Maybe it's not for you?

by noodles on Tuesday, May 25th, 2010 at 18:50 - Comments: 0

At the time of writing there are adverts for the arcade racing-game blur that seem to twist the gamer-community's metaphorical panties in their tailpipes. You can see the commercials here:

Blur - Nitro VS Mine - PS3/Xbox360
Blur - Surcharge VS Eclair - PS3/Xbox360

What's been upsetting gamers all over the world is the purely sexist TnA-factor of the ads and complaints point to the non-scientific fact that gamers aren't pubescent boys that eat this shit up. Here's a quote for ya:

I can't really disagree with the quote, but is it actually valid? Follow me on this:

First off, the ads are in French, obviously created for the French audience. To understand that the French people aren't the same as the rest of the world you don't have to look any further than their cooking. Point being that maybe the croissants French gamers don't respond the same way as non-French gamers do to the ads.

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tags: mario blur kart commercial ad tv spot

Where music has been, games are going.

by noodles on Friday, October 16th, 2009 at 15:59 - Comments: 0

We've all heard the words "They were better before". It usually refers to a band that's been around the general circulation of records for a few years. The theory being that when the band or artist gained the attention of a broader audience the record-company put more production and promotion into the development of further songs from that artist. This usually goes hand-in-hand with the term "sold out", accusing the musicians of chasing the all-might-dollar over "keepin' it real". The latter usually involves scraping by on a day-to-day basis not knowing where the next paycheck is coming from and playing where you're offered, making the artists go to the people, instead of the more popular version of the people going to the audience. To clarify, I'm talking about fans having to pick between not seeing the performance and, not only, coughing up an arm and a leg for tickets, but also to get to the venue, and perhaps even find accommodations near the event. Whereas the other version, known as the "band on a budget"-approach, involves - sometimes metaphorically, sometimes literally - a band living out of their van, going from gig to gig to earn enough money to put gas in the tank and food in their bellies.

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tags: resident evil music industry zombie korn video games

Under-achievement is standard

by noodles on Saturday, July 11th, 2009 at 04:11 - Comments: 0

You've played Guitar Hero, right? Probably SingStar or Rock Band as well, correct? Isn't it fun pretending to headline a concert or festival, playing the songs you know and love, along with some that you don't because you have to, as in the crowd wants them? I know I have fun whether I'm hammering the frets, hitting the plastic drums, or screeching into the microphone.
But what has this craze with music-based games really brought us?
When Dance Dance Revolution came out videos started popping up with people going crazy, stepping on squares according to a FTL-driven pattern of arrows. South Park made a mockery of it, and incorporated into their spoof of that summer's wave of dance-related movies, by picking the Asian kid that was really good at DDR for their dance-squad, claiming that it really was dancing. Make a note though that real dance competitions are held with DDR, but they usually require the participant to actually do some sort of choreographed dance, while still stepping on the correct square at the right time. The hyper-speed of the arrows is, most often, removed to make room for actual dancing, and not just quick stomping.

Today there's another wave of videos popping up on the Internet, and it's of people getting high scores on their favorite music-related game, that usually requires a plastic guitar-replica, and displaying their ability to follow the quick-paced directions on the screen.

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tags: guitar hero rock band dj achievement drums plastic

Been there, done that.

by noodles on Monday, June 1st, 2009 at 04:19 - Comments: 0

Grand Theft Auto 4, Devil May Cry 4, Metal Gear Solid 4, Killzone 2. All these titles have something in common:
They're all sequels on the next generation of consoles.
If you want, you can add Final Fantasy, Ratchet and Clank, Halo and others to the list.

Take Metal Gear Solid, for example. It all started two generations ago, on the Sony Playstation, and has even had canon on the portable market. If you look at Grand Theft Auto you have to go back to a time when computer games and video games had an entirely different gap between them. GTA3 was initially released on the Sony Playstation 2, but the PC had it's predecessors for years, and eventually has gotten the later versions ported to the pseudo-console.

But what I'm thinking about here is the necessity of playing the prequels before engaging in the new installments. The Final Fantasy series is notorious to be separate games without any link between them, except for a few character-names and fan-service references. If you want to play an FF-title, you do not need to play the previous titles. But how does this ring true for other series? Halo is a great example of strategic marketing in a game-franchise.

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tags: sequel prequel

TPB, WTF?

by noodles on Friday, April 17th, 2009 at 21:11 - Comments: 0

Today's verdict is basically inconsequential. No matter who won, it would just be appealed to a higher court.

What I find humorous however, is the way that the accused are handling it. Rather, I only know how one of them is handling it. By posting a webcam-picture of him holding an IOU, a piece of paper reading "I OWE U 31'000'000" (the posted suit, plus opponent's lawyer-expenses) - please consider the fact that one of the said lawyers is somewhat notorious for shooting up her clients' expenses by demanding that they all use first-class travel and lodging, just to be able to claim more money from her opponents. To me, this shows that even though there's a big rabble about the entire thing, from both sides, it really doesn't matter. And I'm sure that "brokep" is fully aware that even if he, and his comrades, had won this trial, nothing would be over.

Many people, especially Swedes, seem to forget what this trial is all about. Some would give you the impression that this is about the legality of pirated works, which is outright, blatantly wrong. This trial is about the legality of running a torrent-tracker by Swedish law. Media, the public, the corporations, you, me, everybody, has distorted it into something else.

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tags: the pirate bay brokep sweden

The voices of the masses and Hitler

by noodles on Wednesday, March 25th, 2009 at 05:35 - Comments: 0

Have you ever looked at something on the Internet and thought "I can contribute with something creative to a discussion on that"?

