,360) - (Replacing Halo) For my money Bioshock is the best single player FPS. Wonderful design (Underwater Art Deco.) Superbly written with great themes (what other game is a meditation on Objectivism?!) On my list Bioshock replaces the juggernaut called Halo. A wonderful game which has dimmed in my mind as each sequel gets worse and my memories of LAN matches fade into the haze that was 1999.
Starcraft (PC) - (returning champ) still my favourite RTS game though Age of Empires III comes close. I will even spend money to upgrade my PC to play Starcraft II when it comes out.
Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions (PSP) - (replaces Nights: Into Dreams, the memory of which was killed when the awful Wii sequel came out) Shortly after making my list last year I discovered FFT. I got halfway through the PS1 version on my (hacked) PSP before my Hong Kong Knock-off Memory card died. Then I got the PSP Remake which outshines the original in several ways. I played Final Fantasy Tactics in some form or another from September 2007-March 2008, I then got the DS sequel FFT:A2 in June and played THAT for several months. I LOVE these games... LOVE them.
Portal (PC,PS3,360) - (Replacing Super Metroid) The best written game in recent memory is a puzzle game?! strange but true. Portal is so good it got my wife to play a FPS to completion. There is a reason that so much of its content went on to become Internet memes. Portal will be long remembered as a cultural milestone beloved by all. And Then There Will Be Cake!
Every Extend Extra (PSP) or Every Extend Extra Extreme (360) - (Returning Champ) I wrote a rapturous ode to the PSP version of this on my own aborted blog and that still holds up. I think e3 is better than e4 but both try to do different things. e3 recreates Asteroids with shortish bursts of play while e4 is a tantric epic which can take hours.
Burnout Paradise (PS3, 360) - (Replacing WipEout, though the new WipEout HD for ps3 is also spectacular) The flat out best racing game, with the best online features, and prettiest graphics EVER. Just an amazing, stunning achievement and best of all... Criterion keeps on supporting it with new content!
#10 Reserved for the NOW (Little Big Planet, Fallout, and the new GTA IV Content in Feb!)
What have we learned from this?
More than half the entries have changed in a little over a year, only Burnout and Phantom Hourglass are purely technical achievements. Bioshock's wonderful graphics and design help it but it and Portal are both new entries which made the list in large part because of writing (an element which didn't factor on the old list.) Now that graphics and tech resources aren't as limited I think games are freed to explore more areas than just having the most realistic images and best sound. Portal and Bioshock can push narrative. Little Big Planet can push design and user involvement. Fallout, Oblivion and Grand Theft Auto can push immersion. I look forward to writing this list next year and wonder how it will have changed.
Hello all,
I'm back sooner than I expected... more than a year ago I posted my 'top 10 games of all time'
Every year there seems to be a debate as to if the current year is the best one in gaming history, this makes sense as technology is constantly improving. In films, it's not often true that the sequel is better than the original, there are exceptions (Star Wars, maybe The Godfather...) but these are vastly outweighed by those which aren't (Indiana Jones, Matrix, Lord of the Rings, every horror movie ever... Weekend at Bernies) In games this ratio seems to be reversed, I can think of few games where part 2 isn't better than part 1 (Big ones being Devil May Cry and Halo.)
I acknowledged this in my list where I had the 10th spot as 'reserved for the now'
I think it's interesting how much my list can change in 15 short months so I would like to take this chance to update with annotations about the additions and subtractions.
Legend of Zelda: The Phantom Hourglass (Nintendo DS) - (replacing Zelda: Wind Waker) Phantom Hourglass is the direct sequel to WW which is quite rare in the Zelda series, as virtually all of them tend to recreate the story rather than update it. PH is also the most different Zelda game since Zelda II. I loved Wind Waker because I thought it's graphics held up better than the aging Zelda Ocarina of Time and because it was just plain fun. PH updates the formula via the sole reliance on touch-screen controls. That plus the ability to take notes and make marks on the map are genius applications of Nintendo's technology and fit in perfectly with the Zelda series (far more perfectly than the clumsily implemented waggle controls of Zelda: Twilight Princess for Wii)
Joust (just about every videogame system since 1981) - (Returning Champ) I loved and still love the feeling of weight you get while flying, this was the first game which caused me to use Body English to vainly keep my Jouster out of the morgue.
