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Until only a few months ago I vehemently detested any handheld since the GameBoy Advance. The graphics paled in comparison to what the latest living room systems could produce. Games were released on tiny cartridges that I could easily lose underneath a piece of furniture and forget about. The GameBoy Advance SP came out and I could care less. Then the DS and its various iterations received the same reception. Sony's PSP and Vita were not even on my radar.
Then something happened.
My bulky home consoles started getting fewer and fewer JRPGs. "Is the sub-genre on its way out?" I thought. The games that tickled a soft spot in my heart had to be hiding somewhere. I then saw games news outlets reporting on Final Fantasy: Bravely Default and Etrian Odyssey Untold, and my ears perked up a little. After reading some previews and watching brief gameplay videos I was sold. These were games I were longing for, but there was a problem: they were for the 3DS. How could such great looking Role Playing games be slated for release on portable console? Who would even want a handheld when one could spend roughly $50 more to get a fully HD game system? That was my argument that naively justified my unwillingness to consider the handheld market.
While trekking across America in The Last of Us, experiencing the monomyth in Journey, and saving my son in Heavy Rain I was silently craving a JRPG. I resisted buying a 3DS by telling myself the screens were too small. I held out against the XL redesign by saying the colour choices were not attractive. Much to my surprise Nintendo announced the black 3DS XL and I thought it looked like something I might actually want. Two highly intriguing titles were on the horizon after all. So, with the release of the sleek obsidian coloured handheld I jumped aboard the ship, and I like where its taking me.
[img width=240 height=180]http://is1.myvideo.de/de/movie6/7e/thumbs/2858005_3.jpg[/img]
Having found the new home of my favourite genre left me wondering why these developers began to favour the different platform.
The JRPG was once synonymous with the SNES and gained even more steam on PlayStation 2. Gamers had titles including Chrono Trigger, EarthBound, Final Fantasy X, and Odin Sphere. Part of the RPG experience was budgeting one's time and sitting in front of TV to save the world. This was the domain of the genre and it made sense because as console technology improved developers were able to craft grander epics with increasingly beautiful visuals. I firmly believed JRPGs weren't going to leave the living room thinking that the XBox 360 and PS3 would offer me with the next enthralling odyssey. However, the current generation of gaming stations didn't receive as many of these games as their predecessors. The games relocated onto the DS and PSP, and even series that originated on the home console appeared on these 4 inch screens.
The home consoles were left with cliche, trope-laden, painfully linear games that resulted in long time fans wanting more at best, and feeling burnt out at worst. Meanwhile someone on a bus was commanding an army or crawling through maze-like dungeons. Perhaps the Japanese gaming style was the catalyst of this change where mobile gaming dominates over the living room experience. Moreover, those who grew up playing Phantasy Star and Robotrek now have jobs, families, and responsibilities that take them away from a 40+ hour epic. So it's completely reasonable that these games shifted to the pocket sized platforms.
In a way this could also be seen as JRPGs honouring their roots. These games, after all, are about the stories at the core. Without long cutscenes and voice acting to rely upon, any weakness in the narrative are easily exposed. Thus the focus has returned to the plot and character development which is paramount to any RPG. The handheld JPRGs take on more a "all-killer-no-filler" approach to the experiences they offer.
Many are quick to say that the JRPG is dead, but that's not true. One just needs to know where to find them. The genre that went stale found a breath of fresh air on Nintendo's 3DS and Sony's PSP or Vita. There's more new ideas and adventures to experience while commuting and during shorter periods of quiet down time. With few exceptions like PS3's upcoming The Guided Fate Paradox, RPG fans have reason to get excited again but they will just be playing on a different, smaller screen.
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Posted on Sep 21st 2013 at 01:52:33 PM by ( noiseredux) Posted under 3DS |
[img width=550 height=777]http://www.rfgeneration.com/images/games/U-182/bf/U-182-S-01900-A.jpg[/img]
Shin Megami Tensei IV
Atlus, 2013 (3DS)
Multiple endings in games aren’t really so uncommon these days. And to be honest, I’ve never been much of a completionist when it comes to my games. And I’ve definitely never cared for the notion of a so-called “good ending.” In my mind whatever ending you get by playing the game the way that you play it - making the decisions that you want to make, and acting or reacting as you see fit - is your ending. Thus, the most fitting ending for you. I’ve never understood the concept of checking a walkthrough to make sure you do things in a certain order, or say the proper thing to the proper NPC to secure a specific ending. To me, that takes a lot of the interactivity out of the game. Why not just watch a movie or read a book instead?