One of my favorite sites on the Internet is gametrailers.com. They house everything from old commercials to reviews and previews of the latest titles. And since the content is both from the editorial staff and users, there is also an endless sea of randomness. What I find myself giving more and more time to is episodic features, and one of these is "Hey Ash, whatcha playing", or HAWP for short. Starring Anthony and Ashley Burch, the show parodies games and the world around them. In the most recent episode, entitled "Hey Ash, Whatcha Playin: Of Sexism", they explain the reason for the episode prior to it, that insinuates the savage beating of a woman by a guy wielding a +4 charisma leather belt. The whole point was apparently to invoke such words as "savage beating", but to be more exact make people have a discussion about sexism on a gaming website.

Here's the thing:
The challenge is demoralized by the same people that it's dependent on. As the script reads in the beginning of the episode "It can't be done".

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tags: internet gametrailers flame adolf hitler

Street Fighter IV is not a fair fight.

by noodles on Wednesday, February 18th, 2009 at 09:05 - Comments: 0

One of the more awaited releases as of late has been the arcade-style fighting-game Street Fighter IV, yet another game clinging to the antique scholars by using roman numerals instead of digits.

But here's the thing:
Anyone that's reviewing video games today has played the predecessor to this game, Street Fighter II - at least one of its many incarnations. We could take Street Fighter III into account, but everyone seems to agree that it's number 2 and 4 that's relevant here. But yes, anyone that's working in the industry today, or do their own reviews in a non-professional form for either YouTube or their own sites, publication or similar, have expectations dating back to the original game. I'll agree that Capcom, the developers for the Street Fighter series, have taken care of their franchise in all it's many interactive versions; keeping the feel of the game, and the new version may be just a next-gen iteration of the same series, but what about the newcomers?
Since close to everyone has pushed buttons in this title, there's no new blood to give their input. We have no clue as to how a game that's built its hype on a previous versions legendary status in the video game hall of fame will be accepted by the new challengers.

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tags: 2 3 street fighter 4 capcom snes

Horror is more than limited clips and med-kits

by noodles on Thursday, February 5th, 2009 at 09:25 - Comments: 0

Ever since I made a discovery about myself, that I was disturbed by a horror-game, when I played DOOM 3 my metaphorical panties have been in a metaphorical bunch.

I really did not see it coming, that a game would actually scare me and leave me with anxiety, but that game really pulled it off. Since then I've been really hesitant about when Dead Space will come up for a play-through.
And it's not like I've never experienced the horror-genre before. Yes, I jump when I'm supposed to when we reach the calm-and-silent-then-something-not-very-surprising-pops-out-and-the-music-jolts-with-a-high-pitch-sound-scene of the movie, and even if the film Quarantine might really have scared me while in my seat, I've never been left with an uneasy feeling or anxiety when the experience is over. Although, I'll admit that the latest encounter with horror when it comes to video games is picking up the controller for Eternal Darkness when my girlfriend got stuck or couldn't defeat a boss on her own. But I've never been affected like this before, and it bothers me.

To see if this was just a one-time-thing or something similar, and to place myself under my self-evaluation-microscope, I've added the Resident Evil series to my checklist, along with Silent Hill 2.

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tags: doom 3 resident evil silent hill horror

Rules and regulations

by noodles on Monday, October 6th, 2008 at 14:56 - Comments: 0

I beleive in evolution, at least when it comes to this site.
However, since I'm juggling that along with all other things, it's taking a little too long in my opinion. I'm currently working on a mayor overhaul of the design, layout and graphics, as well as adding new features. The most requested feature, comments, is among them. Things that were surprisingly cut from the first release, such as images and links in articles, are also included - can't beleive I skipped them on the first go.
The reason why it's taking so long is because I'm writing everything from scratch, into a object-oriented system. It's all the rave on the internet, if you haven't heared. All the scripting languages are converting to object orientation.

The thing that stuns the most though, is the rewriting of the rules to the game. We've agreed on a few points that will even out the playing field a little. Such as Mass Effect and Kid icarus not being worth exactly the same amount of tokens. Also, we're discussing bonuses for increased difficulty-settings, when available.
Basically, what I want to do is redesign the database when it comes to the games. THAT takes time, because I want to link everything, making everything connected and automatic.

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tags: internet rules regulations

Blue Bomber's back

by noodles on Friday, September 26th, 2008 at 08:14 - Comments: 0

With a release date for Europe not being any more precise than "September 2008", I wasn't all too concerned with Mega Man 9. I was more concentrated on the fact that WipEout HD had received a set date, September 25. Since I get my salary paid out on the same date, it had to be fate. Not that I was going to miss out on a WipEout-game in high definition and a 5.1 score, but it was just too good to miss on the release-date.
When I was on the Playstation Network, the online store for the PS3, I was confronted by a baffling fact: Mega Man 9 was out. It was sitting right there in the "Latest Releases"-pile. Now I have a tough decision to make.

I never played Mega Man outside Nintendo's consoles. Sure, I tried some of the later X-series on my brother's Playstation, but it was supposed to be a Nintendo-game. The fact that Capcom made it didn't matter much, the gray controller was what mattered.

The PSN-version states that it supports all the HD resolutions, 720p, 1080i and 1080p. But the question is why that would be important, it's sporting old-school graphics.

The question really comes down to loyalty, controller, and a slight sprinkle of authenticity.

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tags: mega man 9 psn wipeout hd wii ps3