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GDC: Quantic Dream’s “Kara” shows new engine

By
Khristopher Reardon
– March 8, 2012Posted in: Guides, News

The uncanny valley seems to be getting smaller as developers rally for more realistic character models, facial movements and acting in video games.

The latest volley comes from Quantic Dream, developers of Heavy Rain, as they debuted a video showcasing their new engine which was running in real time on a PS3.

The video shows a robotic woman being constructed and becoming self aware, something which the creator of the robot didn’t intend.

Kara does something most other engines don’t. Rather than splitting the audio and facial capture from the motion body capture, it pairs the two successfully.

This way the full performance can be given in one swoop allowing for a better overall effect without disrupting the performance in doing two different takes.

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Just In Bailey: Decisions, Decisions

By
Joey Alesia
– March 7, 2012Posted in: Columns, Editorials, Joey's Blog, Just In Bailey, Staff Blogs, Vagary.TV

Being a gamer is great.  You don’t have the physical strain of athletics, except for when you are pausing for 15 minutes every hour to stretch and get a refill of your favorite carbonated beverage.  If you don’t like human interaction, as in board games, video gaming gives you the opportunity to do something by yourself.  It’s also good as an escape.  Really, there isn’t much of a downfall to being a gamer, save for one: the cost.

While console gaming isn’t quite as expensive as building your own super-computing rig, it can still be pricey.  If you are like me and you own every major console and handheld (minus the PC rig for me), it’s even more expensive.  The sheer amount of games available when you are in this situation can be staggering.  And the talent behind these games has grown by leaps and bounds in recent years, so many games turn out to be worth playing.  So how does one decide how to spend their hard-earned cash?  Luckily, there are a few good options out there.

Buying every game that comes out is not a great idea.  You risk getting stuck with some crap games, and who really has that kind of disposable income?  But, if you are one who likes to have a collection or just likes to own things, you would be well served to research before you buy.  Of course, everything you read will be an opinion.  The difficult part is finding a source that is trustworthy enough.  Sites like Vagary.tv, are a good place to go.  Before working for the site, I noticed many other reviewers would skew their reviews depending on who their parent company is, who their company is in bed with, or even who gives them the most advertising.  When I started with Vagary, I read a few of the reviews and enjoyed the honesty the reviewers showcased (end shameless promotion).  The problem with this approach is you might miss out on a sleeper hit because you have to trust the opinion of someone else who may not have the same tastes as you.

What most people resort to, and I am not proud to admit that I’m guilty of this as well, is buying games and then selling them back to stores like GameStop, Best Buy, and Disc Replay for a reduced trade-in amount.  As great as it may seem to be able to get something for a game, even if it’s just $10, I learned the hard way that this is not a financially sound idea.  Here’s an example:

Let’s say you buy Street Fighter X Tekken this Tuesday for $60.  After playing the game for a week, you figure out you don’t want it any more.  So you go to GameStop and trade the game in.  You get $25-$30 back and put it toward Mass Effect 3.  So you’ve paid $90 for two games.

While, this may seem like a good idea at the time, it turns out to hurt in the end.  Maybe you keep Street Fighter X Tekken for a few months and sell it back for $15 because the value of the game dropped.  Then you’re out even more money.  Then, maybe a month later, you decide you didn’t want to sell the game back and you buy it again, and trust me when I say this happens.  So now you’ve spent 1.5x-2x more on the same game.  And the more you buy and sell back, the more money you end up spending.  The only real winner is the store buying the game back for less than half its worth and turning around and selling it used for $5 cheaper.

So, if you’re like me and you figure out the vicious cycle you were trapped in, with the help of the woman who would one day be your wife, you start to research other options.  Gamefly makes a good deal of sense.  The service is completely by mail.  The costs are tiered depending on the number of games you want to rent at one time.  I started out with the 2 games for $23 a month option.  The savings from the previous option are almost immediately noticeable.  One nice thing I liked about Gamefly was the option to keep a game if you liked it, and for a discounted price.  Sometimes, you could even “cheat the system” and get new release for $15 cheaper.

