Curmudgeon Gamer
30 January 2007
Disheartening obsession with violence
The videogame scene is exciting to watch most of the time. The endless cheerleading is infectious, and occasionally even somewhat warranted. On the other hand, it produces the videos linked to in (WARNING!) this NeoGAF post. You know that your morbid sense of curiosity will get the better of you, but don't feel bad about stopping watching after only a few seconds.
The post itself is harmless. The videos, on the other hand, are distressingly concentrated, brutal, heartless violence. I'm still scarred from playing Manhunt and the video there brought back the feeling that I need to wash off the ick with a blisteringly hot shower. The video of The Punisher is even worse.
I keep thinking: that polygonal man was some polygonal woman's son, and how would she feel seeing her little texture-mapped boy heartlessly cut up into piles of red polyhedra? Or something like that.
The post itself is harmless. The videos, on the other hand, are distressingly concentrated, brutal, heartless violence. I'm still scarred from playing Manhunt and the video there brought back the feeling that I need to wash off the ick with a blisteringly hot shower. The video of The Punisher is even worse.
I keep thinking: that polygonal man was some polygonal woman's son, and how would she feel seeing her little texture-mapped boy heartlessly cut up into piles of red polyhedra? Or something like that.
Labels: violence
--jvm at 20:58
Comment
[ 3 ]
PSP: Now with 25% more demos!
Today Sony released firmware version 3.10 (wonder why?) and announced the availability of a Killzone: Liberation demo. This brings to five the total number of demos available directly from Sony:
- LocoRoco
- World Tour Soccer 06
- LocoRoco Halloween Demo
- LocoRoco Christmas Demo
- Killzone: Liberation
[Sony] promised that more first- and third-party demos would be released on an ongoing basis. In the coming weeks, Sony expects to offer demos for Syphon Filter: Dark Mirror and SOCOM: US Navy SEALs Fireteam Bravo 2.Well, that's a start, but hardly the best the PSP has to offer. I hope Sony breaks the system wide open for third parties, especially smaller ones, to put out demos of their games. My own choices for demos would be:
- Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops
- Lumines 2
- Hot Shots Golf: Open Tee
- Field Commander
- Tekken: Dark Resurrection
- Pinball Hall of Fame: The Gottlieb Collection
- Every Extend Extra
--jvm at 20:34
Comment
[ 0 ]
29 January 2007
Sony's PSOne on PSP: punishing the faithful...again
Sony needs to fix the PSOne emulation situation on the PSP right now.
There is now a firmware downgrader for every PSP ever sold, including my own which has been upgraded to firmware version 3.03. Anyone who owns a PSP and an older copy of Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories (I do) can then install a copy of the PSOne emulator that Sony has been selling through its PlayStation Store. Then you can rip your very own PSOne games and play them with the emulator.
The catch is that redistribution of the emulator is probably illegal. I'd guess that it has also been hacked in a way that allows it to use any game image, which probably violated the DMCA at some level and certainly the license agreement that came with the software. So, for reasons other than not wanting to brick my PSP, I'm going to stay away from hacked firmware and the emulator.
Sony needs to remedy the situation right now, or else risk deeply angering some of the fans of its hardware and software. (I count myself among those.) As it is, the folks willing to partake in copyright infringement (distribution of the emulator) are getting the most from their Sony hardware.
To fix this, Sony needs to:
Perhaps there is some other means by which Sony can stop slapping the fans in the face, but it needs to fix the situation and fast.
There is now a firmware downgrader for every PSP ever sold, including my own which has been upgraded to firmware version 3.03. Anyone who owns a PSP and an older copy of Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories (I do) can then install a copy of the PSOne emulator that Sony has been selling through its PlayStation Store. Then you can rip your very own PSOne games and play them with the emulator.
The catch is that redistribution of the emulator is probably illegal. I'd guess that it has also been hacked in a way that allows it to use any game image, which probably violated the DMCA at some level and certainly the license agreement that came with the software. So, for reasons other than not wanting to brick my PSP, I'm going to stay away from hacked firmware and the emulator.
Sony needs to remedy the situation right now, or else risk deeply angering some of the fans of its hardware and software. (I count myself among those.) As it is, the folks willing to partake in copyright infringement (distribution of the emulator) are getting the most from their Sony hardware.
To fix this, Sony needs to:
- Make the PlayStation Store available to PSP owners.
- Sell the emulator to me at some reasonable price. Let me suggest no more than $60, although lower is better. And upgrades/improvements should be free.
- Include a game ripper with the emulator or sell it separately. I don't care.
- Sell pre-ripped images of games (guaranteed to work) for a modest fee (say $4).
Perhaps there is some other means by which Sony can stop slapping the fans in the face, but it needs to fix the situation and fast.
--jvm at 11:09
Comment
[ 11 ]
A tiny defense of EB Games employees
I'll play against expectations for a bit and say that my one experience with Xbox-on-Xbox-360 compatibility in an EB Games was pretty good. Apparently the guy in this short story about an EB Games visit wasn't so lucky.
