I’ve been a terrible blogger: amid working to the bone till deadlines, watching my 401k drop quite precipitously and hoping that it will rise again, and watching people get married I guess the blog was the last on my mind. /end_sad_excuse_for_being_a_luddite
Internet, as you can see, I’ve been playing Burnout – massive amounts of it alongside Lego Star Wars and Lego Batman. I’ve had the pleasure to friend some readers from here on the good ol’ PS3 and perhaps soon enough the gaming stars will align and we shall get some sort of game-on of some type. Meanwhile, I’ll forge along and try to get my first platinum trophy before my up and coming birthday.
Otherwise, lets get back into the groove of things. Did I mention I met Yoshitaka Amano? You know, the guy that created the image known from most Final Fantasies? I did, didn’t I? He drew a moogle for Mr. Geek, but what did he draw for me? Ahhh let’s see:
The convention went well, but was quite small relatively to some past cons I’ve been to. I’m really out of the groove of things when it comes to things anime, but nonetheless I had a fun time. I mean, where else can I see storm troopers shop for kimonos, storm troopers with kitty ears, and three knights from Castle Crashers?
..and no, I did not dress up.
Here’s some rumors to feed into the rumor mill, as I get back into the groove of updating and maintaining this blog:
A fellow press member from a panel (you can hear him next to me in the video) that I attended brought to my attention that Yoshitaka Amano had directed a part in this movie that is soon to be released state side called 10 Nights of Dreams. It is called Yume Jūya in Japanese and you can hear more about it in this video:
Amano is also rumored to be hired as a character designer for an upcoming Ubisoft title called Beyond Good & Evil 2 that will come out for Xbox 360 and PS3. Since this is just rumored, I cannot confirm it.
You can watch the video of the panel I attended after the jump.
This throwback comes straight from the heart of the 90s, when LucasArts came out with various adventure games like Sam and Max and The Curse of Monkey Island. I’m talking about Full Throttle. A slightly lesser known throwback, yet a cult favorite for those who know about the game.
It was a brainchild of Tim Schafer, if you’re scratching your head and going who is this chump think Psychonauts. You played as Ben: a 5 o’clock shadow, leather jacket wearing guy who is a leader of the biker gang: the Polecats. It starts off with a dialogue between Malcom Corley, CEO of the last motorcycle company in the country, and Adrian Ripburger on their way to a shareholders meeting when a bike gang begins to overtake them. Ben runs over the hood ornament of the expensive hover limosine, which delights Corley who decides to follow Ben. Intrigue follows as the story begins to unfold rapidly and the characters begin to be more fleshed out. As much as a bad ass Ben seems to be, he isn’t the kind of badass you learn to hate while playing. The environment, albeit barren and almost post-apocalyptic, has so much depth when playing: most objects are easily interact-able via pie-menu interface while the dialogue between characters is far from shallow. It’s filled with bikers, hover cars, and a demolition derby: what is there NOT to love?
In addition to storyline and character development, the graphics for a DOS game is absolutely phenomenal and can stand the test of time against the most modern cell-shaded work (stretching this sentence a little bit farther from the truth ). Actually, its surprisingly great for a game that had standard VGA graphics (DVI was yet to be mainstream 5-6 years later). So going back to the beginning, why is this a cult classic instead of a mainstream game that everyone knows? Well for one, it was ridiculously short and most of the game was cut-scenes. But really now, does that need to stop you? Take a look at a short clip and see if the game is good enough to “immerse” you in the story mode.
So how did it find it’s ranks as a throwback? Well, Internet, I challenge you to find this game and play it. I’m almost certain that you will find the game just as enjoyable as any other game you’ve played. It’s not holy crap amazing awesome, but it’s good clean fun without having to boast gore and the ripping of hearts out. A good storyline, good gameplay, and nice art make this game more than worthy for a Miss Geek throwback.
“I haven’t seen you in a while!”
-Guy that works at my local Gamestop
You know when you buy games too much when the people at Gamestop say that as soon as you walk in. I’m sure there are more prolific buyers out there, but as far as I know I have a one-up on most Gamestop customers: the xx chromosome – boobs, intelligence and wit, somewhat good looks, good hygiene, ability to distinguish what a GPU is, uncanny ability to make geeks feel at ease (this has been pointed out by various friends), etc. BUT do all these traits actually matter? Let’s examine the situation:
So I came in to buy a filler game until the fall game rush gets on, and it happened to be Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga for the PS3. It’s a good game that’s great in a casual way, especially since I don’t have achievement whoring to worry about. My work schedule (and sideline projects) tends to gear me towards a casual oriented gameplay.
(Side note: I’m still playing Final Fantasy 4. I should be done with it as soon as work projects are done this week. Le sigh to real life…)
While the guy was ringing me up, I began to think about my schedule and I realized I should pre-order a few games that will be coming out in the near future. Namely:
Mercenaries 2
LittleBigPlanet
Fallout 3
His eyes twinkled as I gave this list. Here I am ordering a miniture self Christmas babbling about how I can’t wait for my tin lunch box with vault boy bobblehead, and there he was finding out that I could possibly be the best chick he’s met this side of the universe (/being_self_absorbed). I think that’s what set him off to give me a ton of other free stuff (Kratos costume code for LBP WIN!!!!!!), stuffing my gamestop bag to the brim with the Fallout pre-order exclusives and then stopping to hesitate about the Mercs 2 free swag.
