I have a long lasting relationship of frustrated ambivalence when it comes to Sonic. As a kid I borrowed a friend’s Master System to play that system’s port of the first title, and I absolutely, truly enjoyed it. In retrospect I enjoyed it much more than the “real” 16-bit title, and I still feel the [...]
Posts under ‘Video games’
A love letter to Prototype
In 2005 I was pleasantly surprised by The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction, an open-world free-roaming action game by Radical Entertainment. “Pleasantly surprised” is the wrong term. The game offered an unparalleled sense of freedom of movement. It was a game in which you could hold a trigger button and run freely in whatever direction, the [...]
Snoopy Flying Ace. What on earth is going on?!
Since when was Snoopy relevant again? Was he ever relevant? The Peanuts rank up there with Garfield as the most boring comic strip I have ever had the displeasure of reading, and was inexplicably graced with its own animated TV show that was equally boring.
I mean.. I barely even know what The Peanuts was *about*. [...]
Game pricing and the pre-played market
Dear video game publishing industry
I am not economically incapable of meeting your demands. In fact, I have met your demands time and time again, for close to 20 years of my life. Living in Norway, where almost every expense is a quarter again as expensive, your brutal pricing model consistently transcends reason and oversteps into [...]
The Void
Icepick Lodge made something again. It’s called “The Void“, it’s ostensibly a video game, but it feels odd describing it as such. It plunks you into a world with no real-world parallel, where the rules are obfuscated, nothing is intuitive, characters treat you in part as a worker, a slave, a lover or any mixture, [...]
Video games can never be art [sic]
I commented the following on this post. Figured I’d blog it as well, since I put in such an effort.
Hi Roger
I wrote you an e-mail a while back (which you printed) lamenting, in nicer words, how someone so in love with one form of art can be so ready to cast stones at another.
This article [...]
20 hours into Just Cause 2…
…and i have 10% game completion. This is logical; I have literally not tried to progress. The game’s story is nonsensical gibberish. No tool is locked away. I feel absolutely no need to apply any effort to gain ground playing the actual game. So what the hell is going on here?
The future of PC gaming and DRM
Recently, publishers of PC games – Ubisoft being the vanguard – have been experimenting with various forms of DRM dependent on persistent internet connectivity, and have been met with what appears to be universal backlash, and for good reason. Titles like Command & Conquer 4, which are dependent on serverside functionality for its persistent character [...]
Rebuilding the Dreamweb
Dreamweb was a 1992 cyberpunk adventure game that gained notoriety for its adult subject matter and an uncensored sex scene. That said, the sex was top-down, poorly drawn and took place over a space of 30×30 pixels, which i think counts as mosaic censorship anyway, so big whoop to that. It got an absolute buttload [...]
Antisocial media
Me and Anders Psychofreud started putting together a messaging application today that i think is totally weird, but for certain reasons really compelling. First a little history.
If you haven’t played Animal Crossing on the DS or Wii, i strongly suggest that you find an opportunity to do so. On its own the game is addictive, [...]
Oh fuck you Tecmo
http://www.gametrailers.com/video/japanese-bounce-ninja-gaiden/56119
Oh Tecmo. Seriously. Fuck you, you god damn imbeciles. You’re sitting on one of the best action adventure properties of the modern world, and you resort to this shit. You stupid motherfuckers. Watch me Ninja the eff away from your brand.
A darker, edgier Disney
This is just fucking tragic. Warren Spector, you’re one of my absolute game design heroes. Why’d you have to go and do this:
Merely concept art, this stuff is nonetheless absolutely abominable. I would love to see stuff like this on Deviantart, but as a visual guideline for a Mickey game? A post apocalyptic steampunk Disney [...]
Honest Al’s Electric BloodBowl Championship #2
Match day! I made arrangements with my opponent, and our match began at 8pm sharp.
It turns out either i had misunderstood, or my opponent had, but having been told every team would be freshly rolled i was surprised to meet an experienced team of Lizardmen featuring a scrimmage line of level 2 sauri all equipped [...]
Honest Al’s Electric BloodBowl Championship
I’m playing a Blood Bowl cup! Following Kieron Gillen’s game reports and extended Blood Bowl press over at Rock Paper Shotgun, i was delighted to be asked to join a coworker and his friends in a cup organized through Facebook. Blood Bowl is the kind of game you really want to play with friends, which [...]