I was looking over the GameCube games when I heard an employee helping a woman standing in front of the Xbox games. I heard him say something about backward compatibility and how you could tell from looking at the boxes. That seemed strange, so I walked over and asked if he could tell me what he told the lady. He pointed to a BC printed on the price stickers for some Xbox games. According to him, that BC means that the Xbox game is compatible on the Xbox 360 according to Microsoft's official list. He further explained that if the compatibility list were updated, the price tags were not reprinted, so if I had a question about a particular game I could always ask or check Microsoft's site.
So, no, they're not all bad. But still, the story linked above is entirely believable because I've seen employees with a similarly loose understanding of reality.
I was looking over the GameCube games when I heard an employee helping a woman standing in front of the Xbox games. I heard him say something about backward compatibility and how you could tell from looking at the boxes. That seemed strange, so I walked over and asked if he could tell me what he told the lady. He pointed to a BC printed on the price stickers for some Xbox games. According to him, that BC means that the Xbox game is compatible on the Xbox 360 according to Microsoft's official list. He further explained that if the compatibility list were updated, the price tags were not reprinted, so if I had a question about a particular game I could always ask or check Microsoft's site.
So, no, they're not all bad. But still, the story linked above is entirely believable because I've seen employees with a similarly loose understanding of reality.
Labels: game stores, xbox, xbox360
--jvm at 08:50
Comment
[ 3 ]
27 January 2007
Woohoo! PSP Castlevania!
Via NeoGAF I've found out that the February issue of Play magazine has this statement:
Heck, with a good year of PSP titles I might even be content enough to hold off on the PlayStation 3 until late 2007. After all it is my PS3-killer.
There's an epic PSP surprise in the offing too...can you say Dracula X meets Symphony of the NightIf true, the PSP will have moved up yet another notch in my estimation. And if it's a port, or an enhanced version of Rondo of Blood, then my question from last summer will have been answered in a way I never saw coming. Could this be evidence that Sony is finally making the moves it needs to secure the exclusive games to make its systems stand out? Probably not. Watch Rondo of Blood hit XBLA first, or something similar.
Heck, with a good year of PSP titles I might even be content enough to hold off on the PlayStation 3 until late 2007. After all it is my PS3-killer.
Labels: castlevania, psp, sony
--jvm at 19:02
Comment
[ 0 ]
Speaking of unused multiplayer
I managed a cheap copy of Outrun 2006: Coast 2 Coast for my PSP last night. It's a completely different racing experience from Ridge Racer, but it does have infrastructure network play. Nine months after release there isnt' anyone online. I tried last night for about 15 minutes waiting for someone to show up and then again today. Now, this isn't like immediately after release (as Ken Levine was discussing), but a full nine months past Outrun's April 2006 release, so it's perhaps not completely surprising, but it is disappointing. Given the sad state of PSP software sales in 2006, there are probably only a few thousand people out there with this game and of those only a fraction probably play online. If there has to be a silver lining, it's that most (perhaps all) networked PSP games don't require a central server for ad hoc gaming, so we can avoid the dead networked game syndrome.
Ah well, if someone wants to play Outrun 2006 for the PSP online, drop me an email or comment. I'm still learning to drive this thing, though, so if you've played more than an hour you'll probably be doing far better than I.
Ah well, if someone wants to play Outrun 2006 for the PSP online, drop me an email or comment. I'm still learning to drive this thing, though, so if you've played more than an hour you'll probably be doing far better than I.
Labels: multiplayer, online, psp, sony
--jvm at 12:02
Comment
[ 3 ]
24 January 2007
Homer Simpson comments on Bioshock multiplayer
On the Next-Gen.biz podcast this week, Ken Levine of Irrational Games comments on how the multiplayer modes are neglected in most games, not by developers but by players:
[Bioshock] is our first game that hasn't had multipayer. [...] And I don't think anyone has ever spent any real time playing our multiplayer in our games. So System Shock 2, Freedom Force, they've all had multiplayer. And maybe SWAT, some people have spent some time playing SWAT multiplayer. But if you go and you look on Xbox Live, and you go look in GameSpy -- people are still paying SWAT on GameSpy -- it's really kind of interesting that the people who play Halo, who play Counterstrike, there are huge numbers of players playing those games. And then you think about all the work people have spent building multiplayer for these other games and then you go look on who's playing, say, Brothers in Arms, even when it just came out multiplayer, in the world, you're talking about in the world, playing on Xbox Live, I remember we looked right after the game came out, and there were six people playing it. And you think about the effort that went into that, and the effort that didn't go into single-player and you just want to cry like a little girl.In response, Homer Simpson had this to say:
Kids, you tried your best, and you failed miserably. The lesson is, never try.Of course, it really hasn't ever gotten any better than 2fort5 on QuakeWorld TF, so I don't really know why people keep trying.
--jvm at 12:32
Comment
[ 16 ]
23 January 2007
Curmudgeon Gamer Library on display
This past weekend I finally put the Curmudgeon Gamer library into shape along with a comfortable place to play my consoles. I took some pictures to share. Click the picture below to see all the pictures or click on this link.
Yes, that is a 13" Commodore 2002 monitor. Stop snickering. I hope to have a nice TV down here sometime, but when you're sitting four feet away that screen looks huge! Huge I tell you!
Yes, that is a 13" Commodore 2002 monitor. Stop snickering. I hope to have a nice TV down here sometime, but when you're sitting four feet away that screen looks huge! Huge I tell you!
