8-bit hacks

No rules, just Art Style

We're waist deep in the gauntlet of heavy hitting fall releases, and frankly, there are just not enough hours in the day to put together a lengthy and well-informed take on everything, not when there's life outside of games to deal with as well. I'm not interested in forcing myself through the gigantic amount of new releases out there just to be first to the table with a full take. It seems like the gaming equivalent of gorging at a really nice all-you-can-eat buffet until you simply can't take another bite. While I may be American, this sort of approach does not seem like the most enjoyable way to play through the massive fall slate. I'll have impressions of everything as I get through it on my twitter feed as it seems to be the most appropriate place for you to find those, but I'm moving at my own pace.

Despite brand new and shiny AAA releases all around me, my defense mechanism to the massive release shock is that I'm retreating to the most fun games I can find, both new and old. I've dipped my toes into the much-hyped waters of Fable II and Fallout 3 but neither have compelled me in the least to invest more time than I already have thus far. I'm playing both Mother games for an upcoming reality check and in the run up to the just-released English patch for Mother 3, but what I find myself getting the most lost in the last few weeks are the simple and engrossing WiiWare games in the Art Style series.

Running out of Steam

Well, well. What have we here? Another of those rants about how Steam is junk? Basically, yes. After a recent update, Steam has decided that I'm no longer allowed to play most of the games that I own. How very nice. And, for people who don't use Steam, how very boring. For that matter, if you've never had much of a problem with Steam, such a thread is just idle bitching you don't need to care about, right?

Well, you should. Steam is big and it's trying to become bigger. It also has significant problems. You know how Windows is ubiqutious, but everyone hates Windows? Do you want to see this again? The problems with Steam aren't just the idle complaints of a few disgruntled users, they're signs of a significant problem with digitally downloaded games in general. 

"Rock Band 2" review

Here's David's review of Rock Band 2. Once again as a reminder, this gives you a look at truly mainstream gaming reviews, out of the enthusiast bubble. Let me know what you think. - Steve

“Rock Band 2's” 84-song set list is a masterful mix tape with something every player will pine to mock-perform.

There's rap (“So What'cha Want” by Beastie Boys), classic rock (“Let There Be Rock” by AC/DC), metal (“Battery” by Metallica), indie rock (“Teenage Riot” by Sonic Youth), progressive rock (“Panic Attack” by Dream Theater), riot grrrl (“Rebel Girl” by Bikini Kill), folk (“Tangled Up in Blue” by Bob Dylan), modern rock (“One Step Closer” by Linkin Park), punk (“Girl's Not Grey” by AFI), new wave (“Uncontrollable Urge” by Devo), ska (“Where Did You Go?” by the Mighty Mighty Bosstones) and more.

Wii Music: why even doubt EAD anymore

 

I have to admit, I thought Wii Music looked like stupid fun with friends when it was shown off at E3, but I realize now I have sold the latest "Wii" project way short. I should have known better than to doubt given the people involved, but what I didn't realize until I had the game in my hands was just how much control the player actually has over the music. This distinction pushes Wii Music far away from the illusions of grandeur provided by a game like Guitar Hero and makes it one of the freshest and most forward-thinking experiences I've had this year. That mention of GH will be the only one in this article because it and Wii Music have no more in common than Call of Duty and Company of Heroes do, despite both being about the same general subject.

An end to the infinite

Real life has caught up with me the last few days so I've been behind on the game playing that makes updating this blog possible. I've got thoughts coming this week on Fable II, Fallout 3, Gears 2, Call of Duty 5, Resistance 2, and various other sequels, but there's always time for Tetris, and that's where this discussion is going to go. This is going to be one of the more "rant-like" posts on this site by the time that it's completed, so consider yourself warned.

Monday saw the WiiWare release of Tetris Party and as a documented Tetris devotee who spent time last month trying to find a scientific basis behind the therapeutic feeling that Tetris gives you, I believe this is the most important release of Tetris in a long time. No, not because you can play Tetris with your ass, or because you can use your tetrominoes to help a little pixelated man climb up the playfield. It's important because for the first time in almost a decade, there's some movement against the "infinite spin" controversy that's ruined well-intentioned Tetris ports for years now.

