» Hangover

Lunkheads

Paul Frew — Sat, 22 Oct 2011 06:46:20 +0000

“Consider if you will, the mighty Brumak. How fitting that the Gears beastiary should include a hulking, bipedal reptile. Strip away its gratuitous arsenal of machine-guns and rocket launchers – enough firepower to make the Earth resemble a planet-sized hunk of fruit with a bite missing – and the Brumak and Tyrannosaurus Rex could be cousins. Paleontologists once peddled a view of dinosaurs as fabulously brawny creatures with walnut-sized brains. Many hold the Gears of War series in identical regard.
Can you blame them? Marcus Fenix and his fellow COG soldiers boast lantern jaws, impregnable armour and necks with the sort of girth you only expect to find in an old-growth forest. Dazzling set-pieces and hyper-combustible action sequences bully their way into your brain’s pleasure centre using spectacle, the bluntest of all aesthetic instruments (why pick a lock when you can batter the front door down?) Then there’s the game’s rabid fan community. Each new photo of a fan’s COG-skull tattoo retweeted by Epic’s Cliff Blezsinski further reinforces Gears’ reputation as the series for lunkheads” – Edge Magazine, November 2011

Now I don’t know if I consider myself a lunkhead. I was a bit meh about Gears 1, I loved Gears 2 and I didn’t enjoy Gears 3 as much as I hoped. In fact Todd and I gave it a Not Recommended. But these paragraphs just seemed ignorant to me.

Firstly, I can’t think of any type of media whether it be film, tv series, music, video game, comic or even magazine that doesn’t have a rabid fanbase and according to the competition within each of these particular media types the opposing group is full of lunkheads – well they prefer to use homophobic slurs.

Secondly, EDGE magazine has a reputation of being cynical and rate themselves at a higher standard then the rest of the videogame community and also society in general. I knew this going in to reading the magazine and their “hardcore” readers don’t help by praising this type of behaviour. But who am I to judge – if that’s what they want to think then fine. I can just as easily read another magazine.

Back to lunkheads – when I read that paragraph this morning I wanted to know what was so wrong with being a lunkhead? I like games like Limbo just as much as I like games like Kane and Lynch. Not every game needs to be a piece of art – what I like is every game to be fun. It’s the same as movies – I like Inception but I also love Commando – they both give me difference types of satisfactions.

Games are no different. It is ok if you like Ico as well as 50 Cent Blood on the Sand. It’s ok if you buy Battlefield 3 and Modern Warfare 3. If you enjoy them both then you don’t have to choose which side of the fence you’re on. You can knock down the fence and play on both sides of the yard.

The problem is this type of thinking is a minority – video game writers don’t help, online communities are worse as they’re usually already in their little cliques and even if you do get in to talking to some of them don’t like the games they don’t like then you’re automatically excluded and eventually pushed out of the community. Facebook, Twitter and YouTube are really the only places I can think of where you can go to as you have full control over who you talk to about games you’re interested in. You create your community through friends or people you talk to and you can block douchebags.

The average age of gamers in Australia is 28. A lot of the time I don’t feel like that’s the case everywhere when I read the paragraph at the start. It would be great if gamers didn’t judge other gamers because of their taste in video games and it would be great if the games industry didn’t hold themselves at such a high standard that they consider themselves to be better the rest of society. I don’t mean to generalise – obviously it’s not everyone, but you know who you are.

Hangover: Nintendo E3 Press Conference

Paul Frew — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 10:02:19 +0000

Nintendo started off slow for me because I’m not a Zelda fan but they finished strong. The Wii U looks good – I will probably get one. The only problem I forsee is what system I’m going to buy games on – if the Wii U controller offers a real reason to buy a third party game over the PS3 or 360 then it’s got me. The only thing I need to see is the online – Nintendo has no experience in online play and if you think they do then you’re an idiot. Friend Codes anyone? Game over.

Zelda Skyward Sword
Of course Nintendo would start with one of their biggest franchises. I’ve tried getting into the Zelda games but it’s not for me. If it’s for you – have it hoss.

Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening
Coming the eShop today – apparently it’s Zelda’s 25th Anniversary. I’m kind of surprised they’re not doing the same thing as Mario and releasing a bunch of the old games for the Wii.

Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D
Coming this weekend around the world.

Legend of Zelda: Four Swords
Coming to DSi in September for free. Not bad.

Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword
Coming this holiday.

3DS
Now that Zelda-fest finished it’s time to move on to the 3DS. A montage was shown featuring Mario Kart, Stafox, Kid Icarus and Luigi’s Mansion. They then did demos for all of them. None of them make me want to pick up a 3DS. Neither did the other titles they showcased in a montage which featured Ace Combat 3D, Tetris, Cave Story 3D, Resident Evil, Driver, Pac-Man Dimensions and Snake Eater 3D. There was also talk of the eShop.

Wii U
The new console. It will feature a new controller with touchscreen, four face buttons, two thumbsticks, two triggers on the back, two shoulder buttons on top, rumble, microphone, speakers and a D-pad. There’s also a camera built in. There was a moment where you set the controller on the ground and a golf ball appeared on it. A camera detects your swing and the ball lands on the TV. There was a ninja game where you throw shurikens at the touchscreen at objects on the TV. More Zelda where your inventory is on the controller. Completely backwards compatible with the Wii. So that must mean Gamecube too. It’s also in HD.