I tell you this because so much of Shin Megami Tensei IV’s story will be based on your actions. Not only will you be presented with important, story-defining decisions, but you will also have to at times side with your companions. And speaking of your companions, you will spend much of the game traversing with Jonathan (good cop), Walter (bad cop) and Isabeau. And now might be good time to remind you that if you continue reading further you should be well-warned that spoilers are going to start flying soon. Whereas Jonathan and Walter pretty clearly stand as the little Angel and Devil on your shoulders, Isabeau is a little more complex. And more often than not, she was the one who I identified most closely with. I suppose she’d be the neutral character, but it seemed more uncertainty than apathy in most cases.
[img width=400 height=240]http://image.gamespotcdn.net/gamespot/images/2013/190/672441_20130710_screen035.jpg[/img]
But y’know what? Before I get too deep into the story, let me at least tell you a bit about the game itself. Shin Megami Tensei IV is (kind of) the fourth entry in the long-running and crazily branched-out MegaTen series of games. Although not gaining much notoriety in the States until the surprise cult-success of the Persona series (another MT spin-off), these games all share a similar thread. Perhaps a basic way to describe them would be really dark versions of Pokemon games (though MT came first). Instead of “pocket monsters,” the MetaTen games strongly feature demons. Demons need to be recruited into your party, which can be both a fun and annoying prospect. Trying to convince a demon to join you can often be a head-game that results in loss of items, loss of stats, loss of other demons and ultimately the demon will refuse to join you. Sometimes the demon will refuse to join you and then attempt to kill you as well.
But like the rest of the games in the series, Shin Megami IV is not meant to be any sort of cakewalk. In fact, the game is so brutal at points (hello, Medusa) that not only is an Easy Mode available to you - it’s in fact part of the story. This is definitely the sort of dungeon-crawler with its roots in a RPG-landscape of yesteryear. One that features a soul-crushing difficulty (even at times if you opt for the previously mentioned Easy Mode). But it’s also got an amazingly well refined and, dare I say it? - FUN battle system.
[img width=400 height=512]http://image.gamespotcdn.net/gamespot/images/2013/162/672441_20130612_screen017.jpg[/img]
Battling demons in Shin Megami Tensei IV is all about taking advantage of weaknesses. By knowing what attacks can be exploited against an enemy, suddenly you control the board and you’ll watch your enemy stand there in a daze. It’s really quite rewarding - especially after you’ve spent hours being brutalized by the likes of the Minotaur or Medusa.
The demons look awesome by the way. Indeed SMT IV follows a long tradition of wonderfully detailed (and slightly NSFW) artwork. And although the 3D effect in the game was often used quite well, I can’t say that I kept it on much longer than a few moments - just long enough to conclude “oh this looks cool,” and then turning it back off. The music is dark, dissonant and moody as hell. I’m certainly glad that I bothered to grab the LE box for the included soundtrack when I had the chance. (The other inclusion being a partial strategy guide, which is really quite useful so I’d suggest seeking out this edition while you still can).
[img width=700 height=525]http://image.gamespotcdn.net/gamespot/images/2013/161/672441_20130611_screen021.jpg[/img]
Getting back a bit to the story (and again, the spoilers) I mentioned earlier, I have to confess that I spent 35 hours on SMT IV and that resulted in the so-called “bad ending.” An ending where the somewhat confusing story comes to a very abrupt end. Where instead of leaning towards good or evil and getting one of those clear-cut endings, I simply decided to end the world. You might argue that such an ending is anticlimactic. That it almost defeats the purpose of having these alignments. Yet in the days after playing I continued to think about the game, about all the fun I had. It haunted me. And then I realized that in a sense my ending fit my playthrough so perfectly. Where I had spent so much time identifying with Isabeau’s character. I was never quite neutral. I was always more apathetic. It’s as if the entire playthrough was guided by a hopelessness. And so the world had to end.
I just hope that doesn’t mean that Shin Megami Tensei V is out of the question.
Growing up I always wanted the latest video game system, but it was always out of reach, leaving me behind a generation.