For example, if you wanted to get a new copy of Mass Effect 3, make sure you return one game (if you are on the two or more option) and Gamefly receives it before ME3 comes out.  Fix your queue so that the only available option would be ME3 when it is released and place it at the top, giving it priority.  When the game is released, Gamefly will send it to you.  Now it’s considered used and they discount the price.  Once you receive it, select the Keep it option and a new copy of ME3 is yours for a discounted price.
Now, there are issues with Gamefly.  If you live close to a distribution center, of which there are too few, you can get your games in a reasonable amount of time.  If you live farther away, like in Illinois, it could take a week or more to get your game.  Keep in mind, you’ll still be paying for this time.  So, if you get a game on a Monday and decide you don’t like it and send it back Tuesday, it may take until Friday or Saturday for Gamefly to receive the game.  They may send another game out, depending on the availability, the same day.  It could not get to you until the next Friday.  That’s nearly two weeks without a game that you’re paying for.

Also, Gamefly is completely at the mercy of the U.S. Postal Service and their times and dates of operation as well as the speediness of their delivery.  If you can only afford the 1 game option, Gamefly may not be the best choice to get your games.  If you can manage the 2 games or more, at least you can have a backup when one game goes back.  Gamefly is a decent service with some pretty good deals and promotions.

Another option is relatively new to the video game scene: Redbox.  Games are $2 per night, which is a good deal if you want to play a lot of games.  It would not be a good idea if you wanted to rent a game the size of Skyrim.  With bigger games, $2 a night can quickly grow to $14 for the week.  At this point, you’ve paid for a decent portion of the game and a purchase would have been better.  Redboxes are popping up everywhere and are easy to find, especially with the help of the internet.  However, not all Redboxes carry the same inventory of games and the selection is not as great as Gamefly’s.

Finally, there’s Blockbuster Video.  Unfortunately, Blockbuster took a giant kick to the groin when Netflix and Redbox started to gain popularity.  The rental giant was slow to compete.  They didn’t really update their pricing structure until more recently.  Because of their slow movement, the company had to close a lot of their stores.  But, if you’re lucky enough to have one near you, they have a Total Access package which I personally have found to be awesome.  For $15 a month, you get unlimited rentals of everything in the store.  This includes DVDs, Blu-Rays, AND games. Blockbuster stays pretty up-to-date with their game selection.

If you decide you don’t like a game, you can just pop back in to the store the same day and exchange it.  This can be done as much as you like.  Blockbuster also does movies and games by mail, but if you have a store near you, this is a better option.  Unfortunately, their selection doesn’t really allow for older games, and with no due date, you are at the mercy of other renters.

This is all from personal experience.  What I have found to work the best for me is buying certain games that I think I’ll play for a while and renting ones I’m not sure are worth a purchase from Blockbuster.  Of course, my financial and residential situation is going to be completely different from yours.  Hopefully, these explanations can help you find out the best way to feed your gaming needs and still come out with some money in your bank account.

 

 

 

 

Just In Bailey –an homage to the secret code from Metriod, which allowed you to play as Samus Aran without her suit– is an editorial column at Vagary.TV brought to you by Joey Alesia. Each week Joey will challenge you to look at a different perspective of the characters, gameplay, and/or plot in your favorite games. Chat up your thoughts below, or send Joey an e-mail at Joey.Alesia@vagary.tv and remember to follow him on Twitter @wrkngclsswrtr.

 

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Street Fighter X Tekken VS sexual harassment

By
Khristopher Reardon
– March 1, 2012Posted in: News

A gaming community face palms after comments uttered during the Cross Assault tournment advocating fighting game players right to sexually harass.

Cross Assault is a Capcom sanctioned event meant to pit a team of Tekken experts against a team of  Street Fighter experts as a promotion for the new Street Fighter X Tekken coming out soon. The entire event is being run as a live streamed tournament with a $25,000 prize for the victors.

During the stream, Team Tekken’s coach Aris Bakhtanians, can be heard constantly talking to Miranda “Super Yan” Pakozdi, a Team Tekken member, as she trains for her matches. He asks her what size her bra size is, makes crude jokes about installing cameras in the washroom for when she goes to use it and other such wonderful subjects.

Pakozdi: “I’m trying to play Aris, you’re messing me up.”

Bakhtanians: “You’re need to be able to focus when people are heckling you!”

Pakozdi: “That’s fine but like, this is just creepy.”

Bakhtanians: “You need to be able to play when people are harassing you”

Pakozdi: “Thanks for that Aris.”

Bakhtanians: “Take off your shirt.”