Guy: “Uhh I don’t know if you actually get this…but….”
Me: “It’s okay man, I don’t mind if you can’t give me the stuff.”
Guy: “Oh whatever. [shoves stuff in bag] It’ll be in good hands.”
I got a promo insiders guide as well as a neat beanie hat (SCOOOOORRRREEEEE I <333333 beanies). It wasn’t too bad either, the hat just had the mercs 2 symbol on it so it’s easily wearable without being too much like a walking advertisement.
Of course, in most cases you get the swag by default just for pre-ordering, but does it come with a beaming smile and pleasant conversation? Probably not. I’ll have to try to get one of my guy friends to do the same and see what comes of it. Pending social experiment #1 for Miss Geek?
I think webster or some other dictionary calls it a tribute to something old. Wikipedia tells you that it may refer to something “Old School”. In any event I’m giving you, Internet, a throwback.
I was a weeeeee toddler when videogames were introduced into my life. I may have been 3 or 4, but I distinctly remember a Commodore 64 in our den. It was the days where KILObytes were the highest form of computational measurement in user RAM. Real top of the line stuff.
Anyway, there was this game from LucasArts back then called Maniac Mansion. Some of you might remember it (you old farts), it had a bunch of kids snooping around, with a guy named Dave Miller as the protagonist trying to find his girlfriend Sandy Pantz.
Hilarity ensues with tentacle monsters and some evil loopy doctor running around the house trying to feed you to said tentacle monster. Then there’s the evil loopy doctor’s wacko family that has serious serious problems….all this and there’s some radioactive purple thing that is under the doc’s powers. Either way, Dave isn’t alone. No, he comes with a motley team that reeks of 80s: I remember some new wave guy; a surfer; Bernard Bournouli, the quintessential nerd archetype; and some punk rock chick (names obviously forgotten due to the fact I was THREE).
This game FREAKED me out at that time. From all the choices you had to make to the fact that one wrong move could potentially KILL your girlfriend and your friends and that the family that lived in this maniac mansion was clearly full of raging psychopaths and manic depressive plants, made my three-year-old mind whirl around like teacups at Disneyworld. In other words, it scared the shit out of me. I never could understand why my brothers, who were both 7 and 10 at the time, liked playing it to the end. Either way, as much as it was scary it was oddly compelling. I had to watch them play it, I needed to know if they were going to be OKAY!
I think in the end the purple thing was fed to one of the plants…
Fuck the ESRB ratings back then too, it was the happy days before shit like that (THANK YOU JOE LIEBERMAN, YOU JERK).
This throwback is made in tribute to this game that has potentially scarred me for the rest of my life. One of these days I will get my own Commodore 64 and play it, retro style, and appreciate what made me shit scared back in the days of ‘87-’88 and laugh.
To be noted: I haven’t played it ever since it came out because I’m a big pansy.
If all goes to plan, I will have my games spaced out and beaten by the time LittleBigPlanet rolls out.
Also, if things are supremely to plan, I will also have a baby Canon G9 “wannabe DSLR” with telephoto add-on lens to be playing with around the same time.
JOY!!!
In this video: PixelJunk Eden
Release date: sometime next week hopefully <3
I have the habit of becoming over zealous when I talk about this game, and thus you have been warned. I curse, but not profusely.
A good friend of mine, Mr. Geek, once told me in a conversation that he believed that your first Final Fantasy was bound to be your favorite. So, what is your favorite Final Fantasy, Internet?
Mr. Geek’s hypothesis is tried and true in my scenario: my first and favorite Final Fantasy was Final Fantasy IV (known here in the states as Final Fantasy II on the SNES). I remember being a wee lass of six at a beach house down at the Jersey shore and hearing the Red Wing’s theme and just being literally sucked into the story. Final Fantasy IV had knights, dragoons, villains you loved to hate, and supporting characters you came to love. In this particular story, the were involved with stories of monarchical intrigue, love triangles, damsels were in distress, painful backstabbing – all the while they were trying to stop one malicious bad dude trying to fuck things up with the world.
So while little girls my age loved Ariel – the beautiful Disney mermaid, I loved Rydia, the bad ass female summoner. Whats a summoner, you ask? It’s a person that “summons” monsters to do their bidding and attack an enemy. That’s right, I was six and I loved a girl that called up monsters to help her attack and fuck up people.
...and I sometimes use big words.
Games Currently Being Played:
Lego Star Wars
Lego Batman
Burnout Paradise
Castle Crashers
Games on the Backburner:
none
Something rather interesting about me:
Diamonds may be a girl's best friend, but my silver PSP/DS/PS3/macbook pro/anything techie and a glass of bubbly are the only things that will ever catch my eye. They'll never be trumped.
Oh yeah, and I make zombie contingency plans wherever I go. Because it's just that necessary.
). Actually, its surprisingly great for a game that had standard VGA graphics (DVI was yet to be mainstream 5-6 years later). So going back to the beginning, why is this a cult classic instead of a mainstream game that everyone knows? Well for one, it was ridiculously short and most of the game was cut-scenes. But really now, does that need to stop you? Take a look at a short clip and see if the game is good enough to “immerse” you in the story mode.