--jvm at 21:27
Comment
[ 6 ]
22 January 2007
A few notes on artistic games
A piece I wrote speculating on an aspect of games this coming generation is up on Next-Gen.biz this morning. The topic is what I call artistic games, and I thought it might be worth adding few comments here.
- I intentionally left the term "artistic game" vague, which some might feel is a weakness of the piece. I can certainly appreciate that criticism. There are a few games that folks generally agree are artistic (or simply art) and I tried to stick to those as examples to minimize the discussion of just what constitutes art and focus on the point, which is that an evenly split market may lead to a more conservative market.
- There are some notable exceptions to the observation that most artistic games ended up on the PlayStation 2. I think Odama would count, and I could even see The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker too. Maybe something oddball like Cubivore or P.N. 03? All the examples I came up with were on the GameCube and I couldn't think of anything on the Xbox, although that might be simply my relative lack of knowledge of the Xbox library.
- I had to exclude handhelds since there are more experimental, and therefore artistic, games in that space. In particular, I find several of the games from the Bit Generations line for the Game Boy Advance to be beautiful specimens of design.
--jvm at 11:12
Comment
[ 9 ]
18 January 2007
Burning Crusade and Ultima's Ghost Towns
Last night, I fell off the wagon and reactivated my WoW account. I don't have the Burning Crusade expansion, so I'm stuck in the Old World, so to speak. What I saw reminded me of my experience with expansions to Ultima Online.
When UO started throwing in expansions, the old worlds very quickly started clearing out. Ole Britannia (or whatever the capital is) went from a bustling urban center to an absolute ghost town, made all the more eerie as the wandering NPC robots grossly outnumbered humans for the first time in my experience.
That's happening now in WoW. Ironforge is nearly empty... auction houses, banks, city square, all nearly empty on my server, even if n=1 nights played for now. I couldn't tell if my "new video card" was providing much better performance or if there simply wasn't anything to render!
This should concern Blizzard. The creation of a virtual ghetto is a bad thing. Maybe Ironforge can add a bingo?
Blizzard needs to ensure that expansions are backwards compatible, not so much that expansionless folk like myself can go to the new lands, nor even that we should be provided access to the new trainers, etc, but players with expansions should continue to flow through old hotspots (possibly with new buildings in cities accessible only if you have the expansions, etc) so that the communities at least do not give the impression of being quite so perfectly cleaved.
Perhaps it will hit an equilibrium at some point, but without adding new zones in the old world, (even without knowing what's in the Outland) I somewhat doubt Ironforge will ever be the impressive hub it was before.
When UO started throwing in expansions, the old worlds very quickly started clearing out. Ole Britannia (or whatever the capital is) went from a bustling urban center to an absolute ghost town, made all the more eerie as the wandering NPC robots grossly outnumbered humans for the first time in my experience.
That's happening now in WoW. Ironforge is nearly empty... auction houses, banks, city square, all nearly empty on my server, even if n=1 nights played for now. I couldn't tell if my "new video card" was providing much better performance or if there simply wasn't anything to render!
This should concern Blizzard. The creation of a virtual ghetto is a bad thing. Maybe Ironforge can add a bingo?
Blizzard needs to ensure that expansions are backwards compatible, not so much that expansionless folk like myself can go to the new lands, nor even that we should be provided access to the new trainers, etc, but players with expansions should continue to flow through old hotspots (possibly with new buildings in cities accessible only if you have the expansions, etc) so that the communities at least do not give the impression of being quite so perfectly cleaved.
Perhaps it will hit an equilibrium at some point, but without adding new zones in the old world, (even without knowing what's in the Outland) I somewhat doubt Ironforge will ever be the impressive hub it was before.
--ruffin at 14:58
Comment
[ 4 ]
Death of the Rhino
What bothers me most about the death of Rhino Games is a kind of cultural loss. Not that Rhino was any proponent of videogame culture, necessarily, but the very existence of NES games on the shelves at least acknowledged that videogames go back further than six years. With Rhino gone, the oldest console games for sale in my city will be from the October 2000 launch of the PlayStation 2. Everything before that might as well not exist.
When I moved to my current city I knew of three independent game shops, each of which had many games for older systems for sale somewhere. In a one hour trip around town I could find games for:
Sadly, all of those shops have closed in the last two years. Only empty strip mall husks remain, empty wire shelves and a few stray game promotion posters still attached to the walls.
In the meantime I could deal with the missing Atari stuff as long as I had a Rhino games to visit. From the NES forward, they seemed to stock most everything that interested me. I tried to find what I wanted there before going to the bigger stores, and I know for sure that I bought several new PSP games there at full price.
With Rhino gone, the time horizon for console games has been moved up to the year 2000. It will be as if nothing before the PlayStation 2 ever existed*. A kid walking into a GameStop today wouldn't know about the original Earthworm Jim or happen to see Goldeneye 007 on the shelves and be curious enough to try it out. The store's focus on only the most profitable games, the newest ones, will necessarily limit the consumer's focus on those same games.
To me that's a loss, not just personally but for the whole culture that's grown up around videogames.
