8-bit hacks

Aliens vs. Predator vs. Sierra: A Cautionary Tale

There was a time (quite some time ago) that I was a big fan of playing Aliens vs Predator 2's online multiplayer mode. In the realm of multiplayer gaming I've since mostly moved on to greener pastures, but after finally getting around to playing the terrible Playstation 2 RTS game Aliens vs Predator: Extinction (and promptly wishing I'd never bothered) I thought it might be fun to wash the bad taste out of my mouth with some AvP2 action. What actually transpired, though, ended up putting an even worse taste in my mouth.

I installed the game, got all set to go online and... nothing. No master server. That means no cd-key verification, no list of game servers, nothing. After some quick searching, I'd found that Sierra has pulled support of the game. If you want to play AvP2 online now, well, sorry. You can't. If it was just this one game, just this one time, it might not be worth mentioning, but what happened here is a sign of the times for the PC game industry as a whole, particularly as we move faster and faster toward a digital-download-dominated market. It is not just a story of one game, but a cautionary tale of what happens when there is a single point of failure.

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. 

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.

A Fracture-d landscape

I was multitasking last night, playing the new Lucasarts deterraforming shooter Fracture and watching the second presidential debate at the same time. About 45 minutes in, I grew tired of the overworn cliches, the endless retreads of terrain that's been covered countless times before, and the preposterous assumption that a slick presentation and a few slight and meaningless tweaks in the format would cover up the participants' complete dearth of anything new or interesting to offer. I finished watching the debate, though. I hinted at it when The Force Unleashed burst onto the scene with all the force of lunar gravity a few weeks ago, but I think with this we can finally call it and mark the time of death on the fantastic summer we've had in gaming.

Why Mega Man 9 is important and I'm not just old

I'm not going to lie, I'm an old school Nintendo guy dating all the way back to the launch of the NES, like many in my generation. As children of the 80s, we grew up on the 8-bit goodness that dominated the day and a lot of us still think that some of the games from those archaic ages are among the best games ever created, even when held up against their technologically towering successors. So, like anyone does as they get older in an era of rapidly growing technology, we're forced to ask ourselves why we continue to hold onto the past. Is it out of nostalgia and the longing for days gone by? Is it because old dogs can't learn new tricks and we quickly retreat back into that comfort zone? I don't think so, and it's good that Mega Man 9 came around, because it represents a validation of all the things people of my generation have known for 20 years, whether or not we knew that we knew them.

The fall blockbuster unleashed

When it comes to movies, we're all familiar with the manufactured summer blockbuster. This is a movie that was clearly hacked, rehacked, and manufactured to have all the qualities of everyone's favorite movies. The IP is familiar, the female lead is hot, the explosions are flashy, and the product placement is secured. The whole thing feels so pieced together and the seams are so apparent that the whole movie suffers as a result. These movies are something akin to the Frankenstein's monster of film.

The monster, at least as portrayed in the movies, is made of all the right parts on the outside, but once brought to life, he's still not quite human. However, unlike Victor Frankenstein, these movie makers have found great success from such and approach, and if it hasn't paid off in stars, it definitely has paid off at the box office. I suppose it's a testament to the state of the games industry where we can now say the same thing about a video game.