Were you always able to get the latest video game systems at launch?
So, I picked up our family's special Zelda edition Wii U today. I've been happily updating the system and testing a few used games (bought on sale in anticipation of the system), and as I write I'll be downloading Wind Waker, despite reserving the physical copy that comes with a Gannondorf statue.
All of this is being done out of site of the kids, and once I'm done, it'll all be packed up and hidden... for over three months.
The Wii U is our family's Christmas gift to our family, and our boys are eagerly saving up chore money until then to buy their own games. I'll admit, it will take a bit of mental hand-slapping to pack it up all up again and be patient, but such is the duty of a responsible parent. And in the meantime, we do own a *few* other games I could play.
After several updates to the system and each game, as well as the network setup, it definitely reminded me of an unfortunate advantage our older consoles had; plug and play.
Gamers my age likely remember a Christmas or birthday that painted this scenario:
First, a younger us excitedly tearing the wrapping off a new Atari/Coleco/Intellivision/NES/Genesis/SNES/Sega CD/Turbo Grafx/Game Boy/Neo Ge-HA! WE WISHED!!- etc. and after mom/dad/uncle/older sibling figured out how to connect it to the TV, we slapped that first cartridge in and a new, unexplored (besides store demos), vibrant, virtual world awaited us. Part of the appeal was the immediacy; once that system was hooked up, all that was required was finding a controller and game and you were good to go.
Now, every new system requires some form of setup. Sometimes we get by just inputting a region and name, but nowadays we have profiles, internet setup, firmware updates, game updates, day one patches, and on and on. One of the things that made me slow to incorporate the PS3 into my common gaming was how often I would purchase a new game, unwrap it, pop it in... and mandatory installs or updates required me to spend anywhere between five minutes to a few hours (looking at you, Gran Tourismo 5) before I could actually play. For a guy who's game time is often measured in less than an hour, even a fifteen minute chunk of un-interactive screen staring means I'm thinking of a different game to play.
All this time setting up the Wii U (not to mention downloading Wind Waker!) made me feel bad for any younger kids who gets a new Xbox One, PS4, or Wii U on Christmas... and then have to wait while online accounts are set up, profiles created, updates delayed due to server overloads, installs required...
Yeah, boo-hoo, first world problem, not a biggie. Make those rug-rats go play football in the snow or play a real board game with Grandma while they wait, just like we had to do when we didn't even have a game system to wait on!
Which got me thinking about how picky we really are about games. My preference over the years for consoles instead of PC gaming developed in part because of the setup required for computer gaming. Nowadays though its pretty much the same; install, check for patches/updates, customize the controls, create a save-game... am I playing on a PC or a 360/PS3? With social media integration, messaging services, and apps such as Netflix, there is often little difference. Some gamers delight in this; a 'share' button on their controller, DV-R for their gameplay, instant tweets over gamerscore.
I know I can be a cranky old-timer when it comes to gaming, but most of the time, if I could skip signing in to my game machine altogether, I would. My 'gaming career' of scores, time spent on games, and K/D ratios can be fun to keep track of and compare/compete with friends, but there is a reason I have my profiles set to "always show offline." I game in very different, often dichotomic moods; sometimes to survive a Horde of Locusts with fellow Gears in co-op bliss, sometimes to blow things up alone to work out frustrations. Sometimes to get a quick, frantic fix of some Robotron 2084; sometimes to play a slow marathon of Tetris while my brain processes the backlog queue. Point is, the game machine is there to 'serve' my use, and somehow in the name of features and connectivity, we've enslaved ourselves to maintaining them. Just keeping the 360 LAN updated so my friends and I can sit and play anything we want any given weekend can be a tremendous chore of keeping each system and hard-drive updated and correctly connected for any game we'll possibly play.
And in a thought that could easily generate enough content for another article, this perpetually required attention extends from consoles to the games themselves. I lose interest in games like GTAIV because of the required in-game social maintenance for virtual characters. I have a difficult enough time keeping up with all my real-world social responsibilities; making sure Niko calls his girlfriend or relative may sell a more realistic experience, but when gameplay breaks down to what feels like tedious exercises to me, I quickly lose interest. I recognize this as a 'different strokes for different folks' paradigm, of course; I've completed many a JRPG or StratRPG that bored my beloved to tears. (Gave her plenty of time to read, though.)