But it didn’t really hit the fan until day five during a conversation between Twitch.tv community manager Jared Rea and Bakhtanians.

The conversation started off with Rea commenting on how some players don’t know how to treat others with respect.

“Can I get my Street Fighter without sexual harassment?” says Rae at one point during the conversation.

“You can’t. You can’t because they’re one and the same thing. This is a community that’s, you know, 15 or 20 years old and the sexual harassment is part of a culture and if you remove that from the fighting game community, it’s not the fighting game community it’s StarCraft,” replied Bakhtanians.

He continued to defend the fighting game community to that end.

Since then the story broke it has spread all over the community and across popular video game news sites. People have been taking different stances on the issue, some decry Bakhtanians comments while others are trying to filter through the offensive comments for that bleak ray of sunlight.

As for the girl at the receiving end of much of Aris’ attention, Miranda Pakodzi expressed her distaste for her treatment on the team on Twitter, even going as far to say the only reason why she continued to be at the event was because she was on contract.

On her Twitter she says that she pulled him aside ‘dozens’ of times trying to tell him to stop.

She ended up deciding not to attend the final round of the tournament.

Unfortunately, any which way the event and comments are interpreted, re-interpreted or outright dismissed, it definitely casts a negative light on the fighting game community.

Capcom has said the comments aired don’t reflect their personal views and that they believe everyone should be treated with respect.

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Just In Bailey: Let’s All Go to the Movies

By
Joey Alesia
– February 20, 2012Posted in: Columns, Editorials, Joey's Blog, Just In Bailey, Staff Blogs, Vagary.TV

Films are one of the main things that differentiate American entertainment from everywhere else in the world.  There is something magical about Hollywood.  American actors and actresses are larger than life.  They have more sway than any politician.  Suffice it to say, movies are huge here in the States.  Of course, not every movie is going to be a hit.  Even big budget films can flop.  It’s unfortunate, but it happens.  Even more unfortunately, it happens more often than not to movies based on video games.  Funny enough, games based on movies are for the most part an awful lot as well.

Why do things turn out this way?  Will it ever be possible for these mediums to complement each other?

One of the best examples of a great video game gone wrong in Hollywood is Super Mario Bros.: The Movie.  I am not going to even try and defend this travesty of a film.  The only thing this movie got right was that Mario and Luigi were plumbers from Brooklyn.  Everything else was wrong.  King Koopa was a human played by Dennis Hopper and not a fire-breathing reptile.  The Mushroom Kingdom was turned into a futuristic city that looked more like New York on crack than a kingdom.  Everything the movie could get wrong about the game, it did.  Before he died, Mr. Hopper was asked what movie he regretted the most.  Not surprisingly, he named this film.  The sooner this movie is forgotten, the better off we’ll all be.

Another game-to-film translation that went horribly wrong was House of the Dead.  Actually, it’s not fair to single that movie out.  Practically everything Uwe Boll touches is pure brown gold.  Honestly, I don’t get why he’s allowed to direct anything other than traffic.  Unfortunately, he isn’t the only “visionary” to screw up a video game movie.  Paul W.S. Anderson also had his way with a great gaming franchise: Resident Evil.  And to think, George Romero was the original director.  To be fair, Anderson’s movies aren’t all bad.  Mortal Kombat was entertaining (we’ll ignore Annihilation).  And I don’t understand why he feels the need to cast his wife in all of his movies.  Milla Jovovich is easy on the eyes, but, well, she’s easy on the eyes.

For the most part, these movies based on video games turn out to be mediocre.  I think the problem stems from the director trying to make the movie their own.  The Resident Evil movies wouldn’t be bad movies if they didn’t carry that title.  People have certain expectations of these video game franchises and when the director changes things, like adding a character that has nothing to do with the story (Alice) or making another a tool (Chris Redfield), gamers get offended.  Really, all we want is for them to take the game we’re playing and put it up exactly that way, or close enough to it, on the big screen.

When I found out someone was planning on making a movie based on Uncharted I thought “there is no possible way for them to screw it up.”  Then the director went and changed the storyline, making the Drake family a family of thieves.  That’s when I knew the movie would bomb immediately.  And Mark Wahlberg as Nathan Drake?  Really?  You could cast a dummy made entirely out of straw and it would have more acting talent than Marky Mark.  So, not only was the premise screwed up, the casting of the lead character was done wrong.  This would have spelled definite disaster.