Jet Set Radio Future (Xbox) - (Returning Champ) Man, I love this game. I also just got a used copy of the Gameboy Advance remake of Jet Grind Radio, the Dreamcast original the name was changed from 'Jet Set' to 'Jet Grind' in the west because Rare had a game called Jet Set Gemini for the n64 and threatened to sue Sega if they didn't change it, I guess that wasn't an issue by the time JSRF came out for Xbox, not sure why they didn't revert to 'Set' with the GBA game. In anycase, I'm not a fan of the isometric controls on the GBA version but the music and aesthetics are still strong. As for JSRF, it is perfection... the speed, music, everything. JSRF is a under-appreciated masterwork which never garnered the audience it deserved. Cross genera games have a tendency to do poorly commercially and this Platforming/Skating mash-up is no exception. But it is playable on Xbox 360 if your 360 has had a system update since April 19th 2007 stop reading this and go to ebay and drop $10 on this immediately!
Bioshock (PC,PS3,360) - (Replacing Halo) For my money Bioshock is the best single player FPS. Wonderful design (Underwater Art Deco.) Superbly written with great themes (what other game is a meditation on Objectivism?!) On my list Bioshock replaces the juggernaut called Halo. A wonderful game which has dimmed in my mind as each sequel gets worse and my memories of LAN matches fade into the haze that was 1999.
Starcraft (PC) - (returning champ) still my favourite RTS game though Age of Empires III comes close. I will even spend money to upgrade my PC to play Starcraft II when it comes out.
Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions (PSP) - (replaces Nights: Into Dreams, the memory of which was killed when the awful Wii sequel came out) Shortly after making my list last year I discovered FFT. I got halfway through the PS1 version on my (hacked) PSP before my Hong Kong Knock-off Memory card died. Then I got the PSP Remake which outshines the original in several ways. I played Final Fantasy Tactics in some form or another from September 2007-March 2008, I then got the DS sequel FFT:A2 in June and played THAT for several months. I LOVE these games... LOVE them.
Portal (PC,PS3,360) - (Replacing Super Metroid) The best written game in recent memory is a puzzle game?! strange but true. Portal is so good it got my wife to play a FPS to completion. There is a reason that so much of its content went on to become Internet memes. Portal will be long remembered as a cultural milestone beloved by all. And Then There Will Be Cake!
Every Extend Extra (PSP) or Every Extend Extra Extreme (360) - (Returning Champ) I wrote a rapturous ode to the PSP version of this on my own aborted blog and that still holds up. I think e3 is better than e4 but both try to do different things. e3 recreates Asteroids with shortish bursts of play while e4 is a tantric epic which can take hours.
Burnout Paradise (PS3, 360) - (Replacing WipEout, though the new WipEout HD for ps3 is also spectacular) The flat out best racing game, with the best online features, and prettiest graphics EVER. Just an amazing, stunning achievement and best of all... Criterion keeps on supporting it with new content!
#10 Reserved for the NOW (Little Big Planet, Fallout, and the new GTA IV Content in Feb!)
What have we learned from this?
More than half the entries have changed in a little over a year, only Burnout and Phantom Hourglass are purely technical achievements. Bioshock's wonderful graphics and design help it but it and Portal are both new entries which made the list in large part because of writing (an element which didn't factor on the old list.) Now that graphics and tech resources aren't as limited I think games are freed to explore more areas than just having the most realistic images and best sound. Portal and Bioshock can push narrative. Little Big Planet can push design and user involvement. Fallout, Oblivion and Grand Theft Auto can push immersion. I look forward to writing this list next year and wonder how it will have changed.
Monday, November 24, 2008
What I've been Playing
by Ping33
[Ping 33 will be joining us every few weeks to review video games, which is something I have wanted here for a while. Ping33 is a smart guy -- he knew Studio 60 was bad and All Star Batman was good long before I did, and he recommended Casanova to me.]
I've been thinking about doing this for a while now. I've been a gamer my whole life... I remember back in Kindergarten trading my Red Sox jacket (which no longer fit) to my friend Jessica for her copy of Dig Dug and Joust for the Atari 2600. I've owned a system in every generation. Being a confirmed Sega fundamentalist from 1986-1996 (with a brief co-habitation within the temple of Atari Jaguar, what can I say? I like losers) and have owned every console in the last 2 generations.