Perhaps therein lies one of the many reasons classic cartridge systems are always connected across our home; we're always a few seconds away from another round of Super Mario 3 or Galaga.
And now I can't wait to hear my kids ask about that collection of giant, black, 'vinyl Blu-Rays' under the entertainment stand...
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Posted on Sep 19th 2013 at 08:23:01 AM by ( monkees19) Posted under gta v |
Now that the new Grand Theft Auto has hit the market and reviews are pouring in and everyone gushes over it I want to ask...am I the only one who just flat out doesn't care? I've watched the trailers several times and found the graphics to be comparable to that of a later Playstation 2 game. Maybe it's just the video I'm watching but it's looked the same no matter which site I watch it on and it even came on during a recent re-run of a Family Guy episode I had stored on the DVR and it still looked bad on my HDTV.
Back in the day, when GTA 1 first hit the market, people freaked. They wanted to know how a game company could put out something that was so unapologetically vulgar and brutal. Car jackings, gang violence, random murders and things of the like were everywhere. You could follow the story or just kill people, steal their cars and shoot policeman. And getting away was as simple as hiding in an alley for a few minutes. It was great. GTA 2 was more of the same, with very few noticeable differences. Pretty much the same game with a new coat of paint.
Then GTA III came out. And it was...every other third person shooter out there. Hitman and Max Payne for example were already on the market. Granted the detail of said games were relatively new at the time but by now, games had been able to get more and more gruesome due to the technology of the time. The Playstation, and perhaps the Nintendo 64 to a lesser degree, had brought these types of games into greater detail.
In short, I don't see what the fuss is all about. It's probably a good game but I doubt it deserves the review scores it is getting. It's just more of the same with a different skin. The first two games were a new innovative idea (ish) and was executed well. And those games got generally panned. Few publications scored it over a 6. Now the last three games, which are again comparable to any 3rd person shooter out there, routinely score well over 9.
I just don't get it. Maybe I'm wrong...
This week's episode focuses on a Mario title that really has it all when you want to talk SNES. Between the original release with 4 games on it , this title would later be re-released with a 5th title ( SMW ). Really adds to the quality of this cartridge.
I've run into a problem lately as I play modern video games, the unusual desire to acquire trophies and achievements. Did we always need these rewards to enjoy our games?
Let me know if you think video game rewards add something to modern games.
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Posted on Sep 13th 2013 at 05:35:47 PM by ( slackur) Posted under Early Adopters, NES,SNES,PS,PS2,PS3,PS4,XB360,BBQ,OMG,RLY |
Every time new video game consoles come out, we hear the same antagonism.
Why on earth would we functionally pay a premium for a brand-new piece of hardware that
a.) is at its most expensive upon the launch window,
b.) naturally begins with fewer games than any time in its lifecycle,
c.) has not been tested for longevity or long-term reliability,
d.) is unproven for consistent support in games and accessories,
e.) has full priced, first generation games that likely cannot compete with the slew of hardware pushing, cheaper games made during the last few years of the previous console,
f.) requires an entirely new batch of full-priced controllers, accessories, dongles, do-dads, batteries, pieces, parts, gumballs, etc.,
g.) almost always have a dreaded equivalent to the Great N64 Game Drought, and
h.) will have a better, cheaper, newer version out by the time it proves itself?
To that, I say: ...yup.
Really, if someone is not the type to buy a console at launch, they are probably not wired to be convinced by exciting sales pitches or exuberant fanboyism. I've worked in video-gaming retail for over a decade, including the two biggest retailers, as well as mom-and-pop stores (R.I.P., Endless Entertainment), and while I've convinced some folks who were on the fence about buying a launch console, I learned not to trying changing the mind of a level-headed nay-sayer.
And I understand their logic! If you're not 'into' a launch system, it would likely be a colossal waist of money. However, that does not mean early adopters are automatically being ridiculous either. This far into our industry's history, there are now visible trends that help make launch window purchases more palatable, even preferable.
(Keep in mind this is being written by a guy who bought an Atari Jaguar and all the trimmings at launch. If your name is not Redd, you probably just winced.  )
First off, the most important thing for a game console: games.