There are some examples of movies based on games that are done well enough to give me hope.  The web series Mortal Kombat: Legacy by director Kevin Tancharoen is one of them.  He may not have followed the entire series by the book, but he gave it the respect it deserved.  Actually collaborating with the creator of Mortal Kombat, Ed Boon, showed that he wasn’t in for a quick cash-in.  The series captured the grittiness and violence of the game.  And it was entertaining.  I’m excited to see what the future brings.

Two other movies that actually did justice to their respective games were Resident Evil: Degeneration and Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children.  Both of these movies stayed true to the games, only adding to the lore instead of trying to change it.

Hollywood should really take note from the good examples I mentioned instead of trying to shove what they think we like down our throats.  One prerequisite I would have is that the major players working on the movie (producers, director, actors) should at least play the game before filming the movie.  If Robert DeNiro can spend time as a cab driver before filming Taxi, why can’t the people working on these movies based on games take a little time out to do their own research?  Also, the company who made the game should have at least some control over their IP.

Like I said before, gamers don’t want some Hollywood hot shot’s interpretation of Resident Evil or other games.  We want a mansion.  We want zombies and hunters.  We want Jill and Chris.  And Barry.  Where’s Barry?

Just In Bailey –an homage to the secret code from Metriod, which allowed you to play as Samus Aran without her suit– is an editorial column at Vagary.TV brought to you by Joey Alesia. Each week Joey will challenge you to look at a different perspective of the characters, gameplay, and/or plot in your favorite games. Chat up your thoughts below, or send Joey an e-mail at Joey.Alesia@vagary.tv and remember to follow him on Twitter @wrkngclsswrtr.

3

What’s Up With Vagary #3

By
VTV Staff
– February 19, 2012Posted in: Columns, Editorials, Staff Blogs, Vagary.TV, What's Up

While the Vagary staff is comprised of a large group of like-minded individuals, that group has an eclectic range of tastes. What’s Up With Vagary is a chance for a selection of our staff to fill you in on what is sucking up the majority of their time during the past week.

Don Parsons – Publisher Relations Liaison and Review Staff

I played three hours of Kingdoms of Amalur: The Reckoning. I don’t know if my expectations were too high, or what, but I was bored and unamused the whole time I played. I ended up taking it back to the rental store for half credit, and picked up WWE ’12. I guess I expected Sacred 3. While Amalur runs smoother than Sacred 2 on console, I was very let down by the loot system. This is why I play games like this; the loot. And other games have just done it better.

A lot of time was also put into Gotham City Imposters as I set out to finish up that review. That game is so fun and addicting, and I can’t wait until the DLC comes out next month. On the complete opposite end of “fun”, is Far Cry 2. This was recently a freebie for Playstation Plus members, so I couldn’t resist. But that game does not age well and was quickly deleted to give me back my precious hard drive space.

TV-wise, Glee was much better this week, though I still don’t buy the whole Sam and Mercedes relationship. True Blood (in Season 4) is getting more interesting. I was originally losing interest as I thought the show was getting WAY out there at the end of Season 3. But the whole witch plot is getting more amusing as it goes along.

Tony Odett – Review Staff

Following a long battle getting my pre-ordered copy from Toy ‘R Us (totally got screwed by the way), I finally received my copy of Kingdoms of Amalur: The Reckoning a week after release.  Let me tell you: it was worth the wait.  I love the weighty combat (hitting an enemy with a warhammer feels awesome). The RPG has stellar upgrade system which, through use of fate weavers, allows you to rebuild your entire character if you wish to play differently. But I think the most impressive thing about the game is the way the theme of fate is woven into every element of the game. The core of the narrative is based on your character being severed from his fated destiny. The entire game, the narrative structure, the sidequests, the upgrade system- it all stems from this reality. Game mechanics and narrative are so often designed separately. Kingdoms of Amalur is an excellent example of proper game design.