* It is worth noting that GameStop/EB Games stores still seem to stock classic Game Boy and Game Boy Color games. So something from before October 2000 is in the stores, but it's limited to a very small corner of the Game Boy/DS used game case.
When I moved to my current city I knew of three independent game shops, each of which had many games for older systems for sale somewhere. In a one hour trip around town I could find games for:
- Atari 2600
- Atari 5200
- Atari 7800
- Atari Lynx
- Atari Jaguar
- Sega Master System
- Sega Genesis
- Sega CD
- Sega 32X
- Sega Saturn
- Sega Dreamcast
- Sega Game Gear
- Sony PlayStation
- NES
- SNES
- N64
- TurboGrafx 16
Sadly, all of those shops have closed in the last two years. Only empty strip mall husks remain, empty wire shelves and a few stray game promotion posters still attached to the walls.
In the meantime I could deal with the missing Atari stuff as long as I had a Rhino games to visit. From the NES forward, they seemed to stock most everything that interested me. I tried to find what I wanted there before going to the bigger stores, and I know for sure that I bought several new PSP games there at full price.
With Rhino gone, the time horizon for console games has been moved up to the year 2000. It will be as if nothing before the PlayStation 2 ever existed*. A kid walking into a GameStop today wouldn't know about the original Earthworm Jim or happen to see Goldeneye 007 on the shelves and be curious enough to try it out. The store's focus on only the most profitable games, the newest ones, will necessarily limit the consumer's focus on those same games.
To me that's a loss, not just personally but for the whole culture that's grown up around videogames.
* It is worth noting that GameStop/EB Games stores still seem to stock classic Game Boy and Game Boy Color games. So something from before October 2000 is in the stores, but it's limited to a very small corner of the Game Boy/DS used game case.
Labels: culture, game stores
--jvm at 09:50
Comment
[ 6 ]
17 January 2007
Rhino Redeemed
I've given zealous Rhino Games employees a hard time in the past, so it's only fair that when I have a particularly good experience that I should write about it. Regrettably, Rhino will soon be no more, as it's getting absorbed into the EB Games/GameStop collective.
Which is, in part, why I was at Rhino Games in the first place. They've got all their older stuff on clearance: NES, Genesis, SNES, N64, Dreamcast, and PSOne. Note that the prices aren't as nice as that link would have you believe. And some games that aren't in the GameStop system are considered to be priced at the last Rhino sticker price. Which means that I still don't own Bubble Bobble for the PSOne. Stupid $40 price tag.
Anyway, as I'm walking around the store just seeing what's on the shelves the employees announce to everyone in the store that the clearance sale is in effect. Moreover, they encourage us to just bring stuff to the counter to find the real prices. Now that's the kind of attention I can appreciate.
So I took about a dozen games up to the counter and they dutifully went through the computer to find the prices for me. (If the price was in the computer system. Grumble Bobble.) They apologized for the length of time it took them to find the prices, but I was in no hurry, so we just chatted about the move. Apparently they're still getting used to the GameStop computer system that's been foisted on them, so checking everyone out today was a chore. They'll use that system all this week and next Monday they'll officially get a training session. Nice.
I ended up only selecting four of the games after I saw the prices, most of which were reduced but not cheapskate-level. Of those four games one wasn't actually in stock once they looked for it in the back. Then I declined to buy one of the remaining three which appeared to have been mistaken for a sanding disc. (Where do people put their games to make them look like that? Seriously.) So I ended up with a $3 game and a $4 game (both with manuals and pristine discs), but they rang up as a $4 total, due to some unexpected buy-one-get-one-free deal. Them employees were a bit surprised to see that -- apparently it had been ringing up buy-two-get-one free earlier.
While I'm standing there checking out the guy next to me is buying a Dreamcast. It rings up as $15, so I ask if they have any more and the guy brings me two complete systems which I also buy. I'm hoping one of them plays homebrew code so Ruffin can finally try it out. Regardless, I thought it was a pretty good haul for the day.
Thanks, Rhino guys. Hope the the new bosses work out for you.
Which is, in part, why I was at Rhino Games in the first place. They've got all their older stuff on clearance: NES, Genesis, SNES, N64, Dreamcast, and PSOne. Note that the prices aren't as nice as that link would have you believe. And some games that aren't in the GameStop system are considered to be priced at the last Rhino sticker price. Which means that I still don't own Bubble Bobble for the PSOne. Stupid $40 price tag.
Anyway, as I'm walking around the store just seeing what's on the shelves the employees announce to everyone in the store that the clearance sale is in effect. Moreover, they encourage us to just bring stuff to the counter to find the real prices. Now that's the kind of attention I can appreciate.
So I took about a dozen games up to the counter and they dutifully went through the computer to find the prices for me. (If the price was in the computer system. Grumble Bobble.) They apologized for the length of time it took them to find the prices, but I was in no hurry, so we just chatted about the move. Apparently they're still getting used to the GameStop computer system that's been foisted on them, so checking everyone out today was a chore. They'll use that system all this week and next Monday they'll officially get a training session. Nice.