New Super Mario Bros Mii
Your Mii teams up with Mario… unfortunately my Mii is dead.

Chase Mii
Players with Wiimotes chase a player using the Wii U controller who gets a birds eye view of the race. Mmmm.

Lego City Stories
GTA but Lego – exclusive to Wii U and 3DS. Developed by Traveller’s Tales.

Other games
Darksiders 2 coming at launch, Tekken successor, Arkham City, Assassin’s Creed Revelations, Ghost Recon Online, Dirt, Aliens: Colonial Marines, Metro: Last Light and Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor’s Edge. I don’t know if they all us the Wii U controller in weird and wonderful ways but that’s quite a line up.

EA
The boss man comes out to show Madden and Battlefield 3 with online play and DLC.

Hangover: Sony Press Conference

Paul Frew — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 10:55:40 +0000

Sony also had their press conference today. I was a little more excited about what they had to show compared to Microsoft.

Uncharted 3 – Video

Resistance 3 – Video

God of War Origins Collection – Chains of Olympus and Ghost of Sparta
Thanks Sony – now I don’t have to spend $24 on Ghost of Sparta because I probably would rather play this on PS3.

Ico and Shadow of the Colossus
Coming September – I’m probably the only one who’s not a huge fan of these games but I’m what they call a sucker so I’m going to still probably buy these and put them on the pile.

PlayStation Branded 3D TV
Kind of cool but expensive – especially considering the cost for extra glasses will be 69.99 each. The monitor bundle is a 24 inch with two player splitscreen technology, two glasses, Resistance 3 and a HDMI cable for $499US. I can see Sony Australia raping us with a $1000 price tag saying they’re importing for Europe instead of US.

NBA2K12
I’m only mentioning this because they said it’s coming October 4. I love the NBA 2K series. It’s going to be hard topping Jordan though.

Move games
Medievil Moves, LittleBigPlanet 2 will get Move support.

Starhawk
I personally have no interest in this game – but for those who do – enjoy.

Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time
I am excited for this despite the Sly Trilogy being in my Gaming Enema and I’m still yet to play it. I know it’s going to be fun so that’s why I’m excited.

Dust 514
A MMO from the guys behind EVE. Apparently it will connect to a PC MMO and feature Move support, a Home space and NGP capabilities.

Bioshock Infinite
Move Support? Ken Levine came out and said Sony made him a believer. I have total trust in Levine. He has not let me down to date. It’s easy to make a comment that Sony made him a believer by dumping a dumptruck worth of money on his lawn but I believe Levine will bring the goods and Infinite looks amazing. You’ll also score a free copy of Bioshock 1 with the PS3 Bioshock Infinite.

Bioshock NGP
This could be interesting. He didn’t say which Bioshock setting the game would take place but I don’t think it matters.

PlayStation Vita
The price will be $250US for the WiFi model which I believe is cheaper then the 3DS. I think this is the first good move Sony has ever made in the history of the console business. Uncharted, LittleBigPlanet, Street Fighter X Tekken featuring Cole from InFamous and ModNation was shown looking pretty. It’s impressive line up – I’m getting interested in it and I don’t play my PSP. So that’s saying something.

Hangover: Microsoft E3 Press Conference

Paul Frew — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 10:55:10 +0000

Microsoft kicks things off with their press conference. To be honest – I wasn’t hugely impressed nor was I surprised. I expected it to be a bit of a Kinect talk and for the most part it was but there were a couple of surprises. Here’s what went down.

Modern Warfare 3
MW3 kicks things off. We saw some footage of how it looks and then they reminded us how Xbox 360 will get the DLC first.

Tomb Raider

Kinect
4 sports titles from EA including PGA, Madden, FIFA and another one. Mass Effect 3 will feature Kinect support too apparently including voice recognition. You read the option instead of selecting it. I don’t like that idea. Ghost Recon was also shown and feature voice support. I wonder if you have to be standing up to speak to the Kinect… mmmm.

YouTube, Bing on 360
Who cares. Next.

Gears of War 3

Ryse
Crytek and Kinect – it will be interesting – I’ll give it that. I think I said that last year.

Halo: Combat Evolved Remastered
I’ll probably get this and I know Todd will definitely be getting this. Co-op, online multiplayer. Boom.

Forza 4
Next.

Fable The Journey
Next.

Minecraft
I haven’t played Minecraft – maybe I will when it comes to the 360 in Winter.

Disneyland Adventures
Come on Microsoft. Really.

Kinect Star Wars
You turn your lightsaber on by saying to your Kinect “Lightsaber On”– are you fucking kidding me.

Tim Schaefer appeared on stage to show off his Seseme Street game. Then some other shit was shown.

Kinect Sports: Season 2
I don’t think there has been anything for me and Kinect yet – I’m still not convinced to buy one but Microsoft has sold a shitload of them with no games for it so the public is demanding… more of the same I guess.

Dance Central 2
See above.

Halo 4
A new Xbox 360 trilogy. Master Chief and Cortana are back. The trailer looks good to me but to me but Microsoft is taking a turn to Nintendo-town by releasing the same shit they released last year. I’m all for a new Halo but besides this series and the Gears of War series – was else does Microsoft have?