Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Ok, I'm listening Nintendo...go on.....






As stated in a previous post, I was not looking forward to this....I have since retracted that statement. You know in the end, no matter what I said, I was probably gonna buy this anyway. It is because of one simple, yet true fact. If there is one thing Nintendo does well, it's doing the same thing twice.

-Artimis

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Motion Control Sickness: Waggle Me Stupid

You knew this was coming, you can't deny it. As soon as Sony announced their new Playstation Move Controller, you knew deep down in your soul that you would hear from yours truly. For those of you who haven't heard about it, it's Sony's attampt at motion controll games. Watch this handy dandy video explaining what Sony is hoping to achieve.




Wow! Just WOW! Amazing right!? Well sort of. and I'll show you what I mean below.

Here's a Wii Gameplay trailer from when the system was first announced.




See any similarities? I know I do. They do have their differences though and I'll explain them for you. The Move (Playstation) uses the Playstation Eye (camera) to track the glowing balls at the end of the controller making them a bit more accurate. Another nice feature is that unlike the Wii remotes, the Move controllers run off a built in rechargeable battery as apposed to double A's. Thats actually about it as far a differences go. Oh actually there is one last difference. The Playstation Move has far superior graphics than the Wii.

So let's get on to dismantling the Hype surrounding this new Controller. For one, this is nothing NEW from Sony, actually you could call it blatant rip off (as we all know Dante's Inferno was of God Of War.) Of the Wii Remote. Secondly we already have motion control for the Playstation 3 in their "six-axis controler". Third, it's going to be expensive as hell. The basic, and I mean basic, option to play with one of the Playstation Move controllers will cost you about $100, you will be paying a little less if you have already purchased the Playstation Eye previously, as it is required to use the Move controller. And lastly, the Sub controller. This is the Move's biggest set-back. Unlike the wii remote, you cannot have a set of 4 sub controllers and 4 move controllers connected at the same time. hell you can't even have 3 of each connected at the same time due to the Playstation 3's Bluetooth setup. Currently you can only have up to 7 Bluetooth devices connected at once and only 4 can be controllers. Ouch.

So there you have it folks,We'll see how things go this fall when this "new" controller is released. Whether it will be a big hit or not will be up to you folks, cause I'm sure as hell not buying it. Who knows though, maybe I'll be wrong, or maybe it will be a new home for HD Shovelware.

-Artimis

Saturday, February 27, 2010

Nintendo and the Mysterious Case of Copy and Paste

So once again here we are, another new game gets a release date and everyone (who by the way forgot about since it was first announced at last years E3) conveniently remembers it and acts like they have been excited all along. The game in question (rather the company in question) is Super Mario Galaxy 2 (Electric Boogaloo) made by Nintendo. For those of you unfamiliar with this title have no fear, I have found a trailer. let's watch.

Super Mario Galaxy 2



Amazing right? I mean this game is so innovat....wait a min. this looks exactly the same as the previous Mario Galaxy game. The only thing Nintendo has done is add a whole bunch of levels and, oh yeah, Yoshi! Is that it Nintendo? Are you basically just releasing an expansion pack as a stand alone game? Oh you are, I'm sorry, I thought your system was equipped to handle DLC (Downloadable Content). And here lies the problem, well actually the outcome of the problem. The Copy and Paste Trick. Nintendo is an expert at this by now, and they are very very good at it. So good in fact, that whenever Nintendo strays from the norm (like StarFox Adventures or Donkey Kong Jungle Beat) they fall, and they fall hard. This Copy and paste move also causes them to become way lazy when developing games too. Case in point, New Super Mario Bros. for the Wii. Watch this trailer and I'll tell you what I mean.

New Super Mario Bros. Wii


Can you identify whats wrong with this game? I can. It's missing 2 characters. 2 actual characters. See this is what happens, Nintendo gets lazy and puts 2 random toads (who don't even have names) into a game like this where they could have easily put in a couple more heroes from the Mario Universe? Don't get me wrong, its a fun game, probably both these are/will be, but it just frustrates me when a great video game company just becomes so lazy that they stop innovating and just release the same thing over and over and over. Look Nintendo, how bout you work on innovating again, before you release another Luigi's Mansion.

-Artimis


Next week: Motion Controls or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Waggle the Bomb

Monday, February 22, 2010

OMG it's Sonic.....4?

Ok, so i was gonna make this first post about me. You know, who i am, why i'm doing this...that sort of thing. But then i remembered SEGA and their stupid "Project needle mouse" campaign. I remember how at first everyone was like, "Oh what could SEGA be making? Is it a Knuckles game? maybe a Tails game?" and then when SEGA finally revealed it to be ANOTHER SONIC GAME suddenly people were frantic, and you could hear things like, "OMG it's going to be soo awesome!" and "OH I can't wait! i want it now!" Let me address these before i address the game. 1: first off the last good albeit decent sonic game (that wasn't a port) was on the game boy advanced... and That was 6 years ago! Almost everything since 1994's Sonic and Knuckles, in the whole sonic franchise, has either been a re-hash of one of the original games or an attempt to redeem the franchise (although this is never the case)

So with those concerns out of the way, let's talk about the game.

Sonic 4







Now let me get a few things out of the way. Ascetically speaking, this game looks like shit. I'm sorry, but Sonic Unleashed had better graphics and if this game is supposed to be for the PS3 Xbox 360 and the Wii, then why does it have DS like graphics? Oh, i know why, cause it's made by the same development team that created the 2 Sonic Rush games for the DS! Secondly, why in the hell does it look like sonic is jogging? Sonic doesn't jog, he runs. that's what made him so great, it was his speed and his attitude. Ok so with those out of the way, lets move on to the most over-hyped thing about this game.


The sequel (a drama in two parts)

OK so the one thing i find actually appalling is that they have the gall to call this a direct sequel to 1994's Sonic and Knuckles. WTF?! Seriously? So i'm supposed to forget all the other sonic games between 1994 and 2010? Ok, well if you want to play that game, here ya go. WHY THE FUCK DID IT TAKE 15 YEARS TO MAKE A FUCKING SEQUEL! But alas, I know this is not the case, and I can't accept it as a sequel. You want a sequel, go play Sonic 3D Blast(no matter how bad you and I both know it is). It came after Sonic and Knuckles, and you did have to fight Dr' Robotnik (or Eggman, whatever) So i'm sorry, but to me, that has fulfilled all the requirements for a sequel. Oh and it also didn't take 15 years to make =) . Second big thing about this game that people are excited for (and i have no idea why) is that it is "episodic" meaning that you will have to pay for the game 3 times at least before you can finish it. And i don't know about you, but i have a feeling that SEGA is gonna dick everyone over. You know it's going to happen. When you get past that first zone (the first 3 levels for you Sonic noobies out there) I just know there will be a whole "like this game, purchase the next episode for only 800 MS points" oh and in case you don't know 800 MS points equals to about $10.


So what can we take away from this today. Well, a new 2d Sonic game is coming out. Will it be good? Maybe, but don't believe all the hype. It's probably going to be a big letdown to the whole Sonic franchise (as pretty much all the games made after sonic and knuckles have been) and hey if it's not, i'll be more that happy to admit I was wrong.

-Artimis