I ended up only selecting four of the games after I saw the prices, most of which were reduced but not cheapskate-level. Of those four games one wasn't actually in stock once they looked for it in the back. Then I declined to buy one of the remaining three which appeared to have been mistaken for a sanding disc. (Where do people put their games to make them look like that? Seriously.) So I ended up with a $3 game and a $4 game (both with manuals and pristine discs), but they rang up as a $4 total, due to some unexpected buy-one-get-one-free deal. Them employees were a bit surprised to see that -- apparently it had been ringing up buy-two-get-one free earlier.
While I'm standing there checking out the guy next to me is buying a Dreamcast. It rings up as $15, so I ask if they have any more and the guy brings me two complete systems which I also buy. I'm hoping one of them plays homebrew code so Ruffin can finally try it out. Regardless, I thought it was a pretty good haul for the day.
Thanks, Rhino guys. Hope the the new bosses work out for you.
Labels: dreamcast, game stores, psone
--jvm at 22:08
Comment
[ 4 ]
Again, with the nub!
From Kris Graft's piece today on the PSP games we can expect in 2007:
Positive:
As a consistent reader of Next-Gen.biz I see plenty of stuff that Kris has written, and generally I think it's well done. The slamming of the nub, however, is really off the mark. It's like the Jaguar controller crap all over again.
We know what you're thinking; shooters rarely work on PSP because of the sad analog nub.No, I wasn't thinking that. In fact, now that you mention it, I still think it's wrong. Let's look at some shooters on the PSP and review quotes about the controls:
Positive:
- Syphon Filter: Dark Mirror - "smooth, well-designed control scheme" (source)
- Killzone: Liberation - "The shooting mechanics are handled very well in Liberation." (source)
- SOCOM U.S. Navy SEALs Fireteam Bravo - "intuitive interface" (source)
- SOCOM U.S. Navy SEALs Fireteam Bravo 2 - "Whether you're sneaking or shooting, the controls are easy to grasp and they work well for the most part." (source)
- Medal of Honor Heroes - "It takes a little while to become accustomed to the default control scheme, and it does have a few shortcomings, but overall it works quite nicely." (source)
- Pursuit Force - "Control is, admittedly, slightly wonky. But thanks to a lock-on mechanism, it's easy to handle crowds of gun-toting gang members." (source)
- Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops - "complicated control scheme has a steep learning curve" (source)
- Bounty Hounds - "With a better camera and improved controls, it could have been a real contender." (source)
- Star Wars: Battlefront II - "Interface makes for somewhat awkward controls" (source)
- From Russia with Love - "the idiotic method of auto-targeting makes it a real problem" (source)
- Ghost in the Shell - "Sluggish, imprecise controls" (source)
- Armored Core: Formula Front - "manual controls are sluggish and difficult to use" (source)
As a consistent reader of Next-Gen.biz I see plenty of stuff that Kris has written, and generally I think it's well done. The slamming of the nub, however, is really off the mark. It's like the Jaguar controller crap all over again.
--jvm at 12:51
Comment
[ 1 ]
15 January 2007
The PSP nub ain't that bad
At the mention of Every Extend Extra this evening on IRC I was reminded of one of the more annoying exaggerations you're apt to hear about the PSP: the analog nub is horrible. A game that requires quick reflexes and fine control would be impossible if the PSP's nub were as bad as some writers have made it out to be. Yet, EEE is playable on the higher levels precisely because the controls are so responsive.
If a PSP game has horrible controls then I'm tempted to blame the developer, not the hardware. The hardware is more than capable.
If a PSP game has horrible controls then I'm tempted to blame the developer, not the hardware. The hardware is more than capable.
--jvm at 20:32
Comment
[ 0 ]
13 January 2007
Ms. Pac-man's dirty little secret
The review of the Xbox Live Arcade version of Ms. Pac-man makes me angry. Not the review, per se, but that dirty little secret that the big media feel like they can't mention in public:
To my knowledge the only thing approximating this mode is the fast mode offered by Tengen's cartridge version of this game (on SNES and Sega Genesis, perhaps others). Even there, it's not quite what you'd expect and the Ms. gets a pair of wings on her head or something to show that she's going FAST! Every other version -- on the many incarnations of the Namco Museum, particularly -- is the slow-as-molasses original.
So why do we keep getting the same lame version that no one actually likes? And why can't someone reviewing the game for a big site come right out and tell Namco how much the slow version stinks?
Update: Just so it's clear: slow original vs. fast modification. I prefer the latter, but Namco doesn't even offer the option. (Possible exception noted in comment below by JohnH.)
No one actually plays the original Ms. Pac-man.That's right. The original game is a plodding exercise in frustration. What we all really enjoy is a rousing game of the sped up version of Ms. Pac-man that has dominated arcades everywhere since -- well, a very, very long time.
To my knowledge the only thing approximating this mode is the fast mode offered by Tengen's cartridge version of this game (on SNES and Sega Genesis, perhaps others). Even there, it's not quite what you'd expect and the Ms. gets a pair of wings on her head or something to show that she's going FAST! Every other version -- on the many incarnations of the Namco Museum, particularly -- is the slow-as-molasses original.
So why do we keep getting the same lame version that no one actually likes? And why can't someone reviewing the game for a big site come right out and tell Namco how much the slow version stinks?
Update: Just so it's clear: slow original vs. fast modification. I prefer the latter, but Namco doesn't even offer the option. (Possible exception noted in comment below by JohnH.)