Dead Space and player expectations

Dead Space is the game I've been waiting for that I didn't know I'd been waiting for. I've been slacking all week trying to get to it and just have not had the time. Now that I have, I'm kind of blown away. This is not going to be a breakdown of the game mechanically, it's got its issues and its strong points, and it does set a pretty high mark for production values. What gets me is how clearly they nail "science fiction horror," a genre of film that I have a particular soft spot for.

A new hope for the PC

No, this isn't one of those PC gaming is dead posts, just so you know. I've had an on-and-off history with PC gaming. I've had PC-building binges that have lasted for months and cost me way too much money, as I've tried to convince myself that I'm a hardcore PC gaming enthusiast inside. Every time I've tried this, I've failed, ending up with an expensive tower with the newest video sitting mostly dormant outside of the initial 3dmark e-peen shot. I always kept one foot in the water, though, and always made time for the biggest releases.

In the last couple years I've admittedly started to fall away from the PC as a gaming platform completely. While the easy answer is "because console gaming has evolved" I'm not sure I'd go with that as this generation of consoles hasn't exactly set my world on fire. However, this is the generation where I feel less compelled to have a gaming-worthy PC than ever before. Here's my read on the problem.

Reality check: Final Fantasy VII

Ever since I came across an episode of Thundercats as an adult and had my world shattered when I witnessed the shittiness before me, I've been wary of the clouding effects of nostalgia on the mind and memory. As I mentioned in my Mega Man 9 article, it's a constant worry of mine. So, I'm going to try this out, taking a game that I or others hold in high regard and going through it from a fresh perspective to see how much of its draw is simply "you had to be there" nonsense and how much really does hold up to the test of time. Call it a test to weed out the Donkey Kong Countrys of the world from the Super Metroids. This isn't meant to be a comprehensive re-review; I'm just going to concentrate on a few key observations that jumped out at me.

I'm not going to waste your or my time going deeply into the relevance or importance of Final Fantasy VII, except to say that almsot every traditional Japanese RPG these days outside of Dragon Quest would be quite different had it not come along. My own experience with the game is a rather tattered one, as I jumped on it when the game came out and I was blown away by the eye candy and the presentation, but my interest quickly waned after the first few hours. It never attained that legendary status in my mind and my heart that it has assumed in parts of the gaming community. It's often the subject of intense firefights in the gaming community between those who blame it for ruining RPGs and those who it awakened to the potential of video games as a medium for storytelling. Neither perception is unclouded by emotional bias nor necessarily grounded in reality, so I dug up my old black label copy to take a look at it through the lens of 2008.

Little boys love shiny toys

When Nintendo unveiled the DSi to the public a week and a half ago to much fanfare, nothing really stuck out at me as a game-changing feature. Nintendo made a bunch of smart revisions to the design, making it slimmer, making the screens bigger and better, and adding in internal memory to open up the digital distribution arena. However, regardless of how minor these improvements and tweaks were in my eyes, there was one thing I was certain of. I have to buy one. This will be my third DS, but even something as simple as screen improvements was all I needed to make the excuses in my head. Therefore, the most heart-wrenching part of Nintendo's much-covered press event was the fact that since the DS Lite is selling so well in America, we're not going to see the DSi until well into 2009 despite hitting in Japan in November. This was enough to send me off to my favorite importer.

Mad greetz to the demoscene with Linger In Shadows

I usually dismiss talk about Sony actively courting cutting edge work from the independent community outright as fanboy babble from those who want to believe their chosen team is the good faceless gigantic corporation. However, with ambitious indie stuff like fl0w and Everyday Shooter, it seems like a pattern is starting to emerge over at the Playstation Network. It's no secret that the PS3 has had its share of problems over the last two years of its existence, but when certain other companies have been playing it safe when it comes to digital distribution, I have to say there have been times when Sony has actually surprised me in a very good way. This is one of those times.