In this Episode, Sonic and Tails come to terms with their love.

I’ve only played the first zone, but the gameplay itself – Sonic moving, jumping, the momentum, is stellar, old-school Sonic.  This is what we needed in Episode I!  The problem I had with the first zone though, is it was rather boring.  The level took the template of the Aquatic Ruin Zone of Sonic II, but did nothing fun with it.  Then the boss…I hit him three times, then didn’t know what to do after that.  Really, I was stuck.  I didn’t know what to do, so I stopped.  Not cool Adam, not cool.

This is what my childhood looked like (and my painting skills today)

And I gotta say…the music for the first Zone is pretty lame.  This is the problem I have with it:

I will probably beat it this weekend and write a four page rant.

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Fez is a 2D side-scrolling 3D game in a 4D world.  Whatever that means, I don’t know, I’m just the writer.  While the game is basically a side-scroller, you use the left and right triggers to swing the world around on four sides.  Whatever path you create horizontally in front of Fez, he can platform it.  This is the core mechanic of the game, and basically a puzzle.  But, Fez gets much deeper than that.

There is a story here, and it’s grand.  There’s not much dialog and the game’s length is relative to that of a $10 XBLA title, but as you platform and collect, mysteries seem to present themselves and pique a curiosity that I rarely find in games.  You are collecting cubes for the greater good, among other things that help push the story along.  There’s a lot of exploring, and it does get a bit confusing with the way the map is laid out and the use of warp gates.  Back-tracking can get annoying, so some studying of the map is required.

I think that is a minor complaint because it doesn’t directly affect the gameplay.  But, a gameplay element that sort of bothers me is death.  You don’t die in this game.  Falling off the world or into sewage/acid will do it to you, but then you respawn on the last platform you were on.  I’d actually prefer if the game reverted you back to the last checkpoint; making platforming require a little more attention and less sloppiness on the part of the gamer.  Sometimes I’ll just make a jump to do it, not sure if I’d make it.  But, this could have been done to focus the gameplay around exploring and collecting.  I’m still undecided about this.

The game features some crazy secrets that are not easy to find.  Some require QR codes and deciphering a language.  I’ll admit that I’ll have to look some of this stuff up in order to complete it.  I don’t have the time to decipher some stuff out of game – as appealing as it is.  Maybe if this was a full $60 title about Evil Dead or Blade, then I could devote the time into it.  As of this writing, there’s still a secret the community is working on resolving and as yet to figure it out.  That’s actually kinda cool.

People love the music of Fez.  And it’s great and definitely sets the mood.  Originally, I preferred something more upbeat and inline with 90′s platformers.  But the further I got into the game, the more I realized this is the music that is needed to make this game ‘feel’ the way it does.  The music files also contain little secrets and hidden messages, further pushing the mysteriousness of this universe.

In the end, Fez is a game every gamer will always remember and think about.  It certainly set a mood not found much in gaming.  I personally want a sequel that’s more of the same but further revealing the secrets of this cubic universe.  Now that I’ve played through Fez, Phil Fish can say whatever he wants about Japanese game development.

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I tried two new games yesterday: Sine Mora and Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City.  RE: ORC is a strange one.  It plays well – tight controls with many customization options.  But, that’s about it.  The first level I played just consisted of me walking forward and shooting guys.  I came across a monster that just required a couple hits on his arm-eye thing.  It lasted for a couple of seconds, then started me off in a literal run through the level again.  Which it does a lot.  I seem to spend a lot of time running from point A to B, without any encounters to shoot baddies.  It was really boring.  There was no drive or motivation for me to keep moving on.  I then just decided to stop playing.  I’ll give it another go around, but this plays like an extremely dumbed down Lost Planet 2.  You might as well just play Lost Planet 2, since it also has vehicles and grappling hooks.  I guess if you just like Resident Evil you may like this, just like I’d watch any movie with Bruce Campbell.

The Man

Sine Mora is an interesting one.  It’s my all time favorite genre, a SHMUP, and made by Suda 51.  But, it just doesn’t do it for me.  It’s kinda slow and easy.  At times it gets very difficult but seems to want you to just use the special to get around.  Other times, it’s just a matter of shooting for points.  I’m mixed.  $15 seems a bit much for the disappointment, but I’d want to play through it anyway.  we’ll see…

Gerbil Physics on Windows Phone…man, that is just awesome.  It doesn’t look ‘all that’, but the gameplay is addictive.