Also, put a few hours into both Modern Warfare 3 and Battlefield 3. They are both so much fun. Also, I suck. (Editor’s Note: Join Tony, Chris and Fozzy on Tuesday Night Battlefield every Tuesday at 10PM on Xbox 360 for multiplayer madness)

Khristopher Reardon – News & Reviews Team

This week I decided to pick up the new Epic Quest DLC for Zen Pinball. This new table features RPG elements letting you shoot to level up, defeat enemies and find loot to equip to your persistent character. I actually think Zen Studios did some great work on this table. I was kind of expecting it to be more video game and less pinball, like Mario Pinball Land for the GBA but it turned out to be just a genuinely good pinball game with looting elements and character progression. It strikes a really good balance and felt well worth the money I paid for the table, which is saying something because this is the first DLC table I’ve actually decided to buy for Zen Pinball.

Other than that I’ve been playing the Back to the Future video game by Telltale on my PS3. I’m a kid of the 80s and I loved the Back to the Future movies. Point and click adventures can be very pedestrian mechanically and the game does little to throw me off that track but the story is absolutely solid. I like it so far, though some hiccups have caused frame rate drops, but I’m still having a good time with it.

Kyle Baron – Editor in Chief

It’s hard to care about not having the freedom of movement one is used to with first person shooters; I realized this when I hopped a car off of a building, spun a 360 upon landing, and unloaded hood-mounted mini-guns and rockets into the windshield of another driver while I was driving in reverse in front of him – this happened in the span of a couple of seconds while heavy metal music crunched in the background. That’s what Twisted Metal feels like after you get the hang of it.

Developer Eat Sleep Play has created a multiplayer car combat game with so much depth and complexity that makes it hard not to be overwhelmed by all of the weapons, vehicles, crazy controls, huge arenas, and various on-screen gauges, meters, and jim jams. After several hours of split screen and online play, it becomes clear why that hot rod has a flame thrower and not a chain gun, and why you would need to flick the right stick to suddenly boost in reverse.

Twisted Metal may have all of the complex ambiguous workings and cheesy attitude of ’90s video games, but the potential for player skill development amidst the chaos in each game arena is fantastic. Mechanics aside, I haven’t even discussed how cathartic it is to drag a clown behind a motorcycle before throwing them into a meat grinder in order to launch a nuke at the other team’s statue while White Zombie music blares. “Dragging what into a what-now?” Don’t worry about it, lots of people still don’t understand the ’90s.

So that is what we have been up to, what about you? Fill us in by dropping us a comment.

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UKIE pushing for leaner crowd-funding regulations in the UK

By
Khristopher Reardon
– February 17, 2012Posted in: News

In a push partially inspired by the recent success of Tim Schafer’s Kickstarter campaign, UKIE, trade body for the UK’s interactive entertainment industry, tabled a report calling on the UK to ease restrictions on crowd-funding.

The push is fueled by the idea that this source of crowd funding could be beneficial to video game development and other small and medium sized enterprises as well.

This comes after Schafer’s triumphant fund raiser which has yielded about $1.8 million to date. That’s a huge step up from the $400,000 he was expecting in the course of 33 days.

“Having Double Fine’s Kickstarter project raise over $1.8 million has shown the huge potential of crowd funding to benefit games and interactive entertainment businesses,” said UKIE CEO Dr Jo Twist as reported by Gamesindustry.biz.

“We need the UK to be able to take full advantage of crowd funding to allow video games businesses, community projects and SMEs from all sectors to raise much needed investment. We have produced UKIE’s Crowd Funding Report as part of our pre-budget submission to government, to outline exactly what needs to be done for this to be possible.”

Some of the points UKIE has focused on in it’s report is the lifting of fund raising limits, allowing companies not to have to issues shares to investors, allowing the use of crowd-funding as a permitted tactic for business in projects and a ‘light touch’ regulatory system to keep investors safe but not to interrupt fund raising efforts for businesses.

However, it still wants to call for a set funding limit per person who invests into potential projects. This will protect investors from reaching too deep into their wallet in case a project is unsuccessful.

1

Just In Bailey: To Remake or Not to Remake

By
Joey Alesia
– February 13, 2012Posted in: Columns, Editorials, Joey's Blog, Just In Bailey, Staff Blogs, Vagary.TV

Remakes are all the rage these days.  With the advances in technology, developers have sought to bring updated visuals, and sometimes even complete overhauls, to a lot of the classics.  And let’s be honest, the publishers love the idea of simple graphical updates that they can charge full freight for.  With collections like Ico and Shadow of the Colossus and the Metal Gear Solid HD Collection, gamers can relive some great game moments or experience them for the first time.  There is one game, however, that has eluded the remake treatment so far.  There have been rumors and talk and speculation.  Hopes have been built up and dashed, then rebuilt and dashed some more.  That game is Final Fantasy VII.

