An Interesting Discovery About Priorities

I was just listening to Brad Nicholson on Podtoid talking about how Mass Effect 2 is one of the best action RPGs he’s ever played, calling it a game of the year contender. At first it made me feel kind of bad for the developers; after all, it’s only February now, and in 10 months everyone will have more or less forgotten the games that came out at the start of the year. It happens every year when “best of” season rolls around; that’s why all the big dumb action moves come out in summer and all the gay melodramas come out in winter. Newer, shinier, sexier games will be coming out all year long; a game released in January has almost no chance of being remembered at the end of the year, much less recognized.

For those games that don’t disappear down the memory hole, more time in players’ hands usually equates to lower opinions. Familiarity breeds contempt, and game scores go down over times as the hype wears off and players really get to dig in deep with a game. The shine wears off of the graphics, and the shortcuts and oversights in the design become apparent. Exploits are found that dilute the experience for those too weak to resist them. Rebellious contrarians go against the grain and criticize popular hits. It’s natural.

And then I remembered: DLC.

Mass Effect 2 has two announced DLC packs scheduled, and almost certainly more in the pipeline for some time to come. If they can keep a steady pace of quality material coming through the year, that’ll be the story come December. It’s a lot more work than just releasing the game around the holidays, but totally worth it if things work out. In fact, if they really listen to what people have to say, they can pull a Fallout and actually improve the basic game via DLC (level cap, my ass), resulting in an overall better impression of the game when people look back than might have been warranted at… Well, I was going to say “release”, but maybe “launch” is a better word. That’s what a DLC-heavy title is, really: a platform for delivering content in return for micropayments.

Looking at this paradigm now, it seems odd that more publishers aren’t insisting on it. Bayonetta just came out and is garnering huge praise from the review community, but absolutely no DLC is planned. I wonder, are they simply not concerned about Bayonetta’s year-end award prospects? Where are their priorities?

-ssr

Sonic Apprehension: The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo Comes To Film

The award-winning Swedish film based on the critically-lauded thriller novel The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo is coming out in the US next month! Fucking A!

An American remake is already planned! Fucking why?

There are rumors about a Hollywood version of the first novel.[7][8] Yellow Bird executive producer Søren Stærmose confirmed in an interview with the Swedish newspaper Expressen that negotiations for such a version are taking place. These would not be simply US remakes of the Swedish films, but rather new Hollywood films based on the books. In the interview, Stærmose stated that the US films might be produced similar to the Yellow Bird co-produced Wallander TV Show starring Kenneth Branagh, shooting in Sweden using English-speaking actors. He also said that it is up to the director, and the story could just as well take place in another country, such as Canada.[9] According to The Guardian, George Clooney, Johnny Depp, and Brad Pitt are all interested in playing the central role of Mikael Blomkvist;

Oh fuck.

and producer Søren Stærmose of Yellow Bird, who holds the screen rights to the books, has been approached by directors including Quentin Tarantino, Ridley Scott, and Martin Scorsese. [10] [11]

Oh fuck.

Continue reading Sonic Apprehension: The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo Comes To Film

Pride & Prejudice & Zombies – Cannonball Read #5

Pride & Prejudice & Zombies – by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith

The premise of this book is incredibly hipsterific. Pride and Prejudice with zombies!  Awesome! Elizabeth Bennett, expert zombie killer? How cool will that be?

Not very.

Continue reading Pride & Prejudice & Zombies – Cannonball Read #5

Sonic Hate: Game Previews Are Just Advertisements

Dark Void is out and – surprise surprise – receiving middling reviews from the online gaming press.

Gamespy: …”jetpack fans will have to settle for half-baked.”

Destructoid: “The best parts of the game are mediocre and the worst parts are abysmal.”

IGN UK: …”Every bit as disappointing as expected.”

Totally and utterly non-shocking, unless you happened to read the preview coverage of the game from these same online sources:

Gamespy: “Dark Void takes game mechanics that are very similar to what other shooters have done in years past but keeps things fresh with its unique focus on aerial combat and vertical level design.”

Destructoid: “Unless Dark Void completely jumps the shark with some sort of retarded plot twist or ridiculously out of place gameplay mode later in the game, I think that they have pretty solid win on their hands.”

IGN UK: “From what we’ve seen so far, these disparate game elements combine seamlessly, making for an incredibly fresh, genuinely exciting take on the shooter genre.”

I am sick to death of this. Every game gets hyped to the hills in preview coverage. Every MMO might have what it takes to knock WoW from its throne. Every third-person actioner is a gasp-a-minute thrill ride that will leave you breathless. Glaring problems are described as hiccups needing to be ironed out before the game ships. This bullshit pre-game carnival barking is universal in the gaming press, as predictible as it is omnipresent. Any gamer could probably write a passable game preview without even trying the game out; we’ve all read a few dozen stupid hyped up game previews before. We know all the lingo. Fresh. Promising. Puts a new spin on. Cover system.