Labels: ms. pac-man, namco, xbla
--jvm at 02:50
Comment
[ 7 ]
Do you use your PSP?
I second Dustin's question: Just what are people doing with all those PSPs? I use my PSP to play games, but apparently many people don't. Or if they do, they only play really old games.
According to the NPD data for 2006, Sony has sold around 6.7 million PSPs in the U.S. since the launch but then no single game sold more than 600,000 copies in the last year. I have a hard time believing that kind of data, but there it is. Moreover, the games that are selling well are all from 2005.
I can't believe that enough people know about the homebrew/emulation possibilities for that to be the answer.
I fear that what's really happening is that people are thinking they want one, buying it, picking up one new game and a handful of cheap old games, and then packing the whole thing away and forgetting about it. That would explain the continued hardware sales, fueled mostly by the PlayStation brand and a few higher profile games, but slack software sales.
I certainly understand how that happens -- my own PSP sat idle for months during 2006. Things turned around for me -- my PSP has gotten heavy use for the past three months, almost exclusively on new games -- but one wonders if it isn't too little, too late for the public.
According to the NPD data for 2006, Sony has sold around 6.7 million PSPs in the U.S. since the launch but then no single game sold more than 600,000 copies in the last year. I have a hard time believing that kind of data, but there it is. Moreover, the games that are selling well are all from 2005.
I can't believe that enough people know about the homebrew/emulation possibilities for that to be the answer.
I fear that what's really happening is that people are thinking they want one, buying it, picking up one new game and a handful of cheap old games, and then packing the whole thing away and forgetting about it. That would explain the continued hardware sales, fueled mostly by the PlayStation brand and a few higher profile games, but slack software sales.
I certainly understand how that happens -- my own PSP sat idle for months during 2006. Things turned around for me -- my PSP has gotten heavy use for the past three months, almost exclusively on new games -- but one wonders if it isn't too little, too late for the public.
--jvm at 01:34
Comment
[ 12 ]
Wii expands the GameCube market? Feh.
Mike pointed me to an article I missed in Thursday's updates to Next-Gen.biz: O3 Still Loving GameCube. It brings up an angle on backward compatibility that I don't recall being raised back when we last discussed its importance: it expands the base of the older platform, and therefore opens possibilities for smaller publishers to make some money.
O3 is bringing a Japanese shooter on the GameCube called Radio Allergy and depending on the Wii to expand the potential audience. That's a neat theory, but I don't think I really believe Wii players will be browsing the GameCube section of their stores enough to pick up cheap games. Sure, I know that I will do precisely that, but one thing the commenters on this blog have made painfully clear is that my habits are often widely divergent from the typical consumer habits. I suspect this is one of those cases.
We have a precedent, of course: the PlayStation 2 transition period. There we had nearly perfect backward compatibility and a successful system leading into yet another successful system. However, the kind of games that smaller publishers brought out were often quite poor. In O3's defense, I have no idea whether their game will be brilliant or ridiculously bad.
I hate to pick on Mud Duck Productions, since they at least have a nifty name, but their post-PS2 output for the PSOne is typical of what I expect will happen to publishers who look to the GameCube and Wii as one platform: cheap, one-off games like Qix Neo and Puzznic that sell for $10 and languish on shelves for years. (I think their pre-PS2 game Gubble falls into the same category, but I digress.) I just don't see Wii players jumping at the chance to own similar quality GameCube games.
There might actually be a profit in such ventures, especially if the production values are low enough and the number of gullible buyers is high enough*, but this isn't some sort of GameCube renaissance waiting to happen. The next time you see a really great game on a GameCube, it will probably be a homebrew title created by a fan somewhere around 2012.
* Yes, I own Qix Neo. I'm making my own library of games, for crying out loud, and that means getting everything, good and bad. I try not to pay too much for the dreck, naturally.
O3 is bringing a Japanese shooter on the GameCube called Radio Allergy and depending on the Wii to expand the potential audience. That's a neat theory, but I don't think I really believe Wii players will be browsing the GameCube section of their stores enough to pick up cheap games. Sure, I know that I will do precisely that, but one thing the commenters on this blog have made painfully clear is that my habits are often widely divergent from the typical consumer habits. I suspect this is one of those cases.
We have a precedent, of course: the PlayStation 2 transition period. There we had nearly perfect backward compatibility and a successful system leading into yet another successful system. However, the kind of games that smaller publishers brought out were often quite poor. In O3's defense, I have no idea whether their game will be brilliant or ridiculously bad.
I hate to pick on Mud Duck Productions, since they at least have a nifty name, but their post-PS2 output for the PSOne is typical of what I expect will happen to publishers who look to the GameCube and Wii as one platform: cheap, one-off games like Qix Neo and Puzznic that sell for $10 and languish on shelves for years. (I think their pre-PS2 game Gubble falls into the same category, but I digress.) I just don't see Wii players jumping at the chance to own similar quality GameCube games.
There might actually be a profit in such ventures, especially if the production values are low enough and the number of gullible buyers is high enough*, but this isn't some sort of GameCube renaissance waiting to happen. The next time you see a really great game on a GameCube, it will probably be a homebrew title created by a fan somewhere around 2012.