Everyone knows that it takes at least a year or two for a console to come out with some games that would make it worth owning. (Or longer, in the case of Game.com. We're still waiting.) Except, that's not universally true. Sure, it takes years for a console's library to pick up steam, but there are too many examples of launch window games that carried their respective systems enough to warrant the initial purchase, at least for many people.
Some of the best examples include:
Combat (A26)
Donkey Kong (Coleco)
Super Mario Bros. (NES)
Tetris (GB)
Blue Lightning (Lynx)
Super Mario 64 (N64)
Ridge Racer (PSX)
Halo (Xbox)
For many gamers, the cost of the system was justified simply to play these launch games, with the expectation that other great games would eventually follow. Of course, no discussion on the topic is complete without mentioning the greatest selling video game of all time (as of April 2013), Wii Sports. Sure, it makes many of us groan just to mention it, but it cannot be denied than much like Tetris on Gameboy, gamers and 'non-gamers' alike bought the system just to play that game without really having an expectation to play anything else on it. There is such a mass appeal to play that one thing that the cost of the system is worth it, as if it were a machine built with just that game to play. I have to admit all these years later, I still enjoy a round of Wii Sports Bowling. My guess is that many of the 'haters' who initially liked Wii Sports before the Wii became known as the Great Waggle Shovelware Box would still have fun with a few rounds of multiplayer Wii Sports.
There are other reasons early-adopters are not necessarily unthinking fanboys. As much criticism (often earned) as Gamestop and its ilk get from their pre-order schemes, often folks use pre-orders as a lay-away plan to get a system they could not afford otherwise. $400+ is a lot to come off of at once, but $20 every two weeks for a few months? Much more do-able. Obviously, it would make more sense to just save that much out of each check and exert self-control, but I'm no money coach. Plus, often there are pre-order incentives for reserving, or perhaps the system is a gift for a specific date (Christmas, birthday) and the cut-off for system availability is much earlier. There are indeed a few scenarios in which buying a launch system makes practical financial sense, as much as buying video games ever makes practical financial sense. 
For 'core' gamers, there may be another incentive for early adoption. Historically, as consoles reach later redesigns of hardware, the thought that a console gets better with each iteration is a bit of a misnomer.
Sure, there are stacks of broken 1st gen 360s and PS2s to argue otherwise (many of them are stacked in my garage.) but consoles almost universally begin to lose features for every revision. The examples are everywhere;
As much desired as a top-loader NES is, it outputs exclusively in RF, and has visible line noise.
Buying a Sega Genesis with the best components requires a weekend college course and study guide (http://www.sega-16.com/fo...-Genesis-2s-from-bad-ones) but its pretty universal to say that the last versions, Model 3, are stripped down and incompatible with certain games and hardware.
My Super Nintendo Model 2 has no power LED and no native RF, S-Video, or RGB, all supported in the first model.
The original Playstation revisions lost ports used for cheat devices and (more importantly to me) system linking.
The PS2 lost its own system linking iLink port. The slim model, designed without the necessary expansion bay for the hard drive, was released the same year as Final Fantasy XI, a game that required the HD. (Boy, do I remember that. I finally convinced myself to invest in FFXI a week before the Slim was revealed.) As problematic as the PS2 system became for disc read errors, the lack of effective internal cooling meant that the Slims had their own hardware problems.
The PS3, in a rush to follow its lineage, has lost everything from USB ports, operating system options (linux), and video playback with anything besides HDMI, to backwards compatibility options (as has the Nintendo Wii.)
The Xbox360 lost its own propriety memory card ports (while gaining USB drive options, which did not help my stack of memory cards used for LAN profile swapping.)
I miss being able to play GBA games on the later DS models, and newer, brighter screens also included more ghosting.
Even the new, slimmer Vita is catching criticism for replacing the OLED screen for a newer LCD tech.
Admittedly, sometimes the difference is just personal preference; I like the feel of the original, wider Atari Lynx, and the second, smaller model (despite better battery life) was still way too big to be truly portable. Another example for me is the PS3; despite how monolithic the first generation was, all of the revisions felt cheaper and cheaper.) I prefer the heft and locking mechanism of the PSP 1000, and though it does have ghosting I like that better than the artifacts on the 2/3000.