Gamers have begged Square-Enix for a remake for years.  Square-Enix even went so far as to show off the PS3 with a tech demo of FFVII.  The demo showed off some crazy updated visuals.  Then they came out with Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children.  The movie was completely CG and gave gamers hope that a remake of the game could happen.  My question is this: is a remake of this RPG classic necessary? Regardless of necessity, should the game be remade?

Let’s look at what the upside of a remake would be.  If Advent Children is any indication, the game would look gorgeous.  The action sequences would be totally bad ass.  Even the soundtrack would get the royal treatment.  Instead of a gazillion lines of text to trudge through, the characters would benefit from a touch of voice acting.  On a minor note, there wouldn’t be any disc-swapping either with the increased storage space of blu-ray discs.  The reception for the game, that would be something else.  If Square-Enix really wanted to get back in the good graces of their fans, a remake of FFVII would, for all intents and purposes, heal any wounds incurred in the recent years.

While a remake of Final Fantasy VII would indeed be an awesome notion, there are good reasons to let the game be.  The original FFVII was hailed as a technological marvel during its time.  The graphics were unlike anything anybody had ever seen.  Great graphics this day and age are almost mandatory.  A remake of FFVII would have to go above and beyond anything gamers have seen before.  And let’s be honest, the story for FFVII made almost no sense when it was first released and makes just as little sense now.  Awesome graphics and a great soundtrack mean very little when the story is hard to understand.  Even the gameplay runs the risk of feeling outdated.  Random encounters are practically a thing of the past, or have at least been made manageable by games like Final Fantasy XIII-2.  A remake of a game of this magnitude would be a tough endeavor.

Which leads me to my own opinion.  As cool as updated graphics would be on FFVII, I don’t think a remake should be done.  Again, the story still doesn’t make any sense and doesn’t really hold up well.  I also think that many fans would be left disappointed.  The expectations for a remake would be impossibly high.  It could also ruin the mystique of the original game.  There is a reason that FFVII is seen as a classic and to remake that could destroy everything fans hold dear.  It would be a dangerous undertaking. When something is a classic, let it stay a classic.

Just In Bailey – a homage to the secret code from Metroid, which allowed you to play as Samus Aran without her suit– is an editorial column at Vagary.TV brought to you by Joey Alesia. Each week Joey will challenge you to look at a different perspective of the characters, gameplay, and/or plot in your favorite games. Chat up your thoughts below, or send Joey an e-mail at Joey.Alesia@vagary.tv and remember to follow him on Twitter @wrkngclsswrtr.

0

Coming to Stores: February 14th Edition

By
Don Parsons
– February 13, 2012Posted in: News, Vagary.TV

This week in stores, we see Sony’s next handheld launching. Oh, and Valent- oh, wait, neh. No need to use the “V” word, right? But still, I have to wonder why SCEA would launch their first exclusive PS3 release of the year on a day when anyone in a relationship isn’t playing games. Hm. ~ Don

Don’s personal picks are highlighted in red.

Console

Who needs roses when you can have car combat?!

Multi-platform:

  • Tuesday, February 14 ~ Blazblue: Continuum Shift Extend (PS3 & X360)
  • Tuesday, February 14 ~ Grand Slam Tennis 2 (PS3 & X360)
  • Tuesday, February 14 ~ UFC Undisputed 3 (PS3 & X360)

Playstation 3 only:

  • Tuesday, February 14 ~ Twisted Metal
  • Tuesday, February 14 ~ Order-Up!!
February continues it’s “big game a week” trend with Twisted Metal, David Jaffe’s last Eat Sleep Play effort. Car combat at its finest, you cannot say many bad things about blowing up rivals in an ice cream truck. Fighting game fans get an updated version of the Blazblue series with Blazblue Continuum Shift Extend. This new, enhanced package adds balancing tweaks, new stories, a new character and more. EA serves up Grand Slam Tennis 2, something I’m personally interested in due to Move and Kinect support. And fans of the ultra-brutal UFC get their blood-thirsty mits on UFC Undisputed 3.

Handheld

The day has finally come..