Oh yeah, I’m getting Married in April.  Woo-hoo!

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On Windows Phone, we get DonDonPachi Maximum, which just came out of know where and is, in the most descriptive and technical way to describe – fucking awesome.  Just look at the video below.

I finally completed Super Mario 3D Land.  A very fun Mario game that makes the 3D gimmick of the 3DS practical, while keeping true to its roots.  It did take me a while to complete this, but with other games and my social life…I got busy (and there was Sonic 3DS…not as good, but I am a OCD Sonic game completionist).  And yeah, I felt like a little bitch when the game would offer up the invisibility raccoon suit.  Thanks, game.

My girlfriend (now finacee) played through and completed Castle of Illusion on the Sega Master System in one sitting.  I mean, I marveled at her closet-gaming skills before, but this takes the cake.  Though, seeing her play got me to want to play through World of Illusion and Quackshot.  Did you ever play Quackshot?  It’s one of the greatest games ever.  I want to purchase the domain and make a site dedicated to its awesomeness, but it has been already snagged by the porn industry.  Not sure how I’d correlate ‘Quackshot’ with ‘porn’, but do yourself a favor and try not to think about it.

Last but not least, Sean told me to check out Blacklight: Retribution, which I did, and love.  It’s a free-to-play FPS with tight controls and a robust customizing/leveling system.  The one match I played was a ton of fun, so I see myself doing more of that this weekend.

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Well, hello there!

I’ve played four rounds last night, three singleplayer, and one multiplayer.  The SP, so far, is legit.  The difficulty is what I’d call ‘classic’ – I’m playing a game straight from the 90′s.  What seemed like would be the biggest hurdle for me, which I got past after the second match, was controls.

This is how I felt with the Twisted Metal controls. halp

After wiping the tears of fear off of the game manual, I proceeded to play, which consisted of me pressing every button in a manic fashion.  I really didn’t know what I was shooting and how I was doing it.  But, after not so long, I figured out what I was doing and was having a literal blast.  The gameplay really shines when you know how to pull-off a 180 reversal, then shooting back at the enemies following you.  After three fun-as-hell singleplayer games, I went online.  It turned out well; I was surprised that I didn’t get slaughtered so quickly.  I think having the controls down and using every function to its fullest will reward you with success.  So, the gameplay here is true to its roots and worth it for anyone to play.  Seriously – it’s worth getting a PS3 for if you haven’t yet.  Though, I heard the game overheats and kills the 60GBs.  Trust me, not only the control scheme has me in fear.

As for the graphics, they are just okay.  But it doesn’t matter.  I almost think Sony made this game as a risk, making the majority of the budget Jaffe’s salary, knowing he would create some quality fun.  This game is 100% gameplay and that’s it.  It’s actually a good thing, and I hope it succeeds, because this is more of what we need in the industry.

The online pass is pretty shitty.  I think it costs $10 to play online if you rented the game.  I mean, that’s not any extra load on the server.  That is one copy that was bought, so that one copy can only be played online once at a time.  I want Sony to show me this theoretical loss-of-sales due to renting/borrowing.  I am both surprised and satisfied that Microsoft hasn’t gone this route, but I fear the next gen…

Anyway, even only playing the little bit I did, this game is worth full-price.  The last time I bought a game at full-price was Battlefield 3 back in November (I’m pretty sure).  Play this now.

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The Onza's extra shoulder buttons.

I also got back into Serious Sam 3.  I will say with the Onza controller SS3 seems to be a lot more fun.  I almost hate admitting this, but more and more, the gamepad trumps the M/KB.  Titan Attacks didn’t seem to play as well, since the d-pad on the Onza is a horrific nightmare.  The d-pad buttons are really just buttons.  It is not fun to slide my thumb back and forth when navigating my avatar.  I’d rather die.  Okay, so that’s a bit harsh, but I guess if I need the d-pad for a game, I’d use the Sega Play controller – just like a Saturn pad.

I also played some Scoregasm (another awesome game on Steam).  It’s like a deeper Geometry Wars.  Different levels and paths to go through, along with a world map, will keep this fun for some time.

Then the girlfriend and I played some Rayman Origins on the 360.  She really digs it, and it honestly is a lot of fun.  It’s getting pretty tough though.

Oh, yeah…I just sent Skyward Sword back to Gamefly.  It was that lame.