Granted, most of what was lost in these revisions do not effect the majority of people playing games on them, and were dropped to save cost accordingly. Many features can be restored or even improved through hardware modification. And the last generation continued to add to a console's abilities (and ads) for everything from better video output to Netflix support. But a case can be made that early versions of gaming hardware include features that make them preferable to later models, and are therefore worthwhile investments. (I'm not joking when I say that part of my desire to buy an early model PS4 is directly related to Sony's history of re-designs.)
In the end, its about what a gamer wants to play. The same rules apply to a launch console as it does to every other console: don't buy a system if nothing is out or on the horizon that you want to play. I'm excited for Battlefield 4 and Destiny, and I don't game on PC, so a launch PS4 fit my parameters, especially since I have one reserved and pay a little at a time. With the Playstation Plus service promising free games starting at launch, it made the most sense to me.
Even if a difficult economy wasn't a concern, any large entertainment purchase should be a matter of thoughtful consideration, and not a snap-decision. Perhaps the same could be said about being critical of early-adopters. 
I wanted to share some of my new gaming videos with the RF community. So here is one of my first gaming memories about making a huge video game regret.
I'm sure we've all made the huge mistake of missing out on a piece for our collections, or getting rid of something that we didn't realize the value of. What are your video game regrets?
I figured out some of the bugs with my video editing software and got this video up. ( Better intros to come ).
In this episode : This week's moment is dedicated to a cart that did more than just play a game but opened up a whole library to the Super Nintendo System. Even though this isnt the first time a gaming company made a cart that made a system backwards compatible but this was the first time for Nintendo and this was a big thing for me growing up.
Episode 17 discussion thread: http://www.rfgeneration.c...rum/index.php?topic=12633
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Each time a new HD remake or Digital Remaster gets released, if you listen closely you will hear a collective sigh of disappointment that comes from long time collectors. The common thought is that this diminishes the value of the original release of a game. Is there any merit to this though?
This month we take a look at HD remakes, compilations, remastered games and digital re-releases and see how each affects the value of the original release prior to, during and long after the new release is available. Is your Earthbound cart going to depreciate drastically after the Wii U e-shop release? Let's find out!
As always, for your listening pleasure is several hours of the finest gaming scores dug up by the deal hunters on the rfgeneration.com forums!
Show notes:
Genesis Audio Comparison: http://youtu.be/WuIjwgPIQtg
Price Charting: http://videogames.pricecharting.com/
Action 53: http://www.infiniteneslives.com/aux20.php
Music: Blades of Steel (NES)
0:25 Intro
20:07 Small Scores
3:55:15 Main Topic: Do rereleases impact collectable values?
5:57:15 Outro
Hey guys! I'm late on this one, but we have another set of thanks to give out for August!
In August, we had 2550 submissions! 2324 of those being games and the other 226 were hardware. That's back up from our summer lull of July! This month also pushed us over 30,000 submissions on the year! Thanks to everyone who submitted!
The top submitters for August were: ApolloBoy with 1043 submissions! Nearly half! Then there was Shadow Kisuragi with 328, thegreatska with 236, Sirgin with 154, and ericeskapade with 127 to round out the other members with over 100 submissions.
The top approvers for August were: Shadow Kisuragi with 390, Tynstar with 215, Paully3433 with 198, and ApolloBoy with 118!
Great job everyone! Let's keep up the awesome work!
Video game collecting can be a strange thing, no?
Here's my reflection that produced the above thought (not that its the first time I came to said conclusion.) I just finished the DLC chapter of Dead Space 3, called Awakened. I completed the game once solo and a second time co-op, which is how I played the latter.
The DLC chapter was well written for what it was, quite short (2 to 2.5 hours or so), and mostly served as a story lead-in to a theoretical sequel, since DS3's original conclusion brought a sense of definitive closure to the series. I'm glad I played it, and given my head-shaking, nope-nope attitude toward gaming's digital future (and present) I'm glad I waited until the DLC was on sale before picking it up.
As a consumer, I have sent the message to Microsoft and EA that I absolutely refuse to purchase digital-only gaming content... unless I really want it and I can get it for cheap. Looking back, that's the story of my purchase history. Fair enough. I may be hypocritical, but at least I'm consistently so.
What I find even more strange is my willingness to purchase retro games for much more than digital content, even games I know I will likely put little to no time into playing.