I understand why it happens. Game sites don’t want to piss off the people who send them review copies and allow them into preview events. They want to be able to cover upcoming games that will nab them page views from interested readers. Maybe it would even be nice to get a pull quote in the game’s print advertising. If they want all these perks, they have to make nice about the game, at least until the first day’s sales are in the till.

But it needs to end. Continue reading Sonic Hate: Game Previews Are Just Advertisements

Rant: CNN Plays The Game Blame Game

“After Tragedy, Dr. Plays Video Game Blame Card”

Here’s my question for this doctor. Were you treating this kid?

Oh, you weren’t?!?!? Then shut the hell up. His family is in unknown depths of grief, his friends, his school and his community are desperately trying to keep it together in the face of a tragedy they can’t understand. You are not helping anyone. You are an opportunistic famewhore. There is a special circle of hell reserved  for those who profit from the grief of others and you have a prime spot with your name on it.

Also, as you weren’t his doctor, how do you know he played video games at all?? Maybe his family doesn’t even own a console or they actually supervised his playing and limited his time. Maybe he had depression, it’s a disease, have you heard of it? Have you ever done a study on the social effects of video games and that it’s entirely possible they actually help lonely, isolated kids by enabling them to socialize with people of a like mind outside of their immediate geographic milieu and help them be appreciated for their personality and skill set rather than be ostracized for not having the right jeans or BMI?

</rant>

My sincere condolences to the child’s family and community.

-fyre

[ht to Destructoid]

Make Me Play Videogames Field Journal: This is Killing Me

This experiment has been underway for all of 5 days, and I am already deep in the pit of game variety withdrawal. I desperately want to play something, anything, that is not Far Cry 2. Mass Effect 2. Super Mario Brothers. Daikatana. Beer pong.

It doesn’t help when the Baker plops down on the couch next to me, two steaming plates of homemade dinner in hand, and says “Hey, we should play Wii Sports tonight.”

And yet, I’m starting to not want to play other games. I am developing an appreciation for Far Cry 2 as I marinate helplessly within it. I think I may not have paid so much attention to a game in quite some time, and the sensation is fun. Or maybe I’m just succumbing to some video game version of Stockholm Syndrome.

I’ve actually completed all of the side quests for the moment, which is good; somewhere in Optional Mission Valley is where I usually lose focus and wind up straying to another game. My style is already changing, and I’m seeing results: steady progress rather than an early burst followed by drifting torpor.

Oh God, I want to play Samurai Warriors soooooooo bad.

-ssr

Quick Review: Jonathan Coulton Live 1/23/10

Got to see JoCo live at the Great American Music Hall on Saturday January 23, 2010.  I couldn’t procure a ticket for Mr. Sonic Rob so I went with some nerdy friends.

As we loitered in the vestibule trying to decide if we should go upstairs or stay downstairs to find a good table (it’s all table seating), a staff member approached and asked “How many in your party?” He then led us to a table normally reserved for people who buy dinner tickets, which are twice as expensive. This table was in the second row back from the stage. Let’s hear it for aimless milling leading to desirable consequences!! Continue reading Quick Review: Jonathan Coulton Live 1/23/10

Sonic Fyre Episode 4

Someday we really need to find a way to turn one of these podcasts around in less than a month. This podcast was originally recorded in the second week of December 2009. It was then burned to a series of wax records, placed in a steamer trunk and covered in concrete, thrown from the Golden Gate Bridge, buried in Pacific sediment, fossilized, left to sit for a geographic age, excavated by paleontologists, exhibited in the National Museum, and then stolen and placed on the Internet for your amusement. Enjoy.

>> 00:30 Benediction and movies talk. Fantastic Mr Fox. Sherlock Holmes pre-watching jitters. Everyone hates Avatar without ever seeing it.
>> 08:17 Books. Fyre talks about the Cannonball Read. Rob saw Twilight, which was based on a book.
>> 13:14 Recapping events at Ümloud.
>> 20:14 Games of the month. We talk TF2 and the Dante’s Inferno demo. Fyre tries to be Hater of the Week. Analog gaming is briefly mentioned.
>> 43:25 Rob talks about Madden NFL 2010 for ten Goddamned minutes straight. Rob earns the Hater and Lover of the Week titles simultaneously.
>> Music for this episode is “Fakeout” by Derek K. Miller

SonicFyre-Episode-4 MP3 57:52 70.4 MB