Points of Interest – 10/31/07
InFormers: Robots in the News
- Issue 2 of the Beast Wars Sourcebook hits stores this week, and writer Simon Furman issues an interesting challenge to readers with a keen eye, to see if they can tell who (between himself and Ben Yee) wrote which entries.
- Mastercollector has a new item available, which I’ve seen variants of around: stands to make your Seekers look like they’re flying!
Assorted Mushrooms
- Caution: naughty language is afoot in the following. Maddox has added a new article in which he targets women’s fashion, hitting a few notes I do tend to agree with myself, but never thought to actually say anything about.
- And in related news… yeah, y’know what? I can’t even watch this without feeling wrong, ABC News or not.
I dunno, with women, I find “sexy but modest” to be better than “shouldn’t you be wearing a black plastic bag over that?” Needless to say, other than the “sexy” part, that goes double, triple, or more for young girls. Nothing worse than wondering if someone’s going to call the FBI because you cast a stray glance at what looks like a preteen hooker.
Here’s a better title for the book mentioned: Stop Baiting Pedophiles.
- The ultimate showdown: fighter jet vs. car.
Video Power
- Well, this is just wonderful.
shinkuu just brought word that GamePro has hopped on the “Nintendo Seal” hatewagon.
I think it’s rubbish, and I dare say that it aspires to a broader form of censorship. But issues of “good” or “bad” are more subjective than say, ESRB rating of content, where you know that “damn” is a curse word and if a woman is topless, it’s considered nudity. I know a lot of people love Resident Evil. Me, I like them, progressively so, but I’m not very good at them. Let’s look at the first one. I think the earlier Resident Evils control like tanks, and the voice acting in the first was atrocious. So perhaps going by such personal assessments as that, Resident Evil should not have been made.
Now, if I’d been making such a call, I imagine that a lot of people could be upset that the game never came out, all based on pure subjectivity. And of course, that could potentially have caused later games not to have been made as well. Wouldn’t it suck if we never got Resident Evil 4 because the first one had some pretty bad qualities by comparison?
And really, I think it’s safe to say that EVERY game is disliked by someone. Every game may or may not be someone’s favorite, but even Halo, Grand Theft Auto, and Metroid Prime are disliked by people. Some people like games like Sonic Adventure or Sonic and the Secret Rings or Sonic Rush, others don’t. Some like some, others don’t, all based on various qualities. Even if someone says a game is “bad,” what right have they to deny it sale? Someone else may like it.
And really, I would think that a video game magazine should be the LAST place we see this kind of complaint, since so often it’s a part of that publication’s JOB to review games and tell people what they think is good and bad about them, and whether or not it’s worth a purchase or even a rental. To me, it sounds like they’re tired of doing their jobs, and maybe they should find other work if that’s the case.
No system is ever going to have a flawless track record of perfect games, and it’d be naive to think so. Not even the Wii. And compared to the problems listed for the other systems, it feels like they’re grasping at straws.
While I’d love it if every game I touched would be something I could enjoy for hours on end (in spite of my bank account’s protests), that’s just not realistic. Different qualities mean different things to different people; that’s what makes us human, and there is no way any kind of seal or lack thereof can represent that.
- …beyond my rant, most of the feature is pretty decent otherwise.
- Capcom’s Bionic Commando website has a new podcast available from producer Ben Judd. Within, he discusses:
- his memories of the original Bionic Commando- how he got started at Capcom Japan and how he became a producer
- why he wants to bring back the Bionic Commando franchise
- the advantages and disadvantages of bringing back old franchises in games and movies, and the challenges surrounding this kind of move
- whether games are art or not, and if they can make you cry
- about designing and creating the new BC game, and the cultural conflicts in that
- killing a bum, just to watch him die.
Should be a blast. Except I still can’t get the site to load. Does anyone else have this problem?
- I keep hearing all these great things about Legend of Spyro: Eternal Night for the GBA. Maybe I ought to check it out sometime.
- Gamasutra caught up to Castlevania dungeon master Koji Igarashi at the GameStop Expo, and asked him some questions about 2D gaming, and why he’d attend such an event.
- This Halo video? Very cool.
If this were what a Halo movie were like, I think they could put my name on a ticket.
- The Angry Video Game Nerd is back, in an all-new Halloween Special!
- Those wacky Raving Rabbids have a new video that shows off their latest DS title.
Which is good and all, but I want more “around the world” vids.
In the meantime, GameSpot has a Q&A going on.
- Not that I dislike the new Ratchet and Clank Future commercial, but damn… why’d you have to stop with the “real-life gadgets” bit, Sony?
- Don’t see this too often, I suppose: Q&A with Tetris creator Alexey Pajitnov.
- So Manhunt 2 is finally upon us, after all that controversy and chaos. How’d it do?
- The Simpsons Game is here, too, but is it more “d’oh!” or “woo-hoo!”?
- IGN’s Top 10 Tuesday presents: Best Gamer Apparel.
Frankly, it takes to 6 before I perk up, though 9 is mildly amusing. 5 on up are pretty good, but I’ve seen better stuff not mentioned.
- Next Generation has a new feature about the history of touching in video games… which goes back a little further than the DS, and is “a concept that must be grasped if videogames want to become truly mainstream.”
- Games Radar asks if Mario Kart, among other titles, have lost their style.
While I agree that Mario Kart: Double Dash!! was different in that regard, the vehicles didn’t strike me as bad, and what’s more, it’s the only title in the series not to feature traditional go-karts. It looks like even the Wii title may have some variation on the traditional, alongside the more zany, and of course, the motorcycles.
- Game|Life takes a thorough look at how protests make games sell better.
- A neat new site known as Retro Game Video has gone live, and here’s the press release from Destructoid:
RETRO GAME VIDEOS OFFICIALLY GOES LIVE
After months of beta testing and site feedback, RetroGameVideos.com has officially gone live. Retro Game Videos (RGV) is dedicated to keeping the memories of our video game past alive by offering a wide selection of genres. Everything from gameplay to commercials is at RGV which now hosts nearly 200 videos and is growing more everyday.
About Retro Game Videos -
Retro Game Videos is dedicated to the good old times, when console wars were fought by stout plumbers and speedy hedgehogs, when terms like dynamic shadowing and bump-mapping carried a mythological context. This is what RGV is all about. RGV hosts a growing number of user submitted videos – all related to retro video games. Nothing modern allowed. RGV has everything from speed-runs to the cheesiest game commercials – all submitted by our community, it’s all here. So take a trip down memory lane and witness the largest Web site dedicated totally to old school gaming.
Sounds cool. The first thing I found was this video of Popeye for the NES; I never got past the first level, so seeing this guy whiz through was pretty cool.
- Finally, fellow Penny Arcade Forum dweller Mntorankusu has created a Flash mock-up of the level creator for Super Smash Bros. Brawl that was unveiled Monday. It may not be 100% accurate, but may still be good for practice until the real deal hits in February.
–LBD “Nytetrayn”