Nintendo 3DS:

  • Tuesday, February 14 ~ Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games
  • Tuesday, February 14 ~ Order-Up!!
  • Tuesday, February 14 ~ Tales of the Abyss
  • Tuesday, February 14 ~ Tekken 3D Prime Edition
A little bit for everyone if you just must add to your 3DS library this week. Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games offers another competitive suite of Olympic-based games. Shoo away rats and manage a restaurant in time-management game, Order-Up!!. 40 characters, a 3D movie, and 700 collectible cards promise to finish your battery in style with Tekken 3D Prime Edition. And rounding up this crazy, genre mixer (not the Catalina Wine Mixer, mind you) is another epic and 3D entry into the “Tales of” JRPG series, Tales of the Abyss.

Sony Playstation Vita

  • Tuesday, February 14 ~ Asphalt Injection
  • Tuesday, February 14 ~ Blazblue Continuum Shift Extend
  • Tuesday, February 14 ~ Dungeon Hunter Alliance
  • Tuesday, February 14 ~ F1 2011
  • Tuesday, February 14 ~ FIFA Soccer
  • Tuesday, February 14 ~ Lumines: Electronic Symphony
  • Tuesday, February 14 ~ Michael Jackson The Experience HD
  • Tuesday, February 14 ~ Rayman Origins
  • Tuesday, February 14 ~ Virtua Tennis 4: World Tour Edition
  • Wednesday, February 15 ~ Ben 10: Galactic Racing
  • Wednesday, February 15 ~ Hot Shots Golf: World Invitational
  • Wednesday, February 15 ~ Little Deviants
  • Wednesday, February 15 ~ Modnation Racers: Road Trip
  • Wednesday, February 15 ~ Reality Fighters
  • Wednesday, February 15 ~ Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3
  • Wednesday, February 15 ~ Uncharted: Golden Abyss
  • Wednesday, February 15 ~ Wipeout 2048

The Playstation Vita makes it’s grand debut with the slightly more expensive “First Edition” on February 15th. If you had planned on getting the 3G version, it is not much more since you get Little Deviants (Sony’s “show off the features to all audiences” game) and a memory card. Uncharted: Golden Abyss, Sony’s flagship Playstation 3 franchise, strengthens the lineup with its first portable  entry. I’m not a sports-guy at all, but even FIFA Soccer looks fantastic on the Vita. Ubisoft shows strong support for the Vita with a huge list of launch games, a few of the ones I am personally interested in being; Dungeon Hunter: Alliance, Rayman Origins, and Asphalt: Injection. I won’t touch on every game launching this week but the Vita shows promise with a strong lineup out of the gate, with just as many titles hitting the following week.

 

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Just In Bailey: Hate Leads to Suffering

By
Joey Alesia
– February 7, 2012Posted in: Columns, Editorials, Joey's Blog, Just In Bailey, Staff Blogs, Vagary.TV

“The way some video game fans spew awful hatred at the companies who make the things they love makes me sick to my stomach sometimes.” -Felicia Day

 I try to keep most of my articles light-hearted and as thought-provoking as possible.  I like to keep my readers entertained. Then I saw this tweet and it sparked a need to write this piece.  Video games used to be considered nerdy and dorky and only pale, pimple-faced loners played them; kids with no friends and no social life.  Now, video games are a form of social life.  From party games at a friend’s house, to MMOs, to online death matches, video games have become extremely mainstream.  With that type of notoriety, and with the instant access to information that the Internet provides, games, and the companies who create them, are constantly being scrutinized.  We all have expectations and if those expectations aren’t met, we are disappointed.  But, does, as Ms. Day puts it, “[spewing] awful hatred,” actually solve anything?

Games in the 1980s were very simple and usually consisted of small teams; sometimes even just a 1-2 person shop.  As technology has expanded, the development teams for games rival those of Hollywood blockbuster movies.  Sometimes there are hundreds of people working on a game.  These are people just like you and me.  They have families.  They are trying to make a living.  And they are passionate about what they do.  When you finish a game, take the time to sit through the credits.  Sometimes, there is a section where the team members give shout outs and thanks.   Read what they have to say.  Just like us, they work under extreme stress.  There are long nights and huge sacrifices.  All of this is done to bring joy to others in the form of a game.

