Archive for the ‘Video Games’ Category
Let me be honest and upfront: I haven’t been super excited about a big budget AAA video game in years. This does not mean I don’t like and enjoy such games, because I get them and I do like them and play them and have a good time. But… they don’t move me like some indie games have in the last few years. Maybe that’s because the AAA hype machine is usually reserved for sequels and “safe” new IPs with PR campaigns that cost nearly as much as the game development itself. I was in the room when MGSV was officially announced, and I didn’t get excited for it until about 6 weeks before the game came out (truly, for the best). I will admit, E3 2015 has made me hype for the return of The Last Guardian, the new IP Horizon, and a few others, and with E3 2016 having happened relatively recently, I’m excited about more things, but I digress. That’s for another time. Here… I want to talk about game that while small, have huge expectations and bigger ambitions. Two games, one on the precipice of release, that have made me feel things about video games I don’t feel often. These games are thatgamecompany’s Journey, and Hello Games’ No Man’s Sky.
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“I CAN’T BELIEVE THE WITNESS IS $40. AND HOW DARE HELLO GAMES CHARGE $60 FOR NO MAN’S SKY. AND UGH THOSE INDIE DEVS WHO REFUSE TO PUT THEIR GAME ON SALE AND EXPECT ME TO PAY MORE THAN $15 FOR THEIR GAMES. WHO DO THEY THINK THEY ARE!?” Well, they think they are people creating a product who believe in that product’s value and don’t want to conform to some arbitrary pricing standard you believe in. I hate what we as a community have done to devalue games. And don’t think big publishers and indie devs haven’t taken notice. In a world of free-to-play and mobile games, massive Steam sales, and the always popular “I’ll wait for a price drop”, it’s hard to convince people to pay full price for a game, and even harder to get them to pay a bigger price then they assume a game is worth.
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Put it on my face. That’s all I could think as I wandered the halls of CES this year, staring at VR headset after headset. Put it on my face. I want to live there. If I can’t have a flying car, I want to at least pretend I’m flying like a superhero.
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“I can’t stand losing visionary father-like figures” a tweet from a friend said. “Yeah, I can’t either” I thought to myself, trying to rationalize the news that Satoru Iwata had passed. Read the rest of this entry »
I’m probably over 100 hours into Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate, and I’m not even that far into the game yet. Part of that has been my personal “grinding quests over and over again for certain item drops to craft armor/weapons I want” thing that most people who’ve ever played a game with item drops knows the pain of. However, I’m not hating the grind. Maybe because there’s a lot in the game itself that makes it feel less like a grind and more like an exploration. Read the rest of this entry »
Living in Vegas afforded me incredibly easy access to the inaugural Playstation Experience. I bought my tickets the day they went on sale, and even though I eventually found out that not only did they go up for half price on Groupon or that I could have a free ticket due to connections, I feel it was worth every penny. The event itself was a mix of Sony at E3 and PAX: part preview hype machine, part marketing, part fan event. And I loved it. Read the rest of this entry »
Video games are a powerful thing. I don’t really care what is or isn’t a game, nor if a game should make you feel. Let’s face it, is Call of Duty really that much more of a game than Tetris or Papers, Please? Does the budget or the story or the platform truly make that big of a difference if you end up enjoying it at the end of the day? But I digress. No, today I want to tell you about what some games mean to me, and what some games can mean to others, especially during times of loss.
Today I want to talk about games and that inescapable monster, death.
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I bought Pokemon X. Or rather, was bullied from various directions into getting it. Now, this is actually huge news. I haven’t owned a Pokemon game since Gold/Silver. Not HeartGold/SoulSilver. I haven’t played a Pokemon game in well over a decade.
What a grand time to hop back in.
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Last week, Valve made several announcements as part of an upcoming assault on traditional consoles. There was the SteamOS, the Steam Box I mean Steam Machine, and the Steam Controller. Which means once again, I held hope for Half Life news, and got crushed. I should have learned my lesson by now. Anyways, back to announcements!
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So we all know Mike of Penny Arcade has said some shit. If you happen to be oblivious to that shit, well, I’m not here to tell you what it is. Only here to talk about the shit surrounding that shit. But I’ll let you get caught up with things like Dickwolves, some tweets he made about women, PAX fallout, etc.
Okay, all caught up? Good.
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