As I've gotten older, I've had less and less time for the hobby (Why am I taking time out to write this again?) but had more and more disposable income. As such I find myself here. Far too many games, far too little time. Because of this, my attention span has grown shorter. Back when I was 12, I could play a bad game to completion, I could learn the mind-numbing trial-and-error procedure needed to conquer Night-Trap for Sega CD. I could beat Alex Kidd 10 times, me and my College friends invented elaborate Goldeneye etiquette. Hell, two friends of mine even picked their first flat out of College on the basis that it had 2 floors so that we could run a 75' Cross-over Cat-5 cable for 4on4 Halo matches without the ability to look at the other guy's screen.
These days, if a game doesn't engross me in the first hour, it's out... possibly never to return. I don't like to lose, and so don't play online competitive shooters with 12-year-olds or my deadbeat college friends with little to do other than move up the ranks of Halo3 or CoD4. What I've been playing, and what I keep playing is dear to me. I envision this column as a bi-weekly check-in, a Top-of-the-Pops of my own personal gaming habits. I will always have material because, if nothing else, my 45minute train-ride gives me ample DS/PSP time. So now, with no further adieu, What I've been Playing:
PS3: Little Big Planet - For those unaware, LBP is perhaps the biggest paradigm shift to come along in gaming in quite some time. At its face, it's a derivative Mario-style platform game. It has you doing the normal stuff... running left to right, Jumping over stuff and dodging other stuff. With its mascot (the adorable Sackboy/Sackgirl) and old-skool mechanics it would hardly seem revolutionary if not for it's Internet2.0 ethos. In addition to the 50-odd levels 'shipping' with the game, it also contains the ability to create your own levels and upload them to the Youtube style Cool-Worlds planet. There you can jump around by creator or theme or randomly and just look for cool-ass-shit. Some creators attempt to recreate classic platforming levels (I highly recommend the Green Hill Zone 3 level from Sonic the Hedgehog) Some use the tools to make music (There is a KILLER version of Guns 'n Roses' Sweet Child of Mine, which plays automatically as you drive a car through the timed sensors) Some are... art? (There's a cool one in which you drive a Delorean from left to right as the wall shows your speed. When you hit 88mph lightning strikes and your tires seem to leave flames in their wake) and some are just mind-bogglingly amazing/creative/strange (a giant pinball game with Sackboy as the pinball, a totally faithful re-creation of the side-scrolling shooter Gradius, a giant clockwork calculator which can add and subtract 2-digit numbers through the use of around 16,000 moving parts.) All the user-created levels (there are about 100k of them at the moment) are nearly instantly accessible and can be played alone or over the internet with a friend (or random player.) LBP is the perfect game for my lifestyle. Rich enough to play for hours, but still accessible in short 10-20 minute bursts. It's really rare that a game is so innovative, fun and charming. If there were more hours in a day I might even try my hand at creating something... as is, I'm content to leech of the work of others.
Xbox360: Fallout 3 is in the system but, sadly I've not been playing it much. It's a massive spiralling post-apocalyptic RPG which I am about 6-8 hours into, but has scores of hours of content remaining and demands to be played in sessions extending at least an hour or two... something I haven't had time for in a few weeks. What I have played, I have loved... but when I sit down at home, and have the time to play a game I look at the PS3 controller with LBP at the end of it, and the 360 one with Fallout at the end of it... and invariably pick up the PS3. Fallout and LBP were my two most anticipated games of the year and while it's somewhat depressing that they came out within a week of one-another... I'm happy that the depth of both should keep me happy into the new year.
Wii: Nothing. I haven't turned it on in so long, it's gone from sleep to off.
PSP: Playing 2 things actually. Star Ocean: First Departure - a Remake of a SNES RPG which was never released in the west. I like the combat system. But hate some of the old-skool conventions, primarily not having a screen which reminds me what I'm doing, or having a map with place names (not to mention the ability to instantly travel to previously visited locations.) When I play on the train I really like games like this though, somewhat mindless grind-fests which allow me to listen to podcasts and not have to think that much. This is good for that, as the story is thinner than paper (Star-Trek rip-off involving time travel and basically moving from one location to the next.) The battles take place on a isometric 2d plane (think Final Fight or Double Dragon) and are action oriented with RPG stats below. You directly control one of your party of 4-players, the other three are have tactical options (heal, fight, protect etc) but run automatically. You can swap which character you control on the fly, but I have found little reason to do so.
The Second game I'm playing is Loco Roco 2 (check out the Flash mini-game HERE (click on minigame:) The sequel to the innovative 2d platformer which sees you as a Loco Roco, a cartoon blob who moves by rolling around as the world tilts to the left or right. Like the first one, it has a great visual style and a soundtrack which you will either love or hate. The game is relentlessly cheerful and saccharine sweet. It has come under fire for its possibly racist designed enemies. But in the end, these criticisms seem to have fizzled in the face of the game's overall charm and good nature.