A rough but telling example; both me and my DS3 co-op buddy refused to pay more than $5 for the Awakened DLC. It is something we desired to play, but we likely would have never budged on our plan if the content did not go on sale.
And yet if I ever saw Cheetahmen II or, heaven forbid, Stadium Events, for $10, Of course I'd buy them. Or $15, or $50, or... yeah. Keep in mind, if I bought them, I would not 'flip' them, selling at profit, so I would not be operating under the obvious financial motivation. It would be part of the media collection we use to connect with people.
Now, I'm well aware of how awful Cheetahmen II plays, and that I already own Stadium Events in all but name and cart-label with World Class Track Meet. Therefore, aside from morbid curiosity, I have no desire to play either. I would not be interested in selling them. I don't consider myself a hoarder. (Why are you laughing?) I also do not like the idea of flaunting physical possessions in the face of someone who desires but does not own such things.
So why on earth would I pay much, much more for something I would not play, and inversely I am reluctant to purchase something I am ready and willing to enjoy?
Its easy to use the ''because I don't want to support digital instead of physical copies" excuse, but that doesn't apply to the games that are already out on disc, and I am awaiting a sale or price-drop. Of course money is the next, or even first excuse, but why then do I still spend money on old games I won't play? I'm sure I'm not alone on this site when it comes to occasionally scouring the 'net to find some retro games for cheap, even games I have no desire to actually play through.
For some, it can be a fun meta-game, looking at huge collection numbers, comparing or even competing on collection size or subgenre completion. Much like achievements or trophies, these arbitrary numbers are part or even most of how these gamers enjoy gaming. Why?
For the same reason an RPG fan is at a loss to explain how grinding and random-looking number screens are fun when discussing such with a non-fan.
Or when an MMORPG player is discussing guilds and patches and expansions to someone who thinks Azeroth is a term they forgot in Geometry class.
Or when telling a Battlefield fan how their preferred game is a sub-par Call-of-Duty clone, and witnessing how virtual violence can in fact translate to IRL violence.
Or the annual Madden/Fifa fan discusses at length to me how great/disappointing their game/franchise/team/player/mascot is this year.
Or the same reason I still go to movie theaters, despite having a home entertainment system that outclasses many of them:
We are all wired to not only enjoy different things, but also with preferences on how we enjoy them. And not just for acquiring or collecting; some of us have a favorite chair/couch/plastic crate/floor/nimbus cloud that we game from, and cannot fully enjoy otherwise. Some refuse to play on anything but original hardware, including arcade cabs; some will not pay more than $10 for any video game period, and for some of us, the hunt for cheap retro games we'll probably never play is a game itself, and is as fun as actually playing a game.
My current 'Holy Grail' gaming search is for a CIB Beyond Shadowgate, the last game of my youth that was stolen and never replaced. And yet, even if I could, I wouldn't trade for it a single memory of the gaming hunts my beloved and I have enjoyed. And we've shared countless ones.
Some things are just far more valuable to me.
Video game collecting can be a strange thing.
This week I focus on something out of my Atari 2600 library that has been a big part of my early on video game collecting ( Late 90s ). This is one of the launch titles that would help make Activision a staple in the homes of millions. This week I feature for everyone.....
Dragster by Activision ( AG-001 , 1980 )
[img width=550 height=780]http://www.rfgeneration.com/images/games/U-115/bf/U-115-S-02010-A.jpg[/img]
The Orange Box
Valve Corporation, 2007
Xbox 360
I was pretty late to the party as far as ‘modern’ First Person Shooters go. I think this had to do with the fact that the rise of Halo and similar games seemed to happen during a time when I was paying a lot less attention to gaming. However once I did finally get exposed to Half-Life a year or so ago, I was very surprised at how much I enjoyed it. A few months back I played through Half-Life in its entirety for the first time ever and that only led me to start delving deeper into more of Valve’s output. So what better place to do that than The Orange Box - a single disc with three full games as well as two add-on episodes?
The first game I decided to play was Portal. Although I had started it (and enjoyed it immensely) a year or two ago, I had never managed to finish it. So I figured I’d just start it over again from scratch. Although I knew the good old ‘cake’ meme, what I didn’t know was how long the game was. This created a really cool experience, always wondering how close I was to the end. And although it only took me two sittings to play through, I had an absolute blast.