On achievements
So my second warranty-less 360 died a week ago, and since my economy is currently shot for a couple of months, i’ve returned to my other systems for gaming sustenance. The Wii has gotten a lot more play (though mostly through VC stuff), but also my PC, my Dreamcast and bizarrely my Xbox classic (got [...]
Korg DS-10+ you say? Woo!
Since my review of the original release of Aqi and Korg’s brilliant but crucially flawed Nintendo DS soft synth, the DS-10, development apparently hasn’t stood still! Shocking! To announce their DSi-powered update, Aqi have posted an absolutely hilariously fake “keynote” on youtube.
You need to a flashplayer enabled browser to view this YouTube video
For all its [...]
Piracy in the PC gaming market; How to approach it
http://draginol.joeuser.com/article/303512/Piracy_PC_Gaming
Outstanding article. Must read.
So Roger Ebert ran my letter…
… where i basically complain that every single time a movie critic looks for a way to describe a film as soulless or shallow they grab for the video game comparison. Call it a pet peeve, because it is. I can’t stand it. At the very least quantify your comparison; call it a BAD video [...]
Gear review: Korg DS-10
We’d been waiting impatiently for the DS-10, an official Korg condoned MS-20 emulator for the Nintendo DS, for quite a while, so finally getting the box in the mail and unpacking it was somewhat of a religious experience. Now that the gadget honeymoon has been going on for a while, i feel i’ve got [...]
Korg DS-10
Got mine in the mail today. Highly, highly recommended purchase if you’re into doodling tunes on the go and happen to own a DS. It’s incredibly well put together, and the whole app is in english so it doesnt matter if you import it.
Only downside to it that i can find is that it only [...]
Most awesome trailer ever made for anything ever
Please, watch it. Watch it again. Again.
I theorize you’re supposed to just rock-scream out the words as they flash by. I think it’s karaoke. I think.
Regardless, i can’t stop watching the fecking thing!
Forgotten gems: Shadow of the ninja & Ninja Gaiden Shadow
Often disregarded as a “Ninja Gaiden ripoff”, Shadow of the ninja remains one of the most proficient platformers i ever played on the NES. Developed by Natsume, a company better known for its farming simulations (!), SOTN, known as Blue Shadow in Europe and Kage in Asia, was a rock solid, fast paced ninja platformer [...]
Steampunk in gaming
Great article up on Ars Technica about the use of steampunk imagery and concepts in video games. Those of you that know me know i’m a giant stupid fan of this stuff. Well worth the read.
Most awesome Super Mario World vid, ever
You need to a flashplayer enabled browser to view this YouTube video
I’m officially blown away. Pay special attention around the 6 minute mark. 1st Dr Wily stage from Megaman 2! God i love that song, i’ve wanted to do a remix for years.
Imagine Peoplez
Today’s obsession for me; Video games for kids with titles ending in z.Observe.
Ok so i made up Cowz. But come on!
Forgotten gems: Discworld Noir
Now here’s a true modern adventure classic if you ask me.The third of Perfect’s Discworld adventure games, this euro-only 3CD point&click adventure basically slipped in under the radar in 1999 and pretty much stayed there since. Considering how bloody smart and enjoyable it is, that’s an enormous shame. Other classics such as Lucasarts’ masterpiece adventures [...]
Sins of a solar empire, first impressions
What a name. I can think of a lot of names for a game about interstellar conquest, but i doubt i could top this. Sins of a solar empire.. It’s got epic poetry to it. Bodes well.
If you haven’t been keeping up with this, Sins of a solar empire is a kind of hybrid real [...]
leisure suit larry revival, female protagonists, sexy sexy!
Kotaku pointed me to this excellent interview with LSL series creator Al Lowe, which again directed me to this great summary of the series. Thank you, hypertext markup language, for delivering on your promise.
It’s funny how a franchise as sad and awkward as Leisure Suit Larry can be remembered for being funny. The first LSL [...]
Ace Combat 6 gets my vote for disappointment of the year
BE WARNED; THAR BE MILD SPOILERS
My god what a mess. It’s a pretty mess, but compared to the almost impossibly well made Ace Combat 5 and the gritty Zero, Ace Combat 6 is an incredibly hard fall for the series as far as i’m concerned. It literally breaks my heart.
But let’s rewind.
Ace Combat is three [...]
Marathon: Durandal XBLA, a biased review
Halo’s granddaddy.
There’s something strange about seeing this game running on the 360. Last time i played it in earnest was 12 years ago, on my family’s Mac IIsi (if you can believe that). I spent a ridiculous amount of time making mods, maps and scenarios for it, being quite active in the Marathon Map [...]
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