DS: My wife abducted my DS, first to play the logical puzzler: Professor Layton and the Curious Village, a game which features classic brain-twisters like getting a Bird, Cat and dog over to an island picnic in a small 3-creature row-boat. Then to play Hotel Dusk, a new take on the old Point-and-Click gamestyle made famous in the early days of Lucasarts. I haven't played this one at all... she completed it the other night saying that I wouldn't like it. Too much random trial and error. She enjoyed playing it before bed as it put her to sleep... a ringing endorsement indeed.
That's all for now, I should be back in 2-3 weeks with a pre-Christmas update.
[Ping 33 will be joining us every few weeks to review video games, which is something I have wanted here for a while. Ping33 is a smart guy -- he knew Studio 60 was bad and All Star Batman was good long before I did, and he recommended Casanova to me.]
I've been thinking about doing this for a while now. I've been a gamer my whole life... I remember back in Kindergarten trading my Red Sox jacket (which no longer fit) to my friend Jessica for her copy of Dig Dug and Joust for the Atari 2600. I've owned a system in every generation. Being a confirmed Sega fundamentalist from 1986-1996 (with a brief co-habitation within the temple of Atari Jaguar, what can I say? I like losers) and have owned every console in the last 2 generations.
As I've gotten older, I've had less and less time for the hobby (Why am I taking time out to write this again?) but had more and more disposable income. As such I find myself here. Far too many games, far too little time. Because of this, my attention span has grown shorter. Back when I was 12, I could play a bad game to completion, I could learn the mind-numbing trial-and-error procedure needed to conquer Night-Trap for Sega CD. I could beat Alex Kidd 10 times, me and my College friends invented elaborate Goldeneye etiquette. Hell, two friends of mine even picked their first flat out of College on the basis that it had 2 floors so that we could run a 75' Cross-over Cat-5 cable for 4on4 Halo matches without the ability to look at the other guy's screen.
These days, if a game doesn't engross me in the first hour, it's out... possibly never to return. I don't like to lose, and so don't play online competitive shooters with 12-year-olds or my deadbeat college friends with little to do other than move up the ranks of Halo3 or CoD4. What I've been playing, and what I keep playing is dear to me. I envision this column as a bi-weekly check-in, a Top-of-the-Pops of my own personal gaming habits. I will always have material because, if nothing else, my 45minute train-ride gives me ample DS/PSP time. So now, with no further adieu, What I've been Playing:
PS3: Little Big Planet - For those unaware, LBP is perhaps the biggest paradigm shift to come along in gaming in quite some time. At its face, it's a derivative Mario-style platform game. It has you doing the normal stuff... running left to right, Jumping over stuff and dodging other stuff. With its mascot (the adorable Sackboy/Sackgirl) and old-skool mechanics it would hardly seem revolutionary if not for it's Internet2.0 ethos. In addition to the 50-odd levels 'shipping' with the game, it also contains the ability to create your own levels and upload them to the Youtube style Cool-Worlds planet. There you can jump around by creator or theme or randomly and just look for cool-ass-shit. Some creators attempt to recreate classic platforming levels (I highly recommend the Green Hill Zone 3 level from Sonic the Hedgehog) Some use the tools to make music (There is a KILLER version of Guns 'n Roses' Sweet Child of Mine, which plays automatically as you drive a car through the timed sensors) Some are... art? (There's a cool one in which you drive a Delorean from left to right as the wall shows your speed. When you hit 88mph lightning strikes and your tires seem to leave flames in their wake) and some are just mind-bogglingly amazing/creative/strange (a giant pinball game with Sackboy as the pinball, a totally faithful re-creation of the side-scrolling shooter Gradius, a giant clockwork calculator which can add and subtract 2-digit numbers through the use of around 16,000 moving parts.) All the user-created levels (there are about 100k of them at the moment) are nearly instantly accessible and can be played alone or over the internet with a friend (or random player.) LBP is the perfect game for my lifestyle. Rich enough to play for hours, but still accessible in short 10-20 minute bursts. It's really rare that a game is so innovative, fun and charming. If there were more hours in a day I might even try my hand at creating something... as is, I'm content to leech of the work of others.