[img width=700 height=525]http://image.gamespotcdn.net/gamespot/images/2007/186/934384_20070706_screen005.jpg[/img]
I’ve just realized that I’m writing this with the assumption that everybody in the world got around to playing Portal before I did. Just in case that’s not the case, you should know that Portal is basically an FPS without the ‘S.’ Or to be more accurate, the shooting you do is not a gun filled with bullets that are taking out aliens, zombies and soldiers. Instead you’ve got the ingenius Portal-gun which shoots - you guessed it - portals. Enter one and exit there other. Simple, right?
This is the sort of game that offers up puzzles that you might breeze right through, or then sit there for fifteen minutes trying to make sense of everything and then feel like the smartest person alive for doing so. It’s also full of hilarious personality. And although deaths can happen in Portal, for the most part it’s a first person game with very little action. It’s a game that encourages you to move around slowly and explore and think. And although it’s a short game, I can honestly say that the last level alone is just as much fun as everything leading up to it.
[img width=700 height=393]http://image.gamespotcdn.net/gamespot/images/2007/165/934384_20070615_screen001.jpg[/img]
Arguably, the star of The Orange Box would be Half-Life 2 which is included here with its Episode 1 and 2 expansions as well. This was my first experience with the game. The original Half-Life I had played a year or so ago for the first time, and only actually beat it earlier this year. But in that time I grew to really love the game, and consider it one of my favorite FPS games of all time. With that in mind, I was certainly looking forward to playing the sequel.
I’ve yet to actually beat Half-Life 2 (which means I’ve also not played the expansions yet either), but the solid time I have spent with it has been great. I will say however that I’m not yet convinced that I like it better than the first game. Although HL2 definitely improves upon its predecessor in many ways, it’s also hard for me to shake the excitement of experiencing the world of Black Mesa for the first time. I also think I lean towards liking the claustrophobia of the research facility more than the more open-world given to you in the sequel. I’ve also noticed that Half-Life 2 feels a lot more “survival horror” than the first game. Ammo seems a bit more limited here for instance.
But all that aside, Half-Life 2 is an incredible game as I said. It looks glorious and runs smooth on the 360. And of course this is just personal preference, but the 360 pad is definitely now my preferred way of playing FPS games. Sorry keyboard & mouse purists. One thing that really stands out in the second game is the writing. The characters definitely have a lot more personality than in the first game. Oh, and the barnacles still creep me out.
Interestingly enough I had recently started playing Halo for the first time ever (seriously). And one thing that really stuck out to me about Halo was just how bad the driving sections were. I just could not grasp them and constantly found myself crashing when I should have been cruising. As it happens I hit the driving (a boat) part of Half-Life 2 around the same time and it was night and day compared to Halo. Thankfully the driving section there was actually really fun, even if a bit longer than need be.
One addition to the sequel that’s really nice is the Gravity Gun. This thing lets you pick up and shoot objects that would otherwise be far too heavy or too far away for you to do so. In that regard, Valve successfully incorporated puzzles into a true FPS similar to what would be come the standalone game of Portal. It definitely makes you think about how to approach certain sections. For instance in one area I was low on bullets, but there were saw blades all over the place stuck in walls. Turns out you can suck up a saw blade with the Gravity Gun and send it violently shredding through a zombie (these are zombies, right?).
[img width=700 height=393]http://image.gamespotcdn.net/gamespot/images/2007/165/934384_20070615_screen023.jpg[/img]
As a bit of a diversion I figured I should at least see what this Team Fortress 2 game was all about. So I hopped on the XBLA server one weekend morning and to my surprise, there were several games going on. What started as a simple capture-the-flag game with a red team and a blue team quickly turned into a pretty decent time-suck. A half hour or so later I realized the appeal to such a game. And now that I was feeling at least somewhat comfortable controlling an FPS, I could even enjoy such a game! Of course I was only playing with strangers, and I’m sure that a much bigger bit of enjoyment would come from playing with a group of friends. Something I’ll have to look into in the future.
And speaking of the future - not only does this mean that The Orange Box has this online game that I can enjoy indefinitely (or until the servers are shut down), but I’ve still got Half-Life 2 to beat and the expansion episodes to delve into. When you look at the number of quality hours of gaming that are on this single disc, it becomes quickly apparent that The Orange Box is one of the finest compilations you get on the 360.
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