With the advance in technology, there is a greater chance of a game being buggy.  The nice thing is, these bugs can be fixed quickly as opposed to back in the day when they were unfixable.  We, as gamers, need to be understanding.  If a game has a day-one patch, so what?  We wanted the game released, the development team was given a deadline, and if they missed something at least they fixed it.  If the team didn’t care and wrote the game off once it went gold, I would take issue.  But, if they recognize something that needs to be fixed, and they are working on a fix, then we’re good.  They are human.  Mistakes can be made.  And I for one don’t think that a public apology needs to be issued for every little thing.

Which brings me to my main point: why do people feel the need to be nasty toward developers?  It doesn’t solve anything and can actually make us gamers look ignorant and selfish.  Do you have to like every game out there?  No.  People are entitled to their opinions.  I don’t play Call of Duty because I think first-person shooters have over-saturated the market.  I rarely play online, preferring to be in the same room with my friends.  Those are my opinions.  That doesn’t mean I’m going to hop onto the COD forums and start telling the developers they’re dumb for releasing another game that to me is exactly like the first.

 
Sometimes, developers want to try and reinvent/reboot a series to appease fans.  This can meet with extreme failure (Metroid: Other M) or extreme success (Street Fighter 4 & Mortal Kombat).  And I think the new look for the Tomb Raider reboot is pretty cool.  Recently, Capcom received death threats due to the change to Dante in the upcoming game DmC: Devil May Cry which is intended to breathe new life into the Devil May Cry franchise.

Death threats?  Are you kidding me?  Is that creative decision so detrimental to a gamer’s life that they feel it necessary to issue death threats?  We’re supposed to be a society of civilized people.  And idiots like these drag us back to the dark ages.  If you don’t like the changes, don’t play the game.  No one has a gun to your head.  Actually, I’d rather these clowns just not play video games any more.  They give the rest of us gamers a bad image at a time when the industry needs as much positive press as possible.

I love this industry.  I love playing video games and writing about video games.  Someday, I hope to write for video games.  And because I love this industry, I am critical of it.  Everyone has a right to be critical.  All I ask is that when you’re criticizing a game to keep in mind that someone sacrificed time with their newborn baby to get this game in your hands.  Make your criticism constructive.  Explain what you think needs to be improved.  If you claim to be a gamer, take care of the industry.  Stop with the nonsense.  The more you hate on the industry, the more the industry suffers.

Just In Bailey –an homage to the secret code from Metriod, which allowed you to play as Samus Aran without her suit– is an editorial column at Vagary.TV brought to you by Joey Alesia. Each week Joey will challenge you to look at a different perspective of the characters, gameplay, and/or plot in your favorite games. Chat up your thoughts below, or send Joey an e-mail at Joey.Alesia@vagary.tv and remember to follow him on Twitter @wrkngclsswrtr.

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Microsoft & Sony: No Console Announcements at E3 2012

By
Kyle Baron
– January 31, 2012Posted in: News, PS3, Xbox 360

Announced at E3? Probably not. Also, this terrible name won't be used.

Don’t listen to all of the rumors about the next generation of Microsoft and Sony home consoles being announced at E3 2012.

Cedrick Delmax, director of marketing for Microsoft France, said in an interview with Le Point that “Xbox 360′s cycle is not at all finished. The proof is that we don’t see the logic in cutting the price this year.” Referencing the presence of the Nintendo Wii U at E3 2011 and 2012, he added that “we [Microsoft] are not here to counter Nintendo and they’re not here to fight the other manufacturers.”

Delmax also said that Microsoft isn’t concerned with Sony’s supposed decision not to showcase the next Playstation console this year.

Kaz Hirai, CEO of Sony, has already said that there are no “plans” to announce another Playstation at E3 of this year. In another interview with Le Point, Philippe Cardon, president of Sony France, said that Sony was the last to release a console in the current generation and “will probably be the last to announce something.”

It’s important not to misinterpret the elusiveness of the responses from both console manufacturers. That caginess is likely to serve to cover the tracks of each company with respect to how their competitors and shareholders are closely monitering them. Delmax said it best when he pointed out that Xbox 360s are still selling. Playstation 3 units are still selling as well, so any announcement of a future console will undercut current sales for both consoles.

The abysmal software sales of Wii titles, combined with the continued decline of Wii sales after it hit its stride, certainly add to the reasons for Sony and Microsoft not to be intimidated. Add that to the fact that a lot of the announced titles for the Wii U are multiplatform titles available on existing consoles and you should feel happy with the console you already own for a good while longer.

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