Xbox360: Fallout 3 is in the system but, sadly I've not been playing it much. It's a massive spiralling post-apocalyptic RPG which I am about 6-8 hours into, but has scores of hours of content remaining and demands to be played in sessions extending at least an hour or two... something I haven't had time for in a few weeks. What I have played, I have loved... but when I sit down at home, and have the time to play a game I look at the PS3 controller with LBP at the end of it, and the 360 one with Fallout at the end of it... and invariably pick up the PS3. Fallout and LBP were my two most anticipated games of the year and while it's somewhat depressing that they came out within a week of one-another... I'm happy that the depth of both should keep me happy into the new year.
Wii: Nothing. I haven't turned it on in so long, it's gone from sleep to off.
PSP: Playing 2 things actually. Star Ocean: First Departure - a Remake of a SNES RPG which was never released in the west. I like the combat system. But hate some of the old-skool conventions, primarily not having a screen which reminds me what I'm doing, or having a map with place names (not to mention the ability to instantly travel to previously visited locations.) When I play on the train I really like games like this though, somewhat mindless grind-fests which allow me to listen to podcasts and not have to think that much. This is good for that, as the story is thinner than paper (Star-Trek rip-off involving time travel and basically moving from one location to the next.) The battles take place on a isometric 2d plane (think Final Fight or Double Dragon) and are action oriented with RPG stats below. You directly control one of your party of 4-players, the other three are have tactical options (heal, fight, protect etc) but run automatically. You can swap which character you control on the fly, but I have found little reason to do so.
The Second game I'm playing is Loco Roco 2 (check out the Flash mini-game HERE (click on minigame:) The sequel to the innovative 2d platformer which sees you as a Loco Roco, a cartoon blob who moves by rolling around as the world tilts to the left or right. Like the first one, it has a great visual style and a soundtrack which you will either love or hate. The game is relentlessly cheerful and saccharine sweet. It has come under fire for its possibly racist designed enemies. But in the end, these criticisms seem to have fizzled in the face of the game's overall charm and good nature.
DS: My wife abducted my DS, first to play the logical puzzler: Professor Layton and the Curious Village, a game which features classic brain-twisters like getting a Bird, Cat and dog over to an island picnic in a small 3-creature row-boat. Then to play Hotel Dusk, a new take on the old Point-and-Click gamestyle made famous in the early days of Lucasarts. I haven't played this one at all... she completed it the other night saying that I wouldn't like it. Too much random trial and error. She enjoyed playing it before bed as it put her to sleep... a ringing endorsement indeed.
That's all for now, I should be back in 2-3 weeks with a pre-Christmas update.
Sunday, September 23, 2007
Ping33 On the Top Ten Video Games (Comment Pull Quote)
Ping gave us his top ten list this week in Free Form Comments. I have only played a handful of videogames since they got all complicated and novely and world-building, but I am proud to say that two of that handful are on Ping's list -- Jet Set Radio Future (which I always called Radio Free Europe for no reason), and Super-Metroid (that was the Nintendo Cube one right?). And they were great. Except Metroid had terrible creature designs. Generic bug-aliens. On Radio Free Europe you could design your own graffiti and spray it on everything.
I would also say that the Simpsons Game for the Game Cube was one of my favorites, if only because of the perfect way labor got split up between Sara and Me -- she likes to look for stuff and I like to race around, and the game had both, so we teamed up and won.
Also you have to love classics like Super-Mario brothers, if only because the Japanese have such an instinctual grasp of the everyday life of working class Italians.
Here is Ping:
Top 10 Games of all time (no order)
Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker (yeah bitch! better than Ocarina of Time, the graphics are timeless and all zelda games are basically the same anyway)
Joust
Jet Set Radio Future
Halo
Starcraft
Nights: Into Dreams
Super Metroid
Every Extend Extra
Wipeout
RESERVED FOR THE NOW (Bioshock... Hopefully Mass Effect)
I would also say that the Simpsons Game for the Game Cube was one of my favorites, if only because of the perfect way labor got split up between Sara and Me -- she likes to look for stuff and I like to race around, and the game had both, so we teamed up and won.
Also you have to love classics like Super-Mario brothers, if only because the Japanese have such an instinctual grasp of the everyday life of working class Italians.
Here is Ping:
Top 10 Games of all time (no order)
Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker (yeah bitch! better than Ocarina of Time, the graphics are timeless and all zelda games are basically the same anyway)
Joust
Jet Set Radio Future
Halo
Starcraft
Nights: Into Dreams
Super Metroid
Every Extend Extra
Wipeout
RESERVED FOR THE NOW (Bioshock... Hopefully Mass Effect)
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