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Used-goods economics has been around as long as the FIRST MATERIAL ITEM (probably like a bloody spear with some animal hair).  People sell of their stuff.  Used stuff gets bought at a discount from those who don’t have the budget for full-priced items.  This has been fine in the gaming industry since inception.  Now, games are given unnecessarily high budgets where return is given a margin-less threshold.  If that return isn’t made back?  Then it’s the pirates and used game buyers!  Yeah, whatever…

I like this quote:  “We are losing money not because of pirates; we are losing money because people decided not to buy our game.”

And that’s all there is to it.  Make the consumer want to buy your game.  If they are buying it used due to budget constraints, they weren’t going to buy it regardless.  Any other reason would be because maybe the game isn’t so hot.  Publishers need to start lowering budgets with even lower projections.  Focus more of those resources on tightening gameplay and consulting/focus groups.  That’s how Notch is making his money…and money is apparently all you guys want, right?

I’m going to end this by reiterating my point:

Jameson: People often don’t understand the cost that goes into creating these huge experiences that we put on the shelves for only $60.  They also don’t seem to realize how much they are hurting us when they buy a used game and how pirating a copy is just plain stealing.

Adam Badowski: We are losing money not because of pirates; we are losing money because people decided not to buy our game.

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In my hands, the Vita felt awesome.  I don’t see myself getting cramps like I do with the PSP or DS (or any other handheld ever).  Yeah, it’s big, but with the popularity of gaming on tablets, I don’t think size will hurt the thing.  It does feel like holding a controller, and the analog sticks are actually sticks instead of nubs.  I played Uncharted, and controlling Drake around felt great.  Though, I didn’t get anywhere requiring shooting, so with the lack of the extra set of shoulder buttons, we won’t get the actual console experience that this seems to be marketed toward.  But what am I talking about?  This thing is close enough.

Navigating in and out of games, ‘touching’, all that – this thing is impressive.  I will buy it for sure, well, I think.  I’m not too happy about having to then buy the proprietary, over-priced, SD card that is required just to play.

But this is how I see the future of gaming: Nintendo is starting it with the WiiU, tablets are doing it, and the Vita is proving it – future gaming consoles will be personal devices that can be hooked up to a monitor, used with accessories or not.

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And could only stomach a couple hours.

The beginning has so much dialog.  So much redundant, shallow, uninspired dialog.  During all that, I walked around a bit and obtained a sword.  Then, I got tired of what I was doing and shut off the Wii.  That’s pretty much how far I got.  I have no drive to continue.

Image via Wikipedia

A fellow coworker explained it the best: They tried to make it as robust as an RPG, but without how engaging an RPG would be.  There is no exploring.  Exploring is what Zelda games pulled people in with.

I agree.

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Just months ahead of its release, some exciting features and descriptions are starting to get out for Mass Effect 3. The Xbox, PC and PlayStation 3 release is sure to be one of the most hyped video gamereleases in the first half of 2012 and news of some game play specifics should only continue to build it up. Developers of the game recently spoke out that there would be more endings for the game than we’ve ever seen before, as well as a number of ways for gamers to formulate an individual experience.

Mass Effect 3 is said to have thousands of dialogue lines included, as well as a focus on continuing relationships and characters from previous releases. Each player will be involved with their own storyline, including relationships and quandaries taking place throughout the storyline. Characters within the game will feature innate characteristics, helping to build the game’s storyline with memories of past events during game play.

Gamers will also be offered great choices when it comes to the game play for Mass Effect 3. Bioware producer Casey Hudson recently spoke out to the media claiming that three different modes in role playing, story and action, all of which will have definitive options during game play. This means that once players begin playing in either of the three mode options, they will have the ability to make adjustments afterwards.

Most importantly for BioWare, this is expected to give ME3 an innate sense of individualism and tailoring for each player. Each gamer has their own preferences, whether it be to watch more action sequences or dabble more into the story lines involved. The new presets will allow for each player to help build their own experience, making it more enjoyable for each player in the long run.

Certainly Mass Effect has helped to build its franchise more through intrinsic storylines mixing with game play and action, quite contrasting to the formula that many have used to build a fan base. The reliance and focus will continue to be on the story line and game play with Mass Effect 3. It’s quite evident that BIoWare and the producers have big expectations for the modes, dialogue and endings that will rely on a sense of tailored game play. With the early news of game features and dialogue aspects, Mass Effect 3 looks to be a refined addition to the strong gaming franchise.

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