* Yes, I own Qix Neo. I'm making my own library of games, for crying out loud, and that means getting everything, good and bad. I try not to pay too much for the dreck, naturally.
--jvm at 00:57
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[ 5 ]
10 January 2007
Finally game on your laptop
Ever since I started using VNC, I wondered why nobody made an external video card for laptops. Heck, even the original iMac had a video card made for it, and there are quite a few more laptops sans anything approaching a good video card out there with owners that like to play games. The Grover Cleveland tax isn't unique to Mac gaming; that's about the markup you'll pay to play on something like an Alienware laptop (and their failed user-replaceable video card setup).
So Engadget reports that ASUS has stolen my idea, nevermind that anyone with a laptop and a copy of Doom 3 has probably thought the same thing. It looks neat. For some reason I always envisioned doing it through a fast ethernet port, but this more intelligently usesPCMCIA ExpressCard port [thanks Zachary]. I'm not a fan of the kitchen sink approach, as it adds surround sound, etc. Just get me a video card for WinXP + WoW on my MacBook as inexpensively as possible, please.
Still, a pretty neat device. I hope it does well.
Update: The details on this are pretty varied (for which I'll blame the PCMCIA mistake, but don't believe me [placing the blame] until I relocate the source), though some places report that it's coming out as early as Feb. CNet tells us both the Feb release date and, more importantly, what card it is, though not the amount of memory: "in this case Asus' own Nvidia GeForce EN7900GS."
Updatex2: Even better, Tech Digest says it's essentially adding a standard external PCI-E slot to your laptop.
Perhaps the best feature though, is that it is just equipped with a standard PCI-Express slot so you'll be able to swap and upgrade your grahics cards whenever you feel the need.
Updatex3: Asus' own press release.
So Engadget reports that ASUS has stolen my idea, nevermind that anyone with a laptop and a copy of Doom 3 has probably thought the same thing. It looks neat. For some reason I always envisioned doing it through a fast ethernet port, but this more intelligently uses
Still, a pretty neat device. I hope it does well.
Update: The details on this are pretty varied (for which I'll blame the PCMCIA mistake, but don't believe me [placing the blame] until I relocate the source), though some places report that it's coming out as early as Feb. CNet tells us both the Feb release date and, more importantly, what card it is, though not the amount of memory: "in this case Asus' own Nvidia GeForce EN7900GS."
Updatex2: Even better, Tech Digest says it's essentially adding a standard external PCI-E slot to your laptop.
Perhaps the best feature though, is that it is just equipped with a standard PCI-Express slot so you'll be able to swap and upgrade your grahics cards whenever you feel the need.
Updatex3: Asus' own press release.
--ruffin at 11:48
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[ 5 ]
06 January 2007
Yeah, miss you too.
Some time ago, I gave EverQuest a shot. It gave me nausea, and that was that.
Almost. A while after I'd stopped playing, I got an email from the EverQuest folk saying they'd like me to come back. With it, if I remember correctly (and I'm pretty sure I told Matt, so perhaps he remembers), they offered to give me a free month's worth of playtime to boot.
That's pretty impressive. It's good customer service, and if I'd merely not enjoyed the game, I certainly would have come back for at least the month. What more can you ask for if you've got EQ stock? If it's good enough, I'm once again reduced to a revenue stream. Great promotion.
So I haven't played WoW in a while. Here's their "it's been a while; we sure miss you" pitch.
Blizzard Entertainment proudly invites you to return to the World of Warcraft on January 16th and journey beyond the Dark Portal, where an infinity of new experiences await you. Given the high volume of returning subscribers we expect when The Burning Crusade™ expansion goes live, if you are planning a return to Azeroth, we recommend reactivating your account as soon as possible in order to avoid the expected rush of launch-day activations.
That gives me another type of nausea. Their only argument is that they're admitting they won't be prepared enough to handle new players later this month? I'm supposed to come back so that I save time re-registering?! Just a guess, but I'm betting the servers will be nicely queued too, then.
Not only is there no discount, I've now learned my "launch-day" play experience will likely stink.
Thanks WoW. My Druid's probably sitting this one out.
Almost. A while after I'd stopped playing, I got an email from the EverQuest folk saying they'd like me to come back. With it, if I remember correctly (and I'm pretty sure I told Matt, so perhaps he remembers), they offered to give me a free month's worth of playtime to boot.
That's pretty impressive. It's good customer service, and if I'd merely not enjoyed the game, I certainly would have come back for at least the month. What more can you ask for if you've got EQ stock? If it's good enough, I'm once again reduced to a revenue stream. Great promotion.
So I haven't played WoW in a while. Here's their "it's been a while; we sure miss you" pitch.
Blizzard Entertainment proudly invites you to return to the World of Warcraft on January 16th and journey beyond the Dark Portal, where an infinity of new experiences await you. Given the high volume of returning subscribers we expect when The Burning Crusade™ expansion goes live, if you are planning a return to Azeroth, we recommend reactivating your account as soon as possible in order to avoid the expected rush of launch-day activations.
That gives me another type of nausea. Their only argument is that they're admitting they won't be prepared enough to handle new players later this month? I'm supposed to come back so that I save time re-registering?! Just a guess, but I'm betting the servers will be nicely queued too, then.
Not only is there no discount, I've now learned my "launch-day" play experience will likely stink.
Thanks WoW. My Druid's probably sitting this one out.
--ruffin at 19:05
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[ 1 ]
05 January 2007
Sony losing exclusives; what about Microsoft?
Every day for the past month someone in my RSS reader is writing about how Sony's losing the war because its PlayStation 3 exclusives from third parties are just time-limited exclusives and will also appear on the Xbox 360. Discussions branch out from there to whether third party exclusives are becoming extinct, a question I'll leave for another post. (Short answer: See how Splinter Cell was handled on Xbox, GameCube, and PlayStation 2.)
What's troubling is that we've heard precious little about how Microsoft's exclusives are getting a ride on Sony's console. As far as I know, no Dead or Alive (fighting or ogling by Tecmo) games have been announced for the PlayStation 3. And Microsoft still has a lock on Bioshock (by Irrational Games) and Lost Planet (by Capcom) and Dead Rising (also by Capcom) and Gears of War (by Epic) and Eternal Sonta (aka Trusty Bell: Chopin's Dream by Namco Bandai). At least three of those are by Japanese companies, two of which (Capcom and Namco Bandai) have benefited greatly from Sony's systems in the past. Resident Evil and Ridge Racer, anyone? Maybe a little Devil May Cry or Tekken?
If I see any one of those Xbox 360 exclusives flip, then I'll be more inclined to believe that Sony's going to benefit from this death of exclusives. Until then, count me among the skeptics.
What's troubling is that we've heard precious little about how Microsoft's exclusives are getting a ride on Sony's console. As far as I know, no Dead or Alive (fighting or ogling by Tecmo) games have been announced for the PlayStation 3. And Microsoft still has a lock on Bioshock (by Irrational Games) and Lost Planet (by Capcom) and Dead Rising (also by Capcom) and Gears of War (by Epic) and Eternal Sonta (aka Trusty Bell: Chopin's Dream by Namco Bandai). At least three of those are by Japanese companies, two of which (Capcom and Namco Bandai) have benefited greatly from Sony's systems in the past. Resident Evil and Ridge Racer, anyone? Maybe a little Devil May Cry or Tekken?
If I see any one of those Xbox 360 exclusives flip, then I'll be more inclined to believe that Sony's going to benefit from this death of exclusives. Until then, count me among the skeptics.
--jvm at 10:34
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[ 18 ]
I'm sorry, I wasn't having fun?
Gamasutra is running a story called - Researchers: Deeper Emotions Keep Gamers Playing. The study from U of Rochester apparently is picking a fight with fun.
The research found that games can provide opportunities for achievement, freedom, and even a connection to other players. Those benefits trumped a shallow sense of fun, which doesn't keep players as interested.
Obviously I need to read the original, but what is "fun" again? If I change the first line to "games that provide shallow senses of achievement, freedom, and even a shallow connection to other gamers cannot trump a deep sense of fun," can we be fun-lovers again?
It would seem we're simply calling a rose (and a weed) by other names.
But to be a bit more productive, I suppose Tetris is the archetypal "fun" game. It's not particularly freedom-imbibing, and rarely, Matt and my adventures in "cooperative" Tetris aside, gives much of a connection to other gamers, yet seems to remain quite popular and "fun," even perhaps "shallowly fun," to play.
There's a girl at the local coffee shop who comes in several times a week for hours at a time. I figured she was an author. Finally, after some careful surveillance, it appears she's simply playing Solitaire on her laptop 95% of the time. Bizarre. And I was wasting $15 a month on WoW.
Take that, University of Ra-cha-cha. Wait until she finds out fun is not enough to keep her interested.
The research found that games can provide opportunities for achievement, freedom, and even a connection to other players. Those benefits trumped a shallow sense of fun, which doesn't keep players as interested.
Obviously I need to read the original, but what is "fun" again? If I change the first line to "games that provide shallow senses of achievement, freedom, and even a shallow connection to other gamers cannot trump a deep sense of fun," can we be fun-lovers again?
It would seem we're simply calling a rose (and a weed) by other names.
But to be a bit more productive, I suppose Tetris is the archetypal "fun" game. It's not particularly freedom-imbibing, and rarely, Matt and my adventures in "cooperative" Tetris aside, gives much of a connection to other gamers, yet seems to remain quite popular and "fun," even perhaps "shallowly fun," to play.
There's a girl at the local coffee shop who comes in several times a week for hours at a time. I figured she was an author. Finally, after some careful surveillance, it appears she's simply playing Solitaire on her laptop 95% of the time. Bizarre. And I was wasting $15 a month on WoW.
Take that, University of Ra-cha-cha. Wait until she finds out fun is not enough to keep her interested.
--ruffin at 09:03
Comment
[ 1 ]
04 January 2007
Not dead
I hate to start the new year this way, but I literally have nothing to say. The news has been light and nothing I've read has particularly interested me. I'm busy playing games (Final Fantasy III DS and Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops) and doing some reading.
For what it's worth, I'm considering an LCD TV over a PS3 for the time being. So there is that.
For what it's worth, I'm considering an LCD TV over a PS3 for the time being. So there is that.
--jvm at 21:04
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[ 7 ]
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